Shenandoah is a product that I first owned in print after picking it up at RinCon 2009. It's great to see it in e-book format.

Call of Cthulhu is one of the most long-lasting and beloved properties in roleplaying. Chaosium recognized early on that H.P. Lovecraft's groundbreaking horror stories would always be able to find an audience, and a roleplaying game set in that world would always have something to offer. There have been many takes on Cthulhoid roleplaying recently, from the more mystery-structured Trail of Cthulhu to the anime-influenced Cthulhutech, which is as it should be, since Lovecraft was significant not only in his own right, but as inspiration to modern authors and creators. But the Chaosium approach has held steady for almost-identical edition after edition and as a result they've built a great catalog over the years.

One thing about Call of Cthulhu I have always found interesting is that it takes as its approach that you are roleplaying "in the world" of H.P. Lovecraft. That is, much CoC material is based on developing a consistent geography and understandable mythos (at least in its close-up form), rather than trying to emulate the fictional material itself. (Lovecraft protagonists are often blank slates who don't do much anyway - not a great formula for successful RPG play.) Other scenarios give a string of events, though sometimes these run afoul of the plague of pre-published modules, railroading.

Shenandoah does an excellent job of walking the line between these two types of Call of Cthulhu material. It details the daily life and inhabitants of a small isolated town in the Ozark Mountains in 1927, when the investigators arrive looking into a mysterious set of events that are brought about by MONSTARS. An enormous amount of effort goes into making the inhabitants and surroundings real, detailed and thorough, so that investigators feel they are prying into the secrets of a real place, with their actions as outsiders having significant consequence for the community.

I can't stress enough how important setting is in avoiding the feeling of railroading in a scenario. If players feel they have permission to explore, that they won't accidentally bump into the backdrop (uh, accidentally run into the edge of the level, if you prefer a video game analogy to a theater analogy), they are more likely to conduct themselves in a more naturalistic and straightforward way...which ironically reduces the problems that railroading tends to try to fix! Shenandoah does a marvelous job of this.

There is a decent introductory text that tries to get across the feel of Cthulhoid horror and the nature of insanity in the world of Lovecraft. There are some ludicrous tournament rules for trying to determine what investigator did best in the scenario. (-2 for bathroom breaks, really?) Some of the points you get are for rolling really well. (Shouldn't the success in the moment be my reward for rolling well...shouldn't I gain more tournament points from flubbing things up, panicking and running and putting everyone at risk?) It would be better to have limited it entirely to hitting or discovering various secrets or plots related to the situation. And anyway, Call of Cthulhu is a game about a team of people, so introducing competitive elements is silly.

Call of Cthulhu has a successful formula and a successful approach to some often very difficult-to-envision literary material, and Shenandoah does a terrific job of showing some of the best that Chaosium has to offer. Let's hope this Monograph series, which produces somewhat smaller and simpler Call of Cthulhu materials, continues for a long time!