A Modern-Day Lovecraftian Tale of Woe
The Cthulhu Eternal juggernaut of Lovecraftian doom keeps on rolling … today we’re thrilled to be announcing the release of a new PDF scenario in our “Lost Masterpieces” line, Gary Sumpter’s excellent adventure “The Usurpers.”
Cthulhu adventures set in the contemporary “now” have had a spotty reputation over the years, but this one really stood out (to us at least) as an example of how a modern take on HPL should work. The scenario — originally written by Gary for Chaosium’s “Arkham Now”, but eventually not used — is set in present-day Arkham, and centers upon the Miskatonic U. campus. What begins as a simple request to look into a missing sophomore, a young woman named Karen Clifford, soon spirals into an investigation into a horror that is decades olds and has visited misfortune upon Arkham many times before. When the true reality of the situation becomes apparent, Protagonists are likely to find themselves in a race against a very real ‘ticking clock’ … and at the end of it all, a complex and nuanced moral dilemma to solve.
Even more than most scenarios we’ve released, this one features some seriously adult themes, and for that reason we’ve labelled it as “containing adult content” on the DriveThruRPG listing (so you will need to be logged in to DTRPG to see the product page). Lest you be put off by the label, I’d hasten to add that the ‘adult content’ takes the form of a very authentic take on the same HPL themes that underpin the Shadow Over Innsmouth, albeit not involving literal Deep Ones in any way, but many of the ideas which make them so creepy.
Gary’s scenario was previously available in a self-published system-neutral format, but we have converted it all across to work seamlessly with our Cthulhu Eternal Modern Era SRD (bundled with the PDF). Along the way we added a number of embellishments to bring the original horrifying tale, written in the early 2000s, more into the “now” of the 2020s and beyond. That allowed us to get creative with some modern style ‘document’ props (see above and below).
All-in-all we hope that folks here who run Lovecraftian games set in modern times will consider taking a look at this scenario. I am sure it was a labour of love for Gary when he wrote it back in 2008; it certainly was for the CR crew who breathed it into life as a fully-illustrated colour PDF. As always, we’d love to hear about anyone who decides to run this scenario, whether in its designed configuration or adapted for their specific campaign. Gamers are such a creative bunch, hearing how they’ve adapted our stuff is endlessly inspiring and gives us plenty of ideas for future evil plans … <mwahaha>