Episode 2: Season Zero Into The Witherwild

Richard and Karl return for Session Zero of The Witherwild, crafting a new campaign from the roots up and ending with a froggy foray into adventure!

In our second podcast episode, we dive into character creation using the Witherwild campaign frame for Daggerheart, setting the tone for a sprawling, mythic story full of creeping corruption, fractured alliances, and moss-covered gods who may or may not smell like compost.

• Deep-dive into Daggerheart’s collaborative character creation, with ancestry, community, and class choices inspired by the setting's lore-rich factions
• Karl builds a tragicomic frogman (Half human, half Ribbit,) character who—after being killed as part of a scheme navigates politics, death, and being the lord of the fly's.
• Exploration of key Session Zero tools like crafting Experiences, tying character backstories to the political tensions of Fanewick and Haven, and answering worldbuilding prompts together
• Discussion of tone and themes for The Witherwild: cultural clash, nature’s revenge, divine weirdness, and what it means to survive in a world that’s overgrown and under-cared-for
• GM tips on using the Save the Cat structure, Hope/Fear dice mechanics, and Wither tokens to shape emotional arcs and long-term corruption effects
• Introduction of campaign NPC Kreil Dirn, Haven’s suspiciously charming spymaster who recruits the frogman for a shady job after spotting his potential (and desperation)
  • Honest post-game talk about how Daggerheart handles season zeros, how to keep players invested, and the best order to start your games.

Whether you’re prepping your own game or just want to watch a frog dig holes until the government shows up, this episode’s a heartfelt, funny, and lore-rich intro to The Witherwild campaign.

P.S. No frogs were harmed in the making of this episode. Just emotionally destabilized.

Transcript

SPEAKER_07 0:01

Good evening, gentlefolk, and welcome to Richard and Carl Playtest Dragonheart. Daggerheart. Our sub channel. If you come here from Richard and Carl present Deep Space and Dragons, I commend your hustle. Our first episode on this channel, in fact, says Deep Space and Dragons, but we moved into two channels because confusion? Anyway, I'm Richard, and this is the first time hearing me speak. You're very good at dodging me.

SPEAKER_04 0:28

And I am Carl, and I mean, uh, if this is the first time you're hearing me speak, well, I I don't speak that much on the internet, so that's not surprising.

SPEAKER_07 0:37

You know what's funny about that statement is I really need to know how much people are like Instagramming and Twittering, because I think you're right and you don't speak that much on the internet. Sure, we record you talking for two-hour chunks bi-weekly, but it's probably not actually that much by current standards. Especially if we consider text to be talking on the internet.

SPEAKER_04 0:57

Yeah, well, you know, and like uh there's people who have like weekly YouTube channels and they do like multiple videos, and like it's like nah I mean a pretty small portion of the content that's on the internet is my voice.

SPEAKER_07 1:10

Indeed. But probably enough to make a deep fake of you.

SPEAKER_04 1:14

Probably.

SPEAKER_07 1:14

Probably if you qualify for a boat load. Alright. So for the uninitiated, we're gonna start with the what's new with each other section, and you can just kind of deal with that. And then the battle plan for today, and just to kind of give Carl refresher as well, is we recently went through the Daggerheart free quick start test adventure, where he died like a punk. Oh no, not like a monkey. You got a double suicide against the boss. Like, you died like a champ. Like you did the whole grenade in your hand, punched into his mouth, and then died with it, kind of. It was epic. But I digress. So that week we went through the basics of the game as I kind of explained the rules of the game to you while playing a session, and we talked a bit about it at the end. This week, the hypothetical itinerary is we're gonna do a bit of a session zero, and possibly go into the adventure I stood up till four in the morning writing last night, seeing how time plays out. So the main goal is to go through the session zero and we'll see where we're at for time. But first, what's new with you?

SPEAKER_04 2:16

Well, so uh several months ago, probably about five months ago, I uh got into a uh car accident. Um single single car accident, because I hit a patch of black ice and spun out on on a uh highway, pretty much.

SPEAKER_07 2:30

For new listeners, he's in Saskatchewan as close as you can get to hell.

SPEAKER_04 2:37

Uh anyways, um so uh I go to uh SGI, which is Saskatchewan Government Insurance Company. Um and they are the corpor the Crown Corporation that is uh responsible for uh yeah, look, it's the only option for vehicle insurance in Saskatchewan.

SPEAKER_07 2:57

They all have complex bots on this, but in this situation, they're basically the mafia.

SPEAKER_04 3:03

Well, I mean it's my understanding that Saskatchewan has some of the lowest insurance rates for vehicles in in Canada. Um that might be partly due to other factors, but I have to assume that SGI is at least doing somewhat of a good job at keeping insurance rates down.

SPEAKER_07 3:19

Well, it's like in theory, the theory behind a crown corporation is solid. So I feel like I want to support them. But also, much like the like IRS or the CRA or what have you, some gr organizations, even if they're good at being that organization, they're a car insurance organization. So therefore they're gonna be hated.

SPEAKER_04 3:40

But yeah, that like so at the end of the day, they are indeed an insurance company, and so they do try to screw people over uh as many ways as they can. Uh like one time my I had an ex-girlfriend who got into an accident, uh, and they're like, okay, we're gonna replace this part. But it was about you know 60% worn, so you're gonna have to pay 40% of the cost of replacing it. Man, they didn't tell us that until after we'd already paid our deductible, had the part replaced, started driving the vehicle, and they're like, yeah, now you owe us better mint because we made your vehicle 40% better.

SPEAKER_07 4:17

Uh yeah, that that sums that up pretty eloquently. Anyway, this is gonna be a depressing story, but please continue. Or somehow a success story.

SPEAKER_04 4:29

So so uh I hit a patch of black ice. I I was following all the rules of the road, it was clear, uh, there was like no inclement weather, like it there's there's nothing that I can think of that I could have done differently to not hit this patch of ice, especially seeing as I had gotten down that same stretch of road earlier that day and not encountered any problems. Uh but it's an automatic loss of six points for your safety driver record rating. Or safety driver rating? Oh, SDR is what they call it. Um And uh when you get into the negatives, uh they charge you $50 per point you are in the negative, plus you have to pay your uh deductible to get the vehicle repaired if you're at fault. And uh like and then if there's any like betterment or any other fines or fees, like they try and milk you for as much as you can, especially once you get into the negative with your with your safety rating. Um so uh I go to the the SGI place, I'm like, hey, um, you know, this is what happened. And they're like, yeah, that's an automatic loss of six points. But that would be this someone who ran a red light in caused an accident would also lose six points. And these are clearly not equal scenarios, so you should appeal this with the highway traffic board. Okay. Cool, I'll I'll look into that. So it costs uh a hundred bucks to buy a receipt to be able to uh appeal with the highway traffic board. And I don't know if they're always this far behind, but it took them two months to schedule my hearing.

SPEAKER_07 6:05

That sounds about right.

SPEAKER_04 6:06

Um and then uh it was like a 10-minute hearing. Um and I thought that they would be like in cahoots with SGI and be like, yeah, no, SGI needs their money, everybody should just get screwed. Uh but apparently the highway traffic board agrees with me that uh black ice is an abnormal condition that could not be avoided, and they uh reversed my loss of points.

SPEAKER_07 6:30

Nice. Good job.

SPEAKER_04 6:33

Yeah. So I mean, uh, I don't know how easy it is to actually appeal. Uh apparently I'm gonna get that that appeal feedback, and then also it seems like I'm not gonna owe SGI any money, but uh I still have to wait out wait and find out the the details. But you know. Like I said, uh SGI is sort of an important part an important role in Saskatchewan. Um and they do seem to be good at what they're supposed to do. Um everybody hates them because they're an insurance company, and they can sometimes be defeated through diligence and well, hard work, I guess.

SPEAKER_07 7:09

And the power of writing an email.

SPEAKER_04 7:13

Basically. So what's new with you there, Richard?

SPEAKER_07 7:19

So uh it's funny for people who don't have the backstory. So, as you're aware, like I've done a lot of things over the last month. Like, I traveled to the Indie Authors Conference, I went to my graduation, I what got on a train going the wrong direction and ended up the wrong city to volunteer. I ended up on another wrong direction, and another wrong city. So I'm not good at transit, right? This is But I finally got around to something on my to-do list. So on Thursday, I went on an aquarium date.

SPEAKER_04 7:53

Ooh.

SPEAKER_07 7:54

Right? Like it's so cliche.

SPEAKER_04 7:56

Like a like a romantic date, or like just like a like a friend date?

SPEAKER_07 8:03

Well, considering I'm public on a podcast that the person may or may not listen to, it was supposed it was with the intent of being a romantic first date.

SPEAKER_04 8:12

Ah, okay, okay.

SPEAKER_07 8:13

And I will refrain from any comments about the individual. I mean only good things to say. But also on a first date, only good things to say is the only identifying characteristic I'm playing to give about this individual.

SPEAKER_04 8:27

Fair enough, fair enough. I wasn't gonna ask more details, I was just just curious whether or not this was uh romance or or not.

SPEAKER_07 8:36

Reasonable. So I do something I've never done before and I make a completely unnecessary reservation like you do. Because it's like the plan was to grab like a brunch-timed meal, and realistically, if an restaurant opens at 11, you're not gonna need to book a reservation for 11. But like with my like failure record, I'm like, okay, I want to get to the restaurant half an hour early, book a reservation, get to the downtown core, because that way if I get on the train going the wrong direction, I have time to switch to the other train and come back around.

SPEAKER_06 9:08

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_07 9:09

And through my due diligence, I was alerted with axocotals and sharks and derpy fish with two eyes on one side of their face, the valve for the sweet embrace of death, there was randomly a lizard exhibit for some reason, and they're like, There's like the dragon exhibit, and they like showed like dragon merch and then like just regular lizards. And I appreciate the try, right? It's like dragons, and like it's like look at the leaf tail dragon. I'm like, yep, he does look like a dead leaf, and I feel like dragons are being devaluated a bit here, but I appreciate the effort with Gusto. It's like, do you want to pet a stingrain? I'm like, well, those have been known to kill people, but I'm also curious.

SPEAKER_03 9:50

Steve Rwin.

SPEAKER_07 9:51

Yeah, and he had resistance to Stingrains. Like, if you if you can't take one, I'm not taking one in a fight. That ain't happening. I'll just die. So I had a lovely time at the aquarium. That's what's new with me. And then since that adventured, I have not left my house because there's a heat dome above me right now. And like, other than like a walk to get slow cooker taco ingredients and other life essentials, I'm like, eh. And I think that's part of what's made me nocturne. Is it's cooler in the evening. Which is why I think I'll just write till four in the morning because well I spent four years trying to fix my sleep schedule, but I think the damage at working at redacted pizza at a certain point in my life has permanently damaged my sleep schedule. That is who I blame specifically.

SPEAKER_04 10:42

Except didn't you make dough at 6 a.m.?

SPEAKER_07 10:45

And then close till 4 a.m.

unknown 10:49

Huh.

SPEAKER_04 10:49

I don't remember you having to do to do any close shifts.

SPEAKER_07 10:52

Yeah, oh flip-flopped. I remember because so and so with the thing and the drug equipment and the door open and the smoking of the orange peel and me being like I make the same as this guy, this is insane. He's spat on the security camera for some reason. This all absolutely happened in the evening.

SPEAKER_04 11:11

Yeah, I know that makes more sense, that's true.

SPEAKER_07 11:13

Slash four in the morning.

unknown 11:16

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_07 11:17

Nothing good has ever happened past two in the morning, but I digress. Shall we get into some beggar and harding then?

SPEAKER_04 11:25

Let's get into it.

SPEAKER_07 11:26

So I'm gonna give like a bit of recap, and I basically have and I'll probably try and put out PDFs that go with each of these videos like the next day the video launches, because I'm cool like that. And I basically wrote a session zero intended to set up for the future sessions. So there might be some repetition of things you already know. We'll see how we go through it. And at this point, do you have access to like my books on Demi Plane as intended, slash access to the character maker?

SPEAKER_04 11:57

I am looking at the character maker screen right now. I'm not sure if I'm like putting this character, like am I supposed to put this character into your campaign or something? I don't know.

SPEAKER_07 12:07

No, no, you just have to if you have access to all the character creation options, you're where you should be.

SPEAKER_04 12:12

Alright, because yeah, I I the first page uh is getting started where I put in my name, tentatively Leroy Jenkins. Nice. Um and I'm looking, it asked me to add the campaign frame, and I chose the Witherwild, which I believe is what you told me to be. Perfect.

SPEAKER_07 12:28

Exactly what you needed to do.

SPEAKER_04 12:31

Alright, and then I just have to decide which one of these uh character portraits looks the most human. Uh not that my character is specifically human, uh, but they need to look human.

SPEAKER_07 12:41

So we'll get into it as we like kind of go through the walkthrough for people who are building their character for the first time, and simultaneously setting up the session, telling some stories, and seeing if we can get into the game proper. But yeah. So what's cool is they added two new classes this morning, so now there's just Brawler, Brawler and Warlock on the list. Uh-uh. Because their playtest went from like phase one to phase two. It was called the Fighter, and then enough people complained. I voted they call it the Kick-a-Puncher. I did not win that. I stand by it. I actually was really partial to the striker, but I digress. Alright, so just like some meta notes for DMs running session zeros. So, preparation. Have printed or digital copies of character sheets, which we just did. Have a dice roller or dice, which we got. Have writing tools, play guides, maps. If we were doing this in real world, we'd have like a map I'd have you draw on during this process.

SPEAKER_04 13:37

Mmm. Right, right, right. Because I'm supposed to like add my hometown or something to it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 13:42

And then I've read through all the stuff. And then we would do introductions and pronouns and fun stuff. I do believe we both gave a chunks of our life story. But I'm gonna go, I'm Richard, he, him, I'm a writer and somewhat inseparable.

SPEAKER_04 13:57

Uh I am uh Carl with a K. Uh, also he him. Um I am a manager of a redacted pizza place.

SPEAKER_07 14:06

So I almost put in your bio on our podcast just to give you a job title of like game consultant uh game consult median.

SPEAKER_04 14:16

Well, I mean I I do have game designing aspirations, but uh my my last game that I tried to design, uh a rock, paper, scissors card game, uh I I need that one needs work. It didn't didn't play very well.

SPEAKER_07 14:27

Yeah, but like game game amateur game designer is just a legitimate title. The only difference between that feels appropriate, especially when we've given three-hour discussions on the game mechanics of magic and like three-hour discussions on the game mechanics of Kirby Air, right? I feel like I feel like at least game design enthusiast at the least.

SPEAKER_04 14:48

Yeah, game design enthusiast sounds much better than pizza store manager.

SPEAKER_07 14:52

Right. But to be fair, I'm like author, which is actually for the first time ever true, but normally it was like student library learning services tutoring assistant, just doesn't quite do the same. Alright. So for the uninitiated, a session zero is in a lot of games, it's where you go through like what the campaign's gonna be like, build your character safety features, and you've been through some terrible session zeros. Like we've had that talk where you spent like four hours to build a character and never played the game.

SPEAKER_03 15:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 15:23

So Daggerhard tries to have a bit more interaction in the session zero. Okay. Like I did one with my other group last some amount of time ago. And at one point, once I was done monologuing, people were engaging, and I think it's the most engaged I've had people during a session zero, because I gave them prompts to talk to each other.

SPEAKER_04 15:45

Right, right.

SPEAKER_07 15:46

Where an acquaintance of mine is running a session zero right now, and then they're like, it's not going good. They're not asking each other questions. I'm like, that wasn't optional. That's like showing up to Magic and be like, it's not going good. They refuse to shuffle their deck. And I'm like, you are correct, it is not going good. But what did they think they were here to do? So that's why I'm giving the speech that this is like the session zero is half how to play and half building character and half building the setting together. Right. So I'm gonna start with the pitch. Feinwick was once a place of great abundance and peace, dangerous to those unfamiliar with the land, but a cornucopia of those who respected its ways. When Haven invaded the wilds and forced the land into an eternal spring, a dangerous bloom known as the Witherwild took hold and now threatens the lives of all those who lived there. In a Witherwild campaign, you'll play unlikely heroes from hungle beginnings who are reckoning with their newfound duty to save Fainwick's people from dangerous corruption. So, we're talking adventurous, epic, heroic, thrilling, uncanny, whimsical, or to give like specific examples, we're kind of going for like a Zelda meets dark crystal meets princess Mononoke vibe.

SPEAKER_06 16:56

Hmm.

SPEAKER_07 16:56

So, like some of that like Ghibli, like I want the talking fire spirits jumping into a fire to crack eggs. But I also want like evil forces vomiting out of the forest and then turning into a wolf as a hand grabs you and pulls you into shadow once in a while. Like I want the balance.

SPEAKER_03 17:11

Right, right. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_07 17:13

And you want like stop motion puppet bird people. Like that just is that's just good storytelling. Like you can go ahead and throw in accidental, never-ending story, because I came out more eldridge than they intended it to be.

SPEAKER_01 17:25

That it sure did.

SPEAKER_07 17:27

Right, and then like some of the themes are like people versus nature, transformation and change, ends justifying means, cultural clash, etc. Now for the bigger lore dump. Alright. Since Feinwick is a wild, not investable land that most outsiders are smart enough to avoid. The woods are thick with feigned divinities, minor gods who might bless your crops, or just as likely lead you into a sinkhole while whispering riddles. Seemingly harmless fields turn out to be bogs as well with dire armies, artillery and all. Still the wokals, wicklings, are tough, stubborn, and absolutely convinced their way is the only way to survive, and it has a decent track record. For a long time they did just that, untouched by the neighboring wards. Then Haven got sick. Very sick. Haven was once the region's crown jewel, with towering stone walls etched with the phrase the godless gate. No one remembers what it originally meant, but some scholars say Haven's founders wanted nothing to do with the meddling divinities outside their borders. So they pulled a power move and killed a god. Shun Osh, the granite ophid, to be specific. Whatever method they used for their decide was locked lost in time, but it worked. They built their city into the dead god's corpse and ruled for centuries. So you can pretty much picture like a giant earth titan, they kill it, they build a city out of it. It wouldn't be the end of it. If gods like to stay dead. But Shonan got the last laugh. As they mined his remains, a fine, divine dust seeped into the air. For a while no one noticed, just assumed it was regular miner's lung. But then came an expansion. Deeper soil, deeper tunnels, and suddenly the dust came back up and became the serpent's sickness. It starts with a dusty cough. As we're all familiar, those are concerning. Then a rash. Then skin, muscles, bones, harden, one organ at a time until the victims turn to stone mid step. The beautiful statues dotting Haven's streets aren't decorative. They're people caught in their final miserable moments. Yeah. So, Archmage Fallax, and feel free to take notes here. This will be on the test later in like 30 sessions. Haven't stopped mages and part-time horticulturalists discovered a cure. The Crimson Lady's Veil, a red flower found in Feinwick. Trouble is, you only get one red bloom per 10,000 white ones. Kinda like making champagne in the champagne region. You can't just use grapes, apparently. So Haven in peak imperial form invaded Feinwick to pick flowers. And while they're at o at it, they ripped out the reaping eye of Nikita, the great owl and shepherd of seasons. Her two eyes watch the land, one eye for sowing, one for reaping. And now she's half blind, stuck watching the world grow and grow with no way to trim it back. Feinwick has been locked in an endless spring ever since. At first, an endless spring seems like a miracle. Haven't forces cleared the bogs and started harvesting blooms. But with no death in the cycle, the land mutated, forests bulge, animals swell, and vines slither across the ground like they have somewhere to be. The growth won't stop, and no one's figured out how to make it. Officially, your character serves Haven. Your keep flies its banner, answers to its crown, and reports to his chain of command. But the real power lies closer to home. Lord Elric, warden of the eastern border and keeper of the last functioning trade route between Feinwick and the rest of the world, has carved out something rare, neutral ground. He knows that crushing the Wicklings would break the economy, provoke retaliation, and cause a war. So he plays a war. He smiles to Haven and smiles at Feinwick and keeps the coin flowing. He's both beloved and hated by both sides, because he's basically Switzerland in World War II. But as if Switzerland said, Oh yeah, sure, we're totally German, and then as soon as Germany looks away, starts making cash deals. So, regardless if your character is originally from Haven or Feinwick, this is a place he came for employment, because anyone within Eldrich's fiefdom can work, can live relatively unoppressed or unopposed to a certain degree. So, I see you're in a peacekeeping force in name, a political tool in practice, but you're a bumper between two powers, ready to turn spring into war. And a couple of last things to note before we start going to specifics about your character. Fainwick doesn't do 24 hour cycles. The sun rises for a whole week and dips for seven nights of darkness. It's a logistical nightmare for merchants, farmers, and pretty much anyone who likes a normal circadian rhythm. So not me or you in real life, but like regular people. And the lad's reared rhythm shaped everything. Beasts, blooms, even gods. Some flowers live and die in a single week. Sunrose vines claw skyward by day and then crumple under moonlight. And bioluminescent plant flowers grow with the scent of burnt sugar and decay, which is either beautiful or horrifying, depending how lost you are. So there's a lot of bioluminescence that's evolved to offset the lack of sunlight.

SPEAKER_06 22:39

Right, right.

SPEAKER_07 22:40

And then as I kind of went over, there's a serpent sickness, you get a cough, bam, cough out, scream, violet. And now people are chewing flower powers and snakeskin out of desperation. And I'm not gonna go over the full list of gods until it comes up. But as we kind of alluded to, gods aren't like staying in the sky. We're talking more the kinds of gods that hang out in woods homes. And if you're unlucky, you're cabbage patch. I'm talking like Ko the Face Stealer from Avatar or Okami the Okami Wolf Adamura Amatoratsu from Okame. Like there's things you can actually talk to and pay tribute. Like Todoro, the god of death. I stand by that interpretation, by the way. Like some of them, like there's Fog, a stone-stacking god, there's the aforementioned owl that stares sudden a spring and fall into effect. And there's some little ones like Hykinus who spreads flower blooms. And you get the idea. So my first question for you is going to be name a minor deity right now. Just come up with one off top of your head.

SPEAKER_02 23:54

Name a minor deity.

SPEAKER_07 23:56

And what they represent.

SPEAKER_04 23:59

Alright, let's see. Um.

SPEAKER_07 24:03

And if you can't think of a name name, you can just give it a code name and we can come back to it.

SPEAKER_04 24:10

Well, um, I mean, this is this is a uh super deep cut that I don't think anybody but my my buddy Travis would get. Uh, but I kind of want to have a minor deity of shoes. I think that's Yes.

SPEAKER_07 24:27

So I'm gonna go with the shoe keeper for now.

SPEAKER_04 24:30

The shoekeeper. Uh I I played a campaign once uh and we were supposed to be investigators, um, and I caught the DM off guard because my first question uh was uh what kind of dirt is on this person's shoes? Because that might tell me where they've been and whether or not they're lying to me. Uh actually, Gred, Gred. You should call him Gredd. Gred is the uh is the minor deity of shoes.

SPEAKER_07 24:57

Gred, the shoe keeper.

SPEAKER_04 25:00

Gred the shoekeeper, yeah.

SPEAKER_07 25:01

Protects the feet of those who wander. Yeah. And helps solve crimes.

SPEAKER_04 25:12

Occasionally.

SPEAKER_07 25:14

Primes on a whim.

SPEAKER_04 25:17

Uh that campaign I I did enjoy it, but it ended up not being much of a mystery-solving campaign. Uh I it was one of my friends' first campaign, so it kind of uh um got road railed a little pretty railroaded pretty hard. But it was still fun. It was a learning experience. I had to learn to let go of my characters.

SPEAKER_07 25:39

Uh I make a habit of killing you. Alright. So the next little piece of lore is the types of spirits. So there's active spirits that are found frequently used living or in motion, like fires, rivers, weapons in battles, and even plants. Sometimes with enough time, spirits will find and inhabit these objects, or will s spontaneously form within. No one's really sure. So, like everything will have spirits, be it stone walls, iron gates, buildings. You could technically ris a door to open, if you could speak with the spirit within. But a door wants to stay a door, and a passive boot spirit that's not in motion wants to stay out of motion. Then there's like lesser spirits, like the classic will of a wisp, fireflies in the night. Often too quiet for most people to notice. And then the greater spirits that are large concepts of forces, like weather, seasons, or memory. So various spellcasting is often involving shaping the spirits, like bards may control the spirits within objects, wizards may use detailed c calculations to move the spirits, sorcerers might naturally draw them, druids might form bonds with them a little uh deperately, and rogues might just be friends with the spirits of darkness and wander in lockstep with them. Okay, and I guess we'll move on a bit. So this is the part where I'd hand out a map and tell you to name a location on said map.

SPEAKER_03 27:11

Right, right, right.

SPEAKER_07 27:13

Um so let's start with we'll come back to that. We'll start with something simpler. Classes, are any of them speaking out to you yet?

SPEAKER_04 27:23

Uh well, I mean, in my head I've mostly already built the character. I I really I do like rogues a lot, and I figured I would give the dagger heart rogue a tr a try. Is what is that's what I'm thinking for.

SPEAKER_07 27:34

Amusingly, they released a playtest one that's not on the online thing yet, but will be later, of the Assassin class, which is a rogue that's better at stabbing.

SPEAKER_04 27:43

Okay.

SPEAKER_07 27:44

So, just a bit of rogue information, and I have little bits of like flavored questions for most groups of classes, but here's the rogue one. Havens plant spies within Thanewood villages. So ask yourself an answer on the notes section of your sheet. Are you a syndicate rogue? Are you loyal to the Haven chain of command? Are you a double agent? Would regret? A triple agent? What secrets have you learned and what lies have you spread? So just you don't even have to let me the DM know, but just note to yourself who your true loyalty is and who you're pretending to be loyal to at this moment.

SPEAKER_04 28:19

Hmm. Well, I mean, I'm I'm I'm definitely gonna need help with that, because uh as I I mentioned off screen, uh in a text, I guess, yeah, uh, that I do have uh a somewhat of a backstory which uh might need some finessing to actually uh work properly.

SPEAKER_07 28:34

I think it's your turn to hand the mic then. Tell me what you got for your character so far, and then I'll start using my questions to narrow and precise it down.

SPEAKER_04 28:42

Uh okay. So uh it's not really that elaborate, but how dare you?

SPEAKER_07 28:49

How dare you send a text that says elaborate character, and then you're like, it's not that elaborate. I'm like, if someone sends you a text saying delicious burger, and then the next day is like, okay, it wasn't that delicious. That's just false advertising.

SPEAKER_04 29:01

Okay, okay, okay, so. Uh tentatively, my character's name is Leroy Jenkins.

SPEAKER_07 29:07

We will fix this. Or not. I mean, I I had a character named Orc Mansley for a campaign.

SPEAKER_04 29:17

Okay. Um, so he marries uh I'm gonna call her Sandra D.

SPEAKER_07 29:22

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 29:24

Uh his brother, uh, we'll call him Jim. Jim Jenkins. Uh uh is jealous of this marriage. Okay. No, no, Sandra D has a uh brother named uh Jacob, we'll say.

SPEAKER_07 29:43

Excellent, excellent. Adding these characters in. I can work with this.

SPEAKER_04 29:48

Uh and Jacob has a friend that works for a criminal organization. Um I don't know what I need a name for this friend.

SPEAKER_07 29:57

Uh let's go with Elroy.

SPEAKER_04 30:02

Alright, so Jacob has a friend that works for a criminal organization named Elroy. Yeah. And he wants out. So Jacob decides to help Elroy fake his own death.

SPEAKER_07 30:14

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_04 30:16

But to really sell the bit, they need a body. Uh, so uh Jacob being the the brother of Sandra D. Um and uh he knows that Jim is jealous of the marriage.

SPEAKER_01 30:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 30:36

So they concoct a plan where uh where Jim and Jacob steal money from the Sandra D from the D estate. Yeah. And make it look like uh it was Leroy that stole the money and then ran off, and instead they murder him and put him in the grave for Elroy.

SPEAKER_07 30:58

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 31:00

Alright. So he's been murdered, he's in the grave for Elroy. I'm gonna say six months to a year pass, and the criminal syndicate, whatever the name of the crime or criminal organization, decides uh that uh Elroy had something of value that that they're like, hey, yeah, now we need to know where this is. The only person who knew where it was was Elroy. We're going to resurrect him and find out where this thing is.

SPEAKER_07 31:27

Okay. This is bringing back some memories.

SPEAKER_04 31:32

So they pay to resurrect him, and obviously it turns out to be Leroy, not Elroy.

SPEAKER_07 31:37

You know, I didn't know if Elroy and Leroy to be switchable names, but I'm very happy with that coincidence. I think he might just be stuck as Leroy now. The Jenkins is negotiable, but I think Leroy I'm kind of committed to now.

SPEAKER_04 31:54

But uh, so then um he's like, yeah, no, I'm not the person you're looking for. Uh just give me like 24 hours to go like see what's going on with my family. Uh his family's basically just disowned him because he abandoned his his marriage and stole money according to by by their logic. And the Sandra D has already married Jim. Because Jim was there to console her, and also uh, you know, they were in debt and they needed to make some more money quickly by uh fixing the marriage and whatever, political blah blah blah. Um and uh so now in order to pay off the cost of his resurrection, he has been uh hired by the criminal syndicate to find Elroy.

SPEAKER_07 32:38

Okay. I kind of want to suggest a bit of a twist here for the session, because I like I don't want to change much of that, but I kind of like the idea that you're in this neutral territory working for this Lord Eldwin, right? I like the idea that your resurrection fee that wasn't illegal. And you're just an actual hired spy for this keep on the coast because they paid they I like the idea that basically you're in this keep, right? And the owner of the keep bought your debt, like debt collection style, and now you owe your money back to him as kind of a quest hook of the sketchy people have been paid back by this rich benefactor in the neutral area who's doing shady shit and wanted a shady dude.

SPEAKER_04 33:26

Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_07 33:27

But I do have a question for you, based on kind of what you've told me so far. So the question is Rogue is really good at shadow magic blending in and talking to people. Ranger is better at stealthy strategy and nature. I'm curious, like, are you planning to be an eloquent rogue? Because part of me is like, Rogue could work for you, and Ranger could also work for you. Or Warlock could work with you because you are resurrected. But I do think, like, first thought of Ranger is a solid thing. Uh sorry, first thought of Rogue is a solid thing. But just for some like context, rangers in this setting have their bond with nature, they're able to see faint divinities, and they have that little bit of natural magic combined with tactical control of their body, basically. Where rogues are the more syndicate spy. But what I will say is if you skip class for now and go to Heritage and go to community, your character was absolutely highborn.

SPEAKER_04 34:33

Uh that is that is definitely what I was thinking was that Highborn is the is the community that makes sense.

SPEAKER_07 34:43

Yeah, because Slyborn is interesting currently, but Highborn is where you were raised.

SPEAKER_03 34:50

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, I don't I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 34:57

Oh yeah, okay, okay. So uh to to add even a little bit more nuance to to the character.

SPEAKER_06 35:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 35:04

Um and this is actually this is kind of uh metagaming because I was looking at the the characteristics. Um you're allowed to. So mixed ancestry allows you to choose the the first trait from one ancestry and the second trait from another.

SPEAKER_07 35:19

Yeah, this isn't metagaming yet.

SPEAKER_04 35:22

Well, so so humans get to add an additional stress point on character creation. And ribbets get to mark a stress to deal uh 1d12.

SPEAKER_07 35:41

Yeah, and grapple things.

SPEAKER_04 35:43

Plus proficiency uh physical damage with their tongue. Uh and I just think that's uh that's a uh perfect combination, really. It's like extra stress, and I get something to use my stress built into the character.

SPEAKER_07 35:55

So here's my question for you.

SPEAKER_04 35:57

As for appearance, he go ahead.

SPEAKER_07 36:00

There's just a little bit of lag in the system. I think you're gonna answer my question before I ask it, but I'm gonna say my piece first to see if it changes your answer. So, the mixed lineage in this game for creating a mixed ancestry, you can use it in the traditional elf based human makes half elf. But if you want to tell me you're some sort of specific species and want to reflavor the tongue, like you're like, oh no, I'm a revenant and I have a scorpion chain, I would absolutely allow that. I also kind of enjoy the idea you came back wrong as part frog, but you tell me what your character looks like. And also, it's like ribbots are like you could just be a ribbon. It's not like you're lower class, but it doesn't mean your parents were probably from the south. No, um It is really funny the reverse princess in the frog scenario.

SPEAKER_04 36:52

Um, have you seen Alita the Battle Angel?

SPEAKER_07 36:55

Not recently, but yes.

SPEAKER_04 36:58

Well, I mean, so and the the only thing that really matters is that uh her character has uh the unusually large anime eyes. But it but it is otherwise a normal-looking human. Uh and my uh thinking of how this character would look would be like saying someone with the unusually large anime eyes, otherwise normal human what happens to have a stretchy tongue that they can use as a third app as a third appendage.

SPEAKER_07 37:27

It kind of makes me think of Frappy for My Hero Academia.

unknown 37:31

Yeah, kind of.

SPEAKER_07 37:32

And like as it comes up, you could be like, maybe you have like wider fingers that have like a little bit of webbing if you want. Like, I will absolutely allow this, and I don't even think it's that minigamey.

SPEAKER_04 37:43

Well, you can't I mean like I said, I specifically chose it because it gives me an extra set stress point and immediately gives me something to spend that stress point on. Oh which as my experience with the previous session, 1d12 is a is a pretty high damage attack if I if I am in need of it.

SPEAKER_07 38:01

Yeah. Makes sense to me. So, yeah, the only little like backstory chunks I'm gonna give is that I have notes for different races and different backprints. Is basically actually none of this really matters, because you said your character was your character highborn before the marriage, or were they lowborn in like power of love?

SPEAKER_04 38:24

Uh they were highborn before the marriage, but uh obviously he's an illegitimate child uh of of of the of the family, which is another reason why uh the uh brother Jim uh was unhappy with uh see people not wanting a frog in their genetic tree. Like, I mean, I'm not pro-discrimination, so but yeah, it just adds a little bit extra extra nuance to the to the whole backstory.

SPEAKER_07 38:55

Okay. And then just for the sake of our listeners at home, we got your class of rogue. Which um have you picked a subclass yet? Um this part I'd be handing around cards and things. So, the Nightwalker is more like if you're running solo, and Syndicate gets powers to literally bring NPCs into the mix.

SPEAKER_04 39:19

Yeah, see, I was uh thinking more Nightwalker, but Okay, because I will say like that gives me another a way to spend my stress points with the uh Shadow Walk, I think.

SPEAKER_07 39:32

I think it works better if we're going story-wise too, where the well-connected people owe you a favor as a noble would probably make more sense if you weren't like dead.

SPEAKER_03 39:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 39:45

Alright, so for the sake of our listeners at home, at this point you picked your class, you've picked your traits, which as you know, this one doesn't do dice rolls, it's just plus two, plus one, plus one, minus one. There's a suggested trait, you can click a little button if you want to just go with what they recommend. I mean, rogues are good at finesse. Your part frog, so agility makes a lot of sense to me. I might go like if I were you go like finesse, agility, instinct, I probably wouldn't go prevasence. I'd probably put your negative in that because rogue, but okay, so they're suggest a traitor.

SPEAKER_04 40:23

Plus one to agility, plus two to finesse. Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_07 40:27

And it they recommend drop dumping strength and going presence. Which for context, your two domains are midnight, which is like shadow magic and grace, which is like fast talkiness and charminess.

SPEAKER_03 40:42

Right.

SPEAKER_07 40:43

But like you could literally go your entire life without grabbing a single fast talking card, or you can grab them as you see fit when we get to there.

SPEAKER_04 40:50

So plus two to finesse for sure, because that's my main trait. Agility is always good.

SPEAKER_07 40:57

I don't remember which trait the tongue uses, but I think it uses a trait.

SPEAKER_04 41:02

Uh it's a finesse weapon.

SPEAKER_07 41:04

That's hilarious.

SPEAKER_04 41:10

I mean, I can't I guess I should quickly double check, but I'm fairly certain that uh Yeah, that sounds right to me too. You can use your tongue to grab more stress to use your tongue as a finesse close weapon.

SPEAKER_07 41:24

Yeah, yeah. Okay. And then for starting weapons, starting armor. It basically will recommend a dagger to you, and then an offhand dagger to you, or a dagger and a bow. Just pick whatever two weapons you like. If this was in person, I'd hand you a list of weapons and armor. And anyone can wear any armor in this game, and it really comes down to the heavier armors, are better for if you're expecting to get hit a lot, because you have more armor slots to spend to reduce it. And the lighter armors are if you want to avoid being hit at all, but take more damage when you are hit. I see. So whilst you fiddle with your starting weapon, starting armor, starting inventory, and picking your two cards.

SPEAKER_04 42:06

Okay, so what is the difference between the Gambasin and Leather Armor?

SPEAKER_07 42:11

I think the Gambison gives you plus one agility because you're basically wearing cloth, but the Gambison has higher damage thresholds.

SPEAKER_04 42:18

And the the leather armor has higher damage thresholds. Uh the Gambison gives you plus one to evasion. Alright.

SPEAKER_07 42:26

There we go. So, for those listening who listened to our one shot and didn't really know the rules of what's going on here. In Daggerheart, evasion is the roll. Things roll on their attack to see if they hit you. You then roll damage based on the weapon or spell. Each character has two damage thresholds, a major and a severe threshold. This determines if they take one damage, if it's what between one and the first threshold, two damage if it's between two and the second threshold, and three damage if it's above it. There's an optional bonus rule of four damage if they double the max threshold, and I'm gonna use that because I'm a monster. But at this point, you should have your class, your subclass, your stats, your starting two weapons, your starting armor, and root. And at this point, there's a little like text boxes on the sheet to fill in. But like, feel like how your class and your background will influence your posture, who you trust, who you fear. And I will ask you during your weapon, is your weapon from Feinwick? An heirloom from an ancestor, or is it a standard issue Haven weapon?

SPEAKER_04 43:34

Uh probably a standard issue haven weapon.

SPEAKER_07 43:37

And do you carry tools for survival or for war?

SPEAKER_04 43:42

Um I would say we're more like like we're in a neutral zone, so I think we're more likely to carry tools for survival.

SPEAKER_07 43:49

Excellent. And then just some extra notes to think about that may make them on the character sheet or not while you're fiddling and picking things. What faint deities do you know and revere? Have you ever been affected by the serpent's sickness or the witherwild? Are you tainted, grieving, infected? And the last one is what loss, regret, or secret drives you forward? Who did you fail to protect? What do you desperately want to fix? I have a couple thoughts on that one for you already.

SPEAKER_04 44:22

Okay, wait, wait. So crossbow is a primary weapon. Grappler. I'm not a grappler, though.

SPEAKER_07 44:31

So grappler, I'm picturing like a rope and chain kind of setup.

SPEAKER_04 44:35

Oh yeah, they're definitely showing me a rope and chain.

SPEAKER_07 44:38

Excellent. It is amusing to me that they're like. I do enjoy that, like, rapiers are based on your swag in this one. And yeah, like the offhand dagger is like designed for if you want to be a dual wielder. And a lot of these weapons are cost like a handful of gold when you find yourself at a shop later. So don't feel like you're too hammered into it.

SPEAKER_04 45:03

I'm going with crossbow and small dagger, I think.

SPEAKER_07 45:06

Nice. And then if we had multiple players, you'd be sharing cards, so that way I like it's not a hard rule in the game, but I like it that people don't have overlapping abilities, so people have to share. Where if you had a uh sorcerer with you, you'd have to share midnight cards, and if you had a bard with you, you'd have to share grace cards.

SPEAKER_04 45:26

Wait, they just want me to have a dagger and a dagger?

SPEAKER_07 45:29

Well, it's a primary one and a secondary one, so it kind of works like dual-wielding and adds more damage to your main dagger.

SPEAKER_06 45:36

Hmm.

SPEAKER_07 45:36

I I think ranged is actually really good for a rogue. I think you're actually your instinct might have been spot on on that one.

SPEAKER_04 45:43

Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_07 45:44

I've chosen my armor because I went for the more evasion because a health potion and probably a grappling hook.

SPEAKER_04 45:53

I definitely uh I'm actually taking the stamina potion because I'm all about that stamina.

SPEAKER_07 46:00

Nice.

SPEAKER_04 46:01

Well, I'm all about the stress. That's that's my build, it's a stress build.

SPEAKER_07 46:05

And you're right, a grappling hook seems like a better Alright, and then feel free to take your time with the cards in the background, but I feel like you're going to pick Rain of Blades and Uncanny Disguise. I'm just guessing.

SPEAKER_04 46:25

You are I do like those those two. I think I think that's Uncanny Disguise seems like it's gonna be so useful. Uh and Reign of Blades, I I wanna uh firstly I want something to be able to spend my hope on besides the uh skills. Yep. The experiences, that's what they are.

SPEAKER_07 46:47

Alright.

SPEAKER_04 46:47

Um with that need an AoE attack just in case, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Like this is a well-rounded character.

SPEAKER_07 46:54

Perfect timing, so experiences.

unknown 46:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 46:59

To give the quick version of it, experiences are the core expression of who your characters and what they've been through, emotionally, narrative, or mechanically. Experiences are potent because every character is shaped by trauma, transformation, and conflict. You start with two experiences, each with a plus two. They're not just skills, they're distilled stories. And while crafting experiences, you can look at your background questions, the tone of your campaign. But one thing they recommend is choosing one experience that feels combatty, and another experience that feels non-combatty. So, like, your experiences can be phrases like survivor of the sickness, tracker of the bloom, duh uh convincing corpse, giant anime eyes. Try and avoid things like one-hit kill or super spell wizard. And instead, you could be something like a grave born duelist or a scholar of the crimson veil. And each experience provides a plus two bonus when you spend hope on a roll. You can use more than one experience on a single roll if both things apply, and if experience no longer fits your character, we can swap it out for character growth. Here's some setting specific example ones. Wickly Gorilla, Defector of the Stone Gate, Reaper's Scribe, Bloom Touch Survivor, Feinwood Forager, Corrupted Blood with Steady Hands, Branded by the Hygintus, Keeper of the River Stone Stacks, Saboteur of Alora, Shadow Courier, Witherbound Twin, Long Night Navigator, No Stranger to Grief, Watchful at the Garden's Edge.

SPEAKER_06 48:39

Huh?

SPEAKER_07 48:40

And like any like classic JRPG class or feat, like literally just taking the feats from DD5E and using them as experience almost works perfectly. Like you're like, mobile, great weapon master, spellblade. I use spellblade as a character I made in a one-shot. It was fun.

SPEAKER_03 48:58

Um, so I mean, I uh Lord of the Flies.

SPEAKER_04 49:08

Uh sounds like a I I I I want that. Lord of the Flies. I'm not 100% certain how that's going to apply, but I mean I'm happy to find it out together. It all has to do with his ribbon ancestry, so he he uh Oh, that's so much better.

SPEAKER_07 49:28

Oh, that's so good! Wait a minute. That went from pretty good to amazing instantly. Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_04 49:36

Um but the other one, I'm not really sure what to like.

SPEAKER_07 49:41

So, like, to give a couple more examples, cuz this is definitely a common I I don't want to say stallout point, but a common point. So, some other examples, do-do do, and just picking an example is absolutely fair game. Once I find my table of examples, because I usually pretty prepared for these things. Alright, backgrounds such as assassin, blacksmith, bodyguard, bounty hunter, chef of the royal family, circus performer, con artist, fallen monarch, field medic, high priestess, merchant, noble, pirate, politician, runaway, scholar, cellsword, soldier, thief, world traveler, characteristics such as battle hardened, bookworm, charming, cowardly, intimidating, leader, lone wolf, observant, specialties like acrobatic, gambler, healer, inventor, magical historian, catographer, master of disguise, sharpshooter, swashbuckler, skills like animal whisperer, barterer, deadly aim, fast learner, incredible strength, liar, lightfoot, photographic memory, and phrases like cat fake it till you make it, catch me if you can, third time's a chart, I won't let you down. No one left behind, pick on someone your own highs. The show goes much on, etc.

SPEAKER_04 51:01

Uh well see, the the other experience I was thinking, I'm not sure what to call it or how how uh we would make it work, but uh being dead is an experience for sure.

SPEAKER_07 51:13

Put being dead, just straight up put being dead.

SPEAKER_03 51:18

Being dead, alright.

SPEAKER_07 51:19

And we'll figure out together when that's useful. Because yes, being dead is completely fair game. And I'm looking forward to the moment where you're surrounded by skeletons, like I want to hide from them. Does being dead apply here?

SPEAKER_04 51:34

Okay, okay. So so the last section then is uh okay, well, wait, choose your description.

SPEAKER_07 51:40

So that gives you like clothes, eyes, body, color, attitude. If we had other players around, those would be like a higher priority and I drag you through them.

SPEAKER_04 51:50

Right, right.

SPEAKER_07 51:52

And then below it we have the background questions.

SPEAKER_04 51:56

Like how what did you get caught in that kind of I mean I got framed. Got framed for theft. Put that in there, I guess.

SPEAKER_07 52:07

And then who's still chasing you? And you're like, my family debt collectors.

SPEAKER_04 52:14

Uh well, yeah, I mean, I I get the feeling that uh that Jacob's not all too happy that that uh Leroy's still alive.

SPEAKER_07 52:24

And then we got from your past life, who are you most sad to say goodbye to? I think it's you never gotta say goodbye to your wife.

SPEAKER_01 52:32

Yeah, Sandra D.

SPEAKER_07 52:36

And then here's where we like have you build connections with other characters. So I'm gonna give you three NPCs. And you can put in actually, no, I'm just gonna leave these blank and we'll see how they come up over the thing.

SPEAKER_04 52:51

The create connections? What did I recently convince you to do that got us in trouble? What have I discovered about your past that I hold secret from others? And what do you know about my past now that influenced you playing?

SPEAKER_07 53:01

Yeah, because normally that'd be how you interact with other players during this. Hopefully more entertaining than most session zero session zero.

SPEAKER_03 53:12

And wait. Okay, so um.

SPEAKER_04 53:17

Should I answer any of these Witherwild specific background questions?

SPEAKER_07 53:22

Oh, yeah, absolutely. So feel free to read those aloud, because I'm trying to find where I put them.

SPEAKER_04 53:31

Who have you lost to the serpent's sickness? How did it affect you?

SPEAKER_07 53:36

Um I feel like it was pro oh go ahead.

SPEAKER_04 53:41

No, no, you go ahead. I I I actually have have no idea because if I'm just a hired hand whose debt was bought by a wealthy benefactor, I'm not really sure.

SPEAKER_07 53:51

I kinda like the idea that your frog mother or father died and turned to stone, and that's why your parent had to take you in.

SPEAKER_03 54:03

Yeah. Okay, well, I mean Yeah. Frog.

SPEAKER_04 54:13

Mother. Mother? Frog father?

SPEAKER_07 54:17

I don't know. I I think father's funnier.

SPEAKER_04 54:22

How did your family make their wealth? Have you rejected or embraced their core set of ethics?

SPEAKER_07 54:27

I mean your family it seems like you were gonna make your wealth through political marriage.

SPEAKER_04 54:33

Yeah, yeah, it seems um political marriage and well, through politics, I guess. Through politics. And then the last question: you grew up in a world of abundance, but were kept from learning something about the world. What was this knowledge and when did you discover it?

SPEAKER_07 55:01

Please tell me you didn't know you were adopted. I feel like there's something more interesting you can put there than that. I'm just a trollin'. I just think it's really funny to be like, we're killing you because your mother your father was a frog. My father was a what now? Stab.

SPEAKER_00 55:30

Um that is that is a very good question, though. World of Abundance, but kept learning something about the world.

SPEAKER_07 55:38

I mean, considering you're like a haven noble, it could absolutely be like something terrible. Like some war crime easily.

SPEAKER_04 55:54

Yeah, yeah, like like my family actually earned their wealth through warmongering. Oh okay, okay, okay. How did my family make their wealth? Uh by funding the war where the eye was stolen.

SPEAKER_07 56:15

Excellent. And just like some background context. So Haven really invaded so they could take land to make fields to try and mass grow plants in the hopes that a shiny one would grow so they can make it into a vaccine.

SPEAKER_04 56:29

Right, right. Uh, but they stole the stole the one eye, the eye of no.

SPEAKER_07 56:35

Yeah, Nikata.

SPEAKER_04 56:38

The eye of Nikata. I think that's that that sounds right. I'm gonna put that down anyway. Funding the war.

SPEAKER_07 56:44

Um And I mean, if you want to be really dark with it, Haven came in to uh Ribbit community, turned it into a farm, and brought a bunch of people home in labor.

SPEAKER_04 56:59

Uh okay, okay. My frog father was taken during that war as a slave.

SPEAKER_07 57:12

Or you can be more complex with it if he sold out his own people during that war. He betrayed them for a position of power and became a secretary.

SPEAKER_04 57:25

Uh my frog father was a traitorous bastard.

SPEAKER_07 57:32

I think that's thematically richer, honestly.

SPEAKER_04 57:36

Sold his village hold out his village. I like this a lot.

SPEAKER_05 57:44

To stay alive. And gain political power.

SPEAKER_07 57:52

Excellent. So with that, session zero is pretty much done. Like, there's a couple other world-building things we can do, like dangerous animals, superstitions. But I think you have a choice here. Do we want to wrap up here and talk session zero? Or do you want to double down and try and run through an adventure with your Leroy? I don't he needs like a really pretentious last name.

SPEAKER_04 58:20

Okay, so I am level one.

SPEAKER_05 58:24

So if I just click the character sheet, then what about made me a character sheet?

SPEAKER_04 58:33

Alright.

SPEAKER_07 58:35

How are we feeling about Leroy something like Charlatan or Charlemagne or something clearly fake he took after the fact, like Leroy. How about Reroy Wolfold?

SPEAKER_04 59:01

Wolfold?

SPEAKER_07 59:03

Yep. Leroy Wolfold. Just a suggestion. I feel like if we had the physical book in front of it, it probably a list of recommended names.

SPEAKER_05 59:15

Okay. Leroy Wolf.

SPEAKER_07 59:22

Okay, so that's He needs a Vaughn in there.

SPEAKER_04 59:27

Leroy Vaughn Wolfum.

SPEAKER_07 59:28

Yeah, I like that. I like that a lot. He needed a Vaughn in there. He needed like the idea that you sold out your tribe for a title.

SPEAKER_05 59:39

Okay.

SPEAKER_07 59:41

Also, I'm picturing your character's father as Frog from Chrono Trigger now. That mental picture makes me happy.

SPEAKER_05 59:51

Okay.

SPEAKER_07 59:53

So if you want to go through an adventure, that'll probably take about an hour and we'll hit the two-hour mark, or we can wrap it up here and give closing reflections on the session zero. Choice is yours.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:04

Uh well, I feel like uh we we I feel like we want to be able to dedicate a little bit more have a little bit more leeway for actually running an adventure.

SPEAKER_07 1:00:13

Um I think that's uh here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna run just a room of an adventure to try things out and roll a couple dice.

SPEAKER_06 1:00:25

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_07 1:00:26

So, to set the scene, and I'm pretty much gonna have to do this off the top of my head, but that's fine. You find yourself in the glorious stone heap on the border. Yourself recently resurrected, alive, your dead has been purchased, your clothes have been cleaned, your equipment has been renewed. Describe three details you see in this somewhat calmly fort city on the border.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:01

Okay. So it's a port city on the border. Okay.

SPEAKER_07 1:01:07

Correct. So if you had the map in front of you, which I might have put in the chat, but I don't think I had the no, I did not have the wherewithal to do that. It's basically like on the eastern coast, so it's like you gotta the capital of Haven's like in the center of the map, right? And then along the coast there's a mountain range between the capital and this keep. So it's on the ocean, and it's basically surrounded by wilderness, and acts as like a trade route where they can ship things along the coast to the capital. But they're far enough away that people aren't paying too much attention to them.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:44

Um the first thing I notice are uh balloons uh floating up from the festival below.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:53

Just decided there's a festival. Excellent, excellent.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:58

Um The second thing I notice are uh so there are vines around the tower uh with buds that are currently closed that kind of look like they could be eyeballs. Unlike an eyeball theme.

SPEAKER_07 1:02:20

And is it day or night?

SPEAKER_04 1:02:23

Uh I'm assuming that they're closed because it's day. Okay. And that they'll open at night.

SPEAKER_07 1:02:32

And at this point, you're well aware that the it's interesting, is it's actually safer to travel at night on the roads. Because some of the creatures that come out during the day are the bears and the apex predators. But night has that danger of like the terrain is worse, but the environment is better. As you look at those lines, you kind of see them like you see one blink. It blinked at you. You're not seeing like anyone really nearby at the moment. Part of what brought you to this like area in the upper reaches of the cat tower, near the ramparts, and like almost like a three-tiered garden, as it were, is you're waiting for a meeting with your boss, who's been very cryptic, and you only kinda ha actually roll a sense check for me.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:22

Ooh, a sense check, alright. A presence check, you mean?

SPEAKER_07 1:03:27

No, it should not uh instinct. Instinct, there we go.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:31

Instinct! Roll I got a 14 with fear.

SPEAKER_07 1:03:39

I'm gonna add one of those fear for the game next week. So you're paying attention, like you're not dumb by any means. I believe you have a positive knowledge score. I don't have any way of knowing, it might be neutral. But Krill Dern is the Haven spy master. You knew him back when you were in your life of privilege, in your life of fancy and glory. And that was who you're supposed to be meeting here today on behalf of the Lord of the Keep. And you're just kind of like mildly concerned this is an ambush. With that role, you're like, these vines don't make me comfortable. These don't make me comfortable at all.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:28

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_07 1:04:31

But yeah, you're supposed to be a third party in a meeting between Lord Eldrick and Kern. And Kern's pretty famous for he's basically the internal audit police. Or like the how can I put this eloquently? The Saskatoon Independent Vehicle Insurance Corporation, where yes, the job he does is extremely relevant, but also by the very nature of him looking for embezzlement and scams in internal politics, he's not particularly popular.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:06

Yeah, internal affairs is not very popular, that's fair.

SPEAKER_07 1:05:10

And you haven't really been given much heads up on why internal affairs is coming, but those plants, they're blinking.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:19

Um are there any uh insects near the plants? Like can I can I uh identify what kind of insects these plants attract?

SPEAKER_07 1:05:30

I say knowledge on that one. However, I feel like Lord of the Flies may apply here.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:40

Okay, so uh knowledge. Plus two for Lord of the Flies.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:51

Uh twenty-one also with fear. So you're growing just to double check before you uh describe this um. When I use an experience, that uses a hope, right? Correct. Okay.

SPEAKER_07 1:06:07

Sorry, now go ahead. So you see that a plant uh you see like a relatively large horsefly land on it and get eaten as teeth grow from one of the vines and bite down on the fly. You're feeling pretty confident that this is a tangle bramble. And tangle brambles are known for draining the blood of people who get near them and using that blood to uh multiply.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:35

Yeah, okay, that's uh that's pretty scary. Uh but so I'm I'm the only person standing on this three-tiered garden at this three-tiered garden right now?

SPEAKER_07 1:06:47

Correct. You're deliberately part of you wonders if the festival is going literally to keep people distracted from this meeting. Like, is the meeting because it's the day of the festival, or is it a festival because it's the day of the meeting?

SPEAKER_05 1:07:00

Hmm.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:02

Uh well, I give I mean I guess I'm going to uh scan and and look and see uh can I do I see anyone coming? Like I I guess first I should know uh how many pathways are there to get here.

SPEAKER_07 1:07:18

So it's set up as like you know like crisscrossing stairs that kind of cut into the side of a rock so you can't really like see the top. Right. So it's like deliberately designed this garden, which is colloquially known as the scheming garden. That there is no way to really view what's going on in the garden unless you're there. Which says a lot about the city, honestly. So you can look down and the village easy, but they're kinda like looking up at a lip almost.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:48

Alright, so I and I don't do I see anyone coming up the stairs, or do I figure they're gonna come from a different direction?

SPEAKER_07 1:07:53

From your earlier checks, you don't hear anyone approaching yet. But also you got here about an hour early to scout the place.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:00

Fair enough. Okay, so there's creepy vines that are gonna suck my blood if I get too close. Um there's stairs that obscure your view as you're coming up. Um is there like uh quick escape route that is like I could like jump and slide down the the side or something like that?

SPEAKER_07 1:08:25

Uh you tell me.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:27

Describe Well I uh I do think that at the corner of of each of the of the lip at the corner of the lips of the of this garden, uh there are probably like uh ornate statues.

SPEAKER_07 1:08:46

Um is there like like a nice little wateral slide coming down from up here?

SPEAKER_04 1:08:56

Ooh. Yeah, a water slide would be nice. I was just thinking statues that one could easily uh attach a grappling hook to rappel down the down the side of the lip from, but the water slide sounds much more exciting.

SPEAKER_07 1:09:08

So I'm gonna give you a nice little water slide setup. But there are four statues, but one of them looks very unhappy, like they sculpted someone's mid-scream.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:18

Ah. And then someone made a fountain out of it.

SPEAKER_07 1:09:23

So yes, you're very confident that that is in fact a person who died of sickness that was then fashioned into four fountains that make like a little moat that like go down a little water slide thing. I'm gonna have you go ahead and mark a stress upon the realization that someone literally bored into these people to make into statues.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:44

Oh yes, that's pretty awful. Alright, so we got we got a water slide that we can use as as a quick escape. Um so how I guess this is this is a garden.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:13

Uh and uh I'm very interested in the the insects around here right now. Um Is it attracting lots of like pollinators or is that not really part of this like seven day night day cycle?

SPEAKER_07 1:10:27

Um the pollinators come out about Wednesday, Thursday, and you're on about Monday.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:32

Ah, okay.

SPEAKER_07 1:10:33

So it's like Imagine like the kind of like life cycle that would normally happen over the course of a day is now happening over the course of a week. So like you're sitting in like relatively early-ish morning, so we're talking like humming birds and things, but the bees and things don't really come out till later.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:51

Yeah, okay, okay.

SPEAKER_07 1:10:53

And anyone listening to this who's an ecologist, it's fantasy. Bite me. Although I would love it if entomologist was just in the chat.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:07

That would be pretty convenient. Cause I am going to be trying to uh use Lord of the Flies as much as I can.

SPEAKER_07 1:11:15

So I don't think Lord of the Flies is gonna help you if you're planning to water slide down this chute.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:20

No, I mean I'm not planning on escaping right now. I'm I'm just, you know, like you said, I can't I came early to scout. I want to make sure that I can, in fact, escape if I need to.

SPEAKER_07 1:11:29

Okay. So you're feeling pretty confident you can escape, but you're still gonna wait for the meeting?

SPEAKER_04 1:11:35

I mean I I'm being my my services have been purchased and uh, you know, I I'm not dead anymore, so I better, you know, pay my respects to the people who made that on made that happen.

SPEAKER_07 1:11:48

Alright. So as you're just kind of chilling, relaxing all cool, the vines are getting closer to you. They're just very slowly inching towards you.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:59

Oh dang it.

SPEAKER_07 1:12:01

And you feel a little tug on your ankle. One of them has grappled onto your ankle, there is more than one of these things.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:08

Oh, oh, oh no.

SPEAKER_07 1:12:09

But because uh you are super vigilant, I'm gonna say instead of you being taken off guard here guard here, spotlight is yours. There's one bramble that seems to be inching towards you, a second one by the tree has gotten closer, a third one that was wrapped around the statues approaching, and a fourth one seems to be like wrapped around the top of the aqueduct. Um I mean how one's within melee, the other everyone else is within close.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:52

There's no ring of blades.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:55

Okay, so everything else is is close?

SPEAKER_07 1:12:59

Uh except for the one you were originally staring at. That one's far. The ones that are ambushing you are ones in melee two are in close.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:20

Anything that's very close.

SPEAKER_07 1:13:24

Okay, just gotta uh For the sake of brevity, your fan of knives can definitely hit the one right next to you. And can probably hit a second one. It can probably get two out of four from the current positioning.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:39

Yeah, the range of blades is what I was looking at to see what my range is for that.

SPEAKER_07 1:13:45

I wouldn't respect you trying to eat the carnivorous plant.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:50

You know what?

SPEAKER_04 1:13:53

Okay, so I'm I'm not even gonna I'm not even gonna bother with the one that's right next to me. I'm I'm just gonna like uh I w I wanna use my tongue to strike one of the ones that's uh that's only close to me because that's the range of my tongue. Alright, let's see. Gotta find Okay, so attack roll. Roll I got a 19 with hope!

SPEAKER_07 1:14:30

Go ahead and roll damage.

SPEAKER_04 1:14:33

But I do have to mark a stress and I gain a hope, and I roll a d12. Uh okay, so do I add my proficiency to the damage? No.

SPEAKER_07 1:14:56

So how proficiency works in dagger heart is that's the number of dice you roll for rolling damage. So say your sneak attack is one d6, your proficiency goes up at level two, so it'd be two d6. So for this, it's just a straight roll whatever's on the sheet. Some weapons will have like a d8 plus three written on them. That plus three isn't indicative of anything, that's just how much the damage the weapon does.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:21

Okay. Uh well then I uh deal six damage.

SPEAKER_07 1:15:26

So, these brambles are considered a minions. What that means is when they take damage, for every four damage you deal to a bramble, you defeat an additional minion within range of the attack. So how this works in theory is you launched out at the one at close range, wrapped your tongue around it, and then whipped it into the second one, and kill both of them. Nice. I'm gonna spend a fear to interrupt here, because I'm concerned the other two will die horribly. And I'm gonna have them use their group attack. So all of the tangle branles, the two remaining ones, wrap around you and are making one shared attack roll.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:03

Okay.

SPEAKER_07 1:16:04

And as your body recoils at the memory of skeletons beating an elf to death, not sure why you're feeling that now. Does sixteen hit you?

SPEAKER_04 1:16:14

Sixteen does hit me.

SPEAKER_07 1:16:16

You take an impressive four points of damage.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:24

Ah, that's just minor damage.

SPEAKER_07 1:16:27

But as they're like wrapped around you, you you feel like that damage, like they're drinking your blood.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:33

Uh, well, yeah, but now that they're wrapped around me, I mean I guess I have to wait for the spotlight to return to me.

SPEAKER_07 1:16:38

But the spotlight is yours, friend.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:41

Well, see, yeah, I'm gonna spend a hope to uh do my World of Blades to assuredly uh get these uh get these guys.

SPEAKER_07 1:16:51

Alright, go ahead and roll.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:52

Well I mean hopefully. I mean if I don't roll good enough, that would be sad.

SPEAKER_07 1:16:57

And funny.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:57

Uh 16 with fear.

SPEAKER_07 1:16:59

Yeah, that'll get them. However, there's a slight complication with the fear. So as you throw oh, go ahead and roll damage first.

unknown 1:17:07

Cool.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:08

Uh, nine damage.

SPEAKER_07 1:17:10

So, as you, and in my brain they're butterfly knives, throw your rot spin of knives towards the target plants. Hit one, hit two. And then you see what looks like an elven man with like a side-shaved head, steely silver eyes, a grimace on his face. He just catches one of the knives that wings towards him as he's coming up the stairs.

SPEAKER_06 1:17:33

Oh dear.

SPEAKER_07 1:17:34

Huh, you hired a gardener, it seems. You recognize this as Krell.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:42

Uh, my my apologies, sir. I I I was being attacked by carnivorous plants.

SPEAKER_07 1:17:49

That does tend to happen these days. He walks up, walks like steps on one of the plants, lights a cigarette, and takes the extra effort to like drop some embers on the plant, and stumps it in a bit. Well, more cigar. And then you see trailer behind him, a portly man with floofy hair, bushy eyebrows, and a big grin. You recognize as the Lord of the Keep, the fake prince, the merchant, Lord. And as you're trying to remember what the hell this guy's name is, what would you like to do?

SPEAKER_04 1:18:32

Uh well, I mean, I'm I um don't really have any military background per se, but I'm just gonna like uh stand at attention. Or what I or what my character believes to be standing at attention. Doesn't doesn't really doesn't really know anything about military stuff.

SPEAKER_07 1:18:52

Alright. Go ahead and make a presence roll for me, please. I do believe your background could matter here.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:01

Being dead?

SPEAKER_07 1:19:03

No, check your heritage, particularly your community card.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:08

Okay.

SPEAKER_07 1:19:09

So as a highborn, you get advantage to consort with nobles, negotiate prices, or leverage your reputation. So you get to add an extra D6 to this role.

SPEAKER_04 1:19:18

Nice. That negates my badness. Oh, I got a 19 with hope.

SPEAKER_07 1:19:24

Alright. So, as you go to attention, it's less that you go into military and more like you do like the like hand wavy curtsy almost.

SPEAKER_06 1:19:34

Okay.

SPEAKER_07 1:19:34

And you rolled so high, like in a single move, you do a curtsy, and you like use a neckerchief to like wipe the blood off you, fold it up nicely, like you're presentable. And they're not mad that you did some gardening.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:48

Okay.

SPEAKER_07 1:19:49

Gardening is helpful and useful in this area. So, at this point, he turns and looks to you. Who's your loyalty boy?

SPEAKER_04 1:20:05

So he's asking me where my loyalties lie? Yeah. Um, and this is is this the guy that bought my debt?

SPEAKER_07 1:20:14

No, the guy who bought your debt is like eating a snow cone about 10 feet back.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:21

Oh, please.

SPEAKER_07 1:20:22

This is the spy master.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:24

Krill. So Krill Krill is my benefactor.

SPEAKER_07 1:20:27

No, your benefactor is Elwyn, who's sitting five feet back eating a snow cone.

unknown 1:20:33

Okay.

SPEAKER_07 1:20:33

And you're pretty sure he's gonna lease you out to Krill.

unknown 1:20:37

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_07 1:20:38

Uh. Elrond doesn't seem to care. Elrond doesn't seem to care at all.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:45

Okay, okay. Where does my loyalty lie?

SPEAKER_07 1:20:48

Um at this point, starts like the guy behind you. He's like chewing, nibbling at a snow cone a little faster, like, oh, this is getting good. Uh yeah, Eldrick. You just call him Ed. Okay, so.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:08

Um.

SPEAKER_07 1:21:09

So you can fit out here notes. Ed is your benefactor, and Krill is the spy master.

SPEAKER_04 1:21:14

So there's Ed, there's Krill, and there's Elwyn. And they're all here at this meeting.

SPEAKER_07 1:21:18

Uh Ed was Elwyn.

SPEAKER_04 1:21:21

Okay, so there's Ed, and there's Krill. Yeah. And then there's me, we're at this meeting, and Krill has asked me where my loyalties lie. Yes. Okay. Um I am but a hired hand. My loyalties lie with the money.

SPEAKER_07 1:21:45

Excellent. Those make sense to me. An associate of mine is doing something bad. Ain't just like gestures to the festival going on there. What do you know of the Fane race?

SPEAKER_04 1:22:04

The Fein Race. Um. Okay, so those weren't specifically mentioned at all in the background you gave me about the campaign, were they?

SPEAKER_07 1:22:17

Correct. So you'd have no idea, but I will let you roll knowledge to see if you picked up on any of this.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:26

Hmm. Um with a name like Wraith, uh, are would I can I assume that they're undead of some sort?

SPEAKER_07 1:22:35

I'll let you use it. I don't think that applies, but I'm gonna let you.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:40

You're gonna let me use being dead? Yeah. Alright. And that's a knowledge roll. Yeah. Okay, so plus two knowledge. Use a hope. And roll. 14. With hope.

SPEAKER_07 1:22:58

So you've picked up whisperings here and there, that they're a mysterious figure and they're a rebel. Oh, they're pr they're just a regular person. You're not sure. They have a reputation. So some people believe that they're a person who's a reincarnation of a spirit, a spirit whisperer, a spirit taking mortal form to get vengeance on Haven and their atrocities. Myth legend. Some say the most beautiful woman to ever walk the woods, others say a terrifying hag monster. And you're pretty sure, like, when you hear this many conflicting rumors that someone's probably deliberately planting them. It's probably that. Nice. Game recognizes game and whatnot.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:47

Well, I know not much about them, uh, save the rumors that are going around.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:52

Uh, it seems oddly suspicious how many rumors there are. Alright.

SPEAKER_07 1:23:59

He's like, yeah, indeed. Listen. So he looks at Ed to see, like, his face clearly reading, can we trust this thing? And then I'd be like, Yeah, sure, why not? I don't see any problem here. Alright. So. Long story short. I my informants have reason to believe that the Fane Wreath is planning to end the curse of the Wither Wild. Because why would they want vaccines? So they're planning to find the owl and puck out his other eye. Though that might solve our immediate problem. The long-term consequences are not being considered. So I would like you to go just try and get some research on this, see if you can get any more concrete information on this Feign Wraith.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:03

Okay, so sorry, Fein Wraith?

SPEAKER_07 1:25:06

Yes, F-A-N-E Wraith.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:09

F A N E Wraith. Fein race. So if you want to earn some gold information on this person or group who may be attempting to pluck the other eye of Mikita.

SPEAKER_07 1:25:35

And I have reason to believe someone on our side is planning to steal that eye as well. Quite frankly, when Archmage Phalyx had the idea to take the reaping eye in the first place, I didn't like it. I'ma be honest, I'ma be candid. I don't like the idea of an infinite summer, I don't like the idea of fucking plants trying to eat my cigarettes. I don't like horse flies the size of actual horses. I don't like this shit. I understand it. I support it. I do my job. I don't like it. And what I really don't like is an unknown foreign operative trying to double down on this stupidity. Sound good?

SPEAKER_02 1:26:22

Uh I understand completely, sir.

SPEAKER_07 1:26:27

Excellent. I want you to head to the treetop village of Ella. I have reason to believe that's where the operation's running out of. You can pass through next videos on the way. Should be simple enough. And tell you what. You give me b give me a name, give me a face, give me some information. There's gonna be some chests of gold in it for you. Give me the owl's location, and your debt will be free. And more importantly than that, I've read your file, Elroy. I know what's up about you. And it might be in it my power to make it that you can come home.

SPEAKER_04 1:27:20

He just called me Elroy.

SPEAKER_07 1:27:22

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:28

Yes, that would that would be much appreciated, sir. I would I would love to be able to go home to my family again.

SPEAKER_07 1:27:36

So and with that, that's where we wrap up session zero. Alright, so a bit of reflection before we finish our video, then, since that was a mini session with like a singular possible fight, slash setting up the plot hook. I basically had to fill in where your prefab adventure would have started the adventure. Oh? Well, so the Prefab adventure sends people looking towards a spire for a quest, right? The adventure I wrote for next session basically is that I needed it that if people finish the test adventure, they can start there, or if they want to start the Wither Wild in a vacuum, they can start there. So your next mission has you on the road in Media Res on the way through Nevelevir towards the treetop village of Odula.

SPEAKER_04 1:28:31

I see.

SPEAKER_07 1:28:32

So, what were your thoughts on this game session zero? Compared to some other things, let's banter a bit before we wrap things up, and then we can play proper next week.

SPEAKER_04 1:28:42

Um so uh I I do I I I do really enjoy um the questions that are supposed to get your players to engage with each other.

SPEAKER_07 1:28:57

That would have been great.

SPEAKER_04 1:28:58

There definitely have there definitely have been some sessions where it's like uh they have a backstory, I have a backstory, and then they don't really meld together, even though we kind of tried to make them. And I think the questions help direct your story on how it's supposed to actually be a cohesive story, that you're actually a group of adventurers. Um and additionally it helped build some addition some extra context and the world building between you and I. Um so I definitely that is a welcome change versus character creation in session zero in as written in DD 5th edition.

SPEAKER_07 1:29:39

Yeah, like I mostly use this the standard reference document has their campaign frame, and I edited it to be like I added in some extra details, I made it less dense and put in some more quips and jokes. Like, I assure you the original world wasn't, and finally, bam, you're a statue. So, like, I put it in my own words to like read through with a little more energy, but I mostly used it as written. But I spliced in the like session zero into the script. So like I tried to make it that like the lore was paired with your steps of character creation. So like when you got to experiences on my page, I was at the experiences chunk. And then I made some like custom experiences to kind of like get people thinking in that direction.

SPEAKER_06 1:30:24

Right.

SPEAKER_07 1:30:26

Which might need a little work, but the idea was like some were evasion themed, some were bloom famed, some were deity themed.

SPEAKER_04 1:30:33

Mm-hmm. Uh I mean I I luckily I had already kind of thought about I had a little bit of trouble coming up with names for my my experiences, but I had already thought about kind of where I wanted my experiences to go.

SPEAKER_07 1:30:47

Well, that's kind of why I'm like, yeah, tell me nothing about your character so we can kind of like see how the frame shaped the idea of the character you had. Because if you showed up with a completed character, you could answer the quiz questions, but like I don't think it would have been as eloquently constructed into the story as it could have been. Because I've heard this character concept before.

SPEAKER_04 1:31:09

Well, I I feel like this is is uh refined from from the character's concept I I pitched to you before.

SPEAKER_07 1:31:14

Oh, absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 1:31:15

Uh but but yes, it it is the idea of the um uh normal, like well-rounded person. Uh why do they go on an adventure? Uh because they were murdered. Like Right.

SPEAKER_07 1:31:32

And like part of what made the frame nice is like literally verbatim for the frame is you work for this person and you do this. So I added in like the neutral town, where originally it's like, you're in Haven doing this. I'm like, I'll let it be a neutral town so people like can have a little more backstabby intrigue going. Partly because my alpha group, as you're well aware, are anti-authoritarian by live by nature. Right. So when they I ran the test adventure with them, not only did I add in some Haven soldiers and add in more of this flavor in the test adventure, but they found a guard, turned in those criminals as a bounty, and then murdered that guard on the toilet.

SPEAKER_04 1:32:15

Right.

SPEAKER_07 1:32:17

So it's like, I wanted to make it that if you're neutral, like you're in a neutral nation where you're technically working for the Empire, but are subletting off someone who's not the worst, they would just abandon the quest to murder everybody. They won't be like, you know what? Screw this quest, we're gonna go kill these guys.

SPEAKER_06 1:32:35

Right, right.

SPEAKER_07 1:32:36

Because like I have a rough outline on how like the next 20 sessions will go. Because Daggerheart, does he level up every three set two to three sessions or so? So I have it mapped out, but my plan is to write it week by week, so that way I can in real time adjust it for things you do or my players do. And there's probably gonna be ver hit a point where I have to write two separate, completely branching encounters to sort of match the difference. Yeah, it's kind of a weird legality thing where the uh campaign frame is in their system reference document, which means every word of it's fair game to use. Right. But their playtest adventure wasn't. So I couldn't actually use any NPCs from the playtest adventure in something I wanted to publish later.

SPEAKER_06 1:33:24

Okay.

SPEAKER_07 1:33:25

So I wrote, like, like I said, my next adventure has some like reminders of the rules written into it, but I wrote them instead of like explaining everything to be like, here's a refresher. So that way if you play the intro, this will still work for you.

SPEAKER_06 1:33:40

Right, right.

SPEAKER_07 1:33:41

And the reason I went with an existing campaign frame is I'm deliberately trying to use as much out of the core rules as possible. So the process of me and you going through it and playing it is directly instructional to other GMs and players. Because if I homebrew everything, then cool, they now know how to run crystalline scorpion monsters that erupt from human corpses and then turn into bees. But like I'm trying to like use the game as is, which is like weird strategy for me, but the idea is I kind of want to use like every creature and every item that's in their book. Like, I want to try and like go through as much of the content as I can.

SPEAKER_04 1:34:24

Makes sense.

SPEAKER_07 1:34:25

Yeah. Also, the campaign frame's fun. Like, I found it's already shaping quests pretty good. Like the one-week cycle thing. What's funny is they have a playtest witch class that dropped that one of its abilities is you get a buff in Moonlight. And I'm like, if you plan your campaign well, you'll almost always have that buff until you don't have it for a week.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:50

Yeah, that's funny.

SPEAKER_07 1:34:52

Yeah, and like, so some of the like parts of my pre-script that I ended up skipping or not reading for not for time, but because we didn't really have players that I applied to.

SPEAKER_06 1:35:01

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_07 1:35:02

Is like, I talked about the sickness and the flowers, and then I didn't really explain the flowers till later. It's like, yeah, they want a shiny flower.

SPEAKER_06 1:35:11

Right.

SPEAKER_07 1:35:11

I explained the owl a bit and how it has the two eyes, the reaping eye and the blooming eye, which is basically the fall eye and the spring eye.

SPEAKER_06 1:35:21

Right.

SPEAKER_07 1:35:21

I have a list of gods didn't feel the need to go through them, but greed the shoekeepers in the document now.

SPEAKER_04 1:35:30

His name is Gred. It runs with Bred. Uh it's spelled G-R-E-D-D.

SPEAKER_07 1:35:35

G-R-E-D.

SPEAKER_04 1:35:37

Yeah, Gred.

SPEAKER_07 1:35:38

Excellent, got it. No umlots or nothing? Got it.

SPEAKER_04 1:35:41

Well, no, no, no umlots.

SPEAKER_07 1:35:44

And then like the spirit magic thing was one of my players specifically asked for that for their campaign, so I just kinda added it into the rules.

SPEAKER_04 1:35:50

Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_07 1:35:51

And I'm like, that seems to pair well with the idea that these deities are just dudes. So yeah, I didn't go through like how every class bonds with the spirits. I just kind of read you the like Bard, Wizard, and Rogue, but I have one for Rangers, Druids, and Divinely Empowered, and da da da da da da. There's a few other like prompt questions I skipped over that are like mostly to keep people talking while people other people are looking through equipment sheets and domain cards where it's like, what gods do you trust and which ones do you curse? How the invasion changed your local spirits' vibe? Are any gods siding with Haven for the sake of order or Feinwick for revenge? So those are good ones to like think about because some of them you can answer right on your sheet or the notes, and other ones like, I'ma just ask that to see if it like sparks some gears turning. And then like the ancestor community is like, Clanks are made of steel, and then in one nation and stone and wood in the other. It's like that really applied to my other group, but not to you. Because one person's ascension toaster. And then in the session zero, they encountered like a wood carved clank, and it's he's like, What is your purpose? Like, I don't have a purpose. Like, that's sad and depressing. He has a military grade abomination toaster, it's delightful.

SPEAKER_04 1:37:12

Military grade abomination toaster.

SPEAKER_07 1:37:15

Right, and then there's like the community prompts like what truce were you shielded from as a child, what did it cost when you've learned it. And then I added in questions about your weapon just so I had something to say while people were staring at the weapon sheet of where's it from? Is it an heirloom?

SPEAKER_03 1:37:34

Oh yeah, yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_07 1:37:35

So, like the document I wrote is like only read what you need to and let other people talk. Because that's what I liked about these session zeros, is DD Session Zeros as someone who's run drop in DD for years and drop-in of every TTRPG under the sun. A session zero where players sit there not talking to each other while they like call you over for numbers are time consuming and pointless.

SPEAKER_04 1:37:58

Uh yeah, I mean it I mean it's not like it's this technique to any other uh TTR RPG.

SPEAKER_07 1:38:11

Uh I believe you cut out mid-sentence.

SPEAKER_04 1:38:15

But put these questions in there.

SPEAKER_07 1:38:17

Well, that's the thing, like you could absolutely for any TTRPG do some shared world building. It's just not what people tend to do. Like I had a friend that tried to run this game, and their group was very like resistant to answering the questions, coming up with concepts, and collaborating. And it's like, you get what you put in to a TTRPG. Where it's like, even my group weren't super excited about trying a new game until people started popcorn up ideas. And like, I don't know, I found the session zero to be fun, but I'm also a GM, so I find monologuing fun. So, do you have any notes for how I could have done it better on my end?

SPEAKER_04 1:38:57

For how you could have done it better. Um I don't I mean the the only way that we could have done have done it better would be as if we were doing some sort of like screen sharing to make sure that we were both actually looking at the same page at the same time. Uh because there were a couple points where uh you and I were definitely not looking at the same page, uh, and I kind of had to figure out what you were actually looking at and flipped to it on my side. Um but that's that's just uh a minor issue with the fact that we're doing this over the internet.

SPEAKER_07 1:39:32

So it's not only over the internet, but we're doing it audio only.

SPEAKER_04 1:39:38

So I I don't the only thing that we could have done better is not live thousands of kilometers apart.

SPEAKER_07 1:39:46

I mean, for the sake of our audience, what we could have done better is have enough people download this so we can hire an editor to like then go in and like show graph. Like, if we actually owned an editor who would just go in and like show the Nexus screens, show the map in the campaign frame, have graphics, have little chibi me and you popping up to talk, like this could be quite a production if someone other than me felt like doing it.

SPEAKER_04 1:40:10

That's definitely true.

SPEAKER_07 1:40:13

But yeah, I also think from my friend's harsher experience session zero, I think making people play with the pre-cons through the playtest first and then doing this is the way to go. This might have been a bit much and you started with it. I'm not really sure though.

SPEAKER_04 1:40:29

Hmm.

SPEAKER_07 1:40:29

Because you had a vague idea of how things worked already.

SPEAKER_04 1:40:33

That is definitely true. I did have a vague idea of how things worked already. So so, like, as an example, um I was already uh privy to the the stress mechanic, and so then it's like like you say, it's not exactly metagaming, but I chose a mixed race that would give me more stress and then chose abilities that I can spend that stress on. Um where if it if I hadn't at least played with a prefab character, I wouldn't really understand the concepts as well.

SPEAKER_07 1:41:04

And like one of the parts I skipped on my end is, and I really briefly I like I sped run it, but the part where I like read off what the mechanics are in the sheet where I'm like, this is armor, this is this, this is that, that would have took longer if you didn't have a session zero. Like I couldn't have just gone, you remember what evasion thresholds in these are, okay, cool.

SPEAKER_04 1:41:26

Right. Yeah, because now I've already somewhat familiarized myself with the character sheet. So I yeah, running an adventure with pre-fab characters, honestly, for any tabletop RPG, that's probably really the way to go. Um, like I say, my my worst experience with DD, I believe it was 3.5, where we spent four hours making characters and didn't even play the game because making characters was just that complicated. And if they had just handed me a character sheet and let me get familiar with it through some sort of prevabbed adventure, that would have been much better.

SPEAKER_07 1:42:04

I agree, and it's like to like throw shade at my beloved DD group. By having we didn't we had a we've tried to have session zeros over the years to mix results. But like I remember Waterdeep where instead of a session zero, I kind of chat with everybody at the end of one game, what do you guys want to play next? And like, now everyone show up a character for heisting. Didn't work.

SPEAKER_04 1:42:30

That did not work at all.

SPEAKER_07 1:42:32

And like these are the same players where I ran this exact session zero and then session one afterward and had like a great game. I enjoyed like from my point of view, I also love this system because it feels like I do less, if that makes sense. Like I could just be like, Carl, describe this garden, and it's I'm easier to do that.

SPEAKER_06 1:42:54

Right.

SPEAKER_07 1:42:54

You're like, is there like uh like you could have a slip and slide? You're like statues. I'm like, hehehe, statues.

SPEAKER_00 1:43:02

I did not think about that when it was like, oh, snake, the the serpent snakeness sickness, yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:43:10

Definitely just people.

SPEAKER_07 1:43:12

Uh and like it encourages so much. Like even their point test thing to be like working your details. I'm like, alright, I'm gonna have the spy master absolutely think you're the other guy that got resurrected. But I will say, like I I think you go ahead. You go ahead.

SPEAKER_04 1:43:41

Uh well. I uh personally I don't know if my max story was elaborate enough to say it was elaborate, but I feel like responsive.

SPEAKER_07 1:43:51

I had to take notes. Normally I don't, right? Like, a car elaborate like Philip, I wasn't taking notes while you were talking. Like, okay, I need to add in these NPCs, cause we got a brother and a fiance and a lover, and someone who was killed because he had the body, and then they resurrected the wrong person because you put them in their grave. Like, this it was good enough. Like, over elaborate, no. The most elaborate backstory I've heard, probably the most elaborate in terms of character diagram, but not in concept. Cause, like, or maybe the most elaborate someone's bothered to share with me in a paragraph. Because I've heard, like, my character is an ancient warforge with a gatling gun for alarm and he fell from a meteorite, and then after fighting through seven wars, I'm like, shut up. I mean, I would never disrespect my players like that. Or like, I'm actually three characters, because I'm three kobolds in a trench coat, so I get three actions, and I'm like, this game engine would actually stop that from working, which is really funny to me personally.

SPEAKER_04 1:44:57

Uh but but I I am excited to see uh I I feel like the backstory that I gave you does gives you a lot to work with, and I'm excited to see how it actually fits into the campaign.

SPEAKER_07 1:45:09

Right, because it's like there's a good chance that while I'm writing future adventures, I will probably do this to both games I'm running of stealing NPCs and things and then putting them in. So it's like, I don't know if your character's gonna make it into the book version of this. But there's almost it's guaranteed, because I will be tailoring these sessions, that your backstory will make it in, your family members will make it in. Like your bastard frog father statue will make it in. That's low-hanging fruit. Like leading into like your character's actually, in fact, a noble because war crime, and your dad is an oligarch. Your dad's literal Benedict Arnold, but successful. Lord of the Flies is such a good one. Oh, you got me. You got me because I didn't catch it. I should have got that, but I didn't. Also, I'm just picturing Croppy now, which is so funny. But like in like an edgy dark cloak.

SPEAKER_04 1:46:31

I mean, I I c I kind of assume that I I look human enough that I I could pass as human. I just have really big eyes, but otherwise look relatively human.

SPEAKER_07 1:46:41

That's kind of what I'm at too. Like also, though, my brain's absolutely picturing like you're wearing gloves, you pull off the gloves, your like fingertips are poofier. Okay. Uh but yeah. I do find it funny because it's like, uh, we were chatting about this in like the Discord server for this game earlier today, where it's like, metagaming is so hard to do for a game you haven't played yet.

SPEAKER_06 1:47:09

Hmm.

SPEAKER_07 1:47:09

Because you're like, yeah, these two synergize. I'm like, this game has so many uses of stress where it's like, yeah, they do. But like, oh, unless you post it out a calculator, there's no way of knowing if that's like an actual optimal race combo. Also, the original frog trait of being amphibious, like, yeah. And I'm like, swim through this sewer, and you're like, shit.

SPEAKER_04 1:47:37

That's just true, I could have just been a frog person.

SPEAKER_07 1:47:41

Uh uh, one of my players is playing like a frog assassin, and it makes me so happy.

SPEAKER_04 1:47:49

Well, okay, so one of the reasons I did pick uh mixed race uh is originally I was just gonna go with human because that's uh safe. Safe. Uh but then it's like, oh well with the mixed heritage, it's like you get to basically choose what you look like and you get to choose two skills from the or two abilities from the list. Um so I figured I would give it a try to see. Um I think it is much better than the DD 5e equivalent.

SPEAKER_07 1:48:20

Oh, so much better. Like, unquestionably better. I think they dropped like six playtest ancestries as well. I think they put in like the four elemental jinns, angel folk and gnomes, I think. And that one's like, I'm like, eh, I don't care about the jins, but for like combos, yeah. Fire implemental plus frog is just a sick looking character. I don't even know what I'm gonna do with that, but the mental picture is great.

SPEAKER_06 1:48:48

Hmm.

SPEAKER_07 1:48:49

Honestly, depending on like how you came back, I was like, oh, if you're asking for recommendations, being like part in furnace where you have that dread vintage because you've been dead.

SPEAKER_04 1:48:59

Hmm. Yeah, I mean, I I just kind of assumed that I came back exactly as I was, but oh, I'm fine with that.

SPEAKER_07 1:49:07

It's kind of funny, is resurrection is much rarer in this game.

SPEAKER_06 1:49:11

Hmm.

SPEAKER_07 1:49:12

So it's like Teresi was like a level 10 spell, like that you get to use once ever. Like, someone dropped. You don't res party members in this game until you're like at the end of it. Someone did something unnatural to res you. That's not a thing that happens.

SPEAKER_04 1:49:30

Yeah, I'm a little bit curious uh what Elroy even has that was so valuable to this uh currently unnamed criminal syndicate from which my debt was bought.

SPEAKER_07 1:49:39

I know, I know exactly what it is. As soon as you said that, I know a hundred percent what it is. I'm like, oh, that's so good, that's gonna pay off so late.

SPEAKER_04 1:49:53

I'm I'm glad I was able to give you some payoff there.

SPEAKER_07 1:49:56

Uh but yeah, and since this is a new one. We don't have a random question of the week to answer. But for listeners, comment on wherever you find this or click the link to send us a message to ask us for a random question of the week and we'll answer it. Which I feel like we'd get much more focused questions on this topic than we normally do. Because I believe our first one was like, is a hot dog a sandwich?

SPEAKER_04 1:50:21

Yeah, uh the questions that we get for our our main podcast are in fact truly random.

SPEAKER_07 1:50:28

But yeah, thank you for listening. If you enjoy us, check out Rich and Carl Present Deep Space and Dragons. If you want more of this content, click it, and then I will see numbers, and then my brain will give dopamine.

SPEAKER_04 1:50:41

Dopamine means more content.

SPEAKER_07 1:50:44

And I I've also put a link in these videos to my itch.io page where I will post documents from these videos, so that our session zero walkthrough guide should be up there when you're done listening to this. And like all Richard content, except for my actual novels, it's free! But there is a donation box you can click.

SPEAKER_04 1:51:07

And I mean I'm sure there's some way that you could get a free ebook copy of the Waltz of Blades.

SPEAKER_07 1:51:12

Oh wow, right. Pro self promo, that's why we do any of this. Yeah, I have a book, sure. Alright, happy frogging and happy gaming. Bye. Bye.