306: Quatermass and the Pit

Release Date: 02/09/2025

329: Cthulhu and Board Games, with Paula Deming

The Good Friends of Jackson Elias

We’re back and we’re wiping ichor off our meeples. Cthulhu and board games can be a messy combination, but also a popular one. Cynics may tell you that this is because Cthulhu is in the public domain, so anyone can slap his tentacles on a game for a bit of brand recognition. We prefer to think the truth is more insidious than that, however. Every die roll, every card played, every token moved towards its inevitable doom is done in Cthulhu’s most terrible name, the terrible luck of the players and the curses they utter when they lose sustaining him deep beneath the waves. Plus, they’re...

328d: The Great God Pan 4

The Good Friends of Jackson Elias

We are wrapping up our festive ghost story reading of “The Great God Pan” by Arthur Machen. This reading has been organised by good friend of the Good Friends, Mike Perceval-Maxwell (host of ), taking place on . Mike is joined by guest readers , , , , and , and . You can find the first three parts in your podcast feed, or right here on this very server. So invoke the name of Nodens, practice your knots, and dive into Queer Street with us. , arranged by Jon Fylling, is licenced under the . If you would like to read along at home,...

328c: The Great God Pan 3

The Good Friends of Jackson Elias

We are continuing our festive ghost story reading of “The Great God Pan” by Arthur Machen. This reading has been organised by good friend of the Good Friends, Mike Perceval-Maxwell (host of ), taking place on . Mike is joined by guest readers , , , and , and . If you’re reading this shortly after release, you have time to join us for the conclusion at 22:30 GMT on Thursday the 18th of December. So shake the cobwebs loose with a bracing night-time walk, brush up on your Latin, and do try not to dwell on those unsettling illustrations. , arranged by...

328b: The Great God Pan 2

The Good Friends of Jackson Elias

We are continuing our festive ghost story reading of “The Great God Pan” by Arthur Machen. This reading has been organised by good friend of the Good Friends, Mike Perceval-Maxwell (host of ), taking place on . Mike is joined by guest readers , Brian Murphy, , , , and . If you’re reading this shortly after release, you have time to join us for part 3 at 22:30 GMT on Wednesday the 15th of December. We shall be continuing at the same time on Thursday the 18th. So put down those Chinese boxes, open up a good bottle of chianti, and listen to our tale of...

328a: The Great God Pan 1

The Good Friends of Jackson Elias

It is time once again for us to all gather around the virtual hearth for another festive ghost story reading. This year, we present “The Great God Pan” by Arthur Machen, a weird tale of mad science, supernatural horror, and very human revenge. This reading has been organised by good friend of the Good Friends, Mike Perceval-Maxwell (host of ), taking place on . Mike is joined by guest readers , , , , , and . If you’re reading this shortly after release, you just have time to join us for part 2 at 22:30 GMT on Tuesday the 16th of December. We shall...

328: The Birds, with Ross Bryant

The Good Friends of Jackson Elias

We’re back and we’re watching the skies. You never know when some gannet might decide to kamikaze its way into your skull, or a mob of hawks take exception to your woodwork and peck it to splinters. We’ve decided to turn to two experts for advice, but their approaches don’t really mesh. Daphne du Maurier would have us hunker down and wait for the inevitable, while Alfred Hitchcock favours stalking your love interest, barely even addressing the avian threat. We’re beginning to think these so-called experts are for the birds. Main Topic: The Birds The Birds is one of Alfred...

327: Narration in Call of Cthulhu, with Ross Bryant

The Good Friends of Jackson Elias

We’re back and we’re talking to ourselves. Not everyone has an interior monologue, but apparently exterior ones are ever rarer. Describing your life in real time like the voiceover from some hard-boiled detective movie may raise some eyebrows, but it is damn good practice for narration in Call of Cthulhu. It’s also a good way of drowning out your interior voice. No one wants to listen to that. If they did, podcasts wouldn’t be anywhere near as popular. Main Topic: Narration in Call of Cthulhu Narration lies at the heart of tabletop roleplaying. The worlds we play in are all...

326: We Are the Horror, with Ericka Skirpan

The Good Friends of Jackson Elias

We’re back and we’re scaring ourselves. Main Topic: We Are the Horror Most tabletop horror games revolve around the struggle between the player characters and one or more external antagonists. The concept of a “Big Bad Evil Guy” is at the heart of most of our gaming experiences. But what happens when we take all that away? How might games work when the horror comes from the interactions between the PCs? And what are some of the possible pitfalls of this approach? Our Guest Host We are delighted to welcome Ericka Skirpan back as our guest host for this episode! Ericka is a LARP...

325: Using LARP Techniques at the Table, with Ericka Skirpan

The Good Friends of Jackson Elias

We’re back and we’re acting out. Main Topic: Using LARP Techniques at the Table Live action and tabletop roleplaying share common roots and many similarities, but they are also quite separate hobbies. Each has evolved in its own ways, developing a unique variety of forms and tools. So what can the world of tabletop roleplaying, particularly Call of Cthulhu, learn from LARP? What are some of the different types of LARP? Which LARP techniques lend themselves best to tabletop play, and how can they be adapted? Our Guest Host We are delighted to welcome Ericka Skirpan as our guest host...

324: The White People, with Jared Logan

The Good Friends of Jackson Elias

We’re back and we’re enjoying a night out under the hill. While the rest of you are clubbing, we’re trying a different kind of dancing. There’s even a singalong, plus some arts and crafts. Sure, some people might say this is all witchcraft, but we promise you it’s no more sinister than a children’s game. The white people have tried to offer their opinion, but our Aklo is a bit rusty. Maybe the nymphs can help translate, assuming we ever figure out what they actually are. Meanwhile, we’ll just enjoy another goblet of what may be the best wine we’ll ever taste. Main Topic: The...

More Episodes

We’re back and we’re digging up the past. Some of this excavation is purely physical, burrowing into the clay under London in search of the usual skulls and spaceships. The rest, however, is more atavistic in nature, uncovering the strange, alien memories buried within our minds. On reflection, we probably shouldn’t have used pickaxes for both jobs.

Main Topic: Quatermass and the Pit

This episode is our long-overdue exploration of the strange world of Professor Bernard Quatermass, and especially the 1967 film adaptation of Quatermass and the Pit. While we’ve mentioned Nigel Kneale on the podcast before, discussing his TV drama The Stone Tape and horror series Beasts, we’ve never really delved into his most famous creation.

While Quatermass and the Pit is our main focus, we begin with a brief summary of the professor’s other appearances. As we mention, the Quatermass TV serials and films were a huge cultural phenomenon in the UK in the 1950s, shaping British science fiction media for generations. This fame did not travel beyond our borders, however, meaning the films have never had more than a cult following in the USA. Consider this episode our small part in trying to rectify this!

Our Guest Host

We are delighted to have YouTuber, podcaster and author Seth Skorkowsky join us for this episode. Most of our listeners will know Seth from his ENnie-Award winning YouTube channel, as well as the Modern Mythos podcast, which he hosts with Jon Hook.

Seth is also the author of many fine books, spanning urban fantasy, sword and sorcery, and horror. His main focus right now is his ongoing video diary for the Traveller campaign, Secrets of the Ancients.

You can hear Seth’s previous appearances with the Good Friends here:

Main Topic: Quatermass and the Pit

Our Guest Host

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