The Beika Troublemakers' Club

No pairings, ensemble cast

The second installment is now underway: The Rice Flower District Has No Trouble-Makers, where the troublemaker crew swap identities and take turns being grade-schoolers

Original work: Getting Hunted by the Entire Universe Is an Absolute Blast, an ensemble story with no pairings

In this world, supernatural phenomena did not exist. Scientists and detectives had always believed this.

Until a pair of dice suddenly dropped in front of them, and they embarked on an adventure game.

[At an inn during a late-night blackout, you hear a strange noise in the hallway. Do you open the door?]

Shinichi: “Open it! Of course I’m opening it!”

[Luck check 1d100: 15/97. Failure]

[The fog outside seems to coalesce into a silver-haired man, who swings a baseball bat at you.]

Shinichi: !!!

[You pass out. The next day, a shrunken famous detective appears in your room.]

Shinichi: ???

[Your teammate’s stats are halved because he has shrunk. Will you save him?]

Sherry: “...Save him.”

[Medicine-making check 1d100: 70/5. Extreme success.]

[As expected of a standard old-school Chinese doctor! With your miraculous skills, your teammate pops back to his normal size. Mysterious pill -1]

Sherry: “Wait, where did I get a mysterious pill?”

[You made it yourself, being an old-school Chinese doctor.]

Sherry: ???

>>>

It was supposed to be an adventure full of thrilling deductions, or at least that’s what the famous detective thought.

That is, until everyone gathered and saw one another’s Luck scores.

Bourbon (20): “You know me. I wouldn’t put my faith in such slim odds.”

Rye (25): “You know how this goes. Better to just take the shot.”

Sherry (40): “You know me. If I step in, nobody here is making it out alive.”

Shinichi (15): “You’re all incredibly talented, aren’t you? So not one of you has a Luck score above 40, right?!”

Sherry/Rye/Bourbon: “...”

Why don’t you take a look at your own score first?

As the game went on, they broke into an empty police station, ransacked the supply depot, stole important intelligence, and even debated whether to kidnap an NPC.

The famous detective, who had been through all of it with them, thought it over and found their simple, brute-force approach strangely familiar.

Shinichi: “Have you noticed that we’re acting more and more like the Black Organization?”

Sherry/Rye/Bourbon: ???

Why don’t you take another look at our codenames?

The following is all a list of content warnings:

Based on reader feedback in the completed-story reviews and comments, this story contains OOC characterization, stereotypes, too many ridiculous antics and too little logic or common sense, limited screen time for some characters listed as leads, the “belittling” of the protagonists to elevate mysterious guest characters, and a style that may not be proper Call of Cthulhu. Please make sure you’re comfortable with these points before starting the story, to avoid an unpleasant experience.

San Check Warning

0. A comedy group of troublemakers made up of one scientist and three detectives. Ensemble cast, split evenly between tabletop role-playing and comedy. A game among familiar faces, with special guests appearing.

1. My nonstandard take on tabletop role-playing, with lots of original rules. Uses the seventh edition Call of Cthulhu rules plus many house rules, and leans more toward an unlimited-flow System story. You don’t need to know Call of Cthulhu or tabletop role-playing. In this game world, the dice decide everything.

2. No pairings. Just a friendship forged through shared hardship as they face off against the KP.

2.5.0. [Multiple POV ensemble cast.] All four members of the troublemaker crew are protagonists, and the plot is shared equally among them. The dice determine who takes the lead in each scenario, and there is no single main character.

3. As the title and warnings suggest, this is a comedy group of troublemakers. Expect banter, comedic exaggeration, and everyday bickering, as well as OOC elements needed for things like San Checks, KP descriptions, and progressing through the game.

4. 99% of the dice rolls are done manually. Both behind-the-scenes interference and the Dice God are at work.

In plain terms, here are the content warnings:

0. No pairings. There are no romantic storylines in the 2.5-million-character main story.

1. Multiple POVs and an ensemble cast. The four members of the troublemaker crew in the blurb are all protagonists, with equal shares of the plot. Each scenario follows the dice rolls, and there is no single main character who carries the entire story. If anyone does, it’s the KP.

2. This story does not involve or allude to any real-world country, region, religion, group, organization, or individual. Please don’t draw parallels with real life, either.

3. If you’re very particular about tabletop role-playing and only accept your ideal style of authentic Call of Cthulhu, please read with caution. This is not a Call of Cthulhu promotional story, nor is it called How to Play a Tabletop RPG, Step by Step. Please don’t accuse me of misleading newcomers to the game.

More content warnings can be found in the author’s note in Chapter One.

This is an original campaign. It does not use any other campaigns, and no adaptation or usage rights are granted.

Please don’t mention any other campaigns, authors, or works in the comments. I will delete those comments. And please don’t mention this story under other works, as that would be very rude to their creators.

To all my dear participants: This is a nonstandard tabletop campaign, and the KP has been corrupted by a mysterious force. If you experience any discomfort during the game, including a loss of Sanity, you may leave at any time. You don’t need to leave a withdrawal notice. Thank you.

The cover is a privately commissioned work and will change as the maps are updated. Please do not use previous covers. @Yuzhou Wangyue

[Blurb screenshotted on 2023/02/03]

Theme: Believe in yourself and believe in science