MU Podcast 027 – 6-Word Brainstorming

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MU Podcast 027 – 6-Word Brainstorming

Post by Keeper Dan » Mon Mar 18, 2013 11:39 pm

ImageIn this week's show, we're winging it. For the main segment of this episode, we thought it might be fun to improvise a whole scenario while on the air. Based on six-word plot hooks that we...er...stole from our forum, we threw together a basic outline for a Gaslight adventure that might just have some potential. We get a lot of things wrong along the way...but that's what happens in a first draft, anyway. Also in this show, a trip to the Special Collections vault for a peek at the Eltdown Shards, a history "field trip" to British Columbia, and more!

Campus Crier

• From February 28th to April 2nd, Cryptocurium will offer a small collection of limited edition items made to coincide with the rising of Cthulhu’s city of R’lyeh. After April 2nd they will sink beneath the waves never to be seen again...

• Yog-Sothoth.com is having their March into Madness Patron drive. Paul has a large list of amazing raffle prizes, as well as huge discounts on the Innsmouth House store.

The Achtung! Cthulhu Kickstarter has been stomping all over their stretch goals. They’re about to reach a goal to add a Guide to North Africa and Middle East, and they’ve already started two new campaign guides, Shadows of Atlantis, and Assault on the Mountains of Madness! Who doesn’t want to fight Mythos-powered Nazis in an Antarctic Elder Thing city!

Miskatonic River Press has released Tales of the Sleepless City! This is a New York City sourcebook with a list of adventures from some of the top talent in writing Call of Cthulhu adventures.

• Friend of the podcast Joe Broers has released his latest sculpture: Yig, Father of Serpents. Bring this into your Yig CoC adventure and blow your players' minds.

• The H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society has a new audio drama from their Dark Adventure Radio Theatre line: The Case of Charles Dexter Ward. It’s available in download format, as well as CD. I’d advise getting the CD version, as it comes with some amazing props!

The Unspeakable Oath 22 is out! Arc Dream Publishing has released another amazing issue that has some of the biggest names in horror gaming. Now available in PDF at drivethrurpg.com and will be shipping in paperback in a couple of weeks. Arc Dream is looking for submissions for Oath 23. Submission guidelines are at theunspeakableoath.com.

• Arc Dream has an ebook edition of the Cthulhu Mythos Encyclopedia by Dan Harms. Perfect for reading all about Y'golonac on your mobile device. It's on Kindle, Nook, iBooks, and DriveThruRPG.

• More Delta Green fiction is available in Delta Green: Strange Authorities and its sequel, Through a Glass, Darkly. They're in paperback at Amazon and from ArcDream.com, and ebook versions for Kindle, Nook, iBooks, and at DriveThruRPG.

Card Catalog

This week’s hidden online resource for everyone, players & keepers alike, is: Relic Radio

Lecture Series

This week, we hear from our British Columbia correspondent, Mr. Koakai, who takes us to Pacific shores for another Field Trip from the Miskatonic University Department of History, on the mysteries of "Ripple Rock."

Special Collections Vault:

We talk about the Eltdown Shards.

The episodes of the HP Lovecraft Literary Podcast that cover the story with the boxes and replacing minds begins with episode 108 and goes to episode 110.

Main Topic:

And now for something completely different. The crew improvised the outline of a scenario based on six-word plot hooks that listeners posted on the forum here. It was too hard to choose only one, so we each picked one from the list.

Chad picked: "A strange stone from a shipwreck." (Koakai)
Murph picked: "What the hell just bit me?" (EddiePo)
Jon picked: "First victim marked with curious symbols." (EddiePo)
Dan picked: "Subway repairmen discover pale, carnivorous plants." (mjmedwick)

From these seeds, we sowed a weird Gaslight tale of vikings, magical geodes, emergency amputations, heat-seeking alien vermin and malicious subterranean vegetable thralls.

More details as this story develops...
And yes, we realized afterward that there were no offshore oil drilling platforms in the North Sea in the Gaslight period.


Thanks very much to our official sponsor! Image
We would love to hear your ideas for topics for us to talk about. Send us a note directly, or go to the Campus Forum with your ideas!
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Re: MU Podcast 027 – 6-Word Brainstorming

Post by Koakai » Tue Mar 19, 2013 2:20 pm

I find it funny that the stone was deemed to have Viking ties, as the original 6 word plot hook came from an actual Viking sunstone.

Also, if you keep London, and twist things a little might I suggest the London postal railroad as a place. In reality not built till 1915-1917, it has all the fun of cramped places. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_P ... ce_Railway
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Re: MU Podcast 027 – 6-Word Brainstorming

Post by Scriven » Tue Mar 19, 2013 5:59 pm

That was definitely a fun listen -- it particularly warmed the cockles of this listener's heart to hear all four hosts present for the same show. Can't wait to see how this little exercise in scenario building takes shape.

It just occurred to me that it would also make a great MU Podcast Forum competition if the podcast hosts were to generate their own six-word plot hooks, then toss the challenge back to the listener community to use them to build their own scenario outlines. You could accept all submissions by a specific date, post them, then conduct a poll on the forums to select the best scenario concept and maybe one runner up.

Thoughts?
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Re: MU Podcast 027 – 6-Word Brainstorming

Post by Koakai » Tue Mar 19, 2013 6:13 pm

Oh wow. Here you go- the abandoned pneumatic tubes. An actual thing abandoned at the gaslight era time.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_P ... ch_Company
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Re: MU Podcast 027 – 6-Word Brainstorming

Post by Keeper Jon » Tue Mar 19, 2013 7:57 pm

mjmedwick wrote:That was definitely a fun listen -- it particularly warmed the cockles of this listener's heart to hear all four hosts present for the same show. Can't wait to see how this little exercise in scenario building takes shape.

It just occurred to me that it would also make a great MU Podcast Forum competition if the podcast hosts were to generate their own six-word plot hooks, then toss the challenge back to the listener community to use them to build their own scenario outlines. You could accept all submissions by a specific date, post them, then conduct a poll on the forums to select the best scenario concept and maybe one runner up.

Thoughts?
Excellent idea. I think we should chew on this.
Koakai wrote:Oh wow. Here you go- the abandoned pneumatic tubes. An actual thing abandoned at the gaslight era time.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_P ... ch_Company
Damn! Very cool.

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Re: MU Podcast 027 – 6-Word Brainstorming

Post by Keeper Dan » Tue Mar 19, 2013 11:24 pm

mjmedwick wrote:That was definitely a fun listen -- it particularly warmed the cockles of this listener's heart to hear all four hosts present for the same show. Can't wait to see how this little exercise in scenario building takes shape.

It just occurred to me that it would also make a great MU Podcast Forum competition if the podcast hosts were to generate their own six-word plot hooks, then toss the challenge back to the listener community to use them to build their own scenario outlines. You could accept all submissions by a specific date, post them, then conduct a poll on the forums to select the best scenario concept and maybe one runner up.

Thoughts?
I like it! This has a lot of fun potential.
Koakai wrote:Oh wow. Here you go- the abandoned pneumatic tubes. An actual thing abandoned at the gaslight era time.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_P ... ch_Company
Cool! Too bad the tunnels are only a couple of feet wide. The scenario needs something significantly larger for the scenes of the adventure. I'm going to file this and the Mail Rain away for future ideas though.

I can't find anything online that talks about these cargo train lines Murph was talking about. Does anyone have a resource for that? I'm going to be taking the mapping duties of this project, and need to see real world references.

I was also thinking this may be our ENnie submission. I think it came out pretty well, and actually had all four of us in good form.
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Re: MU Podcast 027 – 6-Word Brainstorming

Post by KeeperMurph » Wed Mar 20, 2013 8:16 pm

Keeper Dan wrote: I can't find anything online that talks about these cargo train lines Murph was talking about. Does anyone have a resource for that? I'm going to be taking the mapping duties of this project, and need to see real world references.
OK I made a goof. This is what I was thinking of when I made mention of the underground freight to business ideas that I had. the abandoned Waldorf-Astoria platform. I can find all sorts of underground freight tubes for London but nothing of this sort that had actual platforms in a basement. Of course switching it shouldn't be too hard a time. Those pneumatic tubes are pretty neat as well, but alas not large enough.

We could however, switch it to one of the many underground rivers, and or sewers in London. Those look creepy and awesome all at once.
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Re: MU Podcast 027 – 6-Word Brainstorming

Post by Koakai » Wed Mar 20, 2013 8:41 pm

Chicago had that sort of system. I think there is a link off the postal railway Wikipedia entry.
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Re: MU Podcast 027 – 6-Word Brainstorming

Post by Keeper Jon » Wed Mar 20, 2013 8:43 pm

We could also move it forward to the 1920s, instead of Gaslight. That might open up some of our underground options.

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Re: MU Podcast 027 – 6-Word Brainstorming

Post by KeeperMurph » Wed Mar 20, 2013 8:45 pm

Keeper Jon wrote:We could also move it forward to the 1920s, instead of Gaslight. That might open up some of our underground options.
Yeah other than it being neat, there is no good reason to be in Gaslight.
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