The Amazing Mr.X For Your Old School Horror Campaign

The Amazing Mr.X is a great film to pull and mine from. The plot goes something like this : On the beach one night, Christine Faber, two years a widow, thinks she hears her late husband Paul calling out of the surf...then meets a tall dark man, Alexis, who seems to know all about such things. After more ghostly manifestations, Christine and younger sister Janet become enmeshed in the eerie artifices of Alexis; but he in turn finds himself manipulated into deeper deviltry than he had in mind.

Everyone in this movie is getting screwed by everyone else. The film crosses the line between horror and noir. It bounces back and forth easily and completely. 

Here's the Full Movie 

So now that You've watched the movie surely there can't be anything to use. Its a strange, standard, noir/monster/ghost piece. Well aside from the sets, the characters as NPC's , the use of the secrets, the twists and turns. There is more to it. 

Using Mr.X For Your Old School Horror Campaign 

The role of Spiritualism in horror games isn't usually something that one finds entire campaigns about. However Call of Cthulhu isn't always your usual Mythos game. Pagan Publishing actually did a remarkably good job of creating a usable campaign set right around my neck of the woods. 

"Coming Full Circle is a campaign for the Call of Cthulhu role-playing game. It contains four scenarios set from 1929 through 1939. This is a non-Mythos campaign featuring threats drawn from New England folklore and superstition, and includes rules for creating psychics and mediums as investigators and using "the Gift" in play."

The above is from Amazon 

Let me tell you this campaign doesn't just put the gift in play it's one of the best game books for using the type of psychics that we see not only in Mr.X but in films, and television as well. 

"VENGEANCE HAS BEEN A LONG TIME COMING. The little town of North Ashfield, Massachusetts, is not the kind of town where evil dwells. Yet it not only dwells- it thrives. The ghosts of the past and the horrors of the present rub shoulders with honest citizens and innocent children, feeding on the isolation and the naivet' of the residents. The circle of life, the circle of love, the circle of friends, the circle of family: all are encompassed within a much larger sphere . . . the circle of death. Its arc is slow and somber, but when the ends are joined all hell will break loose. The legends of New England rise wild." 

 

 The witch, the phantom, and the vampire of New England legend  are the sanity- blasting legends of the adventures not Cthulhu or company.  When wanting to portray a psychic investigator ala Millennium (remember when that show was all the rage) or even the con artist type of Mr. X this is the book. 

 Possibly my favorite Pagan book that no one seems to ever talk about anymore. Its nice to shed some light on it. If only for a moment. 

There's also one other game that I've used the Amazing Mr.X with and believe it or not none of the players ever saw it coming. 

 That's right I slipped in the entire plot into Gang Busters ad hoc and none of the players caught on. One of the players ended up with a detective with  some impressive slight of hand abilities and it bridged into another series of adventures. 

Top Five Delta Green Call of Cthulhu Resources

 Back in the 90's I was playing a metric ton of CoC  and getting into the 20's and 30's era. The 1990's hand book from Chaosuim was alright for what it did. A few adventures, some updated stats, and what have you you.
Back when I was going to conventions and had money I ran into John Tynes and Pagan Publishing. They shoved Delta Green in my hands and my modern gaming has never been the same. Pagan are a bunch of intelligent  gamers who write the stuff gamers want. They do it damn well.
Delta Green is a legend among CoC gamers and there's a reason for it. I'm not going to rehash in loving tones why you need this book. Needless to say that Delta Green still remains one of my favor books for Call of Cthulhu.
You can get a pdf over Here and the original hard copies sell for stupid money.  

Here's what I use Delta Green for even with other games. The artifacts, some of the modern groups, the reports on the various Mythos monsters, mining the adventures for all their worth, and the NPCs themselves are perfect. With the NPCs be sure to change the names to protect the guilty and insane. 

 Delta Green Countdown has been out of print for many years and its still a viable resource for any CoC or modern game. There is a ton of stuff to use here. The world spanning conspiracies, the indepth history of the mythos in the modern world and its continuing impact. The NPCs, monsters, expansions of other mythos material, the guns, the gats, and the girls. This book takes it all and knocks it out of the park. Here's a look at some of the stuff:
 "The Insects of Shaggai, alien parasites subverting the leadership of a nation; Pisces, the U.K.'s attempt to harness the unknown; The Army of the Third Eye, terrorists fighting a bloody battle against alien invaders; GRU SV-8, a band of desperate operatives fighting darkness in the ruins of Russia; The Skoptsi, occult fanatics with an eight-hundred-year legacy; The Outlook Group, where Majestic-12 tests its elite; Phenomen-X, a syndicated TV news show that pokes its camera in all the wrong places; Tiger Transit, a former CIA airline now in the clutches of a Tcho-Tcho drug cartel; The D Stacks a the American Museum of Natural History, where Dr. Jensen Wu classifies the unclassifiable; The Keepers of the Faith, traditionalist ghouls fighting the lean and hungry Heretic ghouls beneath the streets of Manhattan; and the Hastur Mythos, a twisted skein of surreal destruction weaving its way through humanity. "
 The book sells for stupid collector's money. I've seen it going for 140.00 dollars but you can download it right over HERE

The Unspeakable Oath is perhaps the single best resource for CoC that was put out in the 90's and I'm happy to report its back! 

Arch Dream Publishing did a great job with the mag and its very well put together. There are ton of stuff to mine from this magazine if your willing to do so. Here's the link for #18 HERE

Eyes Only  is  God sent and a nightmare at the same time for a DM. The book is fantastic and really gets into the heart of the matter when it comes into the world spanning conspiracies that inhabit the Delta Green universe. The book covers a ton of the material introduced Delta Green and CoC. Yes this is another essential book. This book involves both the Mi Go and The Philadelphia Experiment.
This is some of the stuff I've mined from it: 

• Machinations of the Mi-Go explores the history, goals and science of the Fungi from Yuggoth, including the plot that shaped the American government for decades.
• The New York occult underground explodes with The Fate, an in-depth look at Stephen Alzis and his servants and enemies, including new Cthulhu Mythos tomes and a guide to playing characters in the Network.
• Project Rainbow brings a staple of conspiracy fiction, the Philadelphia Experiment, seamlessly into the Mythos- stealth technology meets the Tillinghast Resonator with nightmarish results. 
   Here's a working link to where you can still order the book. The link over at Pagan's site has been dead for a while. You can get it right over Here
   One of my other favorites from Pagan is one that doesn't get a lot of air play these days. 
  
  This book reprints a the early adventures of Call of Cthulhu from the Unspeakable Oath. Because of the nature of Delta Green I've used this book as a springboard for both modern adventures. They're perfect for the 1920's blow back that is still echoing through history to haunt Delta Green in the modern times. You can pick this one up right over HERE