Shapermc
First Post
As many of you know I am a huge fan of the CoC d20 system and you can find a few things up at my site (www.shapermc.com) as well as we will be releasing our first scenario soon. With that aside I will get to the real point of this post:
After a recent problem involving running the Return to Dunwich campaigns, mainly revolving around having a poor starting/involving hook, so I decided to go out and get the Arkham: Unveiling the Legend-Haunted City. This is a hefty book weighing in at 248 pages, including a removable newspaper PC handout and a 17"X22" player map of the city (this IS different than the DM's map which is broken down and in much more detail). This alone is worth the price catching a fair amount at $28.95. That is not the main attraction for d20 players, no.
Now this worked out perfect for tying in my Dunwich campaign (if the PC's survive long enough) because the setting takes place almost at the exact same time as the start of the Dunwich Campaign and it also has many opportunities to introduce/familiarize the PC's with main character from Dunwich campaign (the main problem that I was having). There are also not 2 scenarios like in Dunwich, there include a whopping 4 scenarios (only one of which is short enough for one evening). After a short skimming of the book these seem like very intriguing scenarios that have GREAT hooks and a few are very new player (to CoC) friendly.
A while back I went searching for what was going to be the fate of d20 CoC and it seemed like aside from the dual stat BRP/d20 releases from Chromium and the GM screen it was pretty much nothing. As seen in the Dunwich dual stat book the d20 section had much left to be desired. Upon getting to it, the section was sloppy inconsistent and overall felt like more of an after thought that Chaosium was more or less forced to do. This was unfortunate being that the content of the Campaign setting for Dunwich was amazing. The NPCs when converted were all slammed into these tiny stat blocks and not allot of attention was paid to it. The numbers of where to find the NPC d20 versions were sometimes wrong (e.g. Find Amos Whately at #24 in Appendix C and when you look he was #25 is not the attention to detail that I needed). Also you had the Feats and stats abbreviated and smashed together (e.g. WP for Weapon Proficiency). Also all the custom spells were poorly translated in Dunwich. Again I would like to state that these were the only downfalls of Dunwich (aside from not being new investigator friendly) and the rest of the book and details of the town were amazing. This would not be the case in Arkham!
Right off the bat I go the d20 stats in Arkham and find that they are all very nicely organized. The format is very similar through out all the NPCs and you don’t have to figure out the format for each PC. All details are given in Arkham so that you do not have to flip back and forth (this will also make it nice for putting on note cards ). The best thing is that unlike in Dunwich, where each NPC was given a new d20 corresponding # for the appendix, the Arkham # corresponds to the location and original # that the NPC was in the book. This makes it MUCH easier when going back and forth (which as I stated is not nearly as necessary with the Arkham book). Now this is all nice, but it is just the icing on the cake.
KEEP READING I PROMIS THAT I WILL NOT BORE YOU
d20 CoC is not dead; the creation that is d20 CoC was not abandoned to be destined as an appendix. Unlike Dunwich the d20 section in Arkham seems more like extra attention to us. It feels like Chaosium says "Here lets take you to the back room where the extras are d20 fans." Chaosium included 4 NEW THINGS. Well only really 1 new thing but 3 categories got new things. I will explain here.
1) Investigator Backgrounds!!! This was the most exciting thing to find. Now I cannot get into too much detail (there is NO open content in this book), but in the attempt to pimp Chaosium books I will leak a few details. This is great for customizing and PC for role-playing purposes and for meta proposes. What you can do is, during player creation, take a certain amount of skill points (based on which background) and spend them on your background to get varying benefits. Anything from added base skills plus a few ranks, multipliers, free feats, lower sanity loss, and specialization. This was not limited only to things used for a 1920's campaign, NO! They also included things that can be used only in present day campaigns (like hacking computers). One example that I can give you is this| Cat Burglar Background: Skill Point Cost. 6 (Criminal Profession only): You gain a +2 competence bonus in the following skills: Climb, Hide, Jump, Listen, and move Silently.
If you liked this taste of backgrounds check Appendix 1 when you buy the book (cuz I know you will ).
2,3,4) Spells, Skillz, Feats! Not only did you get new spells in this book BUT they also gave you the means on how to use the spells in a D&D game (BLASPHEMY ). Then you have new skills. These new ones were given in more detail then the regular ones in the Core Book. Las and not least Feats!! Not only new regular feats, but psychic feats as well. Really cool stuff in Appendix 3!
Now why these new things were not pimped out by Chaosium is beyond me, but I thought that I would help. The Investigator backgrounds alone almost compensated the price, but there is sooo much more. Not only all this (sorry I forgot one thing) but all the art got an overhaul (unlike Dunwich) and you now have so nice looking CG art. My recommendation? What your still reading? Go buy this now! Support CoC at your local FLGS!
I will give a full review of this book upon finishing reading it. Any questions please ask.
After a recent problem involving running the Return to Dunwich campaigns, mainly revolving around having a poor starting/involving hook, so I decided to go out and get the Arkham: Unveiling the Legend-Haunted City. This is a hefty book weighing in at 248 pages, including a removable newspaper PC handout and a 17"X22" player map of the city (this IS different than the DM's map which is broken down and in much more detail). This alone is worth the price catching a fair amount at $28.95. That is not the main attraction for d20 players, no.
Now this worked out perfect for tying in my Dunwich campaign (if the PC's survive long enough) because the setting takes place almost at the exact same time as the start of the Dunwich Campaign and it also has many opportunities to introduce/familiarize the PC's with main character from Dunwich campaign (the main problem that I was having). There are also not 2 scenarios like in Dunwich, there include a whopping 4 scenarios (only one of which is short enough for one evening). After a short skimming of the book these seem like very intriguing scenarios that have GREAT hooks and a few are very new player (to CoC) friendly.
A while back I went searching for what was going to be the fate of d20 CoC and it seemed like aside from the dual stat BRP/d20 releases from Chromium and the GM screen it was pretty much nothing. As seen in the Dunwich dual stat book the d20 section had much left to be desired. Upon getting to it, the section was sloppy inconsistent and overall felt like more of an after thought that Chaosium was more or less forced to do. This was unfortunate being that the content of the Campaign setting for Dunwich was amazing. The NPCs when converted were all slammed into these tiny stat blocks and not allot of attention was paid to it. The numbers of where to find the NPC d20 versions were sometimes wrong (e.g. Find Amos Whately at #24 in Appendix C and when you look he was #25 is not the attention to detail that I needed). Also you had the Feats and stats abbreviated and smashed together (e.g. WP for Weapon Proficiency). Also all the custom spells were poorly translated in Dunwich. Again I would like to state that these were the only downfalls of Dunwich (aside from not being new investigator friendly) and the rest of the book and details of the town were amazing. This would not be the case in Arkham!
Right off the bat I go the d20 stats in Arkham and find that they are all very nicely organized. The format is very similar through out all the NPCs and you don’t have to figure out the format for each PC. All details are given in Arkham so that you do not have to flip back and forth (this will also make it nice for putting on note cards ). The best thing is that unlike in Dunwich, where each NPC was given a new d20 corresponding # for the appendix, the Arkham # corresponds to the location and original # that the NPC was in the book. This makes it MUCH easier when going back and forth (which as I stated is not nearly as necessary with the Arkham book). Now this is all nice, but it is just the icing on the cake.
KEEP READING I PROMIS THAT I WILL NOT BORE YOU
d20 CoC is not dead; the creation that is d20 CoC was not abandoned to be destined as an appendix. Unlike Dunwich the d20 section in Arkham seems more like extra attention to us. It feels like Chaosium says "Here lets take you to the back room where the extras are d20 fans." Chaosium included 4 NEW THINGS. Well only really 1 new thing but 3 categories got new things. I will explain here.
1) Investigator Backgrounds!!! This was the most exciting thing to find. Now I cannot get into too much detail (there is NO open content in this book), but in the attempt to pimp Chaosium books I will leak a few details. This is great for customizing and PC for role-playing purposes and for meta proposes. What you can do is, during player creation, take a certain amount of skill points (based on which background) and spend them on your background to get varying benefits. Anything from added base skills plus a few ranks, multipliers, free feats, lower sanity loss, and specialization. This was not limited only to things used for a 1920's campaign, NO! They also included things that can be used only in present day campaigns (like hacking computers). One example that I can give you is this| Cat Burglar Background: Skill Point Cost. 6 (Criminal Profession only): You gain a +2 competence bonus in the following skills: Climb, Hide, Jump, Listen, and move Silently.
If you liked this taste of backgrounds check Appendix 1 when you buy the book (cuz I know you will ).
2,3,4) Spells, Skillz, Feats! Not only did you get new spells in this book BUT they also gave you the means on how to use the spells in a D&D game (BLASPHEMY ). Then you have new skills. These new ones were given in more detail then the regular ones in the Core Book. Las and not least Feats!! Not only new regular feats, but psychic feats as well. Really cool stuff in Appendix 3!
Now why these new things were not pimped out by Chaosium is beyond me, but I thought that I would help. The Investigator backgrounds alone almost compensated the price, but there is sooo much more. Not only all this (sorry I forgot one thing) but all the art got an overhaul (unlike Dunwich) and you now have so nice looking CG art. My recommendation? What your still reading? Go buy this now! Support CoC at your local FLGS!
I will give a full review of this book upon finishing reading it. Any questions please ask.
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But I too, just got Arkham (thank you Amazon!) and was very impressed. The investigator backgrounds are a neat idea, and the new skills and feats are useful and effective. 
......Must....go....buy....Arkham......supplement!!
