Secrets of New York

Call of Cthulhu RPG

by William Jones, Steven Gilberts (Illustrator), Kathy Ferrell (Illustrator)

[CALL OF CTHULHU ROLEPLAYING] SECRETS OF NEW YORK is a compendium of one of the oldest and most popular cities in the new world, and is a supplement for the "Call of Cthulhu" roleplaying game. This volume explores the strange events above and below the streets and avenues that crisscross the world's financial capital during the 1920's. With a plethora of characters to bring the city to life, and a detailed history to build scenarios upon, "Secrets of New York" is an indispensable tool for keepers and players setting adventures in the Big Apple. Included are maps and historical documents and photographs of 1920's New York City, as well as several scenarios that explore the most popular and less savory locales of this grand metropolis.

Genres: Role Playing Games, Games, Pulp

176 pages, Paperback

First published June 30, 2005

About the author

William Jones has received Bram Stoker Award nominations, International Horror Guild Award and Origins Award nominations for his works. He is the editor of several anthologies, including The Anthology of Dark Wisdom: The Best of Dark Fiction, Frontier Cthulhu: Ancient Horrors in the New World, High Seas Cthulhu, and the Horrors Beyond Series. His book, The Strange Cases of Rudolph Pearson was selected by Editor Ellen Datlow as a "seminal" work for readers of Lovecraftian horror. He has also written a number of role-playing game supplements, and his writings have been translated into several languages. He was worked as an engineer and a professor of English literature. He writes full time now, and lives in Michigan.

--from the author's website

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Reviews

[Jean-Francois Boivin · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a good source of information for running games in NYC. Contains many typographical, historical and geographical errors. The two supplied adventures are pretty lame and unoriginal, I would have like more descriptions of buildings to replace those adventures starring the writer's own favorite creations: Professor Rudolph Pearson, and immortal bad-guy/geneticist Ambrose Mogens and his Half Moon cult...

[Andy Simmons · Rating 4 out of 5]

As far as sourcebooks for Call of Cthulhu go, this is quite good. I would have preferred a little less of the factual history, which we can find ourselves, and some more scenario seeds. All in all, the history and guide to NY is very well done though with some nice hooks for adventures. The scenarios at the back of the book aren't that good. The first builds upon material within the background of NY but doesn't do it real justice, whereas the other is just a poorly prepared encounter.

It is certainly a good investment for gamers who wish to use New York as a setting. I would write your own adventures though.