The Great Old Ones (Call of Cthulhu)

The Great Old Ones is an adventure published by Chaosium in 1989 for the horror role-playing game Call of Cthulhu.

Plot summary

The Great Old Ones is a book of six loosely linked scenarios involving some of the Cthulhu-mythos Elder Gods. These include:

  • "The Spawn", set in New Mexico, involving the disappearance of a labour organizer.
  • "Still Waters", a haunted house adventure
  • "Tell Me, Have You See the Yellow Sign", set in New Orleans during Mardi Gras, based on Robert W. Chambers's Yellow Sign
  • "One in Darkness" mixes 1920s gangsters with horror
  • "The Pale God", based on the short story Before the Storm by Ramsey Campbell
  • "Bad Moon Rising", set in England

None of the adventures has story hooks for any of the other adventures, so the referee can choose to present the adventures as six stand-alone sessions, or find a way to link them together.[1] The book also includes 25 pages of player handouts and Call of Cthulhu character sheets in Japanese, French, German, and Spanish.[2]

Publication history

The Great Old Ones is a 176-page perfect-bound book written by Marcus L. Rowland, Kevin A. Ross, Harry Cleaver, Doug Lyons, and L.N. Isinwyll, with art by Tom Sullivan and was published by Chaosium in 1989.[2]

Reception

In the June 1990 edition of Dragon (Issue #158), Jim Bambra thought that "the strength of this book comes from the variety of adventures available." Bambra liked the first adventure ("The Spawn") because it mixes 1920s politics with horror. He was less pleased with the second adventure ("Still Waters"), saying, "Once you played one spooky house, you've played them all." He liked the New Orleans setting of "Tell Me Have You Seen The Yellow Sign", and thought mixing gangsters with horror was well done in "One in Darkness". For "The Pale God", Bambra thought that anyone who had read Ramsey Campbell's short story Before the Storm "might find their enjoyment of the adventure marred as result." He saved his best compliments for the final adventure, "Bad Moon Rising", calling it "the star of the show. Like a full moon it shines brightly, and it includes some of the finest plot twists ever to appear in a shorter COC adventure." Bambra concluded that this book was "a useful addition to the COC range. The inclusion of “Bad Moon Rising” is reason enough to purchase this book. With the exception of “Still Waters,” the other adventures stand up well, making The Great Old Ones a good source of adventures for Keepers."[1]

Awards

The Great Old Ones was awarded the Origins Award for "Best Roleplaying Adventure of 1989".[3]

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References
  1. Bambra, Jim (June 1990). "Roleplaying Reviews". Dragon. Lake Geneva, Wisconsin: TSR (#158): 90.
  2. Schick, Lawrence (1991). Heroic Worlds: A History and Guide to Role-Playing Games. Prometheus Books. p. 243. ISBN 0-87975-653-5.
  3. "The 1989 Origins Awards". The Game Manufacturers Association. Archived from the original on 2012-12-16.
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