I'm really glad you liked it, Seth! It had never occurred to me that UNLAND might work as a Kult scenario until Sue converted it. Having heard how both she and you ran it, I'm now wondering if it might actually be a better fit for Kult. One bit of trivia. In the original draft, UNLAND is a living manifestation of the god Daoloth, who tears away the veils and shows you the true horrors of reality. Unfortunately, we couldn't get the rights to use Daoloth, so we converted it to The Phantom of Truth, plucked from the pages of Robert W Chambers' The King in Yellow. I think it works just as well, although I reverted to using Daoloth when I ran the scenario for Ain't Slayed Nobody.
Quite a complex setup from a moral as well as philosophical standpoint. I'll definitely buy this around weekend and see if I can adapt it into the Witcher game I'll start soon. One of my friends who used to be quite the liar - so he claims - has a sword with the words "the truth will set you free" inscribed on it, and he will be one of the players in that campaign... :)
The running joke of “Our friend [NPC] went missing/is in danger at [specific location], and get this: [plot hook leading to said location]. We have to go to [location] to save our friend! Hold on, [NPC]! We’re coming to save you!” will never get old.
@@richmcgee434 You could make that argument about every plot device though. Remember when "you wake up naked and in chains" or starting en medius rest were refreshing? 25 years ago maybe?
There's a mirror in an old locally famous house that has silhouette of a person in it. The legend is that lightening flash made it happen or it's a ghost shadow. Either way I think that might be nice way for the remnants to stay in the mirror, they fade away until there is an unmoving faintly visible figure there.
"They just need to let go of their lies..." I genuinely thought you said lives. I can picture the NPC screaming now as my character puts up a rope next to the hanging lady: "Stop! I said you need to surrender your lies, not lives! Please don't do this!" and so a new NPC was added to the park...
The Apocalypse players did a really, really good playthrough of this adventure on their podcast. They played as children though, which gave the whole adventure a really unique feel, I'd highly reccomend it (or honestly any of their stuff)
@@emsstrand Oh, thanks for reminding me in return! I think they actually mentioned that particular playthrough as an influence in some of their backstage patreon stuff :D
"Unland - we take the F out of Fun!" "You're fired, Stephens! You'll never work in advertising again!" "Well, duh. I looked in one of those stupid mirrors and now I can't lie any more. Still going to sue you for wrongful firing though, Larry. I clearly have a medical disability you're discriminating against." "Also, my wife is a witch."
5:35 I love how common it is in the reviews for Jack's friends to get caught up in the mythos that I like to imagine that he really has set up a stock phrase "Hold on [X], we're coming to save you!" to save time
Even the Great Old Ones fear Scott Brown! ...now I want to see adventures where Scott Brown agents get sent to different Lovecraft sites to clear out monsters and cultists to sell the properties. "Gotta go clear out this old temple in Antarctica before the clients come for a walk-through!"
"The park is permanently foggy" (Silent Hill has entered the chat) 😜 Seriously, the whole time you were describing the park and how It's supernatural abilities worked, I kept thinking "this sounds exactly like how Silent Hill is."
Speaking of guilt that'll haunt you for the rest of your life, when will we discover Jack's horrifying and tragic past? Must be pretty bad if he seeks atonement or death from one hellish scenario to the next...
Maybe it’s that he got addicted to the feeling of being totally aware that comes only when you’re on the threshold of existence beyond comprehension. He’s not an adrenaline junkie, but without those peak moments, he’d collapse into malaise and maybe even kill himself.
Really depends on your player characters. I played in a Wraith campaign where all the PCs were ghosts that had died in the same Big Top fire and we had four different spooky clowns in the group because we thought it was hilarious. Didn't last long, turned out the GM had a bit of coulrophobia he'd never mentioned to us. Had a Harrowed in Deadlands who dressed up as a clown, too. The makeup really helps cover the whole "undead" thing. Oh wait, you meant NPC spooky clowns, didn't you? Yeah, bit light on those.
I can pretty much guarantee Ina is going to find another abandoned place to build another shrine. Maybe in a derelict town, she'll build the shrine in the town hall, where the lies were told. Jack delivered a challenge. Have a remote cabin in the woods which is the one safe(ish) place in the adventure. If the PCs go in, they find information that will decrease their losses from dealing with the problem. I really liked the mirrors with Remnant animations. Creepy.
The Phantom Truth, from what I can tell, is from a one-off reference to a "Phantom of Truth" in The King in Yellow, which has had some appearances and interpretations in other King in Yellow/Hastur/Carcosa derivative works. That said, this is coming from what I can find as someone who's read mostly King in Yellow-themed game modules and internet searches, not the book The King in Yellow itself lol
The Phantom Truth is an avatar of Daoloth, the Parter of Veils. I’m pretty sure it’s specified in the scenario itself, but I don’t have the book here with me at the moment.
My friend ran this for me a few months back. I beat a lot of things with a baseball bat. (while they were all have existential crises about their backstory, I kept getting lucky with POW rolls as I went on a mirror smashing rampage)
The nanosecond you mentioned breaking the mirrors releasing the remnants my mind immediately conjured up a dirty cop NPC, deep in denial over somebody he killed unjustly, losing it and opening fire on the mirrors to initiate a combat encounter.
Fwiw, there is a "Phantom of Truth" mentioned in the King in Yellow IIRC, although as with everything its significance or role in the play is up to the imagination. No idea if this is a deliberate reference from the scenario or if they happened to use a similar name.
The writer left a comment saying they had intended to use a god from the extended mythos, but couldn't get permission to use it. They instead called it the Phantom of Truth as a reference to the King in Yellow.
Thanks Seth (and Jack!), this looks to be a very cool little module we can have a lot of fun with. Hope to give it a whirl in the near future. Oh, also appreciate your wonderful add-ons you always find time to provide us. They are most certainly appreciated my friend! :)
You just made this publisher a sale with this review and the previous one that you offered on the collection. I very much look forward to running this scenario for my group.
I would like to thank you from the bottom of my heart for all your hard work and all the videos and tutorials you've made! I ran my first CoC session as a keeper this last weekand! Me and my friends had a really great time playing the haunting. I've watched most of your videos and they really helped me to learn the game and make a fun environment for my players! Thank you!
I run a special one-shot for friends every Halloween. I used Unland in 2021 and had my friends make PC versions of themselves. We were on “Friends Weekend” and on our way to another destination when I drove them to the abandoned amusement park and I said to them, “Hey, let’s check this out!” And then my character disappeared. They still hate me for this. Also, the map I used was the satellite view of the abandoned Six Flags in New Orleans.
Scott Brown needs to be a dungeon crawl adventure. Players are hired to evict the monsters/cyborgs/etc from an underground lot before it's rebuilt as a mall.
I love your videos Seth, even if I don't personally play these games with any groups, the way you explain things and make your video structure makes me heavily enjoy the story of these games.
ah nice, this can also easily be modified for my next shadowrun session... gonna do some 'students' at a london university, as kind of some mystery solving group, like scooby doo (could be any RPG as far as the setting is of concern... but my group loves the Shadowrun ruleset ^^) and having that thing / park seems pretty nice.
Hey Seth! Love your content, your style is exactly what I love watching! I know it's not on topic but since this is your newest vid I was hoping you'd see this comment. You should review the changes that were made in Traveller 2022 update. I just got the book and was making characters with my family while following along in your video and noticed differences. Thanks for your excellent work!
Hi Seth! Great review as always. As someone who is currently working on the Kult campaign using some Call of Cthulhu scenarios, I think it is a very fun undertaking and I think it would be great if you could make a video with general tips about such a conversion. There are people out there with cool ideas like making the Great Old Ones/Outer Gods of the Mythos Enlightened characters for instance, and I would be curious to know your own ideas.
Hello Seth, Lime, and Today I'm going to be continuing the Tale of my Campaign 'The Incomplete Constellation'. Part 9: The Great Star Road The players: 'Bill', ' Kathrine', 'Chief Jeef' and 'Jemma'. Their Characters: Ayingleheim the Goliath Barbarian, Amayali the Dragonblood Elf Monk, Valociel the Aasimar Paladin, and Ilieptra the Tiefling sorcerer. The DM: Me. Last time: My Players defeated Lich-Emperor Vigovek and finished repairing the Staff of Abashi-Ka... kind of. They used the power of the staff to create a ton of new planes and dimensions, and a Path to the Final Star, the last piece of the Incomplete Constellation, and Their ticket to Full Godhood. This path took them back across basically their whole adventure so far, The Abyss, Hell, The Bergine empire, The Spire of Abashi-Ka, back to Yanghai, until at last, it lead them to the peak of Mount Cerimer, a Volcano on the Moon. There, In Cerimer's crater, they saw it. A small point of brilliant light: The Final Star. Unfortunately, it was being Guarded by an absolutely mega-colossal titanic Dragon, and not just any unreasonably large dragon, Cinderyon Daggerscale. Cinderyon is one of the Gods of the Tzai-ral pantheon, worshipped by the Elves, Dwarves and Serpens, specifically their God of Metal, Earth and Fire. Thankfully Lord Daggerscale had no interest in killing the new blood, because even the five of them had no hope of taking him down. No, instead Cinderyon acted as a Judge, only The Most Worthy candidates could claim the Final Star and ascend, anyone else would remain a mortal, and since No Mortal is allowed to witness the creation of a new Constellation, Cinderyon would anihillate any failures. Proving that they were heroes, and worshipped enough to become fully fledged gods was fairly easy, the hard part would be proving that they were the *Most* Worthy. Cinderyon decided that the only way to judge who was the most worthy of the Final Star was to take all of those who found it, and let them face each other until only One group remained, and then allow that group to be tested by his daughter: Embryce Daggerscale, the Tzai-Ral Goddess of Ice, Storms and Love. She was a slightly less massive dragon, still about 2 million tons of scales, muscle, and divine power. They didn't have to beat Embryce, just wound her. All they had to do was draw blood. However that would be after they dealt with every other Demigod who wanted a shot at full-divinity. Which, honestly, wasn't as hard as it sounds. By this point the Godsquad were so geared up and just plain powerful that the average Elysian was no match for them at all. Embryce was a completely different story. Nothing they did could even scratch her. The only time she even felt any pain was when Valociel parried one of her claws as it was about to hit Amayali. Which is when it finally clicked, that of course a literal Goddess of Love would be vulnerable to Amayali and Valociel. It was very much an 'only diamonds can cut diamonds' situation. Ilieptra and Nehkalion suddenly started being able to cause damage at around the point where Nehkalion traded places with her, saving her from Embryce's breath attack. Ayingleheim started being able to do damage when he thought about how much he enjoyed the journey they'd all been on. (They all could've realised the Bond they had as a team counted, but only Ayingleheim did.) After a long and ridiculously tough battle, they finally wore Embryce down enough to break her skin, Valociel slipped Swiftriver between her scales, and managed to slice just deep enough to spill a few drops of her blood, passing her test. Embryce warned them not to think this means they could take on any of the Tzai-ral in a serious fight, even once they finished the Constellation and ascended, and just to prove her point, she flexed her left wing, and sent a gale so powerful it knocked Nehkalion, Ilieptra and Ayingleheim out. She flew off, back to Cerimer, but not before presenting the Team with the small mote of light, made to look even more tiny in her city-sized claws. They had the Final Star at last. All that's left is to Place it in it's rightful position, and watch as their story is burned into the night sky forever, as they become true gods. This time is a little bit shorter, because Part 10 will be the last one (don't worry though; I have more stories), so keep an eye out for that, but until then Seth, you have a great day.
"it took my players about 8" so that means with the previous group I DM'ed for we'd be looking at at least 3 sessions (which ran from about noon till roughly 5 or 8 depending on who's house and who had an early shift the next day) got to love Ravenloft fog
Thanks for all the useful reviews, guides. I've always wondered or found it difficult to check which of the adventure rpg's are in colour and why some are in grey/black monitone colour - and many not easy to see easily which are in full colour etc.
Jack, instead of a repeat offender list, you just need to have a massive Scooby-Doo fan as a contact. The test is simple: if your Scooby-fan contact can name three or more different Scooby-Doo villains whose base of operation fits the same general description as your current location, leave.
4:40 Im sorry, after "Jack" mentioned Scott Brown... All I'm imagining now, is a scenario where a group of players appear at the abandoned part, dressed in suits and shades, with a concealed "force multiplier" under their jacket, and their belts lined with additional ammo pouches, and just busting in every door and area of the abandoned Funland yelling "SCOTT BROWN, MOTHER F***ERS!" and blasting everything in sight!
I’m hoping for another in-depth campaign review series, like Two Headed Serpent etc. I know they take a ton of time to play & create, but nothing beats the vicarious thrill of reliving your playthroughs. Unless it’s more RPG War Stories. Those are my other fav content!
Oh my god, this game is a Call of Cthulu version of Persona 4! But instead of a murder mystery, TVS, and excepting your true self, it's a creepy carnival, mirrors, and you have to lobotomize your very essence to escape a purgatory created from scratch by a cult.
Clowns it had to be Clowns..... You know Seth you could also link this with the Carnival of Madness, now here's how I'd do it myself the "Original Owners" of the Carnival from when it first appeared (the PC's Ancestors) after losing the Carnival the first time opened up Funland as a second attempt but had to abandon it after the Pedo stuff happened and was able to "re-start" the Carnival after the PC's dealt with that they found some info in the Managers Safe about Funland so they go there in order to shut it down.
You basically make me wish I was in your group. I have no one to play with so I live vicariously through your videos. Keep up the great work. Oh yeah have you thought about doing a destroyer of worlds campaign for Alien?
No plans for Destroyer of Worlds. Players didn't seem too interested and it's nothing I'm interested enough in to push. Right now we're gearing up for a new Traveller campaign.
I ran Undertow from this same volume using Delta Green and it went fairly smoothly, all things considered. The Stygian Fox modern stuff is generally pretty good!
Is it wrong that all I can think of is how much utter BS the players can get up to if/when the figure out the ground rules of this setup? Player 1: "All these mirrors with the gray figures in them are loaded to other peoples' lies and the memories attached to them?" Player 2: "Yep, seems to be the case." Player 1: "And if a mirror breaks, the memories inside come out and try to climb into the nearest person's head?" Player 2: "Yep. I never smoked in my life but I can remember lying to somebody's parents about it while there was still a smoking cigarette under my bed. Somebody's bed. A female somebody. Who also lied about owning a vibrator, I might add. And about being faithful to whoever Tom was. There's a lot to absorb here. Still trying to process it all." Player 1: "Sorry. Still, don't you see the possibilities?" Player 2: "Like what? We don't know whose memories are in each mirror or what they are. Some of them probably have ones from a bunch of people inside. Trust me, even one set is way too much for comfort." Player 1: "Doesn't matter for what I'm thinking. In fact, the more the merrier. Like you said, the memories are distracting, right? Uncomfortable?" Player 2: "Yeah. And my inherited ones probably aren't as bad as some would be. Hell, they're tame compared my real experiences." Player 1: "So having a bunch of those gray things crawl into your head would mess you up pretty badly? Player 2: "NOT volunteering to test that." Player 1: "Wasn't suggesting you do. But what happens if we take a few of the smaller mirrors and use them as projectiles? Chuck them at a problem from a safe distance and we've got psychic insanity grenades. Or rig some of the bigger, more crowded ones up as boobytraps with triggered breakage gadgets? Is there anyone you wanted to drive mad?" Player 2: "I...we can't just...wait...that could actually work. Let me get my List." Player 1: "You have a List?" Player 2: "I have many Lists. I'm an extremely vindictive person. This particular one is 'People I Want To See Confined To An Asylum Where They Belong.' It's mostly politicians."
Hi Seth, do you consider making a review of Alien: Destroyer of Worlds? Your Chariot of the Gods one was pretty helpful for insights and helped me well for running it a while ago. Cheers mate and thanks again for your interesting videos!
hey seth great video! have you thought about doing more delta green content? arc dream has started putting out new content i think your group might like, especially the rerelease of convergence.
You have such an awesome setting, here. I would recommend thoroughly confusing the players. You have dense mist, an amusement park that can have lights, animatronics and odd decorations and statues, and NPCs and mirrors in a pocket dimension of warped space. I'd continually lay twists. First they have to get separated in the mist. The spotlights and marquees reflect crazed versions of their own shadows on the mist. Here and there they should be bumping around and see what they think is a creature, but is their shadow, shaped by the undulating mist against a wall, then a statue in the odd light, then an animatronic figure, then their reflection, oddly warped and seeming to move of its own accord in some of the mirrors. Then they should encounter some denizens. By now they're inured and expecting another rope-a-dope, so finding an actual NPC will be a surprise. Then in chasing or running away it should seem threatening, so they attack and injure another PC - and now they learn about the regeneration. Point being you can freely shuffle pretty much anything around. Lots of GM tools.
When I ran it a funhouse mirror warped and grabbed a PC. They were never seen again ... apart from future games when sometimes, when tired, the PCs might see their old friend hiding behind furniture or something in the reflection of a bathroom or dressing room mirror.
16:48 So that thing was an angel of the one who represents "good communication". Well, I guess that some could say that lies don't make for "good communication".
So...fog bound pocket dimension with a dark lord. Sounds like a Ravenloft game as well as CoC or K: DL. I could even see converting this to Savage Worlds, replacing Pow with Spirit. Pretty straightforward.
Mmm… UnLand sounds like a darn good adventure, I really liked Forget Me Not, by Brian M. Sammons from The Things We Leave Behind - An Anthology of Modern Day Call of Cthulhu Scenarios another Stygian Fox anthology, One of those rare occasions I actually got to be a player (Investigator).... come to think of it I remember seeing they did an anthology called New Tales of the Miskatonic Valley with a adventure by some chap I rather rate… I think if I were to run UnLand I would link the initial incidents at the fairground that Ms.Mathews covered up to the entity… losing all knowledge of ones “mistakes” is a recipe to repeat them. Massive repair job! Living out of boxes… oh boy I’m just moving back into my own place after extensive works… thankfully those were upgrades… you have my full sympathy oh and super vid as ever thx.
You know this sounds like something that might work well with SpyCraft/Shadow Force Archer stuff...though I kind of worry about my party with the more mystically alligned might take it as a soul power buffet with the remnants because that seems a heck of a lot like some of the things those rituals could do from the core book...
