I ran this scenario with my friends last night. When they finally defeated the big bad evil guy, they tried to free Josh Winscott from his prison. The guy I had built up as his good friend tried to rip the bars out of the wall. I allowed him to make a strength roll, telling him that he could need a critical success to make a dent in it. The dice gods were perverse and he rolled exactly a crit success. He ripped the bars out of a stone wall like a mother rescuing her child from under a car. It was hilariously awesome. Since I was playing with a large, heavily armed group, I made them encounter ghasts multiple times in the tunnels, but the priest in our group is nuts, and his dice are somehow always giving him extreme successes. He shot one, extreme success, and rolled max damage, killing one instantly. So I kept having to send more and more ghasts after them. 5 party members went temporarily insane, 3 went indefinitely insane, and they all had to stay in hospital for months after this scenario. I also decided to run the next scenario with Danvers Mental institution with Josh Winscott as the NPC they need to rescue, so I played him up as a fun, happy-go-lucky type who is very friendly, and wants to help the PCs out. Putting him in mortal peril again will be fun.
I picked this up last week. It is absolutely gorgeous. One of the most beautifully produced splats I own in any system. Just played my first Cthulhu game yesterday and it was a blast. Can't wait to get running some games!
I just finished playing this scenario. We managed to clear the baddies out, looted his collection of scrolls, took plenty of photos, and made detailed notes. So far we haven't decided what to do with all of it, but I think we're gonna keep a lid on what we found, sharing it with only one or two experts. I've lobbied to bring it all to the university to keep under lock and key.
Just ran it (my first time as Game Keeper and second time playing). Loved it! I used your suggestions and they really helped. Thanks. I'm hooked and want for COC.
Just tried both DMing and Call of Cthulhu for the first time since our regular game is suffering an interruption. I ran this adventure, and it was basically everything I had hoped for. It felt like a genuine Lovecraftian experience. Your advice was great in several places, as I was focused on trying to remember rules and make rulings when I couldn't in order to keep the game flowing, which meant I didn't have as much mental space to devote to responding to unexpected choices by the players. Everyone seemed pretty happy as a result. Thanks for the great content. I love your channel and recommend it frequently.
I've been dying to get into this game. I love the Cthulhu mythos. Problem is, most of the people I generally play with have been pretty solidly against it because in their words, "It seems like a game where instead of working towards a good outcome, you're just working for the least awful outcome." Which...yeah, fair point. They like to definitively save the world, so I can see how a game where rather than save the world you just stave off the end for a little longer might not appeal to them. One day I'll get to run some Cthulhu stuff...one day...
Here’s the thing, if your players [in another game say] save the world with the best possible outcome….what’s the next adventure going to be? To keep challenging the same characters, there needs to be loose ends to tie up, a sense that ‘our work is never done’. You can have wins in CoC, but it’s the loose ends that keep story going. CoC endings might ‘traditionally’ be dark, but you can make yours fit the groups play style [to an extent], give them a moment of joy and celebration, then just wheel in the next threat/thread, and send them back into paranoia/despair [until the next win]. After all, there is always going to be another beast, another ancient god, another group of fanatical cultists or another dangerously obsessed wizard to deal with in the future. :D
I just started driving into the core rulebook and plan on getting doors to darkness. These are some great ideas I might implement for my game. Thank you!
Thank you! I would absolutely love it if you would review some of the other modules in this book, if you happen to have done them. I did a quick search of your videos and did not find any of the others. It looks like a great book.
So, this will sound condescending if you're from New England and that isn't my intent, in New England it's normal to live 2 states or an hour's drive away. So going home at night isn't as ridiculous as it would be in other parts of the US
"The Miskatonic Valley" while contained within the state of Rhode Island (or Massachusetts depending on the Lovecraft story) would still be within a two hour drive of Boston, Concord, New York City, and Greenwich even at the speeds of 1920s/30s vehicles as an example (cars went slower yes but none to little traffic would balance it out over as short a distance as Boston to NYC) Done rambling, sorry
hey Seth huge fan if your Cthulhu game reviews. think I've watch each of them 10 times each if not more. your take and perspective on the scenarios that you review are extremely detailed and through. not to mention extremely helpful and informative. your review on The Darkness Beneath The Hill from Doors to Darkness was enough to purchase the book immediately lol I really enjoy and appriciate how you give suggestions and recommendations on how to expand on the printed material and how to handle/adjust for whatever the scenario maybe lacking with information. great job. keep up the great work. P.S. do you plan on reviewing any other of the scenarios from Doors to Darkness? that would be great. Also any chance of a review for Beyond the Mountains of Madness? to be honest that is my unicorn.... always elusive and unattainable lol been searching for a physical copy of that for nearly 18 years. Lol have a great one
Thank you. I have four more in various stages of pre-production, not including Call of Cthulhu adventures I'm still planning to run, so you'll be getting more soon and not have to keep re-watching the same old ones. ;-)
Hey just want to say I have been learning how to play COC. And your videos are the best that I have seen so far. Very informative. Your vids also help me decide if I want to purchase a book for this series or not. Great job keep it going.
The most fun I had with a CoC game was when I approached a Keeper who had an established campaign and I said to him, "I want to play a Ninja" We actually worked it out and the only thing the other players knew was that one of them suddenly acquired a new Japanese man servant.
Going to run this soon, new keeper here. How did you deal with the idea of the players making noise (gunshots) while exploring the tunnels. Did good old S'Syaa H'Riss hear them coming?
I really enjoyed running this scenario! The open-ended enemy placement made it easy for me to just structure the encounters to be gradually more and more threatening. Starting with seeing a degenerate before it runs off, then degenerates bothering the party in unsettling ways, impressions of something much bigger in the tunnels, before finally having a ghast sneak up on the party and kidnap the war vet. No one wanted to fight those things by the time they were properly introduced!
First time Keeper here, thank you so much for your review and your other videos. I ran this adventure (first adventure I've run for CoC), for a one of our gaming groups who normally play pathfinder (included 3 friends who gm regularly and never get to play). It was a great way to introduce them to the game, and everyone had a lot of fun (they want me to run another one). I had the use the pre-mades, but I recreated the sample characters on the actual player sheet because I thought it was a lot better. I had all the pre-made attendees of the same school, and a part of he Phi Beta Kappa society so they all had a history with Josh. I sent them their history with Josh, the sheets, and what they knew about each other prior to the game so they had more motivation to go help him. As a new keeper there were a few issues I ran into, that I had to quickly resolve in game, that I thought I'd just pass a long as an FYI (this might be obvious already to others): * * * * * * * * 1. The issue I created with them already knowing Josh, and having his number (I used his stats to say he was a little dude and a bit clumsy albeit super nice, happy guy) was that already they didn't trust he wouldn't go down in the tunnel by himself. So after they went to bed they decided they should leave Father Stephen at the house to keep an eye on him. 0_0; I didn't have a plan for that, but luckily I had stated the only food he had at the house was 2 day old fried chicken and some old salad, so the players decided to go out to lunch a a fancy restaurant to chat. So then when the Father walked back to the house a couple of hours later Josh was already gone. I also saved myself by saying that Josh was a smaller guy so the hole he made was just big enough for him to squeeze through leaving the players having to make the hole bigger themselves. 2. There wasn't a lot of tracking rolls in the module and the players kept wanting to search for footprints. I added some stuff later on when I needed to start wrapping up the game to lead the players to the area's that would hurt their sanity the most/and get to Josh. In hindsight I would have made more tracks and blood places in places. And if you have scientists in the party they are going to want to study the lichen, fungus, and etc. I just said they could take a sample, but they needed to bring it to a lab. 3. I used the Degenerates, but I wish I would have used them more in the game. 4. Have a thought for what is going to happen if your priest decides he is going to save the Degenerate infants... 5. Tips: I found music for the organ: czcams.com/video/-UfwWifD3ck/video.html and having the ghasts doing knock out maneuvers is gross. Good way not to outright kill players, but put them in severe danger. I'm looking at doing the next adventure with the book by putting poor Josh in the mental hospital now haha.
I didn't know were I was going to find inspiration for my gritty, low combat, low magic horrorish GURPS fantasy game and now I do. It's in these COC adventures. Thank you!
this sounds like a prequel to the two serpent campaign how about the fourth option that Caduceus found out what was said by the pc's and invited them to join?
I just ran this and finished it last night. I had five investigators. During the climax Josh ran away into the tunnels and one player chased him. Two went through the portal. Two had to fight a Ghast and ended up at 0 HP. All at the same time. I had no idea what to do, winged the entire ending, all of my planned notes went out the window. I’m new at being a keeper so I need practice improvising when things so FUBAR.
Hey, long time admirer and a great review. Is there any chance you could put your handouts up as google docs or something for me to pilfer? No worries if not, I only ask because I know you’ve done this with cheat-sheets before. Keep makin’ the magic! I personally owe it to you that five friends and I are playing this scenario tonight in the UK!
Sandy Petersen actually made a pretty decent Cthulhu Mythos supplement for 5e. I've used it to introduce some of thos elements into D&D but never really brought it all in to make a full on Cthulhu D&D campaign. If someone wanted to, this might be a good scenario for that.
Hey Seth, love the video as always. Any chance of you ever doing a live play special for a once-off? Would love to see your style in action, even as an audio recording!
Merci pour cette vidéo. Dans la version française du livre il y a une erreur dans les prétirés des personnages sur les dégâts à mains nues, parfois l'impact n'est pas pris en compte ou erroné?
Not gonna lie, I feel like this book should have had followup ideas like you provided here. I picked up the book and it just got here today, and I'm glad I hit up this video, cause I don't think I'd have even thought about players trying to expose what they found. I don't know if I'm excited or woefully under-prepared for running my first game of this in a few weeks. lol
While it's part of the Keepers "weaponry", if they struggle to paint a "word picture" for the investigators, would you recommend creating hand-outs of the illustrations?
Thanks for this review. I found the scenario as written left out a lot of advice for new Keepers, especially the need to preprocess the material to separate story elements known or knowable by the investigators from elements that they can't easily determine. Creating additional handouts beyond the two in the handouts section is a useful idea. What do you do with the maps? It would be nice to hand them out, but they contain too much information. Do you cover up parts the investigators haven't or shouldn't see?
Really enjoyed this one. I know you tend to prefer Cthulhu, but I wonder if this could work for a fantasy game as well; the set up is classic D&D, really, the sort of thing you'd find in a Conan-style game.
It'd definitely work in a traditional fantasy game. Very easy to convert it to D&D or the like. However, in fantasy where monsters are known to exist, the punch of "There are monsters under the town" is less than in Cthulhu, which is "Holy crap, there are actual monsters AND they're also under the town."
Interestingly, Robert E. Howard (Conan) and H.P. Lovecraft (Cthulhu Mythos) were contemporaries and friends. Howard even contributed some stories to the Mythos. So I would say you are in good hands.
Yeah. I'm struggling with how to draw a hard line between normal and not-normal for gaming in fantasy. GoT does that for all magic, for the first books, but that means having a very strong cast of mundane characters, as well as limiting things like spellcasting or non-human races. Conan is another great example, I suppose. But D&D makes it hard. Maybe with a strong genre in the magic (ie: arthurian or, I dunno, Gummi Bears?) that can contrast or juxtapose with the Mythos elements, it could maybe work... but how to show they're not just another form for hobbit/elf/wizard? Were the Orcs in Tolkien "lovecraftian" in their alienness? Anyway, keep em coming! Any chance of some DCC rpg reviews? Or Conan/Fantasy reviews?
Nice review. I have this one and plan to run it for my regular game, which is located in Providence, in the Fall of 1928. As I've had players ask for a Dreamlands game, I'm going to try to introduce Josh Winscott earlier, so they'll all already know him. I like the idea of the handouts for the Winscott background too. We'll see how they handle this one. We just finished Dark Carnival and I ended that one up with a police raid on the circus. Unknown if this one might go the same way but a few of them who assisted in the raid (in an advisory position only) do have a contact with Providence Police Superintendent William O'Neill so we'll see what happens.
I think this might be the first scenario that I run for my family. I want to get into CoC with them after we move back to New England later this month. I'm planning on adding a chase scene with some degenerates and maybe one of the ghasts. The chase mechanics look like a lot of fun, to me.
I had a blast running this one for my d&d crew... as soon as they realised what was happening they backed up and tooled up from their mystery mobile.... that's what I call it anyway... Then they did some serious dungeon crawling with Mr BAR taking out 23 of the sub humans single shot and the other 3 party members doing their bit etc.... doesn't hurt that he has 81 on initiative ... Some severely tense moments and almost managed to lose the party leader which was a blast... But in the end... all badies KIAd. . They then got the poor insane chap into an institution and generously bought his house to fund same... Then import some Chinese labourers and do some reconstruction to adapt underground as one of their bases of operation... firing ranges.. stores etc.... Worked the insane guy into a later adventure as a patient in the ligor adventure... which lasted 45 minutes as the adventure mentions the amphitheatre right up front.. sigh... anyhow... good material
Depends, but I'd guesstimate between 4-6 hours. But it might swell to far longer if they get into roleplay or get fixated on one portion or another. Best of luck with the game.
You are the best at answering questions. I have become a huge fan in such a short time. I look forward to your videos, and would love to see more Cthulhu stuff. Thanks @@SSkorkowsky
Personally, while I have not run this adventure. I would let them spill the beans with the proof and have the world know about this kind of stuff. Why? I find that idea, that the mythos and the unknowable is suddenly common knowledge to be really interesting. Basically as a "you know what, humanity isn't as insignificant as Lovecraftian horror makes them out to be," kind of situation.
Can you share your pre-written extra handouts? Mat Colville does this and it is great for the community. Love the vids have only recently discovered them. Thanks a lot.
Normally if I make handouts I'll put links, but I didn't write any handouts for it. All I did was copy and print text from the module PDF out so I could hand that to my players instead of just telling then the info.
Hello Seth. Have you played the scenario called "In media res"? What do you think of it? I'm thinking in using it as a first cthulhu larp for my gaming group, any tips? Thank you.
So far, the only one I've really studied is The Darkness Beneath The Hill. None of the others have rung the warning bells of being bad on their initial scans. I just haven't looked close enough to really rate them. But if any really stand out as awesome, let me know.
Seth Skorkowsky after looking through them I recommend Ties That Bind, mostly because instead of a monster jus out wrecking havoc for no reason, this is a story about a mother looking to protect her young, and nothing more. I also like how events will happen over time regardless of whether or not the investigators are there t witness or participate In them.
I don't think there were raids in Innsmouth. There were raids in the Horror at Red Hook. But the gov. was still ignorant of anything supernatural. These places collapse due to the protagonist or antagonists. I think only the protagonists should know the truth. Makes it that more lonely. Also makes them question their sanity "Did that really happen?".
Shadow Over Innsmouth opens with him taking about the raids, people being thrown in camps, the dynamiting of buildings, and the downward torpedoing off the coast. It goes on to say how the government claimed it had to do with the war on liquor, but how he was to blame because it was him who reported it. Now, years later, and after public interest has warned, he's ready to tell his story.
Airport is several miles away but we're in one of the main flight paths so plane noise is a regular thing I have to deal with. For particularly loud ones I'll cut the recording until they pass.
So my pcs did try to become rich and famous and spread the word because they went insane and wanted to basically treat life like a game I said sure ran another campaign to make those characters immortal a d basically all the treasure hunters got caught in a game between immortals kinda like that one scp So they ended up playing treasure hunters that had to defeat there previous pcs
Hello. In this scenario there is such a thing as Know roll. But I didn’t find any information about this Know roll in investigator’s handbook or in quick-start rules. Don’t you know what to do when it is required to roll “Know”?
Know Rolls are page 90 of the Keeper's Guide. It's an EDU roll or general knowledge roll, considered to be basic knowledge that the investigator has picked up, while vague or simple enough not to warrant a specialized skill roll. From the book: "The investigator might know it is dangerous to pour water into sulfuric acid (without studying Chemistry), or be able to remember the geography of Tibet (without a Navigate roll), or know how many legs arachnids have (and possess only one percentile of Biology)."
I have this idea where a PC is writing a series of books based on their investigations in order to tip off the public with out being view as crazy or being lock up in a insane asylum.
*Love the son of Zorn T-Shirt 👕 .* *The player section of the video should be longer .* *It's harmful to the channel to have people click off of a video very early on .*
One of the things that I have a problem with is that authors of these scenarios often do not put themselves in the shoes of the players. For new Keepers, you have to be careful when reading descriptions of the scene to your players that you don’t let slip some detail they shouldn’t know. In “Darkness”, the first map that you hand out has “Towards Serpent Catacombs” printed across the lower right part of the map when the players have absolutely no information saying there are “serpents” in the cave. I see this a lot and have to end up editing the handouts so as to not give away the game.
I'm trying to adapt this scenario for a solo pc , i have made an increasing "encounters" story with a degenerated group, (separatly) with some animal pack archetyps (the curious one, the violent alpha, the alpha female in research of new genes... the workers etc). I have erase the ghasts, 'cause i think its way too violent for a lonesome pc lost in a millenials caverns, or at least maybe just his "presence" or grawl for a scary running ;) i'm hoping my english is not too bad :/ I'm glad to found cool and advising videos !
I ran this scenario with my friends last night. When they finally defeated the big bad evil guy, they tried to free Josh Winscott from his prison. The guy I had built up as his good friend tried to rip the bars out of the wall. I allowed him to make a strength roll, telling him that he could need a critical success to make a dent in it. The dice gods were perverse and he rolled exactly a crit success. He ripped the bars out of a stone wall like a mother rescuing her child from under a car. It was hilariously awesome.
Since I was playing with a large, heavily armed group, I made them encounter ghasts multiple times in the tunnels, but the priest in our group is nuts, and his dice are somehow always giving him extreme successes. He shot one, extreme success, and rolled max damage, killing one instantly. So I kept having to send more and more ghasts after them. 5 party members went temporarily insane, 3 went indefinitely insane, and they all had to stay in hospital for months after this scenario. I also decided to run the next scenario with Danvers Mental institution with Josh Winscott as the NPC they need to rescue, so I played him up as a fun, happy-go-lucky type who is very friendly, and wants to help the PCs out. Putting him in mortal peril again will be fun.
I picked this up last week. It is absolutely gorgeous. One of the most beautifully produced splats I own in any system. Just played my first Cthulhu game yesterday and it was a blast. Can't wait to get running some games!
Welcome to Call of Cthulhu. :-)
Yeah, the production quality of all of their 7th Edition stuff has been seriously top-notch.
Hi, love the series, please, up the volume, I like to listen while I do stuff..
I just finished playing this scenario. We managed to clear the baddies out, looted his collection of scrolls, took plenty of photos, and made detailed notes. So far we haven't decided what to do with all of it, but I think we're gonna keep a lid on what we found, sharing it with only one or two experts. I've lobbied to bring it all to the university to keep under lock and key.
Just ran it (my first time as Game Keeper and second time playing). Loved it! I used your suggestions and they really helped. Thanks. I'm hooked and want for COC.
Awesome to hear. Glad you all had fun
Just tried both DMing and Call of Cthulhu for the first time since our regular game is suffering an interruption. I ran this adventure, and it was basically everything I had hoped for. It felt like a genuine Lovecraftian experience. Your advice was great in several places, as I was focused on trying to remember rules and make rulings when I couldn't in order to keep the game flowing, which meant I didn't have as much mental space to devote to responding to unexpected choices by the players. Everyone seemed pretty happy as a result. Thanks for the great content. I love your channel and recommend it frequently.
I've been dying to get into this game. I love the Cthulhu mythos. Problem is, most of the people I generally play with have been pretty solidly against it because in their words, "It seems like a game where instead of working towards a good outcome, you're just working for the least awful outcome." Which...yeah, fair point. They like to definitively save the world, so I can see how a game where rather than save the world you just stave off the end for a little longer might not appeal to them. One day I'll get to run some Cthulhu stuff...one day...
Here’s the thing, if your players [in another game say] save the world with the best possible outcome….what’s the next adventure going to be? To keep challenging the same characters, there needs to be loose ends to tie up, a sense that ‘our work is never done’. You can have wins in CoC, but it’s the loose ends that keep story going. CoC endings might ‘traditionally’ be dark, but you can make yours fit the groups play style [to an extent], give them a moment of joy and celebration, then just wheel in the next threat/thread, and send them back into paranoia/despair [until the next win]. After all, there is always going to be another beast, another ancient god, another group of fanatical cultists or another dangerously obsessed wizard to deal with in the future. :D
I just started driving into the core rulebook and plan on getting doors to darkness. These are some great ideas I might implement for my game. Thank you!
Thank you! I would absolutely love it if you would review some of the other modules in this book, if you happen to have done them. I did a quick search of your videos and did not find any of the others. It looks like a great book.
Jack comes from the notable DiEnpici family who immigrated to the Arkham area many years ago. They seem to always be where strange things happen.....
At 2:32 talking about not having the players come from Arkham, go back, and come again the next day made me think: "Yeah, who am I, van Helsing?"
So, this will sound condescending if you're from New England and that isn't my intent, in New England it's normal to live 2 states or an hour's drive away. So going home at night isn't as ridiculous as it would be in other parts of the US
"The Miskatonic Valley" while contained within the state of Rhode Island (or Massachusetts depending on the Lovecraft story) would still be within a two hour drive of Boston, Concord, New York City, and Greenwich even at the speeds of 1920s/30s vehicles as an example (cars went slower yes but none to little traffic would balance it out over as short a distance as Boston to NYC)
Done rambling, sorry
hey Seth
huge fan if your Cthulhu game reviews. think I've watch each of them 10 times each if not more.
your take and perspective on the scenarios that you review are extremely detailed and through. not to mention extremely helpful and informative.
your review on The Darkness Beneath The Hill from Doors to Darkness was enough to purchase the book immediately lol
I really enjoy and appriciate how you give suggestions and recommendations on how to expand on the printed material and how to handle/adjust for whatever the scenario maybe lacking with information.
great job. keep up the great work.
P.S. do you plan on reviewing any other of the scenarios from Doors to Darkness? that would be great.
Also any chance of a review for Beyond the Mountains of Madness? to be honest that is my unicorn.... always elusive and unattainable lol been searching for a physical copy of that for nearly 18 years. Lol
have a great one
Thank you. I have four more in various stages of pre-production, not including Call of Cthulhu adventures I'm still planning to run, so you'll be getting more soon and not have to keep re-watching the same old ones. ;-)
Fantastic shirt sir!
Awkward mythos names, the reason my players insisted on calling the monster they were forced to work along side "Mi-Go Steve"
Hey just want to say I have been learning how to play COC. And your videos are the best that I have seen so far. Very informative. Your vids also help me decide if I want to purchase a book for this series or not. Great job keep it going.
The most fun I had with a CoC game was when I approached a Keeper who had an established campaign and I said to him, "I want to play a Ninja"
We actually worked it out and the only thing the other players knew was that one of them suddenly acquired a new Japanese man servant.
Going to run this soon, new keeper here. How did you deal with the idea of the players making noise (gunshots) while exploring the tunnels. Did good old S'Syaa H'Riss hear them coming?
Love you cut-scene comedy!
I really enjoyed running this scenario! The open-ended enemy placement made it easy for me to just structure the encounters to be gradually more and more threatening. Starting with seeing a degenerate before it runs off, then degenerates bothering the party in unsettling ways, impressions of something much bigger in the tunnels, before finally having a ghast sneak up on the party and kidnap the war vet. No one wanted to fight those things by the time they were properly introduced!
First time Keeper here, thank you so much for your review and your other videos. I ran this adventure (first adventure I've run for CoC), for a one of our gaming groups who normally play pathfinder (included 3 friends who gm regularly and never get to play). It was a great way to introduce them to the game, and everyone had a lot of fun (they want me to run another one). I had the use the pre-mades, but I recreated the sample characters on the actual player sheet because I thought it was a lot better. I had all the pre-made attendees of the same school, and a part of he Phi Beta Kappa society so they all had a history with Josh. I sent them their history with Josh, the sheets, and what they knew about each other prior to the game so they had more motivation to go help him. As a new keeper there were a few issues I ran into, that I had to quickly resolve in game, that I thought I'd just pass a long as an FYI (this might be obvious already to others):
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1. The issue I created with them already knowing Josh, and having his number (I used his stats to say he was a little dude and a bit clumsy albeit super nice, happy guy) was that already they didn't trust he wouldn't go down in the tunnel by himself. So after they went to bed they decided they should leave Father Stephen at the house to keep an eye on him. 0_0; I didn't have a plan for that, but luckily I had stated the only food he had at the house was 2 day old fried chicken and some old salad, so the players decided to go out to lunch a a fancy restaurant to chat. So then when the Father walked back to the house a couple of hours later Josh was already gone. I also saved myself by saying that Josh was a smaller guy so the hole he made was just big enough for him to squeeze through leaving the players having to make the hole bigger themselves.
2. There wasn't a lot of tracking rolls in the module and the players kept wanting to search for footprints. I added some stuff later on when I needed to start wrapping up the game to lead the players to the area's that would hurt their sanity the most/and get to Josh. In hindsight I would have made more tracks and blood places in places. And if you have scientists in the party they are going to want to study the lichen, fungus, and etc. I just said they could take a sample, but they needed to bring it to a lab.
3. I used the Degenerates, but I wish I would have used them more in the game.
4. Have a thought for what is going to happen if your priest decides he is going to save the Degenerate infants...
5. Tips: I found music for the organ: czcams.com/video/-UfwWifD3ck/video.html and having the ghasts doing knock out maneuvers is gross. Good way not to outright kill players, but put them in severe danger. I'm looking at doing the next adventure with the book by putting poor Josh in the mental hospital now haha.
Awesome! Glad you all enjoyed it.
I’m in a bender of all these Cthulhu modules. I’m making my Dnd group run through one unknown to them. We already have madness rolls so it’s perfect 😈
really like your reviews. great job keep up the great work
Thanks.
Running this on Friday - looking forward to it. nice review
I didn't know were I was going to find inspiration for my gritty, low combat, low magic horrorish GURPS fantasy game and now I do. It's in these COC adventures. Thank you!
Just started looking at this for my third Keeper game - thanks ever so much for the great tips and I'm feeling more confident by the minute! :)
this sounds like a prequel to the two serpent campaign how about the fourth option that Caduceus found out what was said by the pc's and invited them to join?
I just ran this and finished it last night. I had five investigators. During the climax Josh ran away into the tunnels and one player chased him. Two went through the portal. Two had to fight a Ghast and ended up at 0 HP. All at the same time. I had no idea what to do, winged the entire ending, all of my planned notes went out the window. I’m new at being a keeper so I need practice improvising when things so FUBAR.
I love the idea of having the early days Delta Green come in and clean up if the PCs try to spread the news publicly.
Any ideas on how to connect this to Two Headed Serpent? Because...you know...snake ppl.
Hey, long time admirer and a great review. Is there any chance you could put your handouts up as google docs or something for me to pilfer? No worries if not, I only ask because I know you’ve done this with cheat-sheets before.
Keep makin’ the magic! I personally owe it to you that five friends and I are playing this scenario tonight in the UK!
Sandy Petersen actually made a pretty decent Cthulhu Mythos supplement for 5e. I've used it to introduce some of thos elements into D&D but never really brought it all in to make a full on Cthulhu D&D campaign. If someone wanted to, this might be a good scenario for that.
You need to run Genius Loci, or at least review it! It's my favorite scenario within the very same book! Takes some work, but quite lovely.
Hey Seth, love the video as always. Any chance of you ever doing a live play special for a once-off? Would love to see your style in action, even as an audio recording!
Merci pour cette vidéo. Dans la version française du livre il y a une erreur dans les prétirés des personnages sur les dégâts à mains nues, parfois l'impact n'est pas pris en compte ou erroné?
Praise be Yigg! This sounds like a great adventure. 🐍
everything's is perfect with your narrative and the style, but goddamn the audio is so low
That's number one CZcamsrs sin: work all the visual and have no clue about audio.
This was my first game and was fun
Not gonna lie, I feel like this book should have had followup ideas like you provided here. I picked up the book and it just got here today, and I'm glad I hit up this video, cause I don't think I'd have even thought about players trying to expose what they found. I don't know if I'm excited or woefully under-prepared for running my first game of this in a few weeks. lol
My PCs recently got Yigs blessing. That could be a interesting twist
😊
I have some new people to CoC and this scenario is on the list to run them in .
While it's part of the Keepers "weaponry", if they struggle to paint a "word picture" for the investigators, would you recommend creating hand-outs of the illustrations?
Definitely. I regularly show module illustrations to my players.
Thanks for this review. I found the scenario as written left out a lot of advice for new Keepers, especially the need to preprocess the material to separate story elements known or knowable by the investigators from elements that they can't easily determine. Creating additional handouts beyond the two in the handouts section is a useful idea. What do you do with the maps? It would be nice to hand them out, but they contain too much information. Do you cover up parts the investigators haven't or shouldn't see?
For maps, like when they're going through the tunnels, I use a grid mat and wet-erase pens with miniatures. It helps us with combat and ranges, etc.
Ah, OK, thanks!
Really enjoyed this one. I know you tend to prefer Cthulhu, but I wonder if this could work for a fantasy game as well; the set up is classic D&D, really, the sort of thing you'd find in a Conan-style game.
It'd definitely work in a traditional fantasy game. Very easy to convert it to D&D or the like. However, in fantasy where monsters are known to exist, the punch of "There are monsters under the town" is less than in Cthulhu, which is "Holy crap, there are actual monsters AND they're also under the town."
Interestingly, Robert E. Howard (Conan) and H.P. Lovecraft (Cthulhu Mythos) were contemporaries and friends. Howard even contributed some stories to the Mythos. So I would say you are in good hands.
Yeah. I'm struggling with how to draw a hard line between normal and not-normal for gaming in fantasy. GoT does that for all magic, for the first books, but that means having a very strong cast of mundane characters, as well as limiting things like spellcasting or non-human races. Conan is another great example, I suppose. But D&D makes it hard. Maybe with a strong genre in the magic (ie: arthurian or, I dunno, Gummi Bears?) that can contrast or juxtapose with the Mythos elements, it could maybe work... but how to show they're not just another form for hobbit/elf/wizard? Were the Orcs in Tolkien "lovecraftian" in their alienness?
Anyway, keep em coming! Any chance of some DCC rpg reviews? Or Conan/Fantasy reviews?
Nice review. I have this one and plan to run it for my regular game, which is located in Providence, in the Fall of 1928. As I've had players ask for a Dreamlands game, I'm going to try to introduce Josh Winscott earlier, so they'll all already know him. I like the idea of the handouts for the Winscott background too. We'll see how they handle this one.
We just finished Dark Carnival and I ended that one up with a police raid on the circus. Unknown if this one might go the same way but a few of them who assisted in the raid (in an advisory position only) do have a contact with Providence Police Superintendent William O'Neill so we'll see what happens.
I think this might be the first scenario that I run for my family. I want to get into CoC with them after we move back to New England later this month. I'm planning on adding a chase scene with some degenerates and maybe one of the ghasts. The chase mechanics look like a lot of fun, to me.
Thank you.
Nice! Thank you!
I had a blast running this one for my d&d crew... as soon as they realised what was happening they backed up and tooled up from their mystery mobile.... that's what I call it anyway...
Then they did some serious dungeon crawling with Mr BAR taking out 23 of the sub humans single shot and the other 3 party members doing their bit etc.... doesn't hurt that he has 81 on initiative ...
Some severely tense moments and almost managed to lose the party leader which was a blast...
But in the end... all badies KIAd. .
They then got the poor insane chap into an institution and generously bought his house to fund same...
Then import some Chinese labourers and do some reconstruction to adapt underground as one of their bases of operation... firing ranges.. stores etc....
Worked the insane guy into a later adventure as a patient in the ligor adventure... which lasted 45 minutes as the adventure mentions the amphitheatre right up front.. sigh... anyhow... good material
I'm about to run this mission (my first time as Keeper and second time playing). How long should I allocate? BTW, great video.
Depends, but I'd guesstimate between 4-6 hours. But it might swell to far longer if they get into roleplay or get fixated on one portion or another. Best of luck with the game.
You are the best at answering questions. I have become a huge fan in such a short time. I look forward to your videos, and would love to see more Cthulhu stuff. Thanks
@@SSkorkowsky
Personally, while I have not run this adventure. I would let them spill the beans with the proof and have the world know about this kind of stuff. Why? I find that idea, that the mythos and the unknowable is suddenly common knowledge to be really interesting. Basically as a "you know what, humanity isn't as insignificant as Lovecraftian horror makes them out to be," kind of situation.
Can you share your pre-written extra handouts? Mat Colville does this and it is great for the community. Love the vids have only recently discovered them. Thanks a lot.
Normally if I make handouts I'll put links, but I didn't write any handouts for it. All I did was copy and print text from the module PDF out so I could hand that to my players instead of just telling then the info.
Hello Seth. Have you played the scenario called "In media res"? What do you think of it?
I'm thinking in using it as a first cthulhu larp for my gaming group, any tips?
Thank you.
Hi Carlos. Never read it. Sorry.
Though Cthulhu LARP does intrigue me.
seth on 1.25 is a dream
just ordered Doors to Darkness and the 7th Edition rules on Amazon. are there any other scenarios youd reccomend running from Doors to Darkness?
So far, the only one I've really studied is The Darkness Beneath The Hill. None of the others have rung the warning bells of being bad on their initial scans. I just haven't looked close enough to really rate them. But if any really stand out as awesome, let me know.
Seth Skorkowsky I will. I’ll take a look through and keep you posted ;)
Seth Skorkowsky after looking through them I recommend Ties That Bind, mostly because instead of a monster jus out wrecking havoc for no reason, this is a story about a mother looking to protect her young, and nothing more. I also like how events will happen over time regardless of whether or not the investigators are there t witness or participate In them.
I don't think there were raids in Innsmouth. There were raids in the Horror at Red Hook. But the gov. was still ignorant of anything supernatural. These places collapse due to the protagonist or antagonists. I think only the protagonists should know the truth. Makes it that more lonely. Also makes them question their sanity "Did that really happen?".
Shadow Over Innsmouth opens with him taking about the raids, people being thrown in camps, the dynamiting of buildings, and the downward torpedoing off the coast. It goes on to say how the government claimed it had to do with the war on liquor, but how he was to blame because it was him who reported it. Now, years later, and after public interest has warned, he's ready to tell his story.
@Seth Skorkowsky do you live near an airport? I ask because it sounds like a plane is going over your house early in the video.
Airport is several miles away but we're in one of the main flight paths so plane noise is a regular thing I have to deal with. For particularly loud ones I'll cut the recording until they pass.
So my pcs did try to become rich and famous and spread the word because they went insane and wanted to basically treat life like a game I said sure ran another campaign to make those characters immortal a d basically all the treasure hunters got caught in a game between immortals kinda like that one scp
So they ended up playing treasure hunters that had to defeat there previous pcs
Hello. In this scenario there is such a thing as Know roll. But I didn’t find any information about this Know roll in investigator’s handbook or in quick-start rules. Don’t you know what to do when it is required to roll “Know”?
Know Rolls are page 90 of the Keeper's Guide. It's an EDU roll or general knowledge roll, considered to be basic knowledge that the investigator has picked up, while vague or simple enough not to warrant a specialized skill roll.
From the book:
"The investigator might know it is dangerous to pour water into sulfuric acid (without studying Chemistry), or be able to remember the geography of Tibet (without a Navigate roll), or know how many legs arachnids have (and possess only one percentile of Biology)."
Thank you. I didn’t get my Keeper Rulebook, but I’ll read it as soon as it will be delivered.
Perfect time for them to go insane. It was awesome 😂😂😂
I have this idea where a PC is writing a series of books based on their investigations in order to tip off the public with out being view as crazy or being lock up in a insane asylum.
I love Seth for his informative content but he really has only one character voice.
What's your opinion about virtual table's like roll20?
Never tried it personally. But a whole lot of people seem to like it. I say whatever is best for you is what you should use.
Seth Skorkowsky I haven't played in 30 years. Your videos and Puffin Forest channel. Has really got me wanting to play again⚡💥🐙⚡💥👾⚡🎩
*Love the son of Zorn T-Shirt 👕 .*
*The player section of the video should be longer .*
*It's harmful to the channel to have people click off of a video very early on .*
engagement
One of the things that I have a problem with is that authors of these scenarios often do not put themselves in the shoes of the players. For new Keepers, you have to be careful when reading descriptions of the scene to your players that you don’t let slip some detail they shouldn’t know. In “Darkness”, the first map that you hand out has “Towards Serpent Catacombs” printed across the lower right part of the map when the players have absolutely no information saying there are “serpents” in the cave. I see this a lot and have to end up editing the handouts so as to not give away the game.
I'm trying to adapt this scenario for a solo pc , i have made an increasing "encounters" story with a degenerated group, (separatly) with some animal pack archetyps (the curious one, the violent alpha, the alpha female in research of new genes... the workers etc). I have erase the ghasts, 'cause i think its way too violent for a lonesome pc lost in a millenials caverns, or at least maybe just his "presence" or grawl for a scary running ;) i'm hoping my english is not too bad :/
I'm glad to found cool and advising videos !
Xs'zerpent men!
Not all of us have printers and unlimited ink and paper.....
Burn the house down! ;-p