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In Short

The Good: The Bishopsgate asylum is very interesting and just plain enjoyable to read about. There are many, many plot hooks and there is quite a bit of discussion of how to use those hooks. The asylum is easily alterable for different types of stories and uses.

The Bad: While the book does have support for supernaturals, it’s clearly mortals focused and may not work well for supernatural heavy games. The new mechanics are very narrowly tailored and unlikely to make their way into anything but an asylum or medical focused game.

The Physical Thing

While Asylum does lack an index I’m not sure this harms the product. Most setting books of this nature are meant to be read and absorbed rather than referenced in play. Still, I can imagine some page flipping to find a specific plot hook, NPC, rule, or part of the asylum.

Under the Cover

Chapter One Total Bedlam - 12 pages.

This chapter is a basic history of mental illness and psychiatry in the Western world. This history is already filled with horror, and Asylum does a good job of presenting a concise and easily readable summary of the philosophies, treatments, and living conditions of victims of mental illness throughout history.

In addition to this, the book does a good job of being sensitive to mental illness. Many of us, and those we associate with, either suffer from some sort of illness or know someone who does. Discussion of how to use mental illness in a game, in addition to history and the state of modern psychiatry, prove to be a valuable resource for anyone wanting to run a game prominently featuring mental illness or asylums.

Chapter Two Putting the Pieces Together - 22 pages.

This is as close to a mechanics chapter as Aslyum has, and it’s primarily focused on ways to use the World of Darkness system to create medical characters and procedures. It begins with a discussion of medical characters, providing a variety of recommended sets of stats for those characters. From Doctors to EMTs to Orderlies, it’s a fine overview that combines game mechanic suggestions with discussions of the role of each profession in health care.

Morality and medicine is briefly discussed, with some attention being paid to the supernatural. The idea is that some people who take their role as protectors of humanity very seriously might take the fight back to the creatures in the night, or may at least take an interest in the strange injuries and wounds they see over the years in the ER.

Mechancis for breaking Medicine rolls down into individual checks, such as Diagnosis and Treatment, are provided for those that want to place significantly more attention on the medical side of a story. While the discussion of diagnosis and treatment are both excellent, be aware that the new mechanics are sparse and Asylum largely relies on the mechanics in the World of Darkness corebook.

Finally, this chapter wraps up with a few new Derangements and Merits. The new Derangements make sense, but are generally subtle. Supernatural Fascination (mild) could be an excellent addition to a mortal character in a game that sees only light amounts of supernatural activity, and like the other Derangements it fits in with the existing list very well.

The new Merits are very narrowly focused. This is a good thing, in my view, as they are most likely to see play in a game featuring an asylum, hospital, or other similar facility. However, anyone looking for a laundry list of new powers and abilities should look elsewhere. Bureaucratic Navigator and Good Time Management probably aren’t what folk hunting for new powers are hoping to find.

Chapter Three Bishopsgate – Built on Secrets - 50 pages.

For me, this is the best part of the book. Every part of Asylum subtly incorporates Bishopsgate, so by the time I reached Chapter Three I was genuinely excited to dig in.

A full history of the asylum, from before its creation to the modern day, is presented. No space is spared and the author clearly has a lot of ideas to communicate, resulting in a very dense location filled with interesting stories and plot hooks. For example: There may be *something* under the East Wing mounds (originally considered evil places by the Native Americans). But what? The book offers five different suggestions, from fascinating ancient ruins to a god-being slumbering in the Earth.

In addition to the timeline, every portion of the asylum is discussed in detail. There are always plot hooks presented along with the description of every area, and the artwork does a fantastic job of adding to the already creepy feel of the text. The art, including a full map of the complex, can also serve as an excellent visual aid for the Storyteller to communicate with the players.

The chapter wraps up with a lengthy list of plot hooks, each a half page to page in length. To say that there’s a lot of interesting things going on at Bishopsgate is an understatement. A Storyteller could easily run several Chronicles and not incorporate all of the options and hooks presented here.

As with the rest of Asylum, this material stands out because it does a lot of things very well. For one, it’s an enjoyable read. Often we find ourselves reading RPG books not just because we want to run a game or incorporate material, but also because we want to be entertained. My mind kept wandering to Bishopsgate while reading it, and it was as if I was there taking a tour of the facility and its history.

It also does a good job of being descriptive. Lots of little details, such as what sort of equipment the guards are carrying, are provided to help the asylum come to life in a Chronicle. The map is just plain useful, and the artwork does an excellent job of walking the reader through the facility. When you’re done reading this chapter you’ll have a solid idea of what Bishopsgate is like.

Finally, it’s filled with plot hooks. They’re all wonderfully underdeveloped too, so the Storyteller has just enough of an idea to add on whatever they find interesting. The sheer quantity of interesting things going on here provides the Storyteller with many options for shaping Bishopsgate as she likes.

Chapter Four Case Reports - 52 pages.

Speaking of plot hooks, chapter four has even more! Each case file spans around 5 to 8 pages and includes an in character case file, background information, and several different spins on the file. These are as enjoyable and useful as the rest of the product, and are certain to find their way into many games. Keep in mind a case file is a patient file, so this is something of a collection of the creepy short stories of other Bishopsgate denizens.

For example, “The Girl from the Snow” is one of my favorites. The case file largely involves an interview with a young Jane Doe who turned up at the facility, one who had given birth in the recent past. It’s difficult to get much information from her, but she frequently refers to the snowy mountain where she lived with other cannibal children. Asylum offers two well developed possibilities. One is that she’s just a victim of tragedy. She was trapped on the mountain, and ultimately did resort to cannibalism to survive, but there’s nothing supernatural going on (most case files have an option that avoids the supernatural). Another is that the mountain has become sapient and telepathically compels lost children to breed and survive in protected caverns. Both are creepy and disturbing in different ways, and several adventures could easily be based off of either tale.

While many of these can have supernatural explanations, it’s clear that one of the product’s goals is to make it perfectly workable for a mortals game that involves horror but little to no supernatural elements.

Chapter Five Staff Records - 14 pages.

This chapter provides a lengthy list of pregenerated generic NPCs. It’s excellent Storyteller support because it allows the Storyteller to focus only on the personality and goals of the NPC rather than having to create stats on the fly. The generics are comprehensive and cover every role I can easily imagine. That both doctors and patients are included is a nice touch, as depending on the game the players could be interacting with a lot more of one or the other.

Appendix Reaping the Madness - 8 pages.

The appendix provides a short discussion of integrating other supernatural types – Vampires, Werewolves, Mages, Prometheans, and Changelings – with the Asylum material. This primarily involves incorporating the supernatural into the cause of a patient’s madness and mentioning various powers and such that can sway the mind. It’s a short section, but it does a good job of providing ideas for the Storyteller who wants to use the institution as a base of operations to see the horrors that lurk outside its walls.

My Take

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