Private Dining by Hayley P is a role playing game supplement published by Chaosium Inc. via 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.
The supplement is available as a 16 page Pay What You Want PDF from DriveThruRPG. One page is the front cover and about a third the front matter and Contents.
Overview explains it’s July 1926 and the investigators are invited to the reopening of an upmarket restaurant in New York’s Upper West Side which has been closed for 8 months. The scenario is intended to be a one shot playable in around four hours. This section also explains that thanks to the restauranteur, Ray Carrick, cutting corners, a fungus got into the place during the remodelling, which starts infecting people and eventually getting out onto the street and attracting attention.
Investigators looks at useful skills and explains that the adventure comes with four pregenerated characters with reasons to be attending.
Dramatis Personae described the main NPCs, including the fungus.
Carrick’s describes the exterior and interior of the restaurant and clues that could be found.
Running the Scenario has an overview, followed by the sequence of events during the meal as things get out of hand, finally finishing with the epilogue.
NPC Stat Blocks has stats for the various NPCs and foes.
Following this are two pages of simple maps of the inside and outside of the restaurant, two more pages of handouts and the final four pages being the pre-generated characters.
Private Dining in Review
The PDF is bookmarked with the various sections and subsections linked. The Contents is to less depth. Navigation is good. The text maintains a two-column format and appeared to be free of errors. Bar the maps and handouts, there are no illustrations. Presentation is okay.
The way this is set up means that it is intended to be a one-shot, and is also somewhat linear, with events happening to follow the courses, though savvy investigators may figure things out faster and bring things to an end quicker. Though it is set in 1926, as a one-shot in New York City, with varying degrees of effort, these things can be changed. The year is the least important and it could be put into other towns where a restaurant could be found. Other reasons for investigators to attend would be needed if the pre-generated characters aren’t used, but overall, the scenario probably has more flexibility than it appears to have. Private Dining can be found by clicking here.
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