Indiana Jones DVDs released today

**zomben** · 24th October 2003, 05:12 PM

Monterey Jack was my PC when I first started playing Cthulhu back in 1982. He was an obvious ripoff of Indiana Jones, and, as I was 13 at the time, I never really developed much of a backstory for him. It was enough to just know he was a college professor of Archeology at MU and he had a bullwhip and was "cool."

He was well-known in our group for going mad at the drop of a hat (mostly due to my complete inability to roll dice well). As such, he was a great "catalyst" for adventure sessions. He was fascinated with the mythos, so would gather all these tidbits, then assemble a team and lead them into the unknown. He always wanted to "find out more" so as soon as there was a hint of a monster, he'd charge right in, see it, go insane, and then I'd bring in my backup PC.

He was notable for sneaking into the basement of the Silver Twilight Lodge (SoYS), learning the Ressurection spell, mixing all the urns of Essential Saltes together and casting the spell. Which created a horrible monster of "parts" of guys, caused him to take a 1d6/1d20 SAN test, which of course he failed...

He also lasted about two minutes into Masks of Nyarlathotep. And of course Sandy's infamous "Moth Man" scenario... I think he lasted up until the "flogging" scene, then went nuts... He led a team back there many years later, and encountered some sort of monstrous jereusalem cricket beastie in the coal mine... and went nuts... You'll have to ask Sandy about that one... I'll see if I can scare him up.

Monty fought Dracula in the Carpathian mountains, alongside Sherlock Holmes in a scenario run by Larry DiTillio at a convention... all sorts of other wacky shennanigans as well.

Plenty of other great adventures as well. I still keep his sheet around in case I ever get to play another 1920's era adventure.

As far as notable appearances in gaming books, he was mentioned in half a dozen Cthulhu books, as well as being one of the 6 main characters in Arkham Horror, and I beleive even got a mention in the Ghostbusters RPG. Obviously that must have been his grandson or something.

As far as the name goes... well, I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, found some Monterey Jack cheese in the fridge one day and thought that'd be a funny name for an Indiana Jones parody... it stuck... Originally, it was just Monterey Jack, but then one of "The Guys" pointed out that that was a dumb name, because Jack was a first name. So Sandy and I conferred and came up with the last name Terwilliger (from "The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T") which we agreed was the worst name ever, and would explain why he never used it.

Look, lots of things are funnier when you're 13...

**PoC** · 24th October 2003, 07:03 PM

Why only last night Monterey Jack and Co were victorious against the Mythos and MJ became 'First Citizen of Arkham' as I had the largest pile of destroyed gates - yes it was Arkham Horror - we're revving up for Halloween next week!

Paul

**SandyPetersen** · 24th October 2003, 07:07 PM

Monterey Jack was a great character. He was seminal in the early development of Call of Cthulhu as a character who didn't seem to mind increasing his Mythos skill. I don't recall him having a SAN of 12 during any active game we did - perhaps it had dropped to that point after his latest adventure or something.

Normally, when an adventure would start, we would just assume that "Monty" had just finished his latest bout of years of therapy and hso got to start out with his maximum possible SAN. Which, since his Cthulhu Mythos was 56, gave him a puny 43.

Combine his low SAN with Ben's pathological inability to roll dice and we were all looking forward to what Monty would pull off in any given adventure.

I recall him once using his whip to inadvertently snag a burning stick of dynamite in a cultist's hand and yank it to himself. The whole party had to leap for cover as the dynamite exploded in their midst. I also have vague memories of him trying to "ride" a hostile Hunting Horror, but maybe that was another PC.

Our official house rule for playing Monterey Jack in Arkham Horror are that he always starts off with 3 SAN and 7 STR.

**delrio** · 24th October 2003, 07:13 PM

Originally Posted by PoC

Why only last night Monterey Jack and Co were victorious against the Mythos and MJ became 'First Citizen of Arkham' as I had the largest pile of destroyed gates - yes it was Arkham Horror - we're revving up for Halloween next week!
Paul

I'm also a fan of Monterey Jack, from playing Arkham Horror! (Although my actual success in playing him has been sadly similar to what Ben describes above).

It's really fun reading about his background, because I always had the suspicion that some or all of the AH gang were based on people's old CoC characters...

Hey Ben, do you know the stories behind any of the other Arkham Horror characters?

Del Rio

**zomben** · 24th October 2003, 07:18 PM

Yes, the "Dynamite Incident"... I'd forgotten about that one...

Proof again, that just because your PC cansnatch things out of cultists hands with a bullwhip, doesn't mean he should.

The SAN of 12 was what was written on his sheet when I found it recently. I don't recall what exactly brought him to such a lowly state, but I'm sure it was something completely ridiculous. I do vaguley remember him starting out in that adventure with the simulacrum guys... the "Men In Black" that kept getting more and more human throughout the scenario... and then I remember having to change PCs (go figure) halfway in, and swapping to that stage magician "Rodney Brundlefly" aka "The Man of 1,000 Accents." (So named, because I started out trying to play him as italian, but my accent kept slipping to british, swedish, spanish, etc. I just gave up and kept changing constantly)

As far as the riding of the hunting horror... I don't remember that exactly, but it sounds like something he'd have done. I do remember in the RQ game, my PC "Jihad" was well-known for using "The Tactic" as we called it. He'd jump up on the backs of huge monsters and stab them in the head with his sword until they died. Surprisingly it worked more often than you'd think. The ultimate, of course, was when he climbed on the back of that centaur/wyvern/scorpion thingy... The stupid beast tried to zap Jihad with it's poison stinger, only to roll a fumble and "hit self in head, do critical damage."

I remember Sandy just about falling off the chair laughing at that one... We were all mightily impressed.

And Paul, good on you for becoming FC of Arkham! Monty proves once again that you can't keep a madman down...

**PoC** · 24th October 2003, 07:31 PM

Monty did you proud last night a true tour-de-force performance! Stacked to the gills with magic and mayhem. The game definitely works better with many players.

I introduced the game to a group of new university students (starting members of the BURPS society) and they loved it. It still has that pulling power even though when Arkham Horror came out, they were only one or two years old...

Speaking of MJ - perhaps he would like to appear as a celebrity guest in the new Character Repository facility we're developing for Yog-Sothoth? - and in the meantime I'd be very curious to see a scan of his original character sheet!

Paul

**delrio** · 24th October 2003, 07:51 PM

Originally Posted by PoC

I introduced the game to a group of new university students (starting members of the BURPS society) and they loved it. It still has that pulling power even though when Arkham Horror came out, they were only one or two years old...

You know I hate most boardgames (and card and dice games). I find them too boringly restrictive compared to RPGs, just piles of rules and restrictions, not enough room for imagination or creativity. But Arkham Horror is one of the exceptions, partly because the setting is so evocative, partly because the gameplay is such merry mayhem, and partly because it appeals to the nihilist in me: gotta love a game where it's possible for everyone to lose - the horrible things from another dimension break through, and everything is destroyed!

Del Rio

**zomben** · 24th October 2003, 07:56 PM

Paul,

Yeah, when the chips are down, and there's nowhere else to turn, Monty's your man... you know, unless you're worried about him going catatonic, or something...

I loved playing AH... sadly, an old girlfriend made off with my copy, and I don't have the bucks to buy one off ebay... Hoping against hope that Chaosium will get around to reprinting it at some point...

If you'd like to put Monty up in the character repository, go for it. Let me know if you need any more details. I think I didn't add that he knew the "Ressurection" spell to the sheet I posted earlier. That was his only spell... For some reason, whenever we found musty old tomes, none of the other characters would ever let Monty read them... go figure...

Sadly, I don't have his original sheet any more. I found him in my old character binder last winter, and transferred him to Byakhee format. I'm pretty sure I threw out the original sheet after printing the new one. Never thought anyone would be interested in seeing it.

Ah well... Someday, I'll learn to stop throwing things away...

**zomben** · 24th October 2003, 08:00 PM

Originally Posted by delrio

Hey Ben, do you know the stories behind any of the other Arkham Horror characters?Del Rio

Sorry, no clue on the rest of them. I beleive that when Chaosium first got the test copy, they were all named. Sandy renamed one of them to Monterey Jack before the game was published.

Conversely, we had this crazy guy that used to hang out in the neighborhood around Chaosium. He used to bring us all kinds of wierd crap to try and sell. Cans of spray paint, bottles of stamp ink, motorbike spedometers... We never actually knew his name, but Charlie started calling him "Abner Weems" after one of the non-player characters in AH. I don't remember where he was on the board, but if you went to Abner, you could buy a random thing out of the "item deck" from him. Your chances of him having an Elder Sign were about as good as him having a gun, first aid kit, etc.

**delrio** · 24th October 2003, 08:13 PM

Originally Posted by zomben

I loved playing AH... sadly, an old girlfriend made off with my copy, and I don't have the bucks to buy one off ebay... Hoping against hope that Chaosium will get around to reprinting it at some point...

One of the few rewards of being a corporate whore

I got to outbid the several other people who wanted the near-mint copy that I landed a few years back. I think the bidding finished up at $160 or $170, which I condered fair since the copy was pristine. The pieces had been punched out, but the game had never been played. I didn't think that such a perfect copy would exist at that point in time (what, 20 years after its release?).

Originally Posted by zomben

Sadly, I don't have his original sheet any more. I found him in my old character binder last winter, and transferred him to Byakhee format. I'm pretty sure I threw out the original sheet after printing the new one. Never thought anyone would be interested in seeing it.

Ah well... Someday, I'll learn to stop throwing things away...

One of the players in my D&D campaign has been using the same character sheet since c.1980. It was handwritten on yellow legal paper, which over the last 20+ years has acquired the consistency of very soft tissue paper (the write-on bits protected with layers and layers of Scotch magic tape)... The sheet was finally retired about 2 years ago when we converted from AD&D to 3rd Edition, and the old sheet will go under glass as a historical artifact of the campaign...

Del Rio

**PoC** · 24th October 2003, 08:21 PM

Originally Posted by Zomben

We never actually knew his name, but Charlie started calling him "Abner Weems" after one of the non-player characters in AH. I don't remember where he was on the board, but if you went to Abner, you could buy a random thing out of the "item deck" from him. Your chances of him having an Elder Sign were about as good as him having a gun, first aid kit, etc.

Abner Weems can be found at Devil's Beach - there's even a drawing of him in 'The Arkham Gazette'.

If someone wants Arkham Horror - there's a copy of AH going for £50 2nd-hand at the Travelling Man Leeds store (UK). It used to be mine.

I really should dig out that unpublished supplement/2nd edition from the attic - you can see a sample page here.

Sorry to hear that the original Monterey Jack is no more. We're always interested in such things - as I've an abiding interest in the history of the game.

I guess this has gone slightly off topic.

Paul

**zomben** · 24th October 2003, 09:09 PM

Originally Posted by PoC

Sorry to hear that the original Monterey Jack is no more. We're always interested in such things - as I've an abiding interest in the history of the game.

Maybe I'll see if I can figure out some way to convert the movie ("Monterey Jack and the 3-D House of Pancakes") to PAL and send you a VHS copy...

No Idea how I'd do that, but I'll look into it...

It's definitley a "3-B" movie... Three beers and it's almost watchable...

**Bill_Adcock** · 26th October 2003, 07:48 PM

Would anybody be kind enough to post rules for the use of a bullwhip? My D20 book doesn't provide that sort of thing (though if you want to bean a Cthonian with a cricket mallet...) and it might be fun to do an Indiana Jones rip-off at some point in the future.

**FunGuyfromYuggoth** · 26th October 2003, 08:43 PM

Originally Posted by Bill_Adcock

Would anybody be kind enough to post rules for the use of a bullwhip? My D20 book doesn't provide that sort of thing (though if you want to bean a Cthonian with a cricket mallet...) and it might be fun to do an Indiana Jones rip-off at some point in the future.

What's written on the bullwhip is pretty basic. It seems to rely partly on the Grapple skill.

From page 58 of the Call of Cthulhu 5.5 Core Rules:

Base Chance: 5%
Damage Done: 1D3 or Grapple
Base Range: 10 Feet
HPs Resistance: 4
Cost in US $ per Era: 2 in 1890s, 5 in 1920s, (50 in Modern)
Eras: 1890s, 1920s, (Modern)

Note: An apparent typo in the rules gives Modern cost but excludes it from the list as available in the Modern era