The Hounds of Salem by Anthony L. Wolf 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 supplement based on the works of H.P. Lovecraft. This is an early 1920s scenario.
The supplement is available as a 53 page Pay What You Want PDF from DriveThruRPG. One page is the front cover, one is, probably, the back cover, three are the front matter, one the Table of Contents and five are blank. There is also a docx version which lacks the backgrounds, most of the images and is generally simplified. There are three versions of a battlemap, two of which are jpgs, one designed for digital use, one for print, and the third being a vtt file. Three pngs have handouts and a zip file has the pre-generated characters.
The Introduction explains that the adventure takes place in 1923 between Arkham and Salem. Background gives details of how some tomes of forbidden lore ended up in Salem and how they were put to use by a person years later in a misguided quest for eternal youth.
Involving the Investigators recommends that students and professors from Miskatonic University may make the best investigators, followed by officers of the law, archaeologists and journalists. Social and research skills are more important than combat. Some sort of connection with the senior professor looking for some missing books is required. Dramatis Personae has the main NPCs, followed by the investigators’ introduction, where they are told some books have gone missing from the Orne Library.
Part 1: Arkham has the investigators asking around campus and at the library, in the process of which they should gain enough information to head to Salem.
Part 2: Salem has the investigators continuing their investigation in that city.
Part 3: Final Showdown is the final confrontation between the investigators and their foe; this is the location depicted in the aforementioned battlemap.
Appendix A: Characters & Monsters has the details for the relevant NPCs and a new creature.
Appendix B: Pre-Generated Characters has story details for four investigators.
Eight pages then have the character sheets for these investigators followed by a single page of handouts.
The Hounds of Salem in Review
The PDF is bookmarked to a reasonable level of depth and the Table of Contents is to a similar level and is hyperlinked. Navigation is decent. The text, mostly, maintains a two-column format, but in a couple of places goes to single column, perhaps because those places only cover part of a page, and some minor errors were noticed. There are a couple of colour stock illustrations and the custom maps and handouts. Presentation is decent.
This is a decent little adventure that would perhaps work best as part of a Miskatonic University campaign, and certainly one set in Arkham. The only potential problem might be that it is set a bit earlier than most 1920s material, being at the beginning of the 1920s, not the usual end. This might be because the Great Salem fire of 1914 is referenced; leaving it too long after that period would perhaps have meant the fire was no longer relevant. A separate, free, map pack has a map of the house in Salem, which can also be used for other things. The Hounds of Salem is a decent little scenario and it can be found by clicking here.
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