Miskatonic Monday #356: Smoke on the Huangpu

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: Smoke on the Huangpu: A 1930s one-shot in Old Shanghai

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Matthew Morris

Setting: Shanghai, 1931

Product: Scenario
What You Get: Thirty-six page, 19.85 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: “Nobody will laugh long who deals much with opium: its pleasures even are of a grave and solemn complexion.” – Thomas de Quincey

Plot Hook: Murder on the banks of the Shanghai leads to the ‘insanity’ of addition

Plot Support: Staging advice, Spotify playlist, four pre-generated Investigators, three NPCs, seven handouts, two maps, one Mythos tome, one Mythos spell, and two Mythos monsters.

Production Values: Excellent

Pros

# Single-session Shanghai investigation

# Decent pre-generated Investigators

# Well organised investigation

# Solid addition to a Shanghai-set campaign

# Works as well with two as with three or four

# Pharmacophobia

# Submechanophobia

# Speirophobia

Cons

# Single-session Shanghai investigation

# May drive an Investigator to addiction

Conclusion

# Suitably squalid investigation in the seamier side of Shanghai

# Feels like it should be longer, or there should be sequels