Cthulhu by Gaslight: Horror Roleplaying in 1890s England (Call of Cthulhu) Paperback – March 12, 2012

I've been playing in and running Gaslight setting for the past four years. When this book was originally announced, I got extremely excited hoping that Chaosium would bring to the table a book of quality to equal the 1920s Sourcebook. Well, we didn't quite get that.Pros.+Interesting new traits system that can randomly blight or boon your investigators (or just be funny).+Great information source on the time period is more flushed out than previous edition.+Illustrations and photos throughout add to the feel of the setting.+A "bestiary" of famous fictional/historical figures of the period is included, though while not very useful is humorous.+The book's historical information is of course very useful. Concise and fun to read as well as giving the keeper the basics of what they need to know. The map is especially useful.Cons.-Same old occupations. Really? I was very hopeful for a volume of occupations similar to the 1920s Sourcebook, but instead we're left with the same dozen and a half or so occupations. They even actually removed the Street Arab occupation from the book.-No extensive equipment or weapons list. I didn't expect there to be a list nearly as extensive as the monograph on the subject (Gaslight Equipment Catalogue, Monograph #0319) but I was expecting a little more than what is given.-Another Sherlock Holmes campaign. I didn't read through it as at the time of this book release I was already in the middle of an epic two year long campaign (switching over to this edition of Gaslight about halfway through). I find the idea overplayed though.Overall this is a good book, great for bringing a new generation of Gaslight gamers around. However, if you have an older edition already I don't feel like you're missing anything by not buying this. Just a side note, this book was released at least six months after its original announced release period. After making me wait half a year past when I was expecting it the book fell short of my excitement.

It's a guide book for a role-playing game, so I'm not sure how the plot questions are applicable. I don't know if they'll actually show up in the review, but they're on the form.If you're playing a Call of Cthulu in the 1890 to 1900 decade, this source book is the one you'll need. It gives some pretty good ideas for characters. It has several literary and real characters of the period already generated. So you've got both good NPC's you can use and bad guys you can throw at your stalwart band of intrepid investigators. There are also several campaign scenarios you can run, or make up your own.I did notice a couple of errors in the text. Most of the weapons are good. The Mauser Gewehr is mostly wrong. There's no 8mm before 1898, it's 7mm. The illustration has the handle on the bolt on the wrong side. The magazine looks wrong for the German Mauser. The .30-06 cartridge didn't exist until around 1905 and then only in a US Govt. arsenal. It is the .30 cartridge of 1906, hence .30-06. It replaced the .30-03 (1903) in the 1903 Springfield rifle. The US round in the 1890's was the .30-40 Krag-Jorgensen (.30 bullet with 40 gr black powder equivalent). Cartridge names make so much sense ;-p. At least the SMLE No.1 Mk III is correct. There's a few more typos and such, but I've not finished reading it yet.

This supplement provides a wealth of information about the Victorian period and a wonderful overview of Great Britain in the 1890's. The authors give a plethora of fact/details which will allow Keepers to set up a flavorful milieu. For example:1) Details of Victorian clothing2) Details on the criminal Underworld and Underworld slang3) A description of different societal classes4) Types of horse drawn carriages5) A detailed description of London (including such information as a floor map of the British Museum)6) Mythos/Supernatural locations all over Great BritainThere are many other examples I could have written. I disagree with a previous reviewer in that I'm unaware of any other single Victorian-era book which would give such diverse information in such a clear, concise and compact manner. The two adventures toward the back are also excellent(full of mood and atmosphere) scenarios.

A very good supplement, and if you are a fan of previous versions of Cthulhu by Gaslight, then this is for you. It's got almost all the information from the first edition, with better written essays and a better layout. I do, however, feel sad that it is missing the Yorkshire Horrors adventure, though I can always just use my old version if I want to run it. I'd have loved to see what a rewrite of this excellent adventure would have looked like.

Excellent maps, very handy lists of useful information and great range of background information well presented. Handy for any late Victorian role playing campaign since so little of it is limited to cthulhu. The adventures are well written with good handouts and excellent guidance for running them.

Great supplement for Call of Cthulhu. Very useful information for the era. Two adventures are included. They are not as good as the one in the 80's edition but one is still very good. The second is just okay.

A great source book for this aspect of Cthulhu. Better for inspiration than as a detailed set of rules but a great addition to any Keepers source books.

Buen manual para el juego "La llamda de Cthulhu". No es perfecto pero su te gusta la época victoriana lo disfrutaras.

Ceci est un cadeau, la personne à qui je l'ai offert est ravie, et je n'ai pas plus de mots requis à dire