|
Barad The Dwarf
Belgium
De Haan
Got some sanity left?
Come over to the RPGG Tavern, I buy you a drink.
-
Arkham: Unveiling of the legend haunted city (what’s in a name) is a reprint and reworking of the supplement that came out 13 years before: Arkham Unveiled. The book focuses on Arkham Massachusetts and gives the players a good idea of the 1920’s town of Arkham, it’s building, surrounding and inhabitants.
The book starts of with a small introduction to Lovecraftian country and Arkham in particular and then threats the reader on the HP Lovecraft short story ‘The Dreams in the Witch House’. And then the actual book begins for the game, a bit of history and introduction in general and some special rules to keep in mind when in Arkham. An example is how a loan is gotten in this time, the credit rating importance, finding jobs, houses for your investigators, … And then the book quickly turns over to the most important fact the actual guide to Arkham. After this you will also be given 4 new scenarios and to finish it off a couple of appendixes containing more info over spells, the d20 system and the player handouts for the scenario’s.
Also interesting to know is that the book is made for the dual systems that are generally used for a Cthulhu campaign: BRP Call of Cthulhu rules and D20 Cthulhu. Well good and bad because, okay it’s a good move by the publisher to put it all in one book. On the other hand when you use one system you need to read about the one you don’t use as well.
So in the first part off the book you quickly find yourself flipping through the pages to the town and it’s neighbourhoods: Northside, Downtown, East – Town, Merchant District, River Town, Campus, French Hill, Uptown, Lower Southside and The Outskirts. Each neighbourhood has it’s own chapter in which all the important building are listed and explained one by one, plus the inhabitants or monsters that live or dwell in this place. This is really a very very good source book just for this. It makes Arkham alive, it tells little stories it gives a keeper ideas to use when he runs adventures in Arkham. It gives you places to start, places to live, it can set up something that will happen in a couple off months without the investigators even suspecting it. This part of the book is so great, I just love leafing through it from time to time and read a bit in it. I haven’t yet read all the entries in the book and I won’t do this any time soon but I find it a real comfort to have the book and just look stuff up as I need it. It helps you get a better view around the town, I already had to introduce a couple of new investigators and now I can actually give them real information: in which library the librarian works, who are the bookstore owners competition in town, what kind of books is he specialized in and what do the other offer? All is information that I could have come up with myself but having it in the book makes it A. much more authentic and B. much easier for me a as a keeper. So this is a great part of the book and for me the main reason I bought this book and I didn’t complain about it. You will also find a couple of plans in the book showing where each of the buildings in general. Because each building has a number and this appears on the plan. A big part off course is used for the university: M.U. and is very fun to read.
Then you also get 4 scenario’s in the book:
The Books of Uncle Silas
A good scenario to start your players of if they haven’t played CoC before. The adventure however is a bit simple for more experienced players and it needs a bit of conversion for it to work for them. In the adventure one of the players gets an inheritance, a house and it’s belongings in Arkham (an excellent way to get your characters there). However the house and it’s belongings are in bad condition and getting rid of all the useless clutter it seems you have sold off a couple of real mythos books. Books your family swore to protect, but alas they only told you when it was to late. It’s up to you and your friends to stop the threat.
The Hills rise Wild
In this adventure the group is called upon by the university staff to help recover a piece of meteorite that hit the surrounding lands in the last night. The group heads out with a sector to search but will find much more then they want to find. I think this is a bit hard to play as a game, especially with a suspecting group like mine. They tend to distrust one as soon as they see them and in this case the scenario won’t work I think. In whole it’s a good scenario though but not for my group.
The Condemned
The best scenario in the book and since I run it, one of the most fun ones to run. A man comes in to town, they all know him he is a student. However his friend with who he was on a camping trip is killed and the man doesn’t remember a thing. Well that’s what they think. In fact he is a undying sorcerer that once was trapped in a stone bridge and is free. Free again he shed himself of his old body and mind transferred in the body of the student. He is willing to take vengeance on the descendants of the people that put him in the bridge. It’s a race against the clock to find clues as more and more people in town are dying. And he’s not the most easiest character to take out. Even staying in your house with a good book to read is not a safe option as one of my players discovered. An excellent adventure.
Dead of Night
A good scenario that will fit any group off players. As an old house is broken down a corpse if found in the basement but that’s not all that has been hiding there. Three zombie children are let loose in the world. It’s up to the players to stop them before they can do any real harm. A good adventure that one day I will possibly run for my group.
In the whole this makes an excellent supplement book for Call of Cthulhu or Cthulhu d20 for Arkham in the 1920’s. Almost every piece of information about the town you will find in this book and if you are playing there it’s a big help. Nex to all this there is also a map of Arkham and a Newspaper put in the book that you can tear out. They look nice but however I did not yet could get it over my heart to actually tear them out and damage the book.
-
|
|
|
Got some sanity left?
