The Inside Scoop on Gaming

Players beware! No campaign can be discussed in depth without going deep into the realm of spoilers. You've been warned!

Introduction

"Walker in the Wastes" is a campaign for Call of Cthulhu set to start in 1928. Your investigators start playing on a scientific expedition which follows on the trail of real-life Franklin Expedition, a rather dull undertaking that is promptly shaken awake by the discovery of two severely mangled corpses. From there it will take the players from the cold, snowy deserts of the Canadian arctic to the sandy wastes of Iraq; and from the silent rooms of the British Museum to the busy streets of New Jersey.

The plot

The plot, which is condensed and outlined in the introduction, throws your investigators against the Ithaqua cult, which is striving for - what else? - free its lord from its snowy prison.

It is as detailed as it is huge, and that's not even counting possible subplots and red herrings. My money says that you won't be able to play the plot line down to every stage. There is much bone to chew on here, and my group has been playing the campaign an average of 3 weeks a month, six hours per meeting for well over a year and a half and - from my calculations - we still have a good two months ahead of us.

While a campaign like Horror on the Orient Express can be played out more or less as it is outlined, Walker will require extensive planning by the Keeper depending on what the players actions are, at least after the first chapter where the players are thrown a bait which can lead in several directions.

As such, the campaign can be a little overwhelming at times and requires an experienced keeper and diligent players. This campaign is absolutely not for new keepers or those with groups that can't meet on a regular basis. Nevertheless, those groups that do put up the extra work needed will be rewarded with an extremely rich game world. More to come in a future playtest review.

The characters

Walker is populated with NPCs, with in average no less than five NPCs fully detailed per chapter and with several more briefly mentioned or making guest appearances.

The NPCs are, for a change, human beings and not only clue-handing proxies or spell-casting thugs. Most cultists lead a life and have families instead of being full-time minions of evil with no relationship to the real world. For a change from your average murder-in-their-minds, sacrifice-the-whole-lot-of-them Call of Cthulhu cult, the average member from the Ithaqua cult is rather subdued and pacific, with the odd psychotic and colorful priest, which can lead to interesting moral debates when cultists surrender and try preaching the virtues of their religion to the investigators. Should they kill an unarmed religious fanatic in cold blood? Let it go, since they have no proof that he did anything beyond worshipping the wind?

Several innocents and possible investigator replacements are also included, and as the main cast they're not cardboard cutouts. Even the most meaningless NPC has her traumas, skeletons in the closet and interactions with the main world spelled out.

Organization and layout

The introduction is a most interesting piece of work. It gives the Keeper an overview of the campaign, but more importantly it includes a discussion on wind deities of different cultures, from the Sumerian to the Inuit, and discusses their similarities. It makes an excellent case for why they all are aspects of the same god.

The main portion of the book is organized in 10 chapters and a prologue, each one detailing a different location and - more or less - independent piece of the plot line. Each chapter has a section at the end where the chapter's major NPCs are detailed, and also include several sidebars detailing the main topic.

Finally, the book closes with an extensive and enlightening section on bibliography and suggested reading, with annotations on what each book includes, how hard it might be to acquire it and how it can help.

The organization of the book is impeccable, and extra kudos go to the folks at Pagan for doing such an excellent work out of something that is a really convoluted campaign. Its organization makes pruning the campaign feasible, so that Keepers can decide if pruning it down to just the skeleton or if running a fully fleshed out campaign including hundreds of characters and situations.

The art

On typical Pagan fashion the use of artwork is spartan and in black and white, but what art there is in the book is well used to create atmosphere for the Keeper. It consists mainly of an illustration or two per chapter and a plate at the start of each one and the requisite maps. On a high note, every NPC that has starts detailed comes with his own character portrait, which goes a long way towards visualizing the characters and how they behave and can also serve as player handouts.

With the exception of character are and maps, most pictures and apparently paintings and somewhat blurry. The portraits, however, are quite detailed. Dennis Detwiller did each and every piece of internal art, and the cover is an eerie Blair Reynolds painting.

The handouts

Walker comes chock-full of detailed handouts that might or might not be relevant to the campaign. I'll post a review of the Handout Kit next week but believe me, your players won't go home without a cool trinket like a newspaper cutout that really looks like it was taken from a newspaper.

Any cons?

While Walker is damn well nearly perfect, there are only a couple of things missing from it.

The first is that only one of the maps comes with a player-safe version, so Keepers are forced to draw the maps out for players if they didn't want their investigators reading which one of the buildings is the shaman's hut or where that power generator is being kept.

The second is that, while it includes a comprehensive index, it is lacking an index of NPC references. This is an omission that will give Keepers some extra work due to the large amount of NPCs included.

In conclusion

Pagan Publishing has once again given us a detailed campaign with the care for quality that is already their trademark. If you have a dedicated group and are willing to do the necessary work, I suggest you pick a copy of Walker in the Wastes up.

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

Walker in the Wastes
Author: John H. Crowe III, illustrated by Dennis Detwiller. Category: game Company/Publisher: Pagan Publishing Line: Call of Cthulhu Cost: 19.95 Page count: 222 SKU: PAG1002 Capsule Review by Ricardo J. Méndez on 02/21/00. Genre tags: Horror	Players beware! No campaign can be discussed in depth without going deep into the realm of spoilers. You've been warned! Introduction "Walker in the Wastes" is a campaign for Call of Cthulhu set to start in 1928. Your investigators start playing on a scientific expedition which follows on the trail of real-life Franklin Expedition, a rather dull undertaking that is promptly shaken awake by the discovery of two severely mangled corpses. From there it will take the players from the cold, snowy deserts of the Canadian arctic to the sandy wastes of Iraq; and from the silent rooms of the British Museum to the busy streets of New Jersey. The plot The plot, which is condensed and outlined in the introduction, throws your investigators against the Ithaqua cult, which is striving for - what else? - free its lord from its snowy prison. It is as detailed as it is huge, and that's not even counting possible subplots and red herrings. My money says that you won't be able to play the plot line down to every stage. There is much bone to chew on here, and my group has been playing the campaign an average of 3 weeks a month, six hours per meeting for well over a year and a half and - from my calculations - we still have a good two months ahead of us. While a campaign like Horror on the Orient Express can be played out more or less as it is outlined, Walker will require extensive planning by the Keeper depending on what the players actions are, at least after the first chapter where the players are thrown a bait which can lead in several directions. As such, the campaign can be a little overwhelming at times and requires an experienced keeper and diligent players. This campaign is absolutely not for new keepers or those with groups that can't meet on a regular basis. Nevertheless, those groups that do put up the extra work needed will be rewarded with an extremely rich game world. More to come in a future playtest review. The characters Walker is populated with NPCs, with in average no less than five NPCs fully detailed per chapter and with several more briefly mentioned or making guest appearances. The NPCs are, for a change, human beings and not only clue-handing proxies or spell-casting thugs. Most cultists lead a life and have families instead of being full-time minions of evil with no relationship to the real world. For a change from your average murder-in-their-minds, sacrifice-the-whole-lot-of-them Call of Cthulhu cult, the average member from the Ithaqua cult is rather subdued and pacific, with the odd psychotic and colorful priest, which can lead to interesting moral debates when cultists surrender and try preaching the virtues of their religion to the investigators. Should they kill an unarmed religious fanatic in cold blood? Let it go, since they have no proof that he did anything beyond worshipping the wind? Several innocents and possible investigator replacements are also included, and as the main cast they're not cardboard cutouts. Even the most meaningless NPC has her traumas, skeletons in the closet and interactions with the main world spelled out. Organization and layout The introduction is a most interesting piece of work. It gives the Keeper an overview of the campaign, but more importantly it includes a discussion on wind deities of different cultures, from the Sumerian to the Inuit, and discusses their similarities. It makes an excellent case for why they all are aspects of the same god. The main portion of the book is organized in 10 chapters and a prologue, each one detailing a different location and - more or less - independent piece of the plot line. Each chapter has a section at the end where the chapter's major NPCs are detailed, and also include several sidebars detailing the main topic. Finally, the book closes with an extensive and enlightening section on bibliography and suggested reading, with annotations on what each book includes, how hard it might be to acquire it and how it can help. The organization of the book is impeccable, and extra kudos go to the folks at Pagan for doing such an excellent work out of something that is a really convoluted campaign. Its organization makes pruning the campaign feasible, so that Keepers can decide if pruning it down to just the skeleton or if running a fully fleshed out campaign including hundreds of characters and situations. The art On typical Pagan fashion the use of artwork is spartan and in black and white, but what art there is in the book is well used to create atmosphere for the Keeper. It consists mainly of an illustration or two per chapter and a plate at the start of each one and the requisite maps. On a high note, every NPC that has starts detailed comes with his own character portrait, which goes a long way towards visualizing the characters and how they behave and can also serve as player handouts. With the exception of character are and maps, most pictures and apparently paintings and somewhat blurry. The portraits, however, are quite detailed. Dennis Detwiller did each and every piece of internal art, and the cover is an eerie Blair Reynolds painting. The handouts Walker comes chock-full of detailed handouts that might or might not be relevant to the campaign. I'll post a review of the Handout Kit next week but believe me, your players won't go home without a cool trinket like a newspaper cutout that really looks like it was taken from a newspaper. Any cons? While Walker is damn well nearly perfect, there are only a couple of things missing from it. The first is that only one of the maps comes with a player-safe version, so Keepers are forced to draw the maps out for players if they didn't want their investigators reading which one of the buildings is the shaman's hut or where that power generator is being kept. The second is that, while it includes a comprehensive index, it is lacking an index of NPC references. This is an omission that will give Keepers some extra work due to the large amount of NPCs included. In conclusion Pagan Publishing has once again given us a detailed campaign with the care for quality that is already their trademark. If you have a dedicated group and are willing to do the necessary work, I suggest you pick a copy of Walker in the Wastes up. Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 5 (Excellent!)