Miskatonic Monday #402: The Grotesque by Gaslight

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: The Grotesque by Gaslight

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Ryan Graham Theobalds

Setting: Kew Gardens, 1893

Product: Scenario
What You Get: Thirty-Three page, 16.98 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: The consequences of colonial botany

Plot Hook: Something nasty in the greenhouse

Plot Support: Staging advice, five pre-generated Investigators, two NPCs, one handout, one map, one Mythos tome, one Mythos spell, and two Mythos monsters.

Production Values: Plain

Pros

# Hunting-monster, monster-hunting murder mystery at Kew Gardens

# More set-up then anything else

# Easy to add to a campaign or run as a one-shot
# Decent re-generated Investigators

# Botanophobia

# Dendroophobia

# Hyloptophobia

Cons

# Needs an edit

# No NPC stats

# Suggested shift to the Jazz Age not explored
# References Green and Pleasant Land (not needed to run the scenario)

# May require H.P. Lovecraft’s Dreamlands
# Rougher than the author’s other scenarios

Conclusion

# Explores the consequences of colonial botany

# Serviceable set-up and outline that the Keeper will need to develop further