308: The Appeal of Vampires, with Josephine McAdam (advert free)

This episode sees us enter the shadowy world of the undead. The vampire is arguably the definitive monster of the horror genre, but our fanged friends have so much more to offer. We discuss some of our favourite vampires from myth, fiction, and film, ranging from feral monsters to tragic antiheroes, and how they might inform our gaming. And while we don't necessarily think of vampires as key to Call of Cthulhu, we discuss their place there too.

Our Guest Host

We are delighted to welcome back Josephine McAdam! As well as her many, many actual play appearances on series like LA By Night and Eclipse RPG, Josephine is an actor who has appeared in horror films such as The Mortuary Collection and Scare Package. You can find her streaming regularly on Twitch, and on various social media platforms, as JCVIM. You will also be able to see Josephine touring the UK later this year with Chaosium, playing live games of Call of Cthulhu.

Blasphemous Tomes Latest Updates:

Blasphemous Tome Fanzines Update for $1 backers (Sept 2024)

Blasphemous Tome Fanzines Update for $3+ backers (Sept 2024)

A Weekend With Good Friends

Summer 2025 will see the return of A Weekend With Good Friends! This, of course, is the online convention organised by our lovely listeners, taking place on the Good Friends Discord server.

Key dates are:

• GM signups: 23rd of April - 7th of May

• 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.

Good Friends Book Club

If you enjoy the kinds of books we mention on the podcast, you may be interested in the book club hosted by Patrick on The Good Friends of Jackson Elias Discord server. Selections so far have included novels, short story collections, themed anthologies, classics of the genre, and unapologetic pulp. The club meets monthly, usually around the start of the month, but there is lively discussion in the weeks leading up to that. Definitely worth looking into if you like talking about horror anywhere near as much as we do.

This month's selection is the collection A Sunny Place for Shady People by Mariana Enríquez.

Links

Things we mention in this episode include:

• LA By Night

• New York By Night

• Lamashtu

• Lamia

• De Masticatione Mortuorum in Tomus by Michael Ranft

• Sasabonsam

• Pishtaco

• Varney the Vampire

• Dracula by Bram Stoker

• Strigoi

• Strix

• Léyak

• The Vampyre by John Polodori

• Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

• Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

• Carmilla by J Sheridan le Fanu

• Female Vampire (1973)

• Daughters of Darkness (1971)

• Buffy the Vampire Slayer

• Only Lovers Left Alive (2013)

• Interview With the Vampire by Anne Rice

• Midnight Mass

• 'Salem's Lot by Stephen King

• They Thirst by Robert McCammon

• I Am Legend by Richard Matheson

• I Am Legend (2007)

• The Last Man on Earth (1964)

• The Omega Man (1971)

• Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979)

• Dhampir

• Vampire: the Requiem

• The Addiction (1995)

• Near Dark (1987)

• The Lost Boys (1987)

• Dracula (1931)

• The Hunger (1983)

• World of Darkness

• Vampire: the Masquerade

• Count Duckula

• The Old Ways -- Blood Moon Rising

• House of Cards

• Curse of Strahd

• The Case of Charles Dexter Ward by HP Lovecraft

• Carrion Comfort by Dan Simmons

• What We Do in the Shadows

• Looking For Something to Suck: The Vampire Stories of R Chetwynd-Hayes

• The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967)

• Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995)

• What We Do in the Shadows (2014)

• Interview With the Vampire

• Interview With the Vampire (1994)

• The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice