Week 19 (10th - 16th March 2014): The Call of Cthulhu RPG - Alone With My Appendage.

So, to continue celebrating the month of H.P. Lovecraft's death, this week's offering (and marking the 77th year since HPL's shuffling off this mortal coil on March 15th 1937) is a game that surely needs no introduction: The Call of Cthulhu rpg. The first and - surely the best - horror rpg. Over the years, a few solitaire scenarios have been produced for CoC:

On this occasion, I chose a personal favourite: Alone Against the Wendigo. This takes the now classic Fighting Fantasy/Choose-Your-Own-Adventure approach of numbered paragraphs leading you through the scenario's multiple narratives, whilst using the CoC percentile-based rules to resolve conflicts.

This particular scenario places the player in charge of a small expedition in the wilds of Canada, wherein an encounter with the Great Old One Ithaqua (the Wendigo in question) potentially plays a prominent part. For my part, after managing to avoid a group of Mi-go, losing the better part of my expedition, and killing a sasquatch (taking its head as a trophy), I managed to survive my travels through the northern wilds without losing any sanity (a rare event indeedn in CoC!). Helpfully, the Wendigo was avoided in this regard. Nice.

Great fun, and a nostalgic blast from the past. Happy Death Day, HPL!