The Orphanage by Rudy Peverada 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 17 page Pay What You Want PDF from DriveThruRPG. One page is the front cover and one the front matter and Table of Contents.
The scenario is set in Arkham in the 1920s, but it states that it could be moved to other eras, and other settings, without much trouble and this is the case. Children have been going missing from an orphanage and the investigators have a number of hooks by which they could come to investigate the disappearances.
The investigators will likely start in the orphanage, then follow clues and leads to other locations to discover what is happening to the children. Though they will be able to prevent future disappearances if successful, those children who have already disappeared will never be recovered.
Following the scenario are four pages of Characters then three pages of maps.
The Orphanage in Review
The PDF lacks bookmarks and is long enough that these would have been useful. The Table of Contents just lists the major sections. Navigation could be better. The text maintains a two-column colour format and a number of errors were noticed, along with awkward English, though it could still be read. There are a number of stock illustrations, plus the maps. Presentation is decent, though printing out the player maps will be wasteful on ink, as the page backgrounds have to be printed too.
This is a short scenario that should be easy enough to slot into most settings, perhaps with some tinkering with the names; 1920s Arkham will naturally be the easiest. It’s a fairly straightforward adventure in which the investigators have to follow the trail to find out what is happening to the children. The Orphanage is a decent little side adventure and it can be found by clicking here.
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