In the world of TTRPG actual plays and podcasts there is always something new, something exciting that can reach out and grab your attention. I think that’s why I love them so much, and why I am endlessly fascinated by the folks behind them. And lucky for me I have a venue in which I can explore that fascination and share it with all of you.
This week I had the great fortune to talk with the collaborative cast of friends behind The Aetherlogue, an exciting new podcast project featuring a unique homebrewed world and an eclectic cast of characters. They had a lot to say about tabletop gaming, actual plays, the business behind both, and of course, The Aetherlogue.
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Brent: Thank you all for taking the time to talk with me! For those who might not be familiar with you and your work, could you tell the folks a bit about yourselves?
Sam: My name is Sam Comerford–most people know me for running the Roleplaying and Rollplaying Twitter account and creating the various “Sh-tty DnD Ideas” that come out of it daily. I also started the R&R podcast, as well as an improvised Twitch stream called “Spontanium”.
Krissy: I’m Krissy, mostly known as KrissyInColor on most places on the internet. I’ve been affectionately coined a TTRPG Mercernary because I find myself popping up kind of all over the place rolling dice with wonderful faces. I also do amateur/casual/closet cosplays over on tiktok and make dirty jokes on twitter and twitch.
Matt: Hi! I’m Matt – I’m most known as DungeonGlitch on Twitter. There’s a chance you’ve seen some of my nerdy t-shirts on streamers and at conventions, from my geek shop – Gemmed Firefly. I also produce lofi and focus music as DungeonGlitch everywhere music is streamed. I’m a gold award winning best-selling DMsGuild content creator – maybe Platinum by the time you read this! I have free generators and tools for GMs and players at RPGforFree.com. I’m dabbling in voice acting. I’m a marketing and business consultant and writing coach. I built a birdhouse once.
Lex: My name is Lex Kim Bobrow, also known as Titanomachy RPG. I’m an indie TTRPG designer and writer. Among many other things, I created Caltrop Core, a system for making rules-lite games in a flash. Over 205 games have been built on this system, and we’re not even at the 1 year mark yet.
Mark: Hi, I’m Mark Garkusha, I’m an actor, voice actor, audiobook narrator, writer, you may not have seen my face, but chances are you’ve heard me trying to sell you one thing or another. In the TTRPG community I’m probably best known for the Cast Die Podcast, which is my baby, and I promise Season 2 of Against the Demon Lords is coming soon.
B: How did you start playing tabletop games and what drew you into the hobby? What’s your Hero or Villain (we don’t judge) origin story?
Sam: I haven’t been playing TTRPGs for too long (as I’m 21), but it’s been about 6 years now. My uncle introduced my brother and I to 5e–in which he taught us how to make characters and role play them in game. This, of course, ended in a TPK that could have been easily avoided. I’ve been hooked ever since.
Krissy: I was always into acting in school, and took any opportunity I could to encompass another character in whatever means possible, whether it was on stage, or in mock trial. So finding something where I could jump back into that was great. I loved the idea of encompassing all of these different characters and escaping being average for a while. So some friends from high school invited me to their table. I eventually started making tiktoks of my character ideas and online folks invited me to THEIR tables…and the rest was history.
Matt: I started when I was a kid. I was homeless in middle school and it was a great way to keep me and other kids in similar situations out of trouble. It was affordable too if you’re okay with stealing graph paper from school. If you can imagine a big scary crack house with busted out windows, no power, and a half dozen people inside just rolling dice, that’s where my passion started. I developed an understanding of just how captivating the game can feel – and how helpful the escape be. At a time where I had nothing, I kinda created and controlled everything. I put it down for a while but I’ll never do that again.
Lex: I’ve always been into video games, fantasy novels, scifi, the whole nine, but I didn’t get fully into TTRPGs until my younger brother bought the D&D 5e starter pack and ran the adventure inside around 2018. I ended up DMing a campaign and homebrewing the living daylights out of it. Then I started making proper subclasses and eventually my own games and now my own SRD.
Mark: I’m older than everybody else, so I’ve been playing TTRPGs since the ‘80s, back when you could actually use them to communicate with Satan themself. But seriously, I played AD&D with my best friend/neighboor with his older brother as our DM. We loved playing and he loved killing our characters in interesting ways. Then when I was 13 I moved to RURAL North Carolina and, since I was already a long haired kid with an earring, had to hide my nerdage under a bushel, as they say. I fed the need TTRPGs by playing RPG videogames, reading every TSR novel published, and calling into the DM hotline in the back of Dragon magazine to harrass the poor nerds who worked there with my inane questions. Then, eventually. Stranger Things came out, the D&D renaissance began, and I started playing 5E, haha.
B: How soon after you started in TTRPGs did you get involved with Actual Play? Were there any challenges approaching that aspect of the hobby?
Sam: It was probably 3 years after I started playing that I asked a group of my friends to start Roleplaying and Rollplaying. There were quite a few challenges–namely that I didn’t know how to edit audio and all of our equipment was horrible (which is evident in that first episode).I’m completely self taught at this point, and I’ve learned how to make an AP show worth listening to with good quality, music, and characters.
Krissy: Just a few months, I think. Less than a year, mostly thanks to my tiktok. And oh yeah plenty of challenges. Scheduling is always a struggle, but it’s an extra struggle when you live in different time zones. Also we all know technology can throw fits and make life difficult.
Matt: It took me like… 25 years. I’m almost 40. I’ve only been doing AP stuff for the last two. It’s how I learned 5e. I just jumped into it as a player, which was a change for me as a forever DM, and I just crash-coursed with streaming and playing in front of a camera. I’m still learning it. Doing my best to improve my sound now is my main priority.
Lex: Funny enough, I started my Titanomachy RPG Twitter account to promote an actual play stream I wanted to do with my friends in early 2021. Nothing major, I figured if we could work our way up to 5-10 viewers, that’d be nice. Spending time in the space nurtured my interest in game design, and it turns out creating a stream game is way harder than it looks. We had a few episodes, but in the end, Titanomachy RPG became my game design brand. At that point, I decided actual play wasn’t my priority. But now all of a sudden, I’m surrounded by all these wonderful people who invite me to be part of their games! And when I heard who was on board for what would become The Aetherlogue, I knew I had to say yes.
Mark: My CDP pals and I started Cast Die in 2020, so it was a few years after I had started playing 5E. Since we were already into the pandemic we had experience with playing online already and since a bunch of us were VO peeps we had experience with that as well, but luckily we were inexperienced enough with producing an AP podcast that we though it was a good idea to jump into it with no experience. There was definitely a learning curve, the first thing we learned was that none of us would be quitting our dayjobs.
B: How did Aetherlogue come about?
Sam: We switched DMs on the R&R podcast, so I was no longer running the show. I missed it, and realized that I could just create another show with another group of friends. So, I reached out to Matt and asked him if he wanted to make a professional-grade AP, and to my delight not only was he on board, he was excited! Additionally, in another stroke of luck, we asked around for our first picks for the cast and they all said yes (those obviously being Lex, Krissy, and Mark).
Krissy: Sam answered this pretty well. I was just asked to come aboard and said “hell yes” and then we all went into world building together. Everyone has such unique ideas
Matt: We had Amber as well but the timing didn’t work out. The project is constantly evolving and I think we’re all learning so much from each other as we go – so this is by no means the Aetherlogue’s final form.
Mark: I was very keen to jump into this pod with this crew, I love DMing and show running, but man oh man is it nice to have somebody else in the driver’s seat, too.
B: For those who haven’t listened to The Aetherlogue Podcast yet, can you tell me a bit about each of your characters?
Sam: I’ll just let the players handle this one.
Krissy: I play Octavia Grand, a College of Spirits bard who will def be multiclassing as we go. I have *ideas*. She’s rowdy, determined, has a DEEP dislike of failing…oh and did I mention she’s (un)dead? Octavia was a character I built for an All Bards one shot Matt DMed on Hope4TTRPGS channel and she quickly became a pretty popular character, so having an excuse to bring her back was just too good to pass up. Sam has helped me grow her and her backstory into something truly great
Matt: I play Gale, a viper-based shifter. He’s an intelligence-based monk but multiclassed with fighter as I see his build revolves around superiority dice and maneuvers. Gale is an unusual member of a prominent mercenary army called the Order of Wyverns. His body is an abomination at odds with itself and he struggles physically a lot, as both mammal and reptile when he shifts. Gale is also a jerk and very hard on himself to learn things so I get to play out a Fight Club meets Sherlock Holmes anime combat action experience. I wanted something unusual so he’s a smart tactical dex-based tank.
Lex: My character is Daashi Shijak (they/she), a scourge aasimar cleric of the grief domain, a subclass of my own design. It’s always been my favorite subclass I’ve created for D&D 5e, so I knew pretty early that I wanted to play a grief domain cleric for this first arc. Daashi is looking for her missing wife while on their Pilgrimage, a journey grief clerics undertake to help the world process its many griefs. I don’t want to spoil anything, so I’ll just say Beware Bymos.
Mark: I’m playing Draig (he/him) a barbarian of the Dimlands, a far northern wasteland where magic doesn’t work. Draig is a custom subclass that we came up with called the Path of the Believer, basically Draig believes that magic isn’t real and he believes it so strongly that it doesn’t affect him as much as it does other people. The clan he is from values the arts as much as it values battle prowess, so Draig is something of a Warrior Poet, which often manifests in groan inducing word play.
B: How did you handle character backgrounds? How much discussion of your characters’ stories happened ahead of recording and how much was left to discover in play?
Sam: The character side of this process was pretty extensive. Everyone had at least one talk with me so we could hash out character arcs, voices, NPCs, etc. That’s not to say that there’s no room to develop the characters in gameplay–there has already been a lot of that in the few sessions we’ve recorded!
Krissy: Oh yeah Sam worked with us a lot, and we also worked with each other. Not just on our own characters, but on the world in general. I’d say 90% of that is Sam, but he definitely allowed for our input.
Matt: I also created a document of like 80+ story questions for us to pick through. When we found it was helpful, I touched it up and published it. [Brent: Breaking in to say, you can find both volumes of Matt’s Worldbuilding Questions on DM’s Guild.] I made Gale in a vacuum and just presented him to Sam and we wove him into the world, establishing where he came from and that lycanthrope / shifter stuff can be a big deal and really weird on a planet with three moons. It was a lot of ‘yes, and’ as Sam encourages everyone to think big and outside of the box.
Lex: Yeah, Sam guided the process with an open mind and obvious excitement. And he asks such good questions. Made it real easy to get our characters ready for their first session!
Mark: The term “character driven AP” gets thrown around a lot, but the Aetherlogue is definitely that. Sam was really cool about weaving all of our backstories together into the world of Vidra, and as much as we developed beforehand, I would say we are discovering just as much, if not more, during the play so far.
B: Something I noticed, listening to the first three episodes, was an absence of tabletalk around levels and class information. Was that a conscious decision and if so what was the thinking behind it?
Sam: It was a conscious decision–when it comes to AP’s I find that the shows I tend to get the most engaged in tend not to have too many mechanical discussions in them. I personally feel like they can detract from the flow of the narrative, and typically my philosophy is “if it needs to be mentioned, talk about it.” There is some discussion of levels and the like in other episodes, but usually only when it’s necessary–such as when characters level up.
Krissy: Definitely intentional. We’re trying to keep the episodes short to make listening to them manageable and not overwhelming. While I love playing D&D for 3 and 4 hours, it can be hard to stay engaged in something that long while watching or listening. It usually takes me a week to get through something with that much length to it. As Matt mentions, some extra stuff does get talked about, it just often gets cut out and saved to be used as bonus material.
Matt: We also cut out some of our nonsense jokes, pop culture references, and absolute tangents that we’ll suddenly go on while playing. It’s a blessing playing with experienced editors and professional sound people who have this keen judgment. We do save the outtakes and extra fun ‘bonus’ material.
Lex: Now that Sam mentions it, yes, it was a conscious decision. But I’ll be honest. I totally forgot about that. In my opinion, the reason is that everyone’s story is so fascinating! I’m just waiting for my chance to live in the world with the other characters. I’d rather ask Octavia how she’s feeling than ask Krissy what her hit points are, y’know?
Mark: I think that while it is a conscious decision, it is definitely made easier by the commitment to the characters and story that everyone makes. I haven’t really noticed that it’s not there, to be honest, unless Sam is just cutting out all the meta crap of been unwittingly saying and I don’t remember.
B: The setting for Aetherloque, as it’s revealed through play, is not anyone’s typical D&D setting. How much of that did you have going into the project and how much was created through planning and play? How much player input was there?
Sam: There was a lot of player input in terms of the world–in fact a lot of the session 0(s) we had for this game were actually for worldbuilding. We sort of threw ideas around until they made sense, and then I personally moved forward and created the meat around the skeleton (including the general plot as well). At this point, I’ve written more worldbuilding for this campaign than any other before it by a wide margin, and it is something I am quite happy with.
Krissy: A lot of collaboration happened to build the world. And I loved it, really makes you feel attached to the world you’re playing in.
Matt: Sam straight up asked us to list three things each we all wanted to see here and we just started connecting dots. From there, we looked at making it realistic in a way that combines high fantasy and dystopian science fiction. Everyone had excellent ideas and we just kept building on them. We also ran some one-shots with characters other than our own to take place in this world but unrelated, just to breathe some life into it. I GM’d one. It’s a community soup, so to speak.
Lex: We really did start with a blank slate. We all got on a call and found our way here. And let’s be honest, we started a podcast in a very saturated market. The typical D&D setting just wouldn’t cut it if we wanted this to be worth listening to.
Mark: I would say that the answer to all of those questions is: a lot.
B: For those signed up to the Aetherlogue newsletter pre-launch, you gifted early adopters with some pretty cool stuff! Can you talk a bit about the marketing of the podcast? How important do you think it is for actual plays and podcasts to take these extra steps? How important is it for the cast to be involved?
Sam: I’m a little involved with the marketing, but that’s mostly Matt and Lex (and I am very thankful for their expertise).
Krissy: I am going to let Matt and Lex answer this, because marketing is definitely more their bailiwick.
Matt: Yeah! So marketing is fun. It’s a hobby of mine. I don’t think there’s a single right way to do something like this, so I’m experimenting to see what works, but I’m not holding anything back. I do think every project should consider a mailing list. They’re not easy to pull off, but they’re statistically wonderful for keeping in touch with fans and supporters. Our mailing list content is also experimental and Lex and I are going to be playing with it a lot to keep it effective, non-spammy, and most of all – fun to receive. All other marketing was just like… hey, go run tell everybody. Here we are. If you’re reading this, it worked!
Lex: I’m a copywriter by day, so my marketing chops have come in handy. Matt and I first bonded over marketing actually, if I remember correctly haha. We’ll often talk shop, share new ideas, brainstorm for fun ways to let people know about the show. But we’re big fans of the free method, which is treating people like people and sharing things we’re excited about as creators. I’d say all of us grew our platforms by having real conversations with people and being active participants in the community. If all you do is take, people will have no patience for your ads and they won’t give you their time or money. My working theory is you only have to be good at marketing if you’re bad with people. Sending some gifts to people who joined our mailing list is our way of making sure we’re never bothering people with yet another newsletter. We’re grateful that you like us enough that you’d sign up at all! So the bonuses will keep coming. Who knows, maybe I’ll come out of 5e design retirement just for the people on the mailing list…
How important is marketing? If you want people to listen or watch your show, you have to tell them about it. And the cast are the only people who can do it, unless you’re paying someone else to take care of marketing. But look, it’s hard and it takes a lot of time. Self-promo doesn’t come naturally to most people. If it feels overwhelming at first, you’re probably doing something right. Just make sure to take breaks and be kind to yourself.
Lastly, my advice for anyone who’s nervous about bothering people with marketing, I’d say, don’t think about your project as a product. Think about it as a unique solution to someone’s problem.
Mark: This is another one of those areas where I am very happy not being in the driver’s seat. I love that I have people who I trust with abilities that I trust in, and that is very much the case with the marketing and a lot of the other “professional” aspects of the project.
B: At the time of this interview the first three episodes have aired, with another dropping tomorrow. How many more episodes in the first season and are there thoughts for Season Two?
Sam: I have no clue, but because the episodes are short relative to other shows, it allows us to have more episodes. So if I had to take a guess, I’d say somewhere between 40-80 episodes in total for season 1. Season 2 isn’t something we’ve really discussed as a concrete plan yet–though we have set up the framework for interweaving all subsequent seasons under the same “Aetherlogue” brand.
Krissy: Truly, I’m just along for the ride, but I’m excited to see where the road goes.
Matt: To clarify, we dropped the three episodes only – just on the 13th. The next episode is next tuesday. I think.
Lex: We have also discussed trying other games in the future. It’d be irresponsible of me as an indie designer to let us play 5e forever!
Mark: I would say that the answer to all those questions is: yes.
B: What advice do you have for a person or channel wanting to try pre-recorded podcasts? What are the benefits and challenges as a producer or performer?
Sam: Understand that you’re creating something more than just a TTRPG game–you’re creating a story that people will want to listen to. You are quite literally performing for an audience, and thus satisfying character arcs, story threads, etc. are very important. Additionally, editing is simultaneously the most important and most mind-numbing part of the process–and you should really prepare yourself before you start to edit your show.
Krissy: Find a group you trust and are comfortable with for one. It means the world.
Matt: Scheduling is still a main issue. You’re not bound to a set schedule, which is neat, but we all have full dance cards, so there can be a significant space between sessions. Communication in the down time is important and you need someone keeping the fires burning.
Mark: I would say that the best advice that I could give for someone starting an AP Pod would be… find someone else to do all the work. That’s a joke, but seriously I don’t think people realize what an undertaking it is, I certainly didn’t before I started doing it. That being said, if you still want to do it, do your research: make sure you sound good, learn how to edit, know that you’re going to spend some money, and don’t burn yourself out.
B: Moving back to TTRPGs in general, what games are currently catching your eye? What do you plan to play or run soon that has you excited?
Sam: I’ve recently gotten into Pathfinder 2e–it’s incredible. The design flows so easily both in and out of combat, and it feels so polished and complete. Paizo clearly knows how to make a game, because I am very excited to play some 2e!
Krissy: I don’t really RUN games…too daunting, but thankfully I’ve been asked to play a few (new to me) indie games next month like Ten Candles, Wanderhome, and It Wants Souls…so I get to try out a few different things pretty frequently.
Matt: I’m learning Vampire for October. I struggle with games that have less rules than 5e but I’m diving in and swimming more than sinking. I require a framework! I’m getting better at it.
Lex: The beautiful thing about indie TTRPGs is that pretty much any wild concept you can think of already exists. Thirsty Sword Lesbians, Wanderhome, Lancer—god, I’ve always wanted to play in a longterm Lancer campaign. My friends are on a big PbtA kick lately, so I’ve been playing a lot of those games. I also need someone to run anything by Spencer Campbell (Gila RPGs) for me, PLEASE. Oh, oh, and Yazeba’s Bed & Breakfast from Possum Creek Games, of course! I also love smaller, focused games you can experience in one session. I always have to shout out Things, Eldritch and Terrifying by @harpydora on Twitter. It’s a short 17-page game that really opened my eyes to the possibilities beyond games where combat is the main focus. It also played a major role in my partner and I getting together. Indie games pack a punch. Give them a try!
Mark: There are a literal ton. So many games I backed on kickstarter, even more that I don’t physically own. But real quick, lol, I want to play more of 3-2-1 Action, the Alien TTRPG is sick, I want to play more Call of Cthulhu, the new Marvel game looks like a beautiful mess, and I’ve got the Terminator RPG Handbook PDF burning a hole in my dropbox as we speak.
B: Any upcoming projects you’re working on that you can talk about? What will we see next?
Sam: We’ve got some additional stuff for the Aetherlogue we’re working on, but we can’t really talk about it just yet! All I can say is that it’s really cool.
Krissy: Aside from the games I mentioned up there? I’ll be starting a mini campaign of Delta Green with 12 Sided Stories this upcoming week. Besides that I have a lovely new cosplay I’m hoping to throw out into the universe soon. Of a character that’s not one of my own creations, for once.
Matt: I have another 101 Story Questions coming out in October. I have my third music album also in October? I have a big project I want to do next year but I’m overloaded as it is so we’ll see!
Lex: Oh, I’ve always got something in the works. In October, I’m releasing my next big game, GOLDEN BEETLE PLAYGROUND, a Medabots-inspired game where you play a kid and their robot partner battling it out to be the best! We’re also going to do a game jam in October to celebrate the 1-year anniversary of Caltrop Core being released. People made 92 games in 6 days during our first jam, and then 92 games in a month for the second. It’s always fun because everyone’s working on a game at the same time. First-time game designers highly encouraged to join!
Mark: Keep your ears peeled for the new “Just an Amtrak Away” campaign, lol. But for realsies, we’ve got Everyday Folk coming out on Cast Die right now, with more fun projects coming (Like Against the Demon Lords season 2). On the audiobook front, check out the Jason Trapp series! Book 1, Dark State, is out now and book 2, False Flag is coming soon. Another one I just finished is a really cool Sci-fi story of love and loss called Cryo which should be available in the next week or so, and, if you like spicy romance books and can figure out my spicy secret identity, feel free to check those out too!
B: Thanks again for taking the time to talk with me! Where can folks find you and your work?
Sam: You can find me on Twitter @samcomerford24, or at @RRollplaying. I also am on a Twitch channel called “Spontanium” where I improvise an entire game of DnD on the spot with a different cast every week! Thanks for having us on!
Krissy: You can find me on Twitter, Twitch, and Tiktok as @KrissyInColor. That’s really the best place to find out what projects I’m part of and what games I’m in, too
Matt: @dungeonglitch everywhere. Gemmedfirefly.com for nerdy shirts and homegoods. Look up Matt Joro on DMsGuild for my game content. RPGforFree.com for free tools. And I’m Gale on the Aetherlogue! Thank you everybody!
Lex: @titanomachyRPG on Twitter, Itch, Twitch, and titanrpg.com if you’re looking to hire me as a writer/designer for your next TTRPG project. Thanks for having us, this was a lot of fun!
Mark: Thanks for having me! I’m @markdmitri on twitter and instagram or @castdiepodcast on twitter, but not instagram, thats Jojo, and you can look up Mark Garkusha on Audible to find the books I’m narrating!
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Thanks again, all of you, for taking the time to answer some questions! And thank you for reading along. Please got check out The Aetherlogue wherever fine podcasts are streamed. This is a wonderful story beginning to unfold, you’ll want to catch it at the start!
If you enjoyed this interview and want to see more, reach out to me with suggestions of who I should talk to next. I can be reached most easily by DM at @DorklordCanada on Twitter. I would love to hear from you!
