SQUAMOUS STUDIOS
Join the hunt, the Arkham Relic Hunt, from Squamous Studios. In this new tabletop card game, players are cultist acolyte in servitude to a dark god as they scour through the darkest corners of Arkham looking for relics and new initiates that must be delivered to the dark god.
Arkham Relic Hunt is a competitive card game for 2 – 4 cultists, designed by Damon Gregory. Acolytes gain points by moving through Arkham, discovering relics and new initiates for your order, casting spells, and sabotaging other players. The cultist with the most points, wins!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/323520698/arkham-relic-hunt
TYPE40
Type 40 have just released their third Kickstarter continuing with their theme of immersive props and in world artifacts.
This time round it is the Disk of R’lyeh from Chaosium’s Shadows of Yog-Sothoth! They have created two versions. A full sized , 12 inch, 14 lbs disk, in three pieces of solid cast aluminium, anodized in antiqued gold and encrusted with glass gems. And a tabletop version, 5 inch, 2 lb die cast nickel alloy version also in antiqued gold with glass gems.
Both look and feel exactly how you would expect an artifact if ancient evil to be and make wonderful in game props or mythos display pieces.
The Kickstarter runs for 21 days and was launched on the 5th May.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/329574091/disk-of-rlyeh-call-of-cthulhu
The Campus Crier
The Campus Crier is Miskatonic U’s student paper. Here’s where we go through Mythos related news and feedback to the podcast. This episode was recorded on May 9, 2019.
Chaosium announced that they will be having an official launch party for the newly released supplement Terror Australis on May 26th from 1:30 to 3:30pm in Coburg Australia. They also announced that Terror Australis has also been requested by the National Library of Australia to include the work for it’s “national significance.” Good job guys! I have the book myself and it is a brilliant addition to anyone’s mythos library, whether Australian or not.
At the time of this recording, The Cthulhu Alphabet Kickstarter, is north of $21,000. Well past their target of $15,000. As of the airing of this episode, the kickstarter has completed. I hope our listeners had an opportunity to check out the Kickstarter and back the project. This is a book that I contributed several entries, and the whole thing is chock-full of amazing art from cover to cover.
Another Kickstarter worth mentioning is the Orpheus Protocal from designer Rob Stith. It is billed as a “roleplaying game of cosmic horror and occult espionage” and has already funded with $18k of a $10k goal. This one was recommended by Mozy on the Discord, who has played the game and referred to it as “lighter and more pulpy than Delta Green.” Links are in the show notes.
We are running a contest for a brand new copy of Miskatonic University – Restricted Collection Board Game. Join the MUP Discord and go to the contest_1 chanel. To enter the contest, simply write a Lovecraftian or Cthulhu-esque haiku. Get your entries in ASAP, contest ends on May 31, 2019.
MUP Discord Invitation: https://discord.gg/hP2ZnuX
Chaosium also has announced Chaosium Con Down Under to happen on May 2 – 3rd at the Glebe Townhall in Sydney. We aren’t real clear on what is going to be on offer aside from the ability to play a bunch of Chaosium games and meet some people. But if you are interested they have a mailing list that you can join to find out more and be kept abreast of the fledgling con’s news.
Feedback:
The new Discord server is blowing up! Join us there for a wide range of discussions, including a channel for episode specific feedback. Like these from episode 172:
Jeff – I just finished 172, nice to hear the Stross reference! A good episode in general I thought, got me thinking a lot about how to port a believer-ish mechanic into 5e.
And…
Vathas – I could totally see myself playing a hardcore academic or clergy member who takes the non-believer stance. As the guys said, it’s mostly for RP flavor. But would be a nice change of pace from the normal characters I would play.
Allan from Type40 in an email –
“…one of my players is just starting a new investigator as a non believer who knows loads of Mythos but hasn’t encountered any and just doesn’t believe. I’m going to be racking up SAN loss behind the scenes for them to lose when they become a believer.”
He goes on to say that he’s “excited for the long term effects of the believer mechanic.” The investigator is an archaeologist who specializes in cursed objects. Basically Jonathan from The Mummy . I’m going to be having them as a font of knowledge. “Oh yeah that’s a passage from Von Juntz?. .” I think those creatures on the freeze are referred to as Llogoir by Dee? Use their current archaeology skill as the Mythos they have and then when it hits them strip them of their sanity Man I love this game.”
Game Review: Miskatonic University – Restricted Collection Board Game
Reviewed by Keeper Jon
The Pros:
It’s a light “mid-level” game — perfect to break out as you’re waiting for everyone else to show up for your Call of Cthulhu game. The core mechanics of the game include “Push Your Luck” and “Set Collection.”
Each player has a set of tools at their disposal to use to mitigate bad card draws. It is easy to throw caution into the wind in this game, but a bad draw can knock you out quick.
Each player is competing to collect cards for three different sets. Two of the sets, if completed, earn the player bonus victory points, the third set earns the player back a tool that may have been expended.
The Cons:
It’d be nice if each of the player boards were color-coded and distinct for each playable character.
It’d be nice if each playable character had one unique ability that set it apart from the other characters.
The cards will get a lot of wear-n-tear, so card you may want to sleeve the cards.
Mike Mason put the word out, (Facebook, and I assume other social media outlets), about gathering folks for a competition play of the game at Necronomicon, in Providence. The push your luck mechanic is a perfect player elimination tool in a competition. Come play Miskatonic University – Restricted Collection with the MUP hosts at Necoromicon in August!
The Topic: Alien Technology
Tech-using aliens:
- The Fungi from Yuggoth — The Mi-Go
- The Yithians
- The Elder Things
- The Serpent People
Keepers Jon and Murph discuss the various devices used by Mythos entities. They also each propose a new device that can be used in your Call of Cthulhu games.
Keeper Murph designed the Wilcox’s Royal KMM Typewriter:
Richard Wilcox at work with his special KMM
This Royal KMM typewriter from 1941 was refitted by sometimes cultist, newspaper journalist, and autodidact Richard Wilcox to have a Do Not Disturb mode. Once activated the typist will be invisible to any others and will be insulated from any outside distractions as they are phase-shifted to the Dreaming along with the room that he is in. This made him unreachable by any normal means and others entering the office would see an empty room but could hear the sound of distant typing, if they pass a Hard Listen roll for example, but will not be able to perceive the typist. The typist will be able to see anyone coming into the room as if through a fog, but no sound would ever reach them.
Enabling the Do Not Disturb mode of the KMM will cost the typist two Magic Points and can only be activated once per day. It is possible that shifting in and out of the Dreaming in such a manner would attract the attention of something undesirable, however. In fact Wilcox himself never returned from his last use of the typewriter, only his partially finished page was found set in the KMM.
Keeper Jon designed the Mi-go Spider Miner
Used by: Mi-go
The drudgery of mining the earth, sifting the soil, and the collecting of minerals is something the mi-go oversee and manage; typically they don’t debase themselves by actually digging into the ground. The spider miner is a device that looks like giant spider. The central core of the device is a housing designed to hold one mi-go brain canister. The brain within the canister is the pilot for the spider miner device. Eight large multi-articulated legs extend outward from the central core; fully stretched out, each leg has a radial reach of 12 feet.
The spider miner device is an alien amalgamation of organic and inorganic material; the mi-go have mastered the synthesis of merging biology and technology. Each leg is a metallic structure with biological enhancements laced throughout it. Biological enhancements include muscle structures and sensory organs for the pilot to see, feel, and smell its immediate surroundings. Each leg of the device has STR of 5D6 x5, HP equal to 1/5th of STR, and Armor 1. The legs are capable of digging, scraping, scooping, lifting, and piercing.
It’s possible to modify a spider miner device to be operated by a live human pilot with a Hard Success on an Operate Heavy Machinery skill roll. Modified spider miner devices are graphed to each of the pilot’s limbs, both arm and legs. The live pilot is able to control two spider miner legs with each limb. Due to the graphing of the live pilot to the spider miner device, removal of the device inflicts 1D3 damage to the live pilot.
Go Pods!! ]]>