New for Cthulhu: Under the Tree!

Yes, it's been a while since I posted anything. (Sorry.) This has mainly been because I've been working on publishing my first scenario for Call of Cthulhu. It took a little longer than anticipated, but I'm pleased to announce that Under the Tree is now available through the Miskatonic Repository programme on DriveThruRPG.

Under the Tree is intended for three to five investigators and is set in present-day Britain. An investigative journalist and writer has mysteriously suffered a complete psychological breakdown while visiting the Yorkshire Dales, and the investigators are asked to find out what happened to him. The trail reveals a government cover-up, a village that should not exist, and draws back the veil to reveal the dreadful generosity of one of the Outer Gods of the Cthulhu Mythos...

I'm not going to say that Under the Tree is the platonic ideal of what I think a Cthulhu scenario should be, but it's something I'm quite proud of, and incorporates many of the ideas and principles for horror scenario design which I discuss at greater length in Terror and Tentacles.

This scenario has been kicking around inside my head for a long time (the playtest was last January, pre-lockdown); so long that I can't quite remember what the origin of it was. Suffice to say it was influenced by lots of different things: holidays in the Dales in my youth, folk-horror movies like Wake Wood and The Wicker Man, episodes of the BBC's A Ghost Story for Christmas... I could go on and on. But I won't. I enjoyed writing it, the players enjoyed testing it, and (if you decide to give it a try), I hope you'll enjoy running or otherwise encountering it. Thanks!