Clod of Cthulhu

By Shamus Posted Sunday Jan 10, 2010

Filed under: Links 23 comments

Rutskarn has begun a new series, this time about the game Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth. This is in addition to his ongoing Morrowind series, which if you remember acted as the catalyst for the saga of Star on Chest.

Dear Rutskarn,

What is your problem, man? Do you mind not screwing up the curve for the rest of us?

I distinctly remember you saying that you began college this year. I’ll have you know that I’ve watched several of the late-night documentaries from Cinemax on college life, and I have no idea what you think you’re doing. You’re certainly not behaving like a freshman. Aren’t you supposed to be binge-partying with frat boys and building bongs out of tanker trucks? Or getting caught in compromising positions with cheerleaders who have brutish boyfriends? This is the time in your life for experimenting with dangerous lifestyles, living poorly, and making foolish decisions that you will regret for decades. But instead, you’re churning out one awesome post after another on your blog? You’re ruining your education, man!

You should be far too busy to crank out this endless stream of content every day. And now you’re going to start a Cthulhu series?

You sir, are a nerd.

NERDS!

To the rest of you: I don’t have anything interesting to post today, but if you want to see a man waste his life by honing his writing skills and writing excellent things about videogames, then I suppose Clod of Cthulhu is worth a look.

Nerd.

 


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23 thoughts on “Clod of Cthulhu

  1. Blockenstein says:

    Ia Cthulhu!

  2. Toasty Virus says:

    Last!

    Cthulhu is awesome!

  3. Phase says:

    Ia, Ia, Rutskarn Ftaghn!

  4. mark says:

    Theres a time and place for everything, and that time and place is college. Go take some drugs, man. :)

  5. RPharazon says:

    Rutsy is my homeboy, but I am quite worried about his self-destructive tendencies lately.

    A few weeks ago he went on a “Holy shit write two week’s worth of blog posts in a week while finals are going on” binge, then he decided to go into the Tribunal expansion with his LP of Morrowind, and now he’s trying to tackle Call of Cthulhu at the same time.

    Still, it’s quite amusing.

  6. Varil says:

    I’d love to comment, but I’m too busy admiring the color choices for this pot and kettle I have here…;)

  7. Turbosloth says:

    EDIT: I’m quite inebriated, and while the below post was edited to make sure it makes grammatical sense in a broad context, the liberties it takes with parenthesis may be enough to make your brain melt. Read it at your own peril.

    I agree with what Mark at number 4 said, i.e. what Shamus said if you ignore the obvious sarcasm. Having just finished first year uni (what we crazy convicts down here in Australia call college ;-)), and having the ‘typical’ uni experience (I won’t go into it, but lets just say it fit the stereotype to a T in most important aspects), I would say that first year uni is actually the best time in your life to live up to an obvious stereotype. Why? Because the stereotype is fun and worth living up to (despite what people tell you, and no offense to Shamus who I know has spoken on the topic before [ http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=2473 ], there’s no way to know the sheer exhilaration of spending a year doing unbelievable quantities of random drugs except to do it), and there’s no other time in your life that you’re going to have quite the opportunity you have now. You’re most likely living out of home without the watchful eyes of your parents to contend with, at the same time as doing first year uni, which (in most courses) is about as challenging as primary school for anyone who managed to get into uni, and in most cases having little to no personal financial responsibility. There is no possible better time to be experimenting with drugs than now. And based on my personal experiences of drugs to date, while some of them (LSD, MDMA, THC, and booze mainly) have been incredibly positive, and some of them (Ketamine, for the love of god do not do Ketamine) have been incredibly negative, I would say they represent an area of life experience that are unlike anything else you will ever encounter and are worh not missing.

    But hey, thats just my two cents worth.

    Also, to anyone who is going to take this advice to heart, I would add three things:

    A) What the hell are you doing taking the advice of random anonymous internet commenters about this stuff? It’s important life changing decisions your making (and if that sounds overly dramatic, trust me taking LSD is a life changing decision because you will never see anything quite the same ever afterwards), and you should only be listening to the advice of people you know and trust, as well as your own internal decision making process.

    B) Research anything you take very thoroughly before you take it and don’t do anything you don’t trust yourself with. Knowing yourself and your limits very thoroughly is the key to experimenting with drugs without wrecking your life.

    C) Really really don’t do Ketamine. It’s bad news.

  8. Great. I just turned 43 last Thursday, and some uppity kid half my age is writing blog circles around me (grin).

    Rutskarn, can I please join your D&D group?

    Leslee

  9. someboringguy says:

    Please Shamus, don’t discourage him!!!
    I live for reading other people’s blogs about gaming.
    And about he post above I only have to say “WTF??!!!”Yeah good advice, go nuts on the drugs kid, they’re the best thing ever!!!
    No really, do you thing it’s a good idea to enter a state where you are barely conscious about what happens in the same room with you?

  10. Gahazakul says:

    @someboringguy

    You really have no idea about the things you are talking about do you? Booze is hands down worse than any chemicals you can get a hold of below bathroom drugs (meth, crack, the stuff that will ruin your life). I don’t want to sound like the hippy here but most drugs leave you in a state that would resemble a “buzz”. The heaviers (like hallucinogens) can mess with your head but even the people that occasionally dabble will tell you to do it with other people, just like when people drink.

    I have ingested a whole lot of stuff in my time and nothing but booze has ever left me in “a state where I was barely conscious about what happens in the same room with me”. Remember folks, the reason most of these things are illegal is not because they are bad for you (if that were true smoking and drinking would be illegal), but because it is untaxable, no matter what the government tells you.

    1. Shamus says:

      In addition to what Gahazakul said:

      As I must continually remind myself, even the most obvious sarcasm and satire is muddled across cultural / language / regional divides. But to ruin the joke: I am in fact thrilled with Rutskarn’s work over there, and if my kids end up spending their rowdy years playing D&D and writing, I will count myself as a successful parent. I’ve never experimented with any drugs(save alcohol) in my life and I have no regrets about that.

  11. Davin Valkri says:

    Phase: Rutskarn dreams? No duh. The question is of what? Cahmel going up against the whole of Innsmouth?

  12. Gahazakul says:

    To add a bit for the sake of adding bits: Not doing drugs is far from a bad thing! I may have come off a tad bit pro chemicals there. It’s just frustrating to hear people get all up ancy about the “Evils of drugs!” when their education on the matter consists of DARE campaigns or a family member that became an addict. That sounds a bit harsh but over doing anything can ruin your life. You almost never see someone up in arms about people that eat at McDonalds after their uncle died of a heart attack.

    I had a friend that was ostracized from his family because they found out he smoked pot occasionally. This was a man that has been married for 7 years with two kids and a successful business. It’s sad how people equate “DRUGS” to being some sneaky devil. They even called the cops on him.

    And don’t get me started on the terrible anti drug school campaigns and other government backed propaganda. Look these things up and get educated! read non government funded literature, form your own opinion!

  13. Phase says:

    Davin: Rutskarn dreams of empty Chinese Take-away boxes and Chainsaw wielding primary school teachers. These dreams are reality, we are the dream.

  14. Rutskarn says:

    If it helps, I’m pretty sure I’ve developed a frozen yogurt addiction. Not the vanilla or chocolate, either–that stuff’s for lightweights. I’ve gotten into the hardcore stuff, like alpine strawberry (known as “pink” in the lingo) cut with straight mochi.

    The real ghetto is the top floor of the dorm. That’s where they’ve got the real nefarious business going on: a drug lab*, illegal weapons** , street racing***, and stolen**** goods*****.

    *A bunch of breakfast-making appliances, which they don’t want you having in the suites.

    **Nerf guns, which are against housing policy.

    ***They ride skateboards in the hallways, which is technically also against policy.

    ****Actually stolen, albeit from the dining commons.

    *****Flatware, silverware, juice from the juice machines (they don’t want you taking it).

    I don’t go up there. It’s a real jungle.

  15. Rosseloh says:

    You know, everyone says “college is the best part of life”, but I think I had more fun in high school.

    Granted, that could be because I’m a nerd.

    Regardless my two years at a “real” college were quite annoying; it was obvious how the system was flawed in order to make more money off the students. Not to mention the fact that our dorm walls were paper-thin and half the people there would party every night.
    Moving to a tech school was the best decision I’ve made recently.

  16. SoldierHawk says:

    Awesome! I already read Chocolate Hammer for the Morrowind saga, but this is still a cool tip, and very nice of you to remind us of the goodness that is on the way. Thanks!

  17. Mari says:

    Rutskarn, it’s nice to see somebody going off to college and living it up. Seriously, I was an uber-nerd before college and decided this was my big chance to “make myself over free from preconceived notions of who I am.” In short, I ditched my true nerd roots to become the ultimate party girl (I never do anything halfway). It was – an education. Not necessarily the type I’d recommend but I did learn a lot the hard way. Not that this is a “hide in your dorm and never leave it except for classes” propaganda message. Like I said, I didn’t go halfway on anything. One thing I learned the hard way was that moderation is the closest most people can ever come to perfection. My point is to stay true to YOU, be a nerd if you want, and have a little fun along the way. And also to keep blogging because I enjoy reading your blog and this CoC series is off to an awesometastic start.

  18. Florin-Vlad says:

    “making foolish decisions that you will regret for decades”

    Ya, i did that too, it was called moving in with someone which didn’t go to school and playing WoW for the next two years ignoring school, that sucked :)

  19. Heron says:

    Aw, I finally got time to check out Rutskarn’s new series (waiting in the lobby at the doctor’s office) only to find that his database is borked :(

    Also, this ajaxy edit overlay is NOT iPhone-friendly; slows Safari to a crawl.

  20. Jenx says:

    NEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERDS!!!!!!

    Ok time to go read this thing!

  21. Sydney says:

    I think you killed his server.

    Error establishing a database connection

  22. Rutskarn says:

    Server’s back up. Honestly, I doubt it was related to the influx of traffic–usually the servers can handle spikes. Sometimes, they just go haywire for no good reason.

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