TTRPG Club battles Cosmic Horrors on Halloween Night
By Britany Adorno-Alicea
Halloween night was busy, full of plenty of spooktacular events for all to attend. One new event was a laidback live show hosted by the UAF Tabletop Roleplaying Games Club.
Hollis Davis (left) introduces his character, as illustrations of the players characters are shown behind.
Tabletop role-playing games, also known as TTRPG’s, are games that are composed of up to four or more players, each playing the role of a unique character. The players are guided on their adventures with the help of their dungeon master, or also known as a game master or keeper.
The most well known and the first to come to people’s mind is the well known Dungeons and Dragons, but there are many kinds of TTRPG’s that delve into different genres, such as games like Pathfinder, Monster of the Week, Kids on Bikes, and more.
In the spirit of Halloween, the TTRPG’s Club decided to play through a one-shot campaign of Cult of Cthulhu (kuh-THOOL-hu). As the name suggests, Cult of Cthulhu, often known as Call of Cthulhu, is a table-top game that takes inspiration from the works of H.P. Lovecraft and focuses on investigation, mystery, and cosmic horrors.
Call of Cthulhu has a system that includes special rules for sanity and luck, and relies on percentile dice to determine success or failure. The lower the percentage, the higher chance of success. Players take on the roles of ordinary people who were unfortunate enough to be drawn into the realm of the mysterious.
Players, left to right, Kainoa Ake, Leto Rastopsoff, Thomas Salgado, Thomas Kapcoe, and Hollis Davis and their keeper, Rey Young, in the mask in the middle, talk to the audience on October 31, 2025.
Call of Cthulhu has a reputation as a game for having their characters often die in various gruesome circumstances or end up in mental institutions, often resulting in many games being one offs rather than long term campaigns.
The live show had a small crowd, which made for a fun and intimate setting and included an interactive element.
Friday’s show consisted of five players, Kainoa Ake, Leto Rastopsoff, Thomas Salgado, Thomas Kapcoe, and Hollis Davis, and their keeper, Rey Young. The adventure began with our eccentric team of characters skipping town in California and making their way to Canada, stopping along the way to help solve the missing persons’ cases happening in the woods of a town along the way.
Audience members watched rapt, laughing along with jokes made between characters and waiting with anticipation for the moments.
By the end of the night, the investigators may not have escaped unscathed, but their players walked away with smiles on their faces and laughter in their voices. Between sanity-shattering revelations and hilarious mishaps, Friday’s session proved that even in the face of eldritch horror, there is nothing more human than laughing through the chaos.