The Unspeakable Oath
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''The Unspeakable Oath'' is a game magazine that was published by
Pagan Publishing Pagan Publishing is a role-playing game publishing company founded by John Scott Tynes in 1990. It began by publishing a '' Call of Cthulhu'' role-playing game fanzine, '' The Unspeakable Oath''. In 1994, the company moved from Columbia, Missouri ...
from 1990 to 2001, and later by
Arc Dream Publishing Arc Dream Publishing is a small role-playing game publishing company founded in 2002 by Pagan Publishing veteran Dennis Detwiller and editor Shane Ivey after their first roleplaying game '' Godlike: Superhero Roleplaying in a World on Fire, 19 ...
starting in 2010.


History

John Tynes John Scott Tynes (born 1971) is an American writer best known for his work on role-playing games such as ''Unknown Armies'', ''Delta Green'', ''Puppetland'', and for his company, Tynes Cowan Corporation. Under its imprint, Pagan Publishing, Tyne ...
founded
Pagan Publishing Pagan Publishing is a role-playing game publishing company founded by John Scott Tynes in 1990. It began by publishing a '' Call of Cthulhu'' role-playing game fanzine, '' The Unspeakable Oath''. In 1994, the company moved from Columbia, Missouri ...
in 1990 in
Columbia, Missouri Columbia is a city in Missouri, United States. It was founded in 1821 as the county seat of Boone County, Missouri, Boone County and had a population of 126,254 as recorded in the 2020 United States census, making it the List of cities in Misso ...
with a volunteer staff of gamers from Columbia including Jeff Barber, Brian Bevel, John H. Crowe III, Les Dean, and Chris Klepac. Together they put together ''The Unspeakable Oath'' #1 (December 1990), the first publication from the company, a digest-sized quarterly magazine focusing on '' Call of Cthulhu''.
Keith Herber Keith Donald "Doc" Herber (January 3, 1949 – March 13, 2009)"United States Social Security Death Index," index, FamilySearch: accessed October 25, 2013), Keith Donald Herber, March 13, 2009; citing U.S. Social Security Administration, Death M ...
of
Chaosium Chaosium Inc. ( ) is a publisher of tabletop role-playing games established by Greg Stafford (game designer), Greg Stafford in 1975. Chaosium's major titles include ''Call of Cthulhu (role-playing game), Call of Cthulhu'', based on the horror fic ...
noticed this first issue and helped Tynes recruit Cthulhu writers including Scott David Aniolowski and Kevin Ross. Pagan was then able to publish ''The Unspeakable Oath'' #2 (Spring 1991) and ''The Unspeakable Oath'' #3 (Summer 1991). The third issue led Dennis Detwiller to move to Columbia to work at Pagan. At first, ''The Unspeakable Oath'' was solely devoted to ''Call of Cthulhu''. The first six issues (1990–1992) had semi-professional production values, including covers of black & white cardstock. Writers for the magazine included several past and future Cthulhu authors, such as Steve Hatherly, Keith Herber, and Scott David Aniolowski. ''The Unspeakable Oath'' #7 (Fall 1992) was the first issue to make use of sturdier covers, and with ''The Unspeakable Oath'' #10 (Fall 1993), the magazine was increased to the size of a role-playing game book and given the first full-color cover. As these upgrades were implemented, Pagan began publishing other supplements so they dropped the magazine in frequency. Issues #11–#15 were published once per year on average from 1994–1997. After a 4-year hiatus, only one more issue, ''The Unspeakable Oath'' #16/17, was published by Pagan themselves in 2001. After another long hiatus, Dennis Detwiller's RPG company
Arc Dream Publishing Arc Dream Publishing is a small role-playing game publishing company founded in 2002 by Pagan Publishing veteran Dennis Detwiller and editor Shane Ivey after their first roleplaying game '' Godlike: Superhero Roleplaying in a World on Fire, 19 ...
acquired a license for ''The Unspeakable Oath'' from Pagan, which they were able to publish starting with Issue #18, which appeared in December 2010. Arc Dream has since published a couple of issues annually on average.


Reception

Wayne Ligon reviewed issue #2 of ''The Unspeakable Oath'' in '' White Wolf'' #29 (Oct./Nov., 1991), rating it a 4 out of 5 and stated that "''The Unspeakable Oath'' is a top-notch magazine and I wish it a long life. Pick up this gem at once." In the November–December 1993 edition of ''
Pyramid A pyramid () is a structure whose visible surfaces are triangular in broad outline and converge toward the top, making the appearance roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid can be of any polygon shape, such as trian ...
'' (Issue #4), Chris W. McCubbin reviewed issues 7, 8, and 9 of ''The Unspeakable Oath'' and gave the magazine a strong recommendation, saying, "The final assessment on ''The Unspeakable Oath'' is simple — every gamer with an interest in ''Call of Cthulhu'' (which means virtually every mature and intelligent gamer) should read this magazine religiously, and that's all there is to it." In the January 1994 edition of ''
Dragon A dragon is a Magic (supernatural), magical legendary creature that appears in the folklore of multiple cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but European dragon, dragons in Western cultures since the Hi ...
'' (Issue #201),
Allen Varney Allen Varney (born 1958) is an American writer and game designer. Varney has produced numerous books, role-playing game supplements, technical manuals, articles, reviews, columns, and stories, as well as the fantasy novel ''Cast of Fate'' ( TSR, ...
was similarly impressed, saying, "Chaosium’s ''Call of Cthulhu'' game (''CoC'') has spawned the best one-game support magazine I’ve ever seen: ''The Unspeakable Oath''. This 80-page wonder crawls forth quarterly from Pagan Publishing, a small Columbia, Missouri company — more accurately, one talented and energetic guy named John Tynes." Varney praised the magazine's articles as "Fascinating features, columns, letters, and huge amounts of period source material (which is sorely lacking in Chaosium's own support for ''CoC'')." He also admired the artwork, "unsettlingly illustrated by Blair Reynolds and others." Varney concluded that the magazine was "an Elder Godsend for both Keepers and players." The version of ''The Unspeakable Oath'' by Arc Dream Publishing won the 2013 Silver
Ennie Award The ENNIE Awards (previously stylized as ENnie Awards) are awards for role-playing game (RPG) products (including game-related accessories, publications, and art) and their creators. The awards were created in 2001 by Russ Morrissey of EN World ...
for "Best Aid/Accessory". In his 2023 book ''Monsters, Aliens, and Holes in the Ground'', RPG historian Stu Horvath noted, "''The Unspeakable Oath'', launched in 1990, was indispensable for serious ''Call of Cthulhu'' players and would eventually spawn ''Delta Green''."


Reviews

*''
Pyramid A pyramid () is a structure whose visible surfaces are triangular in broad outline and converge toward the top, making the appearance roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid can be of any polygon shape, such as trian ...
'' 16/17 *''
Casus Belli A (; ) is an act or an event that either provokes or is used to justify a war. A ''casus belli'' involves direct offenses or threats against the nation declaring the war, whereas a ' involves offenses or threats against its ally—usually one bou ...
'' #77


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Unspeakable Oath Call of Cthulhu (role-playing game) Cthulhu Mythos role-playing games ENnies winners Irregularly published magazines published in the United States Magazines established in 1990 Magazines published in Columbia, Missouri Role-playing game magazines