Since we just wrapped up the first arc/mission on the show I figured now would be a great time to talk about the podcast me and some friends are making! I'm particularly thrilled to share it since I'm not just a voice on the show but also the composer.
Oathsworn is an actual play podcast where we primarily play the excellent grimdark military fantasy roleplaying game Band of Blades by Stras Acimovic and John LeBoeuf-Little. The pitch of the game is: what if all the heroes of a low-magic fantasy realm gathered an army for the ultimate battle against the forces of evil... and lost... dreadfully, forcing everybody who survived to desperately retreat from the ceaseless march of ignoble hordes.
One of the most interesting parts of the game is the fact that everybody collaborative plays the Legion, the aforementioned army, and each cast member embodies many characters, all of whom we manage to give lots of detail and emotional stakes to over the course of the story.
The game book has cool rich lore to set up a campaign but we decided to create our own setting full of different cultures and the strange avatars of absent gods. In the first two episodes we play a game called The Ground Itself by Everest Pipkin, using its prompts to build a world with incredible and fucked up results for the BoB campaign that follows.
And what follows is a pretty wild ride. I'm not really a fan of military fiction or militaries in general but I think we managed to tell a really unique, interesting, and emotional story about a group of people running from and dealing with an imminent doom, finding solace in little victories and each other. We've technically already finished playing and recording the whole campaign but I'm extremely proud of where it goes. While the game and story itself is pretty dour, we have a lot of fun creating it together and the show isn't without fun bits, absurd characters, and uplifting moments.
I'm especially proud of the music. When we were first conceiving the podcast, Brendan (the GM) showed me a Mogwai song, a band I knew of but hadn't delved much into the catalogue of, as a reference point and I got pretty into the idea of making a post-rock styled soundtrack. This turned out to be perfect for my vibe as a composer as I quite enjoy making dramatic music with soaring themes. I also attempted to make more ambient and atmospheric tracks for the first time, which was difficult but also turned out really good.
Anyways, if you dig or are curious about AP podcasts I certainly recommend checking it out. We've got a lot of fun stuff in store and now is a great time to jump in. The next arc features the introduction of what is hopefully everybody's new favorite problem character 🙃🐻🍑🔫💋