Mysteries of Montreal

  Merry Christmas to you all. For something a little festive, may I suggest the H.P.Podcraft's reading s of H.P.L.s Christmas poetry. Set one , set two and set three .    As for me, I have a bunch of posts lined up for the new year. I hope to use the next couple of weeks off to make some headway.  Here's to a mysterious 2014.

Been away on holidays, where I planned to read through the new quickstart rules for 7th edition Call of Cthulhu, however, it was not to be. I still plan to do this, and will post my thoughts on the new edition, and how it differs from 6th (and previous) editions of Call of Cthulhu, but in the mean time, here's omething a little different in tone: Feminist Yog-Sothoth .

The wonders of the modern day publishing system, allowing new authors to be easily published is something I really treasure of this internet age. The barriers to self publishing have been lowered, and the advent of crowd sourcing makes projects of many kinds even more attainable. To this end, I bring to your attention " Baby Teeth ". What a great name for a collection of horror short stories by fledling authors.  Based on the chills and shivers of the creepy things children have been heard to say at the most unexpected times, this collection is an assortment of unexpected frights, nervous giggles and often poignant reflections on life, childhood, and the terrors of growing up. Mostly horror, you'll also find stories in this book of fantasy, science fiction, crime and even comedy, from a wide range of established and emerging writers (36 stories from 26 authors!). I must admit, I have only heard of one of the authors, and he is a friend of mine , but I like the set...

There are a great number of cinemas or movie theatres in Montreal, many of them dating from the golden age of cinema. Including the Ouimetoscope , the first Canadian theater dedicated exclusively to showing movies (opened in 1906), and which was situated right round the corner from my house (and is currently being transformed into a block of appartments). Showing local productions, including his own, news movies, French and translated American movies, the theater would remain open for eighteen years until, in 1922, Ouimet's financial difficulties forced him to sell the Ouimetoscope, which closed two years later. Another is the Rialto Theatre  ( official site ), built in 1924, and although it stopped being a cinema in 1990, the building is protected as a Candian Heritage Site. You can see a few pictures of the wonderful interiors here . It would be remiss of me, being a Call of Cthulhu Blogger, if, whilst on this subject, I did not mention the tra...

Six and a half years? Has it really been that long? That's when the first discussions and recruitment took place for the Masks of Nyarlathotep Companion over on the YSDC forums . At the time, I was running my New York Campaign, and had started to plant the seeds of the Campaign, by introducing Jackson Elias and preparing myself in other ways. With this in mind, I was hugely anticipating the information, maps, handouts and other additional material that was being discussed for inclusion in this work. I was worried however, that it wouldn't come out in time for me to use in my campaign. I need not have worried, not because of the speed of publication of this document, far from it, it took a lot more time that I anticipated, but for the closer to home reason of my gaming group and CoC game folding for reasons of life getting in the way of gaming (isn't it always the case?). However, I was very pleased to see the following news on the YSDC front page . In the words...

It has been in the news for a while, but it is finally coming to a head. Call of Cthulhu is printing a 7th edition. Furthermore, this is not a new edition in the way that many of the other CoC editions, in that, they were mere clean-ups of the book and rules, tidying and modernising the layout and such. This seems to be very much a new edition. What I do know is that they are trying their hardest to make the new edition backwards compatible with all existing adventures. For a company like Chaosium, where their back catalog of adventures is what they are renowned for, this really was a must. Also, all playtesting done for the new edition of Horror on the Orient Express has been done in 7th ed, thereby assuring the new adventure is not out of date as soon as it hits the shelves, whilst also being backwards compatible with all older versions of the rules, as befits a classic adventure. Want to know more? Go here for the kickstarter . I have yet to pledge, as I am waiting to see what o...

On my wargaming blog , I have been going through rather a Steampunk phase, with the release of Dystopian Legions amongst other things. Which is why I clicked on a link for a free version of the RPG Cogs, Cakes & Swordsticks at DriveThru RPG. Since it is an RPG, I though it best to cross post the links here. As I have only just downloaded it, I can not as yet comment on the game itself, but the simplicity of the system as indicated on the blurb suggests it may be a game that does not require a huge time investment to play (unlike some CoC campaigns). Thus, is of interest to the time challenged gamer like myself. The game is published by Modiphius Games , publishers of the Achtung Cthulhu range of games (see, there is a relevance!) which is another project I have half an eye on, even though I'm not too keen on WWII gaming itself.

Tiny octopus-like microorganisms named after science fiction monsters The subheading says it all. Some researchers at UBC (University of British Columbia) found some new micro organisms in the saliva of termites. They named them  Cthulhu macrofasciculumque and Cthylla microfasciculumque. They were named so after they were though to swim in an octopus like fashion, although that seems a little bit of a stretch, my instinct is someone in that lab has been itching to name something after Cthulhu since he started grad school, and you don't get to name new species often these days. This is, however, the first time I have ever heard mention of Cthylla . Maybe I'm not so well versed in the mythos as I would like to think (although she is one of Lumley's, and Source Original Paper .

Camillien Houde  Médéric Martin  Camillien Houde was elected as the new Mayor of Montreal. The Conservative Deputy won by 20 000 votes over his rival, the previous Mayor, Médéric Martin , who had held the post since 1926 (and for ten years between 1914 and 1924). It seems both men went on to be big in Canadian politics, rather than just staying in local/city politics, being elected into the House of Commons after serving as mayors. I can't see any of the modern equivalents being able to do so, especially after recent scandals. 

Follow t his link to the BBC radio's version of At the Mountains of Madness, read by Richard Coyle. This will open in BBC's iPlayer, so be ready to be in the UK, or somehow fool the internet into thinking you are. Thanks to Craig Oxbrow for the heads up.

This is a slight detour from our normal service, but my good lady wife brought this to my attention. With information taken from the 2011census, here we have a map of Quebec, showing the anglophone population (and by extension, the franco population too) by region. Click here for the map . Leaving politics aside, it's a fun and interesting representation of Modern Quebec.

Camillien Houde As of today, in 1929, all married Montreal women, who pay municipal taxes, gained the right to vote (in municipal matters). The then Montreal mayor, Camillien Houde was not too happy about this law passing, even though a subset of women had had the right to vote in federal elections since 1918, full sufferage for the women of Quebec dd not come about until 1940 ( source ).

No, not a 90's album name, but a collection of just that, suitcases from asylum patients that were stored after their death, and rediscovered on the closure of the asylum, and donated to a museum. This is not only a very poingant site, that may even bring a tear to your eys, but is a great place to get ideas for adventures, and handouts. Food for thought.

The dream quest of unknown Kadath was one of HPL's longer works of fiction, and gives a great deal on insight into the man himself (it's no secret Randolph Carter is HPL's Mary Sue). The very reasoning behind the Dreamworlds in my opinion makes it difficult, if not unrealistic, to map, however, a guy called Jason Thompson  has given it a good go  for his new graphic novel. One of the things I’ve been working on for the Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath graphic novel is a map of the Dreamlands, as described in Dream-Quest and other Lovecraft stories. The results which will appear in the book are here , or here if you want a closer to full-size version.

I bring to your attention, yet another Blog, the Orient Express Writers Blog . In their own words: This blog is published by Penelope Love and Mark Morrison. We have been writing for Call of Cthulhu since our first book together,  Terror Australis , in 1987. The revised edition of Horror on the Orient Express will be published by our friends at Chaosium in August 2013. We are undertaking the editing and rewriting as freelancers. Whilst I'm on the theme of blogs, I would also like to draw attention to another couple that I have added to my blogroll. Cthulhu Reborn . This blog bills itself as "An online resourse for recycled Call of Cthulhu scenarios and stuff". I've had a glance through it, in an attempt to summarise it's contents, but it's best if you just head on over and delve right in! There's a host of handouts and game materials to be had. Chaosium Digest is a blog that has formed from the original Chaosium digest email list. In their...

Lynn Willis, pillar of the Chaosium community, has sadly passed away . In memory of the man and his legacy, Yog-sothoth.com have hosted for our viewing pleasure his designer notes for the 1st edition of Call of Cthulhu.

I know the word Oldhammer has been coined for 3rd ed WFB, but I think it works ust as well for the GW version of WFRP. In a trip to an LGS , I found a batch of first edition hard back WFRP supplements. Mostly for the Enemy Within Capaign. Commonly thought of as one of the best campaigns for any RPG. WFRP was one of the first RPGs I really got into, and I had played in, bought and run the campaign as it was sold in the early 90s in the guise of Warhammer Adventure and Warhammer City of Chaos . I had never got round to either buying or running the latter parts of the campaign. The Books I found today were Power Behind the Throne (1988), Something Rotten in Kislev (1988) from the Enemy Within, Warhammer City (1987) and The Restless Dead (1986). The only issue seems to be a missing map from Warhammer City, and from SRiK, but since either will likely be available online, I don't see that as a big issue. All the other handouts still seem to be in place. At $8 each, they were ...

I have had a couple of update emails from the kickstarter, which I would like to share.  Update #65 We want to share some exciting news! Steff Worthington will be signing on to create new and improved maps for Horror on the Orient Express ! Steff created some amazing maps for Cthulhu by Gaslight , and we are very excited that he has climbed on board the Orient Express! Check out Steff's work on his blog . I have been along to the blog, and I can say I am heartily impressed by his work, and will be sure to be using those maps for Cthulhu and any other project they fit. In fact, he has already mapped the route of the Orient Express for another project . Also of interest from that blog is this post, containing the map of Cairo from the upcoming Masks of Nyarlathotep Companion . Update #66 A new city along the route Hello everyone, While Meghan and Nick travel to Istanbul to conduct photo research for the many handouts and merchandise we are producing for the new...