The Reunion by Esko Evtyukov is a role playing game supplement 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 scenario for the 1920s setting.
The supplement is available as a 20 page Pay What You Want PDF from DriveThruRPG. One page is the front cover, one the Credits and Introduction and one the Table of Contents.
The Introduction explains that the adventure is set in 1929 and the investigators are working for the FBI’s Abnormal Investigations Division.
Setting Background explains that the Abnormal Investigations Division was created in the aftermath of the Innsmouth raid. There are notes as to what professions are recommended for AID agents; Federal Agent, Police Officer and Military Officer are most recommended but AID agents can be others who have had Mythos contact. They will have some Cthulhu Mythos knowledge to start with. There are also notes on playing AID agents.
Executive Summary explains that one member of a couple was abducted by the Mi-Go a decade before the start and the survivor, now mad from his investigations, is working for the Mi-Go.
Plot Background covers the Mi-Go, their lab in the Miskatonic Valley and the now-mad survivor and his children.
The Present Day explains the Mi-Go plot and gives more details on the family.
The adventure then works as an investigation in four acts. The agents are first briefed about the survivor, who is known to have got a copy of an English translation of Unspeakable Cults. They are to investigate, arrest him and take the book. The investigators will head to Boston and Arkham, looking to speak to the now-adult children before finally heading for the Mi-Go lab.
There are four appendices covering NPCs, spells, Mythos tomes, timeline of events and a single handout for players.
The Reunion in Review
The PDF is well bookmarked with major and minor sections linked. The Table of Contents is to a similar level of depth and is also hyperlinked. Navigation is excellent. The text maintains a two-column format and some errors were spotted, mostly grammatical or awkward English but in a couple of places a name (ironically, that of one of the proof readers) had been inserted in the middle of a word. There are also some factual errors; the FBI, which the investigators are intended to work for, did not exist at the time of the scenario (a precursor organisation, the Bureau of Investigation, did, so that can be used instead) nor did social security numbers. There are a number of illustrations, all of which appear to be custom. Presentation is good.
This is short scenario that is intended to be played over the course of a couple of sessions. For once, the characters will have the force of the federal government behind them; the scenario, as some other Lovecraftian games do, assumes that the government would have started to take official notice after the Innsmouth raid, even if the department is considered a joke by most. None of the problems really detract from what is a nice, and well presented, little scenario, especially as it’s Pay What You Want. The Reunion can be found by clicking here.
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