Unknown scientific study of the Infection that swept the planet following the Callisto burn-up and explosion in the atmosphere; the event known as Yellow Dawn.
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The second edition of Yellow Dawn was launched early 2008. It was very well received but I felt there was much room for improvement. In particular, I wanted to provide more details about the Infection to create a “zombie” flavour threat that was actually far more terrible than originally thought. The Influence of Hastur can seep out of those wretched souls who have been bitten and so warp and corrupt the subjective reality of non-Infected survivors in the immediate area.
NOTE: you can discover more about the Influence of Hastur through narrative in the short stories House of Heavenly Light; Corrupt Moon; Tainted Moor, all three of which are contained within the anthology of short stories Songs of Spheres.
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In 2012 I launched an updated version (2.5) that had taken me most of 2011 to complete. Here’s an email from an old fan and Hastur aficionado – Lee David Simpson – who has seen the game evolve through recent years. Positive words.
Date: Sun, 26 Feb 2012 08:11:06 +0000
Subject: re Yellow Dawn
From: xxxxxxx@xxxx.com
To: clovenfeet@xxxxx.com
Hi David,
Sorry I haven’t mailed sooner but I’ve been pretty busy with [xxxxx]. I just wanted to say that I have received the book and what can I say … it’s very very good, I was reading the chapter on infected on the bus, early in the morning and it gave me chills. I haven’t forgotten that you want a photo of me with the book and I’ll try get that done this week.. I was going to try scout out somewhere eerie, run down or both but we’ll have to wait and see.
Lee
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Date: Mon, 11 Apr 2011 13:37:58 +0100
Subject: Re: Yellow Dawn 2.5 – Work In Progress (version 2.0) – “Age of Hastur” chapter changed – “Zombie” chapter completed
From: xxxxxxx@xxxx.com
To: clovenfeet@xxxxx.com
David,
what can i say, the Hastur section is pretty much spot on now :) It has a good logical flow, ideas now lead into each other and the box outs enforce your points rather than muddy it, love the Carcosa section, it really gels with what I always envisioned and really links the infection, Hastur and the infected together in a neat little package.
Lee
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YD 2.5 – from LULU
Paperback : from LULU ¦ Hardback (with black cover): from LULU
Primary Rulebook (2.5) This book is crammed with everything you will need to create characters and run scenarios. [] Features narrative examples of key themes • The Influence of Hastur • Medical theories on the Infection • Zombie surges • Dead Cities • Wilderness survival • Comprehensive scavenging system and how to repair or build things with resources • Backgrounds and motivations of government bodies and corporations • Computer hacking and drug abuse • High-tech immortality options • Non-human characters • Enhancements through cyberware and bioware • Weaponry, equipment and armour • Complete character generation and development system • Complex political, corporate and quasi-religious tensions • Schools of Elemental Magick, occultism, demonology, and the alien horrors of the Outer Chaos – the Cthulhu Mythos.
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Bristol (UK) is in for a rare treat today. The city centre streets are going to be overrun by zombies tonight and several hundred survivors of the initial catastrophic Infection are going to find themselves pitted in an epic struggle to reach safety without getting eaten.
2.8 Hours Later – An Infected woman – Click for more images and videos
Organised by the formidable 2.8 Hours later crew (Slingshot). There are some classic set-pieces, with actors placed at strategic locations, working ad-lib around the plot, responding to the various survivors who stumble in, confused and disoriented; such survivors find themselves enmeshed within an unfolding scene that seems to have already started and ends with clues to the next part of their journey.
So good luck to the guys and gurls heading out there tonight. Don’t forget to pack a small torch (for reading your map).
Stay safe and don’t let the infection-ridden things get their teeth into you.
Photo by Oli Mortimer – Click to grab a copy of poster for your own use
Available in paperback or Kindle
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UTOC Safety Notice – Copyright David J Rodger – Image taken by Oli Mortimer
I had an @davidjrodger on Twitter from some bloke in England. He’d found this sign in his area and then gone about trying to find out what it was about. He found Yellow Dawn.
Image source: Oli Mortimer, visit his website here.
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A couple weeks earlier I had a 15,000 unique user spike in web traffic to my wordpress blog when somebody posted a similar image to an end of world thread on reddit and managed to get onto the reddit home page.
Photo by Boothy – click for full size
Image Source: Boothy, view his photographic work here
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It would be super cool to see these percolating into public areas. Some great surreptious publicity for Yellow Dawn but also a chance to form a question mark and maybe a bit of a chill down the spine of your everyday zombie-fodder.
You can download a good res copy of the sign here.
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This is a public safety notice from the early days of the catastrophic, apocalyptic event known as Yellow Dawn, when the Infection was even less understood than it is today. It’s an example of UTOC attempting to exert control of survivors in the wake of the disaster.
Artwork: Ben Chapman ¦ Click for full size
Follow Ben Chapman on Twitter (The Sprezz)
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Available in paperback or Kindle
Paperback : from LULU & kindle: US ($), UK (£), DE (Euro)
DOG EAT DOG { novel } takes place in the near future, after the Earth has been devastated by a viral pathogen unleashed when a corporate cargo hauler crashed into the atmosphere; breaking up as a fireball across the sky, it showered Southern Europe and North Africa with a deadly rain of infected debris. Ten years later, over seventy percent of the human population is dead and only a handful of cities survive intact. So called ‘Living Cities’. The vast majority of human habitation is abandoned to the undying creatures left mutated through a brutal twist in the infection. Greed and corruption are left hovering over this bleak and brutalized domain and a cosmic horror is now free to infiltrate the remote abandoned corners of the Earth. Above this, the orbital colonies spin within artificial gravity wells, impartial observers, unaffected by the shocking events below. Within this mix the lives of two survivors collide: a renegade intelligence agent and a cold-blooded master of violence, shaping events with their virulent hunger for money and desire to carve their name onto this new world.
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