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A fan podcast celebrating (mostly Swedish) RPGs including, but not limited to: Coriolis; Forbidden Lands; Symbaroum; Tales from the Loop; and, Alien.
Hello, and welcome to episode 230 of Effect. You really want Dragonbane? We'll give you Dragonbane. I'm Matthew.
Dave:And I'm Dave. And welcome to the show. And as the title suggests, we are going to be talking about Dragonbane a bit in this episode. If you ask us to talk about something, we will well, sometimes, anyway, talk about that thing. Other things in the show today to look forward to, we've got some new patrons to welcome, which is fabulous news.
Dave:We have our new, segment giving an update on Tales of the Old West, our fabulous game, which, we are currently developing. We'll kick start kick start later in the year. And, world of gaming, we've got a few bits and bobs to talk about there. Some interesting things going on in the world of gaming. And then we'll finish the show with, Dragonbane.
Dave:So, as we've been asked, I've done a little essay. I've done a little article on writing adventures for Dragonbane. So hopefully that will, throw up some interesting stuff later on. And, yeah, that's what we've got for you in today's show.
Matthew:A Dragonbane special and then some, don't you think?
Dave:Well, it's got a Dragonbane article in it, and we might mention Dragonbane in the one day one.
Matthew:I think we're gonna mention Dragonbane more often than that. So first of all, maybe
Dave:we just have to go every now and then, we just have to go Dragonbane, just just so we make sure we mention it often enough.
Matthew:Thank you then.
Dave:Dragonbane.
Matthew:Yeah. That's it. That'll be good. Every now and then.
Dave:Dragonbane.
Matthew:Yeah. I can get tired of that pretty damn quickly, Dave.
Dave:Draco Octomona.
Matthew:Right. That's enough dragonbane, Dave. We have And it's exciting news because we have 3 new Well, what I was gonna call them patrons, but I wonder whether we ought to call them dragons in line with the theme of the
Dave:Oh, or or demons?
Matthew:See what I've done? Yeah. Or no.
Dave:Are they
Matthew:are they
Dave:are they are they Drakas or or Demons?
Matthew:Right. That's enough dragonbane. Okay?
Dave:Dragonbane. I've got I've got a tick about it now. I'm gonna stop.
Matthew:But given that you're you're speaking Swedish so much, do you wanna tell me the name of the first patron we have to thank who, I should say, probably actually joined before last episode. We should have mentioned him in
Dave:the last
Matthew:episode, but for some reason, I missed him. I I missed that he joined.
Dave:Okay. So I again, I'm no super expert, but I'll give it a go. So welcome. Thank you very much for joining us. Pontus Sjogren.
Dave:I'm thinking that is probably Well
Matthew:done. Pontus Sjogren. This is all, you know, dating married to a Swede is what qualifies him to speak perfect Swedish.
Dave:I've got my I've got my pronunciation and accent down just right.
Matthew:Okay then. Let's give you another test. Can you also Well, thank you very much, Pontus, first of all. I'm sorry we didn't mention you in the last episode. Now, Jimmy.
Matthew:Dave, do you wanna do you wanna give Jimmy's, James?
Dave:As it's written on the show notes, that's I guess it's gonna be Skogland or Skogland.
Matthew:I don't
Dave:know if there should be
Matthew:them though. I like
Dave:I don't know if the o should be an which way
Matthew:I didn't notice the dots above the o.
Dave:It's my making Sherglunds.
Matthew:When I see them.
Dave:But it could be Anyway. Sherglund possibly.
Matthew:Jimmy. Jimmy, thank you for joining me, sir. And I will say to both Pontus and Jimmy, come on the Discord. It's the nicest place on the On
Dave:the Internet.
Matthew:I'm only mentioning that because Josh Josh Leep, is already on the Discord and having a good old chat. Absolutely. Year 0, cyberpunk game that he is in the midst of creating. And it's set in Manchester, which which is where I went to university, so I'm very intrigued by that Mhmm. Even though I'm not a huge fan of cyberpunk.
Matthew:But in Manchester, as I said already to him, it should be properly punk or at least Acede. But there we go.
Dave:You say
Matthew:So thank you all 3.
Dave:You're you're so unhip. It's a wonder your bum doesn't fall off, mate. So that brings us to the, the update on on the family desk game that's been developed by a couple of handsome and wise young men, tales of the old west. And, yeah. In the last couple of weeks, the the main thing from my point of view is I finally finished or at least finished to the point where I was content to let you look at it.
Dave:The the final chapter that we had to write the the campaign chapter for the book. So that's all done. And, yeah, it's in your grubby little hands for you to have a look at. So that was good. That was it took me a little while to get that done.
Dave:I've got I've got some sort of, like, ambitions about how I wanted that to work out. And, Yeah. And we'll, you know, we'll see we'll see how we'll see what you think of it.
Matthew:Yeah. This is likely to be a stretch goal, isn't it, Dave? It's not necessarily in the core book because we have to illustrate it. And illustrating it costs a bunch of money. So this is likely to be a stretch goal or potentially a later publication.
Dave:I I think yeah. I think I mean, ideally, in the in the in the in the ideal world, this would definitely wanna be in the core book. But like you say, I think we might in order to to get our pledge target down to a sufficient level that we might meet it, this might, like you say, have to be a stretch goal.
Matthew:Yeah. But, but all the work's been done. So we can probably get it to people somehow even if we don't make whatever stretch gold target this is I mean, it it is.
Dave:It it depends, doesn't it? It's all the the the cost is in the artwork more than anything else. And if if we wanna make it look lovely and have lots of artwork to go with it and, you know, there will be some maps required, you know, at a basic level, You know, that's gonna cost money, so we'll see. What it means is all of you lovely listeners just have to back us when it when it comes out, And then you'll you'll get everything with lovely artwork and everything. So,
Matthew:And and not just all you lovely listeners, actually, but but everybody else as well. So make everybody else back us.
Dave:Exactly. If every one of our lovely listeners goes and gets another lovely person to back it as well, then we will have plenty of money to do it exactly the way we want, and it'll be fabulous.
Matthew:Yes. And give you exactly what you want as well. I mean, that's you, Dave. Yeah. Because you've got it because
Dave:Well, me as well. Because I I I because I want it to to to be available to other people to play in a certain format. And I, you know Yes. The the whole having to reduce the ambition because, you know, we're not sure if how much how much support we'll get and how much money we'll get on our on our project. I guess this is something that every developer has to go through.
Dave:You have to slay your your your beloved prizes sometimes.
Matthew:You gotta kill your babies, Dave.
Dave:Kill your babies, I know.
Matthew:And and in the in the discussion between us, I'm the baby killer, really, aren't I?
Dave:You're the baby killer.
Matthew:You're defending your babies. And
Dave:I'm No.
Matthew:Don't hurt my little babies.
Dave:I'm the baby saver, and you're the baby killer. So listeners, make of that what you will. But, yes. So this campaign is set in New Mexico. We we had, some of our material before had been spread more around the west, but it made sense to try and do it all in one location for the campaign.
Dave:So got a location that we'd had originally been in Nevada, for example. We brought that into to New Mexico. So, yeah, the the campaign gives you the opportunity to do a genuinely territory spanning story if that's what you want to do as a GM. So I think it's I'm I'm quite pleased with that. I think it's pretty good.
Dave:But yeah. So that's my bit done. That's what I've been doing for the last couple of weeks. What about what about you, mate?
Matthew:No. I've been doing lots of stuff. So, we're developing, the quick draw, as we call it. And
Dave:We are.
Matthew:We want the quick draw to look good too. So we're, our lovely, lovely artist, Malin. I I I have no idea whether Malin is a lovely person, but they do make lovely pictures.
Dave:I suspect she's a lovely person. I mean, I've got no idea if she's a horrible, horrible person, but she's a good artist. That's not the only question that
Matthew:She she's a very, very polite, emailer. That's the only interaction we've really had.
Dave:Been a pleasure to work with. She's been very receptive and very come up with some good ideas of her own, obviously. Very creative, and the artwork is looking really good.
Matthew:Yes. And it's a it's a different style to that of Thomas's doing the other work, but they are complementary. They they will, I think, look good together in in the book. And but she's doing all the artwork for the quick draw and including the cover. And I think the cover for me is still not quite finished, but it's looking beautiful.
Dave:We're getting there, aren't we? It is looking pretty good. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah.
Dave:Looking forward to seeing the finished article of that,
Matthew:but it's There's a layer of texture there that we're still waiting for, but I I think that's coming soon. That's the way that Malin works. I mean, my challenge actually right now, I mentioned this to you around in the last emails. I don't know where we're finished. We we could tweak these till the cows come home.
Dave:But at
Matthew:some point, I think we have to say, right, that's done. Yeah. Absolutely. Put them in a folder and give them to our layout artist and say, right. Yeah.
Matthew:Okay. These are done. You can put them in the book now.
Dave:Yeah. Yeah. But that that that's the same with any creative endeavors. Isn't it? You know, if you're writing something, you could always tweak it.
Dave:You could always make changes to it. But Yeah. You know, you get to the point where are those changes improving it or just, you know, you're fiddling them for no good reason? Yeah. So, I think that have confidence
Matthew:in the future.
Dave:Outcome. Yeah.
Matthew:Exactly. I mean, some of them, I think, pretty much are done. But I think, actually, you and I need to just touch base and see whether we agree on the ones that are done.
Dave:Yes.
Matthew:So, and I've created a folder marked finished for all of them, but I haven't put anything in it yet. So maybe we can do some of that later today after recording. Well, not right after recording because we've got a busy life. But,
Dave:but a bit later. Anyway. Yes.
Matthew:So there's that going on. I've also bought and now, listeners, keen eyed listeners who may have noticed a slightly different quality to my voice
Dave:Keen eyed listeners.
Matthew:Keen eyed listeners. Yes. Keen eyed listeners who
Dave:may have seen Dragonbone.
Matthew:A different quality to my boy, Or heard maybe. Keen ears.
Dave:Keen ears listeners. Yes.
Matthew:I for the for the first, bit of the programme, I was using a different mic. And, that will be a mic that, I've got 2 of. And as long as they work, they will be what we use. Because Dave and I are gonna record some, some videos about how to play the game and about, you know, our thoughts behind the game and stuff like that for promotional materials that we'll do around the campaign. And we thought rather than having the the big old mics that we use for desktop publishing, getting in the way of our beautiful, as you said, wise and handsome faces, Dave.
Matthew:Then we we we'd get a little a couple little remote mics. So I've bought those. They haven't been spent with Patreon money because, well, a, because they're quite expensive, and any Patreon money that we have left over, I want to spend on art. But also because, yeah. You know, I might use them for other purposes other than podcasting.
Dave:Yeah.
Matthew:Well, other than this podcast, should we say. So, I've I've invested in those. I was just trying it out, but we've got a slight software problem with, audition, which is what I record on at this end where it keeps falling over. And so it fell over, and I've gone back to my old setup, which records, in solid state. So anyway, that's why there's a different tone of my voice.
Matthew:And, yeah, we plan to do some, not just kind of promotional videos, but also some how to videos, about how things like the troubled dice work and stuff like that.
Dave:Yeah. Absolutely.
Matthew:Which we will be putting on our YouTube channel and also on a website that promotes the wonderful game as we we as we go live. But first things first, we've got to get the quick draw finished so that we can have it out and we can talk about it at UK Gang Zetspo
Dave:Yeah.
Matthew:Of which more later. Well, that's quite a good segue, mate. Yeah. Well, no. No.
Matthew:Because you're thinking we're gonna go straight into world of gaming, aren't you?
Dave:Well But we're not. I'm thinking we probably should.
Matthew:Now we've got we've got a letter from Marcus Bohm to read out.
Dave:Well, it probably makes sense to read Marcus's letter after the world of gaming.
Matthew:No. It doesn't because it leads into a lovely segue.
Dave:Go on
Matthew:the phone. I I wrote these show notes with a purpose.
Dave:I don't know if you've
Matthew:skiveled my thoughts down the abdomen.
Dave:These segues are so natural and so spontaneous, aren't they? Okay. Go on then.
Matthew:Well, they aren't any more known.
Dave:Right. Read your letter. Go on.
Matthew:Okay. So we have a letter from Marcus Boon, who I believe is from New Zealand, but I will not attempt to do a New Zealand accent. And he says, hi, team. In fact, I know he's from New Zealand because he says here, just listening to the podcast latest episode last night, New Zealand time, as I drove home on a dark and lonely road. And Matthew's piece on the comparison of critical hits across the year 0 year zero engine systems got me thinking about the following.
Matthew:Boys, where, oh, where is the love for Dragonbane? Yes. Yes. I know both of you are enamored with Forbidden Lands and you waxed lyrical about your epic or as the case may be not so epic adventures among the dark and dingy environs of that corrupted world. But my friends, you're missing out.
Matthew:I mean, seriously, missing out. Okay. So maybe the tagline of Dragonbane may have led you astray. I can understand that the idea of mirth and mayhem at your gaming table might not be your cup of tea. Au contraire.
Matthew:But,
Dave:we'll get that. Yes. Yeah.
Matthew:Although listening to your APs over
Dave:the years Have you listened to me via actual plays?
Matthew:Yeah. Wait. He says, having listened to your APs over the years, the lack of humour at your table isn't something I've observed. No. That's good hearted humor by the way.
Matthew:I'm not saying I'm laughing at you. However, the reality is Dragonbane is a much darker and a much more visceral game than you might expect from a product that has cheery bright greens and reds on its cover. Don't be fooled. Dragonbane is a grungy low fantasy game built of decades of dark Nordic experience. You get monsters that automatically hit, taking down even the most veteran characters in a single blow.
Matthew:Magic that manifests in ways rarely stronger than a good blow from a sword, and player characters whose hit points never get out of the teens. What's not to love with that? Moreover, it's set in a world of vicious demons and feral dragons, all of whom see mortals as nothing more than their playthings. And then add to that, Free League's generous third party license, Marcus, which is really starting to bear some great products, Marcus, both in the form of cool Kickstarters and beautiful products appearing on drive thru RPG. Marcus.
Matthew:So my friends, just a simple plea from a fan and a patron. Please go give Dragon Baine another look and trust me you'll find yourself more than pleasantly surprised. Love your work, Marcus. So do we have any response, Dave?
Dave:I like forbidden land. No. No. What a lovely letter. And I think we do have a response, which is basically this pretty much this entire episode.
Dave:So Yes. Yes. We've we've we've we've taken your your admonishment, Marcus, to heart. And, yeah. And decided to do more Dragonbane just for you.
Matthew:Exactly. And this is a Dragonbane heavy episode, particularly as we go into world of gaming because the first product in our world of gaming, today is a Dragonbane product. It's a rather marvelous new adventure by the an author by the name of hold on. What's this? Marcus Boone?
Dave:Do you wonder whether Marcus was actually just trying to get a bit of free publicity for his for his for his adventure by by writing to us? Possibly.
Matthew:He might have just worked. Clever plan.
Dave:If that was the plan, that was a clever plan. It's definitely worked.
Matthew:So yeah. Now, I noticed it. I I promoted it on the Discord, but I haven't actually read it yet. And Dave, I think you have. So tell me, what is Marcus's adventure like?
Dave:So I haven't had a chance to read it in-depth, but I've definitely had a good good flick through it. And I mean, it's it's a it's a good adventure. There's quite there's a lot to it. And he he he deliberately says this is a, kind of a starter adventure for for new players, perhaps younger players who want to get into the game. And I think it's based on an adventure idea that he's used or developed over many different game systems and and many different year many years.
Dave:And it's all about going into the oldest tower. Now I won't go into the the details of the story. But, I mean, he's he's quite open in that. Yeah. This this is a this is a pretty standard, if I have the right word.
Dave:It's all all kind of like, what you would expect from the genre kind of dungeon delve. And it's going into the tower and working out what's going on and dealing with the bad guys. And there's a couple of lovely little other storages of subplots that that work through it as well, which are really quite nice, which can lead on to further adventures afterwards. So it's good. I mean, there's a lot to it.
Dave:I don't know how much, he's got it up for, but it's, it's really nicely done. It's it's it feels very dragonbane in its style and its layout and its artwork. It's a really good yeah. It's a lovely little little piece. I say little.
Matthew:And I think it's $5 US
Dave:on Yeah. Is it something like
Matthew:on on drive thru.
Dave:It's 30 pages long or more even. So it's, 25. 25 pages, and that's kind of packed full of stuff. You know, packed full of encounters and story and locations. It's, Yeah.
Dave:It's looks lovely. I mean, it's like I haven't read it in detail, but I did particularly pick out a couple of the, kind of, nice little story lines that run through it that you could that the players can pick up upon as they as they travel through the old this oldest tower. And then that leads on to stuff that you can take into further adventures. So, yeah, it's a lovely little bit of work. Very good.
Dave:Very well done. Very nicely done.
Matthew:Excellent. That's good to hear. So, that's our first bit of Dragon and Gabain content for the episode, but we've got more coming. When it comes to dark and gritty and visceral fantasy though, you can hardly beat Mork Borg. Hit points in your teens, Mork Borg's lucky if you've got one, isn't it?
Matthew:And there's a new, Mort Borg. He has an even more generous license from Dragonbane, I think, probably. And the on the back of that license, there's a new book coming out, and this is coming out with Free League backing it in their in their Free League workshop manner. Yeah. And that's Black Powder and Brimstone, which I think probably could be the sort of game that we might play the adventures that we're currently playing in Savage Worlds.
Matthew:The sort of Solomon Kane style
Dave:Okay.
Matthew:Fighting demons in the early 17th century sort of thing.
Dave:Okay. I mean, I I've I've seen it. I'm aware of it. I don't know very much else about it. I'm just having a quick look up because it's obviously coming up on Kickstarter.
Dave:So I'm just It
Matthew:is on Kickstarter. I think it's on Kickstarter now. I think it's as usual, it's made its target and it's onto its stretch goals. The lucky, lucky creators that do that.
Dave:So, yeah, he's done very well, actually. Lucky. So his his target was was only £3,500, and he's made 30,000 already with 27 days to go. So, yeah. Yeah.
Dave:Well well done. Well done. So it's not something that I've looked into. I I haven't even played Mote Boyer yet. So it's not really it's not really my Fancy Swedish pronunciation.
Dave:It's not really my, my ex area of expertise, shall we say. Pronunciation of Merck, my wife's name is Merck. So if I don't get that right, you know,
Matthew:then And then you're in deep trouble. Okay. Yeah. I it's not I've not looked into it too deeply either because I've got Pirate Borg and I haven't even played that yet. So, and Pirate Borg feels, you know, it's a bit 17th century.
Matthew:Actually, more 18th century in in that iteration. But it's still black powder and there's probably some brimstone in that as well. So I think although I think it's probably slightly earlier in it in it sort of pseudo history, It's, it's probably not different enough for me to to get into it. Some lovely looking illustration kind of, one might call it kind of Mike Mignola. Oh, sorry.
Matthew:Shall I say hellboy style illustration by the look of it from the author. So this is how, Ben, who who wrote the game, can can do such a cheap Kickstarter. He's doing all his own art. Wow. So,
Dave:Ben Tobit. Yeah.
Matthew:Yeah. Yeah. So that's the advantage he's got over us there. But, it is looking quite nice, I've got to admit. And were I were do I have even the time to play more more games?
Matthew:I'm I might be more interested in it. But, but out there, mock MercBoya fans, yeah. Check that out. Have we got to run oh, dear. There's so many systems that 3 d produce now that anyway, if you wanna hear us talk about Cimberum or 5e or more the 1 ring or the Adventures in Middle Earth or whatever it's called, then just give us
Dave:Drop us a line.
Matthew:Middle Earth. Drop us a line, produce a product, put it on drive thru, and we'll give you some free self promotion. How about that? Oh, no. No.
Matthew:Sorry. That's not the intention at all. We will serve you, our loyal listeners, giving you whatever you really need, and ask for. And, yeah, actually, it's a good point to say. There there he is, Marcus, saying, you know, writing into us and pointing out that he's a patron.
Matthew:You don't have to be a patron if you wanna request a feature on the show. If you wanna hear us talk about something, then, just just shout. Send us an email. We like emails. They're fun.
Matthew:Or even, you know, on our various social media channels. Tell me about Star Trek Adventures then, Dave.
Dave:Well, I'm not sure I can really, other than saying that Star Trek Adventures, Modiphius have brought out second edition quick start rules for that. It's been in the, it's been in development for a little while. I I had a very quick glance at them. I at the rules there. I I didn't immediately see any huge difference to 1st edition.
Dave:Although I think in discussion with you, apparently, they've taken the the d six damage dice out, but I didn't I didn't really they didn't really grab my eye when I was flicking through it, and I therefore don't know what they've done to replace that. So if if if you're not familiar in in, well, in a lot of the 2 d 20 games, when you successfully hit, you roll a number of 6 sided dice, they're not 1 to 6. They have different icons on them for different outcomes. You get points of damage, so you get 1 or 2 points of damage. You get points of damage, so you get 1 or 2 points of damage, a couple of blank which say, you know, unlucky, no effect at all.
Dave:And then you get, an icon
Matthew:Star Trek badge.
Dave:An icon. Yeah. A Star Trek badge in, in Star Trek Adventures, which basically means that the the the ability or the feature of the weapon is activated. So it might be piercing, so you cut through their armor. It might be, I'm not quite sure the actual terms, but it could be, like, disintegrate.
Dave:So you might be possibly disintegrating your target. Any, you know, those kind of things. And you roll those dice however many you get based on how good your attack roll was, and then you see what effects you get out of that. And that's the way that they've done damage in in in quite a lot of their 2 d 20 games. I think fallout does the same has the same mechanic in it, or a similar mechanic.
Dave:And, apparently, that mechanic has been taken out of the second edition, but I don't know what it's been replaced with. Not very helpful. I know.
Matthew:No. No. Well and and have you have you perused enough for the quick start to see whether they've got, Captain Pike's Enterprise in it from Star Trek A Strange New Worlds? No. No.
Matthew:You haven't? So that's the only reason I'd have for buying the game, and you can't even tell me that.
Dave:Well, give me a moment. I've got the PDF here somewhere. If I can find it again, put it away somewhere.
Matthew:Well, tell you what, while you're looking for that, shall I talk about Embracer?
Dave:Yes. Talk about Embracer?
Matthew:In industry news, which we rarely touch upon in the world of gaming, but I think this is quite an interesting one. Embracer is the megalithic Swedish company that owns pretty much all the rights to everything. Embracer. You see what they did there? And they bought Asmodie a while back and Asmodie were a big French initially game distributors who bought other distributors including his Divium which was a UK distributor and is now called Usbod here in the UK.
Matthew:But they also publish. They own a whole bunch of board games and stuff like that. Anyway, Embracer is splitting. And one of the interesting things I think of note is that, Asmodee is being split. That embrace is being split into 3 parts.
Matthew:Asmodee is being split off into a part that it seems to me is carrying with it all the debt that Embracer has built up as it's been making these purchases, which I think is interesting. Yeah. And so that that is being loaded onto Aspergy in, I guess, a feeling that it can pay it off because it sells stuff. And, you know, it sells a lot of kind of I think I think it owns things like, Ticket to Ride and stuff like that. So, you know, these are perennial games that in theory will always sell.
Matthew:And, it will get to an and and I guess global reach enough to pay off that debt, but it seems extraordinary to me. And I'm not sure entirely where Edge Publishing sits within that. I think Edge is gonna be under the Asmodee, sort of umbrella which means and Edge Edge is a Spanish games company role playing games company that then took on all the English versions of the role playing games that Fantasy Flight used to do when Fantasy Flight was swept into the whole thing. Yeah. They're publishing it.
Matthew:I have felt of their Genesis system games, including Star Wars is their big flagship there, has been a little bit sporadic since they took over. And it just worries me that they're now coming under this big umbrella of a company that now needs to pay an enormous amount of debt selling stuff they've already made. And I can't imagine them investing in new stuff. So I will watch with interest what happens to.
Dave:Yeah. It's, yeah. It it this is the kind of article that we don't often talk about, and it's on such a scale that, you know, it's it's difficult to see immediately how this affects the average punter. But, I mean, if if this debt isn't serviced, then that is gonna have an impact on, you know, on the company and on what the company does and what it produces and what it can publish. So, yeah, I guess, you'd think that they hadn't let me they've done this in a way that they think is manageable unless they are thinking this is some kind of long term write off.
Dave:So don't know. Difficult to to predict what will what will come out of out of this development and whether it you know, how much it will affect the average punter in in what they wanna do.
Matthew:But, it feels to me we're not talking enough about Dragonbane because as far as I can see, this embracer split has nothing to do with Dragonbane. So shall we move on to UK Games Expo?
Dave:Well, I was just gonna say, I've I've I've got the, Star Trek Adventures second edition quick start open now. And Yeah. I don't have time to read through it all, obviously. But when they talk about injuries, it just says when you hit an opponent during combat, they may become injured. Okay?
Dave:Right. When a character is hit by an attack or is affected by a hazard, they suffer an injury. The exact nature of the injury is described as a character trait, which represents the damage done to the character. So I guess, like, the example they use is burn. So disruptor may cause a burn trait, which is what what the damage is.
Dave:And then the injury itself will have a severity between 15, which indicates how bad that injury is, which yeah. I think that's that that sounds fine, doesn't it? I mean, it it's it's it's taking away a set of dice and a and a need to roll a load of dice for them Yeah. But the damage. But, Dave,
Matthew:it's not answering the question that I asked you.
Dave:What was the question that you asked me?
Matthew:Has it got captain's Pike's
Dave:No. Phrase? It's got Strange
Matthew:news, was it?
Dave:It's got no reference to Pike whatsoever.
Matthew:Damn it. Damn it. Right. Well, that's it. I'm boarding that out now, man.
Dave:Well, it is only the the it is only the quick start. So
Matthew:maybe Alright. Okay.
Dave:Maybe the full book will will be piked. Now I looked I
Matthew:looked up the full book is properly piked.
Dave:I looked up pike. It had 2 two references, but they were both the word spike rather than pike. No. There you go.
Matthew:Yes. Pikes not spiked.
Dave:Right. Indeed. UK Games Expo, Dragonbane@ukgamesexpo. Tell me all about that.
Matthew:Well, I'm running a big competition on behalf of Free League, which is gonna be the 1st UK Dragonbane tournament. I think we've mentioned it on the show before. We particularly, we were asking back then for anybody who were listening to to join us, as GMs and I believe a number of our listeners have. At least 3 of our patrons have. And in fact, I'm gonna be running or no.
Matthew:I'm not gonna be running. I'm gonna be playing the adventure that's gonna be part of this this evening as a bit of a a practice run for those 3 GMs. So that's quite exciting.
Dave:Nice.
Matthew:And we're gonna do, yeah. So now I think the call is for players.
Dave:Do you still need more GMs for that?
Matthew:I'm not sure necessarily that we do. I don't know. I mean, by all means, if you wanna volunteer to GM, then volunteer to GM. But also, I think we're looking for players now. I think of the I think there were about 3 of these big tournament games happening, and Dragon Boat is the biggest one.
Matthew:But I think it's still only about half full in terms of, demand for players, places for players. So, by all means, join as a player. And then if enough players join, then, yeah, then we'll need some more GMs as well. I guess that's how it works. Yeah.
Matthew:And it's quite a big slot we've got, but hopefully, the actual game playing won't take too long. It's it's gonna be timed with the sand timers, which reminds me, I've still gotta buy a bunch of stand a sand timer for every GM.
Dave:Yeah. So how how does it work? Are there are there rounds? So you play you play, like, an initial round and if you if you kind of you know, do the do the players vote on the best player and then No. No.
Dave:No. To the next round or
Matthew:There's scoring. So, the players play as a team. You're not you're not playing against each other at your table. As a team, there are various objectives in effectively kind of 2 rounds, but you don't get knocked out after the first round. But there's a pause after the 1st round, and we top up the scores.
Matthew:Or I might just go round toting up the scores as it goes on, and we might have a big display of how the different teams
Dave:are doing. Yeah.
Matthew:And then the the the team that gets most stuff done that scores points will win and they will be crowned Dragonbane champions and there will be prizes. I'm not sure I can announce what the prizes are yet whether it's official, but a let us say that a third company has, is offering prizes.
Dave:Nice.
Matthew:So, there'll be there'll be prizes to be had and, of course, much mirth and mayhem as well as a whole bunch of darkness as Marcus points out. You you may not all survive because it's a it's a pretty deadly game, this game.
Dave:Cool.
Matthew:And if you can't get to UK Games Expo, then I don't know whether I can access, but I'm going to tell you anyway because that's the bonus you get of listening to this podcast. There is in June, of course, free RPG day. And this adventure and the scoring rules so you can run your own tournaments is going to be the free RPG offering from Free League this year. Nice.
Dave:Cool. Excellent stuff. Cool. So if you don't get to play it, you could still get it and play it yourself. Nice.
Matthew:Yeah. And we we are staffing our stand at the moment, aren't we? We're gonna be running, Zone Wars, which is the new miniatures game based on Mutant Year 0. You're gonna be doing a seminar. And what's your seminar about, Dave?
Dave:10 top tips for writing and game design. So it's the same title as last year, but I've got a few other ideas of things to talk about. So it should be a bit different from last year's seminar.
Matthew:Cool. So include Dragonbane, for example.
Dave:It might. I haven't written it yet, so maybe. Maybe.
Matthew:Okay. Cool. Yeah. Cool. Okay.
Matthew:That's one of the top tips. Run Dragonbane, obviously. That that's the biggest tip. Write for Dragonbane. Write exclusively for Dragonbane.
Matthew:Have we done enough, Marcus? Have we mentioned Dragonbane enough?
Dave:I don't think we have. I think we've got one more thing to do talking about Dragonbane.
Matthew:No. Actually, we've got one more thing to talk about actually before we move on to talking about Dragonbane. Do we? We will also be recording an episode of the podcast here. We plan to make it a pub quiz.
Matthew:So come armed with your free league knowledge. And this will be your free league knowledge, not your year zero engine knowledge. So we need your SimbaRoom experts and your Mortborg experts and your Dragonbane experts come and join a team, and I will make sure there is at least one question on Dragonbane in that quiz.
Dave:Cool. Sounds good.
Matthew:So that's the world of gaming. Shall we move on to the final bit of Dragonbane for this episode?
Dave:Let's move on to the final bit of Dragonbane for this episode, which is, yeah, an article written by me or put together by me. Me talking about writing adventures and creating adventures in Dragonbane. I haven't played in a Dragonbane campaign, but I have had the pleasure of both playing and running 1 shot Dragonbane Adventures. I've also recently been lucky enough to return to the fantasy world in my day job, writing several adventures for Monolith's new Conan RPG. As well as the first party in what promises to be a huge dungeon crawl classics campaign, and some work with old school essentials.
Dave:It's been a long time since I've written a fantasy story. In fact, probably not since my old a d and d days back in the late 18 nineties. 18 nineties? That'll be 19 eighties. At least, I can't think of any I've done since then.
Dave:But that D and D grounding is the bedrock of my role playing life. And returning to the fantasy genre as a writer felt very comfortable. If a little strange. Strange in that I hadn't expected such a rush of nostalgic feeling in doing this work. I had flashbacks to warm summer days role playing all day at a mate's house, Of late nights playing d and d in the chaplaincy center at Lancaster University.
Dave:And even of sitting waiting for a bus to get to some of those games. But it was a comfortable experience. The ideas just flowed, and writing these stories was great fun. And dare I say it, easy. They've all received great feedback from my clients.
Dave:So it seems I've been doing something right with them too. I've been musing on why that might be the case. And before I get into the meat of my discussion, I just want to reflect on this a little bit. I reckon there are 2 things at play here. First is the all encompassing ubiquitous presence of fantasy in the world.
Dave:Or at least in my world anyway. Books, films, games, and World of Warcraft leaps to mind, all portray a vast variety of fantasy settings and stories. And these can't but help my inspiration. And second, and perhaps more controversially, I wonder if there's a player expectation thing going on here. Or at least my assumption of what I think the player expectation might be.
Dave:For example, I found writing scenarios for Modiphius' Dune RPG really tough as the IP kind of demands that the stories are more complicated. Plans within plans within plans as the quote goes. I'm super proud of what I've produced for Dune, but these stories feel like a very different beast. So what can I say about writing adventures for Dragonbane? One thing I will say is that these thoughts can probably be applied to any adventure you may write for any RPG and not just Dragonbane, but I'll try and stay on topic.
Dave:Well, first things first, structure. If you want to write for Free League or if you want to produce Dragonbane Adventures in their style, either for yourself or publication, you'll need to follow their style. Lucky for us, their style for these adventures couldn't be simpler. It starts with an introductory paragraph, literally less than 100 words setting out the basic premise of the story. Then you describe the situation.
Dave:Again, a short section which lays out the background to the story. What the player characters need to know before going into the adventure. And how they are hooked into the story in the first place. Then we get to the meat of the adventure, the adventures locations. These describe what the player characters find and explain the action that takes place there.
Dave:The locations and their descriptions are the engine room of the adventure, driving the story forward and bringing it to its exciting finale. And finally, you have the aftermath. A short summary explaining what's left after the adventure is completed, and how this changes the world for the p c's. Not all the published adventures include this section, but I would. After all, you want your players to be excited about the story and the possibilities it leaves open for them after they succeed in their quest.
Dave:When writing any fantasy adventure, it can be very easy to fall into the old trope of there's the dungeon in your pop. Kill everything you meet. Fight the big boss and swipe his stuff. And that kind of adventure can work really well. But that brings me back to the player expectation question I mentioned earlier.
Dave:But there are several things you can consider to make your adventure stand out from the crowd. First, you should consider making aspects of your adventure different or have an unexpected twist from the standard find the monster and kill it model. This can include things like, having your bad guys in conflict with each other, as well as the player characters. To add an element of uncertainty over who is the real enemy, or bring some negotiation with the bad guys over how to resolve the situation. Or you should subvert your players expectations of these enemies.
Dave:Have the PCs work out that the bad guy is actually the good guy or vice versa. Add some betrayal or duplicity in there. Rather than inevitably fighting to the death, have the evil big bad boss beg for mercy if they're facing defeat, Or offer something in return for their life, if only the PCs will spare them. They don't need to mean it of course. By these methods, you keep your players on their toes as a boss fight is really a straightforward fight to the death.
Dave:You should understand your n p c's motivations. So perhaps there is a way for the p c's to defeat their enemy that isn't just a straight fight or might not involve a fight at all. And my favorite and go to for all adventures, throw in a moral conundrum or 2 to really get your players thinking about the best way to proceed. Moral conundrums get players really invested and talking about what to do And allow you to sit back and enjoy the show for a while. 2nd, try to use the rules in imaginative ways.
Dave:Or perhaps stretch the balance of the rules to allow new things to happen. For example, you could choose a rule to focus on and design your adventure around that rule. Dragonbane has rules for falling, for fire, swimming, and sleep deprivation amongst many others. So why not set an adventure high in the trees or across the rooftops of an ancient village or a bustling city where the player characters must climb, jump, swing, and slide, and where falling is an ever present risk. Or set an adventure in a valley of fire, or a cavern of dripping molten and lava rivers.
Dave:Or on an archipelago, where they must swim from tiny island to tiny island to explore the location. Or inside a flooded tomb with small pockets of air to help them survive. Or in the halls of some terrible mage who lures them on day after day slowly exhausting them as they explore. You could also stretch the rules to offer your players interesting new bonuses, like the chance to find extra mementos or a charm that gives them a temporary heroic ability. Likewise, you could introduce interesting penalties.
Dave:Like, modifying their appearance or giving them a temporary weakness. Take what the game offers and use your imagination to take the rule onto the next logical step. And more often than not, you'll come across an idea that will add a new twist or experience to the game for your players. 3rd, combat. Now, many of the adversaries in Dragonbang are very cool.
Dave:With exciting monster attack tables to keep player characters on their toes. They also have interesting abilities. Some of which are disadvantageous to them. But still, combat can often resolve into a boring slug fest, until someone runs out of hit points. Make winning a combat in your adventure based on something more interesting than just hitting the boss harder than he hits you.
Dave:To start with, you can encourage your players to make tactical use of their enemies existing disadvantages. For example, the forest troll is both impulsive and sensitive to light. So design the encounter to allow your players to perhaps entice or taunt the troll out from his hideaway, so they can trap him in the sunlight. Or the Lindworm is drawn to glitter, so design that encounter to encourage your players to kite the beast into a spot where they can take some tactical advantage. Say, plunge it into quicksand or drop a rock fall on it.
Dave:Alternatively, if your antagonist has no obvious disadvantage, then design a way to defeat it that the pcs can identify and then try. You can focus on the special attacks on page 48. And have these attacks become an important part of the tactics to defeat the enemy. For example, you design a giant golem that takes special damage from a successful topple attack. Or a 6 armed demon that must be disarmed with 6 swords using the disarm special attack.
Dave:Or make up your own enemy weakness and the attacks to exploit it. How about a reflection attack to stun a beast that can't be killed by normal means, but by reflecting its own gaze back at it you can defeat it. Or why not use a magical means to increase the rage of a demon that can't be otherwise defeated to the point where it's consumed by its own hatred. This way, your combat encounters will be much more challenging, much more tactical, and be much more satisfying for your players when they finally emerge victorious. The last thing I'll say is this, and it is directly Dragonbane relevant.
Dave:If you don't yet own the Dragonbane bestiary, go and get it. Yet again, Free League have created another excellent monster supplement to go with the Cimberoon monster codex and the Forbidden Lands book of beasts. The way the book is organized makes it very easy indeed to recreate some of the best campaigns from the old days of a d and d. The listings of giants, dragons, demons, and undead offer a hierarchy of adversaries, which when I read them immediately made me think of all the old a d and d campaign modules. And specifically, the scenarios g 1, g 2, and g 3.
Dave:The steading of the hill giant chief, the glacial rift of the frost giant Jarl, and the hall of the fire giant king. It would be so easy to create a campaign to someone the great d and d feelings of old using the bestiary. That I'm almost tempted to just go on and do it. And that's exactly what I'm going to do when I finally find the fabled 8th day of the week.
Matthew:So that's all very good. All well and good, Dave. Very useful advice. But it's advice, I think, may be applied to loads of fantasy writing.
Dave:Well, that's kind of that was kind of my point, you know. Yes. You know? Yeah. A a look the fantasy setting is something that I think, you know, the things I was talking about can be applied to could actually be applied to any scenario for any genre, actually.
Dave:I think it's just generally good advice. Good advice. It's up to you whether it's good advice. It's just generally advice. It's up to me.
Dave:Advice.
Matthew:Then it's shit advice, David. All of it's crap.
Dave:I was talking to
Matthew:Don't do what he just said.
Dave:Oh. I was talking
Matthew:to our listeners. You mean? Yeah.
Dave:But yeah. I mean, I'm, you know, I'm quite open. I've I've I've never written a a Dragonbone scenario. I haven't run a campaign. I've played a game, and I've run a game a couple of times.
Matthew:You've mentioned that. Yep. And yeah.
Dave:So I was quite open, about about that. But, yeah. So I guess, you know, what what I didn't address was, you know, specifically, what should you do different to other systems, other games to bring out a Dragonbane look and feel sense of of that particular game.
Matthew:So maybe that's a useful bit of a discussion that we can have now is what is essential dragonbane? What makes it I'm I mean, for me, I I'm gonna just click off with a with an example that may not be the best example, and I'm still looking for what is the heart of Dragonbane. But one of the things I think is fascinating about Dragonbane compared to loads of other fantasy game, but one in particular, is the audience's attitude to ducks. Because you talk about ducks in Rune Quest which is, let us remember, where ducks as a playable adventuring race first appeared. And you can see an audience there that is split between those who love the ducks and those who say, well, ducks bloody ruin it for me.
Matthew:I love I love the world of Glorantha, but we we just don't
Dave:mention ducks.
Matthew:They don't exist. Yeah. And, yeah, it seems to me that in the discussion around Dragonbane, ducks have been embraced. Your man Douglas, one of our patrons who who runs runs all sorts of role playing games for for school kids. They are into playing ducks.
Matthew:They're I think 2 of them have got duck characters. And that's probably only because they all wanted duck characters. But then, you know, they also wanted to be a bit different. So so ducks in Dragonbane, it seems to me, are much more accepted than they ever were in Runequest. So that's my first thing about what is exclusively, not exclusively, essential Dragonbane.
Dave:Yeah. And it's it's interesting. I mean, if we if we take Dragonbane's tagline, you know, mirth and mayhem, I mean, firstly, I would argue that you can have mirth and mayhem in any game you like pretty much. I mean
Matthew:Yeah. I mean, let's say I think
Dave:Some games aren't every game we've But it's yeah. But it's not I mean, some games don't lend themselves. Don't don't you know, some games like, you know
Matthew:10 Candles?
Dave:Vampire the Masquerade, 10 Candles. Well, actually, 10 Candles is definitely a mirth and mayhem game because it's great fun telling, you know, describing your death. But let's say Vampire the Masquerade.
Matthew:I'm I'm gonna say Vampire the Masquerade as well, though. I mean, a whole bunch of people wanna play Vampire the Masquerade like it's What We Do in the Shadows. No. Sorry. They end up playing it like it's What We Do in the Shadows as opposed to, Only Lovers Left Alive.
Matthew:Perhaps Only Lovers Left Alive is what they want to play with vampires, but it ends up being what we do in the shadows.
Dave:Well, that that's true. Okay. So I mean, actually, yeah. I was using that as perhaps an example of a game where mirth and mayhem doesn't seem to be
Matthew:I'm not the intention.
Dave:You're absolutely right. It probably does. So I think that tagline is is is just that, isn't it? It's a tagline. It doesn't actually mean anything, specific about the game, really.
Dave:And the fact with you've got the ducks. In the in the games that I ran at Comic Con last year, people enjoy playing the ducks. They got a smile on their face when they got the duck character.
Matthew:Mhmm.
Dave:But, actually, I think if you played it more than once, that duck character just becomes your character. It's not a constant source of, you know, titty not at the table kind of thing. So I, you know, I wonder if we and and Mark is saying, the game could be gritty and dark and and and brutal. So actually, are we kind of are are have we taken ourselves down a little rabbit hole here, which actually goes nowhere by saying, well, for for Dragon Vein to be Dragon Vein, it's gotta be Murphy and it's gotta be Mayhemmy. Yeah.
Matthew:I didn't say that. I all I said was it's gonna have to do it.
Dave:That was implied. Implied, I think. But, Okay. So Inferred,
Matthew:I think is
Dave:I rather than implied. Either way, work either either works for me, you know, the point I'm trying to make. But yeah. The ducks are quite cool. I quite like them.
Dave:You know, if I was to play in a campaign, I might I might play a duck. I mean, I also very much like I've also very much like the the game we played online. I very enjoyed playing Baston Blood Claw or whatever his name is. The basically, the dog.
Matthew:Brilliant wolf character. Yes.
Dave:Yeah. Yeah. He was great fun. I mean, he was kinda designed for that scenario. He had a lot of abilities that were were very pertinent to the story.
Matthew:I feel sorry for is the master character there.
Dave:In that one. Yeah.
Matthew:Mohammed played. Yeah.
Dave:Mohammed played that way. Didn't really have couldn't really use his special abilities very well.
Matthew:Yeah. I'll be interested to see how the, the tournament adventure, deals with with that for that particular character, but we shall wait and see. It'll be the same characters, by the way. The the the ones in the starter set, are the ones, that you're gonna use. I think okay.
Matthew:So I'm I'm still looking for what is essential it Is it is it is it therefore dragons and demons? Is it is it the because the the conflict that this edition of Dragonbane or Drakkar Okdumener, has between the essentially, I guess, chaotic evil, demons and the essentially good, if uncaring dragons is kind of is is a big part of the world that they've created for this edition. But it hasn't existed in previous editions. So I don't think that's essential Dragon Bay.
Dave:No. I mean, I I mean, I wonder seeing, you know, Draco Okdaemona came from the, you know, the the the well of D and D, whether, actually, you know, it we should just accept that it's, you know, a, a variant, an evolution of of Dungeons and Dragons. And it's basically the same game, but with a slightly different different slant to it. I mean, because the rules That's not
Matthew:cutting it for me. That's not cutting it. No. So if you were
Dave:So so the reason just just the reason I say that is that in running it, it felt quite D and D like. The rules are obviously very reminiscent of D and D in many cases. Okay. They're a lot simpler in many cases.
Matthew:They're more reminiscent of Runequest, because
Dave:that's where
Matthew:that's what was licensed. But,
Dave:But, the the feel of it when I was thinking about and writing the article. Like I said, it brought back you know, I was nostalgizing a lot about the
Matthew:stories of
Dave:D and D.
Matthew:Yeah. For the dragon and the the giant adventures and
Dave:stuff like that. Yeah. From the inspiration I was getting from looking at the books again and and thinking about the article. So it's it's definitely like it I mean, D and D light is an unfair way of putting it, but it definitely generates, in my head anyway, that that feeling, that atmosphere, that aura, very reminiscent of the the feelings of AD and D of old.
Matthew:Yeah. And it was interesting. Actually, one thing that I feel reminds me of AD AD and D of old is a discussion that we had recently on the Discord where people were asking, Anglophones, shall we say, were asking of of the Swedish members of our Discord, where can I find the kind of lore of dungeons oh, no? The lore of dragon Yeah. You know, what is the Dragonbane world and stuff like that?
Matthew:And I know in the various editions there have been worlds created. Trudwagen Chronicles is an English version of a previous edition of Dragonbane that appeared that feels very very Nordic and Scandinavian specific in its in its, flora and fauna and and the world that was created there. There's another world which, well, Svavilwinter, which is a Swedish novel that essentially came out of a Dragonbane campaign. That had a feel of it. So but one of the core things about old GND when you and I were playing old GND is we didn't care much about the world.
Matthew:The worlds were all our own, and we just slotted the adventures into them as as a as a GM decided I wanna run this adventure. Yeah. So I think actually having a very flexible and not set in stone world might be essential Dragonbane.
Dave:Possibly. Possibly. I mean, it's it's an interesting one, isn't it? Because again, back in the old days of AD and D, I don't remember caring about what the world was like. I cared about what the adventure and what the quest ahead of me was.
Matthew:Yeah.
Dave:You know, and and maybe, you know, maybe that is maybe that is, you know, the d and d shtick. And obviously, you know, over the last 35, 40 years, 45 years, a lot of D and D stuff has come out, and there's a lot of D and D settings out there and world building. But back in the day, back in 1980, it wasn't something that was on it wasn't something that was on my radar or that I cared about as a player. I wanted to go and find the horrible beasties and explore and, you know, nick their stuff.
Matthew:So is there something about genericness that is actually quite important? I mean but but the ducks to one side as being not very generic. Is is the sheer genericness something we should celebrate in Dragonbane? And if writing Dragonbane Adventures, we should try and make them relatively self sufficient, not part of a wider world.
Dave:I think I think the thing with it is that it that the wider world can often hamstring a GM or a person who's wishing to create something within that world because they feel like they've got to, you know, they've got to ride within the guidelines of that world. Whereas if you don't have a if you don't have a world that's being imposed on you, you can do what the hell you like and not care. So I wonder if it gives a bit of, you know, narrative freedom, creative freedom to, you know, to a to a to a to a designer, a creator, a GM to create what whatever they feel. I mean, it's interesting. We were, our friend and friend of the show, Andreas Lundstrom, is doing their, forbidden for
Matthew:the Windhorn?
Dave:Yeah. Yeah. Wind Windheim setting for
Matthew:Well, yeah. Windheim and the horn of something. Yes.
Dave:Yeah. Yes. For for Dragon Bay. And yeah. Delighted.
Dave:I was invited to write a sort of like an adventure seed for it. And I wrote the adventure seed. They they loved the adventure seed, but they said that, oh, it doesn't fit with the setting. So that was me writing a freely writing an adventure seed not knowing what the setting was all about or knowing a little bit, but not much. And then breaking the rules of the settings.
Dave:So it needed a few tweaks to fit to fit the setting properly, which is fine. They made the core of the of the idea behind the story was was was fine and kept, but it just needed to be tweaked a bit so it fitted the setting a bit better. But that comes straight into what we're talking about here. Now Yes. It does.
Matthew:And it adds somewhat against it.
Dave:But Yeah. I mean, I wasn't constrained by the setting elements of of Windheim. But when it came to it, Andreas and the others creating that were. And so the story that I'd written had to change in order to reflect the setting. Whereas if you've got no setting, you can write what the hell you like, and it doesn't matter.
Matthew:Yeah. Yeah. I okay. So I'm beginning to so what I'm seeing here, if you like, for some reason I have a metaphor in my head, which is a perfect Dragonbane adventure is like a fire, like a a sort of the players, the characters are sitting around the fire and out of the dark anything could be going on. But within that circle of flame, as lit by by the flames of the fire, that is the whole world as it stands at the moment.
Matthew:Mhmm. And and hopefully that can slot with minor changes into whatever the wider world is that you and the players are creating in your own heads.
Dave:I also it's a sort of bad metaphor. And I quite like the idea that this is brought into my head, which is as a GM, you don't need to create the whole world before you start creating adventures in it. Create an adventure
Matthew:not. Yeah.
Dave:Create an adventure and then create another adventure and have the world appear as you like you say, as your fire spread, as you've got another fire down the road, you see a bit more of the world, and you create a bit more of the world as you go. So I like that. I think that's that's a nice way of doing it. But that way, you you you create the world as you go. And then once you've created it, the players are kind of part of that creation as well.
Dave:And so Yeah.
Matthew:Yeah. It's it's it's it's just the thing. The things that they pick up on in this adventure are the things that you might well repeat or, you know, riff off in the next adventure you write as a GM. Exactly. So it is a co creation thing that's going on even even if your players are quite passive.
Matthew:And they're not saying, oh, can we have some of these in the next one? Or my character really wants this order of Paladins or whatever. And So, and
Dave:the other part about it is the rest of that world that's like you say outside the glow of the fire doesn't matter. Who cares what it is? Doesn't matter what it is because what you're interested in is what you've illuminated yourself. And I think that's very much like the way we used to. The way I used to create a d and d adventures back in the day.
Dave:Because again, I don't Yeah. I don't remember thinking. I don't remember making great big worlds. I know our friend Andy, Andy Brick, with all his RuneQuest stuff, did it did it exactly the opposite way. He'd create huge kingdoms with all the stuff in it, and then would play his games within that.
Dave:But, yeah, it was his still his creation, so he could make it in any way he wanted. But I like I like the idea that you're creating the world as you go. I think there's something Yes. Attractive about that. Right.
Matthew:So that that might be, advice. That's not to say that Windheim and the Horn of Dawn hasn't actually done that itself because Andreas told us, and we interviewed him ages ago, that this is his old campaign that he used to run the Dragonbane. Yeah. And I bet you, I don't know that he didn't create that world in its you know, in in one cloth as it were Yeah. And then introduces bears to it.
Matthew:I imagine that probably what he did is exactly what you've done. You know, create the little campfires, and as the glow from each of those campfires spreads across the world, then you more of the world is revealed. So maybe that is that should be essential Dragonbane
Dave:Mhmm.
Matthew:In its you know, in terms of its old school nature. Maybe that's a that's our advice to aspiring readers.
Dave:That's a good that's a good conclusion. I like that.
Matthew:Brilliant. Okay. Our work here is done. Our Dragonbane special episode is officially over.
Dave:Hope you enjoyed it, Marcus.
Matthew:I hope you're satisfied.
Dave:Yeah. You bloody well better be. You're not getting another one. Well, you may
Matthew:be Oh, no. We might have another one. Yeah.
Dave:We might have another one. I'm only joking. I'm only joking. Yeah. Cool.
Dave:No. But again, Nia. Marcus, thank you very much for writing in and taking the time to do that. And this morning, this, this hour and 20 something minutes of, of us blathering on about Dragonbane. Dragonbane.
Matthew:Woo hoo. Yes. No more Dragonbane. Right. In our next episode, there will be something that will depend somewhat on what people write to us about in an email possibly, or what we think of.
Matthew:I haven't particularly got any ideas for 2 weeks time. We are getting closer to UK Games Expo. So panic thoughts about that may influence our our writing decisions. But
Dave:but But we'll come up with something There'll be some stuff. Yeah. There will be some stuff, as usual. Cool. Right.
Dave:Well, I think that's probably enough for one day, don't you? You have been listening to the effect podcast presented by Fiction Suit and the RPG Gods. Music stars on a Black Sea used with permission of Freeleague Publishing.