Was the stuff in the transcripts such as [Around a Mouthful of Archivist] for your laughs, the readers, or both?
So stage directions were originally written by Jonny under duress because I insisted I needed to have at least some kind of hint as to what the heck was happening if I was going to direct and edit.
These days though we just accept that people are reading them and factor it in. I would say I am generally more comedic and specific than Jonny in my stage directions but then again this is the guy who wrote something along the lines of “weird sounding bullshit happens” in an official script back in the day so there’s probably not that much difference really.
after the release of magp 19 my friend thought it was odd to include such a prolific historical figure. I reminded him that Robert Smirke was a pivotal character in the magnus archives and arguably more important to history as he had been in charge of the construction most famous buildings in London built during the early 19th century, including the renovation of the royal mint Isaac Newton had been the warden of. Who do you think is more famous/more important to history?
I would argue Newton is more important to actual history.
Interestingly there was a quite a bit of back-and-forth about referencing Newton in Protocol.
On the one hand he is a prolific figure in Alchemy and slots into the lore very nicely. On the other hand though, he has been portrayed a lot and is very much a “go-to” choice for the time period. (See Rusty Quill Gaming as an example!)
We went for it in the end because practicality won out but it was still a proper discussion.
Do you look at fanart often, and what are your thoughts on common headcanons for the way that characters look? Do you imagine some characters looking a certain way?
I don’t really look at fanart unless it is put directly in front of me even though I fully support it as an endeavour.
In terms of HeadCanons, I keep saying people are welcome to do what they want but I am always a little saddened when a fandom homes in on an “accepted” or “standard” portrayal because it just feels to me like closing a bunch of creative doors which seems a shame. That said, fandom is a weird and terrifying beast I do not understand so I’m not sure my opinion counts for much.
Hi Alex, I have a humble request.
during one of the protocol pre-launch livestream Q&A things, you and Jonny were talking, and you mentioned that Jonny had come up with a plot idea, that, on reflection, would quote “fuck up the universe worse than in archives.”
When protocol finishes, please could you release more on this? I desperately want to know what the plot point was, because HOW?! How could Jonny possibly fuck up a universe more than he did in archives? He basically engineered hell on earth last time!!
but I appreciate that this plot point is probably all spoilers, so yeah. After protocol is finished!
Yes. I promise I will share this when possible. In fact I think it will be earlier than you suspect.
who out of the Protocol crew do you reckon would be the best at taking care of a Tamagotchi
Probably Alice but only to spite Gwen.
Gwen would do everything right caring for hers and meanwhile Alice would see Gwen cared and just get Colin to hack one for her and pretend she’s just really competent to Gwen. Same with Digimon.
Where would the Boneturner take Bonzo on their first date if this is the supposed steamiest romance of 2025. The people need to know!
To the stars and back my friend.
I just want to ask, is it okay if me and a few of my friends make a podcast in the same universe/inspired by the Magnus archives? We’ve been planning this for a while but I wanted to ask if you were okay with it.
we wouldn’t be doing it for profit or anything, just for fun :)
So that’s a question that has to go via email to mail@rustyquill.com For various reasons, I’m not really allowed to give permission for company related stuff as a private person.
If rusty quill were to fall apart right this second, what would your back-up plan be?
RQ2 Bigger Longer Uncut.
Most US-based airlines were grounded by the Crowdstrike outage on the 19th, but Southwest Airlines was unaffected, because its key systems are still running Windows NT 3.1.
Which is to say, yeah, the OIAR's tech is outdated, but at least it's not Southwest Airlines outdated.
I am going to break my rules for the first time and answer this post that doesn’t technically meet the criteria.
- Thankyou for telling me this
- I could tell you some real world horror stories about air travel technical infrastructure. I probably will at some point in the future.
- The tech for the O.I.A.R. is loosely modelled on actual UK infrastructure and processes I’ve seen implemented in places they REALLY shouldn’t be.
- The entirety of digital infrastructure is balanced on ancient pins. The reason things keep going is just because there are enough pins distributed about that when something goes ping into the corner of the room there is normally another less optimal pin that can be substituted in a pinch. It’s fascinating, if upsetting, to watch.
Hello! I just wanted to check, who was the lead writer on episode 22 of Protocol? The episode credits say Jonny, but I noticed your name is listed on the transcript.
Either way, what a fantastic episode - I'm absolutely loving the existentialist themes the show is getting into!
Huh, weird.
I did write TMP 22 with Jonny editing. Looks like an admin error, we’ll try and get round to fixing it at some point. Honestly, most people assume Jonny writes it all anyway so I don’t think anyone will be shocked by this revelation.
I found out about tma from my friend because he asked me to make an edit of michael distortion and got into it a few months later. I LOVE TMA. I mostly listened to the whole thing three times when I was mostly offline because I have the 200 episodes downloaded on YouTube and now I'm finding out that there's some stuff I missed, there's bloopers, q&a and I was in the wiki because i wanted to see how many times the admiral was mentioned and theres one what the ghost episode? IM GOING INSANE. I love tma. I think it's rotting my brain... it's everywhere, it's in my veins. I need to know everything but when I try to search these things up on YouTube it only shows me rusty quill gaming which I will be watching later but where do I find the other stuff where is the best place to listen to tma and find every extra lore even if it's just the tiniest squeeze of lore? I need to know y'all really did an amazing job with tma, I don't think I'm ever going to get tired of listening to it. I need to relisten to it before hell— I mean... School starts again. Lord save us for another year of merciless torture. Also I was trying to type this fast and forgot to say hi. hi Mr Alex, I hope you're having an amazing day/night when you see this. I promise to listen to all the podcasts rusty quill has after I learn every little squeeze of tma lore. Where is the best place to listen to and learn every little squeeze of information of all of rusty quill podcasts? (I absolutely did not install Tumblr just to ask this what do you mean 😓😓😓)
Lovely to hear from you and thankyou for the kind words.
To list good locations for TMA Lore:
1) The podcast feed is obviously first port of call and includes some bonus materials between seasons
2) Our Patreon has an absolutely enormous amount of content in there now and I believe it should at this point be organised into collections so you can just look up TMA and it’s all there for you (although that is behind a paywall)
2) Any video QNA’s/events etc. not included in the main feed should be on our twitch channel.
3) Rustyquill.com has various links dotted around that have snippets too
4) The fan wiki is a very strong resource. Like any wiki there is the odd error here or there but for the most part its astonishingly accurate and detailed.
5) Special mention to whoever keeps our TV Tropes pages up to date. It was when I saw a proper entry for The Magnus Archives on that site that I actually started to call myself a “proper” writer.
Hey! Hope ur day is going well!
whats your favourite statement/case that you've had to read aloud, either archives or protocol?
Let’s just say that sitting on an uncomfy chair in a foggy house constantly resetting with no-one to help felt pretty special to perform.
Hi Alex, will you and/or Jonny be joining any of the Live Drops on Patron? It was a super fun listening experience. 😁
Hope you’re doing well, and that you get to play Control with Jonny soon (stream scheduling on Nightmare mode, as Jonny put it!!)
I am not booked in for a live drop but I wouldn’t be surprised if we’re asked to attend premieres/ finales.
Control stream is rebooked although I forget the specific date. (I think there’s an update about it on Patreon today.)
Alesis Newman….. Alex Newell…. Self-insert? (Kidding, but man. That is one SIMILAR name)
Ironically I believe that was one of the fan-submitted character names from the Kickstarter so there is probably a listener out there right now reconsidering their opinions on coral!