Anyone Can Rule the World

Welcome to Anything Could Happen—the real play experience where we put players against problems with no easy answers, incomplete information, and a ticking clock. I'm Oscar, your host, and it's my job to set things up and then go behind the scenes to pass messages to the players to keep knocking things off track. We find ourselves on board the MSV Calder, Overseeing a relief rotation at a Waysub station serving the WS52 sector. Sixty civilian technicians are due to leave in twenty minutes after a six-month contract. Four need medical assessment following a minor accident in the distribution warehouse. But a fault discovered during the handover means that twelve experienced people must stay for another three days, or the branch has to close and its vital deliveries to several settlements will stop. The civilians have finished their contract, and the MSV Calder could potentially supply some replacements from its own crew, but doing so would not only mean a breach of space union contracts, but would also mean the cancellation of a merchant escorting mission that the crew were assigned to after this drop-off. Paying enough civilians to stay is not something that the crew have the discretionary funds to cover. and there's no UFR official available to agree to it anyway. the captain has got their crew through worse, But now the team have to work with the civilians to agree who stays, who leaves, and who will bear the cost. And remember: Anything Could Happen. ROLE 1: Captain of the MSV Calder - Adam Qutaishat ROLE 2: First Officer of the MSV Calder - Miko Robinson ROLE 3: Medical Officer of the MSV Calder - António Salreta ROLE 4: Operations Officer of the MSV Calder - Lucie Prunier Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to Anything Could Happen—the real play experience where we put players against problems with no easy answers, incomplete information, and a ticking clock. I'm Oscar, your host, and it's my job to set things up and then go behind the scenes to pass messages to the players to keep knocking things off track. We find ourselves on the oldest of the Gytanki sacred worlds, a reservation granted a century ago in recompense for the near-destruction of their people, and never, until now, trodden by an armed human boot. Days ago a UFR military vessel came down inside it, uninvited, and broke the oldest treaty between Gytanki and Human. The Gytanki are an ancient civilization of many worlds and many deeply held traditions, and one of the three peoples who founded the UFR. Across those worlds the crowds are rising, vigils turning to protest and worse, and everywhere the same cry: that the insult be answered in blood. By the Doctrine, they are not wrong to ask. Four of the most significant voices gather as the Circle to set the Answer: a war-leader, a keeper of the faith, a speaker for the mixed worlds, and one of their own who sits on the Republic's own war council. Not one of them, in their heart, wants the war it would unleash, for it would ruin the Gytanki and perhaps the Republic they helped to build. But the streets are burning for it, and any leader seen to halt a righteous war would be swept away by their own people. …but of course, Anything Could Happen. ROLES: ROLE 1: The Admiral - Lucie Prunier (She/Her) ROLE 2: The War-Speaker - Asis Mansingh (She/Her) ROLE 3: The Speaker for the Mixed Worlds - Chris Payne (He/Him) ROLE 4: The Keeper of the Way - Alpha Stories Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to Anything Could Happen—the real play experience where we put players against problems with no easy answers, incomplete information, and a ticking clock. I'm Oscar, your host, and it's my job to set things up and then go behind the scenes to pass messages to the players to keep knocking things off track. We find ourselves on Teegarden's Star b, a dome-and-tunnel colony on a world with almost no air of its own, where one people long ago split in two and never healed. The few who hold the Foundry, the machine-heart that makes the power and the water, have ruled the many who farm the surface, until eight days ago the surface rose in revolt, and the two peoples closed their hands around each other's throats. Now the Ninth Dome, packed with thousands of surface families, is dying. The Foundry cut its power, its water, and its air, in answer to what they call the surface's terrorism, and it has perhaps twenty minutes left. A UFR patrol hangs overhead. The hardliners on both sides have brought this world to the edge of slaughter, and the patrol's Diplomatic Envoy has decided it ends today: they have forced the leaders of the factions, two from the Foundry and two from the surface, onto one open channel that none of them can leave, and given them until the dome fails to agree how it is saved. Fail, and the Envoy decides for them, with soldiers, with charity, or with prosecutors. Each of them speaks for their people. Each carries things the others must not learn. And the dome is dying while they talk. …but of course, Anything Could Happen. ROLES: ROLE 1: Foundry Governor - Lucie Prunier (She/Her) ROLE 2: Keeper of the Deep - Asis Mansingh (She/Her) ROLE 3: Uprising Commander - Chris Payne (He/Him) ROLE 4: Voice of the Domes - Alpha Stories Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to Anything Could Happen—the real play experience where we put players against problems with no easy answers, incomplete information, and a ticking clock. I'm Oscar, your host, and it's my job to set things up and then go behind the scenes to pass messages to the players to keep knocking things off track. We join the crew of the UFR quarantine cutter CSV Seacole, holding orbit above the colony world Billgrey, where four of them are sealed inside the medical bay. A specimen canister has cracked, and a toxic agent is bleeding into the air. The scrubbers that should clean it are failing. They have about twenty minutes before the bay is unbreathable. There is one working rebreather rig. Whoever wears it could cross the contaminated corridor and restart the scrubbers by hand, saving everyone else. But the dose out there will almost certainly kill whoever goes. An automated distress signal was sent out, but there has yet to be any reply and the coms system is on the other side of the corridor. Do they send someone to certain doom or to seal the bay and hope for a rescue that may not reach them in time? Our crew have to decide whether to send one of their own to die so the rest can live, or to all gamble on rescue together. And of course... Anything Could Happen ROLES: ROLE 1: Medical Officer - Lucie Prunier (She/Her) ROLE 2: Pilot - Asis Mansingh (She/Her) ROLE 3: Colony Delegate - Karim Kronfli (He/Him) ROLE 4: Corporate Rep - Phil Foxton (He/Him) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to Anything Could Happen—the real play experience where we put players against problems with no easy answers, incomplete information, and a ticking clock. I'm Oscar, your host, and it's my job to set things up and then go behind the scenes to pass messages to the players to keep knocking things off track. For generations, two cultures have shared the same region of space, and neither has ever accepted the other's right to be there. The Helion Combine build systems to last. The Kesharia Diaspora survive by adapting. The Helion say the Keshari destabilises everything they touch. The Keshari say the Helion abandon people the moment they become inconvenient. They've both spent decades proving themselves right. Things have started to change. Neither side can deal with what's coming on their own. That's how we end up with a meeting on neutral ground. And of course... Anything Could Happen ROLES: ROLE 1: Captain - Sabrina Stubbs (She/Her) ROLE 2: Science Officer - Asis Mansingh (She/Her) ROLE 3: Communication Officer - Lucie Prunier (She/Her) ROLE 4: Tactical Officer - Miko Robinson (He/Him) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to Anything Could Happen—the real play experience where we put players against problems with no easy answers, incomplete information, and a ticking clock. I'm Oscar, your host, and it's my job to set things up and then go behind the scenes to pass messages to the players to keep knocking things off track. In this scenario, the bridge crew of a UFR exploration ship, ESV Tranquillity, are operating just beyond mapped space. A few hours ago, they picked up a signal that doesn’t really make sense. It’s not clean, not consistent, and not in any format they recognise. At first, it looked like background noise, but it repeats, and every so often, it almost lines up into something understandable. When it does, they only get fragments. Listening to it, it’s hard to tell what they’re actually hearing. It could be a warning, it could be a distress signal, or it might even be telling them not to respond at all. Every interpretation seems to fit, and none of them quite holds up. Right now, the signal is unstable, so they’re only catching pieces of it. But the science officer is confident of one thing — in about ten minutes, it’s going to align properly for a short window, and they’ll be able to hear it clearly. After that, it degrades again… and twenty minutes from now it’s gone completely. No second chance. At the moment, they’re just listening. They haven’t responded, and whatever is out there doesn’t know they’re here and of course... Anything Could Happen ROLES: ROLE 1: Captain - Sabrina Stubbs (She/Her) ROLE 2: Science Officer - Asis Mansingh (She/Her) ROLE 3: Communication Officer - Lucie Prunier (She/Her) ROLE 4: Tactical Officer - Miko Robinson (He/Him) HOST and JUDGE: Oscar Clark (he/him) EDITOR & PRODUCER: Elliott Clark (he/him) SCENARIO: Oscar Clark (he/him) --- NOTES: Format and narrative background are adapted from 'WestPoint: Extra Planetary Academy' created by Oscar Clark with additional material by David Hankins ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Stormlantern Productions 2025 AnythingCouldHappen Show is part of the Fable and Folly Network (⁠⁠⁠⁠https://fableandfolly.com/)⁠⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The show where 'Anything Could Happen' - a real play experience where we pit the players against problems that have no simple answer, incomplete information and are always against the clock. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to Anything Could Happen—the real play experience where we put players against problems with no easy answers, incomplete information, and a ticking clock. I'm Oscar, your host, and it's my job to set things up and then go behind the scenes to pass messages to the players to keep knocking things off track. In this scenario the players wake up cold, nestled on a comfortable mattress beneath a large glass lid that has opened up above them. They are in Cryopods. The air is thin. The light pulses in uneven amber. Around them are nearly identical pods—four open, two still sealed. Frost clings to everything. They do not recognise this place. They do not remember how they arrived or even where they came from. Something has gone very wrong and they have no idea of they are. And of course, Anything Could Happen... ROLES: ROLE 1: Cryopod 5 - António Salreta (He/Him) ROLE 2: Cryopod 3 - Asis Mansingh (She/Her) ROLE 3: Cryopod 6 - Kat Welsford (She/Her) ROLE 4: Cryopod 2 - Karim Kronfli (He/Him) HOST and JUDGE: Oscar Clark (he/him) EDITOR & PRODUCER: Elliott Clark (he/him) SCENARIO: Oscar Clark (he/him) --- NOTES: Format and narrative background are adapted from 'WestPoint: Extra Planetary Academy' created by Oscar Clark with additional material by David Hankins ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Stormlantern Productions 2025 AnythingCouldHappen Show is part of the Fable and Folly Network (⁠⁠⁠⁠https://fableandfolly.com/)⁠⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to the podcast where we explore the world of audio storytelling with people responsible for creating enchanting audio experiences. Join our host, Oscar, on his podquest to learn everything you wanted to know about audio drama and actual play games, but never dared to ask. In this episode, Oscar and Flloyd discuss their podcasting journeys, storytelling techniques, and the importance of passion and community. Find out more about Flloyd here: https://flloydkennedy.com/ AD: Listen to Four Top Threes here: https://open.spotify.com/show/2HT8MWVhDzAAAXSZ4FKWjj NOTE: This is a sister series to "Anything Could Happen Show" podcast - an actual play improv game where we pit the players against problems that have no simple answer, incomplete information and are always against the clock. Anything Could Happen Show is part of the Fable & Folly Network (⁠ / @anythingcouldhappen-show ) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to Anything Could Happen—the real play experience where we put players against problems with no easy answers, incomplete information, and a ticking clock. I'm Oscar, your host, and it's my job to set things up and then go behind the scenes to pass messages to the players to keep knocking things off track. In this scenario we join the senior researchers at a leading academic institution. Several years ago, they created a controlled simulation. A closed system. Self-evolving. Designed to study emergent complexity. It exceeded expectations. It is still running. Inside, something remarkable has developed; a fully realized culture of apparently sapient digital beings. However, on the campus the costs and infrastructure have struggled to keep up. The team have predicted that the risk of a cascading power instability is inevitable unless you can upgrade the facility. But there is no budget - in fact - you have been told to make cuts. Worse If this instability spikes, the simulation will collapse. The players have been called into an emergency session and it seems that there is only minutes to decide what to do. And of course, Anything Could Happen... ROLES: ROLE 1: PROJECT DIRECTOR - António Salreta (He/Him) ROLE 2: SYSTEMS ENGINEER - Asis Mansingh (She/Her) ROLE 3: Ethics Committee Rep - Kat Welsford (She/Her) ROLE 4: FIRST CONTACT RESEARCHER - Karim Kronfli (He/Him) HOST and JUDGE: Oscar Clark (he/him) EDITOR & PRODUCER: Elliott Clark (he/him) SCENARIO: Oscar Clark (he/him) --- NOTES: Format and narrative background are adapted from 'WestPoint: Extra Planetary Academy' created by Oscar Clark with additional material by David Hankins ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Stormlantern Productions 2025 AnythingCouldHappen Show is part of the Fable and Folly Network (⁠⁠⁠⁠https://fableandfolly.com/)⁠⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices