Miskatonic University Podcast 15- Sweet Dreams

Post by **Keeper Dan** » Mon Sep 17, 2012 12:49 am

Episode 15 has not one, but two reviews, a lecture, and then we get tucked in for some quality nap time with HPL.

We start things off with the Campus Crier.
Our first piece of news is, of course, the Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition Play test, detailed here.
The NDA agreement file will be pulled on September 17 2012, so get them submitted asap!

Neil (Ebs on Yog forums) wrote to let us know about the new Call of Cthulhu character generation program he's developing. He's coming along in development, and an official version 1 should be available soon. It's built for the Windows platform, but many Macs and Linux machines are capable of running Windows programs with an interpreter program.
We'll give it a review here once he's gotten the program to an official version 1 he's happy with.

Bert from the Of Steam, Steel, and Murder podcast wrote to mention that they'll be playing our promo in their show.
They seem to be creating a fascinating custom world with an alternate history for their steampunk RPG. You can check out their Obsidian Portal page for more details.

We then have a new lecture from Dr. Gerard at the Miskatonic University History Department -- on the topic of 'Galvanism'.

We play a promo for the 19 Nocturne Boulevard podcast.
We'd love to play promos for other shows, so if you're involved in a Mythos/weird fiction/RPG podcast, let us know and we'll play your promo.
Also, if you're an artist or musician, let us know and we'd be happy to feature your work on the show and website.
And if you have a podcast and would like to play our promo, you can find it on our feed or right here.

We have two reviews on this episode.
The first one is a submitted recording by Ben, for the new Bumps in the Night book by Pagan Publishing.

The second is for Cthulhu and the River of Doubt. This is the book Through the Brazilian Wilderness by Theodore Roosevelt, with footnotes added by FNH of the Cthulhu Podcast. These notes supplement the tale with roleplay story hooks and character stats. It appears that it's currently only available in print form.
He also produced a similar book called Cthulhu and How I Found Livingstone. Print DriveThru PDF
See all of FNH's list of games here.

Jon mentions the book: The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey
Here is a page with a lot of images from the expedition.

Murph brings up the fantastic progress of Chaosium's Horror on the Orient Express Kickstarter campaign.

Main Topic:
The Dreamlands
For inspiration of the amazing landscapes and views of the Dreamlands, look to the world around us.

We would also love to hear your ideas for topics for us to talk about. Send us a note directly, or go to the Campus forum with your ideas!

Here is the discussion thread for this podcast posted on the Yog-Sothoth forums.

trevlix · Post by **trevlix** » Mon Sep 17, 2012 6:35 pm

Great podcast again!

Curious, Did anyone else have 15 mins of silence after the podcast ended? Mine did, although it could have been something messed up in iTunes.

Keeper Jon · Post by **Keeper Jon** » Mon Sep 17, 2012 7:51 pm

Yes, I'm not sure how it happened, but there is an extra 23 minutes and 20 seconds of dead air on the end of the podcast.

Let's blame...

Dr. Gerard · Post by **Dr. Gerard** » Mon Sep 17, 2012 9:48 pm

Did anyone but me hear unspeakable abominations whispering instructions during that 23 minutes? That was some brilliant editing on that part, Dan. Am I right, guys? Amazing sound effects. Weirdly....convincing....

Anyway, Ben - that was an excellent review on Bumps. Really thoughtful and not candy-coated. It's now firmly on my "to buy" list.

And I have to say that I've never Kept or even played in a Dreamlands setting, but this discussion really made me want to try it. I'm not a huge fan of fantasy role playing, and Kadath is one of my least favorite HPL stories -- but I'm starting to see how this would be a really interesting setting to pop in and out of.

Like you said, flipping back and forth in a truly integrated campaign would be a great way to get Pathfinder players (or whatever) to embrace investigation in a historical era.

Someone recently published (or is working on) a game book that sets out to prove how creepy and horrific the Dreamalands are...was it Dennis Detwiller? I heard an interview on maybe Unspeakable or YSDC about it.

Post by **Keeper Dan** » Mon Sep 17, 2012 11:01 pm

Crap!

I'll have to make a new version of the MP3 for future downloads. The first time, I uploaded the Wav of the file, now this... That's what I get for doing a marathon all-day editing/show notes session.

Post by **Keeper Dan** » Mon Sep 17, 2012 11:20 pm

I fixed the file and updated the post. You may see a new version come through in your podcatchers. If so, then just delete the old one. The proper length should be 1 hour, 47 minutes.
Sorry about that.

Zombieneighbours · Post by **Zombieneighbours** » Mon Sep 17, 2012 11:48 pm

Dr. Gerard wrote: Anyway, Ben - that was an excellent review on Bumps. Really thoughtful and not candy-coated. It's now firmly on my "to buy" list.

Thanks. I had to put it together in a massive rush. I am giving very serious thought to putting something a little more polished together for the next episode, if people are interested.

Dr. Gerard wrote: Someone recently published (or is working on) a game book that sets out to prove how creepy and horrific the Dreamalands are...was it Dennis Detwiller? I heard an interview on maybe Unspeakable or YSDC about it.

Yes it was Detwiller. The project is The Sense of the Sleight of Hand Man, and yes, the stated aim is to make the dreamlands creepy again. The guys talk about it a bit in the main lecture. I am sure you'll all be unsurprised to discover that I am a backer.

Dr. Gerard · Post by **Dr. Gerard** » Tue Sep 18, 2012 1:34 am

Zombieneighbours wrote:I am giving very serious thought to putting something a little more polished together for the next episode, if people are interested.

Consider this to be one big vote for you to do more reviews.

Any chance I could cajole you into recording a couple of minutes out at Betty Potter's Dip?

Dr. Zombieneighbours wrote: Someone recently published (or is working on) a game book that sets out to prove how creepy and horrific the Dreamalands are...was it Dennis Detwiller? I heard an interview on maybe Unspeakable or YSDC about it.

Yes it was Detwiller. The project is The Sense of the Sleight of Hand Man, and yes, the stated aim is to make the dreamlands creepy again. The guys talk about it a bit in the main lecture. I am sure you'll all be unsurprised to discover that I am a backer.[/quote]

Excellent, thanks. I'll have to grab a copy of that.

Dr. Gerard · Post by **Dr. Gerard** » Tue Sep 18, 2012 1:49 am

Keeper Dan wrote:Crap!
I'll have to make a new version of the MP3 for future downloads. The first time, I uploaded the Wav of the file, now this... That's what I get for doing a marathon all-day editing/show notes session.

Hahah dude, walk it back -- before you punch yourself in the face with an emoticon or something. As editing fails go, that was pretty damned mild. And let me know if I can ever lighten the editing duties for you. Can't guarantee I'll always be able to accept, but it can't hurt to ask, if you're prepared to share the burden (and the control. Mwa-a-a-a

).

The "blooper reel" at the end of this session was great, by the way.

Oh, and thanks for the public induction as "official member." That made my whole week.

TAK · Post by **TAK** » Tue Sep 18, 2012 8:27 am

Zombieneighbours wrote:Yes it was Detwiller. The project is The Sense of the Sleight of Hand Man, and yes, the stated aim is to make the dreamlands creepy again.

Yeah, that was the reason I wanted to get The Sense of the Sleight of Hand Man, I was kinda worried when I missed the Kickstarter, but I hope it will be available as a PDF, at least.

Haven't listened to the podcast fully (Yeah, I have to keep up with the tech news, which forces me to listen to other podcasts during my walk to work), but I'm looking forward to the Dreamlands part. Unlike, I'd hate to say most, but I know a lof of, people, I don't dislike the Dreamlands stuff, I happen to like a lot of those stories, but then I like Fantasy in general and it's not much different.

I talked about this stuff with someone on YouTube just recently, when I asked him for opinions on which of the older CoC books to get. Kingsport came up and the fact that it's the gateway to Dreamlands, so I've been thinking of a campaign to combine the 2 and some other stuff. Of course I still need to get the books and such...

Ghh, so much to do, so little time.

I've always had dreams playing a big part in my campaigns, they might not be very easy to interpret, but they have a meaning. Just a little hint to anyone playing in my Laundry campaign on SoC

Of course my Laundry campaign is gonna take some other weird turns shortly and let's just say, I like messing with the players minds (this time quite literally) and dreams are a good way of doing that, even if they think they are just dreams.

Maybe the reason I like using dreams so much is because I've always had very vivid (not that, get your mind out of the gutter) dreams and I still at times makes notes on them... Most of that happens during the time you are just about to fall asleep and you're thinking of something and your mind just takes it in a different direction, I love that place, right between dream and consciousness.

Anyway, looking forward to hearing the rest of the podcast and might post more after I hear it.