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Trail of Cthulhu: Stunning Eldritch Tales
 
$8.75
Average Rating:4.6 / 5
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Trail of Cthulhu: Stunning Eldritch Tales
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Trail of Cthulhu: Stunning Eldritch Tales
Publisher: Pelgrane Press
by Michael H. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 12/03/2011 06:14:24

Another excellent supplement to the Trail of Cthulhu RPG. Stunning Eldritch Tales offers a selection of interesting scenarios for those that love playing pulp-flavored investigations in which PCs battle horrors with shotguns, tommy guns, and dynamite. The scenarios are varied, colorful, and well-written with each being self-contained allowing a keeper to pick & choose what they want to run or slip one of these in to an existing campaign. The PDF is fairly priced given the amount of time and creativity that went in to these adventures.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Trail of Cthulhu: Stunning Eldritch Tales
Publisher: Pelgrane Press
by Jeffrey V. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 08/01/2010 16:15:23

Again, Megan Robertson did an excellent review of this product, with which I thoroughly agree. I note in passing though, that the "see Page XX" comment could as easily be made about the scenario in the Trail of Cthulhu rule book to, and so I went to the Web Page for Pelgrane Press to see if there was any help there, only to discover a page entitled, lo and behold, "See Page XX." It appears to be an on-line 'zine containing articles of interest on the topics addressed. Additionally there are supposed to be quite a few additional handouts and documents on the Pelgrane Press site, though I have yet to figure out where they are (given the fact that I've only been looking for a brief time) and all in all it seems a clever mechanic to get you to look at their web pages for extra but unnecessary data (that is, not required to play the scenario) and simultaneously cleverly bring you face to face with their products -- thus hopefully inclining you to buy more.

So okay, it's also annoying in a way, but as noted you don't REALLY need the extra data to play the scenarios -- it's merely nice to have. Other than that, Megan did a masterful job of outlining the scenarios, and I really don't have much to add to her comments on that subject.

As usual, DriveThru did a magnificent job of reproducing the book and everything in my copy was highly legible and useful. All in all, this one earns a richly deserved "5."



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Trail of Cthulhu: Stunning Eldritch Tales
Publisher: Pelgrane Press
by Megan R. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 07/21/2009 11:39:40

Herewith a collection of four adventures for Trail of Cthulhu, all firmly set in the Pulp style. No preamble, guess the assumption is that you know what you are looking for when you pick this up, just straight in to the first adventure.

The first adventure - 'The Devourers In The Mist' - is quite short, intended to be played in a single session, and could serve as an introduction to the game system or as a convention game. The author has peppered it with notes indicating which bits need to be highlighted (or omitted) depending on whether you are running it as a one shot, the introduction to a campaign or a mid-campaign adventure, a nice touch that adds to its versitility. Ostensibly it's a survival scenario, beginning as the characters wake up on a Pacific island as the survivors of a shipwreck. Being a Chthulhu adventure, all is not what it seems, the shipwreck was no accident and the characters have to track down and destroy the cause... but because it is a survival situation they also have to cope with their needs for food, water and shelter. For those using this as an introductory adventure for a campaign, there's an interesting note on the use of flashbacks to introduce characters. Survival aspects are also well-covered, making it a mechanically-sound part of the adventure but also interesting and involving from the role-playing point of view... and carefully introducing bits of 'wrongness' that should lead the characters towards the mystery they have to solve. It should keep the characters nicely on edge, while leading them towards what they have to do. Six pre-generated characters are provided for convention use, while for those planning an extended campaign this adventure will serve as splendid introduction to a world swarming with Things That Should Not Be.

The second adventure - 'Shanghai Bullets' - involves the search for a missing missionary who's an amateur archaeologist and, as the characters will discover, has found things best left unfound. It's a heady romp around the classic pulp locale of 1930s Shanghai, with plenty in which the characters can get involved, from Triad bickering to international espionage, never mind retrieving that artefact that Ought Not To Have Been Found...

Next comes 'Death Laughs Last' which brings the archetypical Pulp masked vigilantes and colourful villians crashing headlong into the Cthulhu Mythos as the characters are asked to investigate the death of a millionaire philanthropist. Again there is plenty going on, this time in the eastern seaboard of the United States with - due to the dead man's social status - quite a few of the moneyed classes around... as well as the seamier side of life from the vigilante angle. And of course, a mysterious Oriental gentleman.

The final adventure is 'Dimension Y' which draws together the best of pulp science-fiction with matters unspeakably abnormal. An experiment goes awry... and then Things Start to Happen... and as ever, it's up to the characters to find out what is going on and deal with it... before it deals with them! Murders and madness abound.

Four cracking adventures, utilising the Gumshoe system to the full as well as exploring the Cthulhu Mythos with a sure touch... marred only by what seems to be a pre-production copy of the PDF where all the page references, both internally and to the core rules, have been tagged as 'see p.XX' - just as well the core rules have an excellent index! Never mind that, if you want a varied set of adventures which mix Pulp tropes with Mythos horror, this is well worth getting.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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