The Call of Cthulhu Starter Set (CoC 7e, 2022, 154 pages) consists of dice, rules (24 pages), a solo adventure (56 pages), 3 adventures (80 pages), handouts for the adventures (17 pages), and 5 pre-gen PCs.
There are two editions: 2018 and 2022. The only difference between the 2018 and 2022 editions is new art and the inclusion of fixed typos and errata. You can tell the difference between the editions based on the cover art.
The Adventures:
Alone Against the Flames: 1 Player, no GM (solo, chose your own adventure).
Paper Chase: 1-2 Players, 1 GM.
Edge of Darkness: 2-5 Players, 1 GM.
Dead Man Stomp: 2-5 Players, 1 GM.
Most of my sessions are 3 hours long. Different groups take different times, but my run times are here for comparison purposes.
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Alone Against the Flames
Time Period: 1920s
Location: Emberhead, somewhere in New England's Lovecraft Country.
Pages: 56
Run Time: 1 session
Pre-Gens: PC generated during play. No GM.
Hook: You're on a bus trip to Arkham for a new job.
This solo adventure is a good introduction. It's a choose your own adventure game walking you through various die rolls and is a good tutorial for the system. This doesn't use the pre-gens and was written as an early tutorial, including character generation during the adventure walk through, otherwise they should have used the pre-gens.
I played this when it first came out and the free PDF (50 pages) is available here: Alone Against the Flames.
If you use the free PDF, you should get the CoC Quick Start Rules which includes the scenario The Haunting here (50 pages): CoC QuickStart and The Haunting.
This solo adventure is quite entertaining, worth trying a few times to see the different endings.
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My first run through, I played cautiously like a veteran CoC Player and survived, finding a bicycle I fled the crazy little town.
My second run through, I decided to do some more dangerous things and wound up burning at the stake in the town square. Yep. That's what happens when you do stupid things. But it was more exciting.
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Paper Chase
Time Period: 1922
Location: Arnoldsburg, Michigan (can actually be set in any town).
Pages: 12
Run Time: 1 session
Pre-Gens: Choose from 5 pre-gens; 1-2 PCs and 1 GM.
Hook: Someone broke into Uncle Kimball's home and stole some books. Uncle Kimball disappeared over a year ago. Recover the books and if possible find Uncle Kimball.
Originally published in the CoC 3e core book, originally 3 pages long.
A fairly simple scenario.
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The Plot: Uncle Kimball has turned into a Ghoul and just wants reading material. There's nothing much to do when you live in the cemetery.
The Bad Guys: A Ghoul. Technically nobody unless you count the PCs if they're trigger happy.
One of the most benign scenarios. A scenario about PC choices. Do they kill Uncle Kimball, leave him alone, what do they tell Kimball's nephew?
If you want to add more to the family drama, you can make Uncle Kimball a relative of the PC and have them inherit the house. Then you don't need Thomas Kimball to contact the PC.
Someone also mentioned that investigating the stolen books doesn't really involve looking for Uncle Kimball and the scenario lacks various clues and the PCs have to make a leap of intuition to go to the cemetery. I did see one clue trail in the uncle's journal. But when I played this, the GM added extra clues that made it easier: A few of the missing books were Uncle Kimball's favorite books. If the grounds around the house is searched, multiple tracks in the dirt of cloven hoof prints running back and forth from the house to the cemetery. Clearly, something has made this trip repeatedly. This would get the PCs to the cemetery earlier. And if one of the PCs is the nephew, then there's more of a vested interest in finding Uncle Kimbal, and recognizing Uncle Kimball would be immediate and more impactful.
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Edge of Darkness
Time Period: 1923
Location: Arkham, MA.
Pages: 32
Run Time: 1 session
Pre-Gens: Choose from 5 pre-gens; 2-5 PCs and 1 GM.
Hook: Merriweather summons friends to his deathbed and has a last request. Banish an entity he and his friends had summoned at an old farmhouse.
Map of an abandoned farmhouse is provided.
Originally published in CoC 5e core book, originally 8 pages long.
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The Plot: Search the house, find the ritual needed to banish the creature, perform the ritual.
The Bad Guys: The Lurker in the Attic and Zombies.
Depending on how much research is done, it may take more than 1 session. In the game I played in, we went straight to the house and it took only one session.
The best part of this scenario is the long drawn out ritual that is needed. The entity will try to scare and attack the PCs as they try to complete the ritual. As a GM, I'd try everything possible to distract and harm the PCs with full on exorcist mode. It should be scary and dangerous.
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Dead Man Stomp
Time Period: 1925
Location: Harlem, NY.
Pages: 26
Run Time: 1 session
Pre-Gens: Choose from 5 pre-gens; 2-5 PCs and 1 GM.
Hook: PCs are in a jazz club and all hell breaks loose.
Map of a jazz club is provided.
Originally published in CoC 5e core book, originally 9 pages long.
One of my favorite scenarios.
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The Plot: Leroy Turner has a magic trumpet that can raise the dead (as zombies). Chase down Leroy before he accidentally raises a cemetery full of corpses.
The Bad Guys: Mobsters and Zombies.
Maps of an auto garage and Trinity Cemetery are also provided.
There are a couple of great scenes in this scenario:
1. The opening scene where a gangster shoots someone in the head. For the best effect, you should have a PC at the same table, so you get the blood splatter. Then the body gets up! When I ran this, all the PCs were at the same table with Pete Manusco. Instead of making him a stranger, I had the PCs meet up with him for some business.
2. The funeral procession. What's better than a dead body rising from his own coffin during a funeral procession? PCs pulling out guns and shooting wildly.
3. The Old Garage. Gangsters have kidnapped Leroy and are questioning him. Do the PCs just listen in? Do they rush in? In my game, the PCs listened in until there was gun fire.
4. The cemetery. I would love to have Leroy raise all the dead as per Michael Jackson's Thriller, but so far, they've always stopped him before that happens.
I don't know if they had extensive funeral processions in NYC. I had relocated the scenario to New Orleans because of a subliminal memory from James Bond's Live and Let Die.
I was working on my own version of The Walking Dead RPG and of course, Free League announces their own game, The Walking Dead Universe, to be released in 2023.
My idea is different. It's more of an extension of indie RPGs where failure and drama is rewarded vs success. Robin Law's Hillfolk is about inter-character conflict. Delta Green gives you an experience check if you fail a die roll. Dungeon World gives you an XP for rolling 6 or less (failure with trouble).
I've pushed it to the limit. I decided that I'm going to make a game based on failure. Why? Because I binge watched The Walking Dead and noticed that Rick is a horrible leader. He makes bad decisions that get people killed, yet he survives and other people who make terrible decisions also live because they're fan favorites.
I wanted to make a rules lite game and I know there's no way I can get the IP (intellectual property) for The Walking Dead, so I can only build a generic zombie game with sly references to The Walking Dead.
So, the game is about people messing up. The more drama you create, the longer you survive. Zombies are more of a wild card that can get you killed. What's more boring than a group of survivors who know what they're doing and where nothing goes wrong?
The game is also couched as a TV series to explain why everything is so messed up.
Anyway, I wanted to beat Free League to the punch.
Full Disclosure: It's a work in progress and not playtested.
It's free to use or modify for non-commercial purposes as long as you keep my copyright notice intact. If you want to redistribute, please keep the copyright intact and/or point people to this blog post instead, so at least I'll know how many people are interested in it.
I got into four games via the signup lottery. Before the convention started, got offered two via waitlist and only took one of them. Then during the convention, a seat opened up for the Alien game, so I signed up for that. I played a total of 6 games. Two games were excellent, two good, two ok. All the Players at my tables were good to great.
Overall, an excellent convention.
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11/4 Fri 1-4pm (ran over by 1/2 hr to 4:30pm)
The Friend, the Fiend and the Shadow of the Night
System: Vaesen
GM: Bitburg_Chef (David)
Players: Morgan Hua (as Titus Gregorian the Academic), daveasaurus (Mattias as Hunter), greywolf5465 (Stefan Ekberg as PI), dwc (Darrin as Fader Sven Halström the Priest), CarlyD (Charles the Servant)
Late October 1865 - Several deaths have been reported in the streets of Upsala. The victims were found in alleyways or abandoned buildings on the edge of town; young women that are pale as a silver birch, yet with a wide smile on their face. The migrant worker district to the east of the city seems to be hit the hardest. The mood starts to shift, the workers call for aid but the police are at their wits end. If these murders continue a potential riot could harm all of Upsala, that is heavily relying on these migrant workers. Is the society able to figure out the cause of all the trouble?
A Investigatory who-done-it Vaesen scenario.
Content Warnings: Body Horror / Violence / Blood / Gore / Trauma
Additional Safety Tools: Pre-game discussion, X-Card, Lines and Veils
For 4-5 players, ages 18 and older. This game is beginner friendly.
Pre-generated characters will be provided.
I've played Vaesen twice before and have been lukewarm about the game. I think the system is ok, not great, so execution of the game by the GM makes or breaks the game for me.
We had a great table of Players and a really good game authored by the GM. Highly recommended.
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This game wound up to be almost a monster mash. A day before Halloween, we get a Vampyre, a Werewolf, and Witches. We were only missing a Golem (Frankenstein). People are being murdered, but who or what is doing this?
Following several leads and clues, we figure out one of the perpetrators works at a bakery. We sneak in at night and get into a pitch battle with the Vampyre (proving our suspicions) and wake the baker that was a Strigoi, whose spirit returned to his body. When asleep, the Vampyre detaches from him and attacks victims without his knowledge. We trick the baker into showing us his baking technique and after a struggle, lock him in the oven and burn him alive.
We did find out who the Werewolf and who the Witches were, but rooting them out were for another game. The Werewolf was the one who sent us the initial letter to investigate the deaths because the Vampyre's predations were putting too much heat on it. The Witches were transforming garbage into bread and selling it, but the Vampyre's spells were draining their spells' potency and their bread reverted to garbage too quickly.
The only minor nit is that there wasn't a direct clue trail to the Vampyre. We investigated all the leads we had and we had to make an intuitive leap at the end. At one point, when we visited a Russian Orthodox church asking about immigrants, they should have told us one of the new immigrants was working at the bakery. Instead, it was a deliberate dead end. That NPC never went there. We had to guess that the NPC was working at the bakery.
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11/5 Sat 8am-Noon
Saturnine Chalice
System: Call of Cthulhu
GM: Bitburg_Chef (David)
Players: Morgan Hua (Osbaldo ‘The Peacemaker’ Hounsell - Assassin),
Something went wrong at the heist; In and out in 15 minutes the Boss said. Easy pickings and no resistance from the other Family… Well F!!! Not only was "Greasy Thumb" Guzik and his men home, but they waited for you to get to the safe… You were set up. Rocco, Shaun and Arrigo are dead; you got a hefty beating and a couple of scars. You managed to hold on a couple bags but someone ratted you out - or - one of you is working for Guzik. Whatever; New York is too hot now, not only are the man from "Greasy Thumb" after you but also the cops who got alerted during the fiasco. Best to drive up north towards Canada and lay low with what you got... and maybe you can figure out who the rat was...
Additional Safety Tools: Pre-game discussion, X-Card, Lines and Veils
For 3-5 players, ages 18 and older. This game is beginner friendly.
Pre-generated characters will be provided.
A good game, but I felt this GM who ran the Vaesen game, ran the Vaesen game better.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
The PCs' car breaks down outside of a mansion. We're all gangsters on the run from the law. Interestingly enough, we never went down the route of figuring out who the rat was. And we were basically pretty nice for gangsters inside a stranger's house. I expected more gangster shenanigans.
As things got increasingly strange, we finally figure out there's four statues made of lead at the cardinal points. We're stuck inside the house and various servants and people die repeatedly in horrible ways. At one point, my PC, an assassin, goes downstairs into a dining room and after witnessing a death of an NPC upstairs, sees her downstairs surrounded by the other PCs and multiple duplicates of another NPC. He just shoots her in the forehead, the first PC caused death after more than 3 hours of game. The other PCs become totally shocked. Then the duplicates disappear and the scene changes and reshapes itself. At this point, we realize we have to do desperate things to escape this trap. One PC finally asked if we should destroy the statues. We knew they were part of a ritual circle that was probably keeping something out or maintaining the magic inside. Without any other viable options, we said, "Yes. Do it." After destroying one and the sigil on it, then another, the house starts to age, changing to what we expected the house to be. We destroyed all the statues and then we found ourselves freed. An entity captured in the house also escaped. Afterwards, the GM told us the entity was trapped and it was manipulating us to free it.
I think this game has no solution other than to let the creature escape. I guess the other option was to stay in Hell House forever like the other NPCs. So, the game is more about exploring the house, suffering through the horrors, and finally escaping and letting the creature free. There was a mystical book in the house we learned about, but none of the gangsters read it.
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11/5 Sat 1-5pm
The Perfumed Jungle
System: Call of Cthulhu
GM: Anthony Lee-Dudley
Players: Morgan Hua (William 'Bill' Anderson - CIA Case Officer),
molgars (Ryan Reese - CIA Junior Field Agent),
Modoc31 (Quan Bao Tran - Vietnamese Ranger),
Grant Dowell (Gabriela Rojaz - CIA Pilot),
mikc (Staff Sergeant Isaiah 'Prophet' Lane).
April 1972
The Xuan Chi valley - A largely unexplored area of the Vietnam Highlands.
As the active military phase of the US police action in Vietnam winds down, a team of CIA operatives are allocated a mission to locate and retrieve a highly prized asset, a US government biochemist, from deep inside the Vietnamese highlands.
Content Warnings: Body Horror and Conflict Situations
Additional Safety Tools: Pre-game discussion
For 3-5 players, ages 18 and older. This game is beginner friendly.
Pre-generated characters will be provided.
We had an interesting set of PCs. It was a good game for what it was. I did feel it was a bit railroady. This game lacks a great deal of realism for what I was looking for in a Vietnam wartime scenario.
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I felt there were a lot of unrealistic logistic setups to force us into various situations. I think it could have been done a lot better with a more subtle hand. We helicoptered in to a forward base and then were given a beat up helicopter that could reach our destination, but not return without refueling at our destination. Of course at our destination, the base has been overrun and our asset is gone and there's not enough fuel to get us to the second location where our asset has fled to nor back home. Our helicopter radio doesn't work and the base's radio mast is destroyed. At the base, we run into a zombie that can be only taken out with a head shot. We go north towards the second location as far as we can and land. The clearing is near a deserted village. We find a zombie feeding on a pig. We clear the village, booby trap our helicopter and start walking. At the edge of the village we found a ritual cave complex, a member our missing asset's team, pod people plants, and a Dark Young. We take out the Dark Young and blowup the cave, but lose a PC. At this point, most of us were ready to walk back through the jungle to South Vietnam. Indications were that the second location was probably overrun with zombies, Dark Young, and our missing asset. But the GM tells us an abandoned helicopter at the second location could get us home. As a group, we decided to continue on (because it was a one-shot, not because it was the smart thing to do.) At the second location, my PC looks over a ridge of a crater and spots hundreds of cultists and Shub-Niggurath and goes catatonic. Another PC, our pilot, collapses, so the two remaining PCs decide to drag us to the helicopter they can see on the ridge and try to fly it out. PC with 20% piloting fails, pushes the roll, and fails again. The copter falls into the crater and we die. TPK.
What's the chances of a random clearing that we pick has the ritual cave our asset used?
GM only offered the idea that the 2nd location had an intact helicopter when we were ready to abandon the mission. Earlier we had found transcripts that seem to indicate the 2nd location's copter had gone down. We basically as a group said, "F*ck it. It's the end of the scenario, might as well try it."
A lot of the logistics didn't make sense. The only time you'd send helicopters or planes on a potential one way mission is if it was a suicide mission, not to recover an asset.
The game felt like a low budget version of Apocalypse Now.
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11/5 Sat 5:30-9:30pm
City of Angels, Secrets, and Garlic
System: Jiangshi
GM: P. Trolius
Players: Morgan Hua (Sing-Ha - the new world - 3rd gen, son),
Jiangshi is a story game about a Chinese family making their living by running a restaurant in one of North America's Chinatowns, circa 1920s, and possibly having to deal with supernatural entities - such as Jiangshi - at night. The scenario "City of Angels, Secrets, and Garlic" is set in one of the 200 buildings of Los Angeles's old Chinatown. For this scenario we'll play members of a Chinese-American immigrant family running a restaurant. I know you'll do this respectfully and we'll talk about it before the game starts!
Tone: Dramedy, some dark tones with room for silly moments. Horror is mild.
Safety Tools: Pre-game discussion, Open-door policy, Lines & Veils, informal X-card (as in, not tech-supported in the tech I'm using in this scenario but otherwise entirely in play!)
Content Warnings: Racism (may be minimal depending on player choices and sliders we agree to at the beginning of the game; in all cases some content is veiled), oppression, potential for (supernatural-oriented) violence, missing people
Additional Safety Tools: Pre-game discussion, Lines and Veils
For 2-4 players, ages 18 and older. This game is beginner friendly.
Pre-generated characters will be provided.
I heard about this game and really wanted to try it. The most bizarre thing is that the authors made a lot of effort to use the Cantonese naming convention for PC names as most immigrants at that time came from Canton and spoke that dialect, but Jiangshi is the Mandarin pronunciation for hopping vampires.
GM spent about 1/2 hour explaining the game and safety tools. I found that a bit excessive. Most indie games are pickup and play.
The game should really be multiple days with various phases of the day: Morning, Afternoon, Evening, Dead of Night. With Jiangshi appearing during the hours of darkness. During daylight, the PCs deal with their daily lives and running a Chinese restaurant. In this game we only played a single day cycle, instead of multiple days. Usually, you start with 5d8 for die rolls (with modifiers), but each following day, you lose 1d8, so it gets harder and harder to succeed. For convention play, we started with 4d8. Roll the dice and order them high to low. Each 4 (4 is a homophone for death) cancels the highest dice. Then look at the remaining highest die. The result for die rolls on 1d8: 8-7 = success, 6-5 = partial success, 4 = cancel highest die, 3-1 = failure, 0 = fumble (this almost happened when two 4s cancelled out the other two dice, but the PC used a skill to add an additional die).
The GM pacing was a bit slow for me, but I enjoyed the role playing at the table and the storytelling.
I am curious as to what type of variations you can throw at the Players to keep this game fresh. I feel this game is like Alien RPG's cinematic mode. It's great for one-shots or a short series if you have different scenarios to run, probably can't do a campaign.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
The game started with all the PCs waking up in the morning after having nightmares. Each nightmare card covers up a character ability and timeslot. To remove the card, you have to talk about your nightmare with another PC and have them comfort you, and have them succeed in a die roll.
All the nightmares pointed toward disaster.
The PCs then are dealt cards with various chores that need to be done at the restaurant. If you retained a nightmare card (simulating listlessness, worrying, etc) you have fewer hours that you can spend on chores. I'm not sure what happens if you can't do all the chores required for running the restaurant. Chores can also be swapped with another PC.
Signs and portents show up during our chores and point to Death. People are reported missing. My PC learns how to drive away Jiangshi from an ancestral recipe book.
In the end, while having a fancy dinner for the most powerful Tong in the city of LA, Jiangshi show up. There's a pitched fight for the restaurant and our PC family drives them off and gain the patronage of the Tong.
=== SPOILER SECTION END ===
11/6 Sun 7-11am (GM warned us game could run short depending on what the Players do, we finished in about 3.5 hrs)
PX Poker Night
System: Delta Green
GM: stef18885
Players: Morgan Hua (A1C Robert Cantu - light fingered),
thethirdt (SrA Jerry S. Young - hot headed),
dajebriza (SrA Alicia Geiger - mediocre),
plc5 (A1C Sheri J. Sims - whistle blower),
random-answer (AB Carlos Herrera - delinquent).
Somehow you ended up on Platte USAF base in the back end of nowhere (Nebraska). You didn’t expect this when you signed up to USAF. Now you are going about your duties and waiting to be discharged (honorably or dishonorably – you don’t really care). Just another day on the base trying to find something interesting to do. Hell at least maybe you can win some money from the commander as its poker night tonight....Oh wait – what’s that van at the security gates……………..
This is a classic Delta Green scenario and I always wanted to play this.
The PCs are all "problem" personnel on punishment detail. Because we all do our own thing, most of the PCs were split up and the GM did a masterful job keeping the narrative together. This was my favorite game of the convention.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
A van shows up and it is announced that we're supposed to keep away from it. It goes to the airplane boneyard. Of course, the troublemakers were already there illegally stripping wiring and equipment for reselling on the black market.
My PC was the last one out of there. He witnesses armed guards wearing special helmets exiting the van and sweeping the boneyard. A repetitive body shaking sound comes from the van. My PC fumbles a SAN check and flees in paranoia.
He gets called into the camp commander's office and thinks he's being investigated for the thefts, so he throws Herrera under the bus for the thefts, then finds that the commander just wanted him to know his brother was in the hospital with a drug overdose. Oops.
The personnel on the base become more and more erratic. Then Poker Night happens and gets interrupted by an NPC setting himself on fire.
Eventually, the PCs head to the van and a UFO that crashes in the boneyard. Inside the van is a device that is making the unsettling sound, we shut it off. Grey Aliens from the UFO ask for help. Three of us steal the van and flee; two PCs decide to help the Aliens.
The two PCs, Sims and Young, help free a trapped creature which escapes the UFO. The Greys fall like controlled puppets. The entrance to the UFO irises closed and Sims escapes outside, Young gets cut in half in the doorway.
The other PCs who flee get captured by Apache helicopters.
All survivors are introduced to Delta Green.
That was the end. I thought the game was excellently run with the split narratives. My only minor nit was the GM should have allowed us to do individual epilogues instead of ending the game abruptly since we still had about a 1/2 hour left in the game and we hadn't run over time.
Afterwards, the GM told us he had to tone down the SAN checks because in some previous runs, the PCs never made it to Poker Night. And to use this as a starter scenario where the survivors join Delta Green, you really do need to reduce the SAN loss.
=== SPOILER SECTION END ===
11/6 Sun 12-4pm (GM warned us it'll probably run only 3 hrs and he was correct)
Mandatory Fun
System: Alien RPG
GM: Allegedly Dave
Players: Morgan Hua (Khan - ex-pilot),
Kafkas-Banjo (Nunez - science advisor),
FatherofGeorge (Lawson - security officer),
11thguest (Stewart - IT specialist)
It’s 2187 and humanity has spread out among the stars. For most people space is hell, but not for you. You are an employee of the Weyland-Yutani corporation, and you’ve got a future!
Every year the top executives at Weyland-Yutani gather for the annual executive retreat at the luxurious Overlook Station in the New Eden Sector. This is a fantastic opportunity for anyone trying to climb the corporate ladder. Enjoy a few cocktails with your favorite co-workers as you scheme your way to the top at this once-a-year celebration of power points & middle management. Just be careful whose hands you step on.
Content Warnings: Body horror, Parasites, Corporate meetings
Additional Safety Tools: Pre-game discussion, X-Card, Lines and Veils
For 3-4 players, ages 18 and older. This game is beginner friendly.
Pre-generated characters will be provided.
I found this game ok, the GM pacing was too slow for me. The problem is that the PCs don't know each other and it's another split party, but the GM didn't navigate the split party well enough by introducing enough tension between scenes. So, scenes happened, but weren't that interesting.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
All the PCs have their own Hidden Agendas. So, we split up and do our stuff. Khan and Nunez hung out together and investigated the Pathos, a freight hauler. Lawson and Stewart investigated a top executive. There are headaches and some infections. Then the space station loses power. The PCs finally get together at the Pathos, the only remaining ship at the station. They then go out together to get the Pathos unclamped from the station. Nunez had doubts about going, but decided to go. Guess who died? The surviving PCs unclamp the ship and get away from the station.
Signups and communications was provided by tabletop.events (TTE). TTE wasn't integrated with Discord. The problem is that people who signed up on TTE have their real names displayed and the only way to communicate with them is via TTE. TTE messages sometimes got filtered into Spam email folders. And on Discord, there's no way to find the corresponding Players or GMs. There were a lot of communication problems. Also if you get a ticket to a game after the GM has sent out his notification email, you'll have to ask the GM to resend any previous notifications.
The good news was that I initially signed up for 3 games. 2 games got cancelled. I found a replacement game. It got cancelled. Then found 3 open seats and wound up playing in 4 games. Crazy huh?
So, the signup system worked really well. It also prevented you from double booking. When I tried to signup for a replacement seat, I had to cancel out of the previous game. If the GM cancelled the game, you'd get a notification and you won't have to cancel out of that game.
One solution is to give each game its own thread in Discord, so GMs and Players can communicate.
Overall, a very enjoyable convention.
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10/15 Friday 10am-3pm (4 hour time slot ran over time by 1 hr)
Ipswich, Massachusetts. December 1922. Investigators follow a cryptic letter to a Colonial-era homestead-turned-hotel which floats more than a cultural past. Amid a foul odor and rumors of hauntings and a shipwreck, they barely tread water in the sea of secrets harbored at the Hart House.
Content Warning: controlling parents, mention of ritual sacrifice and adoption, implied rape of a man, and mention of indigenous peoples using antiquated terms.
GM: Jade Griffin (Megan Kellermeyer)
Players: Morgan Hua (Ruth-Anne the Farm Girl), WishMoon (George the Quarryman), giurdy (Anneliese Chadwick), styx2749 (Hyacinth Clarke the Librarian)
This game ran long by 1 hour. GM asked if it was ok for the players to stay longer.
I found the GM pacing for this game a little too slow for me. There were also some odd GM choices. I also have some issues with the scenario design.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
The GM starts with us arriving at the Hart House and asked us how we wound up there. The pre-gens had back stories based on a previous scenario, a shared experience between all the PCs, but completely unrelated to this scenario -- which I thought was important until I realized it wasn't and unnecessary. Then the GM gives a PC a handout, a letter addressed to that PC about odd occurrences at Hart House and that he might be interested in it. GM asked if and when the PC had shared the letter with us. There were no PC-centric secrets in the letter. Um, why else would we all be at the Hart House? Really odd GM choices and questions. Why not just say we had gotten the letter and decided as a group to go to the Hart House? Done. Why all these ambiguous questions about unimportant things? Was it to give some odd illusion of free will? Was this the GM's version of various D&D PCs all randomly arriving in a tavern? The priest pulls out a letter about a quest and shows it to everyone at the table. WTF.
Once inside the inn, the GM asked us what each of us were doing. Um, send George, the only male character, to get our rooms. What else? Um, we wait with the luggage until he gets our room.
We were all really at a loss as to what the GM wanted us to do. Were we suddenly supposed to start searching the inn before we even check in? Really strange.
Two guests at the front desk demand a refund, complain about the smell, and leave the inn. George secures two rooms for us. The smelly room and another room. And if we figure out why the room smells, we get our rooms and meals for free.
GM says there are various conversations happening in the inn, do we want to listen in to other people's conversations or do something else? Um, what? Seriously? That seems impolite. I casually look at some of the paintings on the walls and decorations while waiting for our room. Others make listen rolls. George gets a critical success and the GM dumps transcripts of all the conversations into his lap.
The whole game had these odd GM choices.
What was nice was the GM had historical photos and handouts for the 1640 Hart House in Ipswich, MA.
We spent a lot of time investigating the smell which follows a Deep One plot thread and at one point spent hours searching in the attic and finding things completely unrelated to it. Some clues pointed to a Civil War saber that was donated to The Met in NYC. But most pointed to witchcraft. Only after the scenario ended did the GM tell us that there were two plot threads, the Deep One plot and the Civil War saber plot. Really bizarre.
We figured out the bad smell was coming from the laundry room water pipes which got its water from the well. The laundress' daughter (adopted) was a Deep One hybrid. The real mother, a Deep One, was trying to lure her daughter back and was residing in the well which probably connected to the sea. Both the laundress and her adopted daughter had a bad sense of smell, so didn't notice the foul smell in the laundry room, a really unlikely coincidence. One of the upstairs guests had a cold and a stuffed up nose and also didn't notice the smell in his room. There were just a lot of odd coincidences. This reminds me of a badly written murder mystery. Add lots of red herrings, no matter how far fetched, to deliberately obscure the solution.
In the end, the Deep One came out of the well to retrieve her daughter. Which mother do you side with? The biological mother or the foster mother? Our group of PCs were divided. During the fight, the Deep One escaped into the well with her daughter. After that, the foul odor vanished.
I think this scenario suffered from I got this real location and history and newspaper clippings. How do I make a game out of this? And the writer was unable to reconcile all the cool props and just left it half baked.
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10/14 Friday 3-9pm (4 hour time slot ran over time by 2 hrs)
In 1992 a son receives a letter, lost in the mail six years ago, from a father he does not remember. The letter speaks of the father's wish to reunite with his son, and share in newfound splendors the father has discovered. A few months later, the boy goes missing. Without your help, he may be forgotten from memory entirely.
Pregens provided.
CW: teenager (16+) endangerment
GM: your friend nate (Nathan Hughes)
Players: Morgan Hua (Rico Garcia - Rookie Cop), greywolf5465 (Jean Pinoit - Bad Cop), TheTim (Emma Conner - Detective), Rain of Terra (Martha Foster - Social Worker)
This game ran long by 2 hours, but it was worth it. GM asked if it was ok for the players to stay longer.
Not the most innovative of scenarios because other scenarios dealing with this Mythos deity generally go in the same direction, but I felt this scenario was very well done.
My favorite game of the convention.
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The plot is pretty straight forward, but it is how the investigation affects the PCs directly that makes this a great game.
We get to do some good investigative work and hunt down the missing kid, Franklin Dubois. We find his father might be Raymond Dubois, that he and his high school drama group caused a riot in school, that they rehearsed at the Lafayette Theater in a secret room, that they went to a place called Elysian Wells, there performed a play and opened a way to Carcosa.
Early on we run into the Yellow Sign, so as Players we all know what's going on. So, we have to pretend we don't know it's the King in Yellow. During our investigation, we find that people's memories are missing/blurred, information is missing/blurred, and surely, but slowly, we're beginning to forget also.
My PC rationalized all the effects as drug induced poisoning. Door knobs, paper, and masks all had some sort of drug transmitted by contact which caused violent rages, memory loss, and hallucinations.
The investigation was engaging and the loss of memory and information was really well done. Various locations were significantly creepy, the hidden theater room, the long drive to Elysian Wells.
In the end, it was a TPK. One PC met an Avatar of the Yellow King, the rest were torn apart by a flock of Byakhee. And the missing detectives? All erased from memory.
It's Saturday, June 14, 1980. Your crime scene team has been dispatched to Camp Shady Pines to investigate the bizarre deaths of the camp's counselors who had been preparing for the arrival of the campers next week. According to Shelly Peters, the sole survivor, the counselors were attacked and brutally hacked to death by a mysterious masked stranger. It's up to you and your team to find the truth, and fast, so the camp can open on time.
4 players, pre-gens provided
Content Warnings: Blood, gore, body horror, murder, harm to teenagers, possible PvP, possibly drowning
Note: this is an homage to slasher flicks, so be prepared to lean into the tropes!
GM: Rina (Rina Haenze)
Players: Morgan Hua (Det Walker), Andy R (Sgt LeRoy), Lorraine D (Dr Angela Jamison - ME Coroner), Lauren W (Elle Bronson - Lab Technician)
This was a fun game, definitely for slasher movie fans. I'd recommend it.
The crime and death scenes are gory and graphic as per slasher flicks, so sensitive people who can't stand explicit gore should not play this.
GM ran her own scenario which is always a treat. The scenario is slightly rough around the edges, but it has great promise. GM does voices and is definitely into acting for the camera, so depending on your taste, it may or may not be your cup of tea.
My 2nd favorite game of the convention.
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Lots to like about this game. PCs go all CSI on the crime scene and then we get killed by the supernatural serial killer. Most games, you either get replacement characters or it's Groundhog Day. In this game, the writer (our GM), came up with a great twist. We return, thinking it's a redo, but we later find out it's a few years later, so it's more like a sequel (this was a great reveal). We kept on getting killed, trying to eliminate the killer. Each time, the setting is different, slightly different at the beginning, to throw us off, then obviously different, and further into the future. This is a great conceit which I haven't seen before.
Of course, at some point, the magic runs out and we "know" we're at the finale (the final chapter) and there won't be sequel. We fail and there's yet another TPK, but a final one. It was pretty fitting.
My only issue is that some clues for taking down the killer weren't apparent enough or were obscured by what was happening. We had part of the solution, but like in most CoC games, incomplete information generally ends in failure.
If I ran this game, I'd probably be clearer on some of the clues on how to stop the creature during the final fight. There were some descriptions by the GM that made us believe the wrong thing.
Summer 1978, the Miskatonic University announces a breakthrough in computer science: the CS-448 P3, called The Weasel. You are invited to attend a presentation of this ultramodern machine and conduct a test run to ascertain its extraordinary functionality. Symbols whizz across the screen. Wait! Is this a message? By whom? The printer goes haywire and spits out a string of strange words. Does The Weasel develops a life of its own?
GM: 10sidedfear (Philip G. Orth)
Players: Morgan Hua (as Prof Stan Coleman - civil engineer), plc5 (Philip C as Bob John Mellor - accountant), JohnLapoint (John L as Jeremy McIntosh & Justin L as Ed Chapman), dnice (Denice K as Anne - computers)
The scenario has some neat stuff, but it was the extra work done by the GM that improved this game from what it was. I loved the late 70s pictures and music. Sort of a blast from the past. Yeah, I grew up in that time period.
Game pacing was a bit slow in some spots, but overall, an ok game.
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We're invited to take a look at the latest and greatest computer, The Weasel. We find it's a little spooky, able to connect to things wirelessly in 1978 and to control them. It also seems to have incredible outside knowledge. A professor has used the computer to repeat a ritual chant and it networks to other computers to do the same. The PCs uncover this and use their computer skills to run the counter ritual.
The setting is late 1970s and the GM brought wonderful pictures of university life, pop culture, clothing and hairstyle to the game, and music.
University professors and grad students to the rescue!
I found the starting pacing was a bit slow as we tried to figure out what was unique/wrong about the computer. Then the pace picked up, but the ending was a long series of Computer Use tests which got a bit repetitive.
An interesting scenario, but the extended tests were a bit long and needs to be rewritten.
Pulp Cthulhu (CoC 7e, 2020, 272 pages) contains the supplemental pulp rules and includes 4 scenarios: The Disintegrator, Waiting for the Hurricane, Pandora's Box, and Slow Boat to China.
Pulp Cthulhu is set in the 1930s because of The Shadow and other pulp heroes of that time period. The 30s also means that Prohibition is repealed (Dec 1933) and alcohol is legal again. What's a two-fisted action hero without some hard drinking?
What's different in Pulp Cthulhu?
Character Generation: Pulp Archetype with higher stat for core characteristic (1d6+13 x5), 100 bonus Skill pts, and 2 Pulp Talents; 2x HPs, some new occupations, psychic powers, and weird science.
Luck Spends: There are a lot of new ways of spending luck. The favorite: Avoiding Certain Death.
Pulp Insanity: The Bout of Madness table is more forgiving. Insane Talents, gain a new Insane Talent the first time you go insane.
1930s: Background and Setting Information. Price charts.
In purist CoC, Investigators look for clues. In Pulp Cthulhu, the clues find you! (and smack you in the face.) So, don't expect complicated clue trails.
The scenarios in my order of preference: 1. Pandora's Box 2. The Disintegrator 3. Slow Boat to China 4. Waiting for the Hurricane
All the scenarios are quite fun and I'd run them again.
Most of my sessions are 3 hours long. Different groups take different times, but my run times are here for comparison purposes.
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The Disintegrator
Time Period: 1930s
Location: near Kingsport, MA (can by any seaside town, doesn't even have to be seaside, just remote)
Pages: 23
Run Time: 1 session
Pre-Gens: None
Hook: Demonstration and auction of a new device, The Disintegrator.
Gee, I wonder what the device does?
This scenario has the floorplans for a 55 room, three story hotel.
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The Plot: Various shady NPCs bid for the device. Everybody wants the device including Mythos creatures who are willing to resort to threats and violence. The resolution is open ended and up to the PCs.
The Bad Guys: NPCs, Shoggoth Lord, and Mi-Go
Lots of opportunity for roleplaying as the PCs mingle with the large cast of NPCs.
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Waiting for the Hurricane
Time Period: 1930s (1935)
Location: Key West, FL (any seaside town affected by hurricanes)
Pages: 18
Run Time: 1 session
Pre-Gens: None
Hook: PCs are in a hotel that gets isolated by a hurricane.
This scenario has the floorplans for a 17 room, two story hotel.
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The Plot: Cultists kidnaps tourists for a ritual. The PCs will chase them via boat to an island where the ritual sacrifice will be held. Stop the ritual.
The Bad Guys: Cultists, Deep Ones, Star-Spawn of Cthulhu
Other people have said this is more action oriented than the other scenarios, so I've been leery of this one. I actually played in this and it was quite fun. Definitely low on investigation, more fights and chases.
I actually rammed the Star-Spawn with a boat, but apparently the creature hadn't read the story, Call of Cthulhu. It picked up the boat I was in and tipped it over.
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Pandora's Box Time Period: 1930s (1933-34)
Location: Any large city in the USA
Pages: 29
Run Time: 1 session
Pre-Gens: None
Hook: Pandora's Box is stolen from a nightclub, get it back.
This scenario has floorplans for a fancy nightclub.
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The Plot: Cultists have stolen the Box from a mobster's nightclub. Get it back and/or get rid of it.
The Bad Guys: Mobsters and Cops, and various Mythos creatures from the Box.
You have a choice of regular PCs or mobsters. I've played it as normal employees of the nightclub and I've run it with heavy handed mobsters as PCs sent to recover the box. Both work fine. In one game, we returned a replica of the box and sunk the original to the bottom of the sea.
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Slow Boat to China Time Period: 1930s (1931)
Location: A luxury cruise liner going from San Francisco to Shanghai, China (can be from any city to any city as long as it's a long ocean voyage)
Pages: 30
Run Time: 1 session
Pre-Gens: None
Hook: A locked room disappearance while on a cruise ship.
This scenario has floorplans of the cruise liner (8 decks) and info on meals, entertainment, and such, so you can use this as source material for other cruise liners.
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The Plot: People on board are disappearing, being sacrificed to the Pipes of Leng by The Crawling One. Find and destroy the Pipes of Leng before the boat sinks.
The Bad Guys: Tcho-Tcho, The Crawling One, Hunting Horror, Zombie, and Flying Polyp.
One fun part is to separate the PCs into various passenger classes, making them roll Credit Rating to acquire better accommodations. A Fumble would force them one class lower (sorry sir, all tickets for that class have been sold out). Some PCs use Credit Rating as a dump score, so I drop them directly into Steerage. I found it interesting, describing the differences in accommodations and food. Traversing to the upper class areas (by lower classes) are strictly prohibited and enforced. Even wanting to go to a lower class section (by upper classes) is questioned and frowned upon.
The Crawling One can swap identities, so it's a hard guessing game as to who the killer is. Most PCs give up and look for the Pipes instead.
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.
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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.
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.
Mansions of Madness - Volume 1: Behind Closed Doors (CoC 7e, 2020, 224 pages) is a collection of 5 scenarios set in the 1920s: Mister Corbitt, The Crack'd and Crook'd Manse, The Code, The House of Memphis, and The Nineteenth Hole.
The earlier 1990 version of Mansions of Madness included the following scenarios: Mr. Corbitt, The Plantation, Crack'd and Crook'd Manse, The Sanatorium, and Mansion of Madness.
Mister Corbitt and The Crack'd and Crook'd Manse are updated versions of the similarly titled scenarios published in 1990.
The connecting theme between all these scenarios are haunted houses, whether by ghosts or other entities. If you want to run a series of ghost hunter investigators, this would be the book to get. Most of the hooks are missing persons, but the action occurs in the houses the PCs enter.
I'd rank them in my order of preference: 1. Mister Corbitt 2. The Crack'd and Crook'd Manse 3. The House of Memphis 4. The Nineteenth Hole 5. The Code
Overall, all of these scenarios are enjoyable and quite solid. The newer scenarios are more complicated and harder to run.
Most of my sessions are 3 hours long. Different groups take different times, but my run times are here for comparison purposes.
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Mister Corbitt
Time Period: 1920s
Location: Boston, MA (can be moved to any city)
Pages: 30
Run Time: 1 session
Pre-Gens: None
Hook: Neighbor across the street is doing dodgy stuff.
Mr. Corbitt is not the same Corbitt from The Haunting scenario. They just coincidentally have the same last name.
The Plot: Mr. Corbitt accidentally drops the arm of a small child (amputated) while returning home at night. He uses these parts to build and feed the Child-Thing in his basement. PCs investigating his house will eventually run into the Child-Thing. The Bad Guys: The Child-Thing in the basement and Deadly plants in the Greenhouse.
I actually moved Mr. Corbitt's house to Arkham and made it part of my Miskatonic University series. The house across the street from Mr. Corbitt's is where the PCs reside, a boarding house for students run by a nice old lady. PCs rotate through the boarding house as they die due to mysterious circumstances on campus. Students must pay rent in advance because these irresponsible boarders sometimes just disappear without notice. Uncollected possessions are stored in labeled boxes in the basement.
So far, no one has followed Mr. Corbitt to the dump. PCs just observe and break into Mr. Corbitt's house when he's away. In the Greenhouse, the Purple Flower used to be a save or die poison, it has been toned down, allowing for a save throw each round. PCs have burned down the house several times. In my MU universe, the burned out hulk of Mr. Corbitt's house is a daily traumatic reminder when they leave the boarding house in the morning for classes.
One of the more disturbing things is the Scampering Woman-Thing reminiscent of A Christmas Story's leg-lamp prize, a woman's head attached to a leg.
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The Crack'd and Crook'd Manse
Time Period: 1920s (1925)
Location: Gamwell, MA (near Boston, but can be moved to any city)
Pages: 28
Run Time: 1 session
Pre-Gens: None
Hook: Investigate the disappearance of a home owner, determine if he's dead.
The Plot: Go into Mr Cornthwaite's house, discover something hungry is in the walls and is affected by salt. Try to destroy it and flee. The Bad Guys: Spawn of Shub-Niggurath oozing out of the walls.
The blob is in the basement, but it can also send tendrils between the walls and floors. Allow the PCs to find enough of the salt clues before doing a full press attack. In one run, the PCs ordered a dump truck full of salt and poured it into the basement.
The man with the axe is a great jump scare. Lots of opportunity for role playing and misunderstanding.
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The Code
Time Period: 1920s (1925)
Location: Hampton, NY (can be moved to a rural or suburban location)
Pages: 34
Run Time: 1 session
Pre-Gens: None
Hook: A friend has made an amazing scientific discovery and needs your help.
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The Plot: PCs are tricked into going to Wellington Manor. The servants are con artists trying to unlock a Time Suit with the help of the PCs. PCs can get their hands on it and unlock the suit first. The Bad Guys: Con artists posing as servants and Various things out of time: T'challix and Temporal Fractal Entity.
This is one of Jon Hook's favorites, but I'm more lukewarm on this scenario. I do like timey-wimey movies and stories, but a number of events seem very disjointed and fairly random. In my game, a PC unlocked the Time Suit and basically became a time god (or they thought they were at the end of the scenario). If the game continued past the end of the scenario, Hounds of Tindalos hunting PCs down would become a major issue.
I watched Seth Skorkowsky's YouTube video on this scenario, lots of great ideas. It requires lots of heavy lifting by the GM to make this a better scenario. Luckily Seth has done the work for you.
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The House of Memphis
Time Period: 1920s (1927)
Location: Boston, MA (can be moved to any city that can support a large entertainment industry such as Hollywood)
Pages: 40
Run Time: 2 sessions
Pre-Gens: None
Hook: Investigate the disappearance of Memphis the Great, a stage magician.
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The Plot: Memphis was murdered by his apprentice and is actually haunting his house and is looking for a body to possess. At some point, there is a battle royale between Memphis and his apprentice. PCs can aid in the banishment of Memphis. The Bad Guys: Memphis and his deadly versions of stage magician tricks.
I love the stage magician props and references to stage magic.
Room 15, the Theater Gallery. What's missing are stage magician trap doors. I'd add that to the stage platform and put in theater seating or at least a stack of foldable chairs. I'd also add mirrors on all the walls (covered by curtains), so the magician can watch himself perform while practicing.
In one run, the PCs helped Memphis possess his apprentice and they pledged their loyalty to him in exchange for money and power. This basically throws out all the SAN loss/award benefits at the end of the scenario and turned it on its head.
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The Nineteenth Hole
Time Period: 1920s (1928)
Location: Dundee, Scotland
Pages: 37
Run Time: 1 session
Pre-Gens: None
Hook: Investigate the disappearance of the owner of a golf club.
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The Plot: An etheric travel machine has trapped the inventors and the missing person in the ether, making them ghost-like. This also attracts multi-dimensional creatures. Find the machine and turn off its power without getting trapped yourself. The Bad Guys: Various etheric effects, Dimensional Shamblers, and Hounds of Tindalos.
The NPCs are fun to run. It'll be hard to relocate this scenario to a different golf course in the USA as various details are location specific. PCs went directly to the club house without doing other investigation which totally makes sense. Once they were in there, events happened, enough to make them leave and do some interviews and research before returning and exploring the club house more thoroughly.
Due to the etheric effects and various creatures this scenario could be very deadly.
Paper Chase
Edge of Darkness
Dead Man Stomp
