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In this episode, we interrogate returning guest host Oscar Rios, president of Golden Goblin Press, about the status of his successful Kickstarter, The Island of Ignorance. We also have a new lecture from Dr. Gerard that takes us to the bottom of the Ionian sea. For our side topic this time, we respond to a glut of voice mails from listeners. Plus more!

**UPDATE** There was a problem with the audio mix in the first version of this episode. If the typing of the Crier starts too soon, then delete the file and re-download.

Campus Crier 

Guillermo Del Toro created an intro to The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror #19, and someone labeled the majority of the horror references in it.

Oscar mentions Pan’s Labyrinth, and Murph refers to a particularly violent scene at the beginning of the film which you can watch here — it’s pretty ugly, so you’ve been warned.

Some Danish dude has made a sculpture, filled it with human samples, and sent it to the bottom of the sea. Check out the The Hornsleth Deep Storage Project. And then tell us how much you think it is wrong.

Sandy Petersen has started an online marketplace for Lovecraftiana called CthulhuCurious.com.

The intent behind it is to have a central clearinghouse for people to be able to find all sorts of Lovecraftiana, or Cthulhu-related items. It’s just getting started, but I have hopes it will grow larger. I have been asked to be a sort of moderator for it, to ensure that it stays true to its roots, and keeps everything horror/lovecraft/cthulhu oriented. Green Eye Games will certainly sell products there (as well as on our website), and other people are already starting to use it. – Sandy Petersen

Game designer Rafael Chandler said he’s planning to release a long-awaited action-horror game called Pandemonio soon. It’s a mashup of two previously released games, one where you fight demons, and another where you fight angels.

There’s also a new Call of Cthulhu live play podcast called Cthulhu & Friends.

Finally, a big thank you goes out to new forum member Lexicon for sponsorship! We appreciate It! Your support keeps the show running!

Lecture Series 

This week, we’ve got a new lecture from Dr. Gerard on the topic of: “The Ancient Greek Computer”

Here’s a video from Michael Wright showing off his replica model of the device.

The podcast Blurry Photos also covers it, among other mysterious devices.

Side Topic

For our side topic this week, we responding to some of the voice mails we received since the last episode.

Forum member Fallingtower recommends asking players to roll up two characters at the same time that are related in some way, so in case of the first character’s sudden and inevitable demise, the second character’s entrance will be easy to justify. Chad mentions asking players to create a “dynasty,” a family or workplace that can serve as a pool for subsequent characters. Oscar mentions that second characters in his games are often interesting NPCs that are already in the story, to be fleshed out by the player.

Bret Kramer calls in with some nice words about our recent coverage of jazz-age journalism.

Lexicon asks about the use of music and sound effects to add drama and ambiance during games, and we each have a slightly different answer.

Keeper Angelo calls to ask for insight about an old scenario called The Brockford House.

Main Topic 

With Oscar Rios as our guest this week, we spend some time performing a postmortem of his successful Kickstarter for the third Cthulhu Companion, the Island of Ignorance, and talk about what he got right as well as some lessons learned.

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