Call of Cthulhu: The Dare
14th November, The Date of The Dare
In a couple of weeks, I am getting together with my Boss and a couple of friends, and I am subjecting them to a game of Call of Cthulhu. We have met up a couple of times in the past and we have spoken about doing it again many many times, but time never seems to be in our favour. After my first game, I went to them with the proposition of a halloween game and just get stupid. Unfortunately time again isn’t going to let us do that on that day, but 2 weeks after, game on!
To my knowledge, none of them have ever played a TTRPG before, so it will be an experience for sure.
THERE ARE SPOILERS AHEAD!
Turn back now if you don’t want to know the plot of the scenario!
So What Is “The Dare”?
This is a scenario that involves a group of kids who are dared to go into an abandoned, potentially haunted house on Halloween night. They are convinced by the school bully to all sneak out (some how…) late at night and meet him at this house. The plot twist is however, is that the bully is a puppet of the witch who resides inside.
Once inside, the players are locked in by the bully who puts the key in his pocket. This is done under the pretense that it is so no one can back out and not spend the night in the house. Later on in the scenario, you have the chance to kill the bully and take the key back… But low and behold, you are still locked in, this time by magic.
This means that you need to head down into the basement to face the witch to free yourself.
What Are The Problems?
Having watched a couple of actual plays on YouTube for this scenario, the premise feels a little flat to me and feels like many things coincidentally come together. The first being all of the kids are able to sneak out of their houses without their parents knowing. The second being orchestrating the confrontation with the bully, it sort of feels a bit weak that, while he is a little shit to you for the night, all of a sudden you are fighting him to the death.
Secondly, the reason the kids do it is a bit weak in my opinion. They are dared into staying the night at this place to prove themselves to the bully and make themselves worthy of not being bullied for a time. I just don’t buy that anyone being bullied by someone would, as a group or individually, agree to do such a thing. I was bullied as a kid and not at any point would I have agreed to meet any of my bullies, I avoided those fucks like the plague!
The other thing I am not a fan of is the whole door locked, unlocked but still magic locked. Why? Because it feels like a weak red herring. Also having the bully keeping hold of the key also sets things up to fall apart really quickly. All it would take is for the players to gang up on the bully and take the key from him, and if they can kill him later on in the scenario, this shouldn’t be an issue to overcome. If they do that, then the revelation of the magic lock can be discovered really early on.
So How Am I Changing It?
Firstly, lets address the way the kids find themselves at the house. I am going to have the kids having been out trick or treating when they come to the house. It makes it earlier in the day, than the scenario intends, but it drops the notion that the kids need to stay the night to prove themselves to a bully. With a little coaxing with some story telling, I am sure I can convince the players to enter the grounds of the house as the dare to prove themselves to each other.
But how do we get them in there? Well here is where the bully comes in and can control things even more, maybe with the assistance of some friends. No matter where the kids are, outside the grounds, at the door of the house or actually in the house if they are stupid enough. The bully and his friends can find themselves confronting the kids and forcing them into the house. This is where the bully will lock the door up with a bike chain or something. He can then throw the key up through a broken window upstairs of the house.
How do the kids get out if the door is locked from the outside though? Well the house will be presented as disheveled and in a massive state of disrepair. This means that many of the windows are broken, one being the windows on the door. The kids can then reach through the window to unlock the chain. But the idea is that this will be completely irrelevant.
Let me explain;
There is quite a bit which goes on in the upstairs of the house. There isn’t really much reason for the kids to go upstairs, so we need to manufacture one. Having them needing to go upstairs to find the key gives them that reason. When they cannot find the key on the first floor, that will need them to go into the attic. And this is where the bats and bat creature hides. This makes the key virtually unreachable, which will mean they will need to find a different way out of the house… The basement!
Part of the thing with the bully is that he is really a skin suit filled with bugs. I think it is a good twist and something I intend on keeping one way or another. My idea is that the bully, maybe a friend or two, will appear in the house. While it might seem a bit weird that these guys just somehow appear in the house, there is a way. Down in the cellar, there is a route to the outside, this will be the way I will get the kids to enter the basement for the final encounter.
If the kids want to fight the bully, then so be it and they will discover he is bugs that way. But the way I want them to find out will also tell the kids that he is a pawn of the witch. By leading the kids down into the cellar, the bully can go stand by the side of the witch and there can be this revelation. The witch can then kill the bully, he is becoming a little stale after all, in which he will explode into a mess of bugs.
Will it work?
Who knows, but I sure as shit will come back and write down my thoughts and challenges I faced.
Until then!
Much love <3