Insectoid warrior critter

Here we have an insect-man with a whole lot of sharp things, ready to stick them into some other critter at the drop of a hat.

I drew it for no particular reason, but now that it's here I can think of no good reason why these guys shouldn't start causing plenty of trouble for my hapless party just as soon as possible. I suppose I'd better start thinking about what sort of stats an emotionless insectoid killing machine should have.

Demon-slaying after-effects — a visual aid

This demonstrates admirably one of the sorts of special effects I was imagining when I did my table of demon-slaying results.

I have no idea where this scene comes from, but I'm guessing one of the Nightmare on Elm Street movies, maybe? Because of the overalls.

Hellmouth

In the northern part of my usual campaign region, there is a great — one might almost say grand, if one had no shame — canyon that penetrates in many areas right through to the Abyss.

It's like a summer camp for paladins, because all kinds of demonic critters crawl up out of there all the time.

That's it, in the centre-right of the map.

(You can see a much larger version of the map here — it's about 980KB).

Thief's-Eye View

Getting from one side of a city to the other across the rooftops would be pretty easy in a place like this, assuming the tiles didn't keep shooting out from under your feet. It would be pretty annoying for the people trying to sleep in the bedrooms below though; it's bad enough having cats racketing about on one's roof in the middle of the night, and I expect human-sized critters would make even more noise.

I'm not sure if this scene is Chinese or Japanese, but it recalls strongly the excellent night rooftop chase scene from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

Achtung! Cthulhu!

Call of Cthulhu is theoretically one of my favourite roleplaying games of all time. Why theoretically? Because in actual fact I've played it hardly ever, and GM'd it never. It's one of those games I have many good intentions for, which never get realized.

From the Modiphius site:

"Achtung! Cthulhu brings you a two-fisted wartime roleplaying game setting for Call of Cthulhu and Savage Worlds, packed full of fiendish Nazi scientists, terrifying ancient mysteries, legendary German war machines, desperate partisans, gun-toting paratroopers, determined investigators, and enough writhing tentacles to pack ten Reichstags. 

"Discover the secret history of World War Two - stories of the amazing heroism which struggled to overthrow a nightmare alliance of science and the occult, of frightening inhuman conspiracies from the depths of time, and the unbelievable war machines which were the product of Nazi scientific genius - and how close we all came to a slithering end!"

Since I also love pulp action full of jut-jawed heroes and dastardly Nazis, how could I possibly not love this idea? I obviously couldn't.

Whether the reality lives up to the potential, I have absolutely no idea. I know nothing more about Achtung! Cthulhu than what I've read and seen on Modiphius. Cool cover though.

Note: I notice they've wimped out and replaced the wreathed swastika in the eagle's claws with an old Imperial maltese cross. It's not surprising I suppose, assuming they want to be able to sell anything in Europe; apparently the Germans get very shirty about having swastikas on things these days... all part of their official policy of papering over history so that nobody makes any hurtful remarks about it.

Another Note: You can download Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu quickstart rules PDF here. It's free.

Terrific idea

Check out this idea over at Underworld Kingdoms for building megadungeon maps by overlaying a whole bunch of building plans — castles and so forth.

This is the sort of thing that computers and the internet have made trivially easy. It could have been done back in Ye Olden Tymes with overlay cels and what-not, but it would definitely NOT have been easy or straightforward.

This sort of layout looks a lot more like real building than most megadungeon mapping. Structures that accrete over ages don't tend to have any overarching design, and they don't generally conform to a convenient grid, having been tacked on to and built over existing construction.

This would probably drive any obsessively accurate mappers up the wall. Muahahahahahahaaaaa!!!!!