Contains some spoilers!

--

In general, it is a solid and engaging introductory adventure, but requires still some preparations before the game.

There are a couple of little things that preclude me giving a perfect 5/5 rating:

Most annoying one: While the scenario comes with nice maps and all, the Glenridge city map can not be handed out to players until after they have found all the clues in it.

Secondly, there are not many NPCs for players to interview. There is one primary clue pointing out to the perpretrator, but I'd like to have alternative ones and one can imagine how to provide them (victims' families, friends, etc could provide them). Again, this is something any GM can come up with by themselves, but it would be nice to have some more flesh.

Also, as a matter of personal taste, I myself do not think it fits that the "cosmic terror" aspect that humans would be being able to control and command Mythos creatures (feels to DnD-like to me), but that can be again easily changed: I personally adjusted the scenario so that despite what some people think (They are deluded), cosmic terrors do not care for orders and commands, they listen to suggestions.

In general, a very high quality Handler/GM guide to complement the Agents' Handbook. Documentation for most parts is well organized and easy to read. Especially I liked the insight how to twist classic and more modern Mythos creatures into something players won't expect. Illustrations, like in Agents' Handbook, are quite top-notch and set the mood.

My minor reservation is that the history timeline gets bogged down close to modern times (and main bulk of published scenarios it AFAIK refers), becoming dense and difficult to interpret unless you are familiar with the aforementioned scenarios. However, it is not bad, one can still skim it to get ideas and inspirations.

Some comments after several months of play (as a player):

• Writing is solid and easy to read, "look and feel" is professional. Understanding character generation and other mechanics in general does not cause problems.
• Variety of backgrounds and foci, adding flavor to characters is feels easy.
• Space combat mechanic is quite nice.
• Setting is fun and allows versatile scenes.

I have felt there is only very few issues with mechanics. The one thing that bugs me most:

• After a while, using the same skill for ranged weapons and ship-to-ship combat ("Shoot") tends to cause suspension of disbelief problems and makes a bit boring play. (Characters that are good with rifles or bows tend also to be the best ones targeting missiles while shipboard.) To lesser extent, same applies to piloting (riding a horse and flying a ship are practically the same, .. err.. urmm...). If I were to GM a SWN campaign, I would institute some house-rules to differentiate between the two: perhaps split the skills ("Shoot" and "Ship weapons" maybe), or add penalties when applying them in drastically unfamiliar circumstances / would require specialized training that character does not have (similar to powered armor rules).