The Strange Case of Mr Cardew by Raphael Merriman 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 supplement based on the works of H.P. Lovecraft.
The supplement is available as a 14 page Pay What You Want PDF from DriveThruRPG. Two pages are the front and rear covers and two the front matter.
A note about the setting: explains that the scenario is set in modern-day England, though its precise location is up to the Keeper; it could be moved to other countries in the UK, or even another country. It’s intended to be a beginning scenario and it’s also stated that British investigators will need to find some way to arm themselves without legal entanglement.
Raymond Cardew was a successful businessman who recently died of natural causes. Or at least that’s what was thought until it was discovered he had declined a business offer from a rather notorious individual. The police decided to exhume his body to double check that he did, indeed, die of natural causes, only to discover that the casket was empty.
The characters will be asked to investigate by some party. There’s a list of potential hooks as well as useful skills. They will need to follow clues related to the shady businessman, the funeral parlour, the wealthy bereaved family, the original autopsy and some cultists to find out what is really going on. There’s a host of clues that will lead them in wrong directions.
Following the various locations, the NPCs are then detailed, accompanied by notes on how to play them. There are a number of ways in which the adventure can end and finally there are rewards – or penalties, depending on choices – for completion.
At the back are two handouts; one a bereavement notice from the paper, the other a blackmail letter.
The Strange Case of Mr Cardew in Review
The PDF lacks bookmarks and has enough sections that these would have been useful. Navigation could be better. The text maintains a two-column format and appeared to be free of errors. There are no illustrations bar the handouts. Presentation is okay.
This adventure has a lot of red herrings in it to misdirect characters; many would-be suspects are nothing of the sort, though the police have an idea as to who is partially responsible. It’s mentioned on a number of occasions that guns are not easy to get in the UK; an understatement to say the least. Not only will British investigators not have the firepower of American ones, they may not have any firearms at all. Nothing is mentioned about how they might get such; most firearms would be expensively illegal to obtain. That would make the adventure run rather differently in countries, or time periods, with more relaxed firearm laws. Though there is only one real combat encounter, it could be a dangerous one. The Strange Case of Mr Cardew is an interesting scenario full of misdirection and it can be found by clicking here.
Leave a Reply