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#200 Atom Gushes - Phony Express S3 Villain Teaser
50 Plays7 months ago
200 posts of Rollplayers. Absolutely bonkers. I wanted to give a backstory on how we got here, the struggles we faced, and where things are going. I also wanted to post a little clip from Season 3's Phony Express Villain, "Vanta Black."
Atom's Music ------------------ Atom's Monster Book
Our Ko-Fi -------------------- Our Site
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Transcript
Introduction and Milestones
00:00:00
Speaker
Hello everyone, good morning, good afternoon, and good evening. This is your best buddy Adam here from role players, and that's our queue, and fun installers in general, and just all of the things that, well, you know me from, or random Adam on the Instagrams. The reason I'm making this particular episode, or a little message, is because as I post this to our servers, it will be the 200th episode, or rather the 200th posting that we have done.
00:00:28
Speaker
on the role players channel now sure we've had some announcements and we've had some other people shows integrated on here before as a cross promotion one time i even put my music actually i might have done that twice i don't remember and if you include this you're like Adam wasn't really two hundred episodes and if you listen to it you know just kind of be cool okay that's all i'm gonna say just be cool
00:00:52
Speaker
Um, but I wanted to say firstly, um, cause I have a little teaser at the end that features pretty much the main villain of the upcoming arc of phony express, which the first episode should have just posted. Um, so stay tuned for that. It's just a little clip to gaze into the mind of the villain of season three phony express. Um, but before I get to that, I just want to say thank you.
Evolution and Team Changes
00:01:16
Speaker
Um, role players has gone through,
00:01:19
Speaker
Quite a bit of ups and downs, especially in the first year of its incarnation. As you may or may not know, when Adrian came on, he was originally just supposed to be a guest, and then he just kind of never left. And we didn't have the heart to tell him that he was just supposed to be a guest. And then at the time, it was me, David, and Amy, and Justin. And we just said, well, fuck it. As long as he can stay up late whenever we were recording, as long as it's not too late for him in Germany, sure he can stick around. Why not?
00:01:48
Speaker
So he just got to stick around. And then when David and Amy had some life changes of their own, they weren't able to keep up with the scheduling anymore, unfortunately.
Transition and New Projects
00:01:59
Speaker
And don't worry, someday I'm going to get them back on. I'm going to get them. You know, I was fortunate that Adrian did stick around because then that's how we went into
00:02:09
Speaker
Learning savage worlds and during our separate stories about mars and then eventually savage world is what was able to spawn phoney express when we adopted cast sometime later. And in between all of that we launched the monster the weak extended universe because again role players was in flux but i wasn't ready to let it go.
00:02:26
Speaker
And so I launched that after we did our our our final season with David and Amy, you know, and then Justin had some things going on in his life. And so we just kind of that's how I brought him back into the fold was with the Monster of the Week extended universe. And it was just.
00:02:43
Speaker
You know, it was just a lot of fun. And then ultimately, Justin's conditions for coming back and trying to make the scheduling work for him was that he wanted to be a cowboy at some point. And so I said, hey, if I can come up with some sort of Wild West thing, do you think you'd want to come back and do role players again full time with us? And I was a little nervous, but he ultimately agreed. And it just, again, so much has happened and I'm so grateful for
00:03:09
Speaker
Everybody who jumped in and that we met Cass down the road who was like she was just supposed to be a little bit of a part time guest too. And then the channel that she was working with ultimately didn't commit to what they wanted to do. And so I just said, hey, we'll adopt you if you want. Do you want to come and just hang with us? And the Stefani Express pretty much just solidified Cass being a permanent part of role players.
Gratitude and Community Support
00:03:34
Speaker
And yeah, so 199 posts over the past couple of years. And I don't know, it's just kind of surreal to think of how different this show has been and how I've tried to give it closure and some things won't have closure. We tried some experimental episodes in the past and we never got to finish them again because scheduling is hard and we would have people from across the world and the country trying to schedule.
00:04:01
Speaker
And there were times admittedly that I bit off more than I could chew trying to make things happen. But I've been so grateful to go back and look at the numbers and just see how people are still catching up and they're listening to all of our episodes. Like there's times where I look at our most recent postings and I'm like, oh, well, nobody cares about role players. Our numbers don't seem as good as they used to be. Then I go back to the beginning and I scroll up through all of our episodes because I forget just how many we have.
00:04:26
Speaker
And just the numbers are awesome and it just means so much to me that people are still listening. Whether you're listening to the same episode 15 times or if you're a new listener. Man it just makes me feel so good and you know role players was never meant to be like the big money maker or the thing that
00:04:45
Speaker
You know, helps us stay afloat and pays the bills. But we've we've done all right for what little we all know when it comes to running things. But anyway, I just want to say thank you to those of you if you're listening and you're somebody who I've collaborated with or that I've made friends with over the past few years when the pandemic struck.
Future Plans and Merchandise
00:05:05
Speaker
I appreciate the hell out of you and if you're just a very avid listener and someone who shares our episodes or someone who just plays it to help them go to sleep, whatever that may be, it really just means the world to all of us and especially me because I have been the longest running person trying to keep this thing afloat from the beginning and it just means a lot, so thank you.
00:05:31
Speaker
So I don't know if I really have any big announcements. I'm probably going to be looking to hire some editors to kind of step up our game here in a little bit. I'm looking to launch just a sticker store. I guess I don't really know how I'm going to do that yet, but I have so many fun sticker ideas.
00:05:46
Speaker
And I also have somebody working on a t-shirt that I don't know if anybody will buy, but I think it's funny. So keep an eye out for a shirt that just says that on it because often on our show we say put that on a t-shirt. And so I'm just hiring somebody to put literally the word that on a t-shirt and see if people buy it. I don't know.
Balancing Passion and Burnout
00:06:06
Speaker
I just thought that would be funny because I'm just you know, if I can give one piece of advice to anybody out there, it's not even particularly about podcasting. It's just about like your passions. It's just
00:06:15
Speaker
While it's nice to know that your passions can support you in some way, or if you can find a way that your passion can be your lifeline to capitalism without going under, firstly, that's awesome. Just keep doing what you're doing as long as you don't burn yourself out. I'm a big fan of the whole multiple streams of income thing, trying a bunch of different things at once. That way, if something goes under, you still have other ways to float yourself.
00:06:41
Speaker
And role players for a while, I got to tell you for me personally, when I tried to force role players to be the moneymaker, when I tried to force it to be this big.
00:06:53
Speaker
I don't know. I don't know. I just thought, well, that's what you do. You have to have a Patreon. You have to be selling merchandise. You have to be doing X and Y. And there's probably some credence to all of those things if I would want to see it grow to the level that, you know, some other bigger people do. But honestly, it's just it started off as a thing that was just supposed to be a fun way to record memories with people I love.
00:07:17
Speaker
And I'm doing that still. And I'm so grateful that we have a place to post them. And it's just nice other people can share in those memories because I started off in D&D.
00:07:28
Speaker
quite some time ago and we used to play like with eight people and it took forever. It would be like a 12 hour day. Like we put in like a full fucking work day to do this once a month game of Dungeons and Dragons in person many moons ago. And Justin was a part of that too. And um, once we resolved like a three year long story, you know, I just kind of started getting burnt on it. But like one thing that I always
00:07:50
Speaker
Love was when me and some of those people get together we would still reminisce like do you remember when we did this or do you remember we did that all that was so funny all man why didn't we record that i just kept hearing that phrase in my brain why didn't we record that. And so i just kind of out that like once the pandemic started i had some time to kind of learn how to essentially be on the internet if that makes sense. That was my goal was to do that and record memories with people and i have.
00:08:18
Speaker
So my advice is just if you don't feel like you are, whatever it is that your passion project is, if you don't feel like it's sustainable enough for you, I just hope that you know that that is okay. It doesn't have to be your lifeline. It can be a little lifeline. Maybe off the monster book I made for most of the week, I might make like 50 bucks a month off that for the little shop I have on DriveThru RPG.
00:08:46
Speaker
That's more than enough for me. That's gas money. That's like a gas station power raid on my way home from work or something. That sustains that enough. It's not going to pay my bills, but it's nice to have a little bit of extra scratch lying around. Our co-fee doesn't make a ton of money, but it makes enough that I can hire people to do silly art and help feel good about supporting other creators in the community who might not make a lot of money off of their art or something.
00:09:11
Speaker
And that's OK, too. It makes me feel good. It makes them feel good. It's a mutual benefit. Right. So I just hope, you know, like I hope that you achieve whatever it is, whatever dream that you have. But don't put so much pressure on yourself. Don't don't. The one thing I used to do is just compare role players to everything else. And just I realized that like I just I'm OK with role players being what it is because role players help me meet so many people.
Collaborations and Personal Growth
00:09:35
Speaker
You've heard so many of them on this show over the past one hundred and ninety nine episodes, like
00:09:41
Speaker
And that's okay. I'm happy with that. I would argue that all of our lives changed for the better when we found these little niche pods that we all stuck in and did collaborative projects. And there's so many people who have launched so many new collaborative projects and their own personal projects after meeting us through role players and the fun installers network in general.
00:10:05
Speaker
And the Fun Scholars Network may never be the next dropout TV, which is what I want it to be someday. That would be super cool. And if you're not a dropout fan, just go check them out. Free plug because they're amazing and they make me feel good. I got a little chucked up there, to be honest.
Journey in Audio and Music
00:10:19
Speaker
But I mean, at the end of the day, I'm just so grateful that I got to meet all of the wonderful people that I have and gotten the feedback from the people that I have and, you know,
00:10:30
Speaker
I've learned a lot. I learned how to do some audio editing. It's got me into trying to make music and such, which it has been a lot of fun. You've probably heard episodes either or my music either on some episodes on role players or over on that so our cue I put a lot of my music at the end of those episodes now. I'm also on Spotify, you know, and something I never thought that I would do.
00:10:50
Speaker
I mean secure about it, but I still do it anyway because it's a comfort zone thing and it's fun And it doesn't always sound the way I want it to sound but it's still I still do it anyway If I feel like it I'll put those links in the show notes if you're interested if you haven't really checked any of my stuff out before
00:11:06
Speaker
But anyway, I'm just going to wrap it up. It's been about 11 minutes or so. So thank you again. So this posting here will mark episode 200. I don't have anything super special planned or anything
Phony Express Hiatus and Future
00:11:16
Speaker
because it just kind of crept up on me, if I'm being honest, just with different life changes and things going on. Oh, and I should explain before I post a teaser for the villain of Phony Express season three.
00:11:29
Speaker
The reason why there hasn't been an episode on here or that's our cue. It's just like a lot of us have been downhill Some of us have been out on vacation out of the country out of the state And just like it just felt like a good opportunity for those of us just to kind of power down and not have any responsibilities For a little bit, but today's my day off on my new
00:11:50
Speaker
rewarding yet very stressful job and I just wanted to, you know, now that I'm feeling a little bit better to do this so that way that was at least some kind of explanation and give you something to look forward to listen to. So stay tuned for more Phony Express on the way. Clearly that is the most popular one. I've got a lot of requests and a lot of feedback on Phony Express. So hopefully the most recent episode was intriguing enough for you to stay on.
Vanta Black's Origin Story
00:12:17
Speaker
And now without further ado, I will let you take
00:12:20
Speaker
a peek into the mind of the villain of season three, Phony Express, Vanta Black. Day one in The Devil's Journal. I was born Maribel Santiana, or Santiana if you ask the locals. See, my father was a former desperado, Roberto Santiana, formerly known as Robert the Grey.
00:12:48
Speaker
Now, his wife, his beautiful wife, and my ma, Cassandra Taylor, they gave me everything I could ever want. Anything my little heart desired. That is, until one day, my ma got greedy and murdered my pa in cold blood for his estate.
00:13:10
Speaker
Now one lesson my daddy always instilled in me was that the scales of justice must be balanced. And that a life for a life was the only way he knew how to lead his. Though, I had no choice but to end my mama's life with a knife to the back. Now I am the sole proprietor of the Santillana estate.
00:13:28
Speaker
And I tried to live my life in peace on this plantation for many years. It is until someone very important to me fell ill. And I sent for the most expensive and rare medicine I could. When it was on its way to be delivered, a group of ne'er-dwells ruined everything. And the medicine never arrived. And I lost somebody very important to me that day. And that was when the world went black. That was when I went black. Fanta. Black.
00:14:00
Speaker
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