Mysteries of Montreal

We've been working our way through the Two-Headed Serpent campaign, and we're reaching the Iceland chapter. Unlike Masks or HotOE, there are a lot less handouts for this game, as is more fitting with the Pulp style I guess, as there is less investigation to an extent. That has not stopped me however, putting together a dossier of images for the Iceland chapter, which includes images of the Snæfellsjökull volcano. It doesn't take much to find some images online, and age them, but there are no images of the volcano erupting, because it's extinct. However, I did quickly put together these images with a little photoshop. Please feel free to use them for your own game, and let me know if larger images would be useful. There is also this view, which would fit what the players see as they fly in to the peninsula. Finally, I found an old map of Iceland, where all the monsters of the sea are congregated around the  Snæfellnes peninsula. ...

We completed the Horror on the Orient Express Campaign earlier this year, indeed I have already posted a link to the handouts I used for the Zagreb chapter here . But the end of the year is a good time to clear house and get things done that have been put on the back burner, so I'm returning to this subject to share some other handouts I made for that session. What I did not get round to posting at that time were the audio files I used for that chapter, to voice the stranger in the mists that guides the party round dream Zagreb. To remedy that, I have made available the audio files I used for that session in a Dropbox folder. There are two types of file, those that were taken straight from the chapter as written, and some that I made individually for the Investigators of my group. Zagreb Audio Files can be found here.   Please feel free to use them, but I would also like to know if you do, so drop me a comment to let me know. The inspiration for these files was taken (read...

Here are some handouts I put together for the Zagreb chapter of the Horror on the Orient Experss campaign. Feel free to use them for your games. pdf available on request. Put behind a cut to allow players to ignore spoilers.

Question 26: Which RPG has the most useful resources? The resources that imediately comes to mind here, are props and handouts. I love props and handouts. Physical items that help with play, advance the game, and increase immersion are things I look for. Maybe I should be a LARPer. Of course, one game excels in this, Call of Cthulhu (seeing a pattern here yet?, this is a Lovecraftian blog after all). This excellence is not through the company who make the game. Yes most adventures come with handouts to copy and give out at the back of the book, but other games companies make/made more effort than Chaosium (the handouts for the Empire in Flames campaign by GW come to mind). No, it is not through the efforts of Chaosium that Call fo Cthulhu makes it's name, but through the efforts of fans. It would take forever to list all the ways in which the support of the fan community help the game, and indeed all lovecraftian games, but here, for those amongst you who are neophytes to t...

DO NOT SHOW THIS TO YOUR PLAYERS. I mean, $150? They'll be asking for 2. 1926 Philadelphia Not that it'll matter against the Great Old Ones, but against a horde of cultists, ghouls or Deep Ones? Actually, now I'm picturing a repetition of the Normandy landings, with the Players in beach bunkers, and the Deep Ones coming out of the sea en masse. Or, for something more down to earth/affordable: 1920s

There's a new exhibition in Paris , containing posters and brochures from the Orient Express . There are other posters from the Simplon line in SwitzerlandAs I am gearing up to finally run this campaign, I'll be sure to make use of some of these, though many of them are already available through a Google search. At the end of the sliodeshow, you can download the images in pdf format for ease of use.   A major exhibition on the Orient Express is currently on show in Paris. retours presents a brief history of the famous luxury train by taking a closer look at 10 posters along with matching brochures and photos, partly from the exhibition and partly from own collection. The creators of this exhibition are also the authors of  this amazing app and ebook on the history of the Orient Express. For a grand $6.99, I'll be sure to be investing in that for my tablet, for use at the table.

The GNDN blog posted this post containing various newspaper articles from US newspapers from the era 1924-29. These are sold as filler articles, but to be honest, if you put one of these beside another article, the Investigators are likely to assume they are plot hooks, not filler. Though in that case, they make great red herrings. via .

Through this article , I found out that the Vatican Library is uploading many of their manuscripts and books, and are putting them online for us all to see! Of course, this is a project that will take time to finish, and as of the writing of this post, they have only done 4,200 or so of their 82,000 documents, but still, that's a lot of manuscripts to go for for gaming inspiration and handouts. Even if most of them are in Italian or Latin, some of the illuminations alone are worth the effort of digging through. Which does raise one issue, the means for searching through the documents leaves a lot to be desired. The other issue is of course the surroundings are nowhere near the same as if you were in the actual Vatican Library, but a google image search will soon fix that. Also, there's no mention of when they're going to get round to their secret archives , as lets be honest, that's what we're really all interested in!

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!

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...

Just as I get an email from Chaosium saying that the Horror on the Orient Express Kickstarter has been shipped, and other details released for the 7th ed. Kickstarter suggest an early 2015 delivery, I am sorely tempted by another Kickstarter that is just about to close. This time, for wonderful reproduction handouts and props for the Masks of Nyarlathotep Campaign . Helpfully, they have recently posted a summary of what you get for each funding level. Click to enlarge, and read what each level currently offers. This Kickstarter has been fully licenced by Chaosium. Ok, so I am swithering whether to enter at the $65 or $85 mark. The difference being a few photos and the soundtrack. I have not been one for using soundtracks in game, but with modern technology, it becomes easier to manage, and therefore I am considering in as an option, plus of course the $10 international shipping... and maybe an eye of Light and Darkness for another $75...

What it says in the title really, the MTL Blog has posted a scan of an old tourist flyer from 1925 . The original pdf can be downloaded from the Archives de Montréal  here . A great little handout for gamers from out of town, as well as a source of local information for players and Keepers alike.

Got a group of Gaslight investigators looking for work? Put an advert in the paper, that's sure to bring in the clowns! Source Mosher's Detective Agency: The only office where ladies are employed! In fact, each line of these ads is so well written, there's a great number of adventure seeds tightly packed into this short clipping.

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...

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.

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...

Following a link to the Internet Archive on Yog-sothoth.com (see links on the RHS), to booklets for 1920s New York , I decided to see if the site had similar entries for Montreal, with luck, I found this little pdf : " A 10 pages brochure dating from the 1920's sponsored by the Bramsons Yellow Taxicabs Co. of Montreal . Include Montreal landmarks and history and descriptions of all the tours the company offered with a map of Montreal . This brochure was given to tourists arriving in Montreal on Gray Line Tours buses ." The centre pages include a little map of the tours around Montreal, giving an idea of the layout of the Island at the time. This copy isn't dated. I'm pretty sure I bought a similar booklet on ebay a couple of years ago maybe a different edition, I'll have to go check at the back of the cupboard. While I'm on the subject, the Internet Archive  is a great place to search for information and inspiration of all kind, ...