u/MechaniCatBuster

I'm getting close to finishing writing a campaign and something I've noticed is I have a tendency to make very site based scenarios. Haunted house, town with a cult in it, a cave where they dug too deep etc. So I wanted to ask about some tips for other scenario structures to try to broaden my horizons, and stop needing to make maps so often (for sneaking and exploration rather than combat mind)

Started running this the other day and there's a couple things that I wish were more clear.

One of which is a problem I had running another bug hunt as well, which is how vents are meant to work. I and my players are aware that vents you can crawl through make no sense and so would never look for them. It puts me as Warden in a weird position where I have to tell them to look for something we know doesn't make sense, or I just tell them vents are in rooms as if they light up like a video game. How do you all run this? It'd be fine if the room description mentioned where it was so they I can just tell them when they investigate that area but as it is it feels very clunky.

What do I do with locked airlock doors? Is there a key somewhere? a console? Can they crowbar them open? I don't mind not knowing the answer I can improvise, but what irritates me is that I don't know the function of them. Are they meant to be real barriers? Just slow the players down? Force them to come back later? It's really hard to improvise stuff when I don't know the purpose of a thing. If I'm supposed to make shit up wholesale why put it there in the first place? Why not just give me some advice about making some doors locked sometimes or something? It just feels like they are there for some reason that is not communicated.

Ghosts in the Machine and Ghost Eater: How do you get him "specimens"? Am I making stuff up wholesale again? Do I have to make up a source? Like when they are soothed does a microchip fall onto the ground? My first instinct was that they were "hard light" type stuff where they were self sufficient and genuinely had no material parts. Do I need to backtrack that? I assumed Ghost Eater wanted something like the Logic Cores, but when I actually ran a Ghost I realized there is nothing relevant to bring him. What have you done?

I may very well have other questions later XD

Edit: Got another already. Are the PCs meant to have access to a cybernetic diagnostic scanner or no? Module brings it up repeatedly, and calls out that the lost and found will never have one, but why? How can all the cool were they really human stuff happen if the players can never find out do to lack of the one thing that can tell them? It's so essential to module and I don't know where they are, who has them, or if the players are meant to get or have them. Very strange.

(It's a historical site in the Philippines. It has early human artifacts, but isn't fully explored)

I thought I could look up the known cave systems and expand some mythos stuff from there. Unfortunately it seems cave maps are very hard to come by. My understanding is that they actively avoid sharing maps to avoid enticing inexperienced cavers from going where they shouldn't, in addition to most mapping in general being only done for personal use. I also have no caving experience.

So my question is if anybody has been there and can give me the lowdown on its general layout (unlikely, but it doesn't hurt to ask). I could make something up but at the very least I would like something believable before things go off the deep end. So alternatively can anyone can share some knowledge about typical cave formation (So I can make something of my own that's decent). Maybe some well regarded cave system maps from other scenarios? Anything would be helpful really.

This feels like it will come up eventually. Somebody is going to want to get after them juicy books of doom. Is there anything agreed upon? Anything in the source material? I skimmed Dunwich Horror but it seems like the theft was off screen (before Whatley met his fate).

The scenario Edge of Darkness also implies that it isn't feasible. Why? Is the restricted section barred? Behind panic doors? Under watch by no less then 12 super cool dudes at all times?

I'm thinking about maybe requiring a theft in a scenario but without knowing more about what might be involved it's hard to be sure. So just looking for more information mostly.

I mostly am looking for ideas for Lots really. I have no idea where to start to research that sort of thing though. I can think of a couple books like various Aleister Crowley works, but I can't make a whole auction out of those. I can't really just use books from the Keeper's Guide because that would make them all important, and we need at least some "nothing" lots. Would be more on point if all of them were books though. The plan is that the PCs need to acquire one and how the auction goes determines whether or not they get off scot-free or need to do some thieving.

So to summarize, I'm looking for ideas, or some paths of research to find out what kinds of things an Occult auction might be selling. Or the kinds of things that might be for sale at an estate auction. That would work too.

I know some of the basics:

• City Hall for things like civil records (Blueprints, death certificates, deeds etc.)
• Libraries for history and general information (general info about the area, historical accounts, books on cults or natural phenomena etc.)
• Newspapers for reporting and current events (Old articles about a family, articles about disappearances, etc)
• Police Station (info on crimes, murders etc)
• White pages? To help locate someone?

But are there more? What other "always available" investigation options existed in the 1920s?

Resources you might use to pick up the first strand so to speak?

So you can find useful stuff in libraries and city hall and such. But when is it too much? When do you say "The cops won't allow you to access that" or "City Hall lost the blueprints for that building" or something else of that nature? When is it too much?

Looking for opinions. Want to fine tune play, so that I know what are reasonable breadcrumbs for players, but also I don't want to ask for something I shouldn't AS a player. So looking at it from both sides the GM screen.