Heart of Horror by Wojciech J. Szpytma 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 Gaslight scenario.
The supplement is available as a 21 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 starts by explaining that the adventure is loosely based on Joseph Conrad‘s Heart of Darkness and is set in 1890s Congo. It has a synopsis of the adventure, which has no great goal, only the transformation of a human into a monster, and a timeline of events that happened prior to the characters getting involved. It explains that there are two different plots that combine in a climax and that the best result is obtained by intertwining them. Finally, there is a section on triggers and safety tools.
Dramatis Personae has descriptions, traits and motives for the main NPCs.
Black Tear explains that this is a drug made by the shaman who is the main foe. It allows the shaman to send visions top consumers but a large dose transforms the consumer into a bloodthirsty beast. What is seen and clues that can be found are covered.
Suggestion Scenario Structure has a suggested structure in diagram form, a list of the core scenes which must be included and some suggestions for the order of the other scenes.
Introduction to the Scenario has introductory text.
Scenes Rundown then has the various scenes. Each scene has a name, scene type, NPCs present and main objective, followed by the scene itself.
Handouts has two handouts in graphical form, followed by the text of them.
Pre-Made Investigators has five of these; only one is named and this is also an NPC from earlier. Each is given a job, backstory, significant person, treasured possession and gear and possessions, with each also having a single page character sheet.
Heart of Horror in Review
The PDF lacks bookmarks and is long enough with enough different sections that these would have been useful. The Table of Contents covers the major and minor sections. Navigation could be better. The text maintains a two-column format and some minor errors were noticed. There are a number of illustrations. Presentation is adequate.
The adventure is somewhat unusual as it is not precisely linear. There are three main scenes that must be done in order, but the supplementary scenes don’t always have a specific order and not all of them need to be done, meaning that the adventure is more flexible than it might seem. There is effectively a single Mythos creature; a human transformed by Black Tear, admittedly a now dangerous human. The scenario definitely has some nastiness in it, and the investigators could easily end up in problems. Heart of Horror can be found by clicking here.
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