A collection of six very different modern day scenarios, and most of them are good. I mean really, finger-licking-gruesomely-good. I have only had the chance to run the first two and both have been at least two nights of terrible, delightfull terror for my players. The one scenario I both dreaded and longed to run, namely Ladybug, (dreaded as I'm no good at portraying the seriously religious zealots, longed because, darn... if that isn't a living nightmare of choices... exactly what I look for in my games) turned out to be one of the greatest stories I ran so far.

What I love about the scenarios gathered here is the amount of grey. Very few things are clear from the onset, and after finding the first few hints, often the unease only grows as nothing is clearly cut, black or white. Well thought out motivations for the NPCs and logical actions and reactions included in the storyline make these scenarios very easy for a keeper to get into and effortlessly keep the flow, no matter what your players come up with. Plus the stories are superb, as I think I may have mentioned before.

Opinion by title (and honestly, this is very personal but it might give you some insight)

Ladybug, Ladybug, Fly Away Home, by Jeff Moeller. Holy... For me, a serious challenge as a keeper because I have players who love to dig in deep and debate... Playing some crazy zealots seemed a scary challenge but it worked and the fact that my players were unsure who really was crazy and who was right up until the very end was a true delight. 5/5

Forget Me Not, by Brian M. Sammons. Delightful play with amnesia and as a keeper you can choose if you go for a full gore option, or keep it mild and mindbending til very late in the scenario. I played this story in the mid '80 and found it adapted easily. The heart-wrenching choice presented to the players at the end is a lovely touch. 4/5 (4 only in comparison to Ladybug really... in any other case a 5/5)

No scores for the next three stories as it seems unfair to score things I haven't run and have only read once ;)

Roots, by Simon Brake. It seems a little on the nose with the main 'enemy' for people who have some knowledge of Lovecraft, but that does not have to be a bad thing. I personally try to leave my players guessing for a while at least. That said, if my players weren't so keen on surviving that I'm pretty sure they'd soon leave well enough alone, I might have given it a chance. The atmosphere is really nice, the village detailed and so alone in the hostile woods.

Hell in Texas, by Scott Dorward. Intriguing story, great location, definitely planning on running this, but I need a really good reason that binds my players strongly to the story/location, otherwise they'll do the smart thing and run for their lives fairly soon into the scenario.

The Night Season, by Jeff Moeller. Very, very fun play with the boundaries of reality, but in this scenario the why and how for what is happening seems to sit mainly in the note to the keeper and that seems a shame. It leaves players struggling with something they will never understand... which presents its own horror of course. Still, the sheer realm of possibilities this scenario opens, given a little creativity of the keeper is immense (and a little daunting to me, as I'm a perfectionist with very geeky friends. cough)

Only downside, and that's a personal one: I am no fan of the artwork in the book, every portrait seems an uneasy rendering of a face made by someone who has not seen a person in a very long time. Something is off with friend and foe alike, so I have chosen not to use the pictures that come with the stories. I do not mind the fact that the book is black and white, but the 90s computer-rendering feel of the images included is not really my thing.

All in all: awesome (mature themed) torment wrapped in a fun seized book. Get it now.