Neon City Outlaws by Scratchpad Publishing

Statistics: Masks of Nyarlathotep

Core Game Ratings

Rating: 7.87 / Ranking: 9

These ratings are based on 57 ratings with 1.67 average weight and 8 reviews.

This is compared to an index-wide 3.64 average ratings and 1.98 average weight.

This rating earns an average level of trust.

Ratings + Reviews:

0%
6%
0%
3%
1%
5%
10%
12%
17%
46%
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Index Ratings Only:

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2%
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4%
2%
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16%
21%
11%
43%
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RPGnet Reviews Only:

0%
13%
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13%
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25%
50%
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Core Game Comments

All User Comments

Rating User Comments
10 / 10Sebastian KochanskiSimply THE CAMPAIGN
10 / 10YossarianThis. Is. How. It's. Done. Why have so few campaign-designers understood this?
10 / 10Cult ClassicThis is what all campaigns from any system should aspire to emulate.
10 / 10Ars MysteriorumGorgeous. I only hope I will find players willing to play it the whole way through.
10 / 10NightwalkerMasterful and classic. The ideas are cleverly presented and the campaign calls for a higher level of maturity in players.
10 / 10Mescalingreat game! Classic! spent 2 years running this every week!! 2 TPKs - ending in Kenya - BUT marvellous stuff! With the Cairo and Kenyan books, even better! One of the best campaigns I have run - IMHO! :D Must buy it and run it!!!
10 / 10CaudexIt's got its weaknesses but the definition for a score of 10 is "one of the best ever" - and Masks is certainly that.
10 / 10cj.23Finest campaign I ever played in or ran
10 / 10ShannonAAn amazingly deep and varied campaign, especially in its newest edition. Overall a great example of what a horror campaign can be.
9 / 10ChillinghamAmazing campaign but a total meat-grinder. Only given 9 out of 10 because I found it very difficult to manage as a Keeper - lots of extra work involved. But still a true Call of Cthulhu classic!
9 / 10WoodSo many happy hours playing this.
8 / 10TrippyHippyIt's non-player characters can be a bit stereotyped and it's not really a deep story. But it is well paced, with memorable set pieces, and very reliably fun to play. Better in PDF than hardcopy these days, simply because it allows you to print out the large quantity of handout props used in the game (as was previously provided in the box set).
8 / 10Pierce InverarityCoC at its pulpiest. In other words, you get great set pieces and a high mortality rate. Involves considerable clue bookkeeping.
7 / 10QusoorPulpy goodness.
7 / 10SkiorhtOne of the best Cthulhu adventures, even if its reputation is slightly inflated. The extremely high expected mortality can be a problem, and some of the sections are a bit weaker than others. The handouts were incredible for its time.
4 / 10JDCorleyThe Tomb of Horrors of Call of Cthulhu. If you could get through this blender with less than two dozen character deaths, your GM was cheating, or you were. This is totally at odds with the freewheeling, pulpish tone of the scenarios that make up the campaign, but there it was.

Core Game Reviews

All RPGnet Reviews

[ Link 3 Possible Reviews ]
Rating User Summary
5 + 5Mao ChapmanThe Complete Masks of Nyarlathotep.
5 + 5Mike MontesaThe Complete Masks of Nyarlathotep.
4 + 5Eric BrochuThe Complete Masks of Nyarlathotep.
2 + 1Erick BouchardThe Complete Masks of Nyarlathotep. Dungeon crawl and four colour characterization at its best.
5 + 5Edward KabaraMasks of Nyarlathotep. TL; DR- Ya, this is about as good as it's gonna get! 98.3%
5 + 4Paul StJohn MackintoshMasks of Nyarlathotep. Masks of Nyarlathotep is back, seamlessly and superlatively updated to Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition rules, with sublime production values, sumptuous presentation, and more playability than ever. It can't entirely overcome, alas, some of the original's legacy issues.
5 + 5Antonios SMasks of Nyarlathotep. The biggest, most engaging, most elaborate Call of Cthulhu campaign ever devised, at production values that break every existing record!

All Magazine Reviews

Year Magazine Synopsis
1985Game News #64/5. "Problems? There are a few.... Still in all, DiTillio and Chaosium have put together an impressive work." -- Aaron Allston
2014The Unspeakable Oath #24A review of the "fourth edition", published for CoC 6e. "Masks of Nyarlathotep was an instant classic in 1984 and still deserves ten phobias today."
1986Different Worlds #414 stars out of 4. "I can thoroughly recommend Masks to any Keeper—even if your don't normally use published scenarios—and to any gamer with an interest in the Mythos or who simply wants to see what a first-class scenario pack looks like."
1985White Dwarf #71Rating: 9/10.
1985Space Gamer V1,  #74"massive and largely successful"
1990Dragon #158"The epitome of COC adventures."
1997Dragon #240Expanded Edition. 6 out of 6. "Absorbing, disturbing and astonishingly adept, Masks of Nyarlathotep is the definition of a role-playing masterpiece."
1998Dragon #249Rating 6/6. "Those of you who play Masks are likely to have some of your most memorable game sessions in store for you."

Ratings Explanation

The following components make up a rating:

Ratings. The ratings that users enter into this index are each averaged into the final rating with a weight of between 0 and 4, with weight based on trust algorithms.

Reviews. Each review is averaged into the final rating with a weight of 8. Sometimes reviews can skew high, but they also display fan interest (or disdain) in a product.

Content. The average rating of each content--before its own bayesian weight is inserted--is averaged into the final rating. The weight of a content is equal to its own weight divided by the number of contents, and divided again if it only appears in a fraction of editions.

Bayesian Weight. A rating of 5.00 is inserted into the final rating with a weight of 35. This is an arbitrary weighting of the average rating that keeps things toward the center until they're better rated.