Interview with Jon, The Creator of Tale of the Manticore
This is another big treat for the blog.
We are joined today by Jon, of the outstanding Tale of the Manticore podcast. If you haven’t listened to TotM, you need to get onto it right now. It is in my opinion, the best Actual Play podcast that exists.
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| Season 2 is shaping up to be excellent! Credit to Tale of the Manticore |
My questions and comments will be in italics and green whereas Jon's answers will be in plain text.
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Welcome to the Croaker’s RPG Corner Jon. Thank you for taking the time to speak with me and answer my questions. As you know I’m a huge fan of Tale of the Manticore and I thought season 1 was stunning, and I’m loving Season 2 so far. Why don’t you tell us a little about yourself and the podcast?
Hi, I’m Jon, creator of TotM. Mainly I produce a solo RPG podcast which is a cross between an actual play and an audiodrama, but I also have an ultralight fantasy game called One Shot in the Dark, and I maintain a blog mostly as a place to put all the stuff I can’t fit into the show.
I’d love to hear how you got introduced to Table-Top RPGs, who introduced you, and what was your first RPG?
Like many people, I got into gaming through my older brother. God knows why he invited me to play because we were not the closest of siblings. Whatever the reason, he did, and my first experience was with the Mentzer ‘purple’ box. It was love at first sight. I read it till my eyeballs fell out, then I put them back in and read it again. We played Keep on the Borderlands. I thought it meant ‘Stay on the Borderlands’. The whole concept of RPGs totally rocked my little world. I think I was 12 years old.
You’ve mentioned in the past you took a long break from RPGs? Why did you take the break and what brought you back to our glorious hobby?
It’s well known that in the 80s, playing D&D was social death. This is not an overstatement. At around 17 or 18, I packed it in, trading swords and sorcery for grunge rock and girls. I didn’t come back to it because it didn’t seem possible and… I’ll just be totally honest… I was ashamed that I was into something so tragically nerdy.
I definitely understand what you mean there and I know a lot of people who did the same thing. Now let’s talk about the Tale of the Manticore and the amazing story you’ve created.
You’ve decided to create a whole new world for Tales of the Manticore, with original gods, villages, characters, and politics. What inspires you to create such fleshed-out and interesting concepts and characters?
The classic tropes all inspire me - all that stuff that comes from Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones, as well as the artwork of Otus and Dee (among many others), video games like Diablo, films like Legend… all of it. I love all of it.
I decided to build my own world because, well, that’s half the fun for me. It’s somehow less satisfying to use published world systems (although I totally get why they are popular).
Your podcast states up front that this is a brutal world and that the dice decide everything. Without giving away spoils, how do you approach character death?
There must be the threat of death if you want to have tension. There must also be trust in the person telling the story that they will follow their own rules. If I fudge a roll, I’ll be more inclined to fudge the next (I’m not getting less attached to these characters as we go along). If the characters win or narrowly escape death again and again, a listener would rightly become suspicious.
If the trust is betrayed, well then, I’m just a hack novelist at that point. I’m far more interested in the experimental form of fiction where anything really can happen - and often does. Could that mean a TPK (total party Kill) in episode #1? Yes. Or how about a main character dies in episode 20? Yes. How about everyone survives to fight the big bad, but they lose? Yes.
It’s an experiment that’s based on the idea that if the hero has ‘plot armor’ and cannot die, then we are not wondering what will happen, only how will it happen, which is not as good. Therefore, chaos rules.
Do you have a favourite character? It can be a player character or an NPC.
I love them all, but there are some NPCs I like more than others. Sourtongue the troll was a lot of fun to play, as was Raphinfel the Adored (that guy resonated with listeners, many of whom wrote in to ask when we would see him again). The PCs are all my children; I love them equally. I certainly bond with them the same way we all do in our real games and I feel actual grief when they die.
Podcasting is a complicated activity and your podcasts come out like clockwork. It's an impressive feat in its own right. What are your writing, editing, and recording process?
I release once every ten days. The creation process happens in bite-sized 1 hour chunks that basically come down to: write/play, edit, record the vocal, edit the vocal, add FX and music, and mix. Each of these chunks happens multiple times per episode, so the time that goes into making the show would surprise most people (it’s about 15 hours for a half hour show).
In your opinion, what is the power of the audio medium? What makes it unique versus written stories or videos?
I love this question! The cool thing about the audio medium is that it can fire the imagination in a unique way. If you provide just enough description for the listener to get the idea of a thing, the brain will do the rest (at least that’s been my experience). The trick, I think (and I sometimes get it right and sometimes get it wrong) is to practice economy of language; verbosity is the enemy. Adding music and sound effects sparingly, helps too and in the end, you’ve got a very personal, but also cinematic experience.
Music is an important part of your storytelling. How does music help you tell the story?
Music is my first love and it’s where I learned my way around audio engineering. Doing some original music (I’m at around 60-70% original now) makes the podcast sound unique. I like when it’s a little imperfect - a little organic. I was going for a Diablo vibe when I started, but ended up taking it in all kinds of directions by the end of the first season.
Every now and then I can make a marriage between music and narration that hits me right in the feels and that, right there, is the golden ring for me. It’s my favorite part of the creation process - where you just know you’ve got something powerful. (I wish it happened more often!)
What are your long-term hopes and dreams for the podcast now that it is in its second season and more popular than ever?
You know, I’m not sure. I’d like to see the audience continue to grow. I know there’s room too. I’d like to get better at my craft. There are a million stories left to tell and writer’s block is almost nonexistent, so I don’t worry about running out of ideas. I guess I’d like to continue doing what I do but have it be on a bigger and bigger scale. More guest actors, more ‘golden ring’ moments. Ideally, I’d like to make a partnership with an OSR publisher, but that’s a tough sell. I think they would need to come to me for that to happen.
It's obvious to see how passionate you are about RPGs and TOtM. How has the podcast impacted your personal life? Would people at work or friends guess you are creating a dark fantasy TTRPG podcast?
I lead a double life. I tell no one at work, nor do I tell my non-TTRPG friends (at first I didn’t have any TTRPG friends). Part of the reason for this is my own hang-ups. I grew up when there was that heavy stigma associated with D&D and part of me refuses to believe it isn’t still there. With colleagues and friends, who are my age, I think it mostly is still there. I don’t have faith that folks would ‘get it' and so I protect my anonymity. Some folks would say I should let my nerd flag fly. Perhaps I should, … but I don’t.
Do your family and friends listen to the Tale of the Manticore? What do they think about it?
See above :)
No, they have no idea it exists. This is the way.
I understand my friend. My family has no clue I do this blog either! Finally, can you give us any clues or hints about season 2 or what the future holds for Tale of the Manticore?
A little, yes. I want to continue to explore classic tropes, classic monsters, and such, but with new characters and an urban setting. I had the idea of following the exploits of a thieves’ guild and wanted to explore their world. Also, I wanted to start out with some kind of lore to build from so that it isn’t 100% procedurally generated.
I do love procedural lore, don’t get me wrong, but without ret-conning things, I found myself painted into a corner a few times and with limited options in Season 1. Having a very sparse framework is going to allow me to foreshadow things, and move the plot with conviction. That said, there’ll still be a massive amount of randomness pushing the story forward.
Thank you so much, Jon! I appreciate your time and letting the blog know about your process. I’ll be listening to Season 2 the second every episode comes out.
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Wow, what a great interview. Let’s all thank Jon and the Tale of the Manticore podcast for making excellent stories time after time. Make sure you check out the podcast, blog, Jon’s game One Shot in the Dark, and the Encyclopedia Manticorcia on DriveThruRPG.
And be sure to check out the Tale of the Manticore podcast and the accompanying blog.
Thank you for reading along! And if you'd like to read another interview, check out my interview with SGH the Excellent Author of the PTFO Stonetop written Actual Play.
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- Croaker
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