Halloween ThreadThis is the thread about Call of Cthulhu and Delta Green but also about that one Horror Traditional Game that only you care about.Tell us about your horror settings, games, etc. Share inspirational art, prompts, etc.>List of games:Call of Cthulhu, Chill, Cold and Dark, Degenesis, Delta Green, Don't Rest Your Head, Dread, Esoterrorists/Fear Itself+Book of Unremitting Horror, Fall of Delta Green, GORE, Into The Shadows, KULT, Little Fears, Mothership RPG, Nemesis (free on Arc Dream's website), Nights Black Agents, Silent Legions (Mostly for the tables), Stalker: The SciFi RPG, Symbaroum, Ten Candles, Trail of Cthulhu, Unisystem (All Flesh Must Be Eaten, Witchcraft, Conspiracy X, etc.), Unknown Armies, The Whispering Vault, Vaesen>Inspirational stuff:Caitlin R Kiernan, Castlevania, Carnacki the Ghost-Finder, Doom Watch, Fear & Hunger, George Romero, Ghostwatch, House of Leaves, I Am In Eskew, John Carpenter, Kolchak the Nightstalker, Laird Barron, John Langan, M.R. James, Nick Cutter, Old Gods of Appalachia, Quatermass, Ramsey Campbell, Remedy Series (Alan Wake, Control), SCP Foundation, Scarfolk Council, Shaun Hutson, Silent Hill, Stand Still Stay Silent, The Evil Dead, The Magnus Archives, The Secret World, The Stone Tapes, Anatomy, Thomas Ligotti, Twin Peaks, Vault of Evil forums, toomuchhorrorfictionOther News:Keeper Companion coming in Octoberhttps://www.chaosium.com/blogcoming-in-october-the-keeper-companion-for-call-of-cthulhu/Current Book Club Topic:"The Halloween Experiment" by Ian Gordon https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Es_10DF12LYQuestions for the thread:>Have you ever run a game that takes place on Halloween?>What's your favorite scenario to run for Halloween?Previous thread:>>98556809
>>98775590>TQI've only ever ran D&D around halloween times and I'd include witches and boogeymen etc. to match the season. This year might be the first time I'm actually running a horror game, so I'll maybe have the events take place around halloween if the timeline allows it.I’ve been running a certain Delta Green scenario today, pic related. I modified it because the agents were inserted into the base under some cover rather than being soldiers from the beginning. It'll be interesting.
>>98775876Nice! Which horror game you running?
>>98776765Well DG as I said, it's a longer campaign.
>>98776765Bot post>>98775590>Have you ever run a game that takes place on Halloween?No, but I keep meaning to.>What's your favorite scenario to run for Halloween?Coffee Break of The Living Dead is a long-time fave for premade scenarios, but I've had great success running a different (famous) fantasy module and then suddenly it's awash with aboleths, skum, and mutant sea creatures. Players had a ball.
>>98777903No, I meant what horror game are you running for Halloween? Is it also Delta Green? Is it part of the campaign or are you doing a one-shot?
>>98775590TQI might run a haunted house CoC game this year, if we can get our group together. In the meantime, I've played Alone on Halloween by myself. I's oretty easy to play just a few minutes at a time.
I wondered about running something for spooky month in the Magnus Archives TTRPG, but I could only find a non-downloadble version of the core book and no playerbook so far.
>>98780062My one cousin has gotten into the Magnus Archives TTRPG. She had her first time GM'ing with it, though funnily enough by adapting Paper Chase from CoC to the game.
>>98781584I'll probably survey my players a bit ahead of time, to see what 'Fears' they are most interested in and tailor the whole thing around that
Re-read Shadown over Innsmouth for the first time in like 10 years. Somehow missed the whole thing with empty buildings having shoggoths in them as the deep ones were prepping for war with humans. Also that deep ones aren't the traditional reptile/fish men we see in art but are full fish-frog beings, who hop like frogs but have full fish heads. We don't really get art of a proper fish head on a humanoid body but with frog like legs they use to hop around with. Frontloading the story of the government bombing the nest with a submarine and blowing up the buildings with the shoggoths and arresting the hybrids was cool. Kinda wonder what Lovecraft, if he lived that long, would make of nuclear weaponry and the nuclear weapon testing down in the bottom of the ocean, since the story is all about how mankind can't kill or find the deep ones
>>98775590I played in a CAIN oneshot for Halloween last year and have since been trying to get together another CAIN game, even just to simply be a player in it.
>>98775590What shitty old gods. Three are just blobs with eyeys and tentacles. Not very creative. The other is just himanoid but melted with tentacles. Whoever created these was uncreative with a fear of melted boggers with tentacles.
I've been bingong Sandy Petersons youtube videos for the last week and reading Lovecraft.I'm thinking of writing a quick one shot for me to run. Basically there are secret tunnels under the city, the players find them in the library or their own home.Not sure if I should A) have the tunnels be filled with ghouls that kidnap peopleb) Cannibal cultists that secretly run the city and use the tunnels to smuggle people (like irl new nork...)c) Have the tunnels be made by bhloes/dholes and they're about to sink the city
Speaking of possibly not too serious horror, did anyone here play Catthulhu?Here we recently had an almost funny story about some possibly ritual cat serial killer (no, really) in a town innamountains, and it might be fun to do a cthulhian half-parody about feline investigators.>>98783432>Frontloading the story of the government bombing the nest with a submarine and blowing up the buildings with the shoggoths and arresting the hybrids was cool. Kinda wonder what Lovecraft, if he lived that long, would make of nuclear weaponry and the nuclear weapon testing down in the bottom of the ocean, since the story is all about how mankind can't kill or find the deep onesLiterally Godzilla's backstory. Well, close to literally, anyway. Funnily enough, I think Lovecraft was unheard of in moonrune land in the fifities.(HPL himself hardly "revised" his stories ever, but speaking of Innsmouth I think even he would've been chilled to think back about camps, raids by the feds and svastikas)>>98785461Try reading The Mole People for a and b. Bullshit story, but interesting "worldbuilding" if you want a layer of normal(ish) humans lving underground between your pc and the final horror.
>>98784642Yeah they're not the best. I like more variation on my gods than just snakes and eyeballs.But, thought it was thematic for the holiday.
>they just released the ocean gameWow. It's a Halloween miracle.
>>98785461B but hint that A and maybe even C are out there too, for potential use in future games
Here's an idea for a cool October One-shot.A group of friends go visit a local haunted house attraction. Things get weird when actual supernatural things start happening.
I was hyped for running CoC but I have a hard time liking the one shots I've read. Is running pre-written one shots a rare thing and I should just check a DG shotgun scenario and use it as inspiration?Does it make sense of grabbing a Liminal Horror adventure and run it with CoC?
>>98786813CoC is pretty famous for its one-shots. Which ones have you read? I'm surprised you're struggling to find a good one.
Do you guys have any suggestions for a system for a light horror Halloween oneshot? I'm thinking something with a YA vibe like Coraline or Over the Garden Wall, not necessarily scary but more so spooky. I'm kind of scrambling for ideas, I probably should have started trying to come up with stuff last month but I'm a fool.
>>98787188I have Dead Light and Other Dark Turns and Shattered Reality open right now. There's something about the presentation that makes me lose interest as I read it.
>>98787276Kids on Bikes is the usual rec for that stuff.The system is fun for a while, but I never liked the inteded tone.
>>98787305Dead Light is really good, anon. I think you should give it a shot. If you want other suggestions, The Haunting is a classic and I have a soft spot for Amidst the Ancient Trees.>>98787276Monster of the Week could be used.
>>98787425I know it's a me problem, I'm not finding the time to sit down and properly read them and they're not something I can glance over during the session. Is The Haunting the super well known one everyone played? I think I played that one.Amidst the Ancient Trees sounds really good, I'm gonna look for it.On the other thingMotW would need some heavy reworking to fit Coraline, but it could work if Anon is into adapting stuff.
>>98787276Define "light" in this context. No killings or no sanity meter?Because I mean, apart from these the system doesn't seem to matter that much, it's a matter of adventure style.
>>98787454The Haunting has been the standard beginner CoC scenario since 1e. In fact, it's the first scenario ever written for the game, and predates CoC itself, having originally been written for a separate planned horror game that was cancelled.
https://x.com/DAWU233/status/1673533272268378112
>>98787480Yeah sorry, I suppose with any system you could make it "light" horror just by how you handle the actual story telling of it all. I suppose I just didn't want to run any totally brutal games, I've never played a system with a sanity meter but I don't think I'd mind it. >>98787311>Kids on Bikes>>98787425>Monster of the WeekYeah these are good ideas. I'll take a look. Do you know if either of them have any published one shots?
>>98787921Kids on Bikes had some weird micro settings with prompts for possible stories and NPCs. Weak imo. Then they made some railorady stuff, I read the one that connects with Kids on Space and it was very bad.MotW has a bunch but they're not that detailed either. It's one of those games that expects the players to fill in blanks liberally.
>>98786099Wasnt against OP but how the Old Gods are mostly tentacles and blobs. While the ocean has much more different body forms than just that.
>TQ I ran The Dare for Call of Cthulhu for a group of friends last October. I'd recommend it. Local haunted house, tween characters in the 80's, witch in the basement, it's great fun. Even people who weren't alive in the 80's are nostalgic for the 80's. It's popular for Halloween one-shots and if you poke around you can find bloggers who've made improved versions of the maps and props. Anyways, this year I'm running Dead Light. I'm going to ham it up as an eldritch slasher since it's a one-shot and all and any kind of subtlety will be lost on a group of 6.
What's a good sanity system for one-shots, anyway? CoC SAN boils down to losing 5 points and running away while other systems give you long term consequences for characters that will cease to exist after 2-5~ hours.
>>98784642>What shitty old gods. Three are just blobs with eyeys and tentacles. Not very creative. Posts an image where 7 of 9 are literally humans with wings.
Going to be running weekly spooky games for October. On the third and fourth weeks I'm going to be running Viral as one of my players watched a lot of Ghost Adventures growing up and will definitely play the host role memorably.I need something to play this week, though. CoC and DG are options but I'd like to try something different. I'm curious about Fear Itself. Is there a recommended introductory one-shot I could reasonably get through in one or two sessions of 3 hours? It's not a game that any of us have played, though I do own a copy of the Book of Unremitting Horror.
>>98787454The Dare or Call of Kidthulhu might interest you.
>>98787480I'd say actually sanity is something you would not like in a lighter horror game, but I guess most COC sessions are "light" to me, so whatever.>>98789464Cthulhu Dark, definitely. Trail's Stability (or, I guess, Fear Itself) can be set to be more brutal easily, at least on paper. Just pump up the difficulty or add 1/2 point to the losses.
>>98775590Just finished pic rel and thought it'd make a pretty gr8 fantasy horror setting (aparently, it began as a grimdark D&D campaign). Existential/cosmic horror, first and foremost, but can work as more grounded mudcore dark fantasy setting with sci-fi/body horror elements, too.
>>98789464>5 points and running awayYou’re not running CoC Sanity right if that’s all you’re doing. I’ve made players try to kill one another, cast mysterious spells without knowing the effects, hallucinate being in an entirely different location, help the bad guys and more under sanity effects. It’s your excuse to make the character act out of turn and do something truly unexpected.
>>98793221That's cool man but in this situation there's just a ghoul at the other side of a field and you have no friends to throw in it's path.
>>98783451Tell me about your experience, CAIN's on my wishlist. Pros, cons? As a horror game and in general.
>>98794355Then have the PC hallucinate the ghoul as an old friend and get closer. Or have them develop a phobia that causes problems for the rest of the scenario. Or even more disturbingly, have them develop a mania that makes them obsessed with a certain aspect of the ghoul. Have them pass out and wake up in the ghoul’s lair, or standing over a dug up and partially-eaten body with the gravedigger walking over to see what’s going on. Plenty of options if you don’t want to do just fleeing.
>>98794576You're trying to sauce things up but my problem and context of the post was that in a one-shot all of these are either "the gm makes up extra scene that may or may not make it into the short session time" or are just fancier ways to say "you rolled wrong and are out of the adventure"
>>98794364It's been a while since I've actually played, so it's a bit hard to remember some stuff, but I remember that I really like it!Don't go into it as a traditional "Scare your Pants Off" horror game. It's something more akin to Chainsaw Man or Jujutsu Kaisen, which are stated as inspirations. You're pretty capable, but the things you're hunting are even MORE capable. It also takes a lot from Blades in the Dark, but I wouldn't call it FitD, which is kind of its biggest flaw because I know some people don't vibe with that. A lot of it is primarily investigative. What SIN is it? Who's affected? What's its power level? Who's the Host? That kind of thing. A lot like Esoterrorists in that way. It has a resolution system a bit like Blades in the Dark with "Hard/Standard/Risky" type actions, especially when going up against Supernatural stuff, but honestly, a lot of times you might not be rolling at all. If you get into a fight with a group of standard street toughs and decide to use your Vector Blasphemy to toss a car at one of them, then you're probably not going to need to roll. It's not a very crunchy game, all things considered, so if you're looking for that. The crunchy part is keeping track of wounds and SIN Overflow. A lot of the horror comes from moments where you're overwhelmed. You realize that the Sin you were chasing was NOT in fact a Category II Idol, but it's a Category IV Lord and now things are SO much worse than before. You're in an old sawmill and the Hound's Myrmidon is creeping behind you, ready to strike. Your partner is overflowing with SIN, ready to break. It's more tense than "BWAH! SCARY MONSTER GONNA GET YA!"Vector is the best blasphemy. Just hit 'em with the power of Physics.
Happy spooky month! Have a new recolor of the carda to celebrate. I'm also working on another piece featuring my investigator, will post when finished. >>98793221My GM loves doing wacky insanity effects, latest one was having my investigator belive one of the party members was his uncle (who doesnt exist).
Does Paranoia (straight version) count?
Looking for some good bestiaries and books of monsters for my campaign. Any recs?
>>98794618This honestly sounds like a skill issue at this point man. I gave plenty of examples of stuff that can be done quickly without needing a whole extra scene. I’m not exactly sure what you’re looking for here. >>98796633What game are you playing? What kind of horror is it?
>>98794355>there's just a ghoul at the other side of a field and you have no friends to throw in it's path.Made this inspired by your post, took me 38 hours.
>>98797051I'm using gurps. The game is like, folk horror, set in rural Yorkshire in the 19th century.
>>98795720Did you decide to change which Arcana was Cthulhu, I thought you made him The Hierophant and Tsathoggua was The Hermit?
>>98798046Fuck I just noticed i forgot to change the text, mb
>>98789604And still with the different powers they have or armor they are more different than those fleshblobs. Or would you complain about soldiers being just armor and weapon? And forget the different armor and weapons usage?
Is S2 any good for Arkham Horror LCG or am I fucked because I missed out on S1?
>>98798914Good stuff as always. Do you have the full set done yet?
>>98802769I have the lineart done for all cards, i'm in the process of recoloring all of them
>>98803276Cool. Out of curiosity man, do you take commissions? I've been looking for someone to draw my Horror on the Orient Express party for a while and I like your style.
>>98803335Sure, i'm at bluesky coolcactus and insta acoolcactus if you wanna shoot me a dm
>>98803348Cool, my group is playing tomorrow so I'll check with them and get back to you.
I’m still looking for advice on how to run this without using the Pregens.I like letting people make their own characters, but the Pregens are kinda tied into this scenario so it feels a bit weird.
OCEAN GAME IS OUT
>>98806285Is it good? When I've read the playtest papers a long time ago it didn't seem anything special.
>>98806402It's incredibly abstract and essentially the horror equivalent of having your balls crushed by an Umineko Witch. It's more a series of rules to be inserted into ongoing horror campaigns than a proper 'game' as we'd understand it.
>>98806440That doesn't make want to try it out...
>>98806609I wasn't trying to convince you; merely stating what the book itself basically clarifies.
A member of my CoC party has become a vampire while another has high enough Cthulhu Mythos that he's using the fact you can use that skill to free-form cast spells.Me thinks this campaign has drifted into Pulp without actually using the Pulp rules. But the players all like it, so eh.
>>98806609You can always keep it in the background of a campaign if you ever do use it, which the book itself presents as an option.
>>98806285I'm curious about Fear Itself but have never tried it. It looks neat.
One of the darkest things to ask is if old nyar could somehow replace azathoth as the center of chaos
>>98812738Don’t some say that Nyarlathotep IS Azathoth?
>>98811439It's very fun and probably my favorite horror rpg alongside Esoterrorists. You can even adapt it to any horror campaign/setting as you want.
>>98815096I should check it out sometime, but I fear I'm too invested into CoC to want to do another horror game unless it has a significantly different hook. Even Hunter: The Vigil is something I struggle to get as excited for these days.>>98812814Nyarla is the Outer Gods' soul, and since Azathoth is the top Outer God, he's a part of him and all the rest. He just hates his job.
>>98815244>I should check it out sometime, but I fear I'm too invested into CoC to want to do another horror game unless it has a significantly different hook.The fundamental premise of Fear Itself/Esoterrorists is VERY different from that of CoC, especially in light of Ocean Game. It's still cosmic, but it's also more personal and fucked up. Think of it closer to Unknown Armies or KULT rather than CoC's pantheon of uncaring horrors.
>>98815761>Unknown Armies or KULT rather than CoC's pantheon of uncaring horrorsYeah see, that's the thing: Uncaring horrors are my vibe.The whole gnostic, human-centric lore of KULT turned me right off from it. Demons and purposefully evil things are a horror turn off for me. I don't like the idea that my monsters care about humanity.
>>98815785Fair enough.
>>98815785>>98816068I think Ocean Game kind of skirts around this in a couple ways. The Mystery Men (God) 'care' about humanity but not because we are necessarily inherently special as a rule but that the goal is to map the complete psychic topography of human suffering and everything they do, everything they push Players in the Game towards, is for the sake of this cause. You don't even specifically have to have a Mystery Man who is especially invested in its players - it could be like The Collector and more invested in its own personal vices than anything else; the Players are just tools to acquire said vices.
I want to use star spawn of Cthulhu in my game soon but I'm finding the depictions to be immersion-breaking. They tend to look like either a bodybuilder or a fat slob with head swap and wings, too humanoid and normal.I need help either reconciling with that fact, or getting art of star spawn of Cthulhu that doesn't look like a dude in (admittedly high effort) Halloween costume. Anyone?
>>98818545While you can get some good pictures to show the players I think its best not to use them during the encounter. Just go off of verbal descriptions and let the players fill in the blanks. Even the most alien looking Star Spawn art will pale in comparison with the mind will come up with.
>>98818738True. I'm primarily looking for inspiration for now anyways. Cool picture by the way.
>>98806402It's just a Fear Itself splat where you play the Outer Dark version of those Death Games you see in Anime.You still investigate weird shit but now you're a low level wizard and you gotta collect rocks. Other wizard are after your rocks,There's also rules for going into the Outer Dark itself (the outer layer, at least) and a bunch of monsters.Wonder what happened to the Dave Alsop art....
>>98818738Pick the cool one from the wiki page https://lovecraft.fandom.com/wiki/Cthulhi/Gallery
>>98819249>You still investigate weird shit but now you're a low level wizard and you gotta collect rocks. Other wizard are after your rocksAt least until your Red Ruling. Then you become God for a little bit.
>>98819249>>98820433The best thing about Ocean Game is you can fit it into any horror campaign. Playing a WoD game? Reveal the Ocean Game has been going on and the players are themselves potential candidates. Mythos? Turns out the Mythos creatures were some product of the Outer Black and now the investigators are on track to becoming capital P Players. And so on.
>>98775590Would Delta Green recruit a soviet defector during the cold war if the incident prompting his defection was DG relevant? What about a criminal in witness protection who turned on his former associates for similar reasons? Would these types be considered too untrustworthy due to their past betrayals, or would they be looked at favorably for placing supernatural threats to humanity above their loyalty to their mundane organizations?
>>98824345During the Cold War years during 1970-1991, Delta Green had no organization. It was just a loose knit group of former members from the "official" days keeping the goal alive the best they could. It wasn't until 1994 that The Conspiracy was formed, then The Program around 2002. So I would say that anybody during the Cold War era who was in deep with Delta Green would use whatever asset they could, within reason. Before 1947-1970? Maybe, with strong suspicion and a watchful eye.I think any era of Delta Green would take on a criminal, so long as he was capable of doing the job. At worst, they are a disposable asset to get said job finished.
>>98824679>I think any era of Delta Green would take on a criminal, so long as he was capable of doing the jobHmm, now I'm wondering if my Handler would give the go ahead for a gun/drug/etc smuggler flying/boating irregular shipments of contraband around in our downtime. Seems easy enough to plug in a backstory CIA contact that he tips off about commie stuff and one day he handles a shipment of weird DG stuff that he passes off to some agents. Plenty of experience for the shady side of DG ops with the ability to move around under the radar too
>>98824841There's Tiger Transit which is... They're connected to the Tcho-Tcho and Shugoran as well as the drug trade, but I believe they had ties to DG at some point, and certainly the CIA.
Am going to be playing Call of Cthulhu for the first time soon! 7e, if that matters. My Keeper is going to be running 12 short scenarios where each one we play a different character, apparently there will be some overarching plot running through all twelve. Also we're in the 1920s.Anyway, main point: first scenario is, in essence, Unfathomable as far as I can tell. And so I have made my first Call of Cthulhu character!>Lucia Montanari>Drifter, 15 years old>Str 55; Con 60; Dex 75; Int 60; Siz 45; Pow 40; App 85; Edu 55>Hit Points: 10; Magic Points: 8; Luck: 50; Sanity: 40>Charm 70; Climb 70; Credit Rating 5; Disguise 30; Dodge 70; Jump 70; Language (own) 55; Language (English) 30; Listen 30; Sleight of Hand 40; Stealth 75; Throw 68Lucina's Mamma, she is with God now (Lucina crosses herself), and she spent some time alone after that, but then she learned about how her Papà didn't die in the war after all, he went to France! So she left Modena, made her way across France to where he'd gone, only to learn he'd left for America! So she snuck onto the first ship leaving Cherbourg for America herself....yeah I know she's gonna die or go insane. San 40 is...unfortunate for a first character. All the same, this should be fun.
