Terror in the Streets is published by Lamentations ofthe Flame Princess and fulfils a brief that was given to the author as,
“Jack the Ripper, but 250 years early.” It is a murder mystery—inspired by
historical events of thirty years before, the ‘Werewolf of Châlons’—involving the
disappearances and then deaths of initially, four children from the streets of
Paris. It is quickly followed by more as the rate of disappearances and deaths
accelerates, driving the Player Characters to investigate ever deeper in an
attempt to stop further murders and whatever it is that the murderer is
planning. Clearly, Paris has a serial killer stalking its streets and
alleyways, one who like Jack the Ripper did in London
two-hundred-and-fifty-years later, taunts the authorities with a series of
letters that hint at his motivations. Ostensibly, the Player Characters are
hired by a Deputy Provost, one of several city officials reporting to the
Provost of Paris, the king’s representative and governor of the city, though
other set-ups are possible. The adventure opens on November 7th, 1630, and will
be over by November 18th. The Player Characters have the freedom of the city to
investigate as they like, first the deaths and then the letters. Similarly, the
players are free to approach the investigation how they want and the scenario
facilitates that with a very clean layout that makes everything easy to find by
the Game Master and by not having the players roll for their characters to find
clues. Instead, the focus is on interpreting them and using them to further the
investigation and the story.
However, there is one
issue that will hamper the Player Characters’ investigation—Paris. Getting
around Paris is difficult, a city just two square miles, but threaded through
with narrow streets and alleyways that makes getting anywhere slow and
occasionally difficult, and this despite the fact that there are numerous taxi
services that run throughout the city. Then there are the Parisians, who will
grow increasingly fractious and give themselves over to mob rule, which will
ultimately lead to city offices closing, Paris being shut down, and martial law
being declared. This tension is measured through an ‘Unrest Die’, a
large—ideally, the largest that the Game Master has—six-sided die which sits in
the middle of the table where the players can see it. As the tension rises, the
Game Master will adjust the die to the new face indicating the increase in
tension. Thus, the players will be aware of the tension in both narrative
terms, as portrayed by the Game Master, and in mechanical terms. It is, as the
author acknowledges, very similar to the ‘Escalation Die’ used to track the
degree of action in Pelgrane Press’ 13th Age.
The investigation is neatly organised into tautly detailed
little scenes that are clearly presented on the page making each and every easy
for the Game Master to run and expound upon as necessary. The smaller scenes
are typically with the families of the missing children and thus pertinent to
the exploration, whilst the longer, more detailed scenes and locations tend to
be red herrings—a potential werewolf attack and the search of a townhouse
belonging to the wizard, Alain de la Mare.* Much like the rest of the scenario,
these scenes can be played mundane or magical. Thus, for the encounter with the
werewolf if magic factors into the campaign, this yes, it is werewolf, but if
the campaign is mundane, then the werewolf is a fake. The Author does give
advice on the Player Character use of spells to gain information, in case they
decide to go down that route. Ultimately, the efforts of the Player Characters’
investigation will reveal that Armand Jean du Plessis, First Duke of Richelieu,
also known as Cardinal Richelieu, is connected to the murders, but how? There
is potential at the end of the scenario for the Player Characters to actually
gain a degree of influence over the most powerful man in France, for good or
ill. They could actually change history here if the ‘Day of the Dupes’ does not end in the way it did
in our history! That said, apart from these scant few hours when the Player
Characters can leverage their knowledge into a proper favour, Cardinal Richelieu
is described as constantly playing fourth dimensional Chess and will always be
a step or three in front of whatever they have cooked up.
* Yes, this really is who you think it is meant to be. Just not living in Northampton.
The scenario is very
well appointed and the Game Master ably supported. Besides the description and
map of Paris, there are full stats and details of Cardinal Richelieu, details
of the various taxi companies operating in the city, and a full discussion of
the possible outcomes to the scenario.
There are also the various letters sent by the perpetrators
as handouts, rare in a fantasy roleplaying game, and a table of encounters. For
the most part, there are no stats provided for these, so the Game Master will
need to provide these herself.
Lastly, Terror in the Streets closes with a quintet of appendices. The first, ‘La Perfide Angleterre’
provides an optional event involving an English spymaster who wants the Player
Characters to smuggle a ring out from a prisoner currently being held in the
Grand Châlet, which is also the headquarters of the Provost of Paris. The
English spymaster simply calls himself ‘W’, so could be Sir Francis Walsingham
as the appendix suggests. Which is odd, because Walsingham has been dead for
forty years when the scenario starts. The second appendix gives a full
description of the Grand Châlet, whilst the third is potentially the most fun.
‘Musketeers’ gives stats and details of the main characters from Alexander
Dumas’ The Three Musketeers for use with Lamentations of the Flame Princess
Weird Fantasy Roleplay and thus other retroclones. It opens up the possibility
of Terror in the Streets being as a one-shot as an investigation in the style
of The Three Musketeers using the given characters, but it also suggests that Terror in the Streets could be run using other roleplaying games set in the
swashbuckling period, such as Musketeers vs. Cthulhu: A Simple Nightfall RPGBook, AllFor One: Régime Diabolique,
Swordpoint: A Swashbuckling Roleplaying Zine,
and Miseries & Misfortunes – Book 1: Roleplaying in 1648
France,
though the scenario will require some historical adjustment as it is set in
1648 rather than 1630. The fourth appendix, ‘Comment t’appelles-tu?’ provides a
list of ready names for NPCs in the scenario, whilst the firth appendix,
‘Maison Richelieu’, which describes the home of Cardinal Richelieu, should the
Player Characters ever need to visit (or break in).
Physically, Terror in the Streets is very well presented.
The artwork has a slightly scratchy, cartoonish quality to it, but is still
decent, and the cartography is good.
So, what of its utterly awful problem? Terror in the Streets—beginning with the acronym for its title—contains a profusion of puns
and bad humour that in places does not so much veer as leer into slightly poor
taste. To be clear, this is no Asterion or Beware the Mindfuck,
so not utterly tasteless, but the schoolboy humour and dad jokes of Terror in the Streets gets wearisome very quickly. That said, in comparison to both
Asterion and Beware the Mindfuck, let there be no doubt that Terror in the Streets is a work of profound genius and skill.
Humour aside—and
there is a lot to put aside—Terror in the Streets is a very good scenario, an
engaging murder mystery with lots of historical flavour and detail and options
to run with or without magic, depending on how fantastical the Game Master’s
campaign actually is. The scenario is well written, well presented, and well, one of the
best scenarios for Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay.
—oOo—
DISCLAIMER: The author of this review is an editor who has edited titles for Lamentations of the Flame Princess on a freelance basis. He was not involved in the production of this book and his connection to both publisher and author has no bearing on the resulting review.
—oOo—
Lamentations of the Flame Princess will be at UK Games Expo which takes place on Friday, May 30th to Sunday June 1st, 2025.
