320: The Broadsword, with Andy Goodman

We’re back and we’re checking the vents. They’re long overdue a service, but that doesn’t mean they should be talking about eating people’s kidneys. Maybe we could dismiss it as a load of hot air, but they don’t even provide that most days. We would ask the building supervisor to sort them out, but he’s either been eaten by the vents or tumbled through the alien portal in the basement. That portal is a safety hazard, and if it did swallow him that’s his own fault for not slapping some Polyfilla in there sooner. The cosmic nightmares of living at the Broadsword Hotel are bad enough, but it’s the slipshod maintenance that really gets to us.

Main Topic: The Broadsword, Laird Barron, and Old Leech

We’re following up our discussion about how to roll your own Mythos with an exploration of Laird Barron’s Old Leech cycle and how it relates to Lovecraft. In particular, we’re focusing on Barron’s story “The Broadsword”, using it as a springboard to discuss the broader themes of his work. We bring in elements from some connected stories, including “The Jaws of Saturn”, “Hand of Glory”, “The Men From Porlock”, and Barron’s novel The Croning.

Our Guest Host

We are delighted to welcome Andy Goodman back to the Good Friends! Andy is the mastermind behind Grizzly Peaks Radio, an actual play podcast focusing on Call of Cthulhu. It’s impressive enough when a podcast manages to play Masks of Nyarlathotep to completion, but Andy has balanced running that alongside The Two-Headed Serpent, Berlin – the Wicked City, and a pulped-up version of Shadows of Yog-Sothoth, not to mention numerous one-shots and an ad-hoc campaign made up of scenarios from the early days of White Dwarf. Our own Scott Dorward is a regular player in many of these games, as well as the two crossover campaigns with The Apocalypse Players, dubbed The Apocalypse Grizzlies.

Andy as depicted by John Sumrow

Links

Things we mention in this episode include:

• Laird Barron
• Old Leech
• The Laird Barron Mapping Project
• Laird Barron subreddit
• Obsidian
• “The Men From Porlock” by Laird Barron
• The Imago Sequence by Laird Barron
• Swift to Chase by Laird Barron
• Not a Speck of Light: Stories by Laird Barron
• Jerry Cornelius cycle by Michael Moorcock

• The Croning by Laird Barron
• Occultation and Other Stories by Laird Barron
• The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All by Laird Barron
• Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
• “Procession of the Black Sloth” by Laird Barron
• “Bulldozer” by Laird Barron
• “Hand of Glory” by Laird Barron
• “Jaws of Saturn” by Laird Barron
• “Wild Acre” by Nathan Ballingrud
• The Osterman Weekend by Robert Ludlum
• American Horror Story: Hotel
• Broadalbin Trilogy by John Tynes
• “The Rats in the Walls” by HP Lovecraft
• “The Outsider” by HP Lovecraft

• The Shining by Stephen King
• Lord of Illusions (1995)
• Hellraiser (1987)
• Kult: Divinity Lost
• Alien (1979)
• “Blackwater Creek” from the Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition Keeper Screen Pack
• Dark Forest hypothesis
• The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu
• “American Gothic” arc from Swamp Thing
• John Constantine
• Comedy Horror episode
• Dreams in the Witch House rock opera

News

Push the Roll, With Ross Bryant

There is a new podcast coming soon from Ain’t Slayed Nobody, called Push the Roll. This is a series of completely improvised Call of Cthulhu sessions, with Ross Bryant as Keeper, and featuring a number of special guests from the worlds of comedy, improv, and gaming, and especially from Dropout TV.

Confirmed guests include Abu Salim, Ashly Burch, Becca Scott, Brennan Lee Mulligan, Josephine McAdam, Paula Deming, Chris Grace, Colton Dunn, Ify Nwadiwe, Matt Young, Matthew Lillard, Mark Meer, Mary Lou, Noura Ibrahim, Rashawn Scott, Rekha Shankar, Rob Kerkovich, Vic Michaelis, and Zach Reino. You will also hear a number of Good Friends guest hosts, including Jared Logan, Mav Haenze, Seth Skorkowsky, and our own Scott Dorward.

The first episodes are due out on the 10th of September. Check out the podcast website for more details.

Dark FM

Our good friend Hilmar Firestarter has launched his own actual podcast. Dark FM stands out as being a German-language podcast, as well as a nicely produced one. The main focus is Call of Cthulhu, but Hilmar has run other games including Hot War and Jaws of the Six Serpents. A number of the scenarios have been plucked from the pages of The Blasphemous Tome, so you may hear some familiar games there. Well worth checking out if you speak German!

Scott on the Innsmouth Book Club

Scott recently talked to Rob and Tim from the Innsmouth Book Club podcast, chatting about everything from Lovecraft and Call of Cthulhu to the history of Milton Keynes and how Nigel Kneale shaped modern horror. This was such a fun discussion, and it’s now available to be inserted into your ears.

Remembering William “Bud” Baird

Unfortunately, we had some awful news to wrap up this episode. Our good friend William “Bud” Baird, the voice and hands behind the Bud’s RPG YouTube channel, died just over two weeks ago. His passing was sudden and unexpected, and has left a hole in the British gaming and online RPG communities that no one else could ever fill.

Bud was simply a lovely person — insightful, funny, and generous. He had a gift for building communities, bringing together gamers from across the world and kindling new friendships. A great many people will miss him, including us. Our thoughts go out to his other friends and especially to his family. We shall not see his like again.