Hero Hooks is a new PDF compilation by the Atomic Think Tank community over at MutantsandMasterminds.com. The PDF is full of plot hooks for superhero games, divided into chapters for people, places, and things. There's also the "Mega-Matrix" random plot generator. You can get it from the "Mutants & Masterminds Adventures" section of the M&M web site.

While you're there you can also snag Bad Medicine, an adventure from the new Iron Age source book, and The Fight for Freedom City, an adventure in which heroes must deal with a new threat from the Crime League.

Trail of Cthulhu, a new horror role-playing game that promises to take the drugery out of investigating mind-blowing Mythos monstrocities, is scheduled to be released February 1, 2008 by Indie Press Revolution. The company is is accepting pre-orders for the game now.

The game uses the GUMSHOE system developed by Robin Laws for Esoterrorists, a mythos-like game itself in which modern-day investigators attempt to take down occult terrorists. The book itself is written by Ken Hite; developer Pelgrane Press has an interview where he explains the new game.

This game has risen to the top of my RPG wish list; my gaming group likes Call of Cthulhu, but it's been ages since we've played Delta Green or CoC (though there have been a few run-ins with agents of the King in Yellow in our Mutants & Masterminds game). I like this game's focus on adventure creation and providing a mechanic for helping stuck characters get over the investigative hump.

T'was a very geeky Christmas once again this year, and the Geek Tree's rocket tree skirt is filled with all manner of games and toys for thirtysomething boys.

First up, this year's Hess truck goes off-roading with a huge engine-revving 4x4 with two motorcycles. Very cool, and an instant hit with the kids. My annual Star Trek ornament was the bridge of the Enterprise from Wrath of Khan, with the Reliant depicted on screen. It has dialog from the movie, which just makes me want to pop the DVD in and watch it.

The Advanced Players Guide, by Green Ronin, with new spells, new classes and the big surprise -- a mass combat system compatible with D&D. Another big Green Ronin book is the Ultramodern Weapons Guide, which is a d20 Modern-compatible hardcover detailing hundreds of weapons with descriptions, pictures, specs and game stats. I know, perfect for Christmas, but I've heard nothing but good things about the book from my fellow gamers.

The Geek Tree has spawned. With my 18-month-old son Luke obsessed with putting almost everything he finds in his mouth, we decided that hanging up my various mini (and easily swallowed) ornaments wasn't a good idea. At the same time, my parents discovered my old Christmas tree from high school, a 18" tree that I used to setup in my room.

A string of white lights later, and the Spawn of the Geek Tree was born.

Like the Geek Tree, the mini-Geek Tree is decorated with a variety of science fiction and comic book ornaments (no fantasy ones though -- I didn't have any small enough for this tree; even the hobbits are out of scale). It's decorated with Hallmark's miniature Star Trek ornaments (the Enterprise-E, Defiant and Voyager) as well as their Star Wars collection (Imperial AT-AT, TIE Fighter and X-Wing).

It's the 23rd of December, which is a date my four-year-old is having a hard time grasping. She's mentally willing for Christmas to be here tomorrow and the whole "Christmas Eve" thing just isn't making sense to her. But she can tolerate Christmas Eve ... it's the Day before the Eve that's really getting to her.

Visions of sugar plums (and the chocolate covered pretzels she just made with her mom) are most definitely dancing in her head, and she's having a hard time grasping why we need to clean the house. And why we can't just flip the time switch and have it be Christmas tomorrow.

She's getting there. She successfully cleaned up her room, and helped me find all the toys downstairs and put them away, earning her a little quality time playing Nintendogs on the DS. But I know this is only a reprieve -- an another hour or two, we'll have another conversation about Christmas ... and how Christmas Eve should really count as Christmas proper...

Your doom is upon you, pathetic humans. Buy A Very Scary Solstice from CthulhuLives.org

Isse #115 of the Australian flash fictin webzine Antipodean is online. Among this month's stories are "The 32 Paths" by Nathan Burrage, "Close Encounter" by Richard Pitaniello, "Just Your Type" by Joan Malpass, and "The Favour" by Lynton Haggett. Check it out at www.antisf.com.

Issue #51 of Mongoose's Signs and Portents magazine is available for download. It's available in Role-player and Wargamer editions; the role-playing one includes a history of the mecha-meets-mythos Cthulhutech role-playing game, an article on designing widgets in Spycraft and legendary swords from RuneQuest.

On the Wargamer side of things, there's a reprt on new rules and ships for Victory at Sea, an article on using careers in the Babylon 5 sapce combat game A Call to Arms, and a scenario for A Call to Arms pitting the Narn against the Centuri.

With November’s Herculean feat of creativity behind me, I’ve turned my tired eyes back to the DVD player and the stack of Netflix envelopes that piled up during my self-imposed exile to my third-floor office.

Included in this horde of discs was the first disc of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 4 (in which Buffy and the Scooby Gang goe to college), the Bruce Willis action flick Live Free or Diehard (in which technophobe John MacClane must save the world from hackers) and the one shot episode Battlestar Galactica: Razor (which tells the story of the Battlestar Pegasus's escape form the Cylon's burtal assault on the 12 Colonies).

Mongoose is shipping Spycraft 2.0 SP, the second printing of the new edition of the game that incorporates errata from the first go around, as well as a re-organized, easier-to-use Gear section. Also shipping is the campaign source book World on Fire:

From the halls of Majestic Branch to the twisted corridors
of the Nine Tiger Dynasty and everywhere in between, this essential Spycraft
volume takes you behind the scenes of an epic superspy saga like no other.
Dive into the fight against the monolithic Franchise and its myriad
conniving masterminds. Delve into the darkest corners of the globe to
uncover the puzzles and plots left untouched for decades.

My own gaming tastes have drifted away from the rules-heavy mechanics that you'll find in Spycraft 2.0, but I'm tempted to pick up World on Fire strictly as background material; the setting sounds like the sort of super-spy, super-mystery kind of setting I'd enjoy.