The Good Friends of Jackson Elias

We’re back and we’re enjoying a nice seaside holiday. Of course, when most people talk about the seaside, they mean the bit that’s on land. Somehow, we’ve ended up in the wetter part. Maybe that’s...

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We’re back and we’re wondering what’s in this jar on our desk. The contents are murky, but it looks like it might contain the heart of a small boy. Robert Bloch swears by it, but...

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We’re back and we’re abluting with trepidation. It used to be that taking a shower was relaxing. We could just pull that curtain closed and enjoy the jets of warm, cleansing water. Since watching Psycho,...

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We’re back and we’re rolling to disbelieve. Honestly, the world around us just becomes weirder and weirder with every passing year. A lot of this is probably down to age, but we can’t discount some...

The post Delusions in Call of Cthulhu appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re doubting ourselves. Well, that’s assuming we have any selves to doubt. Once you start plumbing the dark recesses of psychological horror, you soon realise that you can’t take anything for granted....

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We’re back and we’re going through our mailbag again. It becomes a lot more manageable once we sift out the missives written in Aklo and other inhuman tongues. We’re not saying that what’s left is...

The post The Ghost of Listener Suggestions appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re heading beyond Innsmouth. The literal and metaphorical tentacles of the Deep Ones now extend far beyond the town’s limits. We’re finding our fishy friends moistening the pages of books, slithering across...

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Our 2023 Christmas ghost story reading of Jerome K Jerome’s “Told After Supper” draws to its conclusion. After learning all about ghosts in the first reading and hearing some strange anecdotes in the second, we...

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Our 2023 Christmas ghost story reading continues. This year, we are presenting Jerome K Jerome’s comic tale “Told After Supper”. After the introduction to the nature of ghosts we received in the first reading, we...

The post Told After Supper, by Jerome K Jerome – part 2 appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We are delighted to offer you another ghost story for Christmas. Good friend of the Good Friends, Mike Perceval-Maxwell (host of Mr Spike’s Bedtime Stories), has once again organised a suitably festive performance on our...

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We’re back and we’re picking through the ruins. The US Federal Government may have bombed Innsmouth to smithereens, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t still useful gaming inspiration to be found in the wreckage. From...

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We’re back and we’re taking part in some self-reflection. It would just be a bit easier if our reflections didn’t keep changing. Maybe it’s inevitable once you get to a certain age. Your hairline starts...

The post The Shadow Over Innsmouth part 5 appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re playing hide-and-seek. No, hang on. That’s when everyone hides and one person goes looking for them. This is the other way around. There’s a name for that game, isn’t there? Oh,...

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Mason and Fricker’s Eldritch Stories Sampler In a change to regular programming, here is a sample of another podcast we thought you might enjoy. Mason and Fricker’s Eldritch Stories is a collaboration between Paul Fricker...

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We’re back and we’re enjoying a nice whiskey. OK, maybe we shouldn’t drink a whole quart of the stuff, but you’d do the same if you lived in Innsmouth. The alcohol fumes go some way...

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We’re back and we’re on a bus journey. Sure, this is a bone-rattler, but that’s like combining a gym visit and a massage, right? It certainly seems to have done the other passengers good. Have...

The post The Shadow Over Innsmouth part 2 appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re sightseeing. Like most penurious writers, we’re doing so on a tight budget. Wasting money on expensive train tickets means that we won’t be able to afford the good cheese crackers for...

The post The Shadow Over Innsmouth part 1 appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re poking around in holes. Sometimes it’s hard not to let curiosity get the better of you. There could be anyone on the other side of that barrier, even a god. You...

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We’re back and we’re petrified. It’s bad enough that you can become mummified by standing near Ghatanothoa, but being imperilled just by looking at his image is simply too much. And then we learn that...

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We’re back and and we’re listening to our listeners. No, not in a creepy way. Well, not beyond our natural creepiness, anyway. We’re not even using our ears this time. Hmmm. That probably makes it...

The post Bride of Listener Suggestions appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and and we’re playing Jenga with that teetering pile of unread books, plucking out a few tomes for discussion and hoping we don’t get crushed in the attempt. Main Topic: Media Catch-Up –...

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We’re back with another special episode. This time, we’ve teamed up with Mike Perceval-Maxwell, host of Mr Spike’s Bedtime Stories, for a reading of Frank Belknap Long’s “The Hounds of Tindalos”. If you would like...

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We’re back and and we’re geeking out. Main Topic: Nightmare Alley With all the talk about mediums in recent episodes, we thought it might be helpful to examine one from media. Guillermo del Toro’s 2021...

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We’re back and and we’re in the dark. While we’re told that darkness is essential for séances, it does make it tricky to watch when the medium starts dancing. Also, if the spirits are going...

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We’re back and we have an angle. Well, it started out as a curve, but then some bits fell off. It’s outrageous! We’re not sure if that was some kind of fall from grace, an...

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We’re back and we’re going round in circles. Driving around Milton Keynes has prepared us for such eventualities, although these are temporal loops rather than roundabouts. Then again, what is a time loop but a...

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We’re back with our first special episode for a while. After our recent look into Victorian Spiritualism, Sean F Smith contacted us, offering to discuss the topic from the perspective of stage magic. Sean is...

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We’re back, or should that be forward? Time does have a tendency to jump around, and you’re never quite when you thought you were. Days pass in years and years pass in days. And the...

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We’re back and we’re glowing. While we’re only too happy to ascribe this to good diet and healthy living, all this phosphorous oil we keep splashing on ourselves may also play a part. It really...

The post Victorian Spiritualism part 2 appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re rapping. While we’re sure we could come up with some killer rhymes, we’re letting our toes do the talking today. There’s no reason why messages from beyond can’t come with a...

The post Victorian Spiritualism part 1 appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re listening again. Usually, we don’t hold with listening. Most things people try to tell us are things we’d rather not hear. Whether this is advertising, gossip, or sinister secrets about the...

The post Son of Listener Suggestions appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re trying to figure out why the hell this film is called “Barbarian“. Learning that the screenwriter doesn’t know either makes us feel better, but not by much. Maybe a nice bottle...

The post Barbarian (2022) appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re catching up with our sleep. Don’t worry, we’re still using this time productively, just like Edgar Cayce taught us. Whether it’s diagnosing your athlete’s foot, telling you of your past life...

The post Strange NPCs: Edgar Cayce appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re stroking our chin serpents. The Byatis beard care regimen is a strange one and requires a little more anthropophagy than we normally indulge in. Still, it’s hard to argue with the...

The post Mythos Deities: Cyäegha and Byatis appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re listening to the strange voices that whisper to us from beyond the veil. Well, maybe they’re whispering from Twitter and Discord, but we’re not sure that’s any less frightening. At least...

The post Listener Suggestions appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re pouring ourselves into our rubber suits and orthopaedic shoes. Doing up all these straps can be murder when your fingers are made of protoplasm. We’re going to need a nice, tasty...

The post Michael Shea’s “Fat Face” appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re staring in disbelief as our hands fall off. Media Catch-up – TV Once again, we are perched open mouthed before the small screen, gobbling down televisual delights and regurgitating opinions. This...

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We’re back and we’re puzzling over titles. If you were making a Gothic horror film about a haunted village, you might wisely consider a name like Curse of the Dead. Hell, if you wanted to...

The post Kill, Baby… Kill! appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re skulking around the old ruined abbey. Sure, the place is lousy with ghosts, but they’re not really that important. We’re far more concerned with the weather. If reading Gothic horror has...

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Our 2023 ghost story for Christmas concludes with part 4 of Nikolai Gogol’s “The Viy”. Good friend of the Good Friends, Mike Perceval-Maxwell (host of Mr Spike’s Bedtime Stories), has once again organised a suitably...

The post The Viy – part 4 appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

Our 2023 ghost story for Christmas continues with part 3 of Nikolai Gogol’s “The Viy”. Good friend of the Good Friends, Mike Perceval-Maxwell (host of Mr Spike’s Bedtime Stories), has once again organised a suitably...

The post The Viy – part 3 appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re getting on a bit. Turning 250 is a sobering milestone. Worse, we seem to be getting a bit peculiar in our dotage. Or maybe it’s just the world around us that’s...

The post Making Call of Cthulhu Weird appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

Our 2023 ghost story for Christmas continues with part 2 of Nikolai Gogol’s “The Viy”. Good friend of the Good Friends, Mike Perceval-Maxwell (host of Mr Spike’s Bedtime Stories), has once again organised a suitably...

The post The Viy – part 2 appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We are delighted to offer you another ghost story for Christmas. Good friend of the Good Friends, Mike Perceval-Maxwell (host of Mr Spike’s Bedtime Stories), has once again organised a suitably eerie performance on our...

The post The Viy – part 1 appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re heading deep beneath the earth. We’ve heard that there’s nothing but good things down there in the endless dark. Admittedly, we’ve mainly heard that from the sinister voices that whisper to...

The post Mythos Deities – Tsathoggua, Atlach-Nacha and Abhoth appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re getting ready to snip. Our scissors are sharp, our tape is sticky and our minds are made up. This poor film doesn’t stand a chance. Sure, we could censor it carefully,...

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We’re back and we’re starting a moral panic. It’s good to have a hobby. While riling up frightened mobs isn’t everyone’s idea of a good time, it certainly helps us unwind after a hard day’s...

The post Is Horror Dangerous? appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re taking things easy. Sometimes, after a particularly hectic battle against the forces of eldritch darkness, a bit of downtime is just what the doctor ordered. Literally. What could be better than...

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We’re back and we’re getting all eclectic. It’s simply inevitable that if you ask the three of us to pick films, our selections will not mesh together at all. Just think of this episode as...

The post Media Catch-up – Films appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re taking up a new hobby. Esoteric numismatology isn’t for everyone, however. Unfortunately, eldritch coins have steep prices, and not just financial ones. Our lives have become complicated ever since we picked...

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We’re back and we’re in a moral quandary. It’s fair to say that the gods and monsters of the Mythos are beyond human comprehension. The problem is that we are human (or at least that’s...

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We’re back and we’re sitting in judgement. Unfortunately, it turns out that judgement doesn’t make a very good seat. Next time, we’re bringing cushions. The topic of morality in RPGs shouldn’t be a comfortable one,...

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We’re back and we’re trying our hands at cat breeding. According to these instructions we received from Louis Wain, the secret is electricity. The cats don’t seem to happy about this, even if it does...

The post Strange NPCs – Louis Wain appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re catching up with our reading. Until recently, we thought we’d seen the most sanity-blasting fanfic the internet could offer. Between terrible prose, wooden characters, and unacceptable levels of horniness, bad fanfic...

The post Y’golonac and The Revelations of Gla’aki appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re holidaying at Deepfall Water in sunny Gloucestershire. The area may be a bit rundown but you can’t argue with these prices. Buying a house here cost us less than a week...

The post Mythos Deities: Gla’aki appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re building up our hoards. All this loot is nice and shiny but it’s not especially comfortable. We wonder how dragons can sleep on their treasure without putting their backs out. Maybe...

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We’re back and we’re making like bookworms. This is easier than it might seem, given that bookworms don’t really eat books — just their bindings — and aren’t even worms. Then again, they don’t read...

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We’re back and we’re taking an almost Lovecraftian interest in architecture. While we’re suckers for a good gambrel roof, these blueprints for The Night House are far more compelling. The Welsh maze designs, the oddly...

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We’re back and we’re waking up. It’s been a long old kip, but not that refreshing really. Dreams of being chased by hunting horrors aren’t as restful as we might like. On the bright side,...

The post The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath part 5 appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re holidaying in Leng. While it’s not everyone’s first thought for a getaway, we’ve found it really quite dreamy. Leng may have had some shocking reviews on TripAdvisor, but we’re not sure...

The post The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath part 4 appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re making stuff up. Sure, it’s a bit disjointed, filled with inconsistent characterisation, narrative dead ends, and terrible jokes, but it sort of feels like a story. What do you expect when...

The post Creating Stories at the Table – With Gaz Bowerbank appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re lost in reverie. These dreams are really something — so vivid and insistent. We just wish we knew whose dreams they are. Regardless, they’re inspiring us to create strange, wondrous new...

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We’re back and we’re on the lam. Setting fire to all those libraries seemed like a good idea at the time but apparently the authorities disagree. We’ve tried explaining that there are simply some things...

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We’re back and we’re in danger. At least, we think we are. Something seems to be at stake, although we’re not quite sure what. Maybe it’s our lives, our loved ones, or some of this...

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We’re back and we’re growing sleepy, sleepy, so very sleepy. We are listening to your voice. Only your voice. Yes, yes, we are under your control. We shall do you bidding. What is it you...

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We’re back and we’re getting scared. Everywhere we look, there’s something creepy hiding in the shadows. Sometimes it seems like there’s a bit of horror in every game, regardless of the genre. Maybe a nice...

The post Everything is Horror appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re trying to work out how to cook this shantak egg we bought. Boiling it seemed practical until we realised we’d need a pot as large as a house. Frying poses similar...

The post The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath part 3 appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re visiting the dark side of the moon. Not the most popular tourist attraction, but it does have its charms. The leprous-looking coast and fields of white fungi are particular highlights. We...

The post The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath part 2 appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re descending the seventy steps of light slumber. At least we can take a breather in the cavern of flame before we have to trot down the seven hundred steps to the...

The post The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath part 1 appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back with another special episode! Our own Paul Fricker recently attended the Dragonmeet 2021 convention in London. While there, he took part in a few panels. This recording is of the discussion about the...

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We’re back and we’re moist. Between all this chicken custard, cow spittle and milk, Gozu has left us downright sodden. We’ve seen films use 3D, moving seats, and even subsonic vibrations to enhance the viewing...

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Our seasonal treat concludes with part 3 of “The Canterville Ghost”! Good friend of the Good Friends, Mike Perceval-Maxwell, has organised a reading of Oscar Wilde’s classic ghost story on our Discord server. He is...

The post The Canterville Ghost – part 3 appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

Our seasonal treat continues with part 2 of “The Canterville Ghost”! Good friend of the Good Friends, Mike Perceval-Maxwell, has organised a reading of Oscar Wilde’s classic ghost story on our Discord server. He is...

The post The Canterville Ghost – part 2 appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We have a special seasonal treat for you! Good friend of the Good Friends, Mike Perceval-Maxwell, has organised a reading of Oscar Wilde’s “The Canterville Ghost” on our Discord server. He is joined by guest...

The post The Canterville Ghost – part 1 appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

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...

The post Special: Call of Cthulhu 40th Anniversary Panel at Dragonmeet 2021 appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

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...

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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...

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We’re back and we’re trying to stop Matt drooling in our popcorn. Listen to the episode. It’ll make sense. Main Topic: Media Catch-Up – Films This is the latest of our occasional discussions about the...

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We’re back and we’re preparing to pillage. This weird, shining tower looks like it should contain treasures, or at least an interesting story to discuss. There’s rustling in the undergrowth surrounding it, but we’ll just...

The post The Tower of the Elephant appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back with another special episode. This time, we have a reading of Robert E Howard’s “The Thing on the Roof” by our good friend Mike Perceval-Maxwell. You may remember Mike as the director and...

The post Special: “The Thing on the Roof” by Robert E Howard, read by Mike Perceval-Maxwell appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re hitting the books. That’s probably not fair, though. Just because they’re full of boxing tales doesn’t mean they can hit back. And two-fisted stories don’t actually seem to have any fists...

The post The Works of Robert E Howard appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

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...

The post The Life of Robert E Howard appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re looking at our underpinnings. This can be an awkward thing to do when you reach our age. We recommend finding somewhere nice and private first. Alternatively, record it all in a...

The post Genre Emulation in RPGs appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re poking around in our dusty old attic. It’s usually the most convenient place to find ghosts. You’d think that with the number of people who have died over the years, ghosts...

The post The Changeling appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re ransacking forbidden ruins, crumbling temples, and the shelves of this abandoned video store in search of a sword and sorcery film worth watching. Our quest has has been a perilous one....

The post Sword and Sorcery part 2 appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

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...

The post Sword and Sorcery part 1 appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re playing God. It’s a demanding role but we have hubris to spare! In fact, no one has ever had as much hubris as we do. We shall use our hubris to...

The post Weird Science in Call of Cthulhu appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re seeking direction. While human lives are generally chaotic, we can at least bring order to our work. Pinning down good scenario structures can help us pretend that the world makes sense....

The post Scenario Structures appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back with the conclusion of our interview with YouTuber and author Seth Skorkowsky. This time, we are also joined by Jon Hook, Seth’s co-host on their new Modern Mythos podcast. As well as being...

The post Special: Seth Skorkowsky and Jon Hook on Modern Mythos (part 2) appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re flying the friendly skies. Well, maybe not that friendly. OK, they’re downright malevolent. Ithaqua may be one of the fastest ways to travel but the in-flight entertainment is chilling. And the...

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We’re back with another special interview episode. This time, Scott talks to fan-favourite YouTuber and author, Seth Skorkowsky. Unfortunately, Jon Hook — Seth’s co-host on their new podcast, Modern Mythos — was held up. Happily,...

The post Special: Seth Skorkowsky on Modern Mythos (part 1) appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

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...

The post The Endless appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back with another special interview episode. This time, Scott talks to bestselling science fiction and fantasy author Adrian Tchaikovsky. In particular, they discuss how Tchaikovsky portrays a wide range of non-human characters in his...

The post Special: Adrian Tchaikovsky on Non-Human Intelligences appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re putting on our reading glasses. At least two of us are now old enough that we need them to make out anything smaller than a billboard. Even then, we’re still not...

The post Media Catch-Up – Books appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back with another special episode. This time, Paul talks to Professor Christopher McGlothlin about horror films. Primarily, they discuss the good professor’s current Kickstarter campaign, Transgressive Horror, a collection of essays by a variety...

The post Special: Christopher McGlothlin Discusses Transgressive Horror appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re looking for like-minded individuals to join our investigator organisation. Sure, the pay is awful but the work is disgusting, deadly, and likely to drive you insane. It’s a bit like working...

The post Investigator Organisations in Call of Cthulhu appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re presenting a somewhat darker episode than usual. While The Good Friends of Jackson Elias is definitely a horror podcast, most of the horror we discuss is rooted in the fantastic. In...

The post Strange NPCs: Albert Fish appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re going on our summer holidays! What could be finer than drifting down the Danube, marvelling at all the willows crowding these sandy little islets? Well, maybe not being consumed or driven...

The post The Willows appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

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...

The post Cosmic Horror appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re heading out for a night on the town, or at least what’s left of the town. Apparently, this new dinner theatre is to die for. Their menu is light on vegetarian...

The post Cadaver appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

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 post Mythos Deities: Ubbo-Sathla and Mordiggian appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

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...

The post Media Catch-Up: Television appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re job hunting. This makes a pleasant change. We’re more used to things hunting us. But how much does your occupation actually matter when you’re running around the globe, trying to save...

The post Occupations in Call of Cthulhu appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re turning 200. Please be gentle. We’re tired and our feet hurt. Main Topic: Ask Us Anything This is our big 200th episode celebration! Somehow, we’ve managed to keep the podcast going...

The post 200th Episode Special: Ask Us Anything appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re hearing the call of Cthulhu from some unusual places. Most of our consumption of Mythos media comes via the printed word. Sometimes, however, it seeps out from the page and infects...

The post Top 3 Mythos Media appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re saving face. OK, it’s not one of our own faces, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t keep it safe. You never know when Mr Akeley may need it again. Thinking about...

The post The Whisperer in Darkness part 5 appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

Our special Christmas treat concludes! Good friend of the Good Friends, Mike Perceval-Maxwell, has organised a week of readings of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol on our Discord server. He is joined by guest readers...

The post A Christmas Carol – Stave 4 appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

Our special Christmas treat continues! Good friend of the Good Friends, Mike Perceval-Maxwell, has organised a week of readings of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol on our Discord server. He is joined by guest readers...

The post A Christmas Carol – Stave 3 appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

Our special Christmas treat continues! Good friend of the Good Friends, Mike Perceval-Maxwell, has organised a week of readings of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol on our Discord server. He is joined by guest readers...

The post A Christmas Carol – Stave 2 appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We have a special Christmas treat for all our listeners! Good friend of the Good Friends, Mike Perceval-Maxwell, has organised a week of readings of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol on our Discord server. He...

The post A Christmas Carol – Stave 1 appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re getting sick of these fleshy bodies of ours. They’re always going wrong and they’re too expensive to maintain. This only seems to get worse the longer we have them. We suspect...

The post The Whisperer in Darkness part 4 appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re running low on dogs. Have you any to spare? For some reason, we seem to be getting through loads of them. They are considered consumables, right? We tried asking the breeder...

The post The Whisperer in Darkness part 3 appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

Special episode: Secret Societies and Cults with Robert Howells (part 2)

The post The Good Friends talk to Matthew McLean of A Scottish Podcast about Lovecraft and Comedy appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re knee-deep in letters. It’s all very well communicating with strangers via columns in the local press but sometimes you need the intimacy of personal correspondence. This is especially true when exchanging...

The post The Whisperer in Darkness part 2 appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

Special episode: Secret Societies and Cults with Robert Howells (part 2)

The post Special: Secret Societies and Cults part 2 appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re heading up into the hills of Vermont. A folklorist friend told us that the nice creatures that live there might make us some surprising offers. There’s a risk that we could...

The post The Whisperer in Darkness part 1 appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

Special episode: Secret Societies and Cults with Robert Howells (part 1)

The post Special: Secret Societies and Cults part 1 appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re heading down darker trails. We really hope that those are tumbleweeds rolling towards us. That rustling in the sagebrush is making us jumpy too — we’re pretty sure that sagebrush doesn’t...

The post Three Views of the Weird West part 2 appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

This is the second part of our discussion with our good friend Bence Szlamka about the murky grey area between cults and conspiracy theories. Those of you on our Discord server will know Bence as...

The post Special: Conspiracy Theories and Cults part 2 appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re saddling up our shantaks, filling our waterskins with space mead and heading out to where the land is weird. For a long time, we thought that “weird west” just meant Austin,...

The post Three Views of the Weird West part 1 appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

In our recent episodes about cults, we mentioned how social media has blurred the line between cults and conspiracy theories. Phenomena like QAnon display many cult-like attributes but lack formal leadership. We thought it would...

The post Special: Conspiracy Theories and Cults part 1 appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re poking around this here abyss. Someone told us we could find Nodens down here. It’s not pleasant work looking for him, however. The cold has left us quite hoary and there...

The post Mythos Deities: Nodens appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re joining a cult. It’s OK — we’re just doing so to get some background on Sound of My Voice. We’re not so gullible as to let any cult leader talk us...

The post Sound of My Voice appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re going on our summer holidays. Of course, all this lockdown stuff means that we’re all somewhat limited in our options. With this in mind, we thought we’d take you on an...

The post Unusual Places appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re preparing for the end. Prophecy, in the form of our recording schedule, warned us that this day would come. Admittedly, our calculations did initially place the release date for this episode...

The post Cults part 4 appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re accepting an enticing invitation. Apparently, if we accompany our new friends back to their commune, they’ll give us dinner and share the secrets of the universe with us. We’re more interested...

The post Cults part 3 appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re examining our beliefs. Everyone believes things that seem weird to other people. Whether this is that a dead god speaks to us in our dreams or that podcasting is a serious...

The post Cults part 2 appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re preparing for Ascension. All right, we’re not entirely sure what Ascension involves, but it certainly sounds exciting. Our glorious leader, the beacon of effulgent wisdom that he is, assures us that...

The post Cults part 1 appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re embarking upon a programme of self-improvement. According to this pamphlet we sent off for, we can build ourselves up into mightily thewed warriors by killing all these rats in the basement....

The post Character Development appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re afraid. We’re very afraid. Main Topic: The Fly Following on from our episode about body horror, we thought we should discuss an example of the genre. And what better-known body horror...

The post The Fly appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re here to talk about body horror and… Hang on. Can anyone else smell that? It’s sweet and cloying, and not in a good way. Everything we touch feels moist, which wouldn’t...

The post Disgust and Body Horror appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re heading up to the laboratory to see what we can throw together. There are some leftover eyeballs in the fridge, and an assortment of horns, fangs and claws in those crates...

The post Making a Monster appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re bubbling and blaspheming at the centre of the universe. Actually, we’re just sitting at home like everyone else. It’s still nice to dream of getting out of the house, however, even...

The post Mythos Deities: The Daemon Sultan, Azathoth appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re having another look through our history books. They’re so much safer than those other books we consult. You know, the ones with unwholesome bindings that whisper dark secrets with voices that...

The post More Great NPCs of History appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back with the second part of our discussion with parapsychologist, RPG author and raconteur, Christian Jensen Romer. In the first part, CJ told us how he became involved with ghost hunting. In this episode,...

The post Special: Parapsychology and Ghosts – a Conversation With Christian Jensen Romer part 2 appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

Update: Some people have requested links to the various things we discuss in this episode. We’ve added some at the end of this post. We’re back with something of an impromptu special. Scott recently joined...

The post Special: An Introduction to Online Gaming With Joe Trier of How We Roll appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re heading off to the seaside. People might tell you that Suffolk can be bleak at this time of year, but what do they know? There’s plenty to enjoy here. The hotel...

The post A Warning to the Curious appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

Following our recent discussion of ghosts in Call of Cthulhu, we thought it might be useful to get an expert opinion. Luckily, our good friend Christian Jensen Romer (CJ to his friends) is a qualified...

The post Special: Parapsychology and Ghosts – a Conversation With Christian Jensen Romer part 1 appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re being haunted by all the material we couldn’t fit into the last episode. Happily, we have managed to lay it to rest by discussing it in this second instalment. At least...

The post Ghosts in Call of Cthulhu part 2 appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re getting the willies. Has anyone ever used that phrase and not received a derisive response? But, as we’ve discussed before, laughter is often a way of protecting ourselves against fear. And...

The post Ghosts in Call of Cthulhu part 1 appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re playing favourites. Sure, we love you all, but you do understand, right? And we also have favourite films, books and RPGs too, some of which were created within the last 10...

The post The Best of the 2010s appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re on our Midsommar holiday. Happily, we don’t have anything as horrific as Cliff Richard to contend with. It’s only the usual festivals, drugs and human sacrifice. The locals seem nice enough,...

The post Midsommar appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re looking for strange and interesting people. Sure, that drunken man on the bus who shared the details of his entire family’s military history before announcing that he loved us is memorable,...

The post Great NPCs of History appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re poking around this hole in the ground we discovered. Some more experienced adventurers told us to be prepared, so we have a 10-foot pole, 50 foot of rope and all the...

The post The Appeal of D&D appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re cracking open the books, trying to ignore the strange wails they issue as we do so. The words probably shouldn’t scurry across the page like that. Maybe we’re lucky and they’re...

The post Mythos Tomes appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re finally free of the city of the Elder Things. Now, we’re racing off to the aëroplane as fast as our little legs will carry us. Everything will be fine once we’re...

The post At the Mountains of Madness part 5 appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re nearing the end of our expedition. The tunnels below this ancient, pre-human city are full of penguin droppings but somehow these aren’t the foulest things down here. Something has been polishing...

The post At the Mountains of Madness part 4 appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re catching up with some history. Happily, the folks who lived here before documented the entire story of their civilisation in easy-to-read comics. Even more conveniently, they carved them on walls everywhere....

The post At the Mountains of Madness part 3 appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re still boring. That is to say, we’re drilling down through layers of ancient rock in search of even more ancient secrets. And it’s pretty dull. We’re sure there’s not going to...

The post At the Mountains of Madness part 2 appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re putting on our thermal underwear, ready for a long journey south. Sure, we’ve timed our trip for the summer, but it still gets a little nippy down there. We’re not inured...

The post At the Mountains of Madness part 1 appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re having a chinwag with our Holy Guardian Angel. It’s good to catch up with all the divine gossip. Arranging this chat proved a bit of an arseache, however. In these days...

The post A Dark Song appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

In our second Necronomicon 2019 interview, I talk to Call of Cthulhu author, Brian Courtemanche. You may know Brian’s work from Chaosium publications such as Doors to Darkness and The House of R’lyeh. I was...

The post Special: Brian Courtemanche interview at Necronomicon 2019 appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

I first encountered Matthew M Bartlett‘s work at Necronomicon 2017. While I didn’t have the funds to buy any of his books at the time, I added them to my list. When I finally picked...

The post Special: Matthew M Bartlett interview at Necronomicon 2019 appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re coming to you live from Necronomicon 2019. OK, we’re not actually live. This was recorded a few weeks ago, but it was a live event at the time, so we’re standing...

The post Special: Necronomicon 2019 with the Miskatonic University Podcast appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re trying to keep all this blood from staining our carpets. Worse still, we can’t get the smell out goat out of our best robes. Everything will be ruined at this rate....

The post Occult Horror appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re wondering why all these robed figures around us are chanting the name of Cthulhu? Don’t they know that Lovecraft made him up? What do they expect to get out of this?...

The post The Occult and Lovecraft appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re casting protective circles around our microphones, burning incense that smells like Cthulhu’s armpits and waggling our wands for all they’re worth. No matter how fevered our incantations, however, the songs always...

The post Lovecraft and the Occult appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re strapping some of our favourite RPGs to the dissection table and cutting deep into them to understand why they appeal so much. You always hurt the ones you love. And who...

The post Top 3 RPG Mechanics appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re hiding under the bed. Maybe this dark, twisted shape that’s creeping around the house won’t find us here. The anticipation is making us quake in terror. Not knowing what the hell...

The post Making Call of Cthulhu Scary appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re putting ourselves through torments. Watching Pascal Laugier’s 2008 horror film Martyrs is not necessarily a pleasant experience. This is not to say that it is a bad film — quite the...

The post Martyrs appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re taking a last look around Carcosa, wondering where all these tentacles came from. Robert W Chambers was more concerned with masks, moons and mists. Now there seem to be monsters everywhere...

The post Mythos Deities: Hastur appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back with another live recording, this time coming to you from UK Games Expo in Birmingham. To be clear, the “we” in this case means “Paul”. Identity is a mutable concept amongst the Good...

The post Special: UK Games Expo 2019 appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re still blundering around in all this infernal mist. There is a sound of lapping water in the distance, but we’re more worried about the way these streets keep changing around us....

The post The Carcosa Mythos in Media and Gaming appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re looking for the Yellow Sign. It’s probably fallen down the back of the sofa again. Have you found it? It’s tricky to describe, but you’ll know it if you see it....

The post The Yellow Sign appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re punting across the Lake of Hali, taking in the sights. Well, we’re trying to… All these cloud waves spoil the view somewhat. Then again, from what we’ve seen of Carcosa, maybe...

The post The King in Yellow (part 2) appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re taking a look at this odd play that’s appeared on our shelves. The King in Yellow? That’s not a volume we remember buying, but we do have so many books. The...

The post The King in Yellow (part 1) appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re checking the dark corners of the corpse fridge of R’lyeh for tasty eldritch horrors, hoping that they’re not past their sell-by date. There’s something that looks like calamari in the dark,...

The post Keeping Cthulhu Fresh appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re trying to maintain our grasp on reality. This is tenuous at the best of times, and all this conflation with imagination is doing it no favours. In this episode, when we...

The post Realism in RPG Settings appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re facing harsh realities. How do we make RPGs feel “real” when we play them? And what do we even mean by “real”? More importantly, how can we ask such questions without...

The post Realism in RPG Mechanics appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back with something a little different. For a start, when we say “we”, we mean Scott, who recently recorded this live game of Call of Cthulhu with the How We Roll podcast. Sadly, Matt...

The post Special: PodUK 2019 with How We Roll appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re preparing for the apocalypse. To be fair, this seems to be a pretty understated apocalypse. It mostly involves an invisible monster prancing around a hilltop. Maybe the creature will do something...

The post The Dunwich Horror (part 4) appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re ready to start our investigation into the actual Dunwich Horror. Somehow, it’s taken two episodes and half the story to get here. Everything that’s happened so far is simply prologue. Admittedly,...

The post The Dunwich Horror (part 3) appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re continuing our exploration of the hidden corners of Dunwich. The locals seem quite welcoming and some of them may even be described as undecayed. Those Whateleys are especially interesting, although we’re...

The post The Dunwich Horror (part 2) appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re examining these strange bite marks, boarding up the windows and trying to work out where that damnable smell is coming from. This is the start of our look at Lovecraft’s classic...

The post The Dunwich Horror (part 1) appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re heading off to Potters Lake in search of the secrets of creation. We hear good things about the apples there too. This is our look at the weird, evocative and highly...

The post Heaven & Earth appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re cocking our hats, lighting some torches and wondering where the hell all these snakes came from. Why did it have to be snakes? This is our look at how we developed The...

The post The Two-Headed Serpent appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re once again locked in battle with our good friends Baz and Gaz from The Smart Party. For the first time since 2015, we managed to arrange a joint seminar at Dragonmeet....

The post Special: Dragonmeet 2018 with The Smart Party appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back at the beginning, where we started our grim journeys many years ago. Looking at our grey hair and wizened features, it’s difficult to imagine that we were ever young. Yet here were are,...

The post Call of Cthulhu for Beginners appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re loading our shotguns, lighting a bundle of dynamite and laying waste to everything we see. This is our look at the role of violence in Call of Cthulhu. Boom! Main Topic:...

The post Violence in Call of Cthulhu appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re eyeing each other suspiciously, freezing our bollocks off and watching in dismay as our blood sample runs screaming out the door. This is our look at John Carpenter’s 1982 science fiction/horror masterpiece, The Thing....

The post The Thing appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

This year saw the first Tabletop Gaming Live event at Alexandra Palace, London. While its focus is mainly on board games and war games, there was some RPG presence. Chaosium were in attendance, offering demo...

The post Special: Tabletop Gaming Live 2018 appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re staring at the players with frightened eyes, peeling our tongues from the roofs of our mouths and drowning in flop sweat. This is our look at the role of improvisation in...

The post Improvisation in RPGs appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re learning hideous secrets from Nyarlathotep, Messenger of the Outer Gods, signing his black book and hoping we recognise him next time we meet him. He can be difficult to pick out...

The post Mythos Deities: Nyarlathotep appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re discussing all the nifty Cthulhu-related stuff that happened at Gen Con 2018 (and one non-Cthulhu thing). Well, I say “we”, but this largely means Paul, as he’s the only one of...

The post Gen Con 2018 appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re tripping over our feet, dropping our only torch and entirely failing to save the day. This is our look at the role of failure in RPGs. Or at least that’s what...

The post The Joy of Failure appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

In episode 137 we discussed Nathan Ballingrud‘s short story Wild Acre. A few days ago, Mr Ballingrud generously took some time to record an interview with us. We discuss Wild Acre and its themes of trauma, as well as...

The post Special: Nathan Ballingrud Interview appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re checking the undergrowth for sinister shapes, getting ready to run for our lives and preparing to deal with the consequences. This episode is our discussion of Nathan Ballingrud’s short story, Wild Acre....

The post Wild Acre appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re building on last episode‘s discussion of the theme of mental illness in Lovecraft’s work. This time, we turn our attention to the role of insanity in Call of Cthulhu. Obviously, Call of Cthulhu...

The post Insanity in Call of Cthulhu appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re tackling a potentially contentious subject. If you spend much time on gaming forums or social media, you may have stumbled across debates about whether mental illness is a fit subject for gaming....

The post Insanity in Lovecraft appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

Would you like a peek behind the new Masks of Nyarlathotep? After last episode‘s spoiler-free discussion of the classic campaign, this time we’re revealing all. Mike Mason and Lynne Hardy from Chaosium join Paul Fricker and Scott...

The post Masks of Nyarlathotep (part 2) appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re excavating ancient horrors, dragging them up into the light and revealing them to a trembling world. This is our spoiler-free discussion of the new edition of Masks of Nyarlathotep, with all four of...

The post Masks of Nyarlathotep (part 1) appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re dangling shiny things in front of our players, making encouraging noises and trying to direct their attention back to the game. This is our discussion of player engagement, specifically what engages...

The post Player Engagement appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re strapping on our headlamps, checking our harnesses and spelunking like our lives depended upon it. This is our look into subterranean spaces in Call of Cthulhu and Lovecraft. From his work,...

The post Subterranean Spaces in Call of Cthulhu appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re lost in the woods. There seem to be some familiar landmarks, however. If we look to the left, there’s The Blair Witch Project. Over there on the right is The Wicker...

The post The Ritual appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re counting our shells, holding our breath and searching for somewhere to hide until dawn. This is our look at the subgenre of survival horror. While we might normally associate survival horror...

The post Survival Horror appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re chasing our tails, trying to lick our nether regions and hissing at anyone who looks at us funny. Meow. This is our look into the role of cats in Call of...

The post Cats in Call of Cthulhu and Lovecraft appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re splitting our sides, busting a gut and otherwise rupturing ourselves in the pursuit of comedy. It’s rare to find a gaming table where no one is laughing, even if the subject...

The post Comedy in RPGs appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re touching up our greasepaint, frolicking with wild abandon and preparing for our unspeakable transformation. This episode is our look at Thomas Ligotti’s weird tale The Last Feast of Harlequin. While Ligotti may...

The post The Last Feast of Harlequin appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back, standing atop Sentinel Hill, chill wind whipping under our robes, shrieking until our lungs hurt. Damn, that wind’s cold! This is our discussion of Yog-Sothoth, the All-in-One, the Gate, the Key, the Lurker...

The post Mythos Deities: Yog-Sothoth appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re baring all. The most common thing people seem to ask writers is “Where do you get your ideas?” Apparently, “By eating the brains of more talented writers” isn’t as helpful an...

The post Inspiration and Development appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re erecting monstrous effigies, playing deadly games and proclaiming that

The post The Wicker Man appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re hiding in the hedgerows, weaving twisted little corn dollies and performing unspeakable acts of Morris dancing. This episode is our discussion of the very British subgenre of folk horror. In particular,...

The post Folk Horror appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back with another special recording to tide you over during that long, bleak fortnight between regular episodes. This time, we’re coming to you from MK LitFest 2017, the first ever Milton Keynes literary festival. We...

The post Special: Milton Keynes LitFest 2017 appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re wondering just what it is we’ve been doing with all these dice. Inspired by our mention of Ron Edwards’ System Does Matter essay in our recent episode on Sorcerer, we give some thought to how...

The post System Matters appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re watching in helpless terror as echoes of the dead past haunt us, screaming endlessly. This is our look at the classic 1972 British horror film, The Stone Tape. Fittingly, the BBC originally...

The post The Stone Tape appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

Main Topic We’re back and we’re starting a cult. No, worse than that — we’re starting three of them! Last episode, we looked at how real religions and their practices might inform our depiction of...

The post The Mythos as Religion (part 2) appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

Main Topic We’re back and we’re making offerings to twisted idols, praying in inhuman tongues and performing rites passed down through strange aeons. This is our look at the role religion plays in the Cthulhu...

The post The Mythos as Religion (part 1) appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

Main Topic We’re back and we’re scratching pentagrams into the floor, muttering blasphemous incantations and making ill-advised pacts with demons. This episode is our discussion of Ron Edwards’ influential indie RPG, Sorcerer. Kicking off a...

The post Sorcerer appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

Main Topic We’re back and we’re digging into another Lovecraft story, looking for the horrors that lie beneath. The Shunned House is one of the more minor of Lovecraft’s major stories, if that makes any sense....

The post The Shunned House appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

Main Topic: Shub-Niggurath We’re back and we’re dancing around in the woods, bleating with ecstasy, smearing our mutating bodies with Mother’s milk. This episode is our discussion of the Lovecraftian deity, Shub-Niggurath. It is part of...

The post Mythos Deities: Shub-Niggurath appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back — well, sort of. For the first time since we moved to a regular fortnightly schedule, some 2 1/2 years ago, we are unable to put out a full episode. I’ve been a...

The post Special: Necronomicon 2017 Call of Cthulhu Scenarios appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back with another special episode recorded at Necronomicon 2017. This time it’s the turn of the seminar about Call of Cthulhu campaigns. Once again, Mike Mason chairs the discussion, and Lynne Hardy joins Matt,...

The post Special: Necronomicon 2017 Call of Cthulhu Campaigns appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

Main Topic We’re back and we’re intimidating goons, charming cult leaders and fast-talking the slow-witted. This is our look at the use of social conflicts in RPGs. By this, we don’t mean arguments over whose...

The post Social Conflicts in RPGs appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back with another special episode we recorded at Necronomicon 2017. This time it’s the Pulp Versus Pure panel that took place on the Friday morning. Paul Fricker and Lynne Hardy defend the purity of...

The post Special: Necronomicon 2017 Pulp vs Pure appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we have such sights to show you. Or tell you. Can you really tell a sight? You can tell of it, but does that really convey the same visceral impact? This is...

The post Hellraiser appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We had a request for an unedited version of the live podcast we did with the Miskatonic University Podcast, so here it is. The version we released previously has some inserts from Paul where he describes...

The post Unedited version of Necronomicon 2017 podcast recording appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

Our recent visit to the Necronomicon convention in Providence was a blur of wonders. One of the highlights was finally getting to meet our friends from the Miskatonic University Podcast in the suspiciously waxy flesh. While...

The post Special: Necronomicon 2017 with the Miskatonic University Podcast appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re putting ourselves through our paces. Over on our Google+ Community, Tore Nielsen recently asked us to explain a little more about how we handle pacing in games. It’s a topic we...

The post Pacing in Horror Games appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

Main Topic We’re back and we’re giving the wheel of misfortune another spin. In our earlier R’lyeh Roulette episodes — 37 and 60 — we rolled for random spells from the spreadsheet that would one...

The post R’lyeh Roulette III: Monster Madness appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re still being haunted by those hellish dreams surfacing from lost R’yeh like bubbles of pure madness. This is the second part of our discussion of Lovecraft’s classic weird tale, The Call...

The post The Call of Cthulhu (part 2) appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re talking about one of Lovecraft’s best-known stories. The Call of Cthulhu probably boasts more name recognition than any other Lovecraft tale. This is largely due to the ubiquity of old squidhead himself....

The post The Call of Cthulhu (part 1) appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re following up episode 105‘s discussion of the World of Darkness with a more detailed look at one of the core games that make up the current incarnation of the line. Mage: the Awakening is the reinvention of the RPG that started life as Mage: the Ascension. Onyx Path released a second, heavily revised edition last year, and this version is the focus of our episode.

The post Mage: the Awakening appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

Paul attended the UK Games Expo in Birmingham recently. While he was there, he took part in a seminar about running horror games, with Mike Mason and Lynne Hardy. Unfortunately, neither Matt nor Scott could make...

The post Special: UK Games Expo 2017 appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re putting on silly voices, adopting exaggerated mannerisms and making life as miserable as possible for the player characters. In other words, we’re playing NPCs. This is the follow-up to our discussion...

The post Portraying Memorable Non-Player Characters appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re poring over stat blocks, writing up physical descriptions and searching the internet for names. This is the first of two episodes about NPCs. Our focus this time is on how we...

The post Creating Memorable Non-Player Characters appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re sharpening our fangs, picking the nits out of our fur and preparing for some paradox. Born in 1991 out of Vampire: the Masquerade, the World of Darkness has grown, changed and...

The post The World of Darkness appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re wrapping up our investigation into, um, investigations. This is the second part of our look at investigative games. Once again, we are joined by Mike Mason, line editor for Call of Cthulhu....

The post The Appeal of Investigative Games (part 2) appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back, and we’re polishing our magnifying glasses, scraping the gum off our shoes and hunting for clues. This is the first of two episodes delving into the appeal of investigative games. A big topic such...

The post The Appeal of Investigative Games (part 1) appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re heading out into uncharted space. Where better to talk about horror movies? This time it’s the turn of 1997’s Event Horizon, an ambitious film that blends science fiction, cosmic horror, religious...

The post Event Horizon appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re indulging in some therapeutic negativity. Normally, we use the podcast to talk about things we like. This time we’re venting our bile ducts, spewing forth about aspects of gaming, books and...

The post The Memory Hole appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’ve made it to 100! There’s no sign of our telegram from the Queen yet, but it will surely be here any minute. We have spent countless hours sitting around in a...

The post The Appeal of Lovecraft appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back, and we’re doing unspeakable things to innocent villagers. It’s all right, though. Master told us to. And who are we to question Master? Generous Master feeds us only the best table scraps, sometimes...

The post My Life with Master appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re getting some of that old-time religion. When we say old-time, we mean pre-Christian. Or maybe we mean dating back to 1917. It can be so hard to tell sometimes. Our subject...

The post Mythos Deities: Dagon appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re heading into uncomfortable territory. This is our discussion about extreme subject matter in games. As you might surmise, the conversation gets a little unpleasant at times. It is hard to talk about...

The post Extreme Subjects in Gaming appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re trying to make even less sense than usual. This is for your protection. Pontypool has taught us the hidden dangers that lie in meaning, so we’re going to follow the advice of...

The post Pontypool appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re setting our long-range scanners to search the cosmos for the insidious influence of the Mythos. One of the things that set Lovecraft’s work apart from the Gothic tales that had previously...

The post The Mythos as Science Fiction appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re digging through the crypt to bring you another toothsome Lovecraft tale, dripping with succulent grave mould. This time it’s the turn of The Outsider, probably the most popular story from Lovecraft’s early,...

The post The Outsider appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re facing the inevitable. All good things must come to an end, and this includes our look at beginnings, middles and ends in roleplaying games. Our previous two episodes examined how to...

The post Ends appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re continuing our analysis of the structure of roleplaying games. RPG scenarios are similar in form to stories, even if they become more chaotic in play! While they don’t necessarily follow a...

The post Middles appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re ready to start at the beginning. No, this doesn’t mean that we’re recycling episode 1. Instead, we are trying something a bit new. This episode is the first of three linked...

The post Beginnings appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re following up last episode’s discussion of Clark Ashton Smith with a look at one of his stories. The Seven Geases is part of Smith’s Hyperborean cycle, the series of his that most...

The post The Seven Geases appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re delving into the life and work of Clark Ashton Smith. Along with Robert E Howard, Smith was a core member of H P Lovecraft’s literary circle. While his work was massively...

The post Clark Ashton Smith appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back, and we’re digging through those thick books and bulging boxed sets that dominate our gaming shelves. Published campaigns have been a huge part of roleplaying games since their infancy. This is especially true...

The post Running Published Campaigns appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back, and we’re talking about a horror film for the first time in far too long. The Witch: A New England Folktale is one of the most unusual and ambitious horror films of recent years. It...

The post The VVitch appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re mostly live! No, we haven’t fallen into the clutches of Herbert West. The bulk of this episode is a live recording of a seminar we gave at the Continuum 2016 convention...

The post What Makes a Good Convention Game? appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re resorting to violence again. Combat is a large part of roleplaying games, arguably disproportionately so.  Even in Call of Cthulhu, a game where academics, librarians and antiquarians carefully search crumbling ruins and pore...

The post Making Combat More Interesting appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re ransacking lost temples, mouldering tombs and forbidden ruins to bring you things man was not meant to know. Our searches have uncovered a number choice Mythos artefacts to share with you. Specifically, that number...

The post Mythos Artefacts appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back, and we’re looking at the dice clutched in our hands, asking “why?” Seriously, sitting around a table with people you like while everyone pretends to be someone else sounds pretty weird. And yet, for many,...

The post The Appeal of Roleplaying Games appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back, and we’re tearing into the ripe meat of another Lovecraft story. This time we discuss the charnel pleasures and toothsome delights of Pickman’s Model. While there is nothing of the cosmic about this tale,...

The post Pickman’s Model appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back, and after a few episodes about Call of Cthulhu, we’re talking about Dead of Night, a horror RPG that is largely tentacle-free. That’s not to say that you that you can’t do Lovecraftian horror with...

The post Dead of Night appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back, and we’re continuing our run of episodes inspired by the print release of Call of Cthulhu 7th edition by taking a look at Pulp Cthulhu. While it’s only available as a backer-only PDF at the moment, Pulp...

The post Pulp Cthulhu appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back with the conclusion of our discussion about how Call of Cthulhu 7th edition came about. Once again, we’re joined by Mike Mason, line editor of Call of Cthulhu, who co-authored  7th edition along with our very own Paul...

The post How Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition Happened (part 2) appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back… In fact, we’re all the way back to May of 2015. Around a year ago, when we believed the print release of Call of Cthulhu 7th edition was imminent, we spent a day chatting with Mike...

The post How Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition Happened (part 1) appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back, and we’re staring death straight in its empty, pitiless eyes. This episode is our discussion of death in games. Well, specifically it’s a look at the different ways we can handle the deaths of player...

The post DEATH appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re looking at all the different ways in which people use Call of Cthulhu at the gaming table. Conveniently enough, we have Call of Cthulhu line developer Mike Mason on hand to help...

The post Styles of Play in Call of Cthulhu appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back, and we’re talking about everyone’s favourite eldritch curtain-twitcher, Erich Zann. Lovecraft’s short story, The Music of Erich Zann, is a highpoint of his early career. More importantly, it is a rare example of a work...

The post The Music of Erich Zann appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back, and we’re taking a look at David Lynch‘s 2006 film, INLAND EMPIRE. This is a strange, strange film, even by Lynch’s standards, and unravelling it almost proved too much for the three of...

The post INLAND EMPIRE appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back, and we’re taking a whistle-stop tour through what’s new in Call of Cthulhu 7th edition. While we’ve done episodes on some of the new mechanics before, and Paul has recorded a series of videos summarising the...

The post What’s New in Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition? appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back, and we’re getting physical. This time we’re taking a look at all those neat little things that Keepers can give to players in the course of a game, excepting the keen sense of their own mortality...

The post Props and Handouts appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back, and we’re chasing you young whipper-snappers off our lawns. Things just ain’t what they used to be, with all these mobile telephonic doodads skulking in people’s pockets, cheap flights to all corners of the world,...

The post Horror Gaming in the Modern Day appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back, and we’re wrapping up our discussion of H P Lovecraft’s eerie mix of the Gothic and the cosmic, The Colour Out of Space. This time we’re looking at various adaptations, as well as...

The post The Colour Out of Space (part 2) appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back, and we’re looking at another of Lovecraft’s major stories. This time it’s the turn of The Colour Out of Space, an unsettling tale that Lovecraft considered the closest he came to capturing the essence...

The post The Colour Out of Space (part 1) appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back, and we’re looking at the two Clive Barker feature films that aren’t Hellraiser. We have nothing against Pinhead and his cruel crew of sadomasochistic sybarites (just trying to say that is a torture that would...

The post Nightbreed and Lord of Illusions appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

You may have seen or heard us mention that we co-hosted a seminar at the recent Dragonmeet convention in London, along with our good friends Baz and Gaz from the What Would the Smart Party...

The post Special: Dragonmeet 2015 with The Smart Party appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back, and we’re doing another top three countdown. This is a spiritual follow-up to episode 62’s look at our favourite Lovecraftian monsters, only this time we’ve set our sights a bit higher. We each...

The post Top Three Mythos Deities appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back, and we’re mulling over a topic suggested to us by good friend of the Good Friends, Tore Nielsen: what is the appeal of horror? Apparently this is a huge subject, and even pinning down...

The post The Appeal of Horror appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re looking at another classic horror short story. This time it’s Karl Edward Wagner’s Sticks, a nasty little tale that is both of the Cthulhu Mythos and about it. The story draws from a...

The post Karl Edward Wagner’s Sticks appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back, and we’re continuing last episode‘s coverage of Lamentations of the Flame Princess with an interview with James Edward Raggi IV, the man behind the horrors. This was originally meant as a brief insert for the...

The post James Raggi Interview appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back, and we’re looking at the Old School Renaissance and, more specifically, Lamentations of the Flame Princess. In case you aren’t familiar with the OSR, it’s a broad movement that embraces the simplicity and immediacy...

The post Lamentations of the Flame Princess appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re looking at monsters, hoping against hope that they don’t look back at us! In particular, we’re talking about our favourite monsters from Lovecraft and Call of Cthulhu. There’s one entry on...

The post Our Favourite Lovecraftian Monsters appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back, and we’re watching horror films about books. We don’t mean films based on books (although one is, just to confuse things), but films where a book plays a central role. In fact, you...

The post Maléfique & The Ninth Gate appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back, and we’re plunging once more into the abyss of despair and madness that is R’lyeh Roulette. In case you didn’t listen to our first round, back in episode 37, this is where we let...

The post R’lyeh Roulette II appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back, and we’re watching each other from the corners of our eyes. Paul is hiding something behind his back, Matt keeps glancing at the door, and I’m trying to look nonchalant. It’s only a matter...

The post Conflict & Secrets at the Gaming Table appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

Our minds may have escaped the clutches of the Great Race, but their interest in other ages has clearly rubbed off on us. We have also grown new protuberances, capable of fine manipulation, from atop our...

The post Cthulhu Through the Ages appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back from the distant past! Our minds have escaped the sinister and rugose clutches of the Great Race, and we have returned to the present to wrap up our discussion of Lovecraft’s classic story, The...

The post The Shadow Out of Time (part 2) appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re breaking normal communication protocols to get this time-sensitive transmission to you before counter intelligence can trace the source. Memorise the contents and burn after listening. The Kickstarter for World War Cthulhu: Cold War, Cubicle...

The post Special: World War Cthulhu: Cold War appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back — back about 250 million years in the past, to be precise! At least this gives us a chance to take an extended look at Lovecraft’s classic tale of time travel, identity theft...

The post The Shadow Out of Time (part 1) appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back, and we’re looking at a couple of old favourites: Re-Animator and From Beyond. While these films have been around for almost as long as Matt, we would still be remiss if we didn’t...

The post Re-Animator & From Beyond appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

This episode we’re taking a look at Unknown Armies, a roleplaying game that’s not strictly horror, but is close enough that we feel little remorse for talking about it. We also have too many hardened notches...

The post Unknown Armies appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

This episode we’re speaking about the unspeakable, mentioning the unmentionable and naming the nameless. More particularly, we’re talking about a recently published book that we co-wrote, Nameless Horrors, using this as a starting point for a discussion about...

The post Nameless Horrors appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.