Publisher: Onyx Path Publishing
Authors: Larry Blamire, John Burke, Matthew Dawkins, Danielle Lauzon, Bianca Savazzi, and Hilary Sklar
Artists: Larry Blamire, Brian Leblanc, Andrea Payne, and Alida Saxon
Year: 2021
Genre: Supplement for the 1950s B-Movie inspired horror RPG They Came from Beneath the Sea!
Pages: 69 pages
Price: $12.99 PoD with a standard softcover print edition or $6.99 in PDF from DriveThruRPG
Let’s head back to the drive-in movie of yore with Tales of Aquatic Terror! This supplement for Onyx Path’s They Came From Beneath the Sea! features four ready-to-play tales of terror from the deep. You can check out the review for the corebook right here.
All four benefit from a list of clues, alternative clues, and director’s notes that keep things on track and help to account for the variability of real life play. This makes Tales of Aquatic Terror a nice potential onboarding option for those who to GMing at large, helping them to find a rhythm and modeling what to do when things don’t go according to plan. Similarly, the book offers alternative suggestions about when to have players roll for clues as 
Iguana Take A Cruise is a scenario designed for quickplay with an eye towards conventions or those new to roleplaying games at large. After scientists on board a Navy vessel accidentally unleash half-human, half-iguanoid monsters (the product of Nazi experimentation, of course), the hapless passengers and crew of the Helios must band together to battle back the threat. It’s a classic B-movie plot and a fun, easy-to-run romp, though the optics of Nazis, human experimentation, and reptiles may cut too close to certain anti-Semitic tropes for some players, even though this was certainly not the developer’s intent.
The Bubble brings the core book’s Prefecture of the Pod in as enemies, setting players up on a daring quest to foil a deadly plot involving the Secretary of Defense and the Pod’s terrible machinations. This larger scale adventure offers more opportunities for players to shine and slots in nicely as either the starting point or cresdendo of a long-term campaign. Options are here for less linear play, though again, suggestions for keeping the plot on track are present to help newer storytellers.
The Voyage of the Rose Marie is a sandbox campaign, meant to allow players to organically select their plot hooks or for wholesale export. It’s unusual to see a proper sandbox campaign in a scenario book, making this something of a treat. The Rose Marie is packed with threats and strange occurrences and the setting of a massive cruise ship allows them to feel as if they are naturally occurring.
Storytellers, however, need not feel confined to using the scenarios as written or even really using them at all, as the plot hooks, locations, and characters ae meant to be flexibly dropped into other adventures on an as-needed basis. Have an opening for a character but don’t want to go through the hassle of creating one from scratch? Skim through and figure out who the best fit is and drop them in. The same is true for enemies and locations. The scenarios themselves can even serve as backstory for the inevitable sequel starring the players. This, in turn, gives the book the tabletop equivalent of ‘replay value,’ helping it to feel like more than just a collection of playable scenarios.
While “Tales” likely won’t be enough to hook those who aren’t already sold on the premise, it’s a solid addition for fans of the core title. Succeeding as both a collection of scenarios and a pick-and-play sourcebook, it’s a wonderful reference for Storytellers, though players won’t find as much within its pages.
