Call of Cthulhu: Mister Corbitt - RPG Review 

Shoutout to the guy in Call of Cthulhu who just called the cops.

Shout out to the guy in play testing who is the reason they included the "raise it as their own" option

Did you know, that your review is mentioned in the new edition of mansions of madness I qoute: "Special thanks to Seth Skorkowsky's excellent video review of Mister Corbitt, which highlited some issues with the original version." Way to go.

*players eating at table in relative's house players: "Haha, like we'd fall for Mr Corbitt's suspicious gift basket he gave us. At least he's left for his business trip." player's relative: "How're you enjoying the pie I made, dears?" players: "It's delicious, what's in this thing?" player's relative: "I used some of the fruit you left on the counter" *players start noticing floor melting into the ceiling and psychedelic pattern pulsating over the walls players: "Oh no"

"That's a cure for constipation" is the best replacement for "shit"

The part where Seth pointed out how a player may come to adopt an abomination meant to praise a god of insanity made me think of something: a party of cultists for Cthulhu or some other elder god. They’re going on these investigations, not to rid the world of evil or by chance, but to make way for their god by clearing out others’ influences.

I'm playing the module right now, and it has spawned through three sessions now. My players are so scared to go into the basement that they're exhausting every single damn thread of investigation before going in there. Now they are studying the tomes that Mr. Corbitt had near his diaries (True Magick and The Key and the Gate) and I suspect that they are gonna be full fledged Yog Sohtoth cultist in about two months. Damn I like this game. Thanks for the review! Great work, as usual.

I just finished playing and entered the house twice, first time I didn’t want to open the secret door because Mr Corbitt was about to get home from work, second day I failed my locksmith roll and decided to just bash the door down, knowing I couldn’t keep the secret that I’ve been inside the house I grabbed all the journals for evidence and bashed the door to the lab before running and screaming with the pudding monster following me out the front door where, after a lengthy battle, it met its demise. Prior to this though I failed a stealth check and one of the neighbours kept pestering me afterwards that they were watching me. After the creature died I knocked on the neighbours door, pointed to the creature and yelled “Did you see that asshole?!” Good times

[SPOILERS!] This is a perfect scenario for beginning players (and GMs) and if your investigators are not investigators. I ran it with four people only one of which was a typical investigator type: a professor. The PCs were: - an actress, who recently bought the mansion across the street from Corbitt, - her gardener, who kind of "belonged" to the mansion and already knew Corbitt and got some very valuable gardening tipps from him in the past and borrowed some fertilizer during the game, - a snoopy neighbor, who was the wife of a rich textile producer and lived next door to the actress, - and said professor, who was a friend of the actresses father and held a chair in the local university. I placed it in Arkham and just let them play out idyllic neighborhood stuff at first with a charming Mr. Corbitt and another family who were new as well and only spoke German. Then the actress, who was the only one of the PCs new to the vicinity, saw the severed arm. And when the snoopy neighbor sneaked up to the door to take a peak through the mail slot, when Corbitt wasn't home later on, she heard some noise from inside the house... My point is: as they were just normal people, they wouldn't just go get their favourite bazookas and raid the house. And it allowed me to do the irruption of horrible things into normal lives, which is so typical for Lovecraft.

The 'Burbs - Call Of Cthulhu edition! Maybe we should base our "steering NPC" on Bruce Dern's nosy gung-ho neighbor?

I ran this module with my girlfriend without dice in a cafe (im a fundamentalist at heart). It was her first ever role play and now she actually pays attention when i coerce her to watch you. You're doing God's work out there, sir.

An easy alteration to this set up: start the adventure on the saturday before the listed opening with a block party. Write up some other npcs to fill the roster, but make sure to point out mister corbit is speaking with the mayor and sheriff. It lets the pcs mingle and settle into the usual subrubia feel.

I laughed way to hard at the "rich afluent white guy" line

so basically it's The Dunwich Horror but with better pacing - I like it!

I ran this adventure for my Shadowrun group and it freaked them out. It was great.

Tripping JacK is now my second favorite Jack, right after Jack In Drag.

Only 1 Soul for Getting New Eyes and Ghost Vision! Worth it what a steal! :D

Tulsa Doom says "Nice shirt, my child."

I love how much fun you have with jack the NPC. Even knowing the module really well, those reactions really bring something entertaining to the discussion.

I am laying the plot seeds for this adventure. I have the corbits related (great uncle). One of the PC's mother lives across the street. The group went there on an investigation and Mr corbit came by and dropped off vegs. One of the investigator was like... Hey what did u say his name was.. Thanks for the reviews!!!

"Silly Jack, didn't you ever see the Cuphead cartoons? Don't you know selling someone else's soul to a demon is such an evil act that the demon gets your soul for free anyway?"

"Well that is a cure for constipation" I cannot stop laughing at this.

LOL. Awesome, as usual. I love the bits with Jack and the binoculars the most. When I ran this years ago, I initially set up Mr. Corbitt as a neighbor of one of the investigators who lived in Arkham. He stopped by a couple of times at Mr. Willows’ house to drop off fruits or vegetables from his garden and greenhouse between earlier sessions. The Sunday in question saw Willows hosting a dinner with the other investigators so that Spot Hidden meant not all of them saw the arm. The first thing one of the investigators did was try to bully his way into Corbitt’s house by pretending to be a police officer. When that didn’t work, the same couple of investigators broke into his clipping business, which raised more suspicions. They also tried to pose as house painters to get into the place. Some of them did manage to track down Tomaszewski though; he jumped out a window. It was a little annoying to all of them, I think, when Willows got the key to the house to house sit, as well as a warning that someone seemed to be trying to break in. After that, it was easy to go in and search the place. Unfortunately, when they found the thing in the basement, Elliott Macy, the dilettante, panicked and stabbed it. It went berserk and attacked the private eye, at which point the bounty hunter panicked and dumped gasoline all over the floor, lighting it on fire and killing said private eye. The beast fled from the house and out into Arkham. Several of the investigators escaped either out of the front door or the cellar door. Only Willows ran for his Cadillac to chase the beast down and was aided driving it by Macy’s butler. They followed the thing from West Washington Street onto Hill Street, striking it with the car twice before cracking up and ending up flipping the car, the dying horror atop it, the doors jammed shut, and the thing oozing down upon them. Willows claimed to his insurance company that he’d hit a deer. In the end, the house burned to the ground and two members of the United States Bureau of Investigation showed up to deal with the greenhouse and try to get Corbitt’s books from them. Corbitt ended up in Arkham Sanitarium. Good times.

Thanks for this. This is a scenario that I'm going to build up to in my campaign. I'm actually going to introduce Mr Corbitt as a red herring in The Haunting to establish him before running his scenario in a few sessions time.

I played in this many years ago. I still remember it because of this hilarious running joke. My character had a terrible spot skill. When the group went into the house, everyone else spotted the creepy woman-head-thing and lost sanity. I kept failing. In fact, I failed to see every single weird/creepy thing the entire game. The group was losing sanity left and right and I just kept shrugging and saying they were nuts. Finally, at the very end of the adventure, one of the other characters was so fed up with my obliviousness, he grabbed the woman-head-thing and shoved it in my face, just so I could take sanity damage.

16:36 "We can't stay here! This is Nightgaunt country!"

I ran this scenario years ago, and I actually tied in the fact that Bernard Corbitt was a relative to Walter Corbitt, I think I made Walter the grandparent of Bernard or something like that. It ran pretty smoothly and enjoyed it a lot. In my game Bernard didn't really trust the players so he left them there as he went to get something to get rid of them (Don't remember now what it was, been years since I ran that game). The thing is that he came back that same day the players were in his house, and almost at the same time that the players managed to kill the creature. Now, they killed the creature as it escaped and it was running down the street, so there were a lot of witnesses and immediately got the attention of the feds who covered it all up. I think the players ended up with some contact with those guys, but they didn't tell them of Bernard so he got without much more trouble appart from his weakened mind. After many other games, they got to know Bernard better and in the ended up commiting suicide because he couldn't find peace in this world anymore. But since he knew how to make drugs and had access to rare ingredients like the plants in the greenhouse, he could elaborate a drug that got him and the players access to the Dream world, where he would spend the rest of his life trying to run from his past. And with that, giving access to the players to another resource (That later on I'd really wish I didn't since I couldn't manage it that well and screwed it so bad they ended up killing King Kuranes and then came the downfall of that table). Regardless of all of that, it was a really fun experience and had a great time.

The scene of Jack tripping is my favorite of all the player/npc scenes!

I lost it when Uncle Jack came to save the kids.

I vaguely remember, years ago, to have been player in this scenario. It have mostly faded from my memory, but I do remember our keeper had added a 'little brother' to the monster, a 'thing' made of two limbs, the one being a leg, and its way of getting around was jumping like a pogo stick!

I'm sure you've heard of this one, but there's an adventure collection called Monophobia which has adventures exclusively for one player and a GM. You should do a review of it, I've had a lot of fun running the adventures out of that book.

You're out doing yourself, sir! I loved the review but my absolute favourite part is seeing Jack trip balls to weird 60s hippie music & that cool 1920s style car set you had in that shot. Was that something you built or in a real vintage car?

CURE FOR CONSTIPATION!! oh my, jack is such a laugh! I adore him so very much! your reviews are the bomb on their own, but jack makes them pop and infinitely more memorable!

Love how Jack always has his lucky flask with him.

I would replace the "Melt your face off" flowers and make them the source of the hallucinogens previously mentioned.

you could also run this like Rear Window. With the sick relative being the Jimmy Stewart and the PCs filling the legs like Grace kelley. that'd be awesome

"Whats does it take to get a rich affluent white guy arrested around here?" is a fucking mood.

The segment at 16:28 makes me want to run a 1960s Call of Cthulhu game! Groovy tune!

21:19 that is the funniest one liner Jack made in the video I was rolling on the floor in laughter. I might say that when I start playing CoC

For my game I just made Walter corbitt Bernard's great grandfather I thought that was a nice way to avoid confusion and tie the to advetures together.

Great review Seth! Top notch as always. Your suggestion of stitching this scenario to a campaign over time is sneaky. Digging it.

“Best not to ask about that”... LOL

A soul? Was it Todd’s or Dweebles’?

I have to admit it Seth everytime I see you've put out a new video I get excited. I'd love to see content from you more often, but I realize real life, writing, and such get in the way. I love the fact that your production values on your videos are extraordinarily highest than one would expect. Your humor is exceedingly witty and well performed. You're characters are well developed in the short time they're seen. Is there anything, aside from buying your books, that we as a fanbase can do to help you out? I'm looking forward to reading your books (they're quickly coming up on my reading list). Once again thank you for your videos they are a high point to my day when I see them.

Ran Mr. Corbitt for my group of three, who decided the best way to get information from Mr. Corbitt was to throw ANOTHER DINNER PARTY, and invite Mr. Corbitt. That was an absolute curve ball.

Late, but not too late. :) there is also other great scenario included in that Mansions of Madness book called: "The Sanatorium". Remember to support Seth!

Recently played in this scenario as a one-shot. One thing that really helped was having one of the players almost stubbornly insistant over the goodness of Mr. Corbitt. My investigator was that guy, and he took the approach early on of "somebody must be forcing Mr. Corbitt to do these bad things," with the caveat that--once he saw the horrors for himself--that idea get blown out the window. It worked really well.

Your videos are amazing. Thanks for putting all the effort into these! They're a ton of fun!

The Iron Butterfly/ Jack sequence was comedy gold!

22:13 I was thinking this over. Is this "child" smart and/or big enough yet to get food from a fridge or a meat locker? You know Mr. Corbitt could be like, "Junior, I'm heading out for several days. Just help yourself to the food I got stored up for you in the basement. Make sure to wear those jackets I stitched together for you while in there. I don't want you to catch a cold!"

I love the suggestion of the feeding machine in the basement. Great timing on this review I just started running this scenario.

I've run this one a couple of times, and it has always been fun for all involved. The baby always gets a... strong reaction! Great review!

I’m so happy Jack’s eye was referenced! Great video as always. The trippy scene was my favorite.

I really like this adventure overall, I thought this might be an interesting adventure to include with The Plantation from the same adventure pack, namely when the kid gets hit by the car at the start, who comes to help but nice old Mister Corbit to take care of the kid. Or introduce him early on as a helpful npc, maybe he invites them over for tea on the weekend maybe offering the players medical care when they're injured. Then after some time begin the Corbit House adventure, making this NPC who seemed like such a nice old man doing some serious evil.

Love your reviews Seth!

Alright, so I have been watching and enjoying Seth's videos (primarily the reviews), but this was the first time I laughed out loud! The psychedelic trippy part was just too damn funny. Great job there.

This was an insightful and hilarious review. Thank you, Seth!

21:18 "Well that's a cure for constipation" - Jack the NPC

Love your videos and find them really helpful

I wish i could like the video twice. Thanks Seth, you just gave me my Halloween One shot session :D

Currently running a Pulp Cthulhu game and last session my players adopted a Serpent Person Hound through the use of hypnosis and weird science. Surprised me and still thinking about how this is going to play out from here on. Much better than adopting Corbitt's abomination though :D

Thank you for video! I had too many questions about this adventure

Jack sections were hilarious in this one :) As always!

This adventure sounds like a actully good version of the video game "Hello Neighbor"

Hey Seth! I'm a long time watcher and I just ran first Call of Cthulu game last night and did the Mr. Corbitt scenario. I just wanted to thank you because this video and your series on Call of Cthulu helped make it the best session of any TTRPG I've ran. I've never felt so confident or had players be so engaged and engrossed in the narrative, thank you once again!

I was having any issue deciding what to do on the daily feeding issue with the out of town trips as well. Refrigerated hopper on a timer is an absolutely wonderful idea! Thank you for the tips.

Just what I needed to start my day

My “constipation” was almost cured too. 😂RU-vid decided to put an ad between Seth talking and the child’s laugh. So I looked away to continue some work when the laughter comes through my trucks speakers much louder and clearer than the normal audio.

I must say I am enjoying your selection of t-shirts Seth.

This and the NPC creation vid have to be my favorite videos of yours.

love the video.! You should run The Sanatorium next! I thought it the best scenario of the book and ran it multiple times for different groups

This gave me a very Tom Waits "What's He Building In There" (from Mule Variations) vibe and I loved it.

I am running my first game of CofC tomorrow. I like this scenario so much better than the Haunting that I have decided to run it instead. The only thing I am changing is that I am going to have Corbitt have a completely Dominated caretaker who lives on the grounds in order to make sure the PC's get a little taste of combat. Thanks for the great reviews/tips you do on scenarios!

You rock Seth. I've only played COC once but your videos have encouraged me to pick up 7th ed. Thanks for the inspiration.

So... Maybe it's best to start with "The Rear Window" meets CoC... and add just a dash of "Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas"... ...Is that approximately Close? Great video!!! ;o)

Running this tonight - thanks for the insight

For some reason, it always bothered me that the "very wealthy" Mr. Corbitt did not have a driveway.

12:00 Could this be the means to award the PC's a magical/cursed blade? That Tomazewski used it as part of his self-sacrifice? After all, the short story "Dreams In The Witch House" very heavily hinted that Satan was yet another mask of the infamous Nyarlathotep.

Hi Seth! I absolutely LOVE this module! As well as your channel as a whole! Absolutely stellar work, and you’ve helped me more than I can say. I’m starting a Call Of Cthulhu “campaign” soon and am definitely using this module sometime within it, but I just wanted to put this out there. The antagonist of this module is Mr. Corbitt. Like you said, this is also the name of a character in The Haunting, and would be strange to encounter 2 Mr. Corbitt’s a few sessions apart, especially for new investigators. The thing I wanted to put out there is that a kind of cool name change of Mr. Corbitt you could consider if you’ve already used the Haunting, is “Mr. Crowley” as in the early 20th century occultist. Just a thought :)

New twist in the story, You have a house pet, it really is a sweetie. But it does get into things alot and the ground floor and up stairs just does mot give it a lot of room to run around in. So me and my wife keeps the, dog in the basement. He is a really good , dog. Plays well with our three kids. But for some reason our neighbors are acting, funny... lately ...... 2.) It is called Reverse Dungeon, where your group plays the defending monsters trying to stop the adventures from kill you. Also in Tales From The Crypt shows, the villain keeps a monster and they act like it is just a normal dog. Like the eye glass commercial where the woman thinks a raccoon is a kitty cat.

Love this videos thumbnail Jacks like AAAAAHHHH!!!

The iron butterfly reference sold me on this one.

I am sad I can only give this one like. So many likable moments!

I love this scenario.I have run it many times. The innocence of the child, the creature and Corbit himself makes it more fun. I usually add it to canis mysterium.

Congratulations on 2 Million views. Any tips for us struggling you tubers. The OG GM Adventures

So great! I was looking for an easy single player adventure to run for one of my players when the others can't make it. I gotta start planting creepy seeds.

the story about Jacks's eye already sounds like an extremely good adventure hook. might steal this one

Thank you for the scream Jack. I tried to impersonate it the best I could when my Character lost his horror check in a custom setting of Palladium Fantasy/RIFTS that my friend is running.

Why not have him be a relative of Mr. Corbitt from the Haunting? It could be an easy red herring, yeah, but there's nice ways to obscure it like requiring a lot of research to find out that connection.

Oh good Jack's eye is back :-)

Im very glad I watched this video a lot before running the scenario, because calling the cops was exactly the thing my player first did

Your Tshirt alone deserves a subscription.

Seth, could you please make a video on how to prepare for an adventure using a pre made scenario? Or maybe how you yourself do your prep, which notes to lift from the text, where do you go for props, etc.? I think it would be really useful and at the same time start a very fruitful conversation.

Call of Cthulhu is funny . It's standard of mansions from 1920s/1930s are house no bigger ( but actually smaller ) then the average modern home in the city suburbs .

Really nice. It actually reminds me alot of Phenomena, the 1985 Dario Argento movie. Really weird movie, but alot of cheesy fun for fans of more surreal trash-horror. This sounds like the kind of game-idea I would definitely run. It's got a great hook that's simple and straight-forward, but leaves an impressively open sandbox for how players might deal with the situation and how it might pan out. In fact, it could actually be really good for inserting into a longer urban game. Like, you establish this neighborhood over the course of a police procedural game for a good 4 to 5 games, get players really invested in not just Mr Corbitt himself, but also the entire neighborhood. Then when the chips are down and everything is revealed, you can elicit alot more emotional milage out of the reveal. It can either be great as a game-ender, maybe the reveal to the overarching mystery of a serial killer or it can also act as a sort of first act finalie to establish a gateway to the deeper machinations of Lovecraftian horror. And you know what? I might just incorporate this module into my game.

This scenario reminds me of "The Burbs", one of the greatest movies ever made.

6:00 I always laugh so much at this part - "What does it take to get a rich, affluent white guy arrested around here?!"

Good choice of tunes!

"Well, you melt."

Here's an intresting idea: Why not link both Module's together by having THIS Corbitt a cousin/relative to the other Corbitt? It can work from both a narrative perspective (it would explain how 1st Corbitt knew of the Mythos) and a World building perspective(maybe the Corbitt Family have been linked to the Mythos for years,even Decades).....