I have a twisted fondness for Theatre of the Mind Enterprise’s Call of Cthulhu publications. I got my first, Pursuit to Kadath, at NecronomiCon back in like ’93 and its absolutely terrible but also exactly the sort of fan-made material I love to see in the world. Regular, enthusiastic RPG players made it and, for better or worse, it shows. It took me a while to pick up the rest, though, because they tend to be expensive and it’s hard to justify spending a lot of money on schlock, even if it is schlock with heart.

This is Arkham Evil (1983), the first of TOME’s licensed Call of Cthulhu books. It’s terrible. It’s a three-part scenario that…doesn’t really want the players involved? The first part takes place in 1919 amid a conflict between a mining company, Pinkertons and resurgent Molly Maguires. There’s a spooky cave discovered and the players are there to investigate it. They can get into all sorts of trouble, but actually intersecting with the larger plot is nearly impossible. Which is by design, because if they do somehow find out what is really going on, they stand a good chance of stopping it, and thus nullifying the following two scenarios.

The second part involves retrieving asteroid bits in Arizona before a serpent person, a French sorcerer or a German baron accompanied by a battalion of WWI veterans can get them. This one seems…particularly bad, as the players will also have to invent radiation containment technology? Assuming they don’t all die from radiation poisoning, they have to go back to Arkham in the third part and writer a paper about the experience, which is, from my understanding, what academics do. They also have to solve a series of occult murders and I guess at some point the whole plot is revealed but the book is so terribly organized that I really couldn’t tell you what that is. Woof.

Cool cover though.