SunlessNick

It's on my DT wishlist.

Nobody said anything about wanting an 8th Edition. Keeper's Companion Volume 1. It included artefacts too. And yes, a book devoted to such things would be great. Expanded summaries of contents, and covering some books that just have table entries in the core. The Keeper's Companion also featured places, on Earth and off, which would be a great subject to revisit.

I agree. I'm not really all that fussed about a special edition for the 40th Anniversary. The 50th would be great, especially since Chaosium will probably be thinking about an 8th edition by then. But for now we've got excellent new and updated content coming out, and I'd rather have that.

Thanks.

What's the difference between this version and the earlier 7th Ed one?

Pulp Cthulhu itself has rules for psychic powers and pulp science invention. It's not the same as a witch or vampire, but you could make an Investigator in the theme of the Shadow or Doc Savage.

And ordered.

I'm making my way though this book now, inamidst other calls on my time. I've just finished chapter six, and I wanted to call out one thing in particular that I appreciate: My other observation is that I tend towards "Cthulhu Mythos is the only Mythos" in CoC - human mythology will be a human invention with only a peripheral relationship with anything true. So if I ran this as CoC, I would be taking the options to put a Mythos truth behind Shambhala and Agartha (possibly Zhar-Lloigor) - and also for other mythological beings that appear like pishacas or dakinis. But the other option would be running it as entirely non-Mythos, and replacing the Mythos beings that are encountered with something folkloric. At some point I'll try both approaches, I think.

There's an Arkham country scenario where a baby deep one has been captured and is being exhibited in a freak show. Some adult deep ones are trying to recover it, but are hampered by not wanting to expose themselves, or attract the attention that slaughtering the entire carnival would bring (I think the scenario is called the Carnival, but I'm not sure). They're willing to work with Investigators if it gets them the baby back without too much fuss. The scenario is written with the assumption getting the baby away from the carival and giving it to the deep ones is the morally correct choice. There's a modern day scenario called Music of the Spheres where some Fungi from Yuggoth will warn Investigators about the threat, and give them a chance to deal with it their way before getting involved themselves (which will involve explosions). There's a scenario in the Fatal Experiments collection (I can't remember its individual title) where the Investigators are exploring an underground labyrinth and run into a couple of drunk ghouls. The ghouls have no interest in hostility unless attacked first, and if asked can provide directions to get around. There's also a scenario where a recently changed ghoul is burgling what used to be his house for some books, and has no intention of harming anyone. The Australia chapter of Masks of Nyarlathotep has a Yithian who can be negotiated with.

INT based skills would average +13%, which is a possible push to be a thinker rather than a bruiser. Something I'm doing in my current 7th Edition games is have the player choose whichever characteristic best encapsulates the Investigator's nature - essentially, whichever would be the key one in a Pulp Cthulhu game - and then making the personal interest points INT+that rather than INT x2.

Prior to 7th Edition, I had a version where I used 2D6+6 for all characteristics, then grouped skills by characteristic, with a modifier of (characteristc -13)*2, for a range of +/-10%.

This is great! (And a hound/baboon look makes me think you frame the "demons" as a lesser version of Nyarlathotep's Black or Dark Demon forms).

Double Post. Although while I'm here, if Tail of Cthulhu is on the table, it has a setting called Cthulhu City, which is on the surface a twisted alternate history of Arkham where the Mythos rules - beneath the surface, it's who knows what?

Chaosium put out a sceneario set in WWI called No Man's Land, while Pelgrane put out a series of Trail of Cthulhu scenarios collected into a set called Dulce et Decorum Est. Between them, they create a possible WWI setting (the Pelgrane scenarios aren't linked to the Chaosium one, but the Mythos forces used in both are thematically compatible).

The description of Lore makes it out to be for the esoteric, so I created a category skill called Field, which is for humanities subjects like theology (technically History, Law and Occult could be considered to fall under it, but they come up often enough to use them separately, especially History). It has a base of 5% rather than 1%. I also have an Administration skill for managing or navigating a bureaucracy. Some of that comes under Accounting, but it needn't involve money. One I've removed is Own Language - I just use a Know Roll for if ever I have to roll that.

Not a huge amount, but quite well used. Sparse for a full campaign, but easily enough for a couple more scenarios than the Soldier's itself. It is very focussed on the war and on Madrid.

Along with a sequel part with an expedition into a Mayan ruin. There's an old scenario called The Secret of Castronegro, but I don't remember a lot about it. And getting hold of it might be hard.

One of the things I said I hoped for was advice on adjusting the appearance and presentation of the Dreamlands to tie into different setting books - going there from Arkham might be a different experience from going there from Harlem, which might be a different experience from going there from Berlin. I got the answer "Way ahead of you," which implies you can expect that. While you're waiting, Pelgrane Press have a supplement called The Dreamhounds of Paris, which is about the Surrealists trying to work massive changes in the Dreamlands in order to help provoke the psychic revolution they're after. And of course how this goes horribly wrong.

The first Strange Aeons book has the King of Shreds and Patches, set in the Elizabethan era, about the writing of a precursor the King in Yellow play. There's a scenario called Tatterdemalion in Fatal Expriments which is to do with Carcosa - it's a more visceral and weird portal story than the psychic entropy of most Hastur scenarios, but it will supply good imagery for the big guy's homeworld. Pelgrane Press did a long scenario called Soldiers of Pen and Ink, which is about Hastur's influence descending on Madrid during the Spanish Civil War. It's big on the psychic entropy, and the Investigators will have their work cut out for them to save the souls of a whole city. Another book, Shadows over Filmland, has a scenario called The Black Chateau, about the dedication of a modernist villa as Hastur's temple.

That makes me wonder which I am 😔 ... I am fairly new to regularly posting there, but a long-timer at the game. Maybe I talk lie a grognard, so they accept me. Malleus Monstrorum is surely a spiritual successor to the Ye Booke of Monsters supplements, of which I still have fond memories (particularly, I liked how you resisted "taking sides" in what you thought made a good addition to the Mythos or not - it was never apparent from your writing which monsters you liked or not). There are things I prefer about the way monster writeups are done now compared to then, but that's about the general style of the game, not your work in particular. So I'd chime in as another who is surprised that you've never been asked. Ah... hopefully the UK will follow suit soon.

I've just started running a Harlem Unbound game - but in general it's such a great product it's hard to know what to compliment first. Haunted West will probably be one of those games I don't get but am glad exists (I'm not at all interested in the weird west genre, but it's good to see its usual cast getting broadened). I'm eager to see more of this science fiction game, based what I've heard so far, and that's one I'll almost certainly be getting.

I would take a more mystical approach to the incarnation. Each of the Nephilim's lives is essentially a new being, the alchemical wedding/offspring of the Elemental essence in the Reliquary and the human Host (I prefer those terms to stasis and simulacrum), meaning that Nephilim is a combination of immortal and lineage. Not all the Arcana would see it that way - some of the more similar ones could be distinguished by disagreements over the nature of Nephilim. (It would be better to try to write it as if any of the alchemical wedding, elemental spirit possessing a human, or human awakened to their elemental nature could be true, but everyone's biased to one of those, and the alchemical wedding is mine). I'd get down on my knees and beg John Snead to be able to use Enlightened Magic for their magical system. Character Types: I'd change the elements a bit, replacing Moon with Metal. In the Middle Ages, metal was regarded as a close balance of the four elements, and of course the Chinese system swaps out Air for Metal and Wood - that makes both workable as imperfect analogues to the truth. All five elements being forms of matter has better symmetry. In astrological terms, Metal would tie to Saturn, while Orichalka would be reallocated to the asteroid belt - this is why it expresses of other elements. However, Moon would still exist as a different type of human immortal, rooted in perfection of mind and body. Black Moon and Selenim would be character options - both humans and Nephilim can become Selenim, though humans need the help of an existing one. Some humans would be able to awaken one of the Nephilim elements in themselves, and practice a degree of sorcery without having to resort to stuff like elixirs. And some humans would be able to awaken their Sun, which grants them an air of spiritual authority and influence. When you hear about people having mana, or farr, this is where it comes from. Regular humans or members of secret societies would be an option too. Nephilim would still be the default - one character creation chapter for Nephilim (given all the parts that go into making one), and another for "other character types." Granted, all those being available from the get-go would need a big core book, but if I had my way they would be. And big core books are pretty common nowadays. Another vote for the Four Realms from GURPS Cabal/Mystic World. I also rather like the Reverie from The Everlasting - Ka Vision would be akin to stepping into the Reverie. I'd include a few more secret civilisations from history, mythology or literature that the Nephilim might have interacted with, like Irem or Valusia. Secret societies wouldn't be universally opposed to the Nephilim - the links between individual Arcana and societies that come up in the Major Arcana and Secret Societies supplements would be clear from the core book. Someone else I'm acquainted with who wants a reworked Nephilim has the idea that the past lives would be the game rather than character creation - you start back in the day and play though the incarnations as stages in the campaign, with the modern day be no more special than any of them - that's not my own preference, but it would be cool to include it as a supported campaign type. Another thing that should be supported is extensive flashbacks - even if the campaign is mostly taking place in the present, setting a scenario in one of the PC's past lives - the secondary character types could be used by players whose Nephilim aren't active in the period being flashed back to.

That was an extremely well chosen picture to go with a pandemic related shipping update.

My main change is to remove the Spawn. Hypatia Masters instead had a terminal illness that Nyarlathotep promised to cure in exchange for her participation in the Gate Ritual.

This is a great selection! Will they be available past October?