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Chaosium Digest Volume 06 Number 06
Chaosium Digest Volume 6, Number 6
Date: Sunday, May 1, 1994
Number: 1 of 1
Contents:
Announcement: RQ-Con 2 (Shannon Appel) MISC
Interview: Penny Love (John Hughes) MISC
Review: Return of the Deep Ones (Martin Veasey) CALL OF CTHULHU
French Notes on the Fourth Edition (Frederic Moll) PENDRAGON
Editor's Note:
Ye Booke of Monsters (Chaosium, 64 pgs, $10.95), the newest Call of
Cthulhu supplement, has been released. It's pretty much a manual of
monsters, all true to the Lovecraft mythos, since they're drawn from
the sources. You'll find tons of new creatures, including Bugg-Shash,
Byatis, Xada-Hgla and Zu-Che-Quon.
In the last week, John Tynes has uploaded a number of new or updated
files to soda.berkeley.edu. The following files are all located in
/pub/chaosium/paganpub:
README ; more complete info on all of these files
catalog ; The current PaganPub catalog, updated for Spring, 1994
deltagreen2 ; transcript of a PaganPub sponsored online CoC game
endtime ; information on PaganPub's upcoming game of futuristic
; CoC horror
message.sit.hqx ; Mac sound files for use with "Convergence", the Delta
; Green adventure in TUO7
submission-guide ; current submission guidelines for PaganPub
tuo[1-4] ; the annotated unspeakable oath, issues 1-4
Recent Sightings:
* Call of Cthulhu - "The Book", a four page adventure centered around
a mysterious book, Challenge #72 [April/Mayish, 1994]
--------------------
From: appel@erzo.berkeley.edu (Shannon Appel)
Subject: Announcement: RQ-Con 2
System: Misc
Plans are now well underway for RuneQuest-Con 2, the sequel to last
year's successful Baltimore convention. RuneQuest-Con 2 will once
more focus on the game of RuneQuest and the mythic world of Glorantha.
When? January 13-16, 1995
Where? San Francisco, California
Guests of Honor will include the RuneQuest 2 authors:
Steve Perrin
Ray Turney
Steve Henderson
Warren James
and Greg Stafford, the creator of Glorantha. In addition, many more
Gloranthan Illuminates from all over the globe will be present.
Two exciting LARPs will be featured at RuneQuest-Con 2, shedding light
on previously shrouded areas of Glorantha.
HOW THE WEST WAS ONE will be the story of the Seventh Malkioni
Ecclesiastical Council. For the first time in centuries, the sects of
the West will be brought together, to face the many threats which are
arrayed against the Malkioni religion. Be among the first to learn
the secrets of the West!
THE BROKEN COUNCIL will be the tale of the Second World Council. In
the depths of Gloranthan History, the people of the world will gather
together to discuss the creation of Osentalka, the god who will bring
back the golden age. Discover the true nature of Nysalor, one of the
most mysterious figures in Time.
Players of RuneQuest & Glorantha will find also find many more things
of interest at RuneQuest-Con 2, including:
* Lots & Lots of RuneQuest
* Dragon Pass & Second Edition Nomad Gods games
* Open Gaming
* Eat at Geo's 2
* Live Action Trollball
* Orlanthi Storytelling
* Gloranthan Cultural Exchanges
* Many seminars by RuneQuest & Gloranthan authors
However, there's more than just Glorantha at RuneQuest-Con 2. Other
featured game systems will include Call of Cthulhu, Elric!, Pendragon
and Chaosium's newest game, Nephilim.
In addition, RuneQuest-Con 2 will spotlight two other games with
strong, exciting backgrounds.
On Saturday, January 14, Chessex will be present to run seminars and
games concerning the Skyrealms of Jorune.
Wizards of the Coast will be present on Sunday, January 15, to
spotlight one of their role-playing games, either Ars Magica or
Talislanta. When a final decision is made, an announcement will be
sent out.
Right now, we're still looking for people to run lots of RuneQuest,
Gloranthan, Call of Cthulhu, Elric!, Pendragon and Nephilim games at
RQ-Con 2. If you'd be interested in running something, please drop me
a line. People running games will be given discounted admission to
the Con.
Shannon Appel
appel@erzo.berkeley.edu
(510) 649-7467
PS: If you'd like to be on the rqcon2-info list, drop me a line
--------------------
From: john.hughes@anu.edu.au (John P Hughes)
Subject: Interview: Penny Love
System: Misc
The Penny Love Interview
[This article originally appeared in 'Australian Roleplayer', Vol 1.
No. 12, September 1993.]
'Castle of Eyes' Spearheads Chaosium Move Into Fiction
In the outer wilds of Box Hill in Melbourne lurks the shattered frame
of a cracked and crooked manse. If you manage to steal past the seven
foot midnight-black rottweiler-from-hell guarding the entrance, you'll
find yourself in the warm and erudite company of one of Australia's
most talented roleplaying designers.
Penny Love has just published her first novel, 'Castle Of Eyes', a
dark supernatural fantasy. Not only is she justifiably proud of her
effort, but the novel represents a significant new direction for
Chaosium, the American gaming company best known for Pendragon and
Call of Cthulhu.
Call of Cthulhu has been the financial mainstay of Chaosium for nearly
a decade. However, the game's Lovecraftian genre has been thoroughly
explored in modules and supplements, and it is difficult to see the
system maintaining its present high profile indefinitely (Indeed,
Cthulhu has already been overtaken by Vampire as the most popular
horror game on the Australian convention circuit). Chaosium is
therefore exploring a variety of new directions. It published its
first paperback last year - Greg Stafford's wonderful 'King of
Sartar', a collection of myths and historical documents for the
RuneQuest game world of Glorantha (Though RuneQuest itself was sold to
Avalon Hill in the mid eighties, Chaosium has retained the rights to
Glorantha).
In extending their product range into paperback fiction, Chaosium may
be hoping to emulate TSR. The producers of Dungeons & Dragons entered
the paperback market a decade ago, and are now the United States'
second-largest publisher of science fiction and fantasy.
Penny began convention roleplaying at Phantastacon II (1983) in
Melbourne, where she ran Mark Morrison's first module, 'Cracked And
Crooked Manse'. The module was an instant classic: Call of Cthulhu
was a new system, and its focus on mood and atmosphere provided a
radical alternative to the combat-driven gaming offered by D&D and
Traveller, the convention mainstays of the period.
>From the ashes of Phantasticon rose the Cthulhu Conglomerate, a design
group that is still a mainstay of the Melbourne convention circuit.
Penny has always been a core contributor. She believes the long life
of the Conglomerate is a result of its relaxed and flexible approach,
centred around the organisational expertise of Liam Rout. True to its
name, "lumps keep going off" in new directions. With writers the
calibre of Penny, Liam, Mark Morrison and Richard Watts, the
Conglomerate has created an imaginative design think-tank that would
be hard to equal anywhere in the world. The prodigious publishing
output of the Melbourne gaming scene over the last five years is due
in no small part to the collective and individual efforts of
Conglomerate members.
Coming from a family with a very strong literary bent, Penny was
always determined to publish professionally. The Cthulhu source book
'Terror Australis' (1985) was one of the first roleplaying supplements
to be produced in Australia, and it still ranks as one of the best.
That collection was the first of many published modules, some of which
first saw the dark of night as tournaments at Australian conventions.
Despite the enduring popularity of her work, Penny admits that she has
never been satisfied with her roleplaying output, though she often
likes the ideas she starts with. She has a keen awareness of the
challenges in working successfully within the rigid form of a genre
piece; be it a Lovecraftian horror pastiche or a Mills & Boon novel
with it's compromise between womens' security and romance.
In fact, the technical challenge of writing a Mills & Boon novel very
much appeals to her. Penny sees many similarities to the roleplaying
form: standardised plots and characters, strong genre conventions, an
emphasis on clear and simple communication, and strict limits on
length. Like most speciality publishing, M&B books are targeted to an
exact audience. They are colour-coded for explicitness; signalling the
difference between a passionate embrace, a throbbing manhood or a
don't-beat-about-the-bush erection. The challenge, as in commercial
roleplaying, is to breathe new life or a novel perspective into a very
rigid, almost stereotypical form. Penny also jokes that in writing
M&B, she wouldn't have to create a pseudonym!
Our diversions into the heady world of Harlequin Romance revealed for
me the sense of craft that Penny brings to her writing. Tackled head
on, however, she claims that it all comes down to personal aesthetics.
She cites her favourite calendar quote as defence: "I'd sooner ask a
plant about horticulture than an artist about art".
While 'Castle of Eyes' is Penny's first published novel, she has
previously written three; two "real life" and one "weird life". These
were an exercise in finding her own style and language. She considers
herself lucky - it is usually your *fifth* novel that is finally
accepted for publication.
'Castle of Eyes' had its genesis in a RuneQuest Vikings campaign that
Penny ran several years ago. When it came to writing however, she
wisely left the player characters and their subplots behind. Penny
realised that the rambling soft focus of player/gm interaction, with
its myriad diversions and false starts, is not disciplined enough to
sustain a literary tale. In her own words, the novel is "another
fantasy based on the one we created in the game". The player
characters are still in there somewhere, though even the players will
have trouble recognising themselves.
And the novel itself? Imagine Jane Austen meets Mervyn Peake with
Michael Moorcock providing the lighting. 'Castle of Eyes' is set in
an endless labyrinthine castle that has its antecedent in Mervyn
Peake's 'Gormenghast' Trilogy. An air of unspoken mystery and growing
despair permeates the book. While Penny is still finding her feet as
a stylist, the novel demonstrates her considerable ability as a
storyteller and builder of atmosphere: an ability that can only grow
with increasing experience and confidence. It's a fine debut from a
promising and talented artist.
Author's Note: In the interests of accuracy, I should state that the
seven foot midnight-black rottweiler is actually a Labrador.
John Hughes
What the Reviewers say:
'a leisurely work rich in characterisation and imaginative detail'.
Bill Congreive. The Mentor.
'Love obviously loves the English language and uses it to good effect'
Peter Crank. Australian Realms.
'... enough excellent ideas to start a *most unusual* fantasy
campaign.'
Australian Roleplayer.
[also see V2.7 for a full review of Castle of Eyes]
And Penny pops up in 'The Unspeakable Oath' No 10, guesting for
housemate Mark in his column 'The Case of Mark Edward Morrison'!
--------------------
From: martin@cheam.demon.co.uk (Martin Veasey)
Subject: Review: Return of the Deep Ones
System: Call of Cthulhu
[this article originally appeared in alt.horror.cthulhu]
I just found this book in London. It's a collection of four of
Lumley's Mythos Tales and I thought this might be of interest:
Author: Brian Lumley
Title: Return of the Deep Ones (and other Mythos Tales)
Published: 1994
UK Publisher: RoC (Penguin)
ISBN: 014017303-X
Price: UK 4.99
This is a collection of four of Lumley's Mythos tales, written at
different times over the last twenty years, though I hadn't seen any
of them published before. Each is a example of classical Mythos
writing, unlike some of his more aggressively progressive work
(Necroscope, Elysia, etc).
I liked the book a lot. In terms of addressing the Mythos, it's much
more "centre of the road", or conventional, than his other works. Very
classicly atmospheric without the pseudo-scientific rationalisation
that went into his "The Burrowers Beneath" cycle.
Inception (1987) - short story
An interesting short, covering the inhuman pursuer of a thief who's
stolen a vital potion. Well written, with (for me) an unexpected end
to the pursuit. There is a twist at the end, involving a figure from
other works, unnamed here to avoid spoiling, that seemed rather
unnecessary to the tale. This attempt to draw threads from several
books together kind of tarnished the gloss of the story a bit for me.
[originally appeared in _The Compleat Crow_, Ganley Publishing, 1987]
Lord of the Worms (1983) - novella
I really liked this story. It has a good sense of brooding menace
about it and even though we know what is about to happen, it still
keeps suspense and fear going. I was going to criticise this story
for relying too much on the numeralogy and renewal/growth cycles that
Lumley used in Demogorgon, but looking it up, I discovered that this
was almost certainly written before Demogorgon. I think it's handled
better here too, so I reckon that's why Lumley reused the theme in the
later story. I didn't like the introduction of Titus Crow as the
hero. This was written and published after the Elysia cycle and one
immediately gets the feeling that, no matter how bad things get, he's
bound to win in the end as the ever-triumphant hero.
[originally appeared in Weirdbook 17, Ganley Publishing, 1983.
reprinted in _The Compleat Crow, Ganley Publishing, 1987]
Beneath the Moors (1974) - novel
Intriguing story, if for no other reason, the way that Lumley finds to
extricate his hero. This book and "The Burrowers Beneath" seem to
have been written at much the same time, and they share some of the
same threads. This is better, in my opinion, as it conveys more of
the incomprehension and fear in the story.
[originally appeared as _Beneath the Moors_, Arkham House, 1974. This
novel includes "The Sister City", a short story that was included in
_Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos_, Arkham House, 1969 (not reprinted in
the 1990 edition)]
The Return of the Deep Ones (1984) - novel
A coventional homage to the tradition. Deep Ones seek to establish a
latter-day beachhead in England. Worked well for me. There is just
enough modern day stuff to lend a contemporary feel to it, but Lumley
is able to make the plot slide into a paranoic chase at one stage that
works very well, with atmosphere and everyone turning against the good
guy, in a sense like "Invasion of the Body Snatchers". I liked this a
lot.
[originally appeared in Fantasy Book 12-14]
Recommended
Martin Veasey
e-mail : martin@cheam.demon.co.uk
--------------------
From: Frederic Moll <fmoll@cix.compulink.co.uk>
Subject: French Notes on the Fourth Edition
System: Pendragon
When I recently read the fourth edition of Pendragon rulesbook for the
beginning of a new campaign, I saw some errors relating to French
names and some typos. Here is a list of corrections for readers who
want true french names...
page 9: Near the coat of arms: Lancelot (and not Launcelot)
page 32: Titles
"le blank" should be read as "le blanc"
"le Desirious" should be read as "le Desireux" (although it sounds
strange to me...)
"Le chevalier au leon" should be "le chevalier au lion"
page 43: Charges
Lion Sejant: in modern French, it would be "Lion Siegeant"
Lion Rampant Reguardant: "Lion Rampant Regardant"
Dolphin Naiant: "Dauphin Nageant"
page 46: Introducing...
Sir Yvane le Cour: "Sir Yvane le Court" or "Sir Yvane le Petit"
page 98: Places of Normandie
"Les Andelays" should be read as "Les Andelys"
Le Mont St Michael: "Le Mont St Michel"
page 105: French Names
Margalie: "Magalie" also exists...
Mirabel: "Mirabelle" (a nice fruit)
Passserose: "Passerose" (too many ssss... )
page 177:
Sagramore le Desirous : "Sagramore le Desireux" (as before)
page 221: Judaism
Pepin "The Short": known in France as Pepin "le Bref"
page 335: Characters & Creatures
The poor Lancelot du Lac has his name again distorted. This time, it
is not "Lancelot du Lak"...
page 337:
"La Cote Mal Taile" should read as "La Cote mal Taillee"
Well, that's all for the first reading
Frederic.
--------------------
The Chaosium Digest is an unofficial discussion forum for Chaosium's
Games. To submit an article, mail to: appel@erzo.berkeley.edu. The
old digests are archived on soda.berkeley.edu in the directory
/pub/chaosium, and may be retrieved via FTP.
