Incoming From Merely Roleplayers! Omicron Ate Our Episode Buffer, But We've Grown It Back From The Stubble

Incoming from Merely Roleplayers! Omicron ate our episode buffer, but we've grown it back from the stubble and now we're back to regular releasing from 16 August.

Next up from Merely Roleplayers

16 August:

Vigil: Quarry

A Monster of the Week mystery in 4 acts

Hoofbeats echo off Sherrydown's cobbled streets as Cam, Brier, Melody and Renko race full tilt into their bloodiest adventure yet.

Contains blood, bloody violence, and a character experiencing fallout from childhood trauma.

11 October:

Monumental Exit

A Fiasco in 3 acts

After 67 years, Bilbo Biltong's ready to quit the band. But who out there could possibly step into his worn old shoes?

Contains hard drug use, lewd and morbid imagery, and a funeral scene

22 November:

Vigil: All Aboard

A Monster of the Week mystery in a number of acts to be confirmed, probably 5

A way long shut is open again, promising to carry away all souls stuck in Sherrydown. Will Jess, Calistarius, Gwynned and Harper make it to the end of the line?

And don't forget:

The Feed

A slow burn comic horror powered by Black Armada's Unreal system

Seven housemates enter the Big Brother house. They're signing up to be watched 24/7 - but can they even trust the evidence of their own eyes?

Check our pinned post or visit merelyroleplayers.com to catch all these productions and hundreds of past episodes!

binging the magnus archives because you miss our beloved head archivist call that a jon-a-thon

As soon as I finished The Magnus Archives I immediately started back again from MAG001 because I knew there were so, so many details I just breezed past the first time that turned out to be significant or at least illuminating, which would shine out the second time through. I just reached MAG200 for the second time and I'm seriously tempted to turn right back around and go again. Anyone else a Old and remember watching VHS tapes so many times they wear out? I feel like I could do that with The Magnus Archives and the experience would become richer every single time. I would happily repeat it over and over like a favourite VHS even though it is fully two hundred episodes long. What an accomplishment. What a body of work. Good lord.

jonathan sims was really the character of all time. he was kidnapped three times. his only friend was his ex-girlfriend. he pretended to be a skeptic while also working as a ghost secretary. he said “good lord” unironically. he was a stalker. he called a merry-go-round “thrilling.” he hung out and listened to soap operas with a woman who kidnapped him and tried to slit his throat. he said mercy-killing another guy that kidnapped him was “like doing a favor for an old friend.” he could almost definitely suck his own dick. he was forcibly moisturized by a clown for a month. he lied about being ten years older than he was for no discernible reason. he wasn’t even mad about the third kidnapping. he thought his coworker was a ghost. he died once. he tried to cut off his own finger. he was even bi

as a bisexual, jonathan sims is the stereotype defying representation I really need. he spent years pining after one guy and then immediately eloped. his only non work friend was his ex gf from college. most of his other friends tried to kill him. two of them succeeded. he canonically had noodle arms. his only constant visual descriptor was looking like shit. he regularly fainted from thinking too hard. he was a serial killer. he became god. it was unclear whether he knew any straight people. he's perfect.

What I think the Obi-Wan series did right for me, which a lot of similar fill-in-the-gaps stories don't, is it filled in an emotional gap and not a plot one. This wasn't "how did Boba Fett survive the sarlacc pit" or "how did Anakin's/Luke's lightsaber get from Bespin to Takodana" or even (the simplest form of fill-in-the-gap) "what was he doing between x event and y event" (even though the series does answer that question, it's not the question it's answering). It didn't set out to "fix" or "explain" a plot "hole". It just looked at Obi-Wan at the end of Revenge of the Sith (betrayed, confused, guilty) and the next time we see him, in Rebels: Twin Suns or A New Hope (centred, calm, decisive, able to face Vader with equanimity and a hint of a smirk), and asked: how does this person become this other version of himself? What must he go through to get there? What must he realise and/or decide, and what would push him to get there? I'd love this to become the key question that determines whether it's worthwhile to revisit a character and tell an untold part of their story: are we just looking to answer a plot question, or are we bridging an emotional gap?