A
couple of weeks ago I went past my friendly local game shop, or FLGS
for you who are familiar with RPG abbreviations.
There
I ran across the Laundry RPG, based upon the laundry files novels
that I reviewed at the start of this blog. I was immediately tempted,
particularly since it struck me that my idea to use side campaigns to
illustrate historical happenings fits perfectly into the world of the
Laundry.
I
took some time to think it over, and two days later I plonked down
some cash and picked up The Laundry Files together with some source
books. I laid my filthy paws on the Core Book, the Investigators
Handbook, License to Summon, The Mythos Dossiers and GOD GAME BLACK.
Unfortunately Cultists Under the Bed hasn't been released yet. There
is an adventure book – Black Bag Jobs as well as a GM screen, but I
decided against them. It got expensive enough as it was.
I
thought it'd be in order to share my impressions of these books. I
say impressions and not experience since I haven't yet had time to
play.
Let's
look at the core book first.
It's
really well written, first of all, and the art is solid. Not perhaps
the best I've seen in an rpg book, but very cool none the less.
The
rules are the familiar BRP rules used in Call of Cthulhu since it
first crawled out of the squamous ooze of pre-history, also known as
1981. But they've been updated and expanded since those days.
New
to these rules are things like Computational Demonology and the whole
package is really well adjusted for what you need to “get” the
Laundry-verse.
Naturally,
you get a lot of info on the Laundry itself, it's international
colleagues, and lots of other interesting stuff.
It's
a hefty read though, hard covered and packing 288 pages. That said,
it's easier to get through than I had expected, and a really good
read besides.
Like
all good core books, it contains all you need
to play, if not all you want.
This leads us to;
License
to Summon.
This
is the magic book of the series (if you want to be crass about it)
but it is also more. Rather than just list a bunch of spells, it
takes you through computational demonology as well as traditional
sorcery, psychic power, dreaming, alchemy and more. Speaking of more,
you get a really nifty section of gear that would make Batman
jealous. He never had an anti zombie aerosol...
I
get an almost Mage the Ascension feel from it, though of course not
as free form. But the lads at Cubicle 7 have really thought about
this stuff when they penned this book.
Finally
for today, I want to talk about The Mythos Dossiers.
This
book is a bit hard to pin down. It contains detailed write-ups and
files on the major minor mythos races, but it's not a monster manual.
Since the Laundry is a part of the British Secret Service, everything
is officially re-designated, so the Deep Ones are called BLUE HADES,
and the Elder Things are known as ANNING BLUE SKULL, with the
shoggoths ANNING BLACK.
This
book is amazing, one of the best rpg supplements I've ever read. It
really made me think about what these beings are, and what they can
do. If you run CoC or indeed any of the multiple variations thereof,
get this book!
As
an example you get to read about what happened during OPERATION
HIGHJUMP (real event by the way), as the U.S. Government investigated
the aftermath of At the Mountains of Madness.
That's
it for this time. When I've had the chance to read the rest, I'll post
the second part.
Iä
Iä and all that.
