Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #285050 in Books
• Published on: 2003-03-01
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 200 pages

Customer Reviews

1920s Arkham
I didn't find this as detailed as the H.P. Lovecraft's Dunwich book, but still, it is presented in the same excellent format & comes with a map of Arkham & a mock news sheet to tease / tempt / confuse players with.

Miskatonic university could have been described in more depth but seeing as Chaosium have just bought a book out for this I'm guessing that covers the problem.

Cthuloid Cast of Characters for Lovecraft's Principal Town
HP Lovecraft's Arkham aims to describe the entire town (characters, locations, shops and cults) as it stood in the late 1920s, about the same time that Lovecraft's main stories (Dreams in the Witch House, Mountians of Madness and Shadow Out of Time) are occurring. Overall the writers do an excellent job of bringing the city alive and filling it with plot hooks for Keepers to flesh out into full adventures.

Arkham covers everything the Keeper could want, from the churches to the newspapers, to the doctors and the gangsters, and most importantly it covers the Cthulhu Mythos elements in town. There's the Arkham Witch Cult (could have done with more detail, like what they actually do over than sacrifice babies), local occultists the Eye of Amara and also the people in the know at Miskatonic University (who could probably do with reading their own library, the amount of tomes they've missed!). On top of this there are three scenario (all quite decent, especially the fun looking 'The Condemmed', although most of 'Hills Rise Wild' actually happens near Dunwich, it does demonstrate what can be done with the material) and conversions for the d20 system.

A criticism is the (in my opinion) horribly jarring 3d artwork for the portraits and drawings, giving the impression the book's full of screenshots from some Alone in the Dark clone, although in a few cases the art does portray a sense of creepiness. A shame considering books like 'Tatters of the King' or 'Kingsport' have fine artwork in them.

Overall a really great book that anyone with an interest in Call of Cthulhu or Lovecraft should consider buying, as it creates a truly detailed world for the Keeper to throw the investigators into.