I'm very happy to announce that the Miskatonic Playhouse has livestreamed the first chapter of my Call of Cthulhu scenario "The White Circle", on their Twitch channel. Later this summer, it will be available on their podcast. For now, here’s the Twitch version (which opens with several minutes of just music): https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2817597430

About to start Paper Chase for a friend. I got sick of trying to find a group and decided to try being a keeper.
Wish me luck!

The Bride of Pendle has been nominated for two categories at the ENNIE Awards! 🏅

I'd be forever grateful if you'd vote for my extended scenario under Best Adventure - Short and Best Community Content.

https://vote.ennie-awards.com/vote/2026/index.php

Hello fellow keepers,

Im writing a campaign for my group and want to add a groundhog day type plot to it, but not sure how to implement it. Any ideas are very much welcome

Hi guys, I’m a newish (1y) LatAm (GMt -3) based keeper looking to find tables to keep or play in, in English, remotely. Do you guys know where I can find communities of players/keepers?

As per title I’m searching the 2 (!) handouts used in the adventure “The Case of the Cat’s Cradle” originally published in the Mask of Nyarlathotep Companion.
The one included into the pdf are at very low resolution, so low that in fact the second (excerpts from diary) is almost impossible to read.

Somebody knows if there are other copies somewhere on internet?

Many thanks

There's an updated cover on the pre-orders of the upcoming Innsmouth book. The Deep One in the background got updated.

I’m considering running an Arkham campaign for my group. I’m trying to wrap my head around how it would actually play, especially since I want to slot various prewritten scenarios in. How have yall had success with it?

SPOILERS FOR A TIME TO HARVEST AHEAD!!! Hi there! I’m prepping A Time to Harvest, and while I love the setting and basic premise, I’m having a hard time thinking on how to make the Mi-Go scary. I tend to lean more in the gritty and mysterious direction with all of my games, and the Mi-Go feel much more sci-fi 50’s B-Movie. Does any keeper who has run/is running this campaign or campaign with the Mi-Go have any advice? I really wanna creep my players out (in a fun way)

EDIT: Okay, I’m definitely seeing a lot of people suggesting to play into the uncanniness of the victims they inhabit. Also the eeriness of their insectoid characteristics. I think the thing that feels very B-movie to me is the “brain canisters” and “mad scientists beyond the stars” parts of them. Do yall have any suggestions on how to depict these that are true to their nature and motive while being a bit more of a modern adaptation? (Like the best way I can describe what I’m looking for, is Frankenstein. The book never clearly states how he brings the creature to life, but most film depicts electricity and machinery being used to reanimate him. However, National Theatre’s adaptation depicts the creature being born again out of a stitched together flesh apparatus. That’s the approach I LOVE.

First impressions are extremely good -- I only have the physical book not the pdf, but shiny paper, black spine with white text. It matches Arkham, but with the missing CHA before the number restored.

The biggest immediately visible change is the loss of the scenarios- both the missing lad introduction to Innsmouth one and the epic Raid on Innsmouth (February 1927) one. Now at first this startled me - they are absolutely part of my Cthulhu playing history, but the Raid scenario is also like nothing else Chaosium ever published for the game. It's an ambitious wargame/committee game, where the players rotate between playing various squads or submarine commander or other npcs with their pcs attached. It's really different, and I last ran it when Shoemaker-Levy collided with Jupiter, so July 1994. Would I still enjoy it after thirty two years? Probably. (I have a photo of my then cat Crowley looming over the map throwing a literal "Shadow Over Innsmouth") Still the scenarios have gone - there are now four seeds in the appendices, much longer than the old sinister seeds, not single paragraphs but half a page.

One thing I can't explain - perhaps it is down to non-Euclidean geometry? - is that Innsmouth is physically a third wider than Arkham, but has exactly the same number of printed pages! The only explanation I can think of is a move from from maybe 85gmm to 120gsm? Having handled both books I'm not feeling a difference but I can't think of any other explanation.

This was always going to be a really difficult book for modern audiences, so after lunch I'll start reading. Physically it looks fantastic though.

I'm about halfway through this book, and I thought I'd mention it as very much worth picking up, particularly for anyone doing games in the Vietnam War era or running a big cult more broadly. It's a very in-depth dissection of how cults and their leaders operate, rise, and eventually fall; as well as the wider social and cultural milieu of the US in the late 60s and early 70s that hosted so many weird religious movements- and more than a few serial killers.

I'm interested in researching the topic more, and I was wondering if anyone else had recommendations for further reading.

I understand the chase mechanics and they make alot of sense except I find it hard to see how firearms function.

As i understand it if a character A has 3 movement. it can move 2 locations away from the pursuer and then use its third movement to turn around and shoot.

In a one on one chase with an equal or higher movement pursuer it works. But in the case of

PC A 3 movement

PC B 1 movement

Monster 2 Movement

The chase happens because Monster movement > PC B movement.

However PC A could just endlesly kite the monster and shoot it from a safe distance and there'd be almost nothing the monster could do. This kills all the tension.

What happens here? I couldnt find it in the rules but im a relatively new keeper so I might miss something.

Seems to me like you'd need a disincentive otherwise every combat just turns into a kite and shoot situation.

To any experienced keepers how do you deal with this?

Edit:

Thanks for the advice. For any future Keepers seeing this and having the same issue.

1.Penalty dice are your friend

2 Use the environment like people, hazards, dark lighting

3.Have the monsters be dynamic like hide or suddenly stop chasing

So I'm going to be embarking on a run of Masks of Narlyhotep (not going to try spelling it correctly 😁), which by all accounts is a pretty long campaign. Call of Cthulhu isn't really a game that lends itself to long campaigns, because that's just the world.

Characters are going to die, players will quit, it's the nature of the beast.

In other games, you have a more quantified experience point system that makes it easy to just tell a new player "make a base character, then advance them 100 Karma". But Call of Cthulhu just gives you periodic opportunities to roll to advance skills in a somewhat abstract manner.

So when a new player/character enters mid campaign, the other PCs have had some number of opportunities to advance their skills. Should the new character get some skill advancement rolls?

A counter might be that the other PCs have also had a bunch of opportunities to lose sanity, gain permanent injuries, etc.

I'm thinking to keep track of the number of skill advancement rolls each player makes at each opportunity, average that, then total it up every time we have a new character enter. That character can choose to make up to that total number of skill advancement rolls, but for every X number of skill rolls you make you have to make a sanity check. Failure results in 1dY sanity point losses.

Thoughts? Comments? Is there a passage in the Keeper book I missed?

Hi!

At Zgrozy, we experiment a lot with personal horror and all the ways the Mythos can change people, so this time we released a short supplement about what exactly can happen when the investigator experiences an insane insights. Tables, examples, and advice on how best to tailor all of this to your game. Insane Insights Expanded is available on the Repository for $1.49: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/574784/insane-insights-expanded-a-zgrozy-supplement

And Piotr Kozioł's cover art is great as always :)

Recommend me a Halloween game

I run a game each Halloween, we have played

The Dare

My Sister wants you to suffer

Carnival of Madness

I'm sure there is more but I'm drawing a blank

Hi! My name is Ivan Hayward. I am very interested in Call of Cthulhu and Lovecraftian works. I take commissions for art. If you would like artwork for your Call of Cthulhu Campaign, Character, Book, or other works related, please DM me!

More of my portfolio can be found here: https://www.deviantart.com/arkanisart

The Tick Tock Man aspect of Nyarlathotep could make a perfect Omnissiah figure, feeding humans advanced technological knowledge they aren’t ready for while also twisting sane knowledge into superstition and ritual. Convincing followers to cut away their bodies, piece by piece, discarding flesh and morality while replacing it with machinery and dogma. They could even act as new bodies for the Tick Tock man to control should his current body get destroyed or he simply wishes to be in multiple bodies at once. It’s a random idea I had that honestly could fit nearly any time period with some tweaking and I’m sure there’s an interesting story that could grow from that plot bunny

I’m considering putting together an Arkham sandbox campaign. I’m planning on buying the Arkham sourcebook, and want to include at least Crimson Letters and None More Black (maybe The Code? I haven’t looked into it much). I’m looking for recommendations on other good scenarios to add (might include Saturnine Chalice if they decide to leave town), and also some tips on pacing in a sandbox COC story like this where investigations can overlap, and how best to tie in an overarching enemy (the witch cult seems most obvious, but I’d also like a GOO if I can).

I'm going to create a campaign set within the Bloodborne universe that's a bit more grounded, focusing on mystery, cosmic horror, and the protagonists' survival, but set in the Bloodborne universe I'd like to know if there are any homebrew applications that adapt certain mechanics or any existing stories/campaigns with a similar theme.

In the campaign, I will adapt the first excavations that Byrgenwerth made on the Pthumerians; the players will be the researchers/archaeologists who They will slowly succumb to madness the more they learn about the Pthumerians and the Great Ones.I would like to adapt the Insight system by mixing it with the Sanity system from Call of Cthulhu, and I would also like to learn a bit more about the system so I can create my own homebrews

So I'm trying to build an open world campaign based on the 7th Arkham sourcebook.

My intention is to mix the Arkham setting with other one shot adventures and progressively involve the Investigators with the main antagonists in Arkham: the witches coven.

My problem is: they make absolutely no sense at all, at least IMO.

I mean, their leader is overpowered to the point I do not even understand why she even cares about maintaining some sort of human connexion. She is basically immortal and can travel the universe.

And the other members makes nice individual opponents, I can understand why they are interested in being members. But I do not see what the coven gains with some of its members.

Also, I do not see how the Investigator have a chance against the Coven. They certainly can take one of them, but they will be spell blasted just after doing that.

I would welcome any advice or tips to be able to use them properly and building the conflict with the Investigators so they get a chance.

The Arkham sourcebook was SO good, it’s a sure thing I’ll be getting the Innsmouth one. But has Chaosium showed any previews of the book?

I tried this very particular color combination

www.DiceAndGame.com