Alpaca in the Sheep Field by John Hall is a role playing game supplement published by Chaosium Inc. through the Miskatonic Repository Community Content Programme for use with Call of Cthulhu, the horror role playing game based on the works of H.P. Lovecraft. This is a modern-day scenario.
The supplement is available as a 13 page Pay What You Want PDF from DriveThruRPG. One page is the front cover (designed something like a newspaper page), one the front matter and one the Table of Contents.
The opening paragraph explains that the investigators are reporters visiting a remote island of Scotland after a man is murdered.
Keeper Information gives some Background on the island and the creature that believes it’s the island’s protector. This is followed by a Synopsis of the adventure, the Timeline, the Dramatis Personae and details on the murdered man (a former drug mule, but his background seems to have little relevance) and the creature.
Investigators explains that pre-generated characters are provided. This is followed by Locations which gives major sites of interest and what can be discovered; the alpaca is one that the farmer on whose land the body was found has purchased to protect his sheep.
The Hunt has what happens when the creature starts hunting them.
Epilogue asks how the characters move forward, especially as they may be implicated in a murder.
NPC List has stats for several people they interact with.
Finally, the last four pages are the pre-generated characters.
Alpaca in the Sheep Field in Review
The PDF lacks bookmarks and is long enough that these would have been appreciated. The Table of Contents is to a decent level of depth. Navigation could be better. The text maintains a two-column format and appeared to be mostly free of error. Bar some photos for the front cover and portraits for the pre-generated characters there are no illustrations. Presentation is okay.
The adventure does seem to have one fundamental problem with it; the investigators appear to be irrelevant. Death, failure and madness are all acceptable for Call of Cthulhu; irrelevance is not. If the investigators don’t show up on the island, another murder happens and those responsible for the creature show up and remove it and any sign of their presence. If the characters do show up, all of this still happens, but the investigators may also be killed and/or implicated in a murder. Their actions do not appear to alter the outcome, positively or negatively (apart from the fact that they could end up with problems), in the slightest. Alpaca in the Sheep Field is a scenario that seems like it could do with more work and it can be found by clicking here.
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