327: Narration in Call of Cthulhu, with Ross Bryant
The Good Friends of Jackson Elias
Release Date: 12/01/2025
345: Alien, with Holly from RPG Reanimators
The Good Friends of Jackson Elias
Main Topic: Alien Since its release in 1979, Alien has become a fan favourite, spawning any number of spin-offs across every medium. But what is the secret of its enduring appeal? How well does it stand up after almost five decades of imitators and pastiches? And what can we take from its strange DNA for our own games? Our Guest Host We are delighted to welcome Holly back to the Good Friends! Holly co-hosts , a podcast focusing on providing resources for GMs and players of horror RPGs. She’s also a regular on , an actual play YouTube channel. In addition to RPGs,...
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344: Why You Shouldn't Learn to Roleplay From Actual Plays, with Zach Reeves
The Good Friends of Jackson Elias
Main Topic: Why You Shouldn’t Learn to Roleplay From Actual Plays Actual play podcasts and streams have grown in popularity massively over the past 20 years, redefining and dominating the hobby. They play a huge role in bringing people into roleplaying games, and possibly an even larger one in teaching new players how they work. But is this always a good thing? What are the advantages and possible pitfalls of learning from APs? And what other approaches might we recommend? This episode was recorded live at A Weekend With Good Friends 2026. While it mostly follows the usual format, we do...
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343: Reactive GMing, with Ross Bryant
The Good Friends of Jackson Elias
Main Topic: Reactive GMing No game ever goes to plan. Whether you have prepared for every eventuality or are running off the cuff, players will always do the unexpected. Improvisation is a key skill for GMs, from spinning narrative on the fly to incorporating whatever chaos the players come up with. But what are some of the key techniques in making this work? How do you learn to let go as a GM? And are there ever times when you might want to keep a grip on the reins? We have discussed similar topics in earlier episodes on and . This episode was recorded live at A Weekend With...
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342a: ENnies Nomination Special
The Good Friends of Jackson Elias
We were delighted to hear that The Good Friends of Jackson Elias has been nominated for an ENnie Award in the Best Streaming Content category. This is both exciting and unexpected. The Good Friends has been running for over 13 years now and we’re just happy that people are still listening! The awards themselves are decided through . If you are a fan of the podcast and you’d like to vote for us (and earn our undying gratitude), you can find . Voting runs between the 10th and 19th of July 2026. If you are voting, you might also consider casting votes for Jayson Green’s “The...
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342: The Stuff, with cuppycup
The Good Friends of Jackson Elias
Main Topic: The Stuff Following on from our discussion of last episode, we’re taking a look at Larry Cohen’s 1985 film The Stuff. Cohen blended horror, social satire, and absurd comedy to create one of the stranger mainstream releases of the decade, lampooning America’s growing obsession with guilt-free snack foods and the intrusive ways in which they were marketed. As well as discussing the film itself, and how it might inspire our games, we’ll talk a little about Larry Cohen himself and what made him such a unique filmmaker. Our Guest Host We are delighted to...
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341: Food and Horror, with Cuppycup
The Good Friends of Jackson Elias
Main Topic: Food and Horror To live is to require sustenance. Food is not only nutrition but usually a source of pleasure. But our relationship with food is complicated and filled with potential horror. Can we trust that what we eat is not tainted? What happens when our relationship with food becomes dysfunctional? Should we blind ourselves to the horrors of how our food is manufactured? And how do we react when humans find themselves on the menu? We touched on some of these issues in episode 182, on . Content Warnings After our episode on gore, we had some requests for content warnings...
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340: Environmental Storytelling, with Alex Sun
The Good Friends of Jackson Elias
Main Topic: Environmental Storytelling Every location bears scars. These might have been left by human occupation, entropy, natural disasters, or something altogether more eldritch. Whatever the cause, places have their own stories to tell. But just how does environmental storytelling work in fiction and gaming? What turns seemingly random items into a non-linear narrative? And how might we use these techniques in our own games? We touched on related matters when we discussed with Heather Miller in episode 304. Our Guest Host This episode we’re delighted to welcome Alex Sun back...
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339: Liminal Spaces, with Alex Sun
The Good Friends of Jackson Elias
Main Topic: Liminal Spaces Liminal spaces have been a source of fascination on the internet for several years now. Like much of the analogue horror movement, they are defined more by an aesthetic than any specific subject matter or tropes. But for all their vagueness, they have found their way into fanfic, short films, video games, and now, with the forthcoming Backrooms movie, onto the big screen. So what makes a space liminal? Why are they so uncanny? What are some of the best uses we’ve seen in media? And how might we use them in our own games? We touched upon this topic when...
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338: New Takes on Classic Monsters, with Sasha Sienna
The Good Friends of Jackson Elias
Main Topic: New Takes on Classic Monsters It’s probably safe to say that every horror fan loves monsters. While we regularly see new creations breaking free from the laboratory, so many monsters in media are old favourites. Whether they’re vampires, werewolves, or Deep Ones, there are certain archetypes we’re drawn to over and over. But what are some ways of making them feel fresh? How have we seen others do so in films, stories, or other media? And how might we come up with some new takes on old favourites in our own games? Our Guest Host This episode we’re welcoming Sasha Sienna...
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337: Gateway Horror, with Sasha Sienna
The Good Friends of Jackson Elias
Main Topic: Gateway Horror Every horror fan started out somewhere. The works that draw us into the genre are often gentler ones, created to appeal to those put off by terror or gore. These are often aimed at children or teens, although there are plenty of entry points for adults as well. What are some of our favourite examples of gateway horror? What makes them more accessible to someone who isn’t already a horror fan? And how can we use this approach in our games? We’ve touched on similar topics in , with Baz Stephens, and , with Josephine McAdam. Our Guest Host Sasha Sienna is...
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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 shared spaces we create in our heads. In traditional RPGs, such as Call of Cthulhu, most of this worldbuilding and description is in the hands of the GM. So how can we, as Keepers, bring the world to life at the gaming table? What are some techniques we’ve picked up over the years? And what approaches have we learned to avoid?
Our Guest Host
We are delighted to welcome Ross Bryant back as our guest host for this episode. You may know Ross from The Improvised Shakespeare Company, Dropout TV, The Glass Cannon Network, or the many improvised Call of Cthulhu games he and Scott have played together on Ain’t Slayed Nobody.
Most recently, he has launched his own podcast, called Push the Roll With Ross Bryant, where he runs fully improvised games of Call of Cthulhu, based on listener suggestions, for various friends from the worlds of comedy, improv, and tabletop gaming. You can listen to it it wherever you find your podcasts
Links
Things we mention in this episode include:
- Blade Runner RPG
- “Intersections” from World War Cthulhu: Cold War
- Grizzly Peaks Radio
- Pulp Cthulhu
- “Dead Boarder” from Gateways to Darkness
- Ain’t Slayed Nobody
- Unknown Armies
- “What Makes That Windmill Bleed So?” on Push the Roll With Ross Bryant
- “The Colour Out of Space” by HP Lovecraft
- Blades in the Dark
- “The Star Brothers” on How We Roll
- “The Burning Stars” from Terrors From Beyond
- The Sixth Sense (1999)
- “Time For Chaos” on Glass Cannon
- Into the Darkness
- The Two-Headed Serpent
- The Beiderbecke Trilogy
- The Venture Bros.
- The Osterman Weekend by Robert Ludlum
- Running Blind by Desmond Bagley
- The Time Machine by HG Wells
- “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” by Edgar Allan Poe
- “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe
- Diogenes of Sinope
- “Signal to Noise” by Colin Richards
- Candle Cove
- Symphony Entertainment
- The Stanley Parable
- Slay the Princess
- Regency Cthulhu
News
Christmas Ghost Story Reading
Our good friend Mike Perceval-Maxwell of Mr Spike’s Bedtime Stories is once again organising our annual Christmas ghost story reading. This year, we will be presenting “The Great God Pan” by Arthur Machen, with an exciting cast of guest readers.
The readings will take place on The Good Friends of Jackson Elias Discord server over four nights, between the 15th and 18th of December inclusive. Each reading will start at 22:30 GMT and last for 30-40 minutes.
As per previous years, we plan to record these readings and release them on the Good Friends’ podcast feed. You can find our previous Christmas ghost stories below.
- “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens
- “The Canterville Ghost” by Oscar Wilde
- “The Viy” by Nikolai Gogol
- “Told After Supper” by Jerome K Jerome
- “The Searcher of the End House” and “The Horse of the Invisible” by William Hope Hodgson
Matt and Scott at Illusion Con
Matt and Scott will be on various panels at this year’s Illusion Horror Con over the weekend of the 5th-7th of December. We are still finalising details, but you should be able to find them at the convention website.
Blasphemous Tome Issue 14
Issue 14 of The Blasphemous Tome will be going out in early January of 2026. This bumper issue includes two new scenarios by Matt and Scott, presenting loose conceptual sequels to “A Social Responsibility” and “Blackwater Creek”.
Anyone backing us at the $5 level or higher at the end of December will receive a print copy of the Tome, signed by our own gnarled hands. Backers at the $3 level will receive a voucher for a heavily discounted print-on-demand copy, and every backer will receive the PDF.
