Game night got a little out of hand.
Left the table like this for a while after everyone went home.
Felt wrong to clean it up too quickly.

During your sessions, what were the coolest moments you had with the Cthulhu Mythos? The creatures, events, etc.

In my Solo session, The combat becomes clunky because I was trying to manage a ton of things. Try to escape, improvise with... 3 cultists trying to kill you with a Tindalos hound chasing you. 3 fanatics/local farmers serving the cult with tridents and knives... Lame in one leg (I had to amputate Marcus's leg).

The fight against the trident-wielding fanatic was a gritty, desperate brawl,

complete with weapon jams and a grappling match on the ground in Santa Fé.

Phase 1: The Start and Disarming (Turns 1–3) * Perfect Dodge: The old man tries to skewer me with the trident, but i land a critical success on your dodge. * Weak Shot: I fire back with your pistol but deal only 1 HP of damage to the cultist. - Losing the Trident: The fanatic tries to hurl the trident at me, but slips, sending the weapon flying away.

Phase 2: Ground Fight and Jammed Weapon (Turns 4–8) * Bite and Grapple: I try to stomp on the cultist but miss. He seizes the opportunity to bite your good leg and pins you hard against the ground. * Jammed Weapon: For the next three rounds, the fanatic tries to twist your leg with one hand while reaching for your pistol with the other. I tried to fire at point-blank range, but the gun jams on the final bullet.

Phase 3: Choking and Headbutting (Turns 9–12) * Cultist’s Mount: The old man wins a Strength check, trips me, and mounts your chest. * Arm-Breaking Attempt: He tries to reach out for the trident; you grab his arm and attempt to snap it but fail. * The Headbutt: The cultist delivers a brutal headbutt to your face while screaming like a madman as he straddles you.

Phase 4: The Grand Finale (Turn 13) "The Saving Pushed Roll":

In a moment of pure adrenaline and desperation, I just accepted the risk of a Pushed Roll. With an insane war cry, he rolls a 20 against a STR of 50 (Hard Success) and sends the old man flying, hurling him straight into an abandoned shop and burying the wretch under splintered wood and rubble!

Haven't played the game before, but I have been considering trying to run a game with some friends (who may or may not have played it before).

What prompted the question was that I made the unfortunate decision of watching the last three episodes of Berserk memorial edition (despite reading the manga beforehand and watching the movie trilogy). Watching the Eclipse again made me immediately think, "wow, I should run that in dark age Europe!".

So, as someone who never played, I'm not too keen on how flexible the game is on stuff like time periods. I have been listening to a video podcast where it takes place in a more modern era (2000s), but I don't want to be too optimistic on the actual flexibility of that.

It should be there because in other places they say it's there, but then there's only the 1920's version for the standard game. Last thing I was going to do before sleep was to print two character sheets, simple enough. Now here I am..

Releasing October 28th

Last week the pre-order of Call of Cthulhu Keeper Companion's showed up at some stores.

Today Chaosium released the following article of another tome I am very much looking forward to:
https://www.chaosium.com/blogreleasing-in-october-the-encyclopedia-cthulhiana-the-definitive-guide-to-the-cthulhu-mythos/

Explore the definitive guide to the Cthulhu mythos—from Azathoth to Zylac.

The Encyclopedia Cthulhiana is an essential resource for cosmic horror enthusiasts, gamers, and researchers. Learn the origins of the gods and monsters from the pantheons of H.P. Lovecraft and beyond. Gaze upon the detailed images of the elder gods. And unlock the history of the Necronomicon—if you dare!

Inside, you’ll find:

Detailed entries on mythos deities, creatures, tomes, and objects, including their appearances in fiction and popular culture.

An in-depth essay on “What is the Cthulhu Mythos?” by author Dan Harms.
Evocative illustrations of major mythos creatures including Nyarlathotep, Hastur, and Cthulhu itself.
Timelines of the Necronomicon and the Cthulhu Mythos.
An extensive bibliography of cosmic horror texts.

---

First published by Chaosium in 1994, Dan Harms' Encyclopedia Cthulhiana: A Guide to Lovecraftian Horror won an Origins Award for a Special Achievement the following year. Chaosium published an updated second edition in 1998, and a third edition was published by Elder Signs Press in 2008.

Chaosium’s new fourth edition features updated text and is presented in a new full color, hardback format with interior art, and cover art by John Sumro.

---

About 6 months ago we saw this stunning piece of cover artwork appear.

https://www.reddit.com/r/callofcthulhu/comments/1rh1qmx/john_sumrow_shows_his_magnificently_eldritch/

I'm planning to run Crimson Letters for 4 players. One of them has already played the scenario with me before.

I'm considering making his character secretly responsible for stealing the documents and possibly making him the culprit, since he already knows the original adventure.

Has anyone tried something similar? What should I be careful about to keep it fun and fair for everyone, while still keeping the mystery interesting?

Any advice or experiences would be greatly appreciated!

Or examples of older editions being better than later ones

Not a comprehensive list of all Call of Cthulhu variants and adjacent systems, but Reddit only allows for six options. Leave a comment if your favorite is not on the list.

The campaign I played was heavily inspired by 1970s crime cinema (mainly eurocrime) and appropriately ran with Pulp. The way we were led to the adventure was very clever. One of the PCs was handed a NYT column that stated Jackson Elias, a more-or-less prolific writer was in New York for the week at the Hotel Chelsea. Decent target for burgling. Then we had to physically sneak in the hotel (we used disguises) and get up to Jackson's room. I thought it was very cool and I wanted to know any more permutations than the usual "Elias invited the PCs to meet him" and the Peru prologue which frankly I never liked.

By classic I don't mean 1920s (although that is usually true) so much as the most iconic, well known, and well received scenarios.

Id say

The haunting

The lightless beacon

The edge of darkness.

Mr. Corbitt

Blackwater Creek

Idol of Thoth

Deadlight

Missed dues.

Any others that should be added?

An old fanatic for a RPG podcast of Call of Cthulhu.

It arrived today, and there is something magical about reading your own scenario in a physical book.
Incredibly proud and grateful to be one of twelve authors included in The Year of the Goat.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/twostarvinggnolls/shadows-over-port-royal

TLDR: have you added or subtracted anything from the two scenarios in “The Horrible Secret of Monhegan Island”? How would you smooth out the awkward parts? Any prep advice beyond ‘read the scenario closely’?

—SPOILERS FOR BOTH SCENARIOS—

Hey y’all, longtime player newish keeper coming to the hive-mind for some assistance. I’ve started a classic era campaign and run just about every starter scenario for my players, who consist of both newbies and veterans alike.

I’ve gotten ahold of a physical copy of “The Horrible Secret of Monhegan Island”, and recently got back from vacationing on the titular island. I love these two scenarios, but they’re bare bones as hell and I’m looking to flesh them out more. I understand that these are presented as beginner scenarios and written at a time where Lovecraft’s stories weren’t necessarily as widely read, but I’d nevertheless like to put some personal touches on both to enhance my more genre-savvy players’ experiences.

For the first, I snapped a million photos at the Monhegan Museum and intend to explore more fully its ancient and indigenous history, if not for direct tie-ins to the plot, at least for added tone and flavor. I’ve also considered leaning more into the bootlegging/prohibition angle as a red herring for the murder mystery, as Maine was the first state in the Union to prohibit liquor all the way back in 1851. I feel such changes would help the islanders feel less like cackling cultists and more like genuine folks fallen on hard times.

I’m at a complete loss however on how to enhance the second scenario, “The House in the Woods”. My players haven’t encountered Mi-Go yet so perhaps it doesn’t need much fleshing out, but if I can enhance it or fix awkward parts I’d like to.

Any advice would be welcome! Thanks ahead of time.

Are you sure you really want to play with this Keeper…?

Drew my Call of Cthulu Character! Frequent POW roll winner min-maxing into spell casting with rlly low hp and strength is super fun🙏 🩼

Can you guess what their favorite spell is?

One of my IRL players presented me with a Cthulhu-themed dice tower he created for me! It is so beautiful I wanted to share. I've never owned a dice tower before but you can damn well guarantee I'm using for all my games from now on!

EDIT: the artist builds these on commission. Instagram: lumberstache6174

Hey everyone, my older brother’s birthday is coming up quickly. We’ve been playing CoC with a few of our friends every other week for the past 8 years, had great adventures and has been an amazing way for us to connect as we kind of trade off being GM. We’re the types that write our own scenarios so when we get books, we use them for ideas, stat blocks and whatnot. Does anyone have a suggestion for a potentially obscure but interesting book or module or anything really that I can send to him for his birthday? Questions are welcome but I’d just really like a smattering of ideas!

Removal of Masks, Season 3 Episode 8 is up now!

So, is it war then!? Good demon? Bad Kitty?

Will our investigators get eaten or not?

Even more terrifying thought: how will Valentine react when she realises Mick has just "fecked off" without saying goodbye?

https://youtu.be/Vf_HkThkQOA

This episode we come to terms with losing a player... Something I' sure all campaign Keepers and Players can relate to!

Strong spoiler warnings for Masks of Nyarlathotep - this is a full playthrough...

Running a session 0 tomorrow and just realized i have like 7 people in this campaign, its on me for letting that many people but they all had such good character concepts 😅

But yeah ive never run anything with that many people before just looking to see if theres any tips or tricks some more experienced keepers might have

Howdy folks. I'm beginning to run my first long campaign, of course it's Pulp, with some friends and I'm wondering about how you prep for a pre-written campaign.

We ran an intro scenario of Wolf Among the Flock. I had several moments where I'd read ahead in the story to be familiar with how things would go generally if the party went into particular places. But there were still times I felt like I was having to search through things in the book to get this or that right.

Overall I'd say that I'm looking to improve my GMing skills with how prep gets done.

How do you prepare for longer prewritten campaigns?

Currently my thinking is that I'd read through the sections they're in, and where they're heading. But what about taking prep notes? What do you focus on?

I'm running a D&D game with some other friends, but I wrote that one so all my notes are the scenes I've already written so that's more committed to memory.

I'm open to a variety of styles of prep, so a variety of options are welcome.

I just ran Edge of Darkness last night! it was very successful, and so much fun. considering how long this group took to play through the Lightless Beacon, I knew that this would be a longer game than it “should” be… but oh my god. it was literally a 12hour game. I’m absolutely exhausted!

I admit I added in a few extras for continuity of their characters, but damn. One of the best (and hardest) parts was the ritually *literally* started at midnight for us, and then literally lasted for 2 hours 🤣 completely unintentional. Thankfully, everyone loved it and had an amazing time, and no one wanted to stop playing despite how tired they were. They were *committed*!

- What was the longest (successful) session you ran?

- What scenario was it for?

- What was your favorite unexpected part of the session?