Sample file Sample file Bayt al Azif َطب ٍعة ٢ ْ Issue 2 ذو القعدة August 2019 ۱٤٤۰ Table of Contents

Houses of the Unholy 2 Sacrifices 3 Cthulhu in 2018 — A Retrospective 5 by Dean Engelhardt Who Needs Lovecraft Country? — Why the Weimar 21 Republic is the Best Setting for Cthulhu Games by Ralf Sandfuchs False Friends (1920s scenario) 23 by Philipp Christophel and Ralf Sandfuchs Die Gesellschaft — An Interview with Cthulhus Ruf 35 Vintage RPG — Masks of Nyarlathotep 41 by Stu Horvath Sites of Antiquity — Temple of Melqart at Marat 47 by Jared Smith Nighted (19th century scenario) 49 by Ash DelVillan Adapting a Scenario — Our Ladies of Sorrow 67 by Lisa Padol Beasts of Gévaudan (1760s scenario) 79 by Bridgett Jeffries Cracking Adventures — An Interview with Lynne Hardy 91 “It is not dead which can eternal lie....” — 95 Game Review: Call of Cthulhu by J. Eric Holmes with commentary by Zach Howard Grave Spirits 98 by Evan Johnston Contributors 102

Cover Art: Jensine Eckwall Editor: Jared Smith The idea for Jensine Eckwall’s cover was inspired by a setting in Artists: Chris Holmes, Chris Schlicht, Edwin Gunn, one of Jensine’s favorite fiction podcasts, . In Ellen Levy, Ernst Rauch, Evan Johnston, Greg Steele, The Magnus Archives the show, the Archives have a storage room of mysterious artifacts, Gustave David, Jason Lutes, Jason Smith, Kelly Bastow, including a table engraved with an intricate pattern that hypnotizes Ludwig Lange, Matt Hoddy, Tyler Landry the viewer. Jensine put the investigator character (whose clothes Logo Design: Eileen Tjan of OTHER Studio are based on actual 1930s detective Mary Shanley’s) in a similar setting, captivated by a chest engraved with the symbol of the Playtesters: Andy Holmes, Byron Wingate, Denny Lewalk, Gate. The illustration style is influenced by Edward Jared Smith, Joe Procopio, Michelle Wingate, Robert Lambert, Gorey’s classic book covers for John Bellairs’ mystery novels. Thomas Arnott, Tyler Wingate

New issues of Bayt al Azif are published when the stars are right. for Bayt al Azif Sandy Petersen 1520 U Street NW who scribed the tome Washington, DC 20009, USA “I needed black horrors that would chill the minds [email protected] and blast the souls of the intrepid investigators” BaytAlAzif.com - SP, 1982

Bayt al Azif is © & ™ 2019 Bayt al Azif Inc. All rights reserved. All contents are © 2019 by their respective creators. Call of Cthulhu is the Registered Trademark of Inc. and is used with their permission under the terms of the Chaosium Small Publisher Limited License. chaosium.com Certain names, descriptions,Sample and depictions applied to this supplement are derived from works copyrighted by and include trademarks owned by Chaosium Inc., and may notfile be used or reused without permission. is a trademark of Ltd. This work uses elements of GUMSHOE SRD (found at pelgranepress.com/index.php/the-gumshoe-system-reference-document/ ), a product of Pelgrane Press, developed, written, and edited by Robin D. Laws with additional material by , and licensed for our use under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ ). All material not owned by Chaosium Inc. or under the license of Pelgrane Press is owned by Bayt al Azif and the respective authors. Any reproduction of material without written permission is strictly prohibited. بيت العزيف ٢ ٩٢-۱ ISBN-٩٧٨-۱-٩٤۰٣٩٨ Bayt al Azif 2 ISBN: 978-1-940398-92-1 First Edition Houses of the Unholy

really wasn’t sure what would happen when issue 1 came It’s a pleasure to welcome back several of our favorite sections out. Magazines are a rare thing these days, let alone new from last issue. First is the yearly review of Cthulhu RPG releases magazines. But on the other hand, the Cthulhu RPG world Cthulhu in 2018 by Dean Engelhardt, who could barely keep Ihas a very enthusiastic fan base, and there have been numerous well- up with everything that came out over the year. We also have the supported magazines over the years, including Vintage RPG reviews by Stu Horvath, who takes an overview of and Gazette that are still coming out today. The response to the evolution of a true Cthulhu RPG classic, Masks of Nyarlathotep. issue 1 was very heartening. People from many different corners of And Evan Johnston delivers part two of his increasingly creepy Grave the world have bought it, several people reviewed it, and some people Spirits comic. even posted about their play- throughs of scenarios. (Though We also speak to Lynne Hardy, who I still haven’t heard of anyone has worked on several Cthulhu successfully making it through my RPG projects over the years. Lisa solo adventure Overdue!) Padol, who has worked with just about everyone in the Cthulhu If you missed issue 1, Bayt al Azif RPG world, gives us a look at their is now available worldwide at adaptation of a Cthulhu scenario quality game stores through our for their home group. We also distribution partners Indie Press found a classic review of the Call Revolution at: of Cthulhu RPG soon after it came indiepressrevolution.com out. IPR carries a great selection of games, including quite a Some of your responses are in few Cthulhu RPGs. And if you Sacrifices on the next page, but purchase a print copy at your store, let us know what you think about you can get a free digital copy to this issue (and issue 1), it’s great to accompany it directly from your hear from you. If you particularly game store through the Bits and enjoy our magazine, please leave Mortar program at: a review or rating wherever you bits-and-mortar.com bought it, every little bit does make a difference. I asked last issue if there was any preference for a particular Finally, I’d like to give a special setting for our scenarios, and the thanks to our advertisers this response was mixed. There still issue, in particular Arc Dream seems to be a lot of support for Publishing, Golden Goblin Press, the “classic” 1920s era that was the H.P. Lovecraft Historical the default for the original Call of Society, and Sons of the Singularity, Cthulhu game, but many people all of whose support allowed us seemed to be open to anything. to have so many great artists Fittingly, this issue continues our contribute to this magazine. mixed trend with three scenarios in different times: Beasts of Until the stars are right once Gévaudan by Bridgett Jeffries, in more... late 18th century France, Nighted by Ash DelVillan, in turn of the century England, and False Friends by Philipp Christophel and Ralf Sandfuchs, in 1920s Germany. — Bayt is Arabic for house. After English-language publications, the largest amount of Call of Cthulhu RPG material is likely in German. In addition to foreign Bayt al Azif is the House of Insects. translations and original output from licensed publishers, Germany also boasts a robust fan community. The German Lovecraft Society Bayt al Azif is the House of Demons. caught mySample attention with their release of 10 (!) issues of their own file entirely fan-run Cthulhu RPG magazine, Cthulhus Ruf, so it was a Bayt al Azif is the House of Ignorance. real honor that they agreed to have some of their material translated here. I was also able to interview the magazine staff for some Bayt al Azif is the House of the Necronomicon. background on their impressive achievement. We will also have some further material in future issues. Welcome back, friends.

2 Bayt al Azif Sacrifices

Comments, questions, and feedback can be sent to: (just like described on the “How to Play” article). I really appreciated, and I hope to see more in the future, the Vintage RPG sections. Bayt al Azif My favourite time setting for CoC is the most classic, the 1920s, so 1520 U Street NW please publish more. And the solo adventures too!! Washington, DC 20009 USA The format and thickness of the issue are perfect and I hope it is [email protected] published as regularly as possible. — Keep up the great work!!

Hi! Matteo Boschetti Italy First of all, thank you for the great reading of issue 1 of Bayt al Azif. I stumbled upon it in Science Fiction Bokhandeln in Stockholm, — and was pleasantly surprised. (It’s one of the best RPG stores in

The Old Town of Stockholm. Perfectly suited as the backdrop of Hello Matteo, a Lovecraftian scenario...) I even got them to send me any coming issues of your prominent publication, which I hope will be many. I Thanks so much! Ah, I’m glad you started with The Haunting, it’s truly a loved The Unspeakable Oath in its day and your magazine seems to great tradition for new players and Keepers! (Including me, that was my first continue John Tynes’ legacy. Cthulhu game, too.) We’re lucky to have a new Vintage RPG article by Stu in this issue, the history of Cthulhu games is quite a long one and there are so Finally, a modest request: Could you possibly upload the handouts for many real classics out there, it’s hard to even discover them all. the scenarios on your homepage? A (unnumbered) map of Damascus for example, would be much appreciated! We have our first 1920s scenario in this issue, let us know if you play it. It seems like the 1920s is still very popular for games, but there’s a lot of other Cheers! interesting settings we hope to support, as you can see by the scenarios in this issue. I hope to have another solo scenario in the next issue as well (did you Torbjörn succeed in Overdue yet?). Sweden — —

Hi! Hi Torbjörn! I have bought number one and really liked it. Please keep me updated on the next issues / subscriptions. We are definitely inspired by The Unspeakable Oath, so it’s quite a great compliment to see us trying to live up to their example. I really enjoy the Thanks, new issues being published by Arc Dream, though I wish the older Pagan Alessandro Brunori Publishing issues could be reissued somehow. Italy Your suggestion on handouts is a great idea, I’ve added an extra download of — the handouts for each issue on the website and as part of a digital purchase.

Hi Alessandro, It’s great to see our magazine making it to Sweden! I’ve heard there’s a strong roleplaying community there, but I always like to hear more about how Thank you! (Now I’m very curious about the popularity of Cthulhu Mythos games are doing around the world. Please thank the Science RPGs in Italy.) As we said in the first issue, new issues will come out as Fiction Bokhandeln for us! quickly as we can. We don’t plan on offering subscriptions since we can’t guarantee a release schedule. The easiest way to be informed of what we are Skål! up to is to follow us on any of our social media sites. You can also follow us as a publisher on the drivethrurpg.com site if you purchase our issues on there. —

— Hello,

Dear Jared and Team, I am writingSample from Italy. I bought the first issue of Bayt al Azif on file Amazon and I wanna tell you it is AWESOME!! I am new to the I’m writing today to express my profound gratitude and world of RPGs but I’ve been a Lovecraft fan for long so CoC was a congratulations for your launch of Bayt al Azif. I’ve only been playing natural choice for me. Call of Cthulhu (and collecting Trail/) for a little over two years now but have been interested in Mythos Roleplaying Me (as a GM) and my friends started with the adventure The Haunting since I bought my copy of CoC 5.5 and the Investigator’s Companion 3 بيت العزيف in the early 2000s. I’ve been role-playing/GMing for 25+ years. My a huge fan of two-column-margin-to-margin. This thing is MEATY collection has grown exponentially since I started a regular CoC play and a great value for the price. There are published supplements that group over the last year. Over that time, I’ve been scouring past are routinely released that have double the page count with the same and present Mythos products for inspiration for running games. A amount of actual content as this magazine. The full color is nice too. standout disappointment for me has been in the fanzine realm for this game. No offense to other ‘zines that have been published, but My feedback for the future: none of them have really “done it” for me. Even the ones that have been classically well-reviewed. You’ve changed that for me. 1) Quality first. It doesn’t really matter to me how long it takes for you to bring out the next issue so long as the depth and breadth of The biggest aspect of Bayt al Azif that strikes me is the combination content and quality remains high. I’m patient. I’d rather wait for of breadth and depth. You’ve basically included it all, plus the kitchen something that matches this level of accomplishment again. If that’s sink, and done it with quality. The mixture of scenarios, reviews, a year-plus, I’m cool with that. I don’t know what your original plan interviews, letters, game aides, and artwork is extensive and well- was, but the big danger for any project in any field is trying to abide balanced. All coupled with relevant (and appreciated) advertising. by unrealistic expectations. I would fully accept two to three great scenarios (four here), one great review (two here), and two great Comments on the individual categories: interviews (three here), with the rest if it helps you find that balance.

Interviews: They are timely and breach critical issues in gaming. 2) I vastly prefer physical releases to PDF. It is nice to have the PDF Moving this hobby forward means accepting everyone into it. I’ve for handout printing purposes, but I wait until I have a physical book followed Chris Spivey’s work closely since Harlem Unbound hit and I in my hand to read in earnest. Bayt al Azif is what DriveThruRPG appreciate another place in which his voice is celebrated. I learned a was designed for. Please keep up your print relationship with them. great deal from Catherine Ramen, whom I’m ashamed to admit I had not heard of until now. On the flip of the coin, you’re introducing us 3) For scenarios, my wish list would be a Down Darker Trails to professionals that we need to hear from! I also appreciated to hear scenario to help Chaosium with interest in that setting and a Delta about Rogue Cthulhu’s successes. Green scenario. I would be perfectly happy with one or two 1920s scenarios as well. Once again, I honestly don’t care what era so long Letters: Please keep this feature at the front of every issue. The as the quality remains high. I recognize that you may not have the “old-style” Letters to the Editor feature in magazines is disappearing, publishing rights to release a DG scenario, so if that is off the table, I yet has historically been one of the best ways to celebrate differences understand. Wouldn’t it be cool if your mag became known for a wide in fan opinions without the caustic back-and-forth of the internet. variety of settings that appeals to many Mythos gamers? ;) People need to read people’s opinions and then be forced to think about them before responding, in my humble opinion. The natural Thanks again for working to bring your goals to life and sharing them delay that existed in print in the past was a healthy nuisance. I’ll with other hobbyists! admit that the nostalgia aspect of it is important to me as well. Michael F. Art: Maria Nguyen is an incredibly gifted artist. Pay her lots. The Omaha, Nebraska, USA front of the magazine is absolutely beautiful and matches the RPG Imaginings on YouTube “extraordinary places” theme of the Mythos. I also enjoyed the various art throughout the book and the comic at the end. The Whisperers is PS- If you are looking for an article idea for the next issue, a topic that an evocative piece. The color images of historical art do a great job has come up on various Mythos message boards that I am passionate supporting the text and are handout fodder in of themselves. I also about is the portrayal of mental health in Mythos games. For example, appreciate the schematics of buildings and clue diagrams. my group uses the terminology “Cosmic Trauma Resistance” in place of Sanity and we try to be cautious about portraying mental health in Game Aides: That Chase article is invaluable. I’ve just started using respectful ways in our games. and planning for chases in my own games and the key mechanic of CoC chases is the obstacles. I am adding a printed copy of that — article to my CoC Keeper kit! Michael, Scenarios: The variety of the scenarios is both spectacular and important. I think a key danger of any Mythos magazine is the Thanks for all the feedback! Your “quality first” advice came at just the overuse of 1920s. 1920s is my favorite era and I think many would right time, as at first I was really pushing to get this issue out as quickly as say the same. At the same time, 1920s scenario-heavy magazines flirt possible. Taking more time allowed this issue to have much more content and with cliché. I think it took a lot of guts to offer us the selection that hopefully be even better. you offered. I found the premise of each scenario to be compelling. The Damascus scenario was quite obviously a labor of love for you I’m a big fan of print myself (it’s hard to have a cool collection of digital and it shows. I learned something about Syrian history and found the items), but I’m glad to offer print and digital together. setting to be immersive. Thank you. A solo scenario? Didn’t expect that! Those are tough to write too! I hope you enjoy the variety of scenarios in this issue! I’m more interested in great scenarios than specific types of scenarios, as focused places like Reviews and Other: I’m hoping that the reviews of the Classic The Arkham Gazette and The Unspeakable Oath are much better at products Samplecontained within will nudge Chaosium to revamp them, or providing that (for Lovecraft Country andfile Delta Green, respectively), but at the very least, release them as PDFs on DTRPG. I appreciated the a scenario for Down Darker Trails certainly sounds appealing, I’ll see what “year in review” for new product releases as well. we can do!

Layout: I want to give emphasis to this on its own because I think you And your idea about sensitivity to mental health is a great idea, if anyone is cram a remarkable amount of content into a 79-page magazine. I am an expert on it, please send in an article suggestion.

4 Bayt al Azif Cthulhu in 2018 A Retrospective by Dean Engelhardt

he task of trying to track down everything released in the • The year 2018 was an absolute bumper year for Delta Green, past year with a “Lovecraftian” type of influence or flavour not only for releases using Arc Dream’s own system but also T is a huge undertaking, so I will caveat this up front as being the unexpected 1960s era Delta Green book The Fall of DELTA an attempt to summarize things that outright claim a connection to GREEN (Pelgrane; GUMSHOE rules). HPL’s writings (in some form or other). Even with that restriction in place, there are still a LOT of different and diverse things that • It was also the year when Pelgrane made good on their promise came out in 2018, some of which I’ve personally read (or written!) and to release Robin D. Laws’ Yellow King RPG in all its four-book others which I only know by reputation. I’ll do the best I can to give glory (plus extras). some hint of what each product is about, and hyperlinks to reviews or product pages wherever I can. • Pelgrane also published a couple of new Trail of Cthulhu titles (Cthulhu City and Hideous Creatures) as well as new supporting As with last year’s review, this summary will – by necessity (and material for Cthulhu Confidential. sanity) – be split over multiple sections. In this first section I’ll tackle a quick helicopter-level “capsule summary” of the whole year. • The year 2018 was also a surprisingly good year for magazines and smaller zines with Lovecraftian focus. In the first category there Capsule Summary (or the TL; DR version) were new issues released by the Arkham Gazette, The Unspeakable Oath (first new issue in 4 years!), and a new mag called Bayt al Compared to recent history, 2018 was a somewhat atypical year for Azif. On the zine front there were issues of ongoing zines The Lovecraftian releases. For the last several years we’ve been used to Blasphemous Tome, Hypergraphia, and a first issue of Crawl-thulhu seeing the list of new titles dominated by a steady stream of Call (for the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG). of Cthulhu titles from Chaosium, reinforced by a healthy supply of professional licensed titles from other established game companies, As well as all those slightly left-of-centre releases, 2018 also continued and then topped up by a trickle of Kickstarter releases from small a growing trend towards fantasy games (Pathfinder, Dungeons & Dragons press publishers. That wasn’t what 2018 was like. Instead: 5e, and even W.O.I.N.) dipping their toe into Lovecraftian ichor – as well as some of the OSR community deciding to play a little in the • Chaosium’s output – in terms of number of titles at least – was eldritch space as well. There was even a somewhat Lovecraft-inspired way down, largely due to the amount of effort consumed with game released for the ruleset and a very Lovecraftian creating the mega-brick new Masks of Nyarlathotep. title released for the Conan 2d20 game. This gives some indication of how diverse the spread of the HP Lovecraft influence has become in • The list of larger established companies which are publishing gaming more generally. licensed Call of Cthulhu has declined a little over recent years, hence while those publishers were quite active they were On top of all that there were numerous titles released in 2018 under creating content that was a bit further removed from the Chaosium’s community programme, the Miskatonic Repository. traditional “heart” of Lovecraftian gaming. Overall the frequency of releases and their quality has been very uneven, but doubtless the MiskRepo has served its purpose in giving • Small-scale Call of Cthulhu licensees (like Stygian Fox and Golden new creators a venue for getting scenarios and other content (but Goblin) also seemed a little bit sluggish in getting Kickstarters mostly scenarios) out to the buying public. In 2018 there were some finalised, thus also contributed a lower-than-normal number of 44 English-language titles added to the repository, some 19 of which releases to fill out theCall of Cthulhu. were either free or Pay-What-You-Want. Chaosium have not released any statistics about earnings for creators, though there were some In numbers, there were only 10 new titles for Call of Cthulhu released suggestions that the best-selling of the MiskRepo titles had earned in 2018 compared with 16 new titles in 2017. This included four titles its creator hundreds of dollars in sales. by Chaosium (including aforementioned brick), one release each by Stygian and Golden Goblin, a release by New Comet Games, — two new Cthulhu Live scripts from Skirmisher and the long-long- delayed Punktown (from the long-long-dead Miskatonic River Press). While there were literally dozens of Lovecraftian tabletop RPG Interestingly there were zero releases from Modiphius and Goodman products released in 2018, perhaps the best place to start is with Games (the last two established publishers who are current Call the handful of “marquee” titles that stand out as major highlight of CthulhuSample licensees after the departure of Cubicle7 in late 2017). achievements. This year, I can countfile three products or product lines So, Call of Cthulhu output (in terms of new titles) was down... does that fit that bill: the Delta Green range, Chaosium’s new Masks of that mean it was a fallow year for Lovecraftian gaming? Well no, not Nyarlathotep, and Pelgrane’s Yellow King RPG. at all. It just means that the interesting stuff was happening in less traditional places. In particular:

5 بيت العزيف Highlight #1 Delta Green & The Fall of DELTA GREEN

It’s no secret that 2018 was a bumper of DELTA GREEN, written by industry year for Delta Green, Arc Dream’s heavyweight Kenneth Hite. The concept for modern-day Lovecraftian RPG of this book is that it is set during an unusual conspiracy/spy/military horror. When era – the 1960s – during a point in the Delta the Kickstarter for the standalone Delta Green chronology when the titular secret Green RPG funded back in October organisation is in the process of unravelling 2015 I am sure that most people alongside the covert undercurrents of the expected a good solid set of rules and a . This book was created and professional level of scenario support. I produced by Pelgrane Press and utilizes the don’t think many would have expected same found in some the juggernaut of constant new releases of their previous Lovecraftian (and other) that have emerged at a steady pace ever games including Trail of Cthulhu – although since. notably Fall is not a Trail of Cthulhu title.

While it’s taken Arc Dream a couple The Fall of DELTA GREEN is actually a of years to push the Delta Green core self-contained game system in its own RPG through to a glossy two-hardcover right containing everything you’d need printed set (in a nifty slipcase), 2018 to run 1960s military-spy-themed games is the year when that goal was finally with ties to the Delta Green chronology and achieved. It was also the year in which universe. It’s an oddity to be sure, being two of the Delta Green hardbacks were the intersection of a couple of different recognized at the ENnies, taking out a spheres… but it’s also a gorgeously illustrated total of six awards. product and for all its quirkiness the book does deliver what it says on the tin. For In previous years, the core ruleset for Delta Green fans, there are even conversion Delta Green had already been published notes on adapting the material to work with in both quickstart form (Delta Green: Arc Dream’s system. Need to Know) and as the Delta Green Agent’s Handbook. There had also been As well as all those big heavy hardcover some slim hardcopy publications of books, there were also some smaller releases individual scenarios. In 2018, the whole to round out the Delta Green cavalcade for thing was brought together in a more 2018. These include an anthology of short serious way through two hardback print fiction pieces by The( Way publications, the Delta Green Handler’s It Went Down), a new version of the scenario Guide (setting information, Mythos The Last Equation, and updated second creature stats, spells, etc) and A Night chapter of the serial campaign Future/ At The Opera (a hardback scenario Perfect. There may even have been other anthology collecting and reprinting small products as well – to be honest the many of the same scenarios previously sheer pace of releases has been quite hard to printed individually). Arc Dream also keep up with even for diehard Delta Green released a slipcase set including both the fans. Agent’s Handbook and the Handler’s Guide under the title Delta Green: The RPG. Doubtless buoyed by the success of all of All of these titles were well received. A these publication efforts, Arc Dream ran a Night At The Opera won the 2018 Gold second successful Delta Green Kickstarter ENnie for Best Electronic Book and in 2018 for a core product called Delta the Silver ENnie for Best Adventure. Green: The Labyrinth. The most exciting The slipcase set won two Gold ENnies part of that campaign is the news that the (Best Rules and Best Production Values) legendary has been lured and two Silvers ENnies (Best Game and back to write the core book and some of Product of the Year). This was by far the other items unlocked as stretch goals. the best awarded Lovecraftian product Folks who remember as far back as the early range in 2018. days of Delta Green and Pagan Publishing will doubtless remember John as one of the One of the more curious additional key pillars of the early writing teams, and Sampleitems also to emerge during 2018 was a also one of the file great scenario writers for further book that was unlocked as part the Lovecraftian form (well in my opinion, of the original Delta Green Kickstarter… anyway). I’m sure a lot of people will be but published by a different company looking forward to some of the outputs entirely and using a different rules from that Kickstarter materializing in 2019 system. That product was The Fall and beyond.

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7 بيت العزيف Highlight #2 Chaosium’s New Edition of Masks of Nyarlathotep

Virtually everyone who has ever played Call of Cthulhu will have heard of Masks of Nyarlathotep. First published in 1984, Masks is a globe-trotting campaign that in many ways defined and cemented the stereotypical form of Call of Cthulhu campaigns. It’s also one of the most widely- acclaimed tabletop roleplaying products of all time. For all these reasons and more, it should not come as a surprise to anyone that fresh off the success of its conversion of the classic Horror on the Orient Express to the most recent (7th Edition) ruleset, Chaosium would set its sights on a similar revamp of Masks. In 2018 this re-mastering of Call of Cthulhu’s “greatest hit” was the flagship product for the company’s Lovecraftian line-up. Rather than simply reprinting the venerable campaign – which has already gone through four editions, of Cthulhu releases for a couple of years. a major win for Chaosium. In addition to some with substantial additions – line In terms of content, the new edition does designing many of the handouts that went editor Mike Mason chose to do some more include some items that are brand new – into the core product, the HPLHS folk in-depth tinkering to try to resolve some of most notably an all-new prequel chapter also crafted several tiers of deluxe prop kits the points that had proven divisive about (set in Peru) which allows investigators which can be ordered direct from them. the Masks backstory. to meet Jackson Elias well ahead of the Also, there is an audioplay adaptation of events which see him deceased at the Masks of Nyarlathotep created as part of the The product of all this work is a massive beginning of the main Masks campaign. HPLHS’s amazing Dark Adventure Radio brick of a slipcase set, comprising some That new chapter was written by Scott Theater — certain of their prop kits also 666-pages split over two hardback full- Dorward. Also new to this edition are tie in to that recording. colour books plus a 96-page loose-leaf scatterings of notes to help a Keeper run collection of handouts and maps. To the campaign using Pulp Cthulhu – this is The Chaosium revision of a classic fan- say that the campaign has been given an interesting proposition: since Masks is favourite like Masks of Nyarlathotep was the “deluxe” treatment is probably an already a campaign which owes as much never going to happen without its critics, understatement – the finished slipcase to Indiana Jones as it does to HPL, one and a few minor problems and issues set feels more like a “no expenses spared” wonders exactly how “over-the-top” were raised as a result of some of the “in production. Doubtless, true fans of the it might veer when the Investigators progress” content shared by Chaosium campaign will find this very much to their are Pulpy powerhouses. I guess it’s an for promotional purposes. The biggest of liking – although the lavish production has interesting option to have, nonetheless. these – which was subsequently remediated left the product with a rather hefty price- to an extent by Chaosium – related to tag, and it also had a massively disruptive While it is tempting to look at the sheer some of the artwork commissioned for effect on Chaosium’s overall output bulk of the new Masks slipcase and assume the campaign. These “epic horror” pieces for 2018 (chewing up the majority of that since it is well over twice the page- veered strongly into stylistic territory production resources for most of the year). count of the previous (4th) edition there more closely reminiscent of a Pathfinder must be oodles of new game content – that horror supplement than something for It’s probably not worth trying to cover the might be a slightly flawed assumption. Call of Cthulhu, which seemed to bother contents of the Masks slipcase in detail Yes, there are a lot more pages, but the some old-school fans. Smaller concern here, since there are existing reviews which new Chaosium trade dress tends to fit less were voiced around the editorial reworking devote much more space to dissecting the content on each page plus the new edition of some of the details of the original contents than we would be able to here. is much much more lavish when it comes campaign, in particular making Jackson For example: http://rlyehreviews.blogspot. to interior illustration. All of this makes Elias unequivocally African-American com/2018/07/the-greatest-roleplaying- for a nicer final product, but at the game (instead of vaguely hinting as much). campaign-ever.html table may not much alter the way the Another gripe voiced by a few people is the campaign plays out. rather conscious decision taken during the For those who have read any of Chaosium’s revision to somewhat ignore the massive recent hardback releases and who are also One thing that is greatly beefed-up is the body of work that went into the fan- familiar withSample previous editions of Masks quality and quantity of player handouts. community-written file Masks of Nyarlathotep of Nyarlathotep will probably find this new This is thanks to the involvement of the Companion (which now is partially out-of- version is exactly what they would expect/ H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society (and in step with the as-published campaign). All hope it to be. It has all the production particular Andrew Leman). Those guys are of these quibbles, however were small blips values and glossy full-colour interior trade literally the best Lovecraft prop-makers on the radar and overall fan reaction to the dress that have now been a staple of Call on the planet, so having them involved was new edition has been quite positive.

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