Review - Viral (for Call of Cthulhu 7e)
I'm taking a break from my Cravana Gygax 75 worldbuilding project at the moment, as work has been a bit overwhelming over the past couple of weeks and I've been working weekends to get everything finished. However, I'm over the hump of it and only have another project to clear off before I'm free again. But all this work isn't going to stop me from telling you about Viral, a new scenario for Call of Cthulhu that's out via Chaosium's Miskatonic Repository community content program...
Summary
Join Marco Proudfoot, host of the successful YouTube channel The Spektral Krew, as he and his fellow paranormal investigators journey to an island off the coast of Sicily to explore its very dark past. The only public information is a pixelated satellite map and a pile of redacted documents, but a little digging on the Dark Web has revealed something far more sinister. What better way to make their final push for one million subscribers than to stream their investigation live from the island! The Krew hopes to find evidence of the paranormal, but what they discover is so much more horrific than just orbs of dust and incoherent voices in the static.
Viral is a modern-era scenario for the 7th edition of Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game by Alex Guillotte and Bud from Bud's RPG Review. Designed to be run in a variety of formats, from a convention one-shot to a more robust 2–3 session game, let's see whether this is worth the asking price and can provide an evening's (or more!) horrific entertainment...
What you get
Viral is a 110-page full-colour PDF, rated for mature audiences. It features some excellent and evocative artwork from Alex Guillotte, who also needs to be commended for the tight layout of this product. The PDF contains the scenario itself, which covers 42 of those pages, plus appendices that provide new mythos horrors, a new tome and spell, a bevy of encounters to help stimulate the imagination and run the game, and some new rules, all of which we'll dig into later. There are also a ton of handouts and maps, as well as five pre-generated investigators. The PDF package also provides the handouts, pre-gens, and Keeper maps as separate PDFs as well, which is greatly appreciated. All of this will run you $12.95 over on DrivethruRPG. A POD version of the scenario is also expected in due course.
Overview
I'll attempt to give a quick overview of the scenario here, while trying to stay away from major spoilers to prevent giving away too much. That said, if you're intending to play Viral at some point, then expect at least some spoilers for the scenario below. If you'd rather skip those, feel free to jump ahead to The Verdict below.
So, what's going on? The players will be taking on the role of YouTube's Spektral Krew, a team of ghost hunters looking to get their big break and go viral. Meanwhile, our big bad is trying to do the same... The Spektral Crew plans to illegally travel to the Isola di Malamente, off the coast of Sicily, in order to broadcast a live-streamed event while attempting to uncover evidence of a real haunting. However, they quickly find themselves stranded on the island and begin to uncover that there is more to this place than the usual phenomena linked to ghost sightings...something evil lurks here and the Spektral Krew are more than likely to end up as its next victims.
The range of pre-generated investigators that come with the scenario is excellent and include: the confident (and somewhat pretentious) host Maro 'Proudfoot' Maglioni; Corrina Trench, the show's professional medium; Enoch Jeremiah Eakins, the crew's bodyguard; Peter Wharton, the cameraman; and Ku Hyeon, their technical specialist. Each of these is finely crafted—a solid backstory for each is provided in just a few paragraphs, and each is provided with nice little roleplaying hooks and secrets for player's to use. For example, Corrina puts on a front and is scared of being called out as a fraud, boning up on research while pretending to know nothing. Peter fakes evidence in order to keep viewer donations pouring in, but covers it up from Marco. And Jeremiah is the real psychic, having The Sight (more on that later), which he conceals from the others.
The Keeper isn't left just dealing with the monsters either and has a couple of NPCs to play: Maya Adeduwon, the show's producer, who directs the crew remotely from her home in London; and Emily 'Em' Lavigne, who the Keeper has the option of using as the show's super fan or as a rival ghost hunter. Plus, as the event is live-streamed, there are also all of the Spektral Krew's fans who are watching and messaging their tips, requests, and demands, sometimes even alongside cash donations, which the Keeper can use to prod the investigators in the right direction, or just to make them do something that is inevitably going to end up going badly for them...
Over the course of the scenario, the players will be expected to follow a carefully planned script for the show, visiting various parts of the island, uncovering more and more of the island's sordid history, and responding to fans of their show in real-time while their actions are streamed out across the internet. They'll need to set up their equipment and navigate their way through some pretty creepy locations, including a lemon grove with some diabolical fruits, a dilapidated hospital, mass grave sites, cremation pits, and a chapel and the crypts beneath it.
While the investigators already start with some research on the island that they are assumed to have performed before heading out there, it's over the course of play that the true horrors of what has taken place on the island are revealed, leading to an epic climax that is almost certainly guaranteed to end in blood and fire...
The scenario provides a detailed history of the events taking place before the investigators arrive, as well as an expected timeline for how the events of the scenario might play out in line with the Spektral Krew's planning for their show. The Keeper is also provided with an excellent section detailing the secrets that the scenario has to offer up, including well-written advice on how to use the live-stream concept to prod then investigators and, eventually, mess with them too. It emphasises that the players should understand their investigators are constantly being watched. The tips go on to include how to build up the atmosphere for the ghost hunting aesthetic the scenario strives for, as well as ways to modify the scenario for one-shot play or two sessions, rather than the full three plus sessions that the scenario is expected to take in order to get the most out of it. Finally, the Keeper gets details of all the little plots that are going on, which doesn't just involve the mythos, but also shady the shady contact who gets the investigators to the island and even the Italian government, who may know what lurks on the island and has a plan to deal with it, possibly saving or dooming the investigators in the process.
The scenario itself all in all encompasses 20 pages of evocative prose that provides enough details for the Keeper to envision what might happen during play without dictating it. Every section is full of juicy little hooks to snag the investigators on and each one comes with Keeper notes (clearly marked in blue text boxes) that provide advice, little secrets, important points, and suggestions for creepy occurrences. Important information is flagged either in red text or in red boxes, often highlighting it as information to be conveyed to the players.
The appendices provide the Keeper is a host of encounters and examples of paranormal phenomena to spring on the unsuspecting investigators. Encounters are provided for all the major locations and can either be chosen or randomly generated. New rules are also provided for The Sight, the supernatural power to experience visions of the past that Enoch has, which plays a role in communicating some of the history of what has taken place on the island, though it should be noted that Viral absolutely can be played without this. The rules are simple enough, but effective—an investigator with The Sight can either leave it open, potentially seeing visions and suffering Sanity loss, or can close it off, as well as using it to sense presences, receive images by touching objects etc. These rules also provide a use for Magic Points, which are expended to use The Sight. Magic Points can often be useless in these types of scenarios unless the investigators gain access to some kind of tome or spell, so seeing an innovative use of them like this is well received. The scenario itself also helpfully provides green boxed text for every major location detailing examples of what an investigator with The Sight might witness there.
Further new rules come in the form of The Taint, which is linked to the evil at the heart of Viral, and is represented by an increasing score that the investigators track over the course of their stay on the island. The higher this gets, the worse off they will be and the more unlikely it is for them to survive their final encounter with the mythos entity at the end. Again, these rules are simple but effective, and the fact that players track this on their character sheets but are told that it is 'Exposure' instead is genius.
Finally, there is an entirely new section on insanity and bouts of madness that has been specially crafted for this scenario, to be used instead of those provided in the Call of Cthulhu rulebook. These are interwoven with the themes of the scenario and, while not strictly necessary, drip flavour and really add to the feeling you're going to want to convey. A definite plus point and something I hope more scenarios do in the future, as sometimes those generic bouts of madness in the rulebook just don't fit, leaving a Keeper to think up something suitable on the spot. Excellently done.
After the new monsters, tome, and spell, which I won't dig into here, the scenario finishes off with 41 pages of maps and handouts, followed by the pregens. All of these are simply beautifully done and really convey the atmosphere of the scenario, and the custom character sheets look great.
The Verdict
OK, so let's talk about what's good and what's bad in this scenario...
The good: So, I already mentioned a little bit through the overview above that the writing here is tight. I'll emphasise that here—it's really tight. Waffle and repetition are limited and the Keeper advice is clear and to the point. There were very few times that I had to go back and check things, which is what you want to see. The layout is clear and well done and the art is evocative without getting in the way of things. I couldn't find any major typos that affected my interpretation of the text and only noticed one or two missed punctuation errors—overall a testament to the excellent editing done performed by Pookie. It's clear that the writers have done their research, especially when it comes to the aesthetics and equipment related to ghost hunting, advice for which is presented in fine detail but without feeling overwhelming. I'll admit that the historical background does stretch things a little bit in terms of real-world archaeology/history but, as an archaeologist, I can allow it. We are playing a fictionalised game after all!
All of the Spektral Krew investigators are well realised and provide a good number of roleplaying hooks to help players get into the mindset of their characters. The backstories and little secrets each of them have can be played on to really bring this scenario to life around the table. Em and May also present great NPCs for the Keeper to bring to life throughout the scenario and the live stream itself is there to be used both for and against the investigators.
While the scenario is heavily tied to the ghost hunting concept that it espouses, and I do feel that running it any other way would be a disservice to the richly written text and lavish research that has been put into it, the writers do go so far as to provide not one, but four other options for running the game, ranging from the standard Call of Cthulhu investigator scenario, through to teenagers bunking off to the island to fool around. I suspect that it wouldn't take too much work to fiddle with it and turn it into a Delta Green operation either...
The scenario, overall, I found to be excellent. There's the right level of tension built up throughout to an epic conclusion that's sure to stick in the memories of your players. The events are horrifying and creepy throughout, and no end of disturbing as well. It should be noted that Viral does deal with themes that some are going to have trouble with, including violence to others, including children. While this doesn't occur directly in the course of the scenario, these themes are woven into the history of Isola di Malamente. The scenario features a well-written disclaimer and safety message front and center on page 4 before getting into the meat of things that relays this information and suggests discussing this with players in order to establish what in other games might be called 'Lines and Veils' should this kind of imagery not be suitable for your gaming table. As an aside, I would note that Viral's Drivethru page doesn't mention the mature themes of the scenario and perhaps these could also be flagged here too, similar to some of Alex Guillotte's other scenarios that disclaim them as for MATURE AUDIENCES ONLY.
The bad: I'm going to say upfront that there is very little that is wrong with Viral, and the few points that I am going to make here are minor quibbles I found as I read through. The first of these is the biggest, and this is that there are a small number of skill checks in the scenario that the pre-generated characters just aren't going to be able to pass. A good example of this is that there are a couple of Medicine checks in the hospital areas, while all the pregens only have Medicine at 1%. Another is a Natural World check at the cremation pit to identify something, with extra information gleaned on an extreme success. Only two characters have Natural World above the base 10%, and then only at 30%, making an extreme success only a 6% chance. Here, I am splitting hairs a little, as none of the information the investigators can obtain blocks progress to the scenario and the writers have provided an out anyway in the form of the live-stream's viewers, who the investigators can turn to if necessary. While this plays into the scenario's themes, I did feel it can remove a little player agency at times.
This being my biggest quibble, the others are very small. Two really boil down to minor corrections that could be made to improve reading. The first of these is flagging Maya as an NPC—Em clearly has (NPC) in her header while Maya doesn't. This left me a tad confused on my first read-through, as I hadn't twigged she was a character for the Keeper to use until getting stuck into the Keeper's background and secrets sections. The other is the use of the term paleolithic for the alter in the timeline box on page 15. I am assuming that the writers are trying to convey that this is an ancient stone altar, rather than once from somewhere between 1.7 million and 11,000 years BP, especially as later text states that, while the mythos entity arrives in the Stone Age, its worship doesn't occur until the Bronze Age. Anyway, this one just got to me because I am a Palaeolithic archaeologist by trade and, to my knowledge, there aren't any known and definitive stone altars from this period...
I will also point out here before I tell you to just go ahead and buy this scenario that Viral is on the complex end of the scale. The Keeper has a lot of moving parts to keep track of in terms of the live-stream audience, Maya keeping the Spektral Krew to their planned script for the show, various mythos-related shenanigans, paranormal occurrences, strange encounters and so forth. I'd say this is definitely not one for a novice Keeper, even though there is plenty of advice in the text that tries to give a less experienced Keeper a leg up. I think it will take an experienced Keeper to get the most out of it.
Speaking of getting the most out of Viral, while it is billed as being able to be run at conventions, I think this is one that you're going to need a few sessions to get the most out of. There is advice for running it as a 4-hour session, but I just think you need to cut too much out. I also think the number of handouts can hamper it here too. The scenario has you provide eight handouts to the players, not including handouts on The Sight for Enoch's player, and special handouts for Corrina, Marco and Enoch as well. And this is leaving out the player facing handouts on getting into the mindset of ghost hunters. This is a lot to digest at the opening of a 4-hour session, so the time pressure is going to be on. I have no doubt that a well-prepared Keeper can pull it off, but I do have a feeling that you're going to have a better experience running it for a longer session or over several instead.
Should I buy it?
Viral has an absolute ton going for it. It's well written, provides a gripping and suitably terrifying scenario set on an isolated island, and will prove to be a memorable experience for all those who play it. While it strays to the more complex end of the curve in terms of running it, a competent and experienced Keeper should have no problem bringing it to life and it supplies no end of bells and whistles for them to scare the living daylights out of the investigators. Viral has few flaws and Alex Guillotte and Bud should be commended for its production. Fantastic stuff and just my slice of horror. I can wait to run it for my players.
Highly recommended—go buy it now.
Style: 5 Substance: 5 Overall: 5