A Brief Call of Cthulhu Retrospective.

I was idly re-arranging the specimen cabinets this evening when I came across this motley bunch:

Being in this case the player characters from a Call of Cthulhu campaign I ran for a couple of friends in 2007/2008. They are from left to right: Somers Lovell Badcock (Bart), Francis Horabin, Felicity Winters & Harvey Jones; their respective professions being tea importer, archaeologist, parapshychologist & private detective. The bearded gentleman in the background is Ibrahim, their middle eastern fixer & general man about the bazaar.
This was a bit of a renaissance for me roleplaying wise as it was the first time since polytechnic days that I had been able to pull together a prolonged campaign of any significance and perhaps more remarkably with a game that I had previously paid little heed. That is not to say I was unfamiliar with Call of Cthulhu previously: on the contrary, through the agency of White Dwarf I was well exposed to its influence but for whatever reason it passed me by as a younger man. Unusually( perhaps) it was reading H.P. Lovecrafts fiction that drew both my players and I into trying Call of Cthulhu. Enjoying Lovecraft's work didn't prevent us from playing in a slightly pulp manner however. Although after some narrow escapes from the Grim Reaper my players did become a lot less gung ho in their approach to their investigations.
Most of the action took place in the East End of London* in the year of the General Strike and variously featured opium dealers, night club owners and union activists many of whom were there simply for the purposes of confusion. Eventually the activity moved up West where the true rot was found and rather bloodily expunged. After this the characters retired back into what one hopes would be a quieter life but in the vernacular of Ian Fleming, never say never.
* Although a brief sojourn to the Levant was involved to help out a pair of Jewish archaeologists they met whilst investigating The Surrey Enigma.