Short, creative and hilarious. We had a lot of fun playing it!

This is a great resource to add detail around gems in any fantasy role-playing game. There are multiple layers you can add on depending on how much complexity you wish to add. You can start with just the gem types by base values and the gem descriptions and add on variations in size and quality if you want more details. There are also rules for evaluating gems (including how to handle fakes) and buying and selling. There is a lot of value in this supplement for the low price.

I don't like Lesserton, but as far as 16-page (not too densely laid out) players' guides to campaigns go, this is pretty well done. If you want to run in the anachronistic Victorian town this will let your players know something about the culture, the well-known merchants and their prices, the various neighbourhoods and their reputations, and campaign-specific character generation rules. Nice player-facing maps!

It does what it sets out to do very nicely. I mean, you needed a turn tracker and you got one. Nothing much to add.

Picked up both ALL THE TREASURES OF THE WORLD: GEMS & ALL THE TREASURES OF THE WORLD: JEWELS Not only is it fun to roll up gems and jewellery or use as inspiration for some particularly evocative treasure but also use it to flavour magic items or even just a motif for a particular treasure hoard Roll up a few themes and patterns and tie all the treasure, items mundane and art in a dungeon together with a theme

Like the details on the size & quality of the gems to really bring the descriptions home.

Picked up both ALL THE TREASURES OF THE WORLD: GEMS & ALL THE TREASURES OF THE WORLD: JEWELS Not only is it fun to roll up gems and jewellery or use as inspiration for some particularly evocative treasure but also use it to flavour magic items or even just a motif for a particular treasure hoard Roll up a few themes and patterns and tie all the treasure, items mundane and art in a dungeon together with a theme

Like the details on the size & quality of the gems to really bring the descriptions home.

I'm using this currently in a Blueholme (Holmes Basic retroclone) campaign and it is perfect. I can't recommend this enough!

Nice simplistic character sheet, good for the system. Only problem is that the gray text can't really be removed easily. One suggestion I'd have is making a form-fillable pdf, or one without the gray text so you can fill in your own information.

A wonderful world where you may have to think outside the box. As the DM for my group, I had it so the players could interact with humans to let them know of the impending doom on the world, but instead let them still be cats speaking the cats' language. So from rubbing legs, playing with idols, and eventually figuring out the clues, the humans were able to stop the end of the world. The cats did most of the work, but here we are!

The real benefits of this game:

• If you are not into DnD or are familiar with basic RPGs and want to toe into the waters of true RPG freedom, this is a great start. Sometimes it is hard to describe what monsters in the DnD world look like, but everyone has seen a cat and knows what they do, so fairly common ground.
• The mechanics: Super easy to use and very easy to understand.

I reviewed this in order to run at Halloween, as the concept has a great wandering mechanic i think would be great. While reviewing it for play, I found that there were some wording choices and order of presentation that could be tightened up but overall, this would be a great, creepy module for play.

Even if you don't plan on playing a Goblin campaign, if you are running a fantasy setting, you should get this. It gives insight into societal behavior of monstrous humanoids. That alone makes this a good read.

At the time of writing, the Black Gem is the best adventure I've read in 2017.

+Opening scene is amazing, one of the best I've seen +Can be dropped into most fantasy campaigns with little effort +Serves admirably as a one-shot adventure or first adventure in a campaign. +Only nine pages and easy to digest but provides entertainment for an evening or two of gaming. +Decent writing with little of the "filler" that's common to many RPG products +Challenging for new players and grognards alike, it rewards thinking outside the box and improvization. +The Black Gem is completely free.

For 3-5 charcters of Levels 1-3. This is a fun adventure for a nights gaming. Could take about 2-3 hours to complete, depending on actions taken of course. This adventure could be very difficult & deadly, as players will not have access to their normal equipment, weapons, armor. I suggest letting the players find or scavenge a bit before they take on some of the more dangerous encounters.

Start off by telling people you are running call of cthulhu, don't say anything more.

Once they arrive, start making characters, converting those feline character trait names to something more human-esque, then when they all have their character made tell them the reason they made characters so weirdly is because they will not be playing call of cthulhu, but instead they will be playing call of cthulhu (make em confused). Wait 3 seconds, then reveal the cover image and watch them hate you! :D (make them rename their character traits to be more feline if they don't suit)

Trolling aside, I played this as a get together with a group that I played keeper in a call of cthulhu whom I haven't played with for over a year. To make the feeling ever more nostalgic, I created a small scenario based off the first scenario in the call of cthulhu 6th ed. rulebook. Had the first contact be the landlords pet cat be all worried about his humans worry about the humans that go into the house, made up animal contacts at all the key locations from that first scenario in the book and got the players to go inside the dreaded house they had managed to accidentally burn down the first time (Yeah. It was an interesting group of characters). I managed to bring them around the house, pointing out key things that they had investigated before and even made guest appearances of their old characters. It was awesome. Them being cats made it even more awesome!

For those of you looking to play a more lighthearted version of call of cthulhu, maybe break up a tough and depressing campaign or maybe a player is missing one day, pull this out and everything becomes so much better.

All in all my party really enjoyed the nostalgia session, and I'm sure their cat characters will see more action in future call of catthulhu (and potentially guest starrings in call of cthulhu!).

Originally posted at: http://diehardgamefan.com/2015/08/25/tabletop-review-call-of-catthulhu-deluxe-book-iii-worlds-of-catthulhu/

One of the most popular games in my household is Call of Catthulhu. Even my wife and her friends, who do not roleplay, love the game and find it creepy and adorable at the same time. I reviewed the basic version of the game nearly two years ago and the first two books of the deluxe version (The Nekonomicon and Unaussprechlichen Katzen) in Q2 2014.

Worlds of Catthulhu is very different from previous Call of Catthulhu releases. This book is not needed to play the game by any means. Instead, it is a collection of nine different worlds or settings to play in. Think of it in the same way Dungeons & Dragons has Ravenloft, Forgotten Realms, Greyhawk, Planescape, Spelljammer, Dragonlance, Dark Sun, Mystara, Birthright, Maztetica and other very different settings in which you can use the core rules. Eight of the settings in Worlds of Catthulhu are very brief, only containing six to ten pages of background and fluff each, meaning you as the Cat Herder (DM) will have to do a lot of prep work to fill in in the blanks. The ninth of these worlds (actually the first in the book) is a very different story, clocking in at seventy-two pages (more than half the book!) so you might get a bit of information overload compared to the brevity of the other options. Of course, the most detailed setting is by Joel Sparks, creator of Call of Catthulhu, while the other eight were Kickstarter stretch goals, so this explains the difference in length. Let’s take a look at all nine campaign settings now and show you how they differ from each other.

First up is “The Cats of Fuiry.” This setting is essentially the classic Fae courts of British folklore, but with cats instead of hobgoblins, faeries, and the like. As is common with Call of Catthulhu, there are a lot of cat name derived puns, such as the Seelie Queen Titania being Catania here and Queen Mab becoming Queen Moab. This setting has far less to do with combat or detective works than any of the others featured in this book (or the core releases). Instead, the setting focuses more on Court intrigue, social/status climbing and political machinations. As such, if you’re more of a dungeon crawl fan, “The Cats of Fuiry” will probably be too “talking heads” for your liking. If, however, you like games such as Vampire: The Masquerade or Birthright, then this will be right up your alley. Now, that’s not to say “The Cats of Fuiry” can’t have physical combat or mysteries to solve – just that the FOCUS is on improving your position at court. A good Cat Herder will be able to tailor this setting to their players’ preferences, all while staying true to the core idea for the setting.

“The Cats of Fuiry” also contains five roles that define your cat’s role at Court. These do not replace the “character classes” from the core rules, but are merely a new facet specifically for this setting. You have Aerialist, Changeling, Knight, Sorcerer and Courtier. All are pretty self-explanatory and get two or three pages devoted to them, except for Sorcerer, who gets about ten due to rules for different kinds of spells. “The Cats of Fuiry” also contains mechanics for social climbing, ideas for potential stories, lists of influential NPCs the PCs can befriend or antagonize and a full glossary to help you remember jargon and vernacular.

There are also two Catventures for “The Cats of Fuiry.” The first is “The Dragonfly Ball.” This is a fancy dress ball where every cat must dress up in a dragonfly costume. A good portion of the adventure is trying to wrangle up a costume for your PC so that they can attend. Then, once at the ball, the characters may discover an Unseelie plot to assassinate a high ranking (Grand) cat of the Seelie Court. The second adventure is “A Night Under Arms,” and it is here where combat fans will get to have some fun. It’s a short look at how combat is done for this setting, and it is geared primarily for Knight characters. It’s cute but limiting. Still, it’s a good way to showcase how different combat is here than in other settings.

The second setting in Worlds of Catthulhu is ” Iron Edda: Claws of Metal & Bone.” It’s essentially a cat version of Iron Edda. This setting uses Norse Mythology in terms of time frame, geography and gods as the cats deal with the oncoming of Catnarok. There are is an interesting story/adventure seed generator in this section, but other than that, what is here lacks any real substance or detail. It feels like more of an attempt on the author’s part to sell his own game rather than contribute anything of merit to Call of Catthulhu, which I personally find distasteful. This is easily the worst/weakest offering of the bunch.

Setting #3 is “Swords of Catthulhu.” This is a cute high fantasy setting revolving around Castle Felsmark. Although the section is only six pages long, it’s pretty in-depth, featuring many locations for PC’s to visit and for Cat Herders to set catventures around. Speaking of catventures, the section ends with a one page adventure where the PCs have been brought in as castle mousers but may eventually uncover a plot by Hatspurr of Catcosa to influence the kingdom in malevolent ways. It’s a nice piece rounding out an excellent section.

Next up is “Gatos De Los Muertos.” This takes place in 1892 in Arizona, which didn’t achieve statehood until 1912, but was owned by the US since the late 1840s, so that makes the setting one of a border town. I’m not sure why the book constantly refers to this section as “1880s Mexico,” though. That would be like calling a 1920s adventure in Alaska “Early 20th Century Russia.” Anyway, this section is actually more of an adventure than a setting, because only one page is devoted to the actual background. Locations, humans, other cats and the like each get a sentence at most devoted to them, while the other four pages are pure catventure. Here, undead cats (and dogs) are returning from the grave with vile intentions. The PCs must seek out the reason why and put the dead to rest once more. Again, it’s a cute little piece, good for a one shot, but little more due to the lack of setting depth.

“Galaxy Warriors Vs, the Robot Cats” is setting numero five. This is blatantly a Star Wars meets old school Battlestar Galactica homage, but it’s a cute one. Again, this is far more adventure than an actual fleshed out setting for people to use, but who doesn’t know Star Wars (or Sci-Fi tropes in general), right? This is a pretty easy piece to flesh out. The adventure starts off on Cattooine, featuring an attempt to warn the Hero’s aunt of killer robots, meeting up with a wise man and his lightstick, and so on. My favorite part was the Empurror (Purrpatine?). There’s a lot of great puns and family friendly fun abounds in this one.

“Big Cats” is next, and this allows you to play as jungle/savannah cats. Tigers, lions, jaguars, leopards, panthers, cheetahs, cougars and more can all be found here. There are no stat changes or extra health levels. You’re just big cats; no scaling. There are a few adventures seeds and one full Catventure when the PCs are a pride of lions trying to save their cubs from mysterious kidnappers while also dealing with the local chimp population. Another fun piece.

“The Great Catsby” is next and with only four pages devoted to it, this is the shortest setting in the book. It’s Prohibition-Era America and the cats are living it up in the Roaring Twenties, just like their human counterparts. Parties, booze and drugs run rampant, but where did all this corruption come from? Could it be that something sinister is behind the scenes making humans dance to their tune? The cats know something strange is going on and it is up to them to save the day! It’s an interesting, albeit bare bones entry, but since it’s close to the usual time period one plays Call of Cthulhu, it’s probably the easiest of the settings to fully flesh out.

Our penultimate setting is Catthulhu: Gaslamp & Gearbox. Think of it like Call of Cthulhu‘s Cthulhu By Gaslight setting for Victorian-Era gaming. This is not the happy Victorian time period you see glamorized in books and movies; no, this is the Industrial Revolution, where grime, soot, homelessness and greed are dominant. You have different “character classes” from the core game for this setting (eight in all) and most will be homeless or ferals rather than purebreds or the like. There are a couple sample locations (although there is a noticeable editing error in that the locations are numbered 1, 2, 4, 3.) and a cute adventure where cats have to stop the machinations of some rats.

We now come to the final setting in Worlds of Catthulhu, “The Catthulhu Code.” It’s not really a setting as much as it is a long list of Catbals – secret societies of cats dedicated to unlocking the mysteries of the universe. The primary mystery is trying to find a way back to The Garden, or Eden as we would call it, while also preventing the followers of Catthlhu and/or the Serpent from succeeding in a myriad of evil schemes.

Overall, Worlds of Catthulhu is a cute book. It’s not one you actually NEED to play Call of Catthulhu. You can just get by with the core two books or even the basic game. Worlds of Catthulhu is fun to read though, and one of the nine settings it contains may be just what you are looking to use in your own game. If you primarily homebrew your games, you shouldn’t feel obligated to purchase Worlds of Catthulhu. If, however, you prefer published adventures and campaign settings, this is pretty much up your alley. Either way, Worlds of Catthulhu is a fine addition to the Catthulhu line, and I know I’m looking forward to seeing what comes next for the game.