Mysteries of Montreal

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 30: Person you'd like to game with. I've been incredibly fortunate in my gaming career to have gamed with a lot of good people (you know who you are). I've even had a chance, mostly through Necronomicon, to play with some gaming luminaries, at least in the Call of Cthulhu world (including Mike Mason, Scott Dorward, Keeper Chad, Lynne Hardy, Oscar Rios, and many others). One of my bucket list people to game with was John Wick, of Legend of the 5 Rings fame. I say was, as earlier this year, I played in his Shadow Throne game. This was really great. My favourite clan in my favourite game run by a writer and GM I have long respected. I learned a lot. Unfortunately, for reasons, I could only play in 3 sessions, but I had a blast. I may go into this more in another post. Stay tuned, and comment if you want more info. So, who does this leave? I think I'd like to get to the table with Kenneth Hite, or even Robin Laws. That would be a real coup.

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...

The convention is not only about games and panels, it is about so much more. Indeed any visitor to the con can only see a fraction of what is available. What else did I do? Well, here's a selection. Ars Necronomica I actually stumbled into the Ars Necronomica event by accident. I had indeed planned to look it out, as my previous visit had left me rather impressed. As it was, this year it was not in the same place, but in a vacant storefront in the same arcade as the Lovecraft Arts & Sciences bookstore . The arcade itself was sadly much less populated than on previous visits, with most storefronts lying empty, so I guess it was an easy space for them to have access to. I was less than impressed with the space, and indeed with the number of works on show. While the website linked above admits the scope of the show to be 'curtailed' from previous years, it was still rather disappointing, and I was in and out in about 10 minutes. I think I was more impressed with the art ...

As previously mentioned, I had planned to go to more panels this year, making the most of this side of the convention. In previous years, I had indeed managed quite a few, but mostly on the gaming side. It turns out that was mostly the case this year again, but I tried. There was talk that more of the panels would be recorded and made available in some format, probably on Youtube once they've been edited. Once I hear where and how to access these, I will be sure to post that on the blog. Writing this out and reading it back, I seem to be more down on the panels than I thought I would be going in. In a way, this is just me working through what I think. Take these reviews with a pinch of salt. Literary Panels I made it to two solely literary panels. The first being: The Poetry of Edgar Allen Poe and its Long Shadow Michael Cisco, Christa Carmen, Frank Coffman, F. Brett Cox (M), Levi Leland, Sean Moreland. This was an early morning session, and one of the first of the Con. Four academ...

 I have been back from the con for a few days, and I'm finally in a place to put up a couple of posts of my experiences.  This was my third trip to NecronomiCon Providence, but I've not been for 5 years due to circumstances beyond my control.  I had planned less gaming and more attending the other parts of the con. The panels, and other event surrounding the con. Well, that was the plan. We'll see in the other posts to come how much of the rest of the Con I managed to see. For games played, I had signed up for 3 games in advance, with no game planned on Thursday evening. I had wanted to go along to the opening ceremony. However, our travel timings didn't allow for that, and in the end I had an evening free.  Turns out, there was a space at the Delta Green table Mathieu had a game at, so I joined in there. We played through Music from a Darkened Room , with Handler  Tim Deschene . This was my first time playing Delta Green with the actual Delta Green rules (and ...

  This year I shall be attending NecronomiCon Providence . I missed a Con, back in 2022, as Covid travel rules, and other travel got in the way (we went back to the UK that summer, and I could not be in 2 places at the same time). This year, the Con seems to be back at full strength, and I am really looking forward to it. An added bonus is that there is a group of 5 of us heading down from Montreal. Two of whom I have only chatted to briefly online, but come highly recommended. I have also planned my game sessions. two with Oscar Rios, one of which was supposed to be a 1920s game, but both games are now planned as Cthulhu Invictus games. I do not mind this, as if you're going to do Invictus, Oscar is your man. I had tried to get into Matthew Sanderson's game on Thursday evening, but it booked out on 10 seconds flat. Finally, I have booked a place at the Gatsby and the Great Race game. Yes I have played this before, but I believe there is more juice to squeeze from that particu...

As I prepare myself to go to NecronomiCon 2024, I was running through old posts, when I found this draft from October 2019, when I had put together links from various panels and podcasts relating to the Con, yet I had never got round to publishing the post. So here I am, five years later, and I will post this, but only one I've checked that all the links are still valid.  The first post on the panels from the 2019 Con can be found here . King in Yellow Guerrilla Panel Victory at Home and Beyond: Investigators for Social Equality  The panel I did not make it to but would have liked to. Ghost Eater HP Lovecraft Literary Podcast. May be behind Patreon paywall. Miskatonic University Podcast / Good Friends of Jackson Elias  podcast cage match And finally, although not a panel as such, but episode 182 of the MUP is a  debrief of NecronomiCon 2019 , including Oscar Rios. Of particular interest, I get mentioned. Not named, but the guy Oscar is talking about at the table...

As mentioned previously , when I was at NecronomiCon this year, I picked up a book by local Providence writers  C. M. Eddy Jr , and his wife Muriel. I had not read any of their wprks, in fact, I still have not read any of their fiction. The H. P. Lovecraft Literary podcast did an Eddy story, " The Ghost Eater " as their live show at NecronomiCon Providence 2019, and Ken doesn't hold back with his feelings on the story, and as Eddy as a writer. In fact, is was this performance (which I had to leave before the end, due to gaming commitments) that made me pick up this book in the dealers hall at the Con. I had seen  Fenham Publishing  on my last visit, and paid them no heed, but now I knew more, I went to the stall and picked up " The Gentleman From Angell Street " . Fenham Publishing, is in fact run by a grandson of the Eddys, and publishes all of their works. On purchasing the book, he also included a couple of photocopies of various newspaper articles eithe...

Of course, I could not attend NecronomiCon PVD 2019 without passing through the dealers hall. I did show much restraint, as there were a great many wonderful things on offer, but I did have a bit of a shopping list in mind, especially when it came to the Chaosium stall. It may have been a few weeks ago now but better late than never! From the Chaosium stall, I picked up the 2nd edition of  Terror Australis . I will be running Masks soon(ish) so this was a must. Berlin: The Wicked City  was there in all its Hardcover glory, before general release. This book looks so pretty, I couldn't not. I don't know when I plan to run games in based in Berlin, but having flicked through it, it certainly could be used as a template for a modern city sourcebook. So, Montreal: The City of Sin anyone? The scenario especially written for the Con was also a must. I didn't manage to get a seat at the table for any of the slots where Jon Hook was running The Shadow Over Providence , but I as...

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...

As I mentioned in my previous post, this time round, I didn't get as to participate in as wide a range of activities at the Con as I had on my previous visit. Mostly due to me participating in more games, but also due to the timing of these games, and what I think was a bit of a change in scheduling of the gaming panels. In 2017, all the gaming panels were in the morning, leaving time for games or other things afterward. Also last time, I don't recall as many games being scheduled over the lunch period. This meant that I missed out on the MUP/Good Friends podcast on the Friday (due to Extra Life), and most of the H.P.Lovecraft Literary podcast due to my game with Mike Mason. Mike said the game was originally slated for a 2pm start, but when the schedule was released, this had changed to a 12.30 start. I'm okay with missing these, as they were recorded, and will be released, so in the end, I am not missing out on anything. Another thing that I did not do this time, was t...

Last weekend, I participated in my second trip to the bi-annual event that is NecronomiCon Providence. To be quite honest, I had reservations. I had such a great time last time, that I worried the Con would not stand up to my expectations. Thankfully, I was wrong.  Last time, I posted a post for each day, but this time, I'm breaking it down in terms of events I attended, starting with games. To be quite frank, I think for me, this time was much more centred around the games I wanted to play. I think I went to a lot less panels, and this was partly to do with how the games I really wanted to play were timed. I also think the games panels were a little more spread out in time and place this year, but more of that later. I arrived later than I intended on Thursday evening, due to a GPS blip taking me through Boston at rush hour, but I did manage to join my table for Lovecraftesque before it was too late. The games was hosted by Matt Hawkes . I say hosted, as he was not the G...

Please excuse the delay between the rest of the NecronomiCon posts and this one. There is no good reason for it other than life getting in the way. These were taken whilst wandering round the town on various days, either as part of the bus tour, or just walking. Unfortunately I did not make it onto the walking tour. Maybe next time. The image above is a view of the two main hotels of the Con. On the Right, the Omni, where Kris and I were staying, and on the left, the Biltmore, where the bulk of the literature talks were, as well as the gaming room on the 18th floor. The Biltmore is supposedly haunted, by quite a number of ghosts, but we didn't run into any. Inside the Biltmore, are some ver old elevators, including one in the central lobby with the sign opposite attached. Yes that's right, it is an unused glass elevator, to be used for time travel only. No I don't know what they mean (please excuse the fuzzy picure). The bus tour I took, went around some of the mor...