Call of Cthulhu: The Sutra of Pale Leaves - Twin Suns Rising - Hardcover

As a self-identified otaku and a TTRPG enjoyer, I was very excited to get my hands upon this book. I feel as if I cannot give this book a "fair" rating at the moment as the second volume has not been released at the time this review was written. However, I did enjoy the three one-shots presented in this book and I found the chapters describing the campaign's setting to be rather informative. The art is also very aesthetically pleasing. At the time of writing this review, I have only run 1/3 one-shots presented in this campaign. Both me and my players had a good time with the "Dream Eater" one-shot, and the new mechanics - though a little "cumbersome" to deal with in the moment - was fun to implement. However, I do recommend that those who wish to run TSoPL as a modular campaign take some time to re-evaluate the rolls associated with the new mechanic, as these points do accumulate rather fast. My biggest gripe with this book is that itcan be a bit of a "mixed bag" when it comes to explaining certain aspects of Japanese culture. Some topics are explained well while other topics are simply italicized, relying on the Keeper to do his own research. For example, (LIGHT SPOILER AHEAD) when discussing The Sutra of The Pale Leaves, the book mentions the kanji for “mu” being repeated over and over again. My guess is that they are referring to this kanji “夢” which means “dream”. (I was able to come to this conclusion because I have been studying the Japanese language for a few years, but I don't think the average American reader would be able to come to this conclusion...) Furthermore, though the one-shots themselves are interesting on their own, I don't think that the "overarching theme" uniting these one-shots is not "strong enough" to support a long-standing campaign with the same characters. These one shots drastically vary in location and content, and while that is great on it's own, they don't think they lend themselves well to a linear story with the same set of characters. Overall, I really liked the content presented in this book. I believe that these are a great set of one-shots, but I think I'd need to get my hands on the second volume before I can determine whether TSoPL could be a great campaign.

Available for preorder since May 28 with an advance PDF and arriving in a hardcover physical edition from Wednesday, June 11, 2025, The Sutra of Pale Leaves: Twin Suns Rising is a substantial campaign for Call of Cthulhu Seventh Edition, published by Chaosium Inc. and crafted by the talented publisher Sons of the Singularity facebook.com +9 serialgamer.it +9 chaosium.com +9 . It’s the first volume of a broader project, which will continue later this year with The Sutra of Pale Leaves: Carcosa Manifest, completing one of the most ambitious works dedicated to the Mythos of Hastur. The campaign will be previewed live on the Serial Gamer Italia Twitch channel: scheduled for Wednesday, June 11 at 21:30 CET, continuing weekly every Wednesday night, with yours truly as Keeper alongside experienced players serialgamer.it . The beating heart of Twin Suns Rising is its setting: Japan during the “Bubble” period—the brief but intense economic and cultural boom of the mid-1980s, an era of neon lights, idol pop, ubiquitous manga, financial excess, and a headlong rush toward modernity. But beneath the glittering surface lurk unease, contradictions, and repressed desires—a fertile ground for a memetic cult that leverages contemporary media, social obsessions, and twisted spirituality to infiltrate reality serialgamer.it . The campaign’s structure is modular, designed for both standalone sessions and extended arcs: in Twin Suns Rising are three scenarios set between 1986 and 1987—Dream Eater, Fanfic, and The Pallid Masks of Tokyo—each independent yet tied by a coherent, pervasive narrative thread: the Sutra itself, a “sentient analog code” that appears as a sacred book but is actually an ideological, viral weapon meant to alter minds and subvert reality facebook.com +8 serialgamer.it +8 chaosium.com +8 . The overall tone leans more toward Robert W. Chambers’s The King in Yellow than traditional Lovecraft: the threat isn’t an alien deity but a contagious concept—a lethal piece of information that seeps into thought, art, and dreams. The “Prince of Pale Leaves” is a protean entity whose presence becomes more concrete and oppressive as the characters delve into the campaign’s narrative web. Reality itself starts to wobble, along with the investigators’ certainties serialgamer.it +1 chaosium.com +1 . The atmosphere is fascinating and tense: from the quiet, spiritually charged streets of a small Kansai village to Tokyo’s frenetic electronic nights—nightclubs, underground manga studios, cults disguised as art trends. The historical reconstruction is impressive, supported by high-quality cultural and historical research. Each scenario is enriched with realistic details about 1980s Japanese customs, technology, and social dynamics, never feeling didactic . One of the campaign’s greatest strengths is its variety of tones and genres: Dream Eater carries a strong spiritual, dreamlike component—a twisted fairy tale blending Japanese folklore and Lovecraftian nightmares. Fanfic ventures into metanarrative territory within manga fandom and narrative obsession, where reality and fiction disturbingly intertwine. The Pallid Masks of Tokyo delivers a decadent, psychedelic urban horror, with nods to Carcosa, the Yakuza, and metropolitan club culture aesthetics serialgamer.it +1 chaosium.com +1 . From a gameplay standpoint, The Sutra of Pale Leaves is suitable for “ordinary” characters—students, salarymen, artists, tourists—rather than seasoned occult investigators. You don’t need monster-hunting experts; in fact, the horror lands more powerfully when it hits mundane lives. The campaign is balanced for three to six investigators and supports both classic Call of Cthulhu and Pulp Cthulhu systems with minimal adjustments. It also allows a tonal shift as reality’s laws change within the fiction x.com +8 serialgamer.it +8 chaosium.com +8 . A welcome addition is the six pregenerated characters offered for free by Chaosium on its website: each is well-defined with a coherent background and narrative ties integrated into the first scenario. They’re designed to provide dramatic prompts and are ideal for groups that want to dive straight into the game without character creation—but they’re also customizable, with options to change gender, name, nationality, etc. The manual specifies that each character should be personalized a bit, with 50 skill points still to allocate. Every character has motivations for being involved in the story, and their thematic links to the Sutra or Japanese culture strengthen narrative cohesion serialgamer.it . The manual also gives solid tools for the Keeper: each scenario includes flowcharts for narrative structure, cultural insights through “Lore Sheets,” and suggestions for tone adjustment based on the group. Challenges are meant to be overcome via cunning, interpretation, and roleplaying—not violence—coherently aligned with the setting and the conceptual nature of the horror presented serialgamer.it . On the editorial side, the volume is gorgeous. The graphics blend different styles (ukiyo-e, manga, art nouveau) coherently with the campaign’s kaleidoscopic aesthetic. Illustrations are functional as well as decorative, reinforcing the atmosphere. Layout and mapping are notable; settings feel vivid and well defined, and the included support materials (also available online) encompass handouts, player maps, and the six pregenerated characters serialgamer.it . The thematic content is mature and not devoid of disturbing elements: death, suicide, abuse, obsessions, mind control. The manual rightfully includes a detailed content warning and urges the Keeper to use safety tools at the table. In this sense, The Sutra of Pale Leaves demands sensitivity and awareness but delivers a deeply unsettling, reflective, and powerful narrative experience serialgamer.it . In conclusion, The Sutra of Pale Leaves: Twin Suns Rising stands as one of the most sophisticated and daring experiences ever published for Call of Cthulhu. It’s a campaign for those seeking something new: a horror that explores culture, language, memory, identity, and alienation, using tabletop role‑play to probe the fragility of reality. It’s not for everyone—it requires dedication, study, and a group willing to fully immerse in a rich, layered world. But for those ready to heed the Sutra’s call, the journey will be absolutely unforgettable