Copy Link
Add to Bookmark
Report
Chaosium Digest Volume 38 Number 06
Chaosium Digest Volume 38, Number 6
Date: Sunday, August 15, 2004
Number: 1 of 1
Contents:
* The Chosen One (CTHULHU)
by Nick Middleton
Editor's Note:
Here's the newest issue of the Digest, just in time for GenCon. If you're in
Indy for the con this week you might run into me. I'll be helming a few "You
too can Cthulhu" sessions and stalking about the dealers room.
Thanks to those 15 of you who responded that you were receiving the Digest.
Your kind words were encouraging. Most especially thanks to Nick Middleton
who provided the submission for this issue and another to be used later.
Lastly, September is the last month to qualify for this quarter's Chaosium
Contest prize of $40 worth of Chaosium products. Keep those submissions
coming and enjoy this issue.
Announcements:
* GATHERING THUNDER IS HERE
The post brought my copy of Gathering Thunder this week. More than
delight... I am beginning to understand the Hero Wars. As the time line
expands (and the authors tell more), it is easier to see some of the
wherefore of developments to date. The Empire has been hurt, but not
defeated. Now the rebels must find new allies and magics to stand any chance
of defeating the Empire's latest scheme: the construction of a new Temple of
the Reaching Moon to subjugate all of Dragon Pass to the Glowline. This book
culminates in the epic Boatraising, as heroes accompany Kallyr herself on a
mighty heroquest to reshape the skies.
MORE TO COME
Provided by Stephen Martin
Unfortunately, our publication schedule for the rest of the year is still in
flux. We have several unfinished manuscripts in the process of being
completed, including UNDER THE RED MOON, the second volume of the Imperial
Lunar Handbook; MEN OF THE SEA, the Player's Book for Sailors; BLOOD OVER
GOLD, Adventures Among the Trader Princes; and HEIRS OF MALKION, an overview
of the West of Glorantha. Work also continues on DRAGONRISE, Volume 4 of
Sartar Rising, being worked on by Merlin Cox; SUN SON CITY, a book of
adventures set in the city of Raibanth, helmed by James Maliszewski; and OAK
AND PINE, the Elf Player's
Book being written by Shannon Appelcline.
As soon as we have more details on the publication schedule, we will let you
know. In the meantime, go to <http://www.HeroQuest-rpg.com/products/> for
information on these and other upcoming products.
CONTESTS
Sadly, Issaries did not receive enough entries for The World of Glorantha
Art Contest to judge the contest and award the prize. Thanks to those who
did submit.
The winners of the latest GTA Observers drawing are Hans Torstensson and
Darin Christensen. Each received a copy of Masters of Luck and Death. Luck
indeed!
This time around, the Observer contest is for a copy of whatever book comes
out next! This could be Blood Over Gold (the Trader Princes book), Heirs of
Malkion, Men of the Sea, Under the Red Moon (Imperial Lunar Handbook, Volume
2), so if you are interested in any of those books, send an email to
<contest@glorantha.com> with OBSERVER CONTEST - GRAB BAG in the subject
line. As always, please do not send other correspondence in the message, but
make sure to include your full name and your physical mailing address so
that we can send you your prize. Two copies of the book will be awarded from
all entries received by midnight August 15, Pacific Time.
If you know someone who would like to keep up on all happenings Gloranthan,
and maybe score a free prize sometime, have them contact us at
<gta@glorantha.com> so that we can add them to the list of Observers. Or
just send them to <http://www.rpglist.org/mailman/listinfo/gta-observer> to
add themselves!
SUMMER CONVENTIONS
>From Stephen Martin and various Convention Coordinators
Greg was at ORIGINS 2004, in Columbus, OH, June 23 - June 27. Greg was a
Guest of Honor and held forth in several seminars, on both Arthurian
subjects and Pendragon as well as HeroQuest and other matters Gloranthan. He
ran several gaming events. In addition, Jeff Kyer ran a massive tournament:
a multi-session first round for "Distant Thunder" (which follows "Sheep,
Clouds, Thunder") followed by a final round for "Black Cloud Castle," a
heroquest in the Sky World to gain an ally for the Storm Pantheon. (Both of
these scenarios are slated to appear in Dragonrise.)
CONTIUUM, the successor to Convulsions, is booked for 23-26 July, in
Leicester, UK. Glorantha and HeroQuest will be at the heart of the event,
which includes tabletop games, freeforms, seminars, and displays. Stephen
Martin of Issaries, Charlie Krank of Chaosium, and Mark Gaelotti and Simon
Bray of the Unspoken Word are among the guests.
The Con book looks impressive: MAGNUS LIBER RERUM includes many articles for
RuneQuest, HeroQuest, and Glorantha, and will be available at the
convention. There will also be a HeroQuest tournament, 'The Dark Heart of
the Dragon Lands' by Darran Sims; a massive convention-long miniatures game;
and more. Check out the Continuum website at <http://www.continuum.uk.net/>
for more information.
GENCON INDY (formerly known as just GenCon) will be held August 19-22 in
Indianapolis, Indiana.
Issaries invites individuals to run events there. Issaries can provide
scenarios and prizes, but needs reliable narrators to help bring the Word to
those lost in the Darkness that is d20. Email <events@glorantha.com> if you
are going and can run one of our events (or plan to run one of your own).
Check out the Issaries conventions pages for officially sponsored events at
<http://www.glorantha.com/tribes/schedule.html> and also
<http://www.glorantha.com/tribes/events.html>
(for other conventions).
SHORT TAKES AND QUICK PLUGS
HeroQuest En Espanol -- The licensed Spanish translation of HeroQuest is
out! We've seen it, and although it looks eerily familiar to us, we're still
ecstatic that it is now available! Greg says he isn't able to read it all as
of yet, but he's working on it! The cover art by Alejandro Teránis is first
rate, and I also like the duck. Start at
<http://www.edgeent.com/heroquest/>. For even more stuff, check out Vision
Runica, a Spanish fanzine that includes scenarios, a color map of Ralios,
and articles on Lalia, Arkat & Eurmal at
<http://www.edgeent.com/hero/fanzine/index.htm>.
Lokarnos has moved his wagon! Lokarnos.com has moved to a new server. To
reach it reliably, type
<http://lokarnos.com> (not http://www.lokarnos.com, which goes astray).
>From Charles Corrigan: Do you want to know how to kill the Bat? Are you more
ambitious? Do you want to know how to kill Orlanth? The Whitewall project at
<http://www.eparsnip.f2s.com/phpwiki/index.php> and
<http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/whitewall/> can show you how to achieve
both of these and much, much more.
The online 'zine Sequential Tart <http://www.sequentialtart.com/home.shtml>
is looking for women gamers familiar with comic books as well to be
reviewers. If you are a woman, are familiar with comic books, and want to
get some free games to review (including HeroQuest books), or know a woman
who meets these requirements, please contact
editor-in-chief Marcia Allass at <britchick@sequentialtart.com>.
And check out HeroWars.pdf, a combined Contest Results grid that shows
Simple and Extended Contest Results along with Recovery:
<couroberon.free.fr/fiches/herowars.pdf>.
If you like mapping as much as I, do not miss the marvels at
<http://nysalor.daug.net/runequest/kartat/indexeng.html>.
SONS OF KARGZANT is out, fun from Unspoken Word: 64 pages of nomad nastiness
and fun, subtitles 'the bloody saga of the Char-Un warlords of the savage
steppe.' Says it all, really!
TRADETALK #14 "Outside Genertela: The Southern Continent" is the latest
offering from the Chaos Society. David Dunham does a short overview of
"Umathela", accompanied by an Umathean Myth; Simon Bray describes the
"Kumanku Islands" (includeing a HOMELAND spread), and the narrator character
of "Red Ravaal"; "Golden Kareeshtu" is an article written by Martin Hawley &
Peter Metcalfe; "The War beneath the Waves" by André
Jarosch gives an overview of the Marthino Sea, plus scenario ideas for land
dwelling characters, a plunder item,
and two new creatures; Martin Hawley's "Laskal" shows us Harreks future
Kingdom before the Hero Wars or Harrek himself have reached this region.
"Legends of the Embyli" tell myths of the yellow elves and "Homeland:
Errinoru Jungle" is the first HOMELAND spread for an Aldryami area, both by
Shannon Applecline. Artists include Simon Bray, Dario Corallo, and Sarah
Evans. Path of the Dammed #3, the Glorantha comic, will be available very
soon.
A new PBeM has just launched, thanks to Rich Willard. Details are at
<http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/Unified_Children>. If you've not got
enough players in Adelaide, reach out.
If you want to pursue HQ rules and context, visit the HQ forum on Forge
<http://www.indie-rpgs.com/>,
which contains informative and helpful posts on a variety of subjects.
CALLING ALL EXAMPLES
Greg has asked tribe members for more HeroQuest examples, to spread the word
of Heroquest. Here is a chance for you to contribute to the Greater Good!:
Just as the rules book has limited space to include things, so we at
Issaries have limited time to put these together. So, please allow me to
solicit examples from all of you, so that we can expand our on-line examples
to infinite size. OK, not really infinite. But I would like to solicit YOUR
input for the site.
Please write up examples of what you think ought to have been given. If we
get umpty-ump combat examples, we will just select some of them to use. So
be creative and give us examples to help those new players! (If you have
rules questions, please ask them before sending us an example illustrating
one interpretation.)
Send examples to <examples@glorantha.com>. We will sort them out, make sure
they are correct, and post those which we feel will do the most good.
Please, NO RULES VARIANTS. We know you have them, we know you use them, but
for the official site, please keep within the published rules. Thanks!
GTA MEMBERSHIP UPDATE
>From Stephen Martin
The GTA Tribe welcomes new members. Currently the GTA has 2 Demi-Gods, 36
Heroes, 47 Runemasters, and 178 Initiates, for a total of 263 members. There
are also over 800 Observers. If you know anyone else who might want to join
the Glorantha Tribe, have them contact us at <gta@glorantha.com>.
New Initiate: Eric Vanel
New Runemaster: Terra Incognita
The legions and missionaries have gathered to spread the Way by sword and
word, and they are dedicated individuals all. We especially welcome back
members once lost who have returned to us. We are sure their presence back
in the fold will enrich us all. But some Travelers and Journeyers have been
long lost in the alien Otherworlds, and we fear that, like the Goddess
before them, their path through hostile realms and ages has become difficult
to
follow home. If, like brave Yanafal Tarnils, any of you can embark on your
own journey to find and rescue them, please inform us of any result, either
by emailing contacting information to <gta@glorantha.com> or by asking them
to contact us once they have recovered from their quest:
Michael Abbott Chris Bell Michael Hill
Hugh McVicker Al Petterson Michael Pose
Phil Posehn Andrew Reichart Dom Twist
Anthony Utano Don Walli David Weihe
Peter J. Whitelaw Michael Zaitz
However, additional T&Jers have been so far lost that even their names are
in danger of disappearing from the tribe. Unless you keep your contact
information current, you will regularly miss out on special offers and all
sorts of insider stuff.
PARTING SHOT
Everybody likes to manipulate stuff when they game. Watch the hands of those
in poker tournaments ... constantly fussing with their chips. They teach us
from an early age to count and sort things but it's a deeply human trait to
fiddle.
Like mine, your players might like to use something physical to realize
Action/Advantage Points or Hero Points as they are wagered, lost and won.
I've printed up Hero Point currency on business card stock (with a Extended
Contest grid on the back) in different colors for different denominations.
And I've been experimenting with plastic chips in gold, silver and bronze
for AP bidding. They mimic the Heortling valuation from _Thunder Rebels_, as
if they were Issaries-blessed trade tokens: gold is worth 20, marked with a
cow; silver is worth 4, marked with a boar, and bronze is worth 1, marked
with a barley sheaf and MinLister's basket. The gold trade token is a
Mastery; the others
"make change." What do you think?
Hawkbear a.k.a. Mark Leymaster
* Greetings to the Tribe!
At long last, "Arcane Lore: Heroquests and Heroquesting" is at least
finished. We have one last map to scan, and then the sixth Pre-Finished Work
will be on its way to the printer. We expect it to begin shipping by the end
of the month, but you can order it now.
Arcane Lore reveals a vast treasure trove about heroquesting. Collected from
almost 30 years of questing, this book explores the philosophy, mechanics,
and practice of heroquesting from a multitude of viewpoints and angles.
Although much of the material was written for the old RuneQuest game, and
other parts were used in the development of Hero Wars and HeroQuest, all of
it is useful in understanding heroquesting and developing your own
heroquests.
In addition to extensive sections on Heroquesting, God and Mortals, The
Worlds, and The Mythic Ages, Arcane Lore contains over 40 pages detailing
heroquests. From the Hill of Gold to The Quest for Knowledge, from the
Jackal's Path to the Westfaring, these quests provide details of Glorantha
and the Hero Planes that have never been published anywhere. It also
includes over a dozen maps and diagrams of the Hero Planes and Otherworlds.
Like all of the Pre-Finished Works, much of the contents of Arcane Lore are
speculative and subject to change as development of HeroQuest continues.
More even than those other books, we are compelled to warn readers that the
material in Arcane Lore is EXTREMELY SPECULATIVE, and subject to great
changes before the final version of a HeroQuesting Handbook is done. With
those caveats in mind, however, we invite you into the Other Worlds and hope
you enjoy the contents. We also would like to give a special thanks to
Graham Robinson and Brian Isikoff, without whose work this book would never
have been.
Arcane Lore is 108 pages and is $30.00 US. It includes material by Greg
Stafford, Sandy Petersen, Steve Marsh, Roderick Robertson, Bill Keyes, and
David Hall. For more information (including a complete table of contents)
or to Pre-Order Arcane Lore, go to www.HeroQuest-rpg.com/products/3007.html.
Cheers,
Stephen
* Hi Guys and Gals!!
Chaosium hopes your summer has been as fun as ours. The crew at Chaosium
went swimming with Dagon, feasted at a BBQ hosted by Cthugha, and even had a
chocolate shoggoth for dessert!!
Chaosium is gearing up for another great GenCon, and we hope to see many of
you there!! Come by our digs and see all the cool stuff we have, or just to
say "Hi". If you need directions, we are Booth # 420, and we promise to be
friendly. For our British fans, Charlie (aka the Bearded Brain Case), will
be attending Continuum in the UK. If you will also be there, use your Spot
Hidden to find him and have a chat.
As one of the great role playing systems, Basic Role Playing (BRP) has been
around for well over 20 years. Chaosium is celebrating with two new releases
for our classic system. Get your copies of our two newest monographs while
they last. Clicking on the links below will take you straightaway to the
Basic Role Playing Player's Book and the Basic Role Playing Magic Book,
wherein you may learn more of the fabled tomes.
http://www.chaosium.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=528
http://www.chaosium.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=529
Chaosium is also happy to relay a message sent from a friend deep in the
African interior. It seems that a crate containing a game called Dark
Continent was found in a boggy swamp. This neat game details Africa in the
1930's, and is quite useful when the Call of Cthulhu draws you to the Dark
Continent. Click on the link below to learn more.
http://www.chaosium.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=336
We were also quite fortunate to receive recently a restock of the wonderful
line of HPL books from our friends at Arkham House. We offer four tomes of
horror and madness, and they may be found by searching for "Arkham House" in
our search engine, or you may click here to go to the book section of our
website. Get your copies of Dagon, The Horror in the Museum, At the
Mountains of Madness, and the Dunwich Horror while you can, as these great
books move fast!!
http://www.chaosium.com/catalog/default.php?cPath=35
As always, Chaosium tries to add new and spooky stuff to our site all the
time. We do enjoy surprising and scaring you with new things unmentioned,
and this summer is no different. We hope to have a few new things available
shortly, so keep your tentacles crossed!!
Until the next time, farewell from the Chaosium Cult.
Regards
Charlie, Dustin, Fergie, and Lynn.
* August, and Other Atrocities
Howdy Folks
This is Dustin Wright of Chaosium, filling in for Fergie for this issue of
the Chaosium.com Newsletter. He's packing and shipping many boxes of our
Yellow Sign & Other Stories Reprint. More on that below.
As always, you can find our site at http://www.chaosium.com, we've got more
things to read or purchase than you can shake a dried zoog at. Swing by and
explore when you have some time.
August is always an insane month for us. Gen Con gobbles up half the
company, for about half the month. This year, August is crazier than normal.
Charlie spent the last two week in the UK attending Continuum. While that
means he's two weeks behind on Gen Con preparations and office work, he did
bring home some swell stuff for the catalog.
We now have copies of excellent COC fanzine The Whisperer #5 by Michael
Mason.
http://www.chaosium.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=544
We have restocks of the brilliant Modern Day COC Zine The Black Seal Issue
#2 and issue #3 by Adam Crossingham.
http://www.chaosium.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=43&products_id=338
http://www.chaosium.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=43&products_id=507
We have a restock of Dark Continent by David Salisbury & Mandy Smith.
http://www.chaosium.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=41&products_id=336
Not to be out done, the rest of us have been busy as well!
We've recently received restocks of the Dunwich detective miniatures. These
pre-painted 1920's Characters come in two sets of 5 characters each. They
also come packaged with a bunch of d20's.
http://www.chaosium.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=36&products_id=531
http://www.chaosium.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=532
We've recently discovered two statues of Cthulhu. Worship Him!
http://www.chaosium.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=543
http://www.chaosium.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=542
We've gotten some restocks of some medieval miniatures useful for your
Cthulhu Dark Ages campaigns.
http://www.chaosium.com/catalog/default.php?cPath=36
We found some previously forgotten H.P. Lovecraft Tarot Decks for your
divination needs.
http://www.chaosium.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=34&products_id=237
Finally, we've just received a new printing of Chamber's The Yellow Sign and
Other Stories edited by S.T. Joshi.
http://www.chaosium.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=75
We're working on getting many of our monographs back in stock. Most of them
have sold out recently. Never fear, they'll be back soon enough.
I hope we see a couple of you at Gen Con later this month. We're the
friendly folks in booth 420.
Happy Hauntings!
Charlie, Dustin, Lynn, and Fergie.
The Chaosium Dudes.
* Worlds of Cthulhu #1 will be debuting at Gen Con Indy on Thursday 19th
August 2004. Worlds of Cthulhu is published by Pegasus Press (who are at
stand 1907 at Gen Con), and is Pegasus's first venture into English. Pegasus
is best known for their German Call of Cthulhu line and supporting magazine
"Cthuloide Welten".
Published twice yearly Worlds of Cthulhu is a 128 page journal dedicated to
covering all period settings and flavours of Call of Cthulhu. Licensed by
Chaosium Inc., Worlds of Cthulhu features the best of its mother magazine
translated into English and new original material in English.
Worlds of Cthulhu's first issue contents are as follows:
Scenarios: The Secret of Knossos (1920s), The Vampire of Schwarzbrunn (Dark
Ages), Project Pi (modern)
Feature articles: Law & lawlessness in the 1920s, the Archaeologist in the
1920s and 1930s, the Starry Wisdom church cult, Dark Ages: Averoigne
Columns: d20 Cthulhu by Mike Mearls, Delta Green by Scott Glancy, Keeper's
Corner, Dork Tower strip Interviews: Stephane Gesbert of Cthulhu Dark Ages
fame
Worlds of Cthulhu #1 will cost US $14.95 and will enter North American,
European and international distribution after Gen Con Indy.
Worlds of Cthulhu website: www.worldsofcthulhu.com
---
Adam Crossingham
Editor - Worlds of Cthulhu
THE gaming magazine for Call of Cthulhu
Coming August 2004!
--------------
The Chosen One
A Tale of Terror for modern day Call of Cthulhu by Nick Middleton, ©2002
The fluorescent tube flickers on sluggishly and Michael Reed ritually
reminds himself to replace the starter in the hall light. He drops his coat
on the hook behind the front door and steps from the hall in to the largest
room in his flat, the sitting room. He should eat, but he isn't hungry. He
should check the paper, abandoned in his coat pocket, for jobs but he can't
be bothered. His eyes flit nervously over the shelves, CD's, comics,
fiction, textbooks, plastic knick-knacks and aboriginal artefacts from half
a dozen decadent cultures, the detritus of failed careers in computer game
design and anthropology. He fumbles, unsighted, for the TV remote and his
eyes fall on the picture of Hannah and flick away. To the table. Where the
laptop sits.
Michael Reed can't help himself. Rationally, he knows it is his choice
whether he turns the computer on, turns the modem on, dials up, dials in. He
has e-mail to pick up (but it'll mostly be junk mail from THOSE sites), news
groups to lurk in (but he's running out of ISP's that don't screen the ones
he always ends up in), chat sites to frequent (but he never has the courage
to say anything).
At the very least he should write back to Ricardo, thank him for the
package. Yeah, just a quick e-mail to say thanks to his friend.
When they found Michael Reed, he was rigid in front of his computer, which
appeared to have crashed because of a nasty virus program. His face was
curiously flaccid although there could be no doubt from the pool of blood
that he had bled to death, from genital abrasions.
Possibilities
1) Michael was an occultist contact of the Investigators, active in several
Internet discussion forums. He became the target of a cult when he received
an artefact of power from his contact in South America, Ricardo. His enemies
set a trap for him, knowing he was a rather lonely, repressed man and
bombarded him with junk mail for a fake internet porn site, which to view
required downloading a custom viewer. The viewer was a program that
generated a Glyph of Eihort, an animated fractal that destroys the sanity of
any who study it by forcing them into repetitive, compulsive behaviour.
Running it is also so mathematically bizarre that it will crash any human
designed computer and randomise the storage attached to it (that is
write-enabled...). The Cult want their artefact, the police want the PC's to
identify the body and verify the contents of the flat as Michael has no
known relatives.
2) Michael was an occultist rival of the Investigators. They have previously
been involved in several spectacular flame wars in various internet
newsgroups, but had never met face to face despite living in the same city.
The Investigator will thus be very surprised to receive an urgent e-mail
from Michael asking for the Investigator to come to his house as soon as
possible to discuss an unusual South American cult artefact that has come
into his possession. Michael had obviously taken more of the Investigators
words seriously that his public position suggested. Unfortunately, this drew
him to the attention of a local Cult, whose leader, the Sorceress Hannah
Crawford, approached and seduced the lonely and somewhat insecure Reed.
Having established he was little danger, the cult used him as a blind in
getting a cult item into the country. Michael came to suspect Hannah and the
true nature of the item Ricardo sent. On the day of the delivery, he decided
to contact the Investigators. Before they arrive however, Hannah came round,
"To make things up." She used Mesmerize on Michael to get him to kill
himself in a suitably "amusing" fashion, deliberately infected his computer
to trash any data and left with the item. However, the Investigators know it
should be there...
3) Hannah Crawford feels guilty about breaking up with Michael Reed again.
They had been close at university, but after his summer field trip to Peru
before their final year, they broke up. A few years later Hannah bumped into
Michael in an Occultism Chat room on the Internet. They resumed their
acquaintance, but Michael seemed strangely reluctant to go further. Hannah
persisted and they made some fumbling attempts to recapture their previous
passion, but Michael's heart was not in it and he broke it off. Now he is
not responding to Hannah's calls and she is worried about him, so she has
asked the Investigators to check up on him. On his field trip, Michael
"liberated" an icon of Shub-Niggurath that contains a bound Dark Young. It
has over the years been devouring his capacity for normal emotional
relationships and drawing him into corruption. Seeking to expand this dark
obsession, Michael arranged for another item from South America. The two
items in close proximity were too much however: in the end Michael died of
autoerotic obsession. The Icons are small statues, some 15 to 20cm tall.
Kept in proximity they are dangerous to all around them and they will draw
the attention of the local Shub-Niggurath cult.
_______________________________________________
Chaos-digest mailing list
Chaos-digest@lists.chaosium.com
http://lists.chaosium.com/mailman/listinfo/chaos-digest_lists.chaosium.com
