About

WHAT is this Podcast about?

A narrated audio adventure based around the events of a basement tabletop role-playing game.

• Its not a recording of the game itself like an actual play podcast but a dramatization of the STORY that was born from the table, the actions of the players and the chance of the dice.  You will never hear the dice fall.
• Its presented as a narrator driven audiobook with a full score, cast and sound design.

What is a “role-playing game”?

You have likely seen the tables of a handful of people rolling dice and declaring actions around a board.  Sure you have a sequence of play and a goal for the game, but what if you took on that role?  What if you and everyone at the table played Monopoly in suits at a business table on maybe a dark office with the smell of cigar smoke and whiskey, where one player was cruel?  Where they pretended to be the darkest slumlord at the table always making deals just to ruin everyone else?  That’s a role playing game.  Not only playing a game of chance but taking on a character.  Forcing yourself to empathize through them.

Why did you do this show and not just write a script?

So collaborative storytelling is something we are very passionate about.  There is skeleton or story hooks provided by the DM or Storyteller but the rest of the group decides the actions the principle characters make and in many cases shape parts of the world not fleshed out yet.  The world comes alive for those at the table.  At our table its common for someone to ask about something small and seemingly insignificant.  This then becomes a focus as we all contribute to describing it in further detail.  This is an amazing experience that can build worlds and stories very quickly but it can have challenges.

Why I created the show is because the players and I at the table honestly couldn’t keep track of the in depth story we built.  The depth of the relationships between characters both player or otherwise became complicated and exciting.  Soon I was staring at a rolodex of index cards numbering over 100 with descriptions we had established of each character, their game stats and even their voice and personality notes.  Part of the reason I started the Codex as well

What genre is this show?

Fantasy.  To be more specific there are elements of Swords and Sorcery, where our adventurers struggle to survive against the personal challenges put before them.  Death defying adventure and heart breaking drama are equally matched.

There are elements of Heroic Fantasy,  the story can be dark but never too dark and good always prevails.  To quote the Ferryman, Lord of Death “all things happen for a reason.”

Finally there are elements of High Fantasy as our adventurers are trying to save the world as well as each other from a grim future under the fist of the dreaded Lord Pallus and his Dark Army.

What game did you play?

In this case we play a game of Dungeons and Dragons, heavily homebrewed with parts of other rulesets (Palladium, Pathfinder, World of Darkness) where it makes sense, based around our love of fantasy.  It will feel familiar to anyone that enjoys Lord of the Rings, Willow, Beastmaster, Conan,  Dark Crystal, and classic Dungeons & Dragons stories.  There are also echoes of inspiration taken from 80’s rock album covers and the paintings of Frank Frazetta on the side of a van.   The imagination is a wonderful place where we can explore vast worlds we may not otherwise visit.

Is this child friendly?

Our story is clean.  Meaning no foul language.  But we encourage parents to listen to the show with their children and enjoy it together to make their own decision if it is appropriate for them.  I describe it as “80’s PG” where it really needs to be Parental Guidance if they have questions.  These are some of the elements to consider in your decision making.

• Violence – Again we have swords and sorcery,  likely not being used for peaceful reasons.  The clashing of sword and axe can get descriptive but any gore is minimized as much as the story allows.
• Death – Death is something that isn’t taken lightly in our world.  Life and death pose a balance with each other both respecting their cosmic laws that bind their actions.  When someone dies in our story we make it a goal to drive home the significance of their life, and their impact on the world. There are the death of loved ones and these crucible-like moments shows how they each deal with their grief and emotions.
• Romance – Love is an adventure in an of itself.  The story follows elements of young love and those first crushes, as well as old mature love where love never dies.  The players themselves are very diverse, several identifying with LGBTQ community, and these relationships can be diverse as well.  Enough description to simply drive the emotion is the goal of the story.
• Drugs/Alcohol – There are descriptions of taverns and bars where frothy mugs of ale and mead are poured to the various denizens of the land.  Excess when depicted shows it as a mistake and a poor one at that.  Occasionally there is a captain puffing away on a pipe of some tobacco like leaf.