the whole 'hammer' thing is overdone. it's just a rehash of two scenes already well known in popular culture, robert deniro as al capone in 'the untouchables' beating a colleague at a murder incorporated dinner, and the actions of security in 'casino' against a well known cheater. a trope mined even once in popular culture is a no-no because your players are likely to have seen it already... but something mined this deeply? twice in the past 40 years in wildly popular films? this is extremely lazy writing on the authors' parts. even the setup of gangsters is lazy. i'm still waiting to see if any part of this is somehow different than other adventures before, because so far they have only cribbed from more popular pop film and other scenarios from the past. hating it so far
equating the 20s with tommygun toting gangster is exactly the problem, which *does underscore your point... but lovecraft didn't write about gangsters and i find scenario writer's fixation on cheesy movie gangsterism a huuuuuge distraction that instantly turns me off there are games for that nonsense, and this isn't it.
great guide. i've seen a few on this, trying to understand why everyone loves this scenario so much - but you've added some good ideas i've seen noone else mention. i'm surprised there are no views for this video. i'm not often complimentary on these things, because most are a complete waste of time honestly. and time is a resource we're all losing too much of and cannot replenish. but great video, i don't know why you don't have at least a couple thousand more views, you might look into that. good luck, and well done.
I'm reskinning it for a buffy/xfiles theme and this video was sooo helpful thank you so much! You gave me good ideas on how to tackle some of the bits I never really liked about the pacing or the story, highly appreciate it.
I'm running this tomorrow, said in Seattle in 2010 using some of your ideas. I've been watching your content on my TV and I decided to subscribe to you on my phone. It looks like you haven't been active in 2 years. That's a bummer. I like what you've done.
I plan on running The Haunting in my home city as well. Most of my players have been here for most of not all of their lives so they have a history here. One of my players family has lived here since the late 1800s. The family farm is on the outskirts of my city in the 1920s
I'll never shave off opportunities for world building, engaging with the narrative and player agency, regardless of how obvious a story part seems. Those are the places in the narrative where the keeper/handler/DM has a lot of creative license to introduce theme, tone and nuance - especially in horror games. But to each their own - looks like a fun story either way! Thanks for the vid
Great video! One thing about COC compared to a lot of other TTRPG's is the idea that you don't want to get too attached to your character. There is a unique element of fun knowing that you face obliteration and madness with each game you play. Just go with it and enjoy the experience. 🙂
This is actually SO helpful for someone (me) planning to host a game for ppl with no experience with trpg and no knowledge abt guilded age US, thank you!
This is a better guide than anything else I've seen. Seriously amazing, I wish you had a patreon Also could you give some examples of the „whispers“ that you used?
It sounds like reskinning adventures to your local area can make for great fun for a horror adventure. I could see a creepy house like this existing at a lakeside or in the middle of the woods in my home region too. Having the surroundings be particularly tricky to navigate in a car but well known to the cultists. I'm not inclined to just kill the party if it retreats (and especially not if they prevail over Corbitt), but having their car get wrecked by a cultist ambush is something I would consider doing, and that's assuming the party fails their drive checks. Assuming they don't, they'd lose the cultists in the chase and have something to think about when they get back.
This was a great summary - thank you very much. Does it matter how many player characters participate? I only have 1 player and wonder if this will work with an investigator and one player. Is it also okay to run it with just the introductory rules.
In this video you are tracking the activities but not the time for each day. Maybe I was wrong because I was forwarding the video in order to avoid spoilers. Anyway, in the manual there is no info about how to track the time you are buying, I guess it is free of free time, no matter if you buy 1 item or 50 only 1 hour to reach it.
If the investigators break into the workshop earlier in the day and discover Mr. and Mrs. Smith, how do you get them to the final confrontation at the lake, which takes place at night? It seems at this point they'd leave Squatters Lake or confront and capture/kill the Brophys, then how do you get them to that final scene?
Love the channel, been enjoying all the Call of Cthulhu. I see your last update 2 yrs ago but I hope you come back to the channel with some new content. Otherwise appreciate what you did share with us! Thanks!
I love this idea and plan on doing the same thing for my group in a couple weeks. I like the modern take on the scenario and using ghost hunting as the premise for being there! Do you by chance have your handouts available to use somewhere on the internet?
Excellent summary! SPOILERS BELOW I really appreciated it. I've kind of put myself in an odd situation of using the scenario, "The Auction," as a prequel to HotOE, but then doing BRFez immediately afterwards. The characters will either be 30 years younger, or it will be one of their parents. Hadn't really considered that this is plot armor for the characters. Oh well! Maybe some will have grown up without one of their parents. Yikes! The goal is to get the Fez to the Prof Demir, but by that time there can be multiple fezzes, right? And the Baron doesn't really care which fez he gets, I suppose. Should be lots of fun. Thanks for the reinforcements!
I'm In the middle of running the haunting now as a first time keeper, but not a first time GM, for our group. 1920s is good for me as im more familiar with this era. Love the style, and simpler life. Loving doing US accents, it's really different from our usual Medevil Fantasy system.
Thank you for this video, very helpful and I agree with your suggestions. I'm an experienced keeper and I'll introduce some new people to Call of Cthulhu with this scenario (instead of running Dead Boarder again and again). After I read it, I immediately thought I should start the scenario with the PCs driving to the motel and cut some other bits out too. You confirmed my suspicions that these don't add much to the investigation. Keep up the good work 👍
This is a super helpful and clear summary for someone (especially new keepers) to study before running this scenario. Thank you for the effort you put into making it!
Hi Zach. First of all, thank you for a well organized video. I like your picture inserts and occasional sound effects, good job. Your work is well organized and covers the ground quickly and effectively. I'll be watching more of your videos. Kingsport is very close to Arkham and in Massachusetts, (not Rhode Island), so I rationalized a really crappy road, and a lot of rain, to give people a reason to not want to drive after dark. Also in the 1920's some cars headlights were pretty poor. If the PC's have cheap cars, they don't want to be driving after dark. I found the Brophy's TOO obvious, so I had their story be that James stopped got a can of gasoline, and left. The PC's drove on to Kingsport and questioned the girlfriend Emily, stopping at the Motor Hotel on the way back. I tried to play down the Brophy's creepiness, and make them helpful, to delay suspicion falling on them as long as possible. I disagree about dropping all the side clues, UNLESS you are short of time. In a sand box adventure, there should be a few red herrings, and false paths. The game master's job in Call of Cthulhu is to build suspense and rushing too much or making things too obvious does not help that goal. Minor nitpicks about personal taste aside, great work. Warm regards, Rick.
