R'lyeh Review 019

R'LYEH REVIEW

Issue 019

The Asylum and Other Tales
(Adventure pack for Call of Cthulhu)
Chaosium, Inc. $10.00

(Reviewed by Scott Briggs)

The Asylum is the second module released by Chaosium for the Call of Cthulhu role-playing game. (The first was Shadows of Yog-Sothoth. ) This new booklet is composed of seven chapters, each a separate adventure/situation, which the gamemaster may use as fillers in a regular campaign, or when he or she is stuck for ideas. Each scenario examines a basic situation that, through playtesting and customer feedback, has been known to repeat over and over again in regular games. They run from the mindless fun of "Gate from the Past" to the involved "The Auction" and the really creepy "The Asylum. "

In "The Asylum", players investigate an apparently respectable and efficient sanitarium, run by one Dr. Freygan, a graduate of Princeton University. Eventually the players find out that the good Doctor isn't quite what he's supposed to be, and then the horror really starts, involving shoggoths, Indian squatters, etc.

In "The Auction", players travel to Vienna, Austria, to participate in an occult items auction at the House of Ausperg, an auction company. Some of the items turn out to be truly Cthulhoid, and the players are encouraged to bid for some of them. However, there are other parties interested in them, and things get pretty weird. One of the great things about this scenario is the replication of the mechanics of a real auction.

The last truly memorable scenario in The Asylum is "The Mauretania", in which players take a six-day cruise on the famous ocean liner of the title.