The crew continues the design and creation of the city of Cleveland in the Dresden Files RPG.This episode covers locations of the city, and the player map out their character ideas.Actual Play begins at 4:30.
Knights of the Night
KOTN Actual Play Podcast 63 "Delivery - City Creation part 2"
(upbeat music) - Hello, and welcome to Knights of the Night Actual Play podcast. This Justin File Story, delivery. It's written and run by your GM Tom. And now, please enjoy. Episode is 63, part two of City and Character Creation. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) We're gonna start on finalize the creation of the City of Cleveland. We have a little bit of feedback. In this case, all three of them were posts having to do with our last episode, 62, our first part of our City Creation. And the first comment was from DJ Owen, who says, "You guys have inspired me to watch the Dressing Files TV Show." - Oh, no. (laughing) - Now we've done it. - I didn't watch it when it was on, but now it's on Hulu and I'll take a crack. - And you're poor bastard. - And in agreement with Thomas, Dave Wright said, "Read the books instead. "The TV Show isn't worth the effort." - Oh, yeah. - Good job, sir. - And we agree with Dave. I watched some of the shows. They were not-- - I got it from the library and I watched maybe three episodes. - Yeah, I bet that's about as far as I got. - You know, I'm like, I thought she was a short little blonde cute chick, not this brunette. - Yeah. - You're fucking good. - That's the problem, yeah. - And then Bob's not a guy in a skull. He's a guy walking around there. He's still like, "This scene." - The car was-- I mean, nothing, nothing. I mean, and it was just-- - The house didn't look like anything like it should look. And there was no floorboard seller. It was just a roomy stuff down into it. - There was a lot of bad decisions in the production. - And not to mention just the production of it, but the casting I think was a terrible-- - That guy's a good actor for other things I've seen him in, but he did not come to me like a Harry Dresden. And I think what they did was they combined Susan and Murphy into one person and tried to make them do double duty-- - Well, the books weren't perfect. They were much, much better than the TV show. - After the first three. - The first three were rough. I think everyone agrees here anyways, that the first three books were not as good as the later books. Some of us couldn't get past the third one that kind of like. - They look a little better. It got better as it went along. It's very similar to Discworld. Great series. The first one's really rough. - And now I just think it's possible. Changes I still think is one of them. - That's a good book. - Just a real good one. - The third comment on that thread had nothing to do with the above comments, but it was from our friend, Murky, who was answering questions from the feedback section of that episode. And he said, "As for question one, I am from Poland, "and probably I'm still human, not a vampire, "but that may well change." Question two, "I enjoy the Dresden Files game "in a different way than I do the world of darkness. "So I still won't be sad, angsty, or whatever, "because of the upcoming Dresden Files episode." So he's enjoying it as well as looking forward to the world of darker stuff. - Excellent. - 'Cause we are kind of teasing that, you know, he's ruined that question about one of Scott coming back, which is funny because Matt, from Argentina, I was talking to him on G-Talk and he asked the exact same question as one of Scott gonna step back into the seat, which I said, he's actually kind of chomping at the bit. I know you're ready to run again. - Oh yeah, but I enjoy sitting on the side of the table as well. - Yeah. - It's a nice break mentally from all the preparation that goes into running a story. So I'm enjoying, I'm basking in the glow of being a player and a player only, but I will look forward to it when we get back behind the screen. - And depending on how our schedule goes, we're coming up on the holidays and that's always a bit tough to get together. I don't know how quickly we'll wrap this up. I think in general, it'll be a little bit quicker than a world of darkness up. So we played that for many, many, many weeks. - More than months, yeah. - And we enjoyed it. But I think Dresden tends to run a little quicker, but hopefully we have a good story. I've got some stuff that I'm calculating in the mine and what we're gonna do. And with that, let's go on and finish the city creation. - This is Dresden Files. This is gonna be our second adventure. My name is Tom and I'm gonna be the gem for this story. And since we don't have characters yet, we'll just say our names and see what my life is. - John, Thomas. - Mike, Jim, Scott. - So now we gotta do faces yourself. - What is the supernatural status quo? - I claim it's a bad lens. - It's just complete chaos out there. - There's no rules. - There's no rules. - It implies anarchy and change. - And I don't think that there is anarchy yet because if it was complete chaos and it was really that bad, then they would come and force. It's just bad enough. - Chaos from the standpoint of the white lens. - On the verge of chaos. - Okay, so the verge of chaos is a supernatural status quo 'cause it's really in flux. You got lots of things going on. - The status quo is constant change. - What is the mundane status quo? - Decay, I think is like the key word. Decay is actually decay physically. - Depression with good humor. - Sounds like our podcast could be huge. (laughing) - Boy, our rather self-temperature is so damn sick. - Decay. - How far you can say depressed or maybe even go so far to say fermenting. - The mundane status quo though I think is, you know, we're a Ross belt. - Perennial losers, underdogs, mistake on the leg. - Negative body politic image. - No. - Political. - I sing the body politic. - I'd like to see Mike said earlier about how the, yeah, exactly. About how the population is forced to take it. You know, just, it's just one just doable thing of the population taking. - Keep, no, no, I'm just saying. Like it's just one horrible, indiscriminate, ridiculous thing after another being heaped on their shoulders and they just take it and take it. - I'm very into like that feeling. - So, what would be a good way to say that the populace, like, you know, again, they are resilient, but downtrodden is pretty good. - Keeps the time. - I'm gonna go with downtrodden. Okay, movers and shakers that we're at now, movers and shakers. - Yes. - The current order, who wants to maintain the status quo and then who is in the dark is the top left box, those are the two things. - Oh, here you write names and like. - It'll be organizations or people. I believe the Rockefellers would be both in the know and wanting to maintain the status quo because it's awful. - Well, you should not rock the boat. - I mean, they're trying to change. - One of them is. - Yeah, the status quo is the process of them changing it. - What about like right between the two lines? - Who was in the dark and who was in the know, supernatural? Some of them know, some of them don't. - They're in the know. - Well, you could break it out into two different groups. You've got Cleveland Clinic, Rockefellers. - Rockefellers, yeah, that's true. - That they want to rock the boat. - And they're definitely in the know. And the other university circle Rockefellers wants to. - Status quo it up? - Yeah, wants to maintain the status quo that but they're also in the know. - They'll help you. - Which one are the university circle ones? Maybe we should describe them by. - Name. We will get them. - Rockefeller Clinic, Rockefeller University. We've got two daughters running each of the establishments and-- - I'm the vampire, one's a wizard. - Could be, sure. I like it. - What we might want to do is start looking at things that we've mentioned. - Yeah, I was up there like above but also just, well, what about the police? - FBI. - We have an FBI office in Cleveland, are they in the know? - We also have a secret service in the know. - Right. - Future FBI. - But nobody knows it 'cause-- - It's secret. - I'm like, come on. - Do you want all the non- Clevelanders to know? - Damn it. So the police in general would be in the dark but they might have a special unit that is in the know. - So, anyways, the more the higher up law enforcement, the FBI, the not so secret service, do you think that could be something that can change that around a bit or they want? Like the White Council, they can't be so stupid, they keep on sending wardens in here, they keep on biting it and they're like, oh, we haven't figured it out in 100 years that this is work. Maybe they decided to go mundane and have a couple of sleepers in the FBI or CIA to do their bidding and the other supernatural entities don't know about it, it's their little way, their little glimpse into seeing what's happening in this dead land. - So they're not big controller people, they don't send people in here to take control of a situation, you know. If it's not secret, use to them, then they would ignore it or send the people they just like to it 'cause they keep disappearing. - Right, I also think they do know what's going on, they're sending people in, the people that are in here, they crop the just enough so that they don't send back worrying robots until they start to send those reports or off, it's cleaving, it's the way it is. - All right, that still doesn't give me an answer about the FBI and then that's a secret service. - I want the FBI to be assuming I'm aware 'cause that's why I want to deal with my characters that's like, oh, there you go. - I guess, yeah, okay, there you go. - They are in the know and they want to rock the boat or they want to maintain status quo, Thomas. - My character wants to rock the boat and I don't know if I want to have a bad reputation with my bosses. - I would say rocks the boat. That's what their whole organization is about. - 'Cause they represent a government, the federal government. - They're trying to keep the law. - They're failing, but they're trying. - So the population is in the dark. They want it to change though, don't they? Aren't they tired of being shot upon? Do you think that they want to maintain a status quo 'cause it's all they've ever known? - No, I think I want to wreck the boat. - Hold on though, one of the aspects is they like to take it up the bump, wasn't it? - How can they want to rock the boat when they just downtrodden, John? - You're buying it out of the gutter. - Up the bump. - How can they rock the boat when they're downtrodden? - I have those people who are notoriously hopeless. - Kinda hard to put the whole populace in the one category. - The majority of the population doesn't want change. - They're really dumb. - People don't want to change. - I don't care how bad it is, people don't want to change. - I would say the human population in general and greater Cleveland is, I mean they're leaving, so. - Warden, where is he? - The corrupt Warden. - I don't think there is a Warden, is there? - The current Warden is missing. - How about that? - Okay, that works for me. - Well what about the unknown entity that wants to rock the boat and is in the know? - And I would say they're definitely in the know and they definitely want to rock the boat. - The unknown entity. - I call him Balon. - What does it mean, Scott? - He doesn't know if he's a group or a person. - Okay, and we don't have the Warden, we've just said there's no current Warden. - I got my sword. - Like, he can't get a Warden. - No, I'd like a deputy Warden. - You're like Barney Fleith. - Maybe you're applying for the problem. - I'm like a more like a grizzled. - If you're gonna go with a disillusioned who's finally fed up with everything. - Yeah, he carries a boat on his shoe. - How about acting Warden? - How about acting Warden, until someone comes in? - Yeah, maybe, yeah, that's a good one. - Maybe the last day was killed and you're the acting Warden. - He's messing, actually that's not a bad idea. - You mentioned something about the fact that your previous mentor was a Warden of Cleveland. He was killed and you're coming in to find out what happened. I'm just throwing out ideas. - No, it's the idea. I'm thinking basically what you both have said, that if I take an acting status, then all of a sudden I'm starting to see things undiluted and realizing that, "Oh, you should, this thing has been." - So you were arguing for that I thought it was. - Well, I was planning on being an alcoholic and it was like one day on the wagon. - Right. I remember the paraplegic alcoholic who was depressed and his wife had committed suicide last week. - I don't remember that part. - He had cataracts in both eyes. - He did. And he walked with a limp. - Yeah. - But he was a paraplegic, so he really patted his wallet. - He had his wallet. - He's gotta be back there. - That is hilarious. - Deadly halitosis. - Missing half a spall. - So he was determining as a liver transplant. (laughing) - He had lost wheelmen. (laughing) - Who's this? - The warden. - It's the sideboard warden. He will get so many fake points then. - This is actually the first time you've torn me apart before a character has even been established. (laughing) - I have 23 fake points. - Take that, Scott! (laughing) - Are you so worried about it with ear? You know, what's your situation? That's why you're a character. - Quick, wheeling might spend all those fake points on something like that. - So wheeling back. - Wheel them in the room. - Let's spend 23 fake points and they will wheel them back out. (laughing) - No, it's a great character cast out. - I do like it. - Don't let people get you down. - I don't let people get you down. - Let people pammed. - Let people get you down. - I like the idea. - The only reason we're focusing on this is based on what your character is. - You almost land. - It might be a face. - Depends on whether or not there is another warden involved in the city. - If the warden, can you be an ex-warden? - Ex-warden's are dead. - That's pretty much it. - Well, that was what we described. - Maybe. (laughing) You know what, actually that's not bad. Maybe everyone thinks I'm dead and I've been keeping on the low because I'm so, you know, so unhappy and so - To be perfect as with you Mike, I like the active title and you're seeing things you don't like to see right now. You're seeing this side of yourself in the city. No, you don't have to play him. I'm just saying that really kind of, I like that. It really spoke to me as far as a cool character concept to play. I think you might enjoy that. But if you like the other idea better than all of it. - I had that idea of you had a mentor who was a warden here. You even maybe trained with him here. - All right. - But you saw Cleveland in an entirely different light. You've gone elsewhere to work and do whatever you do. Now this warden's missing so you're sent back to find him. - And maybe with the title active. - I come here trying to either find him and prove his innocence but the more I'm finding out is like, it's going down. - That has a lot of potential. - I bought a character who was here and is returning gives you previous history with any of these guys. But it also, you're coming in new. So you kind of have those new eyes. There could be other reasons for your eyes to be open. - I just had a problem with him existing this entire time and clearing. - Yeah. - And you know, I grin now. - I would either be extremely corrupt or you beat that naive. - Yeah. - I'm okay and interested in what you guys mentioned before all three of you that I've come to investigate and I've got a very high opinion of the person I'm looking for but maybe the more I start to scratch and the more I start to find it's like, wait a second. My concerns are now becoming questions and like, oh, this is not the way it should be. - So I would say the former warden who's disappeared would want to maintain the status quo. - Yeah, he didn't seem to be so much-- - And he was in the know. - Oh, right. - Oh, he lost ward no problem. - Okay, pull the way for the vampire record wars. - I don't think we're at where the books are currently. I think we're sorta in the middle. So the red court still exists. - Not a big deal here though. - Okay, well we've got some movers and shakers. - All right, we can leave that. I'd like to go to the city sheet locations where we can write down things and this will lead potentially to other faces that we want to put on that chart. - The best location in the nation. - So a leave land. And the campaign title, do you have a campaign title yet? - No, 'cause I don't know where you guys want to go with this. - I like John's take it in the ass. That seemed like a really mad way. - You would go right along with the shit luck title. I can see why you'd like that, but you're gonna have to give me some time to think about it. - Yeah, I'm sure. What I really want to do to build the adventure is use your guys' aspects, your troubles, your different things to make something out of this area. All right, do we have any locations in the city of Cleveland that we want to use? I heard mention-- - Like few cemeterias. - Like few cemeterias, it definitely. So put that down there. Somebody likes West Side Market. - Everyone likes West Side Market. - Everyone likes it. - University Circle. - University Circle would definitely be in their Cleveland Clinic Foundation here. - How many locations do you like? - We can have up to nine or more, but these are places we think that scenes will take place. - University Circle. - University Circle, the mini city that is Cleveland Clinic. - We're Metro Parks. - Can you want that as separate? - Within University Circle? - Oh, yeah. - We have the East Side Parks. - Okay. - And that's got some-- - Metro Parks? - How about the old subway system? - We have an old subway system. - Yes, we do. - Yeah. - Yeah. - It's all subway we had, and it didn't take off. If you go down-- - I'll use something-- - There's a building right on the corner of Detroit, 25th, it says subway over the top of it, and there's an old door that leads down to where it's not-- - They used to leave the terminal tower? - Every year or so, you could take a tour of the old subway system. - I saw mine take my mom. - Saw mine. - We can do the saw mains. - I like the saw. - In the show and, I mean, there's the bridge. Remember we were talking about-- - No, fuck you. You didn't take that much bridge. - I was using that for rule of darkness. You guys did not like my transportation guides, so I'm keeping that for the world of darkness. - I like it. - Wow. - Use it well. - Thank you. - Each of the eight faces are holding a different vehicle. - Yeah, it's really cool. - It's really cool. - How about the flats? - Oh, you almost want to go to a warehouse district 'cause flats are so dead right now, compared to when we were younger. - Really? - Have we really done that? - Oh, why are they dead? - It's West Side, it's the warehouse district now. That is the hottest place down town. - I don't know. - Anyways, I've got so far, in case I missed any, Lakeview Cemetery, West Side Market, University Circle, Cleveland Clinic, Emerald Necklace. I suggested salt mines, don't know if you want to use them or not. If we're using Cleveland Clinic, do we want to use University Hospital? - No, I think there's two distinctive locations if we've got the two sisters working in different, do you have? - Yeah. - University Circle would be including University Hospital. - Even if it doesn't, technically. - Okay. - So does Cleveland Clinic, but it's basically, they say they're in University Circle, even though they're in the Midland corridor. - No, they're not, yeah. - Right, they're farther away in there, obviously the city in and of. - Works for me, so if we say University Circle, that could be the art museum, that could be any of the cool places. Cleveland Clinic. - So is Berk Lake Front Airport has a kind of a curious history where they're always trying to close it down in the elite. - Take your left hand. - Yeah, it's always open and they always maintain it. - Who the hell uses it? - Exactly. - The elite. - The elite of Cleveland. - As I like to say, the elite. - The Jacobs and the-- - It's like an oxymoron. - Right, the Jacobs and who's the guy who won't, the Davises or the Rockefellers. - So Berk Lake Front, you wanna try that? Or now you don't see a lot of shit going down in Berk. - Was there a spiritual hub in the Cleveland area? - Like spiritual. - A place where like a four hill place. - I think downtown, there's a couple of, like the Old Stone Church downtown. - And the Old Stone Church is pretty neat. - Which, if you wanna go with, that's what I would say would be the spiritual. Not really, but it's the most prominent and well-known of the church. - We never mapped out the clergy on the know. - Check the boat. - These locations are gonna need the faces. The faces are gonna be-- - In the background, man, we're gonna go back. - We still only have five, though, this point. For consideration, our salt ice. - Oh, we can have salt. - Our consideration is the Old Stone Church, and up for consideration is the subway. - We don't have to have nine, we can have more, and we also don't have to go up to nine. We can have less. We can fill them in-- - The library. - We can fill them out places. - It's Byzantine. - I love the Cleveland Library. - I love the term Byzantine. - You do? - Yes. - Anyways, but that's a really cool place. - Byzantine? - Byzantine. - It's-- - No, you can say it either way. - They got cool statues. - Tomato. - Byzantine. - Tomato. - Like the labia rinse, which could be something really different. (laughing) - It's explicit, right? - They got the choke on the tower. - It's actually pretty funny for Mike. - Yeah. - Oh. (laughing) - We're gonna have to cut it out. - Oh, no. - That's tough. Labia rinse. - Another cool place that we want our characters to hang out in. Come on. - That's not what's in my mind. - Tower six. - Isn't there like a castle in the room? - We don't need to know. - Oh, you weren't here for the story I told you. - You're thinking about Franklin Castle? - Yeah. - That's in Ohio City. Which could still be used. - No, that's a fucking place. I hate Ohio City. - Really? - Yeah. - So right now, we're basically an east side group. These areas that we're listening to. - Which is weird because we're all from the west side. - Except for the west side market. - What would you get? - Which is in that frickin' Ohio City that Mike hates so much. - You think a downtown Cleveland, it's most-- - I like Ohio City. I just thought Ohio City's weird. - It's the side. - It's the side. - Are we doing anything with-- - Gallouchees. - Gallouchees Square. - Coven Tree. - Coven Tree. Nice place full of nothing. - The Cedar League. That's always a whack job. - That's a coven tree. - That is a whack job. - That's kind of right next to Coven Tree. - And if there were vampires anywhere in Cleveland, it would be like what I'm just saying. - Yeah. - Well, there's actually that right around Murray Hill and the Cedar League, there's those little old shops and bookstores and old kind of restaurants that-- - Coven Tree. - You know, are very-- - You've got Murray Hill, which is little Italy. - Then it goes right up in the Coven Tree, which is Coven Tree. And then right off of that is the Cedar League and the Cedar League neighborhood. So, I mean, you could just say Cleveland Bohemia or something along those lines that-- - Is there the revolutionary bookshop is right there and I feel like-- - I would paint that all Coven Tree, but that's just me and you guys can call it whatever you want to. - I'm gonna call it the Coven Bohemia 'cause I like that. - Coven. - Coven Tree, huh? - Itches. - Witches. - Witches, pink, orange, green, green card, coincidence? - Lion King trees. - Lion King trees. - Jesus. (laughing) - Okay. - Colvin's. - So, I call it the Cleveland Bohemia, but we get the idea that it's greater Coven Tree. - Lion King trees. - Lion King trees. - At this table, you are the only one that would call it. - I feel it. - I think he was running down the Coven Tree. He was like, yeah, yeah. - Coven Tree. - Clipping Bohemia. (laughing) - It's so suckin'. Like, the whole size road, accurate, right on your bed. - For our audience, that makes more sense. - Yeah. - I didn't, I didn't. - Yeah, sure. - The Coven Tree is not universally known. - Right. - What's Cleveland's Bohemia? Why is it called that? - 'Cause it's-- - It's Little Italy, which is Marie Hill area, which is a lot of restaurants and a lot of art galleries. Then you just go a little ways away, and it's Coven Tree, in Coven Tree Hill there, where all the cool, funky counterculture it is. Then you go up just a little bit and over and you're at the Cedar League. And you're on the East Side, you're in Shaker Heights, which is a really, obviously-- - That's where some affluent homes are. - Yes. - Got some money. That's where the people who are working at the head of the clinic are gonna be livin' in Shaker. - Just to try to pick something on the West Side, I'm thinkin' maybe the zoo location should have a connection back to one of our aspects. This one is counted to most of them. I mean, what's our last aspect, I don't even remember. Is that something about the fact? - No. It was cultivated to the spare, something wicked this way comes, siphoning the despair for unknown purposes. There's something out there that is siphoning the despair that the Rockefeller's have inadvertently created through the dysfunctional, or way too functional, emerald necklace. - As far as the corridor unaccorded ground, we still need a place for supernatural folks in the know go to hangout to Playhouse Square. - And Playhouse Square. - I was thinking there's a damper, there's restaurants, we already have Bohemia. - Yeah, which is fine, but I'm saying, if there's a location that would be where all the freaks hang out, - Well, that would be-- - That would be-- - Bohemia's origin. - Right. - Freaks, yes, but some of these people are highly cultivated individuals. - Okay. You know what's between a university circle or Playhouse Square? - In a little more Playhouse. - The architecture of the Rock and Roll Museum might be something to draw our channel or-- - Yeah, it's obviously-- - It's not a place to look that way for a reason. - Well, I'm just saying it's just-- - I could see a really cool-- - No, it's unusual, Mike, but I have a grain with you, so-- - Yeah, just by nature, reaction. - Easy to start place the grain now, right? No, this is a terrible idea I just came up with. So, this Playhouse Square, does it get a nod based on the theatrical nature and maybe in the bowels of the Playhouse? You know, some running pitch bad. - I like who wants to-- - A performance, a play, and they allow us to come backstage, and those places are amazing. - Yes, it's-- - And they got some serious nooks and crannies. - But, sir, if you were in Cleveland and you wanted to go relax and talk to people who are in the know about you about what's going on and how's it going, where would you go? Not just Playhouse Square, just walk up and on the street park-- - Well, there's all kinds of bars and restaurants there. - If you were visiting Faye and you were meeting with somebody, I mean, I could see a push for Playhouse Square. - Right, that's all I'm saying. I'm not invested in it. I want the salt mines even better, but that's just me. - Do we still have a bunch of effort on the salt mines? - Yeah, why not? It's a bad lance. It's got serial killers, too, we gotta think about. - They're all different. - They didn't make it into one of our top three aspects, because I mean, we can't have a couple sides to think about serial killers. - If you want to pick a specific place, how about like the Winking Lizard and puppetry? - Yeah, it's the big picture. - Mike didn't know that he'd pick up that. - Wow, what do you think of that? - It's just, I'm sorry, I don't like the Winking Lizard. Not that I don't like that particular place. - I'm going barbecue. - Good food, it's a fine place. I just personally don't like Winking Lizard. - Right. - It's got a fine selection of beer. - I'm all around the world. - The wizard lance. - That way all creatures are all around the world and drink their favorite beer there. - If you were Faye, you're not holding the bar, you're going to one bar. - If you change to the Linking Wizard, is that right? - Yeah, that's not a bad idea. - Be more Winking Brothers. - The Linking Wizard. - You know, Lakeve DuVin is in Coventry. Been there for about 40 years. - What's that? - Lakeve DuVin. It's a wine bar in Coventry, so I'm just throwing it in there. - I'm virtually the only one at the table. I would know that, but we'll do it right. - Thank you. So we have three spots open. And we have lots of choices for those last three spots. We have the playhouse, we have the rock and roll hall fame, we have the salt mines, we have the zoo. - Jim Subway. - I liked Jim's idea about the subway, because we can exaggerate it. - Portal. - He could become an entire underground area. - It could totally be the entrance way to the under dark, right ground area. - I like that, and I think that should always have us. - Well, ours actually does, so it's fun. - It's fun, it's just-- - You gotta have-- - You gotta have-- - You gotta have some place where the creatures are the night that hang out and live through. - The less intelligent ones, the ghouls and so on. And we don't have the workouts district either, by the way. - How about this all down? What's this all done? - It's a race track. - He just likes to name thistles, 'cause it reminds me of a thing. Right, Mike? - Yes, but also it's involving, you know, horses and bedding. - I just drove by there not less weekend, and I was shocked at how we run down some of those buildings locked. - And they just sunk like a, they had to sink a couple million dollars into their upkeep too, so they could be casino status and have the game. - Well, I sure don't see where they're putting the money. - The surrounding neighborhood though is just terrible. - That is a despair-sucking center. The neighborhood around it looks bad. The mall they built over, the Randall Park Mall has to go down. - That is just the way it is while we go down. I don't know if it is or not. - And they are bringing in the new casino, and I was gonna say, what about the casino? I mean, talk about it. - If you wanna use the mob and-- - Take the casino and put it there. - That should be-- - Say it's done. - Say it's done. - We're gonna have time like it's done. - And they tore down the mall and the casino's there, and you've got a despair center going on. - You don't like it too. - That should be where the big, bad, despair-sucking thing is centered around. So, casino slash thistle down. I'll just use that as one area of despair-sucking badness. Now, one more. The warehouse district is big, and it's got a lot of the most hip restaurants and-- - So you wanna use that instead of the playhouse? - I'm saying that if we're narrowing it down, I think Playhouse gets some big play, because it's theater, and it's a restaurant district. - Why don't we move the warehouse district and combine it with Playhouse and say, that's another area. - I think the warehouse district should be a place in itself, and I think in how the flats used to be, they happened in place to be. We could say there is a positive person trying to-- - Re-invigorate the city. - Right, invigorate the city, and he was using the flats as a center place to build that, and something came and stepped on it. So he moved now over to the warehouse district, and now that's where he's based from. - And the warehouse district is what serves as a-- - We could just say downtown if we wanted to, and it would encompass a lot of things. It's, you know, the Old Stone Church. It would encompass the warehouse district, Playhouse Square, Publix Square, all the monuments that have major, - Publix Square is a library. - Publix Square is a library. It's all those things. It's close enough to Playhouse to almost kind of shuffle it. - Do you want to say downtown Cleveland, or do you want to say Publix Square? - I think Publix Square is a game, but-- - I'm gonna cross the-- - More disruptive. - That includes the Stone Church, that includes the library, that includes-- - Thomas City. - Okay, so we've got all that done, now it happens. - All right, so we go back to those different city locations that we assign themes, threats, aspects, and faces to them. The easy ones, we've got University's Hospital. - We say, actually we said University's Circle. - All right, so University in Circle includes University Hospital. - It is the face of-- - And the face of that would be Abigail Rockefeller, unless she's the face of the Cleveland Clinic. - And that will make her a university. - Is she the one that's going to change black, or is she going for the cure? - I think Cleveland Clinic's the 800 pound gorilla in the room. University's impressive, but it's Cleveland Clinic. So Cleveland Clinic should be the main antagonist, with University's Circle being a secondary antagonist, occasional protagonist helping the player. - So there-- - It's a theme and a threat, I would think, right? - Yeah, sure, it's both. And she's trying to cure black court. - That's the idea? The idea is curing black court vampires. And the aspect for that. - Well, so what's the aspect of University Hospital? - The cure is worse than the disease. - Okay. - Like it, go. - They had a research. - Okay. - She donated enough money to get herself a job and she's working there. - That's how that works? - Well, she has a degree, but-- - You've got enough money, hell yeah, that's how it works. - Hadn't the research. - You're pointing to the head shareholder here. - Okay, so that's this one. What area do you wanna do next? - Do the Cleveland Clinic, as we know, it's the other-- - Back behind all those doors. - We've got a name for Abigail's sister. - Cleveland Clinic is, again, a theme and a threat, I would think. - Okay. - It's both. - Abigail in the distance for Rockefeller? - I like it. Constance, she's constantly there. - So the idea is a new world vampire. They're trying to, that's what they're trying to create. Her name is Constance. - Constance to the vampire. - Is Constance? - The vampire. - That's her full title? - Sure. - We still need an aspect and her concept is-- - Oh, she's head of research. - Well, she's black core vampire. - She is trying to restore the-- - The new world. - Yeah, only in the court. - Yeah, she wants a whole new, she's creating a whole new court. I think she's head of research too, they're both head of research. - Then she's trying to change through medical research. - Genetic research. - Genetically, yeah. So she's a head of genetic research. - We don't have an aspect for Cleveland Clinic. - Usuring in a new era. - I like ushering in a new era. - All right, that works for me. - Okay, next place, that was Cleveland Clinic. - You wanted to do Mike the Lakeview Cemetery. - All right, Mike, run with that baby. One of your favorites, you wanted to get it in here. - Well, I kind of like that. - What do you have in mind here? - Anything that uses the Hasbro angel. - So the face could be the Hasbro angel? - Yes, it's a famous angel statue on a grave for the Hasbro family. And due to its age or the weathering of the angel, it has this very, very distinctive appearance that looks like a weeping angel. - Patina. - Is that what they call it? - Yeah. - Oh, Patina. - That's what Patina was like for metal. - No, that's known. - It could be, it's known to, Patina is a, it could be a wide ranging thing, it's color ranging. - I don't dispute you. - That's right. - Because you love the word. - Hasbro. - Hasbro. - Has. - Rock. - Blockave du Vin. - Okay. - Shake cave, whatever you want to call it. - So Hasbro and Angel. - I have it in work with somebody who had that name. And I think actually she might have been about that. - Lippers a family. And then she pronounced her name Hasbro. - Hasbro? - So I don't know if it's French or whatever, but anyway. - If you call it. - It's a theme, not a threat, right? - The aspect of it is that it's one of, it could be like an oracle where you can ask questions of it. I thought of it more as a. - The oracle and stone? - Something like that, or. - Nice, right down, that's your aspect or the idea. - There you go. - Is that the idea? - Sure. - Does it need offering? - It could, it has a sort. - It better. - And when you see a picture of it, you could, it would form some really kind of cool ideas. - The concept is knowledge at a cost. - Ooh. - Show us not the aspects. - Damn, baby. You sure that's not the aspects? - I don't know. Is that the aspect? - Sure, right there. - That looks to me like an aspect. - No. - It sounds like a good one. - Yeah, that's nice. - Okay, so the concept of the Hasbro angel. What is she? - Caged fury. - She's caged fury. - Or is she? - Is she a link between worlds? Is she? - Guardian of the, I don't know if she should be a guardian. I don't like the, I don't want to pigeonhole her. I think she should be completely unknowable. - And? - That's a concept, unknowable. - Jim, let's go with your subway tunnels. - They were yours, by the way, you created them. - That sounds like a threat to me. - Sure, it's a threat. What's the idea of the subway gateway to the-- - Yeah, it's got to be a gateway. - So it went to the underworld. - It's been abandoned. - Abandoned gateway to the-- - Well, there's issues of abandonment. - It's a very sad tunnel. - Is that a gateway to the underdog? - What about gateway to the underworld? What does he call it? - Underworld. - Underworld in the dark. - I put gateway to the underworld aspect. - Well, it's a threat in two. So this isn't a theme here. - There's a direct threat. - So what is the threat? - The threat is, it's a-- - Are there goals there? - There are many things down there. You know, you go down there and you go left, you go right, you go straight. - Evil personifies here. - Here evil lives. - Yeah. - That's the name? - No, that's the idea. Here evil things dwell. - Is the idea. The aspect is hungry darkness. - Hungry darkness. - Sure, I like it. - That works for me. - No, no, no. No, that makes it silly. - Hungry darkness. What is the name of the face of Cleveland's lost subway? - Could this be the unknown magic? - The face of this area. - The first thing that represents this area or is ambassador to this area. That knows this area, potentially. It doesn't necessarily have to be directly linked to it. It could, for instance, be a hobo who somehow has managed to survive around and near this and knows a lot of information about it. - And it's always been around forever. Jim, forever. - I'm just saying. - Like what they called someone who was in a subway and was a lineman or? - Bogs car building. - It's near? - The conductor. - He's a homeless man. - But he wears a conductor's head. - Who's the car of a... - Stripes. - No, he's so dirty. - Cora. - Okay, good, but he's got... - Someone who works on the tracks fixes the tracks. - Meet this guy. - But I don't want him working as an employee. I want him, like, someone who's seen that on that one, hangs out around there and knows it. - He's always there. - And you can just go and talk to him. - Oh, we don't have to go down to his office. He's there. You know, you can walk up to him and say... - Aqualon. - It's okay. But I don't have problem with him used to working for, but now he's a really ancient old grizzly man. - I think the conductor is an absolutely fantastic being for somebody creepy and who could lead you into the darkness below. I mean, he is an old conductor of the old subway. - Muh-huh-huh. - The conductor, his concept is... - Ancient, crazy subway worker. - I'm not writing that. - Oh, okay. - This is really long and it's a really short space. I need to like... - Dude, double up. - How about Eldritch? - Eldritch hobo. - Okay, that takes care of Jim's. Okay, next. - It's not very cute. - West Side Market. Tom, you love West Side Market. - I do love the West Side Market. - We're on with it. Is West Side Market Tom a theme or a threat? - Theme. - I think it's just a theme. The idea is anything can be found here. - Right. - The West Side Market has three distinctive locations. One is there's an outdoor fruit section that is vegetables and fruit. And those stands are very transient. The center part of the West Side Market is meat, bakery. Those places have been around for centuries. A lot of those places aren't 30, 40 years established, especially the butchers. The third location is underneath. There's a second floor down. They have elevators that they go. And I think what they really use in more, the butcher shops do most of their cutting down there and stuff and bring the meat up. They're freezers are down there. They're coolers or do they? 'Cause I've never been down there. - So I can't really tell you. That might be where there's a market. - So is it like an aspect to get things from a fake-- - A market of a macabre. - Sure. - It's where people and beings can find food of any type anywhere. - I think the West Side Market should be the meeting. - You could see people from Fae going there to buy some weird people that normal beings are most. - I also like the guy with market quote unquote, I mean like whatever he calls it, he actually says that you can-- - Right, do some negotiations in it. - Sure. - And the face is-- - Gotta be a crystal boy. - This is Otto Wagner. - Otto Wagner. You gotta stay slowly and with a German accent. - Otto Wagner. - Otto Wagner. - All right, am I done with mine? - Yeah, what's this concept? - What's this concept? - It's just a butcher to the super natural. - Is he a butcher to the super natural? - Is he a butcher and a bouncer? - No, he's definitely just a butcher. - Like he does, he doesn't keep control? - I like jacks. - You got a butcher to the super natural. I thought that was a very cool phrase. Go. - I have two cuts, a unicorn flank and a one elf hand. - Next. - Scott with Cleveland's Bohemia. The theme were throughout the idea of the Cleveland's Bohemia. - It's kind of like a home to the supernatural elite. You know, this is the area that the playground of the supernatural elite. I mean, this is where they go to party and drink and live. I want something like-- - How about the old book? - Both like magistrates and magicians or, you know what I'm saying? It's the high class of everybody who thinks-- - The idea is an old world enclave. - Nexus or something like that. - But enclave. I like enclave is a word, it's very cool word. - So Aristot, you know, the supernatural elite enclave enclave of the elite or the supernatural elite? - How about just enclave of the elite? - Anyone who's anybody in Cleveland lives in this area. - The aspect of Cleveland's Bohemia? - Even magicians need a place to kick up their heels. - Right there. - Call home. - It's a supernatural melting pot, I don't know. - It's not bad. But how's that an aspect? It's more of a description than it is an aspect you can tag. - Hidden in plain sight? - They're not a group of things. - They're a nice aspect you can tag. - They knock on every door and it's a different thing. - Yeah. - Werewolves and-- - Well, I mean, it's 98%. - Was it? - Norholes. - But it's 2% wizards, Faye. - Were your neighbors your enemy? - Well, it's almost like a supernatural gated community. You know, we just don't see the gates 'cause the gates are, you know, are the magic they keep everyone out. - Right. - I wouldn't want to live on the east side. So we're not in this Bohemia place. I may visit it. - So again, but more supernatural gated communities more of a description as opposed to something that you can tag, you know, hiding plain sight? That could be an aspect. You could definitely tag that. - My neighbor is my enemy. - Think good and do it either. Know the enemy? I'm just starting to think I think you can tag. - Though Bohemia area seems to be like a area of civility. In the middle of the badlands, just an area of civility that seems remarkably in a place. And-- - The supernatural melting pot is what it is. - He's somehow somewhere in there. - Well, it's not, I mean, I don't think that's a great aspect of supernatural melting pot. How do you tap that during a story? - If you went with something like a place of remarkable civility, you'd be able to-- - If you were having a fight near that area and you got them into there and you could just talk them down because this is in the place you have fights. There's a lot of powerful people here who could get very angry. - I would consider this almost a neutral zone in this area. - It's close to the gates. - I don't think Cleveland has an authority from the darkness. - I don't know, it's just that we have the West side market, little market underneath that's supposed to be the neutral ground. - If they want to maintain peace in their land though. - We already said it was neutral ground. - We were politics before. - You know, it's like people are too classy to fight so it's all politics. - I bitch left me with words. - That's a little more interesting where the words are the weapons in Cleveland's Bohemia. - How do they keep your rap up or rap up? - The property value. If you're a riffraff, you can't afford the $400,000 or $500,000 condos that proliferate this area. Not to mention the $4 million mansions. - Where politics roll? - A supernatural form, political form, diplomatic. - Words are weapons? - Yes, that's what I was thinking. - Yeah, words are weapons. - Words are weapons and weapons are worthless. - Thank God. - I need some more alliteration in there. - Mm-hmm. Words are weapons and weapons are worthless. - What's your name? - Riza. - Riza. - Marissa. - It's a good, gypsy name. - Is there a mayor in that certain area? - I like your race idea too. There could be someone who's actually the, not the mediator, but like a judge. 'Cause, okay, we got this magical badlands, right? But what if two people have a grievance and they want someone to solve it without resorting to physical violence? - The arbiter. - So maybe Riza is the arbiter of Cleveland. She lives in Bohemia and when two people come and they have a war that they do not want to spill out into actual physical violence. - All right, so we have to use the name. - It's Eastern European. - That's very important. - Which is foreign. - Yes, which is what we have in Cleveland, so. - And then the concept is-- - Says the Irish. - Arbiter. - Ooh, had emerald necklace. - That was Tom's baby. - Really? - Mm, it's the fate of the area. - Yeah, for the fame. - The idea is Cleveland's bastion of fame. - Well, it's not bad, I thought it was the boundary. - Yeah, that's a good point to it. That's the more of it, right? - Or is that an aspect? - It's a boundary, you know, the boundary between worlds. - The idea is a necklace does a garat. This is strangling Cleveland. - It's nice, wonderful. - Thank you. - Symbolism in the next region. - When the magic is rebounded. Because anything that's in the city tries to escape, it hits that barrier and is reflected back. Would the boundary be more saturated with magic? - So does it take a little? - Or is it equal? - A concave mirror collecting light and the solar, you know, gets warm, so. - More like a satellite. - Only gets to here. - That would make the measure parts pretty nasty. - It's imperfect. - Well, it should be honest. - The air is perfect. - You should fear something. - Which is why they close it down. - Because not only do you get it in a clock at night to make sure that everyone's out. - And plus there's the ancient spell that Rockefeller casts a century ago. - The magic is twice as strong there because it's both hitting it and reflecting it. So the build up in that area alone, around the perimeter, the metro parks would be a nasty ass place. - Magical mistle. - I, it's a good one. - So the idea of the emerald necklace is it is dangerous after dark and the face of the metro park. - Does anyone maintain the wards? Or are they just that good? - The ferries. - It's old world magic. - Ooh, it's almost like, yeah, but the subuniform world, it's the, what's the supernatural equivalent of the border patrol? - The park rangers. - No, I don't think so. I, I, I would imply this whole area is organized. Do you want to keep things out? - Yeah, it's just Rockefeller's spell. - I would say that there's not some - Maybe nobody knows. - Groove monitoring it and keeping it up and running. - Yeah, that defeats its purpose, I think. - I think nobody knows why it's so strong is it? - I think the face of the metro parks is - The unknown? - Well, the spell. - Just whatever you want to call it, the charm, the spell, whatever he writes. - The magic curtain. - If, if Rockefeller did that, it's still going, he couldn't have been like an 80 year old man when he died. He had to have been older than that. - Or maybe he was born way before that and he only came out. - His, wasn't his family that we say something about? There was some kind of family connection with old Europe, like France. - Huguenots, thank you. So he could just be a man who lived through centuries. - Right. - Just, and maybe that's when he started aging was when he actually poured everything that he had from centuries of knowledge into this spell. And then the clock started ticking for him. At that point-- - The track itself here, he started aging. - And he had to wanna do it for a reason and I'm not sure what he did with himself. - So yeah, make that up, Mike, do that. - You know, put all that in the car. - And then, and then-- - The space of that is-- - The space of that is-- - The two words-- - The spell. - The legacy. - His legacy. - Whatever you want from him. - Whatever his legacy. - Wow, okay. - Yeah. - From the concept, or kill. - The concept is an impervious magical shield. - Yeah. - Something going bad or something. Or that could be the aspect. - I don't think it's gone bad. It's doing exactly what he intended it to do. - It's doing exactly what he tended to do, but it's having-- - The consequences are worse. - Oh yeah. - The side effects-- - He did not read the side effects before he took that drug. - Those side effects are dependent, though, on the individuals viewpoint. - If there was nice people-- - Med yet gone bad. - Could be a wonderful place. - This could be Nirvana. - This could be Paradise. - Public Square, go with that first. It's a theme. It's not a threat. - Public Square? - No, it's the hobbits. - Yeah, I don't count on it. - The city's the hardest, the hard to cleave one, all right? - The idea is-- - The idea is the-- - I don't know, the hard of cleave one is all right with me. - Yep. - That's not an aspect. - No. - All right. - We'll do that. - You can't tap the hard of cleave one. - You might hurt it. - What if I need some blood? - You might have to hit it with a defibrillator if you want some more. - Go for a thing. Clear? (laughing) All right, the aspect. - Anything goes. You say cleave is a bad land? Here it is. Downtown is the hub of the activity. The serial killer stalking their victims at night. The wizards going to plays in Playhouse Square. - The stone church offering sanctuary to those that are looking for it. There's a bit of everything downtown. - Anything goes. - Ground zero? - Sure. - There's cleave one. - Can you tap that? - Yeah. - I can tap that. - Or do we need to, like, mistake ground zero? - No. - Oh, just ground zero. It's ground zero for the plebes, too. Face. - Ooh, why not make him a member of the local police? - How about a spirit? Or a bus driver? - Because you have our veteran, a war veteran spirit, that hangs out around the-- - Yeah. - A spirit? - I have to. - Yeah, I go with the spirit. - Jim's got a spirit. - 'Cause we haven't had a spirit. - 'Cause you're out in the war monument. - Mad architect. - The sailor and soldiers, someone who died on Lake Erie. - Oh, or someone who died defending the city. - There was a battle of Lake Erie. - In the war of 1812. - Thank you. - For Canadian warships. - This spirit of soldiers and sailors. - All right. - It was Anthony Blake. - Or otherwise known as Anthony Blake. - I would say Perry, 'cause you have Perry's monument, but why would he be downtown instead of it? - Where's Perry? - Here at Anthony Blake. - But I think it's-- - In the concept. - He's a ghost that died on Lake Erie. - Well, is it the concept of the area, or is it the concept of the face? - That's a concept of the face. - Oh, the face, okay. - What's the aspect of this area? - Where did he go? - Well, he did ground zero. So we did-- - Well, I think his concept should be despair, because that fits with the concept of Cleveland. So the spirit would be a spirit of despair, right now. - A desperate spirit trap. - Yeah. - Casino pistol down. - Is it a threat? - Oh, I would say it's definitely a threat. - It's a threat and a theme. - Yeah, yeah. - It's both. - And the idea is it is a generator of-- - Despair. - Generates or-- - Well, it and crime and evil. - Everything or evil. - Everything or evil. - And you wonder why people-- - Yeah. - Oh, it is. - Can't believe it. - Generates evil and despair, the aspect. - I think there's a massive amount of corruption in this area. I'd like to see some mob tie-ins. I'd like to see spirits of, you know, greed. - There's a-- - There's a mental face to, like, who can play-- - Yeah, I definitely have a mob boss. - It would be probably there. - Would that be like, you know, and that's what, you know, it might be under the influence of somebody, but there's got to be like, whoever owns the place is who'd have to be the bad guy. - Pandora's box. - To the mayor of the-- - No, for this hope at the bottom of Pandora's box. - All of Ohio's all I've seen is now, aren't they? - Yeah, I want-- - It's a trick on the job. - Where hope goes to die. - Where hope goes to die is pretty fun. - If we're talking about this as a, you know, I like that it generates evil in the spare. - Where hope goes to die. That's good. - People come in with lots of money and leave with nothing. - Where else do you got, Mike? - We need a face. - How are we going with the mob? - Yeah. - Is the face, or are we going with the white court vampire? - Mob. - It's a mob of white court vampires. They run it as a mob. - Well, you're talking about what? - They're going with the mob as a mob. - No, no, they are the mob. They're the head of the mob. - The head of the mob? - Their muscle is gonna be-- - I'm just saying they're the head of it. - Yeah. - Or the house? - They control the mob ring. Sorry, Jim. - The white court come here to feed. I mean, they have a-- - What do they feed on? - They have all of these stuff. - But they haven't had a place in our entire city. - The white courts. - Let's give you this area. - You gotta be in charge of that name. - You know, we've got the fake covered in the emerald. - Isn't there certain families that feed on certain things in the white court? - Yeah, but-- - So there's a certain name for the despair. That's the last name. The first name is-- - Go with Italian, go with whatever, I don't know. - The first name? - The three families that feed on things that are shown in the book are the three families that are in charge of the entire white court. It's implied that there are lesser families who feed on the same thing. - I'm just saying-- - I'm just saying-- - If you want another name, like a nicer one. - I'm sure there's ones who fronter markets on lesser emotions, like greed, or whatever would happen in this casino. What happens in casinos? - Despair. - Greed. - People are weeping into their hands while they're pulling-- (laughing) - Renaldi. - What was your character's name? - Little John. - See a little connection to Cleveland there. - John Renaldi. - John Renaldi. - But the Renaldi family in parentheses, white court mafia. - Ready to go. - Go get to us. - Little John. - Go get to us. - He's listening. - He's listening. - Is that farming-- - Farming the greens. - You know, they're basically-- - Farming the-- - Or a fat. - Farming the despair. - Farming the vice. - Cultivating. - Cultivating. - The concept of the face is-- How's the canvas? - He's on pain concept as-- - The concept is who is Renaldi. - No, the name is Renaldi. The concept is who he is. What is he? What purpose? - What is Renaldi? - Is he the owner? Is he the mob boss? Is he the-- What world does he play? - Don little John Renaldi. - What makes him the face? - The pit boss. - He's-- - He's the pit boss. - It's not great. - Pit boss, right. - The boss of the pit, huh? - But the pit boss is much smaller than what we were talking about before. And that's fine. - You wanna go with that? - You wanna settle? (laughing) - I mean, you can call the pit boss just as a name because it's like pit bull. - The kingpin. - Kingpin. - The kingpin. - You're on a-- - A Zomboss. - Because he-- - The boss. - It's kind of generic, but if we think it's up better in the next week, we'll replace it. Right now, it's the boss. - Let's discuss character concepts. Ideas for characters. And then, when we get back together, we'll finalize the city. We'll finalize your characters. One of the things that we're gonna do with characters is you wanna come up to what power level we're playing it? Did you like where we were at before? You wanted to be more powerful than the last time we played? - What was where we got before on the scale of-- - Was it middle? Was it-- - I think it was low end. - A little high? - Low end. - Low end. - Before we get to-- - Let me submit this. If we are-- - It was here. - There are four, it was from the bottom. - One. - Two. - It was two. - So was the middle? - Yeah. - Or a lower middle. - Coming into less, in the scheme of what we've presented here, I would expect to be at least somewhere mid-level. - Where we were, or slightly higher. - Probably slightly higher. 'Cause you were kind of at an apprentice level before. I think we should-- - And you missed a lot. - I think we should be at least qualified in whatever role we are. - So let's say, we're going with the upper middle. - Slightly upper middle class. So now we're going to chess D, which means you all have a base refresh of eight. 30 skill points, skill cap will be superb. And keep in mind that you have to have a-- - Tree, tree, tree, or a ladder. - For me. - Well, so at least as many-- - I would like to, now that I don't want to have conflict within the group, 'cause it's always interesting to have some sort of conflict within the group, but can we have a group that actually is like working together? I mean, we normally do well with this, but can we have like a cohesive group that's either on a mission or is a group of people who are assigned to something, and not people thrown together, 'cause they happen to know each other. - We bump into each other in the market. - Yeah. - We have something somewhat cohesive. - What we're going to do when you make up your aspects is you make one, which is the first is a summary of your character, what your character's main process is, what he is, and-- - And then you do a story that includes somebody else. - Right, and you have an aspect that's part of the phase. - But farther down the line, you have stories that interlink your characters. - Right. - You did this thing, he was involved in it. You guys know each other through that. So there'll be definitely something we built in, but I think Scott's saying more along the line of work-- - Work for the same organization? - Not necessarily for the same organization, but just a tight group of friends. - Group of friends, family, whatever. - Just that there's more to our history than just-- - I know him. - I know him because one time in a bar we got in a fight and I, you know, had protected awkward. - We're out of the same coffee house together. - Like maybe only something together. - Well, you're saying, not necessarily we know each other, but we have what we have. - What caves do then, that's what we can try. - Besides the one incident in history. - Right. - There's more of a history to it. - You're his brother-in-law. - Yeah. - These three opened a business together. - Right. I mean, you've been here, you have a history here. They asked you to come in and get people you know that on board to help you out. - And maybe the people you know and met were people who owned like a business together or something. - I already know that I want to be a private eye that specializes in missing persons. - Yeah, private eye, it's a normal. It's got black core powers. - Okay, black core prototype. - Yeah. - Detective. - There's two different hospitals working on all different kind of things. He could've got either one of his parents were corrupted or experimented on and then he was born and he has some latent powers that are. - Sure, black core is not supposed to reproduce. They treat a genetic, let's see what happens and it could, before it died, but they killed it and it reproduced before whatever just happened to it and he's maybe, and I think he's going to have like brother sisters in the area. He doesn't even know who they are, which is why he's, we detective people because he's looking for other people like him because he thinks there's more than just him. - We could technically, maybe your organizations look bigger than you think it is. And maybe we are people that you've found that have powers within Cleveland that have like minds and we all work in some capacity for a private investigator. - So Mike comes into town and he's looking to hire someone so he's hiring Jim's firm. - When we all represent in our own capacity. - One of you could actually come in with Mike as like. - It doesn't have to be all of us working for Jim but Jim owns a PI and it's not just a one little dumpy place like the typical Harry Dresden office. It's an actual company, a real business that takes in that 99% of its business is normal and 1% on the down low is magical. And that's where one or two people come in possibly. Some with Mike, some with you and that's our connection. Mike hires you. So at least there's some kind of obligation. Okay, we're working on behalf of the white court but we don't have to really. - Whenever I'm working on something on a magical field I'll go over to the ward and people in the area and say, "Hey, help me out." - Right, but the ward is missing and then all of a sudden this guy shows up at your door kind of thing. I can kind of start. - So you actually had a history of working with the ward before. - Sure. - You knew of him so-- - I just think that all we all met in a bar, you know? - Not only were we knew each other. - Might come to you because you're a specialist at looking up people but-- - His mentor-- - His mentor has talked about you in the past. - And he's not missing. - And he's not missing. - Right. - Now the interesting thing will be your relationship with his mentor vis-a-vis his relationship with his mentor. Maybe it's the same but maybe for a little bit of, you know, character tension it can be slightly different. What kind of character concepts do you two have? - I mean, I was gonna ask that. - At first I wanted to be a police officer but now I'm thinking FBI because we're going for-- - More on the know? - Yeah, more on the know. And I think I was a police officer for a while. I was going to be a newbie but then I encountered something that was more paranormal and everyone in the police force told me to shut up about it. - And on that case, you met him. He was working that case from a private eye angle. - Yeah. - And he brought you in as a consultant now. This is your consultant kick. - Okay. - You still work for the BI but-- - Or you don't? - Yeah, yeah, your call. I didn't want to take it away from you, I guess, what I was trying to say. I didn't want to take it away. - You could take contacts and have definite people that you know and-- - In the police force and in the FBI that you can go to. - Okay, are you a normal? - Yeah, paranormal. - You are a black court hybrid. - Yes. - You are a wizard? - I entertain the idea of being a warden. - Depending-- - Would be a wizard. - Would be a wizard, yes. - You're a wizard. - Depending on how, like, in the know the FBI is and how much shit they know they're deep into, they might, like, encourage people to go off and grab power in some capacity. - Right. - You know what we could talk about? - Yeah, your boss is very understanding when you say you've got another case going on the side. I don't know how-- - I would say if you were in the know in the FBI and you told people, hey, you know, I saw this or saw that and the people were in the know, maybe we're in the middle of trying to get you booted and then the special division on the FBI that is in the know grab, you pulled you aside and said-- - Or the normal part of the FBI, you have a couple of people up high who know and they're like, no, go, yeah, go consult, go ahead. 'Cause they want, they don't want themselves to be knee deep in bullshit investigations from their perspective, but they let him consult out, knowing that if anything happens, it's his neck on the line. You know, he's the loose cannon and well, the FBI doesn't believe in that, that's crazy. - Even though there's a special agency in the FBI and they keep in touch with you and you have context with them. - That's completely unknown to the general public. - They would deny it's worth it. - So we've got a mage, we've got a vampire, we've got a normal, but you don't know, I was gonna go normal, but I don't want to be normal if you're normal. - Normal people have the greatest-- - No, I played a normal last time. - Well, you were mostly normal. - Yeah, I was a white court virgin, but I like the fate points. I like being able to wait four down and-- - The greatest range of possibility, that's what I was gonna say, that's what-- - They have the most fate points, which absolutely no doubt about that. - Well certainly, I just mean as a normal, you could have someone who's completely different from who I am, if you still want to be a normal, I wouldn't have any problem with it. - Right, I was gonna be the muscle, I think the Bronny, you know, a steel worker, who does, who works as your muscle for your company, but not sure. I was also thinking about an amoral fence or guy who worked both sides of the equation. - Sure, a nugate. - Yeah, and I've got no allegiances who overpaced me the most, that's fine, but right now, you guys are paying me the most, so I'm on the team, and I'm 100% behind it. And that's your contact to the underworld and some of the darker things, so we have that skill in the group, but so muscle, offense, you know. - Depending on the power level, I kinda wanted to be black and denari, or a former one, if we were a lower power level, I had revoked it. But a black and denari, the coins, Judas Scott, they all have powers to them, and ancient fallen angels behind them. They grant you a lot of power, but they corrupt you slowly, and my guy's an incredibly moral guy, who says, "I can use this to my own ends," and slowly slips down the scale. Maybe. - Oh, there's no me. - But that would give me some supernatural powers with it. - Is it secret that you have a denari? 'Cause if it was not a secret that you have a denari, it's like no one in this town. - And you did a hair. - You could change it, you could say that you had one, or you have one, and you pull the dress, and then you fought it, and it's a bit of a deal anymore. - A normal person who picked one up wouldn't know anything about the history, or be warned about them. - I would say if you had one, and you're still using it, you probably wouldn't let people know. - No. - Hey, look at this. - Hey, look, I found this. - I said you just, if you're-- - How many if he knows what it reads? - Really hard. - Tired on a job with a-- - If he needs power to do it. - Yeah. - Yeah. - Wardens can't police the Black at the Narns down there, right? - The Darners can always kill them. - They can try. - They can try. - Right, this is what I'm trying to say. - Completely free to try. You're probably gonna-- - I guess my point is I don't want to have a built-in conflict just waiting. I mean, if I, as a wizard of the white court, knows what a Darnerys does, then he would be instantly a threat, right? - That's the thing-- - I think he's a secret. - Of this thing-- - That's my point. - He would have to always keep it secret. - This is like bad guys turn good, trying to help the city out type of adventure, I think. Where I'm up, I got black court powers, but I'm trying to do good with them. And you're maybe a wizard who's doing it with a working poor bad wizard or whatever. Now you're trying to do good. - You know, it's like ranging upon your-- - Cleveland is a slippery slope, Mike. - The slippery slope that you want to walk down? - No, no, no, no, I'm not doing the outsider coming back to Cleveland thing. I'm not inside the slippery slope anymore. That's my point. - Could you come with Cleveland? - Could you come with Cleveland? - There's half decisions you're gonna have to pay-- - It's hard to find good people and cleave. You gotta work with the-- - If there were good people here, the city would be awesome. - You gotta work with the gray. - But also I did. And again, if you, just you'll have to keep it on a down low so that, you know-- - I forget. - My guy was an ex-soldier and he came back with some PTSD, except there was a battleground here and he wasn't just reimagining things. - I think that the area of power would probably be something that you would use to build that character. - Okay, I thought I would have optional powers to embrace the coin though, you know, like a changer. - Sounds great. All right, I'll follow you. (upbeat music) - Thanks for listening to Knights of the Night at Actual Play Podcasts. Visit kotnpodcast.com for more information on this and other adventures, where you'll find character stats, photos, storytelling props, and even a forum for comments and suggestions, where you could email us directly at feedback at kotnpodcast.com, or contact us via Twitter or leave a message on Facebook. 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. - Okay, I don't remember that part. - Or you have cataracts in both eyes. - He did. - This is actually the first time you've torn me apart before a character has even been a sad person. (laughing) - No, it's a great character. - I do like, don't let people get you down. - You don't let people pammed. You don't let people like you get you down. - You do not want to easily engage animals. - 'Cause you've never seen giraffes the same way. - You said giraffes are the gayest animals. - They engage in the most. - Yes, I know, they have a lot of gay sex drugs. - They're, what? - I'm not cheating, giraffes. - Giraffes are gay? - Nine out of 10 male giraffes. - Are gay? - Yes. - They frequently have gay sex. - Look at Mike Pramp, don't you guys know this. - Are gay, really? Come on, Mike. (laughing) - Giraffes have a gay-- - It's so giraffed. - Knowledge. (laughing) - Well, I guess I'm not up in my gay giraffe. - Yes, it was on the back of a giraffe. - But the giraffe is on the back of a giraffe's box. - Did you know that nine out of 10 giraffes are gay? - No, giraffes. - I don't really think they're gay. - Sounds like something you read on the back. - I think they're bi. - They're confused. - Yeah. - 'Cause they're definitely still, I mean, otherwise, there would be no giraffe. - Yeah, wait, this is very good. - First of all, your eyes are up here and what's going on is way down here. So, you know, maybe they just don't know. - I don't know. (laughing) - What? I don't know. - It is so good. (laughing) - Must be good. - I've thought too much about this. Let's keep moving. - All right, let's go. - Look, the labia rim. - Power. - It's actually pretty funny for Mike. - Yeah. - Yeah. - Oh, no.