Review of the Call of Cthulhu scenario Isle of the Damned, written by Alex Guillotte and Ian Christiansen, the second entry in the Grindhouse Collection.

In-Short:

A stripped-down, brutal and gross little cabin survival-horror scenario that gets straight to the point and is easy to run and modify, perfect for a camping session.

Spoiler-lite for Players and Keepers:

Isle of the Damned is the second entry in the Grindhouse series, and is the most straight forward of the lot. It is a largely single location, survival-based scenario, and very stripped down. There is little clue gathering and no NPC interactions out-of-the-box (Keepers could of course use unused pregen investigators as NPCs). There will be combat. Within these narrow confines though, the scenario gives tools to the Keeper to adjust the pacing and brutality of the scenario to their liking. While my run took about three hours, it could be shortened or lengthened depending on the number of players and the Keeper’s desire.

As with all Grindhouse titles, Isle of the Damned is a short and quick read. It covers only 18 VHS-cassette-sized 6×9 inch pages, with 9 of those pages being text and stats, 2 pages of maps, a title page, and 6 pages for 6 pregenerated investigators. The pregens are nice and varied with some little background twists that while not likely to actually arise in the session, make for solid roleplaying hooks. While well laid out as always with easily legible formatting, the pages are entirely text-based with no insert art. The maps are some nicely edited Dungeondraft pieces (I think), well suited to online play, and can be shared with players by cropping out the legends and maybe some fog to cover unexplored rooms. Overall, while not the most excitingly presented of the Grindhouse titles, it is still perfectly functional.

That largely sums up Isle of the Damned compared to its sibling scenarios. Not as flashy, complex, or original as the others, but solid. I’ve only played 4 of the 7 scenarios included in the Grindhouse Ultimate Collection so far, but I’ve found it the easiest to run so far. With few moving pieces and only one location to worry about, there’s not too much to think about, letting the Keeper focus on presenting threats to the players in interesting ways and leaving the rest up to their reactions.

The setting is a classic cabin in the woods (on an island). The spooky atmosphere is basically built in, with players probably able to conjure images from movies or their own camping excursions, but Keepers can of course build on the isolation with extra environment descriptions, stock pictures, or background sounds and music. The 1970s time period fits with the Grindhouse motif and gets rid of those pesky cell phones. Both the location and time period could be changed with little effort besides slight alterations to equipment and backstory elements.

Isle of the Damned is very simple, yet solid (and nasty) entry in the Grindhouse series, and I think the best starting point if aiming to play through all of them, or as the easiest to whip out at a convention or as a spur-of-the-moment game.

You can find Isle of the Damned on DriveThruRPG in either the Grindhouse Ultimate Collection or Grindhouse Volume 1.

Before you go, maybe you would be interested in some of the below reviews or replays?
MJRRPG scenarios, Chaosium-released scenarios, Miskatonic Repository scenarios, Japanese scenarios

Isle of the Damned is a fairly simple mini sandbox with only a couple things to keep in mind while running or to prepare for.

The scenario takes place on a small uninhabited island, but the actual play time will likely be spent almost entirely in a cabin. The party travels to the island by ferry for a week of leisure, though unknown to them, the basement of the cabin they’ll be staying in is a laboratory of Dr. Allan West, the son of Dr. Herbert West (from Lovecraft’s Herbert West–Reanimator, making this scenario a loose sequel to the short story). And when the party turns on the generator for the cabin, they unwittingly awaken four monstrosities held in stasis.

As the investigators get settled in the cabin, or poke around in their meta-gamey ways looking for clues, the Keeper makes occasional dice rolls to see what the ‘reanimated’ due in the basement, potentially making noise or escaping into the woods. Given the semi-randomness of the event table, it is possible that all four reanimated could be stuck in the basement, or even in a single room, when the party eventually heads down. I’d suggest fudging that a bit, and always have at least two reanimated escape through a hidden side hatch into the woods, letting the Keeper bring them back whenever is most dramatic. Or, if the investigators never enter the basement, the reanimated outside could creep around the windows or even on top of the cabin, giving quick glimpses or sounds to spook the investigators, and then when the time is right, pounce when the party is separated.

Once the players realise what is going on, the scenario turns into full on survival horror. There are four reanimated that need to be dealt with. Either the investigators die, or the reanimated do. There’s a tool in the basement, a syringe, which can be used to one-hit kill any reanimated, though my group didn’t find it. The text doesn’t specify if there are multiple doses, or just one, but I would lean towards only having enough to use once, forcing the party to keep it for a desperate last measure.

Depending on how many players you have, as well as which pregen investigators are used, the reanimated might not pose that much of a threat. This is especially true if the survivalist investigator is in play, who comes armed with a revolver and a rifle. While the reanimated have a little more HP and higher Brawl skills than normal humans, as well as a regenerate ability, a single shot from the rifle could take one out, especially if the player is happy to burn Luck to get an impale. Of course, if playing with fewer players, the four reanimated could prove plenty dangerous. Much will come down to how the Keeper uses the creatures, and they would be most dangerous if they get the jump on an isolated investigator or two, and flee into the dark woods whenever they get overwhelmed.

There are a two changes I suggest before running the scenario. One is minor and regards a small confusing section in the text, while the other is a modification to make the reanimated a bit more interesting.

• The investigators can find Dr. West’s notes, which describe the horrible experiments he has conducted. The issue is on one page the notes are described as gibberish to anyone not well-versed in chemistry or biology, but on a later page it says any layperson can understand the notes are about reanimation experiments, and a further Library Use rolls can reveal more details. I’d first of all not let anyone understand what is written without a roll, and I’d make the roll a Language (English) roll to fit with convention and increase the difficulty up a step. Rather than giving a bonus die if investigator has an appropriate science skill, I’d let them roll those skills instead, but reduce the difficulty of the tests.

• Each of the four reanimated are given wonderfully disgusting descriptions, but they all have the same stats. To make them more unique and give them different combat styles, I used the below modifiers. Also, the reanimated have an ability to mind control a grabbed investigator with an opposed POW roll, but they have a POW of 10, making it all but useless. You could boost all of their POW to make this viable, or just one, as I did below.

–Lahamu: +10 DEX, the missing syringe. Lahamu prefers to stay in the shadows, and if one of the investigators dies, it uses the syringe on the corpse, turning them into new reanimated with base stats. If at risk of dying, Lahamu uses the syringe to explode an investigator, triggering SAN 1/1D6 for anyone witnessing the horrific act.

– Lahmu: +30 STR, +30 CON, (20HP, 3 Build), +10 Brawl. Lahmu barrels towards its target, smashing through doors, furniture, or windows. It prefers to grab and absorb its targets rather than pummel them to death, and its size requires the grabbed target to escape with an opposed STR roll rather than a maneuver.

– Kishar: +50 POW, and can breathe underwater and swim at double speed. Kishar can either be used to grab an investigator and turn them against the others, or kept until the end scene to use as a stinger, maybe as the party waits on the dock to escape the island, bursting out of the water and pulling a hapless investigator into the ocean, or maybe already on the boat that arrives, having absorbed some of the crew and mind controls the captain wielding a gun.

– Anshar: +30 DEX, +15 Dodge. Anshar is the most basic, simply attacking when advantageous, and preferring to use weapons if available (there’s an axe sitting outside if the investigators didn’t grab it, hint hint).

Overall, Isle of the Damned is easy to recommend and would be a perfect fit for a camping game at night in the dark woods.

Again, you can find Isle of the Damned on DriveThruRPG in either the Grindhouse Ultimate Collection or Grindhouse Volume 1.

Before you go, maybe you would be interested in some of the below reviews or replays?
MJRRPG scenarios, Chaosium-released scenarios, Miskatonic Repository scenarios, Japanese scenarios