Keeper Rulebook - Scenarios - Call of Cthulhu 7th Ed - Review

CoC 7e Keeper Rulebook

Most people forget that in the core rulebooks there are scenarios. In the Keeper Rulebook (CoC 7e, 2016, 448 pages) are two scenarios: Amidst the Ancient Trees and Crimson Letters.

What people also overlook are the excellent Appendices.
Equipment Prices for 1920s (p.396-398) and Modern (p.399-400)
Weapon Tables: p.401-406
Game Summary Rules: p.407-419
Summary of Combat: p.408-413
Combat Flow Charts: p.412-413 (you really need to look at this)
Summary of Chase Rules: p.414-416
Summary of Sanity Rules: p.417-418 (you really need to read this)
Summary of Magic Rules: p.419 (you really need to read this)

Most of my sessions are 3 hours long. Different groups take different times, but my run times are here for comparison purposes. At conventions, I generally book a 6 hour time slot which includes time for explaining the system and a break for food.

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Amidst the Ancient Trees

Time Period: 1920s (1925)

Location: Bennington, VT (or any wooded wilderness)

Pages: 18

Run Time: 1 session 

Pre-Gens: None

Hook: A girl is kidnapped and the PCs are part of a manhunt to recover her.

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The Plot: Track the Kidnappers to a Lake and Dig Site. Rescue the girl, other prisoners, and destroy the site, without getting captured and turned into Undead Servants.
The Bad Guys: Kidnappers, Undead Servants, and Gla'aki.

I found this to be an ok scenario. An example of a rural wilderness scenario.

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Crimson Letters

Time Period: 1920s

Location: Arkham, MA (Miskatonic University)

Pages: 20

Run Time: 2 sessions 

Pre-Gens: None

Hook: The Dean tasks the PCs to recover the missing Witch Trial Papers.

I love the whole host of NPCs and I've used this setting as a launching point for a series of MU adventures. I think this is an excellent scenario.

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The Plot: Follow lots of leads, GM decides who really has the papers. Once you have the book, exorcise it.
The Bad Guys: Mobsters, Ghouls, Zombie, and The Horror in Ink.

I've used Miskatonic University and A Time to Harvest to flesh out the setting.

This is a sandbox scenario where the PCs can go anywhere. If you want to extend this scenario, don't decide who really has the papers until you're ready to end the scenario.

In my games, the Dean, Wheatcroft, and Abner Wick have become reoccurring NPCs.

The Dean sends the PCs on various extracurricular activities for extra credit.

A running joke is that every death on campus is from natural causes, otherwise the well-heeled parents won't send their kids to MU if they knew the truth. That's why MU has its own morgue separate from the city's. Wheatcroft continually falsifies autopsy reports.

Wick's Unconsidered Trifles is the go to spot for selling occult books and for Mythos advice. When PCs ask Wick to help with rituals and such, he always tells them how dangerous it is and warns them away. Of course, the PCs always go ahead. He will sell them manuscripts and such, but insists that he will NOT participate in any ritual as they are too dangerous. Only a fool would try these rituals. He only collects and sells these books as curiosities. Of course, he was willing to accept the original Witch Trial Papers in payment for overseeing the removal of the curse, with the PCs present and participating in the ritual (performed in the labyrinthian tunnels underneath the shop). The PCs then had a counterfeit copy made and returned the copy to the University.

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