Miskatonic Monday #450: Nightmares From The Depths

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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Nightmares From The Depths: Cthulhu and the Mythos in Massachusetts is an epic campaign. Not of scope, not of scale, but of detail. Not of scope, because rather than taking the Investigators around the world on a globetrotting campaign against some inhuman and inhumane conspiracy, it dares not stray beyond the state lines of Massachusetts. Not of scale, because it does not involve an attempt by some crazed madman to bring about the end of the world as mankind knows it because the ‘Stars are Right’. Rather, its events may be seen as peripheral to such attempts. Nor will it encompass months of the Investigators’ time to complete. It begins on Tuesday 17th March, 1925 and ends on Thursday 2nd April, 1925. Fans of H.P. Lovecraft and his ‘The Call of Cthulhu’, will doubtless recognise the latter date, for it is the very day that Norwegian sailor, Gustaf Johansen, at the helm of the yacht, Alert, rammed it into “The Thing cannot be described…” In doing so, he drove great Cthulhu back under the sea to his tomb on the previously aeons-long sunken island of R’lyeh and thus disrupted the psychic signal that for weeks had been emanating the middle of the south Pacific and inflicted feverishly irrational nightmares upon psychics, artists, and occultists, whilst attracting the attention of his most devoted adherents and worshippers. In this perhaps, Nightmares From The Depths is a call-back to Shadows of Yog-Sothoth, the very first campaign for Call of Cthulhu. A call-back that is actually six times bigger than that 1982 release!

Nightmares From The Depths is a campaign for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition published on the Miskatonic Repository. Inspired by the short, ‘The Horror at Martin’s Beach’ by H.P. Lovecraft and S. H. Greene, it is set over the course of fifteen very specific days in the March and April of 1925 and for the most part, is firmly set in Boston, from Brahmin high society and the shock of the new in its arts to the seedy seam of small time crime and greed and out to the bracing spray of sea and salt on the Massachusetts coast. This is a campaign on a par with A Time to Harvest: Death and Discovery in the Vermont Hills – A 1930s Era Campaign Across New England and Beyond and A Cold Fire Within: A Mind-Bending Campaign for Pulp Cthulhu, but far more geographically and chronologically constrained. Consisting of seven chapters, the campaign opens with ‘The Dreamer’ in which the Investigators as Private Detectives are hired by a family lawyer to find Kenneth ‘Kenny’ Jacobson, a poet, arts journalist for The Boston Herald, and Naval veteran of the Great War who has gone missing. The trail will lead from his work to his psychiatrist—it appears that Jacobson is possibly suffering from another bout of shellshock again—and into the orbit of one of the villains of the piece and his various contacts, rather than him directly. This is Ernest Armenfelt, a former Navy officer who served with Jacobson during the Great War. Initially, the campaign is more Film Noir than Mythos investigation, as barring a nasty side trek scenario, there is a little to no Mythos involvement at this stage. That changes with ‘The Murders’ as in some shocking acts of violence, the scenario’s antagonist moves amongst the avant-garde artworld of Boston, members of which have fallen under the influence of strange dreams. Following the acts of violence and their perpetrator leads to a nasty encounter with his acolyte in ‘The Shadow of Mather’. Both of these chapters do veer away from the actual search for Jacobson, but ‘The Lure of the Sea’ puts the Investigators back on track as a sighting sends them up the Massachusetts’ coast to the sleepy village of Pigeon Cove, where the inhabitants have their own problems and may benefit from the Investigators’ help. Though in some cases no less horrific these problems contrast with the malignity of the Mythos elsewhere. Primarily what the Investigators will learn is the location of Ernest Armenfelt and thus in ‘The Truth Revealed’ discover how far his greed has taken him. This is a short, one location chapter involving a confrontation in some fashion or another—Armenfelt versus the Mythos, Armenfelt versus the Mafia, or Armenfelt and the Mafia versus Mythos—which all depends on the actions of the Investigators. More news of Kenny Jacobson’s whereabouts returns the Investigators to ‘Death on the Coast’ and the coastal resort of Martin’s Beach. This is perhaps the most staged of the scenarios in the campaign as a torrential storm rolls in from the sea, the Investigators are split up to help lead search terms to save the villagers, and the Mythos runs wild as one of Cthulhu’s greatest servants smashes his way across the land Kaiju-style! Finally, in ‘A Bitter Pill To Swallow’, the Investigators confront the campaign’s villain as he seeks his ultimate triumph on Calf Island in Boston Harbour. It is a classic Call of Cthulhu finale, big, brawling, and bruising encounter held on an especially significant day, and though likely to be more physical than previous scenarios in the campaign, if successful will likely be most cathartic.

In addition, the campaign is supported by several Sidetrack Scenarios. All are optional, but the best brings out the monstrous in Humankind as well as the Mythos, some driven by the Mythos, others not. There are also two extra scenarios in Nightmares From The Depths which take place after the main campaign and are only tangentially connected to it. The first is the touloungeaphobic ‘The Sisterhood of Dreams’ which takes the Investigators to a Chicago under the thumb of Al Capone and his mob to investigate a series of murders at the hands of what turns out to be a feminist cult, whilst ‘The Stories of the Dead’ takes them further west to San Francisco and dark underbelly of Chinatown. Secrets of San Francisco will be both a useful reference and extra source of scenarios for ‘The Stories of the Dead’. These are two very solid scenarios, but they are extra to the campaign and if they had been omitted, it would not distract from the campaign as a whole.

Lastly, the campaign is supported with a set of six appendices. These in turn list new spells—Cast Away Flesh and Return to the Sea are particularly nasty, new artefacts, and Mythos tomes old and new specific to the campaign. There is also a list of scenarios set in Boston should the Keeper want to continue her own campaign beyond the pages of Nightmares From The Depths. The lists include those from Chaosium, Inc., from magazines, and from Stygian Fox Publishing as well as many from the Miskatonic Repository. Most notable are the ‘The Hermetic Order of the Silver Twilight’ chapter from Shadows of Yog-Sothoth and ‘The Haunted House’/‘The Haunting’ which is currently in the quick-start for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition, as well as ‘Boston’, the article in The Unspeakable Oath Issue 16/17 from Pagan Publishing. There is no advice, sadly, as to whether the scenarios listed are suitable to add to the Nightmares From The Depths campaign, though it is such a chronologically constrained campaign that there really is little room to add extra scenarios. Other appendices list all of the NPCs by chapter and give easy-to-read transcriptions of all of the campaign’s handouts, whilst the last presents six pre-generated Investigators. These are a good mix and there are notes too on how to adapt them to Pulp Cthulhu: Two-fisted Action and Adventure Against the Mythos.

If there is a downside to Nightmares From The Depths it is its size. It is four-hundred-and-fifty-four pages long and it does present the Keeper with a wealth of detail on Boston and its environs and it could very easily be argued that the campaign is probably the best sourcebook for the city of Boston in the Jazz to date for Call of Cthulhu, let alone Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition. Yet it is also an embarrassment of riches at times. Every place, every NPC, and so on is presented in detail and there is often too much information and that it is in places overwritten, both of which hinder the efforts of the Keeper to read and prepare the campaign.

Another issue is the campaign’s timeframe and structure. Although the campaign looks to be linear, threads link one scenario to another—as they should—actually create more of a sandbox and this can often lead to the Investigators following a lead into another scenario before finishing the immediate investigation. This is due to the lack of geographical constraints within the campaign. Since it is not a globe-spanning, world-trotting campaign there is no need to take a journey lasting days or weeks to follow a particular clue, the need to commit to such a journey invariably driving players and their Investigators to complete their inquiries in a particular location before moving onto the next. Almost all of Nightmares From The Depths is set in Boston which means that every location is just a taxi or tram ride away and there are no such geographical constraints.

The timeframe means that the Investigators need to be proactive in their inquiries. Although neither the players nor their Investigators know it, Nightmares From The Depths does have a deadline. So, the Keeper needs to push her players to investigate and to keep on investigating—literally to pick up the pace, as well as split up. The consequences of the need for this pace and geographical structure of the campaign means that the Keeper has to prepare a lot of the campaign upfront. That said, the content is decently organised with every NPC showcased at the start of each chapter, flowcharts to show connections, and indications of where threads link to and where they are linked from.

Physically, Nightmares From The Depths is impressively presented in sepia tones. It is profusely illustrated with period photographs of Boston and that in addition to the excellent maps and other period documents. The artwork, some of it by Paul Carrick and Earl Geier, is also good. The handouts are similarly very good. Some of the portraits of the NPCs do show evidence of some touch-up. The writing is clear, but overdone in places and it could have benefited from tighter editing.

Nightmares From The Depths is a really strong investigative scenario with lots of clues and strands to its mystery and mysteries. There is a lot here for players who like to play detective to get their teeth into, but it is a campaign for Call of Cthulhu and thus a horror campaign too. Nightmares From The Depths underplays its Mythos elements for much of the campaign, having them lurk at the periphery of the Investigators’ inquiries. This makes their presence and their influence when they do appear have much more of an impact and there are some great set pieces littered across the campaign. Such as discovering artist Maria Camhurst in her pain and agony; the séance at the Wavecrest Inn at Martin’s Beach which goes blazingly wrong; and the assault on the Boston docks warehouse by Deep Ones! Of course, the campaign does end in a big set piece, a summoning in classic Call of Cthulhu style.

Ultimately, Nightmares From The Depths is not a campaign about a madman working to summon a great evil in the demented service to his alien and uncaring master, although as the campaign progresses, that is its plot, but about the effects of the Mythos upon society at large. How the actions of the foolish and the greedy unleash consequences upon the innocent and how the emanations of a mind so incompatible with that of humankind bring out or exacerbate the worst in those it touches to the detriment of themselves and those around them. NPC after NPC suffers because of both and whilst that might be wearisome or overdone in another campaign, in Nightmares From The Depths it works because of the narrow timeframe, quite literally because the ‘Stars Are Right’ and so many can be touched by Cthulhu’s otherworldly influence. Other scenarios have touched upon it, but the authors of Nightmares From The Depths are to be commended for taking the dreams of “great Cyclopean cities of titan blocks and sky-flung monoliths.” described in H.P. Lovecraft’s ‘The Call of Cthulhu’ and building a whole campaign around it.

The truth is, Chaosium, Inc. could have published Nightmares From The Depths, as could any Call of Cthulhu licensee, and it would not have not only passed muster, it would have been recognised as a good campaign. That it is not published by an actual roleplaying publisher and put on its schedule of releases is all but astounding, because Nightmares From The Depths is almost as professional a product without it either being official or professional. That applies to the look and production values of the book as much as the campaign itself. Both are of a high standard.

Make no mistake, Nightmares From The Depths: Cthulhu and the Mythos in Massachusetts is an impressive and richly detailed campaign, horrendously human in its horror and monstrously malign in its application of the Mythos, and ingenious in exploring the vile influence of Cthulhu’s dreams at a signature point in Lovecraft’s fiction like no campaign or scenario before it. That it brings the city of Boston to life in the Jazz Age and gives the city its first campaign is a bonus.

Cthulhoid Choices: Lovecraftesque

Call of Cthulhu is the preeminent roleplaying game of Lovecraftian investigative horror and has been for over four decades now. The roleplaying game gives the chance for the players and their Investigators to explore a world in which the latter are exposed, initially often indirectly, but as the story or investigation progresses, increasingly directly, to alien forces beyond their comprehension. So, beyond that what they encounter is often interpreted as indescribable, yet supernatural monsters or gods wielding magic, but in reality is something more, a confrontation with the true nature of the universe and the realisation as to the terrible insignificance of mankind with it and an understanding that despite, there are those that would embrace and worship the powers that be for their own ends. Such a realisation and such an understanding often leave those so foolish as to investigate the unknown clutching at, or even, losing their sanity, and condemned to a life knowing truths to which they wish they were never exposed. This blueprint has set the way in which other games—roleplaying games, board games, card games, and more—have presented Lovecraftian investigative horror, but as many as there that do follow that blueprint, there are others have explored the Mythos in different ways.

Cthulhoid Choices is a strand of reviews that examine other roleplaying games of Lovecraftian investigative horror and of Cosmic, but not necessarily Horror. Previous reviews which can be considered part of this strand include Cthulhu Hack, Realms of Crawling Chaos, and the Apocthulhu Roleplaying Game.

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Lovecraftesque: A storytelling game of eldritch mysteries is not a traditional roleplaying game of Lovecraftian investigative horror or indeed of Lovecraftian horror, or even a traditional roleplaying game. Published by Black Armada following a successful Kickstarter campaign, it is a storytelling game in which the players create and tell the story of one person as he experiences a series of terrible, unknowable events born of Cosmic Horror. It is played without a Game Master, and it is played without the Lovecraftian Mythos, so no Cthulhu, no Mi-Go, no Deep Ones, and so on. There are both advantages and disadvantages to this approach. One is the lack of familiarity with the subject matter, but that also allows the players the freedom to be creative in terms of the Cosmic Horror and to directly avoid the issues of racism and xenophobia with both H.P. Lovecraft and his writings as inspirational as they are and have been in terms of horror writing and gaming. This also means that a play through of Lovecraftesque can be more representative of minorities should the players want that. Another is the lack of familiarity with the style of play, Lovecraftesque being a storytelling game, meaning that it is a collective endeavour rather than one in which players control individual characters trying to work together. In fact, Lovecraftesque is not just a collective roleplaying game, but a consensual one, since the players are working together to tell a single story, and they all need to agree on its telling. The play is also procedural in nature because the game is trying to tell a particular type of story. This requires a shift in perspective and style of play, but storytelling games—or ‘Indie role-playing games’—have been part of the hobby for over two decades now, so they are not new.

So how is Lovecraftesque played? It is designed to be played by three to five players who take it in turns to assume one of three roles. The first is the ‘Witness’, the protagonist of the story, the second is the ‘Narrator’, who like a Game Master in a traditional roleplaying game will set the scene, portray NPCs the Witness will meet and interact with, but unlike a Game Master in a traditional roleplaying game will consult the third role, the ‘Whisperer’, whose task it is to help the ‘Narrator’ by adding atmosphere and details (but not clues), and by portraying NPCs as necessary. So, from one turn to the next, one player will be the Witness, one the Narrator, and one or more the Whisperers, depending upon player count. Lovecraftesque can either be played using a setting created from the game’s core cards or it can use a pre-generated scenario, of which there are several included in the game. Throughout the players will use Mystery Cards to add clues that the Witness can interpret, whilst at the same time, there will be moments where they each have the opportunity to ‘Leap to Conclusions’ and interpret the clues played so far to hypothesise and then later, revise, a possible explanation as to what might be going on.

The playthrough of Lovecraftesque is divided into three Acts. Act I is ‘Signs and Portents’ and consists of five Investigation Chapters during which the Witness will find clues as to strange things happening that suggest a secret horror. Act II is ‘Impending Doom’ and is much shorter, only three chapters long, but the clues no longer hint at something strange going on, but are more explicit and obviously weird. The third and final act, Act III, much longer than the previous two chapters combined, takes the Witness on a ‘Journey Into Darkness’, in which the horror becomes increasingly obvious, the Witness comes face-to-face with it and the truth is revealed in the ‘Final Horror’. The consequences of the ‘Final Horror’ are played out in the ‘Epilogue’, whilst in the ‘Conclusion’, everyone has the opportunity to discuss the game and the story and their ending. All this, including set-up, is designed to be played through in roughly two to four hours, the shorter playing time and regular structure making it suitable for a pick-up game, whilst the longer playing makes it suitable for a single session or even as a convention game.

This includes some set-up time as well. This not only involves creating a setting from the Core Deck or setting up a Scenario Deck to play through, but also covers a discussion on safety. This includes everyone contributing to a ‘Hard Ban List’ of things that one or more players do not want to see in the game and a ‘Soft Ban List’ of things that one or more players are happy to see mentioned in the game, but not dwelled upon or detailed. Both lists remain in view throughout the game, as do the ‘Erase Card’ and the ‘Stop Card’. The ‘Erase Card’ is used by a player to remove an element from play that he is uncomfortable with, whilst the ‘Stop Card’ is used when a player wants a break. In addition, the ‘Extras’ book includes short essays on ‘Lovecraft and Race’ and ‘Lovecraft and Mental Health’, which serve as introductions to their subjects and the controversies over both.

Lovecraftesque comes as a boxed set that contains a forty-four page ‘Rules’ book, a thirty-six-page ‘Extras’ book, ‘Playmat’, a ‘Story Token’, an ‘Active Player Token’, ninety-two Gameplay cards, six Scenario decks consisting of eighty Gameplay cards, pads for the ‘Main Character & Supporting Characters’, ‘Conclusions’, ‘Ban List’, ‘Setting & Locations’, and ‘Clues’. The ‘Rules’ book provides a complete guide to the game and how it is played, taking it from set-up through its three Acts to the conclusion. The ‘Extras’ book adds optional rules that allow for play by one or two players, with the solo option opening up the possibility of Lovecraftesque being played and recorded as a journalling game. There are notes too on playing this version with scenarios of the first edition of Lovecraftesque and even for legacy play in which the players will alter the cards themselves. It gives six scenarios that include a mystery in a dilapidated country house, in the last days of Pompei, a far future dive into a black hole, a parent’s frightful confrontation with their child’s imaginary friend, a mystery at a spa on the Yorkshire moors in World War 2, and a hunt for an artist in thirties Mexico who has gone missing below an ancient meteorite crater. These six have their own Scenario Decks and highlight the scope of Lovecraftesque and its flexibility. And that is confined to just the core box, before the players consider the expansions available from the publisher. In addition to the essays on ‘Lovecraft and Race’ and ‘Lovecraft and Mental Health’, the ‘Extras’ book includes a lengthy example of play that encompasses a whole game.

The roleplaying game’s cards are divided into several smaller decks. The ‘Story’ deck mirror’s fifteen or so chapters across its three acts and guide the players through the stages and procedures of playing Lovecraftesque. They are included as a mechanical prompt rather than a means to learn the rules. The ‘Role Cards’ define the tasks for each role and will be passed around as play progresses from chapter to chapter, whilst the ‘Rule Cards’ explain various aspects of the game. The ‘Erase’ and ‘Stop Cards’ from the ‘Rule Cards’ remain visible throughout the game, whilst the others are referred to when necessary and when they come up on the ‘Story Cards’. This referral to the ‘Rule Cards’ could have made a lot easier on the ‘Story Cards’, primarily by including the number of the cards as well as their names. The ‘Mystery Cards’ give the clues in simple fashion, along with possible suggestions. For example, ‘Murky History’, described as “Intriguing and bizarre records from the distant past.” also includes the suggestions, “Old photographs”, “Genealogical information”, “Deeds, plans, or other land records”, “Newspapers, reports, or journals”, or “History books”. The ‘Location Cards’ do the same for possible places, whilst the ‘Character Cards’ do the same for the ‘Witness’. Included amongst the ‘Mystery Cards’ are several ‘Special Cards’ each of which breaks the game’s rules. For example, ‘An attack’ enables the Narrator to inflict harm, including lethal during a scene that he will narrate, including on the protagonist—though they cannot die—which ignores the ban on deliberate harm under the ‘No Deliberate Harm’ and ‘Survival And Sanity’ rules, whilst ‘A surprising theory’ can be played at the end of Act I, ‘Signs and Portents’ to have each player pass his Conclusions to the player to his left, who then has to build on them as part of his play. This ignores the ‘Isolation’ Rule. These ‘Special Cards’ alter the narrative flow of the game and invariably give greater narrative control to a player at the point at which they are played.

The Scenario Decks include their pre-set ‘Setting Cards’ and ‘Main Character Cards’ as well as specific ‘Location Cards’, ‘Character Cards’, and ‘Mystery Cards’. Penultimately, the Playmat is marked with a Story Track for the roleplaying game’s three Acts, spaces for the ‘Erase Cards’ and ‘Stop Cards’, and the current ‘Story Cards’. The edge of the Playmat is marked with spaces to place the various other cards. Lastly, the oddest thing in Lovecraftesque is the ‘UV/blacklight flashlight’. It is intended to be used to discover hidden artwork on the box, Playmat, and the books. It is either an intriguing inclusion or one that is just a little creepy, depending upon your opinion.

Physically, Lovecraftesque is very well presented. In comparison to a more traditional roleplaying game, it feels a little light on artwork, but what there is, is good. It is well written, the play aids are useful, and everything is well explained. The components are of a good quality and the box even comes with a good storage tray with a lid which keeps the cards in place and has room for the expansions.

Since Lovecraftesque comes in a box and it uses cards as its prompts, it suggests that there is a limited amount of play that can be got out of it in comparison to a more traditional roleplaying game. In the case of the pre-set Scenario Decks that might be the case, but apart from those, a playthrough of Lovecraftesque only uses a limited number of the core cards each time, so there fair degree of replay capacity to the game and each time, the players are going to be telling a different story depending upon the ‘Location Cards’, ‘Character Cards’, and ‘Mystery Cards’ drawn as well as the ‘Mystery Cards’ played. Of course, what Lovecraftesque offers that a traditional roleplaying does not is narrative control. The ‘Narrator’ has primary narrative control throughout, but this shifts from chapter to chapter, allowing everyone to take role, plus the roles of ‘Whisperer’ and ‘Witness’ will have their own input too. The rotation of these roles also enables the players to see the story being told from different angles in a way that a traditional roleplaying does not. And this extends to the nature of the ‘Final Horror’ and the ‘Conclusion’. The players are working together to decide what that is, but there is a degree of secrecy to since unless the ‘A surprising theory’ ‘Special Card’ is played, each player keeps theirs hidden, but can still influence the outcome because they can play ‘Mystery Cards’ which best fit their Conclusions. It is almost a bit of hidden competition in a roleplaying game not designed to be competitive, but since every player is also playing ‘Mystery Cards’ to add clues, there is no winner to speak of and the determination of the final Conclusion is agreed by all of the players.

There is an element of Lovecraftesque cutting off its nose to spite its face by not including the traditional elements of Lovecraftian investigative horror and the Cthulhu mythos, and not making it more attractive to a wider audience. There is nothing to stop the players from doing that should they agree to do so, but the point of Lovecraftesque is that it does not want to do that and that is very much not the aim of the authors. Instead, it wants to allow the exploration of the Cosmic Horror genre free of the Lovecraftian, even though its influences, rather than its elements, are present in the game. Ultimately, Lovecraftesque is a roleplaying game that is meant to be like Lovecraft, but not Lovecraftian. Which is fine, since there are multiple other games that offer that experience already. What Lovecraftesque: A storytelling game of eldritch mysteries offers is an opportunity to explore the Cosmic Horror genre from a different angle and via different means in a surprisingly comprehensive and handsome box.

Propping Up Your Pocket

From the moment you see the words “Gleason’s Department Store. Arkham, Mass.” on the lid of the patterned box you know that you have something special in your hands. Open it on the inside of the lid it says “Arkham Leather” above the wallet itself, wrapped in red tissue paper. There is a ‘User Guide: Read Me First’, but honestly, you are not going to read that first. You might look at the ‘Automobile Bail Bond Certificate’ or the ‘Operator’s License’ as issued by the ‘State of New York—Bureau of Motor Vehicles’, with actual headshot photograph attached, but what you are really looking at is the wallet. The brown, real vintage-style leather wallet is also marked with the ‘Arkham Leather’ stamp and inside can be found an embarrassment of riches. There is a ‘Motor Vehicle Registration Card’ issued by The Commonwealth of Massachusetts Dept. of Public Works Registry of Motor Vehicles, a ticket to the ‘Miskatonic University Exhibit Museum’, membership cards for both the ‘Arkham Historical Society’ and ‘The Eye of Amara Society’, a card for the ‘Grafton Diner’, a ‘Locker Rental Assignment—Men’s Gymnasium’ for the local YMCA, a ticket for the ‘Northside Line’ of the ‘Arkham Transit Company’. There is matchbox* for a restaurant, amusingly called ‘The Red Herring’. There are coins and tokens, and even a genuine period key, as well as several dollar bills, and a ‘Prescription Blank National Prohibition Act’ so that the holder can legally drink!

* This is a prop set. Of course, there has to be a matchbox.

The attention to detail is genuinely verisimilitudinous. For example, the card for the ‘Grafton Diner’ has loyalty program punches around its edges, whilst the card for ‘Fennel’s Roadhouse’ has the name ‘Betty’ handwritten on it. The fact that it says, “For Good Time ’Phone 8031’ suggests that this is more than a simple roadside stop offering fuel and lodging.

This then is the Arkham Investigator’s Wallet. It is stunningly stuffed full of things, prop after prop. Things that you and perhaps your players—if you ever let them get their grubby hands on it—are going to be amazed by what they find. Lastly, when you do get to the ‘User Guide: Read Me First’, it explains its use and more. On the back of it is the ‘Arkham Investigator’s Wallet Prop Inventory’, which lists all forty-seven items. Many of them are marked in green, indicating that they can be downloaded and printed out again.

The H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society is best known for servicing the great campaigns for Call of Cthulhu with amazing props and objets d’art, such as the Masks of Nyarlathotep Gamer Prop Set and Call of Cthulhu Classic Gamer Prop Set, but with the Arkham Investigator’s Wallet, it has done the reverse. It has provided the Arkham Investigator’s Wallet, not with a campaign, but a scenario which makes use of many of the items to be found within the pockets and folds of the wallet. This is The Dog Walker: A Scenario in 1920s Arkham, inspired by H.P. Lovecraft’s ‘The Shadow Out of Time’. As the title suggests, this takes place in Arkham, so you can make use of Chaosium, Inc.’s Call of Cthulhu: Arkham. It begins with Charlotte Foley, a precocious young dog walker and would-be detective, out walking one of her canine charges behind Christchurch Cemetery when she encounters a man acting strangely as if having some kind of a fit. Rushing to the nearest house—where the occupant, Madge Tomlinson and her friends are discussing plans for the neighbourhood’s annual Halloween party—for help, when she returns, the man has entirely disappeared. All that is left behind is a pair of spectacles and a wallet! What has happened to the man? Charlotte is determined to find out.

The Dog Walker is designed to be played with between two and six Investigators. Six pre-generated Investigators are provided in the book. They include a journalist, a history teacher, a retired cook, a retired professor of physics (with a drinking and gambling problem that may actually help the investigation in certain locations!), and a civil engineer, as well as young Charlotte. This is a nicely genteel selection of Investigators notable for the fact that all but one of them is unarmed, so the scenario is not one designed to be concluded through force of arms. That said, six Investigators does feel slightly too many for the scale of the scenario and perhaps some advice as to which of the six pre-generated Investigators to use with fewer players would have been helpful. The scenario is designed to be played solo, the player taking the role of Charlotte and using the ‘Solo Player PDF’ available to download. Alternatively, a Keeper can run The Dog Walker with the one player who can take the role of Charlotte. Lastly, the Arkham Investigator's Wallet Prop Set does require some customisation and set-up upon the part of the Keeper, removing certain props and adding details to others. The Dog Walker includes full advice for the Keeper as to what needs to be done as part of this set-up. An alternative option might be to combine the scenario with The Eldritch New England Holiday Collection and turn it into an all ‘kids-as-Investigators’ scenario.

The items in the wallet are all clues of course. Some, like the Bail Bond Certificate will hint at the missing man’s background, others such as the key enable easy entry to his nearby home, and still more grant access to otherwise closed locations, the Eye of Amara Society membership card granting the holder entry to the otherwise private members’ society. The clues will take the Investigators back and forth across Arkham, from dives such as Irish mobster Dan O’Bannion’s Lucky Clover Cartage Company to the Orne Library where they might meet Professor Henry Armitage. As the scenario progresses and the Investigators follow up clue after clue, location after location, The Dog Walker becomes a MacGuffin hunt as well. Ultimately though, everything leads back to the missing man and his home.

The Dog Walker is decently supported beyond the solidity of the props from the Arkham Investigator’s Wallet. There is a breakdown of all of the clues and how to prepare them for play—as well as a checklist for those that are pertinent to the scenario, the NPC stats, a timeline, and a map of the Lower Southside neighbourhood where the scenario begins. Physically, the scenario is cleanly laid out, very nicely illustrated (only one piece of artwork lets the look of the book down), and the props to be used in the scenario are also illustrated as well.

It is notable that Charlotte, the young girl and dog walker who makes the discovery of the lost wallet that triggers the mystery in The Dog Walker: A Scenario in 1920s Arkham is a fan of detective stories and Sherlock Holmes in particular. This is because the story itself is reminiscent of one of the best Sherlock Holmes stories, or rather one of the best pastiches. This is The Abergavenny Murder, the first episode in the second series of The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, which continued the very fine BBC pairing of Clive Merrison and Andrew Sachs as Holmes and Watson—and Clive Merrison and Michael Williams before that—with stories based on cases mentioned by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, but never expanded upon. In The Abergavenny Murder, the duo are at home at 221b Baker Street with nothing to do and lamenting the lack of crime to investigate, when a man rushes into their sitting room and drops down dead. Holmes and Watson then have forty-five minutes in which to solve the crime entirely based on the man’s corpse in front of them and what is on his body. It is a delightful ‘ship-in-a-bottle’ style episode and two-hander, displaying all of the personalities of the two men and the author’s inventiveness.

The Dog Walker feels much like this, though much more expansive than four walls of the sitting room at 221b Baker Street, and of course, having a wallet of clues to go on rather than a corpse and the contents of its pockets. Quite so too, since it would hardly be the done thing for young Charlotte to discover a corpse! That though highlights an issue with the scenario in that how does the adult world react to the inquisitiveness of a twelve-year-old? Apart from one NPC whose reaction to Charlotte may play an important role in the scenario, the issue is not addressed.

The Dog Walker: A Scenario in 1920s Arkham is a charmingly parochial mystery, its revelations hinting at the true nature of the universe, rather than fully blasting the minds of the Investigations with its actual uncaring majesty and the insignificance of humanity’s place within it. In fact, the scenario is almost gentle by other scenarios’ standards, there being only the one possible Sanity check in its telling. Which, of course, is how it should be given that Charlotte Foley is just twelve. All of which is supported by the Arkham Investigator’s Wallet and its marvellous props—of which, it should be noted, The Dog Walker: A Scenario in 1920s Arkham uses barely half, enabling the Keeper to return to the wallet to create his own mystery or the author to write a sequel. Above all, together The Dog Walker: A Scenario in 1920s Arkham and the Arkham Investigator’s Wallet are a wonderfully crafted combination that will provide a thoroughly enjoyable and engaging evening’s worth of detective work that will introduce one young lady to the mysteries of the cosmos.

The Other OSR—Forgotten Duty

The Book of the Key is an elaborate monastic chronicle written in the sixteenth century in an obscure Italian dialect that describes events and happenings so fantastical that they are at odds with the known history of the period, yet the work is anything other than a satire. The marginalia is even strange, annotations consisting of esoteric formulae and prayers dedicated to an unknown and unnamed god. The god is described as having the power to permit movement from this world to another, from this reality to another… It is currently held in the library of the University of Navarra, in the city of Pamplona, in north-east Spain. It is also rumoured to have been stolen from its previous owners, and that they, the Knights Hospitaller, seek to return to their possession. There are many reasons why someone might want to examine The Book of the Key. Perhaps to right a wrong by engaging in the many-worlds theory of quantum physics to shift to another reality where the right rather than the wrong took place. Perhaps to open, or even close, the way, perhaps to prevent access to our world by otherworldly entities such as Dimensional Shamblers or Hounds Out of Time. Perhaps the book points to the means to locate an artefact that will be inimical to a true enemy. Perhaps the connections to the Mythos of the book are already known and it has fallen into the wrong hands, and whoever that is, they need to be stopped from using it.

This is the set-up—or rather the set-ups—to Forgotten Duty, a modern day scenario for Cthulhu Hack, Second Edition, the Old School Renaissance-adjacent roleplaying game of Lovecraftian investigative horror published by Just Crunch Games. Whatever the reason for the Investigators to want to look at the book, the curator at the museum, Gustavo Ibáñez, will sadly explain that the book is currently not held by the university, but has been loaned to a benefactor to the university, Count Cielo Al-Hamrā. Fortunately, he can arrange an interview with the count and when this happens, the count will be very gracious and tell the Investigators that he has returned the book. The book though, has already been shipped off elsewhere, or has it?

There is a strangeness that runs deep not only into the question of the missing book, but also in the city of Pamplona itself. The inhabitants seem to be suffering from collective trauma, there are reports of missing persons and missing persons posters across the city, and the Investigators begin to suffer strange dreams, nightmares that point to the city’s dark history and the invasion of the Romans centuries before. Random strangers approach the Investigators, some to question their interest and reason for being in the city, others steal from them, or worse, assault them as an act of revenge, but for what? Then there is Count Cielo Al-Hamrā, a man that the Investigators have met, but whom nobody can quite recall too much about beyond his being a great benefactor to the city.

Ultimately, the investigation will point to Count Cielo Al-Hamrā as being key to getting to the heart of the mystery in Pamplona, let alone being key to locating the book. In fact, by this time, the location of the book almost becomes secondary to the need to find just what is really going on in Pamplona. Doing so will take the Investigators to the count’s home, a villa with an oddly unlived in feel and signs of strange activity, whilst the staff genially about their odd duties. This is to the extent that the Investigators may be able to explore the villa almost unimpeded, though something is surely waiting for the truly curious. Which should of course, include the Investigators.

Forgotten Duty supports the Game Master with details about Pamplona and the University of Navarra, descriptions and details of the odd encounters that the Investigators might have around the city, and the means to create the dreams that they begin to have. There are missing persons posters too, as handouts. Throughout, there are footnotes as well, and these will help the Game Master add flavour and detail to the scenario.

Physically, Forgotten Duty is decently done, but a little rough around the edges. It does need another edit as there is missing text, but the maps are good, as are the few handouts.

Forgotten Duty is a solidly weird and creepy scenario. It can easily be played in a single session and so be run as a convention scenario, in fact more easily than it can be worked into a campaign. It is also just as easy to adapt it to the roleplaying game of Lovecraftian investigative horror of your choice.

—oOo—

Just Crunch Games and All Rolled Up will be at UK Games Expo which takes place on Friday, May 31st to Sunday June 2nd, 2024.

Cthulhu ‘Old Style’ like its 1981

The first thing that you notice about Cthulhu Hack, Second Edition is how surprisingly white and colourful it is. There is bold use of colour in its chapter headings and then the rest of the book is simple, black on white text. Which gives it a clean, modern aesthetic, that is, of course, easy to read, but also in keeping with the setting for Cthulhu Hack, Second Edition. That setting is the modern day of the here and now because just like H.P. Lovecraft set his stories in his time, so the Game Master’s scenarios are, by default, set in her time. This does not mean that Cthulhu Hack, Second Edition cannot be set in other historical periods, but the modern day is the default. Cthulhu Hack, Second Edition is the roleplaying game of Lovecraftian investigative horror, which means it pitches ordinary men and women in extraordinary situations and confronts them with the true sanity-leeching mysteries of the universe as portrayed in the stories by H.P. Lovecraft. For its mechanics, it uses The Black Hack, Second Edition, the player-facing retroclone originally published in 2016. Lastly, the simple layout and use of colour allows the artwork of Paul Tomes and Andrés Sáez Martínez to really stand out.

Cthulhu Hack, Second Edition is published by Just Crunch Games following a successful Kickstarter campaign. Notably content for both editions of the roleplaying game is compatible and the roleplaying game is designed for quick and easy play, especially Investigator creation. After an introduction and a decent example of play, Cthulhu Hack, Second Edition wastes very little time in explaining the rules. For its core mechanic, whenever a Player Character—or Investigator—wants to take an action against a threat that will either hurt or hinder the Investigator, his player makes a Save against an appropriate attribute by rolling under it. If the roll is successful, the Investigator avoids the Threat, but suffers its consequences if his player roles equal to the attribute or higher. This is always player-facing, so whenever an Investigator wants to punch a cultist, his player will roll a Save against his Investigator’s Strength, but to avoid the cultist punching the Investigator, his player would roll a Save against his Investigator’s Dexterity. Depending upon the situation the player can also run with Advantage or Disadvantage.

The investigative aspect of Cthulhu Hack, Second Edition is handled via Resources. These categorised into three types—Investigative, Sanity, and Supplies. All types of Resource work in the same way. Each is represented by a die type. When a Resource check is called for, the Resource die is rolled. If the result is a one or a two, the Resource suffers a Break, meaning that the Resource is partially used up. Eventually the Resource die is stepped down to a four-sided die and when that suffers a Break, it is completely used up and thus Broken. Investigative Resources are divided between Smokes and Flashlights. Flashlights are divided into Smokes and Flashlights. Flashlights are used to get clues through studying, finding clues, spotting things, and so on, whilst Smokes cover gaining clues via interaction, financial means, or connections. When a one or a two is rolled on either Investigative Resource, a clue is still found, but something bad happens to the Investigator. When Flashlights is Broken, the Investigator is burned out and exhausted, whilst when Smokes is Broken the Investigator has brought too much attention upon himself.

In terms of running and playing the game, Cthulhu Hack, Second Edition lays its principles for both the Game Master and the player early on. For the former, this includes giving out plenty of information, setting the stakes when the Investigators are faced by threats, giving them opportunities and choices, and so on, whilst for the latter, to be a part of the story and support the other Investigators’ role in the story, to investigate and ask questions, to focus on survival rather than fighting, and more. Much of this will be familiar to veterans of Lovecraftian investigative horror, but not everyone is, so the advice here is more than welcome.

An Investigator in Cthulhu Hack, Second Edition has six Saves (or attributes)—Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Wisdom, Intelligence, and Charisma—that are rated between three and eighteen. He also has four Resources— Hit Die, Sanity, Flashlights, and Smokes—and various Benefits, including a Skill, and various Assets. Two methods of creating an Investigator are provided. Freeform gives the widest choice, but the simplest method is to pick one of the roleplaying game’s six Archetypes. There are six Archetypes—Adventurer, Bruiser, Performer, Philanthropist, Ruffian, and Scholar. Each determines the Resource die values for an Investigator’s Resources, gives a single Special Ability and lets the player choose another from a choice of three, and either rolls for or chooses an Occupation and an associated skill. There is actually a lot of flexibility within each Archetype, so that an Adventurer can be an Archaeologist or an Aviator, but he could also an Aristocrat or a Sales Rep.

Henry Brinded
Strength 13 Dexterity 12 Constitution 10 Wisdom 15 Intelligence 18 Charisma 11
Sanity D10 Flashlights D12 Smokes D10 Hit Die D4 Armed 1 Unarmed 1
Hit Points: 4
Special Abilities: Iron Mind, Deduction, Erudite
Occupation: Academic
Skill: Language (Latin)

An Investigator is meant to be fragile, although as a group, Investigators do have access to a pool of Fortune Points which allow a failed Save or Resource check to be rerolled. Combat follows from the core rules and in spite of Investigators having access to Fortune Points, enforces their fragility. They have relatively few Hit Points, weapons can be deadly, and armour is rare.

Sanity is handled as a Resource die in Cthulhu Hack, Second Edition. When an Investigator is confronted with something truly terrifying or the effects of the Mythos and the Investigator’s Sanity suffers a Break, it indicates that he has encountered something so hideous or unreal that he has temporarily lost his connection with reality. Sanity being Broken means that the Investigator has lost focus or is overwhelmed by the alienness of what he is confronted with. The Investigator becomes permanently insane when the number of times a Sanity Break occurs equals the Resource die for his Sanity. However, not all horror is equal, and it is possible to suffer a Shock instead of an incidence of Insanity when his Sanity suffers a Break.

The moments when an Investigator is likely to be at his most fragile is in confronting the Mythos. Cthulhu Hack, Second Edition does not include an extensive list of Mythos entities and creatures. It goes even further by not actually including stats for several of the Old Ones, but instead discusses their relationship with humanity (or in some cases, humanity’s ‘supposed’ relationship with them). This moves the seven discussed—Azathoth, Cthulhu, Hastur, Nodens, Nyarlathoptep, Shub-Niggurath, and Yog-Sothoth—into narrative roles rather than something that can be physically defeated. Only eight lesser creatures and races are given more detail, both in terms of background and mechanics. Traditional Mythos creatures such as the Deep Ones, Elder Things, Ghoul-Kin, Rhan-Tegoth, Shambler, Shoggoth, and Yuggothi, are joined by the Deathless, the equivalent of Keziah Mason from ‘The Dreams of the Witch-House’ and its antagonist. All of these are given nicely detailed descriptions and an excellent illustration. In each case, their stats are very simply presented, there is a note as to their motivation, and their origins, purpose, and allegiances are discussed, along with options and variants. It is interesting to note that Cthulhu Hack, Second Edition makes clear that Deep Ones are not the equivalent of Orcs or Goblins in the Cthulhu Mythos.

Both Mythos tomes and artefacts in Cthulhu Hack, Second Edition work in a fashion similar to Mythos antagonists. Each volume or item is measured by its Index, representing both the potency of its content and the danger it represents to the reader; Ire is the attention garnered by its possession—and especially—the use its lore, power, or spells; and Lore the ‘benefit’ gained from the successful study or use of it. The latter might a modifier to a Save, an Advantage on a later Save, a Skill, one or more Spells, and so on. In the case of the Index and Ire factors, the Investigator will need to make a Save against them. Failure in the case of Index means that the Investigator suffers a Shock and in the case of Ire, a failure means that the attention and scrutiny of cultists or other forces of the Mythos has been drawn to the tome or artefact and thus to the Investigator. This can lead to more direct encounters with them or set up difficulties in the story later on, meaning that Ire and a failure to Save against it has narrative rather than mechanical consequences. One thing not explored here are Mythos artefacts—the focus is entirely on tomes rather than objects.

The list of Mythos tomes avoids the classics of Lovecraftian investigative horror, so no Necronomicon, De Vermiis Mysteriis, or Unausprechlichen Kulten. There are several quite detailed examples though and tables for the Game Master to create her own. In terms of spells, there is a mix of the familiar and unfamiliar. Thus, there is The Voorish Sign and Elder Sign alongside Deceiver’s Charm and Cyclopean Shift. Of course, knowing and casting magic has consequences. Knowing any spells automatically imposes a reduction in the Resource die for an Investigator’s Sanity and casting spells requires a personal sacrifice, there being the possibility of an Investigator losing a point from of his six Saves. In addition, casting a spell triggers a save against the Ire of that spell, potentially attracting the attention of the cultists and other Mythos entities. Magic in Cthulhu Hack, Second Edition is deadly and dangerous, and its use is definitely not for the faint-hearted.

The scenario in Cthulhu Hack, Second Edition is ‘Save Innsmouth’. This is an expansion and development of Save Innsmouth: A Student Documentary. It is specifically written to be run in two hours, but is easily expanded to run in a longer, fuller session. In line with the rest of the roleplaying game, it is set in the modern day, taking place in Lovecraft Country in New England in the modern day, specifically in and around Innsmouth. In the short version, it begins en media res, with the Investigators trapped in the tunnels and caverns of the blighted town, decades ago shattered by the 1928 FBI raid. Already bruised and battered—and low on Resources—they must find their out of their rough and rancid prison, hunted by a strange creature… In the longer version, the Investigators, students at Miskatonic University and members of its Miskatonic Heritage Club, have travelled to Innsmouth, first by bus and then by hiking, in order to examine and photograph the pre-Prohibition town before it is completely bulldozed to make way for a health spa. It is a scenario in two parts. The bulk of its investigation is done in the journey to Innsmouth, whilst the action takes place in the second part, the imprisonment, which is what is played out in the shorter version of the scenario. If there is an issue with the scenario it is that the author talks about it for four pages before actually telling what the scenario is about. This is frustrating, although the information given in those four pages is both relevant and useful.

Lastly, Cthulhu Hack, Second Edition gives a short discussion of campaigns, supporting it with a series of tables of prompts and pointers that can be used to bring the Investigators and get them sufficiently intrigued by a mystery to want to investigate. These are good starting points which the Game Master will of course, have to develop. It also introduces the concept of Remnants, the consequences of encountering the Mythos upon an Investigator’s personality. Roleplaying these will reward the players as a whole with an extra Fortune Point.

Physically, Cthulhu Hack, Second Edition is nicely presented. It needs a slight edit, but is very accessible, clean, and tidy, and the artwork is excellent. This does include some artwork generated by MidJourney AI, but the publisher has made a charitable donation to the Artists’ General Benevolent Institution.

Cthulhu Hack, Second Edition is a streamlined and cleaner presentation of the earlier, The Cthulhu Hack, much like Old School Essentials is a cleaner and more accessible update of the Basic Dungeons & Dragons designed by Tom Moldvay. It is not just cleaner and more accessible, the book itself is handier and easy to use. The downside of that is that it is not comprehensive in its treatment of the Mythos, but it is complete in and of itself. In play, the consistency of the rules, especially Resources, means that an investigation becomes one where every effort matters, not just facing the Mythos, since there is a chance of depletion, of a Break, each time an effort is made towards the investigation. Thus, the consequences of an investigation are wider than mere loss of Sanity and the tension of looking into mysteries is prevalent throughout an investigation rather than in just the confrontation with the Mythos.

Cthulhu Hack, Second Edition is an excellent redesign and reimplantation of The Cthulhu Hack. It provides a solid introduction to Lovecraftian investigative roleplaying and for any looking for a Old School Renaissance compatible roleplaying game dealing with the Cthulhu Mythos, Cthulhu Hack, Second Edition is the obvious choice.

Initiation Island

It seemed like the opportunity of a lifetime. The chance to attend the annual summer camp of Miskatonic Shoreside Conservatory, a prestigious performing arts institute located on an island just off Providence, Rhode Island. Graduates of the summer camp are guaranteed admittance to Miskatonic Shoreside Conservatory and graduates of the institute are all but guaranteed of a glittering career including recognition and status. You are gifted. A dancer. A saxophonist. A painter. A singer. A violinist. Yet something is not quite right—about you. About the Miskatonic Shoreside Conservatory. You hide a secret. Miskatonic Shoreside Conservatory has its secrets. This is the set-up for a mini-campaign published by Symphony Entertainment using Cthulhu Dark, the minimalist roleplaying game of Lovecraftian investigative horror in which the horror is so bleak that the Investigators can at best hope to survive rather than overcome. Thus, attendees of the Miskatonic Shoreside Conservatory summer camp do not so much need to overcome their experiences at the institute, as rather find a way to survive, and perhaps even a way to abide…

Miskatonic Shoreside Conservatory is a one-shot scenario in which the players take the roles of teenagers, musical prodigies attending the Miskatonic Shoreside Conservatory for the first time at its annual summer camp. It is designed for five players. It can be played with fewer players, but works best with five. As the inspired Investigators enter the various arts programmes at the conservatory, they will quickly come to notice that not all is what it seems on the island. It is clear that the institute and its backers are wealthy, the conservatory being almost a luxurious retreat as much as it is a school. Yet there is a strangeness to it, as if it is not quite of this world, the other students in attendance are often unsettled, or driven to act in desperately weird ways, such as attempting sculpt a statue on the campus to get it right, but do so hands on with hot food on the plate like modelling clay or such as slamming themselves from wall to wall at their inability to perform to the level of skill they want. There is also the feeling that the Investigators are being groomed for something, tested not just on their musical ability, but on their past experiences and how they affect their musical ability. Ultimately, whatever it is, they will be given a choice…

Miskatonic Shoreside Conservatory is supported with detailed descriptions of the five Investigators, as well as the Miskatonic Shoreside Conservatory, its facilities and staff, and then a broad timeline of the thirty days that the Investigators will spend on the island. There is only the one map, and no floorplans, but most of the NPCs have photographs, and the handouts are decent. (In fact, the handouts would actually work if they were physically made as props.)

The scenario is also supported throughout with ‘Director Insight’, which includes advice for the Director—as the Keeper is known in Cthulhu Dark—and playtest and staging notes. It also makes use of Cthulhu Dark’s ‘Dark Symbols’, which indicates if a scene involves a clue, something harmful, dialogue, something to sport, or a combination of two or more of them. They are useful as they highlight the key points of any one scene and they can also be used to suggest to the Keeper that certain skills need to be rolled in those scenes if she is running the scenario under another rules system. However, they are not always best placed to be spotted with any ease.

The scenario does ‘suffer’ from a certain disconnect. More so than any other scenario of Lovecraftian investigative horror. Players of the genre quickly learn to recognise the elements of the genre in play and have to pull back from that knowledge lest it informs their roleplaying and their Investigators. In the case of Miskatonic Shoreside Conservatory, this is challenging because the scenario resonates with the Mythos. It is everywhere and unavoidable, despite the Investigators knowing nothing, so roleplaying across that disconnect is all more challenging and all the more demanding for the players. Miskatonic Shoreside Conservatory does play around a little with that divide, but not too much, and certainly not enough to alleviate the degree of challenge that the scenario demands.

Miskatonic Shoreside Conservatory is potentially a very difficult scenario because it does call upon the players to confront their Investigators committing dark acts and committing themselves to dark, antithetically inhuman forces. There is an interesting way of alleviating this within the scenario, at least initially, almost like a comfort blanket—although this one goes ‘woof!’ and wags his tail—but ultimately, the players and their Investigators will be called upon to make a choice. One minor irritant that breaks the atmosphere of the piece is naming an NPC, if only a minor one, ‘Vincent Price’.

It is possible with Miskatonic Shoreside Conservatory to draw parallels with two other roleplaying campaigns connected to Chaoisum, Inc., one Call of Cthulhu related, the other not. These are The Eldritch New England Holiday Collection from Golden Goblin Press, which is, of course, Call of Cthulhu related, and Six Seasons in Sartar, which is not. All three are about initiation and heritage, all are about playing children, teenagers. The Eldritch New England Holiday Collection, not into the Mythos, but about the Mythos. Six Seasons in Sartar is an initiation into both the core cults of Glorantha and Glorantha as a setting—both in as characters and as players. Miskatonic Shoreside Conservatory is also about initiation and the Mythos, but both into and about the Mythos, but unlike the other two where the players and characters accept their situation and their heritage, Miskatonic Shoreside Conservatory is whether not they accept their initiation and heritage. All of which plays out on an island retreat which is one part music school, one part The Village from The Prisoner, as if viewed through the fisheye lens of the Mythos.

Scenarios for Lovecraftian investigative horror which call for the players to take the roles of cultists are far and few between. This is primarily because such roleplaying games are about investigating and stopping the consequences of the cultists’ actions, preventing the end of the world, and saving humanity. They are about humanity, not inhumanity. This is not to say that such scenarios are not interesting to roleplay, and where they do occur, it is always as fully fledged cultists, having committed to the cause. Not so, here. Miskatonic Shoreside Conservatory offers something genuinely unique in offering the player the opportunity to become a cultist and everything their Investigator wants, but never once lets up on the horror and weirdness of that choice and so commit to becoming beyond human, whilst ultimately making the moral option the most painful one. Miskatonic Shoreside Conservatory is an unnervingly, relentlessly horrifying scenario which deserves to reach a wider audience and be the single answer to the question, “Are there any scenarios in which you play cultists?”

Miskatonic Monday #195: The Cult of Gl’thol’tic

Between October 2003 and October 2013, Chaosium, Inc. published a series of books for Call of Cthulhu under the Miskatonic University Library Association brand. Whether a sourcebook, scenario, anthology, or campaign, each was a showcase for their authors—amateur rather than professional, but fans of Call of Cthulhu nonetheless—to put forward their ideas and share with others. The programme was notable for having launched the writing careers of several authors, but for every Cthulhu Invictus, The Pastores, Primal State, Ripples from Carcosa, and Halloween Horror, there was Five Go Mad in Egypt, Return of the Ripper, Rise of the Dead, Rise of the Dead II: The Raid, and more...

The Miskatonic University Library Association brand is no more, alas, but what we have in its stead is the Miskatonic Repository, based on the same format as the DM’s Guild for Dungeons & Dragons. 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: The Cult of Gl’thol’tic

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Jess Charle

Setting: Jazz Age Massachusetts
Product: Scenario

What You Get: Thirteen-page, 39.00 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: Small town murder mystery, plus the Mythos

Plot Hook: Can your god be summoned before they come for you?

Plot Support: Two handouts, five NPCs, and one map.

Production Values: Plain.

Pros

# The very definition of a ‘fixer-upper’ scenario

# One-shot with the players as cultists

# Call of Cthulhu Investigators as the enemy

# Small town mini-murder mystery

# Pretty map

# Paranoia

# Capiophobia

Cons

# Needs an edit

# Player Characters are not supposed to know they are cultists

# Murder mystery mostly incidental

# No staging advice

# No sense of the Player Characters being investigated

# No option for the Player Characters to act against the Investigators

# No pre-generated Player Cultists

# Bryce Wane. Millionaire Vigilante. Industrialist. Notorious playboy. Fights crime as ‘Rat Man’.

# Yes. You read that correctly.

# Bryce Wane. Millionaire Vigilante. Industrialist. Notorious playboy. Fights crime as ‘Rat Man’.

# No. Not kidding. Really is an NPC in the scenario.

Conclusion

# Potentially interesting scenario with Player Characters as cultists undone by severe lack of development

# Lack of pre-generated Player Cultists significant omission 

# Bryce Wane. Millionaire Vigilante. Industrialist. Notorious playboy. Fights crime as ‘Rat Man’. 

Miskatonic Monday #192: Bad Tidings

Between October 2003 and October 2013, Chaosium, Inc. published a series of books for Call of Cthulhu under the Miskatonic University Library Association brand. Whether a sourcebook, scenario, anthology, or campaign, each was a showcase for their authors—amateur rather than professional, but fans of Call of Cthulhu nonetheless—to put forward their ideas and share with others. The programme was notable for having launched the writing careers of several authors, but for every Cthulhu Invictus, The Pastores, Primal State, Ripples from Carcosa, and Halloween Horror, there was Five Go Mad in Egypt, Return of the Ripper, Rise of the Dead, Rise of the Dead II: The Raid, and more...

The Miskatonic University Library Association brand is no more, alas, but what we have in its stead is the Miskatonic Repository, based on the same format as the DM’s Guild for Dungeons & Dragons. 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: Bad Tidings

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Orlando Moreira

Setting: Portugal, 1937
Product: Scenario

What You Get: Thirty-page, 4.92 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: Innsmouth in Iberia

Plot Hook: A mentor’s revelation exposes murder and terrible Nazi experiments

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

Production Values: Decent.

Pros

# Period one-shot under a different dictator

# Pulp horror style scenario

# Entertainingly staged finale

# Pre-generated Investigators help enforce the background period

# Excellent use of period photographs

# Ichthyophobia

# Thalassophobia

# Batrachophobia

# Iatrophobia

# Naziphobia

Cons

# Needs an edit

# Cartoonish artwork

# Mythos tome mentioned, but never found

# Oddly undermanned Nazi base

# Heavily plotted in places, but Keeper advice gives options

Conclusion

# Strongly plotted scenario supported by decent Keeper suggestions

# Pulp horror one-shot in pre-war Portugal opens up new location for period horror