Miskatonic Monday #203: Camp Hollow Lake

Between October 2003 and October 2013, Chaosium, Inc. published a series of books for Call of Cthulhu under the Miskatonic University Library Association brand. Whether a sourcebook, scenario, anthology, or campaign, each was a showcase for their authors—amateur rather than professional, but fans of Call of Cthulhu nonetheless—to put forward their ideas and share with others. The programme was notable for having launched the writing careers of several authors, but for every Cthulhu Invictus, The Pastores, Primal State, Ripples from Carcosa, and Halloween Horror, there was Five Go Mad in Egypt, Return of the Ripper, Rise of the Dead, Rise of the Dead II: The Raid, and more...

The Miskatonic University Library Association brand is no more, alas, but what we have in its stead is the Miskatonic Repository, based on the same format as the DM’s Guild for Dungeons & Dragons. It is thus, “...a new way for creators to publish and distribute their own original Call of Cthulhu content including scenarios, settings, spells and more…” To support the endeavours of their creators, Chaosium has provided templates and art packs, both free to use, so that the resulting releases can look and feel as professional as possible. To support the efforts of these contributors, Miskatonic Monday is an occasional series of reviews which will in turn examine an item drawn from the depths of the Miskatonic Repository.

—oOo—

Name: Camp Hollow Lake

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Daniel Stephens

Setting: Modern day New England

Product: One-shot
What You Get: Twenty-Eight page, 2.15 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: Summer camp cliché

Plot Hook: Sometimes the best thing to do is buy into the clichés and run with them.
Plot Support: Four pre-generated Investigators, seven handouts, two floorplans, one map, and two monsters.

Production Values: Reasonable.

Pros

# Fully embraces the Summer camp clichés

# Multiple inventive mini-scenes of unnamed students getting slashed

# Easy to adjust to the nineties, eighties, seventies, or sixties

# Scopophobia

# Phonophobia

# Aichmophobia

Cons

# Needs a strong edit

# Another summer camp slasher stalker horror

# Non-Mythos scenario

# Unlikeable pre-generated Investigators

# Fully embraces the Summer camp clichés

# A runaround until the solution can be found

Conclusion

# Another summer camp slasher stalker horror with all the clichés

# Unlikeable pre-generated Investigators who deserve to die, but sadly the scenario drags their time to die out until the climax