Four Shaggy Dog Stories

A carnival comes to the tree's park, but weird flyers with some kind of melon on them have been appearing, too, That's it for this season, folks. I'm closing down for the school year. I'll be back next June-ish with some more stories, and it's possible there will be some bonus stuff when I have time. Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/balou Contact: 4shaggydogstories@gmail.com Thanks for listening, and stay healthy out there, -B

A pie seller comes to the farmer's market in the tree's park. One more next week, and then we're on break for the school year. Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/balou Contact: 4shaggydogstories@gmail.com Hope everyone is staying safe and well, -B

After "The Tree" series, I'm going to need to wind this podcast down to get ready for the school year and my new kid. I'll try to post more episodes when I have time, but this may have to become a podcast that has a new season each summer. To be clear, this isn't the end. There will be two more podcasts to finish out the current batch of four, and I'll be back at the very least next summer. But after "The Tree", that may be it until the next school year is over. Contact: 4shaggydogstories@gmail.com Hope everyone is staying safe and well, -B

The tree gets excited for an upcoming show in its park to break the long, hot, still monotony of summer. Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/balou Contact: 4shaggydogstories@gmail.com Hope everyone is staying safe and well, -B

I'm tapped out this week, folks. Here are some recommendations for other great stories out there: Fallen London A Dark Room The Night Vale Presents family of podcasts The Thrilling Adventure Hour The Adventure Zone GONE Limetown Old Gods of Appalachia Anyways, happy Fourth of July! Contact: 4shaggydogstories@gmail.com Hope everyone is staying safe and well, -B

A volcano watches the developing society on its island, trying not to obliterate them with an eruption. I created another solo RPG for the Wretched & Alone game jam, and this one I can actually post a live-play of! In this game, you are literally a volcano and you use story prompts to build a society and help your inhabitants react to changes on the island. I'm really proud of how this one came out. You can check out the game here: https://balou85.itch.io/volcano Contact: 4shaggydogstories@gmail.com Hope everyone is staying safe and well, -B

A red and white tree is having a boring day, but the seasons are changing. Welcome to another set of stories; I'm calling these "The Tree" for a reason that will become quite obvious once you start listening. Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/balou Contact: 4shaggydogstories@gmail.com Hope everyone is staying safe and well, -B

A clown tries his hand at stand-up comedy. It doesn't go well. This one isn't especially noir-y, I suppose, but the walk home is exactly how I remember walking home late at night in the city. I like how that part came out. Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/balou Contact: 4shaggydogstories@gmail.com Hope everyone is staying safe and well, -B

A man tracks the trail of a conspiracy around watermelon, and enjoys some delicious tacos on a snowy day. I had some real difficulty recording this one, what with everything that is going on. You'll notice a few places where I change details from the beginning to the end, but hey, we still get there, and it is a shaggy dog story. It's also not super noir-y the whole way through, but it starts and ends there. Black lives matter. George Floyd and too many others should still be alive. Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/balou Contact: 4shaggydogstories@gmail.com Hope everyone is staying safe and well, -B

This week, I've been working on a submission to an online game jam. You can check out the jam itself here: https://itch.io/jam/wretched-jam And check out my submission here: https://balou85.itch.io/the-artifact My game, The Artifact, is a solo, cosmic horror, storytelling RPG. You are sent a mysterious artifact and have to try to get rid of it before it drives you insane. Hope you enjoy, and I should be back with another regular story next week. Contact: 4shaggydogstories@gmail.com Stay safe, -B

A singer takes to the stage for the nightly show at a red and white supper club, while outside the rain pours down. I really had fun recording this one. At various points in the story, I thought of some darker, more gritty directions I could take it in, but decided not to. Minor spoiler, but this is maybe the happiest ending I've done so far. Enjoy. Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/balou Contact: 4shaggydogstories@gmail.com Hope everyone is staying safe and well, -B

A detective tailing a suspicious character stumbles onto an out-of-the way restaurant specializing in whiskey drinks and pie. Welcome back to a new setting that I'm calling Noir. I'll use this to explore some of the tropes of old detective movies and film noir in general. Hope you enjoy! Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/balou Contact: 4shaggydogstories@gmail.com Hope everyone is staying safe and well, -B

Memories of an old story from her grandfather send a young woman searching for answers about a forgotten melon. This is the fourth and final story in the arcology setting. Next week, I'll start telling the stories over again in a new setting. Haven't decided what I'm going to do yet, but I've got a couple of ideas. Want to help pick out the setting of the next batch of stories? Check out my Patreon page at the below link! Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/balou Contact: 4shaggydogstories@gmail.com Hope everyone is staying safe and well, -B

A deep sea welder helps to repair damage to one of the arcologies caused by an earthquake, but this stupid clown on her team keeps distracting her. This is the third story in the arcology setting. Next week, we do the Watermelon story, and I'm still not sure how that one is going to work, especially the ending, since there aren't really streets underwater. Stay tuned! Want to help pick out the setting of the next batch of stories? Check out my Patreon page at the below link. Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/balou Contact: 4shaggydogstories@gmail.com Hope everyone is staying safe and well, -B

The sole survivor of an attack on a deep space salvage ship tries to repair the engines and signal for help, while keeping the creature at bay. Story is told through a series of daily audio logs. Ok, this was seriously fun. I recently purchased an online copy of the solo RPG "The Wretched", by Chris Bissette. You can check out that RPG, as well as his other stuff at these links: https://loottheroom.itch.io/wretched https://loottheroom.uk/ The idea behind "The Wretched" is basically the premise from up at the top of this episode description. Through a combination of rolling a die, pulling cards from a deck, and balancing a wooden block tower (I used Jenga), you encounter different situations on a daily basis, and survive them (or not), based on the outcome of those card pulls, die rolls, and your tower staying balanced. At the end of each day in the game, you record an audio log about everything that happened, and then try to keep surviving. Did I mention that you can get this RPG for as little as $5? Highly recommended, and he's even got some community copies for folks who are going through lean times right now. I also stepped up my audio editing a bit for this one, and added in an alarm sound effect that I got from https://www.fesliyanstudios.com - they've got a bunch of royalty-free sounds that you can use, and it's not just alarms! I really enjoyed making this one, and since it's outside of my usually loop of four stories, I'm posting this one as a Bonus. I'd love to do more stuff like this in the future, so if you have any other ideas of solo storytelling RPGs that I could record, feel free to get in touch. See you again on Monday with our next regular installment, -B Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/balou Contact: 4shaggydogstories@gmail.com

Red and white twins go on a school field trip from their arcology to a deep-sea vent. This is the second story in the arcology setting. I've got an idea for how to handle the Clown story in this setting, but not a great one for the Watermelon story yet. Stay tuned! Want to help pick out the setting of the next batch of stories? Check out my Patreon page at the below link. Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/balou Contact: 4shaggydogstories@gmail.com Hope everyone is staying safe and well, -B

A man is stranded in an underwater city while grocery shopping and has his very first slice of fruit pie. This episode is the first of the second set of stories. I'll be telling all four of them in this particular setting, which happens to be underwater arcologies. If you want to hear a bit more about the genesis of this idea, check out this TVtropes explainer: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Arcology Want to help pick out the setting of the next batch of stories? Check out my Patreon page at the below link. Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/balou Contact: 4shaggydogstories@gmail.com Hope you enjoy the new setting! -B

This bonus episode is all about why I am doing this particular podcast, the inspirations behind it, and the rules that I've set for myself in terms of creating this podcast and telling these stories. It also includes bite-size versions of the stories that I will keep telling, over and over, in case you've fallen asleep to any of them and missed the ending. References: http://www.zombiemathadventure.com/ http://www.nightvalepresents.com/startwiththis https://www.lenswork.com/lwpod.htm https://mst3k.com/ https://maximumfun.org/podcasts/adventure-zone/ https://blart.libsyn.com/ http://www.worstideaofalltime.com/about.html Contact: 4shaggydogstories@gmail.com Thanks so much for listening, and I'll see you with another full episode on Monday.

The fourth shaggy dog story - the clown story. This is the last one that I learned, and the one that I was most worried about having to stretch into a full hour. This one took a big left turn about halfway through, but I'm pretty happy with where it came out. A man is insulted by a clown, tries to get back at him, and then finds a new life. I'm still messing with settings on my new microphone, and I feel like this week I was getting a bit more sort of tape-hiss noise in the background. Please feel free to let me know what you think at 4shaggydogstories@gmail.com. And those are the four stories I know! Now I just have to find more ways to tell them. I'm going to record another episode in the near future, not a full story episode, but rather one explaining more about this podcast, the rules I'm trying to follow, and what inspired me to start this.

The watermelon story... this is the first Shaggy Dog story I learned, and maybe the one that I'm most excited to play with in the future. A little girl is disappointed that she doesn't get watermelon for lunch, and then her entire world is upended. Once again, I'm trying a new recording set up, so if this one sounds better or worse to you, please feel free to let me know at 4shaggydogstories@gmail.com. Next week, I'll tell version #1 of the last Shaggy Dog story I learned, and then... well, I'll have to find some new ways to tell the stories, won't I?