Character designs by Rio. Cover art by CanaryWitch.
An Actual Play podcast using 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons, except we’re gutting most of the D&D part and doing a homebrew Spelljammer campaign instead. What’s Spelljammer, you ask? Good question! It’s Dungeons & Dragons but in space with hippo men and penguin aliens and giant spiders with eels for heads. It’s great!
Every episode, Anna DMs an extremely dumb/extremely good space adventure for Annie (Jylliana the Tempest Cleric), Maq (Cacophony the Glamour Bard), Alexei (Aelfgifu the Ranger), and Rio (Arturos the Fighter).
Show edited by Jake Mason
The Cast
Cacophony
Eladrin, glamour bard, fabulous outfits
Cacophony is like a million feet tall and has huge boobs. She’s basically unstoppable, though that has less to do with her rapier and musical charm magic and more with her state as a general force of nature. Cacophony changes her outfits frequently and spends a lot of time describing her clothes in intimate detail. She has adapted well to Wildspace, but then again, she’s pretty comfortable anywhere she goes (as long as she has friends, attention, and her viol). Once got eaten by a living rug. When not performing, Cacophony changes back into her mild-mannered alter-ego, the tired, sensible, and generally hoodie-bedecked Xilwyn, or “Wyn” for short. Regardless of how spectacular she appears at any given moment, one thing is constant: Cacophony is determined to search the universe for the lizard woman love of her life, even if it means leaving a string of broken hearts and mutual one-night stands in her wake. She’s willing to make that sacrifice.
Played by Maq Weaver.
‘Wait! I haven’t described my outfit!”
Jylliana
Aasimar, tempest cleric, anxious as hell
Jylliana comes from a small convent dedicated to a storm goddess called Ethla. She wields a warhammer in battle and has been known to shoot lightning at people when she’s not healing them, but she spends most of her time generally exhausted by the infinite, extremely weird vastness of Wildspace. Jyll is prickly, rarely happy, and plagued by anxiety, but she’s determined to protect the people she cares about by any means available to her. She’s terrified of spiders, which, considering her first exposure to Wildspace involved the Neogi—a race of giant spider men with eel heads—is maybe not particularly useful. Jylliana’s formerly effortless relationship with Ethla has become more distant lately, thanks to the ways religion, divine magic, and Wildspace interact,but she’s learning to cope. Now if she could only cope with the multiple hot monster boys suddenly vying for her attention without turning into a stammering mess...
Played by Annie Craton.
“Ethla knows that we are weak, and yet she asks for strength.”
“I cause problems on purpose.”
Aelfgifu
human, ranger, it’s pronounced “al-Vee-vah”
Having grown up in the woods outside Stormhaven for most of her life, Aelfgifu has a lot of doubts about crowds, civilization, and interpersonal relationships. She’s adjusted to Cacophony and Jylliana, though she finds them bewildering at times. Wildspace has given Aelfgifu a chance to live up to her late parental figure’s final request—for her to see the world—in a much bigger way than he probably ever intended. Normally content to observe, Aelfgifu races to the forefront in battle, wielding twin swords and a deadly longbow. Thanks to a cursed ring, she’s recently developed a “blipping” problem, splitting time between Wildspace and the Feywild. It’s left her a little more dexterous, a little weaker, and a little gayer. Frankly, her companions are just happy she’s in one piece. Over the course of their adventures, Aelfgifu has begun to suspect that she has a far deeper connection to Wildspace than she ever knew, but the exact nature of that connection remains to be seen.
Played by Vicki Charron (episodes 1-21) and Alexei Pepers (episodes 28-present).
“Why are land-horses so weird?”
Arturos Posperoth
triton, fighter, fancy fish himbo
Refined, regal, and really, really dumb. Arturos (“Artie” to his friends(???)) has spent a lot of time bouncing from ship to ship in Wildspace, having been ditched, fired, or marooned because he’s either too friendly, too frustrating, or just too lazy, which is kind of impressive, considering that he’s definitely eye candy, if nothing else. It’s not actually clear if he knows how to do chores. Arturos also insists he “doesn’t” read, which has yet to be more closely examined. All this aside, though, Arturos is a strong, loyal fish in a fight, ready to give his all for the people who accept him. His magical abilities are powerful, if not well-controlled, and he’s always ready with a flirt or a dad joke, depending on what he feels the situation calls for. He is wildly adamant that he is not, in fact, a secret prince, but his companions remain unconvinced.
Played by Rio Rios.
Kit Walker
Dungeon master, every other character, are you sure you wanna do that?
Kit ran the game; developed the story; played Captain Bondar, Mr. Hurst, Finn, Kara, Veli, Lachlan, (but not Toolbox) and pretty much everyone else who had to deal with our so-called “heroes;” and was an omnipresent menace to Wildspace in general. They put up with a lot, frankly. Made themself a private wiki and placed the campaign along an actual plotted point in the Spelljammer timeline, because they’re Like That.
DM: episodes 1 through 108.
Anna Emmaline
Dungeon Master, Incorrigible Enabler, Insufferable Pun-Maker
Having picked up the DM reins from her old friend, Anna spends a lot of her time giving characters funny voices, making up homebrew, squealing at character romance, and generally being the player characters' biggest fan. Ask her anything about the game at any time, and you'll have to hold her back from rambling gleefully. Just don't get her started on the puns. She will never stop.
First appearance: episode 96; as DM episode 109 - present.
What is Spelljammer?
Spelljammer is a setting for Dungeons & Dragons originally released in 1989. It’s sci-fi/fantasy at its weirdest.
Jemjammer uses a combination of homebrew rules developed by Kit and Anna, and actual rules released in bits and pieces by Wizards of the Coast prior to their official 5E rerelease.