Review of The New Orleans Guidebook

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I love New Orleans. Since my first trip there at age 10, I haven't been able to get enough of the place. So when I heard Chaosium was putting out a New Orleans sourcebook for Call of Cthulhu, I proclaimed, quite loudly, "It's about damn time!" (In retrospect, I suppose "Aaaaaeeeeeiiiiiaaaa!" would have been more appropriate… but I digress…)

Having read a rather thick guide to the city prior to my last visit, I could really appreciate the amount of research that went into this book. It's all here: the rich history of the city, the major sights of the French Quarter and the city at large, and, of course, the bayou country. The people and places are appropriately colorful and well-detailed, and the chapters are accented nicely with old maps, period photography, and generic floor plans of locations such as French Quarter courtyard houses and Garden District mansions. As a nice bonus, many of the sights have additional descriptions for the 1890s and 1990s settings.

The Mythos tie-ins are relatively sparse, which is good in a way: I wouldn't have wanted to see a White Wolfish "everything's caused by the supernatural" approach to the city. This does mean, however, that a great deal of the book reads as simply an excellent guide to New Orleans in the 1920s, not as a guide to the Mythos in New Orleans in the 1920s.

The new voodoo rules are intriguing, offering investigators some non-Mythos occult enemies and/or allies. While naturally somewhat creepy, the spells are, by and large, both less powerful and less dangerous than the cruel spells of the Mythos. Possible Mythos links to the religion are offered to Keepers wary of diluting the game's cosmic horror with the humanocentric voodoo pantheon. In addition, the book gives rules for player character voodoo practitioners, offering the previously unheard-of opportunity to start a Call of Cthulhu game as a magic-using character.

Surprisingly, considering Chaosium's track record, the weakest part of the book is the short scenario. The adventure lacks much of the unique atmosphere of the city, relying largely on name-dropping of locations and NPCs to remind the investigators of their location. The tie-in with the Dreamlands feels particularly inappropriate. A Keeper would be better served by changing the setting of the jazz-soaked scenario "Dead Man's Stomp" found in the main rulebook to New Orleans instead.

Still, this can be forgiven in light of the valuable information to be found in the rest of the book. If you're planning on running CoC in New Orleans, or even if you just want to find out more about one of the most fascinating cities in America, this one's for you.

Style: 5 (Excellent!)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)