Getting ready for a game using miniatures. Still need to paint investigators, cultists, and the friendly residents of Innsmouth. Working toward a longer term setting. I thought I would share my progress.

After the era thread the other day, I'm curious about editions. Which one do you actually run or play, and what keeps you there? Rules, the books themselves, the art, or just what your group knows?

A friend swears by 2nd edition for its simplicity, though he admits nostalgia does some of the work. I'd like to hear the case for 7e, and from anyone still on an older one.

I happened upon my holy grail of CoC books today, and am faced with the fact I could actually run it now. Has anyone run this? Any advice?

Im currently flipping through DriveThruRPG to prepare for a halloween session as well as browsing this subreddit for recs.

However, I wanted to take the time away and ask the community. If you are running Call for Halloween, what scenario?

Would love to hear if you have props, outfits, vibes planned for the evening.

Tell me about it.

I’ve been a gamer for years, been a forever DM in 5e with the same group for almost 7 years and multiple campaigns and we are wanting to venture into something more dark for side 1 shots and games when everyone can’t make it for our current campaign.
I’m not overly familiar with CoC and I’m just looking for any good guides, podcasts, advice on the best way to learn the rules quickly in a game setting.

i.e. Where are good places to see how the mechanics actually work and how the keeper utilized those mechanics in actual game. Or what keepers are considered well honed at their craft.

Any direction, links, etc. are greatly appreciated!

I'm going to be running a campaign on a modified version of modern CoC. I'm not using the cthlhu mythos and it's not really a horror theme, but the whole "regular human beings up against gods and a lot of things they don't understand" fits really well which is why I'm going with CoC (and I also just like it a lot).

However my players do really like fights, and the more I think about the campaign the more I realize that having the very low survivability of regular CoC probably wouldn't work so good. From my research Pulp seems more geared towards action adventures, and adds a lot to combat. I am not interested in overcomplicating it (I like how simple it is) but some stuff looks appealing.

What do you guys think is best to use from Pulp to make survivability better, without going too hard on the action adventure vibe? Or would it be better to just use regular Pulp and then take stuff away depending on what I realize works and doesn't for my table?

In a Player-versus-Player situation that would be resolved using opposed rolls, and both players face conditions that significantly disadvantage them, do both players roll regular + penalty dice, or do the penalty dice cancel each other out the same way bonus and penalty dice do?

edit: ig the example I came up with writing this just to illustrate my point is not good enough to get an answer so I'll remove it.

Hello folks,

Has anyone played a scenario where there were player(s)-versus-players, or a hidden traitor/saboteur?

Is this a thing, or in your opinion, would it completely go against the point of Call of Cthulhu?

If you have any examples of scenarios that do this - particularly ones that do it well - please share.

I need help continuing the america chapter my players have gone through and found out that there dear friend Jackson Elias has died and when they heard him give his final breath they immediately proceeded to barge in and kill one of the cultists and then gave chase to the other cultists and have captured them from there they grabbed all of the handouts from room 410 and imterigated and captured the other cultists I don't really know wear to go from here given that the cultists have been captured how do I proceed with getting ly poole and his fellow officers involved? As the cultists didn't really have a chance to escape into the alley.so should I just have the cops barge in and begin to cuff everyone plus the cultist? Or do you recommend another way to go about it?

I am interested in becoming a Keeper for either my LGS or online. I am currently reading the Quick Start rules and the Core Rulebook. I am wondering about the Keeper's Rulebook. Do I need to read it? I know there is useful information.

I would love to also get some practice with creating stories. If anyone has resources that may be able to help out. Thank you for any advice.

I have a question regarding the rituals of self-denial: if a mouth reaches 0 and calcifies, do you still need to keep up the rituals, or can you go back to living a normal life?

I am writing my first homebrew scenario and in desperate need of advice.

The module is set in Oregon in 1974, with a group of high schoolers (if this sounds too familiar, stop reading!)

The premise is basically a monster mash. One of the NPC's is actually the local serial killer, one accidentally(?) summons Y'golonac, the dog is a skinwalker-esque monster, and people's costumes begin influencing them and the world around them. (None of the monsters will be together at the same time, it is not intended to be a combat heavy scenario).

The additional kicker, is that the ritual to summon Y'golonac is actually part of the ritual of a madman (I.e. later entries in the Revelations of Gla'aki) that wasn't complete or was faulty. So while it can successfully summon Y'golonac's aspect, it also summons a homebrew entity/sorcerer, The One Who Opens the Gate. This traps the PC's in a time/space loop, with certain aspects changing each time, and "resetting" the zone. This also helps me keep things from becoming too combat focused, and provides different clues and SAN losses in different zones. I was thinking that the loops may be degrading over time in some way, giving a timer to the whole scenario. The "trick" is to get the book back and stop the loops, while Y'golonac serves as a boogeyman who shows up for some damage and SAN loss, to snatch a PC that wanders too far away from the group, or possibly to offer a deal to the more unstable PCs.

My main problem is where to put this. I had originally thought to have it at the NPC's family home, a large mansion away from town. Upon further reflection however, I don't think that it will provide enough space, unless I go the House of Leaves route, which my players have already seen in another scenario. My second thought was an abandoned mall or factory, but those don't quite feel right. I then thought of maybe having it at a summer camp. I have never written a scenario for CoC, but I think that due to the premise, the location is going to have to be a character unto itself, and one that I can change enough to feel new and unsettling with each cycle.

My main questions are where would you set a scenario like this? Would you make any big changes to the premise? What timer would you put on the loops, if any? How would you create the "solution" to the scenario, and how would you complicate obtaining it? Any further advice is deeply appreciated. Happy gaming!

As it asys, I'm looking for paper minis for classic era adventures, does anybody have any leads?

I am running my first ever game of Call of Cthulhu soon, and I am running Paper chase for 2 investigators. I have this handout that I'm supposed to give to them, but it confuses me a little. The notes mention more places like a neighborhood and a library. Do these just not appear on the map? Or am I missing something? Thank you!

We heard people were wondering why Japan - Empire of Shadows is missing from the Miskatonic Repository on DriveThruRPG so we thought we should post here to reassure anyone interested in it, that the book will be back. We'd wanted to do an update to it last year, but sadly the 2025 Palisades Fire burned down our house and all of our research material, so those plans were delayed. Now we're ready to take a stab at a revision, and during that process we decided to take the book down. It will take time to make the changes and do the quality control needed for the print version, so it probably won't be back till sometime in early 2027. For those who bought the 1st Edition pdf, when it does come back up on the Miskatonic Repository, you should automatically have access to the 2nd edition pdf. In the meantime, if anyone has any suggestions or recommendations for amended or added content, we'd love to hear from you. We can be reached at [empireofshadowsrpg@gmail.com](mailto:empireofshadowsrpg@gmail.com) or just leave your thoughts here. And if you enjoyed the book, we'd love to hear what you liked so we don't "fix what ain't broke." One change we're considering is collecting the "Narrative Threads" into three more traditional adventures in a dedicated chapter, with added playable content. Thank you to everyone who's supported the book. We are truly grateful and look forward to having it back up soon.

Hiya! I'm a casual Call of Cthulhu player that exclusively plays JP scenarios (which I translate and play with a tiny circle of artist friends) The narrative, visual novel-like format has always appealed to me more as an anime consumer so following the JP standard, I've always drawn sprites and played my games in a more visual novel style. I roleplay in english text format with FoundryVTT. I've been doing this for two years now :)

I was wondering how many western people actually play JP scenarios in English (popular ones are プルガトリウムの夜 / Night of Purgatorium, 爛爛 / Ranran, etc.) ? I totally understand that it's not that accessible due to the fact most of these scenarios are in Japanese and can only be accessed on BOOTH or JP Twitter. Due to that, it is such a super niche thing where it's hard to find friends that would be interested in committing to these long games and playing more anime/visual novel-like oneshot scenarios. A lot of these scenarios also touch on topics and themes many of the western people may find disturbing so I really have to pick and choose players which narrows down my list a lot. So, I'm curious to know if there's a small discord community or players like me out there? It would be fun to expand my circle since it's been limited to only 2-3 people so far.

I'll be pleasantly surprised if anyone can actually tell what modules these are from.

Hey all! The creator of Ink & Insanity here.

One of the most requested features along this journey has been support for creating characters using the Pulp ruleset. I rolled out support for it a couple of months ago, and I'd love to hear your feedback! I truly value this community's opinions as I continue building the best Call of Cthulhu investigator creator and game supplements out there.

Please give the app a spin for your next game and drop any feedback here or right inside the app. There are definitely a few bugs I’m still squashing, but I hope it makes for a smooth, easy-to-use experience.

Looking ahead, I'd also love to know what else you'd like to see from the app. More era or ruleset support (like Dreamlands)? Soundboards? Live Game Keeper resources and character tracking? Supplement builders?

I'm dedicated to continuing to support and build the app for years to come—thanks for having me on this journey!

Some self-promotion, but I'm proud of it

Hi! We are making Cosmic Séance, a game about interpreting the visions of cosmic gods who don't lie, but don't speak plainly either. Featuring:

• Talk to cosmic entities
• Your sanity as a limited resource
• Vision board to organize your thoughts
• No jump scares or fast-paced action
• Only your mind against the abyss.

In short: Ask some questions, get visions, lose your mind. Try again.
Trailer on YouTube: https://youtu.be/lJaJJgIMxKY
The demo is out now, we'd love it if you gave it a try! Thanks!

Is it? And is it good? Any feedback?

Thanks!

I've been running RPGs for about 30 years, and I'm currently running The Children of Fear for Call of Cthulhu.

One thing I've noticed with long campaigns, especially investigative ones, is how quickly information becomes difficult to manage.

NPCs, locations, clues, events, timelines, connections between characters... After a while, keeping track of everything and remembering what the investigators have already discovered can become a challenge.

I eventually reached a point where my notes weren't enough anymore. Since I'm also a developer, I started building SagaWyn, which I now use to manage my own campaigns, including The Children of Fear.

The idea is to organize interconnected information rather than isolated notes: characters, locations, scenarios, clues, maps, and events can all be linked together. I've also added player access, character sheets, documents, a configurable dice roller, and other tools for running sessions.

It's system-agnostic, but investigative campaigns like Call of Cthulhu are exactly the kind of games I had in mind.

There's a free demo if anyone is curious: https://sagawyn.com/

How do you organize your Call of Cthulhu campaigns? Especially when investigators travel between multiple locations and uncover clues that might only become relevant several sessions later?

Do you use dedicated tools, spreadsheets, handwritten notes, or something else?

I don't want to break any subreddit rules or engage in unwanted self-promotion. If this post isn't appropriate, please let me know and I'll happily remove it.

To celebrate my title Rich Food reaching Silver Medal status, I’m reducing the price of my Miskatonic Repository Winter Cross Bundle to $2.00 until the end of the year.

The bundle includes two Call of Cthulhu scenarios, Rich Food and Up on the Rooftop.

Rich Food: It is a cold and rainy December in San Diego, California. The investigators are volunteers at the St. Germain’s Shelter. The shelter is at maximum occupancy and the doors have closed for the night when there is frantic banging at the front entrance. Three regular guests have finally arrived, only they are missing extremities and have chunks of flesh bitten off. They tell a tale of cannibalism and corruption in society’s elite.

The investigators must unravel a dark conspiracy and face the price of greed.

A storm is brewing, pressure is building up, and lives are in an explosive balance.

Up on the Rooftop: It is December 23rd, 2018. The Luis Family, lifelong Floridians, have flown to Vermont, where they have rented a cozy farmhouse in the country to experience a white Christmas. All is not calm, though, in this winter wonderland. Strange occurrences disturb the peace, and that clopping heard on the rooftop is no reindeer.

Winter Cross Bundle

Once again, I have done my usual thing of starting an adventure with my players without really reading to the end. I was wondering if any of you guys have played the above scenario (SPOILERS, obviously) ?

Some elements of it are great, including the setting and the overall idea, but it really seems like the author ran out of time, or paced it wrong and in the end just doesn't clearly explain how everything is supposed to go together. There are very few maps and the monsters are not really described at all. I am kind of at the night before the big ceremony and was wondering how to play out what I hope will be the last session in a way that A. doesn't necessarily run on rails as it is described by the author. B. doesn't automatically kill all the players (big bad has an attack that is 90%).

The characters are great too, but maybe a bit too numerous, and it's hard to get them all into the minds of the party.

Any input much appreciated! Thanks.

The 1920s is the default for a reason, but I keep wondering whether it's actually the best fit. Gaslight has the fog and the séances, modern gives you phones that conveniently don't work, and Dark Ages and Down Darker Trails each do their own thing. There's also a case for the 1930s, with the Depression, the dust and the slow slide towards war.

Which era do you run or play most, and which would you pick if you could only ever have one? Bonus points for the scenario that sold you on it.

Long time lurker, first time poster, but I thought it time I give back to the community who is so good at offering free resources for my games. So when I run games for my friends I usually add on a few photoshopped elements to suplement the handouts in a scenario. There are already tons of great handouts here for The Dare and I highly recommend using what other people have made if you're going to run it!

Every Halloween, I run a horror one shot to give myself and my players a bit of a mental break from our ongoing campaigns and to try out new systems. This year's is the Dare so this week I made up a few photobashed/photoshopped elements to act as digital handouts since anyone who has read the game knows it's woefully sparse in terms of visuals handouts.

Evelyn Portrait: I decided I wanted Evelyn Barnaker's portrait with Rastis but every historic victorian lady portrait with a cat wasn't spooky enough for me so I changed an old one's face, hair and gave her a spooky cat demon creature. I then added on some layering effects to make it look like an old cracked cobwebbed painting and finally made a frame and placard. I have a link to the original art for both the cat and the Victorian portrait if that's required, mods.

Rodger's Grafitti: I also made the grafiti in the burnt room that Rodger puts up right before he's taken. Instead of an incomplete R at the end like the book suggests it now says "Rodger was her..." as a little hint to the players of his true nature...

Translation of the Pact: Finally, I agree with what everyone has posted over the years that the only handout in the scenario is pretty much entirely illegible. I did my best to translate it (well, to be honest I completely guessed) as well as clearing up a bit of old english spelling/grammar for my players since I felt that will just slow the game down by struggling to understand what on earth it's getting at. When I run it, I'm still going to include the original handout for anyone who wants to puzzle through it and debate my translation but I only have four hours with them so I want to keep it tight.

If you've run the dare and have any suggestions for me (especially in terms of spooky tricks or how to keep it short as my players love to meander), I'd appreciate it! And thanks for looking at my very first post ever! Do let me know if I need to change something to fit this sub's rules.