I Am Deep In My Feelings About Follow The Leader Today. It's Almost Six Years Old (will Be Turning Six

I am deep in my feelings about Follow the Leader today. It's almost six years old (will be turning six on 7/23) and it's been such a major part of my life that whole time. Technically longer since our first test recording (episode 0 if you will) was recorded on 5/25/2018.

It's something that's brought me closer to several of my friends, something that has really changed my life, and something that I'm deeply proud of. We're always improving, always striving to tell good stories in an engaging manner. I feel like we hit that goal almost all of the time.

I'm just a little sad because we've had some absolute banger recordings for season eight (which started Monday) and I worked really hard to make them cinematic and impactful, but we don't have much of an audience so not a lot of folks will hear them. Seriously, I feel like we've gotten some really great roleplaying out of all our players this season, and it just sucks that we don't have a wide reach. Like, I can't stop thinking about the recording we just did (for ep 88), or the one before that.

Idk, it's just a little discouraging. I'm not going to let it stop me from having fun with my friends, which is why I started the podcast in the first place. I still want to continue telling stories. It's just... no one out there is doing it like we do, and it makes me sad that because we're not playing D&D, people who might find our stories interesting won't give us the time of day.

Bleh. Oh well. The only thing to do is keep doing what we do and being who and what we are. Which we're not going to stop doing any time soon. Here's to six years and as many more as we can manage.

Dédé's episode is the first one I wrote, when I was still at the noodling stage of I Need A Miracle, and so it's probably the one I rewrote the most times, both to get the story and character right, and to stay current with changes I made to the story, setting and series as a whole. If you ever listened to Natalie Winter's Ragged Scratch podcast, or if you saw the I Need A Miracle page when it first went up on foggyoutline.com, you may have heard an early version of this script performed by Devika Joshi. Maybe that version will resurface as bonus content? Who knows?

"They said the script was gonna make it easier. Sounded like a great idea."

Jillin, the Campaigner – played by Dédé Davi

In your benevolence, the Campaigner appeals for Justice for Meridian Veccole.

@merelymatt says, in some places I've given Dédé an "and introducing" credit, because before we cast her in I Need A Miracle, she'd mainly done corporate voiceover (alongside being a singer). She really put the work in, and I don't think you'd ever guess this performance was a debut. It was important to me and (I think) to casting director Fiona Thraille as well to cast a mix of experienced and early-career voice actors. I'd absolutely love if this performance launches Dédé to bigger and better things.

❤️ 13 luvs 🔃 21 reblokes

He hunted on his hands and knees among the shattered remains of the chair for more bits he could improvise into lockpicks. His world narrowed to that purpose, so much that when one hand came away from the floor wet, he just stopped for a long moment, confused. Then jerked back, slipping, jarring a knee on the concrete and tearing the other palm on sheared metal shards, hearing Anton’s gunshot again, seeing recognition dawn in the eyes of the woman whose blood he was crawling around in.

A Net Too Wide To Break His Fall, chapter 11

I can't quite believe I've been writing and releasing this story for nearly a year!

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Ready: Listen and/or learn

All right, luvvies? Matt here with the Ready edition of Ready & Waiting, a fortnightly newsletter from Foggy Outline. The Ready edition is a

Some people make fiction podcasts because it can just be easier to let a character say and feel the things we’re scared to and it’s kind a miracle that we can do that because it can be very healing