In my last post, I lamented that my youthful days of marathon gaming sessions were probably over, and resigned myself to a roleplaying future consisting largely of one-shot games and very short campaigns. But there is a part of me that secretly hopes against all odds that one day, a wealthy Patron of the Arts will shower me with so much money that I can quit my day job and devote all of my energy to running one monstrous, many-years-long roleplaying campaign.

I already have the book that I’m going to use to run that epic Campaign to End All Campaigns. It’s a sanity-blasting 400+ page Call of Cthulhu campaign called Beyond the Mountains of Madness, and it’s one of the best gaming reads you’ll find. I have no idea what would happen if I actually tried to run this beast, in which the PCs take part in a long and almost certainly doomed expedition to Antarctica. Based on this guy’s experience running it, I suspect it would both be awesome, and would permanently cure me of the desire to play another roleplaying game ever again.

I exaggerate a bit, I suppose. But still, I would love to run BtMoM sometime. What’s prevented me from doing so to date is simply the vast amount of time that would be required to run it; it’s not the sort of campaign you want to start and then drop partway through. Also, having read through it a few times, I’m not sure how even the most benevolent GM could get the PCs through the first half of the campaign alive, let alone all the way to the bitter end.

I mention this all because Chaosium has announced that they’re reprinting the long-out-of-print BtMoM in a nice (and nicely expensive) hardcover, and that’s got me salivating to once take this down off the bookshelf and fantasize about running it. Running such a thing would be my crowning achievement, and a worthy way to go out.

It’ll never happen, of course… unless you, dear reader, are a wealthy Patron of the Arts looking to finance the last hurrah of a bitterly aging gamer. I’ll try to keep my hope alive while I await your offer.

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