This is the expanded, stand-alone edition of The Dare (2020), a legendary Kevin A. Ross scenario for Call of Cthulhu. It was originally designed as a tournament module, run in the late ’80s and is notable for being one of, if not the, first RPG scenarios with kid player characters. The scenario only saw print once previously, as part of the anthology Dwellers in Shadow (1996), from Triad Entertainments. Even at that point in time, I can’t think of many, if any, scenarios that have kids in the lead roles. 

What we have here is a very detailed haunted house that the trick-or-treating player characters are dared to enter. In the caves beneath the house lurks a child-eating witch, and the house is full of her familiars (rat things, cat things, bat things and so on). Even the kid who dares the players to go in is in on the scheme — he’s just an empty suit of skin, worn by a hivemind of verminous insects. Once inside the house, the kids are harried by the servants, and hopefully picked off one by one, while the witch monitors progress via the mirrors in the house and generally complicates things with her spells. Its a suitably horrible one-shot that is probably wind up with one or more kids eaten by a cannibal witch. Good times!

Also a good time is the “Kid-Thulhu” rules, which amounts to a simplification of the 7e Call of Cthulhu. I’m unclear whether this was designed by the Sentinel Hill Press folks or Chaosium, but it’s great. Especially the age-appropriate skills like “Play with Matches,” “Be a Pal,” “Spooky Stuff” and more. That these are cute, though, does not mean horrible things won’t happen to this costumed investigators. Be warned!