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We were all in the same boat. Chaosium didn't add the authors' names and the fact that it contains four adventures from the contest until recently (sometime during the last month). I noticed the changes after I let Nick Nicario know that I'd never received my author's copy (which I did eventually receive). According to Nick, the winning adventures for the 2012 Science Fiction adventure contest are somewhere in the publication queue; the children's adventure contest apparently got sidetracked in all the Cthulhu 7 and Orient Express frenzy. I e-mailed Meghan McLean about it July 1, per Nick's instructions, but haven't yet heard back from her.

I don't know about a priest who "carries a torch" for someone, but you could go all Dukes of Hazard and allow him to use a bow or atlatl for a torch delivery system, perhaps with a self-lighting percussion or timed fuse.

I'm not sure on the percentile stats, although admittedly I haven't reviewed the playtest document. But with the BGB, if I know a monster has a STR of 50, I can use the SIZ chart to roughly figure out how much it can lift and get a vague idea of what that strength level means. If the same STR is listed as 250%, I don't know what to compare it to to figure out what it means (other than "a whole lot stronger than my PC"). While I, like Mankcam, love pulp adventure, changing the default toughness of the player-characters will have a profound effect on the nature of the game. Call of Cthulhu characters have traditionally been rather fragile compared to, say, Justice, Inc./Pulp Hero characters, who are intended to be action heroes. While both ways can be fun, there's a big difference between playing Professor Bert Philby, anthropologist, and playing Dr. Wisconsin Smythe, two-fisted archeologist with a bolas. Both characters may have similar academic skills, but their combat skills, outlook and general hardiness will be quite a bit different. Philby is cautiously watching his back, alert for cultists and seeking to avoid confrontation until he thinks he is ready. Smythe, on the other hand, polishes off a quartet of thugs as part of his usual breakfast routine and is ready to face anything (he thinks).

In Champions, Simon Jackson's shopping buggy would be a Cosmic Power Pool, with the Obvious Accessible Focus Limitation, i.e., his powers are physical objects (store products) pulled from his returns basket, and the Advantage No END Cost, because he doesn't have to expend personal effort to use the prepackaged stuff. In TOON, it would be a Bag of Many Things, able to produce almost anything as long as Jackson made his Schtick roll. On the other hand, in TOON, a blown roll isn't necessarily bad. It would mean that Simon pulled out something totally unexpected, but not necessarily useless.

Escape from Innsmouth caught my eye. I've heard it's good, but Amazon prices for it are astronomical. Before the Fall, still a bit pricey for an old title but much more affordable, also seemed to have potential. Also, any scenarios featuring the Mi-Go? It seems the Deep Ones get most of the love (or horrified fascination, or whatever). I was just blown away by the sheer amount of material still available even though much of it is long out of print.

Hmmm, shades of Rolemaster. Although if we were really going the Rolemaster route, we'd have two (or three) stats for STR, two or three for DEX, etc.

While goofing around on Amazon.com a couple weeks ago, I looked up Call of Cthulhu and found 36 computer screen pages of material listed. Even taking into account duplications and unavailable product, that's a heap of titles, more than is currently available from Chaosium itself. They even still had the Big Bag o' Cthulhu. So, how can you tell what is good? There are a few reviews at rpg.net, but not 36 pages worth. Many of these titles I never heard of before, even though one of my former local game shops used to stock a lot of CoC stuff.

The Web Vincent Price - "The Web" 1947 (Full Movie) - YouTube No Poe or Lovecraft connection, but it does feature Vincent Price at his villainous best as a tycoon who could teach Lex Luthor lessons in ruthlessness. Price proves he's just as scary in a posh board room as in a decrepit old mansion. Suggested campaigns: Astounding Adventures or Atomic Age Cthulhu.

Stray thought: Many settings (e.g. Star Trek) depict the 23rd century as a golden age when mankind solves its problems at home and explores the stars. But Buck Rogers in the 25th Century depicts an Earth recovering from global apocalypse (caused by war and conquest) a mere 200 years later, a disaster so thorough that folks don't remember what came before. So what happened? And would The Fall make an interesting campaign setting?

Another possible inspiration: The Shadow of the Cat Shadow of the Cat (1961) - good quality rare Hammer Film - YouTube Lovecraft loved cats and wrote his own feline revenge story, The Cats of Ulthar. The Shadow of the Cat is a murder mystery in which a rich old lady's beloved pet is the only witness to her brutal murder. Pursued by the ruthless, scheming members of the household, the animal arranges suitable ends for those who planned her mistresses' death.

True, but with these 300-page rulebooks you'd need a train of pack mammoths to haul your GM's manual to each gaming session.

Call me a Luddite, but I want my role-playing books on parchment, laboriously copied by monks working by candlelight. (But a thorough index is always a plus.)

"City in the Sea isn't exactly the greatest of Lovecraftian movies, to say the least." True. But it could make a good scenario with little tweaking. Play up the fish men angle (no special effects budget to limit you); expand on the weird tech left behind by the undersea city's builders (who says they were human?); give the time-lost human refugees with a strong, crazy leader (smells like "cult" to me) an agenda at odds with that of the fish men; provide both groups a motive for intruding on the the player-characters' turf. And you've still got that unstable submerged volcano to provide a time limit for the adventure. These films make no Lovecraftian pretensions and don't star Vincent Price, but they could provide good campaign fodder as well: Old Dark House The Old Dark House 1932 Boris Karloff - YouTube Lovecraft's stories abounded with dirty family secrets, isolated and degenerate people groups, folks who shouldn't be seen locked away in attics. This film hits all those notes, when a group of travelers is stranded at the titular abode. With "normal" humans like these, who needs monsters? The Gorgon The Gorgon (1964) - YouTube Mysterious deaths at an isolated village are investigated by a team of college professors (aka Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing). Sound familiar? The Night Walker The Night Walker (1964) - YouTube Several of Lovecraft's stories featured terrifying dreams that might or might not be real. Here, Barbara Stanwyck dreams constantly of her deceased husband, and it ain't good. The Ghost Train If you can't wait for "Horror on the Orient Express," this might tide you over. Passengers stranded at a remote station await the arrival of a supernatural train bearing the spirits of those killed in a wreck long ago.

City in the Sea has loads of atmosphere, particularly in the suspenseful beginning. Price, of course, could make a peanut butter commercial terrifying.

City in the Sea (1965) Vincent Price, David Tomlinson, Tab Hunter SCIENCE-FICTION MOVIE - YouTube Another Vincent Price movie that might provide CoC campaign material is City in the Sea aka War Gods of the Deep (1965). It's got fish men, secret passages, sunken cities, ancient super tech, immortal villains, and a nubile young lady to save. Supposedly based on Poe (as was Haunted Palace) it has got a Lovecraftian vibe, and a bit of Jules Verne.

Vincent Price The Haunted Palace 1963 ) - Subtitulos Español ( Full Movie ) - YouTube The 1963 movie The Haunted Palace is (very) loosely based on H.P. Lovecraft's The Case of Charles Dexter Ward. Taken on its own terms, it's a fun old horror film. Lon Chaney, Jr., as a colleague of Joseph Curwen's is a nice touch. There are plenty of tropes that will be familiar to Call of Cthulhu fans even though the story wanders off and does its own thing.

Hmmm, try these ones ... "Weird Al" Yankovic - It's All About the Pentiums - YouTube Although the official music video is funnier.

Science fiction doesn't get much harder than this (courtesy of Weird Al)

On a tangent, from studying American history with my kids recently, a clipper ship (sailing, 1840s through early 1870s) could get knots equivalent to 18-20 mph -- as fast as a modern petroleum supertanker. A clipper ship could make it from New York to California (around the tip of South America, Panama Canal doesn't yet exist) or from America to China in less than 100 days, just slightly more than three months. Not bad for a sailing vessel of the period. Hmmm, 1870s. Cthulhu vs. Captain Nemo, anyone?

Hmmm, just for that, you'll have to stat up every monster from the film in BRP Mecha terms.

You already have one ... the Failings section of the Super Powers chapter.

Why the outrage? I didn't say BRP was bad. I just said that the figuring up a character (based on my experience of coming from years of playing Hero System to the Big Gold Book) was roughly equivalent. Keep in mind, I was addressing prep time for a campaign or adventure. In that case, you're not creating a single starting PC but master villains with extra skill points (and associated minions) or monsters with powers and abilities beyond those of mortal men. Also, let's compare apples with apples. If you're creating a Call of Cthulhu investigator (using one of the simplest iterations of BRP), that's the Hero System equivalent of creating a 50-point plus Disads Talented Normal character. Doable in ten minutes? Probably not, but easily completable within 45 minutes, since you're allocating a maximum of only 100 points (compared to 350 for a beginning Champions superhero or 250 skill points plus personal skill points for a starting BGB character). Indecision plays a big role in prep time for either system. Some posters here may find figuring out Disadvantages for a Hero or GURPS character time consuming. For me, doling out BRP skill points is a tedious process, unless I just divide 'em by the number of skills my prospective character has and passel them out equally. I still have to adjust for default skill levels (e.g., lower Climb, which was already 40%, in order to beef up another skill important to my concept). And while random rolling stats could be a time saver, in practice I often roll up to five sets of stats to try to get ones that fit the NPC concept. I also use the CoC Creature Generator to pump out 10-15 sets of human stats if I've got a group of NPCs to put together.

As a Hero System fan, I think prep times for both Hero and BRP are about the same. In the former you're busy allocating build points for characteristics and powers (skills are relatively cheap, hence, easy to add). In the latter, your stats are randomly rolled but you've got 300+ skill points to allocate plus power points if you're playing supers. So, equivalent in time spent. For fast prep, I use Mini Six or Legends of the Ancient World (a The Fantasy Trip retro-clone). You really can put character sheets for each of these systems on a 3x5 index card. BTW, most of my Champions superheroes have fit easily on a single 8-1/2x11 sheet. Never went in for those 2- to 5-page wonders listing every event in the character's history and every dime in his pocket.

I recently got a copy of "A Nation Ransomed," which contains four adventures, winners of the 2011 BRP Adventure Contest. So far, it's a good read. Steve Devaney's "The Skull of the Sleeper" was written as a fantasy quest set on a tropical isle, but I couldn't help but feel it would run fine as-is with modern, or pulp adventure, player-characters. It feels like one of those South Sea adventures so popular before World War II, crossed with a lost worlds yarn. The titular scenario, R.J. Christensen's "A Nation Ransomed," is a taunt Tom Clancy-style technothriller with nasty consequences if the PCs fail. It gives the option for superheroic adventurers, although powers won't necessarily make their job easier. More when I've read more.

Toad for BRP Source: Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows, 1908 WANTED: TOAD For Grand Theft, Hijacking, Reckless Endangerment, Escape, Resisting Arrest, Disturbing the Peace, and Impersonating a Washerwoman. ALIASES: Toad of Toad Hall; Elias Jeremiah Toad II, Esquire; They call me MISTER Toad; The Sultan of Speed; “Mad Wheels” Toad; Agnes the Washerwoman DESCRIPTION: Suspect is 4-feet, 10-inches tall, weighs approximately 60 pounds, has extremely long legs for his height, large yellow eyes, wide mouth, webbed fingers and toes, and damp, warty skin. No distinguishing scars, marks or tattoos. Was last seen wearing washerwoman’s cap and dress. REWARD: 10,000 pounds for information leading to the capture and arrest of this convicted felon. Subject is to be considered armed and extremely dangerous. If sighted, do not approach, do not attempt to apprehend. Contact your local constable or police station immediately. STR 10 CON 17 SIZ 7 INT 13 POW 10 DEX 16 APP 12 SAN 35 (originally 50) Move: 10 Hit Points: 12 Damage Bonus: +0 Armor: None Attacks: Brawl 25%, 1D3 + DB; Grapple 25%, 1D3 +1/2 DB Skills: Bargain 39%, Climb 40%, Disguise 35%, Dodge 32%, Driving (horse cart) 20%, Driving (automobile) 20%, Driving (motorcycle) 20%, Etiquette 39%, Fast-Talk 45%, Insight 39%, Jump 40%, Language (English) 65%, Listen 25%, Navigate 44%, Persuasion 39%, Pilot (boat) 35%, Pilot (hot air balloon) 20%, Pilot (Wright Model A airplane) 20%, Spot 25%, Status 49%; Swimming 40% Notes: I started to base Toad on the Dilettante profession in Call of Cthulhu but finally decided that the Confidence Man profession from the Investigator’s Companion was a better fit, given his checkered career. In the book, Toad was fascinated by a succession of boats and four-wheeled land vehicles only, but I figured it was only a matter of time until motorcycles and aircraft caught his attention as well. The Wright Model A was being manufactured by European licensees during the era in which The Wind in the Willows takes place. Grahame, unlike C.S. Lewis, never gives us dimensions for his talking animal characters. When dealing with other animals, they seem normal animal size (and children’s book illustrators tend to depict them that way). On the other hand, Toad was large enough to operate various man-sized vehicles, to peer through the windows of human dwellings, to appear in a human court of law without special restraints, and to impersonate a (short) woman. I settled on just under 5 feet tall, with weight to match. Usually I don’t include SAN for characters created with the Big Gold Book, but Toad practically requires the stat, whether the Mythos Knowledge skill exists in the campaign or not. He’s a classic manic personality, co-dependent on his trio of faithful friends to get him out of the trouble he causes. Fortunately, despite numerous crashes and wrecks, Toad has managed not to kill anyone (so far) and to injure only himself. If Toad ever actually took the time to learn to operate his many vehicles, he’d have a personal fleet to rival that of Bruce “Batman” Wayne. 250 skill points plus 130 personal skill points = 380 points. 34 each plus 6