I almost didn’t write this review, as I generally only write reviews for things I like, and I didn’t especially like this.  I really wanted to, and there are good things.  However, I was hoping to have a scenario to run for some of my Women’s History loving friends.  This isn’t it.

A Midsummer Night’s Darkness is a Call of Cthulhu scenario is set in 1909, in rural Shropshire, England.  The PCs are meant to be some Suffragests, caravaning through the English countryside, giving speeches about getting the Vote for women.  My frustration is that nothing about the scenario itself has anything to do with Women’s Suffrage, the Suffragests, or the Suffragettes.  There’s an opening scene where the characters can give a speech, then the scenario moves on, and leaves what I thought would be the whole conceit by the wayside.  Once the meat of the scenario begins, it could be happening to anybody and nothing would need change.  Even the setting of 1909, or the English countryside don’t really matter.  Any camp-site in the woods with a large house nearby would pretty much fill the roll.  That’s not uncommon with Call of Cthulhu scenarios, which are often written in such a way that you can move them to wherever or whenever is appropriate for your home game, but I’m looking for more idiosyncratic, opinionated, and specific scenarios from the Miskatonic Repository.  

Essentially, the PCs make camp out in the countryside, between towns where they’re planning to make speeches and hand out pamphlets.  At the same time, two wannabe sorcerers bung up a spell and unleash something nasty.  There are several ways to get the PCs involved, and at least one ally they might be able to get info or help from.

It’s definitely “on rails.”  They’re going to have to set up the camp.  They’re going to have to get involved with what’s happening.  OK so far.  But there’s really no way to progress without forcing the players to go to Dameron Hall where the climax is meant to take place, and force them to wait for the impending creature attack.  I suppose a keeper who is ready for some improv will not have a problem dealing with players who make weird choices.  But as written, you’re really meant to force their hands.  Even having nature (in the form of a couple startled foxes) stopping them from doing one likely course of action.  There really isn’t much investigation going on in this scenario, which might have encouraged PCs to go in a certain direction.

Now, all that came off as negative, I’m sure.  I like the concept quite a bit.  And I really like the idea of a troupe of Suffragests traveling the rural roads of Edwardian England, getting mixed up in some Mythos shenanigans.  I like the fact that the most obvious victim to rescue is already past help.  I also like the layout, design, and use of old photos and posters.  Plus, I always enjoy when a Dark Young shows up.  However, I wish the villains in the story were more interesting, and maybe had some sort of thematic connection.  Occultists are often conservative and reactionary, so perhaps they may have shown up at a previous speech and thrown some slander around.  Maybe instead of a Dark Young, they’re trying to raise Clive Barker’s phallic Rawhead Rex.  I don’t know.

The scenario isn’t bad.  There’s just not very much to it.  The body of the scenario is only nine pages, out of the book’s twenty eight.  There are some nice pregenerated characters (twelve pages).  The hex map is odd, especially considering there’s no hexcrawl aspect to the adventure.  There aren’t even any handouts.  In a Call of Cthulhu scenario?  I think there’s a real missed opportunity to get into the struggle for equal rights for women in the time period.  One way I could see it maybe being useful is as a “backstory” scenario for an older character from the classic era, dealing with her first encounter with strange forces.  Like, it’s 1925 and your character thinks back to that time, sixteen years ago, when she was traveling the countryside and saw something monstrous in the woods…

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