MU Podcast 067 – Blinded With Science

Post by **Keeper Dan** » Mon Nov 17, 2014 2:47 am

In this week's potpourri of hypotheses, Chad, Murf, Dan, and (eventually) Jon brainstorm about how to overcome some of the perceptions and stereotypes about Call of Cthulhu. We also put Lovecraft’s science fiction under the knife, and talk about how to reassemble its parts for your games. Plus other nameless things, and more! This episode was recorded on November 16, 2014.

Campus Crier

Thanks to Zjivagoth for another excellent version of our show intro. - .... .- -. -.- ... / - --- / --.. .--- .. ...- .- --. --- - .... / ..-. --- .-. / - .... .- - / .- -- .- --.. .. -. --. / .. -. - .-. --- .-.-.- / .- .-.. ... --- --..-- / .-- .... . .-. . / .- .-. . / - .... . / .- ... .--. .. .-. .. -. ..--..
Kidthulhu! The story of Kidthulhu is a ridiculous re-imagining of the Cthulhu Mythos as seen through the eyes of a 10-year-old monster of madness, accompanied by his faithful shoggoth Shog, and his best friend Capi, The Albino Goat of the Woods with 999 siblings. Boom. Kickstarted.
Masks of Nyarlathotep Re-imagined Prop Set
Strange Aeons update -- project mothballed.
Houston, TX psych rock band The Linus Pauling Quartet have released an official music video for their track “C Is For Cthulhu”.
Chad went to CarnageCon in Killington, VT. It was much awesome.
Dreamhounds of Paris has hit the shelves!
Horror on the Orient Express is shipping!
Bunnies are terrifying!*

(*Thanks to Max from SoC for the cunicular nightmares.)

Feedback
We got a message from a listener who wanted us to talk more about the 7th Edition delays and how Chaosium is handling their recent backer updates. We read excerpts on the air, but here's the whole letter:

Hello MUP Faculty.

My name’s RJ MacReady on the forum, and I’m a long-time listener, fan and sponsor of the podcast. I have a question I’d like to share and hope to get your feedback on the matter.

I’m wondering if you can address the continuing issue with the Call of Cthulhu 7th edition Kickstarter project being repeatedly delayed over and over. The Kickstarter was funded on June 29th 2013 and as of now physical copies of the core and investigator books won’t be in the hands of backers till the late winter or perhaps spring sometime. I say that with waning confidence as the backers have been receiving these notices of when the product will be arriving for quite some time now. Last January they said late spring 2014, then from there it was pushed back to Halloween 2014 (today by the way) and as of a few weeks ago they are saying they will be hopefully be shipping for a early February 2015 arrival.

Whether that happens or not only time will tell, but I can’t help but feel Chaosium has handled this kickstarter quite poorly in several ways. Aside from the obvious delays of the books, the explanations given sometimes were odd (the artists didn’t meet their deadlines so they set new longer ones for them.) Also backers were supposedly getting their PDFs on Halloween, but a week ago we received yet another email from Chaosium saying it would be another 2-4 weeks after Halloween so they could bookmark them.

While they have been quite transparent in these matters and conveyed that they appreciate our patience, I feel (and many others do as well) there has been very little by the way of apologizing for the delays and repeated acknowledgement of how frustrating it must be for backers. To add insult to injury the backer email a few weeks ago that informed us it would not be Halloween, but February instead for our books, contained several advertisements within including links to buy other Chaosium products. Not in the best taste when backers like myself have shelled out $100 for a product that is looking like it’s going to be close to, if not, a year overdue. The last thing I wanted after getting that particular news was to give them more of my money.

I realize of course that this was a massive Kickstarter and the scope of the project became much larger than anticipated. I was expecting some delays for sure, but I also feel that when you’ve raised $561,000 some of those delays may have been minimized by hiring the right people to expedite the project, deliver artwork on time and so forth. Was Chaosium being reckless and/or irresponsible with their estimates and promises to backers? What is the proper balance for backers to have realistic expectations and be reasonably patient, but also assume a successful Kickstarter will responsibility satisfy their customers?

Wondering what you guys think about the matter. Keep up the great work and of course, GO PODS!!!

Discuss!

Cryptocurium Spot
We talked about the first Non-Lovecraft entry into the Cryptocurium catalog, The Xenomorph Life-Cycle Magnets!

Side Topic
Here's a message from Adrian

Firstly, Call of Cthulhu has the reputation at my table of being a 'one shot' game. It's the game that my players might consider as a 'fill in' between other games. This brings me to the second reputation of 'madness and death'. How would you sell a longer running game of Cthulhu to a group that loves horror games (they play a lot of classic World of Darkness, and our chronicles have lasted years) but are extremely reticent to give Chthulhu a chance (that would make an excellent song title - you could see Sir Bob Geldoff grooving with the crowd to 'Just Give Cthulhu a Chance' right?).

Second question. What do you see as the potential advantages and drawbacks to a game that might only have a Keeper and two investigators? If this was your group, how would approach this, and what modules would you recommend?

For solo adventure that could be adapted for two players, check out the free book called Monophobia from Unboundbook.

Main Topic
Here's Jon's original topic, which we didn't really cover in the last show:

“My idea is to have a discussion/debate on aspects of science fiction in Call of Cthulhu, versus aspects of horror, (both physical and psychological). Lovecraft used all of those aspects in his work, and different stories accentuated each differently. How do we as Keepers use those aspects in our games?”

Here's a list of Lovecraft's actual science writing, for possible reference (though you'll have to track down the articles).

During the discussion, we mention a bunch of things to link to:

An episode of Blurry Photos about Nikola Tesla.

The 1920s invention of an actual mechanical television, a Youtube video that shows one working, and some more background on the invention.

For Keeper inspiration on contemporary science, the magazine Popular Science has scanned 140 years of its archives into a searchable database. It even includes a word-frequency search function to help you drill down to particular topics.

Refrigerator or Germ-Breeder? (Page 12)

For more inspiration on science and expeditions, check out old National Geographic issues on Archive.org.

Dan posits a possible science-forward cult that could use some of these strange sci-fi inventions, and Chad mentions the Futurist art movement that was sympathetic to the Fascists, as a possible tie-in to history.

And we leave you with a stellar Lovecraftian Science blog with scads of fodder for use in your games.

Mahaffa · Post by **Mahaffa** » Mon Nov 17, 2014 8:57 pm

Glad you guys could share in the collective silliness / SAN Loss of Bunnywith. Saw it and had to shoot it Chads way after the gencon craziness episode. More san loss to come in other formats soon enough

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Citysliker · Post by **Citysliker** » Mon Nov 17, 2014 9:28 pm

Really great episode guys. Loved it. Just regarding the talk about 7th Ed Kickstarter I spotted a big hole in one of your suggestions.

If, as was discussed, each stretch goal had a 'this will add X months to the delivery date' the company running this project would undoubtedly see less overall funding. So backers might be tempted to pledge at a lower level or more importantly not increase during the project (or 'stretch' themselves) if the outcome has a negative as well as a positive outcome. More stuff but I have to wait.

In reality we all know that more stuff means longer lead times but it is very rare to see this explicitly stated in the Kickstarter as guess what? The companies want to get as much of your money as possible!! That is the whole point. To ride on a wave of goodwill and enthusiasm of a launch and funding of an exciting new product. Not pollute it with potential negatives. They are businesses (in the most part). They need to make money.

And also remember the more money they have and the longer it takes to create the product the more interest they earn as well. (I do understand that money will leave the Kickstarter fund steadily throughout the project).

As for the specific case of Chaosium - 2 simple rules.
Communication, communication, communication
AND
Under promise and over deliver.

That road happy long term clients lie!!

Sorrowking · Post by **Sorrowking** » Wed Nov 19, 2014 1:09 am

Hey guys! Great episode as always.
One thing I would like to point out to the world at large and its that not every artist that has worked on 7th edition has been late with deadlines. Im pretty sure it's only one or two guys.
As one of the guys who met a crazily tight deadline I'm just as pissed off as the backers. If Mike had known that these delays where going to happen then I'm sure I would have had more than a month to paint an entire deck and the submitted work would be far better.
The deadline is what was important. The backers have waied long enough. That was the mantra.
I understand that crap happens and life gets in the way. I'm just having a winge because I wish I had more time like the guys who are delaying the release.

Dr. Gerard · Post by **Dr. Gerard** » Wed Nov 19, 2014 12:26 pm

Good to hear some insight from you on that. And despite the tight deadline frustrations, congratulations on your work for the project. Looking forward to seeing it!

That segment topic was sticky to talk about and I worry that we did a lot of speculating about what was happening behind the scenes. We just don't know what was and was not possible to do in expediting production. We can only go on what we have heard in updates and interviews, and in some cases I'm sure they can only be so specific without violating codes of professionalism.

The release of the PDF to backers I think has already lightened the mood somewhat, and maybe restored some confidence that the project has moved forward. It's too bad we weren't able to mention that as part of our discussion, because I look forward to talking about the actual product instead of frustrations about schedule.

Your comment about the deck reminds me that there are a ton of extras to roll out from the stretch goals. I just had an exchange with Chad Fifer from HPPodcraft about his music, in which I was reminded that he completed a soundtrack album for the game that backers will be getting. That's already done too, by the way. For what it's worth, Chaosium has spread a fair bit of the Kickstarter money around to a support a crew of artists and writers.

Graham · Post by **Graham** » Fri Nov 21, 2014 5:17 pm

Interesting episode. My own two cents on Kickstarters is that those running them have to be aware that at least some of those who back a project are going to believe they have the 'right' to instant gratification if it goes ahead. Which can be another source of frustration if their gee-gaws are not ready on time. And of course if the people proposing it have, shall we say 'off the wall' ideas about what they want to do with the money, well, as the example below demonstrates, all kinds of things can happen, not all of them good...

Kickstarter (2012) - The Newmac Expedition

The promoters got about $28,000 to go to Africa to look for dinosaurs and giant (dog sized) spiders, no one is quite sure what happened to them once they reached Africa...

The Proposal:

Kickstarter: Documentary Expedition to Congo- KILLER REWARDS!!!

The Aftermath:

So what happened to the Newmac Expedition?

The Dinosaur Expedition…What Went Wrong?

On a slightly lighter note this page on a blog attached to an online bookstore, contains an image worthy of an alternate Dreamlands:

On the History of Blank, Missing and Empty Things: the Heart of Some Sort West

R.J. MacReady · Post by **R.J. MacReady** » Tue Nov 25, 2014 12:32 am

For anyone who hasn't seen it, yesterday Chaosium wrote a letter to the HotOE and CoC 7th ed. backers. It was a well written and sincere apology that also provided honest reasons for the delays with those projects. As one who has been critical of Chaosium's handing of the 7th ed. Kickstarter, what was most important about this letter is they owned up to their mistakes and gave decent reasons why they were made, but not excuses.

It isn't the delays per se that are so frustrating (they aren't fun either), but the way Chaosium has handled them with their backers. While the apology and acknowledgment of backer's frustrations with regard to the project should have been conveyed much earlier, better late than never indeed. The apology letter felt and read as quite genuine in my mind, so while I'm still weary of trusting Chaosium, it was certainly appreciated by this backer and I won't close the door giving them my money in the future...I'll just be much, much more cautious when it comes to backing another Kickstarter with them.

Zjiv · Post by **Zjiv** » Wed Dec 03, 2014 9:05 am

Great episode guys, and sorry about the headache.

Scriven · Post by **Scriven** » Fri Dec 05, 2014 7:36 am

Apropos of tiny Lovecraft-worthy beasties, let's not overlook our wee little friend the tardigrade!

: Tardigrade!; image.jpg (130.18KiB)Viewed 23153 times

: Tardigrade!; image.jpg (130.18KiB)Viewed 23153 times

Zjiv · Post by **Zjiv** » Fri Dec 05, 2014 8:52 am

If they can just find a way to to actually get space-borne they will conquer the universe, or maybe they already have.