chip-and-ironicus

[chip-and-ironicus]

Bizarre Podcast: Space Puppets!

LISTEN HERE

The hotly anticipated successor to Dogs Must Die has arrived. This time around I’m leading Chip by the hand through Farscape to celebrate its 25th anniversary. The Sci-Fi Channel’s dampest, foam rubber-est, most subversive and tangible original series is our topic for the next 50 or so episodes.

First we start at, and before, the beginning; with a look at Season 1, Episode 1: Premiere, and some highlights from its years of development.

This will be a premium show available to any donors in any amount on the Chip and Ironicus patreon, with the episode on each season’s premiere available for free. But, once our Patreon reaches $2,600 per month, the show will be free in its entirety.

#chip and ironicus #chip cheezum #general ironicus #Farscape #the jim henson company #puppetry #practical effects #brian henson #Rockne S O'Bannon

[chip-and-ironicus]

Have you checked out RENEGADE SCUM yet? It's really fun. And it has really cool art now. We're doing Star Wars our way, and so far that involves a lot of close escapes from crashing ships of increasing size.

The full-cast lineup is here, the big finale of RENEGADE SCUM art week. All cast portraits are by Sari Reina, who you can find and support at http://ko-fi.com/sarireina

[chip-and-ironicus]

Have You Ever Seen Anything So Blue?

[Reposted from Grant's Cohost page]

This August, as I walked a gravel trail toward Au Sable point, I thought about the change in the people of northern Michigan. We drove to the trailhead along a county road that dips in and out of the jagged border of Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. The inhabited parts outside show the pivot of an economy based on mining and fishing to one based on selling lunches and renting kayaks to people curious about historic mining and fishing. And for a second, I fell into the romantic thought that no matter how life changes, it's the same rocks and the same trees.

This is false. As I discovered on last year's trip, the vital thing to remember is how everything is constantly changing. The composition of the now-protected forest is permanently changed by the logging industry. And without that logging industry, the dune at Log Slide Overlook continues to grow taller and forever cover the spot where logs were slid to the lake. The people, the rocks, and the trees are all changing, all the time. The hope is that they change together, and can support one another. The National Park service is something I believe in.

But the lake, god willing, is forever. I remember last year, sitting in the cabin my aunt rented, watching the sky dim out the window, as the lake grew darker and darker. The waves seemed to spread in every direction. The biggest thing I've ever seen and it was growing, pushing beyond the boundary of the shore. I was a few dozen feet away, up a small hill, behind a window, and there are moments I thought I might fall in from my seat on the couch. I've lived on the Great Lakes and the waterways that connect them most of my life, but Superior is somehow different.

There is no center and no end. None you can perceive. There is only breadth and depth and expanse and blue. It's commerce and wilderness and ecosystem and postcards. Storms and harbors. Constant sound in variable volume. To see, every day, an accident of glacial geology that bore a wonder of creation, to know it supported centuries of history, and eat its fish fried in the back of a truck. Have you ever seen anything so blue?

#Michigan #lake superior #geology #pictured rocks national lakeshore

[chip-and-ironicus]

I was asked to create an audio drama adaptation of a chapter of The Book of the New Sun, so I did, and it's here, and I'd really like people to listen and enjoy it. But like I was saying to a friend earlier this week, the content is not really interested in onboarding you, the listener. So I thought I'd make an introductory post to give people a handle on what this is and what's going on:

Listen to the audio drama Production Diary posts so far Poster by Gryme

Why it exists In the early 1980's Gene Wolfe published a dying earth/science fantasy cycle called The Book of the New Sun. It's presented as a memoir of the main character, Severian the Torturer, and contains a few other stories he encounters or tells along the way. Chapter 24 of the second volume, The Claw of the Conciliator, is in the form of a script for a play he performs in, written by a supporting character he encounters several times on his journey. This is a mostly word-accurate adaptation of that script into a dramatic presentation, which, as far as anyone involved knows, is the first of its kind. That's really exciting!

What's happening in its context In his journeys, Severian performs in this play twice, once each near the end of the first and second volumes of BotNS. The author, Dr. Talos, sees his play as both an outlet for his creative drive, a means of communicating more profound truths than he could in another medium, and part of a scam. They end their performances by having a cast member seem to go mad and attack the audience, then the troupe picks over and loots whatever the crowd left behind. The world of the greater narrative is in decline, a slow apocalypse of stagnant millennia, which informs the work.

What's happening in the play Eschatology and Genesis is about the rebirth of the world, and is set during the final death of the one its characters and audience live in. Religious and mythic figures arrive to witness and influence the new world coming, and mortals of various social positions are left to deal with the facts one way or another. The language is archaic and dense, but I think the cast's performance brings out what's meant, or at least the interpretation we settled on. A lot of the conventions of pre-modern and early modern theater are here, so if you remember anything from a Shakespeare unit in high school then parts of this will be familiar.

Please enjoy the show. And if you do, please spread it around. A lot of people worked very hard to make this possible, and I only hope my audio production didn't let down their contributions.

#audio drama #The Book of the New Sun #Ranged Touch #Shelved by Genre

[chip-and-ironicus]

Hey I didn’t intend to make the opening of this trailer sexy as hell, I hope you enjoy the happy accident.

SIX FEATS UNDER IS BACK! AND IT’S STAR WARS!

Coming soon to Six Feats Under, RENEGADE SCUM, a Star Wars miniseries Actual Play. RENEGADE SCUM is played in Galactic 2e by Riley Rethal and The Scum and Villains Expansion by Jess Levine, available together in a bundle over the month of May 2023.

More information to come. Be the first to hear the episodes by subscribing to the podcast. Follow along at sixfeatsunder.com

The cast for RENEGADE SCUM is Action Shakespeare, Grant, Six Dettmar, Medibot, Pauline Ragny, and Vel Mini.

[chip-and-ironicus]

Bizarre Podcast: Dogs Must Die has now finished the entire (current) run of the Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure anime. Our end of Stone Ocean guest episode features Woolie (Castle Super Beast, Woolie Vs, etc) helping us untangle the angles on fate, endings, universes, and punch ghosts.

#JJBA #JoJo's Bizarre Adventure #Stone Ocean #Dogs Must Die #woolie #Chip and ironicus

[chip-and-ironicus]

It’s new LP day! The videos for this series were captured in 2018 and have been aging in oaken casks, while the commentary is of the freshest vintage. It’s us, it’s Kingdom Hearts, it’s lore (but not all that much), and it’s franchise mashups before that’s what everything was. 

Updating twice weekly, see you there.

#Kingdom Hearts #Chip and ironicus #let's play

[chip-and-ironicus]

Grant made another TTRPG, available PWYW on Itch. This one is part of Gex Week, and the Gex Week 2023 game jam. It’s a tribute to Gex as we imagine him over at Gextra Life. Gex week runs now through Sunday the 20th, and submissions to the jam are open the whole time.

#Gex #Gex Week #Gextra Life #ttrpg #two player game #Gexby #Bubsy

[chip-and-ironicus]

Grant made a second game! This one is a silly 1-page (technically) RPG about being a sexy doctor who is also an intelligent swarm of bees. It’s available on Itch, Pay What You Want. If you play it, let him know how it went. 

If you missed his first, that’s Last Shooting, a mech duel RPG for 2-players, as featured on Friends at the Table, Six Feats Under, and One Shot Test Kitchen. 

#Chip and ironicus #ttrpg stuff #1-page rpg #Sexy Doctors #Bees #Last Shooting

[chip-and-ironicus]

The Final Fantasy 7 Remake LP is finished

Including the DLC, and switching midway to the PC version once it was released, it’s all here and all good. Come check out a retelling of (part of) a classic story, which grapples with what it means to remake something. Also, materia plorbs.

Uncut Commentary (you hear everything we say)

Cut Commentary (we’re silenced during cutscenes and important plot moments)

#Chip and ironicus #chip cheezum #Final Fantasy #Final Fantasy 7 #FF7 #FF7R #final fantasy 7 remake #Chocobo Sam

[chip-and-ironicus]

Six Feats Under’s Mouse Guard Campaign is Complete

This fall we brought it back from a production hiatus to give it a proper ending. So if you’ve been waiting to know the full scope of the thing before listening, or before sharing it with someone else, now is the time. And I really think you should.

Over 2+ years of in-game narrative, and 5 years of production (including that previously mentioned hiatus) we fully explored the possibilities of the Mouse Guard RPG, the setting as we shaped it, and our characters. Sometimes it was silly, sometimes it was sad, and always it was under the weight of history. I’ve called this campaign a “laboratory for me to test my ideas on long-form storytelling, narrative, and adaptation; made all the better by having those ideas tested and challenged by eight collaborators.“ And it is that, but it’s also very goofy and fun.

The best way to follow the campaign is at sixfeatsunder.com which has a dedicated page for each season with descriptions and character bios. You can also find Six Feats Under on any given podcast app, but the organization of the site is helpful. Both are also good places to find non-Mouse Guard stuff, like the episode on the game I designed, Last Shooting; or the Monsterhearts 2 miniseries I’m so proud of. Supplemental material, like writeups of important setting elements or a set of letters sent by NPCs for each season, are also on the show’s tumblr page, helpfully tagged.

Any given season is a good enough starting point but the very beginning is here, and has all the advantages a beginning has. Year 2 starts with a recap episode built with all you need to get up to speed as things start to get heavy. And, because I’m weird like that, I think it’s entirely valid to start with the finale, and I’m curious what that experience would be like. And the epilogue game (Part 1, Part 2) that just went live is essentially a one-shot that stands in its own right, with half the cast being new characters.

I also made a set of behind the scenes posts for the three parts of the greater big finish. Those are very bad places to start, but I’m including the link for completeness’ sake.

So that’s what I’ve been up to, in some stage or other of active production since summer 2017, and in planning since the fall before that. And every part of it was a joy to make. Each season left me prouder than the one before. All my warmest and sincerest love to the cast members and collaborators, who made each step and each element stronger and sharper than I could have imagined. And my deepest gratitude to every listener, especially those who reached out and made themselves heard, for joining us on the journey.

-Grant.

#Six Feats Under #6FU #Mouse Guard #Plug

[chip-and-ironicus]

Hey did you know we do a Jojo’s podcast? Episodes on Part 6: Stone Ocean just started today.

#JJBA #jojo's bizarre adventure #stone ocean

[chip-and-ironicus]

Another season of Mouse Guard adventures is complete, and I’m incredibly proud of it! We’re breaking out of our own format as everything comes to a head. We’ve got secret treaties, Zeke back in Owl’s Hollow, Sable turning double agent, a forest fire, and Isolde’s great betrayal. This one’s hot.

Heat: 1149

Another Mouse Guard season is complete! Heat was our longest season to date, and our mice faced their most significant challenges yet. It was also our most ambitious structurally, as our patrols split and recombined. Our mice have been out in the wilderness long enough that nearly everything they face now is a result of their own previous actions, and that’s only going to continue as we move into Fall 1149: Famine.

Listen to Mouse Guard Year 2: Heat

Letters from Friends: Heat 1149

#Ironicus #cross-promotion #Six Feats Under

[chip-and-ironicus]

It’s done. Thank you.

Full LP playlist

#chip and ironicus #MGSV #Metal Gear #Now we may ascend to outer heaven

[chip-and-ironicus]

I threatened to make this video and welp

Chip and Ironicus, out of context

[chip-and-ironicus]

My actual play podcast’s Mouse Guard campaign has finished the first season of their second year. Lily and Sable are apart for the first time ever. Isolde’s past comes to light. Pirates occupy and extort a city. It’s a great time to catch up and check it out!

Thaw 1149

Another season has ended for our mice, which means another complication post of all their adventures. You can find all of Thaw’s episodes on this page of our new website. I feel like the stakes are deepening and everyone is being pulled toward some bad times. Good thing they’re heroes.

Keep reading

#Ironicus #cross-promotion #Six Feats Under

[chip-and-ironicus]

There’s a new Six Feats Under series with Grant as a player for once, rather than a GM! Follow along as his character fails to properly cope with his own death by being the world’s worst shift manager at a frozen yogurt stand. We have fun here.

He’s also editing this one and trying to be much more ambitious with it. Let the Feats crew know what you think!

Monsterhearts 2: Mall of Secrets

We’ve just launched a third campaign! This one is set to be pretty short, no multi-year investments this time, and we’re very proud of how it’s going so far. 

(original art by Spencer Amundson )

In the faraway year of 2007, four teens have jobs in the same mall, and connections to the supernatural. As their lives entangle, will they become the capable people they hope to be, or will they fall to their obsessions and pettiness?

Monsterhearts 2 is the second edition of Monsterhearts by Avery Alder . It’s a modern classic about supernatural romance, awkward adolescence, and queer lives. Players take the role of a young person who is also empowered by some dark side to themselves. Maybe you’re a werewolf, a vampire, from the fae, or violently popular. In any case, the mechanics present these characters with all their power as metaphors for messy lives, and messy lives make drama. The second edition is more player-friendly with some streamlined mechanics, more GM-friendly with clearer guidelines, and just generally friendly with its new rules and advice for asexuality, race, and other topics.

Episode 1: Gimme that ‘Gurt:  We meet the cast, and set the scene. Then, Dennis gets an offer he very much does not want to refuse.

You can also follow along in this thread at lp.zone! 

#cross promotion #Six Feats Under #Ironicus #There's a dancing flip phone mascot named Nekio in this one #And we all die from nostalgia pain