Books
Hear The Count’s Voice in Fiction Podcast ‘Re: Dracula’ [Crowdfunding]
Everyone thinks they know the story of Dracula. They usually forget to include the cowboy, though.
Re: Dracula is a new fiction podcast telling an old story, an adaptation of the original vampire novel by Bram Stoker. This close adaptation will use immersive sound design and some of the best-loved names in fiction podcasting to bring the bite, with a new twist: every episode will appear in chronological order, on the date it occurs in the novel. Never fear, the cowboy is included.
Re: Dracula (pronounced “regarding” if you feel like embracing your inner Victorian bookkeeper) is currently crowdfunding, and although their original goal was $12,000, they’ve blazed past their first and second stretch goals, and are working on their third. If the campaign reaches $25,000, they intend to make a concept album with Newt Schottelkotte (Where the Stars Fell, Inkwyrm) and The Blasting Company (Over The Garden Wall).
The crowdfund will run until October 30th, 2022, and is offering such donation perks as ad-free episodes, a vampire-centric TTRPG bundle, a recipe zine, campaign-specific merchandise, and a full audiobook of Dracula.
Re: Dracula has already begun announcing its cast and crew. In addition to music by Newt Schottelkotte, the series will be produced by Tal Minear (Someone Dies in This Elevator, Sidequesting, What Will Be Here?), Stephen Indrisano (Human Error, Feminist Fairytales), Hannah Wright (Inn Between), and Ella Watts (Doctor Who Redacted, Eliza: A Robot Story, The Orphans).
Voice talents have joined the show from all corners of the audio drama scene, including Karim Kronfli, Jonny Sims, Alasdair Stuart, and Sasha Sienna of The Magnus Archives, Beth Eyre and Felix Trench of Wooden Overcoats, Ben Galpin of Victoriocity and No Small Rolls, Alan Burgon of The Amelia Project, David Ault of The White Vault, and Giancarlo Herrera of Valence and Caravan. The cast will also be joined by television actor Isabel Adomakoh Young from Netflix’s Heartstopper.
Kronfli will be stealing the show as the titular Dracula.
“This project was directly inspired by Dracula Daily – a newsletter that delivers the story into your email inbox. We’re big fans of this ingenious way of reading the novel, and we wanted to take it to its natural next step and do a podcast.”
Because of Dracula Daily, the old book has gained a renewed following among the literati of the internet at large and Tumblr especially, spurring new memes and fresh takes on one of the foundations of gothic horror.
The team behind Re: Dracula wants to engage with the book through a variety of different lenses, digging into the extant LGBTQ+ themes inherent to the story in new ways. They plan to work with the outdated attitudes toward mental illness and ethnic minorities not by changing the text, but with nuance and care both for their cast and their listeners. Content warnings and transcripts will be included and available with every episode.
Re: Dracula will premiere May 3rd, 2023, in your favorite podcast apps, and will run through November 3rd of the same year. If you want to support the campaign, head to SeedSpark to support Re: Dracula!
Free League Publishing are forging ahead with a slew of new content for Alien The Roleplaying Game Evolved Edition, headlined by a new cinematic adventure in “Operation Leading Edge”, and an accompanying set of miniatures.
Both Operation Leading Edge and the miniatures set are available for pre-order now from the Free League webshop, with immediate PDF access ahead of its Q4 2026 release. You can also snag a new dedicated dice tray for the Alien RPG and the Evolved Edition.
Operation Leading Edge is a stand-alone adventure for Alien RPG, but also serves as the second installment of the Jeremiah Saga trilogy. The adventure is designed for 3–5 players plus the Game Mother, and lets the players take the roles of a team of Colonial Marines sent to secure a rich mineral deposit on the remote moon Jeremiah VI.
Here’s what you get with the new campaign:
- The main Operation Leading Edge adventure book.
- Two huge double-sided maps (format 34 × 22 inches) featuring the key adventure locations in great and terrifying detail.
- Five pre-generated characters to choose from.
- Playing cards for personal agendas and NPCs.
- Cardboard tokens for characters and creatures.
- GM maps and player handouts.
Complementing Operation Leading Edge is the new miniatures set for the campaign, featuring 20 high-quality miniatures of Colonial Marines, enemy troops from the Union of Progressive Peoples (UPP), and of course, a host of Xenomorphs.
Standing 28mm in scale, these are perfectly sized for use on the large battle maps included in Operation Leading Edge and other cinematic adventures for the Evolved Edition.
The new Operation Leading Edge miniatures set also includes a booklet with simplified combat rules that make it possible to play quick skirmish battle rules in the Alien universe using the included miniatures.
In case you haven’t hopped on board, you can check out Aaron’s review of the Evolved Edition, which as you might expect, adds even more fantastic content to an already fantastic TTRPG.
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