Call of Cthulhu: Mansion of Madness - RPG Review
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- čas přidán 9. 01. 2018
- Review and Game Master suggestions for the Call of Cthulhu scenario, "Mansion of Madness." It's a missing-person case packed with a colorful cast, a twisting plot, and some serious horror.
You can find it here: www.drivethrurpg.com/product/1...
You can find my own books here: amzn.to/2FpqpBa - Hry
I ran this for my group, and one of the bugs killed my son's character. He said "Thank you, this adventure was freaking me out!"
Based solely on what you said, I think both you and your son are awesome roleplayers already.
@@bbd121 Aww, thanks!
Sounds wholesome, SAN loss and death notwhitstanding
Confronted by the horrors of the Mythos he preferred death
One of my favourite things about your channel is that it allows me to relive classic adventures, I feel like I’m playing along :)
Glad you're enjoying it.
The fact that the entire back-catalog of scenarios is still playable for CoC was one of the big things that made we switch to it. It's always broken my heart how many awesome old adventures in D&D and other games were obsoleted with new editions and weren't available for years until PDFs came along.
I'm just glad I'm a Judge/Keeper/DM and not a player in CoC. I love watching these but would hate if some of this got spoiled if I were a player.
i'm a DM but yet to play CoC. I want to play these as a player but i can't resist hearing the stories even though i know it means i'm doomed to an eternity as a GM!
love the channel!
Nothing like coming home from work and getting my dose of Skorkowsky. Keep it up.
This sounds awesome. I especially loved Jack's freaking out about the bugs in the walls and his tirade about bathrooms. And burning the house at the end is pretty sop for Call of Cthulhu. Thanks for sharing.
Nice review!
I ran this adventure a couple of months back. One of the problems i had was the fact that my players ventured to Crater's mansion way too early. They learn about the orgies held by Crater and the mansion also bears close resemblance to one of the paintings in Keetling's study. This makes it in my opinion very logical to visit the mansion before going after Garsetti. The module does not cover what to do if your players go to Crater's mansion too early. I solved it by having some mobsters stand guard in front of the mansion with some big guns. In fact it was the same mobsters as those who approach the investigators later in the adventure.
Damn, I'm real happy my PCs didn't even think of doing that. Great save by using the goons as door guards.
"Two snakes facing each other... But they're one!"
If I remember right, the legendary punk club CBGB had a toilet behind the stage too! So you'd have to push past the Ramones mid-set if you wanted to go shoot heroin before Blondie hit the stage. Thats were the similarities end, I don't think there was any mobsters sending people on quests for crystals though.
Sounds like an awesome module! A game I was in had a good heebie-jeebies moment in Planescape when we were hired to track down and defeat "The Tooth Adder." We were like "Some kinda snake themed assassin? No problem!" and then we tracked it down and realized it was some kind of horrible aberration/fey/demon seemingly made of gum tissue and that his powers and attacks ADDED TEETH. All kinds of teeth. Not necessarily into your mouth.... we stood outside its wet, moist, maw-like lair and thought REAL HARD about how much we were being paid...
I gotta admit that Seth is not the only GM that is bugged when a map lacks bathrooms. I also want them to have storage closets, pantries boilers or whatever else fits the time and place. The location of the fuse box could be important
I always notice the improper placement (or lack thereof) of bathrooms on scenario maps. It's like the people who make them have never been inside real buildings before. 1920s train car berths do not have showers and toilets in each one, and D&D era houses in rural villages do not have indoor plumbing for a full bathroom in each bedroom. Or things like you mentioned, where the bathroom is located in a super odd place. Had a map where the guy made a 1950s diner that had a single bathroom in a front corner where a booth should have been, like it was tacked on as an afterthought.
Thanks for the review! I must admit, since discovering your channel I've been wanting to bust out my CoC books more than I have in years. Also, while I'm aware I'm not telling you anything you don't already know, Jack is awesome.
I ran this and made Crater unfussy about the sex of his victims, keeping the body horror and defuse the female=victim issue I have. Also it made the male players more freaked.
That's what I'm planning. Aiming more toward Alien chest burster style body horror.
Works especially if you go the route of Carter on some levels being closer to how parasitic wasps work in the real world.
"Your characters pee more than any Call of Cthulhu characters ever!" made me laugh out loud. 😁
5:00 this is actually not entirely uncommon for venues at the time. Hell, look up tales about the infamous CBGB's and trying to get through to use the bathroom. You think that's bad getting past a JAZZ band? Imagine having to fight a punk band to use the bathroom.
Oh and that men's restroom? No stall for the toilet. That bathroom is infamous to this day.
I was wondering how this review flew under my radar for so long. Then noticed the upload date and realized I got auto played into the latest video after marathoning these module reviews. Gosh diddly darn it Seth! Stop making these so marathonable!
Likewise. I just finished re-watching The Crack'd and Crook'd Manse when this one popped up.
Great Review and yep, the Part with the Insect-Babies sounds really nasty.
BTW, your Focus on Toilets would work great in an Adventure, that sadly only seems to exist in the german Version of the CoC Games - "Das Geheimnis des Schwarzwaldhofs" by Frank Heller and Stefan Franck ("The Secret of the Black Forest Farm", if I translated correctly). If it does exist in English, you may correct me.
Basically, it's a Starting Adventure in the german 1920s for new GMs and Players, where the Need to use the Toilet for one of the Players is recommended to start an Event Chain/Plottwist in the Story.
Toliet and shower are great plot areas. Had a DM Hide a Assissin in the shower so that the player had to fight a knife weilder with zero gear.
Just finished binge watching all of your review content... And here we go again! Love your videos, your really unique and your humor is simply put: Amazing! Keep it up! Greetings from the deep bavarian superland!!
Sold. That's an adventure that goes on the list.
Another fantastic review, Seth! Keep up the good work, these have been invaluable. I can’t tell you how pleased I am that you not only review the adventures in detail, but point out what could use some work.
Imagine cleaning up after nightgaunts. Talk about loss of sanity.
Call of Cthulhu is always disturbing, but this module... What the frak!
... I am totally running this.
Once again you've knocked it out of the park Seth. Always enjoy and look forward to your reviews.
Great review. Regarding the comment on Bathrooms/Water Closets, there are a lot of scenarios that forget those things, and they are perfect places to have covert meetings, hide things (Think of all the drunks who hide bottles in the cistern of toilets...) or just to have an encounter with some unspeakable horror...
I normally bring them up as a good tool to get a PC alone. There's a sense of vulnerability when sitting on a toilet and then something starts shuffling outside the bathroom door.
Reminds me of something that happened in my game. I ran Horror on the Orient Express and one of the players tried breaking into the asylum in France at night. I had Fenalik show up as he normally does if you are committed. The PC was checking out the place room by room and happened to be in the bathroom. Since then the apparition he saw is known in my group as "The Bathroom Ghost."
And of course there's "The House in the Woods" by Grenadier Minatures, the titular house is a out-of-the-way 1920s holiday house with an outhouse in the backyard, a more natural way to separate the party is hard to imagine.
I've always thought that a lot of the scenarios set in the 20s it's probably still houses that haven't been remodelled to indoor plumbing so there's an outhouse on the premises or something.
It's a strange thing about all roleplaying game maps. They'll provide a base where 50 people work, and not one bathroom in the place. Heroes don't have to hunt for the villain's evil lair. Just wait for the wind to change.
You're doing a great job of helping me make informed decisions on the CoC products I buy.
I love your videos man. I’m new to D&D and want to get into CoC, as well as being a GM for both games, so seeing some of the cogs behind the machine is really interesting and helpful. I must admit I usually have your videos playing on my phone beside me as I write out a character sheet, haha.
Good adventure review, great narrative skills. Love the NPC apparitions. Keep going on with your reviews.
Nice t-shirt. I remember when those guys were just a local snake cult.
Got to play this, although I played as a Mobster, which was hilarious on so many levels. Turns out, the mob guy is the best guy to do all the talking and having a sawn-off Tommy Gun in your trunk makes problems real easy to deal with
Funny you say that about the bathroom. I knew a bar where patrons had to walk by the stage to get to the bathroom. One comedian would sometimes stop the show and make everyone wait until they came back. If they didn't come he would send audience members after them.
I have to admit, watching this review, and the two others from the Mansions of Madness module made me buy it during Drive Thur RPG's Mythos Sale, and the quick start rules. However, I plan to try and convert it into a Dread scenario until I can get my hands on the core CoC rule book (which, being a diceless system, should have extreme difficulty). I'm also greatly anticipate your review of the final scenario in the book.
As a game master I like these reviews they give me We desire to probably get these modules and such and try them out for myself. That I like the comical second take of explaining it.
Thanks for the spoiler warning. I really appreciate it!
Also, "Pentargon"?
How armusing.
Excellent review. I'm gonna buy this one.
5:25 "I can't enjoy a party until I know where the bathroom is. You knew that when you married me." 😂
*The end of this Adventure is a player breaker .*
mobsters with guns? my pcs wold start a firefight in 3m distance with disadvantage since the Gangster have guns drawn befor handing over even a cent
My group had the same issue with Act 1, they went down some rabbit holes too. Only after multiple clues pointing to Garsetti did they finally decide to travel to Act 2.
Hm... I finally got this book and glanced through it...
I'm actually kind of curious, as a follow-up/spin-off to your Pulp game, you ever considered running a modified version of The Plantation? I mean... it's a neat adventure I think, especially with what happens at the end and all that fallout could entail.
Jack is so badass he never has to use the bathroom!
Watching all these reviews has made me interested in actually getting Call of Cthulhu.
Do eeet! Do eet nau!!
I enjoyed this review immensely.
Hello I thoroughly enjoy your work, but I do have a question for you. Is Jack an actual character, and if he is he still alive and how many sanity points remain. Keep up the good work.
I can see why this was skipped for MoM 7E, at least the first volume. It's a bit heavy, especially by modern standards. Does make me curious on how they'd update it.
*Please do character creation guides for other systems you & your groups play .*
*I really want to learn more about Conan , aliens & Advanced Dungeons & dragons 1 & 2 .*
02:50. What about some copies of some Goya paintings?
are their any good Cathulu By Gaslight modules? i made a few scenarios myself and they're pretty good but i want some published ones to mix in
Haven't read the adventure, but on seeing the map, I assume the WC is for staff only and off-limits to customers. Would that work?
Nice Conan shirt!
Love your channel the only thing i want is more more more. I don't even play.
Awesome shirt
I believe they left this one out in the newer 7e Mansions of Madness, volume 1. Anyone hear of a volume 2 yet?
Cool video, What edition is this Mansions of Madness version?
6th, I believe.
Seth, I was hoping for some guidance. My friends and I are very interested in playing CoC. I’m planing on Keeping and am looking for entry level scenarios. Suggestions?
My personal favorite into-style scenarios are: The Haunting (in the free Quickstart rules), Edge of Darkness (in the new CoC Starter box set), Dead Light, and The Darkness Beneath the Hill (in the Doors to Darkness book).
Seth Skorkowsky thank you very much!!
Loving that shirt man.
Thanks. I got it here: www.cafepress.com/mf/31827797/snakes-of-doom_tshirt?productId=792651360
When I run the adventure, I’m going to paint the paintings that are not illustrated, what are they supposed to look like?
love the shirt
Oddly enough we don’t really have muskrats or rapids in Pennsylvania.
Okay, I have to wonder if his group were the ones who made the comments about the bathrooms.
So many bathrooms, so few baths.
If I don't have handouts for paintings, I just use Zdzislaw Beksinski paintings.
The only thing that didn't make sense was the Ghoul, first encounter he helps em for no reason then the next encounter he attacks for no reason?
I love your videos ❤️
Thank you.
So, this a question I've had for awhile, what exactly is "one session" because they can go from as short as two hours, to as long a seven in my experience.
A "Standard Session" is about 5-6 hours. For our group, we spend about half the time screwing-off and telling jokes and crap, so we run about 10, but only get about 5 done.
Seth Skorkowsky Ah, gotcha. Thanks
Great review as always, although I don't know if I would want to run a scenario as disturbing as this, my imagination is maybe just a little too active! , and some of the scenes are truly horrific.
Still I guess that's the point of watching your reviews, thanks.
LMAO!!!
You get farther with a kind word, and a gun then you do with just a kind word!
Thank you.🐙⚡💥
*The powerball lottery was established in 1992 .*
How does it feel to find a Kult Scenario darker than this? X_x
Out of curiosity, how did you handle Josephine's movements in the house? I had her wait behind her bedroom door (slightly cracked) and watch the investigators, they immediately went to Andrew's "room", untied him and started immediately trying to get him out of the house, as soon as they stepped back into the upstairs hall, Josephine hit them with Drown Mind, however, only one investigator failed the check, and dropped for 90 minutes. Another investigator took a shot at her, rolling an extreme success and instantly killing her. I was going to have her flee through a gate she created, just in case someone made it through her wards. It would have lead to the woods around the Garsetti property, so she could ambush the investigators one last time, or wait them out, and go get another final sacrifice when they left.
The same pretty much happened in my game, except every player passed the POW check against Drown Mind, and proceeded to fill her with bullets.
This is why my players pack a flame thrower in their back up vehicle..
12:00
Holy shit! I can not wait to run this adventure! Still though, SO FUCKING DARK 0-0
This creeps me out just listening to the review. Glad I didn't have to play it.
I won't lie there's something about the mental image of an eldritch abomination just dropping in on the players for a friendly chat is just a little too hilarious,.
I ripped off the "Crater" bug-guy for my Hunter: The Vigil game. Called him "The Bugamist" instead.
Freaked my players the fuck out.
Why would the gangsters leave the money!
I think I'm going to alter that for my game so that the PCs have more personal incentive to go after Crater.
Also, bonus points for wearing a shirt for the Cult of Set
The idea is that Crater offered them the money to find it, so even though he sends his thugs to get it for him, he still pays them for their service (silence).
Yeah, thouse bugs man. Ew. Love your reviews :)
Those PC questions were pretty good, but if that was your best role player...
I could see the spot roll in the club being fun, especially if the PC has to keep their cool so to not give the game away, and the other PCs that didn't make the spot roll are confused about what they're freaking out about.
Also, did the PCs really go back to burn the house down? I wouldn't blame them if they did.
If I would be a CoC Character, I think my first Instinct after a few Sessions would be "Step 1: Burn everything".
Well....my best role-player asked much better questions than that. I do take a bit of license for the sake of humor :-)The PCs burned it down right as they left. Walked away in slow motion as it went up in flames.
Seth, Obviously there was artistic licence. I meant more that even the best role players ask dumb questions. :P
Look at Crater's face. Hmmmmmm.....
How most people make their characters:PC
How Seth makes his characters:PeeC
You have to walk across the stage to get to the toilet? I think CBGB had the same thing!!
Yikes dude... 0_0
But did the players win Powerball and did he get back with his ex wife?
This really tempts me to cheat on dnd.
Do it. Don't get me wrong, I love D&D as much as the next guy, but there's so many great games out there. If you limit yourself to just D&D you're missing out
Agreed. D&D will always hold a very special place in my heart, but switching to new systems really opened my eyes to a lot of possibilities of what RPGs can do and can be. For me, when we started Skill-Based games (Cyberpunk 2020 was my first) I realized just how much I preferred that mechanic over Level-Based systems.
Why is it cheating? That'd be like me saying I was cheating on Spaghetti (my favorite food) just because I eat other things too!
Rpgs should always be considered an open relationship
Hey man, looking to start a group for the ALIEN: Roleplaying Game. Are you interested? We can meetup on Roll20 and I have an email if you wish to talk more. Anyways great review!
Thumbs up for bathrooms
One of my player is a young midwife who is now pregnant herself... This adventure would be a nice way to traumatize her :D
Black 3.0 by culture hustle