Miskatonic Monday #258: The Search For The Forbidden Door

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 Search For The Forbidden Door

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Matthew Tansek

Setting: 1920s Hawaii

Product: One-Shot Scenario
What You Get: Forty-four page, 90.57 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: Horror on Hawaii (...and below)

Plot Hook: The fate of a missing archaeologist leads to confrontation with the locals, mad and bad.

Plot Support: Staging advice (including investigation flow!), five pre-generated Investigators, four handouts, six NPCs, one map, and two Mythos monsters.

Production Values: Good

Pros

# Nicely organised investigation

# Easily adapted to Pulp Cthulhu: Two-fisted Action and Adventure Against the Mythos

# Easy to adjust to other time periods

# Potential convention scenario

# Nicely detailed investigation once the Investigators get to it

# Entamaphobia

# Gephyrophobia

# Teraphobia

Cons

# Excessively high Cthulhu Mythos skills!

# Needs an edit

# No helpful maps

# Two of the pre-generated Investigators have the Cthulhu Mythos skill

Conclusion

# Steamy, sweaty tropical island horror investigation

# Nicely organised scenario