Miskatonic Monday #344: Blackthorne Bridge Club: New Tricks

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: Blackthorne Bridge Club: New Tricks

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Gavin Bastiensz

Setting: New York, 1924

Product: Scenario
What You Get: Fifty-five page page, 4.39 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: Madness in an asylum, who would have thought it?
Plot Hook: Will it take half the corpse to put the plot together, or the whole body?

Plot Support: Staging advice, four pre-generated Investigators, thirteen NPCs, and one Mythos monster.

Production Values: Plain

Pros

# A sequel to Blackthorne Bridge Club

# More of a standard investigation than its predecessor

# Nicely detailed pre-generated Investigators, complete with secrets

# Intriguing showdown

# Pleasing sense of closure to one personal plot strand

# Chronomentrophobia

# Apotemnophobia

# Chronophobia

Cons

# Needs a slight edit

# A timeline would have helped with the structure

# What are the Investigators supposed to do with Theodore Roosevelt in 1923?

Conclusion

# Disappointing sequel that just feels a bit woolly

# Showdown has mammoth ramifications barely touched upon

Miskatonic Monday #310: For Whom The Bells Toll No More

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 Whom The Bells Toll No More

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Borja Morrow

Setting: Spain 1924

Product: Scenario
What You Get: Twenty-four page, 3.07 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: History never dies. It just comes back to haunt us.

Plot Hook: A culture of silence could be a culture of secrets

Plot Support: Staging advice, four pre-generated Investigators, six handouts, two maps, four NPCs, and one Mythos monster.

Production Values: Plain

Pros

# Interesting setting

# Engaging sense of history

# Ypositismosphobia

# Blennophobia

# Catholophobia

Cons

# Needs a good edit

# No floor plans

# Needs a timeline on which to hang the plot

# Needs development to clarify the plot

Conclusion

# Too densely presented to use with any ease

# Decent setting and idea undermined by lack of clarity