If we're lucky, we reach a better understanding of people different from ourselves, and learn to empathize with the "other."" The section on "Racism: Reality and the Game" only occupies a couple of pages. "We embrace the idea of living different lives through play - and each time we do, we learn something new. This is not a sermon thinly disguised as an RPG: it's an excellent setting book with meaty scenarios in a fascinating and exciting location.
The book also wins hands down in pure playability. There's only one scenario I feel less than totally enthusiastic about, and that's "Your Name in the Book," which takes a big leap back in time to the Harlem of the 1680s, but that's mainly down to personal preference about playing (very) historical scenarios. "An Ode for the Lost" even puts that hero of Call of Cthulhu's own internal mythology, Jackson Elias, alongside Langston Hughes and Alain Locke. Four out of the seven scenarios now focus on art, creativity, intellectual life and the world of the imagination, and there's quite a bit of emphasis on the Dreamlands in the scenarios which entirely fits this focus. Du Bois and Duke Ellington, Langston Hughes and Josephine Baker. There's an air of tragedy and horror just around the corner, but also of cultural ferment and intellectual vibrancy: the world of W.E. The atmosphere of Harlem Unbound is almost like playing in 1920s Paris and Berlin, with all the intellectual and artistic figures fully drawn and put to good use. Can you hold it together and keep the Mythos at bay for one more song?" While classes, sexuality, and cultures collide, the horrors of the Cthulhu Mythos lurk beneath the streets, creeping through dark alleys and hidden doorways. But even in this land of promise, Harlem's time is fleeting. There's a feeling of possibility in the air like never before. The sidewalks are crowded with women in stylish skirts with silk stockings and men in white gloves and Chesterfield coats.
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It pours out of the city's windows and doorways. As the text explains, "That sound floating on the air is hope wrapped in the music of Fats Waller and Duke Ellington. The other magic ingredient that has been mixed in even more generously in the second edition is the sheer infectious enthusiasm of the authors' evocation of the Harlem Renaissance.
The new joint publication has its layout and artwork revised to come closer to the new generation and house style of Chaosium products already seen in the 7th edition, but the most distinctive original artwork remains. The street by street guide to Harlem is almost surreal in its intense attention to detail, and the clashing personalities, ideologies, and ethnic groups of Harlem are comprehensively described. Furthermore, the 30+ pages in the first edition devoted to information on the Gumshoe system have now been dropped to allow for even more attention to be lavished on the history and dramatis personae of the Harlem Renaissance, including enormous and flavorful detail on just about every prominent figure in the Harlem of the era, including politicians, police, the underworld and organised crime. You get some 100 pages more than the first edition, mostly devoted to the additional scenarios. How does the new edition measure up to that almost insurmountable achievement?ĭon't go thinking it's impossible to improve on that result, because the second edition goes even further. I can't think offhand of any other RPG game or supplement that has received so much acclaim. The first edition, dual-statted for Call of Cthulhu 7th edition and Gumshoe, won multiple 2018 Gold ENnies for Best Cover Art, Best Setting, and Best Writing, as well as reaping numerous other awards and nominations. Originally published to acclaim in 2017 by Darker Hue Studios, Harlem Unbound is now published in enlarged and enhanced form jointly with Chaosium.