How I Make Waveform Podcast Videos

I've been asked a couple times by podcasters aspiring to jump to YouTube about the waveform videos I make. Trying to be helpful - a while back - I'd taken some screenshots while making one and sent them alongside my current process for making them. From there, I figured I'd share those same screenshots here - in the event that I run into someone who likewise wants to start doing waveform companion videos to podcast episodes.

Bit of a break from the normal RPG supplemental stuff I post - but I hope it helps: and for next week, I'm working on a new B/X small dungeon. Thanks for reading!

Assumptions

I use OpenShot to make videos: an open source video editing program for Mac, Windows, and Linux. I have not particular fondness or attachment to OpenShot - it was simply the highest rated free or open source program at the time when I started making videos. The reason I bring it up, because that's what I'm using, that's where the screen captures will come from and that's the program I can give (limited) advice on fiddling with, as it's the only one I've really used.

Additionally, I use (presently, at least) the Anchor platform to host and to record while on the road, afterward downloading segments from the Anchor web site and using Audacity to introduce sound effects, equalize the volume, and tie the segments together: exporting the final product as a single MP3 file. Again, no attachment to to software - it was what my friends were using and (again) free: so I ran with it. The reason I bring it up - part of my process is to produce the audio first: and from there, having the file, I can load that directly into the OpenShot project rather than using OpenShot, itself, to edit or produce the recording.

I do use OpenShot on the actual play and panel/interview style podcast episodes on the CWR YouTube channel - however, that's outside the scope of what I'm trying to accomplish with this guide.

Process

1. Launch OpenShot and Load Files

Launch the OpenShot editor and, in the Project Files tab, load up (associate, truthfully - it creates a pointer to the assets on disk rather than cloning them: but that's not important right now) the audio file to be wave-formed and any supporting icons or images (legalese, screen captures, icons and logos, ...) you want to include.

2. Drag the Audio File onto a Track

Drag and drop the audio file to be wave-formed onto a track of your choosing. If you have icons, logos, or other overlays, I recommend putting the audio track on the bottom, Track 1 - so that the icons, logos, etc. display above it. However - don't worry too much - you can drag and drop to a new at any time.

Note the position of the blue cursor on the track panel, or possibly the position of a little green cursor on the selected content. It's important that you're at the beginning of the selected segment - as if you're in the middle, there is a chance OpenShot will think the changes you're making should take effect at that point instead of the beginning - so, if you change colors, change widths, etc. - as I'm about to mention, it will do it (and the preview will show it) but then if you watch the video, it will fade to the default color, shrink to the default width, and so on, because it thought the thing you did was only for the place the cursor is. It automatically inserts a transition effect between the previous control point and the current one instead of applying the change to the whole element.

There is likely more science behind this - and someone more versed with the UI can speak to it more intelligibly - but I, being a rank amateur, have found a workaround - which I'm now telling you about: hoping that you may avoid the same hiccups I experienced.

3. Set Visual Properties of Audio Segment

Having dragged/dropped the audio segment, the left menu will - typically - automatically show properties of that segment. If it does not, you can right click the segment and select "properties" to bring it up. The three properties that I set are as follow:

1. Set Scale to "Stretch" This will make the waveform take up the whole screen rather than boxing itself in with margins.
2. Set Wave Color to taste. This is the color of the waveform that will generate. I use orange to run with the theme that the blog uses.
3. Set Waveform to "Yes". This actually generates the waveform and inserts it onto the studio deck.

Waveform created! You can now move on with other stuff you want to include.

When You Export

A note to make - and this is somewhat outside the scope of the current document, but something that is very very important - when editing audio: make sure you're exporting at a quality appropriate to your target media.

To export the file, once editing is complete, you select File, then Export Project, then Export Video.

This will bring up the "Export Video" dialog. On this dialog are two tabs: Simple and Advanced - representing properties and profile for the video. 

On the Simple properties, I always pick "Web" and "YouTube-HD." There are other options - BlueRay, Flikr, and so on - but I know I'm loading to YouTube: so YouTube-HD should be enough for me. The default value in the Profile drop down is "All" - do not use this. OpenShot will generate multiple files of multiple types destined to multiple players.

If you are releasing your podcast to DVD? Do it. Go right ahead.

But for most of us - a web profile optimized for the environment we're aiming to use as our destination consumer is a better bet.

Then, on the Advanced properties, you will need to scroll down and configure the Video Settings accordion. The video format will have been determined by your choice of destination on the Simple tab. For web videos, it tends to aim for MP4. This - or whatever the app decides - is fine: however, you're going to want to consider the Bit Rate / Quality value of the export you're making.

Note - like I have already said - I am a rank amateur.

While I understand what "bit rate" means and I know what the unit of measure represents - I am not a videographer, I am not a cinephile - so the impact of one bit rate over another, I don't know what it implies or entails for the experience of the end viewer. What I can tell you - the default value for YouTube-HD is 8 Mb/s - 8 Mb/s is entirely too high for a simple wave form - and will result in a multi-gigabyte file which will take literally half a day to export and another half a day to upload if you don't change it.

The same video file for the Warlock Tower: Part II actual play: exported as 8 Mb/s vs 2.

So: what is the right bit rate for me? If you have actual video in your video - set the Bit Rate / Quality to the greatest bit rate (usually available in the file properties of the segment you've included: same place as where you'd find the file name, file size, date created, and so on) among these. So, if you have three video segments - one at 1.5 Mb/s (which is about what OBS usually exports when I use it), one at 4 Mb/s, and one at 2.25 Mb/s - you would want to set this value to 4 Mb/s so as to prevent loss of quality on the larger segment. If you're good with quality loss on child segments? You're welcome to set it lower.

What about if I'm all audio all the time? Or maybe just audio with some images and minimal transitions? This use case is 90% of my use cases. To that end - I've found that 2 Mb/s maintains the crispness of the images and motion involved with transitions and moving waveform.

You Now Have a Companion Waveform Video!

Load 'er up and you're ready to go.

Hopefully this helps - hopefully it was as interesting as I had intended for it to be informative - and, if you're out there and you know better than I am what any of this all means, please pipe up and correct the errors and omissions that I've made. Alternatively, if there are other guides - more succinct or more verbose; more inclusive or more focused - feel free to link those too! I still feel like I don't know what I'm doing in the video universe and am open to learn!

Similarly - if there's something I've missed that you want to know - feel free to ask! I read all the comments - sometimes it takes a while to reply, but I will not forget to reply - and I'll do my best to swing back by, tell you what I know or look up what I don't, and keep things moving for anyone who is interested.

Thank you for reading - and delve on!

N-Spiration: Skeleton Warriors

It is the far future - the distant year of 1994 - and the remains of civilization fight for survival, besieged by skeletal warriors: nigh invincible, their bones knitting back together after the most grievous of injuries: reforming, standing again, and pressing ever on. The resistance is slowly losing ground - hampered by lack of fuel, lack of leadership, lack of cohesion: and it seems only a matter of time before dark forces are able to reform the Lightstar Crystal - harnessing its power for evil.

Mount up on your hover-cycle and lock and load your bracelet rocket launcher. 

Are you a bad enough dude to help the Legion of Light save the planet?

N-Spiration: Skeleton Warriors

About the Show

The brain-child of producer Gary Goddard, Skeleton Warriors is an action-adventure cartoon with elements of science fiction and horror, its target audience being 1994's kids at home burning the time with the television on a Saturday morning. In synopsis, the futuristic city of Luminaire - following the death of the king - descends into civil war as the main antagonist, the aptly named Baron Dark, tricks his way into the chamber of the Lightstar Crystal - a semi-magical artifact powering the city. As a consequence of his betrayal - the Lightstar Crystal is damaged - broken - imparting its power into four: turning Baron Dark into an evil skeleton capable of turning humans into evil, nigh-invincible skeleton warriors (the namesake of the show) and imparting the three royal children - Prince Lightstar, Grimskull, and Talyn - with super-heroic powers.

Will the leadership and talents of the royal children, guided by their uncle, Guardian, be enough to overcome the machinations of Baron Dark and his minions? 

For those curious, Skeleton Warriors is available on:

• Amazon Prime
• Apple TV (via Amazon?)
  

...but if you search for it, it appears the entire series is also available freely elsewhere.

Why Skeleton Warriors?

First and foremost: Skeleton Warriors is gonzo fantasy adventure. Your typical party - roving overland to pierce into the lairs of the skeletons - is comprised of the energy-sword wielding prince; his sister - gifted with the power of flight and a falcon as her companion; uncle Guardian, who looks and handles suspiciously like Doom Guy; and Grimskull, with power over the shadows and an ear into the minds of the undead. Skeleton Warriors rides on the wave of the last gasp of American animation - before the dark times that began after the millennium. There is plenty of 80s hair left over, plenty of V-shaped He-Men in the ranks - but at the same time, the animation is smooth and intentional: almost as though the studio wanted the show to succeed. This conscious effort to make a visually appropriate product pays off in both world building - showcasing the varied and interesting overland, cities, and underworld in which the story takes place; pays off in character building, where you can read the emotions (admittedly over-acted and melodramatically written) in the faces and poses of the characters; and in the action sequences - where explosions don't look to have been copy/pasted from one scene to the next. To that end - Skeleton Warriors presents constant science fantasy action: with each episode following a format similar to a fantasy adventure game adventure: conflict or objective identified, conflict or objective pursued, resolution - for good or ill - affected. Skeleton Warriors knows it only has half an hour to tell the story; as such, it doesn't muck around: getting straight to the point and leaning heavily into the action-adventure theme to appeal to its viewer.

Sword fighting a skeletal necromancer in an active volcano.
What else do you need?

There are science fiction elements in Skeleton Warriors. Energy shields protecting towns, flying vehicles, advanced weaponry - but none of it is too over the top and all of it seems feasible. Some episodes center around the maintenance or acquisition of parts for the technical elements: these items serve as McGuffins, the target of interest and the center of the action for that episode. Skeleton Warriors - in this regard - doesn't go overboard. At no point did I feel like I was watching science fiction: it remained in the comfortable gray area where fantasy, horror, and science meet.

Lastly - it actually finishes. There is no cliffhanger. The authors set out to tell a story, the story arc builds, different pieces unconnected at first fit together, the characters (both the skeletal and the still human) learn more about the strange skeleton-izing effect brought on by the breaking of the Lightstar, and - by the final episode - a climax is reached. An apex occurs. The showdown between good and evil is framed - and then plays out. Many cartoons which delve into the adventure or fantasy genre suffer a fate of premature cancellation - they begin their story, they begin to expound on the world, but then the ratings (Gargoyles) or the budget (Pirates of Dark Water) or the whims of an executive (Thundarr the Barbarian) put a stop to them - Skeleton Warriors does not suffer this fate. 

Could it have continued? Probably - new villains, new challenges, new stories: adapting to the world they'd created in the civil war that 13 episodes brought us through. But for whatever reason, it did not - but that's OK: as it didn't have to, as it had ended on an ending - a reasonable conclusion and honorable cancellation.

What's Not to Like?

Truth be told - it is without doubt or question a children's show. The violence is not particularly violent - there are plenty of explosions, but few casualties - and the skeleton warriors, themselves, bearing the brunt of it, re-assemble themselves after having been struck with missiles, grenades, dismembered by axes or staves, etc. Additionally, while the voice acting is good - it's over-acted: the dialog can be stilted, as the writers attempt to simulate depth and imply
                         Behold my nipple armor!
*Not a quote from the actual cartoon. relationships and emotion while fitting within a 20 minute runtime: allowing 5 for the theme and credits and 5 for anticipated commercial breaks. While I personally find the Shatnerian dialogs amusing - I recognize it's not for everyone: and if you're looking for an adult production, it may be that you need to look elsewhere.

Additionally - the prime setting is that of science fantasy. There are laser blasters, energy shields, and hover bikes against a backdrop of a fallen civilization. For more gonzo campaigns, there will be more inspiration - however, for more traditional campaigns, there will be less. While I am by no means a scholar, I don't know how well the Skeleton Warriors tech level would slot in to the Forgotten Realms. Knowing that - and considering what you'll see - may inform whether or not this series would add value to your preferred milieu.

For Further Consumption

In addition to the obvious toys that arose from any children's show - then or now - for those who liked the concept and wanted to follow the story, a limited run comic book series was released in 1995. They are technically collectable - though reasonably priced: so, perhaps to a limited set of collectors - though I have not been able to find scans or PDF versions online. As such, I have not read the comics - I have seen the covers on image searches or advertisements of the comics for sale (the art is better in the comics than on the series, it would appear!), so I can't vouch for the quality or content - but it would be remiss in the review not to include a reference to it in the event that the reader sought to seek them out.

In Conclusion

Watching the show years ago during a binge of cartoons from my favorite era of American animation - and re-watching a handful of episodes in order to better inform this review - the Garimeter reading for Skeleton Warriors as it pertains to inspire your OSR campaign is 2.

Skeleton Warriors is silly but fun - packed with action and filled with over-acted drama. It mixes melee with missiles - mystic powers against mundane ingenuity - and likewise periodically introduces fantastic elements and creatures from the deep and the beyond. The production is good, the acting is OK, and the writing is typical of cartoons for its audience and of its era - placing it in my heart as a guilty pleasure as much as it is a romp. It's full of moments that wouldn't pass a literary critic, but that absolutely would pass at a gaming table. I enjoy the series, and though it's not for everyone, it's got some good ideas that would fit seamlessly into your game - and because it's episodic, you'll know in no more than 20 minutes or so, one running episode, as to whether it's right or not for the tone you want to establish.

Delve on, readers!

Skeleton Warriors and all imagery thereof is property of Landmark Entertainment Group and Graz Entertainment Incorporated and is included in this article for review purposes under US Code Title 17, Chapter 107.

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons and all imagery related to Advanced Dungeons & Dragons is property of Wizards of the Coast and is likewise referenced and used under US Code Title 17, Chapter 107 as a combination of review and parody.

The slide-in of Gary... I got from a meme.

The Ash Coast, Session -1: Scouting the Brass Ziggurat

Follow along as a small party of armed and armored vagabonds explores a mysterious obsidian Ziggurat rising from the Ash Plain to the East... and then tell me how I screwed up Chainmail: Man to Man!

Watch below - or watch on YouTube!

Look interesting anyway? Hang with us to learn more on the CWR Discord server!

Crypt Beneath a Lost Chapel

Scale: 10 ft.
Click HERE for a PDF version of this adventure!

Originally mapped as the basement under Roost in the Forgotten Church but removed as I wasn't sure how much value it was adding - I went ahead and stocked it and put it up today as a supplement. Looks good to you? Slap it in!

Suitable for 3rd to 4th level.

•		A little keyhole icon in a door means the door is locked.
•		A little "S" through a door means the door is secret.
•		The other icon on a door - which is supposed to look like a muscly arm - indicates a door is stuck and must be forced open.

1 - Entry

A stairwell enters the room from above - and appears to continue further downwards. The room is claustrophobic - characters moving around the stairs to either end will need to do so in single file.

The stair is trapped. If a character continues downwards, the stairs collapse, dumping anyone on the stairs at or below the ground level into a pool of acid. Any character so dumped suffers 1d6 damage up front, and then a further 1d3 damage each round for 1d4 rounds. 

A savvy character with a mirror may note, following the spiral of the stairs, that they terminate unceremoniously just out of sight - having led nowhere.

2 - Undead Watchers

A casket - stone - is open in the center of the room. It is empty. Flanking the casket to the north and south, against the walls, are 7 Zombies (B44) - motionless.

3 - Peanut Gallery

Cold stone walls to the north and east are lined by sets of manacles. Three skeletons - some with taunt, dry skin still hanging - are locked into some of the sets. These corpses are still possessed by their own spirits - while unable to move or feel, they are able to talk - spending most of their time jesting with one another at interval, and may do so with the party on a neutral or good reaction. They will not be aware of much of the dungeon - having been brought as prisoners - but should know more about any preceding levels (or the world around) as of 10 to 15 years prior.

4 - Twin Heroes

Two coffins, side by side, lie closed. Against the west wall, a wrought iron altar - akin to an end table in its scale - holds a clay dish - above which, a shield hangs on the wall. The shield is magical, +1.

Two Pit Vipers (B42) are visible on the northern portion of the room; a further four are nested in the north coffin. Also inside the coffins are dusty skeletons - both wear heirloom rings, 50 gp value each; the north corpse holds a purse with 50 platinum pieces in it; the south corpse wears a plated necklace worth 500 gp.

5 - Poet's Tomb

A red and yellow rug sits before a lectern, on which are a skull, a quill pen, and a candle holder. On the lectern is written a short poem:

From the depths beneath the sea,
came all we've known and prize.
And to those depths, it will return:
as nets, its reach, may rise.

When read, the trap in room 1 will audibly go off and not reset: a caustic mist slowly rising from the opening. This mist will rise, slowly, as follows:

• After 1d4 turn, the mist will spill over - shallow - in room 1.
  
• After 3d4 turns further, the mist will spill out - shallow - through all hallways in the dungeon; having inundated room 1.
  
• After 3d4 turns further, the mist will be shallow in all rooms and inundate the hallways.
  
• After 3d6 turns further, the mist will have inundated the entire dungeon level.

Reading the poem backwards will reset the trap - and the mist will dissipate in half the time taken between its having been triggered and the point at which it was read.

While exposed to shallow mist, a character's feet tingle - and any organic worn items at or below the waist must Save every 6 turns or be damaged or destroyed, according to the judgment of the referee.

While exposed to mist inundation, all eligible items carried must Save on the same interval - also, all characters automatically suffer a -1 penalty to their chance to be surprised, and all Thieves suffer a -10% penalty on all Thief Skill attempts.

The skull wears a thin obsidian crown, tipped with opals. It is worth 600 gold pieces. Inside a hidden compartment within the lectern can be found a wooden box with 1,000 silver pieces in it.

6 - Flesh Buffet

A stone casket has been opened in this space. Dried blood is slowly browning across the floor, leading from the door, and a pile of dusty bones is unceremoniously dumped in the south corner. Four Ghouls (B44) are bickering in the chamber. Between them and the mess in the casket, 2,000 electrum pieces can be recovered.

7 - Wand Chamber

Against the east wall, a glass case houses - upright - a Wand of Magic Detection. About the  base of the case are 1300 gold pieces in a pile. However, the floor before the treasure trove is illusionary - a 10 foot span, starting 5 feet from the door and leaving 5 feet for the case - conceals a 20 foot drop onto spikes coated with a noxious (albeit decaying) substance. The fall deals 4d6 damage - any character surviving must, one week hence, Save vs Death or come down with a fever - lingering for 2d4 days before succumbing to infection. 

8 - Crimson Antechamber

The room is ringed by red tile, forming a concentric square. Diving the interior of this space are four Celtic knots - all, red tile inlaid on the floor. A charred corpse bearing a bow and a quiver containing 6 magical Arrows (+1), lies face down near the door.

The door is trapped. If a character attempts to force it open, gouts of flame spurt from hidden nozzles in the corners: all characters within 15 feet of the door must Save vs Breath or take 3d6 damage.

9 - Party's End

A party consisting of five adventurers - two elves, two humans, and a halfling - lies slain here: piled up as if discarded. Their provisions have been stripped, though they retain some mundane gear, as well as a pouch with 6 oval-cut onyx (worth 200 gp each), two raw (and small) amethysts (20 gp each), and 2,000 silver pieces.

10 - The Roost

The center of the room bears five pedestals - five feet high, each - arranged in a pentangle: frustratingly out of sync with the octagonal walls. Perched atop each is a Gargoyle (B35).

11 - Skull's Treasure

A stone skull hangs from the ceiling like a chandelier. About the floor are three chests - each locked - between them containing 7,000 silver and 1,200 gold pieces. In addition, a pair of platinum earrings (1,400 gp in value, total), an amulet with an embossed female figure on it (1,000 gp), and a bracelet - electrum plated - with emeralds on the links (1,700 gp value) adorn a mannequin.

The skull speaks to whomever enters the room - conversationally, as are the skeletons in room 3. However, unlike those corpses, the skull is maliciously mischievous, having grown bored in its watch over the treasure room: giving the party bad advice framed as good to appease its own alien sense of humor.

12 - Cube Corner

At this point in the otherwise nondescript hall, a Gelatinous Cube (B35) sits - taking up the whole of the floor-plan, up to the ceiling. It will start moving if either prodded or if adventurers come too close - alerting it to their presence.

Public domain or open license artwork retrieved from the National Gallery of Art, OldBookIllustrations.com, or Pixabay and adapted for thematic use. Attributions in alt text.

The bones! Look at the bones!

Play-Cast Name: Legend of the Bones Where I Listened: Google Podcasts Where It's Available: Podbean: with numerous supported podcatchers. Plus: Blogspot System: B/X | OSE

Plate

Thoughts and Review

Legend of the Bones is a solo-play actual-play audio podcast distributed, it would appear, by Podbean and made available on a plethora of platforms. Our host, Simon Williams, takes us through the struggles of a classic B/X party - exploring adventure sites, overcoming obstacles and adversaries, and traversing the world's wider map.

What I Like

First and foremost - listening even to the introduction of one episode - you'll note the quality of the audio production. Music is infused seamlessly, mixed at a volume so as to compliment rather than distract from the narration and sound effects, and the vocals are crisp and intelligible. The author indicates his objective is to provide a modicum of quality that might pale to compare to that of Tale of the Manticore - another audio solo-play production and one that I've advertised on my own, extremely poorly mixed, podcast - and to that end, I feel the paling has instead tanned into a rich olive. Legend of the Bones is, without doubt, done by an individual with equipment and expertise, one who is investing himself into the production quality, and it shows. Listening through the "session 0" episode, the first of the series, I was taken aback at how good it sounded. Hats off, in that regard. 

Secondly - something Simon stresses at the beginning of each episode - I appreciate the power of the dice in the game. The purpose of dice in any game - fantasy adventure or otherwise - is to introduce an element of chance: to produce a narrative that wouldn't otherwise have arisen as a result of randomization, of injection of failures or avenues that would not have occurred to a storyteller in a non-gaming environment. He does not pull punches - though I would argue, at one point or two, an NPC takes an action that vaguely favors the PCs (but, in that it's a solo play, are all characters player characters? For another time!) - and he allows encounters and an oracle to determine essential questions as they arise. In particular, I noted this in character generation: when he rolled abilities, the character with the high results in prime requisites were assigned classes according to those prime requisites. This is illustrative of a cognitive divide between old and new schools - stressing the original purpose of the ability scores: ability scores determine and reinforce an archetype, but are not the driving factor behind the character in OSR style games. Comparatively, in new school gaming, abilities are infused into every aspect of play: making them far more essential. Because of this divide - new school characters require good stats in order to be most effective: old school characters become more effective as they level - while good stats give them some initial survivability and may help with the leveling process, class and level are primary determinants of success. 

But that's a rant for another day.

This podcast illustrates - in combat, in exploration, in character generation, and everywhere - the importance and effectiveness of dice: that infusion of entropy that turns a role playing fantasy adventure gaming experience into a story worth telling.

Of further note - I appreciate the lack of balance. Challenges are what they are regardless of the party approaching them. The enemies that spawn do not scale with the party: instead present a verisimilitude in their organization and appearance as to reinforce the environment and milieu. This is something I try to do in my own home campaigns - and is something that can occur in dungeons, as well. Reviewing the wandering monster tables provided for dungeoneering - say, in the Moldvay Basic book, on which the podcast is based - while the majority of the monsters are of hit dice appropriate to the level, a great deal of them are not. You may run into something you can, as a group, dispatch easily - alternatively, there are certain encounters that can occur, rules as written, from which a party with half a brain in their heads should flee. This is an important difference - again - for a new school player to learn going into an old school game: one which I appreciate being highlighted (and demonstrated) in the Legend of the Bones actual play.

Lastly - the reason I felt I needed to review this as early in its cycle as it is - the educational value for B/X | OSE as a system is phenomenal. The host plays by the book, by and large, and tells you what he's doing as he does it - for example, as the party moves across the over-map, he specifies that - depending on terrain type - there is a chance to get lost: and when he rolls that they do, he follows through with the procedure and the party loses that day, having gotten themselves turned around. 

There - that's an even extra bonus points educational moment - he illustrates hex crawling! On an audio podcast, no less!

There are house rules in the game - and there are some rules interpretations I disagree with (Simon relies on, for example, the optional roll against ability, Charisma, where I would use a reaction role): but those disagreements are minor and moreover, he specifies - typically on each event, but at least once the first time - where a house rule is applied, how it works, how the RAW rule works by comparison, and (in most cases) provides a link to the Legend of the Bones blog where the house rule, the custom spell, or otherwise deviating procedure can be found, reviewed, and - if you like it - applied to your own game. I respect that - as a consumer of houserules myself - and it provides perspective for a new-to-OSR listener.

Things to Keep in Mind

A bit of a spoiler - but nothing too big...

...the actual play starts with a shipwreck: bringing the party together by necessity as they try to navigate their way out of the situation they're in - finding their bearings, their way, and their plan of action. This is a great way to start the game - but be wary, fledgling DMs, to take heed of the almost immediate provisioning of actual gear and a place to rest.

While this can undermine resource management a bit - in that the party hasn't the ability to plan in advance acquiring said resources - it is conversely a valid test of player skill, working with what they find, working with what they have, etc - but at the end of the day, HP are precious and rest is essential. Thus, the need for a "home base" - at least a temporary one - is a need you'll want to note.

Tried to hide that behind a details panel - but last time I did that, Blogger decided it needed to be open by default... which is weird. Good luck, reader.

Relating to the above - of note - the host does not use the traditional XP for GP loop. The purpose of that loop - which he grazes, but I don't know if it rings the bell - is to reinforce a particular style of play. By focusing on treasure, the game will proceed as a treasure hunting game: prompting creative solutions and courageous explorations in attempt to reach the dangerous, far-away places where that treasure - and thus reward structure - can be found. In Legend of the Bones, the host uses an alternative system of advancement that is based more around "sessions survived" - with a number of episodes being necessary for each character to level. This fits his format - as he doesn't have a big focus on treasure, instead trying to produce a narrative and an intriguing story. However, it's not something that you'll necessarily see in an OSR game and - if you, the aspiring referee - are tempted to change it: be advised as to its original purpose and be aware that, as you change the source of advancement, so also it will change the tone. If you give more XP for fighting - then the players are going to fight more and the campaign will focus on fighting; if you give more XP for     Social Media
Sound interesting so far?

Follow the podcast (@LegendBones) or the podcast's creator (@simonjhwilliams) on Twitter!
  role play - then the players are going to role play and you may find yourself running a town sim rather than a dungeon delver, as the hazards are still there, but the reward is not.

Last thing to note - Simon invests a fair bit in backstory. Each character has a vignette that introduces how they came to the world, how they came to the campaign, and ties them to potential plot hooks later down the line. This is well and good - there's nothing wrong with a brief backstory - but there are also "flashback" instances later where the history of characters are expounded upon. This might be an opportunity for "emergent backstory" - where a character's history is increased and defined more and more as they advance - but I haven't seen evidence of it yet: and that isn't a concept that's really defined, indoctrinated into the OSR experience. I suspect he's doing it to lend depth to the characters - which, again, would be a decision directed at improving the quality of the story in a production intended to tell a good story - but it'll be interesting to see how it handles later on, in the event that the bones decide one of the invested characters are at the end of their rope.

Who knows - the depth may make it all the sweeter, as neither we - the listeners - nor Simon - the host - know who is doomed among them!

In Conclusion

The solo play actual play Legend of the Bones podcast is a gem of a find. It is interesting to listen to, convenient in episode length (roughly one CWR commute each), and mixes mechanics with roleplay in such a way that neither takes control and drowns out the other. It's a great resource for learning how to play, as well, and showcases all of the aspects of the game essential to an OSR play-style: something few actual plays are able to do. For that reason, I rate Legend of the Bones as Plate.

Well done, Simon - and though, as of this writing, you've only got seven episodes, I look forward to however many more you put out between now and the end of the story your bones aim to tell.

Thank you for reading!

Legend of the Bones show logo and Taynemoor regional map are property of Legend of the Bones, retrieved from https://legendofthebones.blogspot.com/ and included (with permission) for the purpose of review under US Code Title 17 Section 107.