Disapointing.

I am a fan of the Hellboy comic. And I thought that Mantic Games did a good job with thier Hellboy RPG main book. So I had hopes for this product. But this line of adventures continues to underperform. I am not sure if I will purchase the third or other future parts.

For the price of a $5 pdf you get 7 1/2 pages of adventure plus a title page and some legal boiler plate. Anyway you slice it, I do not consider this a great (or even a good) value. There are no encounter maps. Only one NPC (and not even the central one) gets a last name. Some obvious NPCs don't appear at all - for example the PCs are almost certainly going to investigate at a hospital and liason with local law enforcement. No names or characters given. The PCs are told to avoid the tabloids. No reporters or tabloids given. Which I guess explains why there is no complications for them actually geting involved. I guess the writers want to do a "sandbox" style adventure, but its hard to do on 7 and a half pages. And some of those pages are filled with art...which while lovely don't help flesh this out beyond a basic outline.

I want to like this but am frustrated by everything that should be in here but is missing. In college I had all day to prep stuff to run as a gamemaster. As a working adult I don't. I'm looking for more than what's on offer.

I give this three stars rather two or one because there are some improvements from Canister VII. The NPCs want to talk to the players in this one! And the plot, threadbare as it is in its 7 pages, captures some of the goofier energy the Hellboy comic sometimes has. A fairly standard argument between neighbors results in a botched summoning that spirals out of control without quite killing anyone ... if the heroes can contain the chaos. A lighter adventure its potentially a fun palate cleanse between more serious campaign beats.