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Posts Tagged ‘Book hut’

Episode 224: Without Checking, Because That Spoils the Fun

January 13th, 2017 | Robin

Gather in the Gaming Hut as we ask ourselves when one should take historical license when running or designing a game set in the real past. Spoiler: we also answer ourselves.

In the Book Hut, Patreon backers Scott Haring and Kalin team up to demand a rundown on the works of Tim Powers.

Sorting one’s research is an important part of How to Write Good, and thanks to a question from backer Trung Bui we discuss our methods for whipping it into shape.

Finally, at the behest of backer Vana Stillwater, we pop into the Eliptony Hut to make up, er, uncover reasons behind the perhaps mysterious demise of cryptozoologist Tom Slick.

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Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Get yourself some flat plastic Ken and Robin miniatures by supporting Arcknight’s Flat Plastic Miniatures 2 Kickstarter.


Sleepers awake, and travel through the secret pathways of the occulted world to preorder the new edition of Unknown Armies from Atlas Games. From the deluxe printed edition to ebooks in a variety of formats, the weird wonders of UA beckon!

Want to plunge headlong into Lovecraftian mystery, but lack a gaming group? Want to introduce a friend or loved one to the roleplaying hobby? GUMSHOE One-2-One has come to your rescue! Find this new system by some guy named Robin D. Laws, in the line’s flagship title, Cthulhu Confidential. Now pre-ordering at the Pelgrane Press store.

Do intervals between episodes plunge you into Hite withdrawal? Never fear! his brilliant pieces on parasitic gaming, alternate Newtons, Dacian werewolves and more now lurk among the sparkling bounty of The Best of FENIX Volumes 1-3, from returning sponsors Askfageln. Yes, it’s Sweden’s favorite RPG magazine, now beautifully collected. Warning: not in Swedish. John Scott Tynes’ Puppetland is ready to knock the stuffing out of a game store near you in its gorgeous new full-color hardcover edition. Join the good folks at Arc Dream in battling the horrific forces of Punch the Maker-Killer!

Episode 188: He Drinks Tables Under the Table

April 29th, 2016 | Robin

In the Gaming Hut, Patreon backer Bill Sundwall wants Ken to mash up two of his projects, The Madness Dossier and Night’s Black Agents, into one.

The Business of Gaming looks for the best ways to combat harassment within our community.

The Book Hut responds to backer Frank King’s request for a look at the work of Umberto Eco.

And finally we wonder what Ken’s Time Machine had to do with the 1825 collapse of the Fonthill Abbey tower.

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Bend reality to your will, but be ready to pay the price, as Atlas Games’ Unknown Armies bubbles up from the supernatural underground for a weird and majestic new Kickstarter campaign. Now in its final hours!
Ken fans who did not partake of the Kickstarter can now sink their fangs into the general release of the Dracula Dossier from Pelgrane Press, consisting of the Director’s Handbook and Dracula Unredacted. You say that’s still not enough Ken for you? Very well, my friend. His brilliant pieces on parasitic gaming, alternate Newtons, Dacian werewolves and more now lurk among the sparkling bounty of The Best of FENIX Volumes 1-3, from returning sponsors Askfageln. Yes, it’s Sweden’s favorite RPG magazine, now beautifully collected. Warning: not in Swedish.

When you assemble your bug-out kit, make sure it includes a copy of Delta Green: Need to Know, the everything-you-need quickstart kick for the classic game of covert agents against the Cthulhu mythos, from our fine friends at Arc Dream Publishing.

Episode 113: And the Heads of a Whole Bunch of People

October 31st, 2014 | Robin

In the Gaming Hut we consider the dividing line between fun character customization and tiresome homework, and whether it’s moving lately.

Still in a Draculanean mood, Ken enters the Book Hut for a vantage on the career of Bram Stoker.

We rev up the Recommendation Engine for its sophomore run to talk about a movie, a record, some books, and one of our favorite leaves.

Then Ken’s Time Machine essays a daring escape as Ken rescues Marie Antoinette.

Attention, class! Anchor sponsor Atlas Games wants to enroll you in Mad Scientist University, the card game of evil genius, insane assignments, and unstable elements. Act now, Ken and Robin listeners, and they’ll throw in the Spring Break expansion set for free. Shipping within the US is also free.

 

 

Grab your battlemat and head on over to the Kickstarter for ArcKnight’s Flat Plastic Miniatures. Their new transparency format combines snazzy looks with a great bargain, giving you more figures than competing styles.

 

Episode 73: Guff About Other Planets

January 24th, 2014 | Robin

Ask Ken and Robin dispenses advice on running SF and space opera games, in response to a query from Ed Hirsch.

In a curiously hexagonal Book Hut, we examine the seminal work of Argentinean fantasist Jorge Luis Borges, and the beautifully idiosyncratic English Lit class he once taught, courtesy of the newly translated book Professor Borges: A Course on English Literature.

Among My Many Hats prompts Robin to talk Storyscape, his design for a tablet-based tabletop roleplaying game, now being Kickstarted by friend of the show Slabtown Games.

The Consulting Occultist returns to the spiritualist movement of the 19th century to contemplate the Swedenborg-cribbing visions of Andrew Jackson Davis, the Poughkeepsie Seer.

Join us in welcoming a new anchor sponsor, Fenix Magazine. After ten years delighting the Swedish gaming scene, they’re poised to bring the Best of Fenix to English-language GMs and players with a February Indiegogo campaign.

Our next sponsor, Sand and Steam Productions, is now well into its Kickstarter for their Fate-powered mythic Norse RPG, War of Metal and Bone.

 

 

Also aboard the sponsor train is Atlas Games, who in a dappled fairyland warehouse discovered the need to liquidate still perfectly fabulous copies of Once Upon Time 2nd Edition, as the 3rd Edition glimmers on the horizon. Take advantage of this special deal for Ken and Robin listeners!

 

Episode 43: In a Non-Necromantic Context

June 14th, 2013 | Robin

This week’s Travel Advisory takes us to unfamiliar territory—not just the capital of Robin’s beloved Canada, but the On Words Conference held by the Writers’ Union of Canada. Come for compare/contrast between traditional and gaming publishing, stay for the Ottawa facts.

We bid a wistful Book Hut farewell to Jack Vance, the titan of SF and fantasy literature who inspired certain key concepts of roleplaying, not to mention the output of our sponsor Pelgrane Press—so much so that it is named after a Vancian creature.

In the Gaming Hut we list techniques for running successful defensive scenarios. Protecting your base needn’t lead to turtling all the way down.

Finally, a very special Among My Many Hats takes you inside the process of The Nazi Occult, Ken’s new history-bending work for the Osprey Adventures line. This serves as the prelude for a multi-part series on that very subject, which we’ll kick off next week!

Episode 35: The Most English Story Ever Told

April 19th, 2013 | Robin

We start in the leatherbound precincts of the Book Hut for a look at a classic piece of early travel writing, Alexander William Kinglake’s Eothen. Grab as a Gutenberg ebook, or in print.

Still in a choleric mood, we nip over to the Gaming Hut to examine the presentation of epidemic disease in fantasy gaming worlds.

Among My Many Hats provides an inside look at Ken’s new subscription series from Pelgrane Press, the euphoniously titled Ken Writes About Stuff. Snag it from the newly spiffed-up Pelgrane shop.

A recent TED talk controversy provides a jumping-off point for the Eliptony Hut, in which we consider the works of cross-disciplinary eliptonist Graham Hancock.

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