We take a look at The Haunting, Call of Cthulhu’s free scenario as part of its quick-start rules
Call of Cthulhu is one of the most popular role-playing systems, published by Chaosium, and first printed in 1981. There have been several releases – the most recent is the 7th edition. While the genre tends to be horror, with a setting of the 1920s, there are many (many) variations and spin-off systems.
The game uses a d100 system, meaning that you roll two d10s and combine the two to get number between 1 and 100. You can buy 100-sided dies, but they are fairly hefty, take longer to settle, and usually roll too far. This may seem very different to popular d20 systems such as Dungeons and Dragons, but honestly it’s a fair bit simpler. You don’t have to deal with modifiers and such.
You basically have a skill value – let’s say 80. Roll under 80 and it’s a pass, roll under half (40) and it’s a hard pass. Get under a fifth (16) and it’s an extreme success.
Chaosium have a free quick-start PDF covering the core mechanics, general advice, and a scenario (The Haunting) you can run for some friends. It’s suitable for 2+ players, although I feel the sweet spot for any RPG is 3-5 players and one Game Master (or Keeper in Call of Cthulhu). I’ve recently started running CoC after years of playing many other systems; it’s a delight to run for my weekly group, and I’ve decided to review and offer scenario tips as I progress through the material.
My goal is to run the famous Masks of Nyarlathotep in the not too distant future. That will require considerable preparation and a year or two of play time, and I’m not quite there yet. So let us start small, at the very beginning; let’s start with The Haunting.
The locations
The body of Walter Corbitt lies sealed in the basement of his former residence – his spirit terrorising those who would reside, or even step foot in his home. Following a string of families being driven mad, the landlord requests the help of our investigators to get to the bottom of the matter. Several locations and avenues of investigation are available:
- Mr Knott’s abode
- The Boston Globe
- Central Library
- Hall of Records
- The courts or police station
- Local neighbourhood
- Chapel of Contemplation
- Roxbury Sanitarium
- The old Corbitt place
Available handouts
The quick-start PDF has a basic floorplan and the details that handouts should contain. You don’t need to use handouts – you can just explain what players uncover, but I think that props add a lot to Call of Cthulhu. Unlike most tabletop games, analysing clues and unravelling the mystery is a huge part of the fun. Those who blindly go in guns blazing will not last long at all. A quick search turns up several community-created handout packs, here are a couple on DriveThruRPG for very little outlay; I used the latter of the two.
Your props need not only be legitimate clues, the odd red herring or unrelated titbit can make the world seem a little more open. It also tends to slow players down, so if you’re running this as a quick one-shot then you probably don’t want to bother.
Additional prep
Sound effects can add that little bit extra to a game, especially if you’re not in a noisy environment. All you need is a portable Bluetooth speaker and a phone. I might drop a little money on Syrinscape when I finally run Masks of Nyarlathotep, but for now I just use YouTube. I grabbed a few sound effects to inject at appropriate moments – mainly the following:
Playthrough: The investigation
It took three hours to complete this adventure, with the majority spent investigating and talking to NPCs. I changed a few details, but nothing that had much impact. I won’t bother to write out the plot, because it’s freely available in the quick-start.
Our adventure began with Mr Knott sending a letter requesting help to one of the characters, who knew the rest of the group and enlisted their assistance. Mr Knott had bought the Corbitt house at an auction – sold unseen. If he’d only known about the house’s history, he would likely have passed on the opportunity. He did not, and now most of his capital is tied up in the property. Nobody will rent, let alone buy the place.
After a few sherries and some mercantile haggling over day rates, our investigators accepted the case. A successful Spot Hidden roll allowed one character to witness Knotts surreptitiously pouring his drink back into the decanter – highlighting his floundering finances.
The Boston Globe had little in the way of clues, other than an unpublished article covering the house’s eerie history. I threw in a misleading snippet about an ex-con to lead them down the garden path; they didn’t bite. The newspaper editor Arty Wilmot is supposed to put up a bit of a fight regarding the archives, but my players roleplayed a convincing fabricated story and received an advantage in their roll.
The library is where the lawsuits and details of the home’s original construction were discovered. Not a great deal of interaction here, other than a polite conversation with the assistant and a few rolls.
The last testament and death certificate at the hall of records got the players swiftly onto Reverend Michael Thomas and the Chapel of Contemplation. Discovering that the Pastor was a wanted man, the players immediately consider the police station. A Law roll established that one character had a contact (his brother) at the local station and he was willing to pull up the Reverend’s details, along with the report of the assault on the chapel. If they bungled their rolls, my plan was for a corrupt officer would speak to them outside and offer to help for ‘donation’. There are always options when players don’t succeed in one manner.
The Chapel of Contemplation went as written, with players finding what was present and getting out of there fairly quickly. The group entered the Sanitarium under the pretence of working on a research paper. The Macarios were not overly helpful, but it’s always fun playing unstable characters. The players wrote off Vittorio’s ramblings as those of a crazy person.
Exploring the house
We arrived at last at the old Corbitt house, and players spent little time investigating the surroundings, aside from a chat with the local newspaper seller on the street corner. He was a wealth of unrelated information for anyone who was happy to buy some cigarettes and sundries. This is a good spot to dish out information that might have been missed hitherto.
The house does not contain many static elements, so you need to get creative with what happens as they explore. My team of eldritch investigators didn’t head straight down to the basement; it would have shaved about half an hour if they had.
The radio in the lounge would occasionally kick in as they explored the building, despite it being unplugged and then smashed. The grandfather clock would too regularly, and despite the pendulum being detached. These are just some of the things one could use to keep the Investigators moving around. Sanity rolls were made where appropriate.
Corbitt’s bedroom window showed a hellscape vista of scorched earth, blackened trees and a crimson sky. The perfect distraction for a flying bed to make an attack – and another sanity roll. No casualties here.
The children’s bedroom had a few additions, such as a creepy Victorian doll – which naturally did nothing.
I had Corbitts dominate spell cause party members to perceive other investigators as dead family members. They berated them until a power roll ended the harassment. It’s up to the players to decide how they would react. No fatalities, although seeing the walls bleed caused some sanity loss.
The basement is where the true fight begins. One of the investigators was pinned to the wall when the dagger launched itself across the room. They had discovered the ritual blade and carefully wrapped it in cloth.
Cloth fetters not a mystical possessed weapon! No casualties, although one down to 2HP.
They stayed out of the way of the rats in the wall, and immediately stabbed Corbitt with his own blade. Very lucky, and a little anticlimactic, but it meant we finished bang-on 10pm.
Conclusion
The players really enjoyed the scenario, and it was quite fun to run. You can probably prep for this game in as little as a couple of hours. Plus, this is free!
It’s a great introduction to the system, with no complicated rules. Anyone could comfortably rock up and play on the day. Experienced players could run this, but there’s a good chance veterans will have already played the scenario. I’d recommend spicing it up with some of your own flair.
I’ve just picked up the 7th edition starter set, so next up is Edge of Darkness!
