Our minds may have escaped the clutches of the Great Race, but their interest in other ages has clearly rubbed off on us. We have also grown new protuberances, capable of fine manipulation, from atop our heads, but that’s a topic for another time. Instead we use Chaosium’s recent publication Cthulhu Through the Ages as the jumping-off point for discussing Call of Cthulhu set in time periods other than the 1920s or modern day.
I’ve just noticed how the carvings at the bottom of the right-hand pillar look like an unholy fusion of the Easter Bunny and a Christmas tree. 1/1D8 SAN loss.
We are joined for the latter part of this discussion by Keeper Murph of the ENnie-Award-winning Miskatonic University Podcast! If you don’t already listen to the MU podcast and you have any interest in Call of Cthulhu or Lovecraft, you’re missing a treat. Sure, they’ll occasionally share forbidden knowledge that will break your mind and leave you as a sobbing, empty mockery of a human being, but it’s probably too late to worry about that anyway.
Not pictured: Murph’s and Scott’s beards fighting for dominance.
Correction: Mike Mason has just told us that the Icarus setting in Cthulhu Through the Ages is not related to the similarly named article in Worlds of Cthulhu. Apologies for the mistake!
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MU Podcast can also give you the power to induce potentially fatal seizures in the elderly, and aid the escape of canines – true story:-)
I have heard tell that listening to the MU Podcast as you drift off to sleep can link your dreams with those of the creatures that will walk the Earth long after all humanity’s works are reduced to dust. If you keep paper and pen by your bed, you may find messages written to you in an unfamiliar hand.
All I found was a shopping list made up entirely of requests for some ‘Rugose cut chips’ and some ‘Really Antediluvian Brie’. 🙁
I really enjoyed the three of you recalling the stories of your parents and grandparents…and I liked what you said Scott to pump your parents and grand parents for stories of when they were growing up while you can. I wish I would have been able to have asked my father more about his experiences at Auschwitz…I remember some of the stories he had told but I was so young I couldn’t have a conversation with him about it and unfortunately he passed away when I was 13 so being a young boy I wasn’t really interested in the stories at the time. Would have made for a great World War Cthulhu setting..
When CoC kept to the original setting of the 20’s there was a sense of the triumph of nihilism, bookended by WW1 and the Great Depression. Having the mythos feature throughout time turns the theme from apocalypse now to being the villain of the week failing before humanity’s inevitable progress.
I imagine the cultists as supporters of an unsuccessful sports team who constantly dream of success before being disappointed each season. Less Eldritch masters, more Steptoe & Son.
Cultist A: He’s going to return this year, the stars will finally be right.
Cultist B : Shut up and open these boxes, we’ve got to sell these Plush Cthulhu figures.
Cultist A : Why do we bother with these?
Cultist B : We’ve got sales targets to hit, the cult won’t fund itself. It was different in my day, you could Attract Fish.