This short work not only introduces and specifies a useful (if specialised) space vehicle, the deployment shuttle, but also explores some of the uses to which it might be put in times of peace and of war. Several variants of the standard build are discussed, and the operations of Marine Assault Forces, which often use them, examined. Quite a lot packed in... and there's more! Several ideas for their use in your campaign, whether the party is riding in one or it is advancing on their vessel, are also included.

The deployment shuttle is optimised to get people where they need to be, on the ground or in space. As such it is very fast-moving, and capable of operating in atmosphere as well as in vacuum. It requires a crew of two, as well as whoever is being transported (up to 36 individuals), and can operate for up to four weeks although as there are only basic facilties aboard this is not recommended. Most missions are but hours long. There's a detailed description, full statistics, and a plan of the standard craft.

Next comes a discussion of typical operations carried out using a deployment shuttle. Whilst it can be used for standard personnel transfer on orbit or from ground to space, its main function is to deliver troops in combat situations. This can be an opposed landing groundside or a boarding action in space. They are also popular for spaceside activities such as customs or other inspections of ships arriving in system - they can force entry if it is not granted, and can cope with such as environmental contamination. Various tactics are discussed in considerable detail for the ground landing options, useful if you are planning mercenary operations or indeed if the party serves in regular military forces.

The following chapter discusses Marine Assault Forces. A deployment shuttle is large enough to contain a standard Marine platoon (35 people), plus an additional specialist or other individual felt necessary for the operation at hand. Standard armament and operating protocols for the Marines are covered - including plenty about that iconic weapon, the cutlass - and then we move on to the next chapter which covers Boarding Actions and Inspections, the other in-space role of a deployment shuttle.

Next comes some common variants of the standard deployment shuttle with notes on their uses. These include medical variants, reconnaissance, fighter control and space rescue craft (these last being illustrated painted in colours corresponding to vehicles used on the TV show Thunderbirds!). They can also be used for holding or transporting (or even executing) prisoners, surveying and patrol work.

Finally, there are some missions. One involves a hazardous survey job, another sends the party to investigate why a colony has gone 'dark', and the third is a 'decapitation strike' - a raid that takes out the enemy leadership directly. All will need work before you can run them, but plenty of interesting background is provided.

This is a useful vessel to have in your universe, one that the party is likely to encounter at some time even if they never ride in one.

OK, so what can be said about just another equipment guide? The Introduction begins by explaining that it contains an updated collection of items from earlier editions of Traveller as well as new ones, it is not designed solely for use with the Third Imperium setting and indeed has things that don't exist there, and that there are rules for item use, availability and even permits as well as the things themselves. However, with all that said, it's still a shopaholic's dream of everything the well-equipped Traveller might want or need - or wish he had picked up - during his travels.

After a full-page advert for an equipment store, Chapter 1: Equipment Availability looks at various ways in which the Referee can control how easy (or difficult) it is to get your hands on any item desired. Law Level is the obvious one, if an item isn't legal it will at best be very hard to find and involve dealing with other than conventional retail outlets. However, even if an item's legal that doesn't mean to say every store stocks it, or even if they do carry it, do they have any right now when our Traveller wanders in looking for it. There's a system for determining whether or not that item is there, better than just having the Referee make it up (not that there's no reason why the Referee shouldn't make it up, it's his game after all). Availability can be modified when the item is illegal, with the party having to access the black market which may or may not have what they are after. There are various categories of item modelling how, just as in the real world, some items are only available (legally at any rate) to individuals with certain jobs or qualifications. Then follows a basic system for handling black market deals that go wrong, as in, the authorities notice what's going on - this begins with investigation and goes right through to penalties handed down.

Next come more rules in Chapter 2: New Rules. This introduces a few new weapon traits and explains what they mean. Just a single page, then we are on to "The Travellers' Aid Society Central Supply Collection". This is semi-in-character, although rules bits do intrude a little... and it's replete with loads of illustrations. The first part is devoted to Personal Protection - body armour, of course, in a wide range of styles including historical stuff and exotics designed to protect against fire and energy weapons and even one that protects the wearer against psionics. Naturally this includes both powered and unpowered suits, and a wide range of vacc suits. You can also get an electronics suite to add to the suit of your choice, other modifications and additions are also available... and that's before you get to battle dress.

The next chapter is Survival Gear, which starts with parachutes and continues through atmospheric protection, cold- and hot-weather gear, underwater kit and the like - all these include both clothing and other equipment you need to survive and function in a range of extreme environments. Go mountaineering, venture into vacuum, or just make use of a range of survival items including a 'fusion stile' (did they mean 'still'?) that produces potable water and an almost-edible gloop out of whatever organic material and liquids you load in. This section ends with wilderness housing, from tents to full-blown bases.

Next up, Electronics. This begins with vision and detection devices, then looks at communications, and a collection of gadgets and essentials. If you didn't think a laser-emitting ring was a vital piece of equipment before you read this, it might just change your mind! Computers get an entire chapter to themselves, which includes both hardware and software.

A chapter on Robots follows. There are rules for using them covering everything from how much damage they can take to programming them, and a variety of useful ones are presented. Do you want a protocol droid? Or a robotic assassin? Or even a sanitation droid to keep your living spaces clean and tidy? It will even wash your clothes for you! If you'd rather do your own work, head on to the next chapter of Tools, full of general hardware, toolkits and even welding torches.

Another essential in the next chapter, Medical Supplies. This looks at medical equipment and drugs and pharmaceuticals - some have, er, non-medical uses. Staying on a kind of medical theme, the next chapter is about Personal Augmentation. This allows for cybernetic or biotech upgrades (or replacements for lost body parts) to all parts of the body - but the treatments can be painful, and medics can get confused if they do not understand how a patient is augmented.

A chapter on Home Comforts (which include such interesting items as an alien cosplay kit and fully-animated miniature wargames) is followed by the large final section many Travellers will have been waiting for: Weapons! Starting with Close and Personal, there are sections on hand-held melee weapons, blade weapons (if you want a lightsaber, go for the arc-field weapon), other melee weapons, and shields. The next chaper is Self-Defence and looks at handguns, slugthrowing rifles, energy pistols and rifles, grenades, and archaic weapons. Then there's a whole chapter devoted to Heavy Weapons of all sorts: man-portable, crew-served, vehicle-mounted, and rockets and missiles.

The last weapon chapter is titled For the Discerning Weapons Specialist and contains all manner of exotic items that don't fit in the preceeding categories. Bolas and boomerangs to backpack nukes. Then we move on to Ammunition and finally Sighting Aids and Accessorties - some interesting odds and ends here.

This makes for a very comprehenive selection of items that the party might need, especially when equipping for exploration or military expeditions. Keep track of spending, it's easy to rack up a hefty bill... and it can be embarassing when your spaceship gets repossessed because you haven't paid your debts!

This Oriental-style adventure begins when a powerful lord's ancestral swords are stolen! War is brewing and it would be disasterous for morale if word got out... and the poor lord's lands, his whole heritage, are at risk. As you can imagine, it's really important to get the swords back preferably before anyone realises that they are missing!

That's all in the Player Introduction, printed as usual on the back cover of the module. It all seems quite straightforward... then the DM's Background explains how it's a bit more complicated than that. There's all manner of scheming and double-dealing going on, a quite fascinating story... but will it come out? There's some further background for the players, and a selection of ways of getting the party involved in this whole sorry mess.

The early part of the adventure, as can be imagined, is very much investigative but fear not, it soon turns into a delve into some quite interesting places underneath the lord's ancestral castle... places even he didn't know were there. There's a good plan of this underground complex for the DM, and notes on the myriad traps and other things to be found down there... and reasons for why they are there. It's not one of those implausible trapped mazes that are there just because, well, a bunch of adventurers might visit one day. However, some of the 'read aloud' text blocks seem to have drifted from the rooms they were intended for, so read through in advance and reassign them as appropriate - from Room #5, move them all up 2 rooms (i.e. the text block associated with Room #7 actually belongs to Room #5 and so on). It makes more sense when you look at it.

There's an interesting new monster which provides an added dimension to proceedings, and the opportunity for a good brawl at the end. The ramifications of different outcomes are explained clearly. Overall, it makes for an exciting adventure with real depth, and could provide one of the defining points in the early part of an Oriental campaign, giving the party an opportunity to get established.

Have you ever wondered what happens to all that alien tech the Doctor encounters in his travels? If so, wonder no more but come round to a very secret location under the Tower of London and find out! Collected by UNIT, it is studied and tested and, where appropriate, put to use. And, of course, it can feature in your games too.

After a brief Introduction, the book dives straight in with the Advanced Operations Manual, the first of nine chapters. This is all about UNIT itself and provides everything you need to include them in your game right up to running a party of UNIT operatives. Despite being organised on military lines, they employ a lot more than soldiers: there are achivists, operatives, wheelmen, and xenobiologists (X-Docs) as well. They also apparently have an equal opportunities programme of unparalleled extent - they also hire aliens. Details for creating failed Cybermen, Fish People and Zygons are here, and it's relatively straightforward to use information on other races published elsewhere in this game line. There's also a scheme for unusual human beings who have the potential to develop psychic abilities. Plenty to have fun with. In terms of game mechanics, as well as the alien material there are many new Traits and areas of expertise that should prove helpful in building UNIT characters. Finally there are archetype UNIT staff if you need one in a hurry, and a selection of notable UNIT personnel who may turn up.

Next up, The Black Archive itself. In this chapter, we read the history of the Black Archive (or at least, as much as is known of it) as well as the security measures taken to protect it and its subsiduary locations around the world. Much of this needs to be read in conjuction with The UNIT Sourcebook - to make the most of this book, and certainly if you want to make it central to your game, I'd recommend getting hold of a copy. The discussion moves on to look at the primary roles of the Archive and its personnel: just reading through them presents ideas that could develop into adventures... then the discussion on finding buried treasure comes replete with more ideas! Next a whole bunch of adversaries and rivals - often wanting to get their hands on the same alien stuff the Archive is after - are presented.

The following chapters look more closely at specific aspects of the Archive beginning with the Athenaeum, which is the main information gathering and research area. As various facets are explained, Plot Seeds are provided from which entire adventures can be developed. Rules for developing artefacts are provided, primarily as a selection of good and bad Traits that each artefact may have. Moving on, the Armoury talks about a selection of exotic weapons, defensive systems and the like - plenty of examples complete with associated Plot Seeds; then the Motor Pool chapter delivers similar material with respect to means of transportation.

Next up, the Cabinet of Curiousities contains a wide range of artefacts deemed safe to be loaned out to UNIT agents as the need arises, some even become almost routine equipment for particular individuals. A wide range of items is presented, along with their Plot Seeds of course. There is also a comprehensive Hospital which can investigate and treat (if necessary) a wide range of lifeforms. Loads of medical devices and the tales you can tell with them are to be found here.

The final two chapters, Omega Locker and Enigma Vault, deal with those artefacts that are not understood suffiently - or are plain too dangerous - to let any agent use them. The Omega Locker is for the dangerous stuff, the Enigma Vault for the items that still baffle the best minds UNIT can bring to bear. They need to be used with caution, but could make for some very intersting adventures...

You could build an entire campaign around the Black Archive, or have items pop up in the course of other adventures. There's a lot to play with here... if UNIT will let you! If you like artefact-based adventures or even have a fondness for the strange items that turn up on the TV show this is a book worth having, likewise if you fancy running an organised group that is making good use of time/space travel to expand knowledge.

Intended to help you run adventures in the very best Doctor Who style, this book comes in two parts. The first is a collection of hints and tips to empower your game, and the second is three complete adventures to get you going. Needless to say, the adventures are designed to showcase some of the ideas suggested in the first part.

Beginning at the beginning, so to speak, the first chapter is Starting Out and it talks about preparing to run a new game. Perhaps this is your first time ever on the far side of the GM screen, or you may be a veteran GM running the Doctor Who RPG for the first time, or maybe you are just starting a new campaign - you will still find something to think about here. The first suggestion is quite startling: tell your players what your core concept is and kick it around a bit, refine it collaboratively. You'll need to keep it pretty broad else all the fun of finding out what is happening in the adventure will be spoilt. However, it's worth discussing things like which Doctor you are using (or era/style at least), do the party want to be UNIT operatives or random folk picked up along the way, are you all more interested in Earth-based adventures or in bouncing around all of time and space... things like that. It may be that the group knows what sort of characters they want to play (or if they want to play ones who have appeared on TV), so you can then go off and build adventures that are suited to them.

Two major questions are whether or not the Doctor will be a player-character and how much you want to stick to 'canon' (i.e. be true to what has appeared in the show on TV). For some people canon is vitally important, others maybe don't watch the show as avidly or don't think it matters if things pan out differently in your game. But once everything is settled, it is probably worth setting up individual characters as a group exercise and then working how come they are adventuring together. (I was once asked to introduce my church Young Women's group to role-playing, so took the Doctor Who RPG along and used every single Companion I could find - we had about a dozen Young Women - and ran an adventure in which it was the Doctor's 1,000th birthday so he gathered loads of past Companions for a party!) There are plenty of ideas thrown out here, use them or come up with your own.

Next, a look at Adventures. Now we have a concept and a bunch of characters, what are they actually going to do? Adventure-writing is an art in itself, and here the model of creating an episode of the TV show is used to good effect by exploring what each of those folks whose names whiz past on the end credits actually contributes. Of course, your life is easier. You have a limitless budget for your production and you don't need to write a full script as the players will provide a lot of it once you've set the scene, indtroduced NPCs and problems and so on. We then get into good advice on putting together a plot, notes replete with ideas that, if you like them, could easily be developed into a full adventure. There's adventure structure and pacing, all kinds of useful things here - many of general application to writing compelling adventures for any game, but all of use for this one. The chapter ends with a random adventure generator that could keep you going for literally ages.

Then we turn our minds to Villains and Making Monsters. Even if we have already determined our adversaries, there's more to be done before they can face the party. The main villain benefits from having at least as much care and attention lavished on his development as any player-character. There are also many ideas to help you construct good original monsters and aliens. The next section looks at Settings, the places in which the adventures will occur. Important here is how you describe them, what you choose to describe and so on... but first you need the overarching concept for that space station, planet or wherever it is that the action is going to take place. Then you can get down to the details and decide how you are going to introduce them to the group. Even the most exotic setting has parallels with things they are familiar with - most of us haven't visited a space station but we all know what to expect in an airport, for example.

The final section in the first part of the book looks at Running Games, Campaigns and Stock Footage. This is mostly about actually running the game when all the prep work is done and the players are sitting expectantly around the table. There's plenty of good advice about pacing, keeping people engaged, providing a bit of order when things get chaotic and everybody's shouting and so on. Read it now, because you won't be able to refer to it once the game starts. On campaigns, there's a look at what makes a real campaign as opposed to a string of completely unrelated adventures. Plot arcs, quests, recurring villains... loads of ideas, and plenty of references to things that happened in the show, feel free to use them especially if your group have not been obsessive watchers of the show right back to the 1960s. You also may face issues like players wishing to change character or a character dying, there's advice for handling such events too, as well as on ending a campaign with a proper finale rather than fizzling out. And stock footage? On the TV screen, that's when something happens relatively frequently, so it gets filmed once and then replayed every time it's needed. Here, it's a collection of ready-made NPCs and settings to drop in when you are stuck, maybe the party jigged left when you expected them to go right.

Finally we get to the adventures: Death Comes to Toytown, The Grip of the Kraken and The Bellagio Imbroglio. The first one begins with a toyshop where passing drunk students claim that the toys come alive at night... then the characters wake up and find that they ARE toys, in the toyshop! In The Grip of the Kraken there's a monster dragging starships to their doom, and needless to say it grabs the ship the TARDIS happens to be on at the time. In the last adventure, The Ballagio Imbroglio, the party finds themselves in a 1778 Venice replete with intrigue and with individuals such as an aging Casanova popping up, not to mention the Inqusition... All three provide plenty of action and problem-solving to keep your group happy.

I'd rate this fairly essential for Doctor Who RPG GMs, and indeed pretty useful whatever game you want to run. Much of what's here is applicable to any game system and you'll find yourself applying its principles across the range of your GMing activities.

Designed for an Oriental setting, this adventure plays upon the constraints imposed by a rigid adherence to the code of Bushido or similar comprehensive code of honour. A hitherto courageous daimyo is plagued with nightmares of his ancestors meeting their ends in inglorious ways, not the heroic deaths the legends tell of them, and wants his most trusted retainers (the party, in other words) to find out what REALLY happened to them.

The DM's Background explains just why poor Lord Jingoro is having nightmares, and contains a reminder that as his faithful retainers the party are charged with guarding his property as well as his person... when the entire adventure takes place in his palace, this means that they ought to take care when fighting or spell-casting so as not to do too much damage!

It all begins when the party arrives at the palace one fine summer morning and find Lord Jingoro's wife Suko in floods of tears. The poor fellow is in a terrible state believing his whole life to be built upon the lie of praising dishonourable ancestors and he is threatening to take his own life. The party will need to sift through the records and deal with ancestral spirits themselves to find out if this is true in an attempt to save their lord's life. There's a map of the estate for them to search through, scrolls to read and shrines to visit in their quest; as well as servants to question.

The whole thing is quite convoluted, but captures the essence of matters important to the oriental mind that would not concern westerners to such an extent. Plot and counterplot ensure that there's enough going on. There are some annoying typos, but it's easy enough to figure out what is intended. Virtually every possible outcome is noted, just about all of which have ramifications for the future of your campaign.

Very much intended for an Oriental setting, this adventure takes the party towards a tiny quiet village whose main aim seems to be to stay out of the public eye... but they are attacked before they even get there, by a bunch of bandits!

The DM's Background describes what is behind this attack, and tells the tale of a cat whose curiousity was so great that it became a powerful and mischievous spirit. We all know cats like that!

It's not made clear why the party's going to the village in the first place, perhaps they are merely passing through. After the bandit attack, however, they may wish to go there. Here they find demoralised peasants who claim to be under the power of a demon lord. There's no inn, so if the party want to stay they can either lodge with a peasant, stay in the temple or visit a nearby castle. There is some limited interaction to be had in the village, but it seems inevitable that the party will end up going to the castle where the demon lord is said to live.

There's a map of the castle (but not one of the village or surrounding area), coupled with room descriptions and encounters therein. The place seems well-provided with traps... and with cats! There are other dangers as well.

While the adventure itself is rather basic, the party has quite an interesting moral problem to solve, based on the reason why the situation they faced arose. Their choice could lead to long-term ramifications... at least, if anyone finds out what they chose to do. It could work well near the beginning of an Oriental campaign, but has limited use if you are not running one.

Alstad used to be a prosperous town, bustling with life. Now it's deserted, animals are skittish, and a few gaunt faces peer out the windows. Then a ten-year-old boy asks the party for help - his parents have vanished! Can you help the lad, and maybe sort out the town's problem as well?

The DM's Background lays it all out, explaining the root cause of all the recent disappearances and how it came to be loose in town. Details are left purposefully vague, so that you can drop Alstad into a suitable location in your campaign world, although it is suggested that the adventure is best run in mid-autumn, with days shortening, the air getting chilly, and mists abounding. That said, the town itself is well-described, with a smallish map and notes on locations and notable inhabitants (or at least, who's left!). Conveniently there is someone in town who has the knowledge to realise what is going on - if only someone updates them on the situation and asks the right questions. You can use this person if the party are struggling to figure things out.

Perhaps the party has heard rumours that something odd is going on in Alstad, or they may have just arrived on other business (probably passing through) and find the place strangely deserted. Whichever way, the adventure begins as they are accosted by a scared small boy. Then they can explore the town and speak to the few still there.

Nearby there is a hill, Watchman's Hill, where the town's founder (a former adventuring wizard called Alstad) is buried in what used to be the town's cemetery. That is full now, and a new one has been started on the edge of town. Nowadays few folk go up Watchman's Hill, it has a reputation as a bit of a spooky place. This spooky feeling is now in town. Perhaps there's a connection?

It's a well-constructed story and serves to introduce both a nasty undead and a powerful yet flawed artefact, which you might wish to use outside of this adventure. Menace builds slowly but steadily, with the end being either the elimination of the threat or the elimination of the entire town (and possibly the party as well). Nice creepy tale, best played after dark...

If someone hires you for a 'simple bodyguard job' you know it's time to expect the worst, right? This one is no exception, as the party is hired to protect a merchant and the bodies begin to mount up. But will they stay dead?

The DM's Background explains all, introducing a new undead monster template, the revenant - a killing machine bent on revenge and it seems nothing will stop it. The plot itself concerns skullduggery in the clothing trade, and there seems to be plenty there to keep the party busy even without the introduction of undead... and of course they'll have to decide if they are protecting the right individual.

The adventure can start in any reasonable-sized city in your campaign world, when the party sees plenty of want-ads for good bodyguards and investigate further. There are events in town, messages in the dark and opportunities to fight or make a hasty exit, and hopefully the party will piece things together and realise not all their opponents are still alive although their employer's associates are departing this mortal coil at an alarming rate. Perhaps they can save one or two by getting there before who- or whatever is killing them off does. Eventually they should end up in a subterranean maze under a keep owned by one of these associates, where matters come to a head...

What was created as a vehicle for presenting new undead (to go along with Alderac Entertainment Group's sourcebook Undead) is a lot more, with a coherent backstory and a chance for plenty of interaction and excitement as the party try to keep people alive... but do they deserve to live?

This adventure, for characters of 5th-7th level, sends the party into a ruined keep that's crawling with undead where they'll have to find out what's causing the problem and face a tough decision between doing the right thing and lining their own pockets rather hansomely! The Players' Introduction explains that everyone knows about the lich who lives up there and so stay away, but of late it seems impossible to bury your dead hereabouts without them springing back out of their graves!

The GM Background explains what's going on and who is really behind all the trouble. Moreover the party receives not one but two job offers to clear out the keep... one of which is from the lich himself! Needless to say, the objectives of the two job offers are somewhat different, and whichever one the party decides to take, the other lot are bound to be annoyed and liable to cause them problems in the future.

The adventure begins in the bustling port of Heathwyck, which lies in the shadow of a mountain known as Covenant Hill. Here the party receives their first assignment from the Temple of Light, who want them to steal the lich's phylactery, the artefact that empowers his abilities to raise and control undead. The locals greet the news with delight, and start treating them as heroes even before they depart on their mission...

It's not too far to the keep, even if it is a bit of a climb and the road is overgrown. The keep is well-described and there's a good plan (but it's not player-friendly, you'll need to sketch something out to show them) - and the place is crawling with undead. Should the party study what they find they can discover the truth of the matter, which might change their opinions as to what they ought to do. A new form of undead and the phylactery itself provide the customary new monster and new artefact.

It's a fairly straightforward slog of a fight against a large - and I mean large - number of undead, although the twists and turns of who's actually doing what and the conflicting job offers make it just a little more than that. There are a few errors in the text (mostly spelling, but one bit that doesn't make sense - fortunately not an important one), otherwise it's presented clearly. A good session-worth of fighting to drop into a campaign. And of course there's the undying emnity of someone to contend with thereafter...

Whilst this makes a nice bit of atmospheric Mythos fiction, its real joy is if you are running The Curse of Nineveh campaign. Reginal Campbell Thompson is, you see, the archaeologist who dug up the artefacts that are causing trouble all over London, and you can use this as a rather magnificent player hand-out! Indeed, the opening item is a note from Theodore Rayburn-Price, the party's benefactor, suggesting that it might be of use to them...

It opens as Campbell Thompson is about to leave Marseilles to travel to Iraq, and notes several conversations with fellow-passengers on the steamer on the way to Constantinople, from where they were to travel overland to the dig site. It's a detailed account that lets you follow his route and picture the places and people that he sees - even if not for the line drawings that pepper the text. It all sounds remarkably ordinary - not that such a trip is ever ordinary - to begin with, but once excavations have begun things begin to go astray, beginning with a weird Arab berating them and threatening all manner of curses and evils should they continue the dig. They continued work of course, and then begin to describe what they found... and what then occured. You do not, in the regular course of things, expect long-dead mummies to arise, however much racket you make to disturb them.

The excavation continued, and an impressive list of artefacts catalogued, along with illustrations. The unfortunate events also continue, with one of the party being murdered, a vertiable plague of nightmares, and more violence much of it from this strange band of Arabs. Indeed most of what happens admits of a logical explanation and yet...

A note at the end gives suggestions as to how you might use this journal in your game. The obvious one is to use it as intended, as a massive player handout during The Curse of Nineveh campaign - best given to the party near the end of a session so that they can read it without being distracted during play. Alternatively, you might choose to run the excavation itself as an adventure, allowing the party to have all the dreadful experiences that, in the text, befall Reginald Campbell Thompson and his team. Either could prove interesting...

Presented as the journal of one Neve Selcibuc, a young journalist, this serves double purpose as a piece of Mythos fiction and - more excitingly - a mammoth in-character resource that Keepers running The Curse of Nineveh campaign can had to the players as background and indeed clues.

The tale Neve has to tell is quite dramatic beginning with someone leaping off a passenger ship to their (presumed) death leaving a small but ancient artefact, and various alarms and excursions that follow as she visits an English country house then spends time in London, with deaths and a kidnapping or two and some unexplained fires. There's even a gunfight! Stirring stuff, as the Mythos disturbs 1920s Britain. It all ties in well with the content of The Curse of Nineveh, and opportunity is provided in that work's text for this volume to appear should you have it to hand, as Neve Selcibuc features as an NPC.

It's nicely-presented, and the writing has a certain gentle charm, highlighted by line drawings that complement the text. As an in-game resource, it enhances the information available in the campaign but may prove rather too much for players to want to deal with during actual play - it may be preferable for you lend it to them to read between sessions. To help you use it to best effect, there are some notes at the back with suggestions as to the role it can play in your game. The particularly interesting thing is that only the last few pages tie in to the actual plot of The Curse of Nineveh, yet there's a whole raft of other peculiar events which could be used to develop a plot of your own, to run in parallel with the main campaign or at another time as you prefer.

This is a short adventure designed to be run in a single session. Set in Scotland, it tells the tale of a pleasure cruise that goes horribly wrong... It will work well with a new party, perhaps even with people who have never played Call of Cthulhu before.

The Keeper's Information explains the background: what exactly is on the island of Bass Rock and what it is doing. It then explains how to get the investigators involved. They don't even need to know each other, they just have to have decided to go on a boat trip, a day trip to Bass Rock just off the coast of Scotland near Berwick (off the east coast to the south of Edinburgh). It's a real place, by the way, so you can supplement the map in the book with real ones if you wish.

The trip is intended to last about four hours, and everything starts off well. Then the weather turns nasty. Sensibly, the boat's captain chooses to cut the trip short, lowering the sail and starting the motor to return to port. Fate - or at least the plot - has other ideas...

The adventure is well-resourced, with an excellent description of the shipwreck combined with clear notes on what the investigators must do to reach the shore. Once ashore on Bass Rock, they will have to survive the night. The resources continue with good details of what is to be found on Bass Rock, player handouts and a useful 'plot map' to ensure nothing is missed.

Although simple in form, the adventure is well-planned and well-paced, with plenty of advice in ramping up the tension and horror as the night progresses. Game mechanical information is provided as needed, e.g. a description of an unstable gantry is accompanied by the DEX rolls required to keep your footing on it, which makes it very straightforward to run. It certainly would make an excellent introduction to Call of Cthulhu, or a neat interlude within a campaign.

This mammoth work comprises a campaign set in London during 1925-1926. Intended to be used in conjunction with the Cthulhu Britannica London box set, it is made up of seven parts based around artefacts brought back from an archaelogical expedition to Nineveh. The Introduction explains all this in detail along with background material about what was going on in Nineveh in ancient times and the history of the excavations themselves. This includes references to The Journal of Reginald Campbell Thompson which is available separately as both a novel and something that makes an epic in-character handout to give to your players - Campbell Thompson was the expedition leader. A timeline for the whole campaign and key players are also presented here. Notes on each are extensive, including what they are after and what they are prepared to do to attain their objectives. This enables you to plot their actions throughout the campaign, rather than having them only reacting to the party's actions.

Next comes information on how to set up the campaign. It's assumed players will create characters specifically for it, and to facilitate party formation an organisation called the Wentworth Club is provided: they'll all be members. This is a typical London club, although it has recently decided to accept ladies as well as gentlemen into membership. The club is based on a shared interest in folklore, mythology, history and the occult. Full floorplans and details of some leading members and club staff are provided. Furthermore, there are notes on creating suitable characters for the campaign, likely middle or upper class fellows with appropriate interests for Wentworth Club membership. These interests may be professional or they may be hobbies. There are also options for those who don't want to be club members and a note about integrating replacement characters. Of course, if you are running other London-based adventures (or decide the party is based there) the Wentworth Club makes a good focal point before or after you run this campaign, if you do so at all.

The rest of the book contains the seven adventures. Six relate to separate artefacts from the Nineveh excavation, the final one reveals the underlying plot and brings matters to a head. Interestingly, depending on party actions, events in later chapters may be set in motion even before they have finished the investigation at hand, so it's worth being familiar with the entire campaign before you start (although things are quite well sign-posted as you go through the text). This gives an excellent feel of the world carrying on regardless, making events feel more real to the party.

The first chapter begins at the Wentworth Club at a memorial banquet for a deceased member. Here the party meet one Theodore Rayburn-Price, who is to become a benefactor and mentor of sorts. At the time, though, he is concerned about a young lady journalist who is investigating the rumour of a curse attached to an artefact... which of course soon ends up in the party's hands. (If you have it, so does the young lady's journal - The Journal of Neve Selcibuc, published separately - which she is happy to hand over. From then on - and indeed throughout the campaign - there is a wealth of clues to follow up, people to meet and incidents to investigate.

This campaign is classic Call of Cthulhu at its best, and any Keeper ready to tackle an epic campaign that will take months if not a year or two to complete could do a lot worse than consider this one. Resources in this book alone are excellent, and the companion Cthulhu Britannica: London box set and the two journals mentioned above serve only to enhance it.

This is a massive and invaluable resource for anyone contemplating running Call of Cthulhu adventures set in 1920s London. It is formed of three parts: An Investigator's Guide to London, A Keeper's Guide to London, and Adventures in Mythos London. There's also ancillary material - posters, maps, and handouts.

Beginning with An Investigator's Guide to London, this is intended as a comprehensive reference for players and as such doesn't talk about the Mythos. After a timeline of 1920s London, it quite sensibly begins with ways of getting to the city from both North America and Europe, as well as from the rest of the UK; and then touches on that most British of preoccupations, the weather. Once there, it's a big place so there's a section on how to get around. It is already a cosmopolitan city, and the people who live there are the next facet to be explored. This includes the 'class system' - a concept beloved of sociologists, but with a real and biting reality in the 1920s where it really did matter - the role of ethnic minorities, of which there were plenty. and some new/modified occupations and skills should you be contemplating a Londoner as a character.

The next few sections cover London life: shopping, how news is distributed, entertainment, and law and order, before moving on to a very detailed survey of the city itself in 'The London Guide' which begins with Central London and spreads outwards, reaching the commuter belt. Then follow specific places such as Royal Palaces, military facilities, hospitals, London University, graveyards and the River Thames... places which the party might have reason to visit in their explorations. It's illustrated by plenty of maps, although these are a bit small and cramped and you have to peer to see much detail: they are, however, contemporary to the 1920s and give a wonderful period feel. There's lots of indidental information and illustrations as well, and overall presents a delightful and pretty accurate of London in the 1920s. This can be safely handed to players as reference material, if their characters are familiar with London or have access to a good guidebook.

The Keeper's Guide to London, unlike the preceeding book, is jam-packed with Mythos material and references. It begins with a discussion about bringing the Mythos to life, covering dreaming, hiding, creeping and screaming... a fascinating discussion about how what has gone before influences the present, and how so much lies beneath the surface just waiting to be discovered (or to erupt!); then there is the Keeper's History of London, a far darker thing than the historial information in the preceeding book, the sweep of power and counter-bid that has made it the place it is today. There is a collection of unusual locations, all with connections to weird events or people and notes on how to use them in your game, and then a cavalcade of people: occult organisations and their members, potential allies and information sources, and a couple of clubs - investigators of suitable social standing might be invited to join. Then we turn to a series of Mythos Threats, and finally a collection of Mythos and related tomes. There are enough libraries in London to poke through, after all!

The third book, Adventures in Mythos London provides three full adventures. The first, Terror on the Thames, is a short linear adventure suitable for novice players and any group where the investigators have not yet met one another, as it makes for natural and unforced untroductions, with some useful suggestions as to how you can get all your investigators aboard whatever their background. It all begins with an innocent party aboard a river boat... but ends in tears.

This is followed by Those Poor Souls who Dwell in Light, which concerns the antics of a rogue vicar who ought to have known that the correct way to heaven is not through magic and crystals of power. The final scenario is The Non-Euclidian Gate, which drags the investigators into the often cut-throat world of antiqurian rare book dealers, and the scarcly less tame one of a girls' school. All three adventures have plenty going on and numerous clues to discover to lead the party to the threat, if not to a means to deal with it.

Overall, if you want to run a London-based game of Call of Cthulhu - or anything set in the 1920s (you can always leave the Mythos bits out if necessary) - this is an excellent resource to have to hand.