Title: Call of Cthulhu: THE CRACK’D AND CROOK’D MANSE
System: Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition
GM: Alice (Eddie) Grevers
Age: Adult Only (ages 16+)
Genre: Lovecraftian/Gothic Horror (can be goofy at times)
Tags: Rules Lite, Newbie Friendly
Players: 2-4
Content warnings: violence, gore, disfiguration, death, discrimination, murder (human and animal)
Description: Investigators are called upon by the local attorney in the village of Gamwell; the Dodge Brothers. You have been tasked with investigating the disappearance of the locally beloved millionaire, archaeologist, philanthropist and explorer; Mr Arthur Cornthwaite.
Your task to locate Mr Cornthwaite and to let his lawyers know “how to manage his estate”….
You will have a choice from a variety of different pre-made characters and will be provided with a small rules card to help if you have never used this system.
Winning is not something to expect, surviving is sometimes the best we can do.
Title: Servants of the Lake
System: Call of Cthulhu 7e
GM: Autumn Unwin
Age: Adult Only (ages 16+)
Genre: Lovecraftian Horror
Tags: Newbie Friendly
Players: 2-4
Content warnings: Cults, body horror, some gore
Description: Servants of the Lake is a perfect introduction to the world of Call of Cthulhu, and a lovely scenario for new players.
Having been hired by a family friend to locate his missing son, who ran away from college to meet up with his girlfriend, the players find themselves at the Squatters Lake Motel. But all is not what it seems….
Call of Cthulhu is a TTRPG of cosmic horror, mystery, and madness. Set in a world inspired by H.P. Lovecraft’s twisted creations, players take on the role of investigators – academics, journalists, actors and others – who suffer the ignominy of uncovering eldritch horrors lurking in the shadows of reality.
Unlike traditional RPGs where the focus is on growing stronger and beating the bad guys, Call of Cthulhu (CoC) is about survival, sanity, and uncovering mysteries. The more you uncover, the greater you risk losing your mind – or worse. Expect eerie cults, unspeakable creatures, and the creeping horror that some truths are better left unknown.
Title: To an amber grave, oh my darling laddie
System: Wraithlands
GM: David Donachie
Age: Adult Only (ages 16+)
Genre: Surreal and Desolate Fantasy Scotland
Tags: Rules Lite
Players: 3-5
Content warnings: Death, slavery, captivity
Description: You are Wraiths, spirits taken by the Haar and then called back forth, alone immune to the death laws of the Underkirk Lairds, who judge death a crime punished by eternal servitude in their iron city.
You have been summoned from a cairn by Mairgret McDunn, and tasked to escort her son, Hamich, on the pilgrimage to Drun Atru, where he can eat an amber apple in the amber arboretum and slumbler eternally at the feet of the Yrsl saints, escaping death.
The pilgrim’s route leads through the darkness of the Barrowood Gullet to the dam at Ober Sair, and then up the ice-clad flanks of Drun Atru. It is a long and treacherous road, and Mairgret has begged you to keep her darling boy safe along the way, for if he dies, the Underkirk will judge his soul to slavery.
“To an amber grave, oh my darling laddie”, is set in the world of Wraithlands, a new dark fantasy game from Bone Chanter games. It is possible that there will be adult themes involved.
Title: Music from a darkened room
System: Delta green
GM: Emily
Age: Adult Only (ages 16+)
Genre: Horror – a cosmic gumbo of x files , scooby doo and true detective
Tags: Newbie Friendly
Players: 2-5
Content warnings: Suicide, gore , murder , child death, violence against women, disability, animal death, verbal abuse, mental illness
Description: Places, like people, sometimes go wrong. They turn off the path and head into the shadows, becoming something other than normal. Black places filled with blank rooms, closed doors, and empty hallways lined with dust. In these places your voice catches in your throat, the air seems to hum, and bad things happen. People get hurt. Objects vanish. Misery flows like the water from the loose faucet in the bathroom. Hate hangs in the air like old paint. It smells of time and circumstance, and something just a little beyond the world. It smells like surrender. The house at 1206 Spooner Avenue is a place gone wrong. In the last 50 years, 18 people have died there, and you can feel it. You walk in and it’s like dropping 30 fathoms under water. It’s suddenly dark and cold and pressure-filled. Doors in 1206 Spooner Avenue stay shut, and no one ever hears a child’s laughter at night. In the hours that stretch like taffy after two, no one ever hears music from a darkened room. No one sees a woman walking behind the glass of the bathroom mirrors.
Still, pretenses remain. You shut your eyes and pretend the world is ordered, like a puzzle whose pieces are square and plain. You pretend a lot of things. You pretend you are pretending.
Until, in the dark, the hand falls on your shoulder.
Title: Mirrorside
System: OS2dx
GM: Stephen L McMorland
Age: Adult Only (ages 16+)
Genre: Horror, psychological, adult themes
Tags: Rules Lite
Players: 3-5
Content warnings: From what I can tell, this is definitely a game which preys upon fear and psychological horror, so please alert the GM to anything that would cause you undue distress, I will avoid gore
Description: Mirror side is a horror game, one in which you will find yourself investigating a mystery and getting drawn into a dark realm, The Mirrorside is where the source of all monsters and nightmares dwells, and if you stay too long, the corruption seeps into you, and you are lost. You will play one of a small group of investigators, investigating a haunted house, there is a room there, with an antique mirror, whispers and shadows issue forth, and the only way to stop this from unleashing Hell onto the world is to go in, and locate the source of the Darkness and stop it, before it consumes you.
Title: The Owlglass
System: Call of Cthulhu
GM: Stuart Boon
Age: Adult Only (ages 16+)
Genre: Pure Lovecraftian Horror
Tags: Prior setting / system knowledge useful
Players: 3-5
Content warnings: Extensive Body Horror. Themes of Death and Suicide.
Description: “Five days of sun and sea air! Glorious! What could go wrong?” — world-famous Archeologist and curator of the astounding Owlglass, Charles Foss Hutton.
When a leisurely transatlantic journey turns into a desperate fight for survival, our intrepid 1920s investigators must work against the clock and their own fears to stop what lies within ‘The Owlglass’.
‘The Owlglass’ is quite a rare beast in the Call of Cthulhu world: a scenario only made available to Kickstarter backers of the book ‘Islands of Ignorance’ in 2013. Originally written for Fifth Edition, we’ll be using that ruleset, but you need only be familiar with the basics of the Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game to join in. A range of pregenerated characters will be available to choose from for play.
Here’s what Call of Cthulhu veteran author and publisher, Oscar Rios, had to say about it: “I’ve seen this scenario up close… and it reads like the final round of a Call of Cthulhu tournament. I’d estimate a 66% mortality rate across the board with a high probability of TPK. Keepers and Investigators, you’ve been warned!”
Title: The Mall: It’s a Killer Scene Here
System: Liminal Horror
GM: Zoë
Age: Adult Only (ages 16+)
Genre: Horror: The Thing with a 90s suburban setting and a dose of cosmic horror
Tags: Rules Lite, Newbie Friendly
Players: 3-5
Content warnings: Bodyhorror, death, human sacrifice, hallucinations, drugs, people trapped/imprisonment, instances of self-inflicted harm, temporal disorientation.
Description: The Mall: The Thing if it happened in a 90s mall.
Something grotesque has slopped through a crack in reality and slithers amongst you. It is set on reshaping the mall, and everyone inside. Twisting everything in its image: grotesque, squishy, awful.
Players will roll up a character at the start of the game. You’ll play as someone entangled with the mall, before the mall started trying to more actively entangle its inhabitants. Stuck with something unknowable, unbound by any one form, will you be able to work out why this is happening and survive your impending doom?
The Mall will be run using Liminal Horror, a great rules light OSR system. This is going to be a fun game with a healthy dose of body and cosmic horror.
If being trapped in a mall with an eldritch, thing-like monster sounds like fun to you this is the game for you! Flamethrower may or may not be included.