Loïc

Fleas Sack

Grubble-Crap-Shit

"Fucking Meow-Meow" (quote from Harvey Keitel in Argento's Black Cat...)

Indeed, as far as historians know, maps always were a political instrument, designed to affirm power upon a territory. Other good examples are the roman itinerarians (Antoninus' is a list of stationes and cities, with indicated distances between them), and of course The Table of Peutinger (https://leg8.fr/empire-romain/table-de-peutinger/). The last could easily be imagined as a Lunar mapping of its empire...

Oh, sorry! I've never read Mallory in the original spelling... A fail to repare!!! 😉

On 3/11/2021 at 7:30 PM, Voord 99 said:

Fun fact: I have read a lot of French in my life, and spoken French moderately often, but I have never actually written a letter to an auberge de jeunesse, despite the Irish educational system being convinced that was a critical skill that anyone studying French needed to have.  

So plunging into all this is fun for me, damn it!  I intend to inflict Sir Whatever des Nerfs Durs on my players very soon.

????? 😳 Never wrote any letter to an "auberge de jeunesse" in a 43 years-life in France!!!!😲

On 3/11/2021 at 7:30 PM, Voord 99 said:

Plus, there’s a really gut sense for the English-speaker that goes beyond that that French=high status, the language of the educated, aristocratic.  Speakers of lots of other European languages have those general associations with French as well, of course, but it’s really intense if you’re a native speaker of English. 

For an elite language, I would choose Latin (of course, I'm French...), it allows anyone to agree with one another, and it explains the arrogance of Roman knights...

On 3/11/2021 at 7:30 PM, Voord 99 said:

So a knight called “le Cure Hardy” — that sort of thing is for me really evocative of the High Middle Ages in general and of Malory in particular.

You mean "Coeur Hardi" I think ? "Cure" means "therapy" (often "balneotherapy"). A Roman knight I suppose?😊

As a source of inspiration, it makes me think of a XVth-XVIth century french knight called Bayard, whose motto/nickname was "sans peur et sans reproche" (fearless and flawless). Maybe take a look at knights' mottos (when known...) could be useful?

I strongly disagree with all this. I did mastered Magic World. And I'll surely master it again. So for me it never failed!!!

... of course, I'm a real dumb in business and economics... 😜

(Precise I'm French...)

As a matter of fact, we often use these kind of nicknames when playing Pendragon. But always after a while, when the knight begins to be quite renown. Really, a good english-french dictionnary could be enough, since many modern french adjectives already existed in in Middle Ages.

But... but... (and thanks to Voord99)... Some Old French adjectives had different meanings than in modern French (and vice versa). Examples :

• Pepin le Bref: means "the short", but in modern French "bref" is used mainly for short-speaking...
• Gilbert le Gentil (quoting Voord99): in Old French, Gentil means "gentle", as opposed to "vilain" (same as in English), which refers to the lowest social classes of the Middle Ages. And in modern French, saying of someone "il est gentil" can be (see context) the same as "il est bien brave", refering to a nice but dumb person... A knight with such a nickname should be harrassed for this in tournaments...
• Last, as in English, most actual french second names refer to a profession or a land designation. For example, mine means (in Occitan) "hazel grove"!!!

All this is a bit confused even for a French, and I'm afraid this is even more confusing for my fellow-english-speaking roleplayers... So, I advice to just translate your nickname in modern French (you'll have probably 95% chances to match a medieval-origin adjective!!!). But if you're planning some sessions in France, beware: in the Middle Ages, French is not at all spoken in the whole territory: Brittons speak Breton, Alsacians/Lorrans have germanic dialects, Basks speak Euskal, the whole South of France speaks three distincts occitan languages (and even have their own litteratures, from West to East: Gascon, Languedocien, Provençal), and so forth... Then if you want to add color to your nicknames, you can take a look at these (many ressources on the internet, but in French I'm afraid...). Last point: some take a latin nickname, like Carolus Magnus.

There is a quite good presentation of cattle raids, their customs and obligations and so forth in HQ The Coming Storm (vol. 2: Eleven Lights). But basically, yes, as said above, the rule is to ask the clan chief permission. Then, that's what crawlers do... 😉

6 hours ago, Leingod said:

It's funny, that kind of reminds me of how the old Hero Wars and Sartar Rising stuff portrayed Valind and his place in the Great Winter. In Storm Tribe, Valind's write-up states that the Heortlings see him as the "bad child" of the Thunder Brothers; he's that annoying punk no one likes (apparently "valindi" is often used synonymously with "entitled whiner"), but he is still family in the end, so you try to put up with him.

And in the context of the Great Winter, that's potentially where Valind finally makes himself useful (again, to the Heortling perspective), because Valind doesn't just give his followers powers to summon cold and snow, he gives them the power to survive or even fight off the powers of winter. They wouldn't exactly be making pockets of springtime or anything, but turning aside a blizzard or being able to go out and hunt or scavenge food while everyone else is shivering by the fire is still a lot. This makes them very helpful at this time, but (again, old material, might not be canon anymore) that also means the Lunars target them. Which leads to an interesting situation where the Valindi - who are traditionally consigned to the margins, if not living as actual outlaws - might suddenly both need to rely on a wider community to survive Lunar manhunts, and be treated with a lot more respect by people whose survival they helped ensure.

Funny too: I used Storm Tribe (and Thunder Rebels) to prepare this campaign, and for the rules, I'm running a mix between HW et HQ rules... In other words, you unmasked me!!!! 😋

I'm running The Coming Storm HQ campaign, and one of my players chose the "full text writing creation" and created a valindir... Indeed, such a character isn't thought highly of in Red Cow Clan, and when the Great Winter will come, he certainly will have big problems (a lynch mob...). Then, his background is also certainly the most creative of all the party: he's some kind of a village idiot (a handsome and strong one, but yes, a village idiot) in Red Cow Fort, a stickpicker, and there was some really good prophecy dedicated to Valind in his background, with strong links with the clan and the other players... We discussed it, and considered Valind (at least an aspect of Valind) as a primordial force of nature, destructive and indispensable in Orlanth's society. In the cycle of seasons, after all, winter and the winds of Valind are useful, for without them, there should be no renewal of life... So is his character: there is no matter of good nor evil, he's like a child, with all his innocent cruelty and destructive drive.

Of course it isn't "canonical", but players' creativity and commitment should always be encouraged and rewarded...

And Ernalda procession (no wedding without her, and apparently without booze...) :

Both (the wedding, and the feast) are from La privée des hommes aux temps des vikings (Private Life of Humans in Viking Ages), a great collection when I was a kid (1970s/1980s). The artist is Pierre Joubert.

Just for illustration (add a bit of minoian culture...) :

TOPIC SOLVED!!! Thanks to Chaosium team quick answer and advises! I'm probably going to make my order tomorrow... and wait for UK warehouse exclusive products to ship to France again... 😉

Hi! Don't really know where to post this, and I'm not sure my mail worked on Chaosium's website...

So, I wanted to make an order yesterday to take advantage of Chaosium's great promotions (Blood Tide, The Magic Book, In Search of the Trollslayer and several Cthulhu classic scenarios I don't have yet in my collection...). When I wanted to finalize and pay my order, I saw an alert saying "one or more articles of your cart can't be shipped to your current address (in France). Please register another address of destination". Not exactly the same words (and certainly in a much better english), but basically the same meaning.

Halas, I don't have any other available address to make this order... And the site doesn't precise what articles are concerned. So I had to cancel my order... 😪

So my questions:

• probably a stupid question: is this situation covid-related, both for US and UK platforms?
• is it concerning all Chaosium products for France?
• how long the promotions will last? If this is covid-related, I'm sure you can't say when orders from France will start again, but I'd just like to know if I have a chance to take advantage of your promotions...

Anyway, I hope this f***ing situation will end very soon, and not just for my ordering compulsion. Just for everyone's sake.

Thanks!

15 hours ago, DreadDomain said:

In Pulp Cthulhu, I do not believe there is a "sidekick" feature. I suppose they would be listed under Significant People/Contacts instead. For Hero and Satan, I should replace one talent with "Animal Companion". Theoratically, I would need it twice but I do not think it is unreasonable to take them both under one. Also, I need more skill in Animal Handling, only 25%!!

What do you guys think about skill levels. Pulp heroes are generally super competent and broad and their expertise, which is why I gave them but aside from a few signature skills, their skills are generally in the 40 to 60%. Good enough?

I also was fairly stingy in combat skills. The Phantom and the Shadow would probably need a bit more (knife, sword, etc..) 

Don't know much the Shadow (unfortunately never been published in France, we just know the movie), but for the Phantom (many french-translated comics...) I remember he mainly uses his two guns (maybe he shouldn't have any malus when using both of them at the same time? or allow him twice attacks/turn?). Can't remember seeing him with a sword, but frequently with "tribal" weapons (bow, spear...). And since he's been partly educated by the Bandars, I'm sure he knows something about poisons and darts...

And what about sidekicks? Henry Jones for Indiana, bandar tribesmen (and Guran!)/Heroe/Satan for The Phantom, and so forth?...

1 hour ago, Sir_Godspeed said:

I knew most of the European aristocracy were Satanists. More like Richard DEMONheart!

And heraldry also uses sirens, wolves, snakes, griffins, dragons...

Specialists (dungeoneers?) are still looking for shields with painted kobolds, goblins and trolls.

May the Stars be right!!!!

Happy new years all of you.

Just a french (frenglish?) joke:

"Knock-knock!

- Who's that?

- Lapinou!

- Lapinou who?

- Lapinou year!"

(in french, "lapinou" stands for "bunny"). Sorry. Wish you'll have better ones this year. Shouldn't be difficult.

3 hours ago, Akhôrahil said:

Hic sunt dracones.

Sorry, but you're wrong. In ancient charts :

West = Hic sunt monstrorum

East = Hic sunt draconis

South = Hic sunt leones (for Middle-Ages christians, lions were devil-creatures)

North = no specific latin sentence. No need. No one would dare.

Never played Superworld. But here in France, Nephilim is some kind of a cult-game. I played a long long campaign several years ago, and had very great time! Even the longer character creation ever seen (and still great!).

I began mastering The Dark Eye for my 8 years-old son during the first containment here in France. We didn't stop...

Now I'd like to run someting else for him, but with another player (his sister is only 3 years old). I'm tryng to pressure my wife, but her previous experiences (Conan RPG, C.O.P.S.) didn't convince her...

Telmoris' instant favorite: hot blood from their agonizing victim. A must with such mugs!!!

...Looking back in the book, I see what I missed... 🙃

I failed my library check! Need help!

In Miskatonic University, p197:

Quote

As noted nearby, the witch cult never acts on or near the campus of Miskatonic University, and particularly avoids the Orne Library. Why does the coven avoid a potential treasure trove of magical and arcane lore? Some possible answers can be found in this chapter.

Then I can't find these "possible answers"!!! There are a few things about the Exhibit Museum the witch cult may be aware/afraid of (the mummy, Lucas Tetlow...), but nothing about the Orne Library. Or does this mean the witch cult is aware of Armitage Cabal? With its incredible powers, I don't think it frightens much the witch? I probably missed something, so if anyone has an answer or a clue?...

Thanks!