Chaosium pulled off fairly the magic trick with the discharge of Gateways To Terror. The journey assortment contained three quick adventures constructed to be run in an hour or two for brand spanking new gamers, comparable to at a conference or a sport retailer occasion. The corporate seems to drag off the trick once more with No Time To Scream. Three extra adventures from designers B. W. Holland, Bridgett Jeffries, C. L. Werner, James Coquillat and Mike Mason goal for a brief however memorable dip into the Cthulhu Mythos. Do they nonetheless provide some memorable experiences? Let’s play to search out out.
The setups for every journey are of the same nature. They talk about pacing and doubtlessly utilizing an actual life time clock to maintain issues shifting. The tales provide completely different tones and moods too. Two of the three situations might slot into any marketing campaign, whereas the third options characters and themes tied to the story. You might nonetheless most likely use it in a marketing campaign however perhaps as a facet story to run when the common crew is busy. As an alternative of simply studying a cursed diary for Cthulhu Mythos factors and Sanity loss, gamers might play it out in flashback.
I might use these situations in a number of methods. They work effectively as supposed as introductions to Cthulhu Mythos adventures. They may be prolonged scenes in bigger investigations or as a palette cleanser in an extended marketing campaign. It’s all the time good to have tales like this readily available as a result of with only a few modifications, these tales might be run in any modern-day horror system.
Spoilers for every of the situations observe. Should you don’t want to be spoiled, here is my backside dwell: No Time To Scream presents three extra quick hits good for one photographs or con video games, however this batch may take a bit extra work to grow to be a part of an extended marketing campaign.
“A Lonely Thread” includes a basic Mythos encounter. Somebody near the gamers has taken an curiosity within the Mythos however they dve too far too deep. They’ve been overtaken by…one thing…and it’s as much as the gamers to determine what’s fallacious earlier than it’s too late. The state of affairs is about at a small cabin owned by a professor and when the gamers arrive it quickly turns into evident the professor is performing unusual. This state of affairs is the one which feels the simplest to fit into an everyday marketing campaign. It has some physique horror and a ticking clock within the basement because the professor’s cleansing girl transforms right into a formidable monster. Her busting out of the basement and attacking the gamers offers this a bloody finish to the story, although her escape might additionally launch a full marketing campaign.
The second state of affairs has a lighter tone that jogs my memory loads of Re-Animator, the basic movie adaptation that mixes gore and laughter in equal measure. The gamers of “Bits and Items” observe a medical knowledgeable to an area instructing hospital the place they discover him horribly wounded. He found the physique of a sorcerer attempting to be reborn so he tried to chop it into items. He failed and now these items are animated and attempting to flee to allow them to reassemble one other day. The gamers need to seize the items and chuck them within the incinerator to cease this. Whereas severed limbs are horrific, there’s a grim humor to their personalities and plans of assault. This state of affairs feels greatest after a very grim state of affairs to lighten issues up, or maybe as a strategy to give gamers who need to check out Name of Cthulhu an opportunity to see what all of the fuss is about however would discover sustaining a somber tone troublesome.
The ultimate state of affairs is the one which includes a confrontation with a basic Mythos creature. A Shade Out Of House has landed on an Alaskan farm in “Aurora Blue” and its unusual radiation has had hostile impact on the moonshiners engaged on the farm and their product. This sport casts the gamers as not simply Bureau of Prohibition brokers however ones who’ve been ignored by their superiors. This misfit squad is suited to a Cthulhu expertise with a bit extra motion. It’s additionally one which feels prefer it might be tailored into the fashionable day, doubtlessly as a “evening on the opera” for Delta Inexperienced brokers.
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