It starts good - perfect bound halfsize booklet with a truly disturbing cover from John Coulthart... and once you get inside there is little waste or fluff, just good solid material that's of use to any keen Call of Cthulhu keeper (but not much for players!).

The first article is the only bit you can't actually use in a game... the lowdown on what Chaosium is intending to produce in the near future. (Oh, all right, I don't quite know what to do with a Cthulhu wordsearch, but even the poems can be disturbed jottings found amidst the papers of some poor soul who's Seen Too Much.)

Next, to feed those insatiable players who want to know what they've found when rooting around libraries, there are two excellent and well-detailed ancient tomes, each provided with a wealth of background and detail that would enable you to build a whole scenario around them. Might be worth leaving them lying around a library in an earlier scenario, and lead your players on to look in more detail later, if you're running a campaign.

Then comes a sort of 'brief encounter' called Bad Sleep - something to challenge your players with while they are running around at night about something quite different... as with everything, provided dual-statted for both BRP (Chaosium's 'Basic Role-Play' system) and D20. Neat, disturbing, and with the potential to be developed into a full-blown adventure in its own right if that's what you want to do.

Next we meet Professor Larrabee, an astronomer who pointed his telescope at just the wrong part of Mars. I'm very glad I read this after pointing my telescope at Mars! He'd be an interesting chap for your players to know or to meet, or he and his exploits might make a whole adventure... There are also a minor race of dog-like beasties called the Ulm, who use dog-like techniques to persuade humans to do their bidding.

There's an historical article about the FBI, detailing its early history, the sort of investigations that it undertook, and what would be required of agents in the 1920s... all useful either if your players want to work for the FBI or you want to set the FBI on them! It's the first of a 3-part article.

This is followed by a fine introduction to 1920s Greenwich Village in New York. It's going to make a fascinating place for Investigators to visit or live, and there's a good scenario here to get you started, really getting into the feeling of the place. I shall view any of my students caught plaglarising in a new light... Read or play this and find out what I mean!

Then come three devices which Investigators may or may not be pleased to find... all seem useful, but have a hidden cost which users will find themselves paying.

Finally, we move up to the present day, with some fiction - which could easily spawn a scenario! - about archaeological discoveries and the folks who make, and profit from, them; and another brief encounter, this time when modern Investigators are running searches on the Internet and meet a little more than they bargained for!

All in all, jam-packed with goodies to incorporate into your Call of Cthulhu game, and well worth a look. All handouts for scenarios, and other goodies, are available for download HERE. A good start, I hope it continues...

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