The crew answers listener’s questions about Numenera and the podcast in general.
Next - Dresden returns!
Knights of the Night
KotN Actual Play Podcast - 165 Listener's Numenera Questions
[INTRO MUSIC] Hello, and welcome to Night's Night's actual play podcast. [INTRO MUSIC] This is episode 165, listeners' new manera questions. [INTRO MUSIC] Feedback begins immediately. [INTRO MUSIC] Before we get started answering the listeners' questions on the new manera, we have some feedback. Two iTunes reviews. Wow. The first was a five-star review from Ann Settera, titled, "Oh, and Great GM in Fuel 2." Well-run, well-played, well-miked, creative and involved in motivated players and GM. New manera and fate. What's not to like? Some gaming podcasts could do well to subscribe and take notes, so thank you for that. Our second one is from Canada, which they didn't tell me. So I had to just sumble upon it. It was also five stars, and it was from 3, 3, 2, 3, 6, 8, left current 3, 2, 1, 1. Oh, him. I don't know. That's my favorite fan. Who's in the lobby? Everyone else is shit out of luck. I like serial number Bob. Who titled it, "Keep Up the Great Work." Is it the early stage of the Skynet over there? Yeah, it's the beginning of Skynet. It's funny, immersive, well-edited, and nobody crunches on chips. I know I'm going away from a micro-- Or giggles! I don't get a go like a shickering! Well, that's just a patent lie. I mean, we do that constantly. It's edited out. What more could you ask for? I love that. Even though I find myself way too busy to actually play these games, I can just listen to you guys, play them, and have some vicarious enjoyment. Special note to Scott, your jamming is out of the world, mate. To be fair, I've only listened to the noumenera stuff. But what I've heard has made me very jealous of how beautifully you describe and manage the world. In all seriousness, I'm sorry it's not done yet. No, that's it. OK. So you can keep going complimenting on the internet. That's all good. You are beautiful. If you say thank you, I want to say who you saying thank you to. I am saying thank you to serial number Bob. It's now our favorite Canadian listener. It could be Bob. Fuck off. One of our favorite Canadian listeners. No, it was really nice compliment. I'm glad you're enjoying it. And if he enjoys noumenera, then by all means go back and listen to Tom dude Dresden. Go back to listen to shitlock or any two world darkness stories, even though it's the other world in a sense, because it's the same group of guys having fun. You've been done in the world. I'm glad that you guys are number in the Olympics. Holy cow, they kicked our both teams. Apparently, the number is 3, 2, 3, 2, dash. That's so cool. It's a nice number number. No, it's a pretty nice number. Congratulations to the Canadian hockey team. Don't knock him. That was the last one. We got to give him hockey. They invented the sport. So you got to let him. I mean, I got to let him. Seriously, take your cap. Got to expect them to win. Yeah. It's not their national sport, though. I'll just turn on first board. Look across. Should have been current. Why? Look across is a Christmas game. It's cool, but well, it's Canada. They just go a bit north when they're playing. Yeah, it's only 10 months. OK. Well, anyways, thank you very much. Yeah. On to Google+, we have an episode 164. Joshua Grasco said, like your thoughts. Getting ready to transition from D&D 3.5 to a new world of darkness game with some newbies. This should be interesting. Keep them coming. The storylines and settings are great. Looking forward to more Dresden. You guys are my intro into fate. Good luck in this transition to world of darkness. This can be a nice little change from 3.5. That's the first game you tried after. I don't know if it was the first game I tried, but it was one of the first games I tried. And certainly, the storytelling aspect of it in a modern world, you didn't have to envision an entire feudal society in your head. You just-- it was this world just with a slightly-- through a dark mirror, I think, or whatever you want to call it. So anyways, yeah, good luck. It should be fun. We look forward to hearing back updates on how it's going for him and how his story goes. I'm going to tell the helicopters up here. Also on episode 164, Greg Hutton said, I more or less agree with your assessment of the system. Since the dye type seemed to be this biggest point of contention, I'll throw in on that as well. There was an interview I came across with Mani Cook. It may have Benjium intrusion podcast, where he talked about his decision to use D20. Basically, it was to retain some familiarity to attract a larger player base. His original tent was two dice ten. I think moving to two dice ten, three dice six, or even three dice 20 with taking the middle value would be a great improvement. Yeah, I'd have to say he made a bad call there, because a good system with his name behind it will work no matter what. It works better than you then something familiar. Then he's assuming familiar that's flawed so heavily. I'm surprised he actually made that decision, and even, well, I'm not surprised he admitted it. I mean, that's fine, because honesty is a good thing, but it was just a terrible rationale behind the decision. The decision, I think some people say it's great, 'cause they like D20. Some people like us will say it sucks, it was a bad decision. Their opinions, but the rationale behind the decision, I think, is a little bit flawed there from Mani, if I might say more. It sounds more like a business decision to decide that they have the greatest appeal. Well, on the other hand, he might just-- Well, he might just-- He might just flat out like it. I mean, we talked about this before, that the single D20, because you roll more ones and twenties, you know, more extremes, because it's flat line, it's not the bell curve, it lends itself to storytelling, I think. And somebody mentioned that one of the fan boards or something that they like the D20. They're just used to it, and they like it. Yeah, there's a comfortable old pair of shoes sometimes, and I guess that's what D20 is for some people, it's really comfortable. Or they, like Michael just said, they like the extremes. They don't care that they just build a story around what's happening. Well, there's eight of us here right now, does anybody prefer D20? No. Anybody? No. Yeah, OK. Not a special one. You don't mind? I remember it before. Right. Mark P also commented on this episode. I think it's "Plerde." Correct me if I'm wrong, Mark. I haven't had too much issue with the re-rolls thus far. But you could take a minor tweak by having the re-rolls gain a flat bonus, say, plus five, or having a minimum values, such as mutants and masterminds, where a re-roll is always 11 through 20 instead of 1 through 20. Granted, this is still a major change, but it gives the players a little more agency when they spend XP to counter a crappy role. It's a positive change. He's not done. I can have a figure. Well, actually, he was done, but I commented to him. Google+ said it sounds like an interesting change, but we wanted to play the system as designed the first time. Right. I'm not sure I'd end up using it anyway. Like, if we went back, we said we mostly want to change the dice. And I don't know, just because numbers matter a lot on that die. Sometimes the difficulty is only three. And if you just say, add five, do the roll whenever you re-roll, so I succeed. I kind of like the idea where the re-roll gains a flat bonus of plus five. I've spent experience point. I get to roll and add five. I get an actual benefit to spending XP, other than just a chance to have that type of thing. The other option of re-rolling, is it, like, fate suddenly, where I can add two to my dice roll or re-roll? No, you get plus five and re-roll. That's a combination. Yes, that's a surprise. You're spending an experience point. Exactly. I have a problem with that, in that some tasks are beyond your accomplishment, and that's supposed to be a big SDO when you manage to pull it off, because of all the advantages you pull into the situation. It's a monumental thing. And if you just spent an experience point, it kind of-- well, you didn't really work for it, did you? Yes, I did. I spent an experience-- You got to fucking go on costly. You re-rolled on something you couldn't possibly have got, because you know you get a plus five on it. But if it is so impossible, and the roll is so high that you need anyways, plus five, it might help a little. His response to my response about wanting to use the actual rules as written for the first time is that he applauded the willingness to try it on its own terms. Too often I see people say, I've got this game. Here are my hacks. Right, the first title that you've tried. After a good six months of bi-weekly playing, I can say that the D20ness of it all becomes less fickle in the tiers two and three, with the right use of effort really spinning difficulties down if the players decide to do so. Tears being numinaries levels. Yes, which is what we mentioned that-- We talked about that at the first level. It seems broken that a lot of this wouldn't have any effect until you got to the second or third tier. You can talk to machines. I want to steal a one, and you roll it one out of 20 times. It doesn't matter what the whole level you are. Well, but if you reduce-- I think what you're saying is a lot with the use of the various mechanics of the game, you can push it down to a zero, and many occasions. You can get a higher level. You're supposed to be strong, and you have a big might pull, and you have a lot of edge and effort for your might. You could, for nothing, maybe take it down and make it achievable without a roll. Still, the fact that that doesn't occur to the second or third level tells me that-- Still problem. We still have. But good to know, he finishes with-- I can also say that the number of skills you start with seems dependent on your choice of focus and descriptors. We did. But we mentioned as well. But as an easy fix, it would be simply to add one or two open-scale choices to all characters at the start. So long as they're not combat skills and everyone got them, they would not likely tip the balance too much. I think that was one of our post solutions as well as well. Maybe don't allow these skills to become specializations, too, but I don't think that would matter much. Either way, nice discussion, and thanks for sharing. So thank you for listening. Wait back at him. Mark? And those are wonderful ideas on how to hack the system. Our review was as it was written. Right. As written, fortunately. I seeked by all my complaints. Chuck Yelton said, good show. I'm glad to hear most everyone would be willing to give Numenair another chance. I believe we all agree on that. Yeah, I think so. I think there are a few ideas you can use to modify your game. Play a little bit. The don't involve outright hacks. To get past the flat line of a D20, keep in mind that a failed roll does not always mean a failed task. When you're Glade, for example, if you could still hit with a 2 and damage with the blade is stock, or it's covered with acid goo, a 1 on the dice could give a sure intervention. So play with that idea and trade interventions for success. Something hacked to me. A little. Or is it-- Yeah, I mean, if you're saying that a failure is still a success, I don't know. Does the rules state that? It's a success with a failure. With a complication, for instance. Yeah, it's a better way to say it. Or maybe it's a plot point that because you're an opportunity to introduce something like I could still be a strong Glade that would be able to hit someone. But the fact that I couldn't, because I rolled a 1, might be an opportunity to introduce OK. Something just thwarted me, or blocked me, or there's a new plot point that-- These enemies are not what they seem? Yeah. Or somebody's failing because you're a part of mechanical. Something like that. Who knows? It could be anything that could be a clue or something that you would roll with to lead to something else. OK. Chuck, "continuedness," and I understand your reluctance to use your precious XP in the game. But get over it. XP is good for more than just re-rolling. Use short-term benefits if you're trying to fix a widget. You had a vision, and how it works. To experience points skilled in fixing the widget. Fighting quantum cats to XP, limited use. Need to cross a gap. To experience, you've brought a grappling gun in line. Last year, crazy. As the GM gives out more party intrusions for the story function, like the party's got bugs from the monine, and they go through an itching spell while they're trying to barter, be free with XP. Let it flow. Looking forward to your next game, and I hope to see you back in the nine worlds again soon. I mean, I get a lot of people who wrote that. It was on my-- it was Chuck Yelton who works for Monique. It was not at all. That's the real-- Not that I'm aware of. But that's fine. I mean, why just like the system? Wait, it's written in that system. I mean, those are all valid points, but they seem to be playing the game not necessarily as it was written. I think if you're giving XP because someone got, please, XP is supposed to be for like discoveries and shit. Progress. Well, no, he's saying it could be an intervention. You're having difficulty discussing with someone because you're busy itching while you're trying to barter with someone. That's a goofy intervention. There's always though an excuse for-- It's less-- For role of one or for role of two. There's so many different ways to visualize it, but I think in a metagaming sense, it just became too overwhelming for us. For many of the players, because I didn't have to roll as damn dice the entire story, games don't roll. So that was fine for me, but for you guys, getting a spat of three rolls in a row under five, it just-- it wears on you. And Bob wasn't even here. And Bob wasn't even here, he's right. So we get it. There are ways to look at it. You could look at it as a storytelling element, the ability to really grow your character and all of that. But to us, in the end, it seems like-- Nothing sounds fun out of it so much. When you're doing something you're supposed to be good at, and you fail, the dice fuck you over. Well, I don't think it wants but many times. The point is, OK, everyone. I mean, even the greatest warrior in the world drops a sword, or misses, or whatever. But when it happens three times in a row, that's when it becomes in a metagaming sense. We're just going to-- It wears on you. I'm conscious of all the same thing. I think the things are coming in my mind is all the things we already discussed. We thought about those rebuttals. And we've done that. Maybe this game isn't for us. Our style doesn't sound like we're written. That's right. As written. But I think we've certainly hacked it a teeny bit, and we have a lot of thumb with that system. And onto Facebook, we had Mr. Merkte. He said, last month or was it year, I got caught up with a group playing D&D 3.5 in English. Our GM was from Brazil, and his Polish is low stat. At first, I was like, oh, D&D. And it brought back all those memories of playing in high school until I started rolling for attacks with my paladin. Yes, we know the outcome. By the way, the team's strongest combatant was not my paladin, nor the high stat half-orc barbarian. It was the Druids Animal Companion, a wolf at level two. Tripping wolf. You're tripping wolf, yes. Your podcast reminded me why I had such good memories of D&D from the past. That is, after I thought about it. One, I did a lot of power gaming. Two, I played a sorcerer with mostly always hit spells. So my D20 rolling was limited to saving throws and others. Therefore, yes, D&D/D20 system seems awesome until you roll. As for the science topic-- and that was Scott Lass was with Jon in the dice thing-- it's not only a matter of the shape of the probability function, flat, or gazion, bell curve. But I'll-- Mike just-- his eyes just rolled back. Sorry, he went to a train. He's snoring a bit, yes. Mike's not into dice theory, by the way. But also something-- I don't know if this is the right translation, the trial. The idea of the probability is that the more samples you have, the more closely you get to a theoretical model. From now, from how many actions do you have to take to get a decent representation? In D20 or D100, you have only one roll. Even when the value you are rolling for is fixed, you get a D20 to get an 11 or above. It's a 50/50 chance. But if you make one roll, it's not enough to catch two outcomes-- low, 1 to 10, or high, 11 to 20. With two rolls, you might get results like low and high, or high and high, or low, no. That's 50% outcome with both shows, something like you have a high probability of coming one value from two possibilities. Therefore, a world of darkness has something-- something of a multiple roll within one roll. You get to roll multiple, die 10. But it is a better trial at getting the value of your stats. I have to agree with that. That's absolutely true. Dice pulls, yes. One dice, no. Yeah, but that holds much more succinct, by the way. Before that, he said that the bell curve doesn't matter. And then if you put in two dice, you get a bell curve now. And he was saying-- Well, he's saying that the outcomes you're looking at. Right. You're not rolling two dice. You had two tasks, you rolled one for each of them. The numbers here are likely to roll. If you're adding the dice together, you start to get a curve if you had a dice. But anyways, he finishes with PS since my three bad rolls and call it the Cthulhu, where I had a 70% chance to do something, and rolled three times, failing every time. Did you die? It's called a fucking Cthulhu. He went and singly died twice. I had a driven into my head. Probability is something post-factum. Rolling D6 100 times and note the value, they get near to one to one, but only after many, many, attempts and trials. Before the roll, it's only an assumption or a theory. Sorry for my writing rage. So, the dice theory brings out a lot of different thoughts. Yeah, and his were putting anger in us. Yeah, I respectfully disagree with most of that. Because, like I said, he went out in front. He said that the bell curve doesn't matter, and-- Yeah, I think he's saying the bell curve doesn't matter with one roll. I thought, yes. I was saying, he was saying, with one die and one roll-- There is no bell curve with one die. It's just a theory, and it's meaningless. Ari also wrote in and said, yes. After my ninth try, my podcaster picked up the episode. There is something going on. If you would, Mike, when you get home tonight, or any time you can just sometimes take a look at iTunes, I think it's showing not all of the episodes. Like, the latest ones aren't showing up for some reason. And it seems to be one slips and change to their new format that something got screwed. So, anyways, thank you, Ari. I know we are having a bit of a trouble, and we're looking into it. He continued with, might need to save it for Friday's travel. And then, later on, he responded with, loved it, loved it. Great energy from the crew, passionate exchanges, views, and grievances. Oh, yeah, passionate. Passionate. They were. Many a time, I felt like shouting out, yes, exactly. And this time, I wouldn't have been scored on the loomie points either, as I was, as you may have guessed, driving. Instead of shopping at one time, I think he was getting weird looks. So, one more episode of reviews, and then Dresden. Should I follow the thread of re-listening to the delivery and preparation? Sounds better and better, an idea as I type. I responded to that, that's exactly what I did, being new player to grab and I ready to listen to. Yeah, to figure out what the game was about and, you know, what the flavor was in the background. It worked for me. Back to Facebook, Alpha Jop said, "Science!" It's all your fault. So, a new catch for it is fucking Scott. You have to drink when you hear that. Oh, my God, do a shot when you hear science. Yes, insightful review. It seems like everyone, I have seen deal with Newmanera, agrees that the setting in the world is fantastic, although I still have to wrap my head around one billion years in the future thing. I just did the bother. I had the hardest time in this game with that. I looked at Jim when I read that comment. I just thought about it as a totally different world. Yeah, that's why I was thinking too big. I legitimately forgot it was Earth a few times. Didn't bother me at all. When I read that I go, you know what I finally did? It's just assumed that it has nothing to do with Earth. It's a different planet and a different world. Pretty much. Right, the only time I bothered to think about it was when we sat down and said, "Wait, the day is 28 hours long?" Oh, wait, it's a billion years. Isn't the sun-- In fact, it's only 24 hours long. And then we were like, "Sume that, fuck it, whatever. 28 hour clock, move on." Alpha continued anyways. More importantly, this review made me realize one of the pitfalls of Di20 that I have experienced before, but never realized. I feel sorry that we broke the illusion before-- Right, Alpha. Alpha thought it was such a good system and now. Sorry about that. It seems like the big flaw of Numenair is that the stats actually only truly measure how long you can persevere at a task, not how good you are at one. That's a valid point. Yeah. If you factor scaling DC, it seems like effort will be the most reliable way to affect your surroundings. It seems like one of the coasts somewhat, I guess, without even realizing it, tried to tackle their problem with bounded accuracy to the void scaling DC. And advantages give players a capability to apply a bell curve to some of these attempts. I don't know what bounded accuracy is. I don't know. Is that something to do with 5.0? Yeah, I don't know. And advantages giving players a capability to apply a bell curve to some of their attempts, which-- I think it might be a beta for 5.0. It could be talking about that they're trying to handle the complaints about the flat line probability. Personally, I'm stuck with Di20's for nostalgic reasons. Like many, I guess. I'm sure there's a way to make the freaking flat line interesting. Maybe if Monty's catches some of your feedback, he might be inspired to find one. This review was truly worth the wait. Personally, gives me one or two ideas. Cheers. What was the phrase, bounded accuracy? Yes. Sounds like a story, isn't there? Just imagining a model. Bounded accuracy to a void scaling DC. Oh, shit. It was terrible. All along, my system was bad. Stuart Horn also commented on Facebook and said, sorry. I should have covered this in my other post. In "Rollmaster," you take the player's A/B attack bonus plus the D/100 and take away the defender's DB, defensive bonus. And then you look this value again on a specific weapon critical table against the defender's armor. And if the value is-- I remember that. Wow. That was like a fucking-- I can't even keep a straight space reading this. I remember "Rollmaster." If the value is signed up, you get to score a second roll algebrical attack if you roll over a 95. And the critical attack on a large creature, the roll becomes open-ended and you get to roll again. Oh, and rolling a 66 critical is an instant kill. Anyways, yeah, that's crazy shit. I remember-- I'm sorry, I had our time to do that Sunday. Each weapon hits a critical-- Oh, my god. And you-- I can't remember that. What is this game called? "Rollmaster, R-O-L-E," as in-- The shirt is called the "Rollmaster," as you know. It's a shark master. God. I kind of do miss. I'm not "Rollmaster," but I remember we used to have critical hit charts or fumble charts to handle the 20 or the 1. And-- You're making a bunch of trouble. No, it's just some crumbles. It's had to be done right there. No, it's not. No, it took-- anyway, I just-- I would don't-- Nope. It was always a thrill to roll the percentile and see what kind of damage you do. I missed that. I don't deny that rolling a die 20 and getting that incredible long shot is an exciting thing to have. It's all rolling on a scale. And I mean, out of the chart and chopping someone's head off and then going flying through the air, you know? Just those weird, once-in-a-lifetime chances, because you get just the right numbers and just the right combination to get it to happen. I remember some of the D&D battles where it'll start out with everybody rolling like crap and what should be a simple, quick, easy battle ends up being, oh, my god, we're going to have a party wipe. And then somewhere in the middle, the odds start evening out again, and then it's then, you know, we somehow pull it out at the end, but all the battles almost seem that way. - It's true, they didn't. All right, with that, that's in the feedback. Please go to klptnpodcast.com site. Someone still uses an Amazon link. I'm very thankful for anybody that uses it. Anytime they use it, doesn't cost you anything extra. Amazon pays us an advertising fee, and that covers the podcast cost. So if you could use the Amazon link there, we'd appreciate it. With that, we'll go on to the listener feedback questions on new manera. - On to listener questions. Roy from Rusek Gamers has a question. How well do you think new manera succeeds with the rules in regards to the setting? Is this really just streamlined and disguised die 20? Can another rule set be better for the setting? - Well, what a great segue. We just kind of talk about that. - Your group is running this game too. I wonder where you came up with that question. - Right. - Well, I'll start off by saying I-- - He doesn't actually play in the air, actually doing new manera. - Right. I don't think it's a streamlined and disguised each one. I think he really made enough changes to really distinguish it. It's my personal opinion. But this is like pie. Everyone's going to have a different version of what's good and what's best. I don't think it's disguised die 20 though. I think he wanted to take die 20 and improve it. And I think in some essences, in some essence, he did that. Can another rule set be better for the setting? God, yes. That's my answer. So anyone else that wants to shoot out there go-- - Yeah, I can't agree with either of those answers. I think he attempted to improve die 20 and he did a little, but it was a pretty damn flaw to begin with. - Right, your work made the building block. - The name of the system is problem, apparently. - That's valid. - Right. So you want to start a group called die die 20? (laughing) - I do want to say that it probably exists here. (laughing) - Next question is from Theron Merpti. He actually has three questions for us. So the first question is, what about the idea of a female player introduction into the cast? - Characters. - I think they may be referring to Rachel's appearance with us. Yeah, I think that did come out. - Just as soon as the feedbacks are observed though. - She wasn't observed. - It was in the feedback section and she, well, anyways, when this will be released, both of them will be out. So we did have a female player show up in the original. - One of the reasons I invited her, what is she did theater in college? And she's not far removed from college. The second thing was, I thought it would be interesting to change dynamic at the table, at least for one night. Because obviously there's a lot of disaster on floating around the table. And it'd be neat to see how people would role play differently, or if there would be any difference, or just what that angle would bring to table. - Or how suddenly Scott will stop calling the glass beads ass beads. - Right, or that, right? - Yeah, we're much less laughing for no reason. (laughing) - I think you could add something. Don't know if she's going to try dressed now or not. We'll obviously see. - Could she get any feedback from her? - She'd join herself. So it's a question of scheduling and whether or not she can make it. She works just for the listeners. She's our nanny that helps the children, why my wife and I are working during the week. So from one aspect, she's here every second Friday, and we usually play on Fridays. So there's, she's certainly going to be here. But can she be consistently here on the other weeks? And that's where, you know, you want to get situation where she's showing up 50% of the time, 'cause it makes it hard for all the other role players. So she'd have to be invested, and we'll see. - Well, that's an example. - I just, I don't think we really have many opportunities to have women join us. - Sure. - I mean, I know Erin. - Erin really have a line of people winning. - Right. - You got a lot of female summaries and females. - We got a lot of guys on there. - Probably hang out with a bunch of role players, but she seemed to be a good fit because of her theater background and the fact that she enjoys podcasts in general. So I invited her for the sit down and she seemed to enjoy it. So, Theron, we'll see how that plays out. I guess we don't know at this point. We think it's an interesting idea, and I don't think it really, anyone around the table would have jocked. It's just a case of whether or not she could have the commitment to a lot. Second question from Theron Murkty. Is Greg out of time for playing with you guys? - Greg's a shit. (all laughing) - Listen to Greg. - Greg, I don't think so. - I love you much. - We love Greg, and he is a great role player and a fantastic friend. - To be fair, he just got married. - He's got a job that keeps an audience. - And two daughters. - So, he's a busy shit. - Yeah, busy guys. - Once in a blue moon. - Focus, yeah, isn't quite on role-playing right now, but when it is, we love him. Dr. Lucius is still a fan favorite. - Fans love him, we love him, we'd love to see him back, but obviously, your life comes fast. - I know, yes. And to answer Murkty's question, I don't think Greg's gone forever. I'm sure he'll be back for some stories in the future. - But he'll be a cameo player. - But for me, I can see him coming back for a story. - Right. - But I can't see him coming back for five stories in a row. - I can't see him coming back for a full story. - Okay. - You know, I just can't, I don't see him. - Well, there you go. We have different opinions on what Greg will be able to do in the future, and I guess time will tell. - We've lost Ryan, and well, not lost Ryan. - Well, Ryan is, but, you know, he's in the same boat too. He's starting a new family, and he's got the kids, and Bob, as well, has happened around for a couple of stories. - Bob is pretty integral, there has been for a long time. - Talking about coming back, so we'll hope to get Chew back in the saddle again. But at least for a roll of darkness, if not for Dresden. Question number three from Mr. Murktee, and that would be, if you could alter the dice or rules in Numenira, what would you alter? - We can cover the dice. - Three dice, we have two faith. - Yeah, three dice six, two dice 10, anything, but one die 20. - So, whose rules are dice? - It says rules or dice or rules. Now, I don't think he means either or here. - I think he means, if you could change it. - If you could change it, would you change it? - I mean, if the question was, setting our dice, that doesn't help out here. - No, it's not, it's, I love the setting, lose the dice. - If you could alter the dice or rules, I think he means and/or I think it's what he means here. - I mean, if you're even an earful about the dice, so, yeah, we were already talking about that. - And rules, I think, it seems like the skills from earlier talking left a little bit to be desired. - I mean, to cut right to the chase. - And no social combat. - Social combat. - Right. - Social combat and just the frustration of spending resources and-- - Yeah, that one. - And supposedly you're supposed to be good at something you're not. - Right. - As the full system. - You know, I can live with that. It's okay, I don't understand it. I don't understand the principle of it, but I can live with it. - Okay. Okay, next question on our list is from Danny Crawford. How do you feel about Cyphers, the randomness, one use, et cetera? Were your characters able to utilize the skills in a manner that you envision them being used for? - We discussed the skills already. There should be more of them and they were not really clear on what they are, so I mean, if that's a separate question, then something. - But did were you able to utilize them in a way that you wanted to during the story, okay? - Yeah, well, we understand that they were famous. - Yeah, we thought the mechanics sucked, but did you think-- - I was in a jacket, I had one of them, and I thought that I was able to utilize them the way I could. - I was an expert in new manera, and I never used that skill once, I don't think, in the whole thing. - Okay. - What was that because of a system conflict or a character development conflict with Sig? - Both. - Okay. I see it more as a character, 'cause Sig was able to use that. - It was a couple of times, I don't have a company in the game against this. - I wanna do a train in new manera. His particular folk guy gets another training in it, so he specialized off the bat. You need not get any choice. - There was two or three times, but I said, "Hey, I'm specializing in it," and I wanna do that, and you're like, "No, you can't do that." - Right. - Nothing. - We had three nanos with different levels of new manera. - Right. - Nina had one. Given how integral it is to the world, I can kind of understand when we get to higher tiers again, because I had specialities in electric things that I could fix. - Right. - New manera that used electricity, and you didn't have that, I would have been better at it. But, as we started out, we were all kind of stem nights at the shows. - Yeah, one of the things is when you pick a character class, you need to be able to pick things that differentiate yourself from the other people. - Right, right, class, especially when there's only three of them. And the way it turned out, it's a little difficult for nanos, 'cause they don't get to get any other skills other than-- - First thing is to set all of them, no. - What about the topic real quick? What about the cyphers? I particularly enjoyed the randomness and the creativity it forced upon you, to use them in unique ways. - Yes. - How did the players feel about it? - I agree with that. The problem I had was with when we discovered them, there wasn't a big enough chart that we started getting duplicates in a very short time. - Right, I think you came up with another supplement for a cyphers just for-- - Again, it might be back to my-- - He's addressing that. - Showing it. - Right, exactly. You know, it could put 5,000 cyphers. - Yeah, there's actually a deck out that has a site for deck with all 100 of them, and that sounds like it might be useful, 'cause we spent a lot of time rolling them up. - Let's see what happens. - For a single use item, you're rolling level. - As far as use what? I thought we used them inventively, and we had fun with them, and they were like-- - Well, that part I like about cyphers is you're finding, okay, like, when am I gonna use a level four sleep inducer? But you find a reason to use it. However, for me, I have to think of them as consumables, and I have this habit of every game I play, 'cause I hoard everything from it. I never know why I'm really gonna need it. And I like, if I were Batman, my utility belt would look like a huge fanny pack. - And he stops you, too, in the game, because of the radiation or whatever the human era-- - Well, right, and that's so you can only have two at any given time or else you can use them. - Yeah, they're burning a hole in your pocket, you're really gonna use them. - And you use mine 'til, like, the last bell seems. - Well, I think we are. You saw the mine on Tila. - Yeah, right. - It's cool, so. - So, micros were done generally thumb up, I think it's working around the table. - Yeah, a four or a little boring, but I mean this-- - It's gonna happen, right? And like I said, yeah, coming up with an entirely new supplement of a book of cyphers, basically not just the deck, but a whole new book of them, to make it even more hopefully intriguing for people to be able to have a set of cyphers that are one use, and maybe one cyper that you can keep on yourself that you can always use. - That's correct, that's what I'm calling an artifact. - We need to find an answer to the last bell. - Let's say, let's say-- - Maybe a cyper with multiple uses. - That's an artifact, let's slug through it. - Like a multi-tool? - No, it's only got five or six, but you want a lot of-- - Not forever, 'cause it still has a limit, but it's a little bit more-- - Artifacts too. - They can fail eventually. - The limit isn't one, okay, I don't know if you guys move on. - Okay, I'm not entirely sure how they work, 'cause we didn't get any. - But I think they're supposed to answer that. - And my criticism-- - Oh. - The chart being too small. - They're all used for combat, but I'm not gonna show up about that, but no. - No, no, no more. - It's about a point, John. - There was an issue in mind. - GM intrusions, and you mentioned that if you do get a duplicate on that chart, you should change the form that it's in or something, 'cause it's always supposed to be-- - That makes sense. - Unique stuff. - Right. - The criticism that it's a limited chart, I think you're supposed to make 'em up too as a GM. - The easy way to do it is use the chart, and that they do tend to-- - But you can be great open, yeah, exactly. All right, moving on to our next question from Luke Green. Like Roy, I asked, would you consider adapting the setting to another system? - We talked about it. - We're talking about it. - We're talking about it really, I agree with the fact that I think it would be way too much work. There's some stuff that is intertwined so heavily that-- - Right, well, I think for Fates-- - It would be easiest to modify the dice that you roll as opposed to changing-- - It's changing the entire system. I think that is kinda how we all landed in there for the most part. - I'm saving the rest of the new and newer episodes for my drives when work starts up again next week, but from what I gathered, you failed a lot more than people of the implied skill level should on tasks that were quite easy. The salt, meat wound, and he's just rubbing it in there. - And we discussed that as well. - Right, also I have concerns that a research management system requires the consumed resource to double as your hit point. So he, again, is with town here on that thought process. - Yeah, it seemed-- - Thoughtful before we started, but then it was kind of-- - Then it kind of sucked. - I'm hurting myself, you know, to succeed, and then I failed. - The enemies are hurting you even more, and it's like, oh, now I have half of what I even started with, and now they're hitting me in that same spot, where we have the dead. - And he goes on, for another thing, would you be willing to one-shot Cthulhu tech sometime between campaigns? - Dude, I've read about the Cthulhu tech. - I paced it in the thing about Cthulhu tech is from the Wikipedia, so you know what we're talking about. - Right, Cthulhu tech is-- I'm gonna help our listeners as well. Cthulhu tech is a science fiction and horror role-playing game created by Wildfire LLC and published by Sandstorm that combines elements of the Cthulhu mythos with anime-style, mecha-hor, magic, and futuristic action. Well, I would say everyone at the table with the possible exception of Mike, who, I don't know, when maybe too dark for you, Cthulhu, 'cause I mean, you think the world of darkness is dark, well, then, going insane and losing your mind to have a whole lot of-- - I don't want this cationic university and-- - He does need darkness. - It does need darkness. - Okay. - I think he's-- - I thought it might've been a little too dark. - Mike's defense, he's the only one in his watch that Netflix saw Cthulhu on. - He is the only one who's-- - I keep up to do two of 'em with the-- - You suggested him to us, I don't know. You're the man. - He saw a lot of Cthulhu. - Now, having said that, they're all about, like, impossible geometries and gods of insanity. - Right. - Are you getting enough of that? - I mean, you let me a little bit of a downer and every friend I've had, apparently. - I thought she weren't allowed to talk about the president. - Oh. - All right, so I think then the answer for Luke would be, it sounds like a possibility. Some people here have, I certainly enjoy the Cthulhu mythos and would certainly enjoy, it goes right up world darkness. - Well, I tell you what, my only reservation, though, if it goes back to the original world of darkness where really you were a normal person going against something so extraordinary and really you're just a win quote unquote, air quotes, a win is, we're not as insane. - I don't think that's what really-- - Oh, I don't know, it's been a Cthulhu game is you're gonna go insane eventually. - Yeah. - It's just, you know, you're the last one, so you're the winner. - But-- - Cthulhu tech sounded a little different. - No, yeah, it sounds like you have more power. - Yeah, what is it mixed with again? - We have a element of the Cthulhu mythos mixed with anime-style mecha, horror, magic, and futuristic action. So, Luke, I think the overall idea behind the table is that we might be willing to give that a one-shot sometime in the future. Next question is from John N. Macker, and Mr. Macker says, given a second chance, what would you have done differently with your characters? - Ooh, I don't know. - Okay, anyone got something they want to say? I don't go around the table, 'cause maybe everyone doesn't want to do anything different with their character. - But I loved my character, I thought she was great. - You wouldn't do anything different with her. - Okay. - I, with the point to Jim, who was really not happy-- - A little bit frustrated. - Yeah, a little bit frustrated with the overlap. - Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't change him for anything. If I was gonna change him, I would do something, a totally different character. - So that's my changeer character, but changeer character. - Yeah, there's a character in there that could change the new manera. I mean, the cyphers and stuff, and boost him, and make him do different things. - Yeah. - I would change his character like that. - Can I kill God, then he can restart? - Yeah. - And next, if we play the man, you absolutely can't. - Oh, Edom's dead. - Anyone else? - The glace? - Seriously, changing the character class or changing how you played the character? - Given a second chance, what would you have done differently with your characters? - Either or. - It would change his behavior. - After that first night, and seeing just how deadly Tila was to us, I was going to a place, kind of like in the original "Where Wolf" movies where they can only be killed by someone who loves the "Where Wolf." So I was like, you know what? I may have to kill Tila. - Correct. - He went to that way too quick, by the way. - For a brother. - First option. - Yeah, I am. - No, it just had to be killed. - He killed the bitch. - No. - For a type of horrible, painful creature she was turning into, and what a danger it was to everyone else, and believe me, everyone else wanted to kill her 'cause apparently they're trying to mine. - Definitely everybody wanted to kill her, right? - So, but I was thinking that I would tell her about the rabbits and do it that way. - Gotcha. - And try to almost create another, kind of like what we had with Donovan, and then that one where it's like-- - And that worked out really well. - Yeah, I think that a lot of-- - To be fair, Donovan was an NPC, though, not play a character, right? - Well, but that's very true, but I'm like, you know what? It's her brother, she's this. - There's my protector, yeah. - But we can't get-- - And it's going to be a while before she, can we survive long enough to even, and I think-- - Breaks of Wrath bitches. - I know, there was a lot of great pathos there, and I was thinking that if she got loose, and if we had played another night where he would have role played, and would have probably rolled beautifully, and would have killed somebody, I think that's when I would have done the-- - I hate-- - A new man era of, you know, mice and men. Do that whole unseen. - All right, that's-- - Potentially, yeah. - Depending on how-- - I don't know how my character dying, if it makes a good story. - Right. - How about you telling us anything with feelings? - I'm mostly in the boat with Jim. If I was gonna change something about my character majorly, I'd probably go with the focus. I think I can keep most of Felix's personality intact while changing his focus, though. It's just really good at something and doesn't want to lose at whatever that something is. - I have an idea for you. - Smaller crossbows? - That's a little bit. - I kill a man. - He has an Napoleon complex. He's a little guy that wants to be-- - Ballista. - I just always imagine he's carrying a relic of giant cello on his back, but it's a crossbow. - What about John or Michael, Sig or Nina, any changes? - He was knowing the frustration for me. - What was that? - Being a mutant was knowing the frustration. - Okay. - Because of, I don't know. - People were shy all day long. It was really annoying. - The prejudice? - Yes. - He was a demon. Okay, yeah, if you call it that. - I think they were prejudice against you 'cause you were whatever. - Odd words. - It wasn't that important, I guess. It was how I conceived he originally got his power, but there's a bunch of people who got powers from how, I don't know. So it doesn't really need to be-- - I got it or something. - But do you see it as a role-playing opportunity or do you see it was so annoying? - It was an answer to me that, I wanted my character to be able to sense technology, not just talk to it when he knew it was there. And that was one of the mutant abilities. I was just wondering, 'cause I don't remember what else had it, but Jim took it and I was like, I don't, it doesn't seem, it seemed a little lackluster, so I ended up picking mutant instead. But it didn't add enough that I felt it was necessary and it just caused me pain, so I think I might've changed that. - But he had a tail. - What are you doing? - Other than that. - Again, this, okay, what's new about Joe that would not stop? - It doesn't. - I'm ex-clapping like a C on the back, I'm going to utilize it. - No, I'm like, oh, yeah, no, you need a little card with the plus and minus and you hold it up, minus stop, just stop. - Nina? - Yeah, I don't think I'd change much. I like the character and I'm looking forward to playing her again, but that's all my answer. - I think in an urban setting, a lot of those opportunities would be a lot different. - I think Nina would be a really interesting character in a urban setting. - Yeah, I think she actually broke down with the phasing. - Set down in the middle of the run and cried because she wasn't interested. - Right. - Yeah, I think Sig and Nina and Eshman and Felix and the rest of us in an urban setting would open up a lot of opportunities to expand and explore their characters. - Right. - The way that maybe didn't have in the desert. - Me too. - Me too. - Yeah? (laughing) - Well, yeah, because I think, I mean, crazy people. - Crazy beasts and that would have presented a whole different set of levels. - Yeah, I feel like an underground fight call if we had you keep that. - Oh, suddenly you're fighting a bear. - All right. - You saw the contract, it's too late. - All right, we have another fan question. This one is from Jason Carter. If you could add only one house rule to Newman era, what would it be? - Two times the side of the 20. - Yeah. - Exactly what I was gonna say. Roll two 10 side of the dice. - It's hard not to make it about the dice. With, for me, social combat coming in. - Yeah, that's not about it. - A middle second, you know, but still decidedly second, not first. The dice to me-- - I mean, if it was only one roll for me. - Yeah, it's only one. - So I'd go with the dice. Anyone else have any feedback on that? - The house rule might be to modify the hall at the moon a little bit. - Really? - I kinda enjoyed it. - Just-- - I mean, he's just like a different, that's cool. I mean, I get that. - But if you only had one roll to change, you could only change one roll to lose. - Probably lose dice. - Yeah, that's fine. - But no, I get what you're saying that the hall at the moon is a definite-- - Again, I think we kind of went over that no time. I think it was more of the way we played it than necessarily-- - We played the hell out of it. - We, yeah, we really-- - But I liked it. - Run the hell out of it. - No, I'm not some saint. - That's why we played the hell out of it. - We run as much as we could out of that. And I think that is what made it so unique and so challenging. It didn't have to be that way. How about you, John or Thomas, if you had one roll to be the dice as well? Do you feel as strongly as everyone else did? - Oh yeah, sure. I think this guy's gonna be disappointed if we all answer dice. So we should probably think of something other than dice. - Yeah, I think we have more interesting answers if it wasn't for the dice. - Exactly. If it wasn't strategic-- - It's just all of us. - It's just, it's just strong. - Then say you can't give that answer. - That wasn't his question, though. Sorry, no, I'm kidding. He had no idea that we were gonna all feel some adamant about it. - So Mike says that it would be hell at the moment that he would house roll that. - Yeah, I would have written up some house rules for social combat and I realized it was so bereft of that mechanic going into it. Just go around the table. - I agree that the social's the second thing on the list. - Jim, nothing that jumps out you or-- - No, nothing that jumps out. - Down? - It harkens back to the die, but I would enjoy the systems that allow the players to have more narrative control. So it's not specifically just the die that takes it away from you. I would like to have some way to affect a role that I think is important. And I know that those components are built into the game. I don't think they were done efficiently or effectively. I would have liked to have something because it just seemed to me that my character didn't have enough to define it at a low level. So perhaps more skills, you know. - Any skills aspects perhaps? - I had one or two. - No, I meant-- - In a book, there was no blank examples, right. But I meant the character should have more of them because then it defines a character more. - Absolutely. - I guess the concept of the GM intrusion. - Do you like that? - Well, it's okay, but the way it's used makes it seem like the characters are always followed by a cloud of bad luck. And instead of being something to prompt or offer story opportunities or to throw on a twist, it seemed to be more of, and here's more bad luck that's gonna happen to you. - Okay, is that your perception? I like you to describe to you what you see the difference between the fate system's use of Tom saying, oh, I'm gonna call off of one of your aspects in me saying, for instance, do you wanna throw your sword into the pits and take the experience point or do you wanna say no, give it back to me? How do you see a difference between those two? I'm wondering how you're legitimizing that 'cause to me it seems almost exactly the same. Tom is going to throw something in our way but it relies on our aspect. - You know that there, that you write in what you want your weakness to be, what you want to be okay with happening. - Right. - In Newton era, it's a cloud of bad luck because I don't get to choose what it is. You just have to seize something and say this happens. - Right. - And spend experience to get rid of it. - Or spend fate to get rid of it. - I would say the same thing that John just said, which is when I create my aspects for my character, I'm saying to the GM, these are things I want to happen. - Okay. - And I don't use state to level up. - Yeah, that's the key difference there. - Yeah. - That was one unique system that I love. - Yeah, I was wondering if we could just, yeah, we could. - That was one of the things, the other thing that changes is that spending the experience to change a die roll when you also need it to level up and having to spend your ability points, which is in essence harming yourself, to be able to boost the score. I think this is, I didn't like the whole mechanic at all. - Have you been listening to German Troisians lately? 'Cause he addressed kind of this issue of using experience in the games and spending it. He suggested maybe a separate pool that everybody could use. - Yeah. - Well, I like, for example, in World of Darkness. - You can't use six or two advance your level, but you would use in the game situation. - I'm sorry about your done. In World of Darkness, I have a vice. My character's vice is greed. So you have that avenue to challenge my greed or to give me opportunities that to succumb to my vice. Same thing in fate where I think they have the aspects. And maybe as far as a house ruling in Numenera is are you ahead of the dice roll or behind the dice roll? Where you're behind the dice, you roll the dice and then figure out how you can tell your story. - Yeah, like we mentioned before. - Yeah, like we mentioned before. - Exactly. - And that's-- - I mean, I described something, I roll the dice and then it's another failure. - Yeah, no, I think that's a good question. - Excellent points. - The one thing that bothers me about this is I've listened to a lot of podcasts over the last years. And one of the things I've heard mentioned before is you don't make a rule that prevents GM from being a dick. And to me, a little bit, the GM intrusion is, okay, the GM's gonna be a dick, so let's give a benefit to the players for the GM being a dick. - Right. - It almost seems like that kind of rule. That you're making a rule to make it okay for the GM to be an asshole. - Okay. - Now, it's the GM's job to make the story interesting. I get that. - Right. - And I should just accept that and move on. - Don't give me lube for fucking me over. And basically what it comes down to. - Just to be clear, I didn't have that kind of reaction to it. I was thinking of a dungeon world when I lost my sword because it got stuck in the demon and got-- And my signature weapon ran away because it was stuck in the demon and I had no weapon. That was perfectly fine. Same thing with my sword and the spider pit that however the rolls went and went. But my point was it just feels like there is, instead of the intrusion in that story divergence that lets you figure out what's happening, it seems like more it was played as a bad situation getting worse at like a cloud of bad luck. - Right. - Just, you know-- - No, those are all excellent answers. I think that's really a good way to describe it. Did anyone else have a house rule that they would use? Tom mentioned mine a little bit. It was-- - I spelled this basically. - Skill points, when you start out, very few skills are available to most people. Jacks have a ton of these. That's kind of the thing and they get more and more as time you're on. But Nanos start with one and then the only other ones they're gonna have are determined by their focus and their descriptor. - Which is to say most of the time, just a roll of the dice. I mean, anything you do that doesn't involve your skill is just a random chance. Or whether it succeeds or not, which you have very little effect over unless you pay for. - Now what I was saying? - True. - More skills, that would be less the case. - What I was saying was the skills you get at the beginning are determined by your descriptor and your focus. And a little bit by your class. Nanos always get Numenaira. And then if they choose the right descriptor, they might get a skill or two in more Numenaira, if that's what they choose. And then if they choose the right focus, they might get a skill or another. - That almost seemed a problem to me because we had three Nanos and they all were Numenaira experts. And the one player that was talking to machines, which is kind of like the definition and is the only thing that he does, is deal with Numenaira. He's overshadowed by every other nano in the party. Not never shadowed, but impinged on. - Right. - Even when they get-- - Even when they get Numenaira as an expert level or whatever you want to call it. - Yeah, it's right. - I want to point out that my character had a specialization in electrical devices. And I could see people gaining specializations that their characters would have over time as we played more. But because Numenaira's just going to get stayed the same level of complex, which is pretty high, I made some amazing roles. It would have been much easier if I were specialized in that sort of thing. - Yeah, I think I would have played Nina a whole lot differently if there weren't any other Nanos in the party, but she had Numenaira and never used it virtually because she was overshadowed by the expert. - And yet it was virtually the only skill that you got. - Right, isn't it such a broadly defined skill? I mean, is it everything in this world Numenaira? - Exactly. - Yeah, but when you have an expert and somebody who specializes in it, there's like one level above me and two levels above Nina. - I didn't really-- - I didn't really-- - There was no reason for-- - By and one level above me. - Right. - You had it regularly, right? - Right, trained? - Yeah. - I don't know that they need another category to include more skills that everyone can pick, like a background or something. - Yeah, that's kind of wrapped up in, it's kind of wrapped up in the script there and kind of wrapped up in-- - I would have made it-- - I mean, in our house role, that would be great. - I wouldn't have written more skills. - Yeah, this is my answer. But I wouldn't have written every class gets this skill. I would have said you get to pick. - That's what I would-- - You get one skill or two skills. - I think that would be my every-- - And I would get one skill to choose in every jacket. - Or perhaps even-- - Or something like that. - Breaking up the Numenaira skill. - Yeah, have special stages in it. - Yeah, Numenaira-- - I got slifers or other guys. - A history of Numenaira-- - A known or I got new machines or I got some, you know. - Studies, knowledge, you know, just different categories of Numenaira. - I would house rule it like who you are and where you came from. And so that gives you like you can pick two skills. One that is like a history where you came from or like for me was trading or caravanning or you're dealing. And then the person I am-- - No, today. - In my today, what would a class you do? - Okay, well I think we got a lot of good ideas there for house rules. - Yeah, Numenaira. - Oh, quite John. I'm sorry, I thought you did give yours. - I was just adding into his discussion. - Right, go ahead, please. - I'm not sure how I would have done this, but I would have added more non-combat applications for the skills we get for our focus. They seem to be a big part of our character and yet mine seem to be inching around whether or not a grenade would go off in my face or something, which is not how I would write the is friendly with machines skill to read. - It sounds like you can't apply it in non-combat situations. Like you wanna be friends with an AI, but-- - There's no solid rules for it. - Yes, especially when the stated purpose is to, is discovery rather than battle. - Do you think that's, because it's a new system or do you think that's because they wanna leave it open and let us kind of fill in those blanks? - Well, I think there was a lot of fill in the bank given how's the moon play? But the book's full of good ideas. It's just they didn't seem to try in this department. - Yeah, that would be a good obstacle too. - It actually might be a neat little exercise to go through those skills and try to write down those non-combat opportunities or examples of how it might apply. - And the story too, maybe impacted that a bit. It was, you know, it was a story about discovery, but there certainly was its fair share of combat. And I think if it had been, again, more of a city adventure, more urban type setting, certainly with more mystery and intrigue, you might have had more options to use that talking to machines. - When you were in the city, I did manage to use it to get us up on the left, exactly. - Right, and I thought you could have something to do with it. - I thought you used it a lot where you were using it as a weapon, you were using it to counteract weapons, you're using it to access information, you're using it to-- - I always felt I was fudging it in that respect. And if the book had backed me up, I would have felt okay with that. - Well, maybe I think you're filling in the blanks and using it appropriately with-- - Yeah, I didn't think you were cheating. - Yeah, and then-- - I totally thought you were cheating the entire time. - Thank you, GM. - It was horrible, I couldn't sleep at night. - Well, listen, I was trying to interfere. I had a little power that says interface with technology, so-- - I know. - That would have fixed up probably. - He dropped the ball on that one. - Yeah. (laughs) - I thought for sure we had the cure. - You did, I just didn't see it. (laughs) I just didn't acknowledge it. Okay, that's a lot of good feedback regarding the house rules. So Jason, obviously everyone would choose to change the die or the dice first, but everyone had a different feel as to what, or at least a lot of different feels about what would be the second most important house rule, which if we get back to new and era, I'm sure we'll house rule the shit out of it. If there's not five more resource books by then the head that have come out, Jason McDonald had a question. Do you guys miss having sound effects music played while you're playing versus now when it's edited in? And this one really would apply to Jim, Tom, and Mike, because Michael, Thomas, and Jonathan didn't really play with any sound effects. And that first, really what he's referring back to is that first chagrin story where we had a lot. From an editing standpoint, I know you're answer. - I know you're answer. - I'm an editor, I can't answer. I can tell you, I-- - From out that shit from our first shit luck story was the only time we really had the music built into it, but I know from the look on Tom's face, and the fact that he's the editor that-- - Yeah, as an editor, I can't stand. And the reason, I don't know, it's been mentioned before, but if we have music playing in the background and I have to cut something out, the music does a jump and it's noticeable. - Right. - If we were to record this for a podcast, would you care? - No. - It would look like it better if it was played with clover play. - I joined music in the background. - Yeah, I would probably enjoy it. - I thought it really shined the most when there was like, when you were at a cafe and there was at that chatter in the background, the clinking of plates and then the espresso machine went off and I had like about a 30 minute cafe, just from some thing, you just played the background and it really kind of set the atmosphere that you were really there in a coffee house discussing something or a wine bar or wherever you're at. - And then we sit there for two hours and ask to repeat. - It does, 20 minutes long, usually-- - And that's a jump in one of the shit lucks. We were in a hospital lobby and the elevator kept-- (laughing) - Did somebody ask, did you record? - Did you guys actually play in an elevator? - I don't miss the lighting tricks that you would do by the candles of the old eyes, I agree with you. I don't miss that and I don't miss not having music, although I think having the sound effects was kind of-- - I was gonna say, you had maybe one of the most striking scenes in that first story, when you were approached by Heart Cook's brain. - But that was a sound effect to signal his-- - But even his voice, 'cause I wasn't talking. - His gym intrusion, yeah, it was. - But I tell you what, well that whole thing-- - It would have been the same with me talking as opposed to the actual voice of the spirit of Cleveland. So it would have been different with me just talking it through with you as opposed to hearing that maybe more haunting voice or no, 'cause I remember you saying-- - That was probably, it was a high point of role playing and also whenever I heard that stupid heart, it wasn't a stupid song, but it just like, oh geez, this spirit's taking me over again. - Right. - So, and that added some dread to the thing. I don't miss it, but I agree kind of with Tom that I think going back and listening to it, since this is evolved from just role playing, it's into a product. It's much better and a better quality to have it in post. - So maybe the answer would be going forward would be to have some small sound effects or voices. Like if Heart Cook's brain arrives again in the third story, you would like to have his actual voice communicating with you or would you rather me be role-applying that with you? - I think that would work as long as we are aware of certain editing-- - As long as it's not like a continuous background-- - No, 10 seconds is enough. And maybe that's even too much. Five seconds to introduce the-- - For the song to play that you know, he's starting to enter your consciousness. And then his voice, though, for the communication back and forth would be stronger role-playing for you than just me talking is what you're saying. 'Cause I had like an electric of dialogue where whatever you gave an answer for, I would just hit a sound file on my laptop and it would play a response to what he was saying. It was just a creepy ghost voice. - You could be silent while it does that and then Daddy could just chop it up. - Yeah. - If your internet doesn't work live, I mean, you could play the sounds and we'd get that feeling live and then the editing could play-- - You could take care of the rest, right. - If you ever listened to the Hitchhangers Guide to the Galaxy Radio Plays, which I highly recommend it to have it-- - Yeah, good stuff. - It's been a while. - How they use sound effects and music and stuff, and they use it kind of like the way we use it. And that long, a bed under everything, it's bringing something in out, great little snippets to enhance what you're listening to, so. - Jim, I didn't hear a lot of feedback from you. I know I got Tom and Mike, but what about you, Jim? Did you miss it? Do you like it? What's your thoughts? - I think it's cool in like a world of darkness or Dresden type of atmosphere when you're trying to get that creepy, spooky feeling at the table. To be able to play that sound at the table. Something like something you know they're gonna hear in another room, but they're not gonna know what it is. And instead of trying to describe the sound, it's kind of neat to be able to actually play the sound and say, here's what you hear. - So you're kind of with Mike, with short clips of sound as opposed to that constant background loop that we might be playing, to set the overall tone of a scene. You're more interested in those little bits and pieces? - I mean, it's cool. If you can add something that we were ad-hocking in the middle that you didn't have a sound prepared for, but if you know we're gonna be hearing something, and you bring this sound along with you, that's kind of cool. - And while we're on the subject, I think we all agree that the sound effects are cool, and music is, and because sometimes, the music can actually distract. - I agree. - When you're playing. And when you're playing. - I have a question for the listeners. Is the music to distract when you're listening? Should I stop putting music as a bet? Is it bothering anybody? We have three people here that listen. - Yeah, as a listener, I enjoy. - I say, if I like the music in the background, most of all, you'll have a certain track or a certain something you hear again that's annoying, but nine times out of 10 is off. - Going back to the flashback. - So the listeners, though, as well. - Right, yeah, to give us some feedback. Going back to the feedback, kind of talking about chagrin in the flashbacks. I recently been working a lot of late nights, so I watched the six seasons of "Lost" or however many they were, which was quite the endeavor, 'cause there was a shit ton of episodes. It had to be over 100 episodes at least. - Did you seen it before? - No, it's my first, I always say it, 'cause I kind of like got heard about it, thought it sounded kind of cool, like in the second or third season, like a fuck. I'll just wait 'til it's all done, and then I'll watch it, which is what I did. I watched it all the way through over like a three week period. Anyways, they had a neat thing where when they were going to a flashback, 'cause that thing was all about flashbacks and flashbacks and flashbacks. And it was like, whoa. - That's when I was trying to create what I-- - Right, so they didn't have like the tin, not the tin can. You have like a very subtle-- - There's an echo. - Echo effect in the background. And I thought, as soon as it happened for the first time, I'm like, that's good. But again, they were in a flashback. To be fair, they were in a flashback for five minutes. - Right. - We were in a flashback for maybe an hour and a half. - Had to have something that was continual that the listeners would know-- - Exactly, would have liked that. - Would have worked ill in a flashback. - Right. - For shorter flashbacks, something like that could work. But in hand, I think he did a great job. But I just, when I was watching him, I'm like, wow, that would have been a cool-- - That actual sound was the one I wanted to try to emulate one. 'Cause I remember talking to you guys, and it might have been you and or Bob mentioned, well, you shouldn't have the harp, you know, when people go into a flashback, so I'm like, no fucking way I went with a harp. - Yeah, I thought the way, when I first listened to the flashback, I liked it a lot. It's not overpowering, you know you're in a flashback, no matter how long you go. - It's very subtle. - And you know, you're still there, if you're like, drift off and you come-- - Yeah, right, right. - You're working and you come back to school, you're still in a flashback. - Yeah, and you wouldn't know that with the noise from lost. - I was gonna say that the live sounds, I think, help draw you in, and they get real specific about what's happening, and it reminded me of, you know, you can describe a monster in the old D&D format, but if you can whip out the monster manual and say, this is what you're looking at, you know, it becomes clear, even if you don't know all the stats and stuff, you can see that. - Yeah, by the way, I always imagine London as kind of like Linus. - Linus? - The-- - Oh, Linus from boss, not like Charlie Clonk. - Right, right, right, right. - Got you. - Same thing. - I think he's supposed to be pretty in that. - Yeah, I think he's a little prettier than that, but I understand what you're saying. - I am mentally, emotionally and mentally, just because I loved-- - He was a great character. - I loved that character. - It was, he was a strong character. - I loved that he had him so much. - Right. - And he never knew whether to believe him or not throughout the entire-- - He did that, but I loved it. - Right, that's true. - I also heard rumors that you watched Breaking Bad. - I watched, well, I watched 90% more and a half seasons of Breaking Bad because the last half isn't still-- - Really exciting. - With AMC.com, I'm hoping that was, 'cause they still sometimes have the episodes that they just played and they didn't have them. And, of course, they're not on Netflix yet, so I have to sit there for the last eight. I hope he just gets his ass kicked in those last eight episodes. - Dude, it's a good show. - His character arc is absolutely fantastic, and he, I just hope he gets his come up in the last eight episodes, 'cause he has changed. - It's a fantastic character arc is pretty much all it's like. - I've only heard awesome things about it. - Yeah, I just watched again that after I watched Lost. I went to Breaking Bad, and now I'm watching the tutors. - From a show time. - I've always given it. - Yeah, it's pretty solid, and I'm playing a lot of Europa Universalis, which is a grand strategy game that takes place right in that time frame. So it's really kind of neat to be able to kind of visualize what's happening in those courts that you're-- - It's astounding working on it. - We can do a whole ton of metal that stuff. - Okay, so that was a great question by Jason, that kind of will trip down memory lane there with sound effects, and hopefully, at least for me, I really think they're gonna be making a reappearance to my third-- - Well, I heard that. It was gonna be the trouble of finding sound effects online. - Just the sound effects, not the actual background music. And our next question is by DJ Allen, and that is, hopefully, I'm not too late, which is not, is Newanera going to be put into the rotation and a question specifically for Scott. Why weren't any children harmed in the playing of this adventure? (laughing) I think I'll handle mine real quick there and say that I just felt as if Mike could use a bit of a break from the threatening. And plus, if you beat the trope too much to death that it's been, many years now, I've been endangering children, you have to occasionally take a break from it if only to make it fresh again. So I guarantee you that in the next World Darkness story, children will be harmed, no doubt about it. You have my guarantee. And then anyone else wanna talk about Newanera going into the rotation? - Well, I believe you've discussed it already, which is to say, we really loved the setting. We really loved the characters in there, maybe a chance that we return, but if we do, it's not gonna be with the roles as written. - Right, we'll be health-rolling it to the most major one being the dice. - It'd be interesting to see when they come out with the strange, is that what it is? - Yeah. - Yeah. To see if there's any of those issues addressed or if they're just looking at that particular area of Newanera that, you know, it's-- - From what I'm hearing, they call it the Cypher system and it's-- - Yeah, sounds the same. - It's gonna be the same. - Is there some kind of contract thing when they build these games that you have to use certain systems, or do you have to get permission to use certain systems? - Well, this system was created by Monty Cook. - Yeah, so he had to use games-- - These games are-- - Freedom. - To use what he wanted to do with-- - License it out to this guy? - But that's what I mean, I wasn't sure, is D20 considered a license. - He's also written by Monty Cook, so he didn't license it out to himself. He's gonna use his money that he created. - And also, I think that it's not die 20, because I mean, I think die 20 in a D&D version is armor class and, you know, there's a-- - Yeah, there's some other things I went to it. - So he just basically, you can't, I don't think he can copyright a 20-sided judge. - I just remember there being a logo, so I wasn't sure if it was trademarked. - It uses a die 20, but it's not a die 20. - I just-- - Right, and that's the difference. There's a die 20 system, which you're right, which I think Michael's right about, the fact that I think it's-- - Okay, so for example-- - It's the inter-term, but whatever, the-- - Okay. - Literary-- - Yeah, open license, the literary terms. - For example, you've talked about possibly composing a social combat, or we talked about defining skill applications. If we refer to fate, I mean, are you allowed to refer to fate, or use the fate system inside of that mechanic? - It all depends. - Or you have to get permission. - It all depends. - It all depends. - It has an open license as well. - Okay. - So-- - Because I think even in Monty's system, the system he created, which the Cypher system, whatever he's calling it, if you-- - No, if you're using the Cypher system, you're gonna have to talk to him about-- - Well, the point is, if, I know that's true, I thought I read on his website early on, not early on, maybe recently actually, that if you plan on producing a product with his system, and you are going to make less than $2,000, you don't need his permission. So if you're either doing it for free, disclaimer here, you need to go to his website and find out-- - I'm not a lawyer. - I am not a lawyer, but I remember it did specify on his website, if you make more than $2,000, you need a license. You have to actually purchase a license from Monty Cook. - But just speculation of him having to say that means that you have to, I mean, he's giving license for you to do that. - Right, yes. - But by the laws and the United States and where these games exist, you would have to. - Right. - And I think, I'm saying that Fage is open-- - I think if you're just, I don't know that that's a case. - If you're just houseworkin' around a table, though, we're not making any money from our podcast, I don't think you have to go to Monty and say, "Hey, put yourself." - Right, exactly. We're not selling some Monty profit. - We're making a profit. - Right. - Okay, on to the next question. Sam, Stikwood, Hannick, had some feedback for us, there are some questions, and more fun with the previous group of characters or this group of characters. So I think he's asking, did we enjoy the new manira group of characters better or the dungeon world group of characters better? It's which is an interesting question, of course. For me, he's only had one character in the two, but for me-- - I actually do recall that I talked to him, and one of the things I put in the post on Facebook was that if they had any questions about the upcoming dresses. - I think this one might have been actually referring to that, and I told him in a conversation privately that we'll be returning to the exact same Dresden characters that we had in the initial one, so we did have one group of characters that we used in a pre-gen, but we didn't like them. And so London, Roberto, Alan, Edmond, Maxwell, they'll all be coming back. - So you think this question wasn't about dungeon world versus the manira? - No, but we can address that if you want. I mean-- - Yeah, why not? - You can start up. - Sure, I would say that I can't say that I really love Tila anymore than, say, my only other character, which is Jay, I like them both, and I'm glad we play either of them. - Yeah, you can't really compare it with either can I, because we each only had one character. I had the same witness and nothing else, 'cause I didn't-- - Right, yeah, it's saying when I said you had London. - Right, from just from the critical mass around the table, I think I enjoyed the new manira group more than the dungeon world characters, the reason being, I don't know, I just thought there was some really great dynamicism between the characters, and dungeon world was just a little bit more airy and fun, and you didn't get that quite that same tension and yet interest, and really characters kind of flowering and coming into their own in such a short period of time, where dungeon world would seem like we would need a couple more stories to really flesh out the characters. So I think in new manira, they kind of came in their own earlier, that would be my feedback, but again, I only played one character. - What about some of you who played two characters? - Yeah, I kind of agree, I played Zab and Nina, and I think Nina was a little more fun, maybe 'cause it was more recent, but they were both okay, it wasn't a blowout, but I enjoy playing them both, but I guess I had to choose, I guess it would be Nina, and yeah. - Okay, Jim, when are you getting feedback, or? - I don't know if I liked one more than the other, they were both pretty fun, equally. - Okay, Mike? - Yeah, I like Buzz, I'm interested in his potential. - Right. - So you say you enjoyed the new manira character, but more than your dungeon world character? - Yeah. - Okay, Thomas? - With Dungeon World, I got really wrapped up in the mechanics, 'cause the game kind of lends itself to that for the new manira. So character wise, I definitely enjoyed Felix Moore. - Okay. - I knew he was better. - You said dungeon world, you got wrapped up in the rules of dungeon world, you met new manira, correct? Or did I understand it? - Mechanically, I got wrapped up in dungeon world, because I was too busy thinking about the numbers game of it and how my character worked with all his powers and such one. - Right. - In new manira, I thought more about the character when I was with the flaws, like what class am I? I was like, what did this character fit into best? - Dungeon World felt more just like a very quick game. Shallow, it's not meant to be played for a long time. - Right. - At least it's how we played it. - At least in the way I thought of it, where it's-- - No, I agree. - In new manira, it's a longer stretch of road to have that character. - Right. - Jump? - I'm gonna be exciting. Say that I liked my Alex Sig better than fuck what was my name. (laughing) - You were a bard. - I know what I was, I asked who I was. - Of the name of your character? - Yeah. - I don't like so much. - I think that says it all. - That was me. Okay, here's something. - No, you were drama. - I was drama. - I think it was Dunwick. - You were a Dunwick. - You were a Dunwick. - Yep. - I was Dunwick. - You like Sig better than the guy you couldn't remember his name? - What happened to fuck? Yeah. - Holy shit. - He's done with Dunwick. - That's revealing. - And do you like your world of darkness character better than that? - Dressing him? - Yeah, that's the question. - Why are I dancing? - It's hard for us. - Well, no, I'm just saying. - No one else does just yawn. - What I found was interesting is that you would think that the character that has the most depth to it would be your fate character. Because of the aspects which are a mechanic in the game but describe your characters' needs, wishes, driving goals, goals. - You know, I don't think about that mode as much more than another system's demand. - But strangely enough, in New Manera, I found that the characters were really deep, even though there was no mechanic that drove that. - Yeah. - I had, I don't know. - I had more fun playing like dungeon world character because I felt I can do more with the world, had more-- - And we needed you. - Had more effect. - But it more effect more. - Yeah. - We're in New Manera. I didn't feel like my character, I had fun playing him but I didn't feel like he could do anything to really affect anything in the world. He was underpowered. - Right. Which is part of the system more than anything, I think. Okay, that was an interesting question that I probably just made up on my own. But thank you, Sam, for your question. Stuart Horne had a question. Were there any major challenges running or playing such a new game versus an established franchise like World of Darkness? As far as running it, I would just say that I would compare running New Manera to be the first time I ran World of Darkness. You're gonna just stumble and you're gonna miss obvious rules, you're gonna make mistakes. And I still do in World of Darkness, but World of Darkness feels like an old glove, where you just put it on and you just know how you're gonna run it, you know how it feels, you know, what kind of mood you're setting where New Manera was so new and so fresh and so different from other systems that are out there. It made it a little tougher to run. - Something worth considering is that World of Darkness, we can tweak it however we want to because it's been out so long that people have released modules that we can say, yeah, that's a good system to use. - Right. - So we have a social combat mechanic and we have everything else that we want. - And so many books in the series. - Right, you can look and find stuff, but New Manera is completely new. There's people working on it and those guys are doing great, I'm sure it didn't actually look, but you can't mod it the way you want to because it's so new. - Right. - Go out there and find a solution to all the games. - That's a good point. - That's a great point 'cause we had discussed about halfway through the probability of rolling a one on a 20-sided die and we talked about modifying that. - Right. - We didn't wrap that idea 'cause we were just playing the game. - We'll play one time through and we'll see what it's like, right? - I'm gonna take a contrary to what's been expressed so far and that I think New Manera was actually easier to run than when we rolled the dark. - Or to play. - No, to run. Just because it's got, it's newer and the game development concepts have grown over the years, you have to admit that making up an NPC in New Manera, something you can throw at us, is a thousand times easier than making up somebody in New Manera World of Dark. - Oh yeah. - Or you mean, or yeah, definitely, even fate. - Yeah, I have to agree with that aspect and the fact that I didn't have to roll dice, both of those lent themselves to an easier job running the system, but it never felt-- - That specifically was this question. - Right, but on the game. - Right, but it never felt comfortable for me, I guess, is where I was coming from is even though it was easier, I didn't feel more comfortable behind the screen. Okay, I think we got our answer for Stuart. Thanks again for the question. Jason Carter and his question is, how much trouble can the London get the group into now? And you'll just have to listen, Jason, 'cause I'm gonna try my damnedest to fudge things up as best I can, although I would say that Roberto-- - I don't know about London. - And as Roberto-- - He was getting you into the most trouble in the last-- - I think London was always trying to keep us out of trouble. - Well, I think, yeah, he walked a fine line at times, but yeah, when it came to the police slightly retail, then he did the police car, you know, he did the seeming, I think. - Yeah, but you didn't-- - That was kind of into that trouble. - You know what I'm saying? - That was him getting us out of trouble. - What? - So he's a good-- - Or a boy in a trouble ring altogether. - Remember that-- - By staying in a car. - Oh, I did, but that was also to delay her because we weren't set up yet for it, but I was gonna say, I think Roberto actually did a little bit more of the throwing the wrench in the plan, or Maxwell running away hand-in-hand with the vampire down Coventry Lane. - Yeah, holding a brilliant, brilliant. - Right, but I'm sure London will try to bring his own unique personality to the four. Let's move on to the next question as we move towards the end of the listener questions, and we have it from Richard Watts' first question, which I think we've covered pretty fully and thoroughly here, is Newman era, what was each player's favorite moment of the campaign? Everyone did their favorite scene, I call it as a post moment, and what was Scott's favorite moment, which I gave two of them, and even started branching into a third. So I think we've covered that one, Richard. Next is along the lines of Luke's question, what's on deck for the Knights? So we can certainly talk about that a little bit. - All right, that's fine, and that's fine, it's Jawsden, we're going back to Jawsden universe. - Wow, you played well with resolve, what happened between Roberto and him. - We are changing it a little bit, and then we're moving to Fatecore. - We are moving to Fatecore, which means we're going to drop a few of the aspects for each player's, because I think Seven is too much, Five is Fatecore, and I think that's much more. - It's just in combat a little bit too, it does, just in mind it changes to the combat. So we are going to move to Fatecore, which is a more streamlined way. - Do we have PDFs with the Fatecore? - The government of grappling. - I do, I'm very sad. But let's tell all the listeners as well, the Fatecore PDF is available at Dry Through RPG for Pay What You Want. - Well, that includes, it's been pretty much-- - It's existence? - Yeah. - Did you get to pay it? - I was part of the Kickstarter site. - You get to get the books on. - We got a ton of them. - It was well worth it, and they gave me a lot of-- - We're like 800 adventures. - Oh yeah, we're running one of them with one hour right now. - Right, so Michael used one of them. - Yeah, I was just going to say again, I was listening to 99,100, which was the wrap up to the Dresden, because I'm going to be getting into-- - Getting next to the Dresden, yeah. - And back then, you were mentioning that I thought there were too many aspects. - It was one of the most frustrating things for me as the GEM, was the fact that we had, I don't know what, six players. - Six players. - And everybody had seven aspects for you to make any of them relevant. There's just too much time with that. And I also don't think that a player can come up with seven things that define their character. Define their character. I think five is a much more-- - Yeah, they become more flavor-esque after a while, as opposed to like a character-defining trait. After we do switch to fake core and do a full Dresden story. So it'll be a nice one. - It'll be a nice chunk of episodes. - Yeah, it'll be a nice chunk of episodes. We're not talking about a one-shot here or a quick story. It's going to be a nice, involved story. - After we turn to those characters, there's many people want to know what's going to happen between-- - Right. - We're either on the warden. - After that occurs, now we're actually, and we'll probably know more as we go into Dresden, but we're thinking about whether we jump straight into the third world of darkness story, or in that for our listeners as well, there is a rule subset, a rule addition that was added to the storytelling core system, the God Machine Chronicles, which is free on drive-through RPG. And that basically takes the core blue book, as they call it, in the storytelling system, takes the core blue book and adds and tweaks the rules to make for what they think now is a stronger, after 10 years of running blue book, makes for a stronger system overall. I'm going to be implementing most of those changes into the next world of darkness story. So for those of you who are interested, that's out there for free. But the question now is, do we do a one-shot like Cthulhu tech, or Savage Worlds or anything? Coach, we still have the dice heroes out there that want to corroborate an actual play with us. But if they want to play, they were talking about something that was really weird. Yeah, I thought it was steam. Punk. I never did steam punk. I think it was, I could see myself on stranding, steam punk or something. It's not really a steam punk, yeah. So what do we do with one shot with other group, or with ourselves, or whether we delve right into the world of darkness is still upper debate at this point. I think those people are really Jones and world of darkness. I'd like to get back to that soon before they start getting too frustrated. Right, it's true, it's been a long absence. But, you know, that's, well, we'll see. Yeah, it's obviously, you can see it. Well, I didn't realize things kind of dictated. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, we're torn right now. And over two old new systems. Yeah. I noticed in going back to re-listen to delivery again, this is still Richard Watts, the third of his questions, that the episode length has increased on average doing part to increase feedback. We also had some super-sized episodes during the American holiday season. Yes, we did. I know that you originally planned on keeping the episodes around an hour in length. Have recent events changed that, or will you be returning to your format? Well, as the editor, I'll adjust that. Sure. And that being mainly, there was an increase in length of feedback we were getting from characters, from listeners. And we want to acknowledge that, and we want to address those questions that they have. But the problem was becoming that the episodes are becoming smaller and smaller, because we were trying to stay to that one hour length. So at one point, I made the decision that we're going to do one hour of role-playing. So those people that don't want to listen to the feedback at the very beginning of the episode, I tell them, go 15 minutes in, start there, you're going to get your hour up. Right, eight minutes, nine minutes, whatever it ends up being. Traditionally, we're going to stick to about an hour of actual play. If we can, some nights, if we divide up an evening and we end up with just a little short and we're 45 minutes instead of an hour. Right. So be it, I'm not going to attack down 15 minutes from other day. We may be shorter than that. We will generally not go longer than an hour of the actual play session, but the feedback's a different animal, in my opinion. Right. So that's why we're going to handle that. And if that bothers anybody. Yep. But I think the best majority of our listeners enjoy the feedback. And it's, I mean, if you can skip it, then just skip it. I mean, it's not really as if it needs to be either or, you know, proposition. I've actually tried with Dad, do you have a moment to the end? We've discussed that in person. Right. And then the last question, Tom Rocket is on here. Rocket. Good to hear from Rocket again. She was not even here. What are you asking for? Yeah, I don't know. His favorite player's not around. But he says, what would your players change about this world, the setting or the rules? Pick one. Oh, hell, that's an easy one. Yeah, I don't think it was supposed to be, you know, when you probably first envision the question. Yeah, I mean, but over the last few changes. What would you change about the settings? Right. The setting, what could you change about the setting? Right, since we're all going to say rules. Right, everybody's going to say rules. To change anything in the setting, the setting is too open to say what you have to change to make it better. And we've only seen a small fraction of it. Exactly. I don't know that I could, I mean, it's great. It's a great idea, Jim, to try to elaborate on his questions since it's all so exciting. What about our worlds that we are playing in? Yeah, what do you change about Scott's setting? Yeah, what do you guys, what do you guys change about the setting that I, the tableau that I painted, as opposed to the tableau that Monty painted? If the first adventure could have been, I think Mike mentioned this at the beginning, a little more in the ninth world, and we could have experienced some of that. Right. I would have appreciated that more. But if we were to change, you'd head around new physics. Right, right. But if we do play again, you said you want to explore the city more efficiently, that's fine. That wouldn't be nice. I liked the city when I first heard it. I was like, oh. That would have been my answer as well as more city-oriented adventure. Yep. Anyone else got something like that? Anyone else got something like that? More city, less desert. Yes. Jim. I really enjoyed designing that city. So I would like to, that would be my answer too, would be I'd really like to get you guys into the city for more exploring and learning about new stuff and new things rather than fighting things. Right. Sig's adventure. No. In the beginning, when we went up to the Azir's palace, and I, Sig, tried to converse with an Iain priest. An Iain priest? How am I supposed to pronounce it? Iain. Iain. Yeah, I-- Can you edit that in? No, do it again. And Sig conversed with an Iain priest. I can do that. The head Iain priest in the Azir's core. He was kind of ignored. I'd like to explore what kind of role they play in the society. If they're like court magicians or what they do in that area. I want to figure out why they're so unresponsive to him. The only other ones he's met believed in hell, fire, and damnation, which is not the kind of one he's familiar with. So he's just wondering what's up with the chapter here. In the beyond, what's the general view of the role or in serenity in particular? Right. Because that's where he's going to be. So more social, political focus? Not overall. Just do a little bit on his part. I'll just meet. Right. Yeah, whatever. It can happen. I'm not wanting that to be the focus of the event. No, no, no, my group. It's just I wanted to know what's up with that. Is it the basis of the whole world in the game in general, of new manera, is to get out of the city and go out and explore the world and learn about new places and new things while they're there and how they work? Right. Getting out of the city is required, but there's interesting stuff in the city. There's new manera everywhere. Yeah. I have especially with the stockpiles that Vazir has. Right. Lots of interesting stuff could happen in the city. I would love to take it back to the city, whether it be a pro-revolution, anti-revolution-- I think it'd be something completely different. Like to be in the city and figure out maybe the story and the reason of why the three tiers are there and how they work or how the city-- what the city's original function was and maybe find some mystery in there that people don't know. All right, this is reused by several different-- Yeah. So would they find them? Fending that over a couple of games, though, just cleaning hints in the air in there. Because it's not-- well, it's probably really interesting. But it's not what we're doing. Right, the second. But it would be part of the backstory, I think, if you're trying to overthrow or save someone from being overthrown, you're obviously going to want to know more about it. You're going to learn-- I mean, the history's got to be coming to play at some point and that would be something that we would obviously investigate as we went forward. And I would also open this up that serenity doesn't have to be just my city. I would absolutely GM the system again, especially if we tweaked the die rolling I would love to. But if someone else wanted to step in, I would just share my notes. Because we're all old enough now that if you see my notes and say, oh, that's what's supposed to happen. When you play your character again, you're not going to take advantage of that situation. You're going to play your characters if you don't know that. And that's one of the cool things about having a group. We all kind of trust each other and we all play nice. And so it's not just my city. I can certainly make it that way if no one wants to take that mantle. But if anyone wanted to run a one-shot or started wanting to run part of the story in serenity, because they had an idea, they wanted to roll with. I'm very comfortable giving that up. Along those lines, for a new year's resolution, one of the ideas-- I just wanted to do that. To do the whole session where we had new year's resolutions for our self and gaming and what we were. Oh, so I was stepping on it or something? No, not at all. I don't think we're not-- You just didn't think. Well, one of them is that I would like to run a storyline for the return to the hot scene for the first time in a few years. So if I don't know when or what, but I've got two ideas. One that could fit maybe into "World of Darkness" or "Dressed in" and another would be a-- That's why I want to read up on the fate core, but like a fate core version of "Traveler." Or a futurist, a space version, but more of like a closed room mystery, but instead of a closed room would be a spaceship. Right. Cool. Cool. Well, we certainly look forward to getting back behind the scenes because we've enjoyed the times you have set behind the screen. That, I think, is a wrap on both the players' feedback and the list of questions for the gaming system Numenera, done by Mani Cook. I'd say the reviews are obviously quite favorable overall in the sense that we would all play the system again. I think some of the mechanics of the game, we found a bit frustrating and we'll probably address that. But it sounds like we might come back to the world because the characters are very interesting and it seems like the world itself and the city that were investigating seem to have struck a chord with the players and the GM. So thanks, everyone, for listening. We hope you enjoyed this feedback session of Numenera and look forward to obviously hearing from you again as we move forward with Dresden. [MUSIC PLAYING] Thanks for listening to the nights of the night actual play podcast. Visit kotnpodcast.com for more information on this and other adventures, where you will find character stats, photos, storytelling props, and even a form for comments and suggestions, where you could email us directly at feedback@kotnpodcast.com or contact us via Twitter or leave a message on Facebook. [MUSIC PLAYING] All music for this podcast was created and performed by Zen Audio Smith. If you'd like custom professional music created for your podcast or business, please visit ZenaudioSmith.com. And please join us next episode for more mystery and adventure. [MUSIC PLAYING] Hello, and welcome to nights of the night actual play podcast. Hello, and welcome. Hello, and welcome to nights of the night actual play. [MUSIC PLAYING] Hello, and welcome to nights of the night actual play podcast. Seriously. The first was a five star review from Aaron Shikuch. Yeah, from Aaron. From Aaron S. Shikka. Aaron S. Saturo. Aaron Saturo. I jump off a cliff and attempt a thought. That'll be a 30. The only thing I like about that is that it handles the problem. That handles the problem where I've got the motherfucker all the way down to three and I roll a two. Yeah. And then I reroll-- I realize fucking the very mundane situations where it could be useful, I was just saying. So any extraordinary ones, it would-- People have survived parachute accidents, so-- I just heard about a change. It fell 3,000 feet. They used experience point and reroll. They used to play space system. I don't think you would. There's no way you survived. No, not new in here. You're dead. Fate, you could survive. But this iris fails, good. It is actually good, yes. That's where I'm cutting to after all this. Yeah. Tentacles in Hantown. I heard of a funny Hantown. No, you don't. I don't know if there are any. How about you, Tappy Fingers? He's totally called out on the iPhone. The teacher just called me. He didn't throw around. 72. 8 versus 1. I'm sorry. Exactly. 11, 12, 1 house 12 for new scenario, what would it be? We already said dice. We're so best. I think you could agree with it. Social comedy. I could curve. I could curve. That's the best thing. Yeah, what they said. Yes. OK, I need you to go to the chalkboard and show your answer. [LAUGHTER] Don't be surprised if none of this is an error. It's the answer. Right. The dice chart. Yeah. Oh, that's a bold statement right there. Which one's the guy who? The blue straight line is the 20. The 20 is blue, but red is too tensided. That's the bell curve. That's the bell curve. The other one is not a curve at all. No, it's not a curve at all. You're absolutely correct. I'm sorry, Mike. Can you see ice? The clashes do you want to share? I'm trying to get a flip board. Are we boring you? No. Did you bring an iPhone for everyone in the class? Pretty much everyone has one.