An Evening of Murder (pulp style)

 I am blogging again about An Evening of Murder, the murder party series which I really enjoyed when I was younger. This is the back cover from Beyond the Grave, the second box we played, but the very first game of the series. I will share its front cover another time, this post is not about the specific plot, but about the art on the back cover. I always loved its aesthetic, but it is misleading. The games are all whodunits, yet this image calls back to pulp fiction and hardboiled stories, with private eyes, gangsters and femmes fatales. I love it to bits all the same, but it is misleading. Anyway, my two cents.

D&Dr: Downtime

 This picture is (as far as I know) of Dave Dorman, taken from the Dungeon Master's Guide of the second edition of laying Dungeons & Dragons. I always loved it. Anyway, comes a time in a D&Dr campaign when you don't play much. You have been running it for a while, had a few big adventures, the characters have progressed, got stronger, more powerful, and you feel like you are out of ideas. It often happens round this time of year, from my experience anyway. It is therefore time for downtime, and brainstorm your player(s) for inspiration. Any story suggestions from my readers are of course welcome.

About An Evening of Murder

 

You may remember that last month I blogged about the murder party series An Evening of Murder, more specifically Forever Friends, their second entry. My father had sent me pictures of the box sets we kept. Forever Friends was the very first set we bought and the game was in its very early years then. See the back of the box: it looks very cheap, unlike its front cover it is not really immersive, the accent is put on party, not murder, and I think I spotted a typo in the text. It got better, but this is for another post. I also discovered that the games have a Facebook page and a Twitter account. Still called Twitter on their website, so things are not up to date. All the same, I will spend some time there just to get a healthy dose of nostalgia.

An Evening of Murder

A long, long time ago, I blogged about a murder party series we used to love, called An Evening of Murder. Back in the eighties and nineties, it was all the rage among adults, teenagers and, well, sometimes also "old" children. The first we ever played was Forever Friends, localised into (Qébec) French as Éternellement Vôtre, or Eternally Yours. A better title, IMO. I mention localisation, as the character names and the places were all adapted to québécois culture, but for simplicity I will refer to the original English. The setting was a hotel called "the Old Lodge", where a group of college friends reunited, to find one of them murdered. I got hooked. Everybody had something to hide, was guilty of something. A cassette gave you the sounds of the murder, pretty gruesome stuff, introduced by Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor and a rather dark and sinister voice. You could also find in the box set invitation letters, characters sheets, also a booklet with suggestions of disguise, of décor, even a menu for the evening. Sure, the resolution owe nothing to anyone's deductive powers, but oh the atmosphere! And the role play! The fun we had. I will always treasure it.

Medieval Fantasy Read

Anybody among you ever read The Innocent Mage? Or anything by Karen Miller? Anyone? I'm asking the question because I bought it in a thrift sale for Wolfie a few weeks ago, for a quid. I thought at this price, it could not be a bad investment. I don't think he will read it any time soon, at least not by himself, but we do enjoy reading bigger books together, albeit we haven't done it in a while. Maybe it's too grownup for him for now, in which case I might read it by myself. There is another reason for my purchase: I thought I might use it for inspiration for our Dungeons & Dragons game. Wolfie's character is a mage, so it seems like a fitting source.

Lovecraft

Today is an important date in my personal countdown to Halloween calendar: it is the birthday of Howard Phillips Lovecraft. The father of modern and of cosmic horror. I first discovered him via the role playing game Call of Cthulhu, based on his work. I will try to read him today and in the upcoming weeks, it's one of my reading rituals in the months leading to Halloween.

D&Dr Planning

 As Wolfie is on a two weeks and a half holiday and I have plenty of free time, I can spend some quality time with him. I want him to have fun, however I don't want him to spend too much time just playing video games. So we will spend a few afternoonsplaying Dungeons & Dragons in the next few weeks. The next game should be fairly easy to be prepared; Wolfie actually gave me a special request. He wants his player characterto go on a quest in a tower, with villains "a bit like the Pillagers in Minecraft." All right, not exactly the Arthurian legend, but I'd rather him gets inspiration from a videogame for a RPG than the other way round. And I already have some ideas on how to integrate this special request (order?) into the game. So I have some planning to do.

D&Dr for November

November means a lot of things to me: autumn turning into winter, Noirvember (thus crime fiction), but it also means medieval fantasy. And also playing Dungeons & Dragons. Back when Iwas a teenager, November might have been our busiest month, because none of our friends were on holiday and we had little family obligations during weekends, not to mention that the weather was often auspicious to it. So we spent most of our afternoons and some of our evenings playing D&Dr. This is a pleasure that I am rediscovering, as Wolfie has started playing too this year. So for the first time in decades, I am playing D&Dr in November.

Horror on the Orient Express

Decades ago, I used to be a game master for  Call of Cthulhu,the role playing game based on the work of H.P. Lovecraft. Sadly never round Halloween time. It's a shame: it would have been perfect for the season, one more way to enjoy its spooky aspects. I always try to put a bit of Lovecraft flavouring on my Halloween. Anyway, there is one module I have always wanted to try: Horror on the Orient Express. I love trains any time of year and it's no different round Halloween. I blogged very often (and recently) how much they suit the horror genre, having modernity and technology clash with the supernatural. A classic train like the Orient Express is just the perfect horror setting, with the comfort and the cosy atmosphere disturbed by paranormal dangers. Apparently, it's an excellent game, although a highly risky one for the characters. But then again, I would expect no less. Anyway, I hope I can get my hands on it one day and find a few players. For those who enjoyed it, please leave a comment.

Cosmic Horror Day

 Today is the birthday of horror writer H.P. Lovecraft.Not a very pleasant man as a person, but the father of cosmic horror and maybe the father of modern horror, period. His work was also the primary source of inspiration for the role-playing game Call of Cthulhu, which I always loved to play this time of year, for the kick of it, but also to get myself into a Halloween mood during summertime. It is part of the countdown before the countdown, so to speak. I would love to play a game now, just for fun. I am in a spooky mood.

Dungeons & Dragons, Father & Son

To start this post, I will repeat what I often say about being the father of a little boy: it allows me to live a second childhood. It also extends some family traditions. So I am not sure exactly why, but Wolfie suddenly got into medieval fantasy and he told me he wanted to play Dungeons & Dragons. So I bought some dice, dug up some old 2e edition books online as well as the data my brothers put on the clouds, and I started playing with him. Granted, it is a simplified game and we spend at least as much time walking around than sitting at the table throwing dices, but all the same. He plays a young wizard who spent the first few years of his life on an island and is going on the mainland now, with an adventuring party. It is great fun, it takes him off the screen and, to top it off, it allows the whole world created by my brothers and I to take a second life. All these kingdoms, characters, stories, now Wolfie is familiarising himself with it. So yes, let's just say I'm a proud dad.

Playing against Cthulhu

Maybe it is because it feels like autumn is coming these days, maybe because I'm already in a pre Halloween mood, maybe it's because it will be H.P. Lovecraft's birthday soon, but I am so very much in the mood to play a game of Call of Cthulhu, the role-playing game based on his work. We mainly used to play it this time of year. Our last session dates back to something like twenty-five yars ago or so. Maybe more. But to start the officious countdown to Halloween (which is now), a game playing an investigator fighting cosmic horror would be very fitting.

Time for Cosmic Horror

 I mention it every year on this blog, or at least I try to, but anyway, here it is: today is the birthday of horror writer H.P. Lovecraft. Not only is he an unavoidable writer for whoever loves horror stories (whether cosmic horror is your thing or not), but his work also inspired the role-playing game Call of Cthulhu, also a favourite of mine. This time of year, a few decades ago, being a game master at Call of Cthulhu was one of my greatest source of fun and it constantly fuelled my imagination. I consider Lovecraft's birthday one of major the milestones of the countdown to Halloween. And I have been wanting to play a game of Call of Cthulhu again since I last did.

A Time to Harvest

 Earlier this year, searching for topics for my posts for the countdown to Halloween, I stumbled upon an image for a campaign of the role-playing game Call of Cthulhu. Based on the horror stories of H.P. Lovecraft. It was aptly called A Time to Harvest and it has such a cool cover. I haven't played Call of Cthulhu in more than twenty years, but I have always wanted to play a Halloween-centered campaign, on top of my other rituals (mostly binge reading and binge watching horror). I know nothing about this campaign, apart from its title and the image, but it struck me that it would be perfect to play in the weeks leading to Halloween. Mainly because the holiday is closely associated with harvest. In any case, I think it would be fun role play in our own horror story in October.

The Case of Charles Dexter Ward (Discovering Lovecraft)

For today's (first?) countdown to Halloween post, a trip down nostalgia lane and a bit of a reading suggestion. You know that I like reading H.P. Lovecraft. His stories are often part of my spooky reads for the months leading to Halloween. I first discovered it when I was a teenager, learning about the role-playing game Call of Cthulhu. But before I started playing it, I wanted to discover the source material as inspiration, so I borrowed in the library The Case of Charles Dexter Ward. The very version you see here, with the psychedelic cover. The same way I discovered other great horror stories, come to think of it. I thought Lovecraft was a lesser writer than Stoker or Stevenson, but I enjoyed the story and the atmosphere tremendously. I haven't reread it in years, but I might revisit it one day during one of the countdowns to Halloween. You can find it online for free here. It has a Jekyll and Hyde feel to it, even the title is a call back, but in spite of the influences it is very much its own thing, with notions of a vast arcane conspiracy of necromancers that can threaten human civilisation. This is horror on a grand scale. So if you haven't read it, I suggest you make time in the coming weeks.

Monstrum on the Cthulhu Mytho

They are a little bit behind, but I thought I needed to share this video from Monstrum at some point. As you know, it was the birthday of H.P. Lovecraft a week ago. So Monstrum made a video on him three days after, showing why his work is important. They even mentioned the RPG. Well, we can't get enough Lovecraft in the months and weeks leading to Halloween, so here it is:

Cosmic Horror Mood

 Today is the birthday of H.P. Lovecraft. The father of cosmic horror, a whole sub-genre of horror I used to be very fond of when I was a teenager. I prefer smaller scale horror now, but I always loved Lovecraft nevertheless and still enjoy his universe, whether I read his original stories or the one of his continuators. But how I truly enjoyed Lovecraft some more than twenty years ago is via the role-playing game Call of Cthulhu, based on his work. I had read fairly little of him when I bought the game around 1994. You can see here the cover of the French translation of the 5th edition. I only have good memories of it. As Halloween is slowly approaching, I wish I could play a few games to get myself in the right mood. I think Halloween always needs a bit of Lovecraft.

D&Dr anniversary

A fairly recent BBC article about its rising popularity during lockdown reminded me that I have wanted to blog about Dungeons & Dragons this month. Because as you may know (as I try to mention it every year), y brothers and I started the campaign we still play from time to time in August 1992. I don't know when in the month exactly, but it must have been early or in the middle of August. Our first adventure was too long and a bit too large scale for young characters (and inexperienced players): we had to find a parchment with a lost spell on it, in the middle of a sinister forest. We nevertheless had a lot of fun, exploring a sinister forest, finding ruined temple, dark catacombs and an Orcs' lair. And like I said in this post, from this very first game, we had the foundations on which we developed our characters and their world.

The Wire as a videogame

No, no it does not truly exist, but I found this on YouTube a while ago and it really made me laugh. I thought I'd share it today, just to put you in a good mood for a few minutes in the middle of a week where a lot of you must be back at work. Anyway, so The Wire does not have a RPG videogame based on it just yet and it is unlikely that it will have this retro look. That said, if it did exist, I would most definitely want to play it:

D&Dr for Yuletide

This year, for obvious and many reasons, my brothers and I have not been able to gather at Christmas and therefore we could not plau our traditional Dungeons & Dragons gaming session
during the holidays. It's a bit of a shame, as my mind was full of ideas for a game set during winter, what with my latest and very topical reads. It's also sad because not only as this is the only time of year when we can play, but Christmas and winter makes the game all the most atmospheric. That said, I kept notes of the ideas I have been having and we should use them for next year. I have also started getting Wolfie interested about medieval fantasy, but more on that on another post. And I would not finish my post without mentioning the picture accompanying it. It is from Dragon Magazine 218, artwork by Wayne Mondok, who never did anything else for the publication, as far as I know. A shame, as this is one of my favourite picture. This image pictures perfectly the kind of atmosphere we want to convey for our D&Dr played and set in Yuletide. A lone knight on a quest, in a remote place, in snowy midwinter, where anything could happen.