Thread by @magpies_pod

The Magpies is a year old tomorrow, and I'm gonna get a bit sappy about it!

I first came across Blades in the Dark when it was @john_harper's Kickstarter project, though by the time I backed it, it was more than funded and had plenty of stretch goals unlocked.

Even from the KS description, I was hooked by the setting and the premise. I ran some of the early playtest versions for friends, and as bumpy as those games were, I still fell in love with the game.

April 2017, I finally got my hands on the book, and by July--between a combination of reading the book cover to cover and getting deep into AP podcasts thanks to @campaignpod and @OneShotNetwork--I knew I wanted to do a Blades AP.

I'm a pretty organized person, so I made plans, recruited players, started recording and editing. But even with all those plans, I was still trying to set my expectations low. Who was going to listen to this show? It's not like there's any shortage of AP podcasts, after all.

Then, a week before launch, @Mahaffay more or less threw me at @rpg_casts and Tess offered to do a review of our first episode. I was *terrified*--that was the first time someone besides the cast would hear our show!

Launch day came, and Tess posted her glowing review, and we had over 100 downloads on the first day. I was blown away. Like, sitting at my computer, staring at Simplecast with tears in my eyes, blown away. From Day 1, this show and our listeners have exceeded my expectations.

We've been at this for a year, and we've got over 61K downloads. Based on my back-of-the-envelope math, we've got about 1400-1500 regular listeners. And that audience has been phenomenal. You all have been so enthusiastic and supportive of us all.

Every positive review makes me happy, but my favorites, the ones that make me feel the best, are the ones that specifically praise our social justice work. It feels small sometimes, the featured charities, the story about sticking it to the rich and powerful and corrupt.

But telling that story and pointing people at those charities helps, even just a little. And it means so much to hear that other people appreciate it.

I'm so, so proud of this show and what it's become. I'm so grateful to @kimdianajones @mynaminnarr @DragonGirlJosie and @madgequips for your amazing, hilarious, brilliant, heartbreaking characters, to @Mahaffay for being a special guest and behind-the-scenes sounding board--

--to the various podcasting communities I'm now a part of and all the amazing friends and supporters I've met through them. You've helped me navigate technical difficulties, bad days, and the weirdness of Audacity.

I'm thankful to our transcribers, @Tyler_MoonSage and @archingskies, for helping us make our show more accessible. And I'm so grateful to our Patreon supporters for making those transcripts possible!

And of course, I'm grateful to every single person who listens to the Magpies. You make the hours of planning and recording and editing and all the rest worth it. Thank you, truly. This first year has been incredible, and I can't wait to see what next year brings. 💜