The 23 to 24 Rollover. Past and Present.

2023 saw the decision to take part of the concept of our current D&D (with Cthulhu twists) game and to create a separate written and recorded story following the experiences of two members of the Oliver family. A project to entertain myself and to allow me to further play around in the time twisted story that I had devised for the D&D game.

I had not intended to write scripts or to create an ‘audio drama’ with layers of effects. Of course this plan was inevitable in it’s failure, and with the birth of Dr Oliver Miller who deserved more consideration in terms of the story and writing than I had intended with the original conception of Steve Miller- fail it did. The failure to stick to the original plan also further increased with the inclusion of a short fully produced audio segment in the last episode of The Casebook of Dr Oliver Miller in 2023. Something that in truth I could not resist, even knowing the ‘time sink’ that starting down this kind of path can produce.

The Christmas period itself saw some basic tweaks to my recording area (Studio would be too far a grandiose term), including a lot more acoustic reflection panels to help in creating the echo free ‘dead space’ required for acceptable recordings and a new microphone arm and headphone hangers- not entirely necessary but just to tidy things up and make life easier and tidier.

We, (the D&D group), ended the year on the 31st of December playing a session time jumping into the world of Dr Oliver Miller, and specifically into the investigation of Case 4, Berkeley Square. This was meant to be a one off session as a year end change. As often happens with plans this didn’t work out and there will be at least one if not two more sessions to resolve the plot. If the group enjoy the time period and like their characters then there may be more forays into the 19th Century world of Dr Oliver Miller.

As any DM, GM, Law Keeper, Light Keeper- whatever the title you provide to yourself as the creator of a game world and acting as story provider to a group of players knows- however you think a session will progress is definitely not how it will progress, and in truth that is the fun of it.

While running the session I realised that my group had landed upon characters and courses of action that I, if writing it as a story, would not have come up with. I realised that there was some merit in bringing the game characters into the podcast, not entirely as devised or played by the players, but more in spirit, my interpretation as such.

The first podcast of 2024 is the continuation of Case 4 and sees a return to Berkeley Square with four characters developed as a result of the last game of 2023, so names checks are due to; Jayne, Anna, John and Andy for the inspiration. Also to Mark, for taking on the roll of Dr Miller. There is definitely a part 4 to the story, which will as a necessity include the player inspired characters to wrap up this case.

I am not monitoring the number of plays of episodes so I have no idea at this point in time if anyone has any interest in either the Steve Miller or the Dr Miller episodes. I intend to keep things this way, as, as previously noted this is simply a creative outlet for me, and it is a bonus if anyone else thinks the story is worth the listen. I will at some point make a list of podcasts both drama and real play that I regularly listen to and in some ways take inspiration from.

At present there is no set schedule for the release of episodes, which goes against the sage advice of all who give pointers on how to build a podcast and following, and of course they are correct. Then again I am not really one for following advice, and in knowing the ‘rules’, you can then choose to comply with or ignore them. For me the script writing, recording and editing have to be carried out when I have the time in-between work and home life (and also the impulse to do so), however I would imagine that there will be at least fortnightly if not weekly episodes, but I am not assigning any pressure to have to produce on a schedule.

For the writing and podcast to continue and maybe even flourish it has to be and remain a fun exercise for me, one with an added bonus if it is enjoyed by others.

So, for now, I will wish anyone reading this, or listening to the podcast a very Happy New Year, and having just published Episode 17 pt3, I shall start to think about writing the script for the next episode.

If you do have any comments or thoughts on the podcast or story, then please email me on thetimestapeschronicles@gmail.com