Tuesday, December 18, 2018

Holmes for the Holidays 2018




"Holmes for the Holidays" is back for 2018!  

This year I'm giving away a paperback copy of the first issue of the new Cthulhu RPG zine Bayt El Azif, which as described previously has an article that I wrote about Holmes' role bringing the Cthulhu Mythos into D&D, with a new illustration of a Mythos creature by Chris Holmes.

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For the give-away I'm using the same system as before: if you are interested, add a comment in reply to this post within the next two days. The two days are the time limit before moderation starts on posts on this blog. After two days, I'll st
op accepting entries and treat the list of comments as a table and roll randomly for the winner, using dice from a Holmes Basic set.

I'll cover postage (media mail) for any U.S. address. I can ship to other countries but I ask that you cover the difference (any amount over $4) in shipping by PayPal; so if you are overseas please only participate if you have a PayPal account and willing to chip in the extra. I'll estimate the exact shipping and refund the difference if I overcharge. Note t
his is intended for folks who don't yet have a copy of the magazine.

Please note that due to the date I'm starting this that I may not have time to get this in the mail prior to Christmas, and it almost certainly won't be received by then. If you'd like get a copy of this sooner you can try ordering over at DrivethruRPG (link includes my affiliate number). And if you are looking for other gifts try my recent post "Things I've Written Published Elsewhere".

1/7 Update, including the Results:


A happy New Year everyone. My apologies for the delay in announcing these results.

I recruited a dice elf to make the roll for me. There were 36 comments (only 31 of which were entries), so we used Percentile Dice (pink 20-sider for 10s, white 20-sider for 1s), re-rolling any score for non-entries or and any over 36. 

After a few practice rolls, we made the official roll...


...which indicates that number 21 is the winner! That's Tony Rowe, who I will contact via email.

Thanks to all who entered the contest! Hope to have a new Holmes Ref sheet out soon.

36 comments:

  1. Looks interesting, and seemingly not solely about Chaosium's take on things.

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  2. I will not enter as I am enjoying my copy now,and fear my sanity cannot contain anymore mythos knowledge.

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  3. That cover illustration has elements that might evoke the 8th century scenario.... Count me in.

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  4. Count me in. I'm in Canada, but will chip in the postage!

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  5. I'm in! I can cover overseas shipping. :)

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  6. That is not dead which can eternal lie.

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  7. I rarely enter contests, but I'm in on this one!

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  8. I'm commenting to enter. And ask people if they think Portown is anolgous to Arkham or one of the cities listed on the https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arkham#/media/File%3ALovecraft_Country.svg page . . . ?

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  9. I'm very interested. Good luck everybody!

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  10. Oh, I found the http://zenopusarchives.blogspot.com/2012/11/kingsport-as-portown.html?m=1 page which originally got me thinking about placement. If we use the same latitude as Marblehead has on the Greyhawk map, the we're looking at the coast east of Loftwood which is south-east of Ratik. That would make the sea accessable but that makes the overland travel to the City of Greyhawk farther away. Before I read about Marblehead, I had been thinking the Burning Cliffs next to the Icy Sea might have for the bill. But looking at the https://easyzoom.com/image/130970 page today, it looks to me like the east coast seems a better fit.

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  11. Google Translate shows the title means Fake House. My Arabic is poor so I thought it probably meant Book of Bad Black. Fake House is a weird title. Maybe House of Fiction is better.

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    1. The editor explains the title in the magazine: "Al Azif" is one title Lovecraft used for the Necronomicon, perhaps referring to the howling of demons, and thus the full title of the new magazine can be interpreted as referring to the "House of the Necronomicon".

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  12. I am in! I also agree with Portown being similar to Arkham.

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  13. "Black Abyss" might be better translation in ths context for "zift" if Lovecraft meant that as a name for his Book of the Dead.

    I've overlaid the two Great Kingdom maps on Google Earth to see where they might line up on a version of Oerth that is based on North America. I looked up Massachusetts. It's off the maps the way I imported them. Massachusetts only makes sense if the west area of the Great Kingdom maps represent a smaller Canada area with a U.S. area extending out off the map as if the bottom of the Great Kingdom maps coastlines are an opening for the sea between Canada and the U.S. ...So that doesn't fit well with the description of Portown's caravan routes. ...So here's something wacky, the shape of Nyr Dyv on the Domesday map seems like it was rotated and flipped. When I rotate and flip the map, then look two lakes-worth south and to the east, then I end up at the shore due east of the "n" in Far Ocean. That's a better fit per the description about north sea and caravan routes.

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  14. Great cover. I have a friend who would love to have this.

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