MU Podcast 056 – Boundaries and the Sire of Serpents

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Note: This episode contains explicit language. (It’s at the end, during the outtakes segment.) In episode 56, Dan, Jon, Murph and Chad talk about personal boundaries in horror gaming. Plus, a trip to see that slithery citizen of the subterranean sphere — Yig! Plus, a history field trip to deepest, darkest British Columbia, an update on the IndieGogo campaign and GenCon plans — plus more!

Campus Crier (recorded on May 18th, 2014)

Check out this Mythos-symbol font from Deviantart.
Animators have launched a project to bring H.P. Lovecraft’s “At the Mountains of Madness” to life in a feature Film! Check out more on their Facebook page.
Bret Kramer has announced the call for submissions for Arkham Gazette #3, which will (probably) cover witches and witchcraft in Lovecraft Country.
GenCon event registration is open!

For those of you who are planning to attend, here are some events of note to our listeners: Thursday

8:00 PM (1.5 hrs) Delta Green: The Roleplaying Game — SEM1459823
10:30 PM (4 hrs) Keeper Dan’s game, for the Eldritch Emeritus level of our IndieGogo backers.

Friday

1:00 PM (2 hrs) Miskatonic University Podcast Live Episode Recording — SEM1453214
1:00 PM (1 hr) Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Live — SEM1455624
4:00 PM (1 hr) Call of Cthulhu — SEM1455302
5:00 PM (1 hr) Roleplaying Public Radio’s Game Design –SEM1455039
6:00 PM (4 hrs) The ENnie Awards, Cocktail Reception & Silent Auction — ENT1453198
8:00 PM (2 hrs) What’s New With Goodman Games — SEM1454859
9:00 AM (4hrs) Age of Cthulhu: Transatlantic Terror – Jon Hook as Keeper — RPG1455951
2:00 PM (4hrs) Age of Cthulhu: Starfall Over the Plateau of Leng – Jon Hook as Keeper — RPG1455961

Saturday

8:00 PM (4 hrs) Jon’s MUP game (still has 4 player slots open!)
9:00 AM (4hrs) Age of Cthulhu: Starfall Over the Plateau of Leng – Jon Hook as Keeper — RPG1455962
2:00 PM (4hrs) Age of Cthulhu: Transatlantic Terror – Jon Hook as Keeper — RPG1455953
9:00 PM (1.5 hrs) Lovecraft Meets Tradecraft: Delta Green Scenario Workshop — SEM1459824

IndieGogo Update

Since last episode, Stretch Goal 1 has been achieved!
Stretch Goal 2 now has Scott Dorward signed on to write a history with plot hooks for a floor plan crafted by the crafty Keeper Dan!
Stretch Goal 3 has been revealed! MAPS dice! MAPS Sourcebook!
Also, we announce an MU Alumni Dinner at The Ram on Thursday in downtown Indy!

Also, if you haven’t seen it yet, we’ve added an MUP meetup dinner to the IndieGogo page. We have reserved a private room for The Ram in downtown Indianapolis on Thursday afternoon/evening. $50 buys you a meal, 1 bar drink (assuming legal age, of course) and all the Cthulhu gaming conversation you could possibly stand. The reservation is for August 14th from 4 PM to 7 PM, Indy time. We’ll need to get a critical mass of people signed up for this before we pull the trigger, so please let us know if you plan to attend (or even better, put some cash down).

Feedback

Wolf sent us an email:

Hi guys, I listened to episode #47 today and discovered that Murph read my December e-mail in that podcast. What an honour, thank you for allowing me to be part of your show. Best wishes, Wolf

And Aron from our “sandboxing” episode and the Ideology of Madness podcast and Knights of Reignsborough Actual Play campaign sends us a lovely brain dump of ideas inspired by our Star Vampires segment a few shows back.

Card Catalog

Found in the Trash: A Box of Otherworldly Notes

Sponsor Thanks

A big note of appreciation here for everyone who contributed to our fundraising campaign. Every penny of your generosity will help keep this sideshow running, and push us toward our goals. Thank-you perks for backers are already well underway, and we hope you’ll notice show improvements soon! (For example you might already notice that Keeper Chad no longer sounds like he’s calling from a cell phone.)

Cryptocurium Spot

Cryptocurium is now offering three items from the Starkweather-Moore Expedition. Each will be offered one at a time for one week only. The three items are:

1. “Advent of the Shoggoth” (5/11 to 5/17)
2. “The War of Re-Subjugation” (5/18 to 5/24)
3. “Elder Thing Star Stone” (5/25 to 6/1)

Side Topic

This week, we talk about personal boundaries in horror gaming, and how to handle sensitivities during play. This topic was prompted by an excellent thread on our forum, and we’d like to hear from more listeners on this. Is there any room for “lines and veils” in horror gaming? What’s the best way to start that conversation? As an example of sensitive material, Jon mentions his own scenario involving overweight kids, called “The Lock In,” which you can hear him run in an actual play.

Main Topic

Yig! We’re talking about that old Father of Ssnakes, first referenced in a Lovecraft collaboration called “The Curse of Yig.”

But the whisspererss said that Dr. McNeill could sshew me a very terrible relic and tell me all I wanted to know. He could explain why Yig, the half-human father of sserpentss, is a sshunned and feared object in central Oklahoma, and why old ssettlerss sshiver at the ssecret Indian orgiess which make the autumn dayss and nightss hideous with the ceasselesss beating of tom-tomss in lonely places. — HP Lovecraft and Zealia Bishop, “The Curse of Yig”

There’s a lovely short film adaptation available to check out on the Youtubez. During our disscurssive disscourse on thiss ssubject, we mention a ton of references: As far as Mythos ties, Yig’s avatars are sometimes called Byatis and Han, so he doesn’t always look like a big snake man. In the original stories, he’s connected to the cave kingdom of K’n-yan, which is teeming with humanoid space aliens. Check out a couple of Yiggy pieces from Cryptocurium here and here. There’s some cool Yigness art on Deviantart here and here. Plus one from MUP friend Joe Broers. Build your own Yig here. And look at yet more artist’s conceptions of this feller here, here, here, and here. Obvious Yig references in the Samuel L. Jackson vehicle here. In RL folklore and religion, snake figures abound. There’s Glycon, In RL occult references, a knot of snake references tie together cultures and eras across space and time. Occultist Michael Bertiaux (not to be confused with alleged Yig cultist Michael Buble) has some interesting things to say about Voudon cults, which Dan Harms links to Yig. There’s the irrepressible Ouroboros symbol, which pops up in occult literature on topics from alchemy to Theosophy. Robert E. Howard also used Yig (called Set after the Egyptian god) in various incarnations. Even your precious Harry Potter is probably just a servant of Yig. Take that, The Internet. For the sake of posterior, we should post links to a couple of rockin’ Yig-related classics: Check out “Yig Snake Daddy” by The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets: And “Horror of Yig” by GWAR (R.I.P David Brockie, A.K.A Oderus Urungus) Dissscusssss what you heard on this show on our Campus Forums here.]]>