The Veterans of a Thousand Midnights

The Unspeakable Oath Issue 22 And Then Some

noreply@blogger.com (Chase Beck) — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 18:13:00 +0000

This is not a review. I'd attempt to provide one but I'm no longer objective on the matter. You see, I write reviews and they send me an issue in PDF and physical form as well as pay me money. I'd do it for just a PDF but don't tell them that. At any rate, in this issue I review Paula Dempsey's "Book of the Smoke", which I've already briefly written about here.

Anyway, this is just to tell you that The Unspeakable Oath Issue 22 is out now, as has been for a little while. I know that I should have said something sooner but I was a little side-tracked by life and the impending threat of mine ceasing prematurely. Don't worry, I'm all better. However, recovery is slow and has been consuming most of my energy. I look forward to a complete restoration of all my faculties that promises to exceed my previous abilities and stores of vitality.
Now, I know you're waiting patiently for an update on the "Worlds Worst X-COM Commander. In the meantime I suggest you check this out. It's Achtung! Cthulhu and it looks awesome. I've already pledged way too much money to this project. I couldn't pass up the leather and canvas satchel. I mean, look at this thing! It's so amazingly cool. I just had to have it. So, now it's your turn, assuming you haven't already, to pledge. The Kickstarter only has 24 hours left so get over there.

So, a while ago (Sept. 2011) I submitted an actual article to The Unspeakable Oath. This was more than just a review. This was a table of alternative firearms with Basic Role-playing (Call of Cthulhu/Delta Green) stats as well as a brief description of each item. I've recieved confirmation from Shane Ivey that is might actually be printed someday. Will it be in Issue 23? Who knows? But, I'm certainly keeping my eyes out for it. The article/table includes real-world items. This includes such things as modified weapons, like a bowie knife or a pocket knife that fired real bullets; disguised and deadly everyday objects, like a rifle cane or a pillbox that shot real bullets; exceptionally small firearms; and finally early firearm designs. I'm excited to finally be sharing it with other people. I can't wait to read all of the criticisms from the gun fondlers about how I got all of the stats wrong as well as important details in the descriptions. Anyway, as the list currently stands there are over 35 items for which I've provided stats and descriptions. My favorite? Well, you might find this disappointing but...I'm not telling just yet.

World's Worst X-COM Commander Part 6

noreply@blogger.com (Chase Beck) — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 02:04:00 +0000

World's Worst X-COM Commander Part 1
World's Worst X-COM Commander Part 2
World's Worst X-COM Commander Part 3
World's Worst X-COM Commander Part 4
World's Worst X-COM Commander Part 5

After days of moping around in my quarters with the lights off, eating processed cake frosting from the canister, I'm pulled out of my self pity by a knock on my door. Apparently, there is a downed ship in Nigeria...again. What is it about aliens crashing in Nigeria? Is it because my base is here?!?! Maybe they're all over the place and these are the only one's we're catching. I should look into putting interceptors on every major continent.

The Containment Unit is finished. I assemble my strike force, garbing them in memory of our fallen Rookie Dirk Hardpec. I outfit them appropriately for battle and off we go, them to risk their lives and me to direct them from within the confines of the steel belly of the transport ship. Too late, I remember that I failed to equip anyone with an arc thrower. I guess we won't be taking any one back alive this trip. Before I know it, we are there. The soldiers do an excellent job staying out of the way of the aliens' lasers. They kill sectoids, tall men and the funky crystal alien. Thankfully, there are no chryssalids to be seen. All in all, there is not much to report.

Once back at the base, I take advantage of our growing stockpile of alien refuse to make some quick cash, selling off stuff to the highest bidders. I make $430 which allows me to put an Irish pub in my office.

Unfortunately, we're not in the base long enough to catch our breaths before we're called away to Guangchou, China. Vahlen is complaining nearly constantly about capturing a live alien specimen for interrogation. I know that it is in no way possible. Even to attempt such a course of action would be suicide by stupidity. However, to get her off my back, I comply with her wishes, outfitting a few members of my strike team with some Arc Throwers. At least this way we can put up some pretense of trying to follow her recommendations. Hopefully, Vahlen, Shen and Bradford won't throw a fit when we return to the base without their precious live cargo.

We land atop what appears to be a skyscraper, still under construction. There are pallets of building material everywhere as well as ample hiding places for the X-rays. Strangely enough, my team is composed of three snipers. Some are better than others though. I try to get them to the high ground to survey the area and pick-out our little invaders. But, before I know it, Sq. Chesthair is exposed to view of several sectoids and floaters. By some stroke of luck. Sq. Speedchunk is right below her and manages to release a smoke grenade, obscuring Chesthair from view and protecting her.

Cpl. Deadlift does take a hit though, and momentarily panics. Thankfully, her first instinct is to hide and so she ceases to be a danger to herself or those around her for the duration of her panic attack.

The real MVP of the team though is Sq. Steakface, who uses her arc thrower to disable not only a sectoid, but a floater as well.

After that loss, the aliens are demoralized and are quickly mopped-up.

Once back to the base, we conduct some gentle interviews of the poor fellows and learn a little about Crystal RoboCop. I queue up some workshops, and a power generator, still trying to get satellites in the air, only to learn that Australia has now left the X-COM initiative. I acquire some wetworks training for my soldiers.

Within no time, we are called to Sao Paulo, Brazil for a very difficult mission codenamed Rotting Knife. I proudly outfit them all with carapace armor. I consider for a moment altering their color scheme to something a bit more cohesive...and less of an eyesore. However, I realize that by now, the fuchsia color scheme is a badge of honor.

As we lift off into the sky I can't help but find myself wondering what awaits for use in Brazil. Will it be a bloodbath or will we perhaps manage to triumph over insurmountable odds?

World's Worst X-COM Commander Part 5

noreply@blogger.com (Chase Beck) — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 00:18:00 +0000

World's Worst X-COM Commander Part 1
World's Worst X-COM Commander Part 2
World's Worst X-COM Commander Part 3
World's Worst X-COM Commander Part 4
We erect a nice head stone for Bold Bigflank. I came up with the wording myself. I think it has an air of appropriateness to it. I thought that I'd get some complements from the soldiers for it but instead they just made excuses and walked away from me as fast as possible.

I finally get my satellite uplink finished. I've got satellites waiting to go in the air so I immediately target my most troubled areas, Japan and India. It helps, but not enough. I start another couple of satellites immediately but I don't have enough engineers for another satellite uplink. So I decide to put that off for now.

Before too long I get a notification that aliens are terrorizing Japan. That's just great. It's exactly the last place I need aliens to be terrorizing right now. I need to send troops but the mission is categorized as "Very Dangerous". That's a little scary. I'm forced to decide whether I send my most veteran soldiers in the hopes that they can succeed or send in some of by newbies on the chance that if I lose them it won't make to big a deal.

I decide to play it positive and I queue up my best and brightest. On a whim I include a rookie. I take the time to customize their uniforms. I give the Rk. Hardpec the most brilliantly visible armor scheme in an effort to draw attention away from the more experienced troops. We land, and the strike team piles out of the dropship.

The area is dark and smokey, making it difficult to see. Fires burn in the distance, adding pockets of illumination and giving everything a red tinge. There's a floater but he's no real trouble. The strike team quickly fans out. Somehow, Rookie Hardpec finds himself in the back of the pack, completely ruining my plans to use him as a diversionary tactic.

Before I know it, the team is too spread out. Tanks and other debris block the team from each other. A new kind of alien appears out of nowhere, shrieking and slavering horrifically. After the mission, I think Vahlen decides to call it a "chryssalid", probably because my suggestion of "kills every team member you have in the field" doesn't fit in the data entry field.

That's the long and short of it. Everybody died, screaming.

I wish that I could say that they put up a good fight but it wasn't true. The chryssalids used their spiky claws and their poison to kill and zombify everyone.

Once the mission is declared a failure, Japan withdraws from the council. China and Australia immediately go into a panic and I get chastised by the council.

Frankly, none of that bothers me as much as the loss of my soldiers. It's like the aliens took everything to a whole new level. Everything up until this point was like a child playing with it's toys. This was like getting swatted by a giant hand. I don't know how I can come back from this.

World's Worst X-COM Commander Part 4

noreply@blogger.com (Chase Beck) — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 14:21:00 +0000

World's Worst X-COM Commander Part1
World's Worst X-COM Commander Part 2
World's Worst X-COM Commander Part 3

After waiting an excruciatingly long five days I welcome my new recruits to the base. I quickly forget their old names and welcome Fist Rockbone, Stump Beefknob, Smash Lampjaw, Punch Rockgroin, and Buck Plankchest to the team.

In another miracle, we finally have a soldier with a high enough rank to take advantage of officer training school. I do so to quickly bump the squad size from four to five.

It's not long after doing so that we get a positive signal on a UFO. I send out a single interceptor and say a silent prayer. It's a close one, but the interceptor manages to bring the ship down.

I've been doing this long enough to know that now we gotta go investigate the crash site. This ship is a little bigger than the last one and houses these alien/cyborg monstrosities that want nothing more than to destroy the soldiers where they stand.
I beg for the pilot to take off and leave the strike team behind. The pilot recites some jargon about orders at which point I remind him that I am the commander and I command him to leave.

Everything gets a little fuzzy after that. I'm told I slipped and banged my head. I certainly have a large bump on the back if it. Anyway, I hear later that the strike team managed to take the nightmare monsters down. At one point, Lampjaw, one of the new recruits got overextended. She was out ahead, all by herself when she fell within range of two sectoids. I'm told that Squaddie Drinklots thought she was all but lost when he remembered that he had a smoke grenade. He was just close enough to lob the grenade between Lampjaw and the sectoids, obscuring their view and causing their shots to miss.

Lampjaw did not hesitate to lob her frag grenade at the sectoids which made quick but messy work of them. I'm told the rest of the mission was pretty standard. The soldiers made their way carefully through the ship, taking out any X-rays that were still there. Another alien RoboCop was there but he didn't last too long. There were a few injuries but nothing major.

I remember thinking to myself that we must be getting the hang of this whole anti-alien strikeforce thing. In retrospect, this feeling that I was experiencing can best be described as hubris.

Not more than a few days after returning, we're called to a site of alien abductions. The mission is predicted to be "difficult". I find every mission difficult so this has got me particularly worried. I choose my mission and carefully select my squad. I briefly consider personalizing the squads outfits but decide against it at the last minute. We take off into the sky on our way to operation Silent Chant. To be honest, I can't even remember where we were. Everything is beginning to run together.

It was another urban setting with a fast food building. My squad members take a step forward only to find aliens boiling out of every corner. We're vastly outnumbered. There are floaters everywhere. They must be able to smell fear because they go berserk.

I instruct the members of the strike team to take cover, but the X-rays, they got laser guns. Walls and defense structures don't stand up too well to lasers. Before I know it, everyone is exposed and taking hits.

We start to whittle-down the extraterrestrials but it just isn't enough. Outnumbered as we are, the few that we manage to take out barely makes a dent into their reserves. Their retaliation is devastating.

And then, Bold Bigflank gets herself into a really tight spot. In the days that have followed, I've wracked my brain trying to figure-out if I could have predicted this.

I replay the events over and over in my mind. I put her there. It's my fault. Hopelessly outgunned, and in the sights of four bloodthirsty monsters, Squaddie Bold Bigflank took a nasty shot and went down. She was dead even before she hit the ground.

I took a moment, just a few seconds, to acknowledge the loss and reassess the situation. Then I give permission to Squaddie Fridge Largemeat to use her rocket launcher.

She unslings the tube, aims, and fires. He efforts are rewarded with the utter annihilation of two floaters. Another of my squad members gets a shot of on the sectoid providing a telepathic link to another, killing both in the process.

Squaddie Drinklots rushes forward, managing to take out the last X-ray while crouched over the body of Bold Bigflank.

We return to the base, utterly devastated by the loss. There is a subdued feeling around the base now, like everyone is walking on eggshells. We knew the situation was serious before, but now, now things are different.

As if I don't have enough dealing with the loss of a soldiers and falling morale, now, we're in danger of losing India and Japan due to high panic. Hopefully, we'll be able to get the satellite uplink built and the satellites launched to help those guys calm down.

I suppose what bothers me most, more than everything else, is that until she died, I had no idea who Bold Bigflank was. Sometimes, at night, when everyome's asleep and things quiet down, I walk down to the memorial wall and sit there in silence.

I can't help but wonder, "How many more names will be on this list before this is all over?"

World's Worst X-COM Commander Part 3

noreply@blogger.com (Chase Beck) — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 15:21:00 +0000

Respect your advisors and they will respect you

It's been a tense couple of days. Immediately after returning from the last mission, I set to work, enhancing my skills. Honing my prowess as Commander, as it were. Every waking moment has been spent studying the alien menace as well as going over the base from top to bottom. I've even drafted some personal documents detailing my personal approach to commanding. Perhaps they will be a small part of my memoirs someday.

In the meantime, I ordered a satellite. Noticing, too late, that we don't have enough engineers to put that thing into orbit. I put our current contingent of engineers to work making arc throwers, which will be used by select members of the strike team to capture the aliens for interrogation...at point blank range. I can see that going horribly wrong. The researchers also beg to perform an autopsy which I'm all too glad to let them do. Anything to keep them out of my hair.

The dangers of backlighting

The "Council" makes a call, I guess these guys are keeping the lights off to save on money. That, or they ran out of light bulbs. Regardless, if I can't see his face, he might as well use the telephone.
He has a special mission for me, Code Name: Banished Justice. It involves bomb disposal in China. I'm about to pass when I see that the reward for accomplishing the mission is $225. It might not sound like much to you but apparently everything in the base is really cheap. That, or they're deliberately skewing the price of everything to make it easier to read and decipher a budgetary analysis.


Mother always insisted on pictures in front of the bus

I select a smart looking group of youthful soldiers, give them matching armor and a few medikits and send them on their way.

We land in at the train station with only moments to spare. I quickly assess the situation. Apparently there are these nodes that need to be switched off. However, these only buy us some time. We must find the bomb and dismantle it. I instruct the strike team to disregard their training and rush forward blindly. They obey with gusto (They're rookies, they don't know any better). Rookie McRunfast veers right and swings around the far side of the train. The others progress up the left, They quickly spot some X-rays and take them out. McRunfast scares some up too. The Sectoids head away from McRunfast and into the rest of the team. The team takes a few hits but nothing major.

McRunfast lives up to his name rushing forward to disable visible nodes. As he does so, he uncovers the bomb. Throwing caution to the winds, he rushes forward to defuse it. On the other side of the station, and inside the train, a brief firefight dies down and all is calm. Alone now, I instruct McRunfast to defuse the bomb. Which he does with ease.


McRunfast was really just looking for a milkshake

Then, from out of nowhere, a warning comes across the wire that more aliens are inbound on our position. Two Tall Men appear from the sky. One perches, out of reach, atop the train. The other is only a few feet from McRunfast. I tell Rk. McRunfast to take the shot. I don't want him to miss so I instruct him to close to point blank range. He does so, open fires and down goes the Tall Man.

Unfortunately, this leaves him exposed to attack from the other Tall Man who open fires and disables McRunfast. McRunfast is now unconscious and bleeding-out. In an act of desperation, I search around for a soldier with a medikit. Squaddie Speedchunk has one but is much too far away. I tell him to sprint over there, relying on the other two members of the team to handle the Tall Man.

Speedchunk makes it over there without so much of a scratch. Meanwhile, Rk. Flint Ironstag and Rk. Bolt Vanderhuge pile out of the train to try to get a shot off on the Tall Man, who, with his vantage point, has everyone at a considerable disadvantage. Speedchunk revives McRunfast to ensure that he'll live to McRunfast another day. Ironstag and Vanderhuge stuggle to take down the Tall Man but manage to do so after taking a few hits.

The flight back is quiet. We all know how close we came to bringing McRunFast home in a bodybag. We're not there for more than a few hours before a call comes up to put down some alien activity. I choose Rosario Dawson, Argentina, not because she's hot, but because of the promise of four Engineers, which we definitely need for the next Satellite Uplink. Thankfully, as I hastily select my squad, I realize that the containment facility is still unfinished so I don't have to mess around with those stupid arc-throwers.

Smile for the camera

We blast-off into the sky and a couple hours later land. To my great disappointment, Ms. Dawson is nowhere to be found. This mission is about as routine as they go. There is a restaurant in front of the team. I send two soldiers through the restaurant and one each down the side of the building. The flanking maneuver pays off, sending the Sectoid freaks into the waiting bullets of the other soldiers.

I'm not going to talk to you until you put some clothes on

After the restaurant is clear, we find a meat packing plant behind. That's when things start to go all pear-shaped. This place is absolutely infested with the X-rays and they are dug-in like ticks. I notice Fridge Largemeat has a rocket launcher and send her to the roof to rain down explosive death from above. Once she gets there, there are absolutely no targets for her to hit. Meanwhile, one of my soldiers gets herself surrounded by Sectoids. Somehow, she manages to pull victory from the jaws of defeat by severing the psychic link killing two aliens with one attack.
Once Largemeat is back on the ground, everything is pretty much mopped-up. Then this single alien climbs out onto the roof.

If I had been smart... if only I had been smart...

If I had been smart, I would have sent some soldiers to find roof access behind the alien. Instead I sent a guy onto the roof right in the firing line of the alien. Immediately, he gets hit. At this point, I've had enough, and. quick to cover-up my idiotic choice, I send up Largemeat to the roof with her rocket launcher to end this.

The range is almost too small for her to use the rocket launcher without killing herself and her fellow soldier, almost.

see def: KaBooooooom!!!!

So, nobody died but still, the feeling of victory was tempered greatly by the loss of blood and multiple concussions.

Once back at the base, Bradford from Central pulls me quietly to the side and suggests that with the number of soldiers in the infirmary, I should probably hire some new recruits. I do so, eagerly awaiting their christening.

World's Worst X-COM Commander Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Chase Beck) — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 14:13:00 +0000

I'm Playing X-COM: Enemy Unknown. I'm atrociously bad at it. I play on easy and still lose. Here is my story:
Part 1 can be found here

This show's s'posed to be scary, see?

So, we land in Russia for Operation Demon Night...somebody's got a real strange sense of humor. I always preferred Bordello of Blood myself but to be honest I'd chose just about any episode of the show over the feature films any day, with the possible exception of the one starring that horrific construct from the uncanny valley, Dead-eyes Bogart.
Anyway. We're so deep in the land of the vodka zombies that I almost expect to hear the dissonant tones of the balalaika any minute now. Instead, I hear the hiss of the transport doors opening as Fridge Largemeat, Slab Bulkhead, Bold Bigflank, and Butch Deadlift spring out. Squaddie Bulkhead is the highest ranked member of the strike team. I'll have to rely of him to demonstrate a little skill and training.

"All right guys," my voice cracks with tension, "fan-out and keep behind cover". The area seems to be divided by a single street one level below us. There are a set of stairs going down and a bridge crossing over the street. On the other side of the street I can see a fancily columned building. No aliens in sight, that's a good sign. One of the soldiers indicates that they heard a sound on the other side of the bridge. I realize that the members of the strike team can easily drop down to the street level below. I assume that they should have no trouble climbing back up the other side. Apparently, these guys can't climb stone walls. I instruct the soldier to scale a van and then from there clamber up onto the higher ground on the other side. He can't do that either. This looks bad.

At the other end of the street, Sq. Bulkhead seems to have gotten himself pinned down. I have the other two members of the strike team use the stone bridge to get into position to rain fiery lead and grenades down onto the bulbous heads of those sectoid freaks. This saves Bulkhead from certain death but makes the soldiers on the bridge sitting ducks for four more X-rays (that's what we cool Commanders call aliens...I'm not yet sure why) on the other side of the bridge.

Rk. Largemeat's insatiable love of hotdogs was almost her downfall

Rookie Largemeat gets herself into a pretty tight pinch but manages to survive. In the picture you can also see the previously mentioned van that is entirely unscalable.

Nobody dies but two members of the team are wounded. it's a long uncomfortable flight back to the base.

Once at the base, the specialists give me some nonsense about developing tech to capture these things alive. I don't think they realize how close we came to not coming back at all.

Just about every member of the strike team gets a promotion which will be real useful in 10 days when they get out of the infirmary. I can see them in there now, talking about me and not even bothering to do it behind my back.

...and then he fainted!!!

I'm about to revoke all weekend passes when we get a signal from central command that a UFO has been spotted over Nigeria. We quickly scramble one interceptor. We have two, but for some unknown reason we can only send one. I guess we want to show the aliens that we support air equality in combat. Well, lucky for us the interceptor makes quick work of the ship. Except that now, I'm informed that we gotta go explore the wreckage.

Initiate Project: Suicide Mission. So, Slab Bulkhead, Punt Speedchunk, Splint Chesthair, Butch Deadlift and I pile into the stinking, blood-stained cargo hold of the transport jet and blast off into the unknown.

Nigeria
Thankfully, the tech for alien capture hasn't been researched yet so we don't need to worry about that crap. We land and the soldiers pile-out the back into the... Nigerian wetlands?

The rocks are your friends

Okay, so I've never been to Nigeria before, I had no idea it would look so much like the Louisiana Bayou. I guess you learn something new every day.
With faint zydeco music playing in the distance, we work our way slowly forward, taking advantage of the abundant vegetative cover. Strangely enough, I'm finding the terrain here easier to navigate than the single city block of Russia. After a short battle with some Sectoid scouts, we come upon the downed ship. I order my troops into flanking positions.

Everyone pick a natural object. This will be your spirit guide. Ohhhhmmmm...

Then, something very strange happens. Inside the ships wreckage, the extraterrestrial version of RoboCop materializes out of nowhere!

Dead or alive, you're coming with X'zk'ykzz

That's so unfair, I didn't know they could do that! Did you know they could do that? His aim is also absolutely phenomenal. He get's damaging shots in on just about everyone before we manage to take him down. I was thankful that we had the medikits with us.

Squaddie Bulkhead manages to circle around behind him and blast him in what must be his poor alien excuse for a face. I congratulate Corporal Bulkhead on his well-executed maneuver.

Looks like that extra time at the crystal-shooting range paid off

However, before we can celebrate our victory, a member of the strike team notices that there are still more aliens out there. We try to circle around them but they're really entrenched in their positions. I instruct Bulkhead to do something stupid. I tell him to run into the open to draw their fire. It works but he is gravely wounded. The mission is a success but everybody is looking at some serious infirmary time. That place is getting very busy and quite full. I might have to make some additions to the base just to expand the infirmary.

I reassuringly tell myself that at least nobody has died yet. However, I can't fail to notice that unless alien activity quiets down, I'll be faced with sending in a team of rookies on the next mission. On the bright side, any survivors are sure to rank-up quickly.

World's Worst X-COM Commander

noreply@blogger.com (Chase Beck) — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 23:20:00 +0000

So, this probably comes as no surprise to you but, I must be the world's worst X-Com player. I regularly go from a complete party:

It all looks so perfect, so ordered, so peaceful...

to this:

Depicted events are dramatized to illustrate the point

So I began to think about why I'm so bad. I sat back and after a long time I came to the conclusion to plead for your help in learning how to be a better X-Com player. But first, let's set the stage.

Difficulty: Easy (this has proved to be all I can handle)
Damage Roulette, New Economy, Not Created Equally, and Hidden Potential are all on. I don't see these as affecting the difficulty of the game.

Intro

I stared down in disbelief at the piece of paper in my hand.
"You have been chosen as the new Commander of X-COM"
Apparently, my last report on the efficiency of pencils versus pens must have made it onto the desks of the right people. Immediately, two large men in black business suits file into the room and wisk me away to...

Egypt?

The four soldiers look at me nervously over their ill-fitting tactical armor. They heft their weapons uneasily, as if feeling the weight for the first time. I put my hand reassuringly on the shoulder pad of the nearest Marine,
"Uh, don't worry...Private McIntosh, I'm sure everything will be all right. Now that I'm in charge, things will begin to change around here."
Private McIntosh doesn't bother to respond. I'm sure that the way he rolled his eyes and smirked at the Private next to him was meant to let me know that he agreed with me. Soldiers aren't really the best at communicating their emotions but I felt a flutter in my heart at just knowing that I'd managed to reassure him.
The transport jet lands and the soldiers pile-out of the back. I stay inside the vehicle, familiarizing myself with the video feeds from each man out there.
I instruct them to fan-out, reminding them to move slowly and use the cover that the environment provided.
I'm really not sure what kind of illegal immigrants to expect in Egypt, or why we need so much weaponry for these guys but then...


The next level of evolutionary advancement: No Rectums

WHAT THE HELL IS THAT THING!!! KILL IT, KILL IT NOW...WITH FIRE.

Once the tranquilizers kick in, I'm able to give the troops some constructive orders on how to properly deal with the alien menace. Nobody dies but one of the soldiers takes a couple hits. She seems fine though, running around, jumping through windows, shooting the little blue guys in the head, etc.

All in all, the results aren't to bad. The mission is completed, the aliens are dead and none of the soldiers are so that's good

We victoriously head back to the base, which I chose to place in Africa for the cash bonus. I figure the disposable income will come in more handy than the other bonus options, if only because it's more versatile.

So, we set down in our new African base. People are still moving stuff in and unpacking boxes. Nadya, the "injured" soldier from the mission begins to limp and is rushed off to the medbay. She could have just said "no" to my invitation to drinks in my quarters. The elaborate ruse was entirely unnecessary. I'm about to tell her just that when these three clowns show up,

Commander?

I tell them that it's fine to call me Eugene but they insist on referring to me only as "Commander"
These guys can't make any decisions by themselves. I tell the Science Lady to do some Science and get the Engineer Guy started on pumping-out med-kits because I have a feeling we're going to need them. I also do a little excavation of the base, getting ready for future expansions and order another Interceptor (attack jet) built. Ignore the Central Officer for a bit because I want to go see my troops.

In the barracks I get my first look at the rag-tag bunch. They need a lot of shaping-up. I figure that with all these ethnic names and diverse backgrounds, they'll have trouble cohering as a single operating unit. But I know the perfect way to fix that. I sit them down and tell them a story about a heroic pilot named Dave Rider who managed to save an entire starship from utter destruction. I tell them that they'll need similarly macho-sounding names if they hope to survive the tough times ahead of us. There is initially a little resistance but, one by one, they fall in line.

Then I talk to Bradford over at Central. Before too long, we have a call to go save some Borsht-eaters. I almost let the Aliens have them but then I remember the words of Captain Marko Ramius, the Vilnius School Master, "Where I am going, you cannot follow."

I organize my strike team, out-fitted a couple with our new medkits and order them onto the aircraft.

As I bound up the gangway behind them, I muse to myself that things are going to start getting better. From here on out, it is only going to be gumdrops and daffodils.

About an hour into the flight, the tranquilizers wear off.

Into Everyone's Life...

noreply@blogger.com (Chase Beck) — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 01:48:00 +0000

Like a roller-coaster, life has its various ups and downs. However, unlike the proverbial amusement park ride, it can be quite a challenge to enjoy life when it becomes a series of downward spirals. I've been busy, the main reason (see: excuse) that I haven't been posting anything. I knew that getting into grad school would keep me occupied. Becoming associate lab director at the same school, while still a grad student has made me doubly busy. It's a job that brings with it no perks, or higher pay, but does include an infinitely greater amount of responsibility and a diminished amount of free- time. I love it! But, at the end of the day my brain is pretty much mush.
Lucky for you I'm taking a medical leave of absence from school for a few months. Chances are, everything will be okay. In the meantime, I have more time for feeling guilty for not making regular updates here. In a perfect world I would make post at least weekly. But, in that same world I would be able to go to Gen-Con every year for the entire duration. And while were fantasizing about a world where perfection is the only binding rule, I wouldn't need to take a medical leave of absence from school.

It's at times like this that I like to remind myself that the joy in life comes not from the destination but the journey we take to get there.

But enough about me, let's talk about games. It would be foolish for me to go through every acquisition that I've made since my last post. Suffice it to say that I was slightly disappointed by Bumps in the Night (Pagan Publishing) but I can't stay mad at those guys for long. I'll tell you what I am loving though, Night's Black Agents (Pelgrane Press). This book is amazing. I think I'll make a post devoted solely to that book. I'm starting to think I might have a little man-crush on Ken Hite. If you listen to Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff you know what I'm talking about.


We all learned a valuable lesson that night to not read aloud from the G'Harne Fragments while driving...except Rob, who died

In my own efforts to contribute to the growing catalog of horror role-playing, I've had a few reviews published in The Unspeakable Oath Issue #21. I got paid to review I.N.J. Culbard's graphic novel adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's At The Mountains of Madness. I can't wait to read his collaboration with the Chad Fifer and Chris Lackey from hppodcraft.com, Deadbeats. Also, I continued to aid them through playtesting. In all honesty, I started playtesting for them for the free copies of the magazine.
Speaking of which, I have two too many copies of issue #21. I will send these copies, signed by me, postage paid, to the 1st two emails with "Unspeakable Oath Issue #21" in the subject line. Let me know in the email if you'd rather not have my autograph marring the beautiful pages.

I am seriously enjoying the conversations going on over at the DGlist. If you like Delta Green you should seriously join the list. We haven't had any arguments break-out over the proper firearms to use against a Dark Young of Shub-Niggurath in weeks now.

Well, I guess that about sums-up everything I've been up to in addition to school, running a lab, and not feeling well. I hope to update you all soon with fun and exciting developments and good news.

Whatever You Do, Do Not Support The "Bumps in the Night" Kickstarter

noreply@blogger.com (Chase Beck) — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 02:42:00 +0000

Pagan Publishing, the purveyors of all things Delta Green, are releasing a new book. It's called "Bumps in the Night" and it looks amazing. I actually held a copy in my hands at GenCon Indy last summer. I would have spent the entire day leafing through the pages too if Adam Scott Glancy hadn't been looming threateningly overhead. That guy is tall, big, and with his knowledge of spycraft I have no desire to ever get on his bad side. But, from what I saw, it looked great. I signed-up for a copy right there on the spot.
"Bumps in the Night is a nice thick book containing a series of scenarios for Call of Cthulhu. The best thing about it though is that there are no Mythos monsters in it. Yes, you read that right, no monsters from the Cthulhu Mythos. John H. Crowe III has included mythical and fabled creatures from our own history as a human race. The scenarios are written for the Classic era of Call of Cthulhu (the Roaring '20's), my personal favorite setting for Call of Cthulhu.
Anyway, not knowing how they were going to fund the release of this set of scenarios, they turned to Kickstarter. Their initial goal was $2,500. They reached that goal in a few days. At the time that I am writing this they are at $9,431 with 19 days left to go. Now they've exceeded their goal by a monstrous percentage and they're fumbling around for new stuff to offer as a way to offset the massive over-funding that they've received. Now, of course, most of the money is going to printing costs and the more books they have to print, the more it costs. so, each person who donates $30 ($40 overseas) gets a copy so the actual number of copies is built into the cost. So maybe they'll use-up most of the money just in printing and shipping. Also, let's be serious, Pagan is not run by millionaires. In fact, it's my understanding that most of these guys do this for fun, after they've finished their real (see: "paying") jobs. I could be wrong on that. These guys like to put forth the image that they are consummate professionals.
Any how, they don't need any more money. So, don't send them any. Even if you want your own copy of the book, don't do it. You might be tempted to pledge a few extra dollars to get a signed copy. It's even possible that you'd want to pledge a whopping $300 to get Mr. Adam Scott Glancy himself to run a game for your gaming group over Skype or some other internet service. While there are still a few of those options left, it would be disastrous for you to buy that. You'd probably have such a great time, it would ruin all role-playing games for you forever. So, take my advice, leave your money in your bank account.

Trail of Cthulhu: 1930's London

noreply@blogger.com (Chase Beck) — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 13:27:00 +0000

You see that map there? That's 1930's London. I wrote about Trail of Cthulhu and Bookhounds of London here. Pelgrane Press' Bookhounds of London contains 18 pages of sectioned maps of London (along with many other maps). One of the main additions to Bookhounds that doesn't appear in Trail of Cthulhu is the use of Megapolisomancy, a sort of city-based magic that, to my knowledge, was introduced by Fritz Leiber in his book "Our Lady of Darkness". Having read "Our Lady of Darkness" before picking up Bookhounds I was appropriately primed to completely love it.
Anyway, since Megapolisomancy requires a sort of patterned use of locations in a city, I felt that, in order to properly use it, it required a really big map, something which you don't normally get in a game book. However, being the photoshop novice that I am, and looking at the 18 pages in the book, I thought, "Yeah, I can do this". So I stitched them together for personal use. This is an extremely small version, just to share with you. It's about 9% of actual size. So my version is huge (28 inches x28 inches) and looks amazing at full resolution, let me tell you.

It's not perfect, the pages don't line up exactly but it is good enough for me. I don't own it, I just put it together, so don't ask me for it. Also, If Pelgrane asks me to take it down, I will comply.
However, in my personal version, which is a hell of a lot bigger, I'm going through and adding in all of the "locations of occult significance" listed in the The Book of the Smoke. The Book of the Smoke is an amazing supplement to Bookhounds of London, it was written by Paula Dempsey from the point of view of Augustus Darcy, a sort of occult historian. It is set in the 1930's and is amazing. I'm also working on a google maps version of the "locations of occult significance" from the The Book of the Smoke" so if you're interested in viewing that or even assisting me in making it ,or perhaps you know of one already been made *squee*, just send me a message.

Call of Cthulhu Audio Recording: Phantoms

noreply@blogger.com (Chase Beck) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 12:13:00 +0000

I don't know what to say except that everybody is in for a real treat. Erin read Dean Koontz's novel Phantoms and said, "This would make a GREAT Call of Cthulhu scenario". So she adapted it for that purpose. There was also a really bad movie made from the novel starring Liev Schreiber, Ben Affleck, Peter O'Toole and Rose McGowan but I think that we blew their performances out of the water. This is a long one though so settle in and don't go anywhere.

Phantoms

I played Jenny. I really got into the disease research aspect of it and put my one semester of Microbiology to good use, much to the annoyance of everyone else. What can I say, we had a good time playing this one.

I suppose I should apologize for the creaky table and the bird clock. Sorry about that. Hopefully it won't render the whole session unlistenable.

Red Wasp Design Releases "Call Of Cthulhu" Casual Game

noreply@blogger.com (Chase Beck) — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 13:43:00 +0000

Recently, Apple sent me an e-mail advertisement, as they often do, encouraging me to purchase an iPad for my romantic interest for Valentines Day. Since I am emotionally dead inside and have managed to abort every potential romantic relationship before they could blossom into anything substantial, I figured I might as well by an iPad for myself. Now, ostensibly, my decision to purchase the iPad was to aid me in reading and storing the various journal articles and PDFs that I have to read every single week as an Anthropology grad student. However, if you think that I'm going to let the opportunity to play a turn-based strategy/role-playing game that has this wonderful rating description,

Rated 12+ for the following:

Infrequent/Mild Cartoon or Fantasy Violence
Infrequent/Mild Alcohol, Tobacco, or Drug Use or References
Infrequent/Mild Horror/Fear Themes
Infrequent/Mild Realistic Violence

...then you don't know me very well at all. My favorite game of all time (Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri) was turn-based. I'd heard about this "Call of Cthulhu: A Wasted Land" a while ago and was excited then. Now that I have seen pictures of it, I'm even more jazzed about it. The game appears to be set in a fully 3D-rendered representation of the Great War. The price is about $4.99 You control up to six characters while they attempt to "uncover...a deadly inhuman conspiracy". How did the game designers know that deadly inhuman conspiracies were my favorite kind of conspiracies? Obviously, they've tapped into some blasphemous and esoteric knowledge of their own in bringing us this game.

The only worry that I have seems to be that the reviews are suggesting that the game is currently suffering from poor controls and freezing/crashing issues. Obviously, Red Wasp Design went a little too far in attempting to incorporate the feeling of bleak futility and frustration that pervades many of Lovecraft's stories. I can't fault them for being true to the source material. It seems that, far too often (in my opinion), people expect their games to be "fun". Apparently, Red Wasp Design has managed to reject that very notion in their newest project. I look forward to providing you with more information on the game once I get a chance to play it.

On a personal note, I've never understood the trend of making various games for the iPad/iPod Touch/iPhone while ignoring the PC. You could say that by using a more restricted system, they have a lot less tweaking and support problems. I think that it's partially because people expect a lot less from casual, tablet games as far as length and quality. Also, most PC games have a starting price well above $4.99, which suggests that people who make apps are targeting a market of impulse-buyers. I just don't understand why any games manufacturer would want to artificially limit their potential user base by sticking to one operating system.

I'll leave you with a few screenshots:


It looks like SAN will play a factor in this game


Private Leas had finally had enough of that wall's mocking tone

I wonder if they incorporated friendly-fire rules?

Storytime: A Trip to the Ur-Land, part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Chase Beck) — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 17:21:00 +0000

Sandy called me last night. I barely recognized his voice. I haven’t spoken to him in years. We didn’t exactly part on friendly terms. In fact, I was surprised that he even called me.

“Arthur, is that you? It’s Sandy,” he whispered, using my old screen-name.

“...Yes. Who is this?” You can’t blame me for not believing him, last I’d seen him I was applying various racial epithets to him and his immediate ancestry.

“It’s me Arthur, you know, Sandoval Velasquez. I see you’re still as dense as ever.”

“Nice way to ask for my help,” I said through clenched teeth. It had been a long time since we’d last spoken and I was no longer accustomed to his casually dropped insults.

“Oh, relax,” he said. “Don’t tell me you don’t want to meet. I know you too well.”

“I don’t know Sandy. It’s been a long time,” I replied.

“Oh come on. It’ll, it’ll be fun, like old times again.” There was an unmistakable desperation in his voice.

“Old times, like when you were passing off my words as your own?”

“I think I’ve paid enough for that. I’ve had a breakthrough. I need your help to get it to the right people.” He grew quiet and solemn then. “it’s publishable, and I can’t publish anymore.” His response was unmistakably old Sandy. The guy hadn’t changed a bit

I wouldn’t be surprised if he’d tried two or three other, more sympathetic colleagues before he settled on calling me. You see, Anthropology has many subsets, and Sandoval Velasquez’s area of study is about as far from mine as you could get and still be considered anthropology. And, we had a past. Would you be on speaking terms with someone you had caught stealing from your doctoral thesis work?

Like most areas or studies, Anthropology covers a wide range of interests. When last I’d spoken to Sandy, on that day we exchanged venomous words and parted foes, he was studying Linguistics. He’d convinced himself that if only he could trace enough languages back to their origin he’d settle upon the one origin of them all, the true primitive or prime language. In truth it was a worthwhile and fascinating endeavor, however, his modes and methods of study and research ignored the actual contemporary research into the topic. He abandoned the guidance of his peers and instead focused solely on the works of occultists, theosophists, and paramentalists. It was a move that surely would have doomed any other student in any other discipline (except perhaps occultism, theosophism or paramentalism, of course). But, somehow, Sandy made it work. While his discussion would run the gamut of wild and almost crazy conjecture, his published work was, for the most part restrained. It allowed people to argue against his point, and nothing improves the status of a scholar than being criticized and lambasted by the best in the subject. Just by being noticed and scoffed he’d managed to raise his standing. Slowly, he attracted a following.

Now, anthropologists cannot agree on whether the discipline qualifies as a science or a humanity or something that exists somewhere in between. It certainly doesn’t qualify as a hard science, not in it’s entirety anyway. It’s origins rest as much in the humanities as it does in solid scientific proofs and evidences. I was a hard scientist, bringing together my training in the biological, geological and medical disciplines while attempting to answer age-old questions of foundings of civilizations and cities as well as transitional phases and collapses, whether by catabolic means or perhaps through warfare or barbaric looting and pillaging. Of course, this inability to agree on the focus of anthropology as a study led to inevitable disputes and arguments among the many subsets. Often, the debates would rage over what constituted legitimate study and what should be rejected as nonsense or even outright chicanery.

But, while Velaquez’s discussions would range all over topics of xenoglossy, Adamic and Enochian languages, Lingua ignota, and that infernal Aklo script, his academic discourses would refer to the mother languages of Pali and Sanskrit as well as the Proto-Human or Ur Languages reflecting a return to sanity and reason. However, he nearly always insisted that the majority of scientific study on the matter misplaced it’s geographical location entirely. Yes, while many insisted that, as humans came out of Africa so too did the Proto-Human language. But not Sandy, due to some, obviously misplaced patriotism or familial allegiance, he insisted vehemently, that the true Ur Language was to be found within the myriad of Islands that dotted the South Pacific. His fantastical self-delusion was so strong that he even maintained that such an island existed, as yet untouched by man, where not only did they speak their ancestral Proto-Human language, but also practiced a proto-culture that served as a template for all modern cultures and civilizations!. All discussions of inter-island communication, cultural transference and even citing the example of the Easter Island tribal extinction did nothing to dissuade him. Once, not long before I discovered the plagiarism that would eventually lead to his academic dismissal I had a discussion with him.

“I don’t get it. On what grounds can you claim this outrageous theory, a Polynesian source for the Ur Language? Preposterous” I said lifting a tumbler or scotch to my mouth. I was not willing to give him an opportunity to weave his argument but my desire for a sip of the amber liquid won out.

“Grounds !?!?! grounds!?!?! Did Oxford, Bacon, Derby, and Marlowe need grounds when they authored the transcendent works of William Shakespeare? Did Novo and Sturgis need to clarify their plan to assassinate JFK with grounds when they were soliciting support from both the CIA and the Soviet Union? And, and, and, the 9/11 Twin Tower jobs,” he stammered, “pivotal societal change on a massive scale, all contrived to secure Middle Eastern oil rights. Patriotic manipulation on a scale not seen since Hitler faked his own death. And speaking of faking your own death, Saddam has been seen on no fewer than four Caribbean Islands since his supposed execution. Now, what grounds can you claim for that? None, no grounds at all. Little conspiracies give rise to larger and larger ones in much the same way that white lies encourage larger and larger fabrications in order to protect the interested parties from the truth. It’s not behavioral, it’s physical, it’s psychical. The mass energy of human thought and belief masks the truth from even our own discerning eyes. The various cults of religions, with their God and gods, not to mention creation myths, obfuscates the true truths from even those who want to find them”.

“Well,” I jumped in as he paused to take a breath, “wouldn’t such an influential population, this Polynesian Ur-Culture have spread out into the world, becoming a center of culture, technology, and economics rather than hiding in isolation as you so seem to have convinced yourself?” I braced myself for another tirade. But, Sandy only smiled, knowingly to himself. His smug self-assurance, so initially attractive, had long ago over-stayed it’s welcome. It’s not fun to argue with a man who refuses to concede even one of his many, fevered convictions.

“It hasn’t been found because it cannot be found. The combined mental might of the myopic intelligentsia...”

“Of which you are most assuredly one,” I interrupted, although if he heard me he certainly gave no sign.

“...has combined to form a sort of impenetrable cocoon around the island. As the natives languish under the oppressive thought-bombardment daily aimed at them by every individual belief system that declares supremacy and primacy within the world, so too do we stumble around it, unable to penetrate this veil of disingenuous and rampant cynicism. Just as the Puritan settlers of Salem suffered from ergot-induced mass-hallucinations so too do we suffer a similar mass-hallucination, brought upon, not from a malicious fungus but by our own social unification. As the population grows and becomes more homogenized, so too do the self-applied delusions. This Polynesian Ur-Land, as I like to call it, is just one of many. Some, I cannot even begin to endeavor to uncover”.

“Ha, you talk as if you were someone who engaged in fieldwork when you and I both know that your every day since you entered school has been spent in libraries or surfing conspiracy theory websites,” my ad hominem attack was as much an attempt at ending the discussion early as it was a pass at flustering him. As often was the case with Velasquez, it only succeeded in strengthening his resolve.

“Poor Arthur,” he called me, condescendingly, like a bored babysitter whose charge has stubbed their toe, “You, like my other contemporaries, fail to recognize that knowledge is the key to truth, that true truth which cannot be refuted by articulate, or in your case inarticulate, arguments”.

“True truths, that’s the second time you’ve said that, what does it even mean?” To my credit, Sandoval Velasquez sucked-in air sharply, as if by doing so he could unsay the words he had spoken.

“Who said that?,” he laughed, nervously, “I never said that”.

“But you most assuredly did,” I replied. His eyes swept nervously around the room.

“I don’t know what you heard but what I said was... was...,” his lips flapped spasmodically and his jaw waggled and clenched. After a few moments of this he leaped to his feet. “I have to go, I’m so close Arthur, so close!”

I’ll never forget that look in his eye’s. I’ve never seen such a mixture of horror and excitement on one face, and I hope never to again.

* * *

A few days later my words, my words were identified in the midst of one of his newly published works and he was summarily dismissed from the university. He put up no kind of fight. Apparently there was a strong contingent of tenured faculty at the school who were eager to see him go. He had no hope of advancement there and after the incident of plagiarism he had no hope of advancement anywhere, if he could even manage to get an appointment or a position at all.

The last I’d heard of him, before that phone call in the night, he’d accepted a teaching position at some community college in the Appalachian region of West Virginia. They’d made him sign a contract that he’d never attempt to publish any work. I laughed when I heard this, as if a contract would dissuade a man who’d already attempted to pass off someone else’s work as his own. And, in fact, it hadn’t. He’d found other alternative avenues for his wild theories. The internet has a lot of space and a lot of wackos. Of course, he ‘d used a well-disguised pseudonym. But, I recognized that prose, that seemingly incoherent, paranoid rant that always led meanderingly to a point, no matter how obscure that point was.

I identified multiple screen names with his unmistakable style. I dedicated my free time to discrediting his outrageous theories and fantastical delusions. I used my own screen name: Arthur1491. But his fanatical followers were always more numerous than my supporters. I didn’t care, I was an academic success. I had publications in first tier periodicals, even a few covers. And what did he have? A few poorly managed forums on obscure websites, and a classroom full of future business associates, dropouts and administrative assistants. If there was any doubt as to whether or not these screen names were the same person, or even Sandy for that matter, the signatures all bore the same sentence, perhaps a message to me, personally: “I need not find the Ur-Land, for it will come to me”.

A Trip to the Ur-Land, part 1 by Chase W. Beck is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Malleus Monstrorum Contest Entries

noreply@blogger.com (Chase Beck) — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 22:13:00 +0000

Recently, I was made aware through Yog-Sothoth.com, that the authors of the second volume of the Malleus Monstrorum (appropriately titled Malleus Monstrorum 2). The Contest was called: Design-A- Great Old One, so I did. Unfortunately, I lost. So, the prize, a free copy of Malleus Monstrorum 2, will go to someone else. I'll have to buy my own. Which, if it is anything like the first one, will easily be worth it.
But, I thought that I could at least share my efforts here, with you guys. You'll, undoubtedly see why I didn't win. However, I feel that my execution was sound if my ideas were a little flawed. First, a little background: The Rules (from YSDC):

Using the two short (and admittedly vague) story quotes below, I want YOU to come up with a description, details, cult, and statistics for the two Great Old Ones mentioned in the quotes -- Noth-Yidik and K’thun. Be creative -- I'm not looking for a Cthulhu knock-off. Be different, original, unique! But give it some thought and pay attention to details. It should "make sense", or as much sense as such a thing can make! Here's those quotes:

“Fool! Spawn of Noth-Yidik and effluvium of K’thun! Son of the dogs that howl in the maelstrom of Azathoth! You would have been sacred and immortal, and now you are betraying It and Its priest!" -- H.P. Lovecraft & Hazel Heald, "The Horror In the Museum."

"Aye, I speak of the very Hounds Of Tindalos themselves, those Hunters From Beyond that be the Spawn of Noth-Yidik and the effluvium of K'thun, and that howl forever in the maelstrom that is dread and fearsome Azathoth; aye, They be none other than the very minions and servitors of the Daemon-Sultan, under Their ghastly sire and dam, Noth-Yidik and terrible K'thun." -- Lin Carter, "The Madness Out Of Time."

The Malleus Monstrorum is an amazing book hat manages to present Mythos monster as they would appear in a historical context. If you haven't checked it out I would highly recommend it it is seriously the last Mythos monster book you will ever have to buy, with the possible exception of The Malleus Monstrorum 2. What I like most about it, besides the really inventive art, is that the detailed entries make excellent guides for creating your own monsters to suit your campaigns.

And now, my entries:
K'thun, Great Old One. Aye, I speak of the very Hounds Of Tindalos themselves, those Hunters From Beyond that be the Spawn of Noth-Yidik and the effluvium of K'thun, and that howl forever in the maelstrom that is dread and fearsome Azathoth; aye, They be none other than the very minions and servitors of the Daemon-Sultan, under Their ghastly sire and dam, Noth-Yidik and terrible K'thun. -- Lin Carter, "The Madness Out Of Time."

Alternatives Titles: The Fisher From Beyond, The Seeker From Outside, The Trap

DESCRIPTION: K'thun has trouble entering our realm. Largely non-moving, the creature is content to stretch forth its sticky tentacles, grasp hold of a victim and draw them back to its mouth, awaiting them just outside of our dimension. Invisible to us, K'thun is easily seen in the presence of a Tillinghast Resonator. In this light, K-thun is an unsegmented worm of enormous size. Its body is lined with vestigial legs. At its head is a massive mouth with retractable black fangs. Lining the mouth are impossibly long and slender tentacles. If pressed by attackers it could potentially shift its bulk to roll onto them, crushing them to death. The main threat are the countless, smooth, sticky, and mostly invisible tentacles.

DETAILS: Fueled by an unending hunger, K'thun's only desire is to feed. Its feelers relentlessly scour every realm and dimension until they find a welcome source of sustenance. Once located, K'thun will choose to feed until all are devoured. If it so chooses, K-thun can refrain from consuming it's victims and rather, reduce them to lures. These lures lose all sense of self-preservation and become puppets, mere shells for K'thun's manipulating limbs. K'thun must devote one of its tentacles to maintaining this connection.

CULT: No known human cult knowingly worships K'thun. However as a force of destruction or all-consuming entity, K'thun has many worshippers with no specific organization.

ATTACKS & SPECIAL EFFECTS:
STATISTICS:
K'THUN, The Endless Hunger

STR 60    CON 50    SIZ 100    INT 15    POW 9
DEX 6    Move 0            HP 130
Damage Bonus +9D6.
Tentacles of K'THUN
STR 10    CON 5    SIZ 10    INT N/A    POW N/A
DEX 20    Move 6            HP 5
Damage Bonus +0

Weapons: Countless smooth tentacles that adhere immediately upon contact. K'thun gets 1D6+1 tentacle attacks/turn. Grapple upon contact - drag on next turn for 1D3 damage, dependent upon terrain. drag distance per turn is 20 meters minus the size of the investigator or NPC.

    Dominate POW vs. POW upon contact with tentacle, Any character so dominated loses 1 permanent point from any characteristic for every minute dominated up to a maximum loss of half of each stat. K'thun can maintain 1D6+1 connections at a time re-rolled at the beginning of combat and every round thereafter

Armor: Body - 15 points of muscle, regenerates 3 HP per round, Tentacles - None
Spells: None
Sanity Loss: 1D6/1D10+5 Sanity points to see K'thun or be attacked by its invisible tentacles

By JoeViturbo

As you can see, I went with two distinct ideas. I wanted the two to be linked somehow but felt that I wouldn't win if one entry relied upon the other. While my description of Noth-Yidik is inspired by Werner Herzog's Soliloquy in "Burden of Dreams", I think that, despite my effort to distinguish it, ultimately, it's a Shub-Niggurath, the Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young, rip-off. I also would have liked to of added in a few more wrinkles. There are ideas here that I would like to use, expand upon and test. There is an inherent difficulty in creating a God in that it should not be possible to destroy or kill them. However, they still need to provide a form of conflict for the players.

The winners were:

With his really cool version of Noth-Yidik is winner Rookery and for his equally-cool design for K'thun is Ghoth the Burrower!!! Thanks guys. And thanks to everyone who participated. There were some really wild entries, and it was a tough decision, which is part of the reason its taken me so long!

I for one, am greatly interested in seeing their entries, you know for comparison purposes. I'm quite certain that not only will I be greatly impressed, but also I will look forward to using those characters in my own games.

The Delta Green Green Box Generator Returns

noreply@blogger.com (Chase Beck) — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 03:12:00 +0000

A while back, the internet lost one of the greatest sites ever created, the Green Box Generator. For those not in the know, a green box is a sort of weapons cache for active cells in the Delta Green RPG. They can contain all of the illegal weapons, magic items, and mundane tools necessary to successfully orchestrate a massive Lovecraftian Mythos cover-up. Often, a green box can serve as a form of communication between the field team and the home office. And, at its worst, the green box can become the repository for things best left unfound, those artifacts or entities which should never again see the light of day. For a good example of a Green Box used in play, you should check-out Ross Payton's Role-Playing Public Radio gameplay recording Lover in the Ice, by Caleb (last name unknown - sorry Caleb).
Anyway, the point of this post is that the Green Box Generator is back (YAY!!!). Since this website has recently become a place where I post links of sites that I want to visit but can never find, it only fits that I post a link to the Delta Green Green Box Generator here. There it is again. We have Isak Strom to thanks for this phoenix-like revival of this wonderful Delta Green Role-playing tool. Watch-out for that golden-headed manakin

Pelgrane Press: Trail of Cthulhu Character Generator

noreply@blogger.com (Chase Beck) — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 13:30:00 +0000

You may recall that a little while back I wrote about an IndiGoGo campaign to fund a Trail of Cthulhu online character generator. Well, it's out. Except that I can never seem to find it when i need it. And I need it almost every week now since I found three guys who are willing to play it over Skype with me on a weekly basis. It's a lot of fun and terrifyingly simple. The GUMSHOE mechanic makes other game systems seem archaic and cumbersome by comparison. That's not to say that it should replace every game system, just that it's the kind of system that doesn't get in the way of the story. It fits the Lovecraftian setting of Trail of Cthulhu excellently.

Anyway, the reason that I decided to make this post, other than I'm on break from school and finally have five seconds to catch my breath, is that I can never seem to find the Trail of Cthulhu Character Generator when I need it. So, rather than save the site in my bookmark or favorites tab, I thought that I'd make a post about it with links in the post. That way I can find it, and you can find it. It's a win/win for everyone involved.

I've played a couple of sessions of Trail of Cthulhu now and I have to say that I love the rules immensely. The mechanics are a little simplistic, the only dice you'll ever need is one D6, but it really makes the storytelling flow naturally. The feeling really brought me back to my very first days of playing Dungeons and Dragons (my first experience with a tabletop roleplaying game). It was the story that captivated me, before it got all bogged down in fight mechanics.

While I have loved other game manuals enough that they have fallen apart from overuse, Ken Hites expansion to Trail of Cthulhu, Bookhounds of London, is the very first that I read through from cover to cover. It's just that god, and the maps are not only he best that I have ever seen in a gaming book, but also the most evocative. I'd like to write more about it later.

Anyway, now, I'll be able to find the character generator. Now, you'll be able to find the character generator and everybody will be happy.

Hallowe'en Horror Movie Roundup

noreply@blogger.com (Chase Beck) — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 15:14:00 +0000

My 2011 Horror movie list of Watch Instantly films is available over at Mr. Movie Fiend
you may remember my link to last year's post. This year includes all of the links to last years films as well as new alternatives. You should check it out.

If you're too lazy, I'll post two videos here for you
Stuart Gordon's From Beyond, featuring a terrific performance from Jeffrey Combs

And in honor of Halloween, Carpenter's classic film

aka the one that started it all

And, because I think you're special, here's a link you won't find at the other site

yup that's Bing Crosby narrating

Here's a Little Something To Darken Your Day

noreply@blogger.com (Chase Beck) — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 18:06:00 +0000

I saw this on the Delta Green Yahoo group and just had to share it. You'll probably be wishing that I hadn't. It's definitely NSFW but not for excessive nudity (if you know what I mean).

DYE "Fantasy" Official Video by JEREMIE PERIN by TIGERSUSHIRECORDS

So, there you go. A little classic body horror. Reminds me of Cronenberg's "They Came From Within"

The Delta Green/Unspeakable Oath Panel: The Audio

noreply@blogger.com (Chase Beck) — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 04:28:00 +0000

You've waited for it and here it is, the actual recording of that now infamous panel. You can pour over it exhaustively finding all of the discrepancies between what happened and what I posted happened. It'll be like a really boring version of telephone.

The Audio

I haven't listened to it myself yet. I lived it.

Shane Ivey Talks GenCon 2011 and the New Delta Green Game

noreply@blogger.com (Chase Beck) — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 23:56:00 +0000

Since V1kM was apparently the goto site for the information in the Unspeakable Oath/Delta Green GenCon Panel, I thought it'd only be right to direct any stragglers to an actual authority on the subject. Shane Ivey just made a post on the Arc Dream Publishing website so you can now get your information firsthand instead of filtered through my paranoid world-view.

I really like some of the news here. Recently the discussions have been all over the place on what sysem to use now that DG is going rogue. Well, Shane took the time to clarify it:

"It will be its own game, not a supplement to Call of Cthulhu, but it will incorporate parts of BRP and CoC that have been released in the Open Gaming License as well as new system elements"

There is a lot more information at the Arc Dream site so what are you still doing here? Get over there. No, wait...finish reading this post first, or don't I don't care.

I'll try to keep you updated when the actual audio from the panel gets posted.

News From GenCon: Delta Green and the Unspeakable Oath Panel

noreply@blogger.com (Chase Beck) — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 00:40:00 +0000

Thursday night (Aug. 4th) at GenCon was an exciting event. The authors/Creators of Delta Green in it's various incarnations, met for a panel discussion.

Monte Cook, Kenneth Hite, Shane Ivey, and Greg Stolze first met for a question and answer session about The Unspeakable Oath. They've recently revived this long hibernating periodical. The main discussion concerned what the people in attendance would prefer to see in new editions of the Unspeakable Oath. The comments ranged from new plot/story hooks, to info on how to make games scary (Stolze [jokingly] recommended that gemers play inside sparse and utilitarian concrete boxes), and primers on writing their own scenarios/campaigns. It was early agreed that the scariest things were not big monsters but those things that were unknown and unknowable. At one time the question was posed as to whether or not The Unspekable Oath should contain scenarios for other game systems. Many attendees agreed that other systems were welcome inside the pages of The Unspeakable Oath. The members of the panel finished the discussion by encouraging us to submit our own content for consideration.

Then Adam Scott Glancy arrived and it was time to talk Delta Green. He began with the revelation that they would be moving away from the Chaosium license. This decision was made to allow them (Arc Dream) to produce more content. Without the license, Chaosium would no longer cap the maximum number of products release every year. Additionally, since Chaosium does not own the Lovecraft Mythos, there would be little to no change in actual content of the previously published Delta Green material.

Some changes would occur however, including the loss of the BRP System as the rules setting for Delta Green. Additionally, some specific content, like spell names and things not created by Lovecraft and similar individuals would have to be changed. Chthonians, created by Brian Lumley, were given as an example of something that appears in the Chaosium Call of Cthulhu rulebook that might not make it into newer editions of the game. If a replacement rules system was mentioned I missed it. They finished this announcement by assuring the audience that they had no intention of republishing the current Delta Green rulebooks to reflect these rule changes. The authors want to ensure that the already published content will be useful into the future. They are unwilling o charge people for content they already own. They are more interested in providing valuable content, and asking people to support it by buying it

Then, talk moved into the realm of modernizing Delta Green. The first rulebook was written in the 1990's and is a reflection of that time. The panel mentioned that they would like to bring Delta Green into today, specifically, a post Osama-assassination world. Delta Green would become more international in it's role and would include operatives in agencies from other governments. However, certain aspects of the game was written to allow players the opportunity to make their own choices. Adam Scot Glancy is unwilling to clarify how Delta Green would interact with PISCES and GRU SV-8 in this world. It is up to the players in their local campaigns to determine how this turns-out. One of the biggest revelations about how Delta Green would function in the modern era is a potential spoiler so do not read it if you are a DG player and not a GM.

*spoiler (select text to view)* Delta Green could become an officially sanctioned government agency, meaning that it will no longer be working without the benefit of the law *end spoiler*

All in all it was a very interesting and fun panel. The atmosphere was quite comfortable and even though the guests were behind a table and had glasses of water, it certainly felt like everyone in the room had valued opinions and could share their thoughts, concerns, and experiences.

That's all that i can remember for now, let me know what you think. Were you there? Did I miss anything? Did you walk away with a different feeling?

Problems With D&D 1

noreply@blogger.com (Chase Beck) — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 13:43:00 +0000

    I love Dungeons & Dragons. I play it, even though it’s a broken game and it’s been broken since it was invented. Half-Orc Wizard, Halfing warrior, Dwarven Druid: These are character combinations that would not work in even the most screwed-up fantasy worlds. Dwarven Druid: they don’t have plants underground. What do they have underground? Only some of the most terrifying creatures kn own to man. Eye-less fish, albino crayfish, blood-sucking leeches, cockroaches the size of Duane The Rock Johnson’s thumb. Some of the most messed-up creatures you’ve ever seen. And that’s just real-world stuff, we haven’t even gotten to the nether-demons of the subterranean under-dark. Not to mention the necessity of SUNLIGHT for plant growth. But, what it all boils down to is that a Dwarven Druid is not a druid. He’s a wrangler of beings straight out of your most frightening and scream-inducing nightmares. Which would be great except that this “Dwarven Druid” should be equally terrified in the great wide-open up-world.
    “Dear Moradin what is that terrifying blue-colored ceiling and why is it so far away?”
    They’ed be attacking all the trees (Not a very Druidish thing to do)
    “By my almighty Ironfell hammer these foul monstrosities will be destroyed tiiiiiimberrrr”
    And now you’re stuck with a Dwarven Lumberjack. Good luck with that. I’d imagine that with a fantasy world as screwed-up as yours is, you wouldn’t have any trouble finding Dwarven-sized flannel button-downs.

Thanks to Brian’s Pickle and the rest of the V1kM for the help

Delta Green Fiction Kickstarter

noreply@blogger.com (Chase Beck) — Tue, 31 May 2011 22:28:00 +0000

Dennis Detwiller, co-creator of Delta Green, wrote a book. It's Delta Green fiction. It has been reviewed, revised, and edited. Now, it needs to be published. They've figured-out a price that they need in order to publish the work and pay the author. That number is $26,000. Now $26,000 is a lot of money. It's more money than the guy at Delta Green have. So they put the project up on Kickstarter. A the time of writing this post, they have $14,578 with 19 days to go.

They need our help

So I've compiled a list of "Reasons to Donate to Delta Green's 'Through a Glass, Darkly' Kickstarter Project"

10. They've provided excerpts so you know what you're buying: Excerpt 1 , Excerpt 2

9. They're testing this method out as a way to release more content like Delta Green: Failed Anatomies, a collection of short stories. Here's an excerpt from "Intelligences": Excerpt 3

8. With a donation of as little as $30-$35 (depending on your location on this fine planet) you'll get a limited edition hardcover copy of the book!

7. Delta Green represents the pinnacle of modern Lovecraftian horror. This is how you keep it alive. This is how you ensure that there will be more in years to come.

6. Because Dennis said so:

If you love Delta Green, get out there and vote with your dollars. This project will determine the future of all Delta Green fiction. If this does not move forward, it's unlikely we'll see any future DG fiction releases of similar print quality (that is, it's likely the end of printed DG fiction -- instead, it'll probably just be relegated to PDF only). If you're like me and love reading a nice, solid book this does not sound good.

So, any who have not posted to the ransom and are hoping for future DG fiction, get out there and do so!

5. Because the Government Conspiracy doesn't want you to, man

4. With a donation of as little as $60-$70 (depending on your location on this fine planet) you'll get a limited edition hardcover SIGNED copy of the book!

3. It's the type of fiction H.P. Lovecraft would be writing were he alive today.

2. Because I told you to. You trust me, right?

1. it's what Cthulhu would do were he not stuck dreaming in R'lyeh. Ph'nglui Mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!!!

You just can't say no to that face

The Unspeakable Oath #19

noreply@blogger.com (Chase Beck) — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 03:06:00 +0000

The Veterans of a Thousand Midnights were lucky enough to be able to participate in the playtesting of one of the scenarios for the Unspeakable Oath #19!

It was a lot of fun so check out The Unspeakable Oath #19 in both PDF and Print Form (coming soon).

"Suited and Booted" by Adam Gauntlett (@ag_Karloff on twitter) was a ton of fun and really kept the action at a constantly high level. The SAN losses were also highly amusing, probably moreso for me as the Keeper than for the investigators.

We just finished playtesting the Shotgun scenarios from the Delta Green Yahoo group's 2010 competition. The scenarios include "Let's Learn Aklo" by James Haughton, "Secret Agent" by Bret Kramer, and "God Will's it Thus" by David M. Jacobs.

I recorded them just in case we get the go ahead to post them (since they were already available for mass consumption on the internets). If you'd like to hear them let those guys know. They don't always respond to my emails in a timely manner. They are awfully busy publishing a periodical you know.

EDIT: I've got good news! I got the go ahead to post the audio from the playtesting session. I'll get started on those so you guys can hear it.

The Haunting (1920's Call of Cthulhu)

noreply@blogger.com (Chase Beck) — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 10:42:00 +0000

Yes, it's the original introductory campaign from Call of Cthulhu. This is the single most played and recorded campaign from Call of Cthulhu. Chances are, if you're trying to find an example of CoC gameplay on the internet (and by now you should know never to use the Veterans for that) you'll turn-up a recording of this scenario.

Listen Here

Now, it's time to pay the bills:
If you are looking for a fascinating career with real-life drama, check
out a forensic scientist education.