I really like this RPG quite a lot. It's like someone who was really good at game design took a long look at D&D 5e and then redesigned it to be much more intuitive and easy to learn. And the setting is quite well-developed and interesting as well. It's clearly very heavily inspired by Warhammer Fantasy, but it's still unique enough to stand on its own.

This core rulebook does pretty much everything perfectly. The graphic design is unique and yet easy on the eyes. The rules are very clearly explained with plenty of examples. There's a very extensive section on the history and geography of the setting. And the section for gamemaster is very lengthy and helpful, probably the most helpful of any GM section in any RPG book I've ever read. And the bestiary is lengthy and full of cool descriptive text. The only thing I wish this rulebook had was a starter adventure, though reading through the fluff sections will give you plenty of inspiration for adventure ideas.

Just as a disclaimer, I have not run this scenario for my group yet, and I don’t think I’ll have a chance to for some time, so I’m writing this review now just based on my readthrough for those who might be interested in purchasing this scenario.

I absolutely love the concept of this scenario: A daring assault on a highly-guarded, futuristic train carrying none other than the Fuhrer himself! It fits the pulpy tone of A!C perfectly and the premise alone is sure to get your players excited. Unfortunately, while the bones of a good adventure are certainly here, I think the module leaves a bit to be desired as written.

One important thing to know about Assault on the Fuhrer Train is that it's not really meant to be a standalone adventure; rather, it’s meant to be an introduction to the Forest of Fear campaign that is supposedly coming soon. While I am excited for that campaign and will definitely check it out when it releases, I wish that this scenario had been written with the intent of being more of a one-shot; after all, I think that’s how most groups will want to run it. There’s definitely nothing stopping you from running it as a one-shot, but that will require a good amount of rewriting from the GM. Without going into spoilers, if you want this scenario to be satisfying as a standalone scenario for your players, you’re going to have to basically rewrite the entire ending of the adventure. I wish that Modiphius had written Fuhrer Train first and foremost as an independent scenario and tacked on the links to Forest of Fear as an optional ending B, but I guess they really wanted to plug their new campaign.

The plot for this scenario is pretty straightforward: A young member of the French Resistance escapes German captivity, but not before learning a valuable secret. It seems as though the Fuhrer himself will be aboard a train that will be passing through the nearby forest. Enticed by this opportunity, the local Resistance leader immediately orders a strike on the train, and that’s where the PCs enter the picture.

The scenario comes with 5 pre-generated characters, but almost any type of party composition would work for this scenario and there’s nothing keeping you from throwing this mission at your existing PCs. As you might expect, the scenario is pretty on-rails (no pun intended), but there are some opportunities for a creative GM to throw some unique challenges at the players. There are some interesting things for your players to find on the train, and I like the way that the threats escalate from simple German soldiers to more dangerous enemies.

Overall, I liked this scenario and I’d place it about on-par with the other A!C modules, which is to say it’s pretty solid but not mind-blowing. It shouldn’t be $10 as it has about the same amount of content as the other modules which are priced between $5 and $7.50. I can’t help but feel like Modiphius is using the cool premise of this module as a means of charging more money. If the ending didn’t tie in to Forest of Fear so directly, I’d probably rate it higher, but as it is I recommend Fuhrer Train, as long as you don’t mind having to write your own ending.

I’ve always been a big fan of Modiphius’s 2d20 system, and have played and loved games like Fallout and Conan. I’ve been meaning to check out A!C for a while, but have always been turned off by the price. I’m not sure why, for this game out of all the 2d20 games, they chose to make the barrier of entry so much more expensive. Not only do you need two books instead of one to actually run this game, but those two books are usually much more expensive than any of the other single core books. It doesn’t make any sense considering: A. All of the subject matter here is public domain stuff and B. this game is inherently going to have a smaller player base than something like Fallout or STA because it is a much more niche setting. You would think Modiphius would want to make the A!C books cheaper because of this, not more expensive. While this criticism has nothing to do with the quality of the product itself, it is something that really irks me.

But of course, we should talk about the actual game itself. All of the 2d20 games have varying levels of complexity, and I would put A!C somewhere on the upper end; closer to the high crunch of something like Conan than the low crunch of something like Dishonored. Overall, this is a pretty standard take on the 2d20 system and there’s nothing here that really changes up the formula, but I think that’s a good thing. The 2d20 system works really well as-is for this kind of subject matter. And I absolutely love the subject matter. The whole dastardly-occult-Nazi-cults-fight-two-fisted-pulp-action-heroes setting is just fantastic.

If you like the 2d20 system, you’ll probably like the gameplay of this game. If you don’t like it, you probably won’t, as it doesn’t do anything to shake up that system at all. If you’ve never played a 2d20 system before, I’d recommend you go into it with an open mind. Concepts like “truths” and “zones” might seem a little weird at first, but they start to make sense as you play the game. And, as a side note, I think this book does a better job of explaining what exactly truths are than any other 2d20 book. Which is ironic because some of them, like Dishonored, rely on truths in order to function much more than this game does. But I digress.

That said, I have some issues with the content of the book. The layout and asthetics of the book are all pretty solid. The art that is in here is really good, but I wish there was more of it. The book does a generally good job at explaining the 2d20 ruleset, but drops the ball when it comes to certain mechanics like extended tasks. That whole section is badly explained and really needs a re-write. There are some minor typos throughout, and unfortunately, this book contains one of the most glaring typos I’ve ever seen in an RPG book. It tells you at one point that melee attacks are made using “Agility + Fighting,” and then later says that melee attacks are made using “Brawn + Fighting”. While it is true that technically your GM could have you roll with agility for melee attacks, 9/10 times you’re going to roll with brawn, so this is a pretty glaring error and I don’t know how it made it into the final product. Overall, really not the best explanation of the 2d20 rule system, but not the worst.

The character creation section, though, is quite good and provides a lot of neat options for players to choose from. The combat and magic sections are pretty good, too. One of my favorite unique mechanics to this system is the stress track, and the way that physical damage and mental damage (insanity) are basically combined into one type of HP.

So, overall, while I wasn’t exactly blown away by this book (which, for the asking price, I feel like I should have been), I think it’s a very solid 2d20 game with a very fun theme. If the idea of pulpy WW2 Cthulhu mythos antics appeals to you, I think you’ll like this book.

This was the first scenario that I’ve read from M.T. Black and I have to admit I’m pretty impressed by it. Shadows on the Long Road is pretty much your basic “haunted house” one-shot, but it has enough memorable scenes and NPCs to make it stand out. There’s a good amount of atmosphere and it manages to be just horrific enough without going so far that anyone would be really disturbed by it. If you’re looking for a horror one-shot, especially something for Halloween, this is great. And it’s a steal at $2.

My only real complaint is that I don’t like the way that the portal beneath the house is handled. It feels like the author missed the opportunity to put something really horrific here and just kind of went with “the players should probably walk around for a while and then just leave.” A little disappointing considering this portal is advertised as one of the main selling points of the adventure, but as the DM you could always just come up with some kind of otherworldly threat that could be waiting for the adventurers here.

There’s nothing terribly original about this adventure, but the hook of the sudden, violent murder and the mystery surrounding it provide a pretty compelling entry point for the adventurers. The meat of the module is a pretty standard dungeon crawl, but there’s enough creepy sights (like the zombified adventuring party) to keep things interesting. And I really like the idea of the adventurers having to defend the wrongfully condemned man in a trial at the end. A creative DM could take this somewhat barebones module, fill in some more details about certain events and NPCs, and expand it into something really special, but there’s enough cool stuff here that even if you’re just following the module as written, your players will still have a really good time. Another really solid M. T. Black adventure at a very reasonable price.

This is a very simple, charming little one-shot. I could see this working very well for someone’s first attempt at DMing, or as an adventure for a group of younger players, but there’s enough going on here that I wouldn’t sneeze at running it for a table of adults. This is definitely a great “not everyone could make it to tonight’s session” kind of module, especially because I think you could feasibly run this entire one-shot theater-of-the-mind. Overall, highly recommended, especially at this price.

I really like this module, it just oozes charm and it would be great for younger players and adults alike. It really captures that epic adventure feel without actually being the length of an epic adventure, and it doesn’t require very much prep to run. I wish I had stumbled upon this module a few months ago, because it would be a great module to run around the holidays, but it’s not so “Christmas-y” that you can’t run it any other time of the year. Overall, a very fun adventure and well worth the money.

Overall, I think this is a decent collection of modern CoC scenarios. I was a little worried when I only really saw most actual play groups playing through the first two scenarios that those would be the only two good scenarios in the book, and unfortunately to some extent that’s true. But I’ll go through them one at a time:

Ladybug, Ladybug, Fly Away Home: A little girl is abducted from a big box store under strange circumstances. Moments later, a man walks into the store and commits suicide. The investigators are left to find the girl and piece together why she was taken. This is probably the second best scenario in the book. There’s a lot of layers to the mystery here and a lot of investigating for the players to do. And while there’s a lot of room for the investigators to travel down many different paths, the bloody showdown at the end is all but inevitable. I think there’s maybe a bit too much Christian mythology here (in general, I’m not a big fan of scenarios that mix Christianity with the Cthulhu mythos), the memorable NPCs and setpieces make this a really solid entry.

Forget me not: The investigators wake up inside a crashed van in rural Michigan, and slowly piece together how they got there and what happened to their missing colleague. This is the standout scenario in the book, and is really the most compelling reason to purchase TTWLB. The amnesia trope is used really well here and adds another element of terror to the proceedings. There’s some great body horror and a confrontation with a lesser-used mythos entity. You also get some good old fashioned haunted house exploration, and some compelling clues for your investigators to sift through. There’s a lot of different ways this scenario could go, but no matter what this seems all but guaranteed to be a fun and horrific time at the table.

Roots: A young woman goes missing during a camping trip, and her adoptive parents fear that she has gone off in search of her birth mother. The search for this young woman brings the investigators to an isolated small town surrounded by deep, dark woods. There’s a lot of really interesting ideas here, and I can see what the author was going for with this scenario, but overall it doesn’t really work for me. It’s one of those RPG scenarios that would work much better as a short story. The initial investigation is interesting, but once everyone figures out what’s really going on, I think this one is going to fizzle out a bit.

Hell in Texas: In small-town Texas, a young woman commits suicide inside of a “Hell House” being run by a local church. I had never heard of a Hell House (and strangely, the scenario doesn’t really explain exactly what it is), but from what I gather it’s sort of like a Halloween haunted house attraction but with strict Christian messaging instead of light-hearted scares. The idea of the investigators looking into a haunted house attraction that is actually haunted is fun, but from what’s written on the page it’s almost impossible for the players to actually “solve” this mystery. Instead, this scenario will most likely involve the players witnessing a bunch of horrific events before throwing up their hands and saying “Well, I don’t know what to do here” and just leaving. As written, it’s pretty anticlimactic and if you’re going to run it, it will need a bit of an overhaul to give it a better ending.

The Night Season: In Achorage, Alaska, a young man commits suicide in an unusual manner, and the clues point towards the involvement of a strange, gifted young woman. I really, really don’t like this scenario, for a number of reasons that I won’t get into because it’s impossible to talk about without spoiling the entire thing. Suffice it to say, It mixes the Cthulhu mythos with pop culture in a way that I really dislike. A lot of that is personal preference; some people might actually like the unique premise of this scenario, but I was flat-out repulsed by it. This one might as well not even be in the book because it’s completely unsalvageable as far as I’m concerned.

Intimate Encounters: A serial murderer known as the “liposuction killer” is prowling the internet for victims. Can the investigators stop him before he kills again? I actually really liked this scenario. It has an “X-Files monster of the week” feel to it that I really dug. It’s a bit simple and straightforward, but it’s still good fun. I think some of the clues don’t connect together as neatly as they could, but that would be an easy fix for the keeper.

So, a pretty mixed bag overall. I don’t think TTWLB is quite worth $20, because half the scenarios are not really worth running, but the three that are good are pretty solid, so this collection gets a tentative recommendation from me.

One other thing that bothered me is the way that some of these scenarios use adult themes. I’m all for tons of gore and sex and body horror, but a few of the scenarios throw in some pretty heavy themes for almost no reason (abortion, HIV/AIDs, sexual abuse, etc). I’m all good with using these themes to invoke horror, but here it kind of feels like they are thrown in as an afterthought that has no impact on the story. It sort of feels like the authors felt like they had to include some “mature” stuff just because this book has a “for mature gamers” disclaimer on the cover.

These are two pretty good scenarios, and as a history nerd I definitely enjoyed how many of the events of the French Revolution play out as a backdrop to events. Overall, I think these scenarios evoke the feeling of the era well, while still being exciting and horrifying in their own right.

I do have a few complaints though: First, while you can technically play these as standalone adventures independent from Horror on the Orient Express, your players will really need to be familiar with that campaign to get the most out of the experience, and especially to appreciate the depth of the main villain's depravity. Without having played HotOE, Count Fennalik kind of feels like he comes out of nowhere and your players don't really get a chance to understand him as a character. The same goes for the statue in Fennalik's basement. I guess I should have expected this to be a factor going in, but it would have been nice if these scenarios felt just a bit more stand-alone.

Second, your players pretty much have to be soldiers for this scenario to work. Some groups may not mind this, but I always find it a bit off putting when a scenario needs the players to be of a certain profession in order for it to be run properly.

Third, you can't really run the second scenario without running the first, so this isn't so much two one-shot scenarios as it is a single one-shot scenario that has an optional second half. Again, not a huge deal, but it feels like a bit of false advertising to say this book has two scenarios.

Groups playing through Horror on the Orient Express will absolutely love these scenarios though, as it gives them a chance to delve more into the background of the important figures and lore behind that campaign. If you're not running HotOE, I think you may want to pass on this one, unless you're a huge French Revolution history buff. The two scenarios just don't quite stand on their own well enough.

It would have been nice if they had taken the occasion to expand out this book as a sourcebook for running all kinds of CoC adventures set during the late 18th century/early 19th century. Feels like a huge missed opportunity that they didn’t do that here. Yes, that would have required a lot more work and playtesting, but it would at least justify this book's existence as a standalone product.

Back in the day, this was the first Delta Green scenario that I ever played, and it’s what made me fall in love with the game. Now, much later, I’ve finally read the scenario myself. I think this is probably my favorite DG scenario; the premise is so simple and yet it’s so full of horror and mystery. This scenario probably creeped me out more than any other RPG scenario I’ve played, and reading through it recently I still find it very unnerving.

The premise here is simple: the Agents have been tasked with investigating the apparent suicide of a fellow Agent in a house in New Jersey, only to discover that the house has been the site of numerous grisly deaths in the past, all presumed accidents or suicides. Like any good DG scenario, the Agents are given a mysterious handler, a few friendlies to talk to, and a green box to pilfer through. But eventually, they’ll make their way to the house, and that’s when the terror really begins…

A good handler with a real talent for building tension and a creative mind could create something truly horrifying with this scenario. There’s so many potential ways to unnerve and scare your players thanks to the house’s long and sordid history. But I really appreciate the fact that the scenario provides the handler with many possibilities you could use if you’re feeling lazy or uncreative.

I think this is Delta Green’s “rite of passage” scenario, like what The Haunting is for CoC, and if you have a Delta Green group it’s pretty much mandatory that you play this at some point.

I really like this scenario a lot. Zombie pirates are one of these monsters that everybody loves, but working them into the Cthulhu mythos without it feeling too cheesy can be a bit of a challenge. I think the author did a really clever job of making them fit into the mythos here. I also like that the author wasn't afraid to create his own elder god for this adventure, and it feels like it fits in well with Lovecraft's patheon. And I like that the scenario gives some love to dimensional shamblers, a Lovecraftian monster that frankly doesn't get to see enough action in CoC. The scenario itself is also very well-written and formatted, and the included player handouts are very well done.

There were some small things I didn't love about this adventure, mostly having to do with the macguffins that the players have to find on the island, but that's an easy enough detail for the keeper to change. Overall, for under $3 this module is a steal and it's really hard for me to imagine any CoC group that wouldn't have fun with this one.

I really like this solo adventure a lot. Prior to this, my only other solo CoC experience was Alone Against the Flames, which is a much shorter and more basic module. Alone Against the Dark, on the other hand, actually feels like a full campaign experience. There's globe-trotting, there's an ancient conspiracy, there's a nefarious cult, and there's an ancient artifact that everyone is trying to get their hands on. In other words, it has all the trappings of a classic CoC adventure. The story is definitely a bit on the lighter, pulpier side of CoC, but I think that it works for this kind of experience and there is still plenty of horror and mind-being insanity here.

I was surprised by how well the gameplay works as a solo experience and how much it really does remind me of playing CoC with friends. Obviously it's not as good as sitting around the table with other human beings, but if you're a forever GM like me, it's a good way of getting a taste of that player experience. And I was surprised by the amount and depth of the content here. This is a pretty substantial adventure and will take you several sittings to get through.

I do wish that certain sections of this adventure were handled a bit better. Without going into spoilers, there were several moments in the campaign that I was really looking forward to, only to find that the way that this book handled them was a bit anti-climactic. The module also has a tendency to take control out of the player's hands and not allow you to make rolls during some moments where it really feels like you should be allowed to make one. Usually this is done to move the plot forward, but it can feel a bit cheap sometimes. But in a solo adventure like this, that sort of feeling is kind of inevitable.

But there are plenty of unexpected twists, turns, and surprises to be had here and I really enjoyed my time with Alone Against the Dark overall. Like any good CoC scenario it can be very lethal, you usually have the ability to keep playing as a different character if your current one dies.

My advice to get the best experience out of this module: Play as the pre-gen characters, put your extra points into skills that you feel that character would concievably have (don't meta-game and just pick the important skills), and use the time-keeping calendar that the game gives you. It might feel kind of lame to have to keep track of every hour of time, but it really does make the experience much more immersive and, in my opinion, fun.

I was a bit skeptical coming into this RPG. The only previous Modiphius 2d20 games I had played were Conan, which I thought was mostly pretty solid, and the Dishonored RPG, which I thought was kind of a mess. I really like the core concept of the 2d20 system, but both Conan and Dishonored had several systems that felt really underdeveloped and poorly explained (doom, chaos, truths, momentum, etc). I’m very happy to say then that the Fallout RPG pretty much fixes every problem I had with these previous games and feels like a fully-realized version of the 2d20 system.

The 2d20 system is simple: for every skill test, you roll 2d20s and try to roll below your skill rating. Every 1 you roll is a crit, which acts as two successes, and every 20 you roll is a complication, which allows the GM to do something really nasty to your character. Both the players and the GM have a resource called action points (AP) that they can use to, among other things, add more d20s to their pool when they make a roll. This replaces the more confusing meta-resources that the other games had with something much simpler and easier to comprehend, but you still get the fun head-to-head metagame of the players and the GM trying to use their AP against each other as strategically as possible.

The combat system is really good here too, with just the right amount of complexity. Combat uses the normal 2d20 rolls to determine if you hit, but uses D6s to determine damage. The book really wants you to order Modiphius’ fancy custom Fallout dice (which don’t even exist yet last time I checked), but you really don’t need them; you can just roll normal d6s and consult a table. In combat, you can do things like make called shots, or spend extra ammo to inflict more damage, or spend AP to let you do more actions. There’s a good amount of player agency in the combat without it feeling too overwhelming.

There’s many more player options than I expected. Players can not only be Vault Dwellers or Wasteland Survivors, but also creatures like Ghouls and Super Mutants. You can even play as a Mister Gutsy if you want, which is awesome. You also get to choose a background for your character that determines your starting equipment, so if for example you decide to be a Brotherhood of Steel member, you can start as either ]an initiate or a scribe. Overall, I quite like the way that this game handles character creation, and the way that the designers translated the “tag” system from the video game to the TTRPG is really quite clever.

Lore-wise, this book is mired in the Fallout 4 version of the Fallout universe. It’s a bit of a weird choice considering 4 isn’t exactly universally loved, but I guess it’s better than Fallout 76 being the setting. The book goes into a lot of detail about the Commonwealth setting and factions, but as the GM you can easily move the setting to New California or the Capitol Wasteland or the Mojave if you would prefer. Just be aware that all of the world-building, bestiary, and gameplay inspirations for this book come directly from Fallout 4 and seemingly nowhere else. I find this a bit disappointing but it’s not a huge deal to me, since the setting is probably the one thing that I liked about Fallout 4. I would love a New Vegas sourcebook in the future but since Bethesda doesn’t even like to acknowledge that game’s existence, it’ll probably never happen.

I saw some people complaining that this book doesn’t feel like it has enough information for the GM and that you would probably need another supplement to properly run the game, but I don’t think that’s true at all. After reading through this whole book just once, I feel like I could easily and confidently run a session of this game with no problem, and that’s not something I can say about many RPG core rulebooks. And with a very complete list of items, weapons, and enemies, it feels like there’s enough content here to keep your group playing this game for quite some time.

My one real complaint about the game is that it imports a lot of rules and systems from the video game that just make no sense at all in an RPG. For example, there's a long list of modification for each weapon (all of them straight from the video game), but many of them make no sense in the context of a tabletop game. Why would I ever need to modify my rifle to fire a different caliber of ammo? That mod makes sense in the game, but makes no sense in an RPG. A lot of the time it feels like they just included game mechanics simply because they were in Fallout 4, even if they don’t have any practical use in a TTRPG.

Regardless, this game completely exceeded my expectations on almost every level and is honestly a very impressive and comprehensive take on a Fallout tabletop RPG. I was expecting this to be a rushed, unfinished, messy cash grab but it’s actually anything but, with a wealth of options and a very well-designed gameplay system. Unless you really, really hate Fallout 4 and its setting, I highly recommend this game to any Fallout fan.

I was in the market for Christmas one-shots for my group, so I checked this one out. I didn't exactly love this scenario, but I don't hate it either. I think it's perfectly fine and playable, but I think I'll end up running something else for my group over the holidays.

The scenario is pretty straightforward; the characters wander into a small village in the midst of a blizzard and seek shelter in a tavern. When the storm passes, they find that the residents of the village have been frozen solid and encounter a strange woman dancing amongst the frozen figures. The players learn that they must confront and defeat this magical queen in her icy castle in order to free the villagers. Yeah, the scenario reminds me a lot of a certain Disney movie, but I'm not sure how much of that was intentional by the author. It's definitely not trying to be Frozen fanfic or anything, but everyone at the table is going to be thinking of that movie. I guess it's up to you and your group as to whether that's a good thing or a bad thing.

Along the way, the party will fight a giant aquatic worm, meet some elves, and ride a slay pulled by a dragon. There's some cool moments to be had here, but overall the scenario really just me feeling "meh" about it, and I can't put my finger on exactly why. I guess it's because nothing about the scenario is particularly memorable; the characters are barely described at all and mostly just exist to move the plot forward, there's no crazy magical items or artifacts, and none of the monster fights or other situation feel particularly original.

And I definitely don't get that Christmas or holidays feel from this one-shot. I understand that that was intentional: for some reason, the author really wanted you to be able to do this as a non-Christmas adventure, even though that's pretty much the only time of year most groups would want to run it. I can understand not wanting to be too whimsical or cheesy, but I really think that invoking more Christmas tropes or imagery might have helped this scenario feel a bit more interesting and fun.

This scenario is fine, I don't regret buying it and some groups might absolutely love it. But in my opinion there's much better Christmas one-shots out there.

I was really pleasantly surprised by the quality of this scenario. It's your typical "Santa's workshop is attacked by strange creatures and the party must rescue him" Christmas one-shot, but it's really well done and has some really memorable scenes. Some people might find it a little whimsical or cheesy, but I think that kind of tone is perfect for this kind of one-shot, and this would be a great scenario to run for younger kids. I was also pleased to find that there were no typos or formatting issues with the PDF. It uses slightly different formatting than most 5e scenarios, but this really didn't bother me at all and it's perfectly readable. If you want a short, lighthearted one-shot where your players get to rescue Santa and his elves from monsters, I think this fits the bill perfectly.