The Dare

Just in time for Halloween, “The Dare” is a new one-shot scenario from Sentinel Hill Press for Call of Cthulhu that offers up a fun and terrifying 1980s horror vibe that’s great for experienced and new players alike.

The investigators in “The Dare” play a group of kids who are dared by the town bully to spend a night in the old Barnaker house, rumored to used to be the home of a witch and now is haunted all to hell and back. This dare leads the investigators to an evening of horror that spirals ever downwards as the evening goes on culminating in the 80’s supernatural horror boss fight to end all 80’s supernatural horror boss fights, and the options for endings aren’t all happy.

“The Dare” was originally written as a short tournament scenario to show new players the ropes of Call of Cthulhu. Inspired by Dario Argento’s “Three Sisters” movie trilogy, the vibe of the scenario still feels more like if Stephen King mashed up “Dreams in the Witch House” and the classic CoC scenario “The Haunting” and then decided that wasn’t disturbing enough.

“The Dare” has excellent pacing, as well as many good tips on how to optimize the atmosphere and use of the NPCs to make the overall experience of the scenario both memorable and nostalgic. It is overall a very cinematic scenario, and cleverly so. It also comes with 10 pre-generated characters, so players can hit the ground running.
The Dare is available at DriveThruRPG in both PDF and softcover formats.