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A novel concept, this book takes the Cthulhu Mythos to 2271 and out into the final frontier. The entire book reads like an almanac/reference though, with timelines, overviews of the countries and corporations, additional equipment and psychic powers.
It has almost no advice for the Keeper and actually running the game, so you are on your own in that respect. Think of it as a ‘Lonely Planet’ guide to sci-fi Cthulhu rather than the level of support that I’ve come to expect from Chaosium titles. For those of you that have core rulebooks and plenty of experience, it would be a good addition to your collection and may give you the starting point for some good campaigns.
However, if I wanted to take Cthulhu to the stars, I’d be more inclined to buy CthulhuTech, which offers a deeper, richer setting, although combining the two products on a conceptual level would beneficial.
| Puntuación: | | [3 de 5 estrellas!] |
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Equipment books always interest me – ‘Aurora’s Whole Realms Catalogue’ has pride of place on my shelf, as well as the ‘Arms and Equipment Guide’ – so why shouldn’t Cthulhu benefit from a similar sourcebook. The Gaslight Equipment Guide is very simply presented – in many ways reminiscent of a Victorian-era catalogue. Whether this was intentional or a happy coincidence doesn’t really matter as it adds to the atmosphere of the game. The illustrations look like those found in ‘The Times’ or similar newspapers of the era (I doubt any are original works commissioned for the sourcebook, but rather that Choasium has a number of copyright free images they have been able to use instead.
A timeline with most sections gives an overview of the progress of certain goods (especially helpful in communications and any form of technology) which can, at a glance, tell the Keeper what is in theme with their chosen year, and even highlight advancements in the field as the chronicle progresses.
Whilst there is some interesting information here such as postage, currency conversion and general historical notes, some of it strikes me as trivial (do I need the price of a sheet of blotting paper?), but actual play may find a use for such data.
Overall, worth the price of admission, if only for the historical sections.
| Puntuación: | | [3 de 5 estrellas!] |
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Any RPG that includes both Cthulhu, and a skill called "Get Coffee" has already started a notch up in my mental scale.
Cthulhu for President has both of these, and a lot more. In it's 76 pages Chaosium and 9th Level Beer present an entire RPG system. It was quite fun reading through the game before I set out to create a character or do anything else with the system. Fans of Cthulhu and games such as Paranoia will enjoy this.
Setup is quick and so aren't the gaming sessions, which is by design. With constant riffs on the Cthulhu mythos and modern politics, it's hard to play this without cracking up. Add to it that you'll have at least one player saying "Call. . . of . . . Cthulhu!" like they utter "Wheel. . . of . . . Fortune!" on the tube and it's just plain fun.
Any beefs I have with this game are with the formatting of the document. Bookmarks would have been really nice and on a number of occasions I ran into some strange formatting - extra spaces, words squished together and whatnot. The rules aren't exactly water tight either, but in 76 pages that's forgivable since the game runs well and again, is a lot of fun.
| Puntuación: | | [4 de 5 estrellas!] |
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The First Book of Things is a monster product for Call of Cthulhu. Given the system that it is for, it is light on rules and full instead of vivid descriptions of the alien monstrosities within and their connection to the rest of the Call of Cthulhu mythology. I've never purchased a Miskatonic University Library Association Monograph, sticking to the "main" books instead. The book, while full of information, but the art is less than stellar. I would honestly rather not have any artwork. Many of the pieces that might have been decent lose their value by being so minuscule they can fit between regular columns of text without having it wrap around. Many of others amount to bland 3D objects on black backgrounds or scratchy drawings with a lot of blur and dither (the spoooooky filters). I was actually very drawn by the strange cover image, but pretty much no pieces of art within the book are that quality, and none have any kind of background like the one shown on the cover.
The book contains 60+ pages of lovecraftian monstrosities, some of which are very inspired like the Oblos, the gross floating bag of air seen in the cover, a servitor that might even have shared slavery with the infamous Shoggoths. Many monsters in the book have origins which I feel do enrich the mythos.
However, a startling amount of the monsters in the book amount to a spin on skeletons, zombies and vampires, even a mummy, and other such undead. If you want a lovecraftian spin on undead, there's more than five different ways for you to end up with a walking skeleton, including things as simple as a slime that animates a skeleton, to more complicated things like a slime which seeps into a swamp atop a skeleton and other muck and slowly develops into an animated skeleton. It's a real skeleton-fest in this book. You'll be throwing your bones down a lot with this. Ultimately it wasn't really what I was looking for at all, but many of the monsters do exhibit a lot of creativity even if they end up being just one more way to get a skeleton to move around.
The technology section is very limited but interesting, while the spells are, as you might have guessed, fairly heavily focused on all the sundry rituals by which to summon or bind all those new skeletons and zombies and vampires (as well as the other creatures in the book of course).
If you don't really care about the art, and you're interested in more creatures, particularly more lovecraftian variations on undead, the book will probably be worth your while. It would be worth your while even more with small price tag, however. Myself, I didn't find what I was looking for, and will likely keep to the big Chaosium books from now on.
| Puntuación: | | [3 de 5 estrellas!] |
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This is another very early supplement, originally published by Chaosium back in 1984. It contains a short two-scenario campaign and an extra bonus scenario ("The Haunted House" -- one of the most difficult scenarios my players ever had to work through). The campaign is set in Greenland and British Columbia and requires a lot of outdoor and cold-weather activity. I found it difficult to come up with a really convincing way to get my players involved without feeling like I was forcing the play along a certain path. Still, if the circumstances had ever worked out, I think both scenarios would have been a lot of fun for them. "The Haunted House" is set in Grand Rapids Michigan, though it would be easy enough to relocate to some other location in the English-speaking world. Neither of my play groups ever made it to the campaign, but both suffered through the haunted house scenario -- one of the most complex and challenging scenarios I ever ran for them) and really enjoyed it. The price made it irresistible to me when I discovered it on DriveThru RPG.
The reproduction quality of this one meets DriveThru's usual high standards with everything being clear and crisp and easy to read. I'm going to rate this one a four -- not because of the reproduction, but simply because the campaign scenarios are sort of hard to fit into your play in a neat, seamless way -- though the Haunted House scenario is a winner all by itself. Still, elements of them are usable in other scenarios you may devise. The price on this one makes it well worth picking up in my opinion, despite the difficulties I note above.
| Puntuación: | | [4 de 5 estrellas!] |
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This was the very first campaign supplement published by Chaosium for the then-brand new "Call of Cthulhu" RPG. While I see where the other reviewers were coming from, I've run this one on several occasions for groups of players and they always seemed to have a blast. While it does sometimes require a little fast foot-work on the part of the Keeper, it rewards that with a lot of fun for the players. There are plenty of little hooks that can be used to move the players off of the main track of the campaign or to send them on wild goose-chases, though, again, the Keeper will need to flesh those out to make it work -- or he can purchase other scenario packs if he needs to. In addition to the seven "chapters" of the actual campaign itself, there are two additional scenarios ("The Warren," and "People of the Monolith") the latter of which is an excellent very first scenario for totally inexperienced investigators. Player handouts are scanned on separate sheets so they could easily be produced for your players as well. Finally, the price on this one makes it an amazing deal no matter how you cut it. Besides, you've GOT to love a campaign that ties in so many of HP Lovecraft's actual stories in some way or another and takes you to places like Easter Island. If you feel like you have to "railroad" your players too much, I'd recommend simply making sure the clues they need show up -- heck there's an entire RPG rules system that does just that! Be flexible, folks!
As usual DriveThru did an excellent job of reproducing the manual -- especially given that the original was printed in a brownish text that tends to make scanning very difficult. All of the illustrations and textual material is easily read, and even the gray-on-gray information boxes are crisp and clear. Overall, I rate this one a solid five both for quality of the reproduction and because of the otherwise unavailable nature of the material. And did I mention the price? Worth it, by all means!
| Puntuación: | | [5 de 5 estrellas!] |
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This is another older supplement for "Call of Cthulhu," originally produced in 1990. Basically there are five separate scenarios, one of which is loosely based on the original "Corbitt" scenario from the rulebook (probably the most-played scenario ever published), though it is edited out of all resemblance to the original and is much more complex. There is a separate "handouts" section at the back, which, in the original book, was set up so the Keeper could cut out the handouts and provide them to the players as and when they found the pertinent information.
As usual, DriveThru has done a wonderful job of recreating this document with all illustrations and textual material being complete and very legible. Price-wise, this one seems a bit high to me, though the quality of the material (both in terms of the actual material itself and the quality of the reproduction) is excellent. All things considered, I'm going to give this one a four based on the (relatively) high price more than anything else, but I will tell you that if you want some good haunted house scenarios which are very well reproduced, you can do a lot worse than buy this supplement.
| Puntuación: | | [4 de 5 estrellas!] |
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This particular supplement to "Call of Cthulhu" is designed to describe several different ways for the Investigators to travel in the 1920's. Each method of travel is accompanied by a scenario that can be used by the Keeper to complicate the Investigators' lives. The first three methods are the "calssic" methods; plane, train and automobile; the next three are more "esoteric" (to quote the introduction of the book), airship, diving suit and canal boat -- of these three only the airship probably makes sense to the casual observer, but since many "Call of Cthulhu" scenarios involve the sea and underwater, the diving suit can come in really handy for the Keeper. The canal boat is a bit strange, but who really knows how a scenario, especially in Europe will work out? Finally, the last three methods are really obscure -- Armored Cars, elephant back, and horse-drawn sledges. While none of these last three are very likely to be met with, just think of the fun you can have trying to work them into your campaign! Finally there is a section on automobile chases which is intended to replace the rather skimpy rules included in the original CoC. This last section is an excellent addition to the game all by itself. The vehicle descriptions, and the rules for using them are excellent, and the accompanying scenarios are fun and full of potential plot hooks to either send the Investigators chasing after false clues or off into a brand new campaign.
DriveThru RPG has provided another excellent electronic copy. Everything was reproduced very well, and I had no trouble viewing any of the illustrations or descriptions. This one is a bit pricier than most of their reproductions, however given that it contains nine scenarios AND a section on car chases, it is also quite a bit longer than most of the others. I frankly don't remember how much I paid for this one back in the day, but I'm guessing it was at least as much as this one costs, and probably a bit more. Now if we can just get DriveThru to find and scan a copy of "Horror on the Orient Express!" This one earns another solid five from me, both for content and for the quality of the reproduction.
| Puntuación: | | [5 de 5 estrellas!] |
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This is another excellent scenario pack produced originally by Chaosium back in 1984. I was pleasantly surprised to find it available on DriveThru RPG and bought it as soon as I could. The underlying theme of the book was "earth dwellers" and all four of the scenarios involve going underground or creatures of the earth (as opposed to the sea or the air or the Dreamlands) in some way.
The Scenario pack contains four scenarios including "Dark Carnival," an unpleasantly Stephen King-ish kind of adventure with many different levels of drama for the investigators to uncover; "The Curse of Shaugnar Faugn," a very dangerous adventure almost guaranteed to kill off one or more investigators -- especially if they are inexperienced -- and with plenty of plot twists and turns; and finally, a two-scenario mini-campaign that drives the players into Egypt and the Arabian peninsula composed of "Thoth's Dagger," and "The City Without a Name." These two scenarios should allow the Keeper to easily create the same kind of atmosphere that the movies "The Mummy" and "The Mummy Returns" did. Finally, the book contains an essay on "the Kabbalistic Science of Gematria," which describes Gematria (the science of assigning numerical values to letters in the alphabet in order to determine mystical links between words -- historically done in the Torah -- thus the "Kabbalistic Science" -- though it could be done with any language) in game terms. The article provides enough information that it could be easily used as an adventure hook, or as an apparent plot hook that turns out to be a harmless red herring, and is just plain interesting regardless.
The reproduction provided by DriveThru RPG is excellent -- even the illustrations which I would have expected to have been nearly illegible came out as actual pictures instead of blobs of gray and all the information is very easy to read and clear. Given that the price is probably about 30% cheaper than what I paid back in 1984 for this, and that I can store it on a disc drive instead of taking up shelf space. I strongly recommend this particular scenario pack and sincerely hope DriveThru comes out with some more soon! I rate it a solid five stars.
| Puntuación: | | [5 de 5 estrellas!] |
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This is another publication that I originally picked up as a hardcopy when it first came out back in 1987 -- and just in the nick of time too, since it included a "missing" chapter from the "Masks of Nyarlathotep" Campaign I was running at the time! (Masks of Nyarlathotep plays just fine without the missing chapter, by the way, but having it is nice since it provides yet another place for your globe-trotting investigators to have to explore.) I was very pleased to see that DriveThruRPG had this one for sale again -- and for just about 2/3rds of the price I paid for it back in the day!
This supplement provides the Keeper with a great deal of information regarding Australia (especially the Melbourne area) in the 1920s, as well as providing sections on ghostly events and the "dream time" of the native population. In fact, the authors have provided a role-playing setting in the form of "Alcheringa," the Aboriginal version of Lovecraft's "Dream World" for use in Call of Cthulhu. Additionally, they have provided a lengthy section on Aboriginal beliefs and weapons and ways they can be used to affect teh investigators. For those materials alone, the book is worth purchasing, however the three provided scenarios (which can be played as a mini-campaign, in addition to the one serving as a bridge to the MoN campaign) are the usual excellent quality products we've come to expect from Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu product series.
This PDF easily earns a five for the quality of the reproduction and the ease with which materials may be copied or printed by the Keeper for use with the game. DriveThruRPG hit another home run with this one. I strongly encourage anyone interested in the CoC system to purchase this item!
This is another one I had trouble downloading thanks to my Internet Service Provider, but the superb Customer Service team at DriveThruRPG helped me get my materials pretty quickly and turned what could have been a really bad experience into one that was so positive, I'm very willing to continue purchasing materials from DriveThru. Fantastic job!
| Puntuación: | | [5 de 5 estrellas!] |
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I somehow missed this one when it first came out back in 1995, but I noticed here on DriveThruRPG's web page and decided to give it a whirl since it stated that it was designed more for new characters and I am in the process of breaking in some new players.
The three scenarios do seem like they would be easily played by less experienced investigators and enough material is presented to make it very easy for the Keeper to play the scenes. There are a large number of handouts and sufficient plot twists to permit the players to pursue a non-linear investigative approach to the scenarios. Even events that are supposed to happen in some kind of chronological order are organized so that the Keeper may be flexible in their presentation.
Overall, I have to give this PDF a three. Not because of the material, but rather because of the reproduction. Generally the quality of the reproduction is up to DriveThruRPG's usual impeccable standards, however the gray backgrounds of some of the handouts combined with a darker gray lettering make several of them VERY difficult to read. I could have wished for a greater contrast to be selected for this particular item to ensure it was easy to read. Since the original apparently did not include a separate "handouts" section (unlike the vast majority of Chaosium supplements) at the back, there is no "second chance" at any of the handouts, which means most if not all will have to be reproduced in some way by the Keeper if the players are to find them useful.
This was another PDF I found it impossible to download through the normal link process thanks to my Internet Service Provider. Once again, however, DriveThruRPG's superb customer service team came through for me with flying colors and ensured I got my product! Way to go DriveThru!
In a way, I'm sorry I have to hit this PDF with a three -- the overall quality of DriveThruRPG's work and their world-class customer service actually deserve better than this PDF allows me to give them!
| Puntuación: | | [3 de 5 estrellas!] |
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I originally purchased this supplement as a hardcopy some time after it was published in 1989. My intent was to run it as a campaign, but due to the exigencies of my gaming group, I would up running a couple of the scenarios as interludes in another major campaign (Shadows of Yog Sothoth, to be precise, but that's another story). Over the past 20 years, I managed to lose my copy, much to my regret.
I was delighted to discover recently that DriveThruRPG was offering this item as a PDF, and hastened to purchase it.
Overall the contents of this supplement are simply outstanding. Each scenario is dangerous, challenging and exciting right through to the end, with enough red herrings and potential future plot hooks to almost ensure a smart keeper can tie them in anywhere in his campaign plan. Each scenario also provides tons of material to help the Keeper play them well -- slang lists, vivid descriptions, and enough variability so that the players and Keeper are not forced into some kind of linear play routine -- making the players feel that much more in control. In addition to the scenarios there is the introductory essay which could easily serve as a speech given by one of your NPC's to help educate the investigators on the "Cthulhu Mythos" early on in your campaign, an incredibly useful "universal calendar" that can be used to help plot your gaming time-lines for various scenarios in any era you're playing (in my opinion, the calendar makes the book worth purchasing, all by itself!), and even some foreign language character sheets which were the very first effort by Chaosium to broaden the player base beyond the English-speaking world.
This PDF version easily earns a "five." It is very clearly reproduced, with not difficulty reading any parts of it. The illustrations and handouts (which are also reproduced separately at the end of the book) are easily printable and copy-able with no difficulty on the part of the Keeper. Best of all, I managed to purchase it for about two thirds what it cost as a hardcopy in 1990 (when I actually bought my original copy). The only difficulty I had was with downloading the file. Thanks to my ISP, I was prevented from using the normal links to do the download, however DriveThruRPG's superb customer service department worked with me all day to try and rectify the situation, and finally provided me with ftp links to download the products I was having trouble with. Fantastic job on their part and a big tip of the hat to Jeff Montgomery of DriveThru's customer service department -- he turned what could have been a complete disaster into, well, an experience that I don't regret! All in all, a big two-thumbs-up for DriveThruRPG on an excellent reproduction and superb customer service!
| Puntuación: | | [5 de 5 estrellas!] |
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I originally purchased this supplement in hardcopy when it was originally published in 1983. Subsequently, I managed to lose it, and was delighted to discover that DriveThruRPG had it for sale again in PDF format.
This supplement contains two "scholarly" essays that are well enough written that I used them as player handouts in my original game when my player group was researching the nature of the "threat" during some "downtime" between adventures! In addition there are four new scenarios, one of which, "The Secret of Castronegro," was a particular hit with my group and became the stuff of legends as time went by. Another of the scenarios, "Paper Chase," is an excellent introductory scenario, though it needs tweaking if you want it to be something more in keeping with the mythos experience (as written, it serves to confuse beginning players more than anything else). There are useful articles on Prisons, insanity and skills introducing new types of each, and a section of new Mythos deities, races and monsters.
Overall, the quality of this PDF is exceptional -- there were no parts where any of it was hard to read, the reproduction is high quality and even the "Sanity Quiz" (which appears on a dark background) is highly legible. Download time was extremely quick, and I can safely say I was delighted to have a copy of this to add to my slowly growing library of replacements for missing supplements. All in all, I have to give this one a five, not only because of the quality of the material, but also due to the quality of the reproduction. Even better, I paid just over half as much for this as I did for the original supplement when it was published in 1983!
| Puntuación: | | [5 de 5 estrellas!] |
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I originally purchased this supplement in hardcopy when it first came out way back in 1985. Unfortunately in the ensuing 25 years I managed to lose my copy (long story) to my everlasting regret.
This supplement contains a "comparative size chart" giving the Keeper and Investigators an excellent indication of the relative sizes between some typical CoC monsters and humans, a "scholarly" essay on the Ubiquity of Cthulhu, new creatures (both mundane and not), new Mythos races and deities, a Cthulhu Grimoire, a couple of other useful articles, and two scenarios, one of which is depicted in the cover illustration and is set in the Belgian Congo.
I stumbled across DriveThruRPG and discovered to my delight that they had PDF copies of many of the classic supplements and rules editions.
This particular PDF is extremely good quality. There was no difficulty whatsoever in reading any of the material, all the appropriate foldouts were faithfully reproduced with sufficient overlap that you should be able to print the pages and put them together if you desire. The only typos I discovered were extent in the original copy of the material as well, and all in all this was a superb effort on the part of DriveThru. The download was quick and easy, and the price is less than half what I paid for the original hard-copy back in the '80s.
All in all, worth every penny I spent on it. I strongly recommend it for the additional scenarios if nothing else, and it easily earns 5 stars from me.
| Puntuación: | | [5 de 5 estrellas!] |
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Great book! A nice clear overview with useful examples for multiple genres. Also 'roll your own' charts.
| Puntuación: | | [5 de 5 estrellas!] |
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