[Free RPG Day 2026] All Bets Are Off

Now in its nineteenth year, Free RPG Day for 2026 took place on Saturday, June 27th. As per usual, Free RPG Day consisted of an array of new and interesting little releases, which are traditionally tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quick-start. This included dice, miniatures, vouchers, and more. Unfortunately, due to vagaries of International Customs, Free RPG Day in the UK did not take place until Saturday, 22nd August.

This review is possible due to the generosity of Waylands Forge in Birmingham.

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With Everyday Heroes, publisher Evil Genius Games did for Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition in 2022 what d20 Modern did for Dungeons & Dragons, Third Edition in 2002. That is, facilitate and handle roleplaying in the here and now, in the world we see outside our windows, on our television screens, and at the cinema. It went even further though by doing something not actually included in the rulebook. This is providing access to a number of source and scenario supplements all based upon a surprising range of films. In fact, a range of films which nobody expected to see turned into roleplaying material despite their popularity in the hobby such as The Crow™ Cinematic Adventure and Escape From New York™ Cinematic Adventure. For Free RPG Day 2026, the publisher has contributed the scenario, All Bets Are Off.

All Bets Are Off carries the subtitle ‘A Free RPG Day adventure that proves every great heist fails at the escape’ and whilst the scenario does involve a heist, it remains to be seen if the escape fails. The scenario is designed for gang of four or five First to Second Level Heroes who together make up a professional heist team known in criminal circles as the ‘Stacked Deck’. However, since Everyday Heroes casts its protagonists as Heroes, the protagonists in the scenarios are only ‘technically’ criminals. Or rather, the Heroes are criminals with a heart who research organized crime money laundering locations, plan elaborate heists, and steal veritable fortunes from them. The money is then split between the members, their helpful associates, and their two clandestine benefactors, the Always sisters, Grace and Charity.

At the start of this adventure, the Stacked Deck has just performed a perfect, by-the-numbers hit on the Cold Cash Castle, a local casino well-known to be a front for the Rasmussen organized crime syndicate. The heist has gone off perfectly, and the team made it out of the casino, and is making a dash for its getaway van. All Heroes need to do is clamber aboard, but as soon as the vehicle is in sight, its tires are screaming and belching smoke as it drives away! Which leaves the Heroes in the lurch and needing to make their way across twenty blocks of the city to get to the planned pick-up point.

All Bets Are Off is a chase scenario. The Heroes have exited the casino, clown masks on in true American heist fashion, guns in hand, and black holdalls full of cash slung over their shoulders, with Syndicate Agents on their tail. How exactly they get across the city is detailed in numerous scenes, in turn using the environment and overcoming any number of challenges. These include diving down alleys and climbing fire escapes, dodging barely leashed guard dogs, facing down corrupt cops on their tail (how did they find them so fast?), and getting out from under the sight of a red sight dot, before finally trying to get past a police blockade. This is one of two scenes where the Heroes get to be inventive in how they overcome the problem, along with an encounter with a restaurant line chef as she steps out of the kitchen and is surprised at their sudden appearance. 

The scenario is intended to be played in a single session and comes with multiple endings depending on how well the Heroes have done. It includes notes on how to use it with ‘E.G.O.’, the Evil Genius Organized-Play Programme and also comes with six pre-generated Heroes. They are all Second Level and include an ex-MMA fighter, a sharpshooter, a bodyguard, a sleuth, and a leader. They all come with some background, fairly broad in detail. The inside front and back cover include a map of the streets that the Handler can use if she wants to employ miniatures.

Physically, All Bets Are Off is decently presented. The artwork is excellent and the Handler should use it to show her players various scenes in the scenario.

All Bets Are Off is short and simple. Arguably, it is not just simple, but simplistic too. Although its various scenes are thematically appropriate, too many of them come down to simple dice roll and beyond that, there is not a lot for the Heroes to really do. The scenario could easily be played through in a couple of hours and the Handler may want to add another encounter or two, perhaps have the Heroes hide out in a department store as Syndicate agents from the casino they just robbed stalk them or a race through a restaurant kitchen where an appropriately cinematic fight can take place. For a quick and easy-to-prepare demonstration game, All Bets Are Off is fine, but will need more if a Handler wants to better show off Every Day Heroes or use it her campaign.

Friday Fear: Vengeance of Bathory

Has the greatest serial killer in history fled America for her homeland in present day Slovakia? Has she taken refuge in her ancestral home of Castle Čachtice, despite it having been destroyed in 1799 and her having died there in her sleep in 1614? Who is this monstrous murderer, this woman with the worst reputation in history? None other than Countess Elizabeth Báthory of Ecsed! Following the revelations about her viciously cruel and bloody campaign of torture amongst the fashion community and on the streets of Los Angeles, her whereabouts are unknown. But those in the know, those that know of her true nature and abilities, have reasons to suspect that they have not truly defeated and that she will return again. Perhaps though, can she be really destroyed and the threat she presents to the world stopped once and for all in her home? This is the set-up for Vengeance of Bathory, a modern day, vampire-hunting setting scenario set in central Europe. It is a sequel to The Blood Countess, the entertaining scenario about the efforts to uncover Báthory’s swathe of stalking and slaughter in Los Angeles that took in part some of its inspiration from the seventies television series, Kolchak: The Night Stalker. Published by Funny Shaped Dice Productions, Vengeance of Bathory is a short, one or two-session horror scenario, the seventh in the publisher’s ‘Frightshow Classics’ line. Ostensibly written for use with Chill or Cryptworld: Chilling Adventures into the Unexplained, the percentile mechanics of the scenario mean that it could easily be adapted to run with Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition and similar roleplaying games.

Vengeance of Bathory does work better as a sequel to The Blood Countess, but it is not the only set-up suggested in the scenario. Alternative suggestions include looking for a tourist, Lucinda Miles, who has gone whilst visiting Čachtice, the village below Castle Čachtice; working for an organisation that want to investigate Countess Elizabeth Báthory; and a vision is experienced of one her victims point towards the village. Of these options, only the first is developed in the scenario, leaving the others to be developed by the Fright Master. The scenario begins with the arrival of the Player Characters in the sleepy village and their first night at the Penzión Čachtice, the only guest house not to be fully fixated on the Báthory legend. The Player Characters have time to interact with a few locals at the guesthouse’s bar and the following day visit the Draškovičov kaštieľ – Múzeum Čachtice and Church of Methodius and gain some extra background about Báthory and the surrounding area.

However, there is an issue with the scenario in getting the Player Characters from this set-up and into the meat of the plot. There are hooks and pointers as to where the Player Characters might go in the village, but they are underwritten and not easy to bring into play by the Fright Master. It does not help that the village itself is not detailed in a way can be easily used and the only locations detailed are the Penzión Čachtice, Draškovičov kaštieľ – Múzeum Čachtice, Church of Methodius, and Castle Čachtice. The village also has a tourist industry dedicated to dedicated to Báthory and relatively little is made of that. As it turns out, the village is full of threats and dangers to the Player Characters, including cultists and the presence of Countess Elizabeth Báthory herself. The cultists’ presence could have been made more in and about the village, having them watch the Player Characters and making them a little paranoid. Some of the cult members include the staff of Penzión Čachtice and unless they are really pushed and confronted by the Player Characters, their involvement and the horrific nature of their activities may not be discovered. Which is an issue when discovering their involvement and their activities is one way in which the plot can move the Player Characters onto the main thrust of the plot.

Eventually, the Player Characters will find their way into the tunnels that run under Čachtice all the way to Castle Čachtice, and this is when the pace of the scenario picks up. As they make their way through the tunnels, the Player Characters will come across horror after horror. Torture chambers, ghoul nests, dark temples, sacrifice storage spaces, and moreVengeance of Bathoryand worse! The complex of tunnels and rooms are stalked and haunted by cultists, ghouls, and phantasms, and none of it is mapped. The Fright Master is expected to roll for locations found, encounter details, and events. The events are all attacks by the various threats, but all varying in terms of the odds that the Player Characters have of defeating them, effectively how many there are versus the Player Characters. The ‘Details’ table includes some entries that are easier to use than others. Hostile, injured, corpse, and squabbling encounters are likely easier to use than say the curious and friendly encounters. Here is another aspect Vengeance of Bathory that the Fright Master might to develop so that she has something interesting to place in the path of the Player Characters in what is otherwise a random dungeon!

Apart from a possible vision, the Player Characters will not have met Countess Elizabeth Báthory so far in the scenario. This changes in the finale, which takes place in the Tomb of Báthory. She will command a haunting of phantasms to flit back and forth battering at their psyches, whilst she flits in and out, punching and kicking, and shrieking in cruel laughter at their plight. She will especially take delight in taunting any Player Characters who had a part in defeating her in Los Angeles. It is a challenging fight and there is a chance that the Player Characters will be defeated, captured, and tortured… However, they can also defeat her and do so for good. The Player Characters may want to arm themselves in preparation and ideally, the Fright Master should help them do that, perhaps back at Penzión Čachtice. Another option is to involve the local police and an NPC is provided for that, and being a European police officer, he does have access to firearms.

The scenario includes eight pre-generated Player Characters. Two of them are locals, one the curator of the museum, the other the priest at the village church. If they are not used as Player Characters, then they can be used as NPCs instead. Only four of them have combat skills and only one has a psychic ability, but all come with backgrounds, weaknesses, and a thumbnail portrait. Four of them are also continuing their hunt of Countess Elizabeth Báthory after their encounter with her in The Blood Countess.

Physically, the cover to Vengeance of Bathory manages to be both distracting and horrific! The internal artwork is good and it does include a decent image of the village, though the Fright Master will need to work out what some of the buildings are. Otherwise, the production values are decent.

Unfortunately, Vengeance of Bathory is simply not as good as The Blood Countess. It does not flow as easily as it should and the Fright Master will need to develop elements of it to strengthen its plotting and so ease the Player Characters towards the finale with Countess Báthory. With the necessary development done, Vengeance of Bathory has the potential to deliver an session or two of bloody horror in the Grand Guignol style.

Quick-Start Saturday: Tom Clancy’s The Division – Quickstart Manual

Quick-starts are a means of trying out a roleplaying game before you buy. Each should provide a Game Master with sufficient background to introduce and explain the setting to her players, the rules to run the scenario included, and a set of ready-to-play, pre-generated characters that the players can pick up and understand almost as soon as they have sat down to play. The scenario itself should provide an introduction to the setting for the players as well as to the type of adventures that their characters will have and just an idea of some of the things their characters will be doing on said adventures. All of which should be packaged up in an easy-to-understand booklet whose contents, with a minimum of preparation upon the part of the Game Master, can be brought to the table and run for her gaming group in a single evening’s session—or perhaps two. And at the end of it, Game Master and players alike should ideally know whether they want to play the game again, perhaps purchasing another adventure or even the full rules for the roleplaying game.

Alternatively, if the Game Master already has the full rules for the roleplaying game the quick-start is for, then what it provides is a sample scenario that she still run as an introduction or even as part of her campaign for the roleplaying game. The ideal quick-start should entice and intrigue a playing group, but above all effectively introduce and teach the roleplaying game, as well as showcase both rules and setting.

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What is it?
Tom Clancy’s The Division – Quickstart Manual is the quick-start for Tom Clancy’s The Division: The Official Tabletop Roleplaying Game, the roleplaying game based on the video game developed by Massive Entertainment and published by Ubisoft, and its subsequent novels and comic book series.

It is a eighty-four page, 51.14 MB full colour PDF.

It is decently written and the artwork really is very good.

How long will it take to play?
Tom Clancy’s The Division – Quickstart Manual is designed to be played through in one or two sessions.

What else do you need to play?
Tom Clancy’s The Division – Quickstart Manual needs five ten-sided dice per player.

Who do you play?
Tom Clancy’s The Division – Quickstart Manual includes five pre-generated Player Characters or Agents. They consist of a sharpshooter and scout, a non-specialist soldier, an ex-member of the riot squad, a medic, and a leader. None of the pre-generated Agents have backgrounds.

How is a Player Character defined?

An Agent in Tom Clancy’s The Division: The Official Tabletop Roleplaying Game has three Attributes—Awareness, Dexterity, and Technique; skills and specialities in their associated Skill Domains, and three Traits—Resilience, Vigour, and Quickness, which are used to test an Agent’s speed, strength, or calmness. These all range in value between one and five. Each Agent also has his or her own specific Manoeuvre.

How do the mechanics work?

Tom Clancy’s The Division – Quickstart Manual—and thus Tom Clancy’s The Division: The Official Tabletop Roleplaying Game—uses what it calls the GRIS system. This is short for ‘Gather, Roll, Indicate, and Succeed’. Rolls will either be Trait or Skill rolls. The Traits are Resilience, Vigour, and Quickness, which are used to test an Agent’s speed, strength, or calmness. The number of dice rolled when a player wants his character to act are determined by the points in Skill Domain, Skill, and Specialities for skill rolls and the Trait values for Trait rolls. In either case, this will be between one and five dice. The Difficulty value for any task will be between five and ten with seven being average. Modifiers apply to the Difficulty value only, and do not adjust the number of dice rolled. Once rolled, the player choses which die will be his Resolution die, which will determine the outcome. In most situations, this will be the highest die, but in certain circumstances, such as determining how much trauma an Agent suffers when taking damage it might be lower.

The result on the Resolution die will determine the outcome. A result of one is a fiasco, a roll less than the Difficulty value is a failure, a roll equal to the Difficulty value is a success, greater than the Difficulty value is a Tour de Force, and a result of ten which is higher than the Difficulty value is a Feat. The skills list possible Fiascos, Tour de Forces, and Feats. Outside of combat, this might be to generate a Strategy Point, an Inspiring Example which grants an ally a one-time bonus die, and even lowering the Difficulty value for that skill for the rest of the mission. In combat, it can do extra damage, but also generate a Strategy Point or an Inspiring Example.

How does combat work?

Combat is intended to be fought out on the hex grid. Initiative is a Quickness roll. In a round, an Agent or NPC can move and either sprint, use a Manoeuvre, or an automatic action. The use of a Manoeuvre requires the expenditure of Strategy Points. Strategy Points represent powerful actions, are a shared resource and in limited supply. Generic Manoeuvres include ‘Barrage’, ‘Precision Fire’, and ‘Suppressive Fire’. In general, a player will be rolling to see if his Agent hits and that will inflict damage. Damage is a straight value—four for a pistol, five for a submachine gun, six for a rifle or assault rifle, and so on. Armour worn reduces damage, whilst all Agents have ten boxes of Health. They have a Wound Threshold which when reached, means they are exhausted and/or in pain and suffer a die penalty to all rolls. An Agent is down when his Health is reduced to zero. This does not mean they are dead. In a Skirmish, they will be out of the fight, but not dead, whereas in a Confrontation, it can mean they are. There are tables for both Minor and Major Trauma suffered when this occurs.

In general, the combat rules in Tom Clancy’s The Division – Quickstart Manual do feel underwritten and perhaps an example of combat would have helped. One thing that is clear is that Manoeuvres are special actions and should be selected with care. In another roleplaying game, a Player Character might be able to do them all the time and so gain the bonus. Not so here, where their use is likely to be narrative-based. In other words, the players should be asking themselves if now is the right time to use a Manoeuvre instead of later in the scenario.

What do you play?

The setting for Tom Clancy’s The Division – Quickstart Manual and also for Tom Clancy’s The Division: The Official Tabletop Roleplaying Game, requires some explanation. It is a near future post-apocalyptic setting in which a deadly bioweapon, known as the ‘Green Poison’ because it was primarily spread via infected bank notes, led to high casualty rates, civil unrest, the collapse of civil government, and near societal collapse, especially in the US cities of New York and Washington, D.C. Both cities are quarantined, populated by criminal gangs, separatists and secessionists, and worse, as well as refugees and communities surviving despite the chaos and disorder. In response, the President of the United States activates sleeper agents in the population who work for the Strategic Homeland Division (SHD; or simply ‘the Division’), who are ordered to enter the quarantined zones, render aid and assistance, and combat any threats within the bounds of the city which threaten the continuity of the USA. Tom Clancy’s The Division – Quickstart Manual provides an extensive background to and overview of the current situation in the roleplaying game including the factions on both sides in New York and Washington D.C.

The scenario in Tom Clancy’s The Division – Quickstart Manual is ‘Ashes of Murray Hill’. It is an introductory scenario and so does not use the full mission rules from Tom Clancy’s The Division: The Official Tabletop Roleplaying Game, though the Director could adapt it if he has access to them. There is advice on adjusting the story in places as well. In ‘Ashes of Murray Hill’, the Agents are stationed in a fire station at Kips Bay on the edge of the New York City quarantine zone. The Joint Task Force, made up of police, fire-fighters, and emergency workers, has been sending medical and food convoys into eastern Manhattan to help civilians. Amidst a rainstorm, the Agents learn that one of the convoys has been hijacked, probably by the Rikers, a violent gang made up of former inmates at the infamous prison. The Agents have access to an ECHO or ‘Evidence Correlation Holographic Overlay’, from which they can determine what happened at the ambush site and track the culprits to the Murray Hill district. Whether they use stealth or a more direct approach, the Agents will be able to find the Rikers base of operations and with luck, rescue the survivors from the convoy. In the final scenes, the Agents have to escape the Rikers base of operations as it is attacked by a rival faction and get back to safe territory, only to discover what the Rikers’ true plan was all along…

Is there anything missing?
No. Not as written, but examples of play or combat would not have gone amiss.

Is it easy to prepare?
Yes. Tom Clancy’s The Division – Quickstart Manual is easy to prepare.

Is it worth it?
Yes. Tom Clancy’s The Division – Quickstart Manual does give a good idea of what the roleplaying game will be like. Some players may be disappointed by the lack of tactical elements in the combat system and the combat mechanics may be too light for others, especially given the combat-focused game play of the video game it is based on. On the other hand the rules are not too complex, the background to the setting is surprisingly detailed in its explanation, and the scenario is decent.

Tom Clancy’s The Division – Quickstart Manual is published by Arkhane Asylum Publishing and is available to download here.

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Tom Clancy’s The Division: The Official Tabletop Roleplaying Game is currently being funded on Kickstarter.

Miskatonic Monday #430: Last Dance in Shoreditch

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: Last Dance in Shoreditch

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Seyed P. Razavi

Setting: London, Modern Day

Product: One shot
What You Get: Thirty-page, 15.87 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: “There’s always some amount of gradual, slow burning destruction over the course of partying.”—Gavin DeGraw

Plot Hook: Jenny Muir is missing

Plot Support: Staging advice, five pre-generated Investigators, seven handouts, three NPCs, and one Mythos monster.

Production Values: Decent

Pros

# Nightlife nightmare in the streets of East London

# Nicely done ‘sights, sounds, vibes, and smells’

# Easy to prepare

# Eisoptrophobia

# Scoptophobia

# Melophobia

Cons

# One pre-generated Investigator a little too like the missing NPC

# One pre-generated Investigator has a high Cthulhu Mythos skill

# It will make you feel old

# Avoid any jokes about murder on the dance floor

Conclusion

# Queasy, sweaty descent beyond the ecstasy of London’s nightlife

# Drop the bass, drop the horror

Miskatonic Monday #429: Crappy Detour

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: Crappy Detour

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Phanzar

Setting: USA, Modern Day

Product: One shot
What You Get: Seventeen-page, 8.22 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds meets Call of Cthulhu

Plot Hook: A forced detour confronts the Investigators with a poopy situation

Plot Support: Staging advice, five pre-generated Investigators, five handouts, one map, four Mythos spells, one Mythos tome, and three Mythos monsters.

Production Values: Decent

Pros

# A terrible pun rather than a case of nominative determinism

# Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds writ large

# Decent map

# Easy to prepare

# Easy to adjust to other times and places

# Customisable Investigators

# Ornithophobia

# Coprophobia

# Pteronophobia

Cons

# A terrible pun rather than a case of nominative determinism

# Needs an edit

# No floorplans

# Sadly, no phobia of Afred Hitchcock

Conclusion

# Obvious pastiche that is not as bad as it sounds

# Decent one-shot that rises above nominative determinism

Miskatonic Monday #423: Hunger at the Campsite

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: Hunger at the Campsite

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Phanzar

Setting: 1982 USA forest

Product: Encounter
What You Get: Three-page, 2.99 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: A cat-tree-cat god is hungry

Plot Hook: An abandoned campsite deep in the woods

Plot Support: Staging advice, four Investigator templates, one NPC, and two Mythos monsters.

Production Values: Decent

Pros

# Short and easy to understand

# Could be set in any period or country

# Ailurophobia

# Dendrophobia

# Hylophobia

Cons

# Investigator templates rather than pre-generated Investigators
# No motivation for the Investigators

# No plot
# Playable in thirty minutes

Conclusion

# Plotless
# Hookless

# Reviews from R’lyeh Discommends

Miskatonic Monday #412: A Heady Draught

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: A Heady Draught

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: J. Michael Arons

Setting: Modern day United Kingdom

Product: Single-Secession Scenario
What You Get: Eight-page, 30.28 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: Possession is ninth tenths of the bottle.

Plot Hook: “I see that a man cannot give himself up to drinking without being miserable one-half his days and mad the other.”

― Anne Brontë, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

Plot Support: Staging advice, no pre-generated Investigators, one NPC, one handout, and one Mythos monster.

Production Values: Plain

Pros

# Simple investigation

# Suitable for one Investigator, one Keeper play

# Easy to adapt to other eras and settings

# Easy to slip into a campaign

# Easy to prepare

# Focusses on one NPC for strong roleplaying

# Dipsophobia

# Thanatophobia

# Dipsomania

Cons

# Needs an edit

# The Keeper may want to add a map and other NPCs

# Episodic; what are the Investigators doing the rest of the days?

Conclusion

# Episodic, tight scenario focused on one NPC

# Keeper may want to develop the scenario a little wider

Miskatonic Monday #411: The Disappearance in Montignac

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 Disappearance in Montignac

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Thomas Baudart

Setting: France, 2015

Product: One-shot
What You Get: Ten-page, 1.58 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: A missing persons case attracts a podcast squad

Plot Hook: Find the girl, make a podcast, get famous

Plot Support: Staging advice, no pre-generated Investigators, one NPC, two handouts, one map, and one Mythos monster.

Production Values: Plain

Pros

# Simple investigation 

# Scope for development

# Family horror story

# Sciophobia

# Castlephobia

# Entomophobia

Cons

# Needs a good edit and localisation

# Some NPCs underdeveloped

# Why is the castle causing Sanity loss?

Conclusion

# Not enough time to really allow for an investigation

# Small village, family horror scenario that could benefit from development and clarification

Miskatonic Monday #398: Up on the Rooftop

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: Up on the Rooftop

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: James Cross

Setting: Vermont, 2018

Product: One-shot
What You Get: Forty-eight page, 9.69 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: For every child, there is a Christmas when they lose their innocence

Plot Hook: Christmas holiday becomes Christmas horror, Christmas cheer become Christmas fear

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

Production Values: Decent

Pros

# Nicely detailed cinematic horror scenario

# Includes advice for convention and campaign play

# Builds from creepy to whiteout worriment (and worse)
# Pleasingly unsettling cover

# Teraphobia

# Clausophobia

# Tarandophobia

Cons

# Can include the death of a child

Conclusion

# Well done, holiday horror that adds a new twist on an old staple

# Ruins Christmas for Floridians everywhere

# Reviews from R’lyeh Recommends

Miskatonic Monday #396: The Dionysian

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 Dionysian

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Christopher D. Leonard

Setting: Washington State, USA, 2018

Product: Scenario
What You Get: Twenty-two page, 11.83 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: “Bombs do not choose. They hit everything.”

– Nikita Khrushchev

Plot Hook: An unexpected murder spree over old ground

Plot Support: Staging advice, five NPCs, one Mythos tome, one Mythos artefact, and two Mythos entities

Production Values: Plain

Pros

# Requires some knowledge of the Mythos

# There’s a bomb involved

# Would work easily with with Delta Green: The Role-Playing Game

# Potential for sequels if the outcome is a success

# Ekrixphobia

# Capraphobia

# Herpetophobia

Cons

# Requires some knowledge of the Mythos
# There’s a bomb involved

# Could have detailed the killer’s telephone call

# No maps

Conclusion

# Serviceable investigation where one solution might be violence

# Underwritten introduction

Miskatonic Monday #386: For King and Country

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: For King and Country

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Michał Pietrzak

Setting: The Dreamlands, 2025

Product: Scenario for H.P. Lovecraft’s Dreamlands – Beyond the Wall of Sleep
What You Get: Twenty page, 1.49 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: When your dreams of roleplaying turn against you

Plot Hook: Rescue the princess, save the Game Master!

Plot Support: Staging advice, six pre-generated Adventurers, five NPCs, one map, and one monster.

Production Values: Plain

Pros

# Winner of the Stars Are Right Scenario Outline Writing Contest

# Involves trauma as a roleplaying mechanism

# Straightforward, classic fantasy set-up

# Oneirophobia

# Rhabdophobia

# Pantophobia

Cons

# Needs an edit

# The Game Master as deus ex machina

# Involves trauma as a roleplaying mechanism

# Investigators do not have the ‘basics’ of fantasy skills for The Dreamlands

# Should the climber have the climb skill?

Conclusion

# Deus ex machina versus deus ex machina

# Interesting concept with underwritten player agency

Miskatonic Monday #383: Split Ticket

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: Split Ticket

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Steven Goodison

Setting: Wales, 2025

Product: Scenario
What You Get: Twenty-two page, 46.95 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: Trên Cannibal i Gymru

Plot Hook: It’s in the blood!

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

Production Values: Cartoonish

Pros

# Easy to run with any type of character

# Straightforward one-shot

# Cannibal Combat in Spaaaaace!

# Kinemortophobia

# Siderodromophobia

# Ososphobia

Cons

# Needs an edit

# No maps

Conclusion

# Expect three weird shifts in tone in an otherwise straightforward one-shot

# Anyone from anywhere, survival horror in the last place you would expect