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Here’s a fun idea: Take a tried and true Cthluhu story of brave investigators stopping a mad cultist achieve his evil designs. Players have to contend with Sanity checks, grave danger, and, most likely, the rise of something that must be promptly put back down. Then, set the whole thing on the Titanic.

That’s the real beauty of this adventure, a little fiction laced throughout some tragic fact. I’ve always been a fan of that, which makes the recent emergence of the, for lack of better word, genre a hit with me.

The artwork of the adventure (25 pages, no ads) is sparse and mostly photographs from the era. I usually like art spicing up my text, but it’s really not an issue here. There is more than enough material to keep the reader interested.

As is typical with the Trail of Cthluhu line, the writing for this scenario is above average. The writing shows many specifics of the era and adventure. There is even a micro-specific history into the Edwardian Cruise Ships. The pre-generated characters read like they would be fun to play, although throwaway characters on a sinking cruise ship may not be treated with the urgency of a “true” character.

The author provides a time-line of events, which I don’t see often enough in adventures. I’m a big fan of proactive players. They miss the clues, they might miss an encounter. “Bad Guys” don’t wait around at crime scenes to be stopped.

The Gumshoe method is actually designed to prevent this (one of the few things I don’t like about the engine). For me to see the time-line here shows a slight change from that. I guess being on the Titanic as it goes down is intended to make players proactive enough.

I like this adventure quite a bit. It’s different and it provides a fresh spin to a familiar concept. Try to imagine 1996’s Titanic where key extras are this scenario’s characters. No reason why a fun-loving GM couldn’t play the movie’s score (NOT the soundtrack) in for effect or throw Rose and Jack into the session (as trivial NPCs) just to see how things pan out.

It can’t really end any worse for Jack.

Review by Todd Cash

Tags | trail of cthulhu