Miskatonic Monday #436: The Limehouse Piper

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 Limehouse Piper

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: James Killick

Setting: London, 1893

Product: Scenario for Cthulhu by Gaslight

What You Get: Thirty page, 4.98 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: Murder stalks the streets of Whitechapel... Is this the return of Jack the Ripper

Plot Hook: Murder!!!
Plot Support: Staging advice, four pre-generated Investigators, seven NPCs, eleven handouts, four floor plans and maps, and one Mythos monster.

Production Values: Decent

Pros

# Prequel to Tournament of Shadows

# Scenario for Cthulhu by Gaslight that plays off Jack the Ripper, but does not use or explain Jack the Ripper

# Nicely done pre-generated Investigators
# High production values

# Works as one-shot too

# Phasmophobia

# Phonophobia

# Homichlophobia

Cons

# Backgrounds to the pre-generated Investigators underwritten

# Needs an edit in places
# Does not explain its connection to Tournament of Shadows

Conclusion

# Solid murder investigation on the streets of fog-bound London

# Works as one-shot or a prequel

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 pre-generated Investigators

# Botanophobia

# Dendrophobia

# 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

Miskatonic Monday #332: Heart of Horror

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: Heart of Horror

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Wojciech J. Szpytma

Setting: Congo, 1890s

Product: One-shot
What You Get: Twenty-one page, 111.54 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: “Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster...” – Friedrich Nietzsche

Plot Hook: A missing shipment means going up river... into the ‘heart of darkness’.

Plot Support: Staging advice, four (five) pre-generated Investigators, two handouts, two NPCs, and one Mythos monster.

Production Values: Decent

Pros

# Adapts Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness to Call of Cthulhu

# Pre-generated Investigators with decent motivations

# Xylophobia

# Teraphobia

# Thalassophobia

Cons

# Adapts Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness to Call of Cthulhu

# Sanity losses high

# No stats for the actual villain of the piece

# Linear

# Ignores the horrors of the Congo

# Underdeveloped conclusion
# No Sanity rewards

# Needs an edit

Conclusion

# Serviceable if linear adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness

# Lots of trigger warnings, but ignores the horror of the Congo