The Good Friends of Jackson Elias Paul Fricker, Matthew Sanderson and Scott Dorward

We’re back and we’re under the influence. Sure, the alien entity taking up residence in our heads may not technically be a demon, but that feels like an academic distinction right now. It’s little comfort to learn that the thing messing with your thoughts is a giant insect from another planet or a discorporate consciousness from the primordial past. If it walks like a demon and quacks like a demon, we’re happy to call it a badly mangled metaphor. Possession in Call of Cthulhu is a messy business, leading to madness and terror, and not even innocent clichés are safe.







Main Topic: Possession in Call of Cthulhu







Following last episode’s discussion of Late Night With the Devil, we thought we’d look at the role of possession in Call of Cthulhu. While there may not be any literal demons in the Cthulhu Mythos, that doesn’t mean there’s no possession. Between Yithians, shan, deathless sorcerers, and whatever horrors you create for your own games, there are plenty of entities that can take over a human host and drive them to do weird or horrible things.







But how do we handle all this in our games? Can having their investigator possessed be a fun experience for players? Is possession an all-or-nothing deal? And what inspiration can we take from horror media?







Links







Things we mention in this episode include:









* Mind Control







* Late Night With the Devil







* Ghosts







* The Exorcist (1973)







* Come Closer by Sara Gran







* Deadlands







* Discussion of werewolves in R’lyeh Roulette IV







* The Devils of Loudun by Aldous Huxley







* The Devils (1971)







* Urbaine Grandier







* Miracle of the Gadarene swine







* Michael Taylor murder case







* “The Shadow Out of Time” by HP Lovecraft







* “The Thing on the Doorstep” by HP Lovecraft







* The Private Life of Elder Things







* Winter Tide by Ruthanna Emrys

We’re back and we’re dabbling with dark forces. If Late Night With the Devil has taught us anything, it’s that achieving fame and fortune is just a matter of striking the right bargains. Sure, that’s probably not the message the filmmakers intended, but it’s the one we’ve chosen to take. Now all we have to do is look around the woods for that sinister owl man and then hope we can explain podcasting to him.













Main Topic: Late Night With the Devil







Join us as we tune in our trusty old 14-inch TV set and stay up past our bedtime to watch Late Night With the Devil. This is a 2023 Australian horror film by the Cairnes brothers that perfectly captures the weirdness of both 1970s television and the era’s obsession with the occult. It’s also a rare horror film that all three of us enjoyed, albeit with some reservations.







As ever, we pick through the film in detail, looking for possible inspiration for our games. Be warned that we will spoil the hell out of it.













Links







Things we mention in this episode include:









* 100 Bloody Acres (2012) review







* Scare Campaign (2016)







* Ghostwatch (1992)







* Horror mockumentaries







* WNUF Halloween Special (2013)







* Generative AI controversy surrounding Late Night With the Devil







* 1970s occult revival







* Bohemian Grove







* Them: Adventures With Extremists by Jon Ronson







* Alex Jones







* Brain Blaze YouTube channel

















* Sweeps week







* Victorian Spiritualism







* James Randi







* CSICOP







* Identifying blood in vomit

In our recent episode on injury and disease in Call of Cthulhu, we mentioned the strength drain ability of Dark Young. Good friend of the Good Friends Frank Delventhal, AKA Strongman Frank, got it touch with some ideas about how strength drains might actually work and what streps an investigator could take to recover from them. Paul arranged a conversation to explore these ideas, which we recorded for this special.







As his moniker suggests, Frank has performed as a strongman for many years. He has supplemented his practical experience of building up strength with reading about the science behind it. The discussion covers everything from different types of cellular damage to the psychology of strength training, offering ideas about how this could be used in gaming. We hope you find it as interesting as we did!











Frank demonstrates why the Dark Young fear him







Links







Things we mention in this episode include:









* Injury and Disease in Call of Cthulhu







* Dark Young







* Adenosine triphosphate (ATP)







* Dopamine







* Mitochondria







* Shub-Niggurath







* Muscle fibres







* Robert Nejedly







* Anabolic steroids







* Great NPCs of History: Serge Voronoff







* Pulp Cthulhu







* “The Call of Cthulhu” by HP Lovecraft







* Hamburg Kettlebell Club







* Strongman Frank on TikTok













Frank shows us how he’d make short work of the Necronomicon

We’re back and we’re damaged. Send help.







Main Topic: Injury and Disease in Call of Cthulhu







This episode, we’re looking at how injury, disease, poisons, and other physical hazards work in Call of Cthulhu.







Being an investigator is fraught with hazards. While we’ve discussed sanity a few times, we’ve never really got into more corporeal damage before. We discuss how the game mechanics handle physical harm, some options for portraying it narratively, and some of the different ways in which an investigator can get hurt in the first place. As ever, we throw in a few ideas about how we handle these things in our own games, and what plot hooks dealing with serious physical harm might present.







Links







Things we mention in this episode include:









* Sanity in Call of Cthulhu







* DEATH







* D&D







* Pulp Cthulhu







* Ain’t Slayed Nobody







* World War Cthulhu: London







* Into the Darkness







* Runequest







* The Two-Headed Serpent







* The Thing (1982)







* Buffy the Vampire Slayer







* Supernatural







* How We Roll







* DOA (1950)







* Delusions in Call of Cthulhu







* Abhoth







* Azathoth







* Edge of Darkness







* Children of Atom from Fallout 4







* Dark Young







* Shriving







* Level drain







* a href="https://www.questportal.

We’re back and we’re spinning the wheel of misfortune. R’lyeh Roulette is not a game to be entered into casually. While you might not place bets in the normal manner, there is still much at stake. Every result carries blasphemous knowledge guaranteed to ravage the sanity of the strongest mind. And that’s without taking into account the risk of randomly selecting Attract Fish. The horror is too great to contemplate.







Main Topic: R’lyeh Roulette IV







This episode is a return to a format we’ve not used for a very long time. When Matt was working on what would become the Grand Grimoire, he put together a spreadsheet containing every spell from every Call of Cthulhu supplement that had been published at the time. So, of course, we decided to use it as a massive random table, rolling a D752 to select random spells. We would then try to work out how we might create a scenario around each spell.







And that’s what we’re doing again.













Links







Things we mention in this episode include:









* The Grand Grimoire of Cthulhu Mythos Magic







* Loup-garou







* Deadlands Noir







* Werewolf: the Apocalypse







* The Wolf Man (1941)







* Werewolves in European folklore







* The Silmarillion by JRR Tolkien







* Supernatural







* Cthulhu Dark Ages







* Magic: The Gathering







* D&D







* Memento (2000)









Folkloric European werewolf, armed with fangs, claws, and finger guns







* Tulzscha







* Quachil Uttaus







* Antiques Roadshow







* The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)







* Hastur







* Brown Jenkin

We’re back and we’re suckling. This is more difficult than you might think, at least when Yibb-Tstll is involved. Even once we get past all those pesky nightgaunts, there’s the whole, um, moving target aspect to deal with. And the less said about that snog with Bugg-Shash, the better. Maybe we’ll just stick with Shudde-M’ell. At least he knows how to make the earth move.







Main Topic: Call of Cthulhu Deities — Shudde M’ell, Yibb-Tstll and Bugg-Shash







This episode is our latest exploration of the deities of the Cthulhu Mythos. We have devoted previous episodes to Dagon, Shub-Niggurath, Yog-Sothoth, Nyarlathotep, Hastur, Azathoth, Nodens, Ubbo-Sathla and Mordiggian, Ithaqua, Cthulhu, Daoloth and Eihort, Gla’aki, Y’golonac, Tsathoggua, Atlach-Nacha and Abhoth, Cyäegha and Byatis, and Yig and Ghatanothoa.







Here, we’re turning to the creations of Brian Lumley, specifically the gods Shudde M’ell, Yibb-Tstll and Bugg-Shash. As usual, we discuss their origins in fiction, how they’ve been developed in the Call of Cthulhu RPG, and how we might use them in our own games.







We planned this episode some time back, before we heard that Brian Lumley had died. Learning the news not too long before recording means that the episode might be less irreverent than you’d expect.







Links







Things we mention in this episode include:









* Brian Lumley







* “Cement Surroundings” by Brian Lumley







* The Burrowers Beneath by Brian Lumley







* Dholes







* Ammonites







* Ubbo-Sathla