MUP 113 - A Group's 1-Minute Horror with Mayor McPain

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Keeper Dan
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MUP 113 - A Group's 1-Minute Horror with Mayor McPain

Post by Keeper Dan » Mon Nov 21, 2016 4:36 am

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In this episode, all four hosts convene to share more thoughts on investigator groups. Plus, we announce the winners of our One Minute of Horror Audio Contest! This episode was recorded on, November 14, 2016.
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Campus Crier
Someone called nonhumanuser on the MU forums launched a website on Halloween that purports to be a trove of stories, articles, resources and actual plays focusing on horror and the Cthulhu Mythos. It'll be "weekly additions for your reading pleasure and resources for the Call of Cthulhu RPG."

The 2016 Shotgun Scenario contest has been announced. That’s a contest for short Delta Scenario seed ideas. Entries can be of any length, but entries longer than 1500 words will only get half a vote during the judging. Deadline is Saturday, December 10.

MU thread on the Shotgun Scenario Contest >>
Previous examples here >>

One of Chaosium's old-school supplements — Keith Herber's The Fungi From Yuggoth — has been adapted into a fully dramatized 1930s-style radio drama. And, inspired by the game upon which it is based, this production features four different endings! Dark Adventure Radio Theatre's [url=ttps://store.hplhs.org/collections/dark-adventure-radio-theatre/products/dark-adventure-radio-theatre-the-brotherhood-of-the-beast?variant=24223931718]THE BROTHERHOOD OF THE BEAST[/url] is available now as a 3 CD set or digital download. And there's the incredible Deluxe Edition, featuring six pounds (!) of props...

Experimental music maker Brian Lavelle is offering a special code for MUP listeners to get a 50% discount off of his downloads - check out his website and use the code "gopods" to redeem this offer at checkout.

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Chad unleashed "Mayor McPain" and his pet conch "Tickles" to Edwin Nagy (see photo below) and a group of unsuspecting players as part of an Extra Life charity event (along with a donation from MUP) at CarnageCon in Vermont. See the block at the end of these notes for full Dungeon Crawl Classics stats from Jon.


Chaosium News
A Call of Cthulhu 7th Ed update on Kickstarter—TLDR summary:
- Pulp Cthulhu and Doors to Darkness will start shipping *soon!
- The 4 Keeper Decks (phobias, characters, events, and weapons) will also start shipping to backers this week. Depending on location, they will come with Pulp and Doors, or separately.
- Pulp Cthulhu, Doors to Darkness and the Keeper Decks will be available to order on Chaosium.com later this week (NOTE: backers will get their rewards shipped to them before we ship any regular new sales.).

Call of Cthulhu 7e 1000% Backer T-Shirt


MUP News
After a huge kerflustersnafu with the MU email system, we have launched two new show email addresses.

For feedback, please send everything to: mup.feedback@gmail.com.

And for future contest entries, we'll be using: mup.contests@gmail.com.


Card Catalog
From the Graham Special Collections Wing of the Orne Library:
“Airplane Photography by Herbert Eugene Ives” (1920)


Topics
One Minute of Horror Audio Contest Results:

1st Place -- "Straight To Voicemail" by John F Rauchert
(Credits: voice generated by CWSpeak)
2nd Place -- "Playtime Daddy" by Trevlix
(Credits: Hammering-J_Blow-[url=tel:2014925903]2014925903[/url].mp3 | License: Public Domain | Recorded by J Blow | http://soundbible.com/2028-Hammering.html
Creaking Door Spooky-SoundBible.com-1909842345.mp3 | License: Public Domain | Recorded by stephan | http://soundbible.com/1717-Creaking-Door-Spooky.html
50725__rutgermuller__footsteps-on-tiles.wav | License: Creative Commons | Recorded by RutgerMuller | https://www.freesound.org/people/RutgerMuller/sounds/50725/
320376__yadronoff__axe-chopping.wav | License: Creative Commons | Recorded by yadronoff | https://www.freesound.org/people/yadronoff/sounds/320376/)
3rd Place -- Cohesion5 by Ben, a.k.a. "Spiggy"
(Credits: all sounds are original.)
Amazing work. We'll be in touch soon about prizes!

And thank you to all of our contestants! This was an amazing pool of submissions, which made judging a blast and yet extremely difficult. We are well aware of how much work went into these pieces, so thank you for all of your efforts! We plan to play them all, festival-style, in an upcoming special side episode.


Investigator Groups, Part II
Here's a good thread on YSDC with some general categories for investigator groups. The 7e rulebook also outlines some categories and examples.

A few groups from RL history surfaced during the discussion, including the Priory of Sion, and the Galleanists.

MAYOR MCPAIN

Mayor McPain: Init +0; Atk weapon +2 melee (1d6+2) or prattle (special); AC 14; HD 3d10+4; MV 12’ or 20’ leaping; Act 1d20, 1d16; SP food motivated; SV Fort +0, Ref +1, Will +2; AL C.

It is widely believed that Mayor McPain is an errant demon whose sole purpose is to spread chaos across the land, but the actual details of his origins are not known. Mayor McPain is a huge creature; he carries a wide variety of instruments that he wields with a fury only the truly heroic dare to face. Mayor McPain cackles with laughter wherever he goes, so no one needs to worry about being ambushed by the mayor. Should Mayor McPain take enough damage to kill him, he is instead banished to the plane of chaos where he recoups from his wounds. Mayor McPain has a pet chaos conch named Tickles.

Prattle - Mayor McPain is constantly giggling and chuckling at voices telling him jokes that only he can hear. Mayor McPain can make two attacks per round, and one of them can be a prattle attack. When Mayor McPain prattles, he spews several lines of nonsense at his target in an effort to bamboozle his foe. Similar to a spell attack, Mayor McPain must succeed against a DC 12 attack roll against a single target within 10'. If successful, the victim must make a successful Will Save against the value rolled in the prattle attack. If the victim's save fails, the victim is overwhelmed by vertigo for 1d3 rounds; victims suffering from vertigo cannot attack, move, or cast spells.

Food Motivated - Mayor McPain's weakness is food. If adventurers throw food-stuff at or near Mayor McPain he immeditately stops all of his actions to collect and devour the discarded food. Mayor McPain is only attracted to solid foods and food-stuff clearly recognized as food; he is not attracted to liquids. It takes Mayor McPain 1d3 rounds to collect and eat a single reasonable serving of food. Mayor McPain will even ignore attacks against his person in his quest to collect and gobble the food; even it if results in his banishment from this plane.

TICKLES THE CHAOS CONCH

Tickles the Chaos Conch: Init +1; Atk tentacles +4 melee (1d8 + rot); AC 12; HD 2d8+2; MV 10’; Act 1d20; SP tough; SV Fort +2, Ref +0, Will -1; AL C.

Chaos conchs are nasty little domesticated creatures from the plane of chaos. This particular creature is Mayor McPain's loyal companion. Chaos conchs can stretch their tentacles to attack a target up to 10' away. With a successful hit from its tentacles, the chaos conch also inflicts the target with rot. The victim must make a Reflex Save against DC 15, or suffer additional 1d10 points of damage against an unarmored victim, otherwise a victim's armor value is permanently reduced by two, (AC minus 2). Each successful hit by the chaos conchs tentacles can inflict more rot damage, (if the saving throw fails).

Tough - Due to the creature's chaotic biology, all non-magical attacks deal minimal damage. Magical weapons and spells inflict their normal damage.
Girl with knife photo by Gabriela Camerotti. Use granted by Creative Commons.
Keeper Dan of the Miskatonic University Podcast

trevlix
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Re: MUP 113 - A Group's 1-Minute Horror with Mayor McPain

Post by trevlix » Tue Nov 22, 2016 1:09 am

Too awesome! So excited to have won 2nd!

And yes, that was my daughter. Murf pretty much nailed it on the head with how it happened. She was a little leery about doing it, but also excited to as she keeps asking me who won. :)
[Trafford: Insanity: 4, Exhaustion: 2]

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jfrauchert
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Re: MUP 113 - A Group's 1-Minute Horror with Mayor McPain

Post by jfrauchert » Tue Nov 22, 2016 1:29 am

I thought the creepy little girl part was the best. :cthulhudance:

Dr. Gerard
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Re: MUP 113 - A Group's 1-Minute Horror with Mayor McPain

Post by Dr. Gerard » Tue Nov 22, 2016 4:40 am

trevlix wrote:Too awesome! So excited to have won 2nd!

And yes, that was my daughter. Murf pretty much nailed it on the head with how it happened. She was a little leery about doing it, but also excited to as she keeps asking me who won. :)
Congratulations! That one totally gave me chills. Great use of a twist in under one minute, too.

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Re: MUP 113 - A Group's 1-Minute Horror with Mayor McPain

Post by KeeperAntUK » Tue Nov 22, 2016 8:36 am

Congratulations to all three of the winners ... Awesome job :D

Also, thanks for running the competition MU dudes .. For me, and I'm sure everyone else, one of the great things about MU Podcast is being able to contribute. You do a fantastic job making it an inclusive experience for everybody.

Go Pods Forever (Or at least until The Stars Are Right!)
Ant

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Re: MUP 113 - A Group's 1-Minute Horror with Mayor McPain

Post by spiggy » Wed Nov 23, 2016 4:36 am

I'm really REALLY honored. Thank you so much. If you liked "Cohesion 5" then check out my experimental / ambient work here - https://ratmother.bandcamp.com/

"Straight to Voicemail" was so effective. A fantastically chilling take on a classic Lovecraftian trope. Terrifying.

As a father, I found "Playtime Daddy" deeply disturbing. Well done!

Dr. Gerard
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Re: MUP 113 - A Group's 1-Minute Horror with Mayor McPain

Post by Dr. Gerard » Wed Nov 23, 2016 6:34 pm

spiggy wrote:I'm really REALLY honored. Thank you so much. If you liked "Cohesion 5" then check out my experimental / ambient work here - https://ratmother.bandcamp.com/

"Straight to Voicemail" was so effective. A fantastically chilling take on a classic Lovecraftian trope. Terrifying.

As a father, I found "Playtime Daddy" deeply disturbing. Well done!
Thanks for the entry and congratulations to you, Spiggy! I will most certainly check out your other work.

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Re: MUP 113 - A Group's 1-Minute Horror with Mayor McPain

Post by Mahaffa » Thu Nov 24, 2016 8:45 am

Seriously a great job by all three top contest submitters, creepy stuff. I can't wait to hear the rest of them!

More contests like this would be super duper fun guys, so get on it! (Just Kidding ;-p)

No, but seriously... hold more contests...

Thanks again guys.
GO PODS!!!


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Re: MUP 113 - A Group's 1-Minute Horror with Mayor McPain

Post by Shimmin Beg » Mon May 01, 2017 8:08 pm

Hey guys!

So I finally got round to listening here (I'm catching up... such a backlog!) and the section on investigator groups interested me. I have a few oddball ideas that might give someone some inspiration.

This was touched on a bit after I wrote it down, but films and suchlike. Specifically, what I thought of was expert consultants. You have a group of folks hired to advise on specific aspects of a film, and driven out to a remote lot somewhere. The adventure might begin on the set, in the hotel they're getting put up in (probably not the same one as the actors, either), during a leisure trip, even on their way back once they've got to know each other. The advantage here is you specifically have a group with a good level of quite different skills, who know each other, all in the same boat. And it's no problem for them to be outlandish because it's just what you need for the film. Of course there's a lady with 80% lockpick, because it's a crime flick. Of course there's an ex-marine, a professor of physics and someone who lived wild in the mountains for twenty years and then wrote a book about it.

Stranded passengers. You were all at the same small airport and things started going south. Maybe bad weather, maybe pure economics. You bonded over a few hellish days waiting to hear when you'd finally get to go home, and then discovered the company went bust entirely. You get that intense, fast-paced friendship that intimate and stressful situations create, and that kind of manic weirdness that goes with those situations. Sure you'd stick together - there's nobody else and you care weirdly intensely about these people now. Sure you'd look into something strange happening, because you're going kind of loopy and have nothing else to do, and maybe it'll help somehow? Sure you'll do something actually quite dangerous because between the loopiness, egging each other on and the frustrated rage, you don't really accept the danger.

Contestants for a game show! There's a whole load of ways you could do this. There's the whole survivor style, where they deliberarely dump you on an island with CCTV or whatever, and then Mythos happens. You could be on a studio panel game and putting up at a cheap hotel, or even just somewhere around the studio. If it's a team game, you could have bonded over the course of the series. Plus, being put into teams tends to create that cameraderie anyway. Again, you have an excuse to have people who're very good at very different things be together.

Sports fans are another option. You're returning from the match, full of team spirit with the half-dozen others who support your team, when Suddenly Mythos. To intensify the bond, you might have another connection, like also working at the same company. Here's one: you all recently lost your jobs one way or another, and ended up temping at the same crappy place and getting increasingly hopeless about finding another good job. The only thing that makes it bearable is finding these other folks in a similar boat, who are fellow fans, so you bond intensely. And again; you're doing something basic now, but you had different jobs before so different skillsets.

Another weird one: I know this is a thing that exists, but I can't work out how to find one. Society of people with the same name (or, okay, any other weirdly specific niche). I've definitely seen at least one of these referred to. It's bizarre, and it's a great opportunity to cram together very different people. You have people from all over the world potentially, with wildly different backgrounds and experience and skills, who've all got to know each other and have something unusual in common that pushes them to bond. Plus, all of you are the kind of people who'd actually join a society like that, which means you're oddballs to one degree or another. Exactly the kind of people you want to form an investigator group.

In terms of the door-to-door salesman idea, I think it's great. I know you had some concerns about exactly how to get them into a mystery together, given they tend to split up to work. I think there are two other ways you could handle this.
One is pretty simple. The group get put up at a cheap motel somewhere, and that's where things begin. They have to spend their working hours split up - giving them potential to visit different places and access different sources of information! - but afterwards they get together and try to work out what the heck is going on.
The other one is to bring it in early. Let's say their team is getting shipped to a particular estate to blitz it. They start in one spot and work outwards. Before they have a chance to split up much, one of them discovers something weird at the second house they visit, and the obvious thing is to fetch the others.

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