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Friends at the Table

Friends at the Tablefriendsatthetable.net
Friends at the Table is an actual play podcast about critical worldbuilding, smart characterization, and fun interaction between good friends. Find us (and a listener guide) @Friends_Table on Twitter.

Episodes

Sangfielle 06: The Hymn of the Mother-Beast Pt. 2

This episode carries content warnings for a corpse, an animal feeding on flesh, claustrophobia, broken bones, death from immobility and implied starvation, fingernails, a body in a sack, animal sacrifice, burning, a severed limb, animal slaughter, dissociation, and mental confusion. Having found their way through the chapel beneath Blackwick’s ruined abbey, the Blackwick Group continue their search for Janek Polyte and the mysterious magistrate who seems to be with him. From the bottom of a pit ...

Apr 15, 20211 hr 21 min

Sangfielle 05: The Hymn of the Mother-Beast Pt. 1

This episode carries content warnings for discussion of cigarettes, rotting flesh, animal corpse, aggressive animal, knives, gun use. One year after the people of Blackwick County (then Eastern Folly) broke a curse that had plagued the town for generations, a group of strange and determined professionals arrived. Explorers, investigators, wardens of nature and culture and everything in between. They’d come to answer the call for folks just like them, people who could ensure the town wouldn’t fal...

Apr 09, 20212 hr 38 min

Sangfielle 04: The Blackwick Group

This episode carries content warnings for discussion of knives, possession, insect infestation of a living person, death, animal slaughter, being buried alive, and drowning. It has been one year since the folks of Eastern Folly put an end to a generations-long curse, and a few months fewer since a vote brought a new name to the town and its environs: Blackwick County. The name was a compromise, evoking not only the darkening embers of the Triadic Pyre’s ashen dogma, but also the warmth and comfo...

Apr 02, 20213 hr 3 min

Sangfielle 03: The Curse of Eastern Folly Pt. 3

This episode carries content warnings for human death, teeth, knives, possession, human branding One day of strange occurrences is, in some ways, a blessing . Good dinner time conversation. The stuff of campfire stories. Two ill-fated days? That’s a warning and a courtesy. The troubled cough that precedes illness. An opportunity for you to prepare for worse. But three cursed days in a row? That’s where you really have to worry, because it ain’t just one thing. Three cursed days in a row is as of...

Mar 25, 20212 hr 20 min

Sangfielle 02: The Curse of Eastern Folly Pt. 2

This episode carries content warnings for human death, discussion of cannibalism, the death of animals, knives, and knifework. The suns rise on Eastern Folly as another day begins. High in the trees, the fruit grows ever so slightly riper. And as the fruit grows larger and warmer in color, so too do the spirits of the people of the town. Miners haul back their finds with a grin, eager to flip this ironing board or that collection of ancient coins to whichever consignment shop or heartland broker...

Mar 18, 20211 hr 34 min

Sangfielle 01: The Curse of Eastern Folly Pt. 1

This episode carries content warnings for discussion of death and an allusion to drowning. Welcome to Sangfielle . This episode marks not only the beginning of a new season for us, but a whole new world. For the last six years, our main series campaigns have mostly taken part in one of two worlds, even though they sometimes have huge time jumps and setting resets in them. So, if you're just jumping on, this is a pretty good place to do it. You'll be along for the ride with everyone else, with no...

Mar 11, 20212 hr 14 min

Season 7 Trailer & Announcement

People will tell you that the heartland got sick about 200 years ago. When the dust came, reality left, and the panic set in. But trust me, it was ailing long before that. Don’t get me wrong, you could understand why someone would die for it in the old days. Greens and golds, bread and honey. But around the time that those well dressed devils of Aldomina swept in, five, six hundred years ago, that's when things started to turn. They wanted to fence it in. Rows of corn and cane, columns of people...

Mar 05, 202111 min

PARTIZAN 48: Post Mortem

Hey everyone! Join Austin Walker, Ali Acampora, Keith J. Carberry, Sylvia Clare, Jack de Quidt, Janine Hawkins, Art Martinez-Tebbel, and Andrew Lee Swan as we say farewell to PARTIZAN and answer audience questions! Thank you so much for listening and for your support throughout the season! We will be taking a break for the next couple of weeks as we continue to develop the next season. Any updates will appear in this feed, so keep an eye or an ear out! A transcription is available for this episo...

Feb 05, 20213 hr 35 min

PARTIZAN 47: Operation Shackled Sun: Act 3: The Stories Told About the Things We Do

“Why do we travel the Prophet’s Path? This is a question raised yearly at this time, as we prepare for our Pilgrimage. Today, a year before the Millennial Celebration, which risks overshadowing the true answer with the spectacle of anniversary, I want to give as direct and clear an answer as I can imagine. When we trace the path that Logos Kantel traveled when they first came to this moon, we retell the story of their arrival, of their miracle working, and of their devotion to progression —the d...

Jan 22, 20213 hr 18 min

PARTIZAN 46: Operation Shackled Sun: Act 2: The Gate

With Kalar and the Figure in Bismuth rescued from the Pact and their apparently game-changing intelligence delivered—albeit cut in two and sent to different people—Millennium Break is ready to confront operation Shackled Sun directly. As such, the Company of the Spade and the Blue Channel lead an a 1-in-1000 attack against the secret Portcullis gate deep within the heart of Girandole. Can the group make it through the chemical clouds of the gas giant, board the enemy station, and stop the Pact’s...

Jan 15, 20212 hr 25 min

PARTIZAN 45: Operation Shackled Sun: Act 1: The Fray

It is the year 1424 of the Perfect Millennium. It is now. In the chaos-depths of Girandole, the Pact of Necessary Venture is shackling a god to an engine, an engine that would become a star, a star that would consume Partizan. A small sacrifice, they believe: necessary venture. Because what it will earn is clear: A new era for the galaxy, in which they would be the principled hegemons. But across the system, those few who know the danger of this plot rally to stop them. A few hundred thousand mi...

Jan 07, 20213 hr 1 min

See you next year!!

Hello everybody! Instead of an episode, we have an announcement: there's no episode this week or next week! The next Friends at the Table episode will be January 7th, 2021. Our next episode will the first of a three-part finale of PARTIZAN! We'll be playing War in the Year 1424 of the Perfect Millennium , or 1424PM, a hack of War in the Year 3000 by Ben Auden Roswell, with additional inspiration from Follow by Ben Robbins and Fiasco by Jason Morningstar. Look forward to it! Following our PARTIZA...

Dec 24, 20205 min

PARTIZAN 44: The Prison at the Top of the World

For generations, the Chasmata family has had an outsized place in the politics of Stel Kesh. Certainly, they were as loyal and stately as any other great house of the self-proclaimed First Stel. But their income, prestige, and reach seemed to exceed their material position in the Principality. Partly, this had to do with the dynasty’s close ties to the Curtain. Like the Kesh family itself, many children of House Chasmata would go on to serve in the Principality’s most secret and sacred instituti...

Dec 17, 20202 hr 8 min

PARTIZAN 43: The Tunnels Beneath

Miles to the south of the Chasmata Quarry, AO Rooke loads an artillery shell into cannon. It’s the third to be fired, in a set of 50. He is providing cover, he was told, for the operation’s infiltration unit to get what it was they needed. “Except,” he worried to himself, “the infiltration unit did not know what it was they needed. He punctuated his concern by slamming the hatch on the howitzer shut. “And that crew, specifically,” he thought, “is a strange fit for infiltration to begin with.” An...

Dec 11, 20202 hr 4 min

PARTIZAN 42: The Unbreakable Quarry

Buried deep in the records of the Divine Past is a peculiar absence. What is buried beneath the northern pole of Partizan? “The Chasmata Quarry,” says the only public record, “specializes in rare mineral extraction.” Eight words. But other quarries on Partizan all have more. You could write a book about the excavations spread across the Columnar’s Memoria Teardrop, or those digs spread hive-like through the Apostolosian Barranca, or the industrial pockmarks across the long Orion flats of the Low...

Dec 04, 20201 hr 45 min

PARTIZAN 41: Orbital Decay

On a map, it would seem as if the Blue Channel and its inhabitants, revolutionaries of the Millennium Break movement, were nearing freedom from the Partizan system. But a map does not show the whole of the picture. For instance, a map would not reveal that heels of Aponia, hallow of GLORY ace pilot Sabeeha, were scraping across the roof of Kal'Mera Broun's ship. It would not show the members of the ship's crew taking increasingly risky action. And it would it show what surprises lie ahead of the...

Nov 19, 20201 hr 42 min

PARTIZAN 40: Engine Burn

The Blue Channel and its inhabitants have left Partizan behind. And as it grows dim in the distance, they have time to both reflect on the hard path here and plan ahead to what they hope will be a bright future. But before the moon can disappear entirely, it reaches again. Breaking away was never going to be easy... This week on PARTIZAN: Engine Burn ///Operation Dossier\\\ //Organizations\\ Organization for the Foundation of the Orion Republic (OFOR): A group of growing import in Orion territor...

Nov 12, 20201 hr 23 min

PARTIZAN 39: Escape Velocity

In a hanger on a beach on the Isles of Logos, Kal’Mera Broun, Jesset City, Ver’Million Blue, Thisbe, Eiden Teak, Avar, Ryrira, and Si’Dra Balos stand around a spaceship. In just over a week, if all goes to plan, they will be inside of it and it will be outside of the Partizan system. First, though, they’ll need to secure a launch platform, get past security checkpoints on and off world, and ensure the safety of not only themselves but the materials they’ll need to actually build something wherev...

Nov 06, 20201 hr 41 min

PARTIZAN 38: The Red Light

As the shape in the sea draws ever near, much of SBBR--with the help of their rivals in the Company of the Spade--begin to evacuate hundreds of thousands out of a city of millions. But Kal'mera Broun turns elsewhere, to their ship, looking for guidance before this new invader arrives. This week on PARTIZAN: The Red Light ///Operation Dossier\\\ //Organizations\\ Organization for the Foundation of the Orion Republic (OFOR): A group of growing import in Orion territory, who advocate for Orion’s se...

Oct 24, 20201 hr 34 min

PARTIZAN 37: The Gravity of Absence

Having returned from his audience on the Reflecting Pool, Sovereign Immunity briefs his SBBR and their allies on the impending arrival of what the Witch in Glass would only refer to as "the Red Light." WIth only one day to prepare, SBBR stalls out, torn on whether to accept their longtime foe's offer of sanctuary or to take their chances on their own. For newcomers Kalar Anakalar and Phrygian, this is both a worry and an opportunity. SBBR may not have the heroic verve that the stories said they ...

Oct 17, 20202 hr 8 min

PARTIZAN 36: The Witch in the Glass Pt. 2

Content Warnings: Discussion of a broken bone, killing of dog-like creatures, killing of humans via firearm, near-asphyxiation The Witch in the Glass By Sarah Morgan Bryan Piatt “MY mother says I must not pass Too near that glass; She is afraid that I will see A little witch that looks like me, With a red, red mouth to whisper low The very thing I should not know!” “Alack for all your mother’s care! A bird of the air, A wistful wind, or (I suppose Sent by some hapless boy) a rose, With breath to...

Oct 08, 20204 hr 22 min

PARTIZAN 35: The Witch in the Glass Pt. 1

Content Warnings: Violence against cats, birds, and dog-like creatures. Religious sacrifice of cats. Brief discussions of a broken bone and its treatment. The Witch in the Glass; a play in Five Acts Act 1: Perseverance, or the Sage House Act 2: Contentment, or the Community at Chorus Island Act 3: The Single Star, or the View She Sees of Poppies Spread Act 4: Attention, or the Snow in Summer Act 5: The Present Day, or the Adversary Dramatis Personae Clementine (Jack de Quidt) ... ... ... ... ......

Oct 02, 20203 hr 9 min

PARTIZAN 34: Guests, Invited and Otherwise

After months away, SBBR has finally returned to Oxbridge, only to find it burning. Every day, the city is rocked by its own political revolution, as members of the Organization for the Foundation of the Orion Republic--who seek to reform Stel Orion as a league of independent republics--fight against Principality loyalists in the streets, alleys, and canals of the Stel’s largest city on Partizan. The City of Little and Plenty is scarring over. But SBBR (and much of Millennium Break) have their ow...

Sep 25, 20202 hr 43 min

PARTIZAN 33: A Single Shot

Inside of the High Altar, dignitaries sit under the flickering light of a projector, while above them, the very subjects of the film they watch fend off an attack that threatens their lives. The divine Motion and GLORY, a unit of cloned Apostolosian supersoldiers which she has taken on as her pet project, have descended onto the small city of Auspice only to run headfirst into SBBR. The initial skirmishes have seen both sides battered and bruised, with schemes blooming into flowers of blood acro...

Sep 17, 20201 hr 54 min

PARTIZAN 32: GLORY Arrives

For Kalar Anakalar and Phrygian, SBBR’s newest recruits, it seemed like another boilerplate mission. A too-warm, too-quiet night in seaside town, making sure that the people in suits and dresses could go about their politicking and gallivanting in safety. But when Ver’Million Blue called in a strange occurrence at the Strand Semaphore station to the north of Auspice, they understood this would be no ordinary mission. But no warning would prepare these new recruits--or the rest of SBBR for that m...

Sep 12, 20202 hr 42 min

PARTIZAN 31: The Grand Premiere

It has been just over fifty days since Millennium Break took Cruciat, and each day has been more busy than the last. The hammer of the Principality fell on the organization’s independent cells across the moon, and now the leaders of Millennium Break seek allies wherever they can find them. No potential partner in the fight against tyranny is more important than the Isle of Logos. As a sovereign nation with key control in Partizan’s great sea, the Isle could offer Millennium Break a literal port ...

Sep 03, 20202 hr 30 min

PARTIZAN 30: A Cemetery for Heroes

Content Warnings for this Episode Throughout: Violence During a Public Event 00:00 - 20:30: Disrespect of the Dead, Implied Disrespect of a Dead Body 1:41:00 - End: Death, Deliberation about Character Sacrifice, Suicide by Sacrifice, Immolation, Violence During a Public Event, Hey everyone, this has been a really heavy week: Wildfires across the western United States, Hurricane Laura in the Caribbean and gulf states, the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha and the murder of two Black Lives...

Aug 27, 20202 hr

PARTIZAN 29: Buried Beneath Golden Leaves

A month ago, Millennium Break seized control of Cruciat, ushering in a new age on the holy moon of Partizan. But like a counterpunch already chambered, the great Stels of the Divine Principality hit back with force and speed, driving minor Millennium Break bases into the dirt. Today, along with Cruciat, the only two strongholds left to the revolutionary group are the Lambic House and a trio of cities along the eastern edge of the Prophet’s Path. Millennium Break must hold this ground, at all cos...

Aug 21, 20201 hr 42 min

Bonus Episode: Sports Are Just Numerology

Hey everyone, welcome to a very special bonus episode of Friends at the Table. As we said on Twitter, we're currently taking a few weeks off after the end of Kingdom to catch up on things, prep for the rest of PARTIZAN, and generally tak ea break. Many of us here on the show have spent some of that break by playing Blaseball , the internet sensation that VICE's Gita Jackson describes as "an online, joke-y, facsimile of [baseball] ... about baseball fandom, and the bullshit that goes along with i...

Aug 03, 202058 min

PARTIZAN 28: Millennium Break: The Storm Over Cruciat

For those who live under tyranny, the exhaustion and fear is such that it can be hard to even imagine or recognize what escape or progress or revolution look like. But when Icebreaker Prime came over the horizon, the citizens of Cruciat, beaten down by generations of chic, high-minded Kesh terror, knew exactly what they were looking at. Millennium Break. Cruciat was all but undefended, with the bulk of Kesh’s forces engaged with Motion her Apostlosian forces to the west--an attack they would not...

Jul 24, 20203 hr 34 min
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