Call of Cthulhu: Campfire Tales – Scouts Against Cthulhu by Various

Seth Stauffer

What happens when the adults are kidnapped, succumb to madness, or even worse? Who steps in to solve the mysteries? Well, the local kids, of course! This new supplement offers a variety of ideas and rules for playing as children in Chaosium’s Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game. Will those meddling kids manage to save the day? Only investigators willing to push their limits will be able to find out.

The supplement presents several early-20th-century modules in which the players are Scouts. It’s a fitting contrast between what many people stereotype as a wholesome youth club and the terrors of Lovecraftian horror. There are special rules and several modules varying in complexity and length. None of them struck me as demanding significant experience, and so this book is fairly accessible.

Honestly, I love a product that expands the game, but also puts that new content into immediate action. Campfire Tales lays out why it exists, how to use it, and then several modules. There were no glaring issues with the book. It’s a unique and high-quality supplement.  From the consumer perspective, it’s exactly what you’d want.  This will be reiterated in the conclusion: this is a good book, but with an asterisk.

I had trouble with this review; it’s about children.  Yes, there is a content warning. I also believe there were likely fairly extensive deliberations about whether this should be written. In Campfire Tales, the kids are the protagonists, making them the ones most susceptible to the brutality so common in Lovecraftian fiction.

It’s hard to move past the torture, murder, and madness which fill the pages of pretty much anything Cthulhu-related. Children are present in this kind of fiction, yet are rarely anything more than minor figures.  It’s difficult to tone that down and keep in line with the original fiction, but in a manner more applicable to something like Scooby-Doo.

For all the reasons above, this is a great book, but for a more limited audience. Despite its merits, not everyone will feel comfortable sending kids out to investigate eldritch monstrosities. For those people who want to put a different spin on their CoC games, this is a great way to do it. When it comes to solving mysteries regarding the unknown in weird fiction, the kids are alright.