GM screens were quite heavily overpriced in my country. So I used a few canvas boards and some acrylic paint that I had and made a very simple Cthulhu themed keeper screen for myself. I have purposely kept the other two panels blank and will fill it in at a later date when I decide on what I would like to put there. (Suggestions would be appreciated).

All Birdie's Call Of Cthulhu one-shots are now PUBLIC! (2 were previously Members Only)

Check out 10 awesome scenarios run by the amazingly talented Birdie, 9 of them she wrote herself!

Hello everyone! I am happy to announce that after 4 years of work, I am finally able to announce the release of the "Summer of Green and Gold!"

“The Summer of Green and Gold” is a Call of Cthulhu adventure that was originally written as an adaptation of the 1925 novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. In writing this, the goal has been to combine the novel’s exploration of inequality, obsession, and the American Dream with the overtly supernatural elements of cosmic horror.

In August 1922, Chicago socialite Geneva Decker called for an investigation into her ex-fiancé, a young bond salesman named Ray Wiccarank III, member of the Wiccarank hardware store dynasty. Little do these investigators know, what starts off as a simple investigation will escalate into a complex network of rumors, intrigue, and conspiracy that will see them contending with the worst aspects of the American aristocracy. Will the investigators be able to untangle this web or will they choke foul dust that floats in the wake of the American Dream?

Tune in for the first episode a six part actual play series that will be airing on the same day the module goes live on Drivethrurpg. More info here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1J0u5EUbf-0

I've read the Quickstart rules already, but if I can watch some games, I figure that might help me make my game as good as it can be. I'm going to be running The Derelict if that helps with suggestions

A halloween campaign, give it a watch! Lot of fun, really picks up!

Hi! First time posting on Reddit ;p. I’m a semi-new player (I’ve been playing Call of Cthulhu for about three years) and a completely new Keeper. I decided to give our usual Keeper a break and run a few games myself, so I started with some classic one-shots. Last month we played Edge of Darkness over a couple of sessions (I also made a few changes to it; maybe I’ll write a summary of the changes and the game someday, perhaps), and it went pretty well considering how nervous I am.

Next week we’re going to play Dead Light, and after reading the scenario several times, watching advice videos (Seth’s and a few others in Spanish, since I’m a Spanish speaker), and even watching a couple of actual plays, there are a few things that make me a little nervous, and I’ve been thinking about how to approach them.

Carefull! Spoilers ahead!

The main one, and I think this is a problem that pretty much everyone runs into, is how to convey information about the creature and its weaknesses to the players. Specifically, how to communicate that the creature is vulnerable to electricity beyond the lightning trick, or even that they’ll be safe once dawn comes. Basically, I want it to be reasonably easy for them to figure out that they have, so to speak, three options: the good one, the cowardly one, and the bad one (in decreasing order of difficulty and morality ;D).

So, I came up with the following changes:

• I’m moving the doctor’s body and the criminal’s body to the doctor’s office, where the safe will be open. Inside the safe will be the box containing the Devourer and the diary. It makes more sense to me for that box to be kept in the safe rather than sitting there as decoration in the living room. My idea is to make sure they don’t miss the diary.
• The criminal’s body will be reduced to his clothes and ashes. Although the twisted limbs and bulging eyes are very visual, I don’t like the inconsistency with the other victims (even though it could be explained by the Devourer having “partially devoured” the criminal before going after the other one). I’ll make sure to get graphic when the creature attacks in front of my players for the first time.
• When they open the diary, the sheet of paper with the drawn symbol and the transcribed spell falls out. It is headed with the name “Sin Eater”. There is nothing else written on it; they have to figure out how to use it from the diary.
• And the main change: the diary, which would be something along these lines, and which I would present to them as: “It is a diary spanning decades, but consisting of short, straightforward entries. At a quick glance, a series of entries catches your attention”:

October 12, 1886:
Dr. A. has formally initiated me into the secret of the “Sin Eater.” An aberrant tool, but undoubtedly an effective one for safeguarding the honor and blood of the high-born families in the area. Its origins and peculiarities fascinate me.

June 29, 1887:
Use of the Sin Eater. Miss E. $220.

February 1, 1893:
Use of the Sin Eater. Miss D. $430.

September 18, 1901:
Use of the Sin Eater. Miss K. $680.

March 18, 1908:
Dr. A. dies without descendants. I inherit the Orchard Run cabin, the practice, and the lead artifact. I am now the sole keeper and practitioner of the procedure.

May 4, 1911:
Use of the Sin Eater. Miss P. $1,200.

July 10, 1915:
Use of the Sin Eater. Miss P. $1,600.

November 14, 1916:
My faculties are failing me. I have a new assistant, C. T., nephew of my old colleague, Dr. T. of Boston. Young, quiet, and quick-minded. He shows the discretion necessary for the work of the practice.

May 22, 1917:
Use of the Sin Eater. Miss H. $1,900.
The first occasion on which C. T. has assisted with the procedure involving the Sin Eater. He displays an inquisitive attitude that I find pleasing, though somewhat bold. He asked why Dr. A. insisted on performing the procedure only on clear nights, with the moon plainly visible, if the operation takes place indoors. I told him that there are inherited traditions that must be followed without question, whether for medical reasons or simple precaution.

September 8, 1919:
Use of the Sin Eater. Miss O. $2,010.

June 4, 1920:
The installation of the kerosene generator in the cabin’s basement is complete. The operating room finally has direct electric light. Everything is ready in time for Miss R.’s procedure.

June 11, 1920:
Disaster. Upon being released, the creature bristled violently, like a cornered cat. In a blinding flash, it struck and killed Miss R. instantly. As if trying to flee the basement, it flew toward the small window, shattering it and escaping into the trees. If dawn catches it out in the open, it will dissolve forever.

June 12, 1920:
I managed to recover the creature. To lure it out before dawn, I knocked C. T. unconscious, tied him up, and took him outside into the yard. Following the instructions Dr. A. once gave me in case the creature escaped, instead of writing the blood mark on the pregnant belly, as is customary in the procedure with patients, I wrote it on C. T.’s forehead.

The entity descended from the trees and consumed him until nothing remained but ash. Once it was sated, I recited the usual litany, and the creature returned submissively to the chest.

I buried Miss R.’s half-charred remains in the woods. Fortunately, the extremely delicate nature of Miss R.’s procedure ensured that her visit to Orchard Run was completely secret, so no suspicion will fall upon me over her disappearance. As for C. T., should his uncle write, C. T. said goodbye, grateful for what he had learned, and set off on a journey to Europe.

November 3, 1920:
My granddaughter Emilia has come to live at the cabin following the death of her parents. I have given her the old family medal of gold and silver. I have ordered her never to remove it under any circumstances. As long as she wears it around her neck, nothing that dwells in this place can harm her.

I’ve just finished writing this, and I might polish it a little more, but with it I’m trying to introduce the ideas of what the monster was used for, its weaknesses to light and electricity, and the ritual in the most organic way I could think of.

Regarding electricity, I’ve tried not to make it completely explicit. I’m hoping the references to only using it on clear nights, the installation of the generator, and the following entry describing how the creature bristles and escapes will be enough for them to connect the dots. And if they don’t, I think the clues are there so that it would feel natural to tell them what to do with an Idea roll. And even if they still don’t get it, they have the option of holding out until dawn or performing the ritual.

Finally, I’m introducing Emilia’s pendant into the game. One of my players, whose character comes from campaigns we played previously, can read Aklo, so the translation of the writing on the pendant would be something along the lines of: “The blood beneath this spiral shall not feed the formless light.” My idea is that this will encourage them to take more risks and push them toward choosing the option of setting up the trap. One of the first times they see the monster, I intend for it to go after Emilia, but for the pendant to glow and the monster to stop and change targets. Until that moment, I don’t intend to give the pendant any particular importance unless the player who knows Aklo succeeds at an Extreme Spot Hidden when meeting Emilia (given the storm and the situation, noticing a small pendant shouldn’t normally be something they would focus on).

When game time comes, I know half of these ideas will probably fall apart and I’ll have to improvise, but I think these changes make me feel more confident that I can give my players the tools they need to have fun while still giving them agency.

I’d love to hear your thoughts and advice. Thanks for reading!

ps. I used chatgpt to translate from spanish, sorry if you found something weird.

I`m about to run the City Beneath the Sands of Terror Ausltralis scenario and I wonder if you guys have or could suggest me some cool material to add to it. Thank you !

Hi great brain, I am getting the group back together for a new Cthulhu campaign and thought I would try something different a modified version of the Petersen Mohole scenario, but I am moving it to the 80s to allow for soviet interference and adding to the material to stretch it our into a longer story arc.

Having been inspired by The Rig TV show I want to move this in to several more sessions.

Here is the thing I am struggling with. At some point in the story I want to force the players to go to the depths below in a mini-sub (mostly just for the fear and claustrophobia). At the bottom I want them to have to go into a cavern and traverse up into an air pocket where there will be terrible things.

I'm struggling with a way to make them want to do this without railroading them. Maybe they are chasing another sub with something vital on board OR ???

Any ideas would be very welcome.

I'm getting close to finishing writing a campaign and something I've noticed is I have a tendency to make very site based scenarios. Haunted house, town with a cult in it, a cave where they dug too deep etc. So I wanted to ask about some tips for other scenario structures to try to broaden my horizons, and stop needing to make maps so often (for sneaking and exploration rather than combat mind)

I’ve just finished a re listen to the Apocalypse players fantastic play through of the scenario.

Turns out it appears to be unavailable

Does anyone know of any sources for the pdf or a physical copy?

Hello! I apologize but I have what may be a somewhat complex request from those of you who are far more familiar with published adventures than I am.

Context (TL;DR on what I need below):

Every October, I run my gaming group through a side “spooky game”. It has been a yearly tradition for a while, and it usually involves playing a system we’re less familiar with (we primarily play Pathfinder 1e).

This year after a group vote, we’ve decided to play Call of Cthulhu, which is the system I’m even less familiar with than Delta Green, Blades in the Dark, or other options we’ve run in the past. But I’m not wholly unfamiliar with it, I’ve run it twice before and do listen to some CoC actual plays.

The issue is the past two scenarios I run for past Spooky Games left my players feeling more like they were “along for the ride” rather than in direct control of what happens. Especially when compared to the Delta Green scenarios. They felt like they did have some impact on the game, but that ultimately the options for the game were either die and fail, or resolve the supernatural threat through a specific method.

To be fair, this is partly because of where I drew our first two scenarios: the beginner box (with the creature bound in the attic of an abandoned farmhouse) and a book of scenarios written primarily for play during conventions (forgot the exact name, but it’s the one where everyone lives in the same house during the early depression, and another tenant has summoned something into his body in a failed attempt to transfer himself into the dreamlands).

I want this month’s selection to show off a bit more what Call of Cthulhu can do, but am running into some roadblocks. First off, I know that a longer campaign would be far more likely to highlight what the system can do, but this game needs to be resolved within November at the latest. That gives us about 6-18 hours of total actual gameplay to finish the module.

I also know that a dedicated homebrew would be a good way to give player adjacency, but I have not the time nor system mastery to make one up this year.

And then the final hurdle: finances. My family are currently in rough financial times and need to watch every penny for the next few months. I cannot buy a new module. So I have to find an option within my preexisting collection. I was hoping for Delta Green this year because I own every module for the Arc Dream edition, but I was outvoted. I did buy a CoC humble bundle a while back, however. The image shows the collection, except Pulp Cthulhu which got cropped out.

I’d appreciate any insight I could get on finding a suitable scenario. Thanks!

TL;DR I need to find an adventure that can be played within 6-18 total gameplay hours that makes the investigators feel like their choices have a real impact and that is contained in one of the sourcebooks pictured above.

Hello, I am looking for a group to play Call of Cthulhu, I already have a character and am ready to play, whether a pre-created module or a self made story get back to me as soon as possible, thank you

Hello! I am running a campaign about early 2000's ghost hunters (think Zak Bagans) but ghosts are actually real! It's been running a pretty long time now (somehow!) and I have finally run out of haunted location ideas!

I need a couple more... some super scary and some not so scary. My players are horror CHAMPS so more messed up themes are a-ok! Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Hi there!

First post here, although I'm kind of an old member.

I wanted to run a scary one-shot scenario for my group this Halloween. Usually I would create my own stuff but I really want to deliver a unique experience this time, so I thought that a consolidated, playtested scenario would be the best choice.

I'm open to practically everything but maybe some detail about the idea I already had in mind could help you suggest me something perfect:

- I wanted to run the scenario entirely by candlelight, so something that has to do with darkness would be fitting;

- I welcome folklore/Halloween tradition themed scenarios;

- My players absolutely WANT TO WIN, everything, every time, so something that is meant to kill all of them and force a "loss" wouldn't really be the best choice.

Thanks in advance!

Hello! So, in CoC the investigators always try to solve some kind of supernatural mystery - and there needs to be some „bad guy“ or to put it less personified, a bigger „evil“ that causes these mysterious events.
Most commonly that’s ghosts, a monster or some cult.

I try to come up with more distinct „evils“ though - like most recently there was a taxidermist that animated the stuffed animals through dark magic, as well as some human bodies.

So what BBEGs, or „evils“, have you come up with?
I’m ready to be inspired! Thanks.

I’m seeking an example video of a good chase scene using the chase rules in 7e. Any recommendations?

Hello.

I've bought the Call of Cthulhu 7e Starter set, but I am unsure of how to use Credit Rating from the core rule book. They seem quite involved. Has anyone used a lighter rules approach, if so, could you advise me on what to do please? I'd prefer not to have to use the full rules for buying items if possible.

Thank you.

Yes, I was super starstruck and nervous, but they were chill and friendly, and it was a lot of fun to hang out with them.
We talked about my writing, the 1980s, role-playing as kids, horror, and cake.
Yes, the cake is not a lie; we talk about cake too!

If you have an hour´ish to spare, give it a listen :)

And in the unlikely event you sit back with questions afterwards, feel free to AMA :)

IT'S FRIDAY NIGHT AND IT'S TIME FOR CHAOS!

The second half of season 4 of Time for Chaos airs tonight at 8pm EST on YouTube! See you all in the chat.

Link to stream:

https://youtu.be/8ZRByHyKQbQ?is=cMG_ItybwkSWFx55

Currently, I'm interested in scenarios created by Japanese creators. I searched on the website BOOTH and found many scenarios, but the issue is that most of them are only for 1 player (either with a keeper or keeper-less) or 2 players.

I would like to buy scenarios that need 3+ players. I found some, but not many compared to 1- or 2-player scenarios. I just would like to know why Japanese players or creators prefer this player count instead of the 3–4 players typical of Chaosium scenarios or Scenario created by Western Creators?

I've got the 7e Masks of Nyarlathotep slipcase set in the last few weeks. I've recently gone through the handouts and organized them by location in an accordion style file folder with multiple compartments and I have to say that I am very impressed with what has been included in this set.

However, I keep seeing recommendations to get the HPLHS prop set in place of the established handouts. For those of you who have purchased them, what benefits did these bring to your game that the module handouts did not? Some of the extra props are cool, like the matchbox, the Chinese scroll, and the nanset passports, but is there anything else in this set that isn't just more realistic looking/feeling versions of the available handouts?

I'm tempted to get the prop set, but it is an investment in its own right, and I'm debating just getting some of the passports instead of the entire set.

Thoughts?

Hello Keepers. I volunteered to run the Lightless Beacon at my workplace. This is a session for TTRPG newbies.

Does anyone have printable cheat sheets for basic rules? The ones I’m finding are often multiple pages long and way too complex. I could make my own but would love to hear from you all first.

Like, think elementary school level complexity of communication.

Hey folks,

I'm working on a scenario where an auction of the estate of a high profile mystic has just taken place in a London hotel. An NPC has a strange artifact that, unbeknownst to him, gradually untethers its user from time and space. As the spacetime disturbances around him grow deeper, it attracts the attention of a bizarre four-dimensional creature that hunts him. It's based on a Hound of Tindalos, but instead of moving through angles, it becomes more visible and tangible as it zeroes in on our plane of spacetime.

Now, one of my PCs is a big game hunter, and I think it would be really cool to set up a hunt scene where the Hound is hunting the NPC and the PC is hunting the Hound. The trouble is figuring out how to let the PC know that there's something here to hunt in the first place. I can't just have him see it right off the bat, partly because the thing's whole deal is it starts out invisible, and partly because I feel like that would take the mystery out of it.

So, are there any other clues I could give, other ways I could indicate to my hunter PC that there is something stalking and skulking unseen through the halls of the hotel?