Our Latest Publications

Cat Links Keeper Tips

Want to Run Call of Cthulhu – What do I Buy?

Posted on Keeper Doc

Seasoned gamer looking to finally try out Call of Cthulhu? Played a couple scenarios and want to try running adventures yourself? Trying to decide on the highest yield products to bring this classic investigative-horror game to your table? Ready to jump feet first into Masks of Nyarlathotep as a first-time Keeper? The gaming community provides a wealth of answers to these questions, and we want to briefly weigh-in, in and offer our personal suggestions we provide to folks we run games for at conventions, who ask “what should I buy now?” First, you don’t have to buy anything to play some outstanding Call of Cthulhu modules. Our first two recommendations are the Quickstart Rules and

Read on…Want to Run Call of Cthulhu – What do I Buy?

Cat Links Spawn of Azathoth

Spawn of Azathoth – Ulthar and Beyond

Posted on Keeper Doc

From the Mind of Keeper Jon Hook Welcome back to the Cult of Azathoth. As noted in the previous articles, this series about the classic Call of Cthulhu campaign, Spawn of Azathoth, by Keith “Doc” Herber. This article references the 2005 version of the campaign; the PDF is available now on Chaosium’s website. The rest of this article is full of SPOILERS. You’ve been warned. Previously, I described how the Spawn of Azathoth campaign is comprised of seven chapters, with only the first and last chapters set in place. The players and their investigators explore the mystery however they desire. This article describes the Ulthar and Beyond chapter since it was what my investigators wanted

Read on…Spawn of Azathoth – Ulthar and Beyond

Cat Links Australia, Tomes

Mythos Tomes – Wondrous Intelligences

Posted on Keeper Doc

Location: Mortimer Wycroft’s shop (beneath his bed) Physical Description: Bound in faded red leather, some water damage and well-thumbed. Faded writing within cover reveals the book is property of the University of Sydney.  Author:  James Woodville, a successful merchant and later itinerant Puritan preacher, who lived in England during and after the English Civil War.  Publication History: English, 17th century. Very few copies of this blasphemous text exist.  Skim:  An ill-organized, maniacal but highly detailed religious text recounting the visions, dreams, prophecies, and teachings of Woodville, as well as graphic justification for his unusual sexual practices. Poor quality woodcuts accompany the disturbing text, and include depictions of strange conical “angels”, which represent a physical manifestation

Read on…Mythos Tomes – Wondrous Intelligences

Cat Links Keeper Tips

In Search of Player Engagement

Posted on Keeper Doc

While wasting time on social media recently, we came across a comment deriding gamemasters for complaining about how hard their job is. We certainly believe running a game requires a great deal of time, effort, and organization, which ultimately culminates at the table. Whether running a published campaign or just-in-time homebrew, you expect some payoff during the session. How does a gamemaster measure that return? We tend to look for player engagement. If a player shows up, plays, and wants to play again, then we feel satisfied at the end of the day. This relationship with engagement, though, remains complicated and requires examination so that gamemasters set reasonable expectations for themselves and their players.  Before

Read on…In Search of Player Engagement

Cat Links Spawn of Azathoth

Spawn of Azathoth – Providence

Posted on Keeper Doc

From the Mind of Keeper Jon Hook Welcome back to the Cult of Azathoth. As noted in the previous article, this series about the classic Call of Cthulhu campaign, Spawn of Azathoth, by Keith “Doc” Herber, will be full of spoilers. Also, I’ll be referencing the 2005 version of the campaign because it is the most accessible. The rest of this article is full of SPOILERS and spiders. You’ve been warned. The campaign begins in Providence, Rhode Island, in May 1927. It is assumed that the investigators are acquaintances of Mr. Philip Baxter, a retired professor of archaeology for Brown University. Baxter is also a founding member of the Tuesday Night Academy, an esoteric club of academics. For my game,

Read on…Spawn of Azathoth – Providence

Cat Links Spawn of Azathoth

Spawn of Azathoth – Introduction

Posted on Keeper Doc

From the Mind of Keeper Jon Hook Welcome to the Cult of Azathoth. My plan for this series of articles is to describe how I upgraded the classic Call of Cthulhu RPG campaign, Spawn of Azathoth, so I could run it with 7th Edition rules for the Into the Darkness players on their YouTube channel. You can find my run of this campaign here. This series of articles will contain spoilers for this campaign. You’ve been warned. If you’re a player who hopes to play in this campaign, please send your Keeper here; it’s my hope that they’ll find the inspiration here to run this most excellent campaign.  The Spawn of Azathoth campaign, (also known

Read on…Spawn of Azathoth – Introduction

Cat Links Egypt, England, New York

Mythos Monsters – Hunting Horror

Posted on Keeper Doc

“Stars swelled to dawns, and dawns burst into fountains of gold, carmine, and purple, and still the dreamer fell. Cries rent the aether as ribbons of light beat back the fiends from outside. And hoary Nodens raised a howl of triumph when Nyarlathotep, close on his quarry, stopped baffled by a glare that seared his formless hunting-horrors to grey dust.” H.P. Lovecraft, Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath Originally mentioned in The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, these ravening terrors serve  Nyarlathotep as flesh-tearing hunters and intimidating totems of his dark power. Numerous elements of the published campaign provide Keepers with opportunities to incorporate the hunting horror as a prominent, recurring menace throughout all chapters. While every Nyarlathotep avatar

Read on…Mythos Monsters – Hunting Horror

Cat Links New York

Tip’s Cocktail Hour – New York

Posted on Keeper Doc

“Make your mark in New York, and you are a made man.”  -Mark Twain “Everybody came. Everybody came to the Cotton Club.”  -Cab Calloway Have you ever taken a trip that started off so badly that you wanted to just turn around and go home, but you stuck with it out of principle or some other high-minded rationale — only to find that somehow the end of your trip was even worse?  I’m speaking today of our investigative cabal’s second journey: a fateful trip to Gotham that began with a brutal cultist murder and ended with a cascade of horrors and unspeakable mayhem, with property destroyed, sanity eroded, and countless lives lost.  But other than

Read on…Tip’s Cocktail Hour – New York

Cat Links Kenya, Tomes

Mythos Tomes – The Black Tome

Posted on Keeper Doc

Location: Taan Kaur’s Tea-Shop Cellar in Nairobi Physical Description: Bound in black calfskin with a broken iron clasp Author:  Alsophocus, a wizard and necromancer from the lost and ancient land of Erongill. The text arrives in the 16th century through unknown means.  Publication History: Originally discovered on the shelves of a monastery in 1517, written in a dark and unknown language. A disturbed monk translated the work into Latin before disappearing. Subsequently copied and disseminated amongst the scattered cults of Nyarlathotep. A priest in the Cult of Small Crawler translated a worm-ridden copy of the Black Tome into Hindi over a century ago. The illustrations feature a mixture of hand-traced originals and blasphemous Vedic-style art. 

Read on…Mythos Tomes – The Black Tome

Cat Links Campaign Narrative, Peru

Peru – A Gruesome Discovery

Posted on Keeper Doc

Following Lucia’s intense pace, the group finds itself rapidly descending a poorly lit staircase into a dimly lit, long stone corridor. Dim electric bulbs buzz overhead, and as they approach the end of the hallway it’s clear the door at the end of the hall appears slightly ajar. Pausing for a moment, they hear nothing through the crack in the door. Peering into the room, the visibility remains limited due to low-light and packed shelves.  Tip leans carefully in, takes a deep breath, and begins to tiptoe forward, gesticulating for his compatriots to follow him and sneak down the side aisles as he approaches the middle. Suddenly, a low, gross squelching sound can be heard,

Read on…Peru – A Gruesome Discovery