Do you like your TTRPGs crunchy or streamlined?

Name: Do you like your TTRPGs crunchy or streamlined? | Open Video
Uploaded: 2026-08-17T04:24:55+00:00
Duration: 1 h 17 min

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[music]
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[music]
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[music]
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Well Bet traveler, welcome to the
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tavern.
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Did you know that this magical place is
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where more than half of history's
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greatest adventures have begun?
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Before those adventurers took their
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first steps, they watched and calculated
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who would join their party.
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See that barbarian over there? He hails
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from the frozen lands. Strong, mighty,
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and full of wisdom. I've closed many a
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nights with that one. They call
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themselves Matt Rossy.
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To the right over there, that woman
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working on her tinkers and mechanical
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devices, an artificer of great skill.
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She is cunning and quick, and I've seen
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her bounce a fair share of narrative
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wells out of here before I could even
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step out from behind the bar. She's
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known as Liz Harper.
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And that gentleman by the hearth with a
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pile of tomes. Rumor has it that he is a
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powerful wizard full of arcane secrets.
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But around here, most just call him the
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professor. Me? I know them to be Phil
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Orch.
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Oh, me. I'm Joe Perez. I'll be your
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Tavern Keeper. Welcome to Tavern Watch.
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Hello and welcome to Tavern Watch, where
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we talk about your favorite, or at least
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our favorite tabletop stuff and news.
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Uh, I am one of your hosts, Joe Perez,
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and that giggling in the background was
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our editor-inchief, Liz Harper. How you
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doing, Liz?
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>> Hello. I'm doing good tonight.
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>> Uh, joining us as always, uh, pulling
2:01
himself away from whatever toil and
2:03
trouble involving Godzilla he was
2:05
probably doing, uh, is Matt Rossy. How
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you doing, Matt?
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>> Actually, I was doing several things.
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One of which is related to the Fallout
2:12
game we're going to run next month, but
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also I've been playing Cyberpunk 2077
2:17
again. Uh, I don't know how it happened.
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I I one moment I was fine and then I
2:22
tripped and fell into making a new
2:24
cyberpunk character and now my
2:26
[laughter] my uh my um Aris ex Arasaka
2:32
is currently running through the streets
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of Night City annoying Arisaka, which I
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guess is progress, right? Yeah. So,
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yeah, that's that happened.
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>> And that last laugh you hear there
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pulling himself away from a Final
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Fantasy 14 endeavors uh is Phil Oric.
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How you doing, Phil?
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>> Hey, it's never hard to pull myself away
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from a game to talk about different
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games, you know. I love it. No, I'm
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good. Doing good.
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>> All right. Well, uh, we're going to
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start with our classics here, friends.
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Uh, we're going to ask, what are you
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reading? What are you playing? What are
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you looking forward to? And any
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interesting new content creators or
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things you want to plug? Since Phil was
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last in, he's going to be first out.
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What are you reading, Phil?
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>> First out. Okay. So, I am currently
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reading uh well because I'm playing it
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tomorrow uh the uh Shadow Run sixth
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edition rules again. Um this is the
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crunchiest game I have played in a very
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long time.
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>> Yep.
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>> Um we So, we're currently I I kind of
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bullied uh the current DM into running
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it for us. Um and I one of us is
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probably going to regret that. Maybe
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both. But um I was you know we did about
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half of a oneshot um just because man
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there's a lot of rules and it's really
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slow and some of the things are not
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super intuitive if you're not used to
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running the rules yet like uh but um you
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know we're working on it and I've just
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been brushing up on my character cuz I
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am playing a caster and if you are if
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you do magic or internet stuff in that
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game you have a whole separate game you
4:06
have to learn on top of the regular
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game. So which is fun. Shadow Shadow Run
4:10
is a weird state where and I and I and
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I'm not saying this lightly.
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>> Uh Catalyst is the only company I know
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that will produce the crunchiest game
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imaginable just so they can sell you
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another product called Run Faster. Uh
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which they have yet to release for sixth
4:24
edition. There is one for fifth edition.
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Um but
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>> and then they and then they release like
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>> ripping them off. There's another
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company now doing what Catalyst did
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because uh sh they're doing that with
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exalted over at uh
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>> they should
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>> Onyx path um
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>> Exalted Essence which is shortened
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exalted. What's really funny is Joe was
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talking the crunchy. I know it's not.
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[laughter] I know it's not.
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>> No, it's not. I have essence. It's just
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it's just it's exalted.
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>> Yeah, [laughter] it's like the original
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exalted. It's like second edition if
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they just
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>> ref.
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But um when you're talking about
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Shatterum, you said that a thing about
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it being the crunchiest thing you've
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played in a while. I want you to think
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about the fact that they're advertising
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it as being streamlined.
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>> Compared to third and fourth edition, it
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is.
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>> Yeah, there's like depending on where
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you put the bar, it can pretty easily
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clear it. And I know there's like that
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lighter like story focused version of
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Shadow Run and I've really been thinking
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about bringing that up as an
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alternative, but I don't know. It's one
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of those games where we got like halfway
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into the one shot and one of our players
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realized like the character he had
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rolled did not do any of the stuff he
5:30
wanted it to do because we didn't
5:31
realize the skills he would want to be
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rolling for what he was actually doing
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because they were buried in a paragraph
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somewhere in like the back of a book. Um
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yeah, I don't know. It's been it's been
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interesting. We're going to try it again
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tomorrow. We'll see how many sessions
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this lasts. Um, other things I've been
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looking at. Um, I've been reading. Uh,
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so the, uh, the final copy of the
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digital version of the Beastiary for
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Fabula Ultima finally came out from
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their Kickstarter earlier this year. Um,
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so I've been perusing that. Uh, really
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really cool encounter building rules
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that I think a lot of, um, midweight
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games could take notice of. Uh, uh, I've
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also been doing a lot of reading. I've
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been reading Realis, uh, mostly just to
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see where it's at in the final edition.
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uh the uh diceless uh game from uh
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Austin Walker from Friends at the Table.
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Um and
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it's it's been an interesting game. It
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it has it has a feature that I've heard
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come up and play that I can only
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describe as tactical sentence
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diagramming um to try and [laughter]
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figure out exactly the level of
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opposition you're up against. So,
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English majors uh just either geeked out
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or cried in horror.
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>> Um and the last one, I will give a
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content creator a plug. I have been
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listening to a Mythic Bastion Land
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actual play from [snorts] uh 3d6 down
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the line. A group that normally does uh
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>> I understand that reference.
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>> Normally do like OSR games. Uh yeah, I
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know. Exactly. Uh like they have a
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longunning Dolmanwood campaign. They did
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a fairly longunning actual play of the
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mega dungeon uh module Ardan V uh using
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old school essentials and now they have
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a uh they've started a mythic bastion
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land actual play. Um it's kind of a big
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change of pace for them but kind of not
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because the Bastion Land games are all
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kind of in that OSR vein, but Mythic
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Bastion Land is very much like the sort
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of surreal Arthuran myth inspired thing
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rather than your usual uh hard scrabble
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fight for treasure uh OSR game. So, it's
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been interesting. This uh wow, I was
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talking for a while. Somebody else go,
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>> Liz,
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>> I'm mostly reading up on Fallout because
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I we're we're playing Fallout next
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month. Like Matt said, Matt's running
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it. I got to make a character. I have
7:45
this whole uh concept that I put
7:47
together at uh level one cuz we were
7:50
going to play earlier, but life
7:53
happened, you know, and I'm like, "Okay,
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now I made this long so long ago that I
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have no idea how I put it together or
8:00
what's what, and now I need to level it
8:02
up." So, I'm here we are again. Here we
8:05
are again. You know, you there are so
8:07
many games. There are so many games and
8:10
it's like I put one aside for five
8:12
minutes and absorb new information and
8:15
it's like it's gone. It's just gone. So,
8:18
back on Fallout. Very excited on
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Fallout. Wondering when we'll ever have
8:22
a Fallout video game again. But we got
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tabletop games. We can make our own
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games. I don't care Bethesda. We're
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making our own games here. So, uh that's
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that's all I've really been reading
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lately and uh looking forward to it.
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>> Matt. Well, the new thing I've been
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looking at I and I can't say to the
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quality of it or of the publisher. I I
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never heard of it before I looked at it
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recent, but I picked up something called
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Hex Crawl um campaign style guide book.
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There's a encounter design guide book
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and a worldbuing design guide book. I
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like reading that kind of stuff even
8:53
though if I won't like I probably never
8:55
use it, but I like to read it to see how
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somebody else thinks about those things.
9:00
I used to have a book on world building
9:01
by uh um oh I think I want to say uh
9:05
Kees but I can't remember his name at
9:08
the moment which is going to really
9:09
embarrass me when I remember it in like
9:10
two hours but regardless I used to like
9:13
you know pick these things up and read
9:14
through them just just because I like
9:15
seeing how other people think about it.
9:17
So I got those. I don't know how good
9:19
they are. Uh I I haven't done any real
9:23
um I I picked it up, read through the
9:25
first one like about five pages in and
9:27
then I'm like, "Okay, I got to focus
9:29
again on Fallout." So, I'm trying to
9:30
keep I'm trying to keep myself pretty
9:32
focused on the Fallout game because I
9:33
haven't run a game in a while at this
9:35
like I I haven't run a game in this
9:38
year. I don't like in the year 2026. I
9:40
have not run a game. So, if I have, it
9:42
was real early. So, yeah, I'm I'm
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basically just just trying to get used
9:46
to that. Um, and besides that, um, I
9:49
picked up, um, Ashes Without Number. I
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don't know if you guys remember that
9:53
one. It's a It's a, you know, it's, um,
9:56
an OSR type game. It It's kind of weird.
9:58
It's It's a much more It's a much less
10:03
fun take on Nuclear Apocalypse or any
10:06
other kind of apocalypse you want, which
10:08
I mean, certainly there's room for not
10:11
having fun in an apocalypse. I mean, but
10:14
comparing it to the slow motion
10:15
apocalypse that is my day-to-day life, I
10:18
I certainly have I appreciate that Ashes
10:20
Without Number has a wide variety of
10:23
ways to come up with how your world got
10:25
into the shape it's in. Uh everything
10:27
from, you know, genetic engineering run
10:29
a muck to um you know, lism that
10:32
destroyed, you know, companies and
10:34
businesses. There's a whole sort of
10:35
different ways. So, yeah. Um that's
10:38
basically it. I I did pick up Exalted
10:40
Essence a little while ago. I've already
10:42
had the PDF, but I picked up the the
10:44
hard cover just, you know, because I
10:45
felt bad that I didn't already have it.
10:47
But that's like, you know, Phil already
10:49
described that. It's that is how it is.
10:51
And I keep staring very fixedly off into
10:54
the horizon and in my head, you hear
10:58
this like, you know,
11:00
as as the atomic energy is going up the
11:03
giant tail plates of a certain giant
11:05
kaiju that we all know and love. And I'm
11:07
waiting for that release. I'm waiting
11:08
for like I'm waiting for the IDW one
11:11
which is something we've talked about
11:12
already and I'm waiting for the Marvel
11:14
Cinematic Universe one because you know
11:16
it's not Cinematic Universe it's Marvel
11:18
but it's it if it references all the
11:21
stuff that Godzilla did in the 70s in it
11:24
it's just I am so there I am so
11:27
amazingly there I wish I wish there
11:30
would be a Marvel movie with Godzilla
11:32
just doing the things that he did in
11:34
that comic book cuz it was crazy when
11:37
they shrank him and sent him back in
11:38
time. That was Reed Richard's idea when
11:41
confronted with Godzilla is what if we
11:42
shrink him and then send him back in
11:44
time. Actually, that sounds like
11:46
>> that is the least surprising.
11:48
>> Yeah. Yeah. It's [laughter]
11:49
I I hear that and it's like, yeah,
11:51
that's just Reed Richards.
11:53
>> Well, the thing is is Reed isn't even
11:54
the one who thought to shrink him.
11:56
Shield did that. Shield used Pim's
11:59
particles to shrink it. Then it started
12:01
growing again. It got it got loose from
12:04
the helicarrier. Uh, we gota stop me.
12:07
I'll keep talking. [laughter] So, let
12:09
[clears throat] let's do an actual show
12:10
here before I go nuts.
12:11
>> I I I do want to add that there's not a
12:14
release date for the Godzilla supplement
12:16
for Marvel Multiverse, but it's supposed
12:18
to be out this year.
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>> And until it is out, I will be
12:21
constantly having montages in my head.
12:24
>> And until it's released, I'm
12:26
periodically probably going to get
12:27
messages from Matt asking if I have a
12:28
release date yet. Um,
12:31
>> try not to.
12:32
>> I'm perfectly fine with it. Um, I'll go
12:34
hard not to.
12:35
>> Meanwhile, I've been uh going through
12:39
The Vampire the Masquerade current
12:41
edition books again. Um, speaking of
12:44
games that were crunchy and have sort of
12:47
been streamlined, I am actually very
12:49
surprised and pleasantly with the
12:52
current state of the game. You still do
12:55
potentially roll a lot of dice, like you
12:57
can still roll like a bucket of 90 dice.
13:00
Um, but instead of having to worry about
13:03
adding stuff and subtracting things, um,
13:07
basically the only addition you're doing
13:08
is how many, uh, what's your dice pool
13:12
based off of your skills and applicable
13:14
things. Uh, and then the dice
13:16
themselves, they've moved away from
13:18
d10s. They're still d10shaped dice, but
13:22
the dice are now specific for the game.
13:24
And while you can run it with d10s,
13:27
running it with the the specific dice is
13:30
so much faster than it used to be that
13:33
like it I'm watching like combat and um
13:39
you know watching like people like live
13:41
plays and and reading through the rules
13:43
and the interactions are so much faster
13:46
than they used to be and it's really
13:48
really cool to see. Um, it's borderline
13:52
faster than I think D and D at this
13:55
point, which is I mean that's not saying
13:58
much. Um, but it is something
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considering that this game was at some
14:02
one point uh as crunchy and as time
14:06
consuming as Shadow Run and others that
14:09
were DOTbased systems. So, I'm really
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really happy with that. Uh, also really
14:15
>> Shadow Run's currently
14:16
>> Shadow Run D6 is still
14:18
>> okay. Okay. So, it's
14:18
>> unless I mean think there's there's
14:20
alternate rules for other versions of
14:21
it. Um,
14:23
>> yes. Sixth is sixth is uh big ass six
14:26
bulls. Everyone's favorite.
14:29
>> The the thing the thing that I will say
14:31
is reading this and then comparing it to
14:33
some of the other games that are out.
14:35
Um, it makes me realize
14:39
not necessarily how bad games were in
14:42
like the 80s, 70s, 80s, and 90s, but
14:46
just what the different mindset was. And
14:49
like, and I think we've talked about
14:51
this before, a lot of a lot of the older
14:53
games used like a D6 system because
14:56
that's what everybody had. And so a lot
14:59
of game designers would focus on games
15:02
based off of like, okay, a household is
15:05
going to have yatsi dice or something,
15:07
right? So like they can go grab D6s.
15:10
These are widely available. These are
15:11
easily. And that led to like, oh, we
15:14
want to make things appear more
15:16
powerful. And so instead of just like
15:21
having rule sets that sort of like
15:23
played with that design space and found
15:25
new ways to make things feel powerful,
15:27
they just added more dice, right? So
15:29
that you had No, I'm serious. Like um
15:32
the the Marvel game, the original 007
15:36
game, um again, Shadow Run, Cyberpunk.
15:40
>> I'm going to I'm going to jump in here
15:41
because you're talking about Marvel
15:42
Superheroes, the original one from the
15:44
80s.
15:44
>> Yeah. The thing about that game wasn't
15:46
just that it used d6 for a lot of
15:48
things. It was that they had a table and
15:51
the table started off as pretty complex
15:54
and turned into like insurance adjuster
15:58
hardwired three column five 50 row
16:02
cables like by the time the advanced
16:05
version of Marvel Superheroes came out.
16:07
Mhm.
16:07
>> And it was like then they started doing
16:10
it for other games that they had like
16:13
Gamma World, which again had a giant
16:16
table and and it like you you had like a
16:19
bell curve on success and failure in in
16:21
in Gamma World because of this giant
16:24
table that they
16:24
>> That just feels like that TSR Wargaming
16:26
history coming out to play is what is
16:28
what that is.
16:29
>> It was very much like that. Yeah. So
16:32
>> yeah, handfuls of D6s and lookup tables.
16:34
That's what that says to me.
16:35
>> [laughter]
16:36
>> It was it was almost like if the
16:37
remember the original chain mail rules,
16:39
>> the ones they put out in that little
16:41
book.
16:42
>> It was like that but with full color
16:45
because you know it was the 80s they had
16:46
full color then.
16:48
>> So apparently in the 70s nobody had
16:50
color. It was black and white world.
16:51
>> Well, it was it was cost of printing.
16:53
>> Yeah. I just it's fascinating to see
16:56
they started putting in these very very
16:58
colorful uh tables and they even
17:00
colorcoded success levels on the table
17:04
like MSA you know Marvel superheroes is
17:06
a particular example of that where it
17:08
was just crazy. So yeah, I I I do not
17:11
recommend you if you do try to play an
17:13
80s RPG. And some of them are fun. Just
17:16
be be careful once the table starts
17:19
coming out, you're you're going to be in
17:20
for 25 minute turns. Let's put it that
17:24
way.
17:24
>> Yeah. And it's one of the reasons why
17:26
like uh comparing it to like modern
17:28
games and maybe this is an aside that we
17:30
can all discuss a little bit before we
17:32
get into the news topics. Maybe this is
17:33
a better op-ed than what I had in here
17:35
before, but like looking at we just got
17:38
done playing Kids on Bikes. And uh that
17:41
has a very simplistic system uh but
17:45
still has a ton of dice pool uh as far
17:48
as like a variety of dice that you roll.
17:51
And one of the interesting things I
17:52
think about it is all of the offshoot
17:54
games and stuff like that and Powered by
17:56
the Apocalypse and uh Blades in the Dark
17:58
and and systems that have, you know,
18:02
like not stripped down rules, but they
18:04
make the barrier to understand your
18:07
character way less and they focus on
18:11
quick gameplay and easy math. uh to let
18:15
the the story and like everything kind
18:19
of flow a little bit quicker. And it's
18:21
very interesting to see that. And then
18:23
you can do a lot of really cool stuff
18:25
with it. Like Kids on Bikes is a really
18:27
good example cuz um we're fans or at
18:29
least I am of Dimension 20. And they did
18:33
a uh like this this VHS uh like your
18:38
your last action hero. You're getting
18:40
pulled into the movie game. Uh, I can't
18:42
remember if it's don't stop blowing up
18:43
or never stop blowing up. Um, but it's
18:46
based off of kids on bikes and it does
18:49
this thing where like when your dice
18:52
explode, which is you roll the maximum
18:54
value of your dice and you roll again,
18:56
your dice graduates. So if you roll a
18:58
four on a d4, you continue to roll the
19:00
d4, but afterwards that d4 becomes a d6.
19:05
And then, you know, so on and so forth
19:07
all the way up to a d20. um which is,
19:10
you know, if you're lucky enough, you
19:12
can get uh you know, multiple things
19:14
that are rolling d20s, which is good and
19:17
bad. Um and then if you do something
19:21
terrible, you can burn out or burn your
19:24
dice down and actually lose levels. So,
19:27
it goes up and down, but at the end of
19:28
the day, you're still just rolling one
19:30
die and you're just whatever you roll,
19:33
that's your total. And it makes for
19:35
easier encounters. So, I actually really
19:38
like that type of of game system. I
19:40
think it And you guys can tell me
19:42
because like you guys just got done
19:44
playing Kids on Bikes. Um, like those
19:47
types of systems, how do you feel about
19:49
it? Like do you do you like them more
19:52
than others? Do you like the crunchier
19:54
stuff? What where do your preferences
19:56
lay? I mean, I like a little crunch in
19:58
games, but you know, I'm I'm all here
20:01
for storytelling and characters, and
20:04
sometimes being super crunchy can get in
20:06
the way of that. Sometimes the crunch
20:08
can kind of help you think about your
20:09
characters or how they play. I really
20:12
liked um the polymorph system. Am I is
20:16
it polymorph or polygon for all the
20:18
ninth level games? Polymorph. polymorph,
20:20
which was just you kind of your class
20:24
was the kind of die you were rolling.
20:26
>> Mhm.
20:26
>> And each, you know, different different
20:30
numbers gave you sort of were better at
20:32
different things. So if you had a
20:34
smaller die, you were better at some
20:36
things. And if you had a a bigger die,
20:38
you were better at different things. And
20:41
so that felt really streamlined and
20:44
smooth. And your dice didn't explode in
20:47
that one. But one thing I think it was
20:50
if you rolled if you rolled the highest
20:52
or the lowest number, you always got
20:55
something special. Like in Pigeons 11,
20:57
it was a a gadgets role, in which case
21:00
you could you could say how you had and
21:05
used like a special gadget in order to
21:08
solve whatever you were doing. So, it's
21:11
it's not a it's not like you succeeded,
21:13
but it's like even if you had a d4, if
21:15
you rolled a gadgets roll, then it's
21:18
like you succeed, but in some super
21:20
weird way that you can express
21:22
creatively. So, I think things like that
21:24
are really fun and sometimes the simpler
21:26
systems really lead to that. But I also
21:28
like some guide rails in a game to kind
21:32
of help you
21:33
uh to help to help figure out what
21:36
you're doing and where you're going and
21:37
give you some give you some direction.
21:39
Matt, Phil,
21:39
>> I'm trying to let other people talk
21:40
because I
21:41
>> Yeah, I um I think I can safely say at
21:45
this point that the that games that come
21:47
down super super super hard on the
21:48
crunchy end are not my favorite. Um so
21:53
um but you know at this point like I
21:56
think I think I tend more towards what
21:59
you would call like a I I do like games
22:00
like kids on bikes. I think those are
22:02
fun. I think it's nice to uh especially
22:04
for oneshots and things to have a system
22:07
that just kind of gets out of the way uh
22:09
is the way I would describe uh kids on
22:11
bikes. Like you you have your couple of
22:14
modifiers to your dice from your
22:15
strength and then you have you know one
22:17
die associated with your stats and you
22:19
have to understand the rule that they
22:20
blow up if you hit the max and that's
22:22
really all you need to know to play kids
22:23
on bikes. At that point it gets out of
22:25
the way and you can just tell stories.
22:27
Um, I find that for games that are going
22:30
to go a little longer, I want a little
22:32
more uh to it. Um, the
22:37
>> [snorts]
22:37
>> uh the current longest running game I'm
22:39
in right now is the game of Fabula
22:40
Ultima that I DM. Um, it is I would
22:45
describe it as somewhere in the like
22:46
solidly in the middle ground uh for
22:48
Crunch. Like you have like the all all
22:51
the roles in the game are very simple.
22:53
They're two two dice. uh they're usually
22:55
going to be anywhere from a d6 to a d12
22:58
at most. Uh and you're just looking to
23:01
hit a target score fairly simple. But
23:03
then the character building itself,
23:05
which kind of tends towards what Liz
23:07
says where you're like expressing more
23:08
about your character through building
23:09
your character, like a lot of the
23:11
options for skills or for spells that
23:14
can modify those dice or open up new
23:16
roles or give you new things to do um
23:18
come from like the skills you choose for
23:20
your character. So you get like the
23:23
actual resolution system is dead simple,
23:27
but then the actual character building
23:29
still leaves room for like expression
23:31
and creativity in how you build or how
23:34
you flesh out your character. And I
23:35
think that that kind of hits that middle
23:37
ground that I really like. Um, hi, I'm
23:40
Tavern Watchers number one fabulous
23:42
stand. [laughter]
23:43
[gasps] Um, but on the flip side, I can
23:46
I can I can appre I can really I think
23:49
at this point I could really appreciate
23:50
a game also that tends way towards more
23:52
the lightweight, but I'm less inclined
23:55
these days to play games that head
23:56
towards the other end of the spectrum.
23:58
Like I'm like I said, I'm playing the
23:59
Shadow Run game. Um, I said I I joke
24:02
that I bullied my DM into doing it. He
24:04
kind of joked about it after he'd been
24:05
playing Cyberpunk for a while and he's
24:07
like, "Maybe I'll run Shadow Run." And I
24:09
said, "Do it for between games. Do it."
24:11
[laughter]
24:12
That's how we end up playing Shadow Run.
24:14
I don't know how it's going to stick.
24:16
Um, but like I think we're really going
24:19
to have to find a way to internalize
24:20
these rules because right now there's a
24:21
lot of crunch and it really slows down
24:23
the learning learning process of the
24:25
game in a way that I'm not happy with.
24:26
Matt,
24:27
>> well, I I I feel like I'm all over the
24:31
place on this because I tend to
24:33
sometimes the game system and the game
24:35
setting conflate and like I I was of the
24:39
opinion for years that Dungeons and
24:40
Dragons didn't have a setting. It had
24:43
just kind of a framework and then there
24:45
were multiple settings released for it,
24:47
but they weren't the Dungeons and
24:50
Dragons setting. Even even like, you
24:52
know, Forgotten Realms wasn't the
24:54
setting. It was just the biggest of
24:56
them. But it really comes down to like
24:58
here here's an example. I loved masks
25:01
and I also love mutants and mastermind.
25:03
I have made the same character in both
25:05
games.
25:06
>> Mhm.
25:07
>> But the difference between what they
25:09
could do and how it worked and the focus
25:13
like the the character in Masks was very
25:16
much about telling the story of the
25:18
confused somewhat not not sure what to
25:21
do with their life kid. And the one from
25:23
music and masterminds was basically
25:26
here's my elaborate power tree that
25:28
allows me to do all this weird stuff.
25:31
And [snorts] I I worked hard on it. And
25:33
I didn't bother to come up with much of
25:35
a character because I mean the rules for
25:38
music and masterminds are significantly
25:40
crunchier than mask which is you know
25:42
it's a PBTA game versus a game descended
25:46
from although at this point very
25:47
different from them the D20 system. Uh,
25:50
but neither of them are old school
25:53
champions. You know, you guys remember
25:56
>> Heroes Unlimited. [laughter]
25:57
>> Yeah, Heroes Unlimited. Oo, wow. Kevin
26:00
Sada comes back and gets me in.
26:02
>> It feels like a steel chair just got me.
26:05
Um, but yeah, Heroes Unlimited was one
26:07
of those games where there there are
26:09
games out there. We haven't really
26:11
talked about them and I don't want to
26:12
talk about them right now because it's
26:15
more of something we I almost feel like
26:16
we should do a like some kind of, you
26:18
know, no longer PG-13 version just to
26:22
talk about them. [laughter]
26:23
But one game in particular I remember
26:24
reading where the game had rules for
26:27
deformity and all sorts of things that
26:30
just like and they were random roles and
26:33
if you you could just die in character
26:35
creation. you could just roll that you
26:37
fell down and died before your character
26:39
was done being created. I don't like
26:41
that. I don't want to be anywhere near
26:42
that. But some games I'm okay with them
26:45
being crunchier. Um, Shadow Run, I
26:48
played my biggest Shadow Run time was
26:50
I'll just say it. First edition Shadow
26:52
Run. I played in the campaign for first
26:54
edition Shadow Run for like four years.
26:56
So that's that's Shadow Run in my head,
26:59
but the one I ran was fourth edition.
27:01
Was fourth edition the 2000's release? I
27:04
think so.
27:06
>> Yeah. I I have it somewhere on my
27:08
bookshelf so I could dig it out if I
27:09
wanted to, but you know, we're doing a
27:11
podcast. Um I remember like thinking,
27:15
you know, wow, this is so much easier
27:17
than the original version. And then
27:19
someone pointed out, Matt, the dice
27:20
pools are insane. Do you do you know how
27:22
big the dice pools are getting? I'm
27:24
like, yeah, I'm loving it. It's great.
27:26
And that's because I'm I'm acclimated to
27:29
thinking of Shadowrun that way because
27:31
the first major
27:33
adventures I played were the ones like
27:36
the Universal Church with the bug people
27:39
and the you know the the the whole war
27:42
between Aeron and Harley Quinn and my
27:44
character like the first character I
27:46
played played through all that stuff and
27:48
that's to me that's how Shadow Run is.
27:49
So, I expect it to be crunchy. Whereas,
27:52
when you ran the the shadow shadowing
27:54
game, you ran Joe, you used the spraw
27:56
rule set.
27:57
>> I did.
27:58
>> The spraw rule set's it's not uncrunchy,
28:01
but it is nothing like it is it's
28:04
several levels down from Shadow Run, the
28:07
current edition or fourth ed. And and it
28:09
was great and I really enjoyed it. But I
28:12
enjoyed it because I was playing a
28:13
completely different kind of character
28:14
than I would normally play. I've never
28:16
played an adept in Shadowrun before you
28:18
came up with your with your version.
28:20
That was the first time I played an
28:21
adept uh before. I played a guy who
28:24
didn't know he had he had all sorts of
28:26
implants, but he had them because he had
28:28
amn um and that's just one example like
28:31
like we talked during the pre-show about
28:34
exalted essence versus exalted um
28:37
exalted essence and exalted second
28:38
edition. There's the complexity level is
28:40
almost exactly the uh exalted third
28:43
edition. I'm honestly not to this day
28:45
I'm not sure how how that game is to run
28:48
because it is laid out in a way that is
28:50
enimical to running it that and that's a
28:52
that's a graphic design and thing that's
28:54
not the rule system. the rule system
28:55
could be just the same for all I know.
28:57
But the book is it's this huge art book
28:59
that's trying to occasionally, you know,
29:01
when when uh is it Karen Gillian who
29:04
came out with Dye, like he did the comic
29:07
die and then he had rule system that he
29:08
published.
29:09
>> I remember looking at Dy and thinking,
29:11
"Wow, this is basically just like it's
29:13
like a it's like a 45 degree angle off
29:16
of uh you know the um you know, the
29:19
powers by the apocalypse type stuff.
29:20
It's not that different. It's not the
29:22
same, but it's it's you can you can like
29:24
see it reflecting like if you think of
29:26
it as playing handball with role playing
29:28
games. Uh it's like the ball you threw
29:30
at at PBTA and it bounced off in this
29:33
direction. So yeah,
29:34
>> die is interesting because I almost
29:35
think of it as like if you liked the
29:37
polymorph games but you wanted a little
29:38
more complication. Yeah,
29:40
>> that that's the next step up because it
29:42
still has the you are the die, you know,
29:44
your character is the die you're
29:45
rolling, but at the same time like it
29:48
adds so much more onto it just because
29:49
it's uh built around this the universe
29:52
that was established in the die comics.
29:53
So
29:54
>> yeah, and it's basically it's it's
29:56
trying to use that system as a
29:58
narrative. And that's the thing like I
30:00
think a lot of modern games use their
30:02
use how they generate outcomes as a
30:05
narrative device. And even like even
30:08
games like D and D and Pathfinder have
30:11
that element to it where there's like
30:13
specific rules for how the narrative is
30:15
affected by dice roll
30:17
>> and that's just part and parcel of the
30:19
of the hobby at this point but it's
30:21
thought about a lot more than it used to
30:22
be. That's pretty much all I got on this
30:23
one. No, and I I mean there's there's a
30:25
lot there and there's a lot to unpack
30:27
and and I think about this a lot too,
30:29
especially as a you know, level two
30:32
shopkeep. Um like when I get a lot of
30:36
like I just had a discussion with a
30:37
family today that were coming in and
30:39
asking about games that weren't D and D
30:42
because they were looking to expand and
30:44
like going through this checklist with
30:46
them of what do you like about D and D?
30:48
What do you not like about D? you know,
30:49
what are the things that you wish were
30:51
different or that you, you know, you
30:53
didn't find enjoyable? And there's
30:56
something for everybody out there, which
30:57
is really kind of the cool part. And
30:59
there's a lot of really neat independent
31:01
creators out there these days that will
31:05
build off of other systems or, you know,
31:08
have their own takes. Like again, like
31:09
looking at the polymorph system where
31:10
Liz pointed out, which is like really
31:12
nice. Um, looking at powered by the
31:14
apocalypse or all the offshoots therein.
31:17
um you know, looking at the KOB system,
31:20
uh you know, and we're going to be
31:22
looking at the the Modifius, uh 2D20
31:24
system at some point here relatively
31:26
soon. So, like there's tons of variety.
31:29
And some games lend themselves, to
31:30
Phil's point, they lend themselves
31:31
better to one shots where they don't
31:33
really have good character advancement
31:35
because that's not what they're meant
31:36
for. They're meant for a story arc and
31:39
then you're done. And then there's
31:40
others that maybe lean too heavy into
31:45
the idea of you're going to be playing
31:46
this game for 10, 20, 30 years. Um, you
31:50
know, there's something for everybody.
31:53
And I really like encouraging people to
31:57
go and try other things. Like I've
32:00
gotten people to try the Marvel the new
32:03
Marvel TTRPG uh the Marvel Marvel
32:06
Multiverse um which is we haven't played
32:09
it yet and I don't know if we will um
32:12
because interest in the game has been
32:14
>> Godzilla
32:15
thing comes out. I am going to be just
32:17
bothering everyone until you all admit
32:19
that just do it.
32:20
>> I mean yeah that's that's what I assume
32:22
that Godzilla will come out and then we
32:24
have to play it. Yeah, but but it's but
32:27
it's a really interesting system, but
32:29
it's also not one that allows for a lot
32:30
of character advancement. It's not what
32:32
it's built for. Um, but then you look at
32:35
stuff like Blades in the Dark has an
32:36
advancement system and it is very
32:38
specific. Um, Power by the Apocalypse
32:40
has an advancement system and it's not
32:41
as robust as others, but it does allow
32:43
you to customize your character. So,
32:45
like there's tons of options out there
32:46
and it's really interesting to see the
32:48
breath of stuff that's released and we
32:51
keep getting more of it, right? There's
32:53
more and more stuff that's released uh
32:55
all the time. Uh we literally just San
32:59
Diego Comic- Con is going on at the time
33:00
of this recording and there's so much
33:03
stuff that was announced. They they had
33:04
a whole dungeon crawler Carl panel where
33:07
they talked about, you know, not just
33:08
the TTRPG, but the comic books and
33:10
everything else that was coming out. Um
33:13
but like there's so much cool stuff
33:15
coming and not all of it is made by this
33:18
the one giant company which I think is
33:20
kind of cool. So, I encourage you to go
33:23
and take a look and see what fits your
33:24
bill. Uh, and then if you are looking uh
33:27
to get a taste of certain things, I
33:29
highly encourage you to listen to our
33:31
live plays. We've had quite a bit of
33:33
systems. Uh, Triangle Agency being
33:36
probably one of my favorites that we've
33:37
done over the last year.
33:39
>> Um, like there and we try to do like a
33:41
little sampling so that you kind of get
33:43
an idea and yes, we do take some
33:44
liberties with them, but you kind of get
33:46
a rough idea of what these these systems
33:48
do. Um, and in the case of uh Triangle
33:52
Academy or Triangle, Triang Triangle
33:54
Agency, sorry, I was also going to say
33:56
Umbrella Academy, which is a whole other
33:58
thing. Um, Triangle Agency, we did a
34:02
oneshot and then did a second episode
34:05
essentially or second set of episodes
34:08
where there was character advancement
34:09
and character advancement was explained.
34:11
So, like you get a you get a taste of
34:13
that occasionally as well. So, highly
34:15
encourage that. But unless anybody's got
34:17
anything else to to talk about with that
34:19
one, I'm going to move on to some of our
34:21
news topics. I'm gonna
34:22
>> Okay,
34:23
>> I'm going to start with uh some Piso
34:24
news. Um which might not be what you
34:27
were expecting. And uh so when we were
34:30
running basically all the Piso games, so
34:32
we're talking Pathfinder, Starfinder,
34:34
which we have live plays of. Uh the
34:36
archives of Nethus is a huge resource
34:39
that has been available for players for
34:42
a very long time. And we just had a
34:45
discussion about games running faster,
34:47
right? Um, Archives of Nethus was
34:50
originally done not just as a data
34:52
repository for players, but as a way for
34:55
letting you run things faster, search
34:58
things faster without having to thumb
35:00
through the book or PDF by basically
35:02
hyperlinking everything like a giant
35:04
wiki.
35:06
It also streamlines a lot of stuff like
35:08
and explains a lot of the stuff and
35:10
consolidates it in a way that the books
35:12
didn't do before, especially with
35:13
Pathfinder 1.0. Uh there was an
35:16
announcement a couple weeks ago from
35:20
Archives of Nethus that they were no
35:23
longer going to be essentially in
35:25
cahoots with Piso. Uh for a long time,
35:28
Piso was getting them advanced copies of
35:32
uh the books that were being published.
35:33
We're talking like not even like the PDF
35:35
final copies. We're talking like the
35:37
copies they send to the printers were
35:39
also being sent to Archives of Nethis to
35:41
get everything uh uploaded into it
35:44
before the release of the content. Um so
35:47
basically as soon as the books were
35:48
live, they could go live with it and
35:50
have it ready for players. Uh with
35:53
everything that's been going on Piso,
35:54
they basically that was one of the
35:56
things that they were going to cut. Um
35:58
and the community very vocally told Piso
36:02
to what they could do with this
36:03
intention. Uh and then this week uh Piso
36:08
made an announcement that it had made a
36:10
new agreement with the archives of
36:12
Nethus where the site will continue
36:14
basically like it did before uh will no
36:17
longer have to report any royalties to
36:19
Piso. This was another thing about that
36:21
uh original thing that they were going
36:22
to to completely devest themselves from
36:25
it. like anything that they use, they'd
36:27
have to pay royalties to PISO. Um, but
36:30
they can only use art designated for
36:32
community use. They can't use official
36:34
art from the books unless told
36:36
otherwise. Uh, and additionally, while
36:38
the site will still receive free copies
36:40
of PDFs of the books, they will not be
36:42
as early as they previous were. Again,
36:44
they they used to receive printer files.
36:46
They'll get the PDFs a little bit later,
36:48
but probably along the same lines as or
36:51
time frame as news outlets uh and
36:54
reviewers and such. Uh, so I'm glad that
36:57
they reached an agreement. The Archive
36:59
of Nethus is a wonderful resource. I was
37:02
really sad to hear what they were like
37:04
the ending of that relationship. Um, but
37:07
I was almost angry when I heard that
37:09
they were going to be charging them or
37:10
trying to charge them royalties. And I
37:13
understand they have like $10 million of
37:15
inventory currently being held hostage
37:17
by Diamond, but that just felt real bad,
37:20
especially after all the goodwill that
37:21
they had been receiving from the
37:23
community since D and D's mess ups. So,
37:26
I don't know if you guys have opinions
37:27
on this.
37:28
>> I mean, it seemed like a desperation
37:29
move to me at the time.
37:31
>> Yeah, they confirmed it one like they've
37:32
always had a royalty sharing program,
37:34
but apparently Archives of Death has
37:35
never produced any royalties. Um, and
37:38
the other one they claimed this
37:42
>> Yeah, exactly. The other thing they
37:43
claimed in their original post, and I
37:45
can kind of see this, I guess, was that
37:46
the archives that basically the license
37:49
for the art that allowed the Archives of
37:51
Nethers to use the official art
37:53
apparently, basically the issue was
37:54
other people were stealing the art and
37:57
using it. And I'm like, that seems like
37:59
a problem to take up with other sites,
38:01
not with Archives of Nethus. That seems
38:04
like a short-sighted decision.
38:07
I was glad to I was glad to see the the
38:09
changes the kind of reversal they made
38:11
on this recently. So, good on you, Pisa.
38:13
>> Yeah. I mean, it almost seems like
38:14
archives caught astray, if that makes
38:16
sense.
38:18
>> Yeah, exactly. It It really just seems
38:20
like they were just kind of like, "Okay,
38:21
what can we do with anybody? Uh, these
38:23
guys aren't making us money, but they
38:24
have a licensing deal. Cut them off."
38:25
And then somebody went, "Wait, no,
38:27
[laughter]
38:28
those people make our game playable." or
38:30
somebody went through just a spreadsheet
38:31
of all the page of like the websites
38:34
that like use Piso stuff and didn't like
38:37
look at what they were and just said
38:39
turn it all off.
38:40
>> Yeah, it it strikes you as like a as
38:42
like a legal department decision rather
38:44
than
38:44
>> Yeah. some legal some legal intern or
38:47
something like that did that.
38:48
>> It also sounds like part of this is
38:50
about streamlining things for PISO like
38:54
um the what you were talking about
38:56
earlier about not reporting royalties,
38:57
having to deal with reporting royalties
39:00
and things like that. That's more
39:02
administrative work for Piso. So, some
39:06
of this is them saying, "Okay, we can't
39:08
deal with all of this stuff and we need
39:12
to kind of just let 12 people go, right,
39:14
>> out of 100 company." We talked about
39:17
that last episode. So, I mean, in the
39:20
end, it seems like a good deal. And
39:22
putting Archives of Nethus under the
39:24
same community art policy that everyone
39:25
else is under doesn't seem like a big
39:28
ask. No.
39:29
>> So
39:30
>> I I would agree, but yeah. So Archives
39:33
of Nethus lives another day and the
39:36
peasants rejoice. It's me. I'm peasants.
39:39
Um [laughter]
39:41
>> no, I mean it's um one of the things I
39:43
kept thinking about was this was
39:44
happening at the same time that they're
39:45
apparently having real trouble with a
39:47
lot of the games that the video games
39:49
coming out using a license from them.
39:51
Some of them are like up in the air as
39:53
to whether or not they'll even come out.
39:55
Uh the Starfinder one I think is the one
39:56
that's got the most uh impetus behind
39:59
it, but they're doing that that you know
40:01
dungeon that dragon one that they had
40:03
the the one that basically looks like
40:05
little minis moving across the screen.
40:08
No new news on that whether or not
40:10
that's still going forward. They're just
40:11
generally having I I feel like it's just
40:14
kind of like a like a series. I don't
40:15
want a a cluster of events that keeps
40:18
they feed into each other and make
40:20
things worse.
40:21
>> A cascading cataract of awful.
40:24
>> Yeah. It's
40:25
>> the the the whole stuff with with
40:27
Diamond has basically put them in a
40:28
position where they are, you know,
40:31
people
40:31
>> on the back foot.
40:32
>> Not just on the back foot. Piso does not
40:35
have a margin like they don't have a
40:38
Hasbro.
40:39
>> No.
40:39
>> Yeah.
40:39
>> They can't absorb the level of loss.
40:42
They can certainly absorb a lot more
40:44
loss than say Green Ronin, but still uh
40:48
100 person company losing 12 people,
40:51
that's more than 10% of the company is
40:53
just gone. And you've got Jim Butler
40:56
basically I I I was reading through the
40:59
various blog posts that Jim Butler has
41:00
been putting out. Jim Butler is doing
41:03
the equivalent of like trying to
41:04
rearrange deck chairs on the Titanic
41:06
here.
41:06
>> Yeah.
41:08
>> Because he because he has to. Not
41:09
because he wants to. because he's got to
41:12
try to figure out some way to get them
41:14
through this period. And I I I feel like
41:18
I can understand why you might look at
41:20
Archives of Nethus and think, "What is
41:21
this? This doesn't do anything for us.
41:22
They use our art. They just take our
41:25
they take our product and, you know,
41:27
turn it into a website." But that's
41:29
losing sight of the fact that Archives
41:31
of Nethis not only does the the work of
41:34
making it easier for people to be able
41:35
to just go look stuff up. Uh it also
41:38
means you don't necessarily have to have
41:41
the rule book open while you are running
41:43
a game, especially if you're doing it
41:44
through like a uh you know a virtual
41:47
tabletop. Archives of Nethus is
41:49
ridiculously good for if you are using a
41:52
virtual tabletop because you can just
41:54
link things to people like here here's
41:57
here's what you need to know to to play
41:58
that character. You want to know how to
42:00
play your idolon? Here's the character
42:02
class. Here's all the stuff. Yeah. Like
42:05
it it it streamlines. Again, we talked
42:07
about this already, the the lowering the
42:09
barrier to entry, right? That's a huge
42:12
thing in the tabletop space and a game
42:15
like Starfinder and Pathfinder can be
42:19
extremely daunting to somebody who
42:22
either a has never played a tabletop
42:24
game or b is making the transition from
42:27
something else maybe not as robust,
42:30
right? Like going from D and D to one of
42:31
these games, okay, you you have
42:33
translatable skills.
42:35
>> Going from Blades in the Dark to this
42:38
>> wildly different, right? and it does
42:42
something that the books can't do. Um,
42:46
most like TCGs do this where it's they
42:50
have reminder text on the cards. So like
42:52
you'll you'll they'll mention a keyword
42:54
and or something and then they'll be in
42:57
parenthesis or somewhere else on the
42:58
card as long as there's space for it
43:00
reminder of a short version of what that
43:03
word or rule does. You would expect that
43:06
you would do that in TTRPG books, but
43:09
you can't. You only have a limited
43:11
amount of space. You're trying to get
43:13
everything out as as few pages as
43:15
possible. And the expectation is that
43:17
you're going to reference this stuff
43:19
going back and forth. So if I mention
43:22
cleaving head strike on page 100 uh and
43:26
give the rules for it and then on page
43:28
300 I'm talking about a character class
43:30
that does it my the expectation is that
43:32
that person will then go back to page
43:34
100 but that can be cumbersome. Archive
43:37
of Nethus eliminates that. You click a
43:40
link and it's right there.
43:41
>> It's just Yeah. It's old-fashioned HTML
43:43
links. It's not even like you know it's
43:46
just a weblight anytime. Yeah. So you
43:50
can just click right on it and go to the
43:51
new thing or open in a new tab which is
43:54
another thing you it's much harder to do
43:56
with an actual book. You can do it. You
43:57
can like put something there like a book
43:59
holder and then just go
44:02
>> I'm going to I'm going to date myself
44:03
here and I'm sure all of you are going
44:05
to grown in the same aches of age. Uh,
44:07
but when I had like my old D&D second
44:09
edition books and third edition books,
44:12
uh, I had those little plastic book tabs
44:16
that you would buy at the the stationary
44:18
aisle that you would put on the
44:20
different section so you could easily
44:22
like get to that section of the book.
44:24
They're still on my shelf because
44:26
>> Yeah, I don't I don't know why you think
44:28
that dates you. I have books. I have
44:31
tabletop books sitting here right now in
44:33
my field of vision that have those
44:35
little tabs in them that I put in to
44:37
mark things for reference.
44:38
>> Ky kids these days don't know about
44:40
stationary stores.
44:42
[laughter]
44:42
>> Regardless, yeah, I totally agree with
44:44
you that if nothing else, Archives of
44:47
Nethus did a great job of giving people
44:50
value that isn't necessarily immediately
44:52
apparent to a company that is drowning.
44:55
>> Yeah. And and for for those of us
44:57
>> bottom line,
44:57
>> no, but and for those of us that are
44:59
trying to be stewards of like games like
45:01
this, it's an invaluable tool. Like I've
45:04
run games for people and like had this
45:07
pulled up on tablets for them so that
45:09
they could go back and forth so that it
45:11
was easier for them to get their feet
45:13
wet and it made all the difference
45:14
between that person coming back the next
45:16
week or not. like and that value then
45:19
translates into them buying a Piso
45:21
product because then that p same person
45:24
goes out and buys that book, right? And
45:28
it's a sale that gets marked off for for
45:30
Piso. So like, and you're right, like
45:32
when you're drowning,
45:34
you're not necessarily always able to
45:36
see the life uh the life preserver
45:39
that's just in front of your hand. And
45:41
yeah, it's it's kind of kind of
45:43
happening there. But I want to move on.
45:45
We Go ahead. It's it's really worrying.
45:47
We're seeing Piso struggling and you
45:50
know just look at all the smaller press
45:53
who are also having problems uh with the
45:56
diamond comic distributors fiasco and
45:59
just with increasing cost involving
46:01
publishing. So we've heard about piso
46:04
layouts and I'm really worried about any
46:08
any other smaller publishers you know
46:10
what's happening over there.
46:12
>> Yeah. And and this is where I maybe I'll
46:14
insert a call to action before we move
46:15
on. If you are looking forward to games
46:18
that are coming out or you want to
46:20
support a like the the companies that
46:22
are maybe in a bad position, consider
46:25
buying some of their digital assets.
46:27
Consider buying some of their books in
46:29
digital form.
46:30
>> Um they actually get a higher margin on
46:33
it when you buy that PDF directly from
46:35
them. Um, like you know, you buy the
46:38
Piso the the the Pathfinder book for 60
46:40
bucks. There's shipping, there's
46:42
overhead. I didn't pay $60 as a retailer
46:45
to get it in, but I'm selling it to you
46:47
for 60 cuz I have to I'm making my
46:49
margin. Uh, but when you buy it from
46:51
Piso for 60, they get all of it. They
46:54
get they get so much more. And it's not
46:57
100%. But that difference helps. And
47:00
obviously, they don't sell PDFs at 60
47:02
all the time. um their PDF,
47:04
>> a lot of the PDFs, a lot of the PDFs.
47:07
>> Yeah. 20 to $30,
47:09
>> which you know, that's kind of maybe
47:12
what they might make on a book, but it's
47:14
I think it's still lower than what they
47:16
make on a book because when I'm getting
47:17
it from a distributor, my my normal
47:19
margin is like 20%. And that distributor
47:22
did not get that book from them for
47:24
free, right? like that I the the
47:26
distributor is making money off of me
47:28
buying it from them and they're making
47:30
money buying it off of Piso to sell to
47:33
me. Like it's it's a weird chain of of
47:37
stuff. So, but again, I highly encourage
47:40
you check out the digital holdings of of
47:42
any content creators or uh game studios
47:45
that you like. And if you're super into
47:48
like Pathfinder, Starfinder, consider
47:50
buying some of their PDFs. I you may not
47:53
think that your 20 or 30 bucks helps. I
47:55
guarantee you that that makes their
47:56
drowning a little bit less. Um, moving
47:59
on to some happier news or at least some
48:01
stuff that I think is is a little more
48:04
on the upbeat side of things. Uh, does
48:06
everybody know who Jimothy is?
48:08
>> Yeah, the internet's favorite crypted
48:10
again.
48:11
>> He's that raccoon that's got the same
48:12
condition as that dog that has short
48:14
cervical uh short cervical vertebrae.
48:17
Yeah, he is the shortened the shorten
48:19
spined raccoon that uh is in uh Seattle
48:23
Seattleish area. Uh who has taken the
48:25
internet by storm. Uh in days long gone,
48:29
he probably would have been just
48:30
considered a crypted. Uh but now he's
48:32
found himself creeping into everybody's
48:35
heart. Um Jimothy has now got official
48:39
stats for DND, like official from
48:43
Wizards of the Coast. Um, he's appearing
48:46
in several video games. I think there's
48:48
a World of Warcraft pet in the works, if
48:49
not already out, which
48:51
>> Yes. Yes, there is.
48:52
>> Uh, Guild Wars 2 has him as a pet. Like,
48:56
Jimothy is going everywhere.
48:59
[laughter]
48:59
>> See, keep in
49:00
>> mind is in the same area as Arenaet.
49:03
They they they [laughter] were
49:05
obligated.
49:07
Jim was funnier to me before I started
49:10
getting endless PR emails about people
49:13
adding Jimothy or making Jimothy jokes
49:16
and now I'm just I'm done. I'm done
49:19
hearing about Jiminy. I would like
49:24
please stop emailing me. I don't want to
49:26
hear that you've added Jimothy to your
49:27
product. This is not going to make me
49:29
want to buy your product anymore. Please
49:31
stop.
49:32
>> Okay, you heard it. So please, please
49:34
email Liz questions about Jim
49:36
podcastwatch.com. [laughter]
49:40
>> Jimothy
49:41
>> Jimothy blizzardwatch.com. [laughter]
49:45
>> Uh well, on that note, before I try to
49:47
figure out how to make a Jimothy icon
49:49
for the official Discord server, uh
49:51
we're going to move on to the the uh the
49:53
next set of of news here, which is uh
49:55
maybe interesting to some of you, uh
49:57
definitely interesting to me. Kiasium
49:59
has a new book uh and it apparently is a
50:02
definitive guide to Inmouth uh which is
50:04
their major setting uh for basically
50:08
everything that happens. Um
50:11
>> yeah, just if you're unwilling to just
50:13
go to Massachusetts and visit any one of
50:16
a dozen, you know, fishing towns like I
50:19
grew up around, sure,
50:22
buy a book. I'm sorry. I don't like it.
50:24
>> That's fair. I mean,
50:26
>> but I will say this, Kaosm's always done
50:28
good. Um, they're going all the way back
50:31
to like, you know, the elders the, you
50:33
know, the elder sign, you know,
50:35
campaign, the uh narotep massive narotep
50:38
campaign. The these and the this one in
50:41
particular I want to mention because he
50:44
the person that they're kind of
50:45
dedicating the book to has been working
50:48
there for like ever.
50:50
>> Yeah. and and basically their world is
50:54
because of him. He took Lovecrafty and
50:57
stuff and made it usable as a role
51:00
playinging supplement. And it's harder
51:02
than you think quite frankly. Dustin
51:04
Wright deserves all the praise in the
51:06
world for for keeping that thing going
51:08
for 20s something years I think.
51:10
>> Yeah. And I think the for this it's a
51:12
really good addition. Um I think the it
51:14
has over a hundred locations in it. Uh
51:17
it covers so much of what's actually in
51:20
the the thing. Plenty of maps of actual
51:22
Inmouth. Uh which is really cool. Uh
51:26
little things like uh tiny little
51:29
advertisements and stuff which is a
51:30
really nice touch. Uh and the book will
51:33
be available in a standard hard cover
51:35
hard cover. It's also going to have a
51:37
special leatherrett edition. Uh so if
51:39
you want something a little bit fancy
51:40
and a little more Eldrich for your your
51:43
perusing or coffee table, uh you can do
51:45
that. And of course, the PDF uh is
51:47
available and all of them are available
51:49
right now. Uh so if that's something up
51:52
your alley, yeah, absolutely. Uh
51:55
>> I think it's interesting to see them
51:56
doing this as a sandbox quite frankly.
51:58
Uh Call of Cthulhu is not usually a
52:00
sandbox game. It's it's usually fairly
52:03
on rails. So seeing them move it into a
52:05
kind of more sandboxy go and explore in
52:07
Endmouth, see what you got, see what
52:09
you're interested in. That's a novel
52:11
approach to take, especially since
52:13
you're going to be driving people insane
52:14
or making them find out that yes, they
52:16
are descended from fish people. Um, so
52:19
yeah, I I am interested to see how this
52:21
one comes out.
52:22
>> Well, I mean, you can go check now
52:24
because it is available. Somebody buy it
52:26
from Matt. Uh, moving on. Moving on to
52:30
another one that I think is actually
52:31
really interesting. Uh, Daggerheart,
52:33
which is a game that I think is beloved
52:35
by a lot of people. Uh, we definitely
52:37
saw a lot of it in the the the shop. Uh,
52:40
is play testing a summoner class, which
52:42
I think is really cool. Um, games,
52:46
tabletop games, not a lot of them delve
52:49
into summoner classes, and I think it's
52:53
good to see one doing so. Um they're
52:56
also updating the blood hunter uh class
52:59
which has stuff in uh play testing uh
53:02
which the two are sort of uh different
53:05
sides of the same coin uh because they
53:08
start sharing the new do uh the new
53:09
domain which is the blood domain. So I
53:12
have either of you guys given this a
53:14
perusing? Do you have any thoughts on
53:15
it?
53:15
>> Yeah, I've looked through this. I like I
53:17
like what they're doing with this. Um,
53:19
so I'll say a little bit about the blood
53:21
hunter if you do want to see that. The
53:22
blood hunter is there there's a
53:24
character playing a blood hunter in the
53:26
current uh age of umbra campaign running
53:28
on critical role right now. So um but
53:32
their summoner class actually covers
53:34
both the uh actually covers a
53:36
necromancer is one of the two uh
53:40
subasses. The other one is very
53:42
interesting. It's the is the other one.
53:44
And they can summon angels and divine
53:46
manifestations.
53:48
So, it's a real weird approach to a
53:51
summon as opposed to like uh Pathfinder
53:53
summoner class, which I would describe
53:55
as being more like if you wanted to play
53:57
a Final Fantasy summoner, here it is.
53:59
>> Um, this is a this it's a pretty unique
54:02
approach to this. Um,
54:03
>> yeah, it's kind of in the the whole deal
54:05
with it.
54:06
>> I I've seen I've seen Liz light up here.
54:08
I'd like to get her take on it, too.
54:10
>> Yeah. I mean, I think it's the theming
54:12
is really cool because a lot of summoner
54:14
classes and games like uh look what you
54:16
have for summoners in Dn D. You have,
54:19
you know, hunters who have animal
54:22
companions. Um but you don't get this
54:25
and you can do necromancy in with you
54:29
know you can do some of these things but
54:32
you know it's like sorcerers summoning
54:34
elemental minions or clerics can summon
54:39
I forget but they can summon some divine
54:41
things but this is just saying here's a
54:43
class that's all about summoning and it
54:45
has kind of this demonic side and it has
54:48
this angelic side. It's really kind of
54:51
leaning into these this particular angle
54:54
instead of saying, "Okay, here's a
54:55
sorcerer that summons sorcerer things.
54:57
Here's a hunter that summons hunter
54:59
things."
54:59
>> I will say that this reminded me
55:02
>> this reminded me immediately of uh third
55:06
and fourth edition Dn D. In particular,
55:09
the shaman class
55:11
uh as well as the uh what is it? The
55:14
incarnum totemist. Like they were
55:17
essentially like they were summoners.
55:19
they they had the ability to be
55:21
summoners. Uh, and it was like playing
55:24
Pokemon with like wild spirits or divine
55:26
entities. Uh, it was really wild. Um, so
55:30
I'm I'm interested in this and seeing
55:33
how play testing shakes out. Uh, I'd
55:36
like to see Dagger Heart continue to
55:38
grow and evolve and do stuff like this,
55:41
which other games just aren't doing. One
55:45
of the really interesting things about
55:47
Daggerheart to me is like they released
55:49
the main Dagger Heart book and then
55:51
immediately they had content in play
55:53
testing. Immediately they had more
55:55
classes in play testing. And they're
55:57
doing the same thing here. Just in
55:59
August we're getting the Hope and Fear
56:01
book, the first expansion for
56:02
Daggerheart. But they're already
56:05
releasing new stuff, new stuff in play
56:07
testing even before their second book is
56:09
out. So this is going to have to be
56:11
something for a future expansion that
56:13
they haven't even announced. But it's
56:14
already play testing, so it's like they
56:16
hit the ground running and they're just
56:19
continuing to do new things.
56:20
>> I'm actually starting to wonder if
56:21
they're going to switch with the cost of
56:23
of shipping physical books.
56:27
>> If they're going to start releasing,
56:29
because they did this for D and D fourth
56:32
edition did this a lot, which it would
56:35
release a character class as a like
56:39
oneshot pack that you could buy for like
56:41
five bucks. and then if you wanted you
56:44
can go grab it or you could wait for the
56:48
next expansion to come out and get it
56:50
printed in a book. I'm wondering with
56:53
the cost of production if we might see
56:55
something like that too where you know
56:58
they'll do maybe some digital releases
57:01
of this stuff uh like Matt did with the
57:04
gunslinger for you know D and D fifth
57:06
edition um and and and like things like
57:10
that to sort of like bridge the gap
57:13
while they figure out what's going on
57:15
with the world production I which could
57:17
be a cool avenue for them especially
57:19
considering today's player base is while
57:22
we do love our books and man do I love
57:23
my books. I will be buried in them when
57:25
this this bookshelf next to my desk
57:26
collaps. Um but we also are digitally
57:30
inclined and sometimes we will like I
57:33
own several of my books in PDF if not I
57:37
think probably 70% of them at this point
57:39
I also own in digital form as well as
57:42
physical form. I have no problem doing
57:44
that. So maybe we'll see. Um, I do want
57:48
to move us along though and we do have a
57:50
little bit of stuff to talk about on the
57:52
crowdfunding side of things. There's
57:54
some interesting stuff coming up on the
57:55
horizon that you guys may be interested
57:57
in. Um, I do want to mention this one
58:00
because I I'm very interested in it and
58:03
I know several of our listeners are
58:05
because I've talked with them about
58:06
this. Um, one of my favorite content
58:09
creations out there is the Dungeons and
58:11
Daddies podcast. Um, it is not a BDSM uh
58:15
podcast, but it's a bunch of friends
58:18
that decided they were going to play D
58:19
and D one day, barely knew the rules,
58:22
decided they were going to record it,
58:23
but they had been working on stuff like,
58:25
you know, in the past, like video game
58:26
high school and things like that. Like
58:28
they these are content creators that
58:30
have done other stuff. Um, and what what
58:34
wound up resulting from it was this very
58:35
earnest, very real just group of misfits
58:39
having fun with the game, which is like
58:41
that's my kryptonite. Um, and now
58:44
they're releasing an actual source book
58:46
for Dungeons and Daddies. Uh, and I am
58:49
here for it, including the very cheesy
58:52
'8s infomercial style commercial that
58:54
they put out with this, uh, announcing
58:56
that the crowdfunding is for it. So, I'm
58:59
super here for it. This was a day one
59:00
back for me and I don't back
59:02
Kickstarters anymore or or or projects
59:05
like this and I saw this as like well I
59:07
know they're going to put it out. Uh so
59:10
yeah blanket let's go. [laughter]
59:13
Um I don't know if any of you guys are
59:15
interested in that. If not we were going
59:16
to move right along.
59:17
>> Sorry to say I had not heard of it.
59:18
>> Well now you have. Um Phil, you wanted
59:20
to mention very quickly the Masks uh 2e.
59:23
>> Yep. We talked about the Masks 2e
59:25
Kickstarter before. Uh people may
59:27
already be following the second edition
59:29
Kickstarter uh for masks waiting for it
59:32
to launch. Uh I will note that if you
59:33
are uh Brendan Conway has actually
59:36
started uh the first of a series of
59:38
devlogs out there uh to uh development
59:41
logs to talk about the uh I guess the
59:44
process of uh creating masks second
59:46
edition. Uh starting with the important
59:48
one right now uh why why does masks need
59:51
a second edition? So um really good
59:54
read. Uh they also pointed out something
59:56
that I had forgotten about that the
59:57
first uh and and explained a decision
1:00:00
that I found kind of baffling at the
1:00:01
time. The first edition of Masks did not
1:00:03
include the playbooks in the book.
1:00:05
>> Yeah.
1:00:05
>> Um [laughter] he actually explains why
1:00:08
they did that and how it turned out to
1:00:09
be kind of a mistake.
1:00:11
>> Um and just how there have been things
1:00:13
like that with the uh far more
1:00:15
successful playbook edition of Mask that
1:00:17
they also want to uh bring forward into
1:00:20
a second edition of the game. So uh
1:00:22
worth a read. Uh give it a follow. Uh
1:00:24
really looking forward to Mask 2.
1:00:26
>> Me too. Uh this next one I found and I
1:00:30
immediately thought of Liz.
1:00:31
>> Uh like literally I I read this and it
1:00:33
was Liz coded. So Liz, would you like to
1:00:35
talk about it?
1:00:36
>> Uh yes. This is Mary Shire Detective
1:00:39
Club, which is like if you took Hobbits
1:00:43
and you put them in a murder mystery,
1:00:47
which I guess we're kind of going back
1:00:49
to the Murder She Wrote vibe, except
1:00:51
cozier. You know, it's this charming
1:00:56
buolic land, but also there are murders
1:00:59
that you're going to solve. And it's
1:01:01
just it's just such a charming cozy
1:01:03
mystery. There are halflings, dwarves,
1:01:06
you've got kind of your basic fantasy
1:01:07
races. There's the puka, a rabbit
1:01:10
person.
1:01:11
>> I immediately immediately love this one.
1:01:14
>> Yeah, I know. They're they're described
1:01:17
as chaotic, theatrical, and pooky.
1:01:19
>> Yeah.
1:01:21
Oh, it's Joe the species. [laughter]
1:01:24
>> What's really funny is that's pretty
1:01:26
much what we did when we did the uh the
1:01:28
the
1:01:29
>> light campaign. Yep.
1:01:30
>> Yeah. Witch light. You played this the
1:01:32
samurai.
1:01:33
>> Yeah. Yeah.
1:01:34
>> And I played the the the bard who was
1:01:36
like very kind of
1:01:38
>> We were rabbits, folks. We were rabbits.
1:01:40
>> Yes. We were rabbits.
1:01:40
>> Yeah. Yeah. Uh and also bogarts.
1:01:44
Bogarts.
1:01:45
>> Bogarts.
1:01:45
>> Uh which are
1:01:46
>> Yeah. which are like so you've got kind
1:01:49
of these cozy fantasy races, but you've
1:01:51
already also got this kind of spooky
1:01:52
fantasy race which is kind of
1:01:55
interesting that you've got a little a
1:01:57
little of both. You could lean maybe a
1:01:59
little creepy or you could lean I play a
1:02:02
rabbit and so yes it's cozy mysteries
1:02:05
where you might solve your game by
1:02:07
having tea together or but yes it's you
1:02:11
got the murder she wrote vibe where
1:02:13
you're living in this charming bucolic
1:02:14
little town and also a lot of dead
1:02:17
bodies are here for some reason and
1:02:20
>> this is great though you you played a
1:02:23
halfling Columbbo
1:02:26
>> when like the one game we play like
1:02:28
this. This is literally the more I'm
1:02:30
looking at this. This is us. This is all
1:02:31
of us.
1:02:32
>> I think that may have been my first game
1:02:33
with Tamber. Yeah,
1:02:34
>> I think it was. Yeah.
1:02:36
>> Uh
1:02:38
>> Mhm. Yeah. The one you ran where you uh
1:02:40
did the the adventure path, the first
1:02:42
part of Rise of the Run Lords.
1:02:44
>> Basically, I need this game and uh I'm
1:02:47
going to force all of you to play it
1:02:48
with me.
1:02:48
>> Force is doing a lot of a lot of like my
1:02:52
arm.
1:02:53
>> I'm gonna have to twist arms. I can
1:02:55
tell. I can tell. [laughter]
1:02:57
Oh, well it's we got a couple more that
1:02:58
we got to cover, but yes, I think we're
1:03:00
all looking forward to this game at this
1:03:01
point. I think that's safe to to safe to
1:03:03
say. Uh
1:03:04
>> I thought honestly I thought you were
1:03:05
going to talk about time and without
1:03:07
Tide when you said it was up Liz's alley
1:03:09
cuz I thought the faux Victorian
1:03:12
disaster thing would totally be
1:03:14
something Liz,
1:03:14
>> we were 100% going to get there, Matt.
1:03:16
So, we're going to might as well do it
1:03:17
now. Um so, why don't you tell us about
1:03:20
Chaosium's uh new uh TTRPG there?
1:03:22
Whoever whoever put this in.
1:03:24
>> Well, Matt, why don't you go for it?
1:03:26
Okay. I didn't put it in, but I will
1:03:28
because I I have been looking at this
1:03:29
one for a while.
1:03:30
>> You're right. I did put it in. But yes,
1:03:32
you have opinions. I can tell.
1:03:34
>> Oh, I think Time without Tide is
1:03:36
interesting for a lot of reasons. The
1:03:38
first is is Chaosium actually putting a
1:03:41
new IP out after years. Like the last
1:03:44
time they did a new IP was was their,
1:03:47
you know, their Pen Dragon game, which
1:03:50
is not it's it's it's King Arthur. I
1:03:53
mean, come on. It it's not it's not like
1:03:55
this is something that they sat down and
1:03:57
thought up. They just, you know, is Greg
1:03:59
Stafford went out and just got all the
1:04:00
Arthuriana he could. And they've done
1:04:03
licensed stuff like they did the ELIC
1:04:05
things, but this is theirs and it's it's
1:04:09
got this really kind of weird. It feels
1:04:12
a little bit like if you took games that
1:04:14
they had out in the 90s, a lot they had
1:04:16
a lot of realities colliding games in
1:04:18
the 90s. There was Tor, there was Rifts.
1:04:21
I mean, Rifts is weird in a lot of ways,
1:04:23
but that's just one of the ways it was.
1:04:25
There was, you know, Nexus, the Infinite
1:04:27
City. There were a lot of different
1:04:28
games doing this kind of thing, but now
1:04:30
they've kind of brought in this, it's
1:04:32
this really interesting idea of this fog
1:04:35
shrouded, I don't know if you call it an
1:04:37
apocalypse even, but it's like pockets
1:04:39
of different worlds with this, you know,
1:04:42
these Victorian. It it really does feel
1:04:44
a little bit like a like a story you
1:04:46
could imagine Jules Vern writing if
1:04:49
Jules Vern was writing today like you
1:04:51
know the metaphor
1:04:52
>> the game does the game does describe
1:04:54
itself as a post-apocalyptic world
1:04:57
shrouded in fog.
1:04:58
>> Yeah. And it it has that kind of broken
1:05:01
world feeling where you you go from
1:05:03
place to place trying to figure out what
1:05:05
happened, what's going on, you know,
1:05:07
what can you do about it, you know, how
1:05:09
can you make it a better place? And also
1:05:11
just how can you just plain explore it?
1:05:12
And I love the the tagline mirth and
1:05:15
misery in the world of fog. It's just
1:05:18
like the idea that, you know, sure
1:05:20
things are bad, but we're still going
1:05:21
to, you know, we're still having fun
1:05:23
because we're adventurers and we're
1:05:24
going on adventures. So, yeah, I'm
1:05:27
interested in this. Uh I'm I'm really
1:05:30
interested to see like, you know,
1:05:31
there's a there's a kick there's like a
1:05:33
little quick start preview.
1:05:35
>> Uh and I want to take a look at it. that
1:05:37
I haven't got a chance to yet. But yeah,
1:05:40
I I really like this the idea of I also
1:05:43
like it when you're when they have a
1:05:44
thing where the heroes have a kind of
1:05:47
gig like that that explains why they're
1:05:50
heroing, for lack of a better word. Um
1:05:52
that's one of the things I always felt
1:05:54
like Piso didn't do enough with when
1:05:55
it's it had its Pathfinder society, but
1:05:58
it doesn't really make it like you don't
1:05:59
really feel much like you're a
1:06:01
Pathfinder or anything. It it doesn't it
1:06:04
doesn't have that kind of there's the
1:06:06
perfectly logical reason why we are
1:06:08
going into these horrible places where
1:06:09
we might get killed. Um and I I just I
1:06:12
like the idea and I like the idea of
1:06:14
them using lantern like they have these
1:06:17
weird lanterns they're holding up like
1:06:18
really high going no go away. It's like
1:06:21
that bit in um Fallout 4 for uh f you
1:06:25
know um Far Harbor where they've got the
1:06:27
fog rolling in with all the mutants and
1:06:29
monsters and they have to devices they
1:06:31
have that keep them at bay that that
1:06:33
like keep the fog from rolling in. But
1:06:36
with this idea of it being, you know,
1:06:38
cobblestone streets and pseudo Londons
1:06:41
and just Yeah, I'm I'm down for it. I I
1:06:43
am super intrigued by this. And I also
1:06:47
kind of like the fact that they've got
1:06:48
some kind of badge that you might get
1:06:50
that's got like a a diving bell helmet
1:06:52
with a skull in it for the you know if
1:06:55
you I just like that. It's a neat little
1:06:57
thing. So yeah, I like this game. I have
1:07:00
not played it yet obviously because it
1:07:01
isn't out. Um but it's on Bagger and I
1:07:04
am very interested in seeing how it goes
1:07:06
around. One thing I want to point out
1:07:08
about the vibe here is the art is really
1:07:13
evocative because it's it's really
1:07:16
pushing the idea of exploring the fog
1:07:18
and it's really has a great color tone
1:07:21
where everything is kind of blue, green,
1:07:24
gray except there are these bits of
1:07:26
bright color where the lanterns are
1:07:28
held. And it's even in the art, it's
1:07:31
really pushing this sort of exploration
1:07:34
and this idea of a world cloaked in fog
1:07:38
that you have to carefully explore. So,
1:07:40
I I love the vibes. I love the vibes.
1:07:43
I'm looking forward to it.
1:07:44
>> We also have some news regarding a
1:07:46
longforgotten group of friends. Uh The
1:07:49
Guild actually has something coming out
1:07:51
uh that is hitting Kickstarter right
1:07:53
now. Uh, while the Kickstarter is
1:07:55
primarily focused around them making a
1:07:57
movie for the 20th anniversary of the
1:07:59
guild, man, I feel old saying that.
1:08:02
>> That hurts. That hurts so bad to say
1:08:04
that.
1:08:05
>> Yeah, that's that definitely hits harder
1:08:07
than the uh the thing with the
1:08:09
>> Yeah,
1:08:10
>> the tabs.
1:08:10
>> Um, but the reason we're talking about
1:08:12
it here is because uh going along with
1:08:15
it is a campaign that in I'm sorry, I
1:08:20
hard time talking today. a 5.5 edition
1:08:24
compatible TTRPG from Hit Point Press,
1:08:27
uh, which will have things like
1:08:28
monsters, items, spells, background,
1:08:30
subasses, and adventures. Uh, it's
1:08:33
actually really really cool to see that
1:08:35
hitting, uh, like being done in the, you
1:08:38
know, as they're they're going through.
1:08:40
And I mean, Hit Point Press has some
1:08:41
pretty great stuff out there already.
1:08:43
Uh, they make Humblewood, which is one
1:08:45
of my favorite like little I want to be
1:08:48
a weird animal thing. Here you go. Um,
1:08:51
Hit Point Press also does a whole bunch
1:08:52
of stuff like cards and things for other
1:08:57
games like the deck of many things. They
1:08:58
have animated they have like animated
1:09:00
spells and all sorts of other stuff for
1:09:02
like really cool neat stuff that they
1:09:05
produce. Uh, and seeing them do a full
1:09:07
game uh is pretty pretty cool. I'm I'm
1:09:10
here for it. Um, and then last but
1:09:13
certainly not least, and this is one
1:09:15
that it it comes with a question. So,
1:09:18
Renegade uh apparently is developing an
1:09:21
Anne Rice tabletop role playing game.
1:09:23
You you heard that right. They're
1:09:25
they're making an An Rice tabletop role
1:09:26
playing game. The question is why? Um we
1:09:29
already have Vampire the Masquerade,
1:09:31
which is wildly popular in its new
1:09:33
edition and for all good reasons. Um but
1:09:37
this is also apparently not using their
1:09:39
Essence 20 system, which has been
1:09:40
discontinued. Um, and it's not using
1:09:43
fifth edition, which they recently
1:09:45
announced that their games were going to
1:09:46
be moving to. Uh, it's going to be a
1:09:48
whole new system. Uh, which I'm really
1:09:52
curious because they literally developed
1:09:54
the Essence system, then we're going to
1:09:56
move to the fifth edition system, and
1:09:58
now we're developing a new system again.
1:10:00
Um, we're going to find out soon though
1:10:02
because apparently, uh, it is going to
1:10:05
be launching in October of this year and
1:10:08
we'll get some more information about
1:10:10
that soon. Um,
1:10:11
>> I mean, I c I I can see I was being
1:10:15
snarky about the Vampire the Masquerade
1:10:17
thing, but I can see why this feels like
1:10:20
the time to really dig into Anne Rice,
1:10:22
which is because they have a very
1:10:23
successful television series. The season
1:10:26
about Lestat just ended. And uh I I know
1:10:30
a lot of people talking about this and
1:10:31
very excited about this. If anything,
1:10:33
this is coming a little late to cash in
1:10:36
on the excitement around the TV show,
1:10:38
but
1:10:39
>> I can see why they're doing this now.
1:10:41
I'm I am really interested in in the new
1:10:43
system. I mean, they're trying to
1:10:45
develop something that leans into the
1:10:47
vampiric vibes,
1:10:49
>> but it almost makes sense to have done
1:10:51
this as like, you know, license the do
1:10:55
it as a Vampire the Masquerade book and
1:10:57
this is like a setting guide or
1:10:59
something there.
1:11:00
>> Oh, there were lawsuits about that.
1:11:02
There's a reason that that won't happen.
1:11:04
I'm I'm I'm curious what some of their
1:11:06
their um inspiration is going to be for
1:11:10
this system because I'm reading through
1:11:12
some of the things that they're
1:11:13
highlighting uh or when I read through
1:11:15
this and I'm curious if you guys see the
1:11:17
same thing. Um success can be a dramat
1:11:20
as dramatic as a failure. Flashbacks
1:11:22
reshape the present. Time is a river but
1:11:25
you can fly. The past is a mechanic.
1:11:28
Coll focus on collaborative
1:11:29
storytelling. three different damage
1:11:31
tracks and healing comes through
1:11:33
identity. Doesn't this just sound like
1:11:35
blades in the dark?
1:11:36
>> Yeah, I was just
1:11:37
>> Sounds a lot like a Sounds like a lot
1:11:39
like a Forge in the Dark game. Yeah.
1:11:41
>> Are we going to just be heisting stuff
1:11:42
constantly? Like, hey, let's go deal
1:11:44
some more blood.
1:11:45
>> The only part of that that doesn't sound
1:11:47
Forge of the Dark to me is specifically
1:11:49
the damage thing. forge tends to have
1:11:51
the just like the levels of narrative
1:11:54
>> like [snorts] uh blowback uh for hard
1:11:58
failures and then
1:11:59
>> like if you can't take like a another
1:12:01
level one harm it humps up to level two
1:12:03
etc where like if you get to four then
1:12:05
you're you know hosed but I also suspect
1:12:08
like a vampire is supposed to be a
1:12:10
little sturdier than your average rogue
1:12:12
so I get it I I see why they're doing
1:12:14
there but yes so much of this like with
1:12:16
the flashback system I'm like that
1:12:18
sounds like blades of the and and
1:12:20
healing through identity. Like Blaze in
1:12:22
the Dark has a whole thing about what's
1:12:23
your comfort downtime activity and like
1:12:25
>> what's your vice? Yeah.
1:12:26
>> Yeah. What's your vice? What do you
1:12:27
engage in? Right. Like, hey, this is not
1:12:29
a bad thing. And I want to make sure
1:12:30
that I'm I'm being clear with this. I'm
1:12:32
not saying this is a negative.
1:12:34
>> Um we talk about this all the time. A
1:12:36
lot of the tabletop role playing space
1:12:37
is iterative and you take inspiration
1:12:41
from things that you enjoy and that's
1:12:44
fine. But I'm really curious if this is
1:12:46
going to be a brand new system and I'm
1:12:48
air quoting that really hard with my
1:12:49
fingers right now or if it's going to be
1:12:52
a modified
1:12:54
uh Blades system, if it's going to be
1:12:56
like I'm I'm really curious because a
1:12:58
lot of other games have done that and
1:13:00
there's nothing wrong with that. They
1:13:01
adopt it and they they modify it. But
1:13:03
I'm really really curious.
1:13:05
>> Yeah. I mean I like I said I think that
1:13:07
the the multiple types of damaging
1:13:09
sounds like it's straight out of Aegon.
1:13:11
Um, but otherwise it feels very forge,
1:13:14
you know, blades in the [ __ ] What's it
1:13:16
called now? Forge in the dark.
1:13:18
>> Forge in the dark.
1:13:19
>> Yeah. Yeah. For forge in the dark is
1:13:21
kind of the general setting, kind of the
1:13:23
general rule set for like, you know,
1:13:25
scum and villain and all the
1:13:26
>> I just I'm interested to see how much
1:13:29
they take from the novels. Um
1:13:32
>> cuz Anne Rice wrote some books that um
1:13:37
uh I'm not even talking about the the
1:13:39
books she wrote as Ann Roer. You can
1:13:41
look that up if you want to know more.
1:13:43
Um but I am talking about that she wrote
1:13:46
books where like you know an immortal
1:13:47
spirit is constantly living amongst a
1:13:51
family of witches. And if you've ever
1:13:53
seen the Star Trek the Next Generation
1:13:55
episode with the magic candle and
1:13:58
>> it's it's that only Yep. a lot darker
1:14:02
and more sexually violent and are we
1:14:05
going there? You know what I mean? Like
1:14:07
are are are we going to that at place?
1:14:10
Because that's how if you want to talk
1:14:11
about differentiating this from say, you
1:14:13
know, uh Vampire the Masquerade. I think
1:14:16
one of the ways to do that would be to
1:14:18
confront the, for lack of a better word,
1:14:20
sexual politics of Anne Rice's. And I
1:14:23
don't know we're going to get there
1:14:24
because it's a role playing game, guys.
1:14:25
Uh, but regardless, I do think that
1:14:28
there's a there's room to differentiate.
1:14:30
>> Yeah. Um, I don't know that there's much
1:14:32
more to talk about that unless there's
1:14:34
anything else you want to add, Liz.
1:14:35
Otherwise, I think I think think we're
1:14:37
good.
1:14:37
>> Yeah. I I just think we don't have a lot
1:14:40
of information about this. We just have
1:14:41
their pre-launch Kickstarter page, and
1:14:45
it feels very aspirational. You know,
1:14:47
these feel like amazing goals for a
1:14:49
game, but can you reach it? Can you make
1:14:52
a game that hits these goals and really
1:14:55
brings that sort of vampire feeling to
1:14:57
life? Because that's one of the really
1:14:59
fun things about the Anne Rice novels is
1:15:01
how they travel through time and back,
1:15:04
giving you, you know, the past, the
1:15:06
present, the future. And
1:15:09
yeah, yeah, I like how this sounds, but
1:15:12
what's the actual game going to look
1:15:13
like? And that's that's a much harder
1:15:15
question. So, I'm interested to see what
1:15:17
happens next. as someone who spent many
1:15:20
of my younger years devouring Anne Rice
1:15:23
novels.
1:15:24
>> And I think you can sure go out and
1:15:26
guess that uh we're all going to be
1:15:28
talking about it as it comes closer. But
1:15:29
I do think that's going to do it for us
1:15:31
today, friends. I do want to thank you
1:15:32
for joining us and remind you that
1:15:34
Blizzard Watch is made possible due to
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your generous contributions at
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1:15:40
Uh your continued support allows us to
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thrive and grow. Blizzard Watch
1:15:44
supporters enjoy exclusive benefits like
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1:15:48
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1:15:50
on our podcast or the queue, and an
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adfree site experience. If you have
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questions for this or any of our
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podcasts, I highly encourage you to send
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those in. You can email us at
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1:16:03
Uh, make sure that there are questions
1:16:04
about Jimothy directly at Liz. Um, but
1:16:08
we do ask that you specify the show that
1:16:10
it is for, the subject line, as well as
1:16:12
any special pronunciation of your name.
1:16:14
>> Uh, if you don't want to hit us up on uh
1:16:16
email, you can do so on Discord. The Q
1:16:18
podcast questions channel is open for
1:16:20
everybody. Same rules apply as far as
1:16:22
pronunciation of your name and telling
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us what show it's for. And if you are a
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Patreon subscriber, as a way of saying
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thank you for helping us keep the lights
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on, we have the Patreon Q and podcast
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questions channel where we always look
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there first. With that friends, thank
1:16:35
you for once again for joining us and
1:16:37
we'll see you [music] next time.
1:16:46
[music]
1:16:57
>> [music]

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Do you like your TTRPGs crunchy or streamlined?

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