Review of the Call of Cthulhu scenario The Crimson King, written by Alex Guillotte and Ian Christiansen, the first entry in the Grindhouse Collection.

In Short:

A short and blunt survival horror scenario that gets straight to the point with a stylish and blood-drenched setting.

Spoilers-lite for Players and Keepers:

Before running a Grindhouse scenario, it’s best to know what you’re getting into. The first and best indicator is written on the back of the book:

These aren’t your typical Call of Cthulhu scenarios where some classy, well-dressed investigator sips tea and pours over leather books in some wood paneled library. These are burning dumpsters of pure horror where a fleeing private investigator limps through some filthy back alley on a busted ankle while a howling pack of mutants try to beat them to death with the limbs of their dead friends. In other words, these are not for the faint of heart, and are intended for mature audiences only. Player discretion is advised.

The Crimson King lives up to that advisory. It’s a scenario that quickly gets to the bloody point, and from there it’s screaming and running. As the first scenario in the Grindhouse collection it’s a good introduction, but also shows some rough spots that quickly get smoothed over in its sibling titles. It’s also by far the shortest of the collection, with my run only taking about two and a half hours, though that will of course vary depending on the group and Keeper.

The scenario takes up 16 appropriately VHS-sized 6×9 inch pages, with 7 pages of scenario text and stat blocks, 6 pages of pregen investigators, 2 moody full-page images, and one full page map. The layout and design is top notch, the map appropriately dirty, and while the illustrations are not hand drawn, the stock art is beautifully edited to fit in with the book and scenario’s style. Alex Guillotte is well known as one of the best, if not the best, of the Miskatonic Repository’s foremost formatters/designers, and his skill is on full display here.

Set in an moody 1980s underground goth rock nightclub, the scenario makes full use of its seedy location, though the location and date are not set in stone, and could be transported to any country, city, or time period with a swap of music and style, if desired. The goth 1980s setting is lovely though, and makes for a great opportunity use all the senses in describing the club – smoke and sweat, pounding music and screams, sticky floors and bodies, outrageous fashions and strobing lights, booze and drugs trading hands and mouths, and ideally with a early goth rock playlist playing in the background.

Two investigator introductions are suggested, and while only one type gets pregens, that isn’t too much of an issue if you decide to run with the other investigator group (more detail in spoiler section). The pregens present a varied range of misfits, each giving enough quirks for a player to latch onto for some solid roleplay despite the scenario’s short runtime. It would also be very easy to bring in new or existing investigators to fit either introduction.

The scenario text is laid out in a way that I really dig, though may be difficult for Keepers that prefer a very structured point-by-point progression and don’t want to lean on heavy improvisation. I’ll explain more about this in the spoiler section, as well as some suggestions on smoothing over potential difficulties.

Overall, The Crimson King is great for a quick evening session that gets straight to the point, full of moody goth rock, panic, and bloody violence.

You can find The Crimson King in the Grindhouse Ultimate Collection on DriveThruRPG (It is also available in Grindhouse Volume I, but there isn’t much reason to buy that over the Ultimate Collection).

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

The Crimson King is a single location and escape-focused scenario. While there are ways to fight back, besides extremely combat-oriented players and a very lenient Keeper, trying to kill all opponents instead of escaping will almost definitely result in a TPK. Those opponents are, of course, vampires, with twelve ‘thralls’ and one master vampire, the eponymous Crimson King. A thrall by itself can put up a decent fight, with higher than average Brawl and Dodge skills, along with a Bite attack that can paralyse and drain CON from a target. They don’t have massive HP pools or any armour, but without driving a stake through their heart or beheading them, they’ll revive after a few minutes and regain HP.

Tackling the Crimson King himself is beyond most investigator’s abilities unless well armed. His base combat stats and bite are enough to lean on, but he also has a number of spells and special abilities that would make a one-on-one fight nigh-impossible. If ganged-up on, or with sufficient firepower, he could be knocked out and dispatched with a stake or beheading, but with his twelve thralls he really shouldn’t be putting himself in a situation where that is possible.

Running the scenario is fairly simple, though at the same time the simplicity could trip up a Keeper used to working with fully plotted-out scenario text. The Crimson King, and most of the Grindhouse scenarios, are largely free form, with descriptions of the locations, inhabitants, a few clues, and a few events to move the action along. Outside of that, the actual situation itself is left up to the Keeper and players to figure out.

In this case, the only real ‘event’ is when the Crimson King and his thralls begin feeding on the club patrons. Before that, the investigators are left to their devices, wandering about the club and maybe spotting signs that things may be heading somewhere nasty. Once the bloodbath begins, all the investigators can do is try to escape, and the Keeper has complete control over how difficult or easy that will be.

While the number of opponents is set, where they are or how interested they are in the investigators over the swarm of unnamed NPCs is not. A very kindly Keeper may allow the investigators to tip toe around the mayhem and sneak out a back entrance without much of any trouble, while a sadistic Keeper will have every vampire lock onto the investigators. I’d wager most Keepers would, and should, take the more interesting middle ground, allowing players to use whatever skills they feel fit to try to avoid the vampires as much as possible, while still throwing a couple thralls at them to make things difficult, and at some point putting the Crimson King in the way either to be fled from, or forcing an investigator or two to sacrifice themselves to distract him while the rest escape.

One main suggestion I have is for the pregens. The scenario suggests two different investigator groups; undercover police searching for a missing woman, or various misfit characters simply attending the club. Only the second group are given pregen characters, and they are very interesting pregens, though they don’t have any real connections to each other or a driving objective at the scenario start. All players just playing police officers would be a bit boring, but I still find the police introduction to be stronger, with the investigators knowing one another and having a solid objective to start with (and subvert). I would suggest combining the introductions, using the pregens as the undercover officers personas, and giving each of them a combat or law enforcement related skill. This lets the group start out all knowing one another, having a solid starting objective, giving them roleplaying hooks with their undercover personas, and allowing the Keeper to subvert that starting objective, as the woman they are searching for is already a vampire thrall.

The law enforcement angle could also neatly tie into a follow up session, with the surviving investigators suiting up and tracking down the Crimson King to finish him off.

The Grindhouse Ultimate Collection is an easy recommendation, and The Crimson King is a fine starting introduction to the series. You can find The Crimson King in the Grindhouse Ultimate Collection on DriveThruRPG (Again, it is also available in Grindhouse Volume I, but there isn’t much reason to buy it alone anymore).

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