Hello, and welcome to Snyder’s return a tabletop roleplay podcast. My guests today herald a shift in tone of our traditional FFIV base games, bringing ideas from elsewhere, inspirations from far reaching popular franchises, both off the grid and to the moon and back. They take us back in time, where the story starts at our mortal end, we are transported to a new world, a rare gem of civilization, a seat of academia, and the heart. And so all of our adventures themselves, moving our games into a new phase of play with our free time, and helping us build bonds deal with trauma, burnout, and creating the personas. We want to become a game designers content creators. And successful Kickstarter is Kira and Derek of Magi Knight project. Welcome to the show. Thank you.
Derek - Magi-Knights:Thank you. We're happy to be here.
Snyder’s Return:It's an absolute pleasure to have you join me. So first question, I guess that that I would definitely like to ask is, How did each of you get into tabletop role playing games, please?
Kira - Magi-Knights:You should go first, since you're younger.
Derek - Magi-Knights:All right. Um, I was actually brought into it by my dad, who was a big second edition fan grew up playing d&d, and he kind of introduced me to the merciless world of Dungeons and Dragons, and our very first campaign, it was me and a bunch of friends. We were tasked to, you know, save this towel from an orc King, and we all died except for me, and my pet dog. So that was my first memory of d&d.
Kira - Magi-Knights:So um, so I have four brothers. And they all tried a bunch of different tabletop RPGs like d&d, and big eyes, small mouth and the Sailor Moon RPG and things like that, but I didn't really play a lot. The for some reason, they just never lasted very long. So it wasn't until I married Derek that I really got into it. And we started with 3.5 D, and then the next one to Pathfinder, and Pathfinder is really what made me love it. We played that for several years together and and then moved on to fifth edition when that came out, and then started trying other tabletop RPGs. Like, Legend of Five Rings and Star Wars. I don't know what the full name is. Is it just Star Wars? The Empire? Oh, yeah. The Empire and, and several others. So are many others I should say. We played like 15 Different ones or something? Yeah,
Snyder’s Return:struck strong numbers, strong numbers. So we sort of leptin and skipped through certain things. But how did your individual sort of introductions to the game? I suppose I should, should continue down that sentence. How did they turn into the Magi knights project? And and where did that really stem from?
Kira - Magi-Knights:Yeah, that's mainly a derrick thing. So okay,
Derek - Magi-Knights:well, um, initially began as wanting to create a game for Kira, our daughter to play with me. And she was interested in the fantasy world, but she was much more interested in this, you know, the Magical Girl idea. And so using the Genesis System created by Fantasy Flight Games, I moulded kind of the, I guess, the bones of Magi, Knights, and come to find that, you know, a young girl has difficulty translating the symbols on the dice to mean something else. So she was very familiar with d&d. So she understood the D 20. System. So I made the very arduous journey of converting magic knights from Genesis to fifth edition. And it was just kind of out of a desire to play with my daughter and my wife and create a fun game where we could explore a new world together. And
Snyder’s Return:then, yeah, sorry.
Kira - Magi-Knights:I was just gonna say and also, we tried. When Derek was first thinking that we'd play with other people besides just us three. Not many people were familiar with Genesis either, so that was another reason. He decided to switch it to fifth edition d&d, because everybody knows it's very true. Yeah. No, that's
Snyder’s Return:fair enough. So for someone that's unfamiliar, that hasn't followed you on various social medias, and that's something we'll get to very shortly. Would you mind sort of giving us a preset a bit of a an introduction to what Magi knights is, or are in that respect, and what we can expect to experience when we play the game that you have created using the five year rule. So please,
Derek - Magi-Knights:um, the best pitch I can think of is it's, it's a team oriented game. And I think that's what we try to bring more to the table than classical d&d is, it's more about being a hero. And it's more about working with your friends to discover mysteries and stem the tide of darkness. There's a lot of social building relationships. There's combination manoeuvres where you're doing these powerful attacks in sync together, you can create formations. And it's, there are we do have rules for you know, a corruption system where it you know, if you do evil acts, things happen to your character. But I think that's the big thing that sets our game apart from classical d&d is the sense of team of unity. And the triumph of good over evil in the modern day said,
Kira - Magi-Knights:Yeah, I also think, a big focus on the social aspects too, because you get like, you can build up relationships with NPCs, and your fellow players, and get abilities based on that. And, and then also having a system where you go to school and have to interact with a lot of more varied NPCs than you normally do. In the d&d setting, I think. Because you don't spend as much time just in a dungeon or places you don't really meet people very often.
Derek - Magi-Knights:Yeah, that's a good point. A lot of the are two people who stream our game pretty frequently that I think that's been their favourite thing is returning to the 90s and reliving this nostalgia and talking about so when what is the new movie coming out? And you know, 1996? And do we even have you know, modems yet? Internet? What? Oh, that's right, blockbusters still around. And so, you know, seeing all these people relive these, you know, these cherished memories of the 90s. It's kind of fun, and also seeing them bring those memories up with a younger audience. So you didn't have, you know, wasn't around to physically experience those times. So it's been pretty interesting.
Snyder’s Return:Yeah, I can imagine it's sort of you mentioned blockbuster. They're sort of a memory from my childhood as well. Sort of family trips to Blockbuster and things like that. So it sort of resonates with me in that respect. You mentioned seats of of learning and sort of interacting with NPC. So how does how does one go about becoming a magi? Knight?
Derek - Magi-Knights:I think this is the secure question. Yeah.
Kira - Magi-Knights:Okay. It's actually, um, so Well, I don't know if I could tell you should tell it because.
Derek - Magi-Knights:All right. Um, so what happens is there are these creatures that exist that we can't see, called heralds, and our main Harold is Carrick's. And he is the red panda you see with the horns, long tail and wings. And anytime someone experiences what we call a near death experience, or an NDA II cure, stops time and offers them an ultimatum. You can forfeit your life your future and become imagine AI to fight against the forces of evil until you fall in battle. Or you can accept what fate has offered you in this moment, which is an untimely death. And so a lot of people make this arrangement not realising what it entails, with this mythical creature from another dimension called elsewhere, rather than facing you know, death, or the afterlife, or whatever is waiting for them. And they can also do this kind of Devil's bargain, if you will, on behalf of a friend or family member who's dying so we've had some people who basically trade away their future so that their siblings are no longer afflicted with an illness that's eating them away or anything like that. So, that is initially how you become recruited as imagine night.
Snyder’s Return:Once this, this recruitment happens, where does the school say where does the magic happen, but how? How is the transformation completed facilitated almost.
Kira - Magi-Knights:So after you decide to become imagine I your hair Old. I guess in a way, it takes a little part of you to create a soul crystal and use the soul crystal to transform. And it can take any appearance you want. So you could have it be a necklace or a bracelet or anything like that. And and then we're brew or mock up, we had somebody have a mock there and then use that to transform and then your armour but not really it's whatever kind of outfit you want. Just looks how what would be matched to your character's personality or how they would see themselves as a hero. And and then they also get their soul weapons. And I mean, what else should I say?
Derek - Magi-Knights:I think one thing that's fun is when we've been role playing through our games with some people who were kind of newer to the genre, or the stories is that there's almost like a mystical, powerful phrase that they learn in Sentai, and some, you know, Magical Girl shows that helps them transform. And some players take the opportunity to kind of have this internal soul seeking journey where they try to discover what is that phrase that that will inspire me that will, you know, allow me to make this dramatic change from who I am to who I want to be. And once they find that key phrase, they're able to use their soul crystal to transform into these legendary heroes to solve mysteries and save others.
Snyder’s Return:Amazing. And so you mentioned or alluded to a couple but what were the sort of the, what are some touchstones that others may be familiar with? Or some of the influences you really drew from to help sort of create Magi knights?
Kira - Magi-Knights:Big ones are Sailor Moon and Power Rangers mainly well known because you've watched almost all the power and
Derek - Magi-Knights:Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. He's that's what I grew up with. And it made such a influence on me as a child.
Kira - Magi-Knights:Yeah, but he's also watched almost every other Power Ranger series, so I'm sure that those are part of it, too. So those are the main ones but we've been watching some other magical girl shows recently, to try to get more inspiration. Like was it magical girl Liger. Or Matt? What's the full name? Girl lyrical
Derek - Magi-Knights:medulla? Yes. And you came in as a hero?
Kira - Magi-Knights:Yeah. And then you always liked Monica to
Derek - Magi-Knights:Monica. I think a lot of people will almost immediately be like, Oh, this reminds me of Monica Magica. And while it is an influence, I think it's primarily our influences are Sailor Moon Power Rangers. There's kind of this dark feel to it. But the dark Phil kind of concept of elsewhere and these creatures actually takes a lot of its its growth from called Cthulhu and Lovecraftian lore.
Snyder’s Return:Okay, so if someone was I mentioned information, so if someone was inspired to go and pick this up, or to sort of follow you, as content creators and game designers, where can we go to find you online? Primarily.
Kira - Magi-Knights:We're on all the main social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram and Facebook. And we also have discord, which is where we're most active really. Since a lot of our followers join that server and interact with us there. And then we have a YouTube channel. I haven't been able to post on it since the Kickstarter, but I plan to, or we plan to release more videos later when we have time to make like character creation tutorials and things like that.
Derek - Magi-Knights:Yeah, once the rules are more finalised, and kind of, you know, this is the final iteration. We're definitely gonna be making more tutorial videos. As it stands, you know, we've gone through already a lot of different versions upgrading and changing, getting feedback on our discourse or what people don't like or what's not clear. And we've been taking that feedback to heart and making those adjustments. So definitely, we'll be making more videos and in the future, we'll also have our game available and Foundry. And so we will be streaming some gameplay of the first episode that Kira wrote
Kira - Magi-Knights:called anak go from the stars.
Derek - Magi-Knights:Yeah. And we'll be playing through that on foundry, so people can see what it's like for Stan.
Snyder’s Return:That sounds really great and Just just so I can make sure that the right handle as it was put in the description below this podcast What's your say Twitter handle or Instagram handle so people can just click on the links below and follow to support you in that way.
Kira - Magi-Knights:Yes, I believe they're both just Magi underscore knights. Let me double check to make sure they're the same.
Derek - Magi-Knights:Honestly, if you even Google Magi dash knights, yes. And then in Twitter, or in Google, sorry, it'll come up. But yeah, it is that does have an underscore for our Twitter.
Kira - Magi-Knights:Yeah. And for Instagram, as well.
Snyder’s Return:So well, I will, I will make sure that those links are put in the description below this podcast so please, you for listening in and inspired and I'm sure there's, there's definitely more to come that will that will keep you engaged and inspired, please scroll down, follow those links and support the Magi knights project. Or the Magi knows project. And you mentioned there the Kickstarter. So what was it like taking your your idea your inspirations, your hard work and graft from converting the system from Genesis to the five year rule set? And then putting it up on on Kickstarter? What was that process been like?
Kira - Magi-Knights:You can tell the conversion part, I'll tell the Kickstarter.
Derek - Magi-Knights:It was it was unexpected. Originally, like I said, this was kind of just something I was doing in my past time for, you know, cure or daughter. But eventually, as I worked to convert it, and it was so much work. But it was a work of passion. I kind of thought, well, this is interesting, I could, you know, throw it up on Drive Thru RPG and just sell it for $5 or something, and, you know, maybe get something for my hard work. But it was actually my dad who looked at all the rules and had seen all the work that had gone into it. And he was like, you absolutely need to take this to Kickstarter. And at first I kind of looked at him in disbelief. And I was like, Nah, I don't, I don't think this is Kickstarter material. Um, but thankfully, I listened to him. And apparently it is. So we're very grateful for all our fans. And, you know, those who invested in us and helped us achieve our goal so quickly.
Kira - Magi-Knights:And it Kickstarters are a lot of work for anyone who hasn't read before. And I had no idea what we were getting into when we first started until I started listening to podcasts about people who had run Kickstarters and had experience with it. And I learned a lot from that and and then learning how to run a business too. And finding artists was artists for because we needed so many artists to get all the artwork done in a certain amount of time after having the funds for it. All of that has been a huge learning experience. But it's easier now than it was at least. And it was really fun though to see so many people excited about it. And and we were amazed by how much support we got on Kickstarter to be really touched by it. Yeah.
Snyder’s Return:I mean, the artwork in in the book, I looked at it on Drive Thru again, link will be in the description down below. And on the Kickstarter page, and your various other places where the artwork is posted. I think it's beautiful. I think it's fantastic artwork. So I'm really glad that you followed through and made sure you got the artwork to match the style of this game because it's perfect synergy of IDEA and conception.
Derek - Magi-Knights:Well we love to hear that especially because the best is yet to come.
Kira - Magi-Knights:Only a small portion of it a very small
Derek - Magi-Knights:portion we commissioned with this successful successful Kickstarter, we we got so much more. And, you know, admittedly, if we had blown the gold out of the water, we could have gotten, you know, something like a drawing for every single monster which I would have loved. But for this first edition, I think we're both very happy where it's at all the creatures, we've created all the magic knights that we've designed. This just turned out really well and people love the artwork that they've seen off the Kickstarter, just wait till you get your hands on the actual PDF and the book you'll be very pleasantly surprised.
Snyder’s Return:Amazing. Well, that naturally leads me to my next question. The art and you mentioned in wanting to have more of a Do you each have a favourite piece of art or maybe a favourite mechanic or a favourite passage in the book that sort of resonates with you more than the rest of the book. I know it's like picking favourites but that's what I'm here to do.
Kira - Magi-Knights:You go first.
Derek - Magi-Knights:I needed a moment to think about
Kira - Magi-Knights:I could say my favourite artwork but I'd have to think about my favourite mechanic because there's a lot I like
Snyder’s Return:not necessarily list it's just something that you really the one thing You really love about the product you've created for us to enjoy?
Kira - Magi-Knights:Okay, well, I, I've mainly been the one in charge of going back and forth with the artists to let them know what we want. And it's, it's been really fun to create that way and so and bring our ideas to life. And so I think my favourite artwork would be which maybe it's my favourite mechanic too. So maybe that's part of why it fits so well with me. But what's the name of the chapter the is actually bond Oh, forming bonds. The chapter called forming bonds is about all the relationships that you can form with your with NPCs. And, and with your fellow players. And my favourite thing about it is that you can have families in the game so you can like have a relationship with your mom and dad as well as your friends at school. And because that's not something you really do in d&d very often because usually you're travelling around and don't really have time for your family very much. And so my favourite artwork is the one that we have for for that, which, for that chapter, which actually we haven't shared anywhere yet, but it's just showing the two characters that I mean, Derek and I created all six of them, but the two that were most based on us, I guess it's the best way to say it. Verity and Dan, it's just a picture of them sitting together and Danes holding his little Gameboy and it's really cute, and I love it. So
Derek - Magi-Knights:as for me, my favourite artwork that it's gonna, I'm gonna have to put up two for each. So we haven't shown either one of these yet, but I'm very excited. The Mark King, He is our major corrupt Magi Knight. He's kind of like, the big head honcho of all the correct imagine knights and his design was just so fun to create. I'm very excited to show him off show more of his artwork off and, you know, you get this feeling of, yeah, there was once a noble soul behind this, you know, plate mill clad armour, but, you know, there's our mystery about him that I just love. Um, and then number two would be a monster. We haven't shown that I just had so much fun designing called the
Kira - Magi-Knights:the streaking can ticular
Derek - Magi-Knights:not the shrieking can ticular the the one we just renamed the one who's winning our poll right now.
Kira - Magi-Knights:Oh, so it's it's shown in the polls then. Yeah. The Skinwalker
Derek - Magi-Knights:Yes, the reaping the reaping. Skinwalker Yeah, we recently changed his name because we had two different iterations. But I had this just dream almost like vintage of this massive creature with enormous moose antlers and hooks attached to rings rather attached to its hooks on the rather the horns, and then it would pull these bags of people behind it, the victims that I had captured. And so the drawing for that turned out amazingly well. Super horrifying and perfect. So definitely very excited. It's super creepy.
Snyder’s Return:Absolutely sounds it.
Derek - Magi-Knights:And my two favourite mechanics, I think the first one is definitely gonna be the very first mechanic that's introduced. It's actually the way you generate characteristics. And we call it observing fates influence. And it's creating your stats. I love rolling stats, I love rolling for stats in d&d, but it was so it could swing your game. So so far, either way, you know, and it creates sometimes some animosity and bitterness between your players, one player would roll extremely well. And it would just kind of upset the balance of the game. And another player felt worthless because they had no role maybe average at best. And so in our game, everybody rolls their stats as a team. And they're able to move these stats around to fit their player archetype. But you do generate the entire array as a team, and I think that's one of my favourite mechanics is from step one, you get the sense that this is a team game, and not one of you is necessarily stronger than the other. And even if they are it's only different aspects, you know, so I think that's huge for me. And then the other one was the phases a lot of people have some difficulties adjusting to game phases that We call them and kind of episodic structure because as I was researching and dwelling on these shows inspired me like Sailor Moon and Power Rangers these Saturday morning cartoons, quote, unquote, there is like an episodic structure to their days. And so we just like our lives. So we did, you know, put those into the game, you know, you have a school phase, you wake up, you go to school, then you have a lunch phase. And then after school, you have free time, after free time is investigation, and then it's time to go out on patrol. And then it's time to go to sleep. So we broke all those down the phases. And I think it's just really rewarding and really fun to kind of chunk out your days. And also to be able to be like, well, this is a perfect stopping point, because we just switched to the next phase.
Snyder’s Return:So now, the the phases thing are reading through. I, it took me a moment to get it because I was like, Well, that looks like like a school sort of programme almost. And I was like, oh, but yes, now I see. Because then I linked it back to frost peak and lapiz high and blackmail union I thought Well, that's it all ties in nothing sort of stands apart that it all sort of ties in belongs and when I sort of that latched in I was like near now this now this flows in my mind, now I can see where you're coming from this. And you've you've got other mechanics, should we say the solar eclipse chart, sorry, Soul Eclipse chart, and things like for corruption and stress. So what's it been like sort of bringing those aspects in which are very, very iconic, if not always clearly represented in in the shows and the stories that you references as influences, but bringing them into the system with 5g doesn't always have them there for us to engage with. Yeah, um,
Derek - Magi-Knights:stress was the first big one I wanted to introduce. And they have a similar concept in Genesis, but on the ticket a step further and make it more felt like Cthulhu style, where it was like the stress of your character, your mental capacities. And that's kind of as we've gone through the many iterations, that's where we've ended up where stress is the detrimental build up on your mental stats, and exhaustion is the detrimental buildup of your physical stats. And I think it's come just seamlessly into the game. Trauma was huge. That was an absolute must to get into the game to get it right. Luckily, there's been a lot of source material and inspirations to draw from with all of that, but yeah, just everything has kind of come together the trauma of converting trauma into corruption, when you you know, you become so desensitised everything, you, you become almost willing to accept a certain level of evil around you to complete the job, so to speak. So it's just been really fun introducing these new mechanics and crystallin, fracturing, you know, how far will you push yourself? You know, how heroic Are you? Will you sacrifice yourself and, you know, perform a kind of like a heroic last stand through a soul ablation where you become super powerful, but this is it, this is your final, final battle, and you better hope you win, because, you know, otherwise, what is this all been for? So it's just really fun giving that kind of spotlight to the characters, the players and allowing them to say, you know, no, this is, this is not where our story ends. But maybe this is where my story ends. And my friends are going to continue on, and they're going to keep their reputation level. And I'm going to make sure that they live to see tomorrow. And then also the joys of becoming a you know, a what we call a new rice, a new rice Magi night, a newly minted match, and I do needs to be trained, taught the ways of imagine I from his, you know, veteran comrades, and building that up and all that. So it's just been, everything has just been flowing together. So, so wonderfully. So it's just been a grand experience.
Snyder’s Return:And am I right in saying that sort of the the opposite of this hope this stepping on moving forward and things like is to be lost to darkness? Is that a fair sort of connection?
Derek - Magi-Knights:I think. So with the trauma you you do have to find time you have to make time in your busy schedule with school and everything else your investigation, to perform what we call moments of catharsis and the more of your allies that are with you during these moments of catharsis, the easier it is for you to rid yourself of this trauma. Now eventually, you do gain so many that it starts to make your Is your soul, your soul track shorter and shorter? To the point? Where is it
Kira - Magi-Knights:the lunar track? Yeah, the solar eclipse chart.
Derek - Magi-Knights:So it has, you know, equal to the moon phases, there's so many lunar Blips. And eventually those winter blips start disappearing little by little. And eventually, yeah, I think almost every manager night would either succumb to, you know, temptation and darkness and become jaded, or they experienced what we call burnout, which is just where they're, they're just so overwhelmed with everything. And they have to they're basically just forced into early retirement, if they don't fall in combat, so, but that's what, uh, that's what new magic knights are for. Yeah. And curates the Herald is, you know, there's plenty of people that would gladly into the service of, you know, the Herald to get magical abilities. And so there's, there's no short supply of potential magic knights. So he's not worried. Fair enough.
Snyder’s Return:So if my group and I, for example, wanted to sort of follow the answer the call or accept the deal from the Herald, QX, for example. And say, I myself, wanted to be the magic keeper, that your games version of a games master or MC, as it were, what advice would you give to myself and, and the group has such to sort of really get into and engaged with the game, you know, just a game running tips for running Magi nights, please,
Kira - Magi-Knights:as the magic keeper as a player, either,
Snyder’s Return:or both. I'd love something to help both sides. There's both sides of the table. Not that they're opposed. I get that, but I've both roles in that respect.
Derek - Magi-Knights:Well, I'm glad you bring that up. Because that sometimes does happen in d&d games I've seen where they're, the dichotomy just kind of falls apart, and it does kind of feel adversarial. Which I don't believe in, but cure, you've been a player quite often, why don't you give them tips for that?
Kira - Magi-Knights:Okay, well, it helps if you've seen anime, but if you haven't, really any kind of cartoons you watched as a kid have some elements of what's what's imagine knights, but if you just kind of get yourself in that mindset, like I'm one of these one of these kids that are stopping the evil forces in their city. And, and just,
Derek - Magi-Knights:I think the big thing is enjoying the time solving the mysteries. Yeah,
Kira - Magi-Knights:I love I love mysteries, and they're super fun in this game, like, figuring out what's going on. Because it's there are huge problems that affect your time at school, and in the city, and people in your community. So you can really investigate problems everywhere, both at school and at home. So it just drives you to want to find out what's going on and, and help stop whatever's happening. Okay.
Snyder’s Return:And then for the magic keeper, please.
Derek - Magi-Knights:Yeah, so I think the biggest thing is, is you you're the storyteller, but I have always wondered why d&d has never really incorporated the DM into his own game. You know, we have a lot of people myself very much included in the Forever DM syndrome. That's mean to a tee, you know, I'm a forever DM, but I've always had a vested interest in my and my party, and you know, seeing them succeed. And I want to push them to their breaking point, you know, to have them you know, half the team is unconscious, but we pulled through the fire, we have prevailed against all odds, you know, that's my favourite thing was storytelling. And so imagine it allows me to do that by introducing the DM NPC so to speak, which is the the Herald and the Herald is the the player's confidant he is there, you know, depending on the type of Harold d'Ivoire, but whether he's silent or not, he's their cheerleader, and he has his own capacity to assist them, but he's bound by these rules of the Herald. And so it's really fun to see players interact with your Herald. And by doing so by including the DM or the magic keeper as a part of this group. It allows them to feel like they are a part of this group, like they do want them to succeed and they're not going to hold their punches. But yeah, when you're when your character dies, the DM isn't gonna smirk and triumph. He's, he's going to feel that pain and that loss of that care. character with you guys, having recruited you from a little, you know, level one match tonight to you know, wherever you died, but it's been a journey and you have social points with the Herald. And, you know, you have experiences to share. And so I think that's the biggest thing for me was making sure that I felt included in the story because, you know, the DMS we do, we we weave the story, but we are a part of the story. And it's not just for the players it's for, it's for everyone at the table. And for the person who's doing the brunt of the work and the research and the preparation, you know, 610 hours of prep for one to two hours of game work. They need to be rewarded to and they need to feel satisfied. So I think the inclusion of the hell that really brings that to the table.
Snyder’s Return:Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And heralding success and another sort of the hard work you put into it. When, when we'll be able to get our hands on the full finished version, it's fully funded on Kickstarter, there's there's a supplement version available on Drive Thru, but when do we when does the print come out or the final version.
Kira - Magi-Knights:So it's scheduled to for the PDF to come out in April of 2023. So next year, and we're still on track for that right now. The only so we're actually going to be handing it off to the editor at the end of this month. And then the next step after that is the layout design. And then on to printing after that. So as long as there's no delays in any of that, we'll still be on track, and then the print version should be arriving on everybody's doorsteps in July. So hopefully everything goes according to plan still. I'm super happy that we're still on track for the artwork and for balancing rules and everything else we've added in from stretch goals right now. So
Derek - Magi-Knights:yeah, it's it's been, you can check out the free, you know, version that we released before the Kickstarter, kickstart, I think it's like version two point 2.2 2.2. We're on version 4.5. Now, but it'll give you at least an idea of what you're getting into before you purchase the game free preorder it. And we always give our backers the most up to date version that we have. And we're just really excited to know that, you know, we've done all this contracting work working with how many different artists?
Kira - Magi-Knights:I think it's 15. Now, yeah, upwards of 15.
Derek - Magi-Knights:Probably more I think that sounds a little bit 15 more artists, with you know, all of our other people we've contracted out. And the fact that we're still on schedule is just really amazing. All these moving parts so
Snyder’s Return:So with everything, all your sort of heart and soul, no pun intended poured into this current project that you know, fantastic artwork and things. Is there anything you've got on the horizon, maybe niggling in the back of your minds or projects in place that you're going to move on to next that we can expect further down the line for yourselves?
Kira - Magi-Knights:Well, I actually wrote a children's book that will soon be available for purchase called my dad, the Game Master. It's about a girl and her game master dad and how he's a little different from other dads because of him being a Game Master. And it's just a fun little book for parents and kids to enjoy together and their kids. Yeah, I'm just self publishing it on Amazon, but I'm fixing some issues with it really quick before it's ready. But, um, and then we want to expand on Mennonites a bit by having miniatures and dice and other products like that.
Derek - Magi-Knights:Yeah, so I had originally two episodes written now, for playtesting. But we decided that we would change the episode order a bit. And so I asked her to write the first episode. So she would, as I mentioned, episode one, and Nico from the stars. And, you know, I kind of helped transform into a free scenario. So you, you're able to get that for free to kind of help introduce you and your players to that game. And we've had a lot of success with it on the server through play by post and through the streamers and at our own table. And there are going to be nine additional episodes for 10 episodes in total. And these episodes are basically scenarios. So there will be let's see, I think for three, three arcs, story arcs, which are a combination of three episodes, right, and then anything that takes a character from one to our maximum level of 15 is called a saga. And so we will have a published saga. And our goal is to continue to release these episodes and the saga until it's all complete. And each iteration will have new expansion material, new, new tactics, new abilities. We've had a lot of requests for merchandise, especially if Kerekes.
Kira - Magi-Knights:People want to push, everybody wants a curious
Derek - Magi-Knights:pleasure. So we're going to look into that, yeah, we have a release coming up on foundry, so that you know, you're able to play that online virtual tabletop, we're working on expanding our distributions so that it's easier to find the game overseas and locally. In case you didn't miss the Kickstarter. Ultimately, I would love to make a platform for player created content, we have a lot of passionate people in the community who want to write or have written even their own like kind of one shot scenarios, episodes where, you know, the team investigates a mystery within the city. And yeah, we just love to share the love of them of the Magi knights out there with those people who are interested in, you know, creating more content for the game. And I think lastly, for Magi nights, we are working on translating it into Japanese to get into the Japanese market coming up in 2023 ish.
Kira - Magi-Knights:Maybe near the end. So we're
Derek - Magi-Knights:slated to meet with a few people and we've got a translator on board who's ready to work on it, as soon as the final version of the English
Snyder’s Return:copy is done. That's amazing.
Kira - Magi-Knights:And they're actually starting to design a or not starting sort of starting to, I guess, design a board game that's also a role playing game, that's a different genre
Derek - Magi-Knights:right then after the dust kind of settles with magic knights and it's kind of I would like to keep working on additional products for the Magi Knight project, creating an RPG board game that incorporates digital media for record keeping that can be played solo or with friends. That's kind of just really in the r&d phase right now but ever so many ideas so many things are on my mind, just making them come to reality I think that's our big push for
Snyder’s Return:all sounds like amazing to be for plushies is great. Your book Kira and and all the the supplements and and all the accessories and things you bring if if you send me the links when they come out, I will add them into the description below this podcast so people can follow the links to the games or your website or or wherever it is or if they want specific products, your your book for example, I will happily put that link down in the description below. If if you want me to in the future, thank you
Kira - Magi-Knights:so much. We appreciate that a lot.
Snyder’s Return:Not so not at all. So we have discussed a lot we've discussed how you yourselves going to TT RPGs, the founding of this FFIV based game you've created influences future projects and things. Is there anything that we haven't discussed through the course of this interview that you would like to bring up here at the end?
Derek - Magi-Knights:Anything curious. For me, I'm going to say the biggest surprise was the lore. Originally, I kind of just made it a small section. I thought people would be interested in these team mechanics but not necessarily the lore of the world. But it's been a pleasant surprise to see how many people have bought into it you know, what is elsewhere and the spectral outsiders that live there? How do they how do they come into our world? And why only during these times of days? And what will if they kidnap these people what happens to them and what do you mean they don't kill people necessarily they just kidnap people and they're gone forever and why why are there more people concerned about these disappearances? What do you mean the black when makes people forget about you know forgotten, missing persons and such and so having all these questions on the server and all those vested interests has just been really fun. And which is why we expanded on the lore and monsters section quite a bit.
Kira - Magi-Knights:And the herald I requested the Herald section expanded because I love the Herald. I think they're so fun. But yeah, it's I love ON OUR DISCORD SERVER. How it's Somebody asks a question about the lore, all of a sudden, like five or six people will jump in and be like, Oh, what about this, and then we'll all go back and forth discussing it. And it just makes me so happy. I'm like, Ah, I never expected this kind of reaction to something that we created,
Derek - Magi-Knights:or even having people answer other questions about the lore or game mechanics.
Kira - Magi-Knights:Yeah, they know it. Yeah, just as well, as we do makes me happy, too.
Derek - Magi-Knights:It's really awesome. We're accessible? And if you throw in a question, I'll generally get to it, you know, within that day, but sometimes it's nice to know that there are other gamers out there who were like, oh, yeah, it plays like this. And, but there definitely is a connection to us as the game designers, and any qualms or advice, some things you'd like to see about the game, you know, we're always there to listen, we don't always implemented, of course, because we do have a, what we want to see the project become, but we always take feedback with
Kira - Magi-Knights:it. Of course, we've actually implemented a lot that was user feedback. So yeah, we've appreciated it a lot. Yeah.
Snyder’s Return:Nice. It sounds like you have an amazing community. One that clearly, you know, people, including myself will look to join and learn more about the game and the system and yourselves as, as everything develops together in that respect. So thank you. It's, it's been an absolute pleasure. And I'd love to have you remind everybody where they can find you on social media. So they can, you know, scroll down, or either go and find you having listened or scroll down and follow the links below. So please work? Where can we find your social media?
Kira - Magi-Knights:So it's just our Instagram is Magi underscore knights. And same thing with our Twitter, our Facebook, I don't know what that is. But I can send you the link to that page, because it's a little bit different, I think. Yeah, that would be and then we also could give you a link to our Discord server as well.
Derek - Magi-Knights:Yeah, in our Kickstarter, you can just imagine my match iDASH knights Kickstarter, and it's the first one that comes out amazing.
Kira - Magi-Knights:I believe our social media links are on there as well. Yeah.
Snyder’s Return:Well, it has been an absolute pleasure getting to, to speak with you about your work your influences, your inspirations, and everything to do with with magic knights and, and the future of the power of you have sort of plotted out as it were. So thank you so much for coming. I'd love to get you back on the show. If you'd be willing to join me again, as more things are released, or the story develops, as it were, if you'd be willing to come back.
Derek - Magi-Knights:Yeah, we'd love to come back. It's been a great opportunity. So thank you for having us.
Snyder’s Return:Thank you so much for talking with me today. We've enjoyed it. Thank you for listening. If you'd like to learn more about the show, then go to www dot Snyder’s return.squarespace.com. Alternatively, you can find us over on Twitter. At return Schneider, you have a link tree link in the description of this episode. And if you want to support us, come and join us over on Patreon. And we also have a Discord server. Please leave us a review because we'd love to learn how to improve the channel and provide better content out for for those who are listening until we until we speak again. Thank you