Call of Cthulhu: The Crack'd and Crook'd Manse - RPG Review

[@Battury]

Literally just wrapped up playing this a few hours ago. Thankfully I didn't see this video before then. My group actually didn't kill the monster in the house. After it tried to kill one of the players when they were alone in the house (their screams alerted the other players to come and help), they immediately bolted and started driving back to town, but a nat 100 on a drive auto roll had us crash into a ditch on the side of the road. One of us had a broken leg, one of us got a concussion from the the wreck. So we started hoofing it back to town when the creature straight up left the house and started chasing us down the road. Let me tell you, a chase scene involving a spawn of Shub Niggurath and severely injured PCs is a surefire way to get the adrenaline going. The character with a broken leg had to be fireman carried, the one with a concussion had to make multiple CON rolls. Now before we even got to the house, we convinced the lawyers to just pay for the truckload of salt and deliver it asap, because it seemed important. So we're fighting/fleeing our way down the road, finally getting some distance between ourselves and the monster, when we see the headlights of the salt truck. We manage to get the driver to turn it around, lured the creature to the back of the truck, and then just dumped all salt on it. It was more dramatic than I'm saying it here due to time constraints, but it was absolutely the coolest scenario I've ever been a part of. Absolutely loved it.

[@SorryBones]

I love a good “actual player statement” lol

[@MaxWriter]

This was the first game of Call of Cthulhu I ever ran. Ended up with a TPK. The Miskatonic U. Security officer opened fire on the thing in the reveal - reflexes. The Math professor did too ... not sure of that. The student went insane (I think he lost 19 sanity), got amnesia (I was using the 4th edition rules I think) and went into the bedroom to put on the slippers and read the book they'd found. The thing killed the first two and came back to deal with the student later (still thinking he was in the dorms). A second group of three different players came looking for the student. When they spotted the thing, the young girl fainted, and the two men jumped out the windows. While she chewed out the lawyers, they snuck off to get the salt truck and dump it into the basement. Good times. Your sanity loss montage is amazing. You put so much neat stuff in these reviews. Keep up the good work.

[@SSkorkowsky]

Thanks. The Jack stuff is a whole lot of fun to do. My player were lucky that when the reveal happened only one of them saw it in its full slimy glory. We went insane, but it was "flee for your life" insanity which worked out for him. The rest list some SAN when the tentacles started coming from the walls, and it was an intense fight because PC's kept getting entangles (they'd free one just in time for another to be grabbed). They ended up scooping salt from the sills and were throwing it on the tentacles to hurt them. Then the near-dead insane PC got out, but was was promptly devoured.

[@bulletsunderpressure]

@@SSkorkowsky Jesus thats glorious.

[@SullySharkey]

You missed out on the perfect opportunity for Jack to say "Take it with a grain of salt" and give us a wink at the end there. Loved the review though, I can't wait to run this scenario for myself!

[@1stPCFerret]

I was SO WAITING for the Big Reveal that the lethal monster-killing substance was _NOT_ salt, but baking powder.

[@charlesdexterward7781]

Jack taking sanity damage from mirrors and rakes never gets old.

[@timbuktu8069]

I recall playing this game and watching players walk right past clues I handed them. "I look for the salt shaker". "The place on the spice rack where the salt *ought* to be is empty." The word "nakel" is written on the mirror" "Nakel?" "NaCl...anybody got chemistry?...an Idea roll?" The sound of crickets was deafening.After they failed miserably, I suggested that they get an old fire truck and load it with salt water. It's nice to have a high credit rating.

[@SeanLaMontagne]

The "nakel" on the mirror is kind of a dumb clue

[@timbuktu8069]

@@SeanLaMontagne NaCl is the chemical formula for sodium chloride or salt.

[@yegenek]

Actual game memory more than 10 years ago playing just this scenario. I was the GM and we were playing in a friends home where they had a timed air freshener, just when the players were exploring the house with damp walls, strange sounds from the walls the freshener just went with a pffft the players were scared shit.

[@ShadowsOfEssence]

The part of the player covered in salt making the suicide charge... LMAO. To easy to relate to as I've had players do some crazy things. Glad it worked out for him... Got to say like these videos, makes me want to get back into rpgs and want to look at Cuthulu and Cyberpunk, never played those. Glad your channel randomly showed up on my KZbin home page.

[@SSkorkowsky]

Never underestimate the crazy/wacky stuff a PC will come up with.

[@golvic1436]

@@SSkorkowsky I've been playing RPGs for too long, because that was the first place my mind went.

[@dubuyajay9964]

Cthulhupunk?

[@RomanvonUngernSternbergnrmfvus]

. . . Iam that PC I’d say Iam sorry but Iam not and I love doing stuff like that. My karma for that is that I am the forever DM now.

[@sollytom6266]

"We're goin' to Hell together" is absolutely my favorite line on this channel.

[@pauldimitrievich9726]

Running this scenario for my group of very efficient investigators. They investigated the total daylights outta this thing, leading it to be stretched to a two-shot. This video saved my bacon as this player group asked ALL THE QUESTIONS!!!!! Thanks Seth for all your exceptional work on all your videos (I love the Traveller ones too).

[@SSkorkowsky]

Glad you had fun with it.

[@captcorajus]

Yeah, i liked this one, and ran it as one of my Halloween one shots a few years back. The PCs actually did stay at the house. Also, they actually split up, with two of the PCs going back to town to get the salt truck (given the clues, they decided it was a good idea, well before they actually knew what was going on). So, by the time the others return with the Truck, they rest are trapped, trying to crawl out windows. So they are jumping out, one group shovelling salt into the basement. I made a big deal of the house shuddering and shaking, and the rumbling. They are all running for their lives, and it was the debris that killed one of the PCs not the creature. He got flattened, coyote style, but the cast iron stove from the kitchen.

[@LittleNemoGaming]

I love the scene at 8:45 since this is exactly the type of trope players will notice after a couple of adventures in any setting / system / series.

[@chrismcgonagle5252]

Just ran this scenario for the first time, and this video helped me a ton! Just seeing you talk about it, as someone who has actually run it with a group... it makes it much easier to picture how the whole thing could play out. I love your Call of Cthulhu reviews. They're helpful, entertaining, and have showed me some cool scenarios that I will probably run at some point. Nice work!

[@melanclock]

imagine if seeing the raccoon was the final straw that pushed a PC over the edge into insanity

[@jamesmilton8308]

Evidence of Slimes and shuggoth my PCs normally result in arson or filling the basement with a truck load of acid.

[@markgrehan3726]

One of the best Call of Cthulhu books ever with some of the coolest adventures. I got to admit I like the slime encrusted diary idea.

[@adiveler]

8:43 How often your PCs are going full meta on NPCs?

[@Nionivek]

Honestly never a fan of using sanity as a spook-o-meter. If as a person you can just go "Ohhh, it was just a rake" then your sanity is fine no matter how spooked you got. Sanity loss for natural things should be things that unnerve you even after you find out, it isn't the outright fear but the psychological damage. Did you wake up covered with spiders? (There that's a 0/1d2). Did you go through a fake haunted house and get scared half to death? No sanity damage.

[@kevingooley9628]

Someone else in the comments has an excellent idea for these situations, "fear checks", on a failed roll, instead of sanity loss, (cause like you said, a take isn't going to upset anyone's fundamental worldview), the get a penalty die on their next roll (because it definitely could distract or unnerve you for a little bit)

[@skyblazeeterno]

it seems that lots of CoC scenarios miss that Sanity is the defining stat

[@SHDW-nf2ki]

Sucked down the toilet is really close to what happened to my Bootleger when we did this I flushed a toilet and it blasted me across the face with acid goo I lived, but developed a nasty twitch due to destroyed muscle tissue that gave me a penalty to conversation checks

[@gmradio2436]

Must have been an Australian toilet. Those imports are dangerous when poorly maintained.

[@vladd6787]

Jack is a seasoned investigator.

[@dustincameron787]

Just a little salty about getting eaten.

[@jesternario]

An interesting use for those -1/-1d2 sanity is fear checks. Instead of losing sanity in frivolous sanity checks, have them make a San check like normal, but if they fail, they take a 15% penalty to their next skill check.

[@SSkorkowsky]

Good idea. Though in 7e, I'd change it to a Penalty Die on the next skill roll instead of a -15%

[@jesternario]

I have 6th edition. I'm working on getting the 7th. $120 + s/h is a hefty price tag, but better than buying the books individually. Either way, you plan for that sort of thing.

[@kevingooley9628]

That....is an excellent idea. And it would help slow down the slow, inexorable descent into to madness that PC's hate.

[@jamesembry4921]

After watching this, I am now working out ways to make an adventure featuring a giant slug monster.

[@dubuyajay9964]

Get one of the Cthonian Campaign books?

[@russellpickett6292]

Best in game quote ever was from this adventure!! "Come out scary baby thingy, I promise I won't hurt you"! Still my all time favorite adventure ever run!!

[@sapphirewingthefurrycritic985]

So the people in this house would get assalted.

[@mackbonham1]

Jack would be welcome in my party... any game, any time. I'd even buy the hooch.

[@shrapnelsponge]

Ran this tonight, thank you so much for the informative video. PCs had some awful luck just on the estate, by the time the monster was revealed, they were hanging on by a thread and were jumping at shadows. The pseudopod engulfed one of the players and ate them so the rest leapt out of the window and drove away, fantastic horror stuff.

Hi Seth! Thanks for your review - it was not only funny but also very helpful. I am supposed to run this scenario tomorrow and it's my first time as game master and for my group the first encounter with CoC rpg. I was wondering could you provide a diary you mentioned at the end as doc or pdf file? Plus, what other one session scenario would you recommend for 2 investigators (+ keeper)?

[@SSkorkowsky]

Hi Anna, hope the game wen't well for you. I didn't write a diary about the expedition in my game. It was just a suggestion from running it as something Keepers might want to add in order to allow the players to learn the backstory. Other single-session adventures I recommend would be The Haunting, The Westchester House, and Mister Corbitt. Each of those is pretty short and good for 2 players. Edge of Darkness could also work, but you would need to modify the ceremony for 2 people.

[@suckmyassyoutube6011]

I like how seth is very monotone and Jack is very charismatic

[@SMAXZO]

Be funny if one of the PC is a professor type and made rock salt shotgun shells...

[@alexfernandez9290]

Best RPG reviews on KZbin! By far! Great videos!

[@SSkorkowsky]

Thanks :-)

[@malcolmcampbell3912]

The mundane sanity is really close to the non-euclidean-door-knob-sanity-roll joke that CoC has picked up...

[@ProfBoggs]

ca. 09:13 "self-cannibalized corpse"?!? Jack looks so young and innocent here, too.

[@AlluMan96]

I think the minor sanity-loss over mundane stuff was the game trying to emulate the idea of cheap jump-scares in cheesy B-movies. I kinda like the idea, considering the concept almost does sound like something from a 1950s sci-fi horror movie.

[@luckyowl1681]

To get the Mansions of Madness, or not to get it immediately, after rewatching this... Hm... I do agree being surprised by people shouldn't cost sanity. XD

[@Nionivek]

Yeah as I said I don't agree with using Sanity as a spook-o-meter. You shouldn't be afraid of going insane just by going through a fake haunted house.

[@LordSgtSavy]

About to run this for my campaign. As a nice diverting filler before the next big arc. Thank you for all you do. I almost quit playing ttrpgs because of a bad Dm and burnout on dnd since it was so hard for me to find players that truly wanted to invest in Mystery and roleplay. I loved lovecraft but never played CoC and your videos made it not only possible but my players absolutely adore my games now and can't wait for the next session and story. I may never go back to dnd because of how much I love this system. It's all thanks to you. You saved my hobby life!

[@samr6609]

Seth, I really hope you remake this one. The SAN loss montage is, to this day, my favorite bit on your channel. Something about the unhinged screams of Jack in distress is perfect.

[@MamyShmerman]

This can be completed in a single session! *literally takes my players 4 to 5 sessions to complete*

[@SSkorkowsky]

Results may vary. Last weekend we clocked 11 hours on a tournament adventure that promised to be a quick 4 hours.

[@MamyShmerman]

@@SSkorkowsky oh my gosh Seth is here! No complaints at all. My players are having a fabulous time. They think the deaths are due to a cult in town. Love your channel, man, thanks for the content.

[@SSkorkowsky]

No worries. As long as your and your players are having fun, then nothing else matters.

[@shaddonon]

11:40 is this a Warwick reference?! Seth if you haven’t seen it, highly recommend the 90s movie “Graveyard Shift”; the Stephen Macht and Brad Douriff characters / performances strike me as a fun fit for your brand of horror

[@SSkorkowsky]

Oh, it was absolutely a Graveyard Shift reference. Haven't seen it in many, many years, but that line always stuck with me.

[@shaddonon]

@@SSkorkowsky hell yeah!! 🤘Worth revisiting imo; the story and characters are *ripe* for ttrpg strip-mining. I could see it working beautifully as a way for your group to revisit their “The Dare” characters. In any event, ty for responding, the revelation totally made my day, and i’ll never look at Jack the same again!

[@Gutmunchers]

My players just finished this last night. Your advice was excellent and everyone had a blast. Excellent video

[@SSkorkowsky]

Awesome to hear. Glad you enjoyed it.

[@caracrotalus]

OK I love whoever was playing 'jack' the player statements are probably the biggest case to run this!!

[@jmt5626]

So with the note I just write with my normal handwriting. My script might as well have written some of the Eldridge tomes

[@gmradio2436]

Can't be as bad as mine. Wrote "Hello World" and fed it to Google. Came back as "The dark one rises" in ancient Samarian. Still don't know how.

[@jefflnx465]

Hey there, Seth! I have a question, will this scenario works as a one-shot with 5 - 6 players? I just finished running The Edge of Darkness and it was a tense 6 hours session, and the group had a freaking blast especially the climax inside the Farmhouse. Therefore, I have decided to run this scenario for them again. Keep up the good work!

[@SSkorkowsky]

It would work very well as a one-shot.

[@jefflnx465]

Any suggestion in running it for around 6 players? I know it might be a lot for this kind of scenario. Especially if the players background and occupation is not investigators/police officers

[@cosmicwartoad2587]

Ever thought of downloading some runic/lovecraftian fonts, mayan glyphs and Egypotian Hieroglyphs to use in your adventures (LCthulhu Runes and Lovecraft's Diary're a couple of good ones)?

[@michaelbourrell2693]

The Diary is with the researcher who is writing the book and part of the town library, collection.

[@Maxdoom777]

Lmao! "Come and get me monster, we're going to hell together!!" Fucking awesome character!!!

[@Artemisthemp]

This sounds like a really fun adventure

[@jasonnewell7036]

Going to be running this one today. Thanks for these reviews. They give useful insights into running the scenarios. Watched this ages ago, and it put this scenario on my radar for running.

[@disscordia]

Dude, check your dings on the audio. The rest of your dialogue is low enough that I have to turn the volume up to max on my earpiece - it physically hurts when the dings come in.

[@GrognardNightmares]

Oh those maps are from the 6th edition version. I'm glad you showed those pictures pointing out the monk hole, those maps are much better compared to the 7e version.

[@DanielMohorter]

Running this tonight. Your videos are really helpful. Thanks!

[@jamesmilton8308]

There was a 'haunted house ' episode from the outer limits 1990s reboot that was similar. It's worth a watch.

[@dubuyajay9964]

Title?

[@DADeathinacan]

Why do I think that that player of yours had recently watched Slugs?

[@PohatuEudyptulaMinor]

Jack's constant sanity loss mirrors how I would fair in an irl investigation

[@vladdmlc5058]

@seth Skorkowsky did you miss out the civil war ghost on purpose?

[@devbob]

I don't usually "lol" during game reviews. You are one funny mamajama.

[@willgraham9867]

Wow…I can’t believe I missed this one….Seth, Please re-review!

[@Skullkan6]

Probably the most expressive I have seen Jack the NPC

[@joshuahaskellcarr]

Just finished running this, one player also mentioned slugs. It went fantasticly.

[@SSkorkowsky]

Glad to hear you all enjoyed it.

[@joshuahaskellcarr]

@@SSkorkowsky It seems Chaosium watches your videos, the latest 7E Mansions of Madness release addressed several of your concerns.

[@BigEd1001]

No mention of the secret monk hole in the video besides noting it on the map.

[@rickeymariu1]

I think I have officially watched all of your videos now.

[@Ocrilat]

I ran this years ago... and had a ball. At one point, the guys had found the secret means of getting into the attic. They were still unaware of the nature of the creature/danger. Being experienced players, a pair of them were VERY cautious getting up and into the attic, player one went up while being covered by player 2. Then it was player 2s turn to climb up. It was the 'passing of the elephant gun' that caused an interesting situation. The two players started bickering on how to safely pass the gun up to the player in the attic. After a few minutes, I secretly made a roll...while the player was arguing, the thing came up behind him, attacked and killed him with one hit. So mid argument, he was cut off in mid-sentence. The other player panicked and started shooting. When the other players and he got up to the attack...player one was just gone (his body was stashed up on the roof). The whole group was shaken (player 1 loved getting killed in such a dramatic way...CoC players lol). They still talk about it, almost 30 years later.

[@russellpickett6292]

I ran 2 friends through this, and had the most fun ever!! They get to the house and decide to go upstairs and split up. One goes into the room with the raccoon. The other goes to a door that is locked. I describe the room as covered in what looks like baby hand prints that appear to go under the bed. The guy's response was "Come out scary babythingy, I promise I wont hurt you!". I was like oh hell that was so good you said that in character. Made the other character to make a listen check to see if he then needed to make a sanity check! LOL Then your comment about the sheriff was right up with what I did with my players! When he walked back out of the house right in the middle of them rolling in mud to cover themselves in salt asking "are you boys on drugs". They both were like, oh hell no, you know that A-hat was killed in that house!! :) We still quote that adventure.

[@anthonyaddario4653]

You make some of the best content I’ve ever seen, Have you considered recording play through I would watch the hell out of that

[@veselinnedkov643]

Man, I wish there were more instances of unwarranted san loss in other scenarios, just so we could enjoy that particular skit again XD.

[@adamtifone9243]

Is your hair in a ponytail Seth

[@SSkorkowsky]

It was rather long at the time

[@adamtifone9243]

@@SSkorkowsky I like it

[@tabletopgamingwithwolfphototec]

👍 I do enjoy the review .

[@nerzenjaeger]

My Players ran the truck into the building at the end.

[@Denkono]

13:17 Never gets old 😂

[@Ektalon]

That’s some crazy kerning in your title . . .

[@jasonguinn2435]

Good review sir

[@kevintheradioguy131]

This is the most hilarious review btw.

[@fulminatus6241]

Where did you get that bad ass shirt?

[@michaelstem9840]

Man this looks really fun

[@Tuxon86]

K

[@peterdickinson4599]

Excellent content.

[@asaskald]

This is amazing. I want to run this using tremulus.