Madness at Miskatonic: Revised and updated!

Thanks to the kind work of Joe Adams, Madness and Miskatonic has been proofed by a fresh set of eyes. I have updated it accordingly:

Madness at Miskatonic: US Letter (Revised) 11.2 MB PDF

Madness at Miskatonic: US letter with A4 Cover (Revised) 11.2 MB PDF

Madness at Miskatonic: US Letter Version 3 (8.1MB)

Madness at Miskatonic with A4 cover Version 3 (8.3MB)

Joe was kind enough to contact me about a few continuity issues via the Yog-Sothoth forums which then evolved into his offering to proof the whole document. Thanks Joe! It never ceases to amaze me the sense of community out there particularly when it comes to Call of Cthulhu and H.P. Lovecraft in general. Yog-Sothoth is particularly active in fostering this camaraderie. Thanks to the Yoggie forums over 12o copies of the Madness at Miskatonic PDF have already been downloaded in the past week alone!

Madness at Miskatonic: a Call of Cthulhu mini-campaign

Well this one got away from me. I had hoped putting together my notes and handouts from a mini-campaign I recently ran would be a straightforward exercise. Turns out I’d seriously underestimated the amount of work involved. Never-the-less, it’s finally complete!

In this four-part Call of Cthulhu campaign the investigators enrol in an esoteric subject taught by a radical academic at Miskatonic University. Meanwhile strange dealings align for the worse as fellow classmates commit suicide, a madman escapes Arkham Sanatorium and a curious exhibit of Egyptian artifacts goes on display in the University library. These dire events culminate in the Investigator’s growing realisation of man’s fragile role in the universe as they do battle with unseen powers that seek to seize control of their minds. If they cannot prevail they will be slain, driven mad or worse!

Madness at Miskatonic is 49 pages long with over 24 handouts/play aids. It comes in two formats:

Madness at Miskatonic: US Letter Version 3 (8.1MB)

Madness at Miskatonic with A4 cover Version 3 (8.3MB)

*(After typesetting to US Letter I didn’t have the strength to go back in and completely re-typeset in A4. This A4 Cover version will print out fine, the separately scaled cover is provided to avoid any strange cropping that would arise on A4 paper with the US Letter format).

Madness at Miskatonic Teaser

Of course I’ve bitten off more than I can chew. Putting together this mini-campaign for public consumption is taking a little longer than expected (no surprises there, I guess). What has been an important part of the process for me is balancing my desire to produce a user-friendly document with avoiding lengthy tracts of text that ramble on and on about the minutiae of each session. I want something that is part tool kit part “colouring book” providing just enough scope for Keepers to fill in the details based around their own idiosyncrasies. But enough of the griping.

For the time being here are some sample PDF pages from the final Madness at Miskatonic document:

Campaign Introduction example PDF

Non-player characters example PDF

Session One flow chart example PDF

Arkham Advertiser Editable PDF

At the start of each session of my Call of Cthulhu campaign, I have been giving the players a the front page from latest issue the Arkham Advertiser. I’ve used ‘newspapers’ before to help dispense a few clues, establish the date of the session and evoke a bit of atmosphere. For you to download and use editable PDFs as well as a few other useful resources and links that might come in handy for others setting their Cthulhu sessions in 1920’s Arkham…

Trapped by Cliché at Miskatonic University!

I found myself largely pleased but a little troubled from Sunday night’s Call of Cthulhu session. For a one shot adventure it went pretty well —it started in media res with our three player characters Viktor, Simon and Violet all attending the Thaw Ball at Miskatonic U in the first week of the Winter-Spring semester.

Map of Miskatonic Univerisity

A map for freshmen  and visitors to Miskatonic University, Arkham. It shows the key buildings and street names. I produced in black and white as a period play aid for my Call of Cthulhu campaign.