Let me not bury the lede here: WE MADE A NEW QUEER HISTORICAL FICTION RPG AUDIO DRAMA PODCAST. This one is very trans and very witchy and stars an all trans-witch cast. (Including me).
Our new Surprise RPG series, Étude of the Storm, debuts via a live listening party OPEN TO ALL on the Omniverse Discord - this Sunday, August 10th, at 1pm EST / 6pm BST / 10am PST.
Étude of the Storm is a Surprise RPG – dynamic narrative experiences that leave players (and listeners) shaken to their core. It follows Elea Torillsdöttor, a wise woman in 18th century Norway, as she's thrust into an uncanny journey woven through Norse mythology, transgender pagan magick, and queer family.
This is a story unlike any you've ever heard before.
In addition to a tale of magic and adventure, Elea's journey offers tear-jerking stories of queer love, explorations of the trans experience within a historical setting, as well as a depiction of witchcraft rooted in real world experience. I'm absolutely staggered by the scope of this story and the dynamism of its characters. It's a testament to how powerful collaborative storytelling can be.
WHERE AND WHEN:
Like our prior Surprise RPGs, Étude of the Storm will be available on the Omniverse Patreon for subscribers at the Initiate level, with the first two episodes available to all Patrons. Episodes release Wednesdays and both episodes 1 and 2 publish on Wednesday, August 13th.
HOWEVER! As the series releases, we're hosting live listening parties open to everyone.
They're happening on on the Omniverse Discord – so join the Discord now, and RSVP to add the events to your calendar!
August 10th (E1 - E2) - Runtime 1hr 46m
September 7th (E3 - E6) - Runtime 2hr 42m
October 12th (E7 - E10) - Runtime 3hr 14m
October 26th (E11 - E13) - Runtime 2hr 19m
November 9th (E14 - E15) - Runtime 2hr 17m
November 30th (E16 - E18) - Runtime 2hr 34m
December 7th (E19) - Runtime 1hr 17m
December 20th – Catch Up Stream!
December 21st (E20 - E21) - Runtime 1hr 15m
All listening parties will begin at 1pm ET and, as noted above, we'll be hosting a "catch up" stream of the entire series up to the finale on Saturday December 20th in case there's any part of the story you missed along the way.
"But Cat," you ask, "this story sounds so vital, why isn't it getting a wide public release?" Oh it WILL. This is the raw actual play storytelling. If you're familiar with what we do with @cthulhumystery you may have a sense of what's to come. We hope folks will get into it here and join us see how it evolves.
Join the Omniverse Discord today and RSVP to listen-along with other lovers of epic audio storytelling.
You want more details? I've got 'em:
THE PLOT:
Elea Torillsdöttor is one of the völva, an order of transgender wise women trained in the arts of magic and healing. For the past five years she's served the community of a small village, but when unprecedented climate disasters occur across the world, the völva are called back to their home of Seidrhöfn to find the cause. There, Elea finds herself at the epicenter of a ritual that grants her strange powers and sets her on a journey far beyond the world she knows.
It's a 21 episode maxi-series written and performed by Jessica Mudd (“MOTHER,” She Wrote, Midnight Burger) as the Game Master and Tess Tanenbaum (City of Daemons) as the story's central character, Elea, with myself and Alessa Catterall making special appearances.
WHAT'S A “SURPRISE RPG”?
In Surprise RPGs, roleplayers step into the lives of regular people caught up in their own narratives until they're suddenly side-swiped by an even bigger adventure. It's like living inside a movie, but the emotions and consequences feel more real and more personal than you might suspect. We debuted these experiments in roleplaying with K8 Was Here, The Extermination, and City of Daemons. (All of which you can listen to right now on YouTube.)
In our early Surprise RPG experiments, we used some of our favorite films as the basis for the surprise, but Étude of the Storm is a wholly original scenario and uses Open D6, our favorite system for Surprise RPGs.
So again:
Join the Discord now (or the Patreon if you've got the means) and embark on this adventure with us.
I can't wait for you to meet Elea and her sisters. I hope to see you there!
