Customer Reviews

Cthulhu Now: Modern Adventures and Background for Call of Cthulhu Roleplaying/3307

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I can see how this was a good product in its day. Published in 1987, CTHULHU NOW allowed players of Call of Cthulhu to run games in the present. At the time of this writing, that was 18 years ago. It feels less current and more ... nostalgic (?) to me. Of course, Delta Green is 10 years old now and there's been a lot of water under THAT bridge. Still, 1987 is more like "now" than it is like 1927, so I believe it still has value as a modern gaming supplement (some things, like weapons and science, haven't changed that much. The Internet and technology has). Of course, maybe you'd just like to play an 80's game - in that case, bring on the retro!

CTHULHU NOW has some great articles on forensics, weapons, and modern skills, equipment, and money. Fortunately for players, this has largely been included in the main rulesbook; of course, that reduces the need for this sourcebook. There are also 4 adventures included - "The City in the Sea", "Dreams Dark and Deadly", "The Killer out of Space", and "The Evil Stars". There is also a section of tear-out handouts (which I think is an improvement over breaking your book's spine to photocopy pages) and a 1980's investigator's sheet (which is now in the core rulesbook and also available with the Byakhee software).

The articles:
Modern investigators: If you have the core rulesbook, you don't need this at all. If you want to run an 80's campaign, it could be handy. The problem with it is that it details costs and equipment availability. There's been a lot of inflation since then, but surprisingly new technology has seen a lot of deflation, so that it would be impossible to "project" prices into the future (for things that players don't already know the price of - say, night-vision goggles). I guess the authors could not have forseen just how available technology would become in our day. Reading anything on computers is a little amusing.

Forensics: This is the best article on forensic pathology that I have read - both techniques and their development over time. A great article - on the other hand, you could do well enough for a game by watching a season of CSI.

Weapons: Again, a great article on modern guns, their characteristics, availability, and use. Again, much of this has been reprinted (particularly in D20 CTHULHU, which has a whole chapter in exquisite detail).

The adventures::
The first one, "The City in the Sea", was a wash for me. Not particularly excited about it - it could have been set in any time period as far as I could tell (even a "Jules Verne" version of Gaslight). An investigator gets sent an idol from a deceased uncle - haven't seen that one before. The second, "Dreams Dark and Deadly", is set in a lodge turned into research station. Dreams are studied using a supercomputer recording electrical signals. Perhaps it was science-fiction at the time, but it sounds exciting in the modern day to me. Very believable, could be well adapted to the 90's or even today. "The Killer out of Space" is about an alien that causes a space-shuttle to crash, bringing its infection to Earth. Some have said this could be in bad taste after the Columbia disaster. I think it could also be very apropos, depending on your players. "The Evil Stars" is a about a rock band bringing Hastur to Earth - at first glance I thought "That's so 80's." You could change the superficials - rock band to grunge or death metal, particularly, and still have a good modern scenario. Some scenarios are a prisoner of their times, but I think this one has an enduring core idea.

In summary, I think this is a good product for its times. Much that was good has been incorporated into the core rulebook, but the weapons and forensics articles are handy if you don't have them somewhere else. Three of the four adventures looked good and accessible to any "modern" period - 80's, 90's, or post-millenium. These scenarios shoudl be particularly good in conjunction with Delta green, but then again, what isn't?