Regency Cthulhu: Dark Designs in Jane Austen's England, Chaosium 2022, Andrew Peregrine, Lynne Hardy & Friends
This is a fun one!
I'm always happy to see Cthulhu taken to new and interesting historical periods. Setting an entire campaign in the English Regency (late 1700s early 1800s) has a lot of charm. If you're a fan of the old Gothics (Sheridan LeFanu, Matthew Lewis, Mary Shelley and the like) this is meat and drink to you. Ghosties, ghoulies and long-leggedy beasties! What could be better?
Peregrine does the Keeper an incredible favor by including the setting of Tarryford, a quaint little town in Wiltshire, partway between Bath and Salisbury. Lots of valleys, high downland, and remnants of ancient forest to get lost in, plus the occasional barrow mound, dolmen and stone circle to marvel at. Even if, as Keeper, you never use either of the scenarios in the book you still have plenty of material to draw on for your campaign. Peregrine also updates it for 1913, which means if you want to have a century-spanning game with dark secrets from the past looming over the 'present day', you can have that and welcome!
All told, you're looking at a little shy of 80 pages worth of history and setting, with two substantial scenarios and a further 35 pages of Appendices - equipment tables, pregens, maps, handouts and the like.
I'm going to start with the things I didn't love and then pass on to the things I did.
Personally, I'd have liked to see a little more history outside England proper, for two reasons: first, this is when England fights a lot of the wars that will define it, and the Empire. Second, this is the period of the Grand Tour, when well-to-do Englishmen went abroad for their education. The English are going damn near everywhere, establishing colonies where they please, and it seems a pity not to explore that.
It might also have been interesting to go into a little more depth about what it means to be a town in England. As opposed to a Cathedral town, or a village. It feels at times as if the book assumes you already know a lot of things that aren't really common knowledge outside England. The history of Catholicism in England, for instance, is something that people outside England might not understand, and it could have been interesting to explore that.
The scenarios are both solid, with lots for the characters to do, but I didn't really fall in love with the opposition. I dunno; I'm sure it's me, but it felt a little as if the core concept went ahead of its skis. The second scenario, The Emptiness, seems stronger than the first.
It’s difficult to get into this without spoilers, but to misquote Stephen King a little bit: these concepts do not come up to you, grab you by the lapels and say: ‘I have this story. I want to tell it to you.’ They stand at a respectful distance and whisper ‘if it’s not too much trouble, I would like to menace you now.’
The art is solid and serviceable. No real standouts. It does what it was supposed to. There are a few moments where the artist clearly draws on art ideas from the period, which is an excellent way to go. I would have liked a little more creepiness; the cover art for Green and Pleasant Land is more inspiring, for instance.
OK, having said all that …
I think the historical information that is on the page is great. I wish there were more of it, but if wishes were horses, then writers would ride. I especially liked the section on Race and Ethnicity and appreciated the reference to Mary Prince, since her day is coming up (2nd August) – she’s an important part of our history.
I think the extra Regency rules are interesting, and the section on Reputation could be very valuable if played out. It’s ideas like this that sell a setting. If you’re going to have a campaign set in a particular period, you need to be able to say what makes this time different from any other and having the option to make Reputation a kind of extra Sanity pool (slowly it drains away …) is clever. It implies penalties for character missteps, but unlike Health or Sanity if the Reputation pool drains the character is still alive and (theoretically) capable of taking action. It’s more of a roleplay tool than anything and encouraging roleplay can only be a good thing.
The idea of a fictional town that isn’t Arkham, Kingsport or any of the usual suspects as a setting for an extended Cthulhu campaign is stellar! There’s a lot of information here for the Keeper to use as they see fit. This could have been twice the length and I’d have enjoyed every bit, but as with the historical info I shall take what I can get.
Would I recommend this? Yes, to people looking for something a little different. If it has one besetting sin, it's that it doesn't feel all that different from Cthulhu by Gaslight, though there's a new edition of that coming soon so it's possible my opinion may change when I see Gaslight. The Reputation rules are its main standout, the thing that makes it different from other eras. What might have made it a little more interesting is using those rules in one of the scenarios; a touch of Wicked Little Letters, for instance.
It's not a must-have in anyone's collection, but it's a useful add-on.
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