MU Podcast 043 — The Campaign Trail

E43In episode 43, we talk about the pacing and of construction of campaigns. We also head back to the bestiary to investigate the mysterious Serpent People! Fortunately, we also get a visit from our favorite adrenalin junkie, Monterey Jack, who tells us about an odd piece of equipment that could help us fend off the scaly folk.  

Campus Crier 

  • Rafael Chandler did, in fact, release his new game called Pandemonio, and there’s an excellent interview on The Good Friends of Jackson Elias to explore his sick little vision of this game. Two words: cannibalism mechanic.
  • Also recently released: In Strange Aeons: Lovecraftian Numenera. The hugely popular science-fantasy game by Monte Cook now has a Mythos add-on. Yikes.
  • And the latest issue of The Arkham Gazette is out! This issue’s theme: Arkham! You can find Bret Kramer’s Lovecraft Country newsletter for free on Sentinel Hill Press.
  • HP Lovecraft Historical Society has released their first Rock Opera, Dreams in the Witch House.
  • Also, HPLHS has  announced that their next Dark Adventure Radio Theater will be: Herbert West, Reanimator!
  • Robert M. Price has launched a new podcast, called “The Lovecraft Geek.” It’s available on iTunes, but you have to root around for it a little.
  • The Lovecraft e-Zine is moving to a bi-monthly format, and they’re going to start publishing books!
  • By the way, remember the Card Catalog last show with all the great random generators? It was on a site called Donjon. Apparently that’s just a really weird way to spell the word dungeon.

And a zealous sponsor shout-out to ZombieMaster! Thank you so much for your contribution.

Monterey Jack After a very long hiatus, Monterey Jack finally took a minute to come into the Miskatonic University Anthony Goodlight Memorial Recording Hall and record a segment about the Serpent Fang-Slinger. Along the way, we call back to the Indonesian Upas Tree, a source of poison with legendary properties.

Cryptocurium Chat

This week, we discuss the limited edition Antarctic Expedition Kit, which is full of proppy goodness for keepers to use in Beyond the Mountains of Madness.

Bestiary

We’re back in the bestiary this week to spy on our squamous neighbors, the Serpent People. Here’s a nice wiki entry on them from YSDC. These wily things show up in all kinds of fiction and folklore, including the Silurians in Dr. Who,  Sleestaks in Land of the Lost, and…various conspiracy theories. A good place to start with the latter is Jon Ronson’s documentary about David Icke.

Here’s some more background on the Mythos version, which are said to worship Great Yig.

One cool tech item players might encounter is the Mirror of the Serpent People.

And if you want a possible plot hook involving an artifact with Serpent People connections, check out Bret Kramer’s The Milltrap Stone on Unspeakable Oath. There is also Joe Broer’s Yig ‘The Father of Serpents” idol.

The Yahoo News article about giant fauna that Jon mentions can be found here.

A brain storm on multi-group campaigns

Main Topic

For our main topic this time we’re dipping back into our well of ideas from listeners. We covering a couple of suggestions from our forum about running and writing campaigns.

 From Zombieneighbours…

Pacing and the construction of Long Term campaigns, how do you keep the investigators from going off the deep end too quickly, and how do you bring in replacements when the Mythos takes it toll.

From Gareth….

Do you guys have any hints and tips for me in terms of writing your own campaigns? Any feedback or help would be really appreciated.

In this segment, Chandler’s Law comes up. The Campus Forum discussion thread.]]>

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