This book describes six different regions for the Scarred Lands setting. As such, it is intended more for DMs rather than players. It seems particularly great for new fans of the Scarred Lands, as it explores areas that weren't covered in full details in earlier editions, and doesn't require an extensive knowlegde of the setting to digest.

Out of these four areas, six can be understood as "home bases" for adventures and campaigns (the cities of Mansk, Leoni, the Iron Court, and Lokil), and two are more for exploration (the Toe Islands and the Festering Fields). Each chapter is around 10 pages long and describes some key locations, potential encounters (including three short adventures), new monsters (and a couple of magic items), a few NPCs, etc. All these elements are evocative and can be easily used in an adventure.

On a side note, an index listing the creatures by CR with the page at which they can be found could have made this book a bit easier to use, in particular for the PoD edition.

Such a ridiculously fun game that captures the vibe of the 1970s-era horror films it's pastiching! I ran a one-shot session with my Vampire: The Masquerade group over holidays, and I had multiple players note that it was the most fun they've ever had playing an RPG.

Rules-wise, TCFBTG uses Onyx Path's Storypath System, but I found the description of it here more intuitive than in some of the other Storypath books. I'm not sure if the system is actually streamlined here or if I've just developed a better understanding of the system, but I think the OP crew has hit it out of the park with their write-ups.

I also love how much the fun of TCFBTG is integrated into the rules themselves, especially the Tropes, Cinematics, Quips, etc., which encourage the table to lean into the hokey humor of the game.

TCFBTS! is what would happen if Douglas Adams or Terry Pratchet was asked to rewrite the RPG adaptation of Roger Corman's Jaws (After Spielberg was eaten by the mechanical Bruce). It's got a lot of love and affection for the genre, but isn't afraid to recognise the occasional absurdities, or to play up the tropes we've all come to know. As a big fan of the horror/comedy/b-movie genres, i've enjoyed the balance it allows you to take in the game, and you can vere wildly from one tone to another without it breaking your immersion - in fact, it just enhances it.

A fun addition to the TCFBTS! range, that really gets you and your players in amongst the action! With boats, sea battles, and more moistened beasties, you've got a bunch of new toys to play with. What i liked about it was how most of the key elements had story hooks built in, so it wasn't just a fun description and a stat block, it was the start of a story. The book also contains some story ideas, with descriptions of the acts, what can happen, and how you might play them. So, someone looking to get into the game has got a bunch of ideas to get them started befoer they see where the depths take them!

I already loved They Came From Beneath the Sea! so when this game was announced on Kickstarter, I jumped in immediately because classic Brit horror is one of my favourite film genres. If you always wanted to play a game set in a film by Hammer or Amicus, this is the RPG for you. The Archetypes, Trademarks, Tropes and Quips reflect the genre perfectly.

If you know the Storypath (or even old WOD) system, the mechanics will already be familiar, with the various traits offering enhancements (bonus dice/successes etc.) to rolls. The liveblood, however, are Cinematics, which offer a fourth wall breaking way for players to directly affect the given situation. As you play not only a character but the actor playing that character, you can ask, for example, for a retake of a scene, for a standin/stuntperson to take over from you, for a means of escape because the set is made of cardboard, or introduce a missing scene that explains why you suddenly have that much needed flask of holy water you didn't have before, among others.

The Clue system used here means that the action is always moving along as PCs always find what they need to succeed. None of the "You didn't find a particular document/piece of information so this doesn't work" nonsense that plagues Call of Cthulhu etc.

Another special concept in this RPG are scenarios with the option that PCs exist in both the past (18th/19th century) and the 60s/70s of the 20th century whose actions can influence each other or provide insights/memories in certain situations. This is a brilliant way of using stories with long-lived/resurrected villains, lingering curses or hauntings and the like. It can also be used as a framework for portmanteau style campaigns (Dr. Terror's House of Horror, The House that Dripped Blood etc.).

The plot hooks, monsters and the two scenarios at the end of the book provide excellent starting points for both one-shots and longer campaigns so this book certainly has everything you need to run the game.

As with TCFBtS!, each chapter is preceded by a piece of brilliantly written, appropriately hammy, short fiction which serve as both scene settings and scenario ideas.

If this made you curious but you're unsure if you want to fork out for the core book, this jumpstart is cheap and contains the base rules as well as a fun scenario featuring satan-worshipping nuns.

By far one of the worst RPG books I have ever read.

Setting is insultingly stupid and poorly thought out, the authors are so arrogant they think witty remarks about modern progressive politics makes up for the massive lack of information about gods being public, yet history remains the same. Protip: Leave out realworld politics in your alternative earth. Character creation is impossible to understand, my group have a combined experience of atleast 60 years between us with storyteller and none of us could make sense of it. Combat is broken, every attack is basically the same and armour is convoluted. Extremely dissapointing. More than 20 years to get it right and this actually makes v20 look innovative.

We played this for 3 months and gave up out of sheer frustration, as players and a very dissapointed ST.

Trinity Continuum: Assassins adds a dark element to a setting that, in spite of horrors like the Aberrant War, leans toward the bright. And it does so brilliantly, with the best summation I've ever seen in any work that covers this topic: "After all, the idea that violence is universally a moral ill favors the powerful and the status quo. Those with the monopoly on violence do not want others to turn it against them. Assassins have the power to upend this status quo and strike fear into the hearts of the elite." While there are more vicious, criminal-aligned elements in the "world of Shadow" (which, yes, bears superficial similarities to certain other darkness-filled worlds Onyx Path develops), the factions more clearly intended for player membership are devoted to this ideal. Aside from inter-Assassin rivalry, the game does a fine job of creating organizations filled with despicable people. (I'm a bit surprised that the name "Theseus" doesn't appear once, given that they are already Assassin-adjacent and their arch-enemies are major players here, but there's plenty of time for their inclusion.)

By design, the Flux-shrouded society of Assassins hides beneath the pulp-inspired adventure of Trinity Continnum, and the section discussing how to connect it to other TC settings is short but to the point. Inspired Assassins gain abilities much like other Talents of the reality, inspired (pun intended) by the settings that the game is meant to emulate, but they are otherwise very much like Daredevils from previous works. High-end Assassins can perform some truly superhuman feats, but as a rule their abilties exist to let them get in, perform a flawless kill, and get out with none the wiser. Of course, missions will go sideways, and that too is built into the mechanics of the game. As the developers state up front, this is a competence fantasy, so those mechanics create opportunities for events to occur that interfere with the assassination in ways that do not arise from any poor planning or execution on the part of the protagonists. Thus, they can end up having to improvise, dodge guards they would otherwise evade with ease, or end up in dire situations that let the protagonists show off their combat skills. It's an elegant system as focused on its purpose as the spring-loaded blade at the heart of its primary predecessor.

What this is not is a game for beginners. Aside from the technical processes involved in the game mechanics, by definition TC:Assassins is about doing questionable things for a greater good and wondering if you're doing the right thing. As I have been running a one-on-one game that combines the same elements of inspiration with a setting very much like Aberrant for years now, I have tremendous appreciation for the things Assassins does and how well it does them. Mixed games that include Assassins, especially in Trinity Continuum where idealism is celebrated rather than disparaged, will raise difficult questions, and those looking for something more light-hearted should probably look elsewhere. I consider that a strength rather than a weakness, however. TC: Assassins may allow for the notion that killing might sometimes be the right thing, but it never ignores the weight of such a choice, and that balance alone makes this a great book. For those ready to embrace the Code and face tyranny, oppression, and exploitation with the most dire tool available in their gaming world, I cannot recommend this book more.

I was disappointed by this title.

The 'examination of money and mage society' was superficial and to be honest, banal. The ideas of what Wealth means, suggests writers that are all under 30 and have never had any contact with actually wealth people. There are NO offerings for Primal Utility, except a weakening, in that now you can use ordinary Prime to interact with Primal Utility. If there was anything actually using the concepts of Hypereconomics, I must have missed them. The 'movers and shakers' promissed were - again - superficial and unexciting. Nothing that couldn't be made up in half an hour. The High-Ticket Items promissed, are a mix of boring Marvel rip-offs, useless, impractical garbage, and the potentially game breaking Crucible of Thig.

I was so excited when I first noticed this title. Upon actually reading it, I was in turn disappointed and bored. My only ray of hope is the knowledge that this is not the final product. It could still be saved. But I won't be holding my breath.

PS: If asked if I could recommend it, my answer would be NO!. And then the offer of this link: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/145973/Shadowrun-Corporate-Shadowfiles?term=corporate+shadowfiles - it's a better book by far.

I got the opportunity to play Trinity Continuum: Assassins as part of Onyx Path Virtual Convention 2021 and have been waiting to get my hands on the manuscript for months. It easily lived up to what I was hoping for. TC: Assassins introduces a secret underworld of contract killers. It requires the corebook to play, and breaks the universe into three worlds: Daylight where normal people live, Twlight is the criminal world, and Shadow where Assassins exist. It's an interesting bit of world building and I like how the writers handled it. In game terms, Assassins are the equivalent of Talents. The key difference, besides Talents operating in Daylight vs Assassins in Shadow, is an Assassin's Masteries (like Gifts) are more focused on the art of killing. The writers do a good job of explaining there's more to the life of an Assassin than going on hit after hit and how to work that into play. We get new Societies for Assassins, cool new powers, and a new way of playing TC Core. I recommend the book for anyone who already plays TC or anyone who wants to play in a John Wick style campaign. Right now it's easily in my top 3 of the TC gameline.

This is great product, inmersive, one of the best 20th anniversary compilation, ive been playing since 1999, never Wraith, always vampire, but this edition of wraith attracked my attention so much. Great book.

A great amount off fun. perfect for a family Christmas game. The themes are great for invlovling younger players.

This is a great jumpstart. Gives you everything you need to run a game and a story that's fun for new and experienced Players.

I agreed to run a one-shot of They Came From Beneath the Sea! on short notice. Most of the Players haven't played before and I picked this up so we could jump right into the game. This supplement gave me plenty of characters to choose from to make things easy. It served it's purpose and delivers on what its presented as. Can't ask for more than that.

The Firestorm Chronicle

The Firestorm Chronicle focuses on the Prometheans, those creatures from the role-playing game of the same name that were created and animated by humans like Frankenstein's monster. The first of the ten stories still revolves around creating such a being from the point of view of humans. The other stories in the anthology volume take the perspective of the Prometheans and address their central theme, the path to humanity. The Prometheans thus presented cover a broad spectrum – from the merciless cartel killer to the cautious casual laborer. However, the theme is always how these beings relate to their freedom, their origins and past, humanity, and their own quest for humanity. Thus, the inner action of the characters – their thoughts, fears, hopes – is usually more important than the outer action, which only serves as a catalyst. Therefore, The Firestorm Chronicle turns out much quieter than the other anthology volumes, but this fits the theme perfectly. Since the individual stories always elicit new aspects of the theme and are generally excitingly written, The Firestorm Chronicle is not only interesting for Promethean players, but can also definitely arouse interest playing the game.

(Björn Lippold)

# The inner secrets of the World of Darknes - a Mephisto review

The God-Machine Chronicle

In the first rule book of the Chronicles of Darkness, the so-called God-Machine was hinted at in a short story. Except for this single reference, however, this seemingly larger background of the game remained only a small fragment in the mysteries of the new World of Darkness. However, with the second edition of the Chronicles of Darkness, the God-Machine has become more central, and thus the title of the associated anthology volume.

Accordingly, the book begins with the story Voice of the Angel, which tells an origin story of the world from an entirely different point of view. The humans were the servants of another species, who, in turn, were closer to the God-Machine that created the world. Humanity eventually rebelled against their masters and destroyed them. The few remaining specimens of this ancient race who swore revenge on humankind have left their dark mark on history.

Furthermore, like Voice of the Angel, some of the other stories in this anthology originally came from sourcebooks. While some of these short stories do hint at the God-Machine theme, not all of them revolve around it. The God-Machine remains mysterious, seeming to be the machine-like inner mechanics by which the world ticks and that tolerates no deviation of its cogs. Other stories revolve around how people are confronted with the supernatural phenomena of the Chronicles of Darkness. Sometimes, a policewoman's sister stumbles into her monster-hunting activities; sometimes, a man learns the secret of a dying street; sometimes, someone fathoms the true gist of some of his uncle's scary stories.

The stories are very well-written, and what they have in common is that they eschew the major supernatural groups of the Chronicles of Darkness – vampires, werewolves, mages, etc. – for a very personal, mysterious, and sometimes somewhat bizarre horror themes. The topic of the name-giving God-Machine is touched upon and expanded slightly with a few stories. However, the topic's mysterious aura remains – and the God-Machine is neither explained nor necessarily made the central pivoting point of the canonical Chronicles of Darkness.

As for the stories, they are worth reading even without the background of the Chronicles of Darkness. Above all, they can serve well as a source of inspiration for both concrete adventures and atmosphere and themes of a game in the new World of Darkness.

(Björn Lippold)