Arkham News Round-up: May, 2019
Hello everyone and welcome to this month's Arkham news round-up. I'm Nate, Lost in time and space and in this series I highlight news and product releases of Cthulhu Mythos related games from the previous month and quickly share my thoughts with you. As always links will be provided below, but before we dive into May's news, I want to take a second to highlight a product I had missed from April so without further ado, let's hop right in.
Delta Green: Control Group PDF now available
http://www.delta-green.com/2019/04/download-control-group-now/
In my excitement about the release of the Complex, I forgot to mention the other release for the Delta Green RPG. Released in late April,
“Control Group: a collection of original adventures to introduce players to Delta Green. These operations will lead future agents to new heights of cosmic terror.”
This supplement comes with 4 scenarios for the handler to run their agents through. The site continues by giving a brief synopsis of each of the operations, one sees the players following a team of NASA astronauts and strange civilians into space in 2010, another on a diplomatic mission to Gath Valley, the third with a team from the CDC to rural Arizona in 2012 to investigate a strange outbreak, and the final operation to Kansas to investigate a cult that sports a strange sigil. This looks like a great purchase for new and veteran handlers alike. The production value looks excellent as always from Arc Dream. I mean just look at the picture on the front cover, it's creepy as all hell! I love the idea of the final scenario tying together all of what the players have learned from their previous sessions into their admittance into delta green. PDF's are now available with printed copies expected to arrive this July.
A Cold Fire within: New campaign for Pulp Cthulhu released by Chaosium:
https://www.chaosium.com/a-cold-fire-within-pdf
Following up the well received release of “The Two-headed Serpent” May sees a new campaign for Pulp Cthulhu. To quote Chaosium here:
“A Cold Fire Within is a campaign for Pulp Cthulhu. Set in 1935, a missing persons case leads to the discovery of a foul plot that could change time itself and bring disaster to the world. A cult intent on unleashing the power of the Great Old Ones leaves a trail through the Catskill Mountains and into the very heart of the planet!
Within the subterranean world of K’n-yan, the heroes will encounter forgotten secrets, strange lore, and bewildering inhabitants. Curious cities of gold, ruined temples, and dark forests are just some of the terrors that lurk below the ground. Yet, before the heroes descend into nightmare, they must contend with remnants of ancient worlds, unruly mountain people, and psychic devilry. Along the way, the heroes may find that going back to the end of an ancient city is the only answer! Perhaps in Lomar’s doom shall they unlock the secrets of both past and present.”
The website continues by detailing the contents of the book,
“A complete six-part campaign for Pulp Cthulhu, A Cold Fire Within presents new rules and skills for psychic powers—Parapsychology, Dematerialization, and Telepathy—new spells, details of the people and lands of K’n-yan, as well as a new hero organization—the Open Mind Group. Six ready-to-play heroes are provided.”
I like that this campaign comes with pre-generated characters, always nice to have on the ready in case a PC needs a new character to play. The art on the cover and throughout the book is excellent and sets the tone of key scenes of the story. The story itself as noted in the introduction, is largely a linear story, which if that's not your cup of tea, keepers you may want to avoid this campaign for your group. It's interesting that two recent supplements see the investigators entering into the lost city of K'n-yan. I could see this campaign linking to adventures from “Down Darker Trails”. Maybe your characters play a prologue scenario in the wild west, then are transported to the present. Speaking of the weird west setting.
Chaosium always has excellent artwork!
Rick Meints, President of Chaosium, discusses the “Weird west” RPG line.
https://www.chaosium.com/blogrick-goes-west-and-weird-with-down-darker-trails/
Rick Meints, President of Chaosium, did an interview for the companies blog where he talks about the Down darker trails, or Weird west setting for Call of Cthulhu. For those who don't know, this setting is 19th century western America. Think red dead redemption meets call of Cthulhu. Rick goes on to talk about the origins of the setting and plans for it in the future. Rick reveals the title of Kevin Ross' 3rd book for the weird west setting. “Let sleeping gods lie” is likely to be similar to previously released “Shadows over stillwater”. Rick also highlights “Edge of Sundown” the first in “Mythos Terrors in the Wild West" fiction releases”. I'm not familiar yet with this setting so I can't say too much about it, but all this talk of an ancient underground city has me curious.
The Blob that ate everything! Arkham Horror:LCG Gen Con scenario announced
https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2019/5/17/the-blob-that-ate-everything/
Attendees of Gen Con last year had the opportunity to play “The Eternal Slumber”, the first scenario of the “Guardians of the abyss” scenario pack, the second at Arkham Nights 2018. FFG announced this year attendees of Gen Con will be traveling to Blackwater to investigate a strange meteor, that is, until the thing is hatched...
I see what you did there Matt…
The story of this scenario harkens beats reminiscent of H.P. Lovecraft's “The Color out of space” with a healthy mix of 50's Pulp horror film added in for good measure. I mean come on, the boss' name is subject 8L-08...that's just funny.
“Subject 8L-08 isn’t just an enemy; it’s the scenario itself. The treachery cards are things the blob is doing. The enemies are pieces of the blob. The locations are, well, covered in the blob. It’s not just a single card that you are fighting—almost every encounter card represents a facet or a piece of the blob. And when we say it can eat anything, we mean anything. In fact, The Blob That Ate Everything even contains a table listing all of the possible things it can eat.
The table is four pages long.”
What makes this scenario special among the rest is that up to 96 players can be fighting against the blob together simultaneously! The players have a new tool called countermeasures to help secure victory over the blob menace. Matt Newman also teases something else is at play as well, and that quote “You're just part of the experiment”. I had plans on going to Gen Con and playing this scenario, unfortunately the blob ate my tickets and now I can't go...
FFG ANNOUNCES REVEAL TO NEW EXPANSION ARKHAM HORROR 3RD EDITION:
https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2019/5/31/ffg-live-in-june/
June 11th, New Arkham expansion will be revealed
Finishing off the month, FFG announced their live stream schedule for the month of June and Arkham fans will be pleased to see that Arkham Horror 3rd edition will finally be getting a new expansion. The stream is scheduled for June 11th, 1pm Central time. I haven't played this version of the board game yet but I have heard positive things about it. I'll be sure to provide more information on this topic after the live stream.
That's gonna do it for this month's Arkham news round-up. What did you think about this months news? Did you pick up any of the products I mentioned? Was there something I missed? Leave your thoughts down in the comments below. Thanks you as always for reading, and have a great day.
