The Other OSR: Pitcrawler

If you opened the pages of Pitcrawler and wondered if you had wandered into a ‘choose your own adventure’ path book a la the Fighting Fantasy series of solo books, then you might be forgiven for being confused about what you are holding in your hand. Once you get past it, you actually find out what Pitcrawler is and why it had to start with ‘choose your own adventure’ path book. This is because the whole ‘choose your own adventure’ path book is designed to introduce the reader to the concept of roleplaying and what a roleplaying game is, and so actually prepare the player for what Pitcrawler actually is. Which is a fantasy roleplaying game inspired by classic Fighting Fantasy and Lone Wolf solo adventure books, but instead of being a ‘Choose-Your-Own-Adventure’ game, it is designed to be played by two players. One is the Adventurer; the other is the Games Master. It is as simple as that, but also a lot more than that and lot less than that—and none of that is bad.

Pitcrawler is published by MacGuffin & Co., which is best known for the superlative Odd Jobs: RPG Micro Settings Vol. I, the anthology of genuinely good systemless campaign settings and ideas. Pitcrawler is both a storytelling game and not a storytelling game, in that both player and Game Master are working together to create a story and world with the player encouraged to make suggestions, but whilst the Game Master is most definitely not competing with the player, she is making the game and world challenging for the player and his character. Pitcrawler is both a traditional fantasy roleplaying game and not a traditional fantasy roleplaying game. There is hero who will have adventures and may even go on a great quest (or just a little one), and may delve into ‘Pits’ as it calls dungeons. However, there is no given world or world lore in the Pitcrawler. It is presumed to be over-the-top grim fantasy, but one which eschews traditional ‘Old School’ elements with its traditional treatment of females and races, alignments, and its play styles. The only background element that will be consistent from one play through to another is the world has Wizards who are powerful magicians capable of changing the world around them, not always to the benefit of the inhabitants. Wizards are also very rich and their tombs are often worth plundering. Wizards are sufficiently powerful that as a group they could destroy a minor god and even face down a major one!

Pitcrawler does not just eschew traditional ‘Old School’. It goes further in describing itself as having “Progressive Lefty Values”. And to be clear, this is not a bad thing either. After all, there are plenty of roleplaying games, almost all of them under the ‘Old School’ banner which do have those traditional elements if you want them. Pitcrawler is simply a roleplaying game that offers a different perspective and greatly widens—even if only by one roleplaying game versus hundreds of traditional roleplaying games—the choice for the player who wants to play what is a self-confessed progressive fantasy roleplaying game.

A Player Character in Pitcrawler is an Adventurer. An Adventurer is not a Wizard as Wizards are evil and an Adventurer cannot perform magic (though he can use artefacts). An Adventurer has five qualities. These are Face, Feet, Fingers, Fists, and Heart. Each is rated by a die type, from a four-sided die to a twelve-sided die. The die type attached to each quality is determined randomly. He starts play with seven Hit Points, a Background, three areas of Expertise, a Companion, and some equipment. The Backgrounds, which indicate what the Adventurer did before he came a Pitcrawler, include Animal Farmer, Bookkeeper, Entertainer, Gambler, Midwife, Tax Collector, and more. Each Background provides two items of equipment and two areas of Expertise, one of which is mandatory, the other the player can choose. A third s determined randomly. The Background also provides some equipment, two other items are determined randomly, and the player choses a weapon. What is not on the character is anything akin to Intellect, Perception, and Defence. This is because the Adventurer is as intelligent as his player; instead of rolling for Perception, the player is expected to ask questions and the Game Master is expected to answer them honestly; and Pitcrawler is a player-facing roleplaying game. That is, he is the only one rolling dice whereas the Game Master will not—except for random chance or contests between NPCs.

To create an Adventurer, a player rolls for his Qualities, Background, extra Expertise, and selects a Companion. The Companion assists with particular types of tests and can perform a particular ability once per scenario. For example, the Priest can assist with tests of willpower and pass a Complicated Heart test for the Adventurer once per scenario. The player should name the Companion and explain why the Companion is accompanying the Adventurer. The process is quick and easy, which makes it good if an Adventurer dies. If he does, one of the features of Pitcrawler is legacies in which the new Adventurer is somehow related or linked to the one that died and will gain a benefit as a result.

Pallavi Iapheth
Level: 1
Face d10 Feet d12 Fingers d8 Fists d6 Heart d4
Hit Point: 7
Background: Tax Collector
Expertise: Accounting, Haggling, Gambling
Items: Book, fake jewels, measuring tape, weighing scales, pistol
Companion: Bruiser (Bob)

To have him undertake an action, the Adventurer’s player rolls an appropriate quality die and aims to equal to or higher than a Difficulty set by the Game Master. The Difficulty ranges from three or Simple to eighteen or Inconceivable. When a quality die is rolled, it can explode, which means that it is possible for the Adventurer to overcome a challenge even if the die type is low. In addition, the difficulty of the test can be lowered one step if the Adventurer has a relevant Expertise, a Useful item, or is Assisted by a Companion or NPC willing to help. A critical success, equal to double the number needed to succeed, grants the Adventurer an extra reward. Failure can lead to loss of Hit Points and/or a consequence which will send the scenario in a different direction.

If failure is likely, the Adventurer can instead ‘Put his heart Into It’ and his player roll the Heart quality die and add it to the total. If the roll is a failure, it is counted as a critical failure. One clever mechanic is that of ‘Thumbs’, which apes the keeping of the thumb on a previous page in a solo adventure book as the player explores the story on another. In effect, this allows the player to turn back the clock in the scenario to a reset point and there make a different choice. A player can have up to five Thumbs depending upon the difficulty of the play.

As with other player-facing roleplaying games, in combat, a player will be rolling to have his Adventurer avoid damage. It can be kept as simple as that, but it can be made more complex and detailed with the rules for advanced fights. These add more detail to opponents, allows for multiple opponents, range, the Adventurer or the enemy gaining the upper hand (whether through preparation, observation, or research), more detailed Companion involvement, and so on. The added complexity has its advantages in work, providing more mini-prompts with which to narrate the combat, but does slow game play down comparatively.

Beyond the simplicity of the rules, there is advice for the Game Master on easing the player into his first scenario and onto the next, as well as creating scenarios. These are effectively outlines or prompts that provide a foundation from which she can improvise from, consisting of a concept, objective, antagonist, location, complication, factions, and twists along with a hook that the Game Master can use to bait the Adventurer. The setting for Pitcrawler is described in broad detail—Wizards rule everything, dangers are everywhere and there are rewards to be won; and no thinking creature inherently evil, but that does not mean that they are necessarily good; and whilst there are a lot of gods, they are not necessarily going to be helpful. Particular attention is paid to the nature of Wizards, that they are ambitious, respect other Wizards only, are otherworldly and nerdy, and are egotistical. This is accompanied by a quick guide to creating a Wizard.

Two thirds of Pitcrawler consists of ten appendices. Some of these support Adventurer creation, but others provide lists of equipment, magic potions, and magic items to buy (the Adventurer can buy one of each of the magic potions and magic items between scenarios). The ‘Tome of Foes’ gives lots of suggested foes, ready to throw into the path of the Adventurer, whilst ‘Iconic Wizards’ describes some twenty-five different Wizards. These include An’Nimat the Dancer who is fascinated with music and sound and uses spells to make others move to the music including everyone in her domain the new moon; Bombatel the War Wizard, who resides in a cratered and battered domain, and is often hired by other Wizards to fight for them; Malsain the Rotmonger, who studies decay, disease, and entropy from her domain mired in slime and plague, and is shunned by other Wizards as a consequence; and Salvia the Chef, so enamoured of good food and the artistry of cooking, that he gave up his studies and made his mansion into a bistro, using magic to develop new ingredients, but not actually cook with. This is accompanied by ‘A Pitcrawler’s Progress’, a complete ten-part campaign, which takes the Adventurer from saving someone important to him in a fishing town that is being attacked by leviathan to delving into tombs, climbing mage towers, and more as he chases down The Sunless, a cult dedicated to awakening its dead god of darkness. Each of the parts has been opened up beyond simple prompts, but the structure does not limit the Game Master or the player in developing the world how they want in play, working from the prompts that the individual scenarios give. What is made clear is that ‘A Pitcrawler’s Progress’ is not a default setting for the roleplaying game, but something to define during play. Overall, ‘A Pitcrawler’s Progress’ provides the Game Master and player all that they need to get playing bar their creativity.

Unfortunately, there is not much in the way of pits or crawling in Pitcrawler. Despite all of its efforts to create a roleplaying game that treats a traditional roleplaying game style and concept in a non-traditional fashion, it seems odd that it does not talk about how to create and play dungeons in Pitcrawler. Given how much this is part of the traditional play that Pitcrawler is emulating, it is a major omission. The other is that for a roleplaying game that works from prompts and wants to push the imagination of both Game Master and player, it seems short of smaller, more general tables to help with that.

Physically, Pitcrawler is well presented. It is an easy read and the artwork constantly echoes the look of the Fighting Fantasy series.

Pitcrawler is different. It brings storytelling elements to Old School Renaissance play without any of its assumptions or traditions and what that means is greater flexibility in tone, style, and nature of the world that the Game Master and player will work together to create and the Adventurer will explore. Some of the elements are not as developed as they should have been, such as ‘pits’, perhaps opening up the possibility of a pit companion to this main rulebook. Ultimately, Pitcrawler opens up classic fantasy roleplaying to players and Game Master who would normally avoid it and allows them to make it their own together. The combination of a lack of assumed lore with it being a one-on-one roleplaying game also makes it easier to get a group—or pair—together and start playing.

—oOo—

MacGuffin & Co. will be at UK Games Expo which takes place from Friday, 29th to Sunday 31st of May.

Miskatonic Monday #301: Lurkers in the Dark

Much like the Jonstown Compendium for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha and The Companions of Arthur for material set in Greg Stafford’s masterpiece of Arthurian legend and romance, Pendragon, the Miskatonic Repository for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition is a curated platform for user-made content. 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.

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Name: Lurkers in the Dark

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Derek Zimmer

Setting: Michigan, 1927

Product: Scenario
What You Get: Eighteen page, 11.94 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: A return to where it all began...

Plot Hook: “To lose one Kimball may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose two looks like carelessness.”

Plot Support: Staging advice, three handouts, three NPCs, and two Mythos monsters.

Production Values: Decent

Pros

# Sequel to ‘Paper Chase’ from the Call of Cthulhu Starter Set and the Cthulhu Companion – Ghastly adventures & Erudite Lore
# Can be played using the Call of Cthulhu Starter Set

# Part of ‘The Next Adventure’ series
# Part of the Call of Cthulhu – Ongoing Horror BUNDLE

# One Investigator, One Keeper scenario

# Detailed, meaty investigation

# Decent handouts
# Coimetrophobia

# Ososphobia

# Claustrophobia

Cons

# No maps and no floorplans

# Needs a slight edit

Conclusion

# Worthy sequel to a classic scenario

# Rich, meaty investigation with subtle flavours

# Reviews from R’lyeh Recommends

Miskatonic Monday #277: Hail to the King

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.

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Name: Hail To The King

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Marco Carrer

Setting: New York State, 1989

Product: One-on-One Scenario
What You Get: Nine page, 448.60 KB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: “Modern music is as dangerous as narcotics.” – Pietro Mascagni

Plot Hook: This is one rare record you won’t want to rave about

Plot Support: Staging advice, one pre-generated Investigator, and four NPCs.

Production Values: Untidy.

Pros

# One Investigator, one session scenario

# Easy to adapt to other modern time periods with recorded sound

# Straightforward investigation

# Melophobia

# Hemophobia

# Pharmacophobia

Cons

# Needs a good edit

# Linear

# Needs an opposition to mix up its noir nods and make it a MacGuffin hunt

Conclusion

# Seedy, direct investigation that feels just a bit too easy

# Tell, me have you heard the Yellow Sign?

Miskatonic Monday #275: The Schoolmarm’s Ghost

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: The Schoolmarm’s Ghost

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Andy Miller

Setting: Oregon, 1877

Product: One-on-one scenario for Down Darker Trails: Terrors of the Mythos
What You Get: Fifty-eight page, 23.36 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: Ghost, but in the Beaver State

Plot Hook: An inheritance and a haunting points to...?
Plot Support: Staging advice, one pre-generated Investigator, eight NPCs, sixteen handouts and images, seven maps and floorplans, three Mythos tomes, and two Mythos monsters.

Production Values: Decent.

Pros

# Scenario for Down Darker Trails: Terrors of the Mythos

# Scenario for one player and her Keeper

# Good introduction to both Call of Cthulhu and Down Darker Trails
# Probably the best conversion notes in the world
# Richly detailed investigation

# Extensive notes included

# Phasmophobia

# Osmophobia

# Androphobia

Cons

# Needs a slight edit

# Scenario hook is a Call of Cthulhu cliché

Conclusion

# Excellent, easily adapted introduction for one player and her Keeper

# Takes a hoary old cliché and turns it into a richly detailed and thoroughly enjoyable investigation in the Old West

# Reviews from R’lyeh Recommends

Solitaire: Thousand Empty Light

Thank you for accepting this assignment. As a valued employee of the HAZMOS CORP we have trust in your resilience and reliability to undertake this task. TEL 022 is the only artificial structure on Unadopted Planetary Body 154, or UPB 154. HAZMOS CORP currently owns the maintenance contract on this facility and the Department of Offworld Contact Monitoring has detected that TEL 022 is currently without light or power. The Department of Offworld Contact Fulfilment has assigned you, a fully trained LAMPLIGHTER, to fulfil the immediate terms of the contract. You will be transported to UPB 154. An atmospheric vehicle will insert you onto UPB 154 and you will gain access to TEL 022. Once inside you are directed to descend to the bottom of TEL 022 and proceed section by section through TEL 022. In each section you will restore power and light. In each section, please record your visual assessment and maintenance report in the MemoComm module for HAZMOS CORP records as part of the contract. You are advised that TEL 022 is a sub oceanic facility. Please record any depth complications in consultation with the PNEUMATIC AND NARCOTIC INCIDENT CHART, or PANIC reference, provided. Throughout this assignment you are reminded to adhere to the standard practice for the fulfilment of HAZMOS CORP maintenance contracts and follow the OBSERVE RESOLVE ACT CONCLUDE LEAVE EVIDENCE, or ORACLE, System. By following the ORACLE System, you will ensure your safety and HAZMOS CORP’s continued responsibility for your safety and wellbeing. Failure to adhere to the ORACLE System may threaten your safety and wellbeing, the capacity of HAZMOS CORP to fulfil the contract, and negate any liability HAZMOS CORP is contractually obliged to fulfil with regard to your physical and mental status. On behalf of the HAZMOS CORP, the Director thanks you for your attention and action in these matters and looks forward to you being a continued and valued member of the HAZMOS CORP family.

This is the set-up for Thousand Empty Light, a supplement for MOTHERSHIP Sci-Fi Horror Roleplaying Game, published by House of Valley following a successful Kickstarter campaign, which is several things which together make it more than a straightforward supplement or scenario. On the one level, it is actually the manual and guidance book released by the HAZMOS CORP for fulfilling the maintenance contract for TEL 022. On another, it is actually a piece of horror fiction which follows the progress of the assigned Lamplighter as he descends into TEL 022 and makes his way along it one segmented tunnel, visually scanning each area, reading the reports recorded by the previous Lamplighter to conduct maintenance on the facility, recording his report, and coming to the realisation that there is something odd going on in TEL 022 and that HAZMOS CORP is not telling its employee the true purpose of the facility. And lastly, it is a solo adventure for MOTHERSHIP Sci-Fi Horror Roleplaying Game, one whose rules can be adapted to use in other scenarios for MOTHERSHIP Sci-Fi Horror Roleplaying Game. As a solo adventure, it can be played as written, but the player can also record his reports, turning Thousand Empty Light into a journaling scenario. Further, given that Thousand Empty Light is designed for solo play and thus one player, it could actually be run one-on-one, with a single player and a Warden. The latter will be easier than in most solo roleplaying experiences because the structure of TEL 022 actually informs the structure of the scenario—it is linear. Although it is interactive fiction, Thousand Empty Light is literally straightforward as opposed to the non-linearity of most works of interactive fiction such as the Fighting Fantasy series.

TEL 022, the setting for Thousand Empty Light, is situated deep under the ocean of UPB 154. It is accessed via a caisson that juts above the ocean surface, the Lamplighter descending via the caisson and undergoing hyperbaric intervention. At the bottom, the Lamplighter is tasked with proceeding through the five sections of the facility in order, each one sealed at either end. In each section, he must follow the standard WORKFLOW: review the reports previously recorded on the hand-cranked MemoComm module, assess the situation, and restore both light and power, record his own report, and check for depth complications. This includes following the ORACLE System.

Notably, the ‘O’ or ‘OBSERVE’ step of the ORACLE System uses Semiotic Standard as a means of providing a randomising factor. Semiotic Standard is actually a system of signs and symbols—‘Semiotic Standard For All Commercial Trans-Stellar Utility Lifter And Heavy Element Transport Spacecraft’—created by the American film designer, Ron Cobb, as icons for the commercial spacetug, Nostromo, in the film Alien. There are fifty of these and they are recreated on the back cover of Thousand Empty Light and numbered. Where there is a degree of doubt and uncertainty, the player can roll to determine which one will influence the actions of his character. Each has been amended with a potential outcome, either ‘Yes’, ‘No’, ‘Yes, But’, and ‘No, but’, to prompt the player along with the icon itself. They are not the easiest of prompts to use, but their verisimilitude and the sense of worldbuilding they enforce are undeniable.

In addition, the player, as the Lamplighter, has to record incidents and near misses and record them on an Incident Form. These can be trips and falls, injury and illness, unsafe disrepair, excessive noise, newly-identified, and more. When they occur, they are randomly assigned a value between one and ten. They do not have an immediate effect, but if another incident occurs which is randomly assigned the same value as a previous incident, it triggers repercussions from that previous incident. The higher the assigned value, the greater the effect of the repercussions. It also triggers a PANIC check upon the part of the Lamplighter which requires referring to the PANIC reference. This is also required when the Lamplighter transitions from one section to another.

In terms of a Player Character and his abilities, Thousand Empty Light recommends Mechanical Repair and Jury-Rigging as skills and training in industrial equipment. Otherwise, it adheres to standard rules for character creation for MOTHERSHIP Sci-Fi Horror Roleplaying Game. He is assigned a flashlight, a rebreather, and a dive gauge, and some of the hazards he will face are explained—depth complications, unlit areas, corrosive seawater, flooding, raiders, and an array of strange creatures and environmental effects. Once the Lamplighter has signed a Letter of Last Resort, he enters the caisson and the first section. It is at this point that Thousand Empty Light begins to resemble a journalling game, because what the player will be in each section is using its description and the MemoComm module recordings his Lamplighter has access to as prompts to ask questions. Answers to these questions are determined by rolling on the Semiotic Standard table on the back of the book, as well as other factors. The player can then decide how his Lamplighter responds, what action he takes, and so on, following the ORACLE System again and again until the section has been fully explored and the Lamplighter has completed the WORKFLOW for that section.

As the Lamplighter proceeds from one section to the next the oppressive, often claustrophobic atmosphere grows, the unsettling nature of even the first four sections of TEL 022 exacerbating his sense of panic. This is first forced by the need to make a PANIC check when entering a new section and then by events generated by the player from the questions prompted by the descriptive content. One thing that Thousand Empty Light does not explain is what is in the fifth section. It is described as a High Value Asset early in the maintenance manual, and the Lamplighter is cautioned not to interact with it. In a sense, it does not matter, since getting to the last section will have been trial enough and asking those questions may be too much. Like the story of his Lamplighter’s progress through TEL 022, it is up to the player to decide, though there is, perhaps, the hint that it lies closer to home…

In addition, there are secrets in Thousand Empty Light that are hidden by a code. These are not decipherable without further purchase by the player. They are not necessary to play through Thousand Empty Light though.

Physically, Thousand Empty Light is impressive. The writing captures the right tone of corporate attitude and care, which of course, is never going to be enough as a playthrough reveals. Similarly, the layout adds to this and the combination of the two is why Thousand Empty Light actually works better as a piece of fiction perhaps more than it does as a solo adventure or a set of solo rules for MOTHERSHIP Sci-Fi Horror Roleplaying Game. Part of that is due to the fact that the explanation of how they work is written as a corporate maintenance manual rather than as a roleplaying game supplement. At the same time though, if it actually had that clearer explanation of the rules, it might actually have disrupted the veracity of the atmosphere in Thousand Empty Light.

Lastly, it should be noted that the name of the scenario has been randomly generated. By any stretch of the imagination, it is meaningless.

As a piece of horror fiction and interactive fiction, Thousand Empty Light superbly and successfully combines a sense of corporate sheen and corporate creepiness, the former ratcheted down, the latter ratcheted up, as the player and his Lamplighter proceeds further into TEL 022. As a set of solo rules, Thousand Empty Light underwhelms due to under-explaining and that, combined with their specific application by the HAZMOS CORP here, makes them difficult to apply elsewhere for MOTHERSHIP Sci-Fi Horror Roleplaying Game. Perhaps a new ORACLE System and PANIC reference is required?

Miskatonic Monday #256: The True Housewives of Arkham

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.

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Name: The True Housewives of Arkham

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Keith DEdinburgh

Setting: Modern Day Arkham

Product: One-Shot Scenario
What You Get: Forty-nine page, 2.37 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: The hell of other housewives is a whole other reality (television pitch).

Plot Hook: Fame, fortune, and fabulous frenemies in Arkham

Plot Support: Staging advice, five pre-generated Housewives, three NPCs plus Mister Chow Wow, one  map, and three Mythos monsters

Production Values: Decent

Pros

# Reality Television terror 

# Adds interesting social mechanics for inter-Housewife interaction

# Plenty of scope for over-the-top roleplaying 

# Potential convention scenario

# Vestiphophobia

# Metathesiophobia

# Scopophobia

Cons

# The parody can tip over into the camp and vice versa

Conclusion

# The horror of Reality Television becomes a reality

# Housewife horror sets up plenty of scope for unreal roleplaying before the reality of the horror hits!

Miskatonic Monday #255: The Drop

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.

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Name: The Drop

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Sean Liddle

Setting: Eighties Lake Ontario

Product: One-on-One Scenario
What You Get: Six page, 236.94 KB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: Just because you are a monster does not mean that you do not want your freedom to play
Plot Hook: Freedom from your parents... Just for a day

Plot Support: Staging advice and one map

Production Values: Plain

Pros

# Strange subaquatic scares off the shore

# Outline to be developed rather than plot

# Easy to adapt to other periods

# Ichthyophobia

# Thalassophobia

# Androphobia

Cons

# No pre-generated Investigator

# Outline to be developed rather than plot

Conclusion

# Hints at the strangeness of the sea off the shore

# Mechanical development required

Terror for Two Again

Even Death Can Die is an anthology of scenarios for Cthulhu Confidential, the GUMSHOE One-2-One System version for Trail of Cthulhu, the roleplaying game of Lovecraftian investigative horror. Published by Pelgrane Press, Cthulhu Confidential is designed to be played head-to-head, with the player and his Investigator delving into a mystery, the Game Master helping to facilitate this and tell the story of the Investigator’s efforts. In addition to the new rules and a guide to Cthulhu Mythos and Cosmic Horror for beginners, Cthulhu Confidential also included three scenarios that were the highlight of the book. Each includes a different protagonist and is by a different author, and each brought noir horror and a different code of honour to a different city in the thirties and forties. The three Investigators are Dexter ‘Dex’ Raymond, a Private Investigator in Los Angeles, 1937, obviously inspired by works of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammet; Vivian Sinclair, an investigative journalist and lady detective in thirties New York, inspired by Kerry Greenwood and Dorothy L. Sayers; and Langston Montgomery Wright, an African American invalided veteran Private Investigator in Washington D.C. towards the end of World War II, inspired by Walter Mosely and Chester Himes. These are created and written by Robin D. Laws for Dexter ‘Dex’ Raymond, Ruth Tillman for Vivian Sinclair, and Chris Spivey for Langston Montgomery Wright, and in each case, the authors also address the social and cultural aspects of their settings. This is where Even Death Can Die picks up.

Even Death Can Die consists of not one, but nine scenarios. Three for each of the three investigators. Over the course of the nonet, the Investigators will get thrown across time and space, back into their memories, and confront some familiar creatures and entities of the Mythos, get involved in local and national politics, and more. Each of the three scenarios for each Investigator is designed to be played as their first investigation or as sequels to the scenarios in Cthulhu Confidential for their respective Investigators. Thus, ‘The Fathomless Sleep’ in Los Angeles as Dexter ‘Dex’ Raymond, ‘Fatal Frequencies’ in New York as Vivian Sinclair, and ‘Capitol Colour’ Washington DC as Langston Montgomery Wright. All nine are complete with their own protagonists, settings, and Problems and Edges, and all the player has to do as part of his preparation is ensure that the Investigator for the scenario being played has a Problem that will make the Investigation all the more personally difficult. This can be a new one from the scenario, or the one carried over from the investigations in Cthulhu Confidential. In addition, throughout the anthology there are sections marked as ‘Handle With Care’, which are entirely optional, but which highlight a social situation or attitude that was unfortunately prevalent during the period when the individual scenarios are set.

Even Death Can Die does not waste any time in getting down to business. Following a quick explanation, it opens with ‘One For the Money’, the first of three scenarios for Langston Montgomery Wright, set in and around Washington DC. It opens with him being hired—in a menacing manner—by Rhino Jones, a local gangster, to find out who and why some attacked and killed his men just as they were conducting a robbery on a truck. This gets the anthology off to a great start as our protagonist attempts to locate the bodies of those killed, possible survivors, and whatever it was that was in the back of the truck. The scenario not so much veers into the Pulp genre as leans into it with its combination of corrupt businessmen and politicians, gangsters and the Mob, Nazi spies, and what those in the know hope is a war-winning secret weapon prototype. It all feels just a bit like a combination of The Rocketeer and ‘From Beyond’, made all the more woozy when the device gets turned on and sends everyone’s senses for a loop.

If ‘One For the Money’ is a just a bit bonkers, then for Langston Montgomery Wright ‘The Shadow Over Washington’ gets weird. He is hired to investigate why a young engineering student, placed in a sanatorium by his parents on medical grounds, is not getting better and does not appear to be receiving the treatment he should. Surprisingly, getting to the patient and to the doctor treating him is relatively easy, but only in following up on another private investigator’s enquiries does look like there are others suffering from the same problem as the student. Langston Montgomery Wright finds himself on bloody trail that leads to a strange youth movement, even stranger doings at Washington National Airport, and then an utterly weird situation in which he is both someone else and somewhere else. Similar situations have been depicted in many a scenario of Lovecraftian investigative horror, but always to NPCs. Here the author makes it both personal and desperate and it will probably the standout scene for the scenario.

If ‘One For the Money’ is bonkers and ‘The Shadow Over Washington’ weird, the third scenario for Langston Montgomery Wright gets horribly personal, delving back in his own terrible memories and those of others, depicting the terrible racism of their respective pasts. In ‘Preacher Man Blues’, Langston Montgomery Wright is hired by a number of different denomination churches to investigate a traveling fire and brimstone preacher who has come to the capitol. They want him gone because he is attracting their congregations and the police want him gone—at the very least—because he is disturbing the peace. This is a nasty scenario with some shocking scenes (with more shocking content in the optional descriptions), plus a very chilling interview with J. Edgar Hoover that results in our private investigator having the full weight of the law upon his back. Fortunately, the shocking scenes are handled with care and the cultural aspects of Langston Montgomery Wright’s own community portrayed with sensitivity. Which really does make the horror of ‘Preacher Man Blues’ that much worse…

‘The Howling Fog’ shifts the action to New York in the first of the three scenarios for investigative journalist Vivian Sinclair. An undercover investigation into the city’s mob run clipjoints where the male clientele are fleeced for as much money as possible turns nasty when the boss, a Made Man, is found dead on the street with his head all bent out of shape. As the mobsters begin to circle each other, Vivian Sinclair widens her investigation to include Harlem’s famous Cotton Club, but the investigation will ultimately lead back where she started. There is a pleasing contrast in interreacting and roleplaying with the women who work in the clipjoints and the increasingly wary members of the mob in the scenario, and as a whole, the scenario also contrasts with the previous three in being a much smaller scale investigation. It is also much grubbier and sleazier as you would expect given its setting and subject matter.

Labour relations are the subject of Vivian Sinclair’s next investigation in ‘Ex Astoria’. Reporting on a riot between striking labourers working on a big tunnelling project under New York and scab labour brought, reveals that the labour dispute is not without substance. The labourers, many of whom suffer from the bends due to rapid changes in pressure working underground are suffering from other injuries and a strange wasting disease following a badly handled demolition in the tunnel and exposure to an acidic fluid. Investigation means getting into the site itself and there Vivian Sinclair will discover the source of the corrosive liquid and a malign influence, which if not contained, will result in an environmental disaster for New York. The scenario has a neat epilogue which foreshadows a great event in the city in 1939—the World Fair—and it would be interesting to see a sequel to ‘Ex Astoria’ set at that event.

Vivian Sinclair gets some time off—or at least, she almost does—in her third and final scenario in the anthology. In ‘Boundary Waters’, she accepts an invitation to a benefit gala aboard a gambling ship out in international waters off New York, hosted by her third cousin, society heiress Tabitha ‘Tabby’ Sinclair. However, Vivian Sinclair has got wind that ship is doing more than just hosting booze, dice, and dancing parties, it is regularly making a diversion to offshore Long Island, where it locks the passengers in their cabins because of the weather and even has passengers who do not play the tables. What could the Buena Vida being doing in international waters off new York in 1938? The scenario balances dealing with Tabitha and her charity event, the private investigator hired by Tabitha’s father to keep a watch on her, a murder, and the odd activity of several illegal aliens aboard ship. It is a really good mix and having it set aboard ship—sadly without any deckplans—serves to keep everything shipshape and Bristol fashion and the investigation focused. If things do not go her way, there is a potentially nasty ending for Vivian Sinclair, but otherwise this is a nicely done period piece made all the more sparky by the presence of a noted literary wit.

The last trilogy of scenarios begins in traditional fashion when a widow walks into the offices of Dexter ‘Dex’ Raymond and asks him to confirm that the death of her husband in a car accident was not a suicide, which is what the insurance company suspects. ‘The House Up in the Hills’ looks at first to be an ordinary case, but when the private investigator visits the house of the husband’s new client, it begins to look stranger. The house itself is not only strange, but the background to its original architect took a tragic turn with a suicide attempt—as when explained by the architect from the high security cell of the psychiatric ward that is his home now—the house itself wanted to kill itself! Further investigation points toward the client’s friends and colleagues, who together once formed a sorcerous coven. Are any of them still practicing is a question that Dexter ‘Dex’ Raymond will have to answer as he suffers attacks by swarms of rats and illusions. The scenario—the only one in the anthology to include the traditional handouts of Lovecraftian investigative roleplaying—crosses elements of The Dreams in the Witch House with Rats in the Walls, but has potential to end as a weird whodunnit.

Film props are the MacGuffin in ‘High Voltage Kill’, the second scenario for Dexter ‘Dex’ Raymond in the anthology. Inspired by the film He Walked by Night and the true crime case which inspired that, the private investigator is hired to locate several key set pieces from 1931’s Frankenstein, all with an electrical theme, and all recently stolen him in a stick-up robbery. The clues all point to a desperate crook, who will stop at nothing to achieve his aims and who somehow is connected to some ordinary folks turned strangely unstoppable killers. This is the most complex of the nine scenarios in terms of its scene timing and the Game Master will have a good grasp of the options provided. More Science Fiction horror than eldritch horror, ‘High Voltage Kill’ is also the most combative scenario in the anthology.

The final scenario in Even Death Can Die is also the third of Dexter ‘Dex’ Raymond’s three cases. In ‘Skin and Teeth’, gangsters hire him to do them a favour: find out exactly what it is that a maid found under a bed of a hotel that they own. What she found looks like the completely flensed skin of a human male! From this gruesome start, connecting one crook to another, points to the involvement of a former city councillor whom the last crook is definite about said former city councillor being an imposter. He is also absolutely definite about wanting the names of board members at the city’s Department of Water and Power, likely connected to an environmental disaster about ten years before. Much like ‘The House Up in the Hills’ before it, ‘Skin and Teeth’ involves interviewing multiple persons before Dexter ‘Dex’ Raymond can locate and confront the ancient forces behind the bloody skin bag left behind, who can be found deep under the city, in a temple to an alien god. As with the scenarios before it, ‘Skin and Teeth’ is a rich and meaty investigation.

Physically, Even Death Can Die is as crisply presented a black and white book as was Cthulhu Confidential. It needs a slight edit in places, but is well written and engaging. It is very lightly illustrated and there are relatively few maps in the scenarios. The Game Master will definitely need to refer to Cthulhu Confidential for details of the three cities where the anthology’s scenarios are set.

One of the great features of Cthulhu Confidential with its use of the GUMSHOE One-2-One System, is that it makes Lovecraftian investigative horror a much more intense and personal experience in terms of both the investigative process and the horror itself. This feature is undoubtedly upheld in this anthology. The result is that Even Death Can Die makes both its horror and its roleplaying much more personal, as well as challenging because the player is on his own, and thus more intimate, and it does so with great set of scenarios, all strongly grounded in their time and place. Cthulhu Confidential, the combination of the background to Trail of Cthulhu with the GUMSHOE One-2-One System, is very well served with Even Death Can Die.

Terror for Two

The aim of Cthulhu Confidential is to take a player and a Game Master “down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid. He is the hero; he is everything. He must be a complete man and a common man and yet an unusual man. He must be, to use a rather weathered phrase, a man of honour—by instinct, by inevitability, without thought of it, and certainly without saying it. He must be the best man in his world and a good enough man for any world.” And it is specifically a player and a Game Master, for Cthulhu Confidential is designed to be played head-to-head, with the player and his Investigator delving into a mystery, the Game Master helping to facilitate this and tell the story of the Investigator’s efforts. Published by Pelgrane Press, Cthulhu Confidential is set in the same world as the publisher’s Trail of Cthulhu, the roleplaying game of Lovecraftian investigative horror, but with major changes—most of them mechanical. This is to facilitate the change from the clue-orientated nature of Trail of Cthulhu using the GUMSHOE System and for several Investigators to the single player and single Game Master and the GUMSHOE One-2-One System. In addition to including the new rules, Cthulhu Confidential includes a guide for the Game Master to create her own GUMSHOE One-2-One System scenarios, a guide to Cthulhu Mythos and Cosmic Horror for beginners, and three scenarios. These are the highlight of Cthulhu Confidential, each with a different protagonist and by a different author, and each bringing noir horror and a different code of honour to another city in the thirties and forties.

Cthulhu Confidential assumes that the Game Master and player alike are familiar with both roleplaying and the cosmic horror of H.P. Lovecraft’s fiction. There are introductions to both in the book, but they are not its starting point. Similarly, there is a set of Starter Notes for the experienced GUMSHOE System Game Master in the appendix, but again this is not the starting point in Cthulhu Confidential. This the nature of the Investigator and the investigative process for one. Just like Trail of Cthulhu and the GUMSHOE System, an Investigator in Cthulhu Confidential and the GUMSHOE One-2-One System has two types of Abilities—Investigative Abilities and General Abilities. Investigative Abilities, such as Assess Honesty and Research, are used to gain information. If the Investigator has the Investigative Ability, he receives the information or the clue. General Abilities, like Driving and Shadowing, are more traditional in that their use requires dice to be rolled and a test passed to determine success or failure. Cthulhu Confidential then deviates from this in order to account for the fact that there is only the one Investigator rather than many as in Trail of Cthulhu. With multiple players, all of the Investigative Abilities would be accounted across the Investigators. Not so in Cthulhu Confidential. So, when an Investigator lacks an Investigative Ability, he can instead turn to an NPC or source for help. In Trail of Cthulhu, Investigative Abilities have pools of points which can be spent to gain extra clues about a situation, but in Cthulhu Confidential, the Investigator has Pushes, which the player can spend to gain the extra information or a benefit. This applies to any Investigative Ability and could be used to spring the Investigator from jail on a bogus arrest using the Law Investigative Ability, persuade the doorman at a suspect’s office that you have not been asking about his whereabouts, and so on. An Investigator begins a scenario with four Pushes and can earn more through play.

In Trail of Cthulhu, General Abilities also have pools of points, which are then expended to modify dice rolls for tests. In Cthulhu Confidential, General Abilities have one or two six-sided dice, which are also rolled on Tests. Tests are rolled when there is the possibility of failure in a situation, such as getting past a doorman to break into a suspect’s office or fleeing from the inhuman monster found in said suspect’s office, and are divided into two types. In either case, the player rolls the dice—if his Investigator has more than one—one at a time and totals their values. This is important because some Tests can be overcome with the roll of the one die rather than two dice. The Challenge is the more complex and more interesting of the two.

A Challenge gives three results—‘Advance’, ‘Hold’, and ‘Setback’. The ‘Advance’ is the equivalent of ‘Yes, and…’ and indicates a successful attempt with an extra benefit. This benefit is called an Edge and can prove useful later in the investigation. In addition, if the Challenge was overcome with the roll of a single die, then the Investigator is rewarded with an additional Push. The ‘Setback’ is the equivalent of ‘No, and…’ and indicates a failed attempt with an added Problem that will hamper the investigation. The ‘Hold’ lies somewhere in between with the Investigator no better or worse off, and also without an Edge or a Problem. It is also possible for the Investigator to suffer an Extra Problem in order to gain an additional die to roll in the hope of gaining an ‘Advance’.

For example, Dexter ‘Dex’ Raymond, the Private Investigator presented as the first protagonist in Cthulhu Confidential has been hired by the wife of Lorenzo Calderone, nightclub owner and suspected mob associate. She wants a divorce and suspects her husband of cooking the books to reduce her settlement and alimony. She does not think that the real account books are kept at home or the nightclub, but at the office of her husband’s lawyer, Crispin Grimes. To get those books, Raymond needs to get past the doorman and into the office. So, the Challenge could look like this:

COOKED BOOKS
Stealth
Advance 6+: You get past the doorman and into Grimes’ office where you find the account books. No one knows the books are missing and when they find out, who took them. Earn Edge: ‘Crooked Books.’
Hold 3-5: The doorman does his rounds just as you are about to break in and you are not going to get past him now.
Setback 2 or less: You initially get past the doorman, but just as you are about to get into Grimes’ office, he spots on his rounds. Triggers Challenge ‘Flee the Building.’
Extra Problem: ‘There was this one guy poking around…’

EDGE: ‘Crooked Books.’ You got the account books Mrs Calderone wanted, so case settled. But if you keep a copy yourself, it could keep her husband or his lawyer off your back.
PROBLEM: ‘There was this one guy poking around…’ The theft puts Lorenzo Calderone and Crispin Grimes on edge. A Push is needed to successfully use any Interpersonal skill with both.

In comparison, a Quick Test requires to simple roll to gain an ‘Advance’ result. The structure of Cthulhu Confidential and its scenarios presents Challenges as clear, black boxes of test and both Edges and Problems as essentially cards that are given to the player to add to his Investigator. Fights and both Horror and Madness, key elements of the two genres for Cthulhu Confidential—noir detective stories and Cosmic Horror—are handled as Challenges, typically using the Fighting General Ability for combat and the Stability General Ability when confronted with something horrifying. This is another place where Cthulhu Confidential differs from the multiplayer Trail of Cthulhu, because in Trail of Cthulhu, the Investigators can afford to lose one of their number, whether from a fight or madness, and such a loss is easily replaced. Not so in Cthulhu Confidential. Here a loss means the end of the investigation and the scenario, so whilst fights are dangerous, they are not lethal—and that applies to the NPCs or monsters as much as the Investigator. The investigator can suffer debilitating injury or loss, but can recover through the ‘Take Time to Recover’ action. Similarly, the antagonist, whether mundane or monstrous, is not killed, but suffers a loss that will benefit the Investigator in some way, represented by an Edge. Encounters or confrontations with horror work in the same fashion, although a ‘Setback’ will penalise the Investigator with a ‘Mythos Shock’ Problem. These cannot always be countered with the ‘Take Time to Recover’ action and instead require an Edge capable of countering a ‘Mythos Shock’ Problem. This is not to say that the Investigator cannot die or be sent mad, but this does not happen mid-story. Instead, it can become all too much at the end. This is especially so if the Investigator is left with a ‘Mythos Shock’ Problem or two or more that he has been unable to deal with in the course of the investigation. The remaining Problem cards will affect the narration of the investigation’s outcome and ending, typically in downbeat fashion to fit the twin genres of Cthulhu Confidential. If the Investigator survives, his player can retain these Problems to carry over into the next scenario—some he has to and some he can choose—and they will continue to influence the Investigator’s efforts until addressed. Even at the start of the first scenario, an Investigator has an ongoing problem, although the player is typically given a choice as to what that problem is.

For the Game Master there is advice on running the GUMSHOE One-2-One System. This covers guiding the player (gently) and avoiding the sticking points common to mystery and investigation scenarios, taking into account the nature of its single player and Investigator play style. This includes advice on running both sources and challenges and there is similar treatment on creating scenarios, building Challenges, and designing Edges. This is backed up with numerous examples which the Game Master can use for inspiration as well as model for her own scenarios. The appendix for Cthulhu Confidential includes a Rules Quick Reference, a Handout for New Roleplayers, lists of sources for all three protagonists, a guide to solving cases, sample Player Characters from other GUMSHOE System roleplaying games in the GUMSHOE One-2-One System format, such as an Ordo Veritas Agent from The Esoterrorists and a Mutant Cop from Mutant City Blues, and a set of generic Edges.

Two thirds of Cthulhu Confidential is dedicated to its three investigations and their protagonists, settings, and Problems and Edges. The three Investigators are Dexter ‘Dex’ Raymond, a Private Investigator in Los Angeles, 1937, obviously inspired by works of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammet; Vivian Sinclair, an investigative journalist and lady detective in thirties New York, inspired by Kerry Greenwood and Dorothy L. Sayers; and Langston Montgomery Wright, an African American invalided veteran Private Investigator in Washington D.C. towards the end of World War II, inspired by Walter Mosely and Chester Himes. Each Investigator is accompanied by detailed descriptions of his or her sources and exceptionally good write-ups of their respective cities—Los Angeles, New York, and Washington, D.C. The write-ups are so good, they are better than the actual supplements dedicated to those cities previously published for Lovecraftian investigative roleplaying, and in the case of Washington, D.C., the definitive guide Lovecraftian investigative roleplaying, since no sourcebook has been published for the city, let alone an actual scenario. In addition, all three authors—Robin D. Laws for Dexter ‘Dex’ Raymond, Ruth Tillman for Vivian Sinclair, and Chris Spivey for Langston Montgomery Wright—address the social and cultural aspects of their settings. So, there are discussions of whether Dexter ‘Dex’ Raymond should be a ‘straight white guy’ or not; of Vivian Sinclair’s bisexuality and how to handle violence against women; of handling the racist attitudes that Langston Montgomery Wright will face. The advice is excellent throughout, being inclusive and helpful.

Then each Investigator has his or her own scenario. As Dexter ‘Dex’ Raymond, the player will investigate ‘The Fathomless Sleep’. Fast-living society girl Helen Deakin has fallen into catatonia and her smouldering sister wants to know how this happened in this classic, hardboiled tale of blackmail and dirty money with a dollop of weird mysticism. In ‘Fatal Frequencies’, Vivian Sinclair helps out Sadie Cane, whose fiancé, George Preston, disappeared three days after a murder in his apartment block. What has George got himself messed up in? Langston Montgomery Wright investigates another disappearance, that of Lynette Miller, a riveter, in ‘Capitol Colour’. Last time her father saw her, she had a new job, secret, but highly paid. Where has she gone and what does her disappearance have to do with the war effort? All three scenarios are excellent, detailed and involving, and should keep the player and his Investigator intrigued and enthralled to the end.

Physically, Cthulhu Confidential is a crisply presented black and white book. It needs a slight edit in places, but is well written and engaging. It is not extensively illustrated, but what artwork there is, is not only good, but also captures the shades of grey in the three North American cities and both the protagonists and antagonists the supplement depicts. The use of period maps and other illustrations also enforces each setting’s sense of place.

Cthulhu Confidential provides an intense roleplaying experience. It has elements of classic solo play because of its set-up, especially in the structure of its Challenge mechanics and the Edges and Problems gained through play, but the intensity comes from working with the Game Master and interacting with the NPCs she depicts and doing so alone, pushing the player to rely upon himself and his Investigator’s Abilities rather than having to work with other players and their Investigators. Of course, the involvement of the Game Master means there is more flexibility and scope to adapt when investigating a mystery than there would be in a solo adventure. The end result is that Cthulhu Confidential provides an enthralling and engaging means of play and a one-on-one experience that pushes Lovecraftian investigative roleplay closer to its cinematic and literary influences and models.