Call of Cthulhu: Missed Dues - RPG Review 

Lovecraft: "Neither time nor matter stretched before me, but only chaos without form, without place." Skorkowsky: "Reality has gone completely bye-bye."

"Summoned Azathoth into the apartment " This is like finding Darkseid on the sofa.

sees the ultimate god of chaos, embodiment of pure insanity and absolute madness, loses 1 sanity. "well that was a bit odd, guys I saw a weirdo in there, reminded me of that time I was at the aquarium and saw this weird octopus, anyway, I think it's an eldritch god. Ideas?"

7:04 Dog Eats ALL THE PIES?! Oh my god! It all makes sense now! How did we not see it? This is the ultimate clue that ties everything together! D:

"DO NOT GO IN THERE!" - that line always cracks me up!

Hell yeah! Your videos are what I live for. Thanks for the dopamine.

As far as the missing street, I would have that it had been renamed recently. You could have someone in the group just remember that, an NPC remember that or have to go to City Hall or some other official place to find this out. It could be cool to have the PC thugs and criminals trying to goto City Hall and look through records and or old maps. Imagine all of the dirty looks or they might even have the cops called on them. Or now that I have watched the entire video the street name could just be different because of the warping of reality. The name is just different in the reality that they came from. Also I am going to use this as the final thing in a CoC 8 week mini campaign. I am going to kinda cross the whole Kolchak/X-files with CoC and run it that way.

One of my players was adamant about opening the door to the void. I pause the spooky ambient music I have. “Are you absolutely sure?” /He is ABSOLUTELY positively sure/ I up turn the speaker volume to the max. *A HA - TAKE ON ME - SHITTYFLUTED*

love it - going to play the clip of you doing the preacher to the players when they go to the service!! so great!

Okay that preaching was really well done

You totally look like Val Kilmer when you were giving the sermon!! Haha

Have you every played any of Fantasy Flight Games board games based in the Cthulhu Mythos?, such as Arkham Horror, Eldritch Horror or Elder Signs? They aren't RPGs, but capture the spirit of the Mythos.

Oh Come on Jack have some self repect. "So somebody thinks they can run ruffshod over your territory, ands you want us to explain who is top hat around here. Wise decision."

I wonder what would happen if a pc attacks azathoth? Anyone know what would happen? The module doesn’t say and I want to know

It would be funny if you changed eahh to ero 😁

fjorple

>Sees horrible creature that causes instant insanity >Hears worst music in the universe >Slams door "Do not go in there!"

... Scott Brown Real Estate seems to have lost some money on this property. Thanks a lot, Sticky Jack.

I love the idea of the investigators, the cultists, the enforcers, and some green demon thing chasing each other through the same 6 doors while Azathoth's pipers play the Benny Hill theme. 😂

Heh. It is amazing how often I've seen characters over the years face a d100 sanity loss and roll single digits like that. "Meh. Writhing otherworldly abomination at the heart of creation. Seen worse." Of course that sort of luck is usually followed by them maxing a san loss roll against a Mi-Go or a zombie or something equally lame, going insane, and the spending a nice long vacation in Arkham Asylum.

So, having just finished running this, I can say that your advice helped. So, one of our players (a gambler) had gone from 70 to 60 sanity in the course of the adventure, having opened EVERY door on the way to the final one, dodging a few crazed cultists, and getting dropped by half-hit points in one knife fight with a crazy apartment owner. So after the fun house, they finally get to the apartment. They went to the correct door and found Sticky Jack, who asked them for help. The gambler picked him up and shoved him against a wall telling him to stop this. They could hear the music coming from the other door, and I had used your advice to ward them away from it (great advice, by the way). The gambler picked up that something was wrong, put Jack in front of him and opened the door as a threat. He then saw Azathoth, failed the sanity roll of 60 and I rolled a 59 on the percentile die. I ruled that in his sanity, he shoved Jack into the court of Azathoth (ending the events of the adventure), shoved the door shut, and fell into a fetal position. The gambler now has a pathological desire to be inside light (photomania), and his PLAYER has a fear of doors.

Proper response to crazy haunted/maddening apartment... Kill it with fire. I've only played 2 call of Cthulhu games, and I tried to burn down buildings in both. I say tried because only one was successful. The second time, I doused this shed that had become an elevator to an insane abyss in kerosene and torched it. The kerosene burned, but it didn't do a damn thing to the shed. Then the flames started changing colors and whispering to me. Man, I miss those sanity points.

One way to run this would be to take the tiles from the board game Betrayal at house on the hill, and every time the players step through a door have them draw a room card. Kinda like your random dungeon tile video from a while back.

I had a lot of fun with Missed Dues as well. Totally acted out the sermon. And yes, one of my players opened the door to Azathoth even after Sticky Jack freaked out on them about not opening that door. And she went insane for the next few in games months. They ended up blowing Jacks head off with a shotgun though. I figured, that’ll do it. Good times. Great review.

Yay! New Seth Video. Thank god, I was starting to get withdrawals. Seriously you’re quickly becoming, if not already are, my favorite youtuber. I keep you playing most days for background music and occasionally I just go deep dives watching a ton of your reviews.

Seeing the dreaming creator of all things and only suffer 1 sanity is basically the pinnacle of what an eldritch lore scholar can hope to achieve.

I *need* to know what that music was that you used for your Azathoth void apartment sketch.

watched several videos of yours now and i have to say "Jack the NPC" is such an awesome idea. Keep up the great work.

This game led to one of the best RPG moments I’ve ever seen. A player opened the door to azathoth and only lost two sanity points! “Hmm...must be Tuesday.” Slams door shut.

Love the video reviews! They got my friend into CoC when even I couldn’t! In this video you mention a better, higher-resolution Arkham map from the “Arkham book”; which book would this be? Thanks!

Jack saying “Consider me your number one guy” is the most sly Batman reference I’ve ever witnessed.

Great, as always. You're way too nice to your players. If one of them opened the Azathoth door and HAD gone insane, I'd have encouraged him to get the rest to look as well. "C'mere! Check this out!"

Given how the preacher was ranting about a flame of hope, I'm surprised he isn't a cultist of Cthugha. He's only the eldritch god of fire.

That shooting the window getting sucked into the void scenario actually played out in a madhouse one shot I was playing in one time. It was me. I didn't get dropped into another room. I got killed. Almost immediately.

Sticky jack the NPC

Burnt the whole apartment to the ground like professionals, I approve.

Hey Seth! I just wanted to ask if you have any plans to explore or review Down Darker Trails and any of its supplements. I absolutely love the setting and recently got the PDF for Shadows Over Stillwater. I also know the setting is supposed to play well with Pulp Cthulhu as well. Either way I just want to say I really love all your videos, keep on making them awesome!

Really impressive that Seth could mimic Jack's voice to a T when he mentions the aught 1 for SAN loss.

The only question I have is...why is Azathoth is contained by an apartment's walls? Is it unfamiliar with drywall? Or plaster. Plaster is more 1920's

But, but everyone loves a Polka :D

I feel like cults of Azathoth should be all about getting as much sleep as possible. Less evil, more narcolepsy.

When I first ran this scenario my group accidentally read the words and finished the game 😂. Accidentally started, accidentally ended. Then I ran it a second time for another group and every character saw Azathoth. Six players to begin with, two to end with.

I love your reviews Seth and Jack rocks the house!!! I think Jack should have his own fan club lol.

That sermon was great

My two cents regarding non euclidean maps: I map it out on a hex grid with a lot of obtuse angels, but I describe it all as right angels, as if it was mapped on squares. That way I can map it out in as much detail as I want, while the PC's can't figure out how the layout makes any sense

That cult leader section is great lol

I've been listening to your videos as I drive around. You did a bit about 18 minutes in about the worst music imaginable. I burst out laughing because it sounds a lot like a genre I listen to. There's even a meme in the community that Folk Punk is a terrible music genre.

is it possible to play call of Cthulhu by myself?

There is a very good play through of this scenario on the Yogscast Games Night channel that is worth checking out

Just a note, Curzon Street was added to the map in the new Arkham (7e) book that just came out.

If you want ideas for weird floorplans I recommend looking at NanQuest by Weaver. The opening chapter has a lot of freaky ideas that would be perfect for this scenario

19:35 Considering since this video a Lovecraftian movie set in a bathroom has literally been made (Glorious) this aged hilariously well.

2:06 How did I never notice the wavy background?!

9:53 -- I'm just bookmarking this so I can add my "Choir"

I love that this fucker accidentally summons a mad god like he dropped his mac n cheese.

Wish I would have caught that you did a review on this scenario before playing it on Halloween with my group.I would have appreciated some of the tips you gave here. But, playing the German translation of Call of Cuthulu made it a bit unlikely that you would cover some of the translations that are available. One Shot or not I found the scenario a bit bare bones while reading and feared that there was not enough content to make the investigation feel satisfying, so I used the Arkham source book to enhance the city a bit more and switched locations around so my players see more of Arkham. I also made the freebie info something to gather through meeting other criminals in diners and poolhalls and such (the sourcebook provided so many of those locations). What made the scenario unique to me was the utter lack of mythos horror right until the end. None of the players saw it coming and they were completely hooked once it started with the crazy housewife. But one the other hand it sort of irritated them that nothing eerie happened up to this point and they felt like they did something wrong/made no real advancements towards the mystery while gathering info. Though they all confirmed it was worth the wait. They managed to reverse the ritual. But they had to teamkill an investigator who went insane and wanted to open azathoths door after they barely managed to close it the first time.

My gm ran this as an intro into CoC. We avoided the church entirely, found greasy spoon and went right to the apartment. A full third of the session was spent in a fight with the land lady who nearly TPK’d us. Never met Azathoth and we ended up killing Sticky Jack via emptying out a shot gun, point blank into his skull. As a result of the music my character went temporarily insane and developed a fear of flowers.

I spy a copy of Cthulhu Invictus in the background, might we expect a review in the future?

Just bought mountain of daggers, sea of quills and damoren. Really excited to get through them. Btw I really loved mist of L. Great story. Look forward to leaving you a review.

“Your number one guy!” I see what you did there.

A gentalmans 3rd!!

That appartment sounds like a classical hallway Scooby-doo chase.

When you casually summons the chaotic mass of flesh that sleeps in the middle of existence, who never am i right?

Oh come on now, no need to hate on the Polka music.

When I ran this scenario one of my existing players was playing an established criminal, so it was relatively easy to work in The Hammer. I LOVED roleplaying the sermon. I think my players enjoyed it too :)

I actually have run this before. It was the second worst session of any rpg I've ever run (not due to the content, but rather poor luck and some bad players). I had at the time these two really bad players who hijacked the session for over an hour to avoid a tail from the church that I had for how they'd be found (I should have either made it that they no matter their roles couldn't see the tails or just forced them to go on, but I was very new to CoC and DM'ing in general at the time.) Now fortunately they didn't keep on going on, but that was an issue, especially because one player as soon as he finally got back into the action got hit in a sneak attack for maximum damage by the crazy woman in the apartment and was unconscious on her couch for the rest of the session. I feel genuinely bad for how little that player was able to play that evening through combination of bad luck and bad players. Still I love the module despite that.

That preacher bit was great.

Just finished my first sesh on this scenario. I felt like the Greasy Spoon advice kinda backfired. Idk if it was my execution (I just told them Jack had a bff no name given) but in the end they fought Jacob and his 6 cultist after the sermon as one of them felt that was the way moving forward. The only place they haven’t been to is the museum where I could have introduced Greasy there. Two of them are newbies from DnD. Granted fighting 7 cultist in a closed room is not a good idea.

Maybe have a table of random effects that the PLAYERS roll for when they're in the apartment? That way it's like THEY are in control of what's going on, and the GM isn't just being cruel? Maybe keep table entries with a theme, or have a set of appropriate options that start when triggered - but make sure it feels like the PCs are triggering things, not just the GM piling it on? Really fine line. This is why GM good will is something you want to cultivate throughout interactions with players: you never know when you can seem like you're railroading, or being too harsh. Need some street credit so you don't push too hard, y'know?

Another possibility for including a character that remains outside. As the party makes their way through the apartment, the character that remained outside emerges from one of the rooms. Basically, this close to Azothoth, the probability that the character did, in fact, enter the apartment was high enough that the event actually realises. The character is both inside and outside the apartment simultaneously: Schrodinger's investigator! The character proceeds in both locations. The other player's are likely to think that this is an evil doppelgänger or some other sinister entity, but you should stress the fact that the character's are not aware that the character is simultaneously inside and outside. When the apartment event ends, the less probable inside character event collapses and the inside character ends with it. Any damage, insanity and experience earned by the character is lost as the more probable outside character persists. The character should separately track all gains and changes whilst inside the apartment. If the outside character enters the apartment during the event then there are a couple of possibilities. - The inside character vanishes (along with any damage, insanity or experience earned) and the player simply controls their outside character going forward. - both character's persist and the player controls both. When the overall event ends, the inside character vanishes (again taking damage, insanity, experience with them) but the outside character still has any damage, insanity and experience they earned. Or you could allow them to make a roll (POW, or Luck or Cthulhu Mythos) to integrate the two events. Extreme success they chose which of each character's damage taken, sanity lost and experience earned they keep - best of both worlds. Hard success they can choose two out of the three and take the worse of the remaining one. Normal success they choose one and take the worse of the other two. Fail they take the worse of the three qualities. Fumble they take the combined totals of everything: combined damage, sanity loss and experience. Never actually tried this, but it seems suitably mind-bending, in-defiance-of-the-laws-of-the-universe and freaky, whilst ensuring that everyone gets to participate and have fun.

Seth: Insane music *plays polka music* You know, I can agree with this.

Big fan of the 10:00

SETH !! I'm totally weaving the gangster of Crimson Letters with the Missed Dues hammer man. Also your rev Smith really inspired me for that character to be the precursor seed where my player will see him as the Ring Master in the "Carnival of Chaos/ cooger and dark pandemonium". So when They see Jacob Smith in his top hat at the carnival.....ooooh nooooo HIM!!!!

You are without a doubt my favorite RU-vidr, love your stuff man

I have one idea for this. Scooby. Doo. Doors.

Your number one guy Jack Jack Napier Batman reference? Awesome 😎

The gang boss reminds me of a cfemale charater I use in some of my fiction whose favourite and signniatutre weapons are sledgehammer and lump hammer (she's actually queen of a warrior race).

10:00 I'm converted.

Mike does a good hellfire

So many campaigns. I never picked this game up because i didn’t think there were this many scenarios.

I can imagine its liberating playing a killer and having no reluctance to kill again...aint going to work on Cthulhu and his chums though

I just ran this! It took one 5 hour session, which included one massive detour. After a shootout at the church, where JS was killed, the two surviving PCs ran for it. However, one was a police informant and called in backup while the other jumped in his car and had to shoot his way out of Arkham. It took him a while to successfully escape the manhunt by disappearing into nearby Beverly. The two of them eventually teamed up again in the apartment since they’d both gone after Jack for different reasons at that point and neither wanted to die. Thanks Seth!!! I was much better prepared because of this review.

*Polka is not bad music .*

Your timing is perfect as always. Will be running that one on weekend

I ran this adventure just this evening. Player opened the door to Azathoth and, while not a 1, he only rolled a 4 on the d100

Finishing this module with my players tomorrow, it’s gonna be great! 🔍

That music... Was that... Brave Combo?

Any Cthulhu reaping scenarios?

I just ran through the majority of this (we left off just before they decided to search for Curzon st, the rest taking one whole day of game time. Thanks for the walnut idea. It really hammered home the idea that O’Leary would hammer their gourds in if they didn’t get the job done. Playing out Jacob Smith’s sermon also helped and really creeped out the players.

Another great video! Though I might have missed one thing. How come the crime boss did not know where Sticky Jack's apartment was located and not have sent some of his people there earlier? Also, a possible video(s) you could do is CoC adventures you might have missed or are too expensive to get now. and/or trying out other versions of CoC, ie, Achtung! Cthulhu(either FATE or Savage Worlds), the Gumshoe version, or Cthulhu Dark. Looking forward to your next video!

I really love your reviews! Call of Cthulhu is the first system I’m getting into besides D&D so these reviews are really helpful. Would you consider reviewing Cthulhu Dark Ages at any point? Cosmic horror in the medieval period sounds like a great time.

I wanna play, if IF I can keep my Lewis gun, .......What?, it's a good luck charm......

How did a nonbeliever cast a spell?

14:34 & 17:52 This made my day

Love the map or Arkham! Great review, bud.

Everyone is playing this system now? Is it worth it? Where should I begin, bookwise?

My family is coming to visit in a few weeks and Ive been planning on running this scenario as a one shot. This was a super helpful video. Thanks

Just sliding in here five years after the video dropped to ask what the music is at 17:53, since I can't find it anywhere in the comments.

I've actually watched a group play this scenario before on another youtube channel. They got Greasy Spoon hit by a car.

You're the best, Seth.