The Thing at the Threshold (1992) is an interesting product for its time, as Chaosium published it, but it was developed, written, laid out and illustrated out of house by McConnell & Sutton under the imprint Cthulhu House.

Chaosium has a long history of encouraging enthusiasts to put pen to paper. A number of Call of Cthulhu adventures are reprinted from zines or third party publications, and a good number of Pendragon scenarios were submissions. To my knowledge, though, Threshold was the first time an entire book was created from whole cloth outside of Chaosium. This, I think, laid the foundation for Chaosium’s monographs series, a truly massive series of fan-writtten sourcebooks and scenarios created by third parties but published by Chaosium (several of which, like Cthulhu Invictus, eventually graduated to full Chaosium publications). The monographs in turn prefigure by many years both the DM’s Guild and Chaosium’s similar, recent initiative, the Miskatonic Repository, both of which serve similar functions as outlets for fan-created material. All of which is pretty cool.

As for the campaign itself, it’s OK. I remember when I first got it, it was just a breath of fresh air because the style is so different – digital maps?! Surely, this is the future (it was not the future). McConnell’s art is solid (love the pumpkin-headed rider), but there are a lot of filler spot illustrations. The story is fine, but assumes a lot about the party and the stakes at the end seem out of proportion to the rest of the book (basically, if the players mess up in the final chapter, the world is effed). Also, that pumpkin-headed rider is just a mad bakery delivery man, which seems like a missed opportunity. All of this, I think, indicates the value of an experienced editor.