2025-05-07T13:39:35Z
2 Likes
FWIW I know several groups that have bounced hard off this campaign. Probably worth talking with someone whoâs played or run it before you buy.
4 Likes
Yeah itâs weird because reading between the lines in the review and having a look online it seems like if youâre really experienced at running rpgs and if your taste aligns with the exact themes this is going for then youâll have a good time for half(?) of the adventure. And if youâre the kind of person who enjoys flawed works for their interesting weaknesses as much as their strengths then youâll think it was worth it. But Quinns is super enthused about it without (enough?) emphasis on the caveats.
Seems really cool though! I like the idea of playing it more than I would enjoy playing it I expect.
3 Likes
I should mention that as a result of the video thereâs a short-notice Bundle of Holding for this, until 2025-05-15T07:00:00Z. I am on the comp list for most Bundles of Holding, and the way I justify this is to mention them in places that I think may find them interesting.
3 Likes
âYou as the GM donât need the information in this book [about whatâs really going on in the world], because you donât need to know eitherââthis goes directly against my GMing style, where by having a complete picture of whatâs really going on I am enabled to make sure that the PCsâ various contacts with it are suitably consistent and foreshadowing, rather than âhuh that was weird and scaryâ.
So Quinns canât enjoy reading a book unless thereâs a colour illustration on every double page spread. Has he considered fixing that?
Mainline Call of Cthulhu can do and has done many of these good things. Cthulhu in boardgames is all about blasting Cthulhu in the face with your shotgun while riding a shantak round Râlyeh. Thatâs not very Lovecraftian, itâs just another sort of generic monster.
Incidentally, Cthulhu Eternal, for which I have written a little, uses a descendant of these rules (including Bonds) and is entirely free.
5 Likes
Still watching in chunks. Iâm enjoying the review, at least. Never heard of this bloke until this cropped up.
So Quinns canât enjoy reading a book unless thereâs a colour illustration on every double page spread. Has he considered fixing that?
I did quirk an eyebrow at that. In fact, when he flips through Impossible Landscapes I canât help noticing how little content there seems to be in comparison to the pictures and artistic flairs, which, Iâll admit they seem pretty cool, but do they genuinely make up half to two-thirds of the pagecount? That seems like it would make it hard to read and annoying to find things in and unnecessarily heavy.
I cannot help thinking the apparent complexity of the campaign is at least partly due to it being so long.
I have now had a look at the campaign, and it looks like perhaps a third of the pagecount. Lots of large artistic borders and atmospheric pictures, quite a lot of information presented as typed documents dropped onto the page - it is indeed atmospheric, but much longer than the text requires. Thereâs also some immediate oddities, like the huge number of boxes labelled âDisinformationâ - which are closer to âpop-out information on specific topicsâ than the alternatives or red herrings that the title suggests. I had a look in case there was advice for the GM on âdo XYZ with the Disinformation boxesâ, but apparently not. That title seems to be part of the Delta Green set dressing. Which, Iâd suggest, is a weakness of this presentation.
âIf youâve got a whole table of players who just want to show up, drink a beer, and relax⌠IL will work almost as well as an experience for them too. While yes, this game is designed to offer a deluge of thought-provoking twists to players who are paying attention, it is also designed to float players through the beginning of the plot right the way through to the end like a lazy river with no difficult puzzling at all - and this is baked into the plot. Because, what in other roleplaying games would be considered narrative contrivances in IL represent you being caught in the King in Yellowâs web. You are gonna go where he wants because he is a timeless immortal spider weaving riddles and you are four hungover cops in a Prius.â â Quinns
I feel like we have a word for this and itâs ârailroadâ?
âWhere IL is demanding, almost laughably so at times, is for the GM. And this is how I ended up in a Discord server full of GMs whoâd run it before, with questions about the motivations of NPCs that I didnât understand, or pacing. I was asking them things like âare my players just going to be completely baffled by the end of act one?â and the GMs in the server were like âyesâ.â â Quinns
Telling me that a campaign is so challenging to run and so confusing that I need to have a roster of veterans to explain it is not really winning me over, I wonât lie.
He does rave about how much he enjoyed the âworkâ, so thatâs great. Thatâs what you want.
âPart 3 is super-duper directionlessâŚâ â Quinns
Oh. I have heard an actual play of this campaign, and there are various âscenesâ that can happen here, but it seems like this section is essentially ânow youâre in Carcosa, and itâs too early to dump you at the inevitable masked ball, so here are some creepy vibesâ?
âIn this part, there is an adventure - but itâs bad⌠For a campaign that up to this point has been powered by surreal horror, and now is in the literal realm of nightmares, part 4 isnât super surreal and itâs not super horrifying. It feels like a goth obstacle course.â â Quinns
This, too, is putting me off. I mean, the bit where you leave reality behind entirely to venture into the mind-bending realm of Carcosa feels like exactly the part where I want an extremely competent treatment that has done all the work for me.
âThat is to run parts 1 & 2 exactly as theyâre written, and then kind of write the game itself.â â Quinns
His suggested way to handle this - run the first 2 parts, then ask players for ideas and write the rest yourself and use a few of the more interesting bits from the last 2 parts - is also not terribly encouraging. I mean, in that case, wouldnât it be better if the campaign was simply the first two parts as a self-contained thing. Making up an extended finale to someone elseâs extremely complicated campaign seems like an awful lot of work.
His enthusiasm is lovely and he throws out some cool ideas for running the campaign. ButâŚ
5 Likes