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I find this amusing. https://twitter.com/LairdBarron/status/1520030728595124225?s=20&t=tC2sfdWWddg9T_XWjGm_lA
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Apr 30, 2022 21:34
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...I did not have "Laird Barron is a Greyhawk/BX grog" on my 2022 bingo
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May 3, 2022 09:49
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If you're running a DG campaign set around the Fall of DG, this short film is some awesome inspo. Definitely C-tier writing, acting, and production value you'd expect from an amateur short film, but for what it is I really liked it. There were also some anachronisms that had me  like a reference to JSOC and some gun nerd poo poo but whatever.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tm0V24IEHao Owlbear Camus fucked around with this message at 20:11 on May 8, 2022 |
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May 8, 2022 20:06
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The 2022 Night at the Opera Summer Jam is open! Not a contest, but a chance to write neat Delta Green related stuff, and to riff on other people's ideas to build a stack of useful, fun, interesting things for Delta Green. Details here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aV-LlownvxYZ9U3auv8UjynpoAwJmAOx-qZjEJgF-dA/edit?usp=sharing The core loop is that you write up a cool thing, a setpiece, an npc, an artifact, a group, a houserule, etc. You submit it, then you take someone else's cool thing and write a new cool thing adjacent to it. Someone wrote up a cult, maybe you write up their central tome, or the deprogrammer trying to bring them down. Jam runs though July 4th.
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May 12, 2022 03:36
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Hi thread! I wrote a custom scenario for my campaign, and I'm pretty happy with how most of it has come out. I'd love to get some feedback from folks on it, as I still feel like the last part of it could be made a lot more concrete and tighter, when compared to the beginning of the scenario. A lot of it was heavily inspired by the Delta Green scenario "Observer Effect", the structure of which I adapted for a 1930s setting and to fit with the overarching themes of my campaign. The Furious Engine.
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May 13, 2022 20:58
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DrSunshine posted:Hi thread! I wrote a custom scenario for my campaign, and I'm pretty happy with how most of it has come out. I'd love to get some feedback from folks on it, as I still feel like the last part of it could be made a lot more concrete and tighter, when compared to the beginning of the scenario. A lot of it was heavily inspired by the Delta Green scenario "Observer Effect", the structure of which I adapted for a 1930s setting and to fit with the overarching themes of my campaign. The problem with this scenario is that you have created an even more extreme version of CoCs "nothing matters, we are all doomed" problem. By making it a stable timeloop, you have told the players their actions are meaningless, as the world will end July 9th, 2029, no matter what they do. What reason is there to continue the campaign?
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May 13, 2022 22:33
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Mycroft Holmes posted:The problem with this scenario is that you have created an even more extreme version of CoCs "nothing matters, we are all doomed" problem. By making it a stable timeloop, you have told the players their actions are meaningless, as the world will end July 9th, 2029, no matter what they do. What reason is there to continue the campaign? I legit never thought about that. Uh...
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May 13, 2022 22:36
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Maybe they each have something they want to know? Looping video games usually have some way for you to resolve the loop. But on the way there you usually learn more and more about the world. You could decide that that's your focus, but you're going to want the characters to each be very curious about something that they don't know the first time around.
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May 13, 2022 22:41
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DrSunshine posted:I legit never thought about that. Uh... you have to let there be an out that resolves the loop but prevents the convergence.
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May 14, 2022 03:30
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Mycroft Holmes posted:you have to let there be an out that resolves the loop but prevents the convergence. Let that insight be that this injury, damage, this acceleration, can be reversed - the method is very simple - consciousness must cease! If there is no consciousness of the appropriate sort in the appropriate space at the time, then the sheet unbends; the crack seals up; in time it is as if it was never there in the first place. The marks and the chains are eroded. And if that time should be done then consciousness may return. This presents its own challenge: How could you make this anything other than cyclical epochs? The answer is some form of stasis. Destroy your minds trying to figure out ways to do it. Stasis fields? Locking people away? The Yithian hack, if you want to get hardcore? (The Yithians couldn't figure it out, but perhaps they'll help if contact can be made.) But in the end, the final end, reach a solution or the draft of one: a sort of hibernation; modifying the body and frame, or at least the underlying conscious substrate, to be enduring... and then altering it in order to remain static, without consciousness, for immense periods. Perhaps a very, very, very slow cognition eludes the macro-spatial effects. Perhaps in this way, through periods of great estivation, people can continue to live... to develop, in a punctuated equilibrium. Perhaps these far-future beings could only have tenures on a single planet, around a single star, that would be measured in a handful of periods of revival, expansion and work before they would have to seek another, but by God, they'd be human, after a fashion. They could live, and study, and love. These Great Old Ones, Sarnoque continued, were not composed altogether of flesh and blood. They had shape—for did not this star-fashioned image prove it?—but that shape was not made of matter. When the stars were right, They could plunge from world to world through the sky; but when the stars were wrong, They could not live. But although They no longer lived, They would never really die. They all lay in stone houses in Their great city of Utopia, preserved by the spells of the mighty one for a glorious resurrection when the stars and the earth might once more be ready for Them. But at that time some force from outside must serve to liberate Their bodies. The spells that preserved Them intact likewise prevented Them from making an initial move, and They could only lie awake in the dark and think whilst uncounted millions of years rolled by. They knew all that was occurring in the universe, but Their mode of speech was transmitted thought. Even now They talked in Their tombs. When, after infinities of chaos, the first kren came, the Great Old Ones spoke to the sensitive among them by moulding their dreams; for only thus could Their language reach the fleshly minds of erythridates.
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May 14, 2022 21:13
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Given that there's 90 years of time between the return of the dodecahedron and the Great Convergence, I think as long as you don't use your GM powers to officially declare the future foreclosed the plot is fine. I've only skimmed, I'll edit once I've fully read but: Szabo Karoly needs to die to prevent apocalypse, right? That was what sent the student back in time? At some point there is an opportunity for her to communicate with the PCs? The investigators are in the 30s, he is in the 30s. If I was a player and my GM ran me through this game and at the conclusion did *NOT* say 'hah hah, all is vanity, you lose even though you won, smoke em if you got em, go kill a white rhino, who gives a gently caress!"? ...If they did NOT say that? I would immediately assume, 'Oh poo poo, this is module one of a whole campaign our DM has set up for us to find this Szabo Karoly guy and kill him!' Honestly, this could be a good setup for an Achtung! Cthulhu campaign. There are secret evil thoughts that if thought about too much by too many people hastens on the apocalypse seems like the exact kind of Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe/Wolfenstein eldritch stuff that your characters could end up shooting out of the brains of Nazi and Japanese (and Russian and American?) scientists during WWII and after. Since that's probably not what you're after, Nessus' suggestion makes sense. Reminds me of the plot of one of the Star Control games. A transdimensional monster wakes and eats consciousness once a threshold of sentient life is crossed, and so the 'progenitor race' of the setting turned themselves into non-sentient cattle animals to survive it. I might be misreading, but you say that the investigation begins Nov 1, the world ends Nov 4, and they need to get from PA to California before the world ends on 1934 tech? You mention that air would work, but that seems to be about it. Your travel durations for train and car are way longer than the investigators even start with, and if I read right, it's not a full Groundhog Day, when the world ends they wake up one day *later* than when they started on the last loop? Also, N.B. I'm from NEPA. A thing that gets lost in our recency bias (conveniently for presidential mythmaking) is that Scranton/WB area was actually a pretty wealthy place at the time. We were the 'electric city' because we had electric lighting and trolleycars before NYC did. Think San Fran, LOTS of wealth and LOTS of inequality. By the time Joe moved out the New Deal and unionization had leveled it out and it was arguably a good place to live. It wasn't till Knox Mine that we became the prototype for blown out post industrial, hanging-a-dead-elephant-off-a-crane joke cities that we are now. In case you need to scene set. PipHelix fucked around with this message at 19:16 on May 24, 2022 |
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May 24, 2022 19:00
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PipHelix posted:
This is the third ostensible scenario in the campaign, but Karoly is already dead by the time it rolls around. MaKenzie goes back in time but because the historical records are scanty and her Cthulhu math is untested, winds up with the wrong "time coordinates" and her time travel fizzles, sending her to the wrong time. Though his notes and published papers could still serve as a 'contagion' for an overarching campaign theme of gathering and suppressing the knowledge vectors before they spread! Or maybe they could form the basis of a mathematical cult (like the "Pythagorean Society" in the summer jam for example). For background, my campaign centers around Daoloth, the Render of Veils, who is depicted as a kind of negative/anti Azathoth, whose influence causes the universe's mathematical and physical laws to warp towards a state incompatible with sanity and normal existence. In my depiction of the mythos, Daoloth is a kind of "perverted order" whereas Azathoth is "insane chaos". The Convergence is a manifestation of Daoloth's power finally melting through and causing the universe to transition into being part of the greater underlying reality (sort of inspired by the theory of false vacuum decay).
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May 24, 2022 19:19
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Good old Daoloth the giant-rear end weird clock that's so complicated you go insane from your eyes trying to follow his form.
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May 24, 2022 20:35
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DrSunshine posted:Though his notes and published papers could still serve as a 'contagion' for an overarching campaign theme of gathering and suppressing the knowledge vectors before they spread! Or maybe they could form the basis of a mathematical cult (like the "Pythagorean Society" in the summer jam for example). I mean, language goes where it goes but the original meanings of 'meme' and 'viral' with respect to ideas, and the passing of knowledge are seemingly pretty relevant here. Your guys have bought themselves *at least* 90 years, but there's no reason that they can't keep moving the horizon back. Spend a groundhog day timeloop asking the grad student "look yes, you're in dinosaur times, the world is gonna end, evil crystal, yes yes yes we know. Lets talk about your *boyfriend*. Where's his family from? Ever meet his parents? What were their names? Better yet, grandparents?" As they clean their guns and consult the paper for weddings/baby announcements. "In this module you manipulate the stock market and war profiteer to enable yourself to buy a stretch of california coastline and mineral rights to the seabed, then lock them up in an airtight perpetual trust. Roll for Int or Credit Rating." E: Never heard of Daoloth, but checking out his description, if I had him in a module, I'd just hand this out:  And say 'this but real'. Also, eyes between the legs. E: Hours later, this has been bugging me in the back of my mind and it just snapped in: A lowest energy state is equilibrium, and equilibrium is the state of maximum entropy. Not trying to jerk the wheel from you here on headcanon, especially given how much work you've obviously done on the module so far BUT: Time's arrow leads inexorably to maximal entropy, the destruction of order and the eventual heat death of our own doomed universe, (which we can do nothing to prevent or slow and that doesn't seem to bug people too much - I'm not so down on downer endings as some people here  ). THEREFORE, a fully malicious order god would... attempt to run that arrow backwards. Maybe not all the way to the Big Bang, I'm not sure a roughly uniform universe of hot hydrogen is more 'ordered' than a fully uniform universe of cold iron, even though the Big Bang is technically at a much lower entropy state. Anyway, given this module is already about traveling back in time or in temporal loops, it would be maybe not the greatest trick the devil ever pulled, but at least a good one, for an evil order god to trick someone into loving with the flow of time and thus entropy. Also, the investigators remember the catastrophe if they're killed on Timeout, what about the other people in the world? I'm thinking Vonnegut's Timequake where the Groundhog Day effect isn't limited to one special human, EVERYONE remembers the reset and not coincidentally EVERYONE goes temporarily stark raving in the aftermath. PS, I really dig your ideas. I remember you discussing this module when it was just an idea and it really came together nice. Good Job! PipHelix fucked around with this message at 02:20 on May 25, 2022 |
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May 24, 2022 21:53
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Issue 3 of Whispers of the Dead is out. This free Delta Green fan-zine is full of scenarios, artifacts, creatures, handler advice and short stories. The editors are also accepting submissions for the next issue, so consider submitting any Delta Green content you would like to share. If you're on the fence, this is an excellent way to get your stuff layouted by graphic designers. Here's what they did with my microfiction: 
mellonbread fucked around with this message at 19:12 on May 27, 2022 |
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May 27, 2022 19:05
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Anyone else received their boxed sets from the Classic Kickstarter? I seem to have received a duplicate 1920 Sourcebook for mine, curious if anyone else experienced anything similar.
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Jun 3, 2022 23:47
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I got mine, but only opened the 2” box as the other is a gift for a buddy of mine. Didn’t find anything out of order, so maybe you got lucky?
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Jun 3, 2022 23:51
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Freakie posted:Anyone else received their boxed sets from the Classic Kickstarter? I seem to have received a duplicate 1920 Sourcebook for mine, curious if anyone else experienced anything similar. Mine only shipped yesterday, so I'll probably not see it till sometime next week
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Jun 4, 2022 00:07
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Have you guys read the new Keeper Tips book from Chaosium? Would you recommend it?
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Jun 5, 2022 11:29
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PipHelix posted:I mean, language goes where it goes but the original meanings of 'meme' and 'viral' with respect to ideas, and the passing of knowledge are seemingly pretty relevant here. Your guys have bought themselves *at least* 90 years, but there's no reason that they can't keep moving the horizon back. I like this idea, and it's very similar to the 'ultimate horrible truth' that the characters will discover hopefully someday in the campaign. I've just concluded this adventure, and the players ended up throwing the dodecahedron in the sea, though it seems they believe they've escaped the time loop rather than just playing their part in its inevitable fate. Perhaps I can introduce Azathoth as Daoloth's polar opposite, and pose the players with a choice. Do they help Azathoth and doom the universe to an insane thriving out of control, a reckless Gotterdamerung of fire and chaos? Or do they accept Daoloth, embrace the hypergeometric infection of causality, and do their part to help the universe converge into a new, crystalline order? quote:PS, I really dig your ideas. I remember you discussing this module when it was just an idea and it really came together nice. Good Job! Oh thank you! I'm glad you like them. I love the theme of 'spooky math and physics', as a person who's into those subjects, and I hope at least that my unorthodox take on the mythos is enjoyable to my players. They seem to be loving it so far!
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Jun 8, 2022 18:24
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Siivola posted:Have you guys read the new Keeper Tips book from Chaosium? Would you recommend it? I have not, but if you are looking for advice in that vein allow me to highly recommend Graham Walmsley's Stealing Cthulhu. quote:Many Cthulhu games feel the same. You shoot cultists. You do rituals. You unearth a buried god that's like every other god you've dug up. This book shows you how to make your games new and horrifying: by stealing from H. P. Lovecraft. $10 on DriveThru. https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/106251/Stealing-Cthulhu Another reason I like Stealing Cthulhu, is that you don't just get Walmsley's opinion. The pdf is full of annotations from other authors with their perspectives on Lovecraft's writings and how to make adventures fresh and scary again. Also if you want FREE advice on writing adventures then I'd recommend Issue 3 of Whispers of the Dead where mellonbread wrote an article on the subject. In addition there is an article in there called Seven Ways to Assassinate Your Agents, which contains good ideas for how to scare/threaten your player's characters.
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Jun 8, 2022 19:36
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Neat! Thanks for the tips, that book sounds great.
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Jun 8, 2022 19:48
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Siivola posted:Neat! Thanks for the tips, that book sounds great. Also if you happen to buy the Keeper Tips book, please report back. I've been eyeing it myself, but there are so many sales on DriveThru right now that my attention is diverted.
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Jun 8, 2022 19:57
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Stealing Cthulhu eh? Seems like a solid plan. This book looks great but I have to let the money pit refill.
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Jun 8, 2022 20:06
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Since there is interest I'll post a little about what advice there is in Stealing Cthulhu. First off the annotations around the book are written by Kenneth Hite, Gareth Hanrahan, and Jason Morningstar. However the below advice is straight from Graham Walmsley. quote:Introduction quote:Switching Viewpoints quote:CREATING INVESTIGATIONS Also this deconstruction and resynthesis advice for Lovecraft could very easily apply to other author's works. Maybe riff on Agatha Christie or the supernatural investigation plots of Jim Butcher. Yes, I really like this book.
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Jun 8, 2022 20:58
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Stealing Cthulhu is a bit cheaper on the author's shopfront ($8 vs $10, may be a limited-time sale). I got it but haven't read it yet. Got his Cthulhu Dark in hardcover and PDF, haven't read that yet, either, although I've heard good things.
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Jun 8, 2022 21:25
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Are A Time to Harvest or Cults of Cthulhu available in print yet? Those are the two most recent Chaosium titles I remember hearing anything about.
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Jun 9, 2022 02:25
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Dr. Lunchables posted:Are A Time to Harvest or Cults of Cthulhu available in print yet? Those are the two most recent Chaosium titles I remember hearing anything about. For Cults of Cthulhu a hardback has yet to be announced it seems. You can get the PDF from DriveThru or Chaosium right now for the same price. However the Chaosium online store says: quote:Buy now and get a coupon for the printed version later! https://www.chaosium.com/cults-of-cthulhu-pdf/
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Jun 9, 2022 03:41
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IIRC Chaosium usually can take some time to go from PDF to print on most of their titles. It'll get there eventually, though. Their store credit on the PDFs are pretty tempting, though.
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Jun 9, 2022 10:30
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I've bought a few of their deals, and it's honestly a heck of a bargain. I didn't buy from them for a while cuz of the NFT thing, but lately I've found most every single brand, band, and filmed media I like lost their shirts on the NFT scam, so I can at least take solace in the fact that I'm compensating them better than that scam :V
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Jun 9, 2022 12:08
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I buy all their stuff from my local shop and get the PDFs for free via the bits and mortar program. I have a pull on new CoC stuff, but it’s been months since I got a call, so I wasn’t sure if they forgot or what.
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Jun 9, 2022 12:38
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My copy of the 40th Anniversary box set arrived on Tuesday, surprisingly big box full of great stuff
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Jun 9, 2022 13:14
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drrockso20 posted:My copy of the 40th Anniversary box set arrived on Tuesday, surprisingly big box full of great stuff Can confirm. Especially when they something extra on accident.  I'll also say that as an European, their prices are outrageously cheap even without any sales, since they charge USD only with almost no tax and local shipping. I'll wager it might be 20-30% cheaper than local stores on average.
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Jun 9, 2022 13:40
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Just the fact they have a European warehouse is bonkers.
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Jun 9, 2022 15:02
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sasha_d3ath posted:I've bought a few of their deals, and it's honestly a heck of a bargain. I didn't buy from them for a while cuz of the NFT thing, but lately I've found most every single brand, band, and filmed media I like lost their shirts on the NFT scam, so I can at least take solace in the fact that I'm compensating them better than that scam :V They backed off from the NFT thing after not too long of a public outcry. So the only big issue now is that they're still doing business with Sandy Petersen. Edit: typo! Absurd Alhazred fucked around with this message at 16:07 on Jun 9, 2022 |
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Jun 9, 2022 15:23
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Absurd Alhazred posted:They backed off from the NFT thing after not too long of a public outcry. So the only big issue now is that they're still doing business with Sandy Peterson. What's the problem with Sandy Peterson? I don't keep up with the drama. Is he like a sex weirdo or a racist or something?
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Jun 9, 2022 16:00
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DrSunshine posted:What's the problem with Sandy Peterson? I don't keep up with the drama. Is he like a sex weirdo or a racist or something? Dodgy business practices with respect to his own company's Cthulhu Wars, also a transphobe.
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Jun 9, 2022 16:09
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Absurd Alhazred posted:They backed off from the NFT thing after not too long of a public outcry. So the only big issue now is that they're still doing business with Sandy Petersen. From my recollection they haven't done anything new with Sandy in a while and while he's still credited for his work that's included in the 40th Anniversary box set, I don't believe he's getting paid in any way for this release
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Jun 9, 2022 22:05
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drrockso20 posted:From my recollection they haven't done anything new with Sandy in a while and while he's still credited for his work that's included in the 40th Anniversary box set, I don't believe he's getting paid in any way for this release As of October of last year they were still promoting him as a licensee: quote:Call of Cthulhu Terror Paths: That transphobic tweet was July of that year.
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Jun 9, 2022 22:19
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Absurd Alhazred posted:Dodgy business practices with respect to his own company's Cthulhu Wars, also a transphobe.  Eesh. Ah well, I didn't really expect much else from a boomer who looks like a thumb and sounds exactly how you'd expect a 60 year old grognard to sound. EDIT: Also I don't know how you pronounce "Shub-Niggurath" but from the videos I've watched, Sandy Peterson pronounces it with the hard-r, and quite happily too, it seems. (Personally I would say it "shoob NEE-goo-roth" but I've excised this particular old god from my version of the mythos for precisely this reason). DrSunshine fucked around with this message at 04:36 on Jun 10, 2022 |
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Jun 10, 2022 04:33
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