Posts Tagged ‘Among my many hats’
Episode 115: Anopheles Mosquito, Stagnant Pond
November 14th, 2014 | Robin
The hats in Among My Many Hats are bowlers, and green apples obscure our faces, because we’re talking about Dreamhounds of Paris, now available for preorder, and its companion volume, The Book of Ants.
In the Food Hut we answer a Ryan Macklin request to talk about herbs. Which delicious plant will we name as monarch over all the others?
We are pursued by a bear into the Gaming Hut for a discussion of Shakespearean gaming, as part of our nod to birthday celebrant Dina Katz.
Finally the Consulting Occultist makes an appearance in the Tradecraft Hut to discuss revelations that British psy-ops thought it would calm the Northern Irish conflict if they staged evidence of black masses.
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.
Show Ken you love him, and/or hate bloodsuckers, by kicking a few pounds in the direction of his Dracula Dossier Kickstarter. Learn what MI6 doesn’t want you to know about the king of the vampires.
Also sponsoring us this week is the Paranoia Kickstarter from Mongoose Publishing. Obey the Computer, citizen, and crowdfund a fast-playing new iteration of the classic RPG of a darkly humorous future.
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Episode 112: Someone Will Break Out Into Recipes
October 24th, 2014 | Robin
In the Gaming Hut we look at ways to add nuance to your setting’s faiths by considering the split between official and popular religion.
Ken spills blood-red beans on the coming Dracula Dossier Kickstarter in Among My Many Hats.
The Food Hut takes on a bookish sheen as we recommend our favorite food writing.
Finally, the Consulting Occultist looks at the witch-related thoughts of once-influential scholar Margaret Murray.
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.
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Episode 108: Too Many Cyber-Monkeys
September 26th, 2014 | Robin
Before getting to the main meat of the episode, a Preamble Hut seems necessary to update a few stories of interest to KARTAS listeners. So gather round as Ken dispatches fresh claims of a DNA solution to the Jack the Ripper mystery, and Robin covers the latest bizarre twist in the Rob Ford saga. Or is that now the Doug Ford saga?
Then nestle in with your popcorn as Robin reports back from the Toronto International Film Festival for the 2014 edition of an obligatory Cinema Hut.
Ken’s Time Machine departs from formula to contemplate an omnibus question from Fridrik Bjarnason. Which characters in history are so serendipitous or unlikely that they must have been undercover time-travelers?
Finally, Among My Many Hats sees Robin chatting about Feng Shui 2, which is Kickstarting even as we speak.
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Episode 102: Nonsense is on the March
August 15th, 2014 | Robin
Ask Ken and Robin tackles a Tim Isakson question on ways to handle tone as a GM.
Among My Many Hats tips its pith helmet to Ken’s new GURPS Horror book, The Madness Dossier.
How to Write Good sits in the chair to examine discipline, morale, the value of routine, and the hazards of self-doubt.
Thanks to a reminder from listener Joe Taylor, we finally let the Consulting Occultist loose on the Cathars, as we’ve been planning to do all along.
From the magical land of sponsors comes Atlas Games, who with a twinkle of fairy dust revive their 2nd Edition Once Upon a Time clearance sale.
Joining us for the first time as sponsor is Jeffrey Wikstrom’s Arthur Dies at the End, an ebook series that spins the tedium of Malory into erudite fun.
Stone Skin Press has a deal for you. Until September 1st, all hardcopy purchases of Robin’s action-driven Mythos fiction anthology Shotguns v. Cthulhu come not only with the expected free electronic edition of that book, but also an ebook of Schemers, Robin’s anthology of betrayal and conspiracy. Just buy it at the Pelgrane Press store, as you normally would, no special links or offer codes required. 
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Episode 75: The Don Cheadle of Creepy Tunnels
February 7th, 2014 | Robin
A curious case study, in which a regrettable glacier incident leads listener Joe Tyne to a Call of Cthulhu stumbling block, warrants treatment from the experts in Ask Ken and Robin.
At the request of listener Benjamin Blattberg, we essay a hidden gems segment of the Cinema Hut.
In Among My Many Hats, Ken quizzes Robin on his latest creation, The Gaean Reach: The Roleplaying Game of Interstellar Vengeance. Death to Quandos Vorn!
Finally, with a nod of the chrono-helmet to Kevin Kulp’s TimeWatch RPG Kickstarter, Ken’s Time Machine unscrambles the Ossian hoax to, somewhat reluctantly, restore the literary reputation of 18th century poet and Scottish revivalist James McPherson.
Once again Fenix Magazine occupies the coveted anchor sponsor slot. After ten years delighting the Swedish gaming scene, they’re now bringing the Best of Fenix to English-language GMs and players with their now-active 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!
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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!
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Episode 69: You Already Met the First Tiger
December 13th, 2013 | Robin
Ken and Robin open the Gaming Hut to air evolving differences in gamer expectations, with Feng Shui player feedback offering a time portal between the mid-90s and now.
Among My Many Hats looks into Ken’s gig as a dramaturg for WildClaw Theatre’s stage production of Shadow Over Innsmouth.
With the holidays nearing, the Food Hut learns what Christmas food means to us.
Finally Ken’s Time Machine gears up to undo the 1979 Iranian revolution.
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Episode 59: Thwarted by Trees
October 4th, 2013 | Robin
Gather your Hegelian war band around the speakers to listen to our opening Gaming Hut segment, in which we look at ways to transform groups of murder hoboes into ensemble procedural casts.
We open a historical case file in the Tradecraft Hut, looking at the role spy novelist William Le Queux, abetted by the Daily Mail, played in whipping up espionage fever in the nineteen-oughts.
Among My Many Hats prompts Robin to share his preparatory thinking on the new edition of Feng Shui he’ll be working on, in partnership with Atlas Games and Atomic Overmind.
Finally we dust off Ken’s Time Machine and send him off to extend by at least a generation the golden age that was Periclean Athens.
Take a moment to appreciate the support of episode sponsor and Eliptonic essayist Matthew Rossi. Check out his Kindle-ready books Things That Never Were, Bottled Demon, and At last, Atlantis at Amazon!
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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!
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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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