Antecedant of the rodentine horror

What ho, chaps and, err… chapettes!  I want to get a jump on that prognosticating marmota monax, so let’s get to it…

First off, I’ve launched a Patreon page for myself to help fund my work for Sentinel Hill Press, in particular my research and perhaps eventually better equipment for our podcast.  We have 7 backers so far and are just a dollar or two away from our second funding goal – $25 dollars (aka “not as cheap books!”).  Backers will get updates about my various research projects that they helped fund and and some behind the scenes discussions of my work at Sentinel Hill Press and, at higher levels, periodic previews of our works in progress.  I’ve posted a quick overview of my research collection, as it stands, so that you can see what sorts of books I’ve collected so far (and check out my Amazon wish-list for possible future purchases), if you are curious.

Meanwhile, while I have neglected my “Year in Lovecraftian Gaming” duties, Dean Engelhardt has stepped up on Yog-Sothoth.com and highlighted how 2015 was a very good year, numbers-wise.

Some new books:

• As Above, So Below (a 128 page sourcebook for their Laundry Files RPG, covering the Laundry’s military operations as well as the political machinations that guide that super-secret group).
• Achtung! Cthulhu: Elder Godlike (a mashup of Modiphius’ Achtung! Cthulhu and Arc Dream’s Godlike, letting you mix your Pulp Lovecraftian and WWII super-hero style gaming to your heart’s content.)
• (I realize I’ve missed releases for both the Laundry and A!C since neither are systems I play nor do they cover eras of which I am particularly interested.  Nevertheless, I am sorry for missing these lines in the past and hope to at least note their releases in the future.)

Odds and ends:

• If you do not follow the Sentinel Hill Press blog or our attendant G+ group, I’ve recently gathered up the more interesting links from the later (those of recent vintage at least) as well as an omnibus post on the SHP blog covering our short series highlighting odd animal tales from New England.  There were two ghost animals (or maybe just one?), a wooden fish, some odd tracks, a rabies outbreak, and a prescient cat.  The story of the Sacred Cod contains an annecdote of particular interest to detail-oriented Lovecraft Country Keepers. 🙂
• Masks of Nyarlathotep Companion contributor (no, I don’t know when it will be released, sorry!) Hal Eccles has just launched a Kickstarter for his game “Mythos Tales”, a Lovecraftian take on the old Sherlock Holmes, Consulting Detective game.  The original free version were produced in a most lovely form by Dean Engelhardt – #1 (A Grain of Evil) and #2 (The King Cometh) – if you’d like a preview.
• If you simply must have something Masks Companion related, you could back Stephanie McAlea’s Patreon; her backers get access to specially prepared color versions of the maps she produced for the book.
• Here’s a collection of all the commercially produced Keeper’s screens for Call of Cthulhu (text in Spanish).  So many screens!
• Chris Lackey (of the H.P. Lovecraft Literary Podcast among other places) was one of the makers of this amusing (but perhaps less-than-reverent) take on “The Statement of Randolph Carter”:

New podcasts of note:

• The Cthulhu Breakfast club “jumped the sharktopus” with episode #11, weighing in on the question of Peak Cthulhu, the merits of limited run gaming products, how to pronounce “bourbon“, and the guest’s favorite horror authors; Paul of Cthluhu also shows off his deluxe Keeper’s screen and miniature Sedefkar Simulacrum.
• The Good Friends of Jackson Elias concluded their discussion of “The Colour Out of Space”, looking at the assorted film versions of the story, and stories and films that bear a hint of the “Colour’s” influence.  The show includes a short interview with director Huan Vu, whose “Die Farbe” is probably the truest film adaptation of the story to date.
• Ken and Robin talked of… their visit to see John Dee’s books at the Royal College of Physicians… the relative merits of The Force Awakens… pad thai… and Chicago’s bloody newspaper Circulation Wars (1910-1919) – among many other things.
• The Miskatonic University podcast released episodes #93 (“Elbow Deep in Chicken“) and #94 (Conspiracy Theories).
• The Double Shadow returns (just in time for Puxatawny Phil, we dare say?) with “The Isle of the Torturers“, a tale as absurd as it was lurid.  Read it first here if you dare; my anti-virus software keeps flagging that site due to, apparently, expired certificates, but caveat linktor.  As an aside, I wonder how many of CA Smith’s stories’ titles could double as the name of an old AD&D module?  Perhaps something from Judge’s Guild?

That is all for now, hopefully.