Mummy: The Curse wasn't my first Chronicles of Darkness game, but it was the one that finally made me a Chronicles of Darkness fan.

Second Edition is a dense, tightly written book that distills the most evocative aspects of first edition and adds support for new styles of play. As someone who loves first edition, every decision that was made for second edition improved the game without sacrificing any of the awesome parts of 1E.

The Chronicles of Darkness Second Edition scratches a particular itch for me, better than any other game trying to do the same thing.

Specifically, it strikes a balance between rules that model the world and rules abstractions that make for easy play. It's a game where your characters investigate horrors and the dark secrets of their world and put themselves in mortal, social, and mental peril.

Conditions — especially supplemented by Condition Cards — are easy to use and reinforce the core gameplay loop by providing suggestions on how to make your characters behave and rewards them for contributing dramatic tension.

The front half of the book is tightly designed with no wasted space. This can make it feel anemic, but everything you need to play the game is there. This also makes it a great supplement for other games in the Chronicles of Darkness system by adding subsystems that aren't found in those books, such as Equipment Building, Investigations, and Chases.

The second half of the book is the God-Machine Chronicle, a collection of adventure hooks tied to the eponymous God-Machine, and provides a selection of ready-made antagonists and NPCs along with a framework to build custom chronicles.

The writing is evocative and spooky. "The Hangry Wolf" chapter fiction makes my skin crawl in the best way.

I heartily recommend this book to anybody looking for a rules-medium game of dramatic horror and/or anybody who's already got one of the other Chronicles of Darkness books and wants some more toys to play with.

Excellent Artwork. I just wish they had a 2560x1600 option, because that’s my laptop screen’s dimensions, but the 2560x1440 does the job rather decently.

A cheeky, fun way to fill out the birthrights of NPCs around my game is how I've been using this one. It can create some interesting scenarios when properly applied.

Handy to have yet more animal stat blocks to work with. The nemean section will get a lot of use at the table with the examples given, and the idea of the design philosophy they used in applying it to their own creatures. Zombies will see niche use at my table, but is pretty interesting as a read.

To be quite honest, I'm really lazy when it comes to making my own weapons or working out new conditions for combat and am more likely to saw off the name of something else and swap it around. This did a fair amount of the legwork for me, and has some new tags and conditions that are going to be pretty handy at the table.

Really niche concept that handles it well. Sparked an idea for a scee which was all I asked of this one.

If you have a table of all Theoi, this book is going to be a godsend. It really helps flesh a setting for the World. Some of the groups presented can be adapted to other settings pretty easily, and others will need more work. Terra Incognita have been really handy at the concept portion of building a story around. And the additional gods and relics are pretty solid.

This has been handy for helping flesh out the World a bit by giving soe ideas as to what to care about with a given pantheon for framing. It is not a strict must have on shelf product for me, but when I do not want to do my own research for another pantheon from Hero, it's great. I'd love to see it expanded with the Mysteries or Demigod pantheons, but I am always a greedy type.

With the number of times that a player at my table wants to turn into a massive scale combat, this is a must-have. It is relatively short, but the ability to name your own price for it makes that a non-issue. It helped me get through the front part of a campaign, and that's all I ask.

I found two main uses for the information here. The short-lived talismans or magical objects that heroes can make section is going to be a frequent use at my table. The rest of the relics are great if you do not have an idea for a particular NPC's birthrights (or the occasional one to sprinkle in otherwise). I wouldn't consider it a must-have, but it is pretty handy for me and mine.

As with many of the "They Came from..." lines, the authors captured the essence and feel of what it was to be/play in an 80's/90's slasher film. As quite the slasher film buff, this really got my engines revved to run this for my group. The book sets the stage for all the classic horror movie slashers (Freddy, Jason, Child's Play, Leatherface) and gives you the tools to go beyond that (when combined with the corebook, They Came from Beyond the Grave). I loved writing up a Stuntman Mike-esque character (Deathproof slasher) for my players to engage with. For those who love tabletop games and slasher films of any era, this is definitely a great addition to your collection of tools for game building.

A huge number of power armor for the use of both novas and not, in both war and peace. This is great, because this kind of tech is going to be intensely useful in construction, loading, and the like. I think many of us remember the exoskeleton loader from Aliens.

Has a celebrity and infamy mechanc that you can use to your advantage, both to access paths, and as an alternative to experience if you work on cultivating it, but as much as people love to see stars rise, they even more love to see them fall.

It's nice to have a selection of conditions, some of which are good and could be arranged for with effort by PCs, which gives your players more tools to use in your games.