Latest / Tale of The Manticore, a Dark Fantasy Dungeons & Dragons Audiodrama / Looking Back and Ahead, Again

Transcript

Looking Back and Ahead, Again · Tale of The Manticore, a Dark Fantasy Dungeons & Dragons Audiodrama

• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Tale of the Mantigor bonus material reflections on season two
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Shartoon's Breath. It's been four years of solo gaming, and
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: though I can hardly believe it, season two is over.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: I remember feeling melancholy when season one ended, and this
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: is well, it's the same. I've had a yellow Fly
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: and his team living rent free in my head for
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: two years, and their absence has left me feeling a
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: little hollow. On the bright side, there'll be some new
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: tenants soon enough, because I've decided that there will be
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: a season three. Before I talk about that, I figured
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: I do a little review cap of this past season.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: The past two years held a lot of firsts for me.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: I went to my first ever cons, to which I
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: was honored to be invited as a guest. Thanks so
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: much to the Dungeon Minister for having me at Clarcon
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty three, into the Indian Podcast Awards for inviting
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: me to common Con twenty twenty four. I had a
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: great time at both and I'm looking for to MORCNS
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: next year. Another significant event was the podcast hitting the
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: half million download mark. That number has grown significantly since then,
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: and now I have my eye on one million. I
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: enjoyed similar growth with the products I have on Drive
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: Through RPG one Shot in the Dark one gold and
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: is not far from going platinum. It also inspired a
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: few sister products that I'm sure you'll hear me talking
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: about in the near future. My world building tool Pendulum
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: achieved the Electron badge and is not too far from
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: going gold. As for Encyclopedia Mandicorca, I'll be preparing the
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: free season to update for that PDF in August. Thank
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: you so much for making these products successful. He was
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: also during season two that I noticed a community of
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: semi actual plays beginning to form, and this was a
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: real joy to see. Now in addition to the Iron
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: Realm and Tales of Miss Dara, I can also enjoy
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: Legend of the Bones, Echoes of Hinton, Legends from the Fireside,
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: Always from the First Watch, and the new Sorts Against Madness,
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: and I suspect there will be more yet in the
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: near future. In a sense, the birth of this new
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: semi actual play community is the best thing that's happened
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: in my little podcast world in the last two years.
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: I've said it before and I'll say it again. If
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: you are listening to this and you've thought about making
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: your own, you should absolutely do it. There is so
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: much room here for fresh and new ideas and approaches,
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: and the community is very supportive and enthusiastic. All you
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: really need are a mic and some dice. Reach out
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: to me or any of the other great creators I
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: mentioned if you need a hand getting started. Finally, in
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: my personal life, I took early retirement from my job
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: as a high school English and history teacher. That alone
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: has made an enormous difference in my life and in
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: tail of the Manticor's workflow. Sometimes I miss the classroom. Oddly,
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: I still don't miss the marking. I think that mostly
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: covers the looking back part. Let me transition into some
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: plans for the future by pointing out some of them,
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: the mistakes I made in season two and what I
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: can do to improve the show. The most egregious mistakes
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: I made in season two were errors in bookkeeping. The
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: worst part about this is that they were stupid and
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: totally avoidable, so I need to be more vigilant with
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: that aspect. There were also a couple of problems with
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: technical issues, where certain episodes disappeared or replaced their season
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: one counterparts at first, I thought these were random glitches,
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: but I eventually learned what caused them, and so going forward,
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: I think that we'll see that particular issue has been solved. Finally,
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: I made a couple of continuity errors that I really
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: couldn't fix in story. But these are all fairly minor,
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: so I think I'll post something on the blog about
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: that in the near future rather than itemizing them here.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: So that brings us to season three. What will it
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: look like? Well, I want to make a few changes
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: and take some risks without throwing the baby out along
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: with the bathwater plot Wise, I have no idea what
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: the story will look like. I do have some stylistic inclinations. However,
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: in season two I want to explore an urban setting
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: with mostly human characters. Now I find myself inclined towards
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: a wilderness, sandbox hex crawl, using at least some non
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: human player characters. I'll also put aside the bleak horror
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: aspects I explored in season two and try something with
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: a bit more beauty and wonder at least to start.
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: Despite these changes, all core elements will remain the same.
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: I still think home Brewed BX works as an engine
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: episode length and current story parts like narration, DM, talk
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: between the lines, dramatis personae, and combat will all remain unchanged.
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: Ascending armor class and season two level advancement rate. I
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: think we're both improvements over season one, so those will
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: not change either. I'm also going to permanently add my
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: favorite element from Tona Pigeon's mythic GM emulator, the event
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: Meaning's table, to my methodology. I won't be using them
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: quite as intended, but more on that in season three.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: Once again, the story for season three will be a
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: fresh start, an easy on ramp for new listeners. This time,
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: I'm going to begin one year after the final events
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: of season two. I'm moving the action to a new
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: and currently blank spot on the map, Zeisha's unsettled Eastern Borders,
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: because there's no human civilization in this part of Merith.
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: I won't be using the Pendulum world building tool in
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: advance of the new season. I might end up doing
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: that sometime in the future, but only if the story
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: makes it appropriate. I'm taking a little inter season break
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: this time around, but I'll keep putting out content to
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: bridge the gap. Actually, I have a couple of pretty
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: cool things in store that I think you might like.
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: In particular, I've been making a four episode mini series
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: with my good friend Steve Morrison of Errant Adventures, where
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: we take a crack at semi actual play with two
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: players and no GM. Another inter season item is my
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: intended switch from Podbean to iHeartRadio. iHeart approached me with
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: an offer and I accept it, thinking it might be
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: time to trade my usual cross promotional ads for paid ads.
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: More than anything, I'm hoping this move will improve my workflow,
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: as finding and setting up ad swapping partners can take
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: a lot of time and even bottle neck product on occasion.
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: This move should also solve the problem of sometimes having
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: an inconsistent number of ads. Some episodes tend to be
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: very ad heavy and others are light. With all this said,
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: I'm going to strictly monitor the number of ads and
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: kind of ads that appear on the show. I've even
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: paid my current provider, Podbean, for a full year of hosting,
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: just as a back up in case the new direction
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: is not a change for the better. Ideally, all these
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: things will happen behind the scenes, and as a listener,
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: you won't notice too much at all. Before I sign off,
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: a word of appreciation to all of the voice actors
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: I've had a pleasure working with, to the folks who
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: purchase my products on drive through RPG, and to everyone
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: who's given the show a rating or review or simply
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: told a friend, thank you very much. Tale of the
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: Manticor is a joy to make. It's so satisfying to
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: watch it grow, and I have all of you to
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: thank for that. When season three, episode one does launch
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: in October, I'm hoping, I hope you'll come back and
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: join me as I try to recapture the wonder, nostalgia
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: and chaos from the game we all love. Until the
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: season three premiere, Let Chaos roll.
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: Reload your three bladed sword, yet comfortable in your studded
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: leather kerdle or your chain mail bikini. Fire up the
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: wizard band. It's about to get weird. Swords Against Madness
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: is a hybrid storytelling and solo OSR roleplaying game experience
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: where I take you through a world of pulpy, weird
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: fiction and gonzo OSR roleplaying game goodness as my player
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: characters deal with telepathic squid, crashed spaceships, deranged cthulhu culpists,
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: immortal space barbarians, and priests worshiping ancient robots. And that's
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: just in the first two episodes. Come and party like
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: its nineteen seventy four, with Swords against Madness available anywhere
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: where you can download your finest podcasts.