MU Podcast 072 - Romans, and Commies, and Knights, Oh My!

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MU Podcast 072 - Romans, and Commies, and Knights, Oh My!

Post by Keeper Dan » Sun Feb 15, 2015 11:34 pm

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In episode 72, Keepers Dan, and Murf are joined by Chad Bowser, one of the authors of the Cthulhu Invictus core books, lead on the Cthulhu: Dark Ages 2nd Edition, and Cold Harvest. Chad shares some info on what to expect from the new updated and expanded version of Dark Ages, as well as a number of other historical time periods he'd like to work the Mythos into. Murf has some geek bonding with a fellow history enthusiast. Eventually, Jon shows up too!
This episode was recorded on February 15, 2015.

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Main Topic

We chat with Chad about the books he's worked on, past, present, & future. His home website is Chad Bowser.com, and his writing partner & wife's site is Andi Newton.com.

This conversation meanders all over the place. Here are some links to the topics that came up.

Soviet serial killer Andrei Chikatilo (Wiki),Murderpedia article (Not Safe For Work or Children)

Pookie reviewed Cold Harvest.

Murf mentions the BBS show The Game. This is a British Cold War spy thriller that takes place in London in 1972.

The Serbian Black Hand is scary and potentially gameable!

This is not theFranz Ferdinand you're thinking of!

The Thirty Years War is discussed as a setting for a Call of Cthulhu game.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirty_Years%27_War
Murf would like to try something set in the High Middle Ages.

And a combination of Dark Ages and Russia came up regarding Kievan Rus'.

Chad mentioned how cool it would be to have a game set in Egypt during the reign of Pharaoh Akhenaten.

The Last Fun War was discussed, but few believe it was fun, nor the last.

The late, great cinema legend Ray Harryhausen was discussed as an inspiration.
Keeper Dan of the Miskatonic University Podcast

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Re: MU Podcast 072 - Romans, and Commies, and Knights, Oh My

Post by Nvision » Wed Feb 18, 2015 7:55 pm

Poor Jon...you should have blamed your tardiness on being in the grip of maddening dreams, foisted upon you by the slumbering lord of R'lyeh. Let us know when your birthday is coming up, the listeners can pitch in for a new alarm clock (and possibly a backup). :p

Murph, I've been contemplating running some Cthulhu Dark at Necronomicon, and now I think I've found my setting. I'm thinking of alternative (and sinister) reasons for the Battle of Hastings, as a start. What actually killed Harold? Where did all of those dead Normans get to? Hmmm....

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Re: MU Podcast 072 - Romans, and Commies, and Knights, Oh My

Post by cjbowser » Wed Feb 18, 2015 8:40 pm

Thanks for having me on the show, guys! It was a lot of fun, even if Jon did sleep through most of it.

And, if anybody's at Necronomicon and wants to try out a Cthulhu Dark powered sequel to Cold Harvest, come look for me.

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Re: MU Podcast 072 - Romans, and Commies, and Knights, Oh My

Post by Keeper Jon » Wed Feb 18, 2015 10:10 pm

cjbowser wrote:Thanks for having me on the show, guys! It was a lot of fun, even if Jon did sleep through most of it.
And, if anybody's at Necronomicon and wants to try out a Cthulhu Dark powered sequel to Cold Harvest, come look for me.
Thanks for coming onto the show, Chad. Like pork, the other white meat, you're the other Chad on the MUP!!! :cthulhudance:

Nvision wrote:Poor Jon...you should have blamed your tardiness on being in the grip of maddening dreams, foisted upon you by the slumbering lord of R'lyeh. Let us know when your birthday is coming up, the listeners can pitch in for a new alarm clock (and possibly a backup). :p
Yeah... I totally should've blamed it on Mythos-induced fever dreams. Damnit. The think I hate most about big-boy pants is that they don't have sewn-in footies for my cold toesies. :lol:

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Re: MU Podcast 072 - Romans, and Commies, and Knights, Oh My

Post by fox01313 » Thu Feb 19, 2015 1:39 am

Still listening to this good one guys & just wanted to put this up before I forgot. There's a lot of odd wars that would be good backdrops (like Casablanca did) or elements to throw into games as you use ways of dropping people in other time periods.

Blurry Photos did an episode on Akhenaten
http://www.blurryphotos.org/episode-49-akhenaten/
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Re: MU Podcast 072 - Romans, and Commies, and Knights, Oh My

Post by Graham » Sun Feb 22, 2015 12:32 am

I've not had a chance to listen all the way through, but so far so good. A couple of years back I'd stumbled across a YouTube channel that belongs to a 'forensic hairdresser' called Janet Stephens who specializes in re-creating historical hairstyles based on portraits and statues. There is a lot of interesting information amongst the various videos, including one small detail that could trip up the unwary (male) time-traveller in the Roman era.


Janet Stephens: Forensic Hairdresser
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=U ... n5_2LsVazw
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Re: MU Podcast 072 - Romans, and Commies, and Knights, Oh My

Post by Scriven » Mon Feb 23, 2015 12:57 am

A good conversation with an informative, insightful guest. So glad to hear that Cthulhu Dark Ages is being revisited. That said, I for one believe that a historically-grounded high- to late-medieval setting (say, 13th through 15th century) could be tremendously rich territory for mythos gaming without re-hashing the tropes of conventional fantasy games like D&D. I have some ambitions myself in that direction (if ever I can get organized enough to finish writing some of that material). Aside from the recurring catastrophe of the Plague, which provides a lovely (?!) backdrop for a game, a great deal of esoteric knowledge is being discovered, preserved, consolidated and built upon in these years, cheek-by-jowl with a fair amount of eschatological mysticism. Who knows what horrors might emerge from the incautious exploration of the natural world and occult texts by clerks hungry for knowledge and novelty? Or brought forth by the agendas (agendae?) of visionaries inflamed by a consuming desire to hasten the end times? Consult Eco's The Name of the Rose (the book, not the movie) for a gripping look into both of these issues as they relate to the early 14th century.

Apropos of the 30 Years War, by the way, may I also recommend Michael Moorcock's novel The Warhound and the World's Pain? Not Lovecraftian by any stretch, but it does give a good sense of the chaos and conflict of the time. Anyone interested in the period might also profit from John Buchan's Witch Wood -- a novel about witchcraft in a rural Scottish community, set against the political and religious turmoil of that country's civil war of the mid 1640s. Very rich, potential source material for a CoC game there, and it's available for free through Project Gutenberg Australia http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0301331h.html. It's been much on my mind since playing Scott Dorward's "Fairyland" scenario for Cthulhu Dark.

Anyway -- congrats on the upcoming anniversary of the Podcast, gentlemen. Hope to hear all four Keepers represented in the next episode!

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Re: MU Podcast 072 - Romans, and Commies, and Knights, Oh My

Post by trevlix » Mon Feb 23, 2015 2:31 pm

Great podcast as always.

Loved hearing Chad. I was lucky enough to get to meet him at Origins many years ago - he's a great guy and has contributed much to Call of Cthulhu over the years. Glad he's getting the recognition he deserves.
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Re: MU Podcast 072 - Romans, and Commies, and Knights, Oh My

Post by Graham » Mon Feb 23, 2015 4:24 pm

Listened to the rest of the episode, interesting, surprized no one bought up the Hereo War, of which all I have to say is, that Hitler didn't need to look outside Germany for bad examples.

As for the British, well mention Bodyline to an Australian and you'll get some pretty pungent answers.

On to lighter things, look forward to seeing Keeper Murph in Ivinia, or whatever Columbia Games decides to put him in. As a Dr Who fan I've always had a soft spot for "The Golden Voyage of Sinbad"(Tom Baker) & "Sinbad & the Eye of the Tiger" (Patrick Troughton).

As for a preferred era, well I've always felt the French Revolutionary/Napoleonic period (1789-1815) would make for one hell of a background, Spain in particular, after the French invasion it was a wide open country, just do a websearch for "Marshal Stockpot" to get some idea of the kinds of things that went on.
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Re: MU Podcast 072 - Romans, and Commies, and Knights, Oh My

Post by Shannon Mac » Fri Feb 27, 2015 1:30 am

I'm a big fan of CI and CDA having run several scenarios. I plan to do more. I'm running a CDA scenario for several people online which includes one or two people who frequent this board.

I'm looking forward to the expansion of CDA, too. The original author told me he wanted to put in more but Chaosium couldn't afford the extra pages. People who aren't versed in the era tend to get intimidated when it comes to running, I've noticed.

Conversely, b/c CI is something of an homage to old Hollywood Ancient Roman movies, per what Chad B mentioned, it's easier to access.
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