MU Podcast 073 - Gaming Through the Ages

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Keeper Dan
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MU Podcast 073 - Gaming Through the Ages

Post by Keeper Dan » Mon Mar 02, 2015 2:05 am

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In this episode, Keepers Dan, Jon and Chad chat about a new PDF from Chaosium, Cthulhu Through the Ages, that serves as a primer for various settings and eras of Call of Cthulhu. We also talk about Mythos-inspired board and card games. This episode was recorded on March 1, 2015.


Campus Crier
  • The Masks of Nyarlathotep Companion has only a few days left in the Kickstarter, and it's going strong! As noted on Bret Kramer's blog, the Masks Companion also got some coverage on The Good Friends of Jackson Elias.
  • Golden Geek Awards: Congratulations to Call of Cthulhu and Horror on the Orient Express for placing as runners up in the Game of the Year and Best Supplement categories. Sincere congrats to Chaosium and to the winning podcasts -- and thanks to those who voted our way.
  • The Curse of Nineveh, a London campaign that was a stretch goal of the Cthulhu Britannica has now been sent to backers.
  • Ex-KISS Guitarist BRUCE KULICK, W.A.S.P. Axeman DOUGLAS BLAIR Record New Music For 'Dreams In The Witch House'!
  • Here's another shot of the 12” Cthulhu Action Figure that debuted at Toy Fair 2015.
  • And how about this sweet "Diamond Select" Cthulhu Idol piggy bank in vinyl? Right?
  • Cthulhu Through the Ages PDF has been released! Backers of the 7e Kickstarter received a code to get it for free, and anyone else can currently get it for half price at $7.47. It's just in PDF for now, but could be released in print later.
  • End of the World: Wrath of the Gods
    https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/n ... -the-gods/
  • The french version of 7th Edition has been released: L'Appel de Cthulhu, 7e édition française
  • Lovecraftian Science, the blog that is so awesome, is Kickstarting and releasing a book of articles to backers.
  • And here's a little something about radioactive material used in cosmetics.
  • The graphic novel Casefile: Arkham -- a hardboiled detective in H.P. Lovecraft's Arkham, is in crowd funding. It's created by Patrick McEvoy (Call of Cthulhu) & Josh Finney (World War Kaiju).
  • And we are putting a call out for listener-submitted segments. Game, book, movie, or toy reviews, "Skill of the Day", Jazz Era facts, etc. Nothing long or complicated, but it would be awesome. We could also use a volunteer to post on outside forums when a new show drops.

Cryptocurium Spotlight
The April items have been revealed for Parcel of Terror!

And here's the first ever unboxing!


Side Topic
We chat about the Cthulhu Through the Ages book that was just released to the public.

For reference, here's a comparison chart of Pluto, Earth and the Moon.
For those not familiar with Thundarr the Barbarian, here's a short documentary on the show.


Main Topic
This week's main topic is all about board games, card games and dice games. The following is a list of links to official game pages and other goodies referred to in the episode.

Check here for a list of Mythos-inspired games up to about 2011.

Unspeakable Words Betrayal at House on the Hill Arkham Horror Eldritch Horror Mansions of Madness Cthulhu Wars The Witch of Salem Munchkin Cthulhu Cthulhu Gloom Cthulhu Fluxx Cthulhu Dice Feed the Shoggoth The Doom That Came To Atlantic City Dark Cults Elder Sign
Keeper Dan of the Miskatonic University Podcast

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Re: MU Podcast 073 - Gaming Through the Ages

Post by EddyPo » Tue Mar 03, 2015 7:12 pm

Great episode. After your review of Cthulhu Through the Ages, I had to get it. What a great product. Now I'm off to work on that all nun Cthulhu Dark Ages scenario for Chad.
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Re: MU Podcast 073 - Gaming Through the Ages

Post by Dr. Gerard » Tue Mar 03, 2015 10:29 pm

Yes please! Make me a medeival nun scenario!

That sounds so wrong.
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Re: MU Podcast 073 - Gaming Through the Ages

Post by trevlix » Wed Mar 04, 2015 3:16 am

Dr. Gerard wrote:Yes please! Make me a medeival nun scenario!

That sounds so wrong.
I'm fairly positive Oscar Rios has an unpublished DA scenario that features medieval nuns. :)
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Re: MU Podcast 073 - Gaming Through the Ages

Post by fox01313 » Wed Mar 04, 2015 11:58 pm

Great show guys.

For some reason the one apocalypse game mentioned near the start sounds a little like the narrative dice mechanic out of the Fantasy Flight Star Wars (Age of Rebellion/Edge of Empire), curious now to see if someone has come up with conversion guides for the Fantasy Flight dice as it's quite a clever system & also have to check out that apocalypse series as it sounds fun to just start out as you then see what happens next.

Also want to point out to those interested in some of this that there's also the one Fate Core setting book by Ken Hite with Day After Ragnarok with it's pulpy action as the world serpent is dead at the end of World War2 then pick up the world setting from there.

Agreed about Chaosium offering some of the stuff done in foreign countries, I have some images found online of some of the art from the 6th ed. books of the core Cthulhu or Gaslight Cthulhu book done in Europe & they look lovely for the few pieces of art shown online for it. Even if it's just getting the equivalent of an art book of all the versions of the core books or supplements, I'd buy it. Same goes with things like dice, make more & send them to comic shops & conventions & people will buy them as they look great.

Thanks for the info on the new book as I didn't see it yet as I wasn't a backer for the 7th ed. core book. The portents almost sound like the life path done in a variety of systems like Eclipse Phase (where it goes through each background or profession with about 10-20 things that might have happened at each step), this doesn't take too long to run through those charts & it adds a lot of variety to the character creation with enough flexibility to play with without feeling like you playing the same character that rolled that same life path.

For the new Ages book, I'd also recommend the pair of Strange Aeons 1 & 2 in 6th ed. Call of Cthulhu & think there might also be some hiding in the Trail of Cthulhu line too where they are going to other time periods to get more of a different time scenario for your group.

I believe I looked for that too with Unspeakable Words & I want to say that the stuff up online now that's insanely priced are early versions so best to just wait for the kickstarter to end & once they pop up in stores to get them at that time, there is a video up on Tabletop which makes it quite fun looking.
http://geekandsundry.com/shows/tabletop ... -tabletop/

Couldn't agree more about some of the Cthulhu games being more for fans than an introduction. Though my reasoning is slightly different.
While I like Munchkin Cthulhu, Cthulhu Fluxx or Chez Cthulhu (like Chez Geek seen also on Tabletop but different theme), the best way to introduce people to Lovecraft still is either reading the stories or maybe going with the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society with the films they have done or the Dark Adventure Radio Theatre as they are all well done & pretty faithful to the source material. For board games I agree about Betrayal at House on the Hill (which I'd love them to do an expansion too like Arkham Horror or Eldritch Horror), being a great introduction to RPGs as well as horror/mystery roleplaying setting games.

Tabletop of Betrayal at House on the Hill part 1
http://geekandsundry.com/shows/tabletop ... waim-join/
part 2
http://geekandsundry.com/shows/tabletop ... ael-swaim/

Games like Arkham Horror is a lovely & fun game but rarely in my time spent playing Call of Cthulhu or even Trail of Cthulhu does the game turn into the later films of the Universal Monsters where you get just about everyone there in the film. Unless playing some epic thing of Masks or the Armitage Files, the group in most games might hit 2-3 types of monsters (if that many) so the games like Arkham Horror just paint a poor representation on how the RPG will work. If I pop up with 7th ed. Call of Cthulhu or Trail of Cthulhu & run those with the players wondering near hour#2 in why they aren't hip deep in dead mythos baddies like in Arkham Horror.



ps-now curious too about some of the stuff they compiled & updated for the Ages book so will have to track them down on Chaosium or the sale going on with drivethrurpg to see if they're different as well as get the Ages book for myself :cthulhu2:
"That's funny, usually the blood gets off on the second floor." -Mr. Burns in The Shinning episode (Treehouse of horror V)

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Re: MU Podcast 073 - Gaming Through the Ages

Post by EddyPo » Thu Mar 05, 2015 4:08 pm

Great recommendations Fox01313. Thanks for sharing.
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Re: MU Podcast 073 - Gaming Through the Ages

Post by zombiemaster » Thu Mar 05, 2015 6:02 pm

Greetings staff and students,

I just want to add my voice towards Feed the Shoggoth. I've played it a few times and it really is fun and entirely worth purchasing once Badger can get them produced. It's full of laughs and backstabbing, what more do you need?

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Re: MU Podcast 073 - Gaming Through the Ages

Post by EddyPo » Thu Mar 05, 2015 8:05 pm

Regarding the Swords and Arrows chapter of the Cthulhu Through The Ages, while it's aimed for use in Invictus, Dark Ages, and Mythic Iceland, I can totally see it's usefulness in a Cthulhu End Times setting. As society breaks down, I can see the level of technology going back to more medieval levels.
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Re: MU Podcast 073 - Gaming Through the Ages

Post by Dr. Gerard » Thu Mar 05, 2015 8:43 pm

EddyPo wrote:Regarding the Swords and Arrows chapter of the Cthulhu Through The Ages, while it's aimed for use in Invictus, Dark Ages, and Mythic Iceland, I can totally see it's usefulness in a Cthulhu End Times setting. As society breaks down, I can see the level of technology going back to more medieval levels.
Agreed! When industrial manufacturing collapses, it's all about sharpened golf clubs and hook darts.

http://www.dutchpickle.com/east-timor/d ... darts.html
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Rip Wheeler in the Call of Cthulhu "No Man's Land" scenario
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Re: MU Podcast 073 - Gaming Through the Ages

Post by EddyPo » Fri Mar 06, 2015 2:48 am

Dr. Gerard wrote: Agreed! When industrial manufacturing collapses, it's all about sharpened golf clubs and hook darts.

http://www.dutchpickle.com/east-timor/d ... darts.html
That's awesome!
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