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This is one of the early supplements to Call of Cthulhu produced by Chaosium in the last century (okay, that was just for drama -- it was published in 1990 -- so it's an earlier product than many). At the time of its publication, it was one of the best, and the addition of the article on unusual weapons resonated particularly with the group I was playing with at the time (they were always into peace through superior firepower as a modus operandi). The scenarios are well-written and tightly organized, making them easy for a Keeper to make his own. As noted in the blurb, two of them are fairly easy on the investigators (though you can tough them up quickly enough -- and notes are included to help you do that if you so choose), while the third is a killer and best used as a one-shot unless you want to spend a LOT of time rewriting and excluding the worst enemies from the scenario (in which case, why exactly couldn't the local's handle it, again?). Like many of the earlier Chaosium products, this one has a "theme" (Scientific experimentation) which more or less ties the various scenarios together, however they are not designed or intended to be played as a mini-campaign. They are simply one-time horrors that the players may confront -- perfect for those interludes between major campaigns! As a result, they are somewhat more free-flowing than the original campaigns were (Shadows of Yog-Sothoth particularly) and tend not to put the characters in the position of feeling railroaded around the mystery theme park; though the scenarios do lack some of the flexibility that later campaigns and scenarios provided as a matter of course. One particularly nice touch in one of the scenarios was the inclusion of a reference to the Theron Marks Handbook (published in an earlier supplement -- The Terror From the Stars -- which is, alas, unavailable in its original format which included the Handbook -- one of the coolest things ever included in the supplements; Chaosium, do you hear me? Bring back the Theron Marks handbook!!!!!!), but since you don't have a copy of it, you'll either have to make it up or just pass on by. The handouts are easily reproduced and the quality of DriveThru's reproduction meets the high standards we've come to expect from them. Overall, this one gets a solid "5" for its scenario quality, the additional material on unusual firearms, and the quality of the reproduction. Excellent job to both Chaosium and DriveThru!
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I'm not sure why the previous reviewer confused this product with the BRP Quickstart, but this product *does* contain 400+ pages of role-playing goodness. This book is a solid foundation for a DIY game, in any genre: fantasy, science-fiction, horror, historical, post-apocalyptic, or mashups yet to be devised.
The core system will be familiar to players of RuneQuest, Stormbringer, Call of Cthulhu, and nearly every other game Chaosium ever printed. However, the author has included a plethora of optional and variant rules culled from BRP's rich history, from hit locations and strike ranks to EDU and Sanity from Call of Cthulhu, to skill category bonuses and skills over 100%. (There's even a handy checklist of all optional rules for GMs to provide players.) On the paranormal side, the book presents two different magic systems ("magic" from Magic World and "sorcery" from Stormbringer), mutations, psychic powers, and super powers, Allegiance, and creatures from prehistory, mythology, and possible futures. Anyone who wants to emulate a specific game, e.g. Call of Cthulhu, can.
Granted, the book is a little weak on science-fiction, but SF is such a wide field that no reasonable-sized book can encompass them all and other genres too. Likewise, it doesn't contain every creature ever made, but it has common ones and enough examples to extrapolate from. Also, don't expect a detailed treatment of every genre and historical period ... but the GM section includes a rundown of broad historical periods. There's only so much that can fit into 400 pages, after all.
For a straightforward campaign in nearly any genre, this book is all you need. GMs with more specific or outre ideas might need to do a little work ... assuming they can't borrow from previous Chaosium RPGs, Mongoose's RuneQuest, or fanzines and websites, which use practically the same system.
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A monster manual for Call of Cthulhu.
But it is more than that. CoC is not a monster hunting game, it is often a fact or truth finding one and so the monsters here are placed in context in the world. There are reasons why they are here and they have agendas. There are myths about them all so there is plenty to do with the information in this book and the players my never even encounter or fight one of the monsters (but that would be a shame). The art is a mixed lot, but I think that is a plus in this sense, since there is a "pieced together" feel the publisher was looking for. A monster is mentioned here in one context then on the other side of the world decades later in another. The book does give that feel. There are some photos as well for and added feel of this being the work of investigators of time gone by.
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Long before I met Oscar Rios at I-CON, I was a fan of his work. The very first monograph I purchased was Ripples from Carcosa, and Oscar's prolific writing positions him at the forefront of the latest generation of Call of Cthulhu authors. Oscar's creativity is in full force with this collection of scenarios. If you need evidence of Oscar's different take on the Mythos, this collection was written by white mice at the Harbor Place Hotel in Kingsport. Please note that this review contains spoilers.
The first scenario, The Devil is in the Details, riffs on John Carpenter's The Thing. Investigators are inventorying the contents of a house full of artifacts. Isolated by a snowstorm, they are stuck in the house with their employer, his mistress, and the hired help. Inevitably, people begin dying one by one, and it's up to the investigators to stop the non-Mythos beast before it kills them all and escapes. Although this plot might seem rote, there are actually several twists – the creature has a distinctly feminine slant, it can take on a multitude of forms, and it grows more powerful the more it's destroyed. This is a better than average "locked in the house with a monster" tale, helped by Oscar's clear writing, helpful sidebars, and useful handouts. Four out of five stars.
The second scenario, Keys of Madness, takes place in two parts. The first tracks down a rogue scientist and his lover, last seen researching rumors of Atlantis. There's quite a bit of backstabbing and skulduggery as local gangs compete for the supposed Atlantean treasure, which of course has a Mythos connection. The Mythos connection, as explored in part two, involves shoggoths, elder things, and alien technology. This scenario works overtime to make the shoggoth threat different than the usual encounter (that ends in the investigators' immediate and awful death). It's a smart shoggoth, capable of pulling off a variety of tricks reminiscent of Terminator 2: vocal mimicry, physical camouflage, and all kinds of deception. These changes make the shoggoth a worthy opponent…but these changes eventually make the creature not much of a shoggoth. The conclusion to the scenario is more reminiscent of Delta Green than traditional Cthulhu Now scenarios. While it's an interesting scenario and the twists are certainly a role-playing challenge, it feels like the shoggoth/elder thing mythology is being strained a bit to suit the scenario. Three out of five stars.
The third scenario, Born Into the Darkness, is inspired H.P. Lovecraft's "The Lurking Fear," the "Home" episode of the X-Files, and The Hills Have Eyes. A family of degenerates, so in-bred that they have transformed into murderous cannibals, make a living eating lonesome travelers. They have a confederate in the form of an 11-year-old voodoo priestess, who is just as dangerous as the cannibals. Much of the scenario focuses on researching what happened to those who disappeared and the murky history of the young girl. The scenario's rising dread reaches a climax as the investigators uncover the truth, but there's not much advice on the actual final conflict. Less experienced Keepers may have difficulty with the guerrilla warfare of the mutants in the claustrophobic tunnels. Four out of five stars.
There are few authors who can match Oscar's creativity in providing new twists on the Mythos. He takes big risks and, although the result isn't always perfect, is certainly different enough to surprise even the most experienced players.
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Call of Cthulhu is as much about horror as it is about history. Keepers and players everywhere enjoy the handouts, the props, and the attention to detail of the era. Although the Victorian era (known colloquially as "Gaslight" in Call of Cthulhu terms) has never been as mainstream at the 1920s setting it's just as creepy. This straightforward catalog rounds out the setting by providing equipment lists drawn from real mail-order catalogs.
The Gaslight Equipment Catalogue includes everything from currency to camping gear, toiletries to transportation. Throughout are sprinkled helpful facts about different pieces of equipment: the importance of hats, timelines of technological development, how cameras worked, and so on. With the exception of the weapons sections, there are surprisingly few rules for Call of Cthulhu. This is a good thing, as much of the equipment doesn't affect the game either way but merely provides color to an existing campaign.
The entire PDF seems to have been formatted in an older version of Microsoft Word; I recognize the table format. It's a little rough, with clipart pictures of varying clarity sprinkled throughout. But that's also part of the Catalogue's charm – it feels like a real Victorian catalogue. It's an excellent supplement for any game master looking to run a Victorian-era game.
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Legacies of the Renaissance is a large Call of Cthulhu scenario set in 1920s Europe. It revolves around the struggle over John Dee's Stone of Concordance, which is actually two halves of a whole -- the red positive half and the blue negative half was in opposition, balancing each other out. Separated, the two pieces have gone missing until recently. An evil mastermind named Sire Lawrence Chantry, dying from cancer, tracks down the stones in the hope that they will bestow immortality. This review contains spoilers!
Chantry is reminiscent of the Abominable Dr. Phibes. He manipulates four academics into helping track down the stone by "poisoning them with his own cancer." The initial summary doesn't explain how this happens for the Keeper, but it later becomes clear how Sir Lawrence did it – he has two spells that prolong his life at the expense of others by transferring his affliction. Still, you've got to wonder why four brilliant academics couldn't figure out how to escape Sir Lawrence's treachery after four years…
Sir Lawrence dislikes meddling investigators and he sends them a message by chopping off the genitals of one of police sergeants, David, investigating the case. He then sends said David's genitals in a box. Later, the investigators have the pleasure of finding the poor sergeant, missing both hands, one foot, his scalp, eyes, nose, and genitals. It's up to the investigators as to what do with the poor soul. Although there's a sanity loss for witnessing this horrific event, there isn't any sanity loss (or really, any text) for the terrible choice the investigators face with David. The authors do know how to handle these sorts of terrible choices however, as a later scene places the investigators in a leper colony. It's clear that a major theme of Legacies of the Renaissance is infection.
Legacies of the Renaissance has its moments – the creepy angels the investigators encounter play with notions of a neat hierarchical order to the heavens – but it also railroads players more than a freight train. Villains escape "no matter what the players do," certain characters must survive so they can be killed off gruesomely later, and the entire scenario gives a vibe that the authors are crafting more story than scenario. Experience players who trust the Keeper will go along for the ride, but new players or inexperienced Keepers may find the scenario a challenge.
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http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id= 81995&affiliate_id=34014
There are two kinds of popular approaches to Call of Cthulhu gaming. One is the longer campaign, which is something of an oxymoron given that investigators supposedly go mad or die at the drop of a hat. Of course, this isn't true – Keepers ensure that there's some level of character continuity and often allow investigators to ensure a broader story arc. Where Call of Cthulhu gets its reputation as a "player-killer" kind of game is from short scenarios with pregenerated characters, often run at conventions. This format is particularly freeing as it allows designers to create scenarios that place the Cthulhu Mythos in unusual circumstances, far afield from the standard 1920s default setting. Ramblings of a Twisted Muse takes this approach. This review contains spoilers!
The first scenario, A Night in Edo, takes place in pre-World War II Japan in 1925, a foreign setting for most American players. The plot is more Japanese- than Mythos-inspired, involving ghouls, undead sorcerers, and a sentient blade. There's not much in the way of investigation, as the investigators are on a mission to rescue a damsel in distress. The scenario is lethal, culminating in six ghouls and two crawling ones, one of them wielding a POW-draining mind-controlling blade. The investigators must go into this death trap with just the weapons they have handy (there's no time to get them back), faced with darkness and an underwater tunnel where there's a real possibility that one of them might drown. The spellcasting Shinto priest player character has just a 25% Swim skill and must throw paper inscribed with symbols to cast his spells – thematically appropriate but awfully inconvenient in a damp tunnel. Fortunately, the tunnel can be circumvented if the investigators choose the right path…but why have it there at all? This scenario doesn't feel very playtested and the investigators seem like a distinct disadvantage without Keeper fiat to help them survive. Good pacing, great setting, terrible execution. Two out of five stars.
The second scenario, Dreams of Egyptos, takes place in an Egyptian tomb. The investigators are descendants of an ancient sorcerer, unknowingly investigating his resting place. As they explore the area, there's a chance they remember snippets of ancestral memory…or something worse that sets one of the PCs secretly against the rest. It's that kind of scenario. The conclusion involves a battle with an endless number of Children of the Sphinx, the sorcerer himself, a possible traitor in the investigator ranks, and then another betrayal if the investigators choose their words poorly. The use of flashbacks is certainly interesting and gives the investigators some advantage as they remember some spells, but there's a fine line between creating a scenario that culminates in an exciting battle and one in which one wrong roll dooms the entire group. Two out of five stars.
Grey House on the Hill is broken into two parts. The first involves an investigator returning to his family residence after the death of his father. His accomplished Mythos-hunter comrades accompany him, of course. It's a good thing too, because the investigators will have to face down numerous zombies, a Worm That Walks, mind-controlled locals, a Fosterling of the Old Ones. Unlike the other two scenarios, the investigators are not hobbled by circumstance or repressed memories. They're armed to the teeth with spells and magical items to boot. They actually have a chance at surviving the first half.
In the second half, where the investigators converge on the scenario's namesake, they are even more prepared. There's an opportunity to buy equipment and even read up on their foe. As it turns out, this house is no ordinary house – it has more in common with the movie of the same name than the usual haunted house, being a series of portals to other dimensions. The battle crosses dimensions and ends in the lair of a Great Old One. Unlike the other scenarios, where the players are punished arbitrarily for playing their investigators as real people rather than SWAT team members, these investigators ARE the Call of Cthulhu equivalent of a SWAT team. The odds against them are great, but the investigators are no lightweights. So long as the players are smart – and there is a running assumption throughout all these scenarios that experienced players are up to the challenge – they might just succeed. Four out of five stars.
The final scenario, Senior Project, takes places at Miskatonic University. A Miskatoinc professor and his students are up against two former investigators who believe they have discovered the Yithian secret of perpetual energy. Instead, the two deluded scientists have been corrupted by the forces of the Mythos and are well on their way to destroying the world with their mad plans. It's up to the investigators to do some actual investigating – not the kind that digs up notes in random places, but actual role-playing with other characters. This scenario, like the Grey House on the Hill, provides investigators with the tools to succeed. Four out of five stars.
Overall, this series of scenarios squeaks by with a rating of three stars. It's not that the scenarios are poorly written, but that they are overreaching in their ambition. The style of play is most certainly a pulpy, two-fisted spellcasting-and-magic-weapon-wielding style of play that isn't for everybody. Too many of the scenarios can short-circuit investigators' plans with a poor die roll, and the scenarios as written seem all too eager to kill them off. If the players are experienced Call of Cthulhu veterans, these scenarios will definitely test their mettle. But for players more interested in role-playing and less interested in combat, their experience will definitely be "twisted."
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Where The Abbey provided a base of operations for a Cthulhu Dark Ages campaign, The Pastores fills the role of recurring nefarious opposition. The Pastores is a fertility cult led by powerful sorcerers with an army of gyaa-yothn mutants. It has parallels in the Skoptsi from Delta Green: Countdown, a work the author admits he became aware of only after developing the outline of Pastores. It also functions a bit like the Cult of Transcendence – an extremely powerful, sometimes fractured series of interrelated cults and Mythos beings that can be linked together to form an entire campaign.
Pastores is thoroughly researched. It has linkages to ancient fertility rites, but mixes those rites with Christian symbolism. Shub-Niggurath is not known by that name, such that the cult doesn't even recognize their patron goddess as such. In other words, the Pastores is thoroughly divorced from standard Mythos canon and is instead a living, breathing Dark Ages organization. It feels ignorant, wicked, and medieval, as any good cult in the Dark Ages should.
The opposition includes a variant Dark Young, "meat beasts," goblins, sorcerers, and a thing called Sleipner. If there's a weakness in the Pastores presentation it's Sleipner, who feels like a modern supervillain thrust into an otherwise coherent cult. According to the illustration, Sleipner looks like a giant spider with horse legs and bat wings. He has six legs, like the steed of legend, and is used as a sort of railroading heavy to force the investigators along a particular path as the included scenarios dictate. There's also a suggested spell to replace shriveling named…"Freezing Zap Ray." In a monograph so dedicated to reinforcing the feel of the Dark Ages, this title seems like an afterthought.
What really makes Pastores stand out are its scenarios. They all involve terrible choices. In one case, terminally afflicted investigators are tempted to eat a mutagenic fruit; in another, they must consider tearing out their own eyes to avoid being pursued by Sleipner; in a third, the heads of children (just their heads) must be rescued from a fate worse than death. Torture, infanticide, corruption…the Pastores reinforces the grim nature of a Dark Ages campaign.
If the writing excels, the artwork simply can't keep up. Mythos beasts look fine, but the various non-player characters look like beady-eyed cartoons. Some of the pictures are used multiple times, which only reinforces that the mediocrity of the artwork.
The Pastores provides a comprehensive enemy that feels like it belongs in the Dark Ages. If you can ignore the artwork and some of the peculiar sidebars, this is an excellent addition to any Dark Ages campaign.
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Cthulhu Rising is the kind of sci-fi Call of Cthulhu setting that everyone's been waiting for. Unlike Cthulhutech, it doesn't have anime elements. Unlike End Time, it's not limited to Mars. Unlike Yellow Dawn, it's not a post-apocalyptic setting. Cthulhu Rising is basically Aliens, only Mythos beasts replace the xenomorphs. Things have come full circle: Lovecraft influenced H.R. Giger, who designed the namesake Alien from a lithograph titled Necronom IV, which appeared in a book Giger titled…Necronomicon.
That said, Cthulhu Rising is not about the end times per se. It's about playing Call of Cthulhu in space, with big spaceships and bigger guns. Everything else in the setting is a justification to get the vibe of John Carpenter's muscular take on action horror.
Cthulhu Rising begins with a timeline that posits several unlikely possibilities: that the United Nations takes over the Middle East conflict and brokers a peace agreement that ends with Jerusalem becoming an independent city. The European Federation, a group of no less than 40 countries, becomes a powerful superstate that conveniently sections off most of Europe into one homogenized block. None of this seems likely today, but it certainly provides a convenient means of getting humanity into space by solving all those pesky political problems.
After the somewhat unlikely timeline is a section about the various political ruling bodies, their colonies, the mega corporations who rule space, and finally some info on what the Mythos have been up to. Cthulhu's still sleeping, ghouls are still meeping, the Mi-Go have moved off Yuggoth, and Shub-Niggurath is still popular with fertility cults. That's it. Not a whole lot has changed. There's also a timeline of Mythos events, including the fact that Miskatonic University was destroyed by a "terrible storm" in 2014 – echoes of Lumley's Titus Crow series. There are also a few cults that risen to power, including the Illuminati, the Military Sciences Division, and the Seaborne Foundation. The Illuminati seem like an anachronistic flourish when the world is otherwise such a changed place in 2271.
There's a variety of character generation options, ranging from the android (from Aliens) to the company suit (from Aliens) to the Soldier (you get the idea). Speaking of androids, they are a major distinguishing feature that reinforces the fact that the game takes place in the future…but the rules are missing from this monograph. Android creation rules are available at http://www.cthulhurising.co.uk under the Downloads section, but there's no way to know that from this PDF. The site is mentioned exactly twice, which is unfortunate because the additional rules at that site really round out the Cthulhu Rising setting.
Skill tweaks are identified along with an expansion of psychic rules. The downside of psychic use is that whenever a psychic fails a power check, they suffer a loss of 1 Sanity, or worse, fumble and suffer even more far-ranging psychic effects. The powers are all standard to sci-fi campaigns but not Call of Cthulhu, particularly the ability to heal or regenerate lost limbs.
The equipment section demonstrates a problem with Cthulhu Rising – it's not all that different from any other campaign. There are a few different weapons that use energy are alternate projectiles, but for the most part Cthulhu Rising feels like modern Earth with the serial numbers filed off. Then again, that was the appeal of Aliens – it felt familiar enough to relate to the plight of the working class characters but alien enough to allow for, well, Aliens.
Cthulhu Rising is the baseline standard for a sci-fi Call of Cthulhu game. But it's less a campaign setting and more a set of rules to run your own campaign. Keepers looking to combine the Mythos with hard science fiction will have to look elsewhere. But for those of us who want to shoot Mythosmorphs, chew bubblegum, and take names, this will do nicely.
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Dr. Michael C. LaBossiere, the unstoppable author of many modern Call of Cthulhu scenarios, must have realized he had a goldmine of material to draw from. So instead of reinventing the wheel, he took every monster, item, and spell that featured in all his collective scenarios and put them together in this book – the only installment despite the title's implication of future volumes.
Dr. LaBossiere's critters have never been his strong point. We have animating slimes, swirling blood elementals, beasts similar to John Carpenter's The Thing, a lot of indescribable blots of darkness and evil, zombie variants, ghost piranhas, skeleton variants, worm monsters, vampire variants…you get the idea. A few stand out – the Oblos, which features on the cover, is suitably alien, as are the Creepers. Very few of these beasts have direct ties to the Mythos, invented whole cloth for the purposes of the scenarios where they first debuted. And that's the thing -- these are bog standard variants of monsters you already know. Where Dr. LaBossiere excels is in presenting these beasts in a modern scenario. Stripped of their surroundings, most of these monsters are merely mediocre.
The technology section is small, consisting of just three items: a Greater Soul Battery, Lesser Machine, and Soul Battery. I was hoping for some Mi-Go technology but no such luck.
Like the beasts, the spells are specific to scenarios and lose much of their relevance listed in encyclopedia format. The majority of the spells are involved with binding, commanding, creating, dispelling or summoning the aforementioned creatures.
Dr. LaBossiere's contributions to the modern Cthulhu are significant, but this collection doesn't do his work justice. It's just a rehashing of what's already been published in other sources, without much in the way of illustrations or additional content. Keepers looking for non-Mythos beasts may find it valuable, but they're better served by seeking out the scenarios available for free at Yog-Sothoth.
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In 1993 Pagan Publishing's End Time product came to an unceremonious end due to their "licensing agreement with Chaosium." Dr. Michael C. LaBossiere, who obviously has a passion for the material, ensured that the setting would live on by releasing it as a download at Yog-Sothoth. And on his web site. And as this monograph.
Unlike the multitude of other future settings that seem to be proliferating these days, including Cthulhutech, Yellow Dawn, Cthulhu Rising, and GURPS Cthulhupunk, End Time is compatible with Delta Green. This is of particular interest to me because I'm currently running a Delta Green-themed campaign and plan to advance the timeline forward.
End Time takes liberties with how things go south on Earth, creating a new Great Old One known as Domaag T'eel. It's peculiar that this entity was invented to end the world when Ghroth could have achieved much the same effect. As Zenkei put it in the chat log with Pagan Publishing, "'the stars came right again' is different than 'the Mi-Go created a blob which ran amuck and caused Cthulhu to rise.'" That pretty much sums up Domaag T'eel.
Most of the action in End Time takes place on two human colonies on Mars, Hope and Bradbury. The Mythos beasts that lurk on Mars include the Cthunund Uleth (similar to John Carpenter's creature from The Thing), Martians and Vulthoom (both derived from Clark Ashton Smith's short story of the same name). This section is followed by an oddly thorough rehash of the insanity rules – presumably there are nuanced differences because of the change in setting, but not enough to justify reprinting them whole. There are interesting role-playing tips as to how to play these insanities, but they shouldn't be limited to End Times alone.
The next sections cover The Kercez Fragments that led to much of the mess that is the End Times, some new Mythos beasts and spells, and then details on the structure and beliefs of the colonies. Mars even has its own Dreamlands, which is detailed in the subsequent section. The monograph ends with coverage of the different skills and equipment necessary to play in this setting.
The End Times setting is a compelling one, but it is very much Dr. LaBossiere's vision. It narrows its focus specifically to Mi-Go, a new invented Mythos race, and a manufactured Great Old One – none of which is likely to please players of more traditional Lovecraft who want to see what happens to their favorite enemies. Instead of another installment in most Cthulhu campaigns, End Times is more like an alternate version that focuses on a very specific corner of the universe – more Total Recall than Aliens. That's not a bad thing, but it may turn off Keepers who are looking for a fully realized futuristic setting.
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Raising Up is a peculiar product. It was written by Dr. Michael C. LaBossiere, who is best known for creating prodigious amounts of Call of Cthulhu content and then offering them for free on the Internet. Dr. LaBossiere's scenarios, while sometimes rough, are chock full of interesting takes on the Mythos that are not part of standard Chaosium canon. As such, his works are a refreshing change from what investigators might be accustomed to. Warning: This review contains spoilers!
This monograph collects a few of these modern scenarios (The Bookstore, The Player of Hell, The Bone Dealers, The Tomb of Ash, and Putting Down) and provides a story arc to link them. Reginald Preston, a budding Mythos scholar, acts as the Charlie to the investigators' Angels, sending them on various missions. With each successful mission, Preston is drawn into the inevitable downward spiral that knowledge of the Mythos brings.
The first scenario, The Bookstore, is refreshingly modern in its approach – there's a monster roaming a bookstore and it's up to the investigators to handle it. The monster is essentially a ghostly piranha and its incorporeal nature proves a challenge to budding investigators who have few paranormal resources at their disposal. Their goal is to snatch a copy of the seal on the book that summoned the beast and then have Preston craft a spell to dispel it. Dr. LaBossiere has never been a fan of the research/face monster/go insane approach of traditional Cthulhu scenarios and he cleverly inverts that cycle here, putting the investigators right in the action.
The second scenario, The Player of Hell, involves catching a Vrykolakas through its connection with an MP3 player. This may sound silly on the surface (the player can't be thrown away or destroyed), but we used it to spooky effect in my campaign. There's a bit more research involved here than the previous scenario, but it's still primarily an action-oriented approach. In this case, the investigators wait for the monster to come to them.
The third scenario, The Bone Dealers, allows some research first before the investigators take on an entire family of cultists and their pet ghouls. Like the other scenarios, there isn't a whole lot of room for subtlety – it's the investigators against the family in a bloody struggle to the death. Defeating the cultists has repercussions later.
The next scenario, Tomb of Ash, is a good old-fashioned dungeon crawl in the Dungeons & Dragons tradition. The investigators are charged with finding a nameless evil's lair and destroying it, knowing full well that they are entering a trap. Once it becomes apparent that the place is a trap, there's no good reason for the investigators to keep risking their lives. Like the first scenario, taking a picture of the room's runes and fleeing to fight another day grants the investigators the possibility of crafting a counterspell. Of all of the scenarios, this is the weakest. It hinges primarily on advancing the story, which involves Nyarlathotep and Preston.
The final scenario and the only one not available for free elsewhere is Putting Down. This scenario ties up all the elements from those that have gone before: ghost fish guardians, ghouls, Egyptian undead, and reanimated wizards. Additionally, there are blood vortexes, a sort of vicious wind elemental that sucks the blood from its victims. Putting Down hinges on a shaky deception similar to that of Two-Face from the Batman series. Whether or not investigators buy it depends on how pragmatic and suspicious they are. This is one of those scenarios that rely on the investigators being gullible to advance the plot, when in actuality if they are perceptive enough they should be able to short circuit the scenario entirely.
Overall, Raising Up is an interesting collection of action-style, monster hunting scenarios. Unfortunately, Preston's arc isn't particularly compelling, and the one scenario that's not available for free does not justify purchasing the entire set.
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The Abbey is a resource book for the Dark Ages setting of Call of Cthulhu. It consists of three parts. The first is the titular Abbey, St. Bartholomew's Abbey in the year 962 AD. It acts as a home base of sorts for Dark Ages investigators. The second section is an overview of 10th century France, where the Abbey is located. The third section provides an organization, The Order of the Sword of Saint Jerome, an organization that was featured prominently in the Cthulhu Now scenarios compiled in Unseen Masters.
The first section provides plenty of plot hooks, NPCs, and adventure seeds to flesh out a Dark Ages campaign. It doesn’t provide specific details however, as befitting a Dark Ages campaign where paranoia and ignorance run rampant. Is one NPC a werewolf or just eccentric? Is another a feral child or a creature of the Dreamlands? The answers are up to the Keeper.
The second section details France's history. The most useful to a campaign is the list of common male and female names and an accounting of the "perils of the road" – basically, random encounters, Dark Ages-style.
The crowning piece of The Abbey is the section on the Order of the Sword of Saint Jerome. Much has been written about the Order, primarily from a Delta Green perspective. http://www.fortunecity.com/tattooine/zenith/134/stjerome.htm I'm particularly wary of just turning a knightly order into what amounts to secret agents with swords. Their treatment in The Abbey is considerably more nuanced, but still daring enough to allow players to play characters who will stop at nothing to stop the Mythos.
Neatly designed, edited, and filled with useful illustrations, The Abbey is head and shoulders above the average monograph. It sets the stage for an excellent Dark Ages campaign and is a must for any Keeper who isn't sure where to begin.
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The Parapsychologist's Handbook doesn't start out promising. The introduction reads "Not just the Mythos…" If this were a catchphrase on a separate line it might have made more sense, but as an introduction it seems like a sentence fragment. The real introduction begins immediately thereafter: "Have you ever wondered just how frightening a ghost or poltergeist might be in Call of Cthulhu?" The question is an important one, as the Call of Cthulhu role-playing game often features characters that are clueless about the supernatural – to know too much is to go mad – and yet there were most certainly specialists who investigated such things, harkening back to the 1800s. This monograph seeks to fill in the gaps.
Unfortunately, the very next sentence conflates "its" and "it's." The last paragraph of the introduction reads like a review of the product, explaining how frustrating it must be for players to not read the Keeper's section. "If however if you wish to read these as well, perhaps because you Keeper and play at different times, there is no real problem if you do, though you may wish to check with your Keeper." Ugh. At times the author refers to himself as "I" and at times as "the author." This is not a well-edited monograph.
Speaking of the author, he is apparently an accomplished researcher of the paranormal, having investigated "three mediums, three haunting and two poltergeists as well as an out of the body experience." This helps ground much of the first chapter, peppering advice for investigators with real life examples. The Society for Psychical Research (SPR), a real organization, is frequently cited as a reference. The first chapter covers the basics paranormal investigation, including equipment and observation. Throughout, Lovecraft's The Lurking Fear is quoted seven times, often with two quotes to a page. The Handbook provides rules for both the Basic Roleplaying and d20, an important selling point.
The second chapter is a short rules-free section that explains tests of parapsychology in controlled conditions. The third chapter provides templates and careers for BRP but not d20. Chapter four deals with the operating supernatural paradigm of the game universe, be it an actual spiritual cosmology or physics beyond human comprehension. It uses examples from previous scenarios to help flesh out which might be best for a Keeper's campaign. Chapter five identifies the different types of ghosts and provides a history of hauntings. Chapter six is similarly structured, focusing on poltergeists. Chapter seven covers spiritualism, mediumship, and techniques in investigating both. Chapter eight delves into the history of psychical research from around the world and profiles of famous real-life ghosthunters.
In chapter ten is a Keeper resource -- the "frustrating" part of the monograph for those of us who aren't Keepers. The subsequent installments mimic the earlier player-oriented chapters, covering investigation, parapsychology in the lab, rules on running ghosts, poltergeists, mediumship, and psychics. Chapter fourteen details how psychics are vulnerable to the Mythos.
Appendix A adds new psychic feats for d20 Cthulhu games, and another Appendix A has a list of adventure seeds. Appendix B treats the proceedings of the SPR as Mythos tomes, providing an opportunity to increase skills. Appendix C contains Zener card props.
Overall, the Parapsychologist's Handbook is a long overdue look at the world of the unknown through the eyes of fringe science. The d20 rules are a welcome addition. The author's knowledge of both real-life paranormal investigations and of the various Chaosium supplements is invaluable. Unfortunately, typos, formatting and grammatical errors make it a difficult read.
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As the Introduction states, this is a distillation of the core of Chaosium's Basic Role Playing system, the mechanic that has powered many of the company's best-known games such as Call of Cthulhu and RuneQuest. While the full system fills many pages, it is simple enough for the core to be presented fully-playable here, as an introduction or for use with a setting other than the main game lines.
The Introduction continues with an explanation of what role-playing games are all about, particularly useful if you're using this work as an introduction to this type of game as well as to the BRP system. In describing what role-playing consists of, mention is made of the range of genres and settings you can play in... and this core system will enable you to play in any of them, with a suitable selection of character skills. What you need to play, typical lengths of game sessions, dice and the role of the Game Master round out the chapter.
Chapter 2: Characters looks at creating a character to play. The central parts remain the same, whatever setting you intend to play him in. Your character needs an identity (things like name and appearance), he'll need basic characteristics (strength, dexterity and so on) and he will know a range of skills. Characteristics are rolled using 3d6, and various other things are derived from the raw scores. Skills are all measured as a percentage chance of success, and each one has a fairly low starting percentage that sometimes is based on one of the characteristics... and then as you decide what the character knows and can do at the outset of the game, you can increase the skills appropriate to his profession and background by spending points. Some equipment and an idea of what he's doing wherever your game begins and he's ready for play.
Naturally, for a core set of rules, the range of professions and skills available are quite narrow. Other books provide more, based on the genre and setting involved, and it is always open for players and GMs to come up with their own. The chapter ends with some examples of character creation.
Next, Chapter 3: System looks at how you actually use that character's abilities in play to determine his chance of success or failure at, well, whatever it is he is trying to do. Die rolls are used when it matters - for your character or for the plot - what the outcome is, and when the task being undertaken is one that you may not be able to do with any guarantee of success - most characters can walk up the stairs or make a cup of tea without difficulty, but if you are fighting or defusing bombs or driving a chariot in the arena it's a bit more chancy! The basic roll to succeed is a percentage under a relevant skill's chance as written on the character sheet, but other factors such as the difficulty of the task and whether someone is opposing you will affect the number you need. You have a chance to improve any skills that have been used successfully at the end of the game session.
Chapter 4: Time examines how time passes during the course of a game. Sometimes several days or weeks pass with just a couple of sentences, while upon occasion you need to know what is happening in detail, minute-by-minute - compare a sea voyage with a fight, for example. Different skills use a different amount of time for a single use, from a few seconds to spot something, to minutes to hold a conversation in a foreign language to hours or days spent doing research or painting a picture.
Then comes Chapter 5: Combat. This may or may not be a focus of your game, but it's inevitable in most adventures that at some point your character will have to use force to achieve his goals... or to defend himself against someone who wants to stop him at all costs. Naturally, this is one time you need to take the action step-by-step taking turns to ensure that everyone gets a chance to participate. Characters can wield weapons, dodge, move around and undertake other actions as appropriate. Taking damage and healing it are also covered.
Next Chapter 6: Spot Rules looks at characters' chances of noticing something - which may be a bit vital like someone sneaking up to attempt to bash your character over the head! Or a vital clue that will make your investigation so much easier. There's also some examples of events in play, combat and otherwise, here.
Chapter 7: Adventures presents some brief encounters that serve to demonstrate both the rules in action and the breadth of possibilities available in terms of genre, setting and style. Rescue a messanger and his vital message from the clutches of Cardinal Richeleau as group of Musketeers, trek across a wilderness planet in the far future, loot a golden idol from a jungle temple... or even rob a present-day bank! Each brief encounter (and there are several more as well as those mentioned) gives a situation, a map, sample characters and details of the opposition: plenty to try the system out. There are also a few additional monsters for good measure.
This serves as an excellent introduction to this particular game mechanic, indeed to role-playing as a pastime, and lays the groundwork to enable you to decide just what sort of game you would like to play. It's complete and playable as it stands, but if you choose to acquire further material, you will not have to 'unlearn' anything, this core quickstart is true to the full ruleset.
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