I found this to be an excellent expansion to the rules for Trail of Cthulhu. As usual Megan did an exemplary job or explaining the contents of the volume, so I'll confine myself to a few additional remarks.

I found the multiplicity of magical explanations and procedures really useful -- especially noteworthy is the idea that all, some or none of them could be the correct explanation/procedure and that "magic" may work for some entirely different reason. The concept of the Magic ability is another useful rule addition and makes the entire idea of magic in the game flow a good deal more smoothly. The examples liberally scattered throughout help to clarify the author's intent very effectively. Finally, the system is simple, effective, and mysterious enough to keep the players guessing even when they are "experts" on the system.

DriveThru did their usual excellent job reproducing this one. Overall, I give it a "5" for its excellence and the quality of the reproduction.

This is an excellent little scenario. Basically a more complex version of the typical one-shot, this scenario might require several sessions to fully unravel. Set in the Lake District of northern England, the plot thickens rapidly with a series of twisted and terrible events, many foreshadowing the horrors to come. All in all, the author has managed to achieve an almost "Twilight Zone" effect in setting the mood for this particular adventure. The twist endings are also excellent and help reinforce the overall nightmarish quality of the game. As usual the scenario is packed with role-playing ideas and hints, and also includes pre-generated characters that have the "right" motivations, stability sources and risk-factors to lead them into this particular net. The creatures are suitably horrific and make for an excellent and deadly antagonist. Apparently, this particular scenario is intended to be the first in a trilogy, and so much of the events are left "officially" unexplained, though the wise Keeper will let the players think they have "solved" the mysterious events in order to further surprise them later on.

The quality of the reproduction is outstanding, and the Handouts are provided in a separate section for ease of printing. As usual, the "cinematic" role-playing style preferred by the authors of the more recent scenario packs makes this one a difficult scenario to run for a less "thespian" group, but if you can pull it off, it will be an extremely rewarding experience for all. Frankly, the way the scenarios for Trail have recently been written feels to me like I'M being railroaded into more cinematic play than I really like (I tend towards a slightly more pulpish style of play with overtones of eldritch horror as opposed to the overtly Steven Kingish type of play these scenarios seem determined to drive me into. I prefer my role-playing to be a little different from my TV watching experiences, but perhaps that's just me.) At any rate, it is extremely well written, loosely enough scripted to permit plenty of player initiative, and well thought out enough to easily permit the Keeper to tie up the loose ends. My only real complaint is the attempt to straight-jacket me into playing out a suitably creepy episode of some TV show instead of letting me run it my way (or at least making me do a lot of extra work in order to make it flow my way instead of theirs). Anyway, I'll give it a solid "4" -- based mostly on my sense of pique over the issue noted above!

This particular system is like stepping into a bath full of really cold water -- you're either going to like the refreshing nature of it, or you're going to leap out of the tub with a scream! Based on the Gumshoe system, the game revolves around atmosphere, atmosphere, atmosphere. The rules are merely a vehicle for creating opportunities for the players to act out some truly horrific scenes and events -- very much like a combination of the "worst" teen slasher movies and some of the more esoteric horror written by folks like Steven King and Ramsey Campbell.

The system has been pretty well covered by several of the other reviewers, so I'll confine myself to stating that it's simple to learn, easy to teach and devilishly complex to use effectively -- requiring a particularly skilled group of role-players to reach it's full effectiveness. If you've already read Gumshoe, or Trail of Cthulhu or The Esoterrorists, then you already know more about the system than you'll learn from this book, and large parts of the text are simply extracted from the other publications without any changes at all.

The book is full of guidance on how to run the game -- needed given the way the author recommends the GM interleave different scene types and pull the players into various bits of acting as the game unfolds (one minute they're the lead character, the next an anonymous supporting character, and the next in a regular group scene; add in flashbacks, motivators, mentors, yada, yada, yada, and it's easy to see why this one might be a bit much for the average group of D&D players to simply leap into). The book also contains a fairly horrific example scenario that involves some decidedly "adult" themes. But then, I suppose if you're planning on playing in a truly horrifying role-playing game, you're going to have to get into kinky sex, huge amounts of unredeemed gore, sickening slides into madness and paranoia, and all that goes with them. The creatures described in the game (both of them) are suitably horrific, and should be sufficient (believe it or not) to keep the players fully involved for literally months of play. Since the supplement mentioned in the rules and The Esoterrorists are already out, if you're willing to pop for them, I'm sure you can get plenty more creatures from the Outer Dark to use in future scenarios.

As usual, DriveThru's reproduction of the material is excellent -- highly legible and the images (alas, some are fairly disturbing) are fully viewable. Overall, I give this one a "5," however, based primarily on what I see as a lack of universal appeal, you may want to consider this purchase before making it. While the quality of the work is excellent, it somehow just seems like the kind of play group that would really "get into" this one, might not be the kind of people you want hanging out around your house during the dark of night! :-)

Overall, I rather liked this one. While I see the justice of some of the other reviewers' critiques, it seems to me that they were expecting an awful lot from a 40+ page supplement. It seems clear from the context of the book, that while the Oriental villain is FROM China (or at least the far east), he isn't supposed to be encountered IN China. He's here in the United States (or perhaps Great Britain) pursuing his nefarious ends, and to that end most of the material included in the supplement is highly useful, especially including the information on the Tongs and Chinatowns. The various minions and henchmen in the text take up a lot of space, but then, you would expect an Oriental mastermind to HAVE lot's of varied minions and henchmen, so again, it seems like no problem, and, while I will admit the fiction provided as an intro in the first ten pages took up a lot of space, it was well enough written that I really don't see it as a problem either.

Like the supplements on the Nazis and the Thugee, this one provides a sufficiency of information to permit you to at least establish the concept of the Fu Manchu-like villain; though if you plan to make such a villain a major part in your campaign, you'll clearly want to do a lot more research on the subjects briefly touched on in this volume -- just as you would need to with the Nazis and the Thugee. The technical detail provided gives you plenty of information to use in your search (the Wikipedia article on Mongolian Death Worms is an interesting read), as well as providing enough information to play even without exhaustive additional research. The illustrations are evocative and add to the feel of the material. As usual, DriveThru has done an excellent job reproducing the material, and the entire product was legible, readable and viewable. Overall, I have to give this one a "4."

This is actually a pretty good little sourcebook on the cult of the Thugee. This was the cult in the second of the Indiana Jones movies and the information provided herein allows you to approach the cult from several angles, depending on how you want things to play out in your universe and on what kind of campaign you're running. The history of the actual end of the Thugee is as fascinating a story as any in real history and the variations on that theme provided by this book are excellent and well thought out. Details of the cult are provided, though a more thorough treatment of the ceremonies involved in the cult might have helped play out some of those crisis moments a little more enthusiastically and "realistically" in the game.

Technical information is generally good, with descriptions of the various organizations that you might want to have your cult use, as well as various motivations for the people in charge of the cult. The NPC's provided (while not of much use to me, since I use these supplements to add to my Call of Cthulhu campaign) would clearly be very interesting to play in just about any campaign, but perhaps even more so in a campaign set in the 1890's.

There are a lot of plot hooks in this volume, and generally speaking I have to say that I felt like I got my money's worth on this one. The quality of the graphic reproduction by DriveThru meets their usual high standards, and, overall, I thought this one was pretty well done. There really weren't any big detractors for me on this one, barring the lack of information on the inner workings of the cult. While some of that may simply be unknown, I suspect that a little more research on the author's part might have brought to light all sorts of useful speculation on the part of the British authorities. Still, this one easily earns a solid "4" for its workmanlike nature and general usefulness!

This is a good, basic, description of the Nazi menace in pulp adventure. As many others have pointed out here, it's hardly and exhaustive discussion, and much of the information included should simply serve to drive the conscientious GM onto the web to look up extra information for him/herself.

There are a large number of excellent plot hooks in this volume, and plenty of ideas on how to work the villains into your campaign. While I don't actually play Thrilling Tales, I do use the information contained in these volumes to help liven up my Call of Cthulhu scenarios -- and while this one is more clearly than most set in the mid- to late-30's, eventually (if they live long enough) my players will get there. And what will they think about the Nazis after confronting eldritch horrors for over a decade and a half? Hmmm.

The technical data included in the book is excellent and generally restricted to the time period being discussed -- no anomalous Tiger tanks here! And while I suppose you could accuse the authors of some mindless pedantry if you're so inclined, I generally felt they did a good job of selecting the material included and described in this supplement. The "bad guys" range from your average SA thug to more dangerous opponents including the ever-popular Nazi Sorcerer (by all means, check out "Ahnenerbe" on the web -- you'll be surprised!)

Still, there were a few surprising gaps in the volume, but an assiduous GM should be able to fill them in with little or no trouble if he's just curious enough to spend an evening surfing the web. DriveThru did their usual excellent job or reproducing this one -- no problems reading any of the material or viewing any of the art work. The biggest problem I had with this one is that it was too short. It could have easily been twice as long without wasting any space. Still, a good solid "4" effort.

Well, that pisses me off! I just finished writing a thorough and articulate review of this thing only to have the web page delete it. Rather than go back and try to recreate it (your loss, DriveThru), I'll just hit the high points:

Scenarios -- sort of dull and ho-hum -- failed to live up to their promise, despite enough wrinkles to potentially make them truly awesome. Too regimented and requires the players to follow the script pretty closely to have any possibility of winning (or, in at least one case, even surviving) the scenarios. Yes, I know this is pulp, and we're supposed to give them the chance to overwhelm fate with their two good fists, but the scenarios require more work from the GM than they should have to make that happen. Plus too many opportunities to explore other facets of the scenarios were ignored in pushing the players towards the desired conclusion -- especially in the second scenario.

Graphics -- disappointing, few illustrations of the zeppelins and most of those too small to read without a magnifying glass (thank God for the zoom button on Adobe); plus in at least one case it looks like a simple reproduction of what Chaosium originally published in their first edition of Call of Cthulhu back in the 80's. Several of the pictures and maps were pixilated as well, making them harder to read than they should have been.

Technical Content -- overall excellent -- the authors provided statistics and brief descriptions of most of the rigid airships of the day, as well as additional aircraft and weapons from the '30's including the German "potato masher" hand grenade and various machine-pistols and rifles of the era.

This is one of the early supplements to Call of Cthulhu produced by Chaosium in the last century (okay, that was just for drama -- it was published in 1990 -- so it's an earlier product than many). At the time of its publication, it was one of the best, and the addition of the article on unusual weapons resonated particularly with the group I was playing with at the time (they were always into peace through superior firepower as a modus operandi). The scenarios are well-written and tightly organized, making them easy for a Keeper to make his own. As noted in the blurb, two of them are fairly easy on the investigators (though you can tough them up quickly enough -- and notes are included to help you do that if you so choose), while the third is a killer and best used as a one-shot unless you want to spend a LOT of time rewriting and excluding the worst enemies from the scenario (in which case, why exactly couldn't the local's handle it, again?). Like many of the earlier Chaosium products, this one has a "theme" (Scientific experimentation) which more or less ties the various scenarios together, however they are not designed or intended to be played as a mini-campaign. They are simply one-time horrors that the players may confront -- perfect for those interludes between major campaigns! As a result, they are somewhat more free-flowing than the original campaigns were (Shadows of Yog-Sothoth particularly) and tend not to put the characters in the position of feeling railroaded around the mystery theme park; though the scenarios do lack some of the flexibility that later campaigns and scenarios provided as a matter of course. One particularly nice touch in one of the scenarios was the inclusion of a reference to the Theron Marks Handbook (published in an earlier supplement -- The Terror From the Stars -- which is, alas, unavailable in its original format which included the Handbook -- one of the coolest things ever included in the supplements; Chaosium, do you hear me? Bring back the Theron Marks handbook!!!!!!), but since you don't have a copy of it, you'll either have to make it up or just pass on by. The handouts are easily reproduced and the quality of DriveThru's reproduction meets the high standards we've come to expect from them. Overall, this one gets a solid "5" for its scenario quality, the additional material on unusual firearms, and the quality of the reproduction. Excellent job to both Chaosium and DriveThru!

Again, Megan Robertson did an excellent review of this product, with which I thoroughly agree. I note in passing though, that the "see Page XX" comment could as easily be made about the scenario in the Trail of Cthulhu rule book to, and so I went to the Web Page for Pelgrane Press to see if there was any help there, only to discover a page entitled, lo and behold, "See Page XX." It appears to be an on-line 'zine containing articles of interest on the topics addressed. Additionally there are supposed to be quite a few additional handouts and documents on the Pelgrane Press site, though I have yet to figure out where they are (given the fact that I've only been looking for a brief time) and all in all it seems a clever mechanic to get you to look at their web pages for extra but unnecessary data (that is, not required to play the scenario) and simultaneously cleverly bring you face to face with their products -- thus hopefully inclining you to buy more.

So okay, it's also annoying in a way, but as noted you don't REALLY need the extra data to play the scenarios -- it's merely nice to have. Other than that, Megan did a masterful job of outlining the scenarios, and I really don't have much to add to her comments on that subject.

As usual, DriveThru did a magnificent job of reproducing the book and everything in my copy was highly legible and useful. All in all, this one earns a richly deserved "5."

This is a surprisingly good "one-page" adventure with a complete haunted house, a back-story and enough detail to allow a GM to quickly run a one-night stand, or create a more complex scenario on the "bones" (if you'll pardon the expression) of this one. It's perfect if you are running a brand new group of players with inexperienced characters for the first time -- especially for something like "Chill" or "Call of Cthulhu." Just enough excitement for the players to get involved, but not so crushingly difficult that they'll all go insane or get killed. Spending a little time adding some investigatory clues to the back story (in the local library or newspaper morgue) would allow it to really sing. And, of course, the price is right since right now it's free! The last free on I pulled down from this site needed a LOT of work to be playable (though it had EXCELLENT graphics), but this one is just about ready to go, right out of the "box." I'm very happy I downloaded this one.

Of course, being a one-pager, it clearly DOES require some time and effort from the GM to flesh out and bring alive, but it's pithy and succinct enough to make it worth a little effort. DriveThru did their usual excellent job of producing this one, and it's easy to read and view. I give this one a very solid "4," and, as noted above, the price is definitely in my "affordability" range!

Absolutely brilliant. This is the kind of thing that I wish I'd had 20 years ago! I hope they'll do more of these kinds of prop builders in the future. Mind you, I built some mean matchbooks and other things back in the day -- learned a lot about how to "forge" old looking documents along the way! But this is really helpful. The layering allows you to select from several different texts and symbols as well as a couple of paper types and a few "spatters" (of blood and less identifiable fluids) as well as a really cool hand print. All in all you can create some truly excellent prop books, focusing, admittedly, primarily on the "grimoire" school of book writing. However, if you use just the paper types, you could easily create a blank looking journal (with a suitable blood spatter here and there) and write in the text yourself (perhaps copying from some other player handout from a campaign or scenario you are running). All in all, this is a truly useful product -- and the "instructable" in the back on how to make a hard-back book is excellent to -- and should give you some excellent ideas for additional books as required. (There's a whole web site of instructables out there -- even one on how to build a real secret room, if you want to take your prop building THAT far!)

As usual Empty Room Studios took excellent advantage of the capabilities of Adobe Acrobat Reader -- the layers allow you to create roughly 32 different kinds of covers for the book alone and if you use all the different texts and symbols and paper types and spatters, you can probably create several hundred different pages of text and symbols. The only thing that would have made this better is allowing you to type in your own text and THEN print, though if you have an old manual typewriter at your disposal (especially a non-electric one), then you can do some pretty cool work anyway.

DriveThru did their usual exceptional job of reproducing this one (though in the case of Empty Room products, I'm pretty sure it came that way), and overall I'm going to rate this one a "5" (even though I never give play aids anything higher than a "4") simply due to its incredible flexibility and usefulness. Good job!

I ran across the Hard Boiled series purely by accident, and I must say it is an impressive bit of work. They take full advantage of the capabilities of Adobe Acrobat to layer information on their maps. Heck you can even turn the background (that is, the underlying map itself) on and off! In this particular map pack, they even have a secret staircase you can turn on and off.

An extra addition that is amazing (though also amazingly large) is the .TIFF files they provide, allowing you to print the maps on a truly large scale and still receive the pixel definition that makes them look almost perfect. All in all, this is an amazing player aid. Over time I am gradually purchasing all of their 20th century stuff for use in an on-going Call of Cthulhu campaign, and even their "Base Sets" will seemingly come in handy.

Between the City streets, the Docks, The Shearwater, The Church (and graveyard), the Apartments, a rumored soon-to-be produced Airport, and this one, we have a steadily growing cityscape we can use to depict our adventures in urban areas in the roaring 20's and two-fisted '30's. Now if we can just talk them into doing a subway and sewers set and a skyscraper or two, we'd have just about everything we need!

DriveThru did their usual excellent job of reproducing the material and it was easy to use and download. Of course, as usual, this is merely a player aid, so I'll only give it a "4" overall due to the lack of detail that you need to fully flesh it out -- but if I could rate player aids on a different scale from everything else, this one would probably earn a "6!" :-)

Another good product from Goodman Games. This one pulls us into the Soviet Union and as such makes it a little more difficult to suspend disbelief than the other products in this series have. Not to bash the scenario -- it is well written, well thought out, and follows the usual Goodman approach of great flexibility, permitting the players to wander where they will and where the clues they discover take them. There are a couple of key bits of information in this one that the Keeper may even have to "cheat" in order to ensure the players get in a timely manner, but overall it has a good design and good pacing. The antagonist chosen for this one is perfectly appropriate to the locale and the servitor races will make for some very interesting scenes from time to time. Admittedly, this one requires a somewhat more "pulp-ish" approach to it, though Goodman had the excellent sense to provide some alternate play info to permit players who rely less on their fists and guns to do a job to play it through too.

The biggest problem with this one is the entire concept of the Soviet Union -- this is in the midst of Stalin's collectivization drive and foreigners are held in great suspicion throughout the Soviet Union -- but most ESPECIALLY in places like Moscow and Leningrad. Yet, oddly, though the OGPU (later the NKVD, and still later the KGB) make occasional appearances in the game, there is little feel for what that would have really been like had a group of foreigners suddenly appeared in Lenin's city and started running around investigating things. In reality, they probably would have simply disappeared into Lyubianka or the Gulags and that would have been the end of it all. In this game though, the OGPU is almost benevolent, and no Soviet citizen appears to feel much hampered in chatting with the foreigners. Goodman tried to give a good reason for all these foreigners to show up, and did the best they could with the premise, but overall it just feels kind of forced, and highly unlikely. Despite that, it's a fairly fast-paced and fun scenario, and worth playing if everyone can suspend disbelief long enough to play it out. (As a side-note, my original play group was filled with people taking Russian language and history classes in college, and it would have been extremely interesting to see how they would have played this one out. In their case though, it probably would have been better to have played Soviet characters instead of foreigners (or, at most, one foreigner) and done a lot of the role-playing in Russian instead of English!)

Anyway, DriveThru did their usual excellent job of reproducing this one, and the text, art-work and handouts were easily usable and legible. There are a couple of ties to the previous adventures in the series, as well as a couple of plot hooks that may be designed to foreshadow additional future products in the series, or may simply be something the Keeper can use to trigger off a scenario of his own design. Either way, they are a nice touch. The pregenerated characters, again, provide some useful motivational examples to help the players figure out why they got involved in this one, but overall, due to the difficulties in travelling to the Soviet Union, the even greater difficulties in returning to the United States and/or Great Britain AFTER such a trip, and the lack of genuine menace from the Soviet Government (and yes, I know that an organization OF the Soviet government invited the foreigners -- but that still wouldn't have prevented the OGPU from doing their thing), I can only give this one a "4."

Another excellent effort by Goodman Games. This one, in fact is better than the first one. It takes us into quite an interesting scenario and the choice of antagonist is much better for this setting than it was in the first one. The scenario, again, is designed to accommodate the players instead of forcing them down a particular investigatory path, and in this case succeeds rather well. The opening scene is more or less a set piece, but from that point on, the players are free to go whither they will (and where the clues they discover take them). There are multiple opportunities to discover the clues the players need, and while there is still the possibility of missing a key bit of info due to a bad roll, the Keeper can always overcome this by judicious use of the clue rules from something like GUMSHOE. Anyway, this one has not only the usual areas the players will likely investigate in the course of the mystery, but even a delightful little interlude (not really necessary to the scenario itself, but way cool all the same) in a wax museum!

There are a couple of ties to the preceding scenario book -- Death in Luxor -- as well as the usual handouts and pregenerated characters for use by a group just starting out. The pregenerated characters are even useful for established groups in that the history section of each character provides an excellent example of motivation for a character to become involved in the story. As always, DriveThru's reproduction of the material is excellent with no problems noted in reading the material, viewing the art work, or reproducing the handouts noted. The handouts, by the way, are extremely well done. This one easily earns a "5" in my book. Good job to both Goodman Games and DriveThru!

I was extremely pleased with this entire series of supplements for CoC. In the case of Death in Luxor, it was clear, well laid out, and flexible enough to permit the Keeper to run it in any order the players care to approach it in. Of all of the ones published to date, this one felt the most like it would "railroad" the players based on the first scene out of the blocks, though a clever Keeper (with a clever play-group) should be able to overcome that issue. The player aids were extremely well done, and easy to access, print and produce. And the pre-generated characters (while not useful in and of themselves to an established player group) provide some excellent examples of how characters may have become involved in the adventure (motivations). Admittedly, if I were picking a servitor race and plot for Egypt, I probably would have picked the Sand Dwellers as my primary group with maybe ties to Yig or someone vice what was chosen here, but overall, it just has a really nice feel and flow to it and despite that particular quibble, I like this scenario very well.

An additional bonus to the AoC series of supplements is that there are ties between the adventures and even the newspaper clippings provide some additional information that could lead to other adventures. All in all, an awesome job.

As always, the quality of the reproduction by DriveThru RPG was simply awesome. No problems reading, viewing the art work, or reproducing the player handouts. Overall, this one earns a "4" mostly because of personal prejudice against the servitor race and Great Old One chosen for this setting, and because it does try to railroad the players to some extent, but if it weren't for those two factors, it would easily make a "5."