Product– Have You Found It? Act 1:The Jitters
System- Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition
Producer– Petersen Games
Price– $25 here https://petersengames.com/cthulhu-mythos/
TL; DR– Good into to solid DnD Horror! 90%%
Basics– Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the greatest show in the universe! Have You Found It? Is a horror adventure path focusing on The King In Yellow himself. This act, Act 1: The Jitters, is the intro adventure. Players are in a city like Milan or Paris as a series of murders stirs up political intrigue. The players are drawn into the adventure to solve the murders but are soon into something much deeper and much darker than your average murder. This adventure goes from levels 1 to 4.
Mechanics or Crunch-Dungeons and Dragons is a much more heroic fantasy game, but this adventure bends the rules enough to make the horror stand out. It’s hard to make players feel like there is no hope in a DnD game, but the monsters and scenarios bring enough horror to make the players feel the dread that is needed for the edge of cosmic horror. This book also has some behind the scenes mechanics that are excellent ways to reinforce why the king in yellow is the unnamed! Good mechanics take a heroic game and make it a horror one. 4.5/5
Theme or Fluff– The story here is a solid one. The world builds rather quickly and the players get dragged into something very heavy VERY fast. That gets the action going, but this is also a level one to four adventure. Players spend time interviewing people and learning about the world via talking, so there is a lot here for all different character classes and types. It’s a good mix of combat, exploration, and roleplaying that an intro adventure needs. Also, by setting this in a city, fragile level one heroes are not decimated instantly as after a battle they can recover somewhere safe. This is a great intro story to get players into a dark new path. 5/5
Execution– PDF? Yes. Hyperlinked? NO! What’s here is good. Good layout, good text size, good pictures. It’s all solid. What isn’t here is what makes me less happy. This is a new world and city. I want a player guide with a town map and background as this can get socially heavy in a hurry. Also, as a GM I need hyperlinks in my PDF. It’s a longer book for an adventure and being able to hop around would help me a lot as a GM. Good execution, but I need a bit more from the digital book. 4/5
Summary– The King in Yellow was never my favorite Cthulhu mythos horror. This book has brought me around and I think I might give the books where he comes from a chance. It’s a well crafted story for low level characters that successfully pulls them into the social, combat, and exploration of a new world. I do want a few more things like help for my players to get into the world and some additions to the electronic book, but the first act of this horror story is inviting enough to draw me into the deeper, darker bits of the full play. 90%
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