Mysteries of Montreal

I just had to go through a very uncomfortable and unpleasant experience. That of uninviting a player from my group. This is an experience I wish on no-one, and mostly because I have experienced in from the other side of the table. Of course I write this from my point of view, but I can imagine how the other party feels. We are social animals, and social exclusion is a very serious weapon if used the wrong way, and not something I would ever, ever do lightly. I did turn to the web for advice on how best to manage this, and there is not much to be found, but I did find this blog entry on the subject . Though there really is no formula to use for this kind of thing, as each individual case is different. Have any of you had experience of this from either side of the GM screen? If so, I'd love to hear about it.

I don't post after game reports on my ongoing Horror on the Orient Express game, but since my player posted these all over his social media last night, I though it appropriate to share. He was so proud. The party took on the Anatolian Dragon, in the underground water system of Constantinople during the 4th Crusade, thereby saving the Frankish invaders from the beast, summoned to save the Greek populace. Slaying a dragon in any RPG is a big deal. To do so in Call of Cthulhu requires extra kudos, don't you think?

Who? That was my question, up until quite recently, but I have been schoolong myself in Pontine lore. Pontine, what a great word! Though I must admit, I keep reading it as Poutine. I have my collections of Mythos Tomes, by various authors (which is by no means complete), and of course my Sherlockian works, but I quite recently discovered the series of tales that could in some ways be seen as the original point of contact of these two universes, the Solar Pons stories. Solar Pons was a character created by Lovecraft's friend, correspondant, and later publisher through his company Arkham House, August Derleth . Derleth of course wrote his own, much maligned, mythos tales, but let's not go down that rabbit hole here. Derleth also wanted to write Holmes tales. Indeed he contacted Doyle, to ask if he could take oer the series aftr Doyle had finished with Holmes, but Doyle declined (no doubt Derleth was not the only young author to contact Doyle about this, so I'm not p...

Just backed another Kickstarte r. " Children will always be afraid of the dark ." - H.P. Lovecraft Do you remember what it was like to be a kid?  When in every shadow there might lurk a monster?  When a nightmare might be escaped from by diving under your blankets?  When the morning light brought escape from all your fears... for a little while? In The Dare , players take the role of a group of average kids who are forced by their neighborhood bully to spend the night in the dreadful (and haunted!) Barnaker house.  This being Call of Cthulhu, there are actually things in the house far more dangerous than even the most terrified child might imagine.  The kids must then work together to explore the nightmarish old Barnaker house and investigate its mysteries if they hope to survive until the morning. This has a few things going for it that made it a no brainer. A one shot adventure, written by Kevin Ross, based in the 1980s (so getting in on that retro ...

Please excuse the delay between the rest of the NecronomiCon posts and this one. There is no good reason for it other than life getting in the way. These were taken whilst wandering round the town on various days, either as part of the bus tour, or just walking. Unfortunately I did not make it onto the walking tour. Maybe next time. The image above is a view of the two main hotels of the Con. On the Right, the Omni, where Kris and I were staying, and on the left, the Biltmore, where the bulk of the literature talks were, as well as the gaming room on the 18th floor. The Biltmore is supposedly haunted, by quite a number of ghosts, but we didn't run into any. Inside the Biltmore, are some ver old elevators, including one in the central lobby with the sign opposite attached. Yes that's right, it is an unused glass elevator, to be used for time travel only. No I don't know what they mean (please excuse the fuzzy picure). The bus tour I took, went around some of the mor...

I have mentioned the work of this artist before, and backed her first Kickstarter, the results of which I'm using at the table right now in my HotOE game. As as her 3rd Kickstarter is nearing a successful close, I thought I would post to tell you all of the latest work by Delphes Desoivres on the  The Props of Nyarlathotep, New York and Kenya Kickstarter. I'm not in a position to drop too much money on this one, but I thought the tattoos were a wonderful idea, and I might yet go in for the Scar of the Bloody Tongue latex prosthetic. I love the Mask of Hyama she has designed here, this version of the artefact is unique, and the idea of making a latex version that fits to the players head when they inevitably try to wear the mask is inspired. There are 4 days left on the clock on this one, so still plenty of time to get in on it!

We made it to the end. A post a day. What an achievement. Want to know a secret? I wrote most of these posts in the first few days of the month, then scheduled them all to post one a day as I knew I would never be able to keep up the momentum (except for the 19th, where I was in Providence). Is that cheating? I don't care! Anyway, on with the last question of this year's RPG a Day challenge: Question 31: What do you anticipate most for gaming in 2018? Playing. That's all I can really ask for in the next year is to continue gaming with friends. All the rest is just icing on the cake.