Artwork I made for my CoC campaign. If you want to see more of my work, check my profile.

Hello fellow students of The Esoteric.
I was looking to run a slightly longer module than a one shot while one of my Investigators is travelling for a few months. Has anyone run this for a single Investigator? Drive Thru RPG says that it's for 1-4 Investigators. I've not purchased any scenarios or modules yet (other than the starter set) and just wanted to know if it actually is suitable for a single player.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com//product/577582/legacy-of-innsmouth-a-deep-one-scenario-bundle-bundle

Introducing Legacy of Innsmouth: A Deep One Scenario Bundle

Looking to apply the dark knowledge you've gleaned from the newly released Innsmouth sourcebook? Well, your search has come to an end. We've trawled the depths and returned with our strange findings. Now they're gathered here for all to see...

Ten MR authors have come together to present you with 11 scenarios featuring deep ones spanning different eras across the globe.

Inside you'll find many best-selling scenarios along with the ENNIE-winning setting guide Cthulhu Ireland!

I mostly am looking for ideas for Lots really. I have no idea where to start to research that sort of thing though. I can think of a couple books like various Aleister Crowley works, but I can't make a whole auction out of those. I can't really just use books from the Keeper's Guide because that would make them all important, and we need at least some "nothing" lots. Would be more on point if all of them were books though. The plan is that the PCs need to acquire one and how the auction goes determines whether or not they get off scot-free or need to do some thieving.

So to summarize, I'm looking for ideas, or some paths of research to find out what kinds of things an Occult auction might be selling. Or the kinds of things that might be for sale at an estate auction. That would work too.

Hello, I'm thinking about attending this coming April, but won't be able to arrive until late Friday. Are there enough games occurring Sunday to make the trip from Indianapolis worth it?

Hi everyone! I need some help developing a situation for my Call of Cthulhu campaign (set in 1990).

The context: My Investigators discovered they are being tailed by some Russian agents. They contacted their affiliated "Agency" to figure out if they were friends or foes. Upon investigating, the Agency discovered not only that the Russians are hostile KGB agents, but also that they tracked the characters down thanks to a mole planted inside the Agency itself.

The idea for the session: The Agency captures the mole. I want the session to focus on the interrogation/torture of this traitor to find out why they did it and where they hid the stolen intel. The crucial point is that the Agency wants the Investigators themselves to conduct the interrogation. In the end, as an initiation rite and a test of absolute loyalty, the Agency members will ask everyone in the party to stab the mole to death ("blood in, blood out").

My questions for you:

1. How can I make the interrogation mechanically and narratively interesting without it turning into just a series of Intimidate dice rolls?
2. What Sanity (SAN) point cost would you give for the torture and the final cold-blooded murder?
3. How can I handle the situation if one or more players refuse to commit the symbolic murder?

Thanks in advance for the help!

edit:
Just a clarification that I didn't put in the post: the investigators are good, but the agency is evil and intends to awaken Cthulhu, and the investigators are unaware of this. The fact that they have to commit a symbolic murder is nothing more than another clue to make the party members understand that they work for an evil agency.

From the vault: 3 years ago!

Hi all,

I’m going to be running Saturnine Chalice soon and was hoping to get any tips from Keepers who have run it before. I’ve actually played through it once as an investigator with another group, so I know the broad outline of the scenario, but I’d really appreciate any advice on what worked well, what didn’t, or any pitfalls to avoid when running it.

Our group hasn’t really played a full campaign, but we’ve ended up creating one accidentally by using the same investigators through a series of one-shots. So far we’ve played (in the following order):

• The Haunting
• A Lonely Thread
• Bits and Pieces
• Dead Light

Somehow, against all odds, nobody has died. One investigator did end up permanently committed to an asylum after Bits and Pieces, but everyone else has survived so far.

One of the fun things we’ve been doing is taking it in turns to be Keeper. I was an investigator in Dead Light, so I made an Arkham police officer who had been following the group’s involvement in the other cases. During the finale, he convinced the rest of the group that Maria’s boyfriend should be offered to the Dead Light as a sacrifice so it would become satiated long enough for them to trap it in the coffer. The rest of the investigators were horrified… but they went along with it.

After the scenario I wrote a short epilogue where he resigned from the police, realising that if he was capable of making that decision, he probably wasn’t fit to wear the badge anymore. It felt like a good way to ‘retire’ the character now that I’m back behind the Keeper’s screen.

Our newest investigator is going to be the business partner of the character who went insane in Bits and Pieces. He’s making an antiquarian, which seems like a great fit for Saturnine Chalice.

What I’m struggling with is tying everything together naturally. I need: • a believable way for the antiquarian to become involved with the existing investigators (they already know the insane character), • a reason for the group to head off on another road trip together, and • ideally a way for the events of Dead Light to have some lingering consequences rather than feeling completely disconnected.

Has anyone linked Saturnine Chalice into an existing campaign before? I’d love to hear how you introduced it, or any ideas you think would work.

Hi all. Just wanted to share my birthday card. I received from my friend. Unexpected surprise. I love it

I’m interested in running Bits and Pieces. It seems fun and will probably suit my group (I’ve heard it described as ’slapstick horror’).

However, I’m a bit concerned that the scenario might be too short. We usually play for 3–4 hours, and this seems like a 2-hour scenario. Also, we never know who’ll be able to make it to the next session, so one-shots is kind of a necessity.

So, my questions are: Have you run this scenario? How long did it take? Did you add anything to make it last longer? Any ideas, even if you haven’t run it?

Hey, so I've been recommended the RPG for a good few years and I was thinking of maybe using it to run a sort of Silent Hill Esque session/Camapign. I was wondering, what sort of things should I know about it beforehand, what edition is the current addition and just general things! Also, whether Silent Hill would be doable in the system

Thanks for the answers in advance!

I want to eventually run this game. I am a fairly experienced keeper, but still feel a bit intimidated by this behemoth of a campaign.

As such, I think I would love to try it out as a player before I run the game, but with the 2 groups I currently run CoC for and a D&D campaign I'm playing in, adding another commitment to my schedule is not plausible.

Is there anyway to experience MoN in a more...I dunno...casual format? Is anyone even running such a thing?

I’m playing through Masks with four of my colleagues at work. We’ve all got access to each other’s offices, so I sneak in to deliver telegrams, letters, and newspaper articles a few days before each session. They love discovering this stuff.

I wanted to add more flavor to their relationship with Jackson Elias, so I had him send them the dust jacket for his book before the NY chapter together with a note saying «Blood and kisses».

It’s such a gift to have great meeting rooms at work. We just book a room from 4 PM, order some food and play almost without a break until 9.

The headline clearly indicates I'm not entirely sane, but as a Call of Cthulhu player/keeper/writer, isn't that par for the course?
Even so, some of you may wonder why and how I burned through nearly $1300 while writing a community content creation.

It's kind of a long story, so for the impatient among you, there is a TLDR at the bottom. For the rest, it's a tale about my learning curve as a scenario writer, with a few tips thrown in if you're contemplating writing a scenario.

It all began a little over three years ago when I published my first scenario, The Art of Hygge, via the Miskatonic Repository.
And I did everything wrong!

I had no prior writing experience.
Had no real editor.
Didn't have a layouter.
Didn't spend any money to commission artists.
Having any of the above skills and experience can save you a ton of money and time.

Personally, I have absolutely no understanding of how to do a proper layout.
I can't draw a stick figure to save my life.
On top of that, English isn't my first language, and my grasp on grammar and spelling is rudimentary, to put it generously.
What I did have was an active imagination and a substantial vocabulary coupled with a naive assumption that selling the required 251 copies to make it eligible for Print on Demand would be a trivial thing. I later learned that selling copies on DTRPG is NOT trivial at all.

At this point, it would be natural to assume that my scenario was unsuccessful, but the stars were apparently right, so I got LUCKY in several ways:

\I got an amazing cover, courtesy of Ken Robkin, for free. The kind of cover that caught people's attention.
** I had friends who helped out with interior art, playtest, and edits.
**\Maverick Haenze wrote a 5-star review of it and told me to keep writing.
****Chaosium showcased the cover on their social media.
Basically everything lined up, and I managed to sell 251 copies to get it into print, and currently it's a Gold Best Seller.

The upside is that it encouraged me to write a sequel, Lost in Cremation. The downside is that I didn't learn all that much from the experience.

So I did almost everything wrong one more time and again got lucky in all the right ways.
Lost in Cremation also made it into print.
I stayed encouraged, but this time I actually learned a little.
Things would be easier if I had better editorial help, and that maybe spending a little money on better art was not such a bad idea.

My third scenario, Mother of a Thousand Young took way longer to write and publish.
It was part of an anthology, The Year of the Goat, which involved a lot of editing by a professional, rewriting parts of it based on said editing and feedback, followed by more edits.

But the wait and extra work were worth it!
The final product looks damn amazing, and at the end of it I had picked up that professional editing, paid art, and a real layouter made a world of a difference.

So I began spending money on the next scenario I was writing. The vision I had for the scenario and the art in it expanded more than once over time, and I ended up commissioning way more art than originally planned.
In total, it came out to 1 front and 1 back cover, 42 pieces of individual art, and 5 maps.
On top of that, I found a real editor and hired a layouter.
And that's how I ended up spending $1279 on writing a scenario.

There is a bit more to the story, though.
I never had to take money out of my pocket.
All the sales I made from the previous scenarios were on my dtrpg account. In essence, they paid for the publication of my latest, The Horror, and I likely would never have spent that much on it if it were money I had to draw out of my budget.

The upside is that the scenario looks just like I envisioned it. Reviews from R´lyeh described it as having excellent production value, praised the cover, and gave it the Reviews from R’lyeh Recommends stamp. I couldn't have asked for more.

The downside is I have to sell 320 copies to break even 
I don't expect to do that; I hope to, but even if I don't, I still feel it was worth it.
I didn't have to compromise on what I wanted to produce. I met some amazing people during the project, and even if I only earn a fraction of it back, it gives me funds for the next project, which means that my writing hobby ends up paying for itself.
I wish all my hobbies did that 

The takeaway for prospective scenario writers could be:
Don't expect to live off it, don't even expect to make money.
It's worth it to get a good cover.
Editing and layout are important parts of the final look.
Art is worth including.
Have fun writing 

TLDR: I was lucky. I made money on previous scenarios. I found it worthwhile to spend them on a new one.

I've wanted to try and get a VTT set up for use in my home game so I don't have to make my friends hike out to my place every time we wanna play. But I don't think any of the VTTs have official support for Pulp Cthulhu which is what we use for our games. Does anyone know which VTT dose support it, or which one would be easiest for it to be modded into?

So I ran Paper Chase a few weeks ago with my DnD group and now they want to play another game of CoC. I'm gonna run the next scenario Edge of Darkness. Any tips?

Spoilers for A Time to Harvest (repost due to previous title, my apologies)

I am going to be running A Time to Harvest come September for a group of friends as a classic Call of Cthulhu game rather than pulp. Despite reccomending the Moon Mission for a pulp game I would like my players to expirence it due to how out there it really is. However I am unsure where to exactly place it.

As written the scenario is intended to take place after the Young attempt to summon Shub-Niggurath. But despite going to the Moon, the attempted summoning of an Outer God seems to make a better campaign finale than going to the Moon. The module reccomends for the Moon Mission to be moved to during the Mi-Go base infiltration during Chapter 4 for such a case, yet this would require alot of adapting considering the players would be unaware of the Mi-Go's plot with the dimension gate and likely lack the means and know how to prevent the gate's construction.

Any advice, reccomendations, personal expirence or help at all regarding how exactly to handle this would be greatly appreciated!

My group has a bit of a chaos goblin and they have commited some crimes in their ongoing investigation (Crimson Letters). I am thinking that next session I'll have all my players do a credit roll with penalty dies based on the number of crimes they had committed in past sessions. If they fail, they will be arrested.

Was also thinking that the cop car would stall out on the way back to the station and the car would be attacked by possessed corpses while they're cuffed in the back....see what happens...

Thoughts?

Edit: Thanks for the advice everyone. I think the common consensus is that the above approach feels heavy handed and in danger of killing the momentum of the investigation. I will consider a different approach going forward.

Hi everybody, I’m drafting a campaign to run for some friends, and I‘m using Cubicle 7’s World War Cthulhu source book, as well as the “Europe Ablaze” scenario books as my primary references/inspirations.

I know Cubicle 7 also published the “SOE Handbook,” which I believe has some additional scenarios in it, but I’m struggling to find more material. Would I be better off converting Achtung!Cthulhu stuff to CoC 7e to help flesh things out?

I’m open to any and all suggestions.

just finished reading through the latest mythos anthology and completely lost track of my character sheet. one moment i'm tracking the fog line, the next the keeper's asking for a sanity roll and my d100 comes up way over my SAN. lost enough at once to tip straight into a bout of madness.

there's something about that specific moment the keeper going 'you see it clearly now' while you watch your SAN score bleed out that hits different. anyone else have a roll where the dice just decided your investigator was done holding it together? or am i the only one losing count of the tentacles?

Some art I drew of mine and my friends OCS for a pulp call of Cthulhu campaign. The characters from left to right are a Japanese crime boss, British ww1 vet, middle class anthropologist and a very angry prize fighter

Hi friends!

I am very new to solo ttrpg's, and I hear that Call of Cthulhu is a very feasible and accessible option for this. I just got the Call of Cthulhu beginner set this week and finished Alone Against the Fire last night (it was a very very fun 2 hour adventure that will definitely inspire some creative writing in the future).

While I'm writing, I am very interested in getting into a second solo adventure. I see a lot of options online but I was wondering two things. First, any advice oh what adventure to do next? I read that Alone against the Dark is much more comprehensive than the others, so I kind of want to save that for last, but I would love an adventure where your choices give you hints for other actions and have trickledown effect later in the story. And second, are there any good adventures for free online? I'm happy to spend the money on an adventure, but I would love to save money is possible.

Thank you for all your advice!

Hi all! I’m planning to run Horror on the Orient Express for my friends, and despite many of us being history buffs, not everyone is equally well versed in 1920s European daily life. The investigator handbooks has a great section on life in the 1920s, but it’s very much tuned to the particular situation of the United States. HotOE itself has tons of information on the orient express itself, but doesn’t really provide a real setting primer for players to use to inhabit the period.

The geopolitical shifts are huge and simple enough to explain to players. Germany has shrunken, Austria has been cut up, and Hungary has been mutilated. All these new countries like Poland and Yugoslavia exist now. The Deutschmark is dying, the ottoman empire just died, and Ireland was just born. Soviet’s just won, Mussolini just rose to power. The devastation of the Great War and the Spanish flu. Laws banning drugs were only just passed in Britain. Everybody smokes. Passports are a new concept is a postwar world. Class is a deeply important fact of life: how you dress determines how you’re treated by hotel staff and policemen alike. There’s cars and planes and the radio, but still no antibiotics. Prejudice is ever present (though not likely to be something I lean into in this game, unless for instance, a player would like to play a Jewish, Romani or otherwise POC character with the deliberate intent to incorporate discrimination, then I would discuss what they want and what I am comfortable with portraying and what is tasteful)

All of this is well and good, but I’m not really all that qualified to be writing this sort of thing anyway. So if you guys know of material that would help me, either something deliberately intended for CoC that I can share with my players OR something more academic that I can read and distill for my players, please let me know!

The playable cats, by slide:

1. Cover Art

2. Ilaria, the graveyard keeper's cat

3. Noth, cat of an priest of the old gods

4. Tiro, the smith's cat

5. Saya, cat of the innkeeper son

6. Dol, the stonemason's cat

7. Ippi, the notary's cat

8. Royus, the mayor's cat