# Recommend a Call of Cthulhu One-Shot



## MatthewJHanson (Feb 20, 2012)

So I've agreed to run a Call of Cthulhu one-shot for a bunch of my friends next weekend. I've played a little, but this is my first time running, and I'm curious to hear recommendations for scenarios. I have the most recent edition of the rules that contains several in the back, and I'm open to purchasing something more (probably .pdf).

Thanks!

Edit: Would a mod mind fixing my poor typing in the title? "Recommend a Call of Cthulhu One-Shot"


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## trancejeremy (Feb 21, 2012)

I don't have the most recent edition, so I don't know what's in it (they don't really change the rules, just the extras like scenarios), but maybe Dead Man Stomp? 

It was originally in the CoC GM Screen pack, but I think was included in later rulebooks because it's a pretty good intro scenario


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## grodog (Feb 21, 2012)

I'm a big fan of Pagan Publishing's "Grace Under Pressure" adventure!


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## trancejeremy (Feb 21, 2012)

grodog said:


> I'm a big fan of Pagan Publishing's "Grace Under Pressure" adventure!




Wasn't that pretty much just The Abyss/Deepstar Six (the movies), only with Deep Ones?


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## Nytmare (Feb 21, 2012)

I remember "Uncle Timothy's Will" in Blood Brothers as being really good.


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## Jhaelen (Feb 21, 2012)

I was quite impressed by the "In medias res" adventure that appeared in the Unspeakable Oath magazine #10.


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## Dannyalcatraz (Feb 21, 2012)

> CarolynNaborsc
> has no status.
> 
> Registered User
> ...



Reported


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## prosfilaes (Feb 21, 2012)

It may not be really helpful, but The Dying of St Margaret's was an adventure for Trail of Cthulhu, and it was pretty awesome. It's in the Purist style, and even if converted to Call of Cthulhu, may not feel right, but it was still awesome.


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## ShadowDenizen (Feb 21, 2012)

Well, there’s a metric ton of phenomenal supplements and one-shots out there.
And a lot is dependent on the setting you and your players prefer.

For a first adventure, I would defintely recommend “The Haunting” from the Core Book.  You really can’t go wrong with that. Beyond that?

I would recommend going to the Chaosium website, or one of the RPG download sites, and looking up the monograph lines.

Some of the ones that stand out in my mind offhand? Most of these should still be readily available to be purchased online.

1)“Adventus Regis”.  Set in the Roman empire, players play vacationing noblemen drawn into the web of the Mythis. (This comes with pregens [which is a big plus, in my mind], and is the first part of the “Ripples from Carcosa” trilogy.  (This monopgraph is readily available online.

2)Grace Under Pressure- A modern-day scenario set aboard an undersea submersible.  Great module, very dependent on the Keeper to portray the mood of claustrophobia effectively.

3)Ravenar Sagas”- A bit more”hack-y” than standard scenarios, the players play the Viking crew of a longboat.

4)Any of the Halloween monographs (there are four or five at this point) are worth checking out, and each had a handful of “Halloween-themed” one-shots.

5)Machine Tractor Station Kharkov 37-  Set in 30’s era-Russia, another great scenario, this one depending on the players to portray characters with differening agendas.

6)Madness at miskatonic-  Not a “one-shot”, but a 4-episode mini-campaing set in the Jazz age, where the players play students at Misatonic U.  This was a free online upload by the author, and should be findable pretty easily through any search engine, I would think.

Hope that helps.
Feel free to PM if you have more specific questions or need more input.


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## Will Doyle (Feb 21, 2012)

We had so much fun with "Grace Under Pressure". 

Whenever one of my players went out in a pressure suit, or a bunch of them went out in the Joey, I'd have them go upstairs and Skype my laptop from a darkened room. The rest of the players could just see their faces, lit up by the screen glow. It was amazing. To tell them what they were seeing, I typed them secret messages over Skype


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## SteelDraco (Feb 21, 2012)

If you can find it, the Alternity module "Exit 23" would make a good CoC one-shot. PCs are normal people trapped in a highway gas station by a blizzard while an ice monster tries to get in - one of the other people trapped is a cultist on the run who stole something he shouldn't have. Great little module for a one-shot.


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## Jan van Leyden (Feb 21, 2012)

I add my voice for Dead Man Stomp.

The cool thing is that it doesn't assume any connections of the characters to the mythos and it doesn't start out as a horror scenario.


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## ShadowDenizen (Feb 21, 2012)

> The cool thing is that it doesn't assume any connections of the characters to the mythos and it doesn't start out as a horror scenario.




While overall I like the module, it’s not a great “First Module to Run”, IMO.   I find that this module is VERY dependent on the Keeper composing reasons as to why a group of investigators would WANT to follow-up on this case.

As written, there’s no personal link as to why the Investigators care about this event, other than curiosity, so a lot of the scenario also depends on the Investigators just “going with the flow”.  (Also, as a helpful tidbit, given the nature of the scenario, it would be useful if one of the Investigators is of African-American persuasion, as race plays an important part in the scenario.)


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## Piratecat (Feb 21, 2012)

Very important: if you aren't playing Trail of Cthulhu, artificially boost Spot Hiddens and reduce the difficulty (ie, add +x% to the players' rolls) for mundane skill checks. In my opinion the game gets much more playable and fun if you do.


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## MatthewJHanson (Feb 22, 2012)

Thanks for all the suggestions. Grace Under Pressure sounds perect, unfortunately there does not seem to be a (legal) source for .pdfs and print copies are selling for $40 on Amazon.

I'll take a look at some of the other options.


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## grodog (Feb 22, 2012)

trancejeremy said:


> Wasn't that pretty much just The Abyss/Deepstar Six (the movies), only with Deep Ones?




It was a little like the Abyss (in terms of the undersea environs, subs, etc.), but I haven't seen Deepstar Six so I can't comment there, sorry.



Jhaelen said:


> I was quite impressed by the "In medias res" adventure that appeared in the Unspeakable Oath magazine #10.




I got to playtest that before it was published---also an excellent advneture, but it does offer some very difficult roles to play (a mute, in the case of the PC I had), and all of the PCs are somewhat more intense perhaps for a first-time group of CoC players (I guess it depends on your players, but if they're not used to playing escaped mental conviction sociopaths it may not be an ideal intro of the game....).



MatthewJHanson said:


> Thanks for all the suggestions. Grace Under Pressure sounds perect, unfortunately there does not seem to be a (legal) source for .pdfs and print copies are selling for $40 on Amazon.
> 
> I'll take a look at some of the other options.




If you do track down a copy of "In Medias Res" then this thread @ Y-S.com is worth reading for some updates/clarifications on the stats:  GM question for In Media Res and here's a post I made a few years ago on Grognardia about running GUP and IMR:  

I played GUP and "In Medias Res" with John and the Pagan crew when Pagan was still located in Columbia MO, as well as "Deep Sh*t" before Biohazard published Blue Planet: "Deep Sh*t" is very similar conceptually to GUP, although it's got a few added twists (PCs = GEO SuperTroopers instead of normal geeky scientists, and they're heading into an Alien-like bug hunt where they're the hunted...). I've always thought that GUP and "Deep Sh*t" both worked best when special effects were used: Pagan rented adjoining hotel rooms, and when the party split, they were in different rooms; we used glow sticks for light; they had ocean sounds going in the background, sonar pings, and such available via a Mac audio system; separated parties communicated by walkie talkie (with all of the vagaries of reception thrown into the mix!); etc. I can't imagine playing either game at the dining room table, after the immersive experience that they provided.


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## Squire James (Feb 22, 2012)

If run properly, ALL Call of Cthulu adventures are one-shots!


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