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Call of Cthulhu RPG
Canis Mysterium: A Scenario with Bite
Constable Clark of Coldwater Falls, was desperate for attention. He'd been in touch with every sanatorium and hospital from New York to Boston and there's not an empty bed to be found since the stock market crash of last year. They're full to brimming with suicidal businessmen and investors. He is holding a man in his jail exhibiting some rather extraordinary behaviors. The delusion is complete and total--he walks on all fours and he won't speak a word. They say he even eats out of a bowl and refuses utensils! Not a shred of human behavior left in him. The man attacked a young girl before he was discovered. He was found...well...gnawing on part of her leg! Canis Mysterium is an adventure scenario for the Call of Cthulhu roleplaying system, designed to be played in one or more gaming sessions. This scenario is suitable as an introduction to a new campaign or can easily be worked into an established storyline. As written, this adventure is set in and near Arkham of October of 1930, making Chaosium's H.P. Lovecraft's Arkham supplement particularly helpful.
Several scenario seeds are offered to keepers who wish to expand and continue the events in this adventure, perhaps giving birth to a new campaign or providing handy subplot sessions to pre-existing campaigns.
Several scenario seeds are offered to keepers who wish to expand and continue the events in this adventure, perhaps giving birth to a new campaign or providing handy subplot sessions to pre-existing campaigns.
- GenresRole Playing Games
32 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 2013
10 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
June 21, 2016
A short but engaging scenario for Call of Cthulhu, featuring an underutilized villain.
February 7, 2019
A nasty little adventure, graveyards, werewolves, and ghouls, oh my. This has some excellent plot seeds for further quests, with lots of promise of madness and doom. Chaosium never fails to impress. Check it out.
February 4, 2017
Can be interesting, if done well. Perhaps a bit railrody.
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April 4, 2023How? Part of my 7th edition Call of Cthulhu phase... which is slowing down a little as I've read most of it and liked about half of it, let's say.
What? A 32-page adventure written and published in the waning days of 6th edition (as near as I can tell), which shows mostly in it being... done in a different style. I can never remember when Chaosium was going bankrupt/changing hands, but that's what I first thought when looking at the odd black-and-white illustrations and layout.
As for the adventure: the PCs are called in to investigate a man who thinks he's a werewolf, but who turns out to just be insane because his one friend is friends with a ghoul.
Yeah, so? Maybe you can already tell, but I'm real cool on this adventure. I almost like how odd the art is, how cartoonish the character illustrations are, but the story falls into some of the classic Call of Cthulhu problems, like: long backstory for a character that probably won't ever come up. (Also, another problem with horror adventures, there's a lot of stuff here in the backstory that might make you feel icky, like an adult hitting on a teen or violence against animals.) Also, like many CoC adventures, it's a sandbox for the players to explore and track the real monster (since werewolf guy is already in custody), but there's no map, and the sandbox is a little small. That, plus the smallness of the climactic battle -- a fight with one ghoul, one madman, and three dogs -- makes this feel narrow, but not exactly focused.
I do think the inciting incident is interesting: being called in to investigate a madman isn't new for Cthulhu, but it's interesting that he seems like he might be the villain when he's a victim too.
What? A 32-page adventure written and published in the waning days of 6th edition (as near as I can tell), which shows mostly in it being... done in a different style. I can never remember when Chaosium was going bankrupt/changing hands, but that's what I first thought when looking at the odd black-and-white illustrations and layout.
As for the adventure: the PCs are called in to investigate a man who thinks he's a werewolf, but who turns out to just be insane because his one friend is friends with a ghoul.
Yeah, so? Maybe you can already tell, but I'm real cool on this adventure. I almost like how odd the art is, how cartoonish the character illustrations are, but the story falls into some of the classic Call of Cthulhu problems, like: long backstory for a character that probably won't ever come up. (Also, another problem with horror adventures, there's a lot of stuff here in the backstory that might make you feel icky, like an adult hitting on a teen or violence against animals.) Also, like many CoC adventures, it's a sandbox for the players to explore and track the real monster (since werewolf guy is already in custody), but there's no map, and the sandbox is a little small. That, plus the smallness of the climactic battle -- a fight with one ghoul, one madman, and three dogs -- makes this feel narrow, but not exactly focused.
I do think the inciting incident is interesting: being called in to investigate a madman isn't new for Cthulhu, but it's interesting that he seems like he might be the villain when he's a victim too.
July 4, 2024
A solid, intriguing premise let down by a lack of substance, very linear plot, and substandard artwork. There’s definitely some good material here to be mined, but it’ll take a bit of work to turn it into something properly involving, although I suppose it might make an okay scenario for first-time players.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews