Horror on the Orient Express: A Luxury Campaign Spanning the European Continent

Call of Cthulhu RPG

by Geoff Gillan, Mark Morrison, Lynn Willis

An odd summons, a surreptitious meeting, and a thousand-mile journey begins on the legendary service carrying the investigators to the Gateway of the Orient. Horror on the Orient Express contains the second-edition of a massive, luxury adventure for the Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game. Beginning in 1920s London, the investigators journey to Paris and thence to the ancient city of Constantinople. With luck, they also return home.

Genres: Role Playing Games, Horror, Games, Cthulhu Mythos, Gaming

1100 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

Reviews

[Scott Frank · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is one of the legendary classic adventures in the Call of Cthulhu game, and it has the uneasy distinction of being one of both the best and worst written adventures in gaming history. It is incredibly well-written narratively, full of atmosphere, gripping horror, crying pathos. But it is very, very badly written in terms of an actual playable adventure by modern standards. Especially given the almost universally high quality of Chaosium's offerings over the past years, these days even the "updated" edition of HotOE is a notable disaster as a campaign. In many ways, the more modest adventures published for CoC over the last several years are superior, and the only campaign for the game more famous than HotOE, Masks of Nyarlahotep, is roughly 1,000 times better.

The issue, such as it is, lies in both the blessing and the curse of the writing. The authors have created some absolutely AMAZING, truly incredible scenes. Confrontations with villains, episodes of existential terror, desperate battles and flights. They've clearly visualized these, written them in stunning detail, and worked hard to make the players enact them. but that's also the problem - the entire adventure is designed just to force player characters to enact those scenes. No alternatives are seriously entertained. Whatever you do as a Keeper, the way HotOE is written, you must get the characters into those scenes.

At this point, it's kind of a joke: "the railroad adventure is really railroad-y! Ha ha!" but here's the thing: it doesn't HAVE to be. 80% (or more) of the adventure doesn't actually take place on the train, it takes place in cities, towns, and other locations along the Orient Express route. There's no reason those individual chapter/adventures needed to be super-railroady, other than to get the players to those cool scenes the authors wrote. There are entire chapters where the Keeper's main duty is to make the players think their actions make a difference, when in reality you're basically dictating what is happening to them. Heaven forbid your players show some agency, or are clever, or decide not to go along with the program and be captured (I'm trying to write a spoiler-free review here as much as possible, so that's just an example).

There are also numerous optional or side adventures, which mostly are not terrible in their own right, but are rough to fit in to your campaign. Say you're humming along, your players are getting into their groove, really getting into character, and suddenly the main storyline comes to a screeching halt, the story shifts 800 years in the past for a few weeks, and you hand the players new pregenerated characters (or have them make new ones for the couple sessions you'll be playing the side adventure).

To be clear, there is some GREAT stuff in here. It's just hung on a poor framework for an actual, playable campaign. Some of the individual adventures are fantastic; some less so (I'd almost say the huge unevenness in the quality of each chapter is thought by many to be a feature, not a bug).

This campaign is rightfully noted as a classic. Chaosium has mentioned that they're going to do a small redesign in the very near future (just rearranging the current materials a bit), and a large overhaul sometime a few years down the road. Until that time, while this is a fascinating, clever curiosity, I cannot recommend it as a campaign. Pick up Masks instead.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you're looking for an epic Call of Cthulhu campaign, you can't go wrong with HotOE.

[Cloudy_Avalon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Below is the review for the first part of the campaign. I was hesitant to leave the full review after finishing the first book, since a LOT can change opinion-wise after you are done with the WHOLE story.
But it didn’t. The opinion below stands. The main highlight for me personally is the final stand against the forces of evil in the Shunned Mosque. It is absolutely worth playing the whole campaign just to get a climax like this. I am a bit envious of people who have the group to play through the whole campaign. It must be an absolutely unique experience lasting for life. But - I am getting off track here, we are here for the books. Enjoy the review below!



TL;DR: a must-have for any Call of Cthulhu fan. A good read even if you are not planning to play it. A huge NO for any DM just starting out (I mean as a first/second scenario), as it gets very complex narration-wise.

-------------------------Possible accidental/mild spoilers ahead. -----------------------

First of all, this is one of the most influential campaigns ever written. This is long, sprawling, and very exciting! Definitely won't recommend as a material for a beginner keeper, since one might just go crazy handling all the tiny details this story is full of.

I won't go into details about how I like the full story, since this review is just for the first book out of two.

The amount of historical information is just right. It is not flooding the pages but is sprinkled right at the place where it is required. This fact makes the book an interesting read even if you are not planning on running the campaign. Also, IMO, at least some of the scenarios can be run as standalone. Some people might not agree with me, but here I stand. It might be hard to assemble a party of adventurers with the required dedication to play such a long campaign. Smaller stand-alone scenarios are much more accessible.

Some of the scenarios distort the standard linear flow of the story and require the investigators to play some "historical bits," which is both refreshing and demanding of the DM.

All the scenarios are greatly written, but 2 of them are absolutely outstanding, if you ask me: the one in France and the one set in the Dreamlands. The latter one can be run as a stand-alone, and I would be eager to accept the challenge of running outside of the main campaign; it is just that brilliant.

Bottom line—a must-have for any Call of Cthulhu fan. You can also check out my review on the second book for the full picture.

~ Cloudy A

[Mikael Cerbing · Rating 4 out of 5]

Horror on the Orient express is a massive (3982 g) campaing for the Call of Cthulhu rollplaying game. It gets som critizism for being railroady, meaning that the players dont have a lot of options. I can see the point behind this criticism, but I also dont fully agree. Some of the individual adventures are quite railroady, as well as the full campaing itself, there is a lot of stuff the players needs to do in a certain order. But I think the campaing is so big that the players wont really see that nature of the game. The new version of HotOE also get a lot of criticism for its new adventures, mainly from players that have played the old version by the look of things, and I dont agree with that. Some of the new adventures is not that great (in my view), and I will not play three of them (I think) when I gonna run it in the future. But quite a few of the new ones are really good in giving the whole campaing a context and a deeper history. Something that Im missing from quite a few CoC adventures.
As a whole its well written and seems to think of quite a few of the possibilities that can happend in the game. I have two main criticisms to the campaing; 1) At some places you seem to bee reading more of a guidebook for different places, and that might be nice, but I would prefer more gamin content. 2) Quite a few of the NPCs seems to react quite cool towards horrible happenings happening around them, and that is something I as a keeper need to address during the game. As it is a 1100 page campaing, the review could easily be another few thousand words in the least. But I leave it here. It will get four stars for content and the pure madness of putting out something like this. Also some nice props. But all in all it aint good enough for the fifth star.

[Timothy Grubbs · Rating 5 out of 5]

Take a train through Lovecraft Country…though it remains to be seen if you’ll make it to your final destination…

Horror on the Orient Express is a MASSIVE campaign setting set on the most famous train in the world (one more significant to past generations than the modern day).

Set from January to May 1923, the trip takes you from London to Constantinople through over a dozen possible adventures at all points in between. Fortunately, not all of them are required for the larger meta plot of the campaign (assuming the Keeper even chooses to use the full story), with some being just option side stories.

Every destination is accompanied by maps, shady locations, myriad NPCs (both staff, passengers, and locals at each stop), and mysteries that might drawn in investigators.

Obviously considering the setting, the backgrounds of the characters are relevent (also determing what kind of accommodations they have and why they are on the train). Meanwhile news stories that will pop up throughout the trip help shape the fears of the world at large and if Europe is on the verge of another war…

It’s a gargantuan challenge considering the size and scope, but if you have a group interested in pursuing it then buy a ticket for Constantinople and don’t worry about the return trip (that can be handled should you survive).

[Arthur B · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just because your adventure is set on a railway doesn't mean it's sensible to outright embrace railroading to this extent. Some episodes are decent, but others are much shakier and the overall structure of the campaign is weak. The 7th edition update is a significant improvement, but even there the self-contained episodes are more interesting than the overarching structure. Full review: https://refereeingandreflection.wordp...

[Eulercauchy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Looks like it’ll be fun to run, but part of me wonders if there’s enough action in each “episode”. I think the only scene that really grabbed me was the Turkish bath, and possibly the baba yaga.

[Chris Spivey · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best adventures every created, second only to Mask of Nyarlathotep.