Episode 347: We’ve Warren Commissioned Your Witch Problem
June 7th, 2019 | Robin
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.
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Ken’s rant about GoT made me feel warm inside. Thank you, I feel less alone now : )
Thanks for the excellent piece on THE WITCH!
Mulled this for a while and settled on this: There are very few events in the final seasons of GAME OF THRONES that couldn’t have been interesting or even good with better handling, pacing, and preparation, even Dany’s heel turn. That’s not a defense, though–in some ways, it’s a greater indictment! The idea that they could have had (substantially) the same plot but actually made it coherent and fulfilling–that’s really damning.
That said, one of the greatest plot failings was a very quick and unsatisfying thing at the end, and this ties in with Robin’s largest thematic critique. I can’t figure out any scenario by which House Stark is allowed to withdraw the North from the Seven Kingdoms without Pirate Queen Yara Greyjoy immediately saying, “Yeah, us too.” It’s possibly the single biggest indicator of your point that the show forgot that its primary topic was politics, not The Starks and How It All Worked Out for Them in the End.
To be fair, Dany not being very good at this social reform business, and more importantly being extremely prone to killing people who mildly irritated her, had been front and centre in her parts of the plot for most of the show’s run. The mass crucifixion really ought to have told more people; it’s hardly Hollywood shorthand for “benevolent leader”. But, blonde, cute, and kicks butt, turned out to be highly forgivable for most of the fanbase. If only Robespierre had known…
Of course, “blonde” has its own payload of issues. I have some sympathy for the reading which says that the dragons are just a crude metaphor for white privilege.