I wanted to stop by and let everyone know of some changes that are going on in the podcast. Considering that you’ve probably realized this isn’t a usual podcast post, I’ll talk about the most obvious change. We’re going to start taking two weeks between the stories we tell. We’re going to do this for a number of reasons, but mostly it’s for me to have time to plot and the like. It takes me a bit to come up with a new story after the last one ends, I spend a few days working out all the problems and kinks. I would love to be able to make writing my full time job, but sadly that is not the case, not yet anyway!

So, now for the first week following the end of a story, we’ll be posting the story in full as usual. Then, the week after that, I’m going to post about what the next story will be, and use that post as the link on the front page of the site where I track percentages. That way you guys have an idea of what will be coming! So without any further delay, let’s talk about next week’s story!

Because of Alice in Wonderland coming back into our lives, I’ve been thinking a lot about making a story in a fantastical world of nonsense. It’s had me thinking in nonsense a lot, which is quite fun, if I do say so myself (and I do). So next Tuesday we will begin part one of Adventures Through The Window,  a fun twist of Lewis Carroll’s titles.

In this story, young James feels like he is just another face in a large school until a mysterious substitute teacher takes an interest in him. Despite his cautious nature, James can’t help his curiosity when he happens to see the man walk through a large glass window on his way home from school one day! Unable to stop himself, James finds himself following his new teacher into a world unlike anything he’s ever experienced. To get back out again, James must not only find his way, but find himself as well.

Since part 4 of Founded in Battle finished up the story last week, we’re releasing the full story this week as usual. If you’re joining us for the first time, this is a great chance to see what we’re all about. FiB was an attempt to take a closer look at a typical fantasy hero party that is setting out on their grand adventure. Each week was told through another viewpoint exploring what brought these people together for this journey. It was fun getting to explore the different characters and their motivations to travel with the others.

Make sure to join us next week for the start of story #6, I have some interesting ideas for it. As always, I hope you enjoy the story!

Right Click to download the full MP3! (33:33)

Bioshock had one of the most interesting fantasy settings I’ve seen in a very long time; they took it even farther in the sequel. If you aren’t familiar with the series, Bioshock takes place in an underwater city called Rapture. It was a civilization not held to the rules of the surface world. The game’s focus is primarily on genetic research. Rapture had no rules stopping scientists from whatever they pleased.

I use “was” and “had” on purpose, the Rapture in the game takes place after the city, and her people, have begun breaking down. Genetic mutants rule the city now, with a little manipulating of course.  That’s what Bioshock does best, after all, the manipulating leaders who are always more than a little crazy.

The sequel has a new twist to it, now you are one of the Big Daddy’s from the previous game. With it comes some nice upgrades. Now you can dual wield your plasmids and your weapons. This was the first really great improvement over the last game. The second I found came with the hacking system. It’s simpler, and less repetitive, but it will also get your pulse racing a little bit when you mess up, and it’s much easier to mess up now.

The biggest improvement is the new creative strategy scenarios. In Bioshock 2 you really get to set up your battles much better than in the first. On top of that, you have a whole new set of weapons that will set many different sorts of traps for your enemies to walk through. You can really lay out where people will come from by looking around, and then plan your battles accordingly.  It’s fantastic.

And then there are the Big Sisters. These are just crazy. They are, at the very least, much  faster and stronger than you are. You know when you’re going to have to fight them though, so again you can plan ahead and setup some defenses. If you like the strategy of a good shooter you’ll like this, it’s not your every day run-and-gun, it takes some thought. This game is definitely worth checking out.

Thanks for joining us for the thrilling conclusion of Founded In Battle! Morine accepts her place as part of the crowd as the four are thrust into the first battle of their journey, to protect Sandall itself! Just as an aside, this is by far my favorite thing I’ve ever written. I hope you all agree! Next week will be the whole story, so we’ll see you in two weeks for a brand new story! Have any ideas for one? Now’s a good time to tell them!

As always, thanks for listening!

Good evening, all! Tonight’s episode moves to the High Lady Keilly. The day of attack has finally come and she must bring everyone together to fight in unity. The truth behind her plans serves as good of strategy as any. Listen on and see if Keilly can ready the good people of Sandall to fight!

As a side note, today I fixed a problem somebody mentioned with the iTunes podcast feed. The problem is resolved and the feed is working again, sorry about that! Click here if you have iTunes and want to see our podcast listing. There is also a link to it on the blog sidebar.

As always, I hope you enjoy the story!

Lately David and I have been talking a lot about voices and accents. We both felt like introducing them more; me to my character descriptions, him to the voices he reads. A fresh attempt at it, I realize, but I think it really comes across this week. I’m particularly impressed with his introduction to the mayor of the town. It’s brilliant!

This week’s story changes to the viewpoint of the archer, Owyn Dest. Just when he think maybe he’s followed a bit too far, he finds Keilly ushering him to lead for a change. Being a man of Owyn’s experience, he has his suspicions.

As always, thanks for joining us!

Download this episode

Brought to you a day late this week (and at a late hour, but you can blame my work for that one)! TNS #5 is an idea that David had and we both thought sounded fun.  The story is called “Founded In Battle.” The original idea for it was to take four characters at the eve of a battle and take a look at their pasts and what brought them together. An added bonus has been getting to explore how a small group of trained adventurers can make a huge difference.

As always, I hope you enjoy the story. Feel free to leave your ideas in the comments and help guide the story.

Dragon Age: Origins is one of the coolest games I’ve ever seen, RPG or no. Among RPGs it holds up, and even surpasses, some of its greatest predecessors (which were also all made by Bioware in my opinion) . It was more fun than Baldur’s Gate 2 and Planescape, even. Of course the playing style just gets more and more easy to use with each new game they release, such as the intelligently redesigned menu system in Dragon Age. But the game itself makes you care about the characters more than any RPG I’ve seen.

The World (top row): Dragon Age took a traditional Tolkien world of races: Human, Dwarves, Elves; and all those bad guys of course. The screenshot  on the left is from the Dwarven city. What’s cool about the world in this game specifically is the detail of each race choice. When you start the game you are thrown into the midst of 6 very cool stories. On top of that, each race has very serious political and racial tensions, and you can easily change the story by taking one stance or another. I’ve never felt so guilty playing an evil character before. I even went so far as to quit playing the evil dwarf path because I felt like a real bastard, it’s fantastic.

Dragon Age truly begins once you leave your home, for a number of excellent reasons based on who you play of course, and venture out into the world. Here is when you really start to see what the High Fantasy genre has done to video games. The two biggest themes I saw in this game came from two series, The Songs of Fire and Ice (by George R. R. Martin) and The Wheel of Time (by Robert Jordan). In the game, Gray Wardens (ahem, warders?) are an elite force who must save the world. You guessed it, you must join the Gray Wardens.

The Characters (bottom row): The people you meet in the game are the best example of the new age of RPGs. I mentioned above that I thought they took lots of hints from the high fantasy genre, and I’ll emphasize it even more here. Characters are what high fantasy is all about. The depth you get to know people in this game make you care about each and every one of them, for better as often as worse. The interactions between them is hilarious, and the voice actors make it all even better still.

Even characters you don’t get control over have distinct personalities. You end up hating or rooting for most of them as well (Bann Teagan comes to mind). If you only play this game for the interactions between characters, you will still absolutely love this RPG. I would definitely recommend trying it out if you are into fantasy (which you should be, if you are on my blog, right?!).

Oh yeah, and be blown away by this video, I recommend viewing it in HD.