Game Geeks #94 Shadows of Yog-Sothoth

[MrEriklenn]

How can you even cast Elder Sign--or any other spell for that matter--when you're facing Cthulhu? I mean, don't you go instantly insane when seeing Cthulhu?

[orendo]

My copy of Shadows of Yog-Sothoth is higher a bit than all my other Chaosium books on the shelf. I have one of the latest printings, from 2010 I believe. Anyone else has this problem?

[WastedYears76]

Great review! I agree, this is an interesting campaign at least to pick up and read and see where the Cthulhu RPG came from. Would I run it again? Probably not. Many of the episodes seem expressly designed to kill, maim and cripple the investigators, and played strictly by the book there is pretty much 0% chance of survival. I know the life expectancy of Cthulhu PCs is much shorter than your average RPG, but the fact that, as you say, continuity is thin on the ground just makes thus campaign se

[Talos1963]

Good review!

FYI 'Shadows' was the first ever supplement for the first edition of CoC. It was published in 1982. 'Masks' was published for the first time in 1984.

[colddrake80]

I ran this campaign in full and it is a sausage grinder. Virtually every character was killed or became unplayable because they had some mental defect - like a phobia of bullets (that wasn't going to work with our group). Good times though the "Bronx Blood Bath" and clones in the desert were a couple additions I made and remember to this day despite being nearly a decade ago.

My copy was published under the title "Cthuhlu Classics"

[orendo]

Kurt, I was wondering whether your copy of Shadows of Yog-Sothoth is higher than the standard Chaosium books? I bought it a few months ago (it's a printing from fall 2009; you can find the date at the bottom of one of the last pages) and for some reason it's like 1/4 inch higher than all my other Cthulhu books.

[Emhilradim]

It's impolite to give spoilers, especially on a page that is going to be read by a good number of people. 3, 281 views and how many of those views got ruined by you telling them the ending?

[BadBillboard]

@Emhilradim quit being a whiny bitch.

[Esben84]

Thx alot Kurt. Another great review. Really liked the finishing quote. Ive just playing CoC myself and im running some stuff from the core book and building my own into it. I really love the game and all the horror. Again thx for a super review and keep 'em commin.

Esben the Dane

[Xoguran]

One of my players find the perfect answer to the elder sign problem facing Cthulhu: made a Elder sign costume. I can swear that was one of the most hilarious ideas, mostly if you can visualize a respectful and serious anthropologist dressed like a sea star walking around R'lyeh.

[formless777]

Furries... they're everyone's problem...

[hcubeentertainment]

@Xoguran Or here is a better idea: Make a giant shield in the shape of the Elder Sign.

[erisred]

Kurt, I'm not a fan of CoC...of anything in the horror genre, to tell the truth, but i still enjoyed your review. ! Whether I like the product you review, the genre it comes from or even agree with your point of view, I've yet to not enjoy one of your videos. Keep 'em coming!

[gloomhound]

Very well done Sir...How about more of the CoC classics?

[Thyssyk]

Thank you for the info!

[venusboys3]

I've had this for a while but have yet to run it.

Fun to see it reviewed... sparked my interest a bit to maybe finally give it a whirl.

[PaulofCthulhu]

SoYS came first 1982 (the very first supplement for CoC). Masks came out in 1984 as the first boxed set.

[dcfoley]

Please review Trail of Cthulhu by Pelgrane press. Also you said the word Nyarlathotep about 40 times, you is doomed.

[trevlix]

"The guy who summons the Shoggoth to eat you might not be your friend."

Classic!

[tarboy62]

ok kurt we all know you love CoC and your reveiw was very good but can you do a game that has come out in the last 20 years :) i went played in that sup. back in the 80's(i my self do not care for CoC the insanity thing bugs me...but thats my hang up) if want to review some old games what about man, myth and magic, high colonise,or gamma wold

[Jonazzz]

I master that book, its like a road movie.

[DoktorZinieztro]

And all the greater because of it, me thinks.

Sure, if played in alinear fashion, you feel like you're just "clubhoppin", but if you intersperse some of the happenings in this book with the regular gaming with you group, then a certain feel of foreshadowing and "bigger things going on" starts to creep in, and you have to love the paranoia it creates on the players.

One heck of a "meanwhile, on a far coner of the world" cliffhanger-style campaign.

Buy it, guys.

Cheers, Kurt.

[bloodrunsclear]

'Star shaped piece of the victim'

That's a new kind of magic ceiling tile right there! How I wish the Seattle based movie Cthulhu had actually been based on this series of fine books and RPGS, rather then some kind of dysfunctional family :/

[jfridy]

Look for the silent film "The Call of Cthulhu," made in 2004 or so. Awesome.

[DoktorZinieztro]

I think he's referrinf to Cthulhu d20...

The greatest abomination of all, after great Azathot itself! :P

[hydra66]

Shadows is one of the few campaigns that you can pick up nowadays in paper form (the other one being the recent Tatters of the King). You mention Horror on the Orient, Innsmouth and Masks but if someone was looking for them today they're stupidly difficult to find at a decent price. If you don't believe me type em into ebay. It's one of my bugbears about chosium- some of their best stuff's OOP

[chef704]

stop showing off just because you can pronounce Nyarlathotep :)

[AntonyPlaza]

I played through this years ago,

Most of in wasn't that challenging,

Until you get to R'lyeh, now that is the thoughest thing I've seen in gaming

Don't go there! lol

The most memorable part of the game though was our teams Mage got hold of a modern day assault rifle and always got insanley lucky when he used it, (he never missed even though he was only using basic chance)

DON'T GO TO R''LYEH!!!!!!111!!

[NaturalTwentyFilms]

I started that campaign many years ago. We enever finished it and I have yet to try and re-visit it.

Great review!

[MadWritter]

CoC sounds like one of the meanest games in the tabletop RPG world!

[AntonyPlaza]

2 MadWritter

It's bad, but not as bad as the Paranoia RPG

[therealGibralter]

Oh god it is. Most of the times I've played it my character didn't survive the night.

[awgoodall]

It doesn't have to be. It regularly is at conventions, and there are a subset of GMs who believe it's not Cthulhu if it doesn't have a high mortality rate. However, it's not required. I ran a campaign for 8 years and we had four (maybe five) player fatalities in that time frame, which included running Masks of Nyarlathotep.

It can be brutal (Horror on the Orient Express is pretty nasty) but it doesn't have to be a complete player bloodbath.

[elohim1279]

Can you review Cthulhu Tech from black sky studios?