Tremulus - One-Shot - Pershing Point Preachers

Check out our One-Shot of tremulus by Sean Preston of Reality Blurs. This session is with players who have never played the system previously and to my knowledge was their first exposure to Lovecraftian role-playing. Accordingly, you are getting a very genuine picture of the first session of play. The play ends on a bit of a cliff-hanger in the hopes that we will pick it up again soon.

Achtung Cthulhu! The Trellborg Monstrosities Read-through Review

Scandinavian Stupendousness or Wartime Weariness?

Summary

• An awesome cinematic story is this adventure's crowning achievement, but also a potential downfall. It's a bit linear in construction with lots of great scenes that evoke an awesome WWII feel. This can be great for most GMs and players, some will stifle at this.
• Excellent production value in layout, evocative art, good choice in readable fonts.
• In contrast to my qualms with the Call of Cthulhu rules being deadly and counter to the pulpy feel in Three Kings, Savage Worlds fits perfectly in tone and mechanics with this adventure.
• A bevy of extras help this adventure, a novella, pre-gens, maps, and handouts make this adeventure easier to run and helps evoke the feel and tone crucial to this genre

In the Trellborg Monstrosities by John Houlihan and the folks at Modiphius, A crack team of the British Special Boat Section and vetted experts journey into the far north to unravel the Nazi's interest in the town of Trellborg. They will uncover the dark mysteries in a set of 5 adventures which form the arc of this adventure supplement. Each has enough material for a session, more if you run at the slower speed I usually work through published materials.

The whole thing comes to around 51 pages, which is packed with adventuring material and background. This is nicely accompanied by resources to help run the game. Notably, some nice handouts and a short novella around the events of the adventure up the overall quality of this adventure. The production value is nicely consistent with the past adventures released (Three Kings in particular) in terms of both art and layout. I'm a little less wild about some of the NPC specific art, but these and the handouts both evoke that classic Call of Cthulhu flavor.

A major objection I had in the first Achtung Cthulhu! adventure, Three Kings, was that run straight from the Call of Cthulhu rules the encounters seemed combat heavy and likely quite deadly given that the system is oriented away from combat at its core. It's night and day with a Savage Worlds conversion with the Realms of Cthulhu setting book rules, which really highlights the pulpy aspects and relishes the combat encounters.


Realms of Cthulhu also offers dials on the deadliness and degree of mind blasting, which in this adventure could be used to change the tone from pulpy horror to gritty wartime to suit a group. I'll definitely be picking up any future adventures with this rules conversion.

The plot and setup is the thing that will make this adventure or break when you sit down to the table. I don't want to touch the sandbox vs. railroad debate because its rather moot, these are just tools in the GM kit (See Monte Cook's recent post for a well-articulated discussion). This is a structured adventure, it will take you to some awesome places if you go along for the ride. It has some elements, like redirecting contingencies and an NPC that is nudging a little toward a powerful GM PC.


The adventure "knows" this and the author gives clear indication and the pitfalls to note. This is all in service of creating a memorable narrative and lots of cinematic action. It helps hit on the classic pulp cliches like crazy Nazi occultists, monsters, and beating impossible odds. The setting is undeniably spooky, with the environment as much an enemy as anything else. It also, to my knowledge of Nazi occult (mostly derived from recent Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff episodes), the events depicted fit into that nice niche of ridiculous-yet-plausible.



There is a fair amount of investigation and inquiry to evoke the Mythos flavor, but its generally moved along by the action scenes. In short, you will never see the rails in all likelihood, but if your group bucks at this prospect whenever they see it, you'll have some extra work in this adventure. I want to emphasize the choice the author made here by design, rather than accident.


Overall, this is a great product for setting up a nice short campaign arc, converted to a system which plays to the flavor of the setting well. The consistency between this and the first product professes to the continuation of a high-quality product line. It also increases my excitement for the GM and Investigator's Guides, which will be the product of Modiphius' recently funded Kickstarter.

Ep.48 tremulus Actual Play - Part Three

The final session from a one-shot of tremulus with the Miami Gaming Authority. Actual play of this exciting new Lovecraftian storytelling game from Sean Preston and the folks at Reality Blurs. The game is based on the Apocalypse World engine by Vincent Baker, and takes that great system in a new and horrifying direction (in a good way). Meet our protagonists and follow them as they get far more than they bargained for at an estate sale...

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Ep.47 tremulus Actual Play - Part Two

The second session from a one-shot of tremulus with the Miami Gaming Authority. Actual play of this exciting new Lovecraftian storytelling game from Sean Preston and the folks at Reality Blurs. The game is based on the Apocalypse World engine by Vincent Baker, and takes that great system in a new and horrifying direction (in a good way). Meet our protagonists and follow them as they get far more than they bargained for at an estate sale...

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Ep.46 tremulus Actual Play - Part One

The first session from a one-shot of tremulus with the Miami Gaming Authority. Actual play of this exciting new Lovecraftian storytelling game from Sean Preston and the folks at Reality Blurs. The game is based on the Apocalypse World engine by Vincent Baker, and takes that great system in a new and horrifying direction (in a good way). Meet our protagonists and follow them as they get far more than they bargained for at an estate sale...

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Ep.45 tremulus Actual Play - Introduction and Chargen

Character generation from a one-shot of tremulus with the Miami Gaming Authority. Actual play of this exciting new Lovecraftian storytelling game from Sean Preston and the folks at Reality Blurs. The game is based on the Apocalypse World engine by Vincent Baker, and takes that great system in a new and horrifying direction (in a good way). Meet our protagonists and follow them as they get far more than they bargained for at an estate sale...

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Ep.44 Tremulus Sneak Peek - Part 3

The votes are in! Samuel is a reasonable sort, and ceilings to not collapse without a cause! He opts to puzzle things out, and rolls a 7 plus 1 for his Reason, for an 8 total. This is a partial success, and allows Samuel to ask one among a number of questions. He opts for the straightforward, "How can I get out?" The Keeper provides the information, and Samuel moves onward and upward.

Flashlight in one hand, Samuel edged forward toward the tumbled rock and stone. The jutting root and trickle of water were most at odds with his expectations of a cave-in. Three sweeps of the flashlight and he saw a network of sturdy roots. Although not a scholarly man, Samuel figured that there was some connection with the roots weakening the ceiling. None of that mattered much now though, Samuel had noted that the roots were old, and big enough

tremulus Kickstarter Launched!

If you've been enjoying our tremulus sneak peeks lately, you'll be pleased to know that there kickstarter has just launched! As an RPG that strongly evokes the literary tone of Lovecraft, I encourage anyone who is a fan of H.P.L., horror, or story-games like Fiasco to check the tremulus kickstarter out. It's definitely the most excited I've been about a new Lovecraftian horror game in a long time. Let's all make this great idea happen!

Ep.41 Tremulus Sneak Peek - Part 2

 

 The next installment in our tremulus sneak peek.

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The votes are in! Samuel will try to convince the butler to act as a guide. It’s not a bad choice, faithful reader, as Sam has a pretty high Affinity with others despite any less-than-moral inclinations. He gets boxcars! That also gives you a point of Lore, this will give Samuel a dark insight down the road. Sometimes this has special effects too, but in this case it is just very successful. Perhaps the old butler has a fondness for the young master still after all these years. When you get 10 or more on a roll you generally get a result without a lot of strings. In this case Samuel will have to promise something, but does not need tangible assurances.


Samuel shivered uncontrollably for a moment, then wrapped his arms around himself to assuage an icy death that never comes.

“Heh. Ha. Yes. It must be my imagination and all, trick of the light. Yes, I’m quite sure that’s what it is,” said Samuel to himself.

He left the book where it was, crumpled on the embroidered rug like an overindulged party guest, as its pages began to fold. Samuel slid the library doors apart, and called for Horatio.

Ep.37 Tremulus Sneak Peek - Part 1

In this episode you get a special sneak peak of tremulus. This is a game of Lovecraftian horror, which patterns itself off the compelling narrative of the author's dark tales. This is more than just a preview, we will all be playing this game together! 

To participate just listen to the podcast or read the text below if you prefer. 

Then vote at the top of the page to help guide the protagonist's path:

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 Transcript:

The following narrative is assembled cold, using just the systems outlined within the tremulus rules. Please enjoy the story, and then help decide what twists the story takes next! If you vote you are already playing. So I sit down at a table, and glance through my character options. I whisk through