Weapons in Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition

Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition, has made a lot of detail changes to the weapons available to investigators. Focusing on my particular interests and insights, I went through the Keeper Rulebook to check what works and what does not.

Many of the mistakes were already present in the Call of Cthulhu, Fifth Edition, and Call of Cthulhu, Sixth Edition, but it would have been a good opportunity to deal with them. Others are unique to the new edition.

Book Review: The Cthulhu Wars

Kenneth Hite & Kennon Bauman, Osprey Publishing, 2016

The Cthulhu Wars ‒ The United States’ Battles Against the Mythos is an awesome book by H.P. Lovecraft grognard Kenneth Hite, author of relevant works like GURPS Horror (2011), GURPS WWII: Weird War II (2003), and Trail of Cthulhu (2007), and his co-author Kennon Bauman. This is not a game supplement, however, but an alternate history book in Osprey’s Dark History series. Following Hite’s earlier effort in that line, The Nazi Occult (2013), the book is written as if its subject matter were real and both authors were actual Mythos investigators; in a clear Lovecraft spoof, Hite is even presumed dead after a fire gutted his library …

Book Review: Die MP5 ‒ Eine Waffe für Generationen

Manfred Kersten (author), dwj Verlag, 2015

The famous MP5 submachine gun produced by Heckler & Koch has so far not been the centre of much scholarly discussion. Frank James’ The MP5 Submachine Gun (Polynesian Productions, 1996) is two decades old and has been out of print for some time. Leroy Thompson’s The MP5 Submachine Gun (Osprey, 2014) is more recent, but intended primarily for laymen. Die Maschinenpistole 5 ‒ Technik & Taktik (“The MP5 ‒ Technology and Tactics”) by Axel Männich and Markus Stappen (Verlag für Polizeiwissenschaft, 2009) is a slim volume mainly concerned with the weapon’s application in police service, as is the similar Practical Guide to the Operational Use of the MP5 (Erik Lawrence Publications, 2015) by Erik Lawrence. In short, it is high time for a new book about the MP5, and it is commendable that Manfred Kersten has tackled the task in his new German-language book, Die MP5 ‒ Eine Waffe für Generationen (“The MP5 ‒ A Weapon for Generations”). Kersten is one of the authors of the big black book, Heckler & Koch (Weispfennig, 1999), as well as of many other works about German firearms. Unfortunately, his new book is not convincing.

Book Review: Cthulhu Gangster

Sebastian Weitkamp (editor) et al, Pegasus Press, 2016

Gangster ‒ Unheimliche Unterwelt (“eerie underworld”) is an official release for the German Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition. It is a hardcover book with 212 pages, sold for a very reasonable €19.95. There is also a PDF version. It has a colour cover and black-and-white interior.

This book is in German. I have chosen to write the review in English because only a minority of my readers read German, which of course also means that few of you will get to read the book. However, I know that there is much interest among English-speaking Call of Cthulhu players in the foreign-language supplements by the various licensees.