Liminal Inspirations Ep.63 (with C.K.McDonnell) (Part 2)

Continuing to find inspiration from urban horror/fantasy, in this episode we look at The Stranger Times and Children of the Stones

In this episode, we continue looking for inspiration from urban horror/fantasy.

C.K. McDonnell joins the book club to talk about his career and his series of novels set in Manchester, The Stranger Times, about a newspaper covering the supernatural. There are three books in the series, with another coming in a couple of months, and a podcast that supports the novels.

Dirk and Blythy are in the Las O’Gowrie discussing the seventies children’s TV Classic, The Children of the Stones.

If you want to find out more about the book club, including the forthcoming guests, then follow the page on this site.

Please support us on Patreon.

Scarred for Life by RPGs (with Stephen Brotherstone) Ep. 54 (Part 2)

This is the second part of our exploration of Scarred for Life, the fantastic series of books about growing up in the dark decades of the seventies and eighties. Gen X-rated popular culture shaped our imaginations and informed our gaming.

Buy the books here.

Content warning for this one as we quote directly from a couple of controversial games from the 80s.

I’ve had a go at putting chapters on this one. In case they don’t pull through, here is the menu:

00:00 INTRO: The incredible ghost voices that appeared on the free flexi-disc from The Unexplained magazine.

03:53 The GAMESMASTER’s Screen. Ste Brotherstone give us insight from the forthcoming volume of Scarred for Life. Phoenix Command, Alma Mater, The Unexplained: Mysteries of Mind, Space, & Time, The Price of Freedom, and 2000ad. I also mention the wonderful Save for Half podcast who did a recent episode on East Texas University.

57:30 Library Use. Judge Blythy joins me in the Room of Role-Playing rambling to look at Unexplained magazine. I make a mistake – it didn’t last for 115 issues, it was 157!

1:33:0 Advert. Frankenstein’s RPG podcast – I appeared on a recent episode about Magic/ PSIonics and Investigation in SF role-playing games.

1:34:0 I’ll Get mi Coat. Closing time chatter about Agon, Delta Green and a brief mention of the UNIT campaign.

1:46:Outro. The Book Club is on the first Sunday of every month at 09:30 GMT for 90 minutes. Owl Bear and The Wizard’s Staff convention is scheduled to take place on the weekend 2nd September. I will be supporting an online version of the event. Watch this space for more details.

Support us on Patreon

Scarred for Life by RPGs (with Stephen Brotherstone) Ep 54 (Part 1)

The 70s and 80s were the golden age of dark popular culture and Scarred for Life have chronicled the TV, comics, adverts, sweets and others of the period in a conversational but forensic style. There are two volumes available with a third on its way at the end of Summer ’22, which will feature role-playing games of the 1980s. We are joined by Stephen Brotherstone, one of the authors, and we talk about his formative years in role-playing and how this project came into being.

You can find out more about Scarred for Life by following the twitter account. The books are available print on demand, check for discount codes. They also have live shows.

We discuss Threads, Noah’s Castle, Dracula Lollies and much, much more.

Resident rules lawyer Judge Blythy joins me in the Port Street Beer House for a new segment where we do a Speed Rating of a game. This time we look at Monster of the Week – the rules highlights and our experiences of playing the game. There is a Jazz warning.

We finish off with a bit of closing time chatter about Dungeon Crawl Classics and the new Blade Runner kickstarter.

Follow us on Patreon to support the podcast and associated projects.