Thursday, 31 October 2024

Miskatonic Monday #302: The Russians Are Coming!!

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.

—oOo—
Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Keith Craig

Setting: Alaska, 1961
Product: One-shot Scenario
What You Get: Thirteen page, 1.94 MB Full Colour PDF

Elevator Pitch: The metal from another world...
Plot Hook: Could aberrant radar signals be a prelude to Soviet invasion?
Plot Support: Staging advice, six pre-generated Investigators, two handouts, three NPCs, and two monsters.
Production Values: Plain

Pros
# More weird alien invasion than Mythos investigation
# Creepy transformations
# Environment reasonably detailed
# Could be a Delta Green investigation?
# Russophobia
# Tomophobia
# Neophobia

Cons
# Wonky Investigator backgrounds
# No maps (the Air Force would provide maps)
# Needs a good edit
# Solutions and consequences underdeveloped
# No Sanity rewards

Conclusion
# Alien invasion scenario rather than Mythos scenario
# Underdeveloped in terms of how the Investigators deal with the threat and what happens next

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