Author: Craig Pay

I love handouts in Call of Cthulhu: old photographs, diary entries, half-burned letters, telegrams or business cards. I enjoy making my own if a scenario doesn’t come suitably equipped.

I’m also a fan of physical props. I recently ran a scenario set in my 1929 Chicago campaign where my investigators were following clues around town, eventually leading to a Chinatown opium den.

One of my investigators has a dog called Highball with the Scent Something Interesting skill. During the scenario Highball sniffed out a fortune cookie kicked beneath a bookshelf. I handed over a fortune cookie to my players, which they broke open, discovering the address of a Chicago Chinatown restaurant hidden inside.

My players loved it! But they wanted to know how I’d managed to pull off this magic trick from here in the UK. Here’s how…

Here’s another Weird Science Gadget for Pulp Cthulhu (p.86ff, Pulp Cthulhu rulebook). Scroll down for a PDF to download and print.

Night Vision Goggles are a cumbersome headset mounted on a leather harness with a large disk worn across the chest. The disk projects a beam of infra-red light, illuminating the target, which is then visible through the headset.

When worn, this device allows the user to see in complete darkness to a range of 50 yards without being detectable by other individuals (unless they are similarly equipped). Movement is hampered whilst wearing this device: subtract 2 points from Move, and apply a penalty die to melee, Dodge, ranged combat, Climb, Jump or any other physical activity.

This is the first in a series of short blog posts detailing Weird Science Gadgets from Pulp Cthulhu (p.86ff, Pulp Cthulhu rulebook). Each of these posts will include a PDF for you to download and print.

The Mind Control Helmet looks like a traditional pith helmet covered in a web of thick tubes. When worn over the head, it allows the user to attempt to control the actions of another individual. This device functions in an identical fashion to the Dominate spell (p.254, Keeper Rulebook) including range (10 yards), opposed POW roll, magic point and SAN point cost. Stepping inside the mind of another is an unnerving experience.

I’m currently running a Call of Cthulhu campaign for a single player. I was struggling to find a list of suitable scenarios, so I did a little digging, which turned into a list, which became this blog post! I hope you find it useful.

If the idea of running a single-player scenario seems odd, then you’re in good company. I’ve always been a “3 or 4 players and the GM” kinda guy, but it seems to work well in Call of Cthulhu.

This isn’t a long list. Feel free to comment or message me if you know of anything I could add. Every week I see people asking about single-player scenarios. Couples, often, running a game for their significant other. There’s clearly demand for more!

Continue reading “Call of Cthulhu Single Player Scenarios” →

Earlier this year I ran the single-player scenario Love You to Death, one of two in the excellent sourcebook Does Love Forgive? During that scenario my player’s investigator acquired a pet dog, a German Shepherd called Highball. I thought this photo on the left, a Google search, was a good match for him until my player pointed out that this dog looked more like a Malinois.

Which shows how much I know!

If I’d looked a little further I would have found an actual photo of Highball. Poor chap. In my universe he’s now living happily with Betty in Old Town, Chicago with regular walks in the local park.

Highball is effectively Betty’s sidekick, an NPC, but we’ve developed a simple set of house rules to determine how successfully he carries out one task or another using the Animal Handling skill. That’s what this blog post is all about.

Two of my players just completed a Call of Cthulhu scenario I’ve written called Love to Hate set in 1929 Chicago. This is a sequel to the fantastic Love You to Death featured in Does Love Forgive? written and edited by Lynne Hardy, Airis Kamińska and Anna Maria Mazur. Love You to Death was a single player scenario which, in our campaign, left a loose end, brought to a conclusion in this sequel with a second investigator tagging along for the ride.

During the scenario the investigators needed to trace the whereabouts of a missing Chinese laundryman. They ended up at the fictional Xi’an Palace restaurant in the heart of Chicago’s Chinatown. This was an establishment owned by Madam Long, leader of the infamous (again fictional) Dragon Tong who controlled most of Chicago’s Chinatown.