SLOP1439: How to Write a Call of Cthulhu Scenario
A studio course in scenario design, using Call of Cthulhu as the working system. Twelve weeks turn one spark of interest into a complete, playtested scenario — the design process a Keeper goes through, not Mythos trivia or rules memorisation.
How the course runs
This is a studio course, not a lecture course: the weekly studio — hands-on work on your own scenario draft — is where the semester's real work happens and where most of the timetable sits. Lectures are short and exist only to hand you the one framework or distinction thatstudio needs that week; the detail, the practice and the feedback all live in the studio, not the lecture theatre.
What you will do
Every week you push one scenario draft further through the same pipeline a working Keeper uses: a spark of interest becomes a premise, the premise gets fused with a Mythos truth and antagonist, a structure gets committed to, and then clues, puzzles, checks and NPCs get built on top of it so the thing survives contact with a real table. You'll run an actual playtest of your own draft partway through the semester and revise it in response. You walk out with a complete, playtested Call of Cthulhu scenario another Keeper could pick up and run cold.
Who it is for
You should already know how to play a tabletop RPG as a player or Keeper — this course doesn't teach dice mechanics or how a session runs. It doesn't require prior Mythos knowledge or a background in creative writing; what it asks for is a willingness to run a real playtest with real players partway through semester, using either your own group or the studio's playtest-matching arrangement.