Lost Coast Mythos

Newspaper Clipping, 03-Jul-1919

2012-01-29T12:00:00.000-08:00

CARLYLE DEPARTS EGYPT

CAIRO (AP) -- Sir Aubrey Penhew, temporary spokesman for the Carlyle Expedition, indicated Monday that the leaders are taking ship to East Africa for a "well-earned rest."

Sir Aubrey debunked rumors that the expedition had discovered clues to the legendary wealth of the lost mines of King Solomon, maintaining that the party was going on safari "in respite from our sandy labors."

Roger Carlyle, wealthy New York leader of the expedition, was unavailable for comment, still suffering from his recent sunstroke.

Discussing that unfortunate incident, local experts declared Egypt entirely too hot for Anglo-Saxons at this time of year, and suggested that the young American had not been well-served by his democratic enthusiasm, rumored to have led him to personally wield pick and shovel.

-- NEW YORK PILLAR/REPOSTE, July 3, 1919
(Nyarlathotep Papers #5)

Newspaper Clipping, 05-Apr-1919

2012-01-22T12:00:00.000-08:00

CARLYLE EXPEDITION EMBARKS FOR ENGLAND

Led by the fabulously-wealthy playboy Roger Carlyle, the Carlyle expedition departed this morning for Southhampton aboard the crack British steamship Imperial Standard.

Contrary to earlier reports, the expedition will perform researches in London under the auspices of the Penhew Foundation before continuing to Egypt next month.

Readers may recall the enormous party which Mr. Carlyle, now 24, gave at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel upon reaching his majority. Since then, scandals and indelicate behavior have become Carlyle's trademark, but he has never become tarnished in the eyes of Manhattanites.

Members of the expedition have been reluctant to reveal their purpose in Egypt.

OTHER EXPEDITION MEMBERS

Renowned Egyptologist Sir Aubrey Penhew is assistant leader of the team, and in charge of excavations.

Dr. Robert Huston, a fashionable "Freudian" psychologist, accompanies the expedition to pursue parallel researches into ancient pictographs.

Miss Hypatia Masaters, linked in the past to Carlyle, will act as photographer and archivist.

Mr. Jack Brady, intimate to Mr. Carlyle, accompanies the group as general factotum.

Additional members may be secured while in London.

-- NEW YORK PILLAR/REPOSTE, April 5, 1919
(Nyarlathotep Papers #4)

What You Know About Your Friend, Jackson Elias

2012-01-08T10:55:00.000-08:00

Jackson Elias is 38, of medium height and build, and dark-complexioned. He has a feisty, friendly air about him and, as an orphan in Stratford, Connecticut, he learned to make his own way early in life. He has no living relatives, and no permanent address.

You like like, and value his friendship, even though months and sometimes years separate one meeting from the next. You'd be upset and probably crave vengeance if anything happened to your friend. The world is better for having Jackson Elias in it.

His writings characterize and analyze death cults. His best-known book is Sons of Death, exposing modern-day Thuggees in India. He speaks several languages fluently and is constantly traveling. He is social, and enjoys an occasional drink. He smokes a pipe. Elias is tough, stable, and punctual, unafraid of brawls or officials. He is mostly self-educated. His well-researched works always seem to reflect first-hand experience. He is secretive and never discusses a project until he has a final draft in hand.

All of his books illustrate how cults manipulate the fears of their followers. A skeptic, Elias has never found conclusive proof of supernatural powers, magic, or dark gods. Insanity and feelings of inadequacy characterize death cultists, feelings for which they compensate by slaughtering innocents to make themselves feel powerful or chosen. Cults draw the weak-minded, though cult leaders are usually clever and manipulative. When fear of a cult stops, the cult vanishes.

Skulls Along the River (1910) -- exposes headhunter cult in Amazon basin.

Masters of the the Black Arts (1912) -- surveys supposed sorcerous cults throughout history.

The Way of Terror (1913) -- analyzes systematization of fear through cult organization; warmly reviewed by George Sorel.

The Smoking Heart (1915) -- first half discusses historical Mayan death cults. Second half instances present-day Central American death cults.

Sons of Death (1918) -- modern-day Thuggees; Elias infiltrated the cult and wrote a book about it.

Witch Cults of England (1920) -- summarizes covens in nine English counties; interviews practicing English witches; Rebecca West thought some of the material trivial and overworked.

The Black Power (1921) -- expands upon The Way of Terror; includes interviews with several anonymous cult leaders.

All of these books are published by Prospero Press of New York City, and all were edited by owner/editor Jonah Kensington. Kensington is a good friend of Jackson Elias, and knows you well.

(Nyarlathotep Papers #1)

Newspaper Clipping, 04-Apr-1919

2012-01-08T10:13:00.000-08:00

BIG APPLE DATELINE

ROGER CARLYLE, the playboy whom everybody knows -- or knows about -- is quietly leaving New Yawk tomorrow to check out the tombs of Egypt! You've seen the cuties ROGER has found in the nightspots. Who can doubt he'll dig up someone -- er, something -- equally fabulous from the Egyptian sand?

-- NEW YORK PILLAR/REPOSTE, April 4, 1919
(Nyarlathotep Papers #3)

Transition

2012-01-08T09:59:00.000-08:00

I'm firing this back up, but with a slightly different purpose -- it will now act as a repository for clues and other gaming penumbra related to my soon-to-begin Call of Cthulhu campaign.

Officially on hiatus

2010-05-09T17:01:00.000-07:00

Of course most of you have figured this out, but I figured I'd talk about it. When I started this blog, I was had been unemployed for about six months and was looking for something to do that took my mind off the doldrums of aimless joblessness. It did the trick. I'd also moved to a new town and didn't have any real gaming to satisfy my fix, so it actually scratched that itch too.

Now I have a job and am starting to make contacts in the local gaming community, so both of the main reasons for starting this are now gone. Mainly, the job takes up a huge amount of time -- it's rewarding, and challenging, and a heck of a lot better than unemployment, but when I get home I'm in unwind-mode, not try-to-speak-intelligently-about-gaming mode.

So thanks for reading my (short-lived) project. I have a few things floating around out, so I'll pop in occasionally -- maybe with some capsule reviews or whatever. We'll see. RSS feed is your friend.

I recommend rpg.net and especially rpg.geekdo.com for all your storytelling games fix. See you in the funny papers.

Review: Age of Cthulhu: Death In Luxor (Goodman Games, 2009)

2010-01-15T14:47:00.000-08:00

Goodman Games is a well-established publisher of adventures for Dungeons & Dragons -- they've been nominated for or outright won about two dozen different ENnie Awards. Their "Dungeon Crawl Classics" line is one of the premier series of old-school style D&D modules. With the liberalization of Chaosium's licensing policy two years ago, they have decided to try their hand at adapting their award-winning style to Mythos horror. Can they pull it off?

As a review of a scenario, this will contain egregious and unapologetic spoilers. Players, read no further!

Age of Cthulhu:
Death In Luxor

The Vitals

Publisher: Goodman Games (San Diego, CA).
ISBN: 9780981865720
In print?: Yes, as of Jan-2010.
List price: US$12.99 (print), US$9.09 (PDF from e23.com).
Pages: 48
Dimensions: 8.5"x11"
Format: Trade Paperback, stapled.
Weight: 7 ounces.

Overall Impressions

Art: Good. Very comic-book feel to the illustrations, in both the composition and the execution. This contributes to the overall pulpy tone of the scenario and is extremely appropriate and well-chosen for the feel the scenario aims for. It's monochrome inside throughout, brown ink only. This helps to create a sepia effect, but in parts it makes things dark and hard to make out. This is only a real drawback on the maps and handouts -- setting your photocopier to lighten things up a bit will fix it.

Layout: Great! I'm not familiar with Goodman Games' well-respected line of Dungeon Crawl Classics, but it looks obvious to me that the editors have both practical experience and a long history of honing their products through many iterations of feedback and revision. Readable and, more importantly, usable in play.

The cover is made out of glossy but thin cardstock and will not lay flat after a single read. Not a huge issue but a minor annoyance.

Editing: Mediocre -- at least for the text itself. As mentioned above, the layout and art direction is excellent. For the text, there are many areas that are unclear or require multiple readthroughs to get a handle on.

Index: Terrible. Non-existent, but in such a short product it's forgivable.

Company Support: Poor. No downloadable handouts. At least with a stapled product you don't have to clobber the binding to get decent photocopies.

Contents

Setting: Classic era. Late summer, 1926. Luxor, Egypt, and environs.

The Hook: The Investigators are friends and colleagues of a professor of Egyptian history and his wife. She sends them an urgent letter, afraid that the professor is losing his mind as a result of his frantic studies. They fly to Luxor. Can they get there in time?

The Secret: The professor discovered that there are innumerable horrors preserved beneath Luxor, leftover from political machinations of the Pharaohs almost three millenia ago. In the course of the archeological excavation, his team removed a seal from the undercaverns, thus starting the process of opening up the gates and reanimating the terrors below. Upon fully realizing this, the professor went mad, slaughtering all but two of the team (his wife and an intern escaped) and then hanging himself. The Investigators must retrace the team's steps, navigate the perilous twists of the Egyptian underworld, and attempt to replace the seal before a horrible evil is unleashed upon the world.

One criticism here is that the writing is not terribly clear regarding either the hook or the secret, and it takes a surprising amount of delving into a short scenario to find out exactly what's going on. While any scenario with a detailed back story will require a lot of exposition in the standard "Introduction"/"Keeper Information" breakdown, it would really help to give a basic overview (such as mine) to at least give the Keeper a big picture for his first readthrough.

Adaptability to other places: Poor. "Large city, on a river prone to flooding, with an ancient history" is not too common. Even if you found a suitable city, many of the clues refer to the Nile or other local features and would have to be changed.

Adaptability to other eras: Fair. Easier to go backward than forward. Gaslight would be fairly easy -- only the social aspects of Westerners dealing with the natives would have to change (they wouldn't even be that different, but the social obligations of Victorians cast a shadow over everything). Invictus would actually work pretty well for this -- if you can accept the ancient history being a thousand years old instead of three thousand years old!

Originality: Fair. The hook is hackneyed, but the Egyptian setting and pulp flavor is nice.

Coherence: Mediocre. The premise is a little contrived -- all team members casually accept the professor's spiral into insanity until he randomly butchers them one night, which coincidentally happens to be ten minutes before the Investigators arrive.

If you're using the pregenerated characters, I'd drop coherence down a rank -- all the pregens have a different reason for being invited by the professor to Luxor, and it's assumed that they will all just naturally band together and go through the scenario. However, this just doesn't fit their personalities. Assuming that they have a history of occult investigation, or just dropping the scenario into your campaign, will fix this.

However, if you can get past the premise ("Why are they investigating? Because they're investigators!") the rest of it is tolerable -- clues lead reasonably from one to the next, and the NPCs' motives are believable.

Pacing: Mediocre. Going from the nutso mass murder/suicide scene at the opening, to a standard clue-hunt, is a little offputting. The missing wife (also a friend of the Investigators) should provide an impetus for Investigator action, but she is found and removed from the plot quite early. The world-threatening menace takes over the narrative shortly thereafter, but the personal horror of the broken lives of the Investigators' friends and colleagues gets lost in the shuffle and never really recovers.

Degree of Player-Driven Action: Great! The scenario is structured into excellent "scenes," each listed with various ways to get there and various other scenes they can lead to, depending on the investigators' choices. It actually reminds me a little of how the chapters of Masks of Nyarlathotep are structured, albeit on a much smaller scale. I would absolutely love to see this become the standard for scenarios of this type. While this wouldn't work for all adventures (especially location-based ones), for event- or investigation-based scenarios this type of structure is very helpful for the Keeper.

Keeper Skill Needed: Fair. Despite the complexity of the investigation and the multiple parties acting at cross-purposes, the excellent writing and extremely pragmatic layout make this a snap for any but the greenest of Keepers. Another nice touch is that every location where combat might occur is mapped out onto a grid -- while most Keepers don't use miniatures or strict combat maps, it's nice to have the option.

NPCs: Fair. Surprisingly few, although there's lots of faceless extras. Their personalities run the gamut, but despite a nice premise or two (a theosophist!) they end up not being terribly memorable. Similar to my comments on the Hook and the Secret, one criticism regarding the layout is that the NPCs' personalities, motives, and goals are interwoven into the text -- so you can't just flip to their stat block and find out what's going on with them.

Likelihood of Investigator survival: Poor. Deadly enemies throughout, followed by a deadly climax.

Estimated number of four-hour sessions: Two or three.

Suitability for campaign play: Good. You'll probably want to tone down the lethality of the scenario for a campaign, but it'll be worth it to actually introduce the professor and his wife well in advance, thus making her frantic letter for help much more believable and less cliched.

Suitability for one-shot: Good. Excellent support for the Keeper makes it a near-complete package. The pulpy atmosphere will also make it more palatable to a wider range of audiences and not just diehard Lovecraftians.

The Rest of It

Handouts, 6pp: Great! Excellent graphic design on these, well-thought out and with good art. Telegrams, photographs, etc. A step above the standard fare from Chaosium and just below the almighty prop wizards at HPLHS.

Pregenerated Investigators: Good. Five of them, a good mix of standard pulp heroes (and heroines). As written they are flavorful but have no shared history, creating an issue discussed in the Coherence section.

OVERALL RATING

Fair. While the plot itself is average but not remarkable, the high production values and usability make this stand out a little more than it deserves. There are some missteps with the execution of the story itself, but nothing fatal or insurmountable. Stroh and Goodman Games' extensive experience with D&D/d20 modules shows; the scenario is very professional looking. I expect that as Stroh gets more experienced with the Call of Cthulhu line, he will work out some of the niggling bits here and master some of the quirks peculiar to the Mythos/investigative genre. At that point the writing and scenario design in Goodman's Age of Cthulhu line will catch up to the great presentation, and it will really shine.

Overall, I do not think this is an especially good value for the money. Chaosium's Terrors From Beyond costs twice as much but has over four times the content. While a higher price per page is typical of shorter books, not to mention that Goodman cannot expect near the sales of a Chaosium house release, it is still hard to justify if you are gaming on a limited budget. The PDF is a much better value.

Check this out if you are a fan of the pulpier side of Cthulhu gaming, a fan of Goodman Games' work, or just want to support a promising new third-party publisher. Otherwise I'd hold off.

Thanks for reading; as always, comments, criticisms, and suggestions for improvement are welcomed.

Review: Terrors From Beyond (Chaosium, 2009)

2009-12-06T16:20:00.000-08:00

This is a rarity for Chaosium in recent years, a book of six non-campaign scenarios. Not counting MULAs, they haven't done this since 2007's Mansions of Madness (2nd ed). If you ignore second editions, you have to go all the way back to 1999's forgettable Last Rites.

Most (or all?) of these scenarios are taken from tournament scenarios and are designed primarily as one-shots. They all provide pregenerated characters, both to tie the characters closely to the plot and to give the opportunity for roleplaying character types that might not otherwise see light of day. Unlike Mansions of Madness, where all scenarios revolved around a spooky place, there is no real unifying theme.

As a review of a scenario anthology, this will contain multiple and egregious spoilers and is for Keepers' eyes only! Players, read no further!

Terrors From Beyond
Nightmares Unraveled in Six Scenarios

The Vitals

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc. (Hayward, CA).
ISBN: 9781568822877
In print?: Yes, as of Dec-2009.
List price: US$25.95 (print), US$17.95 (PDF).
Pages: 208
Dimensions: 8.5"x11"
Format: Trade Paperback, perfect-bound.
Weight: 1 lb., 5 oz.

Overall Impressions

Art: Fair. The cover is gruesome but has no real connection to the contents. Inside, it's typical Chaosium pen-and-ink. The character portraits in general are excellent and have a nice stippling effect that is very evocative. The maps, however, break this effect and are a little too computery in appearance -- not that the players will ever see them, of course.

Layout: Fair. Your standard two columns/page layout, broken up routinely by bits of art to keep it readable. Each page has a one-inch margin on the outside edge -- also typical Chaosium.

Editing: Fair. No significant typos or mistakes.

Index: Terrible; non-existent.

Company Support: Poor. No downloadable handouts.

Contents

Scenario 1: "Ghost Light"

Author: Gary Sumpter. Sumpter's work is generally solid. He wrote one of my favorite scenarios, "In the Shadows of Death," from 1995's In The Shadows (Chaosium). He's also turned in some decent work in Before The Fall (Chaosium, 1998), and then a bunch of other stuff that has been good but didn't especially grab me.

Length: 15pp.

Setting: Classic era. Hallowsay Island, Orkney, Scotland. 19-Sep-1927.

The Hook: The investigators are all lighthouse keepers, on their way to relieve an existing crew in the standard rotation. While they are en route, they learn that the lighthouse has gone dark. What happened, and why hasn't the current crew fixed it?

The Secret: One member of the previous crew was a scholar who passed the long hours of isolation by dabbling in Things Man Was Not To Know. He accidentally summoned some tough extradimensional nasties who killed everyone and are now waiting for more food to show up. Clues to their defeat may be found, but can the Investigators figure it out in time?

Adaptability to other places: Great! Any isolated coastal locale would work.

Adaptability to other eras: Good. The lighthouse has been in existence since 1856 and would translate to Gaslight with minimal adjustment. Modern would be more difficult; most lighthouses now no longer have keepers and are fully automated. For Modern, Dark Ages, and Invictus, the Keeper will have to get rid of the entire lighthouse motif and come up with another type of isolated setting.

Originality: Good. An interesting twist on the haunted location trope that will have the players piecing together the puzzle.

Coherence: Fair. This is mostly investigating a disappearance; lack of NPCs make this one easy to pull off. The extradimensional beasties don't have a clear motive -- apparently they just want to kill things? Workable but uninspiring.

Pacing: Good, but mostly up to the Keeper.

Degree of Player-Driven Action: Fair. As a location-based scenario, this is entirely on the Investigators and how they react to the preexisting situation. However there's really only one way out, and they can either find it or die.

Keeper Skill Needed: Mediocre. A good choice for a beginner. The main skill needed to make this one pop is (as Sumpter mentions) successfully portraying the utter sense of isolation at the lighthouse.

NPCs: Good. You don't meet them, but their characters are well-realized.

Estimated number of four-hour sessions: One.

Suitability for campaign play: Poor. Will take major rewriting to give random Investigators a reason to go to a government-run lighthouse.

Suitability for one-shot: Great! That's what it's for.

Pre-generated Investigators: Great! Four altogether. Considering that they're superficially the same (Scottish sailors/lighthouse keepers) they each have their own personality and are realistically and pleasantly different.

Likelihood of Investigator survival: Poor. The antagonists here are pretty deadly and almost unstoppable unless the Investigators do the exact right thing.

Final Rating: Fair. As a scenario, it's really only okay, but the nice setting bumps it up a little. It's short and fairly direct, which limits the possibilities with it -- not much room for rabbit trails or diversions -- but for what it is, it's well done.

Scenario 2: "A Method to Madness"

Author: John Almack. According the RPG.Geekdo.com, this is his only published scenario.

Length: 16pp.

Setting: Classic era. New England, USA. Late 1920s.

The Hook: The Investigators are all inmates in a private asylum. However, all is not as it seems! Strange experiments, mysterious staff, unexplained disappearances. Something's coming to a head, but are a group of committed lunatics in a position to do anything about it?

The Secret: A small number of mi-go have selected the asylum as a location for some horrible experiments in making human/mi-go hybrids. They're going to do some fairly disgusting things and then burn it all to the ground.

Adaptability to other places: Good. Any asylum would work fine.

Adaptability to other eras: Terrible. Understanding and treatment of mental illness changes drastically through the ages. As most of the setting is based around the model of the 1920s, moving this would require major rewriting.

Originality: Fair. Chaosium's The Asylum covered a similar setup but the execution was pretty different. The antagonists are natural choices for shenanigans involving mental patients, given their established interest in the contents of our brainpans.

Coherence: Fair. The antagonists aren't really given much of a motivation (although this is not unusual for them). Many of their actions are arbitrary, although the Keeper could probably invent a plausible one.

Pacing: Mediocre. There's not a whole lot of planned events; mostly the Investigators will mill around until the antagonists pull out the finale.

Degree of Player-Driven Action: Fair.

Keeper Skill Needed: Fair. Integrating the exploration of the asylum grounds with the NPC's plans might be tricky for beginners.

NPCs: Poor. They are not very detailed -- one short description of each. By itself this wouldn't be too bad, but for some bizarre reason the author has chosen to name the major NPCs similarly to famous people in the horror genre, changing their sex in the process. This is a terrible idea and totally destructive to the mood. Good luck keeping things focused and tense while your players snicker over "Stephanie King," "Joan Carpenter," "Marion Shelley," etc.

Estimated number of four-hour sessions: One.

Suitability for campaign play: Poor. You'd have to arrange for all the Investigators to go insane and get institutionalized at the same time -- probably not that difficult. Trickier will be maintaining plausability as they all get sent to the exact same asylum, the one that just happens to be where the bad guys are up to no good. And then keeping the Investigators isolated from outside help.

Suitability for one-shot: Good. Again, by design.

Pre-generated Investigators: Mediocre. Six of them total. A little over-the-top wackiness might overly encourage players who are already prone to chewing scenery. However they're all mostly plausible, with the exception of all of them having extremely high Sanity for mental patients -- the average Investigator has 48 Sanity! I would expect the average to be quite a bit lower.

Likelihood of Investigator survival: Fair to Poor, depending on their choices.

Final Rating: Poor. A decent premise that shows up kind of DOA. This one is not really that exciting or interesting. Most of the good scenes will come from poking around the asylum and discovering bits of grue. The basic plot is almost nonexistent.

Scenario 3: "Death By Misadventure"

Author: Glyn White. He was involved in the MULA monograph Shadows of War (Chaosium, 2007), which I've not read but sounds interesting.

Length: 28pp.

Setting: Classic Era. Ravensby Abbey and Wisbech, East Anglia, United Kingdom. Sep-1927.

The Hook: Charles Stanhope, a close friend of the Investigators, accidentally killed himself with a shotgun. They are to attend his funeral and the reading of the will.

The Secret: The death was no accident. Rather, it was a murder committed by alien entities under command of an undead sorcerer. Stanhope accidentally freed the sorcerer and his unnatural allies from a magical prison, and they killed him to prevent him from alerting others to their freedom.

Adaptability to other places: Poor. Lots of historical research in this one; almost everything is factual except for the actual Mythos events and characters. White did a great job of tying this into actual past events. If you are a fan of English history (from either side of the pond) then this will be great. If you don't care, then it should be fairly straightforward to scratch off the place names and replace them with whatever locale you like. Be forewarned that (due to the history/events) there are a lot of place names, so this is no small task.

Adaptability to other eras: Poor. Again, due to the strong history angle there are a ton of dates and so forth that would have to adapted. Gaslight would be okay; Modern would not.

Originality: Mediocre. Ancient sorcerers and aliens with unpronouncable names are par for the course; the historical research bumps it up a little. Having a diary where someone keeps writing after becoming aware of imminent doom ("[normal stuff] Noises outs- Too soon NO!") bumps it back down.

Coherence: Mediocre. A lot of stuff thrown in for no apparent reason; e.g. an artifact that can negate Elder Signs while also giving a perfect vision of Azathoth (1d10/1d100). And an insane dentist. And also an insane chauffeur.

Pacing: Mediocre. A ton of long handouts to read will screw with the tension as everyone stops deals with them. Lots of driving all over the place.

Degree of Player-Driven Action: Mediocre. On rails. The Investigators may choose to go forward, or do nothing effective.

Keeper Skill Needed: Good. A great deal of detail: historical, archeological, architectural, etc. You have to keep all this straight and present it at the appropriate times.

NPCs: Mediocre. Completely by-the-numbers, except for the insane dentist and chauffuer, who are just silly.

Estimated number of four-hour sessions: Three or four, what with all the driving about and handout-reading.

Suitability for campaign play: Mediocre, higher if you're running a UK-based campaign.

Suitability for one-shot: Good.

Pre-generated Investigators: Mediocre. Serviceable, but didn't excite me at all.

Likelihood of PC survival: Poor to Fair. The Investigators will have to rouse up a good old-fashioned mob to have much of a chance, which will either be amusing or annoying depending on your tastes.

Final Rating: Poor. As the reader has no doubt gathered, nothing about this scenario actually reached out and grabbed me. While the amount of historical research is impressive, it seems like a lot of work done to a very dull and uninspiring end. The author does warn up front about the amount of British history, so maybe a Yank like myself just can't see the appeal of something that would resonate with an actual Brit. Feedback from actual Britons would be greatly appreciated.

Scenario 4: "Grave Secrets"

Author: Brian Courtemanche. His first published scenario; he is also involved in the upcoming Arkham Now (Chaosium, 2009).

Length: 26pp.

Setting: Classic era. Stafford, Rhode Island, USA. March 1922.

The Hook: The Investigators are all new residents of a quaint country town, moved here from the big city. As one is a physician and they are all urbane and experienced, they are asked by the town doctor to look into a mysterious wasting disease afflicting a local family, killing the youngest living child every four or five weeks.

The Secret: The family is being preyed upon by a wraith, the vengeful ghost of a family member murdered to protect a horrible secret. This is a non-Mythos scenario.

Adaptability to other places: Good. Any small country farm town would be fine.

Adaptability to other eras: Fair. Modern would be a stretch, as any doctor blithely getting random townsfolk involved in someone's private medical issues would result in a lost medical license. However it could go backwards in time all the way back to Invictus with little modification.

Originality: Good. Deals with a squeamish issue and presents it in a way that is suitably disturbing without going over the top.

Coherence: Good. A well-written town, including good NPCs with clear motivations.

Pacing: Good. The imminent death of the remaining children is a good spur to action; also provided are a few spooky events the Keeper can throw in should the tension flag.

Degree of Player-Driven Action: Good. Two distinct resolutions are presented; both are viable.

Keeper Skill Needed: Good. The large number of NPCs might provide a challenge.

NPCs: Great! I really enjoyed the backstory created by the characters and their intertwined histories. They feel alive.

Estimated number of four-hour sessions: Two.

Suitability for campaign play: Mediocre. While it would be easy enough to make all the Investigators come from out of town, you'd lose the unique connections that three of them have to the town and its people.

Suitability for one-shot: Great! That's the point.

Pre-generated Investigators: Great! There's four of them. They are all well-written to provide a diverse set of skills and all of them have a connection to the town that deepens the interactions with the NPCs. As a nice touch, all the Investigators, despite having these hooks, are all new or recently-returned to town and do not know each other well -- thus making roleplaying easier by removing pressure on players to recreate some kind of well-established relationship.

Likelihood of PC survival: Great! Some threats to sanity but nothing deadly.

Final Rating: Good. A fine non-Mythos scenario that utilizes a strong setting and excellent NPCs to create a compelling narrative. Held back a notch due to lack of a really dangerous direct threat to the Investigators, but overall a solid entry.

Scenario 5: "The Dig"

Author: Brian M. Sammons. Sammons has made minor but steady contributions to the game over the years. This is his first scenario that I've read.

Length: 37pp.

Setting: Classic era. Dunlow, Massachussetts, USA. 22-June-192X.

The Hook: A student at Miskatonic has found some characters on a stone out at Dunlow (30 miles inland from Arkham). a backwater famous only for tall tales of the "Dunlow Creature," a bigfoot-type legend. His Archaeology professor recognized these as an ancient dead language, thought to exist only in prehistoric Greenland, and organized a dig. The Anthropology and Botany profs quickly jumped at the chance to be involved, and now it's a full-on-expedition. The Investigators are students at Miskatonic who are going along on the expedition.

The Secret: The "Dunlow Creature" is actually a degenerate but intelligent mated pair descended from furry protohumans, whose ancestors worshipped an avatar of Tsathoggua. Four years ago, the Anthrolopology professor, while researching the legend, came in contact with the bigfeet. In the course of befriending and researching them, the professor was given a shamanic drink that, they claimed, would put him in touch with their ancestral god. It did. The professor was driven insane by the reality of the god, and has worked tirelessly to excavate an ancient temple -- which is less than a mile away from from Miskatonic dig site. The professor will not allow his work to be disturbed when he is so close to completion ... but how far will he go?

Adaptability to other places: Good. Any rural site near a university would suffice.

Adaptability to other eras: Mediocre. Gaslight is easy, Modern is almost impossible.

Originality: Great! The basic structure is vaguely similar to Beyond the Mountains of Madness (scholarly expedition, some members of which are not what they seem) although of course without the crushing environmental hazards of that epic tome. However it's executed with polish and does a good job of utilizing parts of Lovecraft Country that aren't well-established like the Big Four.

Coherence: Good. All motivations are clearly sketched out and characters act appropriately.

Pacing: Good. The structure of the scenario is well-defined and events proceed nicely.

Degree of Player-Driven Action: Fair. Mostly nonexistent for the first few days, which is appropriate for students under the direction of a professor. As things unravel towards the end of the scenario and the (non-evil) professors start to go unhinged and lose control, the Investigators will have much more freedom in how they want to approach things.

Keeper Skill Needed: Great. Tons of NPCs (28 people from Miskatonic, plus 3 friendly farmers, 7 deranged hillbilly farmers, not to mention townsfolk, two bigfeet and a half-dozen of their resurrected ancestors) will make this a challenge for the Keeper.

NPCs: Great! Nice and compelling; for having such a large number of college students they are all interesting and distinct.

Estimated number of four-hour sessions: Three.

Suitability for campaign play: Poor, unless you're running a Miskatonic campaign, in which case Great!

Suitability for one-shot: Great! As designed.

Pre-generated Investigators: Good. Like the NPCs, surprisingly distinct for college students.

Likelihood of PC survival: Terrible to Good. A frontal assault will almost certainly get them killed; unlike many scenarios there is no opportunity go in loaded for bear. However, clever play will pay off.

Final Rating: Good. A nice use of Miskatonic as sort-of-but-not-really the setting. Having Investigators as junior academians is an excellent change of pace; having the action take place off-campus prevents the "Mythos hoe-down" feel of overusing the university as a setting.

Scenario 6: "The Burning Stars"

Author: David Conyers. An established contributor whose output has increased quite a bit in the last decade.

Length: 44pp.

Setting: Classic era. Port-au-Prince and environs, Haiti, 30-Oct-1930.

The Hook: The Investigators were hired to come to Haiti to find the missing son of a wealthy industrialist. Then, they wake up. They're in a US military hospital in Port-au-Prince. It's seven days later and they can't remember anything about the last week and are all suffering from various neuroses/psychoses. What the hell happened?

The Secret: Following the missing man's tracks, the Investigators came upon a sinister cult. The cult leader summoned a horrible entity to attack them. It slaughtered all but one of the Investigators -- the lone surviving Investigator is the only living one. All the other Investigators are hallucinations, symptoms of the survivor's insanity, but the players don't know that. (While normally I don't provide commentary to this section of my reviews, let me just say HOLY HELL. This is a phenomenal high-concept premise and if Conyers can pull it off, it will go down in legend as one of the greats.)

Adaptability to other places: Mediocre. A lot of this revolves around voodoo and Haitian flavor. You could move it to other places but you would lose this.

Adaptability to other eras: Fair. Haiti is not exactly reknowned for its political stability, so it would require some work to move the scenario around in time without becoming ahistorical. Gaslight would present issues with anachronisms (was there a US military hospital there in 1880?).

Originality: Superb! I've never seen or heard of anything even remotely like this.

Coherence: Fair. The actions of the NPCs are logical. Of special note is how to deal with Investigators who don't know they're dead. Conyers includes several different tactics/techniques for doing this, as well as including some fictional inspiration for Keepers to explore (The Sixth Sense is the obvious one; there are others). No matter what, this is tough. Reminding Investigators that they are dealing with an immense mental shock will help smooth over apparent inconsistencies in your narrative, but this also plays into trust issues with the group. The players expect you to describe things accurately; they'll give you some leeway if you tell them that you are describing things as their currently-insane characters perceive things -- but my recommendation is to use this as little as possible.

Pacing: Great! The sense of impending doom slowly ramps up. Optional creepy events are provided to intersperse as needed.

Degree of Player-Driven Action: Good. A tough call -- on one hand, nothing that 5/6ths of the Investigators will do can affect their ultimate fate. On the other, they can certainly contribute to the success of the scenario. The investigation can take place in multiple directions, which helps.

Keeper Skill Needed: Superb. I would not recommend this for beginning or even intermediate Keepers.

NPCs: Good.

Estimated number of four-hour sessions: Two.

Suitability for campaign play: Either Terrible or Superb. If you are ending the campaign and the players know it, this will be unforgettable. If the players don't know it, it will also be unforgettable because they will string you up by your thumbs.

Suitability for one-shot: Great! Designed as one -- although I'd prefer to cap off a campaign with it, just so the emotional connection to the characters is there.

Pre-generated Investigators: Great! On that fine line between pulpy and too pulpy.

Likelihood of PC survival: Terrible for the one surviving PC. Impossible for everyone else.

Final Rating: Superb! One of the most unusual premises for any scenario I've read in the entire hobby. Beyond that, phenomenally well-executed; a treat to read, and one that the players will definitely never forget.

The Rest of It

Handouts, 37pp, Fair. Mostly well-done in a variety of different fonts and handwriting styles. The art of the tarot cards from "The Burning Stars" is quite well-done. An odd choice is that for some of the scenarios, the pregenerated characters on differently-sized cutouts. E.g. for "Ghost Light," half of them are 3"x5" (width x height) while the rest are 6"x3". It probably shouldn't matter, but it's jarring.

OVERALL RATING

Good. Two of the scenarios are complete duds for me, but the strength of the others and especially "The Burning Stars" puts it just very slightly over the edge. One-shot scenarios are an interesting phenomenon. As the copy on the back cover claims, they can be used to provide uniquely interesting roleplaying opportunities. Unlike ongoing campaigns, there is no question of plausibility and no need for an overarching campaign structure (e.g. Delta Green) to introduce new plotlines. The downside of one-shots is that it can be difficult for players to feel the same degree of connection that they would to their existing character in an ongoing game. Not all players can get into the idea of playing a character they wouldn't necessarily create on their own. It will be imperative to the Keeper to choose players wisely and let them know ahead of time. I've had success in the past with letting the group know that at the end of the one-shot, we will vote on who roleplayed the best and buy him/her a beer -- sometimes just a little bribe will go a long way.

Given that the cover copy claims unique roleplaying opportunities, the scenarios deliver with mixed results. Many of them are quite similar to any other roleplaying opportunity in Call of Cthulhu. Even "The Burning Stars" features a fairly standard team of Investigators -- the private eye, the dilletante, the plucky reporter, etc. The best by this standard is "Ghost Light" (blue-collar Scottish lighthouse keepers with no real investigative skills), with honorable mentions going to "The Dig" (well-done college students) and "Grave Secrets" (an elementary school teacher, plus a soldier returned from the war). (While "A Method To Madness" promises interesting pregenerated characters -- a manic artist, an idiot savant, a delusional millionaire -- the scenario as a whole is too weak to make them pay off.)

The lack of theme hurts the book. Mansions of Madness (just to pick one example) had its scenarios all revolve around a common setting type, but Terrors From Beyond has no such link between its chapters. They're a grab bag and the style, feel, setting, and plot all vary widely. This is to the book's detriment, as it can be harder for the reader to put himself in the right mindset when going from one scenario to another.

In general, I am not sure that I can recommend paying full price for this book unless you are either a completist, or a huge fan of one-shots, or unless one of the included scenarios sounds right up your alley. A good compromise might be to download the PDF from Chaosium's website, but unless you run it right off your laptop, the ink costs might actually make it more expensive depending on how many scenarios you print out. Hopefully Chaosium's next scenario anthology will be a little more consistent in quality.

Thanks for reading; as always, comments, criticisms, and suggestions for improvement are welcomed. If you enjoy the review and are interested in the product, please consider purchasing it from Lost Coast Mythos Bribery Division.

Review: Farewell, My Sanity (Chaosium, 2007)

2009-11-18T12:19:00.000-08:00

This review was originally published in a slightly different form on RPG Geek.

This is Chaosium's Miskatonic University Library Association Monograph #0346, Farewell, My Sanity, originally published in 2007. The MULA books are limited print run, rough-draft style releases from Chaosium. Their purpose is threefold: one, to test the market on a limited basis to see if there is demand for a wider release; two, to allow authors a quick path to publication in the hobby; three, to save Chaosium money on editing, typesetting, art, etc.

The good news is that you can get more unusual material, or that with limited mainstream appeal, than you would otherwise. The downside is that this is often little more than a step above self-publishing, and they are often expensive compared to official releases in the main line. Farewell, My Sanity is an exception to this at $20 for 120pp, although there is a lot of white space that pads the page count unnecessarily.

Content-wise, this contains two excellent, solid scenarios that capture the feel of both Call of Cthulhu as well as Los Angeles.

Spoilers abound! Players, stop reading now!

Farewell, My Sanity

The Vitals

Publisher: Chaosium (Hayward, CA).

ISBN: 9781568822327
In print?: No, as of Nov-2009. Available as a PDF though.
List price: $13.95 for the PDF.
Pages: 120

Dimensions: 8.5"x11"
Format: Quality paperback, perfect bound
Weight: 12 oz.

Summary

The Investigators are owners and employees of the Guzman-Willent Detective Agency who have two unusual cases in the early 1920s. The first involves a missing persons case -- the suspect turns out to be an heir to the horrific Marsh legacy, come west to spread his family's sickening curse on the country's Pacific coast. He intends to call his family's patron deity to wipe out the seaside playground of Venice. Can the Investigators stop him in time?

In the second case, the agency is hired to secretly record a band with a hot new sound. The seemingly-normal but insane band leader, however, has fallen in with an unsavory mentor and intends to use their next concert as a vehicle for summoning a god. If the Investigators don't stop him, hundreds or thousands will die as the god reaps a terrible harvest in the City of Angels.

General Impressions

Art: Great! The art is adequate to excellent, especially considering that this is a MULA monograph. The cover art and character portraits are good, but what really takes this book to the next level is its abundance of period photographs of LA, Venice Beach, and Catalina. With so many of these in the public domain now, it would be easy for artists/authors to find many different suitable pictures. As photos often convey the sense of place much better than a handful of line drawings, I would love for this to become a trend in the MULA line and in the game as a whole.

Layout: Poor. Graphic design is a bit of a mish-mash. It's mostly pedestrian and straightforward -- not in a bad way per se, just not exciting. One questionable choice is splitting up long sections of background information over multiple non-adjacent pages. E.g.:

p38: scenario material.

p39: historical background on Catalina Island (1/2).

p40: scenario material.

p41: historical background on Catalina Island (2/2).

p42: scenario material.

...etc.

This is very jarring to read and a better layout would make things flow better.

Editing: Good. No major typos.

Index: Terrible. Non-existent.

Company Support: Poor. Handouts are not available for download.

Contents

Memorandum, 2pp, Fair. Some advice from the author about the scenarios and things he likes to do as a Keeper.

Under The Boardwalk

Length: 27pp.

Setting: Classic era. Los Angeles, CA and Venice Beach, CA. 15-Dec-1920.

Hook: Fair. The Investigators work for the Guzman-Willent Detective Agency. A woman hires them to find her missing daughter, who has (unbeknown to the mother) run away with a charming young man with the ominous name of Robert Marsh. Pretty average, as far as hooks go.

Adaptability to other places: Poor. Much of this is based around LA and derives its sense of history and atmosphere from that city. Many of the NPCs are Mexican-American and would not work as well outside of Southern California, or at least the southwest. It could possibly go to Coney Island but would require rewriting of almost everything outside of the basic plot sketch.

Adaptability to other eras: Terrible. The plot involves construction of a boardwalk-style amusement park. Gaslight is just nonsensical; modern-era Venice Beach is just as nonsensical.

Originality: Good. This definitely borrows liberally from Raymond Chandler to excellent effect. Very noir in parts (although its setting technically predates the noir era by at least a decade), which is unusual against the more common pulp feel of Call of Cthulhu. The Los Angeles setting is also well realized and unusual. As a nice touch, it also suggests appropriate sound effects for the various scenes if you'd like to line them up beforehand.

Coherence: Good. NPC motivations are logical and compelling.

Pacing: Good. The passive investigation portion (go to various official buildings, roll Library Use) is short; much of the investigation involves sneaking around and doing dangerous (and exciting) things.

Degree of Player-Driven Action: Good. Lots of choices at the climax and several different ways things can play out.

Keeper Skill Needed: Fair. Straightforward.

NPCs: Good. Roleplaying advice and motivations are given for each one. This is an excellent idea and I'd like to see it become standard.

Estimated number of four-hour sessions: Two.

Suitability for campaign play: Fair. As written, it assumes the Investigators are members of a detective agency; any setup where the PCs in LA and for hire will be fine. The difficulty is that not many campaigns are set in California to begin with.

Suitability for one-shot: Great! It includes pre-generated characters, ready to go.

Likelihood of Investigator survival: Good to Mediocre, depending on their choices.

Final Rating: Good. A nice use of actual historical background tied into the plot in clever ways that give some surprises. A standard threat is given a good twist through their use of the environment. Several excellent set pieces provide some memorable showdowns at various points.

An Enchanted Evening

Length: 31pp.

Setting: Classic era. Los Angeles/Catalina Island, 16-Aug-1923.

Hook: Fair. As before, the Investigators are assumed to be detectives for hire. A music producer wants them to attend a concert by a hot new band and secretly record it.

Adaptability to other places: Good. The Catalina setting is well-researched but the plot does not depend on it. Coastal cities would be the easiest (much of the adventure takes place on an island) but with some work it could go about anywhere.

Adaptability to other eras: Mediocre. You'd have to change a few things here and there but it could easily go to Gaslight or the Modern era without serious modification to the plot. Major NPCs would need rewriting though.

Originality: Good. Tricking an unsuspecting audience into casting a spell has been around since the "Look To the Future" chapter of the venerable Shadows of Yog-Sothoth. However, it's done a little more interestingly here and does a good job of capturing the exciting energy of a hip new sound. Sprinkling in some period slang will help.

Coherence: Good. An excellent use of the then-current fad for dance marathons with appropriate manipulation by evil cultists.

Pacing: Great! The author uses time pressure to excellent effect here -- the Investigators simply must be at the concert hall when the show begins or they don't get paid. This adds stress to every aspect of the preceding investigations. Do they have time to do everything they want?

Degree of Player-Driven Action: Great! Tons of flexibility in how the Investigators make their initial inquiries, talk to key NPCs, and approach the showdown.

Keeper Skill Needed: Good. The aforementioned flexibility allowed the Investigators will require complementary flexibility on the part of the Keeper.

NPCs: Good. The portly, cigar chomping music executive. A ditzy flapper who's simply mad for dancing. The naive new band member. The washed-up former band member. And, of course the ex-boxer Irish priest. Someday I'd like to see a study done on how many Irish-American priests in the 1920s actually were boxers. According to Call of Cthulhu, it's all of them. Like the previous adventure, all NPCs are given copious (and excellent) roleplaying notes.

Estimated number of four-hour sessions: Two.

Suitability for campaign play: Fair. As above, it depends on your campaign. Campaigns set in Los Angeles will have no issues, but you'll probably be rewriting other adventures to move them west. Campaigns not set in Los Angeles will have to figure out a way to get the Investigators there, or rewrite the scenario.

Suitability for one-shot: Great! Very memorable.

Likelihood of Investigator survival: Terrible to Good. A very real chance to take a 1d10/1d100 Sanity hit.

Final Rating: Good. A somewhat standard trope done well.

The Rest of It

Handouts, 32pp, Great! Fine detail and lovely art from David Milano. One of the antagonists in "Under the Boardwalk" is an artist and many of the clues come in the form of various unsettling sketches he leaves lying around. There's more excellent period photographs, maps, and so on. The historical research that went into this really takes it over the top. Normally I am not too big on historical accuracy, but using pictures to set the mood is brilliant.

I should also mention that there are really only 16 pages of handouts; each page is blank on the back. I suppose this is great if you want to butcher your book but it's mostly just a waste of space.

Pre-Generated Characters, 12pp, Great! Well-designed characters that work together and provide an excellent and diverse skill set for navigating the travails of the Mythos in Los Angeles. As above, it's really only 6 pages.

D20 Characters and NPCs, 7pp, Fair. Does anybody still run the d20 Call of Cthulhu?

Links and Advertisements, 2pp, Great! While the author and artist's websites are essentially placeholders, there's some nice historical ones on Venice and Catalina, and a fantastic site called sounddogs.com, which has thousands of free sound effect files if you like to add effects to your games.

OVERALL RATING

Great! Vanek really gets both Call of Cthulhu and Los Angeles. Both of these are really well-done scenarios that made me want to run them after reading them.

The historical angle is phenomenally well-researched here; all relevant places, times, etc. are explained in loving detail that gets to the heart of the issue without going into too much detail (for the most part). The caveat there is because at times the historical background felt a little like padding; however it is easy enough to skip over. Non-Angelenos and foreign players will no doubt appreciate the detail, especially if they want to represent the real LA -- as a native of the LA area myself, I am often bemused/annoyed by fictional versions of the city and its culture, specifically the common assumption that everything revolves around the film and television industries or celebrities. Thankfully Vanek captures both the soul and the soullessness of LA and if he didn't admit up front that he lives there, it would be obvious to me just from his portrayal of the city.

As far as his attempt to write noir scenarios for the game, it's just okay. Noir is characterized by its lack of strong moralizing. Its heroes are ambiguous -- not really anti-heroes, but not white knights either. They aren't afraid to use force against men (or women), and they are often callous and fatalistic. Interestingly this is appropriate for Lovecraftian themes (and of course Lovecraft, Chandler, and Hammett all developed this post-moral outlook roughly simultaneously).

However, the Call of Cthulhu game is actually one of the most moralizing games out there. This is due to the Sanity stat conflating both mental stability and moral character. Any dubiously-moral act that an Investigator does -- pull a gun on an old lady merely because she won't rent a room to you? doom an ocean liner and hundreds of its passengers to a watery grave? -- is subject to the Keeper calling for a Sanity check. Not that I'm complaining -- this is actually one of the best tools in the Keeper's arsenal for preventing Investigators from acting like the homicidal, genocidal, psychopathic "heroes" common in other games. Especially in a campaign game, it encourages players to act like Boy Scouts to prolong their Investigator's viability.

Unfortunately, this also runs against a real simulation of the noir genre. Rather than engage in callous violence, Investigators will studiously avoid it unless absolutely necessary. I actually think that Stolze's Nemesis, with its Unknown Armies-style Madness Meters, would actually be a superior fit for a Lovecraftian/Noir mashup. Rather than penalize the players for amoral activity, it rewards it -- but only up to a point. This double-edged sword approach would actually serve to reinforce the genre.

All that aside, this is one of the best monographs out there for scenarios, and Mr. Vanek has really done a stellar job. I hope this gets picked up for a wider official release from Chaosium and I look forward to more of Mr. Vanek's work.

Review: Our Ladies of Sorrow (Miskatonic River Press, 2009)

2009-11-15T16:54:00.000-08:00

Kevin Ross has emerged as one of the most prolific authors in the history of the Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game. He became involved during the late eighties and has had his hand in many different products to at least some extent, over the life of the game. He has produced quite a bit of work in the Dreamlands setting (sadly, most of it not very compelling to me) and its related city of Kingsport (Chaosium, 1991/2003), the latter completing the reknowned Lovecraft Country tour-de-force released by the company in the 1990s. Ross' stellar sourcebook and mini-campaign Escape From Innsmouth (Chaosium, 1992/1997) cemented his reputation as one of the premier authors contributing to the Classic Era of the game. In perhaps his greatest accomplishment, he wrote the first official appearance of The King in Yellow that paved the way for the modern interpretation of the Hastur Mythos, in his scenario "Tell Me, Have You Seen the Yellow Sign?" Appearing in The Great Old Ones (Chaosium, 1989), it has become one of the most powerful modern additions to the Mythos. Unfortunately, John Tynes' tremendous treatment of the Hastur Mythos in The Unspeakable Oath #1 (Pagan Publishing, 1990) followed by Tynes' and Dennis Detwiller's expansive, utterly definitive vision in Delta Green: Countdown (Pagan Publishing, 1999) would serve to overshadow Ross to an extent. But Ross came first.

In 2008, Chaosium significantly liberalized its 3rd-party licensing policy, leading to a recent renaissance of new and returning contributors for Call of Cthulhu. Keith "Doc" Herber and several others started Miskatonic River Press, a publishing company that brought together some of the greatest creative forces to release material for the game. Ross came on board quickly, first supplying a scenario for New Tales of the Miskatonic Valley (2008), and then revising and releasing a project that he'd had developing for almost two decades, leading to the current book: Our Ladies of Sorrow.

This review covers material for Keepers only; please treat all information as potential spoilers. Prospective players, stop reading now.

Our Ladies of Sorrow

The Vitals

Publisher: Miskatonic River Press (Lakeland, FL),
ISBN: 9780982181829
In print?: Yes, as of Nov-2009.
List price: $34.95
Pages: 152
Dimensions: 8.5"x11"
Format: Quality paperback, perfect bound
Weight: 1 lb., 1 oz.

Summary

The Investigators become drawn into the machinations of a very old entity, one that takes the form of the Triple Goddess (Maiden-Mother-Crone, or in this case the Mothers of Shadows, of Sighs, and of Tears) and many other forms of a supernatural feminine principle -- referred to collectively as the Sisters. This entity is capricious and sadistic, and enjoys toying with humans. The Investigators must defeat each of her three manifestations and then survive one final showdown against her/them.

General Impressions

Art: Fair. A nice cover, presenting a somewhat classical take on the maiden-mother-crone motif. Subdued colors and solid composition combine to make a compelling picture. The art overwhelms the title a little and it gets lost on the cover.

The interior has a little over two dozen pencil sketches, lightly inked to add a bit of depth. On average, these felt a little mediocre both in execution and subject matter. I would have liked to see more intensity to add to the mood.

Layout: Superb! About as perfect as you can expect. While many people read more Call of Cthulhu material than they actually get to the table (myself sadly included), MRP recognizes the fundamental nature of RPGs as games. They fully express this design philosophy in their layout for their books. The layout looks extremely clean, almost sparse: Two-column pages with minimal distraction. No scrollwork in the margins, no "dark" or "edgy" motifs. Clean, high contrast paper allows for easy reading even under the typical low- or candle-light situations in which many play Call of Cthulhu. The design remains consistent throughout.

Editing: Great! A few minor and infignificant typos.

Index: Terrible. Non-existent.

Company Support: Mediocre. No PDFs of the handouts on the company website. This especially disappoints considering the high standard set for the phenomenal prop downloads available for New Tales of the Miskatonic Valley, their first game release. However, the company does maintain an active presence on popular Call of Cthulhu fansite yog-sothoth.com, and quickly answer questions.

Contents

Foreword, 3pp, Good. Tersely lays out the scope and nature of the campaign, and how it differs from your standard Call of Cthulhu setup. Specifically, Ross has written a modern day, non-Mythos campaign. While the antagonists have spells from the Call of Cthulhu rulebook, Ross recommends treating them as guidelines for what they might do. Actually using the spells verbatim (e.g., Contact Rat-Thing) would result in a campaign with a drastically different, and incoherent, feel.

Introduction, 4pp, Great! The Introduction expands on the themes in the Foreward and gives specific advice on play. It also mentions that Keepers can and should run other scenarios between the ones in this campaign. I agree with this but have some reservations. I can see how the themes will resonate much stronger if you leave and return to them, like an oscillating wave; but the nature of the interspersed scenarios will play a large part in how the game feels. A Keeper could easily derail the strong themes of supernatural haunting that Our Ladies presents if after the first part, the Investigators go fight some ghouls; and after the second, they go fight some Mi-Go; and so on. Preserving the non-Mythos nature of the campaign really seems like the best way to go here, but good luck finding quality modern-day non-Mythos adventures. Ross recommends The Stars Are Right! (Chaosium, 1992/2004) or Unseen Masters (Chaosium, 2001) but as every scenario in these two involves the Mythos to at least some degree, you'll have to file off some of the edges to make it a good fit into this campaign. This includes not only creatures, but also cults, ancient books, corrupt atavistic inheritances, and other classic tropes of the Lovecraftian genre.

The Introduction continues with advice on working the scenarios into an existing Delta Green campaign (easy) and provides an overview of the nature of the Sorrows (whatever you want, but probably living embodiments of concepts a la The Endless in Gaiman's Sandman) and what they can do (almost anything). He also includes a discussion on how to Mythos it up if you really just can't stand not to. While I appreciate Ross offering options, taking him up on this seems kind of pointless: if you want a straight Mythos campaign, the game has no shortage of already-existing ones you can run. Ross has something different going on here.

Book One - Tenebrarum: House of Shadows

Length: 34pp.

Setting: Modern, date and place unspecified.

Hook: Mediocre, but easily fixable. As written, the Investigators see a fatal accident involving an NPC (caused by Mater Tenebrarum, the first of the Ladies of Sorrow) and then have nightmares involving her. Ross assumes they will then investigate based solely on that. I would prefer to up the threat level and make into a more explicit curse: the Investigators have attracted the Mater's attention through their contact with the victim. Perhaps his dying words attempt to warn them not to touch him.... Regardless, they need a more pressing reason to get involved than just altruism or possible curiosity.

Adaptability to other places: Superb! Any large city will suffice.

Adaptability to other eras: Good. You'll have to adjust the dates on many clues, and possibly make some of them easier to find (i.e., without the internet) but it easily falls within the abilities of your average Keeper.

Originality: Great! I don't know of anything written for game quite like this. It explores a type of horror that Call of Cthulhu hasn't touched, proving the old girl still has life in her yet.

Coherence: Good. NPCs' motivations generally hang together. No major missteps, fudging, or things happening "just because."

Pacing: Fair. Has the potential to lag in the middle. The main portion of the scenario involves investigating a (possibly) tediously-large apartment building. Fortuitously Ross includes a number of events to drive action and keep the tension smoothly ramping up.

Degree of Player-Driven Action: Good. There is some flexibility as to when major events happen, when the Investigators go to significant locations, and so on. However there is a set climax to the scenario and the plot rushes inexorably towards it.

Keeper Skill Needed: Good. Lots of NPCs with distinct personalities that might prove challenging to quickly switch between. The fuzzy timeframe means that the Keeper will have to be proactive in introducing events at the right pace.

NPCs: Great! I really liked the different NPCs here, finding them all unique and believable as characters.

Estimated number of four-hour sessions: Three.

Suitability for campaign play: Great! Should fit into almost any campaign without too much difficulty, subject only to the reservations about its non-Mythos nature, already discussed.

Suitability for one-shot: Great! You could easily run this as a standalone. You'd lose the mythic and narrative power of the whole three-part motif, but it would work fine as a curse/haunting type of scenario. You'd probably also want to remove a little foreshadowing presented in one of the dream sequences.

Likelihood of Investigator survival: Great! While creepy and unsettling, the threat the Mater presents comes from a slow but steady Sanity drain, not large random losses of Sanity or hit points. Ross also recommends using her non-lethal attacks during the final showdown, as this is the first scenario of the campaign.

Final Rating: Great! A unique approach, well-executed by a master. Held back a rank only due to the skill necessary to juggle many different NPCs and to drive the action forward in lieu of a firm timeframe.

Book Two - Suspiriorum: Desert of Sighs

Length: 34pp.

Setting: Modern, Arizona (Kingman and the Mojave Desert), 2008. A pet peeve: Ross never actually comes out and says the year. I had to calculate it based on the age of an NPC and his given birth year. Would it be so hard to just state the year the scenario is set in? That would make it much easier for the Keeper to adjust based on campaign needs. Anyway, you could set this without modification from 2006 through about 2018 or so; after that you'd need to start adjusting dates to prevent the NPCs from being too old to be believable.

Hook: Fair. The Investigators are asked to help out a family friend, a college student whose group disappeared during a hiking trip in the Mojave.

Adaptability to other places: Poor. Not as easy as just transporting it to another desert, you'd also have to rewrite most of the NPCs as they're mostly Hualapai Indian or otherwise strongly connected to the American southwest.

Adaptability to other eras: Poor. Exploring the Mojave without an experienced guide is suicidal before the advent of modern GPS devices. The GPS devices also provide significant clues in the scenario.

Originality: Good. No points for setting, as the southwest has been used a fair amount in published scenarios and the influence of Latin America is also prominent. However the strong and unusual antagonists, the well-written NPCs, and the creepy otherworldliness of desert combined to present a memorable experience.

Coherence: Good. One concern is that Mater Suspiriorum's motivations (to give rest to the hopeless) are not as well-defined as Mater Tenebrarum's. Suspiriorum is necessarily more passive.

Pacing: Good. Ross divides the plot up into nicely distinct acts that frame the narrative well.

Degree of Player-Driven Action: Fair. We're mostly on rails here, but they're good rails. A nice touch that elevates it slightly is the focus on the Investigators' backgrounds -- specifically, anything they have done that is shameful or caused some degree of ostracizing. If the Keeper has been going by the book, this discussion will have taken place before the campaign, ideally in a one-on-one conversation with each player. Put this in the context of a larger conversation so it doesn't stand out.

Keeper Skill Needed: Good. Integrating the Investigators' backgrounds on the fly will be challenging to do well, but the rest of it is straightforward.

NPCs: Great! Fewer to worry about than the previous chapter, but more memorable. Joseph Two Knives, the shady Yaqui diablero, is a great character -- potentially an iconic character, although you'd have to change him a little to use him in other contexts (he'd make a great double-edged ally in Arkham Horror) -- and the spooky picture of him grinning over a flickering campfire is my favorite piece of artwork in the book. One nice note is the well-rounded use of Native American characters. They're real people, not all just drunks or super-enlightened shamans.

Estimated number of four-hour sessions: Four. Some might be a little short, but I think that's how the acts naturally break down: Investigating, Desert Trip One, Desert Trip Two, City of Gloom. Some of the initial investigating could take place at the end of Act 1 or the beginning of Act 2 if they need padding out.

Suitability for campaign play: Great!

Suitability for one-shot: Fair. Outside of the motif of the triple goddess, Mater Suspiriorum is not especially meaningful or threatening.

Likelihood of Investigator survival: Good to Mediocre. If they shed blood in the garden, it may well be curtains. Mater Suspiriorum, for all that she is not actively malevolent, is pretty dangerous. Surprisingly, one of her forms does not inflict much sanity loss despite being pretty crazy.

Final Rating: Great! A solid second chapter that manages to be distinct from the first, but still threatening and compelling.

Book Three - Lachrymarum: River of Tears

Length: 32pp.

Setting: Modern. "Baleford," Illinois, a fictional city based on Galena, Illinois. Summer 2009.

Adaptability to other places: Fair. Any place subject to heavy rainfall and flooding, that also has a sizeable Hispanic population, would work.

Adaptability to other eras: Poor. Much of the plot revolves around a film buff and his devotion to a female classic movie star from the studio era of the '30s and '40s. Moving this back to Classic could work if you made her a forgotten opera star instead, but this would take a bit of work. Gaslight would require almost completely rewriting the scenario due to the social status of women prior to the era.

Hook: Mediocre. A paranormal author NPC from the first scenario calls and accuses the Investigators of pulling a practical joke by having someone pretend to be a scary woman and threaten his kids. Of course it's actually Mater Lachrymarum, in her guise as "La Llorona," the Mexican weeping ghost-mother-woman figure. She then asks the author if he knows [random Investigator], and upon getting confirmation, tells the author to tell the Investigator that she wants to see him. The Investigators, out of charity and curiosity, fly to Illinois.

This is really weird and seems hard to pull off. Why wouldn't a paranormal author, who is in town specifically to investigate La Llorona sightings, immediately jump to the conclusion that he is dealing with La Llorona? Especially after she lifts him off the ground by his neck! The practical joke angle seems bizarre to me. I'd just run it straight, and for good measure throw in a threat to the Investigator's child.

Originality: Good. It's nice to see a classic ghost get the Call of Cthulhu treatment, although many of the other tropes surrounding the main plot are somewhat well-worn. It does present a different threat than the first two chapters, keeping the Investigators on their toes.

Coherence: Fair. Aside from the hook, it generally works.

Pacing: Mediocre. It's okay, but there's not a dictinct rhythm like in the second scenario. Mostly it feels like one big muddle as the Investigators stumble around in the rain and look for clues.

Degree of Player-Driven Action: Fair. There's a lot of flexibility as to how they react to the various machinations of La Llorona, although if they want to defeat her they'll have to face her down on her turf.

Keeper Skill Needed: Mediocre. This one's pretty straightforward.

NPCs: Mediocre. Competent, but none that really grabbed me.

Estimated number of four-hour sessions: Two or three.

Suitability for campaign play: Great! Like the others.

Suitability for one-shot: Great! Probably better than the others due to the extant legend already surrounding La Llorona.

Likelihood of Investigator survival: Fair. The final showdown with Mater Lachrymarum is pretty serious, but a determined and sizeable group will take her down.

Final Rating: Mediocre. Honestly, this one just didn't excite me, especially considering the quality of the first two. It just came across as forced and by-the-numbers, which disappointed me -- due to the richness of Hispanic culture and the Llorona legend, combined with the expected menace of the third Mater, I expected something really special. Something feels missing.

Book Four - Epilogue: The Final Cut

Length: 13pp.

Setting: Modern. Several months to a year-and-a-half after Lachrymarum, in late fall/winter. North Fork, Pennsylvania.

Adaptability to other places: Superb! Mostly takes place in dreamy otherworlds, so physical setting doesn't really matter.

Adaptability to other eras: Great! There's really nothing about this that ties it to the modern era.

Hook: Good. An NPC from the first scenario becomes an ally and then gradually withdraws, possibly due to depression. This is one of the best ways to get Investigators involved in scenarios: they get attached to the NPC and have an emotional stake in his life. The downside is that it requires a lot of setup, in this case keeping the NPC around for quite a while, including all the interspersed scenarios.

Originality: Good. The various dream sequences combined with the otherworldly finale really underscore the menace of the Matres.

Coherence: Great! This is where it all comes together. The Matres have decided to deal with the Investigators once and for all, and are not pulling any punches. Due to their immense power, almost anything could happen here, so my rating is not so much whether the events of this scenario are "realistic" but more about their narrative impact and cohesiveness. And in my opinion, Ross pulls it off with panache. This is a fine finale to a great campaign.

Pacing: Great! Once the Investigators head off in search of their friend, the tension never lets up. They are propelled madly from one crisis to another, culminating in a most terrible choice.

Degree of Player-Driven Action: Great! Many choices abound here, all are equally difficult, all have equally terrible outcomes.

Keeper Skill Needed: Fair. Nothing difficult here.

NPCs: Fair. Not very many, but assuming the Keeper did a good job of introducing their NPC friend in the first scenario, this one should be fun.

Estimated number of four-hour sessions: One.

Suitability for campaign play: Great, assuming it's the culmination of this campaign.

Suitability for one-shot: Terrible. Don't even bother; everything in here assumes that the Matres are reacting to the actions of the Investigators in the previous scenarios.

Likelihood of Investigator survival: Poor to Fair. Or Superb, if they make a terrible choice and take the Sanity hit. Our Lady gives no quarter.

Final Rating: Great! A memorable end to a memorable campaign.

The Rest of It

Appendix: Our Ladies of Sorrow, 6pp, Great! An excellent overview of the motif of the Triple Goddess, the Dark Mother, and all her related aspects. Keepers should draw liberally from this well; the more the better. I would have actually put this at the front of the book so that Keepers could have it in mind as they read through the campaign.

Appendix: "Levana and Our Ladies of Sorrow," by Thomas De Quincey, 2pp, Great! A short story -- a fragment really -- that originally appeared in Suspiria de Profundis (1845) and served as the primary inspiration for the campaign. While De Quincey is best known for his masterpiece Confessions of An English Opium Eater (1821), Suspiria has the distinction of being arguably better written, and certainly more fantastic -- if Confessions was the memoir of a descent into a harrowing fever-dream of addiction, Suspiria is the fever dreams themselves. The inclusion of this into the text is a nice touch, and, like the previous appendix, helps put the campaign into the larger context of its literary and mythological heritage.

Bibliography, 1p, Good. All the sources that inspired Ross and feature the Sorrows to at least some degree. I would have liked to see the publication/release dates for the various works, but that's a nitpick.

Afterword, 3pp, Good. Designer's notes, essentially. I always enjoy a look into the genesis of a campaign and the reasons behind the author's creative choices. Invariably, these help me when actually running the campaign -- knowing "why" in addition to "what" frames the plot and enables me to better present it to players, and especially improvise in response to them.

A final page rededicates the book to the late, great Keith "Doc" Herber, who died in the middle of helping to edit this project. Although I never met Doc personally, I remember feeling so excited to hear that he was returning to working on material for the game. For him to die so soon after his return hit pretty hard; I can't imagine the loss felt by those who actually knew him and worked with him for the decades that he continually pushed the game's boundaries. Thanks to Mr. Ross for putting this in here -- a class act, although no doubt Ross felt it was the least he could do.

Handouts, 7pp, Poor. Nothing better than what you could make yourself. Essentially just cut and pasted from the text into the appendix. Better than nothing, though.

Advertisements, 7pp, Fair. A little silly to rate ads, but I do like to see other things out there in the Cthuluverse. I admit to salivating a little over the "Future Releases from Miskatonic River Press" section. And I always appreciate the fine young men over at HPLHS.

Colophon, 1p, Great! In case writing a preposterously long review for a tabletop roleplaying game somehow fails to identify me as a raging nerd, let me also admit that I love a good colophon.

OVERALL RATING

Great! Kevin Ross and Miskatonic River Press have really outdone themselves here. Usually I do not like modern-era Cthulhu scenarios, finding them almost invariably poorly done and lacking narrative cohesion. Part of the problem is that, given the advances in information technology, it's not credible to run Classic-style stories merely transplanted eighty years into the future, yet most authors write exactly that. I would submit that the continued popularity of the Delta Green setting supports this opinion. To make the modern Mythos believable, Tynes et al. wrote out large amounts of canonical material and introduced several conspiracies that actively worked to suppress Mythos knowledge -- and also provided a convenient method for getting Investigators involved in the scenario, as well as ways to work around the modern restrictions on cheeky civilians poking around murder scenes.

Of course, despite the brilliance of Pagan Publishing's setting, it did not arrive ex nihilo. It drew from many diverse sources, both fictional and non, primarily the diverse modern mythology surrounding UFOs, cryptozoology, and other fringe pseudoscience movements. Ross does the same thing here by mining the equally rich vein of ghost stories. Ghost stories provide a vibrant source of material for modern horror gaming: their antagonists appear only at will, do not necessarily leave traces of their activity, and may often be entirely psychological phenomena. In short, despite all our technological advances, they still exist at the edges of our knowledge and awareness, flitting in and out of detectable reality, which makes them perfect foils for the modern, cynical, skeptical population from which our players come.

The recent fad surrounding Japanese horror movies (which Ross acknowledges) serves to illustrate this nicely. While often repetitive and self-limiting in expression (really, another wet dead girl?) they revitalized the genre with their ability to show how isolation and powerlessness can still affect us in the modern world. In fact, as I read the scenario, I kept thinking "The Grudge meets Sandman" and if I had to pick a tagline for this review, that'd be it.

A full exposition of Gaiman's Sandman lies outside my ability and the scope of this review. However, we can clearly see the influences on Our Ladies. By reaching back to De Quincey and before, Ross imbues the scenario with a Jungian spin that resonates to great effect -- like all Jungian/Campbellian stories done well, it transcends the sum of its often-limited parts and becomes something much greater. I've heard Sandman described as "a myth about myths" and I agree: its power derives from using archetypes as characters. Our Ladies also uses archetypes as characters, although to a more directly horrific and unsettling effect than Gaiman did. Curiously, this works counter to most Mythos scenarios. The fundamental principle of the Mythos is cosmic nihilism, i.e., we live in a vast universe that fundamentally does not care about anything we do, anything we want, or anything we value. The universe has no meaning; its profound absurdity makes a mockery of everything about us.

But Ross' creation subverts this: The Sisters do have meaning. They do care about us: they torment us, and prey on our fears and hopes (unlike a Great Old One, which would step on us and not notice until five millennia later, when he scraped us off the bottom of his shoe). This both helps and hurts Ross' narrative here. Hurts, because it takes away from the vision of stark horror that normally informs Call of Cthulhu scenarios -- the Sisters want things and have goals, we can predict their actions and work against them. But it also helps, because it taps into a different kind of fear: something more powerful than us wants to hurt us. While fear of the unknown is indeed the oldest and strongest kind (as the grand old man himself opined), the other kinds are still worth exploring.

Interestingly, a precedent for this actually exists already in the Mythos: The soul and messenger of the gods, Nyarlathotep himself, takes an abnormal interest in the affairs and tribulations of humanity. Ross suggests an interpretation of the Sisters as an aspect of the Crawling Chaos, although wisely, he does not insist on it. Part of the campaign's strength comes from the Sisters not having neat little categories into which they fit. A detailed article discussing the greater relation of how an active menace fits into the themes of the Mythos, and how it both undermines and reinforces aspects of the game, remains to be written.

Ross uses Our Ladies of Sorrow to give us an opportunity to explore a kind of fear in a way that Call of Cthulhu hasn't seen before, and he does it in a way that sets the bar quite high. Kudos to Ross and to MRP for releasing not only one of the best Call of Cthulhu campaigns of the decade, but also the best modern campaign available for the game. I rate this an absolute must-buy.

Click here to help me out by buying Our Ladies Of Sorrow from the Lost Coast Mythos Bribery Division.

Thanks for reading; as always, comments, criticisms, and suggestions for improvement are welcomed. Specifically I would like feedback on the structure of the review and if reviewing each individual scenario, in addition to the book as a whole, helps the reader.

Review: The Keeper's Companion, vol. 1 (Chaosium, 2000)

2009-11-09T15:40:00.000-08:00

(This review originally appeared in slightly different form at RPG Geek.)

This book is the second of four "core" books released by Chaosium in the early 2000s, the others being The 1920s Investigator's Companion (1997), The Creature Companion (1998), and The Keeper's Companion vol. 2 (2002). Like the other three, this is not "core" in any meaningful sense of the word, and is certainly not a requirement to play the game -- all you need for that is the basic Call of Cthulhu

book.

About a quarter of the book is taken, with slight modifications, updates, and corrections, from the original Keeper's Compendium (1996). The majority of the book was written by Keith Herber, with a list of supplemental authors that read like a who's-who list of Cthuloid luminaries (including Aniolowski, Petersen, and Ross).

This book does not has a unifying theme (other than "for Keepers") but is an anthology of material covering a diverse array of subjects. As such, the chapters skip around a fair amount, and also their utility will vary wildly from Keeper to Keeper. This is to be expected. Anthologies in general are not all things to all people and, in my experience, tend to be very hit and miss.

The Keeper's Companion:
A Core Book for Keepers, Vol. 1

The Vitals

Publisher: Chaosium, http://www.chaosium.com
ISBN: 1568821441
In print?: Yes, as of Nov-2009.
List price: $25.95
Pages: 208
Dimensions: 8.5"x11"
Format: Trade paperback, perfect-bound
Weight: 1 lb., 5.6 oz.

Overall Impressions

Art: Good. All black and white, mostly pen and ink. Chapter headings are by the much-missed Tom Sullivan. Each chapter has a sidebar piece that is repeated on every page. The pieces themselves are Good to Great, but highly problematic due to...

Layout: Poor. All of this low mark is due to the sidebar pieces that run down the outside margin of almost every page. They take up about 25% of the page. On short chapters this is not really noticable, but on long ones it is quite egregious. Once you've seen the same illustration for the 30th page in a row it not only loses all evocative power but starts to actively annoy.

Worse is the fact that, during the course of reading, one starts to suspect that the main choice behind the decision to replicate the sidebar pieces was driven primarily by the desire to pad the page count (and thus MSRP) without the expense of commissioning any additional art. The book is 208 pages; I estimate that the sidebar pieces take up approximately 50 pages worth of space.

Other than this, the layout is utilitarian and inoffensive. Not a masterpiece of graphic design, but it gets the job done.

Editing: Great! Another fine job by Lynn Willis and David Mitchell; there are no errors of any sort in the text that I spotted.

Index, Poor. There's actually no index. There is a fairly detailed table of contents that slightly makes up for it, but there really is no substitute for a good, topical index.

Company Support: Terrible. There are two photocopiable handouts (a character sheet and a "Cause of Death" form); neither are available for download on Chaosium's website.

Contents

Good Cthulhu Hunting, 4pp, Poor. Curiously, the book starts off with something deliberately aimed at Investigators and not Keepers -- it covers how to survive an investigation. I found most of this fairly straightforward, but if you're a killer GM who just can't figure out how to tone it down for your players, you might want to have them read this.

One of the suggestions is downright incorrect: "#6: Guns Are A Last Resort." This is a popular myth of CoC. While it depends largely on scenario design, a sad fact of many scenarios is that, as published, guns often work quite well as a first, last, and only result. Dynamite works even better. I would like it if #6 were more consistently true -- as is, it serves as an excellent argument for never running scenarios off-the-shelf. There should always be consequences for thoughtless violence.

Suggestions for Keepers, 11pp, Mediocre. I suppose every Keeper can stand to reevaluate his skills on occasion, so here's some standard advice you can pay for. If you're new to running CoC, this is not bad, but as experienced gamers know, Keepering is an art. You can't learn it from a book.

A Brief History of the Written Word, 2pp, Fair. Given the importance of books to CoC, it's nice to have some historical info. This is a little light and is mostly a timeline. It would be appreciated to have more detailed information on exactly what (e.g.) a typical privately-printed book in 1785 would look like. There's very little information on the terminology that bibliophiles use (saddle-stitch, clothbound, gilt, etc.). One nice touch is a discussion of book sizes; many people outside the trade do not know the difference between a quarto (your standard-sized RPG book) versus an octavo (your standard-sized hardback).

Occult Books, 19pp, Fair. This is a compendium of quite a few "real" occult books; e.g. books that actually exist outside of the game. Frazier's Golden Bough would probably be the best-known here; also included are the usual suspects like Crowley, Blavatsky, and so on. All these are given game stats; most provide a small increase to the Occult skill, no sanity loss, and no spells.

It includes an optional rule for Feverish Study that sounds fun (read faster but risk Sanity and Hit Points).

Languages and Scripts, 3pp, Fair. About half of this is a very brief overview of the major language families of the world and the writing systems used to record them. The remainder covers nonhuman scripts (but not languages) used by various Mythos races. A sample picture (~2"x~4") of each script is given, but I'm not sure how useful this is. Maybe someone with artistic talent could replicate characters that look similar? As is, a Keeper could use it to base descriptions on. Probably for the best, as pictures in real life never match up to the pictures players make for themselves in their heads.

An Alternate Resistance Table, 1p, Terrible. If you dislike that stat differences of ten or more lead to automatic success/failure, then this might be useful. I've never had a problem with the official Resistance Table, let alone felt that what I really needed was a new one that used arctangents and dividing by pi. Worse, according to this new table, an average person (STR 10) has a 2% chance to lift an object weighing 104 tons (SIZ 104), which is just so silly that it's not even worth bothering with.

Forbidden Books, 40pp, Fair. A comprehensive compendium of all known Mythos tomes, expressed in game terms with excellent historical background by Keith Herber. Gives excellent advice on handling tomes, specifically noting ways in which every pre-printing press (and many post-) copy may be unique. Also provides brief biographical information of the various authors and translators.

As an example, it lists 13 major versions of the Necronomicon or notes on it, with the history of each and their differences outlined. Each copy has slightly different Sanity losses, Cthulhu Mythos skill increases, etc.

The practical import of this section is questionable. It's a good read, but how to use it in your game is not obvious. I can see a few possibilities: (1) if your players really like the history behind the tomes and enjoy the versimilitude brought by deep background knowledge, or (2) if you are designing a scenario and want to make sure your information is canonical. As I am good at improvising information just based on the data in the main book, and as I rarely design my own scenarios due to time constraints and lack of interest, I don't have much use for this.

Arcane Antiquities, 20pp, Mediocre. A compendium of artifacts and doohickies, from various Mythos stories and published scenarios. Most of them are specifically created for a specific story/scenario and are of limited use outside of it.

Secret Cults, 19pp, Fair. An overview of known cults, culled from Mythos fiction, gaming, and historical sources. Includes a section on the Golden Dawn.

Forensic Medicine, 29pp, Fair. This has a lot of detail on how bodies decompose, and how coroners and medical examiners work. Good info if you're writing a scenario based around this, or if you have a player who is running an Investigator of that type and wants to be accurate. In my experience, autopsies in CoC are most useful for how they differ from the standard, not how they conform to it. I've never had an issue with saying "The coroner reports that given the time and manner of death, the state of the body is normal except for..."

Law Enforcement Timeline, 1p, Mediocre. Covers 1635-1996. A curiousity, but not very useful in the game unless you're designing a scenario outside of the standard eras and want to know what's standard procedure for the police.

Circumstances of Death, By State, 2pp, Poor. All deaths in the various US states must be classified by one or more circumstances (suicide, poison, while in prison, etc.). Not all states use the same classifications, so this tells you which states use which ones as of 1992. Of supremely limited use; this has never come up for me in two decades of running CoC.

Alien Races, 15pp, Fair. Expanded information on Deep Ones, Mi-Go, Ghouls, Shan, Old Ones, Serpent People, and Voormis. Motivations, cultural practices, that kind of thing. Not bad.

Mysterious Places, 12pp, Fair. Information on many legendary places both "real" (e.g. Atlantis) and otherwise (e.g. Leng, R'lyeh, Y'ha-nthlei).

Skills Revisited, 27pp, Poor. All about skills in CoC's system. What a given percentage means (e.g. 50% is a master's degree) plus, for every skill in the game, examples of an Easy check (made at 2x skill level), an Average check (straight skill level), and a Hard check (at 1/2 skill level). Also details exactly what the skill means (what can you do with Accounting?).

Really, this is putting lipstick on a pig. I don't know of anyone who runs CoC who actually thinks that BRP is a slick, clever, elegant, or realistic system. At best it's serviceable, "gets out of the way of play," etc. This attempts to make the clunky skill system more realistic but is not worth the time and effort. Anyone who doesn't know what Anthropology is should probably be playing a different game.

Most skills in here already get a paragraph or two of description in the main book, so this is just more detail for its own sake. There are a few new and interesting skills (Folklore, Academic Standing) but as these aren't on any of the standard character sheets available for download, you probably won't use them unless you go out of your way to do so.

Books and Sanity Alternate Rules, 2pp, Mediocre. Like the skill revamp, unnecessary and overcomplicated. Anyone who has a serious problem with CoC's rules is advised to completely jettison the system in favor of something better, rather than jerry-rigging it piecemeal.

M.U. Alumnus Character Sheet, 1p, Fair. Has all the new skills from this book, for what it's worth.

Apparent Natural Death Form, 1p, Fair. Looks authentic but is only useful in a modern campaign due to referencing x-rays as standard autopsy procedure.

OVERALL RATING

Fair. Solid but unnecessary. Almost everything in here can be found on Wikipedia. Most of this is culled from published sources, thus most CoC fans will already have it. If you really want it all in one place, or if you're getting into CoC late in the game, this might be useful. The padding with the illustrations is really egregious. As mentioned previously, by my estimation the page count could have been lowered by about 50 pages if all the sidebar art was left out. Thankfully Chaosium ditched this tactic in The Keeper's Companion, vol. 2.

Overall this is primarily useful to people who are very unfamiliar with the game and especially the Mythos, Keepers designing scenarios, and Keepers who really like the system but also enjoy tweaking it with optional rules. For everyone else, I recommend passing on this book.

Thanks for reading; as always, comments, criticisms, and suggestions for improvement are welcomed.

Review: Miskatonic University (Chaosium, 2005)

2009-11-08T11:26:00.000-08:00

(This review originally appeared in slightly different form at RPG Geek.)

This is a large supplement written by Sam Johnson and released by Chaosium in 2005. It's the third reworking of official material published about the famous university, expanding upon 1995's Miskatonic University Guidebook by Sandy Atunes, which itself expanded on Keith Herber's groundbreaking Arkham Unveiled (1990). This is not a third edition, as most of the material here is either new, newly collated, or newly rewritten. Johnson put a lot of work into this and it was long in coming -- I think three years past its original projected release.

The main point of this supplement, as stated in the "Clear Credit" section, is to be the complete gaming reference for M.U., pulling in every creature, character, secret, etc. from the history of gaming scenarios and also most Mythos fiction. Unfortunately this has a fairly mixed effect, as I'll go into later.

Miskatonic University:

Dire Secrets & Campus Life

The Vitals

Publisher: Chaosium, http://www.chaosium.com
ISBN: 1568821409
In print?: Yes, as of Nov-2009.
List price: $29.95
Pages: 256
Dimensions: 8.5"x11"
Format: Trade paperback, perfect-bound
Weight: 1 lb., 10 oz.

In General:

Art: Great! The cover is a little goofy but the interior art really excels, especially the NPC portraits which completely capture the personalities in an evocative and moody manner. Only a few "meh" pieces. There's not much compared to other books, but what is there makes this one of the best and most consistent books in the line from an art standpoint.

Layout: Good. Well-organized, highly readable, easy to find information. There's the currently-typical Chaosium trend of doing heavy, dark borders around all the pages. Without it the margins would be excessive, but with it you don't really notice. It still feels a little shady and a way to cheaply pad out the page count and thus cost to the consumer, with minimal added expense to the publisher.

Editing: Superb! I didn't notice a single typo, bad reference, or any other misstep. It reads like it's been gone over with a fine-toothed comb.

Contents

Introduction, 8pp, Great! Or as great as 8 pages will get. A mature and well-considered look at M.U. as an institution and how it fits into the campaign and the larger Lovecraftian canon.

Miskatonic University, 62pp, Fair. Starts with an overview of the history (through Fall 1928, post Dunwich Horror) and layout of M.U. In the manner of the Lovecraft Country books, this details almost every location on the map. Especially nice is the lovely and thoughtful exposition on the fabled Orne Library and the beloved Dr. Armitage. If you've ever wondered exactly what's in the Restricted Stacks, here's the official answer.

We run into our first sign of trouble in this chapter too. Of the 15 characters detailed in this chapter, seven of them have some ability in the Cthulhu Mythos skill, four of them know at least one spell, and two of them have 0 SAN. In the section on the university's museum, it describes 26 (!) different items which are Mythos-related in some way, some relatively innocuous (pass a Mythos check to identify a badly-worn representation of a Deep One) but some blatant (enchanted items, spells). That number will go up to 28 once the ill-fated Antarctica Expedition struggles home in 1931.

For some this might not be an issue, but it doesn't sit right with me and is not the flavor I prefer in the game. Things Man Was Not Meant To Know should not be known by half the NPCs. Having supernatural people and doohickies tripping all over each other feels extremely pulpy, to the point of parody. Were I to use this information, I'd leave most of this out. Especially the magical items -- your D&D campaign might be fine with a closet full of ~~used~~ quality pre-owned +1 short swords, but this is Call of Cthulhu. An excellent rule of thumb from The Riddle of Steel that I like: magic items should be rare enough that every single one of them has a name.

One counter-argument that could be made is that this is not representative of the university but only of the NPCs the author chose to stat out. This has some merit but ultimately it is unsupportable one way or another: the exact size and population of the university is deliberately left unstated, so there is no canonical answer as to exactly how unusual Mythos knowledge is at M.U. Regardless, even if the university is (contrary to canon) large, what matters here is the tone that the book sets: Mythos is everywhere, watch your step! Maybe you like that, but it's not for me.

People on Campus, 54pp, Mediocre. The problems of the previous chapter accelerate, but now with a new addition: Regular people. This leads to a weird dichotomy where every NPC is either a boring normal person, or an uber-secret sorcerer/witch/etc. Too many magic folks tripping over each other, and I can make boring normals on my own, thanks. One bright spot is the "Miskatonic People Maker" that has a helpful random name generator for period names. Unfortunately it needs to be much bigger -- it's based on 1d20, and I think there are more than 20 last names represented at M.U. I would love to see this expanded into a general "random NPC name generator for the 1920s, organized by ethnic background and/or race." I have an old one of these lying around on notebook paper somewhere, but it's entirely fabricated out of wholecloth based on names that sounded vaguely Ye Olde Fashioned to my ear -- one that was actually based on period names would be a vast improvement.

Getting an Education, 20pp, Poor. How To Go To School. While there is a slight possibility that this might be useful to people who (a) want to run a campaign entirely centered around PCs as students at M.U., and/or (b) foreigners and high-school dropouts who are totally and completely unfamiliar with the American university system, I really can't imagine that this would be even remotely prominent in any campaign I'd care to run or play in.

Miskatonic Secrets, 63pp, Poor. The first major "wow, seriously?" moment of the book. A good ol'-fashioned Mythos hoedown, yee-haw!, with supernatural people and creatures tripping over each other left, right, and center. Using all of these is a recipe for bad comedy (hopefully intentional), so you'll just use a handful but still pay for all of them.

Has almost a dozen scenario seeds which range from Fair to Great.

Scenario, "A Little Knowledge," 12pp, Great! An excellent scenario by Richard Watts, originally from the now-rare Arkham Unveiled. When that book was reworked as H.P. Lovecraft's Arkham, this scenario didn't make the cut and this book is now the only in-print place to find it.

Setting: Classic. Miskatonic University, Arkham, MA; 2-May-1928.

Adaptability to other places: Great! Any large university would suffice.

Adaptability to other eras: Good. Nothing about here is inherently 1920s-ish and it would translate with a little effort. For Gaslight, the co-ed students would have to be made male. Modern requires a little more work, primarily in tone and the prevalence of authorities who deal with forensic type of work.

Suitability for campaign play: Great! As written it assumes the PCs are students at M.U. but it would be easy enough to get them involved through one of the usual methods.

Likelihood of PC survival: Superb to Good, depending on experience and choices. This one's pretty low-key.

Final Rating: Great! The scenario does a fine job of utilizing some nice 1920's collegiate themes and also pays a bit of an homage to several classic Lovecraftian characters who never actually met in HPL's stories. Experienced Lovecraftians may find several bits all too obvious, so this is best used with people who lack that familiarity.

Appendices.

- New Magic, 7 pp, Fair. More spells that you'll never use.

- Mythos Tomes in Game Play, 5pp, Fair. Another alternate Sanity/research system for tomes, one of the most nonsensical aspects of the Sanity rules. In my opinion, the basic problem with the Sanity rules is that it tries to model two completely unrelated things (stability and morality) with one mechanic, and this leads to all sorts of silliness and attempted fixes. But that's a whole 'nother article. At any rate, these rules are an expansion of Johnson's semi-official option for tomes presented in The Keeper's Companion vol. 1 (2000). Unfortunately it is debatable whether the added complexity is worth it. As none of the proposed alternate treatments have made it into the base game, I suspect not. I tried it in a campaign and eventually gave it up.

- Useful Portable Items Found on the M.U. Campus, 1p, Poor. Did you know that a university has acid in the chemistry department?

- Pre-human Languages, and How to Read Them, 2pp, Fair. I'd just rather abstract it out, but if you really want (light) details on Yithian etc., here you go.

- Published Scenarios Adaptable for M.U. Play, 2pp, Good. Push this to Great or Superb if you're running a dedicated M.U. campaign. Enjoyable reading just for the brief reviews of scenarios -- the blessing and curse of the game is that there's so many scenarios out there it can be hard to find the good stuff. Comfortingly, the author largely agrees with my evaluations of the various scenarios, so look for me to become even more opinionated and insufferable in the future.

- some academic plans and degree templates, 11pp, Mediocre. Suitable for props in an M.U. campaign, but a little silly even with that assumption.

Index, 3pp, Good. Every RPG should have a detailed index.

OVERALL RATING

Mediocre. +2 ranks if you actually want to run a campaign of M.U. students, +1 rank if you love the pulpiest aspects of Lovecraftian fiction, +1 rank if you're fine paying for a toolbox, most of which you probably won't use.

This is an amazingly well-done book that unwittingly encapsulates one of the biggest disputes in the CoC/Lovecraftian community. By which I mean: Most people who have played CoC for any length of time are aware that there's this basic split in the subculture, between being a Lovecraftian or being a Mythos gamer. The open secret of Call of Cthulhu is that it's not very Lovecraftian. Lovecraft's stories involve isolated protagonists uncovering dark secrets and then meeting unfortunate ends. The one exception is "The Dunwich Horror," which comes closest to modeling the typical CoC scenario -- a small group of people uncover some nastiness and defeat it. Later authors like the much-disparaged August Derleth would take this theme and make it almost standard in the fiction. The issue with running an actually Lovecraftian RPG is that it is of dubious fun. There'd be the GM and one PC, and the PC would die at the end of the scenario 99% of the time.

So to make CoC more marketable it has drifted away from Lovecraft's style. You now have groups of people who know about the Mythos and wage a secret war against it. The battles in this war are fought repeatedly, in that the PCs constantly encounter supernatural weirdness and go defeat it. Because making new characters every single session (or multiple times a session) is not really that fun, survivability goes up.

The net effect of all this is to make the game much more pulpy. You can suspend disbelief, but that only goes so far. ("Another hidden temple in the jungle? Hmm....") Largely this is for the better, for the reasons given above, but there is a scale of pure Lovecraft (on one end) to pure two-fisted pulp (on the other end), and for me this book is too close to the latter.

As I've mentioned, I like a few weird secrets for the PCs to encounter. As written, this book has so many secrets that it's just ridiculous. Even the incredibly pulpy/comical Buffy the Vampire Slayer realized this and had to invent an ad-hoc reason (the Hellmouth) just to justify why there's a new supernatural threat every single week. But here there's no justification given. It's weird just because it is. I think part of the problem is that Johnson was obligated to try and include absolutely everything published on M.U. This is necessarily going to cause problems. It's like a new writer getting assigned to Uncanny X-Men and having to deal with all their preposterous continuity -- most of the stories are okay in isolation, but when you have to treat them all as canon, it gets out of control very quickly. Same problem here. A better book would have had a small handful of Mythos people/stuff, but this also would have been a less sellable book: who wants to pay $30 for a droning description of a fictional university full of normal people?

Even assuming that you want the uber-pulp aspects, it occupies a weird niche: having a university crawling with dark secrets -- to the point of being ridiculously overrun -- is inherently pulpy, but if you're going to do pulp, why would you set things in a sleepy New England town instead of globe-spanning awesomeness, a la Masks of Nyarlathotep? And if globe-spanning, why do you need an entire hefty supplement on a small and obscure university? When I ran Masks two years ago, there were a few sessions at the beginning that involved a trip or three to M.U., but -- despite having this book within arm's reach the whole time -- I never grabbed it. It was easy enough to wing it, and just not that necessary unless you are specifically doing a "Lovecraft Country" campaign, and especially one set in Arkham, and especially one set in M.U.

Despite all my reservations, the scenario really is great, especially for people new to CoC. It's tempting to hold onto the book just for that, but overall this is a mostly a books for completists.

Thanks for reading. Comments, criticisms, and suggestions are always welcome. If you enjoyed this review, please consider making your next Amazon purchase through the Lost Coast Mythos Bribery Division.

Notate bene.

2009-11-08T09:33:00.000-08:00

1. All of reviews will contain appalling and unapologetic amounts of spoilers. This is a Keeper-only blog and if you are currently, or ever intend to be, a player in a Call of Cthulhu game, stop reading!

2. I will review RPG books that I have not played. I am comfortable doing this for a few reasons: #1, I have a lot of experience in the hobby and am rarely surprised by what a game brings to the table. #2, it can be really difficult to get every aspect of a game, supplement, or scenario to a table. A single book can comprise dozens or even hundreds of hours of play time. #3, even if I were to exhaustively play out a book, due to the unique vagaries of individual groups and play sessions, it still wouldn't be a perfectly accurate assessment of how it would work for you and your group.

3. I don't use a 5- or 10-star scale for rating things, I use a Fudge scale. From best to worst, this is:

Superb
Great
Good
Fair
Mediocre
Poor
Terrible

I find this easier and more aesthetically-pleasing.

I have no manners but I must introduce.

2009-11-08T09:20:00.000-08:00

Hi there.

Lately I've been on a reviewing kick over at RPG Geek. I thought I'd transition that into my own reviewing site and see how things work out. As you can see, what we have here is Lost Coast Mythos: Analog Horror Gaming from behind the Redwood Curtain. What that means is...

Lost Coast: Technically I'm not on the Lost Coast itself but I'm fairly close. I love it here; lots of rain, fog, and sleepy/creepy locals. On a dark night, the homeless meth-heads might have the Innsmouth look.

Mythos: I've loved Lovecraft and the related penumbra for (yikes) over two decades now. I find it interesting and inspiring, and keep coming back to it time and time again.

The next three I'll do backwards:

Gaming: I've always been a gaming nerd, since I was wee, and always will be at the rate I'm going. I love games and especially the social aspect of games.

Horror: Although I'm actually not a huge fan of horror movies or fiction, it's the type of gaming I prefer. Something about the futile yet necessary struggle against the darkness, I think. This will no doubt be the subject of a future post with a lot of self-aggrandizing introspection.
I mostly like Lovecraftian, cosmic nihilist horror, although I'm not opposed to other kinds.

Analog: In the sense of non-digital, non-electronic. I'm kind of a Luddite when it comes to entertainment; I love things I can pick up and feel and smell -- all those messy tactile elements that are lost in the digital realm. I don't like video games for the most part -- they can be fun but are rarely satisfying to me on a long-term basis. So, analog gaming -- board games, role-playing games, and a few other sundry genres.

Behind the Redwood Curtain: That's where I actually live. Like the Iron Curtain, but made out of redwoods, and with a lot fewer labor camps. It's the part of California that few people think about when they think "California." It's remote and hard to get to. Six hours north of San Francisco, six hours south of Portland (by car) or you can pay a lot of money to fly a little turboprop into a rinky-dink airport.

So! That's that. Thanks for stopping by and I'll have some actual content up shortly.