Mysteries of Montreal

This is not news. Nor is this link to a recent article, but is is to an article well worth reading , as it hits all the salient points, without being apologist.

Very... euchlidian !?

Nothing at all to do with the Investigators getting into a brawl with some mythos being during the night. Nope, nuh-uh! 1912 Philbin Hardware Co, Westmount This article seems like the perfect press release to cover-up Investigator activities, or more likely, their blunders!

  Montréal 1917 A seasonally appropriate Photo of the Day. The Zamboni is an iconic Canadian vehicle, of course, ice had to be groomed before the invention of such an icon, and here we are with the way it was done back then.

Source An interesting article on Lovecraft in Ghostbusters , and how the film confirms the Lovecraftian world view, whilst also providing an antidote to it. It being the 30th anniversary of the film, and with it coming out on Netflix, I re-watched it recently. There were many things that passed me by when watching it the first time round, one of which being Bill Murray's character, Venkman. One thing that struck me was how much of a sex-pest Venkman was. It was almost enough to spoil the film for me. My world view, and I hope that of films in general has moved on a lot since 1985, and what was acceptable then, and what I failed to think twice about now strikes me as just wrong. This is but one reason why I am so very glad that the remake of the film that is planned has gone for an all female cast. Still, in many ways, Ghostbusters is a classic, and much as Lovecraft's racism now strikes readers but is not enough to stop them from enjoying the rest of his prose, Venkman...

With a recent birthday, I found myself with a little extra cash, and the need to spend it solely on me. This I did. For a while now I have had my eye on a couple of prop artefacts made by Cryptocurium . One is an Amulet of the Bloody Tongue aspect of Nyarlathotep, and the second is the Totem of the Wind Walker . Both amulets have now arrived, and I am very pleased with the quality of both of them. Medallion of Ithaqua The Amulet of the Wind walker really is delightful. I plan to use this as a replacement for the Medallion of Ithaqua that was released as part of the Horror on the Orient Express Kickstarter, that I foolishly did not buy. For a short while it was also available on the Chaosium Website, but again, I didn't buy one as I thought it was going to be there indefinitely, rather than a finite time. Of course, this looks nothing like the Medallion shown in images in the game (seen on the right), but whatever,  like this one, and I have the real prop too! Of co...

Dominion Square, Montreal. Winter 1926. Winter is late in coming this year, but come it will, and it will look like this. No matter what else may change with progress, the seasons still come in order, and leave us to deal with the same problems and hardships.

Although I have yet to read it in full, it would be very remiss of me to let this go across my radar without linking to it here, on my Cthulu blog. HPL's racism is very much in the limelight in the current debates on his work. This essay, by gamer writer and thinker, Morgue , goes into details of the racist phrases and issues within HPLs great work, the Call of Cthulhu, and disects it, finally asking the question, "can the racist elements of “The Call of Cthulhu” be challenged and reimagined without doing great violence to the text?"  Well, can it? I'll avoid the spoilers and just link you to the whole essay on taleturn .

The Cthonians are on the move again .

This is old news now, of course, but this great interactive map gives an insight into homicides in Montreal in the modern era. The CBC interactive map , with points for all the 28 homicides in Montreal for the year of 201. If you want to now more, each of the map pins has a link to the story of the death on the CBC website.  These are only those related to deaths on the island of Montreal. I was a little surprised it was only 28. Not that I feel Montreal is a dangerous town, but that just doesn't seem like much. This is of course a good thing. Another thing to note, in game terms, is that they are spread around the city, making no one borough more dangerous than any other.

Way Back in 2012, I wrote a post that was intended to be one of a series. A short series, but a series none the less. That was on sourcebooks for various games that were describing Montreal in terms of the game setting. Montreal as a background for your game. In an attempt to go through my own backlog of  drafts of posts, to get these posts out into the wild, I am reviving this series with the second instalment of Montreal Sourebooks. This one came across my radar more than a few years ago now, back when the storyteller system was all the rage. Black Dog Games, the darker, more adult daughter company of White Wolf publishing, released " Montreal by Night: Litany of Blood ". A  sourcebook for Vampire the Masquerade, based in the city of Montreal. Welcome to Montreal, City of Black Miracles and unhallowed shrine of our most glorious Sabbat. Yes, we're so glad you came, n'est ce pas? Walk our catacombs in search of blasphemous knowledge, enjoy all manner of tit...

I read recently, with some sadness, of the closing, or moving of an establishment, that seems to me at least, to be as old as Montreal itself. In a recent Gazette column, I read of the relocation of L. Berson & Fils off of the Main. To those from out of town, the Main is the name given by locals to Rue St Lauren, or St Lawrence Street (of all the names the street has, that last one is never used). As the article states, the business was established on the Main in 1922, and it was indeed a landmark. I remember seeing it on my first visit to the city, and at the time, I did find it a bit of an eyesore, if at least one that clearly had history, it was what looked like a builder's yard in the middle of a busy main shopping street, but the sign hanging above it made it obvious it was just part of the fittings and fixtures of the town, and that it hearkened back to an earlier era. It was this obvious recalling to an earlier age that meant when I came to running Co...

We hear much these days about the big brother state. Back in the 80s and before, it was a thing to be feared. These days, with the prevalence of the internet in out lives, and the amount of our own selves we share online, either voluntarily or not, means that for better or worse, we are much more at ease with the ability of others to watch us from afar. Maybe because we just don't think about it, or we don't want to think about it. So when I came across this website , I was less annoyed by the intrusion as I may have been back in the day, but I see it as a great In a modern game of Call of Cthulhu, or, even better, the Laundry, The uses for this kind of surveillance are multiple, and creepy

I have not seen previous episodes of what seems to be a current BBC Scotland comedy sketch show, going by the name Burnistoun, however, through an old school friend on facebook, I was made aware of this sketch.   "There's an unnamable, unimaginable thing in my basement and I want it punted." Take three minutes to watch it. It's chock full of references, delivered with particularly Scottish understatement.

With the sad and recent passing of Sir Christopher Lee, who led an amazingly full life , I post here a link to the full film Horror Express . This film is moving rapidly to the top of my play list for multiple reasons, Lee's recent passing is one, and my reading through of the Horror on the Orient Express campaign being another. The lovecraftian themes are of course there, but we really need no further excuse than the actors whe are present in the film.

Last year I noticed, too late, an Indigogo campaign by a French Artist to make a3D prop version of the Sedefkar Simulacrum, which is the artefact that the players collect as they trek round Europe as the Horror on the Orient Express campaign progresses. The campaign original ended without being funded. Fortunately for me, if not for my wallet, the campaign has been relaunched, now on Kickstarter . The project has the official backing of Chaosium, and is such a licensed product. This is not, however, a Chaosuim Kickstarter, as we all know by now to keep those puppies at arms length! This is also another chance to get a copy of the Eye of Light and Darkness prop for the Masks of Nyarlathotep campaign, as was made for Ben Patey's prop set Kickstarter, which I have backed, but not to the extent of getting the clay props, only the paper ones. So, a twofer really on the props front. I am sorely sorely tempted to go for this one. I'll let you all know if I do.

I went along to the post office yesterday, to pick up a package that had been waiting for me since the day before. It was indeed the long awaited Horror on the Orient Express kickstarter. There have been a great many unboxings of this package already online, so I won't bother with all that faff, but I may go through the contents in the near future and post what I have, as some of it is very pretty. So, I'll just leave you with this. A picture of the boxed set itself, which alone comes in at 3.9 kg! It's a beast! There is of course a lot more nick-knacks to go with that too! Watch this space...

I was recently notified of this little free to download RPG, that may be of interest to some of you: True Love Match . To quote the author : True Love Match is the game of romance and reality TV. You’ll need six people, a couple of rooms, and a few hours. It might mess you up a little.  I have yet to read or play the game, but knowing of it's source, I can but recommend it. True Love Match originated in my sheer fury at the cruelty of  The Bachelor as an entertainment format, and a sudden insight that I could mash together Emily Care Boss’s Breaking the Ice and Gregor Hutton’s Best Friends into a  Bachelor game.  As someone who is also left completely baffled by the popularity of the bachelor, even within my own household, this certainly seems to be something I could connect with. So, what are you waiting for? It sounds like the perfect game to spend an evening playing!

I'm a day late with this post, as this post pertains to the happenings of the night of the 31st of March, but I only learned of it today, and it was too cool a story to pass on, or indeed wait another year. Vintage Wings of Canada is an organisation that is involved in many aspects of vintage aviation, and they are funding the search for a lesser known part of Canadian history, the lost dirigible, the HMCD Samuel de Champlain .  In her purpose built hangar in Cape Breton I'll not recount the whole story here, go read it for yourself. What I will do here is to expand upon the completely wonderful gaming opportunities for gaming the crew members of the RCNRAS (Royal Canadian Navy Rigid Airship Service), and the missions that they and they alone could accomplish, whether it is search and rescue missions in the Great White North , or on missions to destroy enemy submarines in North American shipping lanes. Both types of missions that will take the crew off the beaten trac...

  A simple, yet eye catching image, taken in the Montreal docks, in the 1930s. Straight from a film noir, and very evocative. I'm not sure what use it would be in game, other than setting the mood, but worth trying to find a place for it in game I feel. source .

Inspirational Artefacts artefact / ˈɑːtɪˌfækt / noun: something   made   or   given   shape   by   man,   such   as   a   tool   or   a   work   of art,   esp   an   object   of   archaeological   interest. At first glance, these don't initially strike the viewer as particularly mythos, but I had to include them once I read the description!  Egyptian, Amarna, New Kingdom, 18th Dynasty. 1353-36 BCE These clappers are shaped like hands. They were used in magical practices to scare away evil spirits and ghosts. By clapping them together a noise is created that accompanies a ritual.  source . Of course, the influence of Egyptian archaeology on the mythos, and indeed on popular culture of the 1920s, is undeniable so these fit in very well with the setting. Furthermore, they are a bona fide magical artefact, not just an amulet of power, or a grimoire, and this alone sets th...

I have found a wonderful Facebook page Montreal then and now , full of photos, images and other interesting links, that is an inspiration for Montreal of any era since the founding of the city, but there are frequently photos from the era pertinent to our interest, the 1920-30s. I had through to make a larger post with a few of these images, but I think I'll spread them out, and maybe have a little post for each one, with some game uses for the image, a bit like the Inspirational Artefacts series of posts. This is the first of these images. Roman catholic nuns, Bleury St., Montreal, 1924 I can easily imagine these two getting the wrong idea about the motives of the Investigators, and following them around town, getting in the way of their investigations, and otherwise being a nuisance. Otherwise, they could be a contact for the Investigators, within the Catholic church, who had a very strong presence in the city at that time, and may be working with the Investigators, m...

I think I was quite late along to the party, as I first picked up one of the Discworld novels when at University. " Faust Eric" was the first one I read I think, then I went back to the start and read all the Discworld novels, and continued to do so, as soon as a new one was available in paperback (hard back books take up so much space). There are a lot of funny authors out there, but I can list on one finger the number who could so consistently make me snigger and laugh out loud when reading his books. He had such a great way of looking at the world, then mirroring it back to us in a way that made the mundane seems absurd. Add to this the fact that it was not unknown for me to shed a few tears when reading his work to, and we have the sign, IMHO, of a truly great author. The fact that he was always a genre writer always worked against his credibility, especially at the start, but the sheer number of people who read his work, and the way in which he spoke on the subje...

My second post on a subject that is without my normal sphere for this blog, Sherlock Holmes. However, I'll try to turn it back on topic by the end of the post. I was a little annoyed that my previous post on a new Sherlock Holmes story turned out to be nothing more than a heavy handed pastiche of Doyle's work, if at least a contemporary one. The first half of the interview, Doyle talks about Sherlock Holmes, and within the details spoken, we really learn nothing new, excep that we hear of Holmes from the horses mouth as you will. The second half of the interview is taken up with, in Doyle's words, "the entirely more serious matter" of spiritualism. He talks of the in-depth and varied research he has made on the subject. Again this is not news, but the attitude he takes to wards the psychical research could of course work well as a jumping off point for an investigator, or group of such researchers. Especially since his devotion to the subject after the G...

Holmes statue in Edinburgh. I know this is outwith the normal bounds of my blog, but it is covered by the general mystery theme. There has been a new Sherlock Holmes Story discovered. I post the transcript here, as I'm pretty sure that the copyright on Holmes has long ago passed into the public domain. The story is less mystery, and more a peculiar little coversation between Holmes and Watson, clearly written to appeal to the guid-folks o' Selkirk. Anyway without too many spoilers, here is the full transcript of 'Sherlock Holmes: Discovering the Border Burghs and, by deduction, the Brig Bazaar'. The story of how it was found can be read here : 'We've had enough of old romancists and the men of travel, said the Editor, as he blue-pencilled his copy, and made arrangements for the great Saturday edition of the Bazaar Book. 'We want something up-to-date. Why not have a word from "Sherlock Holmes"?' Editors have only to speak and it is don...

I have previously posted on the Masks of Nyarlathotep campaign companion , as written by the good people over at yog-sothoth.com . Well, it seems the pdf of that companion is no longer available through the site directly. This is not the bad news it first seems however, as the reason it has been taken down is so that the book can be published through funding raised on this Kickstarter project , with the very generous support of Sixtystone Press . As of this post, there are 19 days left to go on the campaign, and the project has been easily funded (within 3 hours of launch), and marched through all but one of its (rather unadventurous) stretch goals. I have yet to place my support, but I will do, very shortly. One good thing about the lack of stretch goals is that the deadlines given for the project should be relatively easy to keep to, which is a good thing. If I were in charge though, I would change the artwork on the cover page. Not that it's bad, I just feel it's not gre...

Sir William Dawson 1884 My eye was drawn to this article as it passed my facebook feed the other day, as one that certainly requires more study, and fits well within the remit for this blog, so lets have a look at it then! Of course, the title of this article suggests a burial ground , but the reality is both more mundane, and, in other ways more exciting than that. This story is about the Dawson Site . Found in 1860, the Dawson site, so named due to the work there by John William Dawson ; it was an Iroquoian village and thousands of artefacts were found there, as listed in the link above for the site, most of which were concurrent with a village. Yes, 25 burials were also found, with a possibility of over 100 still in place.  Hochelaga, circa 1535 I heard an interview with a local  archaeologist on the radio yesterday evening, (so no source to link to, but it was likely the same one quoted in the above article) that suggested that, yes, there was the possibility o...

The Canadian maple leaf flag (or l'unifolié apparently) is 50 years old (well, it was yesterday, but really, who's counting). Famous for being carried proudly around the world by Canadian backpackers (and Americans claiming to be Canadians, to avoid getting shit). I find it completely weird that the maple leaf flag is only 50 years old. I guess it's just one of those things you take for granted in Europe, that your flag's history is pretty old. I mean, 50 years isn't that much older than me, at least in flag years! Take, for example, the Scottish Saltire . That thing has been around in Scotland in various official ways since 1180s, with the Union Flag being a modern addition to the flag world, being introduced in it's current form in 1801. So, for all those running a game based in Canada, during non-modern eras, beware of anachronistic flag usage. Make note of the flag that would be used during the time you base your game . Out of interest, the flag ...

The Internet says so, so it must be true! via The Watch House .

The weather here over the last week has been atrocious. First a heavy snow fall, followed by a thaw, freezing rain, then the temperature plummeted to -24 o C. Yesterday, everything was frozen solid, then today, we're having another couple of feet of beautiful powder, which is great for the skiers amongst us, but loathsome to the drivers. One thing to come out of this, was my learning of this wonderfully strange phenomenon, frost quakes , or cryoseisms , or as I now rename it, Ithaqua's footprints. Or maybe even ice shoggoths on the move. Ice shoggoths, now there's an idea...

A Quebec folk song by La Bolduc written during the prohibition-era of the 1920`s and 30`s. From my new best source of Montreal History, The Montreal Then and Now Facebook group. Otherwise, I know nothing of the singer, or the song, however, there are a few videos by the same artist available to listen to on Youtube. Great for some contemporary background music.