A Sneak Peek at Encounter Party
What Encounter Party is Doing Differently, and an Orbital Blues Solo Game
Encountering Encounter Party
Three Takeaways From The First Episodes
This week Elliot and I released our interview with Ned Donovan and Brian David Judkins about their podcast-turned-TV-show Encounter Party that is slated to premiere on the new Dungeons & Dragons Adventures TV channel tonight at 9pm EST. After we spoke to Ned and Brian we were given the opportunity to preview the first five episodes of the 22-episode series, and I’d like to share three interesting things they are doing that other actual plays can learn from and that make this a unique show that we think audiences will enjoy.
More Fun to Watch Than it is to Play
Ned and Brian have been quoted in multiple places saying that theirs is the only game that is more fun to watch than it is to play. What they mean is that they prioritize the audience’s experience over the player’s. This means re-improvising scenes to be more clear and concise, keeping “above table” jokes to a minimum, and having players who are all bought in on maintaining a consistent tone while always advancing the plot. While most actual plays revel in their inside jokes and out-of-character bits, Encounter Party prefers to keep the story front and center and allow the comedic moments to come from the characters rather than the players.
In our interview, both Ned and Brian state that they don’t call Encounter Party an actual play. They prefer to think of it as an improvised fantasy television show. That may seem like a pedantic distinction, but after watching the first five episodes of Encounter Party I can say I don’t believe it is. The rules of D&D are still very present in Encounter Party–as one might expect from a show premiering on a Dungeons & Dragons TV channel–but it feels much more like a traditional “show” than an actual play. The format is much more like multi-cam reality shows like Masterchef, than it is Critical Role, which is exactly as they intended it. It may feel strange to see D&D presented in a format that’s so alien to the TTRPG space, but that feeling disappears almost immediately as you are quickly pulled into the story.
Actual Play without Parasociality
Not too long ago I was recounting a story about an actual play my friend was playing in. When I finished the story I paused, shook my head, and had to backtrack and awkwardly explain that actually I didn’t really know this person I just really liked them and watched a bunch of their shows. Such is the power and the danger of parasociality.
While parasocial relationships will be present to some degree in just about every art form in the modern day, Encounter Party aims to create a show that doesn’t rely on the players to bring in an audience, but rather their characters and the story they are telling. It’s like how I would never accidentally tell a story about an actor friend of mine who was playing a high school science teacher who cooked meth, I would say, “I thought Bryan Cranston was pretty good in Breaking Bad.” It’s an impossible feat to remove parasocial relationships from actual play entirely, but I can say that after watching the first few episodes of Encounter Party, I think of the character’s names before the player’s and I can’t say that for any other actual play I watch.
The Joy of Simultaneous Discovery
One of the best things that Encounter Party does is create an environment where the audience makes discoveries at the exact same time as the characters and the players. In most actual play shows, players will have information their character wouldn’t and then they roleplay the moment where that information is shared in the fiction. Sometimes that revelation is skipped over entirely and players use the shorthand of “I tell everyone what just happened.” This is convenient for expediency, but it robs the audience of the emotion and reaction of a character discovering something—and how different characters would react to that revelation.
Encounter Party goes to great lengths—including running solo scenes in “The Kitchen,” a separate space where Brian and the player can run a scene without the other players hearing—to avoid moments where players have to “act” surprised. Instead, they make sure that every reveal IS a surprise. Again, this is a subtle difference, but as a viewer you really feel it.
There is also a real joy to the moments of dramatic irony where the audience has information many of the character’s don’t and we get to anticipate and eagerly await the moment they learn what we already know.
Alfred Hitchcock once said that a great example of suspense was showing a ticking bomb beneath a table and then showing the conversation between the two people at the table who are unaware of the danger beneath them. It takes a lot of work to maintain this kind of suspense, especially in actual play, but Encounter Party makes it a priority and is all the better for it.
Who Is It For?
Encounter Party is targeting a wider television audience—one that is less familiar with actual play and D&D—rather than trying to get Critters and D20 fans to tune in to another actual play show. This show is certainly an excellent on-ramp for anyone less familiar with D&D or who would be intimidated by the daunting run times and unfamiliar format of most actual plays. However, I think actual play fans will find lots to love in Encounter Party. It’s incredibly well-crafted with excellent performers who are focusing on making something for the audience rather than treating them as voyeurs of their table. There will certainly be people out there who say “this isn’t actual play” and the folks at Encounter Party would be the first to agree with them. This is a new kind of TTRPG show and it’s doing something that I always love to see: it’s taking big swings. And as far as I’m concerned, it’s hitting a home run.
“Ya Sends Out Emails, Ya Gets Back Emails”
My First Stretch Goal - Orbital Blues: The Wanderer
I had a teacher in high school—Mr. Anderson, Econ—who liked to repeat aphorisms, stories, and more than one truly unfunny joke. But there’s one thing he said that has stuck with me, becoming increasingly relevant as I’ve moved through life:
“Ya sends out emails, ya gets back emails.”
14-year-old me had no appreciation for this wisdom. More than a decade later, as Brian will tell you, this is a phrase I love to throw out when even tangentially relevant.
Anyway, I recently sent out an email, got one back, and now am a stretch goal to write solo rules for the Orbital Blues: Afterburn Kickstarter.
Here are some of my tips for how you can put the wise words of Mr. Anderson into action:
Before the Emails - Pick a Project That Suits Your Skills
The easiest sell for a supplement, adventure, or other work on a project is when you can paint a clear picture of why you are the right person for that work. This is probably the hardest bit to identify and the one piece that you should throw out in favor of the others. There are many reasons that you might convince yourself you’re not the right person: imposter syndrome, anxiety, or you might just be hungry. Ignore these as much as you can.
For The Wanderer, I was already steeped in the world of Orbital Blues because of our season of My First Dungeon and had been thinking through the ins and outs of the system for weeks. My biggest TTRPG release, Project ECCO, is a solo game that plays with a variety of mechanics. I was itching to bring the Troubles/Blues mechanic to solo play and felt confident in my ability to design in this style of play. (NOTE: This is not a profound reason why I felt I was right for this, but it was louder than my stomach.)
“You Sends Out Emails” - Have a Clear Pitch
The initial pitch for The Wanderer was short, direct, and not my best writing:
“Orbital Blues: Wanderer
Solo rules for a sad space cowboy
Playing card based and you are trying to build Texas hold’em hands for different endings for your sad solo cowboy”
But it was enough to convey exactly what I hoped to add to the project and enough for Zach to be willing to hear a longer pitch. The longer pitch:
“These are your final days as an interstellar outlaw. Your crew? Long gone. Your ship? Sold for the scraps that once held it together. You’ve seen death, abandonment, and betrayal. You’ve lied, cheated, and killed. You’ve made enemies, friends, lovers, and left more than one person holding the bag.
This is a game about reflection—about your final showdown with the troubles you’ve been running from.
The Wanderer is a solo-play supplement for the famed game of sad space cowboys. With the addition of a deck of playing cards and a handful of poker chips, players will reflect on the life of an outlaw and reckon with their Trouble as they attempt to build the best poker hand possible.
One-part journaling game, one-part playlist builder, and 100% the Orbital Blues you know and love, The Wanderer brings a new tune to the frontier galaxy. The deck is stacked against you and you’ve only got one hand left. Make it count.”
There are three things that I think work well in this pitch:
There is a strong and direct tie to the base game - references to the Troubles system and clear intent to be used with the base rules
Flavor text that feels of the game - I am a huge fan of the world-building and flavor that Sam and Zach infused into the text of the base game and did my best to mirror that here
Clear explanation of how play will differ from the base game—we’re adding cards and tokens, we’re using poker, and we’re building a playlist. There’s something new here.
“You Gets Back Emails” - Relationships & Trust
For this project, I was fortunate to have built an existing relationship with Zach through our work on My First Dungeon. This meant that when reaching out with my hastily-written three-line pitch, Zach was familiar enough with me and my work to keep the conversation going.
When someone is endeavoring to create a new game, they want it to be the absolute best it can be. If you want to be a part of that, they need to trust that adding you on will add to the vision they’ve set out.
Further into my game design career, I may be able to earn that trust on my work alone but, for now, relationships are as—if not more—important. To end on another aphorism: it’s not what you know, it’s who you know.
Go forth and sends out some emails! I can’t wait to hear what you gets back.
-Elliot
P.S At the time of sending out this newsletter the Kickstarter has passed £85k which means Orbital Blues: The Wanderer is a reality! So if you want to play a solo game with a sad space cowboy, go back this Kickstarter and be sure to add Orbital Blues: The Wanderer to your pledge before the campaign ends!
Orbital Blues OST - Streaming Now
The Soundtrack to our Troubles and Blues
If you’ve listened to our game of Orbital Blues you’ve likely fallen in love with BE/HOLD’s amazing original music. After you listen to the two-part finale you can now throw the OST on repeat and let your troubles come a-brewing.
The full album is now available on streaming services, but if you’re interested in anachronistic audio formats, BE/HOLD is creating a 12-song cassette tape as a stretch goal for the Orbital Blues: Afterburn Kickstarter. So if you know the joy and pain of winding a tape with a pencil, head on over to the Kickstarter and add the album to your pledge.
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Follow us over on Tik Tok for clips of My First Dungeon and interviews for Talk of the Table as well as behind-the-scenes clips.
I think it's worth noting here that para-sociality, in the digital media sense, is something cultivated and encouraged by creators, not audiences. Audiences will always try to get closer to performers, this is age-old. The difference is what digital creators do to flatten this divide. Taylor Swift is present on every platform on which you can watch Critical Role. We're tempted to think the issue is the scale of the fame, but it's also the extent to which the performers encourage things like near-contact with a living community, or cultivate the air that they are sitting across the living room from you.
I really admire that Encounter Party has set this as a boundary, because it is fundamentally THEIR boundary to set!