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 stray dog or two to get our energy back after all this messing around. At least we’ve learnt how to maintain a human countenance atop all the ooze, fat face and all. Extruding a new head can be, well, a headache.

Fat Face

This episode is our discussion of Michael Shea’s Mythos tale, “Fat Face”. Originally published as a chapbook in 1987, this nasty little novelette has since been collected in countless anthologies. It’s probably sitting in one of those Mythos books on your shelf right now, waiting patiently for you.

As well as being a great story in its own right, “Fat Face” is the origin of shoggoth lords, as seen in the Call of Cthulhu RPG. We take a little detour into their presentation in the game and some of the ways they’ve been used.

The protagonist of the story is a sex worker, and while the story isn’t at all prurient, it also doesn’t shy away from some of the more dangerous aspects of Patti’s profession. Be warned that our discussion mentions the story’s depictions of violence against women, threats of sexual violence, drug use, body horror and animal cruelty.

Things we mention in this episode include:

News

Blasphemous Tome 3 reissue

Matt has finished converting issue 3 of The Blasphemous Tome to PDF format. This means that backers can now download it from our Patreon page. Those backing us at the $3 level or higher before the end of the month will also receive a voucher for a print-on-demand version from DriveThruRPG. See Patreon for more details.

The Blasphemous Tome is the fully licenced Call of Cthulhu fanzine we produce for backers of the podcast. As well as all the usual features, issue 3 includes Scott’s Pulp Cthulhu scenario, “A New Age of Wonders!” This weird little adventure follows a notoriously self-aggrandising inventor as he throws a New Year’s Eve party to unveil his latest creation to the world. Of course, nothing good can come of this and deadly peril awaits. If you want to hear how it plays, Scott ran it for our good friends at Pretending to be People last year.

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 taught us anything, it’s that storms are caused by our own inner turmoil. Or is that the other way around? Maybe we could figure it out if all these bloody ghosts would just shut up. Why won’t the past just stay dead?

Main Topic: Gothic Horror

This episode is our attempt to understand what exactly Gothic horror is. We’ve often mentioned how Lovecraft’s early work was rooted in the Gothic, but we’ve never really explained what that means. Gothic horror is one of those genres that you know when you see it, but actually defining it can be tricky.

Happily, Matt has a degree in English, and part of his studies involved the history of Gothic literature. We imposed upon him to dig out some of his dusty old texts and explain what elements go into Gothic horror and how the genre stands apart from other forms of horror literature.

Things we mention in this episode include:

mill of the stone women poster

News

Illusion Horror Con Seminars

Matt and Scott recently attended the Illusion Horror Con, taking part in seminars discussing horror GMing techniques, how to take inspiration from horror media, and the cosmology of the Kult RPG. All of these are now available for your streaming pleasure.

Paul’s Substack

Paul has started his own substack over at paulfricker.com, talking about the various projects he has on the go.

Rivers of London Launch at Dragonmeet

Paul attended Dragonmeet last month to promote the new Rivers of London RPG. He took part in a seminar on the topic, alongside Lynne Hardy and Ben Aaronovitch. While this was apparently recorded, it has yet to appear on YouTube. We shall update the show notes should this change.

The PDF of Rivers of London is out now, with printed copies due in the spring.

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 can eat your brain quicker than a hungry ghoul. But this twelfth volume of The Revelations of Gla’aki is in a league of its own. We’re used to Mary-Sue protagonists taking over the narrative, but this Y’golonac character keeps threatening to take over the reader. It’s irritating, but probably not worth losing our heads over.

Main Topic: Y’golonac and The Revelations of Gla’aki

This episode is our latest exploration of the deities of the Cthulhu Mythos. We have devoted previous episodes to Dagon, Shub-Niggurath, Yog-Sothoth, Nyarlathotep, Hastur, Azathoth, Nodens, Ubbo-Sathla and Mordiggian, Ithaqua, and Cthulhu. This time, we’re returning to Ramsey Campbell, following our earlier discussions of his creations, Daoloth and Eihort, and Gla’aki.

Specifically, it’s the turn of everyone’s favourite headless monstrosity — Y’golonac! As disturbing as Y’golonac’s appearance is, his recruitment techniques are far worse. We spend some time discussing how we might use Y’golonac in our games and how we might avoid crossing any personal lines in doing so.

At the same time, this is also a follow-up to last episode’s exploration of Gla’aki, perusing the tome which connects him to Y’golonac — The Revelations of Gla’aki. This unusual book is almost a character in its own right, stretching the definition of a living document.

And do hang around after the credits for a bonus from our good friends at the HP Lovecraft Historical Society.

Y’golonac

Things we mention in this episode include:

Cold Print cover

News

Scott on Blood Moon Rising

Scott recently made a guest appearance on the Vampire: the Masquerade chronicle, Blood Moon Rising, run by our good friend Rina Haenze for The Old Ways Podcast. This is the first of a handful of appearances, with Scott giving voice to William Mallet, a scheming Camarilla elder sent to bring order to San Francisco. Expect bastardry.

William “The Hammer” Mallet

Scott on Pretending to be People

And if that weren’t enough, Scott has also been playing an NPC on Pretending to be People. Our good friends Joe and Zach decided that Scott was the natural choice to play Beck Wilder’s mother, Kim. So he did. Kim’s first appearance is in the season two episode, “Printing Press”.

Pretending to be People

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 in Benidorm, and it even came with a free library in the cellar! Our estate agent is a chatty sort, full of lively local folklore. He reassures that that every rural area has tales about dead cities arriving on the back of a comet. Apparently, we have neighbours, although we never see them out and about in the daytime. Must be gamers. One of them, Gla’aki, is supposed to be a prickly sort but we’re sure that meeting him with prove revelatory.

Main Topic: Gla’aki

This episode is our latest exploration into the deities of the Cthulhu Mythos. We have devoted previous episodes to Dagon, Shub-Niggurath, Yog-Sothoth, Nyarlathotep, Hastur, Azathoth, Nodens, Ubbo-Sathla and Mordiggian, Ithaqua, and Cthulhu. This time, we’re returning to Ramsey Campbell, following our earlier discussion of his creations, Daoloth and Eihort.

While Gla’aki has only appeared in a handful of Call of Cthulhu publications, he has made quite an impact, and not just on the Brichester area. He’s an interesting example of how Mythos deities can change over time. While we’ve seen other deities evolve in the hands of multiple writers, Gla’aki represents one of the largest revisions by its original author.

Gla’aki in all his spiny glory

Things we mention in this episode include:

The Inhabitant of the Lake and Less Welcome Tenants by Ramsey Campbell
The Last Revelation of Gla'aki by Ramsey Campbell

News

ENnie Nominations

The shortlists for the 2022 ENnie Awards have been announced and a number of good friends of the podcast are in the running. Ain’t Slayed Nobody is up for Best Podcast, to no one’s surprise. Chris Lackey and Mike Mason’s Cults of Cthulhu, which we discussed recently, is listed for Best Supplement. The HP Lovecraft Historical Society’s Call of Cthulhu Classic Prop Set has a well-deserved shot at Best Aid/Accessory – Non-Digital. And TYPE40’s Call of Cthulhu 3D Digital Gamer Props – Masks of Nyarlathotep has been nominated for Best Aid/Accessory – Digital.

Please be generous with your votes!

Scott on Unknown Worlds of the Merril Collection

Oliver Brackenbury, host of the Unknown Worlds of the Merril Collection podcast, recently interviewed Scott to discuss the evolution of the Cthulhu Mythos beyond Lovecraft. The episode is scheduled for release on the 25th of July.

Dockside Dogs now in print

Paul’s Reservoir Dogs-inspired Call of Cthulhu scenario Dockside Dogs is now available in print-on-demand form from DriveThruRPG. Just tell them Mr Puce sent you.

Dockside Dogs cover

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, we’ve awoken to a world as wonderous as any dream. Admittedly, that may be more the paucity of our dreams than any praise of the waking world. Who would have thought that our dream city was Milton Keynes all along?

Main Topic: The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath part 5

This is the conclusion of our multi-episode exploration of Lovecraft’s novel, The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath. In our earlier episodes (part 1, part 2, part 3 and part 4), we looked at the story’s origins and followed Randolph Carter’s increasingly odd adventures in search of his dream city. Now, we’re journeying into Kadath itself, accompanying Carter to, we hope, the fruitful conclusion of his quest.

As ever, we pick the story apart, looking for Call of Cthulhu inspiration. In particular, we spend some time wondering how mountains can tiptoe so daintily. Maybe that extra head helps with coordination.

Things we mention in this episode include:

A pschent.
Gesundheit!
Titter ye not! Even if you are a shantak…

News

Issue 9 of The Blasphemous Tome

We are now a month away from the release of issue 9 of The Blasphemous Tome. This is the semi-annual fanzine we create for our wonderful Patreon backers. And what is Patreon, we hear you ask? Well, we don’t actually hear you. We’re wearing noise-cancelling headphones and they tend to block out obvious rhetorical devices.

But still, Patreon is a crowdfunding platform that allows people to sponsor creative endeavours, such as the Good Friends. The generosity of our backers allows us to put a lot more time into the podcast than we could otherwise, from research to scripting to audio production, and we hope the results are worth it.

It seems the least we can do to reward such generosity with a couple of fanzines a year, as well as uncut versions of the podcast, the occasional exclusive audio release, and a few other goodies.

Covers of Tomes of yore

Paul’s unboxing video of the HPLHS prop set

Our good friends at the HP Lovecraft Historical Society have been creating wonders again. They have produced a box set of props and handouts to tie into the recent Chaosium release of remastered classic Call of Cthulhu publications from the ’80s. Paul has been lucky enough to lay hands on one of these sets and offers a brief overview of the contents.

Paul on Frankenstein’s RPG Podcast

Paul has also made a return visit to the Frankenstein’s RPG podcast. In the second series, the team are assembling the perfect science fiction RPG from the dismembered remains of other games. This episode delves into the blood and guts of initiative and combat.