• Berlin 61

    1 Review Reviews
    Berlin 61
    Berlin 61 is an espionage horror setting explores the darker side of post war europe, where magic and demons are worshipped by cults and sorcerers, and good men and women draw the line between good and evil. Includes information on life in the city during the cold war, key locations, and special organizations. Battle spies, assassins, cultists and the Dark Herald Kototh. There will be a section for spy games, super hero games and horror games, but the main focus overall will be horror.

    By Christopher Barnhart, aka PK Games. 130 pages. Published July 2008.
    Reviews 1 Review
    1. Trifletraxor's Avatar
      Berlin 61 is a 132 pages long espionage horror setting. This beetle review will first take a look at the content of the book, then the layout, and then end it all with a Triff says summary.

      C O N T E N T :
      Chapter 1: Introduction (page 5-8)
      A short overview of the supplement and the setting.
      Chapter 2: Berlin '61 (page 9-40)
      This is the "setting" chapter of the book. It describes the history and daily life in post-war Berlin in good detail, with an extra focus on the most well-known landmarks in the city to flavour your campaign. It also gives a very good description of the different organizations and fractions in the city (CIA, US Army, KGB, Red Army, Stasi, etc.), within the perspective of the setting.
      Chapter 3: Mythos (page 41-70)
      Here a description of the mythology of the Kotothian pantheon of gods, together with descriptions and stats for a lot of supernatural creatures from the Kotothian mythology. The later part of this chapter feels like an attempt to make some CoC mythology up from scratch, which is not fully succesfull.
      Chapter 4: Rules (page 71-92)
      This chapter covers character generation, new skills, some pulp adventure guidelines, and rules for creating James Bond-like gadgets with unusual or semi-supernatural abilities. They should probably never bee shown to the players, as they can surely be abused, but these rules present a great framework for the GM to work with.
      Chapter 6? (should be 5!): Equipment (page 93-102)
      Rules for using the setting for a supers game, with some allready flesh-out NPCs. For those who like supers...
      Chapter 6: Equipment (page 103-129)
      The is where the book really shines. The author have obviously done a lot of research and shares a wealth of knowledge on the subject (his military background probably came in handy with this chapter). Everything from daily items and cost of living to detailed descriptions and tables for weapons, explosives, various body armors and helmets, gas masks, and any type of gear and equipments kits that can be of use in this setting. This chapter makes the book worth the cost alone. Great work Barnhart!

      L A Y O U T :
      Less illustrations than with the GORE edition, but greatly improved. The book have some nice pictures giving the book the perfect cold war and espionage feel. The text layout is also good.

      T R I F F S A Y S :
      I recommend the book to anyone who thinks an espionage or an espionage-horror setting in post-war Berlin sounds interesting. I would also recommend it to anyone who plays in settings during WW2 or the cold war period, if only just for the equipment chapter.
      Final verdict: 5 beetles -
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