the Occult Research Bureau

Creating an Organization for RPG Campaigns Part 1

I've been giving some thought to my next campaign, and I really want to run GURPS again.  Now I haven't discussed it with any potential players, but I'm really interested in running a horror based campaign.  A campaign in which the player's characters are members of an organisation that deals with supernatural threats.

One of my inspirations are the novels, Monster Hunter International and Monster Hunter Vendetta., written by Larry Correia.  Both are very entertaining, and would make a great campaign. Larry also writes a very entertaining blog, Monster Hunter Nation, and is a self-admitted nerd.  He's also a gamer!

When brainstorming about this new campaign, I wanted a cool name for the group, and I came up with, Occult Research Bureau.  The next thing I did was do a google search, and like I suspected,there was already an O.R.B. website with that name.  Now, I'm not sure if it's some kind of entertainment website to promote a haunted house/mansion, or if it really is about researching the occult. The website hasn't had any recent activity.  They also have a facebook page, but it hasn't had any recent activity either. Not that it matters, I like the name, and I feel that it falls under the concept of fair use. ( I didn't see any trademarks anywhere. ) So unless I come up with something better, O.R.B. is the name of the group.

The next decision would have to be whether or not the groups is a private organisation, a corporation, or a government agency.  In the campaign I plan on having more than one group, and they might be rivals, or have some level of cooperation.  A group could focus mainly on research, and gathering data.  It could also deal with supernatural threats, with appropriately armed response teams.  I'm sure this is the main direction the campaign would take, but you never know.

I would want it to be somewhat of a sandbox campaign,  but in the case of a highly organised group, the missions would have to be more of a railroad, i.e take out the cabal of wizards, or they summon the most horrible of horribles.   ( Especially if the group is a government agency, or with strong ties to the government. ) There would be definite nasty repercussions as the result of mission failure, i.e civilian deaths or a zombie apocalypse, which I guess would result in civilian deaths as well.  Mission failure is not an option!

On a different, but related note, I want to have a Cthulhu theme park in the campaign.

Cthulhu and Friends!

Yeah, that's what it would be called if Cthulhu had a Saturday morning cartoon show.  I started to write a theme song for the show, but thank God I stopped.  See, even thinking and writing about the Great Old Ones can cause you to lose Sanity Points.  Be careful out there...

Anyway, today is the first day of the Reader's Choice Challenge.  I knew this was going to be a challenge, and quite the challenge it is!  Daddy Grognard was the one to suggest Call of Cthulhu! as a topic.  Then, The Angry Lurker followed with a request for an explanation of the period. 

Angry Lurker, as far as I can recall, Cthulhu can be in any freaking time period he wants.  ( Is Cthulhu a he? )  Heh... I joke, because I'm not that familiar with the whole Cthulhu Mythos, or more accurately the H.P. Lovecraft Mythos.   I've just started reading H.P. Lovecraft, and I can't recall ever playing the RPG, maybe once, late one night at a local convention.  However, I sure would like to play in a campaign.  It seems really interesting, in a "your character might go insane" sort of way.  A friend used to have the books, and I'm sure I read through some of it, but that was years ago.

Oh, back to the time period question.  The classic era would be the 1920's and 30s.  However, I think I'm fairly spot on, when I say that you can utilise Cthulhu and friends, in any time period, and most genres.  A Cthulhu game set in the Wild West might be interesting, but it could be set in space as well, and in the far flung future.

Here's the wikipedia article on Cthulhu .  Also check out Propnomicon , a blog about props for the Cthulhu Mythos.

Check out Shane Mangus's blog, Swords Against the Outer Dark , he's the one you should have asked about this subject.  My knowledge of things Yog-Sothothery isn't that great.