Fixing Up the Old Corbitt Place: Some Notes on "The Haunting"

"Verulam," a house for sale for the first time since 1924. Source: HouseCrazy

Here is a house. It sits alone, in a largely commercial neighborhood that's long passed it by, brooding in the shadows of newer buildings.

This house has an unfortunate reputation. Its owner cannot sell it. Things have happened here. Things remain here. You stand at the threshold.

Will you enter?

Call of Cthulhu's Stalwart Introductory Scenario for 30+ Years

For many people, The Haunting is the introductory Call of Cthulhu scenario. Packaged with pretty much every edition of the game, its most recent version is available in the free Quickstart Rules for 7th Edition. This Scenario has been many peoples' first taste of what Call of Cthulhu is all about, and as such we want it to showcase the best and most exciting things the game has to offer. 

I ran it recently, for a group that had never played Cthulhu before. In preparing it for them, and in gauging their reactions and noting their choices during play, I started to think about whether this scenario really does everything we might want it to do as an introduction to Call of Cthulhu. 

Before we go further, let me note: for my money, "Edge of Darkness" is a better scenario to introduce people to the game, especially the version that appears in the starter set. Nonetheless, you really can't go wrong with The Haunting, but perhaps there are ways to tweak it so you can go a little more right. This post is absolutely riddled with spoilers for the Haunting, but I've tried to speak only obliquely about some of the more delightful surprises.

What's Wrong with The Haunting?

The biggest thing to keep in mind is that this scenario is meant to be an introduction. It's meant to be run, sometimes by a first-time Keeper, for players who are brand-new to the game, or nearly so. And so it has to account for a few things right away:

First, new Investigators (and some seasoned ones, honestly) may be too hung up on "What's my motivation? Why would I go into this obviously creepy house?" They may not yet have learned the valuable Scott Dorward aphorism, "When playing a horror game, engage with the fucking scenario!"

Second, they may be tempted to skip all that boring background research and go straight ahead to poke around in the old mansion. This is, technically, "fine," in that there aren't any Cthulhu Police who will kick in your door and force you to experience all the content available to you... yet. But in reality this cuts out half the gameplay and much of the archetypal CoC experience, so really, it's not fine.

Next: it may be played in a Convention setting, so keeping it at or under 4 hours is important. Mostly this is accomplished by clear signposting of clues and occasional Keeper interventions to help the Investigator stay on track. 

Then: some problems arise when the Investigators actually get to the house, especially if the Keepers are as new as the players. 

First, the description of the rooms leaves the Keeper to come up with many of the scares, and to decide how to pace them out. This is a good thing for more experienced Keepers, but may be a downside for a newer group.

Also, 7th edition CoC has a chase mechanic. And it's cool! But it's not featured in this scenario at all! Later on I offer an option for a chase.

So - let's take these problems in order. I'll talk about what I did, but naturally this is not authoritative. Feel free to address the problems in a way that works for you and your group, or to ignore them altogether as the ramblings of a paranoid madman with delusions of grandeur. You would not be wrong!

What's My Motivation? And Why Not Head Straight for the House?

Many of the issues I've heard people mention with this scenario come right at the beginning. What if they don't need the money? Why even go to all this trouble, even for the not-inconsiderable sum being offered by the landlord Mr. Knott? And once they've taken the case, so to speak, why not just go straight to the house and poke around in it?

As far as motivation goes, you - the Keeper, presumably - can and should take care of that before play even starts. Once everyone has their Investigator, just be upfront with them: "The game we're playing tonight revolves around exploring a haunted house. So, at some point, you're going to want to do that. OK?" Good - that takes care of that. And, in fact, the text in the Quickstart does advise you to do just that. But inevitably, someone would say "Wouldn't a rational person run away now, knowing what we know about the house?" To which the Keeper must respond "Indeed, but you are an Investigator, not a rational person. Now press forward!"

As far as the problem of making sure they go to the house eventually, but not without doing some digging into its history: I admit - I cheated a little. I wanted to set things up so that the Investigators *would* eventually go to the house, but that they would accomplish other things first. As Keeper - as someone, that is, with the ability to alter the narrative by fiat - I built myself a backdoor to use in case things were threatening to off the rails.

It is March 3, 1920, in Boston. You stand in front of an aging, abandoned brick house. This house holds tight to its secrets. Now - let’s flash back to a couple of days ago, and find out why you're here, and what you've learned about this place before you arrived.

Then we go straight into the meeting with Mr. Knott, a few days prior. Is this the most elegant thing ever done in an RPG? No. But it worked for me, and if the Investigators seemed to be stalling out or running low on session time, we could always have the option of "flashing forward" again, bringing them back in front of the house, and moving ahead with the investigation.

Of course, once they're sitting down with Mr. Knott, other pitfalls present themselves. The Investigators may quibble with Knott's real estate strategy - why not just lower the price and take the loss? I heard one Keeper wondering why Mr. Knott wouldn't just knock the place down and build an office building. Or, the Investigators may just say "All right, let's go check out the house. If we don't find anything, it's clean!"

The solution to this, I think, is to have learning the history of the house be an explicit objective given to them by Knott. In the case of my group, Knott told them:

"My wife is a member of the Boston Historical Society, you see. You know how the ladies of these New England historical societies are. Not so bad here as in someplace like Marble Head, of course, but as she tells it, you're no one until you've made a contribution to their quarterly journal. She's let me know, in no uncertain terms, that publishing a full and detailed accounting of the Corbitt House’s history would be just the thing to improve her standing with that group."

And with that we've established a key objective. It's not enough simply to investigate the house itself. The Investigators need to know the history of it: who lived there, what happened to it, how it came to be the way it is. This way, Mr. Knott has a stake in compiling that information - or rather, having the Investigators compile it for him. 

Having an explicit objective to find the history of the house also helps the Keeper and Investigators stay on track. They can focus on building out the ownership history of the house: from the original owner, to Corbitt, down to the Macarios and eventual acquisition by Mr. Knott. Then, once the history is established, the Investigators might reasonably wish to speak to the Macarios, or explore the Chapel of Contemplation. Or, they could just go to the house, which is a perfectly reasonable thing to do at that point! So let's do that!

Stepping Up the Scares at the Corbitt House

As written in the scenario, the Corbitt house has a few decent scares in it, but almost everything is left up to the imagination of the Keeper to find ways to provide a creepy and unsettling atmosphere. Without getting too far into specific spoilers, the current scenario gives:

• Some signs of decay downstairs
• A potentially-lethal encounter upstairs
• The final encounters with Corbitt and his weapon of choice

Now, if you're running low on time, that's fine! But if you have an hour or two left in your session, you can afford to luxuriate in some more creepiness. And an inexperienced Keeper may not have anything ready to go that is both effective and in keeping with the theme of the house and its history. 

(Unavoidable spoiler inbound in this paragraph!.......) Remember also that Corbitt has use of the Dominate spell, which can create hallucinations in the minds of his victims. Also recall that one of Corbitt's objectives is to misdirect the Investigators so they stay away from his biggest secret. All right? Here we go! Anything requiring expenditure of a Magic Point (for using Dominate) is listed in its own sub-section. 

Everyone is going to have their own favored tricks and haunts, but here are a few I added. Whether or not you call for 1/1d3 SAN rolls after each of these is up to you. See how your Investigators are faring, and whether they need the extra pressure put on them.

Living Room:

• The radio begins playing by itself. If switched off, unplugged, or smashed to bits, it still will occasionally start up the same song. I took an instrumental song, slowed it down a bit, and added a bit of reverb. I posted it on Youtube, here.
• I shamelessly stole this bit from the How We Roll podcast. Thanks to you folks!
• If the Investigators have met, or seen a picture of, Gloria Macario, one of figurines of the Virgin Mary has Gloria's face, and has reddish tracks of tears on a face of genuine misery.

Dining Room:

• Shattered glass crunches underfoot near the walls (remnants of thrown glassware)
• Mahogany table has gouge marks in the wood
• Pot with some scraps of rice soup (as written in the scenario)... except, wait, my mistake. That’s not rice, unless rice wriggles and writhes.  

Kitchen: 

• The sound of scurrying, scratching  and chewing comes from inside a pantry. If opened, no rats are found.
• This is also where I chose to start the sounds of thumping and scratching from the upstairs bedroom. Since the stairs to both the upper level and the basement originate in the kitchen, it seems like Corbitt would have a vested interest in making sure they don't go downstairs.

Macarios' Bedroom:

• A [Listen] check draws attention the window, where children can be seen playing just down the street. This is a bit strange because there are only office buildings there, and it is more strange because the children's clothes are at least 10 years out of date (they date to the year the neighbors made complaints about their missing children.)
• A crucifix rotates upside down while the Investigators watch. The figure of Jesus falls off, leaving no mark of glue or fastener. Closer inspection shows he has the face of Vittorio Macario, twisted in a snarl of rage.

Spare Bedroom:

• There is a pool of blood on the floor... and water is dripping up to the ceiling, where it flows in a line toward the window. What's the deal with that window? Why not check it out!

Empty Coal Storage Bin: 

• The inside of the door has long scratches and gouges on it, matching the pattern of human hands.

Dominate effects, that can mostly be used anywhere.
The Keeper should make a hidden roll of the Investigators' POW against Corbitt's; any Investigator who loses suffers one of the following at any time:

• Smells smoke, hears crackling of fire - “We have to get out!”
• Finds a picture of one of the other Investigators with the Macarios in happier times: “Why didn’t you tell me you knew them? What else are you hiding?”
• Sees a tattoo of the Chapel symbol on another Investigator
• Overhears two Investigators gossiping about them: “We can’t tell [X], he’s just not ready!”
• Sees an Investigator glaring at them with naked, terrifying hatred.
• Remembers that they’re here to find a huge cache of gold buried in the earth floor of the basement. Nothing else matters, they have to get the gold before the police get here, they have to get the gold get the gold!

Discovering that no one else experienced any given hallucination is probably worth a 0/1 SAN loss, wouldn't you say?

Special Option for Using Very Simplified Chase Rules: An Impossible Labyrinth in the House

(With thanks/apologies to Mark Danielewski whose book House of Leaves inspired this).

Within the confines of a two-level house, there isn't much room for a physical chase. However, within the confines of the mind, and given Corbitt's tendency to use Dominate... here's what I propose. This whole encounter should take no more than 10 minutes.

The storage rooms on the main level don't really have anything going on in them, just some piles of junk. So: the first time one or more Investigators enter, they all immediately make contested POW rolls against Corbitt (with Corbitt spending 1 MP per Investigator to be tested).

If the Investigator wins the roll (i.e. gets a regular success while Corbitt fails, gets a Hard success against his Regular, or Extreme against his Hard), they experience a brief wave of disorientation: their footsteps echo strangely, the room seems unnaturally dark if it was previously lit, the air feels cool and clammy, and there is a momentary smell of musk and sour breath. Then it fades, and the Keeper may choose to call for a 0/1 SAN roll.

If the Investigator loses the roll... the find themselves standing in a long, dim corridor. It stretches on ahead and behind them, with no clear end visible in either direction. This is definitely not the room they just entered, and in fact it cannot possibly exist within the physical space of the house. Give them a moment to wallow in their confusion and disorientation.

Then, from behind them, they hear a sound: a buzzing, chittering sound, squeaking and huffing, and the trod of heavy feet, all at once. Red eyes blaze from a cloud of roiling black. It is coming towards them. It is coming closer. It will be on them in a moment... the Chase is on!

There are 3 locations in this chase, 2 of which have a Hazard the Investigator must get past in order to escape the labyrinth. To drastically simplify and adapt the chase rules, this is how we'll do it:

1. The Chase goes round by round, just like combat. Each round, every Investigator can do one (or more) of the following: move to the next location, or perform an action that doesn't require a check, or perform an action requiring a skill check.
1. Every Round, the Pursuer may move forward 1 Location. It is not slowed by a Hazard. If it ends up in the same location as an Investigator, and the Investigator is out of Movement Actions, the Pursuer will use its Movement Action to attack the Investigator (see step 4 below).
2. If the Investigator rolled 2 levels above Corbitt on their POW (e.g. Hard success vs. his fail), they get an extra Movement Action each round. Otherwise, everyone gets one Movement Action. To go from one Location to the next requires 1 Movement Action, unless there is a Hazard the way.
3. When confronted with a Hazard, the Investigator(s) must make a skill roll to get past it. If they spend 1 or 2 Movement Actions, they get one or two bonus dice on the skill roll. If they run out of Movement Actions in this Round, they can still clear the obstacle but won't be able to move until the next Round.
4. If at any point an Investigator fails to clear a Hazard, or if they wind up at the same location as the Pursuer and they have no more Movement Actions, then the Pursuer falls upon them. As their vision goes black, the Investigator feels a hot gust of stinking breath, the claws and tiny needle teeth of dozens of furry vermin, the stab of a knife in their guts. They take 1/1d6 SAN loss and "wake up" from their experience in the Labyrinth, standing at the entrance to the storage room, back in the real house. Only a few seconds have passed. Anyone watching them experience this might not know anything is wrong, until the Investigator regains awareness and suffers the effects of SAN loss.

Locations & Hazards:

1. Seemingly-endless corridor. The floor is smooth grey stone, the walls rough wood, the ceiling shrouded in darkness. All sounds echo strangely here, and it is impossible to accurately judge distance by sound. There are doorways visible in the walls "up ahead" - the direction is unimportant.
1. The Pursuer is at a hypothetical "Location 0" - it can be seen and heard, but it is always "behind" the Investigator, whichever direction they're facing. It can appear to be behind multiple people even if they are facing different directions.
2. Whichever way an Investigator chooses to go, they will reach the next Hazard, and then (if they make it) the next Location. Directions and geography are subjective to each person experiencing the Labyrinth.
2. Through the first doorway they enter, they find themselves in a hallway scarcely taller and wider than a crawlspace. The walls here are made of planks nailed to studs, with little space between them. At the far end - maybe 25 yards away - is a door. They briefly have a clear glimpse of the door: It is clad in old leather, thick and wrinkled, grey and sickly-colored.
1. With a [Spot Hidden] roll they notice 2 things: first, that the door gently flexes in and out, as though breathing. Second, that flames dance just behind the wooden plank walls, and that the flames are growing.
2. HAZARD: A fire has started, and the hallway is quickly filling with smoke. At Keeper's discretion, the Investigator must make a [Navigate] roll to find their way to the door, a [CON] roll to avoid succumbing to the smoke, [Dodge] to avoid falling fiery timbers, or any other appropriate challenge. If they fail the roll, or retreat back out to the corridor, the hallucination ends with SAN loss as described above. If they succeed, move to Location 3.
3. Beyond the leather door lies a low-ceilinged stone chapel. 3 walls are bare stone, marked only by the presence of inverted crucifixes with blasphemous depictions on them. The fourth wall, impossibly, is a towering stained glass window in impossibly varied and subtle shades of black and gray. It depicts a man upright but positioned as if in the grave, thin, long-fingered hands crossed over his naked chest. Halfway up the window, a panel of glass is missing; it is large enough to allow a person to clamber through. His face is indistinct, but two red eyes burn fiercely in it.
1. There are several rows of pews. They are made of the same stiff, grey leather as the door in the previous location, but they look hard and unyielding as stone. Sitting on them, 17 figures in tattered silk robes. As one, they turn to stare at the intruders, then rise and point accusing fingers. Their hands are skeletal; their hoods are empty, save for two blazing red eyes. 
2. HAZARD: The robed figures will come for the Investigators. As the labyrinth operates under a sort of dream or nightmare logic, it's not necessary to have a detailed combat. Any reasonable approach should be allowed here, but each Investigator has time to make only one roll. [Brawl] would see them through the crowd; [Throw] would work to shatter the window; [Climb], improbably, would allow them to scale the stained glass and escape. One success is all they need; one failure is all it takes for them to fall to the robes, and then the Pursuer. 
3. Either way, after this location, they wake from the Chase. If they escaped with a successful roll in Location 3, they take only 1 SAN loss. If they were caught, they take 1/1d6, as described above. 

Wrapping Up:

I hope this was useful to you! On my playthrough, my Investigators had had enough by the time they reached the basement. One was already nearly dead from the upstairs bedroom encounter, and another was down to a precious few SAN. After their encounter in the main room of the basement, they went back to the kitchen, turned on the gas, and send the house up in a fireball. Honestly, I can't blame them.

Oh, one more piece of advice: In the scenario, it mentions that Corbitt might summon a dimensional shambler if he gets into trouble. I don't love this idea, because it is not really thematically in line with the rest of the scares. It introduces something really out of context that, I think, would be more distracting and confusing than scary. With the added scares (and optional heavy SAN loss, especially in the Chase scene), you should have more than enough fuel to reduce your Investigators to quivering psych patients. You can mostly leave the Mythos out of this one.

Finally: My thanks to Jon Hook, of the Miskatonic University Podcast.  In addition to being a great writer and a patient discussant, Jon is also forever dreaming of the Old Corbitt House. He has some great ideas for increasing scares and making this doughty old adventure feel new again, and you should ask him about them sometime - or better yet, seek him out at a con and play through it with him!

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Want more of what I do? I have a number of best-selling Adventures and GM guides for the 7th Sea system at this link, available via DriveThruRPG! (Edit: For some reason if you click the link on mobile it goes to the homepage, not the site I was aiming at. To find what I've written, go to drivethrurpg.com and search for me, "Evan Perlman." Good luck!)  They are reasonably popular and inexpensive, so check them out! And now, it's been announced that 7th Sea will live under the same Chaosium roof as Call of Cthulhu - so there's some nice synergy for you!