A Review of the Role Playing Game Supplement The Knife

The Knife by Michael LaBossiere is a role playing game supplement published by Chaosium Inc under their Miskatonic Repository Community Content Program. This is a scenario for use with Call of Cthulhu, the horror role playing game system based on the works of H.P. Lovecraft. This is a modern day scenario that has been updated from one published in 1992.

This is a seven page PDF that is available as a Pay What You Want supplement from RPGNow. One page is the front cover, one the front matter, one the Contents and around half a page is About the Author.

The brief Introduction states that the adventure could be adapted to the 1920s or other time settings and that it can be set in any city or town with a university. The Keeper’s Background explains how a joint U.S.-Mexico operation focused on a drug cartel discovered some unknown Aztec ruins. One of the professors who went to investigate the ruins was influenced by a sacrificial knife, and has started killing.

Getting the Investigators Involved suggests how they might hear about the case, with the possibility of the murders, occurring at the rate of one a day, happen in the background to start with.

Player’s Information is the various pieces of information that the investigators might find and where it can be found.

Action is on finding the killer, and the copycat who is now operating as well.

Resolution is on ending the adventure.

The Knife covers the sacrificial knife itself, giving its history and that it is linked to a Mythos being.

Finally, NPCS has stats on the two killers.

The Knife in Review

The PDF is bookmarked, with the various major and minor sections linked. The Contents is to a similar level of detail and is also hyperlinked. Navigation is very good for a short supplement. The text maintains a two column format and a couple of minor errors were noticed. Bar the stock photo on the cover, there are no illustrations. Presentation is adequate.

The Knife is an interesting adventure that could be run in conjunction with another campaign, and perhaps could be running in the background to start with as well. The killings could be located pretty much anywhere; the possessed professor need not have come from the U.S. The section on finding the killers is a bit lacking in adequate detail; a Keeper should flesh this out a bit. Furthermore, the adventure itself could also be expanded, by creating the actual ruins that were discovered.

The Knife is a decent enough short scenario that can be slotted into an existing campaign and it can be checked out first for free by clicking here.