Post by nyrlthtp on Oct 31, 2010 4:37:59 GMT -6
MASKS OF NYARLATHOTEP, DOCUMENTATION OF MYTHOS
branching from: cocthulhu.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=lovecraft&action=display&thread=3762
having a birthday near Halloween means that all the best releases are about the time i get my gift certificates. High Priest Venger As'Nas Satanis made it clear that he thought that "Masks of Nyarlathotep", the supplement for the Call of Cthulhu Role Playing Game was one of the better sources for information about Cthulhu mythos and about Nyarlathotep in particular. this title has JUST COME OUT (10/27/2010) IN ITS FOURTH EDITION and has been written up as a classic in another new configuration.
a promotional page has a handout with the ToC and many sample pages (Introduction and Appendix).
with a wad of moolah from my birthday on the 25th from family to splurge, it's time to split this up between Voodoo, board game history/collection, fractured fairy tales, (Amazon.com) and Cthulhu mythos (Chaosium.com)! as part of my activities for the cult, i here present for you the results of my investigation into the publishing and authorship of this particular title, plus all other references that seemed related by superset or subset. I decided to get a Hardbound 4th Edition, newly off the press. Ia!
=========================================================================
Bibliographic Data
4TH EDITION
"Complete Masks of Nyarlathotep: Adventures to Thwart the Dark God", by Larry DiTillio, Lynn Willis, Geoff Gillan, Kevin A. Ross, Thomas W. Phinney, Michael MacDonald, Sandy Petersen, Penelope Love; (Call of Cthulhu Role Playing Game Series), Chaosium;
2010; 248 pgs.; ISBN:1568823290.
3RD EDITION
"Complete Masks of Nyarlathotep: Adventures to Thwart the Dark God", by Larry DiTillio, Lynn Willis, Geoff Gillan, Kevin A. Ross, Thomas W. Phinney, Michael MacDonald, Sandy Petersen, Penelope Love; (Call of Cthulhu Role Playing Game Series), Chaosium; 2008; 228 pgs.; ISBN:1568820690.
"Complete Masks of Nyarlathotep: Adventures to Thwart the Dark God", by Larry DiTillio, Lynn Willis, Geoff Gillan, Kevin A. Ross, Thomas W. Phinney, Michael MacDonald, Sandy Petersen, Penelope Love; (Call of Cthulhu Role Playing Game Series), Chaosium; 2001; 228 pgs.; ISBN:1568820690.
"Complete Masks of Nyarlathotep: Adventures to Thwart the Dark God", by Larry DiTillio, Lynn Willis, Geoff Gillan, Kevin A. Ross, Thomas W. Phinney, Michael MacDonald, Sandy Petersen, Penelope Love; (Call of Cthulhu Role Playing Game Series), Chaosium; 1996; 228 pgs.; ISBN:1568820690 (revised, reset).
2ND EDITION
"Masks of Nyarlathotep: Adventures to Thwart the Dark God", by Larry DiTillio and Lynn Willis, (Call of Cthulhu Role Playing Game Series), Chaosium; 1989; 158 pgs.; ISBN:0933635605.
1ST EDITION (Box Set)
"Masks of Nyarlathotep: Adventures to Thwart the Dark God", by Larry DiTillio and Lynn Willis; (Call of Cthulhu Role Playing Game Series), Chaosium; 1984; ASIN: B000NTN622.
------------------------
Site References
Game Machine
Yog-Sothoth.com (A great site in general!)
RPG Geek (Including non-English printings)
[at Chaosium.com the 4th Edition also comes in PDF ($24.95)
and Hardback editions!! ($44.95)]
=========================================================================
REVIEWS (3rd Edition; much removed, consolidated)
***** Perhaps the best rpg adventure ever, October 11, 1999
By s.kourakis@searchspace.com (London, UK): "Masks is an adventure taking place in 1926-27 (game time of 1 year exactly). This is perhaps the most comprehensive and compelling storyline I have ever seen in a role-playing product. ...."
***** The original "Pulp Cthulhu", July 30, 2005
By Alexander Scott (Birmingham, AL): "Many Call of Cthulhu gamers consider MASKS OF NYARLATHOTEP to be the ultimate Cthulhu product. ......Did I mention that you can fight a lot of cultists? At the beginning, anyway. By the end, we're talking thousands of armed loonies cheering on their dark lords. ... heaven help you if you open your eyes and watch. Have you ever watched your electric meter while the AC is on? yeah, that's what your sanity score is like, only in reverse. From the Keeper's point of view, MASKS has a lot of helpful elements. Besides the previously mentioned clue cross-check at the beginning of each chapter, there are also stats for everything. And if you need some extra cultists, there are extras rolled up. Spare monsters? They're there too. Some Outer Gods to perform perverse and blasphemous rites? They even have names and special powers. ... ...Some images just keep coming to mind - like the exploding pregnant woman infested with the spawn of Nyarlathotep. Ehhhh... Good time for that lobotomy I keep putting off. Good luck saving the world!"
***** Classic Cthulhu, April 30, 2008
By Andrew G. Knoebel "Aerakade" (Round Rock, TX): "This game is a somewhat stereotypical example of what Call of Cthulhu should be. That's as good of a compliment as can be said for any Cthulhu supplement. It has everything, international cult rings, undeniably pulp technology, monsters and cultists at every turn, red herrings, exciting locales, side quests, and a really high rate of kills and sanity loss! ...after the book is completed you'll be set to continue fighting the minions of Nyarlathotep. ...."
***** Amazing, June 5, 2003
By A Customer: "This is quite simply one of the best campaigns ever written, not just for Cthulhu, but for any roleplaying system. I cannot recommend it highly enough. Suspense, terror, violence and mind-bending horrors, it's all here, and it takes a well-prepared Keeper (or GM) to make it flow smoothly. I actually adapted it to d20 for our campaign, and if i were to do it again i would probably use one of the new Shadows of Cthulhu or Trail of Cthulhu instead of the standard BRP rules."
***** Brilliant, terrifying, and compelling, January 10, 2003
By M. Salazar (Los Angeles, CA USA): "Larry DiTillio's epic Call of Cthulhu campaign is the best scenario I have come across in my nearly 20 years of gaming. It pits 1920's investigators against the machinations of Nyarlathotep in a truly worldwide campaign. What stands foremost in my mind is the manner in which he was able to evoke horror even among the most jaded and experienced investigators. ...."
=========================================================================
HONOURABLE MENTION
Games and Supplements
1) Games, Books by Chaosium
or Robert Price's "The Nyarlathotep Cycle"!, by Chaosium: "The mighty Messenger of the Outer Gods, Nyarlathotep has also been known to deliver tidings from the Great Old Ones. He is the only Outer God who chooses to personify his presence on our planet. A god of a thousand forms, he comes to Earth to mock, to wreak havoc, and to spur on humanity's self-destructive urges. This volume of stories and poems illustrates the ubiquitous presence of Nyarlathotep and shows him in several different guises. Among them, his presence as Nephren-Ka, the dread Black Pharaoh of dynastic Egypt, dominates. The thirteen stories include a Lin Carter novella. Selected and introduced by Robert M. Price. ..."
or find baubles via www.chaosium.com
and the Quick Start PDF
as well as many other free downloads from Chaosium!
2)Games/Books by Fantasy Flight/Arkham
3) Wayne's World of Books
-----
Figures, Shrines, and Cardboard Adorables
Shrine of Cthluhu from a PDF!! for $5
Call of Cthulhu: Domain Statue!! for $15
Giant 16" HorrorClix The Great Cthulhu Figure
Cthulhu Bust
Ultra Cthulhu Statue, by SOTA
Ultra Nyarlathotep, by Nightmares
Ultra Dagon Statue, by SOTA Nightmares
-----
Lovecraft/Mythos Evaluation and Reflections
* "The Rise and Fall of the Cthulhu Mythos"
S. T. Joshi (Author), Jason C. Eckhardt (Illustrator)
--Publishers Weekly: "...In this opinionated but entertaining study, the world's foremost Lovecraft scholar closely scrutinizes the Mythos and finds much to criticize. Separating out as the "Lovecraft Mythos" the stories in which Lovecraft developed his unique mythology, Joshi (H.P. Lovecraft: A Life) sees a distinct difference from the Cthulhu Mythos as practiced by most other writers, primarily in the absence of a cosmic perspective that gives the fictional horrors intellectual weight and gravity. Joshi lays the blame for the Mythos reducing Lovecraft's work to its most superficial aspects on Lovecraft's disciple August Derleth, who misinterpreted the intent of his mentor's work and created the template from which most Mythos fiction ever since has been struck. ..."
--Leigh Blackmore, Lovecraft Annual 2009: "...The volume is valuable for Joshi s accumulated new insights into Lovecraft s work alone, and his assessment along the way of various opinions expressed by other Lovecraft scholars ranging from, inter alia, Will Murray through David E. Schultz to Robert M. Price. But of course the bulk of the study is given over to elaborations of the Mythos by other hands....."
* "The Cthulhu Mythos Encyclopedia", by Daniel Harms, Elder Signs Press; 3rd Revised Edition, 2008; 336 pgs.
* "Nyarlathotep", by H.P. Lovecraft, L'Herne edition, 1996; ISBN:851973290.
* "H.P. Lovecraft: A Life", by S. T. Joshi.
* "Primal Sources: Essays on H. P. Lovecraft", by S. T. Joshi.
* "Lord Of Visible World: Autobiography In Letters", by S. T. Joshi.
* "The Lovecraft Lexicon: A Reader's Guide to Persons, Places and Things in the Tales of H.P. Loecraft", by Anthony Pearsall, New Falcon, 2005; 472 pgs.; ISBN:1561841293.
* "An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia", by S. T. Joshi and David E. Schultz,
Greenwood Press, 2001; 360 pgs.
* "H. P. Lovecraft: A Comprehensive Bibliography" by S. T. Joshi; 2009 (to 2007)
* "A Cthulhu Mythos Bibliography & Concordance", by Chris Jarocha-Ernst;
S.T. Joshi: "{This work} (1999) lists 2631 works by Lovecraft and others, although this number seems substantially inflated by numerous items that are only tangentially related to Lovecraft's conceptions."
* "The Complete H. P. Lovecraft Filmography", by Charles P. Mitchell.
* "The Lurker in the Lobby: A Guide to the Cinema of H.P. Lovecraft", by Andrew Migliore, 2000.
* "Haggopian and Other Stories (Best Mythos Tales)", by Brain Lumley,
Subterranean Press.
* "H.P. Lovecraft in Popular Culture: The Works and Their Adaptations in Film, Television, Comics, Music and Games", by Don G. Smith.
* "Lovecraft: Fear of the Unknown" (DVD), starring John Carpenter, Guillermo Del Toro, Neil Gaiman, Stuart Gordon, Caitlin Kiernan; Directed by Frank H. Woodward, 2009.
* "Lovecraft: A Look Behind the Cthulhu Mythos", by Lin Carter; ("naive and filled with errors").
-----
Lovecraft-Inspired Art
* "Petersen's Field Guide to Cthulhu Monsters', by Sandy Petersen, Tom Sullivan, and Lynn Willis (Gaming Supplement, Humour Field Guide format).
"A Lovecraft Retrospective: Artists Inspired by H.P. Lovecraft", by Harlan Ellison, Centipede Press, 2008; 400 pgs.
"The Art Of H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos", ed.
published by Fantasy Flight Games.
"Art de H.P. Lovecraft: L'Appel de Cthulhu", by Collectif, 2010; 189 pgs.
-----
Terror for Toddlers
"Where the Deep Ones Are", by Kenneth Hite (and all his other Cthulhu for Tots texts!)
Cthulhu Plush Slippers
Cthulhu Plush Pillow, by Toy Vault
=========================================================================
END-345
branching from: cocthulhu.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=lovecraft&action=display&thread=3762
having a birthday near Halloween means that all the best releases are about the time i get my gift certificates. High Priest Venger As'Nas Satanis made it clear that he thought that "Masks of Nyarlathotep", the supplement for the Call of Cthulhu Role Playing Game was one of the better sources for information about Cthulhu mythos and about Nyarlathotep in particular. this title has JUST COME OUT (10/27/2010) IN ITS FOURTH EDITION and has been written up as a classic in another new configuration.
a promotional page has a handout with the ToC and many sample pages (Introduction and Appendix).
with a wad of moolah from my birthday on the 25th from family to splurge, it's time to split this up between Voodoo, board game history/collection, fractured fairy tales, (Amazon.com) and Cthulhu mythos (Chaosium.com)! as part of my activities for the cult, i here present for you the results of my investigation into the publishing and authorship of this particular title, plus all other references that seemed related by superset or subset. I decided to get a Hardbound 4th Edition, newly off the press. Ia!
=========================================================================
Bibliographic Data
4TH EDITION
"Complete Masks of Nyarlathotep: Adventures to Thwart the Dark God", by Larry DiTillio, Lynn Willis, Geoff Gillan, Kevin A. Ross, Thomas W. Phinney, Michael MacDonald, Sandy Petersen, Penelope Love; (Call of Cthulhu Role Playing Game Series), Chaosium;
2010; 248 pgs.; ISBN:1568823290.
3RD EDITION
"Complete Masks of Nyarlathotep: Adventures to Thwart the Dark God", by Larry DiTillio, Lynn Willis, Geoff Gillan, Kevin A. Ross, Thomas W. Phinney, Michael MacDonald, Sandy Petersen, Penelope Love; (Call of Cthulhu Role Playing Game Series), Chaosium; 2008; 228 pgs.; ISBN:1568820690.
"Complete Masks of Nyarlathotep: Adventures to Thwart the Dark God", by Larry DiTillio, Lynn Willis, Geoff Gillan, Kevin A. Ross, Thomas W. Phinney, Michael MacDonald, Sandy Petersen, Penelope Love; (Call of Cthulhu Role Playing Game Series), Chaosium; 2001; 228 pgs.; ISBN:1568820690.
"Complete Masks of Nyarlathotep: Adventures to Thwart the Dark God", by Larry DiTillio, Lynn Willis, Geoff Gillan, Kevin A. Ross, Thomas W. Phinney, Michael MacDonald, Sandy Petersen, Penelope Love; (Call of Cthulhu Role Playing Game Series), Chaosium; 1996; 228 pgs.; ISBN:1568820690 (revised, reset).
2ND EDITION
"Masks of Nyarlathotep: Adventures to Thwart the Dark God", by Larry DiTillio and Lynn Willis, (Call of Cthulhu Role Playing Game Series), Chaosium; 1989; 158 pgs.; ISBN:0933635605.
1ST EDITION (Box Set)
"Masks of Nyarlathotep: Adventures to Thwart the Dark God", by Larry DiTillio and Lynn Willis; (Call of Cthulhu Role Playing Game Series), Chaosium; 1984; ASIN: B000NTN622.
------------------------
Site References
Game Machine
Yog-Sothoth.com (A great site in general!)
RPG Geek (Including non-English printings)
[at Chaosium.com the 4th Edition also comes in PDF ($24.95)
and Hardback editions!! ($44.95)]
=========================================================================
REVIEWS (3rd Edition; much removed, consolidated)
***** Perhaps the best rpg adventure ever, October 11, 1999
By s.kourakis@searchspace.com (London, UK): "Masks is an adventure taking place in 1926-27 (game time of 1 year exactly). This is perhaps the most comprehensive and compelling storyline I have ever seen in a role-playing product. ...."
***** The original "Pulp Cthulhu", July 30, 2005
By Alexander Scott (Birmingham, AL): "Many Call of Cthulhu gamers consider MASKS OF NYARLATHOTEP to be the ultimate Cthulhu product. ......Did I mention that you can fight a lot of cultists? At the beginning, anyway. By the end, we're talking thousands of armed loonies cheering on their dark lords. ... heaven help you if you open your eyes and watch. Have you ever watched your electric meter while the AC is on? yeah, that's what your sanity score is like, only in reverse. From the Keeper's point of view, MASKS has a lot of helpful elements. Besides the previously mentioned clue cross-check at the beginning of each chapter, there are also stats for everything. And if you need some extra cultists, there are extras rolled up. Spare monsters? They're there too. Some Outer Gods to perform perverse and blasphemous rites? They even have names and special powers. ... ...Some images just keep coming to mind - like the exploding pregnant woman infested with the spawn of Nyarlathotep. Ehhhh... Good time for that lobotomy I keep putting off. Good luck saving the world!"
***** Classic Cthulhu, April 30, 2008
By Andrew G. Knoebel "Aerakade" (Round Rock, TX): "This game is a somewhat stereotypical example of what Call of Cthulhu should be. That's as good of a compliment as can be said for any Cthulhu supplement. It has everything, international cult rings, undeniably pulp technology, monsters and cultists at every turn, red herrings, exciting locales, side quests, and a really high rate of kills and sanity loss! ...after the book is completed you'll be set to continue fighting the minions of Nyarlathotep. ...."
***** Amazing, June 5, 2003
By A Customer: "This is quite simply one of the best campaigns ever written, not just for Cthulhu, but for any roleplaying system. I cannot recommend it highly enough. Suspense, terror, violence and mind-bending horrors, it's all here, and it takes a well-prepared Keeper (or GM) to make it flow smoothly. I actually adapted it to d20 for our campaign, and if i were to do it again i would probably use one of the new Shadows of Cthulhu or Trail of Cthulhu instead of the standard BRP rules."
***** Brilliant, terrifying, and compelling, January 10, 2003
By M. Salazar (Los Angeles, CA USA): "Larry DiTillio's epic Call of Cthulhu campaign is the best scenario I have come across in my nearly 20 years of gaming. It pits 1920's investigators against the machinations of Nyarlathotep in a truly worldwide campaign. What stands foremost in my mind is the manner in which he was able to evoke horror even among the most jaded and experienced investigators. ...."
=========================================================================
HONOURABLE MENTION
Games and Supplements
1) Games, Books by Chaosium
or Robert Price's "The Nyarlathotep Cycle"!, by Chaosium: "The mighty Messenger of the Outer Gods, Nyarlathotep has also been known to deliver tidings from the Great Old Ones. He is the only Outer God who chooses to personify his presence on our planet. A god of a thousand forms, he comes to Earth to mock, to wreak havoc, and to spur on humanity's self-destructive urges. This volume of stories and poems illustrates the ubiquitous presence of Nyarlathotep and shows him in several different guises. Among them, his presence as Nephren-Ka, the dread Black Pharaoh of dynastic Egypt, dominates. The thirteen stories include a Lin Carter novella. Selected and introduced by Robert M. Price. ..."
or find baubles via www.chaosium.com
and the Quick Start PDF
as well as many other free downloads from Chaosium!
2)Games/Books by Fantasy Flight/Arkham
3) Wayne's World of Books
-----
Figures, Shrines, and Cardboard Adorables
Shrine of Cthluhu from a PDF!! for $5
Call of Cthulhu: Domain Statue!! for $15
Giant 16" HorrorClix The Great Cthulhu Figure
Cthulhu Bust
Ultra Cthulhu Statue, by SOTA
Ultra Nyarlathotep, by Nightmares
Ultra Dagon Statue, by SOTA Nightmares
-----
Lovecraft/Mythos Evaluation and Reflections
* "The Rise and Fall of the Cthulhu Mythos"
S. T. Joshi (Author), Jason C. Eckhardt (Illustrator)
--Publishers Weekly: "...In this opinionated but entertaining study, the world's foremost Lovecraft scholar closely scrutinizes the Mythos and finds much to criticize. Separating out as the "Lovecraft Mythos" the stories in which Lovecraft developed his unique mythology, Joshi (H.P. Lovecraft: A Life) sees a distinct difference from the Cthulhu Mythos as practiced by most other writers, primarily in the absence of a cosmic perspective that gives the fictional horrors intellectual weight and gravity. Joshi lays the blame for the Mythos reducing Lovecraft's work to its most superficial aspects on Lovecraft's disciple August Derleth, who misinterpreted the intent of his mentor's work and created the template from which most Mythos fiction ever since has been struck. ..."
--Leigh Blackmore, Lovecraft Annual 2009: "...The volume is valuable for Joshi s accumulated new insights into Lovecraft s work alone, and his assessment along the way of various opinions expressed by other Lovecraft scholars ranging from, inter alia, Will Murray through David E. Schultz to Robert M. Price. But of course the bulk of the study is given over to elaborations of the Mythos by other hands....."
* "The Cthulhu Mythos Encyclopedia", by Daniel Harms, Elder Signs Press; 3rd Revised Edition, 2008; 336 pgs.
* "Nyarlathotep", by H.P. Lovecraft, L'Herne edition, 1996; ISBN:851973290.
* "H.P. Lovecraft: A Life", by S. T. Joshi.
* "Primal Sources: Essays on H. P. Lovecraft", by S. T. Joshi.
* "Lord Of Visible World: Autobiography In Letters", by S. T. Joshi.
* "The Lovecraft Lexicon: A Reader's Guide to Persons, Places and Things in the Tales of H.P. Loecraft", by Anthony Pearsall, New Falcon, 2005; 472 pgs.; ISBN:1561841293.
* "An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia", by S. T. Joshi and David E. Schultz,
Greenwood Press, 2001; 360 pgs.
* "H. P. Lovecraft: A Comprehensive Bibliography" by S. T. Joshi; 2009 (to 2007)
* "A Cthulhu Mythos Bibliography & Concordance", by Chris Jarocha-Ernst;
S.T. Joshi: "{This work} (1999) lists 2631 works by Lovecraft and others, although this number seems substantially inflated by numerous items that are only tangentially related to Lovecraft's conceptions."
* "The Complete H. P. Lovecraft Filmography", by Charles P. Mitchell.
* "The Lurker in the Lobby: A Guide to the Cinema of H.P. Lovecraft", by Andrew Migliore, 2000.
* "Haggopian and Other Stories (Best Mythos Tales)", by Brain Lumley,
Subterranean Press.
* "H.P. Lovecraft in Popular Culture: The Works and Their Adaptations in Film, Television, Comics, Music and Games", by Don G. Smith.
* "Lovecraft: Fear of the Unknown" (DVD), starring John Carpenter, Guillermo Del Toro, Neil Gaiman, Stuart Gordon, Caitlin Kiernan; Directed by Frank H. Woodward, 2009.
* "Lovecraft: A Look Behind the Cthulhu Mythos", by Lin Carter; ("naive and filled with errors").
-----
Lovecraft-Inspired Art
* "Petersen's Field Guide to Cthulhu Monsters', by Sandy Petersen, Tom Sullivan, and Lynn Willis (Gaming Supplement, Humour Field Guide format).
"A Lovecraft Retrospective: Artists Inspired by H.P. Lovecraft", by Harlan Ellison, Centipede Press, 2008; 400 pgs.
"The Art Of H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos", ed.
published by Fantasy Flight Games.
"Art de H.P. Lovecraft: L'Appel de Cthulhu", by Collectif, 2010; 189 pgs.
-----
Terror for Toddlers
"Where the Deep Ones Are", by Kenneth Hite (and all his other Cthulhu for Tots texts!)
Cthulhu Plush Slippers
Cthulhu Plush Pillow, by Toy Vault
=========================================================================
END-345