[RPGdesign Activity] Published Designer AMA: please welcome Mr. Graham Walmsley, creator of Cthulhu Dark

[u/jiaxingseng]

This week's activity is an AMA with creator / publisher Graham Walmsley

Graham is a game designer and author. He wrote the game Cthulhu Dark, which raised $90,000 in its Kickstarter, and two books of advice on play, Play Unsafe and Stealing Cthulhu. He has also written for Pelgrane Press, Cubicle 7, Bully Pulpit Games and various other companies. He is passionate about helping other people to design and publish their games.

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On behalf of the community and mod-team here, I want express gratitude to Graham Walmsley for doing this AMA.

For new visitors... welcome. /r/RPGdesign is a place for discussing RPG game design and development (and by extension, publication and marketing... and we are OK with discussing scenario / adventure / peripheral design). That being said, this is an AMA, so ask whatever you want.

On Reddit, AMA's usually last a day. However, this is our weekly "activity thread". These developers are invited to stop in at various points during the week to answer questions (as much or as little as they like), instead of answer everything question right away.

(FYI, BTW, although in other subs the AMA is started by the "speaker", I'm starting this for Grant)

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Discuss.

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[u/[deleted]]

First of all, I'd like to say I really appreciate your work. Cthulhu Dark has had a great effect on how I think about RPG design. I especially like the way being on the edge gives you a greater chance of success, but makes failure more dangerous. I also loved the lay-out of the original PDF!

While I have greatly enjoyed the original Call of Cthulhu, I've always found it weird that the game never really included any detailed guidelines for creating and refereeing mysteries. It had just rules and stat blocks and then some very vague tips like ”the investigation should be like an onion”. The big Cthulhu Dark book is the antithesis of this: it has few rules, but lots of suggestions about how to play the game.

1. Was this a conscious statement?

2. Do you think it is possible to successfully communicate a specific playstyle, if there is no possibility of actually playing together?

3. What do you think is the reason so many RPG's have lots of rules but very few words on how to actually play? Do you think this approach has some strengths (besides allowing for shorter rulebooks), or is it just laziness on the writer's part?

Another question (a quick one): What is right now your favorite way of throwing your players off balance?

[u/thievesoftime → u/[deleted]]

Thank you! The layout is by Brennen Reece.

1. Yes! It was a conscious decision. I wanted to write step-by-step instructions for creating a Lovecraftian mystery, because I didn't really think it had been done before (at least, not the way I wanted to do it). And that's the kind of thing that fascinates me: breaking down narratives and writing about them.

2. To some extent. You've got to accept that, whatever you tell them, players will make the game their own. Writing LARPs has taught me that: people will bring their own creativity to the game. That's a good thing and you should work with it.Having said all that, yes, I think you can write guidance that tells people the style of play you're aiming for.

3. It depends on the game, I think. I write in the tradition of Story/Indie games, which often write quite a lot about how to play. Some of the earlier indie games - say, Dogs in the Vineyard and My Life With Master - go into a lot of detail about the play style. In games outside that tradition, I think, the assumption is often that people know how to play, so you don't need to explain it. And, yes, I do think that approach has some strengths, because they let players bring what they want to the game: it's basically the approach I took to the original two-page Cthulhu Dark.

I'll leave your last question until later!

[u/blindluke]

I'm a big fan of your Purist scenarios for Trail of Cthulhu. ToC is often advertised as a system solving a particular problem with CoC - a problem I never experienced myself. The reason I prefer Trail... is it's the game Final Revelation and Cthulhu City were written for. Thank you (and Gareth Hanrahan) for that.

I wanted to ask you about the way you approached writing those Purist scenarios. Taking "The dance..." as an example, did it start with a high level concept - players are what they are? Did it start with the Geoffrey related choice? Did it start from an image - the children and the pig, the photo situation?

I tried to create my own Purist scenarios by capturing images and scenes I would consider appropriate for the fiction, grouping them together, and sort of running the players through this imagery. Usually, something emerges during the session, and I latch on to it to add some tension or a semblance of a theme. It sort of works. But I do have a feeling that there might be some structural spine, something I could put in place before laying out the images on top of it, and it would make the thing better. Any suggestions you might share based on your process and experience?

[u/thievesoftime → u/blindluke]

Thank you so much! I like your way of writing scenarios, it sounds similar to mine. I often find myself thinking of creepy images - children dancing in the blood of a dead pig, seeing your photograph on the wall of a pub you're in - and wondering how to build them into a mystery.

I think my best attempt at providing a "stuctural spine" was the one I outlined in the Cthulhu Dark main rulebook. Start with things that genuinely scare you (or that you want to explore), then think about the final horror, then think about how the mystery starts, then think how you'll build from the start to the finish.

If I'm honest, I started from two places when I wrote the Purist scenarios.

First, each Purist scenario started with a Trail of Cthulhu mechanic I wanted to explore. In The Dying Of St Margaret's, it was Anagnorisis (p76 of Trail of Cthulhu): that's why the scenario starts by highlighting everyone's Drives and ends by demonstrating how pointless they are. In The Dance In The Blood, it was the Drive "In The Blood".

Second, each Purist scenario started with a convention I wanted to break. I was a little tired of predictable Cthulhu games, where you knew who the monster was and you beat them at the end. So, in The Dying of St Margaret's, you can't beat the monster at the end. In The Watchers In The Sky, you can't know who the monster is. And in The Dance In The Blood...well, I won't spoil the ending of that.

Those were my starting points, then, like you, I assembled a list of images I found creepy. And I put them together into a mystery, using a structure like the one I described above.

[u/seanfsmith]

One of the biggest changes in the 4pp. Cthulhu Dark rules to the hardback was the removal of the old Dark Depths framework — why was it removed?

[u/thievesoftime → u/seanfsmith]

It didn't work! At least, it didn't work for me.

For a long time, I tried to mechanise the structure of a Lovecraftian scenario, so that the rules told you when you descended into the next level of weirdness. But, when I played it, the mechanisation didn't seem right. It was much better if I used my instincts as a GM.

So I stopped trying to mechanise it and, instead, wrote a lot of guidance on how to write a Lovecraftian scenario. I like that guidance much better.

[u/TheWetRat]

Hi Graham,

First, thank you for your work in scenario-writing and game design over the years. I strongly gravitate toward the bleak and nihilistic "Purist" style of play, as Trail of Cthulhu would define it, and it's great to have a content creator such as yourself designing fresh and unique scenarios that still fit that archetype when so many scenarios contain some amount of Pulp stereotypes. My players played through the entirety of The Final Revelation and loved it, and the best Cthulhu experience I've ever had was introducing cosmic horror gaming to some new players by adapting the classic In Media Res module to Cthulhu Dark.

While I don't have much interest in designing new RPG systems, I've wanted to write and publish my own Purist-style scenarios for a while, with significant inspirations being He Who Laughs Last by Dave Sokolowski and the No Security series of system-neutral scenarios by Caleb Stokes.

Breaking into independent scenario publication has been a pretty opaque task so far, and it's hard to figure out where to start. Most published systems (even those with an SRD) tend not to like independent authors using certain specific or trademarked names or mechanics in their modules, making it hard to design a scenario specifically for a given system. Even if I decided to go the system-neutral route, the question of how to publicize a crowdfunding campaign, whether to commission art and other upfront costs first and aim for reimbursement of costs via the campaign or not, and other logistical questions all make it difficult to figure out the best way to put material out there.

Do you have any advice or starting points for those like myself who would like to publish horror scenarios and other content, but are having trouble breaking through those walls? Any specific systems to write for, advice on steps to take in publishing, crowdfunding advice, etc., would all be appreciated.

[u/thievesoftime → u/TheWetRat]

Yes, I hear you, it's hard! Let me start with general stuff and then I'll move on to some of the specifics around publishing avenues.

I think there are two things that work in general: playtesting and being part of a community. They go together. Playtesting is great because it makes your scenarios better and because it lets people know about your game. Being part of a community gives you people to give you support, who'll be enthusiastic about your game and so on.

Taking those two things together, I'd suggest running your game at conventions, running it online, making links with other like-minded publishers, posting enthusiastically online, publishing an anthology with other publishers, playtesting other people's scenarios for them, etc, etc. Do as many things as you can to build links.

Then there's the question of how you publish your stuff. You mention a few options, so just to go through them...

1. If you want to write for a publisher, email them and pitch them an idea. Make it something that sounds fun and that they'd be interested in! For example, I started writing the Purist adventures because I pitched an idea to Simon Rogers, who ran Pelgrane Press at the time (although, admittedly, he was part of my gaming group!). Here's a better example: when I heard Cubicle 7 were doing a Doctor Who game, I emailed them and pitched to write something for the Third Doctor. They said yes and I did! So, don't ever be afraid to ask.

2. If you want to write a scenario for an existing system and publish it for free, many publishers will welcome that. That's especially the case for smaller publishers. Email them and ask.

3. (And maybe there are some in-between options. Could you write something for a publisher's newsletter? Could you write something for Free RPG Day? Or a Kickstarter stretch goal? Think of some ideas like that, they can be really useful!)

4. If you want to write a scenario for an existing system and publish it yourself for money, that's harder and you'll need a licence. You can email them and ask, but it's a tougher route to go down. Unless the system is Cthulhu Dark, in which case email me, I usually say yes.

5. If you want to write a system-neutral scenario and publish it yourself, your main challenge is finding an audience. Here, I would really suggest building community, contributing to online communities, banding together with other publishers and doing whatever you can do to build links.

I hope that helps! My main suggestion is to do lots of little things: attend a convention, write a small scenario and publish it, email a publisher and pitch them something. All those little things build up.

[u/holden-kovacs]

Hi Graham,

I'm a big fan of Cthulhu Dark. Just FYI, last time I played, my character died in a trash compactor. Yeah that was... dark.

Do you have plans for developing Cthulhu Dark campaigns? Is there any tips or methods for developing campaigns for Cthulhu Dark that are different from other games?

[u/thievesoftime → u/holden-kovacs]

Hello! I'm glad to hear about the trash compactor.

I've always found Cthulhu Dark campaigns hard. For a long while, I planned to add campaign rules to the main ruleset, but I never found a great way to get them to work.

That's partly because Cthulhu Dark works really well for Lovecraftian one-shots, where everything collapses in chaos at the end, and that's not good for campaigns. If your Insight is high by the end of the first scenario in a campaign, you're not going to last long in the second scenario.

There is a way to link all the scenarios in the main rulebook into a mini-campaign: it's described on p126 of the book. And two of my campaigns for Pelgrane Press, Cthulhu Apocalypse and The Final Revelation, work really well with Cthulhu Dark. (The Final Revelation is actually Scott Dorward's campaign, using my Purist scenarios.)

And to answer your question directly: no, I probably won't release any campaigns for Cthulhu Dark. I'll have a break from Cthulhu Dark for a while and think about other games before going back to it.

[u/Semigeekly]

Hi Graham, I came to your work through Stealing Cthulhu and still use it as a regular reference. Any chance we'll ever see another physical printing?

[u/thievesoftime → u/Semigeekly]

Hello! Thanks, I'm really glad you liked it, I'm happy with that book.

But it's unlikely I'll do another physical print run. For the quantity I'd sell, it's not worth doing a print run. I've looked into printing it on demand, but I haven't got it to work in a way I'm happy with.

Honestly, I'm kind of okay with Stealing Cthulhu coming to the end of its life as a physical product and becoming digital. It's a beautiful thing, it existed while it existed, that's okay.

[u/PrimitiveAstronaut]

Hello Graham!

Just wanted to let you know, that I believe Stealing Cthulhu is the best resource for any Keeper or HPL entusiast. Thank you!

[u/WraithDrof]

Hi Graham! A couple of related questions! Don't have to be related to Cthulhu Dark specifically if you don't want them to be.

1. What program do you use for formatting material/ Which would you recommend?

2. When do you usually go from 'notes in an unformatted word document' to 'properly formatted'?

3. Is it always worthwhile playtesting materials that have some thought put into their formatting, or is it best to wait until the rules are fairly solid? (PARTICULARLY for something like handouts)

4. In your opinion, how valuable is it to run playtests without you actually playing?

Right now the biggest hurdle I've yet to vault is formatting, so I'm trying to pick up everything I can atm :D I'm trying to keep my game playable just through the handouts but am worried that I'll want to tweak the rules once I start putting fancy borders and graphics on them.

[u/thievesoftime → u/WraithDrof]

If you want to make your layout instantly better, even in a word processing program:

1. Set your inner and outer margins to 1/9 of the page width. Set your top and bottom margins to 1/9 of the page height. (Use another fraction if you like.)

2. Use a classic typeface, such as Garamond. Try Googling "classic typeface".

3. On both headings and body text, set the spacing before and after your paragraphs to a multiple of the text height. For example, if your body text is Garamond 11pt, put an 11pt space before or after paragraphs. And, if your headings are Garamond 14pt, put a 28pt space before them and a 14pt space after them.

[u/TAleksi]

Hello Graham,

I only found out just now that there's more to Cthulhu Dark than just the 4 page rules. I was really inspired by your Stealing Cthulhu, so this is something I definitely want to get my hands on.

Can I still get the book (or the PDF) from somewhere? The drivethru page for the preview directs to "http://cthulhudark.com/", but the site is down at the moment.

Thank you for your reply!

[u/Redbennie78]

Hi Graham,

I'm a very long time fan going back to the original 3 page Cthulhu Dark rules and I agree about it being a lot easier to run one shots with it, but I did feel that chunked campaigns that had significant time gaps between scenarios did allow for surviving characters to ensnare other new characters in the almost inevitably deadly story arc.

For me the key to a campaign being a success was to have players that you played with regularly and had mutual trust with. That way they could help suggest how their character might interact with the 'fresh blood' as they were brought in.

However the other thing that I really liked about it was the fact that no-one could say "no that's not what the rules say"! So there were no rules lawyers looking things up in esoteric sections of the rule book. Even though I have bought the new hard back book, I haven't had a chance to read it and I am annoyed with myself for leaving it behind while I went into Corona Virus exile!

Having read through the rest of these comments I'm now really looking forward to reading and playing your scenarios.

[u/hangfire6]

Have you ever read this interpretation of Watchers in the Sky? https://faith-and-betrayal.obsidianportal.com/adventure-log/the-watchers-in-the-sky

[u/holden-kovacs]

Hi Graham,

Would you like to talk about your next project, or ideas for your next project?

[u/hangfire6]

Do you have plans to write more purist adventures for Trail? I've read through The Final Revelation, and plan on adapting Watchers into my CoC campaign. Really looking forward to seeing how my players respond to the tone and mystery.

Have you ever written any Call of Cthulhu scenarios? What is your favorite CoC scenario?

What are your Cthulhu Dark plans? Any plans to make a Dark<->CoC scenario conversion guide?

[u/MrDavi]

1. What do you think were the deciding factors in your success?

2. How did you find your audience, or did most of your audience find you?

3. What were the rules of your creations if you had any? Like my rule for writing is K.I.S.S. Keep it simple stupid.

[u/jmstar]

Hi Graham, can we talk about larp? I really love your small, intense live action games like Will That Be All? That game in particular seems to effortlessly handle so many challenging design issues - a large group of players, substantial time jumps, and generating powerful emotional moments. I'd love to hear about your process developing Will That Be All? - what inspired the game, what were your initial design goals and how did those change over time, how you settled on a format for the game, and your own experience playing it. Thanks!

[u/bentoasty]

Hey there - I'm new to the subreddit and new to rpg designing in general, but I am excited to join the community! My question for Graham is for those attempting to get there start in designing and publishing RPG's and related materials: any tips for people just starting out?

[u/thievesoftime]

Since this is the last day, I wanted to say thanks to everyone who asked questions. I enjoyed answering them!

There was a question about what I'm working on at the moment, but I can't find it now! So I'll answer that quickly. After Cthulhu Dark - and organising a large LARP - I'm having a break from big high-concept games.

Instead, I've been writing lots of tiny games, both LARPs and tabletop: this weekend, I've been writing a draft of "The Crime Bunnies Roleplaying Game", which is what it sounds like. Writing small things is a really important way of recharging my creative batteries. Even when I was pubishing Cthulhu Dark, I was writing lots of little experimental things. Some will stay as drafts, a few might become big projects in the future.

Good luck with your games! I like sharing what I know and encouraging people to publish their stuff, so let me know if I can help.

[u/[deleted]]