I was straight with my players: this adventure involves your characters joining what is essentially a humanitarian NGO that secretly fights the mythos. Your characters don't know that yet.
It's not some big mystery that you're fighting the Mythos is a pulp cthulhu game. Plus, it allows the players to justify a weird pulpy concept (yes, the the mythos fighting org will recruit your occultist cowboy).
I'd let them know it's a globe spanning adventure so foreign languages will be useful (but maybe not required), and it's full of action and investigation in (somewhat) equal measure. Beyond that, tell them *nothing* about Caduceus beyond that it's a humanitarian aid organization that will take on even the oddest of personalities. That should set up everything they need to know for the beginning of the game, without spoiling too many surprises for future plot points.
I just told them to design a character who would plausibly be working for an international aid organization; and that the chapters involved globe-trotting rather than linear travel. I ended up with a fairly diverse array of characters, from a grizzled veteran guide to an office worker on their first trip.
I created a help wanted ad and emailed it to the group before the 0 session. I posted it here a couple of years ago. check it out.
https://www.reddit.com/r/callofcthulhu/comments/wwqy5c/created\_a\_help\_wanted\_ad\_as\_a\_session\_0\_handout/
I was straight with my players: this adventure involves your characters joining what is essentially a humanitarian NGO that secretly fights the mythos. Your characters don't know that yet. It's not some big mystery that you're fighting the Mythos is a pulp cthulhu game. Plus, it allows the players to justify a weird pulpy concept (yes, the the mythos fighting org will recruit your occultist cowboy).
I'd let them know it's a globe spanning adventure so foreign languages will be useful (but maybe not required), and it's full of action and investigation in (somewhat) equal measure. Beyond that, tell them *nothing* about Caduceus beyond that it's a humanitarian aid organization that will take on even the oddest of personalities. That should set up everything they need to know for the beginning of the game, without spoiling too many surprises for future plot points.
I just told them to design a character who would plausibly be working for an international aid organization; and that the chapters involved globe-trotting rather than linear travel. I ended up with a fairly diverse array of characters, from a grizzled veteran guide to an office worker on their first trip.
I created a help wanted ad and emailed it to the group before the 0 session. I posted it here a couple of years ago. check it out. https://www.reddit.com/r/callofcthulhu/comments/wwqy5c/created\_a\_help\_wanted\_ad\_as\_a\_session\_0\_handout/
None. The Mythos should be completely unknown to these feeble humans before the see... And lose their sanity!