Like an iceberg, or a duck
All right, luvvies?
I’m Matt Boothman, but I suspect if you’re reading the very first issue of this newsletter, you might already know that. I work a lot at making stories happen. The thing with this kind of work is it’s like an iceberg, or a duck. The bulk of the work and the effort is below the waterline, where it’s hard to see. I sometimes - often - feel like I do a lot of work and don’t have much to show for it. (Thank you, capitalist construction of productivity as worth.)
So I wanted to start this newsletter, partly as a glass-bottomed boat for you, to show you some of what goes on below the waterline, before the work goes public - but also for me. If I make a point of regularly sharing what I’m working on, I ought to feel less like I’m doing nothing, just because the things I’m doing aren’t finished yet.
That’s the plan for now. I’ll do one of these a month and we’ll see where it ends up.
Coming right up
Merely Roleplayers
Celebrating 10 years of the London Horror Festival
A charm to pin over your heart
Merely Roleplayers
is a podcast where theatrical people play roleplaying games, in association with Blackshaw Theatre Company. In August, we wrapped up the Blackshaw Saga - a series of 10 standalone-yet-interconnected stories we’ve been telling since Hallowe’en 2017. There are 150 episodes in the back catalogue; if you like big back catalogues and cannot lie, you can devour the lot and experience us improving as we go, or you can pick a story you like the sound of and just enjoy that one.
You know what would be lovely, after wrapping a 10-season 150-episode labour of love? An Audio Verse Award nomination! Nominations are open until the end of the month, and I’d be really happy if we could get on the list for Improvised Production. The nomination form is a bit … involved, but it should only take a couple of minutes as long as you have these details handy:
Name of production: Merely Roleplayers
Link to production website: https://www.merelyroleplayers.com
Production email: merelyroleplayers@gmail.com
Production Twitter: @MerelyRoleplay
New production: No
Behind a paywall: No
How would you describe this production?: Improvised
Gaming system: Powered by the Apocalypse
What would you like to nominate?: The whole production
We didn’t start with a manifesto for the Blackshaw Saga, but in hindsight, it was a lot about recreating and playing in genres we love. The stories we told were original, but we revelled in the tropes of whatever genre we were using. I think leaning on tropes gave us confidence. It’s hard improvising for an audience who won’t get to react until weeks after our ‘performance’. But if we fulfilled the tropes, coloured within the lines, we could be sure our story would be a satisfyingly recognisable example of the genre.
We were supported by the Powered by the Apocalypse roleplaying games we used. I’ve seen RPG folks refer to PbtA as a genre simulator. The kinds of characters you can play in PbtA are usually based on genre archetypes rather than, say, their job or their role in battle (as they are in more wargamey games like Dungeons & Dragons). The limited set of moves at your disposal in a PbtA game usually encourage you to have your character act in genre-appropriate ways.
So now that we’re adept at colouring within the established lines, we’re gearing up to start drawing our own. The podcast is on a well earned break - our first in three years! - as we get ready for what we’ve got lined up next:
For Vigil, we’re using the roleplaying game Monster of the Week, which is inspired by its namesake TV format: series like Buffy and Supernatural. So the game is another genre simulator. But what I’m hoping we can do with this series - what’ll separate it from what we’ve done before - is add something to the genre, instead of simply imitating it.
We’ve all been working behind the scenes since March on the setting, concepts, and characters. As I write this, we haven’t recorded a single story episode, but we already have a 30-page production bible, full of characters, story hooks, locations and backstory. Whereas most of the Blackshaw Saga productions were like, “let’s do something like Ghostbusters”, or “something a bit like Hustle”, Vigil is already feeling like something that’s really ours.
That’s not to say we don’t have influences and touchstones, but this is already running long, so I’ll leave those for another issue. Subscribe to Merely Roleplayers and Vigil will start arriving in your podcast app in the last week of October - three years to the week since we first launched!
The London Horror Festival
is ten years old this year, and bloody well celebrating despite 2020 being an actual horror show. They’re compiling a sort of online retrospective, celebrating the past nine years of the festival, including four years of Blackshaw Scare Slams (a cross between a poetry slam/spoken word open mic and telling scary stories around the campfire).
My play Audience with the Ghost Finder featured in the festival seven years ago(!!!) in 2013, at the Etcetera Theatre, above the Oxford Arms pub in Camden. Like most small theatres, the Etcetera isn’t having a good time at the moment - they need £15k to stay afloat. I’d hate to see one of the few theatres where my work’s been performed shut down!
It’s dangerous to go alone. Take this.
I have a respectable collection of pins and badges that I’m not getting to show off much at the moment, thanks to working remotely and not meeting friends. Maybe you’d like a look at some of them?
On the subject of working within genres but wanting to expand what they can be and contain, here’s one by Kate Leth. I love the bronzey finish on this one almost as much as the sentiment. Pin this over your heart, to protect it from blockbuster movie adaptations and long-running, queerbaiting TV series.
Until next time,
Matt