Not the usual Great Old Ones - a Mephisto review

After the Fate of Cthulhu series already allowed the player characters to stop various Great Old Ones and their rise with time travel to save the world, The Rise of the Quiet confronts them with a subtle but no less terrifying threat. It starts seemingly harmless. Some people have blackouts and behave a bit strangely afterward. Although it is not clear at first whether this is a psychological phenomenon or a disease, many of these people suddenly show unusually altruistic behavior. Therefore, some cults consider this effect to be an improvement of humanity. This condition, called Quiet, also seems to be contagious. However, the future from which the player characters start shows the darker side of this development and how it spells the end of humanity.

The Rise of the Quiet takes a distinctly different path than the other books in the series. It does without a supernatural explanation of the phenomena - although the more "realistic" cause of the catastrophe is also quite unusual. More cannot be said about the background to avoid giving away some surprises, but The Rise of the Quiet is, in my view, a fascinating threat that is suitable if players do not necessarily want to combine time travel with the Great Old Ones, but are looking for a more technically realistic scenario (at least on the surface). From my point of view, The Rise of the Quiet is a very successful title of the series, even if - or perhaps because - the usual Cthulhu themes are abandoned here.

(Björn Lippold)