A Strange Halloween

Our normal weekly GM had a last minute conflict and was unable to run our Achtung Cthulhu game. Since it is close to Halloween and +Monte Cook Games has released a preview for the upcoming instant adventure book Strange Revelations. I've run several adventures using the Monte Cook Games instant adventure format.  I'm a big fan of the format, as it provides a solid outline for an adventure, but leaves plenty of room for creativity and improvisation.  This post will contain spoilers for the adventure Game of Screams.

The adventure revolves around surviving a board game that is actually an artifact brought to Earth from the recursion Halloween.  The game has a Show Me that you can print out showing the game board.  The game is described as having jade goblin figures.  I was able to find some green goblin miniatures in my old Hero quest game.  I then hunted down a black d20 to go along with the game board that I printed out large enough so the goblins would fit on the squares.

Even though this was a one shot, I wanted to test the character creation abilities of the Cypher System.  I had everyone just pick their player sentence (I am a descriptor type who focuses).  From there we quickly polished up the characters.

• A Crazy Vector who is Adored by Millions
• An Attractive Spinner who Entertains
• A Slacker Paradox who Conducts Weird Science
• A ?? Vector who Steals
• A ?? Paradox who Conducts Weird Science

We broke the two of the same focus in the same group, mostly because by the time I realized it, we were almost done with character creation and I didn't want to force one of them to start over.

We then began the game, and the host of the part is immediately sucked into Halloween.  The only way to get her out is to finish the game.  During the game a D20 is rolled and results are determined via a table.  Players can get sucked into the game, or have Ghouls, Bats, or a Witch appear.  This is where I began to add quite a bit to the adventure.  The Witch came back several times, often to the same character.  I pulled up a list of silly Halloween riddles for her to ask.  They were pretty easy, but entertaining.

When the ghouls came to the door early in the game, one of the members of the Vector's entourage answered the door and was mauled.  This came into play later as the Ghouls and Bats can be bargained with using food.  I added in a werewolf, for whom the corpse of the entourage member turned out to be a nice little treat.   Later of course the corpse turned into a Zombie as well.

I also added as many Halloween themed items as I could think of.  Things like Jack-O-Lanterns, Tombstones, Fog, Fireworks, and strange sounds coming from the floor.  Several players got sucked into the game at various points as well, and were able to encounter the creepy doll in the potion room.

The players had a good time collecting all the ticks and treats.  It's a very interesting adventure, I had lots of fun coming up with interesting things for the players to do, and they had a good time overcoming all those challenges.  This is a great adventure to run around the Halloween season, or anytime you're looking for a little bit of spooky flavor.