Strange Aeons is an adventure anthology from Chaosium for Call of Cthulhu. It was released in 1995, is softcover, originally retailed for $14.95 (I paid about $9, total) and is about 90 pages long (though the last 15 pages or so are either for handouts, blank, or are ads). It came out in 1995, so why am I reviewing it now? Well, mostly because it's another one of those things that doesn't seem to have a review in the database.
Let me say this rather odd disclaimer. For some reason, I thought this book had 5 adventures, not 3, and that one of them was science fiction, set in the far future, and involved explorers discovering the great library at Caelano. That was why I bought this on ebay, although I can't figure out for the life of me, why I thought this. I could have sworn I read it in an ad, but I've looked through all my chaosium books, and none of the ads for it mention this, so I must have hallucinated it. Anyway, I mention it because it might have caused me to be a bit more disappointed with this book than I really should be.
Strange Aeons is 3 unusual adventures. Unusual because they take place in settings and times not usual for Call of Cthulhu. The first one takes place in A.D. 1597, in Spain, the second in A.D. 2015, on the Moon, and the last one takes place in A.D. 1603 in London. (That's actually not much of a time range, having 2 adventures being set within 5-6 years of each other). All adventures are designed to be one shots, with pre-rolled/made characters.
As mentioned, the first adventure is set in Spain. The players are members of the dreaded and unexpected Spanish Inquisition. That can be problematic. Some players will find playing Inquisitors to be distasteful. It's also a potential source of endless Monty Python jokes. But at any rate, they are sent to investigate a possible miracle.
Not surprisingly, this miracle turns out to not be a miracle, but a plot by Mythos critters. Unfortunately, this plot doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. Supposedly the mythos critters want to blend in to protect themselves. But by causing a miracle, and then basically a zombie movie, is not exactly a great way to blend in.
So, while not terrible, I don't think this adventure was very good.
The second adventure is quite interesting, but ultimately also flawed. It's 2015, and the PCs are members of an elite UN investigation squad sent to the Moon to investigate what happened to 2 scientists (2 of them went missing, but one was later found alive, but crazy). Quite frankly, I don't think the setup is even remotely plausible. For one, while my opinion of the UN is pretty low, so is their track record. They're great if you want to hold banquets and feasts for bureaucrats while they can discuss people starving, but if you actually want anything done, they're the last choice.
I also don't think that a moonbase in 2015 is even remotely plausible. Especially since it was supposedly completed in 2000. As this was apparently written in 1995, I don't see how the author could have thought a moonbase would be operational in 2000. 5 years? It would likely take that long to be able to simply visit the moon, much less build a base.
What's also fascinating, is that there are actually 2 bases. The 2nd base is more recent and is supposedly being built to launch a mission to Mars. This makes little to no sense. If you're going to build a ship that would travel to Mars, you'd build it in Earth orbit. Not go all the way to the Moon. That's just insane, quite frankly. It would also be easier to build a ship to go to Mars than to actually build a moonbase (much less build a moonbase to build a ship to go to Mars).
Furthermore, we're supposed to accept that a large number of scientists on this Moon base happen to know about the Cthulhu Mythos. All in all, these things stretch credibility to it's limits. At least in my mind.
Anyway, more trouble is the scenario itself. While the PCs do things, they are mostly sight-seers. They really don't do much or drive the plot. And the ending doesn't really depend on anything they do, but on some helpful Mi-Go. All in all, the whole thing is a horrible mess. Which is surprising, as the author has written a large number of free horror adventures available at various places on the web, most of which are quite good.
Still, they saved the best for last. The last is set in Shakespearean London, and revolves around the somewhat myserious death of Christopher Marlowe. Or rather, what he was writing when he died. This is one of those things in which I might be a bit biased as well - I happen to bear a strong resemblance to him (which is perhaps not a good thing).
The PCs are various people on the fringes of the drama scene back then. One is a printer, a couple are actors, and a couple are academic types. Though they are actually drawn into this by an ex-girlfriend of one of the PCs, who has a cousin that has gone missing.
The plots is actually fairly complex - a friend and ex-lover of Marlowe's wants to finish his last work, something called the King in Yellow. He's not good enough, so he enlists William Shakespeare. This is perhaps a bit contrived, but it's plausible. At any rate, this is more of an investigatory scenario, and the PCs end up talking with Shakespeare and Dr. John Dee, among others, as the PCs try to track down the missing cousin and slowly find her disappearance is tied in with the mysterious play (or rather, in things that Marlowe had discovered while writing his play).
Eventually though, the scenario ends up in a rather combat laden finale, to save the PC's ex-girlfriend (and the world).
Other than finale, it's quite good. Maybe not as interesting as the real life Marlowe & company, but not bad. It's also probably the most fleshed out in terms of extras. There's a bibliography, large-ish list of Elizabethan slang, and brief background sketches of the various personalities. It also gives tips on creating characters for the 1600s. Filler? Maybe. But useful. Although most people know what a 'Pike' is and what 'filch' means.
What's also curious, is although the last adventure features some real dead people, it says "Similarities between characters in Strange Aeons and persons living or dead are strictly coincidental."
So, all in all, not a great adventure anthology. I really only liked one adventure out of the three. The first one can probably be transplanted to any other time and place. It's not that unique. OTOH, the 2nd and 3rd are pretty much location and time specific.
I think this product was a nice idea. But I would have liked to have seen some more imaginative scenarios. 2 scenarios set in Rennaisance Europe and 1 in the near future is not particularly 'Strange'.
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