The Unspeakable Oath - Issue 18

by Shane Ivey

The Unspeakable Oath is a quarterly magazine dedicated to tabletop roleplaying games that are based on the Cthulhu Mythos -- the creations of horror author H.P. Lovecraft, the writers who inspired him, and the writers who followed him.Created and published by game designers, writers and artists who love Cthulhu Mythos gaming, every issue provides ideas, inspiration, tools and techniques to make your games more horrific than ever.The Unspeakable Oath 18 "The Branchly Numbers Edit," a Mysterious Manuscript by Pat Harrigan."The Chinaman's Screen," an Arcane Artifact by Adam Gauntlett."The Forgotten," an Arcane Artifact by Dan Harms."The Art Show," a Tale of Terror by Nick Grant."House of Hunger," a Tale of Terror by Monte Cook."Mr. Popatov," a Tale of Terror by John Scott Tynes."Slight Return," a Tale of Terror for Delta Green by Pat Harrigan."Tales of Nephren-Ka" by James Haughton."The Chapel of Contemplation" by Dan Harms."Black Sunday" by George Holochwost and C.A. Suleiman."Dog Will Hunt," a 1920s Call of Cthulhu scenario by Richard Becker."The Word," a short story by Shane Ivey.

Genres: Role Playing Games

80 pages, Paperback

First published December 18, 2010

About the author

Managing editor and president of Arc Dream Publishing, www.arcdream.com.

Editor-in-chief of The Unspeakable Oath, www.theunspeakableoath.com.

Editor of Delta Green, www.delta-green.com.

Reviews

[Benjamin]

Here's the last -- or technically the first -- issue of this zine produced by Arc Dream in conjunction with Pagan Publishing. Which also means that this is the first issue that you can easily find both in physical and digital form.

This is from 2010 and it's still fine, but this is not my favorite issue. Like the other issues, we have

* an intro letter from the editor, a one-page story, and reviews;
* adventure seeds (a creepy puppet, sigh; an intersection that might cause deaths; someone who you know died comes back in another body; a creepy art show), artifacts (a creepy paper screen; a piece of metal that makes you forget stuff), and manuscripts (an edit of number station recordings that drive you mad -- which is maybe the best thing in the zine);
* and some long articles:
* a whole thing about some Egyptian manuscripts,
* a whole thing about some cult from the core book's adventure,
* a long adventure about hunting a Cajun sorcerer in the swamp in the 1920s, which seems fun but is also real long,
* and an examination of the 1930s Dust Bowl, which might be the most overwritten piece in the zine.

So there's some things here that might be interesting (like the creepy paper screen), but there's more that feels like it wouldn't work in a game (the metal that makes you forget) and some that just doesn't seem interesting (creepy puppet). I like the adventure and the Dust Bowl article, but everything just seems really long and only potentially useful.

That's not an auspicious start for a newly-revived magazine, which is what this was; and reading this now, I'm not sure that I would guess that it would reach the heights it did with the mega-adventure in issue 23 and the spider cult stuff / cannibal generation clash adventure of issue 25.