Hello again! Sorry this is coming out a week later than expected as I ended up falling ill after the last one I released. At least it wasn’t Covid. That would have been too on the nose due to the topic of the ending of that post. Anyway, here we go!
Love and Loss
Alright, I know, I’m starting this part out on a great note, aren’t I? Unfortunately, tragedy and loss tend to accompany one another, don’t they? Thankfully, I’m not using this spot to say that anyone in the group died. However, the pandemic did weird things to people’s work schedules. One of my players worked in Radiology, and as we all know, all hospitals were “all hands on deck” during the scariest of the pandemic. He was the first one to have to leave the campaign because of his work hours. Then another one of my players also had to drop as his place of work changed their hours for Covid protocols.
There was a point in all of this that I really considered just calling the whole thing off. I came a lot closer than I think my players realized. The players that stayed convinced me not to as they loved their characters in the game. The cast that we have now is the culmination of their love and dedication to this game and podcast as well as the new players that filled the empty seats so we could continue to tell this story.
Looking Up
Ok, on to happier news. When we all were able to get back together, it was very emotional for all of us. We missed each other in the time we had to split away, and coming back together was almost like a family reunion of sorts. Our first session back, I put microphones in front of everyone so my players could get used to talking into a microphone for the cast. Even if you have the “gift of gab” as they say, putting a microphone in someone’s face can change that really quick.
It wasn’t until a few sessions back that I started recording test episodes of the podcast. This was all to make sure that the technical side of things were in order. It would have been awful to just start trying to record and realize that something was broken. Plus, we were still working in one of our new players at this time. Finally, in October, we were able to sit down and record episode 1 of the podcast.
And So It Begins: Take 2
Words can’t express both the excitement and apprehension I had when we finally sat down to do this. Some of us were nervous, some of us were just plain excited, and some of us didn’t know what to think. Finally, the first episode was done. All of us were happy to have finally accomplished something we started off trying to do so long ago at this point. However, thanks to my own anxiety and feeling like something ALWAYS happened when I was getting ready to release it, it took so much longer to release than I planned.
The Big Reveal
We recorded the first episode in October of 2021 and the prologue for the entire campaign released March 17, 2023. It wasn’t until March 31, 2023 that this episode that we recorded in 2021 released. However, I had no idea the amount of work it took to get a podcast published. I suppose I should have realized it would be more than just clicking an upload button as I had a brief time on YouTube. But, the first episode had to be released early in order to get all of the platforms to approve it. Years of anxiety, hard work, happiness, laughter, tears, and new friends finally came to fruition on March 17. All of us were so proud, and Amanda, the voice actress that recorded the prologue did such a phenomenal job. We were met with love, praise, support, and quite the intensely invested, but small, fanbase.
Happily Ever After
From here, our hope is to continue to grow, but if not, I think all of us are fine. Yes, the intent of this game was always to be a podcast, yes it has gone through dozens of changes between people, equipment, how we record, and plans for the future. But at the end of the day, this game is for us. We’re having fun, and if people don’t like it, we still have each other and the time we’ve shared playing a game that means so much to all of us. Thank you for waiting the extra week for me to get this out and I hope you enjoyed the read. These particular posts have meant a lot to me. Feel free to check out the podcast if you’re interested! And until we next meet, may your tables always be full and your 20/’s always be natural.