Review of the Japanese Call of Cthulhu scenario Black Eyeball (黒い目玉), written by Uchiyama Yasujirou, from the modern-day sourcebook and scenario collection Cthulhu 2020 (クトゥルフ2020).
In Short: A unique introductory scenario in the vein of the Gateways to Terror scenarios, or A Cup of Horror by the same author, but with much less emphasis on combat and more on puzzle-solving.
Spoiler-lite for Players and Keepers:
Black Eyeball is the first of six scenarios in the Japanese modern-day sourcebook, Cthulhu 2020. It is written by Uchiyama Yasujirou, who was rapidly become my favourite, active Call of Cthulhu author, with two of his scenarios also reviewed on this site (A Cup of Horror and Three Requests, with another on the way, No Breaking Off, which I ran at Chaosium Con 2024), and this scenario only strengthens that feeling. It fits a short session, with the text recommending two hours and a player count of two to four, and my run did indeed take about two hours with a four-player group.
The scenario is set in a single location, a thrift store, and comes with a nice map of the small building. The text covers six pages, nicely laid out with plenty of boxed text and section divisions to make for comfortable reading, some fun black-and-white art pieces, stats blocks, and the same sort of simple flow chart found in the Cthulhu 2020 and Bibliothek 13 scenarios (which I will always appreciate, I love any sort of visual representation of a scenario, whether it be a flow chart, timeline, relationship matrix, or whatever). There are only two small little note handouts besides the map.
Both of the current 7e Japanese scenario books (Cthulhu 2020 and Bibliothek 13) contain no pregenerated investigators, and only a handful have meaningful hooks to get player characters personally involved. This is by far my largest, and maybe only, complaint that can be levelled against all of two books’ 19 scenarios, and Black Eyeball is no different. The only real hook is the investigators happen to be going to the second-hand store, which is a very, very, very tired hook that repeats across its sibling scenarios, with the investigators being in the wrong place at the wrong time. If a group was thinking of stringing multiple scenarios into a campaign, it would be awkward to the point of comical how often the investigators blunder into the Mythos when just looking to buy a coffee, visit a museum, or stop at a hot spring. When I ran Black Eyeball, I had one investigator be an associate of the thrift store’s owner, who explicitly called them to offer a look and first sale on a new item, with the other investigators being friends or colleagues tagging along.
Luckily, almost any investigator is suited to the scenario. Likewise, the era and setting could be changed without much issue. A few name and set dressing changes could easily have this be a classic 1920s Lovecraft country scenario if the Keeper felt so inclined. I also think the puzzle/mystery at the centre of the scenario is versatile enough to be easily reusable in other stories across any setting, making Black Eyeball useful not just as a single session game, but as a resource to cannibalise for a Keeper’s personal use.
The simple problem in a small location requiring freeform brainstorming and creativity from the players, all the while their investigators are harried just enough to keep them on their toes and pushing ahead, is a reoccurring theme in Uchiyama’s scenarios, and has become my favourite type of one-shot session. Throw the players into a small place with an obvious problem, a handful of clues and resources to spark some ideas, some sort of threat to interrupt or push them on when needed, and a ticking clock, then leave the players to come up with their own solution. It worked well in Uchiyama’s Three Requests, and it works very well here to. It’s also pretty spooky!
Being a very short scenario, it’s hard to talk more without giving much away, so I’ll sum it up by saying that Black Eyeball, along with Uchiyama’s A Cup of Horror, are my two favourite short introductory scenarios for Call of Cthulhu. They are skinnier than Chaosium’s own Gateways to Terror scenarios in terms of Keeper direction, handouts, and art work, but their core mysteries allow for more varied and interesting roleplaying and problem solving for players, new and old alike.
Cthulhu 2020 is unfortunately only available in Japanese and in physical book form (why oh why does Kadokawa refuse to release pdfs of their books like any other game publisher in the world!?), though you can order the book from overseas through amazon.co.jp. And if you do own the book, I’d be happy to share my English notes.
Black Eyeball’s setup is very simply. The thrift store’s owner, Yokouchi, came into possession of a spooky lamp. Not knowing what it was, he unveiled the spooky lamp. Unfortunately for Yokouchi, the lamp held a spark of Cthugha, and its radiance causes people’s shadows to detached themselves and try to kill their previous owners to become truly free. Being shadows, though, the creatures lose all power in darkness, as light is required to have shadows. The investigators arrive in the early morning, just before the sun starts to rise, wandering into the store after Yokouchi had gone partially insane, painted over the windows, then been attacked and knocked out by his shadow.
The investigators have to figure out what is going on and come up with a way to extinguish the lamp before the sun rises, otherwise Yokouchi’s shadow will become powerful enough to kill him and become free. They have a very short time until daybreak, potentially limited to a real world hour or so if the Keeper feels like setting a clock and stressing out their players. They also need to operate in near darkness, as any light source like a flashlight or candle, will lend strength to the shadow creature, allowing it to attack the investigators, or kill Yokouchi.
The lamp is locked in a safe. The investigators need to open it, but in a way that doesn’t allow the lamp’s glorious Mythos-powered light from streaming out, otherwise they not only risk being bathed in its sanity-blasting brilliance, but creating more creatures as their own shadows detach.
Discovering what is going on is probably the most difficult and dangerous part of the scenario, as at first all the investigators know is the building is dark and a shadowy something is prowling around them. If they turn on the lights, open a window, or call the police, they risk empowering the shadow immediately. Yokouchi can somewhat prevent that with some half-crazed warnings to not turn on the lights. Just to get things rolling, an Idea roll or two can help the investigators put two-and-two together if they flash a light and the creature attacks, letting them understand more light is a bad idea.
And from there the meat of the scenario presents itself. The investigators need to understand what the source of the shadow creature, then find where it is, then come up with an idea of how to extinguish it, and finally deal with the complications of the lamp turning out to hold the fire of a god in it. The initial investigation process is fairly simple thanks to the small location, and half an hour or so after entering the building and calming down after figuring out what the shadow creature is, they should be standing around by the vault thinking of what to do with it.
That’s where the real fun is, as they try to think of a plan to extinguish the flame without too much light getting out. Then, once they’ve talked for most likely a very long time and are ready to enact whatever weird plan they’ve come up with, they find the lamp stronger and decidedly brighter than expected. Unless they came up with a very good idea to completely block it from sight, one or more may be impacted by a hefty SAN loss, further complicating the plan as they deal with involuntary reactions or outright Bouts of Madness, then still need to break the lantern’s case to get at the flame within.
In my run one of the investigators was driven indefinitely insane by the light and became obsessed with it. The player decided their investigator needed to touch the flame directly. The scenario text didn’t account for this, so I went with it being like willing accepting an attack by Cthugha, meaning a whopping 6D6 damage, resulting in a nice little pile of investigator-shaped ash. A more forgiving Keeper could instead allow it to be only 1D6 damage, as if using the spell Touch of Fire, or maybe cause a direct vision of Cthugha, causing a 1D3/1D20 SAN loss, though if the investigator is suffering a bout they wouldn’t take the loss.
That is the whole scenario. It’s very simple, but the few elements play off each other to make the puzzle more interesting and difficult to solve. A very tight design, neat Mythos elements, a pretty creepy idea make for a near-perfect one shot for me.
Again, Cthulhu 2020 is still only available in Japanese and in physical form. While it would be very, very cool for Chaosium to license their license back into English someday, for now, if you do have the book, I’d be happy to help you run it for your group. You can order it with international shipping on amazon.co.jp.
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MJRRPG scenarios, Chaosium-released scenarios, Miskatonic Repository scenarios, Japanese scenarios
