Call of Cthulhu: Panacea - RPG Review
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 ก.ย. 2024
- A miracle cure drug hides a monstrous side-effect. The Player Characters find themselves facing off against a sinister pharmaceutical company, a conspiracy, and a refreshing take on a popular Mythos creature in this modern-day scenario.
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Guest starring Jack the NPC and his super-sweet moustache. - เกม
"All I know is our ability to delay action is infinite."
From one GM to another: I know that feel, bro.
Those drinks you had at the party were supplied by Zymed-Bio. They could just be alcohol …
Playing an Edge of Darkness game right now.
I started by saying the research phase of the module is short. Added that Rupert says that he got everything to banish the lurker in the house. Party spent 4 hours doing everything but going to the farmhouse.
That "Hello internet" always feels like a warm smile ^^
Except, this time, it is delivered by a jacked-in Dark Young 😱🦑
That is when I press the like button.
You think so? I always thought it sounded like something like a serial killer would say to you when he comes home to his torture dungeon he had you locked up in all weekend.......maybe that's just me?
This scenario needs a cubicle farm full of office workers.
A loud noise makes them all pop out of their cubicles to watch.
They are all prairie dogs.
Maybe set up a date where they are going to send out the "drug" for human trials across the country... unless somebody goes in and stops them before the shipment goes out on, uh, lets say Tuesday?
Theranos meets the Mythos!
A pending FDA approval and distribution across the country is a fitting deadline
Tuesday?! You mean last Tuesday? Shit, we delayed too long.
This is what I was thinking. There's already a baked in 'ticking time bomb' it's just not stated how long the timer is set for.
What do you mean the locks for the doors aren't due until next Tuesday?!?
I like the idea of the Dark Young having access to Alexa or something similar, and talk through that.
Specifically because you could literally use text to speak to make that dialogue.
Well, it certainly can't use the usual TTS software. The Emperor protects...that app. Roughing up warp entities is pretty much His thing.
This is why I come here. Great ideas.
Heck, the way phones are connected to the internet, you could have the Dark Young even Call a player, pretending to be someone they know. You know, because it’s hungry and ones some take out.
@@jesternario The pizza man thought he was delivering dinner. Poor soul. He didn't know how right he was.
microsoft sam would probably a recommended tts voice
Outlandish TH-cam theory: the infamous eldritch Algorithm is, in fact, a facet of Yog Sathoth that touches this reality, hence why we can’t fathom it’s nature and arcane angles. We do know it responds to sacrifice & supplication, so let this comment appease thee, Oh Lurker at the Threshold!
As shit as GW is, I'd rather supplicate the Omnissaiah for protection and wisdom in navigating the algorithms.
Edit** actually... Might be fun to run some warhammer fantasy characters thru a cthulu mythos game. They would be pretty well suited against ghouls, night gaunts, and dark young, but dealing with the gods still ends in madness and death.
@@NotoriusBEN1 The GW execs aren’t just shit, they’re the literal worst. I’m loyal to the creators of Warhammer and the lore, but not the business ghouls. I think most of their flailing around was desperation with not keeping up with the times - 3D printing, internet file sharing, etc.
@@Military-gradenutella3068 oh i know, i've kept up with all the latest hubbub with regards to the money grubbing that GW has been doing and the quasi illegal NDAs and copyright strikes and such. but as we can see, the sudden tightening of the first has just accelerated the fans' look for alternative products. 3D printing boomed so hard that for a couple days people in that community were wondering what the sudden interest was all about. Even manufacturers were like, holy crap for a couple of days.
Actually, I'm wondering if that's why there are so many shitheels (they were always there, but the warhammer types always had a standard deviation more of them) in tournaments and in game store scrimmages... they drop like 2000$ on an army and someone else beats them and then they have that mute voice saying to them, ''what did I spend all this money on?!'' Make the game affordable, a normal sized army for 30$ or 40$? Maybe people dont get quite so 'invested' in winning?
Someone should have given that "Way to go Chuck!" guy another drink. Lovecraftian horror needs more insane levity.
Having an adventures BBEG actually TALK to the PCs before any conflict is always a power move. :)
th-cam.com/video/a8qTjTpV1Fg/w-d-xo.html
I dunno Seth, sounds like you could replace ZyMedBio with Biotechnica or Aztechnology and run this scenario in Cyberpunk RED/Shadowrun with no problems at all
Set it in 2021 and substitute Big Pharm company of choice, with the miracle drug also being peddled as a COVID cure.
And no, that is not me suggesting that real-world COVID vaccines are derived from the milk of an eldritch deitiy. But I'm 100% sure some dipshit thinks that. Probably quite a lot of them, actually.
@@richmcgee434 At this point, I don't even blame people for assuming the worst of Big Pharm
@@richmcgee434 I'd take being corrupted into an eldritch being over worrying about some dipshit who thinks vaccines are bad getting me or a loved one sick.
@@thronezwei4412 if you’re vaccinated you have nothing to worry about. Fact of the matter is getting the vaccine doesn’t make sense for everyone and the booster makes sense for even less.
@@marcar9marcar972 I agree that everyone should assess their own risk factors when deciding what treatments or preventatives to consider. I would like to add, however, that no vaccine is 100% effective, and the COVID-19 vaccines, being rushed into production, have a particularly low rate of effectiveness. It is also worth noting that vaccines don't particularly lower your risk of transmitting the virus, even if you remain asymptomatic. So, even if you are vaccinated, it pays to take reasonable precautions. Stay hydrated, intake plenty of vitamin C daily, and just try to be generally healthy.
This is awesome and thank you!! This makes me want to run this as a Delta Green mission
Delta Green could be super-easy, with the agency getting a tip from someone in the FDA about the reports, or maybe an existing file on the Anak Brothers, or a report on the freaky escaped lab animal that attacked that dude in the parking lot that the police originally investigated before getting pulled off the case. Maybe the agency were who found and put down that creature and are researching where it came from, and that's pointed them toward ZyMedBio. There's a lot of ways to work it in. Hope you all have fun with it.
I guess you could say this Panacea is....
a beast of a cure.
YYEEEEEEEAAAAHHHH!!!!!!!
_CSI:Cthulhu will return after these commercial messages_
I love Seth's honest break-down of adventures. Knowing what the flaws are going in is tremendously helpful. And even though I personally don't play CoC, I watch these videos to help my own understanding of game design. The players in my group benefit from better scenarios even though we're using a different rules set. Thank you for all your hard work, Seth!!!
Spotting a Seth CoC review pop up has just made my day!
20:30 That art is SO foul and SO awesome it instantly made me want to run the scenario. Seth often talks about how important it is that game art *inspires* you-this is a GREAT example of that principle (for me anyway).
I think I lost a bit of sanity from that picture alone.
Having the big villainous corporation in Plano is 100% on point.
Google Maps really should be nominated for an Ennie or Origins award for "best GM accessory".
Only after Crown Royal receives their Lifetime Achievement Award for all the dice bags they've provided over the decades.
@@SSkorkowsky LOL, I'd definitely vote for that! Sounds like we may have the seeds of a plan to correct some serious rpg award oversights!
@@SSkorkowsky My cousin made a cosplay cape to go with his chainmail shirt out of Crown bags.
@@andrewdiaz3529 lol, now that's quality entertainment!
-You have a giant computerized eldritch horror hooked up to your mainframe.
Probably just open the door that way since it's probably hooked up to electricity.
Automated door opening, the real horror of Call.
At "and he was out all night eating rodents...", I spat out my drink laughing.
Aww yeah, Yog-Sothothery meets Deus Ex. I really dig integration of the eldritch horror into the high-tech setting.
My sanity loss is augmented
@@oz_jones I didn't summon Shub-Niggurath's eldritch udder for this.
As soon as you suggested using the dark young to bring the PCs to the building, my idea for the "motive" for bringing them in is for freedom. I'd think that even with the power from connectivity, it would like to be back outside, and not trapped in essentially a massive cage. Then I got to the point of the dark young trying to seduce the PCs
And upon further thought, I think there is stuff on the internet that could make even The GOOs and Outer Gods run screaming
Looking forward to reading your section in the new CoC book!
Thanks. I'm looking forward to getting my hands on it once it comes out.
Your love of awful movies must be rubbing off on me, because when you talked about the Dark Young tracking the PCs through electronics I immediately thought of "Eagle Eye".
I got to be in this game at Necromonicon and was gm'd by Sandy himself. You are right about stalling out in act 2. We were following too many red herrings. Sandy eventually pushed us to the building. I died before that point, but it turned into a tpk before the group entered the building. Great review
Oof. Maybe Sandy isn't the legend people make him out to be... 😑
This channel should have a million subs. Just amazing writing, narrating and production. I cant believe this is free.
A Call of Cthulhu review with Halloween coming up? Nice.
Yoooo those investigator-focused quotes really hit hard.Just what I really need to host this oneshot with my friends ! Thanks again for a nice review, Seth !
And one of my friends doesn't understand why I refuse to accept a free Alexa device...
Hi Seth. I've gotten back into Call of Cthulhu after probably a 15-year absence due to the pandemic. I found your channel fairly recently and I have to say I'm thoroughly entertained by it! Keep up the great work!
At this point, every time I watch a new scenario review from Seth I have to get my wallet ready to buy whatever book that scenario appears in.
Seth, I had an idea for you: Take the Graboids and related monsters in Tremors and use them in Call of Cthulhu. They'd fit right in.
Definitely. I see Graboids as a cousin species of Cthonians.
Old issue of Inquest Gamer in the 90s gave them CoC stats.
I think the idea of having enemy monsters take control of electronics or cause weird interference with internet & mobile phones is a really cool way to keep things scary, risky and uncertain in modern horror scenarios!
The milk turns you into your power animal. Slide!
Lol "Way to go Chuck!" cracked me up
"Your mind is struggling to process the horrible fact that 'oH mY gOd iT tAlKs!" And if it talks, it thinks and you can't stand that, can you?"
- Hunter, The Reckoning videogame
Simple love this channel, good job Seth 😀
My first thought about the Dark Young was, if it's plugged into all this stuff, let's rewire the breaker panel to send mains voltage right into the thing!
Unfortunately, electricity is among their many immunities.
@@SSkorkowsky
Wait, so an EMP doesn't kill this thing?!
I love this, more modern setting stories!
Also Jack, that outro idea... you are a monster! 😈 that idea is going to live in my mind rent free!
You wake up in a warm bed, not sure what time it is but you feel rested. The smell of newly made coffee fills the air, and you hear someone is preparing breakfast in the kitchen. You close your eyes for a minute, allowing yourself just to do nothing. Suddenly a voice from the bedroom door says "Hello Internet!", and a smiling Seth Skorkowsky stands there with two cups of coffee, one for him and one for you.
Thanks for the review Seth. I'm definitely going to run this one sometime in the future. I think for my group the pressure I'm going to use to remind them that the laboratory is where they should be going is something I'll lift from the Devil May Cry most folks don't like. Basically whenever they go to investigate somewhere a TV or computer monitor will come on and some famous media personality will come on and try and entice them, making allusions to the fact that its, "Almost free," and stuff like, "There is so much knowledge out here." Then in the final fight have all the floating LED screens taunting them, even with their loved ones in instagram videos or tik toks.
I liked the Bob Barbas boss fight.
Dante: Hey Bob, try to put a Spin on this! :)
"I find You Nauseating, Disgusting, and a General Annoyance! The World would greatly Benefit from ceasing of your Existance."
Dante: "I'm Taking you Off the Air!"
"Oh YEah!? I'D LIKE TO SEE YOU TRY!"
"Maybe AFTER being turned into animal people DOESN'T drive people crazy okay?"
Too bad the house at 6:50 wasn't from Scott Brown. That whole situation would have been a hit to the deposit.
Was that picture and map part of the module, or was that an addition of yours?
It's from the adventure.
"I'm Scott Brown, I gotta a, HOLY SHIT!"
@@themaninblack7503 In his house at R'lyeh, dead C'thulhu waits dreaming... knowing that when he wakes up, he has to pay the rent to Scott Brown.
Congrats on being able to play in person again! CoC sounds like a great way to get back into it.
Haven't played an RPG since AD&D 1 but I love this channel - S really makes these stories fun
Jack at the end suggesting a mythos-twisted fursonas
'Thorougly polluted.' Good way to phrase it.
So, what I'm getting is... perfect intro to a campaign against the PCs' illusive nemeses, "Pinky and the Brain".
I just realized: this scenario is almost like the backstory of Bloodborne. Main differences are that the timeline of events is much, much shorter and the party (presumably) manages to prevent the “miracle drug” from being distributed
Excellent review. I love Jack's Reno 911 look. 😎🥸😂
the cyber dark young concept is incredible, casting spells through the internet is such a neat idea. imagine asking alexa to put some music on, instead it starts playing some eldritch chanting and your own shadow suddenly animates and tries strangling you or something equally spooky
That thing at the end about having the PCs turn into the object of their phobia: that is evil. Lol
*GASP!* Seth, you're advocating for writing in a book!?!? Just kidding, I think you called it sacrilege in an old video. Love the channel
Except... I said that I print the PDF and write all over that in my How to Run a Module. My books are writing-free. Because yes, it is total sacrilege to write in an RPG book and those who do it shall be judged for all eternity.
@@SSkorkowsky What if you got something print-on-demand from Drive-thru RPG?
Even asking such questions is heresy. You take that POD book and you love and protect it.
@@SSkorkowsky I'll start erasing immediately, sir.
@@SSkorkowsky I love this channel. From the video to the banter.
I like the touch at the end with the animals.
Good tips as usual!
Time flies when you are having fun. Especially when you are playing RPG's with your friends.
Didn't know you lived in my area Seth that's pretty cool. This weather these past two days has been feeling great
"One session" scenarios are but a myth in my experience :D
I've pulled several off, but the most effective ones are usually closed environments, such as entirely within a building or ocean liner. Open environments tend to lead to PCs wandering a hundred different directions, which eats a lot of time. Essentially, if you're trying to get in and out and be fully done in one session, the players need less room to get lost.
Hell yes!!! Love the Cthulhu reviews
23:10 The trigger discipline is beautiful.
Think I'm gonna be adapting this adventure to my Cthulhupunk game :D . Thanks for the critique and introduction ^.^
Thank you for all your work, I’m actually getting back into running campaigns again all this Cthulhu stuff inspired me to leave adnd for a bit and venture into this world.
My instant though was to use (instead of a pharmaceutical Company) a sports drink company or soda company like slurm from Futurama!
Also this is extra cool since I live in/near plano !
I live how Joe looks like a 70s cop.
Hello you are so good at Cthulhu stuff i had to write this little msg.
I have played CoC since 1985,
i hesitate to Switch to 7th edition.
But new stuff seem interesting (Berlin wicked city, children of fear and so on). Anyway you are very competent and talented including humour. Greeting from south west Atlantic coast of France 😉🇫🇷
Thank you very much. The great thing with Call of Cthulhu is converting adventures between editions is very easy. So no need to switch to 7e unless you decide that you want to. Sadly, those beautiful French 7e books went out of print due to some issue with the licensee or something. They looked gorgeous.
These modern Cthulhu videos are very useful because I can easily adapt a bunch of the stuff for Demon Hunters or Resident Evil games.
So Seth have you ever looked at lancer? A criminally underrated system bogged down by the fact it wasn't marketed like, at all.
It's worth a look, especially since you can see pretty much all the crunchy parts in the free download available at Massif's site. Quite a bit of youtube content for the game too, with 11dragonkid's channel perhaps being the best if you want a preview of the setting fluff and analysis of the kinds of mechs you can build in the game.
OTOH, it is rather combat-intensive, which might not be to Seth's tastes, or his usual group's. And he's a big fan of Cyberpunk, so he might be more interested in R Talsorian's Mekton game instead. Still a rock-solid mecha RPG after all these years, although stylistically quite different to Lancer - or the even newer Maharlika RPG.
That’s one intriguing thumbnail. Didn’t realize it’s in Peterson’s Abominations. I might have to pick it up. Btw, since it’s Halloween season, does anyone else run Halloween oneshots? My group does every year and their favorite is a scooby doo style CoC scenario. I’m running it again this year with people who never played it and my one veteran is going to play the “ghost” villain.
Usually on Halloween I coordinate with my players and we try to pick something unusual to do. So two years ago, I did a Call of Cthulhu one shot instead of our typical Pathfinder. Last year we didn't play because of covid and this year it's a little different because For the First Time in 20 years I'm not the only dungeon master, and the other one is running a Cthulhu campaign.
In general though I just look for something different. This year we were thinking about running an old world of Darkness adventure, maybe Palladium Rifts, but life got in the way and I wasn't able to pull something together so we've just kept with the usual
Medicinal Milk of Shubniggurath? Where have I heard that fluid being used before?
A Call to Action for Act 3. The drug's product launch is in 2 days. Have it mentioned in some News media, perhaps mention that it's FDA Approval was almost impossibly fast.
Act 3 recommended time clock and call to action? I recommend perhaps in the warmup hearing that it is actually going to be going for public availability starting a couple days from now. IE, perhaps try to plan out timetable so is a friday, and come monday everybody will be able to get it.
Weekend has benefit to the not mattering anymore if day or night.
Now the incentive to stop it can be trickier. Without myself having fully gone through this in a prep, I can only go by your review. Personally, I would probably take advantage of a modern time period and have it being distributed all over the world globally. This can be set up from the start just by tweaking it to be a well known upcoming thing going net viral.
I feel this would work well because players will already know what it actually does. And being shipped all over the world creates the "If we don't stop it, world is doomed" because through the acts sneak in tidbits that important people are interested too, misled in the info.
So deadline is the product launching. Motivation is that just leaving town wont stop it. Going to other authorities will be too late. Weekend giving plenty of ways as to why say cannot just contact FDA or somebody to stop it since already approved.
Edit: It also can set up a lead in/tie in to others. Imagine the campaign opportunities if they fail and now have a world where rich and powerful are taking this drug...
You had me at extra-dimensional teat!
This scenario also sounds like it would be a good night at the opera.
This sounds like a Delta Green adventure...which might be the solution to character motivation for Act III. Any way....sounds great. Cheers Seth and Jack the NPC.
Transforming into an owl bug demon, perhaps? Hoot, hoot!
0:52 That guy in the upper-righthand corner looks like quite the chad. 😎
You left out the part where a character went insane and started eating... I can't even write it. Let's just say she was in a room with all the puppies and ate a bunch of "cookies".
Those little details I save just for you guys. I also didn't mention your weird need to break the World's Record on the number of 100's rolled in a single game. I don't even know how that was possible.
One question Seth. Was Chuckie's house being sold by Scott Brown?
Ahh.. that refreshing pitstop at the chiefs gunsafe.... the good old tooling up scene..
What a great day, I see Seth drops a new video. While watching it check the mailbox and received my 40th anniversary Keeper book. Between the both Christmas in October.Great video Seth.
Delta Green!
It's amazing the lengths Seth will go to not talk about Delta Green even though it's a child of his beloved CoC (aside from the 1 video he did on it!).
I would really love if he would cover it more, as it's CoC...but better
It's not to much of a length to not talk about a game you don't play. Doesn't require much effort at all.
This whole scenario sound like my relationship with the office after working at home during lockdown.
I'm noticing that there's A LOT of Dark Young's presence in call of cthulhu adventures, or is it just me?
I have been waiting for this review for a long time.
It's like coming back to an old friend. Missed you man. Thinking about buying the 5e version of Sandy Peterson's Cthulhu monsters to be used in a Pathfinder setting. Lots of good background stuff there. Play on, amigo!
Hey Seth, just wanted to say thank you for giving us another great video review this morning. You Module reviews are always amazing to watch on days like this :)
Holy cow… 20:30, this is just a bizarrely messed up image. And it already reminding me of a particular Subculture that this seems to take inspiration from. I won’t say what sub culture, but this image seems to reflect the more…unsavory aspects. Then again, this is Lovecraft stuff, so I’m not surprised by this!
I ran this as a one-shot for my players when we were forced to online play during the pandemic. It was great fun. They found the room where the flammable chemicals were stored... and the rest is CoC history. ;-)
Awww... face-to-face role-playing after an absence. :)
I'm a fan of maps, even of modern suburban houses, so I noticed that the word 'bedroom' appears once too often upstairs. :)
Foolish Eldritch Horror, Jack does not drink to hide the pain, Jack drinks for a love of the bottle.
A thought just came to me that's unrelated to the video, but I kinda want to see 80s Miami undercover cop Jack the NPC.
This game also comes off a bit as a Resident Evil game. Just without rocket lunchers at the end XD
Good review also!
The reason he doesn't need his keys is because of the sentient alien intelligence that is in control of the building network. Those keys are just his old set from back before they lawnmower manned an eldritch horror. Nowadays it's in charge and allows him and any other personnel have whatever access they need without a badge.
This has the added benefit of the GM being able to have that key stop working whenever it's dramatically appropriate.
Your videos are always entertaining and informative. Thank you.
Finding ways to integrate Lovecraftian horrors with modern high technology sounds pretty boss.
I love scenarios where there's a rational reason the PCs might have to assist the cosmic entity, and with this it's easy to see how they could see joining forces as a benevolent action. Even better, this could be used to have the wonder drug be leveraged against the players for something they've already screwed up before. Like if at the end of Viral the players failed to help destroy the creature and it's toxins started spreading throughout Earth's oceans, maybe this drug is the only known thing that could stop it before humanity is wiped out, and suddenly the players have to leverage saving the world while warping it versus risking extinction just to remain human.
That sounds great. Either way you could move on to Cthulhu End Times, and maybe use a heavily modified Bad Moon Rising to go back in time to prevent both events.
Excellent review!
A fun trivia from this scenario which I happened to figure out: the word "anak" is an Indonesian word which translated to "child". For someone related to the All-Mother, I think it's suitable.
I wouldn't think of the Dark Young as the final boss, I'd figure you'd get at the heart of the operation and trash the drug production center directly.
As said, the adventure is written for convention play as a one shot. If you're running it in a campaign, then yeah, you'd do that, as well as find a way to introduce the Brothers who own the company as well as set up an adventure, or possibly just an encounter with the escaped animals. There's tons of potential here for campaign play.
@@frankmueller2781 There are plenty of people who'd pay money to be turned into animal people, just not driven insane.
"Long live the new flesh"
A scenario focused on Shub-Niggurath? Yes please!
I really like the sound of this module, it reminds me of body melt
Hello Seth, long time no see. Happy to have a nice meaty review from you. Hope all is well.
Is it weird that I can imagine this working as a sort of heist scenario if done right?
Now this one sounds like right up my alley!