The world of Aberrant has not created many out and out supervillains. The would-be Satanic Majesties behind ReignofEvil.com are a rare exception, and like the rest of the setting are unfortunately grounded in reality. Their leaders are inspired by the Scandinavian Black Metal murders, H. P. Lovecraft, the New Age movement and even roleplaying games.
This booklet contains all the information needed to use the Church of Astaroth in an Aberrant game, as short-lived antagonists or a minor background detail. With four superhuman “novas” of low power and varying levels of self-delusion, the Church are unlikely to be a sustained threat or take a vital role in the game’s setting, unless their claims of Satanic power are true. Astaroth is a slightly dense Norwegian bodybuilder, Belial a bookish occult charlatan, Beltaine a sadistic teenager and Grimskull a violent gamer, so this seems unlikely even considering their nova status. To reflect this, they are given a small book which is largely flavour text. They are probably most dangerous as an example, a group of self-obsessed superhumans ignoring the bigger picture and recruiting outcast human followers. As noted on the cover, Just because it’s pathetic doesn’t mean it’s not dangerous. This argument is made early in the booklet, and is probably the most important part of it. The CoA are losers, as noted in the text, but even if you find them too absurd to use they are an example of cults of personality that form around superhumans.
The booklet is well written, the text full of cutting incidental details. Belial considered changing his moniker to Nyarlathotep but found no one could pronounce it, and Grimskull may be responsible for the murder of Vampire developer (and Aberrant contributor) Justin Achilli in the game world.
In design, it follows the Aberrant standard, and so the White Wolf standard. Michael Gaydos’s art, all scratchy black and white, fits the subject well. Most typos are restricted to in-character sections such as pages from the cult website, and are presumably intentional.
However, there’s little to ReignofEvil.com. It’s a 24 page book that contains two pages of fictional record reviews, presented complete with large album covers, and another page of T-shirt designs. It took me around half an hour to read in its entirety.
These booklets take the place of one-shot adventures for many game systems, providing enough information to bring their subjects into a game or at least sketch in their background. Compared to previous releases in the series, specifically Aberrants Exposed, ReignofEvil.com is rather thin in content but what it does contain is useful and entertaining. I would have liked it more if there had been more to it.
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