Making a Call of Cthulhu Adventure...

[Obryn]

Hey, all!

I don't think any of my players read this site, but if so, keep out!

Anyway, this is long. You may not find it interesting. It's just me, setting down ideas for an adventure I'll shortly be running. It's kinda sorta a blog post, where I'm setting down and working through my ideas. I welcome commentary, from any who wish to give it - and if nothing else, it will help me keep myself organized. But really - this is more just me talking than anything else.


In a few weeks (after we wrap up Thunderspire), I'm going to run a 3?-session Call of Cthulhu game, set in 1983 or 1984. I'm thinking the Middle East; Afghanistan has some appeal to me, with the Soviet-Afghan war. It's also very easy to interject some Cold War stuff here. But then again, that might be too busy, so Iraq or Iran could work pretty well, too I'm also leaning towards Iraq, since American relations with them were decent back then, IIRC. I'm using the setting more as a backdrop than a plot element, so Wikipedia will be the extent of my research as of right now.

This will be a "prelude" to a larger campaign, set in 2008. The events that happen here will resonate and eventually become meaningful in the larger campaign, depending on how everything here turns out.

Now, what I usually do for a Call of Cthulhu adventure is come up with a few things that I find somewhat creepy, see if there's some way I can match them together, and craft a scenario out of that. I especially love any gimmicks I can pull - visual aids, sound clips, strange music, and surprising whammies. It's simple, but it works, and my players have always walked away satisfied. In this case, my elements are...

• Archaeology, specifically digging at a pre-pottery Neolithic site before it is razed for an oil pipeline. I'm largely basing the dig on a combination of 'Ain Ghazal and Catalhoyouk. I plan on using visual aids of some of the more unsettling artifacts from both sites. Also, I love the idea of secondary burials for skulls. For some reason, the 'Ain Ghazal statues freak me out. Also found at the dig site will be non-fossilized trilobite shells - and I'll use giant isopod pictures for illustration. That will lead us to...
• A 'lost world' Permian-era flora and fauna, hidden underneath the desert and maintained by ... I'm thinking trapped Mi-Go, but I could be persuaded otherwise. It was sealed off in ancient times, but oops! The PCs just screwed that one up. Among the inhabitants will be eurypterids and other creepy-crawlies. Also, strange structures that could have been buildings...
• Also, underneath the surface and trapped for 500 million years or so, several Flying Polyps who war with the Mi-Go.
• In the background of all this, which hopefully the players will notice, is a separate issue. I've become really fascinated with Cold War-era espionage, specifically Numbers Stations. I think one of the graduate students on the dig will be a Stasi spy, and that the Mi-Go have some link with them. I'd love to use some of the audio files I've downloaded here. But, if not, that can wait for the campaign.

Basically, an oil company is building a pipeline that will run straight through the dig site. Any detours would be immensely expensive. They've given a team of archaeologists only 3 weeks to investigate and catalog the site; after that, it'll largely be destroyed. This isn't too uncommon - tons of archaeologcal sites over the world have been found when people decided to build a road or something over them. Other sites have been sunken under lakes, after the locals built a dam.

I'm going to try and divide this into 3 Acts... Naturally, players do whatever they want, so I don't expect this plot structure to last beyond initial contact. It's mainly for organizational purposes, while I'm writing it up, to make sure I put good stuff in each section for them to do.

Act I involves the dig site itself, and finding the anomalous items. This will have a very "traditional" Call of Cthulhu feel. Also, they'll find a completely walled-off structure with inscriptions all over it... More than likely they'll open it up, if they go with the pregenerated characters' motivations and their general purpose for being here.

That will be followed by night-time attacks, by a knife-wielding being that looks oddly like the 'Ain Ghazal statues. I plan to play this up for maximal creepiness. Also, one of the NPCs will get kidnapped and disappear in the middle of the night. I hope to give the PCs several different motivations to actually explore the underworld, rather than pack it up and go home.

Act II will involve exploration of the lost Permian world, and have more of a pulp/horror feel ... one of the PCs is a paleontologist, and this is where he/she will shine. It's largely exploration of the underground area, discovery of the hostile native animalia (scorpions the size of crocodiles are nothing to sneeze at), and the finding of alien structures. In hope, they will also find some strange technological devices and sites that are scattered around the map. Strange footprints in the mud. Ancient doorways in the ground, some of which have been sundered. Maybe even glimpses of living mi-go, but nothing definitive.

Act III will be actual encounters with the Mythos. I would not be surprised if this ends in a TPK. Perhaps it will involve a deadly encounter with a flying polyp, rescue by mi-go, and then attack by the mi-go. Perhaps they will find the kidnapped team member's brain in a cylinder, hooked up to various devices. Perhaps they will be brought before the Mi-Go's dark God - I already have a picture all lined up. (It could very well involve an escape and/or investigation on how to seal this place back up again, too.)


Putting this all down, I feel somewhat comfortable - but I'm always up for more ideas. I may not implement them, but I would certainly love to hear them!

As an aside, the challenges I have usually faced when writing my own material are (1) I have a tendency to make set-pieces where there are vast empty spaces full of stuff I find creepy/interesting but where there's nothing in-game to do and nothing really happens; and (2) I fail to account for motivations for PCs to investigate everything. I think I'm handling (2) okay for now, but I am really watching myself with (1).

-O

 

[maddman75]

Sounds awesome!

For the alien technology, maybe something handy and useful, like a weapon or healing crystal or magic 8-ball that really works. Only using it inflicts SAN damage.

Also include something that does just as much SAN damage, but is totally useless from a PC's perspective. Maybe a lens that makes everything look upside down and colors inverted. No real use, but plays up the alieness.

 

[Obryn]

Sounds awesome!

Thanks!

For the alien technology, maybe something handy and useful, like a weapon or healing crystal or magic 8-ball that really works. Only using it inflicts SAN damage.

Also include something that does just as much SAN damage, but is totally useless from a PC's perspective. Maybe a lens that makes everything look upside down and colors inverted. No real use, but plays up the alieness.

It's like you pulled this out of my brain. At some point, I want the PCs to find a Lightning Gun. Maybe, a dead mi-go will have one. Flying polyps get blowed up good when they get zapped.

(While it's kind of a CoC meme that investigators shouldn't kill mythos creatures, ever... Lovecraft's stories have them getting ships rammed into them, ceilings collapsed on them, banished by rituals, and so on. Besides, I like a little pulp in my horror.)

Good call on the bogey items. I might have included them anyway, but it's good to be reminded so I don't overlook them. Since this is a 3-session game, the investigators' sanity should drain away like water.

-O

 

[Chris_Nightwing]

I'm a big fan of PCs killing mythos monsters - but unless it's something dull like a zombie, there's usually a bigger monster that takes notice and gets angry.

Then there was the time that one of my players turned the corner, saw a monstrous beast and critically hit with his absurd shotgun and very close range, splattering the thing across the walls.. to be told after the adventure that it was in fact a Yithian there to assist them

 

[Obryn]

I'm a big fan of PCs killing mythos monsters - but unless it's something dull like a zombie, there's usually a bigger monster that takes notice and gets angry.

Then there was the time that one of my players turned the corner, saw a monstrous beast and critically hit with his absurd shotgun and very close range, splattering the thing across the walls.. to be told after the adventure that it was in fact a Yithian there to assist them

HAH!

I thought of incorporating Yithians, but while vaguely unsettling, they're kind of the big, cone-shaped Mary Sues of the Mythos. While I have (and continue to have) zero problem breaking Lovecraftian canon, this would be a little much.

Yeah, one of the PCs in my game damn near took out an Elder Thing with a single critical rifle shot. His damage roll was just poor enough that it just pissed the Thing off rather than killing it.

-O

 

[Nebulous]

Your ideas sound solid, it should be fun. I'm a huge proponent of sound effects in games, and in my Cthulhu adventures i spent (an inordinant amount?) a lot of time crafting music for scenes. Many times, the sounds would often suffice for narrative description. I had sfx for the flying polyps underneath the Outback, and i think i used some soundtracks from the original Halo video game. Not the theme music, but the creepy music leading up to the Flood. If you have the time or inclination, i'd take a look at your set pieces and think about what you want the music to convey, and then try to find pieces that fit. I've often used music over and over in different adventures in similar scenarios, so it's not really time wasted on just one encounter.

 

[Obryn]

Your ideas sound solid, it should be fun. I'm a huge proponent of sound effects in games, and in my Cthulhu adventures i spent (an inordinant amount?) a lot of time crafting music for scenes. Many times, the sounds would often suffice for narrative description. I had sfx for the flying polyps underneath the Outback, and i think i used some soundtracks from the original Halo video game. Not the theme music, but the creepy music leading up to the Flood. If you have the time or inclination, i'd take a look at your set pieces and think about what you want the music to convey, and then try to find pieces that fit. I've often used music over and over in different adventures in similar scenarios, so it's not really time wasted on just one encounter.

You know, that's a good thought... I haven't used much in the way of music, but plenty in the lines of sound effects. Among the stuff I've done...

(1) Early in a session where the PCs were escaping from a "fertility god" summoned via a ritual they failed to stop (think: giant orgy with legs), I mentioned that they kept on hearing babies crying in their dreams. Later on, I surreptitiously started a sound file of a baby crying. Not much of a whammy, but it apparently messed with one of my players' heads.

(2) Startling noises when my players aren't expecting them. For example, upon finding a giant door in the ground (think: At the Mountains of Madness), I started banging on the table when nobody was looking. In another case, I threw a quarter at the wall behind them when something was throwing rocks at their window.

(3) My favorite... I took ocarina music, reversed, remixed, reverberated, and set a half-key off, and padded it with 3 minutes of silence before it started. I excused myself for a 'bathroom break' during a "tour" of an old monastery. I headed back to the computer, cranked the volume, hit play, and came back. Then, I started asking if they could hear the piping sounds... And it worked like a charm. Freaked the hell out of my players.

For this one, I'm thinking of ways to knock stuff over with fishing line... I'm still pondering

-O

 

[maddman75]

(2) Startling noises when my players aren't expecting them. For example, upon finding a giant door in the ground (think: At the Mountains of Madness), I started banging on the table when nobody was looking. In another case, I threw a quarter at the wall behind them when something was throwing rocks at their window.

Heh - you want to get dirty looks? Do that 'banging on the table to make a scary noise' trick during a dread game.

 

[Obryn]

Heh - you want to get dirty looks? Do that 'banging on the table to make a scary noise' trick during a dread game.

Man, I can't even imagine playing Dread with a cat who loves to jump into the middle of the game table...

You know how some cats hide when there are people around? Not ours. He wants to be in the middle of all of them. And, he wants to play with minis. Especially halfling minis.

-O

 

[maddman75]

Man, I can't even imagine playing Dread with a cat who loves to jump into the middle of the game table...

You know how some cats hide when there are people around? Not ours. He wants to be in the middle of all of them. And, he wants to play with minis. Especially halfling minis.

-O

New Dread rule - if your cat knocks over the tower, your character gets killed*



* - yeah I know, technically you can be removed from the game by some method other than being brutally slaughtered. But what fun is that?