A Review of the Role Playing Game Supplement Cthulhu Classics

Cthulhu Classics is a role playing game supplement by a variety of different authors published by Chaosium Inc. for use with the horror role playing game based on the works of H. P. Lovecraft, Call of Cthulhu. This book contains the campaign Shadows of Yog-Sothoth as well five short scenarios. The campaign and adventures are set in a variety of different locations during the 1920s.

The supplement was originally available as a softbound printed book, and Cthulhu Classics can still be found in the original paperback, which is the version reviewed, on Amazon, but it is not otherwise available. The main campaign, Shadows of Yog-Sothoth, can be purchased in a revised and expanded edition as a watermarked PDF from DriveThruRPG for $13.17, together with two bonus scenarios, although neither of these are ones from Cthulhu Classics.

A scan of the cover of the perfect bound Cthulhu Classics book

The softcover book has 152 pages, excluding the colour plates. Two pages are the front matter and one the Contents. A the rear of the book is a full page map of the railways in the north-eastern United States around 1920, followed by a full page black and white illustration of Great Cthulhu. This is followed by a full page on Using the Handouts Section with the remained of the book being the actual player handouts. These are double sided and are for the various scenarios and adventures in the book.

Shadows of Yog-Sothoth is by far the longest scenario, at around 58 pages in length. This is a seven chapter campaign aimed at stopping the plots of a global secret society who, with the aid of Nyarlathotep, are planning to raise R’lyeh, the submerged city where the Great Old One Cthulhu lies sleeping, from the depths of the Pacific Ocean. It starts out in Boston, then goes to New York, Scotland, the Mojave Desert, Maine, Easter Island and finally R’lyeh itself. As is common with Call of Cthulhu campaigns, this is one that is potentially very fatal for the investigators, as they go up against various destructive entities. One non-player character in this campaign also appears in Masks of Nyarlathotep – even if they apparently die.

The Warren sees the players visiting a house in the Boston area occupied by a family that has degenerated through foul magic and inbreeding, and now mostly lives as creatures of their own, new, race in catacombs below their former residence.

In The Pits of Bendal-Dolum, the players are approached by Dr. Henry Armstrong of Miskatonic University who wants them to accompany an expedition heading to British Honduras (now Belize) in Central America, to discover what happened to a previous expedition. Ancient temples are found, and there is an excursion to the Dreamlands (which could be a bit tricky without access to a Dreamlands supplement if the players get creative).

The perfect bound Cthulhu Classics

The Temple of the Moon is set in South America, in Peru, where an archaeological expedition has discovered a tablet connected to a cult of natives who worship Mi-Go. Two opposing forces, as well as the natives, want the tablet for their own ends, which are purely monetary.

Dark Carnival is set near Providence, Rhode Island, and features that horror staple, the carnival. This is a carnival that is still running, but there have been various disappearances from around the area over the years, and the players investigate.

The final adventure, The Secret of Castronegro, sees the players investigate disappearances connected to the New Mexico town of Castronegro, which is dominated by a centuries old sorcerer and his family.

Cthulhu Classics in Review

The Contents is middling in its utility for a Call of Cthulhu supplement. It has the major sections, and the chapter pages for Shadows, but also has various illustrations, maps and plans indexed. Further detail of some of the other important sections would have been better.

Inside the perfect bound Cthulhu Classics

The supplement has full colour front and back covers and, rather unusually for the period in which it was published, eight full page full colour plates. Five of these plates are for Shadows of Yog-Sothoth, two for The Temple of the Moon and one for Dark Carnival. The rest of the illustrations are all in black and white, and range from small parts to, occasionally, full page in size. The illustrations are largely relevant to the associated text, and the maps mostly have a hand drawn appearance – the primary exception being those that seem to be, or be based on, actual period maps.

There are occasional errors and typos in the text. The number vary from chapter to chapter, and do tend to give the impression that each separate scenario was checked by someone different. One persistent problem through the book is that there are sections were blocks of complete lines, in differing numbers of lines, are done in what looks to be bold type for no reason.

Shadows of Yog-Sothoth was the first supplement for the Call of Cthulhu game, and in some ways it is one of the most primitive, as it tries to cover as many aspects of Lovecraft’s work as possible. The conspiracy in which an Outer God tries to raise a Great Old One does seem rather odd. There are also some strong plot influences from Lovecraft’s books which can be found in several of the scenarios. The supplement also has a selection of new spells, minor Mythos tomes and creatures to encounter, as is common in most supplements for the game.

There were many other world-spanning campaigns that were published after Shadows, and many of these later campaigns bear some similarities in how this one is set up. Shadows would seem to have had a lasting influence in how major campaigns for the game are constructed. Shadows is especially lethal, not that Call of Cthulhu scenarios are known for their survivability, as is appropriate for a campaign with suitably world-shattering effects.

Cthulhu Classics is worth picking up for the selection of adventures contained, although the revised version of Shadows of Yog-Sothoth, given how much has been done to revise and fix the scenario, would probably be a better version of that campaign to buy.