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Trail of Cthulhu RPG
Stunning Eldritch Tales
Stunning Eldritch Tales is a collection of four adventures written by Robin D Laws. In The Devourers In The Mist castaway investigators face the an ancient evil. In Dimension Y, the PCs witness an inventor?s presentation of a new machine to peer into a non-Euclidean reality, and then feel reality slipping from beneath them. With Shanghai Bullets and Death Laughs Lasts, this collection demonstrates the strengths of the Trail of Cthulhu system.
82 pages, Perfect Paperback
First published January 1, 2008
About the author
Robin D. Laws
153 books196 followersWriter and game designer Robin D. Laws brought you such roleplaying games as Ashen Stars, The Esoterrorists, The Dying Earth, Heroquest and Feng Shui. He is the author of seven novels, most recently The Worldwound Gambit from Paizo. For Robin's much-praised works of gaming history and analysis, see Hamlet's Hit Points, Robin's Laws of Game Mastering and 40 Years of Gen Con.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 19, 2014
4 estupendas aventuras de tipo pulp, que hacen honor a su nombre.
Robin Laws cubre eficazmente las aventuras de justicieros enmascarados, las de ciencia loca, las de supervivencia en lugares hostiles y la intriga en sitios exóticos. No puedo contar más para no destripar nada, pero no puedo decir cuál me gusta más. Quizá cuál menos, pero es difícil.
Las aventuras son picadoras de salud mental: Aunque sean pulp, son difíciles, y llevarán a los jugadores al límite.
Unas cuantas reglas añadidas que puedes usar en el resto de juegos GUMSHOE y tienes un suplemento redondo. Este va a la próxima campaña que haré en breve, aunque yo no veía claro lo de meter relatos pulp en mi campaña de CSI años 30 + Mitos. Pero van a caber. Vaya que sí.
Una compra excelente.
Robin Laws cubre eficazmente las aventuras de justicieros enmascarados, las de ciencia loca, las de supervivencia en lugares hostiles y la intriga en sitios exóticos. No puedo contar más para no destripar nada, pero no puedo decir cuál me gusta más. Quizá cuál menos, pero es difícil.
Las aventuras son picadoras de salud mental: Aunque sean pulp, son difíciles, y llevarán a los jugadores al límite.
Unas cuantas reglas añadidas que puedes usar en el resto de juegos GUMSHOE y tienes un suplemento redondo. Este va a la próxima campaña que haré en breve, aunque yo no veía claro lo de meter relatos pulp en mi campaña de CSI años 30 + Mitos. Pero van a caber. Vaya que sí.
Una compra excelente.
Currently Reading
June 7, 2019Book of four one-shot adventures for Trail of Cthulhu. I'll rate them as I get to them. I'm actually starting with the fourth, because it was not location specific. ... And we did the third next, as a New York setting fit the background of one of the PCs. Then the first, as their plane got blown wildly off course (and probably through a portal) on their way back from New York.
The Devourers in the Mist - Read, but not yet run. The PCs find themselves on a mysterious island after their ship goes down (for my players, it will have to be a plane going out over the island). They need to focus on basic survival, at first, before realizing that there's more to the island than it at first seemed. More after I've run it.
Thoughts after Running - Enjoyable, though I shortcut the survival segments a bit. The modification to have them crash land resulted in some interesting deviations from the laid out track, but nothing unrecoverable. Once basic survival needs were met, the PCs spent a great deal of time repairing the plane's landing gear (helped out after they found Copeland's plane and could scavenge parts). The plane also meant that they had whatever supplies would have been in the plane, and I was fine with that (a group that enjoys drawn-out survival segments might feel otherwise). And the end segment... I would never have predicted what my players did there, but I ran with it and came up with a suitably dramatic finish. Enjoyable overall.
Shanghai Bullets (pending - not sure when a trip to China will fit with the current PCs, or if I can modify it to not be in China and make it work better)
Death Laughs Last - An entertaining and Mythosian take on vigilante crime-fighters. The Penitent has elements of The Shadow, Scarecrow (as in the Batman villain), and The Green Lantern that I noticed (and one of my players was reminded of the Phantom, which is not one I'm familiar with). The players are called in to deal with a murder mystery, which turns weird when they figure out that the victim was this vigilante. Then weirder if they figure out where he got his mystic powder for striking fear into the hearts of wrong-doers. I was greatly entertained when one of my players who usually comes up with completely off-base theories hit on the actual murder solution fairly early on, and eventually the other players were convinced he was right.
Dimension Y - Nicely put together murder mystery with a "save the world from Azathoth" chaser. It follows similar themes to "Unseen - Unfeared" by Francis Stevens, as far as the unseen creatures being revealed through a projector device goes. I haven't really looked for the source for the Azathothian bits, but the flautist creatures at the end feel familiar. Location: any place large enough for a research university and a sanitarium. Might say more after I've run it.
Comments after running - I was worried that my players might take too long and trigger some of the nastier visions. Nope. They managed to get through everything even before the second murder. Only one vision triggered! No idea how typical this is. They did spend the points to get earlier meetings in all but one instance, so that definitely helped. However, one of them is determined to build Polton Williams' machine sans the modifications. So I have an excuse to keep going through the visions list in the next session.
The Devourers in the Mist - Read, but not yet run. The PCs find themselves on a mysterious island after their ship goes down (for my players, it will have to be a plane going out over the island). They need to focus on basic survival, at first, before realizing that there's more to the island than it at first seemed. More after I've run it.
Thoughts after Running - Enjoyable, though I shortcut the survival segments a bit. The modification to have them crash land resulted in some interesting deviations from the laid out track, but nothing unrecoverable. Once basic survival needs were met, the PCs spent a great deal of time repairing the plane's landing gear (helped out after they found Copeland's plane and could scavenge parts). The plane also meant that they had whatever supplies would have been in the plane, and I was fine with that (a group that enjoys drawn-out survival segments might feel otherwise). And the end segment... I would never have predicted what my players did there, but I ran with it and came up with a suitably dramatic finish. Enjoyable overall.
Shanghai Bullets (pending - not sure when a trip to China will fit with the current PCs, or if I can modify it to not be in China and make it work better)
Death Laughs Last - An entertaining and Mythosian take on vigilante crime-fighters. The Penitent has elements of The Shadow, Scarecrow (as in the Batman villain), and The Green Lantern that I noticed (and one of my players was reminded of the Phantom, which is not one I'm familiar with). The players are called in to deal with a murder mystery, which turns weird when they figure out that the victim was this vigilante. Then weirder if they figure out where he got his mystic powder for striking fear into the hearts of wrong-doers. I was greatly entertained when one of my players who usually comes up with completely off-base theories hit on the actual murder solution fairly early on, and eventually the other players were convinced he was right.
Dimension Y - Nicely put together murder mystery with a "save the world from Azathoth" chaser. It follows similar themes to "Unseen - Unfeared" by Francis Stevens, as far as the unseen creatures being revealed through a projector device goes. I haven't really looked for the source for the Azathothian bits, but the flautist creatures at the end feel familiar. Location: any place large enough for a research university and a sanitarium. Might say more after I've run it.
Comments after running - I was worried that my players might take too long and trigger some of the nastier visions. Nope. They managed to get through everything even before the second murder. Only one vision triggered! No idea how typical this is. They did spend the points to get earlier meetings in all but one instance, so that definitely helped. However, one of them is determined to build Polton Williams' machine sans the modifications. So I have an excuse to keep going through the visions list in the next session.
June 30, 2016
I don't like the Trail of Cthulhu format, but the stories in this volume were a cut above the others. I'm not so sure that the last episode is survivable, though, and I really do prefer that at least some of them make it.
March 30, 2024
3.5 Las ideas de los módulos y la ambientación son buenas, pero la trama de investigación quizas no tanto. Supongo que con un poco de trabajo por parte del Guardian pueden salir unas partidas divertidas.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews