I’d have to include Blackwater Creek in my list of top one-shots. Absolutely fantastic scenario. Played it 3 times and it never fails to creep out the players.
Mr Corbitt is also a lot of fun, as is Uncle Timothy's Will. In a modern setting, Forget Me Not is a great one shot that's also great to introduce new players.
Agree completely about DeadLight. I tend to shy away from running canned adventures, and so for many years I’ve put together my own home brew scenarios, and mini-campaigns. I still buy a lot of canned adventures just to read through, and get inspiration from, but Deadlight was the first that seemed extremely easy to pick up, understand the whole story, and how to role-play every NPC with very little prep. My players and I had a ball, and anytime someone asks me to run something for new players, it’s my go to one-shot hands down.
Dead Light got my D&D players into Call of Cthulhu and was the start of a mini-campaign that was full of terrors! I have a new Call of Cthulhu group that I'm excited to pit against the Dead Light!
I'm a big fan of Saturnine Chalice. Some fun NPCs. Flexibility to show multiple horrifying scenes. Some creepy elements that your players will remember for some time. A mystery to solve. Supernatural elements. And even a cryptic word puzzle (if your players are into that). Certainly at the top three of my list. Deadlight and Lightless Beacon are probably my top two
Viral! The pre-gen characters are great, with their personalities, roles, relationships and the group goal very easy to understand to anyone that's aware of those ghost hunting shows on tv. There are so many ways to keep everyone on track as well with the stream schedule, viewer donations, and the co-ordinator Maya back in England. Seth Skorkowsky has a review on it (and his ideas got included into an updated release!).
If you could make a list with Call of Cthulhu RPG games for mature audiences, because of its themes I would put Behold The Mother at the top of it... This scenario is amazing but gives the players some nightmares because the plot is gruesome but very well done. Behold the mother, at least in my country should have more recognition. The book The Things We Leave Behind is also a great book for modern days with themes for mature audience. Forget Me Not is simply amazing!
Good reviews and a really good selection. I was looking for ideas of what to do for my gaming group tonight since we're taking a pause for maskinara with a Ted because one of our members was supposed to be unavailable but is now available anyway I'm lookingGood reviews and a really good selection. I was looking for ideas for a one shot for tonight's game. And I completely struck out! I have run every single one of these except for Miss dues for my players and missed dues I was really going to save up and run them through when I get around to running star spawn of Azathoth later....
In my humble opinion, The Haunting is very overhyped. It is not very well written (it's bland and empty and the scene descriptions are not helpful. Just telling a new keeper to make it creepy is not very helpful - teach them how to dress a scene!) and the simple fact that the Keeper has to go online to find resources that make the oneshot better should disqualify it from a best-of list. Yeah, it's iconic because it's an oldie. That doesn't mean there aren't tons of better oneshots out there. I played it as a player and it was pretty dry. I ran it as a keeper and put in a ton of stuff to make it really cool but at that point I i could have just taken another oneshot and ran that one instead. You really need to put in the work to make it extraordinary. A cool oneshot to introduce players to CoC is The Night Express. It's a free oneshot from the german publisher of the game and they use it to teach the game at cons. Unfortunately, there is no official english release, only fan translations afaik.
Anyone got some investigation heavy scenarios they could recommend? I remember running dead lights with my group but we were all a little disappointed with the lack of investigation. Im sure it suits some groups reqlly well but i love a good bit of mystery
The Dare
Playing a bunch of kids in the 80s in a haunted house on Halloween has been one of my favorite 1 shots to run.
That sounds AWESOME
I’d have to include Blackwater Creek in my list of top one-shots. Absolutely fantastic scenario. Played it 3 times and it never fails to creep out the players.
@Assassin241 I've never played that one but I've read it. Good suggestion!
Mr Corbitt is also a lot of fun, as is Uncle Timothy's Will. In a modern setting, Forget Me Not is a great one shot that's also great to introduce new players.
Agree completely about DeadLight. I tend to shy away from running canned adventures, and so for many years I’ve put together my own home brew scenarios, and mini-campaigns. I still buy a lot of canned adventures just to read through, and get inspiration from, but Deadlight was the first that seemed extremely easy to pick up, understand the whole story, and how to role-play every NPC with very little prep. My players and I had a ball, and anytime someone asks me to run something for new players, it’s my go to one-shot hands down.
Exactly the same for me, it's always the one I run for new players!
Dead Light got my D&D players into Call of Cthulhu and was the start of a mini-campaign that was full of terrors! I have a new Call of Cthulhu group that I'm excited to pit against the Dead Light!
That's what did it for my group too!
Not a bad list! Crimson Letters is one of my very favorites for its focus on investigative play instead of survival horror.
"Poisoned Soup", a Japanese beginner scenario recently translated into English, and the pdf is free!
I'm a big fan of Saturnine Chalice. Some fun NPCs. Flexibility to show multiple horrifying scenes. Some creepy elements that your players will remember for some time. A mystery to solve. Supernatural elements. And even a cryptic word puzzle (if your players are into that). Certainly at the top three of my list.
Deadlight and Lightless Beacon are probably my top two
Thank you so much for your input! Saturnine Chalice is one I don't know!
@@gameon_ct it's in the same book as dead light
"I'll keep spoilers to a minimal" Proceeds to scroll though the haunting module and shows corbits hiding place😂
whoops
Dying Light is my favorite! Zombie Parkour 😂. I gotta make a choice by Friday night.. Thinking about 2..
Viral!
The pre-gen characters are great, with their personalities, roles, relationships and the group goal very easy to understand to anyone that's aware of those ghost hunting shows on tv. There are so many ways to keep everyone on track as well with the stream schedule, viewer donations, and the co-ordinator Maya back in England. Seth Skorkowsky has a review on it (and his ideas got included into an updated release!).
Oh nice! Thanks for the suggestion!
Glad you liked it. Sequel some time in 2024 (fingers crossed).
Good list (especially if you are favoring low prep). Here's my new favorite, I wouldn't call it low prep, but it's just fantastic: Viral.
If you could make a list with Call of Cthulhu RPG games for mature audiences, because of its themes I would put Behold The Mother at the top of it...
This scenario is amazing but gives the players some nightmares because the plot is gruesome but very well done. Behold the mother, at least in my country should have more recognition.
The book The Things We Leave Behind is also a great book for modern days with themes for mature audience. Forget Me Not is simply amazing!
Thank you so much!
The Dare. Period.
I don't know this one!
Good reviews and a really good selection. I was looking for ideas of what to do for my gaming group tonight since we're taking a pause for maskinara with a Ted because one of our members was supposed to be unavailable but is now available anyway I'm lookingGood reviews and a really good selection. I was looking for ideas for a one shot for tonight's game. And I completely struck out! I have run every single one of these except for Miss dues for my players and missed dues I was really going to save up and run them through when I get around to running star spawn of Azathoth later....
Well I'm 5 months late to the party. I'm sorry I'm just seeing this now!
Thanks for the suggestions
You're welcome!
Good job man!
Hey thank you!
@@gameon_ct nice to see ya again:)
Thanks for the information
I need to play this game sometime
One that I think I would add to this is the dare
Hi! I found here by looking for a one-shot adventure that can be finished in four hours. Please, help! Which of these is the shortest?
The Haunting is probably the fastest out of all of these. You can make it last longer or shorten it up as needed.
These are great! but I was hoping for my fave: Dead Man's Stomp. Let's call it #6!
That's a great one too but I've only read it, never run it
Dead Man's Stomp, so good! If I recall vanishing conjurer is good too.
1. Dead light
2. The lightless beacon
3. missed dues
4. Edge of darkness
5. The hounting
I've played some fun one shots over the years.
In my humble opinion, The Haunting is very overhyped. It is not very well written (it's bland and empty and the scene descriptions are not helpful. Just telling a new keeper to make it creepy is not very helpful - teach them how to dress a scene!) and the simple fact that the Keeper has to go online to find resources that make the oneshot better should disqualify it from a best-of list. Yeah, it's iconic because it's an oldie. That doesn't mean there aren't tons of better oneshots out there. I played it as a player and it was pretty dry. I ran it as a keeper and put in a ton of stuff to make it really cool but at that point I i could have just taken another oneshot and ran that one instead. You really need to put in the work to make it extraordinary.
A cool oneshot to introduce players to CoC is The Night Express. It's a free oneshot from the german publisher of the game and they use it to teach the game at cons. Unfortunately, there is no official english release, only fan translations afaik.
The video in the background is very distracting
Appreciate the feedback
adhd moment
Anyone got some investigation heavy scenarios they could recommend? I remember running dead lights with my group but we were all a little disappointed with the lack of investigation. Im sure it suits some groups reqlly well but i love a good bit of mystery