At least eight of you weirdos will love Johnson Squared
Poirot untangles a ghoulish gene editing conspiracy through the aesthetic lens of Corporate Memphis.
The well of human creativity is vast and inexhaustible. God I love this hobby.
Taking a cue from Deathmatch Island’s unsettling riff on Swiss style layout, Johnson2 tries to one up Tim Denee at his own game - to a mixed but undeniably impressive success. This layout style’s aggressive use of negative space has fewer opportunity costs to an Evil Hat production - they’re already quite comfortable pumping out 200pg glossy hardcovers. The Mothership space is much more accustomed to extolling the virtues of low page counts and at-the-table reference simplicity.
Johnson2 makes the bold choice to compromise on both fronts to amplify its tone. It’s one of the longest mothership modules I’ve ever read - in the same ballpark as Time After Time and What We Give to Alien Gods. Unlike those works, what you’re receiving here amounts of a detailed mystery one shot on a planet of deadpan corporate dick jokes.1
Do not let my gatcha puritanism fool you - I have no qualm with dick jokes. Dicks are weird and deserving of mockery. But I’m very unaccustomed to modules with production quality this high that lack the agonizing sincerity endemic to the scene. UVG, Troika, Silent Titans - these are all works of obsession. They desperately hope to evoke powerful feelings in the reader.
Johnson2 has no such ambitions. Thirteen different characters are all named Richard Johnson (hardy har har). It’s not puerile in aesthetic, but it is puerile at its core. The module feels like exactly what it is - a google doc written in two days by a trio of immensely talented goobers, one of whom loves his publishing job. It’s a good itch.io premise that stumbled into $20,000. That sounds like an insult, but I really do mean it as a compliment. In a perfect world, all friend group bullshit would be equally well funded.
And my goodness did they spend that money well. The lay-flat sewn binding on display here is truly one of a kind.2 I had no idea what ‘grammage’ meant twenty minutes ago, but printing-people jargon aside I can attest that this some of the best feeling paper I’ve ever had the pleasure to finger. This module belongs in the ‘live matte’ hall of fame. I can imagine dozens of book perverts buying it for that reason alone.
For good and for ill Johnson2 feels like a beautiful artifact that happens to be a Mothership adventure, instead of a book-portal to a compelling fictional space. The actual content here is surprisingly crunchy by Mosh standards. Lots of items with extremely specific effects - drunkenness as disadvantage on three stats and advantage on two others for 1d5 turns, and two dozen makeshift combat tools presented in organized tables. Fifteen minute “station turns” are tracked on a player facing sixteen hour time tracking sheet that acts as the module’s ticking clock. A Warden-facing equivalent tracks the perpetrator’s activities hour-by-hour.
There is horror under all the bookkeeping, but it’s subdued. The twists amuse more than they shock or surprise. More focus was directed at filling the scenario with compelling red herrings - Johnsons with only a portion of the Means, Motive, Opportunity trifecta. The puzzle is very well constructed; each location holds enough clues to ensure narrative momentum. It’s a players’ delight.
I do wish Kyle’s art would have leaned harder into the body horror the module describes. Deathmatch Island created dread by using its layout to imply an unreliable narrator. This text’s voice is mostly omniscient, so there’s no equivalent dread oozing off every page. A weirder take on the Memphis art could have picked up that slack. Instead, the art below is about as weird as it gets - more funny than creepy.
I suspect I might be the wrong audience for this, which is why I’m so willing to love it anyway. The rise of Columbo posting a few years ago mostly just confused me, but I saw plenty of others whose love of investigative procedurals seemed genuine. If you loved that cultural moment, I bet you’ll love this too. High effort freak shit is always welcome to my seal of approval.
While Johnson2 stirred no gooshiness within me, I am happy to, like the apostle Peter before me, spread the good news of this book to my people.
$28.00 physical from Peregrine Coast Press. Don’t buy this digitally - the feel is the appeal.
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To his credit, Eryk fully anticipated this complaint (see the bottom of pg10) and went forward with the style anyway - a confidence I admire. I feel parried, and wish to buy this man a Paczki.↩
And this binding was the backup plan!↩