Five by Five

To date, the third party supplements published for Call of Cthulhu have been scenario or scenario anthologies, but the latest from Super Genius Games is actually a sourcebook. In fact, A Peculiar Pentad is not only a mini sourcebook, but one whose contents can be used not only in the game’s classic period of the 1920s, but also in the 1890s of Cthulhu  by Gaslight and in the 21st century of Cthulhu Now. It is a collection – five in number as the title suggests – of weird establishments. Not so weird that they stand out, but weird enough that the services that these establishments offer are spoken of in hushed tones. That is, if they are known about, for while each outlet outwardly offers a specialised if mundane service, they also offer something more outré. Of course, learning about this outré knowledge or facility will prove to be something of a challenge for the investigators. It is all a matter of gaining the proprietors’ trust, which means that A Peculiar Pentad is anything other than a supplement to take down off the shelf, read, run, and put back on the shelf. Thus, each of the places described in this supplement is intended primarily for campaign use, but that is not the only thing that sets A Peculiar Pentad apart from its ilk. That is the fact that each of the establishments described within its pages has been created and written up by a different author.

The quintet opens with a Call of Cthulhu standby, a rare book dealer. “The Biblioporium” by Thomas M. Reid sells exactly what you would expect, books old and valuable, but it also sells fine stationery. The proprietor, Doctor Alfred Granger, is a true bibliophile and likes to preserve and repair the tomes that pass through his hands. His interest extends into the esoteric and the occult, though this is not something that he likes to advertise. Eventually the investigators will learn of this interest, probably after making inquiries about certain obscure tomes themselves, which if Granger can obtain them, will probably cost the investigators thousands of dollars. Continued custom in this fashion might result in Granger employing the investigators and eventually in finding who he really works with. “The Biblioporium” is one of the more low key establishments described in A Peculiar Pentad and as such will have relatively little impact upon a campaign.

“The Biblioporium” is followed by Jeff Grubb’s “Fixx’s Fixxit,” a veritable cornucopia of mechanical knickknacks and gewgaws owned and run by Simon Fixx, a dwarf with a flair for mechanical repair. Beyond his ability to repair various items, Fixx might be able to sell black market items – including reconditioned weaponry – and just like Doctor Alfred Granger, Fixx has his own fascination, though with the mechanical rather the bibliographical. Given that Fixx is a fine mechanic, it is no surprise that this entry veers just a little into Science Fiction.

The third entry is “Healing Herbs” by Gwendolyn F.M. Kestrel. While most customers will be purchasing culinary ingredients or medicinal remedies, the Chinese and Italian married couple that own “Healing Herbs” are capable of mixing some very interesting concoctions. These are as a result of their combined knowledge of herbs and the Mythos, resulting in elixirs that heal the body and the mind; that provide a defence against certain creatures – such as vampires, werewolves, and zombies; and even replicate the effects of certain Mythos spells. This replication of Mythos spell effects is an interesting idea, but this is tempered by the inclusion of potions that effect non-Mythos creatures. For the Purist Keeper this is likely to be at odds with her game, and the likelihood is that the Keeper will need to prune some of the entries accordingly.

John D. Rateliff’s “Húbert’s Fine Arts” is the penultimate establishment described in A Peculiar Pentad. This art gallery sells and showcases both sculpture and paintings, with a sideline speciality in outré object d’art, including the works of Richard Upton Pickman. “Húbert’s Fine Arts” is even more low key than “The Biblioporium” and suffers for it. In comparison with the other entries the Keeper is given little in the way of advice on how to use “Húbert’s Fine Arts” and he will probably have to work hard to bring it into her game.

The supplement is rounded out with “The Sleipnir Club” by Jeff Quick, a old fashioned European style gentleman’s club. There is almost nothing out of the ordinary about the “The Sleipnir Club,” and if its members know anything more about the occult or cults in the city at large, they do not bring this knowledge or any associated practices to the Club. In fact, technically no-one at the Club knows anything about the occult and that is a problem because one major NPC happens to know an incredible amount about the Mythos. In fact, he knows more Mythos than he has Sanity and more Mythos than he had Sanity to begin with, both near impossible feats for an investigator to achieve and survive. When the improbability of this Mythos-Sanity perfect balance is combined with the NPC’s complete lack of the Occult skill the result is incongruous at best, preposterous at worst. What “The Sleipnir Club” is meant to do is provide a place of rest for the investigators, but it is too quiet and thus too uninteresting.

The supplement comes with decent general advice on using each location, on how the investigators might learn of each establishment; place their custom there, from first time shopper to regular customer and beyond; and eventually, gain the trust of the proprietor in question. All five entries are primarily written for the game’s Classic period of the 1920s, but each comes with advice on how to set the store in either the modern period of Cthulhu Now or in the 1890s of Cthulhu by Gaslight. Lastly, the description of each business is rounded out with several adventure seeds.

In addition to discussing where any one of these businesses might be located, A Peculiar Pentad also provides a single location where all five emporia described can be found together. Continuing the pentamerous nature of the book, this is a cul-de-sac of canting buildings known as Pentagon Place, once the home of the well to do, but now forgotten and ignored by the urban decay beyond its dimly lit recesses... In addition to the businesses described, there is room enough for the Keeper to add others to Pentagon Place, and so make it not just the city’s occult quarter, but also its esoteric quarter too. The exact nature of Pentagon Place is up to the Keeper to decide, whether that be mostly retailers of the esoteric with one or two places run by persons with actual knowledge of the Mythos, or the Mythos equivalent of “Diagon Alley.”

A Peculiar Pentad needs a little editing here and there, but in terms of production, the book is very readable. Unfortunately, in terms of presentation, it suffers from the problem that has blighted previous products from Super Genius Games – a lack of maps. The issue here is that the book presents five different places intended to be used by a Keeper again and again, who will have her investigators visit the place over and over. This makes the book almost a reference work, and if a Keeper is going to be referring to it with any regularity, he will want plans of each building not just for easy reference, but also to help her visualise the inside of each establishment and so convey this information to her players. The lack of maps does anything other than make this easy.

This lack of maps is compounded by the book’s poor handling of its interior art. Only one illustration is given per location, each a black and white reproduction of each establishment’s owner or owners which has been reproduced from Aaron Acevedo’s full colour cover. In colour each piece is dark and moody, but in black and white, they are dark, muddy, and a waste of space – space that of course, could have been devoted instead to providing useful items such as maps.

Despite its cartographic inadequacies – and how often am I going to have keep mentioning such inadequacies when it comes to books from Super Genius Games? – A Peculiar Pentad is actually a decent sourcebook. It tends towards the Pulp in tone, a that tone is understandably uneven given its quintet of authors, but which means that the likelihood is that a Keeper will not find every entry to be to her liking. Certainly one of the entries happens to be preposterous in terms of Call of Cthulhu, let alone in terms of game tone, and it is not unreasonable to suspect that it, like several of the other entries will be modified by a Keeper to fit her campaign. This is no bad thing, as the contents of this supplement are geared towards the Keeper building a world, an aim that is rarely addressed in Call of Cthulhu, but is possible for example, in a Lovecraft Country or Miskatonic University based campaign. Uneven, but still interesting, A Peculiar Pentad is something for the Keeper and her players to invest in if they are to get the fullest out of its pages. 

Red Hook Take III

The scenario as a sequel in Call of Cthulhu to one of H.P. Lovecraft’s stories is nothing new. Many of the early adventures for the game were not surprisingly heavily inspired by Lovecraft’s writings and whole campaigns have been set around or after his stories, such as H.P. Lovecraft’s Dunwich and Beyond the Mountains of Madness – a sequel to At the Mountains of Madness. The latest entry into this small angle of the game is The Cold Case of Robert Suydam. Published by Super Genius Games, its full title should be After Lovecraft: The Horror at Red Hook – The Cold Case of Robert Suydam. This is first in a planned series from the publisher, each scenario to be released as a sequel to one of Lovecraft’s short stories and to include a copy of the appropriate short story itself within the pages of the book, both as inspiration for the Keeper and as a possible clue for the investigators.

The choice of “The Horror at Red Hook” is an odd one though. To begin with, it is not one of Lovecraft’s best, being an urban set tale of horror that unveils the author’s xenophobia whilst never involving the Mythos as we know it. Even Lovecraft was dissatisfied with the story, describing it as being “rather long and rambling, and I don't think it is very good” (H. P. Lovecraft, Selected Letters Vol. 2, p. 20; cited in Joshi and Schultz, p. 114.), while others have been less kind. Further, The Cold Case of Robert Suydam is not the first sequel to “The Horror at Red Hook” as both Chaosium, Inc. and Pelgrane Press have published sequel scenarios to it. “A Restoration of Evil” for Call of Cthulhu appeared bundled with the game’s Keeper’s Screen back in 2000, while “Return to Red Hook” appeared in the recent Arkham Detective Tales for Trail of Cthulhu.

“The Horror at Red Hook” relates the decline of a Brooklyn neighbourhood as it falls under the sway of a vile fertility cult. The cult’s growing power came from the knowledge of one Robert Suydam, a reclusive local medievalist whom the cult enticed into its clutches with promises of youthful vigour. The cult’s activities, in particular, a rash of child abductions did not go unnoticed resulting in an investigation into the cult and the eventual raid upon the cult’s underground basement lair by the authorities. Leading both the investigation and the raid was one Detective Thomas Malone, whose experiences in the basement forced him into retirement far from the towering buildings of New York. It is Detective Malone who relates much of the events of “The Horror at Red Hook.”

The Cold Case of Robert Suydam takes place some ten years after the events of “The Horror at Red Hook,” with the investigators hired by Marlene van Brunt via Detective Malone. As Robert Suydam’s only heir, she wants the investigators to trace the re-appearance of a book that was part of her uncle’s library and is about to go to auction. Not only that, Mrs van Brunt also wants them to see if the same source has other items that once belonged to her uncle and that she rightly believes to be hers. Tracing the source of the book, a copy of The Golden Bough, takes the investigators from the auction house to a pawnbrokers to a colourful vagrant living on Brooklyn’s docks. So far, so straightforward, but from here on in, things take a turn for the odd – in several ways...

Odd in that tracing the vagrant’s activities the investigators are lead back into the Red Hook district where they discover a band of depraved cannibal cultists, which in keeping with Lovecraft’s own attitudes are vile foreigners. Odd in that the investigators will soon realise that they are being monitored – by children. These children are cunning, if not clever, and the Keeper should have some fun in portraying the frustrating tricks that they will play against the investigators. Eventually though, if the scenario is to progress, the investigators will have to capture one of these urchins and interrogate him. If not a morally questionable manoeuvre, then interrogating a child is at least tasteless one and really, the author should have given another option for the investigators as well as suggesting the Sanity loss for such an action.

From the child, the investigators will learn that they take their instructions from a wonderfully smart and pretty girl, an orphan called Ellen. In confronting this angelic creature, they will also learn that not only are the children under her thrall, but so are a growing handful of adults, all of whom will do anything to protect their beloved charge. Acting against this “Orphan anti-Annie” will prove to be a great challenge to the investigators and essentially the wisest course of action is to watch and observe rather than act rashly. In doing so they will discover what Ellen is up to in the cellars and caverns below Red Hook... Stopping her is another matter entirely.

Despite the opening pages of The Cold Case of Robert Suydam explaining everything in almost laborious detail, the set up for the scenario is essentially left up to the Keeper to determine. It suggests that the investigators speak to Detective Malone after having read his manuscript, that is, The Horror at Red Hook; or alternatively, that the Keeper create an occult researcher who interviewed Malone and acts as a patrons of sorts for the investigators, directing them towards possible occult occurrences ripe for examination. It possible that this researcher be H.P. Lovecraft himself! Either way, the scenario assumes that the players will have read “The Horror at Red Hook” prior to, or shortly after, beginning play. While leaving the scenario’s beginning up to the Keeper to decide means that he is free to fit The Cold Case of Robert Suydam into his campaign however he wants, it also means that he has to make an extra effort in creating elements that could just have been provided by the author. Plus it leaves the scenario’s beginning as given as being weak and underwritten.

As with other Call of Cthulhu titles published by Super Genius Games, The Cold Case of Robert Suydam comes with its own set of pre-generated investigators. The four given consist of an English occultist/remittance man and his ex-boxer bodyguard; and a confidence trickster and his ex-boxer bodyguard. Each of the characters possesses the Cthulhu Mythos skill, unnecessarily so not only because these are starting characters and no starting character should ever have the skill, but also because no reason is given for these characters to possess such knowledge. All right so one investigator is a student of the occult, but this does not make him a student of the Mythos. Further it is absurd that such a character should have a Cthulhu Mythos skill of 15%, especially given that his Sanity is higher than its starting base. On the whole the members of investigative quartet manage to be excessively pulpy in nature and utterly dull to a caricature one and all. Which is no mean feat!

Physically, The Cold Case of Robert Suydam comes as a digest sized book with a reasonable layout and art that fails to impress. What lets the scenario down is its lack of maps. It has become a consistent problem with titles from Super Genius Games and by not including any maps, the publisher commits a fundamental error. The task of any piece of RPG writing is not just to impart the imagination of the author to the GM or Keeper, but also to help said GM or Keeper impart this imagination again to his players. The lack of maps gets in the way of this task and fundamentally makes the scenario just that little more difficult to run. It is not as if the book lacks space for the inclusion of these much-needed maps. After all, they could easily replace the art with the dual effect that (a), no one at large would have been any the wiser and (b), the scenario would have been made all the better and all the easier to run.

Oddly, the back cover blurb claims that The Cold Case of Robert Suydam “...[I]s the latest in the innovative line officially licensed Call of Cthulhu scenarios and supplements from Super Genius Games.” If The Cold Case of Robert Suydam is innovative at all, it is that it includes a copy of the text it is based upon within its pages. Yet if you consider that the text of At the Mountains of Madness was included in The Antarktos Cycle, a companion volume to be used as a Mythos tome when playing Beyond the Mountains of Madness, then the publisher’s claim that it is innovative is either nothing more than hyperbole or wilful ignorance of the game’s history. I like to think that it is more a case of the former than the latter.

The greatest weaknesses of The Cold Case of Robert Suydam are twofold. The first is that it is a very linear scenario, offering little in the way of flexibility in terms of player action. The second is worse, and that is unevenness in tone. The problem is that in parts the scenario is very pulpy in tone, in particular any scene involving the cannibal cultists and the lacklustre pre-generated investigators. Now, the source for the scenario, The Horror at Red Hook, is pulpy enough in style, but the scenario just over does this style and in doing so, is at odds with the tone elsewhere, in the investigations with regard to the enthralled children of Red Hook. Such scenes have the potential to be very creepy and while there is advice to that end, the scenario would be a more effective piece if the tone set by such advice had been applied throughout.

As the first entry in the “After Lovecraft” series, The Cold Case of Robert Suydam is an underwhelming affair. While the dreadful pre-generated investigators can be overlooked, the scenario’s  underwritten beginning, uneven tone, linear nature, and cartographic inadequacies do what deserves to be a creepy affair a great disservice, and so cannot be ignored. Though there is nothing to stop a Keeper from running this scenario as is, the likelihood being that he will get one or two sessions out of the scenario, After Lovecraft: The Horror at Red Hook – The Cold Case of Robert Suydam is not a scenario that I would recommend for that purpose. It is better suited to adjustment and crafting into something more suited to a Keeper’s own campaign.