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Call of Cthulhu RPG
Cthulhu Companion: Ghastly Adventures & Erudite Lore
Chaosium Stock #2304
Sections: The Cthulhu Mythos in the Mesoamerican Religion (Tierney), Further Notes on the Neconomicon (Hamblin), Sourcebook Additions (Willis, Herber, Petersen), Rulesbook Additions (Rahman, Petersen, Crandall), Excerpts and Prayers (Lovecraft, Campbell, Long, Smith), Paper Chase (Sullivan), The Mystery of Loch Feinn (Rahman), The Rescue (Willis), The Secret of Castronegro (Pettigrew & Petersen). Poetry (Lovecraft), Sanity Quiz (Conrad).
Sections: The Cthulhu Mythos in the Mesoamerican Religion (Tierney), Further Notes on the Neconomicon (Hamblin), Sourcebook Additions (Willis, Herber, Petersen), Rulesbook Additions (Rahman, Petersen, Crandall), Excerpts and Prayers (Lovecraft, Campbell, Long, Smith), Paper Chase (Sullivan), The Mystery of Loch Feinn (Rahman), The Rescue (Willis), The Secret of Castronegro (Pettigrew & Petersen). Poetry (Lovecraft), Sanity Quiz (Conrad).
64 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1983
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 17, 2018
Not much to say here other than a very useful expansion book.
Ohhh were you my gamers from the past.
Ohhh were you my gamers from the past.
August 14, 2023
I feel like you'd generally expect a book called the Cthulhu Companion to contain various rules and setting expansion stuff. This book does more or less do that, but not in a very organized way. There are chapters of rules expansions, new monsters, etc. but they feel haphazard rather than focused or organized, and there's plenty of other random stuff as well. It's not bad stuff, but it is definitely a grab bag rather than an organized and intentional expansion of the rules, perhaps because it seems most or all of the contents are drawn from magazine articles.
After the introduction, which includes some info on updates to 2nd edition, the book starts with two academic articles. One discusses potential parallels between deities of the various Mesoamerican religions and the deities of the Cthulhu mythos. It's a neat idea though I feel like I'd want to tread carefully when using it, given how much those religions, particular that of the Aztecs, have already been demonized and appropriated. The second article is an analysis of the names of mythos entities in light of the conceit that the Necronomicon was originally in Arabic and then passed through Greek, Latin, and English. It's a cool article and while I'm not sure how gameable it is, I enjoyed seeing some clever use of languages.
Next up are some additions to the 1920s sourcebook and the main rules. The former is devoted primarily to detailing some example prisons. After all, the authorities are likely to lock up the PCs as murders or thieves sooner or later - this isn't D&D where killing all the squid monsters gets you a pat on the back. It's not best bit ever but there's some neat ideas spawned for prison breaks and such, and I liked the idea of which types of guards might have mythos knowledge. There's plenty of new phobias, as well as two particularly good new insanities. One makes you think everything is supernatural while the other makes you think everything supernatural is normal - that Deep One is just a guy in a costume. The monster selection is alright. The main book already hit the highlights, so the only real standout here is the Lloigor.
And they star in one of the four adventures provided in this book. Of course, the Lloigor used to rule the British isles and now are the source of Nessie and other sea monster legends. It's a neat adventure concept and provides a nice sandboxish approach. The Secret of Castronegro does the same, depicting a town secretly ruled by a centuries old wizard. The scenario provides details on all the points of interest in the town and enough hooks to get the investigators interested. It does feel like it makes the boss monster a little too hard to take down, but there's also some room for continuing the story, which I appreciate. There's a shorter one on one scenario about a man who loves books so much he becomes a ghoul, which feels like a nice chance for some nonviolent resolution to a mythos problem. The last scenario involves a number of werewolves and is an interesting concept, but I found myself turned off by some of the way it was written. Particular the emphasis on the investigators as good Christian men and some of the railing against werewolves. It does have a good sidebar on how lycanthropy works, though.
The book is rounded out by some odd items. There are some bits of prayers to mythos deities from various sources and a few of Lovecraft's poems. There's a neat article with descriptions of deaths caused by every monster statted up so far, a list of words Lovecraft uses in his work for the Keeper to sprinkle into descriptions, and even a craft project in the form of a papercraft witch's house. It gives a really enthusiastic fans vibe to the production which is kinda fun to see 40 years later.
It's nice to have had this included in my classic Cthulhu box set, but this doesn't feel totally essential. Some of the scenarios are nice, but for a 64 page book it doesn't add as much actual rules content as I expected. Still, it's a neat little book and a fun glimpse of the state of the game when it was first launched.
After the introduction, which includes some info on updates to 2nd edition, the book starts with two academic articles. One discusses potential parallels between deities of the various Mesoamerican religions and the deities of the Cthulhu mythos. It's a neat idea though I feel like I'd want to tread carefully when using it, given how much those religions, particular that of the Aztecs, have already been demonized and appropriated. The second article is an analysis of the names of mythos entities in light of the conceit that the Necronomicon was originally in Arabic and then passed through Greek, Latin, and English. It's a cool article and while I'm not sure how gameable it is, I enjoyed seeing some clever use of languages.
Next up are some additions to the 1920s sourcebook and the main rules. The former is devoted primarily to detailing some example prisons. After all, the authorities are likely to lock up the PCs as murders or thieves sooner or later - this isn't D&D where killing all the squid monsters gets you a pat on the back. It's not best bit ever but there's some neat ideas spawned for prison breaks and such, and I liked the idea of which types of guards might have mythos knowledge. There's plenty of new phobias, as well as two particularly good new insanities. One makes you think everything is supernatural while the other makes you think everything supernatural is normal - that Deep One is just a guy in a costume. The monster selection is alright. The main book already hit the highlights, so the only real standout here is the Lloigor.
And they star in one of the four adventures provided in this book. Of course, the Lloigor used to rule the British isles and now are the source of Nessie and other sea monster legends. It's a neat adventure concept and provides a nice sandboxish approach. The Secret of Castronegro does the same, depicting a town secretly ruled by a centuries old wizard. The scenario provides details on all the points of interest in the town and enough hooks to get the investigators interested. It does feel like it makes the boss monster a little too hard to take down, but there's also some room for continuing the story, which I appreciate. There's a shorter one on one scenario about a man who loves books so much he becomes a ghoul, which feels like a nice chance for some nonviolent resolution to a mythos problem. The last scenario involves a number of werewolves and is an interesting concept, but I found myself turned off by some of the way it was written. Particular the emphasis on the investigators as good Christian men and some of the railing against werewolves. It does have a good sidebar on how lycanthropy works, though.
The book is rounded out by some odd items. There are some bits of prayers to mythos deities from various sources and a few of Lovecraft's poems. There's a neat article with descriptions of deaths caused by every monster statted up so far, a list of words Lovecraft uses in his work for the Keeper to sprinkle into descriptions, and even a craft project in the form of a papercraft witch's house. It gives a really enthusiastic fans vibe to the production which is kinda fun to see 40 years later.
It's nice to have had this included in my classic Cthulhu box set, but this doesn't feel totally essential. Some of the scenarios are nice, but for a 64 page book it doesn't add as much actual rules content as I expected. Still, it's a neat little book and a fun glimpse of the state of the game when it was first launched.
Read
February 6, 2025How? I have a big pile of books by my bed and I will read them or (finger crossed) die trying.
What? Another compendium of stuff, this time from 1983. The remit of this book is to reprint a bunch of articles from _Different Worlds_, Chaosium's house magazine, and also print some adventures (not sure if they were originally from _Different Worlds_).
So you get an article on Mesoamerican religion (which Cthulhu monster is which god), some fake academic notes on the Necronomicon or quotes from other books, new phobias, new monsters, some prisons the PCs might find themselves in.
This also includes four adventures:
- Paper Chase: books go missing and the trail leads to a nearby graveyard!
- The Mystery of Loch Feinn: a friend went to find a lake monster and turned up dead -- was it the monster or something worse?
- The Rescue: a man went hiking with his daughter and now he's dead -- can you find her in the woods?
- The Secret of Castonegro: dead bodies and cattle mutilations bring the PCs to investigate the quiet town with a secret.
Yeah, so? The articles are fine enough -- the one-to-one connection between Cthulhu gods and Mesoamerican gods feels... simple and/or a little insensitive? The quotes and mock-academic stuff might be used as handouts.
But what you really come to this book for is the adventures, which I will now spoil:
- Paper Chase is odd for a CoC adventure: a lonely bookworm befriended ghouls and became a ghoul and now he wants some of his books. There's no other evil plan or stakes, and I think most CoC players will immediately relate to the ghoul bookworm, which the adventure seems to want. The good ending here is that the ghoul leaves with his books. There's no real bad ending here unless the PC goes in with a gun.
- The Mystery of Loch Feinn seems fine to me: there is a monster and there is a human cult, and they are related, and the good ending here involves disrupting the ritual stones. My only real dislike here is the Scottish moors seems kind of done as a setting. Put a lake monster and a ruined castle in Spain, Norway, or wherever!
- The Rescue involves a conflicted family of three werewolves who don't mind ambushing the PCs. Oddly, the subtext here promises a little suspense over whether the dead guy (who worked for the State Department) was killed by foreign agents, but really this adventure is more about survival in the wilderness.
- The Secret of Castronegro is something of a classic -- or at least it got reprinted in the book, Cthulhu Classics. And honestly, I'm not sure why: there's a lot of promise here in the premise that the town of Castronegro is basically entirely taken over by the cult / evil wizard families. But in effect, it's kind of weird how it is set up: there are two evil families, but they are essentially just one force, so why do we need to set this town's backstory up? And the final villain is this immortal wizard who doesn't show up until the climax? Here's what I think: I love the idea of a desert Innsmouth, with corruption running throughout the whole town. That's what I would keep, and from that, all things flow: there's no one villain, the dawning horror should be that this whole town is in on the horror, that they think it's normal to, I don't know, become one with the giant earthworms.
What? Another compendium of stuff, this time from 1983. The remit of this book is to reprint a bunch of articles from _Different Worlds_, Chaosium's house magazine, and also print some adventures (not sure if they were originally from _Different Worlds_).
So you get an article on Mesoamerican religion (which Cthulhu monster is which god), some fake academic notes on the Necronomicon or quotes from other books, new phobias, new monsters, some prisons the PCs might find themselves in.
This also includes four adventures:
- Paper Chase: books go missing and the trail leads to a nearby graveyard!
- The Mystery of Loch Feinn: a friend went to find a lake monster and turned up dead -- was it the monster or something worse?
- The Rescue: a man went hiking with his daughter and now he's dead -- can you find her in the woods?
- The Secret of Castonegro: dead bodies and cattle mutilations bring the PCs to investigate the quiet town with a secret.
Yeah, so? The articles are fine enough -- the one-to-one connection between Cthulhu gods and Mesoamerican gods feels... simple and/or a little insensitive? The quotes and mock-academic stuff might be used as handouts.
But what you really come to this book for is the adventures, which I will now spoil:
- Paper Chase is odd for a CoC adventure: a lonely bookworm befriended ghouls and became a ghoul and now he wants some of his books. There's no other evil plan or stakes, and I think most CoC players will immediately relate to the ghoul bookworm, which the adventure seems to want. The good ending here is that the ghoul leaves with his books. There's no real bad ending here unless the PC goes in with a gun.
- The Mystery of Loch Feinn seems fine to me: there is a monster and there is a human cult, and they are related, and the good ending here involves disrupting the ritual stones. My only real dislike here is the Scottish moors seems kind of done as a setting. Put a lake monster and a ruined castle in Spain, Norway, or wherever!
- The Rescue involves a conflicted family of three werewolves who don't mind ambushing the PCs. Oddly, the subtext here promises a little suspense over whether the dead guy (who worked for the State Department) was killed by foreign agents, but really this adventure is more about survival in the wilderness.
- The Secret of Castronegro is something of a classic -- or at least it got reprinted in the book, Cthulhu Classics. And honestly, I'm not sure why: there's a lot of promise here in the premise that the town of Castronegro is basically entirely taken over by the cult / evil wizard families. But in effect, it's kind of weird how it is set up: there are two evil families, but they are essentially just one force, so why do we need to set this town's backstory up? And the final villain is this immortal wizard who doesn't show up until the climax? Here's what I think: I love the idea of a desert Innsmouth, with corruption running throughout the whole town. That's what I would keep, and from that, all things flow: there's no one villain, the dawning horror should be that this whole town is in on the horror, that they think it's normal to, I don't know, become one with the giant earthworms.
January 15, 2023
A bit of a mixed bag, but at its best this presents some solid additions to the game. Full review: https://refereeingandreflection.wordp...
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews