Alone against the tide Paperback – April 15, 2021

Great to teach yourself or a friend call of cthulhu.

This was my first time trying a solo game and Jnhad a lot of fun! I liked the story even though I died more times than I’d like to admit

Me likey:+ Straightforward with a lot of action+ It’s very plot focused+ Book keeping is minimal+ 50 endings+ Plenty of opportunity to explore+ Lots of great art+ Some entries act as keys to other entries+ Page flipping is minimalMe no likey:- A lot of entries don’t follow up after success/failure without flipping- Loose text suggest untrue things/events- It’s in all black and white, where there should clearly be color- It’s shortI love Chaosium’s solo Call of Cthulhu adventures, and this one is no different. In fact, I wish there were more. Alone Against the Tide is a short, plot focused adventure with lots of action and plenty of opportunities to explore. Call of Cthulhu has always been inclusive, and that continues in this adventure, where you can either use your own investigator or choose the pre-made investigator, of which there is both a male and female version of the same person that you can customize yourself.Of course, of the adventure’s 50 endings, very few of them produce great results, but it’s paradise in comparison to the brutal Alone Against the Frost. Alone Against the Tide is far more focused, but with several loop backs, so even with its heavy dose of action, you never feel like you’re being rushed.It’s a short adventure though, great for single evening one-offs, and replay ability is increased with the aforementioned loop backs. There’s not a lot of book keeping, but some entries serve as locks to other entries, where information should be jotted down until you encounter the entry in which you need it, which I find to be really cool. Most entries are finished without needing to flip the page, but this increases quite a bit after a success/fail roll, which compromises the adventure’s tightness.In addition, some entries could use better editing. There are times the text leads you down a path you didn’t really need to go, or offers up information the player wouldn't know. There are also instances where simple assumptions are revealed to be hard facts only a few minutes later. While not a deal breaker, these little things remove you from the experience a bit.I love the art and, this adventure has quite a bit of it. But like the other adventures in this solo line, it’s in all black and white, even though some of the art looks to have been created in color. I for one, think all these adventures should be in full color.Overall though, I loved Alone Against the Flames, and Alone Against the Tide is similarly plot focused. It’s an adventure you can play in an evening, or longer if you’d rather do lots of exploring. It’s a great adventure for less experienced players and, though the editing could be tighter in areas, it doesn’t detract from the fun that can be had.

I have the luck to see blues musician Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown perform twice during his lifetime. Both times were in small clubs (holding less than 70 people). In both cases Brown arrived with his guitar and his viola (yes, not a violin) and no band. It was Brown and us and both times were great. I’ve been a fan ever since.There are a bunch of more recent albums of Brown but It took the German-based reissue company, Bear Family Records (IMHO THE premiere reissue company in the word) to spend the time, energy and money to fill this 70-minute-plus CD with 29 recordings from 1947 to 1960 – and make them sound great (the 45s are obviously rare). Reissue producers Bill Dahl and Nico Feuerbach combined their talents – with Feuerbach providing the records and rock journalist Dahl (whose writing I’ve followed for decades) penning the detailed liner notes in the 36-page booklet that is inserted in the tri-fold digipak. LOTS of photos too and small color images of all the labels too. My only frustration was that, while the liner notes are in chronological order, the sequencing of the tracks is not.It was later in his career that Brown played the violin and viola, so we only get a few tracks with him “bowing it”. That “bowing” is what made him special to me. How many blues fiddlers can you name?This is the third in BFR’s “Rocks” series I’ve gotten (and reviewed here). The back of the Brown booklet shows a whopping 55 (!) others and a note “and more to come”.Steve Ramm“Anything Phonographic”

I chose to purchase this adventure over "Alone Against the Dark" or "Alone Against the Tide" because it's the only one that says it's published as a hardcover, so I thought I'd be getting a higher-quality product for the same price. This is untrue. It is not a hardcover. It is a paperback book just like the others. Mine also arrived with some bend damage to the top-right corner of the front cover. So, suffice it to say I was mildly disappointed. To be clear, the adventure looks fun, and I'm excited to read through it. But the format of the book is falsely advertised. I suppose I should have done my own research rather than trust the listing.