Chaosium Digest Volume 3, Number 1 Date: Sunday, July 18, 1993 Number: 1 of 1 Contents: Pendragon Vignettes (Shannon Appel) PENDRAGON A CyberCthulhu Vignette (Kaid Ramdani) CALL OF CTHULHU Coc Adventure Timeline (Brian Vickers) CALL OF CTHULHU Editor's Note: Welcome to the 25th Chaosium Digest, also the start of the third volume of the Digest. I'm happy to say that the Digest has shown some impressive growth since the first issue. In the last 6 months, the membership of the digest has grown to 173 members. That's compared to 56 subscribers back in January. A few new releases last week. Elric! (Chaosium, 160pp, $19.95) is the successor of the Stormbringer game. It's a good game, beautifully laid out. The Unspeakable Oath 8/9 (Pagan Publishing, digest-sized, 160pp, $8.00) is a huge magazine. There's too much stuff in the issue to itemize it all. To whet your appetite, one of the scenerios is "I was a Teenage Cthulhu Chaser." Two things have been added to the FTP site on soda.berkeley.edu in the last few weeks. Chaosium's current catalog is available as /pub/chaosium/info/catalog. A catalog for Pagan Publishing is also available, under /pub/chaosium/paganpub/catalog. Both catalogs include lots of fun information on upcoming products over the next few months. Finally, a few short comments and questions from subscribers. Kaid Ramdani (NUMERIK1@ze8.rz.uni-duesseldorf.de) asks if any Digest subscribers have ever been inspired by the lyrics of a modern pop or rock song to write an adventure. He said that he had been working on a Stormbringer adventure based on two Sting songs, "Tea in the Sahara" and "I Burn for You". He thought they fit perfectly with the Weeping Wastes. His adventure was of a long (un)dead sorcerer who tried, with the help of the players, to find his long lost love. Unfortunately, they eventually discovered that she had been dead for hundreds of years, and the sorcerer became an eternal column of flame. Other songs that Kaid based adventures on included Billy Idol's "Eyes without a Face" (which led to a Cyber adventure) and Marillion's "Assassing" which sparked the idea for a Hawkmoon story. [I'd note that people interested in pursuing this particular source of ideas should look into the works of The Deep Fix, Hawkwind and Blue Oyster Cult. All of them have had songs based upoon Michael Moorcock stories.] Stefano Lanticina (lanticin@ghost.dsi.unimi.it) has an idea he would like to develop. It concerns an alternate reality in which some Great Old Ones have taken over the Earth, and the few humans left alive (and sane) are fighting a guerrilla war to bring sanity back. He's hoping to eventually develop this idea with the help of others. See you all next week. Shannon Recent Sightings: * Call of Cthulhu - "Burnout", two pages of information on enchanted braziers in Vortext #8 [Spring, 1993] -------------------- From: appel@erzo.berkeley.edu (Shannon Appel) Subject: Pendragon Vignettes System: Pendragon Here's another set of Vignettes for Pendragon. The seeds of these ideas were all borrowed from _English Myths & Legends_ (Dorset Press, 1991). The Adventure of the Lost Knight: Sir John Attwood, a chivalrous knight, ventured off on his own during Arthur's continental campaign. In Italy, he was captured by treacherous city dwellers and held captive for many years. Now, he has returned to England, and just in time, for his wife is about to be married to Sir Bledri, a black heart who loves only the supposed widow's money. Sir Attwood will come to the players for help in recovering his wife. This task will be hindered by the wife refusing to believe that her husband is alive, and Sir Bledri doing his best to discredit (or kill) Sir Attwood. The War of the Corpse: The players come across two groups of monks engaging in a most violent fight. If they somehow manage to part the combatants, the players will learn that the monks are fighting for the possession of the corpse of one Sir Childe. Sir Childe froze to death upon the bridge on which the monks war. He left a note (written in his blood) that granted his lands to the one who buried him. The players will have to do something to keep the monks from killing each other, perhaps by making their own decision and then somehow convincing the monks to accept it. Encounter with the Knights of Bulls: In Angleland (see BLOOD & LUST pp. 76-89) there is a Lord by the name of Osric. He wishes to be as chivalrous as any of Arthur's knights, but unfortunately is extremely poor. Thus, he has mounted his five knights upon bulls. These beasts are very unresponsive (all Horsemanship rolls are made at -5) but extremely damaging in a joust (10d6). How will the players react when they meet these bull-riding knights? The Adventure of the Giant Dam: The peasants of a small village have angered a huge giant. Thus, he has set out to dam up a nearby river, diverting the water so that it floods the village. When the players first encounter the giant, he will be carrying huge rocks to the dam. Perhaps the knights can outwit the giant, diverting him from his task. Or, alternatively, they may discover that he has a valid grievance against the village. Shannon -------------------- From: NUMERIK1@ze8.rz.uni-duesseldorf.de (Kaid Ramdani) Subject: A CyberCthulhu Vignette System: Call of Cthulhu This CyberCthulhu Vignette is based upon the Call of CyberCthulhu rules posted by Alex Antunes (in V2.10 of the Digest). DO NETRUNNERS DREAM OF ELECTRIC VAMPIRES? One of the characters is given a vast sum of money to help a new netrunner to enter the security system of a media cooperation. This youngster, named Edward P. Cant Junior, is the son of a rich cooperation manager and a fan of old horror movies. He wants to enter the virtual reality and steal some of the old films which are kept in that part of the net. It's an easy job and everything is just fine until an antipersonnel program, which looks like a vampire, attacks the boy and drains him. The character has to jack out. He finds the kid lying dead at his terminal. The father accepts his son's death and everythings seems to be all right, until seven days later a telephon call wakes the character in the middle of the night. There is nothing but a single hollow laugh from the other side. Edward P. Cant Junior is back again. The AI (Artificial Inteligence) of this system was interested in Cant's complex personality and copied Cant's mind into his system. Thus, Cant became an AI. Past the initial shock of being noncorporal, Cant is now out to take revenge on all those who have made this happen, including his father, the seller of the terminal, his bodyguards and, of course, the characters. Some of the victims will die in gruesome ways, but always a computer will be at fault in the victim's death. All of the victims will have been tortured for a while (eg an elevator accident, but first the elevator rose to the highest floor, and everybody heard a diabolic laughter while it fell to the ground). To frighten the characters, Cant will drain some netrunners of their lifeforce and then send them as mindless zombies to hunt down the characters. Eventally, Cant will lure the characters back into the net. Now that he is part of it, he has all the advantages. Here, he plans to torture the characters and kill them slowly. All the characters can do is counter attack. Cant needs vast amounts of energy to keep himself alive. The character could either destroy his source of energy or try to isolate him. This should not be an easy task. Cast: Edward P. Cant Junior (netrunner) E.P.Cant (artifical intelligence) STR 10 DEX 14 INT 13 DEX 30 INT 13 POW 18 CON 12 APP 13 POW 18 SAN 01 EDU 30 SIZ 13 SAN 50 EDU 14 Skills: Net running 80% Skills: Computer use 60% Net running 30% Edward P. Cant sen. (coop.manager) Paul Chambers (bodyguard) STR 8 DEX 12 INT 14 STR 20 DEX 20 INT 13 CON 12 APP 10 POW 13 CON 14 APP 12 POW 10 SIZ 13 SAN 60 EDU 16 SIZ 16 SAN 20 EDU 13 Skills: Accounting 80% Skills: Dodge 40%, Camouflage 70% Credit Rating 90% Hide 30%, Interrogation 60% Computer use 70% Sneak 45%, Spot Hidden 40% Debate 30%, Law 60% Cyberequip.: Cyberarm, Cybereye(IR) Psychology 40% Enhanced Reflexes Weapons: Fist/Punch 85% 1D3+1D6 Netrunner Zombies Grapple 55% spec. STR 10 DEX 5 INT 1 Colt .55 65% 3D6 CON 12 APP 10 POW 1 SIZ 12 SAN 00 EDU 00 Weapons: various 25% ??? KAID -------------------- From: "Brian Vickers" Subject: CoC Adventure Timeline System: Call of Cthulhu This is a Call of Cthulhu Adventure Timeline. It is a compilation of every CoC adventure from each known Chaosium CoC supplement. The timeline contains the date of the adventure, the title of the adventure, the sourcebook where the adventure can be found and the level of experience necessary to play the adventure as suggested by the author (if any). The timeline is sorted (obviously) by date. I also have some information on adventure duration and location. If you'd like this info, I'll probably be uploading the Excel database to soda.berkeley.edu soon, so look for it there. Unfortunately, there are still a few omissions. Specifically, I'm still missing information about the adventures in: Alone Against the Dark Alone Against the Wendigo Escape from Innsmouth. If you own these adventures, please e-mail me the info regarding them. Special thanks to Soeren Busch-Knudsen , Dirk Vandenheuvel , and everyone else whose helped so far. -- Brian brian_vickers@isd.jpl.nasa.gov .sigless-niggurath --------------------- -------------------------------- ------------ ---------- Date Title Sourcebook Experience --------------------- -------------------------------- ------------ ---------- 192- A Happy Family AiAC 192- Bless the Beasts & the Children AiAC 192- The Dark Wood AiAC 192- The Whore of Bahama AiAC 192- The Hills Rise Wild AU 192- Dead of Night AU Mod. 192- The Condemned AU Mod. 192- The Curse of Chaugnar Faugn CCase/CotC Exp. 192- The Asylum CCase/TA&OT 192- The Auction CCase/TA&OT 192- The Madman CCase/TA&OT 192- The Mauretania CCase/TA&OT 192- The Secret of Castronegro CClas/TCC 192- The Pits of Bendal-Dolum CClas/TftS 192- The Madman CoC (5th ed) 192- Dead-Man Stomp CoC (5th ed) Beg. 192- The City Without a Name CotC 192- The Case CurCth 192- Wail of the Witch CurCth 192- The Haunted House CurCth/ToT 192- Captives of Two Worlds Dreamlands 192- Lemon Sails Dreamlands 192- To Sleep, Perchance to Dream Dreamlands 192- Pickman's Student Dreamlands Exp. 192- Tatterdemalion FE 192- The Songs of Fantari FE Any 192- The Lurker In The Crypt FE Exp. 192- The Underground Menace FoF 192- Valley of the Four Shrines FoF 192- Along the Indus FP Beg. 192- Crash Dive FP Beg. 192- Slow boat FP Beg. 192- The Iron Ghost FP Beg. 192- Dreams & Fancies Kingsport Any 192- The House on the Edge Kingsport Any 192- Dead in the Water Kingsport Exp. 192- Mansion of Madness MoM 192- Mister Corbitt MoM 192- The Sanatorium MoM 192- The Plantation MoM Some 192- Pride of Yirrimburra TA 192- The Mystery of Loch Feinn TCC 192- The Paper Chase TCC 192- The Rescue TCC 192- One in Darkness TGOO Any 192- The Pale God TGOO Some 192- Painted Smile TotMV 192- Regiment of Dead TotMV 192- Freak Show TotMV Any 192- Trail of Yig TotMV Any 192-, (mid 20s) Fear of Flying FP Beg. 192-, (Sum.) The Watcher in the Valley TotMV 192-, (Win.) Still Waters TGOO Any 192-, Feb. 11th The Land of Lost Dreams Dreamlands Exp. 192-, Feb Black Devil Mountain CCase/TA&OT 192-, Mar. Have You Seen the Yellow Sign? TGOO Any 192-, Apr. 26th Season of the Witch Dreamlands 192-, May Dark Carnival CClas/CotC 192-, May 3rd A Little Knowledge AU Any 192-, May, (late 20s) Furious driving FP Beg. 192-, June Gate from the Past CCase/TA&OT 192-, June People of the Monolith SoYS Beg. 192-, Sept. 23rd The Temple of the Moon CClas/TftS 192-, Oct. 31st With Malice Aforethought AiAC Beg. 192-, Nov. Thoth's Dagger CCase/CotC 1920 The Haunting CoC (5th ed) Beg. 1920, (Fall) The Spawn TGOO Mod. 1921, May The Trail of Tsathogghua ToT 1921, Sept. The Curse of Tsathogghua ToT 1921, (Win.) The Warren CClas/SoYS 1922 Westchester House CCase/TA&OT 1922 Rigid Air FP Beg. 1923, Jan.-Mar. Orient Express HotOE Exp. 1924, Jan. Shadows of Yog-Sothoth CClas/SoYS Exp. 1925 Armored Angels FP Intro. 1925, Jan. Masks of Nyarlathotep MoN 1925, Jan. 25th The Crack'd and Crook'd Manse MoM Any 1925, Mar. City Beneath the Sands TA 1925, Oct. Old Fellow that Bunyip TA 1926 Sleigh Ride FP Beg. 1927, (Spr.) Bad Moon Rising TGOO Exp. 1927, Mar. 15th The Thing at the Threshold TTatT Beg./Mod. 1927, May Spawn of Azathoth SoA Exp. 1928 Edge of Darkness CoC (5th ed) Intro. 1928, (Sum.) The Fungi from Yuggoth CurCth/TFfY 1928, Oct.-Nov. Fade to Gray TotMV 1929 Return to Dunwich RtD AiAC = Adventures in Arkham Country AU = Akham Unveiled CCase = Cthulhu Casebook CClas = Cthulhu Classics CoC = Call of Cthulhu CotC = Curse of the Cthonians CurCth = Curse of Cthulhu FE = Fatal Experiments FoF = Fragments of Fear FP = Fearful Passages HotOE = Horror on the Orient Express MoM = Mansions of Madness MoN = Masks of Nyarlathotep RtD = Return to Dunwich SoA = Spawn of Azathoth SoYS = Shadows of Yog-Sothoth TA = Terror Australis TA&OT = The Asylum & Other Tales TCC = The Cthulhu Companion TFfY = The Fungi from Yuggoth TftS = Terror from the Stars TGaPL = The Green and Pleasant Land TGOO = The Great Old Ones ToT = Trail of Tsathogghua TotMV = Tales of the Miskatonic Valley TTatT = The Thing at the Threshold -------------------- The Chaosium Digest is a Discussion Forum for Chaosium Games which do not have another specific area for discussion. To submit an article, mail to: appel@erzo.berkeley.edu