We’re back with another special live episode!

Our own Paul Fricker recently attended the Dragonmeet 2021 convention in London. While there, he took part in a couple of panels. This first recording is of the Call of Cthulhu 40th anniversary discussion, with Paul, Mike Mason, Lynne Hardy and Lee Carnell. The panel look forward as well as back, talking about the future of the game line.

https://blasphemoustomes.com/2021/12/07/gangsters-in-call-of-cthulhu/

We’re back and we’re trying to understand the attraction of these concrete boots. They’re not very stylish and even less comfortable. Apparently they’ll help us sleep with the fishes, but that’s how we got into trouble last time we were in Innsmouth. It’s a weird life being gangsters in Call of Cthulhu.

Main Topic: Gangsters in Call of Cthulhu

Our latest episode delves into the deadly underworld of gangsters in Call of Cthulhu. Given that the classic era of Call of Cthulhu coincides with the advent of prohibition and the rise of organised crime in the USA, gangsters have always played a large role in the game. In this episode, we talk about the influences we’ve drawn upon when presenting gangsters in our own games, as well as thoughts on how to use gangsters as protagonists and antagonists.

This episode has the unfortunate distinction of being our first standard release not to feature all three of the Good Friends. Matt has been very ill recently after contracting COVID. Happily, he is on the road to recovery and should be back soon. For this and the next episode, however, we have called upon our good friend Dirk the Dice to stand in for Matt. You will know Dirk from his marvellous podcast The Grognard Files, as well as our live recording of “The Necropolis”, with How We Roll.

News

Issue 8 of The Blasphemous Tome

There is still just time to secure a printed copy of Issue 8 of The Blasphemous Tome. This is the semi-annual fanzine we produce for our Patreon backers. Anyone backing us by the end of the year at the $3 level will receive a voucher for a print-on-demand copy at cost, and backers at the $5 level or higher will receive a copy printed and signed by the Good Friends. This latest issue features an all-new modern-day scenario by Scott, called “Night Bus”, that leans heavily into the weirder side of the Mythos.

Reissue of The Blasphemous Tome 1

Speaking of Tomes, we have recently reissued the first Blasphemous Tome. All backers can now download a PDF of issue 1 from our Patreon feed. Additionally, anyone backing us at the $3 level or higher before the end of 2021 will receive vouchers for print-on-demand copies of issues 1 and 7.

Issue 1 features a rare thing — a scenario written by all three of the Good Friends. “The Thing From the Shed” can be run using Call of Cthulhu or any OSR game, and involves plenty of icky body horror. Issue 7 features Matt’s sun-drenched scenario, “The Blue”, uncovering horrors beneath the crystal waters of Bermuda.

The Canterville Ghost on the Good Friends Discord

Following the success of last year’s reading of “A Christmas Carol”, Mike Perceval-Maxwell is organising another Christmas ghost story on the Good Friends Discord server. Mike will be joined by Dom Allen, John Casey, Scott Dorward, Rina Haenze and Sue Savage for a spirited rendition of Oscar Wilde’s “The Canterville Ghost”. We will read the story live over three evenings — the 13th, 14th and 16th of December, at 22:30. Each reading will take approximately 30 minutes.

If all goes well, we shall release recordings of each episode on the Good Friends podcast feed, for those who can’t make the live events.

“We Will Remember Them” on Spectre in the Fog

Our good friend Robin has been running an actual play of Paul’s scenario “We Will Remember Them” for the Spectre in the Fog podcast. This tense tale of heroism and body horror is plucked from the World War Cthulhu scenario collection Europe Ablaze.

New Arcs on Grizzly Peaks and How We Roll

And speaking of actual plays, two of the podcasts Scott appears on have begun new arcs recently. Grizzly Peaks Radio has just started a playthrough of a modified version of “Ghost Jackal Kill”, from an ancient issue of White Dwarf magazine, featuring the lovable old codgers from “The Surrey Enigma”.

Scott has also just started running “Inheritance” — chapter two of the Flotsam and Jetsam campaign — for How We Roll. Our all-star cast of Joe and Eoghan from How We Roll, Veronica from Cthulhu and Friends, and Seth Skorkowsky has grown! We have now been joined by special guest Adrian Tchaikovsky, who has volunteered to steer our investigators through the deadly streets of Innsmouth.

https://blasphemoustomes.com/2021/11/23/mythos-deities-daoloth-and-eihort/

We’re back and we’re clearing out all those pesky veils. They just clutter up the place, getting in the way of seeing how things really are. Also, somehow, they make things feel less spongy. We try not to think about that bit too much. Regardless, one simple application of Daoloth will clear up even the most persistent veil outbreak. Daoloth – safe when used as directed.

Main Topic: Mythos Deities – Daoloth and Eihort

This is our latest exploration into the deities of the Cthulhu Mythos. We have devoted previous episodes to Dagon, Shub-Niggurath, Yog-Sothoth, Nyarlathotep, Hastur, Azathoth, Nodens, Ubbo-Sathla and Mordiggian, and Ithaqua. This time, it’s the turn of a couple of Ramsey Campbell’s creations.

Campbell is responsible for many of our favourite Mythos entities, so it’s long past time we turned our attention to him. His work deserves more than one episode, however, so this time we are limiting our focus to two of his more popular deities: Daoloth and Eihort. We plan to return to his deities some time next year.

News

Issue 8 of The Blasphemous Tome

Issue 8 of The Blasphemous Tome is almost ready to go to press. This is the semi-annual fanzine we produce for our Patreon backers. While we will send printed copies of the Tome to anyone backing us at the $5 level by the end of the year, you need to act fast if you’d like to receive one of our special Christmas cards as well. We shall only post these to people backing us before the end of November. Any later and our festive byakhee might pull a wing trying to get it to you before the solstice!

A Weekend With Good Friends 2022

Following the success of the first two conventions, our lovely listeners are organising another Weekend With Good Friends. This online convention will take place on our Discord server between the 18th and 20th of February 2022. There will be plenty of horror gaming goodness throughout, mainly Call of Cthulhu, but with many other systems on offer too. Last time, there were the best part of 150 games on offer, including pickup games.

We will keep you posted as things progress. For now, however, just keep that weekend clear!

Paul at Dragonmeet

Speaking of conventions, Paul will be attending Dragonmeet in London on the 4th of December this year. While there, he plans to sit on a panel about the forthcoming Rivers of London RPG with Ben Aaronovitch and Lynne Hardy, as well as a panel with our good friends from the Smart Party on a topic yet to be determined.

https://blasphemoustomes.com/2021/11/09/media-catch-up-films/

This is the latest of our occasional discussions about the media we’ve been consuming recently. After our earlier episodes about television and books, we’re turning to the big screen. Well, not that big. We’re all still watching most of our films at home.

The three films we discuss are:

Paul: Free Fire (2016)

Matt: No One Gets Out Alive (2021)

Scott: Candyman (2021)

As ever, we pick the films apart, looking for gaming inspiration.

News

Issue 8 of The Blasphemous Tome

Issue 8 of The Blasphemous Tome is almost ready to go to press. This is the semi-annual fanzine we produce for our Patreon backers. While we will send printed copies of the Tome to anyone backing us at the $5 level by the end of the year, you need to act fast if you’d like to receive one of our special Christmas cards as well. We shall only post these to people backing us before the end of November. Any later and the festive byakhee might pull a wing trying to get it to you in time for the solstice!

October Horror Movie Challenge 2021

Scott has now finished his October Horror Movie Challenge for 2021, watching a horror film every day and posting a full review to this very website. His post mortem, discussing the best, worst and weirdest picks of the month, is now available. If you would like to talk about any of these, please join the discussion on our Discord server or on Twitter.

HPLHS Kickstarter: Miskatonic Missives

Our good friends at the HP Lovecraft Historical Society are in the last days of a new Kickstarter campaign. Building on their Voluminous podcast, Miskatonic Missives reproduces three of Lovecraft’s famously long and revealing letters in book form. Of course, this being the HPLHS, not only are the books beautiful, but they come with reproductions of all sorts of related ephemera. Act quickly, as the campaign ends this Friday, the 12th of November.

https://blasphemoustomes.com/2021/09/27/the-life-of-robert-e-howard/

Note, once again Scott's recording was somehow beset by gremlins and went out of synch, so there's no unedited version of this show. Scott has looked at some ways to fix the problem, so fingers crossed for the future. By the way, do people like the unedited version? Do let us know.

We’re back and we’re spoiling for a fight. Well, a boxing match at least. There’s this fellow we met down at the ice house who’s promised us a bout or two. We heard he’s some kind of writer, so his fists must be more used to hitting keys than jaws. Uh oh. Look at the size of him! Is it too late to change this to a different kind of competition, maybe something like writing a poem? What? He’s good at that too? Boy, it’s really not our day….

The Life of Robert E Howard

Following our recent discussion of sword and sorcery, this episode is the first of a two-part look into the life and work of Robert E Howard. A close friend of Lovecraft (although the two men never actually met), Howard was a cornerstone of the success of Weird Tales. He not only added to the Cthulhu Mythos but created, arguably, two enduring subgenres of fantastic fiction: sword and sorcery and the weird western. Like Lovecraft, most of his success came posthumously, his books selling millions of copies. His creations have appeared in films, comics, video game and even the odd RPG. But who was Robert E Howard?

We examine the man himself, looking at how his life might have shaped his writing. For someone who died so young and spent most of his short life in one town, Howard lived a fascinating life. The era of Texan history in which he grew up was a turbulent one, dealing with the fallout of recent conflicts and the shock of the oil boom. These unique circumstances, as well as the oddness of the Howard family, were fertile creative ground for the young writer’s imagination. We offer a brief overview of the key events of his life and some thoughts of our own.

As a general content warning, this episode includes some brief discussion of Howard’s suicide.

Our next episode builds upon this discussion, looking at Howard’s writing career and his most famous creation, Conan the Cimmerian.

Links

Our main research sources for this episode are:

• Blood and Thunder: The Life and Art of Robert E Howard by Mark Finn
• A Means to Freedom: The Letters of H P Lovecraft and Robert E Howard edited by S T Joshi, David E Schultz and Rusty Burke
• Nameless Cults: The Cthulhu Mythos Fiction of Robert E Howard edited by Robert M Price

Other things we mention in this episode include:

• H P Lovecraft
• Clark Ashton Smith
• Texas oil boom
• Cross Plains, Texas
• There Will Be Blood (2007)
• Picts
• Bran Mak Morn
• Adventure
• “Pigeons From Hell” by Robert E Howard
• “The Dunwich Horror” by H P Lovecraft
• Weird Tales
• Boxing pulps
• “The Rats in the Walls” by H P Lovecraft
• August Derleth
• E Hoffmann Price
• Novalyne Price
• One Who Walked Alone by Novalyne Price Ellis
• The Whole Wide World (1996)
• Robert E Howard Museum
• Viola Garvin
• Michael K Vaughan’s YouTube channel
• L Sprague de Camp
• Fredric Wertham
• Seduction of the Innocent by Fredric Wertham
• Albert Fish
• Seabury Quinn
• Jules de Grandin
• “The Black Stone” by Robert E Howard

News

October Horror Movie Challenge 2021

It is that time of year again. Scott is preparing to embark on the October Horror Movie Challenge, watching a horror film every day and posting a full review to this very website. If you would like to take part too, please join the discussion on our Discord server or on Twitter.

The Blasphemous Tome

Some of you have contacted us asking about the print-on-demand version of issue 7 of the Blasphemous Tome. We've had a proof copy, but there are still a few issues to sort out, so apologies for the delay, but it is coming. Once we've been through this process once, hopefully getting future issues out through print-on-demand should be smoother.

We have started work on issue 8 of The Blasphemous Tome. This is the semi-annual fanzine we produce for our Patreon backers. While the issue is filling up fast, there is still space if you would like to submit an article of 500 words or under, or any black-and-white artwork. You can contact us at submissions@blasphemoustomes.com.

This latest issue will feature “Night Bus”, a brand new scenario from our own Scott Dorward. Prepare to enter the horrors of late-night public transport in Greater London. Things are going to get weird!

https://blasphemoustomes.com/2021/09/13/genre-emulation-in-rpgs/

Genre Emulation in RPGs

This episode is our discussion of the role of genre emulation in RPGs. How do RPGs reflect the source material that inspires them? Should they even attempt to do so? And how do we even attempt to define genre? While we may not provide comprehensive answer to these thorny questions, they do at least act as springboards for some robust discussion.

Links

Things we mention in this episode include:

• Genre
• Sword and sorcery
• Avatar Legends RPG Kickstarter
• Dungeons & Dragons
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer RPG
• The One Ring RPG
• Marvel Heroic Roleplaying
• Seinfeld
• Primetime Adventures
• All the President’s Men by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein
• Billions
• Rivers of London RPG
• Dying Earth RPG
• Deadlands
• Doctor Who RPG
• Pulp Cthulhu
• Jaws of the Six Serpents
• Stranger Things
• Tales From the Loop
• Mad Max
• Dead of Night
• Monsterhearts
• Savage Worlds
• Blake’s 7
• Appendix N
• Alien RPG
• Star Wars RPG
• Casablanca (1942)
• A Song of Ice and Fire by George RR Martin
• The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher
• Wild Cards by George RR Martin
• LitRPG
• Adrian Tchaikovsky interview

News

Submissions for Issue 8 of The Blasphemous Tome

We have started work on issue 8 of The Blasphemous Tome. This is the semi-annual fanzine we produce for our Patreon backers. While the issue is filling up fast, there is still space if you would like to submit an article of 500 words or under, or any black-and-white artwork. You can contact us at submissions@blasphemoustomes.com.

Hi there - it's been a few years, so without going back and reading it through again my memory is a bit hazy! The intent is to provide a set-up that creates an in media res start to the campaign. Given it's a warzone, it's meant to be chaotic and confusing. In my mind, it was something like the confusion we see in Apocalypse Now. IIRC correctly, the team has some nurses and medical supplies with them? Given that it is Pulp, combined with what happens within moments of the game starting, all those details soon take a back seat to the action and excitement! 

As always, I think the best advice is to adapt the text through to suit your own thinking and approach, and if there are some elements that don't  stack up, then feel free to adapt them. 

I hope that helps, and that you and your group have fun with the campaign!

The Changeling

Links

• The Changeling (1980)
• The Exorcist (1973)
• The Omen (1976)
• The Shining (1980)
• Henry Treat Rogers house in Denver
• The Amityville Horror (1979)
• Ed and Lorraine Warren
• The Conjuring (2013)
• Peter Medak
• The Babysitter (1980)
• Cry For the Strangers (1982)
• Species II (1998)
• Masters of Horror
• Hannibal
• The Babysitter (2017)
• The Landmark Trust
• Old Observatory House in Edinburgh
• Cryptomnesia
• Disappointments rooms
• The Disappointments Room (2016)
• Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
• Microfiche
• Parapsychology
• Automatic writing
• Austin Osman Spare
• Spirit trumpets
• Cassadaga
• Electronic Voice Phenomenon
• White Noise (2005)
• “The Whisperer in Darkness” by H P Lovecraft
• Poltergeist (1982)
• Dracula (1931)
• Ghosts in Call of Cthulhu

News

Submissions for Issue 8 of The Blasphemous Tome

A Weekend With Good Friends Thanks

Scott on Ain’t Slayed Nobody

And Part 2 is now out:

https://blasphemoustomes.com/2021/08/16/sword-and-sorcery-part-2/

This episode is the conclusion our exploration of sword and sorcery. In our first instalment, we looked into the origins of the genre in the pulps. This time, we’re delving into films and games, seeing how they compare to their source material. While the 1980s were a boom time for sword and sorcery films, were any of them actually any good? We pick apart a few of the more notable films of the time, offering our usual range of conflicting opinions.

In the second half of the episode, we do much the same with games. There have been any number of sword and sorcery RPGs published over the past 50 years, but which ones are worth looking into? And how do different games approach the genre, focusing more on swords, sorcery, or that atmosphere of sensual dreaminess that pervades some of the stranger tales?

https://blasphemoustomes.com/2021/08/02/sword-and-sorcery-part-1/

We’re back and we’re puzzling over the riddle of steel. Is it an enigma? Maybe some clever bit of wordplay? It’s probably safer if we stick to swordplay, especially with all these sorcerers around. They seem to be allergic to steel. It brings them out in stab wounds. There’s a reason why they call it “sword and sorcery” and not “word and sorcery”.

Sword and Sorcery

This episode is our examination of the genre of sword and sorcery. “But why are you doing this on a Call of Cthulhu podcast?” we hear an imaginary listener ask. While we hope the episode more than answers this, it’s probably worth explaining here too.

Sword and sorcery and the Cthulhu Mythos were birthed from the same otherworldy womb and bear more than a passing familial resemblance. Not only were the first tales of each published alongside each other in Weird Tales, but they often sprang from the same pens. Some of the best-known entities of the Mythos slithered out of sword and sorcery tales, and other such stories borrowed from the Mythos in turn.

But it’s not just the content of the stories we get into here. The structure, pace and sheer bloody weirdness can also inform our games. A good sword and sorcery story is quick and brutal. How can we bring that to the gaming table, short of punching our players in the face?

Links

Things we mention in this episode include:

• Weird Tales
• Michael Moorcock
• The Farseer trilogy by Robin Hobb
• Robert E Howard
• Conan the Cimmerian
• Sorcerer & Sword by Ron Edwards
• Fritz Leiber
• Solomon Kane
• Bran Mak Morn
• Kull of Atlantis
• Mervyn Peake
• Dungeon Crawl Classics
• Appendix N
• Clark Ashton Smith
• The Princess Bride (1987)
• C L Moore
• Jirel of Joiry
• Boris Vallejo
• Conan the Barbarian (1982)
• Conan the Destroyer (1984)
• “The Hyborian Age” by Robert E Howard
• “The Phoenix on the Sword” by Robert E Howard
• “The Tower of the Elephant” by Robert E Howard
• Karl Edward Wagner
• Charles R Saunders
• The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie
• Gentleman Bastard series by Scott Lynch
• Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser by Fritz Leiber
• L Sprague de Camp
• “The Doom That Came to Sarnath” by HP Lovecraft
• Henry Kuttner
• Appendix N: The Eldritch Roots of Dungeons & Dragons edited by Peter Bebergal
• Seth Skorkowsky interview
• Mordiggian
• Zothique
• “The Seven Geases” by Clark Ashton Smith
• “The Charnel God” by Clark Ashton Smith
• “Black God’s Kiss” by C L Moore
• “A Hero at the Gates” by Tanith Lee
• Tales From the Flat Earth by Tanith Lee
• “Lean Times in Lankhmar” by Fritz Leiber
• “Stardock” by Fritz Leiber
• “The Lords of Quarmall” by Fritz Leiber
• “Red Nails” by Robert E Howard
• The Wizard of Lemuria by Lin Carter
• The Conan Chronicles by Robert E Howard, L Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter
• Elric of Melniboné
• Stormbringer by Michael Moorcock
• Kane
• “Undertow” by Karl Edward Wagner
• Night Winds by Karl Edward Wagner
• Kane and Abel by Jeffrey Archer
• The Dying Earth by Jack Vance
• Cugel’s Saga by Jack Vance
• Imaro by Charles R Saunders

News

A Weekend With Good Friends GM sign-ups open

GM sign-ups for the next Weekend With Good Friends are open until the 5th of August 2021. Player sign-ups begin on the 6th of August, and the convention itself starts on the 20th of August.

A Weekend With Good Friends is the online gaming convention organised by our wonderful listeners and hosted on our Discord Server. Full details can be found on our website.

• “Cannibalism in Contact Narratives and the Evolution of the Wendigo” by Michelle Lietz
• “The Appropriation of the Windigo Spirit in Horror Literature” by Kallie Hunchman
• “The Horror! The Horror? The Appropriation, and Reclamation, of Native American Mythology” by Joe Nazare
• “Incursion Into Wendigo Territory” by Jackson Eflin
• “The Mythology and Misrepresentation of the Windigo” by Elizabeth McCauley
• Out of the Ordinary: Folklore and the Supernatural edited by Barbara Walker

• The Magnus Archives
• August Derleth
• “The Thing That Walked on the Wind” by August Derleth
• “Beyond the Threshold” by August Derleth
• Strange Eons by Robert Bloch
• The Ithaqua Cycle edited by Robert M Price
• The Outsider and Others by H P Lovecraft
• “The Shadow Over Innsmouth” by H P Lovecraft
• “The Snow-Thing” (AKA “Ithaqua”) by August Derleth
• The Mask of Cthulhu by August Derleth
• “The Dunwich Horror” by H P Lovecraft
• “The Wendigo” by Algernon Blackwood
• “The Willows” by Algernon Blackwood
• “The Thing From — ‘Outside'” by George Allan England
• Leng
• Parachuting spiders
• “The Whisperer in Darkness” by H P Lovecraft
• Hastur
• Wendigo
• Wendigo psychosis
• Pet Sematary by Stephen King
• Malleus Monstrorum
• Djinn
• Alone Against the Frost
• “Born of the Winds” by Brian Lumley
• Spawn of the Winds by Brian Lumley
• Gnoph-Keh
• Rhan-Tegoth
• “The Horror in the Museum” by H P Lovecraft and Hazel Heald
• The Walker in the Wastes
• The Realm of Shadows
• The Two-Headed Serpent
• Florida Man
• Cassadaga
• The Last Winter (2006)
• Wendigo (2001)

https://blasphemoustomes.com/2021/06/08/the-endless/

We’re back and we’re back again. It feels like going around in circles. Or maybe the circles are going around us. It’ll all become clear in time. But few of us have experienced time in quite the same way since March 2020, however many years ago that was. Regardless, it seemed like the time had come round to watch a film that understood this. Not that time matters in The Endless. Except that it does. Don’t worry if this sounds confusing — you can spend a million hours working it all out.

Main Topic: The Endless

This episode is our look at the 2017 horror film, The Endless. A number of you recommended it to us when we released our series on cults, given some of the subject matter. As you can hear in this episode, however, we weren’t all convinced that the community at the film’s heart qualifies as a cult. And one of us just plain wasn’t convinced.

So put this episode on repeat and prepare to enter the word of The Endless. Just don’t expect to be leaving any time soon.

Links

Things we mention in this episode include:

• The Endless (2017)
• Synchronic (2019)
• Moon Knight
• Resolution (2012)
• Spring
• Cults series
• Ant colony castings
• Groundhog Day (1993)
• Palm Springs (2020)
• Death in RPGs
• “The Jane Fonda Room” from The Panic Hand by Jonathan Carroll
• “A Nice Place to Visit” Twilight Zone episode
• RPG Nook
• Sound of My Voice (2011)
• Cadaver (2020)
• Repulsion (1965)
• Media Catch-Up – Books

News

Paul’s Polish Panel

Paul and Mike Mason made a recent virtual trip to Poland for a convention run by the Krakowska Sieć Fantastyki. There, they were interviewed by Anna Mazur, author of the recent Call of Cthulhu scenario collection, Does Love Forgive?

As Paul mentions in the segment, searching for this video led him to discover the Fricker’s Mason restaurant in Cincinnati. We hope they serve calamari.

Full Fathom Five in French

Paul’s Call of Cthulhu scenario “Full Fathom Five” is now available en français. “Sous Cinq Brassées“, translated by Secrets of the Masquerade is now available for purchase on DriveThruRPG. Bon voyage!

The Blasphemous Tome Issue 7

Issue 7 of The Blasphemous Tome will be creeping your way before the end of June. It features a brand new Call of Cthulhu scenario, licensed by Chaosium, written by our very own Matt Sanderson. Matt spends a little time this episode telling us what to expect from it. Everyone backing us on Patreon will receive a Tome. Please see our Patreon page for more details. 

And for the first time we have a colour cover! John Sumrow has pulled out all the stops for this one. All I can say for now is, "The rat, the rat with a human face!"

Thanks @Nick Brooke! And thanks also @klecser.

I'm super pleased with having it in print (many thanks to Nick for his help). Here's a couple of photos to show it off, especially the wonderful cover and (disturbing) internal images by John Sumrow. Link in Nick's post above to the Drivethru page. 

• “The Willows” by Algernon Blackwood
• Cosmic horror
• Algernon Blackwood
• The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn
• John Silence
• Carnacki, the Ghost-Finder
• “The Wendigo” by Algernon Blackwood
• Arthur Machen
• “Supernatural Horror in Literature” by HP Lovecraft
• Occultism in Lovecraft
• Blackwood’s opinion of Lovecraft
• The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
• WB Yeats
• Celtic fairy folklore
• Tolkien and trees
• Body horror
• Ghosts
• Folk horror
• Survival horror
• Dark Young
• Folie à deux
• Quixotism and panzaism
• Planet Gong
• Sound of My Voice
• “The Whisper in Darkness” by HP Lovecraft
• Fairyland
• Jasper Carrott
• The Blair Witch Project (1999)
• “The Dunwich Horror” by HP Lovecraft
• Trypophobia
• Surinam toad
• Yog-Sothoth
• “The Willows” on Horrorbabble

https://blasphemoustomes.com/2021/03/30/cosmic-horror/

We’re back and we’re and we’re contemplating the secrets of the universe. People have warned us that it isn’t good for the human psyche to truly understand its insignificance in the wider cosmos. Luckily, as podcasters, our egos are robust enough to withstand such a spiritual winnowing. Cosmic horror is only genuinely horrific if your place in the universe isn’t secured by the occasional appearance towards the bottom of a niche podcast chart!

Main Topic: Cosmic Horror

This episode is our long-overdue look at cosmic horror. The term “cosmic horror” is often used as a synonym for Lovecraftian horror. Is there more to this relationship, however? For all his passion for the genre, how effective was Lovecraft at writing cosmic horror? How can we bring cosmic dread into our games of Call of Cthulhu? And what the hell is cosmic horror anyway?

Links

Things we mention in this episode include:

• Alien (1979)
• The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
• Trebuchet Magazine
• Buffer overflows
• “The Rats in the Walls” by HP Lovecraft
• “Supernatural Horror in Literature” by HP Lovecraft
• WB Yeats
• The Quatermass Experiment
• Azathoth
• The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath by HP Lovecraft
• Yog-Sothoth
• The Gods of Pegāna by Lord Dunsany
• “The Music of Erich Zann” by HP Lovecraft
• Body horror
• The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay
• “Nyarlathotep” by HP Lovecraft
• “The Nine Billion Names of God” by Arthur C Clarke
• Solaris by Stanislaw Lem
• Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky
• Solaris (1972)
• Solaris (2002)
• Arrival (2016)
• “Story of Your Life” by Ted Chiang
• Event Horizon (1997)
• 2001: A Space Oddysey (1968)
• “Mimsy Were the Borogoves” by Lewis Padgett
• The Last Mimzy (2007)
• The Leftovers (2014)
• “Black and White Sky” by Tanith Lee
• Uzumaki by Junji Ito
• Uzimaki (2000)

News

Patreon Changes

We’ve recently made some changes to our Patreon tiers. These centre on how we deliver The Blasphemous Tome. As of the next Tome, we will send a PDF to $1 backers, a code for a print-on-demand copy to $3 backers, and hand-printed and signed copies to those at $5 and above. Check our Patreon page for more details.

The Blasphemous Tome Issue 7

The reason for these Patreon changes is that we will now be putting out two full Blasphemous Tomes per year. While the .5 summer releases started life as an overflow for material we couldn’t fit in the standard Tome, they’ve proved very popular. As a result, we’re promoting them to full Tomes, which means they will be available in print as well as PDF. Issue 7 is due out in June and will include a brand new Call of Cthulhu scenario, licensed by Chaosium, written by our very own Matt Sanderson. We’ll have more details for you soon!

https://blasphemoustomes.com/2021/03/02/mythos-deities-ubbo-sathla-and-mordiggian/

We’re back and we’re contemplating the mysteries of life and death. Sure, we could read a lot of dusty old religious texts but we’d rather seek the wisdom of the prophet Klarkash-Ton. His visions of the origins of life and the final mysteries of death are enlightening, uplifting and thoroughly entertaining. Sure, most religions don’t describe our creator as “yeasty” or suggest that our passage to the next world will involve priests gnawing on our bones, but some truths are uncomfortable. While we’re not certain we’d worship either Ubbo-Sathla or Mordiggian, we’ll happily learn all their juicy secrets. There’s something comforting in the thought that the brackets of our lives are as absurd as everything that happens between them.

Main Topic: Mythos Deities: Ubbo-Sathla and Mordiggian

This episode is the latest in our series on the deities of the Cthulhu Mythos. It is also a return to talking about Clark Ashton Smith, one of the key members of the original Lovecraft Circle. Smith was always the most imaginative and weirdest writer amongst Lovecraft’s correspondents, and the gods we discuss in this episode are no exception. Ubbo-Sathla, the unbegotten source, is at least as blasphemous a parody of creator deities as Lovecraft’s own Azathoth. And Mordiggian, the invisible eater of the dead, is a surprisingly sympathetic psychopomp, even if you have to watch out for his priests.

Previous discussions about Mythos deities have covered Dagon, Shub-Niggurath, Yog-Sothoth, Nyarlathotep, Hastur, Azathoth and Nodens. We have also had a general discussion of the gods of the Cthulhu Mythos and a look at the role of religion in all this yog-sothothry.

Links

Things we mention in this episode include:

• Clark Ashton Smith
• “Ubbo-Sathla” by Clark Ashton Smith
• The Lovecraft Circle
• The Book of Eibon
• The Fens
• Beowulf
• Azathoth
• History of the World, Part I (1981)
• Serpent people
• “The Hounds of Tindalos” by Frank Belknap Long
• “The Unbegotten Source” by Lin Carter
• Crypt of Cthulhu
• “The Dunwich Horror” by HP Lovecraft
• “The Seven Geases” by Clark Ashton Smith
• Abhoth
• Malleus Monstrorum
• At the Mountains of Madness by HP Lovecraft
• Lovecraftian Science blog on the origins of life
• Shub-Niggurath
• “The Charnel God” by Clark Ashton Smith
• Zothique
• Dying Earth genre
• The Dying Earth by Jack Vance
• Lost
• “The Dark Eidolon” by Clark Ashton Smith
• “The Infernal Star” by Clark Ashton Smith
• “The Looking Glass” by Peter A Worthy, Ian Davey, EP Berglund and James Ambuehl
• “The Prodigy of Dreams” by Thomas Ligotti
• The Realm of Shadows by John Crowe
• Fear’s Sharp Little Needles
• Europe Ablaze
• The Case of Charles Dexter Ward by HP Lovecraft
• The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
• Blackwood
• Tear Them Apart
• Calla Cthulhu

Patreon Update

We have updated our Patreon backer rewards, so if you are already a backer, please check the email we sent out yesterday for details. And if you're new, then simply take a look at out Patreon page:

https://www.patreon.com/GoodfriendsofJacksonElias 

https://blasphemoustomes.com/2021/02/16/media-catch-up-television/

We’re back and we’re sucking at the glass teat again. Like all lazy creative types, we watch a lot of TV and try to convince ourselves it’s research. There certainly is a lot that the structure of modern television can teach us about roleplaying games. Absorb too much, however, and you may find that your games become riddled with adverts for erectile dysfunction pills. Maybe not the kind of healing potion your party is looking for…

Main Topic: Media Catch-Up: Television

After the positive reception to our short run of lockdown specials for our Patreon backers last year, we thought it might be fun to carry the format into the occasional regular episode. This time, we each discuss some of the television we’ve been watching recently and how it’s informing our gaming lives. Even though none of the programmes we discuss are horror, we still manage to find plenty to borrow for Call of Cthulhu.

Links

Things we mention in this episode include:

• Patreon Lockdown Specials
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
• Star Trek: The Next Generation
• Star Trek: Discovery
• The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsythe
• Cheers
• Supernatural
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer
• Walker in the Wastes
• Masks of Nyarlathotep
• The X-Files
• Hot War
• World of Darkness
• The Wire
• David Simon
• Kult
• Sicario (2015)
• Justified
• Elmore Leonard
• Pronto by Elmore Leonard
• Riding the Rap by Elmore Leonard
• Raylan by Elmore Leonard
• “Fire in the Hole” by Elmore Leonard
• US Marshals Service
• The Fugitive
• Deadwood
• Breaking Bad
• On Death Row
• Star Trek: Voyager
• Quantum Leap

News

Matt at ConTingency

Like so many other conventions, ConTingency moved from being a physical to a virtual event this year. As part of his ongoing mission to demonstrate his contempt for sleep, Matt ran an unwise number of games over the week. At least he didn’t need to change out of his pyjamas to do so.

New Cthulhu Idol From Stephen Hickman

Matt has also been busy backing Kickstarters. Not that he’s ever stopped. This time, he backed Stephen Hickman’s campaign to create a new version of his idol of Cthulhu. The horror in resin has now arrived and Matt has taken a picture to share with us.

Full Fathom Five on Distant Grey Gaming

The Australian actual-play podcast Distant Grey Gaming recently ran Paul’s 19th-century whaling scenario “Full Fathom Five”. They have also recorded an interview with Paul, which you will find in their feed.

This is our big 200th episode celebration! Somehow, we’ve managed to keep the podcast going for 7 1/2 years, racking up a frightening number of hours of our words. Once you count all the special episodes, backer-only specials, story readings and the like, the total is probably closer to 250 episodes, but we’ll only count the full releases. It saves confusing ourselves even more than usual.

We thought we might celebrate this milestone by opening ourselves up to interrogation by our listeners. You sent in something like 200 questions via Twitter, Facebook, Discord, Reddit and Patreon. We had to narrow this down to a dozen or so, otherwise we might still be recording this episode. Our audience proxy, asking your questions in his own voice, is Mike Mason, creative director for the Call of Cthulhu RPG.

Thank you again to cuppycup of the wonderful Ain’t Slayed Nobody podcast for his help in salvaging some damaged audio from this recording session!

Once again, the pandemic means we recorded this episode remotely. We’re getting used to this.

Links

Things we mention in this episode include:

• Call of Cthulhu Temple Edition
• Kult Demiurge Edition
• Hot War Transmission
• Nameless Horrors
• Softcover AD&D Monster Manual
• Beyond the Mountains of Madness
• Tunnels & Trolls
• St Elmo Steak House
• Dah Bin Lo
• Fogo de Chão
• The Good Friends YouTube channel
• Ain’t Slayed Nobody
• Into the Darkness
• Necronomicon Providence
• Gen Con
• Con-tingency
• Continuum
• Miskatonic University Podcast
• Sons of Kryos
• The Grognard Files
• What Would the Smart Party Do?
• Aspic
• Durian
• World War Cthulhu: Cold War
• Covert Actions
• The Realm of Shadows
• The Two-Headed Serpent
• The Two-Headed Serpent Keepers Facebook group

News

The Surrey Enigma on Grizzly Peaks Radio

Scott has been guesting on Andy Goodman’s wonderful Grizzly Peaks Radio podcast. Andy has dug out another old marvel from the glory days of White Dwarf, in the form of “The Surrey Enigma” by Marcus L Rowland. Episodes should start appearing in your feeds soon. Prepare for bloody chaos and some turns of events that must have Enid Blyton turning in her grave.

News From Chaosium

Elder Gods willing, the slipcase edition of the Malleus Monstrorum should now be available in print across the globe. The revised, publicly available version of the former organised-play campaign A Time to Harvest should be available very soon as well.