The Haunter by Joshua S. Vallejo 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 1920s scenario.
The supplement is available as a 27 page Pay What You Want PDF from DriveThruRPG. One page is the front cover, one the front matter and one the Table of Contents.
Keeper Information starts by explaining that this is a sequel to the introductory adventure, The Haunting, available in the quickstart rules, and to another supplement written as a sequel to that, available from the Miskatonic Repository also, originally called The Haunted but now called Of Wrath and Blood and it’s recommended to run those two scenarios before this, especially as it’s sometimes necessary to reference that. The author wrote this as a sequel after their players failed to succeed in The Haunted, but it can be run no matter what the outcome. The adventure has two distinct parts to it and should be modified by the Keeper as needed.
Player Information explains the assumptions made, number of investigators and time to play. Which doesn’t seem like player information.
Colonial Cove: covers the neighbourhood in question and a number of important locations, including those where clues can be found.
Downtown Baltimore: has an overview of this area, important locations, relevant NPCs as well as clues to find and some items that can be bought. More locations are covered than in the previous section.
The Chapel of Contemplation: is the place that the investigators were trying to find based on their clues. This is the second part of the scenario, being referred to as more of a dungeon crawl, and it’s where the scenario will conclude.
Conclusion: wraps things up, covers what may happen depending on what did happen and deals out rewards. It also details any artefacts and tomes found during the adventure.
Statblocks: has stats for the various relevant NPCs and creatures.
Player Handouts: has the relevant handouts.
The final page of content has a map of the Chapel of Contemplation.
The Haunter in Review
The PDF lacks bookmarks and is long enough with enough different sections that these would have been useful. The Table of Contents is thorough. Navigation could be better. The text maintains a two-column format and appeared to be free of errors. As well as the map, there are a variety of colour and black and white stock illustrations. Presentation is decent.
Though this adventure is intended to be playable without having played the previous two, and it effectively is, there are various unavoidable references to things from the two adventures it follows that really it is better suited to being played as a sequel, rather than on its own, as it works far better as a sequel than as a standalone. Some tweaks will probably need to be made.
There are indeed two different parts to the adventure, one being the investigatory, sandbox part, the other being exploring the Chapel of Contemplation and dealing with any foes in it. The second part is therefore more combat heavy than the first. The Haunter can be found by clicking here.
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