Miskatonic Monday #378: Walking the Streets of Arkham

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: Walking the Streets of Arkham

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Keith Craig

Setting: Arkham, 2025

Product: Scenario for Call of Cthulhu: Arkham
What You Get: Twenty-eight page, 2.06 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: The witch house that is the Arkham Women’s Shelter

Plot Hook: The pimp is dead; the prostitutes fight crime!

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

Production Values: Plain

Pros

# Definitely falls under ‘Your Call of Cthulhu May Vary’

# Makes use of the Prostitute Occupation in the Call of Cthulhu Investigator Handbook

# Can be run with Investigators who are not prostitutes.

# Does not involve the Investigators engaging in prostitution

# Straightforward investigation

# Hemophobia

# Musophobia

# Necrophobia

Cons

# Definitely falls under ‘Your Call of Cthulhu May Vary’

# Controversial set-up

# Makes use of the Prostitute Occupation in the Call of Cthulhu Investigator’s Handbook

# Scenario is set in 2025, the cover and suggested sourcebook are not

# Pre-generated Investigator backgrounds underwritten

# Treatment of the Investigators’ world and prostitution is superficial

# Needs an edit

# Talanda Hughes’ disappearance is the scenario hook, but the Investigators do not find out what happened to her

# No clear solution
# No Sanity rewards

Conclusion

# Serviceable investigation let down by poor Investigator backgrounds and development of their world

# Controversial scenario whose ending and consequences could have been better developed