Backstory: Each dwarven family is committed to a specific virtue. Elora’s family is committed to truth. And truth is the central focus of Elora’s life, whether that’s living her truth as a trans woman or uncovering the truth as an investigative reporter for The Crossroads Observer. As far as Elora is concerned, lies are destructive and the only cure for them is truth. Continue Reading »
Backstory: The fire of curiosity burns strongly inside Frill. They are fascinated by magic, technology, and, especially, magical technology. Frill is the happiest when they are taking something apart to see how it works. Unfortunately they do that regardless of who owns the thing they are dismantling. They always try to put it back together, but when that doesn’t go well things get tricky. It’s a good thing that they are lucky. Continue Reading »
Backstory: Connor the Wizard created Brasshoof to be a status symbol. Brasshoof was supposed to be a mindless automaton that followed Connor’s every order. But, as it so often does, the magic went awry and Brasshoof became a person with his own thoughts and ideas. And Brasshoof had no interest in following orders. Connor was so angry that he yelled at Brasshoof and told him that he would never amount to anything on his own. That is when Brasshoof decided that his goal was to become a better wizard than Connor. Continue Reading »
Digital artwork of an extensive set of brass gears and parts such as could be found on the inside of a particularly intricate clock. This is meant to invoke the idea of things working away out of sight.
Right now a lot of work is going on behind the scenes and I wanted to share some of it with you.
Masks Text Game: Right now we are in the middle of scheduling the character creation session for late February or early March. Once that session has been completed, the most interesting portions of it will be published as Chapter Zero.
Inside the First Responders Training Program: This is the sequel to the Welcome to the First Responders Training Program game. The audio recording of this game is complete and episodes will be periodically produced as I get time.
Magic Goes Awry: I am working hard to get version 2 of Magic Goes Awry finished and online. There are a number of improvements and accessibility features that I’m adding in this second version. The most exciting addition is a set of eighteen premade characters with diverse abilities, backgrounds, and personalities (many of which have disabilities).
The Adventurers Academy: This is the next Unfamiliar Heroes game which takes place in the world of Crossoroads (the setting that was used for The Owlbear Reintroduction Program). This game is still in the planning stages and participants are still being recruited. It is my hope to start the character creation sessions for this game at the end of spring.
Transcripts: Thanks to ongoing work by volunteers, the number of podcast transcripts is growing. You can find the complete list of published transcripts on the transcripts page.
A photograph of a red brick building that has a black wrought iron sign with the word “ask” in bold white letters.
In collaboration with the folks at the Mythcreants blog, once a month I will be answering a reader question about disability representation. Each answer will be posted on the Mythcreants blog on the third Monday of each month.
I’m really excited about this series, because it is an opportunity for me to talk more about disability representation in short, focused articles. Currently, I have a lot of thoughts on disability representation that I haven’t yet shared because of the time involved in writing full length articles. This series is a great opportunity to get some of my thoughts out there and have these important conversations. I hope that you enjoy it!
You can find all of the Mythcreants articles I’ve worked on in my Writing Advice page. And, if you have a short storytelling question of your own, you can submit it here.
This is a special scripted crossover episode between Writing Alchemy and Kalila Stormfire’s Economical Magick Services where we return to Sylvan Community College as Kalilia gives Janus her first tarot reading, foreshadowing the events which will take place in the next Unfamiliar Heroes game.
For those of you who don’t know, Kalila Stormfire’s Economical Magick Services is one of my all time favorite audio dramas and I am so excited to be doing a crossover episode with them! This has been a lot of fun to put together and I’m extremely happy with how it came out. I hope you enjoy it too!
This illustration depicts three characters, each from a different genre of story, and each with a disability. On the left is a black gnome archer riding in a chariot pulled by a large brown dog. The chariot has a chair in it so that they can sit instead of stand. In the middle is a Latina woman manipulating a tech device on her wrist as she begins to go invisible. She is wearing an air filtering mask of the type that people with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity sometimes wear. On the right is a white muscular superhero wearing a very gay, blue superhero outfit. He has lightning crackling between his two hands, which are shaped atypically. This beautiful work of art was created the amazing Rose Adare!
Black and white clip art depiction of audio being turned into a transcript. On the left, the sound is depicted by a pair of headphones with an audio wave going between the two ears pads. A simple black arrow goes from left to right. On the right, the transcript is represented by a stylized typed document.
In order to make these transcripts as accessible as possible, each one is produced in four formats: as an online post for access convenience, in a word document with a low vision friendly font (Veranda), in a pdf with a dyslexia friendly font (OpenDyslexic), and a low contrast blue on black pdf as an access option for people with migraines (Veranda).
Transcribed by: Fay Onyx based on the script written by Lisette Alvarez
Writing Alchemy Episode 39 – Janus’ First Tarot Reading
[Intro music that is an energetic, electronic song begins playing.]
TOBI: [voiceover] You are listening to Writing Alchemy, stories that step outside the oppressive grind of the everyday world with your host, writer and artist Fay Onyx.
[Music swells and then fades to a background volume.]
FAY: This is a special scripted crossover episode between Writing Alchemy and Kalila Stormfire’s Economical Magick Services where we return to Sylvan Community College as Kalilia gives Janus her first tarot reading, foreshadowing the events which will take place in the next Unfamiliar Heroes game.
[Music swells and then fades out.]
Hello and welcome to the 39th episode of Writing Alchemy. I am Fay Onyx and I am so excited to be doing this crossover with Kalila Stormfire’s Economical Magick Services. I’m just starting to come down with a cold, though, so hopefully my voice isn’t too rough during this introduction.
For those of you who don’t know, Kalila Stormfire’s Economical Magick Services is one of my all time favorite audio dramas. It is a rich and complex story with deep layers of meaning, featuring an inclusive cast of characters (and performers who play those characters). Continue Reading »
“This question may actually be more for Fay Onyx, but let me know what you think.
I’m working on a humorous not-at-all-realistic story where the main characters are pirates. If I have pirates with peg-legs, hooks, and eye-patches, then I support a stereotype about certain disabilities. But if I don’t, then I fail to have disabled characters in the ONE genre where we expect them to be an active part of the story.
This Bonus Cast features stand up comedy that the amazing Tobi Hill-Meyer did for Thriving While Trans. Afterwards, there are some announcements about upcoming audio and text games.
I know that December can be a very complicated month for a lot of people. I wanted to make sure that I shared something that would add a bit of humor into things for everyone. I hope you enjoy it!
Photograph of a silver and black desktop microphone sitting on a white surface with its black cord trailing off to the left.
Black and white clip art depiction of audio being turned into a transcript. On the left, the sound is depicted by a pair of headphones with an audio wave going between the two ears pads. A simple black arrow goes from left to right. On the right, the transcript is represented by a stylized typed document.
In order to make these transcripts as accessible as possible, each one is produced in four formats: as an online post for access convenience, in a word document with a low vision friendly font (Veranda), in a pdf with a dyslexia friendly font (OpenDyslexic), and a low contrast blue on black pdf as an access option for people with migraines (Veranda).
Writing Alchemy Episode 34 – The Owlbear Reintroduction Program Part 2
Note: ‘*’ is used to indicate music and sound effects that were added to the recording.
[*Intro music that is an energetic, electronic song begins playing.]
TOBI: [voiceover] You are listening to Writing Alchemy, stories that step outside the oppressive grind of the everyday world with your host, writer and artist Fay Onyx.
[*Music swells and then fades to a background volume.]
FAY: Willa, Tarragon, and D’Zân are participating in The Owlbear Reintroduction Program, a project that is reestablishing owlbears in areas where the owlbear populations have been previously wiped out, something that’s not so easy because owlbears are large, ferocious, magical predators. Throw in a group of skilled poachers determined to steal owlbear eggs and things are bound to get interesting.
[*Music swells and then fades out.]
Hello and welcome to the 34rd episode of Writing Alchemy. I am Fay Onyx and today is the fifteenth game episode of Unfamiliar Heroes, my new podcast series where I work with players and storytellers to create new representations of disabled, sick, and neurodiverse people using tabletop role-playing games. Today’s game is the second game episode of The Owlbear Reintroduction Program. Continue Reading »
