Recording the Rolls
- Matthew's Nerdy Nation
- Jan 26, 2023
- 5 min read
Updated: Feb 22, 2023
January, 2023 / Tony Spengler
The podcast industry is full of thousands of amazing content creators, with more sprouting up every year. Many enter the arena, few survive the first year. One of these rising survivors has been Stories and Sorceries, an actual play podcast. Now into their second campaign, they work together to make a fantastic story while striving to improve on their podcasting abilities and improve their skills as performance artists with every episode. I first came across them in the ttrpg community while trying to promote my own podcast, and since then have gotten to know the cast better and have worked with them as a guest and on discord content. This week I had the pleasure of interviewing their DM, William Roberts.
Home Land: United States, TN
Age: Quarter Century
Experience: Playing ttrpgs and DnD since middle school, been playing with the same group since 2020.
Favorite Race/Class: #Human4life, Martial Class
Q) William, how much do you plan before recording an episode of your podcast? How much do you prep ahead and/or railroad the party to keep the story moving and interesting for the podcast's sake, if at all?
A) At one point or another I attempted to plan routes but I very quickly realized I was herding cats. Now I make bullet points of beats I want to try and hit, and try pushing the characters in that direction. Probably in more subtle ways then I should, and I only resort to railroading when things seem like they're going too far off course. TLDR; I plan as little as I can get away with and as much as I need to lol.
I probably should be more pushy though.
Q) When you plan for an adventure, what is it? Do you prep random encounters, baddies, or damage outputs of unavoidable baddies/BBEGs to conserve time?
A) As far as random encounters go, I like to have a few tables that I've made up that have a variety of things from bad weather to monster attacks. When I make planned combat I generally crunch numbers to find things that sit in a "fair but challenging" area, and if during the fight rolls go one way or the other (or I miscalculated) I'll make on-the-fly adjustments. BBEGs are kind of their own beast, if it's plot relevant then there is generally a lot of pre-planning and for the most part. Official content goes out the window lol. but if it's just a raid boss at the end of a dungeon, then I'll probably just pick a high-end monster and give it some unique abilities to make it it's own thing.
Q) Do you make non-combat random encounters?
A) Yeah. Wildlife, flora, weather, traps, treasure, etc. The works. I generally lean more towards what I think the players would look forward to. So in Bren’s case, combat lol.
I had a whole bucket full of unique flowers and roots and berries back in campaign 1. I was waiting to introduce it for Rob, but that kinda ended sooner than expected lol.
Q) Do you use any third party homebrew creators, or do you make all of your own creatures/items/npcs?
A) Oh yeah for sure, half of a homebrew campaign is just rampant plagiarism after all. I look at artist’s works and OCs for inspiration on NPCs and magic items. I also listen to bushcraft and wildlife videos for environment studies and I follow what I learn with "But what if magic".
@RegalBones on Twitter has some beautiful animated magic items. They have no stats, but just seeing the art can get me thinking.
Q) Aside from RegalBones, do you have any other go-tos for muse inspiration? Or do you browse when you need something new?
A) Kanekuo used to upload on YouTube as a animatic and he had a series called "tabletop technition" and he would pitch all kinds of stuff, but he has since retired his YouTube and started making art fulltime on Twitter. His OCs have inspired more than one NPC.
I do do a good bit of sifting through all kinds of media when I need a new muse, but sometimes that shit just leaves me and doesn't come back for MONTHS. Back way before we started recording I ran a home game that eventually fell apart due to scheduling issues and players dropping in and out. When the dust settled, I was left bone dry as far as any creative muse was concerned and it took forever for it to start flowing back.
Q) What inspired you to start a podcast with your friends? What prompted Stories and Sorceries?
A) Well, during our home games and sessions we had a lot of fun and thought maybe it would be cool to share those moments with a wider audience. If we could grow the ttrpg community while doing that then that's all the better, but it was really Rob and Bren that pushed us into the first steps of recording our sessions. Without them I doubt we would have ever recorded a single session!
Q) In Stories and Sorceries, what has been your proudest creation? (monster, plot point/twist, npc, etc.)
A) Ah. That's a little hard to say considering how quickly campaign 1 ended and how early into campaign 2 we are. I haven't really gotten to show a lot of things off, but I would say that I'm super proud of the world as a whole and the big twist that it holds.
Q) Was there something you were super excited to reveal in C1 (campaign 1) that you didn't get a chance to?
A) The dungeon that the party met their end in was going to have a big call back that I think would have really got the players moving, but I don't want to spoil anything.
Q) How long did it take to create your world?
A) Oh forever and it's never finished, always another bit to add or something to develop.
I'd say I've been working on it for at least a year and a half, and thinking about it for at least 3 [years].
Q) Do you have future plans for the podcast? An end goal you're working on?
A) Yes and no. It's a bit of a double edged sword recording an actual play because while I might have a plan, they may have to change as the players impact the world in ways I don't expect.
Q) You guys had me on as a guest, do you have more guest's lined up? Are you looking for more guests?
A) We plan on having Owen from TiaFA on a one-shot DM’d by JD. Outside of that, the future holds endless, unknowable possibilities.
Q) If someone wanted to be a guest, are there any criteria to meet to qualify as a worthy guest? How can someone get in contact to get a spot in your podcast?
A) Well we don't have the most professional set up. So they would need their own mic and some platform that we can hold a stable call on. If someone was interested then they could contact us on the Stories and Sorceries discord or on our Twitter @SaS_pod
Q) Are you guys looking to be guests in other podcasts?
A) I don't think we would be opposed to it, as long as scheduling allows for it.
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