Monthly Archives: October 2012

Happy Halloween

All Saints Eve, as read by Vincent Price

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Halloween minus seven days

It’s been a busy month here in WinstonP-land, with family trips, pressing assignments, and an exciting bout of illness keeping me occupied.  To put it another way, it wasn’t until today when I found time to get the Halloween decorations out of the attic… three weeks after my usual unpack the decorations date.

First off, I’ve finished the Hapden County graveyard map.  See it here.

Next, my friends at the Unspeakable Oath have updated their submission guidelines.  On the plus side, the rate for the short fiction “Message in a Bottle” section has been upped to $100.   On the down side, regular pieces like “Mysterious Manuscripts” and “Arcane Artifacts” have been switched from a by the word rate of 4 cents to a flat $20.  Incentive to keep them short I suppose… (and for reference, I was paid around $30ish for my previous submissions)  At least the longer articles remain at 4 cents a word.  I’m still working on a piece for a future issue, pending acceptance (and completion, of course.)  If they don’t have a new episode of their podcast soon though, I might unleash Hecubus upon them again.

Finally, I have updated the 2012 Lovecraftian RPG list to include the latest PDF release from the gang at Pelgrane – Sister of Sorrow; yet another WWI scenario from the fertile mind of Adam Gauntlett… this time, featuring submarines!

That’s it for now… hopefully I will have more news on the Companion… and other projects… soon.  (Oh, and I’ve passed the 4000th page hit.  Thank you Russian Spam millionaires!)

Novos Akros: an indirect tribute to Tom Moldvay

A couple of years back, whilst browsing the stacks at my local hobby shop (such things still exist), I spotted two copies of Omegakron, a module for Lords of Creation.  After nabbing one for myself, I elected to pick up the other for my friends Juniper and Dave.  They own Square Records in Akron, Ohio, the area’s premiere purveyor of vinyl, used CDs, and cool ephemera.  I figured, though they were not gamers, since they lived in Akron they might find it amusing and could add it to their collection of weird decorations that adorn their shop.

Apparently they did find it amusing, or at least inspirational… apparently this spring they released an in-store exclusive Novos Akros a faux soundtrack to a (made up) movie based on the module.  (See here for its “backstory”.)  Living under  a rock, I remained unaware of the release until last week when they sent me a link to the soundtrack.  While I’m not a huge electronica fan, I’m pretty thrilled to discover that my weird gift inspired people to make art.  I don’t know of any RPG material, save for some of Alex Otterlei‘s work for CoC, that has inspired music.  Here’s to Akron, Ohio (with or without atomic monsters) and Tom Moldvay’s love of it.

Omnibus catch-up

I’ve had a myriad of items to report here to my corner of Blogsylvania.  Life has kept me away, but I have declared “No More!”  Of course, I started this post when it was still September, so you might infer from that how well I can slap life around.  Let’s get cracking!

  • Paul Maclean of Yog-Sothoth.com was extraordinarily generous and sent me a copy of The Express Diaries as a thanks for my ‘work’ as a moderator at the site.  What a splendid book!  Now if I only could stay awake for more than 10 minutes after laying down for the evening…  Speaking of slow reading pace-
  • I’ve been very slowly working my way through Bumps in the Night and am generally enjoying it.  My favorite scenario so far the the Westerfield Incident but I’m only about 1/2 way through the book and two scenarios and change are yet to come.  John Crowe 3 definitely has a style of scenario, which I generally like.  Now if he might only be convinced to allow his work to be sold as a PDF…
  • Various Kickstarter projects continue to progress.  Chaosium managed to raise in excess of $200,000 for their revamp of Horror on the Orient Express.  Updates for both Cristoforo and Sense of the Sleight of Hand Man suggest those two projects are moving forward satisfactorily as well.  Excelsior!
  • My friends at Miskatonic River Press have started taking pre-orders for Tales of the Sleepless City, their newest scenario collection.  Check it out.
  • I’ve slowly been adding to my Massachusetts graveyard maps.  In addition to Worcester County and Middlesex County which I’d finished previously, I’ve completed Norfolk County and am making progress on Hampden.
  • I’ve been compiling a list of all the CoC scenarios set in New England.  When I have it something closer to done I’ll share it
  • Speaking of, I’ve got some gaming news, all of it forcibly ambiguous… a cult for Delta Green… an old work in translation… a new [redacted]… fun stuff.
  • Finally, yay October!  What candy do I buy for… the kids?