Reviews may be lightly edited for formatting and clarity.
Cinematic storytelling is a term that is sometimes put in conversations about Actual Plays but has been often related to the visual nature of it; how is the studio lit, how is the art direction, how is the music used. What Tales Yet Told and Kendrick Smith do excellently in Our Lives In The Wood, and indeed in their other APs set in the same world, is explore cinematic storytelling techniques through the story itself. Visuals are half the picture, and Tales Yet Told utilises the other half - sound and its design, to its maximum effect.
This episode ‘On a Personal Note’ features the system ‘Dream Investigator’ created by Nathan Lurz as part of the ‘David Lynch Game Jam’ hosted on Itch.io, which is a solo-journaling game with a series of prompts to be answered by the player and forming a story around it. Lurz also plays Dr. Jennings and the Post Dream Analysis Voice.
We start off with a bunch of prompts and replies spoken between two people, and it immediately lends itself to a more experimental approach to the genre. No sweeping narration of the world we are living in, maybe a hint of a major event, and not even the real name of the protagonist. A microcosm, a single solitary story in a swirling, ever changing city called Sublime.
The episode itself is an investigation within an investigation, as the person - Agent Seeker - is hired to analyse the recordings of a test subject ‘Flighty Duck,’ both played by Kendrick Smith, who’s on medication and slowly being turned into a skunk because of a curse - is also being questioned by an automatic robot voice about their feelings and their analysis about the dreams. It begs the questions - who is not the subject of question and experimentation? Is everyone just a tool for the corporation?
The ‘unseen’ corporation, Capricorn Pharmaceuticals, does medical trials and questions subjects before they could get their medications by a doctor hired to only ask the questions written for them, nothing more, nothing less. A literal ‘clinical’ approach which removes empathy from the mix and seen through the frustration of the subject. It isn’t made absolutely clear if the trials are there to uncover the reason behind the ‘Oak Creek Incident’ or if the billion dollar Pharmaceuticals company has its motivations and goals in place, and there lies the horror - the horror of not knowing. We keep getting to know ‘Flighty Duck’ also known as Target ‘Loud Fox’ through their vivid dreams and even glean on the personality of Agent Seeker 7B14, but there’s always a horrific exclusion by Capricorn Pharma, an overlord who uses and discards, much like a cheap syringe.
In conclusion, the entirety of Our Lives in the Wood is worth a shot of your listening time and the episode ‘On a Personal Note’ in particular. The double role played by Kendrick may cause a slight confusion because of the similarity of voice texture but it is then made clear that they are two distinct characters in the story. The sound design is simple but effective in creating the atmosphere and the music in the prompt phase of the game gives off a 1950’s noir crime investigation glaze over the whole story which it sometimes captures in its hostile corporate environment.
You're in a room with dim lighting, the blinds are letting in peaking streetlights as you stand in front of a desk with folders and names and compare them to the corkboard where you have set red string across multiple names all leading to one place, The Sublime. Our Lives in the Wood “On a Personal Note” transports you to a place where you think you understand the world, until an interviewee explains they've been cursed to turn into a skunk in four months, and now you question everything.
The soundscape is expertly done, setting the tone of a radio play that you would find in The Twilight Zone or Twin Peaks. This actual play utilizes Dream Investigator, a game made by the person cast opposite of Kendrick Smith, Nathan Lurz. The game is a Lynchian journaling game meant to set one self into a dreamscape, the episode utilizes the word association that you hear in the very beginning to set up what the dream is. Our interviewee (Felix or Flighty Duck played by Kendrick) has been having these dreams, and they are vivid, unsettling, concerning and a possible insight into the machinations of the sublime itself.
There's 3 interviews between Flighty Duck and Dr Robert Jennings (Nathan Lurz), they feel clinical, repressive, uncomfortable, and only get more so over the course of the episode, by the end the tension is palpable with and suffocating and these characters are alive with their anger and their fear. In the course of an hour you understand who Flighty Duck is, was, and their plight of who they're becoming. Kendrick commands your attention through their voice, the character comes alive and holds out their hand to join you in the dream and look up at the strings of the game tying this story together and embracing the strange beauty of the narrative. Our Lives in the Wood embraces its characters and its setting and what it does is just, Sublime.
“Our Lives In the Wood” is an innovative piece of art in the TTRPG Podcast space. The show features five episodes, and seven diverse guests spaced out between each episode that each features a different TTRPG system. The thread bringing all these episodes together – the fact that they are all set within Sublime County, a forest that is ruled by “The Stranger.”
The particular episode submitted for the screener utilized the system “Dream Investigator” by Nathan Lurz. The voice actor’s character is being interviewed as part of a clinical trial. The dreams are described as “safe” side effects which are being measured across test subjects by a doctor. But as rage, bitterness, and confusion grow, and vivid dreams get grander and more confusing, it is the one-liners and dialogue of the test subject that really brings the episode to life.
“Is it okay to want so much? It’s more than I’ve ever asked for before.” - Interviewee
“In the dream…what do you order?” - Interviewer
“Freedom.” - Interviewee
“All I could see was the hand of whoever was pulling those strings. I couldn’t see its face… but I could tell it was looking right at me.” - Interviewee
With this last quote, the doctor ends the dream analysis. I realized that it caught me quickly looking at how much time there was left in the episode – feeling the same sense of “WAIT NO” that the interviewee expresses themselves. With this podcast, you don’t realize how time passes, as you are sucked into it almost immediately.
Overall, “Our Lives In the Wood” brings a unique way of experiencing Actual Plays. The work done in post is incredible and makes it easy to slip into a meditative space and experience the screener as though you are listening to the interview on a fresh cassette tape. This horror AP podcast brings a level of surrealism that truly can only be done with a full team, both on and off microphone. And with only a couple voices playing throughout the hour, it leaves far more to the imagination that it always gives – making you feel as though you, too, are part of the process itself.
Podcast, R
Adventure, Drama, Horror, Thriller
System: Dream Investigator
Content Notices: Forced human transformation into an animal, medical malpractice, medical gaslighting, corporate surveillance, unethical human experimentation, chemically induced hallucinations, mentions of fecal incontinence, negative medicinal side effects, surrealist dreamscape, unethical use of medical information
Description
Our Lives in the Wood is a slice-of-life horror series that uses a variety of TTRPGs to explore the many stories within the setting of Sublime County. The Sublime fantastical forest world ruled by an entity known as the Stranger. This episode uses Dream Investigator by Nathan Lurz to explore the horror of Clinical Trials, corporate intrusion on privacy, and the "War on Terror" through the perspective of a doctor, a patient, and the intelligence agent being asked to spy on them.
Liberatory Artistic Practices
I think my approach to liberatory art is centered on getting people to ask questions. The worlds I create and the stories I craft look at issues in our reality from a more absurd, surreal, or fantastical lens to get audiences to genuinely question things they may have taken for granted. Asking questions is the first step to taking action.