The Dread Page of Azathoth is the editor’s column that opens each issue of The Unspeakable Oath. Issue 18 was my first issue as editor, so my first Dread Page was all about the excitement of the Oath’s return. It has now been nearly three years since TUO 18 debuted. We published TUO 23 two months ago. Dan Harms, John Scott Tynes and I are reviewing submissions now for TUO 24. The Oath earned its first Ennie Award this past summer at GenCon 2013. And it’s still a shivery thrill to know that the Oath is back.
For only the next couple of days, you can get TUO 18, 19, and 20 in ebook formats for Kindle, Nook, iPad and iPhone as part of the pay-what-you-want Bundle of Tentacles. This is a great way for newcomers to see what the Oath is really like and for old friends to get it in a new format. And it’s part of a bundle with some amazing games. Don’t miss out.
I first encountered The Unspeakable Oath in 1991. Issue 3 sat on a game store shelf in Birmingham, Alabama. It was an eye-catcher. Gorgeous black line art by Blair Reynolds, three cultists with bloody robes and knives staring thoughtfully out; goldenrod cardstock cover wrap, staple-bound, very do-it-yourself.
Those cultists amazed me. You could tell they weren’t just anonymous mooks, easy pickings for heroic investigators; they had depth. They had names and ideas and plans.
Underneath them, the logotype: “ . . . for the Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game.”
That cinched it.
I hadn’t even opened the cover.
Read the rest of the Dread Page of Azathoth at The Unspeakable Oath.
