Off to the Races by Montsho Shelby 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 24 page Pay What You Want PDF from DriveThruRPG. One page is the front cover and one the Table of Content.
What This Game is About explains that the investigators have to discover how a man named Balister Lacroix has won ten horse races in a row. There is a list of things that are needed. The scenario is for 1-3 players; if less than three, an NPC private investigator goes with them.
What the Keeper Needs to Know lists Lacroix’s timeline and motives and the various factions involved.
Introduction to the Adventure starts by explaining that it’s 1930 and in Furlong.
Furlong Library of Commerce has information that can be found and important NPCs.
The Waite’s Fairway covers the racetrack, which is closed when they arrive, and events and important NPCs.
The Pasture covers a club, with information that can be found, some general NPCs and some important ones.
Merlin’s Revenge is a construction site that will be a casino and what can be discovered and important NPCs.
Outside of Balister’s Cove covers this, with important NPCs and events.
Inside Balister’s Cove has events, generic NPCs and what can be discovered.
The Race covers a car race and what happens in it.
The Epilogue wraps things up.
Playable Characters has three pre-generated characters.
Off to the Races in Review
The PDF lacks bookmarks and is long enough with enough different sections that they would have been useful. The Table of Content, mostly, covers the major sections, though frequently calls them by different names to what they are in the text. The text maintains a two-column format, and as well the Table of Content errors, the language is often awkward. There are a number of black and white illustrations, but the text also has gaps in odd places where it looks like there should have been more. Presentation is somewhat awkward.
Though this is an adventure for Call of Cthulhu, it doesn’t feel like a typical Cthulhu Mythos scenario, instead an adventure that just happens to use those rules, which is admittedly something even Chaosium has done in the past. It also doesn’t feel like it flows smoothly, and could have done with improvements to layout and organisation. It would likely work best as a one-shot, though a Keeper may need to tidy things up a bit first. Off to the Races can be found by clicking here.
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