Miskatonic Monday #433: Off to the Races

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: Off to the Races

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Montsho Shelby

Setting: 1930, USA

Product: Urban horror one-shot
What You Get: Twenty-four page, 37.2 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: “Gambling: The sure way of getting nothing for something.” – Wilson Mizner

Plot Hook: Ten races. Ten bets. Ten wins. One man. A sure thing?
Plot Support: Staging advice, three pre-generated Investigators, twelve(?) NPCs, and three monsters.

Production Values: Messy

Pros

# A tap dancer, an ex-convict, and a hellfire and brimstone nun investigate crime...

# Very much a one-shot
# Radical change of tone and pace

# Eutychemaphobia

# Neophobia

# Tachophobia

Cons

# Needs an edit

# Cartoonishly over the top stream of consciousness

# Underdeveloped Investigators

# Not a Call of Cthulhu scenario, but written for Call of Cthulhu

Conclusion

# A Mage: The Ascension or Unknown Armies scenario for Call of Cthulhu

# Not sure if the author is off to the races, or the scenario is...

# Reviews from R’lyeh Discommends

Miskatonic Monday #349: Omega Kappa DIE!!!

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: Omega Kappa DIE!!! – A Highly Inebriated, Modern(ish) Horror-Comedy Scenario For Call of Cthulhu

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author Colin Richards

Setting: USA, 1930 and 1999

Product: One-shot
What You Get: Seven page, 877.91 KB PDF

Elevator Pitch: Animal House meets Call of Cthulhu

Plot Hook: “’Cause they say

2000, zero-zero, party over, oops, out of time

So tonight, I’m gonna party like it’s 1999”

– 1999, Prince

Plot Support: Staging advice, ten pre-generated Investigators, eight handouts, one set of floorplans, six NPCs, a robot, three Mythos monsters, and a goat.

Production Values: Excellent.

Pros

# Thematically brilliant design

# Good handouts

# Inventively macabre description of the ritual

# En media res action

# Every player gets a Drunkometer

# Dipsophobia

# Social anxiety disorder

# Phasmophobia

Cons

# Astrology or Astronomy?

# A lot of mature elements and the caveats are deserved

# Some scenes are going make you go, “Ick!”, let alone the players

# “Nyarlathogoat”

Conclusion

# Don’t say Omega Kappa Pi, say Omega Kappa DIE!

# An orgy of witting nastiness that highlights the horror of the Mythos

# Reviews from R’lyeh Recommends & Discommends