dancingstickman

[dancingstickman]

Websites and Trailers and Art, Oh My!

Thanks, all, for getting started with me here at Dancing Stickman. I'm so psyched to announce that the Oops, All Witches website and trailer are live, with character art from our very own Tegan Mack!

Tegan plays Emmett, our Coven of the Heart witch, a 12 year-old ragamuffin urchin running the local orphanage-operating Abbess ragged with her crew of street kids. It just so happens that I've known Tegan since she was 12, and she has drawn stuff literally every day that I've known her. She's been drawing for much longer, 15 years straight, which is what her mom told me when I was texting her to say how talented her daughter is. This character art on the website is from the series poster. Tegan drew the rough sketch for the poster art for me on screen share and I'm so absolutely psyched for her finals (and character portraits! and monster art!) that I'm going full auntie-mode in the newsletter and on Tumblr to brag about her. I gotta do this for all my witches.

Keep an eye out, because next week I'll be sending out the poster art from Tegan as well as the Oops, All Witches playlist. When the podcast drops on March 10, you'll be getting the first game, which has been cut into four published episodes, all at once. We played a four-game campaign over four days, but I'm cutting each game down into 45-75 minute parts to keep the listening commitment per published episode a little easier on you, lovely audience. When we launch, you'll be getting all four parts of the first game, Episode 1: A Discovery of Witches. Then I'm releasing them bit by bit on a biweekly schedule, starting with Episode 2: Something Wicked This Way Comes Part One. Because that's how marketers keep all y'all in the audience along for the ride. I've got ✨BoCo✨ too, which I will also be doling out in dribs and drabs so that I may lure you to my hut. So stick with us via the newsletter or on Patreon!

Also, as long as you're on the website, tell your friends! There's a whole social bar with all the links for sharing on the few social platforms I don't have a dealbreaking moral problem with. Dancing Stickman is on Bluesky, YouTube, Patreon, and Tumblr. If you're on X, IG/Threads/FB, or TikTok, I've got nothing for you and I'd actually prefer you not share on those platforms, because I didn't make this podcast for the fascists who lurk there and the corporations that enable them. I'm currently internally debating the YouTube presence. Exactly how much do I want to shoot my reach in the foot? It's still TBD.

Alright, that's it for this week! Maybe next week I'll brag about Ash, our Coven of the Claw witch who's literally a published and world-renowned expert on games.

[dancingstickman]

You are absolutely doing an awful thing that you never said at all, which I decided was implicit in your comment and I made up in my to reply to you, because I'm projecting all the worst things in my psyche on to you.

why are yall not talking about the information yall don’t know? yall fake

[dancingstickman]

@quiddie I see you on Mythic Quest, wassssuuuuuup

Yelled "IT'S AABRIA" real loud at 11:00 pm

[dancingstickman]

Are you an artist? Have you worked on spec? What do you think of this business model?

Hi, I'm Sara, I'm launching a D&D actual play podcast called Oops, All Witches on March 10, and with it I'm launching my production company, Dancing Stickman.

I've been noodling on a business model for the company for like, years. Trying to make art while making a living in exploitative capitalism is hellish, and I wanted to figure out a way to build a collaborative artistic business from the ground up that is as non-exploitative as possible.

I studied business management, and my focus was sustainable entrepreneurship. Then I decided to say, "fuck alla that" and move to California, where I now work as a video editor. Now I'm trying to kinda combine art, business, and activism into one venture.

I wrote a blog post detailing what I'm calling the Sharing Business Model. If you've ever done spec work for friends, I'd really love to start a conversation and hear some feedback about the model.

[dancingstickman]

"Nature in its occult aspect, the crafty uncanniness behind the semblance of things, is embodied in the witch. Nature is at home with its polarities; patriarchies and their priestly cults not always so. The native ground of the witch is the mysteries of the great and terrible Mother. She brings us to our true nature. She breaks stasis, or brings us to it. She scares the life into us." - The Book of Symbols

Join us as we use the Witch class to tell a story about three young women who have been removed from their true nature by the structures of their society, and for good or ill, how they choose to act upon the world when suddenly granted access to it.

We have a Patreon! There's a free and a paid tier, and I genuinely don't care if you pay, I'm just happy you're here. If you join, or if you sign up for the newsletter at oopsallwitches.com, I can throw some Retributive Curses your way should anyone try to harm you. (Also, I can throw some early and exclusive content your way, too. Think bonus scenes and VTT maps of our game locations.)

[dancingstickman]

What's up my witches! 🧙‍♀️

Oops, All Witches, a 14-episode actual play campaign and playtest of the Witch class from Worlds Beyond Number, will be premiering on March 10.

Sign up for the newsletter at oopsallwitches.com, keep updated on the podcast, and get a lil boco preview scene of the Animate Hut spell in your email. 🐔🛖🦵

Welcome to Aelia.

(The website's still under construction, tysm. 🧹)

[dancingstickman]

snack achieved ✅

My hope for this arc of the wizard the witch and the wild one is for Suvi to give bad advice to Ame regarding the conclave on account of terminally being a wizard and ame taking the advice even though she knows it's bad in an attempt to atone for the whole citadel fiasco and then the whole thing blows up in their faces and Eursalon and the fox have a nice snack

[dancingstickman]

fave thing about this episode is that sam is fucking with becca, rekha, and erika equally as much as he has with anyone, but they're just vibing and having fun

[dancingstickman]

The thing is, though, is that the difference between Suvi and Ame is that Ame is cute.

Both are generous. Both care deeply. Both believe wholeheartedly in their own perspectives. Both have been indoctrinated by their environments - name one person who hasn't!

But Ame was indoctrinated by the small-town witch with a cottage and animals and a cottagecore aesthetic, while Suvi was indoctrinated by one who does the business of an empire in glass and metal and Steel. Ame defends her perspective with friendliness and smallness and cuteness, while Suvi defends hers with confidence and unapologetic Statement.

Ame carries herself in a way that invites others to protect this small, cute, apparently naive and optimistic creature. Suvi carries herself in a way that leaves no-one in any doubt that she can protect herself.

And both are wonderful, and both are flawed, and neither always sees themselves as they are to others! Who among us can say we do?

But it's their manner that sets them apart. It's their manner that leads to interpretations of Ame as harmless and Suvi as heartless. They abide by different customs, sure. But I think it's important to look beyond aesthetic and see actions. They have both made their homes a sanctuary for their friends. They have both misinterpreted, and been misinterpreted. There is no villain in this relationship. There's just two footsure, decisive people, trying to reach out to each other.

[dancingstickman]

Circe, how I love you

“Witches are not so delicate. Most men, in my experience, are fools.”

[dancingstickman]

tabaxi not nearly as graceful as i was led to believe

[dancingstickman]

sometimes the dash has fun all by itself

[dancingstickman]

[dancingstickman]

I will be a Suvi defender until I die

Aabria has played Suvi with such a nuance that feels too close to how I would react in real life. The faces I made during her interaction with Ame, to feel the walls that she's built up around her heart after watching her friends take advantage of the place that she loves, no matter how problematic or privileged that position might be, hits so close to home. We cannot choose the upbringings that we have, but to share your home, that part of your heart to your friends and watch them disrespect it is truly heartbreaking.

Yes, I am aware of how problematic the Citadel and wizards are supposed to be, but that doesn't discount the fact that the Citadel is Suvi's home. The only home she's known all her life and has only started to recently venture out into the greater world. And everyone is entitled to their opinion, but to see everyone immediately discredit Suvi's feelings because Citadel = bad just doesn't seem right to me. All of us carry marks from the place we were raised, whether intentionally or unintentionally, and Aabria just plays it all with such a brilliance that leaves my face looking like this during the tense interaction between them in the palace:

Anyways, this is all because I love Aabria and think she truly is such a genius in choosing this storyline to pursue for Suvi. As someone who once came from a position of privilege, who knows the power and journey of unlearning what you've known your entire life, I am so excited to see how Suvi's story unfolds.

[dancingstickman]

my favorite parallel between ame and suvi is that they are both very young people who grew up in one place/manner with little direct experience of the rest of the world. they're both biased against each other and towards their own traditions in the exact same way, and both have the myopia and self-righteousness of sheltered youth who have been told over and over that their tradition is the best and most correct.

eursalon, the one who isn't even *from* this world, is the one of the trio who has experienced the most of it. as a world-weary character, it's been fascinating to watch his loyalty meander between the other two when they're experiencing friction with each other. he was pretty firmly pro-suvi in arc 1 based on her status and generosity, but the more he's seen of what the citadel and the empire are doing to spirits, the more he's leaned towards ame.

frankly, i'm psyched to learn which witches of the coven of elders are of the wicked subclass. is indri? merrara? we understand why the citadel and the empire and even steel are problematic, but once we see a wicked witch in her full badness, things will change again.

God do I love how Ame and Suvi’s conflict is representative of the wider conflict between Witches and Wizards. (Long ass post incoming)

First lets look at the conflict in Chapter 2 about trusting Sly’s predictions of the conclave compared to other Citadel diviners. Witches are about community and connection. Ame trusted Sly because he had a connection to Wren, no other diviners in the Citadel had Wren’s trust that we know of just Sly. Wizards on the other hand put their faith in institutions and hierarchies. If Sly’s predictions are contradicted by those of several other diviners with more influence in the system, then his predictions should be discarded. (Also keep in mind that Sly was relegated to obscurity because his predictions were largely about things that didn’t line up with the Citadel’s priorities)

So we get tension at the end of Chapter 2 because Ame (through Wren) has a connection to and trusts more in Sly as an individual than the Citadel’s diviners as an institution. Suvi on the other hand hears Steel say that a group of diviners might have contrary evidence to what Sly predicted and instinctively puts her trust in the institution over the individual.

As a result Suvi and Steel dismiss Ame’s concerns about Sly’s predictions until Ame gets so worked up about the issue that she takes drastic action to return to Toma and prepare. Of course Suvi is right to be upset with the manor in which Ame leaves, it’s incredibly reckless and could have lead to several civilians (and Eursalon!!) getting injured or killed. However she fails to see her and Steel’s roles in pushing Ame into immediate action. Steel never took Ame seriously, and Suvi largely agreed with her.

And now we get to Episode 25 and Suvi’s scathing tirade against Ame.

A big theme of this arc seems to be how both Witches and Wizards look down on one another. Steel has her line about Witches seeing Wizards as “devious, paranoid, and buffoonish,” while Suvi blows up on Ame for “that smart ass tone about Wizards.”

And you know what they’re right. Witches do look down on Wizards.

I find myself wondering how Ame, Witch of the World’s Heart and the steward of humanity, could NOT look down on Wizards. The Wizards of the Citadel may be the brightest minds humanity has to offer, but they use those gifts to fuel a seemingly endless war with Ruve and Gouthmai (a war that threatens the lives and homes of Eursalon’s family). The Citadel seems to glorify violence (remember in Chapter 1 when Suvi proudly displayed that she spilled blood on behalf of the Citadel?). We also know from Kalaya that over time the Citadel went from what was essentially a huge university, to a homogeneous and militarized society.

Thats without even mentioning how Steel herself proves the Witches assessment of Wizards correct! Steel concocts a plan for Suvi that is devious in its intentions, paranoid in its secrecy, and buffoonish in how it could undermind the meeting of the Coven and cost both Ame and Suvi their lives if discovered. While Suvi is lecturing Ame on judging Wizards she has unknowingly agreed to a plan that proves all of her assumptions correct.

Suvi is probably my favorite character in this campaign. Aabria absolutely BRINGS IT every session. I’ve no doubt that many of the things listed in this post crossed her mind and were intentional. After all, the Citadel is a defining part of Suvi’s identity.

Wizards exist in a world that does not take them seriously. We’re 25 episodes in and spirits and witches alike have constantly referred to Wizards in pejorative terms. It’s not hard to see how someone like Suvi, born in the thick of the world of Wizards would cling to the Citadel as the lone institution of the world that advocates for Wizards. Because Suvi is a wizard she is preemptively judged by nearly every witch and spirit in the story. So of course she’ll judge them too.

After all, wouldn’t you?

[dancingstickman]

game changer arg conspiracy thing

okay SO sound off, what do we know?

today's episode was intercut with footage of sam as a child

he's been possessed (??) doing a hand thing for all the eps of this season

sam has VEHEMENTLY denied any kind of dodginess

i've not scrubbed through the episode frame by frame yet but there might be something in the special characters in the glitches in the names during it?

anything else?

[dancingstickman]

uh oh

NEVER ever forget to plan for the Minotaur. ALWAYS factor the Minotaur into your plans DO NOT FORGET THIS