Mysteries of Montreal

This is the first in a series of articles on sourcebooks for Montreal. Not always for Call of Cthulhu (as there for now only exists one, Horror's Heart), but for any and all games systems. To which end, there is a new release of a sourcebook for Shadowrun, titled Montreal 2074 . I has been a long time since I played Shadowrun, and that was the old edition. It does hold some fond memories, but I always did find it a little too much of a dungeon bash rather than a real futuristic adventure game. From the description supplied by DriveThruRPG: Great White Shadows Bikers and go-gangs roam the streets of Montreal in 2074. Organized crime outfits struggle for territory. And neo-anarchists add spice and danger to the streets. All this would seem to be nothing more than lawless chaos except for one thing—money. Cheap real estate and savvy moves by the megacorporations have brought some cash into town, and a new city is being built on the remains of the old. And as every runner...

A christmas night out, 1912 Montreal. The Gazette , 14 December 1912 ( Source )

Hagia Sophia in the 1920s As part of the Horror on the Orient Express Kickstarter, I recieved the following update this morning, which I copy in full, due to the link to a new blog which is included: Greetings and Happy Holidays! As part of the research for the reprint of Horror on the Orient Express Chaosium's Nick Nacario and Meghan Mclean will be taking a research trip to Istanbul, Turkey. There we will look up photos and ephemera from the good ole' days of the Simplon Orient Express. We want this reprint to be as authentic as possible, especially when it comes to the handouts, in order to make your gaming experience as realistic and incredible as possible. Join us on our journey, and follow our progress on the Chaosium in Turkey blog . Here we will upload photos and post about our discoveries.

Like selling drugs at the schoolyard gate, DriveThru RPG is offering as it's weekly freebie, FirstFable . Not only that, but all the current character packs are available in this Bundle , which is also free for download. This is part of what is aparently 'Teach your Kid to Game Week'. As addictions go, this is one that I will not be too displeased for the sproglets to get hooked on. The characters currently available are Pirate, Knight and Fairy Princess. I'm not sure how I feel about the fairy Princess as a character (although I know it will appeal to LP), but I haven't read the rules,and of course there's nothing to stop the girls picking the Pirate or Knight, that's just how RPGs work. Another set of rules out there for kids is Hero Kids . This one is not free for download (but the colouring book is). Apparently, the main difference between the two is that FirstFable requires a lengthy character creation process (although I assume lengthy here is r...

Okay, not quite today, but a couple of days ago, but hell, after a hundred years, what's a day or two? On the 18th of November, 1912,  the 'Établissement de detention de Montréal' (Montreal detention centre) opened its doors for the first time, (before firmly closing and locking them again one assumes) for 100 prisoners. Within 6 months, it held 150. The prison is frequently refered to as  Bordeaux prison , and as such it even warrants a mention in the Urban Dictionary . It was then, as it is now, the largest provincial prison in Quebec, it was built to hold 500 prisoners, and now her a capacity of 1,189 inmates (now all male). In 1915, there was a tramway built to connect it to town (as it was originally built to be out of town, although it has now been enveloped by the city). Prison construction in 1910 As a then very modern prison, there was some outrage amongst the general population that prisoners should be treated to such 'outrag...

...an island in the South Pacific is found, then disappears! http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-20442487 Sandy Island, near New Caledonia, has been shown on Google maps, but scientists looking for it find water depths of 1400m. Maybe they should have looked before the recent spate of earthquakes we had here!

The first "horseless-carriage" to be driven in the streets of Montreal was a Waltham Steam . It was driven by Mr Ucal-Henri Dandurand, on the 21st of November, 1899. His passenger was the then Major of Montreal, Raymond Préfontaine . The car was bought from Massachusetts in the United States for $600, and ran on 6 water reservoirs, with a range of a whopping 24 miles before having to be refilled. It could reach a high speed of 40 mph, but had to be stopped when there was a horse-drawn carriage in view, so as not to scare the horses. By 1903, Mr Dandurand had a total of 4 automobiles, but not everyone approved of such noisy vehicles, and he was often stopped for disrupting the peace.  Mr Ucal-Henri Dandurand and his wife in his first car. ( source ) Mr Dandurand outside his house, with car and chauffeur (1915) ( source ) Links CBC Radio Link (in french). M. Ucal-Henri Dandurand (in french). Maison Durand (in french). Edit 25-11-2014 MTLblog h...

It's been a while since i last tried to PBM/PBP. I've been been both a player in games that are new starts (Angel) and continuation of long running tabletop games (Deadlands). I've also tried running by PBP (Call of Cthulhu). In all permutations, I have never seen a game run to completion. So, I was unsure when I read over on Craig's blog 'The Watch House' that he was running a Primeval PBP, I was both tempted, and wary. A hop over to the RPG.net thread , and all of a sudden I was signed up. I have seen the potential for a Primeval game since I watched the first season, so it came as no surprise to me when the book was finally released. I have yet to get a copy for myself, maybe a pdf will be purchased shortly. The fact that the ever prolific Gareth hanrahan-Ryder has a hand in it only makes this more likely. The game will be a one-shot, based in the UK. Good, because I have yet to watch the new version of the series. Plus it makes it more likely you...

Source Dr. Benjamin Tippett, a physicist at the University of New Brunswick, looks at the short story, 'The Call of Cthulhu' from the viewpoint of Science! In what he calls his 'unified theory of Cthulhu' with his tongue firmly in his cheek. He examines the 'eyewitness accounts' as written in 'The Call of Cthulhu' from a physics point of view. He then states: In proving the Johansen wasn’t crazy I accidentally figure out that cthulhu is probably real, responsible for the island… and I also figure out what he’s doing down there. Of course, as a brave man of science, I can’t go and admit that Cthulhu exists… Link to the pdf of the article 'Possible Bubbles of Spacetime Curvature in the South Pacific' here. Via the Miskatonic Museum .

 Front page of Le Soleil after the 1925 earthquake I felt my first earthquake this morning. I was woken up by at at 12.15am this morning. I say it is the first I felt, as there has been at least 1 other earthquake since I arrived here, but where I was at the time meant I didn't feel it (although others in the same building did). These happen from time to time, as Montreal is on a fault line of sorts. Actually, there are a couple of seismic zones in Quebec, with Montreal being situated in the Western Quebec Seismic Zone .     Historical Earthquakes in the Region The earthquake last night was registered at 4.5. Not large enough to cause damage, but large enough to be felt in quite a large area. There have been stronger earthquakes in the region in the past, which are summarised in this article . The largest being an estimated 7 on the Richter scale, on the 5th of February, 1663 where: Epicenter most likely in the Charlevoix-Kamouraska seismic zo...

From the Internet Archive, via the Californai Digital Library (by way of the Yog-Sothoth forums, as per usual) I bring to you The Dominion of Canada, with Newfoundland and an excursion to Alaska. Handbook for travellers (1922)  by the Karl Baedeker of the Baedeker company who then, as now, specialise on travel books. All major formats are available, including, the most useful for me, pdfs and kindle files. There are detailed inventories and travel routes to reach Montreal from both New York, and Boston, both the main east coast U.S. headquatrers for PCs. Also, there are travel options from both New York and Boston to Quebec City, and Portland Oregan to Montreal and Quebec. There are also possible routes mentioned from Europe, with entry to the ports of Montreal and Quebec. The section on Quebec runs to about 50 pages, but most of the details included are how to get from one place to another within the province. The pages on Montreal and it's env...