Impossible Realities

As promised, we have recently released. These include Friday, Power Grid: First Sparks, Power Grid: the Robots, and Puerto Rico Anniversary Edition, (which we have sold out of – as it was a limited edition, we will not reprint it). The German publishers have delayed other games we planned to release and printers and we expect to release them in a few weeks. These include Upon a Salty Ocean, South Pole, and Stone Age: Style is the Goal. We will also soon be releasing Lamborghini, Leader: Hell of the North, Hawaii, and Last Will. For Dominion, we still plan to release a digital version early this year. We are also planning to release a set of all base cards (treasure, victory, and curse) that players can use to replace used cards from the base game or Dominion: Intrigue, or to use with the expansions that do not include these base cards. The planned release for this product is March of 2012. We have changed the schedule a bit and will release the large expansion Dominion: Dark Ages at Gencon to accompany the Dominion World Masters Tournament that will be held there. The expansion previously announced for the spring: Dominion: the Guilds will be released in the spring of 2013. We are continuing to work on Arctic Scavengers, Cavemen, Carcassonne: the Castle Falcon expansion, Those Pesky Garden Gnomes, Rattlebones, Credit Mobilier, Mogul, Monster Factory, and several others. These will appear beginning in the spring of 2012. 

The Dominion World Masters Tournament will be held this year at Gencon. We have invited our partners from around the world to hold tournaments in their countries and send the winner. For the US, we are asking local conventions to sponsor “regional” tournaments so the winners can participate in the US finals prior to Gencon. We plan to hold those in June. We are also asking those who have held Dominion tournaments at conventions since October to contact us as we may offer those winners entry into the finals.

Jay M Tummelson
Rio Grande Games
PO Box 1033
Placitas, NM 87043

Hobbits, Spiderman, Jason Bourne and the Dark Knight are all back on the big screen this year
Published Monday January 2nd, 2012
BY JAY STONE
POSTMEDIA NEWS
Last year at this time, we were talking about all the upcoming movies that have numbers after the titles: 2011 was going to be a year of sequels.

Well, looking over the 2012 slate, what do we find but a lot of movies with numbers after the titles, including Wanted, Journey, Scary Movie, Men in Black, Madagascar, Step Up, G.I. Joe, Clash of the Titans, Hitman, The Expendables, Paranormal Activity, Taken, and The Twilight Saga. And that’s not counting the new Ghost Rider, Resident Evil and Die Hard movies.

Yes, it’s deja vu all over again, a sequel of sequels, but what are you going to do? In Hollywood, familiarity breeds content.
Fortunately, we don’t have to travel that road. There is much to look forward to next year: a Spider-Man reboot, a new Batman, another Bourne, and the return of Jay Gatsby.

Anyway, here, in the order they will open, are 12 to look forward to in 2012:
Jeff, Who Lives at HomeI’ve been haunted by this odd little comedy since I saw it at the Toronto International Film Festival. Jason Segel stars as a sweet-natured slacker, a pothead who lives in his mother’s basement and believes in some kind of mystical connection of all things. A wrong number sends him out on an 83-minute adventure that’s awkward, uneasy and strangely gratifying. (March 2)

The Three StoogesOnce upon a time, Jim Carrey, Sean Penn and Benicio Del Toro were going to star in this Farrelly brothers film version of the slapstick comedy trio. Well (nyuck nyuck), it now looks like a somewhat diminished cast – Sean Hayes, Chris Diamantopoulos and Will Sasso – will be bopping each other on the head with monkey wrenches instead. The Farrellys haven’t been on the cutting edge of comedy since There’s Something About Mary, but if this material isn’t right up their alley, why I oughta . . . (April 13)

The DictatorWe’re stepping out on a limb a bit on this one, but we’ve been seduced by the filmmaker (Larry Charles), the cast (Sacha Baron Cohen, Megan Fox, Anna Faris, John C. Reilly and Ben Kingsley) and the tagline: “The heroic story of a dictator who risks his life to ensure that democracy would never come to the country he so lovingly oppressed.” (May 11)

The Amazing Spider-ManFiasco or brilliant re-invention? Tobey Maguire, who’s 36, quit the series, reportedly because he didn’t like a script that sent his character back to high school. In stepped Andrew Garfield, who’s only (ahem) 28, and a new love interest in Emma Stone. Besides, director Marc Webb made 500 Days of Summer. (July 3)

The Dark Knight RisesThis is more like it: Christopher Nolan directs Christian Bale, who brought just the right combination of brooding and pecs to The Dark Knight in 2008. This time, Anne Hathaway and Tom Hardy are the villains, and several members of the Pittsburgh Steelers will make cameo appearances. Well, you can’t have everything. (July 20)

The Bourne LegacyMaybe it’s just leftover affection for the Bourne trilogy of Matt Damon films, but we have high hopes for this follow-up with Jeremy Renner as a new CIA agent (Damon said he wouldn’t return without director Paul Greengrass). The project is slightly second-hand – it’s based on a novel by Eric Van Lustbader, using Robert Ludlum’s characters – but it’s being directed by Tony Gilroy, who co-wrote the other movies and directed Michael Clayton. Plus, Edward Norton plays the villain. (Aug. 3)

Cloud AtlasBased on an ingenious novel by David Mitchell, this film tells six intertwined stories, starting in the South Pacific in 1850 and moving to a post-apocalyptic future, then back again. The cast includes Tom Hanks, Hugo Weaving, Halle Berry, and Hugh Grant and it’s directed by Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run) and the Wachowski brothers (The Matrix films).

Gangster SquadWe’re a sucker for this kind of thing: Sean Penn plays Mickey Cohen, a real-life hoodlum who ran things in Los Angeles in 1949 – the gambling, the prostitutes, the cops – until a squad of uncorrupted police, led by Josh Brolin and Ryan Gosling, set out to clean things up. (Oct. 19)

SkyfallDaniel Craig returns as James Bond. That’s probably enough, even without Javier Bardem and Ralph Fiennes. Bond must destroy enemies attacking MI6 or something. As long as he has gadgets, we’re happy. (Nov. 9)

The Hobbit: An Unexpected JourneyFunny title for a movie we’re been awaiting for the better part of a decade, but there you go. Just to reiterate: Peter Jackson directs many of your Lord of the Rings favourites, including Elijah Wood’s Frodo, Hugo Weaving’s Elrond, Orlando Bloom’s Legolas, Ian McKellen’s Gandalf, and, of course, Andy Serkis’s Gollum. The story: We lose our precious, and a nasty Hobbit finds it. (Dec. 14)

The Great GatsbyIn this quintessential American story of the self-made man, Leonardo DiCaprio plays Gatsby (less stiffly, we trust, than Robert Redford in the 1974 version), with Carey Mulligan as his Daisy and Tobey Maguire, too old for Spider-Man but just right for Nick, the outsider who narrates their glittery story. We look for big things from director Baz Luhrmann: Moulin Rouge! big. (Dec. 25)

LincolnTall American president presides over Civil War. Steven Spielberg directs, Daniel Day-Lewis stars. Anything else you need to know? (December)

It’s coming! The LAST March to Oblivion EVER*. March 10th, 2012 at the Chinese Commerce Center on Cobur g Street in Saint John, NB. Come see old freinds, MEET new freinds and GAME YOUR GUTS OUT! There will be DnD, board games, fIGHT fOR iNFINITY, CAM, WH40K and WOMBATS and…. well EVERYTHING game related. The CAMteen will be up and running, and I have a sneaking suspicion that Chas “Dotman” Goguen will be there. I’m also pretty sure there will be many attempts to vigilante/protect/lynch the infamous Mayor/Villager #8.

* Oh, come ON. You aren’t gonna fall for the “end of the world” Maya stuff, are you? YES we’ll be back next year for more. SHEESH.

PS The website seems to be falling to second place behind our Facebook volume. If you want REAL time information, check us there!

Here are 17 top titles for the video game fans on your Christmas list
Published Saturday December 3rd, 2011
BY DAVID WYLIE
POSTMEDIA NEWS
No matter who you’re shopping for, there’s likely a video game out there that will make him or her smile.

From games that teach you to dance to games where kids can interact with a baby tiger or bear, here are 17 of the best video games you can give this holiday season.

Toe tapping titles
Rocksmith, $80 (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC)
Rocksmith is the evolution in music games. Plug any real electric guitar into your video game console and learn to play notes and chords – rather than just hitting coloured buttons. The game teaches several dozen popular songs and a handful of mini-games teach specific guitar skills. If you need a guitar, a bundle that includes an instrument will set you back $200.

Dance Central 2, $50 (Xbox 360, only with Kinect)
Got groove? You will after playing Dance Central 2 – possibly the best dance game ever made. It works with the Xbox 360′s Kinect to pick up all of your body’s movements and teach you, over time, to dance like a pro.

Next best thing to actual sports
EA Sports NHL 12, $60 (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3)
No Canadian video game collection is complete without the good ol’ hockey game. Sure there are the normal yearly gameplay tweaks and improvements – like hitting goalies – but the best part of this latest entry into the franchise is the ability to play as the newly-returned Winnipeg Jets. Woo!

FIFA 12, $60 (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3)
While Canada is known as a hockey country, it may come as a surprise that soccer is the country’s most-played sport, with the highest number of registered players – both English- and French-speaking. So it’s hard to go wrong giving FIFA 12 as a Christmas gift. There are some major improvements in the 19th instalment to keep this series kicking.

Trip down memory lane
Halo Combat Evolved Anniversary, $40 (Xbox 360)
Released in November 2001 as a key launch title for Microsoft’s spiffy new gaming console, Halo: Combat Evolved introduced the world to Master Chief. A decade later, Halo is one of the most popular gaming franchises in the world. The first-person shooter is celebrating with a glossy makeover of its inaugural title, giving players a chance to beat the campaign with others online for the first time.

Family fun
Lego Harry Potter years 5-7, $50 (Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, PlayStation 3)
Muggles, rejoice! Lego is continuing to build on the Harry Potter story with its usual charm and playfulness. This latest game focuses on the last four films based on the Harry Potter books: The Order of the Phoenix, The Half Blood Prince and the two-part Deathly Hallows finale.

Rayman Origins, $50 (Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, PlayStation 3)
Limbless hero Rayman goes back to his roots in Rayman Origins and must defeat an evil horde sent forth after his loud snoring disturbed the peace. The comical side-scrolling platformer, reminiscent of Super Mario Wii, lets up to four people work together to save the Glade of Dreams from bad guys.

Kirby’s return to Dreamland, $50 (Nintendo Wii)
He’s puffy. He’s pink. He’s back. An alien has crash-landed and it’s up to Kirby to help find pieces of his ship and save the day. Up to four players can work together to help the alien get home in this colourful adventure.

Just for kids
Sesame Street Once Upon A Monster, $40 (Xbox 360, only with Kinect)
Children will be tickled by Sesame Street’s video game. Once Upon a Monster is played in a storybook format, with Elmo and Cookie Monster solving different monsters’ problems through a series of mini-games. It’s directed at kids three years old and up.

Kinectimals Now With Bears, $50 (Xbox 360, only with Kinect)
Though Kinectimals was released about a year ago as one of the first games to launch with the Xbox 360′s Kinect motion sensor, it stands as one of the most beautiful and charming games for kids. Kids can name, befriend and play with their pet tigers. The game now has a second life, thanks to a new edition that includes baby bears. The bears can also be purchased as downloadable content on the Xbox Live marketplace.

Classic heroes
Batman: Arkham City, $60 (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3)
Widely accepted as the best comic book video game ever made, Batman Arkham City is stylish and moody. The game is filled with classic characters and an arsenal of Batman’s famous gadgets. Set in the prison city of Arkham, Batman faces off mainly against his nemesis The Joker.
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, $50 (Nintendo Wii)

Raise your sword and ready your shield. This latest instalment in the Legend of Zelda puts the weapons in the player’s hand, with players swinging the Wiimote to strike and holding up the nunchuk to block. The active gameplay in a gorgeous world will keep players on their feet – literally.

Hand-held
Super Mario 3D Land, $40 (Nintendo 3DS)
If there’s one word to describe Super Mario, it’s reliable. You can always count on Nintendo’s perennial plumber to star in great games. Super Mario 3D Land continues that trend in the series’ first game on the 3DS, combining the classic side-scrolling feel of the old-school games with three-dimensional exploration. The plot: Rescue Princess Peach who has been kidnapped by Bowser.

Mario Kart 7, $40 (Nintendo 3DS)
For those who love to throw turtle shells and banana peels at other drivers, Mario Kart is the racing game of choice. There are a few new tweaks added to make this hand-held game fresh again, including the ability to play as a Mii and racing under water for the first time in the series.

Big adventures
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, $60 (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC)
As far as massive games go, they don’t get much bigger that the fifth instalment of The Elder Scolls role-playing series – Skyrim. Set in the midst of a civil war, the hero can choose to make the world a better place, a worse place, or just walk around aimlessly and soak in the brilliant design in this massive open world.

Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception, $60 (PlayStation 3)
This is the video game version of a big-production, blockbuster Hollywood movie. Protagonist Nathan Drake trots around the globe in search of a lost city (and its treasure). The adventure is punctuated by chases, gunfights and massive explosions.

Assassin’s Creed Revelations, $60 (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3)
One could describe Assassin’s Creed as a history lesson … with concealed knives. Set in Constantinople during the Renaissance era, Assassin’s Creed Revelations follows three quiet killers from the past games in the series. The sneaking, stalking and pouncing are fun, but roaming through bona fide history-brought-to-life in a massive virtual world is what truly makes this game amazing.

Have a Great Thanksgiving

Everyone here at Chaosium wishes you a safe, sane, and filling Thanksgiving holiday. It’s hard to believe that we are in the 2011 holidays already! Have we been dreaming? . . .

H.P. Lovecraft’s Dreamlands
Back in print for the holidays in a paperback format, H.P. Lovecraft’s Dreamlands provides everything needed for Call of Cthulhu or Cthulhu Dark Ages investigators to travel down the seven hundred steps, through the Gates of Deeper Slumber, and into the realm of dreams. Includes a travelogue of the Dreamlands, a huge gazetteer, Dreamlands character creation rules, over thirty prominent NPC’s, over 60 monsters dwelling within the Dreamlands, descriptions of the Dreamlands gods and their cults, six adventures to help jump start a Dreamlands campaign, and a fold-out map of the Dreamlands by Andy Hopp.

Recent Releases
COLONIAL TERRORS — a Call of Cthulhu campaign taking place in New England just prior to the American Revolution. The investigators are patriot smugglers. In this Age of Enlightenment great progress is made in science, politics, and philosophy. Many, but not all, of the shackles of previous eras are shaken free. This is a land where old gods grow new again.

THE SEVENFOLD PATH — a sourcebook and campaign for classic-era Call of Cthulhu. Investigators will travel to 1920s Iceland, be introduced to the legend of Olaf Ulfsson, and investigate the ruins of the abandoned Third Cloister. The encounter rival lodges of the theosophy movemenet in Reykjavik, and get a chance to butt heads with some of the proto-Nazis of the Thule Gesellschaft. It they are not wise and clever, they will be dead or corrupted.

THE MAGIC BOOK — Magic pervades many worlds of Basic Roleplaying, for in the game every adventurer — every character — has the capacity to manipulate invisible powers. Though the beliefs of the user shape his or her approach to magic, all magic works by certain principles which stem from the life force of the user. Life force flows in natural currents throughout the universe. Its different forms and shapes are determined by perception.

The Magic Book explains the mechanics of three independent magic systems (Spirit Magic, Divine Magic and Wizardry) and details Ritual Magic, a system common to shamans, priests and wizards.

THE GODS HATE ME — the title of one of the seven adventures in this Cthulhu Invictus monograph exploring the people and times of ancient Rome — mythic and Mythos-infected.

• Enjoy a relaxing three-day holiday celebrated with gladiatorial games;
• Explore an ancient cache of antiquities brought to Rome from ancient Egypt;
• Build the demarcation wall ordered by Emperor Hadrian across the northern frontier of the Roman Empire;
• Learn the cause of the rebellion of Spartacus;

These are but a sample from the winning entries for Chaosium’s first Cthulhu Invictus adventure-writing contest.

DEAD LEAVES FALL — we recently held our annual CALL OF CTHULHU HALLOWEEN ADVENTURE contest. Dead Leaves Fall contains the winning entries. While all of the adventures are specifically written for Call of Cthulhu, these entries span time periods from ancient Rome through the American Revolution and up to the modern-day.

Have a safe holiday!
The Folks at Chaosium

A Chaosium Halloween-in-France Sale!
Charlie is heading off to France for a small show called Chimeriades. France has always been a good market for Chaosium books and games, and especially for Call of Cthulhu. While the boss is away, those of us left behind thought it a great time for a CHAOSIUM SALE! Here is your chance to save Big Bucks.

Starting now and lasting until Charlie’s return plane lands, we are offering a MONSTROUS DISCOUNT of 30% OFF on Chaosium titles and knick-knacks throughout our online catalog. It’s been some time since our last sale, and we’ve added a number of new titles and monographs since.

Colonial Terrors
Colonial Terrors is a Call of Cthulhu campaign taking place in New England just prior to the American Revolution. The investigators are patriot smugglers. In this Age of Enlightenment great progress is made in science, politics, and philosophy. Many, but not all, of the shackles of previous eras are shaken free. This is a land where old gods grow new again.

The Sevenfold Path
The Sevenfold Path is a sourcebook and campaign for classic-era Call of Cthulhu. Investigators will travel to 1920s Iceland, be introduced to the legend of Olaf Ulfsson, and investigate the ruins of the abandoned Third Cloister. The encounter rival lodges of the theosophy movemenet in Reykjavik, and get a chance to butt heads with some of the proto-Nazis of the Thule Gesellschaft. It they are not wise and clever, they will be dead or corrupted.

The Magic Book
Magic pervades many worlds of Basic Roleplaying, for in the game every adventurer — every character — has the capacity to manipulate invisible powers. Though the beliefs of the user shape his or her approach to magic, all magic works by certain principles which stem from the life force of the user. Life force flows in natural currents throughout the universe. Its different forms and shapes are determined by perception.

The Magic Book explains the mechanics of three independent magic systems (Spirit Magic, Divine Magic and Wizardry) and details Ritual Magic, a system common to shamans, priests and wizards.

The Gods Hate Me
The Gods Hate Me is the title of one of the seven adventures in this Cthulhu Invictus monograph exploring the people and times of ancient Rome — mythic and Mythos-infected.

• Enjoy a relaxing three-day holiday celebrated with gladiatorial games;
• Explore an ancient cache of antiquities brought to Rome from ancient Egypt;
• Build the demarcation wall ordered by Emperor Hadrian across the northern frontier of the Roman Empire;
• Learn the cause of the rebellion of Spartacus;

These are but a sample from the winning entries for Chaosium’s first Cthulhu Invictus adventure-writing contest.

Dead Leaves Fall
. . . and speaking of contests, we recently held our annual CALL OF CTHULHU HALLOWEEN ADVENTURE contest. Dead Leaves Fall contains the winning entries. While all of the adventures are specifically written for Call of Cthulhu, these entries span time periods from ancient Rome through the American Revolution and up to the modern-day.

Other Sale Items to Consider…
Here are a number of titles you might want to consider picking-up during this sale. Most were released during 2011, as we have started offering hardcover editions of some of our popular books.

The enthusiastic response to the release of the CALL OF CTHULHU 30th ANNIVERSARY EDITION surprised us. We have fewer than 40 remaining copies of this special binding of the current edition of the rulebook, featuring thick (3 mm) leatherette hard-covers with the front cover and spine stamped with luxurious gold foil. This is a one-time printing and will not be reprinted.

In the MASKS OF NYARLATHOTEP hardcover edition, the stars are almost right! Soon Nyarlathotep’s plans will come to fruition. Then the world will be changed irrevocably—but not quite yet. Pesky human investigators have learned much, but they must survive long enough to make sense of what they know, and take resolute action. This roleplaying classic is a series of linked adventures forming one long and unforgettable Call of Cthulhu campaign. Horrifying deeds and dangerous sorcery dog those who dare attempt to unravel the fate of the Carlyle Expedition. The non-linear narrative keeps players baffled and on their toes. Action is the byword as the player-characters evade or combat cultists, magic, mad men, and the dread powers of the Outer Gods.

A 3-panel KEEPER’S SCREEN mounted on thick hardcover stock that folds out to 33 inches wide. One side, intended to face the players, portrays an investigative scene. The other side collects and summarizes important rules and statistics, to help ease the Keeper’s task. The package includes a 22″x34″ Mythos Vade Mecum poster by the mad french artists Christian Grussi and El Théo, postulating relationships between the deities and minions of the Cthulhu Mythos.

Chaosium’s BASIC ROLEPLAYING hardcover collects in one place rules and options for one of the original and most influential role playing game systems in the world. From its origin, Basic Roleplaying was designed to be intuitive and easy to play. Character attributes follow a 3D6 curve, and the other Basic Roleplaying mechanics are even simpler. Virtually all rolls determining success or failure of a task are determined via the roll of percentile dice. This means that there’s less fiddling with dice of different types, and the concept of a percentile chance of success is extremely easy for beginners and experienced players to grasp.

ELDRITCH EVOLUTIONS is the first collection of short stories by Lois H. Gresh, one of the most talented writers working these days in the realms of imagination. These tales of weird fiction blend elements wrung from science fiction, dark fantasy, and horror. Some stories are bent toward bizarre science, others are Lovecraftian Mythos tales, and yet others are just twisted. They all share an underlying darkness, pushing Lovecraftian science and themes in new directions. While H.P. Lovecraft incorporated the astronomy and physics ideas of his day (e.g., cosmos-within-cosmos and other dimensions), these stories speculate about modern science: quantum optics, particle physics, chaos theory, string theory, and so forth. Full of unique ideas, bizarre plot twists, and fascinating characters, these tales show a feel for pacing and structure, and a wild sense of humor. They always surprise and delight.

Have a great Halloween!
The Folks at Chaosium

Almost done with Convention Season! For the Halloween weekend, Charlie will be heading off to the south of France to attend Chimeriades, and to again barbecue on the grill they built for him, to talk to some of our French fans, and visit with some of our European licensees.

The Magic Book

Magic pervades many worlds of Basic Roleplaying, for in the game every adventurer — every character — has the capacity to manipulate invisible powers. Though the beliefs of the user shape his or her approach to magic, all magic works by certain principles which stem from the life force of the user. Life force flows in natural currents throughout the uni¬verse. Its different forms and shapes are determined by perception.

The Magic Book explains the mechanics of three independent magic systems (Spirit Magic, Divine Magic and Wizardry) and details Ritual Magic, a system common to shamans, priests and wizards.

Here is The Magic Book PDF version.

The Gods Hate Me

The Gods Hate Me is the title of one of the seven adventures in this Cthulhu Invictus monograph exploring the people and times of ancient Rome — mythic and Mythos-infected.

• Enjoy a relaxing three-day holiday celebrated with gladiatorial games;
• Explore an ancient cache of antiquities brought to Rome from ancient Egypt;
• Build the demarcation wall ordered by Emperor Hadrian across the northern frontier of the Roman Empire;
• Learn the cause of the rebellion of Spartacus;

These are but a sample from the winning entries for Chaosium’s first Cthulhu Invictus adventure-writing contest.

Here is The Gods Hate Me PDF version.

Dead Leaves Fall

. . . and speaking of contests, we recently held our annual CALL OF CTHULHU HALLOWEEN ADVENTURE contest. Dead Leaves Fall contains the winning entries. While all of the adventures are specifically written for Call of Cthulhu, these entries span time periods from ancient Rome through the American Revolution and up to the modern-day.

We will add the print version as soon as possible, but wanted to give enterprising keepers a pumpkin-throw headstart.

Recent Releases

The enthusiastic response to the release of the CALL OF CTHULHU 30th ANNIVERSARY EDITION surprised us. We have only a few remaining copies of this special binding of the current edition of the rulebook, featuring thick (3 mm) leatherette hard-covers with the front cover and spine stamped with luxurious gold foil. This is a one-time printing and will not be reprinted.

OPERATION ULYSSES offers a far-future adventure for Basic Roleplaying. The characters have been contacted by the mega-corporation ISIS corp. (Interstellar Industrial Supply), the largest litherium mining and manufacturing company in the Hadrion Galaxy, to investigate the recent disappearance of the Ulysses, one of their Titan-class starfreighters. Twenty-four hours ago, the Ulysses veered off course into an extremely hazardous star system known as the Gammadon Fields, and then disappeared near the planet of ION 9. You are part of the investigative team searching for the missing ship.

Here is the OPERATION ULYSSES PDF version.

DEAD BUT DREAMING 2 is the second volume of the critically-acclaimed anthology series from Miskatonic River Press. Herein are 22 tales of Lovecraftian horror from the modern masters of Cthulhu Mythos fiction: Scott David Aniolowski, David Annandale, Donald R. Burleson, Cody Goodfellow, John Goodrich, T.E. Grau, Rick Hautala, Walt Jarvis, Erik T. Johnson, William Meikle, Will Murray, Daniel W. Powell, Wilum Pugmire, Joseph S. Pulver Sr, Pete Rawlik, Kevin Ross, Brian Sammons, Darrell Schweitzer, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Michael Tice, and Don Webb.

Thanks for stopping by!
The Folks at Chaosium

Sit-com is most-watched TV program this side of the border
Times & Transcript
Published Thursday October 13th, 2011

Big Bang is making a lot of noise this year.
That’s the most logical explanation for the phenomenal – and continuing – supernova-like performance of The Big Bang Theory, Canada’s most-watched TV program in the present time continuum. Not just most-watched comedy, or most-watched sci-fi sitcom, but most-watched program. Period.
More than 3.6 million Canadians tuned in last week, placing Big Bang atop the ratings charts – ahead of Survivor, ahead of The Amazing Race, The X Factor, Grey’s Anatomy, CSI and (thankfully) even a certain sitcom starring Ashton Kutcher in lieu of Charlie Sheen.
Why, it’s almost enough to make one think Star Trek is cool again.
Star Trek is germane because, in tonight’s Big Bang episode, The Russian Rocket Reaction, the gang pays homage – again – to Star Trek: Next Generation with a party at Wil Wheaton’s house, with Wheaton playing himself. Brent Spiner, who played the cult character Data in the eight-year series, also appears as himself.
Big Bang devotees know that physics savant Sheldon Cooper (consecutive Emmy winner Jim Parsons) has had an ongoing feud with Wheaton, dating back to a 2009 episode in which Wheaton soundly thrashed Sheldon at a Mystic Warlords of Ka’a tournament. (You had to be there.) Wheaton has appeared in three Big Bang episodes so far; tonight will be his fourth. He is fast becoming Moriarty to Sheldon’s Sherlock Holmes.
The Big Bang Theory’s makers have managed to take a slender concept – mismatched misfits looking for love – and turn it into one of TV’s most ardently followed comic romances.
Tonight’s outing was co-written by Big Bang co-creator Chuck Lorre, the same writer-producer who created Two and a Half Men and Mike & Molly, from an idea conceived by fellow Big Bang creator, Bill Prady.
That suggests the episode will be more weighty than a rote, run-of-the-mill outing from one of Big Bang’s junior staff writers. As with most sitcoms, Big Bang’s one-liners are hit and miss, and the quality varies from week to week.
Star Trek is low-hanging fruit for a comedy about science nerds with an obsessive longing for a TV show that’s no longer on the air. As Sheldon himself ruefully remarked in an episode from last December, The Alien Parasite Hypothesis: “In difficult times like this, I often turn to a force stronger than myself.”
Religion?
“Star Trek.”
Make it so. (CTV, CBS, 9 AT)

Fantasy game card players gather for championship
[here]
Published Thursday October 13th, 2011
laura lyall

SAINT JOHN – Fantasy card players in the province are prepping for the ultimate battle.
This year, Saint John’s Gamezilla is hosting the 2011 State and Provincial Championship of Magic: The Gathering in New Brunswick. Gamezilla has hosted the event for the last six years, and the event is currently run by a company of Magic: The Gathering judges.
“It’s a collectible card came, collectible strategy. It’s kind of a cross between poker and Dungeons and Dragons, where you’ve got the fantasy element but the tactics and the thinking that would be involved are similar to a poker game,” said Sandy Lindsay of Gamezilla, a Magic player and judge. But while poker has only 52 cards, Magic: The Gathering has over 11,000.
Registration begins at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 15 at Gamezilla. Players are randomly paired up, while the numbers of rounds played is based on attendance. The final top eight have a single elimination playoff until a winner is named.
The 2010 provincial champion was Andrew Olsen. This year’s champion wins Magic products, a plaque and a custom DCI card, which acts as a Magic: The Gathering identification, and grants the champion free access to premier main events hosted by the organizers for the next year and, of course, bragging rights.
The game has seen a spike in interest. Past tournaments have attracted between 40 and 50 people, but registration rates have been increasing, which Lindsay attributes to the growing card quality and the classic horror theme of this year’s card set features werewolves, vampires and other monsters.
“It’s growing in leaps and bounds,” he said. “Tournament attendance is up from last year 33 per cent throughout North America. (The game) is ever-changing. Every year of the game is different. The main roles are always the same, but they’re always adding new cards and new twists on cards, and the way decks are built to play against one is constantly changing.”
As a longtime player, Lindsay enjoys the game’s social nature.
“It’s one of those games that you can play it on the computer, but it’s much more enjoyable while you’re sitting around the table with people you know playing the game.”

Canadian marks milestone of the popular One-Man Star Wars Trilogy
Published Friday October 14th, 2011
By MIKE DEVLIN
Postmedia News
Charles Ross is feeling the pressure as he nears a major milestone in his career.
Ross is known for his inspired masterwork, One-Man Star Wars Trilogy, which the Victoria resident first performed during the 2002 Toronto Fringe Festival. Thousands of performances later, Ross ranks among the most popular solo performers in the world.
Next year marks the 10th anniversary of OMSWT, an hour-long show in which Ross alone plays the characters from the franchise’s first three films. There isn’t much the 37-year-old Prince George native hasn’t done during his decade-long hit streak, so he’s considering some drastic measures for next year’s anniversary – such as putting the bit to bed.
“What else could I possibly do?” Ross said prior to a recent performance in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. “If I could do this show for George Lucas, there would be no point in doing the show anymore. Doing the show for the guy who made the films, it wouldn’t need to go any further than that. It would be a poetic ending to it.”
Barring some face time with the brains behind the Star Wars franchise, Ross probably won’t mess with his formula from the past decade – playing to sold-out audiences from Dubai to Australia, and racking up rave reviews along the way.
It’s a nice living, indeed. But Ross often wonders how long he’ll be able to keep pace with a pop-culture entity which has the potential to continue ad infinitum.
“I’m happy that I don’t have to have another job, and that I’m able to do this. It feels like a prison sentence sometimes, but in a good way.”
Ross is no one-trick tauntaun. In 2004, after the sudden success of OMSWT, he premiered yet another film-based performance, titled One-Man Lord of the Rings. It also proved successful, far surpassing Ross’s dreams and expectations.
He is performing both projects this week at the four-performance Charles Ross-a-Thon, an Intrepid Theatre fundraiser today and tomorrow in Victoria.
Very little about his OMSWT has changed since the original script, which he wrote with help from longtime friend and former UVic classmate T.J. Dawe. Ross says barely a word was changed until the 1,000th show, even though he still considered it to be a work in progress.
“I think I’ve gotten a lot better at pacing myself physically with the show. But the original essence is there. New jokes have come up, but Star Wars itself hasn’t changed, so it’s kind of set in stone.”
The biggest development came when he introduced a wireless headset into the mix. Though he abhorred the idea at first (“In theatre, we never trained with microphones, we always used our voices,” he says) it eventually became too practical to ignore.
Ross had started doing twice-daily performances at this point, and he was wearing down. The microphone saved him, to a degree. He has missed only three shows to date; two because he lost his voice and one because he was sick.
He hasn’t become bored with the original films, despite having watched Star Wars hundreds of times. That’s because OMSWT isn’t based on the films themselves, Ross says, but his interpretation of them.
“The films still remind me of being a kid. But weirdly enough, this show reminds me of being an adult.”
Ross pays a per-show licensing fee for both projects, which gives him artistic licence to perform the shows whenever and wherever he wants. He has made full use of his opportunities; Ross has spent seven months on the road this year, including two tours of England. It is an exhausting schedule to maintain, Ross says, but the demand is there.
Occasionally, stars make their way to his shows, Vin Diesel and Ian McKellen – the actor who played Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings trilogy – among the most notable to date. Meeting them afterward made him nervous but the experience was ultimately a rewarding one, Ross admits.
“I think your head can drift in the clouds when you meet these types of people, but when you do end up chatting with them for a bit, their heads are firmly on their shoulders. It reminds you that you are not lost to this experience. You can stay grounded, you can stay yourself.”