Times of Daylight Saved

Oh geez, this blog has been left to go fallow for quite a while. I’m giving up on trying to recap all the news of the past two(!) months and will just hit the highlights of what I have been up to in these past few months.

Sentinel Hill Press:

• We had our second annual ‘October-ganza‘ on the Sentinel Hill Press blog, covering topics relating to Call of Cthulhu and/or New England, including New England’s Islands, Boston’s ‘ghoulish’ history, and Native Americans in New England.
• Issue #3 will be ready any day now – I am awaiting my printer proof copy to confirm that the layout is correct, and once that happens, copies will start going out to our Kickstarter backers, and it will become available for purchase on DriveThruRPG and at Chaosium’s online store just after.  The crew at the Cthulhu Breakfast Club flipped through an earlier proof copy recently on their show if you want to see a real life copy… in video.
• We continue to look for submissions for future issues of the Arkham Gazette – likely topics include Kingsport, Dunwich, and ‘Law and Crime’ but we are interested in anything Lovecraft Country related.
• For more about what’s coming next for Sentinel Hill Press, see this blog post.

Delta Green:

• I was very pleased (and frankly flattered) to have a revised version of my Shotgun Scenario “Last Things Last” used as part of the free Quick-start rule set for the new Delta Green RPG, which completed a very successful Kickstarter campaign ($360k+).  I’ve set up a separate page on the blog here to collect all the real play recordings, actual play reports, and Handler advice (and hopefully some commentary from me on the genesis of the scenario) all in one place.  (I also pitched them a couple scenarios, but I’ve not heard back on those yet.)

Blog news:

• I have been adding more information and making corrections to my Bibliography of New England Gravestone Carvers.  I think I’ve caught all the articles from Markers (the Association for Gravestone Study’s journal), up through issue #24 (as well as the first volume of the AGS’s newsletter, up through 1990).

Projects in development:

• I am still (sorry!) revising my scenario “The Smoking Heart” for the Masks of Nyarlathotep Companion kickstarter backers.  Happily it will be released separately from the print copy of the Companion so my delays aren’t holding that project back.  I am sorry for the delays.  I’ve made a few stabs at the thing but keep being dissatisfied with the results and have torn it apart again.  My apologies to the all of the Kickstarter backers.

• I am working on a scenario for a scenario collection.  Slow going, but my deadline is the end of the year, so I keep plugging away, an inch at a time.
• I am also revising an old project, about which I cannot say anything else, at least at this time.

Other News:

• Adam Gauntlett, one of my favorite RPG authors, has launched a Patreon account to fund his creation of more RPG materials.  Let’s see if we can boost that pledge level, shall we?
• Yog-sothoth.com is running its 10th (!) annual Secret Shoggoth Yuletide gift exchange.  Members should definitely sign up.  I’ve done it every year and it is always a lot of fun.

Hopefully I will have more news soon!

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Updatery, March Edition

First off, welcome Spring!  Please clean up after your Ostara sacrifices people – that altar to Yog-Sothoth, hewn from the very basalt of the lost Eiglophian Mountains is a privilege, not a right.  (Well, it’s a rite, but, you get my point.)

Vast and sundry apologies for the sporadic updates to the blog.  I’m still hip-deep in finishing up the next issue of the Arkham Gazette and I’ve done my best to focus on wrapping that up rather than taking care of other things.  If I owe you an email, this is why.  Fortunately being but hip deep means that A) I am no longer neck-deep, and B) I can slowly move about doing other things while I finish it up.

There have been several Lovecraftian RPG releases so far this year.  I’ve been trying to keep up to date with them in my page about new RPG material but I don’t think I’ve mentioned any of them here.  Let’s bullet point these, shall we?

• Chaosium has released the PDF versions of the 7th Edition Investigator’s Handbook and the 7th Ed. Keeper’s Screen; in the case of the latter, I suspect what you get as a PDF isn’t the screen so much as the two scenarios “Blackwater Creek” and “Missed Dues”, both set in Lovecraft Country, as well as some color maps.
• They also released two PDFs – Cthulhu Through the Ages and Alone Against the Flames.
• Sixtystone released Investigator Weapons vol 2: the Modern Era.
• Cubicle 7 have Cthulhu Britannica: London and the campaign The Curse of Nineveh. The later is available currently only to Kickstarter backers but is expected to have a general release soon.
• Innsmouth House Press have just released the limited edition print version (50 copies only!) of The Long Con.  Written by Adam Gauntlett for Trail of Cthulhu’s Bookhounds of London setting, this scenario is a fund raiser for Yog-Sothoth.com.
• There’s also a new issue of Protodimension magazine.

I must confess that, given the research needs of the Gazette (today’s book is Poisons: Their Effects and Detection by Alexander Wynter Blythe (1895) I’ve barely had time to even look at most of the books, save Investigator Weapons v. 2, which is great, and Alone Against the Flames… which was… eh… adequate but underwhelming.  Perhaps I’ll discuss it more at some point?  It was free.

On the podcasting front there have been too many new episodes to summarize, from Ken and Robin, the MU Podcast, RPPR, the Unspeakable Oath (though I covered that one!), the Good Friends of Jackson Elias – hell, even the old Yog Radio gang might be up to something.

I am sure there is more to cover, but that’s all for now.  Was I supposed to mention a Kickstarter?

Speaking with the Unspeakable (Oath Podcast)

I had the distinct pleasure recently to talk with Shane Ivey, Adam Scott Glancy, and Ross Payton

An ashcan copy of the Companion

of the Unspeakable Oath podcast.  We talked about their respective projects (The Unspeakable Oath #25, Horrors of War, Role-playing Public Radio and other projects), my projects (The Arkham Gazette) and, for most of the show Masks of Nyarlathotep and The Masks of Nyarlathotep Companion.  Do give it a listen.

It was a lot of fun to chat with the UO crew and hear about their experiences running Masks.  I hope I remembered to speak slowly and enunciate.  If you haven’t taken a look yet, there are (currently) about 5 days to go in the MoNC Kickstarter.

What is there that cries in the wind and streaming rain?

I am always glad when Fall (and especially the month of October) comes around.  We have some RPG news with witch to start the month:

• The Horrors of War Kickstarter has successfully concluded.  While it fell short of the $32k stretch-goal, they did pretty well all things considered.
• Golden Goblin Press have announced the stretch-goal I was waiting for – Terror on the Borderlands.  The first part is unlocked at $27,500 and includes two scenarios (from Oscar Rios and Chad Bouchard); the second at $30k includes three scenarios by new authors.
• Soldiers of Pen and Ink, Adam Gauntlett’s Spanish Civil War era scenario for Trail of Cthulhu has been released. 72 pages (for about $18) of his usual high-caliber gaming material can now be yours.
• I’ve also set the goal of posting something every day to the Sentinel Hill Press blog in advance of our release of issue #3 of the Arkham Gazette.

So grab a cup of apple cider and enjoy the mellow voiced terror of Vincent Price-

Guns, lots of guns (and more)

Another few items of interest:

• Sixtystone Press has announced that their book Investigator Weapons Vol. 1 is back in print.
• Modiphius have released (to Kickstarter backers only) their next Achtung! Cthulhu book The Guide to the Eastern Front.
• The Miskatonic University Podcast have released a holding episode to tide you over awaiting the release of their GenCon 2014 video episode.  It’s rather unfocused, but if you want to hear Keeper Murph swear like a sailor about Harn, the transit failure that is the Dallas-Fort Worth airport, or a ceaseless wave of rabbit videos, you should check it out.
• I keep forgetting to highlight a few recent posts by Adam Gauntlett – cremated remains from Jonestown (for Nights Black Agents), on using a werewolf in Bookhounds of London, and on the London Underground.
• Finally a few reviews – The Black Goat of New Orleans and The Machine King.

The Oath returns, Simulated Models, and even more Witch-House fun

There’s a new issue of the Unspeakable Oath (#24) and I am fortunate enough to have two (!) articles in it – a revamped version of my shotgun scenario “Holding Cell” and “The Cult of A”.  I’m very happy to see both in the august (or even July! hah!) pages of the Unspeakable Oath, I’m especially happy with “The Cult of A”as it is one of the few pieces I’ve ever written that genuinely unnerved me.  I hope you enjoy them both (and the whole issue; currently available as a PDF, with a print version to follow).

Ken and Robin talked about the Flat Earth Society, female heroes and trend of ‘Batmanization’, simulation vs. modeling, and Subhas Chandra Bose (who curiously enough did not develop a stereo system).  While I usually enjoy KaRTaS, I must confess that Robin’s insistence that we replace “simulation” with “modeling” in referring to that goal of gaming seems to arise out of a sort of straw man argument which claims some inherent superiority of “simulationist” gaming as it is rooted in the real world.  Frankly I don’t know anyone in RPGs who imagines their game system is a perfect mirror of reality, bullet impact ratios, blood points, or 90 page combat tables be damned.

The Good Friends of Jackson Elias have wrapped up their discussion of “Dreams in the Witch-House” in which they cover the various adaptations of the story over the years (from Bad to Rock Opera) as well as using the story in gaming and inspiring your own material.  They may have overlooked the otherwise obscure d20 Cthulhu scenario “Jenkins Lives!” but I recommend it.

There has also been another positive review of GGP’s Tales of the Crescent City.

Adam Gauntlett has posted a teaser for his contribution to the upcoming Trail of Cthulhu release Mythos Expeditions.  Count me as interested.

I forgot to say so earlier, but Protodimension Magazine is looking for submissions.  (I’m still looking for submissions to the Arkham Gazette as well.)

(On a personal note – We’ve hit 200 posts!)

 

The Shoggoth is Unleashed! (and less monstrous news)

(Please excuse the perfunctory version of this I posted last night.)

Let’s gather up the news, shall we?

• In podcasts, the Good Friends of Jackson Elias talk about “The Dreams of the Witch House“; Ken and Robin talked about Uzbek occultist pop stars, mapping sunken Dunwich, and the business of gaming; and the Miskatonic University Podcast discussed dealing with Total Party Kills and retro Cthulhu action figures (among other things).
• Some gaming material previews: Tales of the Crescent City will go to press soon, here’s the cover and a description of Adam Gauntlett’s forthcoming Spanish Civil War scenario for Trail of Cthulhu (which sadly won’t be called ¡Viva la Muerte!), and Badger Macinnes, who is doing the layout work on the 7th Edition of Call of Cthulhu, has posted a preview of his work.
• Speaking of Badger, he has officially launched the Kickstarter for his new card game Feed the Shoggoth.  I had the pleasure of playtesting it NecronomiCon in 2013 and it was a blast.  Definitely check it out.

“That old lie…”†

(to die pointlessly in a pile of French or Belgian mud, Turkish sand, Iraqi muck, or what have you)

Prolific (and skilled) Trail of Cthulhu author Adam Gauntlett has had a trio of his World War One scenarios bundled up and released in print – Dulce et Decorum Est collects “Vaterland”, “Dead Horse Corner” and “Sisters of Sorrow” (only the last previously released as a PDF). As with all of his work, I highly recommend it. To date in 2014 Adam has had a hand in creating 3 of the 8 releases I’ve listed on my “New Releases” page. Well done!

Oddly I’ve had the outline of a scenario called “Pro Patria Mori” floating around for over a decade now, though set after the war, since my remit has mostly been the 1920s. Perhaps I should dust that off…

† If you’re unfamiliar with where the collection’s title (or my post’s title) originate, A) call your former schools and complain and B) look here.

A New Jerusalem (for C:DA)

Looking for a Cthulhu Dark Ages scenario? How about one by Adam Gauntlett… for free?

Blog recommendations

I’m still working on a draft of my next installment of “Memories of the Orient Express”, but in the mean time I thought I might suggest two other blogs to check out whilst I’m otherwise engaged.

Top of my list is Adam Gauntlett’s Ephemera.  Adam’s written for Call of Cthulhu (“Spare the Rod” and “See No Evil“) as well as for Trail of Cthulhu (“Not So Quiet“, “Flying Coffins“) but he is perhaps best known for his book reviews that appeared on the late lamented Yog Radio, “The Bookshelf“.  He’s well-read and offers a lot of great ideas, especially for for Trail of Cthulhu and Bookhounds of London.

I’ve talked about Dean Englehart’s Cthulhu Reborn (and especially his interview series “State of the Tentacle” interviews).  He is also put together loads of great free scenarios and an awesome program to create your own newspaper handouts.  His most recent post described his process in crafting newspaper articles and is a must read for those looking to make their own.

Enjoy.