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Call of Cthulhu comes to Critical Role in July


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Exciting news! - our friends at Critical Role are doing a Call of Cthulhu one-shot in July! 

As announced in Critical Role's Summer Programming Schedule:

On Monday, July 29th, Critical Role's Taliesin Jaffe is stepping behind the screen once again as the Keeper of Arcane Lore for a special Call of Cthulhu one-shot, sponsored by our friends at Chaosium. Investigators Travis Willingham, Liam O’Brien, Marisha Ray, Ashly Burch, Phil Lamarr, and Erika Ishii will attempt to survive Taliesin’s harrowing scenario, which is set in a decadent 1890s London. We’re incredibly excited to explore this classic RPG of cosmic horror through a fresh lens.

VOD will be available immediately for our Twitch channel subscribers and will be available on our YouTube channel on Wednesday, July 31st. 

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The Keeper of Arcane Lore is Taliesin Jaffe @executivegoth.

The Investigators are @WillingBlam, @VoiceOfOBrien, @Marisha_Ray, @ashly_burch, @phillamarr, & @erikaishii

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  • 5 weeks later...

All set for a gaslight-era mystery of malevolent proportions: our friends Critical Role are playing 'Shadow of the Crystal Palace', their special Call of Cthulhu one-shot, tomorrow night at 7pm PST 

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Edited by MOB
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On 8/3/2019 at 4:36 PM, seneschal said:

The session won at least one potential convert.  I had given a co-worker a copy of the BRP and 6th edition Call of Cthulhu Quick Start rules.  He wasn’t interested much, but after watching Critical Role he is wanting to give it a shot.

Over 570,000 views now: lots of new people experiencing Call of Cthulhu for the first time

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Back in the day, horror fans' first impression of HPL was through his stories and the hero-worshipping that Arkham House encouraged.  (Not that the self-styled "Granpa Cthulhu" wasn't a highly entertaining, congenial correspondent and a generous literary peer and mentor.) Thanks to the Internet, however, all his truly horrible opinions expressed in his letters, early political essays, and verse are now easily accessible.  There's no way to sweep them under the rug, so the only recourse is to acknowledge them while still identifying what's worthwhile in his writing.

Taliesin Jaffe was quite right in bringing this up from the start—not least since HPL had expressed appalling views that would have directly attacked Jaffe and Phil LaMarr if he had been there in person—and then proceeding to what's enjoyable about Call of Cthulhu.

Edited by Rick Meints
not about Critical Role
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57 minutes ago, MOB said:

Wow, fan artists really got inspired by the recent Critical Role Call of Cthulhu one-shot

Yeah the Critical Role fan community is completely mindblowing when it comes to fan art. Every episode of their main D&D campaign they showcase at least a few dozens of art pieces, many referencing things that happened in the previous episodes.

Ludovic aka Lordabdul -- read and listen to  The God Learners , the Gloranthan podcast, newsletter, & blog !

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It was a DnD party, but we talked some Call of Cthulhu too...

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"Emerging seemingly unscathed from the horrors of 'The Shadow of the Crystal Palace', Taliesin Jaffe @executivegoth and Erika Ishi @erikaishii talked more Mythos madness with Chaosium's Neil and MOB at Critical Role's DnD Beyond Party on Saturday night at Gen Con."

 

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On 8/10/2019 at 4:31 PM, Addison said:

Anyway, back to the topic: it’s a real coup to have Critical Role run the game, but it’s also testament to the worldwide popularity of Call Of Cthulhu. 

Yes. Setting up the Critical Role game was nearly two years in the making, and everyone involved hopes it will not be a one-off. 

On 8/10/2019 at 4:31 PM, Addison said:

Did I read somewhere that Call Of Cthulhu is actually the most popular RPG in Japan, ahead of D&D?

Right here on BRP Central!

 

Edited by Rick Meints
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The thing that matters to me most is that the game we all love is opened to EVERYONE, not just people who conform to an exclusive perspective or persuasion. Whether people understand it or not, what we say on this Forum influences how much the game grows. And if the game growing means finding ways to accept players, even when you disagree with them, that should be a critical goal of what we do here.

It is quite possible, after people watch the Critical Role episode, new prospective players will find their way to Chaosium.com, and by extension to this Forum. And some of us are here simply trying to emphasize that EVERYONE is welcome in Call of Cthulhu. And, in response, some forum members have been saying really unwelcoming things like "it is bad Keeping to attenuate to social issues at your table." Anyone who is a successful Keeper knows that that is just false.  It also sends the message that different perspectives and experiences aren't welcome in the game and shouldn't be welcomed in the game. I've been contacted by forum members thanking me for defending respectful Keeping. But for every person who thanks people who defend gaming for all and respect for realistic experience, there are new people that see voices defining this as an unwelcoming place and they may never play the game because of it. Don't like people who don't think like you? Fine. But sure as heck don't chase them away from the rest of us who are willing to listen and work with them! It isn't our job to babysit your insecurities. This is EVERYONE'S game. 

Coming full circle, the Critical Role video has given us another of many recent opportunities to expand the game to new players. And some people here seem eager to protect "their" space against perspectives they don't like, even if it means all of us losing prospective players. I won't stand for that kind of poisoning of the well if I can show people they are welcome here. I'd like to think that Trifletraxor wants prospective new players to feel welcome on this forum. I salute them for making it available to all of us and to Chaosium, but that also means that how we represent the accessibility of Call of Cthulhu matters.

Edited by klecser
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The fan art from Critical Role's 'The Shadow of the Crystal Palace' continues to amaze! And total views of the Call of Cthulhu have now shot past 650k

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Art by @kelseyshea, depicting Hanako the Socialite, played by Erika Ishi.

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As much as I enjoyed so far what I watched so far, my watching is constantly getting restarted, I found the current demonizingnof HP Lovecraft to be irksome. To claim his views were not common of its day is disengenuous as the man was a product of his environment and nature.  He was raised in a time peak of thenaccepance of eugenics and some 8f the worst atrocities committed in the USA, he was very much thenclassic WASP. But most important was the untreated crippleling anxiety. HP Lovecraft was a man tormented by mental health issues that not only enriched his writing but unfortunately also fueled his more unpleasant opinions. Like a good author he used his fears in this case seafood and people turned it into some thrilling tales. His views softened overtime as he came out of his shell and maybe had cancer not ravaged him might have had an opportunity to retract his statements.  If you dig into 1920s history and social norms you will realize it was not just HP Lovecraft but humanity as a whole who had some questionable traits, and pretty sure ifmwe dragged outnevery ones private thoughts they would find some issues. That said lets celebrate his contributions to litiature and remember that HP Lovecraft was not a monster just a man with problems who was around a time when racist grand parents were dealing with their racist grand parents.

Edited by Videopete
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On 8/11/2019 at 5:22 PM, klecser said:

The thing that matters to me most is that the game we all love is opened to EVERYONE, not just people who conform to an exclusive perspective or persuasion. 

I fully agree with this. People differ widely in which gaming style they enjoy the most and none are "right" or "wrong". Everyone should be able to express their perspective and persuasion (within certain limits of course), but should also tolerate that others disagree. This is just a gaming forum after all, it's meant to be fun, no need for it to turn into a political debate. Unless we are discussing Cthulhu for president that is!

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Ef plest master, this mighty fine grub!
b1.gif 116/420. High Priest.

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Back on topic, it's impressive how well Jaffe's tactic paid off in the comments to the Youtube video, which have not been obsessing of HPL's character flaws but rather have concentrated on enjoying the actual play and asking for more Cthulhu-related Critical Role.  Ordinarily I stay away from the font of verbal effluent that is YouTube's comment section, but this time, I took the plunge.  Of the more than 2,800 remarks, observations, opinions, etc., only a few directly addressed that topic.  When they did, they were generally quite evenhanded, e.g. "I appreciate that we can get past the typical arguments about Lovecraft being garbage and just enjoy some cosmic horror."  That's considerably different from many mainstream discussions about HPL, which quickly ignite into flame wars between those who carry fandom's torch for him and those who want to break out the pitchforks.  So kudos to Jaffe for preemptively defusing that UXB.

The next question I have is, like so many Critical Role fans in the comments, what are the possibilities the group will stream another CoC session before Halloween?

Edited by Travern
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