Cheers! For Harlem Unbound

“‘Drink took to me,’ said Simple. ‘Whiskey just naturally likes me but beer likes me better.’”

— Langston Hughes

Hey Hep Cats,

What kind of backwards, Bible Belt bum would I be if I didn’t hand you, my of-age-adult-backer, a Tasty Cocktails 101 to toast this book and your unwavering support. The juice mixes in these pages have been christened, taste-tested and received the Harlem Unbound stamp of approval. 

Harlem Unbound-ized names as well as common names are listed for all you big shots. When you drop the word to get into the club, saunter up to the bar in The Cotton Club or at a hopping rent party packed to the gills, you’ll know the right lingo. While a warbler pours out their soul on stage, a quick word about one of these babies, and you’ll avoid strange glances from the regulars. No finks or pounders here. 

Thanks again for your help in making this dream come true and keep an eye out for what we do next.

Cheers,

Chris (AKA The Crooner) 

Tasty Cocktails 101:
Juices to Delight the Senses

Baker’s Dozen (AKA Bee's Knees)

Josephine Baker was underestimated, much like this simple classic cocktail. Both surprised the world with their versatility and lasting appeal. Baker was an entertainer, activist and French Resistance fighter, and lived up to the meaning of the cocktail era’s slang name: The Best. 

2 oz. Gin

.75 oz Fresh Lemon Juice

.5 oz Honey

Bonus – A dab of Prosecco will make this cocktail even more Jake.

Pour all the ingredients into a shaker, strain and serve in a chilled glass with a lemon twist. 

Wisdom and Hughes (AKA The Perfect Manhattan)

Much like Langston Hughes, this tasty cocktail will seduce you with its allure and leave you spellbound with what is the standard of cocktails. Hughes represents the Harlem Renaissance to so many and often is the first person who springs to mind. 

2 oz. Rye (or bourbon for that Southern feel, or Canadian whiskey if you’re looking to replicate prohibition availability)

1 oz. Sweet Vermouth

½ oz. Dry Vermouth 

2-4 Dashes of Angostura bitters

Pour all ingredients into a glass, stir vigorously, and then pour into a chilled glass and serve with a maraschino cherry. 

Their Eyes Were Watching Zora (AKA The Boulevardier) 

The Boulevardier is a powerful and complex drink that comes at you head-on, like Zora Neale Hurston, and once you have experienced it, you will keep coming back. For Zora, the power of her words are unquestionable, as was her drive for telling stories and traveling the darker path, no matter the danger. 

2 oz. Rye (or bourbon for that Southern feel, or Canadian whiskey if you’re looking to replicate prohibition availability)

1 oz. Campari

1 oz. Sweet Vermouth

Pour all ingredients into a glass, stir vigorously and strain into a chilled glass. Add a twist of lemon for rye or a slim slice of orange for bourbon or Canadian whiskey. 

CHEERS!

- Chris & Jill

RPG Fridays: Ground Control to Major Chris

It has been a crazy year with a lot of highs (Harlem Unbound) and numerous lows (45, closing doors, and building walls). I've been doing a mental rundown of the year with the faint sound of Bowie playing in the background. In some ways, I feel like I've been floating in space since we funded our Kickstarter. Real life took over in a lot of ways, and I haven't had the time to devote to reaching out to the gaming community and pursuing other gaming-related projects in the way I wanted. The end of the year is looming, and I'm thinking about Darker Hue's mission,  some of the projects I was lucky enough to be on, and a lot of people I met over the last year. 

So now it's time for Harlem Unbound to ship (next month, fingers crossed!), and it will soon be in the hands of all those great people crazy enough to believe in this project. People who believed the Harlem Renaissance and Lovecraftian horror could merge into something great that previously has been sorely overlooked and dubiously depicted.  My mind is ablaze with what comes next. I have a lot of ideas (too many, if you ask my wife),  but time is always the control factor.  Right now, I am focusing on the last scenario for Harlem Unbound, a digital special for backers.

And with the books being shipped out next month, I am going to be doing Harlem Unbound Mondays until the book reaches everyone. That's right, a quick 140 character scenario seed for those looking to get started playing! Look for it on our Twitter feed.

Then, tomorrow...tomorrow and tomorrow for our next project. And I think my spaceship knows which way to go.

Gen Con 50: Where You Can Find Me (and please do, with scotch)

It's been a really busy year--just looking at my blog since Gen Con 49 tells me that. This is only my fourth blog post since then... But fewer posts hopefully means more work, and my energy has really been focused on the Darker Hue Studios mission. 

If you are looking for me at Gen Con 50, send me a tweet, DM me, or swing by the Pelgrane booth. If none of that works, you can probably find me enjoying the Omni hotel bar. 

You can also find me appearing on a few panels or doing that silly thing called running a game. Details below:

The Hangman's Well
Thursday/Friday/Saturday, 1200 - 1600
Horror & madness in the Wild West. A new game for 2017.

One GM, One Player Masterclass
Thursday, 1600 - 1700
GMing for one player, or playing solo with the GM, poses a special set of challenges. The design team behind Cthulhu Confidential teaches the tricks & techniques of this intense, rewarding format.

Investigative Roleplaying Master Class
Saturday, 1600 - 1700
Mystery scenario masters Kenneth Hite, Robin D. Laws, & Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan (and me! I'll be there too!) train their magnifying glasses on clue-gathering adventures to reveal the unlikely suspects behind your tabletop woes.

Black Letter Game
Sunday, 0900 - 1400
A mysterious round that serves as the culmination to all that has gone before, for those secretly marked as worthy.

See you in Indy,
Chris

Lapsed No More?: The Doctor and Bill

Many of you know that I have talked some shit about Doctor Who recently. I consider myself a lapsed Whovian, struggling with casting choices and story development the past couple of seasons. So, take that all in when I say:

This was the best episode of
Doctor Who I have seen in years, 

and definitely Peter Capaldi's best episode (and by far better than nearly every Matt Smith episode). That's the bottom upfront. We may dip into spoilers from here out. So for those who haven't seen it, go. Watch it. Come talk to me about it!

Bill Potts, Pearl Mackie,  is fantastic! I love that they did not shy away from her sexuality; in fact, her doomed relationship was one of the two core plot elements. The second key plot element is not the Doctor, his mysterious vault, or how Professor Chronotis (The Doctor) has taught at the university for 50+years.

The episode actually explores the horror of how a banal existence can crush people if they don't seek a journey of self-discovery.

Go with me for a second. Look at Bill: she’s brilliant, strong-willed and actively seeking something meaningful in her life (like so many of us). She literally has an interview with the Doctor (The Timelord Victorious, The Thing Monster’s Fear, etc…etc…etc.) and gets the chance to be taught by him. Then life goes on, unchanged for months, and seasons pass. It’s Bill’s love life that rips them out of that banality. The banality for Bill and the Doctor is different. Bill’s is being trapped without love and the Doctor's is how he refuses to be the Timelord, and instead chooses to be a safe keeper.

The pacing of the episode is dynamic, the chemistry between characters feels right, and it has me wanting to rewatch the episode -- something I have not done since David Tennant and a few other key classical episodes.

Despite my love for this episode, I, of course, have some issues -- Why is Bill, the only PoC in the episode, a lunch lady? Why be coy about a vault with "something" in it?

But now, this episode is my jumping on point for any non-Doctor-Who fans. Some of you may know, I had a massive video screen at my wedding, silently playing a few episodes of Doctor Who, Deep Space 9 and Firefly on repeat behind the best wedding band in Philly. Why? Well, besides the fact that sci-fi is life, that was enough to hook at least three people on the shows. 

I am looking forward to the next episode. Don't disappoint me, Doctor.

Noir Wednesday: The Maltese Falcon Recast

I am working on my third scenario for Langston Wright (Cthulhu Confidential), an African American veteran fighting Mythos horrors in 1940s Washington DC.  Writing in this shadowy, corrupt world of politicians and detectives makes me wish there was more diversity found in the noir genre. I know my Mosley and Hines, but that's a short list. 

However we are in the age of the remake, so it's only a matter of years before it happens...is it too much to ask for some blind casting? This got me thinking about who would I recast in one of the greatest noir films ever, The Maltese Falcon...

Chad Coleman (Sam Spade)
Ruth Wilson (Ruth Wonderly/Brigid O'Shaughnessy)
Karen David (Iva Archer)
Bill Hader (Joel Cairo) 
Tony Leung (Lieutenant Dundy)
Sara Rue (Effie Perine)
Vincent D'onofrio (Kasper Gutman)
Idris Elba (Detective Tom Polhaus)
John Cho (Miles Archer)
Martin Freeman (Wilmer Cook)
Michael Pena (Luke)
Octavia Spencer (District Attorney Bryan)
Denzel Washington (Captain Jacobi)

All right. Back to Cthulhu Confidential and listening to my noir mix.