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This is what I tell people is what makes sports and games interesting. You have a framework of rules in place, but when you sit down to watch it unfold you have no idea if you might witness something epic.

I see simulation as an attempt to create a predictive model of a setting. This leads to some other assumptions: In the absence of information to the contrary, we should expect that things are meant to seem as realistic as possible. A character that doesn't get enough sleep or food will not be...

Mechanical benefit, like in a loresheet.

My first memory with concrete details was playing AD&D, module G2. I'm pretty certain I played in a homebrew one time before that.

I want to shout out to Pelgrane Press for Eyes of the Stone Thief. The conceit is that this dungeon eats other dungeons, and one of its meals was a first edition dungeon formatted old-school, with boxed text and everything. It's very cool.

Yes, a good table is worth its weight in gold. There are also plenty of modules that have too much writing. Stuff that's freely available on Wikipedia is typically unhelpful unless the author has taken pains to heighten its gaming applicability.

I don't think modules are written to be read, but I do suspect many are written to be sold without attention to playtesting or preparation for publishing.

Asking players to come up with things at the table is the way to go. Simply by being there they are in the right mindset to create. Even asking players pointed questions at the end of the session gives you ideas of what to focus on in the next one.

Vampire is the easy answer. Penanggalan the more detailed one.

Besides Conan and the Gray Mouser, there are other fictional thieves the rogue class emulates, like Hal's robber friends in Henry IV. And that burglar from the Shire.

Mmmm ... ankheg.

I must be. I didn't realize they were different.

LoL I've always meant the other kind of committed. He's going to be the patron giving the PCs their initial mission. Maybe it does make to have him tragic as opposed to double crossing, though.

I'm gonna run a 3-5 session game for some newbies and I think I know who the villain is. A centaur game warden for the royal forest. However, he is cursed with lycanthropy and becomes a nightmare on the full moon. Is this an idea worth the number crunching?

A setting created by the guiding hand of George RR Martin no less.

I have used GURPS WW2 Weird War Two in every real-world campaign I have run in the 22 years since it came out. Clumsy name, great book.

Ditto with Masks of Nyarlathotep.

The "solve a murder" mystery is the basic structure of most games. But you can also have a sandboxy "the cult is present, they're not trying to destroy the world, but their presence is nonetheless bad for everyone" setup. This might be preferable since a Keeper doesn't need to end the campaign...

We played the original Shadows of Yog-Sothoth in high school, and the Keeper had made props for the Arc of Vlactos and others. It left a lasting impression on me for sure.

This thought linking Westerns and Call of Cthulhu is never far from my Keeper's heart.