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Episode 225: Just Make Up a Bunch of Dwarves

January 20th, 2017 | Robin

Patreon backer Zachary Joyner poses some Gaming Hut questions about improvising a GUMSHOE game. How quickly do you give out clues? How do you maintain pace without leading the players?

Though our latest trip to London has faded into the mist of nostalgia, we would be remiss not to paw through the books Ken raided while there, in another edition of Ken’s Bookshelf.

Still on a bibliophilic note, Ask Ken and Robin fulfills the desires of backer Christopher Kalley for the secret scoop on our personal libraries.

Finally we enlist the Consulting Occultist to reveal the esoteric weirdness lurking in your bowl of Chex cereal, as he tells all about Ralstonism.

Support the KARTAS Patreon! 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!

6 Responses to “Episode 225: Just Make Up a Bunch of Dwarves”

  1. Finn Cullen says:

    Great to hear the promotion of the classic descriptor “Doolaly” – I’ve never heard it from anyone outside the UK before. Is that something you picked up at Dragonmeet or am I underestimating the erudition of our beloved broadcasters. Bonus points if you knew it was a term dating back to the Deolali military camp in India where sunstroke was a major problem (hence “going Deolali”)

  2. Arthur Chenin says:

    While he may be descended from Napoleon’s aide-de-camp Charles de la Bedoyere, historian Guy de la Bedoyere is very English and his first name is pronounced in the English fashion rather than the French. As you say, he is a serious historian and for many years was house Romanist for the British archaeology program “Time Team”.

  3. Steve Dempsey says:

    I’ve got one of those tarot packs too. I think I got it at the Whitechapel Gallery a few years ago. It does have the price in dollars, $19.95 so might be available across the pond, but I wasn’t aware of get other works.

  4. Grawflemaul says:

    On the subject of players getting bogged down in interactions with NPCs and not getting on with things, one solution I’ve used a couple of times is having the NPC volunteer to help them out. Of course, it doesn’t always work, and you have to take care to not end up with too much NPCs talking to other NPCs, but if the players are having so much fun talking to your NPC, it seems a shame to force them away from that. And obviously, it has to make sense. The plucky younger brother of the disappeared victim, sure. The elderly, bed-ridden mother, not so much.

  5. Steve Dempsey says:

    “Rosalind Brodsky, the alter ego of artist Suzanne Treister, is a delusional time traveller who believes herself to be working at the Institute of Militronics and Advanced Time Interventionality (IMATI) in the twenty-first century.”

    http://www.suzannetreister.net/suzyWWW/No_Other_Symptoms/contents.html

  6. Steve Dempsey says:

    Also, a host of links to the documents of Ralstonism.

    https://jwadeg.wordpress.com/research-page-ralston-etc/ including the Ralston Health Book: https://archive.org/stream/bookofgeneralmem00ralsrich#page/26/mode/2up/search/GLAME including such gems as:
    “Glame, otherwise known as vitality, or vital-electricity, is the impulse that builds every perfect particle of the body.” and “Milk, warm from the cow, is charged with glame.” and sadly “You belong to the Caucasian race, the greatest of earth, and differ from other peoples in this general respect.”

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