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Episode 468: Weird Mushroom Things and a Swirl Over There

October 22nd, 2021 | Robin

Our Gaming Hut look at the axes of roleplaying game design continues with the previously teased Ease versus Mastery.

In Ask Ken and Robin beloved Patreon backer Joe Webb takes the bait and requests the previously teased adventures of T. E. Lawrence and Robert Graves.

The Culture Hut looks at the changing moods of SF illustration from the 30s to today.

Finally estimable Patreon backer P. O’Neil seeks the Consulting Occultist’s files on a Theosophist retirement community in Ojai, California.

Want to pose a question to the show? Get your priority question asking access with your support for the KARTAS Patreon!

Our Patreon-backed Letterboxd list of all films mentioned on the show is now up and running.

Also check out the Goodreads list of books mentioned on the show.

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.


Dig out your plastic T-Rexes and get them ready to stomp and chomp on your players’ character miniatures as our pals at Atlas Games announce the upcoming Kickstarter for Planegea, their dino-filled 5E setting of prehistoric fantasy adventure.

Score a blood-drenched special bonus from Pelgrane Press when you order the print edition Night’s Black Agents Dracula Dossier Director’s Handbook or any of its associated bundles. A new 50-page Cuttings PDF of deleted scenes and horrors that didn’t fit is now available for a limited time with the voucher code VAMP2021.

The treasures of Askfageln can be found at DriveThruRPG. Get all issues of FENIX since 2013 available in special English editions. Score metric oodles of Ken Hite gaming goodness, along with equally stellar pieces by Graeme Davis and Pete Nash. Warning: in English, not in Swedish. In English, not Swedish. While you’re at it, grab DICE and Freeway Warrior!

Fear Is a Fractal …and your world is a lie. A horror freed from an antique book reverberates through reality. But don’t despair. There is hope. A King waits for us. And Impossible Landscapes, the  first campaign for Delta Green: The Role-Playing Game waits for you. In PDF now, hardback in May. Hailed as “one of the best RPG campaigns ever made” and “a masterpiece of surreal horror!”

3 Responses to “Episode 468: Weird Mushroom Things and a Swirl Over There”

  1. Tim Emrick says:

    I own Graves’ The Greek Myths, and very much agree with Ken’s assessment. As long as you’re not too much of a snob about the “correct” version of any myth (which is nonsense anyway, because the classic authors changed things to suit their stories all the time), it’s a wonderful resource for running a Greek mythology-based game. Graves’ footnotes are full of crazypants assertions, but every so often, one of his ideas will be perfect for putting a twist into a well-known myth to keep players guessing about the truth and what to do next.

    For example, in the solo game that I run for my wife, I took the Hellenistic idea that the Greek and Egyptian gods were the same pantheon (which Frasier and Graves enthusiastically embraced), and turned that syncratism on its head. I kept the bit about Set and Typhon being the same deity, because it helped me link the two cultures in an interesting way. However, I made the war against him into a secret alliance between Greek and Egyptian gods–and neither pantheon wants to admit to mortals they needed help to survive. Learning that secret was a major plot point of the campaign, and now our heroine needs to engineer a second alliance to prevent Typhon/Set’s imminent return.

  2. Justin Mohareb says:

    Every time Ken says “djinn” I think he’s saying “gin”.

  3. Eternal Life says:

    Eternal Life

    Episode 468: Weird Mushroom Things and a Swirl Over There « Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff

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