Mysteries of Montreal

I did go to this years NecronomiCon with an increased budget from years passed (I had had 5 years to save after all). I planned to make the most of getting stuff, and being able to drive back across the border and not have to pay the exorbitant shipping prices that prices many of these products out for me. When you pay as much or more for shipping as you do for the book in the first place, well, you just don't. With that in mind, I may have gone a spend crazy. Just a little. I regret nothing that I bought, and a couple of things that I didn't. Gaming Stuff The first stop was a trip to the Chaosium stand, where I picked up the brand new, and not yet publicly available Gaslight Investigator's Guide. This is a beautiful hardback book, as are all of the main Chaosium books. I will say no more on it, as once I cam hoe, it went away as a birthday gift. Next stop was the other Call of Cthulhu Licensees stall, where books were being sold by Stygian Fox, Golden Goblin Press, Bayt Al...

I do have some hot news from the Con in terms of upcoming games releases from Golden Goblin Games, and Chaosium.  When  I was playing Cthulhu Invictus with Oscar Rios, he told us of an upcoming book for Invictus, based in Britannica, which will contain the adventure we played in (A Mortal Harvest), as well as at least one scenario by Stuart Boon. I had games with both Mike Mason, and Lynne Hardy, and had noticed a certain Folk Horror theme to them both, so I asked mike after the game if there was any intention to release these scenarios, maybe along with Scritch Scratch, another scenario with deep folklore roots. His reply was that yes, something along those lines was in their thoughts, but that it wouldn't be British Folk Horror, and would of course contain scenarios based in North America too. I also asked Mike Mason about upcoming material, some of which he was going to reveal at the Favourite Scenarios panel, but he forgot. What he said in the elevator afterwards w...

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...

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 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...

Not only did the Horror on the Orient Express Kickstarter make it's goal amount to be funded, but it made all it's stretch goals too. I recieved this email this morning: Congratulations! Thanks to you and 1372 other backers, Horror on the Orient Express: Call of Cthulhu by Chaosium has been successfully funded. Amazon will now charge your credit card. Pledge Summary Amount pledged: $150.00 Reward: Conductor—CANADA— Copy of the final product, Orient Express T-Shirt, Orient Express tote, and four Limited edition Orient Express tickets, a set of Chaosium dice, and a pack of extra handouts for extra players or for your Call of Cthulhu collection, plus a Horror on the Orient Express keeper's screen. Your name listed on the contributor page of the book. **THIS LEVEL INCLUDES SHIPPING** Estimated delivery: Aug 2013 When your reward is ready, Chaosium Inc. will send you a survey via email to request any info needed to deliver your reward (mailing address, T-shirt size, e...

Kickstarter has been around for a while, and I have seen a few miniatures and games companies using it to good effect to fund new projects. I have rarely been tempted to put any money down, but today I received an email that may very well change that. Chaosuim , a long running company who have a history of not funding reprints of their enormous and well though of back catalogue due to lack of ready funds, have finally joined the Kickstarter funding bandwagon. Their reprint of choice, Horror on The Orient Express . I have never played through this adventure fully, although it was run fully at 'The Club', the gaming group I was a member of in my school days. I may very well have played a few times, but my PCs had a habit of being killed off. With a group as large as we had, character death was inevitable and frequent, unless of course you were best mates/brother of the GM, but I digress. In recent years I have collected a fair amount of the OOP Chaosium back catalogue, ...