Character Transformation: Some Place to Be starts its Third Season with Burning Hearts Forever

In a sunny beachside city, a secret agency works to defend the world from destruction at the hands of an intergalactic empire. Every week, the evil general Bolidé leads the forces of Asterico to attack the city of Keystone. Thwarting their plans are the Sympaths, biomechanical heroes formed from alien symbiotes. After much struggle, Bolidé appears to be defeated, but will this peace truly last?

Some Place is Be is an actual play podcast that follows the same characters through different genres, TTRPGs, and styles of play in one continuous story. The podcast’s soon to start third season sees its characters become alien-fighting transforming heroes in the game Burning Hearts Forever by Eva Terra. The emotional stakes for the characters are just as important, if not more so than the combat in both Burning Hearts Forever and this season of SP2B.

“To me, the joy of SP2B, besides system-hopping adventures, is in the way you and the table enjoy and live in the deeply personal drama formed by the connections between the characters.” -@Lillianapolis.bsky.social

Burning Hearts Forever has an open setting with the core mechanics focused around characters having hearts that they wield to achieve their goals with magic or super science. While the book has several suggested scenarios, the season’s game master has written their own custom setting inspired by Men In Black, Futari wa Pretty Cure, and Burning Rangers. Here, the main characters’ hearts are biomechanical forms called Sympaths created by melding with alien symbiotes. Much like the transforming hero media that inspired them, our heroes can transform into Sympaths at will to use their enhanced abilities to fight aliens that threaten the peace of their city.

As with previous seasons of the show, gender and interpersonal relationships remain important themes. These aspects of the characters are never static and are iterated on with each shift in setting and TTRPG. Season 2 saw Victoria become Victor, and similar changes will be occurring for other characters in season 3. In the first season, the characters were all students and dropouts in a small college town where relationships were key to solving mysteries in We Used to Be Friends by Jonathan Lavallee. The dynamics between best friends, acquaintances, and enemies were shaken up in the transition to the art nouveau inspired fae court of the second season in Butterfly Court by Misha Grifka Wander. There, friends became rivals on opposing sides of a faction dispute over which suitor the queen should choose as her future king. In the upcoming third season, this dynamic is changed again when the main characters are forced in close proximity again by being on the same squad of heroes.

This season is Some Place to Be’s first to have a traditional game master. In contrast, previous seasons utilized a facilitator or gm-less gameplay. However, the structure of the show remains highly collaborative with players still taking turns playing selected NPCs. Each season of Some Place to Be starts with a book club discussion of the TTRPG being played and character creation.

Season 3 Burning Hearts Forever Week 0 releases on June 13th, 2025. In the meantime, Season 1 and 2 are available in podcatchers everywhere.

About Season 1

Spun the first season up for a road trip this past weekend, and had a great time. The cast is iconic and everyone works to bring the game mechanics themselves into greater visibility, even when the mechanics get a bit messy! -@curubethion.bsky.social‬

In a small college, everyone knows everyone. In a small college in a small town, this is even worse. When an anonymous third party starts sharing everyone's secrets, even a sleepy college town like Puddingstone has its share of mysteries to solve.

About Season 2

 “Ya ever accidentally vibe to a podcast so hard you spend hours listening to it instead of, uh, eating? @someplacetobe’s Butterfly Court series is a real treasure; its bold, beautiful, and GRUESOME and I’m eating up. Worth noting that its SO CHALLENGING to do a no dice/no masters system in AP and make it engaging but @spellboundmage.bsky.social sets the tone perfectly and the whole cast follows suit with big choices and lush description. Check it out today, an easy binge right now!” -@gamemastermonday.bsky.social‬

In the shelter of an otherworldy mangrove forest—turned bustling fae city, a flamboyant group of nobles squabble for status. The Queen is in need of a match, a folk hero thief has been stirring up trouble, and a dark prophecy foretells of a coming meteor shower. Waking up in a realm both familiar and unfamiliar, our characters are faced with balancing noble duties against the vivid memories of life in a small college town. Even here, secrets aren't kept for long. Some things never change.

I've been really enjoying Some Place To Be, always get a buzz of joy when a new episode pops up in the "latest episodes" feed -@damianoddson.itch.io‬

About the Cast

Min Ji Nam is played by Josephine. You can find her at @ scarydogfriend.bsky.social, and you can find her co-producing on BadHouseRPG on Twitch and YouTube. Angel Perez is played by Rem. You can find her on Bluesky or Tumblr @remspeedwagon. Ilyana "Yanna" Sentra is played by Nada (or) Amir. You can find them at trans_father on twitter and @ tallrowlet.bsky.social. Milo Monroe is played by Siobhan. You can find her @ spellboundmage.bsky.social and you can watch her video game streams as runawaysorcery on Twitch with archives on Youtube. Veronica “Nic” Castelli is played by Cassidy, who also GMs season 3 and edits the show and website. You can find Cassidy @ ashteroids.bsky.social‬ and the show’s website at someplacetobe.neocities.org

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