The Thing at the Threshold is a well written mini-campaign with an excellent back-story that is loosely based on the short story by HPL of the same name. The villain is insane and guilty of the goriest crimes against both his own loved ones and against reality as we know it. In the end, perhaps only the intrepid investigators can save the world from his mad machinations. Threshold contains three tightly woven chapters unfolding events that lead to the bizarre conclusion. In typical Chaosium fashion, it is filled with sidebars and player aids that will go far towards helping the players build the atmosphere the Keeper desires in the game. The bad "guys" are challenging, indeed perhaps even life threatening and should suffice to keep the players on their toes throughout the scenario, especially given that they are not even sure who the villain of the piece is for quite some time. Enjoy! This one reflects Chaosium at their best!

This is a new addition to the long dormant "Lovecraft Country" series of supplements, again providing a melange of scenarios set throughout the Miskatonic Valley area. One of the nice features of this particular release is that Keith Herber, one of the original great authors behind Call of Cthulhu here makes his return to the game system and the milieu (to use a term I always hated when G. Gary Gygax used it, seemingly without pause). That alone, to me, made the book worth purchasing, and the scenarios within don't disappoint either, showing the various authors at their best. As usual, the reproduction quality is outstanding with no page overlap or bleed through problems, and with no awkward edges or cut lines interfering with the printing of the .pdf file.

This supplement provides a series of adventures for use throughout the "Lovecraft Country" setting that Chaosium was publishing back in the '90's. The scenarios are wide ranging and scattered throughout the Miskatonic Valley (thus ensuring the Lovecraft Country supplements get used), with a variety of settings and mysteries for the players to engage in. While generally not useful in terms of a campaign, they would make nice interludes or one-shots between major campaign themes. Individually the scenarios are well written and intriguing enough to make them worth playing, though in one or two cases they are overly linear and one at least is a cliche used by another supplement.

This is a collection of blank documents relating to sanitariums and mad-houses in general and include admission forms, records of treatment, dispositions and prescriptions and discharge forms among others. Originally published more as a "novelty" item than anything else, they are quite well done, and could prove of use to Keeper's whose Players like to have documents to shuffle and hold during the game.

A Peculiar Pentad provides something long needed for Call of Cthulhu -- a group of shops that can be sprinkled around the campaign, permitting Investigators to find those hard-to-get things that are desperately needed to fight off Yog-Sothoth or his minions. Additionally, the proprietors are described in enough detail to permit them to become useful characters in their own right -- a source of information and encouragement to the players, if the players approach them correctly and are patient. This is a great addition to your supplemental material for the Keeper!

The reproductions are excellent quality and easy to use. This one easily earns a "five."

Another superior product from Empty Room. These guys keep hitting home runs. I especially like the way they take advantage of the Layering capability of Adobe to allow you nearly endless opportunities to personalize your caverns. They also provide ways to connect the caverns with their regular dungeon tiles and their "Blasted Canyon" set. As usual, they provide plenty of "scenery" in the caves themselves for your viewing pleasure, but equally, you can get rid of it, even removing pools of water and apparent cliff sides to permit you to structure your caves anyway you like. Well done, as usual, Empty Room! The set up is perfect for standard miniatures use, or just to provide your players with some "eye candy" as they work their way through your dungeon/cavern lair.

In Chapter Four of the Crimson Emperor, our intrepid heroes are brought before the Emperor himself as prisoners. In best Pulp fashion, the Emperor will reveal his plans to date and how they have now been successfully accomplished thus far. At a subsequent dinner, the Emperor will continue his monologue, revealing his plans for world conquest and the he is the perpetrator of the "Crimson Death" chemical weapon used to slaughter the nearby village (as a test of its power). From there, the adventure is loosely written so that the adventurers have an opportunity to experience various aspects of "durance vile" eventually culminating in their escape from the Crimson Palace with the help of one of the visiting ambassadors. The ensuing escape has all of the plot elements necessary for even the most hard-boiled fan of pulp -- running gun battles, sudden set-backs, treachery, and airplane flight, whatever you could wish.

Another tour de force by Adamant Entertainment, this one actually has some room for the players to move without following a set pattern so much (at least as long as all the necessary prerequisites are followed for moving on to the next stage). Combined with the many thematic pulp elements, this may be the best single "pulp" adventure yet. As always in this serial, this one is written as both a stand alone adventure and as part of the bigger serial adventure. Additionally, there are several excellent plot hooks buried in the story for this Chapter which can lead to other adventures later.

The third chapter of the Crimson Emperor adventure sees our heroes researching the mysterious Crimson Emperor and discovering that an old "friend," Sheldon Gray (from the Dragon Island adventure) is coincidentally attempting to mount an expedition to Tibet (the area where the Crimson Emperor disappeared several centuries before), in an effort to discover the Abominable Snow Man of the Himalayas. Gray, who chooses to remember the heroes positively if they have already met in the earlier adventure, invites them to accompany his expedition so they can search for clues to the elusive Emperor. The heroes sail for London to meet with Gray and the rest of the expedition and then proceed to India where they will board a plane for the Himalayas. One nice feature of the adventure at this point is that there are suggestions on how to enliven or expand the travel portions of the book to add more time and interest to the game, though little information necessary to do so is provided. As the adventurers approach their landing field the plane they are on is shot down and they are forced to crash-land on the mountain side. Meanwhile, Gray has become ill and they decide to proceed to a nearby monastery to seek shelter. Along the way, they run across mysterious tracks indicating the presence of the fabled Yeti! (Another nice touch is that for once, the GM doesn't have to railroad the players away from this mini-adventure and an appendix containing it "The Lair of the Yeti" is included in the game). The expedition takes shelter in the monastery and learn many things, including the presence of a Communist patrol seeking a strange weapon reputedly hidden in the mountains. Along the way they discover a murdered village and get captured by soldiers of the Crimson Emperor.

This particular scenario is very well written, with plenty of information allowing the NPCs to be well role-played. Likewise, there are several opportunities for the players to take more control of the course of the adventure, thus making it seem less like they are puppets on the GM's sting than is usual. While this adventure can be played as a "stand-alone," it almost cries out to be played together with Chapter Four, EVEN if it IS a stand-alone. In effect, Chapters Three and Four could be used to form a mini-campaign if the GM so desires.

The second part of the Crimson Emperor serial (or campaign, for those of you more used to that terminology) involves our heroes in following up some questions raised in the first part, along with the seemingly unrelated matter of the disappearance of Ms Simms, the girlfriend of a mobster killed in a recent hit. During this process they discover that some mysterious force has unified the two rival gangs in the city into cooperating together despite their long history of warring upon one another. As the adventurers unravel this puzzle, they become aware of the Scorpion Lady who is seemingly pulling their strings. Eventually, this leads to a confrontation which reveals the Scorpion Syndicate is but itself a pawn of a much larger threat in a far-away land. Along the way, the players will interrupt a drug smuggling attempt and learn the name of the Crimson Emperor while involving themselves in several gun battles in locations as diverse as a "night club" (nee brothel), a steamer, and a warehouse.

The adventure is well written, again with opportunities to do some research, plenty of action, a rescue (hopefully) of a damsel in distress, and lots of other fun, "pulpy" things to do. While somewhat linear in its nature, it should be possible for a clever GM to loosen up the order of events fairly easily. As before, with Chapter One, this one is written to either serve as a stand-alone adventure or as part of the serial. Chapter Two is more involved and complex than Chapter One was, and can serve as an excellent stand-alone adventure, especially for those whose games revolve more around crime fighting than esoterica. If played as part of the serial, the players now find themselves considered worthy foes by the Crimson Emperor and must seek to discover more about him and his machinations before it's too late.

This particular adventure is a bit different from the usual AE Thrilling Tales adventures on two counts. First, it can be played as either a stand-alone adventure, or as part of a five section "serial" adventure -- much like a Call of Cthulhu campaign in that regard. And second, the overtly political nature of this episode sets up some potentially interesting character conflict and some unusual situations for the players. While there is still plenty of fisticuffs and opportunities for mayhem and gun battles, the players' objective this time out is a little different in that they are expected to try and preserve the life of Senator Morrison, a popular (and populist) politician along the lines of Huey Long who seeks to become President of the United States. During this adventure, the players become involved through any one (or perhaps more than one) of a series of possible intros. The upshot of all of them is that the players seeming stumble on a plot more serious than the usual political shenanigans that occur around the time of Presidential elections and involves a plot to kill the Senator. This culminates in an exciting confrontation aboard a train carrying the Senator to his next campaign stop. While the adventure is fairly simple, it does include some opportunities for investigation and information gathering, and it lays out some of the key players in the serial in some detail. As a stand-alone adventure, this one is mainly good for an evening of relatively light play, as the introductory chapter to the serial, it sets the stage for more dangerous and exciting events to follow. While most AE adventures are written in entirely too linear a form, this one has some nice features allowing it to be played more loosely and giving the players more of a feel of being in control. One problem I noted with this adventure though is the lack of specific guidance to the GM. In several cases he is simply instructed to provide information in "some other way." Not perhaps conducive to a new GM running this one! Other than that however, it is a simple, easy adventure which as a stand-alone provides a good beginners scenario and as part of the serial, sets the stage for further adventure!

This is a surprisingly good adventure, involving the players in a unique way (they have the opportunity to foil a robbery at the museum) and taking them on a world-spanning chase to recover a series of coins that lead the way to a vast treasure plundered centuries before. Along the way, they will confront the dreaded Pirate Queen of the South China Sea, and even face a group of skeleton warriors cursed long ago by one of the original owners of the treasure lost at sea. The plot mechanisms are fresh and exciting for most gamers and the touch of occult is perfect if your campaign runs that way. As usual, the adventure is easily converted to other systems and, while somewhat linear, the very nature of the coins themselves (and who has them) means that they can be sought in any order depending on the clues the players find. A worthy GM will take time to make sure that there are clues to at least one other coin in each location where a coin can be found, and will also ensure (a la Gumshoe) that the clues ARE found. The villain-ess is vile and beautiful (as all such should be) and will be a definite problem for the players, perhaps even returning in future adventures if she survives this one. There are enough plot hooks buried in the adventure to keep our players involved in the Far East for some time, if the GM so desires, and overall, this adventure is a must.

At first glance I didn't think Dragon Island would be all that great as an adventure, however, eventually, I decided that for a buck, I couldn't go too far wrong, and so I purchased it. I must say I was pleasantly surprised. The method of involving the adventurers is one that is fairly elegant and doesn't involve yet another long lost friend or lady-love popping out of the woodwork and even sets up the potential for tension within the group if you want to use it that way. The adventure itself is interesting (and includes a Zeppelin -- how do you go wrong with that?), though admittedly fairly linear again, though in this case, Adamant Entertainment provides some helpful sections on different ways the adventure could evolve and suggestions on how to play it out if the players insist on going there. Even better, there are suggestions at the end of the adventure on how to edit it or change it around with minimal fuss. Basically, the adventure begins with a world-renowned (and egotistical) explorer, Sheldon Gray setting up an expedition to a lost island in the Indian Ocean, where they will seek to find the "dragons" reported by the locals to a previous expedition. However, recent activities by Gray have created some enemies for the team, and Thugee attack as the explorers organize. Eventually the expedition lifts off in their zeppelin for the journey, arriving, eventually at the island and seeking out the natives. Unfortunately, things have changed since the first expedition and our heroes are trapped, drugged and imprisoned. After eventually escaping, they make their way to the dragon's lair and must confront the beast, perhaps winning its treasure if they are successful in their efforts. They must then seek to escape the island despite attacks from more of the dragons who seek to damage or destroy their airship. Rescue awaits though as a passing steamer bound for Bombay can pick them out of the drink if they go down. Finally, at the end of the adventure, AE has included some additional plot threads that can lead to other adventures deriving from this one. Actually, AE did themselves proud with this one and it is well worth buying. Highly recommended.

Another excellent little one-off by the folks at Adamant Entertainment, this one involves our heroes in an auction that goes awry over the attempt to sell the legendary Jade Monkey. In the process a beautiful woman is kidnapped and held for ransom, an attempt is made on our heroes' lives and a message is delivered, a dangerous and difficult race through China Town to solve the mystery, avoid various nefarious death traps and unravel the clues to find the hostage, and a final confrontation with the evil Dr. Sin (clearly a take-off of Dr. Fu Manchu) culminates in the final climactic scene! The adventure is pretty well plotted, though also somewhat linear in its arrangement. A clever GM will spend some time to ensure that the players can follow the clues in any order they are discovered and still reach the denouement in time to rescue the fair maiden. The confrontations are well thought out, and the Jade Monkey itself can play a role in the game. All in all this one is pretty good. And it introduces Dr. Sin (who could probably use a renaming) as a potential future villain if he survives this adventure. I liked it, and it can easily be converted to other campaigns as well.

This is another weird one from 314 Games. It purports to depict a "typical" country house from the period 1850 to the present. However it looks like no country house I've ever seen or heard of. It has bedrooms for 18, but their arrangement is odd, with some sleeping in the cellar and a very few on the first floor (with more floor space to each bedroom than some HOUSES have) and the rest up on the second floor. Note that they chose to use European floor numbering, so the ground floor is the one on the ground. The cellar, if one ignores the bedrooms (which can sleep eight) is laid out like an RPG'ers' dream with a large conference table in a room surrounded by chairs and another large table in large open area. The ground floor is mostly functional, though again, overly spacious, including, oddly enough, what appears to be a ballroom, and the first floor is similarly odd, including an enormous bathroom that contains two stand-alone tubs and a couple of sinks (no idea how the plumbing connects on this thing!) in what appears to be about half an acre of space (you could literally put 20 tubs in the space and rent the floor out as a bath-house) and what appears to be another ballroom! Guess this family loved to dance -- and with 18 people had plenty of partners! Maybe that explains the "bath" room; all that dancing will sure work up a sweat. This one is a good deal more useful than some of the other floor plans 314 has produced, and manages to avoid some of the glaring anachronisms in other products as well, but at well over 13,000 square feet, it seems more like some rich eccentric's country MANSION than it does a house, and frankly, even the huge mansions of yesteryear were more divided up into usable spaces than this thing is. Not a great effort, though, at 67 cents I don't feel like I got ripped off.

314 brings us a fairly simple motel layout -- a classic cheap dive sort at that. Its billed as suitable for any time period from 1918 to the 1960's or '70's, however given the TVs and the modern looking washing machines and dryers in the laundry room, I'd say their intent was more 1950's to '70's. Obviously you can disregard them, but the lack of use of the layering capabilities for Adobe means you can't really delete them, and no blank layouts are provided. Another problem is the truly weird choice of perspective for the first page, and while rotating the view in Adobe fixes that one, it screws up all the other perspective shots in the booklet. At four pages, and given the problems with the layout, even at 67 cents this one was kind of a waste of money.