313: Horror in Space, with Holly from RPG Reanimators

We’re back and we’re and we’re answering the call of the void. Really, it’s about the scariest call you can receive, regardless of what Cthulhu may tell you. The yawning darkness of infinity shouldn’t be as tempting as it is. For all our talk about horror in space, maybe the real horror was inside us the whole time.

Main Topic: Horror in Space

This episode heads into the cold and the dark, exploring just what it is that makes space so scary. We talk about some of the real challenges and dangers posed by space travel and how they can amplify horror, then move on to inspirational media and just how all this relates to gaming. While we of course talk about alien life and all sorts of concepts from science fiction, the scariest part of the episode might be the description of just what can go wrong on a space walk.

Our Guest Host

We are delighted to welcome Holly to the Good Friends! Holly co-hosts RPG Reanimators, a podcast focusing on providing resources for GMs and players of horror RPGs. She’s also a regular on Into the Darkness, an actual play YouTube channel. In addition to RPGs, she’s an avid board gamer, space nerd, and all-around trivia enthusiast. You can find Holly over on the RPG Reanimators discord.

Links

Things we mention in this episode include:

• Heisenberg compensators
• The Expanse
• For All Mankind
• The Expanse by James SA Corey
• Alan Shepard
• EVA 23 account from Luca Parminato
• Apollo 13
• Apollo 13 (1995)
• Life (2017)
• Survival horror
• Alien (1979)
• The Expanse Roleplaying Game
• 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
• Call of the void
• Gravity (2013)
• Firefly
• Warhammer 40,000
• Serenity (2005)
• World War Z by Max Brooks
• International Space Station
• The Cloverfield Paradox (2018)
• Odyssey 5
• ISS (2023)
• The 100
• Pandorum (2009)

NASA 3502421

• Passengers (2016)
• The Black Hole (1979)
• Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983)
• Interstellar (2014)
• Aliens (1986)
• Alien 3 (1992)
• Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky
• Moon (2009)
• Mothership
• RoboCop (1987)
• Apollo 18 (2011)
• “Kill the Moon” from Doctor Who
• The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton
• The Quatermass Experiment
• Deep time
• “The Shadow Out Of Time” by HP Lovecraft
• Pictures taken by Michael Collins
• Europa Report (2013)
• Solaris by Stanislaw Lem
• Alien: Romulus (2024)
• Event Horizon (1997)
• Warhammer 40,000: Imperium Maledictum
• Dune by Frank Herbert
• Babylon 5
• Babylon 5: Thirdspace

• The Final Architecture by Adrian Tchaikovsky
• Hellraiser (1987)
• Jason X (2001)
• Leprechaun 4: In Space (1997)
• Hellraiser: Bloodline (1996)
• Critters 4 (1992)
• Dracula 3000 (2004)
• Fermi paradox
• Dark forest hypothesis
• Great Filter
• Recent evidence of extraterrestrial life
• Blue Planet
• Voyager programme
• “To Serve Man” by Damon Knight
• Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
• Twilight Imperium
• Death in Space
• The Signal (2014)
• The Signal (2007)
• Traveller
• Secrets of the Ancients
• Seth Skorkowsky’s Secrets of the Ancients campaign diaries
• Annic Nova
• “Grace Under Pressure”

News

A Weekend With Good Friends

GM signups for A Weekend With Good Friends will close very soon! This, of course, is the online convention organised by our lovely listeners, taking place on the Good Friends Discord server.

Key dates are:

• GM signups: 23rd of April – 7th of May
• Player signups: 22nd of May – 5th of June
• A Weekend With Good Friends: 13th – 15th of June

Games and panels will run throughout the weekend.

We shall share more details are they become available.

Long Cut of the Good Friends

As existing backers may already have seen, we release a long cut of every episode of the Good Friends on Patreon. These are almost completely unedited, giving you a chance to hear both the stuff that didn’t make it into the final cut and all the times we mess up and retake bits. Sometimes, the long cuts only contain a few minutes of material, but the two recent episodes with Evan Dorkin — “RPGs and Fiction” and “Comedy Horror” — contain around two hours of additional content. We had such a good time talking to Evan that we lost track of time, and we had to edit out a whole load of fascinating stuff just to get the episodes down to a reasonable length. Please do check them out if you’re a backer.