Author: Keeper Doc

Cat Links Creative Process

Sleeping with the Fishes: On Family, Identity, and Mercy

Posted on Keeper Doc

Originally posted on This Rough Magic substack. Warning: Contains spoilers for an unpublished scenario. Sometimes a scenario begins with a grin and ends like a punch to the gut. Sleeping with the Fishes might be one of those. Or at least that was my ambition. Set in 1931 Detroit, during the dying days of Prohibition and the lead-up to the American Legion Convention, this tale begins with a favor from an old friend, a free-wheeling dentist who never knew when to hedge a bet, especially around gangsters. It pulls investigators into a bloody tug-of-war between the violent bootlegging outfit and something far older, stranger, and sadder lurking in the waters of the Great Lakes. The story is

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A Farewell (of Sorts) from Prospero House

Posted on Keeper Doc

Friends, fiends, and fellow travelers, It’s been a joy and an honor tending the desk here at Prospero House—serving up shadows, secrets, and no small amount of horror over these past seasons. Many of you have joined me in delving the darker corners of Call of Cthulhu, chasing madness, Mythos, and mystery, and I’m grateful for every step of the journey. But the time has come, as it often does, to follow another path. I’ll be shifting my writing efforts to a new space: This Rough Magic on Substack. This Rough Magic will be something a little different. It continues the discussion about tabletop roleplaying games, but with a more personal and reflective focus—exploring how

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Cat Links Conventions

Chaosium Con IV: The Voyage Home

Posted on Keeper Doc

Hold on just a second while I dust off my keyboard and clear the cobwebs over here in the Prospero House office. We have precious little time before reality bleeds back into my fevered brain and the wake-work cycle resumes. This was my fourth consecutive Chaosium Con, and though I have been absent around here of late, I could not count this experience complete without one of these rambling recollections. If you don’t have the patience for my purple prose, my thesis is this: come next year, play games, meet people, and you will have the time of your life. And if you haven’t tired of me yet, read on! Hello Again: Eagerly out of

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Gratitude for Prospero

Posted on Keeper Doc

Prospero House has shifted into another one of its lulls. Creative energy has not flowed recently, thanks to current events, perpetually escalating work obligations, and intentional dedication to family life. Gaming and related projects have shifted onto a deep back burner. I wanted to check in briefly to express my gratitude for the gaming community, the creative energy flowing through the Miskatonic Repository, and all the people I’ve gotten to spend time with during 2024. Here’s a brief, incomplete gratitude list.  Being able to attend Chaosium Con, Origins, and Gamehole Con and having the opportunity (and energy) to run 20 games between these three conventions. The unbelievable players that I’ve gotten to game with during

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Cat Links Conventions

A Trip to Mad Town: Gamehole Con Recap

Posted on Keeper Doc

Morale has been low. Thanks to the intensity of work commitments and important family obligations, I have been subject to a gaming embargo since the end of June. The restrictions were lifted at the beginning of October when I ran “Deliver Us From Evil” at Miskatonic Repository Con and hosted some work friends for their first Call of Cthulhu game. In typical Doc fashion, I ran these two games back-to-back and the experience reignited my excitement for my upcoming trip to Madison, WI for Gamehole Con.  This would be my Gamehole Con, and I’d been dying to go for several years after continued and growing praise about the quality of the event and games from

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Cat Links Keeper Tips, MoN - Keeper

Random Events – Oceanic Travel

Posted on Keeper Doc

Whether playing Masks of Nyarlathotep or enjoying a home-brew campaign, travel on a majestic ocean liner is the period-perfect mode to reach far-flung destinations. If seasoned investigators expect to sun themselves on the deck while enjoying a juicy Mythos tome or draw a quick redline to their next stop, these two random events tables help catch them off-guard and introduce some intrigue into their stately voyage. The first table provides action-packed situations that affect the entire boat, while the second creates personal predicaments and investigative threads. Depending on available time and investigator interest, these can be quick interludes or fuel for in-depth investigations. Storm at Sea: A fierce storm batters the liner, causing it to

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Cat Links Impossible Landscapes

Impossible Landscapes – The Interlude

Posted on Keeper Doc

The interlude between “The Night Floors” and “A Volume of Secret Faces” (AVoSF) is a critical interstitial period. Whether you opt to playthrough, montage, or shimmering shift the intervening 20 years between these two acts, the fleeting Carcosan imagery from “The Night Floors” should linger in the minds of the agents and their players. The campaign provides valuable advice and modified mechanics to enable this weighty transition. Here, we will delve into the advice and share our table’s interlude experience, which hinged on haunting dreams powered by Heinrich’s Call of Cthulhu Guide to Carcosa, which I previously reviewed. Replace the Lost: If agents die or completely lose their minds in the first act, they must

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Cat Links Miskatonic Repository, Reviews & Picks

Snake Oil Salesman – Run & Review

Posted on Keeper Doc

Florida. Indisputably weird place. Lovecraft himself sent his recurrent protagonist Randolph Carter down there on an unsettling adventure. Snake Oil Salesman is a Classic-era Call of Cthulhu scenario that brings the investigation to a floundering sanatorium tucked in the remote Florida swampland outside Tampa. It’s the first Miskatonic Repository outing by Chris Tatum and the content pairs perfectly with reliably awesome layout and design work by Alex Guillotte.  Drawing inspiration from the Road to Wellville, Tatum intentionally crafted this wonderfully encapsulated investigative scenario for the Second Annual Cthulhu Masters Tournament hosted by Lurking Fears at the 2024 Origins Game Fair. Eight tables overseen by a collection of talented Keepers, including Jon Hook and XP Lovecat,

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Cat Links Miskatonic Repository

Miskatonic Repository Review – Final Thoughts

Posted on Keeper Doc

I’m returning from a month-long sabbatical to provide some brief conclusive remarks to my Miskatonic Repository Best-Seller review. Since the initial post at the end of June 2024, multiple scenarios have joined the ranks of Electrum, like A Drop of Nelson’s Blood, Bride of the Wilds, The Haunted Grove, Kane’s Tone, Pop Goes the Weasel, and The Tunnel People. Then there are the newly minted Gold Sellers like The Art of Hygge, Bad Tidings, and Unremembered. Impressively, Miskatonic Playhouse’s TA Newman hit the mother lode with The Prisoner’s Dilemma, Secret Santa, and Be My Valentine all advancing to Gold. I do not intend to revise any of the previously reported figures, but I want to

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Cat Links Miskatonic Repository

Miskatonic Repository – Best-selling Supplements

Posted on Keeper Doc

Are you a Keeper looking for new scenarios and story elements? A player looking for something mysterious to spark a character idea? Is your group looking for eerie ideas to use in your game? The Miskatonic Repository is where you can find —and create —self-published material for the Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game. -Chaosium The Miskatonic Repository provides a trove of resources, scenarios, and, most importantly, a thriving creative community, for Call of Cthulhu enthusiasts. Since its launch in 2018, this partnership with DriveThruRPG allows independent creators to self-publish their materials for the classic investigative TTRPG. By 2024, the Miskatonic Repository hit a milestone of 150,000 titles sold. Thanks to information provided by Community Ambassador

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