Day of the Beast Keeper’s Diary 01

Here are some of my thoughts on the first two chapters of Day of the Beast (Corbis Wood and the Black Hills), how they are designed, how I ran them, and how the players handled things. There are major spoilers for these and future chapters, so be warned.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

 

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 6th, 2008at 9:28 am and is filed under Day of the Beast, Keeper's Diary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

 

8 Responses to “Day of the Beast Keeper’s Diary 01”

  1. Hey, I’m loving this podcast, but I have a couple of comments and requests.

    1. Can we please, even if it’s only here on the blog, have a role call of the players names and the characters that they are playing.

    2. Is it possible to boost the sound on the game? The opening poem on each episode is very crystal clear, but the actual game sound recordings are very low. I have to boost my iPod all the way up in order to listen to the game.

    3. Due to the fully boosted volume, when Max the dog barks, wow… is it harsh on the ear bongo drums.

    4. Where are you guys playing? Are you in a home, or are you playing at an office/work? A couple of times it seemed like co-workers were entering the room, but then sometimes Max is there barking. I’m much more curious than confused.

    Other than that, I’m loving the game, and loving listening to you guys play. I am a bit torn on how to feel about a woman playing a male character. On one hand, the woman playing the game with you guys sounds very cool and fun, and I would think that she could run a strong confident female character so very well. But on the other hand, it is very cool to listen to her play and run a very strong male character.

    Either way, she sounds like a cool chick, and it seems like she’d be a cool friend to have; as do all of the players and the keeper.

    Later guys!
    -Jon

    Posted by JonHook on August 6th, 2008 2:35 pm

  2. Hi Jon,

    To answer your questions:

    1) The players and characters are: KJ B. (Prof. Josiah Carberry), Carol H. (Seamus Flynn); Mike P. (Remy Graves); Max T. (Jurgen Klein); and I’m Jeff O, the Keeper.

    2 and 3) I’ll see if I can amplify the sound; I try to edit out the barking, but sometimes there’s important dialog, so it gets through. I do apply high compression (6:1 at -12 dB) and renormalize to 0dB, but apparently that’s still not loud enough. If I just amplify again, then Max’s barking will stay loud relative to everything else. I suppose an AC-powered recorder would help too.

    4) We play at work; our company allows dogs in the office. That’s also the reason the sessions are rather short compared to others.

    Thanks for the compliments!

    Posted by admin on August 6th, 2008 3:51 pm

  3. Cool man. Don’t bend over backwards on the barking. It’s so rare that I can live with it. Louder sound would be great though.

    That is so awesome that you guys play at work, and that you can bring your dogs. I totally want to work there.

    Posted by JonHook on August 6th, 2008 8:24 pm

  4. Damn… I’m caught up. Now I have to wait for the next episode to be posted.

    Do you guys only play once a week at the office? Any chance it could be bumped up to twice a week? 🙂

    Posted by JonHook on August 7th, 2008 9:07 pm

  5. I’d happily run twice a week as long as my employer would let me.

    I am trying to stay with a weekly upload. Some of the players have been on vacation, so my backlog of episodes is getting thin. I should be able to release another full episode next week, and maybe the next Keeper’s Diary at the same time (up through the New York and London chapters).

    Posted by admin on August 8th, 2008 8:49 am

  6. Hey Jeff,

    The volume increase was great. Do you know what caused the strange feedback squelches?

    On the adventure, I love how bizarrely cautious the players are on some things and overly gung-ho on other things. Crazy fun!

    Posted by JonHook on August 27th, 2008 7:02 pm

  7. Are you talking about the Keeper’s Diary audio itself? I don’t notice anything other than the fact I need a cover over the mic to help prevent popping.

    Posted by admin on September 30th, 2008 4:47 pm

  8. I think it was in the last actual adventure, (so not the diary or the character creation episodes), where a rare occasional squelch is heard. It’s very minor, so don’t worry about it.

    I’m loving the production of the show and the adventure. Your players are great. It’s fun to hear players interact in the world of Call of Cthulhu who have not read some of the secrets, like what Space Mead is for, and what-not.

    Great great show! 🙂

    Posted by JonHook on October 6th, 2008 8:15 am