Hi Alex! Happy to see you here on Tumblr!

I'm a huge fan of your work. RQG is one of my top three podcasts of all time, and seeing the way you GM has been incredibly influential on the way I approach my own games now. What you guys managed to create with Erasing The Line was incredibly special, and I think there are relatively few people out there who are fortunate enough to participate in a campaign like yours. I know the scope of RQ has increased dramatically since the start of RQG, but of all the projects you've been a part of none has affected me like that one.

I'm curious if there are any bits of world building you have kicking around in your head that never ended up making it into the campaign or the metacasts. Is there anything you wished you'd been able to portray, but that never ended up panning out? Or maybe something that you thought up, but that never got mentioned because it wasn't ever relevant to the party?

Thanks for everything you do, sending love from Canada :)

Yes. So much, but I’m keeping it on a shelf for now, just in case.

hello mr j newall, I have a mildly obscure TMA question and figured this might be one of the better places to ask if you're in an answering mood. in early episodes, maybe up until midway through season two, when the door to the archivist's office is open there are very faint sounds like several people talking, phones ringing, clicking keyboards, etc. from outside in the hall, and that seems to conflict with what we know about it being just the four archival staff in the basement. do you have any rationale for why this was there, either from a production standpoint or any personal conjecture about in-universe explanations? thank you!

So originally it was just to add some Atmos, make it believable that there were other people working (Sasha Tim etc.) . As things progress though I quite liked the idea that people were giving more and more distance to the drama queen weirdo who was way too into his archive.

I have no idea what I am doing.

I'm sure you wouldn't like to be sent a ridiculously long ask of me gushing about how much I love your work, so instead I'll ask if there are any paintings you particularly like, classic or otherwise!

Starry night, anything by Alex Ross, The Great Wave, The Creation of Adam, the list goes on.

Hi Alex! Welcome to the hell pit. /aff

Considering you know that orange is just uppity brown, you probably already know that, but: pink does not exist. It’s just our brains’ way of resolving a logical conflict in the way some of the cones in our eyes light up.

The different ways the brain has to trick itself in regards (hah) to sight are genuinely fascinating. Brains are weird. Humans are weird.

I’m normal about this (no).

Indeed pink is another liar of a colour

If you were in an alleyway at night would you rather run into Mr Bonzo, Needles or Lady Mowbray and why? For the purposes of this question assume they are not in a particularly good mood (can mr bonzo be in a bad mood? He seems to smile an awful lot)

Mowbray. At least she’d let me run away… At first.

hi! i

just wanted to say thank you for making both tma and tmp, they're great podcasts and keep me going when i'm not feeling well, so, thank you to you and to the team :)

You’re very welcome. Well all need something to pick us up now and again.

i like your shoelaces! :3

I am curious when you ever saw them

Do u have any advice for neuro spice and school?

Love you lots (also don't feel pressured to answer all the asks on here cuz I'm assuming your gonna get loads)

1) You are not your neuro spice.

2) Dont try to deny your spice to yourself, it won’t help you.

3) You can’t beat it but you can weaponise it. Lean into whatever strengths it can give you to make up for the weaknesses

hello alex what is your favourite utensil and why

Meat tenderiser. Smashy Smashy.

What's your favourite fear? To write or to think about?
I'm partial to the buried! (In the context of drowning. I don't have good luck with water)

I honestly still don’t have a favourite yet.

hi, big boss man, huge fan here (ever tho you and Johnny boi ruin my life every week 🥰)

i have super duper extremely important question: does Martin add sugar to his tea?

Surely that depends on the tea?

What's your favorite The Magnus archives head canon?

Everyone except Jon was a literal muppet the whole time.

alex whats your favorite dnd spell

Probably clone. It’s not exciting but it Is reassuring.

Mr Newall, have you ever seen a beach ?

Yes. The sand was coarse and it got everywhere.

If you were to form an rq taskmaster panel (taskmaster + alex included) who would be on it and who would win it

Magnus Protocol main cast and there is no winner. They just start disappearing without explanation or acknowledgement one by one.

Alex, thoughts on being the figurehead of sexy eldritch monster company??? (Also its my birthday!)

Happy birthday! I dunno about figurehead, that implies I am facing the right direction and riddled with woodworm and only one of those facts is true.

What GCSEs/a levels did you do? Do you think that helped you with the career you have now? Xx

I was a weirdo who did a bit of everything as much as possible.

Maths

Physics

Biology

Chemistry

English

English literature

Classics (classical literature)

Design tech (woodshop+ metal shop)

French

I think a broad grounding of hard and soft skills has been useful but honestly learning how to teach myself was the most important lesson.

what kind of kid at school were you

Naughty at first

Then a nerd

Then a drama kid.

(I was sporty for a bit but then had a growth problem and had to stop all exercise for years)

Due to the fact that you seem to be trying to 100% completionist every single ask you get like an absolute madman...and given that you are new to our wonderful little hellsite, I do hope you know you have the ability to turn your ask box off for a while if the influx of carrier pigeons gets too much. You've only been here for about 24 hours, and I feel like we'd prefer not to break you that quick.

Hope you have a wonderful day/night

This is helpful information. I thank you, I figure y'all will get bored before that is necessary though right?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

That’s not a question

Regarding the last ask, Tumblr users live in some different dimension of time so, good luck relying on that

That’s not a question.

I just want you to know, I put the Mr Bonzo model I made in my portfolio + applied for a job. While I was at the interview/skills test, one of the staff recognised him from Protocol and he was basically the reason the ice was broken and I got past how nervous I was, and it went really well! Bonzo is love, Bonzo is life.

Did you tell them you wanted to stay? Did you tell them you wanted to play?

Are you real?

Are any of us? Statistically speaking it seems unlikely.

Alex wtf was that Instagram story on @rustyquill 😭

Wrong Rusty Quill

Hello Mr. Newall! I remember that a while back someone asked Jonny what the hardest character death to write was, and he responded that he loves writing character deaths. Do you feel the same? Or are they more difficult for you? Love your work btw❤️

Contrary to popular belief I don’t normally enjoy writing character deaths because the stakes are always so high.

This is a character’s last moments so you need to get it right and that’s intimidating.

Don’t get me wrong it’s satisfying when you pull it off and there is fun in the challenge but it always makes me nervous.

someone impersonated you here before, can you prove this is you?

I have already done so. If you visit my official twitter I posted a thread of all my official socials and this was amongst them.

orange juice with bits, smooth orange juice, or apple juice

In quality to order:

1) Smooth orange juice (because I am clearly an ickle child still.)
2) Orange Juice with bits (because I am clearly an old man who needs all the fibre he can get)
3) Apple Juice (I once played a severe alcoholic on stage and was made to drink so much apple juice as whisky that it really steered me away from it for life.)

Why did you curse me with Dig.

i have have had over 200 twitter and 1000 tumblr notifs that just say dig.

it’s your fault.

Dig

How will you know if it is Martyn? Does this imply the existence of a Martyn tumblr account?

Because Martyn, (not to be confused with Martin) is ususally very, very obvious with his shenanigans.

You mentioned you like the idea that everyone in TMA is a Muppet except for Jon, so I have a very, very important question...

Which Muppets would you cast for who and why?

I always thought Trevor Herbert had big Animal energy.

Opinions on potpourri? I'm trying to win an argument with a friend.

Not as moreish as it looks.

You mentioned being a drama kid. What were some of your favorite shows/roles that you were in?

I was in Oliver Twist more times than I can count.

My favourite from those days was wearing a purple suit as Nicely-Nicely Johnson.

He might not be a cool character but Sit Down You’re Rocking the Boat is a jam.

hello alex you have awakened the theater kids.

whats your favorite musical?

I have been asked this so much and really don’t have a satisfying answer. I like bits of many but no singular one is runaway fave. I do have a soft spot for Moulin Rouge which surprises people.

Fun fact: Sam Sam the music man (magnus music composer) and I were working on a musical I had to shelve to free up time for magnus.

Mr Knowall, I want to ask you this because you're built up a reputation for being quite the workaholic and have also spoken before about pieces of art opening creative doors for you. I write and create a little bit (you and jonny have inspired me so much) and I find it really difficult to deliberately engage with art? Because even if i enjoy a piece of media sometimes it doesn't necessarily inspire me creatively because of that it feels redundant even though it still brings me a lot of comfort and is often objectively well made. I am also hyper aware of the fact that I could be WORKING instead of engaging with it and it just brings a lot of guilt.

How do you balance engaging with media just for the fun and entertainment of it vs using it as inspiration for your creative work?

I don’t really which is sad. I have certain compulsions which can be a gift and a curse.the only workaround I have found is I split media in greens and desert. Greens =stuff I watch and critically engage in, desert is stuff where it’s chill enough that I can keep it at bay for a bit. For instance my current desert is the original run of DBZ. This is all mental gymnastics though as they are all equally valid really.

I don’t actively hunt for inspiration though. It’s a passive process for me, most often sparked by conversation.

is this your only tumblr account or do you have another secret one that youve been using to spy on us for years?

I have another one that I used to use for Magnus to follow a specific tumbler user who was in my opinion the most well reasones and critically astute listener I had ever encountered. I won’t share their name in case it suddenly swamps their feed but they were an excellent barometer for if we were doing it right.

It's A-level exam time!

Do you have any advice for those of us suffering? Or were you one of those students who didn't leave their revision until 2 weeks before the exam?

Let’s just say that my particular cocktail of neurospice left me racked with anxiety and grossly OVER prepared and neurotic.

I would also say that whilst they help your start they aren’t the final destination.

For instance I did maths, physics, biology and English Literature and now I work in queer horror podcasting. Anything is possible :)

What entitiy do you feel effects you the most. Or would effect you?

I get asked this a lot and struggle to answer because it’s not really how I engage with fear personally.

If pushed I would day I get a touch of Vast now and then, and it used to be Terminus but now I struggle with Stranger (alienation) and Buried (overwhelming responsibility)

Any advice for good creative writing? I have my English language GCSE tomorrow

Exam writing and fiction writing are different. Exams are for you to show off with. Fiction is about affecting the audience.

I would say for your exams focus on demonstrating what they want you to rather than trying to be “good”.

Same for any education really. I have thoughts on exams in general. (though to be clear am massively in favour of teachers and education in general)

Hi Alex!

Recently I've been gearing up for my first steps with tabletops, so apart from being a delight to listen to, Rusty Quill Gaming had been a huge help with getting the gist of it, showing me what to expect and how to prepare.

That being the case, I wanted to ask you what got you into TRPGs/GMing, and do you have any advices for beginners?

So I was cast in a play at uni about a bunch of TTRPGers getting self help. The director insisted I play a game to learn what it was. I enjoyed it more than I should have.

Advice for beginners? We’re all just winging it most of the time, if anyone tells you otherwise I’d be skeptical. :)

Also look up Donjon dungeon generator. It will REALLY help.

Do you like rhubarb?

Only the leaves.

Hello and welcome to tumblr, I hope you find it……amusing.

You have on the website that Ripley is a “Mascot in Training” whereas Casper has completed all training and ranks as an official mascot. When will Ripley earn enough credits to complete her training and earn her professional mascot certificate?

When she wins in single combat without a champion.

There can be only one.

Do any of the TMA characters like comic books?

Probably.

if TMA were ever made into a TV show, would you prefer it to be live-action or animated?

Both.

Hello Alex, if you haven't answered this question yet, what do you think is Martin's favourite type of tea? If he has any.
I hope you have a very nice day today!

(PS: You're very super duper really incredibly cool. :3)

1) Long Island Iced

2) Let’s be honest, I am many things but I am Not cool

Have there been any rabbit holes recently that you've fallen down where you're like, "Damn, that would have made a really great Archives Statement?" but doesn't really fit with into Protocol and therefor is cursed to just sit in your brain?

If so, what is it?

Napoleon Bonaparte was a big fan of the fax machine. Look it up.

Hello!!! I was just wondering if the orchid pervert line from TMAGP 17 is a Twink Peaks reference? My cult horror nerd brain must know.

Thank you for the amazing work!

Afraid not. I’ve never seen twin peaks!

why do you think people got so attached to Michael/Helen over some of the more "good" characters (aka, those who are not literally delusion incarnate)?

also, do you have a favorite between the two? (I personally have a soft spot for Michael, but Helen really is delightful hehe)

Michaek/Helen were designed to be appealing. That is their danger. I guess we did a good job.

I prefer Helen. It’s not often you get to write an unapologetic monster that is also fun to be around.