Rogue Cthulhu's Origins '02

That is not dead which can eternal lie,..      Well, Origins 2002 is finally over, and Rogue Cthulhu has put another heart stopping show under its belt. This was, by far, our most ambitious show to date. Not every thing we had planned came to fruition, but certainly enough of it did that we once again set a new high water mark for others to strive for, and you can rest assured that next year we will be reaching even higher. This year’s show was all about building atmosphere. It is not enough that we simply blow your socks off with ultra high quality role playing, oh no. We here at Rogue Cthulhu feel the need to completely immerse you in a full sensory, multi media gaming experience. Here you will find but a glimpse at the sensational gaming and unfathomable innovations we brought to you this year.

Our intrepid group of gaming cultist zealots arrived at the convention hall 6 hours behind schedule, and they can thank their patron Elder Gods that they made it at all. Doing 25mph on the shoulder of the highway from Canton to Columbus, the "Millennium Falcon", as it is now known, was packed to the gills with more crap than any one group of gamers should ever need. Thanks to Jim and Toni Leach for helping with the transportation.

How to set up a Cthulhu Gaming Cultists' Den in six easy steps.      Our arduous journey was followed by five hours of back breaking work to transform room D235 from it's humble beginnings, into a veritable wonderland of Cthulhu gaming delight.      Nothing sets the mood like the proper lighting. A tremendous amount of time and trouble went into the design, construction and assembly of a lighting infrastructure that would allow us to have complete command over the position, intensity and color of the room lighting, thus ensuring that the players would be engulfed in an inescapable envelope of mind bending surrealism. We had a little trouble with the house lights on Thursday. We were supposed to have independent lighting control of the room, but for some bizzarre reason, the house lights kept coming on by themselves every few minutes. It turns out that all the rooms on that side of the hall were connected. Maintenance had not separated them for us. We kept turning them off, and our neighbors kept turning them on. It took until about 6pm, but we finally got it straightened out (a new record for speed and efficiency!). Once we had control, the house lights were dimmed to a warm glow and supplanted with blacklights and green floodlights, and two black lampposts topped by red glowing orbs stood like sentinels at the back of the room, flanking the centerpiece on either side.      The piece de resistance was a nine-foot tall black tentacled monstrosity glistening green in the deep shadowed recesses of the Rogue Room. Its bulbous eyes glowing red and malevolent against the darkness. This inflatable homage to the Great Old One (affectionately known among his caretakers as, “The big steaming pile”) made for an imposing centerpiece to our cultist’s den. Gamers from all over the convention center were drawn by our master’s commanding call. They came, and were awestruck by it’s presence. All were humbled by it’s glowering ominance and they made offerings at it’s feet (feet-like tentacular protrusions) for their sanity (read: lots of people came to gawk at our home-made inflatable Cthulhu).

Kick us, and we only come back stronger.      Due to the theft of our mascot, "Pirate Pete", back in 2000, a new banner was needed to demark the location of the greatest Cthulhu role-playing known to man. A banner who's very scale would stand as testament to the glory of that which it announced, and who's quality and boldness would be consummate with that of the games which it's presence portents. Standing 10 feet tall and 8 feet wide, and being lovingly and painstakingly fashioned from brilliantly colored cotton fabric (cotton; the fabric of our lives) by the lovely and talented Ms. Michelle LeBlanc, the new Rogue Cthulhu standard IS such a banner. Now all may gape in awe at the cyclopean (pun... pun...) megalith that beckons one and all to our awaiting chamber.