Act Three of Five: The Messenger, the King, the Queens, the armies, stand now all arrayed, their true faces revealed as the flames rise high.
Coming next on 29 August – Replay: Codename Mosaic (Backstage)
Programme notes
This production contains fantasy violence, drug use, sex references and authoritarian coercion.
Luvvie alert! We simply must introduce you to Cybertopia, an actual play podcast using the indie RPG of the same name, run by its creator with a rolling cast of a variety of members from the tabletop community. Set in a near future sci-fi world, the player characters take the form of corporate agents working on clandestine missions to protect their business's interests and reputation.
Dramatis personae and other definitions
Gwynned: A former shieldmaiden of the triple goddess Morrigan. For the crime of saving a mortal man from the Morrigan’s cruel whim, the goddess exiled Gwyn to live as a duck, overlooked by mortals. Recently freed from the curse, Gwyn is negotiating a new relationship with her mistress.
Jinny Greenteeth: Proprietor of the Grove of Oddities, a tacky Sherrydown tourist attraction. In a past life, Jinny was branded a witch after a series of drownings in her Lancashire village.
Renko: A DoOm agent assigned to Sherrydown, furloughed since the office closed.
Harper: A US exchange student trying to sever her ties to the Shadow realm she sometimes enters through revolving doors.
Department of Omissions (DO, DoOm): The UK government department tasked with preventing harm to citizens from supernatural phenomena. Severely defunded under Tory austerity policies and currently prioritising major urban population centres.
Sherrydown, Brackshire: A historic English market town. One of the first towns to lose its DoOm office.
Omission effect: The rejection of certain beings and phenomena by long-term memory. Can be suppressed by concentration, mnemonic techniques, hypnosis, trauma, or the light of the full moon.
Credits
COMPERE: Matt Boothman
STARRING:
Natalie Winter as Gwynned, the Divine
Josh Yard as Jinny Greenteeth, the Spellslinger
Vikki as Renko, the Flake
Marta da Silva as Harper, the Searcher
ROLEPLAYING GAME SYSTEM: Monster of the Week, designed by Michael Sands
MUSIC BY: Alexander Pankhurst
SOUND DESIGN BY: Matt Boothman
SFX AND INCIDENTAL MUSIC INCLUDES: pigeons taking off by glaneur de sons on Freesound (CC BY 3.0); Dragon and Toast by Kevin MacLeod (CC BY 4.0); and may include others made available to use without attribution.
EDITED AND PRODUCED BY: Matt Boothman