Wrapping up Tabletop Season 4

It was a really good season. I had the most fun I’ve had since the first season, primarily because I reclaimed much of the stuff that had either been taken from me, or I’d given away.

We played games that we wouldn’t have been able to play in previous season, like Fury of Dracula and Eldritch Horror, and rather than try to go for lots of games that are heavy on strategy, I recalled my primary focus in the first two seasons, and looked for games that were accessible and varied, so that more people in the world will want to play more games. I played games that I never would have considered, because they have a lot of luck involved, but are still fun because they’re fast.

I stopped worrying about what The Audience was going to think, because I realized that I had allowed my fucked up brain to turn The Audience into The People On The Internet Who Hate Whatever I Do Anyway So I’ll Show Them. Recognizing that (with clarity I wouldn’t have had without my reboot) gave me permission to make the show that I wanted to make, the way I wanted to make it.

And I can’t overstate how good it was to clean house and get rid of the toxic garbage that was dragging me and the show down. If I’d only done that, this would have been the best season, ever, from a personal standpoint.

I also won a game this year, so that’s a thing.

I’m tired, but it’s a good tired that feels earned instead of imposed, if that makes sense.

 

So the last few games we played this year were:

Fate Core RPG with John Rogers, and Felicia Day, GM’d by Ryan Macklin. I realized about halfway through this play session that it was running a lot more like a demo than a story. It was fun for us to really get into the guts of the system, but that’s not what I wanted the audience’s experience to be. I mentioned this to Ryan, and the second half was more like the narrative experience I wanted for the episode. It’s going to be interesting for me to see how it comes together in the edits.

Steam Park with Jonathan Coulton, and Paul and Storm. Oh the poop jokes. So many poop jokes.

Welcome to the Dungeon with Janet Varney, Rhea Butcher, and Hector Navarro. This was surprisingly intense.

Harbour with Kyle Newman, Matt Mercer, and Nika Harper. Oh, the amazing Nika Harper meltdown in this episode.

So at this point, we don’t have an episode order locked down, but my producing partner and I are working to figure it out. I’ll share that information when I have it. One significant change this year is that I have no say at all over the actual schedule for release. I’ve asked for episodes to come out every week once we start, but I don’t have the authority to demand it. Luckily for me, Legendary is pretty awesome and supportive of what we want to do with the show, so hopefully we’ll either make that happen, or some compromise that makes me and the bosses happy.

As far as I know, new episodes will be released starting in July.