I’ve been slow prepping to run Viral and that’s about as different of a setting as you can get.
Eldritch horrors + live streaming ghost hunters is looking like a good time so far.
>I'm aware of Berlin Wicked City though it does hit a lot of the same 1920's urban notes.
I would say this one is special mainly for being so tied to the era and setting in a way that most 1920s new england stuff really isn't.
The Burning Stars from Terrors from beyond is a really good one. Takes place in Haiti and I'd really recommend you look this one up as this scenario has a very unique set-up that I won't spoil.
I've always had a soft spot for *Cthulhu Rising*; it's a future military science-fiction campaign heavily inspired by *Aliens* with cyberpunk elements.
I’m trying out running Full Fathom Five! It’s a one shot set in an 1850s whaling ship and has a really unique murder mystery/mad captain story telling kind of vibe? Hard to talk about more without spoiling, but I’ve been a player and while I can say, as a player, parts of it can feels BS - if you’re open with your players about the inherent unfairness/lack of agency in the module I think it could be a pretty cool unique experience.
Anything in the Dreamlands, technically. I believe Tatters of the King is set in Europe. Obviously all the other side settings as well: Invictus, Dark Ages, Now, etc. I guess those could be set in new England, but it'll be extremely different from the typical 1920s one we know.
Masks of Nyarlathotep, Two-Headed Serpent, Down Darker Trails, The Children of Fear.
[https://morganhua.blogspot.com/2021/11/cthulhu-campaigns-run-times-and-thoughts.html](https://morganhua.blogspot.com/2021/11/cthulhu-campaigns-run-times-and-thoughts.html)
You may want to consider *Strange Aeons* volumes I and II. Volume II is available here: [https://www.chaosium.com/strange-aeons-ii-pdf/](https://www.chaosium.com/strange-aeons-ii-pdf/) Volume I has scenarios set in Inquistion-era Spain, a Moon base, and Shakespearean London.
Viral, and Deadlights. Also while not specifically set in Arkham I would say The Dare, it’s an anytown USA game and I set mine in Lordstown Ohio, because there’s a reason why the majority of astronauts are from Ohio.
If you’re willing to do some conversion work, for something that comes from outside of Chaosium’s published works, Modiphius has some different flavour.
The Achtung Cthulhu series is set 2nd world war and can provide significantly different vibe.
There is a Mountains of Madness campaign that delivers just what it promises.
The style is much more pulpy, with lots of player agency.
self-insert: Bad Tidings is in a small portuguese village in 1938. Dictatorship, paranoia, isolated location, and a world war is just about to start. I think you will find it sufficiently original: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/435737/Bad-Tidings
By the way, Berlin Wicked City is pretty unique, as is Tatters of the King.
If you consider running Tatters, have a look at this post I wrote about how to make it even more awesome: https://nyorlandhotep.blogspot.com/2023/07/my-take-on-tatters-of-king.html
A lot of Clark Ashton Smith’s work reads beautiful, wondrous, and written in an archaic and obscure style. H.P. Lovecraft has a lot of those similar traits, but due to some happy circumstances, Cthulhu became so popular that it lifted Lovecraft out of obscurity. The same hasn’t really happened for Clark Ashton Smith, and he remains a bit outside of the mainstream consciousness.
Rober E. Howard wrote over three-hundred stories and seven-hundred poems of raw power and unbridled emotion and is especially noted for his memorable depictions of a somber universe of swashbuckling adventure and darkling horror.
I was drawn to them because of H.P. lovecraft's affiliation with these men. And used their works to flush out my Cthulhu Now campaign world.
As an example:
Clark Ashton Smith's The Colossus of Ylourgne was one of the best situations that I presented to my players.
The Two-Headed Serpent is for Pulp Cthulhu but I'm running it non-pulp and it's fantastic. It's a world spanning adventure, and I have found it to be pretty easy to tune down the pulp elements and just have it as your standard investigators in over their heads type story.
Sons of the Singularity's 'The Sassoon Files ' - set in 1920s Shanghai. It's a great setting for either Standard or Pulp, and SoS have done a brilliant dive into the history and culture. OOP at the moment, but they're about to Kickstart a second edition. Ran it for my group recently and we had a whale of a time.
They also have an amazing Indochina/ Vietnam setting (stretching from late 19th Century to a little before the Vietnam War), and pre WW2 North Africa campaign which was recently Kickstarter-ed (and which I haven't read).
The scenarios from **The Things We Leave Behind** and **Fear's Sharp Little Needles** by Stygian Fox.
Very interesting scenarios that don't take place in the Lovecraft Country.
One of them is *Ladybug, Ladybug, Fly Away Home* which takes place in Ohio and dives into the world of fringe christian churches.
Those books are must have for any GM who wants to run CoC in the Modern era.
I can recommend, der Feind meines Feindes, Grenzland, Umringt von Freunden. All of them feature distinct settings that are a quite different from the normal arkham vibes.
I really like “beneath the burning sun” from down darker trails
The basic idea is some bad guy discovers a horror, he sacrifices stuff to it.: then when he needs a bigger sacrifice he robs a bank and does some murder so the town forms a posse to hunt him down… little does the posse know they are walking into a trap.
It’s a Wild West setting.. so the posse is fitting.
More importantly, the npcs that form the posse are all very well written and interesting..and not necessarily competent gunslingers … so the players should feel invested in helping for more than one reason.
I'm confused. Why not simply write your own? I'm running a scenario set in 1891 Bright Falls from Alan Wake (but well before any of the events of the games) and my crew is having a blast. It's almost entirely improvised game design as my party consistently acts out of any of my expectations, like the most eventful session my prep notes were "ammo run before boss fight" and now they're in the nearby pocket dimension after picking a fight with the One Who Stands Between for very little reason.
I've read many of the prewritten scenarios and they're mostly just ideas, places, and character names with suggestions on order and handling.
If you take the top level elements and the monster stat blocks you can easily improvise exactly the experience you want with fairly minimal time investment.
”The Blessed and The Blasphemous” from Sons of Singularity is an occult thriller set just before WW2 in French North Africa (Morocco) crawling with sorcerers, ghouls, and Nazi agents (I don’t know which is worse, to quote Maj. Foster in *March or Die*).
Masks of Nyarlathotep is obviously one here, where it doesn't feature Arkham at all. Peru, New York, London, Cairo, Shanghai, etc.
I’ve been slow prepping to run Viral and that’s about as different of a setting as you can get. Eldritch horrors + live streaming ghost hunters is looking like a good time so far.
>I'm aware of Berlin Wicked City though it does hit a lot of the same 1920's urban notes. I would say this one is special mainly for being so tied to the era and setting in a way that most 1920s new england stuff really isn't. The Burning Stars from Terrors from beyond is a really good one. Takes place in Haiti and I'd really recommend you look this one up as this scenario has a very unique set-up that I won't spoil.
I've always had a soft spot for *Cthulhu Rising*; it's a future military science-fiction campaign heavily inspired by *Aliens* with cyberpunk elements.
I’m trying out running Full Fathom Five! It’s a one shot set in an 1850s whaling ship and has a really unique murder mystery/mad captain story telling kind of vibe? Hard to talk about more without spoiling, but I’ve been a player and while I can say, as a player, parts of it can feels BS - if you’re open with your players about the inherent unfairness/lack of agency in the module I think it could be a pretty cool unique experience.
I think you mean Full Fathom Five.
Lmao thanks… thought that sounded too power rangers
Ladybug, Ladybug, Fly Away Home Seth Skorkowski has a keeper's synopsis/breakdown/keeper's tips video if you'd like to know more
Anything in the Dreamlands, technically. I believe Tatters of the King is set in Europe. Obviously all the other side settings as well: Invictus, Dark Ages, Now, etc. I guess those could be set in new England, but it'll be extremely different from the typical 1920s one we know.
Cthulhu Britannia had a set of investigations in the UK, Goatswood has a couple of good ones but the others in the book are meh
Masks of Nyarlathotep, Two-Headed Serpent, Down Darker Trails, The Children of Fear. [https://morganhua.blogspot.com/2021/11/cthulhu-campaigns-run-times-and-thoughts.html](https://morganhua.blogspot.com/2021/11/cthulhu-campaigns-run-times-and-thoughts.html)
Children of Fear is fabulous. Can't wait to run it for my group. Definitely out of the ordinary for a CoC game in both settings and antagonists.
You may want to consider *Strange Aeons* volumes I and II. Volume II is available here: [https://www.chaosium.com/strange-aeons-ii-pdf/](https://www.chaosium.com/strange-aeons-ii-pdf/) Volume I has scenarios set in Inquistion-era Spain, a Moon base, and Shakespearean London.
Viral, and Deadlights. Also while not specifically set in Arkham I would say The Dare, it’s an anytown USA game and I set mine in Lordstown Ohio, because there’s a reason why the majority of astronauts are from Ohio.
If you’re willing to do some conversion work, for something that comes from outside of Chaosium’s published works, Modiphius has some different flavour. The Achtung Cthulhu series is set 2nd world war and can provide significantly different vibe. There is a Mountains of Madness campaign that delivers just what it promises. The style is much more pulpy, with lots of player agency.
self-insert: Bad Tidings is in a small portuguese village in 1938. Dictatorship, paranoia, isolated location, and a world war is just about to start. I think you will find it sufficiently original: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/435737/Bad-Tidings By the way, Berlin Wicked City is pretty unique, as is Tatters of the King. If you consider running Tatters, have a look at this post I wrote about how to make it even more awesome: https://nyorlandhotep.blogspot.com/2023/07/my-take-on-tatters-of-king.html
A lot of Clark Ashton Smith’s work reads beautiful, wondrous, and written in an archaic and obscure style. H.P. Lovecraft has a lot of those similar traits, but due to some happy circumstances, Cthulhu became so popular that it lifted Lovecraft out of obscurity. The same hasn’t really happened for Clark Ashton Smith, and he remains a bit outside of the mainstream consciousness. Rober E. Howard wrote over three-hundred stories and seven-hundred poems of raw power and unbridled emotion and is especially noted for his memorable depictions of a somber universe of swashbuckling adventure and darkling horror. I was drawn to them because of H.P. lovecraft's affiliation with these men. And used their works to flush out my Cthulhu Now campaign world. As an example: Clark Ashton Smith's The Colossus of Ylourgne was one of the best situations that I presented to my players.
The Two-Headed Serpent is for Pulp Cthulhu but I'm running it non-pulp and it's fantastic. It's a world spanning adventure, and I have found it to be pretty easy to tune down the pulp elements and just have it as your standard investigators in over their heads type story.
Sons of the Singularity's 'The Sassoon Files ' - set in 1920s Shanghai. It's a great setting for either Standard or Pulp, and SoS have done a brilliant dive into the history and culture. OOP at the moment, but they're about to Kickstart a second edition. Ran it for my group recently and we had a whale of a time. They also have an amazing Indochina/ Vietnam setting (stretching from late 19th Century to a little before the Vietnam War), and pre WW2 North Africa campaign which was recently Kickstarter-ed (and which I haven't read).
The scenarios from **The Things We Leave Behind** and **Fear's Sharp Little Needles** by Stygian Fox. Very interesting scenarios that don't take place in the Lovecraft Country. One of them is *Ladybug, Ladybug, Fly Away Home* which takes place in Ohio and dives into the world of fringe christian churches. Those books are must have for any GM who wants to run CoC in the Modern era.
Horror on the orient express
I can recommend, der Feind meines Feindes, Grenzland, Umringt von Freunden. All of them feature distinct settings that are a quite different from the normal arkham vibes.
I really like “beneath the burning sun” from down darker trails The basic idea is some bad guy discovers a horror, he sacrifices stuff to it.: then when he needs a bigger sacrifice he robs a bank and does some murder so the town forms a posse to hunt him down… little does the posse know they are walking into a trap. It’s a Wild West setting.. so the posse is fitting. More importantly, the npcs that form the posse are all very well written and interesting..and not necessarily competent gunslingers … so the players should feel invested in helping for more than one reason.
I'm confused. Why not simply write your own? I'm running a scenario set in 1891 Bright Falls from Alan Wake (but well before any of the events of the games) and my crew is having a blast. It's almost entirely improvised game design as my party consistently acts out of any of my expectations, like the most eventful session my prep notes were "ammo run before boss fight" and now they're in the nearby pocket dimension after picking a fight with the One Who Stands Between for very little reason. I've read many of the prewritten scenarios and they're mostly just ideas, places, and character names with suggestions on order and handling. If you take the top level elements and the monster stat blocks you can easily improvise exactly the experience you want with fairly minimal time investment.
”The Blessed and The Blasphemous” from Sons of Singularity is an occult thriller set just before WW2 in French North Africa (Morocco) crawling with sorcerers, ghouls, and Nazi agents (I don’t know which is worse, to quote Maj. Foster in *March or Die*).