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"Shades of Gray" is the pulp fiction and film noir supplement for Cthulhu Live. It contains new rules, character templates, and tips for running pulp or noir campaigns, as well as five complete scenarios with pregenerated characters.

Chapter One: The Pulp and Noir Genres is an excellent introduction to pulp and noir, complete with a list of famous pulp characters. A bibliography would have been nice, but it certainly gives the general idea.

Chapter Two: Pulp and Noir Characters covers new skills and character templates. These are outstanding, including skills like "Weird Science," "Nerves of Steel" and "Dramatic Appropriateness." New templates include the Femme Fatale, the Resistance Fighter, the Crime Fighter, the Torch Singer, the Oriental Chauffeur, and many more. All of these are great, and they take advantage of the new skills very well. The templates are probably nothing you couldn't have come up with on your own, but the whole purpose of them is to save time, so they're a welcome addition.

Chapter Three: Genre Rules contains... er... rules. Some modifications to the combat system permit the trigger-happy mayhem of the pulps. Other new rules include Knockout attacks, religious faith, and some tips on how to stage-manage skill use. The most interesting new addition is the section on playing the bad guys, which introduces a new characteristic, Facade. Facade (FACE for short) is the stat which lets you act normal even at SAN 0. Bad guys can progressively degenerate just like PCs, as their ability to hide their madness suffers...

Chapter Four: A Time of Darkness contains timelines of Mythos activity. The most interesting thing about this chapter is that it incorporates Pagan Publishing's Delta Green setting into Cthulhu Live. If you already own Call of Cthulhu and Delta Green, most of this will not come as a surprise to you, and indeed the chapter suggests that you buy DG for its greater detail.

The real meat of this supplement are the scenarios. "Preacher Man" is a Southern Gothic game set at a revival meeting. It's nice and straightforward, playing the cliches of the southern setting to advantage, but there are a large number of PCs who don't seem to have much to do. It wouldn't take much work to soup it up a little, though. "The Big Score" follows a group of crooks who are hiding out from the police in a house owned by a little old man who is more than he seems. I can just see them falling out over the division of the loot... "Berlin Black" is set in post-WWII Berlin (a city author Maclaughlin knows well) and involves Delta Green elements. It's one of the strongest scenarios in the book. My only complaint is that it has only one female part. My suggestion - change the bartender, the reporter, and the art smuggler to women, explaining that all the menfolk were killed off in the war.

"Curse of the Tcho-Tcho" is another WWII-era game, with an archaelogical expedition blundering into territory inhabited by the deadly Tcho-Tcho tribe. It seems like it would take the most work of any of the scenarios in the book, but that it would be very rewarding if pulled off.

The best scenario in the whole thing is "The Osiris Club," which narrowly edges out "Berlin Black" for the honor. Modeled on the film "LA Confidential," this scenario follows two groups of PCs through a murder investigation during McCarthy-era Hollywood. There are some tricky effects and good Keeper coordination is a must, but this scenario is sure to reward Keepers who can pull it off.

All of these scenarios come with pregenerated PCs. Each really captures the feel of a particular noir or pulp story, ("The Big Score" provides an excellent section on how to run it either way) from crime drama to murder mystery to espionage to globe-trotting adventure. I'm just sad that there aren't any masked crimefighters (though you could drop one into "The Big Score" easily).

"The Price of Murder" is an appendix which gives extra rules for sanity loss. This section focuses on killing people rather than seeing monsters or reading blasphemous tomes. While it might be useful to some Keepers, I can't really see myself adding extra rules to this game... it's just so elegant without them.

The layout of the book is pretty straightforward and easy to read. Characters are presented ready to give to the players, and photos from games in progress provide the illustrations. Some of the photos are a little dark, but the layout shows definite progress from the CL2 rulebook, so it picks up an extra style point for improvement.

For players of other live-action games, or for people not very interested in the Cthulhu Mythos, Shades of Gray is probably still a worthwhile purchase. "The Big Score" requires only minor modifications to run as a straight crime drama, while it would take ten minutes and the elimination of one character to run "The Osiris Club" as science fiction. Other scenarios can be similarly altered or mined for information.

"Shades of Gray" continues the excellence of FFG's efforts with Cthulhu Live. Give me one more supplement of this quality (and the back of the book promises one "soon") and CL will be conclusively (rather than just "almost certainly") the best live game on the market.

Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 5 (Excellent!)

Shades of Gray
Author: Robert H. McLaughlin with Eamon Honan, David Salmon, and Matt Cowgers Category: game Company/Publisher: Fantasy Flight Games Line: Cthulhu Live Cost: $17.95 Page count: 192 ISBN: 1-887911-92-8 Capsule Review by James Holloway on 01/02/00. Genre tags: Historical Horror Espionage Conspiracy Diceless Live-action	"Shades of Gray" is the pulp fiction and film noir supplement for Cthulhu Live. It contains new rules, character templates, and tips for running pulp or noir campaigns, as well as five complete scenarios with pregenerated characters. Chapter One: The Pulp and Noir Genres is an excellent introduction to pulp and noir, complete with a list of famous pulp characters. A bibliography would have been nice, but it certainly gives the general idea. Chapter Two: Pulp and Noir Characters covers new skills and character templates. These are outstanding, including skills like "Weird Science," "Nerves of Steel" and "Dramatic Appropriateness." New templates include the Femme Fatale, the Resistance Fighter, the Crime Fighter, the Torch Singer, the Oriental Chauffeur, and many more. All of these are great, and they take advantage of the new skills very well. The templates are probably nothing you couldn't have come up with on your own, but the whole purpose of them is to save time, so they're a welcome addition. Chapter Three: Genre Rules contains... er... rules. Some modifications to the combat system permit the trigger-happy mayhem of the pulps. Other new rules include Knockout attacks, religious faith, and some tips on how to stage-manage skill use. The most interesting new addition is the section on playing the bad guys, which introduces a new characteristic, Facade. Facade (FACE for short) is the stat which lets you act normal even at SAN 0. Bad guys can progressively degenerate just like PCs, as their ability to hide their madness suffers... Chapter Four: A Time of Darkness contains timelines of Mythos activity. The most interesting thing about this chapter is that it incorporates Pagan Publishing's Delta Green setting into Cthulhu Live. If you already own Call of Cthulhu and Delta Green, most of this will not come as a surprise to you, and indeed the chapter suggests that you buy DG for its greater detail. The real meat of this supplement are the scenarios. "Preacher Man" is a Southern Gothic game set at a revival meeting. It's nice and straightforward, playing the cliches of the southern setting to advantage, but there are a large number of PCs who don't seem to have much to do. It wouldn't take much work to soup it up a little, though. "The Big Score" follows a group of crooks who are hiding out from the police in a house owned by a little old man who is more than he seems. I can just see them falling out over the division of the loot... "Berlin Black" is set in post-WWII Berlin (a city author Maclaughlin knows well) and involves Delta Green elements. It's one of the strongest scenarios in the book. My only complaint is that it has only one female part. My suggestion - change the bartender, the reporter, and the art smuggler to women, explaining that all the menfolk were killed off in the war. "Curse of the Tcho-Tcho" is another WWII-era game, with an archaelogical expedition blundering into territory inhabited by the deadly Tcho-Tcho tribe. It seems like it would take the most work of any of the scenarios in the book, but that it would be very rewarding if pulled off. The best scenario in the whole thing is "The Osiris Club," which narrowly edges out "Berlin Black" for the honor. Modeled on the film "LA Confidential," this scenario follows two groups of PCs through a murder investigation during McCarthy-era Hollywood. There are some tricky effects and good Keeper coordination is a must, but this scenario is sure to reward Keepers who can pull it off. All of these scenarios come with pregenerated PCs. Each really captures the feel of a particular noir or pulp story, ("The Big Score" provides an excellent section on how to run it either way) from crime drama to murder mystery to espionage to globe-trotting adventure. I'm just sad that there aren't any masked crimefighters (though you could drop one into "The Big Score" easily). "The Price of Murder" is an appendix which gives extra rules for sanity loss. This section focuses on killing people rather than seeing monsters or reading blasphemous tomes. While it might be useful to some Keepers, I can't really see myself adding extra rules to this game... it's just so elegant without them. The layout of the book is pretty straightforward and easy to read. Characters are presented ready to give to the players, and photos from games in progress provide the illustrations. Some of the photos are a little dark, but the layout shows definite progress from the CL2 rulebook, so it picks up an extra style point for improvement. For players of other live-action games, or for people not very interested in the Cthulhu Mythos, Shades of Gray is probably still a worthwhile purchase. "The Big Score" requires only minor modifications to run as a straight crime drama, while it would take ten minutes and the elimination of one character to run "The Osiris Club" as science fiction. Other scenarios can be similarly altered or mined for information. "Shades of Gray" continues the excellence of FFG's efforts with Cthulhu Live. Give me one more supplement of this quality (and the back of the book promises one "soon") and CL will be conclusively (rather than just "almost certainly") the best live game on the market. Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 5 (Excellent!)