Introduce Yourself

Pharmakon · Post by **Pharmakon** » Wed Aug 08, 2012 2:12 pm

Keeper Jon wrote:Hi Pharmakon,

I lived in 'ol Red Stick for a few years after I got out of the Army. For the life of me, I cannot remember the name of the comic book shop and game shop I used to haunt down there. I had some good times down there.

Laissez les bons temps rouler!

Was the gaming shop called Little Wars? We've gone through many comic book shops, but our gaming shop is still alive and well!

Keeper Jon · Post by **Keeper Jon** » Wed Aug 08, 2012 5:47 pm

Pharmakon wrote:Was the gaming shop called Little Wars? We've gone through many comic book shops, but our gaming shop is still alive and well!

Little Wars!!! Yes! That was it!

Back when Space Hulk first came out, Little Wars hosted a mini tournament in their store, and out of sheer luck... I won! I won a $25 gift certificate that I spent on Magic Cards, (back when The Dark was about to release). I was such a fool back then... or at least I hope I'm less of a fool now.

Tariq · Post by **Tariq** » Sat Aug 11, 2012 12:39 am

Hello,

I've played CoC as a kid (back in the mid 80s to early 90s) and I'm getting back into the swing of the game ... Currently penning a couple of scenarios in a mixed format, so the MU podcasts have been a fantastic resource!

So far I'm nearly finished with the 1920's story, next up a background campaign from the 1890s with investigators aged 7.

Now all I need to do is figure out how I pit infants against the unspeakable horrors of the mythos...

Post by **Keeper Dan** » Sat Aug 11, 2012 9:54 pm

Fantastic! Are your players going to get character sheets like what you made for Lewis?

Tariq · Post by **Tariq** » Mon Aug 13, 2012 11:29 pm

Slightly different take - keeper Dan, I've got a police report for street urchins which might be more appropriate for some of the pcs.

Though there will be a couple of toff kids and a couple of middle class kids. The middies will be school records, and the minor aristocracy something else... Any suggestions most welcome!

Once the scenario and handouts are done I'd like some feedback from the forum if that's okay?

Post by **Keeper Dan** » Mon Aug 13, 2012 11:41 pm

I'd love to give folks feedback for their campaigns. Start a new thread for them, and post them as spoilers for your campaign though. It won't be as fun if your players pop in and read them.

Dr. Gerard · Post by **Dr. Gerard** » Thu Aug 23, 2012 6:02 pm

Hello all!

I started gaming back in the early 80s, but didn’t start playing Call of Cthulhu until I was in college in the early 90s. In high school, I mostly ran a superhero game called Villains and Vigilantes, and sometimes an obscure swashbuckling game called Flashing Blades. I played in a very long-running fantasy campaign in a game called The Fantasy Trip, a system that eventually became GURPS.

I’ve always been a horror literature fan, and obsessively wrote horror stories when I was a kid. But I have to admit I didn’t discover Lovecraft until my CoC Keeper in college leant me a paperback collection of HPL’s stories. I was irreversibly hooked at that point. Hopeless.

After college, I continued reading and writing horror, but pretty much stopped role playing for fifteen years. I started getting the itch to play again during a long stint overseas, but there weren’t any players around. I stumbled on a few very helpful podcasts and listened to “Actual Play” sessions until my ears got sore. I can’t stress enough how much those podcasts helped me – the Game Master tips were great to hear, but it was invaluable just eaves dropping on a community of role players and knowing that there were others out there who had a passion for the hobby.

Then, in 2010, I moved back to the states (Arizona) and drafted players for a Call of Cthulhu game by posting a little yellow sticky note on a bulletin board at the local game store. I was pretty nervous about running a game for the first time since high school. I was VERY nervous about meeting random gamers. I kind of expected everyone to be like Napoleon Dynamite or Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons. But what I found was a group of very thoughtful, creative and mature adults who enjoyed a good story. Best. Group. Ever. I ran a series of one-shots and a campaign for them that went very well. I’ve also run scenarios in a rules-light system called Cthulhu Dark that I enjoy a lot. The gaming world has totally changed since 1993...for the much better, as far as I'm concerned.

In terms of current gaming, I’m pretty much exclusively interested in the horror genre, and I like my fiction pretty dark.

I started listening to the MU-Podcast when I first heard Chris Lackey announce it on News from Pnakotus this spring. I think the show was in its 6th episode at the time, but I started with the first one and quickly caught up. Even though I’m pretty familiar with the rules, it’s great to hear a discussion of different ways each Keeper uses them, and how the mechanics affect the story (and I said as much in a recorded comment in Episode 7).

I do a lot of research and playing with audio for my job (I'm...not really a history professor, if that's not already glaringly clear), so when Dan mentioned they might be interested in regular contributions, I pitched the history segment. It combines several unconnected interests of mine, so it’s a pleasure to create.

Wordcraftian, ThePhantomGhoul, Barl0we and Pharmakon, welcome to the forum! Three Freshmen and one Senior! I agree with Dan and Jon – it’s awesome to see brand new players here and knowing the podcast is spawning new Keepers (maniacal laugh). Also awesome to have veterans around to mentor (corrupt) the incoming class.

I can totally relate; as I mentioned above, podcasts really encouraged me to come back to gaming. If you want to cram even more gaming content into your ears, I also recommend listening to actual plays from The Gaming Grunts podcast – look for the “Day of the Beast,” “Masks of Myarlathotep” and “The Haunting” episodes. I think many other good places for APs have already been mentioned, like RPPR Actual Play, The Unspeakable Oath Actual Play and Skype of Cthulhu. There are also whole campaigns recorded by the folks at YSDC.

Anyway, that's the Dr. Gerard story. Great to meet all you "early birds" -- looking forward to more posts!

Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!

-Dr. Gerard

TAK · Post by **TAK** » Thu Aug 23, 2012 8:13 pm

Hi all,

I'm Toni, usually go online by TAK or TeeAaaKoo, depending. I am living in a smallish town in Sweden, but don't dare call me a Swede, I'm Finnish born and raised, I only moved to sweden some 12 years ago due to work. I won't say who I work for here, but if you listen to Skype Of Cthulhu, you might pick up some hints, unless Jim edits them out (I'm not sure, he might) to protect the innocent.

So, as you might guess, I play CoC weekly with the folks from Skype Of Cthulhu. Before I started playing in SoC, I had a 10+ year break due to moving to Sweden from Finland. Right now all my gaming is done online... well, actually atm SoC is all my playing, but I hope that will change shortly, I'm in talks with 2 different groups to fill my weekend with more gaming.

Scriven · Post by **Scriven** » Wed Aug 29, 2012 3:49 pm

Greetings, all --

After about 20 years away from playing RPGs, I'm getting back into the hobby with a particular interest in Call of Cthulhu and the BRP model in general. I started out in the late 70s/early 80s with D&D and Traveller, and tried a smattering of other games until my original group of players broke up in the early 90s. I'd been a Lovecraft reader since AD&D hit the market (HPL was mentioned in the inspirational reading section at the back of the DM Guide), but didn't discover the Call of Cthulhu RPG until 1992, when most of my gaming friends parted ways after college. It was a watershed moment, because I'd long been growing tired of the "power fantasy" model of D&D and similar games, and was ready for something darker and grittier. I ran only three sessions of CoC before life, academic and work obligations put my gaming activity on hold for a long, long time.

Like Dr. Gerard, I got the itch to start playing again around 2010 when I discovered YSDC and other blogs/podcasts, especially the campaigns and one-offs posted by Paul MacLean and the Bradford/Innsmouth House Players group. I haven't found a live play (in person) Call of Cthulhu group just yet, and am not likely to anytime soon as I'll be relocating to the midwest for career reasons later this year. Again, like Dr. Gerard, I've had a certain amount of justifiable anxiety in putting myself out there in the RPG scene. Sad to say, a lot of the folks I've encountered over the years had...issues...in terms of social and emotional maturity, and how they organized their family and professional priorities. I make it a point to be tolerant of the ways other RPG players allocate their time, efforts and interests -- different strokes, and all that. But now that I have a wife, kid and career of my own, it's more important than ever to find the right kind of fit in terms of a gaming group. I think that the outlook is improving as the gaming community draws a wider mix of old-timers and newcomers alike, but it can still be tricky sometimes.

That said, I've recently launched an original Call of Cthulhu play-by-post game set in 1914 with an outstanding group of players from three different countries on two different continents. It's really brought home to me how well suited investigative RPGs like Call of Cthulhu (and, I suspect, Trail of Cthulhu) are to the play-by-post format. I hope to connect with a good Skype, Google Hangout or in-person CoC group at some point in the near future when I'm back in the midwest. My not-so-secret aspiration is to play a game over Skype with our three intrepid MUP Keepers someday (hint! hint!)

Anyway, I'm happy to be here on the MUP forums and a regular listener of the podcast since episode 3 (I think). It's a great complement to the wonderful content already in place over at YSDC, and I think that there's going to be an awful lot of useful cross-pollination between the two sites in the months ahead. Great work, gentlemen!

Post by **Keeper Dan** » Wed Aug 29, 2012 4:17 pm

Thank you very much, mjmedwick. It's wonderful to hear about folks getting back into the hobby after a long hiatus. We even have a category here suited for PbP games, so if you get the inspiration to start up another one, we have somewhere to put it.

We're going to be starting up a new Skype game soon. We're all full-up on players, but listeners are a part of it. I'm sure that will remain a tradition we carry forward with out actual plays.