Firstly: I feel like an idiot, but I think I'm missing some part of the rules that explains this.

Okay, I have all of my factions seperated (20 cards each). I have my neutral cards separated (15 cards, including the 1 Conspiracy card). And I have the 10 story cards separated.

Quoting the rule book:

"-each player must select a deck. This can be done quickly by mixing any two of the seven factions, and by adding ONE OF THE TWO NEUTRAL CARD PACKETS (F141-147 and F148-154)"

It also says in the rule book that Conspiracy cards are part of the players draw deck.

The Core game only came with 1 Conspiracy card. And it's number F155, so it's right between the Faction cards and the Neutral cards.

HOW DO I GET THIS CARD INTO PLAY?!!!

Each player is supposed to pick one of the two neutral packets, rights? How do you decide who gets 8 cards instead of 7 (the 8th card being the Conspiracy card!). This is making me a little crazy.

What am I missing here?

Thank you for the help!

You're not missing anything, countermeasures. That F155 conspiracy card is ignored in the 'For the First Game' quick start instructions, just to reduce the complexity for that initial game.

Thereafter you might want to consider drafting the neutrals one at a time (even though this means someone will get one more card than the other, but don't worry about that), and then you could pick The Bootleg Whiskey Cover-Up conspiracy if you wish to try it out.

If you later add more cards to your collection, by buying an additional Core set (to get an extra copy of each card), or new deluxe sets or asylum packs, then you can actually construct your own decks of at least 50 cards each and choose to include (or not) whichever cards - including conspiracy cards - that you wish. The Terror in Venice deluxe expansion and the Conspiracies of Chaos asylum pack both provide great cards if you're looking for a good reason to include conspiracy cards in your deck.

P.S. Just a note about conspiracy cards... Unlike story cards, whose text only triggers when won, the text on conspiracy cards are active whenever characters are committed there; and, confusingly, any reference to "you" or "your" means all players with committed characters there, as per the FAQ (which you can download from the Call of Cthulhu: The Card Game Support page):

Q) I know Story card’s effects are able to be initiated by the player who won that story but are all Conspiracy cards worded like Story cards?

A) Conspiracy cards effects indicate if the effect is initiated upon winning the conspiracy. If they do not indicate the effect is optionally triggered upon winning, then the effect is a passive effect that is always active and resolves as indicated on the card. NOTE: Conspiracy cards are not considered to have a controller, and any instance of the word “you” or “your” refers to all players.

Hi countermeasures!

jasonconlon has got you covered here, so I'd just like to add a quick note to say welcome to the game - you've made a great choice! I remember feeling overwhelmed by the rules when I first got the core set - it was the first LCG I committed to and is still the only one that I play regularly. Once you get past the initial "aaargh!" factor, you'll find a fast-paced, deliciously brutal game with a real sense of developing narrative that underpins your encounters at the stories. For me, this game is smart, direct, has the best card art in the business (particularly with some of the later deluxe expansions), and oozes theme - there's great scope for making decks not just for the sake of trying to fit in with the winning meta, but just for the sake of having fun with a theme.

I hope your core set brings as much enjoyment to you as it has to my partner and I - we played that box to death before even thinking about any of the expansions and asylum packs, and when we did finally take the plunge, it made the game even more enjoyable.

Best wishes

Pac_Man3D