Random Encounter (2005–2015) In 2005, Vengroff, under the
stage name Careless, was a founding member of the band
Random Encounter, specialized in
covers of
video game music and original music inspired by video games. He mainly played the
accordion, while also performing vocals and the
glockenspiel. The band was voted by readers of
Orlando Weekly as the Best Folk Act in Central Florida (2011), the Best Indie Act in Central Florida (2012) and the Best Rock Act in Central Florida (2013). In 2006, Vengroff directed a
Resident Evil fan-made short film titled
Resident Evil: Operation Mad Jackal, together with Kit Pennebaker. The film featured over 60 actors, and the crew received permission from the city of
Sarasota to shut down part of the city's
Main Street to film a scene. Vengroff stated in July 2006 that the film would premiere at a convention the following October. In 2010, he completed
Liberty: Defiance, a comic book he wrote based on the
science fiction Liberty fictional universe he had developed over the previous years; he had hoped to turn it into a full comic book series, but was unsuccessful in selling it to any publisher. Vengross, still using the name Careless, founded a second band in 2011, Careless Juja, together with fellow video game music cover artist The Great Juja. They would release several albums, and are still currently active. Among Random Encounter's releases during his time with them were studio album
Unavenged in 2011 and
Let Me Tell You a Story in 2013. On October 3, 2015, Random Encounter performed a show in Orlando titled "Farewell Careless / 10 Year Anniversary Concert", acting as both a celebration of the band's first ten years and the farewell show of Careless, who was leaving the band.
Fool and Scholar Productions (2015–present) In 2015, Vengroff and his romantic partner (later wife)
Kaitlin Statz decided to venture into audio fiction, creating the company Fool and Scholar Productions to produce fiction podcasts. Their first release later the same year was
Liberty: Critical Research, a return to Vengroff's
science fiction Liberty fictional universe; in the style the two would follow in their future podcasts, Vengroff directed, produced, edited and sound designed the podcast while Statz was the writer; Vengroff also voiced one of the main characters, Officer Severous Ljqvist. The series was an unexpected success, and led to the development of
Liberty into a multimedia franchise. In addition to two more seasons of
Critical Research, two more
Liberty podcasts were produced:
Liberty: Tales From the Tower, a
horror anthology podcast that run from four seasons from 2016 and 2021, and
Liberty: Vigilance, a one-season
actual play podcast made in 2018 using
Liberty: A.F.T.E.R, a
tabletop role-playing game designed by Vengroff and released the same year. It also lead to the release of two more
Liberty comic books written by Vengroff, including the serialized
Liberty: Deception, and two
Liberty picture books co-authored by Vengroff and Statz. The first volume was released at
New York Comic Con in October 2016. In 2017, Fool and Scholar Productions released their first
Liberty-unrelated work
found footage horror podcast The White Vault, about a group of individuals sent to the Norwegian
archipelago of
Svalbard to investigate a remote outpost gone radio silent after sending a distress signal. The show lasted for a five seasons-run completed in 2022, and was accompanied by several spin-off shows set in the same universe, released between 2018 and 2023.
Dark Dice, a horror-
dark fantasy actual play podcast, premiered in 2018, with Vengroff acting as
gamemaster. It emphasized the potential deaths of all
player characters, with
campaigns including, among others, Statz (who joined Vengroff as co-gamemaster from season 3 onwards),
Jeff Goldblum,
Eric Nelsen,
LilyPichu, and many voice actors featured in other works of Fool and Scholar Productions; it is still ongoing. Vengroff also contributed as a composer and musician, directed an
orchestra, a 40-person choir, and more than 30 medieval instruments for the soundtrack of the
Dark Dice podcast. The tabletop role-playing game
Domain of the Nameless God, designed by Vengroff and based on the universe of
Dark Dice, was released on 2023 by Dungeon Masters Guild. Vengroff and Statz also published
VAST Horizon, a three-season science fiction story released from 2019 to 2021 about the passenger of a spaceship who awakens from
stasis to find the spaceship empty and failing, and must survive and investigate with the help of the ship's
artificial intelligence. ''Don't Mind: Cruxmont
, a mystery story intended to be the first season of a Don't Mind
anthology series made of stand-alone seasons, was released in 2022, starring Adjoa Andoh and Marcus Bentley as two strangers who meet on their way to the small elusive town of Cruxmont, both in search of answers. It was followed by The Boar Knight'', a 15-episode family-friendly fantasy series released bi-monthly from October 2022 to June 2023.
Other works From 2013 to 2018, Vengroff was a regular contributor to the Russian
science fiction and
fantasy magazine
Mir Fantastiki. == Works ==