Miskatonic Monday #233: A Dive to Strange Depths

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: A Dive to Strange Depths

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author Matthew Tansek

Setting: Jazz Age Pacific

Product: Scenario
What You Get: Fifty-six page, 97.03 MB PDF

Elevator Pitch: Potential prequel to Escape from Innsmouth?

Plot Hook: A ship adrift and suspected foul play...

Plot Support: Staging advice, six pre-generated Investigators, five handouts, one set of floorplans, seven NPCs, and two Mythos monsters.

Production Values: Good.

Pros

# Can be connected to Cults of Cthulhu

# Action-packed scenario

# Feels like it should be run with Pulp Cthulhu: Two-fisted Action and Adventure Against the Mythos

# Easy to adapt to Cthulhu by Gaslight or modern day

# Megalohydrothalassophobia

# Thalassophobia

# Batrachophobia

Cons

# Needs an edit

# Weird order of handouts

# Was there meant to be a handout #4?

# Where does the film come from?

# Where is the body found?

# No Deep Ones

# Flowcharts as map ignore any sense of scale

Conclusion

# Action-packed scenario that feels more like a detailed outline which is undeveloped in places

# Good set-up and plot