If you're a megafan of The X-Files but have been unimpressed with the two-season reboot, or (to go a bit more niche) are totally bummed that The Adventure Zone's Amnesty campaign is about to wrap up, a group of Alamo City geeks has got you, fam.
A ragtag team of tabletop gamers has joined forces at local game shop Knight Watch Games to record a brand new actual play RPG podcast that they're calling All My Hexes. Listeners can tune in to the journey of four player characters – brought to life by John "Nav" Navarrete, Jasmine McFergus, Sarah Lawrence and Tyler McMahon – as they try to unravel the mysteries that plague their small Texas town.
Next Tuesday, the All My Hexes crew is throwing a preview launch party at Knight Watch Games before the podcast officially drops on Wednesday. In the meantime, we caught up with cast-member Lawrence, who plays Charlie Larson, and Game Master Bernetta McFergus over email to chat all things Hext, Texas.
What is the basis of the All My Hexes story, and what game system do you use?
Sarah Lawrence: In All My Hexes four amateur paranormal investigators thwart the sinister conspiracies and unearthly horrors of oil boom town, Hext, Texas.
Bernetta McFergus: The seed of All My Hexes actually sprouted from my personal experiences with an amateur ghost hunting group about a decade ago. We explored various urban legends and ghost stories throughout South Texas, and I learned about the diverse paranormal and cryptid creatures of the Lone Star State. Since then the story has been growing in my mind, as I continue to research all manner of entities that go bump in the night. In All My Hexes, any and all monsters live, breathe and hunt.
SL: Because All My Hexes is a podcast focused on story first, rules second, we use the Monster of the Week system by Michael Sands. It allows us to improv and build a rich world without getting bogged down in minutiae. Overall we designed All My Hexes to sound more like a fast-paced radio play without the script.
How did you put together a core group of people to play together for the podcast?
BM: After some initial discussions about what kind of game I wanted to run, I gathered not only some of the most talented role players I know, but also the most enjoyable.
Luckily, one of those people happens to be my brilliant wife, Jasmine, who is also our editor. Sarah was the next on board and is both an imaginative gamer and a professional graphic designer.
Then, because San Antonio is filled with scores of great gamers, I held auditions for the remaining spots. We were lucky enough to find two extremely talented players and musicians in Tyler McMahon and John Navarrete. Minutes into their auditions, I knew they were the missing pieces of All My Hexes. Side note: Patrons actually get a chance to hear our audition episodes as bonus content.
We also are fortunate enough to have recording space donated to us by Knight Watch Games. Their soundproof private rooms have provided a wonderful recording studio for us, and the Knight Watch community has been extremely supportive of our project.
How approachable will the podcast be for people unfamiliar with tabletop RPGs?
SL: Short answer: completely approachable. The goal for All My Hexes has always been to make a story accessible and appealing to anyone who loves serial monster horror and adventure stories like X-Files, Supernatural, or even Buffy the Vampire Slayer. If they happen to also be a gamer, even better, but not required.
With Monster of the Week there are fewer dice rolls and more improvisation, which enabled us to use the rules primarily as a way to resolve confrontations. And we made sure our test audience included people who aren't involved in gaming at all to ensure the podcast makes sense even if you don't play the game.
Episodes like our Character Creation and our level up episodes provide additional rules crunchiness for gamers, but aren't required to follow the main story.
It's well known that podcasting has become a saturated market, so much so that even the Dungeons and Dragons and other RPG live play niche has a veritable cornucopia of pods. With that in mind, what made y'all decide to enter the fray?
BM: I have been professionally running all kinds of RPGs here in San Antonio for years and thinking about a producing a podcast for a while. This year all the stars finally aligned to allow me to pursue this project, so I jumped in feet first.
SL: It's absolutely true. There are a ton of gaming podcasts out there, but all are of varying quality in story, cast and production value. Finding a podcast that brings together that elusive trilogy of story, characters and quality is difficult, but it is our primary goal.
Ultimately we knew we didn't want to go live with All My Hexes until we had content which not only tells a compelling story but is also free of the distractions of poor production. We hope listeners find All My Hexes ticks all the boxes for an entertaining, high quality live play RPG podcast.
Free, 7-10 p.m. Tuesday, August 27, Knight Watch Games, 16350 Blanco Rd., (210) 888-1051, knightwatchgames.com
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Get Hexed with Brand New Paranormal Live Play RPG Podcast Launching Wednesday
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