Miskatonic Monday #422: The Children of Blackwood

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 Children of Blackwood

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Sean Liddle

Setting: World War II Plymouth

Product: Outline
What You Get: Sixteen page, 1.04 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: Three Go Mad in Devon (Again)(Again)(Again)(Again)(Again)

Plot Hook: This Christmas, the rebirth is not one you are going to celebrate

Plot Support: Staging advice, three handouts, and three Mythos monsters.

Production Values: Plain

Pros

# Sequel to HUM, The Borrowed, The Hollow Beneath Clapper Tor, and A Thread Through Stone

# Detailed outline

# Potential for child-like curiosity and terror

# Definitely part of a series rather than a one-shot

# Potential for sequels

# Botanophobia

# Entomophobia

# Oneirophobia

Cons

# No pre-generated Investigators
# No advice on creating teenage Investigators

# Definitely part of a series rather than a one-shot
# A lot of exposition

# No explanation for the Keeper for what is going on

# Needs an edit

Conclusion

# Detailed outline still leaves the Keeper none the wiser
# Ultimately feels like the plot of children’s novel that the players are roleplaying out