Mansions of Madness (Call of Cthulhu)
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 Cover art by Lee Gibbons | |
| Designers | |
|---|---|
| Publishers | Chaosium |
| Publication | 1990 |
| Genres | Horror |
| Systems | Basic Role-Playing |
Mansions of Madness is a collection of adventure scenarios published by Chaosium in 1990 for the horror role-playing game Call of Cthulhu, itself based on the works of H.P. Lovecraft.
Mansions of Madness is a collection of five horror occult adventures set in the 1920s, all of them focused on a mansion or other large building:
- "Mr. Corbitt" (by Shawn deWolfe): An innocent-looking neighbor has a disturbing secret hobby of worshiping Things from Beyond.
- "The Plantation" (by Wesley Martin): Set in southern Georgia and involving voodoo.
- "The Crack'd and Crook'd Manse" (by Mark Morrison): An investigation of a deadly mansion.
- "The Sanatorium" (by Keith Herber): The Investigators are trapped on an island with madmen.
- "Mansion of Madness": A three-part adventure that centers on a strange, highly coveted black stone.[1]
All of the adventures comply with the rules for the fourth edition of Call of Cthulhu. There are seven pages of player handouts, although these are not perforated and must be either cut out or photocopied.[2]
Publication history
Chaosium first released the horror role-playing game Call of Cthulhu in 1981, and regularly refreshed it with new editions containing revamped rules. The fourth edition's release in 1989 sparked a line of products that game historian Stu Horvath called "the golden age for the line".[3] One of these products was Mansions of Madness, with adventures written by Fred Behrendt, Shawn DeWolfe, Keith Herber, Wesley Martin, and Mark Morrison, with cover art by Lee Gibbons and interior illustrations by Janet Aulisio and Sam Inabinet.[4] It was published by Chaosium in 1990 as a 128-page book.[1]
Chaosium republished Mansions of Madness in 2007, with a sixth scenario added. In 2021, Chaosium released Mansions of Madness, Volume 1: Behind Closed Doors, which includes two of the original adventures — Mister Corbitt and The Crack'd and Crook'd Mirror — both updated for the latest version of Call of Cthulhu by Lynne Hardy. The book also contains three new scenarios by Lynne Harvey, Christopher Lackey, Gavin Iglis, and Stuart Boon.[5]