Call of Cthulhu: The Dare - RPG Review
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- čas přidán 25. 05. 2022
- A group of children are dared to spend Halloween night in a haunted house, unfortunately something plans to keep them. Here are my thoughts and criticisms for this 1980's-style horror adventure, as well as the Call of Kid-Thulhu rules (which I enjoyed far more than Kids on Bikes).
You can find The Dare (along with the Call of Kid-Thulhu rules) on DriveThru RPG: www.drivethrurpg.com/product/...
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Guest starring Jack the NPC - Hry
We do an 80s themed one shot every year in honor of a fallen player. He wouldve loved this
Your a good man, may God rest his soul
This seems like it'd make for a great prequel one shot for origin stories of later Call Of Cthulhu Modern / Delta Green characters. Like, "this is what happened to me as a kid. And now this is why I combat The Mythos as an adult."
Rather "It"-like.
I did this exact thing. Had a scenario set circa 2000 for the characters to be in their late teens and bridge that gap to adulthood.
That's not a bad idea, actually. You can even link it as a "Legacy" series. The Grandparents(s) got involved in the mythos with something simple(the Happening or something else), then got involved with Cadduseus( Two-Headed Serpent). Their Parents continued fighting(the Well or the Airplane one) and now they get involved unintentionally....
You could add a lovecraftian twist to the movie "The People Under The Stairs" for a one or two player story!
Old man Cavendish who lived next door died.
Nobody knew he owned a mythos relic.
Soon after he died, the groups' mutual friend Timmy Cooper has been acting wierd....
Like a grown-up......
Guys! We HAVE to figure out what's going on
Who's in?
I feel bad for that kid dressed like Charlie Brown on the cover. You do not want to be the kid with that kind of inherited bad karma in a Cthulhu game. What happened to him could not have been pretty.
23:15 Imagine a rat monster being birthed with Charlie Brown's face.
@Anne O'Nymous That would be pretty good for everything but the witch. It's basically a huge flail.
Better than being dressed as Kenny from South Park.
@@somebloke3869 I mean, at that point you just get to play as the same character when you get forced back in after you die.
Because you would have to play him as literally Kenny rom SouthPark. He's even fought Cthulhu and Shub-Niggurath and his friends survived.
With that kind of track record it would be such a wasted opportunity not to just run with the joke. You don't often see a Rez tank.
Not sure how you would work SAN damage. Probably just depression and substance abuse with a little rage.
I don't know, seems like a party to me. You would have to be very clear you were playing it as a joke, but that could really add a twist to this if the table was cool with it.
Hey, at least he probably has a bag full of rocks to throw at the rats and bats.
The "Dweebles is a psychopath" plotline thickens... I love it
When you name your kid "Dweebles" the inevitable bullying is going to shove some nasty mental issues deep in there...
You would go nuts too if the only person who knows your real name refused to reveal it and made the only thing anyone calls you be a degrading nickname.
I ran The Dare for my friends as a Halloween one-shot last year. Within the first 20-minutes they were lured into the basement by Roger and were never seen again. It was one of the shortest one-shots I ever ran.
So all of them wound up as bats, huh?
A year ago I adapted Mister Corbitt from Mansions of Madness into an adventure with kids. All players were children between 12 and 14 years old. It was very interesting. I made some modifications, giving mr. Corbitt scarier look, based a little on the movie Fright Night (the whole idea of the teenager knowing the vampire next door, but no one believing him). It was very interesting.
That sounds like an awesome mod for that scenario.
Yes! I'm prepping a Kids of Cthulhu for my kids (think Hardy Boys meets the Mythos) and Mr. Corbett is going to to be the sophomore adventure after...The Haunting.
Jack the NPC, particularly in Seth's The Haunting, inspired me to use old timey radio shows to give the players hints and options. Dead-Eye Jack wouldn't just barge in, he would look into the history of the house knowing, sometimes, naming the demon weakens ones foes. Stuff like that.
@@andychandler1737 I like the idea of the radio occasionally coming on by itself, and it's just like, "I'm Jack, from N.P.C. public radio! You have a great day!"
I was thinking the same thing. I would love to run the rules from The Dare with Mister Corbitt.
THATS AMAZING!!! He’s a perfect baddie for a kid campaign.
For any Keepers looking to run this scenario, here is what the moldy page from Evelyn's grimoire says. It's essentially a copy of the contract with Nyarlathotep that gave her her powers. I've also subsituted 'th' for 'y' in certain places, as that Y letter you see in place names like Ye Olde Public House is actually a Middle English letter called thorn that produces a 'th' sound:
----
"have made the pact with the Black Man who hast manny faces & forms, that wisdom & lyfe shall beest thine beyond imaginings
The flesh of the imature is yond which is most pure, f’r it enwheels few’r of the taints yond age, exp’rience, carnality, & sineth impart upon it. Sayd flesh can beest consum'd raw or did cook, though heateth tends to removeth some of the sweetest flav’rs of innosence & inc’rruption. Such repasts impart upon the feast’r the vitality did contain in potentiall within the child’s flesh.
Tribute wilt beest given to yond Black Man bef’re each such feast, yond that gent might eke gain benefyt from it
his children shalt thee beareth as the did cost f’r his most wondrous gi"
There is more text on the page, but it's been made completely unreadable (deliberately, this time) by the water damage on the grimoire page.
Loving this Idea!
I was about to do this, I thought "wait, what does he mean he can't read that, can!" But you've beaten me to it. Good work!
Love the Venture Bros reference - a series taken from us too soon.
1:01 I caught that too... I was thinking the other day that I really need to rewatch that show, I guess this is just fate reminding me. I love Dr. Mrs. The Monarch lol.
I guess Jack The NPC doesn't have to worry about dying in this adventure, since he has a Clone At Home.
I came here to comment on this. Hank frequently wore the very same store bought Batman costume
Anyone who thinks Jack's costume being the same as Hank Ventures was mere coincidence has clearly never tried to find a 1970s/80s Ben Cooper Batman mask.
@@SSkorkowsky It's also the quote of getting the tongue caught in the mouth slit. I thought for sure there was going to be a joke of cutting himself on the tongue.
Hank incapacitated himself with that in an episode.
I personally wasn't sure if it was a coincidence or a nod, but regardless the inclusion of the lines hit a note with the Venture Bros fans, and we clearly appreciate the honor provided!
Thanks for the great video, I want to try to run this adventure soon.
"Ith maddening!"
I love the side bars and silly goofs. They make me smile but "Im just referring to Dweebles" actually made me spit take. Bravo!
Same! The side skits are usually fun to watch, but this time the Dweebles line made me actually laugh out loud :D
I really like the Dreams in the Witch House vibe here. The semi-human rat/bat creatures are very reminiscent of the critter Brown Jenkins.
Love the Venture Bros reference, you're a man of culture, Seth!
"I can't help myself. It's maddening."
Damn I love the idea for this one. you could do a squeal to this if the kids lose. where the there parents/investigator come looking for for the kids, learning the location one of the other kids that didn't make it to the dare due not get away from their parents that night, finding the remains/rat creatures of the kids. btw you didn't say if your group survived or died at the end, what happen man!
Our group survived (save for The Snob who died up in the attic and was reborn as a Rat Thing).
@@SSkorkowsky Five sessions later: Revenge of the Rat Thing!
"You let me die!" -Reanimated Rat Thing
They'll never see it coming.
Unless they saw horror movies from the 80's, in which case they will entirely see it coming.
This could also make a great back story for some call of Cthulhu player characters or even delta green ones
The name of the module, combined with the cover image, instantly told me what sort of scenario this was. It's amazing what a shared zeitgeist can do.
I just made a transcript of the grimoire's page. Bear in mind I'm a native Spanish speaker, so sorry in advance if something is not perfectly correct. Hope you find it useful.
*Original:*
Have made Ye pact with the Blak Man who hast manny fases & forms, that wisdom & lyfe shall beest thine beyond imaginings...
...Ye flesh of Ye imature is yond which is most pure, f'r it enwheels few'r of Ye taints yond age, exp'rience, carnality, & sineth impart upon it. Sayd flefh can beest consum'd raw or did cook, though heateth tends to removeth some of Ye sweeteft flav'rs of innosence & inc'rruption. Such repafts impart upon Ye feaft'r Ye vitality did contain in potentiall within Ye child’s flefh.
Tribute wilt beest given to yond Blak Man bef're each such feaft, yond that gent might eke gain benefyt from it...
...his children shalt thee beareth as Ye did cost f'r his most wondruss gift
-
*Simplified/modern English:*
Have made the pact with the Black Man who has many faces and forms, so wisdom and life will be yours beyond imagination...
...The flesh of the immature is beyond that which is purest, for it involves fewer corruptions beyond age, experience, carnality and the sins imparted upon it. Said flesh can be consumed raw or cooked, although the heat tends to remove some of the sweet flavors of innocence and incorruption. Such repayments impart upon you the vitality contained in the potential within children's flesh.
Tribute will be given to the Black Man before each of such feasts, even if the lord can't benefit from it...
...his children you will bear as you did for his most wonderful gift
I ran this adventure this weekend. It was a blast. Thanks for this video, it really helped!
Awesome to hear it was a success. Happy to have helped.
I'll just keep singing praise to this channel: yet again a highly entertaining and informative video from one of the most underrated YT channels out there.
LOL I’m a historian used to reading old handwriting, & that grimoire is a mess. Not only does it use the long S, but it uses “ye” for “the” which is a mistake that comes from the genuine use of the Old English letter thorn, which kind of looks like a Y. Also, there are some very silly nonstandard archaisms like “did cook” for “cooked” & “sineth” for “sin” & “heateth” for heat. It basically says she made a pact with the Black Man who has many forms & that eating the flesh of the young can impart the vitality of the child.
So Nyarlathotep? (See "Dream In The Witch's House.")
Thanks, I'm not an native english speaker and i'm having a hard time reading that sheet (although I can guess what it says)
This sounds fun. I hope 8 get the chance to run it.
Possible set up for Roger would be that him and his crew stayed at the house on October 30th, Devil's Night, and it went horribly. This would explain how he got the key, knows the layout of the house, and why a few of the monster faces are familiar (they're Roger's former bully crew).
My group doesn't really like CoC, but they humor me by letting me run a one-shot every Halloween, and last Halloween (2021) I ran the Dare. I gathered a bunch of props (including a tibia (a fake one from the med school where I work)) and hid them around my house, and had the players go get them when their investigators would find them in the game. The day after, I sent an email to my players with an epilogue that described what happened after, and included the Who's "Dangerous" as the "closing credits" music. My players really loved it, but now I have to figure out what to do this Halloween!
I considered having one of my players play Roger, but I ended up doing it the way the adventure says.
I agree, though, it needed a lot of help in the editing department. I ended up kind of re-writing it so that the descriptions matched up with the map.I just copied and pasted from the PDF.
Kids don't need a reason to do stupid stuff, they'll do it for the sake of a dare alone.
I was kinda hoping for a scene like:
Jack: "Hey guys! I bet none of you are brave enough to spend the night in that old haunted house."
Dweebles: "Not me! That place is scary."
Jack: "You coward!"
Dweebles: "Am not!"
Todd: "Hey Dweebs! I dare you to do it."
Dweebles: "I dunno. I don't want to."
Todd: "I double dawg dare you!"
Dweeble: "Well.... If I have to. But I'm not doing it by myself, you guys have to come along too."
Jack: "Sure Dweebs. We got your back."
Wow, going right for the double dog dare?
The true sanity draining cosmic horror is the eldritch, non-Euclidean interior layout
I'm not sure if it's a mark of pride, nerdiness, or age, but I'm 99% sure I know what each Halloween costume is on that cover. And I have to agree, the "kid-thulhu" modifications sound rather need and, as mentioned, works for creating scenarios like IT Chapter 1. It reminds me of how World of Darkness made an expansion book called "Innocents" I believe fully around playing as children and teens in their horror setting.
I can definitely see what you mean about an editing pass. It does sound like things changed over time or parts were "we'll sort this out later" and they never went back to really solidify the whole.
Tbh it's not hard
Arguably the best thing I've learnt from this video is that you should never trick-or-treat at Dweeble's house.
This kids 80’s theme reminds me of “Tales From The Loop”. Thanks for the video Seth!
Gonna GM this today for my group (even though it's not Halloween). I set up an online play via Foundry VTT. Thanks to your advices about the errors in the book and for convenience sake, I copied the text parts for the room descriptions out of the PDF and made journal entries that I've linked to every room on the map. I just have to click those book tokens on the map and get every relevant information. Setting this up was a lot of fun. Hope the players agree to make Kidthulhu a campaign. Too bad there don't seem to be any other modules for it out there.
I've been wracking my brain for something for this year's Halloween game, and this looks perfect.
I have bought this module based on your throw-away comment during a Q&A when you mentioned that you will DM-it : it was a very good purchase
Okay, so I wasn't the only one getting really confused about the map while making their notes. Guess I'll have to go over the map before I run this adventure around Halloween.
Yeah, I ended up copying and pasting the text from the PDF into my own document, and sort of re-wrote the adventure so it would make sense to me as I was running it.
Oh hey, what a surprise to see ya here. (From Bruugar)
Seth is awesome.
@@otakuofmine Yep, he's really helpfull when it comes to running modules or tips for DMing in general.
@@manticore6963 indeed and very entertaining at that. also he brough me just to buy a lot of Cthulhu stuff :D
I think the easiest way to fix the attic is reflect the map left to right.
Nice review!
Warm regards, Rick.
I don’t play Call of Cthulhu, but watching your reviews makes me wish I knew a good keeper so I could. I enjoy all your videos, but get the most out of your reviews. You have helped me develop a checklist of things not to forget when I am writing adventures or game accessories. Keep um commin.
You heard it here, folks: Jack the NPC is totally canon in the Dweeblesverse.
Nice review, btw.
I am imagining kid Jack returning home to his grandpa Jack the NPC to tell him about the night. Only for Jack the NPC to just say something like "Yah something like that happened to me at the Corbitt house a few years back" (The Haunting)
"Have I ever told ya the story of th' Old Man Corbitt house? Hang on, lemme get my dentures, vodka flask, and Elder Sign Amulet..."
"my tongue keeps getting cut in the mouth slit" nice hank venture reference
fun fact: the razor blades thing actually wasn't an urban legend, in a sense. While, yes, it was spurred on by the satanic panic, there was a kid who died from it. The thing is, the entire story came from his dad, who was also the one who killed him. He made the claim, as a way to attempt to get away with the murder of his son.
It wasn't razor blades though it was poison. Cyanide.
That was such a damn good video man. The jokes landed and this sounds like such a fun adventure to run in a couple of months 🎃
I like the kids costumes on the book cover; and the Rat and Bat Things illustrations are cool too.
If I wasn't going to be running traveller thank to you, I would absolutely be running this.
Halloween oneshot 😊
Oh my God, I want to run this with some friends, and see their ingenuity. Bubblegum can make a great adhesive or means of keeping a door open, I’d love to see them use Halloween candy somehow.
The Call of Cathulhu, that RPG is puuurrrrrrrrfect.
I love that Jack is holding a juice box!!
0:10 I love the Charlie Brown Kid on the Cover XD
He definitely got it worst, poor sod.
He will get stuck in a room trying to kick a football forever
I would love about a dozen more adventures done with the call of kidthulu ruleset.
That seems like sooo much fun.. thank you for the review, the tips, and bringing to everyone’s attention. My hope is that I can run this without any of the players actually knowing it is a CoC adventure!
Sweet! I'm a fan of these sort of films. I have even written an 80's child scenario myself, based around William Hope Hodgson's Swine-folk and the Vermont Pigman, an IRL cryptid. But my group fell apart...
That's too bad, your scenario sounds fun! Wow...Hodgson's work has a lot of potential...hmmm.
I know it was just a bit for a laugh, but I had a couple that owned a Chinese restaurant that lived on the block and they would give out fortune cookies on Halloween
The reason the map doesn't match the descriptions is that the original house was actually Kevin Ross's house from when he was growing up with a very different floorplan than this new one. Ross actually mentions this in one of the revisions I got back in January 2018 through the Kickstarter. I'm unsure why the floorplan was changed though the original is pretty strange and Ross must have lived in an unusual house.
Great review as usual. I've yet to run this one though I love the idea of kid Cthulhu characters too. Poor Jack. I remember those masks from when I was a kid. They were awful.
I’m definitely going to DM this for some friends just like I DMed Uncle Timothy’s will as contest with a fabulous prize
One of my Players might finally run some Call of Cthulhu for me!!!
Now I also want to see scenarios about dumb teenagers exploring "haunted" locations. Having been a teenager in the rural midwest during the late 80s and early 90s, we regularly did such things. Sometimes due to happening upon creepy old houses & such during drunken road trips on the many dark and much less traveled back-roads. Due to the population shift from rural to city, which started long before our time, there were a surprising amount of really old abandoned houses, and even things like old abandoned one-room schoolhouses like you'd expect from the 19th century and earliest 20th century. Some of the old houses and schoolhouses would even have small graveyards, with headstones in disarray, to up the creepiness factor.
We didn't really believe such places were haunted, a portal to hell, etc, but they could still be quite scary at times. There was only one old two-level house on a slight ridge, at which weird shit would happen. Once so bad we quickly fled, then returned in doubt later that same night, and fled once again when the same thing happened. Ah, the things we did for entertainment.
With us it was drinking (and screwing, for the couples) in the local graveyard, which was (back in the day) completely unfenced and tucked away in a dell with no houses at all nearby. These days the old home town has plenty of abandoned houses, some very old, but there's so few kids left there's no one left to explore them. Haven't seen a child on a bike or out walking my old neighborhood in the decade since I've been back here.
Scooby doo?
Roger kidnapped the dog of the gang and will not give it back unless they stay the night
They meet the dog again as a Animal thing.
@@davidbrennan660 Ruh-roh
I sacrifice this comment on the altar of the algorithm... Also the Hank Venture mouth slit reference was *chef's kiss*
I haven't read if someone wrote this, but this adventure in a shorter version was originally published in July 1996 by Triad Entertainments in the adventure anthology Dwellers in Shadow.
Hearing that birth description made me want to throw up. Good job Seth!
Running my players through this next week as their first attempt in call of cthulu! Very excited. They rolled up their characters today. I was worried as they'd never strayed from DnD before, but they all seem super excited about their pre-teen characters
Best of luck with the game. Hope they have a blast
@@SSkorkowsky Thank you! Turned into a two shot, but the first session went really well. Took it easy to start with, but now I'm gonna start ramping up the action and horror. They are really digging roleplaying as kids.
Got them to split up a little bit, and Rodger attacked one of them as his buddy was Freaking Out. Got two impaling strikes on the guys, but they were able to set him on fire and finish him off. Next week's session should be awesome
I played this for Halloween a while back. It was fun. 🙂 I have to admit, the Keeper ran it way more Spielberg than King. The ‘Call of Kid-thulhu’ thing should be a system of its own for kids.
Also love that Dweebles essentially being a psycho killer is now canon. 🤣
Full size Snickers while trick or treating?! A popular house, indeed.
~ Adam
the dead homeless man wasn't killed by the villain, but by a Scott-Brown Agent who was trying to get a showing.
I totally believe that Dweebles would soil his razor blades with apples, He totally seems the type.
I feel like my player hinting me to try running this when he put the link and mentioned me on Discord this morning. :))
Great review as always! I especially think the map part you mentioned is super important to pay attention for Keeper who want to run this scenario.
(I also wonder if this scenario writer is the same Kevin Ross who wrote Down Darker Trails and Shadows Over Stillwater)
For added benefit on the yearbook photos, is you run the names through a word processor to put them down as a readable font, they’re all characters from horror films or authors.
Also, it is now canonically confirmed that Dweebles is indeed the evil guy we all assume he is. :p
What is the typeface they're using there?
@@anthonyragan2696 No clue. It just defaults to whatever your default is when you put it into the word processor.
Just a note- the pregen characters have a few oddities, like some having the fight skill at 30-35 despite the kid-thulhu rules starting it at 25% and the smallest point value you're supposed to add in character gen is 20. I asked online and the author confirmed this was just a small error in converting the sheets from an older version. There's no issue; the sheets are still balanced for the adventure. So if anyone saw them and spent half an hour trying to figure out where those numbers came from (like me) - don't worry, you're not crazy!
this is amazing!!! my group was kinda asking for a Nancy Drew/Babysitter Club/Harvey Boys campaign setting, but i didn’t know where to turn! Call of Kidthulu might be the answer! another great vid, Seth.
I've heard good things about Kids on Bikes but the session I tried to check out was very freeform and improvisational. That's not everybody's bag, but the game is this genre to the dang hilt.
I also stumbled upon a setting for Savage Worlds called East Texas University that was basically an aged-up BtVS expy. That would take some adapting but it hits quite a few of the genre conventions as this, with a different focus.
Just some options incase Kidthulu is a non-starter.
@@morganrobinson8042 Right! i listened to a review of Kids on Bikes when it was a Kickstarter (was that Seth?). But i was left unsure by its lack of a Narrator/GM. I need to read it over. Has anyone tried it or even the newish Power Ranger rules? I will try to find this Savage World setting you speak of.
My group seems split down the middle between wanting Nonmagical mystery and full Lovecraft horror…either way i have to get them OUT of plain jane dnd.
There are other options worth looking at:
Don't Tell Mom & Dad from Weird Hobbies
Bubblegumshoe from Evil Hat
or for a more horror/slasher flick/monster film feel,
Sleepaway from Possum Creek
Probably others too, I can't keep track of all the indie stuff these days.
If you wanted to invert the age range and play old lady sleuths against cosmic horror, there's also Brindlewwod Bay, as well as the upcoming-soon prequel set in the Jazz Age, the Unquiet Dark. Doing a party of Jessica Fletchers versus Generic Cthulhu seems at least as much of roleplaying novelty as Kidthulhu to me - and maybe you could mash them up and have a grandmother or two and a bunch of kids in the same campaign. At least you'd have someone who can drive...
To add to the list, there's Takes from the Loop (kids) and Things from the Flood (teens)
@@richmcgee434 I…I suddenly have a lot of home work! 🫣 the best kind of course!
can't wait for Pulp Kidthulhu to release.
Thanks for making this video, I ended up running this for my group for Halloween, and it was a blast, one of the most fun evenings I've had role playing.
Awesome to hear. It's such a fun scenario. I really hope they do more with the Call of Kidthulhu rules because we had an absolute blast.
I've run this one for my players. It played out very similarly to how you described, and I had the same pitfalls. One additional pitfall, is my players didn't explore the yard at all, and I didn't have anything to entice them, as Roger wants to get them inside the house. I would add something shiny or some hook to attract the players to the back yard. Just something small to get them there, cos once they are there, they will explore.
Thank you for including Monster Squad.
Putting this one on my wishlist - this sounds like a blast!
I have now seen Seth mime: ripping a line of coke; auto-erotic asphyxiation.
This is the GM I need.
What happens at renn faire, stays at renn faire.
And then inventing the Beholder...no, wait, that was that other guy.
All in all, I'd rather game with Seth.
Oh hell yeah! I’m so happy someone write a module like this! I really liked the concept for kids on bikes but the system lacked a little crunch for my taste. I hope that more people write CoC adventures meant to have child or teen protags in the future, it really ups that feeling of helplessness and being waaaay out of your league that makes for a great horror game.
i ran this as a Halloween scenario for my group and had most of the same criticisms. Great review!
It's 2am in Australia. I woke up and knew there'd be a post. Uploaded 4 minutes ago.
Got a big smile from the costume reveal, you really go the extra mile- Go Team Skorkowsky!
So close to 100k! You've earned it, love your videos and thanks for the help!
Despite the poor editing of the book, I am looking forward to running this. Thanks for the review!
Good review, the only thing missed out on was the scenario's pre-history, per the Call of Cthulhu wiki, the original appearance was as a tournament scenario, like 'The Cracked & Crooked Manse'. It then got republished in Triad Entertainments 'Dwellers in Shadow' fourth scenario anthology, before Bret Kramer got permission to update it. One thing your comment about not spelling out the dare reminded me of was the Traveller Amber Zone 'Foodrunner'. Part of what the players need to do is spelled out early in the scenario, but two key conditions are hidden away at the end of the scenario which I suspect a lot of GMs overlooked when they tried to run it. Also loved Jack's 'Orange Juice'...
Ran this one last Halloween! Can't wait to see how you handled it!
I just ran this tonight and it was a TOOOOON of fun!
Thank you so much for the recommendation and tips on running this! I think that if I run this again I'll definitely make room by room notes since the layout is a little wonky. And I might redo the attic map because my players wanted to explore it but there was nothing there worth exploring!
My best friend was living in Thailand at the time of David Carradine's death . He said the word on the street was that it was actually a robbery/extortion gone wrong .
There is a rage in the heart of Dweebles. Maybe because everyone calls him Dweebles.
I got this a while ago when you mentioned it in another video, so I'm glad to see a full video on it! Hopefully I'll run it on Halloween for some friends or family
Ran this last Halloween. It was a blast.
Some thoughts:
If you want to foreshadow the candles are important and are going to note where they are anyway, you may want to arrange them such that they form some kind of star if you were to draw a line between them from one to the other. It is something easy to overlook at first glance and hard to puzzle out in character.
You could also have Roger be really blatant with the ritual. In the 80s Black Sabbath and KISS were cool. Satanism and such were one of the main channels for youthful rebellion. It could easily be dismissed as something dumb he was doing to scare the kids.
For motivation, you may want to use money, too. Fitting the wrong-side-of-the-tracks bully mold, Roger could easily be a petty thief being raised by an overly permissive or inattentive relative with access to really cool stuff like the occasional beer and a switchblade. Roger could put up $100 to split among all the kids who will stay through the night. For a kid in the 80s, that's a small fortune. Decently well off grandparents might send you $20 on a birthday. Showing up Roger is one thing, but even five bucks would keep you in pixie stix for weeks. You may even have some of the kids trying to scare each other early on, which would make separating them easier.
If you want to foreshadow the candles as eldritch microphones, you may want to have them flicker gently toward the speaker rather than away. It is something easy to overlook at first since candles of course gutter when you speak near them, but they should bend away. This is something that should be fairly easy for the characters to pick up on once they realize things are getting weird.
Also - check out Gravity Falls. Some of the series' episodes nearly drip Kid-Thulu and some could be adapted. The general environment isn't a bad setup for a Kid-Thulu campaign.
I'm going to run this as my first time behind the keepers screen. Thank you so much Seth for A) pointing this adventure out and B) all the tips on the adventure.
Wish me luck lol
Looks like the grimoire page talks about a Black Man with many faces and forms, making a pact with the witch about feasting on "those immature and most pure" to continue to "experience carnality" -- which might I add is a beautiful way to say stay alive and I'm probably gonna steal that phrase.
Absolutely love this channel, and I also just started listening to Dämoren on audible and am really enjoying it. Just wanted to say thanks and please keep up the good work.
I am going to have to see if my D&D group would be down for a change of games on occasion. I've been listening to all of your Call of Kathulu reviews and one of these days I'm gonna have to try GMing this game.
Thanks as always for the great content Seth! I'm really excited to try this adventure with some friends, and the PG version may be good for my teenage nieces and nephews who are into RPGs.
Lol, The Dare is IT: Chapter 1, I like the cut of your jib, I'm in!
Seth, I wanted to take a moment to thank you for the invaluable information that you provide for each scenario you discuss. I found your channel about four years ago when I was looking to find something other than D and D to play. I am happy to say that I have now run three different one-shot scenarios that you had discussed, with the Dare being the most recent and the first one I have been asked to run for a second group due to the first group's reaction to it. I am also just about to start chapter 4 of the Two Headed Serpent for my main group. I was not sure if the CoC games would have been something that the people I game with would be into and was not sure if I was going to be able to run these games as I had not been a GM for anything in 20 years. Had I not found your site I still may have just been a player in the same old D and D games I have been in. So once again thank you. You have helped this player step back into the GM role, or in the case of CoC, the Keeper of Arcane Lore, and given me a chance to pull others into the darker corners of the mythos once a month. Next up is a small road trip journey of the Dead Lights, A Mother's Love, and Cold Warning. Keep up the great work and, in the words of your very own Jack, you have a great day.
jesus Seth, the birth thing you talked about is absolutely disgusting....i love it.
Seth you should take a look at the adventure "Music from a Darkened Room" for Delta Green. I will use it for my Halloween game this year. My players will be CZcamsrs going into a Haunted House. One of them is...well..."Zethy Kurkosky", and he hates horror and being scared.
I enjoy watching this content. Keep up the good work, Seth.
This one sounds like a lot of fun. I’ve never run a call of Cthulhu game myself but I’d love to give this one a go with my players
Be kind of cool if someone made a Kid Cthulhu game about the drama club putting on a King in Yellow play.
Oh my god just when I thought I couldn't enjoy your videos more you throw a reference to the Venture Bros. in there.
This is a neat idea and I look forward to saving this and running it, probably for a Halloween one-shot. 🎃
Excellent video as always! Especially the last 3 minutes 😂
Thanks for the video! Great as always!
I ran this last October and had my player dress up in Halloween costumes as Their characters. I had 9 player it was a blast everyone had a great time.
This is a great video! I really want to run this now.