Just ran my first session ot Call of Cthulhu using this scenario. I used the hook you suggested of making the PC inherit the house. The scenario ended with him pointing a gun at Douglass, realising it was his uncle and then when he allowed him to pick some books the PC shot Douglass in the back and killed him, only to be arrested by the police. When he was asked at court if he pleaded guilty of killing his uncle he said that people already hunted animals and 'that thing' was no different. He then went to a prison for the mentally insane. I loved it! Defintely a whole other experience than your average D&D game where killing someone is no big deal.
Tried the "Douglas is the uncle of the player" scenario. The Investigator, it should be noted, could not buy a success. He succeeded in three rolls all night, two of which are extreme successes. Any time he had to investigate something, he failed, and I just ruled it took him hours to find the clue (because you always need to find the clue if its a mystery), and he rolled a nat 90 when trying to talk to someone. So I just kept describing as he would wake up every couple of nights and books were missing. In the end, he did finally find the tunnels in the cemetery and crawled through them, ACED his navigation roll with an 05, and managed to find his way back up where he found his uncle Douglas sitting at a tombstone waiting. The player succeeded at his sanity checks, they had a talk, Douglas explained the situation, they hugged, and Douglas said good bye. It was a good story all in all.
Ran Paper Chase for my wife and a buddy (who had never played Call of Cthulhu) last night. Wife played the niece of Douglas Kimball and buddy played an investigator she hired to find her missing uncle. We had blast, and the reveal of the now ghoul uncle Douglas was so fun.
Thank you for the suggestions Seth. On your recommendation I picked up the starter set rather than jump into the full game tomes, to help ease my daughters into a different roleplaying experience (fantasy gaming being their introduction to RPG). I took your advice and ran it as an endeared, if not introverted great uncle Douglas, as opposed to the original hook and the story became very personal and engaging for my daughters. I added a hook of an inheritance that was tied up due to the absence of body or death certificate (completed when they peacefully confronted Ghoul Douglas in the cemetery... as he departs, he leaves them an amended last will that hints at suicide for the release of the estate. My one daughter actually teared up at the emotional departure of her great uncle). It seems that they've been hooked and it'll be Call of Cthulhu from here on out. Thank you Seth for the wisdom and thank you John for the great introduction to a great game!!
@@SSkorkowsky I think that's it actually. I've played CoC before, but I've never had the chance to run the game as a Keeper. I think this has been the single most enjoyable experience I've had behind the screen. Cheers to you sir, for the great advice and taking the time to share it with others. Good discussion elevates the game for everyone.
@@tombombadil9529I was gonna go with like the heart that you can always hear beating under the floor boards in your house from the guy you took out. You know something everyone had to deal with and can relate to. Jokes aside lovecraft LOVED Poe and went so far as to have a story about the clones of Poe as the heart of a story. The fact I’ve yet to either recognize or find more influence from that story or poe in general in call of/pulp/green is either sad or telling that I need some good nootropics finally.
I'm actually in a monthly CoC game with John Sullivan and we talk about your videos all the time. Hes going to be thrilled to see that you reviewed this.
Fun review, and moved me closer to picking up the starter set to get the new version. "Paper Chase" holds a special place in my heart-pretty sure I've run it more than any other CoC scenario. The best hook in my experience came quite by accident: while perusing the bookshelves, the investigator noticed from a Spot Hidden that some titles more worn than others (indicating which were Kimball's favorite). When Kimball retrieved these books next, the investigator made the connection (if not Kimball's current disposition), and tracked him to the sarcophagus which led directly to the amicable confrontation. Least forced and most satisfying ending.
When I ran this game last month I did exactly as you said; I had the PC as the heir. It allowed for Int rolls to remember things about their Uncle and to drop the seed that the ghoul-taint might be hereditary.... All in all an excellent game.
One of the guys from Chaosium ran a live stream of this scenario with the guys who write and draw the Penny Arcade webcomic and 2 others. Running 4 people through this 1 player adventure still resulted in everyone getting overwhelmed by ghouls, failing multiple sanity rolls, and waking up in a graveyard as the long lost uncle ghoul told them he could never go back.
My brother agreed to try out a session of Call of Cthulhu and for his first session I was going to use Paper Chase. Needless to say I was stokes to see this video had been uploaded. Thanks for all the helpful advice for us new Keepers!
When I was reading the graveyard suggestion, I was thinking that it really didn't make any sense, as the graveyard wasn't mentioned in the player knowledge section up to that point
I ran this for my fiancé, but it was my first time as a keeper and maybe my third time as a GM at all. He was very nice and genuinely had a lot of fun, but I was terrible! I wish I had seen this video first! Can you review Dead Man’s Stomp as well? I found the older video for Edge of Darkness extremely helpful and am feeling much more confident about running it now! Your videos are very inspiring Seth! Keep going forever!
It's so weird to me that ghouls are like, the most approachable, humane horrors in CoC that I've come across. I mean how often is it that you find something that isn't human and doesn't immediately attempt to cause you harm? I love it.
Always thought this adventure should have long-term ramifications if Uncle Douglas survives it (which he usually does IME). Having it turn out that he's infected the local ghoul community with a taste for bibliophilia would be great fun. The player characters keep running into mysterious break-ins at libraries and book stores as ghouls go looking for new things to read, or a bunch of the same book stolen from a publishing warehouse as Douglas starts a cemetery book club would be as cute or as creepy as desired, and maybe some ghoul fixates on a favorite author (a friend of the PCs, of course) and kidnaps him to make him write faster because WHERE'S THE REAL END TO GAME OF THRONES YOU LAZY SLOB! Or worse, they fixate on a deceased author and the PCs have to figure out what was behind that grave robbing case and wind up confronting a ghoul necromancer who wants just one more book in his favorite series. Or maybe one of them decides to get a biography written (or an autobiography published) and starts stalking people in the book trade to work with, maybe eating their friends or pets if rejected. You could also play around with the ghouls being a somewhat reliable source of Mythos/cult info in exchange for a steady supply of good reads from the PCs. So much potential.
I've run this adventure a few times. Maybe it's how I characterize the uncle but nobody ever attacked him. I ran it pretty much as written and started with the stakeout on the last night. What is nice is how if the players are D&D esque murder hobos they die. Full stop. Never to be heard from again. It's an important lesson to players new to the game. I did run it as a group adventure once and it was actually quit funny. The players blundered into each other and decided to investigate the Mythos. In the most memorable moment one player walked into the group meeting, saw the Ghoul, failed his SAN role and in a state of panic fired his gun. He hit himself in the arm and walked off into the darkness. One of the players pantomimed the ghoul, hiding behind a headstone and saying, "What was that?" Another player got down beside him and said, "I have no idea."
This channel is criminally under viewed. I've watched many of Seth's videos and gleaned a few nice tidbits (I'm a Game Master of varying games for 20+ years now) and think GM sharing is an excellent way to improve my skill set... But this channel having so few views confuses me endlessly. Such a good channel. Keep on truckin' Mr. Skorkowsky.
Such great ideas for a mildly intriguing introductory adventure!! I'm excited to play this module with my mom (who is completely new to tabletop RPG's), and your suggestions give me a lot for confidence that I can run this properly, especially as you address a lot of the problematic aspects (for example holding one's breath in order passing out from the "miasma" which seems really odd and unituitive). Thanks for sharing your experience and tips!
I recently ran this scenario for two (novice) investigators (being a novice keeper myself). We all highly enjoyed the game, great for learning! SPOILER BEGINNING At the end, the players decided to tell Thomas Kimball about the fate of his (beloved, at least the way I ran it) uncle. I changed it though so the ghouls will only seal the tunnels the night after - so I ended the scenario with the investigators leaving and Thomas moving as many books as possible into the tomb (for his uncle to enjoy) and closing it from the outside, so nobody will disturb them. I thought this would give the story a more "peaceful" ending. SPOILER END It is a great scenario that shows some of the possibilities of the CoC system. I highly recommend it to any keeper/investigator who has not played it! Thanks yo much to John Sullivan for a great scenario!
Well and truly perplexed you don't have a shit-ton more subscribers. I haven't gamed in years, but your channel is so entertaining; it's inspiring me to consider doing it again. I was purely a 1st ed D&Der, but your COC videos are well worth watching.
Hi Seth, I just started running CoC this Christmas. My first adventure is "Paper Chase" and as a long time DnD DM you made the transition very easy and understandable. Keep it up! I hope to see more of your recent stuff!
Great timing! I've got the starter box and finally convinced two friends to play CoC, one that's a D&Der and one that hasn't played before. This has been helpful and entertaining...as always. Seth, thank you.
What I do miss in this scenario is at a line of background information who Douglas was (like what he did for living) and what does Thomas do. It would be my natural question to dig deeper into background of both of them especially if I would want to figure out what happened. Great video, as always.
I really like this scenario. I first ran it a few months ago. I did have Douglas as the Investigator’s uncle. It really did ramp up the anxiety about letting him try to find happiness with the ghouls.
I did this adventure and it was probably extremely anticlimactic. They easily found the journal, immediately went for the cemetary, found the tracks, got knocked out, spoke to Douglas, and he left peacefully. Now what saved the session is that the players were able to piece together what happened with the clues, even right down to Douglas himself stealing his own books. Feeling like detectives can make even simple (due to me botching execution) mysteries fun.
Hi Seth, after several commenters recommending your books, I took the Valducan series along on my vacation to read them there. I'm a Supernatural fan, so the short description already hooked me a little bit, and the books themselves did certainly not disappoint. Stories and characters are very good and you got a lot of little things in there that really elevated from "very good" to "great". Things like using a lancet instead of slashing one's hand (even though with the ability to heal Matt might be one of the very few people in fiction who could pull that off without permanent adverse effects). Or not only referencing but actually USING the Perseus statue in Florence as a thought-hook for the protagonist (as an archaeology master student, I always appreciate art references with ancient context, even if the art itself is not from antiquity). And the one "It's dead, Jim" reference that for the life of me I can't figure out whether you did it on purpose or not :). And best of all: No questions remained open. This is a big one. I'm a curious person and like to poke holes into things when stuff doesn't add up (and, as you may have noticed, commenting on such poking when you do it), and there was nothing to poke because everything that needed one had an explanation, and always in the same book (okay, Malcolm's tattoos hadn't, but then again they could be accepted without further explanation, because what needed to be known was given). Awesome read, I practically devoured those books. Thank you so much for writing those books. Are you intending for or working on more installments? PS and EDIT: For some reason Matt sounded in my head like Jack with a hint of Dean Winchester. Weird.
Hi Johannes, thank you very much. I'm glad you enjoyed them. Perseus With the Head of Medusa is one of my very favorite sculptures. We were in Florence when I was writing it and I knew I had to somehow bring my heroes there because I really love that city. I'd love to say, "it occurred to me as some brilliant insight while I was standing in front of the statue," but that would be a lie. It happened while I was walking up some random street. I'd like to continue the series. I have a few idea for Book 5 and following Luiza, but I haven't had that big ah-ha yet. The book would need to be something that doesn't feel at all like a recycle of previous plots. It always bothers me when a series falls into the trap of just doing the same old thing over and over. In the meantime, I wrote a completely separate novel (Ashes of Onyx), which is done. I've spent the last 2 weeks going through revisions with my editor. So we expect a couple more rounds of edits before that's all finished up and ready to print. Don't know the expected release date yet. I think my publisher said Spring 2020, but never gave an exact date. If you can, I'd really appreciate any Reviews or Ratings you could leave on Amazon or Goodreads. Those are super helpful for authors. PS: there are a couple Valducan shorts out there. They're all stories that take place before Book 1. Sort of Archive Adventures. One follows Clay and Schmidt in the early 80's, another is Malcolm going through the Paris Underground, and the third is a WW2 story. They're spread across the anthologies "No Your Average Monster", "SNAFU: Hunters" and "SNAFU: Black Ops".
@@SSkorkowsky Your knowledge of Florence and surroundings shows. My mom was there years ago and the descriptions you gave matched the pictures from back then perfectly. Same for italian traffic, been to Naples once and seen them driving with 80 km/h without accidents, even along a narrow cliff road that consisted exclusively of curves. Utterly baffling. Hope you don't mind I mentioned your channel in the Amazon reviews. If you do, please let me know and I'll remove the mention.
The traffic thing was weird. I've never had the spacial awareness that the average Italian driver seems to possess. "That alley looks to be 190cm wide, and my car is 188 cm. I got this. No need to slow down or second guess." It's amazing to watch, but utterly terrifying to ride in. I spent most of my car rides staring at my feet and convinced I was about to die. Feel free to mention the channel all you want. Thanks for the review.
@@SSkorkowsky Possible bit of inspiration in case you are interested: When doing an excavation on the foundations of the Porta Nigra in Trier, our teams found some very weird things. 1) A concrete block with a manhole that led nowhere was around 20 cm below the surface. It was in the way of everything and had to be removed by specialists. With the help of an empty a gummy bear pack we could establish a terminus ante quem of 1986. 2) The foundation of this ancient building had been partially destroyed (maybe for the pipes the manhole was supposed to be leading to). Monument Protection was not pleased. 3) Below the apsis (medieval, from the time when the Porta was a church) there seems to be a cave or something to that effect. We only uncovered a very small hole in the earth leading deeper (about the size of a hand), our flashlights could not reach the end of it so the size is unknown (back then we hazarded a guess of maybe one m³ total), and out of there came an incredible stench. Our little access hole was right below the concrete block. The interesting part would likely be number 3. With imagination anything could be down there (given the hole is larger, which can easily be done with artistic license and the fact that the size is most likely still unknown) and the concrete block with manhole could have been used to cover it up inconspicuously. :) There are only a handful of people that know about this, it has, as far as I am aware, never been published, because we did not find what we were looking for (an only wooden plank used in the construction of the roman city wall for the purposes of a dendrochronological analysis). Slight problem: There had been a way earlier dig that had verified the existance of the plank (but not the hole) and made the small site accessible over stairs, but that was filled up after WW2. Though even that could be turned into something sinister... If you are interested, I can tell you the whole story. But this above is the interesting stuff. Thought I'd post you the important bits, because they can be easily picked up for a fictional story that is based on little known but true elements.
HI, long time subscriber and GM of many other systems. About to run my first Call of Cthulhu game this weekend, I have 4-5 player and have modified paper chase with a few more hooks and some partial sightings/animal remains as it progresses. I have added a chase scene using the map and add extra potential for unfortunate attacks on failed push roll near the end. Seth thank you for your great videos, they helped me a lot and inspired me to get into call of Cthulhu and also back in to Traveller.
So the game went well, my players loved the build up and we had a chase in the tunnels under the graveyard they loved. We played 5 hour and are two 3rds through the adventure. Due to some bad rolls and good roleplaying the player where sure paper chase was about bootlegging and the caretaker was in on it. i used jack the NPC has i hired investigator to help the PC's get back on track and due to some more bad rolls and group roleplaying they are convinced he's is a bootlegging mobster ...LOL. It was only in the last hour (tunnel chase) my players found out that some creatures where involved as they got chased back to the surface and only one of the played look back and got a glimpse of that was chasing them. The game ended at the start of the first night when the player finally search the study and found the journal. They are now waiting to see if someone comes back to brake in again... its going very well, I thing we have another hour or two left in the adventure, confronting the book thief I added another chase scene. Next I am going to do the Haunting or Dead lights.
Just run this adventure for 3 of my friends, was a ton of fun and great for my first time being a keeper. Your advice for this adventure was great and with a bit of my own creativity, this was an incredible adventure to play!
Would have loved to have seen this when I first bought the starter set! My session certainly fell victim to the allure of the cemetary. Both times I've ran paper chase, it finished in, at most, an hour with the player undertaking minimal investigation. Just don't even mention the cemetary. Kinda game ruining. Having ran the scenario before seeing the video really makes me appreciate Seth's masterful ability to create exciting sessions.
Thank you very much for this review. I currently only have two players and had this module on the short list to use for them. Based on your comments at the end, I think I will move it up the list. Also, thank you for your suggestions on running it; I will be making use of them.
Great review of a great adventure. I first ran across it as one of the free adventures in 4th Ed. It’s so good I converted it to D&D 3.0 when that was new for an unplanned one-shot adventure (if anything many D&D players need frequent reminders not to kill first and ask questions later). Keep up the great reviews.
I changed the hook that the University claimed that Douglas Kimball might have had a few books that they would like to add to their own library so they sent the two players to the town to nose around. Then they met a rather distraught Thomas that was still a little leery due to the recent break in and loss of the books. And then I ran it as is out of the starter book.
great video seth I'm not normally super interested in call of Cthulhu stuff and normally just have it going as background noise for the occasional gag or joke but this is a pretty good starting point for getting into the game and world lore of CoC.
I ran my version of Paper Chase this past Gencon for a group of 5 D&D players and it went pretty well with lots of role play and no combat. The players got a bit "spooked" in the tunnels and ran away. I relocated the scenario as taking place in Turkey and recast the Kimbells as Russian aristocrats in exile. The PCs were archeology and history students and professors on an extended field trip. The missing uncle was a respected archaeologist known to the professors. 1920s history has a lot to offer the Keeper.
Spoiler alert: Both times I ran this scenario as an introduction to the game for new players, they ended up opening the door to the mausoleum, failing their CON roll and waking up with Douglas sitting by their bed and explaining what had happened. I found this ending a bit too de-escalating and unrewarding for both me and the players 🙄 So, what I do, when they meet the caretaker of the cemetery, I have him working outside one of the mausoleums and he's wearing his handkerchief as a mask. Afterwards, when it's time for them to open the mausoleum door, and if they don't use a "mask" or say they will "hold their breath while opening the door", I ask for an INT(idea) roll. If they make a hard success I tell them that they remember how the caretaker was wearing a mask and that the PC that succeeded the roll believes that the stench will be awfully strong when they open the door. This offers the opportunity to the PC to enter the tunnels and face a ghoul or two 😁
I have the two page version of this scenario in my 4th Edition rulebook (along with a two page version of The Haunting, titled The Haunted House). It always looked so dull and uneventful -- find a ghoul and talk to him. I'm glad it's been fleshed out over the years, and your suggestions make it even better.
I have been running this a bit (about six times). All roads lead to the cemetery...but it's been fun seeing how my players come about piecing it together. Yes, we need more handouts for the scenario, so I made a few; I enjoyed the handout making process.
This is going to be the first adventure I run for CoC. I've DMed many other game systems over the past 30 years, but never this one. I've loved Lovecraft's work since I was a kid, but my friends and I always wanted fantasy tropes, so we stuck with DnD. I think we finally aged out of that and we have become interested in doing something else. I ran across Seth's videos while researching new games, and fell in love with the game. I think I'm going to use the idea of a PC inheriting the house, and setting it in rural Louisiana. I like the picture of an old rambling house, set at the edge of the swamp, with moss growing on the trees, and the graveyard slowly being reclaimed by the marshes. It will also give me somewhere better than Michigan to continue on from lol. Anyway, thanks for the great video's, I very much enjoy them.
For a super added bonus, put the house in a neighborhood that's got a lot of old large houses in it. Pick up the adventure collection Mansions of Madness. There's a scenario in there called Mister Corbitt that can also be run as a single-player adventure, where the nice old man across the street is up to some shady stuff. Introduce Corbitt in this adventure when the PC is asking around about Uncle Douglas, and then later on, show what Corbitt is up to.
On down the road, if you ever want to mix some dark fantasy with CoC-style horror investigation, I'd also suggest checking out Zweihander or Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (same pedigree). Instead of increasing Insanity it features Corruption. Which can lead to monstrous character mutations, plus insanity. All while still having a dark & gritty setting including elves, dwarves, wizards, etc. Good stuff.
Thank you! I have just purchased Call of Cthulu starter set as my first taste of this world and plan to run this game later this month, so thank you for all the tips! Subbed!! :-)
While I haven't run the Starter Set version of Edge of Darkness, I have a review video for the original version. Have fun with it. That's one of my very favorite scenarios.
Seth, love you videos kept up the great work. That is a great idea to have the uncle be one of the players uncle's. I have been wanting to run this one in my campaign but haven't found a fun way to bring it in. I got one player who is new to tabletop games and doesn't fully get the role-play part and that's all good, we have been working with him, and he just started a new character and this will be a good way to help him with his RP
I ran Paper Chase recently for two of our D&D regulars. I added a desk with three locked drawers in the study as a red herring and they did their best to ransack the room without alerting Thomas Kimball. I also made Thomas Kimball an accountant as well. The players threw me some fast balls but everybody enjoyed themselves.
I watched all your videos. I never thought I’d play call of Cthulhu so I didn’t care about spoilers. Last week one of my dnd friends asks to run coc for us. Boy am I glad I have a terrible memory.
@Seth Skorkowsky Well, I have finally ran this scenario (my first time as a proper Keeper, yay!) and while my pair of players and I had fun, we did run into the trap of "go the graveyard immediately"... and from there, I was wondering if I could offer my two cents for this scenario of things that might want to be considered or changed to expand the mystery of the book theft without immediately leaping into ghoul territory. 1. The Set-Up. Something I ran with a little bit was, from the study of Douglas Kimbell being relatively untouched until the break-in and Thomas by request in-book mentioning the want of some sign of his long-missing uncle... I had Thomas inwardly devastated that his uncle's things had been disturbed, that the two weren't particularly close but Thomas wishes they had been. We ended up with the "talk with Douglas" scenario and my players didn't want to just leave this thread unattended. It was felt Thomas needed to have closure so he could move on with his life. So while it wasn't the best way to do it, I had Douglas hand over a mud-covered pocket watch and the investigators spun a half-truth of Douglas indeed being the culprit, having lived in the tunnel network beneath the cemetery and gone mad, but they brought proof of the man's demise: a pocket watch with a photograph (so possibly anachronistic) of a younger Thomas and Douglas sitting together, smiling. So to Thomas, he got to learn that his uncle, as far as he knew, still kept him in-heart because he still had that watch. Even so, the mystery might have been stronger if the initial request did not even include a mention of seeking Douglas. Maybe it was just off-hand that "yeah, he went missing a year back, but I never had the heart to rearrange or remove his old things". Maybe also move the journal somewhere the investigators could not *immediately* get it, kind of like how you suggested avoiding Greasy Spoon in Missed Dues. I mean, it immediately points "important area here" with Douglas's walks to the graveyard for his alone time. 2. The Gardener in the Graveyard This guy... My players had a chance to talk with him, but I went by the book and that meant rolling Persuade or Charm for him to even entertain the idea of speaking with the players... and they failed. Hard. Even pushed rolls. So he just walked off to do his job. Maybe that was on me for still making a fail a "fail" rather than the man talking but being grouchy and possibly, but... I don't think the should have had to roll to start up a conversation in hindsight and it led to missed roleplaying, which all three of us lamented.
Thanks for this. Because of this review, I'll be running this for my son this week. I'm DMing him in 2 D&D games right now (my long term 3.5 campaign and a 5e I started for him & his friends) and I wanted to shake things up. I don't have a lot of experience with these smaller scenarios, since I tend to lean towards running the epic campaigns - I've GMed both Horror on the Orient Express (where I had a player fail his SAN check ( that's the player, not the character)) and Masks of Nyaralethotep (and I really want to revisit the 7th ed version of both).
My nephews like SCP and I realized Cthulhu and SCP seamlessly go together. I'll be running Cthulhu for my first time this weekend. SCP 6007 maybe? I dunno, I'm not going to go into that rabbit hole.
I like the idea of having the PC inherit. It gives all the PCs a base of operations. And even a poor PC who inherits a house doesn't become rich. And you can easily stock the house with all manner of plot hooks. After all, any man who decides he wants to become a ghoul is bound to be into a lot of weird things. Even if nothing is in themselves particularly valuable or useful or magic, just some weird correspondence can lead the players anywhere at all.
I am investing in another copy of call of cthulhu (5th edition since I'm poor). These reviews are getting me hyped to run it again, even if the scenarios aren't compatible.
If you don't want to pick up the Starter Set, which has the 7e version of this scenario, you can easily grab the Cthulhu Companion off DriveThru RPG. It's 2e, but since CoC is always backwards compatible, you can run it pretty easily with 5e. Also, there's a couple other scenarios in there that I really dig.
It's a very odd experience to watch Seth present an adventure I've played through. On the other hand, most of them I haven't played, so don't dare watch because spoilers. Also, I always multiply Seth's approximate playing times by five, since my group can never agree on a single course of action, and constantly go off on wild tangents.
I'm *really* looking forward to seeing if you review that CPRed Box in the background. Though I'm curious if you have any thoughts on The Land of the Free- just started running it, would love to see your take on it.
I really wasn't a fan of this adventure but I think it was mostly my expectations. I loved "Alone against the flames" I was really excited for that same Lovecraft feel, but Paper chase felt more like a Goosbumps story to me :S I also would have liked more handouts, some more guidance on the tunnels and an old photo of Douglas Thanks for the review! Wish I had seen your vid before I ran it for all the great tips! :D
I clearly remember this scenario. In the original, the picture of the ghoul sitting on a gravestone, wearing reading glasses and flipping through a book, is one of my favourite pieces of CoC art.
Notes from an Irish Jack Burton Wannabe; (to continue the thread from my Edgelord comments) I managed to run PAPER CHASE yesterday successfully for 2 of my group(i let the other one play through ALONE AGAINST THE FLAMES). Here's what i did with it, as well as current party make-up.... -- Currently i have the following players: A hyper-aware Alienist, a (supposedly) re-formed Gangster and a VERY British Gentleman. I let the players make characters using the Caosim characters generator you recommended in the CoC review, so they got some...Intresting results. -- i wound up doing something very similar to what you suggested with Thomas Kimball. The Gentleman had a very high Credit Rating at 80, so i made him related(by marriage) to Douglas&Thomas. When Uncle Douglas went missing, thomas naturally called him up in Arkham and asked for help trying to find him. -- Since the Alienist hadn't showed up yet(his Bus had broke down at Emberhead), the Gentleman got hold of a mutual aquaitance of there's(A "Reformed" Boot-legger)to help him. The rest of the adventure went fairly normal, so "so far-so good"(as is said). I plan on running the full group through EDGE OF DARKNESS next Saturday, so i'll fill you'all in on what happened later... May you never run out of road "Pork Chop" Brad Trevelyan
@Dubuya -- i plan on slow-burning that one like Seth recommended. I'm either making him a Neighbor of the Alienist(who's currently living in a suburb of Arkham) or a Distant relative of the Gangster's but i haven't decided yet. I'll have an idea on which way fits my homebrew campaign by Saturday(i don't have all the books on my list yet)...
@@johnnysizemore5797 I mean, I'm sure you got a whole stack of adventuress, so keep having them randomly roll spot at home between modules until they finally succeeded and can start Corbett.
@Dubuya Jay -- That's the plan going in. My problem is going to inevitably be my Alienist player: i can say, in absolute certainty, that he's one of the most paranoid players in my current crew. He had a couple of really bad GM's before we met and almost quite ttrpg's because of them. And since we all know how...hyper-aware CoC can make you sometimes, i have to be really careful when i run him with the rest. I've got enough adventures to run them 'till i get all i need(i just currently have the 7e Starter Set right now, but since Mr.Corbett can be pre-set, i don't need the ACTUAL adventure right now)...
Novice CoC player: golly, missing books eh? I better follow these clues to the creepy house... Veteran CoC player: I don’t even open the front door, I firebomb the house & burn it to the ground...
If my players get to finish this early, we will role-play out some fun around the Great Lakes. I also plan on running this for my dad and my current GM who is my dad‘s girlfriend; playing as themselves.
Good review, I'd add one other possible way to get a character in, have them hired to catalog the library. It's a classic M. R. James inspired hook, and as he showed in many of his stories, the most dangerous thing is to fall asleep in a library with an open book in your hand. It tends to leave you 'vulnerable' to 'formidable visitants'.
Paper Chase is a good adventure to run and you gave good GM tips to make it even more epic. Could you make a video about adventures compatible to be played by 1 or 2 investigators (+ keeper) ? That would be awesome to know more one shots, easy to set-up and play with one or 2 friends. Gathering a party is not easy nowadays...
*Thank you for covering more starting set scenarios .* *I love that you cover so many learner / beginner level adventures .* *Edit 1 : Does anyone know how long a goul lives / exists ?*
according to something I found on spheresofpower > Cthulhu Mythos > ghouls "A ghoul reaches middle age at 100 years, old age at 300 years, and venerable age at 500 years. Curiously, ghouls do not actually die of old age, but they do grow increasingly feeble 1d100 years after reaching venerable age. After this time passes, a ghoul loses the ability to move or even fend for itself. Such ghouls eventually die of starvation if not cared for. Many ghouls, rather than endure an endless existence as an invalid dependent on family, offer themselves to the banquet table. This funeral feast is not a matter of shame or despair in ghoul society, but one of triumph, for in feeding on the elder, that relative’s memories, knowledge, and personality can live on in those who partake." so it seems a ghoul can live functionally indefinitely but past 500 they tend to become gradually weaker until they would be fully dependent on someone else to feed them. so more or less 5 human lifetimes if you ballpark it to 100 years per human if your gong by a new generation starting every 30 to 40 years that's 12 to 16 generations. so a long time before they start feeling the negatives of very advanced age.
One irregular detail in this scenario is the Newspaper Info - the Journalist Notes have a interview statement from Mrs Hilda Ward, seeing devil spawn etc, but he also writes, "she has since moved to Detroit." It seems unlikely that between the cemetery disturbance, his interview & the newspaper article being published (a few days) that she would have moved 100's of miles away before he could follow up. Anyway, I am sure it's easy enough to modify that to fit as required. Just pointing it out in case your eagle eyed investigators spot it.
If we go by the song King Of The Road, it only cost 50 cents to rent a room. If you use that as your yardstick, then $10 is a pretty good deal. In the 1970's, $1.00 would get you a pack of cigarettes, a gallon of gas, or 4 loaves of bread. Heck, in the late 80's, if your buddy offered $5 to take them somewhere, that was a good deal! It was amicable. They didn't feel like you were robbing them and you didn't feel like you were being short changed for your time and fuel consumption.
🐙 I'm about to teach multiple new players how to play Call of Cthulhu with Paper chase over the next few weeks. 🐙 *Edit : i have re-watched this video 5 times back to back just to remember everything you said & i read both versions 4 times each.* *I want to just be able to run it by memory ( which is a thing i can do with various D&D adventure modules already ).*
Really wish this video had come out literally 3 weeks ago. Just ran this scenario with my wife and yeah, definitely should've veiled the graveyard a bit more. I had to be a bit heavy-handed with saying, "Hey, why not learn some more stuff first?" It was a good moral of the story kinda scenario though after she found out there was no connection with the books and that he just wanted to read. She felt super bad about the whole thing because Uncle Kimbal was shot straight through the back of the head with a crossbow bolt and a crit roll....
I hope you do dead man stomp sometime I’m learning the game and be interested in running this game with friends soon with some of your suggestions for paper chase and edge of darkness and some ideas of my own
I'm thinking of using this as a minor adventure for my group when they need a mythic tome or other rare work. It will be among the missing books and if they attack they'll have a whole nest of ghouls to contend with. I like the idea that 'Uncle' could be a resource going forward. . . Maybe he's actually a couple hundred years old and has been a silent caretaker of an estate library for generations, one of those odd family secrets that noone ever took the time to figure out. . .
Seth Skorkowsky And since the 1e review is very applicable to the 5e version it is a lot of help! Not saying that a review of Curse of Straud wouldn’t be great some day (since a review of Death House and wider Barovia from Seth’s/his group’s POV would be splendid.) But the review of 1e gives great help for rocky parts for any edition of Ravenloft. 🥳
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Just ran my first session ot Call of Cthulhu using this scenario. I used the hook you suggested of making the PC inherit the house.
The scenario ended with him pointing a gun at Douglass, realising it was his uncle and then when he allowed him to pick some books the PC shot Douglass in the back and killed him, only to be arrested by the police.
When he was asked at court if he pleaded guilty of killing his uncle he said that people already hunted animals and 'that thing' was no different. He then went to a prison for the mentally insane.
I loved it! Defintely a whole other experience than your average D&D game where killing someone is no big deal.
Tried the "Douglas is the uncle of the player" scenario. The Investigator, it should be noted, could not buy a success. He succeeded in three rolls all night, two of which are extreme successes. Any time he had to investigate something, he failed, and I just ruled it took him hours to find the clue (because you always need to find the clue if its a mystery), and he rolled a nat 90 when trying to talk to someone.
So I just kept describing as he would wake up every couple of nights and books were missing. In the end, he did finally find the tunnels in the cemetery and crawled through them, ACED his navigation roll with an 05, and managed to find his way back up where he found his uncle Douglas sitting at a tombstone waiting. The player succeeded at his sanity checks, they had a talk, Douglas explained the situation, they hugged, and Douglas said good bye. It was a good story all in all.
Ran Paper Chase for my wife and a buddy (who had never played Call of Cthulhu) last night. Wife played the niece of Douglas Kimball and buddy played an investigator she hired to find her missing uncle. We had blast, and the reveal of the now ghoul uncle Douglas was so fun.
Thank you for the suggestions Seth. On your recommendation I picked up the starter set rather than jump into the full game tomes, to help ease my daughters into a different roleplaying experience (fantasy gaming being their introduction to RPG). I took your advice and ran it as an endeared, if not introverted great uncle Douglas, as opposed to the original hook and the story became very personal and engaging for my daughters. I added a hook of an inheritance that was tied up due to the absence of body or death certificate (completed when they peacefully confronted Ghoul Douglas in the cemetery... as he departs, he leaves them an amended last will that hints at suicide for the release of the estate. My one daughter actually teared up at the emotional departure of her great uncle). It seems that they've been hooked and it'll be Call of Cthulhu from here on out. Thank you Seth for the wisdom and thank you John for the great introduction to a great game!!
Wow. That is a great story. I'm happy you both enjoyed it.
@@SSkorkowsky I think that's it actually. I've played CoC before, but I've never had the chance to run the game as a Keeper. I think this has been the single most enjoyable experience I've had behind the screen. Cheers to you sir, for the great advice and taking the time to share it with others. Good discussion elevates the game for everyone.
Jack is the emotional heart of call of Cthulhu reviews
... like Nyarlothtep? 😄
@@tombombadil9529I was gonna go with like the heart that you can always hear beating under the floor boards in your house from the guy you took out. You know something everyone had to deal with and can relate to.
Jokes aside lovecraft LOVED Poe and went so far as to have a story about the clones of Poe as the heart of a story. The fact I’ve yet to either recognize or find more influence from that story or poe in general in call of/pulp/green is either sad or telling that I need some good nootropics finally.
Having the players inherit the house instead of an NPC is GOLD. I'm absolutely going to Creatively Steal that idea the next time I run this one!
I'm actually in a monthly CoC game with John Sullivan and we talk about your videos all the time. Hes going to be thrilled to see that you reviewed this.
Scroll up. XD
@@dubuyajay9964 oh, I know, I'm the one who sent him the link
I'll admit, Jack's peanut gallery remarks are I look forward to in these videos.
There's also the appeal of Seth in drag now and then. :)
"I'm mostly here to tell jokes." ....you say that as if it were a bad thing.
That's something Seth made him say
Realizing that Seth posted has been the highlight of my week.
Hey, he indeed got those towels he wanted!
Totally missed that until I read your comment.
Fun review, and moved me closer to picking up the starter set to get the new version. "Paper Chase" holds a special place in my heart-pretty sure I've run it more than any other CoC scenario. The best hook in my experience came quite by accident: while perusing the bookshelves, the investigator noticed from a Spot Hidden that some titles more worn than others (indicating which were Kimball's favorite). When Kimball retrieved these books next, the investigator made the connection (if not Kimball's current disposition), and tracked him to the sarcophagus which led directly to the amicable confrontation. Least forced and most satisfying ending.
I really like the detail about noting which books were worn more, and then those go missing next. Very cool idea.
Love the towel joke. One of my PCs used to "collect" ashtrays from wherever he stayed. Kindred spirits, obviously.
When I ran this game last month I did exactly as you said; I had the PC as the heir. It allowed for Int rolls to remember things about their Uncle and to drop the seed that the ghoul-taint might be hereditary....
All in all an excellent game.
One of the guys from Chaosium ran a live stream of this scenario with the guys who write and draw the Penny Arcade webcomic and 2 others. Running 4 people through this 1 player adventure still resulted in everyone getting overwhelmed by ghouls, failing multiple sanity rolls, and waking up in a graveyard as the long lost uncle ghoul told them he could never go back.
I am seeing that Cyberpunk Red Starter kit on your shelves, looking forward for your review :)
Paper Chase
My brother agreed to try out a session of Call of Cthulhu and for his first session I was going to use Paper Chase. Needless to say I was stokes to see this video had been uploaded. Thanks for all the helpful advice for us new Keepers!
Removed the graveyard mention the second time I ran this and it went *so much better* than the first time. Thanks Seth!
When I was reading the graveyard suggestion, I was thinking that it really didn't make any sense, as the graveyard wasn't mentioned in the player knowledge section up to that point
I ran this for my fiancé, but it was my first time as a keeper and maybe my third time as a GM at all. He was very nice and genuinely had a lot of fun, but I was terrible! I wish I had seen this video first! Can you review Dead Man’s Stomp as well? I found the older video for Edge of Darkness extremely helpful and am feeling much more confident about running it now! Your videos are very inspiring Seth! Keep going forever!
It's so weird to me that ghouls are like, the most approachable, humane horrors in CoC that I've come across. I mean how often is it that you find something that isn't human and doesn't immediately attempt to cause you harm? I love it.
Duality of man... dog
Always thought this adventure should have long-term ramifications if Uncle Douglas survives it (which he usually does IME). Having it turn out that he's infected the local ghoul community with a taste for bibliophilia would be great fun. The player characters keep running into mysterious break-ins at libraries and book stores as ghouls go looking for new things to read, or a bunch of the same book stolen from a publishing warehouse as Douglas starts a cemetery book club would be as cute or as creepy as desired, and maybe some ghoul fixates on a favorite author (a friend of the PCs, of course) and kidnaps him to make him write faster because WHERE'S THE REAL END TO GAME OF THRONES YOU LAZY SLOB! Or worse, they fixate on a deceased author and the PCs have to figure out what was behind that grave robbing case and wind up confronting a ghoul necromancer who wants just one more book in his favorite series. Or maybe one of them decides to get a biography written (or an autobiography published) and starts stalking people in the book trade to work with, maybe eating their friends or pets if rejected. You could also play around with the ghouls being a somewhat reliable source of Mythos/cult info in exchange for a steady supply of good reads from the PCs. So much potential.
I love the ghoul bookclub idea.
Yoink
Over the last three Thursdays, I've been running COC for the first time. For years I've wanted to do this. The game is going over very well, indeed.
I've run this adventure a few times. Maybe it's how I characterize the uncle but nobody ever attacked him. I ran it pretty much as written and started with the stakeout on the last night. What is nice is how if the players are D&D esque murder hobos they die. Full stop. Never to be heard from again. It's an important lesson to players new to the game.
I did run it as a group adventure once and it was actually quit funny. The players blundered into each other and decided to investigate the Mythos. In the most memorable moment one player walked into the group meeting, saw the Ghoul, failed his SAN role and in a state of panic fired his gun. He hit himself in the arm and walked off into the darkness.
One of the players pantomimed the ghoul, hiding behind a headstone and saying, "What was that?"
Another player got down beside him and said, "I have no idea."
Also, since this is my first time commenting, your videos have great production values and are wildly entertaining. Thanks.
This channel is criminally under viewed. I've watched many of Seth's videos and gleaned a few nice tidbits (I'm a Game Master of varying games for 20+ years now) and think GM sharing is an excellent way to improve my skill set... But this channel having so few views confuses me endlessly. Such a good channel. Keep on truckin' Mr. Skorkowsky.
Nice touch with the towels at the end. I laughed so hard.
Great timing for me - I'm running this scenario this Friday!
Have fun with it.
Such great ideas for a mildly intriguing introductory adventure!! I'm excited to play this module with my mom (who is completely new to tabletop RPG's), and your suggestions give me a lot for confidence that I can run this properly, especially as you address a lot of the problematic aspects (for example holding one's breath in order passing out from the "miasma" which seems really odd and unituitive).
Thanks for sharing your experience and tips!
I recently ran this scenario for two (novice) investigators (being a novice keeper myself). We all highly enjoyed the game, great for learning!
SPOILER BEGINNING
At the end, the players decided to tell Thomas Kimball about the fate of his (beloved, at least the way I ran it) uncle. I changed it though so the ghouls will only seal the tunnels the night after - so I ended the scenario with the investigators leaving and Thomas moving as many books as possible into the tomb (for his uncle to enjoy) and closing it from the outside, so nobody will disturb them.
I thought this would give the story a more "peaceful" ending.
SPOILER END
It is a great scenario that shows some of the possibilities of the CoC system.
I highly recommend it to any keeper/investigator who has not played it! Thanks yo much to John Sullivan for a great scenario!
Honestly, deciding to turn into a ghoul but still coming back for your favorite books is very relatable
this is cool. Penny Arcade did a Call of Cthulhu game with Mike Mason, I don't think they ever mentioned which one it was, but now I know.
I'm a new keeper and I love watching your videos. Thank you so much for all your help.
Well and truly perplexed you don't have a shit-ton more subscribers. I haven't gamed in years, but your channel is so entertaining; it's inspiring me to consider doing it again. I was purely a 1st ed D&Der, but your COC videos are well worth watching.
Hi Seth, I just started running CoC this Christmas. My first adventure is "Paper Chase" and as a long time DnD DM you made the transition very easy and understandable. Keep it up! I hope to see more of your recent stuff!
I love the ‘NPC’ inserts. 🤣
Great timing! I've got the starter box and finally convinced two friends to play CoC, one that's a D&Der and one that hasn't played before. This has been helpful and entertaining...as always. Seth, thank you.
What I do miss in this scenario is at a line of background information who Douglas was (like what he did for living) and what does Thomas do. It would be my natural question to dig deeper into background of both of them especially if I would want to figure out what happened. Great video, as always.
I really like this scenario. I first ran it a few months ago. I did have Douglas as the Investigator’s uncle. It really did ramp up the anxiety about letting him try to find happiness with the ghouls.
I did this adventure and it was probably extremely anticlimactic. They easily found the journal, immediately went for the cemetary, found the tracks, got knocked out, spoke to Douglas, and he left peacefully. Now what saved the session is that the players were able to piece together what happened with the clues, even right down to Douglas himself stealing his own books. Feeling like detectives can make even simple (due to me botching execution) mysteries fun.
Hi Seth, after several commenters recommending your books, I took the Valducan series along on my vacation to read them there. I'm a Supernatural fan, so the short description already hooked me a little bit, and the books themselves did certainly not disappoint. Stories and characters are very good and you got a lot of little things in there that really elevated from "very good" to "great". Things like using a lancet instead of slashing one's hand (even though with the ability to heal Matt might be one of the very few people in fiction who could pull that off without permanent adverse effects). Or not only referencing but actually USING the Perseus statue in Florence as a thought-hook for the protagonist (as an archaeology master student, I always appreciate art references with ancient context, even if the art itself is not from antiquity). And the one "It's dead, Jim" reference that for the life of me I can't figure out whether you did it on purpose or not :). And best of all: No questions remained open. This is a big one. I'm a curious person and like to poke holes into things when stuff doesn't add up (and, as you may have noticed, commenting on such poking when you do it), and there was nothing to poke because everything that needed one had an explanation, and always in the same book (okay, Malcolm's tattoos hadn't, but then again they could be accepted without further explanation, because what needed to be known was given).
Awesome read, I practically devoured those books. Thank you so much for writing those books.
Are you intending for or working on more installments?
PS and EDIT: For some reason Matt sounded in my head like Jack with a hint of Dean Winchester. Weird.
Hi Johannes, thank you very much. I'm glad you enjoyed them. Perseus With the Head of Medusa is one of my very favorite sculptures. We were in Florence when I was writing it and I knew I had to somehow bring my heroes there because I really love that city. I'd love to say, "it occurred to me as some brilliant insight while I was standing in front of the statue," but that would be a lie. It happened while I was walking up some random street.
I'd like to continue the series. I have a few idea for Book 5 and following Luiza, but I haven't had that big ah-ha yet. The book would need to be something that doesn't feel at all like a recycle of previous plots. It always bothers me when a series falls into the trap of just doing the same old thing over and over.
In the meantime, I wrote a completely separate novel (Ashes of Onyx), which is done. I've spent the last 2 weeks going through revisions with my editor. So we expect a couple more rounds of edits before that's all finished up and ready to print. Don't know the expected release date yet. I think my publisher said Spring 2020, but never gave an exact date.
If you can, I'd really appreciate any Reviews or Ratings you could leave on Amazon or Goodreads. Those are super helpful for authors.
PS: there are a couple Valducan shorts out there. They're all stories that take place before Book 1. Sort of Archive Adventures. One follows Clay and Schmidt in the early 80's, another is Malcolm going through the Paris Underground, and the third is a WW2 story. They're spread across the anthologies "No Your Average Monster", "SNAFU: Hunters" and "SNAFU: Black Ops".
@@SSkorkowsky Your knowledge of Florence and surroundings shows. My mom was there years ago and the descriptions you gave matched the pictures from back then perfectly. Same for italian traffic, been to Naples once and seen them driving with 80 km/h without accidents, even along a narrow cliff road that consisted exclusively of curves. Utterly baffling.
Hope you don't mind I mentioned your channel in the Amazon reviews. If you do, please let me know and I'll remove the mention.
The traffic thing was weird. I've never had the spacial awareness that the average Italian driver seems to possess. "That alley looks to be 190cm wide, and my car is 188 cm. I got this. No need to slow down or second guess." It's amazing to watch, but utterly terrifying to ride in. I spent most of my car rides staring at my feet and convinced I was about to die.
Feel free to mention the channel all you want. Thanks for the review.
@@SSkorkowsky Possible bit of inspiration in case you are interested: When doing an excavation on the foundations of the Porta Nigra in Trier, our teams found some very weird things.
1) A concrete block with a manhole that led nowhere was around 20 cm below the surface. It was in the way of everything and had to be removed by specialists. With the help of an empty a gummy bear pack we could establish a terminus ante quem of 1986.
2) The foundation of this ancient building had been partially destroyed (maybe for the pipes the manhole was supposed to be leading to). Monument Protection was not pleased.
3) Below the apsis (medieval, from the time when the Porta was a church) there seems to be a cave or something to that effect. We only uncovered a very small hole in the earth leading deeper (about the size of a hand), our flashlights could not reach the end of it so the size is unknown (back then we hazarded a guess of maybe one m³ total), and out of there came an incredible stench. Our little access hole was right below the concrete block.
The interesting part would likely be number 3. With imagination anything could be down there (given the hole is larger, which can easily be done with artistic license and the fact that the size is most likely still unknown) and the concrete block with manhole could have been used to cover it up inconspicuously. :)
There are only a handful of people that know about this, it has, as far as I am aware, never been published, because we did not find what we were looking for (an only wooden plank used in the construction of the roman city wall for the purposes of a dendrochronological analysis).
Slight problem: There had been a way earlier dig that had verified the existance of the plank (but not the hole) and made the small site accessible over stairs, but that was filled up after WW2. Though even that could be turned into something sinister...
If you are interested, I can tell you the whole story. But this above is the interesting stuff. Thought I'd post you the important bits, because they can be easily picked up for a fictional story that is based on little known but true elements.
HI, long time subscriber and GM of many other systems.
About to run my first Call of Cthulhu game this weekend, I have 4-5 player and have modified paper chase with a few more hooks and some partial sightings/animal remains as it progresses. I have added a chase scene using the map and add extra potential for unfortunate attacks on failed push roll near the end.
Seth thank you for your great videos, they helped me a lot and inspired me to get into call of Cthulhu and also back in to Traveller.
Best of luck on the adventure. I hope you all have a blast with it.
@@SSkorkowsky thank you Seth
So the game went well, my players loved the build up and we had a chase in the tunnels under the graveyard they loved. We played 5 hour and are two 3rds through the adventure. Due to some bad rolls and good roleplaying the player where sure paper chase was about bootlegging and the caretaker was in on it. i used jack the NPC has i hired investigator to help the PC's get back on track and due to some more bad rolls and group roleplaying they are convinced he's is a bootlegging mobster ...LOL. It was only in the last hour (tunnel chase) my players found out that some creatures where involved as they got chased back to the surface and only one of the played look back and got a glimpse of that was chasing them. The game ended at the start of the first night when the player finally search the study and found the journal. They are now waiting to see if someone comes back to brake in again... its going very well, I thing we have another hour or two left in the adventure, confronting the book thief I added another chase scene.
Next I am going to do the Haunting or Dead lights.
Just run this adventure for 3 of my friends, was a ton of fun and great for my first time being a keeper. Your advice for this adventure was great and with a bit of my own creativity, this was an incredible adventure to play!
This is my go to channel for Call of Cthulhu. Thanks Seth and Jack! 😎😁
Would have loved to have seen this when I first bought the starter set! My session certainly fell victim to the allure of the cemetary. Both times I've ran paper chase, it finished in, at most, an hour with the player undertaking minimal investigation. Just don't even mention the cemetary. Kinda game ruining. Having ran the scenario before seeing the video really makes me appreciate Seth's masterful ability to create exciting sessions.
Thank you very much for this review. I currently only have two players and had this module on the short list to use for them. Based on your comments at the end, I think I will move it up the list. Also, thank you for your suggestions on running it; I will be making use of them.
Great review of a great adventure. I first ran across it as one of the free adventures in 4th Ed. It’s so good I converted it to D&D 3.0 when that was new for an unplanned one-shot adventure (if anything many D&D players need frequent reminders not to kill first and ask questions later). Keep up the great reviews.
I changed the hook that the University claimed that Douglas Kimball might have had a few books that they would like to add to their own library so they sent the two players to the town to nose around. Then they met a rather distraught Thomas that was still a little leery due to the recent break in and loss of the books. And then I ran it as is out of the starter book.
great video seth I'm not normally super interested in call of Cthulhu stuff and normally just have it going as background noise for the occasional gag or joke but this is a pretty good starting point for getting into the game and world lore of CoC.
I ran my version of Paper Chase this past Gencon for a group of 5 D&D players and it went pretty well with lots of role play and no combat. The players got a bit "spooked" in the tunnels and ran away.
I relocated the scenario as taking place in Turkey and recast the Kimbells as Russian aristocrats in exile. The PCs were archeology and history students and professors on an extended field trip. The missing uncle was a respected archaeologist known to the professors.
1920s history has a lot to offer the Keeper.
Great video Seth. Thanks for all the hard work!
Spoiler alert:
Both times I ran this scenario as an introduction to the game for new players, they ended up opening the door to the mausoleum, failing their CON roll and waking up with Douglas sitting by their bed and explaining what had happened.
I found this ending a bit too de-escalating and unrewarding for both me and the players 🙄
So, what I do, when they meet the caretaker of the cemetery, I have him working outside one of the mausoleums and he's wearing his handkerchief as a mask.
Afterwards, when it's time for them to open the mausoleum door, and if they don't use a "mask" or say they will "hold their breath while opening the door", I ask for an INT(idea) roll.
If they make a hard success I tell them that they remember how the caretaker was wearing a mask and that the PC that succeeded the roll believes that the stench will be awfully strong when they open the door.
This offers the opportunity to the PC to enter the tunnels and face a ghoul or two 😁
I have the two page version of this scenario in my 4th Edition rulebook (along with a two page version of The Haunting, titled The Haunted House). It always looked so dull and uneventful -- find a ghoul and talk to him. I'm glad it's been fleshed out over the years, and your suggestions make it even better.
I have been running this a bit (about six times). All roads lead to the cemetery...but it's been fun seeing how my players come about piecing it together. Yes, we need more handouts for the scenario, so I made a few; I enjoyed the handout making process.
This is going to be the first adventure I run for CoC. I've DMed many other game systems over the past 30 years, but never this one. I've loved Lovecraft's work since I was a kid, but my friends and I always wanted fantasy tropes, so we stuck with DnD. I think we finally aged out of that and we have become interested in doing something else. I ran across Seth's videos while researching new games, and fell in love with the game. I think I'm going to use the idea of a PC inheriting the house, and setting it in rural Louisiana. I like the picture of an old rambling house, set at the edge of the swamp, with moss growing on the trees, and the graveyard slowly being reclaimed by the marshes. It will also give me somewhere better than Michigan to continue on from lol. Anyway, thanks for the great video's, I very much enjoy them.
For a super added bonus, put the house in a neighborhood that's got a lot of old large houses in it. Pick up the adventure collection Mansions of Madness. There's a scenario in there called Mister Corbitt that can also be run as a single-player adventure, where the nice old man across the street is up to some shady stuff. Introduce Corbitt in this adventure when the PC is asking around about Uncle Douglas, and then later on, show what Corbitt is up to.
On down the road, if you ever want to mix some dark fantasy with CoC-style horror investigation, I'd also suggest checking out Zweihander or Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (same pedigree). Instead of increasing Insanity it features Corruption. Which can lead to monstrous character mutations, plus insanity. All while still having a dark & gritty setting including elves, dwarves, wizards, etc. Good stuff.
Thank you! I have just purchased Call of Cthulu starter set as my first taste of this world and plan to run this game later this month, so thank you for all the tips! Subbed!! :-)
P.S Any plans to review/advise on the next scenario in the starter set, edge of darkness?! :-)
While I haven't run the Starter Set version of Edge of Darkness, I have a review video for the original version.
Have fun with it. That's one of my very favorite scenarios.
Jack, don't sell yourself short,
instead think of Seth as your straight man,
Seth, love you videos kept up the great work. That is a great idea to have the uncle be one of the players uncle's. I have been wanting to run this one in my campaign but haven't found a fun way to bring it in. I got one player who is new to tabletop games and doesn't fully get the role-play part and that's all good, we have been working with him, and he just started a new character and this will be a good way to help him with his RP
Yay new CoC review!
I ran Paper Chase recently for two of our D&D regulars. I added a desk with three locked drawers in the study as a red herring and they did their best to ransack the room without alerting Thomas Kimball. I also made Thomas Kimball an accountant as well. The players threw me some fast balls but everybody enjoyed themselves.
Interesting. I think I'll run this for two of my buddies when we finish with my current D&D campaign.
I watched all your videos. I never thought I’d play call of Cthulhu so I didn’t care about spoilers. Last week one of my dnd friends asks to run coc for us. Boy am I glad I have a terrible memory.
@Seth Skorkowsky
Well, I have finally ran this scenario (my first time as a proper Keeper, yay!) and while my pair of players and I had fun, we did run into the trap of "go the graveyard immediately"... and from there, I was wondering if I could offer my two cents for this scenario of things that might want to be considered or changed to expand the mystery of the book theft without immediately leaping into ghoul territory.
1. The Set-Up.
Something I ran with a little bit was, from the study of Douglas Kimbell being relatively untouched until the break-in and Thomas by request in-book mentioning the want of some sign of his long-missing uncle... I had Thomas inwardly devastated that his uncle's things had been disturbed, that the two weren't particularly close but Thomas wishes they had been. We ended up with the "talk with Douglas" scenario and my players didn't want to just leave this thread unattended. It was felt Thomas needed to have closure so he could move on with his life. So while it wasn't the best way to do it, I had Douglas hand over a mud-covered pocket watch and the investigators spun a half-truth of Douglas indeed being the culprit, having lived in the tunnel network beneath the cemetery and gone mad, but they brought proof of the man's demise: a pocket watch with a photograph (so possibly anachronistic) of a younger Thomas and Douglas sitting together, smiling. So to Thomas, he got to learn that his uncle, as far as he knew, still kept him in-heart because he still had that watch.
Even so, the mystery might have been stronger if the initial request did not even include a mention of seeking Douglas. Maybe it was just off-hand that "yeah, he went missing a year back, but I never had the heart to rearrange or remove his old things". Maybe also move the journal somewhere the investigators could not *immediately* get it, kind of like how you suggested avoiding Greasy Spoon in Missed Dues. I mean, it immediately points "important area here" with Douglas's walks to the graveyard for his alone time.
2. The Gardener in the Graveyard
This guy... My players had a chance to talk with him, but I went by the book and that meant rolling Persuade or Charm for him to even entertain the idea of speaking with the players... and they failed. Hard. Even pushed rolls. So he just walked off to do his job. Maybe that was on me for still making a fail a "fail" rather than the man talking but being grouchy and possibly, but... I don't think the should have had to roll to start up a conversation in hindsight and it led to missed roleplaying, which all three of us lamented.
Thanks for this. Because of this review, I'll be running this for my son this week. I'm DMing him in 2 D&D games right now (my long term 3.5 campaign and a 5e I started for him & his friends) and I wanted to shake things up.
I don't have a lot of experience with these smaller scenarios, since I tend to lean towards running the epic campaigns - I've GMed both Horror on the Orient Express (where I had a player fail his SAN check ( that's the player, not the character)) and Masks of Nyaralethotep (and I really want to revisit the 7th ed version of both).
My nephews like SCP and I realized Cthulhu and SCP seamlessly go together. I'll be running Cthulhu for my first time this weekend. SCP 6007 maybe? I dunno, I'm not going to go into that rabbit hole.
Thank you! This is the only adventure in the starter set I haven’t run.
I like the idea of having the PC inherit. It gives all the PCs a base of operations. And even a poor PC who inherits a house doesn't become rich. And you can easily stock the house with all manner of plot hooks. After all, any man who decides he wants to become a ghoul is bound to be into a lot of weird things. Even if nothing is in themselves particularly valuable or useful or magic, just some weird correspondence can lead the players anywhere at all.
I ran the Haunted last year for my beginner players and now am going to do this one next month for a whole new group cant wait..!!
I am investing in another copy of call of cthulhu (5th edition since I'm poor). These reviews are getting me hyped to run it again, even if the scenarios aren't compatible.
If you don't want to pick up the Starter Set, which has the 7e version of this scenario, you can easily grab the Cthulhu Companion off DriveThru RPG. It's 2e, but since CoC is always backwards compatible, you can run it pretty easily with 5e. Also, there's a couple other scenarios in there that I really dig.
It's a very odd experience to watch Seth present an adventure I've played through. On the other hand, most of them I haven't played, so don't dare watch because spoilers. Also, I always multiply Seth's approximate playing times by five, since my group can never agree on a single course of action, and constantly go off on wild tangents.
I'm *really* looking forward to seeing if you review that CPRed Box in the background. Though I'm curious if you have any thoughts on The Land of the Free- just started running it, would love to see your take on it.
I really wasn't a fan of this adventure but I think it was mostly my expectations.
I loved "Alone against the flames" I was really excited for that same Lovecraft feel, but Paper chase felt more like a Goosbumps story to me :S
I also would have liked more handouts, some more guidance on the tunnels and an old photo of Douglas
Thanks for the review! Wish I had seen your vid before I ran it for all the great tips! :D
I clearly remember this scenario. In the original, the picture of the ghoul sitting on a gravestone, wearing reading glasses and flipping through a book, is one of my favourite pieces of CoC art.
The towels at the end cracked me up!
glad that Jack got his towels...
We need more RPG stories like the Bonesaw and Scott Brown. Love those greatly
Notes from an Irish Jack Burton Wannabe;
(to continue the thread from my Edgelord comments) I managed to run PAPER CHASE yesterday successfully for 2 of my group(i let the other one play through ALONE AGAINST THE FLAMES). Here's what i did with it, as well as current party make-up....
-- Currently i have the following players: A hyper-aware Alienist, a (supposedly) re-formed Gangster and a VERY British Gentleman. I let the players make characters using the Caosim characters generator you recommended in the CoC review, so they got some...Intresting results.
-- i wound up doing something very similar to what you suggested with Thomas Kimball. The Gentleman had a very high Credit Rating at 80, so i made him related(by marriage) to Douglas&Thomas. When Uncle Douglas went missing, thomas naturally called him up in Arkham and asked for help trying to find him.
-- Since the Alienist hadn't showed up yet(his Bus had broke down at Emberhead), the Gentleman got hold of a mutual aquaitance of there's(A "Reformed" Boot-legger)to help him.
The rest of the adventure went fairly normal, so "so far-so good"(as is said). I plan on running the full group through EDGE OF DARKNESS next Saturday, so i'll fill you'all in on what happened later...
May you never run out of road
"Pork Chop" Brad Trevelyan
How about Mr. Corbitt?
@Dubuya -- i plan on slow-burning that one like Seth recommended. I'm either making him a Neighbor of the Alienist(who's currently living in a suburb of Arkham) or a Distant relative of the Gangster's but i haven't decided yet. I'll have an idea on which way fits my homebrew campaign by Saturday(i don't have all the books on my list yet)...
@@johnnysizemore5797 I mean, I'm sure you got a whole stack of adventuress, so keep having them randomly roll spot at home between modules until they finally succeeded and can start Corbett.
@Dubuya Jay -- That's the plan going in. My problem is going to inevitably be my Alienist player: i can say, in absolute certainty, that he's one of the most paranoid players in my current crew. He had a couple of really bad GM's before we met and almost quite ttrpg's because of them. And since we all know how...hyper-aware CoC can make you sometimes, i have to be really careful when i run him with the rest. I've got enough adventures to run them 'till i get all i need(i just currently have the 7e Starter Set right now, but since Mr.Corbett can be pre-set, i don't need the ACTUAL adventure right now)...
Novice CoC player: golly, missing books eh? I better follow these clues to the creepy house...
Veteran CoC player: I don’t even open the front door, I firebomb the house & burn it to the ground...
GM “I can see you have played this game before...”
gonna run it for my bro next month..cool vid :D
Thanks
If my players get to finish this early, we will role-play out some fun around the Great Lakes. I also plan on running this for my dad and my current GM who is my dad‘s girlfriend; playing as themselves.
Good review, I'd add one other possible way to get a character in, have them hired to catalog the library. It's a classic M. R. James inspired hook, and as he showed in many of his stories, the most dangerous thing is to fall asleep in a library with an open book in your hand. It tends to leave you 'vulnerable' to 'formidable visitants'.
I see it coming: Your investigators, having learnt that 'talking to the monster' is an option try this next time with a hungry Dark Young.... :D
Paper Chase is a good adventure to run and you gave good GM tips to make it even more epic. Could you make a video about adventures compatible to be played by 1 or 2 investigators (+ keeper) ? That would be awesome to know more one shots, easy to set-up and play with one or 2 friends. Gathering a party is not easy nowadays...
*Thank you for covering more starting set scenarios .*
*I love that you cover so many learner / beginner level adventures .*
*Edit 1 : Does anyone know how long a goul lives / exists ?*
according to something I found on spheresofpower > Cthulhu Mythos > ghouls
"A ghoul reaches middle age at 100 years, old age at 300 years, and venerable age at 500 years. Curiously, ghouls do not actually die of old age, but they do grow increasingly feeble 1d100 years after reaching venerable age. After this time passes, a ghoul loses the ability to move or even fend for itself. Such ghouls eventually die of starvation if not cared for. Many ghouls, rather than endure an endless existence as an invalid dependent on family, offer themselves to the banquet table. This funeral feast is not a matter of shame or despair in ghoul society, but one of triumph, for in feeding on the elder, that relative’s memories, knowledge, and personality can live on in those who partake."
so it seems a ghoul can live functionally indefinitely but past 500 they tend to become gradually weaker until they would be fully dependent on someone else to feed them. so more or less 5 human lifetimes if you ballpark it to 100 years per human if your gong by a new generation starting every 30 to 40 years that's 12 to 16 generations. so a long time before they start feeling the negatives of very advanced age.
One irregular detail in this scenario is the Newspaper Info - the Journalist Notes have a interview statement from Mrs Hilda Ward, seeing devil spawn etc, but he also writes, "she has since moved to Detroit."
It seems unlikely that between the cemetery disturbance, his interview & the newspaper article being published (a few days) that she would have moved 100's of miles away before he could follow up.
Anyway, I am sure it's easy enough to modify that to fit as required. Just pointing it out in case your eagle eyed investigators spot it.
Hey Seth, can you recommend other solo CoC adventures please?
Love your videos, always a pleasure to watch 🙂
came around to see if you had a video about Cyberpunk Red yet, i really hope you are going to do one!
Based on the title, I couldn't help but wonder if the adventure is about a first-year law student and an antagonist called Kingsfield.
I played CoC yesterday!
If we go by the song King Of The Road, it only cost 50 cents to rent a room. If you use that as your yardstick, then $10 is a pretty good deal. In the 1970's, $1.00 would get you a pack of cigarettes, a gallon of gas, or 4 loaves of bread. Heck, in the late 80's, if your buddy offered $5 to take them somewhere, that was a good deal! It was amicable. They didn't feel like you were robbing them and you didn't feel like you were being short changed for your time and fuel consumption.
🐙 I'm about to teach multiple new players how to play Call of Cthulhu with Paper chase over the next few weeks. 🐙
*Edit : i have re-watched this video 5 times back to back just to remember everything you said & i read both versions 4 times each.*
*I want to just be able to run it by memory ( which is a thing i can do with various D&D adventure modules already ).*
Really wish this video had come out literally 3 weeks ago. Just ran this scenario with my wife and yeah, definitely should've veiled the graveyard a bit more. I had to be a bit heavy-handed with saying, "Hey, why not learn some more stuff first?" It was a good moral of the story kinda scenario though after she found out there was no connection with the books and that he just wanted to read. She felt super bad about the whole thing because Uncle Kimbal was shot straight through the back of the head with a crossbow bolt and a crit roll....
I hope you do dead man stomp sometime I’m learning the game and be interested in running this game with friends soon with some of your suggestions for paper chase and edge of darkness and some ideas of my own
I love these.
I'm thinking of using this as a minor adventure for my group when they need a mythic tome or other rare work. It will be among the missing books and if they attack they'll have a whole nest of ghouls to contend with. I like the idea that 'Uncle' could be a resource going forward. . . Maybe he's actually a couple hundred years old and has been a silent caretaker of an estate library for generations, one of those odd family secrets that noone ever took the time to figure out. . .
Would you be able to do one of these for Curse of Strahd for D&D 5th edition? Please? If not, that's ok
Never played it. Sorry. Though I do have a review for the 1e Ravenloft module.
Seth Skorkowsky And since the 1e review is very applicable to the 5e version it is a lot of help! Not saying that a review of Curse of Straud wouldn’t be great some day (since a review of Death House and wider Barovia from Seth’s/his group’s POV would be splendid.) But the review of 1e gives great help for rocky parts for any edition of Ravenloft. 🥳
I noticed Jack kept the complimentary towels.
That awkward moment when I realize how excited I am that you're reviewing a horror game set in my home state...😋