A Whole New World

The Whole New World project began as part of a charity stream initiative (Rolling Seaward in support of Medical Aid for Palestineans) from the mind of Poorna M. 

She wanted a partner in scheming, and turned to longtime friend and co-conspirator, Valiant Dorian. Thus began several days (weeks? months?) of scheming to create an Actual Play mini series that gives folx the space and the platform to create a Whole New World and is ridiculously cool AF.

The folx in question are those of us who, even in the year 2026, rarely see ourselves represented outside of peripheral characters or stereotypes in mainstream media. Also, the world had, at the time Scheming commenced, already devolved into a hellscape that seemed to be especially unkind towards [already] marginalized communities. 

This project, conceptualized both as a form of escapism and as a tool of empowerment, at its core, aims to radically imagine new worlds beyond the constraints and limits of our own.

We crafted the show structure to encompass three episodes across one Arc.

The Show Structure

• Episode 1: Worldbuilding
  Poorna and Val sit down with a world builder to develop a Whole New World. 
• Episode 2: Game Design

Val and Poorna join creative forces with a game designer to set down some guardrails (read: mechanics) to explore the world created in Episode 1.

• Episode 3: The Actual Play

A cast of unsuspecting gamers and TTRPG performers (and the audience!) encounter the world and game for the first-ever playthrough of the concoction made from Episodes 1 and 2.

Poorna M
Poorna (she/her) is a writer, game designer and all-round chaos demon with an unnatural affinity for Google sheets.
She is the co-producer, occasional co-host and high concept schemer of Whole New World.

Valiant Dorian
Valiant (he/him) is an actual play performer, game designer and streamer who creates bold and wildhearted worlds and stories through the lens of his queerness and desi heritage. 
He is one of co-producer & co-host and Game Master for Whole New World.

One Shot Network
One Shot Podcast Network is an award-winning network of podcast series about tabletop role-playing games, with many shows dedicated to actual play, interviews, and discussion founded by James D’Amato. 

The One Shot Network will be the home to A Whole New World with the final product of A Whole New World livestreamed on One Shot Network’s Twitch channel and available on YouTube and podcast platforms. 

4th Reset
Salem Chen (4th Reset) (he/they) is a Nonbinary Malaysian artist/animator with a Degree in Animation at the University of Technology, Sydney. They enjoy creating surreal and dreamy illustrations with a touch of movement in them. They illustrated the assets and cover of Whole New World!

Grant Howitt 
Grant Howitt is a tabletop role-playing game designer, publisher, and journalist. He won six ENNIE Awards for his game Heart: The City Beneath. His game Honey Heist, which inspired an online trend of self-published games with one-page rulesets, has been featured on Critical Role, The Adventure Zone, and Friends at the Table. Through his publishing company Rowan, Rook and Decard, Howitt is a co-designer on Kieron Gillen's DIE: The Roleplaying Game. 

Chris Taylor
Chris Taylor is one-third of Rowan Rook & Decard, and specialises in games mechanics. Chris' previous games include Spire, Unbound, Crash Pandas, Skyfarer (in collaboration with Failbetter Games) and, in what many would call his greatest stroke of genius, Jason Statham's Big Vacation. You can follow him on Twitter at @TheMaddigan.

 

The first phase of production consisted of the recording of all three episodes of Arc 1 of Whole New World which encompasses the Worldbuilding, Game Design and the Actual Play component of this show. If you're reading this (and are not on the show (yet) this part is already complete! Huzzah!)

The second phase of production consists of the development and refinement of the world that is created and the game designed on-screen. This includes the writing of the rules in a readable format and structuring the ruleset for ease of character creation for the players during the Actual Play episode.

The third and most labor-intensive phase of production is the editing and post-production work on the recordings of episodes 1 to 3 of Arc 1 of Whole New World. This phase of production is still ongoing at the time of this crowdfunding campaign aiming for completion soon after the conclusion of this campaign.

The funds raised during this crowdfunding campaign will go towards paying not only our on-screen talent of game designers, worldbuilders and actual play performers but also our producers and editors.

Our base goal is $2000, but the more money we can raise, the more chaos we can create. In real terms, it would mean we would be able to:

• secure the means of  producing future arcs 
• pay our future guests & producers for their labor! 
• provide our backers with more rewards and bonus content!

[REVEALED] STRETCH GOAL 1: $2500

Like most of our community of creatives, the Whole New World team feel VERY STRONGLY about never ever ever using generative AI for anything but especially for art. 

It's stupid, it's theft, it costs professionals and the environment. 

Having said that, we would love the chance to include more gorgeous art in our show and the Arc 1 pdf. To do that, we'd like to be able to commission and support local artists. Please help us achieve this!

[REVEALED] STRETCH GOAL 2: $3000

James D'Amato, of One Shot Podcast fame and writer of many Ultimate RPG volumes, is excited to create chaos with us on Whole New World: Arc 2! Help us make Arc 2 a reality, and a significantly improved one at that! Get James D'Amato on the show!

If you'd like to help us out, other than backing the project, please share our project online! Every little bit helps us! 

• Instagram: @spiritbearrpg @weavegames
• Bluesky: @valiantdorian.bsky.social, @spiritbearrpg.bsky.social, @pmakesthings.bsky.social,  @oneshotnetwork.bsky.social