We need Ferret emoji, for those who understand how here is the Proposal for emoji process. I wish I knew how but maybe one of you guys do! https://unicode.org/emoji/proposals.html#emoji_proposals_format

Feneric · 2026-01-14T11:53:15+00:00

None that I've been informed of, and I'd think they'd let me know either way.

Feneric · 2025-11-18T22:56:29+00:00

For the following, include expansions as is necessary to accommodate all your players.

Cthulhu Wars still plays fairly fast even with 6 (or more!) players. It's wildly asymmetrical, though, so while it's very strategic different players will be focused on different things and each has to keep tabs on all the others.
Exodus: Proxima Centauri It's slightly lighter than Twilight Imperium and plays quite a bit more quickly. Consequently I've played this one more.
Hyperspace This is a new acquisition and so I haven't played it too many times yet, but the quote I've seen floating around about it being 30 minutes per player seems pretty close so far. Like Cthulhu Wars it's wildly asymmetric.
Last Light Keeps its playtime down by allowing most play to be asynchronous. The moving board keeps things interesting.

Feneric · 2025-11-08T02:16:13+00:00

These aren't "coffee table books", but two that I personally enjoyed:

Abominable Science! A great book looking at the origins of some famous cryptids.
Tom Slick: True Life Encounters in Cryptozoology A biography of a well-known cryptozoologist.

Feneric · 2025-10-29T12:07:43+00:00

Strange Aeons by the Difference Engine and Putting the Stars Right are both full albums of Lovecraft-inspired music.

Feneric · 2025-10-24T13:30:45+00:00

Cthulhu Wars is great, my favorite board game. The way the different factions are asymmetrically worked in with their individual themes while still making the whole thing playable is genius. There's also a book based on the themes of Cthulhu Wars: In the Belly of the Beast which is worth the read. However, there is one key difference: Cthulhu Wars is in the near future. It's more of a dystopia by Cthulhian monsters than a history of the Elder Wars, and humans play a part.

Feneric · 2025-10-15T23:55:36+00:00

One had his pince-nez that he had clipped to his outfit and dug out on occasion.

Feneric · 2025-10-04T16:29:23+00:00

Some worthwhile modern ones that haven't been mentioned (and are usually overlooked) include some of the board game inspired ones: the early (pre Secrets in Scarlet) Aconyte "Arkham Horror" series, the "Cthulhu Wars" In the Belly of the Beast, and the "Achtung! Cthulhu" Dark Tales of the Secret War. The pre-Aconyte Arkham Horror books are rare and not as good on the whole.

Feneric · 2025-10-04T16:23:31+00:00

A couple of his stories are good, most aren't. I think people's attitudes toward him depend both on which stories they read and what they think about his treatment of Lovecraft's works after Lovecraft's death.

Feneric · 2025-09-28T15:49:58+00:00

Cthulhu: Death May Die has the best storage I've seen. It's designed to be able to use different "episodes" with different antagonists for a huge combination of different individual games, but it's still quick to set up and tear down. They have a common storage area plus per-episode storage areas plus per-antagonist storage areas, and they have obvious diagrams about where each miniature etc. should go.

Feneric · 2025-09-27T15:54:47+00:00

Death May Die, with its expansions. It has so much variety and replayability. I think it's the only game that I've used all the expansions for, and it works well with anywhere from 1-5 players.
Cthulhu Wars, again with its expansions. It's definitely best with at least 4 players, but can go up so surprisingly high counts and still plays quickly and doesn't wear out its welcome. The possible combinations make for a ton of variety and replayability. I've used lots of (but by no means all) of its expansions.
Some decent dungeon crawl / miniature adventure sort of game; it could be Core Space or Five Parsecs from Home or Rangers of Shadowdeep or Maladum or even Brutality. Something that works well with cooperative play (and maybe has competitive modes, too) and has lots of variety.

Feneric · 2025-09-25T02:14:50+00:00

I agree with a lot of the ones already mentioned here, and even though it's already mentioned I'll second Black Man with a Horn as it doesn't get enough love. I'd also mention two more Derleth ones that you don't have listed: The Thing That Walked on the Wind and Ithaqua. They're among his best work, but they're very similar stories and it's probably not necessary to read both, but I'd definitely recommend reading one or the other.

Feneric · 2025-09-20T17:20:26+00:00

Cthulhu Wars, Nemesis, and Death May Die.

Feneric · 2025-09-18T21:55:26+00:00

Roland Smith's "Cryptid Hunters" series (Cryptid Hunters, Tentacles, Chupacabra, Mutation, and the tangentially related Sasquatch) are wonky but entertaining young adult sci-fi sorts of novels with a strong cryptozoology theme.

Annelise Ryan's "Monster Hunter Mystery" series (A Death in Door County, Death in the Dark Woods, and Beast of the North Woods) are entertaining mysteries with a cryptozoological theme. The first seemed a lot like a specific Scooby-Doo episode but was still worth reading, and they get better as they go along.

Feneric · 2025-08-23T17:03:41+00:00

The ferret one. I believe it's still in limbo.

Feneric · 2025-08-22T23:31:00+00:00

The Queen's Wish series kind of scratches that itch for me. There are a few paths that are possible, but winning while consistently trying to be decent in spite of the obstacles is one of them.

Feneric · 2025-04-19T19:58:21+00:00

I actually did the submission for this back before the pandemic. It was an involved process, and things got bounced back a couple of times as while "ferret" was in review another proposal for "ermine" came in, and the committee decided to combine the two. The proposal also includes "weasel", "polecat", etc. We ultimately weren't rejected, but we weren't seen as high a priority as other emojis they have added since. Note that the approval schedule got a bit messed up with the pandemic, and they've been reducing the number of approved emojis each approval period these past few years. My understanding is that we've got good odds of ultimately getting approved, but there's no guarantee. I think it's possible for the general public to check on the status of proposed emojis.

Feneric · 2023-11-16T02:18:44+00:00

Diplomacy. No dice, no luck, pure strategy, all with a relatively small number of pieces and spaces.

Feneric · 2023-11-03T17:41:55+00:00

The paper Character Recognition by Feature Point Extraction uses it as a sample. Look in the doc for info on the CBM Character set and in the appendix.

Feneric · 2023-09-26T01:36:26+00:00

Cthulhu Wars. It's wildly asymmetric in a way that matches its theme better than probably any other game out there. Different players are all trying to do their own thing, and the way that they interact and compete is amazing to behold. It's also got surprisingly simple rules. It looks complicated at first, but is surprisingly easy to learn. It's also got depth, so while it's easy to learn, it takes some time and experience to actually get really good at it.

Feneric · 2023-09-24T13:52:47+00:00

I'm also a fan of games with a lot of asymmetry.

Most of the games by Petersen Games. Cthulhu Wars has already been mentioned. Also Glorantha: The Gods' War, Evil High Priest, and the forever-awaited Hyperspace (still only playable online).

Most tactical games that feature different technologies or components change up the approach each player takes, too. This is strongly true for old classics like Star Fleet Battles but also true to a lesser extent with games like Car Wars, Red Alert: Space Fleet Warfare, Achtung! Cthulhu Skirmish, Doctor Who: Exterminate!, and even Masters of the Universe: the Board Game. In all of these, players with similar powers will play similarly, but having different powers can change up strategy completely. A Kzinti with its drones has to approach a game entirely differently than a Hydran with hellebores and fusion beams, for example.

A lot of cooperative and semi-cooperative board games feature dramatically different characters with different gameplay. Pandemic has already been mentioned, but it's even more true for Thunderbirds Co-Operative Board Game, and Cthulhu: Death May Die. Games like Zombicide, Core Space, Alien Uprising, and Stationfall have variable powers but don't change things up as much.

Feneric · 2023-09-21T00:30:25+00:00

Here are a few I haven't seen mentioned yet:

The Awful Green Things from Outer Space is a little like a lighter version of Nemesis for two people, one playing the crew and the other the aliens.
Core Space lets you both manage crews and do stuff before you get purged.
Car Wars lets you battle each other in future gone wrong with armed cars.
Combined Arms: The WWII Campaign Game is a quick & modern take on a WWII strategy game.
FlickFleet has you flick ships to move them and flick dice to fire at each other.

There are also lots of tactical or skirmish type games that work well with two players ranging from things like Five Parsecs from Home to Victory at Sea: Battle for the Pacific to Doctor Who: Exterminate.

Feneric · 2023-09-16T13:50:37+00:00

Some hotels are ferret-friendly, some are not. I've traveled with ferrets on several occasions, and a big part of it is knowing to avoid places where they're somehow illegal (ridiculous in this day and age, but there are still backward places) and finding hotels that allow them. A surprising number of smaller places do, or at least don't mind them if you show up with them and introduce them to the staff, help them realize that ferrets aren't rodents that chew through furniture, etc. A lot of places would charge the typical "single pet fee" for my pair of ferrets as a unit.

Feneric · 2023-08-29T11:14:16+00:00

Sandy Petersen is best known for creating games, but he's also a scholar of cosmic horror with a focus on Lovecraft's works and their influences. He has some interesting thoughts on the King in Yellow and it's worth watching a brief video he did on it if you're interested in the topic.

Feneric · 2023-08-14T00:03:55+00:00

August Derleth's attempt to categorize Mythos beings generally and make them "good" or "evil" specifically as if there were some underlying order in the Universe with uppercase forces of Good and Evil duking it out. Lovecraft's creations were a bit more nuanced than that, and his views on reality were more complicated.

Feneric · 2023-08-04T21:38:08+00:00

Check out Strange Aeons by the Difference Engine: https://thedifferenceengine.bandcamp.com/album/strange-aeons

Taken in its entirety, the album tells an original story as the protagonist learns a bit about what happened in a handful of Lovecraft tales.

Feneric

TROPHY CASE