Table-Tested Review of Call of Cthulhu's “The Haunting”
During October, I ran “The Haunting” among many other horror games, but I haven’t reviewed this one yet. It’s written for Call of Cthulhu 7e and was published along with a quickstart for the game, which can be downloaded for free. It’s one of the most popular one-shots for Call of Cthulhu.
Content warnings include mental health, harm to children, depiction of religion, loss of control, murder, gore, cannibalism, gun violence and suicide.
The basic premise isn’t anything new: the PCs are being sent to investigate a supposedly haunted house. But it’s executed extremely well and it’s a great adventure to get into Call of Cthulhu. It’s relatively easy to prep and run, there’s tons of content and fancy third party handouts to be found online, it can be run in a single session and the mystery to unravel is neat. My personal highlight was how players were able to piece together all of the clues from the handouts they got, as well as the final fight. The stat block for the horror they fought at the end is truly fun to run.
My one criticism would be that the investigation part isn’t technically needed to get through the house alive - it’s mostly so the PCs know what is actually going on.
If you’re looking for an adventure to dip your toes into Call of Cthulhu, this is definitely a good choice. Other adventures I have heard good things about are “Edge of Darkness” or “The Crack'd and Crook'd Manse” which I might review in the future.
