The Diceology Podcast

The 2024 Wrap with Judd Karlman (Edited)

• MadJayZero • Season 6 • Episode 1

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In this episode, we reflect on our favorite tabletop RPG experiences of 2024 and discuss exciting upcoming games for 2025. We explore character creation, the importance of storytelling, and how strange mechanics add depth to our games.

• Reflection on standout RPG experiences of 2024
• Insights from Judd Karlman on tabletop storytelling
• Exploration of the Ioun City game and its unique narrative
• Importance of memorable NPCs and their impact on gameplay
• Embracing the weirdness and unpredictability in RPGs
• Anticipation of innovative games in 2025
• Discussion of missed opportunities for gaming experiences
• Tips for running engaging and memorable game sessions

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Speaker 1:

Welcome to Diceology, the show where we explore the full chart of tabletop role-playing games, from rolling dice and telling stories to breaking mechanics and building worlds. Each episode we will dig into what makes RPGs tick, share real play adventures. I interview industry creators, designers, facilitators and we chat about the games that inspire us to play. Whether you're a lifelong gamer, a curious newcomer or someone looking for fresh takes, there's something for everybody here. I'm your host, matt J. You ready to roll? There's something for everybody here. I'm your host, mad j. You ready to roll?

Speaker 1:

My guest today is a long-time gaming friend and an outstanding gm and player and a master of delivering the weird. That's w-y-r-d, if you will. It's none other than judd carlman, host of the daydreaming about dragons podcast and the creative mind behind the amazing Dictionary of Moo, a pulp fantasy supplement for the Sorcerer RPG. As always, we've nerded out for well over 90 minutes, but I managed to distill this holiday free edition down to a tight 30 minutes. The unedited longer version is behind the paywall and on my Patreon. In this episode, we talk about the games of 2024 that inspired us, the ones that truly moved us and the ones we didn't quite get to the table but really wish we had.

Speaker 2:

It's always a fun time talking with Judd. Here's our conversation. Remember any NPCs names like they just don't like?

Speaker 2:

go get the first letter and then everything after that is, is, is a, is a, is a random table, it's just like you know. And I've got you know when it's online, I've got the fantasy name generator out, right. So I'm like, yeah, it's this wizard, his name is, his name is a stringa, and he's like cool, you know. And and then five minutes later he's like um, s, s, s, s, adon, um, you know what's, what's going on over there? And it's like a street, and he's like it's hispana. And I'm like why? What are you? Are you effing with me? What's going on right now, man? Um it, it is unbelievable.

Speaker 2:

So yeah, yeah, yeah, just when we were talking about pronunciations, it reminded me of that and it messes everybody else up, because then they're all like wait a minute, isn't it? Isn't it Estedon? And it's like why is my father? Did I miss somebody? Right, right, the person with the name that begins with an E. Let's just like can you get that? Let's just do that. After that, in this world, you can just say whatever you want, as long as you get the first letter right.

Speaker 1:

That means you can only ever have 26 NPCs going at one time.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, that's fine, that's fine, that's awesome. Yeah, oh, my goodness. Yeah, yeah, do you want to kind of look back on the year in gaming and talk about that a little bit? Yes, yes, I think it's funny. I really didn't when you said like hey, let's talk about the end of the year.

Speaker 2:

I looked at my actual play posts and I was just, I don't know, but I think it was just I don't know, um, but I think it really I haven't gamed all that much. Uh, the the Thursday night crew has had trouble with with scheduling for the first time probably in our five or six year history, uh, where where we played like less than you know 30, 30 games. So, yeah, it just wasn't that much gaming. But yeah, I think it came to me like last night we got together for the first time in a long time and we a player who had played in like the early games of this and of the Ion City game and I'll describe what the Ion City game is in a moment he was kind of he kind of came back and was like describe what the ion city game is in a moment. Uh, he was kind of.

Speaker 2:

He kind of came back and was like what happened to you guys and we had a really fun moment my maybe my favorite moment this year, where my friend teo, in character, described the last six or seven games and like when you do that, yeah, in a game that you know is saying, okay, you know where the game is based, in a city that that where they basically manufacture ion stones, which is a very jack vance thing um, you know it was, it was in the dying earth books, right, dnd kind of stole it as it does everything in the best of ways and now it's a a thing and, and so I, you know, we were just, we were saying like, hey, what if it's this real? Like what if your characters are a gang in this very wealthy city, because the you know, the ion, the ion stones are, are mined and polished and balanced in the city. And then a friend of mine said, yeah, and there's, like you know, the Ion City Mercantile Consortium.

Speaker 1:

And.

Speaker 2:

I was like, well, we have a villain like that Like that's the scariest allotment of words I've ever heard so like, clearly there are these very wealthy mages who have, you know, turned into, you know, capitalist villains and, and that's where we're at, they're, they're, you know, a kind of up-and-coming gang. And so it was fun to hear my friend teo say well, here's, here's what happened, you know he's talking to this first his first level thief friend, and he's like we, the, the I, the ion uh mercantile consortium, hired these cloud giants to float their cloud castles there are three cloud castles above the city for security and they were paying them. So the city guard didn't like that, so they paid us to rob the giants. But then they turned on us, but we got away. So we robbed them once, but we had to kind of go on the run a little bit and we turned to our friends who are a dwarven crime syndicate and we were like, hey, we just robbed these giants and they were like that sounded yeah, we heard someone rob them, we didn't know who.

Speaker 2:

That's awesome, let's go again. And they were like we kind of just made it out alive and they were like they're never going to expect you to just go back and do it again.

Speaker 1:

Right now is the time Also your friend.

Speaker 2:

The other detail is their friend got captured and and it was the friend in the group who was like this is a terrible idea, but I'm going along with it. That guy got captured, so, so fantastic. They go back with just a gaggle of high level, bloodthirsty crime dwarves and they hit it again and now that and they, and, and a giant gets killed by the dwarves and and they, they rescue their friend. Two people die Right Uh but I have a.

Speaker 1:

I have a table where like hey, these are the things that can happen when you die.

Speaker 2:

You can kind of either have your Aristia moment where you, like you know, hulk out and then die and perish forever. You can just die, that's fine. Or you can come back as a ghoul. You can decide, like, through sheer will, you're going through the ghoul king's, you know white handed gate and you're coming back. And they were like, yeah, we'll come back as ghouls. So they thought being, they thought being ghouls was really cool. So it was like flesh seems like a really good idea to eat, like it just seems like something you should do, and and they were putting that off and putting that off, and then he's not going to make us do it. He's not going to make us do it, he's not gonna make us do it.

Speaker 2:

But so that's one like. So then they, the, the dwarves, are psyched. They've, they've robbed these cloud giants. But the people who hired the cloud giants, the ion city mercantile consortium, which is just a bunch of very powerful mages, start to hunt for the, for, for the, for the crew.

Speaker 2:

And so they were like, the dwarves were like we're going into the Hills and we're going to go hunting. You guys like we, we've got a friend who's going on a caravan into the underdark. You should really just go with him for a couple of months until things blow over, right, right. So they go with the caravan for like one day and the caravan's like hey, there's this side corridor. There was recently a, a, an earthquake down here. So there are corridors. We don't really know what's going on. So we'd like you to just look at this corridor, make sure it's clear and and then come back and tell us. So they go into this corridor and I I grab a dungeon out of the Trilemma Adventures book, right, right. And it's this weird dungeon where there's like a bunch of paladins guarding an imprisoned very powerful wizard, okay. And so they go in and they're like can we just free this wizard? Like, can we just? I wizard, like can we just and so I forget exactly how they just snuck him past the, the paladins, but they did, and they free this very powerful wizard, okay. And the wizard is like hey, you know, um, and he's I, it's definitely implied he's not the nicest guy, like they were like what do we know about him? And I was like you know he fought in the major wars. You know he got in prison because they thought if he killed, if we kill him, he's just going to find his way back, right, and like there there are some people attribute certain war crimes to him and they're like okay, and he's, but, but he's real grateful and he's like listen, I'm real grateful. What can I do for you guys? They're like well, we're ghouls and we don't want to eat flesh. And he's like I've, I've got, I've got two reincarnation spells ready to roll, so let's just do it. I'll cast it, you know. So we kill them. They reincarnate as totally different characters, right, ok, ok.

Speaker 2:

And then he's like you know, if you want, like the third guy in the party, if you want, I'll make it like an illusory magic item, and so you just won't look like you and you guys can go back to ion city and the heat will be kind of gone. So, like I just love the idea of your friend being like where have you been for the past four weeks? You're like let me tell you a crazy story. So this elf and this halfling are actually your old friends, who are totally different now. And I've got a girdle of illusion and I feel like the thing I'm doing with this setting we're playing it in old school essentials and what I'm doing is I'm assuming that there are a lot of people, a lot of very powerful people, doing a lot of magical research all over the place, right, right.

Speaker 2:

So, like you know, there are improved dispel magic spells that work on people and like will take away your ability to cast spells and, like you know, there are people just doing all kinds of wild. If you, if you take the dnd magical research and you assume that it's not just the players doing it, right, the world is going to get strange really fast. Nice, and that's kind of where we're at. That's kind of where we're at, um, nice, so, yeah, it just gets. I don't know. I feel like if you take dnd seriously meaning not seriously, like like it's, there's still goofiness and they're still fun, but if you just like take it at its word, I guess, is what I'm saying.

Speaker 2:

Right, like, yeah, things get weird really fast and you end up with something like ion city where, like it's just a bunch of the only thing I'm not doing, because we just did a planescape adventure, so I'm not doing planar shit. Ok, we've all decided that, like, because there's so much iron stones in the ground here, making gates in and out of this world is just very difficult. So because we don't want to go like transplanar, you know we don't want to do that. So yeah, uh, yeah.

Speaker 2:

So that's our vibe is just lots of magical research, lots of weird variations of spells, um and, and you know, here we are, you know if, if, if you have the money you can get the magic, it's, it is viable. And uh, yeah, what would, what would a corporation of really powerful mages do? Uh what?

Speaker 1:

would they do the?

Speaker 2:

answer is the answer is nothing good. And and at the end, and when I want to know something and I'm not sure, I kind of roll 2d6 and see what it tells me because, like you can, it's just an easy way to be like oh well, this faction isn't doing so.

Speaker 1:

Well, oh, this faction is.

Speaker 2:

You know it's seven to nine you can. It's just an easy way to be like, oh well, this faction isn't doing so. Well, this faction is, you know it's seven to nine. You know it's winning some, but it's it's taking, it's costing resources, and you know, ten and up, you know that this, this faction, is kicking ass.

Speaker 2:

Right, you know how weird the the other 2d6 thing I did yesterday and I didn't make the table, but they were looking, they were looking to to blackmail a judge, as you do, like you do, like you do. And they were like, like what weird stuff is he into? And so I rolled and I was like, all right, let's see where on the curve this guy's weirdness is. And it was an 11, which is really high up on the curve. That's right, weirdnesses. And it was an 11, which is really high up on the curve. So I was like he's the thrall, like he's the thrall of a vampire, you know, like that's his, that's his kink. There can't be that many people who can say that the word around town is that there's a vampire who has him in thrall, and so, yeah, so we're gonna, you know, we're gonna deal with that. Next game it's just the players dealing with a vampire and and first edition.

Speaker 1:

Vampires are heinously powerful just they are yes, so like if they f around.

Speaker 2:

They're gonna find out. Um, but this group is pretty I don't know. They're pretty good at making bad decisions, which is fun. They're very much like I've got a low wisdom. Let's just do this, like you know. It's fine, um, it's fun. It'll be fun, uh, we'll see. We've come very close to a couple of tpks, um, and if we do, that's fine, uh, we'll, we'll go from there and we'll figure out what to play next, or we'll continue the story through some other angle, um, but it's fun. It's fun because we can roll up characters so fast with the online old school essentials generator.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I've done that, yeah yeah, we've literally played a session where they were. You know, the group is off to the underdark and they were. They played the dwarves. They left house sitting the the temple. They cleared house sitting, the temple. They cleared out the abandoned temple. They cleared out that's their headquarters. So they literally like played the dwarves who were house sitting.

Speaker 2:

And the funny thing was is I had this secret compartment in the map that the players never found and the dwarves did Nice. It kind of caused them to go over the map again in a totally new context and they like knocked on this pillar and they were like what's this pillars deal? And I was like the deal is, it's hollow. And they were like, oh, we're gonna find the secret latch so we can get inside it. And like they found this, this magic knife that the players had just never found. And I was like, well, that's a secret, that'll just lay there, right. And I like that thing where you've got a map, you've got context and then you get to go over it with new characters, right, and that's a lot of fun.

Speaker 1:

That is a lot of fun.

Speaker 2:

yes, I think like the high point of my year really is just how weird games get when you let them get weird and you kind of take them at their word. I like like I'm not revisiting D and D, I guess, but you know, looking at D and D and and just being like you know what, what would this match? What kind of world would this, this matter, these magical research rules really, really bring? And that's fun, and we're also. I'm also playing a face-to-face game, which is the first face to face game I played since COVID and that's under Hollow Hills and that's really fun.

Speaker 2:

I feel like I read a sentence that for some reason I missed on my first go, which is you wander around the town until the group agrees they know what this town needs in their show. Right, and I don't know. I feel like I didn't have that sentence. Like I knew it, but like saying it out loud is like hey, wander around town until you feel like you know, until you feel like you know what, what show, what kind of art this town needs to inspire it and that was that's really fun, that makes it really fun.

Speaker 2:

Um, and yeah, under hollow hills is just a good pick up and go game. I feel like I could run that, like you could wake me up and be like judd, you know brush your teeth, you better run, go, run and go, run on under hollow hills and be like sure, sure sure?

Speaker 1:

no, I'm glad you ran it for for us on actual play um that that game exceeded my expectations. That was. That was an awesome.

Speaker 2:

Glad to hear that because you were, you were not into it and I was like no, I was not.

Speaker 1:

I remember we had a poll and I'm like I'm not worried that nobody else is gonna pick that game. It's fine, right, yeah. Yeah, it's a good one. I the.

Speaker 2:

The playbooks are really good. Um, we, we've got, uh've got in the game I'm playing now. We've got a Crooked Wand, which is basically, you know, kind of a wizardish type, you know, and we've got a Nightmare Horse and they're just, they might be the two most powerful and magical playbooks on the table. If they want to bring it, they can really bring it, and it's cool to see them do that. It's a lot of fun, nice.

Speaker 1:

How about you? What's standing?

Speaker 2:

out for you this year. I don't want to say best, but what's?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I think it's Household, right, the tiny little people game. Yeah, I think it's household, right, the tiny little people game. Yeah, I'm talking about it. Yeah, so that is my standout game this year. I figured we'd play a couple, maybe four or six separate sessions and then we fall off, right. There are other games we've played in the past where we might get four to six sessions in and it's been fun and we move on to something else. This has become something in a different animal altogether, so I don't see an insight yet.

Speaker 2:

So that's nice, that's a nice family thing to be doing. Yeah, yeah, I hear you. The Under Hollow Hills game is a neighbor. Johnny came. Uh, I hate saying my wife like I feel, like I would rather say, I would rather say the sentence, like I want a long german word. That's like this nice lady who agreed to marry me, like yes, I'm with you. Yes, I want a long word that says that uh, it's like my wife is just like, uh, patriarchy yeah, so yeah I just never liked that word and and that yeah, anyway, uh so it's yeah it

Speaker 2:

feels family-ish, which is nice. Uh, another friend jumped in the other day and I didn't really get a grip on what his history was with games. I just tried to like let him know what, and he asked interesting questions. He was like, hey, what if my car, like someone, is off doing something and my character acts on that knowledge? Like, is that okay? Like what should I be pretending not to know? And I'm like, I'm never gonna call you on it, Right, Like if, if that makes it more interesting for you, but if it's going to be a stress, just don't, don't like. I know a lot of people get really upset about metagaming and and like I'd rather you leaned into it and made the game interesting than not. Right.

Speaker 1:

So I just like we had it like.

Speaker 2:

I feel like when you game with new people, you have to have those like interesting discussions of, of, of, of, what is a you know, because some people would say, well, that's bad role playing. Capital R, capital R P, and yeah, it was just interesting to talk it out with someone new. Nice, yeah, and he was. It's also interesting to talk to someone new who you haven't gamed with a lot and you don't have a shared vocabulary with and they're like well, you know, my character really wants this and I was like cool, what? Like let's figure out where the Venn diagram is between, like what your character wants and what you want, like what you know, let's see, is it, is it? You know you don't have to like if, keeping the if, if what the character wants keeps the game interesting, then great. But if not, like you can decide, you know something, they do something else. You know we don't always know why we do what we do, right, so it doesn't have to. I'm never going to call you on it, so you know, unless someone's feelings are hurt, and then we'll stop playing and we'll talk. So, yeah, uh, was it's interesting playing, just playing with new folks, and then having to have those discussions, uh, to touch base. No, I agree, I agree.

Speaker 2:

And there have been times in my life where I just wish I had been more explicit, where people were clearly coming from a very different type of table Right, and I let them sweat and I probably should have right, like I, I, I, I. I vividly remember being in games with people where the GM rolls behind a screen and bells and so they run up to a group of guards and just start swinging Right and I start rolling in front of them and they're like wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. What, like this wouldn't be a dramatic, interesting death? And I'm like it sure, wouldn't it? Sure, wouldn't? That's right? So, yeah, are you ready? This, this might be it. Like, you know, we'll, we'll see how this goes. Uh, and I wish I'd just been more explicit, be like, hey, this game is deadly. I'm not, you know, I'm rolling in the open.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, uh, you know I just there are conversations that I could add that that would have made that easier. Yeah, it's good. It's nice that we're all at a point where we can talk about that and just be like, hey, people play these games in lots of different ways, yeah, and that was my point.

Speaker 1:

We're playing in a bunch of different ways. If this is fun for us, this is how we do it. Yep, what I do, and this is all the games, uh, for all my kids, since they were young. Um, my thought was, when we first played a game, we kind of played open and we're trying to learn how the game works.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, right, yeah.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so we'll do that. And same same thing. Yeah, so we'll do that. Uh, the early games, everything's is fluid. We can change stuff, right, yeah, uh, but what? Uh, what I, what I'm firm on, is I will not cheat for or against you in the game. Right, there's learning a game and we'll change stuff around, right, yeah, but for most of the games we play, I roll a dice on the table, unless the game says something different, like miseries and misfortunes. There are a couple of mechanics in there that you do keep secret from the player, right, right, like the mortal coil, right, oh, their endpoint system is so cool.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it's very nice.

Speaker 1:

And that's for drama, right, but I'm not cheating there, right? You just don't know what the number is. I know what the number is. Don't do that. And that to me is if there's a hill, I'm going to die on it's. We don't need to fudge things for drama for fun, right? Yeah, worst case scenario we can always walk it back, right? Always say, hey, that that seemed uncool and harsh. How about we just run this all backwards, or we retcon it, or we could do a bunch of other things rather than me fudge dice. Yes, with that. I was on a panel some weeks ago and this came up and there was a lot of pushback to that. I'm like, no, no, no, because when we get to something that's important, something that's big, right, I don't have to say this is important or this is big. I could say, hey, how about you guys figure out what you're going to do, roll some initiative. I'm going to get these combat dice together.

Speaker 1:

Right and everybody knows what time it is Right. Yeah, and they don't want. Yeah, nobody wants to see me pick up dice and roll them Right, because they mean something when they hit the table in front of you.

Speaker 2:

Going to tell you what's happening next?

Speaker 1:

Right, yeah, I said so for the most part. Right, we're using the mechanics, we're running through those things and a lot of times they're rolling dice. I don't have to roll anything yet, but they know when I pick up the dice it's real. There's no cheating, right? Yeah, and I'm gonna help you put. I'm like I'm there's seven and eight year olds at the table, so a lot of times I'm like hey, don't forget you got this, don't forget, you have that right, are you doing?

Speaker 2:

x and y right?

Speaker 1:

I'm trying to help you out because I'm a fan of what you folks are doing, right, yeah, and, but I am not going to teach you right. We're gonna.

Speaker 2:

We're gonna do this yeah so and it's been fun, yeah, yeah, I mean I. The argument against that is very often something about story with a capital s, yeah, and I always want to say a tragedy is a story I have to remember that I would not have thought it. Yes, a tragedy is a story like you know. Uh, nobody was fudging when hamlet you you know dueled at the end he just got his ass failed a poison save and then that was it.

Speaker 2:

He was done and that was a good story. People seem to like that one.

Speaker 1:

We got four or five different movie versions of it yeah.

Speaker 2:

Versions of it yeah. A cautionary tale about a group of young people who go into a demon haunted hole in the ground and don't come out is, in fact, a story. That's a story.

Speaker 1:

That is a story maybe you should have left the necromancer alone. You know that's right.

Speaker 2:

You should have stayed home and been an apprentice baker, like your mom told you to. That's right, that is a fine, fine story. And I don't know. But yeah, but, like you know, I'm not telling anyone anything. They don't know when I say they did. These are conversations that we need to have because I don't know, I know you don't know where people are and you don't know where you know I definitely, knowing what everyone has been through at the table in or under Hollow Hills game, I, I'm looking at the different events you can kind of have going on in the towns that the circus visits and I was like, no, we're not doing a funeral, we're not. We've been to too many this year, you know. We, we just we we've spread our share of ashes and I think we're not going to have a funeral today.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, you know, unless, unless everyone says, like you know what, judd, I could really do with a good cry today. Let's do it, you know, and then maybe you can help people grieve, but like I think it can get you know, you just, it's just, it's hard, it's it's hard, it's hard to kind of figure that out. I don't know. Yeah, it didn't feel like. I feel like I crammed in as much gaming as I could, right, with the energy I had. I would like to get back to try. I would like to get back to Traveler. I would like to play.

Speaker 2:

I want to play Traveler without the money. I and I know everyone is going without the money. Um, I and I know everyone is going to lose their mind when I say that, uh, I want to play with a bunch. I want to play with totally different. Uh, like not army, navy scout, I want to play with totally, totally different organizations that you can be kind of on your way out from and just, you know, get a little weirder with the sci-fi and see where that goes. I feel like. I feel like that little black box is not begging you to make a million pages of military fantasies like setting to me, it's begging you to mess with it.

Speaker 2:

I feel like it's saying hey, this is how I made my thing. What are you doing? It would be really easy to do it. I've got the notes. I've got to get it from the notebook to the screen. It's pretty close. I would love to futz around with Traveler some more. I think that game is super fun. I agree.

Speaker 1:

I feel like it didn't get the. Yeah, I feel like there's a lot other stuff. I'm with you that we could get rid of the money. We don't have to be truckers in space trying to get the ship flying. There's a bunch of other stories we could be doing yes, right, and I don't think it's hard to remove or not care about the money, yeah, yeah, and then you're right, then you're left with and maybe Mongoose has done this. I think there are other, was it life paths.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I know Mongoose has done it, but I just want to. I don't know.

Speaker 2:

I just want to make my own, like I know Mongoose has done it, but I I just like I really want to grab that little black box, as if I just as if it just came out yesterday and I found it, and just go from there. And I know other people have done that work, but I don't like it. Traveler and Ars Magica have this in common for me. I feel like what the subcultures around them and what the publishing arm around them have found interesting are not the things I find interesting. So, um, I I want to fuss with those games because I feel like they haven't been dragged in the directions. I want to see them dragged in, and we'll see. I don't think I want to see them dragged in and and we'll see. I don't think I have to do Ars Magica. I think Vincent and Meg Baker are doing that for me, which is great.

Speaker 2:

I hope so, because I hope I don't have to do it either, right they're cooking something in the in the family business kitchen and I'm real, real interested and, yeah, both of those games just have a thing where I, when I look at the things that are out the family business kitchen and I'm real, real interested. And, yeah, both of those games just have a thing where I, when I look at the things that are out, right, I I'm just like, yeah, this is not what I want.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, ars Magica, for sure For me. I, I'm with you, I feel that, and it feels like a lot of work to get the thing I want right, right, uh, so I'm with you that. Uh, I'm also looking at the bakers, um, but I, I feel where you're at with traveler too. Yeah, both those games yeah, and it doesn't.

Speaker 2:

It doesn't need much like it. There's not it. It doesn't. It's great like I think there's really interesting stuff going on there, right? Uh, I would just like it to be, you know as with all science fiction, I'm always like could it be a little weirder?

Speaker 2:

let's turn that up a little bit. How could we yeah, uh, what if you know? My stars without character, my stars without a number of characters find an alien computer that runs on emotions? What happens then? And the answer is it's a fun game. It's just the game doesn't help you. It doesn't help you. So, and yeah, anyway, yeah, games that kind of went in a direction that I don't know. Yeah, I would like to just like. There are a couple of like easy hacks.

Speaker 1:

I feel like.

Speaker 2:

I want to make on a couple of games and and play with them a little bit. We'll see then. There are some people I would like to game with who I haven't. I would love to. I would love to, like, get things at work a little more settled and get my schedule a little more settled and then then think about talking to to you and and and Misha and Jeremy, about you know, thinking about streaming again if we want to. Yeah, but I just want to make sure I've got that energy. I really don't want to start and stop Right, so I get that. Yeah. Yeah, I'm just trying to like, let's get like, let's get all my physical culture stuff in order and just make sure that that's happening as I, as I look at the precipice of 50, let's make sure that I'm not going to have a heart attack and just get get the cardio going and then, uh, once that's going, then we can think about, you know, recording games with our friends online and and what's up with that how about you?

Speaker 2:

what are your? What are your big missed opportunities? Was it uh, is it mostly uh, uh, uh, you know too little my stuff. Is it outgunned or is it? I think?

Speaker 1:

it's outgunned. I had really hoped to get either, uh, no, no, bliss, or, uh, invisible sun to the table. Oh, interesting, yeah, this year I had two opportunities of some folks but, uh, and I wanted to do it in real life, I didn't want to do it online. Both of those, okay, yeah, and uh, I had some folks, uh, but in both, both cases it kind of fell through, uh, in real life stuff, and so it didn't work out for me. So this is still the big magic game, like Ars.

Speaker 2:

Magica.

Speaker 1:

Invisible Sun Noblesse, there's one more, but my thought is I want to. I want a big magic game, even if I only get four to six sessions in. Right, I want to see what that plays like as an adult. I've done Ars Magica when I was younger, but I don't know that like role master. I don't know that. We played it right, right, right Fun, but I don't know. Right, I want to do it, I want to play those, yeah, yeah, I. Just I can't let them go, right, I can't, interesting, let it go. So I want to see what Invisible Sun is about at the table with folks that are in, about playing it, right, I don't want.

Speaker 2:

I feel like that, that like speaking of table presentation, right, yeah, yeah, just getting that big monolith on the table and being like hey, this is the thing, let's, let's do it. Let's, let's make this worth the money I paid for it. Right, cause it does have presence.

Speaker 1:

Right, yeah, it does have presence. Yeah, it's big. You've got that big hand right Right, all the cards right, the, the, the character sheets. Yeah, it's a lot. It's yeah, and and again. So I think, like, like burning wheel, like burning empires, uh, there's a commitment there, right, right and uh, uh, you don't want. Oh yeah, I'll see, let's, let's see what it's like. I'm like, no, I had a group of folks that were committed that way, shit just went sideways and we weren't able to pull it off here's the deal.

Speaker 2:

If you've got kids around the house, I think you just leave that thing out and just tell them not to touch it. Not to touch it. Be like, hey, this is not for you, this is too dangerous for you, don't touch this game. You're not for you, this is too dangerous for you, don't touch this game you're not ready for this when you're older. When you're older, that's perfect. That will get you some players who are very interested in playing, for sure, yeah that's about it.

Speaker 1:

Everything else, man. I could not ask for a better year of gaming. Oh nice, that's a nice thing For, like 2000,. The online game we were easily over 50 game sessions, wow. And then I took that to in real life games, like I made a one shot with the help of Jason Monastar. He threw the premise out there. Oh, his premise was so hot. Yes, how'd that go?

Speaker 2:

that was fantastic so people are listening. So can you read the premise? Do you have it like I think I do. I remember I put out a premise like one answer before his, and then he put out a premise like one answer before his. Yeah, and he put out his and I was like ignore me, ignore me, ignore everything I say and do what Jason says. This is unbelievable. Let me see if I can pull this up?

Speaker 1:

Where is my games I've played Heavy? Is the crown? Yeah, yes, here it is. Yeah, here it is. Heavy. Is the Crown? Yeah, yes, here it is. Yeah, here it is. Heavy is the Crown? The crown of Polistal I, one of Poland's crown jewels, was stolen when a national museum in Warsaw was looted early in the war. We know where it is it is on the head of the Ukrainian bandit prince named Tivchenko, the Dog Skinner who rules the town of Stalowol. Some Polish national freaks wanted back and they are willing to accept the crown in exchange for a half dozen of your pals they're holding hostage. You have one week. Yeah, that was fantastic.

Speaker 1:

What ended up happening? So I think I wanted it to be a one-shot, but I think it's too big to be a one-shot because also, at the same time, it's Twilight 2000. I'm coming to a four-hour con slot. I'm probably playing with strangers, you're having to teach and play at the same time, and I want you to get the whole twilight 2000 sandbox experience. And so I did some math to work out the travel time from where you get the mission to the city you have to be in to get to the bandit prince, because I want you to engage. The journey rules right, right right. Once you're in that town, you got to find the prince and figure out how you get the crown from and I leave that.

Speaker 1:

I mean you, you know me, I'm not a.

Speaker 2:

There's no railroad here you.

Speaker 1:

It's your mission. However you want to do it, we'll use the mechanics to figure it out. Yeah, and uh, I think, uh, I was thinking it was too big a scenario because everyone started walking, right, nobody like the first two or three sessions that have run it everyone. And if you walk it, you're not going to make it in a One session. Yeah, in a week, right, because it'll take you three days to get there, right, how much time you spend trying to work things out with this banded prince and getting the crown, and then three days to get back. You might have to double time it back. You could just eke it out, right, but I'm thinking that's not going to work out for you. And so I thought maybe I need to break this into two or cut some stuff out.

Speaker 1:

But then that fourth session, someone said hey, this broker we're talking to about this mission, do they know where these nationalists are? Maybe we just go to them and cut out the middleman and I'm like that's nice, you can't do that, this game, but I will plan for it for future sessions. Yeah, yeah, that's not a, that's not an option available. This is gmj saying that's a fantastic idea, but that's not in the sandbox, right, yeah, uh, yeah, uh.

Speaker 2:

And then he's like well, can we get a vehicle? I'm like well, sure you can ask for them, we can negotiate one, and they did negotiate a vehicle, and if you have a vehicle, you can make that trip in a day.

Speaker 1:

And now in your city, right.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and so then I thought, maybe, maybe I'll just leave it alone. Um, no one has confronted the bandit. Uh, as players they get sidetracked, right, and I think that is but everyone's having fun. No one's disappointed at the end, right. I usually say up front we might not get to the end, right, but when we're done you will have an experience that is authentic Twilight 2000.

Speaker 1:

I've ran six sessions of it and it's been good, it's been fun. I want to write it up and just give it away for probably 2000 folks. Yeah, I don't know that I would have gotten there without Jason Morningstar's premise. That was yeah, that was hot. So, yeah, yeah, in the city you get there. People are reluctant to work with you, but they accept bribes.

Speaker 2:

One guy was giving away food and water to get information and I was working for him right, there's a place called the Maze.

Speaker 1:

Everybody talks about the Maze and then they say, yeah, you don't want to go there.

Speaker 2:

That's great.

Speaker 1:

Why would you go to the Maze, don't? Go there right, but you got to get through the Maze to get to the Bandit Prince, and it's just an area of the city that is a mine, not a minefield, but it's like an obstacle course. Yeah Right, yeah, and all his people are having fun in there as you try to get through the maze, and there are other people that are trapped in there.

Speaker 1:

Right, yeah, and can you? Can you lure him out? Can you lure him out? Yes, and that came up in one of the games too. How do we get him out? But we ran out of time, as they decided. Yeah, let's see if we can lure him out of the maze. Right, yeah?

Speaker 2:

yeah, do you find a lot of like? So I found this last night in our game where they were trying to figure out how to how to help someone who is on trial, and I, on city's messed up justice system is there's a lot of talk about plans and plans and plans, and I should have pushed like, hey, you only have 24 hours. Like you can't, you can't do like a political campaign to like get to the judge, right, like it's not gonna, that's not gonna work in 24 hours. So, um, like you need to, whatever you need to do, you need to do it fast.

Speaker 2:

And there's just a lot of plan, like it was probably an hour of planning, which is about half of our game time, right, and I, I kind of was like, I kind of wish, like should I have just been more aggressive and said, okay, it's the day of the trial? Um, you know, give me your entry and and let's go. Um, but I feel like with brittle old school essentials characters, like that's not going to work, right, you know, with, with, uh, with, with blades in the dark, he'd be like, all right, I, I'm stressed out, I take a trauma, but like I'll be back another day, right out of this mission, um, but yeah, it just doesn't necessarily work with uh with.

Speaker 2:

Anyway, I'm just asking you a question did, was there a lot of like how did you, how did you direct the, the uh, the planning, so that it doesn't either take over the game or become?

Speaker 1:

uh, yes, but maybe exercise, you know yeah, so, uh, for so I will steal from blades in the dark with the engagement rule, right, to reduce the it, to reduce the planning down, right, got it? I'm listening, I'm paying attention. If it doesn't go from, hey, how about we lure him out? And then the next line is, yeah, we can do X, y, z. And then, yeah, let's do that. Will that work, jay, can we do that? Right? If it's not like that, if it's yeah, if it turns into exchanges of ways to lure him out, then I will steal a page from blades in the dark and in the moment I will try to figure out three or four engagement like uh, positions. They could be right, right, how do you want to do? You just want to make a big loud noise, kind of to see if he'll come out? Or how do you want to extract him out? And then I distill it down to an engagement like role, right?

Speaker 2:

And then I'm also looking at time Right, because I'm with you.

Speaker 1:

I don't want the whole conversation about planning. I don't want that to go 15 minutes, right, I don't want it to go that long. And so if I get it down to a role, and uh, and, and I, I decide that, oh, that sounds reasonable, he'll come out for that, right, right, right, and then we'll make it a role, and then that role is he's coming out, right. Are you ready? Right, right, and that's right. That's what that is right, yeah he comes out and you're ready for him.

Speaker 1:

He's surprised. It goes down the way you want it to right, and now let's do it right.

Speaker 2:

Or he knew you were out here and he's ready for you, and now let's let's play through that, right, yeah, so yeah, I steal from blades in the dark to make that happen, right nice, nice, yeah, I mean, I'm thinking about our old unknown armies game, where we would plan and plan, and plan and then essentially we would just hit somebody with our car and then shoot them.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

For all the modern magic and weird horror and everything like the best way to do it is to hit someone with your car and then they're still moving. Or if anyone's still moving, shoot them. Shoot them Right. Definitely, it was definitely a distillation of the two most dangerous things in America right now. You know cars and firearms, right, cars and guns. That is funny. Yeah, for all our planning, it was just that.

Speaker 1:

That's interesting yeah, I mean, I feel like, and I feel like that game does.

Speaker 2:

It seems like the fire fight rules in that game would. It seems like the firefight rules in that game would play into a kind of engagement role pretty well, where, just from having heard you talk about it and how quickly it can turn, but it's still, you know, fun decisions to be made yeah, that's been a good run.

Speaker 1:

T2K with Heavy is the crown so cool.

Speaker 2:

Cool, Cool and that's been like at local game stores.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's uh um, yeah, multiple sessions, but mostly all one shots. Uh, I just keep rerunning it. It's been different every single time we had. I ran it for.

Speaker 2:

I think I ran it two or three times for our monthly game day.

Speaker 1:

I'm trying to remember where else I ran it, but it always runs differently. Excuse me Every time. I've ran it, which is fantastic. I love when that happens, and sometimes I think, if you do this because you've run it once or twice, you kind of have a feel not where it's going, but how things were, what that history was. It's easy to pull that history back in in a different version. There are NPCs that are already in your head and you knew how they did things previously. You have a base to work from. You don't have to play the same thing, but it's at least like a starter bread or starter dough, right, I can start with this instead of an empty slate, yeah? Or someone will say hey, is there? Is there somebody that works? I don't know, in the in the soup kitchen that we can? I'm like yeah, I know exactly who you need to talk to, right?

Speaker 2:

yeah, yeah and so, yeah, it makes it easier to flesh things out. You know it does. Yeah, awesome, cool man.

Speaker 1:

It's good talking to you no, this was good, uh, thanks for doing this. This was, this was awesome. Uh, we haven't done it in a while.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah yeah, it's been. It has been a bit and I realized I had friday off, which kind of took me by surprise. I was like, oh, I'm working Saturday. I did not see that coming, I don't know why, but it was it was it's on my calendar but I just I kind of got sidetracked. But yeah, yeah, We'll do that, you know, catch up more, especially if some good gaming stuff comes out.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely yes. My thought is, as we're winding up the year, I was going to grab a couple more folks and have the same kind of conversation.

Speaker 1:

What are your games of the year? What games did you do most this year and what games missed your table? Yeah, and then wrap up the year like that. That's fine. If you're enjoying Diceology, be sure to subscribe on your favorite podcast platform and leave a review. It helps more gamers find the show. You can follow me on social media at Mad J on blue sky and Magic Zero on Twitter for updates and behind the scenes and more tabletop goodness. If you want to go deeper, join the conversation and support the show on Patreon at Magic Zero or play Fearless on Substack. Thanks for listening. Let's make this our regular thing.