Category: Gaming Conventions

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. So often, what appears to be a gem reveals a heart as rotten as any sorcerer’s. The 1980s were truly a dark age. Maybe we’ll have more luck with these ancient scrolls inscribed with RPGs of high adventure…

Main Topic: Sword and Sorcery in Films and Gaming

This episode is the conclusion our exploration of sword and sorcery. In our first instalment, we looked into the origins of the genre in the pulps. This time, we’re delving into films and games, seeing how they compare to their source material. While the 1980s were a boom time for sword and sorcery films, were any of them actually any good? We pick apart a few of the more notable films of the time, offering our usual range of conflicting opinions.

In the second half of the episode, we do much the same with games. There have been any number of sword and sorcery RPGs published over the past 50 years, but which ones are worth looking into? And how do different games approach the genre, focusing more on swords, sorcery, or that atmosphere of sensual dreaminess that pervades some of the stranger tales?

Links

Things we mention in this episode include:

• The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958)
• Ray Harryhausen
• Jack the Giant Killer (1962)
• La Belle et la Bête (1946)
• Day of the Dead (1985)
• Hawk the Slayer (1980)
• The Sword and the Sorcerer (1982)
• The Grognard Files podcast
• Rifftrax
• Heavy Metal (1981)
• Heavy Metal magazine
• Métal hurlant
• Den by Richard Corben
• Arzach by Moebius (inspiration for Taarna)

• Fire and Ice (1983)
• Ralph Bakshi
• The Lord of the Rings (1978)
• Fritz the Cat (1972)
• Tolkien Experience Podcast
• Frank Frazetta
• Boris Vallejo
• Roy Thomas
• Gerry Conway
• The Savage Sword of Conan
• Wizards (1977)
• Coonskin (1974)

• The Beastmaster (1982)
• Don Coscarelli
• Phantasm (1979)
• The Beast Master by Andre Norton
• Conan the Barbarian (1982)
• Pumping Iron (1977)
• The Terminator (1984)
• “The Phoenix on the Sword” by Robert E Howard
• Constantine (2005)

• Conan the Destroyer (1984)
• Conan the Barbarian (2011)
• Solomon Kane (2009)
• Deathstalker (1983)
• Sorceress (1982)
• Kull the Conqueror (1997)
• “The Hour of the Dragon” by Robert E Howard
• Red Nails animated film
• “Red Nails” by Robert E Howard

• Dungeons & Dragons
• MÖRK BORG
• The Riddle of Steel
• Dungeon Crawl Classics
• Sorcerer
• Sorcerer & Sword
• Stormbringer

• Jaws of the Six Serpents
• Conan RPG
• Barbarians of Lemuria
• The Dictionary of Mu
• S/Lay w/Me
• In a Wicked Age
• On Mighty Thews

• The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath by H P Lovecraft
• Zothique by Clark Ashton Smith
• Hyperborea by Clark Ashton Smith
• Kull of Atlantis
• Lord Dunsany
• The Two-Headed Serpent

News

Scott in Trebuchet Magazine

Issue 10 of Trebuchet Magazine (Materials II) includes an article from our very own Scott Dorward. It explores the sometimes uneasy relationship between canon and creative freedom in long-running genre franchises. Does this offer a framework for writers to build upon or a straightjacket that constrains them?

A Weekend With Good Friends Begins!

A Weekend With Good Friends starts on the 20th of August! While signups for scheduled games are now closed, there will be pickup games running throughout the weekend. Come and join the fun!

This is the online gaming convention organised by our wonderful listeners and hosted on our Discord Server. Full details can be found on this very website.

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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 remake the world in our image! Our hubris will shake the very pillars of the universe! Those fools at the institute told us that hubris would be our undoing, but what do such petty-minded idiots know? We’ll show them! We’ll show them all! But before then, have an episode about weird science in Call of Cthulhu.

Main Topic: Weird Science in Call of Cthulhu

This episode is our exploration of the role played by weird science in Call of Cthulhu. From Crawford Tillinghast and his resonator to Herbert West and his ill-fated experiments in reanimation, Lovecraftian horror is built upon the archetype of the mad scientist. Pulp Cthulhu has expanded this reach, drawing in elements of the weird science hero from the pulp magazines. But how does all this work at the gaming table? What can we steal from other media? And will anyone notice if we transplant our laboratory assistant’s brain into this handy gorilla? Listen to find out the answers to at least two of those questions.

Links

Things we mention in this episode include:

• The Case of Charles Dexter Ward by H P Lovecraft
• “Dial F for Frankenstein” by Arthur C Clarke
• “Herbert West – Reanimator” by H P Lovecraft
• Pulp Cthulhu
• Doc Savage
• “From Beyond” by H P Lovecraft
• Masks of Nyarlathotep
• Beyond the Mountains of Madness
• The Mythos as Science Fiction
• “Cool Air” by H P Lovecraft
• Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft (Godwin) Shelley
• The Island of Moreau by H G Wells
• The Invisible Man by H G Wells

• Frankenstein (1931)
• Young Frankenstein (1974)
• Lake Vostok
• Michael Crichton
• Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
• The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton
• State of Fear by Michael Crichton
• Westworld (1973)
• Adrian Tchaikovsky interview
• Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky
• Children of Ruin by Adrian Tchaikovsky
• The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
• Horror on the Orient Express
• The Cthulhu Mythos skill in Call of Cthulhu

• The Outer Limits (1995)
• The Time Machine by H G Wells
• “A Stitch in Time” episode of The Outer Limits
• Inception (2010)
• “The Sentence” episode of The Outer Limits
• Deep Space Nine
• “White Christmas” episode of Black Mirror
• Existenz (1999)
• The Prestige by Christopher Priest
• Rogue Moon by Algis Budrys
• “The Thing on the Doorstep” by H P Lovecraft

• Petersen’s Abominations
• The Two-Headed Serpent
• Narbonic
• Mansions of Madness vol 1
• The Blasphemous Tome
• Galactica (formerly Air) at Alton Towers
• The Boys (2019)
• Keep Off the Borderlands
• Grizzly Peaks Radio
• The Good Friends of Jackson Elias Discord

News

A Weekend With Good Friends returns

At the time of posting, we are a month away from the next Weekend With Good Friends, starting on the 20th of August 2021. This is the online gaming convention organised by our wonderful listeners and hosted on our Discord Server. If you would like to offer a game, GM sign-ups begin on the 31st of July. Player sign-ups begin a week later. Full details can be found on this very website.

Chase rules videos on Arkham Studios

Paul and Mike Mason chased Nathan from Arkham Audio all around the place and recorded it for posterity. The resulting videos now provide examples of play for the Call of Cthulhu chase rules.

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