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A Cold Fire Within: A Mind Bending Campaign for Pulp Cthulhu
A Cold Fire Within is a campaign for Pulp Cthulhu.Set in 1935, a missing persons case leads to the discovery of a foul plot that could change time itself and bring disaster to the world. A cult intent on unleashing the power of the Great Old Ones leaves a trail through the Catskill Mountains and into the very heart of the planet!Within the subterranean world of K'n-yan, the heroes will encounter forgotten secrets, strange lore, and bewildering inhabitants. Curious cities of gold, ruined temples, and dark forests are just some of the terrors that lurk below the ground. Yet, before the heroes descend into nightmare, they must contend with remnants of ancient worlds, unruly mountain people, and psychic devilry. Along the way, the heroes may find that going back to the end of an ancient city is the only answer! Perhaps in Lomar's doom shall they unlock the secrets of both past and present. A complete six-part campaign for Pulp Cthulhu, A Cold Fire Within presents new rules and skills for
176 pages, Hardcover
First published November 18, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
April 16, 2021
Well this was a ton of fun to read. Can't wait to run it. Definitely leans way, way, way into the Pulp ideals. It's also more tied into the Theosophists and Hollow-Earth proponents than classic Lovecraft. That said, unlike a lot of Call of Cthulhu scenarios, it also directly connects to a few of his stories. Unlike some other campaigns from Chaosium that I've read this one has a definite through-line of connected plot and story. It gives the PCs options to be sure. You could run this campaign a few times and likely have it play out very differently each time. But there's a logical progression to how it should come together, with an ending that makes sense with the beginning and middle. Though I'm not a huge fan of the very cartoony cover, the art and design of this book is top drawer.
Good stuff. Fingers crossed, I'll be running this later in 2021.
Good stuff. Fingers crossed, I'll be running this later in 2021.
March 10, 2021
Bien, pero no tiro cohetes. Diría que tiene más de Pulp que de Cthulhu, más de aventuras que de terror cósmico, y no me ha tocado demasiado la patata.
También opino que, para ser una campaña, enfatiza demasiado el desarrollo de (hojas de) personajes y de mundos (lo que me encantaría en cualquier otra situación), pero las descripciones de cómo encauzar las enrevesadas situaciones propuestas son más semillas que especificaciones. Sí, es rol y el director de juego debería andar al quite con estas cuestiones, pero me ha parecido un poco caótico.
O eso, o el satélite que orbitaba sobre mi cabeza y me impelía a las temáticas lovecraftianas se está desplazando a pastos más verdes.
También opino que, para ser una campaña, enfatiza demasiado el desarrollo de (hojas de) personajes y de mundos (lo que me encantaría en cualquier otra situación), pero las descripciones de cómo encauzar las enrevesadas situaciones propuestas son más semillas que especificaciones. Sí, es rol y el director de juego debería andar al quite con estas cuestiones, pero me ha parecido un poco caótico.
O eso, o el satélite que orbitaba sobre mi cabeza y me impelía a las temáticas lovecraftianas se está desplazando a pastos más verdes.
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December 20, 2022Why doesn't this campaign work for me?
Well, first, what is it? This is a campaign for Pulp Cthulhu, much like Two-Headed Serpent (which I really enjoyed), which means that this isn't glowering dread over an indifferent universe, but more pew-pew laser guns against snake people. Or rather, that was Two-Headed Serpent, where the PCs eventually learned that two different groups of Snake People were trying to take over the world by uncovering a lost lab of theirs.
There were a lot of different episodes in that campaign, but that was the logline and focus. (Well, OK, technically at one point there might be 3 different factions of Snake People, but generally your job was to stop any Snakes from activating any doomsday devices.) And I really liked that campaign because there were so many different episodes but also a clear focus.
A Cold Fire Within sort of has a focus, and yet...
OK, here's my attempt at a logline: In 1935, the PCS follow a missing persons case which connects to a past-life regression specialist -- and his contacts/thugs in a trending-fascist "League of Forgotten Men"; unraveling the thread, the PCs discover that time travelers from a destroyed city are displacing the minds of people to get more time (which is bad) and are delving into the Hollow Earth, which is itself populated by other psychics, to uncover a power source that will help save their city, or probably will destroy the world (which is worse).
What's maddening about this, and not in a good mind-bending way, is that it _almost_ fits together. There are time travelers displacing psychically vulnerable people, just like the economy of the '30s is displacing people who are then psychically vulnerable to fascist lures; and the lost/dying civilization of the Hollow Earth people may parallel the lost city of the time travelers; and the one episode (which I haven't even told you about yet) where the PCs have to tangle with an isolated town in the stranglehold of a mad psychic villager, well, that episode parallels the themes of domination and power.
And so on. And yet, despite the parallels and the almost fitting together, this feels a little too blended up to me. Like even that title: "A Cold Fire" is an interesting contradiction; "A fire within" gives me an idea of dynamism and danger; "A cold fire within" -- what is that? It's trending towards being a hat on a hat.
OK, now that's a big thing -- and it might just be me that this isn't clicking with -- but that out of the way, here's a few other things, some even positive!
* I love every portrait of the pregenerated PCs and the NPCs, and really enjoyed how the PC characters kept showing up in the art throughout the book. It's a thing that some adventures do, and it works especially well when you have pregenerated PCs rather than a generic adventuring party
* There's a lot of things that could be fun here, with diving into the Hollow Earth civilization and its weird science, and chasing psychic ghosts around an institute
* I like the little bits of politics re: fascism here (though very funny to me that reviews keep citing Sinclair Lewis, as this book does, and not, you know, actual instances of fascist groups in the US.
* It's very linear, with the PCs finding a clue in one place that leads them to another, to another. There's some openness in some of the chapters, but the goals are pretty clear throughout.
So overall: not going to be a classic for me, but there's things here that I like and can see using/recombining. (Like keep the time travelers who displace people and have a goal; maybe tweak the underground kingdom that has the power they need. Or maybe draw a more direct connection: the depraved and decadent society of the inner Earth is the shattered remnants of the destroyed city; or maybe something more mind-bending: the people who are coming to harness this power are actually from the future, and you preventing them from tapping this power is actually the thing that will start off the founding of their civilization, or something.)
Well, first, what is it? This is a campaign for Pulp Cthulhu, much like Two-Headed Serpent (which I really enjoyed), which means that this isn't glowering dread over an indifferent universe, but more pew-pew laser guns against snake people. Or rather, that was Two-Headed Serpent, where the PCs eventually learned that two different groups of Snake People were trying to take over the world by uncovering a lost lab of theirs.
There were a lot of different episodes in that campaign, but that was the logline and focus. (Well, OK, technically at one point there might be 3 different factions of Snake People, but generally your job was to stop any Snakes from activating any doomsday devices.) And I really liked that campaign because there were so many different episodes but also a clear focus.
A Cold Fire Within sort of has a focus, and yet...
OK, here's my attempt at a logline: In 1935, the PCS follow a missing persons case which connects to a past-life regression specialist -- and his contacts/thugs in a trending-fascist "League of Forgotten Men"; unraveling the thread, the PCs discover that time travelers from a destroyed city are displacing the minds of people to get more time (which is bad) and are delving into the Hollow Earth, which is itself populated by other psychics, to uncover a power source that will help save their city, or probably will destroy the world (which is worse).
What's maddening about this, and not in a good mind-bending way, is that it _almost_ fits together. There are time travelers displacing psychically vulnerable people, just like the economy of the '30s is displacing people who are then psychically vulnerable to fascist lures; and the lost/dying civilization of the Hollow Earth people may parallel the lost city of the time travelers; and the one episode (which I haven't even told you about yet) where the PCs have to tangle with an isolated town in the stranglehold of a mad psychic villager, well, that episode parallels the themes of domination and power.
And so on. And yet, despite the parallels and the almost fitting together, this feels a little too blended up to me. Like even that title: "A Cold Fire" is an interesting contradiction; "A fire within" gives me an idea of dynamism and danger; "A cold fire within" -- what is that? It's trending towards being a hat on a hat.
OK, now that's a big thing -- and it might just be me that this isn't clicking with -- but that out of the way, here's a few other things, some even positive!
* I love every portrait of the pregenerated PCs and the NPCs, and really enjoyed how the PC characters kept showing up in the art throughout the book. It's a thing that some adventures do, and it works especially well when you have pregenerated PCs rather than a generic adventuring party
* There's a lot of things that could be fun here, with diving into the Hollow Earth civilization and its weird science, and chasing psychic ghosts around an institute
* I like the little bits of politics re: fascism here (though very funny to me that reviews keep citing Sinclair Lewis, as this book does, and not, you know, actual instances of fascist groups in the US.
* It's very linear, with the PCs finding a clue in one place that leads them to another, to another. There's some openness in some of the chapters, but the goals are pretty clear throughout.
So overall: not going to be a classic for me, but there's things here that I like and can see using/recombining. (Like keep the time travelers who displace people and have a goal; maybe tweak the underground kingdom that has the power they need. Or maybe draw a more direct connection: the depraved and decadent society of the inner Earth is the shattered remnants of the destroyed city; or maybe something more mind-bending: the people who are coming to harness this power are actually from the future, and you preventing them from tapping this power is actually the thing that will start off the founding of their civilization, or something.)
December 9, 2020
Reseñar campañas o aventuras, sin contar demasiado del argumento, es una terea complicada, aunque intentaré evitar irme de la lengua y reducir los spoilers al mínimo.
La base de la campaña juega con la Tierra Hueca y con las Tierras del Sueño, dos elementos que encajan perfectamente con la visión más aventurera de la Llamada de Cthulhu del Cthulhu Pulp. También añaden elementos de gótico americano bastante bien hilvanados, desarrollando un área (las montañas Catskill en los apalaches) poco explotada hasta el momento. En general parece un esfuerzo por ofrecer algo fuera de los elementos más manidos de los Mitos. Por otro lado esto puede significar que, para algunos, no sea lo bastante cthuhuloidea, ya que los Primigenios y sus servidores juegan un papel más bien secundario en toda la trama y el tono es más de aventuras que de terror.
Reseña completa: http://aventurasextraordinarias.blogs...
La base de la campaña juega con la Tierra Hueca y con las Tierras del Sueño, dos elementos que encajan perfectamente con la visión más aventurera de la Llamada de Cthulhu del Cthulhu Pulp. También añaden elementos de gótico americano bastante bien hilvanados, desarrollando un área (las montañas Catskill en los apalaches) poco explotada hasta el momento. En general parece un esfuerzo por ofrecer algo fuera de los elementos más manidos de los Mitos. Por otro lado esto puede significar que, para algunos, no sea lo bastante cthuhuloidea, ya que los Primigenios y sus servidores juegan un papel más bien secundario en toda la trama y el tono es más de aventuras que de terror.
Reseña completa: http://aventurasextraordinarias.blogs...
November 28, 2022
A fun Pulp Cthulhu campaign.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews