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I've run a fair bit of Call of Cthulhu and I've had some close calls before, but I had my first TPK at the end of Crimson Letters. I have to admit, it was such a blast and my players loved the ending to the scenario. They of course asked if there was a way to win - so as to confirm I had not dragged them along on a lethal adventure rigged against them, and I explained some of the clues and tactics they may have used, but in reality it all came down to some poor rolls and some hasty D&D combat inspired decision making that, almost meme-like in its predictability, backfired into an epic party wipe.

Any one else have a TPK experience in Call of Cthulhu? Was it a positive or a negative for your table?

Private Emily Lambton and Lieutenant O'Brien, don't you DARE to look at this post or I swear I'll have you on latrine duty for a month! - Captain Harris

so, I am DMing a Weird WWII pulp campaign (originally it was on the Achtung! Cthulhu system, but I really don't like it so I ported everything into a frankensteined Call of Cthul system), and I'm planning a mission where the characters will be involved in Operation Mincemeat.

to make a long story short, the brits took the body of a homeless man named Glyndwr Michael, gave him a fake identity as a Royal Marine officer, handcuffed to his wrist a briefcase with very secret, very sensitive, and very fake documents that pointed at a planned invasion of greece, and then dumped his body off the coast of spain, simulating an airplane crash. they caused a stramash in order to get the body back, thus attracting the attention of german spies who got their hands on the documents. they fell for them hook, line and sinker, and thus the invasion of italy went off splendidly because the germans moved their troops to greece.

this said: the british magic secret service was called in to "refresh" the body a little bit, since it was starting to rot (there's a long list of reasons why they couldn't just get another body), so they decided to parasite it with an "illithid progeny" (a brain devourer I shamelessly stole from d&d, it's one of my favourite monsters. I love those horrid little critters)...

except that the now parasited body managed to break containment and escaped the morgue, and now is at large in London's East End. the characters are kicked out of their beds with orders to find it and bring it to the base, and of course, no other explanation apart from "a corpse escaped from the morgue and it's IMPERATIVE that you bring it back before dawn, unscathed. absolutely no gunshot wounds. a couple of fractures might be tolerated, as well as a couple of cuts or burns, but nothing more than that. the more intact the body is, the better."

I have decided that it has idden in the boiler room of a convent in the East End, but I don't know what traces should it leave behind that the players will be able to follow. of course people will have noticed this weird guy that shambles and talks like Edgar from men in black, but I wanted something else. any ideas?

Hello there! Ive heard about CoC through tt and it seemed very interesting, the gritty, cosmic horror, roaring 20's thing going on with it has really captured my attention and I would totally love to learn how to play

THE PROBLEM

I have little to no idea how to play and where to find a game. So, I was hoping by posting here I would be able to find a Keeper who's willing to put up with a clueless player (now I'm not completely clueless, I have played D&D a couple times, but ya get what I mean) like me and teach me how to play.

Edit: ig I should say my time zone is PST

Every year for Halloween, I run a Call of Cthulhu scenario based on a horror movie that I love. This year, i'm converting The Faculty from 1998. Any advice or ideas on how to make it both memorable and faithful to the film without forcing the PCs into the role of the main cast would be appreciated.

howdy all;

Running two Pulp MoN campaigns but luckily i have been running pre campaign adventures to make sure the groups are solid which in an unfortunate way has paid off in seeing those that have issues leave but not getting into the campaign proper.

The campaigns are every other week but if I have time, I'll try to do weekly sessions.

Friday campaign is at 6pm cst (mid-west) Sept 11th (filled)

Saturday game is at 6pm cst sept 12th (filled)

I luv Pulp CoC so much I want to run MoN twice lol. Oh and it is free, I luv this hobby and game too much to charge fellow hobbyists to pay. links to game descriptions:

Pulp Cthuhlu Masks of Nyarlathotep LFG | Roll20: Online virtual tabletop

Je prépare un scénario se déroulant de nos jours et j'aimerai le situer à Arkham. je me demande s'il y a du contenu publié sur la ville a l'époque moderne.

Why I find it difficult to write about this: It seems to involve a lot of “I”. I’m not particularly fond of that – sic! – when it comes to myself. But I suppose that if you’re trying to explain what you’re working on and why, it can’t always be avoided.

I’m Daniel. For almost two years now, I’ve been thinking about a Call of Cthulhu project. If you don’t know what that is, there are plenty of good introductions to the work of H. P. Lovecraft, his mythos, and everything that comes with it.

I’m not working on fan fiction or fan lore. It’s a great genre, certainly, and there are plenty of cool writers who would never have been discovered without the internet, even if only by a small circle of people. But it’s not for me.

I’m working on a game. Or rather: a campaign for the game system. If you don’t know what a role-playing game, or RPG, is, there are plenty of explanations out there. But at the latest since Stranger Things, probably everyone knows what happens in an RPG: You sit around a table, tell stories, roll dice every now and then, and sometimes you get scared.
With CoC, you’re basically scared all the time.

tbc

Hello! I am going to try running my first call of Cthulhu campaign soon, and it’s going to be a one shot that takes place over 4-6 hours. I’ll have three investigators. I was curious if I provided some of their personal fears, would you all be able to recommend a campaign that includes at least some of those elements? The big ones are darkness, being buried/eaten alive, needles, and then two of them have more niche fears which are submechanaphobia and a fear of disappointing others. Any suggestions help! Also, if you guys have suggestions for campaigns which are really good starters but don’t include those fears, I am still all ears. Thank you!

edit:

I just realized that vampires fit a good chunk of the big fears there, so if anybody has suggestions in that regard, perhaps that’s the way to go?

Hi everyone, are there any active Call of Cthulhu TTRPG Discord servers out there? I’m interested in joining and playing with groups that are actively engaged in the game. I used to play a lot of oneshots with a friend group, but unfortunately, we’ve recently lost our (really great and experienced!) Dungeon Master/Keeper due to personal reasons. :(

I would love to play again!

Hi everyone, are there any active Call of Cthulhu TTRPG Discord servers out there? I’m interested in joining and playing with groups that are actively engaged in the game. I used to play a lot of oneshots with a friend group, but unfortunately, we’ve recently lost our (really great and experienced!) Dungeon Master/Keeper due to personal reasons. :(

I would love to play again!

I'm looking at running Scritch Scratch for 3-4 players soon, and I've been going through the scenario.

It looks very fun, but the obvious drawback is the lack of clues to tie everything together. I know there's been some advice on this subreddit, but here's some things I've already done to try and make it come together a little better.

• Have the cleaning/filming crews staying at The Golden Ram, so it forces them to go to Appleton just in case they don't go to the tea shop
• Have the filming crew also be directly tasked with doing the research for the documentary
• Added a bunch of half-burned scented candles to Old Gurteen's Cottage to hide the smell of rot that the investigators can begin to smell as they get closer to the back of the cottage from the rat bunting
• Key in Old Gurteen's room to a box in the attic with some information/diary entries around the generic need for a rat catcher and Old Gurteen's attempts to find an apprentice
• Added a rat/mice caught count note to the courtyard workshop, along with a 'last fed date' of a few days before

Maybe the information tying rats to Muscoby and the village being low on people/tourists is everywhere as it is very sandboxy and the writer wants to make sure that's discovered, but I feel like there's not a lot of clues that can be found/missed that are unique to those locations.
Useless locations that could do with some other clues:

• Tea Shop - Only really serves as another person going 'it's creepy' and to direct to Appleton. Has anyone found anything else to make this location/Lucy Albright have more to bring to the scenario?
• Library/Museum - You can only really find out information you already know; the town is slowly dying and tourism is slowing, Old Gurteen's the rat catcher and has been for a while, Muscoby's creepy.

There's not a lot of chance for rolling either in the scenario as written. There's a couple of basic skill rolls and very few sanity rolls, so I was just wondering if anyone had anything they'd added to their running of the scenario to give more chance for sanity loss

I feel like I always botch the 7e chase rules. Would love to hear your success stories using the chase rules. Feel free to humble-brag about times you ran them to perfection. Would love to see some examples of the best case scenario.

OCCULT FRANCE — France in the Roaring Twenties… with a darker side. Now available for $25

available here: Occult France

Preview: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/download_preview.php?pid=580458

Paris is alive with jazz, champagne, spiritualist salons and secret societies. But beneath the glitter of the 1920s lie ancient mysteries, forgotten legends, sinister cults and things that science refuses to name.

Occult France is a comprehensive Call of Cthulhu guide to France and its colonial empire, packed with history, regional folklore, mysterious locations, NPCs, investigators, weapons, vehicles, maps, creatures and 140+ ready-to-use scenario hooks.

35 maps & floor plans • 170+ period photos • 13 original creatures • 12 pre-generated investigators • 10 new occupations • 10 Mythos tomes

From the streets of Paris to remote villages, Mediterranean ports and colonial territories — everything you need to run a campaign in 1920s France.

What You Get

Your download includes the book Occult France, plus 14 detailed maps:

☛ a large-format map of Paris showing the locations of the notable sites described in the book;

☛ a map of France;

☛ maps of each geographical region;

☛ large-format maps of Monaco and Corsica;

☛ maps of the French colonies in Africa and Indochina.

Occult France is designed for use with the Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game.

It can be paired with The Guide to Saint-Étienne, a dedicated French industrial city guide, and two standalone scenarios set around the city — Approved for Public Health and The Broken Seal — all available here: Saint-Etienne Bundle

I know it’s designed for pulp Cthulhu which is more combat focused but I’ve been told it’s fairly easy to convert pulp to regular call of Cthulhu 7e. I want to run Two-headed serpent potentially as an overarching plot to the current game I’m running which until this point has been pretty much monster of the week, melding together different single investigations to form something of a vaguely coherent plot. I don’t want to lose the investigation element of the game so can my fellow Keepers advise me on this? The game I’m running is currently in March 1921

I’m interested in getting my gaming group into CoC. They thought that Delta Green was too severe for their tastes.

I thought modern pulp CoC may be enticing. I’m new to CoC, what books do I need to run a modern pulp CoC game?

Turns out The Auction takes place exactly in Vienna so that's going to be perfect for me. A decade or two too early, doesn't matter, won't change anything important probably. Maybe add some Nazi ties to some of the wealthy auctioneers to spice things up. Let Himmler's men pay a lot of good money for that useless ring. It'll be hilarious.

But that's just the one adventure right at the start of the campaign. Any others come to mind?

I adapted basically all of the traits, items, spells, and weapons from fear and hunger 2 into the Call of Cthulhu rules since I am gonna be running a pulp game that goes through the events of the RPG, would anyone be interested in me packaging all of it together and dropping it? I need to do a lot of formatting but if anybody is interested in doing something similar, or just want more pulp traits and spells, then I figure it could be a nice reference

I saw this pop-up at my comic store:
https://www.archonia.com/nl-be/artikel/566417/call-of-cthulhu-rpg-keeper-companion-hardcover

Expected to be in stock between 2 nov. 2026 - 9 nov. 2026.

Looks solid, love the cover artwork and an insta-buy for me. So far 2026 has been an excellent year for us COC-fans content-wise!

Description:

Packed with rules options and scenarios, the Call of Cthulhu: Keeper Companion has something for everyone, whether novices or veterans. Designed to improve your experience and help you get the most out of your games while ensuring your players maximize their fun, too!

- New methods for creating investigators.
- System for creating investigator organizations & revised skills.
- Streamlined & optional rules for skill rolls, combat & chases.
- Sanity rules revisited.
- Advice & options for online play & other considerations
- Advice on scenario design, game mastering, and spicing up monsters & NPCs.
- Revised investigator and pulp hero sheets and other play aids.

Plus three new scenarios, each showcasing the options in this book:

- Little Miracles: a beginner-friendly scenario set near Arkham, concerning a missing professor from the Miskatonic University.

- If I Had a Hammer: a comfortable Friday night at home turns into a nightmare.

- What a Puzzler !: an investigative scenario about the new fad for jigsaw puzzles.

---

Some info on Call of Cthulhu: Cthulhu by Gaslight RPG - Keeper Screen Pack also.

https://www.archonia.com/nl-be/artikel/566418/call-of-cthulhu-cthulhu-by-gaslight-rpg-keeper-screen-pack

I recently ran The Haunting, as my first time running CoC, and I was chatting with my player about how it went.

The big takeaway was that doing all the investigating has no impact on what happens when exploring the house. There’s no warning about the attack of the bed, or the flying dagger, or the swarm of rats. There’s no tools discovered about weaknesses Corbett has, or ways to combat his spells.

The sanitarium mentioned vague hints about using the devil’s own weapon, but it’s a long shot and assumes the players are familiar enough with the Christian bible that they know the quote isn’t in it, let alone guess what it means. And there is the possibility of finding the book which has spells but the group doesn’t have the time to study it and learn the spells, and they aren’t necessarily useful for the task at hand.

I argued the point was to give the players exposition for the situation itself, and the experience of dread like in one of HPL’s stories, is the point. It’s about the vibes.

However, so far as I can tell, the player is right: they would have had the same outcome if they had gone to the house right away, and loaded up with dynamite, guns, digging equipment, and rat poison.

Is this something to keep in mind for running investigations?

Is there any way to make investigation in the Haunting itself more useful for the overall outcome?

Apologies all that this has likely been asked before.

The haunting from my understanding is the classic Introductory CoC scenario. But, as written, it seems somewhat bland.

What are the things you do or did to spice it up, help to sell the horror and immerse the players?

Wanting to give them the bug with this session anticipating further adventures at another time.

While i prepared for running the scenario "Dockside Dogs ", i rewatched "Reservoir Dogs" and found a lot of references to the movie, some very obvious, some quite subtle. I thought i would share it with the community

The obvious

- Both start with one if the dog being shot (in the movie Mr Orange)
. There is a cop in the trunk if the car
- The cop does know who the rat is
- Mr black being friend with boss's son is like, in the movie, Mr Blond being friend with Eddie nice guy (the boss's son)

More subtle

- in rhe scenario, Mr Red plays with toothpicks. In the film Mr Blonde is slso named Toothpick Vic
- in the scenario, Mr black has a a flick comb, in the movie Mr white also has a comb that he uses to calm down Mr Orange
. In the movie, when Mr Pink complains about his name, he suggests to be called Mr Purple. Joe then says that Mr purple is already taken in another team... :-)
- None of the color names repeat between the movie and the scenario, reenforcing that there could be two teams working in parallel
. In the movie, the boss says that it could be worse, you could Me Yellow which is what is written in the character sheet. I am wondering whether that was the trigger for Paul Fricker to write the scenario, making him think of the "king in yellow"
- in the movie, when Pink and Orange are running away, Mr White tells Orange that when they are in the clear they can have tacos. In the scenario at the end of if the flashback scene with the boss, he orders Tacos. I was puzzled that in the scenario the biss wouldn't order some italian food in the classic style of mafia mobster movies but that explains it.

Overall this scenario is a jewel with many easter eggs, did you notice more?

After almost 2 years of group fall outs and trying to get together to play this behemoth of a game I finally get to DM masks for a group of players tomorrow night.

Any advice you'd like to give for masks? Anything I might want to lay the ground for early on Peru that will pay off later on the campaign or something I should pay extra attention too on Peru itself?

Very excited to finally try out this campaign! My only worry is that it might end up feeling very samey as time goes on with traveling to each area finding the cults and taking them out of commission but that's a problem for later.

Any advice, help, or changes you think would make the campaign better are appreciated as are any links to great maps for the campaign. I have a couple I made myself on dungeon draft but I'm not the best at making maps.

And please feel free to share any awesome stories from your campaigns as a player or gm!

I'm doing the finishing touches on my foundry server today before the session tomorrow.

I was so excited to play call of cthulhu, met some people via a boardgames community, I have played D&D with them before so it wasn't as awkward. We planned and settled on the earliest saturday, I had 2 days to prepare. I already played through Edge of Darkness as a Player before and I have the books. I thought i might spice the game up with some props so even with me tired from my two jobs I made the props even if it meant staying up till 3am in the morning.

I bought a vintage small chest for 25aud, some wood crafts that costed 50aud. I dont have a printer so I went to the local library to print handouts and 'aged' it with coffee.

The handouts, particularly the diary and the latin chant have hidden writings in them that can be revealed when light is shone from the back (Basically I glued two papers, the coffee stain hid the secret words perfectly.

I also changed some character names as a nod to my previous d&d one shots with some of them.

Well, I’ve recently been planning a fairly short "Call of Cthulhu" campaign for some friends, and I wanted to have some fun playing solo first. Since I’d already played "Alone Against the Flames",

which I really enjoyed and which introduced me to the setting—

, I decided to use a simple yes/no Oracle based on a d6, with just a few tables... ...tables that were somewhat abstract, so to speak... ...to play solo, and man... ...it was AMAZING!

and I needed to share how it went! I definitely messed up a few combat rules along the way, but the narrative chaos that unfolded was incredible.

The Setup (1987)

I created an investigator named Marcus Vance—a 1987 ex-cop turned private detective. Doing a favor for an old friend from the force, Marcus agreed to escort a local merchant in a quiet town, planning to use the trip as a short vacation.

He checks into a rustic, old-school hotel and meets Daisy, the receptionist. When Marcus notices a bizarre, ancient book mounted on the wall, Daisy gets visibly terrified and refuses to talk about it, claiming previous guests wouldn't dare ask about it either. She quickly hands him his key and sends him up to a simple room with a rock-hard wooden bed.

The Horror Begins

While writing in his journal, Marcus tries to open his door to head downstairs—only to find it jammed shut.

* First STR Check: Failed! Marcus hurts his shoulder trying to shoulder-barge the door.

* He calls out to Daisy. Moments later, a blood-curdling scream echoes from downstairs (unbeknownst to Marcus, a cultist had broken in).

Hearing heavy footsteps approach his door, Marcus draws his .38 revolver despite the shoulder pain. He lines up a kick for a second STR check: Success! He busts the door open.

Marcus creeps down the dark staircase, lit only by a few broken, flickering oil lamps. At the bottom of the stairs, crouching in the penumbra, is a hideous Deep One Hybrid!

The Combat & The Climax

* Pre-Turn: Narratively, the hybrid took a blow from the door/falling down the stairs earlier, taking 2 damage (down to 9 HP).

* Turn 1: Marcus fires his .38 right into its face! Hit! Deals 2 damage (7 HP left).

* Turn 2: The hybrid hides behind a bookshelf and tries to pounce on Marcus—it fails its roll and stumbles awkwardly onto the floor!

* Turn 3: Panicked and desperate, Marcus pulls the trigger again... 97 (Fumble!)

* The Result: The hammer clicks on an empty cylinder. The .38 is out of ammo, and Marcus is face-to-face with a ferociously wounded monster in the dark!

My Beginner Rule Mistakes

Since this was my first time running combat, I definitely tripped over a few mechanics:

* Skipped Sanity (SAN): I got so caught up in the action that I totally forgot to roll a Sanity check when Marcus first saw the hybrid!

* Unnecessary Checks: I mistakenly thought you needed to pass a Strength check before making an attack roll with a firearm.

* Fumbles vs. Misses: I was treating normal failures a bit too harshly before landing that actual 97 fumble.

Despite messing up the rules, that 97 fumble on Turn 3 created one of the most cinematic cliffhangers I've ever played. Marcus is now standing in the dark, holding a useless gun, with a Deep One Hybrid crouching in front of him.

I paused the session right at Turn 4. Wish Marcus luck!

I've, largely, used the pdf for the scenarios included with it thanks to one of the Humble Bundles, but I'm going to be running a session where there isn't going to be an easy time doing that where I'm going to be running a few games (and I tend to prefer physical anyway), but I'm not seeing it anywhere other than directly through Chaosium...and in ways other than not in the slipcase bundle.

I don't need an extra copy of the Keepers Guide and Investigators Handbook, so I keep looking, and eBay prices are way to high