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This adventure is what happens when you think that D&D is Call of Cthulhu and ought to be played that way. This is not to say that this one way of playing Call of Cthulhu, as I am sure some people who will cite the appendix in d20 Cthulhu are likely to point out. The problem is that this system was designed with BRP in mind and the underlying philosophy of Call of Cthulhu is gone. The adventure revolves around investigators who have been effectively been made immortal by their souls trapped in the Dreamlands and they must hunt down a sorcerer who wants to bring an Azathoth apocalypse down upon the Earth, as part of his ultimate devotion to Great Old One. Much as this might sound as a pretext for Highlander, the players do have a limited window for action and even as they defeat the sorcerer, their souls make a time/space jump to the next manifestation of the sorcerer/investigator conflict until a final climax. The time periods of the assorted scenarios are 887 AD in Viking-ravaged Britain; 1287 AD in feudal Japan; 1487 AD in Spain during the Inquisition; 1587 AD in the Roanoke Colony in the New World and 1887 AD in the Arizona Territory.
One possible drawback to this group of scenarios has been the relative lack of success for Call of Cthulhu scenarios set in times other than the 1920s/1930s but I do not accept that – my Cthulhu adventures often revolve around the Modern with jaunts in different historical periods. Then again, the style of this adventure would provide itself rightly to convention play. Conventions could easily host an ongoing tournament using the Red Eye of Azathoth, with players on a literal timetable to complete each scenario in succession over the weekend. However, not even I would like to sign up to a gruelling weekend of different Cthulhu scenarios around a single theme that are radically different. Strange Aeons is one thing but to play on a madcap expedition is another. Furthermore, each of these adventures have a fantastic edge to them – the Viking one clearly inspired by D&D, Feudal Japan by Legend of the Five Rings, 1887 by the Weird West or many a Boot Hill game that I played in. While, it is true, that Chaosium sometimes from these borrowings (yes, I am looking at you Devil’s Gulch); the way that Chaosium usually manages it is like a marriage (something borrowed, something new, something blue). Red Eye of Azathoth just borrows in the means of a violation or transgression of those games. That is more suited to D&D or Doctor Who RPG.
One of the merits of this adventure, is the players are required to do genuine role-playing as opposed to going in guns blazing or in Classic Call of Cthulhu (1920s) - dynamite; most of the settings pre-date practically perfect gunpowder weapons anyway, so they will have to call upon primarily using their intelligence to solve the problem. Each sub-adventure corresponds to a significant contest in its own right; stringing them all at the same time requires the Keeper to keep track of the previous sub-adventures, as the results from the past scenario has a very concrete affect on events in the current chapter. And, this is good but, the challenges still are met with the formulaic “hack & slash plus riddle” aspect that I find in D&D today.
The different historical periods are lovingly detailed with snippets of knowledge for players and Keepers alike to get a sense of the time period but what is absent which is what makes the excellent Call of Cthulhu adventures – so good is the mood and atmosphere. Each time jump is merely a change of scene not something that is conveyed through touch, smells, and sights. Yes, a good Keeper can provide all of these but the adventure gives an impression that the writer thought the inclusion of these locales are just because they are “cool” rather than pieces of a puzzle. And, fundamentally – that is that Call of Cthulhu RPG is – a game of investigative horror rather than a hack and slash game with some riddles (to use the D&D analogy). Furthermore, the adventure is littered with monsters and Call of Cthulhu would rather be with the monsters disguised, there is a feeble attempt at doing this in one part of the adventure but the way it is written is strictly D&D-like. And, the choice of monsters is also very much conditioned by both the current memes and D&D – so, yes, your players will encounter zombies. Furthermore, sorcerers in Call of Cthulhu fall into two categories – individuals who have drunk too much from the Kool Aid of studying the Great Old Ones or one’s who have stared too long into Nietzsche’s abyss and something crossed over. However, the sorcerer in this adventure is more a caricature of Fu Manchu than a Cthulhu sorcerer. Furthermore, the adventure adds skills that are non-existent in Call of Cthulhu to add the coolness factor. The adventure essentially goads investigators from one scene to another – and, yes, Call of Cthulhu is notorious for railroading in some of their adventures but it still allows for freewill whereas this adventure does not.
The art and some of the play aids are spectacular in this adventure, as is the basic premise but it is handled in such a way that disrespects the game that it was intended for. Too slick and too polished also takes away from the horror aspect. And, that perhaps is the greatest fault, which if you want to play D&D using Cthulhu monsters – then this is perfect. But, you cannot play Cthulhu with D&D frameworks. And, I think this is where the adventure falls flat and lacks the extra edge to make the transition to Call of Cthulhu. That said there is plenty for a Keeper to plunder and use in this adventure as it is laden with good ideas and indeed, I take my hat off to Open Design for introducing some of these concepts but they are poorly executed. I would suggest this whole adventure goes through a major rewrite to conform more to the mood of Call of Cthulhu. There are gems in the rough but as the players experience the cataclysm of an earthquake (them dying) – there is little incentive to go on, save, to fulfill the mission. And, that is where it becomes a quest, not an adventure or mystery.
I wanted to like this adventure but ultimately the feeling is like of margarine – “I can believe that it is not butter”. There is a touch of artificiality or lack of authenticity that runs throughout the adventure that is hard to put your finger on. Ultimately, I think, it goes back to what I said in the introduction this is Call of Cthulhu played through a D&D lens – and if that is your technique of play – you will like it. However, if you are more of a purist or even if you play a pulpish Call of Cthulhu, there is going to be much that you are going to find that you do not like about this adventure. I do hope that Open Design will go back to Call of Cthulhu RPG and to some of the more successful licenses such as Pagan or Pelgrane Press to use how Cthulhu scenarios differ from D&D less cool and more chill. That said they have done an admirable job in layout and art that one hopes to see more of. Pity, that this adventure is only available as a PDF, as the format once it is revised reads like a book.
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