Mock Man Press

As the hosts of HP Podcraft pointed out, “The Mound” is a VERY scary and mysterious story at the beginning, but then it takes a complete left turn into lost-world science-fiction-fantasy. For my two cents, I think it could have been a much better story if, frankly, H.P. Lovecraft hadn’t written it. The concept is great, but late-period Lovecraft’s dry style, and the many layers of narrative distance, dry out and flatten out the potential of this story about a Conquistador out-Conquistadored by decadent future-savages… by people who combine what in Lovecraft’s mind were surely the worst aspects of the mechanized present and the barbaric past.

I love underground worlds and I incorporated the K’nyanian mythology into a Call of Cthulhu campaign I was writing in college but never finished. This story is so weird that it’s extremely hard to fit into the normal ‘Cthulhu Mythos’… so Cthulhu brought *people* with him from the stars? Rilly? Or, more likely, K’nyanites, like surface humans, will just let themselves believe anything. In drawing the hybrid riding-creatures, I wanted to focus on their human elements, so I deemphasized the horns, leaving something like “fleshy protuberance” said to be one of the physical attributes of the Buddha, perhaps an engorged pineal gland or some other organ which facilitates the K’nyanites’ psychic powers.

There’s a lot going on this weekend; I’m going to spend Friday through Monday at Sakuracon in Seattle, at table 732 in the small press area, so come on by! I’m mostly exhibiting for King of RPGs, so in the evenings and afternoons I’ll be running roleplaying games!

Friday, 6-8 PM
Maid RPG

Saturday, 6-8 PM
Yuuyake Koyake/Golden Sky Stories (a playtest of a not-yet-released JRPG!)

Sunday, 12-4 PM
Mangaka! The RPG (a playtest of my own new self-designed unspeakable game!)

For more information about these games, please check out the longer descriptions on the King of RPGs website! Hope I can see you at Sakuracon! I’d love to roll some dice with you!