The Hum by Bruce R. Cordell is a role playing game supplement published by Monte Cook Games for use with the Cypher System. This is an adventure for The Strange.
The supplement is available as a 36-page PDF from DriveThruRPG for $4.99 but was purchased at a reduced price as part of a special bundle. One page is the front cover and one the front matter and Table of Contents.
The Introduction has a description of the thing known as the Hum from Wikipedia and an explanation that this is an adventure intended for beginning characters.
Background explains the origins of the Great Bavarian hotel in Colorado in 1911 and its inheritance by a modern-day, and quickened, descendant and their marketing the now somewhat rundown hotel as a haunted building. A gate opened in the hotel and the Hum has started to be heard as far away as Denver, resulting in some suicides. The characters are agents of the Estate that have been dispatched to investigate. The GM will introduce the setting and system to those unfamiliar with it.
The characters can explore the hotel, whose haunting no longer seems to be a marketing ploy, to start with until the main event starts, at which point they will have to deal with the trouble and travel to Ardeyn to finish it off.
The final 18 pages are the pre-generated characters. There are six two-page character sheets and each character has an additional recursion sheet to use in Ardeyn.
The Hum in Review
The PDF is bookmarked but only the major sections are linked. The Table of Contents is to less depth but is hyperlinked. Navigation could be better. The text maintains a standard two columns with sidebar full colour layout and appeared to be free of errors. The sidebars are used for stats, references and comments. There are a number of colour illustrations, including a map, up to about half a page in size that appear to be custom. Presentation is very good.
The adventure is primarily intended to be run at conventions and in game stores, though it can be rune as part of a campaign, too. As a result, in a few places there are explanations of what to do if time is limited. This looks like a decent adventure to use with those unfamiliar with the system, or as a one-shot as well. The pre-generated characters are designed for the adventure, and notes are made of where their skills are of use. If other characters are used, the GM should ensure that they can still cope with the various problems. The Hum is a nice, albeit pricy, little adventure and it can be found by clicking here.
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