I ran Deathmatch Island and played Eat the Reich. Both had similar systems, you rolled lots of dice and narrated what had happened, but I felt one worked really well and the other didn't. So, I pondered why and came up with the following.
I'm a fan of Battle Royale. A bunch of teenagers from the same class are dropped on an island, issued random items including weapons. Are told to kill each other over 3 days and the sole survivor gets fame and fortune. The previous year's winner is shown, a blood splattered little girl with a psychotic smile. To force the kids to kill each other, they're given a map and over time, the safe zones are eliminated. Kids left in a prohibited zone die as their explosive collars detonate. Each day, the list of dead students are announced over a PA system. The movie is about friendship, betrayal, savagery of man, survival.
Battle Royale begat Hunger Games, Squid Game, and Survivor. Those shows begat Deathmatch Island.
The mechanics are interesting. You roll dice based on various stats add the highest two dice rolled. Also roll a handful of d4s (for items used) take the highest die rolled; there's a level of diminishing returns as the max is 4 and there's no reason to use up too many items; add this to the previous die roll. GM rolls dice and that's the Target Number. Compare all the numbers. It's a roll once and done system. Losers narrate first, winners in order of lowest results narrate first. So, the ultimate winner narrates last. Part of the narration is weaving in the skills and items you've used to try to accomplish your task.
We found the system doesn't really work. It's functional, but broken. We found the system works well with people who are good with improv. But still, the Player weaves a tale of how they used their skills and items and then have to come up with why they failed. In their mind's eye, they have a brilliant plan of how all the items used worked. Then after the die roll, they have to ret-con in their head what had happened. This is too much to ask. Players would tell a story about how they used each item, roll the dice, then retell the modified story. Of course, the system was designed so you're supposed to only narrate after the die roll, but it's hard to break that habit.
I found the illustrations with all the generic items and the random charts amazing, but as per my play group said, "We'd play this once a year." The other downside was I wanted a packet of NPC portraits because the enemy teams had tons of NPCs and it's a lot of work for the GM to come up with them.
Now, on to Eat the Reich. You're a bunch of vampires dropped into Nazi Occupied Paris and are tasked with hunting down Hitler and drinking his blood. Since vampires exist, so do Übermensch. As you visit scenic and fictionalized bits of Paris, you kill Nazis and various Übermensch until you reach Hitler.
The mechanics are simple. You roll a dice pool of d6s based on your stats and equipment. 1-3 = failure, 4-5 single success, 6 = double success or activate special. You may use as much equipment as you want: a knife, a flamethrower, a machine gun, a car, etc. Just like Deathmatch Island, you can narrate how you use all these items.
The GM rolls a pool of d6s which is the damage the Nazis do to you. You can chose among 5 ways to spend your successes: Advance to an Objective (a set number is needed to get out of the current scene), Eliminating a Threat (killing Nazis or hurting Übermensch), Defend Yourself (reduce damage), Feeding on Nazis (gain Blood points which are sometimes needed to activate Specials, including healing yourself), Activating Specials (super extra abilities). The difference between killing Nazis and Feeding on them is you can kill them with bullets and such, but to feed on them, you need to drink their blood (and you gain a Blood point).
Even though both systems are a roll as many dice as you want and THEN narrate what happened, Eat the Reich actually works. I think it's because there's the next step of picking your effects based on your number of successes. And the Objective, Threat, Damage, Blood points are advancement resource tracks that need to be filled before the scene ends (with teamwork), so there's a feeling of progress and accomplishment which you don't get with Deathmatch Island's roll once and done.
Eat the Reich also has great graphics and interesting locations. I really enjoyed this and would play this again (more than once a year).
Both Deathmatch Island and Eat the Reich have a limited map and locations, so after a few plays, everything would have been explored. Deathmatch Island does have 4 Casts of NPCs (different groups to fight against, thus my complaint about a lack of NPC portraits), so there's more variety; and an expansion has 9 replacement islands.
A free online convention, focusing on Call of Cthulhu and other horror themed RPGs.
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Thursday, June 12, 2025 at 4:30-8:30pm (game went +45 mins)
Up on the Rooftop (playtest) System: Call of Cthulhu GM: inquist_games (James) Players: 2-4 players, ages 18+.
Morgan Hua (Thursday Luis - middle child), Mellow - mellow_berrie (Michelle "Myst" Luis - older child), binarylife (Alex Luis - dreamer adult), Brian - BryBearian (Jessica Newton - practical adult).
Pre-generated characters will be provided Content Warnings: Children in peril, harm to livestock, gore, goring Additional Safety Tools: Pre-game discussion, X-Card Recommended experience level: Any level of experience is welcome
Celebrate Christmas in almost July!
It is December 23rd, 2018. The Luis Family, life-long Floridians, have flown to Vermont where they have rented a cozy farmhouse in the country to experience a white Christmas. All is not calm though in this winter wonderland. Strange occurrences disturb the peace, and that clopping heard on the rooftop is no reindeer.
This scenario is in the tradition of Christmas horror films such as Gremlins and Krampus. Your suburban investigators will have previously faced nothing scarier than a flat tire. PCs will have little combat skills and must use their wits to survive when the terror comes.
Before the game, the GM told us the game would take longer than 4 hrs and asked us whether we could go longer or if we wanted to narrate the ending. All the Players said they could go over time.
Good GM and great table of Players. GM was good at describing things.
The scenario is well designed with the pre-gen PCs. The PCs' backstories and relationships drive the scenario, so I wouldn't use random PCs with this. When this scenario is available at the Miskatonic Repository, I highly recommend it.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
We had a great table of Players who really played the PCs realistically. We got to pick our own family relationship and names. I picked the name Thursday because "Thursday's Child has far to go." There was the standard family conflicts.
There is one NPC with the family, Molly, the youngest child. This wound up being a good idea for this scenario as she reacts to various family members and events, creating either drama or tension.
As we approached our Xmas vacation rental, we spot a few eviscerated cows, frozen in the snow. They're only a short drive to our destination where a sheriff and a neighbor are discussing something outside, we learn that it's about her dead cows. She's a dairy farmer. Some sort of dog or wolf must have gotten to her animals, maybe post-mortem.
While exploring the non-wifi, no TV, outdated home, the dairy farmer drops by with a basket of goodies (cheeses and unpasteurized milk). We get hints that something bad had happened to the previous family. Creepy attic has Xmas ornaments and Xmas tree stand (no tree). One nice touch was the Xmas wreaths on the front door and fireplace mantle were plastic, so I was looking for a plastic Xmas tree also.
With nothing to do, we ignore the outdated boardgames, and check out the small library of books. The haunted myths and legends of the local area and book on local area history stood out. Thursday gets his dad to read out the spooky stories about the local area and we get a rundown of a fair number of creepy cryptids and hauntings.
In the morning, the family goes outside to harvest a Xmas tree. We get lost, find a weird sacrificial tree stump with eyelets for shackles and wear marks. Yeah, nothing bad at all. PCs harvest a Xmas tree and wander around for a while before getting back home.
In the evening, only Myst notices something. Molly is up out of bed and talks about a Reindeer who wants her to go outside and play. Myst sees nothing. One of the funnier lines was when Myst tells Molly that not all reindeer are nice, the other reindeer bullied Rudolph.
In the morning, a drunk aggressive neighbor bangs on the front door looking for his two missing kids who he thinks is in our house. Apparently, the sheriff wasn't at his home either. This is when we find out our rotary phone doesn't even have a dial tone. Alex fake calls 911 and tells the drunk that he contacted the police about the missing children and he should go away. Jessica talks down the drunk and convinces him that the kids aren't in our house. The parents do find out that his two red haired children had left their home without their shoes. The drunk leaves.
Alex goes outside to see if he can spot if the phone line is down. Gets lost outside, finds a good sledding hill, and winds up at a car repair shop that belongs to the drunk. Follows the road and finds our house.
Bored, Alex takes the kids sledding on the hill. Alex goes first and gets injured and pretends to be dead (dad joke). Meanwhile, two barefoot red headed kids show up and tells us if they take Molly with them, no one else will die. Thursday and Myst tell the kids to get lost. Dad finally gets up from the snow. Thursday goes down the hill and also gets injured, dislocating his shoulder. Not too bright, huh? PCs return home and Thursday gets his shoulder put back in.
At home, the kids tell the parents about the creepy kids. The parents put 2 and 2 together and take everyone out to see if we can find the missing kids. We follow their footprints until they disappear in the snow. Our footprints are gone too. We get lost and windup at the repair shop. The shop is closed.
On the way back, we see a cabin and the sheriff's patrol car. No one seems to be there. Alex gets into the porch area (some B&E through a screen door) and opens a large unplugged freezer, inside a dead body. The PCs nope out of there and return the house.
We find the car has been tampered with (earlier Jessica noticed that a pool of liquid under the car had melted the snow, but didn't mess with it). This time, either Alex or Jessica figured out it was break fluid. The break lines were cut. Alex looks for things to fix the car. Jessica wrangles the kids as they pack up their stuff to leave.
The reindeer shows up outside of the kitchen window and demands Molly. PCs refuse. Reindeer crashes through the window and attacks. At one point, Jessica tells Alex to take Molly to safety, but Alex wound up attacking the reindeer also. Myst takes Molly to the car (doesn't know there's no breaks). Thursday uses pepper shaker on the reindeer's eyes. Alex goes insane and goes outside to make an igloo (custom xmas themed insanity chart - Stay Frosty, bury yourself in snow). Jessica almost goes unconscious after being mauled (spent Luck). Thursday goes insane (You're Getting Coal in Your Stocking, Do something naughty) and starts taunting the reindeer by standing on a table, shouting obscenities (suck my d*ck), and peeing on the reindeer's face. Myst starts the car and honks the car horn. Reindeer misses Thursday. Jessica stabs the reindeer (kitchen knife). Thursday runs out of the kitchen and moons the reindeer (kiss my ass). Alex finally comes to his senses and actually takes down the reindeer. The reindeer evaporates. Alex goes insane again (Santa Baby, Act like a Toddler) and sits down in a corner and sucks on his thumb. Outside, Santa knocks on the driver's car window.
Luckily Myst isn't violent and it's Uncle Benji dressed up as Santa bringing presents as a surprise for the kids.
Uncle Benji goes to the house, finds Alex unresponsive, and fumbles on his First Aid on Jessica and Jessica dies in view of everyone.
Merry Xmas everybody!
=== SPOILER SECTION END ===
Saturday, June 14, 2025 at 7-11am (game took 3 hrs as per game description)
Recommended experience level: Any level of experience is welcome
For the past week, huge clouds has been lingering in the sky above the sea west of Nanafuse City. It is purple and does not move even when the wind blows, nor has it rained. However, it is descending little by little each day, and is currently only about 200m above sea level.
Today, a research team from the Japan Meteorological Agency is using a drone to investigate inside the rain cloud. The investigators, who have come to gawk and hang out at the beach, are called out to by an old woman who appears from behind them.
'It's dangerous here, run, now...'
Cloud Jaws is a B-movie-esque Japanese scenario written by Nanamine Kizashi, and it is exactly as ridiculous as it sounds. It is relatively short, estimated to take 2~3 hours. While it doesn't use the Pulp Cthulhu ruleset, it does use some of the Japanese-only 'Cthulhu World Tour - Cthulhu Horror Show' ruleset to make things more like a B-horror movie. It changes only a little, and we'll go over it before game time.
I really enjoy Mike's games. This was one of my top choices for a game even though it'll run shorter than 4 hrs. The funny thing is Mike overslept and he was 1/2 hr late. Meanwhile, we found out that Austen was a CoC newbie and wanted to play at least one game before he GMed CoC himself. We waited 15 mins, no GM. No way to contact Mike, we pinged the convention staff and left messages on Discord. So, I volunteered to run a game. Just after the Players picked PCs, Mike showed up. Because I was going to run a game, we were all present. Luckily, the scenario still fit in our timeslot. In the end, we took 3 hrs, finishing at 10:30am.
The scenario we played was available, but only in Japanese.
Cool thing, each PC has one red flag they can use on a NPC. When a NPC is red flagged, they will die. This is a way to save your PC if faced with death, sacrificing a NPC to save your butt.
The other cool thing is that we have an Improvised skill. It's used to both create Improvised weapons and to wield them.
This was a crazy-fun game with great illustrations and NPC portraits.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
Our backstories brings each of us individually to the beach where a gigantic purple storm cloud is approaching. Various NPCs are also there. A clipboard wielding official tells us to leave the beach. A crazy old lady tells us there's an ancient prophecy and we're in danger, comparable to the grizzled old man at the gas station who gives a warning to teenagers on a road trip; after her warning, she leaves. There are oceanographers sending drones into the cloud. Other NPCs include a Quint-knock off shark hunter, his apprentice wielding a chainsaw, and a nerdy movie buff who makes meta-comments.
The oceanographers make a surprising comment as smaller purple clouds break off, each containing a shark. The flying sharks attack. An oceanographer dies as he's bitten in half.
PCs flee to the Oceanographic Institute (clipboard official guy dies as he's red flagged to save Umibe). We meet another NPC, a knowledgeable oceanographer. PCs go upstairs to see what's going on. A marlin smashes through the glass. Enoshima flees downstairs. PCs kill it. Umibe harvests the marlin's rostrum and makes a weapon out of it. Enoshima starts up the car in the garage. Everybody hops into the car.
Enoshima drives the car slowly (she has only the default skill) to the fishing docks to see how her father's doing. During the drive, a pigmy shark chews through the roof of the car and attacks everyone inside. This was a tough fight due to the restricted space inside (penalty die for all attacks), but they finally kill it as Enoshima gets the car to the docks.
At the docks, the fishermen are safe as they have multiple radio frequency shark repellent devices that create a perimeter. They have two extra. PCs pick them up and fireworks, cans of gas, harpoons, etc. And prepare to go to the crazy old lady's house because she mentioned she knew how to stop the ancient evil. Enoshima's father decides to go after purple cloud by himself and takes off. Enoshima gets a PC to throw a repellent device into his boat and they watch him make it to the cloud but his boat gets pulled up into the cloud and destroyed, dropping him into the water.
Enoshima and Umibe grab the remaining repellent device, get in a boat (with the shark hunters) to save her father. The other PCs (with nerdy guy and oceanographer) go to the old lady's home (after Marco steals one of the repellent devices protecting the fishermen, the fisherman boss gets eaten).
On the boat ride out, Umibe realizes that if we get fuel onto the surface of the water and ignite it, the fires will dissipate the smaller clouds, and eliminate the free flying sharks as a threat. The PCs get to Enoshima's father; Umibe dives into the water and recovers his unconscious body.
Meanwhile, the other PCs get to the old lady's home. She explains to them that her family has been here for generations and one of her ancestors had banished the giant shark that's in the middle of the main purple cloud by getting fire into the its mouth as its tough hide is impervious to weapons. The old lady can pilot a helicopter which is available at the heliport at the docks. The PCs head there and attach fireworks to a harpoon gun attached to the helicopter.
Enoshima brings her father back to the docks and PCs start spraying fuel onto the surface of the water. They use fireworks to ignite the surface of the water. The fire creates purple rain and the fish fry as they fall into the water.
Meanwhile, the helicopter approaches the Kaiju shark; a sail fish comes flying through the helicopter. The PCs deal with it (nerdy guy gets red flagged and dies) and they fire the harpoon into the Kaiju's mouth. The Kaiju shark explodes, sending ginormous pieces everywhere; PCs need to dodge pieces.
The PCs save the day and take the old lady back to her home. As Quint-knock off gets out of the car and starts monologuing about how great he was, in reality he was a coward and took credit for our work, he trips and shoots himself in the head (I red flagged him).
In the sky, the PCs see an even bigger shark eclipse the sky and prepares to eat the earth. Credits roll.
