Macabre Tales... A Review (Part III)

Part Six – Lovecraft’s Reality

Chapter 6 begins with a discussion of Lovecraft and his world, examining how he populated his imaginary Arkham with people, places and monsters.

From here, we move to a discussion of Arkham itself, and the surrounding towns that featured in his weird tales.  These are not exhaustive guides, nor are there maps, but more importantly you get something of the feel of each locale.  If I am to pick fault (and I am going to!) it is the noticeable omission of Kingsport...  A town that was central to some great horror tales.

Next is a look at tomes of forbidden lore...  It begins with a few words about how best to use them in a scenario before delving into a few examples such as the Cultes des Goules, and others familiar to any Call of Cthulhu players.  There are only a few listed here, but it is clearly a simple matter to create your own tomes or port over existing ones from other games.

There are example Great Old Ones, The Other Gods and Creatures for the Referee to use in adventures or as the basis for further monstrosities.  Only the latter have statistics, since the former two are beyond the scope of normal combat by any means.  This has been an issue for Call of Cthulhu players over the years, and I do prefer that the mightiest horrors of Lovecraft’s dark world remain as unknowable as possible.  The lesser monsters are in detail and numbers.

Part Seven – The Cursed House

This tale of terror is a sample adventure, and any Knights of the Black Banner regular will know I expect an adventure in any core role-playing game book!

There is one minor problem with it, that it has the classic Chaosium flaw of having no direct link to the player’s character, instead resorting to the cliché “hired to investigate a haunted house” plot.

Beyond that, this is a well-written scenario.  Not the most ambitious or creative, but it is intended as a sample and introduction to Macabre Tales and in that regard it serves admirably.  At 14 pages, it is a big chunk of the book.  It uses the three-act model; it provides all relevant statistics for NPC roles and lots of guidance to the Referee during each stage of the game.  There are maps of vital locations and a discussion on how to wrap it up according to the player’s actions.  In short, everything a sample adventure ought to have is here.

The Final Verdict

Macabre Tales is perhaps not a great game for rookie players, and it certainly benefits from a creative Referee.  However, it does provide the best alternative to Call of Cthulhu I have read, pulling ahead of Trail of Cthulhu on the merits of being shorter, simpler and true to the fiction upon which it is based.  Now, to some this may be a negative factor...  However, I prefer the purist approach, since I feel Call of Cthulhu already easily achieves the pulpy adventure feel.

This game is the result of the writer going back to Lovecraft’s tales, and only his.  This is about solitary men of the modern world facing horrors of the ancient past or the terrible outer spheres of time, space and reason.  It goes to every length to emulate the short stories and make it a playable experience.

Even if these factors weight against it for you and your group, it will still provide a wonderful set of essays on Lovecraftian scenarios and play.  Therefore, I happily give Macabre Tales my highest recommendation.  For me, a long-term dedicated fan of H. P. Lovecraft who is less enamoured with most of his successors, this is a near perfect game.  Roll on the softcover version!

OVERALL GRADE-A

My Macabre Tales Review:

Part 1 & Part 2
The Secret of the Dead Man's Satchel