We’re back and we’re hunting for the biggest cigarette paper known to man. Well, ideally known to the gods too. If we’re going to fit an entire pantheon inside, this thing needs to be truly cyclopean, and maybe even non-Euclidean. An extra dimension or two wouldn’t hurt either. And we haven’t even started working out how to light up the damn thing!
Main Topic: Roll Your Own Mythos
The Cthulhu Mythos didn’t really start out as a cohesive entity. It has become increasingly codified by generations of fans, starting with August Derleth, but this can be an impediment to creativity. This episode is a loose discussion about how you might bring in ideas from elsewhere, removing some of the canon from the general themes of cosmic horror, and roll your own Mythos.
We discuss the difference between Lovecraftian horror and cosmic horror, which authors might have interesting takes on the cosmic, how gods can interact at a human scale, and how we can put all of this together into something that feels new.
Our Guest Host
We are delighted to welcome Andy Goodman 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:
*
Keeping Cthulhu Fresh
*
Cosmic Horror
*
Cthulhu
*
The Tinfoil Dossier by Caitlin R Kiernan
*
“Houses Under the Sea” by Caitlin R Kiernan
*
The Final Revelation
*
Cargo cults
*
A Shoggoth on the Roof
