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Berlin - The Wicked City

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Unveiling the Mythos in Weimar Germany

In the aftermath of the Great War, Berlin has a reputation for licentiousness. A place where anything may be had for the right price. It is both a city of hedonism and a city of business; its streets overflow with disabled veterans, prostitutes, destitute immigrants, and political agitators—all rubbing shoulders with buttoned-down businessmen, scholars, and artists. The gutters run with the blood of political assassinations, where Communists and völkisch Nationalists clash with each other, as well as with the police. Long into the evenings, Berlin’s world-famous cabarets offer music, dance, and titillating entertainment in stark contrast to the gray buildings that run on for endless miles along the sprawling city’s byways.

Into this bubbling stew, Secrets of Berlin introduces the weird elements of the Cthulhu Mythos. A hotbed of occult organizations, strange cults, and half-whispered lore. Amid the wicked air of the world’s capital of sin, the very nature of what it means to be human is questioned. And, as the city hurtles toward its inevitable dark destiny, the oppressive atmosphere pushes the sanity of investigators to its breaking point.

This book presents an overview of 1920s Berlin as it would be experienced by visitors and residents of the time. Guidelines are presented for creating investigators for a Berlin-centric campaign, as well as investigator organizations to help bind groups together. Notable personalities, key locations, and a system for generating details of the urban landscape on the fly are provided. With crime and punishment, the city’s underworld, and also its high culture detailed, the tools provided help the Keeper gain an understanding of what makes Berlin unique.

Three scenarios, spanning the history of Berlin between the end of the Great War and the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party, contain colorful details of Berlin and its inhabitants and may be run as stand-alone adventures or linked together to form a mini-campaign.

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The Wickedest City on Earth

“The city of Berlin, I recognized, had a definite color of its own; it had, plainly, become a world metropolis… now Berlin had acquired an authentic entity. It resided in the young, and was composed, mostly, of a direct recognition, a faintly bitter but undisturbed acceptance, of all, all, the realities of existence. It was an attitude nowhere, that I could see, irradiated by hope. The customary optimism, the romantic confidence, of youth, were absent in Berlin… So much, the bearing of the young showed, had failed them, turning out false or hypocritical or insubstantial, that they had concluded all the celebrated reassurances and rewards were lies.”

—Joseph Hergesheimer, Berlin 

Chapter 1: The City, presents an overview of 1920s Berlin. Creating investigators for a Berlin-centric campaign, as well as advice for bringing in existing player characters. Investigator organizations and Experience Packages are designed to add new dimensions to investigative groups. The chapter includes an overview of Berlin’s history, as well as its topology, identifying key districts that best reflect the city’s character. Details are provided on travel, communications, housing, crime and punishment, drug abuse, the city’s underworld, and its high culture.

Chapter 2: Uncovering Berlin containsa range oflocations of interest for investigators, from libraries and museums to cafés and nightclubs. Due to the city’s sheer size, we eschew a block-by-block description, instead highlighting locations of interest and filling in the blanks with a system for generating details of the urban landscape on the fly. Berlin’s predilection for hedonism centers on the city’s relationship with prostitution, food and drink, and cabaret. Guidelines are provided for a range of investigator contacts and the chapter concludes with details on neighborhood street encounters, all providing the Keeper with inspiration for cabarets and clubs, architectural details, and businesses. With the tools provided in this chapter, the Keeper gains an understanding of what makes Berlin unique and has the tools to bring the city to life at the gaming table.

Chapter 3: Oh! You Pretty Things details notable historical personalities to provide color and insight into the city. Whether Marlene Dietrich or Joseph Goebbels, short biographies highlight the time certain individuals lived or worked in Berlin, providing inspiration for encounters and scenarios.

Chapter 4: Strange Berlin considers how the Cthulhu Mythos festers in the dark corners and shadows of the city. A range of scenario seeds and cults ensures the Keeper has the material for creating a decade-spanning campaign of horror.

Three scenarios spanning the history of Berlin include more of Berlin’s colorful details. Each scenario may be run as stand-alone episode or linked together to form a mini-campaign.

In The Devil Eats Flies Germany teeters on the brink of economic ruin and political chaos. The ghost of a madman stalks the city, turning its own citizenry against itself. To stop a demonic spirit and save a Russian princess in exile, the investigators must strike a bargain with other sinister forces and ask themselves: who else are we prepared to see die in order to save the city?

Dances of Vice, Horror, and Ecstasy takes place in the city’s golden years, when things have become superficially stable and prosperous again. A bungling sorcerer, a debauched dancer, and a strange cult of gnostic Saturn-worshippers threaten to put all of that to an end and turn Berlin into a pit of madness and depravity.

Schreckfilm sees Berlin racing toward its grim future. The investigators come face to face with a shadowy cabal of the city’s movers and shakers who are determined to turn the city’s world-famous film industry toward ill ends. Trapped in a labyrinth of their own making and hounded relentlessly by dark forces beyond their ken, the investigators must confront the fundamental question of what is real and what is illusion.

Concluding the book is a selection of inspirational media, including books, film, and websites for those wishing to delve even deeper into the mysteries, history, and geography of Berlin.

For Mature Readers

This book deals with mature themes, including drugs and sex, and is intended for mature players.

This PDF has four downloads

  • Berlin: The Wicked City Book PDF
  • Handouts
  • Keeper Reference Booklet
  • Large map of Berlin

Map of Berlin

This supplement is best used with the CALL OF CTHULHU (7th Edition) roleplaying game and optionally PULP CTHULHU, both available separately.

Call of Cthulhu Logo for 7th Edition

Designed for 7th Edition Call of Cthulhu. Get the rulebook here.

Check out all our 7th Edition Products.

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Reviews (3)
Discussions (5)
Customer avatar
S. G June 27, 2023 12:55 am UTC
Is it a setting book, or a scenarios book? Separate scenarios or a campaign? It can be all of these. WICKED CITY sparks the imagination for creating mythos Berlin scenarios in the early 20th century, and the included scenarios can be run as one-shots that aren't dependent on each other or as a campaign. Kind of an odd duck in that one generally expects either a sourcebook or a location-based campaign (that's longer) but it works. Although the included scenarios are not necessarily linked I wished there were a longer campaign that was bookended by the end of WW1 and the incipience of WW2.
Customer avatar
Alain M August 14, 2022 6:06 pm UTC
I have been living in Berlin for almost 25 years, and I got this book about a week ago. It was incredibly interesting to discover the past of my home city. I even had to cry, when I realised which great personalities lived here in the 1920ies and 1930ies, and why most had to leave or were killed.
In addition to that, the book features three exciting investigative adventures. And reading the first part was already more than rewarding.
Customer avatar
John K December 03, 2019 11:06 pm UTC
If you get this or are thinking of getting it, watch Babylon Berlin on Netflix. It's an amazing miniseries, that will really give you a feel for the period.
Reply
Customer avatar
Brent C January 27, 2021 4:00 pm UTC
100% I was about to say the same thing. That is a great show.
Customer avatar
jeff W June 22, 2019 3:08 pm UTC
Is there any news yet of a date for the physical release for "Berlin-The Wicked City" otherwise this is going to cost me a pretty penny in ink.
Customer avatar
Ewan S March 21, 2019 7:40 pm UTC
Will it be available in a POD version? Thanks
Reply
Customer avatar
Matt S March 22, 2019 10:21 pm UTC
no, as it's getting a retail physical release
Reply
Customer avatar
Nick I March 23, 2019 4:42 am UTC
PURCHASER
Is there an ETA on that? Based on what I've read of the pdf, I'd definitely be interested.
Reply
Customer avatar
Ozzy B September 04, 2019 1:56 pm UTC
PURCHASER
September 6th in the UK.
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Product Information
Platinum seller
Pages
272
ISBN
978-1-56882-417-8
Publisher Stock #
CHA23161-PDF
File Size:
146.63 MB
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File Last Updated:
March 15, 2022
This title was added to our catalog on March 19, 2019.