Tag Archives: Yog-sothoth.com

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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May gaming news, podcast updates, and the Double Shadow of Clark Ashton Smith

Let’s dig in…

Cubicle 7 have released a cover image preview of their next book in the World War Cthulhu series – the SOE Handbook (that’s it to the right)- and received the first advanced copies of their London Box Set (of which I had a very small part in creating).  Oooohhh pretty…

Golden Goblin Press have previewed the scenario titles for their forthcoming CoC scenario collection Tales of the Caribbean.  Their Kickstarter is planned to launch September 9th.

Yog-Sothoth.com’s Kickstater for the Cthulhu Breakfast Club podcast is at 81% with just over two weeks to go.  Tick tock people.

We’ve had a few new Lovecraftian podcast episodes and related projects:

Finally I wanted to note that recently I’ve been enjoying The Double Shadow: A Clark Ashton Smith podcast.  I’d not read much (any perhaps?) of Clark Ashton Smith’s fiction, Mythos-related or otherwise, and I’ve found the show to be a great introduction to CAS and his stories.  My only regret is that real-world concerns have of late greatly slowed down their release schedule.  Come for three hosts’ jovial banter, stay for them struggling to pronounce CAS’ alphabet-salad like names and absurd adjectives.  Avoosl Woothoqquan?  Quinquangular?  I’m sold!

Guns, lots of guns (and other news)

Time continues to race by, as it always seems to when I have a project overdue!

First off, I’m still working on issue #3 of the Arkham Gazette. Hopefully our next issue won’t take nearly as long! It will definitely be shorter. Our goal is to have a draft of the issue, sans scenario, available for our backers before the end of the month, with the issue itself getting a regular release soon after. I’m more likely to update the Kickstarter (and our G+ group) before I post something here, if you’re awaiting it with bated breath.

Text by Hans-Christian Vortisch, cover by Chris Huth

Sixtystone Press just announced that their Print on Demand version of their excellent Investigator Weapons vol 2: Modern Day is now available. Buy it now for an excellent discount!

We’ve had, oddly enough, lots of podcasts in the month since my last update:

(and very incongruously for the above gun and podcast talk, I am currently listening to this: https://youtu.be/Rgb8am3NQU0 . Such is life.)

Breakfast with Cthulhu, other podcast news, and another hard farewell

Much of the old Yog Radio gang (from several iterations) have joined together for a new (hopefully!) podcast series: The Cthulhu Breakfast Club.  Paul of Cthulhu is joined by Val and Finn (of the YSDC actual play group), Chris Lackey (of News from Pnakotus and the HP Lovecraft Literary Podcast), and Marty Jopson.  They talk about topics including YSDC’s new Trail of Cthulhu scenario “The Long Con”, Alone Against the Flames, Terry Pratchett, and more.  There’s also a Patreon account set up to fund their scones (and bandwidth) – Patreon backers and YSDC patrons get access to additional material.  Clotted cream is not free, my friends.

There have also been new episodes the usual Lovecraftian podcasts:

  • The Good Friends of Jackson Elias talked about Robert Aickman and especially his short story “The Hospice”.
  • Ken and Robin continue to talk about stuff, this time covering what scared them as kids (for Ken it was the folktale “The King of Cats” ), Toronto’s (less than) mysterious tunnel, and the Irminsul, the Saxon’s magic coin-filled-log.
  • The Miskatonic University Podcast (with Keepers Dan and Jon) talked about Sand Dwellers and 7th Ed. combat rules.

Finally, there’s a gravestone in Sterling, Massachusett’s Chocksett Cemetery for one Nathan Burpe, the epitaph of which says:

In Memory of Mr. Nathan Burpe, Died Sept 30, 1756 in Ye 25th Year of his Age.
“This man, wife and child in 14 days did die
His House left desolate – Being Ye whole family.”

Next to his gravestone are one for his wife Azubah and his infant son Elijah.  That phrase – “his house left desolate” – has always stuck with me and I’ve though of it more this week.  As previously noted, we lost our cat Aurora over the weekend.  Yesterday she was joined by one of our other cats, Charcoal.  He was a rescued stray, recovered as a kitten from a cat colony.  Unlike his other siblings, he never acclimated to human company and spent much of his life hiding under or behind things (and I’m having trouble finding a good picture of him rather than his tail), but I’d like to imagine we offered him a somewhat more pleasant and safer home than he would have had otherwise.  He had been ailing for a while, but his death so soon after Aurora’s unexpected passing (and compounded by other losses of late) has left our house feeling more than a bit desolate.  Goodbye Charcoal.

Camping is a thing in the summer, right?

S’mores!

Gather ’round children, and let us tell a tale of gaming news…

Chaosium’s website revamp has finally been completed (though there appear to be a few hiccups). They’ve got a new BRP sourcebook for using varieties of Western magic in a game.

The Miskatonic University Podcast crew have put out a new episode (sans Keeper Murph, no doubt out harvesting wild mushrooms or building a brass war-golem, the usual stuff) providing their usual news roundup, Gef the talking mongoose, rat-things (including a source of inspiration I proposed), and the hosts discuss what draws them to the Cthulhu Mythos.

Feed the Shoggoth met its initial funding goal. Woot.

Golden Goblin Press’ Tales of the Crescent City backer release got a very favorable review from DieHard GameFan. They also had a preview for one of the stretch-goals for their next Kickstarter De Horrore Cosmico – Terror on the Borderlands, a series of four loosely connected scenarios set in the Near East.

Yog-Sothoth.com is having a fundraiser to cover travel expenses and to supply new material for good old Yoggi.e

I’ve added entries for the Arkham Gazette to rpggeek.com; give it a look and rate the magazine if you’re a member.

Herber’s Notes, Kults, and Shoggoths

Some sample “Feed the Shoggoth” cards

A few items from the grab bag today:

  • Paul of Cthulhu is selling off some of his CoC manuscript collection to raise money to cover server costs – Trail of Tsathoggua and Goatswood and Less Pleasant Places are both on the block.  I wish I had the spare change to grab the former.
  • Speaking of manuscripts – Paul has also made available to Community Patrons at YSDC a glimpse of the various developmental material Keith gave him, including notes for Arkham Unveiled, Return to Dunwich, and several scenarios.  Really a delight to see it all.
  • The Good Friends of Jackson Elias have released another episode, the second in their series about their favorite non-CoC horror games; this time they talk about Kult.  Fun fact, I played Kult once and only after figured out it was based on Gnosticism.  I thought it was just mopey because it was Swedish.
  • Finally, the Kickstarter for Badger McInnes’ “Feed the Shoggoth” card game is getting closer.  Check out some preview material here on the Facebook page.

A return to abnormalcy

The downside of a just-for-kicks blog is that when those times arise when you are kick deprived or even kick deficient, you have to let things slide a while. I’m hoping no one was too badly put out that my updates have been quasi-monthly of late.

Autoduel!!!In a nutshell – the whole of the the Tomes in Progress crew (i.e. me, the homunculus, and the mother of the homunculus) have moved westward, in a manner not wholly unlike the narrator of “The Shadow Over Innsmouth” (i.e. from New England to the Midwest, though thankfully no ichthyoid transformations have occurred). This took a couple of months to arrange, enact, and recover from. Leaving behind friends and family, as well as a home you’ve lived in for close to a decade is trying. It is only now that we have that wonderful conjunction of technology and time which allows me to, hopefully, restart blogging on a more regular basis. I fear though that the black squirrels that control my lawn are not my friends…

A bit of my gaming work has suffered, as is to be expected with a low (or no) pay sideline. My scenario for the forthcoming London Boxed Set had to be dropped. While I’m happy I got to make a small submission to that really excellent looking project, I wish I’d been able to wrap that up. I want to offer my thanks to Cubicle 7 and the magnanimous Stuart Boon in particular for being more than understanding. It may see the light of day somewhere, someday. Keep your fingers crossed.

The Arkham Gazette has been slowed but not stopped. The nice thing about working on a magazine is that there are lots of little projects that can be done, even in very short bursts. I’ve posted about the next issue’s status and sincerely hope to finish it up before the month is out. We’re still taking submissions for future issues, of course, with issue 3 most likely going to be focused on witches and witchcraft in Lovecraft Country.  I may talk the Miskatonic University Podcast crew into interviewing me about the next issue as well.  (By the way – their new ;yearbook’ Cephalophobia is beautiful.)

As for near term gaming news, aside from the Arkham Gazette I’ve got a couple pieces submitted to the Unspeakable Oath so I hope to have something in the next issue, which is supposed to be released shortly. A recent Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff episode spurred me to start yet another piece for the Oath as well. I hope to have news about the Masks of Nyarlathotep Companion print release soon as well. Watch this space… and Yog-Sothoth.com, since they get several order of magnitude more readers than I. There are one or two other long-dormant projects that have begun to quicken recently as well, though I cannot say more… yet.

I think the list of new Lovecraftian RPG products is up to date, at least it will be once I sort out the PDF dump the Modiphius crew put out recently. If I’ve missed something, let me know.

Speaking of which, if I owe you an email or a call, bear with me a little while longer or feel free to remind me to do so. Hopefully the stars will remain rights for a while.

Podcast mania

I’ve been busy with a variety of matters, from working on the Arkham Gazette, to finishing up some other gaming writing, and (most often) familial business.  Most recently the homunculus has been down with a bug (of the microscopic variety; no Shans thankfully).  And so, ToP has been on a bit of hiatus, especially as I’d like to wrap up my comments about NecronomiCon and have been putting off posting until I get that done.  Anyone who can institute a 25 hour day is welcome to try.

Since I don’t want to have to post a gargantuan catch-up post, I thought I might break down the various news items since my last post by topic.  Today, let’s look at podcasts…

The gang at the Miskatonic University Podcast have released two episodes-

#38: Con-Madness (a recap of their experience at GenCon and NecronomiCon, including some overgenerous praise of my historical research)

#39: San(ity) Restoring Sea-Voyages (focusing on ‘down-time’ in longer campaigns)

YSDC’s Silver Lodge release a public show all about NecronomiCon as well.

The gleefully British trio the Good Friends of Jackson Elias have been busy as well, with new episodes about GenCon, the Mythos as Corruption, and Insanity.

I also have been listening to Ken and Robin Talk about Stuff and found episode #56 (“Oh, My Pancreas”) and its discussion of keeping up a regular writing schedule to be of particular use.

Farewell to Miskatonic River Press

Farewell MRP 😦

It has been announced via an interview on Yog-Sothoth.com that Miskatonic River Press is going to shutter (possibly forever) as a publisher once they wrap up some of their current projects.  As someone who has written for MRP and worked with Tom Lynch (who will focus on his teaching career) I wanted to post my best wishes to Tom and express my sadness at the passing of this CoC licensee.  Tom cites lack of time, ever-growing cost of shipping (especially international), and poor sales (in large part due to shipping costs).  If you haven’t picked up Tales of the Sleepless City (or any other of MRP’s books) I recommend doing so now.  I do not know what the fate of Forgotten Corners of Lovecraft Country Vol. 1 (aka the Aylesbury Book), a book to which I have contributed, will be unfortunately.

I hope that the Arkham Gazette, which I hope to have the first issue of done soon, will carry on a small part of the MRP legacy.

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?