Posts Tagged ‘Fun with Science’
Episode 653: Flankington’s Syndrome
June 13th, 2025 | Robin
In the Gaming Hut beloved Patreon backer Michael Cule wants to know more about the role dice play in roleplaying games.
Fun With Science answers estimable backer Jurie Horneman’s request to look into a case of brain diagnosis by inner voices.
The Cinema Hut kicks off our tour through Fantasy Film Essentials with the formative titles of the silent era.
Finally in Ken’s Time Machine our resident chrononaut reveals the dread timelines prevented by his intervention in the sinking of the galleon San Jose during Wager’s Action.
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.
Stop gazing lovingly at that seed catalogue and start pre-ordering Vicious Gardens from Atlas Games. This contemporary, distinctive, choice driven card game combines the joy of gardening with the thrill of being a total jerk. Strategically cultivate your garden, harvest plants, and sabotage others in a cut-throat competition.
A global mythos conspiracy ensnares the player characters in The Borellus Connection, Pelgrane Press’ new Fall of DELTA Green mega-campaign by Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan and Kenneth Hite. Journey in the guise of federal narcotics agents to Saigon, Beirut, Prague and Bozukepe. Buy it for your GM and demand that she run it today!
Get caught in the spiral with God’s Teeth, a new set of pulse-pounding Delta Green scenarios dripping with the once and future corruption of a nation swirling into cruelty and spite. From a government panopticon to alien worms to an app-driven mass shooter, your agents have nothing to fear but every screaming headline.
Play spies, skirmishers, and saboteurs in the battle for the future of the Thirteen Colonies in Flagbearer Games’ thoroughly researched and beautifully illustrated 5E compatible roleplaying game Nations and Cannons. Jump into the early actions of the war with the new campaign guide The American Crisis, available as a PDF or for print pre-order.
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Episode 641: Consolation Mummy
March 21st, 2025 | Robin
In the Gaming Hut we ask what it means for a rule to work.
At the behest of beloved Patreon backer Nicola Wilson, the Archaeology Hut investigates the chopping up of the alleged mummy of Constantine XI.
Anyone who has Fun with Science knows the weird phenomenon of species with dwarf males. Ken and Robin wonder which Mythos creature has dwarf males and how that causes problems for Trail of Cthulhu characters.
Finally the Eliptony Hut recounts the nightmarish tale of the Blaenavon horse humanoid.
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.
The sorrowful solo gamebook Unhappy Birthday at Castle Slogar now dolefully awaits you from the frightening folks of Atlas Games. Packed with maps, riddles and dire dilemmas, it is sure to lure you to a delightfully solitary spiral of gloom!
Fear Itself, Pelgrane Press’ groundbreaking GUMSHOE game of personal and psychological horror, has returned from the swirling torment of the Outer Dark in a hauntingly beautiful premium hardcover format. With The Shattered Veil Edition, stunningly beautiful full-color artwork brings fresh terror to your table. Grab it alongside the highly anticipated Ocean Game expansion in its current Gamefound campaign.
Brace for more Delta Green Mythos horror with Dead Drops, Arc Dream’s latest bone-chilling anthology of black bag scenarios. From a secret Missouri church to a frozen Alabama town, the top secret terrors keep on unfolding. Acquire the 288 page full color hardback from the Arc Dream store, or purchase, download, rate and review the PDF at DriveThru.
Turn your digital dials to Gen Con TV, The Best Four Days in Gaming – All Year Long. Entirely free and streaming your way on Twitch, Gen Con TV offers actual plays, reviews, dramatized gaming shorts, minis painting and its flagship show, Table Talk, beaming to you Fridays at 2 pm with polyhedral news you’re dying to use.
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Episode 633: Barrel Full of Outlaw
January 24th, 2025 | Robin
In the Gaming Hut, beloved Patreon backer Jörgen Blomberg suggests that there’s something F20 games handle even worse than falling damage—injuries from exposure. We brave the chill with our thoughts on the subject.
Not all western folk heroes became folk heroes. The Crime Blotter looks at the case of robber and ambusher Big Nose George Parrott, who in a gruesome twist of fate became… something else.
Fun with Science plumbs two marine mysteries brought to our attention by estimable backer David Millians: a mysterious deep sea communication and the pallid amphipod known as the sweetheart of darkness.
Finally Ken’s Time Machine peers into the timeline where a 10 year old Abraham Lincoln succumbed to his injuries after being kicked by a horse.
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.
The sorrowful solo gamebook Unhappy Birthday at Castle Slogar now dolefully awaits you from the frightening folks of Atlas Games. Packed with maps, riddles and dire dilemmas, it is sure to lure you to a delightfully solitary spiral of gloom!
A global mythos conspiracy ensnares the player characters in The Borellus Connection, Pelgrane Press’ new Fall of DELTA Green mega-campaign by Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan and Kenneth Hite. Journey in the guise of federal narcotics agents to Saigon, Beirut, Prague and Bozukepe. Buy it for your GM and demand that she run it today!
Don your pallid mask and get all the Ken, Carcosa, and footnotes you require now that Arc Dream’s The King in Yellow: Annotated Edition is now available in paperback and ebook formats. With stunning art by Samuel Araya, this lavish tome of terror earns a space on any shelf.
Turn your digital dials to Gen Con TV, The Best Four Days in Gaming – All Year Long. Entirely free and streaming your way on Twitch, Gen Con TV offers actual plays, reviews, dramatized gaming shorts, minis painting and its flagship show, Table Talk, beaming to you Fridays at 2 pm with polyhedral news you’re dying to use.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Episode 628: July 1st Seems Good Enough
December 6th, 2024 | Robin
In The Business of Gaming we check in on the state of crowdfunding through the lens of the recently concluded Trail of Cthulhu 2nd Edition campaign.
There are ants, ants, ants as big as well they’re quite small really but they’ve nearly completed a program of global conquest so Fun With Science takes a look at their supercolony wars.
Grab some cotton candy or a corn dog as the Word Hut offers a course on 1920s and 30s carnival slang.
Finally, at the behest of beloved Patreon backer Paul S. Enns, Ken’s Time Machine glimpses the dark timeline where an 1866 proposal by a US Congressman to annex the British North American colonies actually went somewhere, depriving Canada of its origin story and the world of Canada.
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.
Stop gazing lovingly at that seed catalogue and start pre-ordering Vicious Gardens from Atlas Games. This contemporary, distinctive, choice driven card game combines the joy of gardening with the thrill of being a total jerk. Strategically cultivate your garden, harvest plants, and sabotage others in a cut-throat competition.
A global mythos conspiracy ensnares the player characters in The Borellus Connection, Pelgrane Press’ new Fall of DELTA Green mega-campaign by Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan and Kenneth Hite. Journey in the guise of federal narcotics agents to Saigon, Beirut, Prague and Bozukepe. Buy it for your GM and demand that she run it today!
Don your pallid mask and get all the Ken, Carcosa, and footnotes you require now that Arc Dream’s The King in Yellow: Annotated Edition is now available in paperback and ebook formats. With stunning art by Samuel Araya, this lavish tome of terror earns a space on any shelf.
Turn your digital dials to Gen Con TV, The Best Four Days in Gaming – All Year Long. Entirely free and streaming your way on Twitch, Gen Con TV offers actual plays, reviews, dramatized gaming shorts, minis painting and its flagship show, Table Talk, beaming to you Fridays at 2 pm with polyhedral news you’re dying to use.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Episode 605: Astrophysicists Not Acronym Physicists
June 28th, 2024 | Robin
Beloved Patreon backer Noel Warford summons us to the Gaming Hut, asking how to coax more independence from one’s players.
Estimable backer Kevin Nault pries open the door to the Archaeology Hut to hear the very colorful story, or stories, surrounding the discovery of the Nag Hammadi manuscripts.
The discovery of a planet with a fluffy, cotton candy texture prompts Fun with Science and the riffing of an appropriate space opera scenario.
Finally wondering backer Eric Parks notes that reports of shadow aliens near a Florida mall warrant an excursion into the Eliptony Hut.
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.
The official CatStronauts board game is launching on Kickstarter, from Atlas Games! Designed and illustrated by Drew Brockington, this cooperative game brings 30-45 minutes of fast feline fun to 1-4 players aged 10 and up.
13th Age is ready to escalate! The second edition of the fast-moving, easy-playing encapsulation of the fantasy roleplaying hits Kickstarter on May 7th. Manifest your One Unique Thing and get updates on the campaign by sharing your email address with Pelgrane Press here.
Don your pallid mask and get all the Ken, Carcosa, and footnotes you require now that Arc Dream’s The King in Yellow: Annotated Edition is now available in paperback and ebook formats. With stunning art by Samuel Araya, this lavish tome of terror earns a space on any shelf.
Turn your digital dials to Gen Con TV, The Best Four Days in Gaming – All Year Long. Entirely free and streaming your way on Twitch, Gen Con TV offers actual plays, reviews, dramatized gaming shorts, minis painting and its flagship show, Table Talk, beaming to you Fridays at 2 pm with polyhedral news you’re dying to use.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Episode 598: Do We Really Want That Horse In Here?
May 10th, 2024 | Robin
Picking up where a previous Gaming Hut left off, beloved Patreon backer Gene Ha asks about scenarios where one of the PCs is a mole working against the rest of the group.
In Ask Ken and Robin, estimable backer Martin Rundkvist asks how Ken’s planned relocation of Swords of the Serpentine to Venice is going to work.
The Voyager space probe has been fixed after sending gibberish data back to Earth for five months. But what, formidable backer Bob Koester asks in Fun With Science, if it wasn’t gibberish?
Finally the Eliptony Hut takes on the serpentine quality of previous segments with a look at the 1894 lindworm sightings in Erviken, Norway.
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.
The official CatStronauts board game is launching on Kickstarter, from Atlas Games! Designed and illustrated by Drew Brockington, this cooperative game brings 30-45 minutes of fast feline fun to 1-4 players aged 10 and up.
13th Age is ready to escalate! The second edition of the fast-moving, easy-playing encapsulation of the fantasy roleplaying is now Kickstarting. Manifest your One Unique Thing and get updates on the campaign by sharing your email address with Pelgrane Press here.
Don your pallid mask and get all the Ken, Carcosa, and footnotes you require now that Arc Dream’s The King in Yellow: Annotated Edition is now available in paperback and ebook formats. With stunning art by Samuel Araya, this lavish tome of terror earns a space on any shelf.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Episode 595: IPA Aliens
April 19th, 2024 | Robin
In the Gaming Hut beloved Patreon backer Jason Thompson asks if the group dynamic known as the Tyranny of Structurelessness applies to GM-less roleplaying games.
Estimable backer Gray St. Quintin seeks the regular confines of the Architecture Hut to ask about Walter Burley Griffin, designer of Canberra and avid anthroposophist.
Fun With Science ensues when formidable backer asks what the heck was up with a rich philanthropist’s decision to take hominid fossils with him on his Virgin Galactic space flight.
Finally, Ken’s Time Machine finds out what really happened in the Roman assault on the druids of Anglesey, with possible alterations to known history on the part of our sterling chrononaut.
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.
The official CatStronauts board game is launching on Kickstarter, from Atlas Games! Designed and illustrated by Drew Brockington, this cooperative game brings 30-45 minutes of fast feline fun to 1-4 players aged 10 and up.
If you love heroic fast-paced fantasy roleplaying action and incredible deals, Pelgrane Press has two iconic bargains for you. Until May 7th, date of the impending 13th Age Kickstarter, get the core book for 50% at the Pelgrane web store. Or grab the brief return of the stunnning 13th Age Bundle of Holding PDF deal.
Don your pallid mask and get all the Ken, Carcosa, and footnotes you require now that Arc Dream’s The King in Yellow: Annotated Edition is now available in paperback and ebook formats. With stunning art by Samuel Araya, this lavish tome of terror earns a space on any shelf.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Episode 535: NASA is Not in the Neck Adjustment Business
February 17th, 2023 | Robin
The topic may be vagueness but the analysis remains sharp as the Gaming Hut looks at open questions and unsolved mysteries in RPG setting material.
In Fun With Science, we look for plot hooks in the ChatGPT AI text generator, including the inevitable query about its Mythos implications from beloved Patreon backer Tom Abella.
The Cinema Hut reaches part four of the Science Fiction Film Essentials series, as the genre finally hits full boil in the hopeful but paranoid early 50s.
Finally, at the behest of inquiring backer Sam Rutzick, the Consulting Occultist warily goes undercover for some questionable spinal adjustment, in search of the ghostly weirdness behind chiropractic treatment.
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.
Rejoice, fans of Atlas Games and Ken and Robin. Atlas Games is running its most Ken and Robiny promotion ever. Atlas publishes books from both of us and for a limited time only you can get 20% off those books with the promo code KENANDROBIN23 at the Atlas Games store: https://atlas-games.com/product_tables/.
Track down foul sorcerers in a corrupt city, clamber through underground ruins and investigate the intrigues of your decadent rivals in Swords of the Serpentine, the GUMSHOE game of swords, sorcery and mystery, now available from Pelgrane Press.
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!

Put on your flannels, grab your duffel bag of hardware and assemble your fake passports. Alert your retailer to the contents of their favorite unmarked warehouse. Delta Green: The Conspiracy, the revised, updated and declassified edition of the iconic 1990s sourcebook has escaped from Arc Dream Publishing.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Episode 534: Manimal Utopia
February 10th, 2023 | Robin
Beloved Patreon backer Michael Gemar requests that The Business of Gaming tackle Wizards of the Coast’s latest adventures in managing the Dungeons and Dragons Open License.
We thought that would be one segment. Hear it, in real time, turn into three!
That leaves room for the Cinema Hut’s Science Fiction Film Essentials series to reach the sound era, and the 1930s, when the laboratory becomes a wellspring of gothic terror.
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.
Rejoice, fans of Atlas Games and Ken and Robin. Atlas Games is running its most Ken and Robiny promotion ever. Atlas publishes books from both of us and for a limited time only you can get 20% off those books with the promo code KENANDROBIN23 at the Atlas Games store: https://atlas-games.com/product_tables/.
Track down foul sorcerers in a corrupt city, clamber through underground ruins and investigate the intrigues of your decadent rivals in Swords of the Serpentine, the GUMSHOE game of swords, sorcery and mystery, now available from Pelgrane Press.
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!

Put on your flannels, grab your duffel bag of hardware and assemble your fake passports. Alert your retailer to the contents of their favorite unmarked warehouse. Delta Green: The Conspiracy, the revised, updated and declassified edition of the iconic 1990s sourcebook has escaped from Arc Dream Publishing.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Episode 522: Pre-Rex
November 11th, 2022 | Robin
As noted wearers of colorful shirts, we are uniquely qualified to enter a Hawaiian edition of the Gaming Hut. There we respond to the call of beloved Patreon backer Kristian Groenseth, who wants to us to fit Magnum P.I. into Trail of Cthulhu.
In Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else, Ken talks with J-M and Trish deFoggi about projects incluuuuding 13th Age books and their Dark Owl publishing company.
With the remarkably preserved fossil of the nodosaur Borealopelta back in the news, estimable backer Ross Ireland wants to know whether it heralds a resurgence of Yig worship, or a plain old ordinary return of the dinosaurs. Fun With Science is here to help.
And finally Ken’s Time Machine goes to 1675, a year of war in Europe, and we find out which conflict our vaunted chrono-protagonist wishes to intervene in.
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.
Godsforge, Atlas Games’ fast-paced game of battling spellcasters, is now on Kickstarter. Grab wizardly first dibs on the new 2nd Edition of Godsforge, and two new expansions, Return of the Dragon Gods and Twilight of the Great Houses, from November 8 to December 8th.
Track down foul sorcerers in a corrupt city, clamber through underground ruins and investigate the intrigues of your decadent rivals in Swords of the Serpentine, the GUMSHOE game of swords, sorcery and mystery, now available from Pelgrane Press.
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!

Delta Green Iconoclasts, a campaign of horrors modern and ancient, brings a team of Agents to a scene of horrors all too real: Mosul in 2016, held by the self-styled Islamic State in a reign of depraved brutality. From a small base at the Kirkuk airfield, the Agents must research the horrors to come and prepare for a harrowing infiltration. Terrors and new supplementary material await, now in PDF, hardback now in preorder.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download