Stunning Eldritch Tales Review
Feb 10, 2018 6:33:37 GMT
Post by markgraham on Feb 10, 2018 6:33:37 GMT
Hello,
Stunning Eldritch Tales is the first supplement for Trail of Cthulhu, and incorporates 4 short-ish scenarios: Devourers in the Mist, Shanghai Bullets, Death laughs last and Dimension Y. Each is illustrated by 3 or 4 attractive illustrations of various sizes, the text is easy to read and without printing errors. However, like many role-play books it does suffer from inadequate proof reading and has too many occasions on missing or incorrect word, and in one place a short passage of important game information is omitted. In its favour are the good handouts, which are available at the publishers website.
Many of the best scenarios anthologies are linked by a common theme. In the case of Stunning Eldritch Tales, it is an round up of the genres of Pulp Fiction, like Sci-Fi, and Man Vs Nature. Each of the Scenarios explores a different Genre, the first of Which is Devourers in the Mist. When I first read Trail of Cthulhu, I was intrigues by the "Spend" Mechanic whereby players have the option of expending their skills in return for superior successes or outcomes not attainable by people without those skills. Unfortunately, I didn't feel I had a firm grasp on how this would be implemented in a game setting, Devourers in the Mist is littered with examples of the effective use of this and I feel this has given a lot of pointers that will help any Keeper in this regard. The Scenario itself sees the Investigators stranded on a mysterious island and is something that I've seen a lot of people asking for on the boards - an interesting interlude that can be wedged into an ongoing campaign with a minimum of difficulty. It has an exciting, non linear format and some memorable scenes that should provoke ill ease amongst your players. It also includes a set of 7 pre-gens to enable easy play as a one-off or convention game and even specific tips for each style of game. For these reasons I feel this adventure has the potential to become the Iconic ToC Investigation and would have been an excellent inclusion in the main book.
Shanghai Bullets sees international espionage hijacks, and is an otherwise more traditional offering. It also contains several excellent pages providing useful information on Shanghai of the period - rather better information than is found in Masks of Nyarlathotep!
Death Laughs Last is an intriguing offering with a premise that some Keepers may feel does not fit the usual tone of a Cthulhu adventure- particularly a purist one. It is however possessed of a finally so utterly diseased and squirm inducing that I would urge you to consider running it anyway, perhaps as a one-off.
thanks
more details:
3D Animation pricing
Stunning Eldritch Tales is the first supplement for Trail of Cthulhu, and incorporates 4 short-ish scenarios: Devourers in the Mist, Shanghai Bullets, Death laughs last and Dimension Y. Each is illustrated by 3 or 4 attractive illustrations of various sizes, the text is easy to read and without printing errors. However, like many role-play books it does suffer from inadequate proof reading and has too many occasions on missing or incorrect word, and in one place a short passage of important game information is omitted. In its favour are the good handouts, which are available at the publishers website.
Many of the best scenarios anthologies are linked by a common theme. In the case of Stunning Eldritch Tales, it is an round up of the genres of Pulp Fiction, like Sci-Fi, and Man Vs Nature. Each of the Scenarios explores a different Genre, the first of Which is Devourers in the Mist. When I first read Trail of Cthulhu, I was intrigues by the "Spend" Mechanic whereby players have the option of expending their skills in return for superior successes or outcomes not attainable by people without those skills. Unfortunately, I didn't feel I had a firm grasp on how this would be implemented in a game setting, Devourers in the Mist is littered with examples of the effective use of this and I feel this has given a lot of pointers that will help any Keeper in this regard. The Scenario itself sees the Investigators stranded on a mysterious island and is something that I've seen a lot of people asking for on the boards - an interesting interlude that can be wedged into an ongoing campaign with a minimum of difficulty. It has an exciting, non linear format and some memorable scenes that should provoke ill ease amongst your players. It also includes a set of 7 pre-gens to enable easy play as a one-off or convention game and even specific tips for each style of game. For these reasons I feel this adventure has the potential to become the Iconic ToC Investigation and would have been an excellent inclusion in the main book.
Shanghai Bullets sees international espionage hijacks, and is an otherwise more traditional offering. It also contains several excellent pages providing useful information on Shanghai of the period - rather better information than is found in Masks of Nyarlathotep!
Death Laughs Last is an intriguing offering with a premise that some Keepers may feel does not fit the usual tone of a Cthulhu adventure- particularly a purist one. It is however possessed of a finally so utterly diseased and squirm inducing that I would urge you to consider running it anyway, perhaps as a one-off.
thanks
more details:
3D Animation pricing