Beyond the Miasma: Eldritch Century – Almanac Reviewed

Title: Eldritch Century, Chronicles of the Wounded Earth – Almanac

Publisher: Draco Studios

Authors: Ezzy Languzzi, Helen Gould, Ed Turner, Elizabeth Chaipraditkul, Hiromi Cota, Erykah Fassett, Spider B. Perry, David Castro, Bernardo Alvarez, JC Alvarez, Rubén Bañuelos, Alastor Guzmán, and Alvaro Zinos-Amaro

Artists: Raluca Marinescu Interior Illustrations: Adam Wesierski, Aldo Domínguez, Anna Khudorenko, Anton Ninov, Danny Cruz, Darko Kreculj, Dinulescu Alexandru, Doruk Golcu, Fernando Martínez, Gabriela Alavez, George Pricope-Galan, Grzegorz Pedrycz, Heidi Badillo, Karlos Warlock, Klaudia Bezak, Konrad Langa, Raluca Marinescu, Nikola Matkovic, Ramón Puasa Jr., Rodrigo Gil, Shen Fei, Singhoo Lim, !or Odenson, Todd Ulrich, !e Creation Studio Concept Art: David Yáñez, Fernando Martínez, Irene Aretia, Jaime Hernández, Julio Rocha

Year: 2020

Pages: 319 pages

Genre: Alternate history, modern era horror RPG setting and bestiary

MSRP: $89.99 for the printed slipcase set of both books; $59.99 for each book, if bought separately: $32.50 for the PDF (which includes both the Expeditions corebook and Almanac) at DriveThruRPG

The Eldritch Century Almanac is the second core book for Eldritch Century. It is intended primarily for the gamemaster (GM) as it contains both the setting and a bestiary. The books are currently sold as a set rather than separately. Overall, the artwork is strong, but the few line drawings found at the end of the book are not up to par to the rest of the set.

Almanac is split into the background setting and monsters. The faction information includes major personalities, society, history, interactions between other factions, and internal groups that are threats to a faction. Many of the factions are portrayed as utopian that have acknowledged the wrongs of the past and have tried to remedy them. However, all this information is meant for GMs so players are left with a minimal source for understanding the world and factions. A player’s section for history, world map, and background for the factions that are commonly known should have been added to Expedition with the secrets and plot hooks left in Almanac. The following few paragraphs provide a quick surficial look at each faction.

The Atlantean Alliance is a North American capitalist society that uses atomic power. It is headed by Juan Galt who discovered Atlantis in the Gulf of Mexico. This faction has taken in many of the western European refugees who fled the miasma. Its biggest rival is the Sino-Siberian Mandate.

The Axumite Federation is ruled by benevolent Queen Eshe Haile Kebede. Her rule extends primarily in North Eastern Africa. The Federation has technology that can transmute Miasma into a substance called Zohar. Zohar can power machinery, weaponry and be infused into people to give them powers. It is hinted the basis of their technology comes from the Ark of the Covenant. Its biggest enemy, Rhodesia, is on its southern border. It dislikes the Atlantean Alliance.

Nisshoku Teikoku is a high technological monarchy based in Japan and Alaska. Empress Michinomya Aiko rules these lands. The Empire has determined the earth is doomed to the Miasma and as such seeks to leave the earth. Their technology combines nature spirits (kami) and advanced machinery. Its biggest threat is a potential invasion for Sino-Siberian Mandate.

The Oceanic Community is a rag-tag bunch of refugees who live in the South Pacific mostly on islands and ships. It is a loose coalition where each ship has its own culture and rules. The majority of the population lives on three city size ships (motherships). The people have a knack to salvage and repurpose other factions’ technologies. The one unique technology to the Oceanic Community is the ability to talk to dolphins and whales. It has a hatred of Nisshoku Teikoku because of the Australian-Japanese War, and its belief that Nisshoku Teikoku is polluting the ocean.

The Renascent Hegemony uses biotechnology as its edge with other factions. The includes growing buildings from mycellium (fungi) to mutagens for exploring self awareness and developing psionics. It encompasses the Amazon Jungle in South America, where El Dorado was discovered by the Hegemony’s founder Adan Atreus. Its society is class based with those who have not taken mutagenics at the bottom, and those who benefit the Hegemony the most are at the top. It hates the Sino-Siberian Mandate because of its authoritarianism, while also hating the Axumite Federation for its devotion to family rather than self improvement.

The Sino-Siberian Mandate is a super confederation made up of the remnants of the USSR and China. It is a socialist society with forge cities and massive bureaucracies. It is led by Yermak Petrovitch, but managed by Zhu Zhao Huang. They are coequal in responsibilities. Their goal is spread communism. Its biggest achievement is aquiring Tesla’s inventions which provide force fields and weapons for the good of the mandate. The mandate has a strange religious group called the Monadist Order which use unearthed monoliths to keep the Miama at bay.

Almanac includes information about the secret shadow organization, Minerva. It describes the world within the Miasma and what player may can encounter in it. The monsters are quite deadly for the threat rating. They do a good job for evoking a creepy and scary opponent for the players at the lower tiers. Players can be easily taken out by a CR 2 or 3 monster their first few levels. The main weakness is a limited number of monsters/opponents especially at the higher levels. This is definitely an area to add-on for future expansions. Another criticism is they did not include size comparisons, like those one would see in Call of Cthulhu, for the monsters.

The book gives plenty of plot hooks, internal strife, and opponents for the first few levels. Almanac does not include an introductory adventure, which is a weakness for inexperienced GMs. Most of the complaints are relative nitpicks in a fairly solid book.