MU Podcast Episodes – Miskatonic University Podcast

This episode, Keepers Dave, and Murph welcomes back, (for the "first" time), authors Jo Kreil and Dean Englehardt, where they discuss Mythos apocalypses and their new game, Apocthulhu. Enjoy! Campus Crier The Campus Crier is the Miskatonic University’s student newspaper. This edition was collected on July 30th, 2020. Just a quick note about programming here at MUP. As you might have noticed in the leadin we have expanded our coverage area. We at MUP have all been playing more and more games in the generic horror and dark fantasy genres recently, and we wanted to talk about those games on the show more often. So we will be. So expect some more talks about Alien RPG, Mork Borg, and Symbaroum in addition to our normal coverage of CoC, Delta Green, Gumshoe, etc. And expect our lead-in to shift as we find a new line that we can all live with. We don’t think this will be that big of a shift for many of our listeners, but we wanted to be upfront and let you know. There will be an Live Play of Harlem Unbound over at the Darker Hue Twitch channelthat has some pretty awesome talent lined up to play including Misha B, Ariel Celeste, Jennifer Kretchmer, Matthew Mercer, Quinn Murphy. You can watch the game August 16th at 2pm Eastern time on Twitch. Chaosium released a surprise pair of scenarios on June 30th, just in time for GenCon2020. Does Love Forgive? provides users with a pair of one-on-one scenarios called “Love You To Death” and “Mask of Desire”. Both scenarios were originally released earlier this year in Poland by authors Airis Kaminska and Anna Maria Mazur. The English version lists Lynne Hardy as author as well. This looks like an awesome pair of adventures and you can get the PDF from Chaosium.com and DriveThruRPG for $6. Free League have announced a release date for the Alien RPG Starter Set and the Destroyer of Worlds setting! Both products will be available on September 8th! But you can pre-order them both now at the Free League store. The Vaesen RPG has been released! I received my physical copy in the mail last week, and it is really nice. Anyone interested can now purchase the game from your favorite retailer. Free League also has a Live Play of the game that is going online July 31st. So check that out if you want to see how this is supposed to be run. Lovecraftesque is looking for writers!  "Lovecraftesque Companion - call for writers - We are planning to publish a Lovecraftesque Companion, of scenarios, campaigns, essays and tools for Lovecraftesque, and perhaps other cosmic horror games. We want to hire diverse writers from around the world. You can express interest using a linked form." For those who don't know it, Lovecraftesque is an awarding-winning GMless storytelling game of creeping cos...

This episode, Keepers Dave, Jon, and Murph welcomes President of Golden Goblin Press, Oscar Rios. Golden Goblin Press is about to launch a new Kickstarter for a pair of short story collections, so we thought it'd be a great time to read some short stories and discuss them. Enjoy! Campus Crier The Campus Crier is the Miskatonic University’s student newspaper. This edition was collected on July 16th, 2020. One Book Shelf, the company behind DriveThruRPG has informed Chaosium that starting immediately they are suspending Print On Demand options for items within the Miskatonic Repository. Going forward only titles with Electrum status (250 sales or more) will have the POD status.  This is the same as a rule that DM’s Guild has had in place for some time now. The reasoning for the change is due to OBS just being swamped. Good Friends of Jackson Elias Con has ended and it was a lot of fun! Jon ran some games, that I’m sure he will talk about endlessly in just a few minutes. Congrats to  the Good Friends for putting together a wonderful online convention. MUP Patreon If you haven’t heard yet, we have redesigned our Patreon and so far  the feedback has been all positive! We are greatly appreciative of you,  our listeners, and would ask that if you can please back us! Our next  goal in funding will pay our worthy editors for their time! Also all  backers, regardless of level will have access to the outtakes reel that  we are going to put out on a special RSS feed from Patreon! To back us  you can click the button on the sidebar of our website, mu-podcast.com or head over to Patreon directly at www.patreon.com/mup! MUP Discord MU Discord server invite link: https://discord.gg/vNjEv9D Contact MUP Keepers You can email the podcast, and give us a hearty “Go Pods!”, at mup.feedback@gmail.com. Main Topic Oscar Rios, President of Golden Goblin Press, returns to talk about short stories. GGP is about to launch "Growing Up / Overnight: Two Horror Short Story Collections," a Kickstarter for a pair of cosmic horror short story anthologies. The first is Children of Lovecraft Country: An Eldritch Legacy, and the other is Between Twilight & Dawn. For the episode discussion, the guest and hosts each read one or more stories. Please listen to the episode for the full discussion. The stories we read are: Oscar Rios read: The Shortest Way, by David Drake, published in Vettius and his Friends. Keeper Jon read: The Future Eats Everything, by Don Webb, published in The Mammoth Book of Cthulhu, and The Horror Out of Time, by Randall Garrett, published in Acolytes of Cthulhu.

<figure></figure>In this episode, Keeper Murph returns from his  yearly sabbatical to speak with Keepers Jon & Dave about diversity  in the RPG  market-space and how we can affect change by voting with our  dollars. Huge thanks should be given to Jo Kriel and Dean Englehardt for  recording a different episode 203 twice before that was lost due to  technical issues on our side. This episode was recorded on July 5th, 2020. More trouble is brewing at Dark Onyx Press and DriveThruRPG as yet another employee has been accused of sexual misconduct. Matt McElroy the operations manager at Onyx Path and an employee at  DriveThruRpg had been accused of grooming, gaslighting, and abuse. This  is coming just days after his predecessor, Shane DuFreest (not employed  with Onyx Path), at DTRPG was accused of rape.This is a tragedy for Jaym, the accuser. And it appears that Onyx  Path is in CYA mode. They have stopped the sale of the Vampire line of  books which contains art from DuFreest from the White Wolf days. And  they are suspending McElroy and doing an internal investigation, while  also asking him to attend sensitivity training. In an article in GeekNative, it appears that the accuser attempted to  tell Onyx Path of the abuse before going public, but it fell on deaf  ears. They mention hiring a new HR manager to make sure that doesn’t  happen in the future.Needless to say, these are extremely disturbing allegations stemming  from actions that should never have taken place. All of us here at MUP  stand with the accusers and demand that this sort of systemic abuse, and  the abusers that cause it, be removed from the hobby that we all love.Jacym’s accusation: https://www.facebook.com/mornara/posts/10157255496355753McElroy’s Response: https://www.facebook.com/matt.m.mcelroy/posts/10157540571638443Fans of Berlin: The Wicked City have a resource available to them, it’s a wikipedia article with terms, concepts and ideas that are useful to understanding the political situation in the Weimar Republic. Comic book writer (and super-cool dude), Cullen Bunn is about to  write an illustrated sequel to H. P. Lovecraft’s Re-Animator. Bunn’s  project is titled, “Reanimator: The External Lie.”  The graphic novel is soon to be available for pre-order through  IndieGoGo. The link in the show notes opens a sight for interested fans  to sign up for a newsletter so they can be informed once the IndieGoGo  funding site goes live. For your quarantine listening pleasure, the nearly 3 ½ hour long BBC 4 radio drama of Steven King’s story, Salem’s Lot, is available for free on YouTube. Indie game designer Orion D. Black  (them/their), known for “plot  Armor” and “Mutants in the Night” has quit Wizards of the Coast citing  racism, plagiarism, and generally crap behavior on Wizard’s part. Their  struggle with WotC culminated as the BLM movement forced the company to  make a recent statement that they valued their employees’ diversity and  will be redesigning the races within D&D to eliminate the presence  of “evil races,” a move that while lauded, many say should have come  about years ago.

This episode, Keepers Dave and Jon welcome guests Kat Welsford and Vi Huntsman. Kat and Vi helped create an amazing anthology of RPG adventures titled, Dissident Whispers, and they're here to talk about that project. Enjoy! The Old Ways Podcast The Old Ways Podcast is a weekly Call of Cthulhu actual play “slow-burn” style radio drama where a great group serves up entertainment to you using new and published scenarios. With two seasons of material, listeners begin their journey with the investigators in 1920s Chicago, as they sink into the blood-soaked ground of Windy City horror. Season two picks up as they dive head-long into Chaosium’s legendary Masks of Nyarlathotep campaign where the investigators pull at the very threads which herald the end of days.  With more than 35 hours of available content, they’ve got you covered for all your sanity destroying quarantine needs! The Old Ways Podcast is available on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and many more! Snag the RSS Feed and never miss our Mythos Monday episode drop!  Find them on Facebook, Twitter, or deep in the Miskatonic University library’s Restricted Section desperately hunting for the right dusty occult tome!" Campus Crier The Campus Crier is the Miskatonic University's student newspaper. This edition was collected on June 18th, 2020. Roleplaying giant, Wizards of the Coast, publishers of Dungeons & Dragons, has issued a statement about diversity in their game. They are modifying the types of playable characters so that certain species are not portrayed with inherent traits -- orc players do not have a penalty to their intelligence, for example. The article is informative and enlightening. It seems like fans can find similar conversations about diversity on a variety of social media platforms and websites, too. For example, Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG News site was also linked on Facebook with a robust conversation on the topic. The Good Friends of Jackson Elias podcast and its listeners are having a virtual convention, and they’re calling it The Good Friends of Jacks-Con Elias virtual RPG convention. The Good Friends themselves will be in attendance, along with hosts of the Miskatonic University Podcast, How We Roll, Ain’t Slayed Nobody, and possibly more to come. The convention will take place over the weekend of the 9th-12th of July 2020. People from all over the world are offering games around the clock. Game sign-ups go live on the 1st of July. While the main focus is Call of Cthulhu, there are plenty of other games on offer, including Tales From the Loop, Dungeon Crawl Classics, Unknown Armies, Kult, and the new Alien RPG. The planning for the event is taking place on the Good Friends Discord server, although by the time this episode goes out, we will also have details on blasphemoustomes.com. (Discord server link: https://discord.gg/5xzvNZj ) And, Chaosium has just released the 2-book volume of the new Malleous Monstrorum!!! It’s huge and amazing.

This episode, Keepers Jon and Dave play a game of Call of Cthulhu! The scenario is titled "The Silent Clowder," and it was exclusively available to backers of Goodman Games' Kickstarter to fund Keeper Jon's book, Age of Cthulhu #9: The Lost Expedition. Enjoy! The Old Ways Podcast The Old Ways Podcast is a weekly Call of Cthulhu actual play “slow-burn” style radio drama where a great group serves up entertainment to you using new and published scenarios. With two seasons of material, listeners begin their journey with the investigators in 1920s Chicago, as they sink into the blood-soaked ground of Windy City horror. Season two picks up as they dive head-long into Chaosium’s legendary Masks of Nyarlathotep campaign where the investigators pull at the very threads which herald the end of days.  With more than 35 hours of available content, they’ve got you covered for all your sanity destroying quarantine needs! The Old Ways Podcast is available on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and many more! Snag the RSS Feed and never miss our Mythos Monday episode drop!  Find them on Facebook, Twitter, or deep in the Miskatonic University library’s Restricted Section desperately hunting for the right dusty occult tome!" The Silent Clowder This is an unusual episode... no news, no card catalog, no listening room... just Jon and Dave as they play a quick game of Call of Cthulhu. This adventure is one of Keeper Jon's "Isolated Investigator" adventures, designed to be played with one Keeper and one investigator.

This episode, the whole Keeper Krew is back! Keepers Dan, Chad, Murph, Dave, and Jon talk about everything. It goes off the rails far and wide. Enjoy! The Old Ways Podcast The Old Ways Podcast is a weekly Call of Cthulhu actual play “slow-burn” style radio drama where a great group serves up entertainment to you using new and published scenarios. With two seasons of material, listeners begin their journey with the investigators in 1920s Chicago, as they sink into the blood-soaked ground of Windy City horror. Season two picks up as they dive head-long into Chaosium’s legendary Masks of Nyarlathotep campaign where the investigators pull at the very threads which herald the end of days.  With more than 35 hours of available content, they’ve got you covered for all your sanity destroying quarantine needs! The Old Ways Podcast is available on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and many more! Snag the RSS Feed and never miss our Mythos Monday episode drop!  Find them on Facebook, Twitter, or deep in the Miskatonic University library’s Restricted Section desperately hunting for the right dusty occult tome!" Campus Crier The Campus Crier is the Miskatonic University's student newspaper. This edition was collected on May 21st, 2020. (Former Keeper) Chad and a co-host from his mysterious past named Jason have launched HyperLab Omni, a podcast that uses Omni magazines as a lens to examine the weird, sci-fi nature of our present. Recording started more than a year ago, and about 15 episodes are already in the can. It'll be one "season" that covers Omni issues from 1979, with all kinds of riffs on short stories, art, philosophy, science, and high weirdness. We might end up with about 20-25 episodes for the season. They run so far on average about 40 minutes. An electronic music composer from the Bay Area created an original intro theme for the show AND original underscore music that uses AI and generative processes to make freaky, spacey stuff. Check out the super weird side of Keeper Chad at HyperLabOmni.com. Sound design and music is by Nathan Moody. Visit nathanmoody.bandcamp.com to hear more from him.  Pelgrane Press just published a cool set of tables on the News page of their website that they’re calling “More Hideous Randomness.” Keepers can use the tables to generate a Mythos mystery for the investigators to explore. Don’t expect a cohesive mystery from a set of randomized tables, but they can be used to energize and kickstart the Keeper’s imagination.  Reanimator Incorporated is a graphic novel being funded on Kickstarter now. At the time of this recording, it has 26 days remaining, and it’s already fully funded, and then some. Quoting from the Kickstarter, “Based on H.P. Lovecraft’s ‘Herbert West - Reanimator’, Reanimator Incorporated: Chapter One is a complete reimagining of the original story. Taking inspiration from Lovecraft’s original text, and from Gordon’s 80s movie adaptation, this 72-page graphic novel modernises West’s machinations, whilst weaving literary mythology (Lovecraftian and beyond) into the tale. Think Reanimator meets From Beyond, with a splash of Dante’s Inferno, a dab of King’s Pet Sematary… And then some…”  No surprise, if you haven’t already heard, both

This episode, Keepers Jon, Dave and Murph talk to Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu Line Editor, Mike Mason, about the upcoming releases from Chaosium and playing Call of Cthulhu in different time periods. Noble Knight Games This episode is generously sponsored by Noble Knight Games. They have the largest selection of out-of-print games in the world. Including a huge selection of Lovecraftian RPG game books. They even stock Age of Cthulhu books! If you're collecting any of Chaosium's new or vintage Call of Cthulhu game books, then you really need to check out Noble Knight Games. Noble Knight Games has generously offered a special discount code for MUP listeners. If you go to their website, you can use the code NOBLETONIC for 10% off your entire order. This code is valid through 5/9/2020. During these times of actual pandemic crisis, now is a perfect time to game online with your friends. And you can get your gaming materials from Noble Knight Games at a discount! Campus Crier The Campus Crier is the Miskatonic University's student newspaper. This edition was collected on April 23rd, 2020. Chaosium has released another SRD, this time for the HeroQuest system originally designed by Robin Laws, and is called QuestWorlds. The system can now be used by creators as a base for different genre packs that can be written for the base ruleset. From the files of the “Strange but True” news desk we have discovered a Cthulhu Suncatcher is currently being funded on Kickstarter. Actually, this project is already funded, so it is going to happen. It is a sculpture of Great Cthulhu poking his head through a R’lyehian portal. It will be cast in a color-tinted resin so sunlight can pass through it. This sculpture was created by the artists of Mythos Monsters.com.  If you’re stuck at home during this time of pandemic, and you’re eager for some entertainment, then be sure to check out Chaosium’s YouTube channel, where there are several multi-part actual plays of some of their published and soon-to-be-published adventures, including A Cold Fire Within and The Dead Within.  In that same vein, be sure to also check out the Into the Darkness YouTube channel. They have an impressive catalog of Call of Cthulhu actual plays for you to choose from, including Masks of Nyarlathotep, The Two-Headed Serpent, and The Pipeline.  Just released on YouTube is the latest Investigative Roleplaying Masterclass, by Pelgrane Press’ Kenneth Hite, Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan, Cat Tobin, Ruth Tillman, and it’s moderator Robin D. Laws. They talk about how to conduct an investigative roleplay game, and it features examples from the GUMSHOE line of tabletop rpgs.  Also listen to Keeper Murph play in the Peru Chapter of Masks of Nyarlathotep on the How We Roll Podcast!

This episode, Keepers Jon, Dave and Murph talk to author, Chad Bowser, about the new 3rd edition of Cthulhu Dark Ages. Noble Knight Games This episode is generously sponsored by Noble Knight Games. They have the largest selection of out-of-print games in the world. Including a huge selection of Lovecraftian RPG game books. They even stock Age of Cthulhu books! If you're collecting any of Chaosium's new or vintage Call of Cthulhu game books, then you really need to check out Noble Knight Games. Noble Knight Games has generously offered a special discount code for MUP listeners. If you go to their website, you can use the code NOBLETONIC for 10% off your entire order. This code is valid through 5/9/2020. During these times of actual pandemic crisis, now is a perfect time to game online with your friends. And you can get your gaming materials from Noble Knight Games at a discount! Campus Crier The Campus Crier is the Miskatonic University's student newspaper. This edition was collected on April 9th, 2020. Reckoning of the Dead’s Matt Ryan has a brand new podcast that he’s doing with his family. Matt is running his wife and daughter through the adventures in the House of R’lyeh book as a loose campaign. His new podcast is called Reckoning of the Dead Radio, and it’s available on Spotify and iTunes. Matt’s calling his actual play episodes, “The Ryan’s in R’lyeh!” Chaosium has released their BRP SRD. The BRP Systems Reference Document (SRD) contains guidelines for publishing content under the BRP Open-Gaming License. The Miskatonic Repository continues to grow with some amazing content. Including, A Tableau of Red, by Helen Yau. This is an amazing modern adventure set in Barcelona. The teaser blurb for the scenario: “For the past few weeks, summer school artist Cesar Dominguez has been dreaming of a strange world. Walking through a landscape of vivid colours and patterns, his vision pulsates in time with discordant melodies and whispers. Strange moving shapes in the corner of his sight have been urging him to share his visions with others, so they too can join in the harrowing beauty.” The PDF is less than $5, and the production quality is outstanding. Check it out.  With physical conventions off the table for the moment, Pelgrane Press is cooking up a series of virtual panels over on our newly bustling YouTube channel. To kick things off Ken and Robin entered the Dreamlands of Zoom to take questions from a crew of stalwart volunteers. Now you too can watch as they nerdtrope the 100 Years War, share online RPG play tips, blackguard Joseph Campbell, praise Charles Portis, contemplate socially distant game snacks, and more. The COVID-19 virus has impacted another convention; the Origins Game Fair has been postponed to October, and Origins Online is now scheduled for June. Fans and attendees should consult the Origins website for further details. MUP Discord Here is an invitation link to our Discord server: https://discord.gg/vNjEv9D MUP Patreon If you haven’t heard yet, we have redesigned our Patreon and so far the feedback has been all pos...

This episode, Keepers Dave and Murph talk about what to do when things go wrong at the table. Noble Knight Games This episode is generously sponsored by Noble Knight Games. They have the largest selection of out-of-print games in the world. Including a huge selection of Lovecraftian RPG game books. They even stock Golden Goblin Press books! If you're collecting any of Chaosium's new or vintage Call of Cthulhu game books, then you really need to check out Noble Knight Games. Noble Knight Games has generously offered a special discount code for MUP listeners. If you go to their website, you can use the code NOBLETONIC for 10% off your entire order. This code is valid through 5/9/2020. During these times of actual pandemic crisis, now is a perfect time to game online with your friends. And you can get your gaming materials from Noble Knight Games at a discount! Campuc Crier The Campus Crier is the Miskatonic University's student newspaper. This edition was collected on March 26th, 2020. These are uncertain times we live in. Many of our listeners of this show are under some form of quarantine, whether self-imposed or mandated. And all of us just wanted to reach out and remind people to try and keep in touch with people, even in a world of increasing social distancing.  Amidst all of the uneasiness and stress, remember to take care of yourselves as well. Our community as a whole has a known issue with mental illness, it is something that Keeper Murph has struggled with for decades. And we just want to remind people that are working from home for the first time, (or that have been stuck inside their houses for days on end), to not close themselves off to those people around you that are willing to listen. If you are feeling alone and need someone to talk to reach out to someone. Anyone. Our own Discord server has a lot of nice people on it, likewise with the Good Friends of Jackson Elias's, and many many others. Please don't get lost inside worries and stresses and forget to take care of yourself.  So if you are already feeling alone, or worried that you might be soon, you can always email us at mup.feedback@gmail.com, or catch us on the Discord server. Someone will listen. You are not alone. During this Coronavirus crisis, Chaosium is trying to help those who may never have played an RPG online before. So they posed on their website a guide to online gaming, and how to get started. The webpage is filled with tips and options on how you can get into online gaming if that’s something you’ve never done before.  The new 2nd edition of Chris Spivey’s Harlem Unbound is now available in PDF. This new edition expands upon the first edition with 4 new scenarios, (for a total of 7 in the book), unique investigator occupations tailored for the Harlem setting, new Mythos creatures, new pre-generated investigators that are ready to play, a random scenario generator, and guidelines on how to address racism in gaming. With the Coronavirus pandemic keeping people indoors, Chaosium has made their Call o...

This episode Keepers Dave immerses himself into the show by asking Keepers Jon and Murph some probing questions. And Jon & Murph interview Julian Simpson, the writer and creator of the Case of Charles Dexter Ward and The Whisperer in Darkness audio programs for BBC Radio4. Noble Knight Games This episode is generously sponsored by Noble Knight Games. They have the largest selection of out-of-print games in the world. Including a huge selection of Lovecraftian RPG game books. They even stock Golden Goblin Press books! If you're collecting any of Chaosium's new or vintage Call of Cthulhu game books, then you really need to check out Noble Knight Games. Noble Knight Games has generously offered a special discount code for MUP listeners. If you go to their website, you can use the code NOBLETONIC for 10% off your entire order. This code is valid through 5/9/2020. During these times of actual pandemic crisis, now is a perfect time to game online with your friends. And you can get your gaming materials from Noble Knight Games at a discount! Campus Crier The Campus Crier is the Miskatonic University's student newspaper. This edition was collected on March 9th, 2020. Chaosium released a statement on March 5th to say that they are no longer working with Chris Spivey and Darker Hue studios on the planned Afro-Jewish Space RPG titled, Kadimah. It seems that the pair are still working together on other projects, however. Spivey’s own super-hero themed sourcebook for Pulp Cthulhu and the re-release of Harlem Unbound 2nd Ed. are still happening with Chaosium. Chaosium’s executive editor James Lowder cites the development of the Rivers of London line and the expansion of Pendragon and 7th Sea as the reasoning behind the split, and says that “Spivey is a talented designer… We hope to see his name alongside the Chaosium dragon for years to come.” And speaking of Chris Spivey, he is one of the contributing writers on the new Dune: Adventures in the Imperium RPG coming out from Modiphius Entertainment. Like their Conan and Star Trek RPGs, Dune will utilize the 2d20 engine. Modiphius is looking to roll out the Dune RPG during the 2020 end of year holiday season, and into 2021.  Artist Sara Bardi is doing a Kickstarter for Eldritch Tarot, a complete tarot deck that features her art of the Cthulhu Mythos. I’ve actually backed this to get a physical copy because I love Sara’s artwork and these cards look fantastic! Free League announced that they are partnering with Sophisticated Games to publish the popular One Ring roleplaying game that is set in Middle-Earth and based on the books by J.R.R. Tolkien. Francesco Nepitello, author of the game series alongside Marco Maggi, will continue as its lead designer. They also announced that they will produce a 5E iteration of the game to boot. Quiet & Bold: Consultants Paraordinary

This episode Keepers Murph and Dave, (along with guest Keeper Matt Wiseman, via email), judge a monster creation contest between Keeper Jon and the president of Golden Goblin Press, Oscar Rios. And Jon & Murph interview MAtt Madigan about his new Kickstarter, The Grand Tower Hotel. Noble Knight Games This episode is generously sponsored by Noble Knight Games. They have the largest selection of out-of-print games in the world. Including a huge selection of Lovecraftian RPG game books. They even stock Golden Goblin Press books! If you're collecting any of Chaosium's new or vintage Call of Cthulhu game books, then you really need to check out Noble Knight Games. Campus Crier This episode was recorded on February 27th, 2020. One of Chaosium’s newest videos on their YouTube channel is of Keeper Jon doing an unboxing of the Gateways to Terror book. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tg7Z7oDHlHM&t=69s Guest from last episode Ruth Tillman’s Kickstarter finished and funded at 227 backers pledged $4,029. I backed while recording the last episode, and it looks really good. In other Kickstarter news, backers of the Cthulhu Alphabet are finally receiving their books! Jon did an unboxing video for the contributor copies for it too. These are some fantastic looking books. The Cthulhu Alphabet is filled with fun tables to spice-up your Mythos themed game, regardless of the game system.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdfptlZTLoY Britannia & Beyond Kickstarter set to launch March 13th.  A setting for Cthulhu Invictus detailing the province of Britannia, and the barbarian kingdoms of Caledonia and Hibernia.  Main author Stuart Boon, supporting authors Oscar Rios, Jeffrey Moeller, William Adcock, Editing by Jeffrey Moeller, Art by Alberto Guerra, maps by Gregg Shipp and Alyssa Faden, layout and design by Mark Shireman, special pendants and idol by Joe Broers. MUP Patreon If you haven’t heard yet, we have redesigned our Patreon and so far the feedback has been all positive! We are greatly appreciative of you, our listeners, and would ask that if you can please back us! Our next goal in funding will pay our worthy editors for their time! Also all backers, regardless of level will have access to the outtakes reel that we are going to put out on a special RSS feed from Patreon! To back us you can click the button on the sidebar of our website, mu-podcast.com or head over to Patreon directly at www.patreon.com/mup! We have some backers that need to be named this episode! Fred! Chris! Scriven! Stefan! Listening Room Since Oscar Rios is a guest in this episode, we also have the final installment of the third season of the Glimpses into the Empire series. This episode recounts the tale of Rome's Greatest Wife. Interview Jon and Murph speak with Matt Madigan about his kickstarter, The Grand Tower Hotel. For more information, visit the Kickstarter page here. Main Topic -- A Clash of Jellyfish Shark Titans!!! This all started when a friend of Oscar's, Justin Mansfield, (Oscar's ancient language specialist),

This episode Keepers Murph and Jon catch up with Ruth Tillman as they discuss her Kickstarter, Snake People: A Post-Apocalyptic Story Game, and her contribution to Black Star Magic, a supplement for the Yellow King RPG. Campus Crier This episode was recorded on February 13th, 2020. Free League Publishing has announced their community content program over on DriveThruRPG! So fans can now upload scenarios for Mutant: Year Zero, Coriolis: The Third Horizon, Forbidden Lands, and Symbaroum!  Pelgrane Press has released its version of the Yellow Sign into the Public Domain, allowing anyone to use it personally or commercially. You can get the Yellow Sign Image Pack, which has 17 different variations of The Sign from their website. The first episode of the Dead of Winter Live Play event with Mike Mason as GM is now up on Youtube for those of us that missed the livestream even on Twitch.  Modiphius Entertainment has announced another RPG this time based on the popular Dishonored video game series. The 300 page core book using the 2d20 system is slated to be released in Summer of 2020. Discord Invitation: https://discord.gg/vNjEv9D MUP Patreon If you haven’t heard yet, we have redesigned our Patreon and so far the feedback has been all positive! We are greatly appreciative of you, our listeners, and would ask that if you can please back us! Our next goal in funding will pay our worthy editors for their time! Also all backers, regardless of level will have access to the outtakes reel that we are going to put out on a special RSS feed from Patreon! To back us you can click the button on the sidebar of our website, mu-podcast.com or head over to Patreon directly at www.patreon.com/mup! We have some backers that we need to thank! Republic of Folk Thanks so much for backing us! And a special thanks to Professor Rondy Reeves, who is the Head of the Tobacco Studies and Smoking Department at Miskatonic University. Graham’s Card Catalog This week’s Card Catalog comes from Graham over on the #card-catalog channel on the Discord server! The Proper People is a YouTube channel that explores abandoned buildings and is filled with loads of creepy locations that GMs could use in their games. For the more tech savvy of you, you might be able to play particular clips of walking down hallways to your players to get them more involved. Listening Room This episode Mr. Tyler is back! This time to speak about his favorite Cannibalism Story! You don't want to miss this one; download and listen to the episode now! Main Topic Keepers Jon and Murph catch up with Ruth Tillman to discuss ...

In this episode Keepers Murph and Jon are joined by our Discord friend, Ambermancer to talk about using classic monsters in your Lovecraftian games. This episode was recorded on January 30th, 2020. Campus Crier Black Star Magic! Investigators in the Yellow King RPG, from Pelgrane Press, gain the use of mind-bending spells! Playtesting is set to begin soon on the new QuickShock Gumshoe supplement. The book is said to contain 144 spells and 4 scenarios.  Close friend of the show and all around awesome guy Jason McKittrick is bringing back the Cryptocurium Inner Sanctum after five long years of laying dormant. The new offering has a preview of what is included in the three different tiers, with more info coming out on the 31st. Right now they are priced at $100, $200, & $300 dollars. And they look amazing. Mike Mason is playtesting the new campaign from Tim Wiseman, Dead of Winter on Twitch.tv and then on YouTube starting on February 4th at 8pm. If you haven’t had a chance to watch Mike in action, then this is the spot to watch a great GM at work. “The Dead of Winter is an epic story of intrigue, love, and horror set in 1929 across London and Russia. The strange reappearance of people long gone from the investigators’ lives precedes the arrival of two curious letters, both asking for help from unexpected sources. The investigators are drawn into a series of events taking them far from home and into the unfamiliar and potentially dangerous landscape of Soviet Russia where friends may be enemies and enemies might be friends.” Speaking of the Chaosium YouTube channel, Mike Mason has been doing some interviews there the latest is with friends of the show and a good friends of mine, Christopher Smith Adair, Paul Fricker, and Brian Courtemanche! This month is New Gamemaster Month! If you know someone who would like to run a game, or perhaps you yourself would like to, then there are a number of resources at the links below to help you out! The NewGmaeMasterMonth website has a series of posts that help to start and plan out your first session and each post is specifically geared towards Numenera, Unknown Armies, Trail of Cthulhu, and 7th Sea. Monte Cook Games is releasing a horror game add-on for the new Cypher System RPG, called Stay Alive. You can pre-order the game now at their website for $44.95 and it ships in February. The art in this looks awesome, it’s Monte Cook Games written by Charles Ryan who has done writing for just about everything, and I’ve got a growing interest in the Cypher system so this looks pretty cool! And for your meat-space games there is a new Kickstarter offering a solution to the lack of space at the gaming table. The Level Up is a raised gaming platform for miniatures that provides a 24”x36” tiled base that is lifted 6 inches from the tabletop. This project has funded already with 28 days left as of recording. It’s a novel and useful idea to provide more space and sort of acts li...

This episode Keepers Murph, Jon, & Dave talk about how you can scale encounters to fit your group of investigators. Campus Crier We received some exciting news from Chaosium today that a project, (believed to be dead) has risen from the depths! Cthulhu: Dark Ages 2nd Edition is coming! The new edition has been completely updated by Chad Bowser, Andi Newton, Mike Mason, & James Holloway to fit 7th Edition rules. There is a new optional Sanity mechanic to mirror the medieval mindset, rules for the oral tradition of storytelling, rules for mounted combat, spells, folk magic, a full bestiary, and a fully fleshed out Anglo-Saxon community of Totburh in England’s Severn Valley.  The book is 272 pages, 8.5x11 hardcover. The PDF will be released in February 2020, with the physical book coming out in May 2020; it will retail for $44.95! Aint Slayed Nobody is a new actual play podcast for the Down Darker Trails flavor of Call of Cthulhu.  Stygian Fox has released the PDF for the New Tales of the Miskatonic Valley 2ed for Call of Cthulhu, and is now available for sale on DriveThruRPG. Looks great from top to bottom, and the updated maps and design really do it service. And speaking of Stygian Fox, they have a pack available on Bundle of Holding currently. But more importantly, there is a little bit of insight into the company that is somewhat surprising that was included in the Bundle of Holding email that was sent out. Apparently Steve Turner from Britannia Game Design is “is administering the funds from this Bundle offer to help bring Stygian's New Tales of the Miskatonic Valley and The Wild Hunt across the finish line.”  Discussed on YSDC. YSDC has started another podcast! Beyond the Vale has just one episode released as of this recording which features Paul Baldowski of Just Crunch Games about The Dee Sanction – a game of Covert Enochian Intelligence. They are releasing the show in two formats, The Outer World which is open to all, and The Inner World which is available only to YSDC Patrons. Casting the Runes - a Gumshoe investigations based on the ghost and suspense stories of MR James - is live on KickStarter  https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/castingtherunes/casting-the-runes Mystery Adventure for 5e D&D is doing smoking hot on KickStarter Return to Dark Tower is ALSO live on KickStarter Patreon If you haven’t heard yet, we have redesigned our Patreon and so far the feedback has been all positive! We are greatly appreciative of you, our listeners, and would ask that if you can please back us! Our next goal in funding will pay our worthy editors for their time! Also all backers, regardless of level will have access to the outtakes reel that we are going to put out on a special RSS feed from Patreon! To back us you can click the button on the sidebar of our website,

In this episode, Keepers Jon, Murph and special guest Dave Sokolowski talk about what makes modern horror modern. Campus Crier The recently funded Vaesen RPG has released some alpha material to backers that includes monster descriptions, plot hooks, a weakness, and a ritual, along with some new unpublished art! They have a cool section on “Horror, Mystery and Adventure” which delineates between different modes of play -- it’s a cool way to clarify up front what the game will be like. In case you didn’t realize the guys who rebooted Sherlock for the BBC have a new reboot of Dracula that has been released on Netflix in the US. The entire three-episode series is available now. Also from the world of Kickstarter , backers for the Cthulhu 1968: Black Sun 28mm skirmish game have been given the full color PDF ruleset of the game according to their lastest post on the Kickstarter page. Roll20 has finally has added Call of Cthulhu to their popular online virtual tabletop system. The Call of Cthulhu Keeper Bundle sells for $54.95 and includes the Rules Compendium, 2 scenario modules Crimson Letters & Amidst the Ancient Trees, and a Character Art Pack. Inside are “over 30 NPCs and monsters, tables, macros, and pre-generated characters.” It looks like there is a new CoC character sheet to go along with all that as well. MU Discord server invite link MUP Patreon If you haven’t heard yet, we have redesigned our Patreon, and so far the feedback has been all positive! We are greatly appreciative of you, our listeners, and would ask that if you can please back us! Our next goal in funding will pay our worthy editors for their time! Also all backers, regardless of level will have access to the outtakes reel that we are going to put out on a special RSS feed from Patreon! To back us you can click the button on the sidebar of our website, mu-podcast.com or head over to Patreon directly at www.patreon.com/mup! Some of the backers that we need to mention this show are…. * Christopher B. - Keep a lookout for a link to Jon's scenarios on DriveThruRPG! * Adam F. * The Farquhar Graham’s Card Catalog This week we're highlighting a YouTube channel that Graham put us onto a few weeks ago. HorrorBabble is a small UK audio production company that is doing horror story readings of Mythos tales and some other obscure short stories. Listening Room And in the Listening Room for the first show of 2020, we have the fifth installment of The Laura Logan Files. Modern Horror in Call of Cthulhu The Keepers contemplate... * What makes horror "modern"? What is the difference between “modern” and "contemporary"? does it matter?* what makes "good" modern horror? What are examples of good modern horror? (RPGs, movies, books)* "bad" horror? It can't just be about not getting a signal on your phone* what are the best places and takes on modern gaming horror? worse?