Favorite Call of Cthulhu scenarios?

[Fuzzie Fuzz]

I'm planning on running a series of CoC games some time in the near future. Not having much experience as a Keeper under my belt, I've been trying to figure out which scenarios to run.

Thus, I thought I'd come to the Playground for advice: what are your favorite CoC scenarios? As a corollary to that question, what good scenarios are short (so we can fit the whole thing into a 5-hour session), relatively easy to run, and have lots of prop potentials?

Thanks in advance!

[Jerthanis]

I can't really give a fleshed out scenario, since I've never actually played or run Call of Cthulhu, but one thing I've always sort of thought would be scary is if a sleepy town full of very kind and proper people were really overrun by monsters, and the people just quietly ignore the horror around them. They pretend the savaged co-ed was killed by a bobcat, that the school field trip where all the kids fell into a coma accidentally stumbled on a gas leak, and just don't acknowledge the disappearances. When the investigators start poking around, the kind people go just a little past the point of reason to keep them from finding out. "We do hospitality right here in Bakersfield" (said to an investigator bound and gagged)

Sort of a Hot Fuzz meets Shadow over Innsmouth

Speaking of, the transformation of the body is always pretty creepy. Like in the Fly. Combine the two for the win. "Oh, looks like your hand got the local rash." *points at the crab-like claw that used to be an investigator's hand* "We know just the cure, I know my daughter came down with a bad case, and this cleared the issue right up" *takes out a bloody saw* "She got it all over her hands, then it spread to her legs... horrible, infection didn't break until it got to her neck."

[Pandabear]

Tried several times to start a pbp game on this forum without any takers, but for my tabletop game I made a setting for a small group in the 1940s. Every player has his own plot, and there is a main plot. People get rewarded with five free skill checks (No mythos) once they finish their own story, after which the finale is played out. The individual stories are roughly categorised as Cults, Undead, the Great Race of Yith, and the Dreamlands. Contrary to what the rule originally would be, I do allow travel via the Dreamlands to European mainland.

[hamishspence]

I can't really give a fleshed out scenario, since I've never actually played or run Call of Cthulhu, but one thing I've always sort of thought would be scary is if a sleepy town full of very kind and proper people were really overrun by monsters, and the people just quietly ignore the horror around them. They pretend the savaged co-ed was killed by a bobcat, that the school field trip where all the kids fell into a coma accidentally stumbled on a gas leak, and just don't acknowledge the disappearances. When the investigators start poking around, the kind people go just a little past the point of reason to keep them from finding out. "We do hospitality right here in Bakersfield" (said to an investigator bound and gagged)

Sort of a Hot Fuzz meets Shadow over Innsmouth.

Isn't Sunnydale, in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, pretty much this already?

[Kuma Kode]

The entire plot of Alan Wake?

If you've never played that, this song (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeSUvoY2oUk), then?

If you can't be bothered to listen to that, then this verse should be enough for a plot seed.

In the dead of night she came to him with darkness in her eyes
Wearing a mourning gown, sweet words as her disguise
He took her in without a word for he saw his grave mistake
And vowed them both to silence deep beneath the lake
Now, if it's real or just a dream one mystery remains
For it is said, on moonless nights they may still haunt this place

Maybe combine that with the Hot Fuzz/Stepford horror mentioned above?

Tales of Terror (http://www.talesofterror.net/) is a good spot for ideas. I am particularly fond of this one (http://www.talesofterror.net/tale0137-typewriter.html) and this one (http://www.talesofterror.net/tale0004-grimportrait.html).

[Otherworld Odd]

The entire plot of Alan Wake?



Is this game any good?


I think that to get a really scary experience, it would take more than one 5 hour session of building up. You might have to deal with a slightly less unnerving campaign, possibly something made up. I've never played CoC but I'm a huge Lovecraft fan. Perhaps you could read one of his short stories and make up something based on that for your players to run through? A lot of his stories are available online for free reading.

[Rumpus]

Second on the Alan Wake, so long as none of your players have played it. If you haven't played it, fix that immediately. It does contain plenty of Lovecraft-like elements. Plus if they don't get the benefit of the dream explaining the mechanics at the beginning of the campaign, they may be stuck running from the demonic hicks for a while before they figure it out.

Let me also throw in a plug for Silent Hill: Homecoming. Most of the Silent Hill games wouldn't translate well to an RPG, but this one has potential. [Spoiler alert!] It centers around a small town where, several centuries ago, the four founding families were members of a cult that made a pact with the "Old Gods". It's not clear what the founders got out of it, but their end of the deal was that every fifty years each family would sacrifice one of their children by a specific method that varied by family. The plot involves what happens when one of the families fails to make the sacrifice. For extra fun, make one or more of the PCs children of those families.

I think the main problem with directly porting Lovecraft's stories is that they involve mind-bending concepts that would have completely shattered the worldview of the average man during the era he was writing. In our post-X-Files, post-Star Wars world, the idea that simply encountering even a truly bizarre alien could shatter our sanity seems a little lame. And once you have Dawn of the Dead (let alone Shaun of the Dead), it's a little tough to take anything involving zombies seriously.

[ken-do-nim]

I'm planning on running a series of CoC games some time in the near future. Not having much experience as a Keeper under my belt, I've been trying to figure out which scenarios to run.

Thus, I thought I'd come to the Playground for advice: what are your favorite CoC scenarios? As a corollary to that question, what good scenarios are short (so we can fit the whole thing into a 5-hour session), relatively easy to run, and have lots of prop potentials?

Thanks in advance!

Head over to http://www.yog-sothoth.com/ for all things Call of Cthulhu. They've got excellent props for you to give out for The Haunting and other adventures, and many adventures are downloadable right from the site.

[comicshorse]

' Masks of Nyralathotep' is a classic for a reason, a globe-trotting campaign against a world-spanning cult. This was my first experience of Cthulhu and remains one of my favourite games ever.
' Beyond the Mountains of Madness' is a lot to read and absorb but it is well worth it. A campain set in the Artic where the enviroment is as much the eneny as the dark secrets the P.C.s will discover, it creates an incredible sense of the place and the dangers such expeditions endured.
. One word of advice though, new characters are hard to introduce once the P.C.s hit the Arctic, start each P.C with two characters, preferably one from the scintific contingent of the expedition and one from the engineers/dog handlers/sailors. This will ensure the P.Cs still have someone to play if ( almost certainly when) one P.C. dies and will mean they should always have something to be involved with rather than being left out of big sections of the adventure

[RebelRogue]

' Masks of Nyralathotep' is a classic for a reason, a globe-trotting campaign against a world-spanning cult. This was my first experience of Cthulhu and remains one of my favourite games ever.
It's a great compaign, but it's hardly something you finish in one session. There's a lot of material in that one, and I'm not sure it's a good idea for an inexperienced Keeper to run it as his first game.

[comicshorse]

A good point

[some guy]

Head over to http://www.yog-sothoth.com/ for all things Call of Cthulhu. They've got excellent props for you to give out for The Haunting and other adventures, and many adventures are downloadable right from the site.

I've ran The Haunting three times now, and those props really add something!

The Edge of Darkness in the 6th ed book is nice for starting players. I've recently ran Dinner with Susan (downloadable at Yog-Sothoth), that's a nice one too. I don't have too many experience with running short CoC sessions, but I've always wanted to do a camping/hiking scenario inspired by The Descent (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0435625/). Maybe replace those troglodytes with Mi-go.

[Darrin]

Start with The Haunting, which you can find in the main rulebook or in the Quickstart Rules on the Chaosium website (http://www.chaosium.com/article.php?story_id=87). This has become the traditional "1st scenario" for most CoC players.

After that, it depends a great deal on your personal preferences/play style and what kind of materials you can get ahold of. Most of the really great or memorable scenarios are going to be out-of-print, although they do get reprinted occasionally.

Other good starting scenarios:

The Travesty (from Resurrected II: Of Keys and Gates). No handouts but a fairly straightforward "perform the ritual or bad things happen" scenario.

What Goes Around, Comes Around (from The Unspeakable Oath #8/9). Wonderful little mystery that doesn't involve any big mythos monsters.


Some more particularly memorable scenarios:

Tatterdemalion (from Fatal Experiments). One of my absolute favorites. Masquerade Ball turns into murder mystery turns into WTF we're *where?!?!?*

Songs of the Fantari (Fatal Experiments). Deep Ones on a Mediterranean cruise/island/beach holiday!

The Pits of Bendal-Dolum (Cthulhu Classics). Sorta Indiana Jones meets brainsquick.

[Kuma Kode]

Is this game any good? It may very well be the best game I have ever seen.


I think that to get a really scary experience, it would take more than one 5 hour session of building up. You might have to deal with a slightly less unnerving campaign, possibly something made up. I've never played CoC but I'm a huge Lovecraft fan. Perhaps you could read one of his short stories and make up something based on that for your players to run through? A lot of his stories are available online for free reading. Unfortunately, seconded. Decent horror takes time. Most short scenarios end up as dark humor because the terror becomes forced to fit into the time allotment. Try to go for something subtle, maybe?

I did run a senario, not necessarily Call of Cthulhu but definitely Lovecraftian horror. It involved an old man who had sent each of the players letters (props) telling them how they've touched his life and that he wants to repay them. He tells them he wants to meet them and formally declare them in his will, as he has no children, is quite wealthy, and is well aware he can't take it with him.

They all get together, they chat, and he's called away for a phone call. The next thing they know, he and his wheelchair come tumbling down the stairs, and his frail body is utterly broken by the fall. He manages to whisper to the PC who was a medic to "open the safe" before he died from his injuries.

Note that there was a terrible snowstorm which pretty much had sealed them in over the course of the evening, so emergency help was going to be a bit late.

Naturally, the servants of the old man were pretty offended by the PCs asking "Where's the safe?" moments after the dude died, so there was some great roleplay and some OOC laughs about that.

They did manage to find the safe, and tried to pick it. It zapped them (it was enchanted). The group finally noticed tiny digits in the bottom right corners of their letters, each letter having one digit. With six characters, that makes three two-digit numbers: a safe combination. The players noticed the dates on the letters were different, and placed them in chronological order.

They opened the safe, which had nothing but a letter within it.

I had memorized the letter, which was itself a prop. It began with the typical lines "If you're reading this now, then I am dead..." and explained to them that they were now a part of something sinister, and there was no hope of ever having a normal life ever again. It quoted Edgar Allen Poe's "The Raven," and when the player approached the final line, I grabbed the prop from her hands and declared, coldly, "The lights go out." Immediately the group jumps into action mode, pulls out their penlights, and I release the letter, allowing the player to read aloud the final line, "I am so very sorry."

Thus began a paper trail, following clues to the library, finding a hollowed out book (The Raven) with a gun and more clues, that led them through the mansion as the entire setting became darker and increasingly hostile. First with strange sounds, then with obvious movement, hallucinations, an envelope being slid under the door with the next clue when every human was accounted for in the kitchen, things like that.

It finally led them to a secret room filled with forbidden tomes and all the collected knowledge about the Mythos the man had collected over his life. It was his legacy, and his will, that they take up his mantle and fight the darkness.

With every clue being a tattered piece of paper, the prop value was fantastic.

To this day, my group says it's the best scenario I ever ran.

Perhaps something like that could snag your party's fancy and set up a possible campaign? Pretty much it's an easter egg hunt directed by H.P. Lovecraft.

[Fuzzie Fuzz]

Ooh, excellent responses. I'm liking all of the ideas being tossed around, though I think I'll start with published scenarios 'till I get my Keeping chops, but I'm definitely keeping these in mind. Thanks guys!


I can't really give a fleshed out scenario, since I've never actually played or run Call of Cthulhu, but one thing I've always sort of thought would be scary is if a sleepy town full of very kind and proper people were really overrun by monsters, and the people just quietly ignore the horror around them. They pretend the savaged co-ed was killed by a bobcat, that the school field trip where all the kids fell into a coma accidentally stumbled on a gas leak, and just don't acknowledge the disappearances. When the investigators start poking around, the kind people go just a little past the point of reason to keep them from finding out. "We do hospitality right here in Bakersfield" (said to an investigator bound and gagged)

Sort of a Hot Fuzz meets Shadow over Innsmouth

Speaking of, the transformation of the body is always pretty creepy. Like in the Fly. Combine the two for the win. "Oh, looks like your hand got the local rash." *points at the crab-like claw that used to be an investigator's hand* "We know just the cure, I know my daughter came down with a bad case, and this cleared the issue right up" *takes out a bloody saw* "She got it all over her hands, then it spread to her legs... horrible, infection didn't break until it got to her neck."
Ooh, I love it. Deliciously creepy, with a great balance of "WTF?" and "Ohgodohgodohgod."


The entire plot of Alan Wake?

If you've never played that, this song (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeSUvoY2oUk), then?

If you can't be bothered to listen to that, then this verse should be enough for a plot seed.

In the dead of night she came to him with darkness in her eyes
Wearing a mourning gown, sweet words as her disguise
He took her in without a word for he saw his grave mistake
And vowed them both to silence deep beneath the lake
Now, if it's real or just a dream one mystery remains
For it is said, on moonless nights they may still haunt this place

Maybe combine that with the Hot Fuzz/Stepford horror mentioned above?

Tales of Terror (http://www.talesofterror.net/) is a good spot for ideas. I am particularly fond of this one (http://www.talesofterror.net/tale0137-typewriter.html) and this one (http://www.talesofterror.net/tale0004-grimportrait.html).
I haven't played Alan Wake; I don't have an XBox. That said, that song has a great set of concepts in it. Tales of Terror looks cool as well, I'll definitely check that out.

I think that to get a really scary experience, it would take more than one 5 hour session of building up. You might have to deal with a slightly less unnerving campaign, possibly something made up. I've never played CoC but I'm a huge Lovecraft fan. Perhaps you could read one of his short stories and make up something based on that for your players to run through? A lot of his stories are available online for free reading.
Yeah, I don't think I'm really going to try too hard to make it an actually scary experience; I don't think I'm capable of that (yet?) and I'm not sure my players would respond appropriately. I definitely have read tons of Lovecraft, but so have my players, so I think I'll go with Lovecraft-inspired plots more than his actual stories.


Let me also throw in a plug for Silent Hill: Homecoming. Most of the Silent Hill games wouldn't translate well to an RPG, but this one has potential. [Spoiler alert!] It centers around a small town where, several centuries ago, the four founding families were members of a cult that made a pact with the "Old Gods". It's not clear what the founders got out of it, but their end of the deal was that every fifty years each family would sacrifice one of their children by a specific method that varied by family. The plot involves what happens when one of the families fails to make the sacrifice. For extra fun, make one or more of the PCs children of those families.
I haven't played Silent Hill either, but that does sound like another great plot idea.

Head over to http://www.yog-sothoth.com/ for all things Call of Cthulhu. They've got excellent props for you to give out for The Haunting and other adventures, and many adventures are downloadable right from the site.
Ooh, shiny. I've signed up and started lurking. Thanks!

' Masks of Nyralathotep' is a classic for a reason, a globe-trotting campaign against a world-spanning cult. This was my first experience of Cthulhu and remains one of my favourite games ever.
' Beyond the Mountains of Madness' is a lot to read and absorb but it is well worth it. A campain set in the Artic where the enviroment is as much the eneny as the dark secrets the P.C.s will discover, it creates an incredible sense of the place and the dangers such expeditions endured.
. One word of advice though, new characters are hard to introduce once the P.C.s hit the Arctic, start each P.C with two characters, preferably one from the scintific contingent of the expedition and one from the engineers/dog handlers/sailors. This will ensure the P.Cs still have someone to play if ( almost certainly when) one P.C. dies and will mean they should always have something to be involved with rather than being left out of big sections of the adventure
Ah, now this is what I was really looking for: pre-published plots of peril and perdition. I'll look into these, thanks!

I've ran The Haunting three times now, and those props really add something!

The Edge of Darkness in the 6th ed book is nice for starting players. I've recently ran Dinner with Susan (downloadable at Yog-Sothoth), that's a nice one too. I don't have too many experience with running short CoC sessions, but I've always wanted to do a camping/hiking scenario inspired by The Descent (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0435625/). Maybe replace those troglodytes with Mi-go.
Noted, thanks!

Start with The Haunting, which you can find in the main rulebook or in the Quickstart Rules on the Chaosium website (http://www.chaosium.com/article.php?story_id=87). This has become the traditional "1st scenario" for most CoC players.

After that, it depends a great deal on your personal preferences/play style and what kind of materials you can get ahold of. Most of the really great or memorable scenarios are going to be out-of-print, although they do get reprinted occasionally.

Other good starting scenarios:

The Travesty (from Resurrected II: Of Keys and Gates). No handouts but a fairly straightforward "perform the ritual or bad things happen" scenario.

What Goes Around, Comes Around (from The Unspeakable Oath #8/9). Wonderful little mystery that doesn't involve any big mythos monsters.


Some more particularly memorable scenarios:

Tatterdemalion (from Fatal Experiments). One of my absolute favorites. Masquerade Ball turns into murder mystery turns into WTF we're *where?!?!?*

Songs of the Fantari (Fatal Experiments). Deep Ones on a Mediterranean cruise/island/beach holiday!

The Pits of Bendal-Dolum (Cthulhu Classics). Sorta Indiana Jones meets brainsquick.
Ooh, excellent. I'll look these up.

I did run a senario, not necessarily Call of Cthulhu but definitely Lovecraftian horror. [snip] Pretty much it's an easter egg hunt directed by H.P. Lovecraft.
AMAZING. I'm definitely going to do something with this idea at some point; it's brilliant.

So it looks like I'll be running The Haunting first, and then one of the others suggested in this thread. After that, I may take the ideas presented here and write something inspired by them myself. Thanks again!

[Kuma Kode]

So your friends are fans of Lovecraft as well? That might come back to bite you.

The fear of the unknown is Lovecraft's favorite device, and the tension of his stories comes from the slow dribble of information over the course of the story, with most questions still left unanswered. Many fans will be able to identify monsters quite quickly, or even guess what you might use based on the scenario.

For instance, if there's any noticeable body of water mentioned nearby, Deep Ones immediately spring to mind. While they still might be able to avoid metagaming and roleplay their character's fear and lack of knowledge, THEY won't be scared, and so the whole thing turns into a game of charades with them merely pretending to be playing a horror.

If your friends are familiar with Lovecraft, I highly encourage you to use the devices and feel of Lovecraft's work without using monsters or scenarios directly from it. Take plots from other fantasy/horror, or even sci-fi, and rehash them for Lovecraftian horror. I have no idea where it was, but I remember reading an adventure about a machine in some rich, eccentric guy's basement that gained sentience after scanning several forbidden tomes, possibly even the Necronomicon, due to the magic contained.

So you can take this rogue AI plotline and transport it into the Lovecraftian horror, with no chance of your friends accidentally ruining the horror for themselves because they've read the Shadow Out of Time or something. It can be downright terrifying, too. After all, everything this AI knows it learned from the Necronomicon.

If you're planning on starting a campaign, that's what I would suggest. Build your own plotline and setting that borrows the feel of the Mythos without actually using it.

[Clepto]

' Masks of Nyralathotep' is a classic for a reason, a globe-trotting campaign against a world-spanning cult. This was my first experience of Cthulhu and remains one of my favourite games ever.


Masks is one of the greatest campaigns ever written by man. I highly recommend it. The group I'm playing in is knee-deep in this one right now.

Masks also transitions nicely into Day of the Beast, which is another great module (though not as well-produced).

One thing to keep in mind with CoC is the mortality rate of the Investigators. Combat is quick and brutal. Masks is certainly no exception, and it's pretty much a given with our group that our survival is not at all guaranteed. While we haven't had anyone die or go crazy yet, we also haven't run into much supernatural stuff either. Yet.

That being said, if your players like Lovecraftian horror, and don't mind a lethal game, Masks is probably the best thing you could run. Go poke around on yogsothoth.com for a bit first though, they've got a lot of advice for pretty much everything Cthulhu.