Basing scenarios off of Lovecraft stories

flashbackjuice · Post by **flashbackjuice** » Fri May 02, 2014 6:01 am

So I've been reading a lot of Lovecraft's stories lately, and an idea for a scenario based on one of his stories has come to mind: The Picture in the House. Has anyone created and run scenarios based on his stories, and how successful were they? How much did the scenario diverge from the story? What changes did you make? Did you have problems with players that knew the story you based the scenario off of?

If anything, I'd like to experiment with this idea and see where it leads. Any input is welcome.

monkey prime · Post by **monkey prime** » Fri May 02, 2014 7:47 am

There's a scenario book called House of R'Lyeh that's all sequals to Lovecraft stories. We did Return of The Hound. It was fun but my players thought it went on too long, they got bogged down in Amsterdam.

trevlix · Post by **trevlix** » Fri May 02, 2014 1:42 pm

There is a scenario that is a sequel to the story in Island of Ignorance as well. I won't spoil it for anyone, but it works well.

As for input - go for it. This is a creepy story that has a lot of atmosphere that things can be easily built off of.

Scriven · Post by **Scriven** » Sat May 03, 2014 2:58 pm

I've always felt that "Rats in the Walls" would have made a good scenario as a true "party oriented" adventure, but only provided the players were wholly ignorant of the story itself, and that's a tall order if one is playing with Lovecraft enthusiasts. Given the ending to that particular story (with Exham Priory being dynamited out of existence), it might be difficult to frame a "sequel" to that tale. But as a story that could progress from plot hook (one of the players is a scion of the de la Poer family), to the research and exploration phase, and ultimately the big reveal in the caverns beneath the priory, it has all the makings of a great CoC adventure.

trevlix · Post by **trevlix** » Sat May 03, 2014 3:08 pm

Scriven wrote: Given the ending to that particular story (with Exham Priory being dynamited out of existence), it might be difficult to frame a "sequel" to that tale.

I don't know...with Exham Priory being in a prime real estate location, its only a matter of time before the land is bought and that new condo is built on it. What? Tales of ghosts and other such nonsense? Pshaw! That will just keep the pricing down so we can make more of a profit! Now excuse me, I need to go see something the construction workers just found...

Keeper Jon · Post by **Keeper Jon** » Sat May 03, 2014 10:35 pm

I've thought about crafting a scenario that is a sequel to "The Statement of Randolph Carter." I'm curious to explore what it is that Randolph's friend, Harley Warren, was supposedly killed by.

DavFlamerock · Post by **DavFlamerock** » Sun May 04, 2014 12:42 am

I've been working on a two-part scenario that's basically a modern version of the "Whisperer in Darkness," though heavily mixed with elements of the Blair Witch Project, and it's been going over quite well playtesting with my friends. Now, I'll admit that many of them haven't read Lovecraft, but even those who have haven't run into too much trouble knowing spoilers, as I've changed the storyline significantly enough that even knowing what Mi-Go can do doesn't necessarily mean they'll know what these Mi-Go will do. Things like letters and prominent black stones as props are carried over, even having a character get replaced by a Mi-Go puppeteer, but so far even knowing all those details hasn't been a problem. It probably helps that the investigators are graduate/undergraduate students rather than typical armchair professors (well, in the first adventure. The sequel is pretty significantly different from the first).

How's the best way to make it work while still definitely evoking the story? I think you need to find the defining traits of the story and then change their contexts. So I still have a farmhouse and letters, but the letters are found after the fact as props rather than being NPC communication with the players. The black stone appears, though it isn't stolen by cultists, and while I don't have any prominent NPCs to "whisper" horribly to them, I incorporate Mi-Go puppeting as well. Keep the details, but change the story/plot to be something unique and unpredictable, so knowledgeable players will get the references but won't be able to guess what's coming.

Hope this helps!

fallingtower · Post by **fallingtower** » Sun May 04, 2014 10:12 pm

I have used lot's of different things for inspiration lately.
For a couple of recent sessions I used songs from Satano-Pop super-group, GHOST and the last couple, Pickman's Model.

I think trying to inject the character's directly into a Lovecraft story won't work, but slipping them into a gap or after it's conclusion definitely so. Like my Pickman's Model scenario I just referenced.

Here goes:

Pickman's disappeared and he owes a lot of people money and in the case of the investigator group's benefactor, a rich art collector, some artwork. The scenario worked amazingly well and ended up with the character's totally lost underground, being chased by ghouls with only lighters and matches for illumination. Lot's of luck rolls, lot's of sanity rolls, screaming and a frantic pace set by me the Keeper. They never actually saw the ghouls, but met and talked to a naked and partially devolved Pickman, who has taken up a new media, bonesculpture. They did witness him gnawing and slurping a rib bone clean before a investigator fainted and broke the lantern. The conscious then carried on a conversation with Pickman in complete darkness. I really built up the atmosphere through description and some pre-scripted dialogue from Pickman (pre-scripting dialogue makes for some great Keepering) Pickman gave them some jewelry scavenged off corpses to pay off his debts and as a parting gift gave them a blood soaked burlap back with his portfolio in it. At that time he told them that it would be best to run. A few dozen ghouls who weren't happy to have their bone chapel (which Pickman was constructing for them) invaded by unwelcome guests took after them. It then became a harrowing chase and escape.

I ended the scenario with them covered in mud and gore, panicked and a couple of them temporarily insane. The last image,the camera pans back and over to, the bloody burlap bag with Pickman's portfolio in it.

Anyway my two Keeper tricks I used in this session.
-Pre-scripted bad guy dialogue, so you don't sputter and stutter through cool bad guy monologues.
-Slathering on atmosphere so grim and dire that I didn't need to show the monsters. They heard them, never saw them.