The Pallid Mask Review

Paris isn’t finished with you yet! Down into the depths of the catacombs you go. I hope you’re not afraid of skulls. As usual, we give a short spoiler free overview, then explore the player cards before moving on to a full spoiler discussion of goings on and mechanics.

You’ve found the director’s house, and his collected papers lead you towards the catacombs, Paris’ extensively creepy burial tunnels, scene of many a horror film and now your own investigation. But it is an investigation worth pursuing, as we may finally obtain some answers about the Stranger, the man in The Pallid Mask!

Well, I say answers. Really, you must ultimately decide whether you are going to put your trust in this enigmatic character or not. You didn’t really expect anything clean cut here did you? I love how this just leans into the doubt/conviction mechanic the entire campaign has had running through it.

The Dunwich Legacy cycle had a similar resolution of early events around this point in the campaign (Blood on the Altar) but there you were left adrift and rushed towards the campaigns conclusion. It felt disjointed. Here you merely resolve (perhaps not even fully) one facet of the overall mystery leaving the grander arc to carry you to the campaigns’ end. It works wonderfully well.

This labyrinth beneath the Paris streets is full of unexpected twists and turns. Also skulls. Lots of skulls. The scenario matches some fun mechanical twists to its chase of the stranger. A real maze to search through, and a great space to battle over. It also adds some fun and effective new player cards to the mix. A very good set all round.

Rating: Stranger Things

Player Cards

My word, a LOT of upgraded base cards in this set! One for every class, even the neutrals. That new Emergency Cache is a supremely nice upgrade on an already fantastic card. Not only is it more efficient, it can even directly re-arm your key weapons. First Aid is literally doubled in effectiveness. A Chance Encounter goes from getting an ally for just a single turn to buying a whole ally from any player’s discard pile! You do have to pay for it though, but an interesting option for disposable chaps like Stray Cats and Duke.

Shortcut was always a favourite card of mine, now you can attach it to a key location for free moves! That’s amazing for some scenarios, probably less good for more linear areas (like Essex County Express say) but even there, all the players in the party can use it. The new Derringer is a huge step up on its unpredictable predecessor. Not only are we getting that key +1 damage more consistently, you might earn a bonus ACTION on a good draw! Incredible. Scrying, and the unendingly helpful ability to rearrange the encounter deck, now won’t even cost you an action to activate. New versions of old cards don’t tend to get me excited, but this set has a solid mix of them!

Now, new cards! The final new upgrade is Mano a Mano, a neat way of crashing out some test-less damage on a foe, but must be played as the first action which… is a challenging restriction. Naturally most useful against enemies from the encounter deck, especially those annoying 3 wound enemies that waste gun ammo! Waylay is the cunningly thematic, I’ve dodged this enemy, now I’m going to sneak around behind him and smash him over the back of the head, card! Yeah! Play this on a high agility hero against a high wound creature and you are getting a hell of a lot out of it!

Skill cards are always useful, and this set has a whole spread of new ones, all offering flexibility in place of the original neutral skill cards focus. Inspiring Presence is great for users of Beat Cop and Guard Dog, helping keep your allies on their feet. Eureka! offers a very tailored card draw, and hey, that’s always nice for avoiding those damn weakness cards. Rather useful in this campaign! But the real kickass skills here are “Watch This!” and Torrent of Power, both letting you invest hard in them for a big big pay out! Torrent of Power offers up a purpose for all those weaker spells in the mystic decks: as a bank of tokens to power this baby up. I also can’t stop giggling at the idea of playing “Watch this!” with all the resources and falling flat on your face as you draw the red fail token.

Spoiler Discussion

Drawn inexorably onwards, you enter the Catacombs. Frankly, the city streets were bad enough, I don’t know what you’re hoping for coming down here! With luck, you’ll start the game in the appropriately named Gate to Hell. If you managed to interview Haruko all the way back in scenario 2 you get one whole extra location revealed, which to be fair isn’t half bad: there are a lot of locations to dig through here!

The Pallid Mask’s primary trick is in its locations. Quite appropriately for the maze like catacombs, you start with a single location, and some number of random other rooms spread about around you. Advancing to a new room requires spending clues, but that only adds yet more un-searched locations to the map. Out there somewhere (in the bottom third of the specially created location deck) is the room that you seek. It’s a simple system that really makes you feel the search. The resulting map will be different each play by virtue of the random ordering of locations and where each location links out to new positions. Which ties into how you will need to navigate the space to avoid and overcome the creatures in your way.

I really like that the basic fodder enemies in this set are the ghouls, back again from the old Night of the Zealot campaign. This underground maze of the dead is of course their realm! But that’s not all that lurks in the dark, as the spectre of death seems always to be reaching out for you, just over your shoulder…

In a literal sense once the agenda advances. Don’t let him catch you before you’re ready. The slightly crazed attendants to the catacombs help you see what’s ahead, and eliminate far off cards from your search but they might turn into something monstrous before your eyes! We found the challenge of moving in around enemies in the scenario particularly great, especially in the context of this organically growing map. The space is larger, the giant pit encounters create harder to navigate points and there’s nothing quite like running into the blocked passage with the big bad right behind you!

The search will all come to a head at the far end of the catacombs with you coming face to face with the Stranger and another, important choice. Do you fight, or do you try to understand what he is trying to tell you? That decision changes whether you follow the Stranger out of the maze or must fight your way back to the entrance. If is also, inevitably, tied into the doubt and conviction you gain at the end of the scenario.

This marks an unexpected twist in this mechanic. Up until now it has felt as though belief in what you see has been the route of conviction. Going to the police after the performance, burning the monsters at the dinner party. Now though, attempting to understand the stranger, rather than simply killing him leads to doubt. As though conviction has become an absolute focus on your own version of events. To question that is to doubt yourself. Conviction and doubt have become more about your internal conflict than a measure of external reality.

I think this is fascinating. That this game is able to explore stories of such unusual style and with such surprising nuances. That it can tell a compelling story while leaving so much open to interpretation, not just in its flavour text, but actually in its mechanics, is phenomenal. Such a fantastic campaign.

Our copy of The Pallid Mask was provided for review by Asmodee UK. You can pick up a copy for £14.99 RRP from your local hobby store.

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