The Good Friends of Jackson Elias

We’re back, and we’re in sounder health that the title of this episode may suggest! Although after hearing us sing again (yes, we have a new Patreon backer!) you may disagree. This time we’re looking... The post Robert Aickman’s The Hospice appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re looking at Primetime Adventures, a roleplaying game that uses the techniques of serial television in imaginative ways. This may seem like an unusual topic for us to cover, given our focus on... The post Primetime Adventures appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back (after a bit of a delay) and we’re talking about the classic Masks of Nyarlathotep campaign. In an ideal world we would have had this episode out a couple of weeks ago. Of... The post The Masks of Nyarlathotep Companion appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back, and we’re nicking stuff again. Following on from episode 42’s discussion of neat GM techniques we’ve stolen, this time we’re thieving from players. There are plenty of discussions about how to be a good... The post Player Techniques appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

It’s been far too long since we’ve talked about horror films, so this episode we’re looking at three horror mockumentaries. What do we mean when we say “mockumentary”, beyond indulging our almost fetishistic love of... The post Horror Mockumentaries appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back, and we’re talking about Cubicle 7‘s Call of Cthulhu setting, World War Cthulhu. We’ve had a few people ask us at conventions what exactly World War Cthulhu is and what makes it different from other... The post World War Cthulhu appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re bursting with song, but more on that later. We’re also talking about conventions, and definitely not singing about them. That would be silly. Specifically, we’re talking about the UK roleplaying conventions... The post UK Convention Overview appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re stealing everything that’s not nailed down. This episode is all about clever things we’ve seen other GMs do and how we’ve incorporated them into our own games. No matter how many pieces of... The post GM Techniques appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back and we’re wrapping up our look at H P Lovecraft’s The Thing on the Doorstep. This is the episode containing all the bits you wanted to hear last time, but were bumped because we talked too much.... The post The Thing on the Doorstep (part 2) appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back, and we come bearing some proper awesomeness. This is our discussion of another of Lovecraft’s later works, The Thing on the Doorstep, once again with an eye on how it can be used in gaming.... The post The Thing on the Doorstep (part 1) appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back, and we’re poking around places where no sane person should set foot. Given that two of us live in Milton Keynes, this is hardly a stretch. In particular, we’re discussing haunted houses and their... The post Haunted Houses appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back, and we’re talking about Gen Con. Again. This is our third episode about the world’s largest roleplaying convention, and Scott has still not managed to make it there. No, instead he gets to sit... The post Gen Con 2014 Review appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

In this episode, we play a game of sorts. No, this isn’t an actual play recording — Scott hasn’t been allowed to do that since the injunction. This is something a bit weirder. Matt has... The post R’lyeh Roulette appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back a bit sooner this time, which is only fitting, given our topic for this episode. We have taken the recent Ennie nomination of the Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition Quick-Start Rules (a title almost as... The post Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition Quick-Start Rules appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back with the second half of our discussion of Lovecraft’s story, The Dreams in the Witch House, slightly later than planned. We should have posted this last week, but our consciousnesses have been trapped in... The post The Dreams in the Witch House (part 2) appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

In this latest episode, we discuss Lovecraft’s story, The Dreams in the Witch House. As usual, we talk a bit about the history and content of the story to set up our analysis of how to cannibalise... The post The Dreams in the Witch House (part 1) appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

In this latest episode, we discuss player-led games: in particular, we try to pin down what makes a game player-led, whether or not incorporating player input works with investigative games, how you can run a... The post Player-Led Games appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back, a bit later than usual, and we’re finishing up our discussion of our favourite non-Lovecraftian roleplaying games. This time it’s Paul’s choice, and much to Matt’s disgust, he’s chosen Monsterhearts. Matt is unfazed... The post Monsterhearts appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

This latest episode sees us return to our discussion of our favourite non-Lovecraftian horror role-playing games, with Matt sharing his unwholesome love of all things Kult. Admittedly, it would be difficult to make anything related... The post Kult appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

This latest episode is the audio portion of last week’s interview with Malcolm Craig of Contested Ground Studios. The only differences are the addition of our theme music, some slight fiddling with sound balance, a few... The post Malcolm Craig Interview appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

This latest episode isn’t quite what it was meant to be. We started out believing that each of us would talk for a while about our favourite non-Lovecraftian horror RPG, but then Scott went on... The post Hot War appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

This latest discussion is all about skills in roleplaying games, ranging from Library Use to Firearms to the ability to put out a podcast on a regular schedule. We’ve put some more points into this... The post Skills & RPGs appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

This latest episode sees us heading back to Gen Con. Well, we don’t actually go there, as it’s around five months away and it would be silly and expensive of us to do so at... The post Gen Con Preparations appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

The episode now departing from platform 4 is the delayed discussion of Horror on the Orient Express, calling at recaps, anecdotes, spoilers and updated content. First class material will be found throughout this episode. The... The post Horror on the Orient Express appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’re back with a new episode, and this one is all about how we write scenarios. Us being us, we come to nothing resembling a consensus. This is probably a good thing, as it offers... The post How We Write Scenarios appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We spend this week’s episode in search of the weird. To be precise, we each select three of our favourite weird films and talk about them. Some of the choices may be what you expect... The post Top 3 Weird Films appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We have a new episode out today as a Christmas present to the world. Christmas is a time of peace and goodwill towards all men, which can only mean that it’s time for us to... The post Combat in Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

We’ve broken with our usual schedule to bring you a special episode about Cubicle 7‘s Cthulhu Britannica London boxed set Kickstarter. There is less than a week to go before the campaign finishes, so we... The post Cubicle 7 Interview appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

This week’s episode demonstrates that we haven’t run out of things to say about magic in Call of Cthulhu. Really, this is the episode we should have started with, as it is an in-depth discussion... The post Magic in Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

This week we take a look at what was arguably Lovecraft’s first major story, The Rats in the Walls. As we did with our discussion of The Haunter of the Dark, we try to find ways that... The post The Rats in the Walls appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

This week we meander around a topic suggested by Alistair Warmington, over on our Google+ Community, namely that of using Call of Cthulhu for genres other than Lovecraftian horror. We suggest inspirational material, rules hacks,... The post Call of Cthulhu and Non-Lovecraftian Horror appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

This week we talk about our favourite magical spells from non-Lovecraftian sources, as a follow-up to our discussion of spells from Call of Cthulhu in episode 16. Matt and Scott pick examples from some of their... The post Top 3 RPG Spells appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

This week’s episode is our interview with Rafael Chandler, RPG designer, video game writer and novelist. We’ve never had a guest on the show before, as there is precious little room in Paul’s shed, but... The post Rafael Chandler Interview appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

This episode we take a look at our favourite spells from Call of Cthulhu and talk about just how you can use them to destroy your campaign, or maybe just bring in a few complications. Mostly... The post Top 3 Call of Cthulhu Spells appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

This week’s episode is the conclusion of our discussion about Lovecraft’s The Haunter of the Dark. All that stuff we promised about looking at it from a gaming perspective — that’s in this episode. Sorry... The post The Haunter of the Dark (part 2) appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

This week we talk about HP Lovecraft’s final story, The Haunter of the Dark. In particular, we look at it with a gamer’s eye (we’ll put it back when we’re done), breaking down various aspects... The post The Haunter of the Dark (part 1) appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

This week we discuss the Cthulhu Mythos skill in Call of Cthulhu: what it represents, how it works mechanically and what is new about it in 7th edition. The discussion is thoroughly unwholesome and touches... The post The Cthulhu Mythos Skill appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

This week’s episode is a discussion of the films of David Cronenberg and how his unique style of reality-bending body horror has influenced us and our games. While we go through most of Cronenberg’s back... The post David Cronenberg’s Films appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

This latest episode is all about insanity in gaming. No, that doesn’t mean we’re going to talk about that bloke in your group who always plays lesbian ninja stripper catgirls, even in Call of Cthulhu... The post Insanity Mechanics in Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

This episode we have a rambling discussion on the theme of “The Cthulhu Mythos as corruption”. While the Mythos and associated games are packed full of cool monsters, it is also an ineffable alien presence... The post The Mythos as Corruption appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

In the latest episode, Paul and Matt talk about their visit to Gen Con while Scott tries to kill them with his mind. We discuss new releases in Lovecraftian gaming, the cool games that Matt... The post Gen Con 2013 Review appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

This latest episode sees us trying out the vehicle chase rules from Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition, with Paul taking on the role of Keeper. The chase itself is a comparatively short one, as the... The post Car Chases in Call of Cthulhu appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

This week we chat about how we discovered Lovecraft, became fans of the Call of Cthulhu RPG and ended up writing for it and other RPGs. If you fancy listening to a couple of middle-aged... The post How We Got Into Lovecraft appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

This week we demonstrate another new aspect of the Call of Cthulhu 7th edition rules. Paul takes on the role of Keeper and convinces Matt and Scott to run for their lives, as we check... The post Foot Chases in Call of Cthulhu appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

This week we talk about our favourite horror TV programmes. Some of these could be better classified as science fiction, drama or even comedy, but they all disturbed us in that special way that horror... The post Top 5 Scary TV Programmes appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

In this week’s episode, we talk about the new Push mechanic in Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition. If you’re not familiar with this change, it allows a player to retry a failed roll, but only... The post Pushed Rolls in Call of Cthulhu appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

This week we put down the dice and talk about films instead. Specifically, we each choose the five films we found most frightening and then ramble on about them for a while. Even once Paul... The post Top 5 Scary Films appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

In the second episode of the podcast, we run through creating Connections, one of the new mechanics in Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition. Connections are ties that an investigator has to the good and normal... The post Connections in Call of Cthulhu 7th edition appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.

Note: Please, for the love of all that is eldritch and unspeakable, do not use this episode as your introduction to The Good Friends of Jackson Elias! We have learned a lot more about podcasting... The post Using Pre-Generated PCs appeared first on Blasphemous Tomes.