The Medicine Show by Troy Wilhelmson and Jonathan Meadows is a role playing game supplement published by Chaosium Inc through their Miskatonic Repository Community Content Program. This is a scenario for Call of Cthulhu, the horror role playing game based on the works of H. P. Lovecraft.
This is an eleven page PDF that is available for free from RPGNow. One page is the front cover and one the Table of Contents.
The supplement starts with a brief note that the adventure originally appeared in the Basic Roleplaying supplement, Devil’s Gulch, and that this is a new version for 7th Edition Call of Cthulhu which has been moved to the San Rafael setting from Down Darker Trails.
Next is the background to the story. A once-popular preacher ended up being tarred, feathered and run out of town after he tried using a native elixir to cure the child of one of his parishioners of the fits she was having, rather than the requested exorcism. The elixir worked, but only briefly, and the parents took it badly. The preacher, Michael Albert, vowed revenge and, when he stumbled across a tome of black magic, found a means for having it. He set up the titular medicine show and headed for San Rafael.
The characters are deputies in the town when Albert arrives. Albert is also a snake oil salesmen, and is selling a typical miracle cure-all elixir – but one that is based on that which he tried to cure the girl with, so it has some genuine properties.
The characters can watch the show, then try and follow up any questions afterwards. A number of the locals find Albert familiar, but they are – in what seems to be a display of excessive stupidity, given what they did to Michael Albert and what they link Dr Albert to – unable to identify him. Once night falls, Albert will start to have his revenge on those he blames the most. There will be some definite deaths but the characters may be able to prevent a mass slaughter and rescue a young girl.
Around the final page and a half are stats for the various NPCs of the Medicine Show.
The supplement lacks bookmarks although the Table of Contents is very thorough. Navigation is okay, but it could be better. The text maintains a two column format and some minor errors were noted. There appeared to also be some formatting problems with the text, with the font changing to another in some places. There are no illustrations. Presentation is okay at best.
This is a decent, albeit not outstanding, scenario. The primary limitation is that characters are expected to be deputies. It may be possible to run it if they aren’t, but it is designed for such. One useful addition is various Playtest Notes, that say what playtesters did in some situations, which may be helpful to the Keeper. In some ways, this feels more like a standalone scenario than one that can be fitted into an ongoing campaign, but this could be tweaked. The Medicine Show can be downloaded for free by clicking here.
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