From the Pelgrane blog:
The limited edition will include:
* A limited edition faux leather bound, gold-embossed copy of Bookhounds of London, signed by Kenneth Hite with a Lovecraftian word added in his fair hand. The full list of 110 words will be published after the books are released.
* A limited edition of Augustus Darcy's Occult Guide (Liber Fumo de Frater Viglio) presented as an in world-artifact, hardbound, cloth covered, numbered, gold embossed with an exclusive dust cover. To the extent we can, we have left no trace of its modern origins. You get the PDF of the Occult Guide now with your order.
* Genuine 1930s ephemera selected from by Steve and Paula Dempsey (contributor and Occult Guide writer respectively), divided as evenly as possible between each limited edition. While some people will do better than others we think no one will be disappointed.
* A unique clue to the death of Augustus Darcy.
* All this presented in Augustus Darcy's olive green haversack, protected by a mystic sigil.
Concerning the books :
Bookhounds of London
Bookhounds of London is a brand new campaign setting for Trail of Cthulhu, packed with period detail, where the Investigators seek out books about horror and strangeness and become, seemingly inevitably, drawn into the horror themselves. It provides in-depth material on London in the 1930s, carefully slanted towards Mythos investigators.
An Ancient City
Bookhounds' London is a city of cinemas, electric lights, global power and the height of fashion. It's about the horrors -- the cancers -- that lurk in the capital, in the very beating heart of human civilization. A Templar altar might well crouch, mostly forgotten, in the dreary Hackney Marshes, but altars to false gods tower over the metaphorical swamps of Fleet Street and Whitehall. And as for lost, prehuman ruins … who's to say what lies under London, if you dig deep enough?
Terrible Choices
The PCs aren't stalwart G-men or tweedy scholars exploring forbidden frontiers. Instead, they acquire maps (and maybe guidebooks) to those forbidden frontiers from fusty libraries and prestigious auction houses. They are Book-Hounds, looking for profit in mouldy vellum and leather bindings, balancing their own books by finding first editions for Satanists and would-be sorcerers. They may not quite know what they traffic in, or they may know rather better than their clientele, but needs must when the bills come in. This volume includes:
* 32 authentic full-colour maps with unique new street index of London in the 1930s, and plans of major buildings.
* A Mythos take on London in the 1930s, packed with contacts, locations and rumours.
* New abilities such as Document Analysis, Auction and Forgery, as well as new occupations and drives.
* Full statistics for a host of new and horrible Mythos creatures to pit against the Bookhounds.
* Whitechapel Black-Letter, a brand new adventure which takes Bookhounds through the bleak East End of London on the trail of a powerful 15th century grimoire.
With Bookhounds, Kenneth Hite creates a rich sandbox full of dusty tomes, crooked dealers and dark alleys, a perfect setting for any Mythos investigation.
A Detailed Guide to London in the 1930s
Bookhounds of London also features a complete, indexed street map of London, recreated and adapted from original sources, packed with over 200 locations essential to Investigators. Whatever system you play, this is an essential resource for Mythos roleplayers. The PDF version is fully cross-referenced.
Occult guide
This work is a primer for players of Lovecraftian roleplaying games set in the dismal streets of 1930s London.
The Guide is replete with contacts, rumours and clues which will guide you on your quest for forbidden knowledge. Written as the companion volume to Bookhounds of London for Trail of Cthulhu, it can be used as a Keeper's resource as well as an in-game artefact for players in any Mythos game.
In 1933 a mysterious secret society commissioned Augustus Darcy to compile a guide to occult London. By the end of that year, Darcy was dead. Within these tales of The Smoke's legendary past are scattered clues to its future. Was a magical war brewing? Were forces from other dimensions breaking through into our own? Who were the mysterious Brotherhood? Who killed Augustus Darcy and why? After eighty years Darcy's book is here for you to make up your own mind. Use it as a guide as you venture into Darcy's world and may your gods be with you in the days ahead.
It is a work of fiction, an autobiography, an occult miscellany and a murder mystery, a book which should not be read, and yet cannot be cast aside. It is all these things and more, but most of all it is a guide for your own journey through the streets of the Big Smoke.
