Timelines and Events: Prepping an Investigation

I’ve played a lot of investigation games, but I haven’t run very many, and so it was with both trepidation and excitement that I found myself in the position of reading Horror on the Orient Express, the classic Call of Cthulhu campaign, as I prepared the prologue for my players. As usual, I set out with my trusty highlighters and began to read, only to find myself absolutely flummoxed by the style of the adventures in the book. They read as 100% fully determined and totally on rails narratives, while at the same time having a bunch of extra locations that don’t seem related to anything. Also, they have about a billion NPCs. I read the first scenario about three times, writing it down in my own language and in different ways. Then I read the next three or four scenarios, and the QuickStart introduction scenario, and here is my unofficial take on how to prepare. Events and Timelines Unlike in most D&D scenarios, in the Call of Cthulhu scenarios I have read, there is a timeline of…