Alone Against the Wendigo
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| Solitaire Adventure in Canada's Wilds | |
|---|---|
 First edition artwork by Dan & David Day, 1985. | |
| Designers | Glen Rahman |
| Publishers | Chaosium |
| Publication | 1985 |
| Genres | Horror |
| Systems | Basic Role-Playing |
| ISBN | 978-1-56882-370-6 |
Alone Against the Wendigo, subtitled Solitaire Adventure in Canada's Wilds, is a solo adventure published by Chaosium in 1985 for the horror role-playing game Call of Cthulhu. Written by Glen Rahman, it is the first Call of Cthulhu solo adventure published, and as part of the plot the player character anthropologist Dr. L. C. Nadelmann travels deep into the wilds of Canada, facing challenges and an encounter with the Wendigo. Chaosium published an expanded second edition of the adventure in 2019 retitled Alone Against the Frost.
Plot summary
Alone Against the Wendigo is a Call of Cthulhu adventure gamebook for a single player, with no need for a referee. The reader starts on the first page, then is sent on a path through different numbered paragraphs; the path can vary widely depending on the decision the reader makes at the end of each paragraph.
The reader takes on the role of Dr. L. C. Nadelmann, an anthropologist from Miskatonic University. The doctor, accompanied by a local Métis guide and three graduate students, travels deep into the Canadian wilderness, seeking the mysterious North Hanninah valley.[1] The doctor and companions will face many challenges, including an encounter with the Wendigo.
Gameplay
Blank Investigator sheets are provided. After choosing Dr. Nadelmann's gender, the player must then choose how to allocate 390 skill points, with at least 40 going towards Anthropology.[2]
The player starts the adventure by reading the first paragraph of the adventure. All of the subsequent 654 paragraphs are individually numbered; much like the Fighting Fantasy series of adventure books published by Games Workshop, decisions made by the player, or succeeding or failing at luck, combat or skill dice rolls, will route the player to different paragraphs, providing a varying storyline depending on the choices, successes and failures the player makes.
At the end of each paragraph, the player is rewarded with a certain number of "Hanninah Mythos" ("HM") points, representing the knowledge the doctor has learned.
Victory conditions
The player can consider the game won if the doctor defeats the Wendigo, returns with all his party members alive, and is in possession of
- a map of the Golden Ledge
- the head of the Sasquatch
- and evidence of animal and plant life thought to have been extinct[2]
Replays
The same player can replay the adventure over again to see what different decisions and successes or failures have on the storyline. If the doctor dies, the player can restart, the only requirement being that Dr. Nadelmann's skill points must be reallocated, and the doctor will only be credited with 1/5th of the HM points that the previous doctor earned before he died.[2] If Dr. Nadelmann survived but only scored a partial victory, the player can send the doctor out into the wilderness again with the same character sheet and full accumulated HM points as well as renewed vigor, sanity and constitution scores.[2]
