TTRPG Thoughts: Call of Cthulhu 7e Starter Set

Like a great many people who witnessed WotC’s fall from grace in January of 2023, I was filled with a sudden curiosity to play new tabletop games. I had already been playing small indie games from itch.io such as Apothecaria and Ebb Tide, but those were all solo games; I wanted to bring something to my regular D&D players to tempt them away from WotC and broaden their horizons.

I got the Call of Cthulhu Starter Set in physical form for Christmas, and when it went on sale in PDF form I couldn’t exactly say no—so, my players and I migrated to Chaosium’s eldritch fields. We’ll probably finish up our Eberron campaign in D&D 5e before switching to Pathfinder 2e for good, but so far we’ve been enjoying our time in the 1920s with Chaosium.

This “review” is going to cover two Call of Cthulhu adventures from the Starter Set: Alone Against the Flames (a solo adventure) and Edge of Darkness (an adventure designed for 2-4 investigators/player characters and 1 Keeper/GM). I had a good time with both of the two adventures, but there were definitely some drawbacks.

TTRPG Thoughts: Her Odyssey

Her Odyssey is a solo journaling TTRPG that uses the Caltrop Core system developed by Titanomachy. The game was created by Kaiya and is free to download and play. In Her Odyssey, you play as a wanderer who is going on a journey—the wheres, whys, and hows of that journey are up to you—and whom you must flesh out into a unique character.

Apothecaria Playthrough 1

So, I mentioned in my post about Apothecaria that I was going to write out my first week of playing through the game, written as though in my character’s journal. I really enjoyed this as a writing exercise, since I haven’t done any story-form creative writing in… well, it feels like forever. I ended up writing 1,000-ish words on Day One of playing the game, and then slammed through another 3,000 words on Day Two to finish up my character’s first week as the witch of High Rannoc. I don’t think anyone is interested in reading about my character’s downtime activities in the village or initial investigation of the old witch’s cottage, so I chopped out those sections; what you’ll find under the cut is my character’s arrival in High Rannoc + their first foraging adventure.

Please enjoy your stay in my imagining of the world of Apothecaria!

TTRPG Thoughts: Apothecaria

Apothecaria is a solo journaling TTRPG written by Anna Blackwell and released in 2021, and after playing it I’d describe it as a mashup of Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989) and ConcernedApe’s Stardew Valley. Anna has also created other solo TTRPG games such as Delve, RISE, and Umbra, which I am eager to pick up once my paycheck comes in—find them on itch.io!

I initially balked at purchasing Apothecaria for myself, since this was my first time actually buying a TTRPG on itch.io and I wasn’t sure that it would be money well spent, but the promises of herbcraft and foraging sang their siren songs to me… and I’m glad I gave in! Apothecaria manages to pack a lot of information into its 60-page PDF, and is much more than just a simple potion-making game; there’s the mystery of the former local witch (who has gone missing, and whose cottage and job your character has inherited), the social events within the village of High Rannoc, and all of the adventures that your character undergoes while foraging for potion ingredients. I had a lot of fun playing!