Mysteries of Montreal

Each year, I try to play and run new games. Sometimes they make it into the permanent rotation, sometimes they do not, but it has been a part of my gaming life since the very start, as the group I grew up with were always open to try new things.  This year, I'm trying out something new, I'm going to sit with my gaming group and planning to discuss their expectations and wishes for the next year in terms of gaming. There are a couple of reasons for this, the first is that 2 of my players may be taking a break from the gaming table. They already drive over an hour to come to play with us each week, but life changes mean that that may not be feasible for the next while (maybe years). Secondly, one of my players has stepped back from or Masks of Nyarlathotep campaign as she is already playing the same campaign with another group. I have suggested ways round this, but she prefers not to make her life complicated by playing in both, and I respect that decision. So that would mean I...

Another bumper year of gaming, with 93 sessions over the last 52 weeks, 30 as a GM, 63 as a player.  A few gaming highlights were playing Legend of the 5 Rings (1e) with John Wick as GM in January (that's a post of its own). 2024 was of course a NecronomiCon year, which brought a bunch of Highlights (I'm going to call out 2 games with Oscar Rios as the games that have stuck with me). This was also the year when I started to run Masks of Nyarlathotep again, and getting through 2 chapters, plus a couple of self insert mini chapters was also fun, however, since there is a new prologue chapter of the campaign, I am yet to reach mu own high tide mark for running that campaign (London), but we are a total of 18 sessions in all so far, with more to come in the new year.  Special mentions also to Ten Candles, Heirs to Heresy and Deathmatch Island as games that I really want to play/run again. Now, on to the facts and figures. Games Played Games Ran In that selection of games for 2024...

 RPG a Day 2024, day 26: Superb Screen I assume we're talking GM screen here. I have a few, yes. I think my current favourite has to be the Keeper Screen for the Masks of Nyarlathotep Campaign. I don't need the rules on the inside of a screen for Call of Cthulhu, but the info at your fingertips for that whole campaign, in terms of geography or NPCs? That's priceless.

 RPG a Day 2024, day 12: RPG with well-supported campaigns? It's interesting that well-supported is in bold in this question. Again, this is an easy answer. Call of Cthulhu. I have ran and enjoyed The Two Headed Serpent for their Pulp Cthulhu system. I have ran and enjoyed Horror on the Orient Express , and I have recently started my 3rd or 4th attempt at Masks of Nyarlathotep. Not only are these campaigns renowned in the industry, and the classic ones have gone through multiple incarnations/editions, but the support both from within Chaosium, and from third party vendors outmatches anything I've seen for other games or publishers. No contest.

 This thread was started on twitter by @SKenson. I don't do twitter, so I'm doing it here.  "my personal wish-list of tabletop roleplaying games to play in or run, if I had unlimited time, energy, and resources..." To this I'd add "and have the right group." Don't get me wrong, I love my players, but not all players fit all games and vice versa. I think some of the games I want to run on this list are because I don't think they'd fly with some or all of my current players. Since this is a wish list, I'm going to avoid the games of which I have had a current fix, and can most easily get moving, which is currently Call of Cthulhu , The One Ring , Vampire  and Mothership . Alright, let's see... I have never played, run or read any of the Pelgrane Gumshoe games, While the latter is easily rectified, I would really like to finally get to play one of them. I could make a top 10 list of which specific ones I'd like to play, but let's...

A great little video and tutorial on how to use the Scar of the Bloody Tongue that came in the last Props of Nyarlathotep Kickstarter.

Note from my future self (Montreal, 26th August 2024). As I have come back to this blog as a means to rejuvenate my writing, and get back into the rhythm of blogging, I've been going through my old draft posts for inspiration on topics. One such post is this one. This post was written back on the 23rd of April, 2018, and was all but complete. In fact, I'm not sure why it wasn't posted back then. The date and time were even set I have since then started to run Masks this year, and as such, many of the props mentioned below have actually seen use.  I post this with no further edits except for spelling and typos, just this note from the 'future' to place things in context. I have also set the publication date to the year in question .oOo. As previously mentioned , I received the results of the Props of Nyarlathotep: New York and Kenya Kickstarter . This is less an unboxing, and more a post showing off the shiny. I had the light-box out for another reason, so threw th...

I had a rather large box arrive in the post last week, much to the chagrin of my better half. Inside was contained some beautifully horrendous artefacts of power. In that it was the resutls of the Props Of Nyarlathotep New York and Kenya Kickstarter . I'll write up an "unboxing" post up in the near future, once I've taken some pictures of the props that do them justice. They are worth getting the light box out for! These have been squirrelled away beside the Eye of Light and Darkness  for future use in a Masks of Nyarlathotep campaign. That campaign might be a little ways away, as we have just left Sophia in our current Horror on the Orient Express game, where the Simulacrum, also made by Delphes has been a beautiful centrepiece throughout.

I have mentioned the work of this artist before, and backed her first Kickstarter, the results of which I'm using at the table right now in my HotOE game. As as her 3rd Kickstarter is nearing a successful close, I thought I would post to tell you all of the latest work by Delphes Desoivres on the  The Props of Nyarlathotep, New York and Kenya Kickstarter. I'm not in a position to drop too much money on this one, but I thought the tattoos were a wonderful idea, and I might yet go in for the Scar of the Bloody Tongue latex prosthetic. I love the Mask of Hyama she has designed here, this version of the artefact is unique, and the idea of making a latex version that fits to the players head when they inevitably try to wear the mask is inspired. There are 4 days left on the clock on this one, so still plenty of time to get in on it!

Call of Cthulhu is known for it's big campaigns, whether it's the Mountains of Madness, or the Horror on the Orient Express. These types of campaigns are one of the things through with Call of Cthulhu has made it's reputation. However, there is one of these that stands above the others, and that is Masks. I don't even have to give it's full title, most people already know what I'm talking about just with that one word. I can't think off the top of my head of any other RPG property this works with. I have tried to run Masks twice in my life, and both times it ran out of steam. This is not an issue with the game as such, just the length of the campaign requires a little commitment, and for the stars to align in a certain sense with players real lives and availabilities. This Companion was first released as a 550 page pdf back in 2013 . The Kickstarter was finally funded (as a fundraiser for Yog-sothoth.com) back in 2015 , and the book finally ca...

One of the great things about the Call of Cthulhu community is the gusto with which they enter in their prop making. From the print outs of newspaper handouts to full blown resin props. I was a backer of the Kickstarter by Delphes Desvoivres to make the Sedefkar Simulacrum , and am eagerly waiting to use it in the Horror on the Orient Express Campaign which I intend to start this year (after finishing the Time to Harvest Campaign I am currently running) I already have the Eye of Light and Darkness that is pictured in the video, but I really like the look of the other props. The necklace is a nice touch, and it is nice to see that not all the props will be made out of resin. The Mirror is larger than I thought it would be, which means all in these are going to take up a lot of storage space in my gaming cupboard, but how can I not be tempted? The Kickstarter will go live this Sunday (the 22nd), at 10pm GMT.

In a moment of brash spending, I spent a whole $1.25 in the dollar store on a set of little glass bottles. Why? Well, after the failure of the Masks Props Kickstarter, I was looking to make little Fog-Spawn Larvae or something like it as a prop for a game. I have recently got back into running games through the Cult of Chaos, but I'm a long way from running Masks again. Still, the idea stuck, and the bottles themselves look like they wouldn't take much to make them look realistic for the era. I've looked up a couple of tutorials for aging the bottles, and they seem really easy. The hard part would be making the larvae, but I have some ideas based another tutorial I found on making maggots from liquid latex. This will be my first foray into propmaking beyond paper handouts, and I'm quite looking forward to it. It seems that no-one has actually made this as a prop yet, as they're such a small part of the campaign, and only briefly mentioned as a bit of a sidebar...

The last in this trilogy of posts on the Sedefkar Simulacrum Kickstarter that arrived last week, and this time, it is less to do with the Horror on the Orient Express, and all to do with that other stupendous campaign, Masks of Nyarlathotep. Initially, when the box came through, I had completely forgotten that I had added this prop, so it was genuinely surprised when I opened the envelope. Contents of the envelope Inside, was a well wrapped resin prop in two parts. The two halves of the Eye were individually wrapped in foam paper, so that they did not chip against each other in transit. That is some well thought out packaging! There was also a signed certificate of authenticity for the eye. Of course I will do my best to heed the warning about reading of spells in close proximity to the Eye, so as ot to cause any unnecessary trans-dimensional disturbances.  I found the line below to be very cool. If you can't get the first off the production line, at least ...

What's in the box? I'm a little lost for words, I just received a package, from a Kickstarter, that was delivered on time.  Okay okay, this may happen all the time with some kinds of Kickstarters, in fact, I have rather a good record of this with two other Kickstarters I have backed. So let me be clearer. I received a Call of Cthulhu based Kickstarter, on time!  I have backed a total of five CoC Kickstarters, and this is the first to have arrived on time, and indeed the second to have arrived at all, which is quite a big deal considering it was the last one of these five to be funded. Indeed, the Curse of Cthulhu Kickstarters meant I was very hesitant to back this one at all. As it stands, the Sedefkar Simulacrum has arrived here in Montreal. Of course, I the Horror on the Orient Express box set did arrive, if indeed it was only 21 months late. This campaign was to sculpt and produce the Sedefkar Simulacrum, which is the statue that players in the HotOE campaign...

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...

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.