The Young Twits

A brief roleplaying game pageant
inspired by the works of
H.P. Lovecraft and P.G. Wodehouse

Bertie Wooster's beloved Uncle Choo-Choo (the Hon. Henry "Choo-Choo" Benning) has died. The reading of the Will is to take place next Monday at Benning's estate, Borogove Hall. Bertie sees this as the perfect opportunity to honor Uncle Choo-Choo's memory by throwing a party for his chums (who Uncle Choo-Choo refered to collectively as "the Young Twits"). As you are, more or less, a member of that esteemed group, Bertie has invited you to spend a long weekend.

New (24 Jan 2007)

• Player characters
• Summary of action during our first play session

Introduction (for new Cthulhu players)

The Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game is based on the works of H.P. Lovecraft. If you've never read any of his short stories, or haven't read them in years, go and do so now. Read a couple of the following:

• The Call of Cthulhu
• The Lurking Fear
• The Horror at Red Hook
• The Haunter of the Dark

Lovecraft's characters inhabit a bleak and dangerous universe, populated with alien beings of colossal power, antiquity, and malevolence.

Call of Cthulhu is a game that tries to capture the sense of cosmic horror found in Lovecraft's fiction. In the game, each player assumes the role of one or more investigators. As in Lovecraft's fiction, the characters are usually everyday folks, rather than professional detectives or soldiers. During the course of play, characters stumble upon a hint of some terrible, inhuman truth—an evil they must risk everything to stop.

The forces again which the investigators struggle hold humanity in less regard than humans do ants. Those investigator who are not killed outright by the Great Old Ones and their minions face nearly certain madness in the knowledge that, whatever they do to thwart the immediate danger, humanity is doomed.

Guns and bombs are nearly useless when facing such monsters, but the investigators might hope to use their research skills to learn sanity shattering ancient magic.

Some evil and nihilistic men entertain the insane notion that they might curry favor with the Elder Gods or derive some earthly reward by worshiping in vile cults. These cults sometimes practice eldritch magic which endangers humanity. Unlike the Great Old Ones, however, cultists can be shot.

Flavor

Most CoC adventures use the same setting that Lovecraft used for his stories: New England during the 1920's or 30's. This adventure takes place in Wales during early May of 1924. The adventure also incorporates comic elements from the works of P.G. Wodehouse, a popular English humorist and contemporary of Lovecraft. Here are a few background facts about the period:

• The 1920's are sometimes referred to as the "jazz age" or the "roaring twenties" in America, and the "golden twenties" in Europe. Flappers with bobbed hair danced the Charleston.
• The events of Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby are set during the summer of 1922. (The novel was published in 1925.)
• The Great War (WWI) ended in autumn 1918.
• The Bolsheviks won the Russian Civil War in 1922, establishing the Soviet Union. Communism attracts a large number of adherents across Europe. Lenin dies in January of 1924, and Stalin begins to eliminate his enemies. Petrograd (St. Petersburg) is renamed Leningrad.
• Prohibition of alcohol in the U.S. gives rise to organized crime.
• Ramsay MacDonald is Prime Minister of the U.K., George V is King, and Calvin Coolidge is President of the United States.
• The first "talkie" motion picture is still 3 years in the future.
• Charles Lindbergh will not make the first solo non-stop transatlantic flight until 1927.
• Penicillin isn't discovered until 1928.
• The women's suffrage movement won the right for women to vote in the U.S. in 1919, but women in England would not be able to vote until 1928.

House Rules

Each player must play at least two characters: one lady or gentleman, and one servant.

All players should use accents when speaking as their characters. They don't necessarily have to be good accents...

Player Handouts

• An invitation from Bertie Wooster

Resources

• Chaosium, the publisher of the Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game, have a Quick Start Cthulhu [PDF] book available as a free download.
• Check-out the Wikipedia entries for H.P. Lovecraft and P.G. Wodehouse.
• Much (most?) of Lovecraft's writing is available from Wikisource.
• Wodehouse's famous duo Wooster and Jeeves first appeared in the short story Extricating Young Gussie. A number of Wodehouse's early stories are available from Project Gutenberg.
• The Calls of Cthulhu at McSweeney's (humor).
• I Cthulhu by Neil Gaiman (humor).