Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff

**Episode 625: You’ve Got a Dark Level** Nov 15, 2024

In the **Gaming Hut** we imagine an F20 world where powerful undead don’t just drain levels, they sell them to the highest bidder.

The **Archaeology Hut** checks out the latest tests on the Well-Man, a body found at Norway’s Sverresborg Castle who matches an account from an 800 year old Norse saga.

Finally **Ken’s Bookshelf** chronicles our resident bibliophile’s genteel efforts to separate Powell’s Books in Portland from its wares. Making a special cameo appearance, it’s the Princeton University Press sale.

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 prophecy has been fulfilled: Ars Magica Definitive, a revised and expanded deluxe version Ars Magica 5th Edition, launches this fall. With a host of new material published since the original rulebook’s release and heirloom production quality, this belongs in the library of every magus. Instruct your most trusted companion to sign up for launch alerts.

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.

**Episode 624: Impractical at Most Gaming Tables** Nov 08, 2024

In the **Gaming Hut** beloved Patreon backer Mark Waterhouse asks what could possibly go wrong if we let players perform their own in-world divinations.

At the behest of estimable backer Martin Rundkvist the **Tradecraft Hut** investigates the heroic career of Polish-born WWII British operative Krystyna Skarbek.

**Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else** features our talk with actual player extraordinaire Lindsey Brown, as heard on The Nature of My Game podcast.

Finally Ken’s Time Machine looks for chrono-spanners it might throw into the horror show that was the postwar repatriation of Koreans from Japan to North Korea.

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 prophecy has been fulfilled: Ars Magica Definitive, a revised and expanded deluxe version Ars Magica 5th Edition, launches this fall. With a host of new material published since the original rulebook’s release and heirloom production quality, this belongs in the library of every magus. Instruct your most trusted companion to sign up for launch alerts.

Back from the grave until they suppress it again, the Dracula Dossier PDF deal has returned to the Bundle of Holding. Grab it until November 13th, when it will once more retreat to its dusty crypt.

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.

**Episode 623: Bored Lumberjacks** Nov 01, 2024

The **Gaming Hut** looks at the most despised medieval occupations and wonders what would happen if you actually wanted to reflect this in your F20 world.

The **History Hut** covers a very strange fashion fracas, the 1922 New York City straw hat riots.

In the **Mythos Hut** we dial up the scare factor on the humblest Lovecraftian creature, the zoog.

Finally the **Eliptony Hut** combs the forest for Wisconsin’s oddball cryptid, the hodag.

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 prophecy has been fulfilled: Ars Magica Definitive, a revised and expanded deluxe version Ars Magica 5th Edition, launches this fall. With a host of new material published since the original rulebook’s release and heirloom production quality, this belongs in the library of every magus. Instruct your most trusted companion to sign up for launch alerts.

That cult would never die, till the stars came right again, and the secret priests would take great Cthulhu from His tomb to announce Trail of Cthulhu Second Edition, coming October 1st on Backerkit. Get ready to alert your friends and anyone else you’d be willing to climb into a ghoul pit with.

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.

**Ken and Robin Consume Media: Rumours, MadS, Exhuma, and the Terrrri-ffying Slowness of Baseball** Oct 29, 2024

Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies, TV seasons and more we cram into our hyper-analytical sensoriums. Join the Patreon to help pick the items we’ll talk about in greater depth on a little podcast segment we like to call Tell Me More.

Recommended

Eephus (Film, US, Carson Lund, 2024) Two weekend baseball amateur teams meet some time around 1990 for the final game on their condemned baseball field in this disarming combination of hangout film and slow cinema. The film, as Lund has said, moves at the rhythm of baseball, not the rhythm of film narrative, gradually amping up the small-ball absurdity amidst the slowly, regretfully deflating camaraderie.—KH

Exhuma (South Korea, Jang Jae-hyun, 2024) To uncover the source of a curse on a wealthy Korean-American family, shaman Hwa-rim (Kim Go-eun) enlists down-at-heels geomancer Kim (Choi Min-sik) to examine the feng shui of the Worst Grave in Korea. Effortlessly grounded, beautifully structured story escalates through two horror stories in a row as the grave keeps giving up more horrible secrets. I loved every minute of this movie.—KH

MadS (Film, France, David Moreau, 2024) Teen hunk high on an unprovenanced drug has a roadside encounter with a distressed, injured medical experiment escapee, leading him and his girlfriends into an evening of increasingly apocalyptic terror. Composed as a single breathtaking tracking shot and revealing its horror sub-genre deep in the film, this high-energy mood piece features an astonishing physical performance from Laurie Pavy as one of the victims/monsters.—RDL

My Dear Killer (Film, Italy, Tonino Valerii, 1972) Determined police inspector (George Hilton) connects a case of decapitation by excavator to a cold case involving the kidnapping and murder of a young girl and her father. Solidly constructed mix of investigation and menace clearly exemplifies the giallo formula.—RDL

Rumours (Film, Canada/Germany, Guy Maddin & Evan Johnson & Galen Johnson, 2024) Hapless world leaders at the G7 summit face increasingly surreal challenges from mysterious isolation in the woods to reanimated bog-bodies to a giant brain. Only the middle of the movie offers melodramatic joy to the Maddin connoisseur, and one can wonder whether a film condemning the inanition and fecklessness of world leaders shouldn’t offer a direction by contrast, but strong character work by the seven core actors (plus Alicia Vikander as an EU official caught up in events) keeps the film endlessly diverting.—KH

The Spook Who Sat by the Door (Film, US, Ivan Dixon, 1973) Recruited as a token, Dan Freeman (Lawrence Cook) goes from being the first Black CIA agent to the leader of a revolutionary armed movement on the South Side of Chicago. Energetically paced with strong performances, it suffers somewhat from a budget (and possibly a vision) too small to properly indict the CIA’s blowback-prone methods while also engaging in Black Power agitprop. Freeman’s story winds up suffering the most, but Cook fascinates as the deliberately umoved mover.—KH

Tokyo Noir (Nonfiction, Jake Adelstein, 2024) Journalist reviews his investigative exploits in Japan from the publication of Tokyo Vice to the present day. Cases range from looking into corporate yakuza ties for corporate investors to exposing corruption and negligence at TEPCO, the nuclear utility responsible for the Fukushima meltdown.—RDL

Good

Grabbers (Film, Ireland, Jon Wright, 2012) An alcoholic local cop and an eager straight-arrow on temporary assignment struggle to protect an island village from tentacled alien beasties who won’t attack drunk victims. Amusing comedic creature feature might be called Tremors with added hops.—RDL

Murder in Peking (Fiction, Vincent Starrett, 1937) American dilettante Hope Johnson investigates the murder of a beautiful Danish antiquities expert during a house-party held for Western expatriates and tourists in a Peking temple. Starrett based the novel on his own experiences (sans murder) in Peking as an expat in 1936, so the local color is very good if not remotely suited to modern sensibilities. The murder mystery mostly plays fair, but is never very compelling.—KH

The Stone Tape (Television, UK, BBC, Peter Sasdy, 1972) When an electronics firm converts a derelict Victorian manor into an experimental facility, a computer intelligence expert (Jane Asher) experiences a ghost phenomenon that the team’s heedless leader (Michael Bryant) sees as an opportunity for an acoustic experiment. Writer Nigel Kneale snappily captures a cut throat corporate environment but settles for a pro forma ghost story conclusion.—RDL

Okay

Abigail (Film, US, Matt Bettinelli-Olpin & Tyler Gillett, 2024) Criminal team including perceptive infiltrator (Melissa Barrera) and scowling leader (Dan Stevens) kidnap a young girl and stash her at a weird house, only to discover that she’s a centuries-old vampire who has selected them as prey. More time studying Alien and Carpenter’s The Thing might have helped the screenwriters construct the sorts of suspenseful obstacles the “trapped in an enclosed space with a monster” template requires.—RDL

**Episode 622: In the Interest of Asking a Question** Oct 25, 2024

In the **Gaming Hut** we discuss the challenge of revised edition design. When you encounter an element you wouldn’t build into a new system, how do you decide whether to replace it, or to respect the legacy and leave it in?

The **Horror Hut** gets reflective as beloved Patreon backer Bart Mallio asks for a terrifying look at mirrors.

A new spinoff podcast threatens to break out when **Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else** features a chat with board gam designer Quinn Brander, designer of *Rebuilding Seattle* and the upcoming *Rebuilding Chicago*.

Finally the **Consulting Occultist** surveys the works of early astrologer Gan De, who catalogued the stars during China’s Warring States period.

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 prophecy has been fulfilled: Ars Magica Definitive, a revised and expanded deluxe version Ars Magica 5th Edition, launches this fall. With a host of new material published since the original rulebook’s release and heirloom production quality, this belongs in the library of every magus. Instruct your most trusted companion to sign up for launch alerts.

That cult would never die, till the stars came right again, and the secret priests would take great Cthulhu from His tomb to announce Trail of Cthulhu Second Edition, coming October 1st on Backerkit. Get ready to alert your friends and anyone else you’d be willing to climb into a ghoul pit with.

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.

**Episode 621: Also I Would Like to Own Smaland** Oct 18, 2024
In the **Gaming Hut** beloved backer Ryan McClelland argues that the Sailor is a fine Occupation that ought to be in *Trail of Cthulhu 2nd Edition* (now on Backerkit) and urges us to rebut him by listing even more such Occupations.

With the 1930s still in mind, the **Crime Blotter** pulls the dossier on the Barker-Karpis bank robbery and kidnapping gang.

**Ripped from the Headlines** covers a recent incident of rogue mountain sheep cloning in Montana.

Finally, in **Ken’s Time Machine**, our hero ponders intervention in the Kalmar Crusade.

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 prophecy has been fulfilled: Ars Magica Definitive, a revised and expanded deluxe version Ars Magica 5th Edition, launches this fall. With a host of new material published since the original rulebook’s release and heirloom production quality, this belongs in the library of every magus. Instruct your most trusted companion to sign up for launch alerts.

That cult would never die, till the stars came right again, and the secret priests would take great Cthulhu from His tomb to announce Trail of Cthulhu Second Edition, coming October 1st on Backerkit. Get ready to alert your friends and anyone else you’d be willing to climb into a ghoul pit with.

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.

**Episode 620: Where’s All My Bones Gone?** Oct 11, 2024

It’s time to rattle some paper in the **Gaming Hut** as we discuss character sheet design.

After that, a deluge, as the **Archaeology Hut**, at the behest of beloved Patreon backer Niclas Matikainen, studies the sunken city of Rungholt.

**Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else** features game designer and military consultant for media and gaming properties Anthony Joyce-Rivera.

Finally, as suggested by estimable backer the Molten Sulfur Blog, the **Eliptony Hut** looks at 19th century medical educator, grave robber, arsenal keeper and spiritualist Joseph Nash McDowell.

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 prophecy has been fulfilled: Ars Magica Definitive, a revised and expanded deluxe version Ars Magica 5th Edition, launches this fall. With a host of new material published since the original rulebook’s release and heirloom production quality, this belongs in the library of every magus. Instruct your most trusted companion to sign up for launch alerts.

That cult would never die, till the stars came right again, and the secret priests would take great Cthulhu from His tomb to announce Trail of Cthulhu Second Edition, coming October 1st on Backerkit. Get ready to alert your friends and anyone else you’d be willing to climb into a ghoul pit with.

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.

**Episode 619: The Zeppo of the Golden Dawn** Oct 04, 2024

In the **Gaming Hut** we build an F20 setting where everyone knows your level.

At the behest of beloved Patreon backer Derrick Yates the Tradecraft Hut profiles baseball player and spy Moe Berg.

In the **Food Hut** we decide what to order for lunch at the Los Angeles Biltmore Hotel in 1933.

Finally the Consulting Occultist delves into the career of coroner and Golden Dawn co-founder William Wynn Westcott.

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 prophecy has been fulfilled: Ars Magica Definitive, a revised and expanded deluxe version Ars Magica 5th Edition, launches this fall. With a host of new material published since the original rulebook’s release and heirloom production quality, this belongs in the library of every magus. Instruct your most trusted companion to sign up for launch alerts.

That cult would never die, till the stars came right again, and the secret priests would take great Cthulhu from His tomb to announce Trail of Cthulhu Second Edition, coming October 1st on Backerkit. Get ready to alert your friends and anyone else you’d be willing to climb into a ghoul pit with.

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.

**Episode 618: The Big Dipper is Weird** Sep 27, 2024

In the **Gaming Hut** we look at the changes Ken did and didn’t make in character creation for *Trail of Cthulhu 2nd Edition*.

The **Cinema Hut** highlight’s Robin’s fantasy, horror and SF discoveries from the 3rd Annual Robin and Valerie International Film Festival.

In **Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else** we chat with Taylor Navarro, designer of self-published games *Chefs de Partie* and *Not Yet: A Romantic Duet* and freelancer extraordinaire.

Finally the assignment for Ken’s Time Machine is to get Czech democratic politician Jan Masaryk out of the country before his 1948 murder.

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 prophecy has been fulfilled: Ars Magica Definitive, a revised and expanded deluxe version Ars Magica 5th Edition, launches this fall. With a host of new material published since the original rulebook’s release and heirloom production quality, this belongs in the library of every magus. Instruct your most trusted companion to sign up for launch alerts.

That cult would never die, till the stars came right again, and the secret priests would take great Cthulhu from His tomb to announce Trail of Cthulhu Second Edition, coming October 1st on Backerkit. Get ready to alert your friends and anyone else you’d be willing to climb into a ghoul pit with.

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.

**Episode 617: Live at Gen Con** Sep 20, 2024

Recorded live in a seminar room in the good Marriott at Gen Con, Ken and Robin talk the secret US-UK intergalactic financial war, chicken roasting secrets, our Indianapolis drinks of choice, a 1966 UFO incident and how to real-life investigate the real-life cult in your real-life hometown.

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 prophecy has been fulfilled: Ars Magica Definitive, a revised and expanded deluxe version Ars Magica 5th Edition, launches this fall. With a host of new material published since the original rulebook’s release and heirloom production quality, this belongs in the library of every magus. Instruct your most trusted companion to sign up for launch alerts.

That cult would never die, till the stars came right again, and the secret priests would take great Cthulhu from His tomb to announce Trail of Cthulhu Second Edition, coming October 1st on Backerkit. Get ready to alert your friends and anyone else you’d be willing to climb into a ghoul pit with.

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.

**Episode 616: They Got to Construin’ Verbs** Sep 13, 2024

This week the **Gaming Hut** populates the town of Locust Grove Oklahoma with gamemaster characters for a *Trail of Cthulhu* game.

Beloved Patreon backer Andrew Bates convenes the **History Hut** for the story behind Kentucky’s very specific, dare we say duel shy, oath of office.

Completing our three-part **Horror Hut** miniseries on reality horror, estimable backer Greg tasks us to devise an alternate scare figure to replace the King in Yellow.

And finally the Eliptony Hut looks into Alaska’s phantom city hoax.

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 prophecy has been fulfilled: Ars Magica Definitive, a revised and expanded deluxe version Ars Magica 5th Edition, launches this fall. With a host of new material published since the original rulebook’s release and heirloom production quality, this belongs in the library of every magus. Instruct your most trusted companion to sign up for launch alerts.

That cult would never die, till the stars came right again, and the secret priests would take great Cthulhu from His tomb to announce Trail of Cthulhu Second Edition, coming October 1st on Backerkit. Get ready to alert your friends and anyone else you’d be willing to climb into a ghoul pit with.

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.

**Episode 615: Ranger Problems** Sep 06, 2024

In the **Gaming Hut** we look at ways to tell whether your group will thrive in a sandbox game.

**Ken and/or Robin Talk To Someone Else** features our chat with fast-rising board game designer Clarence Simpson, whose credits include The Wolves, *AMessage from the Stars*, *Chomp*, and *Merchants of Magick*.

Part two of our **Horror Hut** look at reality horror, as spurred by beloved backer Greg, tackles scenario design for this mind-tripping sub-genre.

Finally the **Consulting Occultist** cracks the code on pioneering steganographer Johannes Trithemius.

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 prophecy has been fulfilled: Ars Magica Definitive, a revised and expanded deluxe version Ars Magica 5th Edition, launches this fall. With a host of new material published since the original rulebook’s release and heirloom production quality, this belongs in the library of every magus. Instruct your most trusted companion to sign up for launch alerts.

That cult would never die, till the stars came right again, and the secret priests would take great Cthulhu from His tomb to announce Trail of Cthulhu Second Edition, coming October 1st on Backerkit. Get ready to alert your friends and anyone else you’d be willing to climb into a ghoul pit with.

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.

**Episode 614: Elves Falling in Love with Guitarists** Aug 30, 2024

At the behest of beloved Patreon backer Ian Carlsen, the **Gaming Hut** looks at ways to prepare for a technothriller game.

The moment we learned of an increasingly ascendant Brazilian narco gang called the Bonde da Kabbalah, you know it was time to reach for the **Crime Blotter**.

A three-part **Horror Hut** mini-series on reality horror, requested by estimable backer Greg, starts off with a 101 of literary and filmic sources.

Finally Time Incorporated’s soft spot for libraries calls for Ken’s Time Machine to intervene in the case of key Mexican literary figure Juana Inés de la Cruz, who had to appease the Church by selling off her 4,000 volume collection.

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 prophecy has been fulfilled: Ars Magica Definitive, a revised and expanded deluxe version Ars Magica 5th Edition, launches this fall. With a host of new material published since the original rulebook’s release and heirloom production quality, this belongs in the library of every magus. Instruct your most trusted companion to sign up for launch alerts.

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.

**Episode 613: How Does the Treasure Make Me Feel?** Aug 23, 2024

In the **Gaming Hut** we toss our ideas into beloved Patreon backer Shon Richards’ Bookhounds of TimeWatch series concept.

One of our favorite industry stalwarts, Peter Adkison, joins us in **Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else** to talk Gen Con TV, his world of Chaldea project, and the state of Gen Con.

*The Borellus Connection*, the new mega-campaign for *The Fall of DELTA GREEN* gets the **Among My Many Hats** treatment from its story designer, our own Kenneth Hite.

Finally the Eliptony Hut peers into the story of astronomer George Ellery Hale and his relationship with an entity that has passed into lore as an elf adviser.

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 prophecy has been fulfilled: Ars Magica Definitive, a revised and expanded deluxe version Ars Magica 5th Edition, launches this fall. With a host of new material published since the original rulebook’s release and heirloom production quality, this belongs in the library of every magus. Instruct your most trusted companion to sign up for launch alerts.

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.

**Episode 612: Into the Tundra to Dig Gypsum** Aug 16, 2024

Your intrepid gaming reporters return from Gen Con 2024 to talk awards, tabletop industry trends and scuttlebutt and maybe a restaurant recommendation or two.

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 prophecy has been fulfilled: Ars Magica Definitive, a revised and expanded deluxe version Ars Magica 5th Edition, launches this fall. With a host of new material published since the original rulebook’s release and heirloom production quality, this belongs in the library of every magus. Instruct your most trusted companion to sign up for launch alerts.

Reality horror just got realer with three new support products for The Yellow King Roleplaying Game: *Black Star Magic*, *Legions of Carcosa: The Yellow King Bestiary*, and Robin’s latest novel, *Fifth Imperative*.

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.

**Episode 611: Terrible Ideas Deflation** Aug 09, 2024

In the **Gaming Hut** beloved Patreon backer Ludovic Chabant asks us what it means when a game mechanic is swingy.

The **Word Hut** isn’t having any of your cockamamie ackamarackus, because we’re talking 1930s slang.

The **Food Hut** extrapolates what the food scene in Yellow King: Aftermath looks like. Other than the well-established craze for Belgians, that is.

Finally the **Consulting Occultist** lays out everything you need to know to placate a Mesopotamian ghost.

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 prophecy has been fulfilled: Ars Magica Definitive, a revised and expanded deluxe version Ars Magica 5th Edition, launches this fall. With a host of new material published since the original rulebook’s release and heirloom production quality, this belongs in the library of every magus. Instruct your most trusted companion to sign up for launch alerts.

Reality horror just got realer with three new support products for The Yellow King Roleplaying Game: *Black Star Magic*, *Legions of Carcosa: The Yellow King Bestiary*, and Robin’s latest novel, *Fifth Imperative*.

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.

**Episode 610: She Probably Met a Nice God** Aug 02, 2024

In the **Gaming Hut** beloved Patreon backer Lauberfen asks us to seek mythic inspiration for gaming scenarios.

Estimable backer Derek Upham beckons us to the **Tradecraft Hut** for our take on the theory that infamous pirate Henry Every might have had a second covert career as a spy.

The **Mythology Hut** investigates the shamir, the enigmatic device or rock-eating worm credited with carving Solomon’s temple.

Finally Ken’s Time Machine heads back into history to restore the original name of the dollar.

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 prophecy has been fulfilled: Ars Magica Definitive, a revised and expanded deluxe version Ars Magica 5th Edition, launches this fall. With a host of new material published since the original rulebook’s release and heirloom production quality, this belongs in the library of every magus. Instruct your most trusted companion to sign up for launch alerts.

Reality horror just got realer with three new support products for The Yellow King Roleplaying Game: *Black Star Magic*, *Legions of Carcosa: The Yellow King Bestiary*, and Robin’s latest novel, *Fifth Imperative*.

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.

**Episode 609: Not French Enough to Wield the Sword** Jul 26, 2024

In the **Gaming Hut** beloved Patreon backer Toonspew asks us if it’s time to stop worrying and love the total party kill.

Estimable backer Hyperlexic urges us to shoo costumed devils out of the **History Hut** by looking at the scandal-brushed career of Los Angeles evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson.

**Ripped From the Headlines** tackles the recent theft of Roland’s legendary sword Durandal from a rocky cliff in the French commune of Rocamadour.

Finally, from Kabbalah in your DNA to polar reversal, the **Eliptony Hut** surveys the theorizing of self-described visionary Gregg Braden.

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 prophecy has been fulfilled: Ars Magica Definitive, a revised and expanded deluxe version Ars Magica 5th Edition, launches this fall. With a host of new material published since the original rulebook’s release and heirloom production quality, this belongs in the library of every magus. Instruct your most trusted companion to sign up for launch alerts.

Reality horror just got realer with three new support products for The Yellow King Roleplaying Game: *Black Star Magic*, *Legions of Carcosa: The Yellow King Bestiary*, and Robin’s latest novel, *Fifth Imperative*.

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.

**Episode 608: The Power is in the Booties** Jul 19, 2024

Beloved Patreon backer Philip Masters invites a pack of bumblers into the **Gaming Hut** as he asks how one might run a series based around realistic incompetence in high places.

Creep softly up to the Crime Blotter for the tale of prolific UK burglar Flannelfoot, aka Henry Vickers.

The **Cinema Hut** doesn’t have trouble getting started, but many sequels do, and we explain why.

Finally at the behest of silver-stringed backer Jon Biscoe, the **Consulting Occultist** looks at two magical tomes mentioned in Manly Wade Wellman’s Silver John Stories, the *Grand Albert* and the *Long-Lost Friend*.

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.

**Episode 607: Legend of the Feral Pears** Jul 12, 2024

Gape in wonder at the **Gaming Hut** as beloved Patreon backer Steve Hammond asks how one might emulate the awe of the Jurassic Park dinosaur reveal scene at the gaming table.

Well-traveled backers Ed Sizemore and Rafael Pabst journey to the **Cartography Hut** for the story of fictive medieval travel writer John Mandeville.

The **Monster Hut** digs into the graveyard-dwelling Luison of Paraguay, Argentina and environs, whose many versions merge indigenous Guarani myth with European werewolf lore.

Finally our chrononaut’s superiors at Time Incorporated assign him a juicy, fine-grained Ken’s Time Machine quest—to keep the vanished Ansault pear in cultivation.

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.

**[REPOST] Episode 606: Very Real Threat of Dialogue** Jul 10, 2024
*Due to a posting error the week previous, some pod apps ignored this episode as already read and did not download it. Apologies to those receiving the file a second time.*

In the **Gaming Hut** beloved Patreon backer Ross Ireland asks gamemasters tips to use when the player characters receive an imaginary tome chock-full of information.

The sun casts a burning eye on the **Horror Hut** when estimable backer Keelan O’Hea asks how to flip the switch and make daytime the scariest part of the day.

Finally Ken’s Bookshelf shares the vicarious joys of our resident bibliophile’s recent raid on the used shops of Austin, Texas.

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.

Due to a posting error the week previous some podcast apps have skipped downloading this episode as already read. Reposting for the benefit of those who have been unable to access it. Apologies to those receiving the file a second time.

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.

**Episode 606: Very Real Threat of Dialogue** Jul 05, 2024

In the **Gaming Hut** beloved Patreon backer Ross Ireland asks gamemasters tips to use when the player characters receive an imaginary tome chock-full of information.

The sun casts a burning eye on the **Horror Hut** when estimable backer Keelan O’Hea asks how to flip the switch and make daytime the scariest part of the day.

Finally Ken’s Bookshelf shares the vicarious joys of our resident bibliophile’s recent raid on the used shops of Austin, Texas.

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.

**Episode 605: Astrophysicists Not Acronym Physicists** Jun 28, 2024

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.

**Episode 604: It Takes a While to Work** Jun 21, 2024

In the **Gaming Hut** beloved Patreon backer Ryan McClelland asks for tips on incorporating 1890s anarchists into *The Yellow King Roleplaying Game*.

After many previous passing mentions, writer, explorer, scenester and cannibal William Seabrook finally becomes the subject of his own **History Hut** segment.

Without the paper bag and cardboard box the grocery industry would not be what it is today. The **Food Hut** reveals the creation myths behind these undersung heroes of the packaging universe.

Finally the **Consulting Occultist** looks at 1920s celebrity astrologer Evangeline Adams, who doled out stock market tips, gave readings to moguls, movie stars and a monarch, and predicted her own death.

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.

**Episode 603: He’s a Pregen** Jun 14, 2024

In the **Gaming Hut** we turn the rise of surreal online retailer Temu into a horror scenario hook.

Beloved Patreon backer Ginge assigns the **Tradecraft Hut** to cough up the real dossier on the icy retrieval mission Project Coldfeet.

Estimable backer Charles Picard requests the **Culture Hut** treatment for experimental filmmaker and Vodou researcher Maya Deren.

Finally Ken’s Time Machine asks our resident chrono-protagonist for the best intervention into the 1826 Lao Rebellion.

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.

**Episode 602: They Have a Space Lawyer** Jun 07, 2024

In the **Gaming Hut**, Ken turns the tables on Robin by springing a concept for a game on him. Eavesdrop on the process as they riff on *Ley Brothers*.

The **Crime Blotter** reaches back into America’s history of 19th century violence to cover the assassination of Kentucky governor William Goebel.

In **Ask Ken and Robin** beloved Patreon backer Walter Manbeck asks Robin what a one player, one GM action movie game inspired by The Beekeeper and its retribution-seeking cinematic relatives might look like.

Finally the **Eliptony Hut** looks at some old UFO tropes packaged in very new streaming-age bottles: Blue Avians, the trademarked, documentary-approving contactee aliens.

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.

**Episode 601: Hydrate and Fix Your Boot** May 31, 2024

In the **Gaming Hut** we examine the fine but crucial distinction between fun obstacles and dilemmas your players will read as punishments.

The **Horror Hut** looks at a classic and misunderstood trio of classic characters, the so-called Brides of Dracula.

In the **Cinema Hut** we break down the visual grammar of shot composition.

Finally, the **Consulting Occultist**, surprised to find that he has yet to cover Nostradamus after more than a decade of episodes, proceeds to do just that.

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.

**Episode 600: LIGHTNING ROUND!!!** May 24, 2024

Numbers come and numbers go but when the podcast odometer clicks over to 600 Ken and Robin listeners know what to expect: the thunderous return of LIGHTNING ROUND!!!

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.

**Episode 599: You Can’t Rule Fish Out** May 17, 2024

In the **Gaming Hut** beloved Patreon backer Bob Grider asks how to create mystery hooks for sovereign citizens in *The Yellow King: This Is Normal Now*. With dire inevitability this leads to a discussion of pan-conspiratorialist Romana Didulo, aka the Queen of Canada.

Estimable backer Paul Douglas seeks the **Tradecraft Hut** take on the death of White Helmets founder James le Mesurier.

Cherished backer Andrew Blasenak alerts the **Horror Hut** to a new impending Philadelphia museum, VAMPA, which stands for Vampire Art Museum and Paranormal Activity.

Finally sponsor supreme Cat Tobin asks what **Ken’s Time Machine** might do to improve vegetarian cuisine.

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.

**Episode 598: Do We Really Want That Horse In Here?** May 10, 2024

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.

**Episode 597: The Copper Scroll is Real** May 03, 2024

In the **Gaming Hut** we talk about our visit to Shadowcon in Barcelona, courtesy of our beloved pals at Shadowlands, who have just published a stunning edition of the *Dracula Dossier* in the Spanish language.

**Travel Advisory** covers our exploration of the less nerdy reaches of our new favorite city, with an obligatory selection of small plates in the **Food Hut**.

Ken didn’t come home with a pile of Spanish books, but if it’s a trip we have to look at some new acquisitions. So **Ken’s Bookshelf** finally reveals the second half of his Potomac region plunder.

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.

**Episode 596: Also a No Show Job** Apr 26, 2024

In the **Gaming Hut**, beloved Patreon backer Andrew Miller asks for tips on playing paladins well.

We enter the **History Hut** to wonder what shattered the mind of Tudor historian John Leland.

Amid the popcorn munching of the **Cinema Hut** estimable backer David Sowa asks why so many action movies have poor final acts.

Finally the Consulting Occultist looks at the career of Icelandic medium Indriði Indriðason.

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.

**Episode 595: IPA Aliens** Apr 19, 2024

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.

**Episode 594: Bishop of the Drowned Land** Apr 12, 2024

In the **Gaming Hut** we identify the elements of a great recurring gamemaster character.

At the behest of beloved Patreon backer Lester Ward, the **Archaeology Hut** mulls the ancient Egyptian fortresses that were flooded by the building of the Aswan dam.

In the **Book Hut** tough, wisecracking Patreon backer Adam Grotjohn seeks a 101 on hardboiled fiction.

And finally the **Consulting Occultist** profiles Maria de Naglowska, occult lecturer and sex magician of 20s and 30s Paris.

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.

Reality horror just got realer with three new support products for The Yellow King Roleplaying Game: *Black Star Magic*, *Legions of Carcosa: The Yellow King Bestiary*, and Robin’s latest novel, *Fifth Imperative*.

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.

**Episode 593: Supermarket of Murder** Apr 05, 2024

Elves and dragons have some emotional needs to work out as the **Gaming Hut** answers beloved Patreon backer Nikolaj’s request for tips on bringing elements of DramaSystem into an F20 game.

The **Crime Blotter** checks out the Philadelphia poison murders, a massive killing for profit scheme involving syndicate witches in the *Trail of Cthulhu* era.

Madrigals are sung and the underworld is descended into in the **Culture Hut**, as erudite backer Patrick Holmes asks for a gameable bio of 16th century composer and possible part time alchemist Claudio Monteverdi.

Move your lap blanket away from the fireplace as the **Eliptony Hut** takes a long overdue look at the classic Fortean subject of spontaneous human combustion.

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.

Reality horror just got realer with three new support products for The Yellow King Roleplaying Game: *Black Star Magic*, *Legions of Carcosa: The Yellow King Bestiary*, and Robin’s latest novel, *Fifth Imperative*.

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.

**Ken and Robin Consume Media: A Mexican Machen Adaptation, French JFK Paranoia, and Dean Martin in a Flying Saucer** Apr 02, 2024

Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies, TV seasons and more we cram into our hyper-analytical sensoriums. Join the Patreon to help pick the items we’ll talk about in greater depth on a little podcast segment we like to call Tell Me More.

Recommended

American Fiction (Film, US, Cord Jefferson, 2023) As a scathing joke, a dyspeptic literary author (Jeffrey Wright) whose mom needs expensive care writes a novel packed with demeaning cliches of Black life, only to find an enthusiastic market for it in the white publishing world. Family drama lends emotional weight to a pointed takedown of representation’s cringey side. Witty dialogue is on a downswing in film at the moment so it’s nice to see it revived here.—RDL

I… for Icarus (Film, France, Henri Verneuil, 1979) In an alternate France, a patrician attorney general (Yves Montand) dissents from the whitewashing conclusions of a commission into a Presidential assassination, granting him the right to launch his own investigation. The medium is the conspiracy in this odd, oddly compelling McLuhanesque reconfiguration of the JFK assassination, complete with a detailed recreation of the Milgram Experiment.—RDL

The Skeleton of Mrs. Morales (Film, Mexico, Rogelio A. González, 1960) The neurotic browbeating of his pious, conniving wife (Amparo Rivelles) drives a bibulous taxidermist (Arturo de Córdova) to a desperate act. Satirical, expressionistic Grand Guignol based on Arthur Machen’s The Islington Mystery.—RDL

The Worst Ones (Film, France, Lise Akoka & Romane Gueret, 2022) Teens from a tough working class neighborhood win roles in a social issue film helmed by a middle-aged first time auteur (Johan Heldenbergh) whose grasp of boundaries isn’t as secure as he wants to think. Neorealist drama featuring intense performances from its young cast questions the ethics of its genre tradition.—RDL

Good

The Ambushers (Film, US, Henry Levin, 1967) Counter-spy Matt Helm (Dean Martin) escorts US saucer pilot Sheila Sommers (Janice Rule) into Mexico to recover her hijacked saucer and ID the hijacker. The Matt Helm movies are best enjoyed as period pieces by those who consider the Roger Moore Bond to be too grim and gritty, but Sheila has genuine agency and competence, a standout amongst the beer fights and brassiere guns. The UFO adds another nicely surreal touch to the sight of Dean Martin lounging through alleged action scenes.—KH

The Big Shot (Film, US, Lewis Seiler, 1942) Betrayed by the fancy lawyer who married his girl (Irene Manning), an ex-con with a secret conscience (Humphrey Bogart) returns to prison for an armored car heist he decided not to go through with. Bogie and Seiler give their best to a routine script.—RDL

Okay

Risen (Film, US/Spain, Kevin Reynolds, 2016) In occupied Judea, Pontius Pilate (Peter Firth) orders Roman tribune Clavius (Joseph Fiennes) to recover the body of a crucified Nazarene radical, which has vanished from its tomb. The first half of the movie is a taut, intriguing “Zero (A.D.) Dark Thirty” War on Terror parable with a touch of X-Files; the second half is Clavius’ internalizing his new faith in the (spoiler) risen Christ (Cliff Curtis), basically bringing the narrative to a dead halt. This could have been great if it were all the first half, though at the cost of many fewer copies of the Blu-Ray sold to church media rooms.—KH

**Episode 592: A Rhode Island Level of Excitement** Mar 29, 2024

In the **Gaming Hut** we find ways to bring players back into the action when they make sensible decisions that sideline their characters.

2Beloved Patreon backer Paul S. Enns beckons us into the **Tradecraft Hut** to cover the May 23rd Lake Maggiore boating accident.

In the **Monster Hut** we look at the blemmyae, the hungry headless folk of classical and medieval lore.

Finally **Ken’s Time Machine** responds to the request of estimable backer Eric Parks, who wants to know what the timeline would look like had Rhode Island’s Dorr Rebellion succeeded.

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.

Reality horror just got realer with three new support products for The Yellow King Roleplaying Game: *Black Star Magic*, *Legions of Carcosa: The Yellow King Bestiary*, and Robin’s latest novel, *Fifth Imperative*.

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.

**Episode 591: Good Fun That Barbarians Have** Mar 22, 2024

In the **Gaming Hut**, Robin pitches Ken on a concept for a roleplaying game called *Renfields*.

The **Mythology Hut** looks at the enigmatic Dacian god and/or person named Zalmoxis, who might have been a sky deity. Or an earth deity. Or a physician.

In **Ask Ken and Robin**, beloved Patreon backer Walter Manbeck asks Robin to expand on his capsule review of the 1956 Carol Reed circus movie Trapeze as a model for efficiently executed DramaSystem scenes.

The **Consulting Occultist** wraps up the episode with the rundown on the 17th century English physician and mystic Robert Fludd.

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.

Reality horror just got realer with three new support products for The Yellow King Roleplaying Game: *Black Star Magic*, *Legions of Carcosa: The Yellow King Bestiary*, and Robin’s latest novel, *Fifth Imperative*.

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.

**Episode 590: Rolled a Critical and Saved a Clown** Mar 15, 2024

We hope you can make it to the **Gaming Hut** for a discussion of quorum and attendance vagaries.

In the **History Hut** we answer the request of beloved Patreon backer Jeromy French to flesh out a topic we have previously only alluded to—the Toronto clown-fireman riot.

Finally **Ken’s Bookshelf** features a mere half of our resident bibliomane’s book raid on the Potomac region.

4th segment

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.

Reality horror just got realer with three new support products for The Yellow King Roleplaying Game: *Black Star Magic*, *Legions of Carcosa: The Yellow King Bestiary*, and Robin’s latest novel, *Fifth Imperative*.

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.

**Episode 589: Ordo Veritatis Chicago** Mar 08, 2024

Players say they hate linear scenarios. Seasoned convention GMs extoll the efficacy of the greased rail session. In the **Gaming Hut** we ask what’s up with that.

Beloved Patreon backer Monster Talk requests a **Ripped from the Headlines** on the now world-famous Chicago rat hole.

Finally, in keeping with our pre-Oscars tradition, we sneak into the **Cinema Hut** to finally reveal our respective movie top tens for 2023.

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.

Reality horror just got realer with three new support products for The Yellow King Roleplaying Game: *Black Star Magic*, *Legions of Carcosa: The Yellow King Bestiary*, and Robin’s latest novel, *Fifth Imperative*.

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.

**Episode 588: Full Stop Anti-Marooning** Mar 01, 2024

Keep your ancient documents well-hidden in the **Gaming Hut**, as beloved Patreon backer Brian Thomas asks us how to construct a Bookhounds of London one-shot around explorer Aurel Stein, the Great Game, and the Diamond Sutras.

When architects go wrong they wind up not in their own hut, but on the **Crime Blotter**, as is the case, as requested by estimable backer Derek Upham, 19th century heist mastermind George Leonidas Leslie.

In the **Narrative Hut** we ask ourselves if procedural crime dramas are, in the older literary meaning of the word, romances.

Finally in the **Eliptony Hut** we answer the call of legendary backer Jake Maas for a look at Newfoundland’s Isle of Demons.

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.

Reality horror just got realer with three new support products for The Yellow King Roleplaying Game: *Black Star Magic*, *Legions of Carcosa: The Yellow King Bestiary*, and Robin’s latest novel, *Fifth Imperative*.

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.

**Episode 587: Someone’s Gonna Wear the Skin** Feb 23, 2024

Beloved Patreon backer Mark Kenney inspires us to wear our classiest outfits in the **Gaming Hut** as we seek ways to bring the vocabulary of clothing and fashion to tabletop narration.

The **Food Hut** examines an old school staple dessert ingredient and the man who popularized it in North America, with the story of Walter Tennyson Swingle and the journey of the date.

We grab a long hook and protect draw a protective circle around the **Mythology Hut** for a look at stories where the devil comes to claim a dead person’s skin.

Finally we give a wide berth to all fava beans and contemplate the properties of the triangle as **Consulting Occultist** gives us a 101 on the Pythagoreans.

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.

Experience the world of Gloom in a new, immersive way with *Unhappy Birthday at Castle Slogar*. With an integrated hint and solution website, drenched in the beloved Gloom aesthetic by artist J. Scott Reeves, this puzzling gamebook kicks off Atlas’ new Enigma line. Sign up for the Kickstarter announcement!

Reality horror just got realer with three new support products for The Yellow King Roleplaying Game: *Black Star Magic*, *Legions of Carcosa: The Yellow King Bestiary*, and Robin’s latest novel, *Fifth Imperative*.

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*!

**Episode 586: The Velveteen Rabbit of Signage** Feb 16, 2024

In the **Gaming Hut** beloved Patreon backer Hector Trelane takes inspiration from Robin’s EZ One Shot system to ask if designers are finding a root language of roleplaying that points toward a less cluttered style of play.

At the behest of estimable backer Kristian Groenseth the Cartography Hut investigates the fake stop sign epidemic that struck Cranston, Rhode Island.

And finally Ken’s Bookshelf paws the spoils of our resident bibliomane’s recent raid on New York City.

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.

Experience the world of Gloom in a new, immersive way with *Unhappy Birthday at Castle Slogar*. With an integrated hint and solution website, drenched in the beloved Gloom aesthetic by artist J. Scott Reeves, this puzzling gamebook kicks off Atlas’ new Enigma line. Sign up for the Kickstarter announcement!

Reality horror just got realer with three new support products for The Yellow King Roleplaying Game: *Black Star Magic*, *Legions of Carcosa: The Yellow King Bestiary*, and Robin’s latest novel, *Fifth Imperative*.

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.

**Ken and Robin Consume Media: Slow Horses, American Fiction, Anatomy of a Fall, The Holdovers** Feb 13, 2024

Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies, TV seasons and more we cram into our hyper-analytical sensoriums. Join the Patreon to help pick the items we’ll talk about in greater depth on a little podcast segment we like to call Tell Me More.

Recommended

Air (Film, US, Ben Affleck, 2023) Basketball guru Sonny Vaccaro (Matt Damon) pursues Michael Jordan for third-ranked shoe company Nike. What could have been a leaden produpic soars thanks to Affleck’s willingness to invest in a multi-beat story (providing many of the comic beats by playing self-involved Nike CEO Phil Knight) and to wisely give Viola Davis her head in crafting the film’s moral center, Deloris Jordan. The result is more miracle play than produpic, with Vaccaro as John the Baptist and 80s needle drops as psalms.—KH

American Fiction (Film, US, Cord Jefferson, 2023) Literary novelist Thelonious “Monk” Ellison (Jeffrey Wright) creates a fake “street” identity to sell a pandering novel as his mother’s (Leslie Uggams) Alzheimer’s puts stress on his family. Repeatedly blunted satire nestles uneasily in a gently sad family drama, but Wright pulls the film through on the strength of a brilliant, low-simmering performance. Cristina Dunlap’s effective cinematography deserves a nod as well.—KH

Anatomy of a Fall (Film, France, Justine Triet, 2023) Tightly wound writer (Sandra Hüller) faces a murder trial that strains her relationship with her sensitive, vision-impaired young son (Milo Machado Graner) when her resentful husband takes a fatal plunge from the top floor of their chalet-style home. Realist courtroom drama takes full advantage of the freewheeling structure of French criminal proceedings to flesh out its study of a marriage on the brink.—RDL

Fair Play (Film, US, Chloe Domont, 2023) Hedge fund analysts and surreptitious lovers Emily and Luke (Phoebe Dynevor and Alden Ehrenreich) hit the emotional rocks when one of them is promoted. Crackling character beats show their dog-eat-dog financial careers stripping the humanity from both; great acting from the duo prevents the melodrama from overweighting the careful verisimilitude of Domont’s Wall Street mise en scene.—KH

The Holdovers (Film, US, Alexander Payne, 2023) Bilious prep school history teacher (Paul Giamatti) bonds with a grieving cafeteria supervisor (Da’Vine Joy Randolph) and a smart, rebellious student (Dominic Sessa) when ordered to supervise the few students staying over for Christmas break. Empathy rises from misanthropy in a dramedy revolving around a trio of winning performances and a love of the American New Wave.—RDL

Slow Horses Season 3 (Television, UK, Apple+, Will Smith, 2023) A former embassy guard’s quest for justice draws River Cartwright (Jack Lowden), Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman) and the other Slough House exiles into a high body count MI5 internal struggle. This season pulls the lever on the thriller switch, bringing greased-rail pacing to the serialized TV format.—RDL

The Vietri Project (Fiction, Nicola DeRobertis-Theye, 2021) As she reaches the age when she might inherit her Italian mother’s schizophrenia, a Californian former bookseller’s travels take her to Rome and a search for a mysterious bibliophile. Echoes of Eco set the stage for a quest to reconcile the protagonist’s dual, dueling national identities.—RDL

Good

Everything Goes Wrong (Film, Japan, Seijun Suzuki, 1960) Young malcontent (Tamio Kawaji) melts down over his mother’s relationship with a thoughtful but married business executive. High-strung drama positions itself as a juvenile delinquent picture in order to question the genre’s anti-youth hysteria.—RDL

Fanfare of Love (Film, France, Richard Pottier, 1935) A pair of unemployed musicians pose as women to get hired by an all-female nightclub orchestra. A fun situation farce mostly notable as the ultimate source, by way of its 1951 German remake, for Some Like It Hot.—RDL

**Episode 585: Advice and Holy Water** Feb 09, 2024

In the **Gaming Hut** we look at the paradox of choice, in which players want many alternative paths yet also want to explore all of them.

The **Archaeology Hut** surveys the career of William Stukeley, the 18th century polymath whose studies of Stonehenge and Avebury made him one of the field’s foundational figures.

In the **Horror Hut** beloved sponsor John Kovalic wants us to retell the tale of the BBC’s lost terror series, Late Night Horror.

Finally the **Eliptony Hut** sets up close to Robin’s location for the weird one-off cryptid, the Cabbagetown Tunnel Monster.

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.

Experience the world of Gloom in a new, immersive way with *Unhappy Birthday at Castle Slogar*. With an integrated hint and solution website, drenched in the beloved Gloom aesthetic by artist J. Scott Reeves, this puzzling gamebook kicks off Atlas’ new Enigma line. Sign up for the Kickstarter announcement!

Reality horror just got realer with three new support products for The Yellow King Roleplaying Game: *Black Star Magic*, *Legions of Carcosa: The Yellow King Bestiary*, and Robin’s latest novel, *Fifth Imperative*.

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.

**Episode 584: Maybe a Murder is Good Sometimes** Feb 02, 2024

In the **Gaming Hut,** beloved Patreon backer Joshua Randall asks for help dealing with players who like to shoot down everyone else’s plans.

Fans of irony will appreciate the story of Edo firebreaks, as told in the **History Hut**.

**Ken and Robin Recycle Audio** concludes our excerpts from the Dramatic Interaction panel at Gen Con 2023. Emily Cambias and John R. Harness join Robin in examining the integration of trad gaming and personal interaction.

Then at the behest of esteemed Patreon backer Michael Cule, our chrononaut reveals what Ken’s Time Machine might have had to do with the famed 18 1/2 minute gap in the Watergate tapes.

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.

Experience the world of Gloom in a new, immersive way with *Unhappy Birthday at Castle Slogar*. With an integrated hint and solution website, drenched in the beloved Gloom aesthetic by artist J. Scott Reeves, this puzzling gamebook kicks off Atlas’ new Enigma line. Sign up for the Kickstarter announcement!

Reality horror just got realer with three new support products for The Yellow King Roleplaying Game: *Black Star Magic*, *Legions of Carcosa: The Yellow King Bestiary*, and Robin’s latest novel, *Fifth Imperative*.

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.

**Episode 583: Marge the Druid is Feeling Rejected** Jan 26, 2024

In the **Gaming Hut** beloved backer Ludovic Chabant asks Robin to expand on his choice for favorite RPG adventure, as seen on the Scroll for Initiative blog. Naturally Ken also makes a choice or two himself.

Estimable backer Fred Kiesche beckons us to the **Architecture Hut**, which has a **Culture Hut** inside, and possibly a strong streak of occultism, to discuss the fourth-dimensional explorations of architect and stage designer Claude Bragdon.

**Ken and Robin Recycle Audio** with installment two of the Dramatic Interaction panel at Gen Con, featuring Robin with Emily Cambias and John R. Harness, answering questions on the basic structure of interpersonal scenes.

Finally the **Consulting Occultist** meets us in the **Food Hut** at the behest of distinguished patron Elias Helfer, seconded by Jamie Twine, who seek the esoteric secrets of the pavlova.

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.

Experience the world of Gloom in a new, immersive way with *Unhappy Birthday at Castle Slogar*. With an integrated hint and solution website, drenched in the beloved Gloom aesthetic by artist J. Scott Reeves, this puzzling gamebook kicks off Atlas’ new Enigma line. Sign up for the Kickstarter announcement!

Reality horror just got realer with three new support products for The Yellow King Roleplaying Game: *Black Star Magic*, *Legions of Carcosa: The Yellow King Bestiary*, and Robin’s latest novel, *Fifth Imperative*.

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.

**Episode 582: That’s a Bad Laser** Jan 19, 2024

In the **Gaming Hut** beloved backer Jamie Twine seeks tips on signaling weirdness and danger in horror games not set in our recognizable world.

Esteemed backer Ginger asks for the **Tradecraft Hut** take on the OSINT journalism entity Bellingcat.

**Ken and Robin Recycle Audio** with the first part of a Dramatic Interaction panel from Gen Con, in which Robin is joined by designers Emily Cambias and John R. Harness.

Finally the **Eliptony Hut** reviews the case of Jean Grenier, a young misfit from a 17th century French village who went on trial after identifying himself as a werewolf.

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.

Experience the world of Gloom in a new, immersive way with *Unhappy Birthday at Castle Slogar*. With an integrated hint and solution website, drenched in the beloved Gloom aesthetic by artist J. Scott Reeves, this puzzling gamebook kicks off Atlas’ new Enigma line. Sign up for the Kickstarter announcement!

Reality horror just got realer with three new support products for The Yellow King Roleplaying Game: *Black Star Magic*, *Legions of Carcosa: The Yellow King Bestiary*, and Robin’s latest novel, *Fifth Imperative*.

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.

**Episode 581: Bureaucratic Survival Horror** Jan 12, 2024

Everything unravels in the **Gaming Hut** when beloved Patreon backer Tennant Reed asks us to use the Watergate docudramedy *Gaslit* as inspiration for a heist gone wrong game.

**Ken’s Bookshelf** delivers a change of pace segment as Robin asks our resident bibliomane to describe the five most specialized books in his collection.

In **Ripped from the Headlines** estimable backer Paul Douglas asks for the real scoop on a hungry and disoriented Russian economist who got from Copenhagen to LAX without a ticket or passport.

Finally astute backer Phil Masters returns to **Ken’s Time Machine** with another of his brilliantly crafted queries. What role did our chrono-hero play in the 1120 White Ship sinking, which wiped out much of the English royal family?

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.

Experience the world of Gloom in a new, immersive way with *Unhappy Birthday at Castle Slogar*. With an integrated hint and solution website, drenched in the beloved Gloom aesthetic by artist J. Scott Reeves, this puzzling gamebook kicks off Atlas’ new Enigma line. Sign up for the Kickstarter announcement!

Reality horror just got realer with three new support products for The Yellow King Roleplaying Game: *Black Star Magic*, *Legions of Carcosa: The Yellow King Bestiary*, and Robin’s latest novel, *Fifth Imperative*.

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.

**Episode 580: The Most Fun Word in the History of Metallurgy** Jan 05, 2024

The **Gaming Hut** contains a special rack for displaying fancy blades as beloved Patreon backer Stephen Dosman asks us to find the tabletop fun in Ulfberht swords.

In the **Cinema Hut** we look at the newest cycle of female-focused, character-driven horror films.

Estimable backer Manfred Gabriel uses his **Ask Ken and Robin** powers to seek advice on spending his Dracula points.

Finally the **Consulting Occultist** tells the wry tale of the early Georgian era astrologer Isaac Bickerstaff, who predicted the death of rival John Partridge and might not have been entirely who he seemed.

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.

Experience the world of Gloom in a new, immersive way with *Unhappy Birthday at Castle Slogar*. With an integrated hint and solution website, drenched in the beloved Gloom aesthetic by artist J. Scott Reeves, this puzzling gamebook kicks off Atlas’ new Enigma line. Sign up for the Kickstarter announcement!

Reality horror just got realer with three new support products for The Yellow King Roleplaying Game: *Black Star Magic*, *Legions of Carcosa: The Yellow King Bestiary*, and Robin’s latest novel, *Fifth Imperative*.

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.

**Episode 579: Live at Dragonmeet 2023** Dec 22, 2023

Our annual live episode recorded at London’s Dragonmeet finds our audience of expert questioners in a substantive mood. Accordingly, after nerdtroping WWII and the Peloponnesian war and contemplating high end snacks, we look at the unsolved problems of gaming, solo game design, troupe play and so much more.

That puts 2023 in the rearview mirror for us. Enjoy the holiday you celebrate and rejoin us in the weird future of 2024.

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.

Experience the world of Gloom in a new, immersive way with *Unhappy Birthday at Castle Slogar*. With an integrated hint and solution website, drenched in the beloved Gloom aesthetic by artist J. Scott Reeves, this puzzling gamebook kicks off Atlas’ new Enigma line. Sign up for the Kickstarter announcement!

Reality horror just got realer with three new support products for The Yellow King Roleplaying Game: *Black Star Magic*, *Legions of Carcosa: The Yellow King Bestiary*, and Robin’s latest novel, *Fifth Imperative*.

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.

**Episode 578: Subtitle Quibbler** Dec 15, 2023

The **Gaming Hut** explodes in a molasses fireball full of staplers, but then does something entirely sensible, as we consider ways to reframe the fumble.

The **Eliptony Hut** studies a locally beloved cryptid, the Loveland Ohio frogman.

Finally **Ken’s Bookshelf** features an unusually sleek and selective London book haul, as our hero describes treasures liberated from Treadwell’s and Foyles.

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.

Ho ho ho, festive friends, it’s once again time to celebrate the holidays and noncompliant behavior with *Weird Little Elf*, the fast and easy stocking stuffer game from our garland-festooned pals at Atlas Games.

Reality horror just got realer with three new support products for The Yellow King Roleplaying Game: *Black Star Magic*, *Legions of Carcosa: The Yellow King Bestiary*, and Robin’s latest novel, *Fifth Imperative*.

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.

**Ken and Robin Consume Media: Godzilla Minus One, Poker Face, The Bear** Dec 12, 2023

Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies, TV seasons and more we cram into our hyper-analytical sensoriums. Join the Patreon to help pick the items we’ll talk about in greater depth on a little podcast segment we like to call Tell Me More.

Recommended

The Bear Season 1 (Television, US, FX, Christopher Storer & Joanna Calo, 2022) Acclaimed young chef (Jeremy Allen White) attempts to salvage the chaotic local joint willed to him by his addict brother, clashing with a bumptious long term employee slash honorary cousin (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) and acting as uneasy mentor to an up and coming new hire (Ayo Edibiri.) With the constantly clock ticking and random culinary disasters raining down, this intense, Chicago-besotted drama establishes a new sub-genre of suspense: the food thriller.—RDL

Chavela (Film, Mexico/Spain, Catherine Gund, & Daresha Kyi, 2017) Biographical arts documentary profiles Chavela Vargas, the hard-living singer who brought operatic passion to the ranchera genre and became a ladykilling icon to Mexico’s lesbian community. If you don’t know the name you may have heard her music in the films of Pedro Almodovar, who championed her late career comeback and appears here in both archival and interview sequences.—RDL

Godzilla Minus One (Film, Japan, Takashi Yamazaki, 2023) Failed kamikaze pilot Koichi (Rynosuke Kamiki) seeks to expiate his cowardice when Godzilla attacks Japan in 1947. Yamazaki grounds the human action in social integration and stifled emotion, producing a film ironically much more like a mainstream 1954 American (or Japanese) film than the nihilist cosmic-horror Pinnacle he’s homaging. The kaiju action, meanwhile, is unimpeachably excellent. —KH

The Horror Tarot (Tarot deck, Todd Alcott, 2023) Rather than the bricolage treatment of his Pulp Tarot, Alcott homages specific traditions of horror art in the suits and trumps of this full 78-card tarot. Horror film posters (Major Arcana), Famous Monsters of Filmland (Wands), EC Comics (Swords), horror paperback covers (Cups), and pulp magazine covers (Pentacles) provide the inspiration for Alcott’s lovingly uncanny designs. —KH

Moss Rose (Film, US, Gregory Ratoff, 1947) Seeing a brooding heir (Victor Mature) leaving a murder scene, a social climbing chorus girl (Peggy Cummins) offers her silence in exchange for an extended invitation to his family’s country estate. Victorian gothic suffused with a proto-Lynchian sensibility, which regards the bizarre decisions of its characters as sympathetic and normal.—RDL

Only Murders in the Building Season 3 (Television, US, Hulu, Steve Martin & John Hoffman, 2023) When the asshole star (Paul Rudd) of Oliver’s (Martin Stone) Broadway comeback gets murdered, Mabel (Selena Gomez) investigates as Oliver re-imagines the show as a musical and Charles’ (Steve Martin) life falls back apart.. Normally a season of mostly premise rejection and backsliding would annoy me, but watching Martin Short center a “backstage panic” show is almost as good as a murder mystery any day. This mystery, by the way, improves considerably on Season 2. —KH

The Perfect Game (Film, Japan, Toshio Masuda, 1958) College ne’er do wells take a darker than anticipated turn when they take advantage of a communications delay between cycling track and bookie parlor to place a fraudulent bet. Sharp-cornered noir about characters on a greased chute to moral bankruptcy.—RDL

Poker Face Season 1 (Television, US, Peacock, Rian Johnson, 2023) Casino employee with an unfailing ear for lies Charlie Cale (Natasha Lyonne) flees a vengeful pursuer but solves murders along the way. Good-natured combination of The Fugitive and Columbo leans into its old-school TV virtues such as good lighting and concise character portraits, occasionally playing up cheap humor but at its best devising tight but meaty micro-dramas with a murderous hook. All this and a master class in “why Bullshit Detector doesn’t ruin mysteries in GUMSHOE,” too.—KH

Resurrection (Film, US, Andrew Semans, 2022) Tightly wound biotech manager (Rebecca Hall) whose stifled daughter (Grace Kaufman) is about to leave for college fears the return of a menacing figure (Tim Roth) from her past. Hall turns in a harrowing tour de force performance in a profoundly unsettling work of psychological reality horror.—RDL

Stronger Than Love (Film, Cuba/Mexico, Tuli Demicheli, 1955) Haughty young woman (Miroslava) returns from Europe, where she falls into torrid love-hate with the blunt self-made man (Jorge Mistral) who, unbeknownst to her, has saved her upper crust family from ruin. Racy, sardonic melodrama is glossy, commercial entertainment from pre-revolutionary Cuba. Check out the hot and heavy santeria-inspired nightclub dance routine.—RDL

Good

High Tension (Film, US, Allan Dwan, 1936) The brashness that makes deep sea diver Steve Reardon the best man for any telegraph cable laying job causes him to wrongfoot his relationship with the fiery pulp writer (Glenda Farrell) who fictionalizes his adventures. Eccentric blend of romcom and 30s dangerous labor movie kept aloft by charm and zippy pacing.—RDL

**Episode 577: A Glove on the Flipper** Dec 08, 2023

In the **Gaming Hut** we come to the aid of beloved Patreon backer Keelan O’Hea, who wants to know how to revive a campaign after a period spent on hold.

Recent reports that it is the world’s oldest pyramid surely had you wondering when we were going to discuss Indonesia’s Gunung Padang in the **Archaeology Hut**.

To the world’s cheers, orcas have been attacking boats near Spain and Portugal. **Ripped from the Headlines** has the story behind the story.

Finally, we learn which key events Ken’s Time Machine must protect to prevent the British from winning the American Revolutionary War.

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.

Ho ho ho, festive friends, it’s once again time to celebrate the holidays and noncompliant behavior with *Weird Little Elf*, the fast and easy stocking stuffer game from our garland-festooned pals at Atlas Games.

Reality horror just got realer with three new support products for The Yellow King Roleplaying Game: *Black Star Magic*, *Legions of Carcosa: The Yellow King Bestiary*, and Robin’s latest novel, *Fifth Imperative*.

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.

**Ken and Robin Consume Media: High School Fight Club, Twisted Apparitions, and the Plot Against Hitler** Dec 06, 2023

Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies, TV seasons and more we cram into our hyper-analytical sensoriums. Join the Patreon to help pick the items we’ll talk about in greater depth on a little podcast segment we like to call Tell Me More.

Recommended

Bottoms (Film, US, Emma Seligmann, 2023) Anarchy reigns when gay but nonetheless unpopular high school besties (Rachel Sennott, Ayo Edebiri) looking for a pretext to talk to their crushes set up a self defense club. Outrageous teen comedy escalates to a truly bonkers conclusion. I hope someone is writing more comedies around Edebiri‘s brilliant minor key comic timing.—RDL

Finders Keepers: A Tale of Archaeological Plunder and Obsession (Nonfiction, Craig Childs, 2010) Profiling archaeologists, curators, collectors, dealers and plunderers, Childs considers the surprisingly complex question of where artifacts belong, who ought to possess them, and whether they should be left in the ground. A compelling voice gives narrative direction to a topic that in most other hands would be as dusty as a roadside pot sherd.—RDL

Hôtel du Nord (Film, France, Marcel Carné, 1938) Passionate young woman (Renée) checks into a modest hotel to complete a suicide pact with her boyfriend (Jean-Pierre Aumont) but is then drawn into the community of its residents and staff. Lyrical ensemble drama pits romantic fatalism against the joys of living.—RDL

Huesera: the Bone Woman (Film, Mexico, Michelle Garza Cervera, 2023) Pregnant furniture maker with a wild past (Natalia Solián) spirals into despair when she is plagued by apparitions of horrifically twisted female bodies. Unnerving character-driven horror draws on the fear of motherhood.—RDL

The Pez Outlaw (Film, US, Amy and Brian Storkel, 2022) Documentary retells the story of Steve Glew, who in the 90s became a thorn in the side to the American branch of the Pez candy dispenser empire with gray market imports of back-doored product from Eastern European factories. Wry caper elements float over darker hints of the mental health implications of obsessive collector culture.—RDL

The Possessed (Film, Italy, Luigi Bazzoni & Franco Rossellini, 1965) Novelist checking into an off-season hotel discovers that the maid he yearns for died under mysterious circumstances. Dreams and imaginings stand in for clues in this austere, arty mystery.—RDL

Valkyrie (Film, US/Germany, Bryan Singer, 2008) Col. Claus von Stauffenberg (Tom Cruise) joins a plot against Hitler and takes it over by force of personality. By emphasizing the larger conspiracy around the bomb plot, Singer turns the story into a high-tension political thriller while uncomfortably highlighting the need for ruthlessness even for the best of ends. Terence Stamp and Bill Nighy superbly play Generals Beck and Olbricht as model and foil to Cruise, respectively. —KH

**Episode 576: Pantheon Hop** Dec 01, 2023

In the **Gaming Hut** we ask ourselves whether designers should include optional rules they don’t actually recommend using.

The **History Hut** takes on the smell of rocket fuel as beloved backer Fred Kiesche asks for the real made-up story behind the US anti-satellite weapons of Program 437.

Estimable backer Shane Cubis bids us to the Culture Hut to profile Peggy Guggenheim, peripatetic collector, dealer and patron of the surrealist and abstract expressionist movements.

At the behest of applaudable backer Ben Brighoff, the **Eliptony Hut** looks at the Sullivanians, the Upper West Side movement that for decades twisted psychotherapy into a vehicle for abusive cult control.

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.

Ho ho ho, festive friends, it’s once again time to celebrate the holidays and noncompliant behavior with *Weird Little Elf*, the fast and easy stocking stuffer game from our garland-festooned pals at Atlas Games.

Reality horror just got realer with three new support products for The Yellow King Roleplaying Game: *Black Star Magic*, *Legions of Carcosa: The Yellow King Bestiary*, and Robin’s latest novel, *Fifth Imperative*.

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.

**Episode 575: Your Starter Past Life** Nov 24, 2023

In the **Gaming Hut** beloved Patreon backer Alexander Arebalo wants to know how to make a building more of a character than a setting in a scenario.

Glittering backer Josh King checks the **Crime Blotter** for the story of Civil War gold that one treasure hunter accuses the FBI of stealing right from under his nose.

Legendary Patreon backer Joshua Hillerup beckons us to the **Monster Hut** to review the particulars of the Irish sorcerer-dwarf and/or vampire, the abhartach.

Finally the **Consulting Occultist** tells us about turn of the century Swiss medium, automatic writer and vicarious Mars visitor Hélène Smith.

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.

Ho ho ho, festive friends, it’s once again time to celebrate the holidays and noncompliant behavior with *Weird Little Elf*, the fast and easy stocking stuffer game from our garland-festooned pals at Atlas Games.

Reality horror just got realer with three new support products for The Yellow King Roleplaying Game: *Black Star Magic*, *Legions of Carcosa: The Yellow King Bestiary*, and Robin’s latest novel, *Fifth Imperative*.

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.

**Episode 574: Kettle of Worms** Nov 17, 2023

In the **Gaming Hut** show you how to remind players that their characters are the experts.

The **Tradecraft Hut** profiles American novelist, journalist and Soviet spy Martha Dodd.

**Ken and/or Robin Talk To Someone Else** finds us chatting with designer and theorist John R. Harness.

Finally at the behest of beloved Patreon backer Patrick Holmes, **Ken’s Time Machine** sets the dial for prehistoric. Our chrono-hero looks into the hominid population bottleneck, which came close to ending the *homo sapiens* story before it began.

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.

Atlas Games turns an amazing math discovery into a fascinating puzzle for all ages with InFUNity Tiles. Bring this improbably polygon, made from recycled plastic , into your life by joining the current Kickstarter.

Reality horror just got realer with three new support products for The Yellow King Roleplaying Game: *Black Star Magic*, *Legions of Carcosa: The Yellow King Bestiary*, and Robin’s latest novel, *Fifth Imperative*.

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.

**Episode 573: Have a Train Handy** Nov 10, 2023

In the **Gaming Hut** we discuss ways to build premise acceptance into pregenerated characters.

Beloved Patreon backer invites us to the **Horror Hut** to discuss H. P. Lovecraft’s view that Bram Stoker was not the sole author of *Dracula*.

Director Paul Schrader recently observed that movie audiences are dumber now. In the **Cinema Hut** we decide if he’s onto something there.

Finally in the **Eliptony Hut** we return to the site of a recent segment to unearth the history of the Hexham Heads.

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.

Atlas Games turns an amazing math discovery into a fascinating puzzle for all ages with InFUNity Tiles. Bring this improbably polygon, made from recycled plastic , into your life by joining the current Kickstarter.

Reality horror just got realer with three new support products for The Yellow King Roleplaying Game: *Black Star Magic*, *Legions of Carcosa: The Yellow King Bestiary*, and Robin’s latest novel, *Fifth Imperative*.

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.

**Episode 572: Rains of Peas and Gravel** Nov 03, 2023

In the **Gaming Hut** beloved Patreon backer Bart Mallio asks us for ways to make traps exciting.

Redoubtable backer Patrick Crowley directs us to the **History Hut** for a look at St. Louis’ Veiled Prophet tradition.

The **Food Hut** takes on a retrofuturistic look as tasteful backer Rich Ranallo asks us for the lowdown on futuristic cooking.

Finally stellar backer Scott Wachter asks the **Consulting Occultist** why the so-called 13th astrological sign, Ophiuchus, remains unrecognized.

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.

Atlas Games turns an amazing math discovery into a fascinating puzzle for all ages with InFUNity Tiles. Bring this improbably polygon, made from recycled plastic , into your life by joining the current Kickstarter.

Reality horror just got realer with three new support products for The Yellow King Roleplaying Game: *Black Star Magic*, *Legions of Carcosa: The Yellow King Bestiary*, and Robin’s latest novel, *Fifth Imperative*.

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.

**Ken and Robin Consume Media: Satanists, Demon Contagion, and a Science Vampire** Oct 31, 2023

Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies, TV seasons and more we cram into our hyper-analytical sensoriums. Join the Patreon to help pick the items we’ll talk about in greater depth on a little podcast segment we like to call Tell Me More.

Recommended

El Vampiro Negro (Film, Argentina, Román Viñoly Barreto, 1953) Publicity-fearing nightclub singer (Olga Zubarry) runs afoul of a severe prosecutor (Roberto Escalado) when she declines to assist his hunt for a compulsive child killer (Nathán Pinzón.) Remake of M relegates the killer’s story to a subplot in a film noir tale of shaded morality packed with arresting expressionist imagery.—RDL

Ready or Not (Film, US, Matt Bettinelli-Olpin & Tyler Gillett, 2019) Woman (Samara Weaving) marries into a wealthy family of board game manufacturers, little suspecting that a wedding night tradition gives her a one in thirty chance of being hunted down for Satanic sacrifice. Weaving strikes the requisite balance between resourceful and terrified in this tongue-in-cheek single-location pursuit thriller.—RDL

Roald Dahl Quartet (Films, US, Wes Anderson, 2023) Anderson films four Dahl short stories (“The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar,” “The Swan,” “The Rat Catcher,” and “Poison”) as literal expressions of story telling, the cast (including Ralph Fiennes as Dahl, Benedict Cumberbatch as Henry Sugar, etc.) narrating the stories right through the fourth wall as the effects and stagehands switch out backdrops, props, etc. Somehow the combination of the completely literal and categorically abstract works, and evokes the same ironic flavor of humor as Dahl’s text. —KH

Thirst (Film, South Korea/US, Park Chan-wook, 2009) Turned into a vampire by an experimental vaccine, priest Sang-hyun (Song Kang-ho) re-enters the life of his childhood sweetheart Tae-ju (Kim Ok-bin) to bad effect. A slowly accelerating burn punctuated by compelling combos of image and music, Thirst is a great vampire film and the weirdest adaptation of an Emile Zola novel you’re ever likely to see. —KH

When Evil Lurks (Film, Argentina, Demián Rugna, 2023) Two brothers who work a farm in a remote area trigger a demonic plague when they help to dump a possessed individual on the site of a rural road. Existentially and viscerally disturbing blend of the contagion and possession sub-genres superimposes cosmic indifference over the spooky Christianity associated with the latter. Its depiction of a pervasive supernatural menace that society has uneasily adjusted to puts it on the film inspiration list for The *Yellow King Roleplaying Game: This is Normal Now*.—RDL

Good

Blue Hour: The Disappearance of Nick Brandreth (Film, US, Dan Bowhers, 2023) Documentary filmmaker Olivia Brandreth (Morgan DeTogne) investigates the disappearance of her photographer father (Nick Brandreth). Found-footage mockumentary can’t seal the deal with the ending and only occasionally hits the uncanny it endlessly invokes, but Bowhers deserves credit for taking a big conceptual swing. —KH

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (Film, US, John Francis Daley & Jonathan Goldstein, 2023) Not-entirely-useless bard (Chris Pine) and strong female barbarian (Michelle Rodriguez) break out of prison and seek revenge on their weaselly rogue ex-comrade (Hugh Grant, once more absolutely masticating a villain part). Delightful Forgotten Realms tourism, a zippy fantasy heist, and legitimately funny and clever bits make this easily the best D&D movie, which is not a high bar. It would have been even better if any of its story or character beats had come as a remote surprise of any kind. —KH

Spectral (Film, US, Nic Mathieu, 2016) DARPA weapons researcher (James Badge Dale) embeds with a special forces unit fighting a revanchist insurgency in Moldova to investigate killer skeleton ghosts. If it had a modicum of characterization and an authoritative visual style, this novel mash-up of the war and SF horror genres would rate minor classic status.—RDL

Okay

The Great Magician (Film, Hong Kong, Derek Yee, 2011) Stage magician (Tony Leung Chiu Wai) arrives in 1920s Beijing to save his fiancee from an insecure warlord (Lau Ching Wan.) Leung and Lau give a masterclass in the profundity of movie star action to a colorful comedy that isn’t particularly looking to accommodate emotional depth.—RDL

**Episode 571: Forensic Chainsawologists** Oct 27, 2023

The Gaming Hut stands inconveniently close to a weapons and armor store as beloved Patreon backer Urchin Prince asks for advice on handling shopping-obsessed players.

At the request of arborially concerned backer Evan Hughes, Ripped from the Headlines finds the esoteric truth behind the felling of the iconic, titular tree at Sycamore Gap.

Speaking of shopping, Ken’s Bookshelf allows us to vicariously enjoy our hero’s latest effort to deplete the book purveyors of Oregon.

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.

Join the Cat Eyes detective agency, where every night is a purrfectly spooooky Halloween mystery, with Kitty Noir, the city sourcebook for *Magical Kitties Save the Day* from Atlas Games.

Stock up for your Halloween games with a Pelgrane Press super sale on its top GUMSHOE horror titles. The promo code SCARY23 at the Pelgrane online store gets you 20% off on *Trail of Cthulhu* products, *Yellow King Roleplaying Game* products, *Esoterrorists* products and *Fear Itself* products until November 1st.

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.

**Episode 570: Perhaps I’m Wrung Out** Oct 20, 2023

Our first all-request episode in many moons kicks off with a **Gaming Hut** question from beloved Patreon backer Derrick Yates, on running horror when you don’t love gory movies.

Then compelling backer Richard Schwerdtfeger beckons us to the Command Hut for the peculiar, cameo-filled WWII battle at Castle Itter.

At the behest of inquiring Patreon backer John Kingdon, the **Book Hut** examines the practice of anthropodermic bibliopegy. For a complete treatment of the topic, see Megan Rosenbloom’s *Dark Archives: A Librarian’s Investigation into the Science and History of Books Bound in Human Skin*.

Finally **Ken’s Time Machine** accepts a mission assigned by parrothead-adjacent backer Michael Fox, who seeks a glimpse at the timeline where Elvis Presley recorded Margaritaville.

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.

Join the Cat Eyes detective agency, where every night is a purrfectly spooooky Halloween mystery, with Kitty Noir, the city sourcebook for *Magical Kitties Save the Day* from Atlas Games.

Stock up for your Halloween games with a Pelgrane Press super sale on its top GUMSHOE horror titles. The promo code SCARY23 at the Pelgrane online store gets you 20% off on *Trail of Cthulhu* products, *Yellow King Roleplaying Game* products, *Esoterrorists* products and *Fear Itself* products until November 1st.

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.

**Ken and Robin Consume Media: Alien Invaders, Outback Noir, and a Curse-Breaking Conspiracy** Oct 17, 2023

Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies, TV seasons and more we cram into our hyper-analytical sensoriums. Join the Patreon to help pick the items we’ll talk about in greater depth on a little podcast segment we like to call Tell Me More.

Recommended

Full Circle (Television, US, HBO Max, Ed Solomon & Steven Soderbergh, 2023) To undo a family curse, a Guyanese crime boss (CCH Pounder) orders the kidnapping of a rich couple’s (Claire Danes, Timothy Olyphant) son, enmeshing a rogue postal inspector (Zazie Beetz) and many others in a series of dangerous errors and surprising revelations. Chaos theory ensemble crime drama shot by Soderbergh with a subtly destabilizing immediacy.—RDL

Limbo (Film, Australia, Ivan Sen, 2023) Police investigator Travis Hurley (Simon Baker) arrives at the titular opal-mining outback town to investigate the 20-year-old cold case of an Aboriginal girl’s abduction. Baker’s superb performance and the stark black-and-white cinematography (also by Sen) knit together this elliptical bricolage of noir, Western, policier, and social comment film genres into a powerful whole that does the job of cinema better than virtually anything you will see this year.—KH

No One Will Save You (Film, US, Brian Duffield, 2023) Lonely Etsy seller (Kaitlyn Dever) fights back when sinister gray UFO occupants invade her rural home. Nearly dialogue-free exercise in pure cinema cleverly weaves together disparate alien terror tropes.—RDL

Reptile (Film, US, Grant Singer, 2023) Homicide detective (Benicio del Toro) uncovers a conspiracy while investigating the murder of a callow realtor’s (Justin Timberlake) fiancee. Del Toro steps into a welcome leading role as a pitiless roving camera and ominous soundtrack lend neo-gothic dread to a small town policier.—RDL

Good

Evil Dead Rise (Film, US, Lee Cronin, 2023) In a largely deserted apartment building, a guitar tech (Lily Sullivan) defends her nieces and nephew from their demonically possessed mother (Alyssa Sutherland.) Earns points for moving the franchise to a new urban locale and for exploring deeper characterization, though the horror remits too often in the middle, and the fear of motherhood theme doesn’t really integrate with the gothic teleology of the Evil Dead universe.—RDL

Okay

Foremost by Night (Film, Spain/Portugal/France, Victor Iriarte, 2023) Court reporter Vera (Lola Dueñas) penetrates a baby-snatching conspiracy to find her stolen son Egoz (Manuel Egozkue) and his adoptive mother Cora (Ana Torrent). This film could be Exhibit A in McKee’s “no voiceovers” thesis. Three or four very promising premises founder on the complete absence of conflict, leaving what little drama remains for the actors to emote. That game acting and some intriguingly oblique symbology keep this inert exercise barely at Okay. —KH

Thirteen Women (Film, US, George Archainbaud, 1932) Young widowed socialite (Irene Dunne) and her former finishing school classmates receive messages of doom from an astrologer, which come true thanks to the hypnotic powers of their embittered nemesis (Myrna Loy.) Somewhat perfunctory thriller novel adaptation offers the chance to see Loy in one of her early villain roles. CW: Orientalism.

**Episode 569: Alacrity was Their Dump Stat** Oct 13, 2023

The **Gaming Hut** completes its series on scenario structures, as inspired by Robin’s recent *Adventure Crucible* chapbook for the Kraken, with the intrigue scenario.

In **Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else**, we chat with Ajit George, who looks back on his work as developer of the acclaimed Journeys Through the Radiant City adventure anthology for Dungeons & Dragons.

At the behest of beloved Patreon backer John Scheib, Crime Blotter seeks the numismatic and/or occult significance of a Philadelphia dime heist.

Finally the **Eliptony Hut** rips a topic from the headlines, profiling UFOlogist Jaime Maussan, who recently presented so-called alien mummies to a Mexican congressional hearing.

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.

Join the Cat Eyes detective agency, where every night is a purrfectly spooooky Halloween mystery, with Kitty Noir, the city sourcebook for *Magical Kitties Save the Day* from Atlas Games.

Stock up for your Halloween games with a Pelgrane Press super sale on its top GUMSHOE horror titles. The promo code SCARY23 at the Pelgrane online store gets you 20% off on *Trail of Cthulhu* products, *Yellow King Roleplaying Game* products, *Esoterrorists* products and *Fear Itself* products until November 1st.

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.

**Episode 568: Dream Ghosts** Oct 06, 2023

The **Gaming Hut** continues its look at the structures analyzed in Robin’s *Adventure Crucible* Kraken chapbook with the survival scenario.

In the **Cinema Hut** Robin points you toward the best geek-facing films he chose for the second annual Robin and Valerie International Film Festival.

**Ask Ken and Robin** entertains the request of beloved Patreon backer Tom Abella for guidance on running a Yevgeny Prigozhin game.

Finally the **Consulting Occultist** fills intrepid backer Jacob Boersma in on the alchemists, demonologists and kabbalists of his native Netherlands.

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.

Join the Cat Eyes detective agency, where every night is a purrfectly spooooky Halloween mystery, with Kitty Noir, the city sourcebook for *Magical Kitties Save the Day* from Atlas Games.

Stock up for your Halloween games with a Pelgrane Press super sale on its top GUMSHOE horror titles. The promo code SCARY23 at the Pelgrane online store gets you 20% off on *Trail of Cthulhu* products, *Yellow King Roleplaying Game* products, *Esoterrorists* products and *Fear Itself* products until November 1st.

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.

**Episode 567: All This Stupid Wheat** Sep 29, 2023

The **Gaming Hut** continues its look at scenario structures, as found in Robin’s new *Adventure Crucible* chapbook, with the chain of fights.

In **Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else**, Eric Prister from The Nature of My Game Podcast provides tips on GMing for an actual play podcast. Stay tuned after this episode’s credits for a special bonus teaser from the first episode of NoMG’s epic run of Robin’s upcoming *Cassilda’s Song* mega-campaign for *The Yellow King Roleplaying Game*.

**Among My Many Hats** gives Robin a chance to talk about Six Ages: Lights Going Out, A-Sharp and Killfox’s mobile game of clan management, set in the fantastic world of Glorantha at a time when Chaos is destroying the world.

Finally at the behest of beloved Patreon backer Bruce Miller, **Ken’s Time Machine** lands dangerously close to the Delft arsenal explosion.

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.

You are a great mage, battling for the last reservoir of the magical element Etherium. You’ll craft creations and cast spells to defeat your rivals, leaving you as master of the Godsforge! The new 2nd Edition of Godsforge is available now from Atlas Games, plus two new expansions: Return of the Dragon Gods and Twilight of the Great Houses.

*Even Death Can Die*, the breathlessly-awaited scenario book for *Cthulhu Confidential*, is now in print at an eldritch game store near you, or in the Pelgrane web store. Thrill to three hardboiled Lovecraftian adventures apiece from stalwart investigators Langston Wright, Vivian Sinclair, and Dex Raymond, all for one player and one GM.

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.

**Episode 566: You Are a Special Island** Sep 22, 2023

In the **Gaming Hut**, we look at the second of the scenario structures Robin breaks down in his new Adventure Crucible chapbook, the mystery.

Beloved Patreon backer Joshua Randall beckons us into the **Cartography Hut** as he seeks places on Earth with the widest variety of F20 friendly biomes.

Then Charles Picard puts up multiple screens in a geodesic **Culture Hut** to ask about Charles and Ray Eames’ film “Glimpses of the USA”, as seen in Moscow in 1959.

Finally the Eliptony Hut looks at the dangerous tale of the Fenn treasure.

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.

You are a great mage, battling for the last reservoir of the magical element Etherium. You’ll craft creations and cast spells to defeat your rivals, leaving you as master of the Godsforge! The new 2nd Edition of Godsforge is available now from Atlas Games, plus two new expansions: Return of the Dragon Gods and Twilight of the Great Houses.

*Even Death Can Die*, the breathlessly-awaited scenario book for *Cthulhu Confidential*, is now in print at an eldritch game store near you, or in the Pelgrane web store. Thrill to three hardboiled Lovecraftian adventures apiece from stalwart investigators Langston Wright, Vivian Sinclair, and Dex Raymond, all for one player and one GM.

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.

**Episode 565: Live at Gen Con 2023** Sep 15, 2023

Ken and Robin were together once more for a live show at Gen Con, and here it is, with the mystical confluence of Elvis, Ben Franklin, and zombies, plus harissa, fancy liquor labeling, our nemeses, why Robin would never have Ken assassinated, Schrodinger’s frogs, and what the hamsters and guinea pigs are really up to.

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.

You are a great mage, battling for the last reservoir of the magical element Etherium. You’ll craft creations and cast spells to defeat your rivals, leaving you as master of the Godsforge! The new 2nd Edition of Godsforge is available now from Atlas Games, plus two new expansions: Return of the Dragon Gods and Twilight of the Great Houses.

*Even Death Can Die*, the breathlessly-awaited scenario book for *Cthulhu Confidential*, is now in print at an eldritch game store near you, or in the Pelgrane web store. Thrill to three hardboiled Lovecraftian adventures apiece from stalwart investigators Langston Wright, Vivian Sinclair, and Dex Raymond, all for one player and one GM.

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.

**Episode 564: Speciation Event** Sep 08, 2023

The **Gaming Hut** hosts part one in a series breaking down the various scenario structures, as inspired by Robin’s new Kraken chapbook, *Adventure Crucible*. We start with a look at the dungeon and other area-based scenarios, finding its hidden and not-so hidden strengths.

An anonymous patron beckons us into the **History Hut** for a look at Albert Einstein’s world travels from 1922 to 1923, with many stops including Japan and Jerusalem.

In **Ken and/or Robin Talk To Someone Else**, we speak with writer and designer Emily Cambias.

Finally the **Consulting Occultist** looks at self-styled shaman Durek Verrett, provider of woo-woo to the stars and fiancée of Norwegian princess Martha Louise.

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.

Waggle your tiny clawed arms in delight! The 5E edition of Planegea, Atlas Games’ setting of primordial fantasy wonder, has arrived. Whether you’re a saurian or shimmering, dreamwalking elf, you’ll want to grab the campaign setting book, as well as accessories like the GM screen, adventures, soundtrack, and deluxe boxed edition while that meteor remains safely in the sky above.

*Even Death Can Die*, the breathlessly-awaited scenario book for *Cthulhu Confidential*, is now in print at an eldritch game store near you, or in the Pelgrane web store. Thrill to three hardboiled Lovecraftian adventures apiece from stalwart investigators Langston Wright, Vivian Sinclair, and Dex Raymond, all for one player and one GM.

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.

**Episode 563: The Human Salmon of 1737** Sep 01, 2023

**Among My Many Hats** looks at Robin’s new *Adventure Crucible* Kraken chapbook, in which he breaks down the structures of various scenario types to help you design them better. Get in PDF from DriveThruRPG or in physical form from All Rolled Up.

Beloved Patreon backer Matthew Preston beckons us into the **Archaeology Hut** to ask why the tombs recently excavated at Exeter Cathedral had no deceased bishops in them.

The Cinema Hut Science Fiction Film Essentials series reaches its epic conclusion with the titles of the late teens.

Finally, estimable backer Johan Tor, upon hearing that our chrono-hero once shook Lech Walesa’s hand, wonders how **Ken’s Time Machine** was involved.

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.

Waggle your tiny clawed arms in delight! The 5E edition of Planegea, Atlas Games’ setting of primordial fantasy wonder, has arrived. Whether you’re a saurian or shimmering, dreamwalking elf, you’ll want to grab the campaign setting book, as well as accessories like the GM screen, adventures, soundtrack, and deluxe boxed edition while that meteor remains safely in the sky above.

*Even Death Can Die*, the breathlessly-awaited scenario book for *Cthulhu Confidential*, is now in print at an eldritch game store near you, or in the Pelgrane web store. Thrill to three hardboiled Lovecraftian adventures apiece from stalwart investigators Langston Wright, Vivian Sinclair, and Dex Raymond, all for one player and one GM.

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.

**Episode 562: Never Refer to Peoples’ Necks** Aug 25, 2023

In the **Gaming Hut**, we propose ways to respond to the characters’ failures of stealth without killing story momentum.

In **Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else**, both of us chat with author Howard Andrew Jones about the state of sword and sorcery and his new novel, *Lord of a Shattered Land*.

In Ask Ken and Robin, beloved Patreon backer Snivgrits requests that we riff a police procedural featuring Wendy Darling from Peter Pan.

Finally the **Consulting Occultist** looks at the alchemical side of pioneering scientist and mathematician Isaac Newton.

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.

Waggle your tiny clawed arms in delight! The 5E edition of Planegea, Atlas Games’ setting of primordial fantasy wonder, has arrived. Whether you’re a saurian or shimmering, dreamwalking elf, you’ll want to grab the campaign setting book, as well as accessories like the GM screen, adventures, soundtrack, and deluxe boxed edition while that meteor remains safely in the sky above.

*Even Death Can Die*, the breathlessly-awaited scenario book for *Cthulhu Confidential*, is now in print at an eldritch game store near you, or in the Pelgrane web store. Thrill to three hardboiled Lovecraftian adventures apiece from stalwart investigators Langston Wright, Vivian Sinclair, and Dex Raymond, all for one player and one GM.

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.

**Episode 561: If Sauron Was an Eye of Love** Aug 18, 2023

For the first time since the Great Unpleasantness, not only Ken but also Robin made it to Gen Con. Picking up a tradition where it left off, we devote the episode to recapping our experience there. From the new stuff at the Pelgrane booth, from the flow of the show to the state of the industry, with maybe a note or two about Indianapolis food, we are here to report.

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.

Waggle your tiny clawed arms in delight! The 5E edition of Planegea, Atlas Games’ setting of primordial fantasy wonder, has arrived. Whether you’re a saurian or shimmering, dreamwalking elf, you’ll want to grab the campaign setting book, as well as accessories like the GM screen, adventures, soundtrack, and deluxe boxed edition while that meteor remains safely in the sky above.

*Even Death Can Die*, the breathlessly-awaited scenario book for *Cthulhu Confidential*, is now in print at an eldritch game store near you, or in the Pelgrane web store. Thrill to three hardboiled Lovecraftian adventures apiece from stalwart investigators Langston Wright, Vivian Sinclair, and Dex Raymond, all for one player and one GM.

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.

**Episode 560: A Total Gef Move** Aug 11, 2023

The episode we record together in Indianapolis before Gen Con is back, starting with a **Gaming Hut** look at using the vagaries of attendance to guide your plot developments.

In the **Food Hut** we look at new additions to our list of techniques, grocery lists, and home bars.

Our Cinema Hut Science Fiction Essential Series reaches the Riff Interregnum, otherwise known as the present day, when this podcast was already in production.

Finally the **Eliptony Hut** lets you well actually an upcoming film by giving you the real fake story of Gef the Mongoose.

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.

Waggle your tiny clawed arms in delight! The 5E edition of Planegea, Atlas Games’ setting of primordial fantasy wonder, has arrived. Whether you’re a saurian or shimmering, dreamwalking elf, you’ll want to grab the campaign setting book, as well as accessories like the GM screen, adventures, soundtrack, and deluxe boxed edition while that meteor remains safely in the sky above.

*Even Death Can Die*, the breathlessly-awaited scenario book for *Cthulhu Confidential*, is now in print at an eldritch game store near you, or in the Pelgrane web store. Thrill to three hardboiled Lovecraftian adventures apiece from stalwart investigators Langston Wright, Vivian Sinclair, and Dex Raymond, all for one player and one GM.

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.

**Episode 559: It’s Not a Two Demon Bag** Aug 04, 2023

In the **Gaming Hut** beloved Patreon backer Lauberfen asks for tips on achieving balance with F20 magic items. How do GMs find the sweet spot between a boring +1 sword and a full MacGuffin?

The **Book Hut** looks at the career of SF, fantasy and crime writer Avram Davidson, in the centenary of his birth.

The **Cinema Hut** Science Fiction Essentials series grows ever closer to our recognizable present day as we head from the twenty-oughts into the twenty-tens.

Finally **Ken’s Time Machine** hurtles toward some deep CanCon as intrepid backer Laurel Halbany puts our chronohero on the case of the dollar coin that almost was.

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.

Waggle your tiny clawed arms in delight! The 5E edition of Planegea, Atlas Games’ setting of primordial fantasy wonder, has arrived. Whether you’re a saurian or shimmering, dreamwalking elf, you’ll want to grab the campaign setting book, as well as accessories like the GM screen, adventures, soundtrack, and deluxe boxed edition while that meteor remains safely in the sky above.

*Even Death Can Die*, the breathlessly-awaited scenario book for *Cthulhu Confidential*, is now in print at an eldritch game store near you, or in the Pelgrane web store. Thrill to three hardboiled Lovecraftian adventures apiece from stalwart investigators Langston Wright, Vivian Sinclair, and Dex Raymond, all for one player and one GM.

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.

**Episode 558: Any Other Stupid Cave Lake** Jul 28, 2023

In the **Gaming Hut** beloved Patreon backer Hector Trelane asks us to discuss the Jeepform game design movement.

A **Crime Blotter** investigation has us looking at Captagon, a licit pharmaceutical product that traveled from Germany to the Eastern Bloc and finally morphed into a war-fighting or party drug with a geopolitical reach throughout the Middle East.

In the Cinema Hut Science Fiction Film Essential series we look at 9/11’s impact on the genre.

And finally the **Consulting Occultist** regales us with tales true and folkloric concerning Ursula Southill, remembered by history as the witch and prophetess Mother Shipton.

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.

Waggle your tiny clawed arms in delight! The 5E edition of Planegea, Atlas Games’ setting of primordial fantasy wonder, has arrived. Whether you’re a saurian or shimmering, dreamwalking elf, you’ll want to grab the campaign setting book, as well as accessories like the GM screen, adventures, soundtrack, and deluxe boxed edition while that meteor remains safely in the sky above.

*Even Death Can Die*, the breathlessly-awaited scenario book for *Cthulhu Confidential*, is now in print at an eldritch game store near you, or in the Pelgrane web store. Thrill to three hardboiled Lovecraftian adventures apiece from stalwart investigators Langston Wright, Vivian Sinclair, and Dex Raymond, all for one player and one GM.

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.

**Episode 557: All Four-Sided** Jul 21, 2023

In the **Gaming Hut**, beloved Patreon backer Michael David Jr. wants to know how to fold the 19th century French interest in Ancient Egypt into *The Yellow King Roleplaying Game*.

In the **Food Hut** we look at gum arabic, a ubiquitous ingredient in processed food and other products whose worldwide supply is now threatened as a side consequence of the Sudan conflict.

The **Cinema Hut** Science Fiction Essentials series turns a dissociated, paranoid corner into the 21st century.

Finally, it’s once more time to ask a perennial **Eliptony Hut** question, here posed by estimable backer Tennant Reed (and we paraphrase) “Is this latest wave of UFO hoo-hah, unlike the other ones you talked about, a thing?”

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.

Waggle your tiny clawed arms in delight! The 5E edition of Planegea, Atlas Games’ setting of primordial fantasy wonder, has arrived. Whether you’re a saurian or shimmering, dreamwalking elf, you’ll want to grab the campaign setting book, as well as accessories like the GM screen, adventures, soundtrack, and deluxe boxed edition while that meteor remains safely in the sky above.

*Even Death Can Die*, the breathlessly-awaited scenario book for *Cthulhu Confidential*, is now in print at an eldritch game store near you, or in the Pelgrane web store. Thrill to three hardboiled Lovecraftian adventures apiece from stalwart investigators Langston Wright, Vivian Sinclair, and Dex Raymond, all for one player and one GM.

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.

**Episode 556: We Touched the Thing in Tomb of Horrors** Jul 14, 2023

Beloved Patreon backer and longtime GM David Rourke convenes us in the Gaming Hut to ask, is it okay if running published adventures doesn’t work for you?

**Travel Advisory** features a report from Ken on his recent trip to the Diversão Offline game convention in São Paulo, Brazil.

The **Cinema Hut** Science Fiction Essentials Series becomes ever more entangled in issues of selfhood and identity as we cover the back stretch of the 1990s.

Finally **Ken’s Time Machine** finds our chrono-here looking for salubrious adjustments to the Qing invasion of Korea in 1636.

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.

Waggle your tiny clawed arms in delight! The 5E edition of Planegea, Atlas Games’ setting of primordial fantasy wonder, has arrived. Whether you’re a saurian or shimmering, dreamwalking elf, you’ll want to grab the campaign setting book, as well as accessories like the GM screen, adventures, soundtrack, and deluxe boxed edition while that meteor remains safely in the sky above.

*Even Death Can Die*, the breathlessly-awaited scenario book for *Cthulhu Confidential*, is now in print at an eldritch game store near you, or in the Pelgrane web store. Thrill to three hardboiled Lovecraftian adventures apiece from stalwart investigators Langston Wright, Vivian Sinclair, and Dex Raymond, all for one player and one GM.

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.

**Episode 555: Do We Get a Deal for Seven?** Jul 07, 2023

The **Gaming Hut** looks at collaborative worldbuilding.

Our **Cinema Hut** Science Fiction Cinema Essentials series reaches the back half of the 90s.

In **Ask Ken and Robin**, beloved Patreon backer Kevin Greenlee asks how to fit DramaSystem into other games.

Finally the **Consulting Occultist** tells the tale of a magical assassination plot aimed at Edward II.

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.

Waggle your tiny clawed arms in delight! The 5E edition of Planegea, Atlas Games’ setting of primordial fantasy wonder, has arrived. Whether you’re a saurian or shimmering, dreamwalking elf, you’ll want to grab the campaign setting book, as well as accessories like the GM screen, adventures, soundtrack, and deluxe boxed edition while that meteor remains safely in the sky above.

The skies above New Olympus are patrolled by caped crusaders, but these superior beings are far from heroes. They wield their powers with reckless disregard, serving the interests of corporate overseers, and silencing those who oppose their will. You are Klara Koenig, investigative journalist for *The Pedestrian* newspaper, and you intend to prove the privileged superhuman elite do not yet hold a monopoly on justice. Welcome to Alteregomania: the newest setting for the GUMSHOE One-2-One system.

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.

**Episode 554: The Best Way to Annoy a Husband** Jun 30, 2023

In the **Gaming Hut** we look at a common GMing pitfall, which we like to call the Case of the Tight-lipped Informant.

The **Tradecraft Hut** opens the dossier on 18th century antiquarian and spy Philipp von Stosch.

Installment 22 of the **Cinema Hut** Science Fiction Essentials series finds us in the mid 90s.

Finally beloved Patreon backer Lauberfen shimmies over to the **Eliptony Hut** for the lowdown on dancing plagues.

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.

Waggle your tiny clawed arms in delight! The 5E edition of Planegea, Atlas Games’ setting of primordial fantasy wonder, has arrived. Whether you’re a saurian or shimmering, dreamwalking elf, you’ll want to grab the campaign setting book, as well as accessories like the GM screen, adventures, soundtrack, and deluxe boxed edition while that meteor remains safely in the sky above.

The skies above New Olympus are patrolled by caped crusaders, but these superior beings are far from heroes. They wield their powers with reckless disregard, serving the interests of corporate overseers, and silencing those who oppose their will. You are Klara Koenig, investigative journalist for *The Pedestrian* newspaper, and you intend to prove the privileged superhuman elite do not yet hold a monopoly on justice. Welcome to Alteregomania: the newest setting for the GUMSHOE One-2-One system.

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.

**Episode 553: They Get a Really Great Poem Out of It** Jun 23, 2023
Beloved Patreon backer Ryan McClelland ventures into our seedy, low rent **Gaming Hut** to ask how Sam Spade’s monkeywrenching style of investigation fits in GUMSHOE.

In **Ken and/or Robin Talk to Somebody Else**, Ken talks to Improv for Gamers author Karen Twelves.

The **Cinema Hut** Science Fiction Cinema Essentials series makes the turn from the 80s into the 90s, starting with a duo of cool dudes who know their way around a time machine.

Speaking of chrono-conveyances, **Ken’s Time Machine** heads back to the 980s to see what our hero can do about a series of devastating Vikings raids.

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.

Waggle your tiny clawed arms in delight! The 5E edition of Planegea, Atlas Games’ setting of primordial fantasy wonder, has arrived. Whether you’re a saurian or shimmering, dreamwalking elf, you’ll want to grab the campaign setting book, as well as accessories like the GM screen, adventures, soundtrack, and deluxe boxed edition while that meteor remains safely in the sky above.

The skies above New Olympus are patrolled by caped crusaders, but these superior beings are far from heroes. They wield their powers with reckless disregard, serving the interests of corporate overseers, and silencing those who oppose their will. You are Klara Koenig, investigative journalist for *The Pedestrian* newspaper, and you intend to prove the privileged superhuman elite do not yet hold a monopoly on justice. Welcome to Alteregomania: the newest setting for the GUMSHOE One-2-One system.

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.

**Episode 552: Worse Hats** Jun 16, 2023

In the **Gaming Hut** we suggest ways to design your player character backstory to make you a premise accepter.

Learn with Ken as **Among My Many Hats** discusses his upcoming online adult education course “H.P. Lovecraft: Maker of Modern Horror,” available Thursdays in July through Signum University.

The **Cinema Hut** Science Fiction Essentials series reaches installment 20, and the late eighties, starting in a jungle stalked by an invisible alien hunter.

Finally beloved Patreon backer Gerald Sears wants the Consulting Occultist to tell him what happened to occultism in America in the 40s and 50s.

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.

Once Upon a Time the fairy godmothers at Atlas Games offered a special deal on their classic card game, *Once Upon a Time*. Until May 31st you and your magic beans can claim a free expansion with the purchase of any three *Once Upon a Time* products at the Atlas Games store. Use the coupon code ONCE2023.

The skies above New Olympus are patrolled by caped crusaders, but these superior beings are far from heroes. They wield their powers with reckless disregard, serving the interests of corporate overseers, and silencing those who oppose their will. You are Klara Koenig, investigative journalist for *The Pedestrian* newspaper, and you intend to prove the privileged superhuman elite do not yet hold a monopoly on justice. Welcome to Alteregomania: the newest setting for the GUMSHOE One-2-One system.

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.

**Episode 551: It’s a Bad Gun** Jun 09, 2023

In the **Gaming Hut**, beloved Patreon backer Elias Helfer wants to hear our take on our esteemed colleague Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan’s take on investigative leads. **Ken and/or Robin Talk To Someone Else** finds Ken talking to tabletop roleplaying pioneer Jennell Jacquays. Part eighteen of our increasingly epic **Cinema Hut** Science Fiction Film Essentials series brings us to the halcyon year of 1986. And finally we locate the **Eliptony Hut** on a long, mountainous island as estimable backer Eric Parks seeks the scoop on the possible survival of the hominid H. floresiensis. 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. Once Upon a Time the fairy godmothers at Atlas Games offered a special deal on their classic card game, *Once Upon a Time*. Until May 31st you and your magic beans can claim a free expansion with the purchase of any three *Once Upon a Time* products at the Atlas Games store. Use the coupon code ONCE2023. The skies above New Olympus are patrolled by caped crusaders, but these superior beings are far from heroes. They wield their powers with reckless disregard, serving the interests of corporate overseers, and silencing those who oppose their will. You are Klara Koenig, investigative journalist for *The Pedestrian* newspaper, and you intend to prove the privileged superhuman elite do not yet hold a monopoly on justice. Welcome to Alteregomania: the newest setting for the GUMSHOE One-2-One system. 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.

**Episode 550: LIGHTNING ROUND!!!** Jun 02, 2023

The planet Earth has hurtled through time and space yet again to take this podcast to another milestone: our five hundred and fiftieth episode. Longtime listeners know what that means—LIGHTNING ROUND!!! questions as posed by our beloved Patreon backers. In rapid fashion we address queries about overrated foods, stingy players, satellite imagery, and so much more.

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.

Once Upon a Time the fairy godmothers at Atlas Games offered a special deal on their classic card game, *Once Upon a Time*. Until May 31st you and your magic beans can claim a free expansion with the purchase of any three *Once Upon a Time* products at the Atlas Games store. Use the coupon code ONCE2023.

The skies above New Olympus are patrolled by caped crusaders, but these superior beings are far from heroes. They wield their powers with reckless disregard, serving the interests of corporate overseers, and silencing those who oppose their will. You are Klara Koenig, investigative journalist for *The Pedestrian* newspaper, and you intend to prove the privileged superhuman elite do not yet hold a monopoly on justice. Welcome to Alteregomania: the newest setting for the GUMSHOE One-2-One system.

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.

**Episode 549: Secretly About Papyrus** May 26, 2023

Flashbacks and cold opens fill the **Gaming Hut** as beloved Patreon backer Kelly Fisher asks how scenes without the player characters work as downbeats. In the **Cinema Hut** Science Fiction Essentials Series, we reach installment 17, which might not get us all the way through that most speculative year, 1984. Then our bibliomaniacal hero regales us with the fruits of his latest Austin purchasing frenzy in **Ken’s Bookshelf**. 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. Once Upon a Time the fairy godmothers at Atlas Games offered a special deal on their classic card game, *Once Upon a Time*. Until May 31st you and your magic beans can claim a free expansion with the purchase of any three *Once Upon a Time* products at the Atlas Games store. Use the coupon code ONCE2023. The skies above New Olympus are patrolled by caped crusaders, but these superior beings are far from heroes. They wield their powers with reckless disregard, serving the interests of corporate overseers, and silencing those who oppose their will. You are Klara Koenig, investigative journalist for *The Pedestrian* newspaper, and you intend to prove the privileged superhuman elite do not yet hold a monopoly on justice. Welcome to Alteregomania: the newest setting for the GUMSHOE One-2-One system. 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.

**Episode 548: The Rhino and I Have an Alibi** May 19, 2023
Your heroes don masks and top hats in the Gaming Hut as beloved backer Daniel Fidelman asks how to use iconic French pulp villain Fantomas in *The Yellow King Roleplaying Game*. The **Tradecraft Hut** gets a little too online as we look at the tabletop implications of the Jack Teixeira spy secrets leak case. We phone home but don’t phone it in as we continue to make steady progress through the rich trove of the early eighties in the **Cinema Hut**’s Science Fiction Essentials Series. And finally **Ken’s Time Machine** meddles again in the Roman Empire, this time seeing what happens if our chrononaut saves the bacon of the Emperor known as Philip the Arab. 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. Once Upon a Time the fairy godmothers at Atlas Games offered a special deal on their classic card game, *Once Upon a Time*. Until May 31st you and your magic beans can claim a free expansion with the purchase of any three *Once Upon a Time* products at the Atlas Games store. Use the coupon code ONCE2023. The skies above New Olympus are patrolled by caped crusaders, but these superior beings are far from heroes. They wield their powers with reckless disregard, serving the interests of corporate overseers, and silencing those who oppose their will. You are Klara Koenig, investigative journalist for *The Pedestrian* newspaper, and you intend to prove the privileged superhuman elite do not yet hold a monopoly on justice. Welcome to Alteregomania: the newest setting for the GUMSHOE One-2-One system. 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.

**Episode 547: Such Things as No** May 12, 2023

In the **Gaming Hut** we wonder how running games for a streaming audience will change GMing practice in general.

At the behest of beloved Patreon backer Dan Noland with proceed with extreme caution into the **Book Hut** for a look at an arsenic-infused volume of 19th century silhouette portraits by peripatetic artist William Bache.

Installment fifteen of the **Cinema Hut** Science Fiction Essentials series takes to the beginning of the 1980s, which is veritably chockablock with classics.

Finally the Consulting Occultist meets us in the Architecture Hut for a look at the so-called Devil’s Architect, Nicholas Hawksmoor, whose reputation for the arcane might just have been burnished by some of our finest living nerdtropers.

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.

Once Upon a Time the fairy godmothers at Atlas Games offered a special deal on their classic card game, *Once Upon a Time*. Until May 31st you and your magic beans can claim a free expansion with the purchase of any three *Once Upon a Time* products at the Atlas Games store. Use the coupon code ONCE2023.

The skies above New Olympus are patrolled by caped crusaders, but these superior beings are far from heroes. They wield their powers with reckless disregard, serving the interests of corporate overseers, and silencing those who oppose their will. You are Klara Koenig, investigative journalist for *The Pedestrian* newspaper, and you intend to prove the privileged superhuman elite do not yet hold a monopoly on justice. Welcome to Alteregomania: the newest setting for the GUMSHOE One-2-One system.

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.

**Episode 546: Now I Can Talk To Plants** May 05, 2023

We enter the secret chamber of the **Gaming Hut** at the behest of beloved Patreon backer Ian Carlsen, who seeks guidance on a campaign built around initiation into a mystery cult.

Speaking of mysteries, the **Food Hut** tackles the terrifying possibility that ice cream might be good for you.

In the **Cinema Hut** our Science Fiction Film Essentials series reaches the densely packed turn from the 70s into the 80s.

Finally **Conspiracy Corner** looks at the 15 minute city and how this anodyne urban planning concept has become the latest locus of paranoid panic.

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.

Once Upon a Time the fairy godmothers at Atlas Games offered a special deal on their classic card game, *Once Upon a Time*. Until May 31st you and your magic beans can claim a free expansion with the purchase of any three *Once Upon a Time* products at the Atlas Games store. Use the coupon code ONCE2023.

The skies above New Olympus are patrolled by caped crusaders, but these superior beings are far from heroes. They wield their powers with reckless disregard, serving the interests of corporate overseers, and silencing those who oppose their will. You are Klara Koenig, investigative journalist for *The Pedestrian* newspaper, and you intend to prove the privileged superhuman elite do not yet hold a monopoly on justice. Welcome to Alteregomania: the newest setting for the GUMSHOE One-2-One system.

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.

**Episode 545: B-52s are Just Very Large Horses** Apr 28, 2023

Get your spreadsheets and notebooks out because in the **Gaming Hut** we’re talking bluebook-heavy games.

In the **Command Hut** beloved Patreon backer Andrew Miller waves his saber to precipitate a discussion of the Charge of the Savoia Cavalleria at Izbushensky, and whether it was in fact history’s last significant cavalry charge.

The lucky thirteenth chapter of our **Cinema Hut** Science Fiction Essentials series takes us to the late 70s, starting with the lightsaber-wielding film that changed the genre forever.

Finally in the **Eliptony Hut** we get drunk and play with Polaroids as we retell the tale of psychic photographer Ted Serios.

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/.

The skies above New Olympus are patrolled by caped crusaders, but these superior beings are far from heroes. They wield their powers with reckless disregard, serving the interests of corporate overseers, and silencing those who oppose their will. You are Klara Koenig, investigative journalist for *The Pedestrian* newspaper, and you intend to prove the privileged superhuman elite do not yet hold a monopoly on justice. Welcome to Alteregomania: the newest setting for the GUMSHOE One-2-One system.

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.

**Episode 544: Sean Connery’s Speedo** Apr 21, 2023

The **Gaming Hut** makes knowing reference to the Gaming Hut as beloved Patreon backer Joshua Hillerup asks how one might make a game that is to roleplaying what Community was to the sitcom.

Malaise gives way to corrupt hedonism as the **Cinema Hut** science fiction essentials series reaches the mid 70s.

In **The** **Business of Gaming** we wonder what the crumbling state of social media means to guerrilla marketing for tabletop products.

Finally in **Ken’s Time Machine** estimable backer Neil Barnes proposes that our chrono-hero do something about replacing mere decimal mathematics with a Base-12 system.

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.

In Sunset City, there’s always something fishy going on … and we’re not talking tuna. The magical kitties of Sunset City have their paws full of mystery. Thanks to our fine feline friends at Atlas Games, Magical Kitties Noir is headed to Kickstarter.

The skies above New Olympus are patrolled by caped crusaders, but these superior beings are far from heroes. They wield their powers with reckless disregard, serving the interests of corporate overseers, and silencing those who oppose their will. You are Klara Koenig, investigative journalist for *The Pedestrian* newspaper, and you intend to prove the privileged superhuman elite do not yet hold a monopoly on justice. Welcome to Alteregomania: the newest setting for the GUMSHOE One-2-One system.

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.

**Episode 543: Truffle Bulettes** Apr 14, 2023

In the **Gaming Hut** we examine the social contract of F20, specifically whether players want the GM to move the boss fight into a room convenient to session pacing.

Part eleven of our **Cinema Hut** science fiction essentials series takes us to the malaise of the early seventies.

In Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else, Ken chats with Christopher Robin Negelein about his Mystery Flesh Pit National Park RPG. Look for it on Kickstarter.

Finally beloved Patreon backer Ed Sizemore beckons us into the Eliptony Hut to learn more about the Brazilian syncretic UFO sect Vale do Amanhecer.

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.

In Sunset City, there’s always something fishy going on … and we’re not talking tuna. The magical kitties of Sunset City have their paws full of mystery. Thanks to our fine feline friends at Atlas Games, Magical Kitties Noir is headed to Kickstarter.

The skies above New Olympus are patrolled by caped crusaders, but these superior beings are far from heroes. They wield their powers with reckless disregard, serving the interests of corporate overseers, and silencing those who oppose their will. You are Klara Koenig, investigative journalist for *The Pedestrian* newspaper, and you intend to prove the privileged superhuman elite do not yet hold a monopoly on justice. Welcome to Alteregomania: the newest setting for the GUMSHOE One-2-One system.

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.

**Episode 542: Classic Snake Swap-Out** Apr 07, 2023

We begin in the **Gaming Hut** as beloved Patreon backer Ludovic Chabant asks for tips on porting the single-protagonist assumptions of much genre source material to the party-driven play typical to tabletop roleplaying.

The **Cinema Hut** takes place in the shadow of a certain monolith as installment ten of our Science Fiction Cinema Essentials reaches the late 60s and early 70s.

We’ve talked about sidekick campaigns before. In **Ask Ken and Robin**, revered backer Peter Adkison points out that we haven’t talked about running one centered around noted chrononaut Kenneth Hite.

Finally, the **Consulting Occultist** profiles 1st century prophet Alexander of Abonoteichus, begetter of the Glykon snake cult.

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.

In Sunset City, there’s always something fishy going on … and we’re not talking tuna. The magical kitties of Sunset City have their paws full of mystery. Thanks to our fine feline friends at Atlas Games, Magical Kitties Noir is now on Kickstarter.

The skies above New Olympus are patrolled by caped crusaders, but these superior beings are far from heroes. They wield their powers with reckless disregard, serving the interests of corporate overseers, and silencing those who oppose their will. You are Klara Koenig, investigative journalist for *The Pedestrian* newspaper, and you intend to prove the privileged superhuman elite do not yet hold a monopoly on justice. Welcome to Alteregomania: the newest setting for the GUMSHOE One-2-One system.

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.

**Episode 541: That’s Where You Collect Your Bonus** Mar 31, 2023

In the Gaming Hut we look at the Efficiency Paradox, where players who most effectively grapple with the choices of a scenario are the most likely to regard it as linear.

A Zillow floorplan of a Glendora CA home winds up in the **Cartography Hut** at the behest of beloved backer Monster Talk, who has spotted some anomalies he needs explained.

The ninth installment of the **Cinema Hut** Science Fiction Essentials series finds us in the mid-60s, as the genre falls into arty European hands.

On Jan 31, 1914, a meteor struck a torpedo factory in Sistersville, West Virginia, sending an exploding ball of nitroglycerin into the air. We find out what role **Ken’s Time Machine** played in this unlikely event.

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.

In Sunset City, there’s always something fishy going on … and we’re not talking tuna. The magical kitties of Sunset City have their paws full of mystery. Thanks to our fine feline friends at Atlas Games, Magical Kitties Noir is headed to Kickstarter.

The skies above New Olympus are patrolled by caped crusaders, but these superior beings are far from heroes. They wield their powers with reckless disregard, serving the interests of corporate overseers, and silencing those who oppose their will. You are Klara Koenig, investigative journalist for *The Pedestrian* newspaper, and you intend to prove the privileged superhuman elite do not yet hold a monopoly on justice. Welcome to Alteregomania: the newest setting for the GUMSHOE One-2-One system.

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.

**Episode 540: Kaiju Angering Chemical** Mar 24, 2023

Things get both creepy and capey in the Gaming Hut as beloved Patreon backer Sean asks how to combine superheroes with cosmic horror.

At the behest of estimable backer Cynistrategus, **Ripped From the Headlines** finds the gaming potential in recent animal thefts at the Dallas Zoo.

In the Cinema Hut, part eight of our Science Fiction Cinema Essentials series reaches the 1960s as the genre moves to Europe and goes avant-garde.

Finally the **Eliptony Hut** expands to hide a giant sphere as formidable backer Joshua Randall asks for the true weirdness behind the strange object that washed up on Japan’s Enshu Beach.

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.

In Sunset City, there’s always something fishy going on … and we’re not talking tuna. The magical kitties of Sunset City have their paws full of mystery. Thanks to our fine feline friends at Atlas Games, Magical Kitties Noir is headed to Kickstarter.

The skies above New Olympus are patrolled by caped crusaders, but these superior beings are far from heroes. They wield their powers with reckless disregard, serving the interests of corporate overseers, and silencing those who oppose their will. You are Klara Koenig, investigative journalist for *The Pedestrian* newspaper, and you intend to prove the privileged superhuman elite do not yet hold a monopoly on justice. Welcome to Alteregomania: the newest setting for the GUMSHOE One-2-One system.

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.

**Episode 539: Players and/or Humans** Mar 17, 2023

In the **Gaming Hut** we wonder whether it is always bad for the players to figure out the mystery prior to the big reveal scene.

A relic heist comes under scrutiny in the **History Hut** as beloved Patreon backer Mark D. Rinna asks why black ops crusaders raided the tomb of St. Nicholas.

Installment seven of the **Cinema Hut** Science Fiction Essentials series finds us working methodically through the late fifties.

Then the **Consulting Occultist** enters the **Culture Hut** at the behest of sophisticated backer Jake Maas, who seeks enlightenment on the Theosophical roots of avant garde artist Yves Klein.

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.

In Sunset City, there’s always something fishy going on … and we’re not talking tuna. The magical kitties of Sunset City have their paws full of mystery. Thanks to our fine feline friends at Atlas Games, Magical Kitties Noir is headed to Kickstarter.

The skies above New Olympus are patrolled by caped crusaders, but these superior beings are far from heroes. They wield their powers with reckless disregard, serving the interests of corporate overseers, and silencing those who oppose their will. You are Klara Koenig, investigative journalist for *The Pedestrian* newspaper, and you intend to prove the privileged superhuman elite do not yet hold a monopoly on justice. Welcome to Alteregomania: the newest setting for the GUMSHOE One-2-One system.

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.

**Episode 538: Perhaps an Exploder** Mar 10, 2023

We hope you’re wearing headphones for this one because we start in the **Gaming Hut** with a request from beloved Patreon backer Kevin L. Nault asks us to wrap a campaign around ear-entering, disease-causing ghosts.

Then the **Tradecraft Hut** looks up in the sky for the truth about spy balloons.

Finally, the **Cinema Hut** makes way for our annual pre-Oscars tradition, in which we list our top ten films of the 2022,

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.

In Sunset City, there’s always something fishy going on … and we’re not talking tuna. The magical kitties of Sunset City have their paws full of mystery. Thanks to our fine feline friends at Atlas Games, Magical Kitties Noir is headed to Kickstarter.

The skies above New Olympus are patrolled by caped crusaders, but these superior beings are far from heroes. They wield their powers with reckless disregard, serving the interests of corporate overseers, and silencing those who oppose their will. You are Klara Koenig, investigative journalist for *The Pedestrian* newspaper, and you intend to prove the privileged superhuman elite do not yet hold a monopoly on justice. Welcome to Alteregomania: the newest setting for the GUMSHOE One-2-One system.

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.

**Episode 537: Bring Me the Incompetent Laggard File** Mar 03, 2023

We appear to be stuck in the **Gaming Hut** as beloved Patreon backer Walter Manbeck seeks tips on scenarios set in confined spaces.

In the **Tradecraft Hut** estimable backer Dan L seeks gaming inspiration from Operation Pedro Pan, a covert effort to migrate unaccompanied teens and kids to the US from early 60s Cuba.

The **Cinema Hut** Science Fiction Essentials series reaches the mid-1950s and some all-time classic creature features.

Finally **Ken’s Time Machine** travels to and interferes with the early 20th century French political scandal known as the Affair of the Cards.

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/.

The skies above New Olympus are patrolled by caped crusaders, but these superior beings are far from heroes. They wield their powers with reckless disregard, serving the interests of corporate overseers, and silencing those who oppose their will. You are Klara Koenig, investigative journalist for *The Pedestrian* newspaper, and you intend to prove the privileged superhuman elite do not yet hold a monopoly on justice. Welcome to Alteregomania: the newest setting for the GUMSHOE One-2-One system.

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.

**Episode 536: A Box Somewhere in Scotland** Feb 24, 2023

In the **Gaming Hut** we ask ourselves what we would pitch to Disney if they asked us to design an F20 game using their characters.

Beloved Patreon backer Toonspew draws us to the **Monster Hut** to contemplate the prospect of evil unicorns.

We take our seats in the **Cinema Hut** for installment five of our Science Fiction Cinema Essentials and more classics of the early 50s.

Finally in the **Eliptony Hut** we peer into the Premonitions Bureau, a late 60s British project to record psychic predictions.

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.

**Episode 535: NASA is Not in the Neck Adjustment Business** Feb 17, 2023

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.

**Episode 534: Manimal Utopia** Feb 10, 2023

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.

**Episode 533: Best Non-Answer of the 19th Century** Feb 03, 2023

In the **Gaming Hut** we look at what characters should do more often in horror: run!

At the behest of beloved Patreon backer Eric Saltwell, the **Word Hut** seeks the real truth behind Unicode ghost kanji.

In part two of our **Cinema Hut** Science Fiction Essentials series, we finally get to some actual movies, the precursors (and one classic) of the silent era.

Finally Ken’s Time Machine fuels itself on some high-octane introductory exposition as fiendishly clever backer Philip Masters asks our. chrononaut to come up with a fresh answer to the Schleswig-Holstein Question.

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.

**Episode 532: In Which Ken Is Shot** Jan 27, 2023

In the **Gaming Hut** we remember our friend and colleague Darren Watts, prolific Champions designer and former head of Hero Games.

The Crime Blotter comes a little too close to home for comfort as Ken tells the story of his recent shooting.

We kick off a new series in the **Cinema Hut**, Science Fiction Cinema Essentials. Due to the porousness of the genre we train our radium oscilloscopes on some definitions and ground rules before getting started with earliest examples.

Finally another undead bloodsucker sneaks into the **Eliptony Hut**, this time of the relatively recent urban legend variety, as we profile the Richmond Vampire.

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*!

*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.

**Episode 531: The Copts Still Have His Head** Jan 20, 2023

In response to this Caity Weaver New York Times Magazine article, beloved Patreon backer Scott Wachter makes the **Gaming Hut** a very quiet place indeed by asking us for the scenario possibilities of anechoic chambers.

Estimable backer Ray Slakinski beckons us to the Northern Ontario location of the **Horror Hut** to discuss the Wilno vampire.

Speaking of horror, **Ken and Robin Recycle Audio** completes its highlights of the Horror Roleplaying Masterclass from Dragonmeet.

Finally the **Consulting Occultist** meets erudite backer Jamie Twine in a gondola for a survey of the weird and magical in Venice.

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*!

*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.

**Episode 530: More Than One Adida** Jan 13, 2023

Fire up your automated die rollers as the **Gaming Hut** goes digital to answer beloved Patreon backer Marc Kevin Hall’s request for guidance on running tabletop RPGs online.

In the **History Hut**, unswerving backer Jeromy French unwittingly illuminates the number one rule of Canadian history by seeking the secrets behind the assassination of Ontario newspaperman and politician George Brown.

Then **Ken and Robin Recycle Audio** with more answers from the Dragonmeet Horror Roleplaying Masterclass, also starring our boon compadre Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan.

Finally pitch-traversing backer Neil Barnes revs up **Ken’s Time Machine** to impel our hero to root the corruption out of FIFA.

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*!

*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.

**Episode 529: More Cryptids Than It Can Consume Domestically** Jan 06, 2023

We start by whittling some polyhedrals in the **Gaming Hut**, as beloved Patreon backer Derrick Yates asks us to sketch out an Appalachian cryptid campaign.

In **The Business of Gaming** we discuss another reason the books you’re waiting for are late, the great freelancer / creator crash-out of 2022.

Then another long dormant segment returns, as **Ken and Robin Recycle Audio** from the Dragonmeet Horror Roleplaying Masterclass.

Finally alien ears perk up in the Eliptony Hut as we profile UFO gadfly Gray Barker.

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*!

*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.

**Episode 528: Live at Dragonmeet** Dec 23, 2022

After nearly three chaotic years, the universe has begun to right itself, as you can tell when this episode recorded live at Dragonmeet enters your ear canals. Ken answers the call of the nerdtrope card. Then, fortified by sticky toffee pudding and Christmas sandwiches, we talk topical villains, the cure for cursed dice, the occult nature of various drinks, and more.

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.

Fill every stocking with social deduction. Tis in fact the season for *Weird Little Elf*, Atlas Games’ perfect not-boring activity for your next holiday gathering.

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.

**Episode 527: 100% Game Handoutable** Dec 16, 2022

Our weary protagonists, fresh from Dragonmeet, stumble into the **Gaming Hut**. There they undergo the sort of deductive epiphany required, as per a request from beloved Patreon backer Keelan O’Hea, to bring visual “aha” moments into investigative games.

Then London’s National Gallery becomes the **Culture Hut** as our heroes recall their visit to its current Lucian Freud and Winslow Homer shows.

Seasoned listeners, at the mention of Dragonmeet, know what comes next: **Ken’s Bookshelf** finally returns to plunder Foyles and Treadwell’s.

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.

Fill every stocking with social deduction. Tis in fact the season for *Weird Little Elf*, Atlas Games’ perfect not-boring activity for your next holiday gathering.

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.

**Episode 526: From What Steve Did** Dec 09, 2022

We start as per usual in the **Gaming Hut**, where this time beloved Patreon backer Bart Mallio asks for tips on combining *The Esoterrorists* with *Night’s Black Agents*.

Then we move onto an ever-shifting southwestern **Culture Hut**, as estimable backer Robert Wolfe seeks knowledge on cartoonist George Herriman’s Krazy Kat and its effect on the dreamlands.

Our scene shifts again to a tangled birch woods, as the **Archaeology Hut** examines the Beardmore find, a Viking hoax that fooled the Royal Ontario Museum.

Finally, at the behest of insightful backer Benjamin Rawls, the **Consulting Occultist** turns his gaze to Japan and its Happy Science cult.

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.

Fill every stocking with social deduction. Tis in fact the season for *Weird Little Elf*, Atlas Games’ perfect not-boring activity for your next holiday gathering.

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.

**Episode 525: Neptune Reveal Party** Dec 02, 2022

In the **Gaming Hut** we look at scenario text as a place to put GM advice.

At the behest of beloved Patreon backer Bret Kramer the History Hut hosts the tale of German-born eventual doctor Gottfried Knoche, who in the late 19th century took his penchant for mummification innovation to Venezuela.

In Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else, Ken chats with Heather O’Neill, designer of *Meeple Party* and *Schrödinger’s Cats*.

Finally, our hero revs up **Ken’s Time Machine** to assist the Antemnates against Romulus, the first king of Rome.

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.

**Ken and Robin Consume Media: Andor, Guardians Holiday Special, and Wednesday** Nov 29, 2022

Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies, TV seasons and more we cram into our hyper-analytical sensoriums. Join the Patreon to help pick the items we’ll talk about in greater depth on a little podcast segment we like to call Tell Me More.

Recommended

Andor Season 1 (Television, US, Disney+, Tony Gilroy, 2022) After a fatal run-in with security guards on the industrial world of Ferrix, small-time criminal Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) accepts recruitment for a one-time heist mission from a mysterious rebel operative (Stellan Skarsgård.) Ensemble drama hoards the space opera thrills in favor of the question: what if all the spear-carriers in the Star Wars universe were fleshed-out people working through complicated inner conflicts?—RDL

Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special (Television, US, Disney+, James Gunn, 2022) To give Peter Quill (Christopher Pratt) the perfect Christmas, Drax (Dave Bautista) and Mantis (Pom Klementieff) go to Earth to get him the perfect present, legendary hero Kevin Bacon (Kevin Bacon.) Goofy, affectionate Yuletide comedy rehabilitates the concept of the Star Wars Holiday special, showcasing the comedy duo of Bautista and Klementieff.—RDL

Hangmen Also Die! (Film, US, Fritz Lang, 1943) After killing “Hangman” Heydrich, Dr. Svoboda (Brian Donlevy) takes refuge with a chance-met girl (Anna Lee), endangering her professor father (Walter Brennan) when the Nazis take hostages to smoke him out. After a slow start, Lang ratchets up the tension in a weird echo of M as the Nazis hunt Svoboda and the Resistance frames a patsy. Story (and uncredited scripting) by Bertolt Brecht! –KH

Lost Bullet 2 (Film, France, Guillaume Pierret, 2022) Ace mechanic Lino (Alban Lenoir) obsessively hunts the killer of his brother and mentor as his ex Julie (Stefie Celma) unwillingly covers for her fellow cops. Both fights and car chases improve in this sequel, which is more than reason enough to watch it. Morgan Dalibert’s cinematography captures the open road of light and speed beautifully. –KH

Wednesday Season 1 (Television, US, Netflix, 2022) Wednesday Addams (Jenna Ortega) resolves to rebel against her new school, the exclusive academy for supernatural outcasts her parents Morticia (Catherine Zeta-Jones) and Gomez (Luis Guzman) attended, but finds an extracurricular interest in mystery-solving when a series of killings threatens the community. Clever import of an existing property into the Veronica Mars formula. Much depends on Ortega’s amazing ability to convey the vulnerability of her hard-nut, selfish character through the eyes alone.—RDL

**Episode 524: Let’s Just Dump It in the West** Nov 25, 2022

In the **Gaming Hut** we mull a peculiar property of RPGs as narrative, the expectation that a scenario will set up more plot elements than it actually pays off.

At the behest of beloved Patreon backer Jurie Horneman, the **Cartography Hut** gets out a map to look at the 50 square mile legal loophole known as Yellowstone’s Zone of Death.

Then the **Tradecraft Hut** delves into recent headlines suggesting that the Chinese government has set up clandestine police stations throughout the world, including three of them in Robin’s Toronto stomping grounds.

Finally we finally get around to a segment we assumed we had done long ago, venturing into the Eliptony Hut to celebrate that most illustrious of cryptids, Mothman.

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.

**Episode 523: Never Seen With a Windsock** Nov 18, 2022

In the **Gaming Hut** beloved Patreon backer Elias Helfer asks us how to start researching real-world places we intend to use in our games.

The **Archaeology Hut** dusts off a request from estimable backer Steve Dempsey for a profile of innovative site diggers Tessa and Mortimer Wheeler.

At the behest of regal backer Paul Douglas the **Mythology Hut** checks of the theory of Iranian influence on Arthurian legend.

Finally the **Consulting Occultist** reaches into his tarot collection for HEXEN 2.0, making this also a Culture Hut installment about its creator, contemporary artist Suzanne Treister.

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.

**Episode 522: Pre-Rex** Nov 11, 2022

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.

**Episode 521: You Can’t See Atlantis for All the Cheese Curds** Nov 04, 2022

In the **Gaming Hut** beloved Patreon backer Neil Barnes dons his lovingly constructed Benjamin Disraeli costume to ask how to best portray historical figures at the roleplaying table.

The **Cinema Hut** looks at the flattening of cinematography in the streaming era, asking the question that is on all of your lips. Is Netflix the new Natalie Kalmus?

Finally a Powell’s sales clerk in Portland breathes a sigh of relief as **Ken’s Bookshelf** shudders with the weight of his most recent acquisition event, undertaken porely for our vicarious enjoyment.

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.

**Episode 520: Cell Phone From the Elder Things** Oct 28, 2022

In the **Gaming Hut** we address a query from beloved Patreon backer Steven Dosman on keeping the solutions of mysteries far enough away from characters with the competence and point spends to solve them.

The **Mythos Hut** obeys the command of estimable backer Joshua Randall, who seeks the eldritch secrets behind the Antarctic doom of explorer Ernest Shackleton.

The **Tradecraft Hut** investigates the case of Park Chae-seo, the spy dubbed Black Venus, whose undercover work dealing with North Korea embroiled him in political chicanery back home.

Finally, an attempt to outsmart the stock market is turning into an apocalyptic belief system, and **Conspiracy Corner** is here to cover it.

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 PDF of Atlas Games’ prehistoric, dinosaur-approved 5E setting, Planegea, is ready to hurtle to your download folder like a theropod toward an sauropod. Order it now for immediate download!

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.

**Episode 519: Everything Weak and Flimsy** Oct 21, 2022

The **Gaming Hut** as always uses Skynet for your benefit, providing ways to use AI art at your roleplaying table.

In **Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else**, Ken talks to two someones: Katarzyna “Kate” Kuczynska and Marcin “Martin” Kuczynski of Game Machinery, publisher of the *Defiant Roleplaying Game*.

In the **Horror Hut** we look at character likeability in the genre of terror and monstrosity.

Finally the **Eliptony Hut** tunes into stony vibrations as beloved Patreon backer Shon Richards asks us to weigh in on the geomantic claims of wacky NYC mayor Eric Adams, with a compare and contrast to Toronto and Chicago.

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 PDF of Atlas Games’ prehistoric, dinosaur-approved 5E setting, Planegea, is ready to hurtle to your download folder like a theropod toward an sauropod. Order it now for immediate download!

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.

**Episode 518: A Big Fan of Heliocentrism** Oct 14, 2022

Belle Époque wings flutter as the Gaming Hut brings the faery world into *The Yellow King Roleplaying Game*.

Ken issues a **Travel Advisory** for his recent visit to the Mothman Festival in Point Pleasant, West Virginia.

In **How to Write Good** we look at calibrating your characters’ complexity level to the story you are telling.

Finally at the request of beloved Patreon backer Louis Sylvester, the **Consulting Occultist** profiles Cotton Mather.

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 PDF of Atlas Games’ prehistoric, dinosaur-approved 5E setting, Planegea, is ready to hurtle to your download folder like a theropod toward an sauropod. Order it now for immediate download!

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.

**Episode 517: Kinda Goopy** Oct 07, 2022

The first annual Robin and Valerie International Film Festival has come to an end, and just like TIFF before it, that means Robin has a list of movies to recommend to you in the **Cinema Hut**. The twist: this time you can find and watch them right away.

Then in **The Business of Gaming** we look at sudden tsunami of AI art, and the potential and pitfalls of using generated illustrations in gaming products.

Finally **Ken’s Time Machine** has some tsar-kicking to do as our hero introduces some late edits into Poland’s January Uprising.

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 PDF of Atlas Games’ prehistoric, dinosaur-approved 5E setting, Planegea, is ready to hurtle to your download folder like a theropod toward an sauropod. Order it now for immediate download!

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.

**Episode 516: Co-Frankensteining** Sep 30, 2022

We enter the **Gaming Hut** to ponder the constituency of gamers who prefer lots of crunch, but don’t actually use it when they play.

In the **History Hut** beloved Patreon backer Gene Ha asks if electricity-loving Benjamin Franklin was the real modern Prometheus.

The **Culture Hut** situates itself near a vast outdoor art work as estimable backer Tom Abella seeks as many gaming ideas as we can wring out of Michael Heiser’s “City.”

From Nevada it is a mere hop and a skip to Utah, and the **Eliptony Hut**, for a gander at the alleged weirdness magnet that is Skinwalker Ranch.

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 PDF of Atlas Games’ prehistoric, dinosaur-approved 5E setting, Planegea, is ready to hurtle to your download folder like a theropod toward an sauropod. Order it now for immediate download!

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.

**Episode 515: Live from Gen Con 2022** Sep 23, 2022

Rob Heinsoo and Gareth-Ryder Hanrahan step in for a sadly absent Robin as the annual live episode from Gen Con returns from the slumber of Pandemicland. They join Ken for a robust discussion of talking animals in the War of the First Coalition, Malort, why *The King in Yellow* gets restaged all the time, dealing with player absence in our chaotic times, steak rareness, guest stars at the gaming table, and the Ferris Wheel made of Ararat timbers.

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 PDF of Atlas Games’ prehistoric, dinosaur-approved 5E setting, Planegea, is ready to hurtle to your download folder like a theropod toward an sauropod. Order it now for immediate download!

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.

**Episode 514: Joseph Campbell in a Jar** Sep 16, 2022

In the **Gaming Hut** we look at a largely foregone phenomenon in tabletop, the roleplaying tournament.

At the behest of beloved Patreon backer Dan L, the **Tradecraft Hut** examines Project Coast, South Africa’s apartheid-era chemical weapons program, and its head, Wouter “Dr. Death” Basson.

Esteemed backer Chad Ward meets us in the **Mythology Hut** to ask that we expand our previously parenthetical beef with Joseph Campbell into an entire segment.

Finally forward-thinking backer Tennant Reed visits the **Consulting Occultist** for the esoteric motivation behind repeated thefts of the preserved head of reformer and utilitarian philosopher Jeremy Bentham.

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 PDF of Atlas Games’ prehistoric, dinosaur-approved 5E setting, Planegea, is ready to hurtle to your download folder like a theropod toward an sauropod. Order it now for immediate download!

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.

**Episode 513: Tiptoe Away from His Flailing Proboscis** Sep 09, 2022

The **Gaming Hut** exists in all dimensions as beloved Patreon backer Jacob Boersma asks how to giving Evelyn Wang’s multiversal powers from *Everything Everywhere All at Once* to player characters.

In **Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else**, Ken talks to Cody Swendrowski, developer for the Foundry virtual tabletop platform, who tells how its community focus distinguishes it from its competitors, and of his forays into streaming and podcasting.

Discerning backer Eric (Speaker in Digressions) buys a ticket to the **Horror Hut** to ask how to apply the cool conceit of Prey to other horror franchises.

Finally, classical backer Fridrik Bjarnason wants to know why **Ken’s Time Machine** was used to erase historical records of a Roman city recently unearthed in Zaragoza, Spain.

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 PDF of Atlas Games’ prehistoric, dinosaur-approved 5E setting, Planegea, is ready to hurtle to your download folder like a theropod toward an sauropod. Order it now for immediate download!

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.

**Episode 512: The Spiders Pay For Themselves** Sep 02, 2022

In the **Mythos Hut** we decide that fish people and serpent folk have hogged the spotlight for too long. It’s time for us to invent some humanoid toads, of the psychedelic variety of course, and wrap them into a Fall of DELTA GREEN scenario hook.

Inevitably, **Fun With Science** must grapple, so to speak, with the advent of necrobotic spiders. A request from beloved Patreon backer Evan Hughes, and some superglue, makes that happen.

In the **Narrative Hut** we explore the rural tilt of the fantasy genre.

Finally in the **Eliptony Hut** we check out psychic Uri Geller’s recently declared micronation off the coast of Scotland.

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 PDF of Atlas Games’ prehistoric, dinosaur-approved 5E setting, Planegea, is ready to hurtle to your download folder like a theropod toward an sauropod. Order it now for immediate download!

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.

**Episode 511: I Just Wanted to Say Astrosome** Aug 26, 2022

Foul sorcerers flee the **Gaming Hut** as beloved Patreon backer Jesse Lowe asks for the best Earth-based setting for swords and sorcery—the Hellenistic Era excepted, of course.

In Ken and/or Robin Talk To Someone Else, designer Gwen Marshall joins Ken to discuss the thinking behind such acclaimed projects as the ENnie-winning Ancestry & Culture and *S5E: Superheroic Roleplaying*.

The **Monster Hut** gets philosophical for a look at egregores in mythology and gaming.

Finally the **Consulting Occultist** lets love into his heart for a profile of songwriter, polemicist and free love priestess Edith Maida Lessing.

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.

Human problems are out of hand, so thank goodness, and Atlas Games, for Magical Kitties Save the Day, a fresh, fun roleplaying game for players of all ages, and for GMs from age 6 and up!

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.

**Episode 510: The Worst Chocolate, The Worst Cake** Aug 19, 2022

Normally a post-Gen Con debrief takes up an entire episode. But since only one of us was there, Ken gives Robin the lowdown in a double-header **Travel Advisory** segment.

In the **Gaming Hut**, beloved Patreon backer Mikey Hamm wants to emulate genres in which death is threatened but never actually happens.

We conclude with **Ken’s Time Machine**, as our hero considers which figure of the Old West he would most like to save from untimely death, and what changes to the timestream his intervention would wreak.

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.

Human problems are out of hand, so thank goodness, and Atlas Games, for Magical Kitties Save the Day, a fresh, fun roleplaying game for players of all ages, and for GMs from age 6 and up!

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.

**Episode 509: Charismatic Megafauna of Food** Aug 12, 2022

In the **Gaming Hut** we demonstrate how to dovetail player-created character hooks into your scenario, as Ken proposes a Freaking Weird Moment for his This is Normal Now character and Robin weaves it into a trio of mystery premises.

The **Culture Hut** uncovers a Dreamhound of Chicago, 30s surrealist painter Gertrude Abercrombie.

Then we duck into the **Food Hut** to make a list of defunct food products we might just use Ken’s Time Machine to stock up on.

Our final stop takes us to the **Eliptony Hut**, as we review the contents of a ghost hunter’s kit, starting with the copious suggestions in Peter Underwood’s Ghost Hunters Guide.

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.

Get ready to solve your Christmas present problems early as Atlas Games brings the kid-friendly social deduction game *Weird Little Elf* to Kickstarter, until August 11th.

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*!

*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.

**Episode 508: KARTAS A-Z** Aug 05, 2022

On August 2, 2012, the first installment of Ken and Robin Talks About Stuff debuted to a waiting gaming world.

For our recent 500th episode celebration, we held the traditional Lightning Round. For this extra special anniversary, we take a look back at the show, its topics and its origins with an A to Z of KARTAS.

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.

Get ready to solve your Christmas present problems early as Atlas Games brings the kid-friendly social deduction game *Weird Little Elf* to Kickstarter, until August 11th.

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*!

*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.

**Episode 507: Awesomely Underfunded** Jul 29, 2022

In the **Gaming Hut**, Beloved Patreon backer Eric Jeppesen, or a clever facsimile thereof, kicks off an all-request episode, as he wonders how to run *GUMSHOE One-2-One* with a doppelganger protagonist.

Stealthy backer Erik R gains access to the **Tradecraft Hut** to ask how to set *Night’s Black Agents* in Asia.

Dimensionally resonant backer Nikolaj ducks into the **Narrative Hut** to find out what the sudden multiplicity of multiverses in movies and TV tells us about the present zeitgeist.

And finally formidable backer John Scheib revs up **Ken’s Time Machine** to learn about the timeline where Eugene of Savoy fights for France and not against it.

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.

Get ready to solve your Christmas present problems early as Atlas Games brings the kid-friendly social deduction game *Weird Little Elf* to Kickstarter, until August 11th.

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*!

*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.

**Episode 506: His Bonaparte Eyes** Jul 22, 2022

The **Gaming Hut** floats further from land than it ever has as beloved Patreon backer Alden Strock seeks the tabletop uses of Point Nemo, the planet’s literal middle of nowhere.

In **Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else**, Ken talks to author Ben Riggs about his history of TSR, *Slaying the Dragon*, now orderable from MacMillan.

The **Food Hut** hops on a train to check out the oldest chain restaurant in America, along with the rest of the food and hospitality empire that was the Fred Harvey Company.

Finally estimable backer John Kingdon asks the **Consulting Occultist** to profile Gerald Gardner, fashioner of modern Wicca.

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.

Get ready to solve your Christmas present problems early as Atlas Games brings the kid-friendly social deduction game *Weird Little Elf* to Kickstarter, until August 11th.

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*!

*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.

**Episode 505: Move Them Back to the Fun** Jul 15, 2022

The next time you’re about to design a situation where the players can’t do what they want to do, you’ll recall this week’s **Gaming Hut** segment and think, “How do I let them do that without wrecking everything?”

The Crime Blotter investigates a string of rhino horn thefts attributed to the Dead Zoo Gang.

In **Ripped from the Headlines**, beloved Patreon backer Craig Maloney seeks the arcane secrets of Tik Tok tics.

In a previous installment of **Ken’s Time Machine**, while fixing the Greek War of Independence, our hero preserved the life of Lord Byron. Now he tells us about the horror novel that resulted from this previous intervention.

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.

Get ready to solve your Christmas present problems early as Atlas Games brings the kid-friendly social deduction game *Weird Little Elf* to Kickstarter, until August 11th.

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*!

*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.

**Episode 504: Area Nihilists** Jul 08, 2022

In the **Gaming Hut** we ask when the GM should apply a rules set’s cost system for actions, and when it is instead best to make it a freebie.

The **Command Hut** provides a dossier on the Russian mercenary company called the Wagner Group.

In the **Horror Hut**, beloved backers Derek Upham and Stuart Thomas (or lifelike computer simulations thereof) point us to the latest hit tulpa, a monstrous creation of AI image software called Crungus.

Finally, estimable backer Robert Dean seeks the aid of **Ken’s Time Machine** in having William Morris invent RPGs in the 1890s.

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.

Human problems are out of hand, so thank goodness, and Atlas Games, for Magical Kitties Save the Day, a fresh, fun roleplaying game for players of all ages, and for GMs from age 6 and up!

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*!

*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.

**Episode 503: Distinctively Muppety** Jul 01, 2022

Ken kicks us off with a **Travel Advisory** on his journey to Poland’s Pyrkon, with ancillary adventures in Poznan.

Then the **Gaming Hut** subtly ratchets up the tension as we ask how long a horror scenario can go without anything overtly terrifying or supernatural happening.

But a worse fright awaits in **The Business of Gaming**, where we look at the global paper shortage and its impact on adventure gaming.

Then a slightly less bad fright creeps our way as, at the behest of beloved backer Scott Wachter, the **Eliptony Hut** beckons the armless entity known as the Fresno Nightcrawler.

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.

Human problems are out of hand, so thank goodness, and Atlas Games, for Magical Kitties Save the Day, a fresh, fun roleplaying game for players of all ages, and for GMs from age 6 and up!

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*!

*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.

**Ken and Robin Consume Media: Obi-Wan, Doctor Strange, Rothaniel, and the First Shin Honkaku Novel** Jun 28, 2022

Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies, TV seasons and more we cram into our hyper-analytical sensoriums. Join the Patreon to help pick the items we’ll talk about in greater depth on a little podcast segment we like to call Tell Me More.

The Pinnacle

Jerrod Carmichael: Rothaniel (Stand-Up, US, HBO, Bo Burnham, 2022) At the Blue Note in New York, Carmichael reveals a tangle of family secrets and his gay identity. Astoundingly gutsy set cedes partial control to an increasingly participatory audience, landing in the intersection of comedy and high-wire confessional performance art.—RDL

Recommended

Den of Thieves (Film, US, Christian Gudegast, 2018) Sleazy major crimes cop (Gerard Butler) zeroes in on an ex-military robbery crew leader (Pablo Schreiber) as he cases L.A.’s branch of the Federal Reserve Bank. Crackling crime drama throws in clever heist twists as it genuflects before the altar of Heat,—RDL

Fire Island (Film, US, Andrew Ahn, 2022) Commitment-shy New Yorker (Joel Kim Booster) ducks his own intimacy issues during his gang’s annual group vacation in a gay resort time with an unsolicited promise to wingman his less confident bestie (Bowen Yang.) Borrows Judd Apatow’s mix of relaxed pacing, arrested maturity sincerity and raunch as a framework for the gay rom-com.—RDL

The Tokyo Zodiac Murders (Fiction, Japan, Soji Shimada, 1981) Forty years after the fact, astrologer Kitoshi Mitarai and his faithful (and self-described) Watson investigate a storied 1936 serial murder apparently planned by a mad alchemical artist – who was killed in a locked room before the murders began. Shimada’s first novel kicked off the shin honkaku subgenre with its verve, ironic joy, and critical success. The bizarre setup keeps the immense up-front exposition dump interesting, and the ensuing detection delightfully combines the eccentric and the humane. –KH

Good

Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness (Film, US, Sam Raimi, 2022) Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) protects a young woman who can jump between alternate realities (Xochitl Gomez) from the Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), now corrupted by an evil tome. Raimi livens up the thankless assignment of paying off story debts incurred in previous MCU entries by deploying as many of his signature flourishes as they’ll let him sneak in.—RDL

The Helm of Hades (Fiction, Paul Halter, 2019) French mystery author Halter has been called the “true heir of John Dickson Carr,” which on the evidence of this collection remains a bit of a stretch. This short story collection comprises nine “impossible” crimes and one Christie-esque timetable mystery, of uneven quality, the best being “The Ladder of Jacob” (a man is found dead from a fall with no heights around). One of the better ones, “The Yellow Book,” incorporates The King in Yellow for extra points. –KH

Okay

Obi-Wan Kenobi (Television, US, Disney+, Deborah Chow, 2022) Middle-aged Obi-Wan (Ewan McGregor) comes out of hiding when 10-year old Leia is kidnapped by Sith lackeys trying to lure him into the clutches of Darth Vader (Hayden Christiansen/James Earl Jones.) A competently executed continuation of the prequel project shows how misconceived it has always been, as the Jedi mythology and events briefly alluded to in the original films does not withstand the scrutiny that occurs when a former backstory becomes main narrative.—RDL

**Episode 502: Aramaic Mutterer Whisperer** Jun 24, 2022

Surprisingly often, mysteries in other genres show clues landing in the detective’s lap. The **Gaming Hut** asks how to do this at the roleplaying table without leaving players feeling that they’re being led through the scenario.

In our first combo segment of the episode, we find the **Crime Blotter** in the **Architecture Hut**, as beloved Patreon backer Joshua Randall asks how the torso murders connect to the developers of his Cleveland neighborhood, Shaker Heights.

**Ripped From the Headlines** mines the scenario potential of the latest anti-vaxxer craze, creeping through cemeteries looking for Bluetooth signals.

Finally at the behest of tart and tannic backers Fridrik Bjarnason and Tim Vert, the **Consulting Occultist** joins us in the Food Hut to survey the esoteric side of wine.

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.

Human problems are out of hand, so thank goodness, and Atlas Games, for Magical Kitties Save the Day, a fresh, fun roleplaying game for players of all ages, and for GMs from age 6 and up!

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*!

*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.

**Episode 501: Go Toward the Omen** Jun 17, 2022

The **Gaming Hut** mines a new source of mysterious, danger-laden plot hooks: Reddit’s WhatIsThis forum.

The **Horror Hut** takes the unusual step of profiling a real person, as beloved backer Louis Sylvester asks for the lowdown on the explorer, linguist and polemicist Arminius Vambery, described by Bram Stoker in Dracula as a knowledgeable vampire hunter.

In the **Narrative Hut** we find another way to define fictional characters, by the various outcomes we want for them.

Finally at the behest of estimable backer Tennant Reed, we follow up Episode 482’s look at the Soviet Space program by sending **Ken’s Time Machine** to see what would have to happen for the Russians to beat America to the moon.

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.

Human problems are out of hand, so thank goodness, and Atlas Games, for Magical Kitties Save the Day, a fresh, fun roleplaying game for players of all ages, and for GMs from age 6 and up!

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*!

*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.

**Episode 500: LIGHTNING ROUND!!!** Jun 10, 2022

We don’t believe it, you don’t believe it, but it’s true all the same. Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff has reached that milestone of milestones, Episode 500.

Which means, thanks to the perspicacious queries of our beloved Patreon backers, it is once again time for… LIGHTNING ROUND!!!

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.

Human problems are out of hand, so thank goodness, and Atlas Games, for Magical Kitties Save the Day, a fresh, fun roleplaying game for players of all ages, and for GMs from age 6 and up!

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*!

*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.

**Ken and Robin Consume Media: Top Gun, Ghostbusters, We Own This City** Jun 07, 2022

Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies, TV seasons and more we cram into our hyper-analytical sensoriums. Join the Patreon to help pick the items we’ll talk about in greater depth on a little podcast segment we like to call Tell Me More.

Recommended

Ghostbusters: Afterlife (Film, US, Jason Reitman, 2021) When their mom moves them to the middle of nowhere, teen scientist (Mckenna Grace) and her normie brother (Finn Wolfhard) discover a world-shaking mystery in the secret basement of their late, estranged grandfather. Latest attempt to revive the franchise that has never really been a franchise is surprisingly effective, thanks to Reitman’s patient focus on character, not to mention love for Harold Ramis and his own dad.—RDL

Labyrinth of Cinema (Film, Japan, Nobuhiko Obayashi, 2019) On an old movie house’s last night, three audience members are pulled through the screen and into a history of Japan’s military history as told through movies. Initially kooky and frenetic, increasingly somber, epic-length look at the love of film and how it obscures and illuminates the lure of war.—RDL

The Long Divorce (Fiction, Edmund Crispin, 1950) Incompletely incognito, Gervase Fen investigates a plague of poison-pen letters in the town of Cotten Abbas as hatred turns to murder. Effortless braiding of plot, character, puzzle, wit, horror, and irony mark this as classic Crispin. The only real flaw might be that one of the puzzles is a bit too easy, but Crispin has a lot of balls to keep in the air. –KH

Top Gun: Maverick (Film, US, Joseph Kosinski, 2022) Egotistical, hypertalented movie star Tom Cruise (Maverick), battling age and obsolescence in a new world of streaming, IP, and CGI, is called back by his loyal patron Jerry Bruckheimer (Iceman) to make one last practical-effects, live-action blockbuster by detourning the film that retroactively doomed his species (Star Wars). Glorious real-life US Navy jets combine with Claudio Miranda’s luminous cinematography to produce an ecstatic emotional bricolage that approximates a fine fighter-pilot movie. –KH

We Own This City (Television, US, HBO, David Simon & George Pelecanos, 2022) Federal investigators unravel the massive corruption of a Baltimore anti-gun task force led by motormouth cop Wayne Jenkins (Jon Bernthal.) Adaptation of Justin Fenton’s also highly recommended nonfiction book extends Simon’s examinations of Baltimore policing to its current nadir, treating Jenkins’ malfeasance as the egregious but inevitable result of continued devotion to the war on drugs.—RDL

Okay

Born Reckless (Film, US, John Ford, 1930) After a heroic stint in WWI, the head of a heist crew (Edmund Lowe) goes straighter as a nightclub owner, but can’t quite quit his old underworld buddies. Worth a look for students of the gangster picture, as an example of the genre right before Little Caesar and The Public Enemy cemented its baseline structure. Ford’s touch is most apparent in the brief wartime sequence.—RDL

**Episode 499: The Easily Discouraged Ones** Jun 03, 2022

In the **Gaming Hut**, beloved Patreon backer Bill Durfy asks us to provide advice for budding professional GMs.

The **Tradecraft Hut** looks at John Stonehouse, a British MP who spied for the Czechs and wound up ineptly faking his own death.

In **Ask Ken and Robin** stylish backer Joe Webb asks Robin if his head exploded when the Met Gala paid homage to the era of the King in Yellow.

Finally in the **Eliptony Hut** mysterious markings in the Sahara have discerning backer Michael Gemar wondering what lies behind the flimsy rational explanation They used to veil out this story.

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.

Human problems are out of hand, so thank goodness, and Atlas Games, for Magical Kitties Save the Day, a fresh, fun roleplaying game for players of all ages, and for GMs from age 6 and up!

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*!

*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.

**Episode 498: Time Narcs** May 27, 2022

Beholders swoop around the futuristic spires of the **Gaming Hut** as beloved Patreon backer Ian Carlsen seeks tips on time travel in F20 games.

Estimable backer Jason Thompson beckons us into the **Culture Hut** to ask if self-taught Chicago artist Joseph E. Yoakum might have been peering into the Dreamlands.

Finally our hero returns from Austin laden with queso and books, and tells us about the later in another epic installment of **Ken’s Bookshelf**.

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.

Human problems are out of hand, so thank goodness, and Atlas Games, for Magical Kitties Save the Day, a fresh, fun roleplaying game for players of all ages, and for GMs from age 6 and up!

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*!

*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.

**Ken and Robin Consume Media: Dr. Strange, Men, and a Demon-Possessed Skull** May 24, 2022

Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies, TV seasons and more we cram into our hyper-analytical sensoriums. Join the Patreon to help pick the items we’ll talk about in greater depth on a little podcast segment we like to call Tell Me More.

Recommended

Feels Good Man (Film, US, Arthur Jones, 2020) Sweet-natured cartoonist Matt Furie reacts with confusion, dismay and finally resolve when his creation, Pepe the Frog, long a staple of Internet meme culture, metastasizes into a symbol of far-right hate. Documentary of our Esoterror times fills in the many intermediate stages of Pepe’s disjunctive semiotic journey.—RDL

Good Time (Film, US, Benny Safdie & Josh Safdie, 2017) After dragging his developmentally challenged brother (Benny Safdie) into a bank robbery that gets him locked up, a manipulative screw-up (Robert Pattinson) initiates a cascade of terrible decisions in his bid to free him. Crackling entry in the nightlong doom spiral sub-genre informed by Abel Ferrara and the Dardennes Brothers.—RDL

A Hero of Our Time (Fiction, Mikhail Lermontov, 1840) An observer’s reminiscences and the protagonist’s diary entries recount the romantic havoc wrought by a fickle young Russian officer stationed in the Caucasus. Ironic character study steadily chips away at the outward charms of its inwardly empty subject.—RDL

The Skull (Film, UK, Freddie Francis, 1965) Occult expert Maitland (Peter Cushing) obtains the demon-possessed skull of the Marquis de Sade from sweaty fixer Marco (Patrick Wymark) and badness happens. Acting tour de force by Cushing makes the most from the delicious high concept (originally a Robert Bloch story). A Modernist score by Elisabeth Luytens, fetish-laden set design, and a fine supporting turn by Christopher Lee as a rival occultist top off one of Hammer/Amicus stalwart Francis’ best films. –KH

Good

The Blue Panther (Film, France, Claude Chabrol, 1965) Rich young woman (Marie Laforêt) on vacation at a Swiss ski resort relies on her wits and her judo training when she becomes the caretaker of a jewel sought by assorted international assassins. Chabrol’s tribute to the espionage side of the Hitchcock filmography is pretty and charming but a touch too insouciant about fulfilling genre requirements.—RDL

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (Film, US, Sam Raimi, 2022) Dr. Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) tries to protect universe-jumper America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez) from the Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen). Think of this as MCU vanilla swirled with Raimi ripple; while the story lurches along we at least get plenty of spooky stuff and wild camera flips to entertain us. Olsen is the real standout acting-wise, mostly thanks to a clunky script that offers little for Cumberbatch or Gomez to do except handwave CGI nonsense. –KH

Men (Film, UK, Alex Garland, 2022) Widowed Harper (Jessie Buckley) rents a manor in a remote English countryside from Geoffrey (Rory Kinnear) to seek closure but gets toxic masculinity with a side of folk horror. A feast of sound and lushly filmed nature, a Green Man, and weird repeating Rory Kinnear only take you so far: a Cronenbergian spectacle at the end doesn’t stick the landing at all, although it certainly squicks it. Harper’s empty passivity wastes Buckley and vitiates what point remains. –KH

Okay

Three Resurrected Drunkards (Film, Japan, Nagisa Oshima, 1968) A trio of students lose their IDs to Korean infiltrators and must resort to metafictional awareness to save their skins. Oshima’s answer to Help! plunks the pop group Folk Crusaders into an eccentric mix of formal experimentation, gross-out humor, and Vietnam War protest.—RDL

**Episode 497: Edgelord Tarot** May 20, 2022

Beloved Patreon backer Ryan McClelland kicks of an all-request episode in the **Gaming Hut**, seeking advice on how to convincing players to treat former adversaries as questionable allies.

In the **History Hut**, estimable backer Derek Hiemforth has discovered that two doomed airships, the R101 and the Hindenburg, used the exact same Duralumin, and naturally asks us who cursed it.

Then it’s time for **Ripped from the Headlines**, as discerning backer Matthew Preston wants to know who’s in the lead-lined sarcophagus preventative archeologists just found buried under Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.

Finally, the **Consulting Occultist** tells curious backer Aaron Sapp, and by extension you, about his collection of Tarot card decks.

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.

Human problems are out of hand, so thank goodness, and Atlas Games, for Magical Kitties Save the Day, a fresh, fun roleplaying game for players of all ages, and for GMs from age 6 and up!

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*!

*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.

**Episode 496: Tonsils Not Included** May 13, 2022

Beloved Patreon backer Urchin Prince beckons us to the shiniest throne of the **Gaming Hut** to ask about boons the PCs’ patrons might give them.

The **Architecture Hut** faces cost overruns for its fiendish traps as estimable backer Tim Vert asks which famous architects we’d commission were we to build dungeons.

An odd shrimp smell lures us to the forest, and the **Monster Hut**, to discuss the shapeshifting tunda of Colombia and Ecuador.

Then we take a patented **Ken’s Time Machine** look at the Popish plot conspiracy hoax.

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.

Human problems are out of hand, so thank goodness, and Atlas Games, for Magical Kitties Save the Day, a fresh, fun roleplaying game for players of all ages, and for GMs from age 6 and up!

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*!

*Delta Green: Black Sites* collects terrifying Delta Green operations previously published only in PDF or in standalone paperback modules. They lock bystanders and Agents alike in unlit rooms with the cosmic terrors of the unnatural. A 208 page hardback by masters of top secret mythos horror Dennis Detwiller, Adam Scott Glancy, Shane Ivey, and Caleb Stokes.

**Episode 495: More of an Octagon** May 06, 2022

The **Gaming Hut** investigates the difference between problems that rules sets should set out to solve and mere conceptual issues that never come up in play.

The **History Hut** gets hairy as we reveal the secrets of the Chester Cat Hoax.

Umbrage is entertained in the **Narrative Hut** as beloved Patreon backer Benjamin Rawls seeks our support on the misuse of the term “allegory.”

And much mystery is found within three points as we enter the **Eliptony Hut**, at the urging of estimable backer Ed (Speaker in Digressions), for a look at the Bridgewater Triangle.

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.

Human problems are out of hand, so thank goodness, and Atlas Games, for Magical Kitties Save the Day, a fresh, fun roleplaying game for players of all ages, and for GMs from age 6 and up!

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*!

*Delta Green: Black Sites* collects terrifying Delta Green operations previously published only in PDF or in standalone paperback modules. They lock bystanders and Agents alike in unlit rooms with the cosmic terrors of the unnatural. A 208 page hardback by masters of top secret mythos horror Dennis Detwiller, Adam Scott Glancy, Shane Ivey, and Caleb Stokes.

**Episode 494: Sidekicks to the Bear** Apr 29, 2022

In an episode dedicated to recreating for posterity the good half of an old installment that has since gone missing, the **Gaming Hut** looks at campaigns where most of the PCs are sidekicks to a superior hero.

In the **Tradecraft Hut** we examine the career of former Putin aide Vladislav Surkov, the so-called Gray Cardinal behind Russia’s foray into postmodern authoritarianism, now under house arrest for Ukraine-related failures.

The **Mythology Hut** rises from the waves at the behest of beloved Patreon backer Toonspew, who wants to know about the kingdom of Ys.

And back to the recreation, the **Consulting Occultist** provides a profile of 13th century magician Roger Bacon.

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.

Human problems are out of hand, so thank goodness, and Atlas Games, for Magical Kitties Save the Day, a fresh, fun roleplaying game for players of all ages, and for GMs from age 6 and up!

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*!

*Delta Green: Black Sites* collects terrifying Delta Green operations previously published only in PDF or in standalone paperback modules. They lock bystanders and Agents alike in unlit rooms with the cosmic terrors of the unnatural. A 208 page hardback by masters of top secret mythos horror Dennis Detwiller, Adam Scott Glancy, Shane Ivey, and Caleb Stokes.

**Episode 493: That New Cleaning Acid** Apr 22, 2022

With the *Gremlins* franchise coming back, warnings are on the mind of beloved Patreon backer Bryan. He beckons us into the back room of the **Gaming Hut** to ask how to handle them at the roleplaying table.

In *Tour de Lovecraft: the Destinations*, Ken tells us what Arkham was like during the period of HPL’s stories. In the **Mythos Hut**, we wonder what it looks like today.

We meet estimable backer Charles Picard in the Culture Hut, to take in a production of artist Wassily Kandinsky’s synesthetic play The Yellow Sound and wonder what that might have to do with the malign monarch of the same color.

Then we don our flannels for a trip down paranoid memory lane in the **Conspiracy Corner**, as we look at investigative journalist Danny Casolaro, the Inslaw case, and the web of intelligence connections he called the Octopus.

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.

Human problems are out of hand, so thank goodness, and Atlas Games, for Magical Kitties Save the Day, a fresh, fun roleplaying game for players of all ages, and for GMs from age 6 and up!

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*!

*Delta Green: Black Sites* collects terrifying Delta Green operations previously published only in PDF or in standalone paperback modules. They lock bystanders and Agents alike in unlit rooms with the cosmic terrors of the unnatural. A 208 page hardback by masters of top secret mythos horror Dennis Detwiller, Adam Scott Glancy, Shane Ivey, and Caleb Stokes.

**Ken and Robin Consume Media: Everything Everywhere, The Protege, Argentinean Noir and Italian Jack London** Apr 19, 2022

Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies, TV seasons and more we cram into our hyper-analytical sensoriums. Join the Patreon to help pick the items we’ll talk about in greater depth on a little podcast segment we like to call Tell Me More.

Recommended

The Attorney (Film, South Korea, Woo-seok Yang, 2013) Convention-busting outsider lawyer (Song Kang-ho) becomes an unlikely foe of the 80s South Korean dictatorship when he takes on the case of a student tortured into a false subversion confession. Crowd-pleasing political courtroom drama powered by Song’s movie star charisma.—RDL

The Beast Must Die (Film, Argentina, Román Viñoly Barreto, 1952) When his son is killed in a hit and run accident, an urbane mystery novelist (Narciso Ibáñez Menta) vows to identify and kill the culprit. Menta’s interiorized performance contrasts with the big acting of his cast members in this atmospheric film noir character study, the first of several adaptations of a pseudonymously written mystery novel by Cecil Day-Lewis.—RDL

Everything Everywhere All At Once (Film, US, Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert, 2022) Overstressed laundromat owner Evelyn (Michelle Yeoh) discovers she’s the crux of the multiverse. Merely by not squandering Yeoh this film does better than almost any other thing she’s been in for decades; by allowing her a full emotional range from the quotidian to the cosmic it justifies a lot of (let’s face it) stupid comedy and cardboard metaphysics. The supporting cast (James Hong, Jamie Lee Curtis, Stephanie Hsu) is also terrific, as is the best Wong Kar-Wai parody/tribute you’re likely to see. –KH

Martin Eden (Film, Italy, Pietro Marcello, 2019) After meeting a sweet-natured girl from a well-to-do family, a sailor and laborer resolves to educate himself and become a writer. Adaptation of the Jack London autobiographical novel, relocated to Italy and with period details scrambled, compresses time with a refreshingly staccato editing style.—RDL

Good

The Protégé (Film, US, Martin Campbell, 2021) Assassin Moody (Samuel L. Jackson) rescues an orphan in 1991 Vietnam; she (Maggie Q) seeks revenge for his killing 20 years later. Maggie Q is always magnificent, but Campbell never quite decides if he’s making a hitman rom-com (Michael Keaton as love interest is a choice) or a revenge thriller or even a Freudian journey and as a result doesn’t quite do any of those things. Q and Keaton actually kind of mesh, and the spy-combat stuff is not at all bad thanks to Campbell’s pro chops, but it never actually hits high gear. –KH

Okay

Killing Eve Season 4 (Television, BBC, Laura Neal, 2022) As Villanelle (Jodie Comer) takes an unlikely stab at redemption, Eve (Sandra Oh) adopts a more kinetic role in hunting the Twelve. Sour fizzle of a final season loses track of its characters’ core qualities, cycling them through changes to have something for them to do.—RDL

**Episode 492: More Feck in the Bank** Apr 15, 2022

In the **Gaming Hut** we provide advice on working with the GM to play a mastermind character.

At the behest of beloved Patreon backer Drew, the History Hut goes all the way back to 2004 for the tale of the missing Sri Lankan handball team.

We venture into the **Food Hut** to provide estimable backer Derrick Yates with the Mythos truth behind the mysterious McRib.

Finally, we point **Ken’s Time Machine** at the 1822 Greek War of Independence to see what improvements he can make in the timeline.

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.

Human problems are out of hand, so thank goodness, and Atlas Games, for Magical Kitties Save the Day, a fresh, fun roleplaying game for players of all ages, and for GMs from age 6 and up!

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*!

*Delta Green: Black Sites* collects terrifying Delta Green operations previously published only in PDF or in standalone paperback modules. They lock bystanders and Agents alike in unlit rooms with the cosmic terrors of the unnatural. A 208 page hardback by masters of top secret mythos horror Dennis Detwiller, Adam Scott Glancy, Shane Ivey, and Caleb Stokes.

**Episode 491: Stormy Petrels of Crime** Apr 08, 2022

In the **Gaming Hut**, we look at the elements that ought to go into an introductory scenario.

Beloved Patreon backer Todd W. Olson has not left the building, but has rather entered the **Culture Hut**, as he asks how Elvis Presley’s 1968 Comeback Special might reverberate in Fall of DELTA GREEN.

In **Ask Ken and Robin**, esteemed backer Neil Barnes wonders what kind of superhero universe might be shifted into existence by the dread machinations of the King in Yellow.

Finally a Mother Jones piece by Rene Ebersole inspires an **Eliptony Hut** inquiry into the crank forensic science of corpse witching.

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.

Human problems are out of hand, so thank goodness, and Atlas Games, for Magical Kitties Save the Day, a fresh, fun roleplaying game for players of all ages, and for GMs from age 6 and up!

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*!

*Delta Green: Black Sites* collects terrifying Delta Green operations previously published only in PDF or in standalone paperback modules. They lock bystanders and Agents alike in unlit rooms with the cosmic terrors of the unnatural. A 208 page hardback by masters of top secret mythos horror Dennis Detwiller, Adam Scott Glancy, Shane Ivey, and Caleb Stokes.

**Episode 490: They Left the Irony Bridge Intact** Apr 01, 2022

In the **Gaming Hut** we lay out goals the GM should set for convention games and other one-shots.

The **Command Hut** looks at an invasion of a smaller power by a larger one that has somewhat fallen down the memory hole: the Sino-Vietnamese War of 1979.

Beloved Patreon backers such as Gabriel Rossman demanded that we address the escape of evil fox spirit Tamomo-n0-mae from the rock that imprisons her, occasioning a segment we call **Ripped From the Headlines**.

Finally the **Consulting Occultist** examines the esoteric influence on, and of, Swami Vivekananda, founder of yoga as we know it.

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.

Human problems are out of hand, so thank goodness, and Atlas Games, for Magical Kitties Save the Day, a fresh, fun roleplaying game for players of all ages, and for GMs from age 6 and up!

Tell your friends, loved ones and deniable assets that The Esoterrorists Bundle has returned to the Bundle of Holding. Get Robin’s game of special agents against occult conspirators and a capacious dossier of support material in PDF until April 6th.

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: Black Sites* collects terrifying Delta Green operations previously published only in PDF or in standalone paperback modules. They lock bystanders and Agents alike in unlit rooms with the cosmic terrors of the unnatural. A 208 page hardback by masters of top secret mythos horror Dennis Detwiller, Adam Scott Glancy, Shane Ivey, and Caleb Stokes.

**Episode 489: Ideally a Themologue** Mar 25, 2022

In the **Gaming Hut** we look at that most elusive of GM skills: knowing when to shut up.

The smell of ancient newsprint pervades the **Horror Hut** as beloved Patreon backer Jamie Twine seeks the connection between the King and Yellow and his contemporary, early newspaper comics character the Yellow Kid.

Finally, the imminence of the Academy Awards ceremony means it’s time for our annual tradition, our **Cinema Hut** roundup of our favorite films of 2021.

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.

Human problems are out of hand, so thank goodness, and Atlas Games, for Magical Kitties Save the Day, a fresh, fun roleplaying game for players of all ages, and for GMs from age 6 and up!

Tell your friends, loved ones and deniable assets that The Esoterrorists Bundle has returned to the Bundle of Holding. Get Robin’s game of special agents against occult conspirators and a capacious dossier of support material in PDF until April 6th.

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: Black Sites* collects terrifying Delta Green operations previously published only in PDF or in standalone paperback modules. They lock bystanders and Agents alike in unlit rooms with the cosmic terrors of the unnatural. A 208 page hardback by masters of top secret mythos horror Dennis Detwiller, Adam Scott Glancy, Shane Ivey, and Caleb Stokes.

**Episode 488: The Da Vinci Code of Numbers** Mar 18, 2022

**Among My Many Hats** looks at Ken’s latest work of Cthulhoid essays, Tour de Lovecraft: the Destinations, available as of March 22nd from Atomic Overmind Press.

The **Gaming Hut** looks at ways you, the player, can find a way into a scenario when you don’t see a natural course of action.

Then **Ken’s Bookshelf** finishes its look at our hero’s epic recent raid on the shops of Florida and California, from mid 19th century New York City to the exciting world of human hybrids.

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.

Human problems are out of hand, so thank goodness, and Atlas Games, for Magical Kitties Save the Day, a fresh, fun roleplaying game for players of all ages, and for GMs from age 6 and up!

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*!

*Delta Green: Black Sites* collects terrifying Delta Green operations previously published only in PDF or in standalone paperback modules. They lock bystanders and Agents alike in unlit rooms with the cosmic terrors of the unnatural. A 208 page hardback by masters of top secret mythos horror Dennis Detwiller, Adam Scott Glancy, Shane Ivey, and Caleb Stokes.

**Episode 487: Nothing More Organic Than a Moon** Mar 11, 2022

Beloved Patreon backer Chihiro Yamata has access to an Edwardian house with a creepy ghost plaque, and wants the **Gaming Hut** to do something about it.

Esteemed backer Jake beckons us into the **Cartography Hut** to discuss the evolution of maps in WW2, as inspired by Ken’s recent review of Jeremy Black’s A History of the Second World War in 100 Maps.

The **Food Hut** inquires into the career of early organic wine advocate, grape varietal namesake, and devoted Nazi Fritz Zweigelt.

Finally sagacious backer Jeff Greenlee visits the **Consulting Occultist** for the lowdown on the surprisingly steamy story of the Jesus’ Wife hoax.

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.

Human problems are out of hand, so thank goodness, and Atlas Games, for Magical Kitties Save the Day, a fresh, fun roleplaying game for players of all ages, and for GMs from age 6 and up!

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*!

*Delta Green: Black Sites* collects terrifying Delta Green operations previously published only in PDF or in standalone paperback modules. They lock bystanders and Agents alike in unlit rooms with the cosmic terrors of the unnatural. A 208 page hardback by masters of top secret mythos horror Dennis Detwiller, Adam Scott Glancy, Shane Ivey, and Caleb Stokes.

**[REPOST] Episode 486: Temple of Political Evil** Mar 04, 2022

The **Gaming Hut** gets a snazzy **Architecture Hut** retrofit as beloved Patreon backer Alexander Arebalo seeks tips for a game based around physical locations.

In **Conspiracy Corner** we ask ourselves if today’s full-paranoia anti-vaxxers would have been yesteryear’s Gnostics.

And finally our roving hero returns from the wilds of Florida and California with an honest to goodness actual haul from this here reality to add to **Ken’s Bookshelf**.

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.

Human problems are out of hand, so thank goodness, and Atlas Games, for Magical Kitties Save the Day, a fresh, fun roleplaying game for players of all ages, and for GMs from age 6 and up!

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*!

*Delta Green: Black Sites* collects terrifying Delta Green operations previously published only in PDF or in standalone paperback modules. They lock bystanders and Agents alike in unlit rooms with the cosmic terrors of the unnatural. A 208 page hardback by masters of top secret mythos horror Dennis Detwiller, Adam Scott Glancy, Shane Ivey, and Caleb Stokes.

**Episode 486: Temple of Political Evil** Mar 04, 2022

The **Gaming Hut** gets a snazzy **Architecture Hut** retrofit as beloved Patreon backer Alexander Arebalo seeks tips for a game based around physical locations.

In **Conspiracy Corner** we ask ourselves if today’s full-paranoia anti-vaxxers would have been yesteryear’s Gnostics.

And finally our roving hero returns from the wilds of Florida and California with an honest to goodness actual haul from this here reality to add to **Ken’s Bookshelf**.

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.

Human problems are out of hand, so thank goodness, and Atlas Games, for Magical Kitties Save the Day, a fresh, fun roleplaying game for players of all ages, and for GMs from age 6 and up!

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*!

*Delta Green: Black Sites* collects terrifying Delta Green operations previously published only in PDF or in standalone paperback modules. They lock bystanders and Agents alike in unlit rooms with the cosmic terrors of the unnatural. A 208 page hardback by masters of top secret mythos horror Dennis Detwiller, Adam Scott Glancy, Shane Ivey, and Caleb Stokes.

**Episode 485: What I Might Have Done in the Future** Feb 25, 2022

Beloved Patreon backer Walter Manbeck chases a bad guy we thought we vanquished into the **Gaming Hut**, asking us how to keep recurring villains scary after the group has teamed up to defeat them.

At the best of well-rounded backer Robert Wolfe, the **Architecture Hut** goes Dymaxionic with a look at Buckminster Fuller.

*Night’s Black Agents* has bats, rats, and wolves. *Trail of Cthulhu* has cephalopods, rats, and hounds. In the **Horror Hut**, we select creepity animals to associate with *The Yellow King Roleplaying Game*.

We wrap up in the **Tradecraft Hut**, where we tear open the archives and reveal the stay-behind secrets of Operation Gladio.

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.

Human problems are out of hand, so thank goodness, and Atlas Games, for Magical Kitties Save the Day, a fresh, fun roleplaying game for players of all ages, and for GMs from age 6 and up!

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*!

*Delta Green: Black Sites* collects terrifying Delta Green operations previously published only in PDF or in standalone paperback modules. They lock bystanders and Agents alike in unlit rooms with the cosmic terrors of the unnatural. A 208 page hardback by masters of top secret mythos horror Dennis Detwiller, Adam Scott Glancy, Shane Ivey, and Caleb Stokes.

**Episode 484: Unprecedented Snow** Feb 18, 2022

In the **Gaming Hut** we wonder how many possible player character choices the writer of published scenarios should provide guidance for.

The **Mythology Hut** makes room for a round table as beloved Patreon backer Steve Dempsey seeks gaming inspiration from the kings and emperors whose stories make up the composite figure of King Arthur.

We try not to spill ink in the **Culture Hut** as equally beloved Patreon backer Ruth Tillman seeks the behind-the-scenes on superstar actress Sarah Bernhardt’s sculptural inkwell self-portrait of herself as a bat-winged, griffin-clawed Sphinx.

Finally, no less beloved Patreon backer Keelan O’Hea summons us to the **Eliptony Hut** to account for UFO aliens’ love affair with New Mexico.

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.

Human problems are out of hand, so thank goodness, and Atlas Games, for Magical Kitties Save the Day, a fresh, fun roleplaying game for players of all ages, and for GMs from age 6 and up!

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*!

*Delta Green: Black Sites* collects terrifying Delta Green operations previously published only in PDF or in standalone paperback modules. They lock bystanders and Agents alike in unlit rooms with the cosmic terrors of the unnatural. A 208 page hardback by masters of top secret mythos horror Dennis Detwiller, Adam Scott Glancy, Shane Ivey, and Caleb Stokes.

**Episode 483: Don’t Come at Me, Circle People** Feb 11, 2022

In the **Gaming Hut** we look at GMing techniques to respond to that moment when one player makes a unilateral choice that causes the rest of the group to groan in protest.

The **History Hut** acquires a pointy hat as beloved Patreon backer Bob J. Koester asks us to delve into Yale’s 1825 Conic Sections Rebellion.

Estimable backer Ed Sizemore demands to know how and why **Ken’s Time Machine** erased Pope John XX from the timeline.

And finally, at the behest of discerning backer Derrick McMullin, we enter the **Cinema Hut** to look at *Eternals* and ask if a big ideas film can also be a superhero film. For ease of spoiler avoidance, this segment appears at the end of the episode.

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.

Human problems are out of hand, so thank goodness, and Atlas Games, for Magical Kitties Save the Day, a fresh, fun roleplaying game for players of all ages, and for GMs from age 6 and up!

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*!

*Delta Green: Black Sites* collects terrifying Delta Green operations previously published only in PDF or in standalone paperback modules. They lock bystanders and Agents alike in unlit rooms with the cosmic terrors of the unnatural. A 208 page hardback by masters of top secret mythos horror Dennis Detwiller, Adam Scott Glancy, Shane Ivey, and Caleb Stokes.

**Episode 482: I Never Really Got Rid of Her** Feb 04, 2022

The launch pad has been positioned uncomfortable close to the **Gaming Hut**, as beloved Patreon backer Neil Barnes seeks ways to center a game around the Soviet Space Program.

The **Crime Blotter** has to wait a little while longer for that immersion blender as we look at the recent media flap over package thefts from Union Pacific’s Los Angeles railyard.

Our **Mythos Hut** series wraps up as we outline a gaming scenario to feature our newly spawned deity, Qotha-Nhur’rin, the Destruction at the Heart of Creation.

Finally estimable Patreon backer Robert Wolfe asks the **Consulting Occultist** about Mary Poppins creator P. L. Travers and her association with mystical philosopher George Gurdjieff.

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.

Human problems are out of hand, so thank goodness, and Atlas Games, for Magical Kitties Save the Day, a fresh, fun roleplaying game for players of all ages, and for GMs from age 6 and up!

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*!

*Delta Green: Black Sites* collects terrifying Delta Green operations previously published only in PDF or in standalone paperback modules. They lock bystanders and Agents alike in unlit rooms with the cosmic terrors of the unnatural. A 208 page hardback by masters of top secret mythos horror Dennis Detwiller, Adam Scott Glancy, Shane Ivey, and Caleb Stokes.

**Episode 481: We Love This Gnoll** Jan 28, 2022

In the **Gaming Hut** we consider the genre all tabletop roleplaying games bend toward. Spoiler: it has to do with the players.

Our ongoing **Mythos Hut** process of creating a new Lovecraftian god reaches the stage where we outline a story to introduce her. What will Qotha-Nhur’rin, the Destruction at the Heart of Creation, get herself up to?

The **Narrative Hut** attempts to sort out the various sub-genres of fantasy.

Finally, the **Conspiracy Corner** takes a break from Eurocentric crackpot historical revisionism to look at Sinocentric crackpot historical revisionism, as promulgated by the self-styled World Civilization Research Association.

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.

Human problems are out of hand, so thank goodness, and Atlas Games, for Magical Kitties Save the Day, a fresh, fun roleplaying game for players of all ages, and for GMs from age 6 and up!

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*!

*Delta Green: Black Sites* collects terrifying Delta Green operations previously published only in PDF or in standalone paperback modules. They lock bystanders and Agents alike in unlit rooms with the cosmic terrors of the unnatural. A 208 page hardback by masters of top secret mythos horror Dennis Detwiller, Adam Scott Glancy, Shane Ivey, and Caleb Stokes.

**Ken and Robin Consume Media: Hawkeye, Finch, Eternals, and The Velvet Underground** Jan 25, 2022

Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies, TV seasons and more we cram into our hyper-analytical sensoriums. Join the Patreon to help pick the items we’ll talk about in greater depth on a little podcast segment we like to call Tell Me More.

Recommended

Eyes of Fire (Film, US, Avery Crounse, 1983) On the Ohio frontier in 1750, Shawnee pursue an exiled adulterous preacher (Dennis Lipscomb) and a band of exiles including the daughter of a witch (Karlene Crockett) into a haunted valley. Surprisingly layered script, some really good manitou-ish creepiness, and an original story more than make up for the primitive special effects and slightly flat ending in this folk-horror Western. Also, getting to legitimately describe a movie as a “folk-horror Western” is pretty great. –KH

Five Little Pigs (Fiction, Agatha Christie, 1942) When the daughter of convicted murderess Caroline Crale tasks Hercule Poirot with finding the real killer after 15 years, his little grey cells get their greatest workout. Christie’s use of five narrative voices in flashback adds the layers to character and incident she usually neglects, and the puzzle is up there with her best misdirections. Finally, a Poirot novel I can Recommend. –KH

Hawkeye Season 1 (Television, US, Disney+, Jonathan Igla & Kevin Feige, 2021) Spoiled Hawkeye fangirl Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld) crosses paths with the beat-up, world-weary Avenger (Jeremy Renner) while incurring the wrath of the tracksuit mafia. Good casting and chemistry, better-than-average fights, and a relatively tight series length keep the remarkably dumb story afloat. Any show that gets me to root for Jeremy Renner must be doing something right. –KH

Hercules in the Haunted World (Film, Italy, Mario Bava, 1961) To break the hold of vampire king Lico (Chrisopher Lee) over his beloved Deianira (Leonora Ruffo), brawny demigod Hercules (Reg Park) and his lothario hero pal Theseus (George Ardisson) brave the dangers of Hades. Peplum meets gothic horror as the ongoing series gets the full Bava treatment, from psychedelic color palette to scary imagery that must have blown the terrified minds of kiddie matinee attendees during its original release.—RDL

Ted Lasso Season 2 (Television, US, Apple+, Bill Lawrence, 2021) As AFC Richmond struggles to regain its spot in the Premier League, Ted (Jason Sudeikis) bumps heads with the new team psychologist (Sarah Niles) and Rebecca (Hannah Waddingham) flirts with a mysterious dating app paramour. With the main cast satisfyingly united at the end of the previous season, this outing strains a bit for dramatic tension, settling from fresh new wonder status to comforting hangout show.—RDL

The Velvet Underground (Film, US, Todd Haynes, 2021) Rock band biodoc is in perfect hands with Haynes, who adopts avant garde visual techniques of Warhol and his circle to lay out the narrative of the seminal pre-punk art band, reclaiming Lou Reed’s gay icon status along the way.—RDL

Okay

Eternals (Film, US, Chloe Zhao, 2021) When their ancient enemy monsters return, an immortal alien, superbeing (Gemma Chan) reunites her scattered team of covert social engineers to fight them. Admirably ambitious, mostly stunning-looking shot at departing from established MCU formulas fails to find an efficient path into its complicated mythology and twisting narrative.—RDL

Finch (Film, US, Miguel Sapochnik, 2021) Determined survivor of a solar flare catastrophe (Tom Hanks) builds a humanoid robot (Caleb Landry-Jones) to guard his dog and accompany him on a cross-country journey. Sapochnik makes fine use of Hanks’ proven ability to carry a film as the only visible human onscreen, but draws the horror of his post-apocalypse so thoroughly that it fights the intended sentimentality of the father-son dramatic arc.—RDL

**Episode 480: Not Described Otherwise as Being a Metal Tube** Jan 21, 2022

The **Gaming Hut** attempts to pin down a much-used bit of tabletop terminology as beloved Patreon backer Ludovic Chabant asks what we mean when we say that a game breaks.

Esteemed Patreon backers Jeromy French and Bryce Perry weave into the **Food Hut**, hungry and wanting to know more about archetypal drunk food, and why Canada doesn’t seem to have one.

Our **Mythos Hut** series on creating a new Lovecraftian deity reaches the stage where we have identified our concept, the forbidden or forgotten thought, and now flesh it out into an actual entity.

Finally the **Eliptony Hut** has taken a surprisingly long time to get to Toronto’s own famous tulpa, but finally does so with a segment on the Philip Experiment.

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.

Human problems are out of hand, so thank goodness, and Atlas Games, for Magical Kitties Save the Day, a fresh, fun roleplaying game for players of all ages, and for GMs from age 6 and up!

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*!

*Delta Green: Black Sites* collects terrifying Delta Green operations previously published only in PDF or in standalone paperback modules. They lock bystanders and Agents alike in unlit rooms with the cosmic terrors of the unnatural. A 208 page hardback by masters of top secret mythos horror Dennis Detwiller, Adam Scott Glancy, Shane Ivey, and Caleb Stokes.

**Episode 479: His Old Draping Skills** Jan 14, 2022

Get ready for twists and **Gaming Hut** turns as beloved Patreon backer Terry Robinson asks for advice on genre shifts on the tabletop.

The **Tradecraft Hut** finds intrigue behind an old-timey Canadian historical footnote with a profile on Thomas Miller Beach, infiltrator of the Fenians.

In part two of our **Mythos Hut** series on creating a new Lovecraftian deity, we survey the canonical gods of cosmic indifference to see what unoccupied slot we might profitably fill.

Finally **Ken’s Time Machine** goes to the movies at the behest of estimable backer Monster Talk, who wants a peek at David Lean’s adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s *Nostromo*.

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.

Human problems are out of hand, so thank goodness, and Atlas Games, for Magical Kitties Save the Day, a fresh, fun roleplaying game for players of all ages, and for GMs from age 6 and up!

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*!

*Delta Green: Black Sites* collects terrifying Delta Green operations previously published only in PDF or in standalone paperback modules. They lock bystanders and Agents alike in unlit rooms with the cosmic terrors of the unnatural. A 208 page hardback by masters of top secret mythos horror Dennis Detwiller, Adam Scott Glancy, Shane Ivey, and Caleb Stokes.

**Episode 478: His Pursevant Had Dropsy** Jan 07, 2022

We open up the **Gaming Hut** for another year and find a strangely folded missive from beloved Patreon backer Stephen Dosman, who wants us to incorporate the practice of letter-locking into historical games.

A new series begins in the **Mythos Hut**, as we construct a Lovecraftian deity, starting with a look at the common qualities of the existing ones.

In **How to Write Good** we look at the process of deciding how smart your various fictional antagonists are.

Finally estimable backer Michael David Jr. enjoins the Consulting Occultist to profile English writer and Catholic decadent Montague Summers.

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.

Human problems are out of hand, so thank goodness, and Atlas Games, for Magical Kitties Save the Day, a fresh, fun roleplaying game for players of all ages, and for GMs from age 6 and up!

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*!

*Delta Green: Black Sites* collects terrifying Delta Green operations previously published only in PDF or in standalone paperback modules. They lock bystanders and Agents alike in unlit rooms with the cosmic terrors of the unnatural. A 208 page hardback by masters of top secret mythos horror Dennis Detwiller, Adam Scott Glancy, Shane Ivey, and Caleb Stokes.

**Episode 477: Not For That, But Not Not For That** Dec 24, 2021

Nestle your rattling dice and thumping miniatures with care for our final episode of 2021.

In the **Gaming Hut** beloved Patreon backer Bob Grider seeks the connection between the King in Yellow and locally celebrated fast food chain White Castle.

The **History Hut** goes nautical once more as formidable backer Dave Munro requests the rundown on the Metallic Lord himself, Sir Thomas Cochrane.

A cozy shiver pervades the **Horror Hut** as we answer estimable backer Matthew Preston’s real question about the differences between Edwardian ghost stories and later American fright tales.

Finally only the Eliptony Hut can untangle the saga of European UFO hoax slash conspiracy slash cult, UMMO.

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.

Human problems are out of hand, so thank goodness, and Atlas Games, for Magical Kitties Save the Day, a fresh, fun roleplaying game for players of all ages, and for GMs from age 6 and up!

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*!

*Delta Green: Black Sites* collects terrifying Delta Green operations previously published only in PDF or in standalone paperback modules. They lock bystanders and Agents alike in unlit rooms with the cosmic terrors of the unnatural. A 208 page hardback by masters of top secret mythos horror Dennis Detwiller, Adam Scott Glancy, Shane Ivey, and Caleb Stokes.

**Episode 476: Homeostasis and Recurrence in Great Power Relations** Dec 17, 2021

In the **Gaming Hut** we find ways to design scenarios that highlight the cool and unique features of a location.

It’s that most wonderful time of the year as the **Horror Hut** contemplates Christmas ghost stories.

The **Mythology Hut** takes a look, get it, look, at the oddball Greek mythological figure Argus Panoptes.

Due to Omicron travel restrictions, Ken unfortunately had to cancel his Dragonmeet trip along with the rest of the inbound Pelgranes. Fortunately he did use the time machine’s bookstore-finding setting to bring back some volumes from other timelines, leading to a very special extradimensional installment of **Ken’s Bookshelf**.

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.

Human problems are out of hand, so thank goodness, and Atlas Games, for Magical Kitties Save the Day, a fresh, fun roleplaying game for players of all ages, and for GMs from age 6 and up!

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*!

*Delta Green: Black Sites* collects terrifying Delta Green operations previously published only in PDF or in standalone paperback modules. They lock bystanders and Agents alike in unlit rooms with the cosmic terrors of the unnatural. A 208 page hardback by masters of top secret mythos horror Dennis Detwiller, Adam Scott Glancy, Shane Ivey, and Caleb Stokes.

**Episode 475: Romance or Blasphemy** Dec 10, 2021

Hey look it’s another all-request episode!

Beloved Patreon backer Kieron Gillen opens the **Gaming Hut**, which we hope isn’t a portal into a hellish otherrealm, to ask how designers screen out their skill as GMs during in-house playtests.

Erudite backer Bruce Miller infiltrates the **Book Hut** to ask about Richard Marsh’s *The Beetle*, a horror novel that for twenty years out-sold Dracula.

In **Ask Ken and Robin**, estimable backer Martin Rundkvist asks how Robin, and by extension Ken, goes about choosing projects.

Finally sagacious backer Paul Douglas poses a question that can only fit in the paranoid space that is the **Conspiracy Corner**: was Lenin a mushroom?

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.

Human problems are out of hand, so thank goodness, and Atlas Games, for Magical Kitties Save the Day, a fresh, fun roleplaying game for players of all ages, and for GMs from age 6 and up!

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*!

*Delta Green: Black Sites* collects terrifying Delta Green operations previously published only in PDF or in standalone paperback modules. They lock bystanders and Agents alike in unlit rooms with the cosmic terrors of the unnatural. A 208 page hardback by masters of top secret mythos horror Dennis Detwiller, Adam Scott Glancy, Shane Ivey, and Caleb Stokes.

**Episode 474: Becuthbert** Dec 03, 2021

In the **Gaming Hut** we look for ways to design F20 encounters that players don’t want to skip.

The **Architecture Hut** reaches unprecedented heights as beloved Patreon backer Philip Masters seeks the esoteric secrets of the London Eye.

The **Cinema Hut** takes a bash at that laziest of storytelling devices, the dream sequence.

Finally well-measured Patreon backer bt revs up **Ken’s Time Machine** hoping to peer into the alternate reality where America’s adoption of the metric system was not thwarted by pirates.

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.

Human problems are out of hand, so thank goodness, and Atlas Games, for Magical Kitties Save the Day, a fresh, fun roleplaying game for players of all ages, and for GMs from age 6 and up!

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*!

*Delta Green: Black Sites* collects terrifying Delta Green operations previously published only in PDF or in standalone paperback modules. They lock bystanders and Agents alike in unlit rooms with the cosmic terrors of the unnatural. A 208 page hardback by masters of top secret mythos horror Dennis Detwiller, Adam Scott Glancy, Shane Ivey, and Caleb Stokes.

**Episode 473: The Special Ability is It’s a Gun** Nov 26, 2021

In the Gaming Hut we take on a classic horror scenario design issue. When the menace stems from ambient weirdness, how do you build fresh ways for the player characters to conclude the story?

Beloved Patreon backer Joshua Hillerup wafts salt air into the **Culture Hut** as he requests a nerdrtoping of Stan Rogers’ classic neo-shanty Barrett’s Privateers.

**Among My Many Hats** celebrates the digital release of Darker Hue Studios’ *Haunted West*. As part of its roster of stellar contributors, Ken talks about writing gear chapters in particular and working as part of a large team in general.

Continuing with the Western theme, estimable backer Ian Carlsen visits the **Consulting Occultist** to learn the esoteric significance of Wild Bill Hickok’s Dead Man’s Hand.

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.

Human problems are out of hand, so thank goodness, and Atlas Games, for Magical Kitties Save the Day, a fresh, fun roleplaying game for players of all ages, and for GMs from age 6 and up!

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*!

*Delta Green: Black Sites* collects terrifying Delta Green operations previously published only in PDF or in standalone paperback modules. They lock bystanders and Agents alike in unlit rooms with the cosmic terrors of the unnatural. A 208 page hardback by masters of top secret mythos horror Dennis Detwiller, Adam Scott Glancy, Shane Ivey, and Caleb Stokes.

**[Corrected] Episode 472: Running Away from a Bush** Nov 20, 2021

An all-request episode kicks off with a **Gaming Hut** question from beloved backer Tom Abella, who wants to know if, when playtesting, there is such a thing as too good a GM.

Estimable backer Elias Helfer climbs all the way to the summit of the **Tradecraft Hut** to seek knowledge of Hassan-i Sabbah.

In **Ask Ken and Robin**, sagacious backer Michael David Jr. seeks guidance on a *Mutant City Blues* / *Yellow King* mash-up.

Finally, sleek and wily backer Ross Ireland inquires after a staple of the **Eliptony Hut** we’ve never quite explained: what’s the deal with alien big cats?

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.

Human problems are out of hand, so thank goodness, and Atlas Games, for Magical Kitties Save the Day, a fresh, fun roleplaying game for players of all ages, and for GMs from age 6 and up!

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*!

*Delta Green: Black Sites* collects terrifying Delta Green operations previously published only in PDF or in standalone paperback modules. They lock bystanders and Agents alike in unlit rooms with the cosmic terrors of the unnatural. A 208 page hardback by masters of top secret mythos horror Dennis Detwiller, Adam Scott Glancy, Shane Ivey, and Caleb Stokes.

**Episode 472: Running Away from a Bush** Nov 19, 2021

An all-request episode kicks off with a **Gaming Hut** question from beloved backer Tom Abella, who wants to know if, when playtesting, there is such a thing as too good a GM.

Estimable backer Elias Helfer climbs all the way to the summit of the **Tradecraft Hut** to seek knowledge of Hassan-i Sabbah.

In **Ask Ken and Robin**, sagacious backer Michael David Jr. seeks guidance on a *Mutant City Blues* / *Yellow King* mash-up.

Finally, sleek and wily backer Ross Ireland inquires after a staple of the **Eliptony Hut** we’ve never quite explained: what’s the deal with alien big cats?

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.

Human problems are out of hand, so thank goodness, and Atlas Games, for Magical Kitties Save the Day, a fresh, fun roleplaying game for players of all ages, and for GMs from age 6 and up!

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*!

*Delta Green: Black Sites* collects terrifying Delta Green operations previously published only in PDF or in standalone paperback modules. They lock bystanders and Agents alike in unlit rooms with the cosmic terrors of the unnatural. A 208 page hardback by masters of top secret mythos horror Dennis Detwiller, Adam Scott Glancy, Shane Ivey, and Caleb Stokes.

**Episode 471: They Called Him Johnny Polymorph** Nov 12, 2021

Our **Gaming Hut** series on the axes of tabletop RPG design concludes, we think and hope, with an opposition separately suggested by beloved Patreon backers Nicola Wilson and Lauberfen: Randomness vs. Choice.

**Crime Blotter** goes old-timey with a profile of con artists Tim Oakes and Larry Summerfield, inventors of the wire game.

The **Monster Hut** delves deep into the World of Below to find the Peruvian mining goblin known as the muki.

Finally **Conspiracy Corner** takes us to Elbert County, GA, for the expensively manufactured mystery of the Georgia Guidestones.

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 Kickstarter for Planegea, their dino-filled 5E setting of prehistoric fantasy adventure.

Uncover the secrets that teem beneath the surface of your happy home, with Suburban Consumption of the Monstrous, now on Kickstarter from Pelgrane Press. Explore food, consumption, and the extraordinary ordinary with this an anthology of American freeform live action horror roleplaying games by game designer Banana Chan and designer and illustrator Sadia Bies.

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!”

**Episode 470: Snailteaser** Nov 05, 2021

The **Gaming Hut** axes of RPG design series turns toward setting for its next opposition, Canon vs. Open.

Ken is back from the Chicago Film Festival to report on his findings in the **Cinema Hut**.

In **Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else,** Tristan Zimmerman of the Molten Sulfur Blog talks up his game, Shanty Hunter, on Kickstarter from November 2nd.

Finally we rev up **Ken’s Time Machine** to tackle, possibly once again, a perennial question: what does the world look like if Franz Ferdinand escapes assassination?

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 Kickstarter for Planegea, their dino-filled 5E setting of prehistoric fantasy adventure.

Uncover the secrets that teem beneath the surface of your happy home, with Suburban Consumption of the Monstrous, now on Kickstarter from Pelgrane Press. Explore food, consumption, and the extraordinary ordinary with this an anthology of American freeform live action horror roleplaying games by game designer Banana Chan and designer and illustrator Sadia Bies.

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!”

**Episode 469: Real Rumors** Oct 29, 2021

Axes keep showing up at the **Gaming Hut**, and this week we look at the Abstract vs Emotional slider in roleplaying game design.

Inspired by the passing of one of its prime exponents, Owen Luder, the **Architecture Hut** gazes at the brutalist style and its influence on science fiction.

Then our resident bibliomane continues to make up for lost time, triggering an Ohio-based installment of **Ken’s Bookshelf**.

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 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!”

**Ken and Robin Consume Media: The Card Counter, Secret Origins of the Afterlife, and Gems from the Chicago Film Fest** Oct 26, 2021

Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies, TV seasons and more we cram into our hyper-analytical sensoriums. Join the Patreon to help pick the items we’ll talk about in greater depth on a little podcast segment we like to call Tell Me More.

The Pinnacle

Petite Maman (Film, France, Céline Sciamma, 2021) While her parents clean out her recently-dead grandmother’s house, eight-year-old Nelly (Joséphine Sanz) meets another eight-year-old girl (Gabrielle Sanz) in the woods behind. This note-perfect fairy tale exactly blends seriousness and magic, emotion and consideration. Superb child acting vivifies the trunk of the film, and Sciamma’s remarkable use of music again surprises and exalts. –KH

Recommended

Captain Volkonogov Escaped (Film, Russia/Estonia/France, Natasha Merkulova and Aleksey Chupov, 2021) In 1937 Leningrad, NKVD secret policeman Volkonogov (Yuriy Borisov) gets wind of his upcoming purging and sprints out into the city — where his problems get weirder, if not precisely worse. Borisov’s athletic, energetic acting carries us through a story by turns an acid satire, a tight thriller, and a dark Dostoevsky-meets-Gogol absurdist morality play. Notes of anachronism only heighten the themes and the off-kilter neo-Constructivist feel, like a really good graphic novel; cinematographer Mart Taniel also masterfully plays these shifting tones. –KH

The Card Counter (Film, US, Paul Schrader, 2021) In hopes of helping a lost young dude (Tye Sheridan) with a tie to his horrific past, a compulsively regimented gambler (Oscar Isaac) signs on with the supportive manager of a pro poker stable (Tiffany Haddish.) Cinema’s obsessive chronicler of expiation-seeking obsessives adds another notch to his gun belt, this time by giving his protagonist a choice of which movie to be in.—RDL

Heaven and Hell: A History of the Afterlife (Nonfiction, Bart D. Ehrman, 2020) Biblical historian traces the rapid evolution of Christian beliefs about the afterlife, especially the burning eternally in Hell part, from the already disparate metaphysics of Jesus and Paul. Concise analysis of a complex topic stays admirably on point as it balances accessibility and erudition.—RDL

In Front of Your Face (Film, South Korea, Hong Sangsoo, 2021) A day in the life of long-retired actress Sangok (Lee Hyeyoung), visiting from the US to Seoul to meet with a director (Kwon Haehyo). If hangout neo-Realism were a thing, this would be it, as deft character studies interchange with moments of social unease. Hong shoots, writes, and scores this film with deceptive lightness, never overstaying a scene’s drama, almost tempting the viewer to foolishly discard it as a trifle. –KH

The Last Execution (Film, Germany, Franziska Stünkel, 2021) Eager for advancement, scientist Franz Walter (Lars Eidinger) joins the East German intelligence service (HVA) only to recoil at the inhumanity of his job. Based on the story (and on the trial transcript) of Werner Teske, the last official execution in East Germany, it builds tension by steady reveals of new moral brutalities all coated in bland careerism; Eidinger convincingly conveys Walter’s ongoing disintegration against DDR-era backdrops and bougie-Marxist beige decor. –KH

Love, Charlie: The Rise and Fall of Chef Charlie Trotter (Film, US, Rebecca Halpern, 2021) Charlie Trotter brought specifically American fine dining, the degustation menu, and high-end vegetarian dishes to Chicago in 1987 and in the 1990s ran the best restaurant in the world. (I ate there once in 2001, when it was probably still the best restaurant in America.) This documentary, built out of his voluminous correspondence and friendship circle, conveys something of the driven human behind the achievement. Like most biodocs, and unlike Charlie Trotter’s restaurant, it leaves you wanting more, but it’s still a very good plate. –KH

Mad God (Film, US, Phil Tippett, 2021) A steampunk-ish soldier travels to the deepest layer of Hell (or is it Creation) on a doomed mission. This is not a narrative film so much as it is a dark ride through a series of biotech grotesques (mostly) stop-motion animated from whatever Tippett had lying around for 30 years in his “most disturbing” box. (The occasional live-actor intercuts do not really work.) Appalling images and sounds from this movie will doubtless remain with me forever. It’s not mandatory for GMs running The Wars in the Yellow King RPG, but those that do see it won’t be able to run The Wars without it. –KH

Memoria (Film, Colombia/France/Germany/Mexico/China, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2021) Living in Colombia, British botanist Jessica (Tilda Swinton) hears a mysterious burst of sound that nobody else does. Existential mystery meets weird tale meets slow cinema in a movie that confounds Goethe’s critical criteria: What is it doing? God only knows, but it’s doing it with meticulous perfection. Is it worth doing? Perhaps, unlike Jessica, those that hear it know the answer to that question. Swinton’s acting job in this unknowable circumstance is more than enough reason to Recommend it, though. –KH

Paris, 13th District (Film, France, Jacques Audiard, 2021) The lives of underachieving user Emilie (Lucie Zhang), emotionally stunted dudeprof Camille (Makita Samba), wallflower Nora (Noemie Merlant), and camgirl Amber (Jehnny Beth) intertwine in the titular neighborhood. Paul Guilhaume shoots the lovers in New Wave-style black and white, and the performances keep the actors mostly sympathetic while the script (partially by Céline Sciamma) supplies the needful romantic twists. All love stories (all stories) are both arbitrary and artificial, the trick is to make them look real in the moment; in an understated way this is the Bourne Identity of romantic comedies. –KH

The Story of Film: A New Generation (Film, UK, Mark Cousins, 2021) Cousins extends his 2011 Story of Film series by another 160 minutes, in theory to examine the state of film in the 21st century (or really c. 2009-2020) but mostly to provide eclectic examples of film at its best now. Almost completely abandoning his previous geographical framework for a clearly ad hoc formal framework, Cousins turns his hand to picking the movies some future Mark Cousins will mention in fifty years when the conventional wisdom about this era hardens. Really, this is just a very well-financed Cinema Hut, and who doesn’t want more of those? –KH

Sundown (Film, Mexico/France/Sweden, Michel Franco, 2021) When his family hastily ends their Acapulco vacation after his mother dies, Neil (Tim Roth) stays in Mexico and does — nothing. A tour de force of existentialist drama anchored by Roth’s placid, almost flaccid, Bartleby-esque portrayal does sadly eventually offer an explanation of sorts. When the answers you were baying at the screen for in the first act anger you by appearing in the fourth, that’s a sign of a movie that (mostly) nailed it. –KH

Good

Demons (Film, Italy, Lamberto Bava, 1985) Moviegoers trapped inside cursed cinema become the prey of zombie-like demon possession victims. High 80s kitsch complete with MTV soundtrack meets disgust-loving gore effects in a gonzo post-giallo outing that is not as much fun as the semiotics paper it might inspire.—RDL

House of Snails (Film, Spain/Peru/Mexico, Macarena Astorga, 2021) Looking for solitude to finish his novel, writer Antonio (Javier Rey) rents the titular house in a remote Spanish town with a hidden horror legend. The movie head-fakes around a lot of horror tropes in the general lycanthropic space, and although the story I wanted wasn’t the story I guessed (and got) it wasn’t a bad time in the woods all considered, mostly thanks to Paz Vega, in there winningly as the realtor. Note to Darcy Ross: the snails play at best only a symbolic role, and this is not a Patricia Highsmith adaptation. –KH

One Second (Film, China, Zhang Yimou, 2021) A nameless fugitive (Zhang Li) from a labor camp and plucky orphan girl Liu (Liu Haocun) compete to steal a reel of film from “Mr. Movie” (Fan Wei) the projectionist-commissar in an Inner Mongolian town. Set at the tail end of the Cultural Revolution, and for that reason butchered to mush by Chinese government censors in 2019, this final cut keeps the Cinema Paradiso-style movie mooning (complete with cringe Maoist singalong) and the often sublime Buster-Keaton-style hijinks between the three main characters, but very much loses any edge or moral weight it ever had. –KH

Whether the Weather is Fine (Film, Philippines/France/Singapore/Indonesia/Germany/Qatar, Carlo Francisco Manatad, 2021) After Typhoon Haiyan destroys their hometown of Tacloban, ambitious Andrea (Rans Rifol), her schlemiel boyfriend Miguel (Daniel Padilla), and his dozy mom Norma (Charo Santos-Concio) haltingly decide to evacuate to Manila. Manatad depicts the post-disaster (probably accurately) as a surreal space where decisions make no sense, but at the cost of robbing any actions of consequences. Andrew Florentino’s spiky electronic music does a better job of thematic unity, and until Rifol’s character arbitrarily changes her personality she’s a joy to watch. –KH

Okay

Fabian: Going to the Dogs (Film, Germany, Dominik Graf, 2021) Bored advertising writer and wannabe novelist Fabian (Tom Schilling) bops through 1931 Weimar Berlin with his rich socialist friend and wannabe professor Stephan (Albrecht Schuch) until he meets his true love the wannabe actress Cornelia (Saskia Rosendahl). About 45 minutes in, Graf pretty much abandons the first act’s inventive multiple jump cuts, interwoven with historical footage and weird-angled shots, for cheap-looking digital video walks in suspiciously empty streets. Which might be forgivable if there weren’t over two hours left to go. Making both love and Weimar boring should be a shooting offence. –KH

Not Recommended

Oscar Micheaux: The Superhero of Black Filmmaking (Film, Italy, Francesco Zippel, 2021) A resoundingly under-utilized John Singleton is only one of the many talking heads contributing surprisingly little to this empty documentary about the pioneering Black filmmaker. Neither critiquing Micheaux’ films nor really analyzing his reception and film career, this doc would have been better and more informative if it had just been Morgan Freeman (who also appears to scant effect) reading the Wikipedia entry. –KH

**Episode 468: Weird Mushroom Things and a Swirl Over There** Oct 22, 2021

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!”

**Episode 467: Can We Make It Blow Up?** Oct 15, 2021

Our **Gaming Hut** series on axes of roleplaying design continues with Robin’s handling cost opposition, Harmonica versus Violin.

In the **Architecture Hut**, beloved Patreon backer Anders Gabrielsson seeks the truth about Chicago’s Midway Gardens.

Robin picks up a foreshadowed **Cinema Hut** thread on the changing face of international film, from access to style.

Finally estimable Patreon backer Ben Vincent wants to know what **Ken’s Time Machine** might have had to do with a report of a WWII Japanese A-bomb test in Korea.

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!”

**Episode 466: Foolish Enough to Get Near Us** Oct 08, 2021

Our **Gaming Hut** series on the axes of RPG design takes a turn as Robin looks at the trade-offs he thinks about while working on games, starting with Simulation vs Emulation.

**Fun With Science** goes deep to contemplate the abundance of mesopelagic fish.

The **Horror Hut** gets connubial at the behest of beloved Patreon backer Toonspew, who wants to know if there’s a Queen in Yellow.

Finally we cover up our luminous watches and enter the Eliptony Hut to confront the dread mystery of the Brazilian vampire UFOs known as the chupas.

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!”

**Episode 465: Sour Joe** Oct 01, 2021

If it’s September, it must be, uh, Gen Con? Ken kicks off with a **Travel Advisory** on how the in-person side of the event went.

Speaking of unusual versions of long running events, Robin opens up the **Cinema Hut** to provide highlights of this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, and to make a stunning announcement.

Our **Gaming Hut** series on principles and axes of tabletop design looks at Applicability, and whatever the positive opposite of that turns out to be.

Finally, in **Ask Ken and Robin**, beloved supporter Charles Cooley wonders what might be happening of a steampunky, monster hunting nature in late 19th century Romania.

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.

You’ve got the Pelgrane greatest hits, but from now, until Monday September 6th, you can gather up the Deep Cuts.

Pitting Salvador Dali against the Mythos just got cheaper! Get an otherworldly 25% off *Dreamhounds of Paris* in print or PDF from now until September at the Pelgrane Press web shop with the voucher code #ANTDREAM. Add its companion fiction volume *The Book of Ants* and get 25% off that too.

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!”

**Episode 464: By Fun You Mean Opaque** Sep 24, 2021

Our continuing **Gaming Hut** survey of tabletop RPG design principles tackles Power. That sounds like something we always want. Does it belong at one end of a spectrum, or does it corrupt absolutely?

Beloved Patreon backer the Molten Sulfur Blog makes a Tell Me More request that opens up the **History Hut** to profile Edwardian socialite and taboo-smasher Lady Idina Sackville.

In **Ask Ken and Robin**, estimable backer Stefanie McClelland asks us to quickly bounce off the gruesome career of narcosatánico Adolfo Constanzo for a look at contemporary magicians as criminal henchmen.

Finally, on his recent trip to Providence, our bibliomane acquired but a mere skiff to new volumes to add to his library, inspiring a rare single segment edition of **Ken’s Bookshelf**.

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 Kickstart Planegea, their dino-filled 5E setting of prehistoric fantasy adventure.

Pitting Salvador Dali against the Mythos just got cheaper! Get an otherworldly 25% off *Dreamhounds of Paris* in print or PDF from now until September at the Pelgrane Press web shop with the voucher code #ANTDREAM. Add its companion fiction volume *The Book of Ants* and get 25% off that too.

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!”

**Episode 463: The Bubble Wrap of Roleplaying Games** Sep 17, 2021

In the **Gaming Hut** we continue our series on axes of tabletop RPG design with an examination of Resilience and Robustness.

At the behest of beloved Patreon backer Allen Wilkins, **Ripped from the Headlines** finds the real truth behind the November incident in which a crashing commuter train was saved by polyester whale tails.

In the **Horror Hut** we ask ourselves how to write folk horror scenarios without once again repeating the ending of *Wicker Man*.

Finally the **Consulting Occultist** profiles the mystical psychologist Claudio Naranjo.

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 Kickstart Planegea, their dino-filled 5E setting of prehistoric fantasy adventure.

Pitting Salvador Dali against the Mythos just got cheaper! Get an otherworldly 25% off *Dreamhounds of Paris* in print or PDF from now until September at the Pelgrane Press web shop with the voucher code #ANTDREAM. Add its companion fiction volume *The Book of Ants* and get 25% off that too.

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!”

**Episode 462: I Can Turn Him Into a Skink** Sep 10, 2021

The **Gaming Hut** kicks off a series looking at the axes of RPG design, so appropriately enough we start with elegance.

In the **Architecture Hut** beloved Patreon backer Nicola Wilson seeks the truth scoop on the Trylon and Perisphere, noted features of the 1939 New York World’s Fair.

**Fun With Science** fields a question from stargazing backer Peter McAveney, who needs to know why Betelgeuse was getting dimmer and what Aldebaran might have had to do with that.

And finally we rev up **Ken’s Time Machine** to see how our intrepid hero stops the Battle of Blair Mountain.

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.

You’ve got the Pelgrane greatest hits, but from now, until Monday September 6th, you can gather up the Deep Cuts.

Pitting Salvador Dali against the Mythos just got cheaper! Get an otherworldly 25% off *Dreamhounds of Paris* in print or PDF from now until September at the Pelgrane Press web shop with the voucher code #ANTDREAM. Add its companion fiction volume *The Book of Ants* and get 25% off that too.

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!”

**Episode 461: Armed for the Wedding** Sep 03, 2021

In the **Gaming Hut** beloved Patreon backer JP Moral asks for steps to take when homebrew adventures don’t feel right in play.

Estimable backer Bryan takes the **History Hut** to 1970 for a look at Ohio Governor Jim Rhodes and the Kent State shootings, with an eye toward portraying them in *Fall of DELTA GREEN*.

Incroyable backer Jake B invokes his **Ask Ken and Robin** powers to inquire into the choices behind the four sequences of *The Yellow King Roleplaying Game*.

Finally enigmatic backer Mysterious Musings summons us into the **Eliptony Hut** for the weird truth on Raimondo di Sangro’s anatomical machines.

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.

Pitting Salvador Dali against the Mythos just got cheaper! Get an otherworldly 25% off *Dreamhounds of Paris* in print or PDF from now until September at the Pelgrane Press web shop with the voucher code #ANTDREAM. Add its companion fiction volume *The Book of Ants* and get 25% off that too.

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!”

**Episode 460: The Price is Scarecrow** Aug 27, 2021

In the **Gaming Hut** beloved Patreon backer V. R. Weather asks for a 101 on playtesting. Surprised that we have not directly tackled this basic topic before, we immediately comply.

The **Tradecraft Hut** profiles the peripatetic career of OSS and CIA operative Louise Page Morris.

In **How to Write Good** estimable Patreon backer Benjamin Rawls wants to know when it’s okay to lengthen your novel.

Finally the **Conspiracy Corner** maintains a six-foot distance from its latest subject matter, germ theory denialism.

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.

You’ve got the Pelgrane greatest hits, but from now, until Monday September 6th, you can gather up the Deep Cuts. Bundle together *Skullduggery*, *Lorefinder*, *The Gaean Reach*, *The Gaean Reach Gazetteer*, and *Owl Hoot Trail* together in PDF at the Pelgrane Press shop and get a whopping 25% off!

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!”

**Episode 459: Dragons Are the Federal Reserve** Aug 20, 2021

The T-Shirt Justification Hut gets scaly and doomy with a look at the connection between dragons and apocalypses.

In the **Money Hut**, we reveal high-frequency trading as yet another Carcosan front operation.

Then we fulfill a past promise with part two of Ken’s Bookshelf New England haul.

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 , including the aforementioned Foxy Dragon at TeePublic.

Bears need hairstyles! Lumberjacks need beards! Be friends to both in *Yukon Salon*, a quick, humorous, family card game in a tin, from our snow-dappled pals at Atlas Games. Take Your Place at the Frontier of Style !

You’ve got the Pelgrane greatest hits, but from now, until Monday September 6th, you can gather up the Deep Cuts. Bundle together *Skullduggery*, *Lorefinder*, *The Gaean Reach*, *The Gaean Reach Gazetteer*, and *Owl Hoot Trail* together in PDF at the Pelgrane Press shop and get a whopping 25% off!

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!”

**Episode 458: Slacker Infant** Aug 13, 2021

In the Gaming Hut we provide tips on GMing for a loose cannon character. Surely not a loose cannon player. None of us have ever had that experience.

Beloved Patreon backer Travis Johnson summons the power of **Ask Ken and Robin** to ask how to include the Bush Wars in *The Fall of DELTA GREEN*.

Estimable Patreon backer Keelan O’Hea turns the temperature in the **History Hut** down to zero Centigrade as he seeks a tour of the Belle Époque Paris morgue.

Finally the **Consulting Occultist** confronts a head-scratcher only one of his particular esoteric set of skills can solve: why is there a floating baby in a clamshell in the Chicago seal?

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.

Bears need hairstyles! Lumberjacks need beards! Be friends to both in *Yukon Salon*, a quick, humorous, family card game in a tin, from our snow-dappled pals at Atlas Games. Take Your Place at the Frontier of Style !

You’ve got the Pelgrane greatest hits, but from now, until Monday September 6th, you can gather up the Deep Cuts. Bundle together *Skullduggery*, *Lorefinder*, *The Gaean Reach*, *The Gaean Reach Gazetteer*, and *Owl Hoot Trail* together in PDF at the Pelgrane Press shop and get a whopping 25% off!

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!”

**Episode 457: A Lot to Lay on the Genius Loci** Aug 06, 2021

In the **Gaming Hut**, we look at game balance. What is it, and when do we care about it?

We try not to step on any skulls in the **Archaeology Hut** as Beloved Patreon backers Liz & Siskey seek the scoop on Roman gravesite in Cambridgeshire containing a surprising number of beheaded remains.

In the **Horror Hut**, estimable Patreon backer Elias Helfer asks us for cosmic horror without any Lovecraft in it.

And finally **Ken’s Time Machine** makes the intervention that will lead the earlier widespread adoption of solar power.

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.

Bears need hairstyles! Lumberjacks need beards! Be friends to both in *Yukon Salon*, a quick, humorous, family card game in a tin, from our snow-dappled pals at Atlas Games. Take Your Place at the Frontier of Style !

You’ve got the Pelgrane greatest hits, but from now, until Monday September 6th, you can gather up the Deep Cuts. Bundle together *Skullduggery*, *Lorefinder*, *The Gaean Reach*, *The Gaean Reach Gazetteer*, and *Owl Hoot Trail* together in PDF at the Pelgrane Press shop and get a whopping 25% off!

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!”

**Episode 456: Least Worst Hell** Jul 30, 2021

Hey, it’s an all-request episode!

Count the syllables and jot down the allusions as an anonymous Patreon backer beckons us into the Gaming Hut to ask how to do spontaneous poetry duels in roleplaying sessions.

Then pseudonymous Patreon backer Polydamas meets us in the **Architecture Hut** for the secret history behind Columbia University’s New York City real estate empire.

Beloved Patreon backer Bob Grider wants to know what else to do with sphinxes other than have them tell annoying riddles, and fortunately the person-headed lion guarding the **Monster Hut** is one of the nice ones.

Finally erudite Patreon backer Dave Munro hangs out with us in a Victorian literary iteration of the **Eliptony Hut**, for a profile of Pre-Raphaelite poet, artist and model Elizabeth Siddal.

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.

Bears need hairstyles! Lumberjacks need beards! Be friends to both in *Yukon Salon*, a quick, humorous, family card game in a tin, from our snow-dappled pals at Atlas Games. Take Your Place at the Frontier of Style !

A murderous mystery lies beneath the gladiatorial arenas in the majestic, dragon-patrolled city of Axis. Only your first level 13th Age characters can confront it, in *Crown of Axis*, by Wade Rockett, now available at the Pelgrane Press shop.

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!”

**Episode 455: Ambush Us With Ghosts** Jul 23, 2021

The **Gaming Hut** hits the streets, many of them, for a look at designing scenarios to introduce a city.

We find the **Crime Blotter** is covered in ancient leather and animal glue, our cue to find the gaming in the fake Biblical scrolls purchased by the Museum of the Bible.

In **Ask Ken and Robin**, Louis Sylvester asks for a rundown of generational issues found in fiction and movies.

Then numerology takes on a TikTok twist as the **Consulting Occultist** examines Grabovoi numbers.

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.

Bears need hairstyles! Lumberjacks need beards! Be friends to both in *Yukon Salon*, a quick, humorous, family card game in a tin, from our snow-dappled pals at Atlas Games. Take Your Place at the Frontier of Style !

A murderous mystery lies beneath the gladiatorial arenas in the majestic, dragon-patrolled city of Axis. Only your first level 13th Age characters can confront it, in *Crown of Axis*, by Wade Rockett, now available at the Pelgrane Press shop.

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!”

**Episode 454: A Disreputable Trade** Jul 16, 2021

Make sure anyone else in the room is really them as the **Gaming Hut** looks at fox spirits, doppelgangers, and other foes who disguise themselves as human.

The **Tradecraft Hut** profiles CIA operative, author, and coup arranger Miles Axe Copeland, Jr.

**How to Write Good** serves up tips on the revision process, from break taking to change tracking.

Finally beloved Patreon backer Steve Dempsey engages Ken’s Time Machine for a peek at the timeline where Oliver Cromwell picks his competent son as successor.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Bears need hairstyles! Lumberjacks need beards! Be friends to both in *Yukon Salon*, a quick, humorous, family card game in a tin, from our snow-dappled pals at Atlas Games. Take Your Place at the Frontier of Style !

It distorts minds. It invades realities. Now it has invaded the Bundle of Holding. Grab the Yellow Bundle and get *The Yellow King Roleplaying Game* for a price normally available only in dread alternate dimensions. Level up to the threshold price and get Ken’s *Annotated King in Yellow*, plus *Absinthe in Carcosa*, *The Missing and the Lost*, and *New Tales of the Yellow Sign*. You have them all already but send your friends to the Bundle of Holding.

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!”

**Ken and Robin Consume Media: Black Widow, Summer of Soul, and the Fate of the Artist** Jul 13, 2021

Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies, TV seasons and more we cram into our hyper-analytical sensoriums. Join the Patreon to help pick the items we’ll talk about in greater depth on a little podcast segment we like to call Tell Me More.

Recommended

Black Widow (Film, US, Cate Shortland, 2021) On the run from the authorities, Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) finds a new lead to the Soviet assassin training program that warped her life—and reunites with her worse-for-wear costumed surrogate family (Florence Pugh, David Harbour, Rachel Weisz.) Self-contained, rooted in character, snappy and with clear, well-staged action, this shaggy dog spy romp nimbly leaps past the structural pitfalls of the MCU.—RDL

The Fate of the Artist (Comics, Eddie Campbell, 2006) When artist Eddie Campbell disappears, a detective interviews his family and associates (including a troupe of actors depicting one of his creations) to get a lead on his character. Campbell elevates a perfectly good joke with visual stories of the arts and a domestic-comedy comic strip (Honeybee) that acts as a sort of Greek chorus of Campbell’s home life. Campbell takes the form seriously to (seemingly) avoid taking the subject seriously, to giddy result. –KH

Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) (Film, US, Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, 2021) Consigned to basement storage by dunderheads who didn’t think they could sell it, thrilling musical footage from a series of 1969 Harlem park concerts finds new life and historical context. Top acts include Stevie Wonder, Sly and the Family Stone, Gladys Knight and the Pips, The Staple Singers, and the Fifth Dimension. Crowd shots, usually a crutch in concert films, become the centerpiece, depicting the community that gathered around the music as much as the acts themselves.—RDL

Good

Black Widow (Film, US, Cate Shortland, 2021) A chance to break the Red Room that trained and twisted them reunites Natasha (Scarlett Johansson) with her sister Yelena (Florence Pugh). For a movie about mind control, this has a very on-the-rails, no-twists plot; for a comic-book spy movie the fights (while at least visible) don’t match the best of Marvel much less the best of the genre. Ray Winstone gets the Annette Bening role of “ridiculously squandered actor” this time around. Fortunately Johansson, Pugh, and Rachel Weisz (as their “mother” Melina) bring so much to the table as actors that you aren’t really hungry for much else after two years away from the MCU. –KH

By Sidney Lumet (Film, US, Nancy Buirski, 2015) The prolific director holds court as the sole talking head in a retrospective covering a career that starts in live TV and concludes in the mid-oughts, hitting such highlights as Twelve Angry Men, Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon, Network, and The Verdict. A fine companion to his excellent book of practical filmmaking, Making Movies.—RDL

Okay

The Baron in France (Fiction, John Creasey, 1953) and The Baron and the Mogul Swords (Fiction, John Creasey, 1966) Former jewel thief turned art dealer John Mannering investigates stolen gems, and the murders attendant on them, in these two able potboilers. Creasey wrote something like 600 books, including 47 titles in the Baron series, and don’t worry I’m not going to read them all. Based on these two random titles, they provide a modicum of action, not-too-challenging puzzles, and entirely unchallenging (not to say cardboard) characters. The pages do whiz by, though. –KH

**Episode 453: The Chicago Discount** Jul 09, 2021

Don’t forget you’re in the Gaming Hut as beloved Patreon backer Lauberfen asks for tips on finding the fun in amnesia and similar player character flaws.

In **Ripped from the Headlines**, estimable Patreon backer Robert Wolfe seeks the true truth on the clones of the strong-willed pig.

Finally, as normalcy, or at least retail sales, returns to the vaccinated zones of the USA, a triumphant return. **Ken’s Bookshelf** heaves with a haul of titles gleaned from the eager shops of New England.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Bears need hairstyles! Lumberjacks need beards! Be friends to both in *Yukon Salon*, a quick, humorous, family card game in a tin, from our snow-dappled pals at Atlas Games. Take Your Place at the Frontier of Style !

It distorts minds. It invades realities. Now it has invaded the Bundle of Holding. Grab the Yellow Bundle and get *The Yellow King Roleplaying Game* for a price normally available only in dread alternate dimensions. Level up to the threshold price and get Ken’s *Annotated King in Yellow*, plus *Absinthe in Carcosa*, *The Missing and the Lost*, and *New Tales of the Yellow Sign*. You have them all already but send your friends to the Bundle of Holding.

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!”

**Episode 452: Don’t Look at the Leopards** Jul 02, 2021

Keep your friends close and your enemies closer as the **Gaming Hut** provides advice to players running in political intrigue games.

In Fun With Science beloved Patreon backer Josh King asks for the real truth behind Siberian mystery holes.

**Ask Ken and Robin** fields a question from estimable Patreon backer William Brafford, who seeks a *Trail of Cthulhu* campaign frame around the Works Progress Administration.

Finally, in an epic crossover event between the **Architecture Hut** and **Conspiracy Corner**, we delve into an up-and-coming alt history, the Tartarian Empire.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Bears need hairstyles! Lumberjacks need beards! Be friends to both in *Yukon Salon*, a quick, humorous, family card game in a tin, from our snow-dappled pals at Atlas Games. Take Your Place at the Frontier of Style !

It distorts minds. It invades realities. Now it has invaded the Bundle of Holding. Grab the Yellow Bundle and get *The Yellow King Roleplaying Game* for a price normally available only in dread alternate dimensions. Level up to the threshold price and get Ken’s *Annotated King in Yellow*, plus *Absinthe in Carcosa*, *The Missing and the Lost*, and *New Tales of the Yellow Sign*. You have them all already but send your friends to the Bundle of Holding.

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!”

**Episode 451: Bring a Bunch of Idiots** Jun 25, 2021

Keep an eye out for incoming candlesticks as the **Gaming Hut** finds ways to engage players in the prelude part of a scenario, for example the bit in a cozy mystery before any genteel murdering happens.

At the behest of beloved Patreon backer Dustyn Mincey, the **History Hut** examines the era of Greek history known as the Frankokratia.

In the **Narrative Hut**, estimable Patreon backer Derek Upham seeks enlightenment on third acts.

Finally in the **Eliptony Hut**, can you believe we went nine years before doing a segment on the Philadelphia Experiment?

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Bears need hairstyles! Lumberjacks need beards! Be friends to both in *Yukon Salon*, a quick, humorous, family card game in a tin, from our snow-dappled pals at Atlas Games. Take Your Place at the Frontier of Style !

A murderous mystery lies beneath the gladiatorial arenas in the majestic, dragon-patrolled city of Axis. Only your first level 13th Age characters can confront it, in *Crown of Axis*, by Wade Rockett, now available at the Pelgrane Press shop.

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!”

**Episode 450: LIGHTNING ROUND!!!** Jun 18, 2021

Just when time had lost all meaning, the ineffable power of numbers tells us that we’ve hit Episode 450. Seasoned investigators know what that means: our beloved Patreon backers pose them, and we blast them with electric force. It’s time for celebratory Qs and exultant As! It’s time for… LIGHTNING ROUND!!!

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Bears need hairstyles! Lumberjacks need beards! Be friends to both in *Yukon Salon*, a quick, humorous, family card game in a tin, from our snow-dappled pals at Atlas Games. Take Your Place at the Frontier of Style !

A murderous mystery lies beneath the gladiatorial arenas in the majestic, dragon-patrolled city of Axis. Only your first level 13th Age characters can confront it, in *Crown of Axis*, by Wade Rockett, now available at the Pelgrane Press shop.

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!”

**Episode 449: Quietly Judging You** Jun 11, 2021

We venture from the **Gaming Hut** into a wider world of stashed items as beloved Patreon backer Carrie Schutrick requests the RPG angle on geocaching.

Estimable Patreon backers pool their resources in the **Tradecraft Hut**, where we gaze into the eyeless sockets of the CIA’s top secret asset—a mask of actor Rex Harrison.

Demon gods and their directional taboos trap us in the **Mythology Hut**.

Finally the **Consulting Occultist** profiles a genuine arch-villain of the occult, the Rasputin or Argentina, José López Rega.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Bears need hairstyles! Lumberjacks need beards! Be friends to both in *Yukon Salon*, a quick, humorous, family card game in a tin, from our snow-dappled pals at Atlas Games. Take Your Place at the Frontier of Style !

A murderous mystery lies beneath the gladiatorial arenas in the majestic, dragon-patrolled city of Axis. Only your first level 13th Age characters can confront it, in *Crown of Axis*, by Wade Rockett, now available at the Pelgrane Press shop.

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!”

**Episode 448: Mice and Diamonds** Jun 04, 2021

In the **Gaming Hut** we spitball scenarios that take place over a period of many years.

**Fun With Science** answers the call from beloved Patreon backer bt to examine Freudian psychologist Charles Seligman’s project to gather dreams from the many peoples occupied by the British Empire.

Good thing we just had a new bar installed in the **Food Hut**, because it’s time to tell the story of how 19th century America invented cocktail culture as we know it.

Finally estimable Patreon backer Neil Barnes wonders why **Ken’s Time Machine** had to be used to neutralize the OTRAG project to launch cheaper satellite rockets from then-Zaire in the 1970s.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Bears need hairstyles! Lumberjacks need beards! Be friends to both in *Yukon Salon*, a quick, humorous, family card game in a tin, from our snow-dappled pals at Atlas Games. Take Your Place at the Frontier of Style !

A murderous mystery lies beneath the gladiatorial arenas in the majestic, dragon-patrolled city of Axis. Only your first level 13th Age characters can confront it, in *Crown of Axis*, by Wade Rockett, now available at the Pelgrane Press shop.

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!”

**Episode 447: The Bert-Adjacent Ugly Wheels of Commerce** May 28, 2021

We start out in the **Gaming Hut** to tell your GM that the shocking premise subversion they have in mind isn’t as fun or cool as they might think.

A segment that had to hibernate during the pandemic is back! In **Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else**, Ken talks to colleague Jeff Tidball about his Bert and Ernie dichotomy of creative collaboration, perhaps typified by their upcoming project, *Band or Album Remix*, soon or now at a Kickstarter near you.

In the **Horror Hut**, beloved Patreon backer Timothy Coram asks how to inject a heaping spoonful of Edgar Allan Poe into *The Yellow King Roleplaying Game*.

We end up in the **Eliptony Hut**, as TikTok convinces users to acquire that most cursed of crystals, moldavite.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Bears need hairstyles! Lumberjacks need beards! Be friends to both in *Yukon Salon*, a quick, humorous, family card game in a tin, from our snow-dappled pals at Atlas Games. Take Your Place at the Frontier of Style !

A murderous mystery lies beneath the gladiatorial arenas in the majestic, dragon-patrolled city of Axis. Only your first level 13th Age characters can confront it, in *Crown of Axis*, by Wade Rockett, now available at the Pelgrane Press shop.

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!”

**Episode 446: Well Also H. R. Giger** May 21, 2021

An all-request episode kicks off in the **Gaming Hut** with beloved Patreon backer Chris Camfield’s request to follow up on a carelessly dropped side reference about realist F2O.

Esteemed Patreon backer Chris Melkus meets us in the **Archaeology Hut** to ask about a recent story of tomb robbing in China’s Shaanxi province, in which the culprits tunneled into ancient sites from conveniently situated restaurants.

Celebrated Patreon backer Gene Ha pops into the **Narrative Hut** to note that Robin often refers to the western narrative traditions, and asks about other narrative traditions we might take gaming inspiration from.

Finally, shadowy Patreon backer Dave from Washington enters the parlor of the **Consulting Occultist** hoping he may shed light on the appearance of Theosophical symbols on the control console in Ridley Scott’s *Alien*.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Bears need hairstyles! Lumberjacks need beards! Be friends to both in *Yukon Salon*, a quick, humorous, family card game in a tin, from our snow-dappled pals at Atlas Games. Take Your Place at the Frontier of Style !

A murderous mystery lies beneath the gladiatorial arenas in the majestic, dragon-patrolled city of Axis. Only your first level 13th Age characters can confront it, in *Crown of Axis*, by Wade Rockett, now available at the Pelgrane Press shop.

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!”

**Episode 445: The Cavern of Boring** May 14, 2021

In the **Gaming Hut** we provide tips enabling you to convince your fellow players to go along with your plans.

Beloved Patreon backer Jurie Horneman asks us to convene a **Book Hut** to talk about Robert Anton Wilson.

In **Ask Ken and Robin**, estimable Patreon backer Gabriel Rossman looks for a fictionalized treatment of the Bronfman family’s various brushes with cults and mysticism.

Finally we duck into the **Conspiracy Corner** and down the rabbit hole of the NESARA theory.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Bears need hairstyles! Lumberjacks need beards! Be friends to both in *Yukon Salon*, a quick, humorous, family card game in a tin, from our snow-dappled pals at Atlas Games. Take Your Place at the Frontier of Style !

A murderous mystery lies beneath the gladiatorial arenas in the majestic, dragon-patrolled city of Axis. Only your first level 13th Age characters can confront it, in *Crown of Axis*, by Wade Rockett, now available at the Pelgrane Press shop.

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!”

**Episode 444: Axe Democracy** May 07, 2021

Prepare to reverse polarity as the **Gaming Hut** looks at scenarios that revolve around science mysteries.

Beloved Patreon backer Tennant Reed asks us to unfurl the Crime Blotter for the story of penal colony escapee and confessed cannibal Alexander Pearce.

In **Ask Ken and Robin**, estimable Patreon backer Kaijuthulu seeks tips on running a Mutant City Blues game with hardboiled 30s private eyes.

Finally in a thrilling **Food Hut** / **Ken’s Time Machine** crossover event, perspicacious Patreon backer Martin Rundkvist assigns Ken to change American condiment history.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Bears need hairstyles! Lumberjacks need beards! Be friends to both in *Yukon Salon*, a quick, humorous, family card game in a tin, from our snow-dappled pals at Atlas Games. Take Your Place at the Frontier of Style !

A murderous mystery lies beneath the gladiatorial arenas in the majestic, dragon-patrolled city of Axis. Only your first level 13th Age characters can confront it, in *Crown of Axis*, by Wade Rockett, now available at the Pelgrane Press shop.

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!”

**Episode 443: Ruined by Farm Children** Apr 30, 2021

In the **Gaming Hut**, we help you, the player, bring your character’s narrative hook, in this case a Freaking Weird Moment for The Yellow King Roleplaying Game, into play.

As befits this weird year, the **Cinema Hut** finally gets around to our Top Ten Films of 2020, right in time for you to have already seen the Oscars.

Finally the **Eliptony Hut** looks at the 1882 disappearance of stage magician De Le Mano.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Bears need hairstyles! Lumberjacks need beards! Be friends to both in *Yukon Salon*, a quick, humorous, family card game in a tin, from our snow-dappled pals at Atlas Games. Take Your Place at the Frontier of Style!

A murderous mystery lies beneath the gladiatorial arenas in the majestic, dragon-patrolled city of Axis. Only your first level 13th Age characters can confront it, in *Crown of Axis*, by Wade Rockett, now available at the Pelgrane Press shop.

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!”

**Episode 442: Mad at Unicorns** Apr 23, 2021

Bravely we enter the **Gaming Hut**, at the behest of beloved Patreon backer Scott Wachter, to roast the cockatrice and other weaksauce monsters.

The **History Hut** runs aground as estimable Patreon backer Stephen Dosman asks how the Yellow Fleet, marooned in the Suez Canal after the Six Day War, might fit into a Fall of DELTA GREEN scenario.

With its 17th installment, our **Cinema Hut** horror essentials series reaches its inevitable conclusion, as we bring our list of top fright flicks up to the present.

Finally the **Consulting Occultist** again shows you his picture collection as an erudite but anonymous Patreon backer asks for the lowdown on Art Nouveau illustrator and occult theorist Austin Osman Spare.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Human problems are out of hand, so thank goodness, and Atlas Games, for Magical Kitties Save the Day, a fresh, fun roleplaying game for players of all ages, and for GMs from age 6 and up!

A murderous mystery lies beneath the gladiatorial arenas in the majestic, dragon-patrolled city of Axis. Only your first level 13th Age characters can confront it, in *Crown of Axis*, by Wade Rockett, now available at the Pelgrane Press shop.

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!”

**Episode 441: Cheese Made of Cheese** Apr 16, 2021

In the **Gaming Hut**, beloved Patreon backer Joe Webb asks for a Fall of DELTA GREEN / Night’s Black Agents crossover inspired by a Cambodian pop song. (After we recorded this segment Ken remembered that Tod Browning’s *Dracula* uses the Swan Lake theme as its title music, but if he had done that in advance you wouldn’t have gotten owl vampires, would you?)

Our Cinema Hut horror essentials series reaches the home stretch as we span the late oughts and early teens of this shudderific century.

In **Ripped From the Headlines**, we riff on the gaming potential of NFTs, whether they be from Carcosa or a server farm in Tashkent.

Finally, estimable Patreon backer wonders what happens when Ken’s Time Machine saves Will Rogers and aviator Wiley Post from the 1935 crash that claimed their lives.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Human problems are out of hand, so thank goodness, and Atlas Games, for Magical Kitties Save the Day, a fresh, fun roleplaying game for players of all ages, and for GMs from age 6 and up!

A murderous mystery lies beneath the gladiatorial arenas in the majestic, dragon-patrolled city of Axis. Only your first level 13th Age characters can confront it, in *Crown of Axis*, by Wade Rockett, now available at the Pelgrane Press shop.

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!”

**Episode 440: All the Van Helsings** Apr 09, 2021

In the **Gaming Hut** the beloved Patreon backer known as Ed, Speaker in Digressions, asks us to envision a game that that arcs from a state of nature to civil society.

The **Tradecraft Hut** steams open the career of Alexandrine, Countess of Taxis, and Postmistress of the Holy Roman Empire.

The ongoing **Cinema Hut** Horror Essentials series reaches installment 15, and the mid-oughts.

Finally, estimable Patreon backers Bill Durfy and Gray St. Quintin fall for our sinister plan and ask for the full Eliptony Hut story on the Highgate Vampire.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Human problems are out of hand, so thank goodness, and Atlas Games, for Magical Kitties Save the Day, a fresh, fun roleplaying game for players of all ages, and for GMs from age 6 and up!

A murderous mystery lies beneath the gladiatorial arenas in the majestic, dragon-patrolled city of Axis. Only your first level 13th Age characters can confront it, in *Crown of Axis*, by Wade Rockett, now available at the Pelgrane Press shop.

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!”

**Episode 439: Untainted By Dockyard Activities** Apr 02, 2021

Would we rather fight a turnip-headed wyvern, or an enormous Jenny Haniver? The answer awaits in the T-Shirt Justification Hut.

In Ask Ken and Robin, mighty-thewed Patreon backer Mike Mearls asks for sources to run an F20 game in Ancient Sumer.

The **Cinema Hut** finally gets with the present century as the horror essential series continues.

Finally we duck into the **Conspiracy Corner** as a recent spate of snow denialism leads us to the history of weather control conspiracy theory.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Return to your favored doomed manor for *Gloomier: A Night at Hemlock Hall*, now Kickstarting from your mordant pals at Atlas Games. More Guests! More Stories! Compatible with all Gloom games. Stir yourself from your fainting couch and grab it today!

A murderous mystery lies beneath the gladiatorial arenas in the majestic, dragon-patrolled city of Axis. Only your first level 13th Age characters can confront it, in *Crown of Axis*, by Wade Rockett, now available at the Pelgrane Press shop.

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!”

**Episode 438: Anyone Can Bilocate** Mar 26, 2021

Beloved Patreon backer Jonathan Keim asks us to take care of the **Gaming Hut** for the winter, during which time we will contemplate making place as big a part of a game session as the Overlook Hotel is part of *The Shining*.

In the **Food Hut** Ken takes us to almost Nebraska and the spiral bound wonders of the 1965 Y-Teen Club cookbook.

The Cinema Hut’s horror essentials hits its lucky 13th installment, and the disjunctive anxiety that comes with the end of a century.

Finally estimable Patreon backer Ed Sizemore checks in with the **Consulting Occultist** for the story of Baird Spalding and Douglas DeVorss, which starts with an ancient book of desert secrets.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Return to your favored doomed manor for *Gloomier: A Night at Hemlock Hall*, now Kickstarting from your mordant pals at Atlas Games. More Guests! More Stories! Compatible with all Gloom games. Stir yourself from your fainting couch and grab it today!

GUMSHOE’s got a brand new Bundle. An incredible Bundle of Holding PDF deal, that is, featuring Ken’s Fall of DELTA GREEN, Robin’s Gaean Reach, Kevin Kulp’s TimeWatch and much much more. Take advantage before it vanishes, on March 29th.

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!”

**Episode 437: Your Chartreuse Leotard** Mar 19, 2021

Pick up that flashlight and head down into the basement as the **Gaming Hut** looks at building moments that take advantage of a single protagonist for one-player games like GUMSHOE One-2-One.

The **History Hut** returns to the wild streets of Ken’s signature city as beloved Patreon backer Neal Dalton seeks the story of Count Dante and the Chicago Dojo Wars.

Our **Cinema Hut** Horror Essentials series hits the 90s. Will we get far enough into them for Japan to save horror? (*Note: this episode was recorded prior to the public revelation of director Richard Stanley’s history of domestic abuse.*)

Finally, regal Patreon backer Daniel Gill enlists **Ken’s Time Machine** to find out how to extend the English Angevin King’s control over Normandy.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Return to your favored doomed manor for *Gloomier: A Night at Hemlock Hall*, now Kickstarting from your mordant pals at Atlas Games. More Guests! More Stories! Compatible with all Gloom games. Stir yourself from your fainting couch and grab it today!

From now until GUMSHOE’s got a brand new Bundle. An incredible Bundle of Holding PDF deal, that is, featuring Ken’s Fall of DELTA GREEN, Robin’s Gaean Reach, Kevin Kulp’s TimeWatch and much much more. Take advantage before it vanishes, on March 29th.

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!”

**Episode 436: Needs to Have a Lith** Mar 12, 2021

In the **Gaming Hut** we parse the differences between crunch and simulation, as we examine the yen for complexity and the various related but separate impulses behind it.

At the behest of beloved Patreon backers Will Ferguson and Felicity Pyatt, the **Crime Blotter** heads to 1827 Suffolk to open the case files of the notorious Red Barn Murder.

The 80s keep on coming as our **Cinema Hut** Horror Essentials series gets burned in a furnace room and goes on a dreamscape rampage of wisecracking vengeance.

Finally, at the behest of estimable Patreon backers Tennant Reed, plus Tim Maness and Jean Bauer, and frankly everyone else too, the **Eliptony Hut** finally tackles the 2020 monolith outbreak.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Return to your favored doomed manor for *Gloomier: A Night at Hemlock Hall*, now Kickstarting from your mordant pals at Atlas Games. More Guests! More Stories! Compatible with all Gloom games. Stir yourself from your fainting couch and grab it today!

The second edition of Mutant City Blues, by Robin D. Laws, and now with added Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan, is now in print from Pelgrane Press. Grab your Quade Diagrams and solve the crimes of a near future where one per cent of the population wields super powers. Use the voucher code DIAGRAM2020 to get 15% off at the Pelgrane Store.

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!”

**Episode 435: Unreliable Satanists** Mar 05, 2021

Sidle up to the **Gaming Hut** as we provide tips on bringing your player characters into historical events.

In **Ask Ken and Robin**, beloved Patreon backer Dennis Harlow asks us to add detail and credibility to something Anton LaVey made up. Specifically that King in Yellow author Robert W. Chambers discovered the actual play while engaged in espionage.

A massive pile up of Horror Essentials awaits us as we enter the early 80s in the **Cinema Hut**. How far can we get in one segment?

Finally enigmatic Patreon backer Bt taps on the door of the **Consulting Occultist** for the supernatural secrets of automaton maker John Joseph Merlin.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Return to your favored doomed manor for *Gloomier: A Night at Hemlock Hall*, now Kickstarting from your mordant pals at Atlas Games. More Guests! More Stories! Compatible with all Gloom games. Stir yourself from your fainting couch and grab it today!

The second edition of Mutant City Blues, by Robin D. Laws, and now with added Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan, is now in print from Pelgrane Press. Grab your Quade Diagrams and solve the crimes of a near future where one per cent of the population wields super powers. Use the voucher code DIAGRAM2020 to get 15% off at the Pelgrane Store.

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*!

Suit up, agents of Delta Green. Your battle to save humanity from unnatural horrors is going beyond the Beltway. *Delta Green: The Labyrinth* is now shipping to a secure dead drop near you. Written by Delta Green co-creator John Scott Tynes, this all-new collection of organizations dives deep into the fissures of America in the new millennium.

**Episode 434: Fight the Mimes** Feb 26, 2021

Beloved Patreon backer Michael Curtis dons a Nehru jacket and John Lennon glasses to duck into the **Gaming Hut** for tips on running occult investigation in Swingin’ London.

In part 9 of the **Cinema Hut** Horror Essentials series, we reach the late 70s, and the rise of the horror auteurs.

**Ripped from the Headlines** gives us a break from incessant day-trading as we turn the Gamestop stock story into a scenario hook for The Yellow King RPG’s This is Normal Now sequence.

Finally esteemed Patreon backer Gerald Sears seeks the aid of **Ken’s Time Machine** in prolonging the existence of the Hart Island amusement park.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Fans of Robin’s action movie roleplaying game, *Feng Shui 2*, can now have more gun fu, martial arts and sorcery in their lives as the Feng Shui 2 subscription series blasts its way into your mail slot. Score free PDFs, early access to new adventures, and 10% off cover price by joining Atlas Games’ band of scrappy underdogs today.

The second edition of Mutant City Blues, by Robin D. Laws, and now with added Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan, is now in print from Pelgrane Press. Grab your Quade Diagrams and solve the crimes of a near future where one per cent of the population wields super powers. Use the voucher code DIAGRAM2020 to get 15% off at the Pelgrane Store.

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*!

Suit up, agents of Delta Green. Your battle to save humanity from unnatural horrors is going beyond the Beltway. *Delta Green: The Labyrinth* is now shipping to a secure dead drop near you. Written by Delta Green co-creator John Scott Tynes, this all-new collection of organizations dives deep into the fissures of America in the new millennium.

**Episode 433: Leave Out a Syllable For Elijah** Feb 19, 2021

The **Gaming Hut** nestles next to an apothecary and a retailer of used armor pieces as we suggest techniques to populate buildings for a city sourcebook.

Fright film enters the psychic hangover of the Watergate era in the latest installment of the **Cinema Hut’s** horror essentials series.

You wouldn’t think that familiarity with paranormal lore would provide insight into the charlatanry of speed reading, but that’s because you haven’t yet thought about it in the **Eliptony Hut**. For full details, see Scan Artist: How Evelyn Wood Convinced the World That Speed-Reading Worked by Marcia Biederman.

Finally, in the **Culture Hut**, we open the drawer on the works of eldritch photographer William Mortensen, whose supernatural pictorialism might inspire scenarios from Trail of Cthulhu to Cthulhu Confidential to THE FALL OF DELTA GREEN.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Fans of Robin’s action movie roleplaying game, *Feng Shui 2*, can now have more gun fu, martial arts and sorcery in their lives as the Feng Shui 2 subscription series blasts its way into your mail slot. Score free PDFs, early access to new adventures, and 10% off cover price by joining Atlas Games’ band of scrappy underdogs today.

The second edition of Mutant City Blues, by Robin D. Laws, and now with added Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan, is now in print from Pelgrane Press. Grab your Quade Diagrams and solve the crimes of a near future where one per cent of the population wields super powers. Use the voucher code DIAGRAM2020 to get 15% off at the Pelgrane Store.

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*!

Suit up, agents of Delta Green. Your battle to save humanity from unnatural horrors is going beyond the Beltway. *Delta Green: The Labyrinth* is now shipping to a secure dead drop near you. Written by Delta Green co-creator John Scott Tynes, this all-new collection of organizations dives deep into the fissures of America in the new millennium.

**Episode 432: Smart Shark Money** Feb 12, 2021

In the **Gaming Hut** beloved Patreon backer Jacob Ansari seeks tips on introducing complex settings to the players.

Part 8 of our **Cinema Hut** horror essentials series sees the genre take an apocalyptic turn amid the turmoil of the late 60s and early 70s.

Everyone makes mistakes. Sometimes those mistakes arise from following bad instructions. In the Food Hut we look at wrong cooking tips we learned about through bitter experience.

When it comes to an **Eliptony Hut** story, the Tsarichina Hole has it all: prophetic dreams, ancient treasure, revolutionary heroes, UFOs, a yellow monkey, a crypt you shouldn’t open, and vast expenditures of the Bulgarian military budget. Let us explain.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Fans of Robin’s action movie roleplaying game, *Feng Shui 2*, can now have more gun fu, martial arts and sorcery in their lives as the Feng Shui 2 subscription series blasts its way into your mail slot. Score free PDFs, early access to new adventures, and 10% off cover price by joining Atlas Games’ band of scrappy underdogs today.

The second edition of Mutant City Blues, by Robin D. Laws, and now with added Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan, is now in print from Pelgrane Press. Grab your Quade Diagrams and solve the crimes of a near future where one per cent of the population wields super powers. Use the voucher code DIAGRAM2020 to get 15% off at the Pelgrane Store.

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*!

Suit up, agents of Delta Green. Your battle to save humanity from unnatural horrors is going beyond the Beltway. *Delta Green: The Labyrinth* is now shipping to a secure dead drop near you. Written by Delta Green co-creator John Scott Tynes, this all-new collection of organizations dives deep into the fissures of America in the new millennium.

**Episode 431: Working for Bigfoot** Feb 05, 2021

Keep that Abingdon Island giant tortoise under a blanket as beloved Patreon backer Kevin L. Nault beckons us into the **Gaming Hut** to work animal trafficking into RPG scenarios.

Part 6 of our Cinema Hut horror essentials series continues the 60s gothic resurgence, and we assure you this segment wouldn’t hurt a fly.

Plangent notes ring through the Culture Hut as esteemed Patreon backer Ethan “Mr. E” Schoonover seeks the terrifying reality behind composer Erik Satie’s Vexations.

Finally the Holy Roman Empire once again rears its head as perceptive Patreon backer Paul Douglas visits the **Consulting Occultist** to learn about Michael Scot, court magician to Frederick II.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Fans of Robin’s action movie roleplaying game, *Feng Shui 2*, can now have more gun fu, martial arts and sorcery in their lives as the Feng Shui 2 subscription series blasts its way into your mail slot. Score free PDFs, early access to new adventures, and 10% off cover price by joining Atlas Games’ band of scrappy underdogs today.

The second edition of Mutant City Blues, by Robin D. Laws, and now with added Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan, is now in print from Pelgrane Press. Grab your Quade Diagrams and solve the crimes of a near future where one per cent of the population wields super powers. Use the voucher code DIAGRAM2020 to get 15% off at the Pelgrane Store.

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*!

Suit up, agents of Delta Green. Your battle to save humanity from unnatural horrors is going beyond the Beltway. *Delta Green: The Labyrinth* is now shipping to a secure dead drop near you. Written by Delta Green co-creator John Scott Tynes, this all-new collection of organizations dives deep into the fissures of America in the new millennium.

**Episode 430: Look What’s Happened to Consensus Reality** Jan 29, 2021

Classic occult conspiracy meets eldritch espionage when beloved Patreon backer Daniel Fidelman pokes his head into the **Gaming Hut**, asking how to incorporate Louis Pauwels and Jacques Bergier’s *The Morning of the Magicians* into THE FALL OF DELTA GREEN.

Our **Cinema Hut** Horror Essentials series hits a turning point in screen shock history, as the 60s beckon, bringing with them a return to the gothic.

In **Ask Ken and Robin**, esteemed Patreon backer Josh Borlase asks us to name our favorite Old Ones. Hope the runners-up aren’t jealous!

Finally, **Ken’s Time Machine** finds itself, and our hero, attending the final meeting of the Prince-Electors of Germany to choose a Holy Roman Emperor.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Fans of Robin’s action movie roleplaying game, *Feng Shui 2*, can now have more gun fu, martial arts and sorcery in their lives as the Feng Shui 2 subscription series blasts its way into your mail slot. Score free PDFs, early access to new adventures, and 10% off cover price by joining Atlas Games’ band of scrappy underdogs today.

The second edition of Mutant City Blues, by Robin D. Laws, and now with added Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan, is now in print from Pelgrane Press. Grab your Quade Diagrams and solve the crimes of a near future where one per cent of the population wields super powers. Use the voucher code DIAGRAM2020 to get 15% off at the Pelgrane Store.

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*!

Suit up, agents of Delta Green. Your battle to save humanity from unnatural horrors is going beyond the Beltway. *Delta Green: The Labyrinth* is now shipping to a secure dead drop near you. Written by Delta Green co-creator John Scott Tynes, this all-new collection of organizations dives deep into the fissures of America in the new millennium.

**Episode 429: It Will Make a Lovely Allegory** Jan 22, 2021

In a co-production between the **Mythology Hut** and the T-Shirt Justification Hut, a particularly mournful example of the species inspires us to find ways to put the phoenix in your games. Then put the phoenix on yourself, or around your morning coffee, by saying Oh No, Not This Again at the Ken and Robin merch store.

Beloved Patreon backer Jeff Kahrs bids us into the **Book Hut** to discuss the legacy of John le Carré.

Part four of our Cinema Hut horror essential series brings us to the 50s, heyday of science horror.

Finally estimable Patreon backer Rich Ranallo enters the Eliptony Hut for a look at the giant of Kandahar.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Fans of Robin’s action movie roleplaying game, *Feng Shui 2*, can now have more gun fu, martial arts and sorcery in their lives as the Feng Shui 2 subscription series blasts its way into your mail slot. Score free PDFs, early access to new adventures, and 10% off cover price by joining Atlas Games’ band of scrappy underdogs today.

The second edition of Mutant City Blues, by Robin D. Laws, and now with added Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan, is now in print from Pelgrane Press. Grab your Quade Diagrams and solve the crimes of a near future where one per cent of the population wields super powers. Use the voucher code DIAGRAM2020 to get 15% off at the Pelgrane Store.

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*!

Suit up, agents of Delta Green. Your battle to save humanity from unnatural horrors is going beyond the Beltway. *Delta Green: The Labyrinth* is now shipping to a secure dead drop near you. Written by Delta Green co-creator John Scott Tynes, this all-new collection of organizations dives deep into the fissures of America in the new millennium.

**Episode 428: Only a Modernist Horse** Jan 15, 2021

In the **Gaming Hut** we return to that perennial, not at all distracting topic of the red herring, as beloved Patreon backer Kevin Greenlee asks how to work player-generated herrings into the drama.

Then we take Interstate 71 to the **Architecture Hut**, where esteemed Patreon backer Tom Abella wants to know what the deal is with the old Public Library of Cincinnati.

**Cinema Hut** Horror Essentials continues with the early 40s, over which the shadow of Val Lewton looms large.

Finally the Consulting Occultist dons his paisley smoking jacket for an inquiry into the occultism of LSD advocate Timothy Leary.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Fans of Robin’s action movie roleplaying game, *Feng Shui 2*, can now have more gun fu, martial arts and sorcery in their lives as the Feng Shui 2 subscription series blasts its way into your mail slot. Score free PDFs, early access to new adventures, and 10% off cover price by joining Atlas Games’ band of scrappy underdogs today.

The second edition of Mutant City Blues, by Robin D. Laws, and now with added Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan, is now in print from Pelgrane Press. Grab your Quade Diagrams and solve the crimes of a near future where one per cent of the population wields super powers. Use the voucher code DIAGRAM2020 to get 15% off at the Pelgrane Store.

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*!

Suit up, agents of Delta Green. Your battle to save humanity from unnatural horrors is going beyond the Beltway. *Delta Green: The Labyrinth* is now shipping to a secure dead drop near you. Written by Delta Green co-creator John Scott Tynes, this all-new collection of organizations dives deep into the fissures of America in the new millennium.

**Episode 427: Poor Bactrian Saps** Jan 08, 2021

We’re back for another year, starting in the **Gaming Hut**, where beloved Patreon backer Nicola Wilson wants to know how to incorporate the relatively high cost of clothes and food in the Middle Ages into an investigative game.

In the Tradecraft Hut we examine the mid-2000s Pentagon-sponsored first-person shooter Iraqi Hero, and the use Dracula made of it.

The second installment of the **Cinema Hut’s** Horror Essentials series tackles that most fertile of eras for the genre, the early 30s.

Finally **Ken’s Time Machine** creates a timeline where papermaking surfaced in Europe not long after its invention in China, instead of waiting for around a thousand years.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Fans of Robin’s action movie roleplaying game, *Feng Shui 2*, can now have more gun fu, martial arts and sorcery in their lives as the Feng Shui 2 subscription series blasts its way into your mail slot. Score free PDFs, early access to new adventures, and 10% off cover price by joining Atlas Games’ band of scrappy underdogs today.

The second edition of Mutant City Blues, by Robin D. Laws, and now with added Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan, is now in print from Pelgrane Press. Grab your Quade Diagrams and solve the crimes of a near future where one per cent of the population wields super powers. Use the voucher code DIAGRAM2020 to get 15% off at the Pelgrane Store.

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*!

Suit up, agents of Delta Green. Your battle to save humanity from unnatural horrors is going beyond the Beltway. *Delta Green: The Labyrinth* is now shipping to a secure dead drop near you. Written by Delta Green co-creator John Scott Tynes, this all-new collection of organizations dives deep into the fissures of America in the new millennium.

**Episode 426: Licensed Mumming** Dec 18, 2020

In our last episode of 2020 we lurch, masked and tipsy, into the **Kringle Hut,** to fashion a horror scenario around the Newfoundland tradition of mummering.

Beloved Patreon backer Noel Warford convenes a session of **Ask Ken and Robin** to inquire into the cosmology of his Hellenistika project.

In the **Cinema Hut** we kick off a series exploring Horror movie essentials. We’re going chronologically so let’s start with the silent era and see how far 15 minutes will take us.

Finally the **Eliptony Hut** whisks us to Brazil in the 60s for the sinister and enigmatic Lead Mask Case.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Fans of Robin’s action movie roleplaying game, *Feng Shui 2*, can now have more gun fu, martial arts and sorcery in their lives as the Feng Shui 2 subscription series blasts its way into your mail slot. Score free PDFs, early access to new adventures, and 10% off cover price by joining Atlas Games’ band of scrappy underdogs today.

The second edition of Mutant City Blues, by Robin D. Laws, and now with added Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan, is now in print from Pelgrane Press. Grab your Quade Diagrams and solve the crimes of a near future where one per cent of the population wields super powers. Use the voucher code DIAGRAM2020 to get 15% off at the Pelgrane Store.

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*!

Suit up, agents of Delta Green. Your battle to save humanity from unnatural horrors is going beyond the Beltway. *Delta Green: The Labyrinth* is now shipping to a secure dead drop near you. Written by Delta Green co-creator John Scott Tynes, this all-new collection of organizations dives deep into the fissures of America in the new millennium.

**Episode 425: Pork Chop of the Truth** Dec 11, 2020

In the **Gaming Hut**, beloved Patreon backer Jacob Boersma asks how, with conspiracies theories going mainstream, we should create them for our horror games.

In **Ripped from the Headlines**, backer Gray St. Quintin asks for the real story behind Carpathian tree poaching.

We talk for a while and then get abruptly canceled in the Television Hut, as we look at the impact of streaming on TV structure.

Finally the **Consulting Occultist** reviews the case files from the 1968 robbery of Israel Regardie’s Los Angeles library.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Fans of Robin’s action movie roleplaying game, *Feng Shui 2*, can now have more gun fu, martial arts and sorcery in their lives as the Feng Shui 2 subscription series blasts its way into your mail slot. Score free PDFs, early access to new adventures, and 10% off cover price by joining Atlas Games’ band of scrappy underdogs today.

The second edition of Mutant City Blues, by Robin D. Laws, and now with added Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan, is now in print from Pelgrane Press. Grab your Quade Diagrams and solve the crimes of a near future where one per cent of the population wields super powers. Use the voucher code DIAGRAM2020 to get 15% off at the Pelgrane Store.

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*!

Suit up, agents of Delta Green. Your battle to save humanity from unnatural horrors is going beyond the Beltway. *Delta Green: The Labyrinth* is now shipping to a secure dead drop near you. Written by Delta Green co-creator John Scott Tynes, this all-new collection of organizations dives deep into the fissures of America in the new millennium.

**Ken and Robin Consume Media: Mank Writes Kane and H. G. Wells is Full of Himself** Dec 08, 2020

Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies, TV seasons and more we cram into our hyper-analytical sensoriums. Join the Patreon to help pick the items we’ll talk about in greater depth on a little podcast segment we like to call Tell Me More.

Recommended

Creem: America’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll Magazine (Film, US, Scott Crawford, 2019) Documentary chronicles the scrappy, dysfunctional crew behind the scenes of the scrappy, proudly unrespectable rock magazine that published Lester Bangs and Dave Marsh. Another reminder that the story of any outsider culture institution includes volatile personalities and a hand-to-mouth balance sheet .—RDL

Die, Vol. 3: The Great Game (Comics, Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans, 2020) Balletic precession into the third act of this story of gamers returning (with their adult baggage) to the fantasy world that trapped them 30 years ago. Gillen’s story slows down just enough to let you feel the blows; Hans’ art if anything intensifies, with seemingly small decisions paying off like depth charges. Bonus points for H.G. Wells being full of himself. –KH [Full disclosure/gratuitous plug: An interview with Ken and Robin appears in the back matter of this volume.]

Night Editor (Film, US, Henry Levin, 1946) To cover up his affair with a rich psychopath (Janis Carter), a spiraling homicide detective (William Gargan) fails to report a murder they witness together. Carter turns in a performance for the villain hall of fame in a B-movie noir so perverse and brutal you wonder how the heck it got past the Hays Office. The title refers not to the main action but to an intrusive framing device set in a newspaper office, meant to launch an anthology series.—RDL

Good

Blackhat (Film, US, Michael Mann, 2015) The FBI releases self-made hacker/ubermensch Hathaway (Chris Hemsworth) from prison to help the Chinese MSS (Wang Leehom) track down a malevolent hacker. Mann cannot frame a bad shot, and in the moment the set pieces work amazingly well; but the story needed at least one more dimension to truly ensnare, and Hemsworth needed at least two more dimensions to portray his character. –KH

The Long Dumb Road (Film, US, Hannah Fidel, 2018) Uptight art student (Tony Revolori) receives unwanted life lessons from the extroverted oddball mechanic (Jason Mantzoukas) who fixes his car on his way to his school in L.A. Mantzoukas gets to play a grounded version of his chaotic comic persona in this winning road buddy flick, though its commitment to realism rules out a climactic finish.—RDL

Mank (Film, US, David Fincher, 2020) Convalescing from a car accident, charmingly caustic screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz (Gary Oldman) holes up on an isolated ranch to write the screenplay for Citizen Kane. Dreamlike Hollywood fantasia focuses less on the credit tussle with Orson Welles than the question of why Mank decided to stick it to erstwhile host William Randolph Hearst and, by way of collateral damage, Marion Davies. Points for including periodic cigarette burns to signal the changes of nonexistent reels.—RDL

Okay

21 Bridges (Film, US, Brian Kirk, 2019) Brilliant homicide detective with a strangely long list of kills on his record (Chadwick Boseman) races against the time to catch the coke heisters who gunned down eight of his colleagues. The script sets up the sealing off of New York’s titular bridges as a central premise and then does absolutely nothing with it. Boseman gives it more star power than it deserves as it oscillates between an action-movie reality level and serious drama.—RDL

EMMA. (Film, UK, Autumn de Wilde, 2020) Charismatic landowner’s daughter (Anya Taylor-Joy) meddles in the love life of her socially precarious friend (Mia Goth), to the tart dismay of hunky neighbor Mr, Knightley (Johnny Flynn.) Even the camera moves are broad in this fondant-colored Austen adaptation, which immediately telegraphs character traits that are meant to slowly reveal themselves over the course of the narrative .—RDL

JLA Classified: New Maps of Hell (Comics, Warren Ellis and Butch Guice, 2006) A sentient ancient alien weapon lands on Earth, and confronts the Justice League with its greatest fears. The set-up of this comic is by far the best part, as Ellis’ technophile imagination sets up a great hook; the payoff is more than correspondingly weak, however, a repetitive, simple story beat unworthy of Ellis. Grant Morrison did basically the same story vastly better in 1997.

**Episode 424: Reverse Darwinism** Dec 04, 2020

In the **Gaming Hut** we discuss a key difference between RPG settings and the real world: imaginary politics has a lot more smart people in it.

Beloved Patreon backer Andrew Miller lures us into an especially osseous **Archaeology Hut** to contemplate the mammoth bone temple of Kostenki.

In **Ask Ken and Robin**, esteemed backer Craig Maloney doesn’t want us to forget the Motor City as he demands the hidden Mythos secrets of Detroit.

Then in **Ken’s Time Machine** we check out the timeline where the First Sino-Japanese War never happened.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Fans of Robin’s action movie roleplaying game, *Feng Shui 2*, can now have more gun fu, martial arts and sorcery in their lives as the Feng Shui 2 subscription series blasts its way into your mail slot. Score free PDFs, early access to new adventures, and 10% off cover price by joining Atlas Games’ band of scrappy underdogs today.

The second edition of Mutant City Blues, by Robin D. Laws, and now with added Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan, is now in print from Pelgrane Press. Grab your Quade Diagrams and solve the crimes of a near future where one per cent of the population wields super powers. Use the voucher code DIAGRAM2020 to get 15% off at the Pelgrane Store.

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*!

Suit up, agents of Delta Green. Your battle to save humanity from unnatural horrors is going beyond the Beltway. *Delta Green: The Labyrinth* is now shipping to a secure dead drop near you. Written by Delta Green co-creator John Scott Tynes, this all-new collection of organizations dives deep into the fissures of America in the new millennium.

**Episode 423: The Mysterious G** Nov 27, 2020

In the **Gaming Hut**, Lisa Steele and Neil Fortier ask how to adjust Robin’s police procedural superhero game, Mutant City Blues, in the wake of the George Floyd murder.

George III’s topographical collection has gone online, prompting a **Cartography Hut** focused on one of its treasures—a very RPG-looking map of the fort and barracks at Mount Pleasant, Maryland.

Beloved Patreon backer Jesse Lowe calls for a **Culture Hut** field trip to the Maryhill Museum, founded by Queen Marie of Romania and *Yellow King Roleplaying Game* historical figure Loie Fuller.

Finally in a crossover between the Crime Blotter and **Eliptony Hu**t we examine the case of Ira Einhorn, the paranormalist 60s scenester later known as the Unicorn Killer.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Fans of Robin’s action movie roleplaying game, *Feng Shui 2*, can now have more gun fu, martial arts and sorcery in their lives as the Feng Shui 2 subscription series blasts its way into your mail slot. Score free PDFs, early access to new adventures, and 10% off cover price by joining Atlas Games’ band of scrappy underdogs today.

The second edition of Mutant City Blues, by Robin D. Laws, and now with added Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan, is now in print from Pelgrane Press. Grab your Quade Diagrams and solve the crimes of a near future where one per cent of the population wields super powers. Use the voucher code DIAGRAM2020 to get 15% off at the Pelgrane Store.

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*!

Suit up, agents of Delta Green. Your battle to save humanity from unnatural horrors is going beyond the Beltway. *Delta Green: The Labyrinth* is now shipping to a secure dead drop near you. Written by Delta Green co-creator John Scott Tynes, this all-new collection of organizations dives deep into the fissures of America in the new millennium.

**Episode 422: Sumerian GM Screens** Nov 20, 2020

In the **Gaming Hut** we look at narrative coherence and whether GMs should enforce it by trying to make all introduced story elements pay off.

Something sufficiently definitive has happened that we are willing to risk the wrath of our ten day lead time and reopen the dusty **Politics Hut** to chew over the results of the US election.

Speaking of which, I guess it’s finally time to duck into **Conspiracy Corner** and talk about QAnon.

Finally, the **Consulting Occultist** for the first time trains his eye on a subject who is both a paranormalist and an RPG designer, James “Herbie” Brennan.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Fans of Robin’s action movie roleplaying game, *Feng Shui 2*, can now have more gun fu, martial arts and sorcery in their lives as the Feng Shui 2 subscription series blasts its way into your mail slot. Score free PDFs, early access to new adventures, and 10% off cover price by joining Atlas Games’ band of scrappy underdogs today.

Send your 13th Age characters deep below the Dragon Empire, and even deeper into danger, with Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan’s Book of the Underworld. Get all the subterranean exploration and menace your adventurers can handle at the Pelgrane Press store. For a limited time only, get 10% off print or PDF with the voucher code STUFFWORLD.

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*!

Suit up, agents of Delta Green. Your battle to save humanity from unnatural horrors is going beyond the Beltway. *Delta Green: The Labyrinth* is now shipping to a secure dead drop near you. Written by Delta Green co-creator John Scott Tynes, this all-new collection of organizations dives deep into the fissures of America in the new millennium.

**Episode 421: The Lawful Evil Parade [Corrected]** Nov 13, 2020

In the **Gaming Hut**, beloved Patreon backer David Sowa asks us how to incorporate machine politics into an F20 game.

Ken beckons us into the Cinema Hut to discuss his discoveries at this year’s virtual edition of the Chicago Film Festival.

**Ask Ken and Robin** features a request from flinty Patreon backer to find the gaming fun in a field of abandoned President heads.

Finally we use **Ken’s Time Machine** to see what the world looks like if an attempted hit on the Shah of Iran in 1949 went off as planned.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Fans of Robin’s action movie roleplaying game, *Feng Shui 2*, can now have more gun fu, martial arts and sorcery in their lives as the Feng Shui 2 subscription series blasts its way into your mail slot. Score free PDFs, early access to new adventures, and 10% off cover price by joining Atlas Games’ band of scrappy underdogs today.

Send your 13th Age characters deep below the Dragon Empire, and even deeper into danger, with Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan’s Book of the Underworld. Get all the subterranean exploration and menace your adventurers can handle at the Pelgrane Press store. For a limited time only, get 10% off print or PDF with the voucher code STUFFWORLD.

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*!

Suit up, agents of Delta Green. Your battle to save humanity from unnatural horrors is going beyond the Beltway. *Delta Green: The Labyrinth* is now shipping to a secure dead drop near you. Written by Delta Green co-creator John Scott Tynes, this all-new collection of organizations dives deep into the fissures of America in the new millennium.

**Episode 420: They Were Hurt Frankly** Nov 06, 2020

Beloved Patreon backer John Scheib summons us to the **Gaming Hut** to find techniques for infusing Earth-based settings with your chosen nerdtrope.

In the **Tradecraft Hut** we find that the Cuban sonic attacks story, which we covered three years ago, has revealed itself into a campaign of FSB attacks against American spies and diplomats worldwide. Be sure to check out this amazing Julia Ioffe piece from GQ. This New York Times story looks at victims’ attempts to gain disability compensation.

We’re in for a tough couple of seasons here in the northern hemisphere, so the Food Hut is here to help with suggestions of ingredients to stuff your freezer with.

Finally the **Eliptony Hut** looks at computer networking pioneer, venture capitalist and ufologist Jacques Vallée.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Fans of Robin’s action movie roleplaying game, *Feng Shui 2*, can now have more gun fu, martial arts and sorcery in their lives as the Feng Shui 2 subscription series blasts its way into your mail slot. Score free PDFs, early access to new adventures, and 10% off cover price by joining Atlas Games’ band of scrappy underdogs today.

It’s hard to believe that British Intelligence would make this mistake yet again, but all the secrets of their vampire dalliances have returned to the Bundle of Holding. Score the entire Dracula Dossier line, from Ken and Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan line for a terrifyingly low price!

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*!

Suit up, agents of Delta Green. Your battle to save humanity from unnatural horrors is going beyond the Beltway. *Delta Green: The Labyrinth* is now shipping to a secure dead drop near you. Written by Delta Green co-creator John Scott Tynes, this all-new collection of organizations dives deep into the fissures of America in the new millennium.

**Episode 419: Five Hour Haste** Oct 30, 2020

We risk mixing up our aromatics with our alembics as beloved Patreon backer Jason Gorkisch enters the **Gaming Hut** to ask which ingredients and cooking styles make the best basis for magic.

Peter McAveney calls upon the **Crime Blotter** for the scoop on the Potosi Mint Fraud.

Ironically, among many other things, it has indeed become rain on your wedding day. We sashay into the **Word Hut** to tell you what irony is.

Finally the **Consulting Occultist** goes literary as Thomas Casey seeks info on the supernatural leanings of Portuguese modernist writer Fernando Pessoa.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Fans of Robin’s action movie roleplaying game, *Feng Shui 2*, can now have more gun fu, martial arts and sorcery in their lives as the Feng Shui 2 subscription series blasts its way into your mail slot. Score free PDFs, early access to new adventures, and 10% off cover price by joining Atlas Games’ band of scrappy underdogs today.

It’s hard to believe that British Intelligence would make this mistake yet again, but all the secrets of their vampire dalliances have returned to the Bundle of Holding. Score the entire Dracula Dossier line, from Ken and Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan line for a terrifyingly low price!

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*!

Suit up, agents of Delta Green. Your battle to save humanity from unnatural horrors is going beyond the Beltway. *Delta Green: The Labyrinth* is now shipping to a secure dead drop near you. Written by Delta Green co-creator John Scott Tynes, this all-new collection of organizations dives deep into the fissures of America in the new millennium.

**Episode 418: Professor X Will Hug Me** Oct 23, 2020

A Theosophical choir sings in the **Gaming Hut** as beloved Patreon backer Brad McClain asks for *Trail of Cthulhu* scenario seeds inspired by Alexander Scriabin’s unfinished, Armageddon-inducing composition Mysterium.

Thanks to discerning Patreon backer Daniel Gill, we find the **Tradecraft Hut** knee-deep in documents as we try to find the interesting side of the boring side of intelligence work.

In the **Cinema Hut** we wonder why daddy issues have become the default character arc in Hollywood screenplays.

Finally **Ken’s Time Machine** blares its klaxons for Saxons and contemplates a history where Edward the Exile didn’t promptly die after his return to England to take up the royal reigns from Edward the Confessor.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Fans of Robin’s action movie roleplaying game, *Feng Shui 2*, can now have more gun fu, martial arts and sorcery in their lives as the Feng Shui 2 subscription series blasts its way into your mail slot. Score free PDFs, early access to new adventures, and 10% off cover price by joining Atlas Games’ band of scrappy underdogs today.

It’s hard to believe that British Intelligence would make this mistake yet again, but all the secrets of their vampire dalliances have returned to the Bundle of Holding. Score the entire Dracula Dossier line, from Ken and Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan line for a terrifyingly low price!

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*!

Suit up, agents of Delta Green. Your battle to save humanity from unnatural horrors is going beyond the Beltway. *Delta Green: The Labyrinth* is now shipping to a secure dead drop near you. Written by Delta Green co-creator John Scott Tynes, this all-new collection of organizations dives deep into the fissures of America in the new millennium.

**Episode 417: Double Devil** Oct 16, 2020

In the **Gaming Hut**, beloved Patreon backer Ross Ireland asks about the possibility of victory in an ongoing game. Is it essential, or can certain doom become its own kind of win?

Regal backer Mikey Hamm beckons us into an especially resplendent version of the **History Hut** to hear about the Amber Room and the curses associated with it.

In **How to Write Good**, we show you how to spot the ominous signs of an unmotivated protagonist.

Finally the **Eliptony Hut** reveals the secrets of the Vatican’s time viewer.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

You know your dance crew is the hottest around… but now it’s time to prove it. *Breakdancing Meeples* is a real-time dexterity game of, you guessed it, breakdancing meeples, designed by Ben Moy and published by Atlas Games. Two to four people, ages six and up, compete for dancefloor glory, in five exciting minutes.

Send your 13th Age characters deep below the Dragon Empire, and even deeper into danger, with Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan’s Book of the Underworld. Get all the subterranean exploration and menace your adventurers can handle at the Pelgrane Press store. For a limited time only, get 10% off print or PDF with the voucher code STUFFWORLD.

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*!

Suit up, agents of Delta Green. Your battle to save humanity from unnatural horrors is going beyond the Beltway. *Delta Green: The Labyrinth* is now shipping to a secure dead drop near you. Written by Delta Green co-creator John Scott Tynes, this all-new collection of organizations dives deep into the fissures of America in the new millennium.

**Episode 416: They’re Gonna Have Their Lifeforms Fight** Oct 09, 2020

An all-request episode kicks off in the **Gaming Hut** as Dicegeeks asks us how to incorporate the Fossil Showman Albert Koch and his Missouri Leviathan into a game.

We jump some bulls on our way into the **Archaeology Hut**, where Jake B wants to know about a maker of Minoan seals from the town of Zakros around 1500 BCE.

Brian Malcolm impels us to dust off the **Politics Hut** for tips on getting along across partisan boundaries.

Finally Elias Helfer trudges with us up the cobwebbed stairs to the parlor of the **Consulting Occultist** for a look at iconic Tarot deck illustrator Pamela Colman Smith.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

In-person Renaissance Faires are off the table for the moment, but what can be on your table, at a limited-time steal price is *Ren Faire*, Atlas Games’ hilarious card game of competitive historical costuming. Grab it for a stunning 40% off with the voucher code PANTALOONS.

Send your 13th Age characters deep below the Dragon Empire, and even deeper into danger, with Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan’s Book of the Underworld. Get all the subterranean exploration and menace your adventurers can handle at the Pelgrane Press store. For a limited time only, get 10% off print or PDF with the voucher code STUFFWORLD.

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*!

Suit up, agents of Delta Green. Your battle to save humanity from unnatural horrors is going beyond the Beltway. *Delta Green: The Labyrinth* is now shipping to a secure dead drop near you. Written by Delta Green co-creator John Scott Tynes, this all-new collection of organizations dives deep into the fissures of America in the new millennium.

**Episode 415: Psychedelic Tupperware Party** Oct 02, 2020

The pandemic didn’t stop Robin from attending the Toronto International Film Festival, because it took place in his living room this year. In the Cinema Hut he reviews the best of a cut-down slate and discusses the future of film festivals here in the Covidverse.

Speaking of stuff you’d only do during a plague, Ken has finished reading the entirety of the Nero Wolfe mysteries. In the **Gaming Hut** we wonder how you might adapt this famously sessile classic detective to GUMSHOE One-2-One.

Finally, **Ken’s Time Machine** changes the aesthetic timeline by winning greater fame for Thomas Wilfrid’s Clavilux. Just don’t call it a color organ!

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

In-person Renaissance Faires are off the table for the moment, but what can be on your table, at a limited-time steal price is *Ren Faire*, Atlas Games’ hilarious card game of competitive historical costuming. Grab it for a stunning 40% off with the voucher code PANTALOONS.

Send your 13th Age characters deep below the Dragon Empire, and even deeper into danger, with Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan’s Book of the Underworld. Get all the subterranean exploration and menace your adventurers can handle at the Pelgrane Press store. For a limited time only, get 10% off print or PDF with the voucher code STUFFWORLD.

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*!

Suit up, agents of Delta Green. Your battle to save humanity from unnatural horrors is going beyond the Beltway. *Delta Green: The Labyrinth* is now shipping to a secure dead drop near you. Written by Delta Green co-creator John Scott Tynes, this all-new collection of organizations dives deep into the fissures of America in the new millennium.

**Episode 414: That’s How You Get Your Grants Approved** Sep 25, 2020

The **Gaming Hut** transforms into a spooky manor by the moors as beloved Patreon backer Ian Carlsen asks what you can do, outside the setting, to make an F20 game more gothic.

In **Ripped from the Headlines** we pick off some low-hanging fruit by asking what seems weird and sinister about Elon Musk’s recent pig brain chip announcement.

Finally we once more adapt to the times with a contactless edition of **Ken’s Bookshelf**.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

In-person Renaissance Faires are off the table for the moment, but what can be on your table, at a limited-time steal price is *Ren Faire*, Atlas Games’ hilarious card game of competitive historical costuming. Grab it for a stunning 40% off with the voucher code PANTALOONS.

Send your 13th Age characters deep below the Dragon Empire, and even deeper into danger, with Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan’s Book of the Underworld. Get all the subterranean exploration and menace your adventurers can handle at the Pelgrane Press store. For a limited time only, get 10% off print or PDF with the voucher code STUFFWORLD.

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*!

Suit up, agents of Delta Green. Your battle to save humanity from unnatural horrors is going beyond the Beltway. *Delta Green: The Labyrinth* is now shipping to a secure dead drop near you. Written by Delta Green co-creator John Scott Tynes, this all-new collection of organizations dives deep into the fissures of America in the new millennium.

**Episode 413: Live from Gen Con Online** Sep 18, 2020

Convention season has gone into hibernation, but that didn’t stop us from doing a live episode at Gen Con Online. The Nerdtrope deck served up a duplicate, but that didn’t stop us from sticking in a ringer. Robin’s Internet was spotty, but that didn’t stop Ken from vamping in his absence. Robin’s mic had to be closer to his humming desktop than a normal episode, but that didn’t stop heroic audio editor Rob Borges from saving the technical day! Join us in not stopping the show as we all dream of a return to in-person events.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

In-person Renaissance Faires are off the table for the moment, but what can be on your table, at a limited-time steal price is *Ren Faire*, Atlas Games’ hilarious card game of competitive historical costuming. Grab it for a stunning 40% off with the voucher code PANTALOONS.

Send your 13th Age characters deep below the Dragon Empire, and even deeper into danger, with Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan’s Book of the Underworld. Get all the subterranean exploration and menace your adventurers can handle at the Pelgrane Press store. For a limited time only, get 10% off print or PDF with the voucher code STUFFWORLD.

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*!

Suit up, agents of Delta Green. Your battle to save humanity from unnatural horrors is going beyond the Beltway. *Delta Green: The Labyrinth* is now shipping to a secure dead drop near you. Written by Delta Green co-creator John Scott Tynes, this all-new collection of organizations dives deep into the fissures of America in the new millennium.

**Episode 412: Dumas’ Salads** Sep 11, 2020

The **Gaming Hut** gets into a crossover mood as beloved Patreon backer Adam Grotjohn wants to know how to turn player characters from Vampire: the Masquerade into the antagonists for Night’s Black Agents.

In the **Cinema Hut** we each nominate someone as moviedom’s least likely major star.

The **Food Hut** turns some pages as we name our favorite food books.

And finally stalwart Patreon backer Pedro Garcia enters the History Hut for the story of Boris Skossyreff, whose self-proclaimed reign as Andorra’s king lasted for 13 days.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

In-person Renaissance Faires are off the table for the moment, but what can be on your table, at a limited-time steal price is *Ren Faire*, Atlas Games’ hilarious card game of competitive historical costuming. Grab it for a stunning 40% off with the voucher code PANTALOONS.

Send your 13th Age characters deep below the Dragon Empire, and even deeper into danger, with Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan’s Book of the Underworld. Get all the subterranean exploration and menace your adventurers can handle at the Pelgrane Press store. For a limited time only, get 10% off print or PDF with the voucher code STUFFWORLD.

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*!

Suit up, agents of Delta Green. Your battle to save humanity from unnatural horrors is going beyond the Beltway. *Delta Green: The Labyrinth* is now shipping to a secure dead drop near you. Written by Delta Green co-creator John Scott Tynes, this all-new collection of organizations dives deep into the fissures of America in the new millennium.

**Episode 411: Chief Plant Health Officer** Sep 04, 2020

In the **Gaming Hut**, beloved Patreon backer Philippe Marcil asks how you start with Earth when it is full of racism, sexism, and a plethora of other isms.

A man in a barrel pleads with a man not in a barrel in the latest installment of that most mercantile of huts, the **T-Shirt Justification Hut**.

**Ripped From the Headlines** answers to green-thumbed backer Jamie Twine, who alerts us to the international unsolicited seeds mystery.

Finally the **Consulting Occultist** brandishes his planchette to explain the Ouija board and its inventor, Elijah Bond.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

In-person Renaissance Faires are off the table for the moment, but what can be on your table, at a limited-time steal price is *Ren Faire*, Atlas Games’ hilarious card game of competitive historical costuming. Grab it for a stunning 40% off with the voucher code PANTALOONS.

Send your 13th Age characters deep below the Dragon Empire, and even deeper into danger, with Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan’s Book of the Underworld. Get all the subterranean exploration and menace your adventurers can handle at the Pelgrane Press store. For a limited time only, get 10% off print or PDF with the voucher code STUFFWORLD.

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*!

Suit up, agents of Delta Green. Your battle to save humanity from unnatural horrors is going beyond the Beltway. *Delta Green: The Labyrinth* is now shipping to a secure dead drop near you. Written by Delta Green co-creator John Scott Tynes, this all-new collection of organizations dives deep into the fissures of America in the new millennium.

**Episode 410: My Uncle Never Had an Owl** Aug 28, 2020

The **Gaming Hut** dares to risk horrific ill fortune to answer beloved Patreon backer Kevin Greenlee’s request for tips on game mastering powerful but cursed objects.

The History Hut looks at ways to incorporate the Bay of Pigs into *The Fall of Delta Green*.

The **Culture Hut** gets a stained-glass makeover as extremely on-brand Patreon backer Noel Warford asks for the truth behind France’s storied tradition of blind church organists.

Finally the **Eliptony Hut** takes a close look indeed, at the behest of insightful Patreon backer Bryan, into the pseudoscience of iridology.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

You know your dance crew is the hottest around… but now it’s time to prove it. *Breakdancing Meeples* is a real-time dexterity game of, you guessed it, breakdancing meeples, designed by Ben Moy and published by Atlas Games. Two to four people, ages six and up, compete for dancefloor glory, in five exciting minutes.

Send your 13th Age characters deep below the Dragon Empire, and even deeper into danger, with Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan’s Book of the Underworld. Get all the subterranean exploration and menace your adventurers can handle at the Pelgrane Press store. For a limited time only, get 10% off print or PDF with the voucher code STUFFWORLD.

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*!

Suit up, agents of Delta Green. Your battle to save humanity from unnatural horrors is going beyond the Beltway. *Delta Green: The Labyrinth* is now shipping to a secure dead drop near you. Written by Delta Green co-creator John Scott Tynes, this all-new collection of organizations dives deep into the fissures of America in the new millennium.

**Episode 409: League of Extraordinary Liability Lawyers** Aug 21, 2020

In the **Gaming Hut** beloved Patreon backer Michael Brodhead seeks our assistance in moving from setting to story. Might taxonomies of storytelling help?

The Architecture Hut provides grand surroundings to examine the Utopian architects and their possible sinister schemes, as requested by vaunted Patreon backer Ludovic Chabant.

In the **Monster Hut** we show you how to weave a mystery scenario around a monster, in this case the Argus from The Yellow King Roleplaying Game.

Finally charming Patreon backer Jeromy French wishes to enlist **Ken’s Time Machine** to book a screening of David Lynch’s *Revenge of the Jedi*.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

You know your dance crew is the hottest around… but now it’s time to prove it. *Breakdancing Meeples* is a real-time dexterity game of, you guessed it, breakdancing meeples, designed by Ben Moy and published by Atlas Games. Two to four people, ages six and up, compete for dancefloor glory, in five exciting minutes.

Send your 13th Age characters deep below the Dragon Empire, and even deeper into danger, with Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan’s Book of the Underworld. Get all the subterranean exploration and menace your adventurers can handle at the Pelgrane Press store. For a limited time only, get 10% off print or PDF with the voucher code STUFFWORLD.

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*!

Suit up, agents of Delta Green. Your battle to save humanity from unnatural horrors is going beyond the Beltway. *Delta Green: The Labyrinth* is now shipping to a secure dead drop near you. Written by Delta Green co-creator John Scott Tynes, this all-new collection of organizations dives deep into the fissures of America in the new millennium.

**Episode 408: Not That My Players Would Do Anything Like That** Aug 14, 2020

In lieu of our usual Gen Con wrap, we reach for an all-request episode.

Beloved Patreon backer Lauberfen meets us in the **Gaming Hut** to ask how to incorporate TPKs and character death into the narrative.

Inquiring Patreon backer Nikolaj picks up on a past cue from Robin to ask for a Crime Blotter rounding up the more colorful incidents of RCMP misconduct.

Reflective Patreon backer Corey Pierno seeks the **Consulting Occultist**’s wisdom on crystals and their history as supernatural objects.

Finally awesomely helmeted Patreon backer Walter Manbeck asks us to pop into the **Television Hut** to break down The Mandalorian.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

You know your dance crew is the hottest around… but now it’s time to prove it. *Breakdancing Meeples* is a real-time dexterity game of, you guessed it, breakdancing meeples, designed by Ben Moy and published by Atlas Games. Two to four people, ages six and up, compete for dancefloor glory, in five exciting minutes.

A rare opportunity for entirely legal larceny presents itself to the discerning wanderer. For a few short days the Dying Earth Roleplaying Game and every single one of its supplements has returned to the Bundle of Holding. Until August 17th, get Robin’s core game and the entire line in PDF for a price so low it’s almost a swindle. Grab all of the game that gave Pelgrane its name!

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*!

Suit up, agents of Delta Green. Your battle to save humanity from unnatural horrors is going beyond the Beltway. *Delta Green: The Labyrinth* is now shipping to a secure dead drop near you. Written by Delta Green co-creator John Scott Tynes, this all-new collection of organizations dives deep into the fissures of America in the new millennium.

**Ken and Robin Consume Media: American Pickle, I’ll Be Gone in the Dark, and Iconic Michael Caine** Aug 11, 2020

Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies, TV seasons and more we cram into our hyper-analytical sensoriums. Join the Patreon to help pick the items we’ll talk about in greater depth on a little podcast segment we like to call Tell Me More.

Recommended

An American Pickle (Film, US, Brandon Trost, 2020) After an entirely scientifically plausible freak pickling accident in 1920, a pugnacious Jewish immigrant (Seth Rogen) wakes up today and decides to shake his great-grandson (Seth Rogen), a water-treading app developer, from his stasis. Battle of the generations comedy dishes out satire with a heart. Structurally remarkable for its tight focus on just the two Rogen characters. If this had gone through a theatrical development process instead of made-for-streaming, it surely would have had a girlfriend and several confidant characters shoehorned in.—RDL

Damascus Gate (Fiction, Robert Stone, 1998) An American journalist in Jerusalem’s research into a newly forming cult of apocalyptic mystics stumbles onto a murky scheme to blow up the Temple Mount. Literary thriller methodically establishes a naturalistic vantage on its setting and characters before escalating the suspenseful final act.—RDL

Funeral in Berlin (Film, UK, Guy Hamilton, 1966) British spy Harry Palmer (Michael Caine) arranges the defection of KGB Colonel Stock (Oscar Homolka) from East Berlin despite his misgivings. Helmed by former British naval intelligence agent Hamilton and filmed very much on location in Berlin, this borderline noir is by far the most realistic of the three Harry Palmer movies. Caine’s suspicious yet cool, ironic performance delightfully bounces off his supercilious boss, an Israeli honey trap, and various weaselly Germans. Kudos to Hamilton and producer Harry Saltzman for straightforwardly adapting Len Deighton’s byzantine, excellent novel. –KH

I’ll Be Gone In the Dark (Television, US, HBO, Liz Garbus, 2020) Docu-series studies the cold case hunt, energized by true crime writer Michelle McNamara, for a shockingly prolific rapist and serial killer who stalked 70s Northern California. Masterfully weaves together multiple narratives: the procedural elements of the investigation; the experiences of surviving victims; the grief of McNamara’s husband Patton Oswalt after her sudden death; and most of all, an inquiry into the contradictory appeal of the true crime genre itself.—RDL

Ministry of Fear (Film, US, Fritz Lang, 1944) Released from an insane asylum, Stephen Neale (Ray Milland in top form) impulsively visits the village fete and steps into a web of Nazi conspiracy. Lang punctuates his visual paranoia with wartime blackouts and sudden death from Blitz and betrayal alike. Based on my favorite of Graham Greene’s novels, the film doesn’t live up either to its source or its director’s potential, but enough remains of their twin nightmares to captivate and surprise. –KH

Good

The Old Guard (Film, US, Gina Prince-Bythewood, 2020) Immortal, fast-regenerating good-guy mercs led by Andromache herself (Charlize Theron) fight their way out of a trap sprung by a megalomaniacal pharma exec. Presents an appealing character ensemble but keeps stopping the action-thriller in its tracks to deliver extended and mostly irrelevant exposition from the originating comic book.—RDL

The Wild Geese (Fiction, Daniel Carney, 1977) After failing to protect his client, former Congolese leader Limbani, mercenary colonel Faulkner gets one last chance to rescue him from a firing squad. Based on a rumored escape attempt by actual Congolese leader Moise Tshombe, this novel’s strengths are realistic portraits of psychologically broken mercs, mission planning, and jungle combat. The prose, sadly, turns flat and mawkish when it’s not describing violence. Worth a read for Fall of DELTA GREEN background. –KH

**Episode 407: You May Be Competent** Aug 07, 2020

In the **Gaming Hut** beloved Patreon backer Gene Ha asks about trusting players with knowledge of upcoming secrets, for example the vampire content in Night’s Black Agents.

The Tradecraft Hut delves into the spying career of Dutch painter Jan van Eyck.

Werewolves, vampires and Frankensteins all fit readily into a weird war environment, like *The Yellow King RPG*’s The Wars. In the Horror Hut, we ask how mummies might stalk the battlefield.

Finally we use Ken’s Time Machine to find out what happens to the timeline if the Quasi-War erupts into full scale conflict between the US and France.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

You know your dance crew is the hottest around… but now it’s time to prove it. *Breakdancing Meeples* is a real-time dexterity game of, you guessed it, breakdancing meeples, designed by Ben Moy and published by Atlas Games. Two to four people, ages six and up, compete for dancefloor glory, in five exciting minutes.

A rare opportunity for entirely legal larceny presents itself to the discerning wanderer. For a few short days the Dying Earth Roleplaying Game and every single one of its supplements has returned to the Bundle of Holding. Until August 17th, get Robin’s core game and the entire line in PDF for a price so low it’s almost a swindle. Grab all of the game that gave Pelgrane its name!

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*!

Suit up, agents of Delta Green. Your battle to save humanity from unnatural horrors is going beyond the Beltway. *Delta Green: The Labyrinth* is now shipping to a secure dead drop near you. Written by Delta Green co-creator John Scott Tynes, this all-new collection of organizations dives deep into the fissures of America in the new millennium.

**Episode 406: The Mystical Land of Hat** Jul 31, 2020

Beloved Patreon backer Manfred convenes us in a camouflage-covered **Gaming Hut** to ask how to run Fall of Delta Green agents through the Vietnam War. Complicating factor: his players are ex-military; Manfred is not.

Esteemed Patreon backer Dan O’Hanlon unfurls the **Crime Blotter** for a briefing on Toronto’s tow truck wars.

In **How to Write Good**, we wonder which words are too laden with earthbound cultural reference to use in texts concerning other worlds.

Finally astute Patreon backer Rolfe Bergstrom attaches a telescope to the **Eliptony Hut** so we can look at that most anomalous of asteroids, ‘Oumuamua.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

You know your dance crew is the hottest around… but now it’s time to prove it. *Breakdancing Meeples* is a real-time dexterity game of, you guessed it, breakdancing meeples, designed by Ben Moy and published by Atlas Games. Two to four people, ages six and up, compete for dancefloor glory, in five exciting minutes.

You’ve heard him talk about it. Now you can get it at retail or in the Pelgrane Press store: *The Yellow King Roleplaying Game*. Shatter your world with this eerie, physically imposing GUMSHOE game of decadent art and multiple existences. For a limited time only, enter the voucher code YELLOW at the Pelgrane shop to get 15% off all Yellow King items when you combine the core set with *Absinthe in Carcosa* and/or *The Missing and the Lost*.

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*!

Suit up, agents of Delta Green. Your battle to save humanity from unnatural horrors is going beyond the Beltway. *Delta Green: The Labyrinth* is now shipping to a secure dead drop near you. Written by Delta Green co-creator John Scott Tynes, this all-new collection of organizations dives deep into the fissures of America in the new millennium.

**Episode 405: It Would Totally Match Her Raven** Jul 24, 2020

Robin has coined yet another new term and so naturally we must enter the **Gaming Hut** to talk about table sense.

The T-Shirt Justification Hut wrings a segment out of our latest foray into feline-themed casual wear, Excuse Me While I Nap This Out.

The **Culture Hut** returns to the Belle Epoque era of The Yellow King Roleplaying Game to profile American dancer, lighting design pioneer and amateur astronomer, Loie Fuller.

Finally, **Ken’s Time Machine** rescues Houdini to find out what would have happened to his mooted nonfiction project with H. P. Lovecraft, *The Cancer of Superstition*.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

You know your dance crew is the hottest around… but now it’s time to prove it. *Breakdancing Meeples* is a real-time dexterity game of, you guessed it, breakdancing meeples, designed by Ben Moy and published by Atlas Games. Two to four people, ages six and up, compete for dancefloor glory, in five exciting minutes.

You’ve heard him talk about it. Now you can get it at retail or in the Pelgrane Press store: *The Yellow King Roleplaying Game*. Shatter your world with this eerie, physically imposing GUMSHOE game of decadent art and multiple existences. For a limited time only, enter the voucher code YELLOW at the Pelgrane shop to get 15% off all Yellow King items when you combine the core set with *Absinthe in Carcosa* and/or *The Missing and the Lost*.

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*!

Arc Dream Publishing’s Shane Ivey brings you Swords and Sorceries, fifth edition adventure in a sea-swept world inspired by ancient myth. Seek your fortunes, or find gruesome death in the tombs of forgotten gods and evils best left buried. Seize all three adventures, Sea Demon’s Gold, Song of the Sun Queens, and Tomb of Fire, today!

**Episode 404: Toss In Your Werecows** Jul 17, 2020

Hey, it’s an all-request episode!

There’s nothing much going on in the **Gaming Hut** until beloved Patreon backer Rich Ranallo pops by to ask about incorporating boredom into the player experience.

In the **Horror Hut**, esteemed Patreon backer V R Weather asks Ken to give the Dracula Dossier treatment to Bram Stoker’s *Lair of the White Worm*.

Insightful Patreon backer Louis Sylvester takes an aisle seat in the Cinema Hut to ask about John Carpenter’s classic film *Aliens*.

Finally, admirable Patreon backer John W S Marvin calls on the untapped military knowledge of the **Consulting Occultist** for a look at the esoteric secrets behind the Battle of Kursk.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

You know your dance crew is the hottest around… but now it’s time to prove it. *Breakdancing Meeples* is a real-time dexterity game of, you guessed it, breakdancing meeples, designed by Ben Moy and published by Atlas Games. Two to four people, ages six and up, compete for dancefloor glory, in five exciting minutes.

You’ve heard him talk about it. Now you can get it at retail or in the Pelgrane Press store: *The Yellow King Roleplaying Game*. Shatter your world with this eerie, physically imposing GUMSHOE game of decadent art and multiple existences. For a limited time only, enter the voucher code YELLOW at the Pelgrane shop to get 15% off all Yellow King items when you combine the core set with *Absinthe in Carcosa* and/or *The Missing and the Lost*.

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*!

Arc Dream Publishing’s Shane Ivey brings you Swords and Sorceries, fifth edition adventure in a sea-swept world inspired by ancient myth. Seek your fortunes, or find gruesome death in the tombs of forgotten gods and evils best left buried. Seize all three adventures, Sea Demon’s Gold, Song of the Sun Queens, and Tomb of Fire, today!

**Episode 403: Someone Thought to Give It Beer** Jul 10, 2020

In the **Gaming Hut** we look at villain plans, and why they have to make sense in investigative games.

The **Food Hut** goes to the drive-thru for a double-double as beloved Patreon backers Tim Maness and Jean Bauer ask for an explanation of the mythic role the Tim Hortons donut chain plays in the Canadian psyche.

**Ken and Robin Recycle Audio** with a nerdtrope of the 100 Years War and pod people from our YouTube episode of Ken and Robin Live.

Finally the **Eliptony Hut** reveals, at the behest of stalwart Patreon backer Drew, the truth behind Theodore Roosevelt’s fabled hunt for the snallygaster.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

You know your dance crew is the hottest around… but now it’s time to prove it. *Breakdancing Meeples* is a real-time dexterity game of, you guessed it, breakdancing meeples, designed by Ben Moy and published by Atlas Games. Two to four people, ages six and up, compete for dancefloor glory, in five exciting minutes.

You’ve heard him talk about it. Now you can get it at retail or in the Pelgrane Press store: *The Yellow King Roleplaying Game*. Shatter your world with this eerie, physically imposing GUMSHOE game of decadent art and multiple existences. For a limited time only, enter the voucher code YELLOW at the Pelgrane shop to get 15% off all Yellow King items when you combine the core set with *Absinthe in Carcosa* and/or *The Missing and the Lost*.

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*!

Arc Dream Publishing’s Shane Ivey brings you Swords and Sorceries, fifth edition adventure in a sea-swept world inspired by ancient myth. Seek your fortunes, or find gruesome death in the tombs of forgotten gods and evils best left buried. Seize all three adventures, Sea Demon’s Gold, Song of the Sun Queens, and Tomb of Fire, today!

**Ken and Robin Consume Media: Harlem Renaissance Detecting, Italian Renaissance Painting, and That Play You’ve Heard About** Jul 07, 2020

Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies, TV seasons and more we cram into our hyper-analytical sensoriums. Join the Patreon to help pick the items we’ll talk about in greater depth on a little podcast segment we like to call Tell Me More.

Recommended

The Collector of Lives: Giorgio Vasari and the Invention of Art (Nonfiction, Noah Charney and Ingrid Rowland, 2017) Biography of Tuscan Renaissance painter and architect Giorgio Vasari, whose 1550 book Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects established the precepts of art history as we know it. Packed with lively detail on its obsessively deadline-meeting protagonist, and also his precursors, contemporaries, and era.—RDL

The Conjure-Man Dies (Fiction, Rudolph Fisher, 1932) Harlem doctor John Archer and black NYPD detective Perry Dart must solve the murder of a West African conjure-man which rapidly becomes more than even the impossible crime it appeared. This first detective novel by an African-American writer joins Golden Age structure with Hammett-style street culture, without any white characters. The mystery compels, and if the ending is somewhat abrupt the narrative continuously fascinates and surprises on the way there. –KH

Dark and Bloody Ground: A True Story of Lust, Greed, and Murder in the Bluegrass State (Nonfiction, Darcy O’Brien, 1993) Fired East Kentucky prison guard becomes the accomplice of her chiseled felon lover as he joins a home invasion gang, whose loot later ensnares a colorful defense attorney. Minutely reported true crime saga situates its depraved criminal protagonists, who would be at home in either an Elmore Leonard novel or a Coen brothers film, in the broader context of place and social milieu.—RDL

Ford v Ferrari (Film, US, James Mangold, 2019) Sidelined by heart trouble, a determined former Le Mans champ (Matt Damon) enlists a hotheaded driver (Christian Bale) in the Ford Motor Company’s quixotic plan to beat legendary Italian car designer Enzo Ferrari at that most harrowing of competitions. With an expansiveness reminiscent of 60s widescreen epics, fits the many challenges of the race car flick into the reliable and satisfying chassis of a makers vs. suits story.—RDL

Hamilton (Film, US, Thomas Kail, 2020) Alexander Hamilton (Lin-Manuel Miranda) joins the Revolution, serves under George Washington, founds American capitalism, and dies in a duel against Aaron Burr (Leslie Odom, Jr.). Cut together from film of two 2016 original-cast performances of the smash musical, the movie essentially offers a “you are there” experience while reveling in the actors’ performances. Patriotic, optimistic, multiracial, and centrist, a fitting embodiment of the Obama era’s self-image. –KH

Good

Circus of Books (Film, Rachel Mason, 2019) Documentarian trains her lens on her self-certain mom and affable dad as they close up the West Hollywood porn emporium that for decades served as a fulcrum for L.A.’s gay community. Balances sweet family portraiture with community history at a time of sudden social change.—RDL

Eurovision Song Contest: the Story of Fire Saga (Film, David Dobkin, 2020) Oblivious dimwit (Will Ferrell) teams with the sweetly positive dimwit (Rachel McAdams) who has always loved him to pursue unlikely pop victory for their native Iceland at the titular celebration of titanic kitsch. Amiable spin on the Ferrell formula likely earns a star for those equipped to get the affectionate Eurovision in-jokes.—RDL

Okay

Jay and Silent Bob Reboot (Film, US, Kevin Smith, 2019) Conned out of their names by a Hollywood studio, Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (Kevin Smith) head across the country to stop a reboot of Bluntman & Chronic and yes you’ve already seen this film in 2001, except then it had a budget and production values. Mewes has aged even worse than his acting, and Smith mugs more than usual, rendering sadly painful what should be at least a snicker-worthy nostalgia trip. Even as a devoted Askewniverse fan, Okay is as high as I go. –KH

Shockproof (Film, US, Douglas Sirk, 1949) Tough but naive parole officer Griff Marat (Cornel Wilde) gets in too deep when trying to pry a sultry murderer (Patricia Knight) from the suave gambler who led her down the path to crime. The main interest here is seeing a Samuel Fuller script realized by a more polished stylist, but you have to go in prepared for a tacked-on happy ending to lazily handwave away the noir moral transgression at the heart of the story.—RDL

**Episode 402: NBIMBY** Jul 03, 2020

Beloved Patreon backer Bob Grider invites us into the **Gaming Hut** to discuss top-down vs bottom-up design.

Discerning Patreon backer Allen Wilkins invokes his **Ask Ken and Robin** powers to request a mash-up of *Night’s Black Agents* and The Prisoner.

The **History Hut** looks at Saskatchewan-born strongman Édouard Beaupré, aka Beaupré the Giant, and his excellent reasons for haunting Montreal. (Before you write in, Robin misspeaks at one point, referring to tuberculosis as “eradicated” instead of “brought under control.”)

Finally esteemed Patreon backer Wayne Rossi steps into the **Archaeology Hut** to ask Ken to discourse on a random item listed in the book Spooky Archaeology by Jeb Card, which the die roll decrees to be the Tomb of Maeshowe, in Orkney, Scotland.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

You know your dance crew is the hottest around… but now it’s time to prove it. *Breakdancing Meeples* is a real-time dexterity game of, you guessed it, breakdancing meeples, designed by Ben Moy and published by Atlas Games. Two to four people, ages six and up, compete for dancefloor glory, in five exciting minutes.

You’ve heard him talk about it. Now you can get it at retail or in the Pelgrane Press store: *The Yellow King Roleplaying Game*. Shatter your world with this eerie, physically imposing GUMSHOE game of decadent art and multiple existences. For a limited time only, enter the voucher code YELLOW at the Pelgrane shop to get 15% off all Yellow King items when you combine the core set with *Absinthe in Carcosa* and/or *The Missing and the Lost*.

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*!

Arc Dream Publishing’s Shane Ivey brings you Swords and Sorceries, fifth edition adventure in a sea-swept world inspired by ancient myth. Seek your fortunes, or find gruesome death in the tombs of forgotten gods and evils best left buried. Seize all three adventures, Sea Demon’s Gold, Song of the Sun Queens, and Tomb of Fire, today!

**Episode 401: Chorus Cubed** Jun 26, 2020

In the **Gaming Hut**, Ken introduces us to the meta-textual, meme-filled wonderland that is his *Fall of Delta Green* player group.

The **Crime Blotter** visits the wild mobbed-up years when Montreal Quebec was the Vegas of the north.

In **How To Write Good** a question from beloved Patreon backer Daniel Gill prompts a look at present tense and other contemporary literary devices in fantasy fiction.

Finally **Ken’s Time Machine** attempts a difficult bank shot. Time Inc. has always wanted to prevent the Robert Kennedy assassination. But how to do it without, as detailed in this Smithsonian piece by Kevin Sandler, erasing Scooby Doo from the timeline?

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

The place you only think you remember explodes with weird danger in *Welcome to the Island*, the first adventure anthology for Over the Edge from Atlas Games. Launch brand new stories, add intriguing complications to your existing arcs, or create exciting one-shots that bring the weird to your gaming table.

You’ve heard him talk about it. Now you can get it at retail or in the Pelgrane Press store: *The Yellow King Roleplaying Game*. Shatter your world with this eerie, physically imposing GUMSHOE game of decadent art and multiple existences. For a limited time only, enter the voucher code YELLOW at the Pelgrane shop to get 15% off all Yellow King items when you combine the core set with *Absinthe in Carcosa* and/or *The Missing and the Lost*.

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*!

Arc Dream Publishing’s Shane Ivey brings you Swords and Sorceries, fifth edition adventure in a sea-swept world inspired by ancient myth. Seek your fortunes, or find gruesome death in the tombs of forgotten gods and evils best left buried. Seize all three adventures, Sea Demon’s Gold, Song of the Sun Queens, and Tomb of Fire, today!

**Episode 400: LIGHTNING ROUND!!!** Jun 19, 2020

On August 3, 2012, Ken and Robin debuted into a podcast-starved world the first edition of their weekly podcast. Stuff we talked about incluuuuded a brand new game called Night’s Black Agents, the Continuum convention in the UK, the role of the GM in game design, and the Golden Dawn.

Eightish years later, we bring you our 400th episode, and you know what that means—LIGHTNING ROUND!! Bolts of celebratory electrical power come courtesy of our Patreon backers, without which we could not do this show. They incluuude redesigning classic games, scenarios as movies, steampunk ancient Greece, and so much more.

Raise a virtual and/or actual glass in celebration of this milestone in erudite audio nonsense!

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

If you believe that games should have dwarves, that dwarves should roll dice, and that true camaraderie is hollering “Cheers!” and sharing a beer, then Dice Miner is for you. Avoid dragons and cave-ins as you roll custom dice down a 3D mountain. Kickstarting as of May 26, from Atlas Games.

You’ve heard him talk about it. Now you can get it at retail or in the Pelgrane Press store: *The Yellow King Roleplaying Game*. Shatter your world with this eerie, physically imposing GUMSHOE game of decadent art and multiple existences. For a limited time only, enter the voucher code YELLOW at the Pelgrane shop to get 15% off all Yellow King items when you combine the core set with *Absinthe in Carcosa* and/or *The Missing and the Lost*.

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*!

Arc Dream Publishing’s Shane Ivey brings you Swords and Sorceries, fifth edition adventure in a sea-swept world inspired by ancient myth. Seek your fortunes, or find gruesome death in the tombs of forgotten gods and evils best left buried. Seize all three adventures, Sea Demon’s Gold, Song of the Sun Queens, and Tomb of Fire, today!

**Episode 399: Webster’s Defines a Shoggoth As** Jun 12, 2020

The **Gaming Hut** goes below the depths for beloved Patreon backer Hector Trelane, who seeks tips on adapting the feel of Wolfgang Petersen’s 1981 classic *Das Boot* into a roleplaying setting.

**How to Write Good** revisits the issue of prose style in RPG books with more tips to strengthen and clarify your work.

**Fun With Science** follows a tip from esteemed Patreon backer Gabriel Rossman, who has discovered a peculiar case of a scientific paper published under the stolen identities of researchers who had nothing to do with it.

Finally theatrically appalled Patreon backer Brian Malcolm demands redress for recent aspersions cast on Davenport, Iowa, in the form of an **Ask Ken and Robin** segment devoted to the manifold historical and eliptonic wonders of that beatific municipality.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

If you believe that games should have dwarves, that dwarves should roll dice, and that true camaraderie is hollering “Cheers!” and sharing a beer, then Dice Miner is for you. Avoid dragons and cave-ins as you roll custom dice down a 3D mountain. Kickstarting as of May 26, from Atlas Games.

You’ve heard him talk about it. Now you can get it at retail or in the Pelgrane Press store: *The Yellow King Roleplaying Game*. Shatter your world with this eerie, physically imposing GUMSHOE game of decadent art and multiple existences. For a limited time only, enter the voucher code YELLOW at the Pelgrane shop to get 15% off all Yellow King items when you combine the core set with *Absinthe in Carcosa* and/or *The Missing and the Lost*.

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*!

Arc Dream Publishing’s Shane Ivey brings you Swords and Sorceries, fifth edition adventure in a sea-swept world inspired by ancient myth. Seek your fortunes, or find gruesome death in the tombs of forgotten gods and evils best left buried. Seize all three adventures, Sea Demon’s Gold, Song of the Sun Queens, and Tomb of Fire, today!

**Episode 398: Dragons Love Merch** Jun 05, 2020

In the **Gaming Hut** we look at times when it’s appropriate to give a player an auto-success. Sometimes winning beats failing forward!

The **Tradecraft Hut** checks out the story of Czech mayors alleged to have been targeted for assassination by Russian operatives.

Sagacious Patreon backer Michael Maneval retroactively opens up the **T-Shirt Justification Hut** for a multi-genre take on beloved mascot Valhalla Cat.

Finally estimable Patreon backer Fred Kiesche heads into the Edwardian parlor of the **Consulting Occultist** for a profile of Russian painter, archaeologist and theosophist Nicolas Roerich.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

If you believe that games should have dwarves, that dwarves should roll dice, and that true camaraderie is hollering “Cheers!” and sharing a beer, then Dice Miner is for you. Avoid dragons and cave-ins as you roll custom dice down a 3D mountain. Kickstarting as of May 26, from Atlas Games.

You’ve heard him talk about it. Now you can get it at retail or in the Pelgrane Press store: *The Yellow King Roleplaying Game*. Shatter your world with this eerie, physically imposing GUMSHOE game of decadent art and multiple existences. For a limited time only, enter the voucher code YELLOW at the Pelgrane shop to get 15% off all Yellow King items when you combine the core set with *Absinthe in Carcosa* and/or *The Missing and the Lost*.

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*!

Arc Dream Publishing’s Shane Ivey brings you Swords and Sorceries, fifth edition adventure in a sea-swept world inspired by ancient myth. Seek your fortunes, or find gruesome death in the tombs of forgotten gods and evils best left buried. Seize all three adventures, Sea Demon’s Gold, Song of the Sun Queens, and Tomb of Fire, today!

**Episode 397: Terrifying Gauziness** May 29, 2020

In the **Gaming Hut** beloved Patreon backer wants to know about arc-sized endgames for player characters. Your Call of Cthulhu characters may have wound up in a sanatorium, but did your D&D heroes ever become feudal lords?

The **Cinema Hut** is even more of a hut than usual as we conduct a folk horror 101.

The **Culture Hut** resumes our Yellow King themed biographical segments with a look at Symbolist artist Odilon Redon, a ley influence on weird illustration.

Finally our beloved chrononaut dodges hellhounds in **Ken’s Time Machine** as he saves Delta blues legend Robert Johnson from a fatal dose of poisoned whiskey.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

If you believe that games should have dwarves, that dwarves should roll dice, and that true camaraderie is hollering “Cheers!” and sharing a beer, then Dice Miner is for you. Avoid dragons and cave-ins as you roll custom dice down a 3D mountain. Kickstarting as of May 26, from Atlas Games.

You’ve heard him talk about it. Now you can get it at retail or in the Pelgrane Press store: *The Yellow King Roleplaying Game*. Shatter your world with this eerie, physically imposing GUMSHOE game of decadent art and multiple existences. For a limited time only, enter the voucher code YELLOW at the Pelgrane shop to get 15% off all Yellow King items when you combine the core set with *Absinthe in Carcosa* and/or *The Missing and the Lost*.

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*!

Arc Dream Publishing’s Shane Ivey brings you Swords and Sorceries, fifth edition adventure in a sea-swept world inspired by ancient myth. Seek your fortunes, or find gruesome death in the tombs of forgotten gods and evils best left buried. Seize all three adventures, Sea Demon’s Gold, Song of the Sun Queens, and Tomb of Fire, today!

**Episode 396: Submarine for Sea Ghouls** May 22, 2020

If the hairs on the back of your neck are tingling, you must be in the **Gaming Hut**, and we may be providing tips on using Sense Trouble abilities.

In **Fun With Science** beloved Patreon backer Chris Sellers seeks the skinny on fatbergs.

He sends Robin’s players on missions in his current game, so it’s about time the **Tradecraft** **Hut** profiled iconic Canadian William Stephenson, aka Intrepid.

Finally the planets balefully align around the **Eliptony Hut** as estimable Patreon backer Dirk the Dice prompts us for the tale of doomsday predictor Albert Porta.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

If you believe that games should have dwarves, that dwarves should roll dice, and that true camaraderie is hollering “Cheers!” and sharing a beer, then Dice Miner is for you. Avoid dragons and cave-ins as you roll custom dice down a 3D mountain. Kickstarting as of May 26, from Atlas Games.

You’ve heard him talk about it. Now you can get it at retail or in the Pelgrane Press store: *The Yellow King Roleplaying Game*. Shatter your world with this eerie, physically imposing GUMSHOE game of decadent art and multiple existences. For a limited time only, enter the voucher code YELLOW at the Pelgrane shop to get 15% off all Yellow King items when you combine the core set with *Absinthe in Carcosa* and/or *The Missing and the Lost*.

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*!

Arc Dream Publishing’s Shane Ivey brings you Swords and Sorceries, fifth edition adventure in a sea-swept world inspired by ancient myth. Seek your fortunes, or find gruesome death in the tombs of forgotten gods and evils best left buried. Seize all three adventures, Sea Demon’s Gold, Song of the Sun Queens, and Tomb of Fire, today!

**Episode 395: Uninterested in Not Attacking** May 15, 2020

In the **Gaming Hut** we fulfill a **Tell Me More** Request from beloved Patreon backer Bryan, who wants us to wring gaming ideas from the most recent version of *The Invisible Man*.

**Ask Ken and Robin** finds estimable Patreon backer Scot Ryder asking if Robin would decrease the number of abilities in *Ashen Stars*, given the direction found in *The Yellow King Roleplaying Game*.

Finally we bask in the last Ken’s Bookshelf for the foreseeable future, as Ken looks back with fond and dewy eyes at the volumes snapped up during his DundraCon trip earlier this year.

Due to a technical snafu you may notice a drop in Robin’s audio quality this time around.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

The place you only think you remember explodes with weird danger in *Welcome to the Island*, the first adventure anthology for Over the Edge from Atlas Games. Launch brand new stories, add intriguing complications to your existing arcs, or create exciting one-shots that bring the weird to your gaming table.

Until May 18th you can grab the entire GUMSHOE One-2-One line in handy PDF form at the Bundle of Holding. That’s *Cthulhu Confidential*, *Night’s Black Agents Solo Ops*, and all of their associated scenarios.

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*!

Arc Dream Publishing’s Shane Ivey brings you Swords and Sorceries, fifth edition adventure in a sea-swept world inspired by ancient myth. Seek your fortunes, or find gruesome death in the tombs of forgotten gods and evils best left buried. Seize all three adventures, Sea Demon’s Gold, Song of the Sun Queens, and Tomb of Fire, today!

**Episode 394: Fruit Cutting Policies** May 08, 2020

The **Cartography Hut** gets smart as beloved Patreon backer Gerald Sears asks us to riff on intelligent maps.

Esteemed Patreon backer Sibel Permann urges the **History Hut** to find gaming gold in the Guelphs and Ghibellines.

The **Horror Hut** looks at a paper by Francis T. McAndrew on the social-evolutionary psychology of Bad Places.

Finally the **Consulting Occultist** elucidates the effort to market famously ill-reviewed 50s fantasy novel *Kinsmen of the Dragon* as an esoteric tome.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

The place you only think you remember explodes with weird danger in *Welcome to the Island*, the first adventure anthology for Over the Edge from Atlas Games. Launch brand new stories, add intriguing complications to your existing arcs, or create exciting one-shots that bring the weird to your gaming table.

Until May 18th you can grab the entire GUMSHOE One-2-One line in handy PDF form at the Bundle of Holding. That’s *Cthulhu Confidential*, *Night’s Black Agents Solo Ops*, and all of their associated scenarios.

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*!

Arc Dream Publishing’s Shane Ivey brings you Swords and Sorceries, fifth edition adventure in a sea-swept world inspired by ancient myth. Seek your fortunes, or find gruesome death in the tombs of forgotten gods and evils best left buried. Seize all three adventures, Sea Demon’s Gold, Song of the Sun Queens, and Tomb of Fire, today!

**Episode 393: Sonia Plus Melted Cheese** May 01, 2020

In the **Gaming Hut** we help beloved Patreon backer Jamie Twine as he seeks to adapt scenarios written for standard GUMSHOE to the QuickShock version of the system found in *The Yellow King Roleplaying Game.*

The **Tradecraft Hut** conducts an investigation into spying charges laid against a Major General of Ukraine’s security service.

In **Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else**, we celebrate the release of an open gaming license for Robin’s game HeroQuest, now rechristened QuestWorlds, by dropping a previously recorded chat with Chaosium’s Ian Cooper.

Finally **Ken’s Time Machine** answers the call of eldritch Patreon backer Sam Harris to move H. P. Lovecraft to Chicago and the editorship of *Weird Tales* magazine.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

The place you only think you remember explodes with weird danger in *Welcome to the Island*, the first adventure anthology for Over the Edge from Atlas Games. Launch brand new stories, add intriguing complications to your existing arcs, or create exciting one-shots that bring the weird to your gaming table.

You’ve heard him talk about it. Now you can get it at retail or in the Pelgrane Press store: *The Yellow King Roleplaying Game*. Shatter your world with this eerie, physically imposing GUMSHOE game of decadent art and multiple existences. For a limited time only, enter the voucher code YELLOW at the Pelgrane shop to get 15% off all Yellow King items when you combine the core set with *Absinthe in Carcosa* and/or *The Missing and the Lost*.

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*!

Arc Dream Publishing’s Shane Ivey brings you Swords and Sorceries, fifth edition adventure in a sea-swept world inspired by ancient myth. Seek your fortunes, or find gruesome death in the tombs of forgotten gods and evils best left buried. Seize all three adventures, Sea Demon’s Gold, Song of the Sun Queens, and Tomb of Fire, today!

**Episode 392: Existence Does Exist** Apr 24, 2020

Remote play is all the rage and we’ve convened in the **Gaming Hut**, physically distanced as always, to provide our tips to smooth your sudden conversion to the format.

In the **Archaeology Hut**, beloved Patreon backer Mikko Airaksinen wants us to get to the bottom of museums locking away their 3D artifact scans.

In the **Cinema Hut** we look at war movies you can nerdtrope into weird war scenarios, for example in the Wars sequence of *The Yellow King Roleplaying Game*.

Objects hovering over the Eliptony Hut may be closer than they appear as esteemed Patreon backer Andrew Miller asks for an update on the recent flurry of USAF activity on the UFO front.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

The place you only think you remember explodes with weird danger in *Welcome to the Island*, the first adventure anthology for Over the Edge from Atlas Games. Launch brand new stories, add intriguing complications to your existing arcs, or create exciting one-shots that bring the weird to your gaming table.

You’ve heard him talk about it. Now you can get it at retail or in the Pelgrane Press store: *The Yellow King Roleplaying Game*. Shatter your world with this eerie, physically imposing GUMSHOE game of decadent art and multiple existences. For a limited time only, enter the voucher code YELLOW at the Pelgrane shop to get 15% off all Yellow King items when you combine the core set with *Absinthe in Carcosa* and/or *The Missing and the Lost*.

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*!

Arc Dream Publishing’s Shane Ivey brings you Swords and Sorceries, fifth edition adventure in a sea-swept world inspired by ancient myth. Seek your fortunes, or find gruesome death in the tombs of forgotten gods and evils best left buried. Seize all three adventures, Sea Demon’s Gold, Song of the Sun Queens, and Tomb of Fire, today!

**Episode 391: Vigorous Deaccessioning Policy** Apr 17, 2020

You are getting sleepy very sleepy in the **Gaming Hut** as we look at ways to make being mind-controlled fun for players.

The *Yellow King Roleplaying Game* profiles move back to the Culture Hut for a look at Ken’s favorite Belle Epoque figure, photographer, cartoonist, spy and balloonist Nadar.

In **Ask Ken and Robin** we satiate beloved Patreon backer Lt Col Andrew Bates’ desire to know what occult mysteries Bruce Lee and Jimi Hendrix fought together in Seattle in the early 60s.

Finally esteemed Patreon backer Kevin Nault enlists **Ken’s Time Machine** to save the Rotodyne.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

The place you only think you remember explodes with weird danger in *Welcome to the Island*, the first adventure anthology for Over the Edge from Atlas Games. Launch brand new stories, add intriguing complications to your existing arcs, or create exciting one-shots that bring the weird to your gaming table.

You’ve heard him talk about it. Now you can get it at retail or in the Pelgrane Press store: *The Yellow King Roleplaying Game*. Shatter your world with this eerie, physically imposing GUMSHOE game of decadent art and multiple existences. For a limited time only, enter the voucher code YELLOW at the Pelgrane shop to get 15% off all Yellow King items when you combine the core set with *Absinthe in Carcosa* and/or *The Missing and the Lost*.

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*!

Arc Dream Publishing’s Shane Ivey brings you Swords and Sorceries, fifth edition adventure in a sea-swept world inspired by ancient myth. Seek your fortunes, or find gruesome death in the tombs of forgotten gods and evils best left buried. Seize all three adventures, Sea Demon’s Gold, Song of the Sun Queens, and Tomb of Fire, today!

**Ken and Robin Consume Media: An Iconic Illustrator and Ontario Bike Gang History** Apr 14, 2020

Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies, TV seasons and more we cram into our hyper-analytical sensoriums. Join the Patreon to help pick the items we’ll talk about in greater depth on a little podcast segment we like to call Tell Me More.

Recommended

Drew: the Man Behind the Poster (Film, Erik Sharkey, 2013) Documentary profile of Drew Struzan, the illustrator whose fusion of glam and caricature defined blockbuster movie posters of the 80s. Covering both the creative and rough business side of freelance illustration, this is essential viewing for artists, art directors, and fans of Star Wars and Indiana Jones.—RDL

Hard Road: Bernie Guindon and the Reign of the Satan’s Choice Motorcycle Club (Nonfiction, Peter Edwards, 2017) True crime bio, written with its subject’s cooperation, portrays the charismatic, reflexively violent, teetotalling founder and longtime president of Ontario’s most feared bike club, ascendant from the late 60s until its absorption by the Hells Angels in 2000. Readers may be surprised at a org chart that functions more as a Rotary club for criminals than the feudal Mafia structure where every earner kicks a cut upward to the top dogs.—RDL

They Came Together (Film, US, David Wain, 2014) Sweet shop owner (Amy Poehler) and her former corporate nemesis (Paul Rudd) recall their courtship as a series of romantic comedy cliches. Big absurd jokes and a parade of cameos subject tired romcom tropes to the Wet Hot American Summer treatment.—RDL

Okay

Down to Earth (Film, US, Alexander Hall, 1947) In this oddball musical sequel to Here Comes Mr. Jordan, an offended goddess Terpischore (Rita Hayworth) journeys to Earth to claim a starring role in a brassy Broadway show that takes liberties with her mythology. Though every single song lands with a thud, I can’t think of a better time to soak in a dated piece of fluff featuring the star at her glammiest, Edward Everett Horton, copious gay subtext, a musical ode to polyamory, and a color palette of screaming pastels—the latter of which you might not think possible until you expose your eyeballs to it.—RDL

Duel at Diablo (Film, US, Ralph Nelson, 1966) Former cavalry scout (Jame Garner) seeking revenge for the murder of his Comanche wife falls in with his former unit as they hunt insurgent Apaches. Notable mostly for Sidney Poitier getting to play a cool but non-saintly secondary hero, and for portraying the Apaches as justified without letting them break out of their structurally assigned role as antagonists to the heroes.—RDL

Not Recommended

The Assassination Bureau (Film, US, Basil Dearden, 1969) Suffragette journalist (Diana Rigg) hires the dashing head of an international assassination cartel (Oliver Reed) to put out a contract on himself, exposing his confederates’ scheme to get WWI off to an early start. Though one might be tempted to take frame grabs of its gob-smacking art nouveau production design as resources for YKRPG: Paris or steampunk adventure, this stumbles on the decision to play it as broad comedy without writing any jokes for the actors to play. Based on an unfinished novel by Jack London, who bought the premise from Sinclair Lewis and then realized it didn’t come with an ending.—RDL

**Episode 390: Open a Can Hut** Apr 10, 2020

The aroma of a damn fine cup of coffee wafts through the **Gaming Hut** as beloved Patreon backer Drew Eicholz asks us to pitch a non-frustrating version of Lynchian roleplaying.

In **Fun With Science** we look at Marie Curie as a figure in *The Yellow King Roleplaying Game*.

Home cooking with leftovers is on our mind for some reason as the **Food Hut** looks at stews, and by extension cooking with ingredients you happen to have on hand.

Finally esteemed Patreon backer Peter Williamson visits the Consulting Occultist to learn about economist, mystic, poet and painter George Russell.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

The place you only think you remember explodes with weird danger in *Welcome to the Island*, the first adventure anthology for Over the Edge from Atlas Games. Launch brand new stories, add intriguing complications to your existing arcs, or create exciting one-shots that bring the weird to your gaming table.

You’ve heard him talk about it. Now you can get it at retail or in the Pelgrane Press store: *The Yellow King Roleplaying Game*. Shatter your world with this eerie, physically imposing GUMSHOE game of decadent art and multiple existences. For a limited time only, enter the voucher code YELLOW at the Pelgrane shop to get 15% off all Yellow King items when you combine the core set with *Absinthe in Carcosa* and/or *The Missing and the Lost*.

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*!

Arc Dream Publishing’s Shane Ivey brings you Swords and Sorceries, fifth edition adventure in a sea-swept world inspired by ancient myth. Seek your fortunes, or find gruesome death in the tombs of forgotten gods and evils best left buried. Seize all three adventures, Sea Demon’s Gold, Song of the Sun Queens, and Tomb of Fire, today!

**Episode 389: The Owl Costume Never Pulled** Apr 03, 2020

In the **Gaming Hut** we spitball ideas for GUMSHOE One-2-One scenarios enterprising listeners might turn into self-published PDF products under the auspices of its Creative Commons license.

We enter the **History Hut** to find rocker Frank Black prompting beloved Patreon backer to ask us about the Llano del Rio commune of the 1910s.

The **Cinema Hut** gathers up its leopard and evening attire for a screwball comedy 101 segment.

Then esteemed Patreon backer Shinanoki summons us to the **Eliptony Hut** to delve into the esoteric mysteries of the Takenouchi Documents.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

The place you only think you remember explodes with weird danger in *Welcome to the Island*, the first adventure anthology for Over the Edge from Atlas Games. Launch brand new stories, add intriguing complications to your existing arcs, or create exciting one-shots that bring the weird to your gaming table.

You’ve heard him talk about it. Now you can get it at retail or in the Pelgrane Press store: *The Yellow King Roleplaying Game*. Shatter your world with this eerie, physically imposing GUMSHOE game of decadent art and multiple existences. For a limited time only, enter the voucher code YELLOW at the Pelgrane shop to get 15% off all Yellow King items when you combine the core set with *Absinthe in Carcosa* and/or *The Missing and the Lost*.

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*!

Arc Dream Publishing’s Shane Ivey brings you Swords and Sorceries, fifth edition adventure in a sea-swept world inspired by ancient myth. Seek your fortunes, or find gruesome death in the tombs of forgotten gods and evils best left buried. Seize all three adventures, Sea Demon’s Gold, Song of the Sun Queens, and Tomb of Fire, today!

**Episode 388: The Toppling is the Point** Mar 27, 2020

In the **Gaming Hut** we ask when a historical event the players can research might also be a spoiler.

**Ripped From the Headlines** allows beloved Patreon backer Chris Lydon to discover the hidden significance of Las Vegas’ political hat wearing pigeons.

Our round of *Yellow King Roleplaying Game* Belle Epoque biographies shifts to the **Culture Hut** as we look at a potential patron for your occult investigators, the most famous actor in the world, Sarah Bernhardt.

Then the **Eliptony Hut** ventures to California’s Santa Lucia mountains, where esteemed Patreon backer David Shaw submits us to the gaze of the Dark Watchers.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

The place you only think you remember explodes with weird danger in *Welcome to the Island*, the first adventure anthology for Over the Edge from Atlas Games. Launch brand new stories, add intriguing complications to your existing arcs, or create exciting one-shots that bring the weird to your gaming table.

You’ve heard him talk about it. Now you can get it at retail or in the Pelgrane Press store: *The Yellow King Roleplaying Game*. Shatter your world with this eerie, physically imposing GUMSHOE game of decadent art and multiple existences. For a limited time only, enter the voucher code YELLOW at the Pelgrane shop to get 15% off all Yellow King items when you combine the core set with *Absinthe in Carcosa* and/or *The Missing and the Lost*.

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*!

Arc Dream Publishing’s Shane Ivey brings you Swords and Sorceries, fifth edition adventure in a sea-swept world inspired by ancient myth. Seek your fortunes, or find gruesome death in the tombs of forgotten gods and evils best left buried. Seize all three adventures, Sea Demon’s Gold, Song of the Sun Queens, and Tomb of Fire, today!

**Episode 387 – Yell Down Into the Hollers** Mar 20, 2020

In the **Gaming Hut**, beloved Patreon backer Peter McAveney asks how to set up a *Night’s Black Agents* game as if it is, at first, some other less vampire-infested game.

The **Tradecraft Hut** goes to 50s Canada, a tale of a KGB mole turned double agent and the corrupt RCMP officer who gave him up to his Soviet masters. For more, see Donald G. Mahar’s *Shattered Illusions: KGB Cold War Espionage in Canada*.

**Ask Ken and Robin** features a query from discerning Patreon backer Louis Sylvester about the process behind Robin’s Yellow King novel The Missing and the Lost.

Then Ken’s Time Machine undertakes a mission, sparked by Time Incorporated’s giant bull ire, to erase the Iowa Caucuses from the timestream.

*This episode was recorded on March 10. We’ll address our plans to keep plugging during the pandemic at the top of next week’s show.*

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

The place you only think you remember explodes with weird danger in *Welcome to the Island*, the first adventure anthology for Over the Edge from Atlas Games. Launch brand new stories, add intriguing complications to your existing arcs, or create exciting one-shots that bring the weird to your gaming table.

You’ve heard him talk about it. Now you can get it at retail or in the Pelgrane Press store: *The Yellow King Roleplaying Game*. Shatter your world with this eerie, physically imposing GUMSHOE game of decadent art and multiple existences. For a limited time only, enter the voucher code YELLOW at the Pelgrane shop to get 15% off all Yellow King items when you combine the core set with *Absinthe in Carcosa* and/or *The Missing and the Lost*.

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*!

Arc Dream Publishing’s Shane Ivey brings you Swords and Sorceries, fifth edition adventure in a sea-swept world inspired by ancient myth. Seek your fortunes, or find gruesome death in the tombs of forgotten gods and evils best left buried. Seize all three adventures, Sea Demon’s Gold, Song of the Sun Queens, and Tomb of Fire, today!

**Episode 386: The Apache Helicopter of Toaster Ovens** Mar 13, 2020

In the **Gaming Hut**, beloved Patreon backer Trung Bui asks us for tips and tricks on running open-ended games without interfering with player agency.

The **Food Hut** remains just as crispy, with a fraction of the calories, as Robin discovers air fryer cooking by way of the Breville Smart Oven with Air Fry.

Our tour of the Belle Epoque setting featured in The Yellow King Roleplaying Game moves to the **Crime Blotter** and a look at troubling forensics pioneer Alphonse Bertillon.

Finally the **Eliptony Hut** listens to signals from esteemed backer Jamie Twine, who needs to know about numbers stations.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

The place you only think you remember explodes with weird danger in *Welcome to the Island*, the first adventure anthology for Over the Edge from Atlas Games. Launch brand new stories, add intriguing complications to your existing arcs, or create exciting one-shots that bring the weird to your gaming table.

You’ve heard him talk about it. Now you can get it at retail or in the Pelgrane Press store: *The Yellow King Roleplaying Game*. Shatter your world with this eerie, physically imposing GUMSHOE game of decadent art and multiple existences. For a limited time only, enter the voucher code YELLOW at the Pelgrane shop to get 15% off all Yellow King items when you combine the core set with *Absinthe in Carcosa* and/or *The Missing and the Lost*.

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*!

Arc Dream Publishing’s Shane Ivey brings you Swords and Sorceries, fifth edition adventure in a sea-swept world inspired by ancient myth. Seek your fortunes, or find gruesome death in the tombs of forgotten gods and evils best left buried. Seize all three adventures, Sea Demon’s Gold, Song of the Sun Queens, and Tomb of Fire, today!

**Episode 385: Shill for the Macedonians** Mar 06, 2020

In the **Gaming Hut** beloved Patreon backer Gray St. Quintin asks us to expand on our past fleeting discussion of the various voices and modes used in a roleplaying session.

The **Tradecraft Hut** has no choice but to address recent reminders that Boston mob boss Whitey Bulger, whose story is already wild enough, was subjected to MK-ULTRA brainwashing experiments.

Esteemed backer Derek Upham bids to enter the **Archaeology Hut** to paw over ancient curse tablets found at the bottom of a Greek well.

Then we conclude our **Consulting Occultist** series on key figures of the magical Belle Epoque with dynamic duo Oswald Wirth and Stanislas de Guaita.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

The place you only think you remember explodes with weird danger in *Welcome to the Island*, the first adventure anthology for Over the Edge from Atlas Games. Launch brand new stories, add intriguing complications to your existing arcs, or create exciting one-shots that bring the weird to your gaming table.

You’ve heard him talk about it. Now you can get it at retail or in the Pelgrane Press store: *The Yellow King Roleplaying Game*. Shatter your world with this eerie, physically imposing GUMSHOE game of decadent art and multiple existences. For a limited time only, enter the voucher code YELLOW at the Pelgrane shop to get 15% off all Yellow King items when you combine the core set with *Absinthe in Carcosa* and/or *The Missing and the Lost*.

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*!

Arc Dream Publishing’s Shane Ivey brings you Swords and Sorceries, fifth edition adventure in a sea-swept world inspired by ancient myth. Seek your fortunes, or find gruesome death in the tombs of forgotten gods and evils best left buried. Seize all three adventures, Sea Demon’s Gold, Song of the Sun Queens, and Tomb of Fire, today!

**Episode 384: Number One Nightmare** Feb 28, 2020

Look out for dirigibles as the Gaming Hut looks at the process of selecting your tech level when building an alternate timeline. The *Aftermath* sequence of *The King in Yellow Roleplaying Game* serves as our case in point.

In **Ken and/or Robin Talk to Somebody Else**, we chat with game designer and writer Sarah Saltiel.

Beloved Patreon backer Andrew Miller wants to know Ken’s thoughts on emergent continuity in **Ask Ken and Robin**.

The **Consulting Occultist** continues our series of arcane profiles from Belle Epoque Paris with a look at Ely Star, a protege of Robert Houdin who infused his astrology with kabbalism.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

The place you only think you remember explodes with weird danger in *Welcome to the Island*, the first adventure anthology for Over the Edge from Atlas Games. Launch brand new stories, add intriguing complications to your existing arcs, or create exciting one-shots that bring the weird to your gaming table.

You’ve heard him talk about it. Now you can get it at retail or in the Pelgrane Press store: *The Yellow King Roleplaying Game*. Shatter your world with this eerie, physically imposing GUMSHOE game of decadent art and multiple existences. For a limited time only, enter the voucher code YELLOW at the Pelgrane shop to get 15% off all Yellow King items when you combine the core set with *Absinthe in Carcosa* and/or *The Missing and the Lost*.

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*!

Arc Dream Publishing presents a gorgeous new edition of Robert W. Chambers’ The King in Yellow, a deluxe hardback in delightful faux snakeskin, with a foreword by John Scott Tynes, annotations by our own Kenneth Hite, and stunning full-pate color illustrations by Samuel Araya. Grab it while it lasts in the Arc Dream store.

**Episode 383: Not Quite Doctor Cowboy** Feb 21, 2020

Longtime listeners know that “Start with Earth” is a Thing Ken Always Says. But in the **Gaming Hut**, beloved Patreon backer Nicola Wilson wants to know *exactly* where.

In the **Conspiracy Corner** estimable Patreon backer Steven Roman seeks bookshelf recommendations for all things recent and conspiratorial.

The **Consulting Occultist** continues to wear suspiciously Robin-like facial hair as we enter the penultimate edition of Belle Epoque magicians series, as inspired by The Yellow King Roleplaying Game, with the scene’s fun couple, Moina and Samuel Liddell Mathers, of Golden Dawn fame.

Placed spoilererrifically at the end, in case your childrearing duties have prevented you from catching the flick yet, the Cinema Hut trains an analytical lens on *The Rise of Skywalker*.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Your survival depends on separating heisting criminals from undercover cops in *Never Bring a Knife*, the action-packed new social deduction game from our ever-sneaky friends at Atlas Games. Available from Jan 17th at your friendly local game store or online.

You’ve heard him talk about it. Now you can get it at retail or in the Pelgrane Press store: *The Yellow King Roleplaying Game*. Shatter your world with this eerie, physically imposing GUMSHOE game of decadent art and multiple existences. For a limited time only, enter the voucher code YELLOW at the Pelgrane shop to get 15% off all Yellow King items when you combine the core set with *Absinthe in Carcosa* and/or *The Missing and the Lost*.

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*!

Arc Dream Publishing presents a gorgeous new edition of Robert W. Chambers’ The King in Yellow, a deluxe hardback in delightful faux snakeskin, with a foreword by John Scott Tynes, annotations by our own Kenneth Hite, and stunning full-pate color illustrations by Samuel Araya. Grab it while it lasts in the Arc Dream store.

**Episode 382: Health and Safety** Feb 14, 2020

In the **Gaming Hut** we come to the rescue of beloved Patreon backer Keelan O’Hea, whose players have conceived the inexplicable desire for a version of GUMSHOE with more die rolling in it.

The **Food Hut**, of all huts, contains the first of this episode’s two *Yellow King Roleplaying Game* shout-outs, as we savor the career and influence of chef, restaurant operator and cookbook author Auguste Escoffier.

The History Hut finds Ken prowling the British Museum researching his upcoming *Hellenistika* D&D project.

Then the **Consulting Occultist** continues our series on the magicians of the Parisian Belle Epoque, as we drop into the shop of bookseller, composer and occult publisher Edmond Bailly.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Your survival depends on separating heisting criminals from undercover cops in *Never Bring a Knife*, the action-packed new social deduction game from our ever-sneaky friends at Atlas Games. Available from Jan 17th at your friendly local game store or online.

You’ve heard him talk about it. Now you can get it at retail or in the Pelgrane Press store: *The Yellow King Roleplaying Game*. Shatter your world with this eerie, physically imposing GUMSHOE game of decadent art and multiple existences. For a limited time only, enter the voucher code YELLOW at the Pelgrane shop to get 15% off all Yellow King items when you combine the core set with *Absinthe in Carcosa* and/or *The Missing and the Lost*.

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*!

Arc Dream Publishing presents a gorgeous new edition of Robert W. Chambers’ The King in Yellow, a deluxe hardback in delightful faux snakeskin, with a foreword by John Scott Tynes, annotations by our own Kenneth Hite, and stunning full-pate color illustrations by Samuel Araya. Grab it while it lasts in the Arc Dream store.

**Episode 381: Anthropodermic Wallet** Feb 07, 2020

They tried to suppress it. They tried to contain it. They left it for months on a loading dock in Estonia. But now The Yellow King Roleplaying Game has made its final crack in reality by heading to retail. We celebrate with an all-Yellow King edition of Robin’s ambitious new game.

In the **Gaming Hut**, beloved Patreon backer Ken Ringwald obligingly asks how it tackles the age-old problem of time as a resource in RPGs.

The **History Hut** peels back the covers on the Skin Affair, a gruesome scandal that rocked Belle Epoque Paris in the wake of a sensational murder.

In **Ask Ken and Robin**, esteemed Patreon backer Ruth Tillman demands strange machineries for YKRPG’s Belle Epoque sequence.

Finally the **Consulting Occultist** resumes our interrupted look at the 1890s Parisian supernatural scene with a profile of the Martinist writer and salon organizer Papus.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Your survival depends on separating heisting criminals from undercover cops in *Never Bring a Knife*, the action-packed new social deduction game from our ever-sneaky friends at Atlas Games. Available from Jan 17th at your friendly local game store or online.

You’ve heard him talk about it. Now you can get it at retail or in the Pelgrane Press store: *The Yellow King Roleplaying Game*. Shatter your world with this eerie, physically imposing GUMSHOE game of decadent art and multiple existences. For a limited time only, enter the voucher code YELLOW at the Pelgrane shop to get 15% off all Yellow King items when you combine the core set with *Absinthe in Carcosa* and/or *The Missing and the Lost*.

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*!

Arc Dream Publishing presents a gorgeous new edition of Robert W. Chambers’ The King in Yellow, a deluxe hardback in delightful faux snakeskin, with a foreword by John Scott Tynes, annotations by our own Kenneth Hite, and stunning full-pate color illustrations by Samuel Araya. Grab it while it lasts in the Arc Dream store.

**Episode 380: He Said, Foreshadowingly** Jan 31, 2020

In the **Gaming Hut**, we show you how to turn otherwise inert scenes in a sandbox game into prompts for activity.

With the Academy Awards creeping up on us yet again, it’s time for us to sashay into the **Cinema Hut** to list our favorite films of 2019.

Finally the **Consulting Occultist** returns to matters Rosicrucian as beloved backer, the Monster Talk podcast, asks for secrets of Christian Rosenkreuz’s legendary tomb.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Your survival depends on separating heisting criminals from undercover cops in *Never Bring a Knife*, the action-packed new social deduction game from our ever-sneaky friends at Atlas Games. Available from Jan 17th at your friendly local game store or online.

What’s worse—yet even more pulse-poundingly exciting—than being a burned spy on the run from an international vampire conspiracy? Going it alone, as you do in Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan’s brilliant adaptation of GUMSHOE One-2-One to the shadowy world of *Night’s Black Agents: Solo Ops*, 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*!

Arc Dream Publishing presents a gorgeous new edition of Robert W. Chambers’ The King in Yellow, a deluxe hardback in delightful faux snakeskin, with a foreword by John Scott Tynes, annotations by our own Kenneth Hite, and stunning full-pate color illustrations by Samuel Araya. Grab it while it lasts in the Arc Dream store.

**Episode 379: Stealth Out and Touch the Egg Wrong** Jan 24, 2020

That knife you smuggled into the **Gaming Hut** will finally pay off as we provide tips on playing the secret assassin character.

Patreon backer Tom Abella provides us a story **Ripped From the Headlines**, in which a baffling GPS-spoofing technology deployed on the Yangtze at Shanghai might be a cover for sand thieves. Or, you know, something weird.

In the **Horror Hut** backer Thomas Wolfe asks us to mull the works of weird fiction stalwart Clark Ashton Smith.

If it weren’t for **Ken’s Time Machine**, the megalosaurus might be known by another, entirely embarrassing name. Now he reveals what other interventions he staged, or is thinking about staging, in order to erase history’s insignificant but annoying details.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Your survival depends on separating heisting criminals from undercover cops in *Never Bring a Knife*, the action-packed new social deduction game from our ever-sneaky friends at Atlas Games. Available from Jan 17th at your friendly local game store or online.

What’s worse—yet even more pulse-poundingly exciting—than being a burned spy on the run from an international vampire conspiracy? Going it alone, as you do in Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan’s brilliant adaptation of GUMSHOE One-2-One to the shadowy world of *Night’s Black Agents: Solo Ops*, 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*!

Arc Dream Publishing presents a gorgeous new edition of Robert W. Chambers’ The King in Yellow, a deluxe hardback in delightful faux snakeskin, with a foreword by John Scott Tynes, annotations by our own Kenneth Hite, and stunning full-pate color illustrations by Samuel Araya. Grab it while it lasts in the Arc Dream store.

**Episode 378: Killer Puppies** Jan 17, 2020

With a wave of his chainsaw hand, Patreon backer Walter Manbeck summons us to the **Gaming Hut** for tips on running comedy horror games.

Inspired by a recent New York Times Magazine piece, the **Tradecraft Hut** examines the implications of the OSS’ impact on graphic and industrial design.

Patreon backer Marc Kevin Hall asks us into the Cinema Hut for the 101 on the absurdist retro delights of Winnepeg filmmaker Guy Maddin.

Finally the gray and Nordic aliens listen intently in the **Eliptony Hut** as we talk about Trevor James Constable and his sky amoeba theory of UFO origins.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Your survival depends on separating heisting criminals from undercover cops in *Never Bring a Knife*, the action-packed new social deduction game from our ever-sneaky friends at Atlas Games. Available from Jan 17th at your friendly local game store or online.

What’s worse—yet even more pulse-poundingly exciting—than being a burned spy on the run from an international vampire conspiracy? Going it alone, as you do in Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan’s brilliant adaptation of GUMSHOE One-2-One to the shadowy world of *Night’s Black Agents: Solo Ops*, 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*!

Arc Dream Publishing presents a gorgeous new edition of Robert W. Chambers’ The King in Yellow, a deluxe hardback in delightful faux snakeskin, with a foreword by John Scott Tynes, annotations by our own Kenneth Hite, and stunning full-pate color illustrations by Samuel Araya. Grab it while it lasts in the Arc Dream store.

**Episode 377: Everyone Believes in Horse Theft** Jan 10, 2020

In the **Gaming Hut** beloved Patreon backer Tom Shaw asks us to even the odds when strong PCs fight weak opponents.

A gruesome find in the **History Hut** prompts estimable backer Polydamas to seek guidance on portraying the Sandby Borg Massacre in a game.

In **Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else**, Robin chats with Fil Baldowski, mastermind of the of All Rolled Up empire.

Finally, in **Fun With Science**, profound Patreon backer Wayne Shaw wants to know the true significance of the gigantic metal deposit buried beneath the moon’s south pole.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Hopping vampires tried to stop it! Transformed animals conspired to block it! Evil eunuchs issued proclamations against it! But thanks to the gun-toting, fist-flying efforts of your favorite scrappy underdogs at Atlas Games, Feng Shui 2, Robin’s acclaimed and recently improved game of action thrills has been reprinted and can again be found in stores. Import the excitement of the Hong Kong action cinema masters to your roleplaying table.

What’s worse—yet even more pulse-poundingly exciting—than being a burned spy on the run from an international vampire conspiracy? Going it alone, as you do in Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan’s brilliant adaptation of GUMSHOE One-2-One to the shadowy world of *Night’s Black Agents: Solo Ops*, 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*!

Arc Dream Publishing presents a gorgeous new edition of Robert W. Chambers’ The King in Yellow, a deluxe hardback in delightful faux snakeskin, with a foreword by John Scott Tynes, annotations by our own Kenneth Hite, and stunning full-pate color illustrations by Samuel Araya. Grab it while it lasts in the Arc Dream store.

**Episode 376: Landlord Reform** Jan 03, 2020

Pull up a comfy chair and get your fireballs back in the **Gaming Hut** as we look at the timing of resource refreshing.

In the Tradecraft Hut we peer into the espionage activities of William Playfair, now better known as the inventor of the pie chart, not to mention most of your other favorite charts.

**Ask Ken and Robin** features a request from beloved Patreon backer Lars to consider updates to *Earthdawn*.

Then Phil Masters, estimable Patreon backer who this time gets a whole question to himself, asks if our hero might want to use **Ken’s Time Machine** to extend the life and career of Gustavus Adolphus, the reform-minded Swedish king some consider the inventor of modern warfare.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Hopping vampires tried to stop it! Transformed animals conspired to block it! Evil eunuchs issued proclamations against it! But thanks to the gun-toting, fist-flying efforts of your favorite scrappy underdogs at Atlas Games, Feng Shui 2, Robin’s acclaimed and recently improved game of action thrills has been reprinted and can again be found in stores. Import the excitement of the Hong Kong action cinema masters to your roleplaying table.

What’s worse—yet even more pulse-poundingly exciting—than being a burned spy on the run from an international vampire conspiracy? Going it alone, as you do in Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan’s brilliant adaptation of GUMSHOE One-2-One to the shadowy world of *Night’s Black Agents: Solo Ops*, 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*!

Arc Dream Publishing presents a gorgeous new edition of Robert W. Chambers’ The King in Yellow, a deluxe hardback in delightful faux snakeskin, with a foreword by John Scott Tynes, annotations by our own Kenneth Hite, and stunning full-pate color illustrations by Samuel Araya. Grab it while it lasts in the Arc Dream store.

**Episode 375: Live from Dragonmeet** Dec 20, 2019

In our final episode of the year, we unwrap the annual Christmas present that is our episode recorded live at Dragonmeet in London. Join us for the nerdtroping of the Norman Conquest and Hindu mythology, this podcast’s alternate timeline, writing to drink by, annoying tannoy interruptions, and the real intervention in the 2016 election.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Hopping vampires tried to stop it! Transformed animals conspired to block it! Evil eunuchs issued proclamations against it! But thanks to the gun-toting, fist-flying efforts of your favorite scrappy underdogs at Atlas Games, Feng Shui 2, Robin’s acclaimed and recently improved game of action thrills has been reprinted and can again be found in stores. Import the excitement of the Hong Kong action cinema masters to your roleplaying table.

By the Great Gold Wyrm, is that an escalation die I hear? Pelgrane Press’ love letter to fantasy roleplaying just got lovelier with an epic PDF deal in the Bundle of Holding. Grab the brand new **13th Age Adventures** bundle, or dip your toes in the Diabolist’s waters with a revived deal on the original 13th Age Bundle, including the core book and the campaign to end all campaigns, *Eyes of the Stone Thief*.

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*!

Arc Dream Publishing presents a gorgeous new edition of Robert W. Chambers’ The King in Yellow, a deluxe hardback in delightful faux snakeskin, with a foreword by John Scott Tynes, annotations by our own Kenneth Hite, and stunning full-pate color illustrations by Samuel Araya. Grab it while it lasts in the Arc Dream store.

**Episode 374: All Books are Tax Deductible** Dec 13, 2019

Freshly home and invigorated, or perhaps exhaugorated, by our annual trip to Dragonmeet in London, we issue a Travel Advisory for the William Blake exhibition at Tate Britain.

Rocketed by the power of recording technology back to the day before Gen Con, **Ken and/or** **Robin Talk to Someone Else** finds us in conversation with Colby Elliott, silky-voiced creator and narrator of RPG audiobooks, including a little number you might know as *Robin’s Laws of Good Gamemastering*.

Experienced listeners are already bracing themselves for what comes next: another bumper edition of **Ken’s Bookshelf**, featuring the haul from his 2019 London book raid. Plus special guest books straight from Robin’s carry-on bag!

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Atlas Games’ delightful game of mud, blood and regicide, *Gloom of Thrones* , charges down the moat of your favorite game retailer on December 2nd. Take control of a noble family and exquisitely kill them off. May the most miserable player win!

By the Great Gold Wyrm, is that an escalation die I hear? Pelgrane Press’ love letter to fantasy roleplaying just got lovelier with an epic PDF deal in the Bundle of Holding. Grab the brand new **13th Age Adventures** bundle, or dip your toes in the Diabolist’s waters with a revived deal on the original 13th Age Bundle, including the core book and the campaign to end all campaigns, *Eyes of the Stone Thief*.

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*!

Arc Dream Publishing presents a gorgeous new edition of Robert W. Chambers’ The King in Yellow, a deluxe hardback in delightful faux snakeskin, with a foreword by John Scott Tynes, annotations by our own Kenneth Hite, and stunning full-pate color illustrations by Samuel Araya. Grab it while it lasts in the Arc Dream store.

**Episode 373: Nutty Crab Soup [Corrected]** Dec 06, 2019

In the **Gaming Hut** we figure out what people are really talking about when they take sides in the system matters debate.

The **Tradecraft Hut** peers into a classic tabloid spy scandal, 1961’s Profumo Affair, to see what one might make of it in *The Fall of Delta Green*.

Beloved Patreon backer Timothy Coram steps up to make a demand on behalf of all, that Robin enter the **Food Hut** to confront Ken with the contents of the Sno-Voyageur’s Cookbook, a time capsule of Ontario cooking from the 80s.

Finally the **Consulting Occultist** answers a request from beloved Patreon backers Tim Maness and Jean Bauer for the lowdown on the 1911 Ark of the Covenant expedition.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Atlas Games’ delightful game of mud, blood and regicide, *Gloom of Thrones* , charges down the moat of your favorite game retailer on December 2nd. Take control of a noble family and exquisitely kill them off. May the most miserable player win!

By the Great Gold Wyrm, is that an escalation die I hear? Pelgrane Press’ love letter to fantasy roleplaying just got lovelier with an epic PDF deal in the Bundle of Holding. Grab the brand new **13th Age Adventures** bundle, or dip your toes in the Diabolist’s waters with a revived deal on the original 13th Age Bundle, including the core book and the campaign to end all campaigns, *Eyes of the Stone Thief*.

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*!

Arc Dream Publishing presents a gorgeous new edition of Robert W. Chambers’ The King in Yellow, a deluxe hardback in delightful faux snakeskin, with a foreword by John Scott Tynes, annotations by our own Kenneth Hite, and stunning full-pate color illustrations by Samuel Araya. Grab it while it lasts in the Arc Dream store.

**Episode 372: We Welcome All People with Mithril** Nov 29, 2019

Join us not midway through but at the top of the podcast as the **Gaming Hut** finds ways to introduce a new player to a long-running series.

In the **Television Hut** beloved Patreon backer Jeromy French asks Robin to expound on the problems of the series finale.

**Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else** features an interview Robin conducted at the Kraken, with Pedro Ziviani, whose new Chaosium story card game The Red Thread of Fate will begin its Kickstarter campaign on Jan 19th.

Then we get quiet, very very quiet, in an **Eliptony Hut** discussion of Raudive voices, also known as Electronic Voice Phenomena.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Atlas Games’ delightful game of mud, blood and regicide, *Gloom of Thrones* charges down the moat of your favorite game retailer on December 2nd. Take control of a noble family and exquisitely kill them off. May the most miserable player win!

What’s worse—yet even more pulse-poundingly exciting—than being a burned spy on the run from an international vampire conspiracy? Going it alone, as you do in Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan’s brilliant adaptation of GUMSHOE One-2-One to the shadowy world of *Night’s Black Agents: Solo Ops*, 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*!

Arc Dream Publishing presents a gorgeous new edition of Robert W. Chambers’ The King in Yellow, a deluxe hardback in delightful faux snakeskin, with a foreword by John Scott Tynes, annotations by our own Kenneth Hite, and stunning full-pate color illustrations by Samuel Araya. Grab it while it lasts in the Arc Dream store.

**Episode 371: Werewolf Adjacent** Nov 22, 2019

In the **Gaming Hut** beloved Patreon backer Elias Helfer asks us how to invent great magical artifacts.

The **History Hut** exits pursued by a bear, and also flying bricks, as we look at New York City’s 1849 Shakespeare riots.

Phil Masters leads a cane-toting pack of his fellow Patreon backers into the **Horror Hut**, demanding to know how Jekyll and Hyde fit into Robin’s theory about the inherent structural challenge of werewolf movies.

Then backer Andrea Colletta revs up Ken’s Time Machine to find out what history looks like when Richard Nixon’s application to join the FBI is accepted.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

*Fairytale Mash-ups*, the new expansion for Atlas Games’ classic storytelling card game *Once Upon a Time*, is here to bring you classic characters, hilarious juxtapositions and hungry giant sheep.

What’s worse—yet even more pulse-poundingly exciting—than being a burned spy on the run from an international vampire conspiracy? Going it alone, as you do in Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan’s brilliant adaptation of GUMSHOE One-2-One to the shadowy world of *Night’s Black Agents: Solo Ops*, 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*!

Arc Dream Publishing presents a gorgeous new edition of Robert W. Chambers’ The King in Yellow, a deluxe hardback in delightful faux snakeskin, with a foreword by John Scott Tynes, annotations by our own Kenneth Hite, and stunning full-pate color illustrations by Samuel Araya. Grab it while it lasts in the Arc Dream store.

**Episode 370: Dire, Satanic Chili** Nov 15, 2019
,

We show up in the **Gaming Hut** with our usual punctuality to look at ways of handling player absences.

**Crime Blotter** looks at video games as a platform for money laundering.

Beloved Patreon backer Steve Dempsey invites us to the **Food Hut** for a bowl of chili, or at least some palaver and history concerning this iconic and weirdly controversial dish.

And finally, in **Ask Ken and Robin**, backer Michael Gemar invites us to riff on the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors, a kickstarted temple to art and psychedelic mysticism, complete with bread and breakfast.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

*Fairytale Mash-ups*, the new expansion for Atlas Games’ classic storytelling card game *Once Upon a Time*, is here to bring you classic characters, hilarious juxtapositions and hungry giant sheep.

Only a few days remain in the latest Bundle of Holding deal featuring Pelgrane Press’ *Trail of Cthulhu*. Feast on the brand new Cities of Cthulhu PDF bundle, featuring *Dreamhounds of Paris* and *Cthulhu City*, or tip your friends to the classic original bundle including the core book and so much more.

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*!

Arc Dream Publishing presents a gorgeous new edition of Robert W. Chambers’ The King in Yellow, a deluxe hardback in delightful faux snakeskin, with a foreword by John Scott Tynes, annotations by our own Kenneth Hite, and stunning full-pate color illustrations by Samuel Araya. Grab it while it lasts in the Arc Dream store.

**Episode 369: Lotta Garlic There Though** Nov 08, 2019

In the **Gaming Hut,** Patreon backer Jacques de Villiers wonders how one might use *The Armitage Files* or *Dracula Dossier* in The Fall of Delta Green.

Then Ken convenes a **Cinema Hut** to talk about his discoveries from the Chicago International Film Festival.

He’s been a character in the Kartasverse for ages, but now he’s here in person. In **Ken and/or Robin Talk To Someone Else**, James Damato gives us the scoop on his Ultimate RPG Guides.

Then the **Consulting Occultist** acquaints us with a central figure in the field of magical speculation, Cornelius Agrippa.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

*Fairytale Mash-ups*, the new expansion for Atlas Games’ classic storytelling card game *Once Upon a Time*, is here to bring you classic characters, hilarious juxtapositions and hungry giant sheep.

What’s worse—yet even more pulse-poundingly exciting—than being a burned spy on the run from an international vampire conspiracy? Going it alone, as you do in Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan’s brilliant adaptation of GUMSHOE One-2-One to the shadowy world of *Night’s Black Agents: Solo Ops*, 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*!

Arc Dream Publishing presents a gorgeous new edition of Robert W. Chambers’ The King in Yellow, a deluxe hardback in delightful faux snakeskin, with a foreword by John Scott Tynes, annotations by our own Kenneth Hite, and stunning full-pate color illustrations by Samuel Araya. Grab it while it lasts in the Arc Dream store.

**Episode 368: Good Government and Dry Socks** Nov 01, 2019

The **Gaming Hut** chunks a double-double in the pentacle as Patreon backer Louis Sylvester asks us to riff on regional linguistic magic.

Backer Nikolaj Hansen runs into a **Mythology Hut** shaped like a phone booth, asking Ken why Umberto Eco was wrong about Superman.

Things get hairy in the **Cinema Hut** as we look at structural problems as the bane of werewolf movies.

Finally we brave the cold wilds of the **Eliptony Hut** to satisfy backer Mikey Hamm’s request for a segment on the Dyatlov Pass incident.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

*Welcome to the Island* is the first adventure anthology for the third edition of the *Over the Edge* RPG from Atlas Games. It features five original storylines by award-winning authors, each with hooks for different characters. Launch brand new stories, add intriguing complications to your existing arcs, or create exciting one-shots to bend your players’ heads.

What’s worse—yet even more pulse-poundingly exciting—than being a burned spy on the run from an international vampire conspiracy? Going it alone, as you do in Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan’s brilliant adaptation of GUMSHOE One-2-One to the shadowy world of *Night’s Black Agents: Solo Ops*, 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*!

Arc Dream Publishing presents a gorgeous new edition of Robert W. Chambers’ The King in Yellow, a deluxe hardback in delightful faux snakeskin, with a foreword by John Scott Tynes, annotations by our own Kenneth Hite, and stunning full-pate color illustrations by Samuel Araya. Grab it while it lasts in the Arc Dream store.

**Episode 367: Ungrateful Mopes** Oct 25, 2019

The **Gaming Hut** warms up its blue bolts as we mull the exasperated Dungeon Master trope.

Beloved Patreon backer Corey Pierno asks the **Book Hut** for tips on researching the everyday lives of historical people.

In **Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else**, we chat with Ellie Akers about her online equestrian management game Hunt and Jump, and common horse mistakes in RPGs.

Finally the **Consulting Occultist** heads to balmy British Columbia to tell the tale of yellow-robed cultist Brother XII.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

*Welcome to the Island* is the first adventure anthology for the third edition of the *Over the Edge* RPG from Atlas Games. It features five original storylines by award-winning authors, each with hooks for different characters. Launch brand new stories, add intriguing complications to your existing arcs, or create exciting one-shots to bend your players’ heads.

What’s worse—yet even more pulse-poundingly exciting—than being a burned spy on the run from an international vampire conspiracy? Going it alone, as you do in Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan’s brilliant adaptation of GUMSHOE One-2-One to the shadowy world of *Night’s Black Agents: Solo Ops*, 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*!

Arc Dream Publishing presents a gorgeous new edition of Robert W. Chambers’ The King in Yellow, a deluxe hardback in delightful faux snakeskin, with a foreword by John Scott Tynes, annotations by our own Kenneth Hite, and stunning full-pate color illustrations by Samuel Araya. Grab it while it lasts in the Arc Dream store.

**Episode 366: Ample Provender** Oct 18, 2019

We hunker down in the mud and fear of the **Gaming Hut** to answer beloved Patreon backer Bill Durfy’s request to combine WWI and ghouls.

Impeachment is in the news, the 1867 news that is, as the **History Hut** covers the attempt to remove Andrew Johnson from the White House.

In **How to Write Good** we provide tips on creating blocked desires for your dramatic characters.

Finally the **Food Hut** takes a journey on **Ken’s Time Machine** as we peer into the dire timeline prevented when our hero supplied the yeast strain necessary for the brewing of lager.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

*Welcome to the Island* is the first adventure anthology for the third edition of the *Over the Edge* RPG from Atlas Games. It features five original storylines by award-winning authors, each with hooks for different characters. Launch brand new stories, add intriguing complications to your existing arcs, or create exciting one-shots to bend your players’ heads.

What’s worse—yet even more pulse-poundingly exciting—than being a burned spy on the run from an international vampire conspiracy? Going it alone, as you do in Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan’s brilliant adaptation of GUMSHOE One-2-One to the shadowy world of *Night’s Black Agents: Solo Ops*, 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*!

Arc Dream Publishing presents a gorgeous new edition of Robert W. Chambers’ The King in Yellow, a deluxe hardback in delightful faux snakeskin, with a foreword by John Scott Tynes, annotations by our own Kenneth Hite, and stunning full-pate color illustrations by Samuel Araya. Grab it while it lasts in the Arc Dream store.

**Episode 365: The Grumpocene** Oct 11, 2019

Our forces muster outside the **Gaming Hut** as Patreon backer Robert Dean asks us how to fold mass battles into D&D.

Thanks to a redaction failure the **Tradecraft Hut** discovers ICE’s requisition for a replica Chicago at Fort Benning.

**Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else** gets a 13/10 as we chat with multi-hat wearing designer and gaming honcho Darren Watts, about such projects as *We Rate Dogs!: The Card Game*.

Finally in a very special segment of **Conspiracy Corner** Patreon backer Drew Clowery asks us to mull the responsibility of pop culture treatments of conspiracy culture.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

*Welcome to the Island* is the first adventure anthology for the third edition of the *Over the Edge* RPG from Atlas Games. It features five original storylines by award-winning authors, each with hooks for different characters. Launch brand new stories, add intriguing complications to your existing arcs, or create exciting one-shots to bend your players’ heads.

What’s worse—yet even more pulse-poundingly exciting—than being a burned spy on the run from an international vampire conspiracy? Going it alone, as you do in Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan’s brilliant adaptation of GUMSHOE One-2-One to the shadowy world of *Night’s Black Agents: Solo Ops*, from Pelgrane Press.

Ken’s latest roleplaying game, *The Fall of Delta Green*, is now available in print or PDF or both from Pelgrane Press. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agency hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.

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*!

Arc Dream Publishing presents a gorgeous new edition of Robert W. Chambers’ The King in Yellow, a deluxe hardback in delightful faux snakeskin, with a foreword by John Scott Tynes, annotations by our own Kenneth Hite, and stunning full-pate color illustrations by Samuel Araya. Grab it while it lasts in the Arc Dream store.

**Episode 364: In the World of Awful Meats** Oct 04, 2019

The PCs are being pursued! Run to the **Gaming Hut** to learn how to make this fun!

A sinister substances drips in your direction! Creep into the **Horror Hut** for an examination of ooze horror.

Fill your cart with processed junk as the **Food Hut** contemplates objectively terrible comestibles at least one of us loves.

Get communal, or at least manufacture a fork or two, as we enter the **Eliptony Hut** to make up something fun about 19th century preacher—some might say cult leader—John Humphrey Noyes.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

*Welcome to the Island* is the first adventure anthology for the third edition of the *Over the Edge* RPG from Atlas Games. It features five original storylines by award-winning authors, each with hooks for different characters. Launch brand new stories, add intriguing complications to your existing arcs, or create exciting one-shots to bend your players’ heads.

What’s worse—yet even more pulse-poundingly exciting—than being a burned spy on the run from an international vampire conspiracy? Going it alone, as you do in Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan’s brilliant adaptation of GUMSHOE One-2-One to the shadowy world of *Night’s Black Agents: Solo Ops*, from Pelgrane Press.

Ken’s latest roleplaying game, *The Fall of Delta Green*, is now available in print or PDF or both from Pelgrane Press. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agency hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.

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*!

Arc Dream Publishing presents a gorgeous new edition of Robert W. Chambers’ The King in Yellow, a deluxe hardback in delightful faux snakeskin, with a foreword by John Scott Tynes, annotations by our own Kenneth Hite, and stunning full-pate color illustrations by Samuel Araya. Grab it while it lasts in the Arc Dream store.

**Episode 363: Movie! Movie! Movie!** Sep 27, 2019

Beloved Patreon backer Timothy Daly meets us in the Gaming Hut to ask why D&D remains the most popular roleplaying game.

Speaking of D&D, **Ken and/or Robin Talk To Someone Else**, specifically Jim Zub, about the *Young Adventurers’ Guide* series of D&D kids’ books.

Finally the **Cinema Hut** hosts its annual look back at the top and most gamer-worthy titles Robin saw at the Toronto International Film Festival.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

*Welcome to the Island* is the first adventure anthology for the third edition of the *Over the Edge* RPG from Atlas Games. It features five original storylines by award-winning authors, each with hooks for different characters. Launch brand new stories, add intriguing complications to your existing arcs, or create exciting one-shots to bend your players’ heads.

What’s worse—yet even more pulse-poundingly exciting—than being a burned spy on the run from an international vampire conspiracy? Going it alone, as you do in Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan’s brilliant adaptation of GUMSHOE One-2-One to the shadowy world of *Night’s Black Agents: Solo Ops*, 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*!

Arc Dream Publishing presents a gorgeous new edition of Robert W. Chambers’ The King in Yellow, a deluxe hardback in delightful faux snakeskin, with a foreword by John Scott Tynes, annotations by our own Kenneth Hite, and stunning full-pate color illustrations by Samuel Araya. Grab it while it lasts in the Arc Dream store.

**Episode 362: The Dinosaurs Always Won** Sep 20, 2019

In the Gaming Hut beloved Patreon backer Walter Manbeck asks how to do El from *Stranger Things* as a player character.

Expressionistic shadows flit across the **Cinema Hut** as we take a look at F. W. Murnau’s *Nosferatu*.

Then **Ken and/or Robin Talk To Someone Else**, this time Atlas Games’ Michelle Nephew, who shares her deep experience of games for kids.

Finally we convene near **Ken’s Time Machine** to learn what history looks like when the Gunpowder Plot succeeds.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Does your head buzz with game ideas? Then you need The White Box! This indispensable toolbox gives you not only the meeples, cubes, dice, tokens, and discs you need to prototype your design but the deep expertise of 25 essays ranging from the theoretical to the practical. Brought to you by Atlas Games and Gameplaywright.

Ken’s latest roleplaying game, *The Fall of Delta Green*, is now available in print or PDF or both from Pelgrane Press. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agency hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.

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*!

Arc Dream Publishing presents a gorgeous new edition of Robert W. Chambers’ The King in Yellow, a deluxe hardback in delightful faux snakeskin, with a foreword by John Scott Tynes, annotations by our own Kenneth Hite, and stunning full-pate color illustrations by Samuel Araya. Grab it while it lasts in the Arc Dream store.

**Episode 361: Step Away From the Arras** Sep 13, 2019

We take a closer look at Ken’s new Pelgrane Press book *Hideous Creatures* by way of the **Monster Hut**, which seems to be full of our pals, the Deep Ones.

In **How To Write Good** we talk about foils and how to use them.

The **Culture Hut** hosts a discussion of a painting by none other than Robert W. Chambers, which peskily revealed itself too late to include in Ken’s annotated edition of *The King in Yellow* from our eldritch buds at Arc Dream.

Finally the **Eliptony Hut** goes CanCon as we meet the Ottawa Prophet, Ezekiel Stone Wiggins. Want to pose a question to the show? Get your priority question asking access with your support for the KARTAS Patreon!

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Does your head buzz with game ideas? Then you need The White Box! This indispensable toolbox gives you not only the meeples, cubes, dice, tokens, and discs you need to prototype your design but the deep expertise of 25 essays ranging from the theoretical to the practical. Brought to you by Atlas Games and Gameplaywright. Ken’s latest roleplaying game, *The Fall of Delta Green*, is now available in print or PDF or both from Pelgrane Press. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agency hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.

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*!

Arc Dream Publishing presents a gorgeous new edition of Robert W. Chambers’ The King in Yellow, a deluxe hardback in delightful faux snakeskin, with a foreword by John Scott Tynes, annotations by our own Kenneth Hite, and stunning full-pate color illustrations by Samuel Araya. Grab it while it lasts in the Arc Dream store.

**Episode 360: Sir Gawain “the Rock” Johnson** Sep 06, 2019

This week’s **Gaming Hut** comes to you by telegram as Patreon backer Jay Tea asks us how to research and deploy historical communications technology, oh let’s say, FALL OF DELTA GREEN.

Patreon backer Jeff Kahrs gathers us to in the **Cinema Hut** to ask why there is only one good Arthurian movie.

In **Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else**, we learn what’s new with Magpie Games as its impresario Mark Diaz Truman realizes he has a mid-tier RPG publisher on his hands. **Warning**: contains friendly f-bombs.

Finally the **Consulting Occultist** takes a day trip to the Tower of London to inspect the arcane sigils of imprisoned sorcerer Hew Draper. Want to pose a question to the show? Get your priority question asking access with your support for the KARTAS Patreon!

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Does your head buzz with game ideas? Then you need The White Box! This indispensable toolbox gives you not only the meeples, cubes, dice, tokens, and discs you need to prototype your design but the deep expertise of 25 essays ranging from the theoretical to the practical. Brought to you by Atlas Games and Gameplaywright. Ken’s latest roleplaying game, *The Fall of Delta Green*, is now available in print or PDF or both from Pelgrane Press. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agency hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.

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*!

Arc Dream Publishing presents a gorgeous new edition of Robert W. Chambers’ The King in Yellow, a deluxe hardback in delightful faux snakeskin, with a foreword by John Scott Tynes, annotations by our own Kenneth Hite, and stunning full-pate color illustrations by Samuel Araya. Grab it while it lasts in the Arc Dream store.

**Episode 359: Stith Thompson Entries All Over It** Aug 30, 2019

The **Gaming Hut** shows up with its usual punctuality as Patreon backer Ken Ringwald asks to hear about time as a resource in RPGs.

It’s dark out. He has a full tank of gas. He’s wearing sunglasses. Patreon backer Chris Camfield drives his 1974 Ford Monaco sedan to **Ask Ken and Robin** about the occult significance of the Blues Brothers. And yes, *Ken knows* it was Martinez de Pasqually who sojourned in Saint-Domingue, not the *other* founder of Martinism, Saint-Martin. This was a test of *your* gnosis.

In **Ken and/or Robin Talk To Someone Else**, we chat with collector and industry stalwart Jim Kitchen about the Gen Con auction.

Finally Patreon backer embarks on an unknowing follow-up to last week’s live episode by asking how **Ken’s Time Machine** might preserve Habsburg rule in Spain.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Does your head buzz with game ideas? Then you need The White Box! This indispensable toolbox gives you not only the meeples, cubes, dice, tokens, and discs you need to prototype your design but the deep expertise of 25 essays ranging from the theoretical to the practical. Brought to you by Atlas Games and Gameplaywright.

Ken’s latest roleplaying game, *The Fall of Delta Green*, is now available in print or PDF or both from Pelgrane Press. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agency hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.

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*!

Arc Dream Publishing presents a gorgeous new edition of Robert W. Chambers’ The King in Yellow, a deluxe hardback in delightful faux snakeskin, with a foreword by John Scott Tynes, annotations by our own Kenneth Hite, and stunning full-pate color illustrations by Samuel Araya. Grab it while it lasts in the Arc Dream store.

**Episode 358: Live at Gen Con 2019** Aug 23, 2019

Present your badges for scanning and take a seat as we present our annual episode recorded before a live audience bursting with Patreon backers. Join us as we talk squishy Habsburgs, chron0-suppressed rebellions, donut heresies and the proverbial so much more.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Does your head buzz with game ideas? Then you need The White Box! This indispensable toolbox gives you not only the meeples, cubes, dice, tokens, and discs you need to prototype your design but the deep expertise of 25 essays ranging from the theoretical to the practical. Brought to you by Atlas Games and Gameplaywright.

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Ken’s latest roleplaying game, *The Fall of Delta Green*, is now available in print or PDF or both from Pelgrane Press. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agency hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.

Arc Dream Publishing presents a gorgeous new edition of Robert W. Chambers’ The King in Yellow, a deluxe hardback in delightful faux snakeskin, with a foreword by John Scott Tynes, annotations by our own Kenneth Hite, and stunning full-pate color illustrations by Samuel Araya. Grab it while it lasts in the Arc Dream store.

**Episode 357: Thunder and Filk** Aug 16, 2019

Voices weary and brains bleary, Ken and Robin return from Gen Con 2019 to take their annual look at the state of the industry through the lens of the convention that invented roleplaying.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Be cute! Be cunning! Be fierce! Most of all, be someone backing the Kickstarter for Atlas Games’ Magical Kitties, the roleplaying game of supernatural felines. Suitable for play with young childrens, it pits its four-footed heroes against robots, witches and more!

Ken’s latest roleplaying game, *The Fall of Delta Green*, is now available in print or PDF or both from Pelgrane Press. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agency hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.

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*!

Arc Dream Publishing presents a gorgeous new edition of Robert W. Chambers’ The King in Yellow, a deluxe hardback in delightful faux snakeskin, with a foreword by John Scott Tynes, annotations by our own Kenneth Hite, and stunning full-pate color illustrations by Samuel Araya. Grab it while it lasts in the Arc Dream store.

**Episode 356: Jealous of My Katana** Aug 09, 2019

Our annual Indianapolis hotel room episode begins in the Gaming Hut, where we find ways to be a lone wolf PC the rest of the players won’t hate.
In the **Food Hut** we look at our favorite cooking shows and why they make the list.
Patreon backer Bryan invokes his **Tell Me More** powers to ask how alien symbiotes would work as the main baddies in a Night’s Black Agents series.
Then the **Eliptony Hut** might also be the **Tradecraft** **Hut** as we sift through Australia’s famous Somerton Man case.
Want to pose a question to the show? Get your priority question asking access with your support for the KARTAS Patreon!

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Be cute! Be cunning! Be fierce! Most of all, be someone backing the Kickstarter for Atlas Games’ Magical Kitties, the roleplaying game of supernatural felines. Suitable for play with young children, it pits its four-footed heroes against robots, witches and more!

Ken’s latest roleplaying game, *The Fall of Delta Green*, is now available in print or PDF or both from Pelgrane Press. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agency hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.

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*!

Arc Dream Publishing presents a gorgeous new edition of Robert W. Chambers’ The King in Yellow, a deluxe hardback in delightful faux snakeskin, with a foreword by John Scott Tynes, annotations by our own Kenneth Hite, and stunning full-pate color illustrations by Samuel Araya. Grab it while it lasts in the Arc Dream store.

**Episode 355: If Abstract Expressionism Doesn’t Do the Trick** Aug 02, 2019

In the **Gaming Hut**, we build on some recent articles by Robin to further explore a crossover between the surrealist adventures of *Dreamhounds of Paris* to the psychedelic spycraft of THE FALL OF DELTA GREEN.

Speaking of expanding on recent articles, **How to Write Good** provides tips for keeping your brain in gear for that most challenging of phases, the revision phase.

The **Consulting Occultist** doesn’t usually muss his smoking jacket in the realm of politics, but with Marianne Williamson running for President he has little choice but to roll up his sleeves.

We conclude on a retrospective note with a **Cinema Hut** examination of the first mega cycle of Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, from Iron Man to *Spider-Man: Far From Home*.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Be cute! Be cunning! Be fierce! Most of all, be someone backing the Kickstarter for Atlas Games’ Magical Kitties, the roleplaying game of supernatural felines. Suitable for play with young children, it pits its four-footed heroes against robots, witches and more!

Ken’s latest roleplaying game, *The Fall of Delta Green*, is now available in print or PDF or both from Pelgrane Press. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agency hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.

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*!

Arc Dream Publishing presents a gorgeous new edition of Robert W. Chambers’ The King in Yellow, a deluxe hardback in delightful faux snakeskin, with a foreword by John Scott Tynes, annotations by our own Kenneth Hite, and stunning full-pate color illustrations by Samuel Araya. Grab it while it lasts in the Arc Dream store.

**Episode 354: It Ain’t That Non-Euclidean** Jul 26, 2019

An all request episode kicks off with a co-production between the Gaming Hut teams and our **Tell Me More** benefit for Patreon backers. Backers Mike Marlow and Kevin J. Maroney, seeing the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff capsule review of Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans’ graphic novel DIE, want to hear more. This expands into a wider discussion of how RPGs are depicted in fiction.

Backer Steve Sick beckons us into a mossy southern version of the **History Hut**, asking what we can do with legendary Louisiana governor Huey Long.

In **Ask Ken and Robin**, backer Polydamas points out that fun ruiners are trying to ruin the qi-lin, antlered magical creature of China and beyond. We restore the fun to this most benevolent of chimeras.

Finally, in **Fun With Science**, Drew asks us to examine another weirdo USAF proposal, which had them wondering just how many jet engines it would take to halt the earth’s rotation.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Be cute! Be cunning! Be fierce! Most of all, be someone backing the Kickstarter for Atlas Games’ Magical Kitties, the roleplaying game of supernatural felines. Suitable for play with young childrens, it pits its four-footed heroes against robots, witches and more!

Ken’s latest roleplaying game, *The Fall of Delta Green*, is now available in print or PDF or both from Pelgrane Press. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agency hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.

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*!

Arc Dream Publishing presents a gorgeous new edition of Robert W. Chambers’ The King in Yellow, a deluxe hardback in delightful faux snakeskin, with a foreword by John Scott Tynes, annotations by our own Kenneth Hite, and stunning full-pate color illustrations by Samuel Araya. Grab it while it lasts in the Arc Dream store.

**Episode 353: You Can’t Say Eliptonic Without Tonic** Jul 19, 2019

In the **Gaming Hut** we deconstruct scenarios where the PCs have to wait for certain events to take place.

**How to Write Good** comes to the aid of Patreon backer Dustyn Mincey, who seeks guidance on the naming of people and places.

The **Politics Hut** gets drunk on codeine and loco root with a look at the connection between fringe politics and medicine shows new and old.

Then **Ken’s Time Machine** answers the call of backer Michael Dinos to rectify the disappointments DC Cinematic Universe.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Be cute! Be cunning! Be fierce! Most of all, be someone backing the Kickstarter for Atlas Games’ Magical Kitties, the roleplaying game of supernatural felines. Suitable for play with young children, it pits its four-footed heroes against robots, witches and more!

Ken’s latest roleplaying game, *The Fall of Delta Green*, is now available in print or PDF or both from Pelgrane Press. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agency hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.

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*!

Arc Dream Publishing presents a gorgeous new edition of Robert W. Chambers’ The King in Yellow, a deluxe hardback in delightful faux snakeskin, with a foreword by John Scott Tynes, annotations by our own Kenneth Hite, and stunning full-pate color illustrations by Samuel Araya. Grab it while it lasts in the Arc Dream store.

**Episode 352: We’ve Still Got that Other Folder** Jul 12, 2019

The **Gaming Hut** starts us strong as we look for ways to avoid stock scenario openings.

In the **Culture Hut** we examine the way critical terms lose their meaning when they penetrate popular consciousness.

**Ask Ken and Robin** satisfies Mrs. Obed Marsh’s need to know how to run The Fall of Delta Green with 60s radical PCs.

Then the **Consulting Occultist** calls for order in the court as we hear the confession of a Livonian werewolf.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Be cute! Be cunning! Be fierce! Most of all, be someone backing the Kickstarter for Atlas Games’ Magical Kitties, the roleplaying game of supernatural felines. Suitable for play with young children, it pits its four-footed heroes against robots, witches and more!

Ken’s latest roleplaying game, *The Fall of Delta Green*, is now available in print or PDF or both from Pelgrane Press. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agency hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.

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*!

Arc Dream Publishing presents a gorgeous new edition of Robert W. Chambers’ The King in Yellow, a deluxe hardback in delightful faux snakeskin, with a foreword by John Scott Tynes, annotations by our own Kenneth Hite, and stunning full-pate color illustrations by Samuel Araya. Grab it while it lasts in the Arc Dream store.

**Episode 351: The Molticore** Jul 05, 2019

In the **Gaming Hut** Patreon backer(s) The Armchair Adventurers ask if we agree with Greg Stafford’s prohibition on invisiblity spells in his games.

Was every noteworthy English writer also a spy? In the Tradecraft Hut Daniel Defoe puts his hand up and adds himself to the list of examples.

In the **Monster Hut** we decide if we’re on Team Scorpion Tail or Team Quill Shooter as we look at our mythical portmanteau pal, the manticore.

Then we hop in **Ken’s Time Machine** to satisfy the curiosity of Patreon backer Gene Ha, who wants to know what dread future our hero avoided by having Alfonso XI of Castile knighted by an automaton of St. James.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Be cute! Be cunning! Be fierce! Most of all, be someone backing the Kickstarter for Atlas Games’ Magical Kitties, the roleplaying game of supernatural felines. Suitable for play with young children, it pits its four-footed heroes against robots, witches and more!

Ken’s latest roleplaying game, *The Fall of Delta Green*, is now available in print or PDF or both from Pelgrane Press. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agency hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.

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*!

Arc Dream Publishing presents a gorgeous new edition of Robert W. Chambers’ The King in Yellow, a deluxe hardback in delightful faux snakeskin, with a foreword by John Scott Tynes, annotations by our own Kenneth Hite, and stunning full-pate color illustrations by Samuel Araya. Grab it while it lasts in the Arc Dream store.

**Episode 350: 7th Anniversary LIGHTNING ROUND!!!** Jun 28, 2019
Like much of our content, it’s hard to believe. Unlike much of it, it’s true. Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff has reached its milestone 350th episode. Yes, we’ve been laying down the skinny on aliens, phantom cats, conspiracies and oh yes, the exciting world of tabletop roleplaying games for a whole seven years. Longtimers know what that means: LIGHTNING ROUND!!! Enabled by our beloved cast of Patreon backers, it’s time for rapid fire question answering, with topics ranging from unloved Old Ones and introducing historical important GMCs to player homework and the dread influence of the Yellow King. Want to pose a question to the show? Get your priority question asking access with your support for the KARTAS Patreon! Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic. *Over the Edge*, the twisted game of counter-culture conspiracy, returns in a completely remagined edition by its original creator, Jonathan Tweet. Grab it wherever fine Atlas Games are sold, on June 1st.
Ken’s latest roleplaying game, *The Fall of Delta Green*, is now available in print or PDF or both from Pelgrane Press. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agency hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.
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*!
Arc Dream Publishing presents a gorgeous new edition of Robert W. Chambers’ The King in Yellow, a deluxe hardback in delightful faux snakeskin, with a foreword by John Scott Tynes, annotations by our own Kenneth Hite, and stunning full-pate color illustrations by Samuel Araya. Grab it while it lasts in the Arc Dream store.

**Episode 349: Bad Odds in a Balloon** Jun 21, 2019
In the **Gaming Hut** Patreon backer Ethan Schoonover asks us to explain the bespoke game terms we use, from F20 to GMC. Mikko Airaksinen puts a chill in the **History Hut** with his request for the esoteric scoop behind the Swedish North Pole Expedition of 1897. Our epic spate of **Ken and Robin Recycle Audio** excerpts from Carcosa Con concludes with a look at Robin’s build-out of the Chambers mythos into *The Yellow King Roleplaying Game*. Finally backer Chris Kalley, seconded by Jay Tea, asks the **Consulting Occultist** to blow the lid off magical Buenos Aires. Want to pose a question to the show? Get your priority question asking access with your support for the KARTAS Patreon! Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.
*Over the Edge*, the twisted game of counter-culture conspiracy, returns in a completely remagined edition by its original creator, Jonathan Tweet. Grab it wherever fine Atlas Games are sold, on June 1st.
Ken’s latest roleplaying game, *The Fall of Delta Green*, is now available in print or PDF or both from Pelgrane Press. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agency hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.
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*!
Arc Dream Publishing presents a gorgeous new edition of Robert W. Chambers’ The King in Yellow, a deluxe hardback in delightful faux snakeskin, with a foreword by John Scott Tynes, annotations by our own Kenneth Hite, and stunning full-pate color illustrations by Samuel Araya. Grab it while it lasts in the Arc Dream store.

**Episode 348: Marsupial Valley** Jun 14, 2019

The **Gaming Hut** manifests somewhere between Balla Balla and Yagga Yagga as Patreon backer Bill Cohen asks us how to lure RPG characters to adventure in Australia.

The Crime Blotter profiles Dai Cathay, the young Number One of the mid-sixties Saigon underworld.

**Ken and Robin Recycle Audio** with a panel excerpt from Carcosa Con covering post-Lovecraftian additions to the King in Yellow mythos.

The **Eliptony Hut** looks back on the career of paradigmatic nuts-and-bolts UFOlogist Stanton Friedman, who passed away this May.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

*Over the Edge*, the twisted game of counter-culture conspiracy, returns in a completely remagined edition by its original creator, Jonathan Tweet. Grab it wherever fine Atlas Games are sold, on June 1st.

Ken’s latest roleplaying game, *The Fall of Delta Green*, is now available in print or PDF or both from Pelgrane Press. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agency hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.

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*!

Arc Dream Publishing presents a gorgeous new edition of Robert W. Chambers’ The King in Yellow, a deluxe hardback in delightful faux snakeskin, with a foreword by John Scott Tynes, annotations by our own Kenneth Hite, and stunning full-pate color illustrations by Samuel Araya. Grab it while it lasts in the Arc Dream store.

**Episode 347: We’ve Warren Commissioned Your Witch Problem** Jun 07, 2019

Patreon backer Ross Ireland pulls a fast one on us in the **Gaming Hut**, asking how to pitch campaigns with switcheroo premises to players.

Via the **Tell Me More** Feature of Ken and Robin Consume Media, backer Kevin Maroney opens the **Mythology Hut** for more on Ronald Hutton’s scholarly survey, *The Witch*.

**Ken and Robin Recycle Audio** continues our panel replay from Carcosa Con, this week looking at the process by which Lovecraft and his successors turned Robert W. Chambers’ King in Yellow tales into a mythos.

Then, per multiple **Tell Me More** Requests, we bathe in the glow of the **Television Hut** as Robin looks for broader lessons in Game of Thrones’ final season.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

*Over the Edge*, the twisted game of counter-culture conspiracy, returns in a completely remagined edition by its original creator, Jonathan Tweet. Grab it wherever fine Atlas Games are sold, on June 1st.

Ken’s latest roleplaying game, *The Fall of Delta Green*, is now available in print or PDF or both from Pelgrane Press. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agency hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.

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*!

Arc Dream Publishing presents a gorgeous new edition of Robert W. Chambers’ The King in Yellow, a deluxe hardback in delightful faux snakeskin, with a foreword by John Scott Tynes, annotations by our own Kenneth Hite, and stunning full-pate color illustrations by Samuel Araya. Grab it while it lasts in the Arc Dream store.

**Episode 346: Everybody’s Limbs are Still On** May 31, 2019

In the Gaming Hut, Patreon backer Hyperlexic asks Robin to elucidate the core pleasures of RuneQuest.

The **History Hut** finds us obeying the commands of backer Antti Elomaa to get to the bottom of Britain’s 1939 pet massacre.

**Ken and Robin Recycle Audio** with segments from our Robert W. Chambers and King in Yellow Mythos panels at Carcosa Con.

Finally in the **Eliptony Hut** we look at the bio-energetic theories of renegade Russian crank scientist Lev Gumilyov.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

*Over the Edge*, the twisted game of counter-culture conspiracy, returns in a completely remagined edition by its original creator, Jonathan Tweet. Grab it wherever fine Atlas Games are sold, on June 1st.

Ken’s latest roleplaying game, *The Fall of Delta Green*, is now available in print or PDF or both from Pelgrane Press. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agency hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.

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*!

Arc Dream Publishing presents a gorgeous new edition of Robert W. Chambers’ The King in Yellow, a deluxe hardback in delightful faux snakeskin, with a foreword by John Scott Tynes, annotations by our own Kenneth Hite, and stunning full-pate color illustrations by Samuel Araya. Grab it while it lasts in the Arc Dream store.

**Episode 345: Go Talk to Some Other Trees** May 24, 2019

We enter the **Gaming Hut** pursued by powerful patrons as backer Remi Permann seeks help importing 13th Age icons to other games.

In **Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else**, Ken chats with Nathan Paoletta, designer of such games *The World Wide Wrestling RPG*, *Annalise*, and his latest, the Poe-inspired Imp of the Perverse, now on preorder.

Then **Ken and Robin Recycle Audio** with the second part of our Robert W. Chambers panel from Carcosa Con, this time focusing on his story “The Repairer of Reputations.”

Finally we put **Ken’s Time Machine** into service in an attempt to prevent Justinian from closing the Neoplatonic Academy.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

*Over the Edge*, the twisted game of counter-culture conspiracy, returns in a completely remagined edition by its original creator, Jonathan Tweet. Grab it wherever fine Atlas Games are sold, on June 1st.

Ken’s latest roleplaying game, *The Fall of Delta Green*, is now available in print or PDF or both from Pelgrane Press. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agency hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.

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*!

Arc Dream Publishing presents a gorgeous new edition of Robert W. Chambers’ The King in Yellow, a deluxe hardback in delightful faux snakeskin, with a foreword by John Scott Tynes, annotations by our own Kenneth Hite, and stunning full-pate color illustrations by Samuel Araya. Grab it while it lasts in the Arc Dream store.

**Episode 344: Moses Does a Heel Turn** May 17, 2019

The **Gaming Hut** looks at the task of assembling a game’s skill list.

In the Cinema Hut Patreon backer Andrew Miller observes the North American launch of the Criterion Channel by asking for a 101 on its treasures.

**Ken and Robin Recycle Audio** presents the first part of our Robert W. Chambers panel from Carcosa Con, dealing with the writer and his influences.

At the behest of Patreon backer Rafael Pabst, we open the **Book Hut** to look at printer Jacob Ilive and his Blibical forgery, the Book of Jasher, as influenced by Astro-Theology.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Atlas Games’ Godsforge lets you get your wizard battle on. Roll, reroll, and combine dice to summon creations and cast spells as you struggle to be the last sorcerer standing…or at least leave a good-looking, conical-hatted corpse.

Ken’s latest roleplaying game, *The Fall of Delta Green*, is now available in print or PDF or both from Pelgrane Press. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agency hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.

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*!

Arc Dream Publishing presents a gorgeous new edition of Robert W. Chambers’ The King in Yellow, a deluxe hardback in delightful faux snakeskin, with a foreword by John Scott Tynes, annotations by our own Kenneth Hite, and stunning full-pate color illustrations by Samuel Araya. Grab it while it lasts in the Arc Dream store.

**Episode 343: I’m a Baron and Classy** May 10, 2019

Patreon backer Jacob Ansari collars us in the **Gaming Hut** to ask about running alternate history games.

The Tradecraft Hut looks at the February raid on Madrid’s North Korean embassy by the Free Joseon organization.

In **Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else** we chat with Mark Morrison, stalwart Call of Cthulhu contributor and the mind behind Campaign Coins, wresting from him the secrets of convention GMing. *Warning, parents*: Includes a few swears.

Then we head to the **History Hut** for a look at Baron Franz Nopcsa, openly gay aristocrat, spy, geologist, paleontologist and aspiring King of Albania.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Atlas Games’ Godsforge lets you get your wizard battle on. Roll, reroll, and combine dice to summon creations and cast spells as you struggle to be the last sorcerer standing…or at least leave a good-looking, conical-hatted corpse.

Ken’s latest roleplaying game, *The Fall of Delta Green*, is now available in print or PDF or both from Pelgrane Press. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agency hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.

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*!

Arc Dream Publishing presents a gorgeous new edition of Robert W. Chambers’ The King in Yellow, a deluxe hardback in delightful faux snakeskin, with a foreword by John Scott Tynes, annotations by our own Kenneth Hite, and stunning full-pate color illustrations by Samuel Araya. Grab it while it lasts in the Arc Dream store.

**Episode 342: Traduced By Raisins** May 03, 2019

In the **Gaming Hut** Patreon backer Jake asks us how to portray a character modeled on Janet Armstrong in a NASA adventure series.

We dust off the long-disused **Politics Hut** so that Ken can give us an update on Chicago politics.

The **Food Hut** looks at Canada’s iconic desserts, as selected for a series of stamps from Canada Post, including a look at the resulting Nanaimo Bar controversy.

The **Eliptony Hut** provides refuge to Puerto Rico’s latest chupacabra variant, the perhaps humanoid, perhaps animalistic, perhaps winged Gárgola de Barceloneta.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Atlas Games’ Godsforge lets you get your wizard battle on. Roll, reroll, and combine dice to summon creations and cast spells as you struggle to be the last sorcerer standing…or at least leave a good-looking, conical-hatted corpse.

<p

Ken’s latest roleplaying game, *The Fall of Delta Green*, is now available in print or PDF or both from Pelgrane Press. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agency hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.

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*!

Arc Dream Publishing presents a gorgeous new edition of Robert W. Chambers’ The King in Yellow, a deluxe hardback in delightful faux snakeskin, with a foreword by John Scott Tynes, annotations by our own Kenneth Hite, and stunning full-pate color illustrations by Samuel Araya. Grab it while it lasts in the Arc Dream store.

</p

**Episode 341: Trouser Leg of the Mythos** Apr 26, 2019

We lit the fires of the **Gaming Hut** the old-fashioned way before answering a question from Patreon backer Jason Thompson on interesting players in low-tech settings.

In the **Cinema Hut** we revisit the subject of the rewatch, looking at films that change or defy expectations on subsequent viewings.

Then **Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone else**, as we both chat with Chaosium’s Lynne Hardy about line development and the upcoming Call of Cthulhu projects on her docket.

Finally, at the behest of backer Andrea Colletta, we pop into the parlor of the **Consulting Occultist** to whip up the new sorcerous discipline of etymomancy.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Atlas Games’ *Gloom* gets chillier and killier as Gloom of Thrones breaches the wall and rampages across Kickstarter until April 29th. Doom! Wilderness travel! More doom! At least in Gloom version you know you’ll get an ending!

Ken’s latest roleplaying game, *The Fall of Delta Green*, is now available in print or PDF or both from Pelgrane Press. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agency hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.

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*!

Arc Dream Publishing presents a gorgeous new edition of Robert W. Chambers’ The King in Yellow, a deluxe hardback in delightful faux snakeskin, with a foreword by John Scott Tynes, annotations by our own Kenneth Hite, and stunning full-pate color illustrations by Samuel Araya. Grab it while it lasts in the Arc Dream store.

**Episode 340: Jar Cats** Apr 19, 2019

In another imperious edition of **That Thing I Always Say**, Robin says, “Envision this in play.”

**Ask Ken and Robin** finds Patreon backer Kevin Roy seeking the scoop on remote control inventor John Hays Hammond Jr.

Backer Martijn Waegemakers meets us in the **Mythology Hut** to ponder the diminishing returns of Robin Hood adaptations.

Backer Dan O’Hanlon summons **Ken’s Time Machine** to peer into the reality where ecstasy replaced LSD as the iconic sixties drug.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Atlas Games’ *Gloom* gets chillier and killier as Gloom of Thrones breaches the wall and rampages across Kickstarter until April 29th. Doom! Wilderness travel! More doom! At least in Gloom version you know you’ll get an ending!

Ken’s latest roleplaying game, *The Fall of Delta Green*, is now available in print or PDF or both from Pelgrane Press. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agency hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.

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*!

Arc Dream Publishing presents a gorgeous new edition of Robert W. Chambers’ The King in Yellow, a deluxe hardback in delightful faux snakeskin, with a foreword by John Scott Tynes, annotations by our own Kenneth Hite, and stunning full-pate color illustrations by Samuel Araya. Grab it while it lasts in the Arc Dream store.

**Episode 339: A Lot of Bathories** Apr 12, 2019

Last week you heard us from Carcosa Con in Poland. This time we’re back and ready to share out experience of the show and the local RPG scene in the **Gaming Hut**.

Then, in **Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else**, we chat with one of our estimable hosts, Daria Pilarczyk. As project manager of Black Monk Games she has much knowledge to drop on the life of a game company that licenses and translates such titles as *Munchkin* and *Call of Cthulhu*.

We stuck around for a few days after the show to explore Wroclaw and Krakow. **Travel Advisory** finds us delving into a medieval salt mine and checking out a castle that has now fully recovered from a Renaissance-era alchemy accident.

In the spirit of our trip we conclude with the History Hut, profiling veteran commander of multiple revolutions Tadeusz Kosciuszko.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Atlas Games’ *Gloom* gets chillier and killier as Gloom of Thrones breaches the wall and rampages across Kickstarter until April 29th. Doom! Wilderness travel! More doom! At least in Gloom version you know you’ll get an ending!

Ken’s latest roleplaying game, *The Fall of Delta Green*, is now available in print or PDF or both from Pelgrane Press. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agency hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.

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*!

Cthulhu. Hastur. Who’s the Great Old One, and who’s the GREATEST Old One? Time to find out. It’s WRESTLENOMICON, the card game from veterans of Magic: The Gathering, Dungeons & Dragons, Epic Spell Wars, and Delta Green, now on Kickstarter!

**Episode 338: Live From CarcosaCon** Apr 05, 2019

Recorded in front of a live audience, this episode emanates from the 14th century confines of Czocha Castle, on Lake Lesnia, in southwestern Poland, courtesy of our lovely hosts at CarcosaCon.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

A precious few Deluxe copies of Cogs and Commissars, clever card game of are available directly from Atlas Games. The “Most-Equal ‘Apparatchik’ Edition” features wooden screen-printed Citizen tokens, neoprene mats for each faction leader, and a foil-stamped, spot-gloss, magnetic-closure box. Seize the means of collectibility!

Ken’s latest roleplaying game, *The Fall of Delta Green*, is now available in print or PDF or both from Pelgrane Press. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agency hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.

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*!

Cthulhu. Hastur. Who’s the Great Old One, and who’s the GREATEST Old One? Time to find out. It’s WRESTLENOMICON, the card game from veterans of Magic: The Gathering, Dungeons & Dragons, Epic Spell Wars, and Delta Green, now on Kickstarter!

**Episode 337: Bound by a Wussier Reptile** Mar 29, 2019

An all request episode kicks off in the **Gaming Hut**, where Patreon backer Michael Fox asks about picking exactly the right Mythos creature for your scenario.

Backer Jacob Boersma meets us in the **Food Hut** to ask what the heck might be behind a recent Dutch pistachio heist.

In **Ask Ken and Robin**, patron Michael Dinos seeks our help getting in Jose Luis Borges’ Library of Babel.

And in the **Conspiracy Corner**, backer James Griffin asks us to examine the some fanciful theorizing around the idea that Douglas MacArthur was a Japanese agent.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

A precious few Deluxe copies of Cogs and Commissars, clever card game of are available directly from Atlas Games. The “Most-Equal ‘Apparatchik’ Edition” features wooden screen-printed Citizen tokens, neoprene mats for each faction leader, and a foil-stamped, spot-gloss, magnetic-closure box. Seize the means of collectibility!

Ken’s latest roleplaying game, *The Fall of Delta Green*, is now available in print or PDF or both from Pelgrane Press. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agency hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.

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*!

Cthulhu. Hastur. Who’s the Great Old One, and who’s the GREATEST Old One? Time to find out. It’s WRESTLENOMICON, the card game from veterans of Magic: The Gathering, Dungeons & Dragons, Epic Spell Wars, and Delta Green, now on Kickstarter!

**Episode 336: The Trees Need Nutrients** Mar 22, 2019

The **Gaming Hut** stages a baccarat game with the devil as Patreon backer Eain Bankins asks for help introducing the main villain without devolving into an immediate and disappointing fight.

In the **Horror Hut** we stir the pot on the witch and/or Satanist sub-genre.

Then Ken has another stack of tomes to lovingly riffle through as he adds the fruits of this year’s Bay Area shopping expedition to **Ken’s Bookshelf**.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

A precious few Deluxe copies of Cogs and Commissars, clever card game of are available directly from Atlas Games. The “Most-Equal ‘Apparatchik’ Edition” features wooden screen-printed Citizen tokens, neoprene mats for each faction leader, and a foil-stamped, spot-gloss, magnetic-closure box. Seize the means of collectibility!

Ken’s latest roleplaying game, *The Fall of Delta Green*, is now available in print or PDF or both from Pelgrane Press. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agency hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.

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*, *Western*, and *Freeway Warrior*!

Cthulhu. Hastur. Who’s the Great Old One, and who’s the GREATEST Old One? Time to find out. It’s WRESTLENOMICON, the card game from veterans of Magic: The Gathering, Dungeons & Dragons, Epic Spell Wars, and Delta Green, now on Kickstarter!

**Episode 335: Any Smart Gundamologist** Mar 15, 2019

The **Gaming Hut** delves into a design issue at the behest of Patreon backer Mikey Hamm, who wants to know how to balance player options against the archetypal experience of a game.

We keep mentioning him, and now backer Sam Harris demands an entire **Book Hut** segment on Canadian literary critic Northrop Frye.

Get ready for a tough fight as we inaugurate the brand new **Monster Hut** with a look at the bugbear.

Finally backer Chris Kalley visits the **Consulting Occultist** to learn about military theorist, Thelemite and fascist J. F. C. Fuller.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

A precious few Deluxe copies of Cogs and Commissars, clever card game of are available directly from Atlas Games. The “Most-Equal ‘Apparatchik’ Edition” features wooden screen-printed Citizen tokens, neoprene mats for each faction leader, and a foil-stamped, spot-gloss, magnetic-closure box. Seize the means of collectibility!

Ken’s latest roleplaying game, *The Fall of Delta Green*, is now available in print or PDF or both from Pelgrane Press. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agency hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.

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*, *Western*, and *Freeway Warrior*!

Cthulhu. Hastur. Who’s the Great Old One, and who’s the GREATEST Old One? Time to find out. It’s WRESTLENOMICON, the card game from veterans of Magic: The Gathering, Dungeons & Dragons, Epic Spell Wars, and Delta Green, now on Kickstarter!

**Episode 334: The Number One Mistake of Smart People** Mar 08, 2019

Protect the precious store of dwindling oxygen in the **Gaming Hut** as we riff a crew of GMCs for an installation horror scenario.

Journey into the **History Hut** to hear us satisfy Martin Rundkvist’s Patreon backer desire to hear about writer/explorer Sir Richard Francis Burton and his wife and literary steward, Isabel.

Join us in the Cinema Hut as we contemplate the pleasures and mysteries of the rewatch.

Then hop into **Ken’s Time Machine** as he tells us about the Burr-Clinton-Brant Upper Canada coup that never was.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

A precious few Deluxe copies of Cogs and Commissars, clever card game of are available directly from Atlas Games. The “Most-Equal ‘Apparatchik’ Edition” features wooden screen-printed Citizen tokens, neoprene mats for each faction leader, and a foil-stamped, spot-gloss, magnetic-closure box. Seize the means of collectibility!

Ken’s latest roleplaying game, *The Fall of Delta Green*, is now available in print or PDF or both from Pelgrane Press. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agency hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.

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*, *Western*, and *Freeway Warrior*!

Just in time to save the world, though perhaps not your team of hardened covert agents, from the Mythos, the Delta Green Handlers Guide from Arc Dream Publishing is now in print and either at or headed to a game store near you. The slipcase print edition includes both the *Handlers’ Guide* and *Agents’ Handbook*, fitting snugly into your go bag along with your extra passports and list of weapons caches.

**Episode 333: Our Earth and Cincinnati** Mar 01, 2019

Time to check your dermal surfaces for sigils as the **Gaming Hut** takes a look at spell side effects.

The **Tradecraft Hut** goes contemporary and shadowy to examine private spy agencies, including Black Cube and Psy Group.

**Ask Ken and Robin** responds to the request of Patreon backer Drew Eicholz for contemporary weirdness in Kansas that does not rely on stock monsters.

The **Eliptony Hut** remains in the midwest to tell backers Dicegeeks what lurks in the Cincinnati Subway, and how to kill it.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

A precious few Deluxe copies of Cogs and Commissars, clever card game of are available directly from Atlas Games. The “Most-Equal ‘Apparatchik’ Edition” features wooden screen-printed Citizen tokens, neoprene mats for each faction leader, and a foil-stamped, spot-gloss, magnetic-closure box. Seize the means of collectibility!

Ken’s latest roleplaying game, *The Fall of Delta Green*, is now available in print or PDF or both from Pelgrane Press. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agency hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.

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*, *Western*, and *Freeway Warrior*!

Just in time to save the world, though perhaps not your team of hardened covert agents, from the Mythos, the Delta Green Handlers Guide from Arc Dream Publishing is now in print and either at or headed to a game store near you. The slipcase print edition includes both the *Handlers’ Guide* and *Agents’ Handbook*, fitting snugly into your go bag along with your extra passports and list of weapons caches.

**Ken and Robin Consume Media: Mumbai Rap Dreams and Classic Fu Comedy** Feb 26, 2019

Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies, TV seasons and more we cram into our hyper-analytical sensoriums. Join the Patreon to help pick the items we’ll talk about in greater depth on a little podcast segment we like to call Tell Me More.

Recommended

Dirty Ho (Film, HK, Chia-Liang Liu, 1979) Bumpkinish thief (Wong Yue) reluctantly submits to the reforming efforts of an incognito martial artist (Gordon Liu), whose pursuing enemies must for court intrigue reasons also disguise their fighting mastery whenever they try to kill him. Comedy martial arts choreography requires not just the athleticism, precision and inventiveness of the regular kind; it has to be funny, too, and this gives us the form at its apex. Be aware that Hong Kong comedy of this period is not about sensitivity culture.—RDL

Gully Boy (Film, India, Zoya Akhtar, 2019) In Mumbai’s Dharavi slum, emo poet Murad (Ranveer Singh) finds inspiration and a dream in rap. Hitting all the standard “rise of the rocker” beats (Murad is roughly based on Mumbai rapper Naezy), Akhtar works visual and social contrasts in Mumbai to great advantage. She superbly leverages Singh’s star power, and that of Alia Bhatt as Singh’s equally driven girlfriend; Siddhant Chaturvedi provides strength as his rap mentor. If the story stakes are mostly old-Mumbai (or old-Hollywood) low, the acting and directing are new-Mumbai strong. –KH

Hereditary (Film, US, Ari Aster, 2018) Harried artist (Toni Collette) grapples with her lack of grief on the death of her toxic mother, and then crushing grief when another disaster strikes her family, and supernatural manifestations close in. Slow burn horror in which the archetypal characters are elevated by shaded writing and performances from Collette, Gabriel Byrne (as the skeptical husband) and Ann Dowd (as the conveniently helpful new confidant.)—RDL

Of Fathers and Sons (Film, Germany, Tala Derki, 2018) Verite documentary goes inside the daily life of a starry-eyed member of a Syrian al-Qaida affiliate as he looks forward to the apocalypse, defuses land mines, and prepares his eight young sons to become jihadi soldiers. Stunning for the degree of access afforded the filmmaker, this reveals not so much the banality of evil as a casual, workaday devotion to an ideology of violence and death.—RDL

Good

All About Ah-Long (Film, HK, Johnnie To, 1989) The lives of a loutish construction worker (Chow Yun-Fat) and his irrepressible 10-year-old son hit a curve when the boy’s mother (Sylvia Chang), now a successful commercial producer, comes back into the picture. Come to see To in the middle of his evolution into his mature style, stay for the magnetism of the leads and the rip-your-heart-out-and-then-stomp-on-it-and-shoot-it-a-couple-of-times-for-good-measure melodrama.—RDL

The Case of Charles Dexter Ward (Audio drama, Julian Simpson, BBC, 2018) Adapting the Pinnacle Lovecraft novel as a faux true-crime podcast investigating a modern locked-room murder deserves points for audacity and high concept. Its execution, however, trades Lovecraft’s clear mystery concept and historical grounding for a more chaotic (in all senses) postmodern feel, without particularly enlivening the characters. –KH

God of War (Film, China, Gordon Chan, 2017) Uxorious general (Vincent Zhao) overcomes limp support from the Ming Court to battle Japanese-backed pirates. Rousingly mounted war/action epic focuses on weapons and tactics, occasionally handwaving in the direction of a character arc for its virtuous hero.—RDL

Okay

The Trial and Execution of the Traitor George Washington (Fiction, Charles Rosenberg, 2018) The hated British kidnap General Washington in 1780 and put him on trial in the Old Bailey in a gamble to end the stalemated war. Real-life lawyer Rosenberg should probably have amplified the legal thriller side of this earnest but flatly told story, which strays too close to implausibility without the necessary buttress of bafflegab. –KH

**Episode 332: Unencumbered By Space Cats** Feb 22, 2019

In the **Gaming Hut** we contemplate lunar havoc as Patreon backer Ray Slakinski asks us to turn Project A119 into a *Fall of Delta Green* scenario.

We walk the red carpet into the **Cinema Hut** as we indulge in our traditional pre-Oscar look back at our favorite films from the previous year.

Then backer Gerald Sears asks the **Consulting Occultist** to fill a game set in late 20s New York City with historical esoteric weirdness.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

A precious few Deluxe copies of Cogs and Commissars, clever card game of are available directly from Atlas Games. The “Most-Equal ‘Apparatchik’ Edition” features wooden screen-printed Citizen tokens, neoprene mats for each faction leader, and a foil-stamped, spot-gloss, magnetic-closure box. Seize the means of collectibility!

Ken’s latest roleplaying game, *The Fall of Delta Green*, is now available in print or PDF or both from Pelgrane Press. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agency hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.

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*!

Just in time to save the world, though perhaps not your team of hardened covert agents, from the Mythos, the Delta Green Handlers Guide from Arc Dream Publishing is now in print and either at or headed to a game store near you. The slipcase print edition includes both the *Handlers’ Guide* and *Agents’ Handbook*, fitting snugly into your go bag along with your extra passports and list of weapons caches.

**Episode 331: Tomb of the Kardashians** Feb 15, 2019

In the **Gaming Hut** we imagine what will happen when LARPs meet e-sports. Call our people, TV industry.

Patreon backer Jason Thompson summons us to the **Cartography Hut** to express disbelief in the non-existence of maps in the Hellenistic era.

In **How to Write Good** we dig deep into word clusters and ways to eliminate them.

Then we slip into the **Eliptony Hut** as backer Stephen Brandon demands rampant speculation on the case of the disappearing airman.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

A precious few Deluxe copies of Cogs and Commissars, clever card game of are available directly from Atlas Games. The “Most-Equal ‘Apparatchik’ Edition” features wooden screen-printed Citizen tokens, neoprene mats for each faction leader, and a foil-stamped, spot-gloss, magnetic-closure box. Seize the means of collectibility!

Ken’s latest roleplaying game, *The Fall of Delta Green*, is now available in print or PDF or both from Pelgrane Press. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agency hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.

Grab the translated riches of FENIX magazine in a special bundle deal from our friends at Askfageln, over at Indie Press Revolution. Score metric oodles of Ken Hite gaming goodness, a cornucopia of articles, complete games, plus the cartoon antics of Bernard the Barbarian. Warning: in English, not in Swedish. In English, not Swedish.

Just in time to save the world, though perhaps not your team of hardened covert agents, from the Mythos, the Delta Green Handlers Guide from Arc Dream Publishing is now in print and either at or headed to a game store near you. The slipcase print edition includes both the *Handlers’ Guide* and *Agents’ Handbook*, fitting snugly into your go bag along with your extra passports and list of weapons caches.

**Episode 330: The Crocodiles are Strictly Notional** Feb 08, 2019

We find a new disruptive way to travel to the **Gaming Hut** as we consider scenarios inspired by scooter charger culture.

In the Conspiracy Corner we ask if journalists and police could do with some basic conspirology literacy training.

Patreon backer Jeff Cannell summons us to the **Horror Hut** to ask if vampires who have turned into mist can be seen in mirrors.

Then we send **Ken’s Time Machine** to see what would happen if Aldous Huxley had succeeded in funding the psychedelic research organization he and a pair of medical scientists tried to launch in the 1950s.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

A precious few Deluxe copies of Cogs and Commissars, clever card game of are available directly from Atlas Games. The “Most-Equal ‘Apparatchik’ Edition” features wooden screen-printed Citizen tokens, neoprene mats for each faction leader, and a foil-stamped, spot-gloss, magnetic-closure box. Seize the means of collectibility!

Ken’s latest roleplaying game, *The Fall of Delta Green*, is now available in print or PDF or both from Pelgrane Press. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agency hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.

Grab the translated riches of FENIX magazine in a special bundle deal from our friends at Askfageln, over at Indie Press Revolution. Score metric oodles of Ken Hite gaming goodness, a cornucopia of articles, complete games, plus the cartoon antics of Bernard the Barbarian. Warning: in English, not in Swedish. In English, not Swedish.

Just in time to save the world, though perhaps not your team of hardened covert agents, from the Mythos, the Delta Green Handlers Guide from Arc Dream Publishing is now in print and either at or headed to a game store near you. The slipcase print edition includes both the *Handlers’ Guide* and *Agents’ Handbook*, fitting snugly into your go bag along with your extra passports and list of weapons caches.

**Episode 329: The Looming Party** Feb 01, 2019

The **Gaming Hut** goes retro goth cartoony as Patreon backer Arthur invites us to envision an Edward Gorey RPG.

In the **Crime Blotter** we look at Los Caballeros Templarios, the drug cartel that borrows the branding of the Knights Templar.

The **Cinema Hut** finds us mulling historical inaccuracy in movies. When do we roll with it, and when do we bust out the well actuallys?

Finally, at the behest of backer Wayne Rossi, we turn to the Consulting Occultist for the mystical skinny on Carlos Castaneda.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Wish to introduce innocent children to the horror of the Mythos, while remaining on budget? Atlas Games is here to affordably twist young minds with a buy two, get one free deal on Ken’s Mini Mythos line of childrens’ book parodies: *Where the Deep Ones Are, Goodnight Azathoth, Cliffourd the Big Red God*, and Antarctic Express.

Ken’s latest roleplaying game, *The Fall of Delta Green*, is now available in print or PDF or both from Pelgrane Press. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agency hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.

Grab the translated riches of FENIX magazine in a special bundle deal from our friends at Askfageln, over at Indie Press Revolution. Score metric oodles of Ken Hite gaming goodness, a cornucopia of articles, complete games, plus the cartoon antics of Bernard the Barbarian. Warning: in English, not in Swedish. In English, not Swedish.

Just in time to save the world, though perhaps not your team of hardened covert agents, from the Mythos, the Delta Green Handlers Guide from Arc Dream Publishing is now in print and either at or headed to a game store near you. The slipcase print edition includes both the *Handlers’ Guide* and *Agents’ Handbook*, fitting snugly into your go bag along with your extra passports and list of weapons caches.

**Episode 328: That Doesn’t Sound Like Y’golonac** Jan 25, 2019

Get ready for a tear gassing as the **Gaming Hut** finds us riffing a Fall of Delta Green scenario set during the 1968 Democratic convention.

**Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else** features a chat with app maker Steven Hammond, whose work has helped you run Feng Shui fights, plot Beating the Story narrative arcs, and create GUMSHOE characters.

The **Tradecraft Hut** answers a Miscellaneous Musings request for a look at 43 Group.

Finally in we have **Fun With Science** as Patreon backer Chris Sellers asks for the Mythos implications of a certain black hole beaming black hole beams at us.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Wish to introduce innocent children to the horror of the Mythos, while remaining on budget? Atlas Games is here to affordably twist young minds with a buy two, get one free deal on Ken’s Mini Mythos line of childrens’ book parodies: *Where the Deep Ones Are, Goodnight Azathoth, Cliffourd the Big Red God*, and Antarctic Express.

Ken’s latest roleplaying game, *The Fall of Delta Green*, is now available in print or PDF or both from Pelgrane Press. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agency hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.

Grab the translated riches of FENIX magazine in a special bundle deal from our friends at Askfageln, over at Indie Press Revolution. Score metric oodles of Ken Hite gaming goodness, a cornucopia of articles, complete games, plus the cartoon antics of Bernard the Barbarian. Warning: in English, not in Swedish. In English, not Swedish.

Just in time to save the world, though perhaps not your team of hardened covert agents, from the Mythos, the Delta Green Handlers Guide from Arc Dream Publishing is now in print and either at or headed to a game store near you. The slipcase print edition includes both the *Handlers’ Guide* and *Agents’ Handbook*, fitting snugly into your go bag along with your extra passports and list of weapons caches.

**Episode 327: Good Luck Getting Any Wood** Jan 18, 2019

In the **Gaming Hut** we examine the desire to play less than competent characters.

The History Hut takes us back to the 7th century BC and the reign of Assyrian super-king Ashurbanipal.

In **How to Write Good** we look at the connection between character sympathy and emotional rhythm.

Finally we sidle into the **Eliptony Hut**, where we peer into the library of unexpected paranormalist Jackie Gleason.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Wish to introduce innocent children to the horror of the Mythos, while remaining on budget? Atlas Games is here to affordably twist young minds with a buy two, get one free deal on Ken’s Mini Mythos line of childrens’ book parodies: *Where the Deep Ones Are, Goodnight Azathoth, Cliffourd the Big Red God*, and Antarctic Express.

Ken’s latest roleplaying game, *The Fall of Delta Green*, is now available in print or PDF or both from Pelgrane Press. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agency hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.

Grab the translated riches of FENIX magazine in a special bundle deal from our friends at Askfageln, over at Indie Press Revolution. Score metric oodles of Ken Hite gaming goodness, a cornucopia of articles, complete games, plus the cartoon antics of Bernard the Barbarian. Warning: in English, not in Swedish. In English, not Swedish.

Just in time to save the world, though perhaps not your team of hardened covert agents, from the Mythos, the Delta Green Handlers Guide from Arc Dream Publishing is now in print and either at or headed to a game store near you. The slipcase print edition includes both the *Handlers’ Guide* and *Agents’ Handbook*, fitting snugly into your go bag along with your extra passports and list of weapons caches.

**Episode 326: Credulous Ghost-Hunting Dupe** Jan 11, 2019

Struggle to stay one step ahead of the authorities as the **Gaming Hut** finds ways to do the classic trope of the protagonist framed for a crime in a roleplaying scenario.

The **Horror Hut** enters an old-timey uncanny valley as we look at the wax museum sub-genre.

In **Ken and/or Robin Talk To Someone Else**, we shrink GMing maven Matt Colville from his native video format to audio only.

Finally the **Consulting Occultist** unwinds the deeply complicated tale of the Cock Lane Ghost, as first penetrated by intrepid occult investigator Samuel Johnson.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Wish to introduce innocent children to the horror of the Mythos, while remaining on budget? Atlas Games is here to affordably twist young minds with a buy two, get one free deal on Ken’s Mini Mythos line of childrens’ book parodies: *Where the Deep Ones Are, Goodnight Azathoth, Cliffourd the Big Red God*, and Antarctic Express.

Ken’s latest roleplaying game, *The Fall of Delta Green*, is now available in print or PDF or both from Pelgrane Press. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agency hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.

Grab the translated riches of FENIX magazine in a special bundle deal from our friends at Askfageln, over at Indie Press Revolution. Score metric oodles of Ken Hite gaming goodness, a cornucopia of articles, complete games, plus the cartoon antics of Bernard the Barbarian. Warning: in English, not in Swedish. In English, not Swedish.

Just in time to save the world, though perhaps not your team of hardened covert agents, from the Mythos, the Delta Green Handlers Guide from Arc Dream Publishing is now in print and either at or headed to a game store near you. The slipcase print edition includes both the *Handlers’ Guide* and *Agents’ Handbook*, fitting snugly into your go bag along with your extra passports and list of weapons caches.

**Episode 325: NIMBY Horror** Jan 04, 2019

We kick off 2019 with an all-request episode, starting with Patreon backer Bryan Gustafson, who enters the **Gaming Hut** to ask us how to use the tiny houses movement in a *Cthulhu Confidential* scenario.

In the **Command Hut**, backer Tom Abella seeks the scoop on the series of WWII commando and bombing raids against a plant in German-occupied Norway to destroy its heavy water production.

We get worldly in the Cartography Hut as backer Jake asks us to use the Psalter Mappa Mundi for gaming purposes.

Finally not one but two backers, Ludovic Chabant and Ian Carlsen, knock on the indistinct walls of the Eliptony Hut demanding the dialectic on Marxist UFOlogy, as inspired by this piece from The Outline.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Wish to introduce innocent children to the horror of the Mythos, while remaining on budget? Atlas Games is here to affordably twist young minds with a buy two, get one free deal on Ken’s Mini Mythos line of childrens’ book parodies: *Where the Deep Ones Are, Goodnight Azathoth, Cliffourd the Big Red God*, and Antarctic Express.

Ken’s latest roleplaying game, *The Fall of Delta Green*, is now available in print or PDF or both from Pelgrane Press. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agency hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.

Grab the translated riches of FENIX magazine in a special bundle deal from our friends at Askfageln, over at Indie Press Revolution. Score metric oodles of Ken Hite gaming goodness, a cornucopia of articles, complete games, plus the cartoon antics of Bernard the Barbarian. Warning: in English, not in Swedish. In English, not Swedish.

Just in time to save the world, though perhaps not your team of hardened covert agents, from the Mythos, the Delta Green Handlers Guide from Arc Dream Publishing is now in print and either at or headed to a game store near you. The slipcase print edition includes both the *Handlers’ Guide* and *Agents’ Handbook*, fitting snugly into your go bag along with your extra passports and list of weapons caches.

**Episode 324: Live from Dragonmeet** Dec 21, 2018

Once again we close out the year with an episode recorded in front of a live audience at Dragonmeet in Hammersmith, London. Topics include the relationship between Queen Elizabeth and the Peloponnesian War, Cthulhoid Teletubbies, giant cows, modes of *Yellow King RPG* Game Mastering, and of course, sausages.

We’ll be back with our first episode of 2019 on January 4th. Until then, enjoy a safe and happy holiday!

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Wish to introduce innocent children to the horror of the Mythos, while remaining on budget? Atlas Games is here to affordably twist young minds with a buy two, get one free deal on Ken’s Mini Mythos line of childrens’ book parodies: *Where the Deep Ones Are, Goodnight Azathoth, Cliffourd the Big Red God*, and Antarctic Express.

Ken’s latest roleplaying game, *The Fall of Delta Green*, is now available in print or PDF or both from Pelgrane Press. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agency hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.

Grab the translated riches of FENIX magazine in a special bundle deal from our friends at Askfageln, over at Indie Press Revolution. Score metric oodles of Ken Hite gaming goodness, a cornucopia of articles, complete games, plus the cartoon antics of Bernard the Barbarian. Warning: in English, not in Swedish. In English, not Swedish.

Just in time to save the world, though perhaps not your team of hardened covert agents, from the Mythos, the Delta Green Handlers Guide from Arc Dream Publishing is now in print and either at or headed to a game store near you. The slipcase print edition includes both the *Handlers’ Guide* and *Agents’ Handbook*, fitting snugly into your go bag along with your extra passports and list of weapons caches.

**Episode 323: They Pecked the Anglo Saxons** Dec 14, 2018

Jet-lagged and full of pudding, we return from our latest trip to Dragonmeet to issue a **Travel Advisory** about the Anglo Saxon Kingdoms exhibit at the British Library.

In the **Gaming Hut** we pursue a request from Patreon backer Mikey Hamm to talk about chase rules.

If we were just in London, our hero must have come home with a metric oodle of tomes to share with you before he files them up on **Ken’s Bookshelf**.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Wish to introduce innocent children to the horror of the Mythos, while remaining on budget? Atlas Games is here to affordably twist young minds with a buy two, get one free deal on Ken’s Mini Mythos line of childrens’ book parodies: *Where the Deep Ones Are, Goodnight Azathoth, Cliffourd the Big Red God*, and Antarctic Express.

Ken’s latest roleplaying game, *The Fall of Delta Green*, is now available in print or PDF or both from Pelgrane Press. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agency hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.

Grab the translated riches of FENIX magazine in a special bundle deal from our friends at Askfageln, over at Indie Press Revolution. Score metric oodles of Ken Hite gaming goodness, a cornucopia of articles, complete games, plus the cartoon antics of Bernard the Barbarian. Warning: in English, not in Swedish. In English, not Swedish.

Just in time to save the world, though perhaps not your team of hardened covert agents, from the Mythos, the Delta Green Handlers Guide from Arc Dream Publishing is now in print and either at or headed to a game store near you. The slipcase print edition includes both the *Handlers’ Guide* and *Agents’ Handbook*, fitting snugly into your go bag along with your extra passports and list of weapons caches.

**Holy Forking Shirtballs Ken and Robin are Consuming Media** Dec 11, 2018
Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies, TV seasons and more we cram into our hyper-analytical sensoriums. Join the Patreon to help pick the items we’ll talk about in greater depth on a little podcast segment we like to call Tell Me More.

Recommended

The Good Place Season 3 (Television, US, Michael Schur, NBC, 2018) The breathless pacing of this premise-threat-philosophy-class comedy slows down a bit for time travel, life interventions, and making fun of Australia before resuming its roller-coaster switchbackery once Eleanor Shellstrop (Kristen Bell) and friends again become interdimensional fugitives. –KH

The Good Place Season 3 (Television, US, Michael Schur, NBC, 2018) Michael (Ted Danson) breaks the cosmic rules to bring Eleanor and company back to life on Earth for a second shot at redemption. This season not only shifts the show’s premise yet again, but switches protagonists, moving Michael and Janet (D’arcy Carden) to the forefront and pushing Kristen Bell as Eleanor into the ensemble.—RDL

Killing Eve Season 1 (Television, UK, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, BBC America, 2018) Intelligence analyst (Sandra Oh) steps into the field in pursuit of an emotionally arrested, psychopathic assassin (Jodie Comer.) Semi-comic espionage thriller pits a grounded protagonist against a cartoonish antagonist. It’s hard to see how the premise sustains itself through an entire series, but that’s a problem for next year, I guess.—RDL

Let the Sunshine In (Film, France, Claire Denis, 2017) Emotionally unmoored artist (Juliette Binoche) careens through a series of unstable romantic relationships. Powerfully performed character study recalls Rohmer, but with intense feeling taking the place of Olympian detachment.—RDL

Good

The Irregular: A Different Class of Spy (Fiction, H.B. Lyle, 2017) What ever happened to Wiggins, the street-urchin head of Sherlock Holmes’ Baker Street Irregulars? According to Lyle’s novel, he became the first-ever agent of the British Secret Service in 1909, facing off against the historical anarchist Peter the Painter and other shadowy threats to the Empire. Far from flawlessly executed, but a fun thriller nonetheless. –KH

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Season 1 (Television, US, Netflix, Amy Sherman-Palladino, 2017) When her husband ditches her for his shiksa secretary, achievement-obsessed Midge Maisel (Rachel Brosnahan) takes over his stand-up comedy dream. Glorious dive into late 50s New York style falters only during the stand-up scenes, where the otherwise perfectly executed old-school presentational acting style precludes the comic timing that would have worked then, or now.—RDL

**Episode 322: The Cinnabon of the 17th Century** Dec 07, 2018

Not to spoil anything, but we open in the **Gaming Hut** as Patreon backer V Weather asks us what to do when it turns out you’ve already read the adventure your GM is running.

In **How To Write Good**, we examine the uses and abuses of ambiguity in RPG setting materials.

Then it’s off to the **Tradecraft Hut**, where earlier we promised a segment based on a random page from Christopher Andrew’s *The Secret World: A History of Intelligence*. The number generator has assigned Ken page 227, which means we’re talking about Cromwell’s spies.

Then our Belle Epoque occultism series again jaunts into the **Eliptony Hut** for a visit with astronomer, parapsychologist, spiritist and science fiction writer Camille Flammarion.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

If you dig clever, take-that game play and/or ironic Soviet robots, Atlas Games’ new card game *Cogs and Commissars* was made for you. Buy it at a brick-and-mortar game store and send a selfie to Atlas, to get a special Neon Botsky promo card.

Ken’s latest roleplaying game, *The Fall of Delta Green*, is now available in print or PDF or both from Pelgrane Press. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agency hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.

Grab the translated riches of FENIX magazine in a special bundle deal from our friends at Askfageln, over at Indie Press Revolution. Score metric oodles of Ken Hite gaming goodness, a cornucopia of articles, complete games, plus the cartoon antics of Bernard the Barbarian. Warning: in English, not in Swedish. In English, not Swedish.

Just in time to save the world, though perhaps not your team of hardened covert agents, from the Mythos, the Delta Green Handlers Guide from Arc Dream Publishing is now in print and either at or headed to a game store near you. The slipcase print edition includes both the *Handlers’ Guide* and *Agents’ Handbook*, fitting snugly into your go bag along with your extra passports and list of weapons caches.

**Episode 321: Red Dawn Times** Nov 30, 2018

Get out your space calculators as we meet in the **Gaming Hut** to entertain a request from Patreon backer Robert Dean, who wants to hear more about the time Ken ran *Traveller* for accountants.

In the **History Hut** we fulfill the desire of backer Joe Littrell to learn the real reason behind Churchill’s wartime initiative to protect the apes of Gibraltar.

The other **Consulting Occultist** continues our *Yellow King*-inspired series on occultists of the Belle Epoque with a look at the original neo-Gnostic, Jules Doinel.

We close with our promised venture into the **Cinema Hut** to talk about Orson Welles’ new film, *The Other Side of the Wind*.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

If you dig clever, take-that game play and/or ironic Soviet robots, Atlas Games’ new card game *Cogs and Commissars* was made for you. Buy it at a brick-and-mortar game store and send a selfie to Atlas, to get a special Neon Botsky promo card.

Ken’s latest roleplaying game, *The Fall of Delta Green*, is now available in print or PDF or both from Pelgrane Press. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agency hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.

Grab the translated riches of FENIX magazine in a special bundle deal from our friends at Askfageln, over at Indie Press Revolution. Score metric oodles of Ken Hite gaming goodness, a cornucopia of articles, complete games, plus the cartoon antics of Bernard the Barbarian. Warning: in English, not in Swedish. In English, not Swedish.

Just in time to save the world, though perhaps not your team of hardened covert agents, from the Mythos, the Delta Green Handlers Guide from Arc Dream Publishing is now in print and either at or headed to a game store near you. The slipcase print edition includes both the *Handlers’ Guide* and *Agents’ Handbook*, fitting snugly into your go bag along with your extra passports and list of weapons caches.

**Episode 320: Ghost Rationing Policy** Nov 23, 2018

This podcast never wastes your time, but what if you, as a GM, have to fill some space in your session? The **Gaming Hut** looks at ways to vamp for time.

In the drafty confines of the **Architecture Hut**, Patreon backer Darren Hennessy wants to know about Houska Castle in the Czech Republic, known for its Gothic origins, Renaissance modifications and, oh yes, gate to hell.

In **Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else**, we talk to game designer Sarah Richardson about her new game *Velvet Glove*.

Our survey of Belle Epoque weirdness ducks into the **Eliptony Hut** with a profile of early parapsychologist Albert de Rochas.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

If you dig clever, take-that game play and/or ironic Soviet robots, Atlas Games’ new card game *Cogs and Commissars* was made for you. Buy it at a brick-and-mortar game store and send a selfie to Atlas, to get a special Neon Botsky promo card.

Ken’s latest roleplaying game, *The Fall of Delta Green*, is now available in print or PDF or both from Pelgrane Press. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agency hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.

Grab the translated riches of FENIX magazine in a special bundle deal from our friends at Askfageln, over at Indie Press Revolution. Score metric oodles of Ken Hite gaming goodness, a cornucopia of articles, complete games, plus the cartoon antics of Bernard the Barbarian. Warning: in English, not in Swedish. In English, not Swedish.

Just in time to save the world, though perhaps not your team of hardened covert agents, from the Mythos, the Delta Green Handlers Guide from Arc Dream Publishing is now in print and either at or headed to a game store near you. The slipcase print edition includes both the *Handlers’ Guide* and *Agents’ Handbook*, fitting snugly into your go bag along with your extra passports and list of weapons caches.

**Episode 319: Eventually You Run Out of Zigs** Nov 16, 2018

Under the black stars of Carcosa, we celebrate the impending publication of Robin’s *The Yellow King Roleplaying Game* and the manuscript completion of Ken’s *The King in Yellow Annotated Edition* with an all-Pallid Mask edition of our decadent podcast.

In Among My Many Hats, Ken shares what he’s learned about Chambers and the Hyades while working on the aforementioned project.

Then in **How to Write Good** he lays out the steps involved in creating an annotated edition of an existing work.

The **Food Hut** explores what your Belle Epoque Yellow King characters might be eating and, more likely, drinking.

Finally the **Consulting Occultist** changes identities to embark on a series on the wizards and paranormalists you might encounter in 1890s Paris. First up: pioneering trickster Leo Taxil.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

If you dig clever, take-that game play and/or ironic Soviet robots, Atlas Games’ new card game *Cogs and Commissars* was made for you. Buy it at a brick-and-mortar game store and send a selfie to Atlas, to get a special Neon Botsky promo card.

Ken’s latest roleplaying game, *The Fall of Delta Green*, is now available in print or PDF or both from Pelgrane Press. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agency hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.

Grab the translated riches of FENIX magazine in a special bundle deal from our friends at Askfageln, over at Indie Press Revolution. Score metric oodles of Ken Hite gaming goodness, a cornucopia of articles, complete games, plus the cartoon antics of Bernard the Barbarian. Warning: in English, not in Swedish. In English, not Swedish.

Just in time to save the world, though perhaps not your team of hardened covert agents, from the Mythos, the Delta Green Handlers Guide from Arc Dream Publishing is now in print and either at or headed to a game store near you. The slipcase print edition includes both the *Handlers’ Guide* and *Agents’ Handbook*, fitting snugly into your go bag along with your extra passports and list of weapons caches.

**Episode 318: Bootlegger Reverse** Nov 09, 2018

We open in the **Gaming Hut**, or is all part of an elaborate trick, as Patreon backer Sean asks how to pull switcheroos on players who don’t like being fooled.

Ken meets us in the **Cinema Hut** to reveal the filmic goodies he saw at this year’s Chicago International Film Festival.

In Ask Ken and Robin we answer a request from backer Lewis Sylvester for a GUMSHOE 101. And you’re totally right, we do forget to mention Fall of Delta Green, because there’s too much cool GUMSHOE for even us to remember. Luckily there’s a whole ad to tell you all about it.

Finally **Ken’s Time Machine** visits and attempts to rectify Ireland’s 1916 Easter Rising.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

If you dig clever, take-that game play and/or ironic Soviet robots, Atlas Games’ new card game *Cogs and Commissars* was made for you. Buy it at a brick-and-mortar game store and send a selfie to Atlas, to get a special Neon Botsky promo card.

Ken’s latest roleplaying game, *The Fall of Delta Green*, is now available in print or PDF or both from Pelgrane Press. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agency hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.

Grab the translated riches of FENIX magazine in a special bundle deal from our friends at Askfageln, over at Indie Press Revolution. Score metric oodles of Ken Hite gaming goodness, a cornucopia of articles, complete games, plus the cartoon antics of Bernard the Barbarian. Warning: in English, not in Swedish. In English, not Swedish.

Just in time to save the world, though perhaps not your team of hardened covert agents, from the Mythos, the Delta Green Handlers Guide from Arc Dream Publishing is now in print and either at or headed to a game store near you. The slipcase print edition includes both the *Handlers’ Guide* and *Agents’ Handbook*, fitting snugly into your go bag along with your extra passports and list of weapons caches.

**Episode 317: To Be Sure, the Romans** Nov 02, 2018

Join us in the **Gaming Hut** to assist Patreon backer Dustyn Mincey with his difficulty in sticking with a single game, when there are so many awesome games in the world.

Then **Ken and/or Robin Talk To Someone Else**, specifically designer extraordinaire Steve Kenson.

Finally it’s again time to vicariously caress the covers of various tomes as **Ken’s Bookshel**f gloats over the treasures looted from Powell’s Books in Portland.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

If you dig clever, take-that game play and/or ironic Soviet robots, Atlas Games’ new card game *Cogs and Commissars* was made for you. Buy it at a brick-and-mortar game store and send a selfie to Atlas, to get a special Neon Botsky promo card.

Ken’s latest roleplaying game, *The Fall of Delta Green*, is now available in print or PDF or both from Pelgrane Press. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agency hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.

Grab the translated riches of FENIX magazine in a special bundle deal from our friends at Askfageln, over at Indie Press Revolution. Score metric oodles of Ken Hite gaming goodness, a cornucopia of articles, complete games, plus the cartoon antics of Bernard the Barbarian. Warning: in English, not in Swedish. In English, not Swedish.

Just in time to save the world, though perhaps not your team of hardened covert agents, from the Mythos, the Delta Green Handlers Guide from Arc Dream Publishing is now in print and either at or headed to a game store near you. The slipcase print edition includes both the *Handlers’ Guide* and *Agents’ Handbook*, fitting snugly into your go bag along with your extra passports and list of weapons caches.

**Episode 316: Remembering Greg Stafford** Oct 26, 2018

Join us for an elegaic **Gaming Hut** as we tackle but a single topic: the life and work of our friend and inspiration, the grand shaman of gaming, Greg Stafford (1948-2018.)

Want to pose a question to the show?

Get your priority question asking access with your support for the KARTAS Patreon! Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

*Over the Edge* is back, with Jonathan Tweet updating his classic and influential game design. Get ready to duck New Age cultists, baboon-wielding gangsters, twisted assassins when the roleplaying game of weird modern danger. The island of Al Amarja may have moved from its classic 1990s location, but never fear. The Kickstarter may be over, but the action has moved to BackerKit.

Ken’s latest roleplaying game, *The Fall of Delta Green*, is now available in print or PDF or both from Pelgrane Press. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agency hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.

Grab the translated riches of FENIX magazine in a special bundle deal from our friends at Askfageln, over at Indie Press Revolution. Score metric oodles of Ken Hite gaming goodness, a cornucopia of articles, complete games, plus the cartoon antics of Bernard the Barbarian. Warning: in English, not in Swedish. In English, not Swedish.

Just in time to save the world, though perhaps not your team of hardened covert agents, from the Mythos, the Delta Green Handlers Guide from Arc Dream Publishing is now in print and either at or headed to a game store near you. The slipcase print edition includes both the *Handlers’ Guide* and *Agents’ Handbook*, fitting snugly into your go bag along with your extra passports and list of weapons caches.

**Episode 315: Eloi au Vin** Oct 19, 2018

In the **Gaming Hut** we assist Patreon backer Jean-Francois Paradis in creating a campaign where the PCs’ homeland is invaded by a technologically superior rival.

Stay far from manhole covers and sewer grates as the **Horror Hut** looks at CHUDs and troglodytes.

Then **Ken and/or Robin Talk To Someone Else**, specifically gaming’s cartoonist laureate, John Kovalic, about the *Tao of Igor* Kickstarter.

Finally it’s time to stay positive as backer Dan Kassiday asks the **Consulting Occultist** to discuss the nocebo effect explanation for curses.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

*Over the Edge* is back, with Jonathan Tweet updating his classic and influential game design. Get ready to duck New Age cultists, baboon-wielding gangsters, twisted assassins when the roleplaying game of weird modern danger. The island of Al Amarja may have moved from its classic 1990s location, but never fear. The Kickstarter may be over, but the action has moved to BackerKit.

Ken’s latest roleplaying game, *The Fall of Delta Green*, is now available in print or PDF or both from Pelgrane Press. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agency hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.

Grab the translated riches of FENIX magazine in a special bundle deal from our friends at Askfageln, over at Indie Press Revolution. Score metric oodles of Ken Hite gaming goodness, a cornucopia of articles, complete games, plus the cartoon antics of Bernard the Barbarian. Warning: in English, not in Swedish. In English, not Swedish.

Just in time to save the world, though perhaps not your team of hardened covert agents, from the Mythos, the Delta Green Handlers Guide from Arc Dream Publishing is now in print and either at or headed to a game store near you. The slipcase print edition includes both the *Handlers’ Guide* and *Agents’ Handbook*, fitting snugly into your go bag along with your extra passports and list of weapons caches.

**Ken and Robin Consume Media: Ken Does the Chicago Film Fest; Robin Homebrews His Own Horror Fest** Oct 16, 2018

Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies, TV seasons and more we cram into our hyper-analytical sensoriums. Join the Patreon to help pick the items we’ll talk about in greater depth on a little podcast segment we like to call Tell Me More.

Recommended

Border (Film, Sweden, Ali Abbasi, 2018) Tina (Eva Melander) looks Neanderthal, but she can sniff out shame and fear (among other things) making her a valued customs officer — until she meets Vore (Eero Milonoff) who looks like she does. From a story by Jon Ajvide Lindqvist (Let the Right One In) who also co-wrote the script, the film plays effortlessly with many different genres from policier to horror to magical realism. –KH

Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wall-paper” and the History of Its Publication and Reception: A Critical Edition and Documentary Casebook (Nonfiction, Julie Bates Dock, 1998) Dock provides the first-ever critical edition of Gilman’s short-story masterpiece, complete with ample documentation from Gilman’s correspondence, contemporary reviews, and a clear overview of its textual history. Mandatory reading for people who want to opine on Gilman. –KH

Liverleaf (Film, Japan, Eisuke Naitô, 2018) Bullied transfer student Haruka (Anna Yamada) finally unbottles her rage in ultraviolent revenge, revealing secrets and burying bodies in a blizzard. Based on a manga, some of the scenes are achingly beautiful — and often gory as hell. Maybe some of the story beats could have used some signals or supports, but this is ukiyo-e after all, so maybe not. –KH

The Mercy of the Jungle (Film, Belgium/France/Rwanda, Joel Karekezi, 2018) Career Rwandan Army Sergeant Xavier (Marc Zinga) and peasant private Faustin (Stéphane Bak), left behind during an offensive in the Second Congo War must survive the jungle, a band of rebels, and their own psyches in this effective war movie that occasionally becomes genuinely gripping. The two leads’ strong, lived-in performances give Karekezi a solid core to return to, keeping the picaresque nature of the material reined in. –KH

Needing You … (Film, Hong Kong, Johnnie To & Wai Ka-Fai, 2000) Alpha male manager Andy (Andy Lau) and manic pixie sales rep Kinki (Sammi Cheng) discover each other and their feelings thereupon in this romantic comedy paced like a car chase film. Cheng’s effortless charm carries the film despite some grating characterization, and the comic relief is mostly actually comical, which never hurts. This won’t make you fall in love with romcoms if you don’t already love them, but its lessons in pacing apply all over the dramatic spectrum. –KH

Satan’s Slaves (Film, Indonesia, Joko Anwar, 2017) After their mom dies, a quartet of young siblings fends off supernatural assaults on their ramshackle country house. Presents the now-fashionable fusion of haunted house and Satanic cult sub-genres through an Islamic cultural lens, abetted by well-crafted scares and hints of hip style.—RDL

Terrified (Film, Argentina, Demián Rugna, 2017) A police captain with cardiac problems reluctantly joins an ad hoc group of parapsychologists probing supernatural manifestations plaguing an everyday residential street. Contrast between a mundane, grounded setting and s-u-u-u-u-per creepy haunting sequences place this among the best in the occult investigator movie canon. You could easily start an Esoterrorists series by showing your players this movie and then saying, “Okay, you’re the next team to go in.”—RDL

Good

Animal (Film, Argentina/Spain, Armando Bo, 2018) A civilized man (Guillermo Francella) disintegrates when his kidney fails. Notable for the slow-motion home invasion-demonic possession story featuring the scumbag drifter with a matching blood type who extorts him, but in the end the film feels like a writer with too many directions becoming a director without a clear vision. –KH

Boys Cry (Film, Italy, Damiano and Fabio D’Innocenzo, 2018) Vacuous losers Manolo (Andrea Carpanzano) and Mirko (Matteo Olivetti) accidentally run over a snitch, gaining them entry to a minor mafia clan and setting off a slow fuse of moral awakening. With no glamor, an overexposed palette, and lots of close-ups of the thugs, this is not a pretty mob film; your value likely depends on whether you care to identify with these accidental goombahs. –KH

Project Gutenberg (Film, Hong Kong, Felix Chong, 2018) Rejected artist (Aaron Kwok) throws in as protege to a murderous counterfeiter (Chow Yun-Fat.) Meta-minded crime drama swerves between tropes and sub-genres, logging a thrilling extended homage to A Better Tomorrow III in one of its subversions of Chow’s classic persona. –RDL

Okay

Ash is Purest White (Film, China/France, Jia Zhangke, 2018) In 2001 in the remote city of Datong, Qiao (Zhao Tao) is the girlfriend of petty mob boss Bin (Liao Fan); in 2006 she gets out of jail to find he has deserted her and she pursues him to Fangjie; in 2017 she’s back in Datong running mah-jongg waiting for him to show up. Too long to let any of the three acts work, and too invested in an unappealing Bin to be enjoyable at any length. The middle act, where Qiao rebuilds her life one grift at a time, could have been great. –KH

John Dies At the End (Film, US, Don Coscarelli, 2012) Hunky duo of amateur paranormal hunters battle a reality-altering drug and its monstrous manifestations. A shaggy dog spirit pervades this Bill & Ted meets Cronenberg action-horror comedy. Lesson: if your lead is kinda wooden, don’t put him in an extended two-hander with Paul Giamatti.—RDL

Sibel (Film, EU/Turkey, Çagla Zencirci and Guillaume Giovanetti, 2018) In rural Turkey, the mute daughter (Damla Sönmez) of the mayor (Emin Gürsoy) communicates using an ancestral whistling language, but most of her day is spent alone hunting a wolf. Zenciri and Giovanetti want to wrap their exoticized-society girl-power movie in fairy tale clothing, but do nothing to reconcile (or play up) the conflict between the two modes. The two leads also play differently, Sönmez bordering on histrionics while Gürsoy dives deep internally; the result is four halves of two movies. –KH

Transit (Film, Germany/France, Christian Petzold, 2018) To escape a France fallen to fascist invasion, Georg (Franz Rogowski) assumes the identity of a dead writer; while waiting in Marseille for his papers to clear, he becomes embroiled in both his lives’ complications. Moody, slightly surreal film becomes a case study in why voiceover narration is a terrible idea. –KH

**Episode 314: Preamble Snipper** Oct 12, 2018

Another all-request episode kicks off in the **Gaming Hut** as Patreon backer Gene Ha asks what F20 evil deities get out of all the dungeons they create and manage.

In the **Cartography Hut** we look into trap streets and parch marks, at the behest of backer Jurie Hornemann.

**Ask Ken and Robin** gives backer Jacques de Villiers the chance to ask Robin about GMless *Hillfolk*.

Finally in **Ken’s Time Machine**, backer Michael Maneval asks Ken to describe the reasons behind his constant efforts to keep musical instrument inventor Adolphe Sax from a premature final rest.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

*Over the Edge* is back, with Jonathan Tweet updating his classic and influential game design. Get ready to duck New Age cultists, baboon-wielding gangsters, twisted assassins when the roleplaying game of weird modern danger. The island of Al Amarja may have moved from its classic 1990s location, but never fear. The Kickstarter may be over, but the action has moved to BackerKit.

Ken’s latest roleplaying game, *The Fall of Delta Green*, is now available in print or PDF or both from Pelgrane Press. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agency hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.

Grab the translated riches of FENIX magazine in a special bundle deal from our friends at Askfageln, over at Indie Press Revolution. Score metric oodles of Ken Hite gaming goodness, a cornucopia of articles, complete games, plus the cartoon antics of Bernard the Barbarian. Warning: in English, not in Swedish. In English, not Swedish. Just in time to save the world, though perhaps not your team of hardened covert agents, from the Mythos, the Delta Green Handlers Guide from Arc Dream Publishing is now in print and either at or headed to a game store near you. The slipcase print edition includes both the *Handlers’ Guide* and *Agents’ Handbook*, fitting snugly into your go bag along with your extra passports and list of weapons caches.

**Episode 313: All the Hitting in the World** Oct 05, 2018

The **Cinema Hut** bursts with upcoming delights as Robin returns from his annual jaunt to Toronto International Film Festival to provide highlights on a banner year.

In the **Gaming Hut** we tackle a perennial problem: how do you make sure the talky PC gets to talk to the talky NPC before the killy PC kills him with his proverbial axe?

Finally the Conspiracy Corner digs into an archetypal case of magical thinking gone devastatingly wrong, the Satanic Panic of the 80s and early 90s.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

*Over the Edge* is back, with Jonathan Tweet updating his classic and influential game design. Get ready to duck New Age cultists, baboon-wielding gangsters, twisted assassins when the roleplaying game of weird modern danger. The island of Al Amarja may have moved from its classic 1990s location, but never fear. The Kickstarter may be over, but the action has moved to BackerKit.

Ken’s latest roleplaying game, *The Fall of Delta Green*, is now available for preorder from Pelgrane Press. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agency hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.

Grab the translated riches of FENIX magazine in a special bundle deal from our friends at Askfageln, over at Indie Press Revolution. Score metric oodles of Ken Hite gaming goodness, a cornucopia of articles, complete games, plus the cartoon antics of Bernard the Barbarian. Warning: in English, not in Swedish. In English, not Swedish.

Just in time to save the world, though perhaps not your team of hardened covert agents, from the Mythos, the Delta Green Handlers Guide from Arc Dream Publishing is now in print and either at or headed to a game store near you. The slipcase print edition includes both the *Handlers’ Guide* and *Agents’ Handbook*, fitting snugly into your go bag along with your extra passports and list of weapons caches.

**Episode 312: Short Inspirational Napping Pieces** Sep 28, 2018

Advice for players kicks us off in the **Gaming Hut**, as we suggest ways to react when the GM provides you with a magic gun.

Then in a segment we persist in calling **How To Write Good**, rather than Robin Yells Into the Wind, we show you how to tag jokes on the Internet.

**Ken and/or Robin Talk To Someone** Else features our Gen Con chat with Shanna Germain, who applies her poetic concision to her many hats and projects at Monte Cook Games.

Finally we gather in the shadowy **Conspiracy Corner** to field a question from Patreon backer Kevin Nault, who wants some theory about conspiracy theory, national and otherwise.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

The White Box is a game design workshop in a box, bursting with inspiring theory and the basic components to turn that theory into playable reality. Brought to you in tandem by Atlas Games and Gameplaywright, it’s the perfect gift for the aspiring game master in your life—who might well be yourself.

Ken’s latest roleplaying game, *The Fall of Delta Green*, is now available for preorder from Pelgrane Press. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agency hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.

Grab the translated riches of FENIX magazine in a special bundle deal from our friends at Askfageln, over at Indie Press Revolution. Score metric oodles of Ken Hite gaming goodness, a cornucopia of articles, complete games, plus the cartoon antics of Bernard the Barbarian. Warning: in English, not in Swedish. In English, not Swedish.

Just in time to save the world, though perhaps not your team of hardened covert agents, from the Mythos, the Delta Green Handlers Guide from Arc Dream Publishing is now in print and either at or headed to a game store near you. The slipcase print edition includes both the *Handlers’ Guide* and *Agents’ Handbook*, fitting snugly into your go bag along with your extra passports and list of weapons caches.

**Episode 311: Live from Gen Con 2018** Sep 21, 2018

Let’s summon the spirit of summer one last time by hearkening back to a balmy Indianapolis Friday, when Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff live from the surprising new confines of the Lucas Oil stadium at Gen Con. Come for the Nerdtrope cards, come for the incisive questions from our ever-alert audience.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

The White Box is a game design workshop in a box, bursting with inspiring theory and the basic components to turn that theory into playable reality. Brought to you in tandem by Atlas Games and Gameplaywright, it’s the perfect gift for the aspiring game master in your life—who might well be yourself.

Ken’s latest roleplaying game, *The Fall of Delta Green*, is now available for preorder from Pelgrane Press. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agency hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.

Grab the translated riches of FENIX magazine in a special bundle deal from our friends at Askfageln, over at Indie Press Revolution. Score metric oodles of Ken Hite gaming goodness, a cornucopia of articles, complete games, plus the cartoon antics of Bernard the Barbarian. Warning: in English, not in Swedish. In English, not Swedish.

Just in time to save the world, though perhaps not your team of hardened covert agents, from the Mythos, the Delta Green Handlers Guide from Arc Dream Publishing is now in print and either at or headed to a game store near you. The slipcase print edition includes both the *Handlers’ Guide* and *Agents’ Handbook*, fitting snugly into your go bag along with your extra passports and list of weapons caches.

**Episode 310: The Social Media Impact of Ulthar** Sep 14, 2018

The **Gaming Hut** makes room for our collection of crystal balls as Patreon backer Rob Towell asks for hints on GMing prophecies and divinations.

The **Crime Blotter** looks at a rash of highly professional heists targeting relics looted from the Old Summer Palace and held in European museums.

Patreon backer Polydamas asks us to have **Fun With Science** and the 1920s invasion of sea lampreys into the Great Lakes.

Finally backer Derek Upham visits the **Consulting Occultist** for a look at artist James Bridle, who has constructed a magic circle to trap self-driving cars.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

The White Box is a game design workshop in a box, bursting with inspiring theory and the basic components to turn that theory into playable reality. Brought to you in tandem by Atlas Games and Gameplaywright, it’s the perfect gift for the aspiring game master in your life—who might well be yourself.

Ken’s latest roleplaying game, *The Fall of Delta Green*, is now available for preorder from Pelgrane Press. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agency hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.

Grab the translated riches of FENIX magazine in a special bundle deal from our friends at Askfageln, over at Indie Press Revolution. Score metric oodles of Ken Hite gaming goodness, a cornucopia of articles, complete games, plus the cartoon antics of Bernard the Barbarian. Warning: in English, not in Swedish. In English, not Swedish.

Just in time to save the world, though perhaps not your team of hardened covert agents, from the Mythos, the Delta Green Handlers Guide from Arc Dream Publishing is now in print and either at or headed to a game store near you. The slipcase print edition includes both the *Handlers’ Guide* and *Agents’ Handbook*, fitting snugly into your go bag along with your extra passports and list of weapons caches.

**Episode 309: Snort the Pringles** Sep 07, 2018

On the alert for treacherous banana peels, we gather in the **Gaming Hut** to wonder if GUMSHOE can handle incompetent PCs.

In **Ask Ken and Robin**, Patreon backer Frank Rafaelson wants Ken to pitch a new edition of *Nephilim*.

**How to Write Good** posits that idiot plotting is not just an issue in procedure-heavy narratives. We look at ways to avoid it in dramatic scenes.

Finally, Patreon backer Adam Grotjohn wonders what fell reality Ken’s Time Machine was preventing at the cemetery now known as Lincoln Park in Chicago.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

The White Box is a game design workshop in a box, bursting with inspiring theory and the basic components to turn that theory into playable reality. Brought to you in tandem by Atlas Games and Gameplaywright, it’s the perfect gift for the aspiring game master in your life—who might well be yourself.

Ken’s latest roleplaying game, *The Fall of Delta Green*, is now available for preorder from Pelgrane Press. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agency hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.

Grab the translated riches of FENIX magazine in a special bundle deal from our friends at Askfageln, over at Indie Press Revolution. Score metric oodles of Ken Hite gaming goodness, a cornucopia of articles, complete games, plus the cartoon antics of Bernard the Barbarian. Warning: in English, not in Swedish. In English, not Swedish.

Just in time to save the world, though perhaps not your team of hardened covert agents, from the Mythos, the Delta Green Handlers Guide from Arc Dream Publishing is now in print and either at or headed to a game store near you. The slipcase print edition includes both the *Handlers’ Guide* and *Agents’ Handbook*, fitting snugly into your go bag along with your extra passports and list of weapons caches.

**Episode 308: A Stargate in His District** Aug 31, 2018

Another all-request episode opens in the familiar confines of the **Gaming Hut**, where Patreon backer Trung Bui wants to know how we pull out all the stops for climactic campaign-ending episodes.

In the **Horror Hut**, backer Samwise Crider asks how to incorporate the newly discovered Icelandic and Swedish versions of Bram Stoker’s *Dracula* into a Dracula Dossier series.

The **Cinema Hut** hosts another movie 101, this time on the fantasy film, at the command of backer Corey Pierno.

Finally we heed the cries of backer Steve Sick, who bids us enter the **Eliptony Hut’s** coruscating doorway to talk about Sumerian stargates.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

The White Box is a game design workshop in a box, bursting with inspiring theory and the basic components to turn that theory into playable reality. Brought to you in tandem by Atlas Games and Gameplaywright, it’s the perfect gift for the aspiring game master in your life—who might well be yourself.

Ken’s latest roleplaying game, *The Fall of Delta Green*, is now available for preorder from Pelgrane Press. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agent hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.

Grab the translated riches of FENIX magazine in a special bundle deal from our friends at Askfageln, over at Indie Press Revolution. Score metric oodles of Ken Hite gaming goodness, a cornucopia of articles, complete games, plus the cartoon antics of Bernard the Barbarian. Warning: in English, not in Swedish. In English, not Swedish.

Just in time to save the world, though perhaps not your team of hardened covert agents, from the Mythos, the Delta Green Handlers Guide from Arc Dream Publishing is now in print and either at or headed to a game store near you. The slipcase print edition includes both the *Handlers’ Guide* and *Agents’ Handbook*, fitting snugly into your go bag along with your extra passports and list of weapons caches.

**Episode 307: Nobody Wants to Be a Gate** Aug 24, 2018

Patreon backers, specifically Patreon backer Brian Malcolm, demand yet more dungeon talk from us in the Gaming Hut. How do you lend a dungeon complex a narrative quality, instead of making it a random collection of rooms and fights?

In **Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else**, Christoph Sapinsky tells us about his new hard SF game Free Spacer, now Kickstarting.

In **Ask Ken and Robin**, backer David Shaw wonders what would happen if you managed to engrave the Elder Sign on Cthulhu.

Finally backer Hal Mangold asks the **Consulting Occultist** to review the career of Australian artist and Pagan sex magician Rosaleen Norton.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

The White Box is a game design workshop in a box, bursting with inspiring theory and the basic components to turn that theory into playable reality. Brought to you in tandem by Atlas Games and Gameplaywright, it’s the perfect gift for the aspiring game master in your life—who might well be yourself.

Ken’s latest roleplaying game, *The Fall of Delta Green*, is now available for preorder from Pelgrane Press. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agent hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.

Grab the translated riches of FENIX magazine in a special bundle deal from our friends at Askfageln, over at Indie Press Revolution. Score metric oodles of Ken Hite gaming goodness, a cornucopia of articles, complete games, plus the cartoon antics of Bernard the Barbarian. Warning: in English, not in Swedish. In English, not Swedish.

Just in time to save the world, though perhaps not your team of hardened covert agents, from the Mythos, the Delta Green Handlers Guide from Arc Dream Publishing is now in print and either at or headed to a game store near you. The slipcase print edition includes both the *Handlers’ Guide* and *Agents’ Handbook*, fitting snugly into your go bag along with your extra passports and list of weapons caches.

**Episode 306: Gen Con 2018** Aug 17, 2018

We’re scratchy voiced and mushy headed from our journey to Gen Con 18. The Best Four Days in Gaming got bigger than ever this year, and we’re here to sort through the awards, the announcements, and perhaps a spot of food.

Also at Gen Con we talked to Emily Reinhart, whose magical girl RPG *Domina Magica* is Kickstarting now. We tuck that interview in among our loop-brained observations.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

The White Box is a game design workshop in a box, bursting with inspiring theory and the basic components to turn that theory into playable reality. Brought to you in tandem by Atlas Games and Gameplaywright, it’s the perfect gift for the aspiring game master in your life—who might well be yourself.

Ken’s latest roleplaying game, *The Fall of Delta Green*, is now available for preorder from Pelgrane Press. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agent hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.

Grab the translated riches of FENIX magazine in a special bundle deal from our friends at Askfageln, over at Indie Press Revolution. Score metric oodles of Ken Hite gaming goodness, a cornucopia of articles, complete games, plus the cartoon antics of Bernard the Barbarian. Warning: in English, not in Swedish. In English, not Swedish.

Just in time to save the world, though perhaps not your team of hardened covert agents, from the Mythos, the Delta Green Handlers Guide from Arc Dream Publishing is now in print and either at or headed to a game store near you. The slipcase print edition includes both the *Handlers’ Guide* and *Agents’ Handbook*, fitting snugly into your go bag along with your extra passports and list of weapons caches.

**Episode 305: I Put My Whole Head In and I am Fine** Aug 10, 2018

Once more we’re in the same room together with an episode recorded in our hotel the day before Gen Con. Hmm, what easy topics shall we tackle?

Does the game system you’re playing expect you to generate a plot hook for your character? We’re waiting in the **Gaming Hut** with tips and advice.

The **Tradecraft Hut** keeps insisting we keep it topical, so what choice do we have but to cover the Maria Butila story?

In the **Food Hut**, we journey to Food Valhalla, where dwell the favorite meals we will never again eat in the mortal realm.

Speaking of topics we can’t not address, we close in the gridded-off confines of the **Archaeology Hut**, where we ponder that giant sarcophagus everyone has been talking about.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

The White Box is a game design workshop in a box, bursting with inspiring theory and the basic components to turn that theory into playable reality. Brought to you in tandem by Atlas Games and Gameplaywright, it’s the perfect gift for the aspiring game master in your life—who might well be yourself.

Ken’s latest roleplaying game, *The Fall of Delta Green*, is now available for preorder from Pelgrane Press. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agent hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.

Grab the translated riches of FENIX magazine in a special bundle deal from our friends at Askfageln, over at Indie Press Revolution. Score metric oodles of Ken Hite gaming goodness, a cornucopia of articles, complete games, plus the cartoon antics of Bernard the Barbarian. Warning: in English, not in Swedish. In English, not Swedish.

Just in time to save the world, though perhaps not your team of hardened covert agents, from the Mythos, the Delta Green Handlers Guide from Arc Dream Publishing is now in print and either at or headed to a game store near you. The slipcase print edition includes both the *Handlers’ Guide* and *Agents’ Handbook*, fitting snugly into your go bag along with your extra passports and list of weapons caches.

**Episode 304: We’re Not Running a Party of Death Here** Aug 03, 2018

Mystery scenario construction is once again on our minds in the **Gaming Hut**, as we discuss ways to run a mystery in which the investigators respond to an ongoing spree of murders, monster attacks, or the like.

We make sure the roof of the **History Hut** is well-patched as we consider the cosmic terror that was the passenger pigeon.

At the request of Patreon backer Timothy Coram, we pop into the **Cinema Hut** to chat about the giallo, and its application to *The Yellow King Roleplaying Game*.

Finally the **Consulting Occultist** profiles Alexander Dugin, a Russian philosopher who combines fascism, synarchy, nationalism and chaos magick under the banner of an oddly familiar eight-pointed arrow star.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

The island of Al Amarja may have moved from its classic 1990s location, but don’t be fooled. *Over the Edge* is indeed back, with Jonathan Tweet updating his classic and influential game design. Get ready to duck New Age cultists, baboon-wielding gangsters, twisted assassins when the roleplaying game of weird modern danger is Kickstarting now!

Ken’s latest roleplaying game, *The Fall of Delta Green*, is now available for preorder from Pelgrane Press. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agent hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.

Grab the translated riches of FENIX magazine in a special bundle deal from our friends at Askfageln, over at Indie Press Revolution. Score metric oodles of Ken Hite gaming goodness, a cornucopia of articles, complete games, plus the cartoon antics of Bernard the Barbarian. Warning: in English, not in Swedish. In English, not Swedish.

Just in time to save the world, though perhaps not your team of hardened covert agents, from the Mythos, the Delta Green Handlers Guide from Arc Dream Publishing is now in print and either at or headed to a game store near you. The slipcase print edition includes both the *Handlers’ Guide* and *Agents’ Handbook*, fitting snugly into your go bag along with your extra passports and list of weapons caches.

**Episode 303: It’s Not Owls, It’s Charlemagne** Jul 27, 2018

Most RPG scenarios assume that it’s up to the player characters to conclusively defeat the bad guys at the end. In the **Gaming Hut** we ask when it’s okay to leave the mop up to outside forces.

In the **History Hut** Patreon backer Jake asks us to unveil the mysteries of the Cagots.

**Ask Ken and Robin** fields a Q from backer Jacques de Villiers on gaming Twin Peaks and the related works of David Lynch.

Finally we enter the **Eliptony Hut**, carefully checking our calendars, to satisfy backer Alexandria Permann’s curiosity regarding the Phantom Time Hypothesis.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

The island of Al Amarja may have moved from its classic 1990s location, but don’t be fooled. *Over the Edge* is indeed back, with Jonathan Tweet updating his classic and influential game design. Get ready to duck New Age cultists, baboon-wielding gangsters, twisted assassins when the roleplaying game of weird modern danger is Kickstarting now!

Ken’s latest roleplaying game, *The Fall of Delta Green*, is now available for preorder from Pelgrane Press. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agent hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.

Grab the translated riches of FENIX magazine in a special bundle deal from our friends at Askfageln, over at Indie Press Revolution. Score metric oodles of Ken Hite gaming goodness, a cornucopia of articles, complete games, plus the cartoon antics of Bernard the Barbarian. Warning: in English, not in Swedish. In English, not Swedish.

After years in a remote safe house, he’s back. John Scott Tynes is writing Delta Green again. A mere few days remain in the Kickstarter campaign for Delta Green: The Labyrinth, from Arc Dream Publishing. This all-new collection of organizations presents ready-made sources of allies, enemies, mysteries, and surprises for your Delta Green campaign. Back now for extra Yithians!

**Episode 302: Jack the Riffer** Jul 20, 2018

In the **Gaming Hut** we look at how the same adversary can play very different roles from one game to the next. Serving as an example is Red Jack, created for *Night’s Black Agents* but presently contemplating a killing spree in *The Yellow King Roleplaying Game*.

The **Tradecraft Hut** examines China’s latest hacking coup against the US, snaffling up 614 gigs of tech specs on the Sea Dragon submarine munitions project.

In the **Narrative Hut** we weigh the various definitions of the word protagonist, deciding which one of them is the most useful to writers.

Finally Ken’s Time Machine surveys the adjusted timeline that would result from rescuing Polish resistance hero Witold Pilecki from execution by the Soviet-backed regime in 1948.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

The island of Al Amarja may have moved from its classic 1990s location, but don’t be fooled. *Over the Edge* is indeed back, with Jonathan Tweet updating his classic and influential game design. Get ready to duck New Age cultists, baboon-wielding gangsters, twisted assassins when the roleplaying game of weird modern danger is Kickstarting now!

Ken’s latest roleplaying game, *The Fall of Delta Green*, is now available for preorder from Pelgrane Press. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agent hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.

Grab the translated riches of FENIX magazine in a special bundle deal from our friends at Askfageln, over at Indie Press Revolution. Score metric oodles of Ken Hite gaming goodness, a cornucopia of articles, complete games, plus the cartoon antics of Bernard the Barbarian. Warning: in English, not in Swedish. In English, not Swedish.

Just in time to save the world, though perhaps not your team of hardened covert agents, from the Mythos, the Delta Green Handlers Guide from Arc Dream Publishing is now in print and either at or headed to a game store near you. The slipcase print edition includes both the *Handlers’ Guide* and *Agents’ Handbook*, fitting snugly into your go bag along with your extra passports and list of weapons caches.

**Episode 301: Thanks For Knowing We Were Right** Jul 13, 2018

The **Gaming Hut** lies at the end of a ten foot corridor this week as Patreon backer Elias Helfer asks us, as paragons of story-driven RPGs, to explain why we think dungeons are awesome.

In Fun With Science we extrapolate a future with affordable carbon reclamation.

With the *Over the Edge* Kickstarter now in progress, we dig into our vault of interviews from last year’s Gen Con to chat with Jonathan Tweet in **Ken and/or Robin Talk To Someone Else**.

If someone tells you their favorite esoteric writer is Julius Evola, you just heard your cue to back away slowly. The **Consulting Occultist** is here to tell you why.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

The island of Al Amarja may have moved from its classic 1990s location, but don’t be fooled. *Over the Edge* is indeed back, with Jonathan Tweet updating his classic and influential game design. Get ready to duck New Age cultists, baboon-wielding gangsters, twisted assassins when the roleplaying game of weird modern danger is Kickstarting now!

Ken’s latest roleplaying game, *The Fall of Delta Green*, is now available for preorder from Pelgrane Press. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agent hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.

Grab the translated riches of FENIX magazine in a special bundle deal from our friends at Askfageln, over at Indie Press Revolution. Score metric oodles of Ken Hite gaming goodness, a cornucopia of articles, complete games, plus the cartoon antics of Bernard the Barbarian. Warning: in English, not in Swedish. In English, not Swedish.

Just in time to save the world, though perhaps not your team of hardened covert agents, from the Mythos, the Delta Green Handlers Guide from Arc Dream Publishing is now in print and either at or headed to a game store near you. The slipcase print edition includes both the *Handlers’ Guide* and *Agents’ Handbook*, fitting snugly into your go bag along with your extra passports and list of weapons caches.

**Episode 300: LIGHTNING RO-O-O-O-O-O-OUND** Jul 06, 2018

It’s been 300 installments, just a smidge shy of six years, and longtime listeners and backers know what that means. Time for another episode-length **Lightning Round**, as we provide uncharacteristically snappy As to Qs about games, beverages, monsters, bees and the ever-proverbial so much more.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

The island of Al Amarja may have moved from its classic 1990s location, but don’t be fooled. *Over the Edge* is indeed back, with Jonathan Tweet updating his classic and influential game design. Get ready to duck New Age cultists, baboon-wielding gangsters, twisted assassins when the roleplaying game of weird modern danger hits Kickstarter on July 10th.

Ken’s latest roleplaying game, *The Fall of Delta Green*, is now available for preorder from Pelgrane Press. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agent hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.

Grab the translated riches of FENIX magazine in a special bundle deal from our friends at Askfageln, over at Indie Press Revolution. Score metric oodles of Ken Hite gaming goodness, a cornucopia of articles, complete games, plus the cartoon antics of Bernard the Barbarian. Warning: in English, not in Swedish. In English, not Swedish.

Just in time to save the world, though perhaps not your team of hardened covert agents, from the Mythos, the Delta Green Handlers Guide from Arc Dream Publishing is now in print and either at or headed to a game store near you. The slipcase print edition includes both the *Handlers’ Guide* and *Agents’ Handbook*, fitting snugly into your go bag along with your extra passports and list of weapons caches.

**Episode 299: Mostly Claw Dudes** Jun 29, 2018

The **Gaming Hut** has a bunch of vampires in the shop for adjustments as we look at the process of adapting creatures between systems.

In **Ken and/or Robin Talk To Someone Else**, Ken talks to Rich Ranallo about the new edition of *Velvet Generation*, now on Kickstarter. Listen close and you’ll hear Ken’s lightning bolt face makeup.

As a milestone beckons, **Ask Ken and Robin** finds us in the mood for a meta-question. Thank goodness Patreon backer Ian Carlsen is here to request a glimpse behind the KARTAS scenes.

Finally, Leprejuan beckons us into the **Eliptony Hut** to ponder the Mad Gasser of Mattoon.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Join the intrigue of the Cursed Court, the award-festooned, quick-playing, gorgeous new board game from Atlas Games. Anticipate the moves of the King, Queen, Priestess and Assassin in the game Bruno Faidutti calls “an unexpected masterwork.” Ken’s latest roleplaying game, *The Fall of Delta Green*, is now available for preorder from Pelgrane Press. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agent hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.

Grab the translated riches of FENIX magazine in a special bundle deal from our friends at Askfageln, over at Indie Press Revolution. Score metric oodles of Ken Hite gaming goodness, a cornucopia of articles, complete games, plus the cartoon antics of Bernard the Barbarian. Warning: in English, not in Swedish. In English, not Swedish.

Just in time to save the world, though perhaps not your team of hardened covert agents, from the Mythos, the Delta Green Handlers Guide from Arc Dream Publishing is now in print and either at or headed to a game store near you. The slipcase print edition includes both the *Handlers’ Guide* and *Agents’ Handbook*, fitting snugly into your go bag along with your extra passports and list of weapons caches.

**Episode 298: Now We’re Just Gygaxing** Jun 22, 2018

Having both recently moved big projects off our plates and into post-production, we convene in the **Gaming Hut** to look at lessons and surprises from our design work on *Vampire: the Masquerade 5th Edition* and *The Yellow King Roleplaying Game*.

In the **Horror Hut**, we respond to the wish of Patreon backer Stephen Perpitch-Harvey to talk about jinn.

**Among My Many Hats** has Robin donning the headgear of an ancient horse clan to talk about *Six Ages: Ride Like the Wind*, the new iOS game follow-up to King of Dragon Pass, featuring nine novels worth of his writing. Send your Swords and Bows to the pre-order now.

Finally the **Consulting Occultist** opens a perilous tome to tell us about Reginald Scot and *The Discoverie of Witchcraft*.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Join the intrigue of the Cursed Court, the award-festooned, quick-playing, gorgeous new board game from Atlas Games. Anticipate the moves of the King, Queen, Priestess and Assassin in the game Bruno Faidutti calls “an unexpected masterwork.” Ken’s latest roleplaying game, *The Fall of Delta Green*, is now available for preorder from Pelgrane Press. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agent hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.

Grab the translated riches of FENIX magazine in a special bundle deal from our friends at Askfageln, over at Indie Press Revolution. Score metric oodles of Ken Hite gaming goodness, a cornucopia of articles, complete games, plus the cartoon antics of Bernard the Barbarian. Warning: in English, not in Swedish. In English, not Swedish.

Just in time to save the world (though maybe not your team of hardened covert agents) from the Cthulhu Mythos, the Delta Green Handlers Guide from Arc Dream Publishing is now in print and either at or headed to a game store near you. The slipcase print edition includes both the *Handlers’ Guide* and *Agents’ Handbook*, fitting snugly into your go bag along with your extra passports and list of weapons caches.

**Episode 297: Walrus Revenge** Jun 15, 2018
Do gamers like choice more than ordinary humans? We raised the question several episodes back, and now it’s all grown up into its very own **Gaming Hut** segment.

In the Tradecraft Hut we look at the espionage allegations leveled against the Chinese telecom giant ZTE.

Then the time comes for a brand new segment, the **T-Shirt Justification Hut**, in which we prepare you for the wearable terror of Walrus Revenge. Grab the shirt here!

Finally the **Eliptony Hut** augments its customary tinfoil hat with a bell-bottoms and platform shoes as Patreon backer Stacy Forsythe wants to know why the 70s was such a high water mark for weirdness studies.

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

*Snag Ken and Robin merchandise* *at TeePublic*.

Join the intrigue of the Cursed Court, the award-festooned, quick-playing, gorgeous new board game from Atlas Games. Anticipate the moves of the King, Queen, Priestess and Assassin in the game Bruno Faidutti calls “an unexpected masterwork.”

Ken’s latest roleplaying game, *The Fall of Delta Green*, is now available for preorder from Pelgrane Press. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agent hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.

Grab the translated riches of FENIX magazine in a special bundle deal from our friends at Askfageln, over at Indie Press Revolution. Score metric oodles of Ken Hite gaming goodness, a cornucopia of articles, complete games, plus the cartoon antics of Bernard the Barbarian. Warning: in English, not in Swedish. In English, not Swedish.

With your *Handlers Guide* already at your side, it’s time to assemble some operations to spiral your Delta Green operatives into paranoia and Mythos horror. Delta Green: A Night at the Opera features six terrifying adventures from the conspiratorial minds of Dennis Detwiller, Shane Ivey, and Greg Stolze. Preorder before it’s desperately too late!

**Episode 296: Build a Crummy Robot and Call It Gnostic** Jun 08, 2018

Not by chance do we start in the **Gaming Hut**, for a look at the role of coincidence in various mystery genres.

Then at the behest of Patreon backer Stewart Robertson we duck into the secret recesses of the **Mythology Hut** for a 101 on Gnosticism.

In **Ask Ken and Robin**, backer Aaron Galen White wants Robin to tell him more about Don DeLillo’s *Zero K*, and the treatment of genre tropes in literary fiction.

Then **Ken’s Time Machine** revs up to see, at the request of backer Jacob Boersma, what a timeline without the Chernobyl disaster would look like.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Join the intrigue of the Cursed Court, the award-festooned, quick-playing, gorgeous new board game from Atlas Games. Anticipate the moves of the King, Queen, Priestess and Assassin in the game Bruno Faidutti calls “an unexpected masterwork.”

Ken’s latest roleplaying game, *The Fall of Delta Green*, is now available for preorder from Pelgrane Press. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agent hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.

Grab the translated riches of FENIX magazine in a special bundle deal from our friends at Askfageln, over at Indie Press Revolution. Score metric oodles of Ken Hite gaming goodness, a cornucopia of articles, complete games, plus the cartoon antics of Bernard the Barbarian. Warning: in English, not in Swedish. In English, not Swedish.

With your *Handlers Guide* already at your side, it’s time to assemble some operations to spiral your Delta Green operatives into paranoia and Mythos horror. Delta Green: A Night at the Opera features six terrifying adventures from the conspiratorial minds of Dennis Detwiller, Shane Ivey, and Greg Stolze. Preorder before it’s desperately too late!

**Episode 295: That’s Why They Call It Ichor** Jun 01, 2018

Another all-request episode begins in the **Gaming Hut**, where Patreon backer David Shaw wants us to turn supermarket tokens into an eldritch menace.

In the **Architecture Hut** Ken fills us in on the Chicago Spire Pit, at the behest of backer Neal Kaplan.

Backer Steve Sick joins us in the plush seating of the **Cinema Hut** for a samurai film 101.

And Ash Jackson is the Scrollbard meets us in the parlor of the **Consulting Occultist** to get each of us to circumscribe a sacred alphabet.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Join the intrigue of the Cursed Court, the award-festooned, quick-playing, gorgeous new board game from Atlas Games. Anticipate the moves of the King, Queen, Priestess and Assassin in the game Bruno Faidutti calls “an unexpected masterwork.”

Ken’s latest roleplaying game, *The Fall of Delta Green*, is now available for preorder from Pelgrane Press. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agent hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.

Grab the translated riches of FENIX magazine in a special bundle deal from our friends at Askfageln, over at Indie Press Revolution. Score metric oodles of Ken Hite gaming goodness, a cornucopia of articles, complete games, plus the cartoon antics of Bernard the Barbarian. Warning: in English, not in Swedish. In English, not Swedish.

With your *Handlers Guide* already at your side, it’s time to assemble some operations to spiral your Delta Green operatives into paranoia and Mythos horror. Delta Green: A Night at the Opera features six terrifying adventures from the conspiratorial minds of Dennis Detwiller, Shane Ivey, and Greg Stolze. Preorder before it’s desperately too late!

**Episode 294: More Poison Duck** May 25, 2018

Patreon backer Andy Olson invites us to plan a fantasy heist in the Gaming Hut.

In the **Tradecraft Hut** backer Andrew Miller debriefs us on the Fat Leonard case.

**How to Write Good** looks at invented slang, with examples from Robin’s upcoming King in Yellow novel, *The Missing and the Lost*.

Then we check backer Karl Schmidt’s goblet for traces of toxin as the **History Hut** visits that remarkable foe of Rome, Mithridates VI, aka the Poison King.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

In Atlas Games’ wickedly different cooperative deck-building game *Witches of the Revolution*, you and your doughty coven fight the American Revolution the way it was really fought: with spells aplenty! Resurrect Ben Franklin, cure Paul Revere of lycanthropy and keep those red-coated witch hunters at bay.

Ken’s latest roleplaying game, *The Fall of Delta Green*, is now available for preorder from Pelgrane Press. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agent hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.

Grab the translated riches of FENIX magazine in a special bundle deal from our friends at Askfageln, over at Indie Press Revolution. Score metric oodles of Ken Hite gaming goodness, a cornucopia of articles, complete games, plus the cartoon antics of Bernard the Barbarian. Warning: in English, not in Swedish. In English, not Swedish.

With your *Handlers Guide* already at your side, it’s time to assemble some operations to spiral your Delta Green operatives into paranoia and Mythos horror. Delta Green: A Night at the Opera features six terrifying adventures from the conspiratorial minds of Dennis Detwiller, Shane Ivey, and Greg Stolze. Preorder before it’s desperately too late!

**Episode 293: Kill America’s Famous Pigs** May 18, 2018

Stop plinking those kobolds and pop into the **Gaming Hut** as we ask if today’s median gamer is less motivated than before by the prospect of in-game reward.

In **Ask Ken and Robin**, Patreon backer Neal Dalton asks Ken how he chooses game systems and pitches them to his players.

We enter the **Cartography Hut** to look at the persuasive qualities of maps. Check out Cornell’s online archive of polemical maps. Maps referenced include The Awakening, The Russian Octopus, and Pig Nicknames of the US States.

And finally, at the request of backers Rich Ranallo, Jurie Horneman, and also everyone, the **Archeaology Hut** asks why the Hobby Lobby retail chain was importing looted Sumerian incantations.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

In Atlas Games’ wickedly different cooperative deck-building game *Witches of the Revolution*, you and your doughty coven fight the American Revolution the way it was really fought: with spells aplenty! Resurrect Ben Franklin, cure Paul Revere of lycanthropy and keep those red-coated witch hunters at bay.

Ken’s latest roleplaying game, *The Fall of Delta Green*, is now available for preorder from Atlas Games. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agent hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.

Grab the translated riches of FENIX magazine in a special bundle deal from our friends at Askfageln, over at Indie Press Revolution. Score metric oodles of Ken Hite gaming goodness, a cornucopia of articles, complete games, plus the cartoon antics of Bernard the Barbarian. Warning: in English, not in Swedish. In English, not Swedish.

With your *Handlers Guide* already at your side, it’s time to assemble some operations to spiral your Delta Green operatives into paranoia and Mythos horror. Delta Green: A Night at the Opera features six terrifying adventures from the conspiratorial minds of Dennis Detwiller, Shane Ivey, and Greg Stolze. Preorder before it’s desperately too late!

**Episode 292: Double Skeleton Town** May 11, 2018

The **Gaming Hut** takes place inside the **Tradecraft Hut**, or is it the other way around, as we, with the assistance of a FOIA request, investigate CIA-designed board games.

**How to Write Good** looks at the particular challenges of creating game fiction.

In the **Food Hut** we open a few bottles alongside Patreon backer Tim Vert, who wants to know about wines in fantasy worlds.

Finally the Eliptony Hut tackles the mystery of the Roanoke Colony disappearance.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

In Atlas Games’ wickedly different cooperative deck-building game *Witches of the Revolution*, you and your doughty coven fight the American Revolution the way it was really fought: with spells aplenty! Resurrect Ben Franklin, cure Paul Revere of lycanthropy and keep those red-coated witch hunters at bay.

Ken’s latest roleplaying game, *The Fall of Delta Green*, is now available for preorder from Pelgrane Press. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agent hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.

Grab the translated riches of FENIX magazine in a special bundle deal from our friends at Askfageln, over at Indie Press Revolution. Score metric oodles of Ken Hite gaming goodness, a cornucopia of articles, complete games, plus the cartoon antics of Bernard the Barbarian. Warning: in English, not in Swedish. In English, not Swedish.

With your *Handlers Guide* already at your side, it’s time to assemble some operations to spiral your Delta Green operatives into paranoia and Mythos horror. Delta Green: A Night at the Opera features six terrifying adventures from the conspiratorial minds of Dennis Detwiller, Shane Ivey, and Greg Stolze. Preorder before it’s desperately too late!

**Episode 291: Where Magic Goes to Die** May 04, 2018

In the **Gaming Hut**, Patreon backer SR points us to an archived trove of CounterSpy magazine and asks how to make use of it in *Fall of DELTA GREEN*.

We wouldn’t lead you on in an elaborate scheme of deception, and so have returned for the second part of a **Cinema Hut** question from backer Chris Camfield, laying down our 101 of con man films.

In **Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else**, Ken talks to designer Alex Roberts about her RPG *Star-Crossed, The Two-Player Game of Forbidden Love*, on Kickstarter until May 10th.

Then the **Consulting Occultist** goes West Coast as we examine the ley line implications of the L.A. Times leaving its iconic art deco headquarters.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

In Atlas Games’ wickedly different cooperative deck-building game *Witches of the Revolution*, you and your doughty coven fight the American Revolution the way it was really fought: with spells aplenty! Resurrect Ben Franklin, cure Paul Revere of lycanthropy and keep those red-coated witch hunters at bay.

Ken’s latest roleplaying game, *The Fall of Delta Green*, is now available for preorder from Atlas Games. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agent hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.

Grab the translated riches of FENIX magazine in a special bundle deal from our friends at Askfageln, over at Indie Press Revolution. Score metric oodles of Ken Hite gaming goodness, a cornucopia of articles, complete games, plus the cartoon antics of Bernard the Barbarian. Warning: in English, not in Swedish. In English, not Swedish.

With your *Handlers Guide* already at your side, it’s time to assemble some operations to spiral your Delta Green operatives into paranoia and Mythos horror. Delta Green: A Night at the Opera features six terrifying adventures from the conspiratorial minds of Dennis Detwiller, Shane Ivey, and Greg Stolze. Preorder before it’s desperately too late!

**Episode 290: Leaves Don’t Work on PayPal** Apr 27, 2018

In the **Gaming Hut** we cover ways to design monsters to star in investigative scenarios.

We tromp into the **Command Hut** at the behest of Patreon backer Thomas Vallejos, who wants to know the deep secrets behind a proposal to revive the US Army’s iconic WWII-era uniform style.

In **Ask Ken and Robin**, backer Daniel Krauklis asks about writing scenarios featuring underrepresented groups.

Finally, hold onto your library cards as, thanks to a query from backer Michael Parker, the **Consulting Occultist** investigates the theft of an Isaac Newton manuscript from the Carnegie Rare Books room.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

In Atlas Games’ wickedly different cooperative deck-building game *Witches of the Revolution*, you and your doughty coven fight the American Revolution the way it was really fought: with spells aplenty! Resurrect Ben Franklin, cure Paul Revere of lycanthropy and keep those red-coated witch hunters at bay.

Ken’s latest roleplaying game, *The Fall of Delta Green*, is now available for preorder from Atlas Games. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agent hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.

Grab the translated riches of FENIX magazine in a special bundle deal from our friends at Askfageln, over at Indie Press Revolution. Score metric oodles of Ken Hite gaming goodness, a cornucopia of articles, complete games, plus the cartoon antics of Bernard the Barbarian. Warning: in English, not in Swedish. In English, not Swedish.

With your *Handlers Guide* already at your side, it’s time to assemble some operations to spiral your Delta Green operatives into paranoia and Mythos horror. Delta Green: A Night at the Opera features six terrifying adventures from the conspiratorial minds of Dennis Detwiller, Shane Ivey, and Greg Stolze. Preorder before it’s desperately too late!

**Episode 289: CHRONOCA$H** Apr 20, 2018

Picking up a thread left hanging a few episodes back, the **Gaming Hut** looks at ways to make a mundane solution to an apparently occult mystery work satisfyingly for your players.

The **Tradecraft Hut** peers behind the headlines of the Skripal poisoning case.

In the **Cinema Hut** Patreon backer Chris Camfield asks for the 101 on heist flicks.

Then **Ken’s Time Machine** gets back to its core business, the alternate timeline, by finding out what would happen when William Duer’s 1791 attempt to take control of the Bank of the United States succeeds.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

In Atlas Games’ wickedly different cooperative deck-building game *Witches of the Revolution*, you and your doughty coven fight the American Revolution the way it was really fought: with spells aplenty! Resurrect Ben Franklin, cure Paul Revere of lycanthropy and keep those red-coated witch hunters at bay.

Ken’s latest roleplaying game, *The Fall of Delta Green*, is now available for preorder from Atlas Games. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agent hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.

Grab the translated riches of FENIX magazine in a special bundle deal from our friends at Askfageln, over at Indie Press Revolution. Score metric oodles of Ken Hite gaming goodness, a cornucopia of articles, complete games, plus the cartoon antics of Bernard the Barbarian. Warning: in English, not in Swedish. In English, not Swedish.

With your *Handlers Guide* already at your side, it’s time to assemble some operations to spiral your Delta Green operatives into paranoia and Mythos horror. Delta Green: A Night at the Opera features six terrifying adventures from the conspiratorial minds of Dennis Detwiller, Shane Ivey, and Greg Stolze. Preorder before it’s desperately too late!

**Episode 288: Grift the Pope** Apr 13, 2018

Another all-request episode begins in the Gaming Hut, as Patreon backer Ruth Tillman asks us how we might game *Annihilation* in both its film and novel iterations.

We head into the **Book Hut** at the behest of backer Sean Gomez, who wants to know more about Ken’s recent William Haggard fixation and spy thriller inspiration for Fall of DELTA GREEN more generally.

In **Ask Ken and Robin** backer Louis Sylvester asks Robin, and also Ken, about devices to incorporate weird sounds and other subtle horror moments into games and fiction.

Finally, in the **History Hut**, with indulgences purchased by backer Jacob Ansari, we investigate the career of the pretender-monk Paul Palaiologos Tagaris.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

In Atlas Games’ wickedly different cooperative deck-building game *Witches of the Revolution*, you and your doughty coven fight the American Revolution the way it was really fought: with spells aplenty! Resurrect Ben Franklin, cure Paul Revere of lycanthropy and keep those red-coated witch hunters at bay.

Ken’s latest roleplaying game, *The Fall of Delta Green*, is now available for preorder from Atlas Games. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agent hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.

Grab the translated riches of FENIX magazine in a special bundle deal from our friends at Askfageln, over at Indie Press Revolution. Score metric oodles of Ken Hite gaming goodness, a cornucopia of articles, complete games, plus the cartoon antics of Bernard the Barbarian. Warning: in English, not in Swedish. In English, not Swedish.

With your *Handlers Guide* already at your side, it’s time to assemble some operations to spiral your Delta Green operatives into paranoia and Mythos horror. Delta Green: A Night at the Opera features six terrifying adventures from the conspiratorial minds of Dennis Detwiller, Shane Ivey, and Greg Stolze. Preorder before it’s desperately too late!

**Episode 287: In League With Leopard Seals** Apr 06, 2018

Robin tries out a new maxim in **That Thing I Always Say**: in a game RPG session, the only way to go off track is a dead end.

In **The Culture of Gaming**, we look at gatekeeping, which rears its head once more with the rise of streamed play.

Finally, in **Ken’s Bookshelf**, our resident bibliomane caresses the teetering pile of books he liberated from Moe’s Books in the Bay Area.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

In Atlas Games’ wickedly different cooperative deck-building game *Witches of the Revolution*, you and your doughty coven fight the American Revolution the way it was really fought: with spells aplenty! Resurrect Ben Franklin, cure Paul Revere of lycanthropy and keep those red-coated witch hunters at bay.

Ken’s latest roleplaying game, *The Fall of Delta Green*, is now available for preorder from Atlas Games. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agent hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.

Grab the translated riches of FENIX magazine in a special bundle deal from our friends at Askfageln, over at Indie Press Revolution. Score metric oodles of Ken Hite gaming goodness, a cornucopia of articles, complete games, plus the cartoon antics of Bernard the Barbarian. Warning: in English, not in Swedish. In English, not Swedish.

With your *Handlers Guide* already at your side, it’s time to assemble some operations to spiral your Delta Green operatives into paranoia and Mythos horror. Delta Green: A Night at the Opera features six terrifying adventures from the conspiratorial minds of Dennis Detwiller, Shane Ivey, and Greg Stolze. Preorder before it’s desperately too late!

**Episode 286: Guy Across the Stupid Mountain** Mar 30, 2018

Keep a close eye on your open beverage as the **Gaming Hut** spins a *Fall of DELTA GREEN* arc from that most notorious of covert programs, MKULTRA.

The **Food Hut** goes sequel for Instant Pot II: The Instant Pottening.

Look over your shoulder for copycats as the Horror Hut investigates doppelgangers and body snatchers.

One more warning: keep swords safely stored in their stones as the **Eliptony Hut** gives the 101 on historical Arthur theories. *[Here’s Dr. Caitlin Green’s superb fun-ruiner deluxe/grownup literature review as mentioned at the end of this segment: “The Historicity and Historicisation of Arthur” –KH]*

Want to pose a question to the show?

Get your priority question asking access with your support for the KARTAS Patreon! Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

In Atlas Games’ wickedly different cooperative deck-building game *Witches of the Revolution*, you and your doughty coven fight the American Revolution the way it was really fought: with spells aplenty! Resurrect Ben Franklin, cure Paul Revere of lycanthropy and keep those red-coated witch hunters at bay.

Ken’s latest roleplaying game, *The Fall of Delta Green*, is now available for preorder from Atlas Games. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agent hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.

Grab the translated riches of FENIX magazine in a special bundle deal from our friends at Askfageln, over at Indie Press Revolution. Score metric oodles of Ken Hite gaming goodness, a cornucopia of articles, complete games, plus the cartoon antics of Bernard the Barbarian. Warning: in English, not in Swedish. In English, not Swedish.

With your *Handlers Guide* already at your side, it’s time to assemble some operations to spiral your Delta Green operatives into paranoia and Mythos horror. Delta Green: A Night at the Opera features six terrifying adventures from the conspiratorial minds of Dennis Detwiller, Shane Ivey, and Greg Stolze. Preorder before it’s desperately too late!

**Episode 285: 2) Get In Too Deep** Mar 23, 2018

You have nothing to lose but your chains, and also your handcuffs, and possibly also your orange prison scrubs, as the **Gaming Hut** shows you what to do the next time your PC gets captured.

The **Tradecraft Hut** probes off-books financial arrangements in covert operations, as inspired by a request from Patreon backer Chris Sellers. Chris wants us to turn this real-life ATF finagle into fodder for *Night’s Black Agents* and *Fall of Delta Green*.

Backer Michael Maneval, meanwhile, wants the PCs to become meddling kids. In **Ask Ken and Robin** we mull the ingredients needed to run a Scooby-Doo game.

Finally, in **Ken’s Time Machine**, backer Daniel Fidelman gets back to the classic premise of the segment to ask what our chrono-hero would have to do to add native American states to the American map.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

In Atlas Games’ wickedly different cooperative deck-building game *Witches of the Revolution*, you and your doughty coven fight the American Revolution the way it was really fought: with spells aplenty! Resurrect Ben Franklin, cure Paul Revere of lycanthropy and keep those red-coated witch hunters at bay.

Ken’s latest roleplaying game, *The Fall of Delta Green*, is now available for preorder from Atlas Games. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agent hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.

Navigate your love of the Lone Wolf game books and/or fantasy inspired by medieval Italy with the Sommerlund Map set Kickstarter from Askfageln. Revel in 1o gorgeous maps inspired by Joe Dever’s classic fantasy setting and the city of Bologna.

With your *Handlers Guide* already at your side, it’s time to assemble some operations to spiral your Delta Green operatives into paranoia and Mythos horror. Delta Green: A Night at the Opera features six terrifying adventures from the conspiratorial minds of Dennis Detwiller, Shane Ivey, and Greg Stolze. Preorder before it’s desperately too late!

**Episode 284: There’s Always a Worse Writer Death** Mar 16, 2018

Ken dons raffish 60s-vintage headgear to give *The Fall of DELTA GREEN*, now available for preorder, the **Among My Many Hats** treatment.

Robin reviews ways to shape a dramatic scene in **How to Write Good**.

We look at the science of choice and its implications for tabletop design in the **Gaming Hut**. Referenced in this segment: *The Art of Choosing* by Sheena Iyengar.

Finally the **Consulting Occultist** finds another Nazi mystic to talk about, as Patreon backer Bret Kramer asks for a profile on Savitri Devi.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

In Atlas Games’ wickedly different cooperative deck-building game *Witches of the Revolution*, you and your doughty coven fight the American Revolution the way it was really fought: with spells aplenty! Resurrect Ben Franklin, cure Paul Revere of lycanthropy and keep those red-coated witch hunters at bay.

Ken’s latest roleplaying game, *The Fall of Delta Green*, is now available for preorder from Atlas Games. Journey to the head-spinning chaos of the late 1960s, back when everyone’s favorite anti-Cthulhu special ops agent hadn’t gone rogue yet, for this pulse-pounding GUMSHOE game of war, covert action, and Mythos horror.

Navigate your love of the Lone Wolf game books and/or fantasy inspired by medieval Italy with the Sommerlund Map set Kickstarter from Askfageln. Revel in 1o gorgeous maps inspired by Joe Dever’s classic fantasy setting and the city of Bologna.

With your *Handlers Guide* already at your side, it’s time to assemble some operations to spiral your Delta Green operatives into paranoia and Mythos horror. Delta Green: A Night at the Opera features six terrifying adventures from the conspiratorial minds of Dennis Detwiller, Shane Ivey, and Greg Stolze. Preorder before it’s desperately too late!

**Episode 283: It’s Just a Tumor Tree** Mar 09, 2018

We gather suspiciously in the **Gaming Hut** to ask if and how GMs can assist players in horror games who want their characters to exercise a Scully-like skepticism.

We break into the **History Hut** at the behest of Patreon backer Andy Young, who seeks the scoop on fresh-faced 19th century burglar Edward Jones.

In **Ask Ken and Robin** Andy Bates seeks help incorporating the Witches Tree, which haunts his hometown of Louisville, into his gaming.

Speaking of mysteries, how the heck have we done 283 episodes without getting around to Springheeled Jack? We finally remedy that oversight in the **Eliptony Hut**.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

In Atlas Games’ wickedly different cooperative deck-building game *Witches of the Revolution*, you and your doughty coven fight the American Revolution the way it was really fought: with spells aplenty! Resurrect Ben Franklin, cure Paul Revere of lycanthropy and keep those red-coated witch hunters at bay.

It wasn’t on the maps. No one talked about it. But now you live there. Cthulhu City. Where the mayor goes everywhere with twin sacred jaguars, and the chief of police blinks at your with fishy eyes. Where the cultists run city hall and the investigators are hunted criminals. Cthulhu City, the new *Trail of Cthulhu* sourcebook from Pelgrane Press, by Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan.

Navigate your love of the Lone Wolf game books and/or fantasy inspired by medieval Italy with the Sommerlund Map set Kickstarter from Askfageln. Revel in 1o gorgeous maps inspired by Joe Dever’s classic fantasy setting and the city of Bologna.

With your *Handlers Guide* already at your side, it’s time to assemble some operations to spiral your Delta Green operatives into paranoia and Mythos horror. Delta Green: A Night at the Opera features six terrifying adventures from the conspiratorial minds of Dennis Detwiller, Shane Ivey, and Greg Stolze. Preorder before it’s desperately too late!

**Episode 282: Haunted Anarchist Texts** Mar 02, 2018

In the Gaming Hut we put up our dukes and look at ways to frame fights that advance the story.

Oscar time is upon us, so as is our annual wont we pop into the **Cinema Hut** for a look back at our favorite films of 2017.

Recovering from the red carpet, we visit the **Consulting Occultist**, who has been checking out the initial offerings placed online by the Ritman Library of occult texts.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

In Atlas Games’ wickedly different cooperative deck-building game *Witches of the Revolution*, you and your doughty coven fight the American Revolution the way it was really fought: with spells aplenty! Resurrect Ben Franklin, cure Paul Revere of lycanthropy and keep those red-coated witch hunters at bay.

It wasn’t on the maps. No one talked about it. But now you live there. Cthulhu City. Where the mayor goes everywhere with twin sacred jaguars, and the chief of police blinks at your with fishy eyes. Where the cultists run city hall and the investigators are hunted criminals. Cthulhu City, the new *Trail of Cthulhu* sourcebook from Pelgrane Press, by Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan.

Navigate your love of the Lone Wolf game books and/or fantasy inspired by medieval Italy with the Sommerlund Map set Kickstarter from Askfageln. Revel in 1o gorgeous maps inspired by Joe Dever’s classic fantasy setting and the city of Bologna.

With your *Handlers Guide* already at your side, it’s time to assemble some operations to spiral your Delta Green operatives into paranoia and Mythos horror. Delta Green: A Night at the Opera features six terrifying adventures from the conspiratorial minds of Dennis Detwiller, Shane Ivey, and Greg Stolze. Preorder before it’s desperately too late!

**Episode 281: In Service of the Yeast God** Feb 23, 2018

We swear we didn’t plan this, but Patreon backer Chris Sellers showed up unexpectedly in the **Gaming Hut** to ask about improvising GUMSHOE scenarios.

The location of the **Tradecraft Hut** has been dangerously exposed, and only our look at fitness apps as a threat to operational security will save us.

In an equally sudden turn, **How to Write Good** examines transitions between scenes, as codified in Robin’s new book for creators of fiction, Beating the Story. Get the electronic editions immediately by taking part in the print book preorder.

A final surprise lies in store for us in December of 1926, where **Ken’s Time Machine** grants Patreon backer David Shaw’s request for the story behind the story of the Agatha Christie disappearance.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

In Atlas Games’ wickedly different cooperative deck-building game *Witches of the Revolution*, you and your doughty coven fight the American Revolution the way it was really fought: with spells aplenty! Resurrect Ben Franklin, cure Paul Revere of lycanthropy and keep those red-coated witch hunters at bay.

It wasn’t on the maps. No one talked about it. But now you live there. Cthulhu City. Where the mayor goes everywhere with twin sacred jaguars, and the chief of police blinks at your with fishy eyes. Where the cultists run city hall and the investigators are hunted criminals. Cthulhu City, the new *Trail of Cthulhu* sourcebook from Pelgrane Press, by Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan.

Navigate your love of the Lone Wolf game books and/or fantasy inspired by medieval Italy with the Sommerlund Map set Kickstarter from Askfageln. Revel in 1o gorgeous maps inspired by Joe Dever’s classic fantasy setting and the city of Bologna.

With your *Handlers Guide* already at your side, it’s time to assemble some operations to spiral your Delta Green operatives into paranoia and Mythos horror. Delta Green: A Night at the Opera features six terrifying adventures from the conspiratorial minds of Dennis Detwiller, Shane Ivey, and Greg Stolze. Preorder before it’s desperately too late!

**Episode 280: Problem Solving Gases** Feb 16, 2018

February loses its rep as the cruelest month when we confront it with an all-hut, all-request episode, in tribute to our fabulous Patreon backers.

In the **Gaming Hut**, Tom Bagatelle seeks guidance on a sandbox time travel campaign.

Peter Williamson adds reclining couches to the **Food Hut** as we consider the Roman cookbook attributed to Apicius.

Zachary Joyner meets us in the **Cartography Hut** for the 101 on telling stories with places.

Finally David Sowa makes an urgent topical request in the **Eliptony Hut**. Dare we crack the mystery of Taco Bell’s Belluminati ads?

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

In Atlas Games’ wickedly different cooperative deck-building game *Witches of the Revolution*, you and your doughty coven fight the American Revolution the way it was really fought: with spells aplenty! Resurrect Ben Franklin, cure Paul Revere of lycanthropy and keep those red-coated witch hunters at bay.

It wasn’t on the maps. No one talked about it. But now you live there. Cthulhu City. Where the mayor goes everywhere with twin sacred jaguars, and the chief of police blinks at your with fishy eyes. Where the cultists run city hall and the investigators are hunted criminals. Cthulhu City, the new *Trail of Cthulhu* sourcebook from Pelgrane Press, by Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan.

It’s tiny, it fits on your keychain, it’s complete and flexible, and it’s already almost gone. Askfageln presents the Kickstarter for the Keychain RPG, now in English, not Swedish.

With your *Handlers Guide* already at your side, it’s time to assemble some operations to spiral your Delta Green operatives into paranoia and Mythos horror. Delta Green: A Night at the Opera features six terrifying adventures from the conspiratorial minds of Dennis Detwiller, Shane Ivey, and Greg Stolze. Preorder before it’s desperately too late!

**Episode 279: Logical Analogy Shock** Feb 09, 2018

Brace yourself for musical metaphors as we head into the Gaming Hut and find that Patreon backer Brian Thomas has left us the logical analogy Orchestra: jazz combo :: play’s ensemble cast : role playing gaming group.

In **Ken and/or Robin Talk To Someone Else**, Ken and Robin talk to Delta Green writer and illustrator Dennis Detwiller.

In the Narrative Hut backers Andrew Miller and Dan O’Hanlon team up to ask just what Robin means when he calls coming-of-age stories the Worst Genre.

Then the **Consulting Occultist** admits backer Hoyle Anderson to his Edwardian snuggery for a cuppa and discussion of zodiac cup tasseography.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

In Atlas Games’ wickedly different cooperative deck-building game *Witches of the Revolution*, you and your doughty coven fight the American Revolution the way it was really fought: with spells aplenty! Resurrect Ben Franklin, cure Paul Revere of lycanthropy and keep those red-coated witch hunters at bay.

It wasn’t on the maps. No one talked about it. But now you live there. Cthulhu City. Where the mayor goes everywhere with twin sacred jaguars, and the chief of police blinks at your with fishy eyes. Where the cultists run city hall and the investigators are hunted criminals. Cthulhu City, the new *Trail of Cthulhu* sourcebook from Pelgrane Press, by Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan.

In *Highway Holocaust* you are Cal Phoenix, the Freeway Warrior, champion and protector of Dallas Colony One. Defend this fragile convoy from H.A.V.O.C. bikers with this exclusive hardcover (with dust jacket and book ribbons), the first choose-your-own-adventure-gamebook in Joe Dever’s post apocalyptic series. From the fine folks at FENIX, now available from Modiphius.

With your *Handlers Guide* already at your side, it’s time to assemble some operations to spiral your Delta Green operatives into paranoia and Mythos horror. Delta Green: A Night at the Opera features six terrifying adventures from the conspiratorial minds of Dennis Detwiller, Shane Ivey, and Greg Stolze. Preorder before it’s desperately too late!

**Episode 278: Full of Panthers** Feb 02, 2018

In Among My Many Hats Robin talks about *Beating the Story*, which gears the story beat system you may know from *Hamlet’s Hit Points* to fiction writing in all of its forms. Pre-order the print book now and get it in electronic form immediately!

As the world continues to turn into one big **Conspiracy Corner**, we look at the escalating weirdness that is Pizzagate.

We shift to fictional, and therefore more plausible, conspiracies as Patreon backer Marco Marini seizes control of **Ask Ken and Robin** to take Fall of Delta Green beyond the Anglosphere.

Finally backer Jason Thompson asks us to deploy **Ken’s Time Machine** on a literary mission, to displace J.R.R. Tolkien as the font of modern fantasy.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

In Atlas Games’ wickedly different cooperative deck-building game *Witches of the Revolution*, you and your doughty coven fight the American Revolution the way it was really fought: with spells aplenty! Resurrect Ben Franklin, cure Paul Revere of lycanthropy and keep those red-coated witch hunters at bay.

It wasn’t on the maps. No one talked about it. But now you live there. Cthulhu City. Where the mayor goes everywhere with twin sacred jaguars, and the chief of police blinks at your with fishy eyes. Where the cultists run city hall and the investigators are hunted criminals. Cthulhu City, the new *Trail of Cthulhu* sourcebook from Pelgrane Press, by Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan.

In *Highway Holocaust* you are Cal Phoenix, the Freeway Warrior, champion and protector of Dallas Colony One. Defend this fragile convoy from H.A.V.O.C. bikers with this exclusive hardcover (with dust jacket and book ribbons), the first choose-your-own-adventure-gamebook in Joe Dever’s post apocalyptic series. From the fine folks at FENIX, now available from Modiphius.

With your *Handlers Guide* already at your side, it’s time to assemble some operations to spiral your Delta Green operatives into paranoia and Mythos horror. Delta Green: A Night at the Opera features six terrifying adventures from the conspiratorial minds of Dennis Detwiller, Shane Ivey, and Greg Stolze. Preorder before it’s desperately too late!

**Episode 277: Knife Fight in the Afterlife** Jan 26, 2018

Ladies and tigers abound as the **Gaming Hut** looks at story choices and how players respond to them.

Then Patreon backer Scott Wachter dusts off the **Archaeology Hut** to ask why King Tut armed himself with a meteor dagger.

Move over, Project Blue Book. There’s a new defunct US government effort to investigate UFOs in town. We duck into the **Eliptony Hut** to discuss AATIP.

Finally we fill the **Cinema Hut** with spoilers as we power up our takes on *Star Wars: The Last Jedi*.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

In Atlas Games’ wickedly different cooperative deck-building game *Witches of the Revolution*, you and your doughty coven fight the American Revolution the way it was really fought: with spells aplenty! Resurrect Ben Franklin, cure Paul Revere of lycanthropy and keep those red-coated witch hunters at bay.

It wasn’t on the maps. No one talked about it. But now you live there. Cthulhu City. Where the mayor goes everywhere with twin sacred jaguars, and the chief of police blinks at your with fishy eyes. Where the cultists run city hall and the investigators are hunted criminals. Cthulhu City, the new *Trail of Cthulhu* sourcebook from Pelgrane Press, by Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan.

In *Highway Holocaust* you are Cal Phoenix, the Freeway Warrior, champion and protector of Dallas Colony One. Defend this fragile convoy from H.A.V.O.C. bikers with this exclusive hardcover (with dust jacket and book ribbons), the first choose-your-own-adventure-gamebook in Joe Dever’s post apocalyptic series. From the fine folks at FENIX, now available from Modiphius.

With your Handlers Guide already at your side, it’s time to assemble some operations to spiral your Delta Green operatives into paranoia and Mythos horror. Delta Green: A Night at the Opera features six terrifying adventures from the conspiratorial minds of Dennis Detwiller, Shane Ivey, and Greg Stolze. Preorder before it’s desperately too late!

**Episode 276: Retinue of Clowns and Goofs** Jan 19, 2018

Yeah verily and anon, the **Gaming Hut** goes iambic pentameter as Patreon backer Chris Camfield asks us how to add Shakespearean flavor to a roleplaying campaign.

Then your sweet and savory hosts venture into the **Food Hut** to reveal unbeatable flavor combinations.

Sandhogs and aqueducts turn from research into terror as **Ken and Robin Talk To Someone Else** summons Ruth Tillman of *Cthulhu Confidential* fame.

Now it can be told! Not a dream! Not an imaginary story! Finally recalls a book raid he neglected to tell us about previously, as **Ken’s Bookshelf** devours goodly portions of that NYC staple, Strand Books.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

In Atlas Games’ wickedly different cooperative deck-building game *Witches of the Revolution*, you and your doughty coven fight the American Revolution the way it was really fought: with spells aplenty! Resurrect Ben Franklin, cure Paul Revere of lycanthropy and keep those red-coated witch hunters at bay.

It wasn’t on the maps. No one talked about it. But now you live there. Cthulhu City. Where the mayor goes everywhere with twin sacred jaguars, and the chief of police blinks at your with fishy eyes. Where the cultists run city hall and the investigators are hunted criminals. Cthulhu City, the new *Trail of Cthulhu* sourcebook from Pelgrane Press, by Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan.

In *Highway Holocaust* you are Cal Phoenix, the Freeway Warrior, champion and protector of Dallas Colony One. Defend this fragile convoy from H.A.V.O.C. bikers with this exclusive hardcover (with dust jacket and book ribbons), the first choose-your-own-adventure-gamebook in Joe Dever’s post apocalyptic series. From the fine folks at FENIX, now available from Modiphius.

With your Handlers Guide already at your side, it’s time to assemble some operations to spiral your Delta Green operatives into paranoia and Mythos horror. Delta Green: A Night at the Opera features six terrifying adventures from the conspiratorial minds of Dennis Detwiller, Shane Ivey, and Greg Stolze. Preorder before it’s desperately too late!

**Episode 275: Convenient Anti-Harpy Shield** Jan 12, 2018

In the **Gaming Hut** we mull the process of scenario writing, specifically the differences between writing first, or playing first.

Backer Fred Kiesche takes advantage of his Patreon priveleges in Ask Ken and Robin, seeking deeper info on Ken’s current *13th Age* campaign, Poikila Hellenistika.

We take our seats in the **Cinema Hut** to reel off a mere smattering of our favorite character actors of the classic Hollywood studio era.

Finally in **Ken’s Time Machine** Patreon backer Rich Ranallo demands details on our resident chrono-agent’s involvement in Grover Cleveland’s secret nautical surgery.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

In Atlas Games’ wickedly different cooperative deck-building game *Witches of the Revolution*, you and your doughty coven fight the American Revolution the way it was really fought: with spells aplenty! Resurrect Ben Franklin, cure Paul Revere of lycanthropy and keep those red-coated witch hunters at bay.

It wasn’t on the maps. No one talked about it. But now you live there. Cthulhu City. Where the mayor goes everywhere with twin sacred jaguars, and the chief of police blinks at your with fishy eyes. Where the cultists run city hall and the investigators are hunted criminals. Cthulhu City, the new *Trail of Cthulhu* sourcebook from Pelgrane Press, by Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan.

In *Highway Holocaust* you are Cal Phoenix, the Freeway Warrior, champion and protector of Dallas Colony One. Defend this fragile convoy from H.A.V.O.C. bikers with this exclusive hardcover (with dust jacket and book ribbons), the first choose-your-own-adventure-gamebook in Joe Dever’s post apocalyptic series. From the fine folks at FENIX, now available from Modiphius.

With your Handlers Guide already at your side, it’s time to assemble some operations to spiral your Delta Green operatives into paranoia and Mythos horror. Delta Green: A Night at the Opera features six terrifying adventures from the conspiratorial minds of Dennis Detwiller, Shane Ivey, and Greg Stolze. Preorder before it’s desperately too late!

**Episode 274: What Would Thagdar Do?** Jan 05, 2018

It’s 2018 and we’re back, starting as usual in the **Gaming Hut**. Within its cozy confines we answer a question from a mystery backer on achieving genuine emotional investment in roleplaying.

The **History Hut** unfolds its secret plans at the behest of Patreon backer Antti Elomaa, who wants to know why military operations have such evocative names.

The **Narrative Hut** looks at the evolution of the American anti-hero from the 30s to today.

Finally, backer Tim Vert checks in with the **Consulting Occultist** on the status of a possible eclipse child.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

In Atlas Games’ wickedly different cooperative deck-building game *Witches of the Revolution*, you and your doughty coven fight the American Revolution the way it was really fought: with spells aplenty! Resurrect Ben Franklin, cure Paul Revere of lycanthropy and keep those red-coated witch hunters at bay.

It wasn’t on the maps. No one talked about it. But now you live there. Cthulhu City. Where the mayor goes everywhere with twin sacred jaguars, and the chief of police blinks at your with fishy eyes. Where the cultists run city hall and the investigators are hunted criminals. Cthulhu City, the new *Trail of Cthulhu* sourcebook from Pelgrane Press, by Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan.

For decades Tove Gillbring of Askfageln has been a beacon of Swedish gaming. Now her cancer has returned, and she’s determined to focus the rest of her life on an ultimate burst of creative fireworks. Help her husband Anders make that happen by supporting the LOVE TOVE crowdfunding campaign. Please note that the campaign moved to GoFundMe after this episode was recorded.

Delta Green Game Moderators, take heart! Reinforcements have arrived in the form of the *Delta Green Handler’s Guide* from Arc Dream Publishing, bursting with operational details, threats and eldritch history to keep your players locked, loaded, and terrified.

**Episode 273: Live at Dragonmeet 2017** Dec 22, 2017

Our final episode of 2017 arrives with bells a-jangling in the form of our traditional live show from Dragonmeet. Learn about Stalin and Atlantis, what elements of our work we think other designers have picked up on, which beverages go with which iterations of a beloved nerd franchise, why Nazis are stupid, and much much more.

We’ll be back on January 5th with our first episode of 2018.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

In Atlas Games’ wickedly different cooperative deck-building game *Witches of the Revolution*, you and your doughty coven fight the American Revolution the way it was really fought: with spells aplenty! Resurrect Ben Franklin, cure Paul Revere of lycanthropy and keep those red-coated witch hunters at bay.

Sink your fangs into an amazing deal as the Dracula Dossier haunts the Bundle of Holding. This bargain is so unbelievable that it can’t see itself in the mirror, and ends on December 27th!

For decades Tove Gillbring of Askfageln has been a beacon of Swedish gaming. Now her cancer has returned, and she’s determined to focus the rest of her life on an ultimate burst of creative fireworks. Help her husband Anders make that happen by supporting the LOVE TOVE crowdfunding campaign. Please note that the campaign moved to GoFundMe after this episode was recorded.

Delta Green Game Moderators, take heart! Reinforcements have arrived in the form of the *Delta Green Handler’s Guide* from Arc Dream Publishing, bursting with operational details, threats and eldritch history to keep your players locked, loaded, and terrified.

**Episode 272: We Laugh At Your Fireball** Dec 15, 2017

Our throats showing the wear of travel to that most lurghy-inducing of wonderlands, we issue a Travel Advisory on Dragonmeet and the Modigliani show at the Tate Modern in London.

In the **Gaming Hut** we compare and contrast two ways of structuring mystery scenarios: Robin’s Maze of Clues and Ken’s Ocean of Clues.

Longtime listeners are already bracing themselves for what comes next. The fall of the British pound places a heavy burden on the structural integrity of **Ken’s Bookshelf**, as he comes back laden with treasures from Treadwell’s, Foyle’s, and the Tate gift shop.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

In Atlas Games’ wickedly different cooperative deck-building game *Witches of the Revolution*, you and your doughty coven fight the American Revolution the way it was really fought: with spells aplenty! Resurrect Ben Franklin, cure Paul Revere of lycanthropy and keep those red-coated witch hunters at bay.

Sink your fangs into an amazing deal as the Dracula Dossier haunts the Bundle of Holding. This bargain is so unbelievable that it can’t see itself in the mirror, and ends on December 27th!

For decades Tove Gillbring of Askfageln has been a beacon of Swedish gaming. Now her cancer has returned, and she’s determined to focus the rest of her life on an ultimate burst of creative fireworks. Help her husband Anders make that happen by supporting the LOVE TOVE crowdfunding campaign.

Delta Green Game Moderators, take heart! Reinforcements have arrived in the form of the *Delta Green Handler’s Guide* from Arc Dream Publishing, bursting with operational details, threats and eldritch history to keep your players locked, loaded, and terrified.

**Episode 271: The Friends We Met Along the Way and Ate** Dec 08, 2017

Hey, it’s an all-request episode!

Patreon backer Joshua Trowbridge entreats us in the **Gaming Hut** to return to a perennial puzzler: how to convince change-averse players to try the awesome new thing you want to run for them.

Patreon backer Josh Mannon summons us to the **Cartography Hut**, to explain that hole where the Kong Mountains used to be.

In **Ask Ken and Robin** Patreon backer Adam Grotjohn asks Ken and Robin if roleplaying games could be used to teach criminological procedure.

And finally Patreon backer Rick Neal has been hanging out next to **Ken’s Time Machine**, wanting to know why Time Inc. needed Kaspar Hauser dead.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

In Atlas Games’ wickedly different cooperative deck-building game *Witches of the Revolution*, you and your doughty coven fight the American Revolution the way it was really fought: with spells aplenty! Resurrect Ben Franklin, cure Paul Revere of lycanthropy and keep those red-coated witch hunters at bay.

The book has been written.The book has been read. Now it rewrites you. Across time it spreads, creating dread new realities. And you’re in all of them. Robin’s epic new GUMSHOE project, *The Yellow King Roleplaying Game* has concluded its Kickstarter run, but is now available for pre-order at the Pelgrane Store for those who missed it.

In *Highway Holocaust* you are Cal Phoenix, the Freeway Warrior, champion and protector of Dallas Colony One. Defend this fragile convoy from H.A.V.O.C. bikers with this exclusive hardcover (with dust jacket and book ribbons), the first choose-your-own-adventure-gamebook in Joe Dever’s post apocalyptic series. From the fine folks at FENIX, now available from Modiphius.

Delta Green Game Moderators, take heart! Reinforcements have arrived in the form of the *Delta Green Handler’s Guide* from Arc Dream Publishing, bursting with operational details, threats and eldritch history to keep your players locked, loaded, and terrified.

**Episode 270: Nobody Wants to be a Waistcoat** Dec 01, 2017

Patreon backer Doc Cross pulls his satin bell-cord to summon us to the **Gaming Hut** to mull the droll possibilities of P. G. Wodehouse gaming.

In the **Tradecraft Hut** we journey to the shadowy isle of Malta.

The **Food Hut** documents Robin’s conversion to the cult of Instant Pot.

And finally the **Consulting Occultist** fulfills the request of Patreon backer Paul by filling us in on the witches of Chiloe.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

In Atlas Games’ wickedly different cooperative deck-building game *Witches of the Revolution*, you and your doughty coven fight the American Revolution the way it was really fought: with spells aplenty! Resurrect Ben Franklin, cure Paul Revere of lycanthropy and keep those red-coated witch hunters at bay.

The book has been written.The book has been read. Now it rewrites you. Across time it spreads, creating dread new realities. And you’re in all of them. Robin’s epic new GUMSHOE project, *The Yellow King Roleplaying Game* has concluded its Kickstarter run, but is now available for pre-order at the Pelgrane Store for those who missed it.

In *Highway Holocaust* you are Cal Phoenix, the Freeway Warrior, champion and protector of Dallas Colony One. Defend this fragile convoy from H.A.V.O.C. bikers with this exclusive hardcover (with dust jacket and book ribbons), the first choose-your-own-adventure-gamebook in Joe Dever’s post apocalyptic series. From the fine folks at FENIX, now available from Modiphius.

Delta Green Game Moderators, take heart! Reinforcements have arrived in the form of the *Delta Green Handler’s Guide* from Arc Dream Publishing, bursting with operational details, threats and eldritch history to keep your players locked, loaded, and terrified.

**Ken and Robin Consume Media: Mystery Elephant Coins and a True Crime Masterpiece** Nov 28, 2017
Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies, TV seasons and more we cram into our hyper-analytical sensoriums. Join the Patreon to help pick the items we’ll talk about in greater depth on our new podcast segment, Tell Me More.

The Pinnacle

The Keepers Season 1 (Television, US, Netflix, Ryan White, 2017) Nearly half a century after their high school teacher, a nun named Cathy Cesnik, was murdered, her former students initiate a sprawling investigation into her death, and the abusive Catholic priest who may have been involved in it. Documentary true crime series becomes all the more compelling as its central mystery grows ever more complicated and contradictory.—RDL

Recommended

Alexander the Great and the Mystery of the Elephant Medallions (Nonfiction, Frank L. Holt, 2003) Elephant medallions discovered in 1887 and 1973 have politely roiled numismatic circles for decades; Holt lays out their provenance and controversy, and provides a theory to explain them that passes my Alexandrian sniff test — essentially, they were campaign coins for veterans of the Hydaspes battle. Excellent introduction to a recondite topic, ideal for refurbishing into an RPG seed. –KH

The Ghost Goes West (Film, UK, Rene Clair, 1935) Suave Scottish lord (Robert Donat) who must sell his castle tries to conceal the existence of its ancestral specter (also Donat), little suspecting that the American grocery tycoon with his eye on the place (Eugene Pallette) regards it as a selling point. Tellingly British take on the screwball comedy in which the joke is not that the nouveau riche Americans have gone silly and Europeanized, but that their affection for the old world vulgarizes tradition.—RDL

Invincible (Film, EU/US, Werner Herzog, 2001) In 1932, Jewish strongman Zishe Breitbart (Jouko Ahola) journeys to Berlin to make his fortune in the occult cabaret run by the mentalist Hanussen (Tim Roth). Herzog’s movie hearkens back to silent melodrama in its uncomplicated shots and Ahola’s guileless acting, which plays wonderfully off Roth’s oily Hanussen. Herzog mashes up history (the real Breitbart died in 1925) to create a not-quite-distant fable; buy a ticket and enjoy the show. –KH

Jim & Andy and The Great Beyond (Film, US, Chris Smith, 2017) Interviews with a now-philosophical Jim Carrey frame heretofore unseen backstage footage from the Man on the Moon shoot, where he remained obsessively in character as either Andy Kaufman or the awful Tony Clifton. Documentary only shows Carrey’s perspective, but to hear him tell it, he has finally recovered from the realization that he strove for and got everything he ever wanted—only to find it wasn’t enough.—RDL

The Man in the Iron Mask (Film, US, James Whale, 1939) Evil king Louis XIV (Louis Heyward) carries on hanging rebels and toying with the heart of the Spanish infanta (Joan Bennett), scarcely suspecting that his order to arrest a Gascon rebel raised by the four musketeers will confront him with his previously unknown twin brother. A piece set in the literal baroque period gives Whale full latitude for his baroque, frame-filling sensibility, plus a touch of the old Frankenstein days in the Bastille scenes. Screenwriters never use more than the barest whiff of the Dumas source material, in which the musketeers scheme against and betray one another, and it’s always interesting to see how any given adaptation rearranges the elements.—RDL

Good

Little Big Soldier (Film, Hong Kong, Ding Sheng; action director Jackie Chan, 2010) During the warring states period, a conscripted peasant (Jackie Chan) captures an enemy general (Leehom Wang) and tries to get him back home to collect a reward. Economical script provides a tonally consistent showcase for Jackie’s dramatic chops, but suffers from Ding’s arbitrary compositions and over-caffeinated editing.—RDL

Mystery Science Theater 3000 Season 11 (Television, US, Netflix, Joel Hodgson, 2017) The revival of the ur-nerd-riff show does everything it needs to do competently: a chunky, amiable comic (Jonah Ray) and two robots (Hampton Yount and Baron Vaughn) make fun of bad movies. But it doesn’t capture either the anarchic glee of the early Joel years or the relentless comic pile-on cruelty of the middle Mike years, relying on a labored backstory featuring the two mad scientists (Felicia Day and Patton Oswalt). The core of MST3K has always been the riffs; let’s hope next season doubles down on that. –KH

Okay

Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice Ultimate Edition (Film, US, Zack Snyder, 2016) Thirty extra minutes and an R rating don’t repair the foundational flaws in this super-Ragnarok, but they do add coherence to the story, humanity to Clark Kent, and a name to poor Jimmy Olsen. At three hours, there’s still plenty to regret here, but Snyder’s visual sense at least has something more to play off of. –KH

**Episode 269: Egg Nog Related Time Travel** Nov 24, 2017

We’ve installed additional measures in the **Gaming Hut** to discuss security camera surveillance and how to stop it from wrecking your mystery plots.

Jump scares await in the **Horror Hut** as we look at the bogeyman and his pals, the evil spirits.

In **Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else**, we chat with marketing guru and game designer Wade Rockett.

Which leads us to **Ken’s Time Machine** and a question from Patreon backer Derek Upham, who wants to know about our chrono-protagonist’s role in causing the Egg Nog Riot.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

In *Unknown Armies*, Atlas Games’ modern-day, occult roleplaying game, you play the heroically broken people who conspire to fix the world. That conspiracy just got easier, with the arrival of the game on store shelves near you!

The book has been written.The book has been read. Now it rewrites you. Across time it spreads, creating dread new realities. And you’re in all of them. Robin’s epic new GUMSHOE project, *The Yellow King Roleplaying Game* has concluded its Kickstarter run, but is now available for pre-order at the Pelgrane Store for those who missed it.

In *Highway Holocaust* you are Cal Phoenix, the Freeway Warrior, champion and protector of Dallas Colony One. Defend this fragile convoy from H.A.V.O.C. bikers with this exclusive hardcover (with dust jacket and book ribbons), the first choose-your-own-adventure-gamebook in Joe Dever’s post apocalyptic series. From the fine folks at FENIX, now available from Modiphius.

Delta Green Game Moderators, take heart! Reinforcements have arrived in the form of the *Delta Green Handler’s Guide* from Arc Dream Publishing, bursting with operational details, threats and eldritch history to keep your players locked, loaded, and terrified.

**Episode 268: I Don’t Want to Say Tax Dodge** Nov 17, 2017

Make sure your copy of this podcast has been properly authenticated, preferably by a person in a pointy hat, as the **Gaming Hut** looks at forgery in worlds with truth magic.

Get your drama on in **How to Write Good** as we make sure that your scenes of interaction further the plot, instead of merely commenting on the action.

Then once more run your vicarious paws over the latest acquisitions to adorn **Ken’s Bookshelf**. Yes, our hero has been to Powell’s again and has the loot to show for it.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

In *Unknown Armies*, Atlas Games’ modern-day, occult roleplaying game, you play the heroically broken people who conspire to fix the world. That conspiracy just got easier, with the arrival of the game on store shelves near you!

The book has been written.The book has been read. Now it rewrites you. Across time it spreads, creating dread new realities. And you’re in all of them. Robin’s epic new GUMSHOE project, *The Yellow King Roleplaying Game* has concluded its Kickstarter run, but is now available for pre-order at the Pelgrane Store for those who missed it.

In *Highway Holocaust* you are Cal Phoenix, the Freeway Warrior, champion and protector of Dallas Colony One. Defend this fragile convoy from H.A.V.O.C. bikers with this exclusive hardcover (with dust jacket and book ribbons), the first choose-your-own-adventure-gamebook in Joe Dever’s post apocalyptic series. From the fine folks at FENIX, now available from Modiphius.

Delta Green Game Moderators, take heart! Reinforcements have arrived in the form of the *Delta Green Handler’s Guide* from Arc Dream Publishing, bursting with operational details, threats and eldritch history to keep your players locked, loaded, and terrified.

**Ken and Robin Consume Media: Heaven, Asgard and Times Square** Nov 14, 2017
Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies, TV seasons and more we cram into our hyper-analytical sensoriums. Join the Patreon to help pick the items we’ll talk about in greater depth on our new podcast segment, Tell Me More.

Recommended

Counter-Attack (Film, US, Zoltan Korda, 1945) Trapped behind enemy lines in the basement of a collapsed factory, a doughty Soviet paratrooper (Paul Muni) and flinty spy (Marguerite Chapman) struggle to keep a group of German prisoners at bay. Wartime suspenser powered by tense scripting and a career-best performance from Muni. Even if it weren’t any good it would be worth a watch for its historical value as a Hollywood propaganda from the brief sliver of time when glorifying the Red Army made total sense.—RDL

The Deuce Season 1 (Television, HBO, David Simon, 2017) As a bar manager (James Franco) goes into business with an affable mobster, streetwalker Candy (Maggie Gyllenhaal) eyes the nascent XXX scene of early 70s New York as a way out and up. As he did to great effect in “The Wire”, Simon assembles a socioeconomic collage showing how a black market industry ties people together and bends them out of shape.—RDL

The Good Place Season 1 (Television, NBC, Michael Schur, 2016-2017) Eleanor Shellstrop (Kristen Bell) dies and awakens in “The Good Place,” a sort of gated-community heaven run by its Architect (Ted Danson), even though she was actually pretty bad. You have to kind of love a comedy combining Plato and The Prisoner, or at least I do, especially given its commitment to narrative momentum via constant premise threat. –KH

Tattooed Life (Film, Japan, Seijun Suzuki, 1965) In 1926, a betrayed yakuza killer flees with his mooncalf aesthete brother to a remote mining community, only to find that trouble isn’t done with them yet. Suzuki, mostly known for subversive and/or experimental low-budget crime pics, here gets the resources to weave a sweeping traditional narrative, capped with a fine ballet of katanas and revolvers.—RDL

Thor: Ragnarok (Film, US, Taika Waititi, 2017) After Odin dies and his heretofore unknown death goddess sister shows up to devastate Asgard, Thor (Chris Hemsworth) finds that his journey back circuits through a gladiator world and a visit with a big green co-worker. Waititi finds not only the previously missing tone for a Thor movie (dry, behind-the-beat Kiwi comedy) but pulls off the impressive trick of keeping momentum rolling in a typically overstuffed latter-day Marvel flick.—RDL

Good

Big Bang (Film, South Korea, Park Jung-Woo, 2007) After losing his wife and his job on the same day, a priggish stickler teams with a small time crook to stage a revenge rampage. Buddy actioner increases the melodrama dosage as it accelerates.—RDL

The Posterist (Film, Hong Kong, Hui See-wai, 2016) Documentary celebration of Yuen Tai-yung, illustrator and designer of the most iconic movie posters of HK cinema’s 70s-90s golden age. On the production level this feels like an extended DVD extra, but is indispensable as film history and catnip to illustrators and illustration fans. Looking at Yuen’s work you’d be forgiven for mistaking it as the work of at least three entirely different artists, as if Jack Davis, Drew Struzan and John Alvin were the same person.—RDL

**Episode 267: The First Two Things are Metaphors For the Third** Nov 10, 2017

Gather in the **Gaming Hut** but keep an eye on who might be creeping up on you with a knife or candlestick as we riff a cast of murder suspects.

Ken then meets you in the **Cinema Hut** to report on what he saw at this year’s Chicago Film Festival.

In **Ask Ken and Robin**, Patreon backer Aaron Sapp wants to know how Ken’s famously anti-vampire views square with his work on *Vampire 5th Edition*.

We end on a Gallic switcheroo as Robin dons the mantle of **Consulting Occultist** to fulfill a request from Patreon backer Paul to talk about the Rosicrucian magician Josephin Peladan. Watch for his appearance in *The Yellow King Roleplaying Game*.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

In *Unknown Armies*, Atlas Games’ modern-day, occult roleplaying game, you play the heroically broken people who conspire to fix the world. That conspiracy just got easier, with the arrival of the game on store shelves near you!

The book has been written.The book has been read. Now it rewrites you. Across time it spreads, creating dread new realities. And you’re in all of them. Robin’s epic new GUMSHOE project, *The Yellow King Roleplaying Game* has concluded its Kickstarter run, but is now available for pre-order at the Pelgrane Store for those who missed it.

In *Highway Holocaust* you are Cal Phoenix, the Freeway Warrior, champion and protector of Dallas Colony One. Defend this fragile convoy from H.A.V.O.C. bikers with this exclusive hardcover (with dust jacket and book ribbons), the first choose-your-own-adventure-gamebook in Joe Dever’s post apocalyptic series. From the fine folks at FENIX, now available from Modiphius.

Delta Green Game Moderators, take heart! Reinforcements have arrived in the form of the *Delta Green Handler’s Guide* from Arc Dream Publishing, bursting with operational details, threats and eldritch history to keep your players locked, loaded, and terrified.

**Episode 266: Moral Crisis Dungeon Tile** Nov 03, 2017

Evade lasting shame by joining us for tea and scones in the **Gaming Hut**, where Patreon backer Tom Abella asks us to riff on the subject of social spirals.

Sneak into the Tradecraft Hut for a look back at the career of WWII spy Jeanne Rousseau.

Ken has oft-spoken of the dire Bochcoization. Now Robin turns on the Television Hut to alert all and sundry to its heir, the inexorable Abramsification.

Finally the **Eliptony Hut** goes cigar-shaped as it unearths the shattering truth behind the Aurora Airship Crash.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

In *Unknown Armies*, Atlas Games’ modern-day, occult roleplaying game, you play the heroically broken people who conspire to fix the world. That conspiracy just got easier, with the arrival of the game on store shelves near you!

The book has been written.The book has been read. Now it rewrites you. Across time it spreads, creating dread new realities. And you’re in all of them. Robin’s epic new GUMSHOE project, *The Yellow King Roleplaying Game* has concluded its Kickstarter run, but is now available for pre-order at the Pelgrane Store for those who missed it.

In *Highway Holocaust* you are Cal Phoenix, the Freeway Warrior, champion and protector of Dallas Colony One. Defend this fragile convoy from H.A.V.O.C. bikers with this exclusive hardcover (with dust jacket and book ribbons), the first choose-your-own-adventure-gamebook in Joe Dever’s post apocalyptic series. From the fine folks at FENIX, now available from Modiphius.

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!

**Episode 265: Vegan Vampire** Oct 27, 2017

We situate the **Gaming Hut** near a wolf trap as we answer a request from Patreon backer Dicegeeks and find ways to use the Green Children of Woolpit in a game.

In the **Food Hut** backer Bryan Gustafson asks us to talk about snack bar purveyor and philanthropist Daniel Lubetsky.

Our **Cinema Hut** 101s usually take the form of filmographies, but this time around we’re going to instead lay out the basics on a slippery concept: auteurism.

Finally backer Steve Sick stands next to Ken’s Time Machine and asks if French sorcerers maybe had a hand in the death of Henry V.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

In *Unknown Armies*, Atlas Games’ modern-day, occult roleplaying game, you play the heroically broken people who conspire to fix the world. That conspiracy just got easier, with the arrival of the game on store shelves near you!

The book has been written.The book has been read. Now it rewrites you. Across time it spreads, creating dread new realities. And you’re in all of them. Robin’s epic new GUMSHOE project, *The Yellow King Roleplaying Game* has concluded its Kickstarter run, but is now available for pre-order at the Pelgrane Store for those who missed it.

In *Highway Holocaust* you are Cal Phoenix, the Freeway Warrior, champion and protector of Dallas Colony One. Defend this fragile convoy from H.A.V.O.C. bikers with this exclusive hardcover (with dust jacket and book ribbons), the first choose-your-own-adventure-gamebook in Joe Dever’s post apocalyptic series. From the fine folks at FENIX, now available from Modiphius.

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!

**Episode 264: Diegetic Prod** Oct 20, 2017

In the **Gaming Hut** we examine a classic dichotomy in GMing technique: when do you use the world to nudge the story, and when do you address the players out-of-character?

The **Tradecraft Hut** looks at 2017’s most eliptonic spy story, the apparent sonic attacks in Cuba that have led the US State Department to withdraw diplomats from the country.

At the urging of Patreon backer Ethan Cordray, we convene in a particularly outdoorsy version of the **History Hut** to look at the Kibbo Kift, the British interwar alternative to the scouting movement that donned faux Anglo Saxon garb to promote world peace and pay ritual homage to the Piltdown Man.

And finally, our Patreon backers demanded that we Tell them More, so the **Television Hut** is open for discussion of *Twin Peaks: the Return*.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

In *Unknown Armies*, Atlas Games’ modern-day, occult roleplaying game, you play the heroically broken people who conspire to fix the world. That conspiracy just got easier, with the arrival of the game on store shelves near you! The book has been written.The book has been read. Now it rewrites you. Across time it spreads, creating dread new realities. And you’re in all of them. Robin’s epic new GUMSHOE project, *The Yellow King Roleplaying Game* has concluded its Kickstarter run, but is now available for pre-order at the Pelgrane Store for those who missed it. 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!

**Episode 263: All Seven Spleens** Oct 13, 2017

Some monsters we want to kill. But others we want to figure out, then kill. The **Gaming Hut** looks at designing creatures that make for good mysteries.

Then at the behest of Patreon backer Fridrik Bjarnason we journey across route revealed by codes and numbers to the **Eliptony Hut**, where we consider the theory that Dante and da Vinci snitched out the location of Templar treasure, looted from the Holy Land, in that most obvious of places, Iceland.

Patreon backer Sean McCauliff pops a question over the **Ask Ken and Robin** transom: how do you transform your home town into a *Trail of Cthulhu* setting?

Then, following a prophecy laid down to us by Patreon backer Rafael Pabst, the **Consulting Occultist** looks at the career of poet and illustrator William Blake, with a special focus on the visionary, angel-seeing part.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

In *Unknown Armies*, Atlas Games’ modern-day, occult roleplaying game, you play the heroically broken people who conspire to fix the world. That conspiracy just got easier, with the arrival of the game on store shelves near you!

The book has been written.The book has been read. Now it rewrites you. Across time it spreads, creating dread new realities. And you’re in all of them. Robin’s epic new GUMSHOE project, *The Yellow King Roleplaying Game* has concluded its Kickstarter run, but is now available for pre-order at the Pelgrane Store for those who missed it.

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!

**Episode 262: Profit Motive and a Fast Boat** Oct 06, 2017

Robin is back from his annual sojourn to the Toronto International Film Festival, so it’s time to open up the **Cinema Hut** to alert you to the best and nerdiest of the 44 titles he saw there. From zombies to noir, he’s got your watch list for the next 12-18 months.

In the **Gaming Hut** we look at the causes and implications of the biggest story in tabletop RPGs these days, the great D&D resurgence.

Following up on a past visit to the **Mythology Hut**, we deliver on our promise to talk about the mythic shift undertaken by the vampire, from predatory monster to romantic hero.

Then at the barked command of stalwart Patreon backer Jeromy French, we take a turbulent voyage to a highly fortified **History Hut** to deliver the 101 on the Barbary Pirates.

Want to pose a question to the show? Get your priority question asking access with your Support for the KARTAS Patreon! Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

In *Unknown Armies*, Atlas Games’ modern-day, occult roleplaying game, you play the heroically broken people who conspire to fix the world. That conspiracy just got easier, with the arrival of the game on store shelves near you!

The book has been written.The book has been read. Now it rewrites you. Across time it spreads, creating dread new realities. And you’re in all of them. Robin’s epic new GUMSHOE project, *The Yellow King Roleplaying Game* has concluded its Kickstarter run, but is now available for pre-order at the Pelgrane Store for those who missed it.

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!

**Ken and Robin Consume Media: Now Ken’s in the Black Lodge** Oct 03, 2017
Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies, TV seasons and more we cram into our hyper-analytical sensoriums. Join the Patreon to help pick the items we’ll talk about in greater depth on our new podcast segment, Tell Me More.

The Pinnacle

Twin Peaks: The Return (TV, Showtime, David Lynch, 2017) Picking up 25 years after Lynch’s seminal oneiric soap opera murder mystery ended, it is more of some of those things, most especially “Lynch’s.” I love that I could never see ahead down Lynch’s road, and also: Robert Forster. Penderecki’s “Threnody.” Magic and romance just out of frame. Bzzzkkkzztt (and all the rest of Lynch’s amazing sound design) That shot of NYC. Trees. Coffee! Charred men. “The Nine Inch Nails.” //erusolC// –KH

Recommended

Call Me Lucky (Film, US, Bobcat Goldthwait, 2015) Documentary profile of radical comedian’s comedian Barry Crimmins explores the origins of his righteous rage as a survivor of childhood sexual abuse. Loving portrait of a many-faceted man, made by a longtime friend.—RDL

I Will Find You: A Reporter Investigates the Life of the Man Who Raped Her (Nonfiction, Joanna Connors, 2016) A generation after her brutal rape by a stranger, Cleveland Plain Dealer reporter seeks context by researching the life of the now-deceased perpetrator. Unsparing work of personal journalism finds answers to the literal questions if not the teleological ones, but mostly a deep well of unspeakable, cyclic suffering.—RDL

Good

The Curse of the Bronze Lamp (Fiction, John Dickson Carr, 1946) A relatively enjoyable “impossible crime” outing for Carr’s second-tier detective Sir Henry Merrivale, who is more annoying than Gideon Fell. Remarkable for solving the locked room (actually a locked castle) two different ways, because Carr is a showoff; the Egyptian color ticks it up from Okay. –KH

Giant Days, Vols. 1-3 (Comics, John Allison, 2015-6) Compilations of Allison’s comic about three girls and their travails in university, mostly involving idiotic romantic partners. As warm and sweetly human as Allison’s work elsewhere (one character, Esther de Groot, carries over from his Bad Machinery/Bobbinsverse) but without the overt weirdness (here calmed into eccentricity) and frenetic storytelling. –KH

Kingsman: The Golden Circle (Film, UK/US, Matthew Vaughn, 2017) Proletarian gentleman superspy Eggsy (Taron Egerton) returns to battle a drug lord (Julianne Moore) with the help of the American superspy group Statesman (Channing Tatum, Halle Berry, Jeff Bridges, Pedro Pascal). Too much bad, unnecessary CGI (and some over-obvious direction) obscures a surprisingly not-terrible script; still, worth seeing for those seeking the thrills James Bond once provided. –KH

Night’s Master (Fiction, Tanith Lee, 1978) Linked short stories of innocence corrupted or maintained lay out an eon in the existence of a seductive demon lord. Lapidary prose and 70s sex abound in this neo-Symbolist outing in the Dunsany tradition.—RDL

A Report on the Party and the Guests (Film, Czechoslovakia, Jan Němec, 1966) Cosmopolitan guests at an influential figure’s country banquet are subjected to subtly menacing power games. Absurdist drama looks at how quickly the comfortable rationalize their own oppression. But even in this relatively free period of cinema in the Soviet satellite nations, it has to rely on the viewer to infer the dark conclusion it’s so clearly setting up.—RDL

The Transfiguration (Film, US, Michael O’Shea, 2016) Affectless, vampire-obsessed, neglected, and bullied African-American teen Milo (Eric Ruffin) eventually befriends his abused, self-destructive white neighbor Sophie (Chloe Levine). Essentially a loose remake of Romero’s Martin set in the Brooklyn projects, it suffers by comparison (its slow burn goes down to embers more than once) but on its own merits adds a few liters of AB+ to the vampire genre. –KH

Okay

Chasing the Dragon (Film, HK, Wong Jing & Jason Kwan, 2017) Loyal gangster Crippled Ho (Donnie Yen) and honorable corrupt cop Lee Rock (Andy Lau) rise together in the British-managed Hong Kong crime world of the late 60s and early 70s. Mythologized crime biopic maintains an unusually consistent tone for a Wong Jing effort, but is overloaded with plot points—because, weirdly, this is a remake of two previously unrelated films: the caustic, greatly superior To Be Number One and Lee Rock, featuring Andy Lau in the same role he plays here. Scored a big mainland release usually denied to violent HK gang pictures by dialing up the anti-colonial angle.—RDL

Preacher Season 2 (Television, US, AMC, Sam Catlin, 2017) With the Saint of Killers on his heels, Jesse drags Tulip and Cassidy to New Orleans in search of God, who has gone AWOL from heaven. Bursts of bravura weirdness can’t conceal the momentum stall of a season in which the protagonist makes zero progress toward his goal.—RDL

**Episode 261: Them Doritos is Rigged!** Sep 29, 2017

Hold onto your wallet when you enter this **Gaming Hut**. It’s full of scamsters, as we look at clipjoint towns in F20 games.

Patreon backer Elias Helfer digs into the files for a declassified **Tradecraft Hut** as he asks for the 101 on espionage in WWI.

Then Ken and/or Robin Talk To Someone Else, as Green Ronin’s Nicole Lindroos shows us the ropes of game company management.

Finally it’s time for some **Fun With Science**, as backer Allen Wilkins wants to know what’s really going on with NASA’s bacterial balloons.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

In *Unknown Armies*, Atlas Games’ modern-day, occult roleplaying game, you play the heroically broken people who conspire to fix the world. That conspiracy just got easier, with the arrival of the game on store shelves near you! The book has been written. The book has been read. Now it rewrites you. Across time it spreads, creating dread new realities. And you’re in all of them. Robin’s epic new GUMSHOE project, *The Yellow King Roleplaying Game* has concluded its Kickstarter run, but is now available for pre-order at the Pelgrane Store for those who missed it. 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!

**Episode 260: Live from Gen Con 2017** Sep 22, 2017

When Ken and Robin go live, as they do here in this episode recorded in August at Gen Con, the audience, aided by a mythic pack of index cards, tells us what the topics are. And in this case they jointly demanded Crimean War mecha, Bannonesque intrigue, Ken’s beef with the Gnostics, time machine interference in the Siege of Malta, mediating disputes between Captain America and Wolverine, and the proverbial so much more.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

In *Unknown Armies*, Atlas Games’ modern-day, occult roleplaying game, you play the heroically broken people who conspire to fix the world. That conspiracy just got easier, with the arrival of the game on store shelves near you! The book has been written. The book has been read. Now it rewrites you. Across time it spreads, creating dread new realities. And you’re in all of them. Robin’s epic new GUMSHOE project, *The Yellow King Roleplaying Game* has concluded its Kickstarter run, but is now available for pre-order at the Pelgrane Store for those who missed it. 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!

**Episode 259: All the Cute Girls are Capulets** Sep 15, 2017

In **That Thing I Always Say**, we examine Ken’s maxim that death spirals make for good gaming.

With Labor Day in the rear view mirror, the **Cinema Hut** looks back at blockbuster season for a round up of the summer movies that were.

Finally the Consulting Occultist serves up a reply to Patreon backer David Shaw, who seeks the secret truth on occult Kashmir.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

In *Unknown Armies*, Atlas Games’ modern-day, occult roleplaying game, you play the heroically broken people who conspire to fix the world. That conspiracy just got easier, with the arrival of the game on store shelves near you! The book has been written. The book has been read. Now it rewrites you. Across time it spreads, creating dread new realities. And you’re in all of them. Robin’s epic new GUMSHOE project, *The Yellow King Roleplaying Game* has concluded its Kickstarter run, but is now available for pre-order at the Pelgrane Store for those who missed it. 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!

**Ken and Robin Consume Media: Golden Age Mysteries and The Sewer Clown** Sep 12, 2017
Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies, TV seasons and more we cram into our hyper-analytical sensoriums. Join the Patreon to help pick the items we’ll talk about in greater depth on our new podcast segment, Tell Me More.

Robin is off at the Toronto International Film Festival and posting capsule reviews over at his blog. When titles covered there are released in cinemas or on home video, he’ll rerun the reviews in future installments of this here hut.

Recommended

Love Lies Bleeding (Fiction, Edmund Crispin, 1948) Detective don Gervase Fen is conveniently on the scene when a public school reels under (at least) two murders. Calm and confident in tone, Crispin’s smooth wit, convincing characters, and nicely knotted mystery do ample justice to the setting he creates here. Among the best exemplars of the Golden Age of Mystery. –KH

Monster Island Tales (Fiction, James L. Cambias, 2017) Collects two good short stories: “Return to Skull Island” is a shaggy dog (Waldroppy dog?) zine review of a somewhat alternate King Kong; “The Dinosaur Train” is a deceptively light, touchingly Bradburyesque tale of a family with a traveling dinosaur show fallen on hard times in the 1980s. –KH

Good

The Case of the Gilded Fly (Fiction, Edmund Crispin, 1944) Crispin’s first mystery featuring his detective don Gervase Fen combines Oxford, the theater, and a locked room for a frothy mixture that reads like the lowest common denominator of Dorothy Sayers and John Dickson Carr, which is to say, still pretty good. Two amazingly effective M.R. Jamesian incidents don’t deepen the story so much as cast it in a watery light by comparison. –KH

Toni Erdmann (Film, Germany, Maren Ade, 2016) Slovenly, prank-loving teacher poses as an eccentric business figure in an effort to get closer to and/or severely annoy his workaholic daughter when she’s trying to close a difficult consulting deal. Dogme-esque comedy has some memorable scenes at its core, but is suffocated by a two hour forty minute run time full of dead moments crying out for a ruthless edit.—RDL

Okay

It (Film, US, Andy Muschietti, 2017) Focusing on only the childhood half of Stephen King’s masterpiece, even at 2 and a quarter hours the film feels both cramped and shallow, relying almost entirely on jump scares and theme music. Strong casting can only do so much; the script and director know they need to bring the town of Derry and the kids’ nightmares into the lived foreground, but have no real idea how to do it. Like the miniseries, It punts when replacing King’s ending; unlike the miniseries, It doesn’t have Tim Curry. –KH

Legends and Romances of Brittany (Nonfiction, Lewis Spence, 1917) Grab bag of Breton faerie, hero, saint and dolmen lore, with the prose voice and scholarship you’d expect from a hundred year old compendium. Useful source material for the Yellow King Roleplaying Game’s Brittany stretch goal, though scarcely a cracking casual read.—RDL

Tedious Brief Tales of Granta and Gramarye (Fiction, Arthur Gray, 1919) Seven supernatural tales of Jesus College Cambridge, none set after 1766. Gray deep dives into M.R. James-style antiquarianism without the grue and with only a very few droplets of dread, like a church-architecture-obsessed Ripley’s Believe it or Not! –KH

**Episode 258: Mom! He’s in Cisalpine Gaul!** Sep 08, 2017

A couple of episodes ago we put a pin in the idea of Magic Blackwater and now in the **Gaming Hut** we unpin it for further consideration.

In yet more business arising from the previous minutes, the **Mythology Hut** looks at the kinship between the vampire and the serial killer.

Then **Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else**, specifcally Stacy Dellorfano of Contessa fame.

Then it’s off to the whirring proximity of **Ken’s Time Machine** to see what it did and didn’t have to do with the Roman Emperor Caracalla’s murder of his brother Geta. Question courtesy of Patreon backer Ash Jackson Is the Scrollbard.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

In *Unknown Armies*, Atlas Games’ modern-day, occult roleplaying game, you play the heroically broken people who conspire to fix the world. That conspiracy just got easier, with the arrival of the game on store shelves near you!

The book has been written. The book has been read. Now it rewrites you. Across time it spreads, creating dread new realities. And you’re in all of them. Robin’s epic new GUMSHOE project, *The Yellow King Roleplaying Game* has concluded its Kickstarter run, but is now available for pre-order at the Pelgrane Store for those who missed it.

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!

**Episode 257: Gen Con 2017** Sep 01, 2017

Annual traditions happen only once a year, and since Gen Con has now happened fifty times, we must bring you an extra special convention review **Gaming Hut**.

With a **Travel Advisory** on something that won’t happen for a long time or possibly ever–Ken’s journey into eclipse totality!

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

In *Unknown Armies*, Atlas Games’ modern-day, occult roleplaying game, you play the heroically broken people who conspire to fix the world. That conspiracy just got easier, with the arrival of the game on store shelves near you!

The book has been written. The book has been read. Now it rewrites you. Across time it spreads, creating dread new realities. And you’re in all of them. Robin’s epic new GUMSHOE project, *The Yellow King Roleplaying Game* has concluded its Kickstarter run, but is now available for pre-order at the Pelgrane Store for those who missed it.

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!

**Episode 256: 13/10, Would Betray** Aug 25, 2017

That ambient sound you hear is the muffled bustle of the Embassy Suites in beautiful downtown Indianapolis as we record a face-to-face episode immediately prior to the sweet chaos of Gen Con.

We start in a portable version of the **Gaming Hut** to answer a question from Patreon backer Alexandria Permann, who wants to know how to sell players on unfamiliar genres and settings.

Then we guard against korrigan magic as we dare enter the **Mythology Hut** for an overview of Breton folklore.

**How To Write Good** looks at scenes in which antagonists scheme against one another.

Then we delve into the Eliptony Hut for a topic Ken can tackle from memory: cold war psychic warfare.

Want to pose a question to the show?

Get your priority question asking access with your Support for the KARTAS Patreon! Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

In *Unknown Armies*, Atlas Games’ modern-day, occult roleplaying game, you play the heroically broken people who conspire to fix the world. That conspiracy just got easier, with the arrival of the game on store shelves near you!

The book has been written. The book has been read. Now it rewrites you. Across time it spreads, creating dread new realities. And you’re in all of them. Robin’s epic new GUMSHOE project, *The Yellow King Roleplaying Game* has concluded its Kickstarter run, but is now available for pre-order at the Pelgrane Store for those who missed it.

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!

**[Repost] Episode 255: The Devil’s Condiment** Aug 19, 2017

The **Gaming Hut** goes inside the design process as Robin discovers he wants to make a humble sub-system a little less humble.

The Food Hut goes inside the casing as Ken waxes rhapsodic on the history and virtues of the Chicago hot dog.

**Ask Ken and Robin** goes inside the business as Patreon backer David Shaw drops a query about getting one’s game published.

Finally the **Consulting Occultist** goes inside, uh Posadism, as backer Stewart Robertson asks about Posadism.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

In *Unknown Armies*, Atlas Games’ modern-day, occult roleplaying game, you play the heroically broken people who conspire to fix the world. That conspiracy just got easier, with the arrival of the game on store shelves near you!

The book has been written. The book has been read. Now it rewrites you. Across time it spreads, creating dread new realities. And you’re in all of them. Robin’s epic new GUMSHOE project, *The Yellow King Roleplaying Game* has concluded its Kickstarter run, but is now available for pre-order at the Pelgrane Store for those who missed it.

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!

**Episode 255: The Devil’s Condiment** Aug 18, 2017

The **Gaming Hut** goes inside the design process as Robin discovers he wants to make a humble sub-system a little less humble.

The Food Hut goes inside the casing as Ken waxes rhapsodic on the history and virtues of the Chicago hot dog.

**Ask Ken and Robin** goes inside the business as Patreon backer David Shaw drops a query about getting one’s game published.

Finally the **Consulting Occultist** goes inside, uh Posadism, as backer Stewart Robertson asks about Posadism.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

In *Unknown Armies*, Atlas Games’ modern-day, occult roleplaying game, you play the heroically broken people who conspire to fix the world. That conspiracy just got easier, with the arrival of the game on store shelves near you!

The book has been written. The book has been read. Now it rewrites you. Across time it spreads, creating dread new realities. And you’re in all of them. Robin’s epic new GUMSHOE project, *The Yellow King Roleplaying Game* has concluded its Kickstarter run, but is now available for pre-order at the Pelgrane Store for those who missed it.

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!

**Episode 254: Snouted Meepers** Aug 11, 2017

We clatter our dice and thump our miniatures in the **Gaming Hut**, considering a Patreon backer Travis Johnson question about what to do when the players break the tone they asked you to instill.

With a Kickstarter and then a vacation, Robin hasn’t been paying attention to the news lately. So he meets Ken in the **Tradecraft Hut** on the off chance anything has happened on the espionage front his summer.

In the **Cinema Hut**, Patreon backer Nancy Feldman wants us to talk about our favorite pulp movies.

Finally Patreon backer Mike Marlow wants to know why **Ken’s Time Machine** was sighted near the great Boston molasses flood of 1919.

This week we have a special contest thanks to Petersen Games and its Kickstarter for *Cthulhu Wars Onslaught 3*. Patrons, head on over to the contest page and follow the instructions to enter a draw to win one of four rare, glow-in-the-dark Yellow King figures.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

In *Unknown Armies*, Atlas Games’ modern-day, occult roleplaying game, you play the heroically broken people who conspire to fix the world. That conspiracy just got easier, with the arrival of the game on store shelves near you! The book has been written. The book has been read. Now it rewrites you. Across time it spreads, creating dread new realities. And you’re in all of them. Robin’s epic new GUMSHOE project, *The Yellow King Roleplaying Game* has concluded its Kickstarter run, but is now available for pre-order at the Pelgrane Store for those who missed it. 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!

**Episode 253: That’s More of a Gloss on Aristotle** Aug 04, 2017

The **Gaming Hut** falls all over itself answering a question from Patreon backer Daniel Krauklis: “What does the choice to have fumbles in your rules that tell us about your game and the moral universe in which the characters operate?”

We fortify the **Cartography Hut** for a workshop on designing strategic locations into your world.

**How to Write Good** examines tragedy and anagnorisis.

And the **Consulting Occultist** gets all semiotic to reply to a query from Patreon backer Polydamas on what the Secret Masters were up to when they invented post-modernism.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

In *Unknown Armies*, Atlas Games’ modern-day, occult roleplaying game, you play the heroically broken people who conspire to fix the world. That conspiracy just got easier, with the arrival of the game on store shelves near you!

The book has been written. The book has been read. Now it rewrites you. Across time it spreads, creating dread new realities. And you’re in all of them. Robin’s epic new GUMSHOE project, *The Yellow King Roleplaying Game* has concluded its Kickstarter run, but is now available for pre-order at the Pelgrane Store for those who missed it. (You think you hear us say Backerkit in the ad in this episode, but that’s just a reality shattering manifestation caused by your exposure to the Yellow Sign. Please bear with us as we clear that up.) 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!

**Episode 252: A Different, Less Pear-Like Shape** Jul 28, 2017

Are your modern investigators getting cocky? Join us in the **Gaming Hut** as we riff a rival team to toss some sand in their gears.

The Cartography Hut looks at the process of mapping fictional cities, like those invented by H. P. Lovecraft.

In **Ask Ken and Robin,** John Scheib wants to know about habits of mind to transition from OSR to narrative style gaming.

Then we stand in proximity to **Ken’s Time Machine** as we learn why our hero had to borrow the white doe of Sertorius.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

In *Unknown Armies*, Atlas Games’ modern-day, occult roleplaying game, you play the heroically broken people who conspire to fix the world. That conspiracy just got easier, with the arrival of the game on store shelves near you!

The book has been written. The book has been read. Now it rewrites you. Across time it spreads, creating dread new realities. And you’re in all of them. Robin’s epic new GUMSHOE project, *The Yellow King Roleplaying Game* has concluded its Kickstarter run, but is now available for pre-order at the Pelgrane Store for those who missed it. (You think you hear us say Backerkit in the ad in this episode, but that’s just a reality shattering manifestation caused by your exposure to the Yellow Sign. Please bear with us as we clear that up.) 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!

**Get on the Bus! Tour de Lovecraft: The Destinations Kickstarter Has Launched** Jul 26, 2017

As heard on this very podcast, I and Atomic Overmind Press are launching — nay, have already launched — the Kickstarter for my book *Tour de Lovecraft: the Destinations,* the sequel to my much beloved volume *Tour de Lovecraft: the Tales.* Drop by the Kickstarter and back us if you care to, and we would be ever so grateful if you shared the Kickstarter link wherever you find the media most sociable.

Gotta go, that bus isn’t going to drive itself!

*NARRATOR: The bus is going to drive itself.*

**Episode 251: Where, As Opposed to What and AAAHH!** Jul 21, 2017

As one Kickstarter ends, another begins, specifically on **Wednesday, July 26.** In **Among My Many Hats** Ken tells us about his cool new book, *Tour de Lovecraft: The Destinations,* which is Kickstarting on **Wednesday, July 26.**

The **Gaming Hut** poses a GMing question: when is it best for us, as Game Masters, not to talk?

In **Ask Ken and Robin**, Patreon backer Jeff Kahrs asks Ken and Robin how to engage reluctant old-schoolers in narrative sharing.

Finally, it turns out that Chicagoans have been sighting a bat- or owl-winged humanoid since 2011 and for some reason it’s taken this long for us to rev up the **Eliptony Hut** for it. Hence, the scoop on the Chicago Phantom.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

In *Unknown Armies*, Atlas Games’ modern-day, occult roleplaying game, you play the heroically broken people who conspire to fix the world. That conspiracy just got easier, with the arrival of the game on store shelves near you! The book has been written. The book has been read. Now it rewrites you. Across time it spreads, creating dread new realities. And you’re in all of them. Pelgrane Press is terrified to announce that Robin’s epic new GUMSHOE project, *The Yellow King Roleplaying Game*, is now live on Kickstarter—but only until 8 pm Eastern, tonight, Friday July 21. Snap up the best prices ever on Robin’s elegantly terrifying new project.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!

**Episode 250: Lightning Round!!!** Jul 14, 2017

Who would have believed that when they started a podcast two scrappy writer/game designers could make it all the way to episode 250?

You know what that means: time once again for another Lightning Round, in which we fire through as many questions as we can, starting with those posed to us by our indispensible Patreon backers.

And yes, of course Cary Grant, not Jimmy Stewart, stars in *North by Northwest*. Ken is just testing you.

This anniversary gains a special frisson, as we must also thank ENnies judges for once again nominating us in the Best Podcast category

But that’s enough preamble. Lightning Time is here!

Get your priority question asking access with your Support for the KARTAS Patreon!

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

In *Unknown Armies*, Atlas Games’ modern-day, occult roleplaying game, you play the heroically broken people who conspire to fix the world. That conspiracy just got easier, with the arrival of the game on store shelves near you! The book has been written. The book has been read. Now it rewrites you. Across time it spreads, creating dread new realities. And you’re in all of them. Pelgrane Press is terrified to announce that Robin’s epic new GUMSHOE project, *The Yellow King Roleplaying Game*, is now live on Kickstarter. 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!

**Episode 249: You Take What Toes You Can Get** Jul 07, 2017

Run! Hide! The **Gaming Hut** is coming for you, with a look at chase rules for horror RPGs.

Homicide and puppets collide as the **Crime Blotter** recounts 1929’s Benny Evangelist murders.

The recent theft of Dawson City’s Downtown Hotel severed drinking toe prompts a **Food Hut** consideration of appalling drink rituals.

Then we rev up **Ken’s Time Machine** to find out why our resident chrono-agent prevented sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi from building a lamp-wielding lady at the Suez Canal.

Want to pose a question to the show?

Get your priority question asking access with your Support for the KARTAS Patreon!

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

In *Unknown Armies*, Atlas Games’ modern-day, occult roleplaying game, you play the heroically broken people who conspire to fix the world. That conspiracy just got easier, with the arrival of the game on store shelves near you! The book has been written. The book has been read. Now it rewrites you. Across time it spreads, creating dread new realities. And you’re in all of them. Pelgrane Press is terrified to announce that Robin’s epic new GUMSHOE project, *The Yellow King Roleplaying Game*, is now live on Kickstarter. 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!

**Episode 248: Bill Somewhat American Johnston** Jun 30, 2017

In the **Gaming Hut** we find ways to design compelling consequences, with a particular nod toward Robin’s recent work on GUMSHOE One-2-One and The Yellow King Roleplaying Game.

The **Tradecraft Hut** provides a briefing requested by Patreon backer Stephen Brandon: given the recent Reality Winner case, what can player characters do to avoid her mistakes and leak confidently to the media?

**Ask Ken and Robin** celebrates Canada Day alongside backer Jake Cotter, who asks for recommendations for running a CanCon game.

Then the Eliptony Hut places a bid on terror as we look at the hobby of buying haunted items on EBay.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

In *Unknown Armies*, Atlas Games’ modern-day, occult roleplaying game, you play the heroically broken people who conspire to fix the world. That conspiracy just got easier, with the arrival of the game on store shelves near you!

The book has been written. The book has been read. Now it rewrites you. Across time it spreads, creating dread new realities. And you’re in all of them. Pelgrane Press is terrified to announce that Robin’s epic new GUMSHOE project, *The Yellow King Roleplaying Game*, is now live on Kickstarter.

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!

**Episode 247: So Fair It Shines as a Marketing Quote** Jun 23, 2017

Stare! Stare my friends, into the most psychically destablizing hat of all. For this week **Among My Many Hats** has the Yellow Sign neatly embroidered upon it, and you know what that means: Robin’s new GUMSHOE project for Pelgrane Press, *The Yellow King Roleplaying Game*, is Kickstarting now. Ken hangs onto his last Composure point as he asks Robin all about it.

At the triple command of Patreon backer Rafael Pabst, the **Book Hut** takes a look at the mythic work of Robert Graves.

A simple yet elusive question confronts us in the **Gaming Hut**. Half-elves: what’s their deal?

Finally Patreon backer Tim Vert knows who he’s gonna call. He asks the **Consulting Occultist** to tell us all about Harry Houdini’s ghostbusters.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

In *Unknown Armies*, Atlas Games’ modern-day, occult roleplaying game, you play the heroically broken people who conspire to fix the world. That conspiracy just got easier, with the arrival of the game on store shelves near you!

The book has been written. The book has been read. Now it rewrites you.

Across time it spreads, creating dread new realities. And you’re in all of them.

Pelgrane Press is terrified to announce that Robin’s epic new GUMSHOE project, *The Yellow King Roleplaying Game*, is now live on Kickstarter.

Saddle up! Askfageln’s Western is now shooting it out at the Kickstarter corral! Play desperate desperadoes, merciless mercenaries, courageous native warriors and brimstone-tinged preachers in a time and place in need of heroes.

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!

**Special Dire Announcement: The Yellow King Roleplaying Game is Now on Kickstarter** Jun 22, 2017

We interrupt the tranquility of your regular podcast subscription feed to riff briefly on some long anticipated yet terrifying news. The Yellow King Roleplaying Game, which Robin has been covertly promoting for many months, is now up for your decadent assessment on Kickstarter. We’ll be back in Friday to discuss it in detail, but we knew you would want to be woken from your febrile absinthe dreams to scoot on over to Kickstarter and claim those all-important firsties. And don’t worry–you can’t see the Yellow Sign in audio!

**Episode 246: A Number of Anonymous Grand-Dukes** Jun 16, 2017

Uh-oh, looks like Robin wants to introduce another term of art into the RPG design lexicon. Ken joins him in the Gaming Hut to consider system humility.

Transfixed by the hypnotic gaze of Patreon backer Andrea Coletta, we shuffle into the **History Hut** to reveal all on the Rasputin phenomenon, as most recently echoed by a juicy South Korean political scandal.

In **Ask Ken and Robin** we imbibe a query from backer Wayne about PC and GMC intoxication in roleplaying games.

Then we stand in proximity to **Ken’s Time Machine** as backer Sam Harris wants the truth on Gregor MacGregor’s Poyais Scheme.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

In *Unknown Armies*, Atlas Games’ modern-day, occult roleplaying game, you play the heroically broken people who conspire to fix the world. That conspiracy just got easier, with the arrival of the game on store shelves near you! 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 shipping at the Pelgrane Press store.

Saddle up! Askfageln’s Western is now shooting it out at the Kickstarter corral! Play desperate desperadoes, merciless mercenaries, courageous native warriors and brimstone-tinged preachers in a time and place in need of heroes.

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!

**Episode 245: Floaty McBeercan** Jun 09, 2017

A guy in a hat was going to tell us what was in the **Gaming Hut** this week, but then one of your PCs just shot him with a crossbow. That leaves us to figure out what to do when the players kill off their information sources.

In the **Book Hut**, Patreon backer Andy Young asks us to name the essential reference books for any KARTAS listener’s library.

Backer Frank Turfler Jr. uses **Ask Ken and Robin** to seek the secrets of the prodigious Hitean memory. Can we all learn his tricks, or would that require overly expensive multiclassing?

Finally the **Eliptony Hut** goes to the cottage, dipping its toes off the dock into a lovely lake, loch or bay as backers Darin DuMez and Doc Cross team up to demand some lake monster sightings.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

In *Unknown Armies*, Atlas Games’ modern-day, occult roleplaying game, you play the heroically broken people who conspire to fix the world. That conspiracy just got easier, with the arrival of the game on store shelves near you! 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 shipping at the Pelgrane Press store.

Saddle up! Askfageln’s Western is now shooting it out at the Kickstarter corral! Play desperate desperadoes, merciless mercenaries, courageous native warriors and brimstone-tinged preachers in a time and place in need of heroes.

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!

**Episode 244: You Have to Sit in the Jar** Jun 02, 2017

We knew you were going to join us in the **Gaming Hut**, where we answer Patreon backer Bret Kramer’s question on running omniscient GMCs as allies or enemies of the player characters.

In the **Food Hut** we look at cocktails, subject of a recently concluded quest by Robin.

The **Tradecraft Hut** goes Gallic with the 101 on French intelligence services.

Finally the **Consulting Occultist** looks at the arcane geography of 1930s Los Angeles times as manipulated by L.A. Times publisher Harry Chandler and revealed in the pages of *Cthulhu Confidential*.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

In *Unknown Armies*, Atlas Games’ modern-day, occult roleplaying game, you play the heroically broken people who conspire to fix the world. That conspiracy just got easier, with the arrival of the game on store shelves near you! 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 shipping at the Pelgrane Press store.

Saddle up! Askfageln’s Western is now shooting it out at the Kickstarter corral! Play desperate desperadoes, merciless mercenaries, courageous native warriors and brimstone-tinged preachers in a time and place in need of heroes.

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!

**Episode 243: I Do Not Wish to Be a Moth Hat** May 26, 2017

We know you want to hear about it, so **Among Our Many Hats** digs into the announcement that a certain Ken Hite will serve as lead designer for the new edition of *Vampire: the Masquerade*.

But that’s not all the hats! Then Robin looks at ways to use the Story Beats web app, which allows you to easily create narrative maps as seen in *Hamlet’s Hit Points* and his upcoming *Beating the Story*.

In an Ace Double of a segment, the **Tradecraft Hut** provides a backgrounder on the Trump intel spill. Then we sashay to a timeline next door to Meet Senator Hite and see what, if anything, he plans to do about it.

And when Ken was in Berlin getting his fangs fitted, he took time out to visit a museum. Hence, the **Consulting Occultist** recounts the wonders of the alchemy exhibit at the Kulturforum.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

In *Unknown Armies*, Atlas Games’ modern-day, occult roleplaying game, you play the heroically broken people who conspire to fix the world. That conspiracy just got easier, with the arrival of the game on store shelves near you! 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 shipping 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!

**Episode 242: Brain Out** May 19, 2017

The **Gaming Hut** has a thatched roof this time out as we riff a cast of pseudo-medieval villagers for your next F20.

In **The Business of Gaming** we puzzle the mystery of the generic supplement.

In the **Food Hut** we look at foodstuffs as treasure.

Finally we pry open the bars of the **Eliptony Hut** for the story of Lulu Hurst, the Wonder of Georgia, who in the 1880s claimed that she gained superhuman strength through contact with the Force.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

In *Unknown Armies*, Atlas Games’ modern-day, occult roleplaying game, you play the heroically broken people who conspire to fix the world. That conspiracy just got easier, with the arrival of the game on store shelves near you!

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 shipping 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!

**Episode 241: New Hampshire’s Second Most Famous Notch** May 12, 2017

In the Gaming Hut we look at premise rejection from a player perspective. How do you catch yourself doing it, and how do you find your way through it?

We crawl over to the **Cinema Hut** to discuss the motifs of the war movie and how they’re adjusting to contemporary conflicts.

In **Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else**, Ken speaks with Keisha Howard of Sugargamers.

Then we’re in for a rocky Ken’s Time Machine as Patreon backer Allen Wilkins asks our hero to fess up about his involvement in collapsing New Hampshire’s Old Man of the Mountain rock formation.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Like Ken and Robin themselves, *The White Box*, from Atlas Games and Gameplaywright, is all about making games. Professor of the gaming arts Jeremy Holcomb gives you all the deep knowledge, wooden bits, plastic discs, and punchboard tokens you need to take the game that’s in your head and make it a reality. Make it all the more awesome by supporting the White Box Kickstarter. 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 shipping 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!

**Episode 240: Bush Bachelor** May 05, 2017

Our second consecutive all-request episode kicks off in the **Gaming Hut**, as Ray Slakinksi asks for tips on running Night’s Black Agents at conventions.

In the **History Hut** Andy Young wants to know about the Mythos truth behind the death of legendary Canadian painter Tom Thomson.

Rick Neal uses the kind offices of **Ask Ken and Robin** to find out about geek-friendly destinations in Toronto and Chicago.

Then get ready to grab your picket signs as our **Tell Me More** segment enlists the **Consulting Occultist** for a look at the secret occult history of the epic battle between urban planner Robert Moses and the writer Jane Jacobs over the fate of Greenwich Village.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Like Ken and Robin themselves, *The White Box*, from Atlas Games and Gameplaywright, is all about making games. Professor of the gaming arts Jeremy Holcomb gives you all the deep knowledge, wooden bits, plastic discs, and punchboard tokens you need to take the game that’s in your head and make it a reality. Make it all the more awesome by supporting the White Box Kickstarter.

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!

**Episode 239: Mom, He’s Touching My Answer** Apr 28, 2017

Another all-request episode kicks off in the **Gaming Hut**, as Stewart Robertson asks how to make a BSM (Big Science McGuffin) integral to a game series.

The **History Hut**, takes on a yurt-like configuration as Morgan Ellis demands the scoop on the Mad Baron Roman von Ungern-Sternberg.

Joshua Hillerup convenes an installment of **Ask Ken and Robin** to wonder how “Gotham” might inspire a series in which a transformational hero becomes an iconic hero.

Which leaves Kevin J. Maroney waiting patiently in the **Eliptony Hut** for a profile of Roger Babson, the wealthy purveyor of sensible investment advice who set up a foundation to battle man’s enemy number one: gravity.

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

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Like Ken and Robin themselves, *The White Box*, from Atlas Games and Gameplaywright, is all about making games. Professor of the gaming arts Jeremy Holcomb gives you all the deep knowledge, wooden bits, plastic discs, and punchboard tokens you need to take the game that’s in your head and make it a reality. Make it all the more awesome by supporting the White Box Kickstarter.

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!

**Episode 238: The Titular Goat in This Reenactment** Apr 21, 2017

The **Gaming Hut** gets foundational as we discuss the meaning and implications of Gygaxian naturalism.

Patreon backer Derrick McMullin meets us in the **History Hut** to ask for the hidden truth behind the Utah War.

In **Ask Ken and Robin**, backer Steve K invites us to opine on what might have been lost in a move from gamification to story.

Finally we check in on the **Consulting Occultist** as backer Wayne Rossi demands the occult truth behind the Elvis-Nixon meeting.

Support the KARTAS Patreon!

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Wish to introduce innocent children to the horror of the Mythos, while remaining on budget? Atlas Games is here to affordably twist young minds with a buy two, get one free deal on Ken’s Mini Mythos line of childrens’ book parodies: *Where the Deep Ones Are, Goodnight Azathoth, Cliffourd the Big Red God*, and Antarctic Express.

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!

**Episode 237: You Can’t Be a Martyr and Have It Coming** Apr 14, 2017

Get outside your own perspective and inside the **Gaming Hut** as Ken and Robin envision a gun that triggers out of body experiences.

With espionage everywhere in the news, it’s time for that **Tradecraft Hut** primer on contemporary Russian intelligence.

In **How to Write Good** we look enthusiastically at reluctant heroes.

Then thanks to a well-filled requisition form from Dylan Hoover, **Ken’s Time Machine** heads back to 415 to rescue Hypatia of Alexandria.

Support the KARTAS Patreon!

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Wish to introduce innocent children to the horror of the Mythos, while remaining on budget? Atlas Games is here to affordably twist young minds with a buy two, get one free deal on Ken’s Mini Mythos line of childrens’ book parodies: *Where the Deep Ones Are, Goodnight Azathoth, Cliffourd the Big Red God*, and Antarctic Express.

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!

**Episode 236: Not on the Front Page of the Literature** Apr 07, 2017

Get ready to argue logistics as the **Gaming Hut** considers player planning. When is it prelude to play, and when is it play?

The **Crime Blotter** opens one of the most famous cold cases of all: the Black Dahlia murder.

**Ask Ken and Robin** features a query from Patreon backer Padriag Griffin about the plausibility of hidden societies of vampires or wizards in a world of pervasive surveillance.

Finally the **Eliptony Hut** catches up on some recent news as we ask why a member of the Moorish sovereign citizen movement might be messing with Yig’s digs in Moundville.

Support the KARTAS Patreon!

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Wish to introduce innocent children to the horror of the Mythos, while remaining on budget? Atlas Games is here to affordably twist young minds with a buy two, get one free deal on Ken’s Mini Mythos line of childrens’ book parodies: *Where the Deep Ones Are, Goodnight Azathoth, Cliffourd the Big Red God*, and Antarctic Express. 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!

**Episode 235: He-Man’s Woman Hating Civilization** Mar 31, 2017

In the **Gaming Hut** Patreon backer Joan Guardiet asks us to make a game set in a warrior woman society work for a party of male PCs.

Speaking of requests, in **Ask Ken and Robin** backer Kalin Kadiev seeks tips on researching Bulgarian occultism.

**Tell Me More** teams up with the **Cartography Hut** for a tour of cursed places.

And in a switcheroo, Robin dons the smoking jacket of the **Consulting Occultist** as we look at the cultists and gurus of 1930s L.A., as seen in *Cthulhu Confidential*.

Support the KARTAS Patreon!

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Wish to introduce innocent children to the horror of the Mythos, while remaining on budget? Atlas Games is here to affordably twist young minds with a buy two, get one free deal on Ken’s Mini Mythos line of childrens’ book parodies: *Where the Deep Ones Are, Goodnight Azathoth, Cliffourd the Big Red God*, and Antarctic Express.

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!

**Episode 234: I Barely Killed Anybody** Mar 24, 2017

We creep into the **Gaming Hut** at the command of Patreon backer Alexander Permann, who assigns us the mission of envisioning a Night’s Black Agents spinoff featuring the Kingdom of Asturias.

In a joint session of the **Horror Hut** and our **Tell Me More** feature, we look at that crowdsourced urban legend, Slenderman.

Robin vents in the Narrative Hut about one of his least favorite terms: plot immunity.

Then **Ken’s Time Machine** takes to the chrono-skies as Patreon backer Bruce Miller (no relation) asks about the fatal final flight of bandleader and WWII pilot Glenn Miller.

Support the KARTAS Patreon!

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Wish to introduce innocent children to the horror of the Mythos, while remaining on budget? Atlas Games is here to affordably twist young minds with a buy two, get one free deal on Ken’s Mini Mythos line of childrens’ book parodies: *Where the Deep Ones Are, Goodnight Azathoth, Cliffourd the Big Red God*, and Antarctic Express.

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!

**Episode 233: It’s Peter Framptons All the Way Down** Mar 17, 2017

The **Gaming Hut** goes abstract as we discuss metagaming.

At the behest of Patreon backer Vana Stillwater, the **Food Hut** hosts a look at culinary crimes and scams.

Then we paw through the contents of **Ken’s Bookshelf**, as acquired during his annual raid on the Bay Area.

Support the KARTAS Patreon!

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Wish to introduce innocent children to the horror of the Mythos, while remaining on budget? Atlas Games is here to affordably twist young minds with a buy two, get one free deal on Ken’s Mini Mythos line of childrens’ book parodies: *Where the Deep Ones Are, Goodnight Azathoth, Cliffourd the Big Red God*, and Antarctic Express.

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!

**Episode 232: Cat Hamlet Half-Elf Robot** Mar 10, 2017

The **Gaming Hut** may seem friendly and bucolic, but this time it’s full of danger, as we riff a cast of conspiratorial small town NPCs.

Take your seat and suppress your coughing as the **Culture Hut** gets classical. Patreon backer Noel Warford asks us for the scoop on such theosophically influenced composers as Henry Cowell, Dane Rudhyar and Leo Ornstein.

In **Ask Ken and Robin**, Patreon backer Ronan Kennedy seeks advice on running an NPC as a member of the party.

Then we enter the Eliptony Hut, which has been outfitted with an orgone accumulator for our discussion of Wilhelm Reich.

Support the KARTAS Patreon!

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Wish to introduce innocent children to the horror of the Mythos, while remaining on budget? Atlas Games is here to affordably twist young minds with a buy two, get one free deal on Ken’s Mini Mythos line of childrens’ book parodies: *Where the Deep Ones Are, Goodnight Azathoth, Cliffourd the Big Red God*, and Antarctic Express. 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!

**Episode 231: Please Compensate For Our Brutal Incompetence** Mar 03, 2017

The Hoary Hosts of Patreon backer Elias Helfer command the opening of the **Gaming Hut**! Therein we shall describe ways to portray weird and magnficent landscapes like those seen in the *Doctor Strange* movie in roleplaying sessions!

Backer Alex Johnston penetrates the vaunted infosec of the Tradecraft Hut to demand our dossier on Nikolai Vavilov and the Nazi bio-pirates.

You’d think this would be the last segment, but nonetheless **How To Write Good** looks at crafting climactic sequences.

Then backer Jacob Ansari meets the **Consulting Occultist** at the baggage carousel to ask about the sorcerous significance of the Denver International Airport.

Support the KARTAS Patreon!

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Wish to introduce innocent children to the horror of the Mythos, while remaining on budget? Atlas Games is here to affordably twist young minds with a buy two, get one free deal on Ken’s Mini Mythos line of childrens’ book parodies: *Where the Deep Ones Are, Cliffourd the Big Red God*, *Goodnight Azathoth* and Antarctic Express.

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!

**Episode 230: Not the Helsinki Mojitos** Feb 24, 2017

Know us by our funny voices and exaggerated mannerisms as we meet in the **Gaming Hut** to discuss what makes a Game Master character easy to play.

Grab a mojito and light a fine cigar as Ken supplies a **Travel Advisory** on his recent jaunt to Cuba.

It’s Oscar time, and you know what that means. Months after the rest of the critical world, we take our seats in the **Cinema Hut** to reveal our Top Ten Movie lists for 2016.

Support the KARTAS Patreon!

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Wish to introduce innocent children to the horror of the Mythos, while remaining on budget? Atlas Games is here to affordably twist young minds with a buy two, get one free deal on Ken’s Mini Mythos line of childrens’ book parodies: *Where the Deep Ones Are, Cliffourd the Big Red God*, and Antarctic Express.

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!

**Episode 229: Your Perspective on Trees and Badgers** Feb 17, 2017

The **Gaming Hut** stands at the service of Patreon backer Vince Arebalo’s son Dax, who asks for tips on getting comfortable around unfamiliar fellow players.

The CIA has finally put its trove of declassified historical documents in a readily accessible online database. In the **Tradecraft Hut** we find out what Ken searched for first.

Backer Jeremiah Genest commands the opening of the Narrative Hut to talk about political horror, and what distinguishes itself from its better known cousin, the political thriller.

Finally at the behest of backer Doc Cross we take a trip in **Ken’s Time Machine** to meet the most august Emperor Norton I of San Francisco.

Want to pose questions of your own? Support the KARTAS Patreon!

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

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!

**Episode 228: I Assume Someone Has Blood-Typed All the Monkeys** Feb 10, 2017

In the **Gaming Hut** we ask ourselves how far rules and GM influence should go to prevent the players from idiot plotting their own characters.

Speaking of gaming the system, esteemed Patreon backer Jeremy Forbing acts as a stalking horse for a certain shadowy figure to convene the **Politics Hut**. With a mysterious knowledge of Ken’s thought processes, Jeremy asks for his theory on how Trump will destroy the Republican party.

On the **Crime Blotter** we find a report about Los Angeles organized crime in 1937, which just coincidentally happens to feature in *Cthulhu Confidential*.

Finally at the behest of backer and *Hillfolk* illustrator Jan Pospisil, the **Eliptony Hut** considers the connection between Rhesus blood factor and survivors of Atlantis.

Want to pose questions of your own? Support the KARTAS Patreon!

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

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!

**Episode 227: Other Buopoths Do** Feb 03, 2017

Another all-request episode starts in the **Gaming Hut**, where Patreon backer Gerald Sear wants us to consider the Mythos implications of the Disney corporation.

Then assemble your miniature greenhouses and sail over to the **History Hut**, where we make up interesting facts about botanist and tea smuggler Robert Fortune at the behest of backer Steve Sick.

Backer Theron Bretz revs up the projector in the **Cinema Hut**, as we tackle Spy Movies 101.

Then the **Consulting Occultist** unfurls some alchemical wisdom on a Paul Tevis request for the skinny on the Ripley Scrolls.

Want to pose questions of your own? 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!

**Episode 226: Yig is More of a Moundsville Ohio Guy** Jan 27, 2017

A surrealist sandbox and a structured mystery make a date in the **Gaming Hut**, as Josh Rose asks how to run Dreamhounds of Paris as a GUMSHOE One-2-One setting.

Given that the world has turned into a spy novel, and not a particularly believable one at that, maybe it’s time to duck into the **Tradecraft Hut** for an update on espionage in the news.

**Ask Ken and Robin** features a demand for parity from Drew Clowery, who wants a “how Robin runs games” segment to go with its Ken equivalent from Episode 220.

Finally Eben Lindsey asks us to rev up **Ken’s Time Machine** to reveal the fate of Cahokia, the North American city that suffered mass abandonment circa 1400.

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!

**Episode 225: Just Make Up a Bunch of Dwarves** Jan 20, 2017

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!

**Episode 224: Without Checking, Because That Spoils the Fun** Jan 13, 2017

Gather in the **Gaming Hut** as we ask ourselves when one should take historical license when running or designing a game set in the real past. Spoiler: we also answer ourselves.

In the Book Hut, Patreon backers Scott Haring and Kalin team up to demand a rundown on the works of Tim Powers.

Sorting one’s research is an important part of **How to Write Good**, and thanks to a question from backer Trung Bui we discuss our methods for whipping it into shape.

Finally, at the behest of backer Vana Stillwater, we pop into the **Eliptony Hut** to make up, er, uncover reasons behind the perhaps mysterious demise of cryptozoologist Tom Slick.

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!

**Episode 223: There’s No Blood in a JPEG** Jan 06, 2017

The contents of this podcast become too horrible to correlate as we slip into the **Gaming Hut** to answer a question from Patreon backer Laurel Halbany about handling secret mythos knowledge in an age of ever-present information.

In **Ask Ken and Robin**, backer Jeff Kahrs ask us to expound on the contradictions of opting out of challenging or uncomfortable subject matter at the gaming table.

Then **Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else**, in the ever so irrepressible form of *Burning Wheel* and *Torchbearer* designer Luke Crane. Warning: adorably sweary.

Finally the **Consulting Occultist**, somewhat to his surprise, realizes he has yet to tell us about Eliphas Levi, and so tells us about Eliphas Levi.

Support the KARTAS Patreon!

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

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!

**Episode 222: Suddenly You’re Eating Mustard Lettuce** Dec 23, 2016
Finally, after ceding all recent chapeaus to Ken, Robin seizes control of **Among My Many Hats** to talk about *Cthulhu Confidential* and the design of the GUMSHOE One-2-One system. Because it’s finally up for pre-order over at the Pelgrane store.

While we’re mulling *Cthulhu Confidential*, **Ken and/or Robin Talks To Someone Else** has a word with Chris Spivey, creator of that book’s African American science investigator Langston Wright. And what fine timing, as Chris’ exciting new GUMSHOE project *Harlem Unbound* is currently Kickstarting.

Then Ken presents us with a thick layer of rant between two slices of bread, as he calls us to order in the **Food Hut** to tell us how to make a damn sandwich.

Finally our hero, perhaps still spackled with mayo, tries not to look too tasty to large felines as **Ken’s Time Machine** fulfills a John Kingdon request for the real truth behind the hungry hungry lions of Tsavo.

Support the KARTAS Patreon!

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

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!

**Episode 221: Live at Dragonmeet 2016** Dec 16, 2016
If it’s December, Ken and Robin must be coming to you live from Dragonmeet, the little London convention that isn’t so little any more. Join us as Ken emerges triumphant from a draw of the nerdtrope deck that definitely, definitely happened exactly just as Robin describes it. Plus red herrings, steak, and more stupid gnomes. Also in a Dragonmeet tradition, the f-bomb gets dropped–and the dropper might surprise you!

Support the KARTAS Patreon!

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Get trapped in Lovecraft’s story “The Call of Cthulhu” in Atlas Games’ addictive new card game Lost in R’lyeh. Take a selfie with your purchased copy of the game at your brick and mortar game retailer and send it to Atlas to claim your special Ken and Robin promo card. Do intervals between Ken’s Time Machine segments leave you listless, bored, and itchy? Then you’re in luck, because TimeWatch, the wild and woolly GUMSHOE game of chrono-hopping adventure has now blasted its way into our reality. Brought to you by master of over-the-top fast-paced fun Kevin Kulp and our reality-maintaining overlords at Pelgrane Press. For those seeking yet more Ken content, 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!

**Episode 220: Bear With Us, Everyone Else** Dec 09, 2016
In the **Gaming Hut**, urged on by Patreon backer Fred Kiesche, Ken takes us under the hood of his Rex of the Old 97 campaign. What does he do behind that Peter Frampton GM screen, and how does he do it?

But stranger requests await us still! Patreon backer Jeromy French convenes a meeting in the **Culture Hut**, where Robin talks about the Toronto music scene. Listen to his Toronto playlist on Spotify.

Next we delve into everyone’s new favorite four syllable word, as the **History Hut** serves up some backstory on the Emoluments Clause.

Then once again we find ourselves in the shadowy environs of the **Conspiracy Corner**, as Patreon backer Leandro Ugarte wants us to explain where Juan Peron’s hands went.

Support the KARTAS Patreon!

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Get trapped in Lovecraft’s story “The Call of Cthulhu” in Atlas Games’ addictive new card game Lost in R’lyeh. Take a selfie with your purchased copy of the game at your brick and mortar game retailer and send it to Atlas to claim your special Ken and Robin promo card.

Do intervals between Ken’s Time Machine segments leave you listless, bored, and itchy? Then you’re in luck, because TimeWatch, the wild and woolly GUMSHOE game of chrono-hopping adventure has now blasted its way into our reality. Brought to you by master of over-the-top fast-paced fun Kevin Kulp and our reality-maintaining overlords at Pelgrane Press. For those seeking yet more Ken content, 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!

**Episode 219: Argue With Ceramics** Dec 02, 2016
Dirk the Dice rolls into the Gaming Hut to ask us how to make sword and sorcery monster encounters exciting.

Don’t believe a word you hear in the **Conspiracy Corner**, as we look at the history and evolution of propaganda.

Expand your consciousness in the Cinema Hut, where backers Andrew Collins and Adam Grotjohn invite us to rap about visionary filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky.

Keep a careful watch as the **Consulting Occultist** whispers of Les Veilleurs, an Parisian occult group founded in the final days of WWI.

Support the KARTAS Patreon!

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Get trapped in Lovecraft’s story “The Call of Cthulhu” in Atlas Games’ addictive new card game Lost in R’lyeh. Take a selfie with your purchased copy of the game at your brick and mortar game retailer and send it to Atlas to claim your special Ken and Robin promo card. Do intervals between Ken’s Time Machine segments leave you listless, bored, and itchy? Then you’re in luck, because TimeWatch, the wild and woolly GUMSHOE game of chrono-hopping adventure has now blasted its way into our reality. Brought to you by master of over-the-top fast-paced fun Kevin Kulp and our reality-maintaining overlords at Pelgrane Press. For those seeking yet more Ken content, 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. Attention, operatives of Delta Green, the ultra-covert agency charged with battling the contemporary forces of the Cthulhu Mythos! Now everything you need to know to play *Delta Green: The Roleplaying Game*, perhaps extending your valiantly short field life, can be found in the Delta Green Agent’s Handbook or Delta Green: Need to Know, the quick start rules set with extra-sturdy Handler’s Screen.

**Episode 218: This Podcast Still Hates Nazis** Nov 25, 2016
Patreon backer Michael Kotschi pops a moony question over the **Ask Ken and Robin** transom, prompting us to look at 70s NASA from a *Moon Dust Men* perspective.

The **Politics Hut** still has a hangover, but I guess we still have to address that thing that happened.

In **Ken and/or Robin Talk To Someone Else**, Ken talks to blogger, podcaster, freshly minted game designer and snailologist Darcy Ross.

Is the **Eliptony Hut** an odd place to talk about the Sybil case? The answer might surprise you!

Support the KARTAS Patreon!

Get trapped in Lovecraft’s story “The Call of Cthulhu” in Atlas Games’ addictive new card game Lost in R’lyeh. Take a selfie with your purchased copy of the game at your brick and mortar game retailer and send it to Atlas to claim your special Ken and Robin promo card. Do intervals between Ken’s Time Machine segments leave you listless, bored, and itchy? Then you’re in luck, because TimeWatch, the wild and woolly GUMSHOE game of chrono-hopping adventure has now blasted its way into our reality. Brought to you by master of over-the-top fast-paced fun Kevin Kulp and our reality-maintaining overlords at Pelgrane Press. For those seeking yet more Ken content, 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. Attention, operatives of Delta Green, the ultra-covert agency charged with battling the contemporary forces of the Cthulhu Mythos! Now everything you need to know to play *Delta Green: The Roleplaying Game*, perhaps extending your valiantly short field life, can be found in the Delta Green Agent’s Handbook or Delta Green: Need to Know, the quick start rules set with extra-sturdy Handler’s Screen.

**Episode 217: Home Movies You Didn’t Take** Nov 18, 2016
Patreon backer Ethan Cordray rises from the Pacific waves of **Ask Ken and Robin** to pose a stumper: how to make Cthulhu scary again.

Ken is back from an extended sequester in the Cinema Hut to talk about his favorites from the Chicago International Film Festival.

Once more we learn **How to Write Good**, this time with a look at authorial commentary.

Our hero saves America again as a **Ken’s Time Machine** after-action report details Timothy Pickering’s attempted New England secession of 1804, posed by Patreon backer Paul. Correction Hut: Ken is mortified that he got the XYZ Affair mixed up with the Citizen Genet affair, but rest assured they both involved the French and influence-peddling, so both the larger history and the jokes still work.

Support the KARTAS Patreon!

Get trapped in Lovecraft’s story “The Call of Cthulhu” in Atlas Games’ addictive new card game Lost in R’lyeh. Take a selfie with your purchased copy of the game at your brick and mortar game retailer and send it to Atlas to claim your special Ken and Robin promo card. Do intervals between Ken’s Time Machine segments leave you listless, bored, and itchy? Then you’re in luck, because TimeWatch, the wild and woolly GUMSHOE game of chrono-hopping adventure has now blasted its way into our reality. Brought to you by master of over-the-top fast-paced fun Kevin Kulp and our reality-maintaining overlords at Pelgrane Press. For those seeking yet more Ken content, 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. Attention, operatives of Delta Green, the ultra-covert agency charged with battling the contemporary forces of the Cthulhu Mythos! Now everything you need to know to play *Delta Green: The Roleplaying Game*, perhaps extending your valiantly short field life, can be found in the Delta Green Agent’s Handbook or Delta Green: Need to Know, the quick start rules set with extra-sturdy Handler’s Screen.

**Episode 216: Some Old Schlubby Wine God** Nov 11, 2016
This week the **Gaming Hut** holds a special surprise: it’s not just a segment, but a free game in and of itself, as Robin teaches you how to run *Death Spiral*.

In **Ask Ken and Robin**, Reiner Dobbelman asks us about mythic-level play.

Then we again hear the protesting groans of **Ken’s Bookshelf** as we vicariously paw through his haul from his latest raid on Powell’s Books in Portland.

Support the KARTAS Patreon!

Get trapped in Lovecraft’s story “The Call of Cthulhu” in Atlas Games’ addictive new card game Lost in R’lyeh. Take a selfie with your purchased copy of the game at your brick and mortar game retailer and send it to Atlas to claim your special Ken and Robin promo card. Do intervals between Ken’s Time Machine segments leave you listless, bored, and itchy? Then you’re in luck, because TimeWatch, the wild and woolly GUMSHOE game of chrono-hopping adventure has now blasted its way into our reality. Brought to you by master of over-the-top fast-paced fun Kevin Kulp and our reality-maintaining overlords at Pelgrane Press. For those seeking yet more Ken content, 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. Attention, operatives of Delta Green, the ultra-covert agency charged with battling the contemporary forces of the Cthulhu Mythos! Now everything you need to know to play *Delta Green: The Roleplaying Game*, perhaps extending your valiantly short field life, can be found in the Delta Green Agent’s Handbook.

**Episode 215: Not an Impaleologist** Nov 04, 2016
**Among My Many Hats** blows the lid off of Ken’s upcoming Kickstarter for a revised, revamped, and reanimated *Tour de Lovecraft: the Tales*.

Are the results of this podcast rigged? Find out as the **History Hut** looks at the history of vote-rigging in America.

When **Ken and/or Robin Talk To Someone Else**, sometimes that someone is Sandy Petersen, of *Cthulhu Wars*, Chaosium and *Doom* fame. This is one of those times.

Finally we open up the **Horror Hut** to entertain a query from Padraig Griffin, who needs to know about the precise sort of alchemy Dracula practiced. We won’t ask him why he does, because he’s a Patreon backer and so deserves the absolute benefit of the doubt.

Support the KARTAS Patreon!

Get trapped in Lovecraft’s story “The Call of Cthulhu” in Atlas Games’ addictive new card game Lost in R’lyeh. Take a selfie with your purchased copy of the game at your brick and mortar game retailer and send it to Atlas to claim your special Ken and Robin promo card. Do intervals between Ken’s Time Machine segments leave you listless, bored, and itchy? Then you’re in luck, because TimeWatch, the wild and woolly GUMSHOE game of chrono-hopping adventure has now blasted its way into our reality. Brought to you by master of over-the-top fast-paced fun Kevin Kulp and our reality-maintaining overlords at Pelgrane Press. For those seeking yet more Ken content, 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. Attention, operatives of Delta Green, the ultra-covert agency charged with battling the contemporary forces of the Cthulhu Mythos! Now everything you need to know to play *Delta Green: The Roleplaying Game*, perhaps extending your valiantly short field life, can be found in the Delta Green Agent’s Handbook.

**Episode 214: The Puppet Below** Oct 28, 2016
The **Gaming Hut** looks at top temporal locations for *TimeWatch* scenarios. Pelgrane Press celebrates our segment by offering you, the listener, a voucher code to order from its online store. Plunk in TIMEWATCH at the voucher prompt for 10% off any *TimeWatch* product. In keeping with the chronological confusion of *TimeWatch*, the offer is good for a limited but indeterminate time period, so act fast, before it shimmers away into nothingness.

Next up Robin issues a **Travel Advisory** for his trip to THE KRAKEN, a Gaming Retreat held at the Schloss Neuhausen in the rural depths of the former East Germany.

Its founder Fabian Kuechler can tell us more about the unusual history that led to THE KRAKEN, so in **Ken and/Robin Talk To Someone Else**, we get him to do just that.

Ken also spent his time since our last recording session on the road, occasioning a jaunt into the **Cinema Hut** for a review of the latest H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival.

Support the KARTAS Patreon!

Get trapped in Lovecraft’s story “The Call of Cthulhu” in Atlas Games’ addictive new card game Lost in R’lyeh. Take a selfie with your purchased copy of the game at your brick and mortar game retailer and send it to Atlas to claim your special Ken and Robin promo card. Do intervals between Ken’s Time Machine segments leave you listless, bored, and itchy? Then you’re in luck, because TimeWatch, the wild and woolly GUMSHOE game of chrono-hopping adventure has now blasted its way into our reality. Brought to you by master of over-the-top fast-paced fun Kevin Kulp and our reality-maintaining overlords at Pelgrane Press. For those seeking yet more Ken content, 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. Attention, operatives of Delta Green, the ultra-covert agency charged with battling the contemporary forces of the Cthulhu Mythos! Now everything you need to know to play *Delta Green: The Roleplaying Game*, perhaps extending your valiantly short field life, can be found in the Delta Green Agent’s Handbook.

**Episode 213: I Would Have Been On the Other Side of That** Oct 21, 2016
A fork in the road leads to either the **Gaming Hut**, or the Gaming Hut, as we look at those times when giving players choice and control in a scenario leads to a less interesting outcome.

The **History Hut** has us looking at the career of oil magnate E.L. Doheny, key figure in the Teapot Dome scandal and partial inspiration for Daniel Plainview in There Might Be Blood.

Then **Ken and/or Robin Talk To Somebody Else**, specifically Epidiah Ravachol of *Dread* and *Worlds Without Master* fame.

We conclude with the **Consulting Occultist** talking about Jakob Böhme, trying to convince Robin that there is something of interest to be gleaned from yet another Christian mystic.

Support the KARTAS Patreon!

Get trapped in Lovecraft’s story “The Call of Cthulhu” in Atlas Games’ addictive new card game Lost in R’lyeh. Take a selfie with your purchased copy of the game at your brick and mortar game retailer and send it to Atlas to claim your special Ken and Robin promo card. Do intervals between Ken’s Time Machine segments leave you listless, bored, and itchy? Then you’re in luck, because TimeWatch, the wild and woolly GUMSHOE game of chrono-hopping adventure has now blasted its way into our reality. Brought to you by master of over-the-top fast-paced fun Kevin Kulp and our reality-maintaining overlords at Pelgrane Press. For those seeking yet more Ken content, 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. Attention, operatives of Delta Green, the ultra-covert agency charged with battling the contemporary forces of the Cthulhu Mythos! Now everything you need to know to play *Delta Green: The Roleplaying Game*, perhaps extending your valiantly short field life, can be found in the Delta Green Agent’s Handbook.

**Episode 212: I Was Scheduled For One Anyway** Oct 14, 2016
We kick off another episode inspired entirely by Patreon backer requests with John Corey, who asks Ken to expand on real history as the best setting for gaming and the challenges of reskinning it, thus inviting another round of **That Thing I Always S**ay.

The enigmatic asker known only as Bryan ushers into the Horror Hut to consider Lovecraftian spam.

In the **Tradecraft Hut**, Simon Hedge requests a 101 on Kremlinology.

And Neil Dalton poses a probing question in the **Eliptony Hut**, about horror writer, UFO contactee and podcaster Whitley Strieber.

Support the KARTAS Patreon!

Get trapped in Lovecraft’s story “The Call of Cthulhu” in Atlas Games’ addictive new card game Lost in R’lyeh. Take a selfie with your purchased copy of the game at your brick and mortar game retailer and send it to Atlas to claim your special Ken and Robin promo card. Do intervals between Ken’s Time Machine segments leave you listless, bored, and itchy? Then you’re in luck, because TimeWatch, the wild and woolly GUMSHOE game of chrono-hopping adventure has now blasted its way into our reality. Brought to you by master of over-the-top fast-paced fun Kevin Kulp and our reality-maintaining overlords at Pelgrane Press. For those seeking yet more Ken content, 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. Attention, operatives of Delta Green, the ultra-covert agency charged with battling the contemporary forces of the Cthulhu Mythos! Now everything you need to know to play *Delta Green: The Roleplaying Game*, perhaps extending your valiantly short field life, can be found in the Delta Green Agent’s Handbook.

**Episode 211: It’s Called Salvage** Oct 07, 2016
Unfurl your flags as we gather in the Gaming Hut to envision an F20 game in which nationalities take the place of alignments.

In **Ask Ken and Robin**, Patreon backer Jason Breti asks us to talk about ***Microscope.***

**How to Write Good** looks at things that happen in real life that writers have to work extra hard to put across in fiction.

Finally, **Ken’s Time Machine** obeys backer Shane McLean’s demands for information on our hero’s interactions with Thomas Bloodworth in the early stages of London’s Great Fire.

Support the KARTAS Patreon!

Get trapped in Lovecraft’s story “The Call of Cthulhu” in Atlas Games’ addictive new card game Lost in R’lyeh. Take a selfie with your purchased copy of the game at your brick and mortar game retailer and send it to Atlas to claim your special Ken and Robin promo card.

Do intervals between Ken’s Time Machine segments leave you listless, bored, and itchy? Then you’re in luck, because TimeWatch, the wild and woolly GUMSHOE game of chrono-hopping adventure has now blasted its way into our reality. Brought to you by master of over-the-top fast-paced fun Kevin Kulp and our reality-maintaining overlords at Pelgrane Press.

For those seeking yet more Ken content, 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.

Attention, operatives of Delta Green, the ultra-covert agency charged with battling the contemporary forces of the Cthulhu Mythos! Now everything you need to know to play *Delta Green: The Roleplaying Game*, perhaps extending your valiantly short field life, can be found in the Delta Green Agent’s Handbook.

**Episode 210: Tell Jimbo That You’ve Moved House** Sep 30, 2016
Much tabletop roleplaying advice, ours included, helps GMs to keep players entertained. But what about the other way around? Thanks to Patreon backer Jesse Morgan, we head into the **Gaming Hut** to look at ways to keep your GM motivated.

**Ken and/or Robin Talk To Someone Else** covers not one but two areas of expertise, as Hal Mangold delivers the wisdom on art direction and layout. The favorite font he says we’ll reveal in the show notes is 806 Typography.

Then in a special double-length screening session in the **Cinema Hut**, Robin reveals his discoveries from this year’s Toronto International Film Festival. For films glossed over in the segment, see his capsule review round-up.

Support the KARTAS Patreon!

Get trapped in Lovecraft’s story “The Call of Cthulhu” in Atlas Games’ addictive new card game Lost in R’lyeh. Take a selfie with your purchased copy of the game at your brick and mortar game retailer and send it to Atlas to claim your special Ken and Robin promo card. Do intervals between Ken’s Time Machine segments leave you listless, bored, and itchy? Then you’re in luck, because TimeWatch, the wild and woolly GUMSHOE game of chrono-hopping adventure has now blasted its way into our reality. Brought to you by master of over-the-top fast-paced fun Kevin Kulp and our reality-maintaining overlords at Pelgrane Press. For those seeking yet more Ken content, 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. Attention, operatives of Delta Green, the ultra-covert agency charged with battling the contemporary forces of the Cthulhu Mythos! Now everything you need to know to play *Delta Green: The Roleplaying Game*, perhaps extending your valiantly short field life, can be found in the Delta Green Agent’s Handbook.

**Episode 209: There is Mooching To Be Done** Sep 23, 2016
Take a reality check before you dare to enter the **Gaming Hut**, as we answer Patreon backer Bryan’s request to devise a campaign based on flawed perceptions.

Time for another intro course in the **Cinema Hut** as Ken and Robin give your their film noir 101.

Coriander meets pate as the Food Hut investigates the banh mi, a sandwich whose flavors are as complex as its history.

Finally **Ken’s Time Machine** revs up at the behest of backer Rick Neal, who wants to know just what was up when Jack Parsons met L. Ron Hubbard to attempt the Babylon Working.

Support the KARTAS Patreon!

Get trapped in Lovecraft’s story “The Call of Cthulhu” in Atlas Games’ addictive new card game Lost in R’lyeh. Take a selfie with your purchased copy of the game at your brick and mortar game retailer and send it to Atlas to claim your special Ken and Robin promo card. Do intervals between Ken’s Time Machine segments leave you listless, bored, and itchy? Then you’re in luck, because TimeWatch, the wild and woolly GUMSHOE game of chrono-hopping adventure has now blasted its way into our reality. Brought to you by master of over-the-top fast-paced fun Kevin Kulp and our reality-maintaining overlords at Pelgrane Press. For those seeking yet more Ken content, 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. Attention, operatives of Delta Green, the ultra-covert agency charged with battling the contemporary forces of the Cthulhu Mythos! Now everything you need to know to play *Delta Green: The Roleplaying Game*, perhaps extending your valiantly short field life, can be found in the Delta Green Agent’s Handbook.

**Episode 208: Live from Gen Con 2016** Sep 16, 2016

Robin is away at the Toronto International Film festival, and longtime listeners know what that means: it’s time to cover his absence from the podcast mic to drop the live episode we released at Gen Con. Join us for another glorious nerdtrope, a big hand for all our Patreon backers, and all the questions a packed audience (a cramped audience frankly) can pack into one 50-minute time slot!
Support the KARTAS Patreon!

Get trapped in Lovecraft’s story “The Call of Cthulhu” in Atlas Games’ addictive new card game Lost in R’lyeh. Take a selfie with your purchased copy of the game at your brick and mortar game retailer and send it to Atlas to claim your special Ken and Robin promo card.

Do intervals between Ken’s Time Machine segments leave you listless, bored, and itchy? Then you’re in luck, because TimeWatch, the wild and woolly GUMSHOE game of chrono-hopping adventure has now blasted its way into our reality. Brought to you by master of over-the-top fast-paced fun Kevin Kulp and our reality-maintaining overlords at Pelgrane Press.

For those seeking yet more Ken content, 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.

Attention, operatives of Delta Green, the ultra-covert agency charged with battling the contemporary forces of the Cthulhu Mythos! Now everything you need to know to play *Delta Green: The Roleplaying Game*, perhaps extending your valiantly short field life, can be found in the Delta Green Agent’s Handbook.

**Episode 207: It’s Pronounced “Executive”** Sep 09, 2016

Our 207th installment starts on a tripartite note as Patreon backer Andrew Young pops his head into the **Gaming Hut** to ask about the pertinence of three-act structure in roleplaying scenarios.

Speaking of Andrews, the **Tradecraft Hut** opens the case file on East German spymaster Markus Wolf, at the behest of backer Andrew Collins.

In **Ken and/or Robin Talk To Someone Else**, we invite Jeff Tidball to reveal all about Atlas Games’ upcoming GUMSHOE game set in Ars Magica’s Mythic Europe.

Having left a suitable interval for you all to finish your binge-watching, we then turn on the **Television Hut** for a much-requested chat about “Stranger Things.”

Support the KARTAS Patreon!

Get trapped in Lovecraft’s story “The Call of Cthulhu” in Atlas Games’ addictive new card game Lost in R’lyeh. Take a selfie with your purchased copy of the game at your brick and mortar game retailer and send it to Atlas to claim your special Ken and Robin promo card.

Do intervals between Ken’s Time Machine segments leave you listless, bored, and itchy? Then you’re in luck, because TimeWatch, the wild and woolly GUMSHOE game of chrono-hopping adventure has now blasted its way into our reality. Brought to you by master of over-the-top fast-paced fun Kevin Kulp and our reality-maintaining overlords at Pelgrane Press.

For those seeking yet more Ken content, 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.

Attention, operatives of Delta Green, the ultra-covert agency charged with battling the contemporary forces of the Cthulhu Mythos! Now everything you need to know to play *Delta Green: The Roleplaying Game*, perhaps extending your valiantly short field life, can be found in the Delta Green Agent’s Handbook.

**Episode 206: They Had Hyenas In Inventory** Sep 02, 2016
Rules get hybridized in the **Gaming Hut**, at the behest of Patreon backer Jason Carter, who wants to fuse GUMSHOE’s investigative rules with the combat systems of other games, say for example *Feng Shui*.

The man who shot Billy the Kid was himself killed in a dispute over goats. Coincidence? The **History Hut** looks at the killing of Pat Garrett.

Learn the secret of scoring your RPG sessions with music from writer and game designer Will Hindmarch, as **Ken and/or Robin Talk To Someone Else**.

Finally, erect your anti-wolf defenses as the **Eliptony Hut** tells the hair-raising tale of the Beast of Gevaudan.

Support the KARTAS Patreon!

Get trapped in Lovecraft’s story “The Call of Cthulhu” in Atlas Games’ addictive new card game Lost in R’lyeh. Take a selfie with your purchased copy of the game at your brick and mortar game retailer and send it to Atlas to claim your special Ken and Robin promo card.

Do intervals between Ken’s Time Machine segments leave you listless, bored, and itchy? Then you’re in luck, because TimeWatch, the wild and woolly GUMSHOE game of chrono-hopping adventure has now blasted its way into our reality. Brought to you by master of over-the-top fast-paced fun Kevin Kulp and our reality-maintaining overlords at Pelgrane Press.

For those seeking yet more Ken content, 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.

Attention, operatives of Delta Green, the ultra-covert agency charged with battling the contemporary forces of the Cthulhu Mythos! Now everything you need to know to play *Delta Green: The Roleplaying Game*, perhaps extending your valiantly short field life, can be found in the Delta Green Agent’s Handbook.

**Episode 205: The Complaining Hut** Aug 26, 2016
Get your dice and character sheets together and head on into the **Gaming Hut** as we field Patreon backer Gnoll Warford’s question about preparing as a first-time convention GM.

In **How To Write Good**, we slake patron Corey Pierno’s desire to know our writing and researching routines.

When **Ken and/or Robin Talk To Someone Else**, that someone else turns out to be Emily Care Boss, whose classic games of personal interaction have now been collected as the Romance Trilogy. Pre-order it now!

Then **Ken’s Time Machine** revs up to answer a question from Patreon backer Drew Clowery—can Ken use his time knowledge to finally reveal the identity of the Culper Ring’s Agent 355?

Support the KARTAS Patreon!

Get trapped in Lovecraft’s story “The Call of Cthulhu” in Atlas Games’ addictive new card game Lost in R’lyeh. Take a selfie with your purchased copy of the game at your brick and mortar game retailer and send it to Atlas to claim your special Ken and Robin promo card. It’s hard to imagine that you listen to this show and have yet to check out The Dracula Dossier. But now that it has taken home Product of the Year and an oodle of other ENnie awards, perhaps you have remembered your blood thirst it. Time to drink deep of *Dracula Dossier* from Pelgrane Press, consisting of the *Director’s Handbook* and *Dracula Unredacted*. For those seeking yet more Ken content, 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. Attention, operatives of Delta Green, the ultra-covert agency charged with battling the contemporary forces of the Cthulhu Mythos! Now everything you need to know to play *Delta Green: The Roleplaying Game*, perhaps extending your valiantly short field life, can be found in the Delta Green Agent’s Handbook.

**Episode 204: Gen Con 2016** Aug 19, 2016

Voices weary and graveled, but with spirits lifted by ENnies Gold and Silver, Ken and Robin return from Gen Con to regale you with this year’s round-up of the Best Four Days in Gaming. As is our annual wont we throw separate segments to the wind to encompass all the **Gaming Hut** goodness. Sub-headings include the Diana Jones Awards, industry scuttlebutt, meetings with listeners, the fate of the show and of course, food. All that and much much more.

Thanks to our beloved ENnies voters for allowing us a three-peat, hanging yet another Gold medal around this podcast’s grateful neck.

Support the KARTAS Patreon!

Get trapped in Lovecraft’s story “The Call of Cthulhu” in Atlas Games’ addictive new card game Lost in R’lyeh. Take a selfie with your purchased copy of the game at your brick and mortar game retailer and send it to Atlas to claim your special Ken and Robin promo card.

It’s hard to imagine that you listen to this show and have yet to check out The Dracula Dossier. But now that it has taken home Product of the Year and an oodle of other ENnie awards, perhaps you have remembered your blood thirst it. Time to drink deep of *Dracula Dossier* from Pelgrane Press, consisting of the *Director’s Handbook* and *Dracula Unredacted*.

For those seeking yet more Ken content, 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.

Attention, operatives of Delta Green, the ultra-covert agency charged with battling the contemporary forces of the Cthulhu Mythos! Now everything you need to know to play *Delta Green: The Roleplaying Game*, perhaps extending your valiantly short field life, can be found in the Delta Green Agent’s Handbook.

**Episode 203: Pull the Damn Trigger You Coward!** Aug 12, 2016
In a special live from our hotel room episode, we inflate a portable **Gaming Hut** to field a question from Frent about catastrophe pile-ups in popular continuities.

The Tradecraft Hut looks at the implications of Russian intelligence’s hack of the Democratic National Committee emails. (See *The Crusader*, by Paul Kengor, pp. 317-320 for the full text of KGB head Viktor Chebrikov’s letter to Andropov about Ted Kennedy’s approaches to the Soviets about the 1984 election.)

Ken demanded it, so we did it—a **Food Hut** on that most exalted of fruits, the blueberry.

Thanks to Patreon backer Morgan Ellis, we have a **Consulting Occultist** topic Ken can field in his sleep and/or the day before a big show: ley lines.

Support the KARTAS Patreon!

Get trapped in Lovecraft’s story “The Call of Cthulhu” in Atlas Games’ addictive new card game Lost in R’lyeh. Take a selfie with your purchased copy of the game at your brick and mortar game retailer and send it to Atlas to claim your special Ken and Robin promo card. Ken fans who did not partake of the Kickstarter can now sink their fangs into the general release of the *Dracula Dossier* from Pelgrane Press, consisting of the *Director’s Handbook* and *Dracula Unredacted*. You say that’s still not enough Ken for you? Very well, my friend. 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. Attention, operatives of Delta Green, the ultra-covert agency charged with battling the contemporary forces of the Cthulhu Mythos! Now everything you need to know to play *Delta Green: The Roleplaying Game*, perhaps extending your valiantly short field life, can be found in the Delta Green Agent’s Handbook.

**Episode 202: While We’re On the Surface of the Freezing Sun** Aug 05, 2016
Another all-Patreon backer request episode kicks off in the **Gaming Hut** as Tom Abella asks what Brexit will do to spycraft in our world and that of Night’s Black Agents.

In **The Business of Gaming** Wesley Marshal asks about the ethics of working on an IP you don’t care for.

Karl Schmidt wants the **Consulting Occultist** to spill the astrological and alchemical beans on Rudolf II of the Holy Roman Empire.

Then finally it’s time for another installment of **Tell Me More**, in which Ken and/or Robin expand their Ken and Robin Consume Media thoughts about Occupied, *The Vampire Countess*, and *The Neon Demon.*

Support the KARTAS Patreon!

Get trapped in Lovecraft’s story “The Call of Cthulhu” in Atlas Games’ addictive new card game Lost in R’lyeh. Take a selfie with your purchased copy of the game at your brick and mortar game retailer and send it to Atlas to claim your special Ken and Robin promo card. Ken fans who did not partake of the Kickstarter can now sink their fangs into the general release of the *Dracula Dossier* from Pelgrane Press, consisting of the *Director’s Handbook* and *Dracula Unredacted*. You say that’s still not enough Ken for you? Very well, my friend. 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. Attention, operatives of Delta Green, the ultra-covert agency charged with battling the contemporary forces of the Cthulhu Mythos! Now everything you need to know to play *Delta Green: The Roleplaying Game*, perhaps extending your valiantly short field life, can be found in the Delta Green Agent’s Handbook.

**Episode 201: You Don’t Need to Drag Pokemon Into It** Jul 29, 2016
Pokemon fever is back and more feverish than ever. As Pokemon Go breaks loose of the **Gaming Hut**, forcing players onto the actual streets, is there anything we can riff about it that reality hasn’t already delivered?

Ken watched every Dracula flick he could get his hands on, and now the result of that effort, *The Thrill of Dracula*, awaits your reading pleasure. We open Ken’s coffin to chat about it in **Among My Many Hats**.

Our amygdalas alert us to danger whenever we see an upside down triangle. In **Fun With Science**, we go behind the science to make up explanations for this peculiar phenomenon.

Finally, Patreon backer Jacob Ansari wants to know why **Ken’s Time Machine** was employed to obscure Palermo’s mysterious Blue Room aka Wonderland Chamber.

Support the KARTAS Patreon!

Get trapped in Lovecraft’s story “The Call of Cthulhu” in Atlas Games’ addictive new card game Lost in R’lyeh. Take a selfie with your purchased copy of the game at your brick and mortar game retailer and send it to Atlas to claim your special Ken and Robin promo card.

Ken fans who did not partake of the Kickstarter can now sink their fangs into the general release of the *Dracula Dossier* from Pelgrane Press, consisting of the *Director’s Handbook* and *Dracula Unredacted*.

You say that’s still not enough Ken for you? Very well, my friend. 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.

Attention, operatives of Delta Green, the ultra-covert agency charged with battling the contemporary forces of the Cthulhu Mythos! Now everything you need to know to play *Delta Green: The Roleplaying Game*, perhaps extending your valiantly short field life, can be found in the Delta Green Agent’s Handbook.

**Episode 200: Lightning Round 2016** Jul 22, 2016

Let the bells ring out and the banners fly! We can remember starting this occasionally humble podcast like it was yesterday, but here we are with our 200th episode. And you know what that means: lightning round questions. This time, served up primarily by our Patreon backers. Among the many topics: underused Lovecraft, why conversion rules will always break your heart, and where huts come from, dealing with rules lawyers, and limes versus lemons.

Support the KARTAS Patreon!

Get trapped in Lovecraft’s story “The Call of Cthulhu” in Atlas Games’ addictive new card game Lost in R’lyeh. Take a selfie with your purchased copy of the game at your brick and mortar game retailer and send it to Atlas to claim your special Ken and Robin promo card. Ken fans who did not partake of the Kickstarter can now sink their fangs into the general release of the *Dracula Dossier* from Pelgrane Press, consisting of the *Director’s Handbook* and *Dracula Unredacted*. You say that’s still not enough Ken for you? Very well, my friend. 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. Attention, operatives of Delta Green, the ultra-covert agency charged with battling the contemporary forces of the Cthulhu Mythos! Now everything you need to know to play *Delta Green: The Roleplaying Game*, perhaps extending your valiantly short field life, can be found in the Delta Green Agent’s Handbook.

**Episode 199: Not That That’s What Time Travelers Say** Jul 15, 2016
In **Ask Ken and Robin**, Patreon backer Conrad Kinch asks what the cruel empire of Tsan-Chan might be up to in 5000 AD. The answer might surprise him!

Now that you’ve worked your way through the filmography we provided in our Westerns 101 segment, the **Cinema Hut** rides back to the corral to pick some deeper cuts. Yes, it’s Westerns 201.

**Fun With Science** tackles a question from supporter Antti Elomaa: “Aside from building Geiger-counters and scientific apparatii, what use could one have for pre-nuclear steel, main source of which is the German WWI fleet scuttled at Scapa Flow?”

Then we’re back in the parlor of the **Consulting Occultist** to hear the tale of reputed 16th century sorcerer Rinaldo des Trois-Echelles du Mayne.

Support the KARTAS Patreon!

Get trapped in Lovecraft’s story “The Call of Cthulhu” in Atlas Games’ addictive new card game Lost in R’lyeh. Take a selfie with your purchased copy of the game at your brick and mortar game retailer and send it to Atlas to claim your special Ken and Robin promo card.

Ken fans who did not partake of the Kickstarter can now sink their fangs into the general release of the *Dracula Dossier* from Pelgrane Press, consisting of the *Director’s Handbook* and *Dracula Unredacted*.

You say that’s still not enough Ken for you? Very well, my friend. 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. Attention, operatives of Delta Green, the ultra-covert agency charged with battling the contemporary forces of the Cthulhu Mythos! Now everything you need to know to play *Delta Green: The Roleplaying Game*, perhaps extending your valiantly short field life, can be found in the Delta Green Agent’s Handbook.

**Episode 198: Stab Them in the Peninsula** Jul 08, 2016
Matters come to a head in the **Gaming Hut**, where we talk about writing scenario climaxes.

In **Ask Ken and Robin**, Patreon backer Eric Jeppesen asks Ken and Robin to help weave a campaign around 16th century English-Ottoman relations and the figure of Edward Barton.

Enterprising filmmakers tasked a deep learning neural net to write a short film screenplay for them, and this is the result. We step into the oh so analytical confines of the **Narrative Hut** to discuss its implications.

Finally supporter Paul S. Enns asks us to rev up **Ken’s Time Machine** for a look at the timeline where Richard Nixon went unpardoned for his involvement in the Watergate scandal.

Support the KARTAS Patreon!

Get trapped in Lovecraft’s story “The Call of Cthulhu” in Atlas Games’ addictive new card game Lost in R’lyeh. Take a selfie with your purchased copy of the game at your brick and mortar game retailer and send it to Atlas to claim your special Ken and Robin promo card.

Ken fans who did not partake of the Kickstarter can now sink their fangs into the general release of the *Dracula Dossier* from Pelgrane Press, consisting of the *Director’s Handbook* and *Dracula Unredacted*.

You say that’s still not enough Ken for you? Very well, my friend. 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. Attention, operatives of Delta Green, the ultra-covert agency charged with battling the contemporary forces of the Cthulhu Mythos! Now everything you need to know to play *Delta Green: The Roleplaying Game*, perhaps extending your valiantly short field life, can be found in the Delta Green Agent’s Handbook.

**Episode 197: Obviously She Fought Radium Ghosts** Jul 01, 2016
Ever-prolific Ken dons a knit cap like all the youngsters wear to bring us the scoop on Bubblegumshoe in **Among My Many Hats**.

In the **Gaming Hut**, we satisfy Patreon backer Sean McAuliff’s request for advice on playing historical figures.

Finally the sound of bookseller cash registers ringing in New England tell us that it’s time for another erudite installment of **Ken’s Bookshelf**.

Support the KARTAS Patreon!

Ken and Robin have oft been accused of being cards. Well, we can deny it no longer. We have become super-limited promo cards for *Murder of Crows*, Atlas Games’ fast-paced card game of murder and the macabre, for two to five players in the mood for something a little morbid. It’s Edward Gorey meets Caligari, by way of Edgar Allan Poe. *Wait a minute, what does that graphic say? I’m not so sure about this…* Ken fans who did not partake of the Kickstarter can now sink their fangs into the general release of the *Dracula Dossier* from Pelgrane Press, consisting of the *Director’s Handbook* and *Dracula Unredacted*. This episode also brought to you by Joe Dever’s Freeway Warrior, Kickstarting from now until July 7th. Survive the apocalypse with the blazing return of Joe Dever’s classic game books, now from Askfageln. Attention, operatives of Delta Green, the ultra-covert agency charged with battling the contemporary forces of the Cthulhu Mythos! Now everything you need to know to play *Delta Green: The Roleplaying Game*, perhaps extending your valiantly short field life, can be found in the *Delta Green Agent’s Handbook*.

**Episode 196: Conspicuously Non-Assassinated** Jun 24, 2016
In **Ask Ken and Robin**, Patreon backer Philip asks for ways to incorporate the beat cycle from Robin’s book *Hamlet’s Hit Points* into game systems that don’t already support it.

The **Tradecraft Hut** peers into the dossier of Yakov Blumkin, the so-called Soviet James Bond.

We gather in the **Gaming Hut** to wonder why breaking the fourth wall was ever considered poor form.

Then we lurk our way to the **Conspiracy Corner**, where Patreon backer Darren Hennessy wants to know what we know about the Business Plot.

Support the KARTAS Patreon!

Ken and Robin have oft been accused of being cards. Well, we can deny it no longer. We have become super-limited promo cards for *Murder of Crows*, Atlas Games’ fast-paced card game of murder and the macabre, for two to five players in the mood for something a little morbid. It’s Edward Gorey meets Caligari, by way of Edgar Allan Poe. *Wait a minute, what does that graphic say? I’m not so sure about this…* Ken fans who did not partake of the Kickstarter can now sink their fangs into the general release of the *Dracula Dossier* from Pelgrane Press, consisting of the *Director’s Handbook* and *Dracula Unredacted*.

This episode also brought to you by Joe Dever’s Freeway Warrior, Kickstarting from now until July 7th. Survive the apocalypse with the blazing return of Joe Dever’s classic game books, now from Askfageln.

Attention, operatives of Delta Green, the ultra-covert agency charged with battling the contemporary forces of the Cthulhu Mythos! Now everything you need to know to play *Delta Green: The Roleplaying Game*, perhaps extending your valiantly short field life, can be found in the *Delta Green Agent’s Handbook*.

**Episode 195: All Its Guns in Norman Rockwell** Jun 17, 2016
Patreon backer Trung Bui asks us to assemble in the **Gaming Hut** to tell him who the murderer is, and also to discuss the challenges of investigative scenario construction.

The gore runs thick but the design sense runs high as the Cinema Hut answers a Marc Kevin Hall request for an introduction to Italian horror films.

In the **Culture Hut** backer and Parisian dreamhound Josh Rose wants to know what the Communist Party would have looked like if it had embraced surrealism.

And hey, it’s another all request episode, as backer James Griffin quizes the **Consulting Occultist** on past life regression. Why isn’t it a thing any more?

Support the KARTAS Patreon!

Ken and Robin have oft been accused of being cards. Well, we can deny it no longer. We have become super-limited promo cards for *Murder of Crows*, Atlas Games’ fast-paced card game of murder and the macabre, for two to five players in the mood for something a little morbid. It’s Edward Gorey meets Caligari, by way of Edgar Allan Poe. *Wait a minute, what does that graphic say? I’m not so sure about this…* Ken fans who did not partake of the Kickstarter can now sink their fangs into the general release of the *Dracula Dossier* from Pelgrane Press, consisting of the *Director’s Handbook* and *Dracula Unredacted*. You say that’s still not enough Ken for you? Very well, my friend. 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. Attention, operatives of Delta Green, the ultra-covert agency charged with battling the contemporary forces of the Cthulhu Mythos! Now everything you need to know to play *Delta Green: The Roleplaying Game*, perhaps extending your valiantly short field life, can be found in the *Delta Green Agent’s Handbook*.

**Episode 194: Knocking Off Early For Gin and Lemonade** Jun 10, 2016
The **Gaming Hut** becomes a boat we might just die in as Patreon backer Luke Wassink asks us to make environmental obstacles suspenseful and compelling.

In Among My Many Hats, Ken tells us about his new Dark Osprey book, *The Cthulhu Wars: the United States’ Battle Against the Mythos*.

Hey, who covered the floor of the **Eliptony Hut** with Toynbee tiles?

And **Ken’s Time Machine** tackles its deepest mystery yet, as Phil Masters asks Ken why he claimed to be from Porlock.

Support the KARTAS Patreon!

Attention, class! Anchor sponsor Atlas Games wants to enrol 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. Ken fans who did not partake of the Kickstarter can now sink their fangs into the general release of the *Dracula Dossier* from Pelgrane Press, consisting of the *Director’s Handbook* and *Dracula Unredacted*. You say that’s still not enough Ken for you? Very well, my friend. 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. Attention, operatives of Delta Green, the ultra-covert agency charged with battling the contemporary forces of the Cthulhu Mythos! Now everything you need to know to play *Delta Green: The Roleplaying Game*, perhaps extending your valiantly short field life, can be found in the *Delta Green Agent’s Handbook*.

**Episode 193: Bonaparte Eyes** Jun 03, 2016
In **Ask Ken and Robin**, Patreon backer Andrew Jones asks about working with Greg Stafford.

The History Hut looks at the post-WWI occupation of Istanbul, as requested by Alexander Perman.

**How to Write Good** rips the lid off of our least favorite fake stock moments in fiction.

Finally the **Conspiracy Corner** finds Timothy Coram asking us to make something of the Westfield Watcher.

Support the KARTAS Patreon!

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. Ken fans who did not partake of the Kickstarter can now sink their fangs into the general release of the *Dracula Dossier* from Pelgrane Press, consisting of the *Director’s Handbook* and *Dracula Unredacted*. You say that’s still not enough Ken for you? Very well, my friend. 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. Attention, operatives of Delta Green, the ultra-covert agency charged with battling the contemporary forces of the Cthulhu Mythos! Now everything you need to know to play *Delta Green: The Roleplaying Game*, perhaps extending your valiantly short field life, can be found in the *Delta Green Agent’s Handbook*.

**Episode 192: Emulating a Genre That Doesn’t Exist** May 27, 2016
In the **Gaming Hut** we ponder a meta-terminology games designers might use to describe the purpose and function of the various sub-systems they build into roleplaying rules sets.

Now that Donald Trump has sewn up the Republican nomination, we head into the **Politics Hut** to ask Ken what happened to his party, and whether he thinks he’ll get it back after the election.

Installment Two of **Tell Me More** highlights three Ken and Robin Consume Media items our Patreon backers wanted to hear more about: Batman v. Superman, Ambrose Bierce, and *The Burglar’s Guide to the City*.

Finally the **Consulting Occultist** satisfies Patreon backer Allen Wilkins’ desire to hear about writer Alan Moore’s occult thought.

Support the KARTAS Patreon!

It’s yo ho ho and a pocketful of doubloons as Atlas Games surveys the seven seas from the crow’s nest that is our coveted anchor sponsor slot. Parrot on its shoulder, it orders up another special deal for Ken and Robin listeners, this time in the form of their innovative game of piratical nautical warfare, *Pieces of Eight.*

Ken fans who did not partake of the Kickstarter can now sink their fangs into the general release of the *Dracula Dossier* from Pelgrane Press, consisting of the *Director’s Handbook* and *Dracula Unredacted*.

You say that’s still not enough Ken for you? Very well, my friend. 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.

Attention, operatives of Delta Green, the ultra-covert agency charged with battling the contemporary forces of the Cthulhu Mythos! Now everything you need to know to play *Delta Green: The Roleplaying Game*, perhaps extending your valiantly short field life, can be found in the *Delta Green Agent’s Handbook*.

**Ken and Robin Consume Media: Ghost Transit, Noir Identities and a Murderous Jigsaw Puzzle** May 24, 2016

Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies, TV seasons and more we cram into our hyper-analytical sensoriums. Join the Patreon to help pick the items we’ll talk about in greater depth on our new podcast segment, Tell Me More.

Recommended

Les Cousins (Film, France, Claude Chabrol, 1959) Earnest student arrives in Paris to stay with his cousin, the theatrically overbearing center of a whirlwind party set, only to see him shack up with the young woman he’s fallen for. Like La Dolce Vita or Dazed and Confused, acutely portrays the rites and rhythms of an exuberant but fragile social scene.—RDL

The Ghost Network (Fiction, Catie Disabato, 2014) A Situationist pop icon vanishes in Chicago; her obsessed fan vanishes searching for her; the key seems to lie in the “ghost network” of lost or never-built Chicago subway and L lines. Disabato writes as the “editor” of another (imaginary) author’s non-fiction true crime book — so it’s a Situationist In Cold Blood metafiction about secret Chicago mass transit, so yes it’s written entirely for me. It could stand some punching up of character motivations, and two or three historical facts get badly mangled, but it’s still a heck of a first novel.–KH

H.H. Holmes Murder Castle Jigsaw Puzzle (Puzzle, Holly Carden, 2016) This 513-piece jigsaw puzzle depicts a cutaway of the legendary H.H. Holmes “Murder Castle” hotel in 1893 Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood. Only moderately challenging as a jigsaw but ultimately quite absorbing as an art experience, especially one in which you have to keep asking “now, which expiring victim goes here”? –KH

Zero Focus (Film, Japan, Yoshitaro Nomura, 1962) Woman’s husband disappears one week into their marriage, sending her on an investigative journey to the bleak, snow-swept town where he was supposedly wrapping up some business affairs. Moody, noirish mystery knitted together by flashbacks, some of the Rashomon variety.–RDL

Good

Crooked (Fiction, Austin Grossman, 2015) The true and secret magical history of the Cold War, as told by Richard Nixon, our last sorcerer-president. The notes of near-Mythos occultism are excellent, as is the secret history by and large, but the temptation to caricature overwhelms Grossman to the detriment of character. For those into this kind of thing, the absurdist Hunter-Thompson-meets-HPL novel The Damned Highway by Brian Keene and Nick Mamatas did all of it better.—KH

The Crooked Way (Film, US, Robert Florey, 1949) Amnesiac war hero returning to L.A. in search of his identity discovers that he used to be a gangster and that his former accomplices are none too happy to have him back. Gives up on its existential themes in favor of standard procedural obstacles, but worth a look for great noir photography from John Alton and its use of Los Angeles locations.—RDL

The Doctor and the Devils (Film, US, Freddie Francis, 1985) Spurred by the needs of an arrogant pioneering anatomist (Timothy Dalton), a pair of vicious new entrants into the cadaver supply business (Jonathan Pryce, Stephen Rea) murder their way past the competition. Upscale fictionalization of the Burke and Hare from Hammer alum Francis revels in grotty Victoriansploitation, In the highly theatrical acting style that pervaded prestige dramas for in the late 70s and early 80s. Adapted by Ronald Harwood from a Dylan Thomas screenplay written in the 40s. —RDL

Legends of Tomorrow Season 1 (TV, CW, 2016) Renegade time agent recruits a ragtag band of superheroes and villains to stop an evil immortal from conquering history. Engaging characterizations and performances do much heavy lifting, compensating for wobbly structures, copious idiot plotting, and a miscast big bad who projects all the menace of a mumbling hamster.—RDL

**Episode 191: In Case I Trip Over a Sand Dune** May 20, 2016
Patreon supporter Tim Brandis kicks us off with an **Ask Ken and Robin** question about which of our core design beliefs might have evolved over time.

In the **Tradecraft Hut** we reach way back to that most classic of espionage scandals, the Dreyfus Affair.

The Cinema Hut finds us in Stetsons and spurs for an introductory course on the Western.

Finally, backer Chris McNeil requests that **Ken’s Time Machine** be put to use making the medieval peasant revolt of Ken’s choice successful.

Support the KARTAS Patreon!

It’s yo ho ho and a pocketful of doubloons as Atlas Games surveys the seven seas from the crow’s nest that is our coveted anchor sponsor slot. Parrot on its shoulder, it orders up another special deal for Ken and Robin listeners, this time in the form of their innovative game of piratical nautical warfare, *Pieces of Eight.* Ken fans who did not partake of the Kickstarter can now sink their fangs into the general release of the *Dracula Dossier* from Pelgrane Press, consisting of the *Director’s Handbook* and *Dracula Unredacted*. You say that’s still not enough Ken for you? Very well, my friend. 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.

Attention, operatives of Delta Green, the ultra-covert agency charged with battling the contemporary forces of the Cthulhu Mythos! Now everything you need to know to play *Delta Green: The Roleplaying Game*, perhaps extending your valiantly short field life, can be found in the *Delta Green Agent’s Handbook*.

**Episode 190: Boy Meets Manifestation** May 13, 2016
Patreon backer Graham Wills starts us off in the **Gaming Hut** by asking how to balance conspiratorial genres, like the spy thriller, with group trust.

**Among My Many Hats** finds Ken laying down some wisdom—some Starry Wisdom, that is.

In the **Horror Hut**, Patreon supporter Cardboard Sandwich asks us how to adapt the ghostly works of M. R. James to the roleplaying form.

Finally we slink into the Eliptony Hut to satisfy backer Ross Ireland’s desire for non-standard UFO conspiracies.

Support the KARTAS Patreon!

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. Ken fans who did not partake of the Kickstarter can now sink their fangs into the general release of the *Dracula Dossier* from Pelgrane Press, consisting of the *Director’s Handbook* and *Dracula Unredacted*. You say that’s still not enough Ken for you? Very well, my friend. 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.

Attention, operatives of Delta Green, the ultra-covert agency charged with battling the contemporary forces of the Cthulhu Mythos! Now everything you need to know to play *Delta Green: The Roleplaying Game*, perhaps extending your valiantly short field life, can be found in the *Delta Green Agent’s Handbook*.

**Episode 189: It Won’t Fix Me But It Will Fix That** May 06, 2016

Patreon backer Kevin J. Maroney gets us started with an **Ask Ken and Robin** question about other designers’ mechanics we consider to be under-stolen.

The **Tradecraft Hut** takes on a recent story claiming that infamous Nazi military officer Otto Skorzeny ended his career as a Mossad assassin.

In the **Food Hut** we heroically accede to a request from Patreon backer Ethan Cordray to sip some liqueurs. No, wait, talk about liqueurs.

Finally backer Joshua Hillerup climbs the creaky stairs that lead to the **Consulting Occultist** to learn about the occult symbolism of flowers.

Support the KARTAS Patreon!

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.

Ken fans who did not partake of the Kickstarter can now sink their fangs into the general release of the *Dracula Dossier* from Pelgrane Press, consisting of the *Director’s Handbook* and *Dracula Unredacted*.

You say that’s still not enough Ken for you? Very well, my friend. 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.

When you assemble your bug-out kit, make sure it includes a copy of Delta Green: Need to Know, the everything-you-need quickstart kick for the classic game of covert agents against the Cthulhu mythos, from our fine friends at Arc Dream Publishing.

**Episode 188: He Drinks Tables Under the Table** Apr 29, 2016
In the **Gaming Hut**, Patreon backer Bill Sundwall wants Ken to mash up two of his projects, The Madness Dossier and Night’s Black Agents, into one.

The Business of Gaming looks for the best ways to combat harassment within our community.

The **Book Hut** responds to backer Frank King’s request for a look at the work of Umberto Eco.

And finally we wonder what **Ken’s Time Machine** had to do with the 1825 collapse of the Fonthill Abbey tower.

Support the KARTAS Patreon!

Bend reality to your will, but be ready to pay the price, as Atlas Games’ Unknown Armies bubbles up from the supernatural underground for a weird and majestic new Kickstarter campaign. Now in its final hours!
Ken fans who did not partake of the Kickstarter can now sink their fangs into the general release of the *Dracula Dossier* from Pelgrane Press, consisting of the *Director’s Handbook* and *Dracula Unredacted*. You say that’s still not enough Ken for you? Very well, my friend. 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.

When you assemble your bug-out kit, make sure it includes a copy of Delta Green: Need to Know, the everything-you-need quickstart kick for the classic game of covert agents against the Cthulhu mythos, from our fine friends at Arc Dream Publishing.

**Episode 187: Honest and Dishonest Graft** Apr 22, 2016
The **Gaming Hut** gets organized as we answer Patreon backer Samwise Crider’s question about tracking clues in GUMSHOE and other investigative games.

Backer Adam McDonald enters the **Politics Hut** for the 101 on machine politics—particularly that of Ken’s beloved Chicago.

Backer and colleague Hal Mangold grabs his popcorn in the Cinema Hut with his request for a getting started in Asian action movies segment.

Hey, it turns out to be another all-backer request episode, as Tennant Reed lurks in the **Conspiracy Corner** with his question about Italy’s P2 “Black Lodge” and its many associated tentacular crimes and mysteries.

Support the KARTAS Patreon!

Bend reality to your will, but be ready to pay the price, as Atlas Games’ Unknown Armies bubbles up from the supernatural underground for a weird and majestic new Kickstarter campaign.
Ken fans who did not partake of the Kickstarter can now sink their fangs into the general release of the *Dracula Dossier* from Pelgrane Press, consisting of the *Director’s Handbook* and *Dracula Unredacted*. You say that’s still not enough Ken for you? Very well, my friend. 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.

When you assemble your bug-out kit, make sure it includes a copy of Delta Green: Need to Know, the everything-you-need quickstart kick for the classic game of covert agents against the Cthulhu mythos, from our fine friends at Arc Dream Publishing.

**Episode 186: You Need Canapes To Have a Secret Society** Apr 15, 2016

**Ask Ken and Robin** gets especially educational as Patreon supporter Brent Brown asks us for tips for using RPGs to teach history, home school style.

**Tradecraft Hut** peers into the espionage scene in Brussels.

**How To Write Good** looks at influences and how to incorporate them well.

Finally the **Consulting Occultist** slakes the hankering of Patreon backer Stewart Robertson for info on the Black Dragon Society.

Support the KARTAS Patreon!

Bend reality to your will, but be ready to pay the price, as Atlas Games’ Unknown Armies bubbles up from the supernatural underground for a weird and majestic new Kickstarter campaign.
Ken fans who did not partake of the Kickstarter can now sink their fangs into the general release of the *Dracula Dossier* from Pelgrane Press, consisting of the *Director’s Handbook* and *Dracula Unredacted*. If you’re like every roleplayer we know, you strive to outshine others in showing your love of dice. Well, now you can arouse the envy of friends and foes alike with Askfageln’s dazzling coffee table photo art book dedicated to all things pipped and many-sided, Dice: Rendezvous with Randomness. Luxuriate in the photo artistry of Mans Danneman. Grab the book or gorgeous prints through their Kickstarter!

When you assemble your bug-out kit, make sure it includes a copy of Delta Green: Need to Know, the everything-you-need quickstart kick for the classic game of covert agents against the Cthulhu mythos, from our fine friends at Arc Dream Publishing.

**Episode 185: I Don’t Think I Prefer That At All** Apr 08, 2016
**Among My Many Hats** is an Egyptian headdress with a distinctly feline aspect, as Ken talks about his installment of Ken Writes About Stuff devoted to Bast.

The **Gaming Hut** looks at ways to write scenarios to present the information about Game Master Characters GMs need to run their games.

Thanks to Patreon Patron Jeff Kahrs, the **Tradecraft Hut** finally gets around to that segment on Kim Philby it’s had on the to-do list since forever.

And finally, **Ask Ken and Robin** fulfills the desire of Kolbe and other Patreon patrons in bringing back the stars of our existential mystery, Brian Harker and Eric, the talking lava lamp he has grudgingly sworn to protect. Well, maybe *sworn* is a strong choice of words…

Support the KARTAS Patreon!

Bend reality to your will, but be ready to pay the price, as Atlas Games’ Unknown Armies bubbles up from the supernatural underground for a weird and majestic new Kickstarter campaign.
Ken fans who did not partake of the Kickstarter can now sink their fangs into the general release of the *Dracula Dossier* from Pelgrane Press, consisting of the *Director’s Handbook* and *Dracula Unredacted*. If you’re like every roleplayer we know, you strive to outshine others in showing your love of dice. Well, now you can arouse the envy of friends and foes alike with Askfageln’s dazzling coffee table photo art book dedicated to all things pipped and many-sided, Dice: Rendezvous with Randomness. Luxuriate in the photo artistry of Mans Danneman. Grab the book or gorgeous prints through their Kickstarter! In a move that surely violates someone’s security clearance, this episode is also brought to you by our friends at Arc Dream Publishing. The Kickstarter for *Delta Green: the Roleplaying Game* has come to an end, but don’t let that stop you from indulging your fever for this classic game, or that pinnacle of the Cthulhu game zine world, *The Unspeakable Oath*.

**Episode 184: Snorting the Hand of Vecna** Apr 01, 2016
We start with **Ask Ken and Robin**, as Patreon supporter Ross Ireland asks us to tell our best crazy game stories.

Then it’s off to the **History Hut** to consider the troubled Presidency of a guy who really couldn’t get a Supreme Court nominee approved, John Tyler.

In our inaugural edition of **Tell Me More**, three items from Ken and Robin Consume Media, as approved by our patrons over on the Patreon, get expanded treatment: *The Secret History of Wonder Woman*, the Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible, and Deadpool.

Finally current events have again conspired to provide us with one of those fabled **Nerdtropes in the News**. What strangeness links the International Order of St Hubertus with the Marfa Lights?

Bend reality to your will, but be ready to pay the price, as Atlas Games’ Unknown Armies bubbles up from the supernatural underground for a weird and majestic new Kickstarter campaign.

Ken fans who did not partake of the Kickstarter can now sink their fangs into the general release of the *Dracula Dossier* from Pelgrane Press, consisting of the *Director’s Handbook* and *Dracula Unredacted*. If you’re like every roleplayer we know, you strive to outshine others in showing your love of dice. Well, now you can arouse the envy of friends and foes alike with Askfageln’s dazzling coffee table photo art book dedicated to all things pipped and many-sided, Dice: Rendezvous with Randomness. Luxuriate in the photo artistry of Mans Danneman. Grab the book or gorgeous prints through their Kickstarter! In a move that surely violates someone’s security clearance, this episode is also brought to you by our friends at Arc Dream Publishing. The Kickstarter for *Delta Green: the Roleplaying Game* has come to an end, but don’t let that stop you from indulging your fever for this classic game, or that pinnacle of the Cthulhu game zine world, *The Unspeakable Oath*.

**Episode 183: Eaten By a Ghost** Mar 25, 2016
Pull your swords out of your stones and step into the **Gaming Hut** for a consideration of the Chosen One trope.

**How to Write Good** explores a phenomenon Robin calls Nigeling, when you make one character look good by painting others as rubes.

You’ll place great stock in… no, I’m sorry, I can’t. Let’s just say the **Food Hut** is talking soup and leave it at that.

Then we close on an most unusual **Ken’s Time Machine** mission: getting a notorious criminal cast as James Bond before he commits his famous crime.

Ken and Robin have oft been accused of being cards. Well, we can deny it no longer. We have become super-limited promo cards for *Murder of Crows*, Atlas Games’ fast-paced card game of murder and the macabre, for two to five players in the mood for something a little morbid. It’s Edward Gorey meets Caligari, by way of Edgar Allan Poe. *Wait a minute, what does that graphic say? I’m not so sure about this…* Ken fans who did not partake of the Kickstarter can now sink their fangs into the general release of the *Dracula Dossier* from Pelgrane Press, consisting of the *Director’s Handbook* and *Dracula Unredacted*.

If you’re like every roleplayer we know, you strive to outshine others in showing your love of dice. Well, now you can arouse the envy of friends and foes alike with Askfageln’s dazzling coffee table photo art book dedicated to all things pipped and many-sided, Dice: Rendezvous with Randomness. Luxuriate in the photo artistry of Mans Danneman. Grab the book or gorgeous prints through their Kickstarter!

In a move that surely violates someone’s security clearance, this episode is also brought to you by our friends at Arc Dream Publishing. The Kickstarter for *Delta Green: the Roleplaying Game* has come to an end, but don’t let that stop you from indulging your fever for this classic game, or that pinnacle of the Cthulhu game zine world, *The Unspeakable Oath*.

**Episode 182: Much Like the Person In It** Mar 18, 2016
Now that backers of our exciting and handsome Patreon campaign get priority access to pose questions for the show, we have a bunch of great questions in the hopper. So let’s get to four of them in a special celebratory all-request episode.

In the **Gaming Hut** Paul Stefko asks us for tips on running games set in artificial realities.

Drew Clowery takes us into the **History Hut** for a look at the Know Nothings.

**Ask Ken and Robin** features a Scott Bennett question on keeping a fresh attitude toward older projects.

And finally Steven Hammond revs up **Ken’s Time Machine** to ask why our sagacious time hero hid a door in King Tut’s tomb from Howard Carter.

To move your questions to the front of the line, hop on board our Patreon!

Ken and Robin have oft been accused of being cards. Well, we can deny it no longer. We have become super-limited promo cards for *Murder of Crows*, Atlas Games’ fast-paced card game of murder and the macabre, for two to five players in the mood for something a little morbid. It’s Edward Gorey meets Caligari, by way of Edgar Allan Poe. *Wait a minute, what does that graphic say? I’m not so sure about this…*

Ken fans who did not partake of the Kickstarter can now sink their fangs into the general release of the *Dracula Dossier* from Pelgrane Press, consisting of the *Director’s Handbook* and *Dracula Unredacted*.

If you’re like every roleplayer we know, you strive to outshine others in showing your love of dice. Well, now you can arouse the envy of friends and foes alike with Askfageln’s dazzling coffee table photo art book dedicated to all things pipped and many-sided, Dice: Rendezvous with Randomness. Luxuriate in the photo artistry of Mans Danneman. Grab the book or gorgeous prints through their Kickstarter!

In a move that surely violates someone’s security clearance, this episode is also brought to you by our friends at Arc Dream Publishing. The Kickstarter for *Delta Green: the Roleplaying Game* has come to an end, but don’t let that stop you from indulging your fever for this classic game, or that pinnacle of the Cthulhu game zine world, *The Unspeakable Oath*.

**Episode 181: Taking Latitudes with Longitude** Mar 11, 2016
In this special theme episode, we start in the uncharted waters of the **Cartography Hut**, to look at the struggle to accurately measure longitude at sea, and its underdog hero, clockmaker John Harrison.

We shift to the **Gaming Hut** to ask ourselves how to introduce navigational uncertainty into magic-rich F20 worlds.

Then the **Consulting Occultist** tours us through the colorful career of privateer, courtier, cookbook author and magic powder maker Kenelm Digby. The connection? The rejected magical dog injury method of longitude measurement.

When the astronomer Giovanni Cassini wanted to establish a reference point for longitude he went to the ruins of Uraniborg, the observatory erected by Tycho Brahe. Can **Ken’s Time Machine** prevent it from being destroyed in the first place?

Ken and Robin have oft been accused of being cards. Well, we can deny it no longer. We have become super-limited promo cards for *Murder of Crows*, Atlas Games’ fast-paced card game of murder and the macabre, for two to five players in the mood for something a little morbid. It’s Edward Gorey meets Caligari, by way of Edgar Allan Poe. *Wait a minute, what does that graphic say? I’m not so sure about this…* Ken fans who did not partake of the Kickstarter can now sink their fangs into the general release of the *Dracula Dossier* from Pelgrane Press, consisting of the *Director’s Handbook* and *Dracula Unredacted*. You say that’s still not enough Ken for you? Very well, my friend. 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. In a move that surely violates someone’s security clearance, this episode is also brought to you by our friends at Arc Dream Publishing. The Kickstarter for *Delta Green: the Roleplaying Game* has come to an end, but don’t let that stop you from indulging your fever for this classic game, or that pinnacle of the Cthulhu game zine world, *The Unspeakable Oath*.

**Episode 180: Nordic Tamborine Cult** Mar 04, 2016

Sneak up on us very carefully as **Ask Ken and Robin** responds to a Josh Kroger question regarding stealth systems in RPGs.

Recent events force us to reconsider past **Politics Hut** pronouncements as, with increasing trepidation, we ask once more, is Donald Trump America’s Rob Ford?

In the **Mythology Hut** we pry under the ecclesiastical floorboards to look for Finnish frog coffins.

Then it’s just a hop skip and jump across a bridge patrolled by the grim forces of Chris Christie to the **Eliptony Hut**, where we hunt the elusive Jersey Devil.

Ken and Robin have oft been accused of being cards. Well, we can deny it no longer. We have become super-limited promo cards for *Murder of Crows*, Atlas Games’ fast-paced card game of murder and the macabre, for two to five players in the mood for something a little morbid. It’s Edward Gorey meets Caligari, by way of Edgar Allan Poe. *Wait a minute, what does that graphic say? I’m not so sure about this…* Ken fans who did not partake of the Kickstarter can now sink their fangs into the general release of the *Dracula Dossier* from Pelgrane Press, consisting of the *Director’s Handbook* and *Dracula Unredacted*. You say that’s still not enough Ken for you? Very well, my friend. 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. In a move that surely violates someone’s security clearance, this episode is also brought to you by our friends at Arc Dream Publishing. The Kickstarter for *Delta Green: the Roleplaying Game* has come to an end, but don’t let that stop you from indulging your fever for this classic game, or that pinnacle of the Cthulhu game zine world, *The Unspeakable Oath*.

**Episode 179: Art Film with Explosions** Feb 26, 2016
Let’s schmooze a while in the **Gaming Hut** as we spitball a game based on social experience points.

Get in touch with your inner cave dweller as the **Conspiracy Corner** checks out Neanderthal conspiracy theories, most notably those of painter and sculptor Stanislav Szukalski.

Finally it’s that time of year again: in a bumper segment of the **Cinema Hut**, we list our top 10 films of 2015. Get your golf pencils ready; they’ll be needed to overcome a shocking clerical error that threatens to tear the world of Ken and Robin apart!

Ken and Robin have oft been accused of being cards. Well, we can deny it no longer. We have become super-limited promo cards for *Murder of Crows*, Atlas Games’ fast-paced card game of murder and the macabre, for two to five players in the mood for something a little morbid. It’s Edward Gorey meets Caligari, by way of Edgar Allan Poe. *Wait a minute, what does that graphic say? I’m not so sure about this…* Ken fans who did not partake of the Kickstarter can now sink their fangs into the general release of the *Dracula Dossier* from Pelgrane Press, consisting of the *Director’s Handbook* and *Dracula Unredacted*. You say that’s still not enough Ken for you? Very well, my friend. 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. In a move that surely violates someone’s security clearance, this episode is also brought to you by our friends at Arc Dream Publishing. The Kickstarter for *Delta Green: the Roleplaying Game* has come to an end, but don’t let that stop you from indulging your fever for this classic game, or that pinnacle of the Cthulhu game zine world, *The Unspeakable Oath*.

**Special Minisode: Our Patreon Launches** Feb 25, 2016
Long have we teased it! Now it’s finally here, for your keeping-the-show-alive convenience: our Patreon campaign. In this special mini-episode we talk the whys, the wherefores, and the long-coveted extra stuff we can do if we hit particular milestones. Jump on board to make show notes, transcripts and the new **Ken and Robin Consume Media** feature happen.

**Episode 178: Whoops! Democracy!** Feb 19, 2016
There’s a rat looking at us and a hawk flying overhead as **Ask Ken and Robin** fields a Michael Shreeves question on making familiars narratively satisfying.

Our lead time prevents the **Politics Hut** from engaging in prognostication, so instead we step back to look at ways of understanding this most chaotic and suspenseful of US primary seasons.

**Among My Many Hats** goes for the gold as Ken tells us about his treatment of alchemy in the latest *Ken Writes About Stuff*.

Then we discover the role **Ken’s Time Machine** played in keeping the United States as a two-party country, by request of Adam Waxman.

Ken and Robin have oft been accused of being cards. Well, we can deny it no longer. We have become super-limited promo cards for *Murder of Crows*, Atlas Games’ fast-paced card game of murder and the macabre, for two to five players in the mood for something a little morbid. It’s Edward Gorey meets Caligari, by way of Edgar Allan Poe. *Wait a minute, what does that graphic say? I’m not so sure about this…* Ken fans who did not partake of the Kickstarter can now sink their fangs into the general release of the *Dracula Dossier* from Pelgrane Press, consisting of the *Director’s Handbook* and *Dracula Unredacted*. You say that’s still not enough Ken for you? Very well, my friend. 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. In a move that surely violates someone’s security clearance, this episode is also brought to you by our friends at Arc Dream Publishing. The Kickstarter for *Delta Green: the Roleplaying Game* has come to an end, but don’t let that stop you from indulging your fever for this classic game, or that pinnacle of the Cthulhu game zine world, *The Unspeakable Oath*.

**Episode 177: You’ve Got Your Chainsaw Working** Feb 12, 2016
Can you make it through the terrors of **Ask Ken and Robin**, when Sean Maclean asks us how to run survival horror?

If so, the **Tradecraft Hut** awaits, where we deliver our promised full segment on legendary M15 counterintelligence honcho Maxwell Knight.

Go down to the basement and get made small as **Horror Hut** zooms in on scary dolls.

Finally, the **Consulting Occultist** fills us in on Paracelsus, a literal Renaissance man whose achievements in medicine, psychology and toxicology also included influential works of a Hermetic bent.

Ken and Robin have oft been accused of being cards. Well, we can deny it no longer. We have become super-limited promo cards for *Murder of Crows*, Atlas Games’ fast-paced card game of murder and the macabre, for two to five players in the mood for something a little morbid. It’s Edward Gorey meets Caligari, by way of Edgar Allan Poe. *Wait a minute, what does that graphic say? I’m not so sure about this…* Ken fans who did not partake of the Kickstarter can now sink their fangs into the general release of the *Dracula Dossier* from Pelgrane Press, consisting of the *Director’s Handbook* and *Dracula Unredacted*. You say that’s still not enough Ken for you? Very well, my friend. 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. In a move that surely violates someone’s security clearance, this episode is also brought to you by our friends at Arc Dream Publishing. The Kickstarter for *Delta Green: the Roleplaying Game* has come to an end, but don’t let that stop you from indulging your fever for this classic game, or that pinnacle of the Cthulhu game zine world, *The Unspeakable Oath*.

**Episode 176: Shut Up, Fungus** Feb 05, 2016
Get your chlorophyll on as we enter a vine-choked version of the **Gaming Hut** to riff an alien species that feeds via photosynthesis.

Ken gets you started on your collection of books about maps in a bibliographic **Cartography Hut**.

It’s been a while since **Ask Ken and Robin** had a lightning round, so let’s have a lightning round.

Then the Eliptony Hut blows up real good with a look at the Martian nuclear armageddon theory.

Ken and Robin have oft been accused of being cards. Well, we can deny it no longer. We have become super-limited promo cards for *Murder of Crows*, Atlas Games’ fast-paced card game of murder and the macabre, for two to five players in the mood for something a little morbid. It’s Edward Gorey meets Caligari, by way of Edgar Allan Poe. *Wait a minute, what does that graphic say? I’m not so sure about this…* Ken fans who did not partake of the Kickstarter can now sink their fangs into the general release of the *Dracula Dossier* from Pelgrane Press, consisting of the *Director’s Handbook* and *Dracula Unredacted*. You say that’s still not enough Ken for you? Very well, my friend. 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. In a move that surely violates someone’s security clearance, this episode is also brought to you by our friends at Arc Dream Publishing. The Kickstarter for *Delta Green: the Roleplaying Game* has come to an end, but don’t let that stop you from indulging your fever for this classic game, or that pinnacle of the Cthulhu game zine world, *The Unspeakable Oath*.

**Episode 175: And Then Everyone Gets Indicted** Jan 29, 2016
Oh, the humanity! How do we characterize being a human in F20 games and settings? Answers lie inside the **Gaming Hut**.

You think the media is bad today. Back during Chicago’s circulation wars you could get shot for reading the wrong paper on the subway. Elucidation waits in a hard-to-target corner of the **History Hut**.

Wizards of the Coast is licensing its flagship setting, the Forgotten Realms, to third party creators prepared to join its Dungeon Masters’ Guild venture, a joint effort with DriveThru RPG. Ramifications and implications get a good mulling in **The** **Business of Gaming**.

Then in the most momentous crossover team up event since Superman faced off against Ali, the **Consulting Occulist** enters the Tradecraft Hut to recount the fascinating career of outsiders’ insider Tom Driberg. Only a certain percentage of the legends surrounding him turn out to be too good to check.

Ken and Robin have oft been accused of being cards. Well, we can deny it no longer. We have become super-limited promo cards for *Murder of Crows*, Atlas Games’ fast-paced card game of murder and the macabre, for two to five players in the mood for something a little morbid. It’s Edward Gorey meets Caligari, by way of Edgar Allan Poe. *Wait a minute, what does that graphic say? I’m not so sure about this…* Ken fans who did not partake of the Kickstarter can now sink their fangs into the general release of the *Dracula Dossier* from Pelgrane Press, consisting of the *Director’s Handbook* and *Dracula Unredacted*. You say that’s still not enough Ken for you? Very well, my friend. 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. In a move that surely violates someone’s security clearance, this episode is also brought to you by our friends at Arc Dream Publishing. The Kickstarter for *Delta Green: the Roleplaying Game* has come to an end, but don’t let that stop you from indulging your fever for this classic game, or that pinnacle of the Cthulhu game zine world, *The Unspeakable Oath*.

**Episode 174: Metaphor Drift! Metaphor Drift!** Jan 22, 2016
Roll the dice with us as **Among My Many Hats** finds Ken headed to Las Vegas 68.

Grant our dramatic petition while **How To Write Good** breaks down dramatic scene construction.

Join us for a plate of tamarind-infused noodles as the **Food Hut** looks at the politics of pad thai.

Finally, narrowly avoid drowning not once but twice as **Ken’s Time Machine** explains why our hero saved both a young James Garfield and his eventual assassin Charles Guiteau from separate watery graves.

Ken and Robin have oft been accused of being cards. Well, we can deny it no longer. We have become super-limited promo cards for *Murder of Crows*, Atlas Games’ fast-paced card game of murder and the macabre, for two to five players in the mood for something a little morbid. It’s Edward Gorey meets Caligari, by way of Edgar Allan Poe. *Wait a minute, what does that graphic say? I’m not so sure about this…* Ken fans who did not partake of the Kickstarter can now sink their fangs into the general release of the *Dracula Dossier* from Pelgrane Press, consisting of the *Director’s Handbook* and *Dracula Unredacted*. You say that’s still not enough Ken for you? Very well, my friend. 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. In a move that surely violates someone’s security clearance, this episode is also brought to you by our friends at Arc Dream Publishing. The Kickstarter for *Delta Green: the Roleplaying Game* has come to an end, but don’t let that stop you from indulging your fever for this classic game, or that pinnacle of the Cthulhu game zine world, *The Unspeakable Oath*.

**Episode 173: The Unknown Quadruped** Jan 15, 2016
In the **Gaming Hut** we rise to popular new demand to riff a whole bunch of scenario entry-points to get you started with a *Dracula Dossier* campaign.

As teased last episode, the **History Hut** looks at anatomical tables, as seen in our December visit to London’s Royal College of Physicians.

Continuing the London weirdness, the **Eliptony Hut** takes on an Egyptian revival exterior as we probe into rumors of a time machine in the Brompton Cemetery.

Finally, conveniently placed for the spoiler averse, those of you who wanted to hear Ken and Robin talk about Star Wars: The Force Awakens can start lining up at the **Cinema Hut**.

Ken and Robin have oft been accused of being cards. Well, we can deny it no longer. We have become super-limited promo cards for *Murder of Crows*, Atlas Games’ fast-paced card game of murder and the macabre, for two to five players in the mood for something a little morbid. It’s Edward Gorey meets Caligari, by way of Edgar Allan Poe. *Wait a minute, what does that graphic say? I’m not so sure about this…* Ken fans who did not partake of the Kickstarter can now sink their fangs into the general release of the *Dracula Dossier* from Pelgrane Press, consisting of the *Director’s Handbook* and *Dracula Unredacted*. You say that’s still not enough Ken for you? Very well, my friend. 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. In a move that surely violates someone’s security clearance, this episode is also brought to you by our friends at Arc Dream Publishing. The Kickstarter for *Delta Green: the Roleplaying Game* has come to an end, but don’t let that stop you from indulging your fever for this classic game, or that pinnacle of the Cthulhu game zine world, *The Unspeakable Oath*.

**Episode 172: #notAllAstrologers** Jan 08, 2016
While in London in December, the **Consulting Occultist** got a sneak peek at key items of John Dee’s book collection. Join us in previewing the upcoming exhibit Scholar, courtier, magician: the lost library of John Dee, which runs Jan 18-July 29 at the Royal College of Physicians.

Then we turn to the **Gaming Hut** for a consideration of apparent versus actual complexity in roleplaying games, and how to present simple game systems so they look as easy to run as they actually are.

Finally, if we were recently in London, you know that the time has come for another epic installment of **Ken’s Bookshelf**.

Ken and Robin have oft been accused of being cards. Well, we can deny it no longer. We have become super-limited promo cards for *Murder of Crows*, Atlas Games’ fast-paced card game of murder and the macabre, for two to five players in the mood for something a little morbid. It’s Edward Gorey meets Caligari, by way of Edgar Allan Poe. *Wait a minute, what does that graphic say? I’m not so sure about this…*

Ken fans who did not partake of the Kickstarter can now sink their fangs into the general release of the *Dracula Dossier* from Pelgrane Press, consisting of the *Director’s Handbook* and *Dracula Unredacted*. You say that’s still not enough Ken for you? Very well, my friend. 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. In a move that surely violates someone’s security clearance, this episode is also brought to you by our friends at Arc Dream Publishing. The Kickstarter for *Delta Green: the Roleplaying Game* has come to an end, but don’t let that stop you from indulging your fever for this classic game, or that pinnacle of the Cthulhu game zine world, *The Unspeakable Oath*.

**Episode 171: Live from Dragonmeet 2015** Dec 18, 2015
Once again we end a year of talking about stuff with a live episode from Dragonmeet in London. Join us as we discuss a time war involving Isaac Newton and the Crusades, GUMSHOE, Feng Shui, highly detailed games, hypothetical gaming-inspired cookbooks, what we’re afraid of now, and making gnomes interesting.

Enjoy your holidays, and join us when we return on January 8th with episode 172 and more details of our secret mission in London.

Ken and Robin have oft been accused of being cards. Well, we can deny it no longer. We have become super-limited promo cards for *Murder of Crows*, Atlas Games’ fast-paced card game of murder and the macabre, for two to five players in the mood for something a little morbid. It’s Edward Gorey meets Caligari, by way of Edgar Allan Poe. *Wait a minute, what does that graphic say? I’m not so sure about this…*

Ken fans who did not partake of the Kickstarter can now sink their fangs into the general release of the *Dracula Dossier* from Pelgrane Press, consisting of the *Director’s Handbook* and *Dracula Unredacted*. You say that’s still not enough Ken for you? Very well, my friend. 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. In a move that surely violates someone’s security clearance, this episode is also brought to you by our friends at Arc Dream Publishing. The Kickstarter for *Delta Green: the Roleplaying Game* has come to an end, but don’t let that stop you from indulging your fever for this classic game, or that pinnacle of the Cthulhu game zine world, *The Unspeakable Oath*.

**Episode 170: Deprived of Moss** Dec 11, 2015
What should you look for when revising a scenario? The **Gaming Hut** holds the answers.

Cinematic technique, legacy and mortality all come out to play in the darkened space of the Cinema Hut as we delve into Robin’s powerful response to the documentary *Hitchcock/Truffaut*.

Then **Ken and Robin Recycle Audio**, specifically more clips from Robin’s Q&A at FanExpo in Toronto.

Men in black peer into the windows of the **Eliptony Hut** as we round up the career of sardonic Fortean investigator John A. Keel.

Ken and Robin have oft been accused of being cards. Well, we can deny it no longer. We have become super-limited promo cards for *Murder of Crows*, Atlas Games’ fast-paced card game of murder and the macabre, for two to five players in the mood for something a little morbid. It’s Edward Gorey meets Caligari, by way of Edgar Allan Poe. *Wait a minute, what does that graphic say? I’m not so sure about this…*

Ken fans who did not partake of the Kickstarter can now sink their fangs into the general release of the *Dracula Dossier* from Pelgrane Press, consisting of the *Director’s Handbook* and *Dracula Unredacted*. You say that’s still not enough Ken for you? Very well, my friend. 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. In a move that surely violates someone’s security clearance, this episode is also brought to you by our friends at Arc Dream Publishing. The Kickstarter for *Delta Green: the Roleplaying Game* has come to an end, but don’t let that stop you from indulging your fever for this classic game, or that pinnacle of the Cthulhu game zine world, *The Unspeakable Oath*.

**Episode 169: If You Dibs an Entire Hemisphere** Dec 04, 2015
We start amid the familiar shag carpet of the **Gaming Hut** to look at the question of making the mechanics serve the story and not the other way around.

The **History Hut** delves into the best-named military conflict ever, the War of Jenkins’ Ear.

In the **Horror Hut** we avoid gazing into mirrors while discussing the Bloody Mary trope.

Finally, in **Ask Ken and Robin,** Rob Dean asks us to nerdtrope a real-life found artifact, these instructions to Mr. A.M. Brosius in 1911 concerning a dig in Baltimore.

Ken and Robin have oft been accused of being cards. Well, we can deny it no longer. We have become super-limited promo cards for *Murder of Crows*, Atlas Games’ fast-paced card game of murder and the macabre, for two to five players in the mood for something a little morbid. It’s Edward Gorey meets Caligari, by way of Edgar Allan Poe. *Wait a minute, what does that graphic say? I’m not so sure about this…*

Ken fans who did not partake of the Kickstarter can now sink their fangs into the general release of the *Dracula Dossier* from Pelgrane Press, consisting of the *Director’s Handbook* and *Dracula Unredacted*. You say that’s still not enough Ken for you? Very well, my friend. 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. In a move that surely violates someone’s security clearance, this episode is also brought to you by our friends at Arc Dream Publishing. The Kickstarter for *Delta Green: the Roleplaying Game* has come to an end, but don’t let that stop you from indulging your fever for this classic game, or that pinnacle of the Cthulhu game zine world, *The Unspeakable Oath*.

**[REPOST] Episode 168: Real Made-Up History** Nov 27, 2015
The New York Public Library online map collection provides a feast of gameable treasures. We gather in the **Cartography Hut** to pick our favorites and riff on ways to put them to use.

Ken’s first map, of Brasov, appears here.

Robin’s map, to the residences of Ebenezer Ingalsbie and T. R. Wolcott, is here.

Ken’s second map, of 1840s Brooklyn, is here.

**Among My Many Hats** has Ken turning your players into an official bulwark against UFO incursion in his latest Ken Writes About Stuff installment, MAJESTIC OVERWATCH.

**Ken and Robin Recycle Audio** as the audience of Deep Ones at Toronto’s FanExpo pepper Robin with questions about exciting endings, compelling darkness, and NPCs your players care about.

Finally the **Consulting Occultist** gets architectural to discuss the occult tendencies of Le Corbusier.

Ken fans who did not partake of the Kickstarter can now sink their fangs into the general release of the *Dracula Dossier* from Pelgrane Press, consisting of the *Director’s Handbook* and *Dracula Unredacted*. You say that’s still not enough Ken for you? Very well, my friend. 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.

In a move that surely violates someone’s security clearance, this episode is also brought to you by our friends at Arc Dream Publishing. The Kickstarter for *Delta Green: the Roleplaying Game* has come to an end, but don’t let that stop you from indulging your fever for this classic game, or that pinnacle of the Cthulhu game zine world, *The Unspeakable Oath*.

**Episode 168: Real Made-Up History** Nov 27, 2015
The New York Public Library online map collection provides a feast of gameable treasures. We gather in the **Cartography Hut** to pick our favorites and riff on ways to put them to use.

Ken’s first map, of Brasov, appears here.

Robin’s map, to the residences of Ebenezer Ingalsbie and T. R. Wolcott, is here.

Ken’s second map, of 1840s Brooklyn, is here.

**Among My Many Hats** has Ken turning your players into an official bulwark against UFO incursion in his latest Ken Writes About Stuff installment, MAJESTIC OVERWATCH.

**Ken and Robin Recycle Audio** as the audience of Deep Ones at Toronto’s FanExpo pepper Robin with questions about exciting endings, compelling darkness, and NPCs your players care about.

Finally the **Consulting Occultist** gets architectural to discuss the occult tendencies of Le Corbusier.

Ken and Robin have oft been accused of being cards. Well, we can deny it no longer. We have become super-limited promo cards for *Murder of Crows*, Atlas Games’ fast-paced card game of murder and the macabre, for two to five players in the mood for something a little morbid. It’s Edward Gorey meets Caligari, by way of Edgar Allan Poe. *Wait a minute, what does that graphic say? I’m not so sure about this…*

Ken fans who did not partake of the Kickstarter can now sink their fangs into the general release of the *Dracula Dossier* from Pelgrane Press, consisting of the *Director’s Handbook* and *Dracula Unredacted*. You say that’s still not enough Ken for you? Very well, my friend. 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.

In a move that surely violates someone’s security clearance, this episode is also brought to you by our friends at Arc Dream Publishing. The Kickstarter for *Delta Green: the Roleplaying Game* has come to an end, but don’t let that stop you from indulging your fever for this classic game, or that pinnacle of the Cthulhu game zine world, *The Unspeakable Oath*.

**Episode 167: Fred Williamson Syndrome** Nov 20, 2015
We kick off with **Ask Ken and Robin**, as Reinier Dobbelmann question about power-gaming, relevant to six-year olds literal and metaphorical.

Smell the flavor volatiles as **Food Hut** looks at the science of taste. Referenced in this segment: Barb Stuckey’s *Taste: Surprising Stories and Science About Why Food Tastes Good*.

In the **Horror Hut** we pitch and cast our imagined filmed vampire update, *Dracula AD 2017*. (Please note that a couple of tangential references in this segment seem odd in light of the November 13th Paris attacks, which occurred after this episode was recorded.)

Finally, in an exciting crossover event, the Tradecraft Hut books some time on **Ken’s Time Machine** to keep James Jesus Angleton’s paranoia within useful limits.

Ken and Robin have oft been accused of being cards. Well, we can deny it no longer. We have become super-limited promo cards for *Murder of Crows*, Atlas Games’ fast-paced card game of murder and the macabre, for two to five players in the mood for something a little morbid. It’s Edward Gorey meets Caligari, by way of Edgar Allan Poe. *Wait a minute, what does that graphic say? I’m not so sure about this…*

Ken fans who did not partake of the Kickstarter can now sink their fangs into the general release of the *Dracula Dossier* from Pelgrane Press, consisting of the *Director’s Handbook* and *Dracula Unredacted*. You say that’s still not enough Ken for you? Very well, my friend. 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. In a move that surely violates someone’s security clearance, this episode is also brought to you by our friends at Arc Dream Publishing. The Kickstarter for *Delta Green: the Roleplaying Game* has come to an end, but don’t let that stop you from indulging your fever for this classic game, or that pinnacle of the Cthulhu game zine world, *The Unspeakable Oath*.

**Episode 166: No Ice Cream Trucks Anywhere** Nov 13, 2015
We predicted that **Ask Ken and Robin** would feature a Manfred Gabriel question about incorporating prophecy into roleplaying sessions, and we were right!

Dracula tried to thwart him, but Ken still managed to check out some titles at this year’s Chicago International Film Festival, and joins us in the **Cinema Hut** to talk about the highlights.

The **Tradecraft Hut** looks at the career of Czarist master spy Pyotr Rachkovsky. Was he to spying what Henry Ford was to automated production?

Finally Robin takes Ken up on a previous challenge and runs him through the opening scenes of an existential mystery in a **Gaming Hut** that features actual gaming. Meet Brian Harker and his co-worker Eric, who is a lava lamp.

Ken and Robin have oft been accused of being cards. Well, we can deny it no longer. We have become super-limited promo cards for *Murder of Crows*, Atlas Games’ fast-paced card game of murder and the macabre, for two to five players in the mood for something a little morbid. It’s Edward Gorey meets Caligari, by way of Edgar Allan Poe. *Wait a minute, what does that graphic say? I’m not so sure about this…*

Ken fans who did not partake of the Kickstarter can now sink their fangs into the general release of the *Dracula Dossier* from Pelgrane Press, consisting of the *Director’s Handbook* and *Dracula Unredacted*. You say that’s still not enough Ken for you? Very well, my friend. 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.

In a move that surely violates someone’s security clearance, this episode is also brought to you by our friends at Arc Dream Publishing. The Kickstarter for *Delta Green: the Roleplaying Game* has come to an end, but don’t let that stop you from indulging your fever for this classic game, or that pinnacle of the Cthulhu game zine world, *The Unspeakable Oath*.

**Episode 165: If You Violate a Ghost’s Trade Policy** Nov 06, 2015
When Deep Ones suddenly display their powers of teleportation, are they being uncool? Step into the **Gaming Hut** for a look at situations where you want to keep the abilities of your monsters consistent.

In **Ask Ken and Robin** @marcaddress gets us to riff a society where corpse reanimation for heavy lifting and other tasks becomes just another normal aspect of life.

Powell’s Portland thought it was safe. But then Ken went back in its waters for a second strike on its reserve in a single year. Come round to **Ken’s Bookshelf** as we paw through the highlights of his monster haul.

Ken and Robin have oft been accused of being cards. Well, we can deny it no longer. We have become super-limited promo cards for *Murder of Crows*, Atlas Games’ fast-paced card game of murder and the macabre, for two to five players in the mood for something a little morbid. It’s Edward Gorey meets Caligari, by way of Edgar Allan Poe. *Wait a minute, what does that graphic say? I’m not so sure about this…*

Ken fans who did not partake of the Kickstarter can now sink their fangs into the general release of the *Dracula Dossier* from Pelgrane Press, consisting of the *Director’s Handbook* and *Dracula Unredacted*.

You say that’s still not enough Ken for you? Very well, my friend. 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.

In a move that surely violates someone’s security clearance, this episode is also brought to you by our friends at Arc Dream Publishing. The Kickstarter for *Delta Green: the Roleplaying Game* has come to an end, but don’t let that stop you from indulging your fever for this classic game, or that pinnacle of the Cthulhu game zine world, *The Unspeakable Oath*.

**Episode 164: Another Excuse To Drink In the Street** Oct 30, 2015
We kick off an episode devoted to Halloween in the **Mythology Hut**, where we survey the holiday’s history, mutations over time, and cultural diffusion.

Ken suspects that 1933’s so-called Black Halloween might be entirely apocryphal, but even so we head for the **Gaming Hut** to riff an outline for a *Trail of Cthulhu* scenario in which Nodens lets his dark side out.

The **Horror Hut** has us gazing into mirrors and their use in scary storytelling.

Finally the Consulting Occultist delves into the North Berwick witch trials, in which opponents of King James VI / I found themselves on the wrong end of a Halloween-related accusation.

Ken and Robin have oft been accused of being cards. Well, we can deny it no longer. We have become super-limited promo cards for *Murder of Crows*, Atlas Games’ fast-paced card game of murder and the macabre, for two to five players in the mood for something a little morbid. It’s Edward Gorey meets Caligari, by way of Edgar Allan Poe. *Wait a minute, what does that graphic say? I’m not so sure about this…*

Ken fans who did not partake of the Kickstarter will want to sink their fangs into the general release of the *Dracula Dossier* from Pelgrane Press, consisting of the *Director’s Handbook* and *Dracula Unredacted*.

You say that’s still not enough Ken for you? Very well, my friend. 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.

In a move that surely violates someone’s security clearance, this episode is also brought to you by our friends at Arc Dream Publishing. The Kickstarter for *Delta Green: the Roleplaying Game* has come to an end, but don’t let that stop you from indulging your fever for this classic game, or that pinnacle of the Cthulhu game zine world, *The Unspeakable Oath*.

**Episode 163: Building Things Out of Zebras** Oct 23, 2015
Find the enigma within the enigma as the **Gaming Hut** hosts a look at existential mysteries.

In **Ask Ken and Robin** we find the key to a Gerald Sears question about Parisian official’s bid to remove the love locks from the Pont des Arts bridge.

**How to Write Good** serves up tips on character names.

Finally in the **Eliptony Hut**, we examine Ilya Ivanov’s attempt to hybridize humans and chimpanzees.

Ken and Robin have oft been accused of being cards. Well, we can deny it no longer. We have become super-limited promo cards for *Murder of Crows*, Atlas Games’ fast-paced card game of murder and the macabre, for two to five players in the mood for something a little morbid. It’s Edward Gorey meets Caligari, by way of Edgar Allan Poe. *Wait a minute, what does that graphic say? I’m not so sure about this…*

Ken fans who did not partake of the Kickstarter will want to sink their fangs into the pre-order for the *Dracula Dossier* from Pelgrane Press, consisting of the *Director’s Handbook* and *Dracula Unredacted*. You say that’s still not enough Ken for you? Very well, my friend. 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.

In a move that surely violates someone’s security clearance, this episode is also brought to you by the Kickstarter for Delta Green: the Roleplaying Game from our friends at Arc Dream Publishing. Add to the awesomeness of this classic setting of Mythos espionage, now its own standalone game.

**Episode 162: Of the Massachusetts Necrotaurs** Oct 16, 2015
The **Gaming Hut** turns over the hourglass as we discuss villain clocks.

Ken issues a **Travel Advisory** on the latest installment of the H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival.

In **Ask Ken and Robin** we field a Pete Darley question about our adherence to canon in published scenario.

And in a pulse-pounding, pumice-raining edition of **Ken’s Time Machine**, sabotage places our doughty chrononaut in Pompeii, eight hours ahead of the head cloud that will flash-cook its remaining residents.

Ken and Robin have oft been accused of being cards. Well, we can deny it no longer. We have become super-limited promo cards for *Murder of Crows*, Atlas Games’ fast-paced card game of murder and the macabre, for two to five players in the mood for something a little morbid. It’s Edward Gorey meets Caligari, by way of Edgar Allan Poe. *Wait a minute, what does that graphic say? I’m not so sure about this…*

Ken fans who did not partake of the Kickstarter will want to sink their fangs into the pre-order for the *Dracula Dossier* from Pelgrane Press, consisting of the *Director’s Handbook* and *Dracula Unredacted*. You say that’s still not enough Ken for you? Very well, my friend. 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.

It’s not easy teaching in America’s second worst school district and being a wizard on the side. But Nathan Kulwicki thought he had it covered. Until he received news of the worst kind. Inoperable cancer. He’ll be dead before the start of the next school year. Now, he will have to scour time and unheard of dimensions to find a magical cure to save himself. But what will he be willing to do to find it? Find out in *Terminal Magics*, a novel by Plot Points impresario Ben Riggs.

**Episode 161: The Horse Had It Coming** Oct 09, 2015
The **Gaming Hut** features an ill-advised open bar as we mull campaigns in which player characters have to be married.

**Ask Ken and Robin** tackles a question posed to us by approximately 75% of listeners: hey, what about that Nazi Gold train?

Vegetables return to the **Food Hut**, demanding to know how we will roast them.

Finally the Eliptony Hut turns its laser scalpels on the topic of cattle mutilations.

It blew up Kickstarter. It slid into Gen Con on a gurney with both guns blazing. And now Feng Shui 2: Action Movie Roleplaying is laying down the kung fu, the gun fu, and the cybernetic primate fu, and rocketing its way to a retail store near you. Join our friends at Atlas Games in celebrating the long-anticipated release of Robin’s classic game, accompanied by the *GM Screen: Fistful of Fight Scenes* and *Blowing Up the Movies*.

Ken fans who did not partake of the Kickstarter will want to sink their fangs into the pre-order for the *Dracula Dossier* from Pelgrane Press, consisting of the *Director’s Handbook* and *Dracula Unredacted*.

You say that’s still not enough Ken for you? Very well, my friend. 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 Askfalgen. Yes, it’s Sweden’s favorite RPG magazine, now beautifully collected. Warning: not in Swedish.

It’s not easy teaching in America’s second worst school district and being a wizard on the side. But Nathan Kulwicki thought he had it covered. Until he received news of the worst kind. Inoperable cancer. He’ll be dead before the start of the next school year. Now, he will have to scour time and unheard of dimensions to find a magical cure to save himself. But what will he be willing to do to find it? Find out in *Terminal Magics*, a novel by Plot Points impresario Ben Riggs.

**Episode 160: Or His Solid Ghost** Oct 02, 2015
The **Cinema Hut** heralds the androids, fish men and yakuza vampires coming to a movie consumption venue near you as Robin regales you with the hottest tips from this year’s Toronto International Film Festival. Consult his full list here.

It was the Gaming Hut, he thought, where the topic of internal monologue in roleplaying would be settled once and for all.

We save the debauchery till last as the **History Hut** tackles the hot topic of the Hellfire Club.

It blew up Kickstarter. It slid into Gen Con on a gurney with both guns blazing. And now Feng Shui 2: Action Movie Roleplaying is laying down the kung fu, the gun fu, and the cybernetic primate fu, and rocketing its way to a retail store near you. Join our friends at Atlas Games in celebrating the long-anticipated release of Robin’s classic game, accompanied by the *GM Screen: Fistful of Fight Scenes* and *Blowing Up the Movies*.

Ken fans who did not partake of the Kickstarter will want to sink their fangs into the pre-order for the *Dracula Dossier* from Pelgrane Press, consisting of the *Director’s Handbook* and *Dracula Unredacted*. You say that’s still not enough Ken for you? Very well, my friend. 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.

It’s not easy teaching in America’s second worst school district and being a wizard on the side. But Nathan Kulwicki thought he had it covered. Until he received news of the worst kind. Inoperable cancer. He’ll be dead before the start of the next school year. Now, he will have to scour time and unheard of dimensions to find a magical cure to save himself. But what will he be willing to do to find it? Find out in *Terminal Magics*, a novel by Plot Points impresario Ben Riggs.

**Episode 159: I Was a 10 Year Old Nihilist** Sep 25, 2015
The **Gaming Hut** finds us in an under-the-hood mood as we turn over Robin’s assertion that a full adventure written as early in the process as possible can illuminate your RPG game design process.

**Ken and Robin Recycle Audio** presents our final trove of treasures from the Gen Con investigative panel, with a series of deep GUMSHOE tips.

Then the **Cinema Hut** alerts you to another passel of the latest and coolest Asian action flicks. Titles discussed: Assassination, Kundo: Age of the Rampant, Wild City, No Tears for the Dead, and The Divine Move.

**Ken’s Time Machine** omits certain key details in a chrono-caper so momentous that not all can be revealed. What role did Ken play in the bizarre memory hole that is the Berenstain Bears?

Ken fans who did not partake of the Kickstarter will want to sink their fangs into the pre-order for the *Dracula Dossier* from Pelgrane Press, consisting of the *Director’s Handbook* and *Dracula Unredacted*.

You say that’s still not enough Ken for you? Very well, my friend. 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.

It’s not easy teaching in America’s second worst school district and being a wizard on the side. But Nathan Kulwicki thought he had it covered. Until he received news of the worst kind. Inoperable cancer. He’ll be dead before the start of the next school year. Now, he will have to scour time and unheard of dimensions to find a magical cure to save himself. But what will he be willing to do to find it? Find out in *Terminal Magics*, a novel by Plot Points impresario Ben Riggs.

**Episode 158: Englishman is Not Actually Valued For Its Own Flavor** Sep 18, 2015
Our recording chambers may be hot but our subject matter gets cold, cold, cold, as **Among My Many Hats** takes a look at the Wendigo.

In **How To Write Good**, the dialogue turns to dialogue tags, he said, informatively.

**Ken and Robin Recycle Audio** continues to pillage the very best treasures of the investigative roleplaying seminar at Gen Con, this time delving into red herrings, leaving room for player improv, and keeping your horror tropes fresh.

Then we circle back to Arctic climes as the **Eliptony Hut** rips the lid off the Franklin conspiracy.

It blew up Kickstarter. It slid into Gen Con on a gurney with both guns blazing. And now Feng Shui 2: Action Movie Roleplaying is laying down the kung fu, the gun fu, and the cybernetic primate fu, and rocketing its way to a retail store near you. Join our friends at Atlas Games in celebrating the long-anticipated release of Robin’s classic game, accompanied by the *GM Screen: Fistful of Fight Scenes* and *Blowing Up the Movies*.

Ken fans who did not partake of the Kickstarter will want to sink their fangs into the pre-order for the *Dracula Dossier* from Pelgrane Press, consisting of the *Director’s Handbook* and *Dracula Unredacted*.

You say that’s still not enough Ken for you? Very well, my friend. 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 Askfalgen. Yes, it’s Sweden’s favorite RPG magazine, now beautifully collected. Warning: not in Swedish.

Would you like to sharpen young children’s memory skills while also introducing them to the cosmic dread of the Cthulhu Mythos? Then *Recall of Cthulhu*, Kickstarting from the fine folks at Toy Vault, until September 25, is for you. Amazingly adorable artwork of the Elder Gods and their ilk to delight the young and the young at heart. This classic matching game can be played by up to four of the most deranged patients in the Sanatorium, as well as young cultists aged 4 and up!

**Episode 157: I Have Points in Both, Simon** Sep 11, 2015
A skepticism of all things pseudopod suffuses the question Thomas Deeny poses in **Ask Ken and Robin**. “Why Cthulhu? By that, I mean, why do gamers love Cthulhu games? Boardgames, RPGs — it seems as if you slap Cthulhu on the game, it just sells. What is the draw?”

Providence proved Providential indeed for our resident bookhound. **Ken’s Bookshelf** paws through his haul from his recent jaunt to Necronomicon.

We begin to glean the gold of the packed Investigative Roleplaying Seminar of this year’s Gen Con, as once more **Ken and Robin Recycle Audio**.

Oft-mentioned but not until now explicated, the Priory of Sion finally gets the full treatment from the Consulting Occultist.

It blew up Kickstarter. It slid into Gen Con on a gurney with both guns blazing. And now Feng Shui 2: Action Movie Roleplaying is laying down the kung fu, the gun fu, and the cybernetic primate fu, and rocketing its way to a retail store near you. Join our friends at Atlas Games in celebrating the long-anticipated release of Robin’s classic game, accompanied by the *GM Screen: Fistful of Fight Scenes* and *Blowing Up the Movies*.

Ken fans who did not partake of the Kickstarter will want to sink their fangs into the pre-order for the *Dracula Dossier* from Pelgrane Press, consisting of the *Director’s Handbook* and *Dracula Unredacted*.

You say that’s still not enough Ken for you? Very well, my friend. 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 Askfalgen. Yes, it’s Sweden’s favorite RPG magazine, now beautifully collected. Warning: not in Swedish.

Would you like to sharpen young children’s memory skills while also introducing them to the cosmic dread of the Cthulhu Mythos? Then *Recall of Cthulhu*, Kickstarting from the fine folks at Toy Vault, until September 25, is for you. Amazingly adorable artwork of the Elder Gods and their ilk to delight the young and the young at heart. This classic matching game can be played by up to four of the most deranged patients in the Sanatorium, as well as young cultists aged 4 and up!

**Episode 156: Crazily Pork-Bellied** Sep 04, 2015
In the dog days before Labor Day, **Ask Ken and Robin** happily accepts a softball from Cam Banks (a ringer name if ever we heard one.) “Why is “fantasy” supposedly a genre in RPGs but people mostly mean “F20 fantasy”? Why is there no equivalent in science fiction RPGs?”

Ken issues a **Travel Advisory** for Necronomicon 2015, with a detour to pork belly obsessed Providence, RI. Restaurants mentioned: Den Den Café, Kitchen, Ken’s Ramen, Red Stripe, Pizza Gourmet.

**Ken and Robin Recycle Audio** dips back into the Pelgrane Press panel from Gen Con, as we learn about *Fearful Symmetries*, Cat’s untitled story game anthology project, *The Fall of Delta Green* and the Trail of Cthulhu Starter Box.

Then either we or our clones open up the **Eliptony Hut** to consider the free love alien contactee doctrine of the Raelians.

It blew up Kickstarter. It slid into Gen Con on a gurney with both guns blazing. And now Feng Shui 2: Action Movie Roleplaying is laying down the kung fu, the gun fu, and the cybernetic primate fu, and rocketing its way to a retail store near you. Join our friends at Atlas Games in celebrating the long-anticipated release of Robin’s classic game, accompanied by the *GM Screen: Fistful of Fight Scenes* and *Blowing Up the Movies*.

Ken fans who did not partake of the Kickstarter will want to sink their fangs into the pre-order for the *Dracula Dossier* from Pelgrane Press, consisting of the *Director’s Handbook* and *Dracula Unredacted*.

**Episode 155: Semi-Facing Into the Abyss** Aug 28, 2015
Genetic enhancements meet tradecraft as **Among My Many Hats** looks under the hood of Ken’s new *Mutant City Blues* campaign frame, “*Mutant City Spies.*”

The **Food Hut** returns in what might be the first of an sweeping two-part series as we find ways to trick vegetables into being delicious.

**Ken and Robin Recycle Audio** from the Pelgrane Press panel at Gen Con, regarding yet more Dracula Dossier ancillary items in development, *TimeWatch*, GUMSHOE *One-2-One*, and the *Worldbreaker* epic campaign for *The Esoterrorists*.

Finally we don’t let the historical record get in the way of a good chronological alteration scheme as **Ken’s Time Machine** gives Leon Trotsky the movie career the world always wanted him to have.

It blew up Kickstarter. It slid into Gen Con on a gurney with both guns blazing. And now Feng Shui 2: Action Movie Roleplaying is laying down the kung fu, the gun fu, and the cybernetic primate fu, and rocketing its way to a retail store near you. Join our friends at Atlas Games in celebrating the long-anticipated release of Robin’s classic game, accompanied by the *GM Screen: Fistful of Fight Scenes* and *Blowing Up the Movies*.

Ken fans who did not partake of the Kickstarter will want to sink their fangs into the pre-order for the *Dracula Dossier* from Pelgrane Press, consisting of the *Director’s Handbook* and *Dracula Unredacted*. Download your consciousness into the Kickstarter for *Transreality: New Worlds*, the identity-bending graphic novel from Chris Lackey. Your inner pink gorilla will thank you.

**Episode 154: Orange and Tufty From the Primordial Swamp** Aug 21, 2015
The featured headgear in **Among My Many Hats** is of a knitted variety as Robin talks about *Ghosts in the Black,* the Firefly campaign book he contributed to, and just what his credited role as story designer entails.

Wistful nostalgia for the antics of a certain former Toronto mayor wafts through the **Politics Hut** like a melancholy fragrance from days gone by. But wait, can an unruly orange toupee fill the not inconsiderable hole he has left in the hearts of podcast listeners? We ask if Donald Trump can become America’s Rob Ford.

In **Ask Ken and Robin**, Laroshe asks about games in which a party of sidekicks revolves around a more powerful central hero.

Then the **Consulting Occultist** risks possible heckling from a brazen head as he looks at the life and legend of Roger Bacon.

Look out, Lieutenants of evil! The sinister mastermind you work for has taken some time to shake the post-conquest blues. But he’ll be back soon, and your survival depends on impressing him. Thankfully, our lead sponsor Atlas Games has just what you need: their delightful new card game of competitive minion-stacking, *Three Cheers for Master*.

Ken fans who did not partake of the Kickstarter will want to sink their fangs into the pre-order for the *Dracula Dossier* from Pelgrane Press, consisting of the *Director’s Handbook* and *Dracula Unredacted*.

Download your consciousness into the Kickstarter for *Transreality: New Worlds*, the identity-bending graphic novel from Chris Lackey. Your inner pink gorilla will thank you.

Pilot your sky galleon to the Zodiac Empires Kickstarter. Explore a world of early industrialization, weird cults and noir intrigue, suitable for such fantasy games as *Pathfinder* and *Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition*.

**Episode 153: Gen Con 2015 in Review** Aug 14, 2015
As the action opens in the **Gaming Hut**, we find Ken and Robin just one day back from Gen Con, punchy but unbowed. Hear them talk Diana Jones Awards, the new regime at Chaosium, and the great D&D resurgence. Make future spending plans as they recount such Pelgrane-rich announcements as The Fall of Delta Green, GUMSHOE One2One, and Robin Writes About Stuff. And as we mention a few of the panels we attended, steel yourself for a terrible revelation about the recording of our live episode. Yes, it’s all the thrills and spills you’ve come to expect from our traditional hour plus of Gen Con wrap.

Look out, Lieutenants of evil! The sinister mastermind you work for has taken some time to shake the post-conquest blues. But he’ll be back soon, and your survival depends on impressing him. Thankfully, our lead sponsor Atlas Games has just what you need: their delightful new card game of competitive minion-stacking, *Three Cheers for Master*.

**Episode 152: X-Acto Athame** Aug 07, 2015
Buckle up your extra special rapier for a jaunt into the **Gaming Hut** to consider the connection between gear and status.

Take extra reindeer with you, for your predecessor lost all of his when he entered the far confines of the **Cartography Hut** to talk Soviet map-making.

From hominids and their tapir pals to the contents of a teen’s bedroom, Ken and Robin delineate some great opening scenes in the **Cinema Hut**.

Then paranoia goes old-timey as the Conspiracy Corner recounts the story of America’s Anti-Masonic Party.

Look out, Lieutenants of evil! The sinister mastermind you work for has taken some time to shake the post-conquest blues. But he’ll be back soon, and your survival depends on impressing him. Thankfully, our lead sponsor Atlas Games has just what you need: their delightful new card game of competitive minion-stacking, *Three Cheers for Master*.

What’s that hiding behind your baseboards? Could it be a PDF copy of Philip Masters’ *The Small Folk*, in which you play fairy folk descendants sneaking, scheming, and avoiding the attentions of wily housecats? Grab it at Warehouse23.

**Episode 151: Draculas Competing To Be the Dracula** Jul 31, 2015
Robin gets a head start on his *Dracula Dossier* homework as the **Gaming Hut** lays out the whys and hows of campaign frames.

The titular chapeau takes on a conical shape as Ken talks Yithians in **Among My Many Hats**. Check out his *Ken Writes About Stuff* installment for more.

**How to Write Good** examines different authorial worldviews and how they determine what does and doesn’t fit in your narrative.

Finally **Ken’s Time Machine** whirs up for a trip to pre-gold rush California, courtesy of a question from Rich Fryer.

Look out, Lieutenants of evil! The sinister mastermind you work for has taken some time to shake the post-conquest blues. But he’ll be back soon, and your survival depends on impressing him. Thankfully, our lead sponsor Atlas Games has just what you need: their delightful new card game of competitive minion-stacking, *Three Cheers for Master*.

**Episode 150: Anniversary Lightning Round Extravaganza III** Jul 24, 2015
Stuff we’re here to talk about in this milestone episode might include Ben Franklin, the Flash, Zeus, Tom Fury, Phar Lap, keraunomedicine, the Lockheed P-38, Mjolnir, the blitzkrieg, Final Fantasy XIII, James Otis Jr., Garth Ranzz, al-Borak, Tampa Bay hockey, or the static discharge between clouds and the earth.

That is to say, we’ve hit episode 150, a milestone requiring us to pull out all the meteorological stops for our customary all **Ask Ken and Robin** lightning round edition.

*Warning*: actual episode does not discuss any of the above.

Look out, Lieutenants of evil! The sinister mastermind you work for has taken some time to shake the post-conquest blues. But he’ll be back soon, and your survival depends on impressing him. Thankfully, our lead sponsor Atlas Games has just what you need: their delightful new card game of competitive minion-stacking, *Three Cheers for Master*.

**Episode 149: Contemptible People Tavern** Jul 17, 2015
Line up your polyhedrals in order of social preference as we enter the **Gaming Hut** to examine caste and class in worldbuilding.

The **History Hut** provides a footnote to a somber event with details on the 1822 trial of Denmark Vesey, a founder of Charleston SC’s Mother Emanuel Church, for conspiracy to revolt against slavery.

Tom Pleasant poses a challenging **Ask Ken and Robin** query, asking what we would do if we could use **Ken’s Time Machine** to alter roleplaying history.

Finally we bathe ourselves in light as the **Consulting Occultist** profiles the preeminent practitioner of nice magic, Dion Fortune.

Look out, Lieutenants of evil! The sinister mastermind you work for has taken some time to shake the post-conquest blues. But he’ll be back soon, and your survival depends on impressing him. Thankfully, our lead sponsor Atlas Games has just what you need: their delightful new card game of competitive minion-stacking, *Three Cheers for Master*.

**Episode 148: The Truffles of the Fiend Folio** Jul 10, 2015
The **Gaming Hut** acquires extra filigrees and an extended backstory as we examine the cognitive investments gamers make when they learn to love detail.

The **Food Hut** takes a turn for the imaginary in response to this medieval recipe for griddle-roasted unicorn, brought to our attention by Terry O’Carroll. What happens when F20 adventurers start to regard monsters and mythical creatures not just as opponents, but as ingredients in fantasy-world cuisine?

In **Ask Ken and Robin**, Sean Phelan asks for ground rules on killing key NPCs offstage.

Finally we find ourselves in the **Eliptony Hut**, inspired by a CIA document drop on Project Blue Book, to investigate disinformation campaigns waged against UFOlogists.

Look out, Lieutenants of evil! The sinister mastermind you work for has taken some time to shake the post-conquest blues. But he’ll be back soon, and your survival depends on impressing him. Thankfully, our lead sponsor Atlas Games has just what you need: their delightful new card game of competitive minion-stacking, *Three Cheers for Master*.

**Episode 147: The Worst Doppelganger** Jul 02, 2015
Spruce up your decor as the Gaming Hut reveals the secrets of room description.

Ken does the bulk of the replying in an eliptonic **Ask Ken and Robin**, as RogerBW seeks a disentanglement of convex and concave hollow earth theories.

Once again we rev up the **Recommendation Engine**, tipping you to a movie, two books, two food products and, believe it or not, a game!

Impose your will on reality through whatever lens you want as the **Consulting Occultist** casts a gimlet eye on chaos magick.

Look out, Lieutenants of evil! The sinister mastermind you work for has taken some time to shake the post-conquest blues. But he’ll be back soon, and your survival depends on impressing him. Thankfully, our lead sponsor Atlas Games has just what you need: their delightful new card game of competitive minion-stacking, *Three Cheers for Master*.

**Episode 146: The Most Punished “Well Actually” Ever** Jun 26, 2015
Guns blaze and mystic swords clash as **Among My Many Hats** goes under the hood on *Blowing Up the Movies*, Robin’s new book of essays combing the action movie classics for gameable nuggets.

In **Ask Ken and Robin**, @clarkythecruel asks about incorporating sports into RPGs.

**How to Write Good** shows you how to build a dimensioned protagonist for an idea-based story.

**Ken’s Time Machine** reports back from the alternate dimension where Samuel Taylor Coleridge and his pal Robert Southey actually established that Susquehanna River utopia they were always talking about.

Look out, Lieutenants of evil! The sinister mastermind you work for has taken some time to shake the post-conquest blues. But he’ll be back soon, and your survival depends on impressing him. Thankfully, our lead sponsor Atlas Games has just what you need: their delightful new card game of competitive minion-stacking, *Three Cheers for Master*.

This podcast is also sponsored by another podcast, Game Master’s Journey. Join Lex Starwalker as he covers all things RPG from the secret side of the GM screen.

**Episode 145: I’ll Bet It’s a Bad Star** Jun 19, 2015
Alex Guerrero has played before but never GMed. He wants to introduce a trio of interested neophytes/family members to roleplaying through a session of *Fear Itself*. He’s here to **Ask Ken and Robin** “What tips do you have on pacing, and not overthinking?”

In History Hut we look at the craziest damn thing we’ve heard about in a long time, the wacky, electrified lost world of fraternal orders and side degrees. For more, see Fantagraphics’ *Burlesque Paraphernalia*.

**Ken’s Bookshelf** tells the exciting story of what happens when Oklahoma City’s few used book stores are shaken to their very core.

Attention, class! Anchor sponsor Atlas Games wants to enrol 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.

**Episode 144: Chaotic Prolix** Jun 12, 2015
Abandon your neutrality as we enter the Gaming Hut to talk about alignment in D&D.

Find out if we’ve been digging what you’ve been digging about the recent crop of shows in the **Television Hut**.

Then the Consulting Occultist gives us the lowdown on alchemist, mystic and eponymous library founder Elias Ashmole.

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.

**Episode 143: You Can’t Just Set It on Fire** Jun 05, 2015
Using the conveniently public domain 1972 film *Horror Express* as a baseline, we demonstrate how to adapt a movie into a scenario worthy of the **Gaming Hut**.

In a flood-threatened **Travel Advisory,** Ken takes us on a tour of the sights and horrors of his hometown, Oklahoma City.

Then **Ken and/or Robin Talk To Someone Else**, checking in on Keith Baker and his recently Kickstarted game Phoenix: *Dawn Command*.

Finally we sidle discreetly into the **Conspiracy Corner** for urgent whispers concerningthe sinister closing of select Wal-Mart locations.

Attention, class! Anchor sponsor Atlas Games wants to enrol 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.

**Episode 142: The Scots Cannibal Registry** May 29, 2015
In the **Gaming Hut** we ask how much work game design should do to constrain problem players.

Be careful in the History Hut not to sit in the sledgehammerin’ seat as we tell the tale of the Bloody Benders.

In Ask Ken and Robin Ciaran Conliffe asks Ken and Robin to demonstrate how Esoterrorists might exploit Somerset Fairy Doors.

Next a certain someone clambers into **Ken’s Time Machine** to do something about Ngo Dình Diem other than installing him as president of South Vietnam and then assassinating him. The answer might surprise you!

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.

**Episode 141: Larger and Larger Cups** May 22, 2015
In **Ask Ken and Robin** your intrepid hosts field an Eion Dornan question about helping players take on the role of real historical figures.

The story of a Nigerian juju practitioner handed a lengthy sentence for magical services performed for Texas-based Gulf cartel drug traffickers calls for the debut of a new segment we can only call **Nerdtrope Cards in the News**.

**How to Create Good** examines the secrets of successful collaboration.

And Ken’s Time Machine, answering a request from Christoph Sapinsky, reveals why our resident time traveler assisted the booze-related demise of Ogedei Khan in 1241.

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.

If you’re in Dublin over the June bank holiday, check out the convivial proceedings of Hobocon, May 30th to June 1st, at the Teachers Club, 36 Parnell Square West.

**Episode 140: More Like Winter Derleth** May 15, 2015
Crack open your Chaotic Neutral dictionary as Ken and Robin venture into the **Gaming Hut** to spitball a fantasy world extrapolated from the existence of alignment languages.

In **Ken and/or Robin Talk to Somebody Else**, both Ken and Robin speak with Leeman Kessler, the actor and auteur behind the Ask Lovecraft web series.

And since we were both recently near a Powell’s—the one in Portland to be precise, the time has come to take another epic gander at the recent inflow toward **Ken’s Bookshelf**.

(Ken’s audio is a little dodgy this week but we hope to have him rescued from the mi-go and his brain at least partially out of that jar in time for next week’s show.)

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.

**Episode 139: Live from Cthulhucon** May 08, 2015
Screaming to you from the abyssal depths of the downtown Portland Oregon Crowne Plaza, comes our latest live episode. Join us as we talk Dracula vs. Gala, Muhammad Ali vs. Nyarlathotep, Nollywood, the Sino-Soviet split, DaVinci’s Glaaki revelation, our season of True Detective, and more.

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.

**Episode 138: All the Characterization You’re Gonna Require** May 01, 2015
Make sure you have your magic translation earbuds on as we enter the **Gaming Hut** to talk about secret and magical languages.

In **Ask Ken and Robin**, Ruth Tillman John Burgess asks us to reveal our research secrets. Sorry for the misidentification in the episode audio, John.

Having previously run down the classic Hong Kong movies you need to see to feel the *Feng Shui 2* vibe, Robin reopens the **Cinema Hut** for a rundown of titles from the last few years.

And at the behest of Phil Masters, Ken clambers into **Ken’s Time Machine** to preserve Andalucian civilization.

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.

This episode also brought to you by Double Exposure’s Envoy program, which is all about the bringing. Specifically, bringing together games, runners of games, and players of games. Become a herald today, or jump aboard their team for Origins and/or Gen Con.

**Episode 137: Clown Moistening Skills** Apr 24, 2015
This article on the programmable variability of claw machines springboards us into the **Gaming Hut** for an examination of pass/fail cycles.

A corpse with the distinctive dagger of medieval Teutonic justice lies near the threshold of the **History Hut**, where we convene to discuss Vehmic courts.

**How to Write Good** has us spitballing classic characters reimagined as leading characters in TV police procedurals.

Finally the **Consulting Occultist** answers a request from Bryant Durrell for the 101 on spiritualist polymath Rudolf Steiner.

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.

This episode also brought to you by Double Exposure’s Envoy program, which is all about the bringing. Specifically, bringing together games, runners of games, and players of games. Become a herald today, or jump aboard their team for Origins and/or Gen Con.

**Episode 136: It Says Necropolis Right in the Name** Apr 17, 2015
Robin hijacks an **Ask Ken and Robin** question about running an Armitage Files-style campaign set after Sherlock Holmes’ plunge over Reichenbach to ask: do the master detective and the Mythos go together at all? Then of course we do answer Sami Uusitalo’s question, because what kind of podcast would we be otherwise?

Ken tells us about *Tomb-Hounds of Egypt*, his latest Ken Writes About Stuff single, in **Among My Many Hats**. That hat is a pith helmet and the topic is 1930s Egyptology.

Heads spin in the Cinema Hut as we look at *The Exorcist* and its cyclical legacy of fluid-spewing demonological horror.

Finally Time Inc. entertains a Bob Jamieson request to use **Ken’s Time Machine** to repair or avert the 1690s Scottish debacle known as the Darien Scheme.

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.

**Episode 135: So Bad the Quakers Riot** Apr 10, 2015
When the **Gaming Hut** asks you to mind your tone, we’re talking about ways to instil it during roleplaying sessions.

In Ask Ken and Robin, Roger Bell West draws us into the **Eliptony Hut** with by requesting the lowdown on Fomenko’s New Chronology.

We ban phrases from our lexicon in an ever so impactful edition of the **Word Hut**.

Then the **Consulting Occultist** builds electric Jesus in its barn as we look at the career of John Murray Spear.

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.

**Episode 134: Glam, Baby** Apr 03, 2015
It’s raining drama tokens in the **Gaming Hut** as Robin shares his DramaSystem GMing tips.

The clash of arms resounds in the **History Hut** as Ken gives us the lowdown on legendary Indian empire-builder Chandragupta Maurya.

In **Ask Ken and Robin**, Ryan Christiansen asks if RPGs can be used as a consciousness raising tool.

Art history and faith collide in the **Conspiracy Corner** as we ask what might be in those Michelangelo letters thieves are holding for ransom. Will the Vatican pay the requested 100,000 Euros, or send your PCs to extract them?

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.

Are you in the near to moderate orbit of Madison WI? If so, reserve the dates April 10th to the 12th to attend Odyssey Con 15 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel. From spray can art demonstrations to a zombie prom to a four-track seminar panel, this relaxing, well-run weekend con will meet your geekly needs.

What’s that hiding behind your baseboards? Could it be a PDF copy of Philip Masters’ *The Small Folk*, in which you play fairy folk descendants sneaking, scheming, and avoiding the attentions of wily housecats? Grab it at Warehouse23.

**Episode 133: Wielding Fennel Without Proper Church Authority** Mar 27, 2015
Cough into your elbow as we duck into the **Gaming Hut** to think up explanations imaginary cultures might give for the origin of diseases.

The **Cinema Hut** unspools Robin’s top five recommended films for schooling your players in the *Feng Shui* spirit.

In **Ask Ken and Robin**, Collin T asks how to get players immersed in a detailed setting without burying them in exposition or homework.

Finally the **Consulting Occultist** introduces us to the Italian benandanti, who as late as the 16th century were entering dreams to battle witches and pirates.

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.

Mapheads, rejoice. CAD maestro Jeff James is Kickstarting Scale Realms. This project will fund full color, high quality maps with 3D structures and landscaping, with a hex or square option.

Are you in the near to moderate orbit of Madison WI? If so, reserve the dates April 10th to the 12th to attend Odyssey Con 15 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel. From spray can art demonstrations to a zombie prom to a four-track seminar panel, this relaxing, well-run weekend con will meet your geekly needs.

**Episode 132: Underground Subterranean Fort** Mar 20, 2015
In **Ask Ken and Robin**, Jonas Beardsley points us to this Wired article about advances in astrophysics brought about by the computer effects used in the movie Interstellar. We then make good on his invitation to explore ways overly realistic CGI could go horribly wrong.

Safe under the covers of the Horror Hut, we talk about stories, movies and lists that scared us as kids.

The Eliptony Hut goes underground for a truth more interesting than the truth of Toronto’s mystery tunnel.

Finally Time Inc. once again has tree protection on its mind as it uses Ken’s Time Machine to rescue Irminsul from Charlemagne.

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.

Roll yourself a critical hit by ordering from a freshly discovered special trove of *The Bones*, the book on dice from our pals at Gameplaywright. Notables including Wil Wheaton, John Kovalic and our own Kenneth Hite wax both cubic and polyhedral, now at a crazy low price.

Mapheads, rejoice. CAD maestro Jeff James is Kickstarting Scale Realms. This project will fund full color, high quality maps with 3D structures and landscaping, with a hex or square option.

Are you in the near to moderate orbit of Madison WI? If so, reserve the dates April 10th to the 12th to attend Odyssey Con 15 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel. From spray can art demonstrations to a zombie prom to a four-track seminar panel, this relaxing, well-run weekend con will meet your geekly needs.

**Episode 131: Helping People Steal Concrete** Mar 13, 2015
Join us in the Gaming Hut for a psychotropic ritual as we think about introducing entheogens into the magic of your F20 world.

The **Politics Hut** flips its municipal focus as Ken shares his perspective on the Chicago machine and mayor Rahm Emanuel’s forced confrontation with a run-off election.

**How to Write Good** takes a closer look at first acts, specifically the ones that set up your character’s status quo and the imminent threats to it.

Finally the **Consulting Occultist** crosses over with **Among My Many Hats** as Ken tells us about his Goetia instalment of *Ken Writes About Stuff*.

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.

Roll yourself a critical hit by ordering from a freshly discovered special trove of *The Bones*, the book on dice from our pals at Gameplaywright. Notables including Wil Wheaton, John Kovalic and our own Kenneth Hite wax both cubic and polyhedral, now at a crazy low price.

Mapheads, rejoice. CAD maestro Jeff James is Kickstarting Scale Realms. This project will fund full color, high quality maps with 3D structures and landscaping, with a hex or square option.

**Episode 130: Regional Resentments of Canadian Mollusks** Mar 06, 2015
Yohann Delalande kicks us off with an **Ask Ken and Robin** question about portraying current real-world horrors in RPGs without lapsing into insensitivity.

We fulfill this podcast’s Canadian content requirements in the **Tradecraft Hut** with a look at iconic hooded defector Igor Gouzenko.

Patron hero of surveyors Nain Singh Rawat inspires a duck into the Cartography Hut to consider exploration-based campaign frames.

Blond Venusians await in the **Eliptony Hut** for a profile of prolific contactee, mystic, archaeologist and fascist George Hunt Williamson.

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.

Roll yourself a critical hit by ordering from a freshly discovered special trove of *The Bones*, the book on dice from our pals at Gameplaywright. Notables including Wil Wheaton, John Kovalic and our own Kenneth Hite wax both cubic and polyhedral, now at a crazy low price.

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**Episode 129: How to Alert the Occult Police** Feb 27, 2015
We start with an **Ask Ken and Robin** question from Ethan Cordray, who wants to know how a GM and player might collaborate in creating scenarios.

Inspired by this Malcolm Gladwell piece, the **Crime Blotter** examines the changing relationship between organized crime and upward mobility.

**Fun with Science** plays with your perceptions for a look at hallucinations and synaesthesia. Recommended reading: Oliver Sacks’ *Hallucinations*.

Speaking of reading, we conclude with another paw through **Ken’s Bookshelf**, this one cataloguing the haul from his recent jaunt to San Francisco.

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.

This episode is also brought to you by the Plot Points podcast. After you listen to us, listen to them analyze RPG adventures as literature.

Modern Myths wants you to know about its booth, a veritable oasis of roleplaying both indie and trad, at PAX East, right across from Indie Games on Demand.

**Episode 128: The Heavy Hand of the Fourth Wall** Feb 20, 2015

Weighty personages surrounded by bullet-proof genre expectations surround us in the **Gaming Hut** as we examine script immunity in historical gaming.

The **Mythology** **Hut** finds us riffing a kid-friendly adventure idea arising from the superstitious connection between faeries and uncrushed eggshells.

Pol Jackson poses an **Ask Ken and Robin** poser about the difficulty of staging Tomb of Horrors style gotcha traps for today’s F20 players.

Finally, as the Oscars approach, we grab some popcorn in the Cinema Hut as we reveal our top ten lists for 2014.

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.

This episode is also brought to you by the Plot Points podcast. After you listen to us, listen to them analyze RPG adventures as literature.

Modern Myths wants you to know about its booth, a veritable oasis of roleplaying both indie and trad, at PAX East, right across from Indie Games on Demand.

**Episode 127: Blah Blah Zombies Blah Blah** Feb 13, 2015
We begin with endings as the **Gaming Hut** enumerates ways to build your roleplaying series to the biggest of finishes.

**Among My Many Hats** has Ken telling us about Vendetta Run, the latest installment of Ken Writes About Stuff, in which a spectral Wyatt Earp decides you’re in need of some rough supernatural justice.

**How to Write Good** looks at common pitfalls in mystery plotting.

That telltale salty crunch tells you that **Ken’s Time Machine** has been tasked by questioner Donald Dennis to inquire into the legend behind the invention of the potato chip.

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.

This episode is also brought to you by the Plot Points podcast. After you listen to us, listen to them analyze RPG adventures as literature.

What’s better than ravening ghouls prowling a blasted land for dead flesh to feast upon? Free ravening ghouls prowling a blasted land for dead flesh to feast upon! For a limited time only, grab Ken’s *Ghouls* installment of Ken Writes About Stuff for the grave-dirt price of $0.00.

**Episode 126: Rhode Island Jones** Feb 06, 2015
A pithy remark from LEGO Batman inspires our latest excursion into the **Gaming Hut**, as we ponder the question of narratively acceptable character demises.

In the **Tradecraft Hut** we look at bone music, 50s era contraband pop music recordings etched against the will of Soviet authorities onto old medical X-rays.

The **Recommendation Engine** spits out manly suggestions from Ken and unthemed suggestions from Robin.

Finally, in response to a Nick Eden request, the **Consulting Occultist** introduces us to that seeming contradiction in terms, the Soviet Occult.

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.

This episode is also brought to you by the Plot Points podcast. After you listen to us, listen to them analyze RPG adventures as literature.

What’s better than ravening ghouls prowling a blasted land for dead flesh to feast upon? Free ravening ghouls prowling a blasted land for dead flesh to feast upon! For a limited time only, grab Ken’s *Ghouls* installment of Ken Writes About Stuff for the grave-dirt price of $0.00.

**Episode 125: Just Get Two Corpses, People** Jan 30, 2015
Ken and Robin remember a 90% scale replica of the façade of the Alamo in this episode themed around their recent sojourn in Austin, TX.

In the **Gaming Hut** we recapitulate a Chupacabracon panel with talk of villains and how to portray them.

The **Food Hut** has us munching on barbecue, Tex Mex and the wonder that is In and Out Burger.

The **Eliptony Hut** has a classic bit of carny cryptozoology in it—the Minnesota Iceman, now resident in Austin’s Museum of the Weird.

And finally **Ken’s Time Machine** has him ensuring continuing independence for the Republic of Texas.

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.

Choose your own sponsor, so long as it is Destiny Quest Infinite, an interactive fantasy game book like no other. Armed with nothing but your sword and a backpack, you enter a land of monsters, powerful forces, and shadowy secrets. Or check out the licensed computer version from Adventure Cow.

What’s better than ravening ghouls prowling a blasted land for dead flesh to feast upon? Free ravening ghouls prowling a blasted land for dead flesh to feast upon! For a limited time only, grab Ken’s *Ghouls* installment of Ken Writes About Stuff for the grave-dirt price of $0.00.

**Episode 124: Live from Chupacabracon in Austin, TX** Jan 23, 2015
Join Ken and Robin for this live episode recorded at Chupacabracon in beautiful Austin, TX. The best audience ever, per capita, punch above their weight to keep us supplied with incisive questions. We discover that the Nerdtrope game is exceptions-based as Ken draws a historic quintuple Trope. Or is that Nerd? I forget. Vicissitudes of the road had their way with our audio quality this time out, but hey, quintuple. We couldn’t not release that.

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.

Choose your own sponsor, so long as it is Destiny Quest Infinite, an interactive fantasy game book like no other. Armed with nothing but your sword and a backpack, you enter a land of monsters, powerful forces, and shadowy secrets. Or check out the licensed computer version from Adventure Cow.

**Episode 123: Freemium Democratic Regime** Jan 16, 2015
Verily and anon, adopt the cloak of darkness as Ken ducks into the Elizabethan tavern that is the **Gaming Hut** to discuss his School of Night GUMSHOE setting.

Violence and mayhem disrupt the tranquil comfort of the **Food Hut** as we examine America’s Whiskey Wars and riff some dystopian futuristic equivalents.

Should that scene end with a jump or a slide? **How to Write Good** mulls the art of transitions.

The **Conspiracy Corner** situates itself in a hotel room—the so-called Illuminati hotel room at Houston’s Hotel Zaza. We spitball the sinister plotlines that might spin from this weird location.

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.

**Episode 122: Accelerated Gameable Force** Jan 09, 2015
The Magicians’ Guild turns out to be rife with factions and competing interests as the **Gaming Hut** looks at ways to add realistic messiness to your game’s imaginary institutions.

In **Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else**, Robin asks up-and-coming illustrator Rachel A. Kahn how an artist breaks into the roleplaying game market these days, and what her must-have tools and resources are.

The **Cartography Hut** unfurls this map of global criminal trading activity, and we wring gaming ideas from it.

Finally **Ken’s Time Machine** shakes off some mothballs, but not a sense of historical inevitability, as Lisa J. Steele asks Ken to keep Japan allied with the West in the run-up to WWII.

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.

**Episode 121: Handy Scrying Mirror Carrying Case** Jan 02, 2015
Our voices are as froggy as London used to be foggy in our first episode back after our UK sojourn. Inspired by the Museum of London’s current Sherlock Holmes exhibit, we usher a certain consulting detective into the **Gaming Hut**.

As listeners know, every trip to the UK occasions a raid by Ken on London’s book purveyors. So we peer deep into the unsorted pile of **Ken’s Bookshelf** for an epic vicarious cataloguing of his latest plunder.

Finally we wrap up our *Dreamhounds of London* inspired **Culture Hut** series with a look at the life, art and madness of Antonin Artaud and his Theater of Cruelty.

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.

**Episode 120: Live from Dragonmeet 2014** Dec 19, 2014
Just like sugar plums and figgy pudding, the annual live podcast from London’s Dragonmeet is here to warn us that December holds us in its thrall. Ken nerdtropes Genghis Khan and alien artefacts. Robin ups the ante on the tradition of live episode f-bombs. We contemplate Sigil’s thorniest immigration issues. And we tell you what the most expendable character type is.

Which brings our podcast to a close for another year. Have a happy and safe holiday of your choice. We’ll be back on January 2nd with another episode packed with mystery, gaming, surrealism, and of course the results of Ken’s annual London book buying spree.

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.

Then follow the esoteric clues to the Kickstarter for *Weird Detective: the Tabletop Roleplaying Game*. Grab the PDF corebook for a mere five bucks, piling on additional goodies as your fear-constricted heart desires.

**Episode 119: Sex Argentina** Dec 12, 2014
In **Ask Ken and Robin**, we answer an Ian Porell question about how much writing should go into a GUMSHOE NPC, and move on from there to supply other tips on creating supporting players for investigative games.

From there we take a short hop to the **Gaming Hut** to look at post-mortems and other ways of eliciting player feedback.

Our *Dreamhounds of Paris*-inspired visits to the **Consulting Occultist** continue with a consideration of mystical seeker George Gurdjieff.

Finally we pick up the lobster phone in theCulture Hut to talk about Dreamhounds’ most popular player character, Salvador Dali.

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.

Then follow the esoteric clues to the Kickstarter for *Weird Detective: the Tabletop Roleplaying Game*. Grab the PDF corebook for a mere five bucks, piling on additional goodies as your fear-constricted heart desires.

**Episode 118: There’s Nothing In It For Owls** Dec 05, 2014
In **Ask Ken and Robin**, Jeff Jones seeks advice on running an anti-Nazi campaign set in 30s America. We oblige in both pulp and occult genre modes.

Become conscious of an enticing aroma in the **Gaming Hut** as we look at creature senses.

The **Consulting Occultist** continues his Parisian sojourn with an examination of uxurious bookseller Nicolas Flamel, to whom later rumor and Harry Potter imputed alchemical mastery.

That segment draws inspiration from our *Dreamhounds of Paris* book, which also takes us into the **Culture Hut** to meet Marcel Duchamp, chess-playing wit and inventor of the avant garde as we know it.

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.

Ken’s Dracula Dossier Kickstarter crawled back into its crypt this Wednesday. But you can defy the line between death and undeath by heading to this secret mountain redoubt, where all the deals from the campaign remain available for a limited time.

**Episode 117: Covered in Cats and Croissant Crumbs** Nov 28, 2014
In **Ask Ken and Robin**, Stephanie asks Ken and Robin to find gaming ideas in the disappearance, and much later resurfacing, of Henry IV’s long-dead head.

The **Gaming Hut** has us looking at moments where player choice conflicts with character believability.

Back to matters Gallic, the **Consulting Occultist** details the life, thought, and possible Dreamlands influence of fin de siècle writer, ritualist and schmoozer Gerard Encausse.

Finally, our *Dreamlands of Paris* inspired sojourn in the Culture Hut continues with a look at that most contradictory of figures, the doctrinaire aesthetic revolutionary Andre Breton.

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.

Heroically fashion a new civilization from the ashes of the old in Legacy: Life Among the Ruins, from UFO Press. Start your multi-generational quest to rebuild the world with a journey to Kickstarter. Now in its last week!

**Episode 116: Okay, I’ll Go Get Your Leg** Nov 21, 2014
The **Tradecraft Hut** takes an unusual lead slot as Ken answers an FMGuru request for the tale of WWII Soviet spy Richard Sorge.

Horatio stands to our right and Laertes to our right as the **Gaming Hut** contemplates the use of supporting characters as foils.

Blasting his trumpet for *Dreamhounds of Paris*, the **Consulting Occultist** begins a mini-arc delving into the French occult, starting with scientist, spiritualist and polymath Charles Richet.

Even more brazenly touting *Dreamlands*, our just-opened **Culture Hut** kicks off an in-depth series with Surrealism 101.

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.

Heroically fashion a new civilization from the ashes of the old in Legacy: Life Among the Ruins, from UFO Press. Start your multi-generational quest to rebuild the world with a journey to Kickstarter.

**Episode 115: Anopheles Mosquito, Stagnant Pond** Nov 14, 2014
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.

**Episode 114: Don’t Read Books** Nov 07, 2014
Gallop into the **Gaming Hut** as we discuss a term from documentary filmmaking, chasing story, and how it might relate to roleplaying games.

Take a seat in the Cinema Hut as Ken discusses his top picks from the 2014 Chicago International Film Festival.

Begin at the beginning as **How to Write Good** looks at constructing compelling opening scenes.

Then puzzle through a chronological controversy in the **Eliptony Hut**, with our examination of the centuries of darkness thesis.

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.

**Episode 113: And the Heads of a Whole Bunch of People** Oct 31, 2014
In the **Gaming Hut** we consider the dividing line between fun character customization and tiresome homework, and whether it’s moving lately.

Still in a Draculanean mood, Ken enters the **Book Hut** for a vantage on the career of Bram Stoker.

We rev up the **Recommendation Engine** for its sophomore run to talk about a movie, a record, some books, and one of our favorite leaves.

Then Ken’s Time Machine essays a daring escape as Ken rescues Marie Antoinette.

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.

**Episode 112: Someone Will Break Out Into Recipes** Oct 24, 2014
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.

**Episode 111: A Rat Eats It and It Explodes** Oct 17, 2014
We kick off with a **Gaming Hut** riffed adventure premise, as heavily armed lords come from miles around to claim their share of a holy man’s ashes.

**How to Write Good** stacks its deck in favor of the protagonists to show you how to avoid Mary Sue syndrome.

**Ask Ken and Robin** leaves Robin as puzzled as the questioner as we tackle a persistent GUMSHOE fallacy.

Venus flies over the **Eliptony Hut** as Ken serves up the 101 on Immanuel Velikovsky.

Atlas Games again devotes its coveted anchor sponsor slot with windmill-kicking promotion for Robin’s Hong Kong action movie roleplaying game, *Feng Shui 2*, which is Kickstarting even as we speak. Worldspinner makes setting construction a breeze, from the map to the themes driving your adventures. Welcome them to the podcast sponsor roster by showing some geographical love to their Kickstarter.

**Episode 110: Eat My Orange Slices, Peons!** Oct 10, 2014
In the **Gaming Hut** Robin asks Ken to resolve Robin’s ambivalence toward creativity rewards.

The **Politics Hut** puts one of Ken’s rules distinctions to real life use as we contemplate Stability, Sanity, and ISIL.

Another lightning round flashes its electrical mayhem in **Ask Ken and Robin**.

Finally Chris Huth prompts **Ken’s Time Machine** to journey to an even worse version of WWI.

Atlas Games again devotes its coveted anchor sponsor slot to windmill-kicking promotion for Robin’s Hong Kong action movie roleplaying game, *Feng Shui 2*, which is Kickstarting even as we speak. Worldspinner makes setting construction a breeze, from the map to the themes driving your adventures. Welcome them to the podcast sponsor roster by showing some geographical love to their Kickstarter.

**Episode 109: Put a Pointy Wizard Hat On It** Oct 03, 2014
**Ask Ken and Robin** starts us in a murderous frame of mind as Dreaming Johnny wonders about settings and play styles for games where you play assassins.

In **The Business of Gaming** we helpfully collate all of our advice on breaking into game design as a career in one handy segment.

**How to Write Good** finds us looking at contrivances and how to avoid them.

Finally the **Consulting Occultist** gives us the real lowdown on synarchy.

Atlas Games again devotes its coveted anchor sponsor slot with windmill-kicking promotion for Robin’s Hong Kong action movie roleplaying game, *Feng Shui 2*, which is Kickstarting even as we speak.

Heroic Journey Publishing joins us to tout their Kickstarter for the Mecha: Kaiju sourcebook for their anime-styled, speed-line riddled Mecha RPG.

**Episode 108: Too Many Cyber-Monkeys** Sep 26, 2014
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.

**Episode 107: Live from Gen Con 2014** Sep 19, 2014
Join us for another Ken and Robin live episode, this time from beautiful and now slightly better smelling Indianapolis, Indiana. We nerdtrope magical slave revolts, fit the Fords into the Cthulhu mythos, riff on our favorite spice, and more. Hurtle back into mid-August with us!

Lead sponsor Atlas Games alerts you to a project near and dear to Robin’s heart, not to mention a good chunk of his year so far. That would be the freshly inaugurated Kickstarter for *Feng Shui 2*! Head on over and help add as much awesome as possible to the new version of the action movie roleplaying game.

**Episode 106: No One’s Gonna Get an Orange** Sep 12, 2014
Questions of pacing kick us into fall, as **Ask Ken and Robin** tackle a query from listener Michael Bowman.

In **Crime Blotter** we hunker down in our tarmac-damaging humvee to consider the trend of police militarization that catapulted to world attention in the wake of the Ferguson protests.

**Ken and Robin Recycle Audio** serves up the promised second helping of GUMSHOE scenario design master class.

Then in **Ken’s Time Machine** our intrepid chrononaut shortens the US Civil War.

Lead sponsor Atlas Games sharpens your desire for a project near and dear to Robin’s heart, not to mention a good chunk of his year so far. It fires off warning shots concerning the upcoming Kickstarter for *Feng Shui 2*! Click the link to be notified when the campaign goes live.

**Episode 105: Does This Look Like a Railroad to You?** Sep 05, 2014
In **Ask Ken and Robin**, we field a Tuukka Heimola question about running great one-shots and convention games.

The **History Hut** reveals itself to be a series of rapidly constructed forts as we look at the Battle of Poltava.

Joined by co-panelist Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan, **Ken and Robin Recycle Audio** in part one of a two-part excerpting of their Gen Con GUMSHOE adventure master class.

Finally, Sarah Helen Whitman, spiritualist and jilted fiancee of Edgar Allen Poe, summons herself into a particularly gossipy installment of **Consulting Occultist**.

Lead sponsor Atlas Games announces a project near and dear to Robin’s heart, not to mention a good chunk of his year so far. It fires off warning shots concerning the upcoming Kickstarter for *Feng Shui 2*! Click the link to be notified when the campaign goes live.

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.

**Episode 104: Stabby Detective Stories** Aug 29, 2014
It’s Gen Con, Gen Con and more Gen Con as we issue our usual bumper **Travel Advisory** in the wake of the big show. Robin comes home wreathed in *Hillfolk* glory, Ken and Robin snag gold, Ken makes the flipper motions of supreme pleasure in the presence of Greg Stafford, and we limn unmistakable evidence of the Roleplaying Golden Age. All that and a slightly bleary much, much more.

Lead sponsor Atlas Games announces a project near and dear to Robin’s heart, not to mention a good chunk of his year so far. It fires off warning shots concerning the upcoming Kickstarter for *Feng Shui 2*! Click the link to be notified when the campaign goes live.

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.

**Episode 103: Francis Peameal Bacon** Aug 22, 2014
Ken slaps down suggestions of a **Gaming Hut** renovation, but that poses little impediment to Robin as he sets out the four key components that make for an engaging obstacle. For more, see Robin’s latest publication, a fundraiser chapbook for the Kraken Convention called *Sharper Adventures in HeroQuest Glorantha,* available to the public soon after that con wraps.

**Cartography Hut** finds Ken searching for Dracula’s castle, finding not one site but many, each dripping with gore and story potential.

**Ask Ken and Robin** has our titular podcasters flopping their pseudopods in response to a MarcAddress challenge to create a civilization absent fine motor control.

Finally theories about the Holy Grail taking up residence in the Oak Island money pit infuse the **Eliptony Hut** with a salty spray of Canadian content.

Lead sponsor Atlas Games announces a project near and dear to Robin’s heart, not to mention a good chunk of his year so far. It fires off warning shots concerning the upcoming Kickstarter for *Feng Shui 2*! Click the link to be notified when the campaign goes live.

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.

**Episode 102: Nonsense is on the March** Aug 15, 2014
**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.

**Episode 101: It’s Like Football Camp** Aug 08, 2014
Our multi-episode arc about the underwater dead who sell life and buy dreams comes to a conclusion in the **Gaming Hut** as we break out specific scenario ideas for our riffed setting.

In a new segment called **Recommendation Engine** we tell you what’s catching our fancy in the worlds of books, TV, movies, and food.

Rob Ford is back from rehab and onto the Toronto mayoralty campaign trail, and you know what that means: a midsummer night’s **Politics Hut**.

Finally **Ken’s Time Machine** takes a trip to 7th century India to save Buddhism’s bodhi tree from the conquering forces of King Sassanka.

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.

**Episode 100: Special Anniversary All Lightning Edition** Aug 01, 2014
Let the bells ring out and the banners fly. It’s the landmark 100th episode of our humble podcast!

To celebrate, we’ve collected from listeners across the social media landscape a cornucopia of lightning round questions, which we dispatch with varying degrees of efficiency.

Also in a celebratory mood are our ever-reliable anchor sponsors and fine friends at Atlas Games. With a twinkle of fairy dust they pop the champagne cork and give you another shot at their 2nd Edition Once Upon a Time clearance sale.

**Episode 99: Methane Planet of the Rakshasas** Jul 25, 2014
We are honored and delighted to say that Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff has been nominated for a 2o14 ENnie Award for Best Podcast. If you are seeing this before Aug 1st, and want us bounding up to that podium on Friday night at Gen Con, please do us a huge solid and go to the ENnies voting booth and pull the virtual lever.

Watch out for wandering monsters as the Gaming Hut looks at random tables.

In the **Mythology Hut** we answer the call of listener Genus Unknown to examine the roots of the Faust legend.

The Cartography Hut encourages you to map your imaginary city’s zones of safety and danger.

Then the **Consulting Occultist** goes psychedelic with a look at the Source Family and its karate-chopping, bank robbing New Age guru, Father Yod.

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.

**Episode 98: Why are We Conquering This?** Jul 18, 2014
Often in the **Gaming Hut** (and other huts arrayed around it) we riff a ton of quick ideas in Gatling gun fashion. This time out we take one of those riffed ideas, that of the city of underwater dead who sell longer lives to mortals, as we demonstrate the process of fleshing out a concept into a setting.

The **Tradecraft Hut** takes on the seminal story of 20th century espionage, Kim Philby and the Cambridge Five.

In **Ask Ken and Robin**, Robin fields a Steve Hammond question on setting changes between the previous edition of Feng Shui and the one he is currently cooking up.

Finally **Ken’s Time Machine** takes a John Clayton request for a better Roman occupation of Britain, in the hopes that it might dampen later regional conflicts.

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.

**Episode 97: Hamsterface** Jul 11, 2014
*All hail the audio majesty of editor Rob Borges, who rescued this and last week’s episodes from the scourge of electronic interference, leaving only a touch of distortion in Robin’s sibilants.*

A mystery questioner **Asks Ken and Robin** how they handle red herrings.

Ken flips on the projector in the **Cinema Hut** to get us started on the new Indian crime film.

The Cartography Hut looks at the aesthetic and propagandistic impact of legendary map artist Richard Edes Harrison.

We close with the **Consulting Occultist**, who tells us of the London stone and the magical significance of its current ignominious location.

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.

**Episode 96: Yardarm Shortage** Jul 04, 2014
*All hail the audio majesty of editor Rob Borges, who rescued this and next week’s episodes from the scourge of electronic interference, leaving only a touch of distortion in Robin’s sibilants.*

It’s time to talk terms in the **Gaming Hut**, as we toss around the distinction between simulation and modeling.

In the **Conspiracy Corner** we review the disputed death of Indian independence leader turned Axis ally Subhas Chandra Bose.

Inspired by this piece by Leigh Alexander on Gama Sutra, **How to Write Good** asks if suffering is the hallmark of the modern hero. And if so, what does that mean for our portrayals of female heroes?

The **Eliptony Hut** hosts the ultimate deniers as we consider Flat Earth Societies and their legendary five corners of the world.

Take a moment to patronize our fine array of sponsors, starting with Atlas Games, who with a twinkle of fairy dust revive their 2nd Edition Once Upon a Time clearance sale.

Then take an eerie cinematic journey with *The Dreamlands*, the first filmic adaptation of Lovecraft’s dream cycle, from the director of the acclaimed *Die Farbe.* Check out the trailers and decide whether crowdfunding or crowdinvesting is right for you.

**Episode 95: A Big Can of Time Worms** Jun 27, 2014
Turn your head and sarcophagus as **Ask Ken and Robin** raises the lid on a @CrazyDogSpirit question on making the most of mummies.

Then it’s time for another **Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else**, in which Allison Fizzard, associate professor of history at Regina’s Campion College, explains Tudor-era retirement plans and how Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries threw them for a loop. Plus, there’s beer.

We springboard from that into the **Gaming Hut,** examining ways to incorporate legal petitions into fantasy RPGing.

Finally **Ken’s Time Machine** takes us to that moment when a 16-year-old future George V crossed paths with the Flying Dutchman.

Take a moment to patronize our fine array of sponsors, starting with Atlas Games, who with a twinkle of fairy dust revive their 2nd Edition Once Upon a Time clearance sale.

Once you’ve finished listening to us, tune in to the One SHOT podcast, curing your gaming withdrawal with one-and-done actual play episodes featuring such games as *Pathfinder*, *Feng Shui* and, of special interest to devoted Kartasians, *Time Watch*, the GUMSHOE game of panchronological investigation.

Then take an eerie cinematic journey with *The Dreamlands*, the first filmic adaptation of Lovecraft’s dream cycle, from the director of the acclaimed *Die Farbe.* Check out the trailers and decide whether crowdfunding or crowdinvesting is right for you.

**Episode 94: The Simpering Bridegroom** Jun 20, 2014
A fog-shrouded **Travel Advisory** sees Robin reporting on his trip to historic (and Fortean) St. John’s, Newfoundland.

In **Ask Ken and Robin**, donor Brendan Power asks about handling spotty game night attendance.

The Horror Hut mulls over that very odd foundation of the Gothic tradition, *The Castle of Otranto*.

Finally the **Consulting Occultist** looks at husband and wife demon-busters Ed and Lorraine Warren.

It’s yo ho ho and a pocketful of doubloons as Atlas Games surveys the seven seas from the crow’s nest that is our coveted anchor sponsor slot. Parrot on its shoulder, it orders up another special deal for Ken and Robin listeners, this time in the form of their innovative game of piratical nautical warfare, *Pieces of Eight.*

Among the two new sponsors we welcome to the show this week is the Play Generated Map and Document Archive, a scholarly game studies resource searching for game notes, character sheets and maps from gamers like you, and from your ex-gamer friends. Help them secure the history of roleplaying for future generations.

Also joining us is the One SHOT podcast, curing your gaming withdrawal with one-and-done actual play episodes featuring such games as *Pathfinder*, *Feng Shui* and, of special interest to devoted Kartasians, *Time Watch*, the GUMSHOE game of panchronological investigation.

**Episode 93: A Damp 1968** Jun 13, 2014
We start in a submersible as the **Cartography Hut** takes you under the sea to riff on campaign and adventure possibilities arising from the mapping of sunken Dunwich.

In **Ask Ken and Robin**, Yohann Delalande asks us to find inspiration for *Night’s Black Agents* in the flamboyant and multi-pronged career of Uzbekistan’s Gulina Karimova. We oblige, throwing in some *Hillfolk* and *The Esoterrorists* for good measure.

The **Business of Gaming** lays down the wisdom on professionalism.

And Anne Boleyn’s life hangs in the balance as we take a trip to a dangerous Tudor moment in **Ken’s Time Machine**.

It’s yo ho ho and a pocketful of doubloons as Atlas Games surveys the seven seas from the crow’s nest that is our coveted anchor sponsor slot. Parrot on its shoulder, it orders up another special deal for Ken and Robin listeners, this time in the form of their innovative game of piratical nautical warfare, *Pieces of Eight.*

**Episode 92: The Werepig Demographic** Jun 06, 2014
We kick off with **Ask Ken and Robin** and a Sean Phelan question about asynchronous information dissemination in roleplaying games.

Dire rumors swirl as the **Tradecraft Hut** looks at disinformation and fear-mongering as a geopolitical instrument, from the Crimea to the ghost dance.

In **Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else**, Robin chats with Moon Design’s Jeff Richard, who tells tales of the epic heroquest that brought the mammoth and jaw-dropping *Guide to Glorantha* project back from the mythic realm of Kickstarter.

Finally, Ken, having tackled the topic in a two-part *Ken Writes About Stuff* entry, dons the **Consulting Occultist** hat to introduce us to the basics of voodoo.

It’s yo ho ho and a pocketful of doubloons as Atlas Games surveys the seven seas from the crow’s nest that is our coveted anchor sponsor slot. Parrot on its shoulder, it orders up another special deal for Ken and Robin listeners, this time in the form of their innovative game of piratical nautical warfare, *Pieces of Eight.*

**Episode 91: The Envy Must Flow Through Me** May 30, 2014
The titular emotion exudes from a certain Chicagoan as we issue a **Travel Advisory** for Robin’s trip to the Chimeriades convention in sunny Provence.

In **Ask Ken and Robin**, Chris Shorb asks about making alternate histories plausible in roleplaying.

We take another request in the **Eliptony Hut**, because Alan Scott wants to know about the Lemurians of Mount Shasta.

Finally an overdue Politics Hut catches up on the latest turns in the Rob Ford saga, which landed him in rehab and temporarily out of Toronto’s mayoral race.

It’s yo ho ho and a pocketful of doubloons as Atlas Games surveys the seven seas from the crow’s nest that is our coveted anchor sponsor slot. Parrot on its shoulder, it orders up another special deal for Ken and Robin listeners, this time in the form of their innovative game of piratical nautical warfare, *Pieces of Eight.*

This week’s show is also brought to you in part by the World of Aetaltis. The Temple of Modren, the first sourcebook introducing this exciting new Pathfinder Compatible world, is now Kickstarting.

**Episode 90: Nine Yards of Crazy** May 23, 2014
In the **Gaming Hut** we demonstrate scenario construction by brainstorming a *Fear Itself* adventure featuring the fearsome Crate Man.

Duck furtively into the Cartography Hut as we look at maps as secrets.

In **Ask Ken and Robin** we field a query from Tom Allman on prepping for Cthulhu games.

Then we sidle up to **Ken’s Bookshelf** to vicariously paw through the spoils of his recent raid on Powell’s Book City in Portland.

It’s yo ho ho and a pocketful of doubloons as Atlas Games surveys the seven seas from the crow’s nest that is our coveted anchor sponsor slot. Parrot on its shoulder, it orders up another special deal for Ken and Robin listeners, this time in the form of their innovative game of piratical nautical warfare, *Pieces of Eight.*

This week’s show is also brought to you in part by the World of Aetaltis. The Temple of Modren, the first sourcebook introducing this exciting new Pathfinder Compatible world, is now Kickstarting.

**Episode 89: The Elvis of the European Occult Underground** May 16, 2014
The **Gaming Hut** reverberates with spectral dread as we find ways to make ghosts and hauntings scary in roleplaying.

**Fun with Science** looks for story and gaming grist in the increasingly respected, and increasingly mind-blowing, multiverse theory of cosmological physics.

In **That Thing I Always Say** Robin goes on about the lasting influence a game’s first adventure has on the way it is played thereafter.

The **Consulting Occultist** finishes his major figures of the French enlightenment trilogy with the immortal Comte de Saint Germain.

It’s yo ho ho and a pocketful of doubloons as Atlas Games surveys the seven seas from the crow’s nest that is our coveted anchor sponsor slot. Parrot on its shoulder, it orders up another special deal for Ken and Robin listeners, this time in the form of their innovative game of piratical nautical warfare, *Pieces of Eight.*

This week’s show is also brought to you in part by the World of Aetaltis. The Temple of Modren, the first sourcebook introducing this exciting new Pathfinder Compatible world, is now Kickstarting.

**Episode 88: Script Justification Technology** May 09, 2014
In the **Gaming Hut**, Robin asks Ken to specify a suitable period of occult ferment and together they riff it into a DramaSystem Series Pitch.

We unseal the stone door of the **Mythology Hut** to give Lilith the once-over.

The **Cinema Hut** joins forces with the **Horror Hut** as we mull the current cycle of haunting movies.

Finally, we respond to a Justin Mohareb request for **Ken’s Time Machine**. The suspiciousrevocation of Richard Nixon’s FBI application sure smells like time stream interference. Did Ken do this, or was it the work of a rogue time effectuator he must now reverse?

It’s yo ho ho and a pocketful of doubloons as Atlas Games surveys the seven seas from the crow’s nest that is our coveted anchor sponsor slot. Parrot on its shoulder, it orders up another special deal for Ken and Robin listeners, this time in the form of their innovative game of piratical nautical warfare, *Pieces of Eight.*

The Bundle of Holding rejoins us as sponsor with a deal relevant to your specific Ken and Robin needs. Aeons in the making and finally rising, it’s the Trail of Cthulhu Bundle, in eldritch partnership with Pelgrane Press! Get it before it sinks beneath the waves again, on May 12th.

**Episode 87: The Whacking Shovel** May 02, 2014
Ken’s return from Portland’s HP Lovecraft Film Festival and its sister event Conthulhu prompts the issuance of an especially eldritch **Travel Advisory**.

Listener Greg Gray gets an unprecedented answer when he poses an **Ask Ken and Robin** question about the paucity of info in roleplaying rules books for spanking new players.

**How to Write Good** serializes its commas and regularizes its colons when we tackle the hot topic of punctuation gray areas.

Finally the **Consulting Occultist** pulls a long con and at least half of a badger game as we consider the grifting career of Cagliostro, alchemist and influential Freemason.

It’s yo ho ho and a pocketful of doubloons as Atlas Games surveys the seven seas from the crow’s nest that is our coveted anchor sponsor slot. Parrot on its shoulder, it orders up another special deal for Ken and Robin listeners, this time in the form of their innovative game of piratical nautical warfare, *Pieces of Eight.*

**Episode 86: Al-Qaeda Doesn’t Read Their Comments** Apr 25, 2014
Pull up an extra special chair in the **Gaming Hut** as we look at ways to put guest players to good use.

In the Tradecraft Hut, Ken helps listener Rick Jonzz start a beginner’s tradecraft bookshelf.

In **Ask Ken and Robin**, Joshua Weiss wonders what we might say about miniatures in narrative-based gaming.

Then we flip **Ken’s Time Machine** to mythic setting, assigning him to stop Circe from turning Odysseus men into pigs.

It’s yo ho ho and a pocketful of doubloons as Atlas Games surveys the seven seas from the crow’s nest that is our coveted anchor sponsor slot. Parrot on its shoulder, it orders up another special deal for Ken and Robin listeners, this time in the form of their innovative game of piratical nautical warfare, *Pieces of Eight.*

**Episode 85: History is Replete With Idiots** Apr 18, 2014
In **Ask Ken and Robin**, Kevin Maroney asks us to expand on an earlier Ken comment questioning the suitability of the d20 structure for Cthulhu gaming.

The **History Hut** flies the Jolly Roger to examine best practices of, and essential conditions for, piracy.

In the **Gaming Hut** we recount our least favorite setting cliches.

And in spoiler-ready last position, we point the remote at the **Television Hut** to give our take on True Detective.

It’s yo ho ho and a pocketful of doubloons as Atlas Games surveys the seven seas from the crow’s nest that is our coveted anchor sponsor slot. Parrot on its shoulder, it orders up another special deal for Ken and Robin listeners, this time in the form of their innovative game of piratical nautical warfare, *Pieces of Eight.*

After ten years delighting the Swedish gaming scene, our pals at Fenix Magazine now bring the *Best of Fenix* to English-language GMs and players with their now-active Indiegogo campaign. This project so resounds with Hitean goodness that you have surely chipped in already. But if you haven’t, that burning bird of prey is still passing the hat.

**Episode 84: Those Punk Magicians Killed My Elephant** Apr 11, 2014
The **Gaming Hut** rings with the sound of accents and impressions as we examine the role of voice work in GMing.

The **Crime Blotter** finds a surprising nexus of grift, elephant materialization and the technological spread of 20th century entertainment in the person of Harry Thurston. A less famous follower in his magician brother Howard’s footsteps, Harry made his influence felt through connections to the Chicago mob.

We drink deep of mead, wine, beer and polyglot alcoholic beverages in the **Food Hut**, as we take a look at prehistoric and ancient drinking. A bookshelf hat tip goes out to *Uncorking the Past* by Patrick E. McGovern.

Get sleepy, very sleepy, letting go of cares and worries as the Consulting Occultist casts your mind toward the tale of Franz Anton Mesmer.

It’s yo ho ho and a pocketful of doubloons as Atlas Games surveys the seven seas from the crow’s nest that is our coveted anchor sponsor slot. Parrot on its shoulder, it orders up another special deal for Ken and Robin listeners, this time in the form of their innovative game of piratical nautical warfare, *Pieces of Eight.*

After ten years delighting the Swedish gaming scene, our pals at Fenix Magazine now bring the *Best of Fenix* to English-language GMs and players with their now-active Indiegogo campaign. This project so resounds with Hitean goodness that you have surely chipped in already. But if you haven’t, that burning bird of prey is still passing the hat.

**Episode 83: Chekov’s Squid Throwing** Apr 04, 2014
Is that a displacer beast in your pocket, or are you just glad to listen to us? Convene in the **Gaming Hut** as we discuss monster abilities and to what extent they enter into player awareness.

The **Tradecraft Hut** furtively considers stolen passports. Don’t let your characters leave theirs as collateral for motorcycles in Phuket, Thailand!

In **Ask Ken and Robin**, Jim Crocker prompts us to evaluate the works of William S. Burroughs as a source of gaming horror and weirdness.

The **Eliptony Hut** goes nautical to explore the fate of the *Mary Celeste*, whose mystery might have been a tad embellished by one Arthur Conan Doyle.

It’s yo ho ho and a pocketful of doubloons as Atlas Games surveys the seven seas from the crow’s nest that is our coveted anchor sponsor slot. Parrot on its shoulder, it orders up another special deal for Ken and Robin listeners, this time in the form of their innovative game of piratical nautical warfare, *Pieces of Eight.*

After ten years delighting the Swedish gaming scene, our pals at Fenix Magazine now bring the *Best of Fenix* to English-language GMs and players with their now-active Indiegogo campaign. This project so resounds with Hitean goodness that you have surely chipped in already. But if you haven’t, that burning bird of prey is still passing the hat.

**Episode 82: Ken and Robin’s Tiny Dolls Talk About Stuff** Mar 28, 2014
In the **Gaming Hut** we again lift the RPG design hood to tinker with PC/NPC asymmetry.

Eerie **Horror Hut** riffing ensues as we sift the story possibilities of 3D-Printed Clone Dolls.

**Ask Ken and Robin** opens in the middle of a Philippe Marcel question about starting game sessions *in media res*.

Purely hypothetically, you understand, a certain Ken’s Time Machine segment might tell you who murdered Alexander the Great, and why Ken helped cover it up.

It’s yo ho ho and a pocketful of doubloons as Atlas Games surveys the seven seas from the crow’s nest that is our coveted anchor sponsor slot. Parrot on its shoulder, it orders up another special deal for Ken and Robin listeners, this time in the form of their innovative game of piratical nautical warfare, *Pieces of Eight.*

After ten years delighting the Swedish gaming scene, our pals at Fenix Magazine now bring the *Best of Fenix* to English-language GMs and players with their now-active Indiegogo campaign. This project so resounds with Hitean goodness that you have surely chipped in already. But if you haven’t, that burning bird of prey is still passing the hat.

**Episode 81: If I Were an Otter** Mar 21, 2014
In the **Cartography Hut** we set out techniques to add a dose of psychogeography to the map of your imaginary city.

The **Gaming Hut** looks at the elasticity of vampire mythology, as inspired by Ken’s golden steampunk vampires of El Dorado, as seen in Fenix magazine.

**How to Write Good** confronts the pesky threat of word clusters, and how to avoid using the same word twice in one…dammit!

**Consulting Occultist** meets **Tradecraft Hut** as, at the request of listener Johnstone Metzger, we examine the work and shocking demise of mythological studies scholar and Romanian dissident Ioan Culianu.

Once again Fenix Magazine occupies our 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. This project so resounds with Hitean goodness that you have surely chipped in already. But if you haven’t, that burning bird of prey is still passing the hat.

It’s yo ho ho and a pocketful of doubloons as Atlas Games serves up another special deal for Ken and Robin listeners, this time in the form of their innovative game of piratical sea battles, *Pieces of Eight.*

That rumble in your molars heralds the thundering approach of the Open Metalcast Podcast, joining us as sponsor in a crescendo of aural extremity!

**Episode 80: Vulnerable to Attack By Panzer Leaders** Mar 14, 2014
**Gaming Hut** starts on a somber note as we remember the roleplaying innovations of Aaron Allston (1960-2014.) We go on to discuss one of the key themes of his work, genre emulation at the tabletop.

The **Eliptony Hut** takes on a distinctly octagonal shape as we look at the eight-sided architectural influence of phrenologist and social reformer Orson Squire Fowler.

In the **Business of Gaming**, we share social media tips and tricks.

Finally, Eoin Keith Boyle makes a St. Patrick’s Day request: can **Ken’s Time Machine** be put to use preventing the English conquest of Ireland?

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.

Don your chivalric armor to also thank sponsor Atlas Games, now unveiling *Knightly Tales*, the exciting new expansion for their classic *Once Upon a Time* card game.

That rumble in your molars heralds the thundering approach of the Open Metalcast Podcast, joining us as sponsor in a crescendo of aural extremity!

**Episode 79: Take That, Entertainment** Mar 07, 2014
Grab your retrospective popcorn and hunker down in the **Cinema Hut** as Ken and Robin review their movie top tens for 2013.

Responding to popular demand, the **Consulting Occultist** assesses competing new claims of having cracked the cryptobotanical mysteries of the Voynich Manuscript.

In **Ask Ken and Robin** we hit the dimmer switch to address Richard Fryer’s question on lighting effects at the gaming table.

Then a ghostly romance unfolds as Ken’s Bookshelf unexpectedly reunites with the revenant spirit of an old favorite tome purveyor, returning from the west with lighter wallet and heavier luggage. What happened in the parking lot might surprise you!

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.

Don your chivalric armor to also thank sponsor Atlas Games, now unveiling *Knightly Tales*, the exciting new expansion for their classic *Once Upon a Time* card game.

Staging a no-knock raid to flash its badge and confiscate your mi-go fetuses, it’s *Delta Green: Tales from Failed Anatomies*, now on Kickstarter. Robin has a story in the main book, and Ken in the bonus selection, so it’s only fitting that we should welcome Arc Dream Publishing to our sponsor stable.

**Episode 78: Elves Don’t Listen to Podcasts** Feb 28, 2014
Find new reason to plunge into the dungeon as the **Gaming Hut** tackles ways of giving narrative meaning to F20 combat encounters.

Look at Fluffy in a new light as the Tradecraft Hut examines the animal spying claims of trainer Bob Bailey, who in addition to creating the chicken Tic-Tac-Toe machine says he was a contractor for the CIA.

In **Ask Ken and Robin**, John Wilson asks Ken and Robin about turning homebrew sessions into published games and scenarios.

Time Incorporated revs up **Ken’s Time Machine**, asking him to pick one of ten unbuilt utopias from a recent i09 listicle and make it a reality. If you can’t guess which one he picks, you don’t know Ken.

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.

Don your chivalric armor to also thank sponsor Atlas Games, now unveiling *Knightly Tales*, the exciting new expansion for their classic *Once Upon a Time* card game.

Staging a no-knock raid to flash its badge and confiscate your mi-go fetuses, it’s *Delta Green: Tales from Failed Anatomies*, now on Kickstarter. Robin has a story in the main book, and Ken in the bonus selection, so it’s only fitting that we should welcome Arc Dream Publishing to our sponsor stable.

**Episode 77: All the John Waynes** Feb 21, 2014
They said it couldn’t strike twice, but the **Ask Ken and Robin** lightning round is back, tackling game designer payment, *Day After Ragnarok*, book hunting, and a Rob Ford mini-update.

In the wide open spaces of the **Genre Hut**, we look at ways to nerdtrope the Western, including Ken’s *Once Upon a Time in the North* from Fenix magazine. We fit in all the John Waynes!

Reserve your kitchen outlets as Ken and Robin talk gadgets and appliances in the **Food Hut**.

Then look up, way up, to the paranoia of chemtrails in **Conspiracy Corner**.

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.

Don your chivalric armor to also thank sponsor Atlas Games, now unveiling *Enchanting Tales*, the exciting new expansion for their classic *Once Upon a Time* card game.

**Episode 76: Hunker in the Bunker** Feb 14, 2014
We start this episode in the **Gaming Hut**, where we bat around ways to activate your player character’s character hook.

In our new segment, **Crime Blotter**, we examine the four categories of hit man, as proposed by a recent Birmingham City University study of British hired killers.

Tropes face off against cliches as we once again tell you **How to Write Good**.

Then Ken dons his **Consulting Occultist** regalia to tear the lid off the djinn menace.

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.

Clank about in chivalric armor in fealty to Atlas Games, now unveiling *Enchanting Tales*, the exciting new expansion for their classic *Once Upon a Time* card game.

**Episode 75: The Don Cheadle of Creepy Tunnels** Feb 07, 2014
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!

**Episode 74: They Failed to Organize Italy** Jan 31, 2014
Keep your silver dagger ready in the **Gaming Hut** as we look at campaign setting creation through the example of Ken’s Werewolves of Dacia, which will appear in the upcoming Best of Fenix anthology. Hat tip to Big Think for its Middle Earth-to-Earth conversion map.

Next, Derek Upham **Asks Ken and Robin** to solve the mystery of medieval knights in dire combat with snails.

Then, having found in the Cartography Hut a map showing where Soviet citizens were forbidden to go in 1955, we kick around the idea of restricted territories.

Finally, in the **Eliptony Hut**, we look back at various conceptions of the alien before the standardization imposed by the classic UFO era.

Additional hat tip: the no-index-cards-in-Italy story comes from Renato of Pinboard for the Mind.

Once again Fenix Magazine occupies our coveted anchor sponsor slot. 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!

**Episode 73: Guff About Other Planets** Jan 24, 2014
**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!

**Episode 72: Suckytown was Already Taken** Jan 17, 2014
Seize the narrative steering wheel as a player in the **Gaming Hut**, where we discuss techniques to productively exercise character agency.

Uncover the layers beneath the layers of the **History Hut**, in which we find gaming and story fodder in multispectral palimpsest recovery.

In **Ken and Robin Talk To Someone Else**, we speak together to two someone elses, Cat Tobin and Simon Rogers of Pelgrane Press, who discuss the logistical lessons from the now-fulfilled Hillfolk Kickstarter.

Then we rev up **Ken’s Time Machine** to, at the behest of new sponsor Sand and Steam Productions, save the Viking colony of Vinland from extinction.

Yes, we said Sand and Steam Productions, now launching the Kickstarter for their Fate-powered mythic Norse RPG, *War of Metal and Bone*.

Also clambering 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!

**Episode 71: Oh, Tentacle Bob!** Jan 10, 2014
We ring in 2014 with an **Ask Ken and Robin** from Ross Ireland, who wants to switch to a more serious horror tone after years of loosey-goosey play.

Then we zoom back in time to the dying embers of 2013, for a segment of **Ken and/or Robin Talk To Someone Else** featuring James Wallis of *The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen* and *Once Upon a Time* fame.

We conclude our episode of all-eponymous segments with another dive into **Ken’s Bookshelf**, this time examining his haul from our recent trip to London.

Once again we thank our anchor sponsor, Slabtown Games, who very soon will be launching a Kickstarter for *Storyscape*, a tablet-based tabletop roleplaying game Robin is currently designing for them.

**Episode 70: Live from Dragonmeet 2013** Dec 20, 2013
Special guest Rob Heinsoo joins Ken and Robin for a very special episode recorded live at Dragonmeet, from the municipal splendor of Kensington Town Hall in beautiful downtown London.

Ken nerdtropes the alchemical secrets of the JFK airport. Rob performs a parlor trick of his own by telling us a story about danger. And Robin spills some beans on continuity changes in the upcoming *Feng Shui 2*.

In response to audience questions the panel reveals its favorite gaming moments and sources of design envy.

This will be our last episode before we take a brief break for the holidays. We’ll be back with a brand new show on January 10th.

Once again we thank our anchor sponsor, Slabtown Games, who very soon will be launching a Kickstarter for *Storyscape*, a tablet-based tabletop roleplaying game Robin is currently designing for them.

**Episode 69: You Already Met the First Tiger** Dec 13, 2013
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.

**Episode 68: Why You Shouldn’t Ask Us to Destroy Civilization** Dec 06, 2013
News that US states are now legalizing Internet gambling within their borders send us to an unusually garishly lit and jingle-jangling **Gaming Hut**, where we consider hobby gaming twists on playing for cash online.

Then **Ask Ken and Robin** visits the **Consulting Occultist** on behalf of Steven W. King, who wants to know what to put on his beginning occult bookshelf.

In the **Cartography Hut** we look for the fun in the relative inaccuracy of period maps.

Finally, in an all-too-inevitable Politics Hut, Robin shares the local perspective on the now-international Rob Ford story, from the release of damning search warrant evidence to his loss of all but titular authority. You learned about it here first, probably!

Anchor sponsor Slabtown Games remains with us to tout *Storyscape*, a tablet-based tabletop roleplaying game Robin is currently designing for them.

**Episode 67: You Suck as a Depicter of Matriarchies** Nov 29, 2013
Take a moment to study the menu in the **Gaming Hut**, as we contrast the operations of prix fixe and a la carte character improvement RPG designs.

Watch us cut the ribbon on our brand new **Abandoned Idea Clearinghouse**, in which we look at creative ideas we decided not to pursue and why we set them aside.

In Ask Ken and Robin, we don our therapeutic coats to help listener Martin Rundkvist through a crisis of verisimilitude brought on by his humanities degree.

Finally we enter the **Eliptony Hut** to probe deeply into the 1973 Pascagoula UFO abduction.

Slabtown Games moves into the anchor sponsor slot as it continues to tease the upcoming Kickstarter for *Storyscape*, a tablet-based tabletop roleplaying game Robin is currently designing for them.

Kotadama Heavy Industries invites you to explore *Ryuutama: The Natural Fantasy RPG*, translated by Matt Sanchez & Andy Kitkowski. Satisfy your yearning for travel and exploration by jumping aboard their successful Kickstarter campaign.

**Episode 66: The Random Piggly-Wiggly Table** Nov 22, 2013
We place a horseshoe over the mantle of the **Gaming Hut** to consider luck’s role as a branch point in roleplaying.

Then, at the behest of lead sponsor Stephen Jankiewicz, we enter the cobwebbed confines of the **Horror Hut** to ask if terror and sense of wonder can coexist.

In **Ask Ken and Robin**, Leo Pall Hrafnsson inquires: “How do you run a game that feels like *Heat* or Catch Me If You Can, where the PCs directly oppose one another?”

Finally, a grumbling time traveler revs up **Ken’s Time Machine** to intervene in the invention of Thanksgiving to build a more sensible, dare we say Canadian, separation between it and Christmas.

Serving as anchor sponsor this week is author Stephen Jankiewicz. Among his many works, KARTAS listeners may be most drawn to his weird tales in the Lovecraft tradition, as found in his collections Medusa, the Drowned and Other Tales and *The Muse of the Monstrous*. Check out his stuff on Amazon.

Slabtown Games joins us to tout *Storyscape*, a tablet-based tabletop roleplaying game Robin is currently designing for them.

Kotadama Heavy Industries invites you to explore *Ryuutama: The Natural Fantasy RPG*, translated by Matt Sanchez & Andy Kitkowski. Satisfy your yearning for travel and exploration by jumping aboard their successful Kickstarter campaign.

**Episode 65: Cherubs Who Have Aged Out** Nov 15, 2013
We put down our catalogues of iron rations and guaranteed unpossessed cats to venture into the **Gaming Hut** and discuss the allure of shopping and gear in roleplaying games.

Inside the perimeter of the **Tradecraft Hut** we round up such national security concerns as Angela Merkel’s cellphone and the secret Twitter life of dismissed White House staffer Jofi Joseph.

Corwyn Pendragon **Asks Ken and Robin** to name their touchstone works on story and structure.

Finally Ken uses his high-level **Consulting Occultist** borrowing privileges to scrutinize the legendary Voynich Manuscript.

A new honor roll of sponsors joins us to help keep the podcast going.

Serving as anchor sponsor this week is author Stephen Jankiewicz. Among his many works, KARTAS listeners may be most drawn to his weird tales in the Lovecraft tradition, as found in his collections Medusa, the Drowned and Other Tales and *The Muse of the Monstrous*. Check out his stuff on Amazon.

Slabtown Games joins us to tout *Storyscape*, a tablet-based tabletop roleplaying game Robin is currently designing for them.

Kotadama Heavy Industries invites you to explore *Ryuutama: The Natural Fantasy RPG*, translated by Matt Sanchez & Andy Kitkowski. Satisfy your yearning for travel and exploration by jumping aboard their successful Kickstarter campaign.

**Episode 64: The Gypsy was Doing Us a Solid** Nov 08, 2013
Ken has returned from the Chicago Film Festival to regale the Cinema Hut with demonic pacts, ghost possession, a Kurdish western, and an unusually sympathetic take on the new Dario Argento flick.

As prompted by George Pletz, **Ask Ken and Robin** considers the picaresque and floats various techniques for strictly episodic RPGing.

In the **Genre Hut** we mull the highly problematic footprint Fu Manchu has planted in pop culture.

Finally, we rev up **Ken’s Time Machine**, sending our chrono-hero to whichever sack of Rome he chooses to prevent.

Our anchor sponsor this episode is Engine Publishing and their system-neutral GM resource, *Odyssey: The Complete Game Master’s Guide to Campaign Management.* Get $5 off in the Engine Publishing store using code KARTAS20, good through November 2013!

**Episode 63: Pretending To Be Regular Daves** Nov 01, 2013
Gather in the **Gaming Hut** as we discuss differences of perspective between game players and game designers.

In **How to Write Good** we explore that most ancient of all fiction maxims. What does it mean to write what you know?

Erik Otterberg supplies us the subject for **Ask Ken and Robin**: what if H. P. Lovecraft had lived to a ripe old age?

Finally, popular demand, as it so often does, cries out for a sequel—in this case, the third **Politics Hut** retelling of the ongoing saga of Toronto mayor Rob Ford. In the segment you’ll hear Robin mention the strange suspended feeling of waiting over a period of months for the big shoe to drop. Well, it dropped yesterday, rendering this segment, recorded last week, a halcyon snapshot of a bygone day. Still, it will help to bridge the gap from when non-Torontonians stopped following the story and yesterday, when he once again made headlines worldwide.

**Episode 62: Watch Out, Boys, He Has the Power of Transcendentalism** Oct 25, 2013
Feel all leafy-like as Ken issues an autumnal **Travel Advisory** for his recent road trip to Lovecraft’s Vermont and Marblehead.

Bathe in the cathode rays of the **Television Hut** as we compare and contrast two nerd-relevant new shows—”Sleepy Hollow” and “Marvel’s Agents of Shield.”

In **Ask Ken and Robin** we take on a Jeromy French query on the use of music in roleplaying games.

Finally, with a sigh of palpable reluctance, the **Consulting Occultist** educates us on the Transcendentalism of Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Our anchor sponsor this episode is Engine Publishing and their system-neutral GM resource, *Odyssey: The Complete Game Master’s Guide to Campaign Management.* Get $5 off in the Engine Publishing store using code KARTAS20, good through November 2013!

**Episode 61: Next To the Opposite Hex You’ll Be Like a Ferret in Heat** Oct 18, 2013
To what extent should an adventure tell a story to the GM who is about to read it? Journey with us into the Gaming Hut to find out.

Then fire up your laptops with their **Cartography Hut** screensavers and geographic information systems to look at the genre possibilities of digital cemetery mapping.

In **Ask Ken and Robin**, Tom Clare asks about using in-world narrative voices to write rules text and setting material.

We conclude by revving up **Ken’s Time Machine** and urging him to reverse the Gran Sasso raid, in which the Nazis rescued Mussolini from Allied custody.

**Episode 60: Problems With Sabertooth Tigers** Oct 11, 2013
With the smoke from our burning village billowing behind us, we take momentary refuge in the **Gaming Hut** to discuss great migration campaign frames.

Under the war-room glare of the **Geopolitics Hut** we look at the averted strike on Syria and the limits of military intervention.

**Ask Ken and Robin** features a Tim Daly question about the relative virtues of designing a game engine from the ground up, as opposed to adapting an existing house system.

Finally the **Consulting Occultist** goes back to basics to study the surprisingly young history of the Tarot.

Our anchor sponsor this episode is Engine Publishing and their system-neutral GM resource, *Odyssey: The Complete Game Master’s Guide to Campaign Management.* Get $5 off in the Engine Publishing store using code KARTAS20, good through November 2013!

**Episode 59: Thwarted by Trees** Oct 04, 2013
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!

**Episode 58: You or Shub-Niggurath Walk Out of The Room** Sep 27, 2013
If it’s late September, it must be time for Robin to exit bleary-eyed from the Lightbox theater and stumble into the **Cinema Hut** to regale us with his findings from the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival. Listen to Ken wish he had more crossover with the upcoming Chicago Film Festival, or follow along at home.

Then **Ken and Robin Recycle Audio**, capping off their suite of excerpts from the Gen Con GUMSHOE panel.

Finally, popular demand decrees that we venture into the **Eliptony Hut** to tackle the recent appearance of a monument to Azathoth in Ken’s old stomping ground, Oklahoma City.

Joining us as sponsor this episode is Engine Publishing and their system-neutral GM resource, *Odyssey: The Complete Game Master’s Guide to Campaign Management.* Get $5 off in the Engine Publishing store using code KARTAS20, good through November 2013!

Also aboard the sponsor train, Eliptonic essayist extraordinaire Matthew Rossi. Check out his Kindle-ready books *Things That Never Were, Bottled Demon,* and *At last, Atlantis* at Amazon!

**Episode 57: Live from FanExpo Canada** Sep 20, 2013
Join us for a very special live episode of Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff, live from FanExpo Canada. Hop in our time machine and journey back to Toronto on the weekend before Labor Day to hear about ninja anti-competition efforts, our most hated gaming clichés, and much, much more. Not to mention the toxic menace of the cronut burger.

Joining us as very special sponsor is the **Bundle of Holding**, which just happens to be offering an incredible Ken and Robin-related deal—the Bundle of GUMSHOE! Until Saturday, Sept 28th, you can grab PDFs of *Ashen Stars*, *Mutant City Blues*, See Page XX v1, and the first four issues of Ken Writes About Stuff — plus a 1-year KWAS subscription. Pay more than the current average and grab *Night’s Black Agents* and *The Zalozhniy Quartet*, too—plus additional sweeteners yet to be announced!

Also sponsoring us this week, writer and musician David Maurice Garrett. Check out his book *Tome of Horror* and his album *Al Azif*.

**Episode 56: Oh, My Pancreas** Sep 13, 2013
Having survived his epic three weekends, three conventions journey into the heart of geekdom, Ken returns to issue a Travel Advisory on his final leg, which took him to the newly de-asterisked DragonCon.

In **How to Write Good** we consider discipline, routine, and various techniques to keep the productivity flowing at the keyboard.

Then **Ken and Robin Recycle Audio**, with the first of two excerpts from the Gen Con GUMSHOE and investigative roleplaying panel.

Finally we give the weary Consulting Occultist a topic he should be able to do while standing on his head—those diffusely mystical purveyors of alchemical imagery, the Rosicrucians.

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Special thanks to this episode’s lead sponsor, Genesis of Legend Publishing, and its Spark RPG.

Also joining us as sponsor this week, writer and musician David Maurice Garrett. Check out his book *Tome of Horror* and his album *Al Azif*.

**Episode 55: Endemic Clan Warfare and Beautiful Lakes** Sep 06, 2013
After a prefatory **Travel Advisory** on their activities at FanExpo Canada and a **Food Hut** trawl through the gustatory delight’s of Robin’s neighborhood, Ken and Robin take a nostalgic look back over the haul of treasures secured in Toronto for **Ken’s Bookshelf**. Gangsters, pirates and ancient Americans flood into the Hite Memorial Library as we learn the secret graphic signifier that announces the presence of prime crazy.

In **Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else**, Rob Heinsoo swings by the podcast to discuss the design process for 13th Age, as seen through the lens of traps and their evolving role in fantasy roleplaying.

Finally we enter the **Gaming Hut** to consider techniques for collaborative worldbuilding. That last segment idea comes courtesy of this episode’s lead sponsor, Genesis of Legend Publishing, and its Spark RPG.

**Episode 54: Gen Con 2013, or Should I Have Shaved My Head?** Aug 30, 2013
Somewhat rested but still with a fog upon their vocal chords, Ken and Robin issue a joint Travel Advisory for Gen Con 2013. Come for the shameless bragging, stay for the awards analysis, industry temperature taking, panel highlights, and Indianapolis food tips.

Join us in a hearty welcome to our latest sponsor, Gorilla Games, now Kickstarting *Monster Derby*, their full contact road rage road race board game!

**Now, With Donate Button** Aug 23, 2013
You demanded; we complied, adding a donate button to help you help us keep the show going. You’ll find it, and through it our eternal gratitude, at the right-hand side of the blog masthead.

**Episode 53: My Feelings About Hatchets Have Completely Changed** Aug 23, 2013
In the **Gaming Hut** we power up our universal translators to contemplate the treatment of languages in roleplaying.

Then we review our way through the summer blockbuster season in the Cinema Hut.

In an **Ask Ken and Robin** lightning round, we dispatch questions right and left, entertaining queries from the diceless to the non-violent.

Then, under the watchful eyes of benevolent Google gods, our **Cartography Hunt/Conspiracy Corner** co-production takes the aerial view of the Kazakhstan pentagram.

Join us in a hearty welcome to our latest sponsor, Gorilla Games, now Kickstarting *Monster Derby*, their full contact road rage road race board game!

**Ken and Robin Talk Live This Weekend in Toronto** Aug 20, 2013
FanExpo Canada rolls out this weekend at the Metro Toronto Convention Center. Its many geekish splendors include a special live episode of Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff. Gather up your questions and catch us in the flesh at 3:45 pm on Saturday, in room 705.

**Episode 52: The Delightful Burning Sensation You Alluded To Earlier** Aug 16, 2013
Join hands and sing *fhtagn fhtagn* as we self-congratulate ourselves on an epic year of podcasting.

Then sidle past the mutual back-patting into the **Gaming Hut**, where we consider the export potential of DramaSystem series pitches to other roleplaying games.

Rear back in shock as the **Food Hut** hosts our most heretical segment ever, in which Robin argues that the vaunted Indy steakhouse St. Elmo’s is, in fact, a terrible restaurant.

Settle in for an extended stay as **Ask Ken and Robin** tackles Alasdair Sinclair’s question about maintaining a single campaign for the long haul.

Then look up to the strangest sight in the skyline of Bandung, Indonesia as, at the request of Tom McGrenery, the **Consulting Occultist** tries to infuse its Octopus House with more weirdness than it already contains.

**Episode 51: A Tank Wearing a Truck Hat** Aug 09, 2013
In **Ask Ken and Robin**, Jacob Ansari asks about playing *Night’s Black Agents* in previous time periods.

The Tradecraft Hut hosts a look at Jasper Maskelyne, the so-called War Magician.

In The Business of Gaming we examine the unfortunate implosion of the Kickstarter-funded boardgame *The Doom that Came to Atlantic City*. This episode was recorded a day before Cryptozoic Entertainment announced plans to publish the game and fulfill orders to Kickstarter backers gratis, giving a happy ending quality to our link to designer Keith Baker’s site.

Finally we open the **Eliptony Hut** to the truth and legend of Nikolai Tesla, as we wonder what might be found under the grounds of his last laboratory, now slated as a museum in his honor.

Want those ad guidelines we mentioned in the show? Download our rate sheet, in handy PDF format.

**Advertise on Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff** Aug 07, 2013
Our present roster of fine sponsors pays for hosting and audio production of Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff. But to keep doing it, our titular hosts need to offset the time they devote to the show, which would otherwise be devoted to their paid writing projects.

To that end, we’re opening up a few more advertising slots to keep the podcast going. If you’d like to advertise your game, company or other product or service to an eager audience of discerning listeners, download our rate sheet, in handy PDF format.

**Episode 50: Lasers and Moog Synthesizers** Aug 02, 2013
We flip through some pages in the **Gaming Hut** as we discuss the evolution of roleplaying game graphic design, from aesthetics to utility.

Then we slip into the plush seats of the **Cinema Hut** to review the career of the great Hong Kong director Johnnie To. His latest masterpiece, *Drug War*, awaits a North American cinema release in August.

In **Ask Ken and Robin**, Chris Shorb asks if *Robin’s Laws of Good Gamemastering* is still relevant today.

Then the neglected dials of **Ken’s Time Machine** finally get twiddled as he heads back to the 15th century to save Joan of Arc.

**Episode 49: No One Likes a Blood Frenzy** Jul 26, 2013
From the **Cartography Hut** we send our separate adventurers on intercut journeys of exploration, as we riff on the fantasy game potential of the Atlas of True Names series.

**How to Write Good** connects the dots of stakes, consequences, and reader engagement.

In **Ask Ken and Robin**, Geoffery Nelson asks how iconic characters can engage in meaningful conflict without stopping the story dead as both dig their heels in.

Finally we conclude Ken’s series on the Nazi occult by veering at an impossible angle into the Eliptony Hut for a look at Nazi UFOs and the Hollow Earth.

**Episode 48: Except for All the Cannibalism** Jul 19, 2013
Events in Egypt have us taking shelter in the **Gaming Hut** to suggest approaches to uprisings and revolutions in roleplaying narrative.

Then Robin beckons you to the **Cinema Hut** for a quick intro to Chinese film, as seen through three rarities recently screened at the TIFF Lightbox: the suppressed censorship satire Unfinished Comedy, showbiz melodrama on the cusp of the Cultural Revolution Two Stage Sisters and the proto-heroic bloodshed of The Story of a Discharged Prisoner.

Game design bubbles creative and economic get the **Ask Ken and Robin** treatment, thanks to a query from Ironicus.

Then the Consulting Occultist completes his obligations as a guide to the Nazi occult with a look at the scholarship-distorting, expedition launching academic department of the SS, the Ahnenerbe.

**Episode 47: An Occasional Underused Wendigo** Jul 12, 2013
We start in the **Gaming Hut** by contemplating the massive *Call of Cthulhu* campaign. What drives the love for this classic cornerstone of roleplaying obsession?

In **Ask Ken and Robin**, Leó Páll Hrafnssonwants to know what the deal is withthe famously lost Ninth Roman Legion.

Grab the remote in the **Television Hut** as we look at structure in TV shows, from their evolution to their application to roleplaying.

Then our epic **Consulting Occultist** series on the Nazi Occult explores the Thule Society, wealthy right-wing imaginers of lost continents who built an anti-Communist goon squad only to see it morph into the Nazi party.

**Episode 46: An Indictment of Your Pudding** Jul 05, 2013
We shuttle over to the **Gaming Hut** to continue our discussion of omnipresent surveillance, this time in the context of your roleplaying group’s tendency to turtle up.

The unveiling of the **Word Hut** sees us finding our preferences between US and UK words and punctuation. Petrol, anyone?

In **Ask Ken and Robin**, we respond to Daniel Fidelman’s question on how to pace the unsheathing of knives when player betrayal is on the agenda.

Then we head over to chat with the **Consulting Occultist**, as part four of our series on Nazi occultism leads us to metaphorically heft the Spear of Destiny.

**Episode 45: A Blatant Vowel Swap** Jun 28, 2013
Summer convention season kicks off with a **Travel Advisory** on Ken’s trip to Origins.

Robin beckons you into the **Cinema Hut** to share his rare chance to see the first Wong Fei-Hung film, 1949’s *The Whip That Smacks the Candle*.

Having established a **Tradecraft Hut**, we are naturally behooved to mull the implications of the newly whistleblown PRISM program of the NSA.

We wrap with part 3 of our **Consulting Occultist** series on the Nazi occult, this time focusing in on Irminist prophet and Himmler advisor Karl-Maria Wiligut.

That periodic thumping sound you hear is Robin’s mic falling apart as we record. Apologies for any sonic disorientation this may cause.

**Episode 44: The Marshy Aunt** Jun 21, 2013
Meet us in the **Gaming Hut** for techniques to make your characters’ backstories shine during RPG play.

In **Ask Ken and Robin** we (meaning mostly Ken) address a question from friend of the site Jeromy French: “are there merits to reading August Derleth’s Lovecraftian fiction and why?”

Then we fire up the grills of the **Food Hut** to look at prepared condiments and sauces one might use without shame as part of one’s fresh cooking.

Finally, part two of our epic **Consulting Occultist** series on the Nazi occult sets the stage with *Volkisch* movements, Guido von List, and the cast of variously psychopathic characters who bring occult thought with them into Hitler’s high command.

**Episode 43: In a Non-Necromantic Context** Jun 14, 2013
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!

**Episode 42: A Faith Demand Moment** Jun 07, 2013
First up, Ken and Robin enter the **Gaming Hut** to transcend their origins and discuss transhuman RPGs. How do we create inhuman characters human players can still portray?

In the Tradecraft Hut, we discuss the implications of the Obama administration’s war on leakers, and how to bring press revelations into your espionage gaming.

Robin then bows to popular demand with a **Politics Hut** Rob Ford update, this one covering the first thirteen days of the Toronto mayor’s crack video problems. (Warning: contents of scandal may have shifted our recording date.)

Finally Ken’s Time Machine revs up, with an account of how Ken altered our timeline to keep the 1928 Baltimore space program an amusing footnote, and not a historical catastrophe.

**Episode 41: The Kind of Scary Energy That Doesn’t Exist** May 31, 2013
In the Gaming Hut, we examine the tradition of flaws and disads in RPGs. Do they put the “fun” in dysfunctional?

Then Ken and Robin adjourn to the **Cinema Hut**, where they try not to tell you too much about Shane Carruth’s *Upstream Color* while urging you to see it, and from there jump into the distinction between the explanatory and the experiential in storytelling.

In **Ask Ken and Robin**, Jon Leitheusser asks Robin to explain the process by which his game design aesthetic gelled.

Finally, fraud at Alaska’s ionosphere-bombarding HAARP facility sends us spiraling into an extra-chilly installment of **Conspiracy Corner**.

**Ep 40: Forces of the Tomkitten** May 24, 2013
Ken and Robin enter the **Gaming Hut** to catch you up on what they’re playing right now, from xenoarcheaological exploration to carnies caught between the devil and alien invaders.

In **Ask Ken and Robin**, Terry O’Connell asks, “What’s your take on the Beyonce as Illuminati meme?”

**How to Write Good** leads us into a general consideration of the mash-up age, before we provide advice on how to pastiche the prose styles of previous eras.

Finally we rev up **Ken’s Time Machine** to prevent Cannibalism at the Jamestown colony.

**Episode 39: The Book of Not At All Sinister Church Names** May 17, 2013
Two mysterious doors provide ingress into the **Gaming Hut**. Which one do we take, as we contemplate adventure structure and the choice points that comprise it?

**Ask Ken and Robin** takes an alternate history turn as Crane Brinton wonders: What does the alternate timeline where the Kaiser won WWI look like?

Then we hop into a mapping car and head to the **Cartography Hut**, where we riff on the storytelling inspiration of Google’s recent documentation of the Fukushima ghost zone.

We close with a visit to the **Consulting Occultist**, who recounts the Theosophy-meets-Evangelical-meets-New Age tale of Elizabeth Clare Prophet.

**Episode 38: Driving Bananas Around** May 10, 2013
We start with a visit to the **Gaming Hut** to discuss the play utility of illustrations.

In the **Food Hut** we explore the legends and lore of packaged goods, including the secret origins of Cool Whip, the Twinkie, and Gatorade.

Conrad Kinch **Asks Ken and Robin** how one guides a playtester to greatness. Michael Cule adds a supplemental: have we ever regretted not implementing a piece of playtester advice?

Finally, **Ken’s Time Machine** takes us to the intractable yet little mythologized tragedy that was the Trail of Tears.

**Episode 37: Ghost-Kissed Pilsner** May 03, 2013
The undertones of jet lag in Robin’s voice indicate the issuance of another **Travel Advisory**, in this case concerning his lovely trip to Germany’s Hannover Spielt. Beers mentioned include: Herrenhäuser Pilsener, Astra Arschkalt, Schneider Aventinus, and Robin and John’s fave, Höss Doppel-Hirsch (the name of which Robin completely mangles during the podcast.)

The trip also provides another opportunity for **Ken and/or Robin To Talk To Someone Else**—in this case, show sponsor John Kovalic, who discusses the design of his addictively fun party new party game, ROFL.

**Ripped From the Headlines** finds us grappling with the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombings and subsequent manhunt of the Brothers Tsarnaev. Though hardly a fun story, it touches on so many of our perennial topics that a weighing-in seems obligatory.

Then we move on to more entertaining and distant history, as, at the request of Ask Lovecraft, the **Consulting Occultist** tells us tales of Paschal Beverly Randolph, 19th century exponent of Mesmerism, pre-Adamism, and wholesome sex magic.

**Episode 36: A Scuba Diver Walks Into an Ice Cream Shop** Apr 26, 2013
Ken and Robin hit a bare and blackened stage to bring the improv concept of “yes anding” to the **Gaming Hut**.

In **Ask Ken and Robin**, they answer Kevin J. Maroney’s question about picking a game for roleplaying newbies.

In its return appearance, **How To Write Good** tackles the basics of short story structure.

And finally, listener Falko Sieverding proposes a mission for **Ken’s Time Machine**. Is maintaining the Vice-Presidency of Henry Wallace past 1944 the way to stop the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki?

**Episode 35: The Most English Story Ever Told** Apr 19, 2013
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.

**Episode 34: Easily Approached By My Techniques** Apr 12, 2013
Ken and Robin meet in the **Gaming Hut** to workshop a game mechanic—the interpersonal disadvantage.

The Tradecraft Hut uses further evidence that Blackwater served as a CIA front as an opportunity to riff on the differences between reality levels in espionage games and fiction.

**Ask Ken and Robin** sees our intrepid heroes venturing from behind the couch to answer HippyWizard’s query on overcoming the shyness factor at the game table.

And finally, **Ken’s Time Machine** prevents the arrest and death in custody of Pope Pius VI.

**Episode 33: Bring Your Own Goat** Apr 05, 2013
We kick off with another **Travel Advisory**, this one centered on Ken’s quest to Las Vegas and the Gama Trade Show, to prise from it premonitions of the new hotness.

Then History Hut takes a turn for the glandular as we examine the careers of quack testicular transplanter John R. Brinkley and perfectly respectable testicular transplanter Dr. G. Frank Lydston. Guess which one installed bits of dead prisoners between his skin and his ribcage. For more, see Pope Brock’s splendid *Charlatan: America’s Most Dangerous Huckster, the Man Who Pursued Him, and the Age of Flimflam*.

**Ask Ken and Robin** fields a query from listener DVanZandt. How do you avoid the minefields of player disbelief when running a game in the real world?

With a tip of the mitre to the newly elected Francis I, we enter the **Conspiracy Corner** to look at the role of the Jesuits in conspiracy lore.

**Episode 32: Cash in Your Magic Swords** Mar 29, 2013
Scoops of polyhedrals in hand, we enter the **Gaming Hut** to contemplate the power of experience points. Are they justified in a genre-emulative design?

In **Ask Ken and Robin**, Darren Watts asks Ken to explain how zombies can be one of the two great 20th century myths, since this means either Superman or Godzilla aren’t?

**Science Hut** puts American exceptionalism under the microscope, or at least sits it down in a room and offers it a sociological marshmallow. Have scientific theories of human nature met their WEIRD?

Finally we meet the **Consulting Occultist** in the non-standard confines of the **Tradecraft Hut**, where we open an Elizabethan dossier on spy and playwright Christopher Marlowe.

**Episode 31: Love, Gerald Ford** Mar 22, 2013
In the Gaming Hut, we consider the soul of the orc. How do you present this classic fantasy trope without letting in the toxin of real world racism?

**History Hut** returns to crime in Chicago for a consideration of its gangland, then and now.

In **Ask Ken and Robin**, Robin is asked to further expound on a Thing He Always Says, the nature of the iconic character.

Finally we activate **Ken’s Time Machine** in a chrono-traveling effort to prevent the pardon of Richard M. Nixon.

**Update**: We’ve re-uploaded the file. Apologies to those inconvenienced by the earlier file error.

**Episode 30: Ring-Tailed and Fructivorous** Mar 15, 2013
In our latest venture into the **Gaming Hut**, we consider the classic sandbox versus railroad opposition. Useful dichotomy, or intellectual black hole that swallows all other argument?

From there we gain access to the **Tradecraft Hut**, to examine the wartime disinformation career of thriller novelist Dennis Wheatley.

In **Ask Ken and Robin**, Craig Maloney prompts us to mull the role of mini-games in roleplaying design.

And finally, with such matters back in the news, we tap the **Consulting Occultist** for a 101 class on lost continents, from Atlantis to Hyperborea and beyond.

**Episode 29: Because, Hey, Benzedrine** Mar 08, 2013
We start by venturing into the **Genre Hut** to limn the fraught boundaries of the Fake Nerd crisis.

Our examination of the Chelyabinsk meteor takes us into the **Eliptony Hut**, where we trace its impact on, and incorporation into, a cluster of competing conspiracy theories.

In Ask Ken and Robin we tackle the role of laws and law-breaking in roleplaying games. Is it an American thing, or does it arise from an impulse that defies national boundaries?

Finally we rev up **Ken’s Time Machine**, where Ken reveals several four-color strategies for preventing the adoption of the Comics Code Authority.

**Episode 28: Possibly an Anagnorisis** Mar 01, 2013
That Vitamin D sheen you see on Ken’s glossy coat shows that he recently escaped Chicago’s frigid embrace for the sunshine of California’s Bay Area, necessitating another **Travel Advisory** as we review his trip to Dundracon.

An unusual clatter of gunfire punctuates activities at the **Food Hut**, as we parse press reports of connections between Europe’s horsemeat scandal and the shadow financial empire of Russia’s most notorious arms dealer.

Andrew Brehaut prompts this week’s **Ask Ken and Robin** with a question on structure in game and scenario design.

Then we flash back to San Francisco for an elegiac installment of **Ken’s Bookshelf**, in which our intrepid traveler hauls home the fruits of his last epic plundering of that legendary occult bookshop, which is soon to migrate to the etheric spheres in an online-only capacity. Follow along at home with his list of books mentioned.

**Episode 27: League of Extraordinary Skeletons** Feb 22, 2013
In **Ask Ken and Robin**, we field Conrad Kinch’s query about the politics of game design. Do a designer’s political beliefs show up in his work?

Then, as you knew we would, we engage in some **History Bending** in honor of Richard III’s recently-confirmed excavation from a Leicester car park.

Our new segment **How To Write Good** inaugurates with a barrage of style tips of both general and RPG-specific application.

Finally, in **Consulting Occultist**, we review the stream-crossing career of African-American magician, escape artist and hoodoo worker Black Herman.

**Episode 26: Passing the Legislation To See What’s In It** Feb 15, 2013
In an unprecedented merger of the **Gaming Hut** with the **Politics Hut**, we look to political scientist Steven Teles’ theory of government as kludgeocracy to demonstrate why government should hire game designers like Ken and Robin to playtest their legislation for them.

Then we take latitudes with the longitudes of the **Cartography Hut** to examine the history and fantasy of Stonehenge.

The map above is from Profantasy Software’s *Source Maps: Temples, Tombs and Catacombs,* which you can grab at a mere $10, a quarter of the usual price, until Feb 22nd, by following this special link to the Profantasy store. This informative pack of historical maps stands alone, with a built in viewer and tons of images and background. But if you have Profantasy Software’s flagship mapping package, *Campaign Cartographer 3*, you can edit the maps and use symbols from them.

In Ask Ken and Robin, we entertain Lisa Padol’s question about the edition wars inspired by the differences between old and new World of Darkness.

Finally, **Ken’s Time Machine** averts the sacking of China’s Old Summer Palace—or, at least, the most notorious of its several sackings.

**Episode 25: Finally, the Woodrow Wilson Throwdown** Feb 08, 2013
In the **Gaming Hut**, we mull the economics of game design. Will the Kickstarter wave usher in a new era of component-driven play?

Then it’s off to the **History Hut** for Ken’s long-anticipated final showdown with the historical legacy of Woodrow Wilson. Was he really America’s worst president?

In **Ask Ken and Robin**, we are asked the most basic question of our craft: why do people game?

Finally the **Consulting Occultist** considers the silver-shirted biography of American screenwriter, vision-haver and fascist William Dudley Pelley.

**Episode 24: Conan Gets a Fish** Feb 01, 2013
After two bits of preamble business, one elegiac and the other bathetic , we issue a **Travel Advisory** to wring vicarious enjoyment from Ken’s journey to WarpCon in Cork, Ireland.

We then step into the Cinema Hut to regale one and all with our top ten picks from the sterling movie year that was 2012.

In Ask Ken and Robin, Lowell Francis asks Ken to expand on a past comment contrasting his sense of fun placement to that of our esteemed pal Dennis Detwiller, leading us to a consideration of the grind, character fragility, and when to bring the power fantasy.

Finally, we once more brave the shadowy depths of the Conspiracy Corner to explore the patterns and motivations behind the recent wave of truther movements.

**Episode 23: Within the Eliptonic Radius** Jan 25, 2013
Kicking off with another service-oriented segment of **Ask Ken and Robin**, we suggest ways to introduce a rich setting to players who are unfamiliar with it.

Then we inaugurate the **Eliptony Hut**, first by explaining what the heck eliptony is, then squeezing adventure and story ideas from the latest in white-hot weirdness, the Martian ground squirrel.

What one might call **Among My Many Hats** Classic Edition sends us back in time to chat about a joint project, the Shadows Over Filmland supplement for *Trail of Cthulhu*. Which, due to a wondrous and wholly inexplicable coincidence, happens to be on sale at the Pelgrane Press store until February 1st, 2013. [*Shadows over Filmland* is $10 off, not 10% off as it says in the podcast – that’s more than 25%]

Finally we rev up **Ken’s Time Machine**, assigning our chrono-hopping Chicagoan to find the least-worst replacement for Joseph Stalin as leader of the Soviet Union.

**Episode 22: Her Agile, Ventriloquistic Foot** Jan 18, 2013
In a special **Cartography Hut / Ask Ken and Robin** crossover, Troy Holoday invites us to contemplate the vanished D&D roles of mapper and caller.

On a serious note we go to the **History Hut** for a sense of perspective, if not solace, on America’s relationship with the gun.

In the Cinema Hut Robin finally uncorks his long-simmering rant on the fundamentally unBondian nature of *Skyfall*. Ken gamely and briefly attempts a role as devil’s advocate before reverting to true and inevitable doctrine.

We wrap with an ironic tale for the **Consulting Occultist**—the sad story of Margaret Fox, who accidentally founded 19th century spiritualism through a teenage prank.

**Episode 21: A Thin Sludge Along the Sidewalks** Jan 11, 2013
Our first episode of the new year begins in the **Gaming Hut**, where we examine the difference between showing up to be entertained, and showing up to play.

**Ask** **Ken and Robin** fields Paul Weimer’s question about fudging die rolls—when, if ever, is it acceptable?

The **Politics Hut** takes on the classic modernist curvature of Toronto’s city hall as Robin recounts the saga that can only be called The Assassination of His Own Mayoralty by the Lunkhead Rob Ford. (Since we recorded, the libel suit against Ford Robin mentions was dismissed. But still, the point stands…)

And finally, in **Ken’s Time Machine**, our maverick chrono-detective chafes at the fussy over-caution of his superiors as they send him to 1888 to find out who Jack the Ripper was—without simply showing up at one of the murder scenes.

Episode 20: Twentieth Century Eccentrics Dec 21, 2012

In our final episode of 2012, we issue a Travel Advisory on our recent trip to Dragonmeet in London. A seamless segue then ushers us to the wonder of Ken’s Bookshelf, in which Robin vicariously enjoys the impressive pile of tomes Ken liberated from the British Isles during his journey.

With yet another end of the world imminent, we are then behooved to cut the ribbon on the Mythology Hut to consider the State of the Apocalypse, 2012 edition.

In Ask Ken and Robin, we ponder the ideal RPG rules set for the play-by-forum format.

We close with another visit to the Consulting Occultist, who this time around delves into the murky facts behind a reputed 17th century French Satanism outbreak, better known as the Affair of the Poisons.

We’ll be back on Jan 11, 2013 with our next new episode. Until then, please accept the seasonal greeting of your choice and have a safe and pleasant holiday!

**Episode 19: Live from Dragonmeet 2012** Dec 14, 2012
Join us for our first episode recorded in front of a live audience, in the council chambers at Kensington Town Hall as part of Dragonmeet 2012. We welcome special guest Simon Rogers for an uber edition of **Ask Ken and Robin**, which in turn encompasses a panoply of our trademark huts. In the process as we talk Pelgrane Plans, the experience of publishing, digital tools, dino-riding samurai, crowdfunded exhumations and why a question about the Spanish Inquisition and the Illuminati hardly counts as a question at all.

**Episode 18: Conspiracy To Commit Ophthalmology** Nov 28, 2012
This week’s episode commences with a trip to the **Gaming Hut** to consider Robin’s dichotomy of rewards versus incentives, which segues into a discussion of the co-designer syndrome in playtest feedback.

**Ask Ken and Robin** fields a question from Brett Evill on how one might bend history to add Ruritania-style postage stamp states back to the map of Europe.

We swap the key cooking tips we’d wished our time traveling present selves had told our neophyte incarnations as the **Food Hut** tackles minimaxing in the kitchen.

Then a recent report on the decoding of the Copiale Codex sends us to **Conspiracy Corner** to consider the history of secret societies through the obscured lenses of the Great Enlightened Society of Oculists.

**Episode 17: A Gorgeous Work of Rosicrucian Monomania** Nov 28, 2012
In **Ask Ken and Robin**, we examine the popularity, or lack thereof, of the western as a roleplaying genre, and point to models historical and cinematic for the adventuring party in spurs and Stetsons.

We venture into a particularly cramped and cluttered iteration of the **Cartography Hut** to spin a passel of story threads from the real-life tale of the Mount Washington map hoard.

With zombie-like tread we shamble down the aisles of the **Cinema Hut** to chew over the career of director George A. Romero.

Then Time Incorporated once more dispatches **Ken’s Time Machine**, this time to prevent the murder of Salvador Allende and the ensuing ascension to power of Augusto Pinochet.

**Episode 16: As Kenya is To Running** Nov 23, 2012
Inspired by Christian Marclay’s cinechronological video installation The Clock, **Gaming Hut** examines time and pacing in roleplaying.

The Schaudenfreude Institute initiates a new PhD course and Ken plots a bold path forward for his beloved Republican party as we enter the ballot booth-like confines of the **Politics Hut** to mull the 2012 Presidential Election.

In **Ask Ken and Robin**, Justin Mohareb, in a cleverly submitted audio question, asks Robin to expound on his theory of the one okay game store.

Finally, we power down the cloaking device concealing our brand-new Tradecraft Hut to look at the Petraeus resignation and its place in the history of sexual security scandals.

Truly We Are Golden Geeks Nov 17, 2012

Many thanks to all who voted or influenced the voters for the Golden Geek Awards! Your hard work or subtle noodges have paid off, as Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff has won the 2012 Golden Geek Award for Best Podcast! We are both a lot honored and a bit dumfounded, given the great talent on all the fine podcasts ranged against us in nomination.