by sdryche

Related Item: Stormlight Handbook

94

by pixatintes

An item RPG Item: The Dee Sanction has been added to the geeklist Registre de partides 2026

A new episode has been added to the database: S14E16 - Weddings and Funerals

A new episode has been added to the database: Closed Shell Castle, Part 1 (Legend of the Five Rings, 5E: Sins of Regret)

by Dreadras

Related Item: Stormlight Handbook

93

by aramis

An item RPG Item: Star Trek Adventures: Captain's Log Solo Roleplaying Game has been added to the geeklist List of Solitaire, Soloable and Cooperative rpgs.

by aramis

more massala tea. Stronger this time.

by aramis

pdzoch wrote:

What is your experience with player characters having to pay for goods and services with something other than money or bartering of other goods? How did they pay?
for example, have your characters ever had to wash dishes to pay for diner?

Most of my games, it's money or goods...
But, in Pendragon it's often favors.
L5R, it's by requisition... as in, "I need this" followed by grabbing it, and stamping the receipt with their chop so their lord can pay for it. Basically, expense accounts.
Star Trek, same... but it's replicator rations - enforced more in the abuse than ordinary play.

by Shardra

HiveGod wrote:

And, yeah, it went exactly as one might imagine.

Never saw the show because you were arrested for cannibalism?

by Dr Tough

It’s finally done. My group finished this campaign the other day. I thought I’d collect my thoughts on it, provide any advice I have on running it, and also provide an overview of it. I’ve never written a review on RPGG before so this may be a little disordered. I’m trying to recall my high school English essay writing skills from 25 years ago. Hopefully you’ll find some value reading this. The first part of this review will include no more than minor spoilers. After the tags, I’ll go into greater detail.

What is Horror on the Orient Express? The adventure itself was released in 2014 as a second edition updated to 7th Edition Call of Cthulhu, the original having been released in 1991. My copy was purchased on DriveThruRPG where it is currently sold for $39.99. It came with five campaign books, some Investigator maps and handouts, some Keeper maps, a Traveller’s Companion, as well as some miscellaneous items (e.g. a 1923 calendar and a replica US passport from 1923). The Traveller’s Companion is probably the most important item that can be given to the players. It’s not window dressing, it actually contains important information about the various stops presented as an in universe guide. The first book is the overview of the campaign itself. It provides information about the train, an overview of the scenarios, and a high level description of the plot. It also has a page of newspaper headlines for what was going on the world at the time. I found this last thing to be quite useful for grounding the game in the time period. Books two through four are the actual adventures themselves. Book Five is a collection of NPCs that can be dropped in as fellow passengers as needed.

The premise of the campaign is that the PCs are in London on January 1, 1923 to attend the Challenger Trust Banquet-Lecture being given by a friend of theirs, Professor Smith. Smith is attacked later in the week and his home burned. He asks to PCs to continue work that he began. He was trying to stop an evil cult from assembling the pieces of an ancient statue called the Sedefkar Simulacrum. If the cult gets it they can do all the manner of nefarious things. The PCs need to get the pieces first and then perform a ritual in Constantinople to destroy it. They are provided with a paper of leads on the various parts and are on their way. Happily, the pieces appear to all be in places that are stops on the famed Orient Express. With that the party is on their way on a MacGuffin hunt. Seems pretty simple right?

The structure of the campaign is that each stop is its own adventure. So while the campaign is a railroad in a literal sense the stops themselves open up to varying levels. The first things I always asked at a stop were, “What does the Traveller’s Companion have to say” and “What do you do?” Sprinkled in amongst the main stops are a series of optional adventures of varying connection and importance to the main plot. I ran them all and neither I nor my group regret doing so. Some are definitely stronger than others but I never had anyone say that they regretted having played one of these optional adventures. I’ve seen on message boards people saying they skipped them. This is wild to me because the optional scenarios are quite good and some of the most fun we had in the campaign. Really, you should run them all.

Skip to the bottom for closing thoughts.

[o]The adventures are in order London, London (optional), 1893 historical (optional), Paris, Dreamlands (optional), Lausanne, Milan, Venice, 1204 historical (optional), Trieste, Dream Zagreb (optional), Vinkovci (optional), 330 historical (optional), Belgrade, Sofia, Constantinople, Across Europe, London, 2013 historical (optional).

For the main stops London is the campaign introduction as described above. Paris is where the Orient Express actually originates and the PCs will do some researching and investigating of their goals before they leave. It also nets them the first piece of the Sedefkar Simulacrum. Lausanne gets them an item called a Sedefkar Scroll which will come in handy later in the campaign. Milan, Venice, Trieste, Belgrade, and Sofia are the other parts of the Simulacrum and some tussles with the Cult of the Skinless One. Constantinople is where they have to bring it all to destroy them in the Shunned Mosque.

In the title I said my group did a cover to cover play though. This isn’t quite true. The campaign has two endings: a short one and a long one. I ran the short one where the PCs arrive in Constantinople at the end, have a final confrontation with the Cult of the Skinless One, and destroy the Simulacrum. In the longer one the bad guys steal the Simulacrum and run back to London to do their own ritual. The PCs have to go all the way back on the train to stop them. I feel like the short ending is cleaner and more rewarding. The PCs made it to the last stop on the Express. The entire adventure builds towards Constantinople. Let them win the campaign. The two endings differ on who the main bad guy is. The shorter ending means that Fenalik is the primary antagonist and the Cult is mostly just guys that get in the way. In the long ending they come more into their own at the end. Also in the short ending the beginning is as described. In the long one the whole campaign is sort of a trick to get the PCs to collect the Simulacrum for the Cult. Mehmet Makryat is impersonating Professor Smith. The real one is being held prisoner in Constantinople by the cult. This is what I mean by saying that the short ending is cleaner.

The MacGuffin hunt is only the beginning. As the campaign progresses the players will gradually be introduced to either the main antagonist or at least a significant one: the vampire Fenalik. He’s introduced in the third adventure in Paris and players will likely dismiss him as a minor historical character mentioned in a handout. This is fine, they will become much more acquainted with his as the adventure progresses. Some advice here: maybe skip the asylum portion in Paris? My group missed it and I actual think it benefited the adventure because it made the realization later on that they were being hunted more startling. The PCs should become more and more sure that they’re being followed as the campaign progresses.

The 1893, 1204, and 330 scenarios are playable handouts for lack of a better term. I highly recommend running them. There are pregens but my group preferred to make their own characters and it was fine. If you have it you can also run the 1789 scenario from Reign of Terror (I did!). For 1789 the book says run it after Paris, I disagree with that. The adventure involves the PCs conducting a major event they read about in 1923: the raid on Fenalik’s manor and the scattering of the Simulacrum. But remember in session 3 or whatever, Fenalik is just Some Guy. I’d recommend running it after Belgrade instead. By then he’s firmly established as the main enemy of the PCs. 1893 isn’t directly connected to the main plot but it gives a group of PCs a chance to ride the Express from Paris to Constantinople and even poke around in the latter city a bit. 1204 is set during the Fourth Crusade and it is, as one of players put it, like a Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay scenario (they meant it in a good way). They will learn that Sedefkar is a person and an early owner of the Simulacrum. They are also introduced to the Mims Sahis, an evil dagger that will appear a couple more times. They also learn that Fenalik was around during the Crusade. He steals the Simulacrum, setting up the 1789 scenario and the events of 1923. 330 is about the origins of the Cult of the Skinless One. It is also, by the end, revealed to be Fenalik’s origin story. The PCs are Roman legionnaires and he is their centurion, known by his real name of Tillius Corvus. By the end he’s been cursed to become a vampire and murders the PCs.

For the Dreamlands scenario I’d recommend splitting it into three parts. I ran one between Paris and Lausanne, one between Lausanne and Milan, and the final part between Milan and Venice. So I’d run a third and then everyone would be woken up by the conductor knocking on their door and announcing their next stop. If run all at once it’s pretty beefy. Splitting it up makes people yearn to go back to the Dreamlands. On message boards I’ve seen reports that other groups didn’t like the Dreamlands stuff which seems crazy to me. For my group it was a highpoint and provided a contrast with the real world events and statue hunt that was going on.

Vinkovci is probably one of the finer scenarios even if it is optional. It ties into the 1204 scenario and wraps up a few plot points from it. The PCs have a chance to destroy the Mims Sahis, a weapon wielded against them twice, once in 1204 and again in 330. It also functions as something of a murder mystery.

Of the optional adventures I’d say Zagreb is the least necessary. There’s no combat or anything and they aren’t even really in Zagreb. It’s roleplaying heavy and mostly a chance for people to trade sanity for Cthulhu Mythos lore. I’d recommend running it if you don’t have a quorum but people still want to play. You can literally just say it’s in any city and be fine.

The second London scenario is about a Doom Train. It’s neat and my group liked it, but it’s not really connected to the campaign. You have to rescue a guy from a haunted train. It’s fine.

Finally, there is the 2013 epilogue. It’s basically a murder mystery where a madman wants to reassemble the Sedefkar Simulacrum but it was destroyed in 1923. So he’s going to make a new one out of body parts. He needs the head of a descendent of one of the original investigators. Lots of running around on a train trapped in a pocket dimension where there’s a serial killer on the loose. It’s pretty good.

How long does it take to run? My group completed it in 21 sessions that lasted from 3 to 3.5 hours. They’re pretty efficient though, so I can see it maybe taking longer. Is it a deadly campaign? In the main adventures we lost a single PC when they fought Fenalik towards the end. There were a couple close calls earlier though with some CON rolls following dropping to 0 HP with a major wound. In 1893 one PC died, in 1204 one PC died, in 330 all four died, in 1789 no one died, and in 2013 no one died. So seven in all? For the main adventures I did tone down the combat a bit. I wanted sanity loss to be the main threat and the investigation portions to be front and center. No one went permanently insane. Note that after a scenario is completed there is an opportunity to regain sanity based on how well they did. My group was thorough and so had plenty opportunities to regain lost points. Some good rolls also helped. No one told me that there wasn’t enough combat. Is it hard to run? Now, I’ve been playing and running RPGs since the late 90’s so I might be biased, but I didn’t find it any more difficult that any other campaign I’ve run. Make sure to have a working knowledge of the campaign as a whole and then read through the scenario you’re about to run the day before you do. Make some notes as necessary. There’s plenty to keep track of but I never found it overwhelming.[/o]

So is this a good campaign and worth a purchase? Oh yes, absolutely. My group loved it and I’d say that in nearly 30 years of playing and GMing this is a top 5 campaign for me. We loved the epic, sprawling nature where threats were opposed not just across the breadth of Europe, but across time as well. Despite being originally published in 1991 I’d say I enjoyed it more than any of the 5E D&D campaigns that we’ve played recently. That’s really saying something. It does require above average amounts of player buy in. This is not a sandbox but rather a point to point series of adventures. If your group likes Call of Cthulhu, is on board with the structure of the campaign, and wants a beefy, six month or even longer campaign to really chew on. This is it.

by gameguru

Related Item: The Shadowbound Lands: Book 1 of the Maglanian Chronicles

Basti aus Hamburg wrote:

gameguru wrote:

I love these kinds of adventure books. Many thanks for introducing me to another one. 🙂

If you're interested in gamebooks, I can recommend the following Geeklist by [user=Damdael][/user]. It contains a lot of useful information on a wide variety of gamebooks.

Gamebook rankings by Damdael

Oh nice! Many thanks my friend.

by troacctid

An item GeekList: 2026 Challenge: 26 un(der)played in 26 has been added to the geeklist 2026 Challenge: 26 un(der)played in 26