The Witches of Wederra Keep

In two weeks on January 28th, The Witches of Wederra Keep is a story coming to your podcast platforms! I'm so excited :)

A coven of three witches lives in Wederra Fortress, an old crumbling keep of two towers and a hall with stone walls around modest grounds high up on the Phalanx Cliffs at the edge of the vast sea...

The Witches of Wederra Keep is a novel-length improvised saga, an ‘actual play’ of the tabletop roleplaying game Wickedness by M Veselak. It is completely unscripted and created by the cast in the moment of telling. Scenarios are drawn from a tarot deck and choices are made. The witches can solve challenges with True Magic or Wisdom, and must fall to their Follies to gain wisdom.

The idea

A little over a year ago, I had the idea for an actual play show using the system Wickedness by M Veselak (published by Possum Creek Games). I’d played Wickedness a few years before while working on another actual play idea with some local friends. While that project didn’t work out, the game left a big impression on me. It somehow creates a slice-of-life experience of these three witches, with opportunities to play as gently or as harsh as you want, and it was vibrant.

The idea came first as a desire to play with my good friend Sarah Purcell, an actor colleague of mine who knew nothing about roleplaying games but was fascinated by hearing me talk endlessly about them. It felt like an ‘aha’ moment when an image of her as one of the witches came to me. I sat on that for more than six months, knowing that the cast would be the most important part of the project. Then, as things happen, last spring in quick succession I met and worked with Maricarmen Gutiérrez and ran into Ariella Weigl who I knew from an earlier project, and the whole thing just came together.

It might be the biggest project I’ve ever directed myself! In terms of sheer number of hours and resources spent it’s been a lot of work. Everyone has worked hard on their part. But I think that work is paying off. Next week we’ll get the artwork from our amazing poster illustrator - I can't wait to show you. Seeing that visualization of the show coming together has been very exciting.

The show

We’ll release the show on January 28 — probably a double feature of episodes 1&2 — and it’ll run for 29 episodes through the entirety of 2025.

The episodes average around 25 minutes (though some are longer and some are shorter) and they’ll be published just about every other week. I hope this makes it easy for people to get into. It’s something a little different from other forms of actual play, which ask people to devote 1-2 hours or more per episode. It’s an effort to carve out a little niche for myself in this field.

To help us with that, we'd love your support! I want to do more work with these wonderful actors and with others. I'd love to turn this little project into an ongoing creative production. It's a rough moment for artists promoting themselves and the amazing thing is that you can help. Here's some ways:

• Most importantly, share it with your friends! Word of mouth is the most powerful true magic here.
• Follow along! Search for and subscribe to The Witches of Wederra Keep wherever you get your podcasts, and share on social media, like Bluesky and Instagram.
• Leave our witches a review anywhere.
• If you can afford a small amount, support us on Wederra Keep Patreon or subscribe over there.
• Subscribe to this blog!