Miskatonic Monday #284: The Curse of Punk

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 Curse of Punk

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author Keller O’Leary

Setting: California, 1985

Product: One-shot
What You Get: Thirty-five page, 6.08 MB PDF

Elevator Pitch: Some punks sell out. Some punks never buy-in.

Plot Hook: It takes friends to turn a derelict building into a venue to stick fingers up at the man.
Plot Support: Staging advice, four pre-generated Investigators, five handouts, six NPCs, seven mythos spells, one Mythos monster, and one animal monster.

Production Values: Okay

Pros

# Punks gotta stand together till until someone sells out

# What if one underground runs into another?

# Tight plotted multi-session one shot

# Easy to adjust to other cities

# Musophobia

# Melophobia

# Athazagoraphobia

Cons

# Organisation could be clearer

Conclusion

# Spikey attitude pervades a telling of a punk perversion

# Two undergrounds don’t make a right, especially if one is selling out