Chaosium Digest Volume 31, Number 8 Date: Friday, June 16, 2000 Number: 1 of 1 Contents: * Nothing but a few announcements. :-( Editor's Note: Well, it's a full moon and there's nothing for the Digest. Too bad... I guess Mr. Boyd's submission last issue intimidated everyone into waiting for the next quarter to send a submission. Just remember, tow weeks from today is the deadline for this quarter's Chaosium Contest. If you want a shot at the new Keepers Companion, get that submission on its way. Otherwise, better luck next quarter. As previously noted, all Call of Cthulhu, Elric! and Nephilim articles qualify for the quarterly Chaosium Contest. Even though they don't count for the contest, I still gladly accept Pendragon, Delta Green and Glorantha submissions. The deadline for the next contest will be June 30th. The winner gets a copy of the upcoming Call of Cthulhu Keepers Companion http://www.chaosium.com/cthulhu/rpg/2388.shtml for their winning Cthulhu, Elric! or Nephilim submission. So, keep those submissions coming! Don't forget to vote for the Origins Awards! ANNOUNCEMENTS * From Chaosium: The Keepers Screen FINALLY Shipping Well our long delayed Keeper Screen (2387) was delayed a little longer when our printer realized just how much work collating a multi-panel screen with all those swell innards and rescheduled the job. Currently, the Screen is expected to arrive this afternoon or tomorrow. We expect the Screen to begin shipping by the end of the week. Huzzah! ORIGINS AWARDS The Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design and GAMA have announced the nominees for this year's Origins Awards. You can view the nominees and vote online at the Academy Webpage: http://www.gama.org/academy/academy.html We're pleased as punch to have our epic campaign Beyond The Mountains of Madness (http://www.chaosium.com/cthulhu/rpg/2380.shtml) nominated for Best Role-playing Adventure of 1999. We're also very happy to see Pagan Publishing's Delta Green: Countdown, nominated for Best Role-playing Supplement of 1999 I strongly encourage everyone out there to swing by the site Academy site and cast your vote. These are the only awards our Industry gives out so please participate! * From Pagan Publishing MUTANT HILLBILLIES TO ASSAULT GENCON The Hills Rise Wild! in August SEATTLE, June 6 -- Pagan Publishing announced today the GenCon release of THE HILLS RISE WILD! (tm), a fast-play miniatures game of monstrous redneck carnage. The game pits two to four players against each other in a blood-soaked fury of monsters, cultists, and magic, as teams of backwoods abominations compete for the ultimate prize: the fabled NECRONOMICON, a book of strange magical power. "Well gaw-lee!" exclaimed publisher and co-designer John Tynes, himself a Tennessee native. "If this ain't the dag-blastedest game I ever set three eyes and six toes on!" (Tynes is the co-creator of DELTA GREEN (tm) and UNKNOWN ARMIES (tm), as well as the card game CREATURES & CULTISTS (tm).) "Shucky dang darn!" concurred co-designer Jesper Myrfors, incongruously enough a native of Sweden. "Bork bork bork!" (Myrfors is the original art director & graphic designer of MAGIC: THE GATHERING (tm), and served as game designer for the early M:TG expansion THE DARK (tm).) THE HILLS RISE WILD! is designed for gamers looking for a simple, fun miniatures game without tons of rules or a huge price tag. It's played on a game board made from 18 swappable tiles, with 32 cards, 24 cardstock miniatures (plus 24 grisly corpses to mark dead characters), and the much-feared Hats: folding markers you hang jauntily on injured characters to mark their status. All components are printed in glorious SquamouScope Color, with character art by Dennis Detwiller and cover art by Richard Pace. Also included are army sheets, a twenty-sided die, a pocket tape measure for rapid rulings, and the awe-inspiring BRUTAL DAMAGE TABLE, where bad things happen to those you love. Pagan expects the game to retail for $29.95. The premise is so simple it's almost ignorant: Old Wizard Whateley has died and left behind his fabled copy of the NECRONOMICON, an ancient tome of blasphemous evil. You've got to ransack the ramshackle shacks of Dunwich and locate the lost Whateley Seal, with which you can open up the magically-warded Whateley Manor and find the NECRONOMICON. Then you take it back to your Summoning Circle, summon the dark god of your choice, and win the game. Of course, the other players aren't going to sit back and watch you win . . . you've got to fight them tooth and claw, strategically using your various characters to their best advantage. Players take the roles of four teams of six characters each: The Marsh Clan, led by the fearsome Captain Obed Marsh. These half-man, half-frog monstrosities have bubbled up from Innsmouth looking for trouble. The Whateley Clan, led by Wilbur Whateley with his pants full of tentacles. Old Wizard cut his no-account kinfolk out of the will, and they're out to claim their bloodright. The DeGhoule Clan, led by the always-hungry Angela DeGhoule. Burrowing up from the cemeteries of Arkham, the DeGhoules are a group of corpse-eating city-folk making a rare foray into rural Massachusetts. The Cult of Ezekiel, led by the mysterious Father Darke. Are they not men? They are not men! This sinister group of robed weirdos has landed from distant shores with a trunkload of trouble. A sneak preview of the game and its SquamouScope brand color components can be found at the publisher's web site: http://www.tccorp.com/ --- The Hills Rise Wild! is a trademark of Jesper Myrfors and John Tynes. Magic: The Gathering and The Dark are trademarks of Hasbro, Inc. Delta Green is a trademark of the Delta Green Partnership. Unknown Armies is a trademark of Greg Stolze and John Tynes. **Upcoming Releases from Chaosium** JUNE >CALL OF CTHULHU Keeper's Screen #2387 $14.95 ISBN 1-56882-149-2 http://www.chaosium.com/cthulhu/rpg/2387.shtml At the printer! CALL OF CTHULHU KEEPERS (Keepers of Forbidden Lore) can now keep their secrets in style. This new three panel Keeper's Screen is jam-packed with vital GM information presented in any easy to use at a glance format. The player's side of the screen features awesome Philippe Caza artwork worthy of its own sanity check. This product includes a new introductory scenario perfect for beginning investigators and keepers alike, as well as three 4-page game aids (weapons table with an alien weapons section, a new 4-page summary of rule book spells, and some character sheet masters to jump-start your new Call of Cthulhu game). JULY >The Yellow Sign & Other Tales THE COMPLETE WEIRD FICTION OF ROBERT W. CHAMBERS 6023 $19.95 ISBN 1-56882-126-3 by Robert W. Chambers http://www.chaosium.com/cthulhu/fiction/6023.shtml This massive collection brings together, for the first time ever and with much of the material unprinted since the 1890's, the entire body of Robert W. Chambers' weird fiction work. Chambers is considered a landmark author in the horror field for his _King in Yellow_ collection, but that is just a small part of his weird fiction output. The Yellow Sign & Other Stories brings together tales from five different Chambers collections, and also includes the novel _In Search of the Unknown_ and an excerpt from the novel _The Tracer of Lost Persons_. These stories are also connected to the Cthulhu mythos, for they introduce concepts such as Hali, Hastur, and Carcosa. Selected and edited by S.T. Joshi. --