Pyramid Pick
Unseen Masters: Modern Struggles Against Hidden Powers (for Call of Cthulhu)
Published by Chaosium, Inc.
Written by Bruce Ballon
Art by Matt Harpold, Paul Carrick, & Drashi Khendup
216 pages; $23.95
In comparison with the classic period of the 1920s, the modern day has seen relatively scant coverage from Chaosium for their venerable RPG, Call of Cthulhu. This is not to belittle their releases for the modern day such as Utatti Asfet, The Stars Are Right, or The Resection of Time, but many feel that none have come close to Pagan Publishing's Delta Green setting and books in terms of tone and feel. Yet now Chaosium have published a contemporary set campaign that can justifiably said to come very close.
Unseen Masters is a book containing three scenarios set in modern day New York, in which the investigators are up against shadowy conspiracies and hidden powers. Since they are all based in New York, they can form the basic structure to a campaign. Further, the second two adventures are designed with loose structures, allowing other scenarios to be played between events, and can thus be played as mini-campaign themselves. This makes Unseen Masters into something of a hybrid book between the traditional anthologies of individual scenarios (such as The Stars are Right) and the classic onionskin campaigns exemplified by Masks of Nyarlathotep.
Behind Matt Harpold's eerie cover, Unseen Masters is up to Chaosium's usual standard of presentation. Stalwart Paul Carrick's internal art . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: March 2, 2001
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