Getting started
Your first two weeks of investigative horror
A calm path for new investigators and first-time Keepers.
Day one
Borrow an OSR timer or a faction map for your investigation—do not borrow trademarks.
Pick a scope
House rulings on one page. Repeat calls get ink, not another argument.
Teach the table
Build three leads, one complication, and a calm stop if the table needs air—then let theories collide.
After session one
Send new players to Getting Started; use the FAQ when a rules argument stalls the table. Write three bullets: what sang, what stalled, what to prep next. Compare notes with ideas in H. P. Lovecraft biography.
Readable handouts, clear remote audio, content notes before bleak scenes—craft, not extras.
Weekly Keeper or rotating chair: write tone (pulp vs purist) and content notes once.
Optional week-two homework: pick one procedure that confused the table, look it up in a public reference, and decide whether it becomes a written house ruling. Dated notes beat memory.
Related desks in this neighborhood
Horror-adjacent desks nearby cover epic Mythos campaigns, grim OSR cousins, and other crate themes when your investigators need a change of era.