I stopped by the Pegasus booth at Gen Con to pick up WoC #2 and I was floored with the quality of their books. They were simply amazing. The layouts and artwork were awesome. It would be sweet to see that type of thing find it's way into more Chaosium products. If I could read German, I would have picked up all their stuff. I noticed that their Horror on the Orient Express is seperated into different books. Anyone know how that works?
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My original HOTOE had the sections in separate books.
Just like Masks of Nyharlathotep.
Only with Masks one could play the scenarios in almost any order.
HOTOE is made to play in correct sequence.
Was there a reprint with the whole campaign in one book?
Pegasus' original plan was to print it as a boxed set, but that plan was dropped when they realised the set would cost ca €80. To make it more affordable, they decided to split it up into four volumes and stagger the release dates of these.
Volume One includes the British episode and all the background material about the campaign and the train itself.
Volume Two contains the French and Swiss episodes, a collection of NPCs the investigators may meet, plans of the train and two extra scenarios.
Volume Three contains the Italian and Croatian episodes, plus one extra scenario.
Volume Four should finally make an appearance in October, and rounds the campaign off with the Serbian, Bulgarian and Turkish episodes, plus the return to the UK. A box to keep everything in is also included.
As well as all this, the German translation also includes extensive background notes about the countries visited.
According to Pegasus' Cthulhu Newsletter, Chaosium's mention of a possible reprint of the campaign was inspired by the German version, but they have yet to decide whether to include this extra material.
I believe the new Italian language version does include the new material. It has the same format and artwork, at any rate.
I hope they're gonna change a few things when they reissue HotOE, because HotOE did have some serious problems with the overall consistency and the quality of certain chapters.
I haven't seen the German HotOE, but I assume the quality of the edition itself (layout, print etc) must be superior, as most Pegasus products are. When it comes to the text itself, I reckon that the background material would be good, based on the well-researched cultural and historical stuff I've seen in their other editions.
And now I will rant a bit about the contents of HotOE.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
[SPOILERS FOR HORROR OF THE ORIENT EXPRESS MAIN PLOT -
DO NOT READ IF YOU INTEND TO PLAY THIS CAMPAIGN]
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The initial chapter in London was ok, the unfolding of the main story in Paris and onwards to Italy quite inspiring, and my favourite was the part in Italy, esp. the chapter with the automatons set over a grim fascist background. Almost an Unknown Armies/Call of Cthulhu crossover, ideawise.
However, the Liggoti-inspired dream-chapter of Zagreb, in spite of being great, just damages the continuity of the main plot in my opinion, it breaks up the build-up of horror. In the context of other chapters, it is inconsistent and silly.
And then, the ridiculous Belgrade chapter, not only factualy wrong, with incredibly silly supposedly Serbian names, but the main plot with Baba Yaga (a creature that has as much to do with Serbia as Rumpelstiltskin would) is just plain ridiculous.
I mean, what did the authors want to do - show Balkans as a land of fairy tales and dreams? Not only does it really suck - it also has no place in such a campaign.
I particularly liked some of the comments on a very good site (by P.Devlin, edited by M.Lay - compiled from Strange Aeons mailing list) whose link I'm posting below, and I quite like their modified Belgrade chapter, that uses one of the greatest supposed contributions from Serbia to popular myth - vampires.
http://users.ox.ac.uk/~ctsu0009/coc/orient1.htm
We were aware of that, too, and added a chapter for the keeper on how to run the campaign smoothly. Also, we not only corrected errors made in the different chapters, but added text where we thought it would benefit the campaign. The Venice chapter now includes more atmosphere, as the famous carnival is taking place when the PCs visit, and the BabaJaga-Chapter recieved an alternative Version - keepers can decide which one they favor (the original version or our version).Originally Posted by Madam30th
We added several additional scenarios (one in Paris, two on the train) and background chapters for all countries visited, as well as all cities visited.
Our HOTOE therefore works as some sort of Central Europe campaign book as well.
The layout and artwork is new, of course, and we have several extras that were not found in the Chaosium edition, for example a Simplon Orient-Express leaflet for the players, which is handed out on the train.
Frank Heller
CoC Chief Editor Germany
Gods! Pity my German is not up to par...
Cheers,
Roland
Listen up Chaosium!!!!!!!! I want THIS edition. Just translate it into English please! :P
What he said . . .
An alternate to the chicken legged hut chasing the PC's?
Bring it on.
Actually, getting my PCs chased by the chicken legged hut sounds kind of cool...
I'll get me coat.
You statted YHVH and you only gave Him 44 hit points? Yeesh. - Njal.
Ingham's Sundry Roleplaying Resources
Is there a list somewhere of all the Pegasus Call of Cthulhu supplements, in English, since my Other Language (German) skill is barely 01%, if that. My Other Langauge (Spanish) 1% consists of more words.
Anyway, if someone can point me to a list that would be nice, so monolingists like me can pine over what we're missing out on!
Thanks
David
I agree with David, is there a list somewhere? I too would like to see many of these published in English (there is also a website that has scenarios in German...rats!)
There is a list of all CoC material published in German here:
http://dorp.fantasyhosting.de/cw/help_listen_pub.htm
It's in German, though.
Shorter adventures may appear in translation in Worlds of Cthulhu magazine. Since we don't have a license to publish our books in English language, that would be up to Chaosium. If you ask them to translate specific works you would like to see, they might do it. "Cthulhu Dark Ages" and "Malleus Monstrorum" are titles first seen in German, for example.
Best wishes
Frank
Much-maligned as it may be, my players enjoyed that episode, chicken-legged huts and all. I think it helped that one of them was a big Angela Carter fan, so she liked the weird, messed-up fairytale atmosphere.Actually, getting my PCs chased by the chicken legged hut sounds kind of cool...
I'll get me coat.
Here, here! My players were quite freaked out by the hut sequence. Who's to say it's inappropriate if it works well. If anything, there is too much focus on the Simulacrum and not enough time away from the train. Nevertheless, it is probably the most important gaming supplement that I own. And when the zombies come to my house, I will grab my HOTOE box and run.Much-maligned as it may be, my players enjoyed that episode, chicken-legged huts and all. I think it helped that one of them was a big Angela Carter fan, so she liked the weird, messed-up fairytale atmosphere.
JoMo - P.S. I had Mehmet Makryat to tea. He's looking well.
I'm a big Angela Carter fan too. What are the chances, eh?Much-maligned as it may be, my players enjoyed that episode, chicken-legged huts and all. I think it helped that one of them was a big Angela Carter fan, so she liked the weird, messed-up fairytale atmosphere.Actually, getting my PCs chased by the chicken legged hut sounds kind of cool...
I'll get me coat.
You statted YHVH and you only gave Him 44 hit points? Yeesh. - Njal.
Ingham's Sundry Roleplaying Resources
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