Chaosium pulled off quite the magic trick with the release of Gateways To Terror. The adventure collection contained three short adventures built to be run in an hour or two for new players, such as at a convention or a game store event. The company looks to pull off the trick again with No Time To Scream. Three more adventures from designers B. W. Holland, Bridgett Jeffries, C. L. Werner, James Coquillat and Mike Mason aim for a short but memorable dip into the Cthulhu Mythos. Do they still offer some memorable experiences? Let’s play to find out.
The setups for each adventure are of a similar nature. They discuss pacing and potentially using a real life time clock to keep things moving. The stories offer different tones and moods too. Two of the three scenarios could slot into any campaign, while the third features characters and themes tied to the story. You could still probably use it in a campaign but maybe as a side story to run when the regular crew is busy. Instead of just reading a cursed diary for Cthulhu Mythos points and Sanity loss, players could play it out in flashback.
I could use these scenarios in multiple ways. They work well as intended as introductions to Cthulhu Mythos adventures. They could also be extended scenes in larger investigations or as a palette cleanser in a longer campaign. It’s always good to have stories like this on hand because with just a few changes, these tales could be run in any modern day horror system.
Spoilers for each of the scenarios follow. If you don’t wish to be spoiled, here's my bottom live: No Time To Scream offers three more short hits perfect for one shots or con games, but this batch might take a little more work to become part of a longer campaign.
“A Lonely Thread” features a classic Mythos encounter. Someone close to the players has taken an interest in the Mythos but they dve too far too deep. They’ve been overtaken by…something…and it’s up to the players to figure out what’s wrong before it’s too late. The scenario is set at a small cabin owned by a professor and when the players arrive it soon becomes evident the professor is acting strange. This scenario is the one that feels the easiest to slot into a regular campaign. It has some body horror and a ticking clock in the basement as the professor’s cleaning lady transforms into a formidable monster. Her busting out of the basement and attacking the players gives this a bloody end to the story, though her escape could also launch a full campaign.
The second scenario has a lighter tone that reminds me a lot of Re-Animator, the classic film adaptation that mixes gore and laughter in equal measure. The players of “Bits and Pieces” track a medical expert to a local teaching hospital where they find him horribly wounded. He discovered the body of a sorcerer trying to be reborn so he tried to cut it into pieces. He failed and now those pieces are animated and trying to escape so they can reassemble another day. The players have to grab the pieces and chuck them in the incinerator to stop this. While severed limbs are horrific, there’s a grim humor to their personalities and plans of attack. This scenario feels best after a particularly grim scenario to lighten things up, or perhaps as a way to give players who want to try out Call of Cthulhu a chance to see what all the fuss is about but would find maintaining a somber tone difficult.
The final scenario is the one that features a confrontation with a classic Mythos creature. A Color Out Of Space has landed on an Alaskan farm in “Aurora Blue” and its strange radiation has had adverse effect on the moonshiners working on the farm and their product. This game casts the players as not just Bureau of Prohibition agents but ones who have been ignored by their superiors. This misfit squad is suited for a Cthulhu experience with a little more action. It’s also one that feels like it could be adapted into the modern day, potentially as a “night at the opera” for Delta Green agents.
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