Interview with the Manticore

The mind of the man behind the tale of the Manticore!

Took a little break from the solo reports to “sit down” with Jon from Tale of the Manticore - a fantastic dark fantasy “semi-actual play” podcast that many of you have probably heard - and dig into the Mind of the Man Behind the Manticore a little bit. (Tongue twister!)

I will pick up the next session of Aeric’s story this week, as well as sharing a look at some rules hacks I’ve been working on for Mork Borg I’m calling “Dark Medieval Times,” a sort of simplified and streamlined Pendragon for a grim, lighter ruleset.

You can listen to Jon’s podcast right here on the embedded player:

Tale of the Manticore Blogspot

Let’s just jump right in.

1) First things first - your project, Tale of the Manticore is now into 70+ plus episodes spanning over two “seasons” of work. What was the catalyst for you to take on the endeavor to begin with?

Yes, actually each season is over 70 episodes - so it's more than 140 at this point, in total.

The catalyst was the pandemic. I know, I know... not very original. True nonetheless. The downtime drove me to podcasts, and I found the Adventure Zone and The Iron Realm, among others. TAZ showed me that a D&D podcast could have real emotion charge (despite it being a comedy show) and The Iron Realm gave me a model of what the semiactualplay format could be, as well as demonstrating how soloplay worked. At first, I'd hoped to find and consume more podcasts like those, but I couldn't really find any I liked - especially rare were the 'serious' ones. Eventually I thought: I should make one. So I did :)

2) For those reading, tell people a bit about Tale of the Manticore’s “mechanics” for lack of a better word. It’s advertised as “half solo roleplaying/half story.” How do you do the “behind the scenes stuff? Is it really all decided by the dice? What system do you use?

It's a mashup between actualplay and audiodrama. It is a real game of B/X D&D, played solo, with characters and conflict and dice and rules, but much of the show is dramatized in third person so it presents like an old time radio show. Sometimes I break the narrative to interrupt with my 'DM' hat on and discuss things that might happen, or rulings. It sounds weird, but it works surprisingly well. The dice decide a lot of things, but not all. Sometimes I do as real DMs do and make story level decisions, but things like combat, saving throws, skill checks and character creation are all purely random.

3) What was your first experience with solo roleplaying and how did that come about?

The Iron Realm was my first real exposure, and then I jumped right into making Manticore. Starting the pod led me to all sorts of other things, notably the Mythic GME (which is brilliant) and Me Myself & Die (also brilliant!!). Beyond that, it was a case of necessity being the mother of invention:in the pandemic, getting together with friends to make a real actualplay was not possible for me. Going solo meant I could make the dark fantasy with the grim tone I wanted, and work on my own schedule. Call it a happy accident :)

4) What’s been the biggest challenge of the experience so far? What has been the most rewarding aspect for you?

Challenges are many, but so are rewards. The biggest challenge was to learn how to do ... everything. Actually, that's not entirely true: I knew how to work with audio and I had some good gear to start. I'm an English teacher, so I knew about story design and had some basic writing chops. I also knew B/X D&D almost by heart from playing it so much as a kid. The big hurdles at the start, beyond how to format the show and learning what worked, were with the promotion part. Getting the word out about a podcast is hard! There's no walk-by traffic. You have to win listeners and fans one at a time. In many ways, it's a bit like being in a punk band: you gotta hustle, and you gotta build community.

The most rewarding aspects are when I get listener mail or DMs or tweets from people who've discovered the show and really get it. Another 'high' that I get is from making a scene when the music, acting and sound fx all come together just right and I can really feel the story come alive. Those moments don't happen all the time, but when they do happen, it's gold.

5) What is your favorite moment from TotM so far if you had to pick one, and why?

Hard to pick one. There are no favorite characters, but there are some favorite scenes. Without spoiling, I'll mention the first flashback where I realized I could do something with the show that a D&D game could not (bounce around in time). Another similar moment was when I realized I could put aside the PCs' story and do a scene from the antagonist's POV. Again, D&D can't do that, so it really takes advantage of the semiactualplay format. Other moments were when I got Trevor Deval, Professor DM and Runehammer to voice characters. There are many, many great actors on the show, to be fair, and I am one lucky guy.

6) What are your plans for the future? Will TotM continue into more seasons, or will you pivot and go a different direction with things?

Yes, I'm going to do a Season 3 and, you know, I did think about switching systems - but I don't see that happening just yet. I'd be keen to use a different system in the future if I had a partnership with another game maker (I'd love to try Shadowdark or DCC). Maybe one day that could become a reality.

7) Anything you’d like to say, anyone you’d like to shout out or any advice or words for anyone reading this who might be considering either solo play or a daunting creative endeavor like this?

Absolutely! First is: if you are thinking about trying soloplay or maybe even making a semi-actualplay, you should do it. It's a heck of a lot of fun and if your experience is anything like mine, you'll make a lot of really close friends by partnering up and just by putting yourself out there. Perhaps best of all, as time goes by you'll find you've created a body of work you feel proud of.

For shoutouts, I've already mentioned MM&D and the Mythic GME, as well as The Iron Realm and TAZ, but I also highly recommend: Legend of the Bones, Legends From the Fireside, Echoes of Eshaton, Stories From the First Watch, Swords Against Madness, and finally, SoloDungeonCrawler (on YT).

Thanks for the Interview, CG, and all the best!

Jon