Category: Call of Cthulhu Page 1 of 2

News and Material related to Chaosium’s Call of Cthulhu RPG

[Scenario] The Stench of an Open Grave – Updated to V1.1

On November 29, 2024

In Call of Cthulhu, Cthulhu Dark Ages, Scenario, Site News

Something rots in the heart of Somerset… and where old traditions met new, death is the only outcome…

The Stench of an Open Grave is a short adventure designed to introduce a small group of players to the atmosphere and intrigue of Cthulhu Dark Ages 3rd Edition for the first time. Ideal also for Keepers looking to run a dark – yet simple – mystery set in the early Middle Ages, it gives you everything you need (including three pregenerated characters – created specifically for the scenario) to bring this world – and its horrors – to life.

—- Buy this scenario on DriveThruRPG.com —-

Updated to version 1.1 November 2024 –

With ‘Stench’ successfully reaching Copper status at DrivethruRPG, I thought it was high time that this scenario got a good edit and update. While none of the content has been altered for this version, the text has been tidied up in places and should have far fewer spelling and grammar errors (sorry about that!). I have also done a bit of tinkering with the fonts and styles to align the document with my next planned Cthulhu Dark Ages adventure set around Glastingberi Abbey (no date as yet for a release).

Should you buy this scenario?

This scenario was created with the express purpose of introducing new players to Cthulhu Dark Ages and as such presents what I hope is a simple, almost linear, mystery for them to explore. With this audience in mind, ‘Stench’ attempts to downplay the more fantastical elements that can sometimes seep into Dark Ages games and instead tries to bring to life the culture and experience of living in the Early Middle Ages. Of course, this may mean more experienced role-players (especially those well versed in the Dark Ages) might find the story a little too simplistic for their tastes, but nevertheless I would still like to think that you ‘hold in your hand’ a well thought out, fun scenario; one that can give a good night or two’s entertainment for any fan of the Cthulhu Mythos.

After much effort and time Stench of an Open Grave (for Cthulhu Dark Ages 3rd Edition) is now available up on Drive Thru RPG for sale (my first non ‘pay-what-you-want’ offering).

You can get it here for just $6.00 US. I’m hoping – if this sells well – it might break the shackles and motivate me to produce some of the myriad of other Call of Cthulhu scenarios (and campaigns) I have floating around on my various drives.

[Personal Reflection] Dark Conspiracy & Call of Cthulhu

By Marcus Bone

On July 18, 2023

In Call of Cthulhu, Dark Conspiracy, Personal Reflection

“We do not learn from experience… we learn from reflecting on experience.”
– John Dewey

It probably goes without saying that I’ve always been a fan of Dave Chapman’s work as an RPG designer (umm… see the Conspiracy X material here on this site for ongoing evidence) and as such I’m an avid follower of his blog. In 2020 he completed a series of posts called [Roll Your Own Life] The Games That Shaped Me that looked at the Role Playing Games that influenced and guided him in his writing and personal life. These brief snippets are fascinating, and they’ve inspired me to do the same, although maybe a little more critically.

So without further ado … unashamedly stolen (with permission) … this is “Games That Shaped Me”.

Lurker in the Labyrinth

By Marcus Bone

On May 1, 2016

In Call of Cthulhu, Scenario, Work in Progress

In Darker Places, Pale Things Thrive

The year is 1890, and Victoria – the Queen of the United Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland, and first Empress of India – sits upon the throne. Under her benevolent gaze the British Empire has grown to become one upon which the sun never sets and has no rival.

Yet behind such glory, hope and progress something rotten grows near its heart; an evil so great that its revelation alone may destroy everything the Queen and her subjects have done to raise the Empire to such noble heights. For too long the older gods have been forgotten, hidden away in myth and whispered only as legend. But now, a plot is in place to bring these wrongs to right and return the most British of these Great Old Ones back onto its throne.

Mankind has always dabbled in the occult and eerie, whether in error, innocence, or in the search of power, and it is a combination of such motivations that will bring the Investigators face to face with the long forgotten Lord of the Labyrinth – Eihort – and his ill-spawned brood.

Dire Consequences

By Marcus Bone

On May 1, 2016

In Call of Cthulhu, Scenario, Work in Progress

Otherwise known as Serpents by Gaslight

DIRE CONSEQUENCES or ‘Serpents by Gaslight’ is a 7^th Edition Pulp Cthulhu adventure set in the Gaslight era (England in the 1890s). Written for a party of as many as six Investigators it provides a landscape in which the players can take on the roles of true anti-heroes (or at least not such nice people) and within these bounds explore their character’s motivations and darkest desires.

In Dire Consequences, the players take the roles of Investigators who have all fallen victim to Roland Hibenabe – a moneylender, blackmailer and mean-spirited old man of unknown origin, but dark reputation – who treats the characters as little more than puppets at his beck and call. This is no life for a respectable gentleman or lady of good standing, but such is the life of one who has – deliberately nor not – steps outside the bounds of respectability. All is not lost, however, for as the adventure opens, their ‘patron’ has invited them to his luxurious manor with the seemingly unlikely promise to free them from their bonds.

As suspected, this offer is too good to be true, with the truth of the matter is that Hibenabe requires the characters’ presence for other nefarious purposes. As will be discovered as the scenario unfolds, the results of this experiment will be anything but successful, and instead the group will find themselves transported back in time, to an age where Serpent Men rule the Earth. Lost in this ‘prehistory of man’, the Investigators will discover that they are not alone and that within an ancient city the Serpent Men look to the future, attempting to open a portal to our time, in a hope to retake what they are losing in their own.

In this story, old friends will be rediscovered, and new challenges faced, but in the end, it is up to the players to decide just how dire the consequences will be…

Nightmares in Canvas

By Marcus Bone

On May 1, 2016

In Call of Cthulhu, Scenario, Work in Progress

Deep underground The Sleeper dreams, waiting to return to the waking world. As he plots and plans Kingsport trembles, for his wrath is great and his desires many…

For as long as anyone can remember Kingsport has lured creative souls, be they artists, writers or dreamers…. yet has anyone ever asked, do all those that arrive ever get to leave?

Nightmares in Canvas is an investigative scenario set in the sleepy seaside town of Kingsport. A mystery unfolding in the spring months of 1928, it focuses on the struggles of a long-forgotten member of the infamous Kingsport Cult and his attempts to return to the waking world from a land of nightmares. Drawn into this nefarious plan by the disappearance of George Camper, a budding artist and friend of the Investigators, the players will learn not only of this cultist’s actions in the past and present, but also his plans for Kingsport’s future.

Together will the party succeed in stopping the ancient and insane sleeper, Nathaniel Orne? Or will they themselves be drawn into the Nightmares in Canvas?