Meeple on Board Rating
Be the first to review this product.Board Game Geek Reviews
Be the first to review “Call of Cthulhu: Horror on the Orient Express (2nd Edition)”
You must be logged in to post a review.
Call of Cthulhu: Horror on the Orient Express (2nd Edition)
From the back cover of the two-volume hardcover edition:
MAN DIES THREE TIMES IN ONE NIGHT!
A puzzling headline begins a front-page article found in the Times of London. Three men, all identical in identification, were found dead in the same room of the Chelsea Arms Hotel. All were dispatched in a similar manner—stabbed through the heart. Then the home of a valued friend burns to the ground, severely injuring him in the process. An odd summons, a surreptitious meeting, and a thousand-mile journey begins on the legendary rail service carrying the investigators to Constantinople, the Gateway of the Orient.
HORROR ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS contains a massive and legendary campaign, of up to nineteen adventures, for the Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game. Beginning in 1920s London, the investigators journey to Paris and thence to the ancient city of Constantinople. With luck, they also return home.
Optional episodes are set in ancient times or special places (Roman-era, Dark Ages, Gaslight-era, the Dreamlands), so that the players can experience the founding, creation, and discovery of crucial elements of this campaign. Also included is a modern-day coda to the storyline, an alternate ending for those wishing a shorter campaign, and a built-in survival guide to aid beleaguered investigators.
Mallet
Own the paper version, but the big box is still sealed, so I have no idea of it's contents. :) Temporary rating based on it's reputation.
VanillaCokeMule
My (still rather young) journey through the various materials made with CoC 7th edition in mind has been really been a tale of two experiences. On the one hand, the books so far have been tremendously well written. The stories in the campaign modules are incredibly detailed but surprisingly flexible, the historical information contained in all the books is well researched and the rulebooks do an excellent job of explaining the game and its concepts. This set of books is not an exception to these observations of mine. This is by far my favorite campaign I've yet encountered for CoC, particularly given the large number of varied locales that players and Keepers alike will get to experience, and I because I've had an abiding love of the idea of the Orient Express ever since I first saw the David Suchet/BBC version of Murder on the Orient Express many years ago. On the other hand, these books tend to be riddled with a staggering number of spelling and grammatical errors, poor editing and print and construction quality that is well below works of the general quality seen in CoC. Again, this set is no exception. The spelling and other errors are pretty much par for the course as far as CoC books go, but the editing is particularly egregious. They combine 3 or 4 other tangential (but equally excellent) smaller modules with the original material in these two books, but they completely forgot to adjust the page numbers mentioned on numerous occasions when the book tells aspiring Keepers to refer to previous or forthcoming writing to clarify or expand certain things. The hardcovers are beautiful and feel good, but the paper and the print job on the numerous included photos are something of a travesty. The paper feels like something I'd have had in a disposable workbook back in elementary school and the binding glue is rather brittle. Most of the photos look very hazy or blurry and undercut the effect that the writers were going for. This campaign is just too good to give it any lower of a rating than a 9 out of 10 but I do hope we get a version down the line with better editing to clear up the confusing cross-references and that's better constructed and printed so as to match the incredible writing.
cjbowser
The further we delve into this with me as the keeper, the more disappointed I am at the amount of work I have to perform to make this entertaining for my players. Necessary clues are hidden behind rolls, some scenarios guarantee a character death regardless of player decision and choice, and then there are times when it's encouraged by the designers for the keeper to frustrate the players. Add to that that necessary handouts are omitted completely forcing me to create my own and the rating sinks lower. Now, it places the blame for historical atrocities on the Mythos.