The Thing I Get Most In My Head About, Reliably, Is Asking People For Things. More Especially Asking

The thing I get most in my head about, reliably, is asking people for things. More especially asking people to do things for me.

It'll be an annoyance.

Even if it's nothing major. Even if it's something they've happily done a hundred times before.

It'll be an imposition.

Even if I know they love me. Even if it would make me happy if they asked the same thing of me.

It's kind of exploitation if you think about it.

Even if it's a work thing, and they're being paid to do it and I'm being paid to ask them to do it.

I can anticipate the spiral, and I build in time to navigate the spiral before the thing needs doing, and I can reliably break out of the spiral once I'm in it, but the spiral still always happens.

I think that's why I wrote I Need A Miracle.

It wasn't an intention I set out with consciously: to get into character as a variety of people who want and who find it in themselves to ask, even when the things they want are vast and life-changing; when they are, unquestioningly, imposing. But looking back at the finished scripts now, as casting gets under way and I start to think about how I launch and talk about the show later this year, I can see more clearly why, out of all the possibilities, this was the concept that bubbled to the top and demanded to be written first.

Every character in I Need A Miracle does nothing but want. That's the concept: every episode is a prayer, a plea to a higher power for divine intervention. We never hear anything beyond these pleas, these prayers. Anyone who doesn't want anything won't pray for anything, so we'll never hear their voice.

There's an idea that all characters in drama must want something. Here, though, the wanting is front and centre. It's not just what's driving their decisions and actions. It's the reason they're speaking to us. They're all forced to articulate what they want – and not only that but justify why they deserve to get it, because not all prayers are granted.

That ought to have been hard to write, for someone like me who's embarrassed to want things, and who's shy about making those desires someone else's problem or responsibility.

But it wasn't hard. When it's someone else's desire, it's easy! Of course they deserve it. It's not even that big an ask. Anyone would be happy to oblige.

That's the quickest, most effective way I've found to break out of the spiral. Think: if someone else asked this of me, would I think it was rude, or an imposition, or overstepping the mark? Nine times out of ten the answer is: no, I'd actually be stoked to be asked.

largely culturally christian question sorry but i was talking about this with my mum and i’m curious….

rb and add where you’re from if you want!

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!

Can any world survive a benevolent god?

Coming Summer 2024 from @foggyoutline and @wirelesstheatre:

(not final artwork)

In this upcoming audio drama podcast, each episode is a prayer, some prayers are granted, and a granted prayer can upend the world.

For fans of

Each episode of I Need A Miracle is a monologue lasting 5–15 minutes. A new character every episode. Never the same character twice. Always addressing a plea to a listening deity – which never makes a sound.

Play god

You, the listener, stand in for a silently listening god. Hear brazen demands for divine intervention and vulnerable, secret pleas for deliverance. Whose requests would you grant and why? Does anyone deserve a miracle?

Play detective

Which pleas are granted? How does the listening being decide? What are the Upheavals that regularly wrack this world? What threatens to rise from the Depths? And can any being with ultimate power truly be benevolent?

Play the heartstrings

I Need A Miracle is all about the many kinds of wanting, and the many ways of asking for help. How would you make your case to an omnipotent being who grants some miracles but not others, based on ineffable criteria?

Coming Summer 2024

Stay tuned for cast and crew reveals, episode titles, trailers, release dates and more:

here on tumblr by following @inyourbenevolence

(you can also follow writer @merelymatt, producers @wirelesstheatre and publishers @foggyoutline for completism)

on instagram:

at the show homepage:

Foggy Outline

Upcoming microfiction podcast — Foggy Outline

Upcoming microfiction podcast I Need A Miracle is seeking sponsorship and production support. Get in at the ground floor and help this brand

Good job audio drama creators let's keep it up 👏