Merudo

Thank you so much for the suggestion! I think my issue is that both Siren and Ellen Gray come with a handgun (.22 auto and .32 auto respectively). So, it's not clear to me how they would have access to such weapons, but not the yacht owner... It's even worse when you consider that shotguns are legal in the UK, but not handguns... A solution would be to remove the handguns from Siren & Ellen but that doesn't seem fair to these two characters either. P.S. It's so cool that you run Derelict so many times!

Thanks for the tip! Your comment made me think, how is the monster supposed to come and go from the Cargo Hold? Is it jumping or climbing through the big Cargo Hatches, or is it small enough to climb the three ladders?

Thank you for letting me know about that episode - it was eerie how similar it was to The Derelict!

About shotguns: I found out recently that they do not, in fact, cause Impale damage on an extreme success. This reduces the damage from an extreme success from an average of 33 to 19 (24-5), which is more reasonable.

I've seen that video, but it doesn't address any of the concerns I currently have.

I’m going to run the Derelict scenario soon (the version from Petersen's Abominations), and I came up with the following ideas that I’d like to share and discuss. General: - I made character sheets for the captain and first mate. If a PC dies, they can take control of a NPC until they are used up. - Decide ahead of time if the PCs can bring shotguns and other weaponry on the Yacht, and if satellite phones / Walkie-Talkies are available (I allowed a single shotgun). - I gave a distinctive item/piece of clothing to each NPC – if a NPC is left alone and gets killed by the Sciapod, it may remove the corpse but leave the item behind as an ominous sign. - If the group parties hard on the Yacht, they may leave some empty bottles around. If they later try to hide on the Yacht, they may bump and break some, revealing their position to the Sciapod - After the initial attack from the Sciapod, the party may start to relax and spent a lot of time discussing what to do next. I'd roll two dice in secret, and told the group the Sciapod would show up again in a number of minutes equals to my dice roll. It's a nice way to keep the tension up! - The Sciapod is extremely lethal, and can kill a PC in a single hit. I think most of the fun of the scenario is to have the PCs die one by one. However, I would try to make sure the PCs always have a way out or a chance to survive, so that their deaths are not seen as outside their control. I would have its first melee attack to be the "Clutch and Crush" maneuver instead of a simple Fighting action for this reason. - If someone sees the Sciapod, make sure to make it know it is incredibly muscular and powerful. You want to avoid the case where 3 PCs try to do an opposed strength roll against the monster and become upset when it fails without a roll (the rules for combining investigator strength is found on page 88 in the CoC 7th Core Book, under "Physical Human Limits") Creepy events, for investigator in the yacht: - Investigator may see a splash in the water, then something driving through the water towards the yacht - Investigator may hear something jumping on the boat - Investigator can spot the Sciapod on the Reefer - The Sciapod can dramatically enter the Yacht, such as jumping through a window Creepy events, if the Yacht has a NPC in it - PCs may see the sciapod heading toward the Yacht – it’s up to them to warn its occupants, lure the sciapod away, or just run in the opposite direction - The PCs may later return to the Yacht and find the place wrecked and the NPC dead, with a 6-foot long crystal harpoon embedded in their corpse - The PCs may later return to the Yacht to find the place wrecked and no trace of the NPC. They then hear some scary rustling from a closet/bathroom/etc! which is then revealed to be the NPC, who having managed to hide from the Sciapod Creepy events, if the PC are communicating through Walkie-Talkie with a NPC - The NPC may not answer because it is dead - Alternatively, have the NPC not answer because the Sciapod is near it. The NPC can call later and describe how close it came to dying - Or, have the NPC answer normally. The conversation can be then cut short by a sciapod attack (either on the PCs or NPC) Reefer - The main deck makes a nifty location for the Sciapod to ambush the PCs, perhaps after they come back after finding the mountain of corpses in Hold 1. It’s interesting because the PCs have a lot of choices on how they escape (run to the Yacht, hide in superstructure, return to the cargo holds, jump off the reefer, etc.). The main deck is effectively the “hub” through which all important locations in the adventure are connected – having an attack there will make the PCs uneasy each time they switch locations Superstructure: - The superstructure has a lot of rooms – I think there is a danger of a keeper spending too much time here. - There can be creepy noises periodically through the structure – it could be straining metal, or it could be the Sciapod. - The PCs may return to the superstructure later on to access the CO2 canisters, the kitchen, and the lifeboat. - The lifeboat been lowered from the fourth floor could attract the Sciapod. The PCs would then be trapped at the top of the structure, and would have to figure out a way to go down - The scenario recommends that the Erik the Red’s Saga book in level 3 be found “once the investigators have done an initial inspection of the vessel”. However, it’s unlikely the investigators will go back to explore level 3 once they are done with the superstructure, and it’s hard to justify the investigators missing the book the first time around. Maybe the book can be found elsewhere – such as in the engine room. - The PCs may revisit the CO2 room in their fight against the Sciapod. They will probably try to move the CO2 to another room and/or make a trap out of it. Have the Sciapod comes around that time so they'll have to distract it while they set the trap up. Cargo Hold: - If the PCs ignore the Superstructure and go straight to the Cargo Hold, I’d consider moving the creepy pile of bodies from Cargo Hold 1 to Level 5 of the superstructure. I think it’s important to build tension through the exploration of the superstructure before the pile is revealed. - If the party doesn’t have a shotgun, they could spot one in the body pile in Hold 1. A PC wanting it would then have to dig it out of the frozen pile of human corpses – causing a sanity loss. - When climbing back up, the PCs may see a tarpaulin moving from one of the crates below (the Sciapod waking up). A spooky way to give the players a warning that something is coming for them. Delusions from sanity loss: - Once the controls of the Delilah are destroyed, a delusional PC may believe that the Delilah remain operational. The insane PC may start hearing an imaginary voice on the broken radio, or believe that they are piloting the Yacht. - The piles of corpses in Hold 1 may appear to be ghouls, who wake up and roam the ship - A delusional PC could hear voices, or creepy music, from the intercom in the reefer - A PC could start receiving calls on his phone, even though they don’t get signal - Appropriate Phobias: Claustrophobia, Hydrophobia (fear of water), Ichthyophobia (fear of fish), Cheimaphobia (fear of cold), Megalophobia (fear of large things), Monophobia (fear of being alone), Necrophobia (fear of dead things), Phagophobia (fear of being eaten), Thalassophobia (fear of the sea), Xenoglossophobia (fear of foreign languages) - If the cargo has not been explored, a mad character could find himself returning to his senses in the cargo hold surrounded by 13 sailors who apparently survived. Of course, it's an hallucination: the 13 sailors are actually 13 corpses.

SPOILERS AHEAD! I’m going to run the Derelict scenario soon and I would appreciate some advice on how to run it. My prime concern is that the yacht owner may request shotguns and satellite phones. Both are also hard to disallow - the Yacht owner has expertise in shotguns and has "You have to know how to protect yourself" as a belief, and satellite phones are quite common for Yachts. Shotguns can do outrageous amount of damage, especially on an extreme success. Two of the premade investigators have 45% shotgun skill, which can be increase to 75% through the 30% skill bonus. If these investigators can see the monster, they can attack it with a bonus die because of its size. If one of them achieves an extreme success, the shotgun blast will do about 33 damage on average (24+4d6-5) – which almost kills the monster! Satellite phones completely remove the isolation of the scenario – they effectively break the game. But, it’s even harder to justify disallowing them in the game – they provide convenience, safety, and are quite cheap compared to the price of the Yacht itself. Hence my first question: how can I deal with shotguns and satellite phones in my game? Secondly, it is my understanding that the exploration of the reefer is intended to proceed in the order Superstructure -> Cargo Hold -> Monster attack. However, it’s possible the players go straight to the Cargo Hold (to inspect either the cargo, the engine, or the iceberg breach) in which case they’ll find the pile of 13 human bodies immediately, putting them into panic mode. They will thus completely skip the building of tension that should have happened during the exploration of the superstructure, and the pacing will be ruined. How can I prevent my players from going directly into the cargo hold?

I like the idea of a foreman, and can make for a memorable character as well. Greed can work for the main character but not really for the five others. The main issue is that there is no much indication that the PCs can actually close the gate. There are parts of an invocation behind the paintings but as far as the investigators are concerned it might be a invocation to open up the gate, or to make things worse. I'm sorry to say this, but do you think it is at all possible that said player was cheating and read the adventure beforehand?

I'd like to run Hell Hotel scenario but some of its aspects confuse me. First, how do you prevent the party from just running away? Most characters don't have a strong motivation to stay at the hotel once its decrepit state is discovered. It would make sense for most of them to bail out at the first sign of danger. Secondly, how is the party supposed to figure out there is a gate beneath the hotel? Even if they understand that the 7 disasters are related, it's unclear to me how they are supposed to understand that there is a gate underneath the hotel and that it can be closed. Thirdly, one of the "solution" to the scenario is so far fetched I can't believe anyone managed to do it. Basically you have to dig out a piles of human bones and throw them through the portal, and that somehow closes the gate. I have zero idea what's the logic behind this ending, even through I read the entire chapter. How are investigators supposed to figure it out?