Messages

1

RPGs / Re: Your introduction to CoC/Lovecraft?

« on: October 25, 2017, 06:53:44 PM »

My first exposure to Lovecraft was finding a copy of the Call of Cthulhu 5th edition RPG book on a coffee table in my cousin's house when I was about 14 or 15. My parents were religiously opposed to role playing games at that time, so it was like its own forbidden tome for me. It was unlike anything I'd ever seen before.

A couple of years later on, I guess I must have either decided this from seeing that book or else I'd gotten reminded of Lovecraft by something else, but I started looking for Lovecraft books at the library. I found those same Del Rey editions with the lurid cover art. I knew my mom wouldn't be happy with me checking them out, so I'd simply go sit in shelves and read them. It's a good thing that collection led off with The Rats in the Walls, one of the best stories, or otherwise I might have never gotten into him.

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Role Playing Public Radio Podcast / Re: Red Markets Alpha Playtest

« on: June 27, 2017, 05:35:34 PM »

I wonder if there's any way to copy these threads over to there?

3

General Chaos / Re: What are you reading?

« on: June 19, 2017, 10:41:54 PM »

Speaking of horror anthologies, in the course of our move I rediscovered American Fantastic Tales: Terror and the Uncanny, Volume 2: 1940-today.

Read a couple stories in there that I hadn't before, a Jeff VanderMeer piece called "The General Who is Dead" and a Joyce Carol Oates tale called "Family" that was...just extremely weird and unsettling in its narrative opacity. Highly recommended. I really need to get Volume 1, though I suspect I'll have read more of the stories from that period before.

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General Chaos / Re: HAY GUYS HAVE YOU SEEN THIS THING (Forum Shout Out Thread Thing)

« on: June 19, 2017, 10:32:00 PM »

From Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Lovecraft/comments/6hfmrh/lovecraft_manga_adaptation_by_gou_tanabe/

Gou Tanabe has been putting some Lovecraft stories to Manga form for the past few years, he's got a collection coming out in July in English containing The Hound, The Temple, and The Nameless City. He's also done The Outsider, Haunter in the Dark, and The Color out of Space, and he's currently doing Into the Mountains of Madness. So far there isn't any word on whether we'll see those translated to English. I've put some of the images from the manga into an album below.

Wow, those are friggin' great!
http://imgur.com/a/LsQCd

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Role Playing Public Radio Podcast / Re: Red Markets Alpha Playtest

« on: May 22, 2017, 12:01:57 PM »

Heh heh!

Another fun wartime idea would be a Kelly's Heroes-style scenario, with a rogue unit going out on a treasure hunting/profiteering operation. Most of my grandpa's World War 2 stories were about stuff like that. Stealing crates full of wine bottles in France, commandeering a crop dusting biplane in Italy and cruising it around until the Air Corps threatened to shoot them down, etc. You could also have larger-scale hijinks like Milo Minderbinder's trading operations in Catch-22.

6

Role Playing Public Radio Podcast / Re: Red Markets Alpha Playtest

« on: May 15, 2017, 05:32:30 PM »

Well, I could see a WW! themed Red Markets game where the PCs are European villagers near the frontlines. They can be black marketeers trying to survive or maybe just villagers who take jobs from both sides to survive. Jobs would include informing reporters about battles (requires getting close to a dangerous battlefield), carrying supplies to one side or the other, looting destroyed buildings, and so forth.

Oh, that's a great idea.

7

Role Playing Public Radio Podcast / Re: Red Markets Alpha Playtest

« on: May 11, 2017, 12:18:53 PM »

Not to my knowledge. Given the economic emphasis of RM, how that would work out? I don't see WW1 frontline battles as a good setting for Red Markets.

I dunno, I could see it working in some situations, converting the economic horror aspect into low-resource survival horror in a war theater-setting. I don't know if WWI trench warfare would be a good setting, as (so far as I know) running out of supplies and operating in very small teams (like a PC group) were not major features of the trench experience, at least on the Western Front.

I could see it working better in more isolated settings, such as WW2 pacific island combat, or behind-the-lines special forces work in Vietnam or the GWoT.

Either way, it would be a pretty major system hack, probably just keeping the resolution mechanic and the gear system and removing almost everything else.

8

General Chaos / Re: Introduction

« on: April 13, 2017, 08:08:15 PM »

Welcome, Mathieu! We're happy you're here!

9

General Chaos / Re: 200 Word RPG Challenge

« on: April 11, 2017, 03:08:25 PM »

I've got one in the works!

You can read the current draft here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/13vvjlfJgJytGPM1NDLQkMARMmBs6SvaVVGevDTsQ03g/edit?usp=sharing

Commentary and criticism welcome!

10

RPGs / Re: Game Fodder / Story Fodder

« on: April 03, 2017, 01:00:07 PM »

Thanks, that's phenomenal. I've seen some of Ian Miller's work elsewhere. And now that you say it, of course that other one is  an Alan Lee piece.

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RPGs / Re: Game Fodder / Story Fodder

« on: March 29, 2017, 06:33:04 PM »

Wow, those Gormenghast images are incredible. Who are the artists, and where did you get them?

Gormenghast is my favorite fantasy series, by the way.

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RPGs / Re: Base Building and Organizational Management in RPGs

« on: March 09, 2017, 03:51:43 PM »

Pathfinder, which I didn't see on your list, also has rules for running organizations. The kingdom-building rules were originally published in the Kingmaker Adventure Path, and were later revised and included in the hardback Ultimate Campaign. That book also contains rules for other types of organizations, mostly structured around creating a base of operations with rooms and equipment and such, and staffing it with teams of workers.

I don't know whether the rules are any good (I bought Ultimate Campaign when it came out, but I've never tried to play with any of the systems). But Kingmaker was an extremely popular adventure path for a long time.

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General Chaos / Re: HAY GUYS HAVE YOU SEEN THIS THING (Forum Shout Out Thread Thing)

« on: March 06, 2017, 01:54:54 PM »

BUY MY WIFE'S ALBUM!
https://oliviacordray.bandcamp.com/album/the-juniper-tree

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General Chaos / Re: Kickstarter: Cool Stuff

« on: January 26, 2017, 06:37:58 PM »

Alas for the Awful Sea
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/259750074/alas-for-the-awful-sea-myth-mystery-and-crime-in-1



Alas is a story-focused tabletop roleplaying game about a ship’s crew navigating the remote British Isles. There, they face a world consumed with suspicion, sadness, and desperation. Struggles for power have deadly consequences; mysterious disappearances plague the region; and those who seem human may not all be so. Amidst all this, the sea sends forth strange messages. Will you be the one to listen?

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General Chaos / Re: Best Internet Vidyas

« on: January 02, 2017, 12:21:54 PM »

Scientists have attempted to digitally recreate the acoustic space of the Hagia Sophia. So they can essentially duplicate how sound behaves in the interior of the cathedral.

Here's a performance that conveys what an Orthodox chanted liturgy would have sounded like in the 12th century, in what was for almost 1,000 years the largest cathedral in the world.

<a href="" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win"></a>