I will soon (tomorrow!) be starting a reboot of a campaign I ran many years ago. None of the current players in the group were in the original campaign, so it'll be interesting to see how they approach it compared to how it went the first time. It'll be, essentially, a Neon Genesis Evangelion campaign with Cthulhu Mythos in place of Angels (I'm using Cthulhutech, and the Cthulhutech setting will eventually take more prominence. Although I could expound greatly on what I see the long-term plot being, that's not really relevant here unless people want to know...)
Last time, I used a fairly traditional lineup. Starspawn > Star Vampires > A Sentient Colour > Dagon > Yog Sothoth as the capstone which ended the campaign.
Each fight was based around a gimmick. The Starspawn threw buildings, the Star Vampires drained the evangelions, the Sentient Colour couldn't be hurt physically, Dagon was fought underwater and Yog Sothoth manipulated space to stay out of range.
This time I'm wondering about using the Masks of Nyarlathotep as the opening theme, with Big N himself appearing as the Kaworu-style figure at the end. This campaign is likely to go on longer than the last (which was run at a university club which dissolved campaigns between terms). I'm wondering if that might feel boring to the players, though, as they are more Cthulhu buffs than Neon Genesis buffs. Would it become obvious that the Masks mean Big N is the big bad? Is there enough variety to keep the 'cthulhu' feel without making it obvious what, exactly, they are up against?
Or should I stick to a broader base of Cthulhu stuff which - whilst fairly obvious in what it is - does have the bonus factor of being drawn from a lot of different areas of the Mythos and should help keep a smile on people's faces and keep them engaged in the fights due to their novelty factor?
In summary: That the PCs will eventually punch out Cthulhu is not in doubt. What is the best way to keep that fresh and interesting?
Well, Evangelion kept in interesting as the fights with the Angels were mainly set pieces around adolescent angst, teen drama, and the struggle with identity and ego vs social acceptance and the pain of separation.
IS it just the premise of mecha vs alien creatures you're using, or are you taking more from Evangelion? If so, the way to keep it interesting is largely how you instigate melodrama (I recommend melodrama over angst when it comes to RPGs). The combats will a great endpiece to any such build up of emotion, a release and chance to cut loose.
As for "punching out Cthulhu", well, we all know his one weakness: boats.
indeed if you do go the emotion route keep it mellodrama angst just does not work in rpgs
The actual drama (and horror, to some extent, but mostly drama) comes from the slow revelation of the conspiracy the PCs are embroiled within, the fact their past is a lie, and the personal journey of the characters (in theory - it worked well the first time around, but these things are always dependant on the character/player). Last time I was able to identify pretty quickly what hooks the characters had in their personalities and have interweaving personal plots in amongst the overarching monster battle/conspiracy plot - but it is harder to plan for those before I even know who my characters are!
The set pieces are something it is much easier to plan for in advance. But it is important to me that it doesn't become 'roll dice, monster explodes'. Putting a memorable gimmick in is very Evangelion, too - each of the Angels has a very strong 'weird thing' they do which helps them feel distinct and characterful.
I'd like my players to have a smile on their face as they 'get the reference', if you see what I mean - none of them are Evangelion fans so all that side will be fresh and hopefully interesting to them - and the cthulhu elements should help to ground them in something familiar.
Which is part of the reason I'm worried about using the Masks. They are probably a little too esoteric to be immediately identifiable when scaled up to giant robot form in a way the previous threats weren't.
If we do take it all the way to the Cthulhu point, though, I will definitely have battleships around in the hope that one of the PCs will throw one at him. :D
"None of them are Evangelion Fans"
You should be very careful with this. Eva is a very polarizing Anime. It's not enough to say "Everyone loves Mecha" (Because everyone does, and you are a Philistine if you do not!)
But not everyone loves Eva. I love Mecha (GunxSword being my favorite Mecha Anime) but I didn't care for it. In the interest of not insulting your tastes, I won't get into my thoughts on Eva...
But if you're going to be specifically evoking Eva's themes, with Players who have never been fans of the show, you have to keep in mind they might not care for it, or get any kind of smile on their face.
If you're just going for Gimmicky boss fights though, well that's not really an Eva thing, that's an almost every Mecha Anime ever thing. Evangelion does have the advantage of the Angels being weird monsters, but pretty much every Mecha anime's boss fights deal with the opposing Mecha having some sorta strange gimmick the Heroes have to figure out in order to defeat it.
If they're Cthulu fans, they're going to guess Nyer is the Villain right away, particularly if you use Masks material considering it's a classic among CoC fans and most have heard about it. Particularly if they understand the themes of Nyer himself.
I appreciate the advice, but they liked the pitch, and it isn't that they are specifically anti-NGE, it is that they've never bothered to watch it. (Probably won't, either, which is fine - it'll make some of the twists more enjoyable).
I was hoping for advice on how to keep the fights interesting and whether it'd be best to stick to the Masks theme or draw from throughout the Mythos, though.
This is where I want to break out my Monsterpocalypse Lords of Cthul and pit them against my lone Shadow Sun Syndicate. aheh.
Which particular avatars of Nyarlatothep are you planning to use? Nyarly is a perfect overarching villain for a game that's going to be focused on more than just punching Cthulhu with mecha, because he is the most devilish of Mythos, with his powers and concept based more about manipulation and cults than outright opposition.
For the fight with Nyarlatothep himself, I'd take a page from Arkham Horror - each play suddenly receives a message in their mind, a telepathic one (a sealed envelope for each player, so they don't see what everyone else got) offering them a chance to join Nyarlatothep and reign supreme as his Satrap.
I've given it some thought and I think I'll go ahead with the following (cheesy titles given for my own amusement):
You Can (Not) Embrace: Ahtu (Gelatinous mass which exudes golden tentacles - fairly straightforward and easy to get settled into the system)
You Can (Not) Submerge: The Floating Horror - Blue-red jellyfish creature, for an underwater adventure.
You Will (Not) Pursue: L'Rog'g - Two-headed bat creature, could be fun for a high speed aerial chase.
You Are (Not) Prepared: Black Wind - Enormous storm they'll have to deal with - collateral damage as well as finding the eye of the storm to stop it.
You May (Not) See: Dweller in Darkness - analogous to my favorite Angel (Leliel - gooo zebraball) they'll wind up confronting it in a dimension formed out of its own dark body and will be the first time they communicate directly with one of the masks. I may well steal the 'offer them a chance to turn against humanity' moment here. I like the envelopes idea a lot!
You Shall (Not) Sing: The Royal Pant - the finale for Nyarl, he'll have his Kaworu moment as a young new transfer student who is very charming and attempts to win over the party. This'll be a last ditch effort before my Gendo-analogue pushes for his final plan.
I think, to be honest, the first four are so generic they are unlikely to go 'oooh it is Nyarl...' until the Dweller in Darkness, which should tie things together nicely and give them some foreshadowing for the final Mask. Six monsters with a fight every 2-3 sessions depending on the pacing of other plot threads will give me a good amount of material to work with. I'll probably also slip a Mi-Gou attack in there at some point to give them some more traditional 'beat the hell out of a dozen enemies and feel like a badass' moment, and foreshadow where the campaign may go after the 'finale'.