Blood Brothers is a supplement published by Chaosium Inc. for their Call of Cthulhu horror role playing game based on the works of H. P. Lovecraft. Although the role playing game in general is based on the works of Lovecraft, and other writers in the Cthulhu Mythos, this supplement in particular is not. Instead, it is a collection of adventures inspired by traditional horror movies (and often by B-movies), and there is absolutely no reference to the Cthulhu Mythos at all (despite the cover). This is a collection of 13 different completely unconnected adventures set in various different places. The supplement also does not stick to one particular era; instead the scenarios cover a variety of different eras, and some of them have very specific dates. In addition, they don’t correspond with the three main eras of Call of Cthulhu, which are the primary era of the 1920s, the 1890s Victorian era and the era of Cthulhu Now – the modern setting whose precise period varies depending on when the supplement was written, but which tends to be 1990s or later (there are a number of other time periods also covered by the game, but these were published after this supplement).
The book was originally available as a perfect bound softcover, and copies of this can still be found from places such as Amazon. It is also available as a watermarked PDF at $10.42 from RPGNow. The softcover book has 144 numbered pages, which includes the handouts. There are four pages of front matter, which includes the Contents, a one page Introduction and eight pages of single-sided player handouts. The Introduction states that the time periods covered from the 1920s to the 1980s and beyond, and correspond, generally, to the era of the films which inspired each scenario. There are also some optional rules on sanity and 3D (the latter apparently being a basic part of the 1950s B movies), as well as game stats for Bud Abbott and Lou Costello and cinematic weapons – like the ever-popular chainsaw.
Uncle Timothy’s Will is set in Vermont on April 23rd 1928, and the investigators are heading to a house to hear the reading of the last will and testament of their wealthy, and recently deceased, Uncle Timothy. Their uncle is not as dead as it could be, and he actually plans to become immortal. The inspiration for this adventure are films about haunted houses and ghostly places.
Oath of Blood is set in New York City around 1929, where the players are members of on organised crime syndicate. They are sent to deal with a rival organisation that is muscling its way into their territory from overseas. The new organisation is run by vampires.
Nemesis Strikes! is set in New York City in the 1920s. A theatrical madmen – of the Phantom of the Opera type – is running around killing various people he blames for his disfigurement and the death of a woman he loved. The players have to stop him.
The Land That Time Ignored is set in 1932 in Brazil. The players are heading into a valley which has been left unsullied for millions of years, and is still occupied by dinosaurs and primitive tribes. As is common in these types of film, this ends with an erupting volcano.
The Mummy’s Bride is set in Egypt in 1935, where the players head to a dig site that has just unearthed a major, previously unknown, tomb. The tomb is occupied by a mummy; the inspiration is, of course, the various Mummy films.
The Dollmaker is set in London in 1938, just before the outbreak of World War II. The players are music hall types, and they discover a plot by an otherworldly intelligence that is using evil dolls to try and rebuild itself.
Ancient Midget Nazi Shamans begins during World War II in the Ardennes Forest in 1944, where a, presumed experimented upon, child is discovered at an SS research facility. The plot then moves to a suburb of Chicago in 1947, at Thanksgiving, as the “human” child is actually the last survivor of an alternate species of hominids that wishes to brings his race back to life using magic. This adventure is inspired by Gremlins and other such films.
Honeymoon in Hell is set in the Florida Everglades in the late 1940s, where a mad scientist is trying to perfect a new serum for the good of mankind. Of course, he needs people to experiment upon, and some of his formula has also gotten into the local wildlife.
Dead on Arrival is set in fall 1982 where the players arrive in a small farming town in the U.S. to find that it has been taken over by zombie hordes. They have to try and survive the zombies and flee the town.
The Swarming is set in the fall of 1981 in a town on the southern shore of Lake Superior, where a clan of werewolves has set up shop and plans to expand outwards.
Spawn of the Deep is set in a sea coast metropolis in the early 1980s, where fish people – who are not Deep Ones, despite any similarities – and their human accomplice are harvesting human females to bear their young.
Trick or Treat is set on October 31st – Halloween – in the mid to late 1980s in New York state, where a scarecrow has been possessed by the spirit of a druid and is going on a killing spree. This is inspired by films about evil druids, Satanists and demons.
Horror Planet is actually set some time in the not-too-distant future. It starts off in an unnamed city, or the remnants of one, on the east coast of the United States, before moving to an alien spaceship, then an alien world full of alien monsters. This is naturally inspired by various alien invasion and encounter films, especially those where the aliens are really nasty, such as Alien.
Blood Brothers in Review
The Contents is typical for a Call of Cthulhu supplement of the period; it only covers the major sections, and not the subsections, making it less useful than it could be. The book has full colour front and back covers, with the interior images and maps all in black and white. The interior illustrations range up to full page and size, and tend to be relevant to the surrounding text. The maps have an appearance that makes them look hand drawn. There are quite a few spelling and grammatical errors in the text, including some areas where words look to be missing.
The supplement has new spells, skills and monsters but, because this isn’t a collection of Mythos adventures, no new Mythos tomes to find. Each scenario has a box containing a selection of films relevant to the particular adventure, which does make interesting reading, and there is background on the types of monsters encountered. However, despite the length of the book, because there are 13 different adventures, much of the content is taken up by supporting material.
Each adventure is short and is intended to be played as a one-night one-shot adventure, using the pre-generated characters. Players are recommended to use the pre-gens, rather than their own, although this does make the SAN rewards at the end of the scenarios seem a bit pointless, as they will probably never use the characters again. With each adventure having its own pre-generated characters, as well as the non-player characters, there are an awful lot of character stats in the supplement – well over a hundred. This means that a lot of space is taken up by stats.
As can be seen by the chainsaw-wielding Great Cthulhu on the front of the book (and who bears a more than passing resemblance to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre‘s Leatherface), this isn’t a collection intended to be taken that seriously, although it isn’t necessarily light-hearted (in one scenario, no matter what, all the characters die). As such, it may not be to everyone’s tastes. These are also definitely not long adventures. Even if the reader doesn’t want to play non-Mythos adventures, they could always be reworked into more traditional adventures, or used as jumping-off points for such (the latter is suggested). However, this will require quite a bit of work. Blood Brothers was successful enough to spawn a sequel, just like many of the films mentioned, but it’s best use is as a collection of one-shot adventures, and not everyone will want to play them.
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