A Role Playing Games Blog
Call of Cthulhu
New Year’s Gaming Resolutions
0January 10, 2012
Before talking about the plans for 2012 let’s have a look back at the last year. Back in January 2011 I set one goal for 2011: play more. And while I discovered Google+ Hangouts as a perfect medium for online gaming, I didn’t actually achieve that goal. When I am not totally mistaken I did actually play less than in 2010. Scheduling has been more difficult than ever and a lot of the plans I made fell flat in the end.
But that doesn’t mean I have given up. So my first gaming related resolution for 2012 is the same as last year: play more. We actually scheduled our first game for the second weekend in January where I want to wrap up the Call of Cthulhu game from New Year’s Eve.
But aside from that I want to run a campaign from start to finish in 2012. It doesn’t need to be long, but a story arc that covers at least a dozen sessions would be a nice change. I have a couple of ideas what I would love to run in the new year, but before making any plans I should consult my players. More than once I’ve made plans for a game that I never ran because I couldn’t interest my players in it.
One of the things I would love to do is running a sandbox campaign with Lamentations of the Flame Princess. I recently got my print copy of Carcosa and I utterly love that book. The setting is extremely weird, has a lot of Lovecraft influences and looks and reads great. I’ll also have to think of a way on how to make use of Vornheim, too, since it’s another book I would like to use someday. I am not sure if my players are into old-school D&D, but it might be worth a try.
When it comes to game design I still have a couple of unfinished projects on my harddrive that need some more work. So another goal for 2012 is to at least finish one of those projects. Heck, perhaps I should resurrect the Gearbox project or finally finish that game I’ve been working on in secret for way too long…
So what are your gaming resolutions for 2012? Please share your thoughts in the comments below!
Happy New Year
1January 2, 2012
Even though I am still on vacation I wanted to give you a short update on what I’ve been up to lately. For the most time I have celebrated Christmas with my girlfriend’s and my family which means we had a lot of great food and spent hours talking, laughing and playing games.
My girlfriend and I played a lot of Star Wars: The Old Republic recently, which is a lot of fun. It’s the most immersive MMO I’ve played so far and Verena and I are enjoying it immensely. The game also makes me want to run some Star Wars pen & paper game, but at the moment, I have neither the time nor the players needed to start a new campaign.
On New Year’s Eve I’ve run a Call of Cthulhu game for a couple of friends. I picked the first episode of the Age of Cthulhu campaign by Goodman games, which has an interesting story but has some issues that made it harder to run than I expected. But we still had a lot of fun.
And there’s something else I want to tell you about. I got a very special gift this Christmas. Some of you probably know that I am interested in astronomy that’s why I picked the nickname Stargazer a couple of years back. I own a small telescope but I don’t go out watching the skies as often as I would like. So my girlfriend thought she gave me some incentive to do so. She gave me a star as one of her Christmas gifts! One star in the Draco constellation is now registered1 as “Stargazer’s World” and I have the documents to prove it. So, next time you look up into the sky, look out for “Stargazer’s World”.
1) Yes, I know that only the IAU can actually name stars, but I don’t mind. And the deed really looks great on the kitchen wall. 
Krampusnacht
1December 19, 2011
Some of you may have heard about Krampus, that mythical creature that somewhat resembles the devil that accompanies St. Nicholas during the Christmas season. While Santa Claus hands out gifts to children who have been nice, Krampus’ job is to stuff nasty children into his sack and carry them away to devour them. Yum! 
In Austria, southern Bavaria and South Tyrol young men dress up as Krampus in the first week of December to participate in so-called Krampus Runs (Krampuslauf) where they roam the streets frightening children with rusty chains and bells. Usually these runs are in the night of December 6th (Krampusnacht).
During the Inquisition attempts were made to stamp the tradition out. Dressing up like a devil-like creature was actually punishable by death back then. And even in the early 20th century the practice was discouraged by the Austrian government.
But what if there’s a deeper reason why people try to stop these Krampus Runs? What if the costumes and the runs are actually part of a cannibalistic ritual from the dawn of time? Thinking about this for a while gave me a few ideas for a Call of Cthulhu scenario.
Freebies: Renaissance
2December 6, 2011
Yay! I have been waiting for this since I first read about it: Renaissance is a free roleplaying system designed for historical and fantasy games in, as the authors put it, “age of blackpowder weapons”. It was created by Peter Cakebread and Ken Walton who are known for Clockwork & Chivalry 1st Edition and Abney’ Park’s Airship Pirates. Renaissance is based on D101 Games’ OpenQuest which itself is based on Mongoose Publishing’s Runequest SRD.
The 139-paged PDF contains all the rules needed to play, two magic systems and a bestiary. Kudos to Cubicle 7 and Cakebread & Walton for releasing the rules for free. The PDF doesn’t contain any artwork, but that’s negligible especially since the PDF is mainly meant as a System Reference Document. The rules of the game can be used under the OGL.
If you are a fan of Chaosium’s Basic Roleplaying and Runquest, you actually have the choice between quite a few different rule variants now. There’s Renaissance, Mongoose Publishing’s Legend, D101 Games’ OpenQuest, Chaosium’s Basic Roleplaying and Goblinoid Games’ GORE. All those games are more or less compatible, so you can use material designed for one game in the other with ease.
Renaissance looks pretty interesting because it was created with the Renaissance era in mind. The magic system also looks pretty unique. If you’re looking for a skill-based RPG with a percentile dice mechanic, you should definitely check Renaissance out!
First look: The Red Eye of Azatoth
2October 4, 2011
Open Design LLC recently released The Red Eye of Azatoth a 108-paged adventure anthology for Call of Cthulhu available through the KQ Store or DriveThruRPG. Its story spans nothing less than a whole millennium. Each adventure takes place in a different place and time from England in 887 AD to the American West in 1887. The name of the adventure anthology refers to the Harbinger Star, a comet that appears in the sky on the 87th year of every century. This comet is what binds the different adventures together.
There are five adventures set into the years 887, 1287, 1487, 1587 and 1887 respectively. The backcover blurb should give you a good overview of what The Red Eye of Azatoth has to offer:
Fear the Red Eye of Azathoth!
Kings die, nations crumble, and madness trails in the fiery wake of a comet called The Red Eye of Azathoth. Do you have what it takes to battle across history against the Mythos horrors that surface under its lurid glow?
Ia! Ia! Take your players to the mad reaches of our past with 108 pages of epic horror, complete with player handouts, new adversaries, and pregenerated Investigators for each time period.
Physically the adventure looks great (even in PDF form). There’s a nice page background that give the pages a slightly old feel without being distracting. The interior artwork and the maps are mostly in black & white but of great quality. That’s how I want my historical Call of Cthulhu adventures to look like.
Ask the Readers: What’s your favorite Call of Cthulhu adventure?
9September 26, 2011
On Saturday I have started making plans for New Year’s Eve. Like in the years before a few friends will come over, we will have good food and do some roleplaying. This year we decided that I should run Call of Cthulhu. Some time ago I had some ideas for creating my own CoC campaign set into the Cold War era, but this would definitely beyond the scope of a one-shot New Year’s Eve game.
That’s why I am asking for your help. What is your favorite Call of Cthulhu adventure and – more importantly – why? Can it be run in a single session? Is it still available for purchase and if so where? Especially a lot of the older Chaosium titles have been out of print for quite a while. If the adventure in question is available at RPGNow it would be a big plus.
By the way, are the Age of Cthulhu adventures by Goodman Games any good?
Call of Cthulhu Anniversary Edition
6September 5, 2011
When Chaosium announced the 30th anniversary edition of Call of Cthulhu I wasn’t actually that thrilled. Sure it looked nice enough, but I already owned the German Edition of the book. But over the last months I picked up several CoC supplements from DriveThruRPG in English language and I found it quite awkward to have the core rules in a different language than the supplements. Eventually I got the PDF version of the original corebook, but I still wanted a proper printed book as well.
So a couple of days I decided to get an English-language version of that fine game. And since the 30th anniversary edition was available at my favorite German online shop Sphärenmeisters Spiele I decided to order it after all. And I have to admit I don’t regret buying it.
It’s a very good looking, leather-bound book with 320 pages printed on very heavy paper. The interior looks almost exactly like the German edition from Pegasus Spiele (Pegasus Spiele was actually credited for this), which was always far superior to the Chaosium original.
Here are some photos I took with my webcam after unpacking the book yesterday:
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Suspicious looking guy holding a leather-bound tome |
Warning! Looking at these images too closely may cause 1D6 SAN loss! |
If you plan to get a copy of Call of Cthulhu any time soon, I recommend either picking up the latest German edition by Pegasus Spiele (which actually comes in two books) or the 30th Anniversary Edition.
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