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Call of Cthulhu RPG
Los harapos del rey
Octubre de 1928. Londres: la capital de un imperio que abarca la cuarta parte del planeta y de la raza humana. Sus habitantes andan de aquí para allá, ocupados con asuntos de política y gobierno, finanzas e industria, trabajo y placer.
Pero cuán frágiles son esas cosas.
Qué grande su ignorancia.
Pues hay quienes persiguen objetivos bien distintos, personas que desean traer un poder inhumano a la Tierra, uno tan inmenso que la frenética actividad del resto del mundo parecería simplemente un último baile antes de morir.
Todos sienten la llamada de las estrellas. Artistas, músicos y escritores trabajan tras la puesta de sol, sentados junto a la ventana, con las cortinas abiertas al cielo. Los afligidos recorren las calles de noche, hablando con ellos mismos, enfureciéndose con aquellos que los interrumpen. Los locos se sientan en sus celdas con la mirada perdida allí por donde las Híades no tardarán en aparecer.
Las estrellas están alineadas.
La mirada de Hastur se posa brevemente sobre la Tierra.
Y todo cambia.
Pero cuán frágiles son esas cosas.
Qué grande su ignorancia.
Pues hay quienes persiguen objetivos bien distintos, personas que desean traer un poder inhumano a la Tierra, uno tan inmenso que la frenética actividad del resto del mundo parecería simplemente un último baile antes de morir.
Todos sienten la llamada de las estrellas. Artistas, músicos y escritores trabajan tras la puesta de sol, sentados junto a la ventana, con las cortinas abiertas al cielo. Los afligidos recorren las calles de noche, hablando con ellos mismos, enfureciéndose con aquellos que los interrumpen. Los locos se sientan en sus celdas con la mirada perdida allí por donde las Híades no tardarán en aparecer.
Las estrellas están alineadas.
La mirada de Hastur se posa brevemente sobre la Tierra.
Y todo cambia.
284 pages, Hardcover
First published February 28, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
May 1, 2020
Una consecuencia del confinamiento ha sido la resurrección del rol; antes nos daba pereza por desplazamientos y horarios, pero ahora tiene un hueco gracias al uso masivo de las videoconferencias. Otra consecuencias ha sido la inversión en materiales: este era el último volumen que me faltaba para completar la colección de la 6ª edición de La Llamada de Cthulhu en castellano.
Lo más destacable es el retorno a la edición en tapa dura y papel satinado en color que caracterizó a los dos primeros volúmenes de la 6ª, que en los dos siguientes se ensombreció con un menor tamaño, tapas blandas y peor papel en blanco y negro. Supongo que entrarían las leyes de mercado porque el público no estuviera dispuesto a pagar 50 € por un módulo que era considerablemente más barato en formato digital. Una pena, me alegro de que enderezaran para la última ocasión.
En cuanto al módulo en sí, es muy chulo pero requiere jugadores dispuestos a echarle muchas horas a una campaña: se alarga durante varios años de juego, tiene partes en las que ni siquiera hay enfrentamiento a los Mitos sino situaciones románticas que no serán del gusto de todos, replantea algunas reglas básicas por el bien del efecto final (¡viva!)... Desde luego, no es una aventura para principiantes del rol ni de los Mitos, y requerirá paciencia en algunos puntos para los jugadores más avezados o los powergamers.
Y, una vez más, me asombra el nivel de documentación que requiere una obra así: las investigaciones sobre ciudades y sociedades de finales de los años 20 es quizá comparable a la de textos dedicados en exclusiva que, envueltos de otra manera, nunca llamarían nuestra atención. Ay, ¡si sacara yo de mi cabeza todo lo aprendido a base de estas aficiones, qué persona tan diferente sería!
Lo más destacable es el retorno a la edición en tapa dura y papel satinado en color que caracterizó a los dos primeros volúmenes de la 6ª, que en los dos siguientes se ensombreció con un menor tamaño, tapas blandas y peor papel en blanco y negro. Supongo que entrarían las leyes de mercado porque el público no estuviera dispuesto a pagar 50 € por un módulo que era considerablemente más barato en formato digital. Una pena, me alegro de que enderezaran para la última ocasión.
En cuanto al módulo en sí, es muy chulo pero requiere jugadores dispuestos a echarle muchas horas a una campaña: se alarga durante varios años de juego, tiene partes en las que ni siquiera hay enfrentamiento a los Mitos sino situaciones románticas que no serán del gusto de todos, replantea algunas reglas básicas por el bien del efecto final (¡viva!)... Desde luego, no es una aventura para principiantes del rol ni de los Mitos, y requerirá paciencia en algunos puntos para los jugadores más avezados o los powergamers.
Y, una vez más, me asombra el nivel de documentación que requiere una obra así: las investigaciones sobre ciudades y sociedades de finales de los años 20 es quizá comparable a la de textos dedicados en exclusiva que, envueltos de otra manera, nunca llamarían nuestra atención. Ay, ¡si sacara yo de mi cabeza todo lo aprendido a base de estas aficiones, qué persona tan diferente sería!
March 10, 2019
Detailed review to come after I've finished running it.
February 26, 2019
There might be spoilers ahead...
This might be the hardest CoC book I have read to review.
First the good stuff. I love the ending of this campaing, it is probably the most Lovecrafian adventure that I have read. Its bleak, its slow and it feels like doom. Great stuff. I also really like the setting work that has gone into it. There is a lot of good stuff here. Also, to make one of the main protagonists a pacifict is a stroke of genius. Lastly, Hastur is one of, if not thee, favourite Old one of mine. The arts, the dreams, the insanity. The way you cant solve the problems by shooting it or blowing it up or setting it on fire.
Then the bad stuff. This is not a rpg... It should have been a novel. There is very little that the PCs can do to change the events. Chapter one and chapter two end with basically a script of what happens with the choice of A or B at the most. And the lead up to all three chapters are more or less a railroad that the author has all ready put there. This book needs A) a really good keeper to be able to make the PCs feel like they are roleplaying and not being read to. B) Quite a bit of work from the keeper to make A) work. And I neither have the time or the skill to do that in the near future. Which is a shame because I would have loved to play out that ending and see the despair in my players eyes.
Also, there are parts that dosent really matter at all. It is supposed to be used for pure roleplaying, and I can see the fun in that. But I now that some of my players would be bored to tears. So this adventure needs both a great keeper but also really good roleplayers to work. If you dont have all of that, I am pretty sure it will fail. Which is a shame, becauce that ending deserves to be played.
Perhaps in five to ten years time I will have both the skill and the time to play this adventure. But I hope that Chaosium come out with revised edition with keeper tips and extencive re-writes (do you hear me Mike Mason!!), because I would play the shit out of that.
This might be the hardest CoC book I have read to review.
First the good stuff. I love the ending of this campaing, it is probably the most Lovecrafian adventure that I have read. Its bleak, its slow and it feels like doom. Great stuff. I also really like the setting work that has gone into it. There is a lot of good stuff here. Also, to make one of the main protagonists a pacifict is a stroke of genius. Lastly, Hastur is one of, if not thee, favourite Old one of mine. The arts, the dreams, the insanity. The way you cant solve the problems by shooting it or blowing it up or setting it on fire.
Then the bad stuff. This is not a rpg... It should have been a novel. There is very little that the PCs can do to change the events. Chapter one and chapter two end with basically a script of what happens with the choice of A or B at the most. And the lead up to all three chapters are more or less a railroad that the author has all ready put there. This book needs A) a really good keeper to be able to make the PCs feel like they are roleplaying and not being read to. B) Quite a bit of work from the keeper to make A) work. And I neither have the time or the skill to do that in the near future. Which is a shame because I would have loved to play out that ending and see the despair in my players eyes.
Also, there are parts that dosent really matter at all. It is supposed to be used for pure roleplaying, and I can see the fun in that. But I now that some of my players would be bored to tears. So this adventure needs both a great keeper but also really good roleplayers to work. If you dont have all of that, I am pretty sure it will fail. Which is a shame, becauce that ending deserves to be played.
Perhaps in five to ten years time I will have both the skill and the time to play this adventure. But I hope that Chaosium come out with revised edition with keeper tips and extencive re-writes (do you hear me Mike Mason!!), because I would play the shit out of that.
November 29, 2020
Tatters of the King is a sixth edition Call of Cthulhu campaign centered around Hastur, the King in Yellow, and everything that comes with him. The piece is not as long as some of Chaosium's other campaigns, like Horror on the Orient Express, but it condenses the experience in to a more digestible bite.
Things begin slowly and almost incongruously. One of the players receives a letter asking for professional input on a psychiatric patient. Things escalate quickly as the group encounters strange happenings, monsters, and then the bodies begin to pile up. The first act culminates in a fantastic climax in which the otherworldly events the players are caught up in absorb them as they begin to see that the world could be threatened by what is being attempted. There is no safe option and the world will be saved by shed blood.
There is an interquel that ties the players in to another cult and it could almost be extracted as a one shot with some fine tuning and I like it because it involves the players getting accidentally embroiled in a feud of succession in a cult and they have the choice to get involved but getting out of town and letting the dice fall where they may is equally valid.
The second half settles in to the globe trotting that most CoC campaigns are known. The players quickly become aware of a splinter group of the Hastur Cult. A splinter with much darker designs that will take them chasing across Europe and have them sneaking in to Nepal and Tibet trying to stop a deadly confluence of Great Old Ones. The timing is tight and the tension as the players cross steep mountains while they fight a lack of supplies and time as well as altitude sickness should be delicious. They'll be tested to the limits of what men and women can handle and then still have to confront otherworldly threats.
Tatters of the King is a lovely product. The art is pretty good. It's all black and white but there are some full-page splash pieces that are breath-taking and most every page has pieces here and there. Every major character has a portrait. It is well paced with things starting slow and quickly reaching a fever pitch. There is a rigid timeline provided that will tighten the noose as the campaign moves on until the Investigators have no choice but to press on but it isn't too encumbering, at least in the beginning.
The Keeper materials are lovely. It has the aforementioned timelines. There's also tons of background on London, where most of the first act occurs, as well descriptive dreams that the Investigators will be suffering throughout. It also includes easy-to-process versions of every handout in the campaign. I was initially concerned because several of the handwritten letters are downright illegible but Chaosium took this into account and provided easy-to-read transcriptions for those letters. Brilliant!
The climax of the entire campaign is cosmic and wonderful with sanity-blasting imagery. The campaign itself weaves mythos horror and actual history in a way that makes my inner history nerd cheer. It even has a suggested-reading/bibliography attached! Masks of Nyarlathotep and Horror on the Orient Express are intimidatingly long campaigns but I think I'll endeavor to run Tatters of the King. When I feel like torturing my investigators.
Things begin slowly and almost incongruously. One of the players receives a letter asking for professional input on a psychiatric patient. Things escalate quickly as the group encounters strange happenings, monsters, and then the bodies begin to pile up. The first act culminates in a fantastic climax in which the otherworldly events the players are caught up in absorb them as they begin to see that the world could be threatened by what is being attempted. There is no safe option and the world will be saved by shed blood.
There is an interquel that ties the players in to another cult and it could almost be extracted as a one shot with some fine tuning and I like it because it involves the players getting accidentally embroiled in a feud of succession in a cult and they have the choice to get involved but getting out of town and letting the dice fall where they may is equally valid.
The second half settles in to the globe trotting that most CoC campaigns are known. The players quickly become aware of a splinter group of the Hastur Cult. A splinter with much darker designs that will take them chasing across Europe and have them sneaking in to Nepal and Tibet trying to stop a deadly confluence of Great Old Ones. The timing is tight and the tension as the players cross steep mountains while they fight a lack of supplies and time as well as altitude sickness should be delicious. They'll be tested to the limits of what men and women can handle and then still have to confront otherworldly threats.
Tatters of the King is a lovely product. The art is pretty good. It's all black and white but there are some full-page splash pieces that are breath-taking and most every page has pieces here and there. Every major character has a portrait. It is well paced with things starting slow and quickly reaching a fever pitch. There is a rigid timeline provided that will tighten the noose as the campaign moves on until the Investigators have no choice but to press on but it isn't too encumbering, at least in the beginning.
The Keeper materials are lovely. It has the aforementioned timelines. There's also tons of background on London, where most of the first act occurs, as well descriptive dreams that the Investigators will be suffering throughout. It also includes easy-to-process versions of every handout in the campaign. I was initially concerned because several of the handwritten letters are downright illegible but Chaosium took this into account and provided easy-to-read transcriptions for those letters. Brilliant!
The climax of the entire campaign is cosmic and wonderful with sanity-blasting imagery. The campaign itself weaves mythos horror and actual history in a way that makes my inner history nerd cheer. It even has a suggested-reading/bibliography attached! Masks of Nyarlathotep and Horror on the Orient Express are intimidatingly long campaigns but I think I'll endeavor to run Tatters of the King. When I feel like torturing my investigators.
June 4, 2021
This is a great campaign book, just to read an interesting tale and scenario of Hastur and the King in Yellow, or to run investigators through with the RPG mechanics.
January 10, 2023
Good Call of Cthulhu campaign, albeit with some shaky aspects. Full review: https://refereeingandreflection.wordp...
November 7, 2024
Cool adventure. It's made up of three distinct parts. Each with it's own premise. I love the third and final chapter it catches lovecraft very good.
December 28, 2025
Fun, I really enjoyed the bits out in the countryside middle of nowhere.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews