World War Cthulhu

Today I want to talk about a collection of short stories I just finished reading.

WorldWar Cthulhu contains 22 short stories all with their own illustrations by M. Wayne Miller. The stories all share two points, a war of some sorts and the Lovecraft Mythos.

Over all, it's a mixed bag. Naturally another reviewer might like stories that left me cold and dislike the ones that I loved, but I feel confident when I say this is a good book.

Settings wise, the stories range from the Trojan war to the future. If I recall correctly there were two sci-fi stories, neither of which I liked very much and two Trojan tales that were both pretty OK.

My favorites were White Feather by T. E. Grau set in the American revolution, The Boonieman by Edward M. Erdelac set in Vietnam and Cold War, Yellow Fever by Pete Rawlik set in the Cold War, more specifically the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Most stories were solid and well worth reading if you are a Lovecraft fan. Unfortunately the majority of tales revolved around the Deep Ones and the Mi-Go, and I would have liked to see more variation, but it's not so much what you do but how you do it.

Surprisingly, there weren't more stories set in WWII, and in a pleasant twist there was one tale concerning the IRA which you don't see much of in books like this.

I won't go through all the stories as that would be insane, so I'll close by saying this: if you are a Mythos fan, read this book. The over all quality is very high, and even the stories I didn't really like were fine. Not great but decent. So I do recommend this anthology.

That's all I have for you this time so until we see each other again, have a great week!

True Detective

As you may surmise from the title, today I want to talk about the show TrueDetective.

I became vaguely aware of the show through the internet, but I started watching after being encouraged to do so by a good friend.

I was hesitant going in, mainly due to the main cast namely MatthewMcConaughey and Woody Harrelson, but also because I'm a bit bored with police procedurals and serial killer shows.

Now, I like Mr. Harrelson well enough, but his roles tend towards either hippie weirdos or macho uber-men. Mr. McConaughey on the other hand is very well known for his many romantic comedies, which I really can't watch. His role in U-571 was pretty non standard for him at the time, but my friend urged me to put Mr. McConaugheys romcoms in the past and give True Detective a shot.

Boy am I glad I did. There is no romance or indeed any comedy anywhere to be seen.

Mild Spoilers Ahead

At it's most basic, True Detective is about two police detectives in Louisiana hunting an occult serial killer. The story is told in two time frames, 1995 and 2012. The main characters Rust Cohle (McConaughey) and Marty Hart (Harrelson) are being interviewed by other detectives in 2012 concerning their work hunting the killer back in '95. This is an unusual (at least for me) technique but it works very well, in a sense allowing the same characters to speak with two voices. Both Rust and Marty change considerably during the show, and this juxtaposition showcases the changes without resorting to info-dumping or leaving the viewer behind.

Another thing I should point out is that we have a strong case of Unreliable Narrator here. Both characters tell things from their perspectives and this can confuse things, particularly when they lie.

Now, you can watch True Detective just like any other cop show, but that would be foolish. This is not a show that should be watched casually. There are clues and foreshadowing aplenty throughout the season, and the more you notice the scarier it gets. I wouldn't go so far as to call this a horror show, but it's damn close.

You see, the occult part of the show concerns the Yellow King and Carcosa. If you've never read Robert W. Chambers book The King in Yellow and/or read the expanded Cthulhu Mythos started by H.P. Lovecraft, these names will mean nothing to you, but if you have, this show quickly gets really unnerving.

I'm not going to explain it all here, but the creator Nic Pizzolatto has created a show that works both as a regular TV show, but also as a “Cthulhu Investigation” familiar to fans of Lovecraft and Call of Cthulhu in all it's forms and shapes.

True Detective runs on two levels. One one hand it's about deranged people in a cult “just” molesting children and committing horrible murders, but on the other hand the whole cult part is real. They really are sacrificing people to otherworldly entities. Basically it's up to you what is true and what's not.

This reality blur is mainly expressed through Detective Cohle who sees things due to a damaged nervous system from his days deep under cover as a narcotics cop. In order to keep his cover intact he had to take copious amounts of drugs, which has either damaged his brain enough to make him hallucinate, or the drugs have enhanced his mind enough to see hidden things like ancient shamans. Again it's your call which reality is true.

This is a show that I'm going to have to re-watch just to see what I missed. Even a cursory search on this show will net you several pages of analyses and Easter eggs that are easily over looked.

As an example I completely failed to grasp the possible meaning behind Marty’s oldest daughter and the drastic changes she goes through, even though they are pretty text-book.

The over all feel of the show is oppressive, gloomy and spellbinding. The score is at times truly haunting and at no time did I get the feeling that I'd rather be doing something else. That said, this is a very heavy show, and not one to be taken lightly.

So, if this sounds appealing, go watch True Detective. Hell, even if you think I've just written seven-hundred plus words of complete drivel, go watch it anyway. Just keep kids away. This is Adult Country and not just for the nudity.

Until next year, take it easy!

Eldritch Gaming

On the day before yesterday, i.e. Saturday, I grabbed a copy of Eldritch from Steam. At first glance I thought it was a Minecraft clone or at least some kind of spin-off mod. Something like that anyway. The reason is the similar graphics. It has a very blocky 3D style to it's graphics, not unlike the famous mining game.

But Minecraft it is not. What we have is a fun little indie game set in the 1930's Lovecraft-verse that my readers know I'm so fond of.

Eldritch is incidentally created by David Pittman and his brother J. Kyle Pittman. They've previously worked on titles like Borderlands, The Bureau: XCOM Declassified and Bioshock 2, so we're talking experience here.

Now the object of the game is to collect three souls from three realms in order to avert the familiar “The Stars Are Right” scenario. (At least I think so, the game is not too bogged down by story). In order to do this you have to traverse said realms and either avoid or defeat the squamous denizens that dwell therein.

There's nothing too revolutionary about the game as such, apart from one feature I haven't seen before. If you loot a dead enemy, it'll respawn. If you don't, it stays put as well as dead. This leaves you in the position to judge whether you need the resources badly enough to risk encountering the enemy again later. You are very squishy in Eldritch and you go down fast if an enemy gets the drop on you.

The first realm, The Temple of Dagon, was pretty easy, so I was completely unprepared for how hard the Realm of Nyarlathotep was, and I died pretty fast. When you die, you can resurrect in the Library, where the game starts, but you loose all your gear except for any artifacts you have stored in your chest. Only artifacts can be squirreled away, so I lost my gun, all my ammo, my boots of jumping and my compass. Ah well, back in the saddle and off you go again.

I really like this game. It's suitably tense without being stressful. But that said, expect to swear a lot when you die over and over again... Unless you're a Lady (who don't swear) or a better gamer than I am.

In my opinion well worth the about 10€ it costs on Steam. Check it out.

The Laundry Files rpg part 1

A couple of weeks ago I went past my friendly local game shop, or FLGS for you who are familiar with RPG abbreviations.

There I ran across the Laundry RPG, based upon the laundry files novels that I reviewed at the start of this blog. I was immediately tempted, particularly since it struck me that my idea to use side campaigns to illustrate historical happenings fits perfectly into the world of the Laundry.

I took some time to think it over, and two days later I plonked down some cash and picked up The Laundry Files together with some source books. I laid my filthy paws on the Core Book, the Investigators Handbook, License to Summon, The Mythos Dossiers and GOD GAME BLACK. Unfortunately Cultists Under the Bed hasn't been released yet. There is an adventure book – Black Bag Jobs as well as a GM screen, but I decided against them. It got expensive enough as it was.

I thought it'd be in order to share my impressions of these books. I say impressions and not experience since I haven't yet had time to play.

Let's look at the core book first.

It's really well written, first of all, and the art is solid. Not perhaps the best I've seen in an rpg book, but very cool none the less.

The rules are the familiar BRP rules used in Call of Cthulhu since it first crawled out of the squamous ooze of pre-history, also known as 1981. But they've been updated and expanded since those days.

New to these rules are things like Computational Demonology and the whole package is really well adjusted for what you need to “get” the Laundry-verse.

Naturally, you get a lot of info on the Laundry itself, it's international colleagues, and lots of other interesting stuff.

It's a hefty read though, hard covered and packing 288 pages. That said, it's easier to get through than I had expected, and a really good read besides.

Like all good core books, it contains all you need to play, if not all you want. This leads us to;

License to Summon.

This is the magic book of the series (if you want to be crass about it) but it is also more. Rather than just list a bunch of spells, it takes you through computational demonology as well as traditional sorcery, psychic power, dreaming, alchemy and more. Speaking of more, you get a really nifty section of gear that would make Batman jealous. He never had an anti zombie aerosol...

I get an almost Mage the Ascension feel from it, though of course not as free form. But the lads at Cubicle 7 have really thought about this stuff when they penned this book.

Finally for today, I want to talk about The Mythos Dossiers.

This book is a bit hard to pin down. It contains detailed write-ups and files on the major minor mythos races, but it's not a monster manual. Since the Laundry is a part of the British Secret Service, everything is officially re-designated, so the Deep Ones are called BLUE HADES, and the Elder Things are known as ANNING BLUE SKULL, with the shoggoths ANNING BLACK.

This book is amazing, one of the best rpg supplements I've ever read. It really made me think about what these beings are, and what they can do. If you run CoC or indeed any of the multiple variations thereof, get this book!

As an example you get to read about what happened during OPERATION HIGHJUMP (real event by the way), as the U.S. Government investigated the aftermath of At the Mountains of Madness.

That's it for this time. When I've had the chance to read the rest, I'll post the second part.

Iä Iä and all that.