Cthulhu mysteries rolled out loud, jokes and all.
Facing Fate plays its fiction at a table, with dice rolls, pushed rolls and death saves explained inside the story. Its Cthulhu S3 episodes chase murders and disappearances through a small town, down to a picture of a monstrous-looking Santa Claus, while the Chromeheads & Corpos season swaps all that for a stand-off under gunfire.
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Facing Fate is fiction played at a table, and it never hides the table. Dice rolls, rule explanations and out-of-character asides share the track with the story, so a listener hears a mystery being solved and a game being played at the same time. The Cthulhu S3 storyline shows how that works. Russ, announcing the season on the feed, describes it as holiday-inspired and says its investigators have a very Golden Girls kind of vibe. The excerpts bear out the holiday part in unsettling ways. There are murders in a small town, a sheriff and a doctor's wife among those gone missing, and a portly gentleman said to look like Santa Claus. One conversation points the group toward an antique store called The Relic Retrospective, and in the same scene a picture turns out to show a monstrous-looking Santa Claus. Someone at the table even asks whether a person is trying to steal Christmas. The clues are small and specific. In 'Murder In Davenport', Winifred flags a crossed-out reminder in Nathan's handwriting to buy postage for his mom's birthday card, because his mother died two years ago. The other side of the same slip names Billy Latham, son of Robert, and asks what he saw that night. Much of the humor comes from the players stepping outside the story. With a friend found tied up and beaten in a basement, one voice jokes that Winifred has never seen movies and so doesn't know about the twist, and several cut in with 'don't say it' when someone edges toward naming 'the defiler.' The same scene explains a pushed roll: a second attempt that risks unforeseen circumstances. Chromeheads & Corpos shows how far the settings can travel. In an excerpt from 'The Stand-Off (Part 2)', Gina runs down the south hallway amid talk of gunfire, and the narration cuts to operatives facing death saves. The rule is read out on the spot: roll under body and you live, roll a 10 and you fail, and each save raises the penalty on the next. That openness about how fate gets decided is the show's clearest signature. The feed also carries a presenting episode for The Strata, in which a doctor finds that a patient named Mr. Rust has almost nothing original left but his face and brain tissue. Expect murder and some strong language alongside the jokes.
Made for: Suits a listener who likes hearing a horror mystery built live at a table, dice and rule explanations included, and who enjoys dread cut with jokes from the players.
What sets it apart: The game stays audible, with pushed rolls and death saves explained mid-scene and out-of-character jokes sitting right beside the investigation. Seasons also change setting completely, from a holiday-tinged Cthulhu mystery to the gunfire of Chromeheads & Corpos.
An improvised audio fiction series that keeps you on the edge of your seat. Each season explores a new genre with some of the darkest and funniest improvisers we can afford.
A spaceship landing needs a dice roll; you get the crew's motivational shouting for free.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A basement rescue turns on trust, a risky roll, and one very heavy bust.
Facing Fate's Cthulhu Season 3 episode turns a basement rescue into a compact test of trust. Winifred chooses to believe Nathan after finding him tied up and beaten, accepting the bad roll instead of pressing for another attempt with consequences waiting in the dark.
A lead to Mr. Spays' antique store and a headless Santa drawing give the investigation a grimly strange charge.
Facing Fate's Cthulhu Season 3, Episode 3 follows a lead to Mr. Spays' antique store, the Relic Retrospective, and turns it into a compact study in very particular dread.
A Christmas Eve investigation turns Santa jokes and missing persons into an uneasy Cthulhu mystery.
Christmas Eve gives this Cthulhu mystery a surprisingly playful frame, as a sheriff and the rest of the table circle a loose chain of disappearances involving a father, a doctor's wife, and a portly bearded man with an uncomfortable resemblance to Santa Claus.
A police tail and a strange note pull Davenport's newcomers into a murder case shaped by small contradictions.
Facing Fate starts with a wary arrival in Davenport, where a police car slips out from behind the town sign and follows the group toward downtown and Main Street.
An aging courier's rebuilt body becomes the first map of The Strata's cyberpunk world.
The Strata opens on a cyberpunk city where survival has become a transaction, following an aging courier pushed into business with an underworld ganglord so he can keep paying for the treatment that keeps him alive. The standout moment is Mr.
Dice, divine mysteries, and the trouble with good intentions.
["Facing Fate: Cthulhu Season 3, Episode 4, 'I Can Get It For You,' turns a Christmas Eve stop at the Relic Retrospective in Davenport, Iowa into a search for Nathaniel Piedmont and the ritual notes labeled 'Banishment of the Defiler.'", "Tom Laird runs the session as the Keeper while Carla Maxted, Amy Moore, Russ Moore, and Kyle Claset play Winifred Ambrose Montague, Victoria Vicky Carvalho, Dr.
["Facing Fate's 'Don't Speak It's Name' tracks Miss Annabelle Thropp, Dr.
Facing Fate's "Cthulhu Season 3; Episode 02 - The Star Reporter" follows the team through Davenport as they inspect a post-office lockbox, a lawyer's office, and the Gazette office on Christmas Eve.
In this episode, four travelers arrive in Davenport, Iowa, and are immediately followed by a suspicious police officer, setting up a mystery in the Cthulhu-themed season.
Facing Fate opens by teasing Cthulhu season three's "Murder in Davenport" before pivoting to The Strata, a cyberpunk audio drama about Rust.
Facing Fate's “Chromeheads & Corpos; Episode 07 - The Stand-Off (Part 2)” follows Lolly, Obsidian, Glass, and Dino Dinovic during an armed defense of Dr.
Facing Fate's "Chromeheads and Corpos; Episode 06 - The Stand-Off (Part 1)" follows Lolly, Obsidian, Glass, and Dino Dinovic through an armed assault targeting Dr.
Facing Fate: Chromeheads & Corpos; Episode 05 - The Breach begins with WorldSat-related reports before a blackout removes the apartment residents' signals and data-term access.
Facing Fate’s “Chromeheads & Corpos; Episode 04 - Project Surprise Birthday Party” follows Dino, Gina, Glass, Lolly, Obsidian, and their neighbors as they try to stop Derek and Militech-linked security operatives from threatening their apartment building.
Facing Fate: Chromeheads and Corpos, Episode 03, “The Tepid Plan,” follows Lolly, Obsidian, Glass, Dino Dinovic, and Gina as Militech security guards and a cybernetic surveyor appear outside their Night City building.
Facing Fate: Chromeheads and Corpos follows Lolly, Obsidian, Glass, and Dino Dinovich as they prepare for a rooftop potluck and liquor-bottle card game in Night City.
Facing Fate: Chromeheads and Corpos, Episode 1 introduces Babiak Gardens, a struggling apartment complex in Night City's University District, one block north of South Night City.
Facing Fate: Cthulhu Season 2, Episode 4 follows Dr.
Facing Fate: Cthulhu Season 2, Episode 3, “The Garage” opens with Billy producing a liquid-fire substance after the group sees a strange light during a storm.
Facing Fate: Cthulhu Season 2, Episode 2, “Lights Off” follows Dr.
Facing Fate: Cthulhu Season 2, Episode 1 follows Dr.
Facing Fate: Off World; Episode 02 follows Russ Moore’s crew as the Resilient Squirrel carries Karsek eggs from Lavoilian rebels toward the Kingsmen.
Facing Fate: Off World; Episode 01 uses the Offworlders role-playing system to follow Russ Moore and five players aboard the patched spaceship Resilient Squirrel.
Facing Fate: Black Knight; Episode 10 presents the Soul Survivor Season 84 finale, where host Steve McFlinterson interviews winner Cole Calloway about volcanoes, spike pits, piranhas, and the Black Knight.
Facing Fate: Black Knight; Episode 08 places teams in Soul Survivor, a live-action competition where contestants must reach a volcano while avoiding the returning executioner, the Black Knight.
Facing Fate: Black Knight; Episode 07 follows Soul Survivor contestants after the Black Knight kills Dale and drags Skye back to the team.
Facing Fate: Black Knight; Episode 06 follows Steve McFlinterson’s survival-game broadcast as contestants question whether the deaths around them are real.
Facing Fate: Black Knight; Episode 05 follows Steve McFlinterson’s fictional survival show Soul Survivor after Carl is sent against the Black Knight.
Facing Fate: Black Knight; Episode 04 places Team Nature Will Survive and the Gladiators in a costume challenge before one contestant faces Soul Survivor's returning Black Knight.
Facing Fate: Black Knight, Episode 03 follows Steve McFlinterson's fictional survival show as Team Nature Will Survive and Team Gladiators prepare for a costume challenge.
Facing Fate: Black Knight; Episode 02 introduces Myrna, Dale, Cole, and Skye as Team B contestants in the fictional survival competition Soul Survivor.
Facing Fate: Black Knight; Episode 01 introduces Soul Survivor, a reality-show parody where four LARPers face island challenges and the returning executioner called the Black Knight.
Facing Fate: Cthulhu, Episode 4 follows Eva Evans, Bernadette Fenske, and Rodney Barnum as they track Jane toward a remote geological dig site hired by Lucas Strong.
Facing Fate’s “Cthulhu; Episode 03 - Alone” follows Eva, Bernadette, and Rodney through a forest where six abandoned paintings reproduce images from their nightmares.
Facing Fate: Cthulhu, Episode 2 follows Eva Evans, Bernadette Fenske, and Rodney Barnum as they track missing people through an Ontario forest.
Facing Fate: Cthulhu; Episode 01 - Missing follows Eva Evans, Bernadette Fenske, and Rodney Barnum as they arrive in Bennington, Vermont, and join a search for Eva's kidnapped cousin Jane.
The season finale of Facing Fate's Luna Corp includes a sponsor ad, thanks to listeners, and a teaser for Season 2.
The host announces the penultimate episode of Season 1 of the actual play podcast Facing Fate, discusses Season 2 plans, and promotes ad-free listening via Fable & Folly Plus.
The Game Master introduces the approaching end of Season 1 and teases Season 2, a darker story with new characters, while promoting Patreon for early access and bonus content.
This episode is a promotional segment for the actual play podcast Facing Fate, discussing upcoming Season 2 world and character building.