Ruminations on the eve of our first session

The gears are in motion, the date is set, and we are getting ready for our first gaming session. There are several things I have been mulling over in my head. I feel pretty confident I am over the initial jitters I had about running a game improvised to this extent. This, I believe, is mostly because I decided to go with two story-lines  the present day of the 1930s and the history of the mask in the flashbacks. The present day narrative is something more familiar I can lean on as it will be more traditionally structured and less improvised. Having said that, I will try to use parts of it to get player input to encourage and instruct them before we get to the first flashback.

Some additional thoughts about the mask

I think I want to go with three flashbacks to establish the mask's background, what it does and how it is used, and what is the (long term?) price of putting it on. Each of these three questions will get their own story. These narratives hopefully give us the name of the mask, which will be an important part of making it feel central to the story. I have been giving a lot of thought on how I am going to make the mask a presence that is felt even though it is not directly involved in a given scene. 

One thing I can do is have the prop physically present on the table. Maybe I will establish a rule that they cannot touch it unless their character is actually touching the mask. Then I mark down every time they do that. Why? I have no idea, yet, but I'm hoping it will make them a bit nervous to fool around with it. Also, could the mask have a voice? Should it, or whatever is bound to it, start communicating with the players at some point? Like the One Ring whispers to the ring-bearer?

All in all, I have full faith in my players that once we get to the mask together we come up with something cool and memorable.

Mister X

He has a name - Henry Wingate. The PCs all receive a short note or letter from him where he asks for help. This draws them to the adventure and brings them to his house in the French Quarter. He is not there. Now, I have been pondering whether he has disappeared and the players can find him, or if he is dead. In the end, I decided to go with dead. They will find his body at one point and it will be a source of some core clues. One of these clues is what I call a Gate Clue - a clue that they must possess before they can have access to some parts of the story. This helps me to pace things and make sure parts of the narrative are introduced in a certain order.

Boss fights

The 1930s narrative will have a main bad guy who will be coming after them. At the moment I think it will be an ancient Chinese leader of local gangster-cultists. However, I try not to attach myself to this decision too much and have an open mind so I can seize any better and narratively more satisfying options. Every flashback will have some main bad guy the PCs have to confront, and possibly die horribly in the process. However, I won't describe any Great Old Ones in the flashbacks with the possible exception of the last one. This helps in building a rising tension level and, let's face it, encountering Mythos gods several times before the 1930s climax would water things down and give the whole thing a monster-of-the-week kind of feel. So, I will cut away from a flashback before a Great Old One appears.