At The End Of This Episode, In Response To A Missed Act Under Pressure Move, I Asked The Players To Describe

At the end of this episode, in response to a missed Act Under Pressure move, I asked the players to describe "an extremely short, extremely stupid car chase" that wouldn't be out of a place in a British black comedy – and what they came up with cracked me up

Anyway here's the stupid car chase from Knives Out, which isn't British but is one of the best:

Now playing in the Main House

Act Two of Four: The owner of the severed arm is in town hoping to witness something earth-shattering.

Coming next on 28 May – Mick, the Mundane Chosen (Vigil Backstage)

Programme notes

This production includes a natural disaster, fantasy violence, blood, and dismemberment (the dismemberment is not bloody).

Nominations are open for the CRIT Awards 2024!

In case you’d like to nominate us but you’re not sure what we’ve done that’s eligible, here’s a post that lists it all, along with any links you’ll need for your nominations.

Dramatis personae and other definitions

Mick Mason: Sherrydown’s favourite builder and bricklayer. His life has been getting weirder since he dug too deep and hit a leyline.

Melody Bantham: The owner of Melodies, the cosy cafe and vinyl shop on Market Street. Melody is an ageless patchwork person animated by music, who fled her creator ages ago and has owned a music shop on this spot ever since.

Brier: A mischievous shapeshifting púca, the fae guardian of Sherrydown’s Rosebrier Forest.

Department of Omissions (DO, DoOm): The UK government department tasked with preventing harm to citizens from supernatural phenomena. Severely defunded under Tory austerity policies and currently prioritising major urban population centres.

Sherrydown, Brackshire: A historic English market town. One of the first towns to lose its DoOm office.

Omission effect: The rejection of certain beings and phenomena by long-term memory. Can be suppressed by concentration, mnemonic techniques, hypnosis, trauma, or the light of the full moon.

Credits

COMPERE: Matt Boothman

STARRING:

Dave as Mick Mason, the Mundane

Helen Stratton as Melody Bantham, the Constructed

Strat as Brier, the Monstrous

ROLEPLAYING GAME SYSTEM: Monster of the Week, designed by Michael Sands

MUSIC BY: Alexander Pankhurst

SOUND DESIGN BY: Matt Boothman

SFX AND INCIDENTAL MUSIC INCLUDES: Ritual by Kevin MacLeod; and may include others made available to use without attribution.

EDITED AND PRODUCED BY: Matt Boothman

Anyone have any podcast recommendations?

They don't even have to be fictional.

I have heard: Night Vale, Wolf 359, Wooden overcoats, The Magnus Archives, The orbiting human circus, The Amelia project, The penumbra podcast (but only the Juno steel stories sorry guys), Time:Bombs, Ars PARADOXICA, The bright sessions, Alice isn't dead, Limetown, EOS 10, King Falls AM, Archive 81, Brimstone Valley Mall, and Science Vs, Death by dying

Nominate Merely Roleplayers in the CRIT Awards 2024

The Creator Recognition in Tabletop RPG Awards are open for nominations until the end of May, and lots of our stuff from the past year is eligible!

You all got us to the final ballot in 2 categories last year – thank you again, it was incredible to hear the words "Merely Roleplayers" read out alongside so many luminaries of roleplaying and storytelling!

Could we make it 3 this year?

Could we even make it to a win??

At this nomination stage, you're free to nominate whoever and whatever you like in each category. It's free choice, not multiple choice. Then people/things with enough nominations get put on the final ballot for everyone to check out and vote on.

Most of the categories ask for a link or social media handle to help the CRIT team vet nominations. Plus, I know from filling out my own nominations how hard it can sometimes be to work out what actually falls within the eligibility period (which this year is 1 Jan 2023–29 Feb 2024 – RPG vendors please put the publication date on the game's page!!).

So here's a handy list of what we've done that came out in that period, the categories you could nominate them in, and the relevant links and handles:

Best of Actual Plays

Best Series

Vigil: The Great Fire https://foggyoutline.com/roleplayers-episodes/category/The+Great+Fire

Vigil: Chief/Exec https://foggyoutline.com/roleplayers-episodes/category/Chief%2FExec

Vigil: Fear Itself https://foggyoutline.com/roleplayers-episodes/category/Fear+Itself

(and in the Studio...)

Falling Cadence https://foggyoutline.com/roleplayers-episodes/category/Falling+Cadence

The Queen's Dead https://foggyoutline.com/roleplayers-episodes/category/The+Queen%27s+Dead

The Office Party https://foggyoutline.com/roleplayers-episodes/category/Office+Party

Best NPC

Any and all NPCs from the above 6 productions, including 2023 nominee Ernest Bering, Agent of DoOm...

It's up to you to decide, based on his actions in Vigil: Fear Itself, whether oor Ernie belongs in this category or in:

Best Villain

Any and all villains from the above 6 productions, including Ada Lovelace (Great Fire), Max Dashwood (Chief/Exec), Morrigan the War Chieftain (Chief/Exec), the Harlequin (Fear Itself) and (possibly, as above) Ernest Bering, Agent of DoOm.

Best of their Games

Best Game Master | Indie

Matt Boothman https://www.instagram.com/merelymatt/

Josh Yard https://www.instagram.com/merelyroleplayers/

Best Player | Indie

Ellie Pitkin https://www.instagram.com/merelyroleplayers/

(plays Persephone 'Percy' Byron in Great Fire and Camilla Parnell in Falling Cadence)

Dave https://www.instagram.com/merelyroleplayers/

(plays Mick Mason in Great Fire and Josh in Office Party)

Strat https://www.instagram.com/merelyroleplayers/

(plays Brier in Great Fire and Jerome Picklepants in Office Party)

Chris MacLennan https://www.instagram.com/merelyroleplayers/

(plays Kincaid in Great Fire)

Natalie Winter https://www.instagram.com/winternatters/

(plays Gwynned in Chief/Exec and Bess in Office Party)

Marta Da Silva https://www.instagram.com/nanaluvren/

(plays Harper in Chief/Exec)

Josh Yard https://www.instagram.com/merelyroleplayers/

(plays Jinny Greenteeth in Chief/Exec)

Vikki https://www.instagram.com/merelyroleplayers/

(plays Renko in Chief/Exec and Cadence Fairchild in Falling Cadence)

Alexander Pankhurst https://www.instagram.com/apankhurst/

(plays Graham in Fear Itself and Reginald 'Skinsy' Skinner in Falling Cadence)

Chris Starkey https://www.instagram.com/merelyroleplayers/

(plays Cameron Jarvis in Fear Itself and Neville Flounder, aka the Living Shadow, aka Night Gannet in Office Party)

Ellen Gould https://www.instagram.com/merelyroleplayers/

(plays Jess Butterworth in Fear Itself)

Helen Stratton https://www.instagram.com/merelyroleplayers/

(plays Stella Sylvester in Falling Cadence)

Fiona KT Howat https://www.instagram.com/unspeakablyfiona/

(plays the Skeletal Duchy in The Queen's Dead)

Naomi Clarke https://www.instagram.com/naomithinksit/

(plays the Draugr Earldom in The Queen's Dead)

Best of Podcasts

Best Podcast

Merely Roleplayers https://www.merelyroleplayers.com

Best Podcast Host

Matt Boothman https://www.instagram.com/merelymatt/

Thank you! Can't wait to see who gets nominated this year!

Bring back etiquette manuals. What's expected of me as a writer at a dialogue recording session? Should I speak only when spoken to? Bring biscuits for the cast and crew? Consult Debrett's!

This is how it ends.

Here's our final The Silt Verses release schedule, in full:

Chapter 41 (But As My Last Breath Splits My Throat) 3rd June 2024

Chapter 42: 17th June 2024

Chapter 43: 1st July 2024

Chapter 44 (Series finale): 15th July 2024

Post-season Q&A - will be recorded in August / September and released after that. Exact timings to be confirmed depending on exhaustion, screaming newborn, etc, hopefully with the wonderful Méabh de Brún as our final host. (We'll share it around more post-season, but if you want to get your questions in early, please feel free!)

Can't wait to share the final episodes with you all, and as ever, thanks so much for listening.

Nominate Merely Roleplayers in the CRIT Awards 2024

The Creator Recognition in Tabletop RPG Awards are open for nominations until the end of May, and lots of our stuff from the past year is eligible!

You all got us to the final ballot in 2 categories last year – thank you again, it was incredible to hear the words "Merely Roleplayers" read out alongside so many luminaries of roleplaying and storytelling!

Could we make it 3 this year?

Could we even make it to a win??

At this nomination stage, you're free to nominate whoever and whatever you like in each category. It's free choice, not multiple choice. Then people/things with enough nominations get put on the final ballot for everyone to check out and vote on.

Most of the categories ask for a link or social media handle to help the CRIT team vet nominations. Plus, I know from filling out my own nominations how hard it can sometimes be to work out what actually falls within the eligibility period (which this year is 1 Jan 2023–29 Feb 2024 – RPG vendors please put the publication date on the game's page!!).

So here's a handy list of what we've done that came out in that period, the categories you could nominate them in, and the relevant links and handles:

Best of Actual Plays

Best Series

Vigil: The Great Fire https://foggyoutline.com/roleplayers-episodes/category/The+Great+Fire

Vigil: Chief/Exec https://foggyoutline.com/roleplayers-episodes/category/Chief%2FExec

Vigil: Fear Itself https://foggyoutline.com/roleplayers-episodes/category/Fear+Itself

(and in the Studio...)

Falling Cadence https://foggyoutline.com/roleplayers-episodes/category/Falling+Cadence

The Queen's Dead https://foggyoutline.com/roleplayers-episodes/category/The+Queen%27s+Dead

The Office Party https://foggyoutline.com/roleplayers-episodes/category/Office+Party

Best NPC

Any and all NPCs from the above 6 productions, including 2023 nominee Ernest Bering, Agent of DoOm...

It's up to you to decide, based on his actions in Vigil: Fear Itself, whether oor Ernie belongs in this category or in:

Best Villain

Any and all villains from the above 6 productions, including Ada Lovelace (Great Fire), Max Dashwood (Chief/Exec), Morrigan the War Chieftain (Chief/Exec), the Harlequin (Fear Itself) and (possibly, as above) Ernest Bering, Agent of DoOm.

Best of their Games

Best Game Master | Indie

Matt Boothman https://www.instagram.com/merelymatt/

Josh Yard https://www.instagram.com/merelyroleplayers/

Best Player | Indie

Ellie Pitkin https://www.instagram.com/merelyroleplayers/

(plays Persephone 'Percy' Byron in Great Fire and Camilla Parnell in Falling Cadence)

Dave https://www.instagram.com/merelyroleplayers/

(plays Mick Mason in Great Fire and Josh in Office Party)

Strat https://www.instagram.com/merelyroleplayers/

(plays Brier in Great Fire and Jerome Picklepants in Office Party)

Chris MacLennan https://www.instagram.com/merelyroleplayers/

(plays Kincaid in Great Fire)

Natalie Winter https://www.instagram.com/winternatters/

(plays Gwynned in Chief/Exec and Bess in Office Party)

Marta Da Silva https://www.instagram.com/nanaluvren/

(plays Harper in Chief/Exec)

Josh Yard https://www.instagram.com/merelyroleplayers/

(plays Jinny Greenteeth in Chief/Exec)

Vikki https://www.instagram.com/merelyroleplayers/

(plays Renko in Chief/Exec and Cadence Fairchild in Falling Cadence)

Alexander Pankhurst https://www.instagram.com/apankhurst/

(plays Graham in Fear Itself and Reginald 'Skinsy' Skinner in Falling Cadence)

Chris Starkey https://www.instagram.com/merelyroleplayers/

(plays Cameron Jarvis in Fear Itself and Neville Flounder, aka the Living Shadow, aka Night Gannet in Office Party)

Ellen Gould https://www.instagram.com/merelyroleplayers/

(plays Jess Butterworth in Fear Itself)

Helen Stratton https://www.instagram.com/merelyroleplayers/

(plays Stella Sylvester in Falling Cadence)

Fiona KT Howat https://www.instagram.com/unspeakablyfiona/

(plays the Skeletal Duchy in The Queen's Dead)

Naomi Clarke https://www.instagram.com/naomithinksit/

(plays the Draugr Earldom in The Queen's Dead)

Best of Podcasts

Best Podcast

Merely Roleplayers https://www.merelyroleplayers.com

Best Podcast Host

Matt Boothman https://www.instagram.com/merelymatt/

Thank you! Can't wait to see who gets nominated this year!