Now that’s out of the way I’ve been thinking of working on something a bit longer.  Recently my story lengths have been getting shorter and shorter and after a comment by mrBen I thought that something with a bit more story to tell was on the cards.

So now I’m working on a sequel of sorts to Living on Reputation, something that was submitted recently for Mythaxis.  And, hopefully, it should be a bit more weighty than I’ve been producing.  It has the working title of Towers Over The Clyde.

To give you a hint, think of Glasgow cop-show Taggart but with wizards and a hint of H.P. Lovecraft.  Lovely.

- Alistair

Quality!

Of course I celebrated the occasion by attempting to gut the sty that is my study.  Getting there but it’s a second behind the priority of writing.  Had a crazy dream last night that the book was 100k in length.  So only half way there!

Joking aside, I’m really chuffed with myself.  I’ll be even more chuffed once the damn thing is finished but 50k was a line i desperately wanted to cross and now that I have I hardly look at my word count.

That can’t be a bad thing?

Oh, on a side note, with the big clear out of the study, does anyone want to buy the a complete set of the Horrorclix base set?  And the Horrorclix Great Cthulhu?  I’d even be willing to make a trade if you had Mythos or Call of Cthulhu ccg stuff you didn’t want any more.  Hey, what can I say?  A boy has to prioritize and card games are so much easier to store… 

So, no Call of Cthulhu adventure last night, but there was one last week.

The adventure – The Madman from the 6th. edition rulebook – was done in one night and almost saw Edgy (Logan Fletcher, investigative journalist) and Enzo (Montague Summers) meeting a rather unfortunate end…

Old Harny Rooger has gotten a touch eccentric. Tales are told off his involvement in mysterious rituals on hilltops and the possible involvement in goat sacrifice.

Oh dear, whatever can be done…

Enter Summers and Fletcher, the latter of whom knew a retired journalist who died mysteriously while investigating the aforementioned hilltop rituals.

Highlights of the game included Fletcher using his fake cop ID and failing every roll associated with using it. And his potential incarceration after it has been discovered as a forgery. And events leading up to that with Summers getting a bit physical with everyone on the way…

Anyway our intrepid investigators saved the day with what can only be described as the jammiest of dice rolls when dealing with Harny Rooger and a hilltop full of mi-go.

It is both helplessly cute and infinitely terrifying at the same time.

The Burrowers Beneath is my favourite of Lumley’s Mythos work but, even then, I feel that it’s not as good a Cthulhu Mythos tale as it could be.

The story deals with Titus Crow, who has interests in the more uncanny aspects of the world around him, and his erstwhile Dr Watson, Henri-Laurent de Marigny, and their involvement in discovering and thwarting the hideous machinations of the Great Old One, Shudde-Mell.

I’ll admit that, while it’s a great read, it doesn’t really fit in with my visions of the Cthulhu Mythos.  Lovecraft heroes were scholars or artists, and tended to reel in terror against the unescapable insanity of what they faced.  I always prefered this, the realisation of their being helpless in the face of unspeakable evil.  All my favourite Mythos stories followed that theme.

But with Lumley, his characters are able and well-versed in occult lore.  They are aware, for the most part, of what they’re up against and are armed with incantations, elixirs, the Star Stones of Mnar (the mere presence of which repels even the most foul of creatures) and the resources of an organisation, The Wilmarth Foundation, dedicated to the eradication of all things Mythos.  This is no bad thing but I think it reduces the scale of the cosmic horror they’re up against.  It becomes manageable and controlled.

And that just isn’t the Mythos.

So, I would recommend the book heartily.  It’s a great read.

But as a Cthulhu Mythos story?  It could have been better…

(Quick backstory.  For ages now we have been thinking of getting into gaming of some form.  The previous week, by common consensus, we decided that horror roleplaying in the 1920′s should be given a fair chance.  I was particularly happy about this as there are loads of Cthulhu sourcebooks on my shelves, unused and annoying Ruth with their dust gathering ways.)

The first adventure was one from the back of the main rule book, The Haunting.  It’s pretty straightforward, which was ideal as none of us had done any roleplaying for years.

GI played a Freelance Journalist called Logan Fletcher and CM was an Occult Investigator called Montague Summers.

The story, for those of you who don’t know, is of a house that causes madness and/or death to its inhabitants.  The landlord is understandably upset.  After the most recent family suffered at the hands of this unknown evil, our fine detective duo were called upon to put a stop to it.

It was a slow start, with the guys getting used to the way the game is played (“no, DON’T go straight to the house!  Investigate!”) and myself taking a while longer than I expected to get re-aquainted with the rules.

Once we got in to the swing of things there were people to meet, places to go and mysteries to solve.  And the first visit to the haunted house merits special attention here…

Once our intrepid twosome were satisfied that they had a good angle on what was going on, they made for the house.  The ground floor was musty, dark and gave nothing away, the basement was checked once and a false wall was discovered and a visit to the first floor didn’t go well for Mr Fletcher.  The first bedroom from the top of the stairs once belonged to the bad guy and had been unused for a while.  And the bed from that room flew for GI’s character, knocking him though the closed window to the ground on floor down.  Heh.

A quick journey the the local hospital and they were both back the next day, this time to investigate the false wall in the basement.  Once though the false wall, beyond the rats and the second false wall they encountered and defeated the bad guy.  And there was much rejoicing…

It went well for the first adventure in many years.  We didn’t play last night as I’m still working out an adventure of my own.  Haven’t had the time recently to dedicate to it so a postponement is always better than a half-finished adventure.

The final decision was between A/State, Children Of The Sun and Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. Preferably I would have went for A/State but it wasn’t in and Warhammer was my third choice, so CotS won through.

Last night I had a flick through the book and it seems different enough to give the players a more unique experience than they may be used to. It also helps that no-one else is familiar with the game or setting so we’re all starting on the same level.

A/State and WFR will be picked up at some point but I’m wanting to see how successful the first game or two of Children is before subjecting the group to anything else.

With any luck in the next few week I should have the start of a new gaming group.

Booze and snacks would help as well.

So I’ve got some vague ideas regarding what to run:

• Call of Cthulhu – A quality horror game in the “creeping evil” vein which can be set in the 1920′s or present day.
• Mechwarrior – Set in the Battletech universe. The system is good but the character generation is over-complicated.
• Delta Green – A Call of Cthulhu based setting in the present day. It involves U.S. Government conspiracies and Mythos-related investigations.
• Elric – Based on the Elric stories by Michael Moorcock. Doom laden fantasy.
• Children of the Sun – A dieselpunk game. Apparently bridging the gap between steampunk and cyberpunk. I don’t have this yet but I’m tempted to pick a copy up. Unfortunately the company producing this are no more so getting a copy might be difficult but I’m sure Static Games have a copy.
• Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay – Given the choice between AD&D and Warhammer, I’d pick Warhammer every time. It’s considerably darker than most fantasy games. A strong possibility.

I think I have enough potential players for two separate (and comfortably small) groups but if anyone wants a game then send your requests to the usual address. (Which I’ve just realised is no-longer on the site. Must fix that…)

Alas, no more it seems.

I’m just back from Callum’s place in the backwaters of Lenzie and I’ve just suffered two more pathetic losses.

It didn’t help that during the second game, one in which I was doing reasonably well for a while, he pulls out the following card combination: Cthulhu and Sniper Rifle. Cthulhu is bad enough (a skill of 10 and invulnerability) but adding a sniper rifle (choose and wound a character with lower skill) was just mean.

And for those who don’t know, almost all characters in the game have a lower skill than Cthulhu…

Anyway, who ever heard of Cthulhu with a rifle? It’d need to be a hell of a big rifle for a creature of over 100 ft in height to use.

Or maybe I’m just being bitter. It’s off to the card folders to come up with something new…

< Shameless Plug> It’s a great game which everyone should play. Go here to find out about it. </ Shameless Plug>

How did I do? I was horsed. Twice.

It was pretty embarrasing.

If you ever play it, a word of advice. Fear Behind The Pallid Mask.