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[Where I (we?) Read] Cthulhu Britannica: London


StevenGEmsley

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Having recently acquired a copy of this boxed set, I thought it might be fun to do a public WIR thread to record my impressions.  I know a couple of other posters recently got hold of copies too, so their comments are more than welcome, as are any other readers who have the set.

Back in 2013 Cubicle 7 announced a Kickstarter campaign for a boxed set covering London in the 1920s. back in't day, I was a huge fan of the old Green and Pleasant Land supplement written and published by Games Workshop when they had the license. As a Brit, I enjoyed setting games in my homeland. Whilst Arkham, Miskatonic University, Innsmouth and the like had their charm, they were too unfamiliar to the players in my group, many of which only had experience of the Mythos via the RPG and not having read the original works by Lovecraft. As a result, saying "this game takes place in the USA in the 1920s," often led to assumptions that appropriate characters would be gangsters and G-Men. So out went Miskatonic and in came the Comparative Theology Department of Ebor University.

No, they were too poor to have a Necronomicon in the library.

But I digress. At the time, I lacked the disposable funds to back the Kickstarter Campaign, figuring I would pick up a copy when it was released. Little did I suspect that in the intervening time, Cubicle 7 would lose/surrender (no-one outside the two companies is completely sure which) the license to produce and distribute works compatible with the Call of Cthulhu RPG.

Fast Forward to now, when I do have the disposable income and I finally have not only the box, but all the stretch goals in my grubby little mitts! 

For this thread, I will just concern myself with the core boxed set.

The first thing which struck me when the Postie arrived and handed over the parcel was the weight. I knew there were extras in there (the Curse of Ninevah campaign, the two journals, pad of character sheets and two packs of card, but this was a hefty box. On opening and picking out the core box, this too was weighty. There was a lot of paper in there!

The box itself is beautiful. Not too deep (an inch or so), deep red in colour with a high-quality matte finish. The logo is a superb art deco style affair which looks like it could have been designed in the day, but with added tentacles. The back gives an overview of what the contents are about - and as you would imagine from the title, this is about London. Not the UK, not even England, but London (the Greatest City in the World, according to the blurb on the back). As I am not a Londoner, this will need to be comprehensive. Having visited London just a handful of times, I am not very familiar with the geography.

So it's not Green and Pleasant Land, but its a start. There are other supplements in the Cthulhu Britannica line covering a couple of areas of the UK (Scotland and Somerset) and another covering Folklore to add non-Mythos beasties. These books were for 6th Edition or earlier, but conversion to 7th is a breeze.

So what's in the box? The largest is An Investigator's Guide to London, which appears to be a completely Mythos-free guide to the city, A Keeper's Guide to London (added weirdness and gribblies) and Adventures in Mythos London, which is a book of scenarios. There are also 6 sheets of die-cut handouts and 4 poster maps.

On opening the box, it's full.  No spare room for even a bunch of character sheets!

Next time, I will give my first impressions of the maps and handouts.

Edited by StevenGEmsley
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