The Devil in the Dreamlands

Since the publication of Call of Cthulhu in 1981, the Mythos has proliferated into numerous other genres and roleplaying games, including the fantasy of Dungeons & Dragons. For example, Wizards of the Coast published Call of Cthulhu d20 in 2001, whilst Realms of Crawling Chaos from Goblinoid Games explored the Mythos for the Old School Renaissance. More recently, Petersen Games presented the entities, races, gods, and spells of the Mythos for Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, enabling the Dungeon Master to bring those elements of cosmic horror in her fantasy campaign. What though, about using Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition to run campaigns involving cosmic horror in the more modern periods normally associated with Lovecraftian investigative roleplaying—much like Wizards of the Coast did with Call of Cthulhu d20? For that, there is Whispers in the Dark from Saturday Morning Scenarios, also the publisher of Harper’s Tale: A Forest Adventure Path for 5e, a campaign for Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, suitable for a younger or family audience. Whispers in the Dark is definitely not, being a horror setting in which stalwart Investigators confront the forces of the Mythos or ‘Yog-Sothothery’, and do not always succeed or come away unscathed—physically or mentally. The starting point is Whispers in the Dark: Quickstart Rules for 5e, and although there is not yet a full roleplaying rulebook for Whispers in the Dark, there is a combined setting and novel.

Horror in the Windy City: A Whispers in the Dark Setting and its novella, The Devil’s City, which explore the early history of the city of Chicago through its rise and explosive growth to prominence as an important trade and transport hub on the Great Lakes to the World’s Columbian Exposition, the most influential world’s fair in history in 1893 and the horrors which would be revealed within the walls of the World’s Fair Hotel at the hands of Herman Webster Mudgett, also known as H.H. Holmes, arguably America’s first and most notorious serial killer. Inspired by Eric Larson’s The Devil in the White City, the novella serves as a prequel ‘Welcome to my Parlour’, introducing the reader to the five pre-generated Investigators who one-by-one fall prey to Mudgett’s dark desires and those of his master, Atlach-Nacha. It is dark and ghoulish piece, which can be read on its own, but should really be read by each of the five players in readiness to roleplay through the scenario. And of course, the Game Master should also read it as part of her preparation to run it. Overall, it sets the tone for the scenario, which like the novella, combines elements of both survival and body horror. Neither the novella nor the supplement are for the faint-hearted.

Horror in the Windy City: A Whispers in the Dark Setting opens with ‘People of Color in Late 19th Century America’, an essay written by Doctor Robert Greene II, Assistant Professor of History at Claflin University to share the perspective of those African Americans who were resident in Chicago and helped to build the city. It is accompanied by biographies of the leading Black figures of the period, including Frederick Douglas, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Nancy Green. No character write-ups are provided of these figures by intention, but the essay encourages a Game Master to use them and the lives of Black Chicagoans to add veracity to her game. Unfortunately, as interesting as the essay is, the authors of the supplement do not support it with scenario hooks and advice, which is a missed opportunity and would have helped a Game Master develop the veracity that Doctor Greene II suggests is possible. One interesting involvement of the leading figures profiled here is that they and other African American activists protested at the lack of an African American pavilion at the World’s Columbian Exposition, but again, this is not something that the authors of the supplement support.

There are plenty of scenario hooks throughout the rest of Horror in the Windy City: A Whispers in the Dark Setting. As it progresses through the founding and history of the city, covering in turn the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, the founding of Montgomery Ward, the first mail order catalogue in 1872, the Unsightly Beggar Law of 1881, and more. Of course, this includes the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893. This is almost the centrepiece of the supplement, and so is explored in some detail. This includes write-ups for many of the figures involved in the event, including its architect, Daniel Burnham, Harry Houdini who performed there, William ‘Buffalo Bill’ Cody and Annie Oakley of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West & Congress of Rough Riders of the World, which also performed there, but was not associated with the event. Numerous tents are placed along the Midway for Investigators attending the World’s Columbian Exposition to encounter and enter, experiencing bright, sometimes strange proprietors and incidences in an almost carnival-like atmosphere, including cockroach races and the Light of Ra. These are more odd than Mythos.

The various districts and places of the city are presented, including Lake Michigan and the Chicago River, the Yard which form its meatpacking district, Bubbly Creek, a foul, bubbling arm of the Chicago River, Cabbage Patch or Old Town with its St. Michael’s Church built as a haven for German immigrants, and Lincoln Park with its zoo, before expanding out to the surrounding states. However, as interesting as these descriptions are, they lack geographical context as the period maps are too small to use effectively. Numerous organisations—clubs, cults, and coteries are detailed, which can become allies, enemies, and even patrons. They include the Nightworms, dedicated to the preservation, protection, and provision of books of all kinds; the Whitechapel Club, the informal counterpart to the social club of the Chicago Press Club, fascinated with some of the ghoulish incidents its members have reported on; and the Black Star Society, dedicated to spreading the influence of the Yellow Sign. Some of these are aware of the strangeness going on in the city, most are not. The various gangs and organised crime is given a similar treatment, the Italian mob in particular.

Although several of the story hooks in Horror in the Windy City: A Whispers in the Dark Setting hint at the Mythos, the supplement is not a full treatment of its presence in the city and there is no overview of it in the city. Notable inclusions include the Grobowskis, a pack of Ghouls which police the Yard district with an iron for both mundane and Mythos incidents, and the Chicago Athletic Association, a private club whose inner circle worship Ithaqua and spread his worship through tonics of disreputable source that enhance the athleticism of other members. Its treatment gets fully underway with how parts of the city have influenced the Dreamlands—Abattoir Fields, an unsettling hunting ground overcast with rusty brown, bruised clouds and smelling of copper created by the slaughter of animals in the stockyards; the Conflagration—a land of smouldering rubble and whirling ash created by the Great Fire of 1871; and of course, the World’s Fair Hotel, its presence dedicated and reinforced to Atlach-Nacha by Mudgett. In return, the Dreamlands intrudes into the mundane world, especially in the World’s Fair Hotel.

Besides the main scenario, ‘Welcome to my Parlour’, Horror in the Windy City: A Whispers in the Dark Setting includes a story arc and a campaign jump-start. The story arc, ‘Hot Night in the Olde Town’ is a tale of gang revenge which begins with a bombing, whilst ‘Procurements & Acquisitions’ is the campaign jump-start. The Investigators are hired by a Chinese man to locate some artefacts that he cannot due to the difficulty of manoeuvring in American society and the racism he faces. The set-up can be tied into the organisations previously described as well as Mudgett and the World’s Fair Hotel, and gives the starting point from which the Game Master can develop further using the material in the supplement.

The main feature in Horror in the Windy City: A Whispers in the Dark Setting is the ‘World’s Fair Hotel’, its ‘Hotel Staff’—including Mudgett and his co-conspirators, and the scenario, ‘Welcome to my Parlour’. The hotel itself is extensively mapped and detailed, there being some eighty locations across three storeys and the basement. The ground floor consists of retail premises, a hotel on the first floor, and Mudgett’s rooms and other facilities on the third, whilst in the basement, nastier rooms can be found. Extensive descriptions are given of its ordinary rooms, strange locks, chutes, extensive secret doors, odd plumbing, locked rooms which cannot be opened from the inside—some airtight, others connected to pipes which pump gas into the room, surgical tables, acid vats, hanging rooms, and more. The descriptions are clearly marked in red, whilst throughout sidebars discuss other features and rules, such as the infamous lockable chute which delivers bodies from the top floor to the basement, gambling, and the intrusion of the Dreamlands into the hotel. It is its own little world, a murder hotel in which the supernaturally enhanced Mudgett sees all and controls much, and into which the authors want to drive the Investigators…

The scenario, ‘Welcome to my Parlour’, is best played using the given pre-generated Investigators whose backgrounds have been presented in the novella, The Devil’s City. They are Fourth Level Player Characters, each of whom has fallen prey to Mudgett’s predations and awake to find themselves trapped in the basement of their hotel. They must face their own nightmares as well as the horrors of the hotel, and perhaps may learn of their captor’s secrets before they can escape. Essentially, ‘Welcome to my Parlour’ presents another way of approaching the set-up of the hotel and its murderous proprietor, one that confronts the Investigators with the existence of the Mythos much earlier on and more directly than the options elsewhere in the supplement. The scenario is likely to take two or three sessions to play through at most, and leaves what comes next up to the Game Master.

The scenario, whose title references Mudgett’s arachnid master, includes and highlights a number of trigger warnings, including body horror, child ghosts, torture devices, forceful imprisonment, human experimentation, cannibalism, and emotional abuse. This is appropriate and there is no denying the number of strong subjects and themes entailed in ‘Welcome to My Parlour’, but there is potentially another issue with the scenario, that of using the Mythos in this fashion. In other words, using it to explain Mudgett’s monstrous crimes. This is not uncommon in Lovecraftian investigative horror set in the nineteenth century, especially when it comes to the use of Jack the Ripper (and also Sherlock Holmes), the use of which is simply trite. The use of Mudgett and the World’s Fair Hotel does not feel that, primarily because the subject matter is unfamiliar, but that still leaves the matter of using the Mythos in conjunction with both. Fortunately, Horror in the Windy City: A Whispers in the Dark Setting does not employ the Mythos to explain or provide a possible excuse for Mudgett’s crimes, but rather has the Mythos take advantage of someone who is already a monster and exacerbates his true nature. Of course, running and playing a campaign set in Chicago at the time of the World’s Columbian Exposition means it is difficult to avoid Mudgett and the World’s Fair Hotel, nevertheless,  both the Game Master and her players may want to be aware of the nature of the crimes before beginning play.

Rounding out Horror in the Windy City: A Whispers in the Dark Setting is a quartet of appendices. For the Game Master there is ‘Welcome to My Parlour Statblocks’; a ‘Gamemaster’s Toolbox’ of Hit Dice, Creature Size, and Challenge Ratings; a list of ‘Publications of the 19th Century’ and ‘Patent Medication Names’; and the ‘World’s Fair Hotel Maps’. For the players it includes ‘The Devil’s City Pre-gens’—the five pre-generated Investigators for the scenario, ‘Welcome to My Parlour’ and ‘New Investigator Options’, which adds a new Ancestry in form of Tcho-Tcho, new Backgrounds including Athlete, Explorer, Religious Scholar, and Teamster, new Feats, and a new Alignment system. The latter switches from the traditional ‘law versus chaos’ and ‘good versus evil’ axes to ‘good versus evil’, ‘order versus chaos’, and ‘selfless versus selfish’. A Player Character typically has one or two of these, and can add another as a result of a major, usually traumatic, life event. Each axis is a scale, designed to provide a player some flexibility in how his Investigator reacts and changes over time. A player is expected to write a narrative description of his Investigator’s Alignment, again providing a player with greater flexibility in how he portrays his Investigator. Although the five pre-generated Investigators are nicely presented, they could have done with clearer backgrounds for players who have not necessarily read The Devil’s City.

Physically, Horror in the Windy City: A Whispers in the Dark Setting is a well-presented book. The artwork is decent and the maps excellent. It could have done with an index, and in places the writing could have been clearer. The organisation does not always feel logical either, the Mythos sitting alongside the mundane at times when it feels it should have been placed later in the book. In places it feels as if the content has been developed in fits and starts, like Kickstarter stretch goals, and whilst everything seems to have good reason to be in the book, it feels fragmented in places.

Horror in the Windy City: A Whispers in the Dark Setting is not the definitive supplement for Chicago during the nineteenth century or the World’s Columbian Exposition, whether for Whispers in the Dark or Cthulhu by Gaslight. Which leaves the problem of quite identifying what it actually is, because its focus is ultimately not on the city itself and the great events of World’s Columbian Exposition, but rather on the World’s Fair Hotel, Herman Webster Mudgett, and the scenario, ‘Welcome to my Parlour’, as well as supporting it with encounters and campaign frameworks which lead back to the World’s Fair Hotel. So it feels like three books—one devoted to Chicago, one to the World’s Columbian Exposition, and very much the largest one to the World’s Fair Hotel, Herman Webster Mudgett, and the scenario, ‘Welcome to my Parlour’—rather than just a single, large book. It does not help that there is no real overview of Chicago in 1893—mundane or Mythos related, no clear, easy to use map of the city, and as well-intentioned as the opening essay ‘People of Color in Late 19th Century America’ is, it is disappointing that as upfront as it is, the supplement just does not bring that into play.

There is a lot to like about Horror in the Windy City: A Whispers in the Dark Setting. The authors provide plenty of information, scenario hooks, and playable content for Chicago, describe the World’s Fair Hotel and Herman Webster Mudgett in ghoulish detail, and present multiple means to bring the Investigators to his murder hotel, but the supplement only feels like a whole sourcebook when it focuses in on World’s Fair Hotel, Herman Webster Mudgett, and the scenario, ‘Welcome to my Parlour’. More of a scenario and a potential campaign set-up, Horror in the Windy City: A Whispers in the Dark Setting needs the hands of an experienced Game Master to develop it into something more than that.

Whispers from the Dark Side

Since the publication of Call of Cthulhu in 1981, the Mythos has proliferated into numerous other genres and roleplaying games, including the fantasy of Dungeons & Dragons. For example, Wizards of the Coast published Call of Cthulhu d20 in 2001, whilst Realms of Crawling Chaos from Goblinoid Games explored the Mythos for the Old School Renaissance. More recently, Petersen Games presented the entities, races, gods, and spells of the Mythos for Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, enabling the Dungeon Master to bring those elements of cosmic horror in her fantasy campaign. What though, about using Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition to run campaigns involving cosmic horror in the more modern periods normally associated with Lovecraftian investigative roleplaying—much like Wizards of the Coast did with Call of Cthulhu d20? For that, there is Whispers in the Dark from Saturday Morning Scenarios, also the publisher of Harper’s Tale: A Forest Adventure Path for 5e, a campaign for Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, suitable for a younger or family audience. Whispers in the Dark is definitely not, being a horror setting in which stalwart Investigators confront the forces of the Mythos or ‘Yog-Sothothery’, and do not always succeed or come away unscathed—physically or mentally. The starting point is Whispers in the Dark: Quickstart Rules for 5e.

Whispers in the Dark: Quickstart Rules for 5e requires the Player’s Handbook to run and play. Other than that, it provides the Game Master with everything she needs to get started. This includes rules for Player Character generation, equipment, adjusted rules for damage, healing, resting, and lingering injuries, madness and sanity, a set of pre-generated Investigators, and a lengthy scenario set in 1875 in New Orleans. The setting is thus our world, but of course, one beset by cosmic threats from beyond and those that would foolishly entreat with them. Using the Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition mechanics means that Investigators in Whispers in the Dark will look like their fantasy counterparts. However, there are differences. First, an Investigator does not have a Race in the traditional sense, since all Investigators are Human, or appear so. Instead they have an Ancestry, of which three are provided in Whispers in the Dark: Quickstart Rules for 5e—Human, Human (Lengian), and Human (Deep Blooded), the latter two of which tie a Player Character into the Mythos itself. For example, an Investigator with the Human (Deep Blooded) Ancestry, has Darkvision, Deep Ancestry—which enables the Investigator to hold his breath for hours, Deep Connections—which potentially grants the Investigator Deep One contacts in any coastal town or city, and speaks Aklo, but is Monstrous, suffering a penalty to Persuasion checks. Instead of a Class, an Investigator has a Background, a profession or calling, such as Antiquarian or Hobo, which provide Skill, Tool, Weapon, and Saving Throw Proficiencies, and more. Feats such as Ardent Scholar, Gifted Healer, and Whimpering Minion add further colour and flavour to Investigators. Where in Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition a Player Character will gain new features as he acquires Levels, an Investigator can acquire new skills, languages, tools, weapons, feats, and so on. The maximum Level in Whispers in the Dark: Quickstart Rules for 5e is tenth Level.

Henry Brinded
First Level Antiquarian
Medium Humanoid (Lengian)
Armor Class 11
Hit Points 5
Speed 30 ft.

Strength 08 (-1) Dexterity 13 (+1) Constitution 12 (+1)
Intelligence 16 (+3) Wisdom 10 (-0) Charisma 17 (+3)

Sanity: 18 (+)

Saving Throws: Charisma, Intelligence, (Advantage versus spells and other magical effects)
Skills: Arcana +5, History +5, Investigation +5, Persuasion +5, Sleight of Hand +3
Proficiencies: Arcana, History, Investigation, Persuasion, Sleight of Hand, Simple Weapons, Intelligence, Charisma
Languages: Egyptian Hieroglyphs, English, French, Greek, Latin, Leng
Savings: $1000
Income: $600/month
Equipment: A set of fine clothes, a notebook, several pencils, and collection of curiosities

Whispers in the Dark offers a number of options for making skill checks, including training being required in an Intelligence-based skill to avoid rolling at a Disadvantage, and always making the roll of one on a twenty-sided die, always a failure. These though are optional rules, whereas, there are plenty in Whispers in the Dark which are not. These include making healing more realistic, so Short Rests at eight hours and Long Rests at seven consecutive days, during which an Investigator will be doing little except sleep and rest, will make most players reconsider rushing into action as they might once of have done in their Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition games. An Investigator reduced to zero Hit Points or less, must make Death Saves as per Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, the Difficulty Class is twelve rather than ten, but the Investigator can be stabilised with a successful Medicine skill check—unlike in Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition where the Medicine skill is of little use given that a Cleric can cast healing magic, it assumes a much greater prominence in Whispers in the Dark. In addition, if the Investigator does survive, his player will have to roll on the ‘Lingering Injuries Table’, which may mean, for example, that he has a ‘Lost Eye’ and so is at a permanent disadvantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight and on ranged weapon attacks.

The three omissions in Whispers in the Dark: Quickstart Rules for 5e are that it does not do magic, though it hints at its nature in a word beset by Yog-Sothothery, and it does not include any Mythos creatures or entities and it does not list any Mythos tomes. This though is fine, it after all, being a quick-start rather than the full rules. It does include rules for Sanity and Madness, just as you would expect for a roleplaying game of Lovecraftian investigative horror. Every Investigator has a Sanity Score, equal to his Charisma plus Wisdom modifier. The resulting score provides a modifier just an Investigator’s primary abilities. This modifier is applied to all Sanity checks, which will be against a Difficulty Class set by the Game Master, triggered by discovering ‘Forbidden Knowledge’ in a Mythos tome, encountering ‘Unspeakable Horrors’, ‘Mind-Numbing Terror’, ‘Primal Fear’, and ‘Brushes With Death’, the latter being when an Investigator is reduced to zero Hit Points. Unlike other ability scores, an Investigator’s Sanity Score can fluctuate up and down—mostly down. There are two consequences to this. The first is that of course, an Investigator’s Sanity modifier can also fluctuate up and down—mostly down. The second is that a player will also need to track his Investigator’s Sanity Score as it fluctuates up and down.

When an Investigator does fail a Sanity check, the amount lost is always determined by a roll of a four-sided idea—and doubled if the Sanity check is a fumble. As is traditional in Lovecraftian investigative roleplaying, Sanity loss is a downward spiral, once an Investigator having lost Sanity, the harder it is to succeed at a Sanity check, so the greater the likelihood of losing Sanity, and so on and so on. Whilst Sanity loss spirals downward, the effect of the loss spirals upward. In addition to the point loss, the Investigator suffers a bout of Madness, for example the Investigator loses sight while his mind processes the weirdness before him (and is effectively blind for a Turn) or his stomach churns and rumbles as her body reacts to the unnatural scene before him (and is effectively Poisoned for a few Rounds). The first bout of Madness is termed a ‘transient episode’, which lasts until the end of the encounter that triggered the Madness, but if an Investigator loses Sanity whilst in this ‘transient episode’, the ‘transient episode’ escalates into ‘short-term episode’ and last until the Investigator has had a Short Rest. If the Investigator loses further Sanity whilst in this ‘short-term episode’ or loses half of his Sanity, the bout becomes a ‘long-term episode’, which requires weeks of downtime to recover. It is also possible to recover Sanity loss between adventures. Lastly, indefinite Madness occurs when an Investigator’s Sanity is reduced to a quarter of her maximum Sanity and that cannot be cured, short of a wish spell or divine intervention. Here then is another marked difference between Whispers in the Dark and the archetypal roleplaying games of Lovecraftian investigative horror—the possibility of recovery from indefinite madness and the existence of the Wish spell! Divine intervention is always possible—typically at the hands of Nyarlathotep—but at a cost.

Whispers in the Dark: Quickstart Rules for 5e comes with a beginning scenario, ‘The Crow Road’. Intended for Investigators of First and Second Level, this is set in and around the French Quarter in New Orleans in 1875 during the period of Reconstruction following the American Civil War. As the city suffers a rash of gruesome murders—murders which echo the Jack the Ripper kills in London a decade or so later—the Investigators are engaged to look into the deaths. Either because they come across one of the bodies after a night out in the French Quarter or because the local police consults them for their expertise with the outré. Built around combination of a number of timed encounters over the course of a few days and particular locations, this is not obviously an investigation into the Mythos a la Lovecraft, but long-time devotees of the Mythos and Call of Cthulhu will recognise the scenario’s links to the Mythos. ‘The Crow Road’ is an engaging scenario, nicely organised, especially the way in which the clues are arranged, and will take two or three sessions to complete. It will need a bit of careful preparation upon the part of the Game Master given its structure. The scenario is supported by a short guide to New Orleans and six pre-generated Investigators, all Second Level and all pleasingly detailed and encompassing a solid range of skills and backgrounds. Of course, players are free to create their own Investigators using the rules presented in Whispers in the Dark: Quickstart Rules for 5e to play ‘The Crow Man’.

Throughout Whispers in the Dark: Quickstart Rules for 5e there are notes for the Game Master. These do note the issues with H.P. Lovecraft, but in the main they highlight the differences between Whispers in the Dark: Quickstart Rules for 5e and Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition. These being that there no dungeons or fantastical creatures, and violence has consequences in that it might land the Investigators in gaol. Instead, play relies on finding and interpreting clues, rather than on going toe-to-toe with the threats behind the mysteries inherent to the setting.

Physically, Whispers in the Dark: Quickstart Rules for 5e is presented in full colour and engaging fashion. Many of the new rules presented in Whispers in the Dark: Quickstart Rules for 5e are highlighted in red to make it easy for the Game Master to spot them. The artwork varies in quality though, and if ‘The Crow Road’ scenario is missing anything, it is a map of New Orleans.

Mechanically, the tone in Whispers in the Dark: Quickstart Rules for 5e is very different to that of Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition. Fundamentally, Investigators are frail—mentally and physically—in comparison to the heroes of Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition. Play is radically shifted to investigation and interaction, the emphasis on combat greatly reduced. There is a sense of the Whispers in the Dark setting being more fantastical than traditional Lovecraftian investigative horror in the mention of the Wish spell, but that will have to wait until the full roleplaying game.

Whispers in the Dark: Quickstart Rules for 5e is a crossover title, designed to attract players of Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition into Lovecraftian investigative horror with its familiarity of mechanics. It is not though, a crossover title in the other direction. Players of Call of Cthulhu or Trail of Cthulhu are far less likely to use Whispers in the Dark: Quickstart Rules for 5e as a stepping-stone into playing Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition. They might want to play ‘The Crowman’ because it is an investigative horror scenario and it is set during a period rarely visited in other Lovecraftian investigative horror roleplaying games. Another option would be to adapt ‘The Crowman’ to those Lovecraftian investigative horror roleplaying games, but the period setting of Whispers in the Dark: Quickstart Rules for 5e suggests another possibility. It feels reminiscent of Masque of the Red Death and Other Tales, the Gothic Earth setting published by TSR, Inc. for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Second Edition in 1994. Perhaps it could be used in conjunction with that setting, especially with the forthcoming Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft for Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition.

As an introduction to Lovecraftian investigative horror, Whispers in the Dark: Quickstart Rules for 5e more than ably makes the shift over from Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, making it easy for players of the world’s most popular roleplaying game to make that shift too. Players of other roleplaying games of Lovecraftian investigative horror may find the shift towards Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition a little more difficult to adjust to, but either way, the players of both games will find ‘The Crowman’ an entertaining and horrifying scenario, one which definitely deserves a sequel.