Darksome Mirror

Discussions of Dice and Randomness     Reflections in the Darksome Mirror seeks to push a few boundaries, even in the very niche space of  hybrid storytelling and fantasy TTRPG-inspired "solo actual play" podcasts / media. One of the questions I've received from listeners and friends about the podcast is, essentially - "how scripted is Darksome Mirror?"     As with many forms of media created in this genre, dice are rolled at certain intervals to influence or determine an outcome. In the effort to be as transparent as possible, the story of Reflections in the Darksome Mirror places a little more emphasis on long-form storytelling and strong prose than many other stories in this genre. Most of the world's countries, ancestries, history, and even some important characters were built years ago and are established. The first episode of the podcast especially is mostly exposition of the existing world.     However, after this point (and in certain points du...

Episode one of Reflections in the Darksome Mirror has been re-released with new voice talent for Shinnareth. The audio file should be updated elsewhere soon, but is available on Spotify now: https://open.spotify.com/episode/28vajkDmyWtUU22srh2x0E?si=7774e137414d4ac2 Please look forward to episode 2 in the coming weeks.

 Hello!  Since the last post, I've re-recorded lines for the first episode (better late than never) to better suit Shinnareth's character with some feminine voice talent. Once re-released, it will be published to a broader audience, including Apple Podcasts. In other news - here are two different edits of a finished portrait artwork of Shinnareth by the talented Flavio Winston, who can be found on artstation at https://www.artstation.com/flaviowinston - please give him a like or a follow!

  The Map of the World of Valgrath The World of Valgrath is where the story of Reflections in the Darksome Mirror takes place (or one of the places). For the purposes of the Podcast, it starts in the town of Moonshard Bay on the western side of the map, and currently references a few other places (The Enclave, Shalastrazara, Gandabrath's Spear, Gandabrath's Ascent, and more.) Shinnareth's journey is likely to take her all over the continent, or perhaps even to other realms entirely.

Reflections in the Darksome Mirror The podcast's first two episodes (episodes zero and one) have been released. This represents a monumental amount of work behind the screen, and the podcast's public page and listening platforms can be found here: https://rss.com/podcasts/reflections-in-the-darksome-mirror/?listen-on=true The podcast can currently be listened to on: Spotify, Amazon Music, Podcast Index, Fountain, True Fans, the RSS.com Community's podcast feed, and Youtube. For convenience, the Youtube link fan be found here, as it seems to be a preferred listening method for many people:  Reflections in the Darksome Mirror In the very near future, the podcast will also be published on: Apple Podcasts, Pandora, Tune In, iHeart Radio, and Deezer. I am aiming for a release schedule of about one episode per month or so - a lot of writing, as one can imagine, goes into the creation of every episode.

Dungeon Synth, Dark Ambient, and More Greetings and well met! I am enthused to say that I've obtained permission from the following parties for the use of their music, and will be posting their links here as well: It is an honor to be able to use the music of one of the foremost musicians in the revival of Dungeon Synth, Erang. This track of his will serve as the introductory music for the podcast:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDKsHoN5RqY Erang's music can be found here:  https://erang.bandcamp.com/   The dark ambient artist Dahlia's Tear, another long time favorite of mine, has granted their permission as well. Their music can be found here:  https://dahliastear1.bandcamp.com/   Dahlia's Tear's record label, Cryo Chamber, is a source of some of the best dark ambient on the internet, and they have also granted their permission. Please see this link for more of their music:  https://cryochamber.bandcamp.com/    And another solo artist, one of m...

 Darksome Mirror's 2d10 Oracle     Reflections in the Darksome Mirror will make use of a unique 2d10 oracle featuring a "Yes / No" Dice and a "Chaos / Normality" Dice with results based on this table: Die Result “Yes/ No” Dice Meaning “Chaos / Normality” Dice Meaning 1 No, and… (Something Worse) Extremely Routine / Mundane 2 No Routine / Mundane 3 No Routine / Mundane 4 No, but… (Slight Positive) Somewhat Routine / Mundane 5 No, but… (Slight Positive) Somewhat Routine / Mundane 6 Yes, but… (Slight Negative) Somewhat Unusual 7 Yes, but… (Slight Negative) Moderately Unusual 8 Yes Very Unusual 9 Yes Strange or Possibly Supernatural 10 Yes, and… (Something Better) Arcane or Highly Anomalous     The Yes/No oracle, usually present on a D6, is commonly found in many tabletop systems. However, I wanted to add another dimension to this which tells us more about why the "Yes/No" has occurred. We can also apply modifiers to either of these dice. For example, in a...