Detective Carnacki’s Serial Killers of Vathak by Jason Stoffa and Rick Hershey is a role playing game supplement published by Fat Goblin Games for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. As such, it is covered by the Open Game License and some parts are considered to be Open Game Content as a result.
The supplement is available as a 10-page PDF from DriveThruRPG for $3.41 but was purchased at a reduced price as part of a special bundle. About half a page is the front matter and one the Open Game License.
It starts with some opening paragraphs written in character by Detective Carnacki about serial killers.
The Mind of a Serial Killer explains that Shadows Over Vathak is a dark setting of supernatural horror and a villain who is flesh and blood and seemingly normal, perhaps an ally, can be a shocking contrast.
Anatomy of a Killer looks at how serial killers can come about, how they choose their victims and how the killers are laid out in the supplement.
Six killers are then covered. Each is given a history of how they came to be, a description, modus operandi, using them in your campaign and their stats.
Elizabeth Howervell is a killer who kills those she meets for sex.
John Blackwell is a cleric who seeks to absolve his victims of their sins.
Christian Bordelleria kills randomly or those he thinks stand in his way.
Chang’u Thalqu became addicted to killing and follows no pattern in victims or methods.
Avery Coulter punishes those he feels are escaping justice.
Crispin Holloway is a killer who was caught and executed but game back as a ghoul.
Detective Carnacki’s Serial Killers of Vathak in Review
The PDF lacks bookmarks and, though short, has enough sections that these would have been useful. Navigation is okay. The text maintains a two-column format and some minor errors were noticed. There are a number of pieces of stock art, including colour portraits of each killer. Presentation is decent.
Given the subject matter, naturally there are parts of this that would qualify as being disturbing to read. Though this is intended for the Shadows Over Vathak setting, the presented NPCs could easily be dropped into many other campaigns with a few tweaks. They are more suited for horror and darker campaigns, though this isn’t essential. Detective Carnacki’s Serial Killers of Vathak can be found by clicking here.
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