The Stars Come Right for 4th Edition D&D

I just wanted to take a minute to share something I ran across this afternoon. Goodman Games has released a creature supplement for 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons called Critter Cache: Lovecraftian Bestiary. As you can tell from the title this supplement introduces game write-ups for various Lovecraftian horrors for the newest edition of D&D. I have not actually seen this product yet, but it seems to offer an impressive array of creatures, and I would be very interested in seeing how 4E handles the Cthulhu Mythos.

Product blurb:

DMs, are your monsters lacking that certain something that makes them more than just another rung in the ol’ XP ladder? Do you want your players to be wide-eyed with terror and whisper, “what the hell is that?”, when you introduce a new monster to the game? Then look no further! The newest offering from Blackdirge Publishing and Goodman Games allows you to harness the raving lunacy of H.P. Lovecraft’s tales of terror and the supernatural for your Fourth Edition Dungeons & Dragons game. That’s right; Critter Cache: Lovecraftian Bestiary brings the squishy, squamous goodness of Lovecraftian monsters to your game table.

So dispense with the mundane kobolds, goblins, and orcs, and populate your next dungeon with elder things and shoggoths. Or, the next time your PCs set sail, have them bump into a slime-coated island covered with ancient ruins where giant, Cyclopean vaults just wait to be opened…

Critter Cache: Lovecraftian Bestiary is 40 pages of new 4E material, and features over 30 of your favorite Lovecraftian critters, including everyone’s favorite, tentacular Great Old One:

• Color out of Space: Color out of Space
• Cthulhu: Cthulhu, Star Spawn of Cthulhu
• Dagon: Dagon
• Deep One: Deep One Hybrid, Deep One Hybrid Elder, Deep One Priest of Cthulhu, Deep One Raider, Deep One Leviathan
• Elder Thing: Elder Thing, Elder Thing Lifecrafter, Protoshoggoth
• Flying Polyp: Flying Polyp
• Ghoul, Lovecraftian: Ghoul Burrow King, Ghoul Coffin Cracker, Ghoul Grubber, Ghoul Gnawer
• Great Race of Yith: Yithian Lightning Guard, Yithian Mindshifter, Yithian Temporal Master
• Gug: Gug Priest of the Old Ones, Gug Sentry, Gug Slayer
• Mi-Go: Mi-Go Guard, Mi-Go Scout, Mi-Go Surgeon
• Nightgaunt: Nightgaunt, Nightgaunt Chosen of Nodens
• Shantak: Shantak
• Shoggoth: Greater Shoggoth, Shoggoth

[Dark Corners of Adventure] Viking Age Orkney and Northern Scotland (Addendum Part II)

A common theme among Orkney legend is the phenomenon of vanishing islands. Mysterious islands are said to rise unexpectedly from the sea or from a mist, and then disappear just as suddenly as they appeared. It is also clear from the legends that these islands were not stationary, and could reveal themselves in various unexpected locations.

Hildaland

The most famous of the vanishing islands of Orkney is Hildaland, which is said to be one of the two homes that the Finfolk would migrate between. The second of these being Finfolkheem, their ancestral home, which is located at the bottom of the sea. Hildaland, meaning “hidden land”, served as a summer retreat for the Finfolk. Using dark sorcery they would keep the island hidden from mortal men who might wander too close.

R’lyeh

Much like Finfolkheem and Hildaland, R’lyeh is a sunken undersea city which is built upon an island that rises from the sea from time to time. R’lyeh serves as the resting place for dead Cthulhu, who “waits dreaming”. When the stars are right R’lyeh rises from the ocean floor allowing Cthulhu to also rise up, and from death-like slumber he emerges from his tomb to bring doom upon the earth. R'lyeh's location varies from one location to another (just as Hildaland), depending on the weird tale and writer. Just as the Cthulhu Mythos and Norse mythology seem to run parallel in many areas, so too does R’lyeh and the vanishing islands of Orkney.

Vanishing Islands in your Game

Using these elements is a great way to insert a Lovecraftian flavor into your game, and it can also serve as a way to make an end-run around the history books. Who’s to say that the Orkneys did not have a number of other islands located within the archipelago that vanished from the landscape as well as history? These are the hiding places of the mysterious and forbidden. Home to creatures that time forgot, and races that history never recorded. These islands are waiting to be discovered and their dark secrets uncovered.

Roleplaying With Tarot Cards

Everway is one of those games I look back on and wish I had taken more seriously. I have never actually had an opportunity to play Everway, but I have always been intrigued by it. I am not sure why I have never taken the plunge and bought the game. It could have a lot to do with how much it cost when it was released, and also my overall attitude toward collectible card games in general. Also, I am not sure how receptive some of my past gaming groups would have been to Everway.

Lately, I have been thinking more and more about how the tarot deck can be used as a storytelling tool, and how that can translate into roleplaying mechanics. If I understand correctly, Everway used a fortune deck, which was heavily influenced by the tarot. I also see that Mage: The Awakening has a tarot deck, and there are rules for using the cards as a storytelling tool. And I believe Alluvia is another game that used the tarot, but honestly I know almost nothing about the game. I can't even find a working link on Google to learn more about it.

This time I am turning to my readers for answers and advice. Below is a short list of questions. Do not feel you are limited by these questions at all. If you have something to share, please do. Even if you think that using the tarot as a rolepaying tool is a terrible idea, I want to hear about it. Thanks!

My questions:

1. I would like to hear from other gamers who have had experience using the tarot (or fortune deck) as a storytelling device for their games. (How well does it work? Is this a style of game you use often? etc.)
   
2. If someone has used the Mage deck I would like to hear how the game mechanics work, and how well they translate to a roleplaying game?
   
3. Does using the tarot in this manner lend itself to other gaming genres other than fantasy? For example, how well would it lend itself to a horror game, like Call of Cthulhu?
   

Conan Movie Character List

Moviehole has posted a listing of characters from the forthcoming Conan movie, which begins filming in February. The list is quite long, with included concept writeups for each character. It even has a few Picts listed as supporting characters, so that is a big plus in my book. The article also mentions that producers are not nessesarily looking to cast a "name" to portray Conan. All we can do now is pray to Crom for a great movie! 

Here are a handful of entries that caught my eye:

[CONAN] He's in his 20s to early 30s, Caucasian, powerfully built, broad-shouldered, sun browned skin lined with scars. Piercing blue eyes and square-cut black mane, tall. He is a savage killer that has matured into the refinement his father tried to teach him when he was young. Conan is very smart, almost inhumanly strong, and very cunning. His entire life, from the moment of his birth, has been shaped by violence. Being the last of his tribe and having to watch his father die a cruel death, he is determined avenge his peoples slaughter by killing all those who led the attack on the Cimmerians, including the all-powerful Khalar Singh. He is prepared to die in order to accomplish his goal. What Conan did not expect, was to find a reason to live… LEAD

[CORIN] He's in his 30s to 40s, Caucasian, powerfully built, intelligent, graceful, master swordsman, skilled blacksmith, de facto leader of Cimmerians and Conan's father. He resolves to answer the terrible request of his dying wife and cuts Conan out of her so she can see him. He then shoulders the burden of raising Conan, which proves to be daunting given the boy's savage nature. Corin teaches his son the meaning of the sword: a hot blade must be cooled and tempered. When Khalar finally corners him and tortures him to death, he shows no regret nor pain, hiding his concern for his son's safety from the eyes of the enemy. SUPPORTING

[REMO] He's in his 30s, any ethnicity, thin, feral, misshapen, a mysterious warrior of dark magic who travels by shadow and surprises men with a quick death. He leads a band of tracking Shadow Scouts under Khalar Singh's employ. He can be immensely fast and devious, his soul as twisted as his body. SUPPORTING

[PICT] He's in his 30s, any ethnicity or dark-complexioned Caucasian ("pict" is Latin for "painted one") the fourth in the band of Pict Savages. He survives Conan's onslaught and brings Khalar Singh to where the Cimmerians camp. He is promised the heads of his enemies.

[YOUNG CONAN] Caucasian, tough and wiry, scary violent. At ten, he insists on joining the teenage boys entering their rites into becoming warriors. When four Picts cross his path and kill one of the boys, Conan unleashes a savagery that goes too far for a warrior. His father takes him aside and personally trains him. His father teaches him what makes a good sword but he has still much to learn what makes a good swordsman. When the Cimmerians are attacked by Khalar Singh and his mercenaries, Conan is the only survivor, the last of the Cimmerians. SUPPORTING

[Dark Corners of Adventure] Viking Age Orkney and Northern Scotland (Addendum Part I)

Earlier this week I posted an article that discussed the similarities in Norse mythology and the Cthulhu Mythos. Since that time I have had some additional thoughts I wanted to share. I am sure there will be more to add to the subject, so I am calling this "Addendum I".

Myth-Cycles

Just a few additional notes on possible connections between Norse Mythology and the Cthulhu Mythos:

Ginnungagap: in Norse mythology this is the primordial void or chaos from which creation sprang from. Obviously a connection can be made here between Ginnungagap and Azathoth. In the Cthulhu Mythos Azathoth is the "Primal Chaos", and is said to have given birth to the universe.

Tsathoggua / Hyperborea: from the pen of Clark Ashton Smith comes the Hyperborean Cycle, a series of weird tales that take place in ancient pre-historic lands of Hyperborea. These stories are a great example of how sword & sorcery adventure can be blended with cosmic horror. Smith made it very clear that Greenland is the modern day location of Hyperborea, and for our purposes this is perfect, for the Vikings would eventually settle in Greenland sometime around 1000 AD.

Now not only do we have a link between the Norse and Cthulhu, we can now assume that the Viking settlers would at some point come under the insidious influence of "King Toad" himself and that the remnants of his ancient lair Mount Voormithadreth (and all of the Hyperborean ruins for that matter) lay hiding somewhere in the wilds of Greenland.

Atlach-Nacha: another Old One that inhabits the caverns of Mount Voormithadreth. Described as a monstrous spider with an almost human-like head, Atlach-Nacha is said to spin a web that somehow bridges the gap between our world and the Dreamlands. Surely if the Norse settlers would learn of the dark presence of Tsathoggua they will also learn of Atlach-Nacha as well. Having this connection allows for an interesting path into the Dreamlands to be introduced in your game...

Yhoundeh: is a mysterious Hyperborean "elk goddess", who is named as the wife of Nyarlathotep in the Parchments of Pnom. Little is known about her, other than she was a protector of nature, and her followers began an inquisition against the cult of Tsathoggua. It was during this inquisition that the sorcerer Eibon (author of the blasphemous tome Book of Eibon) was persecuted, and subsequently fled to Saturn to escape his own demise. Since we have already drawn a correlation between Loki and Nyarlathotep we can assume that in a roundabout way Yhoundeh could be associated with Sigyn (Loki's wife) by those involved with a Loki cult.

[The Lovecraftian Collector] Blood Will Have Its Season (Update)

Back in July I posted about a new collection of Lovecraftian tales by Joe Pulver, called Blood Will Have Its Season. The book has received a lot of great press, and many respected writers in the Lovecraft community have praised Joe for his writing ability, as well as his vision. I wanted to do a quick followup to direct those interested to a few reviews of the book. 

Check 'em out:

• Rick Kleffel's The Agony Column
• Publishers Weekly (3/4 of the page down)
• She Never Slept
• Amazon (5 star customer review)

Mortis Rex

There is a new movie that is in production called Mortis Rex that looks to have some serious sword & sanity potential. Directed and written by Peter Briggs (screenwritter for the first Hellboy movie), Mortis Rex is being dubbed a horror-thriller, and promises to deliver lots of Roman on Lovecraftian beast action!

From the website:

"MORTIS REX" is an Ancient Rome monster movie. In 123 AD, a disgraced Roman war hero is sent to defend a Roman garrison stationed in remote Scotland from a spate of mysterious killings. The hero reclaims his rightful warrior status by uniting with the local Druids and vanquishing a terrifying supernatural beast.

A terrifying, fantastical action movie in the vein of BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLF.