Call of Cthulhu Horror Session: RMS TITANIC

[Mojake]

Hi guys,

I'm looking to DM a session of CoC for my group, and I'm really drawn to the idea of it taking place on the maiden (and final) voyage of the RMS Titanic.

I want it to be psychologically horrifying, with tension and terror too. I'm a bit low on ideas at the moment though, so I come to you asking for inspiration! I'd obviously like it to tie in with the ship sinking.

I've had ideas such as the iceberg being a cover up for an Elder Being tearing a hole in the vessel. Other things such as the Investigators starting out as psychos (which they're unaware of) and murdering everybody on board and crashing the ship. They wouldn't be aware that they're the bad guys until the twist at the end (think something similar to Jacob's Ladder there).

I just want it to be scary. We played a really fun session before, but it played more like a horror movie. I really want to **** with my player's heads, as well as scare them.

Thanks for reading

[Geddy2112]

Take the hotel from The Shining, and make it into a giant cruise ship. Obviously you can't have a cruise ship without people, but maybe there are some people on the boat that are not really there, or they have long since departed the mortal world. The themes of the characters not being able to see reality for what it is, and never being sure who or what is real makes for seriously good horror.

Also, why have the iceberg be the end? Why not the beginning? Maybe it is not an iceberg, but a spire from a tower in Ryleth....

[Mojake]

Take the hotel from The Shining, and make it into a giant cruise ship. Obviously you can't have a cruise ship without people, but maybe there are some people on the boat that are not really there, or they have long since departed the mortal world. The themes of the characters not being able to see reality for what it is, and never being sure who or what is real makes for seriously good horror.

Also, why have the iceberg be the end? Why not the beginning? Maybe it is not an iceberg, but a spire from a tower in Ryleth....

I really like The Shining idea, that movie was great, and the book was even spookier. I'll definitely look to that for inspiration.

As for your 2nd suggestion, my players aren't too well versed in Lovecraft lore... As in zilch. So I don't think it'll have enough of an effect; but I guess I could play with the idea.

[NRSASD]

Maybe have cultists on board the ship deliberately scuttle it as an offering to their Elder beings. The captain sends the PCs to investigate to find the cultists, while the crew attempts to repair the damage. Perhaps he doesn't want to evacuate until the cultists are found (to avoid sabotage on the open waters) and until there truly is no hope. The PCs try to track down those responsible, but as it progresses they realize more and more people (including the bridge and engineering) are in on it and are thwarting their efforts. Make sure the PCs know the ship is sinking is ever-present in their minds, and as it gets more and more hazardous make the crew be more and more overt in their cultist ways (summoning monsters into the crowd, sacrificing isolated people, killing any resistance, etc.). Ultimately have it culminate with the Elder being arriving and destroying the ship (PC survival optional).

Bonus points if you name the ship RMS Olympic, and explain later on that its name was changed right before it set sail on its maiden voyage from RMS Titanic. (RMS Olympic was its sister ship)

Hope this helps!

[illyahr]

The simplest answer would be the ship crashing into an iceberg was to keep whatever happened on the ship contained. Make it so that the ship was "unzipping" a pocket dimension with an Eldritch Abomination stuck in it. The Captain crashed the ship to prevent it from opening all the way but then the ship was pulled backwards into the tear (the ship didn't sink, it was pulled in with the EA). From there, you can do whatever you want with the story and just have the end result being that the ship somehow ends up back in the real world and sinks for real due to combat damage.

This setup lets the players do pretty much whatever they want as they find out the 'true' story of the Titanic.

[Driderman]

How about only having the ship voyage as part of the story? The investigators could stumble on evidence that one of the passengers on the Titanic are planning to sink the ship, called by the maddening dreams of Cthulhu, as part of a prior investigation. The investigators book passage on the ship to prevent this, and on the ship they have to investigate to figure out who exactly is the culprit only to find out too late that it is the captain himself, who purposely steers the vessel into an iceberg and laughs maniacally as Deep Ones emerge from the waters to pull the drowning passengers down to whatever horrible fate.

Of course, the whole premise of doing a Titanic story either requires your players to enjoy a no-win condition (ship sinks), you to re-write history (you saved the ship from sinking!) or having some meaningful other goals to achieve during the story to not make it feel like a railroad with only one possible end-scenario (like saving those specific persons that the Deep Ones were actually targeting, or somesuch).

[Elvenoutrider]

I feel like the pcs should come to the conclusion that the ship needs to sink. I'm not having any immediate ideas but a few things I know about the titanic were that there were several vaults with mysterious cargo, an Egyptian mummy headed for nyc, several vintage cars (have these crates actually holding elder thing machines or undead minions.)

There are a few different routes you can take. If you the Egyptian theme then nyarlthalotetep could be shape shifting amount the Crew and sew Mayhem. The performers could be planning on acting out the king in yellow, deep ones could crawl up the hull nightly to kidnap drunks off the deck

[Driderman]

A story that revolves around the players preventing the sinking of the Titanic, until at the 11th hour they realize that it needs to sink, or All Mankind Will Be Doomed? Yeah, that sounds like a Call of Cthulhu scenario

[Strigon]

First of all, I think the OOC knowledge that - no matter what they do - this campaign will end in disaster will be a great way of keeping the feeling of helplessness going from the start, which I think is a big part of CoC.
Secondly, I'm not sure the campaign should be focused on them trying to stop somebody from sinking the ship, for the above reasons. They know it'll sink. Which means that either they fail, or they realize it has to sink. Either way, it's meant to be a huge moment, but with the knowledge there from the start, it'll be very "meh."
Having them sink the Titanic has merit, but also might be too obvious. In the end, it's your choice what should happen (and your players, obviously. Beware of the fact that they might not want to sacrifice themselves and the Titanic, even to save the world.)

If I might offer a suggestion on how I think I'd do it?
Have the meat of the story happen long before the ship "Hits the iceberg" (in quotes because you might decide it goes down another way). Things hit the fan in the last few hours before it sinks, and the "iceberg" should be the ultimate climax - though not necessarily the end.
Everything before the iceberg is something that they know can only end one way.
Everything after it, though? That's when anything could happen. Use that period where they have no clue what's happening. It's where the game shines most, after all.

[Driderman]

First of all, I think the OOC knowledge that - no matter what they do - this campaign will end in disaster will be a great way of keeping the feeling of helplessness going from the start, which I think is a big part of CoC.
Secondly, I'm not sure the campaign should be focused on them trying to stop somebody from sinking the ship, for the above reasons. They know it'll sink. Which means that either they fail, or they realize it has to sink. Either way, it's meant to be a huge moment, but with the knowledge there from the start, it'll be very "meh."
Having them sink the Titanic has merit, but also might be too obvious. In the end, it's your choice what should happen (and your players, obviously. Beware of the fact that they might not want to sacrifice themselves and the Titanic, even to save the world.)

If I might offer a suggestion on how I think I'd do it?
Have the meat of the story happen long before the ship "Hits the iceberg" (in quotes because you might decide it goes down another way). Things hit the fan in the last few hours before it sinks, and the "iceberg" should be the ultimate climax - though not necessarily the end.
Everything before the iceberg is something that they know can only end one way.
Everything after it, though? That's when anything could happen. Use that period where they have no clue what's happening. It's where the game shines most, after all.

There's a huge difference between a campaign or a one-shot session, though. As far as I understand the OP wants to play a single session, not a campaign.