Thicker Than Blood by Jack Currie 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.
The supplement is available as a 34 page Pay What You Want PDF from DriveThruRPG. One page is the front cover, one the front matter and one the table of contents.
The Introduction explains that the scenario takes place in 1933 in Flinthook, Arkansas, and the characters should be from New England, preferably in or around New York City and that the investigators have been created specifically for the adventure. It’s intended to take 4-6 sessions and deals with uncovering a strange cult.
Background gives the details of how a settler 200 years previously stumbled across an altar and pledged himself to the being it was dedicated to, then built up a cult.
Recent Events covers the more recent years, including the arrival of the railroad, and a few weeks ago the kidnapping of a young boy from New York.
Non-Player Characters covers various of the inhabitants of the small town of less than 100 people. Not everyone is covered, but many are, and they are divided up into family groups with details on the members.
The Town of Flinthook covers the important buildings with brief descriptions and, in most cases, which NPCs are likely to be encountered at the locations.
Scenes explains that the scenes are in a loose chronological order but this can be shifted around by the Keeper or due to player action, though some can only occur at specific times. The first scene is Call to Adventure, which sees the investigators arriving at Flinthook to look for the missing boy. Following this are several days from Thursday to Sunday, with events that would happen on those days; Sunday is the conclusion of the adventure.
Statblocks has stats for the various NPCs and creatures the characters will potentially fight.
The Letter is the letter the characters get that sends them to the town.
Maps & Visuals is a blank page.
Thicker Than Blood in Review
The PDF lacks bookmarks and is long enough with enough different sections that they would have been useful. The table of contents only covers the major sections. Navigation is poor. The text maintains a single column format and some minor errors were noticed. There is a single colour illustration. Presentation is poor.
This is an adventure that’s intended as a one-shot with characters created for it, so it’s a shame that there are no pre-generated characters included which would have helped. Though the scenes can be shuffled around, this would complicate matters; not impossibly so, but to a degree. The adventure itself has the potential to be deadly; though much of it is just investigating a town, the characters could well end up outnumbered badly by the townsfolk. Thicker Than Blood can be found by clicking here.
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