Ssssh, it’s Confidential

Regular readers of this irregular outlet for my musings will know that I’m a big fan of the Gumshoe system by Pelgrane Press. I’ve got a year-old Night’s Black Agentscampaign that shows no signs of slowing down just yet, and a Trail of Cthulhucampaign that is letting me indulge my fantasy of being remotely as […]

Campaign Tarot – #TrailOfCthulhu

I’m quite pleased with the latest iteration of my Roll20 “home screen” – this time for a Trail of Cthulhu campaign. Rather than repeating my Incident Board idea from my Night’s Black Agent’s Campaign I’ve gone more for a classic desk-top look with cards representing the key locations and characters appearing in the episode. […]

HP Lovecraft and the Opera Ghost #TrailOfCthulhu

I came across something today that puzzled me at first and then intrigued me. I found this essay online – “The Horror on the Wall” by ST Joshi about Lovecraft’s opinion of movies, and in it was a passage about a favourite of mine which I am glad to hear that Lovecraft also rated highly […]

Found Carcosa #TrailOfCthulhu

I’ve been plundering the themes and flavours of Chambers’ work recently but today for the first time I came across this little gem. The Carcosa mansion, built in 1896 to 1897 was intended as the residence of the British High Commissioner in Malaya. It’s now a luxury hotel though given the antecedents of the name […]

Rolling out the rules #NightsBlackAgents

I’ve been running a Night’s Black Agents campaign for a while now, the Pelgrane game of elite spies versus vampires and the rules, the ideas for structuring campaigns and the atmosphere have all combined into being one of the most involving and exciting games I’ve played in a gaming career that goes back far longer […]

The Gate of Amen-Ekot #TrailOfCthulhu

They say (but you know the sort of thing They say) that the much reviled sorcerer of the lower Nile, Amen-Ekot boasted that he could never be truly slain by his many enemies because he had entrusted his vital essence to a safer place than “any vault of all too perishable carrion meat” as he […]

"You don’t need two hands to hold a severed head." – #NightsBlackAgents

“You don’t need two hands to hold a severed head.” Not an actual depiction of eventsHans is more Swedish and better dressed You know that the session of Night’s Black Agents has taken a dark turn when one of the player characters muses aloud along those lines.Last night’s session ended up with Hans losing enough […]

Achy Breaky Stability Check #nightsblackagents

In last night’s session of Night’s Black Agents a vampire nearly houseruled the system spontaneously by so clearly failing a stability test it took the Director- me- aback. Okay so vampires don’t make stability tests, nor did I roll one. But it sure as hell felt like he failed one. Here’s a bit of […]

Be Prepared. #nightsblackagents

This very practical travel kit for the aspiring vampire hunter went on sale in North Yorkshire in 2012 and raised £7500 at auction. It was put together in the 19th century and contained all the stuff you’d expect:A crucifixStakes and a malletA PistolGlass bottle of Holy Water, another of consecrated earth, another of garlic pasteThe […]

A Night At The Theatre – #nightsblackagents

In the next session my players have suggested their characters are following up a lead they got from a crumpled programme in the pocket of a dead man, and they’re going to the theatre that the programme was advertising. What could possibly go wrong?