Sometimes just letting your music play is the best way to stumble across something lovely. It’s how I became a fan of Two Steps From Hell (specifically “Ocean Kingdom“) and it’s how I found The Apocalypse Players.
I may have saved their podcast to listen to at some point or the other, but when I woke up from a nap and started actually listening to their story, I was hooked.
I’ve listened to the entirety of their debut series, “The Crack’d and Crook’d Manse,” and the players are charming and humorous, while still keeping in mind the setting and system they’re in. Dominic Allen is the Lore Keeper of this Call of Cthulhu actual play and his players are Joseph Chance as Rosalie, a sprightly (though slightly older) Southern Belle with enough charm and grace to weasel a meal from a starving lion; Danann McAleer as Sebastian Palmer, a Catholic and union activist; and Dan Wheeler as Dr. Johannes Bergman, a German psychologist. I wish that the podcast would list at the beginning of each episode who was playing who (or even list it in the episode description), as I had to go back to listen to the intro from the first episode to figure out who was playing whom and I still don’t know how to spell Rose’s last name (I’m just taking guesses on Palmer and Bergman!).
The story centers around the three investigators, at the behest of a crew of amusingly bumbling lawyers (all brothers by the name of Dodge), entering into the mansion of an acquaintance to uncover the mystery of his disappearance. Of course, the mansion is much more than he seems and the acquaintance… well, let’s just say that he didn’t just forget to leave the house for a few months.
Despite the use of stock sound effects and music, Allen does a masterful job of making them sound unique and fresh – and appropriate for the moments when they’re used within the show. He also chooses to have >1 minute opening dramatic sequences as a bit of a teaser of the mystery behind the scenes that the players may never see. It’s quite engaging and his acting is not half bad. Even during regular play, he has the ability to even make me, the listener, shudder with disgust or gasp in alarm. His character voices aren’t half bad either – as a native-born Texan, I especially enjoyed the sheriff’s Southern accent.
Speaking of Allen’s Lore Keeper skills, it is greatly amusing that his players are affected by his narration as well. Hearing them groan in disgust or start going “mmm, nope, don’t like that,” makes you sympathize with the players, drawing you into the play space with them. It doesn’t hurt that Allen has a gift for descriptive narrations: the dampness of the decrepit mansion, the creak of wet floorboards, it all feels tangible under his control.
I do wish we got to hear more of their cross table talk and out of character moments, but Call of Cthulhu is not normally known for its light moments, so I understand that not being included.
To speak of the players in particular, as I mentioned earlier, they do a fantastic job of marrying a bit of levity and humor into an objectively horrific game setting. Wheeler is by far the most amusing, using a stereotypical German accent and pushing the most absurd “cutting edge” psychological experiments. Chance’s accent as Rosalie is rather less convincing, but his charm and carefree air as the Southern Belle comes through strong and the performance is no less engaging. The character of Sebastian Palmer, the scarred union activist, is rather subdued and probably least “big” personality of the three, but McAleer gives him a quiet stoicism that is pleasant to listen to.
While I thoroughly enjoyed the game for the first two acts, unfortunately I do feel that it fell apart a bit at the end. Call of Cthulhu, to my understanding, is more about cosmic and eldritch horror. Existentialist stuff. The climax of “The Crack’d and Crook’d Manse” takes an approach more similar to The Cabin in the Woods: an action survival exit. It wrapped up really quickly and felt a bit like a rush to finish the story under a certain number of episodes. The horror and suspense factor rapidly decreased once the monster was finally revealed. To be fair, this is a common problem in the horror genre in general, so I’m not sure if I can totally blame The Apocalypse Players for this error.
The players also made a note that it was “the worst [they’ve] ever done,” which surprises me. I won’t spoil anything, but if that was the worst that a Call of Cthulhu game has ever gone for them, Allen seems like he is quite the permissive Keeper. As a pretty permissive game master myself, I am not upset at this scenario, but I suppose I was expecting a bit more – but there’s also the fact that I am not very familiar with the actual vibe of Call of Cthulhu. I thought I was, but I will concede that I am not an expert by a long shot.
See, my actual exposure to the system is minimal – I vaguely remember watching Critical Role’s Shadow of the Crystal Palace (which I found vague and lackluster) and have played it once. Though that was a rather disappointing experience despite having a great premise (a team of researchers in Antarctica snowed in by a blizzard – very The Thing). So while I know the rules, it’s hard for me to say on a scale of 1-10 how good The Apocalypse Players is as a specifically Call of Cthulhu actual play, but I can confidently say that their first story, “The Crack’d and Crook’d Manse,” even with the rushed ending, is well worth your time.
Asterinomous 