Read, Play, Game

Kids on Bikes - Worldbuilding (feat. Mfon Akpaete)

**NOTE: There was a technical mishap in the recording process, so there may be an increased level of background noise**

Remember the 80s? We certainly don't. But we've seen a lot of movies, so join us on our journey to the past as we attempt to construct our own setting with a Stephen King-esque atmosphere using Kids on Bikes!

Want to try out the game yourself? You can find Kids on Bikes and games like it at https://www.huntersentertainment.com!

If you have a suggestion for an RPG we should try out, email us at readplaygamepod@gmail.com or leave a comment on our socials: https://linktr.ee/readplaygame

Theme song is "Do You Really Wanna Know?" by Captain Qubz

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Duration:: 1h 1m
Broadcast on:: 09 Jul 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

[MUSIC] >> Hello and welcome to this episode of Read Play Game, the podcast where we look at tabletop role playing games from every side of the table. I am the rules lawyer and this week, I will also be GMing for us. >> Bye, I'm Emma Scaggs and I will be playing this week. >> I'm Anish Ben Maradu and I'll be playing. >> I'm Tori Jewell and I'll be playing this time. >> I'm Mikey Sparks and I will also be playing this time. >> And I'm Fonk Bayate and I am also playing this time. >> Yay. >> We're so excited to have him fun on the podcast, a friend of the show, and listener, we are very grateful to everything you have brought to the Read Play game community. >> Yay, this is the coolest thing I've ever doing in my life, so thank you all. >> That is not true at all. >> It's actually very true. >> Actually, I have a kind of cute, maybe in-game question, because you were talking about maybe a question for whatever joining. What trope were you in high school? >> Can I answer that? >> Wait, should we go through this? >> Was that her in fun or for all of us? >> No, I meant, I want to predict what she's going to say. >> Take your headphones off, I want to hear. >> Okay, well, this is just definitely here. >> That's so funny. >> You can put your headphones on, you can just tell me that I'm wrong. >> No, it would be like the sporty girl. >> Yay. >> [LAUGH] >> Or like high achiever, are the two that I think. Because you both did sports and did what are they called? I-B, is that what they called? >> I'm sorry, those are not tropes in the book. >> I'm telling them just tropes. >> I'm generally, yeah. >> Okay, all right. >> Stoner or like. >> [LAUGH] >> Why is that the first one I can do? >> The only one that I can think of. >> Well, you would mention that for your possible character. So I didn't know if that was like a wildly different experience or were you like? >> Yeah, I don't think you would- >> Stoner was actually it. It was laid back slack. >> [LAUGH] >> Laid back stoner. Well, I guess stoner is a subset of laid back stoner. >> So true, isn't it? >> I don't know. In the rule book, there's not a stoner. >> There's not a stoner. >> There's not a stoner. >> I made that up. >> Yeah, yeah. >> I think it would fit in that trope though. >> Freudian stoner. >> Yeah, laid back stoner. >> I think early on in the process, Emma was looking for suggestions. And I said you should be a stoner, just like as a character, but not as the trope, maybe as a general. >> I need to employ some critical reading in the group check. Because somebody said cosplay, and I was like, okay, homework. Don't read the handbook. >> Do you get to pass together? Anyway, sorry. >> The critical reading. >> So what trope do you feel like you were in? >> I was the sporty kid, if anything, yeah. But I was friends with the popular kids. But I wouldn't have called myself a popular kid, cuz they were hot shit. I was just happy to be there. So that's pretty much how that went so. >> Incredible. I was not that, and I don't think any of us were not sporty. >> Yeah, what's sporty? >> I was sporty. >> I played basketball and softball. >> I kind of wish I was good at a sport, especially like, did you bond with your teammates? Was it like? >> Yeah, I love sports. I love teamwork, if you'll ask Emma, I love to watch shows that have kids coming together. I watch a bunch of sports, anime, and, yeah, like you. >> Beautiful. Slam dunk? >> No. >> [LAUGH] >> We're also on- >> I watched Ace No Diamond. >> We're also on a staff frisbee team together, and I'm trash, and fun is good, and knows how to play, and hadn't played before. So that's where we fall. >> That's so cool. It's nice to, I guess, get some, I feel like- >> Yeah, we're all kind of outside grass enjoying somebody who's not just like myself. >> I say that, but I was also very much a nerd. I was reading five mongas in my backpack. Couldn't, I was watching my brother was really into anime, which is why I was really into anime. I was on, what's it called, Crew, my last year? >> Really? >> Yes, yes. >> Yes, I wanted to be in the musicals and the shows, but it conflicted with the basketball schedules. It never worked out, so I did theater as a club, it was just, it just never worked out. I have a lot of interest, and high school wasn't the best place for me to show those. >> I can see why you're in the Mike E. Sparks fan club. I'm hearing like sports. >> President. >> Anime. >> [LAUGH] >> President of the- >> Of your fan club. >> Thank you for letting me get a transition from intro to read. >> For people tuning in for the first time, this is the first of three parts that make up the structure of this podcast, the read portion. We won't just be reading, though, we'll be walking through the character creation process of an RPG that we've selected for this week, talking through the rules as we go. This will be followed by later episodes where we play through a brief game using these characters and then reflect on the system. Feel free to listen to whichever of these interests you, and feel free to skip whichever don't. Today, we are going to be playing Kids on Bikes, which is a game designed by Jonathan Gilmore and Doug Levindowski. This is one of the more popular games we've played. I mean, we've played lasers and feelings, which I feel like is also pretty popular. >> Pretty popular. >> Masks is fairly popular, magpie games game, but this is probably the most popular, mostly because it is used on a lot of actual play games, or a lot of actual play shows, yeah. Especially Dimension 20, that's like the only, I don't know why I said like that, 20, 20. Dimension 20. >> They love dead on bikes. >> They do. They love this system. It's pretty much the only one I think they've used besides D&D 5E. >> Wow. >> Yeah. >> So you're saying Kids on Bike is in the popular trope? >> Yes. >> Uh-huh. >> You know what? Yeah, I'll say that. So it's possible that people listening are already familiar with it. Either way, I'm extremely excited to talk about sort of its place in the tabletop community because I feel like it is pretty significant. Dimension 20, it's a very unique system, Dimension 20 isn't actually using Kids on Bikes, the specific game, like the one we're playing today. They use the sort of hacks of it, but I'm pretty sure all the hacks of it are mostly official hacks, too. They're officially released by the publishing company. Why is everybody laughing? >> We're in the chat. >> We're in the chat. >> We're in the chat. >> We're in the chat. >> We're in the chat. >> We're in the chat. >> We're in the chat. >> Well, it's actually kind of funny because it's actually... >> Tori is the Mikey we tolerate. >> Yeah. >> It's actually because that's why I feel I'm so hard on you, Mikey, because it's really a form of self-hate. >> It's self-hate because no, we're the same person. >> We both have like three different protections where it's like a nice pun question mark. >> I've like stopped. I've pretty much tried to stop and cut out as many references to things as possible. >> You've gotten, I feel like you're pretty good at that if your baseline was Tori level, you don't reach that at all with references to stuff. Tori's references are not so bonkers. >> But anyway, anyway, it's a very unique system that kind of fits in with what we do in the podcast specifically because it's got a very great interesting section that we can use for the read section, which as we all know is my personal favorite episode of each arc. So, yes, anyway, the specific game that they play on image 20 is not actually kids on bikes. It is a hack of it that was officially released by the same publisher Hunter's Entertainment, which is called Kids on Brooms, Harry Potter, wizard school vibe. The way that they have hacks of it is sort of in the vein of Apocalypse World or Blades in the dark, where you've got the base game and then a lot of spin-off games. However, I don't think I've seen, maybe I didn't look deep enough, but I haven't seen many that aren't official because there's kids on brooms, kids in space, they're coming out with kids in capes. >> And then I think Dimension 20 has done at least two more of their own hacks of kids on bikes. >> Yeah, which I think are just like, yeah, Dimension 20 specific versus an official module that's out, but maybe they've released it, I don't know, but what I think sets this system apart and makes it an attack so unique is its employment of the tropes because I feel like that's really what it's based in because I think it makes the character creation process a lot more simple because it just basically gives you a trope and that determines your stats and gives you a couple of suggestions. It's not like, you know, you've got Apocalypse World and Blades in the dark where when you select your class, you also have to select hyper-specific moves and stuff that you kind of have to get really used to and learn about. So this one kind of breaks it down pretty simply. It's also notable for the way it uses pretty much all the different types of dice for different stats, but we'll get more into that as we play. But jumping into it, what you're going to need for this game is you're going to need pretty much all the main dice that you use in normal games, D4, D6, D8, D10, D12, D20, and you will be using all of these for each player, so you're going to want a full set for everybody as a brief overview of the character creation process. It's pretty streamlined. It's at the beginning of the book. The game specifically, Kids on Bikes, I didn't mention this earlier, it's based on, you know, that piece of media, that kind of media, ET-type things, more, I would say more directly, honestly, Stranger Things. I think it, like, I think this came out after Stranger Things and it very much reflects a lot of things. I see it in Stranger Things. I feel like every trope I've seen in this. I can think of a Stranger Things character it applies to. It is inspired by not just the media of that time, like ET, but the nostalgia around the idea of that time. Did you say, "Do you know when it is?" Stranger Things came out in 2016. Yeah, it definitely came out after, I think, but not after, like, all of the seasons. Like, it probably came out after, I want to say, I definitely looked into this and don't remember it, but I think it's after, like, one or two seasons it came out because, oh, wait, I literally have the book in my hand so I can check the day it was public, or the other year it was published. 2020. Oh, okay. Yeah, there's, and there's so many movies that you can just apply to this for both. This leans more fantastical, but you could apply, like, countless non fantastical things, like, literally just a little more into it in the game selection, but, like, you could range from Goonies to, like, John Hughes in this, like, it's kind of wild. I actually was wrong about what we were jumping into before we do character creation. We have to do world-building. My favorite part, obviously. This is a collective thing that we all do, because this game is very, very collaborative. Any RPG is collaborative, but this one tries to keep players almost as into and in control of the narrative as the GM. So we'll see how that goes, because you can have a different range of it, but here I'll read briefly what the description of the vibe is, because if you've seen any of these movies you're probably going to know the vibe. Actually I'm going to go back. Does anyone else want to read it? Because I keep, I'm talking. So much. Yeah, sure. And John Bikes should probably be set in a small town at any point in history before everyone had a video camera in their pocket at all times. It should probably be a place remote enough that the rest of the world just doesn't care about it, but close enough that black helicopters can be there within hours. Everyone in the town probably knows everyone else for better or for worse. People look out for each other, but rumor also travels fast. Ultimately, though, this is all up to you. So, yeah, that's the general vibe of what we're going for, so just keep that in mind while we're creating it. So, there are some questions you'll go through for the collaborative creation part. But the first step of it is, as we choose to collaboratively build the world, we should first agree what tone we want this to take, whether serious goofy, some more in the middle. If anybody cares that much about it and wants to specify, now is the time. - My original thought was kind of campy, but I'm open to going very serious if that's what we want to do. - I'm also team campy with, if there's scary stuff, it can be scary, but yeah. I mean, "Stranger Things" has camp, but also horror, if that's... - Some of my favorite camp movies are 100% serious. They're not trying to be funny. - You know what I mean, I like both. - We should live authentically within larger-than-life characters. - Evil dead, like Evil Dead 2, like... - Fuck yeah. - Well, I watched a lot of movies to prepare for this, actually, and you would not believe how many of these movies are exactly that, where it's like, they don't really... It's just the 80s, so everything's kind of stupid. - Yesterday, you were watching Teen Wolf. - Hey. - It's not the show that wouldn't be... - Oh, where he plays basketball, and then he like, just because he's a werewolf, he just plays basketball so much better than everybody else. Oh my God, because that's what being a werewolf does. It makes you great at basketball. - Is he playing against humans? I've never seen that. - Yes. - Would that not make him better if he's literally part wolf? - Yeah, like better strength, but it like, I guess it makes him better. - You gotta watch it. You gotta watch it. - You don't look so much higher than everybody else. - Straight up, you don't have to watch it. - He's got a wolf, like, dormant, like, gene, and... - But the thing is, he doesn't look like a werewolf. He looks like Chewbacca. - Okay. - And he's still a werewolf. - No, not later. - And he's still a werewolf. - Apparently, he's a... - Apparently, he's a... - They give pot a niche. They find him hot. - Okay, we can't. We can't get into all this Teen Wolf stuff. - This is the perfect time to get into it. - So, where are we going? - Anybody else like some thoughts about Teen Wolf? - I do actually have a game related question to Teen Wolf. Is this a supernatural world? - Yeah. - There's a psychic. - Oh, really? - I think there's definitely, from what I've read, it's like, there's elements of supernatural, but not that we... We don't. We're not magical. - Yeah. - That's the thing about all these movies is that, like, there's always something small that feels... That's, like, magical. You know? Like, even The Goonies, which is mostly a movie about a treasure hunt, you know? Like, there's that creature. You know, what's his name? - Oh. - I literally just watched this movie. - Spoilers for The Goonies. - That was really the first... - He says, "Hey, you guys!" - Yeah. With the super... - Sloth. - Wait, that's not from a electric company? Like... - That's the first one. - What is that? - It's a PBS show. - Electric company? - They go, "Hey, you guys!" - Okay. - Yeah, I was like, "Yes, I'm remembering the logo, and like..." - I've never seen the Goonies. - I've never seen the Goonies. - I've never seen it either. - That's why I did a spoiler warning. - I'm not gonna lie to you. These movies are good, but I feel like the nostalgia for them is so much stronger than the quality of the movies. They kind of aren't good. - There are some... There are some '80s movies that are genuinely, like, really, really, really good. Like, stand up, but give or take. Like, alien. - Alien's so good. We've discussed tone. - Yeah. Second, all players should discuss the era which you want the adventure to take place. Yeah. They have options from like '80s, mid-60s, present day, but I feel like... Like '80s, I would rather do '80s. - 100%. - Neon lights, adventure, like... - It would upset me if we didn't at this point because I always thought it was in the '80s. - The only movie, like, I did watch several movies. The only movie that I didn't watch, or that I watched that didn't really take place in the '80s, maybe, like '70s was Stand By Me, which is not magical, very good movie, but... - Very good movie. - That one is just like a flashback to, I want to say, the '60s the whole time, and I kind of didn't like that about it, but I loved the movie. - What is it? - What is it with? It's something like... And that's the last time we spoke. - Well... - I haven't seen it. I haven't seen it. - Yeah. Stephen King. - It ends with... And they spoke. - It ends with a devastating line. That's for sure. - It ends with them all dying. - Oh, okay. Anyway, we're going to go forward and answer the questions. - Yes. If you choose to build the world together, answer the following questions to create the location, adapting the number of questions asked as indicated below so that each player is answering the same number of questions to the town. I believe we just start with one and then just rotate. So I'll just go in the order that I've got people in my screen, and fun. Our adventure takes place in Name of Town and State. - Ah, shit. Maine. - Paul. - Yes. - Oh, wow. - It's a Stephen King, baby. - Let's go. - Maine and the town's called Binova Cinova. - Ooh. - How do we spell that? - B-E-E. - Mm. - Like Bs. - O-V-I-A. - Oh. - Oh, B-I-A. - You know? - Binova, Binovia. - Binovia, but I'll call it Binova. - Binova. - Binova. - Binova. - And the eye is silent. - Eye is silent. Copy that. - So wait, the eye is like canonically silent. - Canonically silent. - Okay. - Canonically silent. That's funny. - We'll know you're an outsider if you pronounce. - If you pronounce the eye. - You're not from around the world. - Just move to Binovia. - Okay, excellent. Now let's move to Emma. The industry, our location is best known for. - Okay. - It's Maine. So let's do, they have crabs there. It's a fishing. - That's Maryland. - Lobsters. - Lobsters. - They went on the lobster ring trip. - I was like, I know it's some crustacean. - This is a fishing town. - Okay. - And like a lobster catching. And maybe some, also some big, bigger fish. But yeah. - Excellent. Three. Mikey, our town is famous for. - Uh, mmm. Famous for, you know, we have fish. I feel like it could be famous for, like, incredible food. Like, people, people like come here for the really good, like, I don't know what is, like, what kind of, like, special. I know, like, lobster tail. Like, that kind of stuff is the big and main. I can't remember the specific, like, name of the type of food. But, like, really, like, excellent, like, cooking and dining. - Like, there's one restaurant that's really well known, or just, like, you go there in any restaurant. - Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I feel like, kind of, like, you know, like, Buffalo, New York, like, the anchor bar that invented the buffalo chicken wing. There's, like, a specific restaurant in this town that admitted a specific wing. - That originated the lobster tail. - The lobster tail, yes. Mm-hmm. I like that. No, that's fun. - What's the name of that place? - Uh, that place. Uh, lobster jacks. - I love that. - Their lobster bisque is pretty good, too. - Mm-hmm. - You say lobster jacks? - Yeah, lobster jacks. - Like apple jacks. - Yeah. - That's a, that's a cereal. - Uh, Tory, our town is infamous for. - Ugh. - So I spent my time trying to figure out what the difference between famous and infamous was. Is it, like, something you're known for, but it's bad? - Yeah. - Okay. Here's our opportunity to get some star power in our camp experience. The mayor of our town once dated Taylor Dane, and then when they broke up, she booked out the venue that was closest to the mayor's house and played Taylor to my heart at max volume for an entire month. And the residents were angry, and that's how we made the news, and we can also get a cameo from Taylor Dane. - So our mayor is known as, like, a... - Taylor Dane's ex. - Yeah. - Taylor Dane's ex, who brought up a month-long run of loud concerts. So everyone was mad at the mayor. - Now, who is Taylor Dane? - Thank you. - Taylor to my heart. - Great. - Tell me I'm the only one. Me like waiting. (laughing) - I should have both. I heard you say Taylor, and I was going to say Swift, and I was going to be like, "Yeah, I was about to say Taylor Swift too." I was like... - She's a baby. - It's not even 1989 yet. - That says more about y'all. - That says more about y'all that you auto-filled in Taylor Swift. Anyway, but yeah, she's just a pop artist. I thought from the '80s, I could be wrong, but... - Yeah, ladies. - Now we can have a musical sequence in it. Okay, tell me more about Benova. - Anish, economically our town is prospering, floundering, stagnant, et cetera. How are we doing? - Definitely struggling. - Okay. - I see that. - You wanna come for a calm, lovely meal, and then you just get tailored to my heart. (laughing) - Yeah, I got that too. - I got that to damage the... - I'm saying, it was kind of a scandal. - I can hear that play in a laundromat, out of a really crusty radio, and everyone's just like, "Fuck this place." (laughing) - Yeah, 'cause I bet people would be capitalizing that all around, and it would just kind of be like, "All right, can we get over this?" - Yeah, it's kind of like in Japan during Christmas, they just play simply having a wonderful Christmas time over and over and over and over. - How did you know that? - What? (laughing) - You do too. - You haven't been there before? (laughing) - A couple times. - Okay, good food. - Bashful. - Bashful. - Hop scandal. - Are we counting? - Are we struggling? - Are we counting? Does that count? (laughing) - I'm gonna get you your compliment. I'm gonna get you a compliment. - I have a... Were you nice? Did you say something nice? - No. - Did I say something nice? - No, but you're being mean. - So far, we've had three instances of someone bullying our dear friend, Mikey, and one instance of people being nice. - When was that? - When was that? (laughing) - I think it was before we started officially doing the podcast. - Does it cast? - I like, I'm finding like skeptical face. Like, I'm not sure. Are you sure it wasn't something mean that sounded nice? - I think it was nice, but... - I'm sorry. I don't know what I'm doing. - I'm trusting my judgment in the moment. - Wait, what prompted this? Did we just get what? I don't even remember. I thought we were talking about what? - Okay. What's the next question that we're doing? It's a landmark. He was doing this. - No, no, no, no. It's a notable local organization is back to fun. - A boot fixer? - Ooh. - The boot fixers? - A cobbler. - Cobbler. - Cobbler. - Thank you for the word. Yeah, they go around town and help fix people's boots up. It's a non-profit. They're kind of in the dumps as well, but they do what they can. - It's not fun. It's incredible. - They go out to other towns and come back and that's how they stay afloat. But they can't really do anything in their own town. - Excellent. That was a very specific non-profit. - Yeah. - It's a specific given organization, right? Because we duplicate that in a five period. - Yeah. It's another one that you're going to go into. - Let's say that there's a, what's it called? Local paper. Local newspaper that's called, ooh, give me one second. Everybody shut up. Everybody, everybody be quiet. No, you can talk. - Did we get a name for the cobbler? - I wrote down boot fixers, but if you had a different name and boot barn. - Sure. - Because I think you said boot fixer and then somebody said cobbler. - That's what a boot fixer is, a cobbler? - Yeah, that's what a boot fixer is. - So it is the name of the store? - I think yeah, the boot fixers is. - The boot fixers. - Yeah. - I also remember what the tally was, simply having a wonderful Christmas time. It took me a second to be like, what was the recent tally? So. - The newspaper is called for Shucks' sake. - I was looking up to make sure that you did say that you shocked an oyster. And that is technically a thing you can say that you do. - Do we? - Or an oyster. - Oh, a lobster, I see. - A lobster, yes. For Shucks' sake. - Lobster jacks, the boot fixers, for Shucks' sake. Is for Shucks' sake the main paper or is it like a tabloid kind of rumors? - Good question. - Well, there's not a lot of it. - Good question. - Here's what I'll say. Here's what I'll say. There's not a lot of fun stuff, you know, like a small town. So I think it is a paper with largely like the cobblers are back. And then there's an editorial that is just gossip. - And that's what people actually buy it to read. - That was like my dad for, because he was the editor of the local newspaper. And like he, like every week would write his editorial just about like weird dumb shit. - So wait. - Like my entire life. - What's it called for Shucks? - For Shucks' sake. - For Shucks' sake. - For Shucks' sake. And is that the name of the overall paper or the specific column? - That's the name. Ooh, let's say that that's the column. And the paper is just the long tail. - Ooh. - Also, there could be, there could be like letters to the editor. - That's true. - You said the long tail? - The long tail, yeah. - Is it scale, I-L or L-E? - Uh, I-L, I-L, it's all lobster themed. - Yeah. - Letter to the editor. - Long tail, editor. - I also, no, I'm going to write this down and bring it up later. I remembered something. - Oh my gosh. - For excellent. Next question is, a notable local landmark is, and that's for Mikey. - Oh, wait. - So. - We just did, we just- - Landmark is very different from organizations. Some of the examples in the book, like organization is businesses. - Well, my question was, did we, I thought, did we just do two organizations in a row? - Yes. - Yeah. - You're supposed to duplicate it for a third game. - Duplicate, I see, I had that covered up on my notes. - Like some of the examples for Landmark are like, I'm trying to think of like dunes. - I, yeah, yeah. No, I had an idea. Yeah. I'm glad I was going to make that reference. - Well, as the example that gave us like a closed mind that no one is allowed to go near. - Yeah. - Don't do the other examples. - I had a, I'm teetering between two ideas, but I think something because I was like, oh, maybe like a big sculpture of a lobster. Honestly, actually, here's how I combine it into one thing. There's the old pier where this town back when it was financially successful, where all of the boats used to launch from this old stuff, but now it's very decayed and dilopidated. And on the pier it has a big sculpture of like a comical style lobster with a big tail kind of flapping out. And that's like where the town made its mark for all of the, you know, all of the ships, all the schooners going out, but now there's just a little tiny pier. - Brad. - Also, just to clear the air, the reason I was like, don't read the second one is because I remembered it. And I thought it was a cool idea. And if anyone who hadn't read the rules came up with it organically, I didn't want them to feel like they couldn't say it because it was the example. If that makes sense. - Don't say it yet. - I'm not saying. - We can duplicate it. - Yeah. - We have a second, Tori, you also get to make a local landmark. So here's my pitch, there's a beautiful historic, like, architectural wonder that is the lighthouse at the, you know- - Ooh. - Thank God. - But I love that. - Thank God. - And it's been decommissioned, but the city has to pay someone to live right near it because ever so often it turns on and they don't know why. And so somebody has to live there to turn it off because it's so bright. It'll, like, wake everyone up if it stays on. - I love that. - That's fun. - Does that fit in the world you were thinking of, Jess, or is that like- - Don't worry about it. - Okay, okay. - Lighthouse was already written down. It's all at the lighthouse. - When my folks, they just went to Maine and they, like, went on a tour to all the, you know, the big lighthouses and stuff. And apparently, Maine lighthouses are much, like, North Carolina lighthouses are super, like, thin and tall. Main lighthouses are very, like, short and stubby. - Huh. Is that just 'cause you're higher up, like- - Mm-hmm. Yeah, 'cause they're on these, like, cliffs and it's higher up, looking down. So they're a lot wider at the base and very short. On average. - What was the one? - It was like a, if I'm remembering, right, it was like a swimming hole, and I thought that was neat. - Like, we don't have- - It was a diving cliff. - A diving cliff. - Oh, like, um, it. Why is everyone laughing? - Oh my God, that was my idea. A diving cliff? Are you serious? You were one away. There can also be a diving cliff. - What do you actually have the question I think I'm most excited about? - Yeah, yeah, your question. I'm excited to see what you choose for yours. - The next cue is our school sports team is called- - Very important in '80s movie. - What is the bonovia high? - We're the cowboys, actually. - [laughs] - In a surprise- - In a surf and turf, baby. - In a surprise twist, the town got extremely annoyed with the lobster theme that was ever present throughout the city, and the teens all collectively decided to raise money to change the school's mascot. Not for like any particular reason, but they just wanted something different. They all held a poll, cowboys won, they beat out knights. - What did the name used to be? - The lobsters. - What if the name was the lobster tails, and it was a big mascot, and it was just the tail part of it, and it burned like this is so stupid. - That's so good, actually, yes, that, all of that. - But now we're the cowboys. - But now we're the cowboys. - But now we're the cowboys. - The cowboys. - How recent was this change? - Oh, last year. - [laughs] - Oh, so like, maybe it's fresh. - There's still like fresh painting on the side of the wall, or like there's still like you could see inside the school, like there's still like some remnants. Oh, that's cool. Yeah, yeah, yeah. - We gotta change that. - All our parents have different mascot, like, merch. - Yes. - It's gonna be amazing. - Ooh, like, like, if you have a Letterman jacket or something that you're like, older brother or something who's already graduated. - In this 80s time, especially in a small town, I feel like those like high school ring, like to some people, those are really important, and I feel like especially in the 80s. So if all their like Letterman jackets, high school ring, like none of it applies anymore because now it's the cowboys, I could see that being a point of like, I could definitely see some gossip in the for shock sake page on that one. - Cool, after constructing the town, each player shares one rumor about the town. So let's go back starting from a direction. Let me just give examples so people have reference, especially in a small town, rumors drive a lot of what goes on. The GM writes these rumors down, keeping them blah, blah, blah, blah. Also not all rumors have any truth to them, finally keep in mind that as long as you're within the bounds of what the group has agreed to include in the game, there are no wrong answers. - Didn't I have an example? - Yeah, sorry. I wanted to read that. The examples that they give are, Carla says that he heard the elks is really a front for a devil worshiping cult. Yasmin says that she heard that Mr. Worthy, the principal of the high school, is carrying on an affair with Mrs. Yates, the principal of the middle school. Finally, Emily said that she heard that when they found the bodies of the trap miners too were missing, and that the tenant were recovered seemed to have been attacked by some sort of animal. - I think that those are really great examples of rumors. I think that they don't make sense unless you get the earlier parts of the examples that define what the elks and the other things are. - I mean, like the elks, like-- - The elks is an organization that most of the adult men in the town belong to. - Yeah, places have that, right? - Yeah. - That's literally a sign. - I used to go to-- - Yeah, this camp. - Or do you know like the Masonic Lodge, yeah, like that kind of sign. - I know the Masonic Lodge, but that's because of the Freemasons. - Yeah, the Freemasons. - Elks are like a phag. - I think so. - Oh, I didn't know that. - The Benevolent Order was a protective elks. That's what it's called. - There's an elks. There's an elks chapter literally right next to my high school. - Okay, let's do our rumors 'cause y'all are-- this is scary stuff why you know so much about these secret societies. - I literally went to a sleep away camp there. - That's not making it better. That's not making this a better situation. - They made us dance anyway. - What the fuck? - We had to come up with a dance and I hated them anyway. - So I think there's a rumor that the-- what's it called? Shit. What the fuck? - The boot fixtures. - Yeah, the boot fixtures. - You're the first. - I'm sorry. - You can. - Yeah. - 'Cause I'm always like, this isn't for kids. - This is not for kids. - We curse a lot. - We curse a lot. - You clicked the button on YouTube, not for kids. - Yeah. - The boot fixtures is a front for some illegal activity. - Cool. - What? - But no one knows what, it just doesn't make sense that this little organization is still running and this run down town. Poe dunk town. - Poe dunk. - Awesome. Emma? - People who, I'm debating whether I want to split these in half if the rumor is too complicated. Oh, this is funny. People say that the person who runs the lighthouse has been dead for 40 years. - Sorry, the person that runs the lighthouse? What? - Yeah, the person that lives by the lighthouse and takes care of it has been dead for 40 years and it's like a place that the teenagers like go to prove it. - Oh, is it like a chicken? - They've never seen this person and like they're very reclusive. - No, no, no, like they think that this person, like it's not a, it's not a realistic rumor. It's he's a ghost and he's dead for 40 years and if you were to touch him, your hand would just go right through. - Can you imagine all these high schoolers coming up to touch you? - I'm thinking it's like the same energy as like just the little man in home alone, you know? Where it's just like, I don't know what I did. - I don't know what I did do. - Yes, let me think, rumor, rumor, rumor, rumor. I think, I don't know how we feel about this one because I was split between two potential ideas. Oh, okay, because I was like either the statue of the lobster on the pier, like the old statue of like the comical lobster is actually alive and if you go out there on like a full moon, you can see it move and it like goes into the water or like there's ghost ships. - Ooh, ghost ships. - Ghost ships. - I think ghost ships. Yeah, I think, I think if you go out to the pier, you know, on a full moon, the mist kind of covers up the pier and you can see through the fog what looked like the old schooners setting out for the ocean to troll the sea floor for the lobsters. - Here at full moon sea ghost ships. - Yep. - Okay, cool. - We took the hard right turn into the mystical. - I have been struggling trying to come up with like, what's just a benign everyday piece of gossip that really blew my mind. - I have one. - Someone, she is. - I mean, something about maybe the Taylor Dain. - Yeah, but I feel like that already was kind of the rumor. - Yeah. - I think there's a lot of stuff that could be with first shock sake. That was what I was starting to know and then I wanted to do the lighthouse guy. - Think like Bridgerton like, that's what I was thinking. - Is the mayor, is the mayor still the mayor? Like that person's still the mayor. - Rig delection. - Rig delection, yeah, yeah. - Huh. - I don't know. - Yeah, how did he win? - How did he win? How did he win if he brought all this crap on us? - He's just rich. The family runs back deep. - Damn. - Okay, yes, and the rumor I'm adding is that the mayor, who is kind of like, now, how is this like, they still the mayor? - The unpopular mayor. - Also, there's a rumor that maybe the mayor is paying off the lobster tail, which is the respected and like, widely accepted, whatever, reputable news source. - Can you have a name for the mayor? - Oh, come back to me, whoever else I have a name, I have a name for the lighthouse keeper who's been dead for 40 years, young, old man Sue. - Old man Sue. - S-U-E? - S-U-E. - Okay. - Oh, you want to know the mayor's name, huh? - Yeah. - Drippers of cane. - Whoa! - Only gonna work once, Tori. - Write that down, write that down. - We could have a universal constant in all of it, yeah. - And it's a trip, I suppose. - And it's by the shore. It's like thousands of years later, he's still alive, we thought. - We're obsessed with the shore. - He's the Loki. - He's the one that his power was just breathing underwater, but it's also living for thousands of years. - Whoa. - That's what the water's been doing, it's been. Anyway, okay, sorry, whoever's room is next, I'm still thinking of the mayor's name. - Thanks. - Yeah, I have one. And feel free to veto if the tone drastically fits. - I'm so excited. - Maine's most notorious serial killer of the last decade is rumored to be in hiding in Bonovia, Bonovia. - I love that. - And I like that too. - Their name is the Red Bay Killer. - The Red Bay Killer? - Yeah. - This is actually perfect. - This is terrifying. - He throws his victims into local bays, and it paints the water red. - The Bay Harbor butcher. - The Red Bay Killer. - I have a question. - Can he be from Maryland, and he's the old Bay Killer? - Yeah. - He's also a cannibal, he like dust them with a little bit of a seasoning. - So when you say that this rumor is circulating, is this circulated from the outside in, like police think that this may be true, or do you think that this is circulated like this person was spotted a while away, and then everybody is just like, could be here? - I think it's one of those things where in a small town where law enforcement have nothing to do, maybe somebody genuinely had that thought, and like maybe there is somebody online enforcement that genuinely believes it, and that spreads, and like teenagers will run with it, and then parents will be scared for their children. - Like someone comes asking questions, and then it causes a big panic. - Exactly. - Love it. - Yeah. - Okay, I have a name. "Bint" is the mayor. - I could think of a lot of parody, right? - Okay. - And a shape. A man strikes again. - Now here's a genuine question that we'll get to later, but I just want to mention it now before we do get too far in that. There's a section in the character creation part about race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality. In creating your character, carefully consider their race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality. These parts of your own identity are important in who you are, and it will be important to you who your character is too. As a group, you will need to decide to what extent historical accuracy influences the treatment of different races, non-local ethnicities, and LGBTQIA people within your game. However, keep in mind that historical accuracy is not an excuse to be horrible, but this is how people would have talked back then, doesn't go far when you've established boundaries. If paranormal events can happen regularly in the town, in a mining town in the 1950s can be accepting of all people. So basically, you just gave the name Amanda Bint as a character that we know was in a relationship with another woman. In the 80s, would this have been a scandal for that reason? How are we feeling about that? - I personally, I would love to do that is not a concern in this world. For, I'm just going to say, all forms of bigotry, unless there's some interest in, because I feel like that can be a powerful tool as a player if you want to explore something through the medium of game, like if you want to process some shit, but that's, I don't know, that's not why I'm here, I don't know, I feel like I would do that more in a home game than on a podcast, TVH. You know? - Yeah. - Fair enough, yeah, I'm done with that interpretation, and having it be something that isn't internalized if a character is, you know, of a different, not heterosexual in any way. - I got it because Amanda Bion says, "Bring in the lobsters," so she's Amanda Bint. - I said that, I said that, and then I immediately thought, "Well, I don't know, because if you know anything about me and the skags, it's that all of my characters end up being gay." And since this is, this has like family dynamics and stuff like that, I think the world on a whole, I don't want to expect NPCs to be racist or homophobic or anything like that. I don't want to go into interactions thinking that that will happen. I think that, like, I might have some confusion about my own arc, and I'm okay with doing that. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - I was gonna-- - The world is accepting. - I was gonna say the exact same thing, like in turn, like if the character has internal stresses about their self-identity, like us playing through that is cool. - Yeah, I mean, if we want, it could be more similar to how it is today. Obviously, there is bigotry today, but in a way, there are, like, publicly it is considered very progressive to be accepting of, like, gay people, but there's still, like, a history of potentially maybe it wasn't in the past, and so there's a lot of, like, internalized issues that sometimes-- - I like it. You can still be nervous to talk to your family about it. - Yes, yeah. - Yeah. - Even though I, the player, know that in the world that we've created, it's gonna be an okay interaction. - That, I mean, I like playing those types of roles even more. It makes it fun. But we don't live in the world where the teens find Old Mansu's ghost, and he's like, you are gay? [laughter] - I know, I'm a ghost, but that's not what's important right now. You're going to hell. My unfinished business is this. - I have the name of the owners for the boot fixers, and I keep, want to say, bootlicker, so bad. - That's like a-- - That's a fun, like, name people call them, maybe. - Lemon and Uma Peperage. - Ooh, Lemon Peperage again. [laughter] - Uma is such a great name, Uma Thurman. - Name one other Uma, Mikey. - Okay, I don't know any other Uma, I'm sorry. - Added to the count. - That's what I thought. - Close my head. - Close my head. - I'm sorry, I know, I can name four Uma's. - Okay, I got to say, the other Uma I can think of is a character from The Witcher 3. - Yeah, what are the other Uma's that you know? - So, moving on to-- [laughter] - I was like, "You took four? What? What's four?" - Moving on, Mike. [laughter] - Oh, shoot, there's a whole setting boundary section that I skipped. - Uma Peperage. - Uma Peperage. - Oh, wait, that does remind me. I'm Indian. This is the raised thing. - Yeah. - So true. - Oh. - So true, right? - I fully intend on playing an Indian team, and part of the fun of growing up Indian in America is the fun identity crisis that happens internally. I'm down to play it, but honestly, the idea I have for the character I'm playing is that like, his family's been in the town for a while, and so they're more of like a staple of the community. So not really xenophobic, but like, if it's definitely, there's not a lot of other Indian kids in the small town of Benova, Maine. - Yeah. - Benova, Maine. Like the farthest possible distance you could get away from opposite-- - From where? - From where? - My character's black, so hopefully there is no racism that is bad. - Yeah. - Yeah. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Kind of same, I'm playing a character who is going to be African descent, and xenophobia is great that you mentioned that because she's coming from out of town. So across the pond, one might say. So-- - Ooh, fun, fun. I feel like xenophobia can also be like a different kind of, like out of townies versus like, like that kind of thing. - Okay, so sorry. I just want to make sure I'm hearing both of you. You're saying you're fine if that's not a part of it at all. - Hey, you were saying that that was part of the experience, and so while it should always be like respectful, you don't mind if that's-- or were you talking about that something internally or-- - It's a subtext thing. Like if you're playing the loner weirdo, being the loner weirdo who is black or brown is going to be way different than if you're white. - Yeah. - That's just a part of it. I don't think we need to talk about that of just the existence. - Just like subbed, okay. - Yeah, and that's I think that with this kind of boundaries in role-playing games too, I think when you have like a GM that is white, that just feels weird to be like, especially from the GM's perspective of like, this is going to be a really gritty, realistic world. It's like, why? Why does it have to be? - There is, if it's like a specific arc that you want to explore as a player that is something you can work out with your GM. - Right. That's why it's important to have the discussion, it's because like, if you want that for your character, want that for yourself, like for any identity, like that is-- that you can do that, but the default probably should not be that. - Yeah. - Right. - Yeah, I guess my question is as-- 'cause like, basically what Anisha is saying is like, it's going to be part-- we're bringing our identities to our characters, and that's just going to come up how we play it as it necessarily needs to be from the world itself, but like, how we interact with white shape, how people interact with us. My question is like, form like a outsider, like, if I'm coming from like, I don't know, Maryland, is that are the towns people going to be like, you're like, who are you? Are they going to be super welcoming? Like, oh my gosh, a new person, like, what is the vibe? I don't know. - I feel like that'll be depending on the person, since it's like a close-knit town. I bet there will be some NPCs who are like, oh my gosh, you've never been to lobster jacks before, that's so exciting. And then there's going to be some people who are like, I haven't seen you around yet. Where are you from? Like, how exciting? - Those are both very welcoming. - I'm-- I'm-- - Sorry, my tone on the second one was supposed to be like, sarcastic and suspicious. Like, oh, interesting, interesting, there's a new person in town. - Yeah, I think there's all sorts of varieties of people, but there's so many different types of welcoming. There's like the overwhelming welcoming. And the fact that this town is struggling does inform the fact that like, we need new people in this town, it's a welcome thing. We need new things. - There's my offering, yes. We need new people. It's exciting to get new people. But there are some folks who will choose to be like, actually, it's been-- it's been over. - Yeah. - You can tell you're from out of town because you didn't put the EO, but that's-- I feel like as-- - Yeah, what I was going to say is I feel like the, like, unwelcomedness could be less focused on like identity of like the person and more just like the fact that they're not from them. - Yeah, it's actually lobster jacks. It's not lobster joes. I don't know where lobster joes has ever been there. Is that-- how does that feel? - Yeah, that's censored. - Yeah. - Yeah. - Plus, I do like that small town, Bless Your Heart type. You know what I mean? Where it's-- they even mentioned like the rumors and whatever. So it's not like your volunteer's best friends. - Yeah. - But-- - I guess Bless Your Heart can also be an insult. - Oh, yes. That's right. - Yeah. - In the South, for sure. - Yeah. - I also love the existence of terrible people in fiction. - So true. - I love assholes, so I hope assholes aren't necessarily racist, but I hope they want us gone. - Yeah. - Because we're shitty today. - That's it. - I mean, and also, yeah. We're teenagers. It's like it could be like, oh, you're going to do some stupid shit and like break it. - There will be ages unlikely. - Yeah. Yeah, yeah. - Only is them will condone. - Oh, wait. Tori, you're playing the adult. - Well, well, yes, but I'm an older adult, so maybe that will factor into it as well. - Cool. Let me double check the setting boundaries, because we just did a great combo about our boundary. - I love the, this is, I think, more important for in-person. We might have to translate that since we're on Zoom, but the rule at the end, if during the game somebody accidentally brings up one of the topics that should be avoided, or if anything that is part of the story is making you uncomfortable, simply not quickly and lightly on the table, which is just like a... Whoever is currently narrating should simply rewind and proceed down as a different path. There is no need to discuss your request to go in a different direction. The group will just move on with the story in another direction. I think that's really nice. I like that as a safety tool, especially in person, because it's like subtle, but you know, just, just move forward. - And I'll have the chat open if someone also just wants to say "knock" in the chat. Like write the word "knock." - Or we could like... - The reaction, maybe. - Yeah. - Yeah. - Ooh, reaction. - Ah, yeah. Good idea. - What? - What? - Are we... What's reaction? - The shocked face reaction is good. - Are we going shocked face? - Ooh. - I'm picturing it going "Ooh" because it opens as well. - Oh, that's not... - Yeah. Ooh. Not great. - How do you get it off? - It goes away. - It goes away. - It goes away. - Stop with it. - Were you clicking it? - Yeah, I was like... - Oh, so it's staying even longer. - Awesome. Yeah. - Where did you read that, Emma? - It's the last paragraph in the setting boundaries section. - Yes, it is. Okay. That's probably the only... - I was just... - It actually is kind of crazy we originally skipped. It's just kind of funny, like... - I don't care about boundaries. - And I actually never seeing it, but I'm just so bad at the reading. I was like, "Maybe I'm just on the wrong page." - Well, I also really love, like, the way that this whole rule book discusses, like, dealing with difficult topics in TTRPGs because it is a environment that is rife for, like, self-exploration or, like, handling tough things in a safe environment. There's a lot within this book that talks about that, and you can tell that they thought about it a lot and, like, wanted to go at it in a good way. And one last note on the setting boundaries section that I really like is just consider where you are, like, if you're playing in your own home and your players want to explore, like, homophobia or racism, and that's something they want to do, like, "Great, you're in a private space. Don't do that at a bar. Don't do that at a gaming convention when someone could walk past and hear stuff that sounds really, really bad and they don't know it's a safe space, you know, like... - Right. - Yeah. - Consider things. - Consider the following. - Yeah. - So, going back to the setting boundaries section, the only thing that I want to touch on that we didn't talk about, technically, is just having a discussion about... In addition... We've already talked about some boundaries, but if there's any additional, like, narrative things that nobody wants in the narrative elements that might have set players so we can avoid them, feel free. We can have a discussion now to mention them if there's anything that comes to mind. You can also make a list and send it to me, either privately or, like, you text it to me, you could send it at the Zoom chat, you could send it publicly in the group chat, whatever you're most comfortable with, but if there's anything people want to say right now, go crazy. - We're also taking a break before we're actually playing, so that could also be a good time. - Yeah, and you can definitely, if anything comes up during the game, like, there's the not thing or just, like, you can text me something, like, if you see something going in a specific direction and you're worried, it's like the lines and veils thing, you know, like, we can approach this, but we can't jump into it, so anybody want to say anything, it's fine if not. - We have a serial killer, potentially, I mean, I'm interested in minimal details about that and there's a direction that I definitely want to avoid with that sort of thing, it could get really serious, but I don't want to, I just like the idea of, like, Twin Peaks-y sort of, oh my god, there's a string of murders, like, our town is unsafe, yeah. - Hard. - When you say direction and age, do you mean, like, gore? - For me, with serial killers, a big topic that I, it's also funny, I feel like these conversations can be kind of awkward, because in saying where your lines are, there's kind of this implication of, like, I know the rest of you were thinking about doing that, and that's not, you know, it's like, let's say it out loud so that we all know about this, like, sexual violence is an area that, like, I don't need an in a role-playing game, I don't need it, and that's like, possible serial killer stuff. - Right, yeah, yeah, how, I guess, what do people think about, like, violence, like, just in general? - It's a good question for the bully, you got to know, like, I personally am, I personally am pretty, I'm not so sad for the violence. - I love violence. - I love violence. - That is our official statement as a podcast for a pro-violence. - I love violence in role-playing games, but actually, and, like, I don't mind, I personally don't mind, like, descriptions of core, but I know that some people don't like it. I also don't mind gory things happening to my character, and I know some people don't like that. Like, if it's like, you take damage, and that's what you get versus, like, a specific description of what happens, I don't mind anything like that, but I know that is. - Yeah. - That could be different. - Yeah, I don't mind at all. In fact, with a bunch of kids who may be getting into scraps, I encourage it. - Same. - This is what I was trying to articulate, I think, earlier, was like, we were just talking about camp, and, like, 80s, and how it wasn't ever trying to be funny, but, like, and this is older, but, like, some of the special effects, you know what I mean? - In movies, like, they end up being funny to us now, but it's only 'cause, like, but at the time, it was, like, shocking or whatever. - Like, like, I love the Evil Dead 2, and, like, the Evil Dead 2's effects are so crazy. Like, like, you know, he cuts his hand off, and then the hand is, like, just crawling around, and he's, like, fighting it as, like, blood is flying everywhere. - Did you see, I saw the TV glow? - I haven't yet. - No, I didn't see it. - I haven't yet. I need to. - Yes, I want to see it. - I've heard it's really good. - There's a part just about, like, special effects, and, like, something you're watching. Back to Rewatch that I just found really, whatever. Anyway, so, reinforcing, yes, like, scraps happen, but we don't want too many details. Is that correct? - Well, I mean, we-- - I think, I think Aneesh just didn't want graphic details on the serial killer of-- - Of the sexual violence, like, normal violence is good. - Normal violence is great. We love violence. - Again, as a podcast, we love violence. - Mostly, I think, the serial killer. - Yeah, yeah, just none of the-- - I mean, there's also some stuff where, like, it's like a serial killer's trademark is that they rip off all year-- like, just like, I don't have to-- like, the weird, gross stuff. - Sure, sure. Okay. - Yeah, like, every episode in Hannibal. - It was under lock and key. We didn't know much about it. The lobster tail kept-- the details very, uh, kept hidden from the, um-- - Aura, it's just a case with a good old fashioned serial killer. It just kills people straight up, and we don't have to worry about them. - And that's what makes them so free. - Trains their blood. - I mean, we already know they throw people in the bay. - That was true. - They do. - They do. - They do that. - I am also pro-violence. - It has nothing. - Aw. - I-- I know Emma was like, "Do you-- are you okay with gore? I feel like I could feel her." - That was not at you specifically, actually. - Cool. But I'm all good with it. - Okay. - Since we're all so pro-violence, I guess I'll up the violence level that I was planning. - Oh, hello. - Oh, goodness. - Okay, awesome. So unless there's anything else people want to touch on before we jump in. - To character creation. - Yeah. - Okay. - We're not ready to-- - Yeah. - We're still reading. - We're still reading. - Um... - For those of you hungry for more rules, don't worry. There's plenty more where that came from. This was actually the longest read episode we've recorded so far because Kids on Bikes has such an extensive world building and character creation process. Plus we had five players. We split this episode up into a world building and a character creation section, so please catch our wacky cast of characters in next week's episode. The setup is definitely worth it because we've also got two play episodes coming up after it. Also, in case you've noticed, this episode sounds a little bit different than usual. It's not just you, unfortunately we had a mishap in the recording process for this episode, so there might be a little bit more background noise than usual. This only applies to the two read episodes we recorded, but they are both definitely still worth listening to since we had a great time filling this world with rich details. I just wanted to say something about it so that you were aware we knew and because we were aware of exactly what went wrong, we are-- this is a thing that will not happen in the future, hopefully, but if you didn't notice, then nothing is wrong. For now, though, that's it. See you next week, once again, on this side of the table. [MUSIC] [MUSIC] (upbeat music)