I talked with Dain about his 2024 CRIT award nominated, actual play campaign, No Quest for the Wicked. Dain’s campaign uses the Starfinder rules and is loosely based off the Starfinder setting by using the same set of basic aliens for racial options.

Each of the different races experienced some sort of disaster on their homeworld. Before extinction they were saved by the Val’ai, an advanced alien species. The Val’ai uplifted these different races with magic and technology, setting them all on a path towards the Casa-Mal system. Casa-Mal has six terrestrial planets and many other planetoids/asteroids that orbit the sun. Humans have mainly settled on a self-sufficient modular space station known as the Cube. The Cube is constructed of thousands of modular Aeris spaceships that humans used to escape Earth’s solar system. Small settlements spread out through the rest of Casa-Mal receive assistance from traveling TVRN (Tavern) Aeris ships. Taverns trade goods and provide aid however they can with specialized services in a similar manner to adventuring parties in D&D.

The PCs are crew members of a Tavern when they discover a mysterious silver liquid in space. They bring some of the liquid back to the Cube for investigation, but are attacked by the Cube’s administration soon afterward. The PCs are forced to leave their captain behind as they flee the Cube in their Tavern. They must repair their damaged spaceship, figure out what’s going on with the silver liquid, clear their names at the Cube, and rescue their captain in a complex conspiracy that goes deeper than they could’ve ever foreseen.

Dain and I also discussed what its like running podcasts, upcoming work for the No Quest crew, and the importance/responsibility of diversity in media representation.

If you want to learn more about No Quest for the Wicked you can check them out on your podcast app or on their website.
No Quest also has an active Discord if you’d like to talk to Dain, the cast, or other fans of the show.

Want to be on the show? Fill out this survey.
Join our Discord!
Support Setting the Stageon Patreon!

Leave a comment

I’m Isaac

Welcome to the GoCorral website! I’m Isaac Shaker and this is a place for me to write about D&D and occasionally other topics. I host a podcast called Setting the Stage that interviews different DMs about their campaigns. I’m currently focused on completing the Cimmeria campaign setting and turning it into a book.

Setting the Stage Podcast

83 – Call of Cthulhu's Garden (Hem and The Sprouting) Setting the Stage, Campaigns for D&D and Other RPGs

Hem tells us about their actual play campaign, The Sprouting. Within the world of The Sprouting, Earth's history diverged during the 1800s when an eldritch horror was summoned into our reality. The horror lay in wait for centuries, building up a secret army of plant monsters. In 2020, the plant monsters struck, ruining infrastructure and attacking population centers across the world. One hundred years have passed and our heroes learn that the next stage of the plant apocalypse has begun…We also discussed some of the difficulties and pleasures of actual play podcasts and how the RPG community varies internationally (Hem is in Iceland).If you want to try listening to The Sprouting its available on all major podcast platforms. You can learn more on The Sprouting's website.For other shows produced by Hem check out Blighthouse Studio's website.Hem mentioned The Lucky Die actual play show of theirs several times which used D&D 5e.And the broader network of Fable and Folly has their website too.Check out the Setting the Stage website!Want to be on the show? Fill out this survey.Join our Discord!Support Setting the Stageon Patreon! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
  1. 83 – Call of Cthulhu's Garden (Hem and The Sprouting)
  2. 82 – Tarot Ghosts (George and Fears & Fortunes)
  3. 81 – Biopunk 2287 RPG (Seiya and Synesthesia Synthetica)
  4. 80 – Dynamic RPG Countries (Travis and Tetara)
  5. 79 – Dragon Age Degenerates (Zoe from Degenerates with Dice)