Why not call the police?

I find it difficult to answer when my players ask this question in a modern CoC game. This scenario does not help me on that, especially with the kids involved. Just as an example, I really appreciate how Ladybug Fly Away Home helps the keeper there.

Of course a keeper can always run it as DG, but I happen to be one who do not enjoy DG, not at all, and I'm really looking for something modern and CoC. This scenario has a very 1920 structure very similar to Let the Children Come to Me. Unfortunately I don't feel the modern part.

The art is great, and the mythos connection is worth the 3 stars. The actual plot and the structure is not as fun.

Definitly need this to run your Ladybug scenario! With player version maps.

I don't see anything you cannot get from the FSLN (only ran Phlebotomy yet).

Not really the optimal setting. Use it only if you absolutely want to run TTWLB as a campaign...

My group loved two scenarios in this book, i.e., the first two.

All for a Good Cause: 4 stars. It can be used as the last scenario of a campaign if you choose to run this book as a campaign. Very interesting design structurally. The details and mythos background provided were not enough though.

The BlackThorns: 5 stars. Twisted one-shot. It's enjoyable, with enough complexity, yet easy to handle for the keeper. Some may find the children-related plot uncomfortable. There's a replay run by the author Jeff Moeller himself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXW0xCO-omo&list=PLJQ7JbI3-ZhIIChikRtd15a7V-p1uyNKW

The Lumber Barons' Ball: 4 stars. Kind of fun to see how a certain classic paradigm is adapted into the modern age, beautifully. The players might not feel as good for it though. They have very limited degrees of freedom in this scenario.

Other scenarios and settings introduced in this book are just bad, mundane, and boring.

I love this scenario, such a great dark story to share with my players. every group I have brought this to has had a fantastic time with it. my only gripe is that I wish there was a printer friendly version of the PDF.

An excellent source to set up a Gaslight campaign. Here's an organization suited to investigate Mythos activity...

Well written and DENSELY PACKED with information.

I've run these a few times for a few groups and highly recommend this book. Well written and easy to run for a group.

I've run these a few times for a few groups and highly recommend this book. Well written and easy to run for a group.

https://stygian-muse.com/book-of-the-week-fears-sharp-little-needles/ Stygian Fox make great stuff, and FSLN is no exception. 26 short scenarios covering a myriad of themes, ready to go at a moment's notice. What's more, the themes tend toward psychological horror and human failings, and this gives the scenarios a distinct quality that sets them apart from the usual fare. This means that they can be used very well as a contrast to longer scenarios or campaigns to change things up a little, but a keeper could also easily string a number of them together to create a mini-campaign, and in fact advice is given to this effect. This is probably my favourite CoC resource.

Alright, I don't play Call of Cthulhu, but I was looking for an awesome modern day paranormal adventure. And I found it here.

The twist of playing the homeless is an interesting one. The investigation feels like it would work well and get the investigators to all the right places.

I feel the abandoned subway station could have been described a little differently to better indicate that the trains still pass through. (I was really imagining it differently than the map shows.) And I feel like the dominated occupents in the apartment building could have been handled differently. It doesn't say when the nightmother dominated them. So it feels like they have been dominated for sometime. Which implies that none of them have went to work for a month and somehow haven't been missed. I think it would make more sense to have the nightmother already affecting them subtlely until she notices that the heroes are coming. Then she takes full control and in the process black flame errupts from their eyes buring them out. Or to have the nightmother to have whispered temptations to people that she met and didn't kill during her time manifested. These people are now considered missing by the police. And they are here in a daze, effectively waiting for the Nightmother to manifest and kill them.

While I feel those two points could have been done a bit differently for clarity, on the whole it feels to me like a solid urban adventure. I recommend people pick it up and give it a read through.

I mostly enjoyed reading this. I would love to see it ran for a group of Japanese players.

I feel like it is important to note that this scenerio comes with recommended characters. The scenerio is written to be related to those specific characters. So if your players are bringing their own, understand that you may have to make some adjustments. These adjustments will be easiest if there is a female character among the investigators.

There were, however, two things that negatively affected my review. The first is that there appears to be an entire page missing. The sentence that starts page 12 is obviously not the end of the sentence that trails off on page 11. There was also a simple grammar error that slipped through and was a bit jarring. I'm actually surprised that Stygian Fox hasn't updated this product to fix the missing page, at least in the digital form. (or either linked to an errata or added an errata to the digital file.)

these maps are excellent. good addition to your Cthulhu library

I agree with another reviewer here that this game needs a bit of Keeper prep rather than feeling entirely complete out of the box. I made a few handouts that I think should have been included.

That said, the material as written contains great atmosphere, interesting problems, sinister characters, and a sense of urgency. My group made a memorable night of it.

The buyer will receive 7 modern-day scenarios with good production values for a price of 19.95. However, I personally cannot recommend this collection and must include it in the "If I had a full preview, I would not have purchased it" category of my library.

The phrase Occam's Razor led me to expect tight, believable no-mythos modern scenarios with just enough grey-area for the keeper to create interesting role-playing situations. Instead, I found almost half of the included scenarios to be some variation of "No mythos, just the most improbable and outlandish theoretically possible antagonist(s) playing the exact same role as the mythos/a mythos creature". The other scenarios, while not bad by any means, were nowhere near strong enough to compensate for their weaker companions. While I appreciate what they were attempting to do in this collection, I could only really imagine myself realistically running 3 or maybe 4 out of the 7 total scenarios without heavily changing them in some way. (Mileage will vary based on player and keeper preferences).

The main reason for this is that, ultimately, given the same amount of contextualization and preparation, I honestly believe that my players would have a harder time buying in to the antagonists presented in this collection than, say, the standard mythos/supernatural beings. For a collection titled Occam's Razor, I find that fact to be more disappointing than anything else.

Favorite Scenario: "The Watchers" For me, this scenario is the best representation of what I felt that the authors were attempting to achieve with this collection. Tragic and horrifying, but also utterly mundane and free of any specific backstory. The entire section is a concise 9 pages and gives the keeper a great deal of freedom to run it however they wish, whether as a misdirection-filled mystery or as a shorter session playing with the idea of narrator reliability. Easily adapted to a classic 1920s or more experimental setting with a bit of rewriting and preparation.

Least Favorite Scenario: "Frozen Footsteps" After reading this scenario, I had to do a double take and make sure I wasn't accidently reading a DnD scenario or a B-movie plot. Prompted an audible "Really?" from this buyer. While the premise can ultimately be tamed with prep work, atmosphere, and good pacing, I do not feel that it should have a place in a collection titled Occam's Razor. Truly the epitome of "the most improbable and outlandish technically possible explaination", made worse by the conclusion presented basically being a choice between killing all of the antagonists or somehow convincing offscreen NPCs to do it.