Mysteries of Montreal

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 .

This real life tome of forbidden knowledge is one that has been capturing the imaginations of occultists, historians, and of course gamers for centuries. If you have never heard of it, then, first off, why are you here? and secondly, go look it up (you can listen to podcasts on it here and here , or just read the Wikipedia page ) then come back! Ok, so now you are up to speed on this very cool but unique document, great, you can go online, loft some images and away you go, instant tome of awesomeness. But wait! Now, you can have your very own paper copy of this document. It is available for sale on amazon.ca  or at Yale University . At $50, it's not at all an unreasonable price for a hardback book. If only I had more space on my bookshelves. There are many options as to how this can be used. As a reference for the occult. Handouts can be easily made from it's pages, either as red herrings, or as clues for Investigators to follow. The real life history of the book is ...

What a wonderful title to a games supplement. I've just backed the Hudson and Brand Kickstater . It looks like it's going to be a very well put together supplement Hudson & Brand: Inquiry Agents of the Obscureis the first in our ‘Safe House’ series where players of the Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game (published by Chaosium, Inc), have a home-base for their characters to work out of. At hand, they will have resources, a gun range, a collection of monographs on various subjects, a small library, three members of staff, and property consisting of offices and lodgings in the very heart of London. One of the new options in 7th edition Call of Cthulhu that I have yet to use, but I see great promise in is the Organisations from the Player's handbook. Groups of researchers with a common goal, that provides an infrastructure for the Investigators to fall back on, and a means of easily introducing new Investigators without too much trouble. This has not been an issue for ...

We all know what a Blue Moon is, right? A second full moon in a month. A rare, but not unknown event. But a Black Moon? A Black Moon is the opposite of a Blue Moon if you will. A second New Moon in a month. Why am I telling you this? Well for those of us in the western hemisphere, we can see one this week, on the 30th of September . They are not that rare, coming along every 32 months or so, but as the New Moon is not visible, then a second one in a month is almost literaly an event that cannot be seen. The name, however is so evokative that it is just screaming to be used in a scenario. Here are some seeds that come to mind. The Black Moon, being an astrological/astronomical event, is a time where certain rituals or spells have a greater effect. The Black Moon, being a type of New Moon, means the sky is darker, allowing for a better view of the stars. what stars are visible now that are not always so? What does this mean for rituals, or alien visitors? The Black Moon is not...

An interview with Horror on the Orient Express (amongst other things) author Mark Morrison is up on YSDC , to mark the 25th anniversary of the release of the campaign. Also included, some spoilers on an upcoming project, with HotOE links!

Frontenac Beer A photograph of a group of men and women drinking Frontenac Beer . This was taken by Rice Studio in Montreal. Brassiere Frontenac was located in the Mile End of Montreal from 1913 until 1926. This image was possibly used in an advertising campaign. James Bedford (Jimmy) Rice of Rice Studio was reknown for his work photographing the hockey players of the Montreal Canadiens, the Wanderers and the Maroons. Likely this was taken as part of an advertising campaign to show the men and women of The U.S. that coming north of the border to drink Frontenac Beer was one civilised way to get around prohibition. This makes a great 'before' photograph for a group of adventurers. Especially the guy in the turban!

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...