The Bradford Players' Tatters of the King [Call of Cthulhu]

In order to get my daily Call of Cthulhu fix, I've spent a lot of time recently on the (very professional) fan website Yog-Sothoth. Apart from the forums, the site offers a wide variety of cool downloads, including audio recordings of a group running through various CoC campaigns. I was curious to see what "live play" recordings were like, so I've recently finished listening to the Bradford Players' Tatters of the King campaign.

It was interesting, but also very different than I expected. I think what struck me first and foremost is how light in tone their playing style was. Usually when I think of Call of Cthulhu, I think of dark mysteries, eldritch secrets, horrible things from beyond--in short, a campaign style that is heavy on mood, atmosphere, character development, and serious role-playing. Instead, the Bradford Players were very light-hearted about the whole affair, and at times downright silly--the game was full of wisecracks (at times I thought I was listening to an MST3K riff on the campaign), matter of fact presentation of "horrific" Mythos tomes and monsters, and confusion about character motivation. In short, it was very much the "quick and dirty" style of play I would encourage if I were running a D&D module on short notice off the cuff, a "beer and pretzels" game that's more about getting together with friends than serious role-playing. But although it's not the type of gaming I usually associate with a "purist" CoC campaign like Tatters of the King, it was clear everyone was having fun, and that's the great thing about RPGs--they work perfectly fine with a wide variety of playing styles, and there's no "right" or "wrong" way to do them as long as people are having a good time.

It was also a good opportunity to see what works and doesn't with different ways of directing the game. The Keeper did a pretty good job with preparation and handled combat encounters well, but was also rail-roady at times, often interrupted the players when they were trying to role-play, and didn't make it clear when scenes were beginning and ending or who was going where. On the other hand, the players often talked over one another, gave advice when their PCs weren't present, and interrupted the Keeper when he was trying to read boxed text, so there was definitely some give and take! It's also hard (at least for me) to listen to an audio game without thinking "the Keeper should have done this" or "the Keeper shouldn't have said that", but different directors will always handle problems differently, and after I've directed a session I often think about scenes I should have described better, or rolls I should have asked for, or whether I was too cruel or too generous, etc.

Although I own the Tatters of the King campaign book, this was a much more enjoyable way to get a good understanding of what the campaign is about, who the major NPCs are, and how different encounters fit together. I find reading campaign books a bit boring unless I'm imminently about to run them, so this was a much better way of seeing how much or little I'd like to swipe from the book. The audio recordings seemed to confirm a lot of the criticisms that have been leveled at TotK in the past: it has a very slow beginning, is very poor on giving PCs a reason to continue, relies too heavily on PCs waiting to receive a particular letter before they can continue, and has a strange one-year interim that can stall campaigns in their tracks. On the plus side, it's clearly a campaign that could encourage some great role-playing and atmosphere, and is far less deadly than more pulp-flavored campaigns like Shadows of Yog-Sothoth or Masks of Nyarlethotep.

All in all, a great way to get a lot of hours of entertainment for my very favorite price: free.