Bottom line up front: Unseen Masters is the best set of Call of Cthulhu adventures put out by Chaosium in years. I do not usually get around to writing reviews about the games I play, but the scenarios provided were such a great joy to read I thought I'd finally do one! I'd rank it up there with Masks of Nyarlathotep.
I almost feel guilty for writing this review, as I do not want to give away any of the plots, so I will try to say as little as possible, even though I have to give some stuff away. The scenarios have so many twists and secrets within secrets it is a shame for me to just let them out. So, this review contains some spoilers, so anyone who wants to play these adventures and be genuinely entertained, stop reading now!
Unseen Masters is a collection of three oversized adventures, or mini-campaigns, set in the modern day Cthulhu setting. Although not set in the Delta Green universe, the author is considerate enough to put in conversion suggestions in the back appendices in case you want to play in the DG world. It is 216 pages, perfect bound, and costs $23.95. The book says this is for experienced players of Call of Cthulhu. I would agree, since it looks like the investigators would be up against some of the deadliest and sanity blasting situations I've seen in a long time. However, the villains are so well detailed, the menaces so 'fun' to face, it would be worth your investigators' souls to have them go through the challenge.
STYLE
I like to get the negative out of the way first, which I think are but minor points. There are a few typographical errors and some misplaced text. However, these instances are very few and far between and much less compared to the majority of other RPG supplements I have seen. The sidebars are nice, but since the scenarios are so long, I was hoping for a little more variety. However, the sidebars do seem to grow on one as you read through the book, and are totally perfect images that portray the heart of each adventure. I think a few more maps for some locations may have been useful, such as the Templar's lodge, but any keeper worth his 'essential saltes' could easily cook up such things. Some of the handouts have too dark of a background pattern for easy photocopying, even though they do give them some nice old manuscript-like feeling.
Basically, flaws are negligible.
As for the positives, there are many!
The artwork is excellent.
The cover art by Matt Harpold (whose work I love from Unknown Armies) is extremely chilling, showing a woman being menaced by surrealistic monsters. The best part about it is the cover gives not one shred of plot away from the adventures within, a long standing gripe I have for most RPG adventure books. I hope Chaosium begins to commission more art from Harpold! When I picked up the book at my local comic book shop, I still recall numerous customers staring at the book and asking what game it was. Not your typical Lovecraftian icky, thats for sure.
The interior art is just as great as the exterior. Cthulhu veteran artist Paul Carrick distinguishes himself with a vast assortment of illustrations in his characteristic shadowy style. The book is heavily illustrated. I can't say any of the pieces are below standard. In fact, this collection seems to have some of the best work Carrick has ever done, and I hope he keeps on producing this quality. I found the work in Last Rites a bit muddy and not as detailed, but I'm glad to see it was just some minor aberration!
The maps are all well done. I miss the old hand-drawn ones, but the map programs seemed to be up to the task for the book. There are numerous handouts, and although I mention above some are a bit too dark, overall they were fine. My favorite ones were of young children's drawings of bats, deep ones and (Spoiler! Spoiler!) the Haunter of the Dark!
The book is well laid out. The text is easy to read. The font is clear. There is a wonderful table of contents, and a VERY complete index for the book. No searching endlessly for statistics in Unseen Masters!
All in all, the style of this book is Chaosium at its best. I easily give it a 5/5.
The best part is that the content matches the style, or even surpasses it.
CONTENT
The whole book handles craziness as the core themes of the adventures. The writing style is very good, although some flow of words could be improved upon, but for the most part the tales had me riveted to my chair. Even if you never play the scenarios, the read is worth the price alone. One thing I found quite refreshing is the injection of some dark humor to the horror. There are numerous hat-tips to all sorts of horror film and TV shows in all the scenarios. The author also included a long list of acknowledgments at the end of the book too.
One thing that is very well done in all the scenarios is that most of them are extremely non-linear. They have timelines, but are flexible. The scenarios beautifully combine character-driven plots and underlying theme pacing. Details for how each story proceeds are very dependent on player actions.
Preface - a nice little blurb from some mythos texts, and sets the mood and concept of the book.
Introduction - It briefly discusses setting the action in New York City. Most of the introduction is devoted to providing background and source material 'mind' skills in the current era. Just enough for role-playing application and it doesn't become boring.
The Scenarios:
The Wild Hunt. A tribute to the Night Stalker films and TV show. Add one dash Hounds of Tindalos, a sprinkle of Red Dragon, a liberal dose of rave drugs and you get one hell of a hunt for a supernatural serial killer. The investigators actually get to have the resources of the police and FBI this time, rather than have to either work secretly or against such agencies. The title is a pun on the essence of one theme in the adventure, that of multiple red herrings. There are two red herrings I would recommend should not be missed in play involving an S&M dentist and a mysterious Greek Beautician! The only thing that may be a problem for this scenario is that there are too many red herrings. However, this is easily fixed by deciding to exclude whatever a keeper doesn't want in the game. After the adventure, a few pages devoted to background information on Tindalosians is provided. Actually, all three scenarios have these little extras, which I find an added bonus and a touch of class. It is nice to have this extra source material in case a keeper wants to flesh out more adventure trails, or just for the sake of Cthulhu leisure reading.
The Truth Shall Set You Free. A tribute to Philip K Dick amongst others. The whole thing is the best mind-f*cking plot I've come across in any game. This scenario should win some sort of award for originality for executing such a plot and the pure evil maliciousness it inflicts. It is almost completely free-form, provides all sorts of source material for imbuing games with psychiatric illness, and the background material at the end has information on the Order of the Sword of Saint Jerome and the Templars. The whole thing involves an investigator finding that he is developing psychic powers, but these powers let him uncover a vast conspiracy of an invasion from another dimension. And that is just the start, before things get interesting. The detailed notes on how to pull off this scenario are so well done that keepers will have a field day creating a wonderful world of paranoia for the unlucky investigators.
Coming of Age. The last scenario is not as unusual as the other two, in that it features the classic bad guy in Cthulhudom, Nyarlathotep, as opposed to the bizarre villains from The Wild Hunt and The Truth Shall Set you Free. But it does add in various levels of mysteries to be solved, and is a nice continuation of the Haunter of the Dark saga. It also ties in continuation of the plots from Masks of Nyarlathotep and Day of the Beast. The whole thing is blended in with antichrist movie plots! Also, one of my favorite scenes in the book is here, featuring a grisly dinner with a femme fatale (in every sense of the word) from Masks of Nyarlathotep. The opposition in this scenario includes the most powerful god of the mythos and his minions. It is a very deadly near the end. The author did warn in the introduction that not all the climaxes of the scenarios would be to everyones' tastes. The background material at the end contains a brief description of New World Industries' activities in the current era.
The last part of the book contains two appendices. The first gives some suggestions on combining the scenarios into an ongoing campaign. I really doubt this would occur, considering how deadly each adventure is. The scenarios seem to have a nice epic feel to them (all of them are preludes to Armageddon!), that in my humble opinion, each should be played out as stand alone adventures. Also, any experienced keeper would likely come up with all the suggestions given. The second appendix contains suggestions for adapting the scenarios to a Delta Green setting. Personally, I'd leave the adventures the way they are - although the last scenario is deadly enough that I could see having some major government agency support being useful in tackling the Black Brotherhood and NWI. I guess it comes down to your Cthulhu preferences.
Last, there is a page of acknowledgements and then the handouts. The last page contains an investigator sheet for the 2000s. A small picture, easily missed, is on page 215 of the stuffed animal golems from Coming of Age (thats right, stuffed animal golems)!
Overall, the best read and fun I've had in years from a Cthulhu product! I'd give it a 6/5, but it looks like the limit is 5.
SUMMARY
Slick style, slicker stories, original scenarios from classic and off-beat Cthulhoid and non-Cthulhoid sources, plenty of source material, and amazing art, all add up to a game supplement that rocks over most Cthulhu and other RPG adventures I've seen in years! I am hoping this will set a new benchmark for Chaosium products!
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