Eternal Lies 2020
I thought it might be fun and interesting to keep a record of the game I’m just beginning to GM with my Saturday group. Pelgrane’s Eternal Lies is a lengthy campaign with enormous depth, especially if you factor in a very thoughtful online community that’s grown around it. I myself have run the game once in the past, (2018-19,) and benefitted enormously from the past efforts and online counsel of other GMs.
It’s a particularly interesting time to be running the game, as I have no other choice than to put it out there online. I’m lucky enough to have a patient and stable group who’ve stuck with me as we’ve all transitioned to the internet. They are experienced, proactive players, and they’ve already done some pretty hefty gaming since the pandemic changed all our lives. I thought a running GM’s account might be especially revealing under these circumstances.
I plan to keep my updates here pretty brief, like 2-3 paragraphs. We meet once a week, so a lot will happen, even if we don’t finish. (Always a possibility when you run something of this scope.) For this go-around, I just wanted to provide a setup and a bit of context. We are running on Google Meet. Dice rolling is done by the honor system. Anyone who cheats at a Cthulhu game is robbing only themself, I think. The ruleset is a slightly modified Delta Green/Call of Cthulhu 6.0. I’ve used Trail of Cthulhu in the past—a lot—and felt I needed to clear the mental slate, if I was going to make this be fun for everyone.
To give the PCs a way in, I decided to link them strongly to the 1924 investigation. Eternal Lies takes place in 1934, and initially the PCs are trying to clarify what happened to what is essentially a past Call of Cthulhu party, who got in over their heads. I decided that this time around I would strengthen that connection by insisting that everyone have a defined relationship to a 1924 Investigator. My hope is that this approach will cut down on the “I can’t see any reason why my character would go to Timbuktu and face the Vampire Lich” objections that players sometimes run across relative to their characters’ back stories and personalities. This choice I’m making may create more complications for me than it alleviates, as I’ll have to do even more additional writing to glom everything together, but I am OK with that, if it makes for a stronger game in the long run.
Anyway, I will put up another post shortly that introduces the setting and this group’s PCs. Don’t read unless you want spoilers!
links to more info about the campaign:
https://site.pelgranepress.com/index.php/the-complete-eternal-lies-suite
https://www.yog-sothoth.com/forums/topic/27178-eternal-lies-spoilers-gms-only (only available to members, but a great resource)