Downtown Arkham Postcard

A view of downtown Arkham looking north from the bridge over the Miskatonic River, based on a mildly retouched 1922 postcard. To produce the finished prop, click through to download the high resolution files and then:

1. Print the front image on cardstock and trim it to 4" X 6".
2. Adjust your printer document size to 4" by 6", flip over your trimmed card, and print the back side.
3. Apply stamp.
4. Run the back side of the card through the printer again to apply the postmark.

Optionally, you can follow that up with a rubdown with fine sandpaper along the corners and edges, then apply a light wash of tea to age the finished postcard.

Postcard front:


Postcard back:


Postmark:

Egocentric Armillary

Tom Savage crafted this wonderful device out of CNC milled aluminum. It reminds me of the "Brazen Head" artifact from Chaosium's "The Auction". I shudder to think what kind of voice might issue forth once the proper ritual is performed.

1923 Wanted Flyer

Another gem from the always entertaining "Least Wanted" collection on Flickr:a wanted poster from 1923.



I'm guessing that pasting an actual photograph to a wanted notice was a common practice for petty criminals. High profile, violent offenders would be worth the expense of cutting a plate for a full run of wanted posters, but small-timers like this guy didn't justify the investment.

How To Make a Giant Octopus

The talented Tom Banwell sent over a link to this entertaining YouTube video recounting the creation of a stop-motion octopus. The techniques used would be useful both for large-scale LARP creatures as well as smaller, wunderkammer-style specimen examples.

The Last Lovecraft: The Relic of Cthulhu

This week marked the debut of a new Lovecraftian horror/comedy at the Slamdance film festival- "The Last Lovecraft: The Relic of Cthulhu". Bloody Disgusting is giving it some positive coverage and offers up this plot summary:

In the film Jeff, a down on his luck office worker, finds out he is the last living relative of horror novelist H.P. Lovecraft. What he doesn't know is that Lovecraft's monsters are real and will soon threaten the very existence of mankind. Jeff and his best friend Charlie are forced to embark on a perilous adventure and they enlist the help of high school acquaintance, Paul, a self proclaimed Lovecraft specialist. Together the three unlikely heroes must protect an alien relic and prevent the release of an acient evil, known as Cthulhu.

They also have an exclusive look at the film's trailer:



Given that this was produced on a shoestring budget I think it looks pretty good. Is it high art? No freakin' way, but it seems like a fun project with the same kind of manic energy and goofy logic as the "Evil Dead" films. It also has some nice prop designs, in particular the "Relic of Cthulhu" itself. I wouldn't mind picking up one of these if they were commercially available:





The seal from the end of the trailer also looks interesting:



It's similar to a couple of existing designs, but the way the pieces slide together to form the final embossment is clever.

Quick And Dirty Mapmaking

This isn't directly prop related, but since "Call of Cthulhu" gaming is such a huge part of Lovecraftian fandom I wanted to post about it.

There are RPG mapping programs on the market capable of handling everything from a single room in a dungeon to entire stellar clusters, but if you're looking for something that's unbelievably fast and easy to use I think you might like Floorplanner.com. Granted, gamers aren't it's intended audience. The free, flash-based program is intended to help people design the layout of homes and landscaping. It just so happens that the smooth, drag and drop interface they've come up with is also ideal for banging out the kind of floorplans that are ideal for gaming.

In about five minutes I was able to put together this quick "Temple of Dagon" map:



Not only is it a snap to layout a room, building, or even a starship deckplan, but Floorplanner can take your 2D plan and render it in 3d with the click of a button:



Mind you, this was something I banged out within minutes of stumbling across the site. There are so many options and objects available that you could spend hours creating an entire house down to the smallest detail. Which isn't all that suprising since that's exactly what the site is intended for.

The Matchbooks of Madness

Cephalopod Productions is up to something involving matchbooks. We'll have to wait to discover what's brewing up, but he's also posted some handy letterhead from Innsmouth's Marsh Refinery.