Episode 275: Convenient Anti-Harpy Shield
January 12th, 2018 | Robin
In the Gaming Hut we mull the process of scenario writing, specifically the differences between writing first, or playing first.
Backer Fred Kiesche takes advantage of his Patreon priveleges in Ask Ken and Robin, seeking deeper info on Ken’s current 13th Age campaign, Poikila Hellenistika.
We take our seats in the Cinema Hut to reel off a mere smattering of our favorite character actors of the classic Hollywood studio era.
Finally in Ken’s Time Machine Patreon backer Rich Ranallo demands details on our resident chrono-agent’s involvement in Grover Cleveland’s secret nautical surgery.
Want to pose a question to the show? Get your priority question asking access with your support for the KARTAS Patreon!
Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.
In Atlas Games’ wickedly different cooperative deck-building game Witches of the Revolution, you and your doughty coven fight the American Revolution the way it was really fought: with spells aplenty! Resurrect Ben Franklin, cure Paul Revere of lycanthropy and keep those red-coated witch hunters at bay.
It wasn’t on the maps. No one talked about it. But now you live there. Cthulhu City. Where the mayor goes everywhere with twin sacred jaguars, and the chief of police blinks at your with fishy eyes. Where the cultists run city hall and the investigators are hunted criminals. Cthulhu City, the new Trail of Cthulhu sourcebook from Pelgrane Press, by Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan.
In Highway Holocaust you are Cal Phoenix, the Freeway Warrior, champion and protector of Dallas Colony One. Defend this fragile convoy from H.A.V.O.C. bikers with this exclusive hardcover (with dust jacket and book ribbons), the first choose-your-own-adventure-gamebook in Joe Dever’s post apocalyptic series. From the fine folks at FENIX, now available from Modiphius.
With your Handlers Guide already at your side, it’s time to assemble some operations to spiral your Delta Green operatives into paranoia and Mythos horror. Delta Green: A Night at the Opera features six terrifying adventures from the conspiratorial minds of Dennis Detwiller, Shane Ivey, and Greg Stolze. Preorder before it’s desperately too late!
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How do you spell “bibliocephaleon”, and is that a thing I will find anywhere else on the internet, or is it something Ken invented for his 13th Age game? Cuz I want one in my game. 🙂
I invented the Bibliokephalion for my game, or rather for the Suppressed Transmission on which I based my game.
Which ST is that? Is there a place where we can buy those?
I couldn’t find the specific column in a quick look through my copies of the ST collections, but those two books are available from Steve Jackson Games:
http://www.warehouse23.com/products/suppressed-transmission-3
http://www.warehouse23.com/products/suppressed-transmission-2-3
My Pyramid subscription has long since lapsed, but subscribers should be able to search for the rest of the ST columns that weren’t collected in print.
Unfortunately, when Pyramid went from HTML-based to PDF-based, the old articles became unavailable. There were vague promises that some of them at least would eventually be re-published as PDFs, but that’s never happened.
So unless you know someone who had a subscription at the time of the change, and who downloaded the complete set of back articles at that time, you’re aggravatingly out of luck.
It was March 3, 2006 (“Big Eyes, Archaic Smile: Reality Thaumata”). There’s a capsule description in Ken’s Livejournal on January 17 of last year.
I think the first place that I heard of the idea of using character actors to evoke personalities in roleplaying games was in Aaron Allston’s Lands of Mystery supplement for Justice, Inc. A truly brilliant piece that was almost certainly the greatest single influence on my GMing.
Thanks to Ken for giving me a rabbit hole to chase down, with the Samothrace mystery cult. (Wiki article at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samothrace_temple_complex) I also found a book today that sounds like something he would like, ‘Greek and Roman Necromancy’ by Daniel Ogden.
Thank you for responding to my question about PH. I’m really hoping that when Ken is done with his current paid project, this becomes either a Pelgrane project on its own or a Kickstarter project for Pelgrane. The wallet stands at the ready!
Just out of interest, was Peter Lorre classified as a character actor or what?
Growing up on British 1960s/70s TV, I came to think of Robert Morley as a solid dramatic/comic actor who mostly played substantial establishment figures. Hollywood used him very slightly differently, presumably because of the English accent. I note that he bagged an Oscar nomination for his first film role, which isn’t bad going.