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Chaosium Digest Volume 17 Number 08
Chaosium Digest Volume 17, Number 8
Date: Sunday, December 15, 1996
Number: 1 of 1
Contents:
The Miracle: A Tale of Terror (Ricardo J. Mendez) CALL OF CTHULHU
CF: The Ring of Eibon (Shannon Appel) MYTHOS
Announcement: Opifex Bi-Monthly (Mike LaBrossiere) CALL OF CTHULHU
Editor's Note:
This month, a selection of Lovecraftian articles. First, a new Tale of
Terror by Ricardo J. Mendez. Next, a Mythos Card File that has
previously appeared over on rec.games.trading-cards.misc. Finally,
some new info on Opifex (previously mentioned in V14.1).
Shannon
RECENT RELEASES
The following two supplements started shipping this week, and should
begin showing up in stores just before Christmas.
* Call of Cthulhu - _The Complete Masks of Nyarlathotep_ (Chaosium,
224 pg, $22.95, ISBN 1-56882-069-0), by Larry DiTillio & Lynn Willis,
is the reprint of the classic Masks campaign. Complete for the first
time, this third edition includes the lost Australian chapter and
four new encounters.
* Pendragon - _Land of Giants_ (Chaosium, 128 pg, $19.95, ISBN
1-56882-055-0), by Chris Hind, with Christer Edling & Robert
Andersson, is the long-awaited new Pendragon book on the lands of
Scandinavia in the time of Beowulf and King Arthur.
And, the Cult of Chaos is really rolling now:
* Misc - _Starry Wisdom_ Vol. 1 No. 1 (Chaosium, 16 pg., free to
members of the Cult of Chaos) includes "Why Chaosium Is", by Greg
Stafford, my Card File on the Kitab Al-Azif, a marketplace for Mythos
prints and original artwork, a preview of the Dreamlands, a listing of
the next 6-9 months of Chaosium Products, MSGS FAQs, and info on the
future of Glorantha from Rob Heinsoo. You can sign up for the Cult of
Chaos with the form in V17.7, and you'll also get a subscription to
InQuest or Shadis.
And, to whet your appetite, two more books were shipped off to the
printers last week, _The Compact Trail of Tsathoggua_ for _Call of
Cthulhu_, and _Liber Ka_ for _Nephilim_. Both are expected to start
shipping January 27th. Meanwhile, _Mythos: The Dreamlands_ will be
going on sale January 17th.
BOOKS OF NOTE
Necronomicon Press recently came out with their latest batch of
mags. Mine just arrived in the mail last week, so I thought I'd take a
second to mention them all. Crypt of Cthulhu #94 contains three
non-fiction pieces by August Derleth, the most important of which is
his "The Weird Tale in English Since 1890". Cthulhu Codex #9 includes
a story by Gary Myers. Midnight Shambler #4 includes the usual batch
of fiction, as well as poems by Tierney & Schweitzer. Tales of
Lovecraftian Horror #4 is Bob Price's most newly resurrected magazine;
it includes Lovecraftian but non-Mythos stories by Rainey and a
variety of others. The New Lovecraft Collector #16 contains the usual
news, as well as an essay by Cannon, and part 3 of the Works of H. P.
Lovecraft: A Listing by Magazine. Finally, Lovecraft Studies #35
contains essays on "The Outsider", "The Call of Cthulhu", Poe's "The
City in the Sea" and more.
You can get more info on Necronomicon Press at their web site:
http://www.necropress.com
--------------------
From: "Ricardo J. Mendez" <ricardo@tecapro.com>
Subject: The Miracle: A Tale of Terror
System: Call of Cthulhu
The Miracle: A Tale of Terror
Ricardo J. Mendez
A weird character in the news has come to the attention of an
investigator. It will most likely be a skeptical and cynical
investigator, or one compelled to believe that kind of news.
The news, it turns out, deals with a person that seems to have
stigmata that match those suffered by Jesus Christ on the cross,
according to Catholic Mythology. The man, one Jacobo Lewis from Haiti,
seems to have injuries on his hands, feet and side that match those
famous wounds. These wounds keep bleeding, but apparently never get
infected. People are said to have healed after he touched them,
especially those with blood diseases, although no cases have been
documented. Also weird is the fact that Jacobo is 30 years old, the
same age Jesus was when he started preaching.
What has the religious community in an uproar is that Jacobo is black,
and definitely not a Christian, but a practicer of voodoo. He says the
wounds were inflicted on him by the Loa of his tribe, as a reminder of
his human frailty and so he could spread the word.
After a couple of weeks of reading about him in the papers, the
investigators might be curious enough to check him out.
Possibilities:
1) Jacobo is, of course, a fake. The people he has been said to heal
are healed by their own faith, just as a lot of people get sick when
they believe they are. Most likely those people weren't even sick.
2) The man from Nazareth was an avatar of the Crawling Chaos. The
reason that we don't know anything about his life from his early years
until his 30th birthday, is because previous to that point he hadn't
been contacted by Nyarlathotep, and therefore wasn't important. The
Black Man tried to recruit him when he is said to have been tempted in
the desert, but he went mad, and began believing he was the
Messiah. Given his newly found powers, that delusions wasn't hard to
live up to.
Now, more than 1900 years after that, Nyarlathotep is willing to try
again, with a son of mortal woman. Jacobo might dream about "past
lives", which are previous avatars, and by those means the players can
find out the truth. His stigmata is the means that Nyarlathotep uses
to both confuse the general populace and tease those with more
knowledge.
3) The Loa did contact Jacobo, and inflicted his stigmatic wounds.
Unfortunately for him and his honour, the alleged Loa is a vampire,
too week to fully return from his resting place. He was in life a
sorcerer, and is trying to attract a cult to his crypt. Then, he will
control Jacobo to slaughter the all, so that with the strength given
by their blood he may return.
Copyright (c) 1996 Ricardo J. Mendez
ricardo@tecapro.com
--------------------
From: Shannon Appel <appel@erzo.org>
Subject: CF: Ring of Eibon
System: Mythos
** THE CARD FILES: RING OF EIBON **
THE CARD
--------
Name: Ring of Eibon
Set: Mythos Limited
Type: Artifact
Affects: Opponent's Hand
San: -1
Unique: Yes
Special Effect Box: Spend 2 Sanity points to gain a 13-second glance
at one opponent's hand and choose their next legal play (cannot be a
Pass) of a card from their hand to the table. Flip this card face-down
after use.
CLARIFICATIONS
--------------
The crux of this card is the fact that you "choose [a] legal
play... of a card from [your opponent's] hand to the table". This
means you cannot force your opponent to: rotate a card, flip a card,
bury a card, cast a spell, pass, or do any other action that would
normally be legal. The only thing you can force them to do is play a
certain card.
Although you get to select a card that must be played, you are in no
way restricting the playing of other cards. For example, if you
selected a Monster, your opponent may be able to Join some friends.
If a card is targeted in some way, as many Events are, particularly
Phobias, you do not get to choose the target of that event. You simply
specify which card an opponent must play on their next turn, not what
they can do with it.
In summary: you get to choose a card that must be played on your
opponent's next turn, but everything else is up to him.
QUESTIONS
---------
Q: Can I choose to play a Joined set of cards from an opponent's hand?
A: No. The Ring of Eibon only allows for "a card". However, if the
card you selected was Joinable, your opponent may choose to play
those other cards, if he wishes.
Q: What happens if I choose a Car, a Closed-Cockpit Monoplane, or
some other card which requires for another card to immediately be
played?
A: Your opponent is forced to play the first card, and then may pick
the second. They must do so, and you can not choose to play that
first card if there isn't a legal second card (since then it
wouldn't be a "legal play").
Q: What happens if the Rounds ends before my opponent's next legal
play? Or, alternatively, what happens if I use the Ring of Eibon
during combat?
A: Next turn is defined as "your next natural player Turn, even if
that Turn occurs in the following round". Your opponent's "next
legal play", per the Ring of Eibon, happens on their next Turn. If
both cases, you will have chosen your opponent's first action in
the next Round. Take note that your opponent is not allowed to
discard the card that you required him to play, nor is he allowed
to play it before his next turn (eg, if you selected a Monster he
couldn't use Create Gate to bring it into play during the Spells
phase of Combat).
Q: What happens if my opponent has no legal card plays?
A: You wasted two Sanity.
Q: What happens if the card I selected becomes an illegal card play
before my opponent's turn?
A: You wasted two Sanity. Your opponent gets to play whatever card he
wants.
Q: What happens if I play Ring of Eibon on someone, and force him to
use their Yithian Mental Contact, and he decides to Yithian the
Ring of Eibon usage?
A: In practice, the Yithian Mental Contact is used, the Ring is
buried, and you get the two points you spent to activate your ring
back. Theoretically, you iterate through an infinite number of
alternate realities until you find one where your opponent decides
to Yithian the Ring, even though the Ring didn't force him to.
Alternatively, the Universe may implode.
STRATEGIES
----------
The Ring of Eibon is probably one of the most overlooked cards in
Mythos. It has the potential to be devastating to your opponent's
plans, though that is offset by its high cost to use. Following are a
number of uses for the ring. There are many more: the Ring is one of
the most versatile of all Mythos cards.
* Discard a Location - Few people realize that the Ring of Eibon is a
Discarder, in certain limited ways. If your opponent is walking to a
Location, he is quite vulnerable. As per MSGS rules pg. 17: "When
walking to one Location, you might find that you wish to change to a
different Location instead. Your previous destination has never been
rotated right-side-up and is Discarded. It never became part of your
Story. Your new Location is played crosswise, replacing your
previous card." If your opponent is walking, and you choose a new
Location for him to play, you implicitly force him to discard that old one.
* Discard a Travel Event - The same trick can be used, to a certain
degree, upon Travel Events (MSGS rules pg. 17: "You may also do this
if your Current Location is a Travel Event"). While your opponent is
upon a Travel Event, you can pick a Location that is not legal to
play from the Travel Event, but was legal from the investigator's
former location. For example, if your opponent played the
Mauretania, which requires a new Location card in "a different
region", you could select a Location in their old region. If your
opponent was upon a Tramp Steamer, which requires them to "play a
new Location card featuring the Water attribute in either the same
or a different region", you could select a Location without water in
their old region. In both cases, your opponent would be forced to
discard their Travel Event in order to play the card you selected.
* Mess Up Travel Events - If you can't discard your opponent's Travel
Event, you can likely mess it up. Dirigible, Seaplane, Tramp
Steamer, and U-Boat are the most vulnerable to this, because they
allow the play of a card in any Region. After your opponent hops on
a Travel Event, ready to visit far-away lands, you select a Location
in their old Region, and they're right back where they started.
* Deny Attributes - If your opponent is getting ready to use Location
attributes (Tome, Artifact, Gate), you can choose a new Location for
them, that they'll be forced to play. This is a particularly nice
(short-term) counter against Samuel Winsor or the Tiara of Opulent
Fantasy.
* Ward Off Passing - When an opponent begins to pass, you can use Ring
of Eibon to force them to play a card. This will get you a total of
one extra turn (for your two Sanity).
* Set Up for Combat - Just before passes begin, you can set an
opponent up for Combat with the Ring. Got Byakhee in your threat?
Make them go outside. Hiding a Pack of Rat Things? Send them back
inside. Have Living Dead in your Threat? Make them play a Night
Event, if they have one.
* Play the Wrong Card - The idea is that your opponent has some
limited resource, and you force them to use it wrong. If they're at
a Gate, you have them play their wimpy Skeleton rather than
their Color Out of Space. If they have only one space left in their
Death Tome, you have them play Orne's Black rather than that
Resurrection Spell they need for their Adventure.
* Play a Bad Card - Some cards will just be bad for an opponent to
play at certain times. Examples include: An Unexpected Calamity,
certain types of Storm (when your opponent is Travelling), Aldeberan
Moves in the Sky (if your opponent has useful events out), etc. If
you discover your opponent has some of these cards in their deck,
you can try to get them to use them at an inopportune time. This is
probably one of the most satisfying uses of the Ring of Eibon.
* Cost Them Sanity - On rare occasions, you can cost your opponent
Sanity with the Ring of Eibon. Force them to reuse a Gate (by
selecting a legal Monster card at a reusable gate Location that
costs Sanity). Have them play a costly Monster, Tome, or Artifact
when they can't really afford it. Make them go somewhere that
they're currently Phobic of. Cause them to leave a Sanitarium or
Church before they've buried their Phobias. Choose a card other than
a Location for them to play when someone else has Townsfolk Rioted
them.
* Intelligence Gathering - I've primarily talked about the use of the
Ring to force your opponent to do stuff. Its other power, the fact
that it allows you to see your opponent's hand, should not be
forgotten. You can see: what Monsters are going to end up in your
opponent's Threat, what Adventures they're working on, how close
they are, and lots more. Ring of Eibon works very well with
Amnesia. After you verify that your opponent is actually holding
crucial cards for their Adventure, then you can nail them with your
Amnesia card.
COUNTER STRATEGIES
------------------
Situations where you can counter the Ring are rare. Most of the time,
you'll be stuck.
* Typical Artifact Strategies - Steal the Ring with Mi-go or Thieves
in the Attic. Decrease your opponent's Sanity level so that they
can't afford to use the Ring.
* Yithian It! - If you're hit with the Ring of Eibon, you can't
Yithian it, since your next card play has already been selected, and
then it's too late. However, if an opponent is using the Ring to
very good effect, and hits someone else with it, it might be worth
you, an unaffected third party, using a Yithian. The Ring is flipped
when it's used, and that's an orientation change, so when it's
directed at someone else, you can toast it.
* Indirectly Make Your Card Play Illegal - This only works if you're
hit with the Ring, and then the round ends before your next turn.
You can't discard the required card, but you can do some sneaky,
indirect thing during the Artifact/Tome phase of combat if you
really don't want to play it. The most obvious thing you can do is
change your Location with the Create Timewarp or Fly spells. Simply
go somewhere where you can't play the Ally, Tome, Artifact, or
Monster that was selected. If your opponent selected a Tome, you
might get rid of the Allies who knows its language with Body Warping
of Gorgoroth, Call Power of Nyambe, Devolution, Consume Likeness, or
Dread Curse of Azathoth. If your opponent selected a weapon, you
might kill every single one of your Allies in similar manners
(though that's likely overkill).
--------------------
From: Mike LaBossiere <Ontologist@aol.com>
Subject: Announcement: Opifex Bi-Monthly
System: Call of Cthulhu
Opifex Bi-Monthly: Random Universes
GENERAL INFORMATION
Opifex Bi-Monthly: Random Universes is a bi-monthly electronic
magazine (ezine) which is distributed in pdf format. The ezine
requires Adobe Acrobat Reader or other software capable of viewing pdf
files. The Adobe Acrobat Reader is free and is available on most
online services or from Adobe (www.adobe.com). Macintosh only versions
(in eDoc format) are also available on America Online. These versions
are standalone applications which do not require reader software.
Opifex Bi-Monthly : Random Universes is dedicated to role-playing
games, war games, and computer games. The primary emphasis is on
science fiction and horror games, but games from other genres will be
covered. Each issue features two original Call of Cthulhu adventures.
ACQUIRING OPIFEX BI-MONTHLY: RANDOM UNIVERSES
-America Online
Opifex Bi-Monthly: Random Universes is uploaded to the Role-Playing
Game Forum on America Online (keyword "OGF"). A Macintosh only version
is also available on America Online in the Mac files section of the
OGF.
-Subscriptions
Subscriptions are available begining with issue #5 (January-February).
Simply send email to: ontologist@aol.com with the message "Subcribe
OBM" and you will be added to the list. Issues are mailed as binhexed
(.hqx) files attached to/included in email. Current versions of the
America Online software will automatically decode the files. Users of
other online services or internet service providers might need a
utility such as the free Aladdin's Stuffit Expander to convert the
binhex file to a usable format. The Stuffit Expander utility is
available in both Mac and PC forms and is readily available online.
-Online
The current issue of Opifex Bi-Monthly: Random Universes will be available at
http://user.aol.com/ontologist/web/opifex.obm.html
in January. The current issue can be viewed from the current versions
of NetScape, Explorer or any browser which supports Adobe's PDFViewer
plug-in. The current issue can also be manually downloaded by making
an FTP connection to user.aol.com/ontologist/web.
SUBMISSIONS
Because of the current "legal situation" of the "gaming world," no
submissions of any kind are accepted.
MORE INFORMATION
For more information contact Michael C. LaBossiere - ontologist@aol.com.
--------------------
The Chaosium Digest is an unofficial electronic 'zine about Chaosium's
Games. In no way should it be considered representative of the views
or beliefs of Chaosium Inc. To submit an article, subscribe or
unsubscribe, mail to: appel@erzo.org. The old digests are archived on
ftp.csua.berkeley.edu in the directory /pub/chaosium, and may be
retrieved via FTP.
