What do you think?
Rate this book
Call of Cthulhu RPG
Nameless Horrors
The Cthulhu Mythos presents horrors far worse than mere death…
You won’t find any ghouls or deep ones, or other named Mythos entities here. The horrors found within have no names, but they are still very much of the Mythos. Your players will not have encountered their like before, and no one will be on safe, comfortable ground.
Nameless Horrors brings you six new scenarios that will frighten even the most experienced of Call of Cthulhu players, giving them reason to fear the unknown.
An Amaranthine Desire—The investigators find themselves in the doomed English seaport of Dunwich, encountering strange echoes of the night that sealed the fate of all who dwell there.
A Message of Art—The investigators are invited to attend the closing party of the Salon de la Rose + Croix, rubbing shoulders with the Parisian elite, while finding out that the cost of truly great art is sometimes death.
And Some Fell on Stony Ground—life in small-town America of the 1920s is not quite what it was for residents of Stowell. Local people are behaving strangely and events are escalating. Can the investigators get to the bottom of the mystery and survive before the entire town explodes in frenzy of blood and crime?
Bleak Prospect—residents of a shantytown in Depression-era Massachusetts find their community under assault from unknown forces. Who or what is preying on them? Will the investigators find out before those they hold dear are destroyed?
The Moonchild—David Barber was driven to make a terrible pact to save his son’s life, allowing a great evil to be unleashed upon a unsuspecting world. Drawn together by a mutual acquaintance, the investigators must work together or fall under the spell of the Moonchild.
The Space Between—What was planned as a fantastic new feature film is turning into the shoot from hell. The leading lady has vanished, the director has retreated from the world, and the police are sniffing around the set. It is up to the investigators to get the film back on track and share its vision with the world.
You won’t find any ghouls or deep ones, or other named Mythos entities here. The horrors found within have no names, but they are still very much of the Mythos. Your players will not have encountered their like before, and no one will be on safe, comfortable ground.
Nameless Horrors brings you six new scenarios that will frighten even the most experienced of Call of Cthulhu players, giving them reason to fear the unknown.
An Amaranthine Desire—The investigators find themselves in the doomed English seaport of Dunwich, encountering strange echoes of the night that sealed the fate of all who dwell there.
A Message of Art—The investigators are invited to attend the closing party of the Salon de la Rose + Croix, rubbing shoulders with the Parisian elite, while finding out that the cost of truly great art is sometimes death.
And Some Fell on Stony Ground—life in small-town America of the 1920s is not quite what it was for residents of Stowell. Local people are behaving strangely and events are escalating. Can the investigators get to the bottom of the mystery and survive before the entire town explodes in frenzy of blood and crime?
Bleak Prospect—residents of a shantytown in Depression-era Massachusetts find their community under assault from unknown forces. Who or what is preying on them? Will the investigators find out before those they hold dear are destroyed?
The Moonchild—David Barber was driven to make a terrible pact to save his son’s life, allowing a great evil to be unleashed upon a unsuspecting world. Drawn together by a mutual acquaintance, the investigators must work together or fall under the spell of the Moonchild.
The Space Between—What was planned as a fantastic new feature film is turning into the shoot from hell. The leading lady has vanished, the director has retreated from the world, and the police are sniffing around the set. It is up to the investigators to get the film back on track and share its vision with the world.
228 pages, Paperback
First published November 30, 2015
3 people are currently reading
32 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
February 22, 2017
3.5 stars (grudgingly rounded up.)
Interesting premise (Cthulhu adventures without Mythos-centic entities/creatures), but the bulk of these adventures sadly fail to live up to the premise or excite me as a Keeper.
Interesting premise (Cthulhu adventures without Mythos-centic entities/creatures), but the bulk of these adventures sadly fail to live up to the premise or excite me as a Keeper.
August 8, 2024
Gespielt auf Deutsch: Düstere Ansichten und ein Teil fiel auf steinernen Boden
Read
March 8, 2023How? Part of my new Call of Cthulhu collection; picked this up... maybe from a HPB when I had a coupon?
What? Six adventures (one-shots) that don't revolve around the usual Cthulhu monsters, like (spoilers!)
* An Amaranthine Desire -- where the PCs have to deal with a witch who cursed a town and the historical storms that killed the town. Made me laugh at loud when the potentially villainous witch's motivation is "she saw that the world was dominated by the cruel rich and wanted to punish them," and the adventure notes that the GM could play her as heartlessly evil or just misguided, when, bro, she's the only one in this book who gets it.
* A Message of Art -- where the PCs are all 1890s Parisian artists, and a terrible monster is giving people inspiration that kills them. Fun, feels like it could as well fit in The Yellow King RPG -- or maybe fit there even more.
* And Some Fell on Stony Ground -- where the PCs realize that a 1920s small town is split between those who have been inspired to genius by some strange force and the others have been cast into servitude; starts off with cosmic and domestic horror, ends in survival horror as the town goes mad. Probably my favorite in the book.
* Bleak Prospect -- where the Depression-era PCs find that the rich people are killing the poor by using other-dimensional parasites to suck out luck -- and also the original inventor/adaptor of the dimensional portal was trapped on the other side for years and now is back, and is inhabiting his old house, turning it into an organic horror show. This is a little hamstrung by ... not really having much structure or events -- though coming from D&D, that's often the way I feel about Call of Cthulhu adventures, which are often mysteries where the PCs are supposed to be able to follow any clue to the answer/horror. I like that this takes one reasonable story -- rich people using monsters to get richer -- and then adds on one extra bit of weirdness (the living house). Maybe this is my favorite in the book?
* The Moonchild -- where the PCs once did an evil rite in the 1990s, and now in the 2010s, have to deal with the evil child that was born from that rite. Eh, there's something about this that makes me think it would be a great LARP -- maybe the interpersonal connections? oh, maybe it should be a Fiasco playset! -- but didn't make me want to rush out and play it.
* The Space Between -- where the PCs, well, have to investigate a Scientology-like cult that is trying to get its message out in a movie. Meh.
Yeah, so? Good idea at the core of this anthology, and smart idea to move us away from all the known Lovecraftian stuff. Some hits and some misses. This book is also seven years old and out of print, some of the black-and-white interior art is interesting, but nothing made me really excited and some of it seemed to have an unclear relation to the text. (As in: here's a picture of what it might look like if one NPC saves another from dimensional parasites -- but is that possibility ever raised in the adventure? Maybe, I was skimming at this point.) But they're about to release a new hardcover version in color, and I'm almost tempted...
What? Six adventures (one-shots) that don't revolve around the usual Cthulhu monsters, like (spoilers!)
* An Amaranthine Desire -- where the PCs have to deal with a witch who cursed a town and the historical storms that killed the town. Made me laugh at loud when the potentially villainous witch's motivation is "she saw that the world was dominated by the cruel rich and wanted to punish them," and the adventure notes that the GM could play her as heartlessly evil or just misguided, when, bro, she's the only one in this book who gets it.
* A Message of Art -- where the PCs are all 1890s Parisian artists, and a terrible monster is giving people inspiration that kills them. Fun, feels like it could as well fit in The Yellow King RPG -- or maybe fit there even more.
* And Some Fell on Stony Ground -- where the PCs realize that a 1920s small town is split between those who have been inspired to genius by some strange force and the others have been cast into servitude; starts off with cosmic and domestic horror, ends in survival horror as the town goes mad. Probably my favorite in the book.
* Bleak Prospect -- where the Depression-era PCs find that the rich people are killing the poor by using other-dimensional parasites to suck out luck -- and also the original inventor/adaptor of the dimensional portal was trapped on the other side for years and now is back, and is inhabiting his old house, turning it into an organic horror show. This is a little hamstrung by ... not really having much structure or events -- though coming from D&D, that's often the way I feel about Call of Cthulhu adventures, which are often mysteries where the PCs are supposed to be able to follow any clue to the answer/horror. I like that this takes one reasonable story -- rich people using monsters to get richer -- and then adds on one extra bit of weirdness (the living house). Maybe this is my favorite in the book?
* The Moonchild -- where the PCs once did an evil rite in the 1990s, and now in the 2010s, have to deal with the evil child that was born from that rite. Eh, there's something about this that makes me think it would be a great LARP -- maybe the interpersonal connections? oh, maybe it should be a Fiasco playset! -- but didn't make me want to rush out and play it.
* The Space Between -- where the PCs, well, have to investigate a Scientology-like cult that is trying to get its message out in a movie. Meh.
Yeah, so? Good idea at the core of this anthology, and smart idea to move us away from all the known Lovecraftian stuff. Some hits and some misses. This book is also seven years old and out of print, some of the black-and-white interior art is interesting, but nothing made me really excited and some of it seemed to have an unclear relation to the text. (As in: here's a picture of what it might look like if one NPC saves another from dimensional parasites -- but is that possibility ever raised in the adventure? Maybe, I was skimming at this point.) But they're about to release a new hardcover version in color, and I'm almost tempted...
September 8, 2020
It has been a long time since I last listened to “The Good Friends of Jackson Elias”, but like any good radio host, they become part of your everyday life in a way few other personalities can. So no, this cannot be an impartial review. The authors are just wonderful people.
After saying that, I need to confess I am somehow disappointed with this book. All scenarios included are above “good” and many are phenomenal—more on that latter. However, I am not sure the premise of the book hold as true as I would have wanted. The idea of having new, unnamed mythos entities is an excellent one, particularly to those who have been CoC fans for some time. Nonetheless, most of the scenarios felt more like good conventional horror movies rather than supernatural horror stories. They are not Lovecraftian enough for me, if you will.
“An Amaranthine Desire” Is the weakest of the bunch, but still pretty good. Gaslight era travel back in time to the middle ages to save a witch. Could actually be plaid with your favorite fantasy system without altering it significantly.
“A Message of the Art” takes place in Fin the Siècle Paris. It has a great Agatha Christie feeling. In addition, I always like the connection between art and the occult.
“And Some Fell on Stony Ground” has the flavor of a vampire and/or zombie movie, but there is something special to it, a mythos-induced civil war of the worst kind.
“Bleak prospects” combines the Tillinghast resonator with the hardships of the Great Depression. The most Lovecraftian of them all, maybe because there are tentacles involved.
“The Moonchild” is without a doubt, the creepiest scenario included, even when I think it is closer to Stephen King’s kind of horror. I am sad I will not be able to play it with my current gaming crew.
“The Space Between” Seems to be based on the Church of Scientology—says the uninitiated. While I initially thought that was a dumb premise, by the time I finished I had moved to “Wow, Scott Dorward has been able to create hybrid of Hastur and Yog-Sothoth!” A close second pick.
One big point in favor of all the scenarios are the pre-generated characters, as there is always some internal conflict to add to the horror. I suppose for a lot of people, the fact the scenarios are all sandboxes, relatively open ended might also be a great plus. I would need to play a few to know how I feel about that. My only general complaint with the adventures is that they all seem all to be a bit too long for just one session.
A great collection of scenarios for boys and girls of all ages and Mythos levels.
After saying that, I need to confess I am somehow disappointed with this book. All scenarios included are above “good” and many are phenomenal—more on that latter. However, I am not sure the premise of the book hold as true as I would have wanted. The idea of having new, unnamed mythos entities is an excellent one, particularly to those who have been CoC fans for some time. Nonetheless, most of the scenarios felt more like good conventional horror movies rather than supernatural horror stories. They are not Lovecraftian enough for me, if you will.
“An Amaranthine Desire” Is the weakest of the bunch, but still pretty good. Gaslight era travel back in time to the middle ages to save a witch. Could actually be plaid with your favorite fantasy system without altering it significantly.
“A Message of the Art” takes place in Fin the Siècle Paris. It has a great Agatha Christie feeling. In addition, I always like the connection between art and the occult.
“And Some Fell on Stony Ground” has the flavor of a vampire and/or zombie movie, but there is something special to it, a mythos-induced civil war of the worst kind.
“Bleak prospects” combines the Tillinghast resonator with the hardships of the Great Depression. The most Lovecraftian of them all, maybe because there are tentacles involved.
“The Moonchild” is without a doubt, the creepiest scenario included, even when I think it is closer to Stephen King’s kind of horror. I am sad I will not be able to play it with my current gaming crew.
“The Space Between” Seems to be based on the Church of Scientology—says the uninitiated. While I initially thought that was a dumb premise, by the time I finished I had moved to “Wow, Scott Dorward has been able to create hybrid of Hastur and Yog-Sothoth!” A close second pick.
One big point in favor of all the scenarios are the pre-generated characters, as there is always some internal conflict to add to the horror. I suppose for a lot of people, the fact the scenarios are all sandboxes, relatively open ended might also be a great plus. I would need to play a few to know how I feel about that. My only general complaint with the adventures is that they all seem all to be a bit too long for just one session.
A great collection of scenarios for boys and girls of all ages and Mythos levels.
June 6, 2021
From what I recall there's six scenarios in here. I found "Amaranthine Desire" to be my favorite, and is the only one that I ran. That scenario went... alright, by the standards of my playing group. I just feel a lot of them fall flat. It's certainly ambitious with the majority of the scenarios post 1920's... I think that made writing the scenarios more challenging and they didn't quite rise to that challenge. Of course, books of short campaigns or one shots are always an asset. I didn't regret picking this up.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews