Mysteries of Montreal

  Merry Christmas to you all. For something a little festive, may I suggest the H.P.Podcraft's reading s of H.P.L.s Christmas poetry. Set one , set two and set three .    As for me, I have a bunch of posts lined up for the new year. I hope to use the next couple of weeks off to make some headway.  Here's to a mysterious 2014.

Been away on holidays, where I planned to read through the new quickstart rules for 7th edition Call of Cthulhu, however, it was not to be. I still plan to do this, and will post my thoughts on the new edition, and how it differs from 6th (and previous) editions of Call of Cthulhu, but in the mean time, here's omething a little different in tone: Feminist Yog-Sothoth .

The wonders of the modern day publishing system, allowing new authors to be easily published is something I really treasure of this internet age. The barriers to self publishing have been lowered, and the advent of crowd sourcing makes projects of many kinds even more attainable. To this end, I bring to your attention " Baby Teeth ". What a great name for a collection of horror short stories by fledling authors.  Based on the chills and shivers of the creepy things children have been heard to say at the most unexpected times, this collection is an assortment of unexpected frights, nervous giggles and often poignant reflections on life, childhood, and the terrors of growing up. Mostly horror, you'll also find stories in this book of fantasy, science fiction, crime and even comedy, from a wide range of established and emerging writers (36 stories from 26 authors!). I must admit, I have only heard of one of the authors, and he is a friend of mine , but I like the set...

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...

Six and a half years? Has it really been that long? That's when the first discussions and recruitment took place for the Masks of Nyarlathotep Companion over on the YSDC forums . At the time, I was running my New York Campaign, and had started to plant the seeds of the Campaign, by introducing Jackson Elias and preparing myself in other ways. With this in mind, I was hugely anticipating the information, maps, handouts and other additional material that was being discussed for inclusion in this work. I was worried however, that it wouldn't come out in time for me to use in my campaign. I need not have worried, not because of the speed of publication of this document, far from it, it took a lot more time that I anticipated, but for the closer to home reason of my gaming group and CoC game folding for reasons of life getting in the way of gaming (isn't it always the case?). However, I was very pleased to see the following news on the YSDC front page . In the words...

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...

On my wargaming blog , I have been going through rather a Steampunk phase, with the release of Dystopian Legions amongst other things. Which is why I clicked on a link for a free version of the RPG Cogs, Cakes & Swordsticks at DriveThru RPG. Since it is an RPG, I though it best to cross post the links here. As I have only just downloaded it, I can not as yet comment on the game itself, but the simplicity of the system as indicated on the blurb suggests it may be a game that does not require a huge time investment to play (unlike some CoC campaigns). Thus, is of interest to the time challenged gamer like myself. The game is published by Modiphius Games , publishers of the Achtung Cthulhu range of games (see, there is a relevance!) which is another project I have half an eye on, even though I'm not too keen on WWII gaming itself.