Alone Against the Flames: Call of Cthulhu Solo Game Book Review
You’re on a long bus ride, one of those rides long enough to let you think about your life. A new town, a fresh start. All that appeals to you. But the bus driver keeps asking questions, who are you, why are you moving to a new town? Then the bus breaks down. No problem, only for a day the driver says. Sure, it's no problem staying the night in this village called Emberhead.
Then things start getting weird. The next day the bus disappears. The town has dark secrets. Something is happening, something soon. People in Emberhead ask about you, they don’t like you asking questions back. You need to get out. You are Alone Against the Flames.
Alone Against the Flames is a Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition solo role-playing game book set in the 1920’s town of Emberhead. Through the course of the game, you will create an investigator (a player character), give them names, stats, and a back story, and follow them as they attempt to figure out the dark secret the members of the town are keeping from you.
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| I'd seriously consider running from that guy. Credit to Chaosium Inc. |
What is a Game Book?
A game book is a term for a Chose Your Own Adventure-style RPG. You may have come across them as a kid, you read an entry, make a choice and then go to the page or entry your choice gives you. In a game book, your character has stats and skills, and you use those to make rolls like you would in a standard RPG.
Success and failure will lead you down different paths, So if you have to pick a lock, you’d have to roll a skill. If you are successful, you go to the entry where the lock was picked. If you fail, you go to the entry where your captors hear you rattling around. You then read the new entry and start the process over again.
What do you need to play?
If you haven’t played Call of Cthulhu, I recommend picking this up as a part of the Call of Cthulhu starter set. Well-priced, the set has everything you need to play Alone Against the Flames and then continue your adventures with friends. The set comes with Alone Against the Flames, a book of simplified rules, a book of starter adventures for traditional play, characters sheets (empty and pre-generated), and lots of handouts. It even has dice if this is your first foray into RPGs (if you buy the physical version).
All you really need to bring along is a pencil.
You can also pick up Alone Against the Flame for free at Drive Thru RPG.
Design and Feel
The art and design of the book is great and it gives that 1920s vibe for sure. There are illustrations throughout the book about important places in the town, NPCs, and events. There is even a small map of Emberhead.
I got the physical copy and it's a slim, stapled book that has the same green and gold design as the other books in the starter set.
Character Creation
What Alone Against the Flames does really well is to walk you through the character creation process. You just need to bring along a blank character sheet and open the book to the first entry. The first dozen or so entries will teach you how to play the game and create your character from scratch.
I love it because I often find character creation to be the least exciting part of playing an RPG. But with this game, I was playing as I was creating my character, which is a trick I’d like more games to follow.
How it Plays
Gamebooks do play differently than a solo RPG. In a solo RPG, you have a huge amount of choices you can make at any given time. In Alone Against the Flames, you often only have two or three choices you can make, your options are much less numerous. But that allows you to play within a story that has already been crafted for you. Unlike in many solo RPGs where you build the world, the characters, and the action as you go, a game book like Alone Against the Flames has the story mapped out for you already
I found it much easier to play, with less mental workload than say Ironsworn. It is good for a night when I am particularly tired.
With that said, there is still freedom to affect the story and real tension when you're rolling the dice. You know when things are life and death, and a bad roll may mean game over.
How it Ends
I’m trying not to spoil the ending of the game, but my play-through didn’t end with me figuring out the grand conspiracy or discovering the evil secrets. No, my investigator got in too deep, had an opening, and ran for it. He got out and that was as good an ending as I expected.
Depending on how quick you read and how lucky your investigator is, you could get through the game in 1 or 2 hours.
It does have replay value, just to create another investigator and to see if you get the best ending. But there would be a limit, as you’d probably get bored of the opening entries after the second time playing.
Should I Buy this Game and Who is it for?
Now this game is a bit different than the typical solo RPGs I review and I understand it won’t be for every player out there. As I say time and time again, there are hundreds if not thousands of games you could solo, so should you spend your money and time on this game?
Do you like Chuthulu mythos and investigative games? If so, this is a game for you. While it doesn’t delve much into Chuthulu stuff in this book, there are definitely themes such as cultists and human sacrifice in this book. There is also a fair amount of mystery to be solved.
Are you time-poor but want to play an exciting experience? This game is for you. It can easily be played in one night if you have a couple of hours to do so.
Do you want to be a participant in a great story (but not be the one creating it)? Then this game is for you. Unlike a lot of solo games I play, you aren’t going to have to develop settings, worlds, NPCs, and plot threads. All of that is already built-in and ready for you to discover.
Do you like striking out on your own, discovering all the tiny corners of a story, and going outside of the lines? This game is probably not for you. As I said earlier, there just aren’t many choices and there is a limit to what you can discover. There is potential for multiple play-throughs, but if you like going outside of the typical lines, you may struggle with this game.
Overall, Alone Against the Flames was a fun experience that I was able to enjoy in and around my other Solo RPGs. It is a fantastic introduction to Call of Cthulhu also.
Thanks for reading the blog. Drop in the comments if you think of any other Solo Games I should review!
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