The Pen is mightier...

With all of the recent interest in Lovecraftian investigative roleplaying in World War Two, particularly in Cubicle Seven Entertainment’s World War Cthulhu – The Darkest Hour and Modiphius Press’ Achtung! Cthulhu, it is sometimes forgotten that there was a conflict before the global war, one that has often been seen as the ‘dress rehearsal’ for World War Two. This is the Spanish Civil War, fought between the Republicans in support of the democratically elected Spanish Republic and the Nationalists, a fascist rebel group led by General Francisco Franco, between 1936 and 1939. It became the focal point of the radical politics of the Desperate Decade as the fascist nations of Germany and Italy actively supported the Nationalists and the Soviet Union supported the Republicans. It was thus the first clash of two totalitarian ideologies and the active support from both was in addition to the thousands of volunteers who would travel to Spain to fight for each side.

In fact, to date there has been only the one scenario set during the Spanish Civil War for any game of Lovecraftian investigative horror—‘No Pasaran!’ from the Miskatonic University Library Association monograph Shadows of War: Four Scenarios Set In and Around the Second World War published by Chaosium, Inc. for Call of Cthulhu. This is now joined by Soldiers of Pen and Ink, a scenario for Pelgrane Press’ RPG of clue orientated Lovecraftian investigative horror, Trail of Cthulhu. Penned by Adam Gauntlett, the author of Flying Coffins, RMS Titanic: The Millionaire’s Special, and Sisters of Sorrow, this is a one-shot affair that finds the investigators in Madrid, the Spanish capital, tasked with having to shoot a pro-Republican documentary when one of their team goes missing. Has Ramon been arrested by the Soviet representatives for his Trotskyite leanings or been assassinated by Fascist sympathisers?

As the scenario opens, the documentary team finds itself caught up in the opening manoeuvres of the Siege of Madrid with the city threatened by the advancing forces of the Fascists, rumours spreading widely before them about the blood thirsty nature of Franco’s men. Yet even as the Republican government and its Soviet advisors urge its soldiery and volunteers to the barricades, the Republican cause is undermined by differences in ideology and the fear of betrayal by Fifth Columnists, such that belief in the wrong ideology—Communism, Marxism, Trotskyism, or just simple Republicanism, may be enough to get you arrested or even shot! As much the the Republican cause is threatened by this factional rivalry, there is also something else that it fears that lies at the heart of the scenario—defeatism! This being a Trail of Cthulhu scenario, this manifests in an extremely pervasive fashion...

The hunt for Ramon will take the investigators back and forth across Madrid, interacting with famous persons such as Ernest Hemingway, amongst others, discovering signs of a pervading ennui and more, which threatens both the investigators and the city. Countering this ennui lies at the heart of Soldiers of Pen and Ink, which gives numerous opportunities for the investigators to be creative and to do the job that they were hired to do. This pushes the investigators to participate in a greater cause than that of one mere ideology or another, the chance to save Madrid and thus Spain, not from the Fascists, but from despair itself.

Although this is a scenario of Lovecraftian investigative horror, the atmosphere and tone Soldiers of Pen and Ink is perhaps more creepy than horrifying in its manifestation. Its horror comes more from what the two sides in the war are doing to each rather than from the Mythos, the threat of which is covert and insidious than explicit and sincere.

To support the scenario, Soldiers of Pen and Ink includes a good ten pages worth of background. This details the city of Madrid and Spain itself, focusing in particular on recent events; the arms and armour used by both sides; the equipment needed by the documentary team; and several new archetypes—Extremist, Volunteer, Spy, and Black Marketeer—should the players want to create their own investigators for Soldiers of Pen and Ink. Also included is a new Academic Ability, ‘Politics’, which may prove useful in the politically fractious atmosphere of the Siege of Madrid. Now while this is more than useful, it highlights one of the problems with Soldiers of Pen and Ink—our lack of familiarity with the period. This means that the players and their investigators need to assimilate quite a lot of information before they can begin playing Soldiers of Pen and Ink as it is unlikely that they will be aware of Spain and her political situation during this period, what they are doing in Spain, and of course, who Ramon is. This information would really work as a set of handouts so that the players can be ready to play without the need for the Keeper to present them with the need to resort to excessive exposition.

The second issue with Soldiers of Pen and Ink is that physically, it is slightly disappointing and not quite up to Pelgrane Press’ usual standards. The book needs an edit in places and the artwork lacks subtlety. It is also a pity that none of the pre-generated investigators come with their own portraits. That is by the by, for the third, and perhaps the biggest issue is the lack of a map to aid the Keeper. Certainly a map of Madrid would make Soldiers of Pen and Ink much easier to run.

Soldiers of Pen and Ink is primarily a one-shot. The motivations and politics of the period are not necessarily going to be as strong in ordinary investigators such that they would want to become involved in as fractious a conflict as the Spanish Civil War. This is not to say that it could not be run as part of an ongoing campaign, as rather that it would certainly make for a radical shift in tone and feel. One option of course would be to run it as a precursor to the war that is to come, although that does stray away from the time frame for Trail of Cthulhu. On the other hand, it would be very difficult to adapt the scenario to another location or period, the setting and its period being very of their time. Nevertheless, Soldiers of Pen and Ink is an engaging scenario, one that presents an interesting and clever interpretation of a Mythos entity, one that feels surprisingly modern, but it turns out is not, and one that is to an extent reminiscent of Nigel Kneale’s Quatermass and the Pit, all set against an undoubtedly Orwellian backdrop.

Read More

Nitrates & Nasties

From Dread Albion to the Balkans, the 'Backlot Gothic' stretches across a timeless region of Europe reached only by train, but which can only be crossed on foot or by horse and carriage. It is home to a backwards people, many superstitious, others ignorant, who live under the shadow of the vampire, the werewolf, and the man of visionary, but misguided science. Cousin to the Backlot Gothic is the Backlot Jungle, which stretches from the Amazon to Asia via Africa, and although its creatures change from lion to tiger to jaguar as the continent dictates, the frogs will always sound like those found in Southern California.

For Hollywood is the inspiration for the Backlot Jungle and the Backlot Gothic both, the two being the setting for Shadows Over Filmland, an anthology for Trail of Cthulhu. Penned by Ken Hite and Robin D Laws, the anthology draws from the horror movies of the Desperate Decade. The authors have taken films such as Dracula, Frankenstein, King Kong, The Mummy, The Wolf Man, White Zombie, and others, and used them to give the Cthulhu Mythos of stories like ‘Herbert West – Reanimator’ and ‘The Case of Charles Dexter Ward’, a Silver Nitrate wash. Or indeed, infuse the classic creations of the Universal Monsters films with the sanity debilitating effect that is the Cthulhu Mythos. The result is an otherworldly, gothic conceit that the Keeper will use to draw his investigators into the twelve eerie, sometimes grotesque reels presented on the screen in Shadows Over Filmland.

The supplement is essentially three sections. The first is Hite’s essay exploring the parallels between Lovecraft’s fiction and the horror films of Universal Studios and RKO. Despite Lovecraft’s own dismissal of these films, Hite finds more than enough to support the core conceit behind Shadows Over Filmland, looking in turn at the vampire, the werewolf, the mummy and so on. Thus, both The Mummy and the stories ‘He’, ‘The Terrible Old Man’, ‘The Picture in the House’, ‘The High House in the Mist’,’ ‘Dreams in the Witch-House’, and ‘The Thing on the Doorstep’ all make use of the concept of the immortal monster-magus as much as The Mummy and ‘Cool Air’ and ‘The Horror at Red Hook’ all possess a certain fascination with the Oriental and the exotic. Having established the parallels, Hite goes on to explain the differences between the Cthulhu Mythos and the Silver Nitrate Mythos, primarily the emphasis upon sexuality, its obsession with psychology, fascination with corpses and their mutilation, the sublimation of the Desperate Decade’s economic fears into supernatural ones, the mocking of God’s good order, and so on…

The second section explores the more mundane elements that make up the Backlot Gothic. Whether the blackest of forests or catacombs and castles most sinister, hermits or gypsies, butlers or laboratory assistants, these elements emulate the stock characters and locations where the movies of Shadows Over Filmland are shot. Complete with numerous examples and advice on handling both the motifs and the accents to found in the Backlot Gothic, their inclusion highlights both an issue with Shadows Over Filmland and its intent. The issue is that the regular use of this stock footage can easily become a cliché, but the intent is that is Shadows Over Filmland not meant to be used as a campaign. That is, the Backlot Gothic is somewhere to visit on an irregular basis, a fact further supported by the absence of any advice on running the dozen scenarios herein as a campaign. Rounding out this section is a number of story hooks that the Keeper can develop into full scenarios in addition to those in the book’s third section.

Shadows Over Filmland’s third section is its longest and is devoted to the investigators’ individual trips to the Backlot Gothic in the form of a dozen scenarios. Of these twelve, Ken Hite pens five – ‘Death Across the Nile’, ‘Dreams of Dracula’, ‘Lord of the Jungle’, ‘The Black Chateau’, and ‘White Bokor’; Robin D Laws pens six – ‘Dr Grave Dust’, ‘The Green Ape’, ‘The Night I Died’, ‘The Preserve’, ‘The Non-Euclidean Man’, and ‘Under a Werewolf Moon’; and together, they co-author ‘The Final Reel’. The degree to which the Mythos is employed in these dozen varies from one scenario to the next, so that one scenario might be a more Universal Studio feature than a Lovecraftian submission to Weird Tales. That said, those of the scenarios that are more Lovecraftian would work well in a standard Trail of Cthulhu campaign with little or no modification.

The dozen opens in classic fashion not in the Backlot Gothic per se, but Backlot Egypt with ‘Death Across the Nile’ and a tale of possession down the ages. This scenario will be familiar to most gamers, right down to taking place at an archaeological dig, but this does not mean that it is not well done and that it is anything other than engaging. There is a twist or two to the tale, but it is otherwise a straight forward affair. ‘White Bokor’ is written as a sequel to White Zombie, the 1932 film starring Bela Lugosi and is intentionally straight forward, if not linear in nature. In it the investigators find themselves on the Backlot Island, either washed ashore or following up on earlier clues, where the only place to go is a castle on the Mountain of the Dead! The problem is that it is influenced by the films of George Romero and whilst the investigators are faced by a zombie herd, they are the ones being herded and it feels all too heavy handed. Given that its title is ‘Dr Grave Dust’, it is no surprise that the third scenario is inspired by Lovecraft’s ‘Herbert West – Reanimator’. An epidemic of grave robberies has struck the Backlot Gothic, and the investigators are asked to uncover those responsible. The culprit is quickly highlighted in what is otherwise a surprisingly combat orientated scenario. Again this is another straight forward scenario, but what is interesting is how the culprit’s motive has been taken a step further beyond an interest in reanimating the dead.

The conceit of the Backlot Gothic in ‘Dreams of Dracula’ is that no one has heard of Dracula and Bram Stoker never penned the eponymous novel, which of course flies in the face of player knowledge. Set in Backlot Albion, perhaps London, perhaps Whitby, the investigators are asked by a friend to help him with a queer situation – both his wife and her friend have been struck down by fever and anaemia, brought by nightmares! This is a languorous, atmospheric affair, one that apes the England-set sequences from Bram Stoker’s novel, almost as an act of misdirection. The author’s use of the Cthulhu Mythos, hidden as it is behind the apparent vampire Mythos, nicely and effectively underpins the scenario’s misdirection. As ‘The Green Ape’ opens, the investigators find themselves ready to go ashore and brave the Backlot Jungle on the remote island of Nambu in the South Pacific. This is a trip back into the prehistoric past, much like the movie that inspired it – King Kong, and much like any trek into the unknown, the scenario become something of a test of endurance, although this is balanced by a Pulp sensibility. The next adventure is again set in the Backlot Jungle and is again something of a test of endurance, but more intentionally so. ‘The Lord of the Jungle’, which draws from James Whale’s 1940 film, Green Hell, and Lovecraft’s ‘Facts Concerning The Late Arthur Jermyn And His Family’ also continues the previous scenario’s Pulp sensibility, but this slips away as the investigators penetrate further and further into Africa’s dark heart to locate a lost city and uncover its secrets. 

Val Lewton’s films for RKO from the 1940s – leaping a decade ahead than is the norm for Trail of Cthulhu – are the inspiration for ‘The Night I Died’. Once again a friend calls upon the investigators for their help. His fiancée has fallen into melancholia and appears to sleep walk, even going so far as claim that she is a ghost! Set in an Urban Backlot, ‘The Night I Died’ is another atmospheric piece, but one that comes with notes on how to make it more of a Mythos influenced experience than it is. Inspired by Lovecraft’s ‘From Beyond’ as much by The Invisible Man, ‘The Non-Euclidean Man’ brings the investigators to a scientific symposium hosted by the Pneumametric Society and face to death from beyond – though initially not their own. 

‘The Black Chateau’ has the most modern feel of the dozen scenarios in the anthology, at least artistically. It evokes a feeling of stark, nightmarish horror in entrapping the investigators within an imaginatively contemporary version of the haunted house to very pleasing effect. Much like the earlier ‘Dreams of Dracula’, a familiar monster appears in ‘Under a Werewolf Moon’. Its use is not as imaginative as that of Dracula in ‘Dreams of Dracula’, but this is nevertheless far from unplayable. The penultimate conceit in the anthology takes a concept from the Universal Horror films and sets it on the investigators. ‘The Preserve’ unites three of the antagonists from previous entries in Shadows Over Filmland and lets them take revenge on the investigators in what is a Pulp affair suitably located towards both the end of the book and the end of a Backlot Gothic campaign.

The conceit culminates in Backlot Hollywood – or is it the ‘real’ Hollywood? – with the appropriately named ‘The Final Reel’. The investigators are called in by the Hays Office to look into Capitol Pictures’ production of a new horror film entitled Call of Cthulhu! Can they find cause to have this threat to American morals shut down, let alone uncover who exactly is sponsoring the film? Fittingly, this plays louche and loose with the Shadows Over Filmland canon to draw on several of the previous scenarios in the anthology, though such elements are not central to the plot. It is almost as if the investigators have stepped out of the collection’s previous films and into the studio… The scenario comes with several detailed NPCs around which the Keeper involves the investigation, though this is primarily a player-led affair. Should the investigators want to do more than just shut the film down and uncover the cult or cultists behind its production, then the Keeper will have to improvise the details himself. Otherwise, this is an entertaining climax to Shadows Over Filmland.

Physically, Shadows Over Filmland is a beautiful book. The layout is clean and tidy, and Jérôme Huguenin provides some excellent art. It is missing an index, but that is probably less of a problem since the book is unlikely to serve as a reference work. Slightly more problematic is the lack of maps since their inclusion might have aided the Keeper in certain scenarios.

The best of the dozen Shadows Over Filmland work effectively when their combination of the horror of the Cthulhu Mythos and the horror of the Universal Monsters counterbalance each other. Samples of the twelve that achieve this include ‘Dreams of Dracula’, ‘The Black Chateau’, and to an extent, ‘Under a Werewolf Moon’. The least effective scenarios are those that wander away from the Backlot Gothic or the Backlot Albion, primarily because the investigative process plays less of a role and because there is less player agency involved in them. Those in between these two poles are solidly written scenarios, though ‘White Bokor’ is perhaps too linear and too heavily scripted. The tone for most of the twelve is also well handled, for the most part maintaining a steady median between the Pulp and the Purist, sometimes advice being given for the Keeper should he want to adjust to one tone or another. 

As with any anthology, the contents of Shadows Over Filmland can easily be used as a series of one-shots. All are relatively short, offering at most two sessions’ worth of play. There is no particular order to the twelve scenarios, but certainly ‘The Preserve’ and ‘The Final Reel’ should be played after the previous ten. Many of the twelve would also work as additions to an on-going Trail of Cthulhu campaign, though the ‘The Preserve’ and ‘The Final Reel’ might stretch the credulity and tone of certain Keepers’ campaigns. The intended use of the anthology though is as a supplement to an existing campaign, the Backlot Gothic not being somewhere that the investigators should visit regularly. Indeed, there is such a dream-like quality to the scenarios that these twelve would work as a series of visits to a version of the Dreamlands influenced by the cinema of the Desperate Decade. However Shadows Over Filmland is used, it presents a diverting dozen that take the investigators deep into the Arcadian idyll of the Backlot Gothic suffused with the sinister and the malevolent behind which lurks the Cthulhu Mythos.

Read More

Misappropriating the Mythos

With a game as old as Call of Cthulhu, it is no surprise that over the years its adventures and scenarios have fallen prey to cliché. Not every adventure and not every scenario to be sure, but too many end up relying on clichés that see the investigators blaze away with their Tommy guns at monsters and madmen alike; cast rituals with little or no consequences; and unearth, if not deities, then alien beings that are all too often like the last alien being they unearthed… Such clichés detract from the intent of such scenarios – to instil horror and dread in the investigators, if not the players. In a quartet of scenarios – The Dying of St. Margarets, The Watchers in the Sky, The Dance in the Blood, and The Rending Box – author Graham Walmsley has previously presented the antithesis to such clichés. Each of the four scenarios, recently collected in the volume, The Final Revelation, is designed for Trail of Cthulhu, Pelgrane Press’ clue-orientated RPG of Lovecraftian investigative horror and written in the game’s Purist mode, a mode in which survival in the face of the unknowable is unlikely… 

Not content with writing scenarios in this purist mode, Walmsley has gone one step further in presenting a means by which we can also think about writing our own – Stealing Cthulhu. Originally funded through IndieGoGo in 2011, Stealing Cthulhu is not a guide to writing scenarios for Call of Cthulhu or Trail of Cthulhu, or indeed any one of the several RPGs of Lovecraftian investigative horror currently available. Rather it is a way to look at writing scenarios, specifically Purist scenarios, for any one of them, for Stealing Cthulhu is completely systems neutral, even right down to not supporting Walmsley’s own RPG which is included in the pages of Stealing Cthulhu – ‘Cthulhu Dark’. 

The concept at the heart of Stealing Cthulhu is suggested in the title, and yes, it does involve the theft of Cthulhu. Well almost, for what it actually involves is the theft of ideas from Lovecraft’s original fiction. The author suggests that the Keeper not only go back and reread Lovecraft’s fiction, but having done so, steal his ideas, and then adapt and reuse them, emphasising different aspects, combining different ideas or swapping them, even developing or twisting them in directions that Lovecraft never considered. To illustrate and discuss how this is done, the author draws on a particular type of Lovecraftian tale. Unsurprisingly, that type is Purist in tone and feel and consists of At the Mountains of Madness, The Call of Cthulhu, The Colour Out of Space, The Dreams in the Witch House, Nyarlathotep, The Shadow Out of Time, The Shadow Over Innsmouth, and The Whisperer in Darkness. The author in turn steals creatures, scenarios, locations, patterns, themes, and descriptions. 

For example, what would happen if the incidents described in The Shadow Over Innsmouth are recast in Venice Beach, California or Weymouth (your choice of the original Weymouth in Dorset, or in Nova Scotia, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Tasmania, Auckland, or Barbados, though the Massachusetts might a bit too close to Innsmouth)? How would this change those events? What if instead of a Mi-Go corpse being found washed up on the banks of a river in Vermont as in The Whisperer in Darkness, it was found washed ashore on the beach at Venice Beach or Weymouth? Then again, what if a corpse was found, not with her brain precisely and surgically removed as in The Whisperer in Darkness, but with her reproductive organs missing in a similar manner? Just by thinking through the switching of details and elements, their theft from the original stories begins to open up new scenarios to explore and run. 

In stealing each of these elements, Walmsley does something more – he analyses them, he places them in context, where he can he shows how they can be reconfigured, and he explains why and how they work. He draws parallels – for example, between Colours Out of Space and Lloigor – between elements to illustrate how they can be interchanged and he also suggests what to avoid, such as fish puns in a scenario involving Deep Ones. Lovecraft’s style is not ignored either, Walmsley also dissecting how the author begins and ends a story, creates and maintains horror before increasing it. At every turn Walmsley gives an example to support his ‘criminal’ process of theft and commingling, such that interspersed throughout the tome are a number of detailed scenario outlines that a Keeper worth his essential saltes should be able to develop further.

In examining the primary entities of the Mythos, Walmsley goes beyond Lovecraft’s creations to look at those of Blackwood, Campbell, Chambers, Lumley, and Wilson as well as Lovecraft’s. He still adheres to the key story where they appeared. Despite Stealing Cthulhu’s remit to explore Lovecraft’s Purist tales as they and their elements can be used in RPGs of Lovecraftian investigative horror, the book does not ignore those elements that might be seen as their antitheses. More commonly found in the Pulp style of story and thus many a Call of Cthulhu scenario, most notably Masks of Nyarlathotep, they are ‘Fights’, ‘Cultists’, and ‘Rituals’, what Stealing Cthulhu terms ‘Anomalies’. This is not to say that they do not appear in Lovecraft’s stories, but what the author suggests is reinvent them or replace so that they better fit the Purist style.

Rounding out the volume is a trio of appendices. These include a miscellany, a bibliography, and a complete game, ‘Cthulhu Dark’. A version of the latter has since been republished in The Unspeakable Oath #22, but here is the original version. It is a light story telling system that is wholly Purist and ultimately quite unforgiving in its play.

Lightly, but pleasingly illustrated, Stealing Cthulhu is simply laid out, more written as a set of notes or a journal, one in which the author’s voice shines strongly throughout – even though said author’s voice is mild and scholarly – constantly asking the reader, “What if you do this?”. His though is not the only voice in the book. Almost like a Mythos tome itself, there is a version of Stealing Cthulhu that has been annotated, not by one author, but three. Gareth Hanrahan, Ken Hite, and Jason Morningstar, each an author of Mythos related tomes in their own right, adds their own opinions, suggestions, and even counterpoints to Walmsley’s analysis and reconfiguration, and that in addition to the footnotes Walmsley makes on nearly every page. Their commentary expands greatly upon the author’s and furthers his ideas and their application.

Stealing Cthulhu is not a comprehensive tome. It does not deal with each and every one of Lovecraft’s stories nor does it examine all of Lovecraft’s creations, the creatures and entities of the Mythos – yet so many of them are interchangeable that this is a moot point. It focuses solely on the Purist tale, but that is its remit, and anyway so much of its contents could be applied to the Pulp style, were a Keeper so inclined, that again such an issue is moot. It lacks an index, but the layout and organisation is so light that its contents are easy to find.

In the past, attempts at giving advice on creating and running scenarios of Lovecraftian investigative horror, too be honest never more than mere essays, have invariably approached it from a gaming angle. With Stealing Cthulhu the approach is a literary one, one that begins almost a literary analysis of the source material, but the difference is that Walmsley does more than analyse – he applies it, or at least questions and suggests how it can be applied. In doing so, he does not provide the Keeper with a guide to creating and running scenarios of Lovecraftian investigative horror, but rather he gives us the tools and the prompts to think about the process. It may well be a manifesto, or a love letter to the Purist tale, but Stealing Cthulhu resurrects the essential saltes of Lovecraft’s original fiction from the catacombs that the clichés of Lovecraftian investigative roleplaying has oft consigned it. Having done so, Stealing Cthulhu thoughtfully and artfully prompts us to sift those saltes into something playable. 

Read More

Coarse Conjury by K. Hite

Magic in Lovecraftian tales is ineffable, unquantifiable, unworldly, and understandably, a literary device. Magic in games of Lovecraftian investigative horror can be all those things, but to make it so, magic actually has to be the exact opposite. It has to be describable, it has to be quantifiable, and as much it remains a device, it has to have cause and effect, and with those in hand, both a GM and his players can work and describe magics in a roleplaying game as part of its narrative. This is the aim of Rough Magicks, a supplement for Trail of Cthulhu, Pelgrane Press’ RPG of clue orientated Lovecraftian investigative horror, penned by the author of the RPG, Kenneth Hite.

Rough Magicks is a slim volume that expands upon the nature of Lovecraftian magic and the rules for it in Trail of Cthulhu and it begins by addressing a simple question – “What is the nature of magic?” Several solutions are suggested. Is it a hyper-science? Something only known to those who have awoken in the Dreamlands? Is it not magic, but psionics? Is it a genetic holdout from the biological sciences of the Elder Things? One, some, or all of these suggestions are possible answers much in the manner of how the Trail of Cthulhu core rules describe the creatures and entities of the Mythos.

How it expands upon the nature of Lovecraftian magic and the rules for it is done in Rough Magicks all through the simplicity of adding a single new General Ability – Magic. Now in Trail of Cthulhu, it is most obviously the province of the sorcerers and wizards who have had and continue to have dealings with the unknowable and the incomprehensible and so have a grasp of the fundamental workings that underpin the nature of the cosmos. Thus we are dealing with figures such as John Dee, Gaspard du Nord, and Ludwig Prinn, and more latterly, Randolph Carter, and Joseph Curwen. In game, the Ability is being expended to negate in part the loss of Stability, essentially serving as a partial bulwark against the immediate shock that comes with the working of magic and the casting of spells.

The Magic Ability is not wholly the province of the NPC sorcerer or wizard though. If the Keeper allows it, then an investigator can acquire the Magic Ability, but this must be in-game during play rather during character generation. It may be from reading certain Mythos tomes, from encountering or learning it from entities such as Yog-sothoth or Nyarlathotep, from being by an actual sorcerer or wizard, or from being exposed to it at certain places, like Dread Carcosa or the Moon-Pool of Ponape. As much as the Magic Ability partially counters the loss of Stability when casting spells, what it does not, and cannot do, is negate any potential Sanity loss…

In addition to listing the potential Magic Ability gain from studying certain tomes, from Al-Azif to Unaussprechlichen Kulten, Rough Magicks expands upon the rules for ‘Places of Power’, gives numerous examples of casting, and suggests the Magic ratings for a veritable menagerie of Mythos Monsters. Of course, this being a book about magic, there is a whole chapter devoted to spells, pleasingly entitled ‘Cast A Deadly Spell’ which adds new spells whilst also re-examining old ones for dramatic purposes. Trail of Cthulhu being a clue-orientated game means that the casting of spells leaves evidence and just as with Mythos creatures in the Trail of Cthulhu core rules, the investigators can detect evidence of this casting. For example, Bureaucracy could undercover a change of use filed by the Chapel of Contemplation on a certain building or that last night’s midnight mass was no ordinary ceremony with the use of Theology. Not ignored is that signature response to the magics and the entities of the Cthulhu Mythos – the Elder sign, the author discussing what it might look like and there are more suggestions than you think…

Rough Magicks does not restrict itself wholly to Mythos Magic. It also expands upon the rules for ‘Idiosyncratic Magic’ for the ‘Bookhounds of London’ campaign frame in the Trail of Cthulhu core rules – since expanded into a superlative setting book of its very own. More suited to Pulp style games, the purpose of ‘Idiosyncratic Magic’ is to provide boosts to the caster’s General Abilities, and again, these are supported by example effects for each General Ability. Examples are given for each of the various General Abilities, such as wearing pieces of a mirror like monocles until your cheeks bleed to enhance the Disguise Ability or wielding a ‘Dead Man’s Glove’ filled with blood to enhance the Filch skill. All have a certain uneasy, if not out and out gruesome quality, and serve as possible starting suggestions.

Rounding out Rough Magicks is a specific revisiting of magic in Lovecraft’s fiction. This is a more open discussion of the subject, though of course, Hite has been drawing upon and applying his knowledge of Lovecraftian fiction – as evidenced in his Tour de Lovecraft – throughout the pages of Rough Magicks. Here he is more appraising of his sources discussing the various ways in which Lovecraft presents magic in his fiction. This serves as a set of pointers for the Keeper wanting to draw direct from the source for atmosphere as much as it does to highlight Lovecraft’s flexibility when it comes to describing magic in his stories.

Physically, Rough Magicks is another attractive looking book for Trail of Cthulhu, as ever suitably illustrated with a selection of creepy art from Jérôme Huguenin. Unfortunately, the book feels a little rushed in places and could have done with another editorial pass.

Rough Magicks is not a book that the Trail of Cthulhu Keeper necessarily needs, but should he want to expand upon the nature and role of magic in his campaign, then this supplement is more than to the point. Indeed, it would also nicely complement the Bookhounds of London campaign frame and source book with its bibliographic focus and its development of ‘Idiosyncratic Magic’. Perhaps the best aspect of the definition and the quantification at the heart of this book is that it leaves plenty of room for the Keeper to make the magic of his game, ineffable, unquantifiable, and unworldly in play.

Read More

Nazis & Nasties II

By the time that Heroes of the Sea opens, the hostilities have begun, the Phoney War is over, and World War Two is in full swing. It is the summer of 1940, and in an unprecedented and daring series of manoeuvres, the Wehrmacht has driven through the Low Countries and deep into France, isolating the British Expeditionary Force, the French 1st Army, and the Belgian Army in a pocket around the port of Dunkirk. The British high command already knows that the game is up in France and the Admiralty has already announced OPERATION DYNAMO, the complete evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force and whatever Allied forces can be accommodated by sea to south-east England. As news of this comes, so does word from Agent WOTAN, a British agent deep behind enemy lines – the Nazis have another plan in addition to the mere conquest of France – and if the British Secret Intelligence Service is determine what this plan is, identified as FALL NADEL, its needs to make contact with this agent before OPERATION DYNAMO is concluded.

This is the set up for Heroes of the Sea, the second part of Zero Point, the first campaign published by Modiphius Press for its Achtung! Cthulhu line. Where Three Kings took place before the outbreak of war with Germany and British intelligence knew nothing of the outré ambitions of some parts of the Nazi organisation, the experiences of its agents in occupied Czechoslovakia gave it more than an inkling of, if not Heinrich Himmler’s intentions, then at least those of his subordinates. So as the adventure begins, the heroes have been ferried to Dunkirk and from there are making their across the bridgehead, dodging German attacks and the holdout defences of the British Expeditionary Force, all the while hampered by Allied soldiery desperate to make their way to the beaches and columns of civilian refugees desperate to find a place of safety.

When the investigators do finally locate Agent WOTAN, they will find not the answers that they seek, but a mystery. Unravelling this mystery and then stopping it forms the focus of Heroes of the Sea. In doing so, the investigators uncover the plans of a distinctly ugly Nazi and her cohorts that if brought to fruition will not only stop the Allied forces from being evacuated from the beaches, but will also see the geological clock turned back many millennia and an alliance formed between the Nazis and a race ancient before the first men walked the earth.

To say anything more would be to divulge the details of both Agent WOTAN’s fate and the Nazi’s Operation FALL NADEL. What can be said about the latter is that it draws heavily on an interesting historical fact which the author then gives a batrachian twist to infuse the scenario with its Mythos menace. This is in addition to the perilous situation in which the investigators find themselves – a warzone that is slowly shrinking around them…

Throughout the scenario the investigators will be threatened by menaces both man and Mythos, both of which are given in pleasing detail. This includes the arms and armour of the Wehrmacht, so that the investigators will often find themselves facing tanks and half-tracks, as well as the terror inducing scream of being dive bombed by Stukas. The inclusion of both German and Allied armour allows for the possibility of the investigators commandeering a vehicle of their own and careering across northern France in pursuit of their goals. This may well be necessary as the scenario does involve a certain amount of toing and froing across the Dunkirk bridgehead, all of which will require the Keeper to make use of the scenario’s extensive random encounter tables.

The staged encounters do require careful handling upon the part of the Keeper, more so because what they require upon the part of the investigators is not represented by their skill set. At least not in the pre-generated investigators provided in the adventure, which are carried over from Three Kings. This is less of an issue in other versions of the scenario that use Savage Worlds or the PDQ system for their mechanics, as these rules allow for much more give when player characters lack the necessary skills for a certain situation.

In comparison with the earlier Three Kings, this scenario is not as structurally straightforward and makes more demands upon the Keeper. In particular, he will need to make extensive use of the random encounter tables and find a way to effectively handle the scenario’s almost heist-like scenes towards its end. If the final scenes of the Complete Masks of Nyarlathotep echo those of the James Bond film, You Only Live Twice, then those in Heroes of the Sea echo Thunderball. Unfortunately, the scenario disappoints when it comes to advice for the Keeper on the handling of these scenes and what results from them. This is not to say that they cannot be exciting, just that they are not as well supported as they could have been in terms of advice.

Mechanically, Heroes of the Sea is well supported, with new rules including skills, spells, and occupations. Given the opportunities for battle in the scenario, it is no surprise that various armoured vehicles are described and rules are provided for running skirmish level combat. These are useful additions and will doubtless find their way into other scenarios and situations.

Physically, Heroes of the Seais equally as well supported and well done. The layout has been done as a secret operation file complete with sections taped and photographs and maps held in place with paper clips. The handouts have the feel of in-period documents, as do the maps, which have a pleasingly vibrant feel, again suitable to the period and many a war map. The scenario is illustrated in a photographic style, feeling all aptly grim – and that is just the ordinary rather the outré war!

Where Achtung! Cthulhu - Zero Point Part 1 – Three Kings was a pulpy affair much in the mode of Where Eagles Dare, although with a Grand Guignol finale, Heroes of the Sea feels much more like a traditional Call of Cthulhu scenario though still one with a Pulp rather than Purist tone. It has a more interesting mystery behind it and it is more sophisticated affair all round. Despite the underwhelming advice for the Keeper in places and containing scenes that the investigators will probably be underskilled to deal with, Achtung! Cthulhu - Zero Point Part 2 - Heroes of the Sea is a well written, exciting, and engaging affair.

Read More

AAA-LARM!!

With Sisters of Sorrow, Adam Gauntlett takes Trail of Cthulhu and Pelgrane Press back to the Great War for a third time. Previously, in Not So Quiet – available in the anthology, Out of Time, the author had us visit a field hospital on the Western Front, whilst he let us take to the air in Flying Coffins to serve with the Royal Flying Corps and face an aerial antagonist the like of which the pilots had never seen. For this third scenario, the author switches to not just another theatre of war, but another side too! The protagonists of Sisters of Sorrow are part of the crew of UC-12, a U-Boot in the service of the Kaiserliche Marine. In other words, the players get to be the Germans! This is not as radical as it sounds, after all, the very first story that H.P. Lovecraft had published was “The Temple,” which related the events that led to the loss of the U-29.

In Sisters of Sorrow, the UC-12 is a mine laying Unterseeboot, an unarmed submarine tasked by the Kaiserliche Marine to cut its way through the nets that protect England’s harbours and lay mines as close as possible to disrupt shipping. This is a dangerous task. Not only is there the possibility of the detection and being sunk by the Royal Navy, but the actual laying of the mines can sink the submarine too! There is supposed to be a delay before a laid mine rises to the surface, but sometimes the delaying mechanism fails and the mine rises under the submarine and detonates! (This is where the title of the scenario comes from, for such mine-laying vessels were known as “Sisters of Sorrow”). For the crew, live aboard is damp, smelly, and unpleasant.

Assigned to penetrate the North Sea defensive zone and lay mines off Tyneside, UC-12 and her crew must contend with more than the routine of avoiding the Royal Navy and other shipping on its way to England. Strange noises seem to reverberate through the hull from the outside – could they really be whale song? This and other strangeness seems to be affecting the crew – have they been cooped up too long in the noxiously narrow atmosphere of UC-12? Or is it that water has been splashed on the batteries and they are giving off chlorine gas?

Structurally, Sisters of Sorrow is a reasonably straightforward, somewhat linear adventure. That though, is due to it being a military based adventure and not a criticism. Within the linear structure though, there is never time for the story to lag and there is always something for the player characters to do. If there is a criticism of the scenario structure it is that the player character roles are primarily reactive, although this is primarily aimed at building atmosphere and tension before there is the opportunity for more proactive play towards the scenario’s climax.

One interesting aspect to Sisters of Sorrow is when it is set. Not just during the Great War, but in the war’s early years. The submarines of the Kaiserliche Marine follow a nineteenth century Prize Code under which her crews must warn those of the ships that they attack so that due time is allowed for them to abandon ship. Although the UC-12 does have a machine gun, it is by no means an attack boat, which together with the terms of the Prize Code mean that the crews’ actions will be limited against the outré threats faced in Sisters of Sorrow. This complication, in combination with the descriptions of life aboard the Unterseeboot, is counter to the romantic, almost chivalrous notions that we have about submarine warfare.

Sisters of Sorrow is a one-shot scenario designed for play with six characters, that should not last more than two sessions. The scenario includes six pre-generated “investigators” – the Executive Officer, Chief Engineer, Radio Operator, Helmsman, Engineer, and Mechanic. As written, the scenario tells the story of their first, and quite possibly their last, mission. No advice is given on how to create characters if the players do not like the pre-generated ones included, as essentially they could take the role of any one of the fourteen man complement of UC-12. That said, the Military Template given in Trail of Cthulhuwill probably be all that a Keeper and player alike will need. It is intimated though, that the role of the Kapitan be not taken by a player, primarily in the short set of play test notes that should help the Keeper further when it comes to running Sisters of Sorrow.

Although there are no notes on whether or not it could be run using a British crew and a British submarine, there is nothing to stop an inventive Keeper from adapting it so. Similarly, an inventive Keeper could easily adjust it to the Second World War if he so chose. One of the issues in changing both sides and period is that the limitations of the design of UC-12 would be lifted. Submarines operated by the Royal Navy in the Great War, and by all sides in World War Two were substantially better armed and this has the potential to curtail certain elements of the scenario.

Physically, Sisters of Sorrow is a twenty-three page, 4.26 Mb PDF. Done in murky grays and greens throughout, it is well written and neatly presented. It is lightly illustrated, but every piece by Phil Reeves is excellent, and even if the cover is perhaps tentacularly misleading, elsewhere he draws more inventively from the text to more disquieting effect.

Like the previous adventures, Not So Quiet and Flying Coffins, this scenario could easily work as a flashback to explain how a character became aware of the Mythos. The character does not even have to have been aboard UC-12. It could be that the character’s brother or father was aboard and that in playing Sisters of Sorrow, what is being played is not a flashback, but the events of the father’s or brother’s journal which was recovered… Sisters of Sorrow is all about the infectiousness of paranoia and desperation in confined spaces. After all, nowhere could be more confined than an Unterseeboot in the middle of a Royal Navy blockade in the North Sea when the danger comes from below.

Read More

Good Georgians Aghast

Just as Call of Cthulhu has its classic time frame of the 1920s, so too does Trail of Cthulhu with the 1930s. Yet just as with Call of Cthulhu, the clue orientated RPG of Lovecraftian investigative horror from Pelgrane Press can easily slip the bonds of its natural home in the Desperate Decade to visit other periods. One author to follow this trend is Adam Gauntlett, who has already given us a a scenarios set during before the Great as well as a pair set during the Great War, such as the recent Flying Coffins and “Not So Quiet,” from the anthology Out of Time. Like those scenarios, Hell Fire is a one-shot affair designed for use with the six provided pre-generated investigators. Further, Hell Fire not only continues the trend away from Trail of Cthulhu’s core period, but exacerbates it by setting it in the 1760s, a period never visited by either Lovecraftian RPG, or indeed, rarely by any RPG, Rogue Games’ Colonial Gothic and the self-published indie RPG, Sons of Liberty, the Roleplaying Game of Freedom and Badassery, are rare exceptions.

Welcome to the mid-eighteenth century, an age of enlightenment and ennui, of privilege and propriety, of associations and assignations, of virtue and vice, and of scientific enquiry and salacious pornography. This is the age of the “belle époque” for the first British Empire, when there is much wealth to made from the colonies in the Americas, but the colonists themselves chafe under governance from London and will openly rebel within a decade or so. The protagonists of the scenario are all men and women of good standing, as well as members of an exclusive Hell Fire Club. They share an interest in fine dining, the finest of pornographic literature, Rational debate, and politics. Membership is of course by invitation only, and should word of their activities comes to the attention of society, then their fall from grace is assured, at best, scorned by society, at worst, locked up in gaol.

In order to fit the period, the author has radically altered the Skills list. Modern skills such as Psychoanalysis and Archaeology have been removed, the Piloting skill only covers boats, and the science skills have been amalgamated into one, The Sciences. Traveller is added as a new skill representing a character having visited countries and colonies outside of Europe and the Grand Tour, whilst Politics is a new interpersonal skill that allows characters to navigate the intrigues, politics, and careers of the period. Lastly and most importantly, the Evidence skill has been added for Hell Fire as well. It is not about collecting proof of certain activities having been carried out, that still being covered by Evidence Collection, but rather the evidence of the characters’ ill doings. Which of course, they will not want to be brought to light…

As in his previous scenarios, Gauntlett gives us the history too. Hell Fire comes with extensive notes on the place and manner of the Club during the period, as a guide to the pornography available and the art of duelling. The latter is accompanied by a simple set of rules to handle such matters of honour.

As the scenario opens in London, the “investigators” are at a meeting with fellow club member, Bubb Pearce. The man has been placed in terrible bind. The notorious, though fashionable Lady Mary Protheroe has in her possession letters belonging to Pearce with which she is blackmailing him into marrying her with a threat of his Breach of Promise. The Lady also has knowledge of doings at their Club, and Pearce entreats his friends to obtain the letters for him so that he can break the woman’s hold over him. Yet it seems that the player characters’ efforts are insufficient, for Pearce quickly vanishes, leaving in his wake, the body of Lady Mary Protheroe… Worse still, this brings the activities of the Hell Fire club to the attention of the authorities, were its secrets to become public knowledge the scandal would be the undoing of them all. As trusted club members, the “investigators” must uncover the cause of Lady Mary Protheroe’s death and the whereabouts of Pearce, all the whilst ensuring that knowledge of club’s doings remain out of the limelight.

Chasing down Pearce leads the characters to investigate his activities, both commercial and covert. This reveals ties across the Atlantic to England’s colonies and across the Channel to England’s greatest enemy, but worse to London’s sordid and malodorous underskirts where something lurks working to find fresh hosts and vectors that it will see it spread its infection far and wide.

Structurally, Hell Fire is presented as a series of lines of investigation that the player characters need to follow if they are to reveal the nature of the threat. For the most part, the scenario is very player driven, with the antagonists rarely moving against the player characters. This gives it a more languid feel, with the danger that the characters could lose their way unless they are pro-active in their investigation. The upshot being that this potentially indolent nature of the investigation when combined with the occasionally prurient nature of the scenario means that Hell Fire is best suited to more experienced players and a more experienced Keeper.

Physically, Hell Fireis neatly presented, although in comparison with other Trail of Cthulhu scenarios, is missing the artwork of Jérôme Huguenin. This is not to say that there is anything wrong with the art of Olli Hihnala, but rather that it feels more traditional in comparison with other Trail of Cthulhu titles. The issue with Hell Fire is one of history. The period will not be familiar to every gamer and an introduction to the period might have been useful to the less knowledgeable so as to get across the nature of the period’s political and social clime. Such information would have also helped should a player want to create a character of his own. Similarly, a map or two would have helped, especially later in the scenario when it crosses the Atlantic to the Colonies. That said, the history presented here is interesting and the scenario does include one of the period’s odder figures.

Overall, Hell Fire does a good job of bringing Lovecraftian investigation to an interesting period of history, whilst the period itself brings a sense of Hogarthian horror to Lovecraftian investigation.

Read More

Nazis & Nasties

It is curious to note that even after thirty years of being in print and having innumerable supplements published for it by multiple publishers, Call of Cthulhu has received neither support for it in full colour nor any support that took the RPG into World War II. You might quibble at my assertion, but whilst they are in colour, neither S. Petersen's Field Guide to Cthulhu Monsters: A Field Observer's Handbook of Preternatural Entities nor S. Petersen's Field Guide to Creatures of the Dreamlands can be really called a roleplaying supplement. You might quibble at my assertion because the beautiful Les éditions Sans Détour of Call of Cthulhu is in colour, but that though is in French. You might quibble because there is the scenario “Where Byakhees Dare” from Toying with Humans and another four scenarios in Shadows of War, which are all set during World War II, but all are only available in Monographs and thus only available direct from Chaosium rather than at your local friendly gaming shop. So no, and despite hints from both Cubicle Seven Entertainment and Pagan Publishing, no publisher has gone as far as exploring the place of the Mythos during World War II.

So anyone wanting to see such support will be pleased with Achtung! Cthulhu - Zero Point Part 1 - Three Kings, the first release from new publisher, Modiphius Press. The Achtung! Cthulhu line promises two-fisted, tommy gun toting action against the Nazis in a “Secret War” that will uncover terrifying ancient mysteries, legendary war machines, and ghastly dealings with creatures and entities from beyond. Several campaigns are promised, with Three Kings being the first part of the globe-spanning Zero Point campaign. It is currently only available as a PDF and only for Call of Cthulhu, but versions will be for Savage Worlds, Trail of Cthulhu, and eventually, Modiphius Press’ own new RPG, Expeditions.

Technically, Achtung! Cthulhu - Zero Point Part 1 - Three Kings is not set during World War II, but in the months prior to its outbreak. The British government knows that war with Germany is coming and has not only given sanctuary to the Czechoslovakian government in exile, but begun forging links with the Resistance that has sprung up in the wake of the German occupation of the country and its split into the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and the near-independent Slovak Republic. Led by the “Three Kings” of the title, the resistance has informed London that the Nazis are conducting some kind of experiments at Castle Karlstein, south west of Prague. A four member team has been assembled by “Section D” of the British Secret Intelligence Service and will be parachuted into occupied territory where they will make contact with the Resistance in order to determine what is going on inside Castle Karlstein.

The structure of the scenario is such that between the briefing in London and the dénouement within the walls of Castle Karlstein, the investigators to act as they wish. The Keeper is provided with enough information to cover whatever course of action that the players might take. This includes plenty of supporting material that details the area around Castle Karlstein, the opposition in and around the castle, and the members of the Resistance. The latter includes the Three Kings of the title, each actually being an actual historical person. Further support comes in the form of the maps and the briefing handouts, both done as beautiful period pieces, as well as a four pre-generated investigators. Additional information details new skills, such as Jury Rig and Scrounging; new occupations, such as the Intelligence Officer (Research) and Intelligence Officer (Field); and new rules which cover the use of torture and interrogation. Lastly, suggestions are given as to how to run the scenario with characters who are not affiliated with British Intelligence.

Available as a forty-four page PDF, either as an 11.69 MB printer-friendly file or a 22 MB full colour file, Achtung! Cthulhu - Zero Point Part 1 - Three Kings is a nicely done document. The artwork though is pleasingly atmospheric, but the handouts and the maps are perfect. If anyone physical aspect of the scenario captures the feel of its setting, then it is those.

Unfortunately, Achtung! Cthulhu - Zero Point Part 1 - Three Kings is not perfect. The plot itself is far from being wholly original, but arguably, the setting and the feeling of the scenario does much to offset this unoriginality. Plus, this is campaign’s introductory scenario and it is designed to get the players and Keeper involved and interested in the next part, and it does that certainly. The real problem with the scenario is that its tone does not fit its rules. As written, it is Pulpy, but the rules for Call of Cthulhu do not match either this tone and are in all likelihood too deadly for the type of action that the scenario’s dénouement calls for. Arguably, Savage Worlds, used in co-operation with Reality Blurs’ Realms of Cthulhu will be a more suitable fit.

Achtung! Cthulhu - Zero Point Part 1 - Three Kings brings together perfect bedfellows – the Nazis and the Mythos. In doing so, it lays promising groundwork that the rest of the campaign will have to work hard to fulfil whilst delivering an exciting thriller of an adventure in the vein of Where Eagles Dare or The Guns of Navarone. Achtung! Cthulhu - Zero Point Part 1 - Three Kings is an impressive first release from Modiphius Press.

Read More

Not Just the Hun in the Sun...

The year 2012 happens to be the centenary of two major events. The first is the more well-known sinking of the RMS Titanic, the world’s first palatial ocean going and proclaimed unsinkable liner. Pelgrane Press has already celebrated that event by releasing RMS Titanic: The Millionaires’ Special, a scenario for its well-regarded RPG of Lovecraftian investigative horror, Trail of Cthulhu. Now it follows it up with a second scenario, one that unknowingly celebrates the other centenary, the founding of the Royal Flying Corps, the arm of the British Army that would support it from the air throughout the Great War, and at war’s end would become the basis for the Royal Air Force. The scenario in question is Flying Coffins, a one-shot affair which for the first time in any scenario for Calll of Cthulhu or Trail of Cthulhu, lets the investigators take to the air. Of course, there have been several scenarios that have involved flying, but in every case, the investigators have been passengers. In Flying Coffins, the investigators take control of their own flying machines, joystick in hand, rudders at their feet, and fingers curved round the triggers. In addition, both scenarios share the same author, Adam Gauntlett.

The setting for Flying Coffins is the Western Front in late 1918. The pilot protagonists or player characters are members of a Royal Flying Squadron serving a sector of the front to which a new enemy squadron has been assigned – Jagdstaffeln or Jasta 32. A specialised fighting squadron of the “Imperial German Flying Corps," Jasta 32 is commanded by the noted ace, Ernst Becker, and it is known as the Lightning Hussars after his old regiment. Sent out on daunting mission after daunting mission, the pilots must conduct bombing strikes, patrols, raids, and reconnaissance, in the face of not just determined German opposition, but also an otherworldly threat, one that willingly strikes at their fragile aerial steeds in an effort to pull them from the sky. With next big Push rumoured to be about to begin, it is vital that the Allies gain control of the sky.

Although Flying Coffins is more of a Purist than a Pulp scenario, its focus is very much on combat, and the edge that the player characters has over the NPCs in this scenario, does it bring back towards the Pulp. This is understandable, in terms of both the scenario’s military nature and the threat faced by the player characters. Obviously, this is an aerial threat, but it is one that is normally seen as a weaker foe in terms of the Mythos. That said, given the fragility of the aircraft of the time, the scenario’s outré antagonists are more than capable of downing the player characters…

With flying and aerial combat being the focus of Flying Coffins, it is understandable that the scenario goes into some detail about how to handle this in Trail of Cthulhu. As such, aerial combat in Flying Coffins is not that much different to the ordinary Firearms and Scuffling combat of Trail of Cthulhu, but with the aggressor attempting to sneak up on the defender so as to get in a burst of fire that the defender cannot avoid. If the defending pilot survives the attack, he can attack himself or flee, but if he enters the fray, a dogfight ensues. Naturally, this involves both participants attempting to outfly each other – handled by the players bidding points from their Piloting skill, with advantages granted from stunts attempted and from both the manoeuvrability and speed of the aircraft being flown. Additional dangers come in the form of Archie and ground fire. These rules are supported with entertaining period examples.

The scenario itself is tightly wound about its “Spine.” This Spine has an opening scene and a closing scene, but between them the Keeper must slot scenes that alternate between combat and investigation or interaction. For the most part, the Keeper will be deciding the nature of the combat scenes, whilst the players have more choice in terms of the investigative and interactive scenes. In fact, there is only the one set scene that does not involve combat, an interesting and unexpected encounter with a notable personage whose appearance is actually foreshadowed through another NPC.

The scenario allows for some flexibility in how the player characters are set up. There is room here for them to be all pilots serving with another nation, not just British or from the Commonwealth. Indeed, it is entirely possible that the player characters could be German! This will require a little adjusting upon the part of the Keeper, as Flying Coffins is written for use with Allied characters. Nevertheless, the scenario includes stats and short write-ups of some fifteen aeroplanes of the late war period. Also included are six pre-generated investigators. Flying Coffins is designed for play with this number in mind, so will need some adjusting if there are fewer players.

Flying Coffins is not the author’s first foray into writing scenarios for Trail of Cthulhu set during the Great War. His “Not So Quiet,” a scenario from the anthology Out of Time set at a field hospital behind the frontlines could possibly form the basis of a sequel to Flying Coffins if any of its protagonists are injured. As with the author’s previous scenario, RMS Titanic: The Millionaires’ Special, this aerial affair could easily serve as a flashback for an investigator in a later campaign. Flying Coffins though, does betray the author’s age and nationality. Certainly there are references in the scenario’s examples that only an Englishman of a certain age will recognise, and will probably do so with wry amusement.

Flying Coffins comes as a thirty-five page, 17.9 Mb PDF that is pleasingly illustrated by Jérôme Huguenin. It does need another edit and perhaps the pre-generated investigators tend towards the bland. Plus it would have been nice if they had been illustrated as that would have accorded them a little more flavour. Then again, inclusion of details of how the players could create their own aerial investigators would have been a nice touch also. Nevertheless, its contents do a good job of supporting the scenario and a good job of providing period detail aplenty, including a set of period photographs. Clearly, the author’s fascination, if not fondness, for the period, is evident throughout.

Surprisingly, given that Flying Coffins is a one-shot, there is the possibility of sequel, one that would involve a certain NPC mentioned in passing. Should any of the investigators survive this aerial affair, then that NPC should certainly have her revenge in later years… Overall, Flying Coffins is a very different one-shot, one that captures both the uncaring nature of the Mythos and the uncaring nature of early aerial warfare.

Read More

Voyages with his Mummy

With the centenary of her foundering fresh in our collective consciousness, the fact that the latest scenario from Pelgrane Press for its RPG of Lovecraftian investigative horror, Trail of Cthulhu, nothing less than well-timed. Written by Adam Gauntlett, whose previous contributions to titles published by Miskatonic River Press, Pagan Publishing, and Pelgrane Press, have all been well received, The Millionaire’s Special is a mini-adventure set on the RMS Titanic, in which several First Class passengers – or is that player characters – must face a threat already aboard the luxurious liner, whilst their players know that they will face certain death by adventure’s end.

Both the tragedy and the mystique of the Titanic figure strongly in all of our minds, and it is no surprise that they are a looming influence upon The Millionaire’s Special. For in setting it aboard a doomed ship – and no, that is not a spoiler (unless of course, you have not seen either the film directed by James Cameron or the recent television series written by Lord Fellowes; and curiously, I have steadfastly seen neither, so I had no idea that the ship sank) – Gauntlett not only faces a challenge, but has to set one too. The challenge he faces is one of presenting an adventure in which there is an unavoidable deadline, one that neither he (as the author) nor the players (as the protagonists) can avoid. The challenge that he has to set is making the adventure interesting enough to divert the attention of the players away from the impending disaster.

Gauntlet begins by having the player characters cast as First Class passengers, each with a minimum of Credit Rating 5 – with the hextet of pre-generated investigators provided being all respectable personages in good standing. These come complete with backgrounds, and include the usuall array of archaeologists, artists, dilettantes, and occultists along with some slightly more inventive creations. If the players wish to create their own, then they need to be of a similar standing, although another option would be for a player to take the role of the personal servant to another character.

It begins with their attendance at a soiree hosted by the newspaper mogul and noted amateur spiritualist and archaeologist, Jefferson Shaw. As his guests, they have to listen to him expound upon his recent archaeological exploits in the Valley of the Kings and his theories upon the subject of parapsychology, before revealing his pièce de résistance. This is not the fact that luncheon is provided by Café Parisien, the a la carte restaurant and a haute cuisine establishment run as a concession aboard the RMS Titanic, but is instead the fact that Jefferson Shaw will unveil his latest and greatest find from Egypt – a Mummy – before donating it to the Metropolitan Museum of Art when the ship docks in New York.

This being a game of Lovecraftian investigative horror, the unveiling, and worse, the unwrapping of Mummies is never a good thing, and so it proves. (Then again, in what roleplaying scenario is it ever a good thing?). As the investigators travel obliviously on towards their potential doom, they find themselves, along with everyone who attended the unveiling, beset by deadly caresses, paralysing gazes, strange dreams, and worse… The fact that the players have some idea as to the nature of this “worse” when so encountered is all the more effective, because the characters can do nothing about it!

Given the constrained nature of the scenario’s set-up, both in terms of time and place, there is a surprising amount that the player characters can do. There is the means and capacity to investigate, just as if they were ashore, and perhaps the opportunity to prevent one of the disasters that will befall them rather than the ship. Of course, they cannot avoid the iceberg, nor its disastrous effect upon the Titanic, and the two hours in which it takes the ship to sink forms the scenario’s climax. If the fact that the ship is sinking is not enough to trigger the investigators’ survival instincts, then the fact that they are being hounded by something outré really ought to…

Curiously, The Millionaire’s Special is not the first that Lovecraftian investigative horror has boarded the RMS Titanic. In 1986, Fantastische Spiele GbR published Titanic Inferno, a scenario for Call of Cthulhu that involves the investigators hunting for a murderer who become a passenger aboard the ill-fated liner. Of course, it being in German, I have not read it, and it has never been translated for the English speaking market. It would seem that the subject of the RMS Titanic’s sinking could make an interesting scenario for a time travel RPG, but this does not seem have happened either (if it has, then please point me in its direction, for I could not find any mention of one). This despite the fact that such a game would obviously provide a means of getting off the ship and surviving, whereas with The Millionaire’s Special, there is every possibility that not all of the player characters will do so. Which explains why this scenario is really a one-shot, but then again, it would make for an interesting flashback to run for character that had survived and was now investigating the outré in the 1930s…

The author goes some way to providing some background about the Titanic, but the information provided is not exhaustive, and is not intended to be. After all, it would merely replicate information readily available. The GM is given enough to help impart the atmosphere and feel of the ship, and there are plenty of little details included that can help bring to the fore the foibles and idiosyncrasies of the investigators’ fellow passengers. Amongst all of the given information is an amusing nod to both the author’s televisual consumption and Lord Fellowes’ more well-known work. If there is an issue with the given investigators, it is that they feel too isolated from the setting and have little in the way of attachment to it. The dramatic potential of The Millionaire’s Special would be greater if the pre-generated investigators had persons or belongings that were important to them, perhaps even as Pillars of Stability, so that their survival was as important as their own.

Coming as a twenty-five page, 9.55 Mb PDF, The Millionaire’s Special is short, sharp, and sweet. Released to coincide with the centenary of the Titanic’s tragic sinking, the proceeds from the sale of this very reasonably priced scenario go towards the charity, Heroes in the Dark, which creates audio comics to be enjoyed by the blind and sight-impaired. Nevertheless, the scenario does need a second edit and does have the feeling of having been rushed. To that end, it probably requires a little more careful handling by an experienced GM, especially during the scenario’s unstructured climax.

Overall, RMS Titanic: The Millionaire’s Special has the feel of a very traditional scenario for Lovecraftian investigative horror. Both its plot and its antagonists are variations upon a theme, and of course, the dangers of meddling and revenge from beyond the grave are well explored themes. That said, what sets it apart from its fellows is that its setting is unique – unique for all of the wrong reasons as far the players are concerned. For what the scenario really is, is a locked room affair, initially one without an exit, but when that exit appears… Thus, a unique setting serves to tighten a well-worn plot and so make RMS Titanic: The Millionaire’s Special a memorable one-shot.

Read More

Revenge Burns...

Many Fires is a one-shot scenario for Trail of Cthulhu, Pelgrane Press’ RPG of Lovecraftian investigative horror designed by Kenneth Hite. It delves into the secret background behind a significant event in American history – the United States military’s Mexico Expedition of 1916 against the paramilitary forces of Mexican insurgent Francisco "Pancho" Villa during the Mexican Revolution. It comes with six pre-generated investigators, but guidelines are included so that the Keeper can run the scenario as part of an on-going campaign or as a shorter, convention scenario. As the first declaimer proudly states, Many Fires is a Pulp adventure, which means that the investigators are more capable of standing up to and even surviving against forces of the Mythos arrayed before them. Indeed, to quote said disclaimer: “If your Investigators playtheir cards right, they may be able to punch an evil god straight back to… [].” The disclaimer does say where the evil god can get punched back to, but to say exactly where at this point would give quite a lot away. Then again, if the title of the scenario is not enough of clue for you, then you are no Nestorian!

Many Fires is written by Jason Morningstar, the award winning designer of the RPGs, The Shab-al-Hiri Roach, Grey Ranks, and Fiasco. It comes as a forty-four page, 41.19 Mb PDF, complete with an extensive background and eleven handouts as well as the pre-generated investigators. Set in 1928, a decade after the Mexican Punitive Expedition and five years after the mysterious assassination of Francisco "Pancho" Villa in 1923, it has the investigators going after Villa’s right hand man, “Major” Marcano Chimones and the last of the Villistas, who leads a gang that was once part of Villa’s, but has since returned to their banditry ways in the Northern Mexico state of Chihuahua. This is at the request of General John J. Pershing, the United States Amy’s highest ever ranking general and the commander of the Mexico Expedition. For some of the pre-generated investigators, this is a very personal request, their number including Warren Pershing, the General’s only surviving offspring; the African-American manservant who managed to save Warren’s life from the fire that killed the General’s wife and daughters in 1905; and an old army comrade of the General from the days when they hunted Apache Indians in the 1880s. The other three pre-generated investigators served with the General on the Mexico Expedition in one capacity or another. For those wanting pecuniary reward, Pershing suggests that Chimones might still retain the last of Villa’s gold, but all of the pre-generated investigators have their own motives for going South of the Border.

The scenario opens with the investigators arriving in Ciudad Chihuahua, the capitol of Chihuahua state. From there, they push West into the Valle de Bustillos, discovering towns and villages beset by Chimones’ bandits and others settled by German speaking Mennonites from Canada. As they get closer to Rancho Bustillos, they find themselves tailed by strangely scarred Mexicans, Indian natives that warn of the dangers to be found further west high in the Sierra Madre del Norte, and bandits that laugh in their faces when they come in search of their Jefe, Major Chimones.

Eventually, the investigators must climb up into the mountains and confront both the last of the Villistas and the secrets that the dread inhabitants of mountains have been harbouring for centuries. If the scenario up to this point has been fairly linear, the final confrontation is anything but, being more player led, which has the potential to get chaotic once the “monsters” are unleashed. Exacerbating this aspect of Many Fires is the fact that all of the pre-generated investigators have their own agendas. Naturally, some of these will conflict with the agendas of other investigators, but some of the investigators possess agendas that conflict with each other. Elements of these agendas will doubtless be revealed earlier in the scenario, but by the time of the final confrontation, they should all be out in the open.

Although an interesting scenario, Many Fires is not a perfect one. It suffers from a lack of a thorough edit and the layout lacks polish. Too often one section of text crashes into another, making reading it a sometimes jarring experience. Another issue is that bar the letters from General Pershing to be given out at the beginning of the scenario, Many Fires does lack an introduction for the Keeper to give to his players. This would be particularly useful if it were being run as a convention scenario.

Despite being a Pulp scenario, Many Fires shares in common with many other scenarios for Trail of Cthulhu the fact that it only fully works with the pre-generated investigators rather than with the players’ own. This is not to say that it will not work when added to an existing campaign, but the conflagration of conflicting agendas will not play a part if played as part of a campaign, and as a result, the scenario will be just too straightforward with the investigators lacking the motivation to follow its tale to its incendiary conclusion. Worse, much of the background regarding General Pershing’s involvement in the scenario will not come to light if the pre-generated investigators and their agendas are not used.

Nevertheless, Many Fires is strong in terms of its atmosphere, the eerie aridity of northern Mexico enhanced with oddity of the encounters, especially with the Aryan formality of the Mennonite immigrants. In keeping with its Pulp sensibilities, there is also room for some fiery encounters and a shootout or two before the final showdown. There is good advice for the Keeper throughout, especially on portraying each of the scenario’s NPCs. The author also does a nice job of creating a variation upon a familiar Mythos entity, but without actually giving the name it is usually known by. Lastly, he also provides an enjoyably feisty, if somewhat bonkers means of resolving the final clash.

Interestingly, it should be noted that Many Fires is not the first scenario to visit Pershing’s Punitive Expedition as the basis for Lovecraftian investigative roleplaying. That was for Brian Appleton’s “Punitive Measures,” a scenario for Call of Cthulhu that appeared in The Unspeakable Oath #16/17. Where Many Fires has the investigators returning to Mexico a decade after the events of the Expedition, “Punitive Measures” puts a United States troop on a rescue mission deep into enemy territory.

Perhaps a little too short, Many Fires is another good scenario for Trail of Cthulhu, which with a very little effort would work equally as well with any RPG of Lovecraftian investigative horror. Many Fires fairly sizzles along before breaking out into a roaring inferno.

Read More