Another campaign on the event horizon

I've waited for this parcel for a long time. But my waiting is over. My Arkham Advertiser from 1928 is at last in my hands. Dean Engelhardt made such a wonderful handout and built around it so many adventures that it will be a nice base for an Arkham-based campaign. For now, it will wait a bit, for the right time, but I will run it sometime in the future. You should check Cthulhu Reborn definitely! There are great scenarios there and other, sometimes free stuff!

Here is the sourcebook.

Here is the handout itself.

Spice must flow for the second time!

I'm a long-time fan of the Dune books series. For almost 25 years. Almost 10 years ago I've run a trilogy of scenarios, using Chaosium's BRP system in the world created by Frank Herbert. It was a fun game. This year my friends bought me a complete set of books published in Poland to date. I think that they are giving me not so gently hints about what they expect that I will run for them in the near future. Well... I'm going to learn the new system and then... The spice must flow!

Rulebook

GM set

GM Screen with a map of Arrakis.

Heroes of Rura-Tonga (7)

It seems that I'm back with preparing for the Heroes of Rura-Tonga campaign. After the delightful Armoured Angels scenario, we are taking the life of my wife's character three years into the future, to the year 1938, when joint forces of the Intelligence agencies of the USA, England, and Australia are sending him into Rura-Tonga, near the Japanese Mandat territory. But even the journey cannot be just a simple cruise or flight for this gentleman. I'm using heavy-pulpiefied Robinson Gruesome from the Monophobia scenario book. If You never  I've got a map and even choose another great enemy. For this heavily experienced PC, I'm thinking about Star Spawn of Cthulhu as the main bad guy. We will see!

Below is a map of the house in which Mike will be living during his tenure on Rura-Tonga. I've taken it from one of the old solo scenarios from the Indiana Jones Adventures book. 

Long awaited letter

My dear Friend sends me a letter. We have been exchanging correspondence for 20 years now. So we have a lot of pages written already. With each letter, we are sending something extra. So this time I've received a book by Howard Wandrei. Another one for my list of shame...

Now I'm in desperate need of free time to write him my answer. But before that, I must write another letter to my other dear friend and correspondent. Busy time for me between eleven and midnight for the next couple of weeks. 

Library Update (23)

So I'm alive... Sort of... The last couple of months were very hard in so many instances that I even do not want to write here. But we're still here. 

Since my last update, I've acquired or received a couple of books.No time to read them all for now, but I'm slowly wading thru my list o shame.

The Ancient Track will be a major reading for Lovecraft poetry in the future. 

Robert E. Howard's stories are always entertaining so I hope this book will be fun too.

The great unknown for me, but one of the editors is known to me from other works, we will see.

Polish edition of Trial of Cthulhu. Read it already. Typical Derleth. 

Something interesting for the end. Thick book, but it will be quick reading.

Library Update (22)

My first post in a long tie will be short. The kids are taking care of most of my free time and day got only 24 hours so with them and the work it is hard to find some time for my interests. But it will change in the future, I know that this is only temporary. So for now I'm happy with what I got. 

My little corner of the Earth is hot right now, so with Cryo Chamber's The Nyarlathotep as a soundtrack, I delve into this book. It was a fantastic journey into the mouth of madness as it should be. I found the city, but my mind doesn't take it so well.  So I become mad. Good ending for this little story. Next time I will be more prepared.

As a 14 book this year I'm rereading Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. What a book, what a story! I'm reading it for the third? fourth time now? After Burning Chrome from William Gibson. So I'm definitely in Cyberpunk aesthetics right now (with this little exception above). This particular book I bought more than two decades ago. It is one of my personal favorites in the cyberpunk genre. 

Library Update (21)

So, for a long time now I didn't update my library status. As You may predict it only changes when something new is in my greedy tentacles. For a couple of weeks since my last update, I added some times to my list of Shame. But also I've reread one book.

A new addition to my list is Choose Cthulhu 4 based on The Nameless City story by H.P.Lovecraft. Didn't have a chance to play in it. But hopefully, It will change soon. Maybe with Cryo Chamber's Nyarlathotep in the background.

The second item is Rudyard Kipling's book from Polish publisher C&T. I like other, not horror books by him, so hope that this will be another of these little pearls in my collection.

Currently, during reading Downward Spire Lonely Hill, I made a little break to read City of the Singing Flame by Clark Ashton Smith. This is only one book translated into Polish by this author. Also, this is my second or third time reading it, but I find many new details in those stories. Here it is, as a curiosity, this book from 1991 has a Doc Savage cover by Lang. Why? Don't know. It was a strange time in the publishing industry in my country. Maybe this is the answer.

The Thing Update

After a couple of weeks of nocturnal painting, my wife and I finished minis from The Thing Board game. Then we use our lightbox to make these pictures.  We already play in a couple of games both with 4 people and with 2 gamers and they were great games. Hope this weekend we can play again! So with no furder ado, we want to show  You Our iteration of those iconic heroes. Hope You like them. In no particular order:

Here is an updated Video from Unboxing. We've got some issues with the last one.

Library Update (20)

I'm somewhat late with this post, but it was stranded in draft hell for some time. So fashionably late, here it is!

I've received three interesting specimens for this Easter. Don't know when I will read them, but I will put them on my "List of Shame". Hope that someday I will read them at last.

First are Lovecraft letters. I've got a rule for some time now that I read one of those times a year. Now I'm reading letters to and from Clark Ashton Smith. Maybe this book will be next year's choice?

Shadows over Innsmouth are the second book in the series, starting with Madness of Cthulhu. I never started reading the first one, so this is going to my bookshelf. The same as my next book.

Harry Angel. I have never seen the film, never read the book, but my correspondent said it is worth reading. Maybe someone can tell me if he is right. With this pace of buying books (and publishing them by various publishers) and my reading rate, I must say I'm buying book for my retirement now...

The Thing Board Game

This is Our 150 post on this blog! For a celebration of this moment, we are proud to present Our unboxing of the Polish Edition of The Thing Board Game. We also showing both miniatures expansion - Human and Aliens and also a playing mat for this game with is a cool addition to this experience. With no further ado... Ladies and Gentlemen The Thing Board Game!

Now I must only find another three gamers to play with them...

RPG Icons Dice Set Seth Skorkowsky

So I was thinking about my youtube channel and the last film I put on it. It was a couple of years ago, so I've decided to change this today. Here You got a brand new video for unboxing of RPG Icons Dice Set Seth Skorkowsky edition. These dices are very readable and nicely produced. Now only to have some occasion to use them... 

Library Update (19)

Since my last update, I've received a couple of parcels. First from my correspondent book about H.P.Lovecraft. This time it will be about him. So something different this time.

Another one is Bram Stoker's Jewel of Seven Stars. Don't know about this book anything. So hope this will be a nice lecture in the future. 

Another three books are somewhat odd for me. They are weird tales from Poland. Authors wrote them in the interwar period. But since then there was no new editions. So these hundred years old tales come to light for the first time in a century. I've already read one of them and it was superb. The mastery in using polish language, the subject - death, makes these stories especially intriguing for someone who likes to delve into horror stories from the beginning of the last century. I hope the rest of them will be like that first one.

Of course, all of these books make it into my List of Shame. 

RPG Update (36)

As You may know, at the end of the last year I've played in solitary adventure from West End Games for Indiana Jones RPG. After some searching in my old pdf, I've found another such gem. This time for the Masterbook system. Just like the last time, it was a blast! This time it was during The lost Ark movie in Cairo. The main hero was Indiana stand-in, but this was a minor difference. Also, I was listening to the soundtrack from that movie. It was another nice experience. Too bad that I think this is the last solitaire adventure for our favorite whip-handling archeologist. I'm thinking about all these other adventures... Maybe I could make them fit into one campaign? Somewhere in the future? Maybe? Using Astounding Adventures as a system base for them? With little Pulp Cthulu sprinkled on it? 

Library Update (18)

Ok, so another parcel from my correspondent landed on my front porch. This time is "Through A Mythos Darkly" from PS Publishing. This time is something about Cthulhu and steampunk I think from the dustjacket blurb. It is number 68 on my "List of shame".

Hope that the contents are as much over the top as the front and back cover. Also, I've recently acquired another batch of books! I'm going to have a steady supply of books for another decade or more. Maybe someday we will have more time to read?  

Library Update (17)

 So... Nothing interesting is happening in my little corner of the world. Not in the RPG field at least. But in the library field is something different! As You know I created my "List of Shame" last year. And read thru 14 books from that list. But my effort is Sisyphean work. So my list is growing exponentially and with these three books, I passed 65 of them, waiting to be read... 

The first book that I received from my Friend-Correspondent is "That is not dead" edited by Darrel Schweitzer. Cannot wait to delve into that book, but this emotion is common for all of my purchases. 

The second acquisition is the Polish edition of Algernon's Blackwood "Incredible Adventures". This author was one of the favorites of H.P.Lovecraft. But after reading thru among other "The Willows" I must say that H.P.L. was right. This.

The third book I've purchased on the flea market, maybe a start of a new collection after I've collected all of the old Indiana Jones novels, will be Clive Cussler's Dirk Pitt books. My first in that collection is "|Deep Six".

As You may see in my library world is happening a lot!

RPG Update (35)

First post in New Year. Wow! When almost two weeks went? I do not know, but I know that the first seven days of the New Year I spend playing in Alone Against The Tide solo adventure for Call of Cthulhu. Since my very long and enjoyable playing in Alone Against The Dark in Polish version (Samotnie przeciwko ciemności) I was searching for something in that same vein. As I knew that Black Monk was translating the Alone Against the Frost campaign, my choice was Alone Against the Tide which I've received as a gift from one of my dearest friends. With my dice and pencil, I've dived into this new adventure.

From now one there will be some mild spoilers. If You want to play in it, stop reading here. I don't want to spoil the fun for You...

The first attempt was very short. Only three sessions about half an hour each, and the Character I've created died locked up in a jail cell when the flood come in. It was a surprise for me, that my bad decisions and bad dice rolls, such earl in the game end it in a very disturbing matter.

The second attempt was longer - for sessions each, but for about 45 minutes. This time I've used an original character from the book, but my story went in a different direction. Some steps were the same, some different since the beginning. But I must say it was a fun experience. In one of the starting events, there was an auction with clever mechanics of bidding. I must steal it for other Cthulhu adventures in the future. Also, the dreamy atmosphere of the game was somewhat different from the standard Call of Cthulhu Adventure. All and all it was a very nice experience. Polish publisher will be putting this on the market sometime this or maybe next year, I will definitely buy this book and play it once again. For all those who want to scratch a CoC itch and do not have players at the moment, You should try it out.