#Goodness me this year has already been awesome for me finding audio dramas

[coconut530]

I’ve caught another one, fellas

[dayenurose]

Bughead Appreciation Week - Day One: Fandom Love Day

While this last season was airing, a friend who is only tangentially interested in Riverdale asked me to let her know when there were episodes (or, as it turned out to be, parts of episodes) worth watching. The criteria for ‘worth watching’ was simple enough—good Bughead moments. There really wasn’t much in the way of quality show content to offer her this season, but there were a few moments.

After 5x17, I started the conversation with “Last night’s episode of Bughead….” When I corrected my mistake, she responded with “No, I like what you call the show better.”

And, yes, I had to agree. Bughead is why I watch the show. It’s why I keep coming back, in hopes that the relationship developing over the first four seasons will return. But, while the show continually disappoints, the Bughead fandom hasn’t.

Being new to the fandom, there is an abundance of riches in which to indulge. I’ve had many more hours of enjoyment delving into the amazing fanworks than I ever had of watching the show. Because my record keeping is abysmal and I have years of ficfiction I’ve delved into over the past seven months, there’s no way I can mention all the writers and artists and fan creators that I have helped cement my enjoyment as a Bughead fan.

Here are a few shoutouts to those who have been part of my journey and have made it worth continuing…

@mieteve-minijoma (ao3) — We met in another fandom and when I finally took the plunge into Riverdale, Bina listened to me ramble about the show. She is an awesome, encouraging friend. Thanks for being there as I started this crazy journey. She is also an amazing writer. I love her Fairytale of New York series.

@50shades-of-bughead / @decydoodles (ao3) — Decy has created a myriad of worlds featuring Bughead, each of which pulls me deeper into loving Bughead. She not only has an amazing talent as an artist, but as a storyteller as well. Even when the story is a drawing and a few paragraphs, you know that there’s a whole world there to explore. Her attention to detail is spectacular. I love looking at her drawings and finding those details which add so much depth to the stories she’s telling.  Decy is also incredibly encouraging, kind, and generous. Check out her art on both her Tumblrs. Her SoS stories are absolutely spellbinding and has introduced Pen (eeiii!) to the world. Also, definitely give Armageddon a read!

Podfics - I’ve always been a fan of audio books, audio dramas, and other forms of audio storytelling. I love being able to listen to a story while my hands are busy crafting or cooking, etc. So, I was absolutely delighted when I came across these two lovely individuals who made Bughead podfics. Check out the collection of podfics by Mo1347 (I wasn’t able to find a Tumblr for Mo) and Hufflepuff Betty ( @protectorofthesmoll ).

For an added podfic bonus, check out HufflepuffBetty’s Welcome to Riverdale. It’s a clever fic which gives us a Nightvale AU version of Riverdale. (It works!) And, I can tell already miles better than anything we’ll see in Rivervale.

@bughead-in-the-comics - Before coming to Riverdale and subsequently Bughead, my familiarity with Jughead and Betty was mainly through cultural osmosis. Thank you to bighead-in-the-comics for your dedication in sharing the long history of Bughead in the comics. I appreciate all the work you’ve done.

@blueandgoldoffice, and @bughead-quotes - A big thanks to the folks that run these blogs. These blogs are dedicated to sharing (and finding) Bughead fics. They’ve helped introduce me to many an excellent fics that would have passed me by. And, the tag system at blueandgoldoffice has been a great help when I have an idea about the kind of fic I’m interested in reading at the moment, but don’t have a particular story in mind.

There are many more fics and authors that I have come to love. I can’t name them all. Here are a few that I have read multiple times and have greatly shaped my understanding and enjoyment of Bughead. While I’ve only mentioned one fic for each of the authors, all their fics are worth reading.

The Elusive Elenor Clancy by @darknessaroundus  (Part of the Willowdale-verse series)

On the Observation of Trifles by @thepointoftheneedle

a comic miniverse series by @sullypants 

Eye for an Eye by @lazydaizies

Cowboy Jones series by @writeradamanteve 

What Does Shakespeare Know? Parts (1) (2) (3) by makingitwork (@typing123)

For everyone I have and haven’t mentioned--Thank you for writing, drawing, making edits and gif sets, and sharing episode analysis, fan theories, and synopsis. Thank you for being part of fandom and sharing your work. Thanks to everyone who has liked, kudo-ed, re-blogged and reviewed. You all make our fandom a wonderful place to be. It’s all of you who keep us invested in this fandom and creating. Thank you. <3<3<3

[flying-elliska]

so, I finished the magnus archives ...(spoilers)

unfortunately i'd been spoiled for most of what happened in it but it was still cool to listen to especially since the audio work on it was incredible (those haunted tape noises are the coolest thing i've ever heard on a podcast, it was so slick)

it worked for me on the level of the emotional reaction. it was very sad and poignant. i often find horror stories difficult because either the characters are assholes and then i don't care and the whole thing becomes pointless for me or i get too attached to the characters and then I'm devastated when bad things happen to them and this was definitely the former. I really wish these characters existed in a spooky paranormal fantasy/workplace comedy-drama where they could get the comfort and overwinnings they deserved, but alas. i get they were bound by the genre though and that bad things needed to happen. i think they did a good job of balancing the horror and tragedy and not making it too grim at the same time.

it didn't blow me away either tbh, like for instance the s4 ending did. but i think after all the insane levels of world-building up they did, it was bound to be a bit underwhelming, with some arcs and characters left underused (Agnes!!!!). it misses a bit of a wow factor i had at other times in the series. the thing with horror is that there is only so far you can push character growth before it becomes too optimistic, and so when you go really deep into a character arc that's not strictly a corruption, it can often feel frustrating and unfinished in terms of emotional payoff.

I have mixed feelings about s5 as a whole. It's really cool that they experimented with something new, the concept of the fearscape is fascinating, and some of the statements are among my favorites in the whole show (the Sick Village, Recollections, the Gardener, Wonderland, the Processing Line, Moving on...) and really bring the cosmic horror/metaphor for the horrors of capitalism/ableism/abuse/etc in a way that feels strangely cathartic and understanding and glorious - but a lot of the others, especially in act 2/3, felt very forgettable and repetitive, and less like stories that could stand on their own, which i loved about the more traditional statements. Once it becomes clear that Jon (and Martin as a consequence) can't really be hurt, and the more it all becomes very detached from the real world, the sense of doom and foreboding that they did so well throughout the whole show kind of vanishes. The tension weirdly feels lower because the worst has already happened. I really believe in 'more is less' when it comes to scary things, and in a hell world where everything is horrible everywhere, it has less impact after a while. I did love the relationship between Jon and Martin providing those moments of humanity and warmth in the midst of it all, though, that was sweet.

the end itself...well, I found the dilemma interesting on a character level. of course Jon would sacrifice himself ; he feels so guilty he would doom the entire world to die rather than have to shoulder even more guilt for the fears potentially conquering other dimensions. he's spent so long feeling powerless and out of his depth that he would grasp this chance to finally make a choice and have agency and protect at least some people and keep the fears from extending their reach. but i love that he wasn't able to see it through either. it's so human. him and Martin breaking their promises to each other isn't miscommunication, it's deeply rooted in their respective personalities. of course Martin would do anything not to lose Jon since that love is basically the thing that saved him from the Lonely.

i don't think any of the options they had were the 'right choice' - both were shitty and atrocious, but the one that ended up happening is the one i would have picked, because it leaves some space for hope. If Jon had chosen to end their world to trap the fears, killing billions of people in the process, that would have been certain doom. With the fears sucked into other dimensions - first of all they had no certainty that the fears didn't already exist somewhere else, and any of the other worlds still have a fighting chance. I mean, it still sucks tremendously, it's very scary and ethically questionable and a massive risk, but at least it's open and it leaves it up to the people in the other worlds to make their own choices. And their world has a chance to recover. I find the idea that people remember what happened and the concept of a post-post apocalyptic world fascinating. I also really like that Melanie, Georgie and Basira (and the Admiral) made it out alive, and that we don't really know what happened to Jon and Martin. For a horror podcast that's super dark, violent and depressing, it's kind of awesome how they managed to sidestep 'bury your gays' very elegantly.

I've read this head canon somewhere of Jon and Martin being scattered across dimensions as these not-quite-human anymore entities that work to warn people and counteract the fears, powered by love and the desire to make things better, and I think that's my favorite post-canon option, because while it's still kind of a horrible fate it's also the one that gives them the most agency and it's also kind of romantic (way too much for a horror podcast, I'm aware, but i like that open endings like these allow you to make your own decisions about what happened).

also, the Web won, which is terrifying. the idea that it's using people as neurons ! horrible. amazing.

on a philosophical level I'm not sure i find the whole thing all that interesting, as a thought experiment, because i don't believe the universe is this consistently evil in the real world, so i don't find it super relevant. I'm also not the kind of hardcore fan who remembers a lot of details about previous seasons, so maybe I'm missing something.

But yeah overall I think in terms of storytelling this remains a pretty decent ending with enough layers to make it satisfying. it wasn't transcendent but it didn't ruin the whole thing, at least (*cough cough the Black Tapes*) and I can see myself listening to it again in a few years. and i'm definitely going to need a few fix-it fics now.

[spockandawe]

HEY THERE, you have me interested in The Untamed but I'm a little lost as to where to start, there's both a 50 episode normal version and a 20 episode special edition, which should I watch/start with? Also WHAT does your svsss tag stand for? I'm seeing "The Untamed" and "Chén Qíng Lìng" and "Mo Dao Zu Shi" and "Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation" thrown around as synonyms or related pieces of media, but nothing with svsss!

Sure thing!!

Okay, to start with, I’d definitely go with the 50-episode version. It’s a Lot, and there is some padding added to the story compared to the original book, but twenty episodes seems really, really short to do justice to the central plot 

(a quick skim of google tells me that the special edition leans harder into the original novel’s gayness, which the show has to be coy about, because china. i think there are expanded scenes featuring the two leads, which is awesome, because their acting is AMAZING, but that just means the plot scenes are even more compressed. I saw at least one person recommend that you not do the special edition unless you’ve consumed the story in at least one other more standard format already)

Also! Iirc, the show is available on youtube and netflix, among other platforms, though those two are wonderfully accessible. However, comma, I do hear from people fluent in chinese that the subtitles sometimes are inaccurate in unnecessary/unfortunate ways. From what I hear, viki has the best complete set of subtitles (I think there may be fansub projects in progress, but I am not at all in touch with those. I still haven’t watched the show myself).

And the general summary of my current webnovel fixation! There’s this webnovel author who goes by mxtx, who currently has three complete books out, which have all been translated into english. Then after I finished those, I started branching out into other authors and webnovels, though I’m not too deep into that end of the pool yet. I’ll break each book into a separate paragraph for clarity. 

Oh, and. Each of these books is explicitly gay, and set in ancient fantasy china, in a wuxia/xianxia setting, which I’m not too familiar with myself, but I believe it functions a lot like how authors will use ‘ancient fantasy europe’ as a playground where they don’t necessarily need to match up to established countries/cities/etc, but they expect readers to recognize certain conventions, like I’d be able to recognize a western author writing a basic feudal setting, or recognize witches and wizards, without them explaining the whole thing from the bottom up. Since I’m not familiar, it raised the difficulty level a little for me to get into the genre, but the webnovel translators tend to use footnotes and I picked up a lot as I went on.

(if you are interested in any of these, novelupdates.com is a good central resource collecting links to various fan translation projects)

So! Mxtx. Her earliest book is The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System (SVSSS), which is also the shortest and most linear of her books. The general premise is that a guy who’s been hate-reading this (straight) stallion harem webnovel with a dark protagonist. He goes to bed, and wakes up in the novel, as the protagonist’s dickbag teacher, who is doomed to eventually die horribly. He wants to not die, and is also a decent human being, so the book follows the “original” novel derailing from its intended path, and accidentally getting super duper gay. This one is about to come out in donghua form, but I think that may be its first non-book adaption.

Her second book, which was adapted into The Untamed/Chen Qing Ling (CQL), is also known as The Grandmaster Of Demonic Cultivation/Mo Dao Zu Shi (MDZS), which really manages to be the hardest of her books to summarize. Wei Wuxian, the grandmaster of demonic cultivation, dies. Thirteen years later, he wakes up in someone else’s body. Most of the world would like him to stay dead, tbh, but he’s a good egg, and he and his old friend(????) go forth and solve a necromantic mystery together, and also there is romance-romance and ten million family feelings. This one gets nonlinear, with several extended flashback sequences, and the story STARTS at about the midway point of the plot. This has been adapted into an audio drama at least once, a manhua, a donghua, and now a live action show, so it goes by a million different names in its various formats.

Her third book, and the LONGEST, is Heaven Official’s Blessing/Tian Guan Ci Fu (TGCF), and oh my god, it’s so long, and I love it so, so much. This gets into high fantasy much  more than the other two, including the idea that as people develop their cultivation and powers, they may eventually achieve immortality and ascend to the heavens. The story follows Xie Lian who achieved immortality and ascended to heaven! And then fell. And then ascended! And fell again. Eight hundred years later, he ascends for the third time. He meets Hua Cheng, the ridiculously powerful ghost king, who most of the other immortals are terrified of. But Hua Cheng seems to like Xie Lian! And Xie Lian thinks Hua Cheng is a sweet boy! (hua cheng is a sweet boy, but only for xie lian). This also has extended flashback sequences, but is a more linear story than MDZS, I think. Also it made me cry, which, wow, rude. I love it so incredibly much. This also exists as a manhua, but I think it’s still being published? I haven’t read it yet.

NOW. Mxtx is working on a fourth book, but it’s not out in chinese yet, never mind english. But I needed More. I was getting some SVSSS vibes from this one other book, which, *wobbly hand motions*, but I am enjoying the hell out of this book purely for its own sake.

Meatbun is an author with other books that I haven’t read yet, but I am currently in the middle of The Husky And His White Cat Shizun/Er Ha He Ta De Bai Mo Shi Zun (Erha/2ha), which is at this moment being adapted to a live action tv show called Immortality. There are MANY warnings that go with this book, though the google docs translation files do a good job of placing warnings at the front of every document and in front of relevant chapters. The general premise! Mo Ran basically conquered the entire world, put down all resistance by force, and was a super powerful but Kinda Dumb emperor. As part of this, he took his old teacher, who he despised with a burning passion, prisoner, and abused him a Lot. The story starts as rebels try to mount an assault on his palace, and Mo Ran’s cousin gets impatient with how slowly things are moving and runs ahead of the group. He finds that (suicide warning:) Mo Ran has... taken poison, and is in the middle of dying. This doesn’t stick. He wakes up as a teenager, apparently having traveled back in time, and starts living through events again, with the knowledge of his past life. It took me a while to warm up to this story, but ohhhh my goodness, it’s so TASTY. The translation for this one is ongoing, and I am in AGONY waiting for further updates.

So those are the ones I’m currently into and mostly blogging about! I also read Dreamer In The Spring Boudoir, mostly because feynite wrote an SVSSS fic set in the universe of that novel, which was good in some ways, left me cold in others (and the original novel is straight, with a society with rigid gender roles, so making it super gay in the fic made the setting much more interesting to me). Meatbun has other writing, which I haven’t sampled yet, but I am definitely interested in doing that sometime soon. 

Sorry, I know this is a LOT, so if you have any other questions feel free to ask me!! I got into these mostly via being interested in the untamed, so I read them as 1) mdzs, 2) svsss, 3) tgcf, 4) erha, which was an order that worked well for me. But if someone was looking for a general order to read them in, independent of that, I might suggest 1) svsss, 2) mdzs, 3) tgcf, 4) erha. They’re all really good, and scratch different emotional itches, and each of them has at least a few characters who sucker-punch me RIGHT in the goddamn heart. They’ve been a HUGE help for me dealing with the restlessness and/or apathy of quarantine, so I’ve been evangelizing them to pretty much anyone who will listen to me, hahaha

[rqs902]

.

IS THAT WHO I THINK IT IS 

ITS MY BOY ENYU!!!! ON THE FRONT PAGE???? okay also a big deal for zhaohao and li hao too!!!

ok now into part 2 of the ep

interesting that they focused on junhao for everybody. can understand he probably has the most different and struggle experience so probably more interesting for dramas sake lol im surprised they dont spend more time on shengen, considering his popularity. 

HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAA JUNHAO FREAKING OUT over the fact that they only learned the dance for 40 mins. LOL thats the level of tyger + kou cong + shengen, i can imagine the struggle of the yang guang nan hai group in comparison AHAHA i just imagine him running down the hall freaking out like HOW DID THEY LEARN THE DANCE IN JUST ONE CLASS WHAT ARE THESE PEOPLE 

lollll “theyre all dachang boys” “theyre all zhang yixing’s students” HAHAHAH you know even though he is slightly struggling compared to the rest, he aint bad and theyre all taking it light hearted with laughter so seems like a good learning environment! and he’s confident he’ll get it LOL thats good! i think thats what makes him so amusing 

HAHAHA i love how lin mo just keeps giggling at junhao like he genuinely just finds him so amusing LOL yay for making new friends 

awww bc junhao’s always been a leader i feel like for him to finally feel like hes being taken care of is so nice. i have absolute confidence that this group will treat him kindly. AW HE CALLED HIM MOMO 

im still disappointed they have YET to show zhan yu’s funny/strange personality and this wouldve been a great opportunity bc hes surrounded by friends he’s comfortable with!! like his friendship with kou cong! or akey and lin mo! but sigh...

THEY PUT ZHAN YU IN THE FRONT FOR THE SEXUAL LINE HAHAHHA PERFECT BUT I SEE LIN MO BEING ONE OF THE ONLY ONES NOT SHOWING HIS ABS HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAA

wow the lyrics are so fitting for lin mo to scream LOL but also ay his vocals?! aw im glad they put in a little rap for shengen and akey! honestly was kinda hoping for more bc they havent had a proper stage together before and i feel like itd be awesome but also junhao and zhan yu vocalization at the end was on point!!

lol all the kids being like zhang pd’s words are so detailed and professional... sigh theyve been missing out until now 

im glad they really pointed out how each member of this team did well! they really all did a great job with each of their parts, and they each got a little part to shine, and when put together, it was a complete performance. im proud of them and happy for them!

aw.... i feel like we’ve been waiting so long to hear lin mo get complimented.... i feel like it’s been since qcyn namanana that we’ve been waiting for him to redeem himself and climb back up to the peak. ugh its been nearly a year and a half. im just so terrified of whats gonna happen next bc im way too skeptical at this point to expect this high to continue, esp with what happened after namanana last time......... but for now, im happy. relieved hes finally getting the recognition he deserves and im happy that hes happy. lol i was also half scared we were gonna get spirit of the knight-ed again with his pink hair (nightmare flashbacks to lin mo and changxi’s deletion from that perf) i dont think ill ever get over that :( i feel like as a lin mo stan, ive been trained to not keep my hopes up and to prepare for the worst bc hes the type of person who just always gets the short end of the stick, it feels like. 

aw the part when they go back to the waiting room and jin fan is waiting for them with an encouraging smile and the whole exchange of "帥的真的帥的" "哇~可以吧" "我沒想到" "那必須的" our leader did them proud :’) 

ugh the part where luo jie calls them and tells them he can’t come back........ heart breaking. i can see why lin ran and xikan would be really affected. lin ran has been luo jie’s go-to since he left and knowing how their usual friendship involves making fun of one another and jokingly complaining about each other, it hits hard when lin ran says he cried his eyes out. it hurts that they didnt get to share the stage again before he left. xikan may not have shared the stage with luo jie during ip, but hes known him since then and has been with him through both rounds here. it interesting bc i feel like the namanana perf was very light hearted on qcyn but i cant see that happening here, esp with their outfits? 

aw shiwei and chaowen taking charge to raise their spirits :’) 

lin ran’s voice fits so well with this song wow! i really like his lines! also lol i didnt know xikan would have abs but okay and tbh im always hesitant about dances with props bc it always is so easy to look messy..... like every slight difference in angle in the way you hold your arms is immediately magnified 

and like sxl’s fan is obviously broken and having performed fan dances myself i know that that’s like the most annoying thing to happen on stage, and can be really difficult to deal with, even tho it happens ALL THE TIME with those types of fans ugh :( 

i mean its super kind of them to leave luo jie’s space empty for him, but its kinda weird to have parts of the audio missing sadly :( and also chaowen’s voice did something weird in the middle there, like its sounds weirdly weak 

wait didnt yixing tell them to close the fan? but they didnt? 

xikan’s facial expressions are perfecttt, good for him! wish they gave more screen time to shiwei during shiwei’s lines lol... but also i cant help but hear lin mo’s voice during that part LOL ugh speaking of which i miss that team dynamic namanana team a on qcyn HAHAHAH hwx being a brat and fjj running around wild and lin mo giving up on them all just laughing like idiots for hours on end while bo yuan just judges them from a corner LOL i love the beginning of the wenxuan and lin mo friendship good times :’)  

HAHAH ENYU AGAIN WITH THE REALEST COMMENTS - i agree AHHAHAH i love these kids too but there was something off about this stage 

im surprised but also not surprised by what the judges are saying 

o didnt realize sxl was supposed to be center but i guess that explains the big puffy thing on his shoulder lol.......... agree with cx tho, even without his broken fan, i think the fans made them look worse bc it just looked messy 

well idk if we’re getting all the stages today but at least jin fan’s is also getting aired! TYGER HUG FOR JIN FAN YESS

jin fan teaching them dance? yes thank you for showing us he is a good dancer. oof jin fan’s just too nice :( hes trying to avoid conflict too much that it caused conflict smh......... lol oscar trying to talk to su er hes having such struggle i feel that bro LOL hes doing really well though, tbh being relatively young, hes really trying his best and is being reasonable. 

LOL HE CALLED HIM JIN FAN GE i forgot jin fan is considered old lol..... jin fan really taking the higher road here and im glad they sat together and talked it out a bit

THE JIN FAN VOICE YESSSS hahahhaha kou cong holding the tyger sign!!

oo is that some of his bel canto-style singing coming through LOL 

AY NICE for hong weihao and oscar to put in some rap 

some of those high notes were a bit questionable at the end but okay jin fan is really claiming that vocal + dance teacher role i see.... interesting 

but agree with yixing that he doesnt need to force himself to do high notes bc his voice is so nice regardless!! yay for oscar getting recognition! im still waiting for jin fan to do a cool dance performance sigh

wasnt expecting an enyu feature BUT ILL TAKE IT 

oof huang enyu saying hes really trying to put himself out there by going for leader and the realest comment that he hasnt considered getting to debut he just wants to pass this round oof and he feels like his opportunities may be cut short bc hes getting old oof

enyu and chenxu crying watching the movie 

AW THEIR HAHA VIDEOS ARE THE CUTEST THING I LOVE THESE KIDSSS so sad that so many of them are at risk of elimination :(  im glad these vocals made their own friend group! I hope itll be a memory they carry forward. they do all have shared experiences as vocals on this show. 

this reaction to junrong’s voice

same tho :’) but actually all of their voices are so so nice like actually these 5 are all people whose voices ive really listened for on this show, but wow renyu’s voice in particular like really ugh just sounds so pure 

also enyu looks really nice in this performance but thats a side note okay moving on

i mean literally these reactions

and li hao crying while singing and so many kids in the waiting room crying while watching OOF this perf has got me emotional 

HAHAHHAHA THEIR INTROS HAHAHHA

UGH ENYU his plea just.... the way he yelled it bc it mustve taken courage and it mustve been a frustration on his mind for a while now and bc maybe he wouldve broken down if he hadnt yelled it out but im really crying now.... and its so out of character for him that you know he really really is feeling desperate and feels the need to speak out

lol wait gjm posted on weibo about him? is that why hes getting more attention lol..........

i really hope the vocals win :( 

no tygers in the next ep preview? hmmMMMMMmm okay 

well also interesting that they put the other 4 perfs with the elims...... seems sketch but at least most of my kids got to go this week ahhhhhh i feel bad for the other groups already. esp the ones with the kids who arent as popular... 

[theonyxpath]

Titanomachy art by Michel Giorgi

The Kickstarter for They Came From Beyond the Grave! finished up last week with a massive surge of pledges in the last three days. This enabled us to achieve several more Stretch Goals than we expected, which is definitely the best way to end up with a Kickstarter!

Thanks to everyone who backed and spread the word about the project!

Looking at the number of backers, in addition to the pledge amount, we are absolutely thrilled to see that this second game in the series surpassed our first game, They Came From Beneath the Sea!. We kind of thought going in that the subject matter might line up with the interests of large portions of our community, so if that’s why TCFBtG! did so well, that works for us!

It certainly looks like a third game in the series might come moseying down the trail…

But before we get to that new game, whatever it is, and its inevitable Kickstarter, here’s a reminder that next week on Thursday the 3rd we are starting the Kickstarter for Scion: Demigod! More on that next week as I give you the rundown on this latest core book for Scion and how its Kickstarter is going to be verrrry different than the KS for Scion: Origin and Scion: Hero!

Be there. Aloha! (As Steve McGarrett used to say in the 70s).

Titanomachy art by Felipe Gaona

I’m really thrilled to be able to reveal today that on Wednesday, in addition to our releases for sale, our Scarred Lands adventure The Gauntlet of Spiragos will go live as an offering on the Astral TableTop virtual tabletop venue!

This is thrilling for me for a couple of reasons.

First, as long-time MMN Blog readers know, I’ve been beating the drum for us to make more of our worlds available on the various VTT venues that folks use to play online with their friends for years.

Now that the idea of playing TTRPGs online has really caught on, and the tools to do so are getting better and better every day, it’s satisfying to see that my impulse to push in that direction is more and more considered a viable direction for us to put effort towards.

(There’s more info on Astral TableTop below in the Blurbs!).

It’s also thrilling for me because Gauntlet of Spiragos is an adventure I wrote because I had to do something creative in the TTRPG space while I was working on the late, lamented, WoD MMO.

Many a weekend I spent crouched over my laptop wresting with the writing and bouncing ideas off my housemates and my good buddy Aaron Voss. In fact, it was started during the onset of 4th Edition D&D, and edited into 5th Edition thanks to the keen eye and gaming knowledge of editor Scott Holden.

This was before Stewart Wieck and I bought the Scarred Lands IP from White Wolf, even. I just needed to create something that I could pull together without endless meetings and huge teams and giant budgets like the WoDMMO.

To see it now being reconfigured to work not as a book but as a VTT adventure is just amazing and I’m hoping that folks enjoy playing through it!

Terra Firma art by Shen Fei

Speaking of creating games, last Friday’s Onyx Pathcast featured Dixie, Eddy, and Matthew spinning the “wheel of game concepts” and creating game pitches on the fly. The birth of new game ideas, with the three of them rocking the cradle. I think they managed to pull together nine of them, and honestly, each one could make for a viable game – and some are real gems!

I think they’d love to hear which ones sound the best from folks listening, so please do check out last Friday’s Onyx Pathcast and drop them a comment as to which games you personally would be interested in playing.

Who knows, maybe they’ll convince me to green-light it!

Not so much a green light, but more in the lines of a blue light special, here’s just a reminder that the sale over at IPR on our 20th Anniversary Deluxe Editions and accessories is in its last week, and we are still participating in DTRPG‘s Cthulhoid sale for PDFs. Plus, I hear that we’ll be offering some sales on selected Scarred Lands PDFs over at DTRPG soon, as well.

I know sometimes it seems like I’m always pushing you to sales in this space, yet I do feel obligated since we actually do talk about business stuff in our Monday Meeting from which I derive these notes.

We do have fun and talk about the creative aspects of what we do AND necessarily we talk about schedules and sales and productivity and marketing and everything that goes on behind the scenes to make our:

Many Worlds, One Path!

Blurbs!

Kickstarter!

Coming next week, September 3rd at 2pm EDT: Scion Demigod Second Edition!

Onyx Path Media!

This week: playing off of Eddy’s extremely helpful productivity sessions with developers and writers, the Trio will be talking about the ever-gushing tide of workflow on all of our many amazing projects!

As always, this Friday’s Onyx Pathcast will be on Podbean or your favorite podcast venue! https://onyxpathcast.podbean.com/

For anyone new to our media section, you can find us running and playing games over on twitch.tv/theonyxpath pretty much every day of the week! Plus, if you’d like your games hosted there, just get in touch with Matthew Dawkins using the contact link on matthewdawkins.com.

Please give our Twitch channel a follow, as you can find a huge number of videos of all kinds of games being run!

This week on Twitch, expect to see these games and streams running:

Scarred Lands – A Family Affair

Technocracy Reloaded – Vorpal Tales

Danielle’s RPG Development Workshop

Hunter: The Vigil – Cold Cases Forsaken Spaces

Changeling: The Dreaming – The Last Faerie Tale

Mage: The Awakening – Occultists Anonymous

Vampire: The Masquerade – Boston by Night

Chronicles of Darkness – Tooth and Claw

Deviant: The Renegades – A Cautionary Tale

Get watching for some fantastic insight into how to run these wonderful games and subscribe to us on Twitch, over at twitch.tv/theonyxpath

Come take a look at our YouTube channel, youtube.com/user/theonyxpath, where you can find a whole load of videos of actual plays, dissections of our games, and more, including:

Hunter: The Vigil – Hometown Heroes Episode 3 – https://youtu.be/R8FxrD_Pul4

Legendlore Actual Play w/Steffie de Vaan – https://youtu.be/6mBiaNcgaG8

Scarred Lands – Purge of the Serpentholds S1E12 – https://youtu.be/F-ib8M5_ZvI

Deviant: The Renegades – A Cautionary Tale Episode 4 – https://youtu.be/5mThqtWBCQg

They Came from Beneath the Sea! – They Came from Devil’s Reef 1/2 – https://youtu.be/TV0hJ75qOy0

Hunter: The Vigil – Uptown Shadows Episode 2 – https://youtu.be/WJUgs2qp1g8

Realms of Pugmire – Paws and Claws S2E12 – https://youtu.be/d5KQ-jmQxZE

Subscribe to our channel and click the bell icon if you want to be notified whenever new news videos and uploads come online!

Tom Murr starts up a They Came from Beneath the Sea! audio drama over on his YouTube channel as of today! Radio ReScience Episode 1: A New Beginning, can be found right here: https://youtu.be/AT2DqzlBMLM

Systematic Understanding of Everything is a new Exalted Explainer Podcast by Exalted Dev Monica Speca and Exalted Writer Chazz Kellner that is breaking down Creation in 45 minute chunks in preparation for Exalted Essence.

Their most recent episodes are available over on https://www.exaltcast.com/, with their newest covering the stunning Sidereals!

The Story Told Podcast continue their new chapter in the Fall of Jiara Exalted chronicle, and you can find a series of interludes focusing on their characters right here: https://thestorytold.libsyn.com/fall-of-jiara-24-between-rebellion-and-courtship

Chris Allen continues his excellent chronicle of Werewolf: The Forsaken over on Paleo Gaming’s Twitch channel. Do check out Very Angry Dogs! https://www.twitch.tv/paleo_gaming

Two new Occultists Anonymous episodes for you fans of Mage: The Awakening! Find them right here:

Episode 122: Power Issues  The cabal begin their plans for striking out at Seattle with investigations and some political maneuvering. Of course, they need to leave something for the newbies to work on too…+ https://youtu.be/nHKSoj8t_8U

Episode 123: It Was Only a Kiss Atratus reaches out to a known associate of Mr. Graves and the cabal join together to investigate the dream that Atratus had just a night before. https://youtu.be/fjDtAWkv3jU

Please check these out and let us know if you find or produce any actual plays of our games! We’d love to feature you!

Electronic Gaming!

As we find ways to enable our community to more easily play our games, the Onyx Dice Rolling App is live! Our dev team has been doing updates since we launched based on the excellent use-case comments by our community, and this thing is awesome! (Seriously, you need to roll 100 dice for Exalted? This app has you covered.)

We’re told that the App Dev is currently creating an updated version for the latest devices, so keep an eye open for those!

Virtual TableTop!

Introducing a Virtual Tabletop adventure: the Gauntlet of Spiragos for Scarred Lands on Astral TableTop!

Scars of the Divine War, which ended less than 200 years ago, have still not healed. One such scar is the Chasm of Flies, a rent in the earth created when the titan Spiragos the Ambusher was smote down by one of the young gods, Vangal the Ravager. Now, the Chasm is inhabited by spider-eye goblins and their spider allies, but it is also thought to be the resting place of powerful artifacts from that elder age.

Gauntlet of Spiragos is a Scarred Lands adventure designed for 1st level characters, although it can be easily modified for characters of up to 5th level.

Astral TableTop is the easiest way to play any tabletop RPG online, free. Astral already supports popular systems like D&D and Pathfinder, and Astral can support virtually any tabletop roleplaying game. Get started quickly with built-in support for most popular game systems. Whether you’re brand new to TTRPGs or a veteran tabletop gamer, Astral‘s ease-of-use and built in automation is designed to streamline gameplay.

Astral is browser-based and uses the latest technology to streamline your storytelling experience. Connect with your party online and run your campaigns however you like. Astral offers tools optimized for phone, tablet, and desktop devices, no installation required.

Build epic battlemaps using Astral‘s enormous collection of scenery, props, and tokens or upload your own. Pro users gain access to over 12,000+ assets and fresh new packs every month. Add weather, visual effects, triggers, and so much more with easy-to-use tools

Build your own adventure, or choose from pre-generated game kits like Gauntlet of Spiragos. Create character sheets, craft maps, or just jump right in to connect with your friends and start your adventures!

On Amazon and Barnes & Noble!

You can now read our fiction from the comfort and convenience of your Kindle (from Amazon) and Nook (from Barnes & Noble).

If you enjoy these or any other of our books, please help us by writing reviews on the site of the sales venue from which you bought it. Reviews really, really help us get folks interested in our amazing fiction!

Our selection includes these latest fiction books:

Our Sales Partners!

We’re working with Studio2 to provide our traditionally printed books out into your local game stores. Game stores can order via their usual distributors, and can also contact Studio2 directly. And individuals can check out our projects via the links below!

You can pick up the traditionally printed Pugmire and Monarchies of Mau main books, screens, and the official dice through our friends there! https://studio2publishing.com/search?q=pugmire

Now, we’ve added Chronicles of Darkness books such as Changeling: The Lost Second Edition products to Studio2‘s store! See them here: https://studio2publishing.com/collections/all-products/changeling-the-lost

Scion 2e books and other products are available now at Studio2: https://studio2publishing.com/blogs/new-releases/scion-second-edition-book-one-origin-now-available-at-your-local-retailer-or-online

Our Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition books are also available from Studio2 in the US: https://studio2publishing.com/products/vampire-the-masquerade-chicago-by-night-sourcebook

Looking for our Deluxe or Prestige Edition books? Try this link! http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Onyx-Path-Publishing/

And you can order Pugmire, Monarchies of Mau, Cavaliers of Mars, and Changeling: The Lost 2e at the same link! And now Scion Origin and Scion Hero and Trinity Continuum Core and Trinity Continuum: Aeon are available to order

It’s the final week of the DOG DAYS OF SUMMER SALE!

As always, you can find Onyx Path’s titles at DriveThruRPG.com!

The Cthulhu Mythos sale at DriveThruRPG continues this week, and we’ll have some God-Machine PDFs included in the sale!

On Sale This Week!

This Wednesday, the Scarred Lands PDF series of Vigil Watch continues with Part 4 – The Iron Court detailing the roving city of the Iron Court, home to the Ironbred, and provides the first deep dive into Ironbred culture in the Scarred Lands! Only on sale on DTRPG!

Over at our RedBubble store, we are now offering safety masks emblazoned with the Trinity Continuum: Aeon order symbols!

And as noted above, on Wednesday the Scarred Lands adventure The Gauntlet of Spiragos will be offered on the Astral TableTop virtual tabletop venue – the adventure plus maps plus tokens all within the easy to use Astral TableTop interface. You can access the adventure and pretty much start playing!

Conventions!

Though dates for physical conventions are subject to change due to the current COVID-19 outbreak, here’s what’s left of our current list of upcoming conventions (and really, we’re just waiting for this last one to be cancelled even though it’s Nov/Dec). Instead, keep an eye out here for more virtual conventions we’re going to be involved with:

PAX Unplugged: https://unplugged.paxsite.com/

And now, the new project status updates!

Development Status from Eddy Webb! (Projects in bold have changed status since last week.):

First Draft (The first phase of a project that is about the work being done by writers, not dev prep.)

Exalted Essay Collection (Exalted)

The Devoted Companion (Deviant: The Renegades)

Prometheus Unbound (was Psi Orders) (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

No Gods, No Masters (Scion 2nd Edition)

Scion Fiction Anthology (Scion 2nd Edition)

TC: Aeon Novella: Dawn (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

TC: Aeon Novella: Meridian (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Legacies of Earth (Legendlore)

Redlines

Dragon-Blooded Novella #2 (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Wild Hunt (Scion 2nd Edition)

CtL 2e Novella Collection: Hollow Courts (Changeling: The Lost 2e)

Adversaries of the Righteous (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Squeaks In The Deep (Realms of Pugmire)

Trinity Continuum: Anima

Second Draft

Many-Faced Strangers – Lunars Companion (Exalted 3rd Edition)

M20 Rich Bastard’s Guide To Magick (Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary)

Hundred Devil’s Night Parade (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Novas Worldwide (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Exalted Essence Edition (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Saints and Monsters (Scion 2nd Edition)

M20 Technocracy Operative’s Dossier (Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary)

Development

TC: Aberrant Reference Screen (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Across the Eight Directions (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Contagion Chronicle: Global Outbreaks (Chronicles of Darkness)

Exigents (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Assassins (Trinity Continuum Core)

Kith and Kin (Changeling: The Lost 2e)

V5 Forbidden Religions (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

V5 Children of the Blood (was The Faithful Undead) (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

Trinity Continuum: Adventure! core (Trinity Continuum: Adventure!)

Manuscript Approval

Crucible of Legends (Exalted 3rd Edition)

M20 Victorian Mage (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

V5 Trails of Ash and Bone (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

Mission Statements (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Dystopia Rising: Evolution Fiction Anthology (Dystopia Rising: Evolution)

Contagion Chronicle Ready-Made Characters (Chronicles of Darkness)

Dead Man’s Rust (Scarred Lands)

The Clades Companion (Deviant: The Renegades)

Post-Approval Development

Editing

Lunars Novella (Rosenberg) (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition core rulebook (Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition)

Player’s Guide to the Contagion Chronicle (Chronicles of Darkness)

TC: Aberrant Jumpstart (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

LARP Rules (Scion 2nd Edition)

Heirs to the Shogunate (Exalted 3rd Edition)

The Book of Lasting Death (Mummy: The Curse 2e)

Scion: Dragon (Scion 2nd Edition)

Scion: Demigod (Scion 2nd Edition)

Dearly Bleak – Novella (Deviant: The Renegades)

N!ternational Wrestling Entertainment (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Under Alien Skies (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Post-Editing Development

City of the Towered Tombs (Cavaliers of Mars)

W20 Shattered Dreams Gift Cards (Werewolf: The Apocalypse 20th)

Cults of the Blood Gods (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

Hunter: The Vigil 2e core (Hunter: The Vigil 2nd Edition)

Trinity Continuum: Aberrant core (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Deviant: The Renegades (Deviant: The Renegades)

Monsters of the Deep (They Came From Beneath the Sea!)

Legendlore core book (Legendlore)

Pirates of Pugmire KS-Added Adventure (Realms of Pugmire)

Tales of Aquatic Terror (They Came From Beneath the Sea!)

Terra Firma (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

One Foot in the Grave Jumpstart (Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2e)

Masks of the Mythos (Scion 2nd Edition)

Trinity Continuum Jumpstart (Trinity Continuum)

They Came From Beyond the Grave! (They Came From!)

Contagion Chronicle Jumpstart (Chronicles of Darkness)

Indexing

Art Direction from Mike Chaney!

In Art Direction

Tales of Aquatic Terror – LeBlanc art in and getting fulls.

WoD Ghost Hunters (KS) – KS page to Paradox for approval.

Hunter: The Vigil 2e

Mummy 2

Deviant – Sending out art notes and finding new artists, too.

Legendlore

Technocracy Reloaded

Cults of the Blood God

Scion: Dragon (KS)

Masks of the Mythos (KS)

Scion: Demigod (KS) – Graphics are done and I think the page is pretty much ready.

They Came From Beyond the Grave! (KS)

TC: Adventure! (KS)

Geist: One Foot In the Grave

In Layout

Yugman’s Guide to Ghelspad

Vigil Watch

Trinity Core Jumpstart

Aberrant

Proofing

Cavaliers of Mars: City of the Towered Tombs

Magic Item Decks (Scarred Lands)

Yugman’s Guide Support Decks (Scarred Lands)

TC Aeon Terra Firma – Sent back to Josh, looking good.

Scion Titanomachy

V5 Let the Streets Run Red – Inputting corrections.

Pugmire Adventure – Need map finished.

At Press

TCFBTS Screen and Booklet – Files at press.

They Came from Beneath the Sea! – Shipping from printer to KS fulfiller.

Pirates of Pugmire – Shipping from printer to KS fulfiller.

Pirates of Pugmire Screen – Files at press.

Dark Eras 2 – Files printing.

Dark Eras 2 Screen and booklet – Files at press.

Contagion Chronicle – Press prep.

Contagion Chronicle Screen and Booklet – Files at press.

Lunars Wall Scroll Map – Shipping to KS fulfiller from printer.

Lunars Screen and Booklet – Files at press.

Lunars: Fangs at the Gate – Prepping files for PoD and press.

Scarred Lands Creature Collection – Shipping from printer to KS fulfiller.

Today’s Reason to Celebrate!

From the sublime to the ridiculous: today is the birthday of Stephen Fry, English actor, journalist, producer, and screenwriter in 1957, and one year later in 1958 is born Steve Guttenberg, American actor and producer.

[calliecat93]

Top 5 Likes of Red vs Blue: Season 1

(Top 5 Dislikes)

Alrighty, the first Dislikes post is up. Which even calling those things Dislike is stretching it, to be honest. So let’s get to the Likes! Which there s honestly a lot to like in this season. Even though the Blood Gulch seasons are my least favorite and as a saga it’s just barely over Freelancer, these seasons are very endearing. I always enjoy going back over them, and I’m glad to be able to talk about a few of the reasons why. So let’s get to it~

#5. Early Installment Weirdness

You know everything I listed on that Dislikes list? That’s all due to Early Installment Weirdness. That essentially means things early on were quite strange when you compare it to a show’s current standard. It’s only natural that a show needs time to find it’s footing and not everything will work out or be done well. Especially for a webseries like this made by a bunch of video game nerds for what was originally planned for a miniseries, but the more ideas they got, the longer it went. So as I said, many of these things are very forgivable.

Plus, like I also said on that list, these things make the show endearing. The Blood Gulch Chronicles are very comedic driven compared tot he later seasons that are plot-driven. Things like the amateur voice acting, the weird stuff like the afterlife, and even the audio quality adds to the charm. It’s this weird show being made via a video game by some video game nerds. It feels like a newcomer’s indie project… which I guess it kinda is. And while machinima has been around before this, no one quite did it like how RvB did it. These things, as well as the other things I’ll get to soon, just help make it stand out.

Plus, if anything, it helps show how far we’ve come. Every dislike I listed has been improved. The voice acting is stellar, the audio is much better, the characterizations are stronger, and while there are still the occasional continuity issues many of them have gotten reasonable explanations. It’s fun to go back and see the lesser developed parts. You don’t feel annoyed with it, you have fun watching it not just because it’s funny, but because we’ve seen the evolution of the show. We can have fun with the older stuff, and that’s a great thing. It’s why I think these things should be celebrated, not mocked. I only put them on a Dislikes list out of necessity, but I love these things. I don’t want them to go back to it cause production standards are higher, but I’ll always enjoy revisiting it.

#4. Church Dies

Okay maybe phrasing it like that is kinda mean, but it is what happened so…

So I knew this was coming because Ten Little Roosters had this fact as a joke in Episode 2. But despite knowing about it, it was still a surprise to me. I mean they killed a main character? In Episode 7? And the character of the creator to boot?! Wow, that is ballsy. But the part I didn’t know about was that Church came back as a ghost. I guess I should have known since I had seen people talking about Church and he was still listed as a main character on Wikipedia when I was looking up stuff about the show. But tbf I didn’t know he died this soon or that it was only the first time.

It was certainly a thing that took me by surprise. Especially since IIRC, Burnie hadn’t planned on doing it. He just came up with it since I guess at this point they knew it was going to go for longer than intended. Honestly knowing that a lot of this season was made up on the spot explains a lot of the weirder stuff like the afterlife scene… anyways! Yeah, it was something that legit shocked me. The ghost thing confused me for the longest time, but I was just glad to have Church around soon since he has easily become my favorite (sorry Grif, it wasn’t always you…) and this one on the spot decision? It lead to some of the best parts of RvB. BOth comedically and once it was time to become more plot-driven, it made some of the best drama and lead to my favorite saga in the show with Recollection. It’s a minor thing, hence hwy it’s at 4, but it lead to so much more and I love it~

#3. The Tex Twist

Adding Tex to this season was a great move. For one it allowed a lot of great things for later, like the Freelancers and the plot after Blood Gulch. Even before all the Freelancer stuff came out, having these agents who were pretty much paid mercenaries added plenty of potential for stories and even comedy down the road. It also helped that we had someone who was actually competent among the main cast, adding an actual threat level. Not to mention she has a very blunt sense of humor that helps her stand out despite being the only female character aside from Shelia.

Heck, making Tex be Church’s ex-girlfriend was a great move. It adds something a little more personal and also helps Church’s character. He was the grumpy, snarky one among the Blues and then he died not even halfway through. But this helps give him another dimension as a character since he clearly still cares about Tex and wants to free her of the AI. Sure he’s still grumpy, being dead will do that to anyone, but he showed some competence once Tex got captured and again still cared about her. Tex’s bluntness and non-caring attitude about these things as well as owning her bitch-like personality helped her not just be ‘the girl’ either. She’s the competent one, but she isn’t just there cause she was Church’s girlfriend. She’s tough, takes no shit from anyone, but she never really gets annoyed or exasperated by the others either. Her straightforward personality is not only funny, but lets her shine as her own character and the later seasons only help.

While IDR if Tex was planned, her being Church’s girlfriend I remember Burnie saying was not. This is kind of a precursor to something I always admired about the show, taking small things and weaving them into the story. Like taking the joke that the teleporter turns armor black and the Blues using that to their advantage to trick the Reds. You almost can’t tell that this wasn’t going to be nineteen episodes cause they did so well finding ways to extend the story by using what they had. Tex is a perfect example of this. Not just because of later, but even for this season it added some more humor, added to her character when she could have easily been this standard tough guy, and also helped Church’s character. It’s probably the best decision that Burnie made for this season, and I’m glad that he did.

#2. Character Interactions

On Dislikes, I talked about how the characters were not very fleshed out. This, as well as the show being machinimated, meant that the comedy and dialogue had to be really good. Fortunately, that was by far the thing that they nailed most in this season. As I said while the characters aren’t fleshed out, they /do/ still have character. Heck Burnie basing them off the people he cast was a very good mood in this regard. People like Gus and Geoff have known each other for years, for example. So this made for a lot of natural character chemistry and a lot of really good interactions. I mean people love having Grif and Simmons together for a reason. They just play off of each other so freakin’ well..

The interactions and dialogue are really good and even funny. Sure sometimes maybe they dragged a joke out a little too much. Like when Church was starting to talk about Sidewinder and Caboose kept interrupting, you just wanted Caboose to shut up so Church could get to the point. But at the same time, Caboose’s interruptions and Church’s annoyance felt so natural and funny. Or how Grif and Simmons messed with Donut and tricked him to get headlight fluid, and everything that led to. Not only were the contrivances funny, but the characters just bounced off each other so well. They didn’t need to be deep in this season because they all balanced each other out so well, which is pretty key when it comes to comedies.

I think that this is what allowed the show to thrive. People didn’t mind the machinima or how bizarre things got because we liked seeing these characters together. We enjoyed seeing them bicker and them getting themselves into something stupid. The dialogue was funny, the jokes, while some could drag, were timed well, and it just felt so natural. Despite most of the cast recording from different parts of the country (and in Gus’ case another country), you wouldn’t know it going off the interactions. It just worked very well and is very much what helped the show endure for this long, and it’s something I don’t feel has ever faltered even at it’s lowest point. That is saying a lot I think.

#1. Memorability

“Hey?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you ever wonder why we’re here?

You already heard the voices the second you saw the screencap, let’s be real. You look at Season One, and it’s clear that it’s not exactly a cinematic masterpiece. It’s made by people who had no idea what they were doign. Everything is pretty amateur. The comedy, while good, is pretty much aimed more at middle/high schoolers and some probably would not pass today. I know if I tried to watch the show when it came out when I was nine years old, my mom probably would have banned me from it. So then… why did it succeed?

Like I said, it’s flaws and character interactions made it endearing. There’s a lot in this season that we still remember. ‘Why are we here’ is the most obvious one, but this led to so much. Church being a ghost got us Recollection. Tex got us Project Freelancer. There are so many quotable moments, like Tucker’s Voltron line or picking up chicks in a tank. Moments like the first scene, Church’s death, Tex’s arrival, Donut’s pink armor/awesome throwing arm. We always remember these things. We always end up going back to Season One in one way or another. Sure, some stuff is jarring, but we don’t care. 

Season One is just fun. No one knew that it would lead to one of the longest-running webseries made, including RT themselves. I mean this allowed RT to exist period. It’s just got so many moments that we remember and still quote to this day. Even the show will call back to several moments. I mean how many ways have they incorporated ‘why are we here’ into the show now? Not only is it still funny, but it shows how far we’ve come since. We wouldn’t have the rest or RvB or anything else we enjoy from RT without this season. As such, I think that it’s memorability and just general existence is the best part about it, and is my pick for Top Like of Season One~!

Okay, one season down. Fourteen more to go. Thank you for reading everyone~! This is done, but I’m just getting started! So stay tuned for Season Two~!

[dailyaudiobible]

02/17/2020 DAB Transcript

Leviticus 4:1-5:19, Mark 2:13-3:6, Psalms 36:1-12, Proverbs 10:1-2

Today is the 17th day of February, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I'm Brian it's great, great, great to be here with you today for the last time from Rome, at least for now. This…a couple hours we’ll be boarding the flight over to Tel Aviv and then getting about the business of preparing for the Daily Audio Bible pilgrimage 2020. So, thank you for your continued prayers. Definitely been battling the fatigue but that's just kind of…that's part of it, but another day or two and we’ll be acclimated. Anyway, we've come here together to allow God's word to wash into our lives and to carry us forward into this week. And, so let's do that. We’re reading from the New International Version this week and we have begun the book of Leviticus and I…I think it was yesterday…I think it was yesterday I mentioned this, you know, this is a book of the law. So, we’re kind of reading a law book, So, we could go, “well, this is…this is different. Like what…what happened? It got boring all the sudden” or whatever but we need to pay attention to the different literary styles that are going on. We love the narrative style, right, because it's telling us a story. This happened, then this happened next, then this happened next and then there was this drama, and then this happened next, whereas now we’re…we’re kind of reading the ordinances and laws that will govern and…and actually create and hold together this people that God has chosen who He has brought into the wilderness so that he might dwell among His people, but also so that they might become acutely aware that there is no hope outside of God. So, today we’ll read Leviticus chapters 4 and 5.

Commentary:

Okay, let's talk about the riveting story being told in the book of Leviticus right now. I understand it’s not a riveting story. It's a lot to do with sacrifices and atoning for sin and it's very involved. Like, there’s a lot of…a lot to do. So, what's the deal here? Like the most high God likes to smell burning animal carcasses? Like He just…He loves and that's why He wants all these sacrifices. Is that what's going on here? We will find throughout the Scriptures that God will comment on this and tell us, “no” that’s not what He's after. He has a people who are former slaves who have no idea how to be anything else who are a stiff necked and rebellious people who have already turned to false gods in the wilderness after all they saw God do to bring them out of Egypt and He's trying to draw them to Himself and give them, bestow upon them an identity as chosen, no longer slaves, you are chosen. So, what could destroy all that? Like what would mess that plan up? Sin. It always messes the plan up. And, so, we’re seeing get kinda woven into the fabric of this new culture. Sin is a big deal. It's complicated. There’s a lot to do. But it's also costly. So, we can like read the book of the law, we can read the laws and here's a people are supposed to do and we can just be like yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah but let's personalize this…like…let's make this personal. We’re out in the desert and as the Bible has said today, we…we discovered, we…we realized that we had rebelled against God in some way. So, we become aware that something is come between us and God. And our hearts, we feel it, we sense it, we know it, we need to repent, and a sacrifice is required in this new culture. And, so, we have to go to our flock, and we have to select a goat or sheep, whatever the case may be, we have to select a perfect one and there aren’t too many of those. And we’ve been raising, we’ve been raising this livestock, we’ve…we’ve been shepherding this livestock. They have names, they know our voice. We’re…we care for them and we have to take the perfect one and lead it to the altar and then we have to take its life right there. We would probably not walk away from that experience feeling really really awesome about our sin. We would be can continually reminded of the price of sin. We would be continually reminded that…that this rebellion that can live in us, that can…that can have us doing crazy things like worshiping false gods in the wilderness, this will destroy our relationship with God. And, so, he's weaving it in. This is a big deal, a costly deal, a complicated deal because we need to be reminded how dangerous it is.

So, now Jesus has come and as we learn the Scriptures, He became the final sacrifice. So, we don't need to keep a flock of goats just in case. We look to the cross. And…and in truth if we’re just…if we’re just honest here. Yes, we would not want to go back to a sacrificial system in any way whatsoever. But when you look at it in its context and what it is teaching, you understand that it is a continual reminder of how dangerous and devastating rebellion and sin against God can be. Now we look to the cross, but often we don't…often we don't look to the cross and see the sacrifice upon that cross, dying in our place. So, yes, our sins are forgiven, but we should never forget what it cost. And we see that not forgetting what it cost is important to God because here in the Old Testament in Leviticus He's bit building in a very tangible reminder.

Prayer:

Jesus, we thank You, we thank You for Your sacrifice. We take this moment as we’re…as we’re observing the giving of the law and…and sacrifices for sin, it brings us back to You. And we confess that so often we’re just…just taking it for granted…it’s just a foregone conclusion. Of course, we’ve been forgiven but we don't often slow down and understand what it cost. So, we ask Holy Spirit that You would come and remind us throughout this day, that we would take it to heart, that…that this wouldn't be something that we just grow jaded to, that we just get used to, that…that we would remember what it took to bring us our freedom. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website, it's home base, it’s where you find what going on around here.

So, yeah, what's going on around here for the next bit is the pilgrimage, the annual pilgrimage that we take to the land of the Bible each year. So, we had a little stop for a couple of days to do some photography and filming in Italy in Rome and we were able to see a lot of just the archaeological ruins from the Roman empire time, really…really connecting those stories back into Israel. Israel, of course, at the time of Jesus was the province of Syria was the province of the Roman Empire. So, there are a good deal of Roman Empire artifacts and ruins in Israel as well. So, today we will fly over to Tel Aviv and then, yeah, begin unpacking and getting ready for the excursion we’re gonna be on.

Tomorrow evening is our inaugural dinner and kinda orientation. And that's always so fun finally to get everybody completely wide-eyed and wired on adrenaline but completely like backwards in their body clock. It’s just such...so…such a strange sensation but such fun. And, so, we’re looking forward to that. I will be making what I believe will be my final attempt to get to the ancient ruins of this Philistine stronghold known in the Bible as Akron. And years past…those of you like that have been around the Daily Audio Bible for several years, you’ll know…like we’ve made two different attempts because there are five Philistine cities spoken of in the Bible and we filmed three of them. And Akron is the fourth one. The fifth one is Gaza and that's not anywhere near safe to go to and from what I understand there’s really nothing…there’s no archaeology there. So, I’ve been trying to get the…the…the…the film and the…the photographs of this place for several times but it's…like there are lots and lots of archaeological sites in Israel. And…but not all of them are accessible or visitible. You have to like go out in a four-wheel-drive way out somewhere and this is…this is kind of one of them and we’ve been stuck twice, two different years having to get pulled out of fields by tractors, last year being the most recent attempt. This year I'm pretty sure we are prepared. So, that’ll be tomorrow on the way down to Ashdod where we will all meet up and begin our journey.

So, thank you to everyone out there for your continued prayers over all of this. We’ll need it. We’ll need it every single day and we appreciate it more than you know.

I’ll remind you the Israel 2021 pilgrimage is now…we’re now…we’re now receiving registrations for next year's trip, which is about a year from now. All of our Daily Audio Bible events and trips fill up pretty fast. This this one will probably be mostly, if not completely full by the time we get back. So, yeah, you can check it out at dailyaudiobible.com. Look in the Initiatives section and you'll find Israel 2021 and you’ll get all of the details, everything that you would need to know. And, yeah, looking forward to seeing you next year in Jerusalem.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, thank you, thank you, thank you. I can't thank you enough. We wouldn't be here if we weren’t in this together. So, I thank you. There is a link on the homepage. If you're using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or, if you prefer, the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request a comment you can hit the Hotline button in the app, the little red button at the top or you can dial 877-942-4253.

And that's it for today. I'm Brian I love you and I'll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hey DABber family my name’s Mark from Columbus Ohio and I’ve called and once. I’m still relatively new, just started listening last summer __ participate with this family being able to start the day off with the word of God has…has…has been quite…quite…beneficial to me. And I am a COPD…end-stage COPD I’ve been diagnosed and as I’m calling for prayer because I need faith. And I worked so hard last summer to…to qualify for __ reduction surgery and my CO2 levels would go down and stay down. Now they’ve tried to __ have a transplant team. They’re telling me that one of the reasons…one of the qualifications is I need someone to take care of me 24 hours a day, you know, 24 day care after surgery but they do want it to be anyone from a healthcare agency, they want it to be a family or friend, you know, a family member or friend. And I’m…I’m not, you know, I don’t have that, you know. And I guess they all have their own agenda. I just, you know, and not being able qualify for this LVIS last summer, not being able to meet the requirements of this other thing, it just doesn’t do a whole lot for my faith. You know, I keep inquiring, I keep asking God what His will is and I just…I don’t know…I don’t know. You know, He knows what I’m trying to do, He knows my hopes, He knows my dreams __ you know…

Hi family this is Janice calling from Goodyear Arizona and I just have an encouragement for sweet Laura B in Boynton Beach. Sweetie your message for your friend Ricky really touched my heart and I have put him in my prayer book, and I promise to keep praying for Ricky and yourself that you are and encourager as I try to be. So, God bless you honey. And on another note my husband David who fell and got a concussion and went into a coma, he has a doctor’s appointment today. The doctors are just freaked out because the brain bleed is gone and there was no swelling and he’s back to his old self. So, praise God and thank you for your prayers. I love you all and I’ll be in touch again soon. God bless you.

Good morning DAB family this is Terry from Kansas City and I think I’d love to change my name to Blessed by Jesus. I used to live in Albuquerque for almost 34 years and so this morning on February 11th as I heard Marlowe from Albuquerque, Marla I felt that I know you and I could just feel a connection about being a little socially awkward, you call it social anxiety and that’s how I should refer to it for you. I was so excited to hear that God had allowed you to feel comfortable meeting Suzanne and my prayer for you is that you will continue to be able to reach out to her and that God will move you forward and give you wonderful days meeting wonderful people and that is my prayer for you. And also, God’s Little Bird, I was a substitute teacher for many, many years and I can feel your angst in wanting to serve your students and do that and proclaim Christ in your actions and in the way that you love on them. I am praying that God will give you clarity as to what to do in your profession or whether or not to leave your profession but I challenge you to continue to serve your students in godly excellence knowing what He wants you to present to those students. And I want to remind you that you are planting seeds. Whether or not you’re able to see the fruit of your efforts I don’t know but somewhere down the line those students are going to shine because they had you as a teacher. I pray for your peace, your mental and spiritual protection while you’re in the classroom, and I pray that joy will be restored to you…

Hey Daily Audio Bible family I’m calling into pray for God’s Little Bird. Today is the 10th maybe…no it’s the 11th…today is the 11th. She called in, she’s a teacher, and she’s struggling because the kids that come through…and it’s interesting that she called when she did because immediately before her, I think it was immediately before her, a woman called and prayed for the kids in the Daily Audio Bible listeners…but I just wanted to give you some encouragement God’s Little Bird. God is using you. As a Christian teaching kids in this country you are so, so, so, so, so important. So, it’s…it’s not going to be easy because you have to stand as…as a pillar of light in just an absolute hurricane because people who suddenly refuse to believe God instill those values into their kids and their kids go out into school and eventually the workplace and they may never come into contact with a Christian who could be the difference between life and death, between heaven and hell. So, I just want to encourage you that if you can be a witness to even one of those kids then every day of the decades that you will have invested in this career will be so worth it. And we will see that child in eternity. So, I encourage you to pray about it, but please just know that on behalf of an older sister to kids in the school system that I am so grateful for teachers like you. God bless you. Bye.

[singing starts] One peace like a river attendeth my way when sorrows like sea billows roll. Whatever my lot thou has taught thee to say it is well, it is well with my soul [singing ends]. Father God thank You that we can say that when we are in the midst of the storms of this life. Father God thank You so much for this day. I pray Lord that You would be going before us and preparing it for us, that You’d be giving us strength and energy and courage to face this day, that You’d also be giving us patience to wait upon You and to listen to You. Thank You for what You are teaching us this day. Thank You for Your blessings this day. Thank You for those opportunities. Lord it’s so easy to get dragged down into the misery of…of the world and the general drudge of living as it can feel sometimes. Help us to fix our eyes upon You. Help us to keep running forward, moving forward towards the goal. In Jesus’ holy and precious name. Amen. Hi guys, Michaela from Gloucester. Hope You have a blessed day wherever You are.

[artswaps]

Voltron Survey Meme

I was tagged by @justheretobreakthings, thank you!! :0

How did you discover the show?

I’d seen a few stray posts about it on my dashboard, but didn’t really know what it was or take any notice. I’m laughing sm because the person who tagged me here had p much the same story, but eventually I stumbled across this video with Bob’s Burgers audio and for some reason it was what finally pushed me to go and find out what the show was. That was a month or so after season 2 had just dropped and here we are!!

Oddly enough, I’d actually binged all of Voltron Force quite a few years back when I was younger, but it wasn’t until a good while after I’d caught up on VLD and started dabbling in the fandom that I remembered that show and made the connection that it was the same franchise.

Was it love at first sight or did it take you a while to get into the show?

It was “Intrigued enough by certain elements that I’m willing to keep watching, but not totally hooked on the story,” at first sight. I really did love the characters from the get-go, and it was that and the humour + snappy dialogue that kept me around to give it a chance. 

As far as the story went and the fact that it was about giant transforming robots, it wasn’t really my thing. It was when it started getting into Pidge’s character arc- Fall of the Castle of Lions, with the flashbacks to her at the Garrison and meeting Lance and Hunk- that I became truly invested. 

Do you have a favorite Paladin?

Keeeeith!!! My son. 

Do you have a favorite Lion? (If it’s different from your fav paladin, why?)

Not really? I guess Blue, because she’s the first one they found and the one that knocked off the entire adventure. Green and Red are pretty cool, too.

Do you have a favorite Villain?

Haggar! Wonderfully creepy and sinister, and the added depth they’ve been giving her in the past few seasons- what with the OG Paladin backstory and her rediscovering her memories of being Honerva etc. etc.- have just made her so much more interesting. I’m excited to see where they take her character!!

Do you have a favorite Alien Race? (recurring and/or minor)

I actually wanna know so much about the Galra, I’m curious! The Balmerans were pretty cool guys, too.

Favorite side / other character(s)- Rebels, General, Blade of Mamora, Garrison, etc?

Kolivan is awesome and I’m sad he wasn’t in s6 and I want to know everything about his past. I also love Shay a lot!! And Matt, of course. Gotta love Matt. 

How/Why did you join the fandom?

I wish I’d known beforehand about the absolute chaos that is the VLD fandom because it’s just an automatic thing for me to seek out fandom content after I decide I like something lol. Still- I’m hyperfixated now so there’s no going back. I’m here already, so I ain’t going anywhere >8)

It’s also pretty much a given that if I’m fixated enough on something and love the characters as much as I do VLD’s, then I’m gonna end up making stuff. Gotta have people to share it with when I do, right?

Care to share a favorite headcanon?

Aro-spec Keith, hell yeah!! Unfortunately for me, his character tends to end up the centre of a lot of shipping content as we all know- so it’s an unpopular hc :(

I also really like bi Keith so I’m just great at picking all the unpopular ones I guess lmao 

What do you think is the best part of the show?

The characters, hands-down. They’re just so charming, they gel together so well. If it weren’t for them, I wouldn’t even be watching this show- it was when Pidge’s character arc came into focus that I became invested, and all of the character-driven moments are the ones I look forward to the most and remember more fondly. 

Also the humour. It’s snappy, witty, and charming when they do it right. A lot of that is once again down to how lovable the characters are and the chemistry they all share.  

Any hopes and wishes for future episodes / seasons?

As much as I’ve enjoyed the past 2 seasons and all that delicious drama/intense battle scenes, I really do miss the more easygoing atmosphere a lot of the first 2 seasons had. The kinds of scenes where the gang can just... stand around and argue over what a laser gun sounds like. I’ve loved what the show has given us, but I need a damn breather now lol. 

I really hope the gang gets a chance to regroup in the next season; just go back to a more casual feel, just for a bit, just a few scenes sprinkled between the plot. A chance for them to relearn how they all fit together, now everyone’s in one place again. A change of pace would be good for the show, I think.

Tying into that, I’ve seen a few people make this point already, but I would really, really love to see them start pushing that “found family” vibe the showrunners keep trying to sell. Things have been hectic with how fast the plot’s been moving, and I’m not at all unhappy with what the show’s given us, but I really do just want to see everyone.... being friends, getting to know each other, growing closer, being the family that they keep claiming they are. Maybe I’m feeling a bit salty because Keith has been left out of the mix for so long- I don’t wanna see him jump back into play, only for them to go back to their old dynamic where it was Keith & Shiro vs Everyone Else. There was always a distance there that I wanna see bridged, now that they’ve all grown a little. 

The massive Keith stan in me also just wants everyone to love and appreciate Keith for the incredible person he is and make it clear to him on no uncertain terms that they all care about him. The massive Allura stan in me just wants her to stop being so hard on herself and take a damn break. 

The part of me that’s falling more and more in love with Shiro is feeling strangely at peace after s6...... but please for the love of god let him dye his grandpa hair back to black dsfjgkhjhkhd

Do you think you’ll stick it out until the end of the show?

Well I’m kinda hyperfixated on it and that’s no easy thing to shake, so yeah. Besides, I love the characters too much to just pack it in halfway. Keith is just too special to me.

Tag your friends or someone you want to get to know better

uuh sorry if any of y’all have done this already

@sebayard, @fractalabomination, @kcgane, @starryeyedkeith, @haleykim84, @princessstaryknight, @a-sp4ce-g4y, @turtleduckfantasy

[ellynore-moonwood]

Ellynore’s 2017 Summary

This year has been a wild ride for me in so many ways, and I figured now would be a good time to sum up how I’ve felt about 2017 as a whole while it’s about to come to a close at the end of this weekend. I’ll try to keep it brief and concise, but if it ends up becoming a lengthier read, I do apologise. ^^;           I’ll also clarify that I don’t want to seem pretentious or anything of the sort. This is just an honest summary of how I’m looking back on the year in my own perspective and how things have gone with me. 2017 has had it’s ups and downs, but like every upcoming year, we all hope it turns out better than the last in some way or other. 

January - Not a lot of things happening, except getting a brand new laptop and searching for new material to use for voice acting as I spent most of it doing some writing on the side and browsing Tumblr looking for audio posts that could give me new ideas. I had a couple projects that were in-progress but not a lot of progress was being made, unfortunately. That didn’t stop me, though, since I continued contributing my voice to some YouTube videos made by @bettinalevyisdetermined as the awesome Undertale fish spearwoman Undyne. 

February - Vine died, I spent the first half of the month revising my relationship status and goals, as well as “A Date with Markiplier” fangirling all throughout the second half of the month. After a month of supporting @distortional I got to meet them and learn about them as a person, and eventually was inspired and motivated to try voicing out Darkiplier. If you haven’t heard it, you can listen to it here. I’ll warn you, it was my very first time and it does sound a bit cringy, but I’ll let you guys be the judge of that. 

March - The founding of @theglitchedsystem came to be and I got straight into work while also battling some stress but later overcoming it with some help and guidance from the other VAs who took part in the project. Definitely had a lot of fun being a part of this sub-community in a major way throughout this whole year. 

April - I turned 24 and upgraded my Samson Go microphone to a Blue Yeti Blackout! 

May - Further progression with voice acting and making new friends along the way. I also managed to properly master how to voice Darkiplier and became more confident with improv voice acting. 

June - Facing new challenges and preparing for Winter. Spoiler alert, felt more like an extended Autumn, instead, most likely due to the fact that most Aussie Winters have a lot of sunshine, and when there’s a lot of that, it gets really warm. Fun fact: at this time of year, it’s not uncommon to see people walking outside wearing summer clothes when it gets around 15 degress Celsius or higher. You’re welcome.  [EDIT] - I had forgotten to add that I was at a pop culture convention on that month and met my voice acting idol Jennifer Hale in person! I got a heartwarming signature and message from her, a hug, and even requested a short audio of her voicing one of my favourite voices she did for a game I played. Meeting her ignited a new spark in me to further pursue my dream in becoming a voice actor and I felt so happy that day. 

July - Met more new friends and followers throughout my voice acting career while also facing some minor networking issues like followers not getting along with each other. Seriously, a community is about making friends and being with great, like-minded people. If there’s any drama happening, take it outside, no questions asked. Less people get caught in the crossfire that way. On a lighter note, “Darkiplier vs. Antisepticeye” was the talk of the town even after the end of that month. 

August - Friendships have strengthened, especially with the “Kill Jacksepticeye” video which made an escalated return of Antisepticeye. If you have friends who are as hyped about something as you are, stick with them. You won’t have to deal with the shock alone and the experience is better when shared with friends. On a sad note, my grandmother had passed away which affected me and my whole family since she was my last grandparent and I’ll never forget her. Rest in peace, Nanna. <3

September - Continued voice acting as usual while also taking up a couple more responsibilities that I picked up from August and carried it further as a way of helping followers whenever they’re feeling down or facing a tough situation where they need some advice. I learned a lot about some people in particular and I wish them nothing but happiness. 

October - Preparing for the Halloween season which felt a little bit underwhelming compared to last year. Let’s hope next year will be better. I will say, I did get to watch a bunch of horror movies and cartoon specials and those were a lot of fun and were a great way of relieving stress. Got to collaborate with @melissatreglia for the very first time with the event she hosted called “Darktober” where I helped with audio editing as well as manage a HUGE voice acting project titled “The Hostage.” 

November - This month in particular was spent trying to get voice acting excerpts done and ready to post before going on a week-long holiday away with my family at the end of the month while also tackling with job searching in bulk. It got a bit emotional and stressful for me leading up to the last few days, but I finally got a chance to relax and spend time with my family while not having to worry about voice acting. It was a good break away from home.

And here comes the final month of 2017, which includes venting. 

December - Compared to every other month, December was absolute hell and filled with truckloads of (pardon my language) bullshit. While there were some upsides like going to my first midnight theatre screening to see “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” and having a fun and enjoyable Christmas break, everything else was nothing but chaos and drama which left me in a mental state of shock and anxiety at extreme levels. I’m not going to sugarcoat it as it was a huge deal and some parts of it are still fresh in my mind.           In short, four people who were formerly part of the TGS (The Glitched System) sub-community went to war against my friend and leader, Distortional, as well as aiming pitchforks at anyone who didn’t side with the bad guys. It was at that point where I was engulfed with rage and wanted to fight back for the sake of my friends because I felt that they were wronged. If it wasn’t for the fact that I heard about it late at night, I would have been punching a lot of things around my room, I was that angry. But, that backfired as the fingers were soon pointed at me for three days straight. Needless to say, I didn’t take the bashlash very well. A first for everything, I suppose. Luckily, several other witnesses who also got hurt were incredibly supportive, they gave me the full story about what really happened, and I soon learned who my true friends are. Looking back at my lackluster performance with the aftermath of the whole debacle, it took me a week after finally blocking those abusive, immature people to clear my head and recover from the shock and emotional abuse*. The witnesses I spoke of have already moved on but let’s pray that those responsible will look back and rethink their actions for next time. This ordeal has allowed me to retain the experience I had that I will use to, hopefully in the future, better deal with manipulative people and call them out if they end up going around backstabbing people.             In other words (again, pardon my language), anyone who fucks with me and my friends will be remembered but not in a good way. If you can’t be friends with other people and don’t enjoy being part of a certain community, the most responsible thing you can do is just leave quietly and move along. And by quietly, I seriously mean quietly. My blog and community are a drama-free zone 24/7. Respect it. 

TL;DR, When drama hits and your friends are hurt, you feel inclined to stand by them till the bitter end, even if it ends up with you biting the bullet. That’s loyalty. Plus, and this is a bit pessimistic even for me, not everyone is going to like you, but haters gonna hate and the people who really want to stick around for you are your true supporters. 

* [Note: Please don’t confuse it for PTSD as it happened in the present time, not as a flashback to a past event.]

And that’s 2017 for me. 

As for what I’m going to do for 2018, I have plans on doing more voice acting but hoping to go bigger and better by taking on roles I’ve done previously and adding new ones in the mix for variety purposes. 

I’m also going to dedicate more focus on my YouTube channel where I do more videos on voice acting in video games. I am continuing “Night in the Woods,” though future episodes are bound to be longer than twenty minutes as it is considered a more relaxing game with a lot of in-game dialogue. I just need to find opportunities when I can record with no unnecessary noise in the background as well as voice out more louder characters when I come across them. 

If you guys want to suggest something to me for 2018 to work on, whether it’s audios here or videos on my channel, my ask and submission boxes are always open. I hope you guys had a good 2017 and wish you guys nothing but the best for 2018. Stay safe, keep your chin up and having a pleasant New Year’s! :D

- Ellynore Moonwood

[thebluemeany]

Alexander Siddig Master Post: What to watch and where to watch it

WATCH: Good Candy

Peaky Blinders: most shows mash up all their cool shots with a soundtrack for their trailer. Peaky Blinders is that, only all the time. It’s beautiful, slick and oddly soulless: like a Vanity Fair photoshoot come to life. Siddig’s only in the romantic subplot of Series Three (£9.49 Amazon), but wait to buy as it’s on Netflix from September.

Cairo Time: Set in Egypt. Nice little love story. Surprisingly British in a repressed ‘I’d better go/ yes you better go’ sense. Except they all drink coffee rather than tea and smoke hookah. On YouTube. Worth cost of DVD.

Hannibal: Elephants crossing the Alps on a BBC Drama budget: what’s not to like? Actually done very well and in a sort of documentary style. Added bonus that Scipio is Rose Tyler’s Dad. On YouTube.   ☩

Spooks: Nest of Angels episode: Traumatic. Remember seeing it as a kid in 2003 before UK suicide bombers were a thing. It’s harder to watch now. But definitely do as it’s a bold early attempt to tackle a lot of issues. It was and still is a brave piece of drama. On YouTube.   ☩

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: 7 Series, all available on Netflix: hour after hour of episodes. Say goodbye to at least two months of your life. Noticeable increase in quality and complexity Series 4, 5, 6.

Lawrence After Arabia: interesting, well written and with a young Ralph Fiennes. Pace and style is more like a play than a film. Can rent for £4.00 on Amazon.

WATCH DEPENDING ON YOUR TASTE:  aka. The Marmite flavoured Liquorice

Doctor Who - 1001 Nights (audio play): Really neat idea at the core. Doesn’t really get to Siddig’s story until episode four, but listening to the other parts really adds to the build-up. Yes, it’s £12.99, but it’s made by Big Finish (all round reliable candy makers) who employ a lot of old UK actors & writers, so resist urge to torrent.

Waking the Dead:  Endgame part 1 and part 2. Don’t be fooled by the CSI set up - this is a level up in violent and gruesome. You can watch it on the BBC YouTube channel for £1.99.  ☩

The Phantom of the Opera (audio play): faithful to the novel. Adapted by a Dalek. Good Commuting Material. Tad expensive at £12.99. Slightly cheaper if you use monthly credit on Audible.

Syriana – complex little film, full of a great cast. Intriguing, realistic and with worrying similar themes to Lawrence After Arabia but set a century later. Tad heavy going. Available free on Amazon prime.  ☩

The Flat Earth (audio play): Weirdly like Lost. Don’t listen to it on a flight. I think the writer may have been going for a sense of the transcendent in a way that was meant to be life affirming. But it actually conjures up some pretty horrific mental images…so, yeah… part 1, part 2  ☩

OKAY IF YOU’RE BORED: aka. Chewing Gum

Inescapable: the landscape is shot nicely but the story is dull. £5.10 to download on Amazon, but you can rent for 99p on iTunes which is fine because it’s not a film for repeat viewing.

True Love: only improvised drama series broadcast ever on BBC One. Turns out there is a reason for that: actors need writers.  Siddig is in episode four, which is the least mundane of the bunch. Bonus of Jane Horrocks.

Doomsday: post-apocalyptic movie. Oddly similar ‘flee to Scotland’ vibe as Reign of Fire below.  Not done well. 99p on Google Play, but seriously just go watch the infinitely better 28 Days Later instead.  ☩

Doctor Who – Sisters of the Flame/ The Vengeance of Morbius (Audio play): Worth it to hear Siddig play a centipede. ‘Cause its radio you just hear the hundreds of feet pattering every time he enters. £8.99 so try and buy when Big Finish have a deal on. Part one is both better and has more Siddig than part two. ☩

Un Homme Perdu:  version in Arabic & French but I can’t find a copy with English subtitles. That said, there’s not a lot of dialogue: if your French is moderate like mine you can muddle through. Intention kind of reminded me of the British 60s film Blow-Up. Kind of dull in an ‘art-film’ way even without language barrier.  

24 - Season 6: By this point of watching the back catalogue, I’ve got to admit I was getting pretty fed up of variations on Islamic Extremism stories. Siddig’s in episodes 2 – 7 and 9. £7.99 for whole series on Amazon, but low res version available on Dailymotion.  ☩

Reign of Fire: so the poster looks AWESOME (dragons destroying London, hell yes!). But that all happens off screen. Lacking dragon destruction, Siddig, female characters or emotional stakes. Contains FAR too much Matthew McConaughey. Rent for £2.48 to watch Christian Bale valiantly attempt to make the best of a bad job.

BARELY IN: aka Empty calories

Game of Thrones: you’ve probably seen the whole series already. If you want to watch just the episodes with Doran in, these are limited to Series 5: episodes 2, 6, 9, 10 and Series 6, episode 1. The entire globe has downloaded it illegally already, but ignoring that, you can buy it on Google Play for £1.99 per episode. ☩

Turmanbay (audio series): available free on BBC iplayer. Game of Thrones but on the radio. Bit repetitive.

Atlantis: in various episodes across Season 1. Scrappily put together and feels like a kids programme. It’s £12.49 to download on Amazon but I wouldn’t bother. 

Primeval: Theoretically in all of Series 4 and 5 – but in reality very little actual scenes until last two episodes of Series 5 (and even then, the amount of acting is debatable). Crappy production values and scripts lacking depth. If you really want to watch it, its £6.99 to stream on Amazon. ☩

Strike Back: Episodes 5 and 6: SAS video game masquerading as a TV show, or one of those books where the cover has a desert and a bullseye on it and the name of the author is in bigger print that the title. Generic variation on Islamic Extremism story…again… ☩

Doctor Who – The Wreck of the Titan: It’s not bad, just a sort of average Sixth Doctor story and for £12.99 you can live without it.

Merlin: meh, not worth it. Series 1, Episode 10: On Netflix. Better than Atlantis and Primeval though. ☩

The Nativity Story – feels like something they make you watch in school. Pretty, but totally lacking humanity or emotion. Part with Alexander Siddig as the Angel Gabriel is here.

DON’T WATCH: Just plain bad

Clash of the Titans: APPALLING MOVIE. WARNING, WARNING. DO NOT WATCH. Can rent for £3.00 on Amazon, but again DO NOT WATCH.  Should also be under ‘barely in’.

The Diary of River Song: “I went to a marvelous party” episode (audio play): Story is boring and heavy handed on the allegory. Add to that the fact it costs £30.00(eek!) makes it a ‘skip it’.

OTHER/ STUFF I CAN’T FIND

Recon: Seriously does this movie even exist? I can’t find it anywhere. Possibly just an elaborate front set up as a tax dodge…

The Big Battalions: missing, presumed wipe. I work near the BFI so went in to see if they have a copy. They didn’t even have a record it exists. Still, it was made by Carnival Productions (who thirty years later churn out Hollow Crown & Downtown Abbey) so was probably good with high production values.

Wild Arabia - documentary narration kindly recommended by little-Vulcan for its ‘dope landscape shots’. On Netflix

[podcake]

Podcast Teatime: The Question Session

A very welcome February day to you all! This is my first Q&A of the new year and I thought no one was better to pick for this beloved series than the creator of The Bright Sessions podcast, Lauren Shippen. 

I’ve been itching to know what this starlet in the podcasting scene has to say about her work on the show, her muses, and what she might have in store for us in the future. 

(The following is a direct copy-and-paste from the email)

Hi PodCake! 

Thanks for reaching out! Here are my answers: 

Question One: What drove you to make the series have therapy as a central plot point? Is it more of a framing device for the overall narrative or is there a more specific reason?

It definitely started as a very convenient framing device. Everyone knows what therapy is, and has an idea of what happens there, so there wasn’t a complicated premise or world that the audience needs to buy into. It also gave me the excuse to keep things confined to two people in one room - those kinds of scenes can be hard to keep active, but with therapy as an activity in of itself, the audience doesn’t get bored (hopefully). 

But ultimately, I wanted to write something that would allow characters to really discuss their feelings and delve into their own emotional lives. People rarely do this in their actual lives, but therapy provides this space. 

Question Two: Is there an ultimate plan you have for your overall story or do you simply make things up as you go along? 

It’s a little bit of both. My writing is always very focused on character, rather than plot, so I usually think about where I want to take the characters and build the plot around that. There are some exceptions to this (which I won’t identify here because: spoilers), but I’m rarely thinking about the big plot machinations first. 

As I start to map out a season, I have a target that I’m trying to hit, whether it’s a reveal about a character, a big change in the dynamic of the group, etc. I then start to write the season with that target in mind, but how I get there is discovered along the way. This has meant that some things have changed pretty drastically from when I started out, but it has also led to some really exciting, organic discoveries about the characters themselves. 

Question Three: Your show has a very interesting cast of characters. Is there a specific character you have the funnest time writing for? Whose the hardest character to put on paper?

I think this shows in his scripts, but I love writing Caleb. That’s why his scripts are usually at least 5 pages longer than everyone else’s. I like getting my brain into that teenage boy voice and I love the contradictions that Caleb contains - he’s smart, but so often oblivious; he’s very caring, but he also has an anger problem; he wants to talk about his feelings, but he can be so bad at communicating. 

I’m also really enjoying writing both Mark and Wadsworth this season. Mark is such a cheery, charismatic person who has been through so much trauma - balancing who he is by nature with what has happened to him is a fun challenge. Wadsworth is just…she’s awesome, and so unbelievably arrogant, but has reason to be, and that’s a lot of fun to write. 

Chloe is definitely the hardest to write. She’s constantly having at least two conversations: the one that’s happening out loud and the one she’s participating in in her head with everyone’s thoughts. Chloe is always at least one step ahead of everyone she’s talking to, so balancing each of those conversations and thinking about how what she’s hearing is affecting her own emotional state can be really difficult. 

Question Four: I tend to use The Bright Sessions as a great example of expressive and effective acting in audio drama and I’m curious as to where you found so many wonderful actors. Did you already know them all or did you seek them out yourself?

I am lucky enough to live in Los Angeles, where I am surrounded by incredible actors that the big shots haven’t discovered yet. Most of the cast are from an acting class I’ve been taking at The BGB Studio for three years. Julia (Dr. Bright), Briggon (Caleb), Charlie (Damien), Andrew (Mark), Phillip (Frank), and Alanna (Rose) all go to that studio and that’s where I met them. 

Anna (Chloe) and I met in a UCB class three years ago, and she introduced me to Ian and Alex M., who play Agent Green and Wadsworth respectively. Briggon, appropriately, introduced me to Alex G., who plays Adam. And then we have Reyn, who plays Charlie Decker, and who I know from ars Paradoxica, which our sound producer, Mischa Stanton, created. So it really is a family affair.

Question Five: The Bright Sessions has been achieving a lot of success in the podcast community over the few years it’s been out. Did you expect it? What do you attribute this success to? 

I definitely did not expect it. I certainly hoped that people would listen, and had lofty goals to have tens of thousands of subscribers, but when we started out I assumed that was a pipe dream. I - and I think this applies to everyone else involved as well - have been delightfully surprised by its success at every turn. In just the 15 months we’ve been doing this, we’ve had so many people listen and send us messages and draw fanart and be enthusiastic, and we are incredibly grateful. 

I wish I could tell you that we followed a very specific set of steps to have a successful podcast, but I honestly have no idea how we’ve gotten to where we are. Obviously, I’m proud of the show - I wouldn’t make it if I thought it wasn’t good - and I think people should listen, but I’m still surprised by how it’s taken off. I spent a lot of time in the early days on Tumblr, Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, etc., just trying to get people to listen and I think putting in those hours really helped. And then I think it’s just been a lot of dumb luck of the right people finding us. 

Being featured in different publications and on iTunes has really helped people find us and those features came up more or less organically - thankfully, there are people out there who actively seek out audio drama and then write about what they like. But mostly, I think the show has done well because we’re telling stories about characters a lot of people can relate to. I’ve certainly made an attempt to write something that is engaging and compelling, but having the actors that we have to bring these characters to life is, I think, our biggest asset. 

Question Six:  What drove you to make this into an audio drama? Do you have any inspirations you’d like to credit?

The reason for making The Bright Sessions an audio drama was two fold. First, there was the practical reason: making an audio drama is far less expensive than making something for film. I needed to be able to do every step myself - the writing, the recording, the post-production - on a tight budget. Audio drama was the solution. 

Second, the creative reason: I like the freedom of interpretation that audio drama provides. I’ve been in fandom spaces for a long time and, though I’ve never been a creator of fan works myself, I’ve always loved consuming them. The wonderful thing about audio dramas is the variety of listener interpretations they spur. Listening to an audio drama is like reading a book - you can fully immerse yourself and imagine the world and the characters however you like. Creating something that encouraged that kind of imagination really appealed to me. There were many creative reasons for sticking to audio, but this was the one I was most excited about.

While there aren’t any direct inspirations for the content of The Bright Sessions, Welcome to Night Vale and BBC Radio’s Cabin Pressure were the two pieces of audio fiction that I listened to before writing The Bright Sessions. WTNV is simple - mostly just one man talking into a microphone, with music. Cabin Pressure is elaborate - multiple scenes with different soundscapes and effects each episode, recorded in front of a live audience, big name actors. I didn’t have the dough for a BBC-like production and I think Night Vale only works as a mostly one-man show because of the magical combination of Cecil Baldwin, Cranor & Fink’s writing, and Disparition’s music. 

That formula is impossible to replicate. When thinking about how I wanted to tell a story through audio, these shows were my two reference points and helped me find the middle ground in which The Bright Sessions exists. 

BONUS: Has creating The Bright Sessions been a major impact in your life? How have things changed for you?

Oh boy, has it ever. The Bright Sessions has become my life. It started as a side project - a way for me to try my hand at writing and do some acting with a couple of friends. It has now turned into a full-time job (or, more accurately, three full-time jobs). On a practical, macro-career level, doing this podcast has completely changed the way I approach my professional life. Whereas before I was mainly an actor, I’m now a “writer/creator”. 

People like the thing I make and they write about it and invite me to come places and talk about it and that could not be more different from the life of general obscurity I lived as an actor. I’m by no means famous or even known outside of podcast circles, but I do feel that I am beginning to experience a level of recognition that is exciting and weird and genuinely a bit confusing. Also on the practical side, the success of the show has opened a lot of doors to me in entertainment that were previously closed. You’ll have to stay tuned on where that leads, because I certainly can’t predict at the moment.

On a personal level, The Bright Sessions has given me so, so much. It’s given me the opportunity to work with people I deeply admire and grow something with them. I cannot ever express how rewarding that is. Beyond the friendships that doing the show has strengthened, and the amazing work I’ve been able to observe in these actors, the show has, funnily enough, been very good for my mental health. Creating the character of Sam was like giving my own anxiety a voice. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend acting out panic attacks for everyone who struggles with anxiety (those scenes are hard) but for me, it has been extremely cathartic. 

Sam and I are very different people in what we want out of life, but our anxieties are the same. It is such a relief to be able to write a scene in which Sam explains why going outside or talking to people or feeling a certain way is terrifying. I now have something to point to and say, “this is who I am, this is how it feels sometimes to just go to the grocery store, these are my fears” and, while that is a vulnerable and frightening thing to lay bare, it has been oddly healing. 

And then to get messages from people saying, “I relate to Sam so much, thank you for her, I feel less alone now” is truly moving for me. It makes me feel less alone and I am unbelievably grateful for that. 

And, mixing the practical and the personal, doing The Bright Sessions finally made me get my act together and actually start going to therapy last year. I thought it was time for me to practice what I preach.

Such elegance. Such confidence. Such charisma towards her field! I want to thank Miss Shippen for doing this Q&A with me and to you all for reading this.

I say you make your appointment pronto and take a listen to The Bright Sessions for yourself. This has been PodCake, end recording.

[operationrainfall]

Title Castlevania Anniversary Collection Developer Konami Publisher Konami Release Date May 16th, 2019 Genre Adventure, Platformer Platform Steam, Nintendo Switch, PS4, XBox One Age Rating T for Teen – Blood, Fantasy Violence, Partial Nudity Official Website

I wasn’t originally planning on reviewing the Castlevania Anniversary Collection. After all, I didn’t receive a review copy, and mostly bought it to satisfy my own nostalgia. But the more I played it, enjoying both reliving and experiencing anew highlights in this storied franchise, I decided I might as well write something. After all, I was already taking dozens upon dozens of screenshots. And despite only being a nominal fan of the Castlevania series, I felt I had some things to share. I say nominal because I only really got into the series when Symphony of the Night revolutionized the entire thing, and you’d be accurate in saying there’s a big difference between the original games and those which came after SOTN. Hell, before this I hadn’t even beaten any of the original NES games other than Dracula’s Curse, nor had I touched upon the Gameboy or Genesis entries. So I actually had a lot of work to do in order to write this review. The question is, did I come out of it with my fandom gloriously inflamed by the Collection? Or was it just a miserable pile of remakes?

I’m going to start out by explaining how this review is going to go, since it’s not often I review 8 games at once. This review will devote a few paragraphs to each game in the order I played them, along with plenty of pretty pictures. At the very end, I’ll touch upon the visual and audio presentation plus anything extra, and finish it up with my summarized thoughts. With that out of the way, let’s start my first foray into the Belmonts’ Gameboy mayhem with Castlevania The Adventure.

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It’s easy to think of portable iterations of any popular series as quick cash grabs, and I admit I didn’t expect much of anything from Castlevania the Adventure. Luckily, I couldn’t have been more wrong. Because while the classic Gameboy wasn’t capable of the visual feats of the NES, Konami seemed to take that as a challenge to pack as much awesome into this tiny adventure as possible. Though it only includes 4 levels, no doubt due to the limitations of said platform, they are each multi-tiered and full of challenging platforming and nasty beasts. There’s everything from Punaguchi (Bone Pillars) to Mudmen to what I assume must be the ancestors of Fleamen. While falling into bottomless pits was frustrating, it was made less so with the advent of save states. I actually stumbled upon that feature, discovering it was available for all the games in this Collection. I quickly grew to love its inclusion, since you can press ZL at any time to freeze the game, and then either save or load your progress. You might think that made things too easy, but you couldn’t be more wrong. Saving at the wrong time, such as when at low health or equipped with a bad sub-weapon, made things much harder, so I grew to time my saves carefully. They were a necessity, especially when facing challenges like instant death spike walls chasing me through levels. You’re welcome to play without any saves, but that should only be reserved for the most hardcore of fans.

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The bosses in this game were also surprisingly impressive. Though simplistic, they offered a robust challenge, especially the room full of Goblins (they’re really Fleamen) jumping out of holes. As for Dracula himself, being on the Gameboy didn’t sap any of his challenge. He managed to teleport all about hurling waves of fire at me, and as if that wasn’t enough, transformed into a giant, deadly bat for the final confrontation. I was really quite impressed by Castlevania the Adventure, but felt I needed a break from Gameboy graphics afterwards. And so, I decided next to try a game that just now officially made its stateside debut…

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I had actually heard a lot about Kid Dracula over the years, but there’s a big difference between hearing secondhand and playing firsthand. What I never could have guessed was how truly weird and innovative the game was. First off, while most Castlevania games are dark and brooding, this side story is light and cheery. You play the titular Kid Drac (not clear if he’s supposed to be a young Dracula or Alucard, but that’s not really important) on his quest to oust a pretender to his monster throne. That’s about as serious as things get, and I quickly was met with how absurd this game was.

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For one thing, every monster in this game is a cutesy and cartoony one. There are adorable little witches, goofy skeletons, cheerful bats and much more. But don’t let that fool you, this game is far from easy. If I had felt any guilt about using save states in Castlevania the Adventure, that completely left me here. Kid Dracula doesn’t really believe in checkpoints, so often if you get killed, it’s back to the very beginning of a stage. That’s made more difficult by the fact many of the bosses here are large threats who like to cheat. The most mellow is a happy ghost who looks creepily similar to a Klansman, and even he killed me a couple of times. Pretty much the only boss who won’t pose a challenge is the Statue of Liberty (no, you didn’t hear that wrong), since you just need to beat her quiz show to win the “battle”.

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What makes this game a treat though are all the weird combat conventions. Each time you beat one of the 9 stages, Kid Drac gets a new power which he can scroll through at will. If that sounds like Mega Man, just you wait. He can also charge all of his attacks by holding the attack button, though some of his fully charged powers double as new ways to traverse your environment, such as transforming into a bat or flipping onto the ceiling. Which is my way of saying that there’s a lot of complexity to the game, and no shortage of challenge. Turning into a bat didn’t keep me from dying dozens of times, and in a game with this many stages, you’d better be ready to die. The only thing at your disposal to earn more lives are the totally random minigames, such as guessing the color of dancing girl’s panties, stabbing a skeleton or various games of chance. If nothing else, Kid Dracula is worth playing just to see how full of deliciously crazy Japanese flavor it was. After beating it, I needed something a bit more grounded, so let’s return to the years of the Gameboy.

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Everything that impressed me about the original Gameboy outing was enhanced in Castlevania II: Belmont’s Revenge. It continues the story of Christopher Belmont, who was victorious, defeating Dracula in Castlevania The Adventure. But you can’t keep a good vampire down, and this story has the ghastly spirit of the Count take possession of Christopher’s son, Soleil Belmont. Symphony of the Night flashbacks aside, I was not expecting this much lore in the game. After all, the first one was pretty basic, but there’s some intense father / son drama in the game, not to mention the first true boss fight against a human in the series, serving as a progenitor for fights against the likes of Juste, Richter and Maxim later on.

One of the reasons I enjoyed Belmont’s Revenge was that it took all the things that were good about the first outing, and smoothed over the rough edges. Sure you can and still will die, but you have a bit more breathing room. And the bosses were wildly creative, in my opinion. You have an elemental wizard, a fight against two living statues, an armored demon, a creepy wall monster, a super difficult bone dragon, Dracula himself and even your son, Soleil. What gives you a fighting chance, unlike in Castlevania The Adventure, here you have access to a couple of sub-weapons – the axe and holy water. Being accustomed to the later games, I thought the water was the way to go, but to my great surprise, the axe was my go-to weapon of choice. Being able to hit things at odd angles was a constant life saver.

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As much as I loved most things about this game, there was one sticking point – the final bosses. The fight against Soleil was incredibly difficult, but not as tough as Dracula. Mostly because the good Count fired rotating balls of death, and finding a safe place to avoid them required much patience on my part. The only upside is this time there was only one phase to the Dracula fight, so it wasn’t impossible. Overall though, this was the better of the portable entries included in the Collection. Next up, we’ll go back to where it all started on the NES.

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There’s a reason I took my time getting to the original Castlevania, and that reason is simple – fear. I worried I wouldn’t be up to the task of tackling the game that started it all without the modern conventions I’ve grown accustomed to. You can’t level up and you’re totally reliant on timing and having the right sub-weapon equipped. I also was concerned the platforming would be too much for me. Thankfully, those fears were mostly unfounded. Sure, the original game is hard, but it also has some sections that are surprisingly easy. Furthermore, most of the bosses in the game are a cakewalk, with the notable exceptions of Death and Dracula, who are both unrelenting bastards.

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I learned a lot of lessons after playing the first Castlevania. First off, I learned Dracula’s design has changed wildly over the years. I always thought of him as the dapper caped gentleman with long hair, but here he looks far more ghastly and demonic (and that’s before he transforms). I also learned that the bad writing for the plot isn’t a bug, but a series feature. And that Fleamen are horrible in any game, but doubly so when you have limited evasive movement. And lastly I discovered that some of the most iconic bosses, such as Medusa and the Mummy, start out as pushovers. There are also weird discrepancies, such as Dracula’s fireballs having homing capability. That said, I had a lot more fun with the first game than I expected. But after all that retro, I wanted something a bit more updated, so I moved on with Super Castlevania IV.

Head to the SNES on Page 2 ->

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Some games transitioned to the SNES with flair, and Super Castlevania IV is certainly one of those games. They took everything that made the series iconic and seasoned it with a bunch more spice. This was the first game in the series where you could whip in multiple directions, as well as fling your whip around to block projectiles. You could also swing across gaps with it, a feature I think should have shown up in more games. But what I loved most about this entry was how huge it was. They jam packed content into this, and when I thought I was almost done, I was barely at the halfway mark.

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The experimental nature of the game was fantastic, and I loved how it really took chances with different ideas. They used Mode 7 graphics for crazy rotations and things like giant chandeliers you could stand upon. They also made it really feel like a Castlevania with lots of opportunities for a cheap death. That happened a ton in the Clock Tower, and I died several times fighting against the Mummy atop giant clock hands. They even took foes I thought of as weak in later entries like SOTN and made them a true threat. Namely, the ghostly dancers are a force to be reckoned with here. When they turned invisible and started attacking me, I nearly lost my composure. And as weak as Slogra and Gaibon were later, they were an impressive challenge here.

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Perhaps the best part of this game was the final path to Dracula. While the fight against Dracula himself isn’t my favorite in the series, it’s plenty challenging. And considering you have to brave a gauntlet of foes like Death and others to get there, it feels suitably epic. I already liked Super Castlevania IV from playing it years back on my Wii U, but after finally beating it here, it’s easily become one of my favorite entries in the long running series. So of course, my next game was one that has gotten a ton of praise as well.

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Dracula’s Curse is iconic in the Castlevania fandom, and it’s not hard to understand why. Not only did it introduce multiple characters and branching paths, it also had tight gameplay and the challenge fans have come to expect. Hell, the recently released Netflix series was heavily influenced by this game, and that wowed us fans. I had played a little of Dracula’s Curse on my 3DS, but I got frustrated by some of the bosses and hadn’t picked it up afterwards. So I figured now was as good a time as any to try again.

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Whereas the original Castlevania featured Simon Belmont, this one took place several hundred years earlier. As such, it made sense to focus on his ancestor Trevor. The curveball were the 3 other characters – Sypha, Grant and Alucard. All three have totally unique play styles and offer interesting ways to explore. That goes triple for Grant, who can hop around like a heroic Fleaman. I daresay that Symphony of the Night wouldn’t have existed without this game, and for that, I love it even more. That said, there is one thing about this game that really irritated me. Sometimes when you kill an enemy, they will drop a random sub-weapon, which I think is a feature exclusive to this game. Sounds great, except it often happens in the heat of the moment and usually gives you a sub-weapon you really don’t want. I can’t count the number of times I reloaded my save to avoid getting a shitty weapon.

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The bosses in Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse are pretty tough, and the fact that you can take a variety of paths through the game makes things interesting. While they toned down some bosses, there are plenty that will cause you grief. One is the recurring Cyclops boss, another is a fight against an evil spirit who possesses multiple monsters to kill you. Even though they mellowed out Death from the first game, he also has a second, horrific form. And while I wasn’t a huge fan of the Dracula fight in Super Castlevania IV, the one here is fantastic. I can’t say I understand why he turns from a Count into a monstrous amalgamation of brains and then an angry bird statue, but the creativity and challenge impressed the hell out of me. Frankly, we’re lucky we got this game, since the one that preceded it was highly controversial. And that one’s up next.

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I’m gonna be perfectly frank, I considered skipping Simon’s Quest. While you hear nothing but good things about Castlevania III, II is the polar opposite. It’s confusing, awkwardly written and somewhat psychotic. And yet, the more I played it, the more I found weird little charming features. For one thing, the music in this game is still amazing, no matter how much of a mess everything else is. For another, aspects like leveling up and equipping items got introduced here, and without those, I never would have gotten my first Metroidvania. They introduced Churches to fully heal you here. Also, the day / night cycle was actually really cleverly used, and it made sense Dracula’s minions were more powerful at night. So much so that I kind of wish it had made it into other games, not counting the stupid N64 entries.

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With all those nice things out of the way, let’s move onto the messy bits. First and foremost, you really can’t beat this game without a guide. Or you can, but it takes blind luck and infinite patience. I am not a fan of either, so I found a guide and got playing. There’s so much that would have been improved with just a bit more clarity in this game such as what equipped items do, clear hints on where to go next etc. And this may sound like an odd critique, but I wanted more bosses in this game. There’s a total of three, including the big bat himself. That is starkly less than any other game in the series, even the Gameboy adventures.

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They also complicated things with tons of hidden items and invisible platforms. I cannot count how many times I fell through the floor, but it was definitely more than a dozen. The game seemed to delight in pulling the rug out from under us players. Especially with regard to things like kneeling to make tornadoes appear or water levels recede. It’s bonkers this game didn’t kill the entire series, charming quirks notwithstanding. But I am glad I finally got through it, doubly so cause it let me save the best for last – Castlevania Bloodlines!

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Not to immediately contradict myself, but Bloodlines wasn’t quite my favorite game in this Collection. It did come damned close though. With just a few improvements, it would have easily claimed that title. See, I grew up playing video games, but I never owned a Sega Genesis. I had a Game Gear, but that wasn’t the same thing. So I missed out on games like this when they originally released. Which is a shame, since Bloodlines had heart and creativity to spare. Not only did it expand the Castlevania universe in big ways with two playable characters, it also took the series into modern times. That’s quite cool, and part of the reason I was so impressed by this entry. Another reason was the gameplay.

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This might sound odd, but in many ways Bloodlines almost doesn’t remind me of a Castlevania game. For one thing, it’s significantly faster than the other games. Both you and your foes react quicker and have less wind-up time, which in part caused me to get burned alive by Bone Pillars on many occasions until I acclimated. For another, it is far less focused on platforming hell than other entries. And while there is the usual gothic influence here, it just feels different. In a weird way, this almost reminded me more of a Contra game. But that’s far from a bad thing, and some of the unusual foes caught my attention, such as Minotaurs and swinging plant monsters.

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As you span the globe in Bloodlines, going from Greece to France, you’ll face some really eclectic bosses and even mini-bosses. One of the weirdest ones is a pile of living gears that attacks you in Germany. An especially interesting one is a floating, ethereal maiden who transforms into a hideous moth. And the fight against Death himself is especially clever, involving Tarot cards that force you into fighting older bosses a second time. Sadly, the fight against Countess Bartley herself is a bit underwhelming, and so is the fight against Dracula. But all in all, there’s a lot more great stuff than bad stuff here. Plus, with two playable characters, you have an excuse to play through more than once to enjoy all the sights and sounds. My only real complaint about the game is how short it is, sitting at only 6 stages.

It wouldn’t be fair to talk about any collection without discussing the controls. Thankfully, I found all the controls tight and responsive. Once you get them down, you’ll be ready for each subsequent game, other than Bloodlines. That efficiency also applies to the aforementioned options. It’s handy and quick to save and load the game, as well as check the controls at any time. I didn’t really play with the other visual filters, but there’s plenty if you’re interested.

While I won’t cover the aesthetics for each of the 8 included games, I will discuss the art for the series on the whole. It’s my opinion that Castlevania started out great and only got better with age. You’d think the NES games would look ugly and blocky now, but the game has always had tons of personality and conveyed dark themes well. That’s in large part due to the color palette, which has lots of browns, reds, blacks and other dark colors, such as dark blue and forest green. Whenever they had more to work with, they managed to improve things dramatically, such as the huge character sprites in Super Castlevania IV or the complex visual effects such as bleeding fountains in Bloodlines. And perhaps one of the things I love most about the series are all the great monsters. Ranging from bone tossing skeletons to hulking Axe Knights to floating Medusa heads, there’s a ton of diversity on display. Some of the more eye catching visual effects were swinging from your whip, rotating chambers, shifting towers and even a cool mirrored effect at the end of Bloodlines. Hell, even the Gameboy games were visually appealing, and they only had two colors to work with. If I wasn’t already impressed with the art in the series, I certainly am after playing through all 8 of these games.

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Musically, this series is even more impressive. Even when they only had a few tones to work with, they managed to orchestrate complex melodies. The tunes range from hard rocking to gothic songs, and everything else in between. While there are the more iconic tracks like Bloody Tears, Theme of Simon, Vampire Killer and Wicked Child, I also liked some of the lesser known stuff. From the Gameboy games, I was fond of New Messiah and Revenge. From NES, I enjoyed Mad Forest and Silence of Daylight. From SNES, I really was impressed by both The Library and Treasury, while from Genesis, Iron-Blue Intention and The Discolored Wall stuck with me. As for Kid Dracula, the music there was totally unlike everything else, being cheerful and upbeat. A good example of which is Hop and Step Above the Clouds.

As much as I enjoyed the Castlevania Anniversary Collection, there were a couple glitches and one letdown. One glitch occurred when I exited from Simon’s Quest. When I returned to the game select screen, there was a loud static sound that muted all the music. Thankfully, restarting my game seemed to fix that. Another happened during the original Castlevania in the underground grotto level. It was a loud, recurring ding sound not unlike the ticking of a clock. Once I got past that level, it never returned, but it is worth noting. The more serious concern I had was that this collection inexplicably doesn’t have a music select which seems odd, for a couple reasons. For one, Castlevania is known for the tremendous music. For another, there is a companion called Book of the Crescent Moon, full of interviews, strange secrets and behind the scenes looks into the development process, as well as some great sketch art. While you can certainly hear all the wonderful songs while you play the game, this game absolutely deserved a way to listen to them at your leisure.

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Honestly for $19.99, it’s hard to go wrong with the Castlevania Anniversary Collection. It’s packed with great retro gaming, easily 10+ hours worth, and tons of lore about the series. It should put a smile on the faces of many fans. I definitely feel like more of a true fan after playing it, and gained new appreciation for what Konami accomplished back in their glory days. Unfortunately, due to the aforementioned glitches and frankly inexcusable lack of a music select, I couldn’t give this a perfect score like I wanted. But if you’re a fan, old or new, of Castlevania and want a handy collection on any current console, you have plenty to sink your teeth into with this.

[easyreview cat1title=”Overall” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”4″]

Review Copy Purchased by Author

REVIEW: Castlevania Anniversary Collection Title Castlevania Anniversary Collection

[jackmonkeygames]

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Actual play podcasts are a hot thing right now.

It seems that anyone with a microphone is and a set of dice with more than six sides is recording a podcast. Now I have been spending time on this topic doing research yah research ....that is it research. I have gathered a list of some of the best to cross my earbuds. Some of these have poor audio quality and some have full production value and a budget. I ask you to ignore that and listen to the content. Most shows will start off small and when they start to get backers on pateron will upgrade their podcasting equipment to something a little more professional. I happen to know one podcast that recorded their entire first season on the gamemasters Samsung phone. (Star-Fall cough cough) 

I would like to note that any comments by me will be in Blue 

Why should you listen to an independent RPG Podcast?

Independent podcasters are the lifeblood of the Podcasting world. These creative people are doing what they love and inviting you to the table as a spectator. These Gamemasters and players come up with the most creative adventures. Some are true to the rules and some throw the rules out the window. Listening to these podcasts you will learn all kinds of great GM/Player skills. Most of all these podcasts are just fun. I highly recommend that you listen to at least five episodes as it takes a little while for everyone to really get into character. by then it will be too late as you will be addicted to the podcast :

Great way to learn new games you have not purchased yet. Think of it as a free sample. 

Why should you support an RPG Podcast? 

Podcasting is not free. it's Cheap, not free. Many of these gamemasters are spending their own money to produce their podcast. Many will have products, Patreon pages and or Ads in order to keep the show going. If it was not for our backers we would not be able to publish our show at all. Become A Patreon backer even if its just $1 a month. It adds up trust me. 

Other ways to support the show are free and perhaps more important. Tell someone about their show. Getting the word out is such a difficult task that there are entire forums and Facebook groups dedicated to this problem. Simply telling someone about the show or posting an episode on Facebook or Twitter is a huge help.

Contact the Podcaster!! Trust me they will love it. There have been a few times where I was thinking that nobody cared about the show and I received an email from a listener. It does wonders to inspire the cast. 

What RPG podcast is on my Player Right now? 

I'm going to start off with the shows that are actually on my phone at the moment. These shows are near and dear to my heart.

  Steam Rollers actual play Podcast 

Each show takes you on a rollicking Steampunk adventure filled with mystery, monsters, and steam-powered machines! Follow along as our party of role-playing adventurers finds themselves in one adventure after another where their decisions, and the luck of the dice, determine what happens next!

This Podcast is on top of the list because I just love it that much. It just happens this is the show that inspired me to start my own. The use of sound effects to accent the show is well done. The WORLD BUILDING is amazing almost like the creator is an author ... oh wait he is!!!. The co-host Robby grows on you quickly. The cast, as well as the story-crafter (Steampunk for Game Master), are likable though Jameson Mayfield is an evil bastard.   Even if you know nothing about steampunk you are going to want to download this one. 

Star-Fall Actual Play Podcast 

    Star-Fall is a Science fiction RPG podcast that is told using Short stories, audio dramas, and Actual Roleplay.  What happens when A new oppressive religion invades your planet? You run and that is exactly what the characters do. The unlikely group of heroes consists of a Male Escort, his father,  A Alcoholic doctor, a bartender, a massive lizardman, a psychic alien introvert and a four-armed fish ant. This comedy is filled with character development. This is not the podcast to listen to if you like strong female characters. 

Mech battles, daring escapes from asteroid belts, Space Pirates and Aliens who discuss human mating habits by getting it all wrong. We are an LGBTQ & Polyamory friendly podcast.

Norkek and Hedda are a spinoff animation part of the Star-Fall Universe. These two Aliens talk about human nature while eating fast food. This is my first attempt at animation and I am having a lot of fun with this. 

Yes, I listed my own podcast. Every podcaster should .. helps you make a better show. We start off with a very low budget and basic knowledge of editing and roleplaying but we get better. I know that if you can keep listening to episode 5 you will be hooked. The cast has a mix of experience but all have become really amazing roleplayers. Season two is almost ready. 

1 Billion years in the future, the Earth is a truly unfamiliar place. A hodgepodge of strange creatures, bizarre devices, and relics of past civilizations. It is a beautiful and cruel world in equal measure. In this land of wonders, four people will begin a journey that, by its end, may shake the planet to the very core. Of course, they will have to survive that journey first..

I am a huge fan of this show! As most of you should know on Twitter I am a big fan of anything Monte Cook Games. This podcast really does Numenera Justice. I love the characters. The humorous banter between the characters is amazing and I love the GM. OH, and they have a Were-hedgehog !!! HOW AWESOME IS THAT!?!?!  

Fantasy & Scifi Podcasts 

Now I have only had a short listen to these at the moment. but they have been added to my listening list. Many of these podcasts are part of a group of RPG Podcasters called TTRAPS on facebook 

  Tails from The Dark Dragons Inn is a long-form, serialized, high-fantasy, improv fiction podcast driven at its core by tabletop role-play.

It tells the tale of a band of heroes called “The Scales of Justice”, seeking to learn more of their world, and themselves as they race to intervene in the plans of the Cult of the Dragon and their cataclysmic ambition. Season two leads quickly to Baldur's Gate where a dark shroud lies over the city and a mystery awaits, with the heroes in the center of its tangled web.

Featuring a diverse cast and released weekly on Sundays, with its heavy focus on storytelling over gameplayTails from The Dark Dragons Innis the perfect gateway from Audio Drama to RPG podcasts and comfortably appeals to audiences of both. Find out more and subscribe through http://tftddi.co.uk

I had to add this one to my playlist right away. It sounds a lot of fun. I have not had a chance to listen beyond the first 10 min but I think that I'm already hooked. I will update this post once I have had a chance to give it the listen it deserves.  

            Very Random Encounters

:

We call ourselves a chaotic actual play podcast. Each season, we pick a pen and paper RPG system and a GM, and then randomized as many things as possible. We randomize plots, villains, our characters, the places, the events, and anything else we can think to could be random. Then see what happens. We are an LGBT+ created and positive podcast that isn't always safe for work. 

Why would someone who has never played an RPG want to download your podcast? Because of the format of our show, since we don't stick to one game system, we probably covered some genre that they are interested in. We show how you can be handed a character, which you haven't made, and make that a fully fleshed out person. 

Our seasons so far have been:

- D&D 5th edition

- TSR's Marvel's Superheros

- Call of Cthulhu

- Uncharted worlds

We've also done mini-season with a special guest. In those seasons we've played:

- Monster of the Week

- Fiasco

- In Plain Sight

Our standard cast is:

Lee (she/her) - @YoSaphBridge

Logan (he/him) - @LoganJenkins

Greg (he/him) - @whitewing

Travis (they/them) - @TheTravisW

Our Website: VRE.show

Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/vrecast

Facebook: facebook.com/vrecast

Twitter: twitter.com/vrecast

We release shows every monday, as soon as Soundcloud will let us go. 

    Tabletop Potluck

Tabletop Potluck born when a diverse group of friends found themselves wishing for more representation in their actual-play podcasts. The team chose to be the change they wished to see in the world, striving to showcase representation in all forms: players, characters, and games. Just like at a delicious potluck, different people can bring a vast variety of experiences to the table. Now, every Monday, Tabletop Potluck brings diverse stories to their listeners, as well as in-depth sessions and discussions of various tabletop roleplaying games.

Our episodes go a bit like this: we play a game on air, usually for the first time ever for at least one member, and then we all create a smorgasbord of recipes related to the game's themes, and discuss what we like and dislike about the systems. With both examples of gameplay and reviews, we hope to give our listeners everything they might need to decide to try a brand new RPG.  

We're so thankful for all of the support we've gotten so far and we can't wait to continue this journey with you all.  

You can find us at tabletoppotluck.libsyn.com, and wherever else you get your podcasts.

We're a great choice for someone who has never played an RPG before because we're also new to most of the systems we play. That being said, we keep it fun and interesting by bringing in the storytelling dynamic of a tight-knit group of friends (many of whom are actors). Our discussion potlucks are helpful for people who want to learn more about the mechanics of the system, while our storytelling episodes give good examples of what gameplay might be like. 

    Shuffle Quest

is a comedy actual-play RPG podcast set in a variety of pop culture worlds. Olmec, an extradimensional stone head, has discovered the multiverse of fiction is collapsing, and recruits three fantasy adventurers from the world of Dungeons & Dragons to act as his agents and save reality. Each arc focuses on the cast’s adventures in a single pop culture universe, as they grapple with danger, mystery, and a hilarious dose of culture shock. The players use the RPG system most closely representative of the world they’re in (we always try to use officially licensed games if possible)! Currently, our heroes have rescued the universes of Men in Black, Dragon Ball Z, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Mad Max from certain doom.

Shuffle Quest arcs are six episodes long and are separated by single episodes focused on the cast recovering in Olmec’s head (in addition to being their quest-giver, he also acts as their means of transportation between universes). Episodes range from 50-90 minutes.

Our show is professionally recorded and mixed, and thoroughly edited to trim digressions and rules logistics. Shuffle Quest is ad-free and is funded by listeners like you through Patreon.

Why would someone who has never played an RPG want to download your podcast?:

The shifting pop culture settings keep the show both fresh and familiar, allowing listeners unused to the settings of RPGs to quickly understand the context due to the pop culture touchstones we play with.

I tend to avoid Pop Culture focused podcasts. We even go out of our way to avoid them in our own podcast. I'm saying this because EVEN I ENJOY THIS PODCAST !!! I am only a few episodes in and enjoying it the whole time. This is a must for new players! 

  Quest Friends!

LINK: http://questfriends.podbean.com

PROMO VIDEO: https://youtu.be/9b7wf7GAwvI

"Quest Friends!" takes place ONE BILLION years in the future, after multiple advanced civilizations have risen and fallen. From their ashes, four foolhardy adventurers face off against ferocious foes, including robot cowboy shopkeeps, vision-inducing skin spiders, and really awful kazoo playing.

The show has been praised by fans for superb pacing that keeps listeners anxious for the next episode, a cast of players and characters that are "cinnamon-roll pure," and a world that is bright, vibrant, and farcically goofy. It's also very accessible for listeners unfamiliar with roleplaying games, as the focus is on the world and story being told, with the actual gameplay systems taking more of a backseat.

The second part of a two-episode mini-arc starring one of the main characters is dropping today. It's a completely isolated story that gives a great taste for what Quest Friends! is about!

      We are a 5e, D&D, actual play, narrative focused, sometimes funny podcast. You know, like 95% of all the other podcasts, but we've got eldritch horror. We also have guests on occasionally to play their own characters that we incorporate into the narrative.

Welcome brave traveler to Sylandrian, a city steeped in murder, mystery, and madness. Stagnation and complacency have run rampant, and something monstrous churns behind the dark. A group of private investigators are the only thing that stands in the way of injustice and despair. Let us join them now, for another exciting episode of The Beholder's Eye!

Our podcast can be great for people that don't play ttrpgs, because we focus on the narrative and try to make the gameplay/ mechanics side of things as unobtrusive as possible. We can also be a great introduction to what makes ttrpgs amazing, collaborative storytelling.

iTunes link - https://itunes.apple.com/ie/podcast/the-beholders-eye/id1343673492?mt=2

SoundCloud link - https://soundcloud.com/thebeholderseye

      Side Character Quest

Elevator Pitch:

A one-on-one improvised fantasy adventure podcast.  The host stays the same, but every few episodes, we rotate in a new guest playing a new character in the same world.

Description:

Side Character Quest (SCQ) is an improvised fantasy adventure podcast.  Like other shows, it uses tabletop games like Dungeons & Dragons as a framework for the improv, but unlike other shows in this genre,* the games are played with the host/DM and onlyoneguest/player.  The guest goes on a quest over the course of several episodes, and when the quest is complete (or when they fail), they leave and a new guest comes on!  The new guest plays a new character on their own journey, but the setting stays the same.  As the show goes on, more of the world is revealed.

Episode titles all begin with the name of the guest's character, so new listeners can easily see where a new character arc begins.  Listeners can start with any character arc, but it is recommended they start with Season 1 Episode 1, "Sir Rodrick Begins His Quest."

Twitter Handle: @SCQpodcast

Website: www.sidecharacterquest.com(Right now this just redirects to our Twitter page.  We plan to update this when our rebranding is complete.)

iTunes Page:  https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/side-character-quest/id1332525305?mt=2

"Why would someone who has never played an RPG want to download your podcast."

The unique (I think) format of our show makes it really easy to pick up.  Though there is a larger story being built, each arc has been designed to be self-contained.  You might get more out of it by listening to all of them, but maybe you want to start with a particular guest!  Maybe you don't want to commit right away to listening to the entire backlog of a new show?  Don't worry!  With SCQ, each self-contained arc aims to be between only 2 and 8 episodes long.

(The small number of people on the show (just the host and a single guest) also means it is easy to learn who's who.)

      Fate and the Fablemaidens is an all-women, family-friendly actual-play D&D 5th edition podcast created by four friends who love goofs and games. You could say we have goofs on goofs on goofs... and dragons. And new episodes every other Monday.

Under the unpredictable guidance of Fate (Renee Rhodes), three adventurers – Merryweather (Rebecca Eckert), the gnome artificer; Wynni (Laura Hutton), the halfling bard; and Twyddle (Samantha Turley), the changeling barbarian – are thrown together on a fateful trip. When they set sail that day, all they planned for was a relaxing, three-day boat tour – a pleasure cruise. Instead, the world starts falling apart around them – literally.

  ++++Bonus+++++ We hope to be accessible to anyone, even those who have never played a TTRPG. To that end, we try to explain our rule-based actions, but also just have fun in the hopes that our audience can have fun with us.

 I just subscribed to this one!  I have also encouraged my Daughter who wants to start running Dungeons and Dragons 5e to listen. 

PAN, the Pagan Angel Network, brings you original, fast-paced horror stories using the tabletop role-playing game Call of Cthulhu. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Player FM, SoundCloud, iTunes, or CastBox for a new episode every Sunday!

PAN's ongoing flagship series, Millennium, follows a network of innocents in the year 1999 who uncover an international conspiracy to bring the world under the worship of an all-consuming, prehistoric god. The emphasis is on player choice in a sandbox-y open world, and although the comedy flies fast and thick, the campaign is ultimately a dark (though fantastical) simulation of how humanity might reach its end. In addition to Millennium, PAN has already aired the dystopian coming-of-age limited series The Scrud and the three-part, audio-drama-by-way-of-found-footage The Oklahoma Coast.http://paganangelnetwork.comWhy would someone who has never played an RPG want to download?PAN is about storytelling, not game rules, and although it makes great use of the unique storytelling possibilities that come with collaborative tabletop RPGs, it never spends much time on crunchy combat or other things that might lose the RPG-uninitiated. Above all, PAN wants to immerse you in the story. In the summer of 2018, PAN will also begin to air multiple non-RPG-based horror series, since its creators know that their listeners' tastes are as broad as their own!

    Mystery Fantasy Dungeon 9000

    MFD9K is a Dungeons and Dragons real play podcast. It's a home-brew sandbox world, with a 22-year rich history in the making by previous adventurers who have become both myth and legends, saints and deities.

This Podcast is set around 2nd edition rule (Thac0/Saves/Class creation/XP Charts) while working in rules from 3.5/D20/4/Next and so on. Using Themes from all Realms of Sci-fi and Fantasy. It's also a big HOMEBREW - and we welcome any content anyone wishes to let us playtest for you! 

In this podcast, the Dungeon Master/Father teaches his coming of age son how to Role Play with good close friends and a long time player of the DM's world.

-----------------------------Bonus Content---------------------------------

"If you want to hear a good story, or people having fun playing D&D...take a listen!"

  Tales of Swordfall is an actual play podcast that hosts players of many different experiences. We a have a cast of 4 inexperienced players to Dungeons & Dragons in our original Purple Group. A great group to listen to for interested players as we play and take the time to explain rules. We also have 7 DMs in our Blue group! This group we try to take D&D narrative to the next level in a role play heavy experience! Finally, we have the Short Shot group with various guests! What's a short-shot? Its when we try to play a one-shot campaign but end up playing it for 2 or 3 sessions!

  Join the fun as we love, learn, and play Table Top RPGs.Listen to Tales of Swordfall!

  Links:

Youtube:https://www.youtube.com/c/TalesofSwordfall

if that link for youtube doesn't work:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7xX1n5WrXvnZKXpwzGFiqw

Anchor.fm:https://anchor.fm/swordfalldnd

[recentanimenews]

Off the Shelf: Not entirely unanticipated

MELINDA: Heeeeey, look at this, it’s been less than two months and we’re already back again. That’s a huge improvement on our recent record, no?

MICHELLE: Considering that there was a two-year gap before our last column, I’d certainly say so!

MELINDA: Heard any good jokes lately?

MICHELLE: Hmm.. Here’s one! Why did the old lady fall in the well?

MELINDA: Wow, I don’t know! Why did the old lady fall in the well?

MICHELLE: She didn’t see that well.

MELINDA: Hey, that was actually pretty funny!

MICHELLE: Your reaction was unanticipated!

MELINDA: Speaking of “unanticipated”… no, wait, this is totally anticipated. Wanna talk about some manga?

MICHELLE: Sure! I’ve just finished the third volume of Hiroaki Samura’s Wave, Listen to Me!, a Kodansha digital exclusive.

It’s the story of Minare Koda, a waitress with a gift of fluency that catches the attention of a local radio producer, Mato. After secretly recording her drunken rant about her thieving ex and playing it over the air, he eventually takes the chance of giving her her own weekly show in a late-night time spot where she has the freedom to do some really kooky things. The first episode, for example, is a surreal audio drama about murdering said ex, Mitsuo. The next week, it’s time to bury the body on Mt. Fuji!

In this volume, Koda finds that going through those crazy plotlines has actually helped her set aside her bitterness about how Mitsuo done her wrong, and she must think about what she wants the show to be going forward. I really like the scenes wherein Mato mentors her about radio and the relationship between host and linstener. “TV viewers are guests. Radio listeners are participants,” he says at one point. This proves to be true when one of her listeners sends a fax that leads ultimately to the discovery of… well, perhaps I’ll play coy about its exact nature, but it definitely proves that reality is sometimes stranger than the occult.

Minare is a fascinating character. Full of energy and charisma, capable of selfish acts that she’s later thoroughly horrified by… She finally found a goal in life and she’s going for it, but doesn’t exactly know what she’s doing. I like her very much.

MELINDA: Okay, I gotta admit this sounds fantastic. It reminds me a little of a time when I played a lot of Quake so that I could imagine I was repeatedly blowing up my ex, only much more creative and generally productive. Is this series as delightful as it sounds?

MICHELLE: It’s delightful, but it’s also really a genius concept, since letting Minare do many things in many genres allows Samura the same liberty. So, on top of watching Minare’s skills and career progress, there are also wacky happenings to enjoy, too. I very heartily recommend it.

MELINDA: It’s hard for me to resist a Michelle recommendation, especially when it is something so obviously up my alley. You especially got me at “reality is sometimes stranger than the occult.” I mean… I have to know more. I just have to.

MICHELLE: Oh, that reminds me of another fun aspect… because Samura has already drawn out a couple of the audio dramas as if they’re actually happening, when strange things start to happen, it made me question whether he might have started another one without telling us. This is the sort of manga that would totally do that.

Anyway! What have you been reading lately?

MELINDA: I’ve been reading the first volume of Gengoroh Tagame’s My Brother’s Husband, just released by Pantheon Books. If, like me, you’re primarily familiar with Tagame’s work as a bara artist, this slice-of-life seinen manga is certainly a departure, but it feels so natural in his hands, you’d never know that it wasn’t a genre he’s always drawn.

Yaichi is a single dad, earnestly raising his young daughter, Kana, whose life is upended by the arrival of Canadian visitor, Mike, husband to Yaichi’s estranged twin brother, Ryoji, who has just passed away. Yaichi greets Mike with awkwardness and not just a little homophobia, but is forced to invite him to stay after Kana, blissfully unaware of her father’s discomfort, insists that he must be welcomed into their home. Mike, stricken with grief, but anxious to connect with Ryoji’s family and childhood, gratefully accepts Yaichi’s grudging hospitality and settles into Ryoji’s old room.

As the manga continues, we watch Yaichi confront his preconceptions about Mike (and gay people in general), with considerable nudging from Kana, who adores their new houseguest. It’s rough going at first, but as Yaichi gets to know the man who so deeply loved his brother, he is increasingly able to see past his prejudices, to the point that, by the end of the volume, he’s defending Mike’s snoring problem to Kana and fighting the desire to rage at a neighbor who declines to let her child visit Kana’s house, fearing “negative influence.”

True to expectation, this is a pretty moving manga, made all the more poignant by its quiet, slice-of-life atmosphere, The artwork and visual storytelling are downright adorable, as somehow Tagame has managed to create something that wouldn’t look out of place on the shelf alongside, say, Yotsuba&!, without sacrificing his own artistic sensibility. But, of course, it’s not the artwork that makes this book so important.

As a westerner, I’m always wary of imposing my own cultural expectations on books like this, and I’m very much aware that queer culture in Japan is as different from what I’m accustomed to here as is Japanese culture in general, and with that in mind, it’s pretty great to know that a series like this was run in Monthly Action, which, despite its “indie” aspirations, is clearly aimed mainly towards straight men (so many boobs, my friends, so many). Perhaps because of that, it was difficult for me to warm to Yaichi, who is obviously intended as the stand-in for the reader, in all his discomfort over the concept of gay people and how he’s supposed to interact with one. Watching Yaichi’s progress is painful and, yes, eventually heartwarming, but what is most striking to me, as a reader, is Mike’s patience, kindness, and general agreeability throughout. Watching this sweet, hulking man smile with gratitude in every moment, even when he’s being treated with barely-concealed suspicion, is just… heart-wrenching. I can only imagine how this must read for someone who has experienced the same.

MICHELLE: Oh, man. I knew the general premise of this but not that Yaichi would be quite so awful at the outset. And it’s bad enough that Mike’s being treated this way, but when he’s grieving and so desperate for any scrap of his beloved that he’ll take it. From how you describe him, it doesn’t sound as if Mike tries to stand up for himself at any point.

MELINDA: I feel like I should rephrase, perhaps… I mean, yes, from my perspective Yaichi is being awful, but that’s where my western perception is failing me, I think. I think we can all agree, however, that’s astonishing and awesome about Mike (also a westerner), though, is that he seems to be naturally accounting for differences in culture, and is just ceaselessly kind and giving. And when Yaichi becomes moved by that, it is what really changes his perspective, perhaps even more than Kana’s influence.

There’s obviously a lot more here, too, than just Yaichi overcoming homophobia. We find out a little about his estrangement from his twin brother and also about how his own marriage broke down, and I think in the end they are going to be strong healing influences for each other, and probably also for Kana, who didn’t even know she had an uncle!

MICHELLE: That does sound reassuring. I’m about to begin reading My Brother’s Husband this evening, in fact, so I’ll do my best not to get too riled up. Especially since I’m so very grateful that Pantheon has brought it to us!

MELINDA: Oh, go ahead and get riled up! But I really think you’ll love it in the end. It’s one of my favorite manga I’ve read so far this year.

So, we also have a mutual read this week… do you want to do the honors?

MICHELLE: Sure!

From Rei Toma, whose Dawn of the Arcana I liked and also featured a protagonist whose unusual red hair is viewed with suspicion, comes The Water Dragon’s Bride.

Asahi is spending a pleasant afternoon with her parents and she’s just about to go in and have some cookies when the backyard pond reaches out and ensares her, transporting her to another world. There, she meets a friendly boy named Subaru who unfortunately has some very ruthless parents, who immediately decide to offer Asahi to the water dragon god to obtain prosperity.

Asahi meets the dragon god who is, of course, a bishounen. He decides she’ll do for entertainment and shows off various tricks, but she’s unimpressed and protests so much that he steals her voice, promising to return it when she becomes his bride. Subaru mounts a valiant rescue, but the villagers prove to be just as crappy the second time around and the god decides to intervene.

How’s that?

MELINDA: That’s about the size of it! So. Okay. Honestly, I’m having a hard time coming up with a lot to say about this series so far. It’s definitely kind of adorable. Asahi is a spunky, likable heroine. Subaru, the obvious love interest, is sweetly earnest, and the bishounen water dragon god is pleasantly crusty. But man… haven’t we read this book before? Like a thousand times? Am I too much of a bitter, old schoolgirl-in-another-land fogey to enjoy this… again?

MICHELLE: It was certainly a very lightweight volume! I do think there’s potential, especially in the character of the water god. He’s cold, distant, and uncaring. At one point he simply watches as she wastes away in starvation. And he only intervenes at the end to preserve his entertainment. I’m sure he’ll feel love eventually, since that sort of thing always happens, but he’s definitely the most interesting character so far. Too, at least with the fish imagery and the pond, I had a little bit of Moon Child feels, and that’s always welcome.

MELINDA: I hadn’t thought about Moon Child, but I can see where you’re coming from, though the artwork isn’t nearly as beautiful as Shimizu’s, nor does it hold up well to what was the obvious comparison for me, Yun Mi-kyung’s Bride of the Water God, which, whatever you think of the series in general, I think is objectively visually stunning. Of course Bride of the Water God is a much more serious take on the sacrificial maiden theme, and Moon Child is weird and darkly whimsical like no other manga I’ve ever read. So it’s not really fair to hold this sweet little volume to either of those standards.

That said, I agree that the bishounen god has some possibilities (even if the long hair and excessive lounging just made me wish we were getting a new volume of Loveless anytime soon), and I expect there will be more substance as we go forward. But I kinda hope it hurries.

MICHELLE: Me, too! I did think of Bride of the Water God, but I although I did collect the volumes for a while, I never actually read them.

MELINDA: Well, perhaps this little manga will fare better on your shelves! I guess time will tell!

MICHELLE: I will least give it a few volumes to see how it fares. But it won’t assuage my sorrow that volume four of Wave, Listen to Me! is not even out in Japan yet.

MELINDA: That is a tragedy, indeed.

By: Melinda Beasi

[aion-rsa]

INTERVIEW: McDuffie Award Winner Talks His Experimental Sci-Fi Comic

Since 2015, the The Dwayne McDuffie Award for Diversity has been awarded each year at Long Beach Comic Expo, celebrating the work of new comics which not only tell an interesting story with a diverse cast that represents voices who aren’t heard often enough in the industry — but which are changing the way people view comics as a whole.

Winning the award has become a signifier of work which is notable, fresh and contemporary, experimenting with comics as a form and bringing something new and thoroughly entertaining to comics fans. This year’s winner, Ezra Claytan Daniels’ “Upgrade Soul,” is certainly an example of that.

Originally released as a digital app in collaboration with Erik Loyer, the comic transitions the pages in a fashion unique for the digital format, and features a soundtrack from musician Alexis Gideon which flows through the pages as the reader moves through the story. It’s not just an incredibly well-told and smart piece of comics narrative, it’s one which explores what a comics narrative can be. Following Daniels’ win at this year’s ceremony, CBR spoke to the cartoonist about the project, how it came together and what it was like to win this year’s coveted trophy.

CBR: What’s your background as a writer and artist? How did you first get into making comics?

Ezra Claytan Daniels: I’ve been drawing comics since I was a little kid. I had a really terrible yet deadly serious comic strip about a troupe of circus performers fighting a manipulative alien in my high school paper. But my professional background is in graphic design and commercial illustration, with detours into forensic illustration and user interface design (I designed the UI for the mobile app, iAnnotate PDF). I started making autobio zines a few years after high school, largely as an excruciatingly juvenile attempt to meet women. Seriously, those old comics are the worst thing ever.

You’ve published several comics over the last decade or so, including “The Changers” and “A Circuit Closed”, but when did you first start work on “Upgrade Soul”? What made you want to tell this story?

I first started thinking about the ideas behind “Upgrade Soul” in my early 20s, before I did “The Changers.” I wanted to write a horror story, so I thought, “What’s the scariest thing I can imagine?” At the time, it was obsolescence. Being faced with someone who’s better at being me than I am. I was actually more into “Upgrade Soul” as a concept, but I knew I wasn’t a good enough writer yet to do something that ambitious. So I did “The Changers” first, sort of as a practice graphic novel. “The Changers” was ambitious, too, but it’s really low-key and straight-forward. It’s essentially an escape fantasy about myself and my roommate being super-beings from the future. I learned so much about making comics by self publishing that book, though, from publicity to working with distributors, to touring. I had a blast. After the dust settled, I sat down to really try to figure out Upgrade Soul. That was about 12 or 13 years ago. I’d been working on it off and on until I finally finished this past December.

Who are Hank and Molly, the two leads of the series? What kind of people are they, and where do we find them as the comic begins?

The two main characters, Hank and Molly, are based on my grandparents, Leon and Barb. They were like second parents to me growing up, and we were super close. I wanted the main characters to be people you don’t see in comics very often. I wanted to try to put myself in the shoes of people I knew very well, but who were very different from me. I wanted to make a book that didn’t feel familiar. Something I personally would’ve been really excited to see on a comic shelf as a reader. The story introduces Hank and Molly as wealthy investors in an experimental cellular rejuvenation procedure. Their only stipulation for support of the project is that they be the first to undergo the procedure.

The drama begins when a the procedure fails and Hank and Molly are faced with clones of themselves who are severely disfigured, but intellectually and physically far superior. The story is thematically about which counterpart better represents the identity of the individual; the one that looks and sounds like the person, or the one that’s, by every non-aesthetic metric, a perfect idealization of that person.

Your art style seems to primarily draw from both European and Japanese influences — is it fair to say those were the comics you grew up reading and loving?

I liked comics fine as a kid and teen, but I was way more into animation. And you called it, the films I loved the most were definitely Japanese and European. “Fantastic Planet,” “Akira,” “Lensman,” “Venus Wars,” “Fire & Ice” — these were on constant rotation.

I think there’s a very animation-y feel to my art — it’s very flat and clean, like animation cells. But after I dropped out of art school, I fell into trial graphics, doing medical and technical illustrations and infographics for court cases. That industry is all about clarity of information, with no room for embellishments. I definitely read “How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way” when I first started getting serious about comics, but I vehemently disagreed with a lot of it, particularly the part about using dynamic angles to heighten drama. I hated in comics when you couldn’t keep track of where characters were standing in a room because every panel was drawn from a different angle on the floor or ceiling. I think this aversion came from my time doing crime scene diagrams.

I never want my reader to be distracted from the narrative because I drew something weirdly. I sometimes describe my style as looking like an aircraft safety card.

You’ve released the story as an app in collaboration with Erik Loyer. Was it difficult to make that leap to digital, after first planning and developing “Upgrade Soul” in a more traditional format?

I’d been working on “Upgrade Soul” for a few years, pitching it around every once in a while but not really getting any traction. I’d done some work with Erik on smaller interactive comics projects, like his Reuben and Lullaby app, and an interactive essay he designed for academic Caren Kaplan, called “Precision Targets.” He started to develop an interactive comics platform for iOS and asked if I wanted to do something for it. I was deep into “Upgrade Soul” by then, and it hadn’t found a home, so I said “sure”!

I hadn’t done enough work on it by that point for it to be a huge hassle to imagine it for the digital platform, but it definitely still has roots in the print format. It was a seamless transition to the print version I’m shopping now. I’m definitely historically interested in technology and gaming, but I hadn’t given any real thought to digital comics before Erik approached me. Although, now that I think about it, I did put out the last issue of my crappy auto-bio comic a few years prior as a CD-ROM, so maybe I’m not giving myself enough credit! The “Upgrade Soul” app is on hiatus, though. It’s only the first half of the story.

Hopefully, after I find a publisher, we can work out a way to come back to it because I’m totally in love with it. It’s just not on the road map right now.

At what point did the audio aspect of “Upgrade Soul” first come into place? How did musician Alexis Gideon come on board the project, and what did that decision bring to the story overall?

Once Erik and I decided to work together, we just started having all these really heady conversations about the definition of comics and what to do and what not to do with the technology at our disposal. Our conversations eventually evolved into a manifesto that became the centerpiece of a digital comics portal I designed with Amsterdam-based Submarine Channel, ScreenDiver.com. A huge part of our digital comics philosophy was to never take temporal control from the reader. This meant that literal sound effects, which would have the effect of representing a passage of time, were out. But music, designed to create and maintain an atmosphere, was fair game.

In “Upgrade Soul,” the music follows your progress through the story, so every panel triggers a specific musical cue. You play the music almost the same way you read the comic, at your own pace. I’d done some design and animation work with Alexis, and we worked really well together. I’m just such a huge fan of his music; his singular brand of classically-trained experimental weirdo hip-hop was the perfect fit for “Upgrade Soul.”

When did you find out you’d been nominated for the Dwayne McDuffie Award?

I follow the Dwayne McDuffie Foundation on social media, and they posted a call for submissions a few weeks before I finished “Upgrade Soul.” The timing was perfect. I didn’t think I had any chance in hell of winning, but it’s just really helpful to have hard goals like that to finish something, especially since I was really losing steam toward the end. I guess it was a month or so later that I got an email from them letting me know I was among 5 finalists. I was incredibly honored, but even then, I didn’t think I had any chance of winning. I’ve never won anything in my life. And I was up against Dave Walker, who’d been having like the best year ever.

I didn’t find out I’d won until everybody else did, at the ceremony at Long Beach Comics Expo. It was so funny and awesome and weird. I happened to be the only nominee who was able to attend, since I live in LA, so they asked me to give a little talk before the winner was announced about what Dwayne McDuffie meant to me. I was so worried about how awkward it was going to be when I didn’t win! But little did I know that all the judges and Dwayne McDuffie folks already knew.

The ceremony was MC’d by Phil Lamarr, and it was such a surreal honor to get to hang out with the voice of Static Shock. Everybody involved in the foundation, and the judges, were so amazing and sweet and supportive. Charlotte, Dwayne’s widow, was just incredibly inspiring. It was most definitely the highlight of my career thus far.

Was Dwayne McDuffie a creator you were aware of, prior to your nomination?

My brother and I were constantly looking for heroes that looked like our dad, who was Black. We latched onto every Black character in the action movies we loved. The white neighborhood kids would fight to be Arnold when we played “Predator,” but we’d always be Bill Duke and Carl Weathers. We collected every black “G.I. Joe” and “Star Trek: The Next Generation” figure. But those characters were always sidekicks or bit players. So when the “Static Shock” cartoon came out, we were just transfixed. It was pure magic. I didn’t learn until years later how important Dwayne McDuffie was to so many other kids of color, and how monumental his legacy was.

It’s an award specifically noting works which offer representation within the pages — was that something you had at heart when you were making the comic, that idea of representing people whose stories don’t usually get told, and digging into their personalities and culture?

Absolutely. As a mixed race person (my mom is white), it’s an inextricable part of my being. “Upgrade Soul” gets into the ways in which our experience of life, or how we are treated by the world, forms our identity. It looks at the ways racial discrimination is both similar and distinct from age, sex and ability discrimination. These are the kinds of ideas that interest and challenge me as both a writer and a reader.

What’s next for you, following the conclusion of “Upgrade Soul” and as it now looks for a publisher? Do you have any other projects coming up?

Fingers crossed “Upgrade Soul” finds a good home, but it’ll come out this year one way or another. I also recently finished a short film collaboration with Adebukola Bodunrin that just started it’s festival life. It just screened at the International Film Festival Rotterdam and the Whitney in New York, and is screening at the Boston Underground Film Fest in March. It’s an experimental sci-fi animation that reimagines the Yoruba creation myth in a space station built around a simulation of the Big Bang. It’s called The Golden Chain.

I also have a new graphic novel on the home stretch with the incredible Ben Passmore, tentatively called “BTTMFDRS.” I’m writing it and he’s drawing it. It’s a horror comedy about gentrification and cultural appropriation and I’m so excited for people to see it! We should wrap that up by this summer so look for that this year, too!

To find out more about “Upgrade Soul” and Ezra Claytan Daniels’ work, check out his website and his Ttwitter account here.

The post INTERVIEW: McDuffie Award Winner Talks His Experimental Sci-Fi Comic appeared first on CBR.

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