Call of Cthulhu: Ladybug Ladybug Fly Away Home - RPG Review
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- Опубліковано 28 лис 2024
- Review and Game Master tips for "Ladybug, Ladybug, Fly Away Home", a scenario in the dark, Modern-Era collection, THE THINGS WE LEAVE BEHIND by Stygian Fox.
Handy Links:
Buy the scenario here: www.drivethrurp...
Find the Mark of Evil resource pack here: www.drivethrurp...
Into the Darkness: www.intothedark...
Into the Darkness videos of our game sessions: • Ladybug Ladybug Fly Aw...
The Church of the Passover Angel website: jamesalday.git...
My own fiction can be found here: amzn.to/2zLTxAb
I'd watch CSI: Cthulhu
@1:52 - that lost child looks like she's ready to return to the sea at Innsmouth
She's obviously hiding gills under that long hair.
Yeah you are right Seth
The angel being Nyralathotep is perfectly in character and personally shocked me I thought it was genius how toned down the supernatural elements in this are.
So when the demons started appearing and, Lovecrafian horror appeared it felt so alien and ACTUALLY SCARY like proper Lovecraftian horror great story.
Which IMO is a great thing. Most Call of Cthulhu adventures should hold the supernatural element back and introduce it very slowly. I am actually a bit disappointed when an adventure treats the mythos like they were carnival attraction.
Just recently ran a Delta Green campaign using this as the introductory scenario. This thing is perfectly suited for Delta Green, *especially* as a way to recruit the PCs into Delta Green. The best part of it was I did the locusts blowing the generator bit. When the generator blew, the SWAT team mistook it for a gunshot, so they breached the door of the hotel room at pretty much the exact same moment the hunting horror busted through the roof. As the PCs went in to find the girl, they could hear Lindsay screaming in full-throated terror, then she got suddenly cut off. Then, through only the flashlight beams of themselves and the SWAT team, they saw an impression of a massive shape, and blood everywhere. Then a beam rested on the head of the horror, and they saw it finishing eating most of Lindsay, with just a bit of her leg left, and then it was gone. I have never seen a group of players so bought in. They're eyes were as wide and fearful as the characters' in that moment.
Bit late to the party but mind if I ask how that went? I’m kinda considering doing that myself
@@jeremytownsend6805 Which part? Using it to start Delta Green, or the generator blowing bit?
Hah! I also ended my game with the surviving agents being recruited as some of the newly-formed Delta Green's first operatives. Fitting since A) I really dialed up the ten plagues to full apocalyptic levels, and B) The final battle was basically a suicide raid on the church with tacit support from their boss because everyone had realized that those assholes were about to end the world
For this adventure the PC’s should really bring at least one high level Paladin and Cleric to take on the “Passover angel”... oh wait, wrong game
09:30 Or it's Red Tide Fungus. Still kills fish, poisonous to drink, and looks like blood.
10:30 The frogs flee the lake due to the red tide.
Good for a coverup.
When you said “the passover angel turned to the hidden camera” I got chills. I’m definitely going to have to use that...
It's fantastic to use Nyarlathotep in nearly any RPG because he is a near omnipotent whimsical asshole, similar to GMs, and having him suddenly break all rules of the game can really catch people by surprise.
I can imagine the complete horror of the ATF agents upon seeing that video, their teeth chittering as they try to keep calm upon witnessing something that is indeed nothing short of a true supernatural phenomenon. Its no surprise why the first retired agent killed himself while Linsey herself is in total hysteric as she knew that she is against something unknowable and there is no one to help her in such an almost hopeless scenario.
It is even scarier if it happens while the image is paused. I'll definitely use that.
Hey Seth, I ran this game finally; and man it was great. I strayed a bit from the book because... that's what I do. I had the "Passover Angel" on scene at the point where the PCs meet the shotgunner. One of them happened to spot it in the cloud of locusts, and tried to stalk it. When they caught up to it, he had his head ripped clean off in a single stroke. The rest really technically never knew what happened to him, but they had watched the DVD after Regina was "secured" at the scene and taken away. They realized what was up only after they themselves had delivered Regina to LEO and right into the hands of the cult- directly.
So they made for the ceremony, I laid out the place tactical style, and they picked their positions. Mostly... within ten feet or less of bombs. The whole game, I had more or less drew parallels between this group and the branch dividians, had some of their more serious devotees emerge with a variety of illegal firearms once things went sharply south. Honestly it made the fact that ATF investigators were interested in them make more sense overall. Our ATF hero got involved for the illegal firearms, but stayed for the apocalypse. Right? Heh.
Only one player managed to make it into the church, he basically hail mary took a shot at Balfour and took him out, right before he got gunned down by the rest of the cult.
I went into a bit of a monolog about how the coverup would go down, in flames, and since they were all dead none but those who had immediate knowledge of them would remember them, but those few would know that this group had quite possibly saved humanity from an extinction event. And then I threw in there, that the Passover Angel was in the wind, could not be contained, and that one day it would strike again. Which, believe it or not, actually had people around the table glancing around uncomfortably. Which I consider a huge success for a horror game.
I love this whole book, and honestly I want to run more. My crew is primarily D&D, but I personally live for horror.
The point though, is this: I need to thank you. I would have never heard of this book or probably even Stygian Fox without you and I really appreciate it. I plan to run this again with a second group and do more from the book besides that, honestly every module here looks pretty good.
As your fellow player in the Into the Darkness game of this, I totally agree. I'm sure my gripes were caught on camera in the episodes. Mainly the freaking cameras in-game. Lol
I just had an epiphany rewatching this video that asks a simple question: what if WE were the undercover agents that kidnapped the child to save the world from Nylarthothep's chicanery? Starting out as just digging up dirt, having to stake out the cult, and the climax of the one or two shot adventure being the reveal of the Passover Agent to the hidden camera.
Could be an interesting type of twist to it with its own set of hurdles that must be bypassed to save the world! It's also incredibly dark, too, given the subject matter and finale of the initial module. So clearly not a game idea for everyone
1:53 They kidnapped Sloth! They probably want to interrogate him about where One-eyed Willie's treasure is hidden!
When I ran this, we had a fascinating outcome with the hostage situation. A new player to the group agreed to strip their weapons and go inside the apartment at gunpoint to make sure Regina was alright. I ran it as Delta Green, so players (aside from the agent who went in, who was an ordinary cop), were "on the level" and knew to trust what they saw after the hailstorm. They (the players and Lindsey) agreed on a plan to keep Regina in a hospital under armed guard until Wednesday. However.. one of the players got distracted and lost track of Revered Balfour so he snuck off and did his thing. Then when the door opened for the hostage player to leave and Lindsey to surrender once arrangements have been made. Its at this point the kill-crazy SWAT team leader and his snipers took the shot, hitting Lindsey in the side with a Crit. She started firing and in the confusion the elder sign was broken on the door frame. It was then the Hunting Horror descended from above and broke in, trying to kill Lindsey and get regina while Lindsey was trapped under a flipped mattress, firing her shotgun at the Hunting Horror and scream.
This adventure fits in very nicely with the newest incarnation of Delta Green, especially if you have the players be Program members brought in and the kidnappers are members of the Outlaw faction.
Can you imagine the absolute gut wrenching terror the two ATF agents felt once they saw that recording of the pass-over angel? Can you imagine how they their teeth chittered, their heart almost skipping beats and their stomach turned once the angel looks at the camera and address them directly that they can't do anything and that the sacrifice of Regina will happen no matter what? Can you imagine how their calculated minds tried its best to stay coherent and intact as the world they knew are turned upside down now that they've witnessed what can only be described as nothing more but a true yet horrifying supernatural event happening?
Seriously, its no wonder why one of them shot himself in the head while Linsey herself, now all alone and barely sane, is in total hysteric as she knew that she is against something unknowable and that there is no one to help her in such an almost hopeless scenario. The only way out is either run as far away as possible - and if it comes to it, kill both herself and the girl she is with knowing that its the only way to rescue the world from something that she can only describe as pure evil. No wonder the artist rendition of her shows how haggard the lady is as she holds a shotgun, ready to snap - if she hasn't that is.
This looks like a job for Delta Green! :-) Great review!
For Blood: I know a guy from Chicago. They do green water for St Patrick's Day. He says someone periodically put Mr Bubble in the fountain. So, since the scenario is in kind of a big city, have the water in a prominent fountain turn to blood. Do it with the characters nearby, and with other elements that would add to it. While Mr Balfor is near, or the fountain in the courtyard of the City Cathedral (or Library or University if they are doing some kind of research). The authorities believe it is some prank, which is common enough, and shut the fountain down until they can find out what is wrong and fix the problem. So you have more than enough witnesses to spark a conspiracy theory, but not enough to make the whole world freak out. The PCs can investigate with the workers or engineers or whatever and hear "OK, you didn't hear it from me... but, yeah, that was blood!"
2:16 …private consultants? What, like a psychic detective? Maybe a _fake_ psychic detective?
💡
😮
Oh my goodness, I *need* to play a CoC game with characters based on Shaun and Gus from Psych!
The door the chick is blocking with a dresser at 14:24 opens outward 😂
Rewatching this, I had an idea!
Play the scenario "The Dare" a full-time this module. And thus, use The Dare's characters to establish their family tree situation for the Ladybug module and just use grown up versions of their characters from "The Dare."
Another solution to keeping the adventure from stalling once they return the girl to the cult is maybe out of gratitude for their service they're offered membership (perhaps forcefully). After all, they are servants of the Passover Angel too, even if unwittingly. Maybe they're spared by Nyarlathotep regardless, maybe even "blessed" by him, and have to deal with the apocalypse knowing that they caused it. Maybe cults start revering the PCs for their supposed closeness to the Black Pharaoh.
Hey Seth,
I currently run this very adventure the fifth time as a keeper with groups of players who never shared a table for an RPG.
To be blatantly honest, nearly 20 months ago now you actually made me purchase "The Things We Leave Behind" - I recall commenting already back then on one of your videos, because I binged them when I stumbled across them, especially for falling asleep, but as well for watching them in full.
I thought I'd like to share a few things with you :)
I started gamemastering Cthulhu because of this adventure. Because your review made me fall in love with it!
So far I got bloody beginners on RPG as well as Cthulhu-veterans through this adventure, and almost everyone plainly loved it!
I normally take an approach where I take your suggestions in regard to the plagues being more prominent, so having the characters' coffee taste like blood, showing them frogs (normally in the garden when they investigate George's house during the night), and so on. I love roleplaying the emotional upheaval in the talk with Nicole and Lindsay - and I finally managed to get through the session with you as a player in this adventure. Tbh, I felt like there were a lot of missed opportunities in that run, but it happened as it happened.
Suffice to say, I would have never been able to - so far - have a dozen players be totally thrilled about a game of Cthulhu (including lots of real tears) without your help - thank you for that!
Conversation between my players:
“There is something here about the Black Wind on their website…”
“Me when I shart.”
That website is one of the most spectacular feelies I've ever seen in an RPG.
Seth, I've watched both your review of this scenario and the Into the Darkness videos where you play it. It's inspired me to pick up this book as well as the Call of Cthulhu sourcebooks and try my hand at running it myself. Thank you for all your quality content!
Pro tip with the frogs
If you use the tide of frogs, make the PCs have to make driving checks. Trust me driving on frogs is worse than driving on ice.
Me and my mom listened to you all play this and omg, you should have heard my mom rant about your keeper!
You all did a pretty good job, kinda sad it had the bad ending.
I'm running this as a 1920s conversion as the finale to a campaign... I'm trying Seth's suggestion of full Apocalypse and having frogs coming out of sewers, rivers and ponds... But someone asked how mamy frogs were coming out of a few places... So I rolled 1d1000... And predictably rolled 666
I think the bloody water in the fish tank can work, but only if you emphasize that there is *too much* blood in comparison to the wound.
Very cool. I own this and thought it genius when I read it. I loved the concept of the investigators being played by the villains and doing their dirty work for them. I'm glad you got to play! I never do, unfortunately. I'm in a Pathfinder game but it's just not the same as Call of Cthulhu ... not even close. Keep up the good work. I love Jack's present-day cop look. Excellent new character. Looking forward to seeing more. Thanks for sharing.
The only problem I can see with this module is that the father's cult affiliation give him away too easily. Even without meta gaming, a rational and sceptical detective is going to assume a doomsday cultist is up to no good at the very least.
Made even worse when it's played as a Delta Green scenario. Then you know going in that they're obviously up to something. Especially with a name like "Church of the Passover Angel". As soon as one of the plagues comes in it's really clear what's happening and why. Although it's always going to be an uphill battle trying to get players to believe that the kidnappers aren't in the right on this.
It's still a fun scenario, but it changes a lot.
Good God above, how many costumes does Jack have! Lols
Damn. Finally got around to running this and it's probably the best game I've ever GMd.
Do yourself a favor and put "Keep Your Rifle by Your Side" from Far Cry 5 on your soundtrack for the final confrontation at the church. It went beautifully for my game's finale.
This is one insane campaign. Would of been one insane movie or an episode for the x-files.
This looks great, I think I will run it next. And by the way Seth, we had a great time with "the auction". Thank you for your great videos. I will keep mentioning you the scenario " In media Res" ,maybe you will consider reviewing it someday, it's a great reading anyway. Greetings from Spain!
I'm just over here trying to think of how hard it would be to put this in Cthulhu 1920s. Swapping the Internet for some Library Use rolls and street preachers could work well enough. However, the video of the Passover Angel can't be a hidden camera because 1920s video cameras were huge, and didn't have sound.
In that case, a grainy audio recording from through a thin wall/floor would be nice. Having the villain speak to the players in that context would be a little more difficult in terms of writing, but with the right wording the players can still be made aware that he knows they're listening.
Either that, or just have the recording just glitch in the middle and start speaking to them directly, if you want the sledgehammer approach. Sanity checks all around!
Okay - the CSI: Cthulhu sunglasses moment and pun was... out of this world! Awesome, Seth! Awesome!
Now, in the event you don't literally have a rain of frogs and just a crap town around the town, you could theoretically have it raining blood as opposed to the water turning into it. Have it storm and pour down blood from the skies all night long and then in the morning its just puddles of rainwater
I never really understood why Jack is called "Jack, the NPC". Isn't Jack supposed to talk about the player's side of the adventures ? If so, should he be called "Jack, the PC" ?
It all started with my review for The Haunting. I introduced Jack as an NPC I actually did use when running that scenario. I hadn't intended on a repeat character, just something funny while giving tips on running.
But I sorta had too much fun with it, and Jack instantly became a regular.
Ah, ok, just got me a little bit confused, even after watching most of your videos. I've watched and liked most of your videos and subscribed to your channel - keep up the good work and Merry Christmas !
Jack seems like a GMPC sometimes but knowing his origin makes sense.
Always nice to see my local area featured in a game. Although, turning into blood wouldn't be too weird for Lake Eerie (it is the lake that catches on fire, after all).
I wanna learn more about jack the npc. He is an awesome persona.
I actually worked this into an introductory adventure.
That art is horrible. The close-up of the girl makes her look deformed, the “camera still” makes her look about 20, and in the motel she looks like she’s straight out of a Japanese horror film. The “angel” looks creepy as anything though, so perhaps the artist has only ever done horror art before and not actual people.
KingTeDdY62 Stephanie’s maps are always great, so I’ve no issue there, but narrative art is something I’ve always been a stickler on.
Hooo, I just ordered Call of Cthulhu 7th edition box and Pulp Cthulhu and a True Detective style campaign REALLY appeals to me. True Detective season 1 is one of my most favourite tv shows of all time. Really considering getting this book. Thanks, Seth!
I bought The Things We Leave Behind and ran this based on this review, a great adventure!
So that means your campaign ended on Nyarlathotep's victory?
Jeez. First time playing Call of Cthulhu as a player and Nyarlathotep wins? Not a great start, I'd say.
I'm about to run this module tomorrow as my first ever time as a GM in anything. Reading through the book and having this video is giving me some confidence in being able to run it. Thanks a lot Seth!
Please review more modern era scenarios.
Never clicked on a video so fast before.
I just found this channel, this is pure GOLD. Very well done Seth :) Please consider to play and review the other scenarios in the book!
the fact he eluded to jack's new outfit in the 5k subscriber video is peak foreshadowing
1:55 OH MY GOD, WHAT HAVE THEY DONE TO HER EYES??
Twist: she's a secret Deep One Hybrid.
Great video, Seth, thanks for all the tips on running / enhancing this scenario!
How is there NOT a Cthulhu themed police/investigation procedural show? I mean the second part of the story “Call of Cthulhu” is almost completely a police procedural, all the way through the alerting there is a crime, the raid and arrests, and the searching of and interpreting clues. Come on, Netflix,Prime Video...Hell, even HBO. Someone. Anyone.
I live in this part of Ohio (Kent, East of Akron,) and the Cult being based out of East Cleveland makes a shocking amount of sense.
An idea that springs to mind to add a bit of spice to this, which I see sort of reflected in a few comments below, is to add Delta Green to the scenario after the motel hostage standoff. Gates is shaken by the tape and the events she personally witnessed, and when the PC's arrive, they find a man or woman they don't recognize there that Gates introduces as an old friend, who she maybe used to consider an eccentric before now. They're cagey at first about it, but gradually make it clear they know more than anyone else in the room about what they're seeing without revealing _too_ much, and offer to assist the PC's with the help of a few "specialists" while Gates encourages them to keep investigating. How much these "specialists" help out could be up to the Keeper. And then maybe at the end of the scenario, said cagey expert in the Mythos invites the surviving PC's to join a certain clandestine and thoroughly off-the-books organization...
So this is the debut of modern detective Jack. Cool. I wonder how many of those 'staches you've gone through
I assume he has a collection. A stache stash.
Super good, as always.
Awesome, now I know what to do for next year's Passover seder.
This looks like a delightfully twisted scenario. 😁🐙😈
Those costume changes are great
As a firstborn IRL I'd like to request that y'all save the world in this one. Metagame if you have to, but don't just sit back and let Nyralathotep break black wind on the world like that.
It's just disrespectful.
Amazing! Could you review Beyond the Mountains of Madness?
I can't until I've played it. I've found that many issues with a game don't really reveal themselves until the game is played. I keep looking at Beyond the Mountains of Madness and thinking how much I want to run it. From what I've read about it, two of my players would love it, one would hate it. But it would be a year-long commitment and I'll need to choose a game that I think would keep my players (and myself) excited for that whole time. In 2018 we'll begin our first large-scale adventure with Two-Headed Serpent.
Seth, ever consider running a game over Roll20 or something for your subs? I'd love to play a scenario with you!
This would be a great Delta Green op or even how the characters get recruited by DG.
So I listened to your review before I watched you play this. I'm getting ready to run this for my group Saturday, and I love all of your suggestions. Looking back on your play through, do you think your keeper was a bit underwhelmimg? Let me rephrase that, he made the plagues seem underwhelming. They almost seem like an afterthought and just kind of thrown in. There was no build up to them or slow burn as I like to see in my horror games. Don't get me wrong, I thought the game was great all around. I just would have liked more emphasis placed on them.
Or my group: The Delta Green T-cell (Tomas, Titania, Turtle) & friendlies. (Because, ATF Agent Kidnapper??)
*CSI: CTHULHU!* We gotta do this one!
Heck yes!! I'm going to listen to the pod cast after this!
austin crabill Ditto
goddamn do i love this scenario. 1, it has my hometown in it. 2, it covers kooky bible thumpers like the ones i grew up with. I'm watching these vids because I'm getting ready to start a Delta Green campaign, and I'm gonna start with this adventure.
Hi Seth, great review! (as always). Just a quick note- i don't know if you've noticed it or not, but the fact that Nyarlathotep got mentioned in regard to Kenya and The Black wind is a direct reference to the campaign Masks of Nyarlathotep (which i'm currently reading and hope to run one day).
Btw, do you think that you'll be able to do a review of Masks of Nyarlathotep?
While I wish to one day play or run Masks of Nyarlathotep, I haven't yet. As personal policy, I don't review a scenario campaign until I have some first hand experience with it. Sorry.
@@SSkorkowsky If you do ever run it, I highly recommend using Pulp Cthulhu (which I'm pretty sure you don't need encouragement to do, lol). The adventure is quite pulpy anyway, and it has a (completely earned) reputation second only to AD&D's Tomb of Horrors as a meat grinder. Pulp Cthulhu will make it more likely PCs survive the experience. The seventh edition version of Masks actually gives recommendations for adaptations to Pulp, knowing it would be a popular choice.
Also, Masks is an absolutely massive undertaking. Don't do it until you are ready for it to take over your life for a significant period of time. It is the greatest campaign ever written for any game system, but it requires an incredible amount of Keeper work to keep everything straight. It is basically 6 interconnected sandboxes that can be approached non-linearly, and each sandbox has numerous potential NPCs and side stories. It can be exhausting. But, as someone who has played it in the past, it is worth all the work.
If you ever do run it, I might recommend making it a campaign journal like your "Two-Headed Serpent" review. I'd love to hear the exploits of your band of heroes as they go through the most legendary campaign in history!
This is right up my alley. Love it. I just imagine the Monster Control Bureau from the Larry Correia Monster Hunter International novels sending the Strike Team to Cleveland, and the Director has a tactical nuke on hot standby. You've got to stop whoever is bringing the apocalypse to Cleveland or they have to nuke it. Airdrop Special Agent Franks with a WW2 era MG42 and a backpack magazine, and have him start blasting a whole Battalion of cultists! Oh, they brought a bulletproof frog-thing? He casually takes an antitank rocket launcher from one of his gun Caddie's, and headshots the frog monster! Big boom, gibs everywhere!
I love your CoC reviews. i just wish i could actualy play the game more. Its all very fun and intresting. Ive played 3 times and died 3 times due to essentialy the same thing.....the guy with Molatovs or Dynamite going crazy and getting other characters killed.
I'm going to run this in a series of shorter scenarios. If it ever comes to that the firstborn are killed, they will get a luck roll first, just in case their parents are hiding something. I'm not a big fan of just killing characters, just because.
hey i grew up around here
gotta run this one
This adventure sounds pretty good, but now I want a CoC or similar story where the religious doomsday cultists actually don't have anything to do with the Mythos stuff and they are being used as a red herring.
Word of advice if you run this (especially with PCs that have life threatening conditions or family members with such) have the meds be on the girl not in the pack as 2 of my PCs convicted the other 3 that we were looking for a body as her condition would have killed her (they were a diabetic and an Asthmatic and agreed if she carried the meds she didn't have long without them)
I'm curious, How do you avoid meta-gaming best? What restraints do you and your players use to keep from doing that and actually let the drama play out? Is there any good ways to keep folks from doing that? Anyhoo, this was an AMAZING sounding scenario. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on it!
Great video
Shoot man, I gotta send these guys my art portfolio.
Let me start off by saying that I’m a huge fan of this channel. I’m an experienced DM/d&d player. I’ve been playing since 2nd edition and I’m currently running two campaigns in 5th edition. This channel has opened up my eyes to Call of Cthulhu. I want to try it so bad! I went online and looked for groups in the area to play but unfortunately found none. Of course that just means one thing....I’ll run the game. I’ve gone through most of the intro playlist, but I’m impulsive and can’t wait. I want to get the books and get into these adventures. Is this a good module to run for a one shot or would you recommend another adventure to introduce the game to my players?
Glad to hear you're enjoying my little channel. Thank you. I'd say this adventure is pretty good as an intro, though if you're going Modern Era, I'd put it in a dead-heat with The Derelict. However The Derelict is free, so I'm more inclined to recommend that to fresher Keepers.
I completed a full run of "Ladybug, Ladybug, Fly Away Home", actually today, and my group had a blast with it! Like you, I was a first-time Cthulhu Keeper (with prior experience to D&D since 2nd edition - the world is so small, and coincidences are likely!!!!), but following Seth's advise in this video I think the scenario went extremely well, even beyond my expectations. I originally planned it for 1 session, but my investigators had so much fun with it, and their role-playing was so good, that I didn't want to rush the sequence of events; It actually took us 10-11 hours of full game-play (3 sessions of 3-4 hours each). But everyone was happy at the end, and no frustration with the investigation. Again, follow Seth's recommendations for the scenario, and it will be pretty much a guaranteed success. Best of luck.
George Karagiannis I have followed Seth’s advice on some d&d adventures and I’ve never been disappointed. His experience is golden. I’ve downloaded the CoC tester off DrivethroughRPG and have been going through it. I’m old school and for some reason I need to books. So I’m definitely shelling out for those.
After more research on the game I’ve realized that some people play with minis. How do you guys run your game?
I'm a minis Keeper. I think they really help with players being able to visualize their characters' surroundings and really help with combat in keeping track of how far and how many participants are involved. Ranges and all that aren't as critical in CoC, but just being able to see where they are really helps. We don't emply the minis in every single scene. Just for scenes where they're necessary. Also, I strongly encourage using toy cars. It sounds silly, I know, but placing a Matchbox car on the board turns grown adult players into gleeful children as they roll them around and make "vroom-vroom" noises.
Seth Skorkowsky when I started playing 2e it was all theater of the mind. Only in 5e did I decide to pick up crafting terrain and using minis. I wanted to hook new players to the hobby and I knew everyone didn’t grow up reading the forgotten realm books like I had. Since then, I’ve successfully introduced a slew of people to the game. I was going to run CoC theater of the mind, but now I think I’ll run it with minis and maps and the occasional 3D terrain for climactic encounters. Do you have an amazon affiliate page? I’d like to show support for the channel.
Whoa! My hometown is on that map! 😮😅
I’ve ran the adventure and loved it, when I watched the actual play you were in I was pretty sad cause you guys got robbed from like 40% of the adventure! I get time constraints but it felt like the DM read 60% then the ending and was like I got this.
Sorry. And i did read the entire adventure. I hope to do better as always.
I don't even play CoC but now I wanna just get this scenario and convert it to maybe Cthulhu Dark
Man, I totally forgot that there's a story in that book that takes place right by where I'm from. Like my sister used to work there and my partner's aunt and uncle live there. I got it forever ago and totally forgot to try to run it. lol
In the modern world it’s common for people to have a child with more than one other person, so “first born” would need clearly defined. Is it the mother’s first child, the father’s, the first of either parent, or only a child who was the first of both parents?
Seth, once again amazing review. I am in the process of converting this scenario to the 1920's to fit my ongoing campaign. Do you have any advice to overcome the obvious future technologies involved into this adventure? Like for instance I could replace the surveillance tapes in the beggining with eye witnesses.
Converting it would be tricky, but not impossible. Here's a couple ideas (I'm making these up as I type, so some ideas will be better than others).
Eye witnesses instead of cameras. If there's a newspaper article for "hot tips" there might be a bunch of liars and crazy people to sift through with some Psychology rolls and role-play required. Instead of the website, maybe put the "doomsday clock" as some weird clock tower on the chapel that runs backwards, counting down. Instead of a DVD in the room, make it a diary and/or say that the guy recording it was using a camera from a window outside and he got the picture of the angel. Back in the day, little churches would do mail-order sermons, where they mail you a little record and pamphlets every month or so. Maybe when searching the kidnapper's house they find a stack of these records and pamphlets along with the Book of the Passover Angel. Keep in mind the clues dealing with the credit card, GPS, and IDs at the motel are no good but can be overcome with tips and witnesses. FBI was called the Bureau of Investigation (BOI). The part wher they were investigated by the ATF wouldn't work, but maybe the BOI looked into them once because they were buying a lot of guns and building a bunker and a concerned neighbor reported it, thinking they were making moonshine.
This is useful, thanks! I have already started the conversion and it's going better than I expected to be honest. Will post an update once I am done with it and have run it for my group!
And don't forget the Bureau of Prohibition. In that day, it'd probably be the IRS investigating the Church, thinking they're a front for bootleggers and/or gansters in the area.
Yeah that's a nice hook! The church does receive some hefty donations after all, maybe some of them come from more shady parts of society...
Can you please do a review of crimson letters? I’m doing that game soon, and I wanted to see what you thought about it
Proposal:
A toxic algae bloom turns all the water in the entire area red, making it FIGURATIVE blood.
This would also drive the frogs out of the water everywhere causing them to flood the streets, and you can probably spin the lice into this too--nobody being able to shower properly for two or three days will help make this one seem weird but not overtly supernatural, giving your players the first hints of things to come... and good luck using lice shampoo when all the running water is toxic!
This is the best of both worlds. It's big and can't be missed, but it's still subtle at first so you have more time to build things up. It's all easy to explain as mundane at first, and you can thereafter ramp up the level of the supernatural, rather than the scale of the events.
It also gives you a nice excuse for lots of secondary flavor too--forcing your players to stop off here and there to buy bottled water and scrape dead frogs off their tires will force them to really experience the growing fear and rising apocalyptic sentiment as people are exposed to this stuff. If your group are particularly into the theatrical/improv acting side of the hobby you could potentially add a half dozen of these little interludes throughout.
At the end, I'd also take a page out of modern political unrest and have some fresh converts who believe the cult's message and protesters who blame the cult for the plagues getting into some serious street fighting... and not just outside the chapel, but all over the city. Mix in gangs of looters and other signs of general panic, too. This would be another good spot for some small aside encounters, forcing your cop players to do comparatively normal cop things with a fairly mild danger level and letting you really push the tone of the game.
Having the city being torn apart as everyone begins to believe that it really is the end times, everyone fighting everyone else and the department stretched thin just trying to keep the city from burning down is the perfect set-up for some detectives and independent contractors who are suddenly without a case to be the only ones who have the time or know-how to get down there and stop what's about to happen.
I think this sort of cinematic doomsday approach would take this scenario to the next level and mix really well with the police procedural elements, even if you have to add an extra session or two to work in some of that extra roleplay content.
So what if your character is a middle child, but their older siblings are a pair of identical twins? Do they both die? Does the first one die? and did this happen all over the world or in just the cleaveland area? These are some very vital questions.
Hey Seth I have a question...do you have the link those awesome vehicles in the background, been trying to find some for my CoC game but its been almost impossible to find cars and zilch for any type of motorcycle. Thxz and Zi watch this vid over again...great review as always!!
Sure. They're the Matchbox Lesney Cars of Yesteryear. They're close to the same scale with minis and pretty cool. But... be warned that they're considered collector's items in some circles, and eBay prices will range from reasonable to outright insane. Take your time looking. If you're not going for mint-condition or in original box, they're a whole lot cheaper. I was lucky enough to score a case of them (it's the flat blue one behind me in the vid) it holds all of mine but one, which is why in a lot of vids you'll see a single old-timey car on the table.
Now, the Matchbox motorcycles are out there. They seem to all be silver and have a side-car. Never got one. A player found me a little green motorcycle (a vintage Harley, I think) which you can see in the vid, but I have no clue where he got it.
+1 for Brady Bunch reference
Would Nyarlathotep respect a lamb's blood marked doorway out of a sense of irony?
Forgive me if this a duplicate - got an error. My group just finished both Forget Me Not and Hell in Texas. They found the Passover Angel book in Hell in Texas so they have a lead, but how do you suggest I introduce them to the Balfour federal records. None of the characters are law enforcement...
Is it possible to make Jack Malone Modern Day Cthulhu Character sheet and link it to us?
Ask and ye shall receive. I used the Auto-Calculator sheet, so it won't show up in the preview. Once you download it you can see it all and change it however you like. Pretty much the same character as I did for my Call of Cthulhu How-to with a couple minor changes on the back page such as changing the Great War to Iraq and his crappy Model T is now a 2010 Ford Focus. drive.google.com/open?id=1myemUfETOpjgGOJCBY079ONHim4g92AQ
I was about to print both of Jacks modern and 20's character sheets but the PDF file you sent me seems to have not gone through and you resend...running The Haunting tomorrow and I really need Jacks sheet...much thxz if you can do this for my grp and I.
Yeah, the auto-calculator version can get twitchy. I had to lock the info down. So it can't be edited, but should be easier to download. Here ya go. drive.google.com/open?id=1GAHTKqj6yTS3hHy02J3Xo76a6_E_boBs
do you still have the 1920s version of Jack?...btw thxz for the modern one.....he looks awesome
drive.google.com/open?id=1-8ydmTvG-IaSmGfqtQMjepo3EmlaiJVL
Why was Cindy Brady doomed? It was the first borns only.
The modern Cthulhu stuff is he only stuff on this channel I’m lukewarm about. Just never really feels right. Maybe it's too close to the evening news.
I got folded in half by final boss because Balford stabbed Regina as he was getting fatally shot my partner threw a suicide vest at Nyarlathotep and shot it to blow him to kingdom come
Does the book say anything about 7th sons?
Would this scenario work for 5 players?
Yes.
Hello Seth and thanks for the remarkable review; where can one find the picture shown in 16:30 of your video?
Ah, that picture isn't in the module itself (as you likely figured out). It was on the original Kickstarter page. I liked it, so I used it. Go here: www.kickstarter.com/projects/stephaniemcalea/the-things-we-leave-behind-for-call-of-cthulhu?ref=nav_search&result=project&term=the%20things%20we%20leave%20behind
so many thanks for your quick reply!
Is this easy to integrate into Delta Green?
Shouldn't be that difficult to do with the known cult tie-in. Delta Green could arrange for some of the police/FBI to be their agents
as an ohioan: unfortunately a sudden, biblical hail storm is not remarkable in the greater Cleveland area