The Gaming Den

Does anyone have any good ideas for a Call of Cthulhu one-shot set in the present day, preferably adaptable to Canada? I'm set to direct a session but my brain juice has run dry.

The system is a slightly modified version of CoC d20. As a result the PCs are level three with a few more skill points and feats than the usual. They will have had little to no contact with the supernatural (so no spells or artifacts), but are otherwise fairly competent (including in combat).

Where in Canada? The Northern Territories are a great place for the Wendigo and his followers to start stalking. There are a bunch of small, slightly creepy fishing towns on Vancouver Island that might well be home to a deep one Cthulhu cult. A forgotten old-growth forest in BC could also house some dark young, which could have disastrous consequences for the logging company that thinks it's landed the deal of a lifetime.

I don't know CoC as a system, but I did go on a Lovecraft binge a while back.

I'd suggest the Migo, if they're given a treatment in CoC. They're creepy, and could conceivably be found in the Canadian Rockies.


Edit: I would suggest the party deal with a smart shoggoth (think as smart as you are), but I get the feeling the goopies have been mined extensively in the course of CoC games...

CoC d20 has a system that really doesn't work well. Let's face it - you're basically playing d20 Modern. Fortunately, you're talking a one-shot so you don't have to deal with the oppressively shitty character advancement rules.

But really, you're talking Canada, which has the longest distances between areas of civilization of any country in the Western World. Seriously, the distances between those places are completely insane. It gets to the pont where you don't even have to have the car break down, you just have to have the gas station closed when they get there. You won't be able to drive all the way back from Rigolet, Newfoundland to anywhere if the gas at Rigolet ha been taken out by a Tupilak.

-Username17

- Driving a truck on an iceroad to supply the people up north. Stuff happens during trip, or perhaps the town is gone and you need to find a way back before you get et or freeze.

- On an oil or a diamond expedition in northern Alberta and accidentally discover an underground civilization that isn't dead. You're alone, isolated and stuck with no long-distance transportation until the next supply shipment.

- Camping in like, Algonquin Park and finding strange cults as you canoe and portage through the areas.

This idea could just as easily be adapted to the days of Voyageur and such. Hell, the fur routes literally went from one end of the continent to the other, so you could conceivably have a long-term/distance campaign.

I'll admit I lack full knowledge of CoC (working on that, slowly), but The Great White North has plenty of places for isolation, madness and entrapment.

Canada - come for the healthcare, stay for the eldritch horror!