SentinelHillPress

2 hours ago, AlonsoAguilurk said:

This is a really great resource for those looking for a comprehensive guide of what to seek out for a Lovecraft Country campaign. Really recommend it! 

Thanks!  Make sure to post a rating and perhaps a review. 

I outline the differences a little more in our Miskatonic Country scenario guide, but in a nutshell:

• Scenarios - AU has “A Little Knowledge” which was later moved to the 2003 Miskatonic University book. HPLA’s has, as mentioned, “The Books of Uncle Silas”. It is not a scenario I find especially engaging. 
• Numbering. Between thr release of Arkham Unveiled and the Compact Arkham Unveiled (not a bad purchase option if scenarios aren’t an issue as they were omitted in tCUA) Chaosium reworked many of the location numbers. This only truly matters if you are like me and like to reference them as a Keeper. See this for a list  - https://cthulhureborn.files.wordpress.com/2019/05/herber-arkham-o-pedia-v1.1.pdf
• Neighborhood maps - AU has a number of neighborhood (and smaller) street maps that include details not mentioned in the text. 
• Art - AU has hand drawn illustrations that aren’t great but mostly serviceable. HPLA, to me, look too much of early 3D computer animation and are not as visceral.
• “Dreams in the Witch House” in HPLA. 
• Layout. AU is cleaner and easier to read and more compact. 

We are working on an errata / correction sheet (to be incorporated into a revised 1.1 version of The Dare).  I hope to have it ready shortly and will announce its availability widely when it is out. Purchasers will also get a notification from DTRPG. 

5 hours ago, Dr_Zarnak said:

A Resection of Time included a stopover in modern-day Arkham.

I had not realized that was available in PDF. I will update the list.  Thanks!

I've just wrapped up a five-part series on the Sentinel Hill Press blog covering what Miskatonic Country books and other supplements and other add-ons or aids are currently available for purchase (outside of items on the secondary market). I thought it might be of interest for any Keepers who are running or want to run scenarios and campaigns in the region (or are just looking to fill out their book collection). We covered the following topics:

1. The Core Books (town/institution guides)
2. Miskatonic Country scenario collections
3. Uncollected scenarios
4. Other scenario sources
5. Props, handouts, and other resources

Information is current for December of 2020; corrections or additions are welcome.

If you can find a copy of it the scenario "Behold the Mother" would be of interest; it is in Dead Reckonings,  short scenario collection that is out of print.

SPOILERS

The scenario is divided between Arkham and Dunwich and involved a Shub-Niggurath cultist attempting to birth a demi-goddess into the world using her own children.  You could easily make the cultist a former or current resident of Blackwater Creek wholly consumed (in more ways than one) by her devotion to the Mother. Since the investigators are tainted by their encounter, they would be attuned to the stirring of the terrible creature from the scenario, a psychic linkage or somesuch, creating an interesting hook.  The creature might also target them or others exposed to the tainted liquor, connecting the two scenarios further.

Many scenarios have some Miskatonic University connection but few are explicitly written for students per se, though a few, such as "The Dig" that involve Archaeological digs typically are structured to include a few MU professors with the investigators assumed to be subordinates and very much in the role a student or graduate student might take. (The other archaeological scenario that comes to mind is "Watcher in the Valley" but that is an expedition officially lead by an independent academic group with an MU professor involved.)

Otherwise the 2003 version of the MU guide book (the one with a worried looking fellow in a sweatshirt on the cover not the one of Cthulhu drawing himself which is the 1995 one) includes the scenario "A Little Knowledge" which is mostly set on campus and is easily made into an MU scenario.  Likewise "The Condemned" from the Arkham guide has a clear MU hook. There is also a scenario mostly set on the MU campus in Plan 09 from Halloween (a monograph) - which a quick check tells me was called "Halloween Nuit".

If you haven't picked it up I suspect you might find our Miskatonic Country Scenarios: A Keeper's Guide of use, as it lists all of the regularly published scenarios in Miskatonic Country and notes those that have some section that occurs on campus (and notes discussing the scenario plot that hopefully would flag any scenarios using staff or students). There is a longer but not quite as robust list of Arkham scenarios, including those with MU links in issue 1 of the Arkham Gazette too (and the scenarios in any issue could be tied into the campus, the scenarios in issues 0 and 2 are probably the easiest to hook in).

On 11/19/2020 at 5:16 PM, AlonsoAguilurk said:

I wonder if that Guide was what eventually became the newly released Miskatonic Country Scenarios: A Keeper's Guide from Sentinel Hill Press: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/233636/Miskatonic-Country-Scenarios-A-Keepers-Guide?src=newest

 

Our guide is a discussion for Keepers about the line of various Miskatonic Country releases and, especially, all of the scenarios set in places like Arkham, Innsmouth, Dunwich, and Kingsport. The current version covers all the professionally published scenarios (Classic era only) by Chaosium and their licensees from 1983 to August of this year. Assuming we sell enough copies to make it worthwhile, I'll add in the same information about scenarios from magazines (such as Dagon, the Unspeakable Oath, and our own journal The Arkham Gazette) as well as those in MULAs, the Miskatonic Repository, and other stranger places. While we given an overview of what makes up Miskatonic Country (and if you want to know more about the contents, do give it a look on DTRPG) and recommend readings for each town, this is not mean to be a guidebook to the locations themselves, but rather a reference book for Keepers who want to run scenarios in the region. I'm happy to talk more about the book in our post from a couple days back about its release.

At long last...

Halloween night.  A haunted house.  Will you live to see the morning?

The Old Barnaker House. Every kid has heard about it. Everybody has a different awful story about it. All of them agree it is a very bad place.

But here you are on Halloween Night, all because of that jerk Roger. He dared you and your friends to spend the night there. You couldn’t let him bully you. You will show him who is chicken! Everybody knows that there are no such things as ghosts... right?

Get your slingshot and your pocket knife. Grab some candy and ready your Rubik’s Cube. You and your friends are going to go face-to-face with the horrors of the Barnaker House. Hopefully you will live to see the dawn.

The Dare is a one-shot scenario for Call of Cthulhu® 7^th Edition, intended for four or more players. Expanded and revised from Kevin Ross classic scenario from 1990, this scenario has been fully updated for even greater horror. Long out of print, this scenario is once more available to terrify players (thanks to a nightmarishly tardy Kickstarter-funded project by Sentinel Hill Press). They said it would never see the light of day. They were wrong!

This product includes:

• A full-length scenario, inspired by 80s horror movies wherein pre-teens do battle with an undying monster and its house of horrors.
• Extensive advice for Keepers on how to bring the horrors of the Barnaker house to life.
• Detailed floor plans of the Barnaker house.
• ‘The Call of Kid-thulhu’ rules, a streamlined version of the traditional Call of Cthulhu rules and ideal for introducing new players to the game.
• “Grab the Machete!” — a suggested viewing list of 80s horror films (written by Brian Sammons), perfect for inspiring Keepers and players alike.
• A set of 10 pre-generated kid-investigators, complete with more than 20 portraits, allowing players to customize their characters, complete with super-1980s style character sheets.

The Barnaker House is waiting.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/220315/The-Dare

On 9/19/2020 at 11:20 PM, 1000buffalo said:

Several members of the group had been given the Kingsport Chamber of Commerce trifold (from Kingsport; Chaosium, 2003), and suggested a weekend vacation at the shore. After arriving, they checked into their hotel and wound up having a nice dinner at Arruda's Original Portuguese Cuisine. As they finished dinner, Delilah pointed out the article in the Kingsport Chronicle regarding the Florentina Theater (and the group is off on Ghosts of the Florentina (More Adventures in Arkham Country; Miskatonic River Press, 2010). I think that'll be a nice, enjoyable, creepy and non-earth shattering investigation.

That is a pretty good one

If you've not seen it, the HP Lovecraft Historical Society created a prop-pack for that scenario collection and they are really great.

https://store.hplhs.org/collections/games-props/products/more-adventures-in-arkham-country-props

While we are waiting for issue 4 (and more) as well as the Dare to finally get out to the world, we thought we would offer PDFs of all the issues of the Arkham Gazette at discount for everyone self-isolating or who have had their lives disrupted by COVID-19.  Hopefully a little light reading about witches, Deep Ones, and many more horrors will bring a little light to everyone.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/240397/Arkham-Gazette-Quarantine-Special-BUNDLE

(Original PDF price $32.00, sales price $19.99, over 1/3 off - 320 pages of content, 4 scenarios, dozens of articles, a tiny handful of intentional typos that spell out a secret code summoning Tsathoggua.  Maybe)

I like to have more than one issue in development, in case submissions for one issue take off so we might redirect Our efforts, as well as to offer authors a least some variety in topical we’re most actively interested in.  Earlier this week I put out a call for submissions to issue #6 of the Arkham Gazette; next  I’d like to talk a bit about our proposed issue #7, which is focused on Dunwich.

So far the Arkham Gazette has not had too much Dunwich-related content, though we did post a Keeper’s guide to sources and ideas for Dunwich that remains of use to potential authors today.

What we are looking for:

Articles somehow related to Lovecraft’s Dunwich (or possibly north-central Massachusetts more generally) – types of articles we’re looking for are covered on our submissions page, and include “new people, places and items”, “curios” (odd or occult artifacts connected to some element of New England’s history, the Cthulhu Mythos, etc.), historical articles about real-world place and events that could inform or inspire the Keepr, tome (especially those with some connection to Dunwich), short encounters, prop documents, and scenarios.  Suggestions for article topics and other additional information can be found at the link below.

https://sentinelhillpress.com/2019/08/05/submissions-wanted-arkham-gazette-7-dunwich/

Now that issue #4 is about to move into layout I think it is high time to renew our call for submissions for future issues of the Arkham Gazette. Today I want to talk about issue #6 — “Arkham and Beyond”

We have covered Arkham previously (in issue #1) but the time is right for a return trip to that legend-haunted town.  As always, I’m interested in hearing your ideas for submissions and am happy to consider anything that might justifiably fit in an issue all about Arkham and the surrounding area.  Take a look at the currently proposed and the suggested articles below and see where the muse takes you.  Hopefully to Arkham…

What we are looking for:

Our submission guidelines offer a host of general article types — new people, locations and items, props and pseudo-historical works, real-world events and fictional curios. Your only fixed limitation is that your work bears a real connection to Arkham and the surrounding communities and that your submission uses the current 7th edition Call of Cthulhu rules.

For more information see: 

https://sentinelhillpress.com/2019/08/03/submissions-wanted-arkham-gazette-6-arkham-and-beyond/

On 7/1/2019 at 12:14 PM, klecser said:

I think that Sentinel Hill Press is taking unfair advantage of their prior reputation in the community with The Dare Kickstarter. Requests for communication and timetables were met with snide dismissals and requests to "ask for refunds" throughout the majority of the KS. The most recent updates have been: "I still don't have art" which makes me wonder what parameters (if any) were given the the artists to finish in a timely manner. I understand that SHP is a long-time licensee. I don't believe that fact grants him carte blanche to continue to disappoint. We're not talking about a book here. We're talking about a one-shot in which the text has been finished for a while.

While I freely admit that the project has suffered unacceptable delays, I do object to being described as snide or you suggestion I'm simply living off the good will of previous projects.  Refunds were (and yet still are) available without complaint to any backers unhappy with the status of the project and I have paid those few requested without complaint.  I should note that, unlike other projects discussed, we have provided a draft text of the updated scenario (as well as the original 1996 text of the scenario) since soon after the conclusion of the Kickstarter campaign.  We have also released a limited art and maps but otherwise fully laid-out version of the scenario to our backers.  While this is not the finished product I very much want to deliver, I would hope that groups wanting to run Kevin Ross' excellent scenario will be able to do that. For example, the Into the Darkness actual play group recently concluded a two part episode run of The Dare -

I wish I had the final art and maps.  Short of arriving at their respective creator's doorsteps, I've taken what steps I can to get this aspect of the project completed.  While I have continue to work on other RPG projects, such as the Arkham Gazette, I have not launched and crowd-funding campaigns nor will I until The Dare has fulfilled the promises made to backers to my satisfaction. While I make to claims to having made no errors in this or our previous Kickstarter, I object strongly to any suggestion that I've not taken my obligation as a licensee seriously.

The Arkham Gazette, as ever, is looking for submissions.

Today we posted a call for a particular variety of submission - short (250-500 words) item descriptions that we've dubbed 'Curios'.

Quote

Enigmatic items, described in no more than 250 or 500 words each.  A leftover from an era or event of Lovecraft Country’s past. These are drop-in elements Keeper’s can use to reinforce the region’s haunted history, hint to a future scenario, or simply unnerve.

Each item follows the same format:

• A short physical description; what does it look like?  What can you learn by examining it?
• The item’s history; what can you potentially learn via research?  What can an expert tell you?
• Placement; suggestions saying where it might be found or who might have it.
• Secrets; Keeper’s information about the piece that investigators may uncover or suffer the effects of
• Plot hooks and scenario seeds; elaborating on what is implied in the items above, as needed.

Of particular interest are items connected to Kingsport, the subject of our next (hopefully soon forthcoming) issue.

For more information, see here:

https://sentinelhillpress.wordpress.com/2018/07/09/call-for-submissions-curios/

I am happy to announce, after a long wait, that Arkham Gazette #2 is now available (in PDF only currently).
 

 

 
Welcome to Innsmouth!  Rumors have long swirled around the place, ever since a plague is said to have carried off so many of the town's residents in the 1840s.  Fallen into disrepair and decay, most locals shun the town and its unwholesome-looking inhabitant.  We've elected to brave Joe Sargents' bus and dive deep into the mysteries and dangerous secrets that, dare we say, cast a shadow over the place.
This issue includes the following eighteen articles:

• Shadows of Polynesia: Obed Marsh and his crew brought many things back from that island east of Tahiti...
• Locations in Greater Innsmouth: Three new locations for Innsmouth.
• The Wreck of the Elizabeth Wright: A new location outside of Innsmouth with connection to the town.
• Innsmouth’s Burying Grounds: A deep examination of the many cemeteries in and near Innsmouth.
• On the name “Dagon”: Where did this name come from?  Why did Obed Marsh use it?  What does that imply?
• “The marine abyss beyond Devil Reef”: Bathography versus Lovecraft!
• Edward Morse: A real-world scholar who might be of interest to your investigators.
• The Isle of Shoals and Other Innsmouth Inspiration: Real-world places that have some parallel to Innsmouth - the Isles of Shoals, Matinicus Island and the Malaga Island community.
• The Sacred Cod: Why is there a carved fish idol in the Massachusetts State House?
• The Hymnal of the Esoteric Order of Dagon: A new tome extolling the greatest of Innsmouth's new faith.
• The Ponape Scripture: An in-depth exploration of this tome of occult oceanic lore created by Lin Carter.
• The Feejee Mermaid: P.T. Barnum's dubious mummified "mermaid"; real-world history and occult (and Mythos) options.
• Innsmouth Curios: 8 Weird artifacts investigators can discover.
• Innsmouth Gold: All about Innsmouth's most notable export.
• Cancelled Innsmouth Books: A discussion of two cancelled books Chaosium was once planning related to Innsmouth - the Innsmouth Horror and Children of the Deep.
• A Guide to Newburyport: An extended description of the town that inspired Innsmouth and how you can use it in your Lovecraft Country games.
• “Drawn from the Water”: A Kingsport artist has gone missing and the investigators must follow his trail.  Dark secrets lurk in the waters just off shore...
• Annotated list of Innsmouth scenarios: Notes for the Keeper on all 14 of the Innsmouth-connected scenarios that we can locate in Lovecraft Country as well as a list of every Deep One scenario we can find.
  

I notice that several of the first wave of Misk. Rep. submissions are set in Arkham ("classic" or modern) and that has inspired me to make the following offering:

Quote

 

Are you thinking of submitting a scenario to Chaosium’s Miskatonic Repository program?

Is it set in Lovecraft Country?

I would like to offer my assistance as an expert on Chaosium’s Lovecraft Country setting to anyone who is working on a submission to the Miskatonic Repository program.  As the editor of the Arkham Gazette I think I know Arkham, Kingsport, Dunwich, Innsmouth (and more) as well as anyone and I’d like to put that specialized knowledge to the use of the wider Call of Cthulhu community.

What I offer:

• Extensive knowledge of established setting materials (and scenarios).  Why invent a pharmacy for Arkham when there’s already Bryant’s Apothecary (A-441A) and a Walgreens (701)?  (Yes, I do have a an index of all the numbered locations and I’m happy to share.)  I’ll also give you a heads-up if you’re covering similar ground to a previous scenario.  I can also point you towards scenarios that might be of interest.
• Familiarity with the fictional sources that inspired Keith Herber and Kevin Ross (and others) in their development of Lovecraft Country.  I can point you towards the story where, for example, the Larkin Institute (A-902 by the way) was mentioned, or in which story Lovecraft described the Old Wooded Graveyard (A-405).
• Expertise in New England folklore in history and suggestions on how to tie your scenario into those source of Lovecraft’s inspiration.  While I don’t know every detail of New England history, I can at least direct you to a good source or two for you if you need to know more about, say, mining or the Massachusetts State Police.
• Very general feedback.  I’m happy to give my general impression but I won’t edit your scenario (see below).

What I’m not offering:

• Proofreading.
• Detailed scenario feedback.
• Editing work.

What I ask:

• A copy of the PDF when the scenario or project is released.
• A thanks to ‘Sentinel Hill Press’ in the credits.

 

If you're interested, PM me here or send an email to arkhamgazettemagazine@gmail.com

I wanted to let everyone know about our new, 10-days-only, Kickstarter campaign - THE DARE, a scenario by Kevin Ross:

Originally published in 1996 (in Dwellers in Shadow, by Triad Entertainments) THE DARE was intended as a one-shot scenario in which you played a group of children trapped in a haunted house.

We are updating and expanding the scenario :

• Revised for the 7th Edition Call of Cthulhu Rules
• Expanded the scenario significantly
• Added lots of Keeper advice for setting mood and tone (for example tips on how to modify the scenario for use with younger players)
• Expanded the number of pre-generated kid-investigators
• Commissioned all-new art by Ian MacLean
• Commissioned all-new maps of the haunted house.

We've already funded and hit our first stretch goal (and are about $100 short of goal 2),  We think this will make a great scenario for anyone looking for a Halloween one-shot.  All PDF and higher backers will get a PDF of the scenario's draft immediately after the Kickstarter closes and funds are processed, so you'll have the raw scenario immediately while we work on layout (via Badger McInnes) and otherwise prettify the thing. 

One note - we are not including shipping in any pledges.  Print copy backers will get a copy via DriveThruRPG but will be required to pay for your own shipping.  Ultimately this saves you money as you won't lose a cut of your pledge on Kickstarter fees. 

• A guide to useful locations in Arkham from published scenarios
• The Gladding School – an institution for mentally impaired children and other ‘undesirables’
• An in-depth look at Thaumaturgical Prodigies in the New-English Canaan
• *An Encounter on West Armitage Street – a scene you can insert into a scenario
• Arkham’s Boundary Markers, a historical New England oddity
• The Case of the Missing Manhole Covers – a scenario seed
• “Reports of Delusions of an Invisible Monster” – a prop document
• *Arkham’s Diners, a guide to a distinctively New England style of eatery
• *Arkham’s Curios, odd items, mysterious and malign, to use in your games
• “The Bosworth House”, Ben Wenham’s scenario of personal horror, wherein madness creeps just beneath the surface
• An Annotated list of the more than 50 Arkham-set Scenarios, offering not only scenario summaries but notes about significant locations, entities, and tomes.

Dean (and everyone who helped on this project) does excellent work.  I'm glad to have picked up a copy, and pitched in a few shillings.

(I did wonder if the solider on the cover was sticking out his tongue rather than just shouting... upon closer examination it is the latter... )

51 minutes ago, cthulhubob.lovely@gmail.co said:

The font and layout are beautiful and the material is wonderful.  I always love adventure seeds for kicking off play, historical information also makes for a much richer game experience and a well-written scenario complete with attractive handouts completes a great magazine.

Thanks!

Thank you!  I'm glad you liked it. 

Issue #3 is also available currently and issues #1 & #2 are being reworked for re-release (as with issue #0) hopefully soon, while we are currently working on issue #4, the theme of which is Kingsport.

(And if you'd like to post a rating or review of either issue, that would be most welcome. )

Just a quick update - we've added 7th Edition Call of Cthulhu rules conversion notes and a separate handout PDF to the issue #0 files on DriveThru.

http://drivethrurpg.com/product/172262/The-Arkham-Gazette-0

Sentinel Hill Press is looking for submissions for the next issue of the Arkham Gazette.  Our topic for the next issue (#4), as voted upon by the Kickstarter backers for our last issue, is Kingsport, 'the City in the Mists'.

For specific details about the contents were have already lined up, that are (hopefully) in development, and thoughts on the sorts of items we are looking for, see our blog- https://sentinelhillpress.wordpress.com/2016/03/05/submissions-wanted-the-arkham-gazette-4-kingsport/

I've previously posted some links that might be helpful to those working on Kingsport material - a CoC and Mythos fiction bibliography of Kingsport & a collection of useful links related to Marblehead, the town that in many ways inspired Kingsport (both in Lovecraft's fiction and later Kevin Ross' interpretation of it for the Kingsport: City in the Mists Lovecraft Country source book.

Additionally, we are always looking for submissions related to Lovecraft Country, Kingsport related or not, for future issues of the Arkham Gazette and other (cross your fingers) Sentinel Hill Press products.  Submission queries (to gauge our interest in advance of submission) are welcome.  Authors receive a free print copy of the Arkham Gazette and 3 cents per word after publication; art work rates vary upon the size of illustration and complexity.  Our full submission guidelines can be found HERE.

You can view our "demo" issue (#0) HERE as well as a preview of our most recent issue, #3, our Witches and Witchcraft issue, HERE.

In other Sentinel Hill Press news, we've started a new weekly series looking at the Mythos fiction of August Derleth, focusing on what elements have been used in Lovecraft Country (if any), have started a Patreon campaign to buy research materials (so far), and continue to slowly release the remaining items from our Kickstarter campaign.