Another Solid offering from Skirmisher Publishing. House of Pain has a lot going for it and only a few detractions. The massive character list and ease of adding in more characters if needed along with the ability to run it in one large room easily lends this script to convention play. Most of the book is given to the Characters and their histories, each possesing a foible or hook to make them interesting to play. I could easily see this script being felxible enough to expand on to massive numbers. As previously mentioned there are a few errors in production, but that feels like a minor technical detail. I am consistantly very happy with the products that come out of Skirmisher Publishing and reccomend them highly in my interactions with the gaming community.

Skirmisher Publishing provides the Cthulhu Live community a fine scenario with House of Pain. Set in 1991 between the first Gulf War and the fall of the Soviet Union, House of Pain presents an excellent mix of Cold War espionage paranoia and Lovecraftian horror.

Most of the 70 pages are devoted to stats and backgrounds for 42 characters. All of them have some personality quirk and/or personal goal such that there seems to not be any "useless" characters. Combined with the limited number of necessary props and ability to use just a single large room, the scenario is ideal for a convention but should be useable in a smaller venue.

There are a few typos that detract a bit from the otherwise professional look of the product but no more than most other products of the rpg industry. Unlike some of the better CL 2nd ed scenarios, House of Pain contains no advice as to cutting down the cast if necessary, though it should be relatively easy for an experienced CL Keeper to make such trims if necessary. Without running the scenario, I can find no other flaws with it.

I expect this would be an interesting scenario for an experienced Keeper. The sheer number of characters, factions and conflicting goals in play might make this a bit much for a novice.

Overall, especially if one needs a fully fleshed out convention scenario, House of Pain is a quality product and well worth its price tag.

This is the first time I've gotten a product like this, and I was not at all disappointed. First, the game is well written and interesting. This also stands out as being written for a large scale game. This would normally be an intimidating prospect, but it's written in such a way to be helpful and fun for all involved. The time period, the early '90s, offers a colorful background with a lot going on politically, and this game takes advantage of it and more. The game itself is flexible both on the number of players and the area involved with it. It IS ideally designed for a larger group (42 players), but can be run with a smaller group, just over a dozen. The game can be run in a single large room or if more than one room is available, that simply offers more opportunity for political intrigue.

Player driven script and light use of props and setting would make this an ideal product for a large larp group or convention.

I found the structure and design of this game to be very detailed and useful especially to the first-time game master. The setting is a fun one set in the 1990s with everything from Russians to NASA to Nazi war criminals. The design is excellent for a large group of people that really enjoy LARPs. This scenario can get bloody and violent but it also allows for a more intellectual style in which no deaths may occur. It all depends on what the palyers want to do. The characters were well fleshed out and provided a good background for their actions. Also, I like the combat systen that is used in this game as compared to others I have seen. Combat is quick and deadly but that is good in that it does not drag itself out leaving the non-combants standing around waiting.

This is an interesting product because it is very rare to see scenarios made with convention games in mind. It gives interesting insight on how the people who run convention games think about their scenarios and is tailored to accommodate a large group of players, with a whooping 45 premade characters and their backgrounds included in the book. The scenario can be adapted for smaller groups and has the advantage of being simple enough and with a limited need for props that it can easily be set up in a variety of locales. Without spoiling any of the game, it's interesting to note that the scenario evolves in stages which enable all manners of roleplayers to play in their favored type of scenes. Over all, an excellent game, or read, for the price!

Overall this scenario appears to be well suited for a large number of players who are interested in power-brokering and roleplaying. There are plenty of well-fleshed-out characters and I believe that this would be an enjoyable convention game to participate in.

House of Pain is fairly free-form. In the tradition of these games written for conventions, much of the scenario is driven by the players. This is a boon to the Keeper who can't be everywhere at once - the players know their motivations and generally try to accomplish their goals without a lot of interaction with the Keeper. However, in reading the scenario it would seem beneficial to have several NPC "plants" amongst the player base that the Keeper can use to interject information or guide the direction of the game if need be. I would prefer such a mechanic to the one suggested in the script that the Keeper guide the game by suggesting information "out of game" to the players if they get off course, or using brute force to cause the game to end in one way or another. I also worry that large-scale combat with many participants would be difficult to manage by only a single Keeper, and additional referees might be handy in this one.

My largest criticism, however, is that for the majority of the players, the game isn't really about the Mythos - I don't want to reveal too much about the plot, but if I were looking for a game heavy on the Lovecraftian genre, I would probably be disappointed. This one is definitely more adrenaline than investigation.

Finally, care should be taken in running this game, given its subject matter. Don't run this one in a place where lots of non-gaming public could be exposed to what's going on in the game. It's a sad but true statement of the times.

If you are an avid Cthulhu Live fan, this module is an excellent script to run. The script takes place in the early 90s. Communism is falling, and Desert Storm is about to begin. To not give away most of the plot, basically this script mixes conspiracy theory with the Mythos. This script was run at Origins in 2006 and I heard it was a great success. A word of note, you must have the Cthulhu Live 3rd edition to understand the rules, but the scenario is well spelled out and contains a multitude of characters. There is enough in here to have a 10 person to a 42 person game. The larger games are always a lot more fun. The quality of the screen document is excellent and having the print only document is a nice touch. Many gaming companies have these complex backgrounds which are hell on the ink cartridge. This one has both a print document and a nice fancy document so you can choose which one to print. The print is easy to read and the black and white pictures of games in action really help the Keeper to understand how things should be going. For those of you new to Cthulhu Live, please check out the Cthulhu Live 3rd edition source book to understand the rules, but pick this script up as well to run. For those of you who love the game, this is an excellent script to use in any home based or convention based game you chose to run.