Horror's Heart: A Short Call of Cthulhu Campaign in Montreal

Rating:
Summary: Investigators with Free Will need not apply...
Review: At first read-through, Horror's Heart is a well thought-out campaign. It presents characters, clues, and events in logical, sequential steps in a day-by-day format. Unfortunately, it is this very format that is ultimately its downfall.

In order to advance the plot, investigators MUST pursue clues as they are presented in the book, IN THE ORDER they are presented, otherwise they end up at a location with no real idea what to look for; characters that are set to be presented at certain locations cannot be presented if investigators failed to locate a clue or character, or go to a place beforehand.

Example: My players pursued information given in handouts. On Day Four, because they shamefully have Free Will, they ended up in locations, coming into contact with characters that were not presented in the book until Day Six. Needless to say, this presented some problems. It takes a quick-witted Keeper to rewrite entire sections of a prewritten scenario on the spot. In many instances, the investigators had to backtrack and revisit previous locations because they had no idea what they were supposed to REALLY look for the first time around.

Here's a question: Do your investigators really have time to read through an entire Mythos tome during the course of the adventure? They'd better, or else a very needed piece of information will be missed that will ultimately spell their doom. If they're anything like my investigators, they take the book with and read it at a more leisurely time--like when gigantic tentancled monsters AREN'T chasing them.

If you, as a Keeper, don't mind having to lead your investigators around by the nose, or you, as an investigator, don't mind being led around by the nose like an idiot, then by all means, Horror's Heart is for you.

I have some personal issues with the presentation of Loup-Garous in this story as well, such as why one infected garou could pass on his curse to other members in his family AS A DIFFERENT ANIMAL FOR EACH (They're ALL called Loup-garou, but in fact there is only ONE Loup(wolf)-garou in the story--the rest are not loups at all.), but that is more a pet peeve than anything else. The family, despite this, is fascinating. Keepers may want to, as I did, present the family as ALL wereWOLVES rather than different animal weres. It makes more sense.

A far better effort in terms of flexibility is the 1990's campaign At Your Door. Not only are there many different ways to obtain vital information, the campaign is very very playable and entertaining.

'Nuff said.

Rating:
Summary: Investigators with Free Will need not apply...
Review: At first read-through, Horror's Heart is a well thought-out campaign. It presents characters, clues, and events in logical, sequential steps in a day-by-day format. Unfortunately, it is this very format that is ultimately its downfall.

In order to advance the plot, investigators MUST pursue clues as they are presented in the book, IN THE ORDER they are presented, otherwise they end up at a location with no real idea what to look for; characters that are set to be presented at certain locations cannot be presented if investigators failed to locate a clue or character, or go to a place beforehand.

Example: My players pursued information given in handouts. On Day Four, because they shamefully have Free Will, they ended up in locations, coming into contact with characters that were not presented in the book until Day Six. Needless to say, this presented some problems. It takes a quick-witted Keeper to rewrite entire sections of a prewritten scenario on the spot. In many instances, the investigators had to backtrack and revisit previous locations because they had no idea what they were supposed to REALLY look for the first time around.

Here's a question: Do your investigators really have time to read through an entire Mythos tome during the course of the adventure? They'd better, or else a very needed piece of information will be missed that will ultimately spell their doom. If they're anything like my investigators, they take the book with and read it at a more leisurely time--like when gigantic tentancled monsters AREN'T chasing them.

If you, as a Keeper, don't mind having to lead your investigators around by the nose, or you, as an investigator, don't mind being led around by the nose like an idiot, then by all means, Horror's Heart is for you.

I have some personal issues with the presentation of Loup-Garous in this story as well, such as why one infected garou could pass on his curse to other members in his family AS A DIFFERENT ANIMAL FOR EACH (They're ALL called Loup-garou, but in fact there is only ONE Loup(wolf)-garou in the story--the rest are not loups at all.), but that is more a pet peeve than anything else. The family, despite this, is fascinating. Keepers may want to, as I did, present the family as ALL wereWOLVES rather than different animal weres. It makes more sense.

A far better effort in terms of flexibility is the 1990's campaign At Your Door. Not only are there many different ways to obtain vital information, the campaign is very very playable and entertaining.

'Nuff said.

Rating:
Summary: And another thing...
Review: I wrote the former review before actually completing the campaign with my players. Here's one more glaring error:

In the book there is multiple references to a group called "The Lords" who are the mortal enemies of "The Bloods". The Bloods are who the investigators are trying to stop. Time after time, reference is made to the Lords working toward a climax to thwart the Bloods, even going so far as to mark the very night the investigators are supposed to sneak into the Bloods' ritual as the night the Lords are supposed to attack the Bloods. After this, no further mention of the Lords exists in the book. Not only do they not show up (according to the text), but it's as if they've all disappeared. No explanation for the Lords' absence at this significant event is given.

My investigators expected the Lords to somehow be involved, maybe even as allies against the cult and its god. Needless to say, they were quite angry when the Lords didn't show up. They left the city of Montreal in disgust, vowing never to return and hoping the whole damned thing burned to the ground.

Unfortunately, this is NOT a very playable campaign scenario. There were some good points, but the link between the loup-garou family and the rivalry of the Bloods and the Lords is arbitrary at best. The whole thing seems forced, and in fact it is when a Keeper has to throw up walls to prevent their players from visiting places out of sequence.

Any keepers wanting to run this campaign for their players is in for some major reworking of the text and adding some scenes and/or characters to make the whole thing flow better.

Rating:
Summary: And another thing...
Review: I wrote the former review before actually completing the campaign with my players. Here's one more glaring error:

In the book there is multiple references to a group called "The Lords" who are the mortal enemies of "The Bloods". The Bloods are who the investigators are trying to stop. Time after time, reference is made to the Lords working toward a climax to thwart the Bloods, even going so far as to mark the very night the investigators are supposed to sneak into the Bloods' ritual as the night the Lords are supposed to attack the Bloods. After this, no further mention of the Lords exists in the book. Not only do they not show up (according to the text), but it's as if they've all disappeared. No explanation for the Lords' absence at this significant event is given.

My investigators expected the Lords to somehow be involved, maybe even as allies against the cult and its god. Needless to say, they were quite angry when the Lords didn't show up. They left the city of Montreal in disgust, vowing never to return and hoping the whole damned thing burned to the ground.

Unfortunately, this is NOT a very playable campaign scenario. There were some good points, but the link between the loup-garou family and the rivalry of the Bloods and the Lords is arbitrary at best. The whole thing seems forced, and in fact it is when a Keeper has to throw up walls to prevent their players from visiting places out of sequence.

Any keepers wanting to run this campaign for their players is in for some major reworking of the text and adding some scenes and/or characters to make the whole thing flow better.