Ask Me Anything About "Windy City Shadows" A Chronicles of Darkness Podcast

Roughly a year ago I proposed a project for all the folks who were enjoying my Chronicles of Darkness RPG supplements and audio offerings. The idea was to write a narrative podcast that would tell a story set in the darkest corners of Chicago, dragging listeners into the shadows and giving them a glimpse of the horrors that lurk just beneath the surface of the world they know. And if listeners enjoyed the first season, I would then spiral out into subsequent seasons that showed just how interconnected events in this setting truly are when the monsters all live cheek-by-jowl in a place as hard and mean as the Windy City.

On this, the anniversary of the original proposal for Windy City Shadows, I wanted to open up the floor to my readers and listeners to see what questions you had about the show, as well as what it will take for this project to finally happen!

Because we're getting quite close to the edge...

Before we get into the nitty gritty this week, don't forget to sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Also, if you've got a bit of spare cash that you'd like to use to help keep the wheels turning, consider becoming a Patreon patron! Also, be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree.

Lastly, for hundreds of extra articles on gaming, weird history, and for more free fiction, check out my Vocal archive, too!

What Is Windy City Shadows?

For folks who haven't heard of this project before, the short version is that it's a narrative, audio drama podcast set in a version of Chicago in the Chronicles of Darkness RPG setting. The podcast will be a Dark Pack project, and it will start in the realm of Changeling: The Lost, but subsequent seasons will likely take a side step into Geist: The Sin Eaters, Mage: The Awakening, and others if folks enjoy it!

For those who want to catch up on the previous times I've talked about this project, please check out:

- Windy City Shadows, A Chronicles of Darkness Podcast Proposal

- Dead City Blues, A Possible Second Season For Windy City Shadows

- Vox Mortis- Radiohead (A Geist: The Sin Eaters Concept)

What Would You Like To Know?

When I first proposed this project, it was something of a pipe dream because I just did not have the time and energy to dedicated to it in order to make it really happen. However, I've been making all kinds of audio dramas over the past few years, and I think I finally have the necessary resources to really make the stories shine... and I've got enough other folks who've volunteered their voices to breathe a little extra life into it, as well!

My question for all of you is... well, what questions would you like answered about this podcast?

My current plan is to dedicate the 30th episode of Discussions of Darkness to an Ask Me Anything video about Windy City Shadows where I will get answers for all the most popular questions. At present I'm going to cover:

- What is a Dark Pack project (and what does that mean for this podcast)?

- What funding solutions are currently being considered?

- When will it come out?

- How will we be able to find it?

While I can probably get a halfway decent episode out of those questions alone, I want to make sure that anyone who wants to see this project come to fruition gets the answers to their questions. So if you've got a curiosity that isn't answered in any of my previous articles or videos about this project, please ask them in the comments below, on any social media page where you saw this article shared, or even on the Azukail Games YouTube channel so that both I and my publisher can see them!

This is something I've been really excited about for about a year now, and I feel like we're finally getting close to being able to make it a reality... so ask any questions you've got now, and please share this post around to help get new folks in on the ground floor of this project.

What's Next on Table Talk?

That's it for this installment of Table Talk! What would you like to see next? I'm listening for your comments and votes!

For more of my work, check out my Vocal archives, as well as the YouTube channel for Azukail Games. Or, to check out books like my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, my hard-boiled noir series featuring the street beasts of NYC in Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my dystopian sci-fi thriller Old Soldiers, or my recent short story collection The Rejects, head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter, as well as on Pinterest where I'm building all sorts of boards dedicated to my books, RPG supplements, and greatest hits. Lastly, to help support me and my work, consider Buying Me A Ko-Fi, or heading over to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron! Even a little donation can have a big impact.

Video Essays on The World and Chronicles of Darkness... What Would You Like To See?

For the past year and change I've been putting out regular episodes of the show Discussions of Darkness over on the Azukail Games YouTube channel. However, while I've spent 27 episodes talking about the setting and giving advice for how to breathe life into it around your table, I recently got a bee in my bonnet over a particular topic. Rather than just holding forth in my traditional format where I talk to the camera, though, I wanted to do something a little special. A little different.

That was why I sat down, wrote out an actual script, and made a video essay entitled The Liminal Horror of Changeling: The Lost... and judging from the reaction some folks have had, this is a direction at least folks would like to see me take more in future releases.

As always, don't forget to sign up for my weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Also, if you've got a bit of spare cash that you'd like to use to help keep the wheels turning, consider becoming a Patreon patron! Also, be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree.

Lastly, for hundreds of extra articles on gaming, weird history, and for more free fiction, check out my Vocal archive, too!

Where Would You Like Me To Explore Next?

While the video has just over 160 views at time of writing, there have also been a surprising amount of comments left both on the video itself, as well as on social media regarding it. The response has been pretty positive overall, and while I'm hoping the views keep climbing on the video, I did have a couple of other topics up my sleeve in the event the audience wanted to see more stuff in the same vein.

So, what can you look forward to if I expand some of this?

As a for instance...

One of the ideas I've been mentally combing through is something I'm tentatively titling, "The Problem With Pentex, And The Historical Figure That Could Fix It". As folks know, Evil Incorporated: 10 Pentex Subsidiaries is something I put a lot of work into, and while I was doing research for that supplement I went back through the canon origins for Pentex as an antagonist... and found that it only goes back to the 1800s. This seems to be a uniquely American phenomenon, where to us a century is a really long time, but in a setting as old as the World of Darkness, I feel this overlooks a lot of additional juice you could add into this antagonist. Which is why I'd like to go through capitalism as a force of evil (in the game, of course), its origin, some other mercantile atrocities that feel like they should have been added into Pentex's history, and finally taking it back to a figure that I feel would make a truly bizarre addition to some of the historical persons that have become supernatural members of the setting.

Two of the other ideas, which are more in-line with the format of the first video (and may receive preference as a result of that), deal with viewing these particular games in ways we don't often think about, or which can fade into the background. For example, one video would be The Existential Horror of Vampire: The Requiem, and how the undead are largely left with no hard answers as to why they exist, what their purpose is, and how they're staring down the barrel of eternity... a condition that the human mind was never meant to grapple with. The second idea in this format is The Cosmic Horror of Mage: The Awakening. Given that the game brings many aspects of gnosticism into the setting, and it deals with the hubris of mages themselves, it can stretch the mind in directions it was never meant to go, and leave mages changed after their experiences. This can lead to them losing their humanity in ways that are very different from other characters in the setting... especially given how powerful mages can be, even in the throes of their madness.

What I Need From You, As Viewers

A lot of you know the drill by now, but if you don't it goes like this:

- Subscribe to the Azukail Games YouTube channel. Hit the bell for extra points!

- Watch The Liminal Horror of Changeling: The Lost if you haven't. Leave comments and upvotes on it if you have! Bonus points for sharing the video on your own social media to boost the signal.

- Leave comments on this post (or on social media) regarding which topics you'd like to see me cover in future videos. If you'd like to see something other than one of the three options I mentioned, make sure to include that in your comment!

It's a simple, three-step process. The content I make (and which is accepted/put out by Azukail Games) is driven by you. Your views, your purchases, your likes, upvotes, comments, and follows all have an effect on what I work on, and what gets released... so use your power, raise your voice, and let me know what you want to see more of!

And, lastly, if you want to help me keep the lights on and the bills paid, consider grabbing some of my World/Chronicles of Darkness supplements from Storyteller's Vault! There's 36 of them at time of writing and (fingers crossed) I'll be able to add at least a few more to that list in the near future!

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

That's all for this week's Moon Pope Monday. To stay on top of all my content and releases, make sure you subscribe to my newsletter at the bottom of the page!

Again, for more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the Azukail Games YouTube channel, or my Rumble channel The Literary Mercenary! Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my dystopian sci-fi thriller Old Soldiers, my hardboiled gangland noir series starring a bruiser of a Maine Coon with Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my latest short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more Improved Initiative, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!

Dead City Blues: A Potential Second Season For "Windy City Shadows"

Every month the Azukail Games YouTube channel gets a little bit closer to that monetization goal. Though we recently debuted the new show Tabletop Mercenary (which is also available on my Rumble channel The Literary Mercenary, in case you haven't followed me there), and we are still about 1,000 hours off from crossing that initial finish line, I'm still tinkering with the idea of the interconnected Chronicles of Darkness podcast Windy City Shadows as a way to celebrate that achievement by doing something bigger and more involved than what our audience has seen in the past.

While I talked about what I'd like to do for season 1 in Windy City Shadows: A Chronicles of Darkness Podcast Proposal back in July, I've also had an idea for a season 2 rolling around in my noggin... and for the time being, I'm calling it Dead City Blues.

Before we get into the nitty gritty this week, don't forget to sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Also, if you've got a bit of spare cash that you'd like to use to help keep the wheels turning, consider becoming a Patreon patron! Also, be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree.

Lastly, for hundreds of extra articles on gaming, weird history, and for more free fiction, check out my Vocal archive, too!

Dead City Blues, Johnny Hammer, and The Six Gun Saint

While I've made a lot of little audio dramas over the years, perhaps the most cohesive series outside of the shorts for Changeling: The Lost has been the saga of Johnny Hammer and The Six Gun Saint. They first appeared in the intro text for my supplement 50 Geists for Geist: The Sin Eaters. In Russian Roulette, former Chicago hitman Johnny Hammer gets gunned down in a back alley outside of the bar he was working in under an assumed name in Philadelphia. He manages to kill the assassins who came for him, but he's dying when the black-cloaked shade of the Six Gun Saint comes for him, and offers him a deal... Johnny will get to keep living, but he's gonna have to do some killing on the Saint's behalf.

The follow-up to this initial tale was not found in another Geist supplement... rather, it was in my first Mage: The Awakening splat book. In the introduction to 100 Shadow Names (And Their Meanings), Calling Up Bones, we learn that Tony Gracchus, the mafioso who'd taken over as the head of the Chicago family Johnny used to work for, has awakened as the Mage known as Cyprian. He sent the hit squad to tie off Johnny's "loose end," and though he killed all the hitters, their ghosts report back to the necromancer. Tony learns that not only did the operation go wrong... but that Johnny is now a much greater threat than he was before. A skilled gunman is bad enough... one with the backing of a creature as dangerous as the Six Gun Saint might be a threat even to a mage.

The third installment of this cross-over story is taken out of the supplement 100 Mediums, which is meant to be used as a general NPC list for various World/Chronicles of Darkness games. In Under The Hammer we see that Johnny has come back to Chicago, and he's visiting the home of another retired hitman. Alonzo Delamorte threw himself on top of the old head of the family, saving him from a bomb blast, and losing his sight for his trouble. Something happened, though, and now Alonzo can see the world of the dead, which is just the sort of help Johnny needs. He knows that Tony is stealing souls, and recruiting an army of the dead to protect him... and Johnny plans to fight fire with fire. Chicago is a haunted city, and if he can convince enough of the unquiet dead to help him and the Saint in their cause, then they may just be able to do the impossible, and take down the necromancer.

So Where Would The Story Go From Here?

My original intention was to keep the back-and-forth between Mage and Geist supplements going, and to keep playing out a little more story each time until we'd reached a full conclusion of this story. However, as I mentioned in Why I Will Have Fewer Community Created TTRPG Products Coming Out, it has become financially unfeasible for me to keep writing supplements for this setting (short version, my publisher gave me a raise in pay, but that raise doesn't apply to community-created supplements, and I can't afford to take the pay cut). Initially, this looked like it was just going to leave the story hanging with a completed prologue, but nothing else to show for it.

But with the stage set, Dead City Blues would be able to pay off on all this lead up!

The early parts of this season would focus on Johnny attempting to locate allies in this fight. That will likely mean reaching out to other mediums, and putting the word on the street to any Krewes of Sin Eaters who might want to help him. He'd have to contend with the various orders of Mages in the city, as well as their politics. Tony has made his share of enemies with the way he uses his power, after all, but he may also have allies willing to protect him. Powerful ghosts might be persuaded to weigh in as well, creating a powder keg that's ready to blow... and the Six Gun Saint is holding a lighter.

Why is the Saint so hellbent on Tony Gracchus's death? Is the young Mage responsible for killing the Saint's previous Bound host, leaving it adrift in the world? Did the Saint make Tony an offer that he refused? Or has the necromancer meddled with powers he doesn't yet understand, earning himself the enmity of the violent geist?

I know the answers to some of these questions. But if you want to go on that journey with me, I need you to help me make this show a reality!

What You Can Do

First and foremost, subscribe to the Azukail Games YouTube channel, and watch our videos. YouTube requires 500 subscribers, which we have, and 3,000 hours of watched content... which we don't. What we need most are eyes on our content in order to help us cross that threshold so that the videos I make generate income for the publisher, making it more likely for them to greenlight (and then help fund) something bigger and more expansive like Windy City Shadows.

On that note, likes, comments, and shares on social media are also appreciated to help us overcome the inertia of the algorithm so we can find a larger audience.

Additionally, there are currently 37 videos on the Audio Drama Playlist, so if you enjoy my little stories and want to see them expanded, go give that list a listen! Additionally, if you particularly like a story, check out the supplement it comes from, and consider getting yourself a copy. They're all listed in the video descriptions, and every sale shows that these products (and their tie-ins) have an audience who wants us to keep going.

What's Next on Table Talk?

That's it for this installment of Table Talk! What would you like to see next? I'm listening for your comments and votes!

For more of my work, check out my Vocal archives, as well as the YouTube channel for Azukail Games. Or, to check out books like my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, my dystopian sci-fi thriller Old Soldiers, or my recent short story collection The Rejects, head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter, as well as on Pinterest where I'm building all sorts of boards dedicated to my books, RPG supplements, and greatest hits. Lastly, to help support me and my work, consider Buying Me A Ko-Fi, or heading over to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron! Even a little donation can have a big impact.