This is a massive and invaluable resource for anyone contemplating running Call of Cthulhu adventures set in 1920s London. It is formed of three parts: An Investigator's Guide to London, A Keeper's Guide to London, and Adventures in Mythos London. There's also ancillary material - posters, maps, and handouts.

Beginning with An Investigator's Guide to London, this is intended as a comprehensive reference for players and as such doesn't talk about the Mythos. After a timeline of 1920s London, it quite sensibly begins with ways of getting to the city from both North America and Europe, as well as from the rest of the UK; and then touches on that most British of preoccupations, the weather. Once there, it's a big place so there's a section on how to get around. It is already a cosmopolitan city, and the people who live there are the next facet to be explored. This includes the 'class system' - a concept beloved of sociologists, but with a real and biting reality in the 1920s where it really did matter - the role of ethnic minorities, of which there were plenty. and some new/modified occupations and skills should you be contemplating a Londoner as a character.

The next few sections cover London life: shopping, how news is distributed, entertainment, and law and order, before moving on to a very detailed survey of the city itself in 'The London Guide' which begins with Central London and spreads outwards, reaching the commuter belt. Then follow specific places such as Royal Palaces, military facilities, hospitals, London University, graveyards and the River Thames... places which the party might have reason to visit in their explorations. It's illustrated by plenty of maps, although these are a bit small and cramped and you have to peer to see much detail: they are, however, contemporary to the 1920s and give a wonderful period feel. There's lots of indidental information and illustrations as well, and overall presents a delightful and pretty accurate of London in the 1920s. This can be safely handed to players as reference material, if their characters are familiar with London or have access to a good guidebook.

The Keeper's Guide to London, unlike the preceeding book, is jam-packed with Mythos material and references. It begins with a discussion about bringing the Mythos to life, covering dreaming, hiding, creeping and screaming... a fascinating discussion about how what has gone before influences the present, and how so much lies beneath the surface just waiting to be discovered (or to erupt!); then there is the Keeper's History of London, a far darker thing than the historial information in the preceeding book, the sweep of power and counter-bid that has made it the place it is today. There is a collection of unusual locations, all with connections to weird events or people and notes on how to use them in your game, and then a cavalcade of people: occult organisations and their members, potential allies and information sources, and a couple of clubs - investigators of suitable social standing might be invited to join. Then we turn to a series of Mythos Threats, and finally a collection of Mythos and related tomes. There are enough libraries in London to poke through, after all!

The third book, Adventures in Mythos London provides three full adventures. The first, Terror on the Thames, is a short linear adventure suitable for novice players and any group where the investigators have not yet met one another, as it makes for natural and unforced untroductions, with some useful suggestions as to how you can get all your investigators aboard whatever their background. It all begins with an innocent party aboard a river boat... but ends in tears.

This is followed by Those Poor Souls who Dwell in Light, which concerns the antics of a rogue vicar who ought to have known that the correct way to heaven is not through magic and crystals of power. The final scenario is The Non-Euclidian Gate, which drags the investigators into the often cut-throat world of antiqurian rare book dealers, and the scarcly less tame one of a girls' school. All three adventures have plenty going on and numerous clues to discover to lead the party to the threat, if not to a means to deal with it.

Overall, if you want to run a London-based game of Call of Cthulhu - or anything set in the 1920s (you can always leave the Mythos bits out if necessary) - this is an excellent resource to have to hand.

Return to London page.

Reviewed: 27 December 2017