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The Realm of Shadows, published under license by Pagan Publishing, is a Call of Cthulhu campaign set in 1940. It follows the CoC campaign pattern set by previous books like Walker in the Wastes (by the same author), Horror on the Orient Express and the ( in)famous Masks of Nyarlathotep.

Basically, the PCs are private investigators who are assumed to have no knowledge of the Cthulhu mythos. They take on a seemingly-straightforward case, but in the course of investigating turn up evidence of some very strange goings-on indeed. This leads to a conflict with an ancient cult/conspiracy devoted to the Great Old Ones, requiring the PCs to travel the world to slow or halt the cult, risking life, limb and Sanity in the process. In The Realm of Shadows, the bad guys are the Cult of the Charnel God, and the PCs' travels take them around Massachusetts (of course), to French Guiana and the Dreamlands (I won't reveal any more details, to avoid spoiling the adventure for players). This rather formulaic approach is the only real weakness of the book , but I still find it irritating. Kind of like when TSR releases an adventure that turns into yet another dungeon crawl -- it may be well done, but there's a definite element of "been there, done that."

Fortunately, John Crowe does breathe a fair amount of fresh life into some of the clichés. The cult is interesting and memorable, though its ultimate plan is both vague and overly familiar, and the summer, 1940 time period (when the Nazis invaded France and set up the Vichy government) is an interesting backdrop for the horrific goings-on in the adventure. It's in the locations, though, that The Realm of Shadows really shines. French Guiana (where the notorious French prison Devil's Island is located) is a terrific setting -- equal parts prison colony, frontier town, and _extremly_ inhospitable wilderness -- and the book makes the most of it. The Dreamlands locations (which are actually based on stories by Lovecraft's friend and fellow pulp writer Cla rk Ashton Smith) are appropriately mysterious, exotic and eerie, and the Massachusetts locations (which will be familiar to players and Keepers of Crowe's Coming Full Circle) have plenty of local colour and interesting NPCs.

The best thing about The Realm of Shadows, though, is just how well it is written and designed as a game accessory -- I really hope other game writers read it and learn from it. Call of Cthulhu is at heart a detective game, based around PCs acquiring inf ormation through research, interviews, surveillance, and just plain sneaking around. The problem with this for a Keeper, though, is that if the information is not easy to find in the text, he must either stop the game to find it, or try to recall it and hope it's right. I can't count the times over my years as a CoC Keeper that I've mistakenly told the players they found or didn't find something important, or that an NPC had no information for them (even in my own adventures!). The Realm of Shadows min imizes this by laying the information out clearly and plainly. Every important piece and source of information get its own heading, so instead of scanning through a couple of pages of text to find out what information the PCs! are likely to find if they talk to a certain business's neighbors, the Keeper can just look for the heading "Interview: Neighbors." Furthermore, the book makes excellent use of boxed-text inserts to provide optional events or changes, make note of impor tant information, remind Keepers about upcoming events in the campaign or the consequences of possible PCs actions, or describe interesting situations that cropped up during playtesting. In short, this is an extremely Keeper-friendly layout, and I liked it a lot.

In conclusion, The Realm of Shadows is solid and well-done, if a bit cliched, as a Call of Cthulhu adventure, and extremely well laid out as a game supplement. I would recommend it to anyone looking for a good Call of Cthulhu campaign, unless you are tot ally sick of the CoC campaign formula (in which case, I'd recommend getting Pagan's terrific Delta Green sourcebook). But I especially recommend it to anyone who is interested in an example of how a RPG adventure should be put together.

Style: 5 (Excellent!)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)

The Realm of Shadows
Author: John Crowe, III Category: game Company/Publisher: Pagan Publishing Cost: 20.95 Page count: 204 Capsule Review by Eric Brochu on 10/05/97. Genre tags: none	The Realm of Shadows, published under license by Pagan Publishing, is a Call of Cthulhu campaign set in 1940. It follows the CoC campaign pattern set by previous books like Walker in the Wastes (by the same author), Horror on the Orient Express and the ( in)famous Masks of Nyarlathotep. Basically, the PCs are private investigators who are assumed to have no knowledge of the Cthulhu mythos. They take on a seemingly-straightforward case, but in the course of investigating turn up evidence of some very strange goings-on indeed. This leads to a conflict with an ancient cult/conspiracy devoted to the Great Old Ones, requiring the PCs to travel the world to slow or halt the cult, risking life, limb and Sanity in the process. In The Realm of Shadows, the bad guys are the Cult of the Charnel God, and the PCs' travels take them around Massachusetts (of course), to French Guiana and the Dreamlands (I won't reveal any more details, to avoid spoiling the adventure for players). This rather formulaic approach is the only real weakness of the book , but I still find it irritating. Kind of like when TSR releases an adventure that turns into yet another dungeon crawl -- it may be well done, but there's a definite element of "been there, done that." Fortunately, John Crowe does breathe a fair amount of fresh life into some of the clichés. The cult is interesting and memorable, though its ultimate plan is both vague and overly familiar, and the summer, 1940 time period (when the Nazis invaded France and set up the Vichy government) is an interesting backdrop for the horrific goings-on in the adventure. It's in the locations, though, that The Realm of Shadows really shines. French Guiana (where the notorious French prison Devil's Island is located) is a terrific setting -- equal parts prison colony, frontier town, and _extremly_ inhospitable wilderness -- and the book makes the most of it. The Dreamlands locations (which are actually based on stories by Lovecraft's friend and fellow pulp writer Cla rk Ashton Smith) are appropriately mysterious, exotic and eerie, and the Massachusetts locations (which will be familiar to players and Keepers of Crowe's Coming Full Circle) have plenty of local colour and interesting NPCs. The best thing about The Realm of Shadows, though, is just how well it is written and designed as a game accessory -- I really hope other game writers read it and learn from it. Call of Cthulhu is at heart a detective game, based around PCs acquiring inf ormation through research, interviews, surveillance, and just plain sneaking around. The problem with this for a Keeper, though, is that if the information is not easy to find in the text, he must either stop the game to find it, or try to recall it and hope it's right. I can't count the times over my years as a CoC Keeper that I've mistakenly told the players they found or didn't find something important, or that an NPC had no information for them (even in my own adventures!). The Realm of Shadows min imizes this by laying the information out clearly and plainly. Every important piece and source of information get its own heading, so instead of scanning through a couple of pages of text to find out what information the PCs! are likely to find if they talk to a certain business's neighbors, the Keeper can just look for the heading "Interview: Neighbors." Furthermore, the book makes excellent use of boxed-text inserts to provide optional events or changes, make note of impor tant information, remind Keepers about upcoming events in the campaign or the consequences of possible PCs actions, or describe interesting situations that cropped up during playtesting. In short, this is an extremely Keeper-friendly layout, and I liked it a lot. In conclusion, The Realm of Shadows is solid and well-done, if a bit cliched, as a Call of Cthulhu adventure, and extremely well laid out as a game supplement. I would recommend it to anyone looking for a good Call of Cthulhu campaign, unless you are tot ally sick of the CoC campaign formula (in which case, I'd recommend getting Pagan's terrific Delta Green sourcebook). But I especially recommend it to anyone who is interested in an example of how a RPG adventure should be put together. Style: 5 (Excellent!) Substance: 4 (Meaty)