Creator/writer of I Need A Miracle, host of Merely Roleplayers. (Those are podcasts.) He/him.
1362 posts
Merelymatt - Merely Matt - Tumblr Blog
Game: choose a podcast character (or three), and then a second, different podcast to send them into for a while.
It could be to bully them, to give them some relief, or even just to see them interact with the characters that live there.
How about a solo RPG that's also a craft project, and leaves you with your own personalised oracle/divination deck long after you're finished playing?
I feel like there's decent overlap between audio fiction and ttrpg scenes, so if anyone here has any recs for solo, (preferably indie) ttrpg games (or like, lowkey solo LARP), I am currently looking for recommendations.
I'm especially into anything with a worldbuilding element (eg. Exclusion Zone Botanist, Exquisite Biome, A Traveller in the City, Little Celestial Fieldwork Guide), and/or speculative/weird fiction influences, but am willing to try new things (especially as I am pretty new to this medium).
Dónal Finn was such a perfect poor boy working on a song it's been days and I still can't stop thinking about it. Like. His lalalas/If It's True seriously rewired my brain.
(shoutout to @yatorihell and Pip who accompanied me on the road to hell and Irish Orpheus <3<3<3)
Halloween Oneshot Bundle
Kumada1 got a bunch of RPG designers (including me) together to create a bundle of Halloween oneshot games for this spooky season! Get 64 games for 20 bucks! Some highlights from this bundle include:
Cryptid TV- honey heist hack where you play cryptids out to sabotage the dark designs of Reality TV
Merger- a solo metaphor for trying to survive predatory corporations
The Deadbutante- 5e module where players held a vampire with anxiety strike a fair bargain with the locals
The Lovecraft Boat- Lasers & Fellings hack where you play as monsters impersonating the staff of a luxury cruise ship
Check it out for your Halloween spooky season games!
People who listen to altogether too many podcasts: what are the arbitrary rules you make up for yourself? DO you make up rules about what you're "allowed" to listen to and when, or is that just me?
Rules like:
Podcasts are divided into Current (ones I'm caught up with), Catching up (ones where I'm working through the back catalogue), and Replay (ones I've heard all of but am listening to again because of love)
Current shows are for home, Catching up and Replay are for out and about
BUT if I have 10 or more unlistened Current episodes then I have to get that number under 10 before switching to Catching up or Replay, even if out and about
Only one Replay and one Catching up show can be active at any given time, I have to finish a whole season before making a different one active
It sounds like I'm forcing myself to eat my veggies here but honestly making up rules like this is the only way to not get overwhelmed and lost – if I didn't do this I'd constantly be starting shows and forgetting about them and then fretting that I'm 2 episodes into 15 different things
from the commission pileup i'm trying to speedrun before leaving for the states:
will update yall once i put it through a coffee wash to really get that riversilt/dredge from the primordial muck effect
Angela Barrett’s illustration for Bram Stoker’s Dracula (Folio Society, limited edition)
Dracula is playing Monopoly but with a soulslike gameplay loop
I had to add this because I think it'll set some funny shaped gears turning in a game designer's head
All the humans in Dracula are in a survival horror but Drac himself is playing a Soulslike.
He did a first run into the London dungeon, got appreciably far but then got cornered by some enemies, dropped all his loot, lost all his safe return points and had to head back to the overworld to heal up and try again. Ok, each run at this dungeon takes months or years, but he's a vampire, that's the timeline he's on.
To me that's the attitude that makes most sense of him jumping ship back to Transylvania so seemingly abruptly. He's like "ok, decent run, pretty sure I know how to avoid that trap next time, better get out and plan the next try".
All the humans in Dracula are in a survival horror but Drac himself is playing a Soulslike.
He did a first run into the London dungeon, got appreciably far but then got cornered by some enemies, dropped all his loot, lost all his safe return points and had to head back to the overworld to heal up and try again. Ok, each run at this dungeon takes months or years, but he's a vampire, that's the timeline he's on.
To me that's the attitude that makes most sense of him jumping ship back to Transylvania so seemingly abruptly. He's like "ok, decent run, pretty sure I know how to avoid that trap next time, better get out and plan the next try".
Episode 1 of Metropolis, The Audio Drama! Now live!
Things aren’t great in Arnhem. Nobody seems that interested in putting back together what the war has blasted apart, and now the city has started smelling like literal horse manure. All anyone has to look forward to are dispatches from Metropolis - that mysterious, shining, robot-powered city in the Arctic where everyone seems to have it all figured out.
But do they? The Arnhem Fact-Gazette newspaper has a man on the ground there - Stanley Bronfels - but he’s just a sportswriter, and he’s definitely not being encouraged to dig for muck when there are diamonds to swallow and magic robots to describe.
But Stan’s best friend is Nan Kanally - the ace reporter for the paper back in Arnhem - and she has a way of getting you to do things you might not ordinarily do. That’s why Stan likes her so much. But does he know what she’s about to get him into?
==============================
Gosh, it is so astonishing to get this live. There is a tremendous amount of luck to creating any creative work - especially one that takes as many people with as many diverse talents as a full-cast audio drama. I was born under a lucky star, clearly. ============================== Buncha ways to listen - these are just a few, but basically any podcast listening method that isn't taping a solenoid to a seashell will work (and I'm working on the seashell).
APPLE MUSIC:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/metropolis/id1769990046
SPOTIFY:
https://open.spotify.com/show/6u00FenKWwaUEndkTvtrm2
WEBSITE:
https://luxradium.org
==============================
Subscribe if you like it! And thank you for any and all feedback. I really do love this community.
People who listen to altogether too many podcasts: what are the arbitrary rules you make up for yourself? DO you make up rules about what you're "allowed" to listen to and when, or is that just me?
Rules like:
Podcasts are divided into Current (ones I'm caught up with), Catching up (ones where I'm working through the back catalogue), and Replay (ones I've heard all of but am listening to again because of love)
Current shows are for home, Catching up and Replay are for out and about
BUT if I have 10 or more unlistened Current episodes then I have to get that number under 10 before switching to Catching up or Replay, even if out and about
Only one Replay and one Catching up show can be active at any given time, I have to finish a whole season before making a different one active
It sounds like I'm forcing myself to eat my veggies here but honestly making up rules like this is the only way to not get overwhelmed and lost – if I didn't do this I'd constantly be starting shows and forgetting about them and then fretting that I'm 2 episodes into 15 different things
Saffron Coomber: so good, we simply had to cast her twice.
If ten minutes at a time of Saffron's performance isn't enough, she's also the star of the latest feature length audio drama from @wirelesstheatreco :
https://www.wirelesstheatrecompany.co.uk/podcast/geezer-bird
In your benevolence,
hear the Trophy's plea for disappointment at the dig.
Episode 6 of I Need A Miracle is out now. Search for I Need A Miracle in podcast apps or head to foggyoutline.com/ineedamiracle for more ways to listen.
Saffron Coomber returns to I Need A Miracle as Orsa, the Trophy (after appearing as the Collector in episode 3)
Written by @merelymatt
Directed by Robert Valentine
Recorded at Jukebox Studios
With broadcast assistance from Teresa Milewski
Sound design by Sarah Buchynski
Music by Katharine Seaton
Produced by Sarah Golding for @wirelesstheatreco
Cover art by Dionysis Livanis
Also in the Dracula/Fullmetal Alchemist overlap section: setting things on fire, and leaving people with no home to return to
big day today
Me realising the release schedule I've set for @inyourbenevolence means I'll be publishing an episode on October 3rd
ismailboumhand16
Game: choose a podcast character (or three), and then a second, different podcast to send them into for a while.
It could be to bully them, to give them some relief, or even just to see them interact with the characters that live there.
Me realising the release schedule I've set for @inyourbenevolence means I'll be publishing an episode on October 3rd
This is the only day you can RT this
I'm sending @midnightburgr to @thesiltverses -verse to pick up Paige and Hayward for a shift. Those two are creative problem solvers and I think they deserve a little holiday in a world where creative problem solving solves problems and then your friends give you a high five and make you waffles, instead of creating new problems and also inviting terrible punishment and suffering for your hubris
Game: choose a podcast character (or three), and then a second, different podcast to send them into for a while.
It could be to bully them, to give them some relief, or even just to see them interact with the characters that live there.
(Confirmed in an email to the mailing list – can't find an online copy I can link to just now)
West End Hadestown cast recording confirmed coming soon (but which cast??)
West End Hadestown cast recording confirmed coming soon (but which cast??)
Tabletop trick or treat! 🎃👻🍬🍭
Last one was a Treat so it's time for a Trick! Caro Asercion stole my heart with i'm sorry did you say street magic, and as a result every time they release something new I'm eyeballing it. Their work is varied but at the same time I feel like there's a thread of personality running through their entire ludography.
I think what sells me on a lot of their work is that they know how to package it so that you get a quick taste of what's inside the game just by reading the blurb or looking at the art on the cover.
Exquisite Biome uses an art style reminiscent of naturalist paintings to communicate the world you're building through its creatures.
The Long Shift uses its colors and iconography to communicate the mood; late nights at a truck stop (in space).
And Dwindle makes use of a mainframe icon to represent the feeling of a cyberpunk world while doubling as the grid by which you determine your stats.
All in all, I think Caro makes really smart, evocative design choices, and I often think of their work when I envision what I would like to do with mine.
