As many of you may know, SirScoots paid a visit to Casa de RollPlay™ last week, to help figure out the logistics of running live shows from our new location. With the last live show in February (Swan Song: check out the VODs here if you missed it), there’s been a few road bumps that have prevented us from doing another in the quarter immediately after:
- right after Swan Song, JP’s landlord put the house he was renting up for sale, so he was forced to move to a new location. This meant that the previous set has to be rebuilt to fit the new place, and required our previous tech solution to be reconfigured
- planning into late spring and summer, scheduling becomes much more complex between multiple cast members, along with conventions, holidays, and misc travel
- we’d been working the past several months with a vendor to build a custom table designed for RollPlay™ live shows, and that deal fell through at the last minute, which meant our set is currently undergoing another redesign.
With all that said, it has us tentatively planning the next live show for August, with a proper date to come later this summer. Before anyone panics, we want to be clear that our goal is still to do four live shows for the entire year. To make this possible, we’re hoping to have a third live show in September, and the fourth and final one most likely in December.
We know this sets our schedule a bit later than anticipated, and want to do our very best to continue to support our Patrons as much as we’re able. As a way of saying thank you for your patience and continued support, from now until June 30th, there will be an active 20% discount for Patrons of any level on the RollPlay™ store. More information and the discount link can be found over on Patreon.com/RollPlay on one of the latest posts. (In order to continue covering the cost of goods and production, the maximum Teespring will allow us to discount is 20%. We will continue to look for more ways to provide benefits to Patrons, so if you have suggestions, please feel free to post them on the community.)
So now that we have the date, the next question is what show the next live show will feature. To decide that, we should talk about the state of the current RollPlay™ shows.
Court of Swords: Since the CoS Live Show, we’ve had many more adventures with JP, GassyMexican, and DansGaming. After Day9tv, we were joined by Morgan Webb for a short time, and now the trio sets forth on a new adventure. They’ll be returning for Season 3, with special guest AnneMunition joining soon.
Nebula Jazz: After the Balance of Power: Dark Side Live show, we’d wanted the chemistry between the Jesse Cox, Strippin, and Pokket to continue to lend itself to crazy adventures. With the addition of DexBonus to the cast, we haven’t been disappointed. The show is going great, and we’re excited to continue seeing where the story takes us next. In regards to scheduling, Dodger and Sam are getting marrrrrrrrried (congratulations!) so June will be a little light in shows but should kick back up in July and onward.
Blades: We’ve always talked about Blades having a finite end (much like Mirrorshades), but we never really knew how many episodes it would take to get to that point. After talking with the cast, we concluded that Episode 25 makes the most sense. However, we really wanted to do at least one live show before the show concludes, so we’re going to attempt to schedule it so that the final episode is our live show this August. We’re working hard to finalize a date ASAP, as soon as the entire crew has confirmed other commitments and discovered potential conflicts.
Future Shows: Obviously with Blades coming to a conclusion, we’re actively working on a show to replace it this fall. We’ll have more news on that as 2017 progresses forward.
Until August’s live show, we’ll be working on redesigning the live show set. It won’t be the same set we had before, but we’re excited about the changes, including a brand new table that will lend itself to the more traditional Tabletop RPG style and help with camera angles. Upgraded set designs, production tech, and props will replace the previous cosplay patreon goals, now that we know these benefits provide a much better viewer experience and allow us to exceed viewer expectations than cosplay for the cast.
As for the other Patreon goals:
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RollPlay™ Animated: We’re planning on putting out another animated episode of this summer, alongside another 2 to 3 this fall. Likely, they will coincide with the live shows, since those tend to be the perfect place to make their debut.
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One Shots: The goal with our One Shots is to bring unique casts, worlds, and rulesets you don’t usually see in our standard RollPlay™ shows. Discovering new players, reaching out to confirm participation, and managing various schedules outside our core cast has proven to be a tough job. We’ll continue to make these happen as frequently as possible. Don’t forget to tune into our next One Shot: Tales from the Loop on June 3 at 4 pm EST with Aureylian, Austin Walker, DJwheat, and Jerry Holkins!
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Artwork: Wallpapers and art from Geers will now release every other month from here on out. We realized after adding, that with how detailed he can be with his artwork, he wasn’t going to be able to stick to the monthly schedule and still produce the quality we wanted. We’re looking to potentially add another artist to this series to help boost the quantity in the coming months, too.
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Overlay Redesign: we’re getting closer and closer to revealing our first overlay redesign. With this comes automated visual notifications of current HP, AC, ability uses, and more. We aren’t sure just yet of a launch date, so stay tuned for more information!
We know it can be disappointing when we experience delays and setbacks, and we appreciate your patience and understanding. With our goal of returning to the community the same support they’ve given not just to JP, but RollPlay™ as a whole, we take these delays just as hard. We will keep doing our very best to push RollPlay™ forward and we’re proud of what we’ve been able to build together because of the support from our Patrons. We’re humbled that so many of you continue to enjoy the products our cast and crew produce together, and are excited about all of the live shows and changes coming during the rest of 2017.
If you have any questions feel free to ask in this thread and JP will be answering them over the next couple of days. Thanks again!
The Blades live show will be a great crown to end that series with.
Take your time and make sure you are happy with the end product!