Miskatonic University Podcast MUP Episode 164 – Hello the Edge of Darkness My Old Friend
Jan 15, 2019
01:50:03
This episode, all four hosts are back together to delve back into scenario analysis with a classic, The Edge of Darkness! This episode was recorded on January 3, 2019.
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Congratulations to the winners of the 2018 Delta Green Shotgun Scenario Contest. The winners are: >>First Place (shared) – Rendezvous in Rama or “Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder” by Marco Menarini >>First Place (shared) – Mairzy Doats by James Estes >>Third Place – Yummy Yummy in My Tummy by InterstellarOwl Also, for the first time, a new award. Handler’s Choice. This was awarded to Ed Possing’s, (the 2018 Handler), personal favorite of the scenarios that didn’t place. This author is awarded a $5 gift certificate to DTRPG. And that winner is: Don’t Forget by Colleen Sellay It was a record-breaking 58 entries in this year’s contest. Update about Éditions Sans-Détour regarding preorder customers. From Chaosium: “Please be advised we have told Éditions Sans-Détour to cease all presales of Les Masques de Nyarlathotep (Masks of Nyarlathotep) and Le Jour de la Bête (Day of the Beast) on their website. As the license has been withdrawn due to non-payment of royalties and other cardinal violations of the contract, ESD has no legal right or authority from Chaosium to continue presales, or offer these books for retail distribution, or elsewhere.” Bret Kramer of Sentinel Hill Press announced in December that issue #4 of the Arkham Gazette is that the issue will be split into two. Both halves will cover Kingsport, but will loosely focus on a different ‘side’ of the city. Issue #4 will be “Kingsport: Dreams”. Highlights include new locations, The Hall School, a private school for girls, a look at the Cape Verdean community of Kingsport, 100 Items from Neal Hazlitt’s shop (Charles Gerard wrote a few of them, plus a profile of Neal himself), “Bones of Contention” – A short Call of Cthulhu scenario by Kingsport: City in the Mists author Kevin Ross! It’ll clock in at about 80 pages, and it’s still in the works. Issue #5 already has 12 articles lined up, including a new scenario by Christopher Smith Adair. A cover preview shows that it is to be called “Kingsport: Nightmares.” Also from SHP, artist Galen Pejeau has sent along a revised, color version of the cover for the Keeper’s Guide to Lovecraft Country Scenarios. It’s now in the layout phase. The initial PDF release will be just scenarios from Chaosium books, then it will expand to include licensees, magazines, MULA monographs, Miskatonic Repository works, and oddities as possible. Check the link in the show notes. Golden Goblin Press last month unleashed a “Free but Vicious Nemean Lion” to celebrate the holiday season. It’s a creature from the Cthulhu Invictus setting. The link to download the PDF is in the blah dee blah. Check out the Chaosium YouTube channel to see a new video series to mark the release of the CALL OF CTHULHU STARTER SET. The videos are hosted by someone named “Jess,” and they are specifically pitched to newcomers to roleplaying games and Call of Cthulhu, with very basic topics like “What is an RPG?”, “What is Call of Cthulhu?”, “How to Play”, “The Starter Set”, and “What Next?” https://www.youtube.com/embed/vnMcyGMdzgQThe Listening Room
Agent Dinos takes us to the Keystone State with a look at something what lurks below. Please remember that if you have any interest in producing a segment for the podcast, please contact mup.feedback@gmail.com.Feedback
Chris Fisher: Word of general support for Chad: I also don’t pay enough attention to the MPAA screens to talk that lingo. Also, the fish pedicure vector topic was really interesting to me, and between the gaming potential and the general “Icky! How neat!” factor, I wish it hadn’t gotten squashed.
From the MU Forums, trevlix: (summarized) If you look at my posting history on any CoC site, you’ll see that Crack’d & Crook’d Manse is my #1 scenario of all time. There are so many great things about it, and I’ve probably run it 15-20 times in my gaming career. I’ve even previously posted some tips here on running it. Needless to say, this was a great episode for me. Also, as in the episode, here be spoilers. One thing that wasn’t mentioned is that Crack’d & Crook’d Manse was originally written as a tournament scenario for Phantastacon 1984 and then published in the Multiverse magazine (issue 3)*. To me, this means this scenario was originally meant to be played as a one-shot at a con. I bring this up because I think thats where some of its quirks come from. The goal of the scenario was to run it for a bunch of people within a short time period and make it enjoyable. To that extent, I think it succeeds. In a con scenario – especially a tournament one – the players are more likely to go to the house even though in different circumstances they may not (e.g. they were in a long campaign). My own experience mirrors this. The majority of the times I’ve run this have been at cons, and even with people new to Call of Cthulhu, and it has always succeeded in that respect. IMO, the brilliance of this scenario is not that its a mythos take on a haunted house, but in how the creature works within the house. Since it moves within the walls of the house, it has agency to avoid the PCs for as long as you want it to. If its early in the scenario and the PCs really want to explore the basement, the creature can move upstairs (with the house moaning and creaking as it does). If its later in the game and the PCs are nowhere near solving it, have it appear and all hell break loose….Also, loved that you guys did this. Please analyze more scenarios like you did here in the future!Read the full post here >>