July 20, 2026

MUP Ep 354 – Trying Something New In Your Scenarios

38 minutes

This episode, Keepers Bridgett & Evan discuss ways to spice up your scenarios with something new!

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And thank you to our editor NATE for editing this episode.

Main Topic

New Things You Can Do in a Scenario:

Scope and Stakes:

If you usually play world-spanning campaigns where the fate of the Earth is at stake, try limiting yourself to one city, one neighborhood, or even one building, like the airship or submarine scenarios.

Try playing for small, personal stakes. One person, maybe not even life or death, maybe just their ability to continue living the life they thought they knew.

Threat/Antagonists

What to do instead of cults? Instead of a big monster?

Think antagonist rather than villain

Or little monsters that do horrible things when they gang up on you (gnomes, puppets, dolls, cloud of vampiric gnats, etc)

Try a scenario where the threat is unconventional – I’ve done a few where the threat is basically just a spell, that exists, but it draws people in and ruins them

Pacing

If you usually do long, leisurely multi-session scenarios, try a tight 1 or 2 hour event that starts fast and doesn’t let up. You can check out No Time to Scream as a place to start.

Structure and Clue Trail

Shoutout to Heinrich – start the scenario *after* the bad thing has already happened

Emphasize or de-emphasize the clue trail

In a short scenario, try fewer “Acts”

Try improv – Players can do this too, leave your background blank and fill it in as you go, or roll randomly and make it fit the emerging story

Tone

Pulse-pounding vs. cerebral, quiet and sad, loud and shooty, comic, uncomfortable

Singing! An opera/sung-through-musical

Setting:

Try a new time in a familiar place, or a new place in a familiar time

Give your brain lots of new things to explore

Try Pulp in any setting

For Players

Play a totally different kind of investigator: brainy vs. brawny, different social background, different approach to solving problems

See what happens if you don’t optimize for the traditional Cthulhu skills; Keepers, are you willing to reward a player who puts points in Climb, Swim, Throw, and Track?

...more

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By Miskatonic University Podcast

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