I wanna have an example of actual game but there's nothing with exactly brp. Can i watch CoC campaigns to get basics, the system flows how it works in general?

I was just looking at the background for an NPC and it had the comment "no police record; no military service"

How would an investigator go about determining this information about someone, say in the 1920s, assuming they knew the person's name, birthplace, and city of residence?

So I've been wanting to do this for quite a while but always struggled with writing it. I think I've finally come up with a decent scenario idea to make this work but wanted to put it out there to see what people think could be improved. Its not a direct adaption of the original work but is heavily inspired by it. For those not familiar with Amigara fault, its about a cliff side opening up after a earthquake revealing human shaped holes that people become convinced were made just for them. Which drives them to strip down and enter the holes disappearing into the mountain. The holes due connect all the way to other side of the mountain but have warped into long cracks and fissures. The people coming out have been elongated and disfigured into wirey monsters in the shape of the fissures.

The story would begin with the sudden disappearence of a girl in her twenties. She has seemingly run away as her car is also missing. The investigators would play as significant people in the girls life (i.e. Siblings, lovers, etc) who want to find her. One of the investogators would be a PI hired after the cops show little care. I imagine the game starting with a meeting of all the investigators. The PI will have found that the girl was last seen heading in the direction of (Insert town from your country) which has been abandoned for several years after a large earthquake had demolished the town and it was declared unsafe due to unstable ground. They also are presented a photo found in the girls room of strange human shaped holes in a cliff. One of the holes circled with a note saying "My hole". Here there could be an opportunity for a sanity test with whoever fails feeling like they notice one of the holes seems like it was made for them which you can use to continually pester them with throughout the scenario.

They head to the town where they will learn various things. Namely the old journals of the lead geologist sent to assess the area after the quake which detail the fall of his crew into madness including himself. Old local newspapers of the human shaped holes. I figured the geologist would have been the one to recomment the town be closed off recognizing the danger the holes posed. Honestly I need help with the clues here cause I dont want the notebook by the geologist to be the answer to all the mysteries of whats happening. Maybe Journals from the crew mates could be found as well detailing monsters? Maybe one of them decides the holes are gifts of god that converts people into tall angelic figures? Something along those lines.

They can investigate the site itself which will prompt more sanity checks to find "Their Hole". I was also thinking whenever they are traveling through the woods they could be stalked or attacked by monsters from the other end of the holes. One of the monsters would ultimately end up being the girl who disappeared. I figured the scenario would end with them discovering the monsters stalking them were the people who had entered the holes, whether its revealed partially by the notes or investigating the cliff on both sides and making the connection. They could also kill the one monster and then study it to determine it was in fact her. Any that survive would eventually feel the compulsion to return and enter their holes.

Thats the rough idea so far, would love to hear any comments that could help improve it!

Thank you.

I really like the idea of having my players traverse the globe seeking fragments of a great mystery....but from what I've heard these two modules have a fairly poor reputation. Still I'm tempted.

Hello!

I am not a new keeper but I will be introducing CoC to a new group and the nature of this group is we alternate systems for each session. I love CoC and am looking forward to running it but I must admit I usually run 2 to 3 session scenarios. What scenario would you recommend? Paper Chase? It's not as interesting as Edge of Darkness but I think I could finish it in one 3 hour session. Is there another good scenario for one 3 hour session? The Haunting?

I'm hoping to start up a game of old-school Cthulhu (no pulp!) with four players - one has played CoC before but it's been a while, two have only played 5e, and the fourth has no RPG experience. What's the best way to explain the differences here? I don't want to get halfway through the scenario then have to drop the campaign because it didn't fit my players' expectations.

So, in the opening chase when the cultists are fleeing the scene of Jackon's murder, the notes give a description of the vehicle and it's registration. My players were clever and lucky enough to pursue the cultists to their car and retreive that info. However, as great and thorough as the 7e book is, it doesn't provide any information on what to do if the players want to follow this information up, which of course they would want to do, because it's gold dust.

I can of course make up who owns the car and what happens when they're found, as the chapter does detail the names of the cultists and what to do if the players catch one.

What I want to know is... is it possible and legal to request a name and address associated with a license plate number from the DMV in New York in 1925, and how? Basically, do my players rock up at an office and get what they want, or do they encounter red tape? Also, interesting suggestions for where it leads? I don't specifically need help with this bit but I might steal good ideas, and as much hand-waving as I might end up doing I think this is a bit of an oversight in the book and can imagine other keepers asking a similar question in the future.

Cheers to any and all with advice.

Hi everyone,

I will run Jeff Moeller's excellent scenario Ladybug, Ladybug, Fly Away Home for the third time soon (maybe on saturday) and I am doing a complete overhaul of my prep, music and handouts (maybe I'll share them here afterward if you are interested).

Among those things, there is the quote.

You see, I have the habit of opening the first game session of a scenario (especially if it is a one-shot) with a quote, like how some films do (for instance, Ridley Scott's Black Hawk Down opens with a quote wrongfully attributed to Plato).

Anyway, when running Ladybug, I used to open the game with this line from David Fincher's Se7en :

"Ernest Hemingway once wrote, "The world is a fine place and worth fighting for." I agree with the second part."

However, in retrospect, the quote feels too long and maybe a little off topic (plus it is a little confusing since it's of a guy quoting someone else). So, I am looking for a new one to use.

I thought about Edmund Burke's "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." but it also feels off topic since this quote is more about not picking side.

I also thought about this part of Tom Waits' song Mr Siegal :

"You got to tell me brave captain,

Why are the wicked so strong,

How do the angels get to sleep,

When the devil leaves the porchlight on."

But it is quite long...

This is why I am asking you guys (well, to those who are already familiar with Ladybug). I need a quote that would be short or at least not too long, with an ominous vibe, possibly evil, the Devil, Death or God as a wrathful entity.

Thanks in advance!

What's your fav. Strange landscape scenarios ? It could be something like dream quest of unknown kadath , rlyeh city of sleeping cthulhu ,lost city in carcosa or something out of ordinary

Happy Sunday to you all!

Have an interest in Call of Cthulhu scenarios like The Dare, Berlin: The Wicked City, The Two Headed Serpent and more?

I invite you to check out my group's actual play channel: The Kona Lodge!

https://youtube.com/@TheKonaLodge?si=IcS5-MAB_bt5u6S3

Currently we have uploaded:

1- A lightly edited actual play of Kevin Ross' 'The Dare'. In the style of Stranger Things or The Goonies, this scenario is set in the 1980s and a group of young kids has been dared by their local bully to spend Halloween night in a spooky haunted house. Is the place really haunted? Who will survive until dawn? Tune in to find out!

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwOAVhrXHkNwv5KkztW97V1zqbk70AzxO

2- A unedited Berlin: The Wicked City campaign. Join a group that over the course of 10 years includes: a silent film actor, his ex-aviator stunt-man, a veteran with dreams of being a musician, a lesbian painter who soon sets her eyes on Anita Berber, a gay sexologist working for the Berlin sex institute, and a dilettante businesswoman with anti-Nazi politics. This campaign is probably our favorite cthulhu campaign/scenario we've ever done.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwOAVhrXHkNw0B8gdDn3Qll9mg0E42ArJ

3- A lightly edited playthrough of God's Teeth. A new Delta Green campaign in the same vein as season 1 of True Detective. 4 agents are given orders to raid a orphanage and eliminate all the workers there. After the complicated opening operation, the campaign continues over the next 20 years as the Agents come to understand that their past failures on that mission had long lasting effects on others and themselves. (We are still playing this one and will be uploading new episodes weekly.)

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwOAVhrXHkNz_0ibnnU7EYWoznDcv5M2a

4- Other one shots such as "Cursed be the City", a caveman era one shot where players are neanderthals; The Curse of Black Teeth Keetes, a pulp scenario involving a ghost island and zombie pirates; Progeny, a pulp scenario involving the Chicago World's Far and robots that seem to have artificial intelligence, Hunter and Hunted, another pulp scenario where players compete with other pulp villains to hunt down a dangerous game. Of these, only "Cursed be the City" is edited.

We will also begin uploading edited episodes of our completed "Two Headed Serpent" campaign later this month!

Youtube is our main channel, but we are also starting to upload God's Teeth episodes on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and more.

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0jGW0uNeKff7I9PMfyTBh8

Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/d74b5dc8-d6cd-4c82-9009-424400e8ad0f/the-kona-lodge---rpg-actual-play-podcast

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-kona-lodge-rpg-actual-play-podcast/id1743603987

CastBox: https://castbox.fm/channel/id6130155?country=us

IHeartRadio: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-the-kona-lodge-rpg-actual-172627948/

HI all! I'm a new keeper who just ran my second Call of Cthulhu scenario just looking for some tips on how to improve things/ make investigations feel more interesting, high-stakes, and scary. I've been DMing D&D 5e for about 4 years and my group of friends has recently started branching into other ttrpgs, with CoC being the first, so I get that some of my frustration is just at getting used to DMing a new system and being used to being a good DM in one system not fully translating to another.

I'm running Genius Loci for a group of friends and we just finished up our first session, a few hours before the ritual starts. The session went off the rails a little bit from the start. My players assumed that the asylum would be inaccessible and they'd have to sneak in, and so they essentially concocted a half-cocked break-in plan without doing any recon, even after I explicitly said "well this is a hospital like any other, that presumably has a front desk", and mentioning the superintendent would be good to talk to. Instead, we had a nosy journalist getting in to speak to another patient about their treatment, a priest coming in to try to give people last rites, a magician trying to find clients for a magic show, and then a combo of two characters that acted crazy enough for the hospital staff to assume they needed to be examined and institutionalized.

If you're familiar with the scenario, this is really not how it goes. The group is supposed to have a pretty straightforward meeting with the superintendent which then leads to investigation and snooping and the final climax. Instead, it ended with 3 of the group needing to violently break out of the hospital, one who made a terrible impression, and another who did pretty well in her investigation but was just associated with these other lunatics because she came in at the same time. It was really fun and funny, and I don't think we've ever laughed harder as a group at the magician absolutely fumbling his entry, but it 1) derailed the investigation since much of the scenario takes place at the asylum and assumes that they get certain impressions from the staff/ superintendent, and 2) completely shifted the mood from horror to comedy, which was fun, but it was hard for me to get back from.

On top of that, once we started investigating, I wasn't sure how to make the mechanics interesting? Someone would ask a question, and I would say sure give me a library use roll, or an occult roll, but I'm not sure how to narrative how that is interesting? In D&D it's kind of straightforward because the investigations are usually fairly simple and quick and lead to a big fight, but in Call of Cthulhu, investigating is the point and is supposed to feel high stakes and terrifying, and I'm not really sure how to do that when I'm just asking someone to go look in a library. Also, my players have been stumped about where they are supposed to go/ what kinds of questions to ask. They asked me who was in town and so I gave some ideas, but otherwise they seem to not know what to do with an investigation scenario? Once they all got out of the asylum they essentially re-racked and started planning re-entry, which is again a very D&D attitude towards it. When I suggested they might want to do some more investigating they were a bit frustrated and asked "investigate what?".

Any tips on maintaining that spooky atmosphere and also giving the investigation/snooping aspects a bit more meat so they are really interesting and heavy would be much appreciated!

I've been reading through a fair few scenarios and though I enjoy the lot of them I do find myself somewhat pining for stuff outside the dominant Arkham/Massachussets countryside vibe.

Basically the more "different" the better. I'm aware of Berlin Wicked City though it does hit a lot of the same 1920's urban notes, Horror on the Orient Express seems solid.

Necropolis is one I had a lot of fun running though it's extremely short, definitely interested in more stuff like that but just more expansive. Distant expeditions and "foreign" cityscapes, ancient ruins and digsites and the like.

So what are your favourite scenarios, long or short that take place away from the more usual Arkham/New England setting/vibe? Looking for something a little different to add to the collection.

Minor spoilers for Edge of Darkness, The Necropolis and Wail of the Witch

I am in the process of runing a call of cthulhu campaign for a small group of college friends. I have so-far strung together The Necropolis, Edge of Darkness and now The Wail of the Witch. I have had a running theme of Nyarlethotep and his avatar, the Dark Man. I want to have an insidious cult that hunts and subverts the investigators that the players will ultimately have to thwart.

In The Necropolis, they got a little bit of understanding of Nyarlethotep and his dark intentions. In Edge of Darkness, they banished the lurker and found an amulet with the symbol of Nyarlethotep etched upon it.

I have not finished The Wail of the Witch yet, but I was looking for ideas for this cult's motives and how they could fit in with the story of Mercy Booth. My ideas so far are that are likely being manipulated by Nyarlethotep into unleashing some terrible evil onto the world under the guise of resurrecting a dead god. I am still trying to flesh them out a bit though. Any ideas, fellow keepers?

Does anyone have any thoughts on an ideal party composition by role for relatively new CoC players? I know they're all broadly "investigators", but should it be something like - Private Eye, Fighter, Mystic/Occultist, and Thief (in very broadly defined roles)?

​

Any strong opinions?

Curious if anyone listens to certain music or audiobooks or podcasts or anything to set the mood for yourself to prep a session? Diving into a longer campaign and need some things to get me in the sick and twisted headspace😂

I'm basically doing a loose adaptation of alone against the dark to multiplayer; basically my idea is the first act is Professor Gilere sending them across the planet to find old records of the magnetic poles shifting from Archeology records of various ancient cultures.

To so I'm going to slightly modify existing scenarios where each record of the ancient Ice age will be added at the end as almost an Easter egg (kinda like the MCU did with the infinity stones).

What to do with Act Two and Three yet I don't know yet.

The question is which scenarios can I use? I will use necropolis as a jumping off point.

I just saw a post with a really awesome poster for a scenario some people are making and it got me thinking about how I’ve never looked for non-official CoC material.

What are some good places I can find and support creators for this game?

Are there any resources for running CoC in Hong Kong? The only thing I'm aware of that's similar is the Sassoon Files for 1920s Shanghai; wondering if that's similar enough to adapt historically or wildly different?

Folks,

I’m running Masks & the players have the portion of the seal from Nuri.

They are trying to decide whether they should smuggle it out of Egypt and asking the advise of Dr. Ali if they need it.

I don’t want him to give them bad advise.

Reading the China section I can’t determine if having both halves matter. Could someone point me to where I should be looking?

Thanks

I'm just now reaching out into new RPG spaces. I'm starting with blades in the dark, but I think it'd be fun to be the person who introduces all my friends to new RPGs since everyone solely plays DnD 5e. I have zero clue what CoC is about besides that there are sanity levels, you're investigators (?), and you can expect to die (?) that's the extent of my knowledge on the game

‘Ello!

For those that run CoC on foundry, what modules do you use? The 7th ed ruleset is there, but very sparse so it looks like I have a lot of manual occupation, skill, equipment entry to do that would be nice to minimize when possible…

I’m getting ready to start a CoC run in the near-ish future and currently run PF1 on foundry.

Thanks!

Who's going to Chaosium Con? Who was there this year? Love to connect with fellow gamers!

Starting last August and running pretty much every week on Tuesdays at 8:00, a group of unlikely heroes have been propelled across Europe on a journey of dubious motivation and even more dubious prospect. Events thus far have swept them from London to France and on into Italy. There is still such a long way to go however(across space AND time), and one of our number has regrettably had to leave the story, taking a quartet down to trio. We are therefore looking to see if anyone is interested in taking up their ticket and taking on the struggle).

We’re very much a roleplay heavy group with an emphasis on immersion, drama and the existential horror that is Lovecraft but that’s not to say there’s no time for a joke in amongst events, and though we aren’t playing Pulp, there have been plenty of opportunities for action- albeit brutal. Hopefully any player will be in it for a long haul, between 8pm and 10:30 pm on that Tuesday.

More details available, plus an online chronicle is posted after every session which runs at 32 chapters thus far, though that is obviously spoiler heavy so may only be useful to someone who joins and wants to get stuck in, though I could suggest a couple of spoiler free-ish chapters that convey the style.

If any of this sounds interesting then drop a line and I’ll gladly share more. There’s a brief time before the train departs again but we are imagining early June is when it pulls away from Milan to the squares, spires and waterways of 1923 Venice.

Thanks for reading and hope to hear from interested travellers/existential heroes ready to stake everything to save the world/ someone just interested in a good story, soon,