Hey There, Cthulhu! Building The Immersion and The Horror in Your TTRPGs

Our last episode was the preamble. Last week’s article discussed some of what we learned from playing with new people. But, in this episode, Tony, Chris, and Dave sit down with the newest addition to our gaming group, Elizabeth, to delve deep into what went into running the Call of Cthulhu one-shot, playing with brand new people, and how to build a serious level of immersion into any game you’re running… especially horror!

0:25 Eben Brooks’ “Hey There, Cthulhu.”

2:33 The Keeper of Arcane Lore Herself, Elizabeth!

3:40 Hot take: This was the first time Elizabeth ran a game!

4:15 The “Seven Knives” Theory to gaming.

6:35 Making the players feel like their characters are a real part of the world.

10:55 “System, system, system!”

12:30 Running the game that you want to play in.

16:25 Spend prep time with what you think is important and what you like to do.

22:20 Having the players be both characters AND audience.

27:05 The challenges of playing normal people in modern times.

30:40 Placing a “plant” character in your game: pros and cons.

35:15 Giving secrets and clues (or Cthulhu Mythos) to your players before the game.

38:30 DM Tony had solved the mystery right at the top of the game… but we didn’t go with it.

41:40 Play to the source material: there can’t be a “good” ending in Call of Cthulhu.

42:20 Final Thoughts.