Latest / Tale of The Manticore, a Dark Fantasy Dungeons & Dragons Audiodrama / Looking Back and Ahead, Yet Again (S3 Retrospective)

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Looking Back and Ahead, Yet Again (S3 Retrospective) · Tale of The Manticore, a Dark Fantasy Dungeons & Dragons Audiodrama

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hi, this is Jared Hess from Role, Ponder and Play
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: and you're listening to Tale of the Mantacor. The following
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: podcast is intended for a mature audience. Listener discretion is advised.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: Tale of the Manticor bonus material. Reflections on Season three
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Chuchin's Braid. It has been over two years since a
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: Chilia left home in search of ot ok Zagog and
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: by a, heya, Have I really been doing this show
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: for over six years? I guess so, and now here
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: we are at the end of yet another season. I
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: remember very distinctly starting it off with a certain set
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: of goals. I'd explored themes of doom and hopelessness so
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: deeply in S two that I knew I wanted to
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: try something well, not light but lighter, something less like
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: a horror movie and more like, well, there's a certain
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: style of dark fantasy I had in mind, think the
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: Dark Crystal Time Bandits and The Wizard of Oz. If
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: I'm going to talk about season three, I have to
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: mention the Wizard of Oz. I didn't set out to
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: make an allegory, but I did want to work in
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: enough references along the way that listeners would constantly have
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: it in mind, I ended up having way too much
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: fun with it. It probably overdid it, but I just
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: couldn't help myself, and I hope it wasn't too distracting anyway.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: Let's talk Turkey. What went well in season three, what
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: did not? And what did I learn? Illusions aside, I
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: think I did more to introduce literary elements into the
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: story of this season. Also, I was able to incorporate
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: mythic into my process. That was definitely a plus. I
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: feel that the season's conclusion was at the same time
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: more complex and more clear than the previous one, and
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: that's something I'm happy about too. Finally, and maybe most
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: of all, season three was able to surprise me more
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: than any other season. The twists and curveballs kept on coming.
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: Here's a few examples. I thought the Infinity milk cap
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: mushroom introduced in episode eleven would eventually return to the
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: story and get used in some unexpected way. Instead, he
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: just sat in Achillie's bag the whole time. Another Chekhov's gun.
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: I fully expected Cord's slow poisoned spell to get used
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: when first ten Tier and then Durrenni got poisoned each time,
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: I thought here we go, this is it. But then
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: both brothers made their saves and it just didn't happen.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: I could further mention that Tener's baby flame Tongue and
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: Achille's more explosive spells like flame Arrow and wall of
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: Fire all remained unused. Here was something a bit different.
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: When Bellario fled through the mountain saddle and reached the
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: end of the Golden Path, I reached wi we recorded
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: two cliffhanger lines. One said he had no intention of
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: facing a dragon alone. The other said he had no
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: intention of facing a giant alone. At the time, I
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: was undecided about which would make for a better guardian
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: of the Golden Path. Ultimately, I chose the Silver Dragon,
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: to tell youselfully, and now I couldn't imagine it any
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: other way. Another thing concerning the Golden Path, I had
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: no idea how the companions would get home once they
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: reached the end of it. I had this vague notion
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: that they would have to commandeer the Iron Tower. The
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: fact that Bellario carried the pipes to summon the Griffins
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: but only needed to use them once was pure luck
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: or maybe fate. Anyway, he was a real aha problem
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: solved moment when I figured it out, So I guess
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: that covers went went well. But season three, as my
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: mother would say, was not all jam. Mistakes were made.
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: There's a couple of continuity goofs I want to address.
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: First Episode one, I say Altvay is probably a level
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: seven or eight magic user. This cannot be true. He
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: would have to be at least eleventh to cast flesh
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: to stone. It's a gaff, to be sure, but I'm
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: not too upset over this one. Another mistake occurs in
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: episode sixty, when Cord casts cure serious wounds twice in
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: one day. This whoopsie was pointed out to me by
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: a couple of very sharp listeners, and I'm grateful to
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: them for doing so. Normally, finding out I had made
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: a mistake like this would make my blood freeze, but
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: luckily this one had no real effect on the story.
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: Cord might have rested and used this bell on the
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: next day with the same result. It's true that I'm
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: a bit embarrassed by my continued ability to fail bookkeeping checks,
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: but this one, luckily was pretty harmless. A not harmless
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: mistake I made this season was being improperly prepared when
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: my hard drive crashed. I had been backing things up
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: fairly regularly, but and it's a big butt. I'd never
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: tested my back up. I never thought to do that,
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: so I saved gigs a file else, but most ended
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: up being useless because critical project files were lost. I
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: won't get into the technical whys and whereforce, but I
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: hope that if Basiluna forbid this ever happens again, I
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: will be better equipped to handle it. I never really
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: did get Achillia's voice consistently right after the crash. Once again,
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: I find myself saying that I hope it wasn't too distracting.
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: The last thing I want to mention is not a
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: mistake or a goof, but it is something I plan
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: to avoid next season. So we'll call it something I learned.
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: It is this. I made a main character out of Achillia,
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: and that wasn't by accident. I was experimenting. I knew
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: that because of her class, she wouldn't be in the
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: front line, they would have a good chance to survive.
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: I never fudged anything to protect her, but I did
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: stress over losing her more than was comfortable, because if
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: she had died, I had no plan to keep the
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: story moving forward. I suppose I would have figured something out,
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  Speaker 1: but it was a stress that I don't wish to
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  Speaker 1: live with again. In as four next time, no special characters.
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: Let's wrap up the looking back section with some general mentions.
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: The last two years were big ones for Tale of
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: the Manticore and for me too. The show passed the
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  Speaker 1: one million download mark last January. The fact that still
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: gives me a thrill when I think about it. I
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: attended my first ever gen Con, and you know, despite
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: it being a lifelong dream to go, I wasn't really
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: sure if I was going to enjoy it. Turned out
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: I had a fantastic experience from top to bottom. As
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: you know, I have a few products out on drive
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: through RPG. My first and best selling is One Shot
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: in the Dark, a light solo dungeon crawler. It currently
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: remains a gold best seller, with Platinum not too far off.
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: The recent expansion to it, returned to Duervar, has achieved
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: silver status. The Pendulum World Building Tool is also gold
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: at the moment. My gratitude to everyone who's purchased these products.
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: I hope you've enjoyed and continue to enjoy them as
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: far as Encyclopedia Manticorca goes. I am currently in the
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: process of preparing the free S three update right now.
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: I'll put out a quick notice when it's done, so
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: there's no need to discuss it further here. So that's
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: all exciting, but I'm not quite finished. One of the
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: biggest changes over the last two years in my little
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: slice of the RPG world has been the coming together
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: of the solo semi actual play community. I've watched it
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: grow from a loose band into an organized network. In
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: the summer of twenty twenty five, we launched the Solo
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: Roleplayers Network dot com and currently our roster is sixteen
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: podcasts strong. If you haven't checked out the other pods
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: over there, I would encourage you to do so. It's
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: a gold mine. And that about does it for the retrospective.
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: Let's talk about what's coming up. As I've done in
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: the past, I'll be releasing some inter seasonal materials before
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: S four gets under weigh, and just like before, it'll
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: be a short run of somewhat more experimental fiction. This
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: batch is something I'm calling dice chain. The idea is
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: this one podcaster produces a ten to twenty minute segment
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: of audio of a brand news story. They'll make it
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: in their own style, using whatever system they prefer. Then
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: they hand off the audio to another podcaster who continues
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: the story in their own way and passes everything along
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: to a third creator, and so on. Each creator forges
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: a link in the chain until the story resolves. I
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: initiated this project about a year and a half ago,
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: and the whole thing is being finished and awaiting release
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: for over six months. Well, the time has come for
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: Dice Chain to finally see the light of day. It'll
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: come out in a few days time, and on behalf
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: of all the creators involved. I hope you dig it.
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: And I have yet another project in the works. This
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: one has been in production for about a year. I
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: won't say too much about it right now, other than
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: that it's called Red Bay and it is horror themed,
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: not fantasy. There'll be more to say about Red Bay
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: in October. And at last it's time to talk about
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: season four. I'm very excited to get started. A blank
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: slate sounds great. Didn't mean to rhyme there thematically and tonally.
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: I'm going back to a classic fantasy vibe. I'd like
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: to run with a smaller human centric party and use
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: a town and dungeon approach. Not sure if these plans
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: will survive the capricious will of the Dice gods, but
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: that's the goal. One change I considered for a while
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: was a switch to Shadow Dark. I like the system
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: and I think it could work well for what I do,
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: but some of the key lore, like no infra vision
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: for PCs, conflicts with my existing canon. Perhaps in the
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: future I can try something with Shadow Dark, but now
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: is not the time. B X with my usual home
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: brew rules and some expansions are what you can expect.
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: Plot wise, I have no ideas, but I embrace that
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: one hundred percent. The new season will once again be
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: a fresh start in a familiar world. We're going west,
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: this time to the Cameranthian Empire. As before, you won't
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: need to know any lore or anything much at all
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: to jump into the story. Long time listeners may recognize
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: certain names, places and events referred to along the way,
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: but deep knowledge of the Tale of the Manticore universe
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: is not required. Now the goal is to be new
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: listener friends. I've already run through the Pendulum world building
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: tool to produce a starting settlement. I might talk about
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: this more or later, but I need to be careful
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: not to spoil anything, so that part will probably remain
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: behind the scenes for a while. And I think that's
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: about it. Before I sign off, I'd like to show
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: my appreciation to all the voice actors I've had the
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: pleasure of working with, to the listeners who've supported me
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: by purchasing my products un drive through RPG, to everyone
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: who's given the show a rating or a review or
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: a like, or simply told a friend. And to all
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: the folks who sent emails, comments and d ms after
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: the S three finale. That was a lot, but I
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: loved reading through it. Thanks very much everyone working on Tales.
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: The mantagory is still my favorite thing to do, and
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: it's so satisfying to watch it grow. Special thanks to
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: Seanna Jay for performing the vocals on the Wardens song.
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: Enough people have asked for a copy that I've decided
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: to release it as a standalone. Expect that in a
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: few days. As for season four, it's currently scheduled to
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: premiere on November first. Thank you for listening and happy gaming.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: The sec