Radio Hour: Scootin' for a Mutin'

Rowan joins Chase and Thomas for this week's episode of the Rascal Radio Hour, and the podcast almost immediately flies off the rails to land in tangent territory. They play a little catchup by conversing about Gen Con's biggest news items, including Wizards of the Coast's strange vision keynote for Dungeons & Dragons and an upcoming sixth edition of Vampire: The Masquerade.

Good news includes the experience of DJA winners at Gen Con and a fresh union for Rowan, Rook and Decard's staff. More good news is that Chase gets relentlessly bullied by his friends and colleagues, restoring the natural order to audio journalism. The big headline feature this week sees Rowan and Thomas recount the finale of their shared Band of Blades campaign, which left both of them impressed with the game's capacity for group drama and narrative satisfaction.

Finally, as all three brave the Question Dungeon, listeners inquire after Powered by the Apocalypse advice and what defines a "normal player."

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Here's an excerpt:

Thomas: Before we get into news, I just wanna say the August pledge drive is going really great, and everyone has been super supportive. It's been a week and change from the State of the Rascal episode, and all the numbers we threw out about how well we're doing is now wrong and outdated. Everything has been going great. I'm just really happy to see how people have shown up for us. People are buying subscriptions for other people, and that's awesome.

Chase: So much so that you created a form for people to fill out so that they can apply for this increasing number of donated subscriptions, which is just... Thank you. Thank you everyone to who did that and everyone who subscribed. Thank you if you are already a subscriber. We keep asking and hoping for just a small, little smidge of support, and then y'all show up in a real, substantial and incredible way.

Thomas: What Chase is trying to say, folks, is fandom is bad except when it's about us. You know? And then it's really good and nice.

Chase: Parasociality, when it benefits me, is good actually. It is a moral benefit and positive to society.

If you want to read more about this, you can go listen to the State of the Rascal episode that Thomas and I did last week. You can read the article that is on the site. I also have links down in the description where you can either buy a subscription for 30% off an annual membership. There's also our tip jar; if you already subscribe to us, you can throw us a little bit of extra money to help us get through some financial troubles. Thank you very much.

Thomas: Another thing to point out is that Rowan is here. I don't know if people noticed.

Chase: Rowan, did you notice you were here?

Rowan: I'm pretty sure they heard my forced attempt at humor at nine in the morning and were like, Rowan's back. Hell yeah.

Thomas: You're saying 9 am isn't your best comedy hour?

Rowan: No, usually my best comedy hour is like nine p.m. in a very small room with about three very sleepy, drunk people and then a bunch of comedians who don't wanna laugh at each other. That's when I thrive, Thomas. And you know what? It's a similar vibe. The antagonism in the room right now is really, really waking me up.

Chase: You haven't been here for a while, and now you're back. We should have put more locks on that door.

Rowan: What do you mean? I've I've been here every podcast recording. You guys just never turned my mic on.

Chase: What the hell?

Thomas: Yeah, we just cut you out.

Rowan: It's a good thing I don't listen to this podcast, otherwise I wouldn't have known.

Thomas: The executive summary is that Rowan is going to be doing some more admin stuff, gonna be around a little bit more, but not on the editorial side. You might hear her on some more podcasts, but that's about it.

Rowan: I'm really excited to be back. I love this team so much, and I love seeing the response that everyone's had to us asking for help a little bit to keep this site afloat. I do a lot of stuff outside of this podcast. I have a big life outside of Rascal — and it has been chaotic and crazy — but being able to come back and support the rest of the team is such an honor. It's really fucking cool, actually. I'm so excited to still be able to be here and be a Rascal. And also talk about some games!