"On a dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair.....up ahead in the distance I saw a shimmering light. My head grew heavy and my sight grew dim. I had to stop for the night" This scenario sort of writes itself.
@@dubuyajay9964 "The perp was raving about being attacked by monsters and some weird cult." "Of course he was, patrolman. Considering all that was in his satchel, it would be odd if he *wasn't* hallucinating." edit- spelling
I ran this scenario twice, once when it came out early on and later on during this year. Both were powerful experiences for the different players, one even wrote an entire short story based on the experience we had. I was, at first, skeptical of this scenario, but my two sessions where I ran it were fantastic and I was amazed by how well they went.
i just wanna say that ending bit about every player doing a one v one sesh to establish backstory before coming together as a group thing sounded like such a cool idea to me that i’m actually going to do it
Another video making me want to try out Kult. I have to finish our Masks campaign first. But I think you're end note is right, this really could be a prequel to a campaign. There seems to be enough meat on the bones that you can also switch game systems without too much trouble. Conan, Cyberpunk, Pulp Cthulhu... this would work for all of them
Good call regarding Conan. How many Conan stories start with something like, "The flames of the burning city illuminate the horizon. Conan is loping away through the night, with a bag of gems and a broken sword. From the darkness comes a mournful howl..." 😲😄
I did a very light version of the "backstory" part at the very end of the video with my current D&D crew's characters. Some of them had interactions with one other PC before the game start in a session or two of lead in. Was done more for feeling the characters out than building a coherent campaign but I too highly recommend this sort of shenanigan.
Your videos on Kult made me look into it and I may start a campaign! Thanks for your advice. Have you had the opportunity to run another campaign like the Two-Headed Serpent? I would love to watch a series on Masks of Nyarlathotep!
I did the Mystery of BT-SHT 365 campaign diary. I may do another one day. But that requires I find a campaign that looks like a good fit for us. Masks isn't one of those.
@@SSkorkowsky - You mentioned something about a book in 'Pirates Of Drinax' in the BTSHT365 vids. I've not read much on Drinax yet. Been wondering if it's the classic Traveller campaign to run, as rumors say.
I actually ran this as a game for 3 players, not as a 1-on1, (which is a fairly easy adjustment to make). I also made the change that I asked the setup questions *without* immediately giving out the default options, to give the players' a chance to come up with cool answers of their own. We ended up having 3 guys who recreated The Hangover in Las Vegas, who now found themselves on the wrong end of a shotgun wedding. Cue escape from a weird cult trying to murder and/or marry them. Later, two of them found themselves lost in the Borderlands of Metropolis, needing to deal with an Azghoul to escape and the other making a Pact with a Nepharite to escape the fated marriage he had "agreed" to.
By the way, this weekend is Illusion Horror Con, an online event through Discord. I believe all the big charity games have filled, but there might be some smaller pickup games still open for Call of Cthulhu and Kult: Divinity Lost. I'll be there doing some panels all 3 days. Swing by and say hello. www.theillusionhorrorcon.events/
@@SSkorkowsky "The rest of the crew are dead, and the life support stopped working an hour ago. Freetrader Beowulf is limping towards the nearest planetoid... Pop Quiz, waddayado?"
The partner dying in the backseat option had me thinking of Reservoir Dogs. Mr. Orange shouting that he's dying while Mr. White sing-songs "you're gonna be okaayaaa!"
@@SSkorkowsky yo, is there any chance you release a full skit of Jack & tod's rendition of this scenario? that was awesome!, i think this is the very 1st PBA type system that i've liked so thx for introducing me to it, any tips for a longer campaign?, ik i'm late but better late than ever!
As an add-on to Jack's idea at the end: Make sure that you either remove or modify the 'fleeing from' and 'advantage' after a player takes that choice so you don't have two players with the same backstory when they meet up.
This seems like it’d work for an entire small campaign. Add a few more destinations, maybe flesh out the pursuers a bit more, probably give the player character a touch more in the way of resources to get out of trouble so they don’t meet a horrible end quite so easily, etc Kinda reminds me of the old tv shows about a wanderer going from town to town and having little adventures in each. It’s flexible enough for that and then some.
Same. Gameplay sounds weird but the adventures all sound awesome. I would love to modify The Atrocity Exhibition for a D&D or Call of Cthulhu game: start off as a literal down time activity or even a heist by the PC's and they wind up in the middle of Slaughter-Purgatory Central.
I ran The Driver twice for different people, they both chose the house and both chose that they were meeting someone in the desert. I brought them both to the same house (excl the sex torture stuff) with the same people in it but with subtle differences for each. For both, their desert contacts ended up in the cellar, apparently having been there already for days and gone insane. Both characters escaped and the house burned down with each play. The players liked it so much that we decided to bring them together and continue as a mini campaign. Really like the improv this scenario offers!
My first run was the kidnapped girl, the amulet, the gas station. It was probably one of the most fun games I've run in years. Turned into him hearing cries coming from the back of a semi, failing his roll not to react as if he'd heard it (backstory was his former boss was a human trafficker, so he recognised what the sounds meant), getting seized by a biker gang, fighting several bikers with his feet duct-taped together, stealing a pickup with 10 kilos of meth and an assault rifle, chase through the desert, taking out the entire biker gang, flipping the pickup, stealing a motorcycle, chasing down the fleeing mac-truck with girls in the back, nearly getting swiped off the road, passing it and laying an ambush further up the highway, stopping the truck, but getting hit by it in the process, and then the scene in the ambulance. Never even got to the villian who was chasing him. It was incredible.
I'm happy to hear that I'm not the only GM out there that thinks about where the bathroom is for scenarios / lairs (in one case, leading to a scene with a goblin on chamber pot duty stumbling upon the party and lobbing the pot as a weapon) I've heard good things about the KULT system but glad to see a playthrough with a breakdown of the crunch and story.
This sounds very cool; I might have to think about doing something like this for one of my Call of Cthulhu games. I like Jack's idea at the end and, throughout the video, was thinking 'This could make for a good backstory for the start of a campaign." Excellently done, as usual.
All but one of my players cancelled tonight's Cyberpunk game. I remembered this video, and I have quickly adapted it to Cyberpunk to run for the lone faithful player in a few hours. We can decide together if it happened before or after the campaign timeline. It's my first ever 1-on-1 game, wish us luck!
I really like how this game, gives off some pulp fiction or Reservoir Dogs vibes . Like if this game was made for those that like horror movies and Quentin Tarantino films.
Great video as always. Love the twist you brought upon the player in the end, very cool. Very dark. Also LOVE that you got to use maps from Labyrinths & Secret Chambers. The guy who did the maps you showed in the vid is an old buddy of mine and a part of my gaming group. It was his first published work and every time I see it mentioned I’m filled with joy for him ❤
I was so excited to see that you did another Kult scenario review!! My fiance just got me screams whispers for our five year anniversary and I had been eyeing this scenario, the saint jude's one, and the one with the time skip excitedly. Its so nice to see other people especially people with an online following get into and share their thoughts on this system which I think is, quite frankly, criminally underrated!
Unironically, this would be an awesome "road trip" game. Use landmarks along the way to visualize what the PC sees. Stop in and eat at the diner. That sort of thing.
Ive only visited Arizona once and in the winter popping back and forth between Phoenix and the uplands which were in the middle of snowdune winter complete with a severe snowstorm. Going from icicles as long as my arm and snowdunes as tall as me to cacti and sun roasted grass inside a two hour drive was equal parts cool and surreal.
Idk why but i think this would be a perfect ritual start to your character. They are at the end of their rope and... find a "ritualpasta" to some.. but after follow the steps, they find themselves traveling and end up a changed person.
Wait, so if the player makes some specific choices...THERE'S A RISK OF A *FIVE YEAR OLD* GETTING *RAPED?!!* Damn, that's some Dark Eldar Slaanesh level of dark. Guess the player better be careful. Now I know what I can run for a grimdark campaign.
As a 'forever GM' I got to be a player and enjoyed this immensely. I sort of drew some inspiration from the film Getaway with Steve McQueen and Ali McGraw and had a 'blast' Great review,when you said found a map from a Real Estate agent I thought hmm 'Scott Brown?'
😃 Really enjoyed running this, was my first one on one improve style game though I used Eldritch Hack (rules-light) system. your suggested changes/handouts were really useful. thank you for the tips and the encouragement/inspiration to try something new.
Heya guy, could you give a review of the Hero System 6E? It's my first system and I really love it and I wanna hear your opinion on it as an experienced RPG player/gm
I love ideas like this. Just a module that’s a brief description but is full of tables like this. You can ask the player or players to choose or roll for it but still ask a set question that gives it their own flavor. More modules should be like this so it’s never always the same story, giving it replay value for the GM running it multiple times.
I am the same way with bathrooms! loll I dont know why. None of my players have ever ever used the bathroom and only a single time have they even entered the bathroom on any of the many many maps Ive used. But I feel like its not a real place unless it has one lol
First thought that I had with the what you're running for is modifying the second, you're running with the boss' daughter, but because everything went wrong and you were ordered to get out to one of the destinations there
Jack the NPC transforms into a little girl thru occult means and fights cuthulu and the mob. This sounds like the start to the strangest magic girl anime.
This adventure, and your video on it, has got me working on a similar adventure. Instead of being on the road, the players are in the hospital with police watching over their room, and they have to get out before the thing that killed everyone else in that field comes back for them.
Very interesting scenario! Never tried Kult, and it doesn't seem like my particular cup of tea, but I'll try to adapt this for another system and run it with a friend.
Kult instantly won me. I got it having no real idea what it was about, and was blown away on my first opening the book. The PbtA system was kinda weird to get used to. It works, but having come from decades of high-crunch games, we had to re-learn how to play. It's also the only RPG that I really cared about the world lore. For every other game, I either ignored most of the world-lore, using only a little as backdrop flavor, or I started getting into the world lore after I was already playing the game and had became interested in learning more details about the setting. Kult, however, I devoured the lore sections immediately. It's not a game for everyone, by any means. The big reason it's not our primary game is I have one player who would not like it. So it's a side-game with 3 of my players whenever schedules align for us to squeeze it in.
You know what could also be fun? Imagine this like a card game for plot. So player chooses their path, but the choices come from a deck of fate cards. Draw three... choose one. That would be a lot of fun!
Have you done a review/analysis of Down Darker Trails? My group is about to start a campaign in that setting and I was looking for more info. Also, if you're ever bored, check out our horror/comedy actual play podcast Playing With Madness if you get the chance! Thanks, love the videos.
I played it at a couple cons but never read it. I dig that it's more Pulp than regular CoC. More Hollywood Western than Historic Western. Its neat, but Western Settings aren't something that really interests us more than the rare -shot.
Preparing to run this scenario this Saturday. Feeling a bit unsure and nervous of how it may go as I've never ran an improv game before but I'll try. 👏
