Fellowship, physics, and fundraising

Hi folks,

Wishing you the very best for the coming week from everyone at Rusty Towers!

Thank you so much to everyone for your kind words on the launch of Enthusigasm. It is not always clear what to expect or anticipate how an audience will react to the launch of a new show that utilises a different format from the mainstay of your content. We’re so glad you’ve enjoyed the first few episodes! Thanks, as always, for your support. This week we have two more episodes for you to enthuse over: up first on Thursday, Gavia Baker-Whitelaw, host of the podcast Overinvested and writer at the Daily Dot, Jeffrey Nils Gardner, Mastering Editor at Rusty Quill, and Sue Sims, voice of Gertrude Robinson in The Magnus Archives, will join host Helen to discuss The Lord of the Rings. If you’ve listened to the first, Patreon-exclusive season of Enthusigasm, you’ll know that folks at Rusty Towers have a lot to say about LotR, so that’s definitely one to look forward to. Next up, on Sunday, we’ll be talking about Space with Bryn Monroe, Hamid in Rusty Quill Gaming and ‘science person’ in Stellar Firma, Josh Fox, designer of tabletop games, including Last Fleet, Marisa Ewing, Dialogue Editor at Rusty Quill, and Dr Paul Sutter, physicist and science educator. If you enjoyed the show, please drop us a review on Apple Podcasts as it really is one of the consistent methods of growing new shows.

Awards season is upon us, and we’re completely honoured and delighted to see so many of our shows up for prestigious awards. First up, Rusty Quill Gaming, The Magnus Archives and Stellar Firma, PLUS RQ Network shows, Old Gods of Appalachia, The Milkman of St Gaff’s, The Town Whispers and The Silt Verses have all been nominated for multiple awards at the Audio Verse Awards 2021. You can head over to the Audio Verse website to rank your favourite shows. Secondly, RQ Network shows Old Gods of Appalachia and The Silt Verses are finalists in the Discover Pods Awards – you can cast your vote on the Discover Pods website. Please join us in congratulating all of these talented creators, showrunners, editors and performers for this well-earned recognition of their hard work.

The nights are drawing in (at least they are in the UK) and the supermarkets are already selling mince pies… which means only one thing: Gaming and Giving! This years’ event will be 100% digital for 24-hours of fun and frolics with RQ colleagues and wider family from RQ Network! Plus, perhaps some special guests and some SUPERB giveaways... but more on that later!

This year, in addition to the Twitch stream, there will also be a ticketed Gather Town space fashioned as Rusty Towers made available for those that fancy a hangout space where cast and crew will pop in to say hi during the event, plus some interactive aspects related to the main show.

We will be releasing these tickets to Patrons first, as we only have 300 spaces across the two Gather areas, one for each day. We will be updating you very soon with ticket information. We sold out in 30 minutes to our last ticketed event so very best of luck!

And all this effort, those ticket sales, those baubles… they are all in aid of three wonderful causes. Action Aid, Centre Point, and Mermaids (check them out, they are fantastic) are the three charities we will raise money for this year. We hope you will join us on 4-5th December 5pm - 5pm GMT, on Twitch for more tinsel-themed shenanigans.

[Image description: An A4, vertical poster advertising Gaming and Giving. The background is red, patterned with icons of a d20 and a gaming controller. There is a white bar along the bottom, denoting the footer. At the top is the Gaming & Giving logo. Underneath in white text is written:

Header: Come join us for Rusty Quill Gaming and Giving,

Text: a 24-hour livestream celebration filled with fun and games where all proceeds go to charity:

• Mermaids – for gender-diverse kids
• ActionAid – for women and girls in poverty
• Centrepoint – for homeless young people

Header: 4-5 December 2021

Text: 5pm to 5pm (GMT)

Header: Twitch Livestream

Text: twitch.tv/rusty_quill

Header: Presented by Rusty Quill

Text: #RQGG21

(twitter logo) twitter.com/therustyquill

(Instagram logo) Instagram.com/rustyquilluk

(Facebook logo) facebook.com/therustyquill

RustyQuill.com

Towards the bottom of the page is the Rusty Quill logo and word marque: Rusty Quill. Change the Story, Change the World.

In the white footer is the words “in aid of” and the logos for CentrePoint, Mermaids and ActionAid.]

Coming up this week on the Rusty Quill Gaming feed is the first in a short, seasonal interlude in the main campaign. Helen, Ben, Bryn, Lydia and Maddy are playing The Quiet Year, a map drawing game by Avery Alder. After the collapse of their society, a small community have just one year to rebuild before The Frost Shepherds come. How will they plan to survive? Find out on Tuesday!

Over on The Magnus Archives feed, we have the second Rusty Fears 5 winning story: Inheritance by Matrim Tait, read by Francesca Reid. The house was an inheritance – the last surviving memory of her mother. It just needs to be cleared and cleaned, the contents thrown away before the mould spreads further. After all, some things aren’t worth saving…

Finally, please see our update on transcripts. As always, this is available on our website.

Update 11/10/21

Transcription of Rusty Quill Gaming is making great progress! We have now received and reviewed completed transcripts for many of the earliest and most difficult to transcribe episodes and we are confident that all episodes will be completed to the high standards of accuracy, quality, and accessibility that we wanted. The transcript company will keep us updated and we now estimate the completed transcription of the main campaign to be ready for release in January.

Our latest show, Enthusigasm, launched with transcripts for both public episodes and the extended Patreon versions. We are working hard to make sure that we'll have completed transcripts attached to all upcoming Enthusigasm releases. During the preparation of Enthusigasm transcripts we have been able to solidify our processes to ensure that all new RQ Original shows will come with transcripts.

Meanwhile we continue to work on reformatting our Stellar Firma and The Magnus Archives transcripts ready for public release and we will update soon.

Here is our full schedule for this week:

Mon 11th October

EGSM 3 – RPGs (Public) (4pm BST)

Tue 12th October

RQG - The Quiet Year Halloween Special - Part 1 (Patreon) (4pm BST)

Wed 13th October

MAG – Rusty Fears 5: Inheritance (Patreon) (4pm BST)

RQG – The Quiet Year Halloween Special – Part 1 (Public) (4pm BST)

Thu 14th October

MAG – Rusty Fears 5: Inheritance (Public) (4pm BST)

EGSM 4 – Lord of the Rings (Extended Cut) (Patreon) (6pm BST)

Fri 15th October

NOBLES Bonus – INEXpedia (4pm BST)

EGSM 4 – Lord of the Rings (Public) (4pm BST)

Sunday 17th October

EGSM 5 – Space (Extended Cut) (Patreon) (6pm BST)

Have a good week all!

The Rusty Quill team