Review of the Call of Cthulhu scenario The Dark Brood, written by Alex Guillotte and Ian Christiansen, the third entry in the Grindhouse Collection.
In-Short: A nasty little scenario that puts players in a difficult situation and gives them freedom to make their own plans and mistakes, but it does require very heavy improvisation from the Keeper, even compared to other Grindhouse scenarios.
Spoiler-lite for Players and Keepers:
As the third Grindhouse scenario, The Dark Brood is well into the groove set by its predecessors. The text gives a great set up, location, characters and opposition, clues, and ways to throw a wrench in the proceedings, while those proceedings are entirely left up to the Keeper and the players. The players (and Keeper) are given an awful situation, then left largely left up to their own devices on how to get out of it. And in Grindhouse fashion, the scenario takes a setting from, well, a Grindhouse horror stereotype. In this case, the spooky lake-side youth camp ala Friday the 13th. Of course, this being a Call of Cthulhu scenario, events take a very different turn than a man in a mask with a knife.
The Dark Brood is a concise little scenario, once again taking up 18 VHS cassette-size pages. 10 of which are the main scenario text and stats, 1 page for a map of the camp, 1 title page, and 6 pages of pregenerated investigators. The text layout is well organized and legible as usual, though sparse on insert art with only 1 image near the end, and the map, while simple, is made to look like an actual map the campers would have access to. I’m also a fan of how Grindhouse does its pregenerated investigators for most of the scenarios, including this one, using custom 1-page sheets with important skills, and some items, a brief physical description and background to give some roleplaying hooks to grab onto, while also leaving the investigators nameless and genderless so the player can customize it to their liking. Also, I enjoy having six investigators to let players choose from, or to accommodate a large group.
While the Dark Brood gets right into the thick of the things without much preamble, there is a nice built-in uneasy quiet to the opening that gives players a chance to get into their characters before things go completely haywire. And while not as completely open ended as the previous two Grindhouse scenarios, I found it a bit more complex, with more points to interact with or for players to use in their schemes. The finale my group ran into is likely not at all what many other groups will experience, but I’m sure some will still cross over. There are only so many things a player will think of when they spot a school bus…
It is worth noting, as the scenario clearly does itself, that children in danger feature prominently at the centre of the conflict. It’s obvious what you’re getting into with a Grindhouse game, but Keeper’s should make note of what their group is comfortable with and plan or adjust accordingly.
Overall, The Dark Brood is another fine addition to the Grindhouse Collection, and might be the most replayable, as I can see different groups coming up with all sorts of hair-brained ways to save the day, or die horribly trying.
You can find Isle of the Damned on DriveThruRPG in either the Grindhouse Ultimate Collection or Grindhouse Volume 2.
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 Dark Brood is very dependent on Keeper improvisation. The scenario gives lots of setup and tools for the players and Keeper to play with, but once events get rolling there is very little structure for a Keeper to hold on to. This isn’t a bad thing, as long as a Keeper is comfortable with rolling with whatever the players try to go with. Despite the small location, there are lot of pieces that players could grab on to, or that a Keeper could use in different ways, and no two end games should be the same.
The setup has the investigators – camp counselors – waking up after a shared nightmare and with a sudden need to check on the children. Of course, the children are all missing but one. Eventually they’ll make their way to locked barn where they find the children have been kidnapped by a gang of weirdos. From there the scenario can go any which way, but the general goal most groups will take is to try to free the children.
This is complicated by there being a lot of these weirdos, who in actuality are an inbred family of cultists unwittingly following an avatar of Shub-Niggurath. They aren’t the brightest folk, or even the most dangerous (and the scenario suggests killing them off on any hit rather than tracking HP), but there are a dozen of them and they’re batshit crazy. To keep things interesting, I’d suggest have the cultist avoid combat as long as possible, preferring to threaten and break into confusing sermons about their corrupted Christ figure.
When violence is looking to break out, there is one more trick up the scenario’s sleeve. A woman comes walking into the camp, a perfectly normal and kind woman who can offer to talk down the crazies. Investigators that look too close might notice the woman’s clothes subtly change, and if the investigators have the one remaining child from earlier with them, the woman is extremely interested in her.
The woman is, of course, the avatar of Shub-Niggurath, and the abducted children, currently wrapped up in putrid black cocoons, are being transmogrified into Dark Youngs. In a few hours the children will hatch into Dark Spawn in a feeding frenzy.
By this point the players will likely have decided to either get the hell out of there, or stand and fight to try to save the kids. Fighting is difficult, though not impossible, as two of the investigators have firearms, the camp has enough bows for everyone, and every investigator does at least have some means of defending themselves. The cultists don’t have any firearms and aren’t particularly great at fighting, but many are still armed with sharp weapons, and if they gang up on an investigator things could go very badly.
The Dark Mother, Shub-Niggurath’s avatar, is of course also extremely dangerous, with all manner of nasty abilities on top of just being tough and a hard hitter. In general, I’d find it more interesting for her to use her abilities and spells to harass or turn the party against each other, saving an all out brawl for the grand finale if necessary. And while she does have armour and a chunk of HP, if the players burn Luck to get a few Extreme successes, especially with any firearms, she could be taken out faster than you’d expect.
Players have plenty of options for escaping or fighting back. There are rowboats to escape across the lake, buildings to hold up in, gasoline barrels to burn or explode, a bus and car to hide in or repair, the woods to flee through, or a hidden cave to discover to directly confront Shub-Niggurath’s avatar. In my run, the party promptly split up, with some fleeing into the woods, others rowing across the lake, and one hiding and repairing the school bus. This resulted in a slow rowboat chase (good fun) and the other lone investigator running down the Dark Mother in a flaming barn with the school bus (even more fun). This is the first time I’ve had to look up how much damage a large vehicle collision and fire damage would do. It was a lot.
There may be too many variables for the Keeper to plan for, but I do think they should decide on how to play the cultists and the Dark Mother. They could go for straight combat, making cultists avoid negotiation and playing the Dark Mother more as a basic monster. I find it more interesting though to have both the cult and the Dark Mother prefer to talk, trick, haunt, and hunt, stringing out the tensions as long as possible. Of course, players will be players, and a Keeper’s careful plans could go up in the smoke of a school bus crashing into a burning barn.
The Dark Brood is one of the more complicated Grindhouse scenarios with a lot of possibilities and fewer guidelines, but it might be my favourite of the lot I’ve played so far (only up to four so far). I also think it’s the most replayable, something the Grindhouse scenarios are already good at. If you’re up for a bit of improvisation and a nasty little action-packed session, The Dark Brood will deliver.
Again, you can find Isle of the Damned on DriveThruRPG in either the Grindhouse Ultimate Collection or Grindhouse Volume 2.
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
