I'm really glad you liked it, Seth! It had never occurred to me that UNLAND might work as a Kult scenario until Sue converted it. Having heard how both she and you ran it, I'm now wondering if it might actually be a better fit for Kult. One bit of trivia. In the original draft, UNLAND is a living manifestation of the god Daoloth, who tears away the veils and shows you the true horrors of reality. Unfortunately, we couldn't get the rights to use Daoloth, so we converted it to The Phantom of Truth, plucked from the pages of Robert W Chambers' The King in Yellow. I think it works just as well, although I reverted to using Daoloth when I ran the scenario for Ain't Slayed Nobody.
Quite a complex setup from a moral as well as philosophical standpoint. I'll definitely buy this around weekend and see if I can adapt it into the Witcher game I'll start soon. One of my friends who used to be quite the liar - so he claims - has a sword with the words "the truth will set you free" inscribed on it, and he will be one of the players in that campaign... :)
The running joke of “Our friend [NPC] went missing/is in danger at [specific location], and get this: [plot hook leading to said location]. We have to go to [location] to save our friend! Hold on, [NPC]! We’re coming to save you!” will never get old.
@@richmcgee434 You could make that argument about every plot device though. Remember when "you wake up naked and in chains" or starting en medius rest were refreshing? 25 years ago maybe?
There's a mirror in an old locally famous house that has silhouette of a person in it. The legend is that lightening flash made it happen or it's a ghost shadow. Either way I think that might be nice way for the remnants to stay in the mirror, they fade away until there is an unmoving faintly visible figure there.
"They just need to let go of their lies..." I genuinely thought you said lives. I can picture the NPC screaming now as my character puts up a rope next to the hanging lady: "Stop! I said you need to surrender your lies, not lives! Please don't do this!" and so a new NPC was added to the park...
Even the Great Old Ones fear Scott Brown! ...now I want to see adventures where Scott Brown agents get sent to different Lovecraft sites to clear out monsters and cultists to sell the properties. "Gotta go clear out this old temple in Antarctica before the clients come for a walk-through!"
The Apocalypse players did a really, really good playthrough of this adventure on their podcast. They played as children though, which gave the whole adventure a really unique feel, I'd highly reccomend it (or honestly any of their stuff)
@@emsstrand Oh, thanks for reminding me in return! I think they actually mentioned that particular playthrough as an influence in some of their backstage patreon stuff :D
"Unland - we take the F out of Fun!" "You're fired, Stephens! You'll never work in advertising again!" "Well, duh. I looked in one of those stupid mirrors and now I can't lie any more. Still going to sue you for wrongful firing though, Larry. I clearly have a medical disability you're discriminating against." "Also, my wife is a witch."
The nanosecond you mentioned breaking the mirrors releasing the remnants my mind immediately conjured up a dirty cop NPC, deep in denial over somebody he killed unjustly, losing it and opening fire on the mirrors to initiate a combat encounter.
5:35 I love how common it is in the reviews for Jack's friends to get caught up in the mythos that I like to imagine that he really has set up a stock phrase "Hold on [X], we're coming to save you!" to save time
"The park is permanently foggy" (Silent Hill has entered the chat) 😜 Seriously, the whole time you were describing the park and how It's supernatural abilities worked, I kept thinking "this sounds exactly like how Silent Hill is."
Speaking of guilt that'll haunt you for the rest of your life, when will we discover Jack's horrifying and tragic past? Must be pretty bad if he seeks atonement or death from one hellish scenario to the next...
Maybe it’s that he got addicted to the feeling of being totally aware that comes only when you’re on the threshold of existence beyond comprehension. He’s not an adrenaline junkie, but without those peak moments, he’d collapse into malaise and maybe even kill himself.
Scott Brown needs to be a dungeon crawl adventure. Players are hired to evict the monsters/cyborgs/etc from an underground lot before it's rebuilt as a mall.
Really depends on your player characters. I played in a Wraith campaign where all the PCs were ghosts that had died in the same Big Top fire and we had four different spooky clowns in the group because we thought it was hilarious. Didn't last long, turned out the GM had a bit of coulrophobia he'd never mentioned to us. Had a Harrowed in Deadlands who dressed up as a clown, too. The makeup really helps cover the whole "undead" thing. Oh wait, you meant NPC spooky clowns, didn't you? Yeah, bit light on those.
The Phantom Truth, from what I can tell, is from a one-off reference to a "Phantom of Truth" in The King in Yellow, which has had some appearances and interpretations in other King in Yellow/Hastur/Carcosa derivative works. That said, this is coming from what I can find as someone who's read mostly King in Yellow-themed game modules and internet searches, not the book The King in Yellow itself lol
The Phantom Truth is an avatar of Daoloth, the Parter of Veils. I’m pretty sure it’s specified in the scenario itself, but I don’t have the book here with me at the moment.
I can pretty much guarantee Ina is going to find another abandoned place to build another shrine. Maybe in a derelict town, she'll build the shrine in the town hall, where the lies were told. Jack delivered a challenge. Have a remote cabin in the woods which is the one safe(ish) place in the adventure. If the PCs go in, they find information that will decrease their losses from dealing with the problem. I really liked the mirrors with Remnant animations. Creepy.
I would like to thank you from the bottom of my heart for all your hard work and all the videos and tutorials you've made! I ran my first CoC session as a keeper this last weekand! Me and my friends had a really great time playing the haunting. I've watched most of your videos and they really helped me to learn the game and make a fun environment for my players! Thank you!
My friend ran this for me a few months back. I beat a lot of things with a baseball bat. (while they were all have existential crises about their backstory, I kept getting lucky with POW rolls as I went on a mirror smashing rampage)
Fwiw, there is a "Phantom of Truth" mentioned in the King in Yellow IIRC, although as with everything its significance or role in the play is up to the imagination. No idea if this is a deliberate reference from the scenario or if they happened to use a similar name.
The writer left a comment saying they had intended to use a god from the extended mythos, but couldn't get permission to use it. They instead called it the Phantom of Truth as a reference to the King in Yellow.
I run a special one-shot for friends every Halloween. I used Unland in 2021 and had my friends make PC versions of themselves. We were on “Friends Weekend” and on our way to another destination when I drove them to the abandoned amusement park and I said to them, “Hey, let’s check this out!” And then my character disappeared. They still hate me for this. Also, the map I used was the satellite view of the abandoned Six Flags in New Orleans.
ah nice, this can also easily be modified for my next shadowrun session... gonna do some 'students' at a london university, as kind of some mystery solving group, like scooby doo (could be any RPG as far as the setting is of concern... but my group loves the Shadowrun ruleset ^^) and having that thing / park seems pretty nice.
Thanks Seth (and Jack!), this looks to be a very cool little module we can have a lot of fun with. Hope to give it a whirl in the near future. Oh, also appreciate your wonderful add-ons you always find time to provide us. They are most certainly appreciated my friend! :)
Jack, instead of a repeat offender list, you just need to have a massive Scooby-Doo fan as a contact. The test is simple: if your Scooby-fan contact can name three or more different Scooby-Doo villains whose base of operation fits the same general description as your current location, leave.
You just made this publisher a sale with this review and the previous one that you offered on the collection. I very much look forward to running this scenario for my group.
Oh my god, this game is a Call of Cthulu version of Persona 4! But instead of a murder mystery, TVS, and excepting your true self, it's a creepy carnival, mirrors, and you have to lobotomize your very essence to escape a purgatory created from scratch by a cult.
Hello Seth, Lime, and Today I'm going to be continuing the Tale of my Campaign 'The Incomplete Constellation'. Part 9: The Great Star Road The players: 'Bill', ' Kathrine', 'Chief Jeef' and 'Jemma'. Their Characters: Ayingleheim the Goliath Barbarian, Amayali the Dragonblood Elf Monk, Valociel the Aasimar Paladin, and Ilieptra the Tiefling sorcerer. The DM: Me. Last time: My Players defeated Lich-Emperor Vigovek and finished repairing the Staff of Abashi-Ka... kind of. They used the power of the staff to create a ton of new planes and dimensions, and a Path to the Final Star, the last piece of the Incomplete Constellation, and Their ticket to Full Godhood. This path took them back across basically their whole adventure so far, The Abyss, Hell, The Bergine empire, The Spire of Abashi-Ka, back to Yanghai, until at last, it lead them to the peak of Mount Cerimer, a Volcano on the Moon. There, In Cerimer's crater, they saw it. A small point of brilliant light: The Final Star. Unfortunately, it was being Guarded by an absolutely mega-colossal titanic Dragon, and not just any unreasonably large dragon, Cinderyon Daggerscale. Cinderyon is one of the Gods of the Tzai-ral pantheon, worshipped by the Elves, Dwarves and Serpens, specifically their God of Metal, Earth and Fire. Thankfully Lord Daggerscale had no interest in killing the new blood, because even the five of them had no hope of taking him down. No, instead Cinderyon acted as a Judge, only The Most Worthy candidates could claim the Final Star and ascend, anyone else would remain a mortal, and since No Mortal is allowed to witness the creation of a new Constellation, Cinderyon would anihillate any failures. Proving that they were heroes, and worshipped enough to become fully fledged gods was fairly easy, the hard part would be proving that they were the *Most* Worthy. Cinderyon decided that the only way to judge who was the most worthy of the Final Star was to take all of those who found it, and let them face each other until only One group remained, and then allow that group to be tested by his daughter: Embryce Daggerscale, the Tzai-Ral Goddess of Ice, Storms and Love. She was a slightly less massive dragon, still about 2 million tons of scales, muscle, and divine power. They didn't have to beat Embryce, just wound her. All they had to do was draw blood. However that would be after they dealt with every other Demigod who wanted a shot at full-divinity. Which, honestly, wasn't as hard as it sounds. By this point the Godsquad were so geared up and just plain powerful that the average Elysian was no match for them at all. Embryce was a completely different story. Nothing they did could even scratch her. The only time she even felt any pain was when Valociel parried one of her claws as it was about to hit Amayali. Which is when it finally clicked, that of course a literal Goddess of Love would be vulnerable to Amayali and Valociel. It was very much an 'only diamonds can cut diamonds' situation. Ilieptra and Nehkalion suddenly started being able to cause damage at around the point where Nehkalion traded places with her, saving her from Embryce's breath attack. Ayingleheim started being able to do damage when he thought about how much he enjoyed the journey they'd all been on. (They all could've realised the Bond they had as a team counted, but only Ayingleheim did.) After a long and ridiculously tough battle, they finally wore Embryce down enough to break her skin, Valociel slipped Swiftriver between her scales, and managed to slice just deep enough to spill a few drops of her blood, passing her test. Embryce warned them not to think this means they could take on any of the Tzai-ral in a serious fight, even once they finished the Constellation and ascended, and just to prove her point, she flexed her left wing, and sent a gale so powerful it knocked Nehkalion, Ilieptra and Ayingleheim out. She flew off, back to Cerimer, but not before presenting the Team with the small mote of light, made to look even more tiny in her city-sized claws. They had the Final Star at last. All that's left is to Place it in it's rightful position, and watch as their story is burned into the night sky forever, as they become true gods. This time is a little bit shorter, because Part 10 will be the last one (don't worry though; I have more stories), so keep an eye out for that, but until then Seth, you have a great day.
I love your videos Seth, even if I don't personally play these games with any groups, the way you explain things and make your video structure makes me heavily enjoy the story of these games.
"it took my players about 8" so that means with the previous group I DM'ed for we'd be looking at at least 3 sessions (which ran from about noon till roughly 5 or 8 depending on who's house and who had an early shift the next day) got to love Ravenloft fog
When I ran it a funhouse mirror warped and grabbed a PC. They were never seen again ... apart from future games when sometimes, when tired, the PCs might see their old friend hiding behind furniture or something in the reflection of a bathroom or dressing room mirror.
Is it wrong that all I can think of is how much utter BS the players can get up to if/when the figure out the ground rules of this setup? Player 1: "All these mirrors with the gray figures in them are loaded to other peoples' lies and the memories attached to them?" Player 2: "Yep, seems to be the case." Player 1: "And if a mirror breaks, the memories inside come out and try to climb into the nearest person's head?" Player 2: "Yep. I never smoked in my life but I can remember lying to somebody's parents about it while there was still a smoking cigarette under my bed. Somebody's bed. A female somebody. Who also lied about owning a vibrator, I might add. And about being faithful to whoever Tom was. There's a lot to absorb here. Still trying to process it all." Player 1: "Sorry. Still, don't you see the possibilities?" Player 2: "Like what? We don't know whose memories are in each mirror or what they are. Some of them probably have ones from a bunch of people inside. Trust me, even one set is way too much for comfort." Player 1: "Doesn't matter for what I'm thinking. In fact, the more the merrier. Like you said, the memories are distracting, right? Uncomfortable?" Player 2: "Yeah. And my inherited ones probably aren't as bad as some would be. Hell, they're tame compared my real experiences." Player 1: "So having a bunch of those gray things crawl into your head would mess you up pretty badly? Player 2: "NOT volunteering to test that." Player 1: "Wasn't suggesting you do. But what happens if we take a few of the smaller mirrors and use them as projectiles? Chuck them at a problem from a safe distance and we've got psychic insanity grenades. Or rig some of the bigger, more crowded ones up as boobytraps with triggered breakage gadgets? Is there anyone you wanted to drive mad?" Player 2: "I...we can't just...wait...that could actually work. Let me get my List." Player 1: "You have a List?" Player 2: "I have many Lists. I'm an extremely vindictive person. This particular one is 'People I Want To See Confined To An Asylum Where They Belong.' It's mostly politicians."
Hey Seth! Love your content, your style is exactly what I love watching! I know it's not on topic but since this is your newest vid I was hoping you'd see this comment. You should review the changes that were made in Traveller 2022 update. I just got the book and was making characters with my family while following along in your video and noticed differences. Thanks for your excellent work!
Thanks for all the useful reviews, guides. I've always wondered or found it difficult to check which of the adventure rpg's are in colour and why some are in grey/black monitone colour - and many not easy to see easily which are in full colour etc.
Hi Seth! Great review as always. As someone who is currently working on the Kult campaign using some Call of Cthulhu scenarios, I think it is a very fun undertaking and I think it would be great if you could make a video with general tips about such a conversion. There are people out there with cool ideas like making the Great Old Ones/Outer Gods of the Mythos Enlightened characters for instance, and I would be curious to know your own ideas.
I’m hoping for another in-depth campaign review series, like Two Headed Serpent etc. I know they take a ton of time to play & create, but nothing beats the vicarious thrill of reliving your playthroughs. Unless it’s more RPG War Stories. Those are my other fav content!
I ran Undertow from this same volume using Delta Green and it went fairly smoothly, all things considered. The Stygian Fox modern stuff is generally pretty good!
16:48 So that thing was an angel of the one who represents "good communication". Well, I guess that some could say that lies don't make for "good communication".
What's interesting is that, in theory, the party could escape by all choosing to gaze into a mirror and trapping a remnant. Now granted, an entire group doing that seems a little unlikely, as there's bound to be at least one person not willing to essentially give up a part of their soul, but all things considered that doesn't sound like too terrible a thing to do in a setting like that.
You have such an awesome setting, here. I would recommend thoroughly confusing the players. You have dense mist, an amusement park that can have lights, animatronics and odd decorations and statues, and NPCs and mirrors in a pocket dimension of warped space. I'd continually lay twists. First they have to get separated in the mist. The spotlights and marquees reflect crazed versions of their own shadows on the mist. Here and there they should be bumping around and see what they think is a creature, but is their shadow, shaped by the undulating mist against a wall, then a statue in the odd light, then an animatronic figure, then their reflection, oddly warped and seeming to move of its own accord in some of the mirrors. Then they should encounter some denizens. By now they're inured and expecting another rope-a-dope, so finding an actual NPC will be a surprise. Then in chasing or running away it should seem threatening, so they attack and injure another PC - and now they learn about the regeneration. Point being you can freely shuffle pretty much anything around. Lots of GM tools.
Clowns it had to be Clowns..... You know Seth you could also link this with the Carnival of Madness, now here's how I'd do it myself the "Original Owners" of the Carnival from when it first appeared (the PC's Ancestors) after losing the Carnival the first time opened up Funland as a second attempt but had to abandon it after the Pedo stuff happened and was able to "re-start" the Carnival after the PC's dealt with that they found some info in the Managers Safe about Funland so they go there in order to shut it down.
4:40 Im sorry, after "Jack" mentioned Scott Brown... All I'm imagining now, is a scenario where a group of players appear at the abandoned part, dressed in suits and shades, with a concealed "force multiplier" under their jacket, and their belts lined with additional ammo pouches, and just busting in every door and area of the abandoned Funland yelling "SCOTT BROWN, MOTHER F***ERS!" and blasting everything in sight!
I'm really glad you liked it, Seth!
It had never occurred to me that UNLAND might work as a Kult scenario until Sue converted it. Having heard how both she and you ran it, I'm now wondering if it might actually be a better fit for Kult.
One bit of trivia. In the original draft, UNLAND is a living manifestation of the god Daoloth, who tears away the veils and shows you the true horrors of reality. Unfortunately, we couldn't get the rights to use Daoloth, so we converted it to The Phantom of Truth, plucked from the pages of Robert W Chambers' The King in Yellow. I think it works just as well, although I reverted to using Daoloth when I ran the scenario for Ain't Slayed Nobody.
I'd just been secretly suspecting that Matthew Sanderson had been subtly influencing you to write Kult scenarios without even realizing it.
@@SSkorkowsky I was the one who introduced Matt to Kult, some 20 years ago. It seems I have a lot to answer for.
That's awesome! Appears he took that suggestion and ran.
Quite a complex setup from a moral as well as philosophical standpoint. I'll definitely buy this around weekend and see if I can adapt it into the Witcher game I'll start soon. One of my friends who used to be quite the liar - so he claims - has a sword with the words "the truth will set you free" inscribed on it, and he will be one of the players in that campaign... :)
@@johanneskaiser8188 Nice! That sounds perfect.
The running joke of “Our friend [NPC] went missing/is in danger at [specific location], and get this: [plot hook leading to said location]. We have to go to [location] to save our friend! Hold on, [NPC]! We’re coming to save you!” will never get old.
The joke doesn't get old, but the actual hackneyed adventure writing that leads to the joke being made in the first place? That got old around 1975.
@@richmcgee434 You could make that argument about every plot device though. Remember when "you wake up naked and in chains" or starting en medius rest were refreshing? 25 years ago maybe?
Bonus points if Jack checks his notes when he needs to on the name.
Jack is a popular guy. He has so many friends.
It just a shame most of them are so danger prone. 😅
There's a mirror in an old locally famous house that has silhouette of a person in it. The legend is that lightening flash made it happen or it's a ghost shadow. Either way I think that might be nice way for the remnants to stay in the mirror, they fade away until there is an unmoving faintly visible figure there.
Where's this house?
That sounds awesome, where is it?
"They just need to let go of their lies..."
I genuinely thought you said lives. I can picture the NPC screaming now as my character puts up a rope next to the hanging lady: "Stop! I said you need to surrender your lies, not lives! Please don't do this!" and so a new NPC was added to the park...
Scott Brown vs. Cthulhu sounds like a hilarious match up XD
My money's on Scott Brown.
@@richmcgee434 "Get the ef out! Don't make me come down there! R'lyeh's got a showin'!"
@@dutch6857 "Do you fish-faced assholes have any idea how hard it is to rent non-Euclidean buildings? GTFO!"
Nice. Scott Brown's quest for world domination continues...
When you mention her returning as a repeat villain the first thing that came to mind was "mirror mask"
Do you mean like as in the film, Mirror Mask? I used to have a copy of it but that was over a decade ago. It was pretty surreal.
Even the Great Old Ones fear Scott Brown!
...now I want to see adventures where Scott Brown agents get sent to different Lovecraft sites to clear out monsters and cultists to sell the properties. "Gotta go clear out this old temple in Antarctica before the clients come for a walk-through!"
The Apocalypse players did a really, really good playthrough of this adventure on their podcast. They played as children though, which gave the whole adventure a really unique feel, I'd highly reccomend it (or honestly any of their stuff)
Nice hint, I'll check that out. But I assume it'll be hard to beat Ain't Slayed Nobody's run with Scott Dorward as Keeper
@@emsstrand Oh, thanks for reminding me in return! I think they actually mentioned that particular playthrough as an influence in some of their backstage patreon stuff :D
Unland is such a fun name for a CoC scenario. I love seeing more modern day scenarios. Hope the repairs go well Seth.
"Unland - we take the F out of Fun!"
"You're fired, Stephens! You'll never work in advertising again!"
"Well, duh. I looked in one of those stupid mirrors and now I can't lie any more. Still going to sue you for wrongful firing though, Larry. I clearly have a medical disability you're discriminating against." "Also, my wife is a witch."
I can't help but wonder... can you buy onions at Unland?
When you think about it, Seaworld is also an Unland
The nanosecond you mentioned breaking the mirrors releasing the remnants my mind immediately conjured up a dirty cop NPC, deep in denial over somebody he killed unjustly, losing it and opening fire on the mirrors to initiate a combat encounter.
5:35 I love how common it is in the reviews for Jack's friends to get caught up in the mythos that I like to imagine that he really has set up a stock phrase "Hold on [X], we're coming to save you!" to save time
"The park is permanently foggy"
(Silent Hill has entered the chat) 😜
Seriously, the whole time you were describing the park and how It's supernatural abilities worked, I kept thinking "this sounds exactly like how Silent Hill is."
If anything, the new setup fittingly gives off horror anthology presenter vibes.
A pocket dimension surrounded by a wall of fog that won't let you leave? now now... where have I seen that before?
My group doesn't even play CoC, but every time a Seth review of a CoC adventure hits my feed, I get excited!
I was expecting a callback to Ravenloft when Jack figured out he couldn't escape the fog-ridden land. Weeping Boravia :p
"it's so lonely honey in the state of Maine" - I could probably get several sessions of CoC out of the lyrics from that album...
"I don't want my pain taken away, I NEED my pain!'
-Captain Kirk
Speaking of guilt that'll haunt you for the rest of your life, when will we discover Jack's horrifying and tragic past? Must be pretty bad if he seeks atonement or death from one hellish scenario to the next...
Maybe it’s that he got addicted to the feeling of being totally aware that comes only when you’re on the threshold of existence beyond comprehension. He’s not an adrenaline junkie, but without those peak moments, he’d collapse into malaise and maybe even kill himself.
Scott Brown needs to be a dungeon crawl adventure. Players are hired to evict the monsters/cyborgs/etc from an underground lot before it's rebuilt as a mall.
I hope the house stuff gets sorted out quickly
I'm sure John Ratzenberger will have things cleaned up in no time. He's a professional, you know. :)
Excellent Seth. Good timing. Was just reading this one and put it on the short list. You're awesome for providing those new maps! Thank you. 💙⚔️🎨
There’s not nearly as many spooky clowns in this as I thought there would be.
Really depends on your player characters. I played in a Wraith campaign where all the PCs were ghosts that had died in the same Big Top fire and we had four different spooky clowns in the group because we thought it was hilarious. Didn't last long, turned out the GM had a bit of coulrophobia he'd never mentioned to us. Had a Harrowed in Deadlands who dressed up as a clown, too. The makeup really helps cover the whole "undead" thing.
Oh wait, you meant NPC spooky clowns, didn't you? Yeah, bit light on those.
Go look up the Deadlands Hell On Earth adventure “Killer Klowns” you will e satisfied by the 100% more clowns in that adventure.
The Phantom Truth, from what I can tell, is from a one-off reference to a "Phantom of Truth" in The King in Yellow, which has had some appearances and interpretations in other King in Yellow/Hastur/Carcosa derivative works. That said, this is coming from what I can find as someone who's read mostly King in Yellow-themed game modules and internet searches, not the book The King in Yellow itself lol
It's The Phantom of Truth. My brain just sometimes cuts out words like "of" and "the".
@@SSkorkowsky I guess that makes two carnival/amusement park-themed CoC adventures involving the Hastur Mythos that you've covered now
@@GunsoftheArchangels Just needs to cover Carousel of Fears by Bridgett Jeffries for the hat trick!
The Phantom Truth is an avatar of Daoloth, the Parter of Veils. I’m pretty sure it’s specified in the scenario itself, but I don’t have the book here with me at the moment.
I can pretty much guarantee Ina is going to find another abandoned place to build another shrine. Maybe in a derelict town, she'll build the shrine in the town hall, where the lies were told.
Jack delivered a challenge. Have a remote cabin in the woods which is the one safe(ish) place in the adventure. If the PCs go in, they find information that will decrease their losses from dealing with the problem.
I really liked the mirrors with Remnant animations. Creepy.
Seth is on a short list of my subscriptions which I always watch
At 5:14 the dresser drawer… 👍🏾
I would like to thank you from the bottom of my heart for all your hard work and all the videos and tutorials you've made! I ran my first CoC session as a keeper this last weekand! Me and my friends had a really great time playing the haunting. I've watched most of your videos and they really helped me to learn the game and make a fun environment for my players! Thank you!
A Choatic World Of Boxes sounds like a COC module you should be reviewing, I hope you can make it out with your sanity intact
My friend ran this for me a few months back. I beat a lot of things with a baseball bat. (while they were all have existential crises about their backstory, I kept getting lucky with POW rolls as I went on a mirror smashing rampage)
Fwiw, there is a "Phantom of Truth" mentioned in the King in Yellow IIRC, although as with everything its significance or role in the play is up to the imagination. No idea if this is a deliberate reference from the scenario or if they happened to use a similar name.
The writer left a comment saying they had intended to use a god from the extended mythos, but couldn't get permission to use it. They instead called it the Phantom of Truth as a reference to the King in Yellow.
I love that you always link to your handouts. It’s a major help for running the adventures.
I run a special one-shot for friends every Halloween. I used Unland in 2021 and had my friends make PC versions of themselves. We were on “Friends Weekend” and on our way to another destination when I drove them to the abandoned amusement park and I said to them, “Hey, let’s check this out!” And then my character disappeared. They still hate me for this. Also, the map I used was the satellite view of the abandoned Six Flags in New Orleans.
Always a good day when Seth posts a new video
ah nice, this can also easily be modified for my next shadowrun session...
gonna do some 'students' at a london university, as kind of some mystery solving group, like scooby doo (could be any RPG as far as the setting is of concern... but my group loves the Shadowrun ruleset ^^) and having that thing / park seems pretty nice.
Thanks Seth (and Jack!), this looks to be a very cool little module we can have a lot of fun with.
Hope to give it a whirl in the near future.
Oh, also appreciate your wonderful add-ons you always find time to provide us. They are most certainly appreciated my friend! :)
Love you Seth! Hang in there with the home repairs. I hope they go better than mine did...
Jack, instead of a repeat offender list, you just need to have a massive Scooby-Doo fan as a contact. The test is simple: if your Scooby-fan contact can name three or more different Scooby-Doo villains whose base of operation fits the same general description as your current location, leave.
You just made this publisher a sale with this review and the previous one that you offered on the collection. I very much look forward to running this scenario for my group.
I just read Mountain of Daggers and halfway through Sea of Quills.
Good stuff!
I just started Mountain of Daggers. The audiobooks narrator sounds like a bad ass.
R.C. Bray did a fantastic job on the audiobooks. He's won a ton of narrator awards. Terribly nice guy, to boot.
I honestly cannot wait to GM this one with my group, and very much appreciate the resources you so kindly make available to us, Seth.
Jack's pathos is inspiring as always.
Love the little animations behind Jack. Great work!
Oh my god, this game is a Call of Cthulu version of Persona 4! But instead of a murder mystery, TVS, and excepting your true self, it's a creepy carnival, mirrors, and you have to lobotomize your very essence to escape a purgatory created from scratch by a cult.
The Silent Hill is strong with this one.
Maybe the remnants could form an army.
With attacks occurring in the wake of Ina.
Like _The Invaders,_ but Call of Cthulhu.
I just thought of Jordan Peele's Us
I loved that the handle on Betty's apartment drawer has the form of a "Like"!!!!
Great job as always Seth!!
Hello Seth, Lime, and Today I'm going to be continuing the Tale of my Campaign 'The Incomplete Constellation'.
Part 9: The Great Star Road
The players:
'Bill', ' Kathrine', 'Chief Jeef' and 'Jemma'.
Their Characters:
Ayingleheim the Goliath Barbarian, Amayali the Dragonblood Elf Monk, Valociel the Aasimar Paladin, and Ilieptra the Tiefling sorcerer.
The DM: Me.
Last time: My Players defeated Lich-Emperor Vigovek and finished repairing the Staff of Abashi-Ka... kind of.
They used the power of the staff to create a ton of new planes and dimensions, and a Path to the Final Star, the last piece of the Incomplete Constellation, and Their ticket to Full Godhood.
This path took them back across basically their whole adventure so far, The Abyss, Hell, The Bergine empire, The Spire of Abashi-Ka, back to Yanghai, until at last, it lead them to the peak of Mount Cerimer, a Volcano on the Moon.
There, In Cerimer's crater, they saw it. A small point of brilliant light: The Final Star.
Unfortunately, it was being Guarded by an absolutely mega-colossal titanic Dragon, and not just any unreasonably large dragon, Cinderyon Daggerscale. Cinderyon is one of the Gods of the Tzai-ral pantheon, worshipped by the Elves, Dwarves and Serpens, specifically their God of Metal, Earth and Fire.
Thankfully Lord Daggerscale had no interest in killing the new blood, because even the five of them had no hope of taking him down. No, instead Cinderyon acted as a Judge, only The Most Worthy candidates could claim the Final Star and ascend, anyone else would remain a mortal, and since No Mortal is allowed to witness the creation of a new Constellation, Cinderyon would anihillate any failures.
Proving that they were heroes, and worshipped enough to become fully fledged gods was fairly easy, the hard part would be proving that they were the *Most* Worthy.
Cinderyon decided that the only way to judge who was the most worthy of the Final Star was to take all of those who found it, and let them face each other until only One group remained, and then allow that group to be tested by his daughter:
Embryce Daggerscale, the Tzai-Ral Goddess of Ice, Storms and Love.
She was a slightly less massive dragon, still about 2 million tons of scales, muscle, and divine power.
They didn't have to beat Embryce, just wound her. All they had to do was draw blood.
However that would be after they dealt with every other Demigod who wanted a shot at full-divinity.
Which, honestly, wasn't as hard as it sounds. By this point the Godsquad were so geared up and just plain powerful that the average Elysian was no match for them at all.
Embryce was a completely different story.
Nothing they did could even scratch her.
The only time she even felt any pain was when Valociel parried one of her claws as it was about to hit Amayali.
Which is when it finally clicked, that of course a literal Goddess of Love would be vulnerable to Amayali and Valociel.
It was very much an 'only diamonds can cut diamonds' situation.
Ilieptra and Nehkalion suddenly started being able to cause damage at around the point where Nehkalion traded places with her, saving her from Embryce's breath attack. Ayingleheim started being able to do damage when he thought about how much he enjoyed the journey they'd all been on. (They all could've realised the Bond they had as a team counted, but only Ayingleheim did.)
After a long and ridiculously tough battle, they finally wore Embryce down enough to break her skin, Valociel slipped Swiftriver between her scales, and managed to slice just deep enough to spill a few drops of her blood, passing her test.
Embryce warned them not to think this means they could take on any of the Tzai-ral in a serious fight, even once they finished the Constellation and ascended, and just to prove her point, she flexed her left wing, and sent a gale so powerful it knocked Nehkalion, Ilieptra and Ayingleheim out.
She flew off, back to Cerimer, but not before presenting the Team with the small mote of light, made to look even more tiny in her city-sized claws.
They had the Final Star at last. All that's left is to Place it in it's rightful position, and watch as their story is burned into the night sky forever, as they become true gods.
This time is a little bit shorter, because
Part 10 will be the last one (don't worry though; I have more stories), so keep an eye out for that, but until then Seth, you have a great day.
This scenario is great horror film material.
My immediate reaction upon hearing that those inside the park are functionally immortal: "Sweet! Let's start a civilization!"
Aha, home-renovation-chaosium brother, we are going through a messy kitchen renovation, so I feel your pain!
Oh man this is one of my favorite coc adventures. Great to see your take Seth.
I love your videos Seth, even if I don't personally play these games with any groups, the way you explain things and make your video structure makes me heavily enjoy the story of these games.
You are right, this sounds so much like KULT, it's perfect. So, double exciting.
Unland looks great ! I can’t wait to try it ! Good luck with the Home repairs - that’s an adventure unto itself .....
I adore this channel and is the reason why I got into call of Cthulhu! You’re a national treasure Seth!!! Thanks for another great vid!
"it took my players about 8" so that means with the previous group I DM'ed for we'd be looking at at least 3 sessions (which ran from about noon till roughly 5 or 8 depending on who's house and who had an early shift the next day)
got to love Ravenloft fog
It's been a minute since I've caught up with your videos, but it felt so nice to jump back in and see Jack the NPC again
The first description of this setup made me think of a Batman villain.
Seems like the kind of venue you'd get in turf fights with the Joker over, yeah. Or Mirror Master, if you're anywhere near Central City.
Awesome, another excellent Seth Vid up for viewing. My morning is complete lol.
I love every reference to the "Scott Brown-incident".
Thanks Seth! Appreciate you continuing to entertain us during your domestic upheaval!
This scenario sounds amazing. I love all the thought put into it
Can’t wait to see the new games room! Call of Cthulhu is a great ttrpg and your reviews are fantastic.
The Jack in the Hall of Mirrors shot is really special.
Hi Seth.
Thanks to you I've bought the starter set from Chaosium and look forward to roping a few people into some CoC! Can't wait.
holy crap Ive larped with Sue. My brain fizzled when you mentioned her. Small world!
Great idea for the Kult conversion.
Thanks for the English subtitles, it makes the video easier to watch by translating it into Spanish. (Google Translate)
When I ran it a funhouse mirror warped and grabbed a PC. They were never seen again ... apart from future games when sometimes, when tired, the PCs might see their old friend hiding behind furniture or something in the reflection of a bathroom or dressing room mirror.
Is it wrong that all I can think of is how much utter BS the players can get up to if/when the figure out the ground rules of this setup?
Player 1: "All these mirrors with the gray figures in them are loaded to other peoples' lies and the memories attached to them?"
Player 2: "Yep, seems to be the case."
Player 1: "And if a mirror breaks, the memories inside come out and try to climb into the nearest person's head?"
Player 2: "Yep. I never smoked in my life but I can remember lying to somebody's parents about it while there was still a smoking cigarette under my bed. Somebody's bed. A female somebody. Who also lied about owning a vibrator, I might add. And about being faithful to whoever Tom was. There's a lot to absorb here. Still trying to process it all."
Player 1: "Sorry. Still, don't you see the possibilities?"
Player 2: "Like what? We don't know whose memories are in each mirror or what they are. Some of them probably have ones from a bunch of people inside. Trust me, even one set is way too much for comfort."
Player 1: "Doesn't matter for what I'm thinking. In fact, the more the merrier. Like you said, the memories are distracting, right? Uncomfortable?"
Player 2: "Yeah. And my inherited ones probably aren't as bad as some would be. Hell, they're tame compared my real experiences."
Player 1: "So having a bunch of those gray things crawl into your head would mess you up pretty badly?
Player 2: "NOT volunteering to test that."
Player 1: "Wasn't suggesting you do. But what happens if we take a few of the smaller mirrors and use them as projectiles? Chuck them at a problem from a safe distance and we've got psychic insanity grenades. Or rig some of the bigger, more crowded ones up as boobytraps with triggered breakage gadgets? Is there anyone you wanted to drive mad?"
Player 2: "I...we can't just...wait...that could actually work. Let me get my List."
Player 1: "You have a List?"
Player 2: "I have many Lists. I'm an extremely vindictive person. This particular one is 'People I Want To See Confined To An Asylum Where They Belong.' It's mostly politicians."
That's brilliant!
Seth funny you mention Scott Brown in this episode. I was in Denton last weekend and saw 7 Scott Brown signs
Hey Seth! Love your content, your style is exactly what I love watching! I know it's not on topic but since this is your newest vid I was hoping you'd see this comment. You should review the changes that were made in Traveller 2022 update. I just got the book and was making characters with my family while following along in your video and noticed differences. Thanks for your excellent work!
Been a lot of modern day CoC scenarios as of late. I wonder how easily I could convert some of these to Delta Green
Honestly, I had the same thought. Sounds like an SCP
I haven't been out of the chaotic world of boxes since 2004. You get used to it.
Thanks for all the useful reviews, guides. I've always wondered or found it difficult to check which of the adventure rpg's are in colour and why some are in grey/black monitone colour - and many not easy to see easily which are in full colour etc.
Gotta love a "mature" gamer. Nothing like 40+ being a game requirement
Seth looks so fresh! Love this! And thanks for the video as usual!
Hi Seth! Great review as always.
As someone who is currently working on the Kult campaign using some Call of Cthulhu scenarios, I think it is a very fun undertaking and I think it would be great if you could make a video with general tips about such a conversion. There are people out there with cool ideas like making the Great Old Ones/Outer Gods of the Mythos Enlightened characters for instance, and I would be curious to know your own ideas.
I'm imagining the signs for the amusement park being de facto mile markers like Buccee's signs
I’m hoping for another in-depth campaign review series, like Two Headed Serpent etc. I know they take a ton of time to play & create, but nothing beats the vicarious thrill of reliving your playthroughs.
Unless it’s more RPG War Stories. Those are my other fav content!
I ran Undertow from this same volume using Delta Green and it went fairly smoothly, all things considered. The Stygian Fox modern stuff is generally pretty good!
Sounds very Magnus Archives, and I'm for it!
If the bigger fire does not work, try bigger BIGGER fire
The Phantom Truth sounds like it could be yet another aspect of Nyarlethotep.
16:48 So that thing was an angel of the one who represents "good communication".
Well, I guess that some could say that lies don't make for "good communication".
You really need to brush up on what Malkuth got up to once the Demiurge vanished.
Nice call back to Casablanca.
What's interesting is that, in theory, the party could escape by all choosing to gaze into a mirror and trapping a remnant. Now granted, an entire group doing that seems a little unlikely, as there's bound to be at least one person not willing to essentially give up a part of their soul, but all things considered that doesn't sound like too terrible a thing to do in a setting like that.
Interesting stuff. Thanks for another great review.
Jack appears in a lot of imaginary settings, surely Seth could appear in his home as it normally is. :P
"If, or more likely when a mirror gets broken...."
I see you've met player-characters before :)
You have such an awesome setting, here. I would recommend thoroughly confusing the players.
You have dense mist, an amusement park that can have lights, animatronics and odd decorations and statues, and NPCs and mirrors in a pocket dimension of warped space.
I'd continually lay twists. First they have to get separated in the mist. The spotlights and marquees reflect crazed versions of their own shadows on the mist. Here and there they should be bumping around and see what they think is a creature, but is their shadow, shaped by the undulating mist against a wall, then a statue in the odd light, then an animatronic figure, then their reflection, oddly warped and seeming to move of its own accord in some of the mirrors. Then they should encounter some denizens. By now they're inured and expecting another rope-a-dope, so finding an actual NPC will be a surprise. Then in chasing or running away it should seem threatening, so they attack and injure another PC - and now they learn about the regeneration. Point being you can freely shuffle pretty much anything around. Lots of GM tools.
Clowns it had to be Clowns.....
You know Seth you could also link this with the Carnival of Madness, now here's how I'd do it myself the "Original Owners" of the Carnival from when it first appeared (the PC's Ancestors) after losing the Carnival the first time opened up Funland as a second attempt but had to abandon it after the Pedo stuff happened and was able to "re-start" the Carnival after the PC's dealt with that they found some info in the Managers Safe about Funland so they go there in order to shut it down.
The twist, Scott Brown is the new developer.
The Phantom of Truth is mowed down in a hail of gunfire. "Supernatural entity my ass, you're just a squatter and I know how to deal with squatters!"
@@richmcgee434 🤣🤣 yes!!
Yay! Another Seth video!
And for bonus points really stay away from any adandoned funhouse/amusement park in Gotham city.
Love your content. So when is choasium going to hire you as a editor?
4:40 Im sorry, after "Jack" mentioned Scott Brown...
All I'm imagining now, is a scenario where a group of players appear at the abandoned part, dressed in suits and shades, with a concealed "force multiplier" under their jacket, and their belts lined with additional ammo pouches, and just busting in every door and area of the abandoned Funland yelling "SCOTT BROWN, MOTHER F***ERS!" and blasting everything in sight!