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Chaosium Digest Volume 22 Number 07
Chaosium Digest Volume 22, Number 7
Date: Monday, November 10, 1997
Number: 1 of 3
Contents:
Announcement: Tentacle Over Bacharach (Fabian Kuechler) MISC
Rating the Adventures, Part 1 (Cedric Chin) MYTHOS
Editor's Note:
This week's digest is going out a little late due to computer downage
and con weariness, but here it is. You'll find an announcement of an
upcoming German Con as well a long article on Mythos adventures. Send
those submissions for next issue!
Shannon
NEW RELEASES:
* Call of Cthulhu - _Escape from Innsmouth, Second Edition_ (Chaosium,
176 pg., $22.95) by Kevin Ross & others, is a new edition of the
classic sourcebook detailing Innsmouth. You'll find everything from
the first edition, a new adventure ("The Crawford Inheritance") and
a new segment for the "Raid on Innsmouth" scenario.
RECENT MAGAZINE SIGHTINGS:
* Call of Cthulhu - "Out of the Ordinary", by Graeme Davis, is a five
page essay detailing "conventional mysteries" for Call of Cthulhu:
from ley lines and UFOs to big dinosaurs, Shadis #41.
"Basic Training: Call of Cthulhu", by Ken Hite, is a four page
introduction to Call of Cthulhu. Well-worth it if you haven't tried
the game yet, InQuest #32. This issue also has the way-cool
Miskatonic U. Scavenger Quest, where you can win a complete set of
Chaosium's in-print Cthulhu RPG and Fiction products (something like
40 books). Check it out and get collecting!
RECENT BOOKS OF NOTE:
* Elric! - _Tales from the Texas Woods_ (Mojo Press, $20.95, ISBN
1-885418-17-5) is a new collection of previously uncollected
Moorcock short stories and essays. Contents are: "The Ghost
Warriors", "About My Multiverse", "The Further Adventures of
Sherlock Holmes", "How Tom Mix Saved My Life", "A Catalogue of
Memories", "Sword of Irony", "The Sun of Its Parts", "My Comic
Life", "Johhny Lonesome Comes to Town", "Bryan Talbot's Tje
Advemtire of Luther Arkwright", "Disarming Evil", and "Sir
Milk-and-Blood".
NEW ELECTRONIC RESOURCES:
Gaming Intelligence
http://rpg.net/gi/
Not directly Chaosium-related, but GI is an interesting weekly
newsletter devoted to the entire gaing industry: RPGs, card games,
miniatures, PBeMs, LARPs, etc. If you're interested check out their
web page, or subscribe immediately by sending the command "join gi" to
list-request@rpg.net.
--------------------
From: Fabian Kuechler <fabian.kuechler@medien.uni-weimar.de>
Subject: Announcement: Tentacle Over Bacharach
System: Misc
Hello my fellow Tentacles and Walktapis,
We would like to invite you to our summoning of greater and older
evils at that old german castle. Bring your own investigator or
Walktapi to join us at...
TENTACLE OVER BACHARACH
The German Cthulhu and Glorantha Event 1998
May 29 - June 1 1998
Castle "Stahleck" in Bacharach
Yes, we are back. Yes, we will be at that castle again (for all of you
who missed this event the last couple of years) And... it is going to
be a party.
TENTACLES OF HONOUR:
* Sandy Petersen (USA, Author of "Cthulhu" and countless RQ/Glorantha
material, Mr. DOOM!?... let us see what horror he brings along this
time)
* David Hall (U.K, Editor of "Tales of the Reaching Moon" and one of
those guys who brought us the REACHING MOON MEGACORP)
* Micheal O'Brien (Australia, MOB or Mr. MAXIMUM GAME FUN)
FREEFORMS:
* "The Lady in Grey" a shocking Cthulhu-FreeForm for about 40 people.
Written and directed by Thorsten Grube, the german
Cthulhu-FreeForm-Sensei. Burn your sanity and watch out for that
mummy.
"The Lady in Grey"
Setting/Location: Cambridgeshire, Great Britain, City of Cambridge,
King's College.
Time: May, 1926
Date: Wednesday, 22nd thru Sunday, 26th: The boat race, Cambridge versus
Oxford.
Plot (Player's information): Mysterious findings of human cadavers -
strange apparitions of noise and light - undue storms - common
disorientation - local disturbances in everyday's life
Possible Player Characters: Sportsmen, Journalists, Dons (Tutors and
Professors of The University of Cambridge), Students, Other College
Inhabitants, Townspeople, former Students, last but not least
Friends and Donators (Royal Family included)
* Long promised and planned, now in the making: Joerg Baumgartner and
his "HEORTLAND FREEFORM" (10-12 people)
* "THE KINGS FUNERAL" by Ingo Tschinke. Come and find out who will
be the next king of Kustria. (10-12 people)
* ...and because so many of you have not yet had a chance to play in
it: "HEROES OF WISDOM-REVISITED" by Ingo Tschinke. A FreeForm for
about 40-50 people, set in the city of knowledge: Jonstown.
OTHER STUFF:
Now scream because these things could also happen to you:
* A plentitude of Cthulhu and Glorantha panels, seminars and Lore
Auctions
* Game rounds for: RQ/Glorantha, Cthulhu, Pendragon, Elric!, Nephilim,
Prince Valiant, ElfQuest, Mythos etc.
* Mythos Tournament
* MgF-Tournament "The sedan chair of citizen Craine"
* The Sanity Loss Game
* The Great Conspiracies of Glorantha
* "Who will win the Duck Umbrella this time" - Auction. Go and spend
your last money for out of print RQ-, Glorantha- & Cthulhu material,
Magazines, Board Games and Nonsense...and bring your own to get rid
of it.
* Live-Action-Trollball with our "4" Referees (MOB, Joerg and maybe
Lewis Jardine?), also titled "How to get hit by 301 Waterbombs"
* Hyper-Dimensional-Dragon Pass by Gunnar Kotsch (maybe a Tournament)
* Saurintology - "How I became a dinosaur"
* Walktapi-Salvation-Cooking-Pot: throw in some money, have a wish
(hope that it will come true) and help us to finance our Tentacles
of Honour
* Do It Yourself Events - could be anything you want to do, from
playing your own games to Live-acting-Dragon Pass.
* Famous and infamous guests from all over the world.
* Delicous cooked Walktapi and Tentacle food and excuisite vegetarian
cuisine
* Excellent german beer, wine, milk and...water (!?), infamous german
drinking games with Claudia Loroff, Latex Leggins (?!?)
* And "IN THE STARS-EVENTS" (Art Attack, Sing Along, Live-Music, "How
to run an Internet FreeForm Game" (not!), a Con T-Shirt...)
SAY: "YES, I LIKE TO BE A TENTACLE!" and CONtact:
Fabian Kuechler
"Tentacle over Bacharach"
Postfach 10 23 02
99423 Weimar, Germany
Email: fabian.kuechler@medien.uni-weimar.de
--------------------
From: cchin@frk.com (Cedric Chin)
Subject: Rating the Adventures, Part 1
System: Mythos
** INTRODUCTION
A box worth of Adventures can be pretty intimidating. Where to start?
This article attempts to help you build decks, first by grouping the
Adventures by their difficulty, then by noting which ones are
Adventures to start a deck around.
Adventures are rated as Tricky, Difficult, Moderate, and Broken.
Adventures are judged on their overall difficulty, and difficulty
relative to their point value. Tricky Adventures are difficult to
complete and may not be worth their point value, but their sexy, cool,
and obnoxious effects are well worth playing. Difficult Adventures are
just not easy to complete, and are often not interesting to
play. Moderate Adventures are easier to complete, can round off a
deck, and are worth their point value. Some Moderate Adventures have
high point values for their difficulty, and are rated Moderate - Easy.
Broken Adventures are too easy to complete and provide too many
Adventure Points for their difficulty.
Some Adventures are listed as Starting-point Adventures These are
Adventures you can start building your deck around. Most Tricky
Adventures are fun Starting-point Adventures.
Other Adventures are listed as Fill-in Adventures. These Adventures
complement a deck and raise it to its 20-point minimum. A good Fill-In
Adventure provides Locations, Allies, and other cards that can be used
to help complete the other Adventures in the deck. Better (and broken)
Fill-in Adventures also have high point values. Moderate,
Moderate-Easy, and Broken Adventures tend to be Fill-In Adventures.
SUMMARY OF LOCATIONS
Single Sub-Region City decks play much faster than any other type of
other deck. The following Sub-Regions can be used to make such a deck:
Arkham, Boston, Cairo (Middle East), Celephais (The East), Ilek-Vad
(The East), Innsmouth, Kingsport, Providence, Ulthar (The West).
Some Cities are too small to support an entire deck. Such Cities
include: Dyath-Leen (The West), Any Europe City, Gug City (The
Underworld), New York, Rinar (The East).
The following Sub-Regions are Country: Dunwich, Miskatonic Valley,
Mnar (The West), Oukranos Wilds (The West), Vermont.
Note that the East, The West, and The Underworld Regions are in the
Dreamlands.
** TRICKY ADVENTURES
SAVE THE WORLD: +18
Limited Edition. Starting-point Adventure. Arkham and/or
Providence. Summon GOO and meet a Corrupt Cultist from the Past.
Save the World is cool. You get to summon a GOO (tricky but cool) and
meet a Corrupt Cultist from the Past (also cool). Save the World is
+18 points, qualifying it for a Two-Adventure deck. Unfortunately,
since Save the World requires a Mythos Experience, the variety of
decks you can make with this Adventure is quite limited. A typical
pairing is Save the World and The Interesting Shop.
THE DUNWICH HORROR: +15
Limited Edition. Starting-point Adventure. Dunwich. It's the only
Dunwich-based Adventure, but it's a doozy.
The Dunwich Horror is something of a challenge. This Adventure
primarily takes place in the Country Dunwich Locations, which
translates into quite a bit of Walking. The Adventure also requires
many Unique cards; consequently, you will probably have to cycle
through the entire deck before completing this Adventure. However, if
you have to cycle through the entire deck, you're almost guaranteed
that if you have any other Unique cards, you will be able to draw
them. For example, if you combine The Dunwich Horror with Knee-Deep in
Doom, you can put the Kitab Al-Azif (you may play Monsters as Allies
and vice-versa) in the deck and count on it being played. Note that
the Corrupt Cultists, Wilbur Whateley and Old Man Whateley, are
Unique. If your opponent has ways to discard Allies, you may wish to
play these Corrupt Cultists as Monsters. Finally, at +15 points this
Adventure also qualifies for a Two-Adventure deck. Thankfully, the
second Adventure in this deck can be any of quite a variety of +6 and
+5 point Adventures.
SUMMON GREAT CTHULHU: +13 (errata)
Limited Edition. Starting-point Adventure. Boston. Summon Cthulhu
himself and travel to R'lyeh.
Summoning Great Cthulhu is tres cool. You get to travel to R'lyeh and
summon Cthulhu himself, although you must play the Adventure when
Cthulhu is in play. This isn't easy, since many spells can be cast to
bury Cthulhu. R'lyeh itself requires three Unique cards (the three
pieces [Artifacts] of the R'lyeh disk) in play before playing, and
doesn't have much play value. Summon Great Cthulhu also requires you
to be a member of a Secret Society, and only the Secrets of the Silver
Twilight Lodge and the Brotherhood of the Black Pharaoh make you such
a member. Since the Brotherhood takes place in the Middle East, and
the Middle East doesn't have the Water Attribute (needed to play the
Travel by Water Event to reach R'lyeh) Summon Great Cthulhu becomes
part of a Two-Adventure deck with Secrets of the Silver Twilight.
Luckily, Secrets of the Silver Twilight is a Moderate-Easy Adventure,
and makes up for the difficulty in playing Summon Great Cthulhu.
Since Secrets of the Silver Twilight is a +8 point Adventure and
Summon Great Cthulhu is a +13 point Adventure, you don't need to
include any other Adventures in the deck (the minimum number of
Adventure Points in a deck should be 20) and this deck becomes a
Two-Adventure deck.
MAKE MONEY FAST: +10
Limited Edition. Starting-point Adventure. Arkham. Summon Cthulhu in
the middle of Arkham.
More Cthulhu Summoning, and this time you get to do it in the middle
of Arkham. Because Make Money Fast requires no Travel or Island cards
you can try finding the Unique Shining Trapezohedron to replace
Cthulhu's Island requirement, and hope you can keep the Waxing Moon in
play as the other requirement for Cthulhu (or you can try a Fly Spell
/ Island combination). Since Make Money Fast requires three Unique
cards, expect to draw your entire deck when playing this Adventure,
but at least this means you will find the Shining Trapezohedron. The
Unique cards are the Obsessive / Compulsive Phobia, Herbert West, and
the Kitab Al-Azif, sexy cards in their own right. (Obsessive /
Compulsive is the only card which forces a player to shuffle his
discard into his Draw at the end of a Turn. Herbert West allows you to
"resurrect" an Ally from your Story Deck. The Kitab Al-Azif allows you
to play Monsters as Allies and vice-versa.)
DOOMED IF YOU DO: +8
Dreamlands. Mnar. Summon Bokrug, the keenest GOO around.
Doomed if You Do is one of Dreamland's better Adventures. It takes
place entirely in Mnar, a Country Region in The West. It also requires
you to summon Bokrug, one of the most obnoxious GOOs to summon (only
Investigators in Mnar may gain Sanity, and no Storms in play are
buried). All of the Allies and Tomes may be found in the Adventure's
Locations, which are any three different Locations in Mnar (including
the Ruins of Sarnath, which has the Tome, Artifact, and Gate
Attributes!).
MOON QUEST: +8
Dreamlands. Starting-point Adventure. Ilek-Vad and the Far Side of the
Moon (Exotic Location). Meet the difficult-to-play King of Ilek-Vad.
Moon Quest is tricky but sexy. You get to fly to the Far Side of the
Moon and try to get the King of Ilek-Vad in play. The Far Side of the
Moon is an Exotic Location, and thus not easy to arrive (you must play
a Travel Event that allows you to reach Space Locations, and should be
able to survive Space before arriving). The Far Side, however, has a
reusable Gate Location, and both the Tome and Artifact Attribute. With
any luck, you can find the Zenig of Aphorat, an Artifact, there. The
Zenig can be used to replace any card requirement for an Adventure.
The King of Ilek-Vad is a difficult card to get into play because he
requires Randolph Carter in play. Randolph Carter can only be
encountered in a Country Location, and the only Ilek-Vad Country
Location is the Rare Cliffs of Glass, or the Underwater Caverns of
Gnorri. None of the Locations in this Adventure can be used to play
either the King of Ilek-Vad or Randolph Carter. However, the King is a
three-point Ally who, when flipped, allows you to draw two cards. Make
sure you have a Flee to Secret Room when you have either of these two
Allies around!
THE PRICE: +8
Mythos Standard Game Set. Kingsport. Summon Tulzscha, the most famous GOO
around (unfortunately).
Here's yet another GOO-summoning Adventure. Unfortunately, since many
players have been introduced to Mythos with the Mythos Standard Game
Set, Tulzscha is one of the more commonly known GOOs. As a result,
don't expect your Solstice card (one of the requirements to play
Tulzscha) to stay in play very long! Also, this Adventure requires a
Unique card, N'Kai, an easily reached (must Walk from any Underground
Location) Exotic Location. This Adventure requires a Corrupt Cultist,
and Kingsport only has one Unique Corrupt Cultist.
--
