Main Topic: Finding the Horror in History

History is rife with real horror, be it war, plague, famine or something less biblical. Incorporating these horrors into our games can add depth and texture, but what are the advantages and potential pitfalls of doing so? Which elements and eras are we drawn to? And what kinds of games might we create with this approach?

We discussed how to bring historical settings to life with Ross Bryant back in episode 301.

Our Guest Host

We are delighted to welcome Eleanor Hingley back to the Good Friends, following our recent discussion of small town horror. Eleanor is a lifelong horror fan, obsessed with Gothic and horror art since childhood. She has written for a bunch of tabletop roleplaying games, including Doctor Who: The Roleplaying Game, Hollows, Aegean, Broken Weave, The Laundry, Heart, and many other game lines. She also writes interactive fiction for Choice of Games, and has had IF published in sub-Q magazine. Eleanor has released her own independent TTRPG zines, which you can find on her itch.io page: Ex Libris, Talking Thunder and Seed of an Idea. You can follow Eleanor on Bluesky.

Eleanor can also be found on her new Patreon site.

Eleanor has previously joined us to discuss:

• Small Town Horror
• Metafiction and Horror

Links

Things we mention in this episode include:

• Nosferatu (2024)
• Nosferatu (1922)
• Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979)
• Ravenous (1999)
• Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning (2004)
• Jason X (2001)
• Hellraiser: Bloodline (1996)
• Tremors (1990)
• Titanic play slide
• OceanGate Titan submersible
• Darien scheme
• The Terror
• The Terror by Dan Simmons
• Jack the Ripper
• Black Dahlia
• HH Holmes

• Witchfinder General (1968)
• Witchfinders
• The Crucible by Arthur Miller
• Malleus Maleficarum
• Bone Tomahawk (2015)
• The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones
• Jiangshi: Blood in the Banquet Hall by Banana Chan
• Donner Party
• Deadlands Classic 20th anniversary edition
• The VVitch (2015)
• Widow’s Bay
• A Cold Fire Within
• Weimar Republic
• Berlin – The Wicked City
• Prince Rupert of the Rhine

• John Dee
• Strange Aeons
• Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras
• “The Pit and the Pendulum” by Edgar Allan Poe
• Spanish Inquisition
• Cthulhu Invictus
• Mithraism
• Britannia and Beyond
• “Hunger” from WMD for Paranoia
• Great Leap Forward
• Imperium Maledictum
• Warhammer 40000
• Judge Dredd
• Wrath & Glory
• Cold City
• Hot War

• Dogs in the Vineyard
• Hogan’s Heroes
• Chechen LGBTQ camps in Vampire Anarch sourcebook
• World War Cthulhu
• Charnel House of Europe
• Wraith: the Oblivion
• Werewolf: the Forsaken
• Branch Davidians
• No One Gets Out Alive by Adam Nevill
• No One Gets Out Alive (2021)
• The Possession of Alba Diaz by Isabel Canas
• The Ritual (2017)
• Coffin Moon by Keith Rosson
• Maggie Mae Fish

• Ginger Snaps (2000)
• Savage by Richard Laymon
• Come and See (1985)
• The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Ken Liu
• White Terror
• The Devils (1971)
• The Devils of Loudun by Aldous Huxley
• The Lighthouse (2019)
• The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo
• The Orientalist by Tom Reis
• Cadfael
• A Morbid Taste for Bones by Ellis Peters
• ITV Retro YouTube channel

• Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman
• Cthulhu Dark Ages
• “The Burning Stars” from Terrors From Beyond
• Grey Ranks
• Witch Hunter: the Invisible World
• 1931 China floods
• Swedish famine of 1867-1869
• Vaesen
• The Laundry RPG
• Bletchley Park
• World War Cthulhu: London
• The Blitz
• The Haunting of Alaizabel Cray by Chris Wooding
• Phossy jaw

News

Patreon Changes

We are still trying to implement the planned changes to our Patreon subscriptions ahead of the deprecation of per-creation charging at the end of this month. It’s taken much longer than anticipated, but Patreon’s customer service reps are finally talking to us. We shall post updates to our Patreon and Discord as we hear more.

October Horror Movie Challenge

Scott is once again undertaking the October Horror Movie Challenge, posting a review every day of a horror film he hasn’t seen before. Current highlights include Messiah of Evil and Why Don’t You Just Die! If you fancy joining in, you can find a lively discussion taking place on our Discord server.

Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Imperium Maledictum, Macharian Adversary Guide

Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Imperium Maledictum, Macharian Adversary Guide has just been released, featuring work from our own Matt Sanderson.

At the highest echelons of Imperial command in the Macharian Sector, Prefectus Castel and her office of adepts collect and curate threat assessments for Sector Lord Aulus Sejanus. Reports on xenos atrocities, depraved cults, and hidden sedition are collated from the testimonies of survivors, spies, and captives. Those reports not diverted or censored by agents of the Inquisition are presented to the Sector Lord and his advisors, whose swift and decisive action will surely address the adversaries at hand.

Or at least, so it should be, for Castel’s office is no different from other branches of the Adeptus Administratum. Constrained by endless bureaucracy and labyrinthine politicking, no report makes its way to the desk of Sector Lord Aulus Sejanus unless a dozen interested parties agree that doing so may serve their own interests. This deadlock leaves the sector vulnerable, abandoning whole worlds to their fate, leaving the grim task of facing down these enemies to others, most of whom are far from equal to the task…

Halloween Livestream with Symphony Entertainment

In what has become another Halloween tradition, Scott will be joining our good friends at Symphony Entertainment for a livestreamed improvised game on the 20th of October, at 8 PM UK time/3 PM EDT. As ever, the game will be run by Graham Walmsley, with Bridgett Jeffries and Scott as players. These short games are systemless and played for maximum creepiness. If you can’t join us live, the session should appear on YouTube not long afterwards.

Glass Cannon Live Recording

Once again, Scott wrote a scenario for our good friends at The Glass Cannon Network to run at Gen Con, and it is now available on YouTube. “Are You Lonesome Tonight?” (which may be published as “The King in Gold Lamé”) is a weird Elvis-themed romp through Las Vegas and even stranger realms, and features an all-star cast including Good Friends regulars Ross Bryant and Jared Logan.

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Main Topic: Atomic Horror

Since the dawn of the atomic age in the 1940s, our fear of atom bombs and radioactivity has mutated horror in all sorts of strange ways. But is this purely an artefact of the Cold War? What are some of the most striking ways we’ve seen atomic horror used in media? And what happens when we irradiate our own games?

Our Guest Host

We are delighted to welcome Jared Logan back to the Good Friends! Jared is a stand-up comedian and writer who has been involved with a number of major actual play streams and podcasts, including Glass Cannon, Stream of Blood, Ain’t Slayed Nobody, and Push the Roll With Ross Bryant. You can also find Jared running Vampire: the Masquerade for the good folks at Last Podcast on the Left.

Jared has previously joined us to discuss:

• The Joy of Gore
• “The White People” by Arthur Machen
• “The Voice in the Night” by William Hope Hodgson

Links

Things we mention in this episode include:

• Twilight 2000
• Radium fad
• Radium girls
• Them! (1954)
• The Twilight Zone
• Threads (1984)
• Godzilla (1954)
• Godzilla Minus One (2023)
• The War Game (1965)
• Protect and Survive
• Barry Hines
• Kes (1970)
• Titterpigs Podcast
• Duck and cover
• The Atomic Cafe (1982)

• The Day After (1983)
• The Basketball Diaries by Jim Carroll
• Greenham Common protest
• The Death of Grass by John Christopher
• Hot War
• The effects of nuclear explosions on human health
• Mad Max
• The Stand by Stephen King
• Zombies
• Miracle Mile (1988)
• Audition (1999)
• Masks of Nyarlathotep
• On the Beach by Nevil Shute
• On the Beach (1959)
• “There Will Come Soft Rains” by Ray Bradbury
• The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury

• The Hills Have Eyes (2006)
• Nuclear test range
• Nyarlathotep
• “Nyarlathotep” by HP Lovecraft
• It Came From Beneath the Sea (1955)
• Domain by James Herbert
• Edge of Darkness
• Edge of Darkness (2010)
• When the Wind Blows (1986)
• The Fourth Protocol by Frederick Forsyth
• Dirty bombs
• Nuclear fallout
• Firestorms
• Centralia

• Nuclear winter
• Mutually assured destruction
• Swan Song by Robert R McCammon
• The Wolf’s Hour by Robert R McCammon
• Boy’s Life by Robert R McCammon
• Atomic-Age Cthulhu
• World War Cthulhu: Cold War
• Time For Chaos
• Cthulhu Apocalypse
• Cthulhu Apocalypse: The Dead White World
• Chernobyl disaster
• Pripyat
• Chernobyl
• Delta Green
• House of Leaves by Mark Z Danielewski

News

Patreon Changes

Patreon has announced that they are discontinuing the option for creators to charge per creation (per episode, in our case). This is the model we have always used, as it was the only option available when we started. Instead, we now have switch to a monthly subscription.

We are also taking this opportunity to change from US dollars to British Pounds, as, again, this wasn’t an option when we started.

From September 2026, our three basic tiers will be £3, £6 and £10 per month, replacing the old $1, $3 and $5 per-episode tiers. Higher tiers will simply be double the current cost, but in Pounds. This works out as roughly the same cost. The rewards for each tier will also stay the same.

This change additionally allows us to enable annual subscriptions, although we are still looking into these. If this sounds like something you would be interested in, please let us know.

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