Call of Cthulhu has regularly presented players and storytellers with a variety of scenarios and monsters for their 1920s investigators to face. Whether it’s ghosts in a local house or unholy abominations arising to take over the world, the work of Arkham and Miskatonic has offered a multitude of options. The latest book, Order of the Stone, presents a cross-Atlantic story that will start in Ireland, cross the Atlantic in an abandoned vessel heading to Boston and force the investigators to stop the Lord of Chaos, the latest villain invented by Chaosium.
The Fandomentals got to sit down with Chaosium editor Lynne Hardy to talk about Order of the Stone and what it offers to players and GMs alike.
The Fandomentals: So where did Order of the Stone come from?
Lynne Hardy: Order of the Stone was written by Jared Twing a couple of years ago now, and as quite often happens, Mike Mason commissions interesting scenarios. In this case, it’s what we call a mini-campaign, so three linked scenarios that form an overarching story.
The story starts in Ireland in the 1920s when a small child accidentally falls over a buried artifact in a field. The object is determined to be an ancient object, so various archeological teams are brought in, including our old friends from Miskatonic University. Things go horribly wrong, and the investigators are brought in one of three ways, depending on whether they are brand new investigators, established investigators, or the pre-generated investigators that come with the campaign to investigate why an ocean liner coming into Boston isn’t answering any hails. And that sparks the three-part adventure.
What does a “mini-campaign” entail?
Hardy: That depends on how fast your players are. You could do each of the three parts in a session. The first could be a standalone, or you could run it as part of a larger campaign. It sort of lulls players into a false of security because they end up on board a ship and trying to find out what happened. You could let the players think they solved it, only for the villain at hand (known as the Lord of Chaos) to come back a little bit later.
The second and third chapters are more interlinked and run back-to-back, while you could easily place a few scenarios between the first and second chapters so investigators won’t see what’s coming.
What are the sorts of themes or ideas that come through this book?
Hardy: I can’t speak to Jared’s inspiration as he wrote it quite a bit ago, but the themes that stood out as we edited it was people taking things for granted, misinterpreting things and people believing that the way they were asked to do certain things is just kind of like for show and doesn’t have an actual purpose, you know. So things are not what they seem, really. And, of course, this theme of chaos seeping into the world, if you don’t keep a careful eye on things.
Does the Lord of Chaos draw on any particular Lovecraftian mythos?
Hardy: It’s a new concept. It has elements of the mythos and creatures since it’s from outside time and wants to take over the world. But it’s got some interesting features that draw on many fan’s favorite parts of the mythos while also being a little bit different.
Is Order of the Stone intended to help get players into the fandom, or act as an entry point for new players?
Hardy: We like our books to be multifunctional. So while it wasn’t specifically written to introduce new players, it certainly can be. You can use it to introduce them to the Miskatonic Valley. So you could use it with the Arkham sourcebook. You can use it to extend your investigations around Arkham. So it’s hopefully going to provide a lot of use for keepers. But it follows our previous pattern of providing scenarios of differing lengths and levels of involvement so that we have standalone oneshots, mini-campaigns and big, long campaigns that allow players to choose the level of involvement they desire.
Does Order of the Stone offer any other tools or resources for Keepers beyond the three scenarios?
The book has advice about pitching the level of a game depending on the capabilities of your investigators, because it isn’t necessarily something people think about. Keepers often have to ask “Do I need to have as many monsters? Do I need to have more monsters? Do I need to present something that isn’t just a firefight to get the investigators to where I need them to be?” The text itself offers some very helpful advice and guidelines for how to approach that.
Order of the Stone released on Sept. 24, 2024 and is available at the Chaosium shop, DriveThruRPG, or your FLGS at an MSRP of $42.99
Images via Chaosium
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