With all the diner stuff it feels like this would play better tone wise if the time period gets converted to the 1950s. That way you can have a classic American diner under attack by a mysterious killer.
Great review of this classic scenario. You do a great job of laying out the story elements, difficulties therein, and place emphasis on things that can make the adventure memorable (namely the RP elements/human element). Thanks!
Ill be running this later this week - thanks for the detailed tips! One pedantic error I noticed in this scenario is that it starts out with the party racing north to escape a storm (pg12), trying to stay ahead of it. However it also says Mary triggered the robbery (pg7) during the storm that has taken out the telephones, 2 hours earlier - It doesn't make a lot of sense to have players escaping a storm & it also be in effect 2 hours ahead of them. Considering also that Arkham-Ipswich is less than 5 miles. It's very easy just to flip this & have them drive into the storm. It probably won't be an issue to most, unless you have prior events leading up to the scenario (as i do) in which case eagle eyed players will spot this.
Nice catch, I just started them in the storm as it grows, and ignore the part about Mary, it serves well enough for it to be planned this night no matter what.
Cheers mate, most of my players are coming from D&D so these more single minded objective scenarios are great and you've really given a hand in preparing it all up. That human element was always what I loved about VTM, looking forward to running it
Just want to say I'm glad I watched your video on The Haunting before I ran it as a first scenario. Concise and insightful. You do a great job at conveying info, thanks for those videos.
When I ran the scenario I changed the purpose of the Dead Light for the doctor from infanticide of weird mutant babies (not sure why you’d need the Dead Light for that tbh) to instead be used for lobotomies. When the players end up at his house they found letters from wealthy families where he provided Rosemary Kennedy style services and that really amped up the creep factor for my players. Also in terms of keeping the players on track you can have post-rainfall mudslides block off parts of the roads.
The whole infanticide idea came from seth skorkowsky, they tend to mine his content when revisions of scenarios are happening, he recently got credited on Mr Corbitt, but didn't here. I suppose it was to remove evidence and save face in society. The lobotomy idea is pretty good. The land slide is an effective way to keep them in, but i've met enough players in my time that will call foul and be frustrated that no matter what they do you as the Keeper are playing god to trap them here. Its about agency, the players should buy into the story, and its not a problem. But its a failing of scenarios like this where they have no personal investment, that a PC might wonder off, player saying, "thats what my character would do" its a bad player trait but an all to common one.
I'm almost finished running this. I pretty much rewrote the handouts to lean more into a euthanasia history, but that Dr Webb was coerced into using it to terminate pregnancies of servants, caused by a local gentleman. He ultimately escalates to making threats if the Doctor doesn't use it to help get rid of a servant who won't cooperate, and instead the Dr writes that he has to "make a choice". I also constructed a newspaper clipping about the gentleman's disappearance, and made it clear that this was the reason that the Dead Light had not been used in some time, to prevent any exposure, while also giving some good RP potential with Emilia, around this dark secret Instead of a landslide, I allowed my players to try to drive on through a flooded road, which caused their car to begin misfiring, and unable to drive at a normal pace. It's also added a bit to the scenario, since they are now trying to coax an unwell car to get them between the locations they need Great video! Really like your analysis
@@RPGNook 2/3 pcs survived, they couldn't convince any npcs to sacrifice themselves so went with the generator in the basement instead and successfully ambushed it barely. Deadlight rolls to consume a pc. It gets Extreme success, then on the contest with 2 penalty die the player rolls 2 extreme successes and ends it all with an 01 contest roll. Greatest dice luck I've ever seen. Next turn he hooks it up to jumper cables and sends the DL packing.
I'm looking for to running this as a Thanksgiving themed scenario with a few additions. Definitely going to mis-direct the players as the real-game's intentions.
I ran the scenario and was surprised to not lose a pc. I should have kept the creature around longer and forced a sacrifice to ramp up the tension. If you keep the correct atmosphere this is a great scenario.
Any tips on getting the players to find the diary? Seems like not finding that will really derail the scenario. My players just aren't always the best at searching for things.
If you want to be obvious, have the safe already open and its contents thrown around, and just a simple spot hidden or you telling them its among the contents on the floor works well enough.
I knew I’d have to remove the infanticidal elements due to one of my player’s personal triggers, so instead I had the doctor be a plastic surgeon and secretly a fishperson from Innsmouth. He did surgery on himself to look normal, and for years he had been killing off solitary or vulnerable patients and replacing them with plastic-surgeried fishpeople who were now living those people’s lives as part of some nefarious future plot. Now the players’ goal was to survive and get his list of surgery patients to the FBI (it helped that one of my players was an undercover bureau agent.) Since this requires Emelie to unknowingly have Innsmouth blood, I had the amulet be suppressing her transformation into a Deep One, as normally happens when such people reach puberty. Led to some nice drama once the players had to decide what to do with her after they (and she) learned this about her.
With all the diner stuff it feels like this would play better tone wise if the time period gets converted to the 1950s. That way you can have a classic American diner under attack by a mysterious killer.
This is one of the best videos explaining this encounter. Really useful
Great review of this classic scenario. You do a great job of laying out the story elements, difficulties therein, and place emphasis on things that can make the adventure memorable (namely the RP elements/human element). Thanks!
Thanks! glad you enjoyed it.
Thank you for all the tips on running Dead Light. I'm hoping to run this for my friends as our first venture into Call of Cthulhu!
Good Luck!!!! And come back to tell us how you got on.
Ill be running this later this week - thanks for the detailed tips!
One pedantic error I noticed in this scenario is that it starts out with the party racing north to escape a storm (pg12), trying to stay ahead of it. However it also says Mary triggered the robbery (pg7) during the storm that has taken out the telephones, 2 hours earlier - It doesn't make a lot of sense to have players escaping a storm & it also be in effect 2 hours ahead of them. Considering also that Arkham-Ipswich is less than 5 miles.
It's very easy just to flip this & have them drive into the storm.
It probably won't be an issue to most, unless you have prior events leading up to the scenario (as i do) in which case eagle eyed players will spot this.
Nice catch, I just started them in the storm as it grows, and ignore the part about Mary, it serves well enough for it to be planned this night no matter what.
Cheers mate, most of my players are coming from D&D so these more single minded objective scenarios are great and you've really given a hand in preparing it all up. That human element was always what I loved about VTM, looking forward to running it
Glad I could help!
The necropolis scenario might be a good short intro to COC for DND group.
Just want to say I'm glad I watched your video on The Haunting before I ran it as a first scenario. Concise and insightful. You do a great job at conveying info, thanks for those videos.
You are more than welcome, hope you have a good time with Call of Cthulhu. Happy Halloween!
When I ran the scenario I changed the purpose of the Dead Light for the doctor from infanticide of weird mutant babies (not sure why you’d need the Dead Light for that tbh) to instead be used for lobotomies. When the players end up at his house they found letters from wealthy families where he provided Rosemary Kennedy style services and that really amped up the creep factor for my players. Also in terms of keeping the players on track you can have post-rainfall mudslides block off parts of the roads.
The whole infanticide idea came from seth skorkowsky, they tend to mine his content when revisions of scenarios are happening, he recently got credited on Mr Corbitt, but didn't here. I suppose it was to remove evidence and save face in society. The lobotomy idea is pretty good.
The land slide is an effective way to keep them in, but i've met enough players in my time that will call foul and be frustrated that no matter what they do you as the Keeper are playing god to trap them here. Its about agency, the players should buy into the story, and its not a problem. But its a failing of scenarios like this where they have no personal investment, that a PC might wonder off, player saying, "thats what my character would do" its a bad player trait but an all to common one.
I'm almost finished running this. I pretty much rewrote the handouts to lean more into a euthanasia history, but that Dr Webb was coerced into using it to terminate pregnancies of servants, caused by a local gentleman. He ultimately escalates to making threats if the Doctor doesn't use it to help get rid of a servant who won't cooperate, and instead the Dr writes that he has to "make a choice". I also constructed a newspaper clipping about the gentleman's disappearance, and made it clear that this was the reason that the Dead Light had not been used in some time, to prevent any exposure, while also giving some good RP potential with Emilia, around this dark secret
Instead of a landslide, I allowed my players to try to drive on through a flooded road, which caused their car to begin misfiring, and unable to drive at a normal pace. It's also added a bit to the scenario, since they are now trying to coax an unwell car to get them between the locations they need
Great video! Really like your analysis
Amazing breakdown, running this tomorrow
Have fun! And please do come back and let us know how your group got on!
@@RPGNook 2/3 pcs survived, they couldn't convince any npcs to sacrifice themselves so went with the generator in the basement instead and successfully ambushed it barely.
Deadlight rolls to consume a pc. It gets Extreme success, then on the contest with 2 penalty die the player rolls 2 extreme successes and ends it all with an 01 contest roll. Greatest dice luck I've ever seen. Next turn he hooks it up to jumper cables and sends the DL packing.
@@justinhealy4102 oh nicely done. Think that's the frist time I've heard to generator getting used in that way! Very cool.
Just nabbed this from my gaming store! Eager to kick the tires!
I'm looking for to running this as a Thanksgiving themed scenario with a few additions. Definitely going to mis-direct the players as the real-game's intentions.
I ran the scenario and was surprised to not lose a pc. I should have kept the creature around longer and forced a sacrifice to ramp up the tension. If you keep the correct atmosphere this is a great scenario.
Any tips on getting the players to find the diary? Seems like not finding that will really derail the scenario. My players just aren't always the best at searching for things.
If you want to be obvious, have the safe already open and its contents thrown around, and just a simple spot hidden or you telling them its among the contents on the floor works well enough.
Has anyone converted this to Down Darker Trails?
Interesting idea, you'd need to change what would affect the creature though.
I knew I’d have to remove the infanticidal elements due to one of my player’s personal triggers, so instead I had the doctor be a plastic surgeon and secretly a fishperson from Innsmouth. He did surgery on himself to look normal, and for years he had been killing off solitary or vulnerable patients and replacing them with plastic-surgeried fishpeople who were now living those people’s lives as part of some nefarious future plot. Now the players’ goal was to survive and get his list of surgery patients to the FBI (it helped that one of my players was an undercover bureau agent.)
Since this requires Emelie to unknowingly have Innsmouth blood, I had the amulet be suppressing her transformation into a Deep One, as normally happens when such people reach puberty. Led to some nice drama once the players had to decide what to do with her after they (and she) learned this about her.