Miskatonic Monday #386: For King and Country

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—

Name: For King and Country

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Michał Pietrzak

Setting: The Dreamlands, 2025

Product: Scenario for H.P. Lovecraft’s Dreamlands – Beyond the Wall of Sleep
What You Get: Twenty page, 1.49 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: When your dreams of roleplaying turn against you

Plot Hook: Rescue the princess, save the Game Master!

Plot Support: Staging advice, six pre-generated Adventurers, five NPCs, one map, and one monster.

Production Values: Plain

Pros

# Winner of the Stars Are Right Scenario Outline Writing Contest

# Involves trauma as a roleplaying mechanism

# Straightforward, classic fantasy set-up

# Oneirophobia

# Rhabdophobia

# Pantophobia

Cons

# Needs an edit

# The Game Master as deus ex machina

# Involves trauma as a roleplaying mechanism

# Investigators do not have the ‘basics’ of fantasy skills for The Dreamlands

# Should the climber have the climb skill?

Conclusion

# Deus ex machina versus deus ex machina

# Interesting concept with underwritten player agency