MU Podcast 042 - Eldritch Inklings

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trevlix
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Re: MU Podcast 042 - Eldritch Inklings

Post by trevlix » Thu Nov 07, 2013 3:27 pm

Eibon wrote:And with my pedant hat on: Bugg-Shash has been mentioned more often than in just "Demoniacal" and "The Kiss of Bugg-Shash" (I name check him as a possible menace in one of the "Epistles of Eibon"), but I accept that other uses are consistent with these two, so don't add anything useful.
True. Those are the two stories I would put as the main stories for that GOO, so the only ones that I read.
Eibon wrote:The Mlandoth Myth Cycle is one of the most interesting additions to the Mythos. Glad you are enjoying them so far.
I haven't actually decided if the Mlandoth Myth Cycle is related to the Mythos or not yet. It definetly has ties to it, and DeBill was obviously influenced by Lovecraft's mythos. I'll reserve saying more until I finish the anthology (about half-way through).
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Re: MU Podcast 042 - Eldritch Inklings

Post by hastur » Thu Nov 07, 2013 9:34 pm

Enchant Candle and Summon/Bind Baka are both voodoo spells, found on pages 233 and 243 of the 6th-onomicon.
voodoo spells are extremely silly and won't save you.
Last edited by hastur on Fri Jan 10, 2014 12:57 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: MU Podcast 042 - Eldritch Inklings

Post by Dr. Gerard » Thu Nov 07, 2013 10:12 pm

Such excellent posts in his thread.

I didn't get to join this show recording, so I wanted to add some thoughts.

1. Sit in front of it.

A problem I often have is that I am trying so much self-trickery -- taking walks, making another pot of coffee, shelving ideas for later -- that I end up neglecting the most obvious thing. You have to at least be sitting with the work file open in front of you in order to make any progress. This is kind of a practical way to say the same thing Adams was saying in Eibon's post. You really do need to be staring at that screen if you want the work to progress. Sounds obvious, but so easy to forget.

2. Solve one problem.

If your blockage seems insurmountable, just read through what you've already got and find something to solve. Don't try to solve everything at once. Just one thing. It might be that you have conflicting ideas about a character. It might even be a small grammar issue. Pick a thing and solve it.

3. Throw a temper tantrum.

But do it on the page. Save your project under a new version title ("save as" Byakhee_01), and let yourself go insane. Be wild, juvenile, petulant, destructive -- try your best to break the story in front of you. Sometimes good stuff comes out of this exercise. Often, you get lots of crap. But at least you've broken through the silence. If any of the temper tantrum is useful, go back to #2 -- look at what you've got an start solving problems.
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Re: MU Podcast 042 - Eldritch Inklings

Post by Toddsoggua » Fri Nov 08, 2013 3:16 am

Thanks for replying to my questions concerning session recaps. Last night during our weekly game I played a short power point slide show with accompanying music via a Cthulhu playlist I found on 8tracks.com.
It had been two weeks since our first session of The Crack'd and Crook'd Manse and the players seemed to enjoy the recap in this form. I probably won't do this every time, but I think I'll keep tweaking the format until I get a template I'm satisfied with. Also, Ihad a quick look at Audacity and will start playing with that when I get a chance. Thanks for putting me on to that. A great show as always! Keep it up gents!

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Re: MU Podcast 042 - Eldritch Inklings

Post by Eibon » Fri Nov 08, 2013 9:38 am

trevlix wrote:I haven't actually decided if the Mlandoth Myth Cycle is related to the Mythos or not yet. It definetly has ties to it, and DeBill was obviously influenced by Lovecraft's mythos. I'll reserve saying more until I finish the anthology (about half-way through).
An interesting issue in its own right. I've long viewed the Mythos as a series of interlinking myth cycles, some of which conflict with each other. The obvious example is the Elder God cult who say they are good, while the Cthulhu cult says he is the good guy. Likewise, some people argue that the Hastur Cycle is not part of the Cthulhu Mythos, but clearly Derleth added a version of it into the Mythos, even if it doesn't quite match Robert Chamber's version (which doesn't quite match with Ambrose Bierce's use of those names), there is a overlap.

There is real world basis for my view. Consider the relationship between Scandinavian Myth and Teutonic Myth, both have all-father gods (Odin and Wotan), and lots of other points of comparison, but they are clearly separate and even conflicting in many details. Likewise, it is theorised that there were a lot of hero myths in Britain featuring hero-gods like Tristran and Gawain, but when King Arthur's myth came to dominate its "gravity" sucked these myths under its envelope and these figures became, first warriors and then knights at Arthur's court.

I would count the Mlandoth Myth Cycle as one of these cycles. I'm also reminded of an incident where a fellow writer asked me if I thought the work of D. F. Lewis was "Mythos". As I know D. F. Lewis, I know for a fact that Lovecraft is a major influence on him and though he might not always name-check the entities in his bizarre urban fables, never-the-less the Mythos is woven into the fabric of them. They are urban legends of a hostile Universe. Think about what a "Christian" story would be -- merely name-checking Christ doesn't make a story a Christian story, such a story needs to express a philosophy consistent with Christian belief. It's much harder to know what the philosophy of the Cthulhu Mythos is, but I would say DeBill does express Lovecraftian ideals.

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Re: MU Podcast 042 - Eldritch Inklings

Post by trevlix » Fri Nov 08, 2013 12:42 pm

Eibon wrote:It's much harder to know what the philosophy of the Cthulhu Mythos is, but I would say DeBill does express Lovecraftian ideals.
I 100% agree on this. In fact, there are some of his stories which are extremely Lovecraftian - so much so that to me it was almost like HPL had penned it himself. DeBill is an excellent writer, and I'm glad to have found his stories.

Do you know if he's still alive? The last story of his I can date is about a decade old and I can't find any more information about him.
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Re: MU Podcast 042 - Eldritch Inklings

Post by monkey prime » Fri Nov 08, 2013 3:28 pm

Part of what helps me with writer's block is to stick to the structure. You have a story that has a beginning (what your investigators are doing in this story), middle (how do the investigators solve this issue), and the end (how do they resolve things). Think through logically, even use cue cards to sort out order and think how do they get through the various steps to the end. I would tend to almost run through the story in my head and visualise a group of investigators trying to solve it, what do they need to know, to meet, or to happen to them to move them on. The danger is that it can make it quite linear, but once you can see how someone may play through it, you can work on putting other red herrings in, or alternate routes. That and use boards like this to float ideas and see how others would make it happen. You may ignore it completely but it may set your mind off on the right path.

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Re: MU Podcast 042 - Eldritch Inklings

Post by EddyPo » Sat Nov 09, 2013 12:05 am

Great episode and great advice in this thread. I'm trying to write a scenariofor the Delta Green Shotgun Scenario contest. I think these tips will keep me on task.
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Re: MU Podcast 042 - Eldritch Inklings

Post by fox01313 » Sat Nov 09, 2013 5:24 pm

monkey prime wrote:Part of what helps me with writer's block is to stick to the structure. You have a story that has a beginning (what your investigators are doing in this story), middle (how do the investigators solve this issue), and the end (how do they resolve things). Think through logically, even use cue cards to sort out order and think how do they get through the various steps to the end. I would tend to almost run through the story in my head and visualise a group of investigators trying to solve it, what do they need to know, to meet, or to happen to them to move them on. The danger is that it can make it quite linear, but once you can see how someone may play through it, you can work on putting other red herrings in, or alternate routes. That and use boards like this to float ideas and see how others would make it happen. You may ignore it completely but it may set your mind off on the right path.
Somewhere in the depths of the Ken & Robin Talking about stuff podcast that I'm trying to get through illustrates this too on if you have a story you need a clear path in short story or episode writing from beginning to end. And paraphrasing something in another of their podcasts talking about gameplay feedback is that If a block happens, maybe what you have is making good sense in your brain but for some reason the signs/clues/rules you are putting out there are a bit muddy (and maybe your subconscious knows it & doesn't tell you for whatever damnable reason. So next time writing a scenario & hitting a block, why not just go crazy with coming up with a shotgun series of paths so if you're looking for a way of getting from act 2 to act 3 with the 2-3 ideas & you're stuck on some block then maybe look back at the spots on act 1 to kind of tie everything together with some slight detail turned into a beneficial clue*. You don't need to keep all the shotgun of a ton of ideas of clues/paths in the adventure but it might be a good way of finding some better paths in this adventure or save them for another as you don't want to drown the adventure with too many side paths.

*Example would be the librarian you talked with slightly for clues in act 1 somehow shows up in vague coincidence in act2 the nearby village the adventure went to visit her uncle & can throw out some extra info in a returned book or some extra lore that can get people into act3 instead of them being stuck at looking in the woods for owlbears when they can just find the answer by tearing up the basement in the church. (or showing up to get eaten by the thing in the basement while writing out a long written script of the clue for the investigators to find)

Ken & Robin ep. 36
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Re: MU Podcast 042 - Eldritch Inklings

Post by Eibon » Mon Nov 11, 2013 10:45 am

trevlix wrote: DeBill is an excellent writer, and I'm glad to have found his stories.

Do you know if he's still alive? The last story of his I can date is about a decade old and I can't find any more information about him.
I'm pretty sure he's still alive. He trailed off writing though the second half of the 1980s, but renewed interest in his work has re-inspired him and from 2002 he's turned out several stories, the last I'm aware of was a 2011 round-robin called "Night Gauntlet" with Robert M. Price, Jeffrey Thomas, Richard Gavin, Don Webb and W. H. Pugmire, published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, March-April 2011.

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