Chaosium Digest Volume 6, Number 6 Date: Sunday, May 1, 1994 Number: 1 of 1 Contents: Announcement: RQ-Con 2 (Shannon Appel) MISC Interview: Penny Love (John Hughes) MISC Review: Return of the Deep Ones (Martin Veasey) CALL OF CTHULHU French Notes on the Fourth Edition (Frederic Moll) PENDRAGON Editor's Note: Ye Booke of Monsters (Chaosium, 64 pgs, $10.95), the newest Call of Cthulhu supplement, has been released. It's pretty much a manual of monsters, all true to the Lovecraft mythos, since they're drawn from the sources. You'll find tons of new creatures, including Bugg-Shash, Byatis, Xada-Hgla and Zu-Che-Quon. In the last week, John Tynes has uploaded a number of new or updated files to soda.berkeley.edu. The following files are all located in /pub/chaosium/paganpub: README ; more complete info on all of these files catalog ; The current PaganPub catalog, updated for Spring, 1994 deltagreen2 ; transcript of a PaganPub sponsored online CoC game endtime ; information on PaganPub's upcoming game of futuristic ; CoC horror message.sit.hqx ; Mac sound files for use with "Convergence", the Delta ; Green adventure in TUO7 submission-guide ; current submission guidelines for PaganPub tuo[1-4] ; the annotated unspeakable oath, issues 1-4 Recent Sightings: * Call of Cthulhu - "The Book", a four page adventure centered around a mysterious book, Challenge #72 [April/Mayish, 1994] -------------------- From: appel@erzo.berkeley.edu (Shannon Appel) Subject: Announcement: RQ-Con 2 System: Misc Plans are now well underway for RuneQuest-Con 2, the sequel to last year's successful Baltimore convention. RuneQuest-Con 2 will once more focus on the game of RuneQuest and the mythic world of Glorantha. When? January 13-16, 1995 Where? San Francisco, California Guests of Honor will include the RuneQuest 2 authors: Steve Perrin Ray Turney Steve Henderson Warren James and Greg Stafford, the creator of Glorantha. In addition, many more Gloranthan Illuminates from all over the globe will be present. Two exciting LARPs will be featured at RuneQuest-Con 2, shedding light on previously shrouded areas of Glorantha. HOW THE WEST WAS ONE will be the story of the Seventh Malkioni Ecclesiastical Council. For the first time in centuries, the sects of the West will be brought together, to face the many threats which are arrayed against the Malkioni religion. Be among the first to learn the secrets of the West! THE BROKEN COUNCIL will be the tale of the Second World Council. In the depths of Gloranthan History, the people of the world will gather together to discuss the creation of Osentalka, the god who will bring back the golden age. Discover the true nature of Nysalor, one of the most mysterious figures in Time. Players of RuneQuest & Glorantha will find also find many more things of interest at RuneQuest-Con 2, including: * Lots & Lots of RuneQuest * Dragon Pass & Second Edition Nomad Gods games * Open Gaming * Eat at Geo's 2 * Live Action Trollball * Orlanthi Storytelling * Gloranthan Cultural Exchanges * Many seminars by RuneQuest & Gloranthan authors However, there's more than just Glorantha at RuneQuest-Con 2. Other featured game systems will include Call of Cthulhu, Elric!, Pendragon and Chaosium's newest game, Nephilim. In addition, RuneQuest-Con 2 will spotlight two other games with strong, exciting backgrounds. On Saturday, January 14, Chessex will be present to run seminars and games concerning the Skyrealms of Jorune. Wizards of the Coast will be present on Sunday, January 15, to spotlight one of their role-playing games, either Ars Magica or Talislanta. When a final decision is made, an announcement will be sent out. Right now, we're still looking for people to run lots of RuneQuest, Gloranthan, Call of Cthulhu, Elric!, Pendragon and Nephilim games at RQ-Con 2. If you'd be interested in running something, please drop me a line. People running games will be given discounted admission to the Con. Shannon Appel appel@erzo.berkeley.edu (510) 649-7467 PS: If you'd like to be on the rqcon2-info list, drop me a line -------------------- From: john.hughes@anu.edu.au (John P Hughes) Subject: Interview: Penny Love System: Misc The Penny Love Interview [This article originally appeared in 'Australian Roleplayer', Vol 1. No. 12, September 1993.] 'Castle of Eyes' Spearheads Chaosium Move Into Fiction In the outer wilds of Box Hill in Melbourne lurks the shattered frame of a cracked and crooked manse. If you manage to steal past the seven foot midnight-black rottweiler-from-hell guarding the entrance, you'll find yourself in the warm and erudite company of one of Australia's most talented roleplaying designers. Penny Love has just published her first novel, 'Castle Of Eyes', a dark supernatural fantasy. Not only is she justifiably proud of her effort, but the novel represents a significant new direction for Chaosium, the American gaming company best known for Pendragon and Call of Cthulhu. Call of Cthulhu has been the financial mainstay of Chaosium for nearly a decade. However, the game's Lovecraftian genre has been thoroughly explored in modules and supplements, and it is difficult to see the system maintaining its present high profile indefinitely (Indeed, Cthulhu has already been overtaken by Vampire as the most popular horror game on the Australian convention circuit). Chaosium is therefore exploring a variety of new directions. It published its first paperback last year - Greg Stafford's wonderful 'King of Sartar', a collection of myths and historical documents for the RuneQuest game world of Glorantha (Though RuneQuest itself was sold to Avalon Hill in the mid eighties, Chaosium has retained the rights to Glorantha). In extending their product range into paperback fiction, Chaosium may be hoping to emulate TSR. The producers of Dungeons & Dragons entered the paperback market a decade ago, and are now the United States' second-largest publisher of science fiction and fantasy. Penny began convention roleplaying at Phantastacon II (1983) in Melbourne, where she ran Mark Morrison's first module, 'Cracked And Crooked Manse'. The module was an instant classic: Call of Cthulhu was a new system, and its focus on mood and atmosphere provided a radical alternative to the combat-driven gaming offered by D&D and Traveller, the convention mainstays of the period. >From the ashes of Phantasticon rose the Cthulhu Conglomerate, a design group that is still a mainstay of the Melbourne convention circuit. Penny has always been a core contributor. She believes the long life of the Conglomerate is a result of its relaxed and flexible approach, centred around the organisational expertise of Liam Rout. True to its name, "lumps keep going off" in new directions. With writers the calibre of Penny, Liam, Mark Morrison and Richard Watts, the Conglomerate has created an imaginative design think-tank that would be hard to equal anywhere in the world. The prodigious publishing output of the Melbourne gaming scene over the last five years is due in no small part to the collective and individual efforts of Conglomerate members. Coming from a family with a very strong literary bent, Penny was always determined to publish professionally. The Cthulhu source book 'Terror Australis' (1985) was one of the first roleplaying supplements to be produced in Australia, and it still ranks as one of the best. That collection was the first of many published modules, some of which first saw the dark of night as tournaments at Australian conventions. Despite the enduring popularity of her work, Penny admits that she has never been satisfied with her roleplaying output, though she often likes the ideas she starts with. She has a keen awareness of the challenges in working successfully within the rigid form of a genre piece; be it a Lovecraftian horror pastiche or a Mills & Boon novel with it's compromise between womens' security and romance. In fact, the technical challenge of writing a Mills & Boon novel very much appeals to her. Penny sees many similarities to the roleplaying form: standardised plots and characters, strong genre conventions, an emphasis on clear and simple communication, and strict limits on length. Like most speciality publishing, M&B books are targeted to an exact audience. They are colour-coded for explicitness; signalling the difference between a passionate embrace, a throbbing manhood or a don't-beat-about-the-bush erection. The challenge, as in commercial roleplaying, is to breathe new life or a novel perspective into a very rigid, almost stereotypical form. Penny also jokes that in writing M&B, she wouldn't have to create a pseudonym! Our diversions into the heady world of Harlequin Romance revealed for me the sense of craft that Penny brings to her writing. Tackled head on, however, she claims that it all comes down to personal aesthetics. She cites her favourite calendar quote as defence: "I'd sooner ask a plant about horticulture than an artist about art". While 'Castle of Eyes' is Penny's first published novel, she has previously written three; two "real life" and one "weird life". These were an exercise in finding her own style and language. She considers herself lucky - it is usually your *fifth* novel that is finally accepted for publication. 'Castle of Eyes' had its genesis in a RuneQuest Vikings campaign that Penny ran several years ago. When it came to writing however, she wisely left the player characters and their subplots behind. Penny realised that the rambling soft focus of player/gm interaction, with its myriad diversions and false starts, is not disciplined enough to sustain a literary tale. In her own words, the novel is "another fantasy based on the one we created in the game". The player characters are still in there somewhere, though even the players will have trouble recognising themselves. And the novel itself? Imagine Jane Austen meets Mervyn Peake with Michael Moorcock providing the lighting. 'Castle of Eyes' is set in an endless labyrinthine castle that has its antecedent in Mervyn Peake's 'Gormenghast' Trilogy. An air of unspoken mystery and growing despair permeates the book. While Penny is still finding her feet as a stylist, the novel demonstrates her considerable ability as a storyteller and builder of atmosphere: an ability that can only grow with increasing experience and confidence. It's a fine debut from a promising and talented artist. Author's Note: In the interests of accuracy, I should state that the seven foot midnight-black rottweiler is actually a Labrador. John Hughes What the Reviewers say: 'a leisurely work rich in characterisation and imaginative detail'. Bill Congreive. The Mentor. 'Love obviously loves the English language and uses it to good effect' Peter Crank. Australian Realms. '... enough excellent ideas to start a *most unusual* fantasy campaign.' Australian Roleplayer. [also see V2.7 for a full review of Castle of Eyes] And Penny pops up in 'The Unspeakable Oath' No 10, guesting for housemate Mark in his column 'The Case of Mark Edward Morrison'! -------------------- From: martin@cheam.demon.co.uk (Martin Veasey) Subject: Review: Return of the Deep Ones System: Call of Cthulhu [this article originally appeared in alt.horror.cthulhu] I just found this book in London. It's a collection of four of Lumley's Mythos Tales and I thought this might be of interest: Author: Brian Lumley Title: Return of the Deep Ones (and other Mythos Tales) Published: 1994 UK Publisher: RoC (Penguin) ISBN: 014017303-X Price: UK 4.99 This is a collection of four of Lumley's Mythos tales, written at different times over the last twenty years, though I hadn't seen any of them published before. Each is a example of classical Mythos writing, unlike some of his more aggressively progressive work (Necroscope, Elysia, etc). I liked the book a lot. In terms of addressing the Mythos, it's much more "centre of the road", or conventional, than his other works. Very classicly atmospheric without the pseudo-scientific rationalisation that went into his "The Burrowers Beneath" cycle. Inception (1987) - short story An interesting short, covering the inhuman pursuer of a thief who's stolen a vital potion. Well written, with (for me) an unexpected end to the pursuit. There is a twist at the end, involving a figure from other works, unnamed here to avoid spoiling, that seemed rather unnecessary to the tale. This attempt to draw threads from several books together kind of tarnished the gloss of the story a bit for me. [originally appeared in _The Compleat Crow_, Ganley Publishing, 1987] Lord of the Worms (1983) - novella I really liked this story. It has a good sense of brooding menace about it and even though we know what is about to happen, it still keeps suspense and fear going. I was going to criticise this story for relying too much on the numeralogy and renewal/growth cycles that Lumley used in Demogorgon, but looking it up, I discovered that this was almost certainly written before Demogorgon. I think it's handled better here too, so I reckon that's why Lumley reused the theme in the later story. I didn't like the introduction of Titus Crow as the hero. This was written and published after the Elysia cycle and one immediately gets the feeling that, no matter how bad things get, he's bound to win in the end as the ever-triumphant hero. [originally appeared in Weirdbook 17, Ganley Publishing, 1983. reprinted in _The Compleat Crow, Ganley Publishing, 1987] Beneath the Moors (1974) - novel Intriguing story, if for no other reason, the way that Lumley finds to extricate his hero. This book and "The Burrowers Beneath" seem to have been written at much the same time, and they share some of the same threads. This is better, in my opinion, as it conveys more of the incomprehension and fear in the story. [originally appeared as _Beneath the Moors_, Arkham House, 1974. This novel includes "The Sister City", a short story that was included in _Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos_, Arkham House, 1969 (not reprinted in the 1990 edition)] The Return of the Deep Ones (1984) - novel A coventional homage to the tradition. Deep Ones seek to establish a latter-day beachhead in England. Worked well for me. There is just enough modern day stuff to lend a contemporary feel to it, but Lumley is able to make the plot slide into a paranoic chase at one stage that works very well, with atmosphere and everyone turning against the good guy, in a sense like "Invasion of the Body Snatchers". I liked this a lot. [originally appeared in Fantasy Book 12-14] Recommended Martin Veasey e-mail : martin@cheam.demon.co.uk -------------------- From: Frederic Moll Subject: French Notes on the Fourth Edition System: Pendragon When I recently read the fourth edition of Pendragon rulesbook for the beginning of a new campaign, I saw some errors relating to French names and some typos. Here is a list of corrections for readers who want true french names... page 9: Near the coat of arms: Lancelot (and not Launcelot) page 32: Titles "le blank" should be read as "le blanc" "le Desirious" should be read as "le Desireux" (although it sounds strange to me...) "Le chevalier au leon" should be "le chevalier au lion" page 43: Charges Lion Sejant: in modern French, it would be "Lion Siegeant" Lion Rampant Reguardant: "Lion Rampant Regardant" Dolphin Naiant: "Dauphin Nageant" page 46: Introducing... Sir Yvane le Cour: "Sir Yvane le Court" or "Sir Yvane le Petit" page 98: Places of Normandie "Les Andelays" should be read as "Les Andelys" Le Mont St Michael: "Le Mont St Michel" page 105: French Names Margalie: "Magalie" also exists... Mirabel: "Mirabelle" (a nice fruit) Passserose: "Passerose" (too many ssss... ) page 177: Sagramore le Desirous : "Sagramore le Desireux" (as before) page 221: Judaism Pepin "The Short": known in France as Pepin "le Bref" page 335: Characters & Creatures The poor Lancelot du Lac has his name again distorted. This time, it is not "Lancelot du Lak"... page 337: "La Cote Mal Taile" should read as "La Cote mal Taillee" Well, that's all for the first reading Frederic. -------------------- The Chaosium Digest is an unofficial discussion forum for Chaosium's Games. To submit an article, mail to: appel@erzo.berkeley.edu. The old digests are archived on soda.berkeley.edu in the directory /pub/chaosium, and may be retrieved via FTP.