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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.
Good day, and welcome to episode 236 of the Effect podcast, adventure of a lifetime. You might be able to tell that we're a bit tired because it's very early on a Sunday before I go on holiday. Oh, by the way, I'm Dave.
Matthew:And I'm Matthew, and we're never recording again at this time in
Dave:the morning,
Matthew:don't we?
Dave:And we thought I
Matthew:thought I thought I was quite awake and everything. Yeah. But, Actually, it turns out
Dave:I thought I'd be problem here, not you. Because you've been up since, like, 2 in the morning anyway, haven't you? So
Matthew:Yeah. Yeah. That's why I'm so chugged.
Dave:When you're not not dreaming about me.
Matthew:We said we wouldn't talk about that, Dave. Now now we have to we have to explain to Alistair that, I dreamt that Dave had died, and I'd fist pumped and gone, yes.
Dave:I win. And you'd been happy about it. Yeah. That's really charming. Sorry.
Matthew:But I'll pay for the
Dave:rest of the day. Overconcerned
Matthew:that I've been left with a lot of work on Tales of the Odd West as well. So it was a nightmare eventually. A very selfish nightmare. I apologize, Dave, for for what my unconscious mind is secretly really thinking.
Dave:When's Dave gonna die? Yes. Let's let's
Matthew:Now we have got a couple of items from the world of gaming, but we're gonna try and keep this short so that our overall recording time gives Dave time to finally pack the car and get on holiday. Mhmm. We've got some old west news. Thankfully, normally, I'd be disappointed that we had no new patrons to thank. But, in this particular time, because we're short of time, it's good that this week nobody signed up.
Matthew:But if you're thinking about signing up, do sign over the next couple of weeks, and then we can shout your name out.
Dave:We will.
Matthew:And, so old west news. Then, we're looking a little bit, we we we'd expand that old west news and look in a bit more detail at the life path generation system that if you back hard enough when we launch the Kickstarter, will be one of the stretch goals.
Dave:Yeah.
Matthew:And and then we'll talk about what we're gonna do in a couple of weeks' time, Dave Indeed. Which we already have an idea for. So we're already ahead of the game, aren't we?
Dave:We are. So, yes, world of gaming. What what do we have on the world of gaming for this week then, Matthew?
Matthew:Right. Well, I had a special message, in fact, from the guys behind, the Veus and Zine. Thomas contacted me on Twitter and told me about the 3rd, count it, the 3rd Wiesen Con that's coming up.
Dave:That's cool.
Matthew:And that's, that's running online. It's a weekend. It's an online gothic, gothic horror convention, and it's running between 6th 8th September. So, a little over a month away or quite a lot over a month, but not quite too much.
Dave:Which is right. Yeah. So well, that's at the weekend of Tabletop Scotland, actually, when I'm gonna
Matthew:be there. Oh, really? Yeah. So you won't be participating And
Dave:also, also, the the weekend of a very portentous event, which is my 55th birthday.
Matthew:You were going I didn't I knew you were going to Tabletop Scotland. I didn't know you were going to Tabletop Scotland for your 55th birthday.
Dave:Yeah. Our birthdays ain't mattered, anyways. There's had too many of them. So and, you know, if if we get your way, I'll be dead by then anyway. So
Matthew:Well, there's every chance if that was a portentous dream.
Dave:Let's hope it wasn't.
Matthew:Because it was definitely, I think, before the Kickstarter.
Dave:When there was still work left to be done. Yeah.
Matthew:Yeah.
Dave:Yes. So is that is that a general,
Matthew:let's
Dave:say, gothic horror convention, or is it specifically Vaesen?
Matthew:No. It's very Vaesen. It's very Vaesen. I guess though, you know, if you're trying to bring more people into the world of Vaesen, then you might want to explain in your in your subtitle as it were, what Versen's all about. But right now, the particular reason they asked us to mention Versencon on, this here, very fine podcast, is they know this is where all the best Vers and GMs get their news.
Matthew:Mhmm. So this is a call to Versen GMs. Submissions are now open. Get check them out. I will put a link in the show notes on versoncon.com, and, submit your game for the convention today as it says here on versoncon.com.
Matthew:Yep. Cool. No. No. It's run it's
Dave:I've never heard of it before.
Matthew:Have yes. You have heard of it before. I'm sure we mentioned it last year or something. People people, they invited us to speak, but we were doing something else, or to or to be a panel, or to Oh,
Dave:okay.
Matthew:Run a game or something. I know, Just
Dave:my memory then, maybe.
Matthew:I know patrons were running games. I'm trying to think who they were at the time. I'm absolutely sure. Nicholas Nicholas was definitely running a game.
Dave:Okay. Cool.
Matthew:Definitely running a game. So, yeah, we haven't participated, which is why, I'm guessing you're only guffawing and acting surprised. But, but, yeah, that is a thing, and it's happened twice already, and this is the 3rd time. And and and even if you don't participate, it'll, be on YouTube, and they'll have panels and stuff like that. Yeah.
Matthew:And, interestingly, on this here website, I can get you to the bottom of the website, and it says, did you miss the 2023 live panels? You can find them here. So check those out if you wanna hear people talking about this. And we might have been on that, except we were doing something else. Cool.
Matthew:I'm pretty sure. I don't know whether we were doing that or something else together. I think we may have been on holiday or something like that, or you may have been in Tabletop Scotland. No. That's this coming year.
Matthew:But anyway anyway, there it is. There it is. Verson.com. Lovely people. Last year.
Matthew:Yeah.
Dave:Yeah. Looks looks cool. It's a nice it's a nice little website. Yeah. Go and give it a go if you're interested in playing some Versant over over my birthday.
Dave:Do it as a celebration of my birthday.
Matthew:I think Good character. Why they chose that date, isn't it? They went, who is, one of the least significant writers in the whole First City of the West? Oh, Dave. Let's celebrate Dave's birthday.
Dave:Yeah. It's Versen slash Dave Con. Yeah.
Matthew:I'll check that. So it was Thomas that contacted me on Twitter. I will check that with Thomas and make sure that's the reason why they're holding it on that date.
Dave:Good to be sure. Good to be sure. Yeah.
Matthew:It's always good to be sure. Yeah. Then you could be a virtual guest of honor and not actually be there because you'll be somewhere else, but we could all raise a glass, said your honor.
Dave:I could I could be there in spirit.
Matthew:Yeah. Let's not talk about this after I just dreamed of you dying, shall we? Actually, this is this this whole episode is becoming far too morbid.
Dave:Yeah. Have have any of your dreams come true in the past, Matthew?
Matthew:Only about 98% of them.
Dave:Wrong answer. Okay. Getting worried about No. None of them. Should drive super carefully today.
Matthew:Yeah. Do so. Do so. And do so every day every day. Yes.
Matthew:I do. Yes. You've been keeping a secret from me, which is why I've sent out the assassination. Oh, shit. I wasn't gonna mention that bit.
Matthew:You've been keeping a secret from me, Dave, and now I have to find out about it on the web like everybody else.
Dave:Yeah. Sorry about that. I've kind of forgotten about it. So, what we're talking about? We're talking about Space 1999, the RPG.
Dave:So that was announced on the socials, oh, in the last couple of days.
Matthew:2 or 3 days. Yeah.
Dave:I think it looks like I mean, it looks like from the social, it's it's, being being produced by Modiphius. Now I, I had a chat with Andy Peregrine, who is the the driving force behind this when we're at UK Games Expo. Ah. He gave me a little bit of an insight into what was happening. And, I won't go into all the ins and outs, but I think there was quite a lot of chicanery to get through, obviously, licence issues, trying to at that point, he wasn't even sure it was gonna get produced.
Dave:So he was he was negotiating about, you know, how how it might get done. I think at that point, he wasn't thinking it would be Modiphius who'd pick it up. But it looks like they've decided to do that, which is fabulous.
Matthew:Well, I wonder whether it's one of those looking at it because it because the fur I've seen announcements from Modiphius, but the first announcements I saw were from, I can't remember the company, but, you know, effectively, Gerry Anderson's Yeah. Company. And I wonder whether it's a bit like the sort of co publishing deal that Freely did when they first first started publishing in English. So, you know, effectively coming from Free League, but with Modiphius' support in terms of distribution and stuff like that.
Dave:And stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Quite possibly. Yeah.
Dave:So Andy obviously was super, super excited about it all. Yeah. I mean, it's it's a really interesting IP. I mean, it's online. It's gathered loads and loads of interest with, I think, people of kind of my our age going, oh, wow.
Matthew:I love
Dave:I love Space 90. I used to used to watch it all the time. And there's a huge wave of nostalgia, about it.
Matthew:The Eagle, after all, is one of your favorite spaceships.
Dave:It is. I mean, it that the design of the Eagle is is just yeah. Probably the best ship design, Even though I still never really understand how their cockpits work. Because if you look at it from the inside and look at it from the outside, it doesn't seem to make any sense.
Matthew:Well But Yeah. Don't don't think about it too.
Dave:No. No. I've I've I've
Matthew:You know the first spaceship where they design the insides and the outside at the same time
Dave:Oh, well, serenity, I suppose.
Matthew:In media. Sorry?
Dave:Was it serenity?
Matthew:It is indeed. Yeah. Serenity from Firefly. The first time that they had the guys designing the outside and the guys designing the inside working together.
Dave:In conjunction, which is which is great because, you know, that I I guess for a ship that size, you need to do that, because it looks because, yeah, you the ship is such an integral part of the of the program of the film, that, you know, you don't wanna be sitting there going, well, that doesn't work. How can they walk down that corridor? That corridor can't exist kind of thing. Whereas for things like Star Trek,
Matthew:it doesn't matter. It's just We're we're not talking about serenity. We're talking about, Space 1999. And, of course, we should explain to our younger listeners that the Eagle isn't a single craft like, like serenity. The Eagle is a whole fleet
Dave:Like a design of class. Yeah. A design
Matthew:of Utilitarian, spaceships. Really kind of moon hoppers, weren't they? I mean, I I they weren't even meant to be for interplanetary voyaging. They're meant to be moving cargoes from one site on the moon to another site on the moon, I think. I you know it better than I do.
Dave:Although, I think, no, they do they do certainly. They have a they they are space capable because they are often used, for, yeah, for for doing things other than just orbiting the moon, in space 1999. But, yeah, that I've got my my three d printed model in my hand right now that our friend and and patron Andy printed for me ages ago. And it's I haven't painted it or anything. I should do really, But it's a lovely little model.
Dave:But I love the the thing I love about it the most. Well, two things. 1, the the the kind of the cockpit design externally is just so iconic. It looks absolutely superb. The the kind of like sweeping.
Dave:Well, like almost Eagles beak kind of design looks really cool. But the other thing is that that utility where they would have modules and they could pick up a different module, which become basically the guts of the ship. And I had a toy when I was a kid, which had 2 different modules on it. And one was like a like a chinook kind of, like, winch kind
Matthew:of thing. For the for the containers of nuclear waste.
Dave:Yeah. And then And
Matthew:the other one was a kind of habitation module or something.
Dave:Yeah. Or science module or whatever they're using. But, yeah, it's a fabulous ship. Space 1999 is a is a it I love it. And I I mean, I haven't obviously watched it since I was a kid.
Dave:I will I'll actually have it said that I did catch an episode a few a few months ago, which is a great fun to watch again. But the as with a lot of 19 seventies IPs, it suffers from, this couldn't really happen.
Matthew:In the 19 seventies.
Dave:Yeah. This this idea is actually bonkers. Yes. It doesn't work. How could
Matthew:you make a
Dave:TV series out of it? But they did.
Matthew:So And we can explain the idea is that a big nuclear waste dump on the moon explodes, throwing the moon on an incredible interstellar voyage where they get to see a new planet every day, effectively
Dave:Every winter.
Matthew:Have a good adventure. Yes. So yeah. I mean, that's gotta be one pretty big explosion, and, you know, there are issues about don't think about it too hard, I think, is the message.
Dave:The message is don't think about it at all because it makes no sense. But Space 1999 is iconic. It's got so many iconic things about it. I always loved their laser guns, which looked like, when I was a kid Stapleton. In the bath, it used to have a, like, a nail brush, which
Matthew:looked just which
Dave:looked just like that. So that was great. When I was 10 years old, I used to run around without shooting people. Yeah.
Matthew:The little nail brush when you're only 10, you know, surrounds your hand much like the, crystals in there.
Dave:It was perfect. Yeah. Yeah. So, anyway, that's
Matthew:There were some lovely things about it. I really like the cast. I really like the uniforms. Yeah. The the concept, I I really couldn't get on, especially in the second series when they named one of the planets Luton, because one of the American producers had driven past Luton and thought it was a great science fiction name.
Matthew:I mean, it wasn't quite pronounced Luton, was it? Or something. But, for those of
Dave:us who who live near Luton or have ever been there, it it doesn't evoke the right kind of field, does it?
Matthew:Not not the exotic planet they visited in that episode. No.
Dave:No. No. Uh-huh. So I'm not
Matthew:quite sure, Paul.
Dave:So what have they actually announced for? Is there have they announced a preorder?
Matthew:Or I think it's a preorder, and it looks like the new sort of simplified 2 d 20 system that, Modiphius are doing. It looks very much like they're aiming actually at, not RPG die hards like you and I, but a broader audience in that I it it seems to me that the the rule set works really hard at at explaining what a role playing game is. And if you look at the Anderton, not Anderton's website. Sorry. That's my bad.
Dave:The Gerry Anderson website.
Matthew:The Gerry Anderson website. It takes great pains to explain what a role playing game is as well. So I think they're trying to push it out there to a bunch of people who might be interested in the IP who haven't played role playing games, which we know worked with Alien.
Dave:Absolutely. Yeah.
Matthew:I'll be interest interested to see whether it works with, with Space 1999.
Dave:I do say I think they've done a a bang up job on the cover of the call book because it just looks it reminds me of one of those Hanes manuals almost. So it's got that retro feel to it. I mean, it's it's it's not. It's just got the Space 99 title across the top and a really cool picture of an eagle, flying across the moon with a planet in the background. But But you're right.
Dave:It feels very seventies design. It feels very seventies. It feels It feels really good. And,
Matthew:yeah,
Dave:so I I obviously, with with I had a good chat with Andy and sort of gave him a little nudge and a wink and said, look, if you if you need any writing, so, he said to keep me in mind, so I shall have to remind him of that and hope I might get to do some work on it at some point. But nothing so far. But, yeah, it looks lovely. So if you're interested, go and have a look. I I I'm pretty sure I'm gonna be
Matthew:Oh, Dave. Dave. Dave. You've you've you've gotta do a a sequel to, to the Luton episode where they visit the planet Stevenage.
Dave:Grimsby.
Matthew:Right. Yes. Now we gotta crack on, Dave, because we've got 28 minutes until you need to be going on a holiday, and we've got a lot to discuss. Have we done everything on the no. We haven't.
Matthew:So next thing, World of Game not World of Gaming, we've done that. News from the west, Dave.
Dave:Yes. So our not our first video. Our second video, but our first video since the first video, if that makes any sense, was posted last week.
Matthew:The first of our promised videos. The videos that we promised you in the introductory video Yes. Is out.
Dave:And that's us at the I LARP Center in Eversley, the Wild West recreation town, in a church talking about faith and your big dream. So if you haven't seen it go and have a look. Yeah. I mean production values are as high as you'd expect from me and Matthew. So, don't get too excited.
Dave:But it's a it's a hopefully a charming little video that gives you a bit of an insight into those parts of the game. And we've got more coming. We've got another 6 or 7 videos, which will be posted over the next few weeks.
Matthew:And if you enjoy listening to our podcast, I think you will enjoy, this video more because we gave up trying to use a script like we did in the first video. So it's just the 2 of us chatting and talking over each other and surprising each other and things like that. I have edited it slightly, after the the discussion. So so when I'm talking about this is where you go to the website to find out, you're laughing uncontrollably in the background, and nobody knows why.
Dave:I don't remember why to self now. But
Matthew:Because we just got it so wrong. You you are so far behind the time. So what the website address actually was? Anyway, that's all gone. That's lost in the seeds of time.
Matthew:So, yeah, that new video's out, and I'll try and edit some more and keep them pumping out regularly. Yeah. Probably nearer when we set the date for the Kickstarter itself, which we haven't done yet, and I think that's our next really
Dave:good job. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. That's our highest
Matthew:priority next.
Dave:On on the on the on the topic of videos, just if you haven't seen it, last weekend, we were interviewed by the Dave and Steve, the lovely boys from, the band of Badgers on the Friday, and then I ran an AP with them of a scenario called biting the dust in Albuquerque, where they play a bunch of, kind of ruthless fellows who are looking for someone who's stolen some gold. Great fun all around. I've had a real blast doing it. They're up on the Band of Badgers YouTube's if you want to go and have a look, if you didn't catch it at the time. So go and have a look.
Dave:That gives a bit of a, a flavor of the game. And we have more to come. So we've got one arranged, with our lovely friend, Fiona Howard, with the What Am I Rolling?
Matthew:What Am I Rolling?
Dave:That's planned for 9th August, I think that one is. And we probably might get one in before then, with somebody else, which we are currently trying to arrange. But that would be a completely new scenario. This one is gonna be called the birthday present, and it's about a family who, yeah, who are who are off out trying to get a birthday present for their youngest who's gonna be 16 years old, and things will happen.
Matthew:Mhmm. So, yeah. Things will not go smooth.
Dave:Things will not fly smooth. No. Indeed. So, yeah. So that's 9th October.
Dave:We've got that planned. We'll obviously advertise that nearer the time. But, yeah, it'll be a totally brand new scenario. So it's not we won't be rehashing old actual plays through these videos that we run over the next few weeks because, as much fun as it might be to see a different group play the same game, it's probably more fun to see a new story.
Matthew:Yeah. And also, I'm hoping that we get across some of the breadth of how you know, the different ways you can take the, you know, your own campaign with the rule set as well.
Dave:Yeah. Yep.
Matthew:Talking of videos as well, I've slightly rejigged the website. So our most recent video will still always be on the front page, but I've now created another page of just of media. So we'll collect Excellent. All our archive videos as it were. Everything we put out will will find its home there eventually, plus links to third party stuff.
Matthew:So already the band of Badgers, 2 videos are on there. Their interview, they did with us. Nice. And also the AP. And, Frank, that's Raldanash's interviews that he did with me and with, with Bruce who's been a store GM running at conventions.
Matthew:And a 3rd video, and I can't quite remember what that 3rd video is.
Dave:Yeah. Go and have a look and, you'll
Matthew:you'll find
Dave:out. It's a mystery video. This week's mystery video from the effect publishing podcast guys.
Matthew:Oh, I know. The interview with the on tabletop that you did at,
Dave:the
Matthew:Games Expo. Cool. Yeah.
Dave:Cool. Yeah. I mean, the interesting thing about the, the video we had with, Dave and Steve with the Badgers was we talked for a little over an hour, and we didn't get round to talking about faith in the big dream.
Matthew:No. So, I mean,
Dave:you know, faith being such a key element of the game, but we were so busy talking about other stuff about the game that we didn't get to it. So we'll have to go back on there again at some point and talk all about faith.
Matthew:Yeah. Although people can watch our video on Faith in the Big League.
Dave:They can. They
Matthew:can. And and can. Yeah. Other thing, I I I I've designed a character sheet, Dave, which, amazingly you quite like.
Dave:Yeah. It's growing on me. So, yeah. It's it's good. So it's it's an interesting design.
Dave:The early versions, the principle looked good, but the the actual thing itself didn't. But, yeah, I think it's coming together really well, actually. It's I'm
Matthew:still fussing over, typography. I'm gonna do a different a few different versions with different typefaces in. Yeah. But I will I'm I'm only saying this because somebody brought up as a review on the on the quick start on drive through RPG that he didn't like the very utilitarian, kind of grid spreadsheets that we that
Dave:we that we use for the for
Matthew:the character of. Although he said they looked like spreadsheets that we we'd bit in the back of that book. So thought maybe I need to rise a challenge and sort out a a character sheet.
Dave:I mean, it's it's interesting because the the the difference is the the character sheet that we did for the quick draw, which is a very kind of traditional one page character sheet, packs into 1 page the information that you're trying to spread over to. So that gives the character sheet a slightly better feel, a bit more space. Maybe there's some kind of little bit of artwork we could squeeze into a corner of it with a sheriff's badge or
Matthew:something. Thing, actually, I took my learning from that one into one page. And what I tried to do is if you imagine, landscape, couch sheet that you could fold in half, which has always been my concept, so you get a little Yeah. Mini booklet as it were. Then the central spread is everything you need to play the game in session.
Matthew:Yeah. And what appears on the back of that, or if you like, on the front cover and back cover, is some of the stuff that, you know, the the little background paragraph of the character portrait, well, well, actually not guns. Gun guns all appear on the front. Yeah. But if you've got one horse Yeah.
Matthew:And your compadres appear on the back.
Dave:Yeah. Which is a good it's a good design. I like it a lot. I think it works nicely that way. And as I said, the principle behind your design, I always thought was was good.
Dave:But now the the
Matthew:the execution The
Dave:execution is getting there. Absolutely. It's it's, it's it's coming along. It should look really good. I I am liking it.
Dave:So you you'll
Matthew:Anyway, we'll probably stick a copy in the file section on the, on the Toto Facebook group when when we get there Yeah. When I'm happy with it. Yeah. So that's enough news from the old west, I think. Shall we shall we expand that into what we're talking about in this episode?
Dave:Yeah. So you took a task for this week to have a few comments about life paths in general, and then we're gonna look at the life path in Tales of the Old West.
Matthew:I reckon the oldest life path character creation system in tabletop role playing games is also the most notorious. Traveller was, at least in earlier editions, the only game where your character could die in character creation. That wasn't the only reason it was frustrating. You might have your mind set on being, I don't know, a marine or a secret agent, but the dice would take your character in a different direction. And you could end up being a lawyer or a drifter.
Matthew:In a reaction to that and D and D's 6 3 d six rolls down the line stat creation, a lot of gaming in the eighties turned to point buy systems. Where you could create exactly the character you wanted, or at least as close to that character you had in mind as the points you had never enough would allow. And though I enjoyed traveler system and always had fun playing the characters with a clear concept of the character I would play in that campaign. With a clear concept of the character I would play in that campaign. The only deviation I would make during character creation were ones where I spotted an interesting power or quirk in the rules that I hadn't considered before, but seemed to fit well.
Matthew:Yes. There were life path generation systems still, but none that particularly inspired. But then forbidden lands happened, and gave us a simple system that very importantly didn't take long, and reintroduced to me the joys of not knowing who I was going to play until I was at the table. The advent of Forbidden Lands roughly coincided with me becoming aware of the p b t a concept of play to find out. And now, well, I was going to say I can't really contemplate designing a character rather than rolling randomly, but that's a lie.
Matthew:Of course, I like designing characters. Inspector Shue from Dave's a in the colony campaign was a character concept I have had knocking around in my head since the days of the firefly tabletop role playing game. But I also relish the opportunity of playing the character the dice give me. So if we get enough backing to illustrate it, we will have a life path generation system that I have designed with Dave's help in tales of the old west. If we do hit that stretch goal, we will have 3 methods of character creation.
Matthew:A pure point by method, letting you create the character you want, whatever they are. An archetype method, simplifying the point by and helping you build an archetype tracker, or shootist, or whoever, and the life path. So what does a life path add to the game? I think a life path can teach you about the setting. This is especially true of the one that our patron Thomas designed for his Japanese Versa supplement.
Matthew:He focused on a very specific period where there was a great deal of social upheaval. Feudalism was being overturned by a new commercial trade focused modernism. And working through the life path for that game taught me a great deal of history, and properly set up my character and their place in wider society, and within the party of investigators. The key thing I want players to learn about and explore in tales of the old west is diversity. I wanted to show the west and indeed America as a whole as a melting pot.
Matthew:I felt so strongly about this. I argued that it should be the only method of character generation. That was an argument I lost, though I like to think I let Dave win in the end. Initially then, I created a d 66 table that you could roll to see where you came from. And for each country or Eastern US state, there was a table that explained what your upbringing was.
Matthew:I tried to stitch the table to include cultural origins as well as geographical ones. So for example, you might roll up a native American or recently emancipated background, each with their own upbringing tables. This was when we decided to send the chapter to a sensitivity review. I was very concerned that the 6 potential upbringings that each table offered, not just for those two backgrounds, but for the other states and countries, might be too reductive and stereotypical. In fact, I was so concerned that even while we were waiting for the sensitivity reader's response, I started work on a more generic system.
Matthew:In this version, you would roll to see where your parents came from, rolling twice if you wanted them to come from different places, then you roll to see which sector of that place's economy they worked. Then you would roll on a 3rd table to find out your upbringing in an economic sector, not the part of the world that you came from. We played with that version for a considerable length of time. But I was concerned it needed pages and pages of tables, and an extra dice roll to get a result that apart from the name you might choose, and the tone of your skin, didn't really build a story of what might have brought you to the west. In the meantime, the feedback from the sensitivity reader was positive.
Matthew:So despite Dave's reluctance to revisit the system, I returned to it. Currently, I think the system works much better. And importantly, it now lets you come from literally anywhere in the world with possibilities weighted towards the US and Europe. And it gives you a real narrative about the place of your birth. One thing that has remained pretty stable is what happens after that.
Matthew:The 1 to 3 livings you can take, Each of which gives you more points and abilities, a talent, and sometimes some equipment or capital. Each living after the first though will cost you an attribute point as you lose your youthful vigor. Finally, you can choose 2 points of ability yourself to help you make the character a little more competent in whatever particular business or outfit you and your fellow players choose.
Dave:Yeah. That's all cool. I do remember loving, the traveler system, actually, even though, you know, you didn't your character didn't die that often, but you could be quite wounded and lose some stats. So but it was it was the first time that you had that. You know, at the time, we're really comparing that to to to D and D's character creation, And it was it was different and a bit more exciting.
Dave:I thought it was really cool. Yeah. The other thing I'd say is, you know, you say I was reluctant to revisit the system. So I I think I thought the system worked really well. And I think for me, I was less concerned about the additional dice roll that you've now taken out.
Dave:But actually, it works really well in in the way you've got it. I think there's one area which I think we might want to have a little think about. I won't talk about it here because we haven't got time, But it's it's nothing serious, but it's just something that I,
Matthew:Okay. Mention it. Mention it now because people are gonna be hanging on that. I I won't argue with you. I promise.
Dave:Well, no. I I think you can argue, but so my my only my only
Matthew:concern you outside this this I won't argue within the concept of this podcast. No.
Dave:Fine. Fine. So, it's a minor thing. It's this it's kind of the family background point because I I had done a a big table which gave a really big wide variety of options, which you've then now boiled down into a 2 d 6, add them together table, which then which brings you into actually a range of 3 or 4, maybe 5 common backgrounds. And it I think it might feel a bit repetitive.
Dave:Now I I caveat that with saying I've rule I've rolled up a lot of characters because all the all the pregens for the APs I've been doing, I've rolled them all up using the life path system. Mhmm. So in that, the same one comes up a lot. If you're rolling a character not that often as a player, then it might not be an issue. But it just felt that that does narrow it down, and it favors certain kind of backgrounds where we could maybe just have the same options, but turn it into a more even linear d 66 table.
Dave:So you're not being you're not being forced into that bell the top of that bell curve the whole time.
Matthew:Yeah. That That's my
Dave:only thought.
Matthew:The the previous one was a d 66 effectively. So it's 36 options.
Dave:But with loads of options. Yeah.
Matthew:Yeah. But some of them were repeating, and some of them I thought were a bit weak. But, we I'm sure we can we can rework that again. But I
Dave:think again, I think I'm I'm not I'm not quibbling with the number of options you've boiled it down to because I think that's fine. That's that's good. I mean, you're absolutely right.
Matthew:But the linearity yeah. We can yeah.
Dave:We we can turning into a 366 table, but you've got, you know, 3 points for each each entry.
Matthew:Or something like that. Yeah. We we'll we'll we'll have a we'll have a play. That's yeah. Cool.
Matthew:But
Dave:that's my that was my only comment about that. So but, otherwise, I think, yeah, you've you have streamlined it a bit, and it is it is better. It works very well. And it is I mean, it's surprisingly quick, actually.
Matthew:Yes.
Dave:It's it's very good. It's it's it it works really well.
Matthew:Shall we demonstrate that quickness by seeing if we can roll you another character, or may well, I say you, roll another character maybe for one of your other pregenerated, adventures, in the next 14 minutes that we have of recording time before you have to go another day.
Dave:Let's show how quick it is, shall we? Okay then. So do do you want do do you want to, lead me through it then, Matt? Or should I lead you to it? Because I've got I've got the chapter here.
Matthew:Oh, have you? Cool. You lead me through it then.
Dave:Okay.
Matthew:And then I can correct you when you put it wrong.
Dave:So the first thing you need to do is work out where you were born. So this is a 2 d six rule adding them together.
Matthew:Yeah. And that is 4.
Dave:4. So continental p
Matthew:plus 1.
Dave:Continental northwest and the northern great plains. So this covers areas like British Columbia and the northwestern territory, Dakota, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Washington territories. Your character from here is likely to be of European, Canadian, US, or native heritage.
Matthew:Excellent. I may I may see what the dice the further dice rolls bring. Take me though to,
Dave:So what this does in where you were born, it it it doesn't say you were born on Acacia Avenue in Pennsylvania, you know, in Philadelphia or something. It gives you a range. There's still quite a lot of interpretation and choice for you as a player to create the character that you want. So if you'd wanted to be a native American, this now gives you the ideal opportunity to say, okay. I'm gonna be a native American from, from The
Matthew:Great Lakes area or the
Dave:6 extensions. From the from Dakota. So Yeah. Cool. Cool.
Dave:Okay. So the next one
Matthew:is And as you say, in the first version of the system, we tried to get a little bit more granular in where you were from, but that wasn't working, essentially.
Dave:Yeah. K. So your next role is about your character's upbringing. So this is this is what happened to you as a child effectively. What your family were doing.
Matthew:And this is a single d6?
Dave:This is a single d6 role.
Matthew:3.
Dave:3. So prairie farmers, your family grew wheat mostly for export to Europe. You grew up unafraid of hard work, but fiercely independent. Now again, that little phrase is a is a taster. It's a guide.
Dave:It's not cast in stone. So you could then work that around to whichever of the previous heritages you chose on the earlier stage that you might you might want. What this does also do is give you, your starting, attributes.
Matthew:Yeah. Let me write these down while we're here.
Dave:So in this one On my new chat sheet.
Matthew:No. I'm making notes.
Dave:Grit of 4, quick of 4, cunning of 3, docity of 4. And then it gives you the skills that you learnt as a child as you're growing up. And the skills that you get with this one is labour 2, nature 2, animal handling 1, and shooting 1. So you were brought up with hard work understanding how to deal with the land, understanding how to handle animals, and probably because you're out in the middle of nowhere, you had a gun to protect yourself.
Matthew:Yeah. Okay. Right. So that's good. I'm I'm thinking of myself as a kind of Scandinavian heritage, but, you know, 2nd generation American somewhere around the Great Lakes area.
Matthew:It is 1. I'm not thinking of myself as a native for for this particular background.
Dave:Okay. Yeah. Cool. So we now need to work out
Matthew:this amount.
Dave:What? So so your character will have gone to the west at some point. So this is where you started. This is what your background is, where you come from. But you now need to work out what family do you have left or what family did you leave behind.
Dave:So this is a table I'm talking about. At the moment, it's a 2 d six table at the month, and we'll see what you get.
Matthew:So you're saying that we're gonna average around 7 or 8 too often on this one. Let's see what Yeah.
Dave:I I I think that was that was my feeling. Yeah.
Matthew:Well, all almost to prove your point, Dave, I got 8.
Dave:8. Okay. So for 8, your family is small, but your folks are alive. And maybe there's a younger sibling who lives with him. You don't always get on, but that's family, ain't it?
Dave:So, again, it's just a little vignette to give you a feel. One of see, at the moment, number 7, is you come from a huge extended family. And yeah. But they hate you and cast you out. So that's our our you know, on the statistics, that's the most common and likely outcome.
Dave:So it again, it just feels a little bit that we're weighting it towards that, and is there a reason why
Matthew:we're weighting it. And it's an interesting just hearing that again, I'm thinking, well, why have I left? You know, you you asked a question before making this role, something took you to the West. I'm the I'm the eldest child with a younger sibling. I'm gonna inherit the farm.
Matthew:So why have I gone west? That's that's that's a question I'm I'm burning to have answered. And this hasn't really answered that one. Although he said he
Dave:says he says he says you don't always get on with them. You know? So maybe there was some kind of
Matthew:I'll keep them out of the house. I'm gonna inherit the farm, aren't I? Well, I mean, we're talking in the period of primogeniture here.
Dave:So Yeah. But your parents might still at this point, your parents might be 30 years old. So
Matthew:Maybe I'm a woman, actually, and not gonna do hair at the farm.
Dave:Absolutely. I
Matthew:think I might be female.
Dave:Okay. That's cool. Okay. So the next thing you need to do is so let's basically set up your background to the point where you go out into the world and try and earn a living. So every character gets one living.
Dave:That you can have more, but every character gets one. And you roll on the finding a living table to see what you did, as you were becoming an adult. That's a 2 d six table. Add them together.
Matthew:So again, we're averaging here, and I'm getting a 5 for this one.
Dave:5 is a grifter. So as a grifter, you're not really a you're not an outlaw, but you're not you're you're yeah. You're you're kind of walking the line between the law and the, and the and crime. Mhmm. So getting by living in in whatever way whatever way you can.
Dave:So you now know what your living was, but you now need to work out what happened during that living. So, this is what
Matthew:I don't just to remind myself, I don't get any skills just from that living. It'll what I get out of the living will be on this next eyeball. Right?
Dave:Yes. So we've worked out what the living is. We now now need to work out what the outcome of that living was.
Matthew:Cool.
Dave:Yeah. So as a grifter, you're you're not outside the law, but only because they haven't really caught you yet. Your life is in the pursuit of the easy dollar, and then there's other folk that will work for a living. It's your job to relieve the wealthy of the burden of their money. But, yes, so Excellent.
Dave:So this is now a d 6 table to see what you what happened during your living, during the few years you were a grifter.
Matthew:Let's see. I'm hoping I'm gonna rely on my natural charm. 4.
Dave:4. You gain the trust of a saloon owner who let you run his pharaoh table. So this living also gives you, some more skills, and it gives you a choice of talents as well and some equipment. So the skills you gain this time are light fingered 1, which allows helps you cheating at cards, And performing 1. Performing is our catchall skill for persuasion and charming people.
Dave:But it also covers, you know, singing and playing the banjo, that kind of thing. Yeah. The choice of talents you've got are gambler or the voice. Now gambler gives you a bonus to gambling, but you have to choose the tactic.
Matthew:That that applies to you. Cunning is quite low. And, I I had a previous character where I took the gambler talent, and I didn't have enough to back it up with in terms of my cunning. So I think I'm gonna choose the other one. What does the voice give me?
Dave:So the voice allows you to, kind of, it's it's all about performing, but it's about controlling, controlling and influencing people. If you give me a moment, I can look that up to find out exactly what it is.
Matthew:Well, tell you what. I'm gonna go for the voice. Don't worry. Let's, let's, let's see. We'll look that up only if we've got time.
Matthew:I'm thinking we've got just enough time for me to take another
Dave:Yeah. Hang on.
Matthew:Another living.
Dave:To the voice. You can use performing to draw the attention of everyone within short range. They stop and do what they are doing to listen to you for d 6 rounds. That's the basic level. And the advanced level is your voice is so powerful.
Dave:You gain plus 2 dice on any performing test that relates to a performance of some kind. So speech making or singing, that kind of thing.
Matthew:I'm I'm thinking that I might be a bit of a singer here.
Dave:Cool.
Matthew:And so I'm going to if I move on to
Dave:my certain living So you have just before you finish that, you also gain some of some some gear. So you gain you gain a pack of cards, a Derringer pistol, you gain plus 1 capital, and you gain some cash. But you worry about the cash later on. Don't need to rob
Matthew:them. Later. That's good. But I'm gonna go for another living just to demonstrate it. And we've got a few minutes left.
Dave:Yep.
Matthew:I'm gonna that's gonna cost me a point of one of my attributes. Right?
Dave:That is. Yes. So as you get older, your attributes will decrease. So the cost of having another living is losing one off any one of your attributes. It's entirely up to you, your choice.
Matthew:I'm gonna take a point of, grit as my, although I was a hard hard farming type, I feel I'm having a bit of a soft life as a grifter.
Dave:Okay. So I've lost some of that. Nice. Nice. So sometimes we're taking your next living.
Dave:So you can choose to have the same living again if you want to. Alternatively, you can decide that that living wasn't for you and roll again on the living table.
Matthew:I'm gonna do that.
Dave:But but the final thing just to just to say is some of the outcomes on the living outcome table will direct you to the the relevant living, for your next role if you if you have one. So for example
Matthew:So enrolling,
Dave:an outcome of 4, that doesn't that doesn't direct you to a, another living. So you can either choose the one you've got to go again, or you can roll on the living table again.
Matthew:You know what? I think I'm going to choose something else. I feel myself was a bit of a drifter.
Dave:Okay. So you get a roll on the defining a living table again. That's a 2 d 6 roll.
Matthew:And this time I got a 7.
Dave:7 ranch hand.
Matthew:That's changed my life.
Dave:So obviously something has happened to make you work as a run work as a ranch hand. Now do you have animal handling at level 1 or higher?
Matthew:I do.
Dave:You do. So you get a bonus on the living outcome table because of that. So you hold a d 6 and add 1.
Matthew:Plus 1 this time. Yep. And that's a 6.
Dave:6. Okay. It's time to strike out, set up your own ranch and make the money rather than work for them others. If you have another living, if you choose to have another living, you make your next role on the homesteader table. But
Matthew:Mhmm. So
Dave:yeah. So you're you're starting up your own ranch. So you gain one point to labour and one point to nature.
Matthew:I'm alright. So I'm 3 on those. I am actually quite accomplished.
Dave:Your your your talent is the choice of horse warrior or defender. Although, I think we may I think we've still got defender. The Talon's Magician. Check it out. Yeah.
Dave:We still got defender. So defender is about giving you a bonus to blocking if someone's trying to punch you or stab you. And horse warrior is bonus to fighting on horses.
Matthew:Shooting from a horse. Yep. I'm gonna take horse warrior.
Dave:Okay. Cool.
Matthew:And you know what? Just for the fun of it, I'm thinking I'm gonna be a bit older. I'm gonna take, oh, so there's some gear to come, I guess. But I might just finish this off with a with a third living role, staying in homesteader.
Dave:Okay. Cool. So your your equipment you gain here, you gain a lasso, you gain a Winchester model 18 73 rifle. You gain a horse. You gain a compadre, but you also gain an outfit which is your ranch.
Matthew:Excellent.
Dave:Now that obviously brings, some other bits and bobs to do to define what your ranch is and where it is, but we obviously won't do that today. But that's basically your business. That's your business that you would then use, and, yeah, your ranching.
Matthew:Okay. Let's see how how that ranch business goes. Shall we? Just with another d 6 role as a homesteader.
Dave:So you're gonna become a homesteader. So you need to lose another point of attribute because you're
Matthew:now doing one off. Yeah. It's interesting. I haven't really thought about this one. I gotta I was gonna take it off quick, but, actually, quick's quite useful for all that riding and stuff, and, you know, it's a more physical life.
Matthew:I'm gonna take it off Dosetti instead, actually. So my mind was sharp when I was being a grifter, but I've now I've found The Nature Life. I'm
Dave:Yeah.
Matthew:Yeah.
Dave:Cool. Okay. So the homesteader table, you need to make a roll on the outcome table for that. Now you've got labor at level 1 or higher, don't
Matthew:you? I do. I have it at level 3.
Dave:Okay. So but okay. You gain plus 1 on the d 6 role again for that.
Matthew:Excellent. And that's another 6.
Dave:K.
Matthew:Or 5 plus 1, I should say.
Dave:Your good judgment and a few good harvests mean you feel pretty secure here. Your family grows. If you make another living role, which you can't, you would get to make it on the homesteader table. You gain making and doctoring skills.
Matthew:Just took my dosage down. So, never mind. Your
Dave:choice your choice of talent is judge of character or calming manner?
Matthew:I reckon I'll be a calming manner on that one because, you know, my performance coming through.
Dave:Okay. So in what you gain this time, you'd also gain an outfit, a ranch, or a homestead, but with plus 1 d three capital. So if I was GM ing this, I would say, okay. You don't get a second ranch, but you do gain that 1 d three capital.
Matthew:I can't have a, and that is 6 on the dice. So that's 3, 4 points of capital in total with the one I got last time.
Dave:Yeah. So you're you're starting out pretty wealthy. You're you get you gained
Matthew:another be a double sized ranch?
Dave:But I think that the size of your ranch is is kind of dependent was probably kind of dictated by how much capital you've got invested in it. So you've got 4 you've got 4 capital invested in it. So that's a very good start for a starting character. In fact, it's not gonna get much better, in fact. Yeah.
Dave:And and, actually, how big the ranch is is more of a narrative thing for for you and the GM to discuss, really.
Matthew:So I'm I'm thinking depending what other people roll around here, I, you know, I I feel as though very much as the matriarch of some, ranching operation, and everybody else are gonna be kinda working for me. I I like this character.
Dave:Which is exactly call her
Matthew:Peter. But then I decided she was a woman. But I'm gonna call her Peter as in p e t a, which I think is a a name of Scandinavian origin. And I think I might call her Svensson just because that's a stereotypical Scandinavian thing.
Dave:Nice. So you you do get after all that, you still get 2 more points to spend on any abilities of your choice. So you do get a chance. If there was something you always wanted as a car as a player for your character and the life path didn't give it to you, now is your chance to put a point or 2 in that in that ability.
Matthew:And this is also the point where, obviously, around the table, other people will have generated their characters, and we might, as a group, be lacking some key, yeah, skill that we feel we we need as a group
Dave:that Yeah. Absolutely.
Matthew:So I've got shooting 1. If nobody else has got shooting, we might wanna spend some extra points in shooting just so that one of us could shoot. It's
Dave:a it's a good shot.
Matthew:Yeah. Absolutely. I'm a rancher. I might put my extra two points into animal handling where I've got one. Or if I was missing something else entirely, like, I don't know, we We decided it's gonna be a very mechanical ranch of some sort.
Matthew:No. That would work.
Dave:Doesn't really work. No. But, I mean, if there
Matthew:was a skill that we we were lacking, I might, but there's actually 2 points in that.
Dave:Or you or you might choose, because labor is the skill that you use once you get into a grapple with someone. So you might No. Yeah. Be putting a point into fighting which is what you would use for the fight. But if you successfully attack if you successfully grapple someone, you then turn to labor to manage the grapple.
Dave:So
Matthew:Yes.
Dave:You could be a a a very good wrestler, very strong and potentially. Just thoughts. But the other thing I thought was really interesting, which is a good segue into, our idea around group concepts was you saying that you might be a matriarch of the ranch. Your group could then decide if you wanted to be, to have a group concept. You could decide to be a, a group of ranchers or a group of farmers or even a group of vicarious and cowboys.
Dave:And if you did that, this gives you an immediate connection for all the all the player characters, but you gain a bonus to your character, and you also gain a concept bonus for being in being in that group. So, it's it's fairly fairly light bonuses, but it's something again to to encourage that group cohesion. So if you want to play Little House on the Prairie, and you are the matriarch of your family, and everybody else wanted to be either family members or good friends of the family who've lived with you forever, that works with 1 or 1 or 2 of those those group concepts.
Matthew:Yeah. And I just like the idea of being a sort of, female goodnight. So I want, what I what I'd spend my two points on, I think, what I'm missing is presence. So I'd spend my two points and get two levels of presence Oh, cool. To add to my grit, for those sorts of confrontation.
Matthew:And, yeah, I don't you know, the boys do the fighting. I I I don't get so I'm not gonna take fighting. But I when when people listen to me, and they do listen to me because I've got the voice. Yep. I also able to, you know, just stand there silently, and people know that I'm gonna, yeah.
Matthew:I'm loving I'm loving Peter Swanson already.
Dave:Yeah. Cool.
Matthew:And so let's say we chose, it's good night. Let's say we chose, that sort of vaqueros sort of thing, turning into a bit of a beef, beef farmer
Dave:Yep.
Matthew:Beef trail runner. What would that give me in terms of or what that gives us as a group in terms of bonuses?
Dave:So as the vickeros and cowboys Mhmm. You would your each PC would get to choose 2 of 4 items. So that would be a random pistol, quality leather chaps and spurs, a well used lasso, or a random horse. So each PC in the group would get to choose 2 of those, and then the group would get a bonus of $46 per character to to be to be divided amongst the group, however the the group see fit.
Matthew:Cool. Excellent. Well, that's I I really wanna play this character.
Dave:Okay. Well, keep well, keep her because Marian Freeman will die one day. I'm sure. Cool.
Matthew:I will, I I'll I'll also tell you what I'll I'll do. I will write her up in a new character sheet and share that in in in, in in
Dave:In the
Matthew:socials. In in Yeah.
Dave:In the socials. Facebook. Yeah. No. That's a great idea.
Matthew:Cool. Brilliant. Now we are out of time.
Dave:We are.
Matthew:I've actually yeah. I've taken a bit longer there because I went to do 2 livings because it just we were on a roll, Dave.
Dave:Yeah. It was good.
Matthew:So you've gotta go off. But before you go off, we should say that next time, we're gonna be talking to friend of the show and patron Neil about a the fabulous solo adventure that he has created for, for Cymbaloo.
Dave:Absolutely. The the any nominated editor, Neil, I would like to point out.
Matthew:Any nominated, text editor so if you're publishing a game, he's already edited our, our our quick draw for us. Yeah. But he is also, editing. You know, he's a proper editor for RPGs. So if you're thinking about publishing a game, then talk to Neil.
Matthew:And he's, yeah, he's got his name in in in lights like we did last year. Oh, and you again have got
Dave:his name. I did this year. But yes. So, yeah, next time, we'll be chatting to him about his solo book, Simba Room book, which will be absolutely great. But, yes, unless there's anything else, I probably need to go and get packing.
Dave:So it's, it's goodbye from me.
Matthew:And it's goodbye from him.
Dave:And may the icons protect me, so I don't die over the next week or 2.
Matthew:I am. I won't win.
Dave: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 freely publishing.