Warning: contains spoilers for a couple of CoC scenarios and a 1990 Christmas film. And possibly Christmas.
I just ran Call of Cthulhu for the first time and online for the first time via Skype.
So, around this time last year, I had a spark of inspiration. In the classic beginner scenario, The Haunting, the investigators enter the house of someone who has set up traps to catch intruders and hilarious hijinks ensue. Now, my very warped mind realised that this is very similar to the plot of Home Alone.
However, I couldn’t quite see how to fit them together without the joke wearing a bit thin.
This idea percolated for a year until recently I got a copy of the Shadowlands Games’ scenario, 246 Corbitt Street, which is a modern-day scenario that is both a homage to and a sequel to The Haunting. This starts with the players being police personnel getting called in to effectively have to deal with a bunch and of investigators who have made a complete hash of completing The Haunting.
I realised I could use this start for a two-hour one-shot, getting the players into the house without doing prior investigations. Pregens were supplied in 246 Corbitt and I managed to persuade my Monday night group to let me run something for them.
So we started with an on-duty uniformed police officer giving lifts home to two detectives and a forensic scientist on snowy Christmas Eve 2024. However, the policeman gets diverted to a suspected burglary at a seemingly abandoned house.
The detectives offer to provide backup and they soon find a dead body in the dark house. The man had been killed by a crowbar and also had significant burns to his head. The forensic scientist began investigating.
In the living room, there were many broken Christmas ornaments on the floor. A blood trail was spotted leading upstairs to a locked bathroom. When the door was kicked in another man was found, babbling about traps and crowbars and basements. He became violent but was swiftly restrained. He was suffering from cuts to his feet from broken glass and an old nail. He also had a large bruise and burn on his face.
His identity was radioed in and the dispatch said he was a known petty criminal and burglar.
Also up stairs was a room with a bed that moved for no reason but the policeman dodged it. It was now time to enter the basement.
The policeman carefully went down the stairs, avoiding any nails and ball bearings. His torchlight revealed a load of old junk, some open boxes and a large hole that had been broken into a wall with a sledgehammer.
At this point, the crowbar rose up from the corpse and struck the forensic scientist knocking her unconscious.
While the detectives rendered first aid, secured the wounded man and stop the flying crowbar, the policeman was horrified to see the dedicated, wizened figure of a boy appear in the opening.
The child did not respond well to the policeman’s attempts to play ball with it although it was briefly distracted.
The detectives managed to grab the crowbar and revive the scientists and then made their way down to the cellar opening fire on the child-thing. It soon went down in a hail of bullets and crumbled into dust.
After that things returned to normal. The surviving by burglar was detained in a secure hospital and the police personnel made it through various reviews and suspensions.
However, a year later, Christmas Eve 2025, they all found themselves in a police car being called to attend a suspected break in at 246 Corbitt Street. After all, this is a Christmas film, it gets repeated every year.
The Haunting is available in the Call of Cthulhu QuickStart rules from Chaosium.
At time of writing, the English version of 246 Corbitt Street seems to be available only as an add on to the Scions of the dark goddess backerkit or the Howl of the Chimera kickstarter from Shadowlands Games. I intend to post a review of this soon.
If you are reading this around Christmas then Home Alone is probably somewhere on your telly right now.
Finally, I’m going to award bonus points to Mark for being the first player to say it was Home Alone.
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