Chaosium Digest Volume 16, Number 6 Date: Sunday, October 6, 1996 Number: 1 of 3 Contents: The Poisoned Sailor: A Tale of Terror (Ricardo Christe) CALL OF CTHULHU C&S: Townsfolk Riot (Shannon Appel) MYTHOS 10/4/96 Mythos Errata (Chaosium) MYTHOS Editor's Note: This week, a variety of of Lovecraftian articles. This issue starts off with a short Tale of Terror called The Poisoned Sailor. (And, as a side note, keep those Tales of Terror coming in. They're short, yet still extremely valuable!). I've followed it up with a pair of Mythos articles: a new Card File on Townsfolk Riot, and the updated MSGS Errata. Over in V16.7 and V16.8 you'll find a longer CoC adventure set in 1954 Los Angeles. It's a bit gory, but works well in portraying a dystopic view of Los Angeles in the 1950s. Keep those submissions coming! Shannon RECENT RELEASES: * Mythos - _Mythos Standard Game Set_ (Chaosium, 104 cards, $12.95) is now out! It's a set of brand-new Mythos cards, totally non-collectible. You just buy a set, and you have all the cards, in two ready-to-play decks. Or, if you prefer, you have 104 cards to mix into your old Mythos decks. RECENT BOOKS OF NOTE: * Call of Cthulhu - _H. P. Lovecraft: A Life_ (Necronomicon Press, 704 pg., $20.00), by S. T. Joshi, the definitive biography of Lovecraft's life is now available from Necronomicon Press. Check out their web page for more info: http://www.oneworld.net/sf/companies/necropress/ You can order from them direct at 401-828-7161. RECENT MAGAZINE SIGHTINGS: * Mythos - "Simple Strategies and Deck Designs for Beginners", by Eric Rowe, a four page article on Mythos Strategy, InQuest #19 [November, 1996] (FRENCH) MAGAZINE SIGHTINGS: * Misc - a one page interview with Greg Stafford, featuring a picture of Greg and good friend, the Undead Trout, Casus Belli #98 [October, 1996] * Call of Cthulhu - a two page play aid to help the management of combat and sanity, Casus Belli #98 [October, 1996] Casus Belli #98 also announces the French second ed of Hawkmoon for mid-October and promises a review in CB #99. The French Nephilim second ed is still pending as well. NEW ELECTRONIC RESOURCES: Updated Chaosium Mythos Pages http://www.sirius.com/~chaosium/mythos.html The Chaosium Mythos Page has been updated with: new V3.1 rules, a new FAQ including MSGS, updated errata and a preview of Mythos Dreamlands (complete with a few sample cards). -------------------- From: Subject: The Poisoned Sailor: a Tale of Terror System: Call of Cthulhu The Poisoned Sailor: A Tale of Terror An Investigator who follows a medical profession is awakened in the middle of a rainy night by furious banging at his front door. If opened, a desperate, haggard-looking sailor will storm in, pleading for help. He rolls up his shirt's sleeve, offering his horridly bulging arm for examination. Swelled and blackened, it appears to be affected by necrosis. The man begs for help, claiming he was poisoned by a rival. "Duh bastar' hates me guts cos my business runs strong, an' he's a lazy, warty ol'drunkar' who can't keep ep. He's poison' me drinks! Help me please, ain't wanna die, oh Gawd!" The arm responds to no medical treatment the Investigator can come up with. Ditto for hospitals. It appears to worsen by the hour. Possibilities: 1) The sailor is telling a half truth. The "rival" isn't simply jealous because of business competition; he's seeking something the sailor has: an old trophy from a shipwreck that looks like a copper bracelet with intrincate designs. The rival, actually a follower of Dagon, knows that it's a piece of Deep One jewelry, and badly wants it for his rituals. Since the sailor refuses to part with it, the cultist has cast a slow-acting version of Shrivelling, and will later contact the sailor for a bargain. But, he certainly won't want the old sea-dog to get help from the Investigators.... 2) The sailor has tainted deep one blood, but is also cursed. His now-dead mother found the strength of will (and the help of a deceased stalwart adventurer) to break free of the bonds imposed by her monstrous consort. Furious by such unprecedent behavior, the deep one asked Dagon to curse both she and any offspring she might have in the future. Any descendant would come to the world doomed to end his life transformed into a ravenous human-eating monster, one far more horrible than the most degenerate deep one hybrid. Unfortunately for the sailor, the transformation has already begun, but perhaps there is a way to reverse it. 3) It is actually poison, of an incredibly potent sort. The poison is the creation of a Serpent Man sorcerer the Investigator has dealt with before, and which was supposedly dead. Is it possible that the creature is alive and on the loose? Copyright (c) 1996 Ricardo Christe rchomsi@ibm.net -------------------- From: Shannon Appel Subject: C&S: Townsfolk Riot System: Mythos ** CLARIFICATIONS & STRATEGIES: TOWNSFOLK RIOT ** THE CARD -------- Name: Townsfolk Riot Type: Event Affects: Opponent's Investigator Special Effect: Your opponent's foul deeds are exposed. Even if already Walking, opponent must play a Travel Event or a new Location next Turn or suffer an attack worth 5 points. Allies may defend. Then, Bury this card. CLARIFICATIONS -------------- The opponent you play this card against gets a choice. If he chooses not to play a Travel Event or a new Location on his next Turn, then he is hit by an attack. If your opponent plays another Card, that Card takes its full effect before the Riot hits. Thus, he could put out an Ally to block, arrive at a Sanitarium so the attack won't kill him, or something else. Though the Riot won't go off until the other Card has taken its full effect, it has already been "triggered". Thus, even if the played Card makes the Riot go away, the player is still hit by it. The Riot happens just before the end of the player's Turn, even if the Round is about to end. Order of Events during Rioted Player's Turn: 1.) Player plays card or takes action 2.) If card was not a new Location or Travel, Riot is triggered 3.) Full effects of played card occur 4.) Riot occurs 5.) Turn ends QUESTIONS --------- Q: What happens if I play Aldeberan Rises in the Sky after Townsfolk Riot is played against me? A: Townsfolk Riot is buried (along with all other Events). However, the instant you play Aldeberan, the Townsfolk Riot is triggered, and thus you're hit with it anyways. Q: What happens if I play Yithian Mental Contact against a Townsfolk Riot played on me? A: The Riot is buried, and you do not take the 5 Sanity Loss, because it was an effect the card had. Q: If I end the game on my Turn, do I still get hit by the riot? A: No. If you end the game (by playing an Adventure, or killing an opponent), then you never arrive at the end of your Turn, when the Riot would hit you. You're safe! Q: Am I stuck if I've already started walking, or my Current Location is a Travel Event that I can't currently get off of, and someone Townsfolk Riots me? A: No. As of the MSGS rules, you can Discard either card and play a new Location (pg. 17): "While walking to one Location, you might find that you wish to change to a different Location instead. Your previous destination has never been rotated right-side-up and is Discarded. It never became part of your Story. Your new Location is played crosswise, replacing your previous card. You may also do this if your Current Location is a Travel Event." Q: Am I stuck if I lose the next Turn, and someone Townsfolk Riots me? A: Yes. STRATEGIES ---------- * Location Denial - One of the prime uses of the Riot. Someone is walking to a cool Location (in particular, a Sanitarium, or something required for an Adventure). By playing Riot, you force them to either Discard the card, or take 5 Sanity loss. * Attribute Denial - The other prime use of the Riot. Someone is already at a cool Location, but they haven't had a chance to use its attributes yet (ie, Gate, Tome, Artifact). Again, they either lose their chance to play the cards they were hoping to, or lose 5 Sanity. This might also apply to denying the usage of other card effects, such as the subregion (for finding Allies), or a special effect box (ie, using a sanitarium to bury a phobia). * Hitting Opponents When It Hurts - Want to automatically cost your opponent 5 Sanity? You can occasionally do this with Townsfolk Riot. If an Opponent has just arrived at one of the Sanitariums that causes them to lose a Turn, play Riot. Alternatively, if it's very late in the Round, and you think your opponent might be out of Location cards, you can Riot them. * The Yithian Trick - You play Townsfolk Riot, and then when they play a new Location, you Yithian it. They take 5 damage because they didn't play a Location. * Warding Off Passing - If someone passes, you can play Townsfolk Riot, and force them to play a new Location, breaking up their passes. You'll get one extra Turn before they start passing again. Not quite as convenient as In The Nick of Time, but occasionally useful. COUNTER STRATEGIES ------------------ If someone is making good use of Townsfolk Riot, it's hard to avoid it, but here are a few tricks. If your opponent is denying you Locations, never walk to the important ones. Take a Train or a Tramp Steamer to hide your final destination, or alternatively, first walk somewhere else in the City that your final destination is in (ie, if you're in a different City, walk to Arkham Gazette, and then you can play Arkham Sanitarium right-side-up in one play). Cars and Camels work too. If your opponent is denying you attributes and other card effects, make use of special cards such as Create Gate (for finding Monsters), Discover Secret Cache (for finding Tomes and Artifacts) and Trains (for finding Allies). However, it's unusual for Attribute Denial to be more than a temporary nuisance. And then, there's always Yithian Mental Contact, the one real sure defense against Townsfolk Riot. Or, you can always take the 5 Sanity Loss, making Sanitariums a sort of Counter Strategy. -------------------- From: Chaosium Subject: 10/4/96 Mythos Errata System: Mythos We've been trying to keep Mythos Errata to a bare minimum, to avoid the problem of having to carry around an entire blasphemous tome just to play the game. However, with the release of MSGS, we've added four new pieces. They're all included below. The first two have to do with slight discrepencies in the MSGS rulebook. Pretty minor stuff. The second two are more far-reaching. We've changed the way that the Mythos Limited Islands and Travel By Sea Cards work to make them more rational. You'll see similar wording when we introduce new Islands and Travel By Sea Cards in Mythos: The Dreamlands. The rest of the errata included is old, but is here for completeness sake. ** MYTHOS ERRATA ** MYTHOS STANDARD GAME SET Rule Errata The following important rules changes supersede the printed MSGS rules: Joining: Two additional sentences have been added to the end of the definition of Joining on page 28: "Two cards may Join as long as one of them allows this in its Special Effects box. More than two cards may Join as long as every combination of two cards in the group Joins." Just Played: The definition on page 28 of the MSGS rules is subtly wrong. It should read: "A card played since your last Turn in the current Round that has not been affect by any other card play." Card Errata No cards in MSGS have had errata issued for them. MYTHOS LIMITED Rule Errata The following important clarification exists for Mythos Limited. Note that in MSGS the rules have undergone several updates and clarifications. These newer rules should be used instead of the out-of-date Limited rules. Combat: One paragraph in the COSMIC BATTLE section in Combat is incorrect, and gives a mistaken impression of how Combat is conducted. The correction is simple: On page 27, delete the last sentence of the COSMIC BATTLE section (Bury all Monsters ... opponent's threat.) Thus, if your DEEP ONE (1 point) battles a FLYING POLYP (5 points), the DEEP ONE absorbs 1 point and your Investigator loses 4 points of Sanity. Only then are the monsters buried. Card Errata The following general card errata has been issued for Mythos Limited: Islands: The old Island travel restrictions have been overriden by the following general rule: "Islands are Special Locations found within Regions. You can not walk or use Travel By Land or Travel by Air cards to go to, from or between Islands, unless Special Effects say otherwise." All old Island cards (R'lyeh, Bal Sagoth, Easter Island, Otaheite, Ponape and Retoka) should have the old text which said "You must use a Travel by Sea card to get to this Location" stricken. Travel By Sea Events: All Travel by Sea events from Limited (Mauretania, Titanic, Tramp Streamer) should have the phrase "Play this card at a Location featuring the water attribute" added to the special effect box of the card. The following specific cards in Mythos Limited have had errata issued: * Asenath Waite Derby - Arkham should be on a Green background. * Become Spectral Hunter - Pentagon should be Yellow. * Book of Dyzan (Atlantean) - Is a Tome, not an Artifact. * Brown University - Should have the University attribute. * Call of Cthulhu - To reroll Investigator, Bury, not Discard, Tome. * Chant of Thoth - Pentagon should be Yellow. * Dominate - Should read "Replace the languages and card benefits of one of your Allies with the target Ally's languages and card benefits, for as long as your Ally remains in play. Flip target Ally." * Faraz Najir - The correct artist is Stephen Barnwell. * K. J. Hooper - Should have Knows English. * Mosque of Ibn Tulan - Is Unique. * Ponape Scripture Hoag Ms. - The background should be Tome/Artifact colored. * Powder of Ibn Ghazi - Should read 'Round', not 'Turn'. * Simon Orne - Should have two Region colors, green and purple. * Summon Great Cthulhu - +13, not +7. * The Necropolis - Should have a Gate swirl. * The Pragmatic Hobo - Should have a Maximum of 7. * The Secret of Power and Glory is Yours! - Should be +6, with +2 for the Sanity gain. * Voola Ritual - Pentagon should be Yellow. -------------------- The Chaosium Digest is an unofficial electronic 'zine about Chaosium's Games. In no way should it be considered representative of the views or beliefs of Chaosium Inc. To submit an article, subscribe or unsubscribe, mail to: appel@erzo.org. The old digests are archived on ftp.csua.berkeley.edu in the directory /pub/chaosium, and may be retrieved via FTP.