314: Analogue Horror, with Holly from RPG Reanimators (advert free)

This episode sees us explore analogue horror, trying to work out what exactly it is and how to bring it to life at the gaming table. It's pe

This episode sees us explore analogue horror, trying to work out what exactly it is and how to bring it to life at the gaming table. It's perhaps a harder genre than most to pin down, partly because it is relatively new, but also because it is arguably more of an aesthetic than a series of tropes. We ran into similar issues when discussing Gothic horror, however, that that didn't stop us then!

As well as delving into the origins of the analogue horror, we discuss notable media, and some of the RPGs that have drawn upon it all. And, of course, we talk about some of our own ideas for how to let it seep into our games.

Our Guest Host

We are delighted to welcome Holly from RPG Reanimators back to the Good Friends, following last episode's discussion of horror in space! Holly co-hosts RPG Reanimators, a podcast focusing on providing resources for GMs and players of horror RPGs. She's also a regular on Into the Darkness, an actual play YouTube channel. In addition to RPGs, she's an avid board gamer, space nerd, and all-around trivia enthusiast. You can find Holly over on the RPG Reanimators Discord.

Blasphemous Tomes Latest Updates:

Blasphemous Tome Fanzines Update for $1 backers (April 2025)

Blasphemous Tome Fanzines Update for $3+ backers (April 2025)

A Weekend With Good Friends

Player signups for A Weekend With Good Friends will close very soon. If you are reading this shortly after the episode goes out, you just have time to sign up, but act quickly!

AWWGF is, of course, is the online convention organised by our lovely listeners, taking place on the Good Friends Discord server.

Key dates are:

• Player signups: 22nd of May - 5th of June

• A Weekend With Good Friends: 13th - 15th of June

Games and panels will run throughout the weekend.

We shall share more details are they become available.

Cosmic Dark Kickstarter

At the time of posting, the Kickstarter for Graham Walmsley's new game, Cosmic Dark, has two weeks left to run. The campaign is fully funded and well into stretch goals. One of these planned goals is a scenario from our own Scott Dorward -- a heart-warming piece about cute furry animals, titled "Warm Fuzzies".

If you want to hear Cosmic Dark in action, Graham ran a campaign for Ain't Slayed Nobody. Scott was one of the players, along with Good Friends guest hosts Cuppycup and Ross Bryant. The full campaign is now out, so it's the perfect time to catch up with it all.

Links

Things we mention in this episode include:

• Found footage

• The Blair Witch Project (1999)

• The Last Broadcast (1998)

• War of the Worlds radio broadcast

• Hysteria around War of the Worlds broadcast debunked

• Cannibal Holocaust (1980)

• Snuff films

• Cannibal Holocaust murder trial

• Blair Witch website on the Wayback Machine

• Butterfly Kisses (2018)

• House of Leaves by Mark Z Danielewski

• Urban legends

• Creepypasta

• Kris Straub

• Candle Cove

• Channel Zero

• Local 58

• Gemini Home Entertainment

• SCP Foundation

• There is No Antimemetics Division by qntm

• Alternate Reality Games

• Lost marketing ARG

• Swamp Motel

• Isklander

• Too Many Cooks

• This House Has People In It

• Unedited Footage of a Bear

• This House Has People In It ARG

• Marble Hornets

• The SMILE Tapes

• Smile (2022)

• Gothic horror

• Goosebumps by RL Stine

• Fear Street by RL Stine

• The Ring (2002)

• J-horror

• One Missed Call (2003)

• Ring (1998)

• Ring by Koji Suzuki

• Spiral by Koji Suzuki

• British Board of Film Classification

• Video Nasties

• The Evil Dead (1981)

• Unknown Armies

• Archive 81

• Archive 81 podcast

• Scanlines by Todd Keisling

• Budd Dwyer

• Max Headroom signal hijack

• Satanic panic

• Gateways to Abomination by Matthew M Bartlett

• Matthew M Bartlett interview

• Ancient Images by Ramsey Campbell

• "Cigarette Burns" from Masters of Horror

• A Child Across the Sky by Jonathan Carroll

• The Land of Laughs by Jonathan Carroll

• In the Mouth of Madness (1994)

• Sapphire & Steel

• "Signal to Noise" by Colin Richards

• Liminal spaces

• The Backrooms

• Videodrome (1983)

• AM1200 (2008)

• Oxenfree

• Electronic voice phenomenon

• White Noise (2005)

• White Noise: The Light

• Horror in Space

• The Fourth Kind (2009)

• A24 Backrooms

• Late Night With the Devil (2023)

• Ghostwatch

• We're All Going to the World's Fair (2021)

• I Saw the TV Glow (2024)

• Impossible Landscapes

• The Yellow Sign

• Unfriended (2014)

• Host (2020)

• Summoners for Mage: the Awakening

• Numbers stations

• Five Nights at Freddy's

• Stories Untold

• Alone Against the Static

• Alone Against the Static on How We Roll

• Press Play

• Public Access

• The Between

• Ain't Slayed Nobody

• It by Stephen King

• It (2017)

• It Chapter Two (2019)

• Rainbow "unaired" episode

• In the Mouth of Madness by Sutter Cane

• Sinister (2012)

• "Lux" on Doctor Who

• Public Information Films

• "The Spirit of Dark and Lonely Water"

• "Apaches"

• "Ministry of Fear" on Ain't Slayed Nobody