I ran my players through Blackwater Creek updated to 1969. The Carmody brothers were growing tainted pot in a greenhouse hidden behind their cornfield, and the smoke from the tainted plants would pass on the corruption. It was a fun update to get around the prohibition context. After my players found and blasted the cave, one of them went insane while being attacked by Brendan Carmody and broke and ran into the woods. It took hours for the other player characters to find him, giving the locals enough time to figure out what happened to their mother and send their own shotgun-wielding search parties into the woods. At one point, one of my players pushed and crit failed a persuasion roll when they were trying to talk a phone operator into sending help, which eventually led to Delta Green sending in a helicopter to napalm the town as the players were trying to escape. It was a good time. A bus full of hippies had just purchased a large amount of tainted pot and heavily implied they were going to pass it around at Woodstock, so we might have a sequel if my player characters survive to August.
I loved Blackwater Creek. Jack the NPC sent us on that one. Almost died twice. Took us three sessions to finally finish it. We did have the pilgrims showing up, including a pair of bootleggers who were sent "to check things out." (The other group.)
Love when Seth redoes old videos. Usually means the creators of the scenario are gonna redo the scenario...I think Seth might be an eldritch being and the creators are scared he might eat their eyeballs if they don't re-release scenarios. Chaosium, blink twice if you're in danger!
That's no joke. I mentioned that trend when I re-did my vid for The Haunting and then an updated version of it appeared in the 40th Anniversary Keeper Guide.
@@SSkorkowsky what dirt do you have on Chaosium? Their books are made from lizard people skins aren't they? Or are some of the keepers books secretly mythos tomes.
Agree 100 %! Goes for many top channels on UA-cam. UA-cam > network television. The STEM channels are more educational, humor channels are funnier, gaming channels are nerdier and so on. Makes me wonder what the network television teams do with all their millions of £$€ when one guy can consistently put out higher quality content.
Love that Trogdor shirt. Jack the NPC is 100% right, hiring him really helped out. I don't remember exactly how the original review went but I'm pretty sure this one is much better. And the Trogdor comes in the NIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT!
I've run this as mob twice, and it's a great introductory adventure. I would recommend the mob boss task them with EITHER winning the bad guys over to the boss' side, OR destroying the farm if the brothers won't agree to work for the boss. This sets up some fun first meeting between the party and the brothers, and when they inevitably refuse (when they find out the boss doesn't have as big a distribution network as the one they are using) the players will devise a way to destroy the still and farm - but it always goes hilariously wrong.
One idea I have for this scenario is to have half your players take the Miskatonic investigators hook and the other half the bootleggers. Give them a hook that will ensure the two groups run into each other, once they arrive at Blackwater Creek, say the Sheriff make both spend a night in lockup together. They start off a bit at cross purposes but as the true nature of the town becomes clearer teaming up becomes the best way for them to survive and if this is the start of a campaign you can move on with this odd couple sort of team.
I made my most well loved prop for this game years ago. A handkerchief plus apple juice, pen ink, and overnight in the dirt outside made for this sickly sweet but off smelling black spittle covered handkerchief. :)
To get to the widow's shack...get your players lost, have the stalked by something HUGE and SCARY, and they stumble into the shack as they evade the unseen monster.
I watched the old version a gazzilion times despite of audio quality, so that I could prepare to run it well and it ended up one of the best CoC games I did, TOP 3 for sure.
I found your channel through your OG review of Blackwater Creek as I had just bought the keeper's screen that week. Thank you for kicking off my career as a Game Master
Ahhhhh! I was impatiently waiting for Seth to upload new video. Seth got addicted me to call of Cthulhu and in the past 8 months only i got 2 of my friends addicted to it too and played a few games with 3 others who enjoyed it but wasn't entirely their thing. Happy day!
Hahaha, oh boy. That Jack comment with "thanks for the mental image". Traumatizing players 101 😂 I really love these reviews, even though I don't GM Call of Cthulhu. Full of little tips and tricks, and that slightly different way of looking at the written scenario - always gives me ideas on how to twist things a bit, so it isn't just the same old tropes.
Now that is Erie, I pick up the keeper screen pack yesterday after I got off work, wake up this morning to drive to work, lo and behold he's reviewing blackwater creek... The mythos is stronk...
I ran this adventure once with the Pulp Cthulhu rules which was a ton of fun, where a group of locals who live near the town grow tired of the disappearances and take up arms to fight the corrupt villagers and destroy the root of the issue.
Great stuff, Seth (and Jack!). I’ve been threatening to run Call of Cthulhu, and this might be a good place to begin. It was great to listen to your interview at Dieku Games. Thank you for sharing your wisdom and expertise with the community.
Coca Cola had alot of local bottling plants in the 30s and 40s. Your PCs might have tainted local cokes. The bottles would get mixed over time so even if the PCs got a bottle with a different town it might still be bottled locally.
I dunno, if a char goes out of their way to avoid drinking tainted things by choosing to only drink sodas etc, having it still be tainted kinda takes away from their own choices "Try to not get infected by not drinking the water? Well, you get tainted anyway"
I think this is the best way to redo old content. Take it out of the spotlight but leave it for those that have to see it. This version is a heck of a lot better though.
Right on time! I'm planning on running this for the first time in a few weeks. It's probably the best scenario I've read so far, really excited about it.
Eew gum worms. I saw a guy like that when I worked security at the state hospital. He had been homeless for years when they brought him in. Infection had set in and he had a rough few weeks before the medication could do its job
I was finding so hard to concentrate on this video since all that was going through my mind was "I said consummate vs, consummate! Trogdoooooor! Burnanate all the People!" with a rad 80's butt rock guitar solo .
17:28 Love that Jack was holding the glass bottle of Coke when he talked about them drinking it for the rest of the adventure. Did they have to make Con checks or be poisoned or affected by the cocaine that Coca-Cola had in it in the 1920’s?
I've never, ever, played a tabletop rpg. Your videos actually make these games make sense to me rather than just a vague description of "using imagination." If I can request something, it'd definitely be more Cyberpunk 2020 reviews. Thanks
I feel like I've seen that disconnect is progression in a few places, where the effects on the locals and the effects on the players don't match up. It's pretty much the TTRPG version of ludo-narrative dissonance; long exposure and a slow decline makes sense from a story perspective, but that timeframe would make it all but impossible for the players to potentially experience the full range of effects within the adventure, and so the mechanics speeds it up to make it a viable threat to them, even if it does raise questions on how the PCs seem to be progressing so much faster than the locals.
Hmm... The mythos equivalent to childhood exposure to germs? Just living in that valley strengthened the locals 'immune system', whereas outsiders are as vulnerable to the mythos influence as the New World was to European diseases? Off the top of my head. (Thinking about it, I'm not wild about that idea. If anything I would think that growing up in BWC would make one more fragile. That the mythos is more akin to lead poisoning than a viral infection. To me at least.)
Thanks Seth! I recently got myself a copy of the Keeper's Screen pack and only briefly flipped thru the adventure booklet to get an overview of this adventure; this video was perfectly timed and very helpful. I'm really glad I got into Call of Cthulhu gaming!
I used your old video to help run me through, one of my players favorite adventures. My only adventure so far where everyone went insane. It's more than awesome watching this updated version. Thank you
Believe me, Seth, as someone so broke that I'll only be able to make videos (long form, not shorts) on my phone when I startup again, the quality of your vids has never bothered me cause you do your best with what you've got.
I think it is AWESOME that you are going back and redoing old content that was less that had less than stellar production values. I really appreciate the effort and care that it takes to do this and give you a hearty THANKS!
I'm never not gonna turn down watching a reupload that is made with better quality and now includes Jack! Even though I began watching you when he was already here, I still agree with him: best decision you ever made! Also I have no idea why you say that about the Great Mother's name! No idea whatsoever, none at all. Which reminds me, I wonder what Lovecraft's cat's name was? I hope it is something nice.
I'm glad you redid it. Nothing wrong with the original, but I've become accustomed to your more polished style, so I'm glad to see this get that treatment.
Love this additional commentary, and enjoyed you and John ranting about it on your Modern Mythos podcast. Can't remember most of it, but found it engaging and informative!
When I played black water creek actually killed the boar before it gored the farmer thanks to an impaling strike with a damned colt 1911. The Keeper needed a minute to 1)comfirm that handguns do indeed impail, and 2)come up with a personality for the farmer that he fully expected to die as a warning.
I just finished running this for the gangster starting set. The core difficulty I had was the gangster scenario setup was very likely to end early and in a way that’s good for the Mythos elements. They don’t fight the evil, they enable and empower it! The gangster setup should be destroying the rivals whiskey operations.
Thank you for the do-over because there is a booklet containing Missed Dues and Black Water Creek together in one publication. They are great for running just after the Starter Set.
I think there is no problem with Seth redoing old videos. The quality of the channel has grown so much better, and it is nice to see that. The old vids are fantastic too! So, watch them all people! Keep up the fantastic work Seth!
Never played this game but have listened to many scenarios that you have ran and reviewed. I'm gonna have to give it a go. You put me onto Traveller and I'm very glad I found your videos! I still send my new players to your Traveller series. You did an amazing job explaining what was in store. Another great video Seth and Jack!
"One of my favorite mythos gods and and my absolute least favorite name of a mythos god" Boy I felt that. Can't imagine how many Keepers just go "I'm going to purposely pronounce this one wrong."
@@NefariousKoel Same here, I also just change the spelling to Nagurath. The people I play with know what I'm saying and also I'm in Australia so the word isn't nearly as significant, but it still runs a bit too close to awkward.
I watched this and found out much later that it was a new video. I have been bench watching your CoC reviews and I find them very interesting. I just got my first taste of CoC couple of weeks ago, but as I am usually the DM I have been watching your videos to get Ideas where or what games I might want to run. I hope to hear more of these or any RPG-related things you do. Some of the channels I used to watch suddenly haven't made anything in multiple months and I am starved out of content.
I just want to say how much I appreciate you not completely removing the original video! I feel like most creators would be too self-conscious to leave the "rough draft" up. This redo is fantastic, and at the same time, it's nice to look back at the old videos sometimes. Thank you for all of your hard work!
One of my favourite scenarios for 7e. I do wish there was a bit information in the book about what happens to the villagers after the mother dies. I did something similar to you, with the sheriff whipping the others into a murderous frenzy, but I let the investigators convince most of them to go home and rebuild their lives. Sherriff and a few diehards wouldn't back down and lead to a final firefight to end the session.
Used the video from y’all’s podcast and your other videos to make my run of it such a breeze! We chose to run the bootlegger variant. Changed it to Pittsburgh in the 20’s because that’s where we grew up. It ended the only way this scenario should end: dynamite and fire! Adding the weird guy and his mom from the student variant was totally the best advice you guys gave!! My players were scrambling and freaking out. Had the house more abandoned, they were more scared of the random raccoon that stole a sandwich than of the mom 😂 they didn’t go up to see her though, they called that crap immediately
I loved the first review and love it more in your recent style, it’s ironically how I found your channel after looking for advice for running it and was recommended that video after agreeing to be a keeper and run a game of Cthulhu for my friends, be my first game as a keeper/dm in general, I’m think of making Henry Roades more of a considered holy artifact to the cult like the consort of the current vessel of the mother, making Sprouston wanting the Carmody brothers taken down is both for the mother tainted alcohol so he can spread the gift himself and to gain the consort of their god, to tie this up I’m gonna make the University start npc McTavish a recently converted cultist of Shub after drinking a bottle offered to him by Sprouston to spread the mothers gift after he came by to check on the dig(also as an idea to show infighting in the cult since its only three months old and the hierarchy isn’t set in stone yet so some are fighting for the high priest position)so when he sends the investigators to find Roades he just wants to get his hands on Roades as the consort of his god not as his coworker and maybe even ask for more alcohol cause the university is having a meeting in a week to discuss plans for the new semester and that would serve as a great chance to get members of high society incorporated into the cult, of course he’ll ask for it on the basis that moonshiners make the best alcohol and the speakeasy is charging too much and it’d be easier to just pay someone to get him the bottles instead of spending 40 bucks on a glass since it’s so popular and sells out fast,I will obviously be using a lot of the other ideas you brought up to add to this, loved the updated video
To make it even more Call of Cthulhu, they sell the tainted 'vintage' moonshine at an auction the PCs attend. Or, there's the death of an old friend or family member and in their will, they leave their collection of moonshine whiskeys to someone.
I've been considering running a Miskatonic Gangster Campaign using a number of Gangster themed Adventures. Including this and Missed Dues. So I'd glad you redid this video.
Nice! This is hands down my favourite scenario to run, and also the first I went though as a player. Also yes, I was failing my san save trying to work out why UA-cam was throwing a three year old video at me again, then I saw the ‘posted one day ago’. 🤣 Despite the fact I’ve run this at least five times (and yes, every time was very different) I still got some good tips from this. A few things I do are: 1) Ask players to “roll 1D100” rather than “roll CON” for the Mother’s gift checks. A little extra admin for me, but keeps the players guessing a little more. 2) With Walt Gerig if they can succeed a social skills roll he will mention he helped Roades carry dynamite to the cave. This tips the players off to the existence of a cave in the hills. Also this explains why he was corrupted while the other students were fine. Also explained to me how a guy with one leg managed to carry a box of dynamite through the hills 3) For handout 6 “the confessions of Ezekiel Cade” so the players can actually get this information I make this a handout they can find. I make it that the diary showed up a year ago and was the trigger that set Roades to Blackwater in the first place. What is written in the handout is one of the student’s summary notes of the original journal. I copy/paste this verbatim to notepaper, and a social skills success will convince one of the Miskatonic students to hand over notes that they snuck out of Blackwater Creek despite Roades telling them to leave all their notes so they could continue writing a paper on it. Otherwise they might steal it from Gerig’s house, or failing that might find it at the camp or dig sites. I’ve run it once using the gangster characters, and the relationships between them are great. My players loved them so much that what was meant to be a one-off scenario palate cleanser after Day of the Beast has now turned into an episodic campaign with them! It’s been very interesting.
Also I see that T-shirt and it brings back nostalgia of both watching StrongBad in high school and the fact one of the groups I ran through this scenario did end it by burninating the countryside and the peasants. They actually did set fire to the church full of people, throwing in some remaining dynamite for good measure. That was the gangster route group, I’ll add. 😂
This is the adventure I'm prepping right now! Thanks, man. Good as the old video was, the new stuff will be really handy. Way better picture quality, and Jack is always good. (New viewers don't get to learn ren fair slang, though)
The first time I ran this was at a convention and I wasn't quite ready to run it. 7th edition is seriously overwritten and a quick review was not going to get it done. So these crooks are in their car traveling through stormy area and they have a breakdown well trying to negotiate it and trying to negotiate a river swollen rut field track of roadway, common in the era that the scenario is set. And one of the characters realize that they were close by to some property that a family member owned. There was nobody in it this time of year in. It was a new acquisition and nobody was living in it but it was fully furnished. So they made their way there within an hour or so and set up temporary housekeeping in the brockford house with deep ones in the cellar. Once I finish getting the scenario ready to run in the next session few people showed up for the second session because that was the Saturday night and a lot of things are going on, but I didn't really want to run it the real fun had been had with the original second edition one shot.
Seth - I am a huge Lovecraft fan but have never run or played CoC. Your reviews really make me want to try it with my group who has only really played ADnD, Pathfinder and 5e DnD. Extra points for The Burninator shirt.
Thanks. I hadn't planned to use the new colored LED bars for videos, thinking they wouldn't make any noticeable difference. They were simply for the game room. But I flipped them on for my previous vid and was amazed at the difference they made.
I ran Blackwater Creek as a one shot for some friends over this weekend and I wish I'd found this video beforehand because the ideas are great. My investigators really bum-rushed the place (probably because they were aware of the time constraints), so they went from Blackwater itself, to the Jarvey's, to the camp, to the cave and that was all they saw of the place. Three of the five investigators died (though one didn't stay dead) and it ended with the survivors running to their car being chased by the Sheriff and townsfolk. Everyone had fun but if I get the opportunity to run it again I'll definitely be borrowing some ideas here.
Hay, Seth, I just want to thank you for inspiring me to run Call of Cthulhu. I ran both the Haunting and Dead Light for my DnD group, and they loved both scenarios. It was a nice change of pace for them, and they enjoyed the slow burn of the stories. Next week I'm going to run a weird west scenario from the Down Darker Trails setting guide using Pulp rules. Thanks again for making your video's, they have been a real inspiration.
@@SSkorkowsky Thanks. I don't know if you have checked out Down Darker Trails yet. It has new occupations, new and altered skills, it even has stat blocks for historical figures from the old west. It also comes with two scenarios.
This ended up being one of the most memorable game sessions for me as a TTRPG player, because I was the one to set the dynamite partially into the cave as we were all running out after meeting "The mother" and 2 other player characters who were behind me were already quite hurt and close to dying. And they didn't make it clear of the blast in time. While quite exciting one of the PCs was playing a very young character and I still feel a bit haunted by causing their death, to the point that I retired my PC after the adventure.
Fin Raziel saying "Willow" has been stuck in my head since the spoiler warning. Wonder if the Carmody brothers have a trivial connection to Mrs. Carmody from "The Mist" novella.
13:40 Sounds like a scene one could recreate in Hunt: Showdown if the AI was actually aggressive. I tried to run this and a couple of other scenarios with my friend but boy it's hard to get a consistent party with them, and since I can't get consistent play I can't GM that much, or ever, meaning that every single new attempt feels like backtracking to step 1 and it's rather exausting.
I had two players be members of Rhodes expedition who had gone temporarily crazy and killed the old Sheriff, kinda skipping the sheriff being the priest now, as well. I thought it fit the Children of the Corn vibes. The rest were mobsters who picked them up trying to get answers. One went insane and two adventurers died trying to dynamite the Mother. They were mobsters so one just fled soon as he could.
I ran my players through Blackwater Creek updated to 1969. The Carmody brothers were growing tainted pot in a greenhouse hidden behind their cornfield, and the smoke from the tainted plants would pass on the corruption. It was a fun update to get around the prohibition context. After my players found and blasted the cave, one of them went insane while being attacked by Brendan Carmody and broke and ran into the woods. It took hours for the other player characters to find him, giving the locals enough time to figure out what happened to their mother and send their own shotgun-wielding search parties into the woods. At one point, one of my players pushed and crit failed a persuasion roll when they were trying to talk a phone operator into sending help, which eventually led to Delta Green sending in a helicopter to napalm the town as the players were trying to escape. It was a good time.
A bus full of hippies had just purchased a large amount of tainted pot and heavily implied they were going to pass it around at Woodstock, so we might have a sequel if my player characters survive to August.
Oh, I like that. Not a bad way to update it to a different decade at all.
That is fantastic!
Lol, sounds like a darker version of Cheech & Chong's Nice Dreams where their weed was turning people into lizards.
Nice addition of Delta Green to it. Love that game. Great if you want to bring a bit more fight to a mythos game.
The old video needed to burninated! Because that's what Trogdor would want.
"didn't you already review this?"
"I didn't have a Trogdor shirt then."
"Oh, well.... fair."
I loved Blackwater Creek. Jack the NPC sent us on that one. Almost died twice. Took us three sessions to finally finish it. We did have the pilgrims showing up, including a pair of bootleggers who were sent "to check things out." (The other group.)
Love when Seth redoes old videos. Usually means the creators of the scenario are gonna redo the scenario...I think Seth might be an eldritch being and the creators are scared he might eat their eyeballs if they don't re-release scenarios.
Chaosium, blink twice if you're in danger!
That's no joke. I mentioned that trend when I re-did my vid for The Haunting and then an updated version of it appeared in the 40th Anniversary Keeper Guide.
@@SSkorkowsky what dirt do you have on Chaosium? Their books are made from lizard people skins aren't they? Or are some of the keepers books secretly mythos tomes.
"I just want all life to be able to trace its roots back to me. Is that so wrong?" Asks the mother of a thousand young.
"If we don't make it through this, at least we'll take the CORN out with us."
Redoing the videos is okay... mostly because Jack's kinda right at 0:45 😉
This channel is better than 99.9% of network television.
Indeed!!!
Agree 100 %! Goes for many top channels on UA-cam. UA-cam > network television. The STEM channels are more educational, humor channels are funnier, gaming channels are nerdier and so on. Makes me wonder what the network television teams do with all their millions of £$€ when one guy can consistently put out higher quality content.
This review drank Shub-Nigguraths milk and now appears younger than it really is.
Love that Trogdor shirt.
Jack the NPC is 100% right, hiring him really helped out.
I don't remember exactly how the original review went but I'm pretty sure this one is much better.
And the Trogdor comes in the NIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT!
I've run this as mob twice, and it's a great introductory adventure. I would recommend the mob boss task them with EITHER winning the bad guys over to the boss' side, OR destroying the farm if the brothers won't agree to work for the boss. This sets up some fun first meeting between the party and the brothers, and when they inevitably refuse (when they find out the boss doesn't have as big a distribution network as the one they are using) the players will devise a way to destroy the still and farm - but it always goes hilariously wrong.
One idea I have for this scenario is to have half your players take the Miskatonic investigators hook and the other half the bootleggers. Give them a hook that will ensure the two groups run into each other, once they arrive at Blackwater Creek, say the Sheriff make both spend a night in lockup together. They start off a bit at cross purposes but as the true nature of the town becomes clearer teaming up becomes the best way for them to survive and if this is the start of a campaign you can move on with this odd couple sort of team.
I made my most well loved prop for this game years ago. A handkerchief plus apple juice, pen ink, and overnight in the dirt outside made for this sickly sweet but off smelling black spittle covered handkerchief. :)
Always a great day when Seth uploads!
Absolutely. I find his voice so damn calming.
To get to the widow's shack...get your players lost, have the stalked by something HUGE and SCARY, and they stumble into the shack as they evade the unseen monster.
I watched the old version a gazzilion times despite of audio quality, so that I could prepare to run it well and it ended up one of the best CoC games I did, TOP 3 for sure.
I found your channel through your OG review of Blackwater Creek as I had just bought the keeper's screen that week. Thank you for kicking off my career as a Game Master
Jack has a point. I was subscribed pretty early on, but the skits and Jack are what really sold me on you!
Ahhhhh! I was impatiently waiting for Seth to upload new video.
Seth got addicted me to call of Cthulhu and in the past 8 months only i got 2 of my friends addicted to it too and played a few games with 3 others who enjoyed it but wasn't entirely their thing.
Happy day!
Hell yeah Seth! Also props to the Trogdor shirt
Hahaha, oh boy. That Jack comment with "thanks for the mental image".
Traumatizing players 101 😂
I really love these reviews, even though I don't GM Call of Cthulhu.
Full of little tips and tricks, and that slightly different way of looking at the written scenario - always gives me ideas on how to twist things a bit, so it isn't just the same old tropes.
Now that is Erie, I pick up the keeper screen pack yesterday after I got off work, wake up this morning to drive to work, lo and behold he's reviewing blackwater creek... The mythos is stronk...
I ran this adventure once with the Pulp Cthulhu rules which was a ton of fun, where a group of locals who live near the town grow tired of the disappearances and take up arms to fight the corrupt villagers and destroy the root of the issue.
Great stuff, Seth (and Jack!). I’ve been threatening to run Call of Cthulhu, and this might be a good place to begin. It was great to listen to your interview at Dieku Games. Thank you for sharing your wisdom and expertise with the community.
Solid shirt choice 10/10
Coca Cola had alot of local bottling plants in the 30s and 40s. Your PCs might have tainted local cokes. The bottles would get mixed over time so even if the PCs got a bottle with a different town it might still be bottled locally.
I dunno, if a char goes out of their way to avoid drinking tainted things by choosing to only drink sodas etc, having it still be tainted kinda takes away from their own choices
"Try to not get infected by not drinking the water? Well, you get tainted anyway"
I think this is the best way to redo old content. Take it out of the spotlight but leave it for those that have to see it. This version is a heck of a lot better though.
Reading Sea of Quills, totally gonna steal the Dyzen Eel infestation for a game.
I love those things. Hope you have fun with them.
Right on time! I'm planning on running this for the first time in a few weeks. It's probably the best scenario I've read so far, really excited about it.
Best of luck with the game.
Eew gum worms. I saw a guy like that when I worked security at the state hospital. He had been homeless for years when they brought him in. Infection had set in and he had a rough few weeks before the medication could do its job
When creators redo videos I very much appreciate them having a link to the original. It’s just good practice, and I commend you for doing so.
I was finding so hard to concentrate on this video since all that was going through my mind was "I said consummate vs, consummate! Trogdoooooor! Burnanate all the People!" with a rad 80's butt rock guitar solo .
Perfect timing! I'm running this scenario in two days time. Really appreciate the advice and some really cool tips!
I'm so glad to see you again Seth! How have you been?!
Still playing catch-up after a week away at Origins and saying yes to a bunch of little things that added up very quickly.
17:28 Love that Jack was holding the glass bottle of Coke when he talked about them drinking it for the rest of the adventure. Did they have to make Con checks or be poisoned or affected by the cocaine that Coca-Cola had in it in the 1920’s?
I've never, ever, played a tabletop rpg. Your videos actually make these games make sense to me rather than just a vague description of "using imagination." If I can request something, it'd definitely be more Cyberpunk 2020 reviews. Thanks
I feel like I've seen that disconnect is progression in a few places, where the effects on the locals and the effects on the players don't match up. It's pretty much the TTRPG version of ludo-narrative dissonance; long exposure and a slow decline makes sense from a story perspective, but that timeframe would make it all but impossible for the players to potentially experience the full range of effects within the adventure, and so the mechanics speeds it up to make it a viable threat to them, even if it does raise questions on how the PCs seem to be progressing so much faster than the locals.
Hmm... The mythos equivalent to childhood exposure to germs? Just living in that valley strengthened the locals 'immune system', whereas outsiders are as vulnerable to the mythos influence as the New World was to European diseases? Off the top of my head.
(Thinking about it, I'm not wild about that idea. If anything I would think that growing up in BWC would make one more fragile. That the mythos is more akin to lead poisoning than a viral infection. To me at least.)
Great remake, Seth. And tell Jack I complimented him on his trigger discipline while discussing burning the corn field.
Thanks Seth! I recently got myself a copy of the Keeper's Screen pack and only briefly flipped thru the adventure booklet to get an overview of this adventure; this video was perfectly timed and very helpful. I'm really glad I got into Call of Cthulhu gaming!
I just re-watched the Blackwater Creek Review and legit thought I failed my sanity check.
I used your old video to help run me through, one of my players favorite adventures. My only adventure so far where everyone went insane. It's more than awesome watching this updated version. Thank you
Indeed, saw the first, a great redo, and even better review, tips and of course Jack the NPC! Keep up the mythos!
Always happy to see a “remaster” of your old videos. The very oldest ones really are hard to watch now being used to your current much higher quality.
Oh snap! i was actually planning on running this in a few weeks for my players. Cool to see the reupload cause i recently rewatched the OG.
I'm glad you took the time to type up a proper transcript, because I couldn't figure out what a "Mythosaur" was (at 2:45).
Believe me, Seth, as someone so broke that I'll only be able to make videos (long form, not shorts) on my phone when I startup again, the quality of your vids has never bothered me cause you do your best with what you've got.
I think it is AWESOME that you are going back and redoing old content that was less that had less than stellar production values. I really appreciate the effort and care that it takes to do this and give you a hearty THANKS!
I'm never not gonna turn down watching a reupload that is made with better quality and now includes Jack! Even though I began watching you when he was already here, I still agree with him: best decision you ever made!
Also I have no idea why you say that about the Great Mother's name! No idea whatsoever, none at all. Which reminds me, I wonder what Lovecraft's cat's name was? I hope it is something nice.
I'm glad you redid it. Nothing wrong with the original, but I've become accustomed to your more polished style, so I'm glad to see this get that treatment.
0:46 True! Jack is the MVP!
Love this additional commentary, and enjoyed you and John ranting about it on your Modern Mythos podcast. Can't remember most of it, but found it engaging and informative!
When I played black water creek actually killed the boar before it gored the farmer thanks to an impaling strike with a damned colt 1911. The Keeper needed a minute to 1)comfirm that handguns do indeed impail, and 2)come up with a personality for the farmer that he fully expected to die as a warning.
As always, Seth, you are awesome. Already done or not, you always make me want to run an adventure. Keep up the super work!
I just finished running this for the gangster starting set. The core difficulty I had was the gangster scenario setup was very likely to end early and in a way that’s good for the Mythos elements. They don’t fight the evil, they enable and empower it! The gangster setup should be destroying the rivals whiskey operations.
I for one am glad you're redoing old videos.
Love that you've kept the Vomit Goblin thumbnail.
Congrats on the 2023 Ennie nomination Seth for best Podcast.
Thank you very much.
Thank you for the do-over because there is a booklet containing Missed Dues and Black Water Creek together in one publication. They are great for running just after the Starter Set.
I was waiting for the remake of this video, I kept rewatching the original as I am going to run the adventure soon.
Perfect timing Seth!
I think there is no problem with Seth redoing old videos. The quality of the channel has grown so much better, and it is nice to see that. The old vids are fantastic too! So, watch them all people! Keep up the fantastic work Seth!
I bought the Keeper Screen pack recently so was very happy to see this come up. Great work Seth!
Never played this game but have listened to many scenarios that you have ran and reviewed. I'm gonna have to give it a go. You put me onto Traveller and I'm very glad I found your videos! I still send my new players to your Traveller series. You did an amazing job explaining what was in store. Another great video Seth and Jack!
I enjoy your reviews. I have borrowed a lot of CoC stuff for my World of Darkness games and Fantasy.
We loved this one. This is where one of our favorite CoC statements comes from "I touch it with a stick". :)
"One of my favorite mythos gods and and my absolute least favorite name of a mythos god" Boy I felt that. Can't imagine how many Keepers just go "I'm going to purposely pronounce this one wrong."
Yep. I pronounce it (Shub Nuh-GURR-roth). Not much different but just enough.
@@NefariousKoel Same here, I also just change the spelling to Nagurath. The people I play with know what I'm saying and also I'm in Australia so the word isn't nearly as significant, but it still runs a bit too close to awkward.
"Shubneh GURoth" for me. Yeah that name is pretty distressing.
I don't get it. Shub-LovecraftsCat-Roth. Why is that so bad to say?
I always say the Black Goat of the Woods at this point
I watched this and found out much later that it was a new video. I have been bench watching your CoC reviews and I find them very interesting. I just got my first taste of CoC couple of weeks ago, but as I am usually the DM I have been watching your videos to get Ideas where or what games I might want to run. I hope to hear more of these or any RPG-related things you do. Some of the channels I used to watch suddenly haven't made anything in multiple months and I am starved out of content.
I just want to say how much I appreciate you not completely removing the original video! I feel like most creators would be too self-conscious to leave the "rough draft" up.
This redo is fantastic, and at the same time, it's nice to look back at the old videos sometimes. Thank you for all of your hard work!
One of my favourite scenarios for 7e. I do wish there was a bit information in the book about what happens to the villagers after the mother dies. I did something similar to you, with the sheriff whipping the others into a murderous frenzy, but I let the investigators convince most of them to go home and rebuild their lives. Sherriff and a few diehards wouldn't back down and lead to a final firefight to end the session.
I admit I watch these videos now just for the Jack The NPC and dudes at the game table role-plays.
I cant believe I've been watching you for 6.5 years. It seems like last year, maybe 2 ago you uploaded blackwater creek. I guess time does fly.
Used the video from y’all’s podcast and your other videos to make my run of it such a breeze! We chose to run the bootlegger variant. Changed it to Pittsburgh in the 20’s because that’s where we grew up. It ended the only way this scenario should end: dynamite and fire! Adding the weird guy and his mom from the student variant was totally the best advice you guys gave!! My players were scrambling and freaking out. Had the house more abandoned, they were more scared of the random raccoon that stole a sandwich than of the mom 😂 they didn’t go up to see her though, they called that crap immediately
Thanks for not deleting the original
LOVE me some Call of Cthulhu - thanks for the review!
I loved the first review and love it more in your recent style, it’s ironically how I found your channel after looking for advice for running it and was recommended that video after agreeing to be a keeper and run a game of Cthulhu for my friends, be my first game as a keeper/dm in general, I’m think of making Henry Roades more of a considered holy artifact to the cult like the consort of the current vessel of the mother, making Sprouston wanting the Carmody brothers taken down is both for the mother tainted alcohol so he can spread the gift himself and to gain the consort of their god, to tie this up I’m gonna make the University start npc McTavish a recently converted cultist of Shub after drinking a bottle offered to him by Sprouston to spread the mothers gift after he came by to check on the dig(also as an idea to show infighting in the cult since its only three months old and the hierarchy isn’t set in stone yet so some are fighting for the high priest position)so when he sends the investigators to find Roades he just wants to get his hands on Roades as the consort of his god not as his coworker and maybe even ask for more alcohol cause the university is having a meeting in a week to discuss plans for the new semester and that would serve as a great chance to get members of high society incorporated into the cult, of course he’ll ask for it on the basis that moonshiners make the best alcohol and the speakeasy is charging too much and it’d be easier to just pay someone to get him the bottles instead of spending 40 bucks on a glass since it’s so popular and sells out fast,I will obviously be using a lot of the other ideas you brought up to add to this, loved the updated video
Another great review. I could see maybe a few decades later, someone discovers a batch of the tainted moonshine........
To make it even more Call of Cthulhu, they sell the tainted 'vintage' moonshine at an auction the PCs attend.
Or, there's the death of an old friend or family member and in their will, they leave their collection of moonshine whiskeys to someone.
I've been considering running a Miskatonic Gangster Campaign using a number of Gangster themed Adventures. Including this and Missed Dues. So I'd glad you redid this video.
As always, great shirt. Love the update to this video too.
Always up for a remastered Seth video.
Holy crap! The Remastered Review!
Good stuff Seth!
Been watching since that old video. Keep it up, mate. 👍
~ Adam
Me 13 seconds in: "Didn't Seth do this one already?"
This was my favorate back in the day and I love that Seth is doing more of the good old videos.
Nice! This is hands down my favourite scenario to run, and also the first I went though as a player. Also yes, I was failing my san save trying to work out why UA-cam was throwing a three year old video at me again, then I saw the ‘posted one day ago’. 🤣
Despite the fact I’ve run this at least five times (and yes, every time was very different) I still got some good tips from this. A few things I do are:
1) Ask players to “roll 1D100” rather than “roll CON” for the Mother’s gift checks. A little extra admin for me, but keeps the players guessing a little more.
2) With Walt Gerig if they can succeed a social skills roll he will mention he helped Roades carry dynamite to the cave. This tips the players off to the existence of a cave in the hills. Also this explains why he was corrupted while the other students were fine. Also explained to me how a guy with one leg managed to carry a box of dynamite through the hills
3) For handout 6 “the confessions of Ezekiel Cade” so the players can actually get this information I make this a handout they can find. I make it that the diary showed up a year ago and was the trigger that set Roades to Blackwater in the first place. What is written in the handout is one of the student’s summary notes of the original journal. I copy/paste this verbatim to notepaper, and a social skills success will convince one of the Miskatonic students to hand over notes that they snuck out of Blackwater Creek despite Roades telling them to leave all their notes so they could continue writing a paper on it. Otherwise they might steal it from Gerig’s house, or failing that might find it at the camp or dig sites.
I’ve run it once using the gangster characters, and the relationships between them are great. My players loved them so much that what was meant to be a one-off scenario palate cleanser after Day of the Beast has now turned into an episodic campaign with them! It’s been very interesting.
Also I see that T-shirt and it brings back nostalgia of both watching StrongBad in high school and the fact one of the groups I ran through this scenario did end it by burninating the countryside and the peasants. They actually did set fire to the church full of people, throwing in some remaining dynamite for good measure. That was the gangster route group, I’ll add. 😂
This is the adventure I'm prepping right now! Thanks, man. Good as the old video was, the new stuff will be really handy. Way better picture quality, and Jack is always good.
(New viewers don't get to learn ren fair slang, though)
A significant improvement over the original. Thank you kindly sir.
The first time I ran this was at a convention and I wasn't quite ready to run it. 7th edition is seriously overwritten and a quick review was not going to get it done. So these crooks are in their car traveling through stormy area and they have a breakdown well trying to negotiate it and trying to negotiate a river swollen rut field track of roadway, common in the era that the scenario is set. And one of the characters realize that they were close by to some property that a family member owned. There was nobody in it this time of year in. It was a new acquisition and nobody was living in it but it was fully furnished. So they made their way there within an hour or so and set up temporary housekeeping in the brockford house with deep ones in the cellar. Once I finish getting the scenario ready to run in the next session few people showed up for the second session because that was the Saturday night and a lot of things are going on, but I didn't really want to run it the real fun had been had with the original second edition one shot.
I love these updated videoes. I love this channel. Thanks
Oh this is 6 hours ago. I was just thinking "how have i missed this one? I could have sworn ive seen all of Seths reviews now."
Seth - I am a huge Lovecraft fan but have never run or played CoC. Your reviews really make me want to try it with my group who has only really played ADnD, Pathfinder and 5e DnD.
Extra points for The Burninator shirt.
The lighting in this one is really good!
Thanks. I hadn't planned to use the new colored LED bars for videos, thinking they wouldn't make any noticeable difference. They were simply for the game room. But I flipped them on for my previous vid and was amazed at the difference they made.
I ran Blackwater Creek as a one shot for some friends over this weekend and I wish I'd found this video beforehand because the ideas are great. My investigators really bum-rushed the place (probably because they were aware of the time constraints), so they went from Blackwater itself, to the Jarvey's, to the camp, to the cave and that was all they saw of the place.
Three of the five investigators died (though one didn't stay dead) and it ended with the survivors running to their car being chased by the Sheriff and townsfolk. Everyone had fun but if I get the opportunity to run it again I'll definitely be borrowing some ideas here.
Hay, Seth, I just want to thank you for inspiring me to run Call of Cthulhu. I ran both the Haunting and Dead Light for my DnD group, and they loved both scenarios. It was a nice change of pace for them, and they enjoyed the slow burn of the stories. Next week I'm going to run a weird west scenario from the Down Darker Trails setting guide using Pulp rules. Thanks again for making your video's, they have been a real inspiration.
Glad to hear they've enjoyed them. Best of luck with the western scenario.
@@SSkorkowsky Thanks. I don't know if you have checked out Down Darker Trails yet. It has new occupations, new and altered skills, it even has stat blocks for historical figures from the old west. It also comes with two scenarios.
I've flipped through it and played it for a couple convention games, but the western setting didn't appeal to my players enough.
Honestly, I appreciate the updated reviews. Thank you for this Seth 👍
This ended up being one of the most memorable game sessions for me as a TTRPG player, because I was the one to set the dynamite partially into the cave as we were all running out after meeting "The mother" and 2 other player characters who were behind me were already quite hurt and close to dying. And they didn't make it clear of the blast in time. While quite exciting one of the PCs was playing a very young character and I still feel a bit haunted by causing their death, to the point that I retired my PC after the adventure.
Alright more content! glad to see more seth in my feed.
Fin Raziel saying "Willow" has been stuck in my head since the spoiler warning. Wonder if the Carmody brothers have a trivial connection to Mrs. Carmody from "The Mist" novella.
13:40
Sounds like a scene one could recreate in Hunt: Showdown if the AI was actually aggressive.
I tried to run this and a couple of other scenarios with my friend but boy it's hard to get a consistent party with them, and since I can't get consistent play I can't GM that much, or ever, meaning that every single new attempt feels like backtracking to step 1 and it's rather exausting.
Hell yeah, morning just got better
I am kind of impressed that each time Seth holds a gun in his videos, his trigger finger is actually off the trigger.
I had two players be members of Rhodes expedition who had gone temporarily crazy and killed the old Sheriff, kinda skipping the sheriff being the priest now, as well. I thought it fit the Children of the Corn vibes. The rest were mobsters who picked them up trying to get answers. One went insane and two adventurers died trying to dynamite the Mother. They were mobsters so one just fled soon as he could.