The 1920s Investigator's Companion [Cthulhu Review]

The 1920s Investigator's Companion (2007) for Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu game is a 125-page black-and-white sourcebook that incorporates some material previous seen in the fifth edition of the core rules as well as the the two volumes of the Investigator's Companion books.

The book begins with a brief overview of the 1920s. Topics such as the Ku Klux Klan, Prohibition, fashion, and more are addressed and the chapter includes lists of famous films, books, and sports of the time period. A two-page chronology of major events finish the chapter. It's pure "fluff" but a very efficient way of getting across some of the flavor of the time period.

The next section, the longest in the book, is a detailed collection of occupations. Each occupation includes a brief description, an earnings estimate, suggested contacts, and occupational skills. Many of the occupations also provide a special feature providing a mechanical advantage in gameplay--for example, Gamblers get to add +2 to their POW score for the purposes of calculating Luck, while Judges get a bonus to their Credit Rating skill and Stunt Men reduce falling damage. Most of the bonuses are fairly minor, but some min/maxing players might be tempted to pick certain occupations solely for their special features as the occupations are not strictly "balanced": the "Uniformed Police Officer" occupation provides a +1 to Strength, a +1 to Size, 50 bonus points to any weapon or melee skills, and resistance to Sanity loss for witnessing violent crimes. Wise Keepers may want to retain a veto if choices aren't being made for their role-playing possibilities.

To my mind this is the most important and useful chapter in the book, as it provides players with far more options than those presented in the core rules. Indeed, sometimes it seems like there are more variants of certain occupations than are strictly necessary--in the "Criminals" section alone, there are write-ups for Bank Robbers, Bookies, Bootleggers, Burglars, Con Men, Fences, Forgers, Gamblers, Gangsters, Hit Men, Hookers, Loan Sharks, Pick Pockets, Punks, Shifty Accountants/Lawyers, Smugglers, and Spies. In addition, this chapter includes brief biographies of famous people that fit into each occupational category--the "Performing Arts" section has one- to two-paragraph long bios for Lon Chaney, Bela Bartok, John Barrymore, Will Rogers. No stats are provided, but some made-to-order NPCs are easy to envision.

The next chapter is titled "1920s Skills" This chapter reprints the skill descriptions from the core rules, but for each skill a short description of how it applies in the 1920s is included. The description of the "Listen" skill, for example, includes details on how phone taps in the era were made. Again, very helpful for a 1920s game even if not strictly necessary.

The next major section, broadly titled "Tools of the Trade", features a miscellany of information. Several pages cover research in the 1920s, including the availability of public records, newspapers, libraries, consultants, and more. This information is all "real-world" with nothing Mythos- or mechanics- specific. The "Transport & Travel" section offers plenty of useful tips on things such as how much taxis cost, what rail travel is like, and what types of autos were on the road. Some of it is almost too-detailed for use in normal gameplay, but I find it handy to flip through now and again. Finally, there's a section on equipment and weapons, including prices. Again, detailed but helpful: who wouldn't want stats for nine different types of knives, and damage ranges for common weapons around the house (everything from ice picks to scissors)?

The last section, "Words of Wisdom" contains two chapters. The first one, "The Professional Investigator" contains general tips on criminal investigation. The second one discusses forensic crime scene investigation and coroners in the 1920s. Both chapters are factual with no reference to Mythos phenomena or gameplay mechanics.

All in all this is an excellent resource for 1920s campaigns. The chapters on occupations, skills, and equipment can directly impact game mechanics, while the other sections help the Keeper establish a more-or-less accurate atmosphere for the time period. Good work Chaosium.