No Shirt : No Shoes : No Service

Super Genius Games, with a license from Chaosium Games, has published a supplement for Call of Cthulhu, “A Peculiar Pentad”.

The Authors: Written & Designed by: Jeff Grubb, Gwendolyn F.M. Kestrel, Jeff Quick, John D. Rateliff, Thomas M. Reid, and Stan! Artwork by: Aaron Acevedo

The Pros: • As designed, this supplement provides five unique “shops” investigators could possibly use to further their struggle against the Mythos. • Super Genius Games creative director, Stan!, provides a general description for a sixth location that keepers can develop to suit their own campaign needs. • The supplement was designed by a team of creators, with each creator focusing on a separate shop. • The artwork compliments the tone and feel of the supplement. • The creators provided adventures hooks so keepers can draw the investigators in to each shop and its proprietor. • No maps! What, no maps as a “Pro”? Yep. Without maps a keeper can run each shop fast and loose, or design their own map for the shop. Some keepers may have felt restricted if maps had been provided. In this instance, the lack of maps is a “Pro”. • Each shop has suggestions on how it can be adapted to either a Gaslight or Modern era setting.

The Cons: • Suggestions are not provided on how to adapt any of the shops for a Dark Ages or Roman Invictus setting. • If a keeper runs a shop and its proprietor(s) as outlined by the creator, it could take quite some time before the investigators have access to that shop’s “inner sanctum”. This could greatly delay an adventure if the keeper has chosen to supplement a shop from “A Peculiar Pentad” for a similar shop in a published adventure. • A couple of the shops, the art gallery and the private social club, could have limited appeal to keepers and investigators. • Super Genius Games has so far only published one of these supplements.

The Summary: The “Cons” in this review are very minor; this is a fantastic supplement, and would be a boon for any keeper. The five shops detailed in this supplement are “The Biblioporium”, a book store, by Thomas M. Reid, “Fixx’s Fixxit”, a repair shop, by Jeff Grubb, “Healing Herbs”, an herbal store, by Gwendolyn F.M. Kestrel, “Hubert’s Fine Arts”, an art gallery, by John D. Rateliff, and “The Sleipnir Club”, a private social club, by Jeff Quick. Creative director Stan! also gives a general outline for a sixth location called “Pentagon Place” that keepers can flesh-out as they see fit.

The Score: On a 5-point scale, “A Peculiar Pentad” scores a 4.5!