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Mist Rolling in…

Nothing evokes Victorian London than a fog scene lit by the eerie light of streetlamps and The Hammersmith Haunting by Australian Writer and Role-Player Kat Klay captures all of this imagery and more. Not only is there fog but within stalks a ghostly white lady who gives people nightmares! This was one of the first self-published titles I bought after getting back into Call of Cthulhu as the Gaslight era has so much gothic romanticism attached to it. I’d already picked up the Hudson and Brand collection published under licence by Stygian Fox and I’m really looking forward to when Chaosium release the 7e Rulebooks for this era. But being a Keeper is different to being a player and doing justice to the written adventure can be worrying. I tend not run other people’s games in case a miss a point that is crucial for the game. I much prefer running my own games as I will not forget elements of the story and get things wrong.

Text-book Scenario

The Hammersmith Haunting was very appealing to me as I was able to easily get into the story of the game and appreciate the real life events on which it was based. Not only that but the interesting historical facts included in the game are great. The set-up was strong bringing characters together in a believable way with a simple investigative mission which ends up more dangerous than first thought! The path of the game was strong with enough room to let player interact with the scenes in whichever order they like or skip them entirely. I added some elements to give a little extra to the story but these elements where there for my indulgence not because anything was missing from the game. The Pre-generated character didn’t quite have the right layout of skills for the characters so for a playtest I replaced the pre-gens but on the game for the playhouse the Pre-gens held their own thanks to the cast of Playhouse Newman, Lydia and Stu.

Doomed to die?

Now I’m not saying the Hammersmith Haunting is deadly but without spoilers you’d best leave your favourite investigator at home for this one! I think this where some adventures can get confused in between telling a good story and playing a “winnable” game. Will the adventure be a classic Lovecraftian tale where from the opening pages you know there won’t be a happy ending? Or an investigation where clues lead investigators to a solution that may not have a happy ending but they’d try and stop the evils that brought them to this point. The Hammersmith Haunting falls towards the Lovecraftian tale with investigators swept along in events they cannot escape. If you want to watch a more spoiler filled outline of the story then Role-Player XP Lovecat has a breakdown of adventure on YouTube.

So… Any tips

Well as you ask! As a Keeper, I’d like to take some Pulp! Cthulhu characters through the adventure to see if what a brute-force approach to the game would look like. Sanity is sanity so the outcome may not be any different, but I think there could be a few less building standing in Hammersmith in this type of game! For players, you’ll love this game for the characters you meet and how they will shape your investigations. The Gaslight Era is still a very strict society with class divides. This means the non-player characters may provide information to folks of a different class but could also withhold it even when ordered to divulge anything because of their strong desire not to get into trouble. The Hammersmith Haunting is a lovely adventure to and can be played in a single session, a four-hour convention slot or slightly longer. There is a Drivethru RPG version with extra maps you won’t find in the Printed book so check this game out via the link above and support Kat Clay to write more adventure for us Mythos Investigators!