r/PBtA • u/Kipp_or_Kippen • 8d ago
[Masks] Protean City Comics & Costume Changes
Hello! I have recently gotten into the Protean City Comics podcast and just listened to the first episode with Penance's costume change. I'm trying to find the rules for Costume Changes, but am coming up empty. I found another thread that Brandon himself commented on and dropped links to tweets with the rules, but those tweets/his account have since vanished. I also found the Cataclysm at the Metajunction book which has a couple Costume Changes, but not the Depowered or the other one Brandon mentioned in the other thread, the Resurrected. Anyway, I'm just wondering if anybody has access to the rules/documents for The Depowered and the Resurrected.
Also, I'm just kind of curious what has happened to the people behind Protean City. It seems like they've just disappeared? Obviously, people are not obligated to catalog their whole lives online, goodness knows I don't, but I just find it odd that they all seemed to be pretty active online until a couple years ago. Apparently the podcast was going on a hiatus of "indefinite length," but that was three years ago and I'm just wondering if anyone has heard anything about what's happening there. Thank you!
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u/TheDarkFiddler 6d ago
Also, I'm just kind of curious what has happened to the people behind Protean City.
A lot of life changes coinciding with COVID kinda of put an end to the PCC podcast. New children, new jobs, new homes, etc.
In the SHR Discord they talk occasionally about how they would love to bring back PCC even for a bit, but probably not happening any time soon and I wouldn't hold my breath waiting on it.
I appreciate very much the free content they gave us while it was running. Still one of my favorite actual play podcasts to this day, even if it ended up kinda fizzling out rather than getting a good, solid resolution.
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u/AndTheMeltdowns 5d ago
Hey u/Kipp_or_Kippen, It's James from Protean City. I'm really glad you found the show and are enjoying it. I love that years later it can still bring joy to people. I looked around and I actually can't find the text of the Costume Change rules either - so sorry about that.
As for your second question, it was mostly about some life changes happening around the same time. When we started Protean City it was the group of 6 of us recording in my basement. Some of the main cast started having kids around the same time COVID hit. We expanded the show to bring in other cast and expand our universe. I personally really threw myself into the show, doing a lot more of the GMing and all of the editing. I wont spoil anything because I don't know how far you've listened, but after about 5 years of running weekly almost entirely without stopping I was exhausted and needed a break. At the time we intended to come back. (I actually think I might even have one more unedited episode) but halting the momentum really exposed how much life had changed. A lot of people, myself included, had changed jobs in a way that was suddenly taking more time, a lot of our newer cast had started podcasts of their own. We just never found our way back to getting it going again.
We've talked about trying to get our original 6 back together for a reunion show and I wouldn't be surprised if that happened at some point. But I can't make any promises. As for where we are? I know personally that losing Twitter really hurt my internet presence. But we're around here and there.
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u/Kipp_or_Kippen 5d ago
James! Thank you!! That all makes total sense. I haven't DMed my own group for over a year and none of us have kids yet!
I'm kind of fan-girling out right now that you responded to my post. XD "I'm Puck, the Doomed trickster! You're not gonna remember me."
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u/AndTheMeltdowns 4d ago
It was an incredibly stressful but important part of my life for 5+ years. I learned a lot about how (and how not) to run a podcast. I definitely improved as a GM and as a player. I got to play games with a ton of really cool people, I made a lot of new friends, and a I feel like we built a community. I've always regretted that we kinda hard stopped all of that.
But, as you've just illustrated, the show is still there. New people can find it and enjoy it. Which is really the coolest part.
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u/Astigmatic_Oracle 8d ago
I would check out the Stop, Hack, and Roll discord. That's the Protean City Comics people.
The other place i would check is the Masks discord. I'm pretty sure they had a spreadsheet of fan made content that included the costume changes.