Unprepared Casters is a Dungeons & Dragons Actual Play podcast started in 2021. The pod is hosted by TikTok users Haley (Whipjack) and Gus (GusTheBard). The podcast consists of several different story arcs of six to eight episodes each that feature a different set of guests filling out the remainder of the party. Each arc takes place within the same universe but follows different characters during a different time period. The pod also features a talkback show called The Verbal Component where Haley, Gus, and their guests talk (out of character) about the events of the previous episode.
Unprepared Casters features examples of:
- Abusive Parents: Episode 3 of Arc 4: Orb Is Life opens with a flashback to when Aster and Quinn still lived with their parents and it was unpleasant, to say the least.
- Action Girl: All of the female characters are formidable in their own right, but a special shoutout goes to the titular Lovejoy’s Four of Arc 2, who formed an all female heist team.
- Adults Are Useless: The only ones trying to stop the necromantic cult trying to raise an ancient beast seem to be four teenagers. Never mind their parents, coaches, or any of the spectators of the Orbula game they ran out on.
- Aerithand Bob: Character names range from Thavius to Deb (the backstories are just as wildly different). Special shoutout to John Borple who fits the Bob role both in his adventuring party and in the Borple family.
- Alas, Poor Villain: While not the main villain of Arc 4: Orb is Life, zombified Wrangler definitely qualifies as this. Shi’elle in Arc 5: Lives of the Party also qualifies.
- Alien Sky: The moon has moons!
- Anachronic Order: Arc 5: Lives of the Party takes place hundreds of years before the first four arcs and Arc 6: The Glacerian Trail is set some time after that but still well before the rest of the arcs.
- Anyone Can Die: All the players in Arc 6: The Glacerian Trail rolled backup characters and all but one character did, in fact, die!
- Artifactof Doom: The gem the party is trying to steal in Arc 2: Lovejoy’s Four is highly dangerous and can only be picked up by Ash who is a fire genasi. It turns out the gem was made to hold Ember, a genie and Ash’s father.
- Ascended Extra: The extended Lovejoy family was originally just part of Hope Lovejoy’s backstory but as of now every arc except one has featured a Lovejoy player character and two arcs have been Lovejoy centric. Richard Lovejoy and The Boys, Lathe, Charles the Owl, and Bixelbong Borple were all originally NPCs who became player characters for oneshot livestreams.
- Assist Character: Throughout the entirety of Arc 1: Dragons in Dungeons, SK-73 only casts one damage spell to cause damage but he does cast assist spells and buffs several times. Haley has described Lyndell as being designed to be a support character to the rest of the party.
- Back from the Dead: Mortyss specializes in necromancy and is always accompanied by reanimated skeletons. Oh, and Wrangler.
- Badass Crew: Each party pulls together brilliantly but special shoutouts go to Arc 3: Gonna Raise Hell for level 15 badassery and Arc 4: Orb Is Life for four teenagers fighting way above their pay grade.
- Barrier-Busting Blow: Sir Mister Person and Thavius devote nearly an entire episode to punching through a locked stone door.
- Beach Episode: Arc 5: Lives of the Party sets the party free around the Festival of the Dawnfather’s Rest. Unfortunately, things aren’t quite so simple. After the intense events of Arc 6: The Glacerian Trail, Gus and Haley decided the Arc 6 livestream would be a Sky Pirate Beach Day.
- Big Game: Arc 4: Orb is Life features the final game of the HASMORQL season in order to qualify for HASMOIST and compete to be the GOTH.
- Bloodless Carnage: Lampshaded in Arc 1: Dragons in Dungeons when Thavius deals quite a bit of psychic damage
- Brain Bleach: Omen spends much of his time at The Festival of the Dawnfather’s Rest looking for a wife for his mom but as soon as someone tells him what his mom is into he starts to regret everything.
- Bury Your Gays: Averted. Several of the NPCs and player characters are LGBT+ and they all end up happy and alive.
- Call-Forward: Amelia canonizes the connection between Bombyx and Solace three arcs after the original character appeared.
- Can't Take Anything with You: The players' items all reset with every new time loop in Arc 5: Lives of the Party.
- Captain Obvious: In Arc 1: Dragons in Dungeons, John used one of his portent rolls to raise Jenny’s perception check. Thanks to the higher roll, Hope Lovejoy found a footprint leading to the only door in the room.
- Catchphrase: Plenty!
- Helloooooooo!
- No negative self talk!
- That really dungeons my dragons.
- Orb Orb Orb Orb!
- Are you open to the concept of new love in your life?
- Charm Person: Fey Moss charms a palace guard to get further into the castle.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Wrangler is originally part of a player character’s backstory. Gem Lovejoy also qualifies as this in Arc 3: Gonna Raise Hell.
- The Clan: The Lovejoy family. The Rose’s and the Borples also count. They don't exactly operate as a family, but the SK line is definitely vast enough.
- Closed Circle: The time loops in Arc 5: Lives of the Party only affect the festival grounds.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Arguments can be made for a few characters but Omen Haxolpenny definitely qualifies.
- Concert Climax: Arc 4: Orb Is Life is set during HASORQL finals and Arc 5: Lives of the Party is set during a big public festival.
- Cool Horse: Hope Lovejoy loves her horse Sugar so much that her spiritual weapon takes the form of Sugar.
- Common Tongue: Other than a few instances of Deb speaking in infernal, once when they spoke Dwarvish, and one time when SK-73 spoke draconic, everyone speaks in common.
- Crazy Enoughto Work: Sir Mister Person and Thavius spend the better part of an episode trying to break down a stone door by running at it. There was a key like...20 feet away.
- Crazy-Prepared: For unspecified reasons, SK-73 speaks draconic.
- Curbstomp Battle: The Boys in the Sewer fight, the finale of Arc 3: Gonna Raise Hell, and pretty much all of Arc 6: The Glacerian Trail ended up being this. Also, that time Sougle tried to fight two super powerful vampires.
- Darkerand Edgier: Arc 6: The Glacerian Trail kicked the danger up to eleven for a gritty survival story.
- The Dayof Reckoning: Arc 3: Gonna Raise Hell and Arc 4: Orb Is Life both had one.
- Departmentof Redundancy Department: The Lovejoy Family Decennial Family Celebration of Love and Joy.
- Downer Beginning: Arc 6: The Glacerian Trail opened with a dragon attacking the crew's steed.
- Dungeon Crawling: Episode four of Arc 1: Dragons in Dungeons features a particularly well executed dungeon crawl.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: The first few episodes of Arc 6: The Glacerian Trail saw the players experiment with different effects based on the cold and extreme conditions.
- Eldritch Abomination: The giant hand of the beast In the final battle of Arc 4: Orb Is Life.
- Empty Room Untilthe Trap: All four rooms in the Arc 1 dungeon crawl seem totally unassuming until someone enters.
- Everyone Chasing You: Aster runs into a little trouble involving an angry mob in Arc 4: Orb Is Life.
- Everything Trying to Kill You: The antagonist of Arc 6: The Glacerian Trail is the elements, severe conditions, and ruthless flora and fauna of the Up North.
- Evilis Petty: When he’s up against a wall with no way to win, Tybyrone chooses to cast fireball on all the party’s loved ones.
- Extremely Short Timespan: Each arc so far has taken place over only a few days or only six hours in the case of Arc 5: Lives of the Party.
- Final Battle: Arc 1: Dragons in Dungeons, Arc 3: Gonna Raise Hell, and Arc 4: Orb Is Life all got a big final battle sequence.
- Friendly Pirate: Booker Sailship might be a pirate, but he looks incredibly put together and is overall very friendly. The Sky Pirate crew of Arc 6: The Glacerian Trail are generally very nice, regular people (if a little bit odd).
- From Zeroto Hero: Sir Mister Person doesn’t have much to offer against a flying enemy. That is, until SK-73 casts several buffs on him.
- Gladiator Games: The Snowdrop Festival features a Bloodsport portion.
- Grave Robbing: The party of Arc 1: Dragons in Dungeons makes sure to open every casket in the mausoleum looking for loot (among other things).
- Great Escape: Robyn jumping out of a window after Gem Lovejoy catches her stealing.
- Great Offscreen War: Most of the adventures of the Gonna Raise Hell party were never explored.
- Haunted Heroine: Lottie Laramie has been haunted since birth.
- Have You Seen My God?: After a few bad rolls, Hope Lovejoy questions if Pelor is even listening.
- Heroic BSoD: SK-73 when the topic of dragons comes up, Russ when he can’t get through to Wrangler, Sougle after he gets killed.
- Heroic Comedic Sociopath: Since it happened on The Verbal Component it’s technically out of character, but during Arc 3: Gonna Raise Hell, and Arc 5: Lives of the Party players have discussed the possibility of killing major NPCs to solve their problems. They have yet to follow through.
- Hope Spot: The party of Arc 6: The Glacerian Trail thinks they're finally out of the woods when they find a teleportation circle. Unfortunately for them, there were two whole episodes left.
- Hopeless Boss Fight: In Arc 3: Gonna Raise Hell, Aldrum and Diarmid accidentally stumble alone into a boss fight. Narrowly avoided in the Arc 4: Orb Is Life finale when everyone except Aster went down.
- Impact Silhouette: After running directly into a locked stone door, Sir Mister Person leaves a “Sir Mister Person sized crack” in it.
- Incredibly Long Note: Hope Lovejoy, known for her long winded speeches, is no less verbose in her letters.
- Indy Ploy: The parties never seem to make a plan to save the day, they just kind of try stuff until it works.
- Kaiju: The beast from Arc 4: Orb Is Life was so huge that just its hand was hard to take down.
- Killer Rabbit: Hope Lovejoy might be a sweet and delicate lady, but she gets the first kill of the pod. Quinn may be a very girly head cheerleader, but she has the highest kill count in Arc 4: Orb Is Life.
- Large Ham: Sir Mister Person
- Last Place You Look: The dungeon entrance in Arc 1: Dragons in Dungeons is in the very last coffin the party checks.
- The Main Characters Do Everything: The Arc 3: Gonna Raise Hell party gets little to no help from anyone while they are literally trying to save the world. Arc 4: Orb Is Life follows four random teenagers taking on a secret necromancy cult and eldritch abomination essentially by themselves. In Arc 5: Lives of the Party, the party members seem to be the only ones who remember enough between loops to be able to do anything.
- Meaningful Name: All of the Lovejoy’s have names that coincide with their personalities or hobbies.
- Mission Briefing: Arc 2: Lovejoy’s Four opens with the party being briefed on the heist that Victor and Borys Rose had planned.
- Monty Haul: In the middle of trying to save the world in Arc 3: Gonna Raise Hell, the party takes the time to rob one of Fey’s wealthy friends. Several arcs also feature the party being given free bonus items in the form of patron submitted items.
- Mythology Gag: The intro music features the same chord sequence as Gus used in the TikTok duet that introduced him and Haley. In Arc 5: Lives of the Party’s episode 0, Chris describes Omen’s hobby of posting to “The Tick Tock,” a giant clock where Omen likes to put up fun little clips that sometimes get taken down, a reference to many of the guests (not to mention Gus and Haley) being popular on TikTok.
- The Nicknamer: SK-73 constantly refers to the rest of the party by nicknames. Some notable examples include “Duke of Docks,” “Peer of Piers,” “Crafter of Cakes,” and simply “Bread.”
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Sougle and Omen try to warn the festival goers about the vampires in the mirror maze. Sougle ends up paying for it with his life.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Sir Mister Person gets eerily calm when the King is threatened.
- Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Many valiant efforts are made at a Southern accent for members of the Lovejoy family. During Arc 2: Lovejoy’s Four, Gus got to bounce around between Southern, New York, and Russian accents (with a few y’alls slipping into even the Russian). Owen stated in The Verbal Component for Arc 5: Lives of the Party that he originally intended for Booker to have a mix between Southern and Pirate but he ended up just leaning further and further into pirate.
- One-Steve Limit: Averted with Boris and Borys, Samuel and Sammy, Airyc and Airycorse, several Ember’s and a near miss with Wren and Rin to name a few. Lampshaded on the verbal component; Owen thinks there should be more characters named Diarmad.
- Ornamental Weapon: Hope Lovejoy’s dagger is said to look like it’s never been used. Arc 1: Dragons in Dungeons introduces the idea of bejeweled engagement daggers. Aster has a “cool knife” that he had just to do “cool tricks” with. (Although he does end up using it).
- Overly Long Name: The Lovejoy Family Decennial Family Celebration of Love and Joy.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Omen casts silent image on himself to look like a pirate but fools no one.
- Preserve Your Gays: The pod features several LGBT+ characters who all get to live happily.
- The Role Player: The players are all very good at role playing very different characters. Special shoutout to Owen as Booker Sailship in Arc 5: Lives of the Party who lost 60 years of his memories without Owen ever missing a beat.
- * Ruleof Fun: They definitely play on the rules-light side.
- Running Gag: To name a few:
- Hope Lovejoy talking endlessly.
- SK-73 avoiding combat at all costs.
- Annie doesn’t like Charles.
- Chanting Heist or Orb.
- Aster/Haley not understanding sports.
- Omen looking for "MILFs".
- Sougle is sad.
- Arc 5 was Gus’s Villain Arc.
- No negative self talk.
- At the $10 tier, you unlock the ability to "Um Actually” the cast.
- An 8 is a crit.
- Gus never understands pop culture references.
- Arc 6: The Glacerian Trail featured a lot of references to soup and soup being marked as spoilers in the Discord.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After failing to navigate the maze twice, Sougle stormed out.
- Shared Universe: All of the arcs take place in the same universe and explore the ever growing lore.
- Sky Pirate: Arc 6: The Glacerian Trail follows the last crew of Sky Pirates lead by Captain Remeny Gratz.
- The Smurfette Principle: Arc 1, Arc 4, and Arc 5 all had only one female party member. (Although, Arcs 1 and 4 also had a nonbinary party member).
- Snowball Lie: In her attempt to add a plus one to her ticket to the Lovejoy Family Decennial Family Celebration of Love and Joy, Robyn makes up a girlfriend, a star-crossed romance, and a potential proposal all from one of her family’s greatest rivals.
- Soft Glass: Robyn is totally fine after jumping through a glass window and plummeting to the ground.
- Sole Survivor: Beryl is the only survivor of Arc 6: The Glacerian Trail.
- Someday This Will Comein Handy: Subverted in Arc 1: Dragons in Dungeons with the magic coins SK-73 finds. Played straight in Arc 4: Orb Is Life when Aster finally gets to use his cool knife.
- Theme Naming: The Lovejoy Family, for sure. Also: Ash the fire genasi, two other fire genasis named Ashborn, Lily the florist, the fire genie Ember, two vampires with the last name Bites, Booker Sailship the sea pirate, and Ace the star athlete.
- Tooka Levelin Dumbass: More along the lines of Took a Level in Forgetting The Past 60 Years of My Life Because of Forbidden Magic, but Booker forgot the past 60 years of his life after the first time Shi’elle reset time.
- Trash Landing: Arc 2: Lovejoy’s Four sees the party ziplining over piles of trash that would cushion their fall in a pinch.
- Useless Useful Non-Combat Abilities: SK-73 seems to have only one damage spell, but he gets plenty of use out of his floating disc ability.
- Wedding Finale: Arc 2: Lovejoy’s Four ends with Sasha and Mishka getting engaged, and the end of Arc 3: Gonna Raise Hell mentions a big wedding happening in Glycheria. Word of God says it’s Sasha and Mishka.
- Wham Line: There have been a few!
- “Excellent, I’m going to teleport.”
- “Did This work?”
- “The walls are closing in on you, you have a two minute timer.”
- “Can you not hear me?”
- “Oh, Robyn, what are you gettin’ yourself into?”
- “What are you willing to lose for this?”
- “Cool, I would like to throw my cool knife at that person.”
- “...Held in the hands of a minotaur with a horn snapped and broken, eyes sunken in, and a huge burn exposing bone all down his collarbone and his shoulder...You lock eyes.”
- “If I could just have you all roll a wisdom saving throw.”
- “And Shi’elle looks to her companion, closes her eyes, and explodes.
- "I would like Kix and Beryl to please make a wisdom saving throw."
- "And I will take out my great axe and attack."
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Aldrum has an irrational fear of common farm animals, and Booker isn’t a fan of heights or flying.
- You Can't Go Home Again: Robyn in Arc 2: Lovejoy’s Four after she gets caught stealing from her mom.
