MU Podcast Episodes – Miskatonic University Podcast

The Campus Crier is where we keep all the mythos related news and info for the podcast, this episode was recorded on August 16, 2021.

I want to personally congratulate each of the Alumni of the Storytelling Collective’s Write Your First Adventure Workshop last month. The market has been flooded with over 50+ titles on the MR, Chaosium’s Community Creator Content hub. Ya’ll, I’m so proud of each and every one of you. These scenarios look amazing, the cover arts are BOSS, the Miskatonic Repository Creator’s Circle is buzzing, you’re being featured in Chaosium newsletters, and you’re making your first sales. I’m just– I’m just so proud of you guys. Congrats! Head over to the Miskatonic Repository and make someone’s day by checking out their newest creations! 

Annnd speaking of the Miskatonic Repository, Miskatonic Repository Con GM Signups just opened up! This virtual con will be hosted October 15th – October 17th. We have 3 awesome panels and over 16 events already submitted! So, come play some 7th Edition Call of Cthulhu with us! A link to the TTE will be in the show notes… and you can email MisktatonicRepositoryCon@gmail.com to get in touch! 

Innsmouth The Missing Child: A Gamebook is a choose your own adventure styled solo game book where you are an investigator brought in to find the whereabouts of a missing child amongst the odd and terrible inhabitants of Innsmouth. It has funded with $23k of a $1300 goal and still has 23 days left at the time of recording. The art looks sparse, but that’s what I would expect from a product of this type. You can get a PDF for as little as $9 and a physical starting at $17. Overall it looks pretty neat, and I’m trying to not back it.

Free League has another Kickstarter out for two new products in their Forbidden Lands line, this time a bestiary of sorts called Forbidden Lands: Book of Beasts and a campaign called The Blood March. As we have come to expect from Free League, the art on display is absolutely gorgeous. And this seems to be a no brainer for any fan of the weird fantasy setting. You can get a pdf of both books for $35 or either individual book in print for $35. If you want both in print it will cost you $69. The project has already funded with $285k of a $12k goal, and will have another three days left at the time of this release.

Good friend of the show and proprietor of The Old Ways Podcast, Mike Diamond, has officially announced a third campaign for their excellent live play series, but this time with a twist! They are currently accepting GM pitches for a new campaign run by a new Storyteller. So if you have a campaign in mind and have it well thought out put in your submission at the link in the show notes. You can also find Mike on our own Discord, where he is a mod, or over at The Old Ones Discord, or you can just email him at theoldwayspodcast@gmail.com 

And finally, it is with great sadness that we have to say a final goodbye to RPG Legend Steve Perrin, who passed away earlier this month. Goodbye Steve, safe travels.

https://www.chaosium.com/blogvale-and-farewell-steve-perrin-1946-2021/

We have our MUP Discord and we are all there! We invite all of our listeners to come and enjoy the community of horror gaming and cute pet pics.

A big birthday shout out to Zelda, the pup of patreon backer, Al Smith, who if you’re lucky enough to get a seat at this table, she’ll probably make an appearance. Also, good luck to the kitties, Spaghetti and Meatball, who are currently in foster care with one of our awesome listeners. 

MU Discord server invite link: https://discord.gg/vNjEv9D 

And thank you beaucoup to Murph for editing this episode.

We have a 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!

One new backer! 

Brolin Graham

Just a reminder, we’re offering Patreon Backers a sneak peek into future episode guests! Back us for an opportunity to ask your favorite creators in the TTRPG circuit your questions! 

And you can also help out the show by buying some merch from our Teepublic store! 

Thanks to our backers so much for supporting the show!!

Bridgett – Pale Rider Playtest 2

MepaCon Man’s Best Friend by Jazmin Ospa

We create a monster from scratch!

Have you guys seen The Birch on Facebook Watch yet? It’s a great horror story available exclusively on Facebook, and it’s produced in partnership with CryptTV, (who have a channel on YouTube). There are five episodes so far; each is about 18 minutes long. I like the way they are telling the story. Episode 1 introduces our main character and sets up the world she lives in. Episode 2 suddenly introduces whole new characters, (without explanation at first), but then we learn that this is the origin story of the monster. Episode 3 returns to the world of our main character, but we relive events from Episode 1, but from the antagonist’s POV… which was cool. Episode 4 is more of the monster origin, and then Episode 5 is back with our protagonist as her story advances from where we really left off with her from Episode 1. It probably sounds confusing as I describe it, but it’s plays really well on screen. 

Robin D. Laws, Lynne Hardy, and Cat Tobin recently attended The Kraken convention, where they panelled the “Investigative Roleplaying Masterclass.” The panel is now available on YouTube; it’s a really great panel on structuring an investigative role playing game scenario. We highly recommend this video for anyone interested in writing an investigative adventure. 

A Cold Fire Within and Berlin the Wicked City have both been released in the special leatherette edition both featuring gold stamped covers. They are available through the Chaosium website only for $90 and $95 respectively.

There is also a very favourable review of Berlin The Wicked City that has been released over on RPG.net. The conclusion sums it up: “Berlin – The Wicked city doesn’t just present a new, impossibly alluring setting for original Call of Cthulhu adventures, but comes out as a treatise on how to write sourcebook/adventure books. It is well-targeted, thoroughly researched, evocatively written, and as useful for gaming purposes as a supplement can be. It will soon rake in the awards and be hailed as a classic; there’s no doubt about it.”

Good friend of the show, and all around nice guy Dean Englehart has released the next segment in his popular Convicts and Cthulhu line called Ticket of Leave #15, Death Knells. It is written by Dean and Geoff Gillian and is available right now for free at the Cthulhu Reborn site. AuZtralia is an adventure/exploration board game by Stronghold Games for 1-4 players set in an alternate reality 1930s. Following the Restorationist war, the northern hemisphere lands lay poisoned and starvation was the norm. Intrepid adventurers set out to explore and settle new lands. Little did they know, after the war, the surviving Old Ones and their remaining loyal human armies made their way to the outback of Australia to lick their wounds. Riches from the land, mixed with darkness and insanity await you in the outback. Will humanity prevail or will the Old Ones wreak their revenge? 

MU Discord server invite link >>

And thank you so much to Sean for editing this episode! (Not Max, as we say repeatedly during the episode. Thanks to Max for editing other episodes that are not this episode.)

Random Crier mentions

Field Gun Competitions

Spotted an episode of the ‘Small Arms of WWI’ YouTube series you might like to watch. It covers the first semi-automatic rifle to enter full military service.  Quite the ‘steampunk’ gadget, goes into the background and how the rush nature of the design limited it to only being handed out to those best able to use/look after them. Although if pre-war plans had worked out you would have seen the classic 19thC ‘two lines of infantry’ using these things. And it looks like the designers of the Garand rifle might have copied from this… Here is the link to the episode:

And now we’re back in the Listening Room with a further installment of Mr. Tyler’s after school gaming club…lecture and powerpoint presentation. This afternoon, he’s got some more scenarios ideas spurred from Cthulhu Wars – this time covering a certain…tittering rodentia.  

Mining Short Stories for Scenario Ideas

Chad — I Am the Doorway, by Stephen King 

It was first published in the March 1971 issue of Cavalier magazine, but I found it in Stephen King’s 1978 short story collection “Night Shift.”

The story opens with Arthur, the narrator, sitting on a porch talking nervously with his friend about something mysterious involving a body. We know he uses a wheelchair and that his hands are bandaged and itching. It turns out he is a former astronaut, and he recounts his two-person mission to observe Venus from orbit. There was an accident on re-entry that left him paralyzed from the waist down.  Then we learn that his hands are bandaged to cover up eyeballs that broke out on his fingers a while after the mission. And those eyes seem to be the remote organs of an alien species, probably from Venus, that are observing Earth through his eyeball hands. He also sees through their eyes a bit when the bandages are off. Because of that, he knows that they view humans as horrifying monstrosities which they fear and hate intensely. Then the aliens take control of his body and cause him to kill a boy by exploding his head with alien powers. He buries the body, but when he goes with his porch-friend to dig it up, it has been moved. Through Arthur, the aliens summon a storm and kill his friend with a bolt of lightning. To try to get his humanity back, Arthur douses his hands in kerosene and sets them on fire. He lives, gets prosthetic hands and the alien presence goes away for seven years. But then the eyes appear again in a circle on his chest, and the story ends with him about to kill himself with a shotgun. 

Jon — Black Bargain, by Robert Bloch 

Summary — A man desperate for wealth and power conducts a ritual to make a pact with an unnamed entity. The price for his wish is that the man would have one rival for his accumulated wealth and power. That rival turns out to be his living shadow. The shadow eventually swaps lives with the man. 

The story was originally published in Weird Tales, May 1942 (vol.36, no.5). My copy of the story is in a Bloch anthology of short stories titled, The Living Demons. 

Murph — The Pool, by Daphne du Maurier

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