BY AILEA MERRIAM-PIGG

| ZOE FANS ON ZOE FILMS |

Hello amazing fans of ZOE! If you’ve been paying attention, you’ve probably noticed a few new names attached to articles recently. I’m another of those new names and I decided to use my first article to discuss how I became a fan of Zombie Orpheus Entertainment.

I actually found ZOE through the Twitch content of HyperRPG when a few of the awesome people attached to ZOE came over and became The Renegades on Death from Above, HyperRPG’s Battletech RPG show. The Renegades stole the show for me, from the one-lined quips to the insane shipping that occurred. That’s why I was so happy when HyperRPG announced they would be partnering with ZOE to create a new rpg show, Masters of the Metaverse.

Masters of the Metaverse sees our intrepid heroes taken from their homes to explore the multiverse by merging their consciousness with various beings from whatever world they are currently in. Have you seen Avatar (not the sad excuse for an airbender movie, but the one with blue aliens)? It’s basically that, but with galaxy-saving princesses and steampunk zombies.

If you haven’t watched Masters of the Metaverse yet, now is the perfect time to jump in! They just started a new story arc a couple of weeks ago so, instead of 50 hours of material to catch-up on, there’s only a couple episodes you need to watch to get into the current storyline. Although I loved the last steampunk, Wild West campaign featuring one of my favorite sharp-shooters, Annie Oakley, I was beyond excited to discover that the new arc is all about magical space princesses.

I credit Sailor Moon as my gateway drug to hardcore geekdom, so the fact that ZOE is putting on a campaign that is basically Sailor Moon meets Power Rangers? Beyond perfect for me! And honestly, the current cast of MotM is making it difficult to decide between Sailor Moon or Sailor Chad.

The cast of Masters of the Metaverse rotates, dependent on the schedules of the cast members, but the current arc so far has featured Sarah Sanders-Ode as Rosie, Chris Ode as Thomas, Maggie Ferguson as Jenika, Vanessa Postil as Aquamarine, Lisa Coronado as Tessa, and Christian Doyle as the lovable GM. Now, these are the names of the cast’s main characters, but they get additional names when they pod into a new universe and merge with a different consciousness. That’s why, although Chris is currently playing Thomas, he is also Chad.

My favorite aspect of the show, however, is when they are forced to switch character sheets and play as different people. This occurs when a glitch in the pods switches around their consciousness’ so, while Sarah’s Rosie normally shares consciousness with a rather…goth space princess, obsessed with death and poetry jams, sometimes the glitch makes her play as Aquamarine’s space princess, a studious type who takes copious notes, or as Chad, a prince who merged with a stone and somehow became a magical space princess.

…That might sound a little confusing, but trust me, when you see it in action, it all makes perfect sense. The cast helps clear up some of the confusion by switching costume pieces, such as hats or weapons so that it’s a bit easier to tell who is playing who.

You can influence the show by visiting the ZOE Patreon or by visiting the Straylogic Store. The Patreon allows you to give the players and DM weekly buffs, like bonuses to rolls and additional armor. The Straylogic store allows the audience to purchase buffs for players, make everyone dance to the MotM theme song (yes, there’s a theme song), switch characters, or a variety of other actions, including a Hack Attack that allows you to choose what happens next in the game.

If you aren’t quite ready to commit to the Patreon or purchasing a buff through the store, that’s ok! HyperRPG’s content is available for free live on Twitch and later on Youtube. In fact, if you want to catch up on previous episodes of MotM, they are all right here. Once you’re ready, you can catch Masters of the Metaverse live every Monday at 6pm PDT on ZOE’s Twitch channel!