Rude Tales of Magic is an Actual Play and comedy podcast. The show features a loose worldbuilding style with an emphasis on absurdity, improv, and gross-out humor. The rules generally take a backseat to whatever happens to be funniest at the moment. Much like NeoScum, much of the dice rolls or character leveling are edited out to focus on the comedy and growing dynamics between the characters. The result is a fast paced podcast featuring various oddities and abnormalities and the heroes doing their best to not grossly exacerbate the problems around them.
The story opens on the esteemed Polaris University. Or at least what remains of it after its sudden, inexplicable disappearance. The remaining five survivors are forced to band together to solve the disappearance of their beloved institution... or attempt to overcome the odds and attempt to fix how this disappearance has hampered their ability to return to their homes.
The cast includes:
- Joe Lepore as Bellow, a blue Tiefling who studied at Polaris to become a Druid (because it was an easy subject). A mellow, but slow fratbro.
- Carly Monardo as Albeara "Albee" Dawn. A faun girl who idolizes Kreedis, a hero who mastered the elements. She aims to become a brash, brave Monk like her idol, which often gets her into more trouble than she recognizes. Definitely doesn't have a crush on Bellow.
- Ali Fischer as Cordelia. A Sasquatch girl and possibly the Last of Her Kind. She made a pact with a demon before the vanishing of Polaris, giving her untold powers that she has no idea how to use.
- Christopher Hastings as Frederick de Bonesby. A skeleton wizard. Once a nobleman, his attempts to turn himself into a lich backfired and cost him his powers and his skin.
- Tim Platt as Stirfry. A kenku rogue who's indentured himself to de Bonesby during a theft gone wrong. Stirfry is skittish, overly enthusiastic, and massively annoying. His fanatical loyalty to de Bonesby consumes his every action, as his master's coldness pushes him to obsessively court approval.
- Branson Reese as the Dungeon Master and various gross NPCs
Rest now, weary traveler, with some tropes...
- Cold Turkeys Are Everywhere: Count Ivan the vampire is trying to get off of his blood addiction, which is a little difficult when everyone he talks to has blood.
- Corrupt Cop: The entire police force of the Soaking Valley are shamelessly evil, looking for any excuse to lock someone up to fill their prison quotas. One guard freely admits that they consider some species illegal just for living and they don't have an interest in stopping crime, because then people might not need them anymore.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Stirfry is overly talkative, obsessively needy, and often operates on a weird layer of reality compared to the others. However, it soon becomes clear that he's very willing to resort to murder, even if it isn't necessary. He nearly kills Count Ivan early on because he felt disrespected by Ivan and later plans to solve the party's dispute with Scrum Fabulous by killing an innocent person and framing them as Scrum's bandit rival.
- Crystal Dragon Jesus: Completely averted. Real-world Catholicism, for some reason, is one of many religions in the setting.
- Eldritch Abomination: Kebin. A flesh monster with the mind of a child, which turns things inside out just by touching it and soon absorb its victims. Later events suggest that the people touched by Kebin don't even ''die.''
- Enfant Terrible: Egg the Kenku seems like an adorable little Kenku child, but all the phrases he's mimicked from humans are the screams of his victims in pain.
- Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: A meta example. In the middle of solving the mystery the dead elf noble in “Dial E For Elf,” Stirfry/Tim Platt suddenly remembers that Count Ivan admitted to draining blood from an elf two episodes ago. Cue the players and their characters slowly descending into laughter as they realize they’ve spent the better part of an hour attempting to solve a murder they already had the answer to.
- Fluffy the Terrible: The gruesome flesh monster that rampaged through Albee's family home... known as Kebin. Unlike most examples of the trope, Kebin's name makes him no less terrifying.
- Freudian Excuse: A flashback reveals de Bonesby's Abusive Parents, particularly an incident where his father forced Frederick to kill his favorite horse to prove a point.
- Friend-or-Idol Decision: Whenever the cast has a chance to earn some money to fund their journey, it ultimately would require them to hurt each other or an innocent character to do so, forcing them to leave their reward behind.
- Gameplay and Story Segregation: This is not a show for dice-roll enthusiasts or D&D rules lawyers. Producer Taylor Moore has described it as a "narrative play" show which is focused more on the players creating a compelling and entertaining story than adhering exactly to the rules. It is not immediately apparent what classes some of the characters are, the levelling up and advancement all happens off-mic, and dice rolls only happen on-mic when it's particularly dramatic or funny. No more than 5% of any given episode will be devoted to above-the-table talk. This show is the opposite of NADDPOD.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Count Ivan Gretsky, while possessed by SERVANT, chooses to walk into sunlight rather than let the demon continues its reign of terror.
- Horrible Judge of Character: Stirfry tends to be drawn towards anyone with confidence, regardless of their actual power or personality.
- Horrifying the Horror: Cheddar presents himself as a shameless demon who happily damns various souls for his own amusement. But when Cordelia summons him to deal with Kebin, he immediately screams at her to just keep running.
- Incompatible Orientation: "Married to the Sea" features a dwarf named Twice-Damned Regina trying to romance a merfolk. Unfortunately, merfolk aren't monogamous. The party's attempt to find Regina a new partner fails because they don't know if she was looking for a mermaid or a merman. Neither matters: she just hates people with human legs.
- Informed Attribute: Bellow was allegedly the bad boy of Polaris, but is the Nice Guy of the party who usually breaks up the wider squabbles they get into.Bellow: You know I'm a bad boy, but sometimes a bad boy has to do good!
- Knights and Knaves: The party encounters one of these in Soaking Valley. Unfortunately, the two guards fuck up by both outlining the rules to the party, proving that both of them can tell the truth. They let the party go as long as they don't rat them out.
- No Indoor Voice: Brian Fuck, Maestro of Flesh, shouts every word he says. In monotone.
- Odd Friendship: Frederick de Bonesby is a callous, entitled nobleman, while Cordelia grew up in the wilderness, lacking any knowledge of social etiquette. Nonetheless, their mutual interest in magic sparks a genuine, if shaky, friendship that brings out Frederick's better side.
- Outside-Context Problem: In "Married to the Sea", the story more-or-less goes off the rails around the time the gang comes across a straight-up modern handgun.
- One-Woman Army: Moira Thousand, so named for killing a thousand people (so far). Even the corrupt police of Soaking Valley don't mess with her.Bellow: What was your name before you killed one thousand people?Moira: Moira Nine Hundred Ninety-Nine, asshole. You wanna make it Moira Thousand-and-One?!
- Politically Incorrect Hero: de Bonesby is regularly classist and racist to other races and goes into a rage when a servant breaks "Butler Code" in front of him. He's still nominally a good guy.
- Rage Breaking Point: Stirfry's loyalty and devotion to de Bonesby doesn't waver for much of the show's early story... until Frederick teaches a lice monster to speak and follow his orders. Then he loses it, shattering their relationship for good.
- Retired Outlaw: Stirfry used to lead a crew of Kenku thieves and assassins before getting hired by de Bonesby. Notably not a Reformed Criminal: he clearly enjoys reminiscing over all the schemes he and the crew got up to and grows to regret his loyalty to Frederick. His attempt to reconcile with the old crew goes deeply haywire, however, and he has no reason to return to crime without them.
- Riddle of the Sphinx: Played for laughs. The Sphinx of Soaking Valley delivers the famous one, entirely unaware that everyone in the world already knows it.
- Rock Falls Everyone Dies: The live shows are non-canon and its specifically noted that characters can die in these scenarios. "Married to the Sea" goes particularly Off the Rails, however, as the party completely fail to stop a mutiny from destroying The Lusty Conversation. They all drown with the ship during a Catholic wedding ordained by a Leviathan.
- Shapeshifter Guilt Trip: A variation. Stirfry and Stripe, being Kenku, can repeat anything they've heard perfectly. As their fight gets increasingly violent and personal, they begin repeating extremely personal moments of the other's life to insult and hurt each other.
- Sixth Ranger: Count Ivan Gretsky joins the party for a time after "A Stranger Comes To Town."
- Unfortunate Names: Just about every NPC has a ridiculous name.
