by Anders Winther & Valdemar Lenschow
Live from his time-displaced cave, the wizard Merlin sits ready with his round table of famous magicians from history, to discuss listener-dilemmas in the hit-podcast “Dear Merlin”
Participants: 3-4
Game Facilitators: 1
Total time: 2 hours
Language: Danish/English
Age limit: 15+
How much to read: 1 page
“You are listening to Dear Merlin. Along with his sharp-witted guests, the wizard sits ready at his round table. Together, they will give advice to listeners, both mortal and divine, who are caught in various interesting dilemmas”
Dear Merlin is a short comedy scenario, which mixes podcasting with mythology. It covers one episode of Merlin’s famous podcast, in which the players will take on the roles of some of the biggest personalities from the history of magic, while they try to solve a series of listener-dilemmas, which are presented by their host and gamemaster Merlin. The dilemmas vary. Some are relatable, but magical everyday problems, while others are much more complicated and require some moral reflection. The game is played semi-live, and it functions as one long scene without off-game breaks.
“At the round table today we have the seducing sorceress Circe, the wanderer Odin from the far north, the illusionist David Blaine and of course the wild witch of the East: Baba Yaga”.
- Comedy
- Podcasting
- Mythology
Content notes
There are a lot of mythological tales with unpleasant content such as violence, incest, sexism and treachery, and as Merlin’s round table you will counsel the listeners through such situations – while the ethics and morality of your characters also belong to past eras. The whole thing is of course with a bit of irony, and the primary focus of the scenario is absurdity and humor.
Type of participant:
You like conversation-driven roleplaying, to discuss and to make an iconic figure your own. The dilemmas and podcast-structure are the core of the game, but there is also space for a little social intrigue and drama.
Type of game facilitator:
You like to play along, as you facilitate roleplaying games, and relish being a moderator. Because you will play the famous wizard and radiohost Merlin himself. As the scenario is without breaks, you won’t have much time to reread text during play, and you need to focus on maintaining the structure.
