A TIME TO HARVEST Is An Incredibly Well Written CALL OF CTHULHU Campaign
Chaosium sent me a copy of their most recent Call of Cthulhu campaign book A Time to Harvest. This is played across 5 chapters with a bonus 6th chapter adventure that takes place after the events of the main campaign. The whole campaign is compatible with both regular Call of Cthulhu and Pulp Cthulhu rules. This book is incredibly detailed and although overwhelming at first, is laid out well and comes with many aids in the PDF.
First and foremost, we need to go over the content warning. This campaign deals with themes that people may find distressing in a way that will make you not want to play this campaign. The main theme is child suicide and violence by and against children. Other disturbing scenes include animal cruelty and a male NPC being obsessed with a female NPC. These are all things you should be aware of happening in this campaign if you plan on buying the book and running it, so if any of these topics are ones you do not wish to even read about, this book is not for you. If you can at least read about this topics, then it is highly recommended that you discuss with your players before even starting what their comfort levels are. Each of these aspects can be changed, for example with the child violence you can simply age up the cultists. There are suggestions throughout the book on how to deal with these things while playing so pay close attention to those moments to ensure everyone at your table is comfortable and having fun. Again, be sure to discuss these things and have tools in place for your players to voice concerns or discomforts in game.
This campaign is going to be a masterclass in NPCs for anyone who decides to run it. There are a lot of people and moving pieces to keep track of while playing as there are a few different settings your investigators will traverse. Fortunately, the PDF does have a reference guide that breaks down which characters and monsters are where, but I highly recommend some kind of extra aid for you to use as a quick reference and to write down notes for things that come up in the game. This is the aspect that makes me say this is a better campaign for a more experienced keeper. As someone who is just starting out with Call of Cthulhu, the number of NPCs is absolutely daunting, but if you are someone who loves a thorough and well built world to play in, this is definitely it. I don’t want to dissuade any newcomers from trying this, just know that you will want to consider running a few other games of Cthulhu before this one. That being said, this book does a great job at helping newer keepers know how to guide players where they need and how to thwart or delay them as needed.
This campaign has an incredibly detailed setting and tons of extra resources for you to use. Even if you decide not to run this particular story, this book would be incredibly useful as just a setting for a different campaign, especially one that at least partially takes place at Miskatonic University in Arkham. There’s a lot of good guides for building students and other academic related investigators.
One of the best parts of getting this book is that it does come with a PDF at no extra charge. Of course you can get a PDF only version for cheaper than a physical copy, but I do really appreciate that Chaosium includes PDFs with their physical copies. I assume this is mainly because Call of Cthulhu has so many handouts for players, but it is still really great to have both a digital and physical copy of the books.
This campaign book, though highly detailed and daunting at first glance, is incredibly well made. With tons of maps, detailed NPCs, extra resources, and lots of help for new and more experienced keepers it will provide hours of gameplay for a group. Just be aware of the very mature themes contained in the story. I give this campaign book a 10/10, I’m excited to be able to run this in the future when I can take the time to really do it right.
