In August of last year I came back to pen and paper gaming after a long absence to be part of a group running through Chaosium's "Beyond the Mountains of Madness". We'll be having our final session in two weeks time, but my part of the journey is over. It ended in an ancient city high upon the Antarctic plateau, where I, like hundreds or thousands of others over the years, was forced to make a difficult choice. If you've made the same journey, you'll know what I mean when I say that that I did the right thing for the greater good.
After hearing how great BTMOM was for years I finally learned the truth for myself. What an incredible, memorable experience. Yes, it has it's flaws, but it also has a truly epic climax that more than justifies the praise it's received.
My experience creating props based on "At the Mountains of Madness" has been running parallel to running through BTMOM, and it too is coming to a close. Last year I produced my first run of 100 patches for the Miskatonic Antarctic expedition and they sold out in a week. Since then I've been producing a pretty steady stream of material and I think I'm close to having every major item mentioned or implied in the story covered.
Miskatonic University expedition patch? Check.
Photographs salvaged from the ruins of the Lake encampment? Check.
Drawings made by Danforth and Dyer as they explored the Elder Thing city? Check, check, check, and check.
Operational diagram of Pabodie's revolutionary drilling rig? Check.
Dyer's pilot's license? Check.
Manual mock-up for the expedition's Dornier-Wal aircraft? Check.
Large-scale, period map of Antarctica? That was going to be my follow up project to the initial run of patches, but as I explained over here there just wouldn't be enough demand to justify the cost of the print run. Even that isn't a major gap, since the link provides information on how to purchase a very reasonably priced copy of the 1922 Bartholomew map mine was based on.
Is there anything else I've missed? The only thing I'm aware of is one of the Elder Thing's soapstone starstones. I'm planning on making one for myself to fill out the "From the Mountains of Madness" case, but that's the kind of project that anyone with a little time and some Sculpey can whip up.
If you can think of anything, particularly paper props, please leave a comment and I'll see about rustling something up.
Oh, and one last thing.
Richard Allen DeVost
1902-1934
At the bottom of the world
he gave his all
for the greater good.
So your PC got to be the lucky one, eh? Congrats on almost making it all the way through BtMoM - IMHO, that's the way a CoC investigator should end his career. :P
ReplyDeleteThat campaign's a real piece of gaming art. (Although I never cared for the semi-predetermined climax.) Alas, it's one I shall never get to play (having read it) and will likely never have the stamina to run. I envy you fortunate souls who have had the opportunity to do either...