301: Bringing Historical Games to Life (advert free)

This episode delves into techniques and inspirations for enlivening our historical games of Call of Cthulhu. That said, the ideas we explore can be applied to any historical RPG scenario. We discuss why we're drawn to historical settings, expanding on some of the media that influence us and how we can bring all this into our games.

Regular listeners will know that Paul has now left the Good Friends, and that this is our first episode without him. Matt and Scott are keeping the podcast going, inviting interesting people we know to join us as guest hosts, bringing fresh perspectives and their own personal expertise to our discussions.

Our Guest Host

We are delighted to welcome Ross Bryant as our inaugural guest host for this new era of the Good Friends. You may know Ross from The Improvised Shakespeare Company, Dropout TV, The Glass Cannon Network, or the many improvised Call of Cthulhu games he and Scott have played together on Ain't Slayed Nobody. He is currently developing a new historical Call of Cthulhu actual play podcast called Walking Shadows, with Rashawn Scott, Becca Scott, and Zach Reino. The first episode will be out soon, wherever you find your podcasts.

Blasphemous Tomes Latest Updates:

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

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

Blasphemous Tome Issue 13

We are hard at work on issue 13 of The Blasphemous Tome, the fanzine we put out twice-yearly for Patreon backers of The Good Friends of Jackson Elias. This new issue will contain "A Social Responsibility" -- a brand-new and gruesome Call of Cthulhu scenario from our own Matt Sanderson, set amidst the urban decay of modern-day Northampton.

Anyone backing us at the $5 level or higher by the end of this year can expect a printed copy of the Tome, signed by our own fair extremities. Backers at the $3 level will receive a voucher for a discounted print-on-demand copy, and everyone will receive the PDF.

Don't forget that backing us also gives you access to the entire back catalogue of the Tome in PDF format, which includes a wealth of Call of Cthulhu scenarios you won't find anywhere else.

Christmas Story Reading on the Good Friends Discord

With Christmas fast approaching, Mike Perceval-Maxwell of Mr Spike's Bedtime Stories is once again organising a full-cast ghost story reading on The Good Friends of Jackson Elias Discord server. This time, we shall be reading two tales of William Hope Hodgson's occult detective, Carnacki the Ghost Finder. Specifically, we will be reading "The Searcher of the End House" and "The Horse of the Invisible".

So fire up your electric pentacle and join us by the fireplace at 22:30 GMT on the 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th of December. Don't despair if you can't make the live performances, as we plan to record them and release them as special episodes on the podcast feed.

Links

Things we mention in this episode include:

• Stream of Blood

• Masks of Nyarlathotep

• Pulp Cthulhu

• Cthulhu by Gaslight

• Cthulhu Dark Ages

• English Civil Wars

• Wars of the Three Kingdoms

• Conquistadors

• Regency Cthulhu

• World War Cthulhu: Cold War

• Bobby Fischer

• 1972 World Chess Championship

• "The Forcing Move" from Covert Actions

• Clipperton Island

• "Cerulean Halo" from Mythos Expeditions

• "Give Me Death" on Ain't Slayed Nobody

• George Washington's spy network

• Happiness by Laurie Anderson (mentioning Paul Revere)

• The Opium Wars

• All the President's Men (1976)

• Klute (1971)

• MKUltra

• "The Threshold" on Ain't Slayed Nobody's Patreon

• A Course in Miracles by Helen Schucman

• The Secret by Rhonda Byrne

• Carbon footprint controversy

• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

• Thomas Pynchon

• "Cadenza" From Covert Actions

• Turkish invasion of Cyprus

• Vaesen

• The Two-Headed Serpent

• The Bonanno Crime Family

• Plutarch

• Gladiator (2000)

• Ben-Hur (1959)

• Quo Vadis (1951)

• Cthulhu Invictus

• The Okhrana

• Rome

• Heaven & Earth

• Into the Darkness

• Stranger Things

• The Goldbergs

• World War Cthulhu: London

• An Underworld at War by Donald Thomas

• Dunwich

• Nameless Horrors

• Dunwich Museum

• Imperial War Museum

• British Museum

• Hunterian Museum

• Jet Propulsion Laboratory

• The Philosophical Research Center

• Jack Parsons

• L Ron Hubbard

• Bare-Faced Messiah by Russell Miller

• Aleister Crowley

• Cecil Sharp

• Louis Wain

• The Electrical Life of Louis Wain (2021)

• John André

• Benedict Arnold

• Horror on the Orient Express

• HP Lovecraft on Supernatural

• Blue Sunshine (1977)

• Illuminatus! by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson

• Geodesic dome

• The Golden Age of Exploration

• HMS Terror

• Wilbur Smith

• A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

• Reign of Terror

• Master & Commander by Patrick O'Brian

• Captive Christmas

• The Reckoning: The Murder of Christopher Marlowe by Charles Nicholl

• Christopher Marlowe

• Good Friends Discord server