This was the first CoC scenario I ever ran. The players decided to play a family, which became incredibly traumatic for them when the parents witnessed both their sons consumed by the Dead Light, the daughter found the journal on her own and didn't tell anyone, and then sacrificed herself to the Dead Light in front of her parents to save their lives.
In any other game that would be a very bittersweet victory, to some players it would still be a lose. But in CoC that's an absolute win, beat monster and traumatised the survivors, couldn't ask for more
Alan was a personal friend of mine. His death a few years ago really hit me hard. I can tell you though - Alan would have loved this overview of his adventure. He was a huge fan of horror and you can see elements of one of his favorite movies (Forbidden Planet) in this scenario as well. Glad you enjoyed it! I had a blast running it as well.
So I ran this using Pulp Cthulhu and Seth's advice from the first video and we had a great time. The only player with Drive Auto got 3 cars stuck in mud as they kept going back and forth to the cottage and the diner. Even though I seeded the idea that the Dead Light was afraid of electricity the players never thought of using the generator against it. In the end, after they holed up in the diner secretly picking out who they might sacrifice to the Dead Light should it come down to it, I had a power line blow over and the Dead Light give the sparking cable a wide berth. The same car wrecker from above took the mark so the Dead Light would go after him, grabbed some rubber kitchen gloves and a pitchfork from the barn near the diner and made a god damn electro-pitchfork by wrapping the tines with the power line. After a very close battle, he took out the Dead Light and earned some burn marks in the process.
This was the 2nd scenario I ever ran for my group (first one was the Haunting, so just like you!). The characters were on their way to ANOTHER adventure when the storm hit and they were forced into the Dead Light scenario that night. I made the mistake of not reading the description of the Dead Light thoroughly (though I place some of the blame on the book; the things pertaining to it are scattered all over the book). So I ended up playing the Dead Light somewhat differently to what the book expects, rather than flipping through during the game, causing it to slow down. And I like to think I did a good job because we all had fun. I played it more like a fierce but intelligent animal hunting the players than anything else. I introduced it by having the players hear Billy's screams and run out of the house to investigate. Which was when they saw a Billy, on his knees, his head tilted up to the sky as he gurgled his own melted flesh while that dull light streamed out of his mouth and soon his eyes as they were melted from the inside out just before the Dead Light emerged out of them. Once aware of the players, I played the Dead Light as if it were actively hunting them. It didn't attack them right away, figuring that there was too many of them, but the party ran back to the house. When they looked back, they didn't see anything, leaving them to question what they even saw. Knowing that SOMETHING was out there and moving around was enough to lock them down to that location. It observed their movements, learned how they acted and attempted to cut one off from the group in order to feed--no matter if it had just fed before. Like it realized they can escape via the vehicle they came in (they drove up to the house), so I had it secretly disable their cars and then melt the lock to the garage. When they turned on the generator and got the lights going, it attempted to destroy the lights and scare them to direct them to areas/rooms where they were working lights in order to herd them. It constantly monitored them. So occasionally they'd see the glow under doors or just outside of windows, etc. Once the players realized "Holy shit, it's LEARNING", things got REALLY tense. This worked and they ended up split up; though the character it separated from the group got really lucky and there was a lightning strike to scare it off just before it started devouring him (he still has some of the burn scars from it touching his body). They ended up realizing that it was scared of lightning and actually used the ritual to draw it in and then kill it by jury-rigging the generator (but for a last twist; they were attempting to draw it into the basement. And were expecting it to come through the open door and down the stairs, but it just melted through the ceiling above them).
Holy crap that sounds like a great session. You're totally right, as long as the players enjoyed it, that's all that counts. If fun was had by all, the rest is just window dressing.
This was a great re-do! So my party 100% sacrificed Amelia, put the light in the box, and stole her identity to take all the money that her family had. Which was not what I expected but looking back I honestly should have.
Hey Seth, Chaosium just released a new version of this and they addressed the missing pump jockey and it made me remember this video. On a side note I want to thank you for all the reviews you have done that have helped me go from knowing nothing of Call of Cthulhu to running my own Investigative campaign with a lot of the stories you have reviewed.
The new version of this, in "Dead Light and Other Dark Turns", looks like a nice upgrade to the original scenario (which I believe was added to the 7th Edition Kickstarter as a "freebie" of some sort): the editing does look like it was given another pass (the reference to Walter the pump-jockey was dropped - a pretty simple edit) and I think some of the editing mentioned in the other criticism was addressed to change things around a bit; there's new artwork as well - the book itself has a new cover, losing the evocative and mysterious original artwork, but that illustration appears inside the scenario, at least; the maps are the same, but most black-and-white art has been replaced, mostly with better art, but it looks like there were a couple cases where the original artwork was a little more moody and creepy. The new version comes with one additional scenario as well, along with a number of new plot hooks and story ideas, all themed around diversions on the road. The new cover and a couple of the black-and-white illustrations might be a slight downgrade, but overall, Chaosium fixed this up well enough that I'd say the new version is the better version to have, and I don't mind having both versions.
The Skorkowsky Effect is a real thing. Seth's ability to get game makers to revamp scenarios he reviewed just by redoing his own reviews is frankly uncanny. Personal headcanon is that Seth is an eldritch being like Taliesin Jaffe and all these TTRPG makers are terrified of possibly angering him.
Just watched the vid and wanted to say how pleased I am that ye liked the cover art, it's one of mine.. I never get the chance to play these days but still find your reviews enjoyable. Keep up the good work man.
The next up I want to tackle will be The Haunting. That one seriously hurts me to see now. Problem is that I'm a bit attached to it since that was the first video I used Jack for. Silly, I know, but I'm sentimental like that. It'll probably be a few months before I touch it. I'd rather post new content than just rehashing better versions of crap I already covered two years before.
I ran this right after my first homebrewed scenario in my campaign, and took your advice on having the characters on their way to someplace else. At the end of my first adventure left the characters up near Arkham, bedraggled, wounded, mentally exhausted, and driving south back towards civilization at night when they run into Emilia. The setup was PERFECT.
7:43 funny story, we were doing that over discord and someones parent just walked in on us chanting and screamed something about death cults. Best COC memory I have.
Played this one with my group last night and it was hugely successful. The players all survived, largely because the module supplies enough canon fodder in the way of NPCs to keep them out of trouble for the most part. Based on the info in the booklet, I upgraded Mary into a more aggressive villain, leaving players suspicious of her but with an element of doubt. One of the more memorable events of the night - my World War I vet/Truck Driver character had the two elderly characters watching Billy and Mary - both tied up - in the back seat of his truck while he drive and another PC handled a spotlight constructed on top of the truck between scenarios. While the players had recognized Mary as a potential threat, she had the small pistol from the cash register concealed and no one had thought to pat her down before tying her up. They drive down the road for a while, then BLAM, Mary takes out Billy and the elderly man with a single shot, leans forward, puts the gun barrel to the driver's temple and attempts to hijack the ride. He sends the truck off the road into a tree intentionally. He and his passenger's seat belts save them from severe injury, but Mary goes through the windshield... In the end the vet character saw the Dead Light avoid the exposed wiring of a smashed outside light fixture and quickly arrives at the right conclusion - rig the generator into a weapon. While he's doing this and the rest of the party and dealing with Amelia and learning what they can from Webb's journal, the Dead Light is circling the house (which they're aware of) and Mary - injured badly, but not dead - has taken gas cans from the truck and is setting the front porch of the house on fire. This all culminated in a great scene where a PC, waylaid from behind by Mary, looks up at the injured woman using a tree limb as a crutch while pointing a gun in her face while, unknown to Mary, the Dead Light is seeping into the room behind her through a window. As far as Amelia as an NPC/PC, my party was way more open to her than yours was. A P.I. character opened her home to Amelia at the end of the scenario and promised to help investigate what happened to her parents... earlier in the game the P.I. had been asking Amelia about her parents, and I'd thrown in a bit that her parents had disappeared never to be seen again on a trip to Innsmouth. So... guess where the party's going next? Great little module.
...AND after considerable digging about on the internet, I have it on "factually terrible" authority that Walter the Pump Jockey went on to become a broken down shell of his former enthusiastic self, ending a career as a High School Chemistry teacher to take his side-gig, manufacturing and selling meth', to the "next level"... It apparently only went so well for so long. Loved the video, Seth! ;o)
Sprang this on my party after a dinner party. They spent the entire meal waiting for host to attack. They were surprised on the drive home by the deadlight.
I love the idea of them going to this party and expecting the hook to drop and moment, and for once, a Call of Cthulhu dinner party is simply a normal dinner party. Then on the ride home, their stomachs full, that's when the adventure begins.
One of my players wanted to run a scenario as we took a mini-campaign break. He picked Dead Light and watched your review. He asked me to play Emilia (with very limited information drips throughout play). I started the session as keeper and got all the PCs in a car. Having the regular keeper (me :D) play Emilia worked great for two reasons. Keepers as players can go a little nuts, so having the mistrust of the other players helped keep the focus on them and limit the impact of some of my more ‘thinking outside of the box’ ideas on how to handle scenes. As Emilia starts off in a state of shock, it also gave the novice keeper a good mechanism to manage how much freedom I had in the game based on CON rolls. We all had a blast. And my player did a great job as a keeper. It’d be great if more scenarios had NPCs that could be adapted like this in one shots. It’s the perfect answer when you need a keeper holiday, but don’t want to break the game for the stand in keeper! Great video as always, my man!
I just watched this again for the third time. I'm running this as a one-shot in a few days and can't thank you enough for the great ideas and production value of your videos. Thanks! I'm sure my players will love this! I wish I could thumbs this up each time I watch it!
Bought this adventure last week for a crew. So glad you redid it. I do my session on Thursday and was considering doing your PC idea. Unfortunately the problem you reported sounds exactly like something my party would do (vagueness to avoid spoilers.) So, I might consider avoiding that, though having an NPC as a PC may thwart my players' propensity to sacrifice NPCs... Will let you know if I try it, though frankly I am inexperienced as a DM, so something will surely go awry. Afterall, they (spoilers for Edge of Darkness) burnt down the cabin in my last session.
Hi Seth, I hope you still check this. I ran Dead Light as my third CoC scenario as Keeper (after Edge of Darkness and The Haunting). Your suggestions were really helpful; particularly offing both Teddy and Jake early on and the car chase/escape scene, all of which I pretty much ripped off. The characters crashed at the same point and totalled the car (with a fumble) and also had to dash for the diner. One fumbled a DEX check and badly twisted his ankle, leaving two others to help carry him, which gave the excuse for the Dead Light to be right on top of them. I also found that my players were very astute about the robbery-gone-wrong, and eventually worked out exactly what had happened. Early on, I played up Mary's dislike of Emelia and her desire to not have the investigators go to the house. But when they quizzed her (after Teddy and Jake bought it) Mary turned it on the players by telling everyone else that this group of armed strangers left separately with two people then who never came back, and now they're telling tall tales of some light in the rain. I found that helped add to the tension - and it made them more likely to leave the diner and go to the cottage with Emelia instead. Last, the module mentions that the Dead Light is cunning, and can ambush the players. I had it attack them and pursue them into the cottage, only to suddenly withdraw at one point, as they retreated towards the generator. Then, when a few ventured outside, it poured down like a waterfall from the cottage roof, forcing the players to make Spot Hidden rolls to avoid an attack - and splitting the party. My only other suggestion to play storm and rain sound effects (I was playing on Roll20) whenever the players were outside. My players said it really helped add to the atmosphere of the unpleasantness of outside. Thanks again for all the suggestions!
Hey Seth, I ran a campaign with Emilia as player character. It went well, although I had prepped the players with the concept that another player would join 'when they reached their destination'. I picked one of my more experineced players to take the role - no one was suspicious of them. It was my first stint as a keeper, and thankfully everyone agreed they would like to continue playing Cthulu (usually a Traveller party).
After watching your first review for Dead Light a while back (and the first of your videos that I watched), I became inspired to begin dming my own CoC game with my group. After running both Edge of Darkness and The Haunting last October (with Edge being the favored scenario), I managed to get my group hooked on the system. I finally had a go at running Dead Light. I had one of my players take on the role of Emilia Webb, though we changed several things to better suit them, such as Emilia Webb being changed to Andrew MacCormac, aspiring author. I also provided the player with information as to how the scenario began (i.e. his house being broken into and stuff). The introduction to Andrew was a fun time, and my entire group was shocked when they failed their Drive Auto roll and clipped him. Their first encounter with the Dead Light was at the diner, at which all of the NPCs died while they were trying to escape. Once the party reached the house, they found the generator and some other stuff I gave them, connecting Andrew's grandfather with the Chapel of Contemplation from The Haunting. They managed to rig the generator to explode, and after that wasn't quite enough to kill the thing, one of my players sacrificed himself by creating a makeshift lightning rod and electricuting himself and the creature. In conclusion, we had a fun time with a PC Emilia Webb I.e. Andrew MacCormac. However, because I gave him the knowledge of what happened and changed some of his backstory to make sense, his player was really the only one invested in the plot. The others were more concerned about surviving, and I felt that it didn't help with how secretive Andrew's player was. Great video as always, Seth! Can't wait for your next one!
you know,i always wanted to play in a CoC game,but my earliest GM's would only run AD&D.After i took over as Group GM when i was 13,i never got the chance ever again. My character Pitch was awesome too:he was a Police Detective that had blindly stumbled into the Mythos during a Case&got stuck investigating all the "Weird" Cases by the Chief ever since.I always had it my head that my PC(one Sgt. Jack Boone) and Jack the NPC would've been at least Friendly Rival's if not former Partners(Boone Flaw was Stubborness,so he would've quit the Force)...
Your Call of Cthulhu reviews and guides are my Bible! Lately I have been having them play on my left monitor while playing video games on my right lol! You are so good at pointing out the pros and cons as well as suggestions to make it better. I will be running this Dead Light scenario for a group of friends next week and I look forward to implementing many of your suggestions here. Also, I would absolutely love to see your review of The Lightless Beacon scenario and your suggestions on how to make it better. 😁👍
Run it this evening. After spotting Emilia on the rainy road the investigator rolled a critical failure attempting a drive check to stop the car. Emelia was dead in the opening scene. Everyone lost sanity except the retired military officer who rolled a 01..he'd seen worse in the war. They hauled her body around until another 100 by the driver on a pushed roll wrapped the car around a tree nearing the cottage...then carried her the rest of the way. Eventually drew spirals on her dead body to feed the deadlight..but it went for the fresh meat instead! Happened to be the driver. Very fun
Holy crap. Your players seem to roll about as well as mine. It's now like Children of the Corn where the heroes run over and kill the poor person fleeing the horror. Glad you all had fun.
Actually found this module today at a local game store with the bonus adventure Chaurtine or whatever. Gonna run the Haunting for my first session with my group and then Dead Light on the way back. Moving the setting to Blue Mountains cause my players wanted to be based out of Atlanta since we are from Georgia
I've been binge watching your scenario reviews. So much fun, with NPC Jack and the visual effects really bringing you into the live of the action along side the telling of the stories from the Keeper side.
Thanks Seth. Was just considering this adventure last night. Ran Edge of Darkness in October for my meetup group and they're crying for more. Just bought DeadLight pdf. Thanks for the suggestions...group will be invite to a event featuring Paul Lemonde as a prequel to Shadows of Yog. However he won't show for the event either
So I just ran Dead Light (using Pulp rules in an Online game) with a group of three players that are new to Call of Cthulhu. (Spoilers begin here) I decided to limit the max skill score players could have to be at 60 to help build tension. One of my players had run through a one shot (Dissociation which also went quite well) so he was the only on that didn't have a Pre-Gen. I decided to go with your idea of using Emilia as a player character, since they were new, and it worked quite well. I had Emilia suffering from Amnesia until the party made it to Greenaple Acre Cottage where she started remembering things in flashes, and my players loved how unsettling the abortion angle for the Dead Light. I also created Walter (Newby) as a pre-gen for one of the newer players, I made him a mechanic, and he ended up saving the group from the Dead Light with a weird science creation, a generator that spit out electricity. For the chase, it started with Billy coming out of the forest at the cottage, only to end up being consumed while the Investigators ran to their car. They failed the Drive Auto to get the car out of the mud, then failed the push roll, which led to Walter's player remembering that Emilia had a car, and after an extreme luck roll they managed to get to the car and take off while the Light was busy digesting Billy. I had three Hard Drive Auto Checks where the driver passed it THREE times with Extreme successes, with a penalty die each time, easily speeding back to to the diner.
I wached this review a long time ago and liked it. Now that I'm prepping to run Dead Light, I love it! Also to DMs out there - there are a lot of actual-play videos and podcasts of this adventure, and some I great! I've listend to 3, and all have turned out very different!
*I love that you redid this video .* *But I'm not happy that you removed the original version .* *I like watching old versions to videos as they are great for perspective on growth as a individual & channel .*
To be honest when I first read the scenario my thought was that using the Dead Light in the way Seth suggests here (for abortions) was where the story was going. My interpretation once I finished reading was that maybe Chaosium started with that idea, and thought it might be too upsetting for some people (although the actual story is already plenty upsetting). I'm only mentioning this because I think Keepers would need to think carefully about the people they're playing with and make sure this isn't going to be a particularly upsetting story element if they do use Seth's suggestion. Don't get me wrong, it's a good suggestion, just one that could be extremely upsetting for some players (or keeprs).
I’m very much enjoying your channel. It has inspired me to start up an online campaign after 35 of no Cthulhu. This looks a good starter session and I plan to introduce my non RPG mates into it. One idea I thought I’d share is to have the diner ‘famous’ (in the county at least) for its 101 varieties of ice cream. That is facilitated by the back store room being a giant walk in, metal walled, freezer room. If the party can hook up some sort of cabling to the walls... and some sort of sacrificial lamb... Speaking of options, the waitress may have a little bun in the oven and her partner’s in a bad way...
This one-shot lasted for 4 6 hour sessions for our group.We were a jazz band driving a bus to a gig. We turned left instead of heading on to the diner. We had one guy die by accidentally setting himself on fire with kerosene. We had a mass brawl in the diner as well. Crazy...
Thank you for the review Seth. I'm hoping to run this for my friends as our first venture into the Call of Cthulhu series. Your tips are really coming in handy for the preparation!
Going to be running this for the first time in the next couple weeks. Time to rewatch the review for suggestions, etc. Looking forward to this, my group is going to be in for a bumpy ride!
The adventure went well, both my player and I loved it. One thing we noticed however is we both felt this adventure seemed like it would play better as a solo scenario. With a full group we felt there might not be enough to keep everyone busy as were glad this was not ran during our 4 person regular group.
Awesome timing, I will be running this as my next adventure. The party will be coming back from servents of the lake. Thanks when I will spring it on them. The group has stopped at this dinner 3 times before and had a shotout once "best pie in the County" there know 4 NPCs there "including Walter" the day cook will be out. But super thanks I know this will be a great one!!!
Really excellent tips and expansion ideas! I'll be running this soon as an interstitial surprise for my group, and I'm definitely going to use these. Thanks!
About the mysterious children mentioned around 5.30, could they be referring to the Midwich Cuckoos (movie version called Village of the Damned)? Maybe they used the name Dunwich to link it to Lovecraft instead of keeping the village of Midwich? Just a thought and a possible different hook for future adventures
I ran Deadlights earlier tonight with two friends and had a great game, although I believe we played a newer edition as there was no mention of the pump jockey (the PDF I purchased also came with a second scenario called Saturine Chalice). I did the bait and switch Seth suggested in the video by giving my players a telegram from a friend inviting them to Providence to listen to a lecture from a world renowned archeologist. One of my players took the bait and it was a lot of fun for the three of us as he slowly realized that something terrible was occurring at this small gas station. Spoilers ahead in this next paragraph. With only two players we were able to move through the scenario quite quickly, but as my players took Emilia back to the cottage (where she saw her dead grandfather) I was able to add some drama by having Emilia become enraged after discovering Billy and Clem were responsible for her grandfathers death. I had her put together that Mary must have been in on the robbery and had a chaotic scene in which one player had to prevent Emilia from attacking Mary with a knife while another tried to maintain order in the diner as the Deadlight began picking off the NPCs. This is honestly such a great scenario to play in one evening with a small group of players and has a lot of room to expand certain elements to create intense horror sequences and plenty of chilling moments. Thank you Seth for making this review and hooking me on this scenario
Great work @Seth , love your videos. We just found your channel and your CoC beginner playlist. Hopeful for a Pulp version soon as we are starting in January.
Just ran this a few days ago and after rewatching this video I was surprised how much I borrowed/the story followed the events as you described. Jake stormed out to his truck because every didnt believe him and was eaten, the old man and a player went to the restroom, and they thought they were heading to Bolton to deliver a book for an npc. Even the chase happened, tho that was more the dead light was devouring Billy in the front hallway and they didn't know how to get out of the house so I had Emilia take them to a window. This was after they tried turning off the generator that lured both Billy and the Light to them and one player scooped up the sealing wax and tossing it at Billy as he was melting. Then the chase. they had no points in drive auto so they crashed, alot. but they drove up and down the road three times, even trying to ram the dead light after spinning out in front of the gas station. Finally, they debating killing someone for a long time before they realized the electrical thing. Then they wanted to use Emilia as bait but I made her refuse and my one player decided to do it. Great times
My main (only really) criticism of the COC adventures is the layout. I find the books really convoluted and jumbled, making it difficult to figure out where the next piece of information is.
I ran a dnd 5e one shot using this adventure and changing the world where ancient elves used the dead light the same way as Seth recommended, keeping the elven society pure ridding themselves of human/elf and orc/elf babies and any corpses that the people the elves murdered so the doctor had urns of ash in his basement. The party of 1st level characters only had a shocking grasp spell to fight off the dead light as they use the corpse of billy to feed the dead light and capture it. After the adventure one of the characters then multclassed into a warlock of the great old one, calling on the yellow king to help him study the dead light
Just saw it was on sale on Drive Thur RPG. Picked it up right away. I'll be using this review as a resource when I use it. Liked the previous version, but seeing Jack in this make the remake better I think.
i dont usually have troubles flipping through modules looking for stats and such: i always print out stat blocks for monsters and possible enemies beforehand
I just ran this, and this video was invaluable. I had one PC on the roof howling like a wolf, and another (the bootlegger!) chugging flask after flask as the dark light chased everyone in the cottage. Big fun. In hindsight I would have let the dark light sprint and attack to avoid the session ending so soon. I mean the PC had used his own blood to put a spiral on his forehead, and another PC did the chant. But in the heat of the moment I let him sprint to the basement where the physicist was ready to shock the light into another dimension. Any, good times where had by all.
I heard misbegotten children and assumed that they were just literal Bastards thus was confused when Seth started talking about them as though they could be hooks :edit: ha so did Seth
I know that the Walter the Pump Jockey: "The Search for Walter" is a gag but I have an idea. Warming this is a possible set up to a Call of Cthulhu game so its a bit long. I would love to see a game where the Keeper gaslight the players with Water. Make Walter a recurring NPC. He pops into scenes, just appearing every so often, especially in locations where the players might encounter something weird or alien. And every time he shows up, he has a new job. One day he is Walter the Pump Jockey and the next he is Walter the paperboy, or Walter the milk man, or Walter the mechanic. He is still Walter and he acts the same but he swears he never met the PCs in his life when they ask if they met him. Then once the PCs get interested, you can start laying some bread crumbs for them to follow. When they start to piece things together they find some troubling facts. They see he is all over the place. They see his name and face in news papers, like the obituaries, over the decades (prompting sanity rolls for seeing a person they know to be dead), have his name be the same name as an author of an unrelated Mythos tomb from a completely different adventure (like a published modual), have him be in photos of their past, and mentioned in notes from their colleagues and family as a friend or something. Be creative but have him be present and then vanish without a trace the next day. However the people that work there never recall ever having a person named Walter work there. But most importantly, whenever Walter is present he is introduced just before something strange happens. Here is a really scary moment you can hit your PCs with that I stole from a supposedly true ghost story. One of your PCs makes a call to a friend or significant other(someone from their backstory preferably not a disposable NPC but someone they value). They ask the operator to connect them and as they say "Connecting you now Sir/ma'am" they hear a failure voice. And they realise with dawning horror, it's Walter. Then, if the Players don't hang up right there and then, you can have the phone line act weird. Lots of interference, static or go super creepy. They start to hear voices over the phone. They are whispers at first and don't make sense but with a Listen check they can tell its chanting of some kind. With a hard success they may even be able to make out some of the words as a spell (pick a random spell from the Keepers guide or the GGOCMM). As they talk the chanting grows louder and louder until the phone is so loud it hurts their ears. And then just before they hang up the chanting suddenly stops. The phone call can continue as normal and the other person heard nothing on their end. A day later the NPC the Player was trying to call dies or disappears mysteriously. Or, if you want to put the fear into them, they are given a message from a neighbor or friend that something terrible has happened to their beloved NPC. They can have a moment to investigate their home and they find it a mess with strange marks carved into the walls and table tops. On a night stand near their bed they see scrawled, with what had to be their fingernails, "He is at the Window". Another one is behind their bedroom door that reads "He behind the door". Somewhere (you decide) is secretly written: "Hes inside the house". If your PCs don't flee right then and there they have nerves made of steel. When they ask what has happened to their beloved NPC they are told they have been committed to Arkham asylum. In the asylum even the doctors find this laps into madness utterly shocking and don't know what to make of it. Before they go to talk to them the PCs can hear them ranting and raving on the other side of the door. Just as they are about to be let in they here a troubling exchange. (Here is something I thought up, but you can make them say whatever) "He comes and goes but no one can see his face! Why cant anyone see him? Where dose he go? I can see him, with my waking eyes! I see him! Why cant I escape him? He follows me! He follows me everywhere...Help me! Help me!...(then super creepily, have them suddenly speak calmly) "Where did you go Walter?" If you think that too over the top you can have them repeat a line from the chant. The chant they said they did not hear. In the room they seem calm and lucid and fine if not a little drugged. When asked they say "I was talking with my new friend Walter". If they press them on the name they say "Walter the Pump Jockey". (this could be used as a clue to go back to the pump station from the Dead Light scenario. Maybe there they can finally find answers?) At this point they should be good and scared whenever they see Walter, or even get the hint he may be around. Make them think that they will see him around every corner. Another good way to mess with them is if a Player character has an insanity where they see delusions. Have that character start to see Walter everywhere they go. In reflections, on the other side of windows, or turning a corner into a vacent ally. Only that one character can see him though. Sometimes they even see other people as Walter. This can lead them to go on a rampage in public, demanding that Walter explain what is going one while the NPC swears they are not Walter. Have this be when there is only one character in the scene. That way when the other PCs hear the commotion they may go running to join in and be shocked to see that the person their fellow PC is accosting is just some random guy or woman. If the PC is really scared, you have a really invested roleplayer, or maybe they failed a San roll big time that they lost control of their character. Either way they could possibly end up killing the innocent person and now they are a wanted killer. Stretch this over a few games and you can really make them lose their freaking minds. As for how the story ends that is for you to decide. Maybe Walter is just Nyarlathotep having a sick giggle at the PCs expence? Or possibly, and my favorite idea, its a spell that was cast on the players by Old Wizard Corbit from the Haunting scenario. He could have cast it on them just before he died and it looked like his spell did nothing but in truth it was meant to be his final weapon to take revenge if he were ever truly killed? This would force them to go back to the old Corbit House and maybe find something there to lift the maddening curse. Another way to end it is when they go back to the basement to lookupon the dust that was Old man Corbit, it is now Walter laying in the same position as Corbit was. Then he rises and his visage desiccates to show it was Old man Corbit the whole time! BUM BUM BUM!!! He never truly died, or his spell drained their sanity and made him a Memetic Hazard so that anyone they told would see Walter. Eventually all the mental energy allowed him to coaless once more in a physical form. He played the long game to make them go mad and ensure his survival but doing this leaves him vulnerable so if he dies in this new body he is permanently dead. The choice is yours. Who do I think Walter really is? I don't know. He just...is... and is that not just the scariest part. The true unknown? Happy Halloween Keepers and Investigators!
When I played this, the creature attacked us in the house before we found the journal. We fled the house, leaving a dead NPC behind us, with no idea of what it was or how to defeat it. I then proceeded to roll 3 extreme successes in a row, trying to drive out of there. The keeper decided to let us escape, as there was really no alternative way things might play out, other than trapping us there for a TPK. Coming back during the day, we found the clues and the creature was easy to deal with. I still loved the scenario, as the tension and atmosphere was great.
Hey I've just gotten into your videos and I'm really enjoying it do you have any videos on converting old stuff I've read the guide but I'm a tad confused
I think the last pre-Jack one left is The Westchester House. I'm not sure if I'll re-do it (it probably needs it). But I also want to redo The Haunting. That was the first Jack episode, but the sound is dreadful. Either way, it'll be a few months before I tackle any more re-records. I want to do some new content for a while between those. However, can you do me a favor? The Cthulhu-Wiki for Dead Light has a link to the original vid. Can you update that to this one? You'd recently mentioned that you were one of their contributors. www.yog-sothoth.com/wiki/index.php/Dead_Light_(Scenario)
Amazing stories and reviews. Look I've only played call of Cthulhu one time and I want to start DMing for my group do you have a recommendation on a starter pack or a starting adventure for someone who's never ran the game before
Check out the Quickstart Guide. In it you'll find The Haunting. Classic intro adventure. It's also totally free, so you can't beat the price. Chaosium should soon be releasing a starter box set which will include a solo adventure (you GM yourself through it like an old Choose Your Own Adventure book, but with dice), a solo game for the GM and 1 player, then two regular adventures. One of those will be Edge of Darkness, which is another that I highly recommend.
Hear me out, a few sessions after running this initial session, the players hear a rumor about Walter. As it turns out, he's formed a cult around the Deadlight, bonus points if the Deadlight didn't get killed in the original.
I've had my eye on this module for a while now but your video has motivated me to run this over the Christmas break. Did you use the maps from the PDF or are there unlabelled ones that you have stumbled upon?
@@SSkorkowsky That's a bit of a shame. They seemed very thematic and nicely drawn. Better than what I could do in any case. Thanks for the reply and your continued work. Your Ladybug review got me into Cthulhu and I can't wait to delve in deeper.
I think I may have solved the mystery regarding Walter "the pump jockey". Walter is obviously the gas station pump attendant, but I think it is he, not Jake Burns, who is "now passed out at one of the tables", presumably because he was just struck by Jake as he "swerved to miss the gas pumps". This theory is supported by the fact that there is no mention of Jake recovering from unconsciousness anywhere else in the scenario, and that the "farmer [is] babbling incoherently about a "Dead Light" he saw" (so Jake is obviously conscious). Therefore, it would be he [Jake] "sweating feverishly with Sam, the station's owner, fussing helplessly over him [Walter]". This would also explain why there is no NPC sheet/stats for Walter - he remains unconscious the whole time.
If the above sounds feasible to you, consider replacing sentence 1 and 2 of the second-last paragraph (Keeper's Notes: Events So Far) with: Looking out into the storm between the flashes of lightning, a farmer’s truck has just swerved to avoid hitting the gas pumps, but in so doing has inadvertently struck the fleeing form of Walter, the pump jockey. Both the shaken farmer and the unconscious Walter are quickly assisted into the cafe. The farmer is sweating feverishly, babbling incoherently about a “Dead Light” he saw on the road, and Sam, the station’s owner, is fussing helplessly over the passed out form of Walter, now at one of the tables.
@@SSkorkowsky Haha... Of course! He could be like Valeria during the Battle of the Mounds... There for one, brief, heroic moment, and gone the next, never to be seen or heard of again...! :)
Seth, reading the scenario - it says that any drive auto in the storm is a hard drive check. Did you just have them roll a regular drive auto to get to the cabin?
If they're not in a rush to get the the cabin and are just driving to it, I don't bother with a roll. We can assume they're taking their time and being careful. But when a freakish monster is charging after them and they're racing to get away from it, that's when the Drive Checks happen.
![ละลาย (LALALYE) - DAOU PITTAYA ต้าห์อู๋ พิทยา [OFFICIAL MV]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/wo6r9TgausI/mqdefault.jpg)
Chaosium should offer "The Seth Edit" (pdf) of all scenarios.
Now includes The Abortion Portion
Great idea!
For sure 😎
This was the first CoC scenario I ever ran. The players decided to play a family, which became incredibly traumatic for them when the parents witnessed both their sons consumed by the Dead Light, the daughter found the journal on her own and didn't tell anyone, and then sacrificed herself to the Dead Light in front of her parents to save their lives.
Big oof
Sounds like a Nice Game and a great party
So, it was a huge success? 😂
In any other game that would be a very bittersweet victory, to some players it would still be a lose.
But in CoC that's an absolute win, beat monster and traumatised the survivors, couldn't ask for more
Alan was a personal friend of mine. His death a few years ago really hit me hard. I can tell you though - Alan would have loved this overview of his adventure. He was a huge fan of horror and you can see elements of one of his favorite movies (Forbidden Planet) in this scenario as well.
Glad you enjoyed it! I had a blast running it as well.
So I ran this using Pulp Cthulhu and Seth's advice from the first video and we had a great time.
The only player with Drive Auto got 3 cars stuck in mud as they kept going back and forth to the cottage and the diner.
Even though I seeded the idea that the Dead Light was afraid of electricity the players never thought of using the generator against it. In the end, after they holed up in the diner secretly picking out who they might sacrifice to the Dead Light should it come down to it, I had a power line blow over and the Dead Light give the sparking cable a wide berth.
The same car wrecker from above took the mark so the Dead Light would go after him, grabbed some rubber kitchen gloves and a pitchfork from the barn near the diner and made a god damn electro-pitchfork by wrapping the tines with the power line.
After a very close battle, he took out the Dead Light and earned some burn marks in the process.
I love the electro-pitchfork idea. Glad you had fun with it.
Cool.
This was the 2nd scenario I ever ran for my group (first one was the Haunting, so just like you!). The characters were on their way to ANOTHER adventure when the storm hit and they were forced into the Dead Light scenario that night.
I made the mistake of not reading the description of the Dead Light thoroughly (though I place some of the blame on the book; the things pertaining to it are scattered all over the book). So I ended up playing the Dead Light somewhat differently to what the book expects, rather than flipping through during the game, causing it to slow down. And I like to think I did a good job because we all had fun. I played it more like a fierce but intelligent animal hunting the players than anything else.
I introduced it by having the players hear Billy's screams and run out of the house to investigate. Which was when they saw a Billy, on his knees, his head tilted up to the sky as he gurgled his own melted flesh while that dull light streamed out of his mouth and soon his eyes as they were melted from the inside out just before the Dead Light emerged out of them.
Once aware of the players, I played the Dead Light as if it were actively hunting them. It didn't attack them right away, figuring that there was too many of them, but the party ran back to the house. When they looked back, they didn't see anything, leaving them to question what they even saw. Knowing that SOMETHING was out there and moving around was enough to lock them down to that location.
It observed their movements, learned how they acted and attempted to cut one off from the group in order to feed--no matter if it had just fed before. Like it realized they can escape via the vehicle they came in (they drove up to the house), so I had it secretly disable their cars and then melt the lock to the garage.
When they turned on the generator and got the lights going, it attempted to destroy the lights and scare them to direct them to areas/rooms where they were working lights in order to herd them. It constantly monitored them. So occasionally they'd see the glow under doors or just outside of windows, etc.
Once the players realized "Holy shit, it's LEARNING", things got REALLY tense.
This worked and they ended up split up; though the character it separated from the group got really lucky and there was a lightning strike to scare it off just before it started devouring him (he still has some of the burn scars from it touching his body).
They ended up realizing that it was scared of lightning and actually used the ritual to draw it in and then kill it by jury-rigging the generator (but for a last twist; they were attempting to draw it into the basement. And were expecting it to come through the open door and down the stairs, but it just melted through the ceiling above them).
Holy crap that sounds like a great session. You're totally right, as long as the players enjoyed it, that's all that counts. If fun was had by all, the rest is just window dressing.
This was a great re-do!
So my party 100% sacrificed Amelia, put the light in the box, and stole her identity to take all the money that her family had. Which was not what I expected but looking back I honestly should have.
As I always say, "Results may vary."
Hey Seth, Chaosium just released a new version of this and they addressed the missing pump jockey and it made me remember this video. On a side note I want to thank you for all the reviews you have done that have helped me go from knowing nothing of Call of Cthulhu to running my own Investigative campaign with a lot of the stories you have reviewed.
What did they say?
The new version of this, in "Dead Light and Other Dark Turns", looks like a nice upgrade to the original scenario (which I believe was added to the 7th Edition Kickstarter as a "freebie" of some sort): the editing does look like it was given another pass (the reference to Walter the pump-jockey was dropped - a pretty simple edit) and I think some of the editing mentioned in the other criticism was addressed to change things around a bit; there's new artwork as well - the book itself has a new cover, losing the evocative and mysterious original artwork, but that illustration appears inside the scenario, at least; the maps are the same, but most black-and-white art has been replaced, mostly with better art, but it looks like there were a couple cases where the original artwork was a little more moody and creepy. The new version comes with one additional scenario as well, along with a number of new plot hooks and story ideas, all themed around diversions on the road. The new cover and a couple of the black-and-white illustrations might be a slight downgrade, but overall, Chaosium fixed this up well enough that I'd say the new version is the better version to have, and I don't mind having both versions.
The Skorkowsky Effect is a real thing. Seth's ability to get game makers to revamp scenarios he reviewed just by redoing his own reviews is frankly uncanny. Personal headcanon is that Seth is an eldritch being like Taliesin Jaffe and all these TTRPG makers are terrified of possibly angering him.
Just watched the vid and wanted to say how pleased I am that ye liked the cover art, it's one of mine..
I never get the chance to play these days but still find your reviews enjoyable. Keep up the good work man.
It's really one of the best out there. Perfectly fits the adventure.
Amazing stuff! Do you have Instagram or a FB page with your art?
RIP Alan Bligh, think I might run this for my crew who regularly enjoys his wh40k works.
Nice to see a redo review of Dead Lights with Jack along for the ride.
I've watched the previous one multiple times; it looks good.
Anytime you want to remake a video you should! Your subscribers love your work.
The next up I want to tackle will be The Haunting. That one seriously hurts me to see now. Problem is that I'm a bit attached to it since that was the first video I used Jack for. Silly, I know, but I'm sentimental like that. It'll probably be a few months before I touch it. I'd rather post new content than just rehashing better versions of crap I already covered two years before.
I ran this right after my first homebrewed scenario in my campaign, and took your advice on having the characters on their way to someplace else. At the end of my first adventure left the characters up near Arkham, bedraggled, wounded, mentally exhausted, and driving south back towards civilization at night when they run into Emilia. The setup was PERFECT.
That drive check is a murder - lost three cars in that scenario.
7:43 funny story, we were doing that over discord and someones parent just walked in on us chanting and screamed something about death cults. Best COC memory I have.
3:42 Walter the pump jockey has since been removed from the PDF (just bought it today), rest in nonexistence Walter
Farewell, Walter.
Played this one with my group last night and it was hugely successful. The players all survived, largely because the module supplies enough canon fodder in the way of NPCs to keep them out of trouble for the most part.
Based on the info in the booklet, I upgraded Mary into a more aggressive villain, leaving players suspicious of her but with an element of doubt. One of the more memorable events of the night - my World War I vet/Truck Driver character had the two elderly characters watching Billy and Mary - both tied up - in the back seat of his truck while he drive and another PC handled a spotlight constructed on top of the truck between scenarios. While the players had recognized Mary as a potential threat, she had the small pistol from the cash register concealed and no one had thought to pat her down before tying her up. They drive down the road for a while, then BLAM, Mary takes out Billy and the elderly man with a single shot, leans forward, puts the gun barrel to the driver's temple and attempts to hijack the ride. He sends the truck off the road into a tree intentionally. He and his passenger's seat belts save them from severe injury, but Mary goes through the windshield...
In the end the vet character saw the Dead Light avoid the exposed wiring of a smashed outside light fixture and quickly arrives at the right conclusion - rig the generator into a weapon. While he's doing this and the rest of the party and dealing with Amelia and learning what they can from Webb's journal, the Dead Light is circling the house (which they're aware of) and Mary - injured badly, but not dead - has taken gas cans from the truck and is setting the front porch of the house on fire. This all culminated in a great scene where a PC, waylaid from behind by Mary, looks up at the injured woman using a tree limb as a crutch while pointing a gun in her face while, unknown to Mary, the Dead Light is seeping into the room behind her through a window.
As far as Amelia as an NPC/PC, my party was way more open to her than yours was. A P.I. character opened her home to Amelia at the end of the scenario and promised to help investigate what happened to her parents... earlier in the game the P.I. had been asking Amelia about her parents, and I'd thrown in a bit that her parents had disappeared never to be seen again on a trip to Innsmouth. So... guess where the party's going next?
Great little module.
...AND after considerable digging about on the internet, I have it on "factually terrible" authority that Walter the Pump Jockey went on to become a broken down shell of his former enthusiastic self, ending a career as a High School Chemistry teacher to take his side-gig, manufacturing and selling meth', to the "next level"... It apparently only went so well for so long.
Loved the video, Seth! ;o)
Walter the meth jockey :p
Sprang this on my party after a dinner party. They spent the entire meal waiting for host to attack. They were surprised on the drive home by the deadlight.
I love the idea of them going to this party and expecting the hook to drop and moment, and for once, a Call of Cthulhu dinner party is simply a normal dinner party. Then on the ride home, their stomachs full, that's when the adventure begins.
One of my players wanted to run a scenario as we took a mini-campaign break. He picked Dead Light and watched your review. He asked me to play Emilia (with very limited information drips throughout play). I started the session as keeper and got all the PCs in a car. Having the regular keeper (me :D) play Emilia worked great for two reasons. Keepers as players can go a little nuts, so having the mistrust of the other players helped keep the focus on them and limit the impact of some of my more ‘thinking outside of the box’ ideas on how to handle scenes. As Emilia starts off in a state of shock, it also gave the novice keeper a good mechanism to manage how much freedom I had in the game based on CON rolls.
We all had a blast. And my player did a great job as a keeper. It’d be great if more scenarios had NPCs that could be adapted like this in one shots. It’s the perfect answer when you need a keeper holiday, but don’t want to break the game for the stand in keeper!
Great video as always, my man!
Note for the car chase, most 1920s cars the headlights are wired directly to the alternator. So if the car stalls the lights go out.
I just watched this again for the third time. I'm running this as a one-shot in a few days and can't thank you enough for the great ideas and production value of your videos. Thanks! I'm sure my players will love this! I wish I could thumbs this up each time I watch it!
So glad you decided to redo this one. I tried watching it half a year back, but I had been spoiled by the production quality of your newer videos
Well well Mr. Roper. We meet again.
That fact you even make updates to videos makes me so happy aha
06:29. Could this be tied to Mr. Corbitt (spolier!) and his patchwork kid? (End spoiler!)
1:15 - "It may be small, but it's FIERCE!"
Love the way Jack adds the appropriate sarcasm so you can stay semi-professional
Bought this adventure last week for a crew. So glad you redid it. I do my session on Thursday and was considering doing your PC idea. Unfortunately the problem you reported sounds exactly like something my party would do (vagueness to avoid spoilers.) So, I might consider avoiding that, though having an NPC as a PC may thwart my players' propensity to sacrifice NPCs... Will let you know if I try it, though frankly I am inexperienced as a DM, so something will surely go awry. Afterall, they (spoilers for Edge of Darkness) burnt down the cabin in my last session.
Hi Seth, I hope you still check this. I ran Dead Light as my third CoC scenario as Keeper (after Edge of Darkness and The Haunting). Your suggestions were really helpful; particularly offing both Teddy and Jake early on and the car chase/escape scene, all of which I pretty much ripped off. The characters crashed at the same point and totalled the car (with a fumble) and also had to dash for the diner. One fumbled a DEX check and badly twisted his ankle, leaving two others to help carry him, which gave the excuse for the Dead Light to be right on top of them.
I also found that my players were very astute about the robbery-gone-wrong, and eventually worked out exactly what had happened. Early on, I played up Mary's dislike of Emelia and her desire to not have the investigators go to the house. But when they quizzed her (after Teddy and Jake bought it) Mary turned it on the players by telling everyone else that this group of armed strangers left separately with two people then who never came back, and now they're telling tall tales of some light in the rain. I found that helped add to the tension - and it made them more likely to leave the diner and go to the cottage with Emelia instead.
Last, the module mentions that the Dead Light is cunning, and can ambush the players. I had it attack them and pursue them into the cottage, only to suddenly withdraw at one point, as they retreated towards the generator. Then, when a few ventured outside, it poured down like a waterfall from the cottage roof, forcing the players to make Spot Hidden rolls to avoid an attack - and splitting the party.
My only other suggestion to play storm and rain sound effects (I was playing on Roll20) whenever the players were outside. My players said it really helped add to the atmosphere of the unpleasantness of outside. Thanks again for all the suggestions!
Awesome to hear! Glad you all had fun with it. Good call on the ambient storm noises.
Nice! I also had storm ambience playing and I also faded in a weird static/sci-fi ambient sound really really low whenever the Dead Light got close...
Hey Seth, I ran a campaign with Emilia as player character. It went well, although I had prepped the players with the concept that another player would join 'when they reached their destination'. I picked one of my more experineced players to take the role - no one was suspicious of them. It was my first stint as a keeper, and thankfully everyone agreed they would like to continue playing Cthulu (usually a Traveller party).
Awesome to hear.
Thanks for redoing it!
After watching your first review for Dead Light a while back (and the first of your videos that I watched), I became inspired to begin dming my own CoC game with my group. After running both Edge of Darkness and The Haunting last October (with Edge being the favored scenario), I managed to get my group hooked on the system.
I finally had a go at running Dead Light. I had one of my players take on the role of Emilia Webb, though we changed several things to better suit them, such as Emilia Webb being changed to Andrew MacCormac, aspiring author. I also provided the player with information as to how the scenario began (i.e. his house being broken into and stuff).
The introduction to Andrew was a fun time, and my entire group was shocked when they failed their Drive Auto roll and clipped him. Their first encounter with the Dead Light was at the diner, at which all of the NPCs died while they were trying to escape. Once the party reached the house, they found the generator and some other stuff I gave them, connecting Andrew's grandfather with the Chapel of Contemplation from The Haunting. They managed to rig the generator to explode, and after that wasn't quite enough to kill the thing, one of my players sacrificed himself by creating a makeshift lightning rod and electricuting himself and the creature.
In conclusion, we had a fun time with a PC Emilia Webb I.e. Andrew MacCormac. However, because I gave him the knowledge of what happened and changed some of his backstory to make sense, his player was really the only one invested in the plot. The others were more concerned about surviving, and I felt that it didn't help with how secretive Andrew's player was.
Great video as always, Seth! Can't wait for your next one!
you know,i always wanted to play in a CoC game,but my earliest GM's would only run AD&D.After i took over as Group GM when i was 13,i never got the chance ever again. My character Pitch was awesome too:he was a Police Detective that had blindly stumbled into the Mythos during a Case&got stuck investigating all the "Weird" Cases by the Chief ever since.I always had it my head that my PC(one Sgt. Jack Boone) and Jack the NPC would've been at least Friendly Rival's if not former Partners(Boone Flaw was Stubborness,so he would've quit the Force)...
Seth, your videos are amazing and you constantly inspire me to play CoC and be a better GM overall. Keep up the good work man
I imagine the investigator that has to go to the outhouse found an instant cure for their constipation. Always a bright side to these things.
Your Call of Cthulhu reviews and guides are my Bible! Lately I have been having them play on my left monitor while playing video games on my right lol! You are so good at pointing out the pros and cons as well as suggestions to make it better. I will be running this Dead Light scenario for a group of friends next week and I look forward to implementing many of your suggestions here. Also, I would absolutely love to see your review of The Lightless Beacon scenario and your suggestions on how to make it better. 😁👍
Run it this evening. After spotting Emilia on the rainy road the investigator rolled a critical failure attempting a drive check to stop the car. Emelia was dead in the opening scene. Everyone lost sanity except the retired military officer who rolled a 01..he'd seen worse in the war. They hauled her body around until another 100 by the driver on a pushed roll wrapped the car around a tree nearing the cottage...then carried her the rest of the way. Eventually drew spirals on her dead body to feed the deadlight..but it went for the fresh meat instead! Happened to be the driver.
Very fun
Holy crap. Your players seem to roll about as well as mine. It's now like Children of the Corn where the heroes run over and kill the poor person fleeing the horror. Glad you all had fun.
Just ran this scenario and it was awesome, definitely one of my best experiences as a DM. Thank you very much for the tips!
It's such a good scenario. Glad you all had fun with it.
This was a great redo of the old video. Your style certaintly has improved since you started :)
Actually found this module today at a local game store with the bonus adventure Chaurtine or whatever.
Gonna run the Haunting for my first session with my group and then Dead Light on the way back.
Moving the setting to Blue Mountains cause my players wanted to be based out of Atlanta since we are from Georgia
Love your reviews! Your insights have encouraged me to dm for my kids, not Call of Cthutlu of course.
We wouldn't want to drain their sanity or childlike wonder
@@bastionunitb7388 just imagine them telling their mother the exact description of a lovecraftian monster.
Well change it into Scooby Doo version and it would be great. Instead od sanity you have chicken meter or something and there you go.
@@Pioootr The goosebump book series might offer a lot of more kid-friendly idea fodder.
Great redux of your review!
Hi Seth, great video say hi to Jack for me. I was getting ready to watch your chapter 7 Chases review when I saw you had a new video.
I've been binge watching your scenario reviews. So much fun, with NPC Jack and the visual effects really bringing you into the live of the action along side the telling of the stories from the Keeper side.
Thanks Seth. Was just considering this adventure last night. Ran Edge of Darkness in October for my meetup group and they're crying for more. Just bought DeadLight pdf. Thanks for the suggestions...group will be invite to a event featuring Paul Lemonde as a prequel to Shadows of Yog. However he won't show for the event either
Sorry I think I meant the Fungi from Yuggoth starts with Paul L
Rewarded for my weekly travails with a Seth video :-) there is justice
So I just ran Dead Light (using Pulp rules in an Online game) with a group of three players that are new to Call of Cthulhu.
(Spoilers begin here)
I decided to limit the max skill score players could have to be at 60 to help build tension.
One of my players had run through a one shot (Dissociation which also went quite well) so he was the only on that didn't have a Pre-Gen. I decided to go with your idea of using Emilia as a player character, since they were new, and it worked quite well. I had Emilia suffering from Amnesia until the party made it to Greenaple Acre Cottage where she started remembering things in flashes, and my players loved how unsettling the abortion angle for the Dead Light. I also created Walter (Newby) as a pre-gen for one of the newer players, I made him a mechanic, and he ended up saving the group from the Dead Light with a weird science creation, a generator that spit out electricity.
For the chase, it started with Billy coming out of the forest at the cottage, only to end up being consumed while the Investigators ran to their car. They failed the Drive Auto to get the car out of the mud, then failed the push roll, which led to Walter's player remembering that Emilia had a car, and after an extreme luck roll they managed to get to the car and take off while the Light was busy digesting Billy. I had three Hard Drive Auto Checks where the driver passed it THREE times with Extreme successes, with a penalty die each time, easily speeding back to to the diner.
Awesome! Glad you all had fun with it.
I wached this review a long time ago and liked it. Now that I'm prepping to run Dead Light, I love it!
Also to DMs out there - there are a lot of actual-play videos and podcasts of this adventure, and some I great!
I've listend to 3, and all have turned out very different!
I'm running this scenario tonight and I'm gonna use the Emelia as a PC idea, so we shall see how it goes!
Good luck and have fun, whatever happens.
How did it go?
*I love that you redid this video .*
*But I'm not happy that you removed the original version .*
*I like watching old versions to videos as they are great for perspective on growth as a individual & channel .*
To be honest when I first read the scenario my thought was that using the Dead Light in the way Seth suggests here (for abortions) was where the story was going. My interpretation once I finished reading was that maybe Chaosium started with that idea, and thought it might be too upsetting for some people (although the actual story is already plenty upsetting).
I'm only mentioning this because I think Keepers would need to think carefully about the people they're playing with and make sure this isn't going to be a particularly upsetting story element if they do use Seth's suggestion. Don't get me wrong, it's a good suggestion, just one that could be extremely upsetting for some players (or keeprs).
I’m very much enjoying your channel. It has inspired me to start up an online campaign after 35 of no Cthulhu.
This looks a good starter session and I plan to introduce my non RPG mates into it.
One idea I thought I’d share is to have the diner ‘famous’ (in the county at least) for its 101 varieties of ice cream. That is facilitated by the back store room being a giant walk in, metal walled, freezer room. If the party can hook up some sort of cabling to the walls... and some sort of sacrificial lamb...
Speaking of options, the waitress may have a little bun in the oven and her partner’s in a bad way...
Great Scenario to review!
This one-shot lasted for 4 6 hour sessions for our group.We were a jazz band driving a bus to a gig. We turned left instead of heading on to the diner. We had one guy die by accidentally setting himself on fire with kerosene. We had a mass brawl in the diner as well. Crazy...
Thank you for the review Seth. I'm hoping to run this for my friends as our first venture into the Call of Cthulhu series. Your tips are really coming in handy for the preparation!
Going to be running this for the first time in the next couple weeks. Time to rewatch the review for suggestions, etc. Looking forward to this, my group is going to be in for a bumpy ride!
The adventure went well, both my player and I loved it. One thing we noticed however is we both felt this adventure seemed like it would play better as a solo scenario. With a full group we felt there might not be enough to keep everyone busy as were glad this was not ran during our 4 person regular group.
Possible idea: Walter is actually one of a number of clones used by the Migo for spying. PCs start running into more Walker's over several missions.
Walter the pump jockey is my next PC
You could do him like Dante from Clerks where he's always lamenting how, "I'm not even supposed to be here today."
@@SSkorkowsky that's perfect his whole gag is that he isn't supposed to be in the adventure!
@@bastionunitb7388 😂
@@bastionunitb7388 Win. Stealing this.
Love the enhanced production values! Nice rain effects, and great rereview!
Awesome timing, I will be running this as my next adventure. The party will be coming back from servents of the lake. Thanks when I will spring it on them. The group has stopped at this dinner 3 times before and had a shotout once "best pie in the County" there know 4 NPCs there "including Walter" the day cook will be out.
But super thanks I know this will be a great one!!!
That is awesome. I love the long setup like that. Good luck with it.
Really excellent tips and expansion ideas! I'll be running this soon as an interstitial surprise for my group, and I'm definitely going to use these. Thanks!
About the mysterious children mentioned around 5.30, could they be referring to the Midwich Cuckoos (movie version called Village of the Damned)? Maybe they used the name Dunwich to link it to Lovecraft instead of keeping the village of Midwich? Just a thought and a possible different hook for future adventures
I ran Deadlights earlier tonight with two friends and had a great game, although I believe we played a newer edition as there was no mention of the pump jockey (the PDF I purchased also came with a second scenario called Saturine Chalice). I did the bait and switch Seth suggested in the video by giving my players a telegram from a friend inviting them to Providence to listen to a lecture from a world renowned archeologist. One of my players took the bait and it was a lot of fun for the three of us as he slowly realized that something terrible was occurring at this small gas station.
Spoilers ahead in this next paragraph.
With only two players we were able to move through the scenario quite quickly, but as my players took Emilia back to the cottage (where she saw her dead grandfather) I was able to add some drama by having Emilia become enraged after discovering Billy and Clem were responsible for her grandfathers death. I had her put together that Mary must have been in on the robbery and had a chaotic scene in which one player had to prevent Emilia from attacking Mary with a knife while another tried to maintain order in the diner as the Deadlight began picking off the NPCs.
This is honestly such a great scenario to play in one evening with a small group of players and has a lot of room to expand certain elements to create intense horror sequences and plenty of chilling moments. Thank you Seth for making this review and hooking me on this scenario
Yeah, they revised and re-released it shortly after I did the updated video. Sadly, Walter's mention was removed.
Distrusting Emilia sounds FANTASTIC
That kind of drama seems like the extra spice a lot of parties need to generate some internal conflict.
great review, followingyour advice this weekend.
Great work @Seth , love your videos.
We just found your channel and your CoC beginner playlist. Hopeful for a Pulp version soon as we are starting in January.
I just finished running this in my campaign last weekend. It was absolutely intense. Thanks for the recommendation.
Glad to hear you had fun with it.
Just ran this a few days ago and after rewatching this video I was surprised how much I borrowed/the story followed the events as you described.
Jake stormed out to his truck because every didnt believe him and was eaten, the old man and a player went to the restroom, and they thought they were heading to Bolton to deliver a book for an npc.
Even the chase happened, tho that was more the dead light was devouring Billy in the front hallway and they didn't know how to get out of the house so I had Emilia take them to a window. This was after they tried turning off the generator that lured both Billy and the Light to them and one player scooped up the sealing wax and tossing it at Billy as he was melting.
Then the chase. they had no points in drive auto so they crashed, alot. but they drove up and down the road three times, even trying to ram the dead light after spinning out in front of the gas station.
Finally, they debating killing someone for a long time before they realized the electrical thing. Then they wanted to use Emilia as bait but I made her refuse and my one player decided to do it. Great times
My main (only really) criticism of the COC adventures is the layout. I find the books really convoluted and jumbled, making it difficult to figure out where the next piece of information is.
This was my very first completed module as a Keeper. The group said they had fun, and its a pretty ballsy ending from one of my players
As long as they had fun, then that counts as a win. Glad you all enjoyed it.
Ran it three times. Amazing adventure. Especially as a one-shot.
I'd love to see this revisited
I ran a dnd 5e one shot using this adventure and changing the world where ancient elves used the dead light the same way as Seth recommended, keeping the elven society pure ridding themselves of human/elf and orc/elf babies and any corpses that the people the elves murdered so the doctor had urns of ash in his basement.
The party of 1st level characters only had a shocking grasp spell to fight off the dead light as they use the corpse of billy to feed the dead light and capture it. After the adventure one of the characters then multclassed into a warlock of the great old one, calling on the yellow king to help him study the dead light
The character on the bottom right hand side looks like johnathan joestar
Just saw it was on sale on Drive Thur RPG. Picked it up right away. I'll be using this review as a resource when I use it. Liked the previous version, but seeing Jack in this make the remake better I think.
i dont usually have troubles flipping through modules looking for stats and such: i always print out stat blocks for monsters and possible enemies beforehand
chant page 6 monster page 25 for people looking for that info its said around the 4:30-4:45 mark
The Search For Walter had me snorting out loud.
I just ran this, and this video was invaluable. I had one PC on the roof howling like a wolf, and another (the bootlegger!) chugging flask after flask as the dark light chased everyone in the cottage. Big fun. In hindsight I would have let the dark light sprint and attack to avoid the session ending so soon. I mean the PC had used his own blood to put a spiral on his forehead, and another PC did the chant. But in the heat of the moment I let him sprint to the basement where the physicist was ready to shock the light into another dimension. Any, good times where had by all.
DAMN! that would have been fun to have joined in on.
Well, it's another day.
Time for Dead Light 2: The Search for Walter.
I heard misbegotten children and assumed that they were just literal Bastards thus was confused when Seth started talking about them as though they could be hooks :edit: ha so did Seth
I know that the Walter the Pump Jockey: "The Search for Walter" is a gag but I have an idea.
Warming this is a possible set up to a Call of Cthulhu game so its a bit long.
I would love to see a game where the Keeper gaslight the players with Water. Make Walter a recurring NPC. He pops into scenes, just appearing every so often, especially in locations where the players might encounter something weird or alien. And every time he shows up, he has a new job. One day he is Walter the Pump Jockey and the next he is Walter the paperboy, or Walter the milk man, or Walter the mechanic. He is still Walter and he acts the same but he swears he never met the PCs in his life when they ask if they met him.
Then once the PCs get interested, you can start laying some bread crumbs for them to follow. When they start to piece things together they find some troubling facts. They see he is all over the place. They see his name and face in news papers, like the obituaries, over the decades (prompting sanity rolls for seeing a person they know to be dead), have his name be the same name as an author of an unrelated Mythos tomb from a completely different adventure (like a published modual), have him be in photos of their past, and mentioned in notes from their colleagues and family as a friend or something. Be creative but have him be present and then vanish without a trace the next day. However the people that work there never recall ever having a person named Walter work there. But most importantly, whenever Walter is present he is introduced just before something strange happens.
Here is a really scary moment you can hit your PCs with that I stole from a supposedly true ghost story.
One of your PCs makes a call to a friend or significant other(someone from their backstory preferably not a disposable NPC but someone they value). They ask the operator to connect them and as they say "Connecting you now Sir/ma'am" they hear a failure voice. And they realise with dawning horror, it's Walter. Then, if the Players don't hang up right there and then, you can have the phone line act weird. Lots of interference, static or go super creepy. They start to hear voices over the phone. They are whispers at first and don't make sense but with a Listen check they can tell its chanting of some kind. With a hard success they may even be able to make out some of the words as a spell (pick a random spell from the Keepers guide or the GGOCMM). As they talk the chanting grows louder and louder until the phone is so loud it hurts their ears. And then just before they hang up the chanting suddenly stops. The phone call can continue as normal and the other person heard nothing on their end.
A day later the NPC the Player was trying to call dies or disappears mysteriously. Or, if you want to put the fear into them, they are given a message from a neighbor or friend that something terrible has happened to their beloved NPC. They can have a moment to investigate their home and they find it a mess with strange marks carved into the walls and table tops. On a night stand near their bed they see scrawled, with what had to be their fingernails, "He is at the Window". Another one is behind their bedroom door that reads "He behind the door". Somewhere (you decide) is secretly written: "Hes inside the house". If your PCs don't flee right then and there they have nerves made of steel.
When they ask what has happened to their beloved NPC they are told they have been committed to Arkham asylum. In the asylum even the doctors find this laps into madness utterly shocking and don't know what to make of it. Before they go to talk to them the PCs can hear them ranting and raving on the other side of the door. Just as they are about to be let in they here a troubling exchange.
(Here is something I thought up, but you can make them say whatever)
"He comes and goes but no one can see his face! Why cant anyone see him? Where dose he go? I can see him, with my waking eyes! I see him! Why cant I escape him? He follows me! He follows me everywhere...Help me! Help me!...(then super creepily, have them suddenly speak calmly) "Where did you go Walter?"
If you think that too over the top you can have them repeat a line from the chant. The chant they said they did not hear. In the room they seem calm and lucid and fine if not a little drugged. When asked they say "I was talking with my new friend Walter". If they press them on the name they say "Walter the Pump Jockey".
(this could be used as a clue to go back to the pump station from the Dead Light scenario. Maybe there they can finally find answers?)
At this point they should be good and scared whenever they see Walter, or even get the hint he may be around. Make them think that they will see him around every corner. Another good way to mess with them is if a Player character has an insanity where they see delusions. Have that character start to see Walter everywhere they go. In reflections, on the other side of windows, or turning a corner into a vacent ally. Only that one character can see him though. Sometimes they even see other people as Walter. This can lead them to go on a rampage in public, demanding that Walter explain what is going one while the NPC swears they are not Walter. Have this be when there is only one character in the scene. That way when the other PCs hear the commotion they may go running to join in and be shocked to see that the person their fellow PC is accosting is just some random guy or woman. If the PC is really scared, you have a really invested roleplayer, or maybe they failed a San roll big time that they lost control of their character. Either way they could possibly end up killing the innocent person and now they are a wanted killer.
Stretch this over a few games and you can really make them lose their freaking minds.
As for how the story ends that is for you to decide.
Maybe Walter is just Nyarlathotep having a sick giggle at the PCs expence?
Or possibly, and my favorite idea, its a spell that was cast on the players by Old Wizard Corbit from the Haunting scenario. He could have cast it on them just before he died and it looked like his spell did nothing but in truth it was meant to be his final weapon to take revenge if he were ever truly killed? This would force them to go back to the old Corbit House and maybe find something there to lift the maddening curse.
Another way to end it is when they go back to the basement to lookupon the dust that was Old man Corbit, it is now Walter laying in the same position as Corbit was. Then he rises and his visage desiccates to show it was Old man Corbit the whole time! BUM BUM BUM!!! He never truly died, or his spell drained their sanity and made him a Memetic Hazard so that anyone they told would see Walter. Eventually all the mental energy allowed him to coaless once more in a physical form. He played the long game to make them go mad and ensure his survival but doing this leaves him vulnerable so if he dies in this new body he is permanently dead.
The choice is yours.
Who do I think Walter really is?
I don't know. He just...is... and is that not just the scariest part. The true unknown?
Happy Halloween Keepers and Investigators!
I literally just watched the original last night lol
I see you too binge watch old Seth videos
When I played this, the creature attacked us in the house before we found the journal. We fled the house, leaving a dead NPC behind us, with no idea of what it was or how to defeat it. I then proceeded to roll 3 extreme successes in a row, trying to drive out of there. The keeper decided to let us escape, as there was really no alternative way things might play out, other than trapping us there for a TPK. Coming back during the day, we found the clues and the creature was easy to deal with.
I still loved the scenario, as the tension and atmosphere was great.
Hey I've just gotten into your videos and I'm really enjoying it do you have any videos on converting old stuff I've read the guide but I'm a tad confused
Part 9 of my Call of Cthulhu system review has a section going over converting old editions to 7e. th-cam.com/video/vINPFOeWiCM/w-d-xo.html
You just LOVE the idea of the players being Josie and the Pussycats, don't you.
I look forward to re-watching this one, do you plan to re-do any of the other 'pre-Jack' episodes as well?
I think the last pre-Jack one left is The Westchester House. I'm not sure if I'll re-do it (it probably needs it). But I also want to redo The Haunting. That was the first Jack episode, but the sound is dreadful. Either way, it'll be a few months before I tackle any more re-records. I want to do some new content for a while between those.
However, can you do me a favor? The Cthulhu-Wiki for Dead Light has a link to the original vid. Can you update that to this one? You'd recently mentioned that you were one of their contributors. www.yog-sothoth.com/wiki/index.php/Dead_Light_(Scenario)
@@SSkorkowsky Just updated the link to point to this version of the review. I look forward to the next review when it comes out.
Awesome. Thanks.
Amazing stories and reviews. Look I've only played call of Cthulhu one time and I want to start DMing for my group do you have a recommendation on a starter pack or a starting adventure for someone who's never ran the game before
Check out the Quickstart Guide. In it you'll find The Haunting. Classic intro adventure. It's also totally free, so you can't beat the price.
Chaosium should soon be releasing a starter box set which will include a solo adventure (you GM yourself through it like an old Choose Your Own Adventure book, but with dice), a solo game for the GM and 1 player, then two regular adventures. One of those will be Edge of Darkness, which is another that I highly recommend.
@@SSkorkowsky thank you
Hey man, keep on keeping on 😎🤘🍻
I can see how using a player for Amelia would be . . . interesting.
I'm halfway through running this for my group. They just found the box...
I love how call of Cthulhu is the kind of game where it's often useful and even desired that the keeper essentially gaslight their players
We need a dead lights 2, god knows what happened to Walter.
Hear me out, a few sessions after running this initial session, the players hear a rumor about Walter. As it turns out, he's formed a cult around the Deadlight, bonus points if the Deadlight didn't get killed in the original.
He joined the USMC where he was known to be really annoying to his sergeant.
I've had my eye on this module for a while now but your video has motivated me to run this over the Christmas break. Did you use the maps from the PDF or are there unlabelled ones that you have stumbled upon?
No unlabeled maps. For this one I just drew it out on the board for everyone.
@@SSkorkowsky That's a bit of a shame. They seemed very thematic and nicely drawn. Better than what I could do in any case. Thanks for the reply and your continued work. Your Ladybug review got me into Cthulhu and I can't wait to delve in deeper.
BTW, a viewer just posted links to unlabeled maps they made for it.
@@SSkorkowsky Just found the comment. Thanks for letting me know
Oh man those gray trays in the background are pretty stylish. Are those prop storage?
Miniatures cases. The gray ones are my fantasy minis.
@@SSkorkowsky Nice. They'd easily pass for evidence storage in the X Files. Good look.
I think I may have solved the mystery regarding Walter "the pump jockey". Walter is obviously the gas station pump attendant, but I think it is he, not Jake Burns, who is "now passed out at one of the tables", presumably because he was just struck by Jake as he "swerved to miss the gas pumps". This theory is supported by the fact that there is no mention of Jake recovering from unconsciousness anywhere else in the scenario, and that the "farmer [is] babbling incoherently about a "Dead Light" he saw" (so Jake is obviously conscious). Therefore, it would be he [Jake] "sweating feverishly with Sam, the station's owner, fussing helplessly over him [Walter]". This would also explain why there is no NPC sheet/stats for Walter - he remains unconscious the whole time.
If the above sounds feasible to you, consider replacing sentence 1 and 2 of the second-last paragraph (Keeper's Notes: Events So Far) with:
Looking out into the storm between the flashes of lightning, a farmer’s truck has just swerved to avoid hitting the gas pumps, but in so doing has inadvertently struck the fleeing form of Walter, the pump jockey. Both the shaken farmer and the unconscious Walter are quickly assisted into the cafe. The farmer is sweating feverishly, babbling incoherently about a “Dead Light” he saw on the road, and Sam, the station’s owner, is fussing helplessly over the passed out form of Walter, now at one of the tables.
This... this might be it. Or it could only be a single clue in the greater mystery of Walter.
@@SSkorkowsky Haha... Of course! He could be like Valeria during the Battle of the Mounds... There for one, brief, heroic moment, and gone the next, never to be seen or heard of again...! :)
Keepers? Is that call of cthulhu speak for dm? :3 I haven't played call of cthulhu actually
Yes. Keeper of Arcane Lore, or just Keeper for short.
Seth, reading the scenario - it says that any drive auto in the storm is a hard drive check. Did you just have them roll a regular drive auto to get to the cabin?
If they're not in a rush to get the the cabin and are just driving to it, I don't bother with a roll. We can assume they're taking their time and being careful. But when a freakish monster is charging after them and they're racing to get away from it, that's when the Drive Checks happen.
Is this based on The Colour Out Of Space?
Jack: "Write the words out phonetically" me: "so you don't get Klatuuu Barrratta Nsomthing there I said it"