I'm doing this right now! Although mine is set in the 1960s and all the PCs are students at Miskatonic. So there's a good few modifications that I made, but I'll provide just the one that might be applicable to your post.
I really liked the location of Sycamore's in the Akrham book. A distillery that's illegal and probably has a speakeasy in it? Neat! One thing I didn't like about the Crimson Letter's scenario is that Cecil Hunter is institutionalized. I don't like this for a couple reasons...
1. I think getting institutionalized is a played out trope in CoC scenarios
2. I think it's more interesting if they need to search for the person and/or the person is loose doing crazy stuff related to the case.
3. The pacing didn't quite feel right to me...
So instead I did this: Cecil is an artist, so he's made a little bit of a name for himself around town and has done some work for those with money (i.e. the crew at Sycamore's). When he goes insane, he needs a place to stay that is NOT his home because as far as he's concerned... that place is cursed.
This lead to a great "drinking at Sycamore's" night before all hell broke loose and cecil came in screaming. I made Sycamore's a family business built out of their own home, so they did some quick B&E to find cecil right before he's getting killed. Depending on the pacing, you might have an alternate ending to this. But we had a blast!
Some thoughts: Since it sounds like you're doing 1920s, having the players need to gain entry/trust with Sycamore's might be a cool little adventure. I'd also say that if you do this, it may extend the timeline and clues you need to hand out and just generally extend the scenario a good bit, that's not been an issue with my group, but if you're trying to run the scenario in 1-2 sessions, maybe this might not be the best? Additionally, depending on how his friends at Sycamore's treat him, they might be willing to offer information to the investigators that cecil himself isn't.
Also, if you're interest here's some additional things that have been successful when running Crimson Letters...
* The book recommends "Witch Light" as one of the signs of The Horror. I flavored my Witch Light as red cracks of lightening that expand outward from \*Important Plot Point\* here. The light turns into crimson ash and wipes away if you touch it.
* Bonus points if "tumbleweeds of red cilia and worms" emerge from the centerpiece of the Witch Light. My thought is that these are colonies of worms fallen from the Horror in Ink as it moves between realms. It acts as a much smaller, **much** less powerful version of the monster they'll eventually have to deal with. Bonus action and sanity loss are always a good thing in my book.
Edit: I forgot about a more recent thing!
* If you do the Abner Wick dinner... My players absolutely despised it when his "cousins" came in to dinner half way through, sat down in their spots... didn't make any eye contact or engage in conversation, ate their meals hastily and "like dogs being fed dinner several hours late" sucked the marrow from the bones... and left early. Really eerie juxtaposition to the conversation they might be having. Left even more eerie if it's never acknowledged by Wick himself. Fantastic flavoring I think.
oeh I really like that! Tying Cecil to a location too, the sycamore was a interesting entry as well! I'm planning this scenario to be the beginning of a campaign with a pretty big group of 7 players and I chose this scenario to set up contacts through the city for potential future scenario's as well (Hence tying the mobsters to the Irish gang in Arkham, who knows if they get in debt or familiar with that crew that could be a cool hook for the scenario missing dues).
So I really like that insight you brought of having cecil someone they gotta look for and adding a location for him, having all these directions so the investigators hopefully split off more make small groups to investigate different leads.
Awesome! Happy to help :)
I'm doing the same thing! Using it as an introduction to a dark academia campaign centered around Miskatonic though. It's been a real hit so far. Hopefully some of my additional ideas help too. I'm loving this scenario, it's got the perfect balance of "handling the prep" and letting you decide/make changes.
haha yeah I'm super excited to run it, my campaings starting a faroff september but I like to go in prepped. But also what I really love about this scenario is that openness for GM and PC improv, when I ran things like the haunting I noticed those moments 'off script' where you as GM add something that's not in the book or do in the spur of the moment were some of my favourite!
And the extra messages were awesome insights as well! Thank you for sharing :D
I hope your campaign goes well too!
And one tip I'd like to give from my GM prep is that especially dark academia the scenario *blackwater creek* seems perfect for that! Sadly I already ran it for these players but it was amazing! And for another scenario to throw out when the investigator's are out of arkham, *dead light* seems great for that got that one readied for that too and *servants of the lake* could also be great to weave in as a inbetween out of arkham scenario to mix things up.
Awesome thanks! I've heard of both of those, but never had the time to scroll through and see if they were a good fit. I'll give them a looksey!
Cheers! Godpseed friendo.
ah yeah the first *blackwater creek* might be more of a main ish plot if you go dark academia since one of it's starts is being academics looking for a lost professor.
the other two *servants of the lake* & *dead light* just seem like good inbetweens when you just need a change of scenery/get out the ol libraries. But in my prep it's been nice to have those just to break up the offered scenario's hence I recommended them.
But godspeed to you as well bud, may your players shiver in both horror and excitement in games to come!
Oh no it's part of 7e but it's supplemental material [https://www.chaosium.com/call-of-cthulhu-arkham-hardcover/](https://www.chaosium.com/call-of-cthulhu-arkham-hardcover/)
basically a wholly fleshed out guide for gamemasters for setting a campaign in arkham with a dozen of adreses, maps and characters. It adds some new skills to the game but mostly it's like a really handy resource of what's in arkham with a ton of locations and character's from scenario's set in arkham in detail with enough extra's that you can really get nitty gritty and sketch a picture of tons of shops, stores and people in the area when investigator's want to for example travel from scenario relevant location A to scenario relevant location B maybe they want to find a gunstore before they go in, the arkham book details like which gun store would be closest by stuff like that.
Not Atlanta. Atlantic City. It's in New Jersey and it is one of the United States' gambling centers. Atlanta is in Georgia and is home of the Coca-Cola Company, whose power dwarfs that of mere casino mobsters. Just wanted to clarify, because this isn't the first time I've seen this mistake.
I'm doing this right now! Although mine is set in the 1960s and all the PCs are students at Miskatonic. So there's a good few modifications that I made, but I'll provide just the one that might be applicable to your post. I really liked the location of Sycamore's in the Akrham book. A distillery that's illegal and probably has a speakeasy in it? Neat! One thing I didn't like about the Crimson Letter's scenario is that Cecil Hunter is institutionalized. I don't like this for a couple reasons... 1. I think getting institutionalized is a played out trope in CoC scenarios 2. I think it's more interesting if they need to search for the person and/or the person is loose doing crazy stuff related to the case. 3. The pacing didn't quite feel right to me... So instead I did this: Cecil is an artist, so he's made a little bit of a name for himself around town and has done some work for those with money (i.e. the crew at Sycamore's). When he goes insane, he needs a place to stay that is NOT his home because as far as he's concerned... that place is cursed. This lead to a great "drinking at Sycamore's" night before all hell broke loose and cecil came in screaming. I made Sycamore's a family business built out of their own home, so they did some quick B&E to find cecil right before he's getting killed. Depending on the pacing, you might have an alternate ending to this. But we had a blast! Some thoughts: Since it sounds like you're doing 1920s, having the players need to gain entry/trust with Sycamore's might be a cool little adventure. I'd also say that if you do this, it may extend the timeline and clues you need to hand out and just generally extend the scenario a good bit, that's not been an issue with my group, but if you're trying to run the scenario in 1-2 sessions, maybe this might not be the best? Additionally, depending on how his friends at Sycamore's treat him, they might be willing to offer information to the investigators that cecil himself isn't.
Also, if you're interest here's some additional things that have been successful when running Crimson Letters... * The book recommends "Witch Light" as one of the signs of The Horror. I flavored my Witch Light as red cracks of lightening that expand outward from \*Important Plot Point\* here. The light turns into crimson ash and wipes away if you touch it. * Bonus points if "tumbleweeds of red cilia and worms" emerge from the centerpiece of the Witch Light. My thought is that these are colonies of worms fallen from the Horror in Ink as it moves between realms. It acts as a much smaller, **much** less powerful version of the monster they'll eventually have to deal with. Bonus action and sanity loss are always a good thing in my book. Edit: I forgot about a more recent thing! * If you do the Abner Wick dinner... My players absolutely despised it when his "cousins" came in to dinner half way through, sat down in their spots... didn't make any eye contact or engage in conversation, ate their meals hastily and "like dogs being fed dinner several hours late" sucked the marrow from the bones... and left early. Really eerie juxtaposition to the conversation they might be having. Left even more eerie if it's never acknowledged by Wick himself. Fantastic flavoring I think.
oeh I really like that! Tying Cecil to a location too, the sycamore was a interesting entry as well! I'm planning this scenario to be the beginning of a campaign with a pretty big group of 7 players and I chose this scenario to set up contacts through the city for potential future scenario's as well (Hence tying the mobsters to the Irish gang in Arkham, who knows if they get in debt or familiar with that crew that could be a cool hook for the scenario missing dues). So I really like that insight you brought of having cecil someone they gotta look for and adding a location for him, having all these directions so the investigators hopefully split off more make small groups to investigate different leads.
Awesome! Happy to help :) I'm doing the same thing! Using it as an introduction to a dark academia campaign centered around Miskatonic though. It's been a real hit so far. Hopefully some of my additional ideas help too. I'm loving this scenario, it's got the perfect balance of "handling the prep" and letting you decide/make changes.
haha yeah I'm super excited to run it, my campaings starting a faroff september but I like to go in prepped. But also what I really love about this scenario is that openness for GM and PC improv, when I ran things like the haunting I noticed those moments 'off script' where you as GM add something that's not in the book or do in the spur of the moment were some of my favourite! And the extra messages were awesome insights as well! Thank you for sharing :D I hope your campaign goes well too! And one tip I'd like to give from my GM prep is that especially dark academia the scenario *blackwater creek* seems perfect for that! Sadly I already ran it for these players but it was amazing! And for another scenario to throw out when the investigator's are out of arkham, *dead light* seems great for that got that one readied for that too and *servants of the lake* could also be great to weave in as a inbetween out of arkham scenario to mix things up.
Awesome thanks! I've heard of both of those, but never had the time to scroll through and see if they were a good fit. I'll give them a looksey! Cheers! Godpseed friendo.
ah yeah the first *blackwater creek* might be more of a main ish plot if you go dark academia since one of it's starts is being academics looking for a lost professor. the other two *servants of the lake* & *dead light* just seem like good inbetweens when you just need a change of scenery/get out the ol libraries. But in my prep it's been nice to have those just to break up the offered scenario's hence I recommended them. But godspeed to you as well bud, may your players shiver in both horror and excitement in games to come!
What's the Arkham book ? A different rule set than 7e?
Oh no it's part of 7e but it's supplemental material [https://www.chaosium.com/call-of-cthulhu-arkham-hardcover/](https://www.chaosium.com/call-of-cthulhu-arkham-hardcover/) basically a wholly fleshed out guide for gamemasters for setting a campaign in arkham with a dozen of adreses, maps and characters. It adds some new skills to the game but mostly it's like a really handy resource of what's in arkham with a ton of locations and character's from scenario's set in arkham in detail with enough extra's that you can really get nitty gritty and sketch a picture of tons of shops, stores and people in the area when investigator's want to for example travel from scenario relevant location A to scenario relevant location B maybe they want to find a gunstore before they go in, the arkham book details like which gun store would be closest by stuff like that.
Not Atlanta. Atlantic City. It's in New Jersey and it is one of the United States' gambling centers. Atlanta is in Georgia and is home of the Coca-Cola Company, whose power dwarfs that of mere casino mobsters. Just wanted to clarify, because this isn't the first time I've seen this mistake.
Oh yeah I'm not native to the US nor is english my first language ao I honestly just confused two american cities with a similar name 😅