This is a review for the Call of Cthulhu scenario What’s In The Cellar?, written by Jon Hook, published by Chaosium in Gateways to Terror.
In short:
What’s In The Cellar has much of the elements of a great traditional Call of Cthulhu scenario crammed into a very concise package. Well recommended for introducing players to CoC 7e in a tight schedule.
No Spoilers for players or Keepers:
What’s In The Cellar? is the second scenario in the Gateway to Terror scenario book for Chaosium’s Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition, and compromises 24 pages including art, handouts, and character sheets, with the main scenario text filling about 15 pages. Along with its companions The Necropolis and The Dead Boarder, What’s In The Cellar is made for new players and Keepers, with plenty of advice and descriptions for the Keeper so it can be run more or less out of the box without requiring much preparation or improvisation.
And along with its sibling scenarios, it comes with a timeline to help keep the scenario runtime within an hour. I usually give it more time to breath but still have never gone over an hour and half. It comes with some nice handouts to give players a taste of what meatier CoC scenarios have in store for them, as well as a simple map and some insert art that varies from beautiful (the full-page illustration is my favourite in the book) to page-padding (I’m looking at you, Washington county road map).
The pregen investigators have good backstories to bite into, and are tied directly into the scenario, making for easy roleplay material. While not as pulpy and colourful as the pregens in The Necropolis, these four feel very much like traditional CoC investigators, and having a direct reason to be involved in the scenario’s proceedings helps new players get into the swing of playing a character.
While The Necropolis has no down time and gets players immediately hooked, and The Dead Boarder is overall creepier, I find myself coming back to What’s In The Cellar? more often than the others when getting new players into CoC. With an office briefing introduction, trying to prove someone’s innocence, uncovering a dark family past, and rooting around in a dark, spooky basement, What’s In The Cellar is the closest it can get to feeling like full-bodied, classic Call of Cthulhu scenario while still clocking-in at an hour run time.
The trade off is that while it is one of the best short scenarios out there for introducing new players to CoC, it may be less suited to more experienced players when compared to its sibling scenarios, though all the groups I ran it for, including the more veteran ones, had good times with it.
If this already sounds good to you, you can purchase Gateways to Terror on DriveThruRPG, Chasioum’s website, Amazon, or your friendly neighbourhood game shop.
Before you go, though, maybe you would be interested in reading some other scenario reviews?
MJRRG: Branches of Bone – Cthulhu Dark Ages, A Chill in Abashiri – A 1920s Taisho-Era Japan
Seeds of Terror: Series Overview, The Mummy of Pemberley Grange, Endless Light, One Less Grave, Hand of Glory, Tickets Please , Fish in a Barrel
Miskatonic Repository: Dossier 1 – The Maw
Chaosium: Amidst the Ancient Trees, Gateways to Terror Overview, The Necropolis, What’s in the Cellar?, The Dead Boarder
Japonism: Do Gods Dream of Digital Drugs?
Bibliothek 13: A Cup of Horror, Erich!
After a read-through of the scenario, you should be good to run it without any extra preparation, though there are a few points that might be worth tweaking. I’ll explain them in more detail later, but they are: 1) closing the damn door, and 2) hide the ring.
The scenario opens in an office where a lawyer briefs the party on the scenario’s objectives, and gives the players a chance to introduce their investigators. It also allows chatting with an NPC, something the other Gateways to Terror scenarios don’t have much of. One of the investigator’s cousins is accused of murdering his wife, and he’s summoned the investigators to clear his name. They’ll need to go to his cabin to find proof he didn’t do the dark deed.
This is all well and good, though its done through six paragraphs of read-aloud text. One portion is supposed to be a recording from the cousin, so this could be spruced up by making a recording and editing it to sound old-timey. But it is still way too much narration. The scenario text has the players introduce their investigators after the marathon, but I split it up by having the lawyer greet them and ask for introductions first, as well as allowing time for the players to add their thoughts or reactions after the recording and before moving on. And if you want an old timey-recording to play for your group, this is the one I made for mine.
After a read-through of the scenario, you should be good to run it without any extra preparation, though there are a few points that might be worth tweaking. I’ll explain them in more detail later, but they are: 1) closing the damn door, and 2) hide the ring.
The scenario opens in an office where a lawyer briefs the party on the scenario’s objectives, and gives the players a chance to introduce their investigators. It also allows chatting with an NPC, something the other Gateways to Terror scenarios don’t have much of. One of the investigator’s cousins is accused of murdering his wife, and he’s summoned the investigators to clear his name. They’ll need to go to his cabin to find proof he didn’t do the dark deed.
This is all well and good, though its done through six paragraphs of read-aloud text. One portion is supposed to be a recording from the cousin, so this could be spruced up by making a recording and editing it to sound old-timey. But it is still way too much narration. The scenario text has the players introduce their investigators after the marathon, but I split it up by having the lawyer greet them and ask for introductions first, as well as allowing time for the players to add their thoughts or reactions after the recording and before moving on. And if you want an old timey-recording to play for your group, this is the one I made for mine.
My groups were all suspicious little buggers and took some convincing to get away from the lawyer, with successful Psychology tests all but directly telling them the lawyer is fine now hurry up and move on.
Time skips ahead to the cabin, and then awkwardly time skips again to the cellar after telling your players there’s nothing of interest in the cabin. For most groups this shouldn’t be an issue, but especially for new players that might be more used to games that act out every action, they might be confused or suspicious. If you think your players might not like being herded towards the definitely-not-suspicious cellar, you could draw up a simple two- or three-room map of the cabin and sprinkle some pictures of the happy couple in them, really driving home that there’s no way the cousin would have killed his beloved-wife. There could also be pictures of older generations, and as with the cousin, there was always one of them with a familiar ring on their right ring-finger…
The investigators then hop down into the cellar to begin rooting around, which takes up the bulk of the scenario. There are lots of goodies to find, handouts to skim, and spookiness to be spooked by. After poking around for a while, something starts poking back.
And that’s where the first problem pops up. What if the investigators run away? There are tentacles with mouths on them shooting out of the shadows! Screw the cousin, most of the investigators aren’t even related to that guy. At least one player in every group I ran for immediately ran for the ladder out of the cellar once weird things started happening.
Luckily, the monster has telekinesis. Just have the trap door shut and lock. Done. Move on to bigger problems. And if any stubborn players refuse to go into the cellar, even after they’ve sat back and done nothing for fifteen minutes while the others investigate, then have something give them a push, sending them toppling over into the cellar and taking a nice 1D3 of damage for their trouble. Then slam the door shut.
The monster itself is pretty nasty. It has a sizeable pool of hit points, 3 points of armour that also halves impaling weapon damage (does that mean any damage from a weapon that can impale, or only half damage on impaling hits? I assume the former, but who knows), a good pocket of MP to teleport and telekinetically toss items around with, and two attacks per round that make for it not having great a fighting skill. It also has a wonderful fighting ability that tears the limbs and head off a victim, but unfortunately the attack is nearly impossible, as it needs five successful maneuvers to grab onto the target’s limbs and head, which would take a minimum of three turns assuming none of the grabs are broken out of. I’ve tried it every time I’ve run the scenario, but never managed it yet. Someday, I’ll rip apart a player, someday.
The second issue that may occur in the scenario is unfortunately a bit harder to deal with than just closing a damn door. Once one of two blood-relatives of the cousin find and hold the ring, they can banish the monster on their turn without any roll required. If the investigators find the ring after a bloody and desperate scrap with the creature then its no problem, but its not all that difficult to actually find the ring, just a successful Luck roll if the investigators dig through the shell and bone-covered floor.
An insightful player could try digging right away, or if you follow the scenario text directly, an INT test lets anyone know that the flooring is deeper than expected, a big hint to start digging. And with 3D6*5 Luck for a one-hour scenario, it’s very likely someone will succeed that roll sooner than later.
I tried a few different ways of running it. Once as written, and luckily, they didn’t start digging until the creature started attacking. Another time I changed the Luck roll to an Extreme Spot Hidden Roll, though that keyed them in quickly that they needed to make that roll. A failed pushed roll was fun, but then they just dumped all their Luck to find the ring. The last time though, I knew the group would know what to do right away, so I reduced the Luck to 3D6*3. That worked alright, as they failed a few times, giving the creature a bit of time to annoy them before being banished.
If I re-run the scenario, I’ll go with reduced Luck again. It’s a short scenario anyways, and the monster’s stats aren’t all that high, so high Luck makes things easier in a few too many ways.
Indeed, in one run that featured a bit too much booze at the table, the players didn’t figure out they needed the ring, and just brute forced the monster. All but one investigator was incapacitated or killed, and the last one, armed with a baseball bat, came through thanks to a series of godly rolls. An extremely fun ending, though one only made possible by the drunken players (and Keeper) forgetting Luck spending was a thing. If they’d all burned Luck to dodge and get Extreme hits, the monster would have been shredded in a couple rounds.
While The Necropolis and The Dead Boarder may be overall better scenarios with smoother pacing and less speedbumps to work out, What’s In The Cellar is my favourite of the three. I love the cliched opening scene, I like finding all the fun knick-knacks on the shelves, uncovering the family’s dark secret, objects slowly falling or dropping onto investigator’s heads to make them think there’s a ghost haunting the basement, and finally tentacles come slithering out of the shadows, grabbing and biting. It’s just a whole lot of fun.
Fully recommended
You can purchase Gateways to Terror on DriveThruRPG, Chasioum’s website, Amazon, or your friendly neighbourhood game shop. (Unless you live near me, in which case none of the game stores stock Chaosium products ): )
Before you go, though, maybe you would be interested in reading some other scenario reviews?
MJRRG: Branches of Bone – Cthulhu Dark Ages, A Chill in Abashiri – A 1920s Taisho-Era Japan
Seeds of Terror: Series Overview, The Mummy of Pemberley Grange, Endless Light, One Less Grave, Hand of Glory, Tickets Please , Fish in a Barrel
Miskatonic Repository: Dossier 1 – The Maw
Chaosium: Amidst the Ancient Trees, Gateways to Terror Overview, The Necropolis, What’s in the Cellar?, The Dead Boarder
Japonism: Do Gods Dream of Digital Drugs?
Bibliothek 13: A Cup of Horror, Erich!
