Island at the Top of the World

Achtung! Cthulhu is the roleplaying game of fast-paced pulp action and Mythos magic published by Modiphius Entertainment. It is pitches the Allied Agents of the Britain’s Section M, the United States’ Majestic, and the brave Resistance into a Secret War against those Nazi Agents and organisations which would command and entreat with the occult and forces beyond the understanding of mankind. They are willing to risk their lives and their sanity against malicious Nazi villains and the unfathomable gods and monsters of the Mythos themselves, each striving for supremacy in mankind’s darkest yet finest hour! Yet even the darkest of drives to take advantage of the Mythos is riven by differing ideologies and approaches pandering to Hitler’s whims. The Black Sun consists of Nazi warrior-sorcerers supreme who use foul magic and summoned creatures from nameless dimensions to dominate the battlefields of men, whilst Nachtwölfe, the Night Wolves, utilise technology, biological enhancements, and wunderwaffen (wonder weapons) to win the war for Germany. Ultimately, both utilise and fall under the malign influence of the Mythos, the forces of which have their own unknowable designs…

Achtung! Chtulhu 2d20: Operation Cold Threshold is a scenario that takes Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20 back to North America, but not the Mid-West USA of Achtung! Cthulhu Mission: Seventh-Inning Slaughter! or the ice cold of British Columbia, Canada of Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Operation Snowstorm. Instead, it takes the Agents out into the Bering Sea in winter, more than a year before the USA joined the war effort and two years before the establishment of Majestic. It is March 1940 and from intercepted radio transmissions, Section M has learned that Nachtwölfe has dispatched a secret expedition ferried board a disguised Russian trawler, the Yalina, into US territorial waters where it has anchored off an uncharted island known as Threshold in the US territorial waters of the Bering Strait. In response, British government has informed its US counterpart and very quickly, the two governments have agreed to launch a joint Anglo-US mission to investigate and interdict the Nazi expedition. This is before the US government establishes Majestic as its counterpart to Section M, so it recruits the soldiers and experts that Professor Richard Deadman, one of the key figures in the future operations of Majestic, perhaps supported by Section M operatives who have already had experience with Nachtwölfe, the Mythos, and the Secret War.

Achtung! Chtulhu 2d20: Operation Cold Threshold is not a complex scenario. It is a simple matter of climbing onto the island from the other side to the site of the Nachtwölfe expedition, traveling across the top, observing the expedition’s activities, taking images using the assigned experimental cameras, and deciding what to do. There are a couple of wrinkles along the way, such as the weather and a potentially nosy polar bear, but as the Agents film the site, it is obvious that whatever it is that Nachtwölfe is doing on the island, is going to come to fruition soon! It is up to the players and their Agents to decide how they react to that, whether that is scouting the site and the trawler out, or going in all guns blazing. Whatever they decide to do, the mission is going to end in a big fight—though the Agents will have no idea how big—because after all, Achtung! Cthulhu is a roleplaying game of shooting and punching Nazis, let alone blasting the Mythos. Stealth is the better option, since it enables the Agents to learn more, perhaps gain some allies, find the documentation they have been assigned to look for, and perhaps even capture one or two of the enemy. Either way, the way, the scenario will climax with a fight that is both silly and actually makes sense in terms of the Secret War. Plus, there is scope for another faction from the Secret War to join in the fracas if the Game Master wants to complicate things and that also makes sense.

The scenario is solidly supported with stats for all of the Nachtwölfe (and other) enemies, including the quite odd expedition leader, Professor Tedrich Sauber, and the thing that he is after. There are maps for both the island and the expedition site, but no image of the thing that Professor Tedrich Sauber is searching for—and that is pity, because it does deserve to be illustrated. There are no pre-generated Agents either.

Where Achtung! Chtulhu 2d20: Operation Cold Threshold has the potential to be a little more sophisticated is when the Game Master decides to set it. By default, the scenario takes in 1940, early in the war when the USA was not yet involved. In terms of the Secret War, the scenario takes place mostly after the events of Shadows of Atlantis, yet before A Quick Trip to France and subsequent missions. This limits when the scenario can be run as part of a campaign, as does the fact that it requires more experienced Agents. One way in which it can be used is as a side mission that serves as an introduction to the Secret Wars for American Agents, potentially recruits to Majestic in a few months’ time.

Physically, Achtung! Chtulhu 2d20: Operation Cold Threshold is well presented. The area maps are serviceable, but otherwise, the scenario is not illustrated.

Achtung! Chtulhu 2d20: Operation Cold Threshold is a simple affair that can be run as a one-shot or a side mission—perhaps when not every player can attend a session—that will play out in a single session. Although it is set up as a classic Commando-raid-style mission, there are some some pleasing little nuances to it that make it a bit more interesting than the gun toting, spell blasting, Nazi-punching shootout that it is. Plus it has a really surprisingly big bad (one that you really really wish had been illustrated.)

Miskatonic Monday #440: Fallen from the Farthest Star

Much like the Jonstown Compendium for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha and The Companions of Arthur for material set in Greg Stafford’s masterpiece of Arthurian legend and romance, Pendragon, the Miskatonic Repository for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition is a curated platform for user-made content. It is thus, “...a new way for creators to publish and distribute their own original Call of Cthulhu content including scenarios, settings, spells and more…” To support the endeavours of their creators, Chaosium has provided templates and art packs, both free to use, so that the resulting releases can look and feel as professional as possible. To support the efforts of these contributors, Miskatonic Monday is an occasional series of reviews which will in turn examine an item drawn from the depths of the Miskatonic Repository.

—oOo—

Their arrival in Olympia, the state capital of Washington State, on Monday, August 20th 1877, begins with a bang. Or rather several bangs. As one Native American passenger alights and is distracted down a side street by another, the remaining passengers aboard the stagecoach are subject to a hail of gunfire from the surrounding buildings. Native Olympians pull out their own handguns and shoot back, and when they manage to get out of the stagecoach to look, it appears that their assailants are also Native Americans. The exchange of fire quickly fizzles out and if any of the newly arrived passengers go after the shooters, they quickly find themselves lost in the back alleys and side streets of the city, and before they know it, a gun is in the small of their backs. Within moments the passengers, captured at gun point, find themselves whisked out of the city, as is the Native American who was beckoned to from down an alley. In the chaos, one of the female passengers is spirited away by some men with Russian accents. Anyone left at stagecoach, is approached by a scruffy, oddly mannered man, apologising for the attack, explaining that the Native American attackers are Squaxin, one of many Indian tribes who have long lived in the area of the Puget Sound and some of the tribes have strange secrets. One is a very strange secret indeed. Something important is hidden nearby and they would do anything to protect it. Others have recently arrived in the city of search of the secret in order to take for themselves. The man, who introduces himself as Elwood Candy, tells the passengers that he wants to find out for himself and his employers, but will not say who those employers are, except that they are not the US government.

This is the action-packed opening to Fallen from the Farthest Star. This is also the messy opening to Fallen from the Farthest Star. The scenario is for use with Down Darker Trails: Terrors of the Mythos in the Old West, the official Old West sourcebook for use with Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition. Action-packed because it opens with a shootout, but messy because it is written as a narrative and there is a lot going on. In fact, almost too much for the Keeper to track of. The result is overwhelming, and arguably, whilst it should be overwhelming for the players and their Investigators, the same should not be case for the Keeper. Unfortunately, this is no error upon the part of the author, but rather by design. The aim is actually to split the party and for each Investigator to interact with the different factions involved in the scenario, including two different groups of Native Americans, some Russians, and the strangely singular Elwood Candy. The aim is that all together, they will have a greater understanding of the situation they find themselves in, but only if they can get together and relate what has happened to them in the meantime. What this means is that Keeper will be running longer solo narratives for her players than she might ordinarily do so for a Call of Cthulhu scenario. In several of the situations, the kidnapped Investigators will be asked if they have ‘it’. Which they do not, and further, do not know what ‘it’ is. In fact, ‘it’ turns out to multiple things, but the fact that Fallen from the Farthest Star is a multi-MacGuffin, will again, not become apparent until the Investigators are brought together and can share what happened to them. All this requires a degree of acceptance by the players. The opening and set-up for the Investigators in Fallen from the Farthest Star is anything other than a traditional one for Call of Cthulhu and to high degree, the players and their Investigators are being railroaded.

From this point, the Keeper is going to be switching back forth between the Investigators and the groups that they are with. In some cases, the Investigators are held captive, in others they have more agency, but all have opportunity to interact an NPC or NPCs and gain some information pertinent to the situation. There is chance here too, for some good roleplaying. So, what is going on? The Native Americans are guardians to an ancient mind-bending artefact called the Star Egg, that fell from the sky thousands of years ago, split into two factions who cannot agree what to do with it; the Russians are dissidents turned archaeologists and treasure hunters looking for Spanish silver; and everyone else? They answer to their own masters! The Investigators are part of a prophecy said to tell of a growing threat to the Star egg and are asked for their help. As the different factions discover more of the information they need, they will make their way upriver and inland to the site where the Star Egg is hidden. The Investigators are the catalysts here, ultimately deciding how the scenario plays out and who comes out on top. There are a couple of wildcards thrown into this mix and they may influence what happens next. Along the way, there are some entertaining scenes, including one with the ‘Greatest Thief in the World’ and revelations ahoy as to who Elwood Candy’s true masters are and what they are prepared to tell the Investigators.

Besides the NPCs and Mythos monsters, the scenario is supported with information about Olympia, its history and surrounds, plus information about the Mythos tome, El Naufragio de Nuestra Señora de Loreto, that drives part of the story, the various devices that the Investigators might get their hands on, and the alien ship itself. These are nicely detailed. There is also a timeline for the scenario; maps of both Olympia and its surrounds—for both the players and the Keeper; and floorplans for the various locations. The floorplans are period pieces and do vary in quality. The handouts include the colourfully bizarre pictograms as well as NPC pictures (some of which look not a little familiar) and details of two pistols new to Down Darker Trails. Lastly there are six pre-generated Investigators. They consist of a Hispanic gunfighter, an aspiring artist, a soldier, a Native American cowboy, and a dilettante would-be writer. The aspiring artist previously appeared in The Schoolmarm’s Ghost.

Physically, Fallen from the Farthest Star is generally well presented. However, the writing is not as clear it could have been in parts and the artwork for the pictograms cartoonishly contrasts the rest of the scenario. That said, the NPC portraits are all period photographs, as are the maps and floorplans, and they do add a degree of verisimilitude. The floorplans could have been clearer though.

Ultimately, the problem with Fallen from the Farthest Star is the writing. There is a lot of context and background up front, including some decent advice about adapting the scenario to other periods, and a detailed—likely overly detailed—history and description of Washington state, Olympia, and nearby—it throws the Keeper into the action without much thought or advice as how the set-up, let alone the rest of the scenario is going to play out.

Ultimately, the problem with Fallen from the Farthest Star is the writing. There is a lot of context and background up front, including some decent advice about adapting the scenario to other periods, and a detailed—likely overly detailed—history and description of Washington state, Olympia, and nearby—it throws the Keeper into the action without much thought as how the set-up, let alone how the rest of the scenario is going to play out. It is not until after the shootout and its aftermath is there any advice for the Keeper, who is told that the next(!) “…[S]ection of the scenario might be a little confusing.” By this point it might be too late. There is no denying the ambition of Fallen from the Farthest Star, but it really going to need an experienced Keeper to run well with its multiple moving parts, and even then, said Keeper will need to pull some parts of the narrative—the gunfight at the start of the scenario, in particular—apart and put them back together to her satisfaction to have them work effectively.

Home & Horror

Achtung! Cthulhu is the roleplaying game of fast-paced pulp action and Mythos magic published by Modiphius Entertainment. It is pitches the Allied Agents of the Britain’s Section M, the United States’ Majestic, and the brave Resistance into a Secret War against those Nazi Agents and organisations which would command and entreat with the occult and forces beyond the understanding of mankind. They are willing to risk their lives and their sanity against malicious Nazi villains and the unfathomable gods and monsters of the Mythos themselves, each striving for supremacy in mankind’s darkest yet finest hour! Yet even the darkest of drives to take advantage of the Mythos is riven by differing ideologies and approaches pandering to Hitler’s whims. The Black Sun consists of Nazi warrior-sorcerers supreme who use foul magic and summoned creatures from nameless dimensions to dominate the battlefields of men, whilst Nachtwölfe, the Night Wolves, utilise technology, biological enhancements, and wunderwaffen (wonder weapons) to win the war for Germany. Ultimately, both utilise and fall under the malign influence of the Mythos, the forces of which have their own unknowable designs…

Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Vive La Résistance is the ninth release for Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20, and does something a little different. Most missions in Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20, whether for Section M or Majestic sees the agents sent behind enemy lines, investigating the activities of the enemy in the Secret War, perhaps gaining the support of the homegrown resistance movement (itself, typically armed and supported by the SOE), thwarting those efforts, and subsequently returning back to base in dear old Blighty. But what of the resistance movements? What of these NPCs? They get to stay, hiding in the shadows, always moving, constantly in danger from being betrayed by collaborators, captured, interrogated, and worse. What is at stake is the freedom of their country from under the jackboot of the Nazi occupiers and oppressors. This is the subject of Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Vive La Résistance, presenting an overview of Resistance movements in Europe, new agent options, friends and foes, equipment—Mythos and mundane, and a quintet of missions and maps.

From the start, Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Vive La Résistance makes clear that campaigns involving the various resistance organisations will be different to normal campaigns for Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20, darker in tone and more dangerous in play. Whilst the Player Characters may be the heroic protagonists of the story, they will be constantly watched and often hunted, whilst not always having the support of their fellow countrymen. Collaborators and traitors might betray them at any minute—and sometimes they can be family or colleagues. Thus, the atmosphere of Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Vive La Résistance is one of mistrust and paranoia rather than just its usual straightforward combination of heroic, pulp action and weird Secret War occultism. There is plenty of scope for that combination, often acts of sabotage and resistance snatched in the dead of night between hiding out in fear of capture, interrogation, and worse. What this means is that the discussion about the campaign’s themes and tone in Session Zero will be differ from that of a standard Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20 campaign. Whilst the supplement does include a discussion safety tools, it is the standard discussion found in all Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20 books rather than addressing issues specific to Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Vive La Résistance.

The overview and history of the various resistances movements is relatively brief. This is done nationality by nationality, in turn covering the French, Dutch, Polish, and Yugoslavian movements. The coverage of the German, Italian, and Jewish resistance movements is even briefer, as is the general support provided for all of them by the SOE. At best, it is a good introduction to the subject, but not much more.

Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Vive La Résistance gives new Archetypes suitable for the underground war in Europe. They include the Assassin, Propagandist, Raider, Resistance Leader, and Saboteur, and all have their base attributes, skills, focuses, equipment, suggested Talents, and also a quick list of reasons why a player might want to play that role. To these can be added new Backgrounds that include Interrogator, Liberated Prisoner, Partisan, Striker, and Turncoat, and new Characteristics which include Anti-Fascist, Born Under a Bad Sign, Field Tester, Ruthless, and Sees Beyond the Veil. There are new Talents too, for example, Never Surrender! and Practised Skill are common Talents. Notably, the Weird Talent of Child of Carcosa means that the Player Character has been marked by the Yellow Sign and can mark it on others… If the Assassin Archetype perhaps looks too much like a femme fatale, the chapter is still a good mix of options, many of which can be used in a general Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20 campaign, not just in a Resistance-based one.

These are accompanied by heroes and villains ready to be added to a Resistance-based campaign, and if their backgrounds do not fit the country where the Game Master has set her campaign, they can easily be adjusted. They include the usual mix of the named and unnamed, but notable amongst the former is Standartenführer Helmut Ziegler, a Black Sun occult practitioner who specialises in interrogations, whilst of the latter, Black Sun Silverwalkers are troopers tasked with tracking down magical practitioners equipped specially-tuned amulets forged from silver and captured Dreamlands energy to detect magical emanations. The most controversial addition to Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Vive La Résistance is that of Demons. The supplement does not confirm or deny whether they are actual infernal creatures or entities of the Mythos adopting their guise for the gullible, but treats them as Mythos creatures. Their inclusion expands the horror in Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20 and gives the Game Master more options, it is debatable whether either was needed given surely that the Mythos is enough.

The includes a mix of equipment, spells, and tomes. There are requisition rules in Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20 and these primarily come in to play during preparation for a mission, usually at a base. Members of the Resistance rarely have that luxury, so most of the time they default to being in the field, though they can request items from SOE in London. Equipment includes a range of new skill kits, such as a Poisoner’s Kit and a Safecracking Kit; a bicycle dynamo for charging and powering electrical devices and a one-shot pistol disguised as a smoker’s pipe(!); and experimental items like Glue Grenades and Charges developed by Polish alchemists, and a Grounding Spike, a pure iron, sigil marked spike created by the Parisian diabolic society, Loge de Flauros, to weaken summoned demons! The new tome and spells consist of a Demonology spellbook, Abjuration Of The Regal Star, and its associated spells. Of these the new equipment is likely to be of more use, depending upon whether the Game Master accepts demonology in her game.

For the Game Master, there are tables and charts, which she can use to create missions for her Player Characters. These can be used in conjunction with the Achtung! Cthulhu Gamemaster’s Toolkit. Lastly, she is provided with five missions that she can develop into full scenarios. These include stealing a Mythos tome from a grand exhibition of stolen art in ‘The Grotesque Gala’; concealing signs of Resistance activities when the Nazis raid a base of operations in ‘Home and Hearth’; investigate and sabotage Nachtwölfe operations in a factory in ‘The Industry of Storms’; recover dropped supplies before the Germans do in ‘Under Moonlit Skies’; and delay a convoy train in ‘War on the Rails’. All five are given a good page of details and adventure hooks as well as a full colour map. These maps are also provided unmarked for the players’ use.

Physically, Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Vive La Résistance is well presented. The artwork is great and everything is well organised.

Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Vive La Résistance is mechanically sound, but thematically underwritten in places. Whilst it does mention the differences in tone and style for a Resistance style campaign, it does not explore them in any depth and the lack of advice for the Game Master given those differences is disappointing. Another area where the supplement could have benefited is a bibliography, since the activities and stories of the various resistance groups are not as well known and the Game Master could have done with greater inspiration. And then there is the inclusion of Demonology? Does it fit? Does it not fit? Its inclusion pushes Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20 towards more pulp horror, rather its usual Lovecraftian action horror, and it very likely not going to be for everyone. Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Vive La Résistance only touches the surface of its subject, leaving the Game Master with work to do to explore its themes.

—oOo—

Modiphius Entertainment will be at UK Games Expo which takes place from Friday, 29th to Sunday 31st of May.

Cthulhoid Choices: 4thulhu

As it acknowledges, there are too many games about Cthulhu and the Mythos. So why one more? Especially given that the publisher, Just Crunch Games, has its very own roleplaying game of Lovecraftian investigative horror in the form of Cthulhu Hack, Second Edition. So, what is the point of 4thulhu: A 4-sided System for Cosmic Horror? Well, it exists because the author wanted to create a roleplaying game using only four-sided dice. Which begs the question, what exactly does it offer the player and Director of roleplaying games of Lovecraftian investigative horror that other, similar roleplaying games do not? That is a difficult question to answer. Since Call of Cthulhu and Trail of Cthulhu are mainstays, and there is even lighter roleplaying game of Lovecraftian investigative horror than 4thulhu, and that is Cthulhu Dark. Think then of 4thulhu as an alternative to Cthulhu Dark when players and Directors want something lighter, but with a little more mechanical nuance. An absolute cynic might be describe 4thulhu as yet another roleplaying game of Lovecraftian investigative horror for the collector. More so given its obscurity. That said, 4thulhu is inexpensive. In fact, the four four-sided dice needed to play the roleplaying game are probably going to cost as much, if not more than the price of 4thulhu.

In order to run and play 4thulhu: A 4-sided System for Cosmic Horror, a group will need some four-sided dice—at least four—and copies of the Player Character sheet (though an index card will do just as well). A Player Character in 4thulhu has four attributes. These are Grit, Form, Lore, and Mien, corresponding to physical power, agility, knowledge, and personality and willpower. These are valued at two each, and then one can be adjusted up and another down. Injury and Realisation are derived values. A player can alternatively roll for the attributes. A Player Character has up to twelve skills. These are rated Expert, Adept, Novice, and Unskilled. An Expert skill means that a Player Character will succeed on a roll of two or more; three or more for an Adept skill; four for a Novice skill; and rolls of four on two four-sided dice. It is important to note that the player can select as many as he wants at the start of play, but he can also leave them blank until they are needed, in which case he selects at that point, during play.

Henry Brinded, Antiquarian
Grit1 Form 2 Lore 3 Mien 2
Injury 4
Realisation 4
Skills
Ancient Languages (Expert), History (Adept), Artillery (Novice), Accounting (Adept)

Mechanically, 4thulhu is as simple as outlined above, whilst attribute checks are rolled like unskilled checks. Combat and similar situations are handled as opposed rolls. If one combatant succeeds and rolls higher, it is the winner; a stalemate occurs if combatants roll the same value and succeed; and if both sides fail, they both suffer negative effects. Damage is brutal with a melee weapon or a light firearm inflicting two points of Injury. If a Player Character has his Injury reduced to zero, he is unconscious. The most complex rule here is how facing the Cosmic Truth is handled. Here a Player Character’s Realisation is subtracted from five and that is the target number, the minimum target number being two or more. If the roll is successful, the Player Character can carry, but if not, his Realisation is reduced by one. If it is reduced to zero, the Player Character might blackout or run away or hide, and so on. Recovery of Injury takes weeks and months for Realisation.

The adversaries in 4thulhu are defined in a fashion similar to Player Characters. The Director can adjust the attributes and assign skills as necessary, and the more powerful the adversary the more unbalanced it will be in comparison to a Player Character. 4thulhu gives details for six Mythos races and entities, including the Colour Out of Space, Deep Ones, Elder Things, Fungi from Yuggoth, Nightgaunts, and Ghouls. 4thulhu does not cover Mythos tomes, spells, or the ‘gods’. Here the Director will need to improvise. There are brief notes on converting content from other roleplaying games of Lovecraftian investigative horror and on improvising horror. The latter actually covers everything you might find in a larger, more detailed roleplaying game, but in the briefest of fashions. More bullet points than paragraphs. To help set up a scenario, 4thulhu includes a set of ‘Unforeseen Circumstances’ tables, which annoyingly require six-sided dice rather than four-sided dice. The advice is good, though light.

The scaling of 4thulhu to use a four-sided die does mean that there is not a lot of mechanical depth or longevity to its play. In comparison with similar games, Player Characters are weaker and there is no scope for experience or growth. So, 4thulhu is likely to be used for one-shots, short scenarios, or mini-campaigns at best. The advice that emphasises improvisation also lends itself towards this conclusion too.

Physically, 4thulhu is slightly roughly presented with extra inserts. It is lightly illustrated. It is decently written.

There are options which are missing from 4thulhu: A 4-sided System for Cosmic Horror—spells, tomes, and gods in particular. It is not a comprehensive roleplaying game of Lovecraftian investigative horror, but it is quick and easy to play, while relying on greater improvisation and creativity upon the part of the Director than another roleplaying game of Lovecraftian investigative horror might. Ultimately, 4thulhu: A 4-sided System for Cosmic Horror is a workable, if limited mini-roleplaying game.

—oOo—

Just Crunch Games will be at UK Games Expo which takes place from Friday, 29th to Sunday 31st of May.

[Fanzine Focus XLII] Hypergraphia Issue o

On the tail of the Old School Renaissance has come another movement—the rise of the fanzine. Although the fanzine—a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon, got its start in Science Fiction fandom, in the gaming hobby it first started with Chess and Diplomacy fanzines before finding fertile ground in the roleplaying hobby in the 1970s. Here these amateurish publications allowed the hobby a public space for two things. First, they were somewhere that the hobby could voice opinions and ideas that lay outside those of a game’s publisher. Second, in the Golden Age of roleplaying when the Dungeon Masters were expected to create their own settings and adventures, they also provided a rough and ready source of support for the game of your choice. Many also served as vehicles for the fanzine editor’s house campaign and thus they showed how another Dungeon Master and group played said game. This would often change over time if a fanzine accepted submissions. Initially, fanzines were primarily dedicated to the big three RPGs of the 1970s—Dungeons & Dragons, RuneQuest, and Traveller—but fanzines have appeared dedicated to other RPGs since, some of which helped keep a game popular in the face of no official support.

Since 2008 with the publication of Fight On #1, the Old School Renaissance has had its own fanzines. The advantage of the Old School Renaissance is that the various Retroclones draw from the same source and thus one Dungeons & Dragons-style RPG is compatible with another. This means that the contents of one fanzine will be compatible with the Retroclone that you already run and play even if not specifically written for it. Labyrinth Lord and Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay have proved to be popular choices to base fanzines around, as has Swords & Wizardry. Of course, not all fanzines are dedicated to classic fantasy roleplaying games.

Hypergraphia Issue o was published in August, 2017 for release the following October at NecronomiCon Providence 2017. It takes its name from the rare behavioural condition in which the sufferer has the compulsive urge to write or draw, often resulting in voluminous amounts of text or detailed illustrations. However, the fanzine does not suffer from the effects of the latter, since it only runs to thirty-two pages in length. In-keeping with the nature of NecronomiCon Providence: The International Conference and Festival of Weird Fiction, Art, and Academia, a biennial convention and academic conference held in Providence, Rhode Island dedicated to the life and works of H. P. Lovecraft and other creators of weird fiction, film, and art, the contents of the fanzine are dedicated to Lovecraftian investigative horror. Mechanically, all of the content is written for Cthulhu Dark, the rules light roleplaying game of Lovecraftian investigative horror. What this means that all of the content is readily adaptable to the roleplaying game of Lovecraftian investigative horror (or just horror) of the Game Master’s choice.

The issue opens with ‘Night Business – Three scenario hooks for Cthulhu Dark’s London 1851 setting’ by Charles Gerard. They include ‘Link-Boys’ in which it rumoured that the Link-Boys that once lit the way home for pedestrians on the streets of London have retreated from the gaslit streets into the maze of alleyways and other dark routes, where razor-teethed , some hunt the unwary. ‘Rat-Catchers’ asks how far will the suppliers for the rat-baiting pits go in providing tougher creatures and what happens when the rats push back? Lastly, in ‘Resurrectionists’, the cadaver gangs have returned to London to fulfil a shortage of bodies for the surgeons and the anatomists. Where have the bodies of the dead of the workhouses gone and who is disinterring the dead now? Overall, nicely detailed ideas that the Game Master can develop into some further.

In between, Ed Possing’s ‘Unwanted Visitor’ is a short piece of fiction that hints at the dread of being alone in the cabin in the woods, as ‘Cleaning Up the Supernatural – An investigator background for any game system’ from Tyler Hudak explores the role of the janitor or garbage collector in horror games. He notes that theirs is a ubiquitous and unnoticed presence, collecting rubbish, raking over the trash, and having access to caustic chemicals and disposal systems. There are no game stats, but it suggests that stealth and hiding skills are appropriate along with lower social skills and a lower social status given the nature of the job. It is perhaps slightly too basic a description to really work from, but the article is accompanied by a trio scenario hooks and a description of ‘The Order of Janus’, originally founded in Ancient Rome to clean up evidence of activity. In the modern day, the Janus Corporation performs crime scene clean-up for law enforcement around the world. It is an interesting idea and would be fascinating to see this developed further with some actual scenarios and Occupational write-up.

There is more support for the period with Max Mahaffa’s ‘Ashes in the Dark – A scenario hook for Cthulhu Dark’s London 1851 setting’. It highlights the horrors of being a chimney sweep in the Victorian era, whilst also presenting a horror they could encounter at 50 Berkeley Square, infamously described as, ‘the most haunted house in London’. Essentially, there is something nasty in the chimneys of the townhouse, and the sweeps are noticing how few boys go in and come out again. What if the Player Characters are given the task of sweeping the townhouse’s twisted, cramped chimneys? Playing on claustrophobia, it includes lists of key words to describe the location, physical feelings, and the monster itself.

Somewhere on the road to Kingsport stands ‘The Green Bough Inn – A setting for any game system’ by Anthony Lee-Dudley. The dark and sombre building is as unwelcoming as the family that run it. The accompanying adventure seeds suggest that the family leads a cult in the nearby woods, that have something growing in the attic, and so on. In comparison to the hooks presented elsewhere in the issue, these are threadbare and will need no little development to be fully useful.

Ian MacLean explores the mysteries and legends of Canada in ‘Occultarum Borealis’. In particular, the lost village of Hochelaga. The St. Lawrence Iroquoian village was described by French explorer Jacques Cartier in October, 1535, in some detail as being well-defended, organised, and home to two thousand indigenous peoples. However, when Samuel de Champlain, ‘the father of New France’, visited the area seventy years later, it was gone. Although suggestions are given as to what actually happed—war, emigration, or disease—the article suggests that the Player Characters could be European visitors or even other locals looking to trade, but they could also be from rival tribes wanting to war on the village of Hochelaga. Further, he suggests Mythos involvement in the form of Iroquoian legends of the Flying Head, said to ride on howling winds, ripping its victims apart with bloodied claws. Could this be Nyarlathotep as the Haunter of the Dark. Alternatives include suggestions which could be the ‘Little People’ or the ‘White Buffalo’ that seek the surface to writhe and ravage the lands that could be Cthonians. Another option could be Mi-Go interference given European interest in mining rights. This is one of the more detailed articles in the fanzine and gives a lot of suggestions for the Game Master to work with, no matter which roleplaying game she is using.

‘Fragments of Fears and Phobias – Coulrophobia: Fear of Clowns’ by Sean Murphy examines the history of clowns, clowning, and the phobia some have of them. It notes that their portrayal in the media as monsters preying on children and adults alike, combined with their not quite human appearance has constantly pushed children’s happy association with clowns into fear and loathing. It is a solid overview of what appears to be a relatively new phobia and it would be interesting to see other phobias treated in the same way. Sadly, there are no hooks as there are in other articles in the fanzine.

Penultimately, Edwin Nagy takes the reader to the venue for NecronomiCon Providence, more recently seen in The Shadow Over Providence. In ‘Horror at the Biltmore’, he describes the planned multi-table Call of Cthulhu scenario at NecronomiCon Providence 2017 in which it possible for players to buy elements such as a revolver, or spell or if they are feeling nasty, a monster to add to the playthrough, and the monies going to charity. This sounds a lot of fun and a future issue of the fanzine should definitely tell what happened.

Lastly, ‘Off the Rails’ by Brian Murphy explores what happens when the players take their Investigators and gave them do something entirely unexpected, even also most counter to the scenario being played. Or at least, what happens when the Investigators decided to settle down in the Dreamlands with a lot of money in their playthrough of The Sense of the Sleight-of-Hand Man. His solution is to escalate events to the point where the Investigators were turned into pariahs and driven from the city which had burned down after it was attacked by the Black Ship owned by the Men of Leng which the Investigators had sold. It is thoroughly apocalyptic and quite, quite entertaining.

Physically, Hypergraphia Issue o is clean, tidy, and simply laid out. The artwork is a mixture of photographs and publicly available images and well chosen.

Hypergraphia Issue o is a good mix of background and suggested ideas for play. All of it needs development to one degree or another, in order to make it playable. Otherwise this is an engaging read that will work for almost horror roleplaying game.

Miskatonic Monday #431: The Missing Rabbi of Berezin

Much like the Jonstown Compendium for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha and The Companions of Arthur for material set in Greg Stafford’s masterpiece of Arthurian legend and romance, Pendragon, the Miskatonic Repository for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition is a curated platform for user-made content. It is thus, “...a new way for creators to publish and distribute their own original Call of Cthulhu content including scenarios, settings, spells and more…” To support the endeavours of their creators, Chaosium has provided templates and art packs, both free to use, so that the resulting releases can look and feel as professional as possible. To support the efforts of these contributors, Miskatonic Monday is an occasional series of reviews which will in turn examine an item drawn from the depths of the Miskatonic Repository.

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Name: The Missing Rabbi of Berezin: Eldritch Horror on the Pale of Settlement

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Miri Rosenau

Setting: Belarus, 1870s

Product: One shot
What You Get: Fifteen-page, 5.26 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: Who let the cold in?

Plot Hook: The village’s rabbi is missing

Plot Support: Staging advice, six pre-generated Investigators, two handouts, and one Mythos monster.

Production Values: Decent

Pros

# Escape the cold grasp of death before the cold grasp of the Czar

# Short, quite straightforward investigation

# Suitable for convention play

# Frigophobia

# Speluncaphobia

# Teraphobia

Cons

# Underplotted

# No helpful maps

# Difficult to read handouts

Conclusion

# Underwritten in terms challenge and plot

# Intriguing time and place to set a Mythos scenario

Cthulhoid Choices: The Rats in the Walls

H.P. Lovecraft’s 1923 short story, ‘The Rats in the Walls’, tells of an American, Delapore, the last descendant of the De la Poer family, inherits the family estate of Exham Priory in England following the Great War and much to the dismay of local residents, decides to restore the estate. Once they have moved in, both Delapore and his cat are plagued by the sounds of the eponymous ‘rats in the walls’. Together with several friends, including the comrade of his son who died in the war, Delapore investigates the source of the sounds and following a series of dreams discovers the terrible history of his family. That they were cannibals, feeding on a herd of ‘human cattle’ raised and maintained in an underground below the house for centuries. Enraged by the loss of his son and maddened by the revelations about his family, Delapore snaps and gives into his filial urges, attacking and feeding upon his companions, before being captured and condemned to an insane asylum.

This story has now been adapted to Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition. Published by Dungeon Matters , the ‘R’lyeh Rising Adventure Series’ adapts classic cosmic horror and pulp fiction into adventures for Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition. Of course, links between cosmic horror and the Cthulhu Mythos and Dungeons & Dragons are not new. They go all the way back to the original version of the Deities & Demigods, the pantheon guide for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition. The connection would come to the fore at the end of the millennium with Death in Freeport from Green Ronin Publishing. It moved back and forth with Realms of Crawling Chaos for Labyrinth Lord and other retroclones and with adventures like Carrion Hill for Pathfinder, before coming up to date with a supplement and set of campaigns for Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition with Ghoul Island Act 1: Voyage to Farzeen and its sequels, written and published by Sandy Petersen, the designer of Call of Cthulhu no less!

The ‘R’lyeh Rising Adventure Series’ does not consist of classic fantasy adventures, but instead of Lovecraftian investigative horror set in the early twentieth century. The series does provide a guide to ‘Running Lovecraftian Horror in 5e’ which gives an overview of the line and the setting—primarily Arkham and Innsmouth; the themes and elements including the Great Old Ones and Elder Gods, mad cultists and forbidden knowledge, insanity and madness, and so on; and of course, new rules. It suggests the Cleric, Fighter, Monk, and Warlock as possible Classes, and suggests Naval Veteran, Occult Investigator, Prohibition Agent, and Spiritualist as possible Backgrounds. There are rules too for firearms, vehicles and vehicle chases. The setting overview is broad, whilst the rules are serviceable, tending towards Pulp horror feel rather than a Purist tone.

Given that the line is an adaptation of Lovecraftian investigative horror, it should be no surprise that there are rules for madness and the effects of being exposed to the cosmic horror of the Mythos. Saving throws against Madness are a Wisdom check and the type of Madness can either be short-term, suffered after a minor shock, long-term, gained after accumulated horror exposure, or indefinite, due to reading forbidden tomes or seeing cosmic entities, or suffering long-term madness three or more times. The actual effects for each type are determined randomly. It is possible to cure madness through the Lesser Restoration, Remove Curse, Dispel Evil, and Greater Restoration spells. Overall, there is a brusqueness to both overview of the setting and the rules, but they are workable.

R’lyeh Rising #1: The Rats in the Walls is the first in the series. It is designed for four First Level Player Characters who are engaged to investigate the activities of Lord Arthur de la Poer at Exham Priory. This might be because a friend or colleague is concerned about him, because a local mother is worried about the disappearance of her son, or simply because the Player Characters met the mad Lord Arthur de la Poer in the street. The Player Characters can conduct some investigation and ask a few questions in and around the village of Anchester, near Exham Priory. They will definitely be able to confirm that something odd is going on at the house and may be able to discern some hints as to what it is. Then they can make their way to Exham Priory, perhaps with an ally or not, discovering further signs of Lord Arthur de la Poer’s madness, before descending into the caves below the house. This is linear in nature rather than the expansive city which the original story suggested, but along the way, the Player Characters can find the means that will help them defeat the evil thing below the priory and so end the curse that has beset the de la Poer family.

One nice touch is that the thing, the ‘Feaster’, “A hulking mass of mouths and flesh, embodying hunger and madness itself.” will offer the Player Characters a bargain. It is a very nasty bargain, but its bonuses are decent if a player decides that his character will give in! Instead of magical items, there are ‘Special Items’, including a helpful tome bound in human flesh and the vile, Ceremonial Knife of the Feast. Whether through combat or dismissal, the Player Characters should be able to defeat the ‘Feaster’. This will gain them a new Level.

The scenario includes advice on adjusting to lower or higher player counts, a suggested timeline, and the NPC and monster stats. There are no pre-generated Player Characters, which would have been useful given the change in genre.

Physically, R’lyeh Rising #1: The Rats in the Walls is a plain affair. It is lightly illustrated and some of the illustrations are good. The cartography is decent, if a little dark.

R’lyeh Rising #1: The Rats in the Walls is not a sophisticated affair. There is some scope for roleplaying early on, but once the Player Characters enter Exham Priory, the scenario is more dungeon-like, and the scenario is very much going to end in a fight. Veteran players of roleplaying games of Lovecraftian investigative horror will not find much here to engage them and will very likely have read the story that it is based on anyway. For players of Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition who want to try some Lovecraftian investigative horror, R’lyeh Rising #1: The Rats in the Walls offers a straightforward opportunity with a short taster that can be played in a single session.

Miskatonic Monday #430: Last Dance in Shoreditch

Much like the Jonstown Compendium for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha and The Companions of Arthur for material set in Greg Stafford’s masterpiece of Arthurian legend and romance, Pendragon, the Miskatonic Repository for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition is a curated platform for user-made content. It is thus, “...a new way for creators to publish and distribute their own original Call of Cthulhu content including scenarios, settings, spells and more…” To support the endeavours of their creators, Chaosium has provided templates and art packs, both free to use, so that the resulting releases can look and feel as professional as possible. To support the efforts of these contributors, Miskatonic Monday is an occasional series of reviews which will in turn examine an item drawn from the depths of the Miskatonic Repository.

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Name: Last Dance in Shoreditch

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Seyed P. Razavi

Setting: London, Modern Day

Product: One shot
What You Get: Thirty-page, 15.87 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: “There’s always some amount of gradual, slow burning destruction over the course of partying.”—Gavin DeGraw

Plot Hook: Jenny Muir is missing

Plot Support: Staging advice, five pre-generated Investigators, seven handouts, three NPCs, and one Mythos monster.

Production Values: Decent

Pros

# Nightlife nightmare in the streets of East London

# Nicely done ‘sights, sounds, vibes, and smells’

# Easy to prepare

# Eisoptrophobia

# Scoptophobia

# Melophobia

Cons

# One pre-generated Investigator a little too like the missing NPC

# One pre-generated Investigator has a high Cthulhu Mythos skill

# It will make you feel old

# Avoid any jokes about murder on the dance floor

Conclusion

# Queasy, sweaty descent beyond the ecstasy of London’s nightlife

# Drop the bass, drop the horror

Miskatonic Monday #429: Crappy Detour

Much like the Jonstown Compendium for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha and The Companions of Arthur for material set in Greg Stafford’s masterpiece of Arthurian legend and romance, Pendragon, the Miskatonic Repository for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition is a curated platform for user-made content. It is thus, “...a new way for creators to publish and distribute their own original Call of Cthulhu content including scenarios, settings, spells and more…” To support the endeavours of their creators, Chaosium has provided templates and art packs, both free to use, so that the resulting releases can look and feel as professional as possible. To support the efforts of these contributors, Miskatonic Monday is an occasional series of reviews which will in turn examine an item drawn from the depths of the Miskatonic Repository.

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Name: Crappy Detour

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Phanzar

Setting: USA, Modern Day

Product: One shot
What You Get: Seventeen-page, 8.22 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds meets Call of Cthulhu

Plot Hook: A forced detour confronts the Investigators with a poopy situation

Plot Support: Staging advice, five pre-generated Investigators, five handouts, one map, four Mythos spells, one Mythos tome, and three Mythos monsters.

Production Values: Decent

Pros

# A terrible pun rather than a case of nominative determinism

# Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds writ large

# Decent map

# Easy to prepare

# Easy to adjust to other times and places

# Customisable Investigators

# Ornithophobia

# Coprophobia

# Pteronophobia

Cons

# A terrible pun rather than a case of nominative determinism

# Needs an edit

# No floorplans

# Sadly, no phobia of Afred Hitchcock

Conclusion

# Obvious pastiche that is not as bad as it sounds

# Decent one-shot that rises above nominative determinism

Cannibals in the Cold

Achtung! Cthulhu is the roleplaying game of fast-paced pulp action and Mythos magic published by Modiphius Entertainment. It is pitches the Allied Agents of the Britain’s Section M, the United States’ Majestic, and the brave Resistance into a Secret War against those Nazi Agents and organisations which would command and entreat with the occult and forces beyond the understanding of mankind. They are willing to risk their lives and their sanity against malicious Nazi villains and the unfathomable gods and monsters of the Mythos themselves, each striving for supremacy in mankind’s darkest yet finest hour! Yet even the darkest of drives to take advantage of the Mythos is riven by differing ideologies and approaches pandering to Hitler’s whims. The Black Sun consists of Nazi warrior-sorcerers supreme who use foul magic and summoned creatures from nameless dimensions to dominate the battlefields of men, whilst Nachtwölfe, the Night Wolves, utilise technology, biological enhancements, and wunderwaffen (wonder weapons) to win the war for Germany. Ultimately, both utilise and fall under the malign influence of the Mythos, the forces of which have their own unknowable designs…

Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Operation Snowstorm is a scenario that takes Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20 back to North America, but not the Mid-West USA of Achtung! Cthulhu Mission: Seventh-Inning Slaughter!. Instead, the action is in British Columbia, Canada, and involves agents of Majestic rather than Section M. The scenario is intended to be set late in the war after the USA has become involved, but does not specify a year. It is designed for mid-level play by a group of experienced Agents and the author notes that the scenario is intentionally deadly, so advises that players might not want to play it using their primary Agents. However, the scenario does not include any guidance as to what character types might be useful or appropriate, nor does it include any pre-generated Agents ready to play. This is a major oversight, since the location of the scenario in western Canada means that it is actually not that easy to get existing Agents there, let alone the fact that it is suggested that they not be used at all. This makes it difficult to add to an ongoing campaign. As ever, a good mix of skills and abilities will be required to overcome the threats in the scenario, but given the physical and environmental nature of the scenario, every Agent should have some combat skills and some survival skills too. Mechanical or technical skills as well as scientific knowledge will also be useful. This is effectively a one-shot scenario, one that will probably take two to three sessions to play through given its focus on combat. Decent sized floor plans of the outpost are provided. They could be used to play out the likely multiple combats that will take place during the scenario using miniatures if the Game Master and players want to.

The Agents’ mission is to travel to Majestic Research Outpost Epsilon-3, which lies a few miles outside of the town of Dunley in British Columbia. Recently, communication has been lost with the outpost, which the Agents’ bosses suspects is due to the severe blizzard which has settled on the area. The Agents are to re-establish contact and assess the current status of the research being conducted there. If there are no problems, then they only have to report back to headquarters. If there are issues, they are ordered to extract the research and return it to headquarters. Of course, this is a scenario for Achtung! Cthulhu, so there are going to be problems.

Those problems begin as soon as the Agents leave Dunley. Having outfitted themselves with weapons and cold weather gear, they must trek their way through the snow and up the side of the mountain where Majestic Research Outpost Epsilon-3 is sited. This is a bit of slog in and out of game. Multiple tests of the Survival (Orienteering) and Athletics (Physical Training) are required to get through the checkpoints representing the journey, which is expected to take just under three hours. Plus, after every hour, a Resilience test is required to avoid both fatigue and further coming under the ‘Influence’, the latter a complication due to the supernatural nature of the blizzard. Mishaps can cause delays, but Momentum can be spent to reduce the time it takes between each checkpoint and potentially reduce the overall time the journey takes and the number of Resilience tests the players have to make for their Agents. After a combat encounter, the players have the choice of a longer, safer way, which will mean further Resilience tests are required, a quicker, but potentially deadly route involving a climb up a cliff…

The aim of the ‘Influence’ is to inflict a growing hunger upon the Agents. This cannot be satisfied by any obvious means and will continue to inflict fatigue losses throughout the scenario. Worse, if an Agent is overcome by ‘Insatiable Hunger’, he will immediately attack the nearest living person—NPC or player Agent—and attempt to chow down on them! In other words, the Agent has been turned into a cannibal, and guess what has happened to the men and women assigned to Majestic Research Outpost Epsilon-3?

After an encounter the ‘Influenced’, the Agents can get into Majestic Research Outpost Epsilon-3. Inside, it is quickly clear that whatever research is being conducted has been disrupted. There are bloody bodies and signs of a desperate fight everywhere, but eventually the Agents will find a lone survivor, a French scientist working for Majestic. It should be obvious that both the scientist and whatever research survives needs to be evacuated. However, as the Agents are chased back down the mountain, help appears in the form of a team of indigenous people’s Pathfinder Demon Hunters, who have been hunting the Wendigo that now stalk the area. Once the fight is over, the Pathfinder Demon Hunters have a demand of the scientist and the Agents. It turns out the research being conducted was on artefacts taken from a nearby dig site that the staff at Majestic Research Outpost Epsilon-3 had recently excavated. The Pathfinder Demon Hunters warn the Agents that unless the artefacts are returned, the Prescence locked within the mountain will be unleashed and the blizzard will spread unchecked across the whole of North America. So, the Agents have a choice to make…

The scenario will end with either the Agents working with the Pathfinder Demon Hunters and saving the world or fighting the Pathfinder Demon Hunters and getting away with the research and so not saving the world. The latter is probably campaign ending as the blizzard keeps spreading and spreading, but the scenario does suggest the possibility of the greatest conflict in world history being turned on its head as all sides involved in the war suddenly must work together to defeat a new enemy which threatens everyone. This is of course left unexplored, but as a new campaign direction, it has interesting potential.

Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Operation Snowstorm is a combat-focused scenario, one that is both straightforward and unless the players are new to the genre of Lovecraftian investigative horror, obvious in its choice of threat. There are points where there are opportunities to roleplay, but only a few and the choice presented to the Agents towards the end of the scenario is not an overly difficult one. One way in which greater roleplaying opportunities could have been added and perhaps the choice made more difficult is if the scenario had included a set of pre-generated Agents, complete with backgrounds tied to the situation in the scenario and to each other. This could have added tension and scope for roleplaying. Again, this is a missed opportunity, especially for what is effectively, a one-shot scenario.

Physically, Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Operation Snowstorm is well presented. It is decently written and the floorplans of Majestic Research Outpost Epsilon-3 are more than workable. There is no area map and the scenario is not illustrated.

Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Operation Snowstorm is unsophisticated in its plotting and obvious in its choice of threat, as well as being combat-focused and physical in nature. This does not mean that it is terrible scenario, but rather as decently done as it is, it could have been all the better with some good pre-generated Agents tied into the scenario’s plot and each other.