First system read of 2025: The Terror Beneath It's an investigative horror, GUMSHOE-based game, set in 1920s London and Wales, based on the work of Arthur Manchen. I had not heard of Arthur Manchen. He was a Welsh writer of weird folk horror. Most of his books were set around the turn of the century, and probably an influence on the writings of H.P. Lovecraft. I've barely dipped my toe into his works, but AFAICT, he doesn't have Lovecraft's virulent misogyny or racism. He definitely had a sense of humour - in the forward to the collection I started reading he listed his favorite bad reviews of the stories. Manchen's old gods are much less unknowable and uncaring, and more old gods who lost influence and want back into our world for malevolent ends. I'm not sure how much comes from his writing, but the gods seem to be a weird mash-up of the dark aspects of gods from Greek, Roman and Welsh/Celtic pantheons. Pan, Dionysus, Venus, Arawn and Nodens. Outside of the gods, most of the bestiary is from Welsh mythology. The boundary between worlds is weakened by magus (John Dee was a cat's paw - he thought he was talking to angels. He wasn't) or by scientists doing research they shouldn't.

I believe most of Manchen's books were set around the turn of the century. The game is in the 1920s. The premise is that the "heros" of the books got together and formed a society to fight againt the Terror Beneath. All but one have retired, dissapeared, etc, and the players have been recruited to continue the fight.

I've only played GUMSHOE once (Night's Black Agents). This seems very close to that. Ability handling is identical. I'm not sure if the fight tracker is typical of the system, but it's a cool way to deal with a fight in a single round by tracking the margin for everybody's rolls based on the player's intended goal for the fight (escape, subdue, force past, kill, etc). The thing that did seem different is how injury is handled - I think it's much closer to FitD. There is a comprehensive list of minor and major injury and shocks, each with their own removal conditions. Collect three of either and the PC is out of the game.

It's a pretty slim book - 128 pages. Intro, setting the tone, rules, a good section of handling clues, how to handle investigations in London and Wales, respectively, bestiary and a pretty cool starter investigation. While reading most of the book, the constant going through my mind is, "I don't know Manchen's work. How well is this game going to be supported? Will there be other published adventures? I really don't want to have to make my own." There is a short, but very good chapter going through how to create your own adventure with lots of pointer on clues and keeping the terror at a simmer without boiling over into horror. After reading that, I feel like I could continue on from the included investigation.

GUMSHOE feels a bit too easy in how it handles clues, but the games focus in on the legwork, not on pulling out the magnifying glass and searching. I don't know if this game will make it to the table, but it definitely could. And I have been pulling the books in the Reading List off of Project Gutenburg.