Nameless Horrors

Nameless Horrors answers the question “What do I run for players who have seen it all before?” It’s a collection of six standalone scenarios featuring novel entities, sure to surprise the most experienced of players. It also has a ‘for mature readers’ warning on the cover, so there’s that, too. Whether your players are grizzled veterans or a hardcore crew of miscreants, it might be time to get out the big guns. Nameless Horrors is a shoulder-launched missile, not in the sense that it’s deadly (although it is), but in its capacity to blow your players’ minds, in true Lovecraftian fashion.

The new edition does a couple of things. First, it tells us that the first edition was good enough to bother rejuvenating. Second, it takes the 1^st edition to a whole new level. Chaosium usually put out good products, but Nameless Horrors is a standout, from start to finish.

The six scenarios are remarkably varied and are not intended to hang together. They feature non-standard threats, hence the title Nameless Horrors, that experienced players won’t recognise. This means that the Keeper running the game has a real chance of scaring the pants off them, which is what we all play the game for, Keeper and player alike.

So, to the scenarios (Don’t worry, I’ll keep it brief). The first, An Amaranthine Desire takes place in Suffolk, England, in 1895, and involves an undersea power that echoes through time. A Message of Art is set in Paris, in 1893, exploring the intersection of artistic genius and madness. And Some Fell on Stoney Ground occurs in 1920s America, as does Bleak Prospect. Both look at cosmic incursions into small-town America. The Moonchild and The Space Between are both modern-day scenarios and feature an unholy pact with something terrible, and a Church that learned too much about ultimate reality, respectively. So there’s something for everyone in this grab-bag of eldritch horrors.

It has to be said that the scenarios themselves haven’t changed at all between the 1^st and 2^nd editions, but, then again, they were already great and didn’t need to. What has changed is everything else: the book is now a colour hardback, not a black-and-white softcover. The art has been totally rejuvenated and looks fantastic. There is also a downloadable resource pack with maps, handouts, NPC portraits and pre-generated characters that clocks in at over 180 pages (!). The quality and attention to detail in the art and resource pack is a cut above and cements Nameless Horrors, in my opinion, as one of the best Call of Cthulhu supplements around.

Get it here: https://www.chaosium.com/nameless-horrors-2nd-edition-hardcover/

Looking for something for new Keepers? Check out Doors to Darkness.

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