Feb 22

Feb 22 Call of Cthulhu RPG: Arkham - Overview and First Impressions

Background and History

Originally authored in 1990 by the late Keith Herber, Arkham Unveiled and its revisions throughout the 90’s are the foundation from which Chaosium builds upon throughout the years. 2003 saw the release of H.P Lovecraft’s Arkham which had three editions released throughout the years. 2024 marks the fourth edition in the series simply dubbed Arkham.

In the clear credit section of the book it states that this edition pulls in characters, locations, tomes, and stories from several authors and works. The book continues with an introduction from Creative Director for Call of Cthulhu, Mike Mason, which goes over what to expect when diving into Arkham. The introductory section ends with the original foreword from Arkham Unveiled, which I thought was a nice touch.

Arkham for many is a beloved part of the world of Call of Cthulhu and its counterparts. It is fascinating to learn more about its history. Many of the works mentioned I had never heard of and I’m sure even the most avid reader may not know them all. If you’re at all like me and like to trace down original sources, I recommend giving this section a proper read.

An Overview of Arkham

Past the introduction, the next chapter in Arkham provides a general overview of the titular town and its history. There is a brief section that details the geography and lists each of the city districts as they were known in the 1920s. Each district in Arkham is expanded on in a later chapter so the book only mentions them here. The section begins in the 17th century and the witch trials. Keziah Mason, you know the one, and Goody Fowler, were suspected to have harbored a secret cult of witches. In 1692, the King’s men from Salem arrested Mason and imprisoned her in Salem. Goody meanwhile fled but 12 years later was hanged outside of Arkham for her witchcraft. During the 18th century, Arkham experienced mild prosperity. In 1761, Francis Derby and Jeremiah Orne returned to Arkham after successful careers as sea captains. They commissioned the building of docks and warehouses along the north side of the river. A few years later, Orne died and entrusted Derby and Geoge Locksley to found the now infamous Miskatonic College. After the Revolutionary war, the Derby a few families invested into the town and developed the old town common, placed Miskatonic College in the center and dubbed it Independence Square. The 19th century gave rise to the Arkham Gazette and later the Arkham Bulletin. Miskatonic eventually becomes a full-fledged University and into the 20th century is very much the lifeblood of the entire town of Arkham. I’m glossing over a lot for the sake of this overview but when I was doing my initial skim of the book for this review, I started to read this section and before I knew it I had read the entire section. The history section is only a few pages but it is loaded with a wealth of information that makes Arkham feel truly lived in.

From the history section the book moves on to discuss climate, government, law & order (dun dun), and organized crime in Arkham. For those unfamiliar with New England, the book includes a handy chart of travel distances to other nearby towns and cities like Boston, Worcester, Newburyport to more dreadful locales like Dunwich and Innsmouth. A few pages further is an accompanying overview which aids in further fleshing the Miskatonic Valley. Having grown up in the area myself, the attention to detail was much appreciated.

The Investigators of Arkham (no, not that one)

The next chapter in Arkham is all about playing in Arkham, from mostly a mechanical perspective. The chapter begins with providing players suggestions on fleshing out their characters backstories along with changes to the Navigate and History skills to better suit the setting. Additionally, the book offers two new skills, Reassure and Religion, the latter of which feels like a skill that should have already been in the game. Reassure is an optional skill that in essence, allows a player to roll an extreme APP check to reassure a fellow investigator with +2 sanity. It’s by no means game breaking, but to me feels better suited for a Pulp Cthulhu game.

There’s a section that lists places Investigators can go to potentially improve their skills and how Keepers should manage that improvement.

Reputation makes its return from Regency Cthulhu but is streamlined in this iteration to better suit the setting. If you liked the Reputation system from Regency, chances are that you will like this version as well and if you were critical of the mechanic, I think you’ll find this version more to your liking. I would encourage groups to try it out in their games.

The last section in this chapter talks about clubs and organizations Investigators can become members of. This section categorizes them and provides location numbers for each of their meeting quarters to reference in the later sections of the book. Sprinkled throughout the section are connections to other source material that Keeper’s may wish to seek out on their own. This section will undoubtedly be useful when centering games in Arkham, providing a way for Investigators to know one another, or NPCs who transcribe that tome they recently discovered in the Miskatonic library.

Arkham Miscellany

The third chapter goes over other needs and services that come up during gameplay. The initial section covers transportation and lodgings, both temporary and permanent. There are even a few paragraphs talking about finding employment should Investigators wish to take up residence in the area.

Whether the Investigators live in the area or are simply passing through, they are likely to require some form of additional aid be it in the form of a loan, a scholar, a doctor, or even a crime boss. Arkham is a resourceful town where rumors spread fast. The book provides several pages of rumor tables the Keeper may use during their games. The first set of rumor tables list the location which they are to be discovered while the second set of tables are more generalized and can be used at the Keeper’s discretion.

The finale of the third chapter details the active Witches Coven in Arkham. Simply put, this section is fantastic. Each member has their own Dramatis Personae, complete with Pulp variations and each is sinister in their own right. It’s a wonderful template for Keepers looking to create their covens or cults with machinations of their own devising.

A Guide to Arkham

The meat of the book is in its fourth chapter. Each of Arkham’s nine neighborhoods are indexed and detailed over the course of nearly 200 pages. Thankfully, Arkham includes a directory at the beginning to aid in quickly finding location descriptions on the fly. The book follows a particular numerical schema for cataloging the hundreds of locations that once digested makes finding what you need easy. It’s clear that a lot of effort went into organizing the material for the reader. If you plan to purchase a physical copy of this title, definitely get the PDF as well.

Each Neighborhood starts off with a bird’s-eye view map dotting all the points of interest. The map is a welcome touch; it clearly shows how the neighborhood’s locations relate to one another. All the locations have their street address in large text followed by a basic physical description. Beyond that it varies from location to location. Some such as the Masonic Lodge will detail any organization's involvement with the location or strangeness that Keepers may add for investigators to uncover. Others will list notable NPCs even going so far as to provide stat blocks and portraits for many of them. Many of the locations' strangeness provide enough material for Keepers to base entire scenarios around. One of my favorites is in East-Town at the Crawford house. I won’t spoil it here for any potential players in the audience.

Scattered throughout the book are advertisements created by the fine folks at the HPLHS that serve as fine handouts for Keepers to doll out to their party (another reason to get the PDF!). All the artwork in the book is great which is complimented by Arkham’s layout. I am bringing up the layout and formatting now because it’s in this chapter where it matters most. This is where you’re going to spend most of your time with this book. Information about the locations is tidy and easy to parse at a glance.

The Appendices

The final chapter of Arkham is short. Appendix A has a table of names and a chronology of Lovecraft story events. Appendix B contains the game aids that were previously amongst the books pages and collects them here. Additionally there are a slew of generic NPCs provided for Keepers (Thank you!) in this section. Appendix C is bibliography and resources setting for people interested in doing any further research along with brief biographies of Mike and Keith.

Final Thoughts

Arkham feels like a book 34 years in the making. It is clear that Chaosium put forth a lot of effort in making this book as accessible as possible for Keepers. Arkham is a book you are intended to come back to again and again, and I believe Chaosium really nailed it with this release. As a Keeper, this feels like a requirement to own with the sheer amount of content packed into this single book and with it being easy to digest, it’s a no-brainer for me. If I were to nitpick about anything, I suppose I’m a little bummed that there aren’t any proper scenarios in Arkham, but as I said earlier, so many of the locations have so much to go on that I can’t complain.

If you only engage with Call of Cthulhu as a player however, I think you can largely ignore this release. There is a section about making characters in Arkham and a couple of new mechanics, Arkham is a Keeper centric book.

If you had asked to name my favorite setting book before this release, I would have said Berlin: The Wicked City, but now I’m not so sure…

Thank you to Chaosium for providing an advanced review copy of Arkham for this review. Arkham will be released February 22nd, 2024.