1 00:00:14,720 --> 00:00:17,400 Hello and welcome to the Weekly Scroll podcast. 2 00:00:17,400 --> 00:00:20,840 My Name Is Ryan. And I'm a raccoon with greedy 3 00:00:20,840 --> 00:00:24,960 little hands and super speed. That's awesome. 4 00:00:24,960 --> 00:00:28,480 Hey, I'm Wife Marshall, creator of the Stillfleet Studio over at 5 00:00:28,480 --> 00:00:31,920 the game Stillfleet, and we are very, very happy to be producing 6 00:00:32,000 --> 00:00:35,880 Blister Critters by Tony Grasso. Hi, I'm Tony. 7 00:00:36,040 --> 00:00:39,440 I'm the creator of Odd Gob Games, creator of Blister 8 00:00:39,440 --> 00:00:41,320 Critters, and I'm excited to be here. 9 00:00:42,520 --> 00:00:45,160 Yeah, and if you couldn't tell already, we're talking about 10 00:00:45,160 --> 00:00:49,440 blister critters today. So fun game coming up for Zine 11 00:00:49,440 --> 00:00:51,480 Quest. Quick starts out right now, 12 00:00:51,480 --> 00:00:57,120 highly recommend grabbing it. But to kick it off I guess let's 13 00:00:57,120 --> 00:00:59,680 what it what? So let's start with what is 14 00:00:59,720 --> 00:01:02,800 blister critters and then we'll come back to that again in a 15 00:01:02,800 --> 00:01:08,320 little bit. Blister Critters is a mutant 16 00:01:08,320 --> 00:01:13,160 cartoon animal TTRPG. You play as a little critter no 17 00:01:13,160 --> 00:01:16,480 bigger than a foot tall, exploring the post eco 18 00:01:16,480 --> 00:01:19,600 apocalypse. So it's set like 20 years after 19 00:01:19,600 --> 00:01:23,680 humans poofed just kind of vanished from existence and you 20 00:01:23,680 --> 00:01:27,680 run through suburbia with no humans around fighting off 21 00:01:27,680 --> 00:01:32,200 beasts, so larger animals that have also mutated over time 22 00:01:32,200 --> 00:01:38,760 under like a supercharged sun. You find other smaller groups in 23 00:01:38,760 --> 00:01:43,240 Burrows, so smaller groups of animals, and you are just free 24 00:01:43,240 --> 00:01:45,880 to set loose into the world full of human stuff. 25 00:01:46,440 --> 00:01:51,360 The in game term for weapons and armor and medicine. 26 00:01:51,360 --> 00:01:53,840 All the different equipment and stuff other games would have is 27 00:01:53,840 --> 00:01:56,640 just called stuff and it's all of the human stuff. 28 00:01:56,800 --> 00:02:02,000 Coffee mugs and paper clips and bananas are all at your disposal 29 00:02:02,320 --> 00:02:04,840 in blister cutters. Yeah. 30 00:02:04,960 --> 00:02:10,240 Important importantly to put a period on it, it's all wrapped 31 00:02:10,240 --> 00:02:12,240 up in a Saturday morning cartoon. 32 00:02:12,280 --> 00:02:15,200 So not only are you a little mutated animal, it's all taking 33 00:02:15,200 --> 00:02:17,880 place as though you were on a cartoon. 34 00:02:17,880 --> 00:02:21,520 So zany wacky antics are supposed to ensue. 35 00:02:23,480 --> 00:02:26,280 Love it Yeah and if you've if you've read the quick start 36 00:02:26,280 --> 00:02:30,160 before again if you haven't definitely go to the it's is it 37 00:02:30,160 --> 00:02:32,320 on the still fleet one. I always just search Blister 38 00:02:32,320 --> 00:02:34,520 Critters Quick start on Google and it takes me to the right 39 00:02:34,520 --> 00:02:36,640 link. It'll pop up, but it's the still 40 00:02:36,640 --> 00:02:40,920 Fleet itch page, yeah. Yeah highly recommend reading it 41 00:02:41,160 --> 00:02:44,480 the the way that and and like I said we'll get to that again but 42 00:02:44,480 --> 00:02:48,960 the way that the cartoony aspect actually melds with the 43 00:02:48,960 --> 00:02:54,920 mechanics and the mechanics fit into the this you know eco 44 00:02:54,920 --> 00:02:57,800 apocalypse thing. Absolutely fantastic so well 45 00:02:57,800 --> 00:03:02,440 done but to start you guys are not you're you're two you're two 46 00:03:02,440 --> 00:03:04,880 different things. We have Still Fleet and we have 47 00:03:04,880 --> 00:03:09,760 Odd God Games. Still Fleet is this big, big 48 00:03:09,760 --> 00:03:13,440 sci-fi book right here with some other stuff coming out. 49 00:03:14,920 --> 00:03:21,440 What? How did Stillfleet and Odd Gob, 50 00:03:21,600 --> 00:03:24,960 which if you look at, you know EMU, which I also have right 51 00:03:24,960 --> 00:03:27,960 here too, those two thing next to each other, they're a little 52 00:03:27,960 --> 00:03:31,320 bit kind of opposite. So how did how did this kind of 53 00:03:31,320 --> 00:03:33,240 meeting of the minds come together? 54 00:03:34,320 --> 00:03:38,640 Yeah, I mean, well, Stillfleet is is sort of the product of my 55 00:03:38,920 --> 00:03:41,520 making games for my friends. I was always the forever GM. 56 00:03:41,520 --> 00:03:44,400 I've been jamming since I was 12 and I was writing a lot of my 57 00:03:44,400 --> 00:03:47,240 own content, you know, creating fast worlds and eventually game 58 00:03:47,240 --> 00:03:49,600 systems and friends told me to publish them. 59 00:03:50,520 --> 00:03:52,520 And when we started doing that, I started working with an 60 00:03:52,520 --> 00:03:53,760 artist. He's a good friend of mine named 61 00:03:53,760 --> 00:03:55,520 Ethan. But we quickly found we needed 62 00:03:55,520 --> 00:03:57,680 more art. So we worked with a few other 63 00:03:57,680 --> 00:03:59,280 artists and a couple have been really great. 64 00:04:00,320 --> 00:04:03,440 And honestly, one of the the best contacts I made was, I 65 00:04:03,440 --> 00:04:05,840 think just from randomly finding you an art station, Tony. 66 00:04:05,840 --> 00:04:09,440 But I I'd reached out and hired Tony to do some sci-fi art and 67 00:04:09,440 --> 00:04:11,280 Tony has a really great style. It's very graphic. 68 00:04:11,280 --> 00:04:13,240 It's different from Ethan's, but it's sort of complements. 69 00:04:13,240 --> 00:04:17,000 So we sort of like the idea of having you know, the secondary 70 00:04:17,600 --> 00:04:19,880 style of art throughout the book, especially with sort of 71 00:04:19,880 --> 00:04:21,399 monsters. Like Tony was obviously very 72 00:04:21,399 --> 00:04:23,600 good and very fast at kind of creating creatures and so we 73 00:04:23,600 --> 00:04:25,800 love that just throwing like aliens at him. 74 00:04:26,680 --> 00:04:28,040 And so that's how we got in touch. 75 00:04:28,040 --> 00:04:31,280 And I think Tony had gotten some familiarity with the system 76 00:04:31,280 --> 00:04:34,120 behind still Fleet, the Grit system and so pitched me on sort 77 00:04:34,120 --> 00:04:37,680 of a game using our system but totally you know, from his brain 78 00:04:37,720 --> 00:04:42,320 of this kind of cartoon surreal Saturday morning eco apocalyptic 79 00:04:42,320 --> 00:04:46,640 universe which we loved and just felt very much in keeping with 80 00:04:46,640 --> 00:04:51,760 our work in terms of sort of the politics of of like production 81 00:04:51,760 --> 00:04:53,960 and many other things. But that's something that we're 82 00:04:53,960 --> 00:04:55,320 really interested in like in still Flee too. 83 00:04:55,320 --> 00:04:56,600 There's a lot of stuff in Still flee. 84 00:04:56,600 --> 00:04:59,080 It's called architect. But this sort of magic item 85 00:04:59,080 --> 00:05:01,480 types, this sort of sci-fi Mac Guffins are a big part of the 86 00:05:01,480 --> 00:05:04,120 game. And so I liked the idea that 87 00:05:04,120 --> 00:05:06,080 this was a totally different universe. 88 00:05:06,080 --> 00:05:09,040 But it's the same rules and it's the same obsession with yeah, 89 00:05:09,040 --> 00:05:11,040 maybe humans have have screwed some things up. 90 00:05:11,040 --> 00:05:12,200 Maybe they've made too much stuff. 91 00:05:12,200 --> 00:05:13,600 Maybe some of that stuff is dangerous. 92 00:05:14,160 --> 00:05:16,120 But here, you know, it's inverting it and and putting 93 00:05:16,120 --> 00:05:18,760 emphasis on, all right so now you're playing as, you know, a 94 00:05:18,760 --> 00:05:21,400 squirrel who's come in and and found this house full of crap. 95 00:05:22,040 --> 00:05:24,760 What do they do with it? So it sort of made sense to me 96 00:05:24,760 --> 00:05:27,520 even though, yeah, it's it's different, but but that was kind 97 00:05:27,520 --> 00:05:30,840 of part of the appeal is it wasn't like very close to our 98 00:05:30,840 --> 00:05:33,200 sci-fi vision. It was a, you know, alt modern 99 00:05:33,200 --> 00:05:36,120 kind of setting and something we weren't going to do right. 100 00:05:36,120 --> 00:05:38,360 So it didn't feel, it's like you're not competing with me 101 00:05:38,360 --> 00:05:39,520 because I'm never going to write this book. 102 00:05:39,520 --> 00:05:41,200 I don't have time and it's it's such a good idea. 103 00:05:41,200 --> 00:05:44,800 Now I'm like, no, no, no, you do that like you own the cartoon 104 00:05:44,800 --> 00:05:53,040 space, you know so. Yeah, the similarly, I'm sorry. 105 00:05:53,120 --> 00:05:58,760 Yeah, I mean, I I after doing AMU, which you have, and some of 106 00:05:58,920 --> 00:06:02,880 some of the work that I did with Wide is in the Stillfleet book. 107 00:06:03,760 --> 00:06:07,400 But after doing AMU, I was like, oh, I like making these games 108 00:06:07,400 --> 00:06:09,520 prior. I didn't make a bunch of them. 109 00:06:09,520 --> 00:06:13,320 I run stuff at home, but not under any specific system, just 110 00:06:13,320 --> 00:06:19,360 really cobbled together for fun. And then after making AMU, I 111 00:06:19,360 --> 00:06:21,720 realized that I liked making the games that I had been doing all 112 00:06:21,720 --> 00:06:26,160 this artwork for. And so the months after the 113 00:06:26,160 --> 00:06:29,320 Kickstarter wrapped up for AMU specifically, I just made a 114 00:06:29,320 --> 00:06:31,880 bunch of small like crap. And some of it's really good and 115 00:06:31,880 --> 00:06:34,960 some of it's all right, but it was just a fun time to like 116 00:06:34,960 --> 00:06:36,440 experiment and like try new stuff. 117 00:06:36,480 --> 00:06:41,920 And in that Blister Critters came about through, I think like 118 00:06:42,040 --> 00:06:44,920 a warm up sketch where I drawn like a mouse wearing like a 119 00:06:44,920 --> 00:06:49,160 keyboard cap as a helmet. And like much of my work, it's 120 00:06:49,160 --> 00:06:54,000 not like design or writing. Like first it's I had a cool 121 00:06:54,000 --> 00:06:57,640 idea that looks cool on paper. How can I make a game where I 122 00:06:57,640 --> 00:06:59,040 get to do more of this artwork now? 123 00:07:00,800 --> 00:07:03,200 And like like I've said, I had been working with them for a 124 00:07:03,200 --> 00:07:06,520 little while and I enjoyed what I had read through of the the 125 00:07:06,520 --> 00:07:10,600 Stuff lead system and so here we are rambling about post 126 00:07:10,600 --> 00:07:13,120 recruiters I feel. Like, that's so Saturday morning 127 00:07:13,120 --> 00:07:15,160 cartoon though. It's just like, yeah, we came up 128 00:07:15,160 --> 00:07:17,280 with these cool characters and like, we're just going to put 129 00:07:17,280 --> 00:07:20,280 them somewhere. Like that's just the most, like, 130 00:07:20,280 --> 00:07:22,680 he man Saturday morning cartoon thing ever, you know? 131 00:07:22,680 --> 00:07:24,920 It was. Brute forcing it to existence 132 00:07:24,920 --> 00:07:27,960 now. Hey, it's a method that's been 133 00:07:27,960 --> 00:07:30,440 proven to work. We've already seen it work, so. 134 00:07:30,520 --> 00:07:34,000 Yeah, it's designed the toy 1st and then you have to sell the 135 00:07:34,000 --> 00:07:35,480 toys you're like. Need a whole. 136 00:07:36,400 --> 00:07:39,160 Bottle to hook kids into buying Optimus Prime toys. 137 00:07:39,160 --> 00:07:40,840 It doesn't really matter. But he's a truck. 138 00:07:40,840 --> 00:07:41,920 He's a talking truck. I don't know. 139 00:07:41,920 --> 00:07:42,680 Figure it out. Yeah. 140 00:07:44,400 --> 00:07:47,400 I had Lionel underwear, so I think Thundercats are now. 141 00:07:47,800 --> 00:07:52,520 Yeah, Thundercats was my gym. So funny. 142 00:07:53,200 --> 00:07:57,200 It yeah, it's fantastic. Like I said, we're gonna talk 143 00:07:57,200 --> 00:08:00,400 about the way that that's all pulled in, especially the 144 00:08:00,400 --> 00:08:02,920 Saturday morning cartoon bit, which is such a good way to 145 00:08:04,960 --> 00:08:09,120 really help players in GMs get to embrace those kind of 146 00:08:09,120 --> 00:08:12,320 principles a bit better. Prior to that though, there's 147 00:08:12,320 --> 00:08:15,080 another person who's working with you guys on the project. 148 00:08:15,080 --> 00:08:18,800 I think much more in the background, but definitely there 149 00:08:18,800 --> 00:08:21,440 is. Is Logan Dean, great, great 150 00:08:21,440 --> 00:08:23,560 designer, definitely check out all their stuff. 151 00:08:23,560 --> 00:08:25,640 Cycers is fantastic. The company is great. 152 00:08:26,520 --> 00:08:29,280 How? How did he also get kind of 153 00:08:29,280 --> 00:08:32,360 pulled into this, this cartooniness that we have going 154 00:08:32,360 --> 00:08:35,080 on now? Yeah, I met Logan this year at 155 00:08:35,080 --> 00:08:36,919 Gen. Con through our mutual friend 156 00:08:36,919 --> 00:08:39,440 Taylor Moore of Fun City Ventures. 157 00:08:39,640 --> 00:08:41,360 World's beyond Number, stuff like that. 158 00:08:41,360 --> 00:08:45,640 And I think, you know, Taylor knew we were looking for help 159 00:08:45,640 --> 00:08:47,400 with turning the still fit studio into a business. 160 00:08:47,400 --> 00:08:48,480 Since I'm. I'm a writer, right? 161 00:08:48,480 --> 00:08:51,920 I'm a social scientist and writer and I know how to write 162 00:08:51,920 --> 00:08:53,560 games and I think I'm pretty good at it. 163 00:08:53,560 --> 00:08:56,240 But in terms of running a small business, it's like, oh, wow, 164 00:08:56,240 --> 00:08:58,560 that's that's annoying. That's a lot of numbers and 165 00:08:58,560 --> 00:09:01,280 things that aren't creative, really, or they're a different 166 00:09:01,280 --> 00:09:02,400 kind of creative. Let me say that. 167 00:09:02,920 --> 00:09:05,560 So he put me in touch with Logan and Logan was kind of giving me 168 00:09:05,560 --> 00:09:08,680 a lot of really good free advice and at some point we decided to 169 00:09:08,680 --> 00:09:11,240 work together, you know and so brought Logan on as our 170 00:09:11,240 --> 00:09:14,400 producing consultant for Blister Critters and there's a number of 171 00:09:14,400 --> 00:09:17,600 other projects that we are talking about you know extending 172 00:09:18,000 --> 00:09:22,040 his involvement to to make sure happen and and our high quality. 173 00:09:22,200 --> 00:09:24,280 But for the since we know we want to do Blister Critters 174 00:09:24,280 --> 00:09:26,640 next, it just made total sense to say all right we're going to 175 00:09:26,640 --> 00:09:29,120 bring Logan into the team and the team will be you know the 176 00:09:29,120 --> 00:09:31,920 still feed studio. It's Tony's game and Logan's are 177 00:09:32,880 --> 00:09:36,160 our kind of consultant who's really an expert on all of the 178 00:09:36,160 --> 00:09:39,040 other parts, The logistics of running big Kickstarters and 179 00:09:39,040 --> 00:09:41,000 fulfilling box sets with lots of pieces. 180 00:09:41,000 --> 00:09:43,520 I mean, he's done tons of board games, card games, So we have 181 00:09:43,520 --> 00:09:46,760 done books and you know, my wife and I and the others in the team 182 00:09:46,760 --> 00:09:48,480 know a lot about sort of book design. 183 00:09:48,880 --> 00:09:50,680 But even like cards was new to us. 184 00:09:50,680 --> 00:09:52,960 Last year we did a card deck. It came out really well, but you 185 00:09:52,960 --> 00:09:55,200 know, that was our first time making something that wasn't a 186 00:09:55,200 --> 00:09:57,400 book. So for this, we know that Tony 187 00:09:57,400 --> 00:09:59,840 had this vision for lots of pieces and we can talk about 188 00:09:59,840 --> 00:10:02,600 what goes in the box set and we have talked Tony and I've talked 189 00:10:02,600 --> 00:10:05,920 about a lot of versions like options, some of which we might 190 00:10:05,920 --> 00:10:07,720 do later on, right? Like if this goes well, some 191 00:10:07,720 --> 00:10:10,160 might become super stretch goals if we do really, really well. 192 00:10:10,840 --> 00:10:12,840 But for now, we have a core set of like what's in the box set, 193 00:10:12,840 --> 00:10:14,880 what's the stretch goal. And a lot of that was in 194 00:10:14,880 --> 00:10:17,800 conversation with Logan who's just, you know, really, really 195 00:10:17,800 --> 00:10:20,640 great, you know, great person, really fun to to make games 196 00:10:20,640 --> 00:10:21,880 with. So yeah, I'm looking forward to 197 00:10:21,880 --> 00:10:24,520 doing more stuff. But for now, it's it's all eyes 198 00:10:24,520 --> 00:10:31,320 on this box set prize. I know Logan just did 1978 with 199 00:10:31,320 --> 00:10:34,320 Adam Vassa, World Champ and that had a bunch of pieces and stuff. 200 00:10:34,360 --> 00:10:38,560 Yeah, absolutely fantastic. So if if he brings that level 201 00:10:38,560 --> 00:10:41,920 of, I mean it's a lot of pieces and it got together in a 202 00:10:41,920 --> 00:10:43,560 beautiful box quick and got to us. 203 00:10:43,560 --> 00:10:45,680 So you know that's that's what's important especially with 204 00:10:45,680 --> 00:10:47,560 Kickstarter. So it's that's great to have 205 00:10:47,560 --> 00:10:48,480 something that can do that for you. 206 00:10:49,680 --> 00:10:51,240 Yeah. And his his whole shtick of like 207 00:10:51,240 --> 00:10:53,800 it's you know, the evil company. I mean, that was very much when 208 00:10:53,800 --> 00:10:55,000 he and I met. We talked a lot about that 209 00:10:55,000 --> 00:10:57,040 because it's like that's the point of still fleet, right. 210 00:10:57,040 --> 00:11:00,280 So the Still Fleet studio is not just the game, still Fleet, but 211 00:11:00,280 --> 00:11:02,640 certainly the premise of, well, I made a company to make games 212 00:11:02,640 --> 00:11:04,320 about sort of the evils of capitalism. 213 00:11:04,920 --> 00:11:07,200 I mean that's something that he seems very much in line with. 214 00:11:07,200 --> 00:11:08,960 So we were kind of like cool, let's do it and blister 215 00:11:08,960 --> 00:11:10,280 critters. Like I said, totally different. 216 00:11:10,280 --> 00:11:14,240 But it still has a bit of that vibe and partly it's through 217 00:11:14,320 --> 00:11:17,600 making a box with lots of little pieces and some excess in there 218 00:11:18,080 --> 00:11:20,200 to kind of set you in the mood. So I definitely think, yeah, 219 00:11:20,200 --> 00:11:21,800 he's the right man for the job in that sense. 220 00:11:22,840 --> 00:11:25,440 Fantastic. Yeah and and talk about blister 221 00:11:25,440 --> 00:11:27,520 critters and stuff too. One of my favorite, I don't know 222 00:11:27,520 --> 00:11:30,480 if I can find any Kickstarters, but like in the in the initial 223 00:11:30,480 --> 00:11:37,720 pitch, like one of my favorite lines was Oh yeah, exploring and 224 00:11:37,720 --> 00:11:39,600 surviving the post eco apocalypse. 225 00:11:39,600 --> 00:11:42,240 Ignoring their own warnings of self-imposed ecological 226 00:11:42,240 --> 00:11:44,000 disaster. The humans vanished and I was 227 00:11:44,000 --> 00:11:46,720 just like, that sounds great, like they knew it was coming and 228 00:11:46,720 --> 00:11:48,440 said fuck it, we're just gonna keep going. 229 00:11:49,240 --> 00:11:51,520 And then now you get to play in the world after and that just 230 00:11:51,520 --> 00:11:56,160 felt so like deep within this kind of like all those cartoons 231 00:11:56,160 --> 00:11:57,880 ain'tiness. But it's like there's this 232 00:11:57,880 --> 00:12:00,960 underlying like this is Amy and you have all these weird 233 00:12:00,960 --> 00:12:04,680 blistered critters because we live in this like, you know, 234 00:12:04,960 --> 00:12:08,400 post you know, Wally Ish, we fucked up the world now you're 235 00:12:08,400 --> 00:12:12,280 now you're here kind of bit. And that's just such a good fun 236 00:12:12,280 --> 00:12:15,640 vibe to feel you know, our own like, you know, species 237 00:12:15,640 --> 00:12:18,880 existentialism feels good. So it's fun. 238 00:12:19,600 --> 00:12:23,840 For me, it's like the embodiment of any cartoon where they cut 239 00:12:23,840 --> 00:12:27,240 away to this long droning shot that's like hyper detailed and 240 00:12:27,240 --> 00:12:28,880 it shows. It's like this really morbid or 241 00:12:28,880 --> 00:12:30,680 kind of gross shot for way too long. 242 00:12:30,680 --> 00:12:32,040 It's like, oh, we're having a bunch of fun. 243 00:12:32,040 --> 00:12:34,080 There's cartoon stuff popping around and a weird sound effect 244 00:12:34,080 --> 00:12:36,120 just went off. But then it pans over and some 245 00:12:36,120 --> 00:12:38,200 dude just like deeply depressed or some horrible stuff's 246 00:12:38,200 --> 00:12:40,640 happening and it cuts back to the fun for a little bit. 247 00:12:41,480 --> 00:12:44,400 I kind of I I really enjoy that about blister critters that it 248 00:12:44,400 --> 00:12:47,560 does both and then depending on who's running it you can lean 249 00:12:47,560 --> 00:12:50,520 into one side or the other which is written into the to the rules 250 00:12:50,520 --> 00:12:54,960 a bit to zany and gnarly. So I I definitely enjoy like the 251 00:12:54,960 --> 00:12:57,320 tension of like the juxtaposition between the two, 252 00:12:57,400 --> 00:13:00,880 like styles or like vibes. Yeah, and it reminds me of other 253 00:13:00,960 --> 00:13:03,840 shows that do that, but they, I don't know, it's somewhat about 254 00:13:03,840 --> 00:13:05,280 intent and foregrounding, backgrounding. 255 00:13:05,280 --> 00:13:07,440 But like if you think of Adventure Time is a little bit 256 00:13:07,440 --> 00:13:10,480 similar where oh is I think canonically a post apocalyptic 257 00:13:10,480 --> 00:13:11,560 like Earth, right? It is. 258 00:13:11,640 --> 00:13:13,360 Yeah. It becomes magical millions of 259 00:13:13,360 --> 00:13:17,400 years or however long after sort of we screwed it all up and 260 00:13:17,520 --> 00:13:20,080 that's not really explored much in the show and blister critters 261 00:13:20,080 --> 00:13:22,800 similarly to a degree that's the setup where there isn't 262 00:13:22,800 --> 00:13:24,400 background. You'll never get like a 263 00:13:24,680 --> 00:13:26,440 supplement. I don't think this would be like 264 00:13:26,440 --> 00:13:28,640 Tony correct me if I'm wrong, far from your vision like the 265 00:13:28,640 --> 00:13:30,800 book of humans or something like there are no humans they're just 266 00:13:30,800 --> 00:13:33,240 gone. But I think we do foreground in 267 00:13:33,240 --> 00:13:35,000 various ways. We try to remind people that 268 00:13:35,000 --> 00:13:38,840 this is kind of as like 1 philosopher said you know the 269 00:13:38,840 --> 00:13:40,880 human furniture, right. All of the different stuff is 270 00:13:40,880 --> 00:13:44,960 still there that makes the world altered by by people. 271 00:13:44,960 --> 00:13:47,920 And the sapien animals, this mutant animals that are 272 00:13:47,920 --> 00:13:50,440 wandering around in it know that, so they're living in this. 273 00:13:50,440 --> 00:13:53,320 It's sort of ruins. And I think that haunting, I 274 00:13:53,320 --> 00:13:56,640 like to think of it as like an elegiac feeling can be brought 275 00:13:56,640 --> 00:13:59,240 through or you can completely ignore it and do like escapist 276 00:13:59,240 --> 00:14:00,400 version. And I think that's kind of a 277 00:14:00,400 --> 00:14:02,440 spectrum. And even within one story, there 278 00:14:02,440 --> 00:14:04,360 might be scenes that are a little more haunted. 279 00:14:04,680 --> 00:14:07,520 And there are scenes that are purely cartoon, you know, Tom 280 00:14:07,520 --> 00:14:10,760 and Jerry like craziness. So I I think that's something 281 00:14:10,760 --> 00:14:12,600 you can play with. I also will say again, 282 00:14:12,600 --> 00:14:14,600 Transformers, if you really think about it, it's a show 283 00:14:14,600 --> 00:14:18,720 about all these sapient robots whose world, like, died. 284 00:14:18,920 --> 00:14:20,960 And then they come to Earth, hang out with dinosaurs and 285 00:14:20,960 --> 00:14:23,360 eventually meet like a little like a teen boy or something. 286 00:14:23,360 --> 00:14:26,720 And they're like, cool. Well, you know, let's hang out 287 00:14:26,720 --> 00:14:27,960 now. And you know, they don't. 288 00:14:28,160 --> 00:14:30,520 They're not constantly, like, damn, that sucks that everyone 289 00:14:30,520 --> 00:14:33,880 we loved died back on Cybertron. But it's there. 290 00:14:33,880 --> 00:14:35,800 You know, it's part of the show. So. 291 00:14:37,560 --> 00:14:41,920 Very cool. So can you kind of explain the 292 00:14:41,920 --> 00:14:44,480 base mechanics of blister critters? 293 00:14:46,000 --> 00:14:47,720 Yeah. Tony, do you do you want to do 294 00:14:47,720 --> 00:14:49,560 this or do you want me to do the the pitch for the system? 295 00:14:49,560 --> 00:14:51,280 No. By all means, you've pitched the 296 00:14:51,280 --> 00:14:52,520 grid system far more than I have. 297 00:14:53,400 --> 00:14:56,280 Well, it's it's it's a system I came up with over years where 298 00:14:56,280 --> 00:14:59,280 your scores are dice, which I think is really fun. 299 00:14:59,280 --> 00:15:01,120 There are some other games I found that do this. 300 00:15:01,360 --> 00:15:05,240 I think ours does it well and I've found it hard to go back to 301 00:15:05,240 --> 00:15:07,840 systems where your scores aren't dice because it it allows for 302 00:15:08,320 --> 00:15:11,880 kind of a fine-tuned variability, which I I can say 303 00:15:11,880 --> 00:15:13,040 more about. But it's a nice like medium 304 00:15:13,040 --> 00:15:14,480 crunch. Like you can have big epic 305 00:15:14,480 --> 00:15:16,360 moments where you're rolling high, you can have big fails 306 00:15:16,360 --> 00:15:20,000 where you roll A1, but it feels tighter, more responsive to like 307 00:15:20,000 --> 00:15:22,360 OK, I have AD 12 that's high, so I'm probably going to be good at 308 00:15:22,360 --> 00:15:24,520 something where most people have AD 6 and then right like I'm 309 00:15:24,520 --> 00:15:27,760 usually going to get a a higher roll than someone with AD 6. 310 00:15:27,760 --> 00:15:31,600 So you have 5 scores in this game we have scrap which in 311 00:15:31,600 --> 00:15:33,920 still fleets called combat. So it's the same thing, right, 312 00:15:33,960 --> 00:15:35,920 Fighting anytime you're trying to do harm and that's it. 313 00:15:35,920 --> 00:15:38,680 If you're trying to hurt someone that's scrap scurry which is the 314 00:15:38,680 --> 00:15:40,280 rest of your body in still fleet. 315 00:15:40,280 --> 00:15:42,520 It's called movement and that's everything else. 316 00:15:42,520 --> 00:15:43,960 You're trying to be sneaky. You're trying to steal 317 00:15:43,960 --> 00:15:44,920 something. You're trying to run really 318 00:15:44,920 --> 00:15:47,400 fast. It's all scurrying instinct is 319 00:15:47,400 --> 00:15:49,800 all your animal smarts. You're like animal know how 320 00:15:49,800 --> 00:15:52,120 which in still fleet for a human would be called will or 321 00:15:52,120 --> 00:15:56,920 willpower noggin which is your human knowledge. 322 00:15:56,920 --> 00:15:59,160 So in still fate that's reason that's like stuff you have to 323 00:15:59,160 --> 00:16:00,600 like go to school to learn facts. 324 00:16:00,600 --> 00:16:04,560 Technology in Blister Critters, Noggin is only used for stuff, 325 00:16:04,560 --> 00:16:05,920 but there's a lot of stuff in the game. 326 00:16:05,920 --> 00:16:09,280 So it sort of represents like like in a game I just ran like a 327 00:16:09,280 --> 00:16:11,720 crow, had really high noggin and could kind of figure out what 328 00:16:11,720 --> 00:16:13,240 human stuff did and put it together. 329 00:16:13,520 --> 00:16:16,600 And there's like a really dumb platypus who like had no idea 330 00:16:16,600 --> 00:16:19,720 like had AD 4IN that score and was just, I could not usually 331 00:16:19,720 --> 00:16:22,160 need to roll A6 or higher. So it was just like, yeah, I 332 00:16:22,160 --> 00:16:25,280 don't know, it's that's a thing. I don't care. 333 00:16:26,200 --> 00:16:29,000 And then finally of vibes, which in stuff it is charm. 334 00:16:29,240 --> 00:16:31,440 And when you're vibing, obviously that's all your social 335 00:16:31,440 --> 00:16:34,120 interactions. You're trying to lie to someone 336 00:16:34,120 --> 00:16:35,800 or seduce them or just be friendly. 337 00:16:36,320 --> 00:16:38,920 So those five things, depending on how you distribute your dice. 338 00:16:38,920 --> 00:16:41,080 If you have, you know, a high score in scrap, you're going to 339 00:16:41,080 --> 00:16:42,200 be good at fighting. If you have a low score in 340 00:16:42,200 --> 00:16:44,560 scrap, you probably don't want to be like the fighter who's 341 00:16:44,560 --> 00:16:46,920 jumping out and defending everyone, because you're 342 00:16:46,920 --> 00:16:49,400 probably going to roll worse than a beast who has, you know, 343 00:16:49,400 --> 00:16:52,400 presumably, let's say AD 12, like a big feral cat or 344 00:16:52,400 --> 00:16:55,080 something. And yeah, when you're rolling 345 00:16:55,080 --> 00:16:57,440 against someone, you, the initiator of the action, wins 346 00:16:57,440 --> 00:16:59,120 the tie. So you're trying to get sort of 347 00:16:59,280 --> 00:17:00,840 you know if you're starting the action, you're trying to get the 348 00:17:00,840 --> 00:17:03,680 same number or higher. And otherwise if you're trying 349 00:17:03,680 --> 00:17:06,079 to beat like a the world, you're trying to get a six or higher. 350 00:17:06,520 --> 00:17:09,800 And you can always burn your one main resource grit to get a plus 351 00:17:09,800 --> 00:17:13,079 3A plus 6 or a + 9 which we found is a nice chunk where it 352 00:17:13,079 --> 00:17:15,839 kind of hurts like 3 grit. You know if you have a starting 353 00:17:15,839 --> 00:17:18,800 character like 1518 grit like 3 is going to be noticeable, but 354 00:17:18,800 --> 00:17:21,400 it's not so much that you're not going to want to do it when 355 00:17:21,400 --> 00:17:25,359 you're like, no, I I have to like destroy this role and you 356 00:17:25,359 --> 00:17:27,520 can still fail on A1. So even if you burn so much 357 00:17:27,520 --> 00:17:30,080 grit, like if you burn 9 grit, you still might roll that one. 358 00:17:30,800 --> 00:17:32,760 So it's a gambling mechanic. The whole system is basically 359 00:17:32,760 --> 00:17:35,640 about gambling. How good are you at the epic 360 00:17:35,640 --> 00:17:36,880 stuff? How good are you at your normal 361 00:17:36,880 --> 00:17:39,440 thing and when do you want to really push yourself and sort of 362 00:17:39,440 --> 00:17:42,920 expend energy versus when you're like, no, I got this IVD 12 363 00:17:43,000 --> 00:17:46,040 again you could still fail, but you roll without grit. 364 00:17:46,040 --> 00:17:47,800 So it's it's we found it's really fun way. 365 00:17:47,800 --> 00:17:50,880 We've played a lot of fantasy games with this kind of haunted 366 00:17:50,880 --> 00:17:52,840 early modern games. We've played a few genres. 367 00:17:53,040 --> 00:17:56,640 I honestly, we had not played any cartoon animal versions 368 00:17:56,640 --> 00:18:00,400 until Tony brought it to us. So very fun to translate and it 369 00:18:00,400 --> 00:18:01,920 and it worked pretty well. I mean, Tony, do you want to say 370 00:18:01,920 --> 00:18:05,040 more about like bringing it into your world using those those 371 00:18:05,040 --> 00:18:06,680 dice? Yeah, no. 372 00:18:06,680 --> 00:18:13,160 So the my my approach is far less I think academic or 373 00:18:13,160 --> 00:18:15,280 insightful where I was like man a bunch of dice. 374 00:18:15,360 --> 00:18:17,200 This is going to be really cool to have on the table. 375 00:18:17,880 --> 00:18:22,280 So like in designing like the the character sheet, again, a 376 00:18:22,280 --> 00:18:25,480 theme throughout kind of how I approach a lot of it is what's 377 00:18:25,480 --> 00:18:27,720 going to look and feel the coolest to do. 378 00:18:28,840 --> 00:18:31,120 Which I think is why me and White work together really well 379 00:18:31,120 --> 00:18:33,920 because that's kind of how I approach a lot of it. 380 00:18:33,920 --> 00:18:36,240 And then why does that? OK, but what if we make this not 381 00:18:36,760 --> 00:18:38,400 just look cool but also play right? 382 00:18:40,040 --> 00:18:45,160 And so I enjoyed having like a large collection of dice to to 383 00:18:45,160 --> 00:18:48,600 throw through and then being able to adapt it into the 384 00:18:48,600 --> 00:18:51,720 cartoon world was fun. Like renaming the stats and then 385 00:18:51,720 --> 00:18:54,680 choosing certain rules to make, like cannon or not. 386 00:18:54,680 --> 00:18:56,600 I guess not cannon, but core to them. 387 00:18:56,600 --> 00:19:00,920 So like specifically boosting when you roll a maximum on your 388 00:19:00,920 --> 00:19:04,440 damage die. In blister critters you can burn 389 00:19:04,440 --> 00:19:07,280 some grit to grit and then you can just roll the damaged die 390 00:19:07,280 --> 00:19:10,360 again for as many times as you can burn the grit, you can keep 391 00:19:10,360 --> 00:19:13,240 rolling damage. My players love it. 392 00:19:13,240 --> 00:19:17,120 People that I've shown to really enjoy just getting to oh, it's 393 00:19:17,120 --> 00:19:20,320 called exploding. I'm sorry you explode when you 394 00:19:20,320 --> 00:19:24,040 would be able to roll damage again in still fleet that is a 395 00:19:24,040 --> 00:19:27,440 power that you can like elect into or opt to take. 396 00:19:28,200 --> 00:19:31,720 So then while I was adopting the still fleet or the grit system 397 00:19:31,720 --> 00:19:35,800 rules I kind of had like this big menu of stuff. 398 00:19:35,800 --> 00:19:39,480 I'm like that's cool boink. That's really awesome boink and 399 00:19:39,480 --> 00:19:41,640 rather than having to be optional, I was like this would 400 00:19:41,640 --> 00:19:45,680 be cool and kind of lean into the the heavy hitting and the 401 00:19:45,680 --> 00:19:49,640 more fast-paced and like wackier nature. 402 00:19:49,640 --> 00:19:53,520 Where I think and again where you want it to be combat to run 403 00:19:53,520 --> 00:19:56,360 for a bit longer or where you want things to be a little bit 404 00:19:56,360 --> 00:20:00,680 more paced. I've leaned into and some of the 405 00:20:00,680 --> 00:20:03,920 rules that I've chosen or adapted from the grit system to 406 00:20:03,920 --> 00:20:06,240 really just turn the knob like that one extra crank. 407 00:20:06,240 --> 00:20:10,760 Further, to have combat last a couple of rounds, have the have 408 00:20:10,760 --> 00:20:16,120 the hits be really heavy to have conversational encounters. 409 00:20:17,200 --> 00:20:22,920 Be zany and they can just be wiped away with a silly quip to 410 00:20:22,920 --> 00:20:26,440 have catch phrases. Where in blister critters as 411 00:20:26,440 --> 00:20:29,360 part of creating your character you set you develop a catch 412 00:20:29,360 --> 00:20:31,560 phrase and sometimes people will change it over time where they 413 00:20:31,560 --> 00:20:34,360 take a couple episodes till they find it which is perfect. 414 00:20:35,400 --> 00:20:38,680 But once per episode, once per session you can say your catch 415 00:20:38,680 --> 00:20:41,680 phrase and you can choose any role to roll with advantage. 416 00:20:42,000 --> 00:20:45,400 So it's just a cool way to incorporate like like a rule 417 00:20:45,760 --> 00:20:51,240 with something that is super role play focused where you 418 00:20:51,240 --> 00:20:53,320 don't really get to use it unless you go out of your way to 419 00:20:53,320 --> 00:20:56,640 shout. It's time to like roll out stuff 420 00:20:56,640 --> 00:20:57,840 like that. All right, cool. 421 00:20:59,040 --> 00:21:03,040 I I like involving or incorporating stuff that goes 422 00:21:03,040 --> 00:21:07,640 beyond like the mathematics of the mechanics and trying to tie 423 00:21:07,640 --> 00:21:13,040 them into what would be a really fun role play or like vibe 424 00:21:13,040 --> 00:21:17,640 setting. I don't know to to mechanicalize 425 00:21:17,640 --> 00:21:20,400 the vibe if I can put it like in a really cross way. 426 00:21:20,600 --> 00:21:22,440 Yeah, absolutely. Well, you also do something 427 00:21:22,440 --> 00:21:25,360 similar with the like your nonsense powers. 428 00:21:25,360 --> 00:21:29,440 There's like the the option to like only let the power activate 429 00:21:29,440 --> 00:21:32,600 if you like, say the name of the power out loud, which is like 430 00:21:32,600 --> 00:21:35,320 very cartoony, but also helps pull in that RP a little bit so 431 00:21:35,320 --> 00:21:39,080 that it's it's a it's cool that it comes up more than once and 432 00:21:39,080 --> 00:21:40,640 gives people that opportunity over and over again. 433 00:21:40,640 --> 00:21:44,600 So that's really cool. It's a great, clean system. 434 00:21:44,600 --> 00:21:48,480 Like reading through this, it's just it, you know, I haven't got 435 00:21:48,480 --> 00:21:51,440 to play it, but it all makes sense. 436 00:21:51,440 --> 00:21:54,160 It's super clean, which is really, really nice. 437 00:21:54,160 --> 00:21:58,520 I love the pool between like, the grit and the health. 438 00:21:59,120 --> 00:22:01,640 And when you're reading it and you're like, Oh yeah, like if 439 00:22:01,640 --> 00:22:04,080 you still have grip but your health is gone, you're not dead. 440 00:22:04,080 --> 00:22:05,160 But here's the terrible condition. 441 00:22:05,160 --> 00:22:06,640 You still have health, but your grit is gone. 442 00:22:06,840 --> 00:22:08,640 Like, you're not dead, but here's a terrible condition and 443 00:22:08,640 --> 00:22:12,320 then it's just and it all just feeds back into itself, which is 444 00:22:12,320 --> 00:22:16,840 always nice with any mechanics or systems. 445 00:22:16,840 --> 00:22:19,680 Like if if the mechanic and the way you play that mechanic 446 00:22:19,680 --> 00:22:22,280 constantly reinforces how the mechanic works and anything you 447 00:22:22,280 --> 00:22:26,840 add to it just keeps feeling like it makes sense and keeps 448 00:22:26,840 --> 00:22:29,800 that feedback loop going, then the system was always going to 449 00:22:29,800 --> 00:22:31,960 feel consistent and good. And when I as I was reading 450 00:22:31,960 --> 00:22:33,680 through this and and even through like still fleet and 451 00:22:33,680 --> 00:22:36,440 stuff too it, that's what it feels like the system is. 452 00:22:36,440 --> 00:22:39,880 It's just everything that keeps getting added to it just 453 00:22:39,960 --> 00:22:43,320 continues to make sense and stay nice and clean. 454 00:22:43,320 --> 00:22:45,360 So it's it's it's great. I really, really enjoyed the 455 00:22:45,360 --> 00:22:47,760 system a lot. Yeah, you've really done a good 456 00:22:47,760 --> 00:22:50,640 job of reinforcing the vibe of, like, this is like a Saturday 457 00:22:50,640 --> 00:22:53,280 morning cartoon. Like things are epic. 458 00:22:53,280 --> 00:22:56,840 You do fun stuff, like, yeah, you make quips at your enemies 459 00:22:56,840 --> 00:23:00,280 and then knock them out. Or don't, and then it makes it 460 00:23:00,280 --> 00:23:01,400 even funnier. You. 461 00:23:03,120 --> 00:23:04,880 Might drop them and then you just get punched like. 462 00:23:04,880 --> 00:23:10,240 All right, that works too. Yeah, I mean we we with the core 463 00:23:10,240 --> 00:23:13,160 system, like there's a lot of fine tuning that's gone over 464 00:23:13,160 --> 00:23:15,200 like 10 years into that. And and like I said, it's pretty 465 00:23:15,200 --> 00:23:18,120 portable in other genres. And so it was pretty different 466 00:23:18,360 --> 00:23:20,360 design brief to like bring it into blister critters. 467 00:23:20,360 --> 00:23:23,760 But we're pretty confident that it would work in part like I'd 468 00:23:23,760 --> 00:23:26,280 run AMU using the grid system. So like Tony and I had played a 469 00:23:26,280 --> 00:23:28,520 game already where it was like kind of his work, but I was just 470 00:23:28,520 --> 00:23:31,000 using my system and it worked like with very little. 471 00:23:31,000 --> 00:23:32,880 Like I didn't really prep a lot. It was like, yeah, I mean I'll 472 00:23:32,880 --> 00:23:35,440 assign stats to like the big fights or whatever. 473 00:23:36,120 --> 00:23:38,160 So this was fun and it was fun to talk to Tony about what he 474 00:23:38,160 --> 00:23:40,160 wanted and hear like OK, you wanted to feel kind of lower 475 00:23:40,160 --> 00:23:43,120 powered but also zanier, which in a way you think of zaniness 476 00:23:43,120 --> 00:23:45,760 could be like higher powered. But we wanted to keep the dice 477 00:23:45,760 --> 00:23:49,320 rolling sort of lower like with still Fate you can do min Max 478 00:23:49,320 --> 00:23:52,520 and get these epic like, OK, I've made AD 12 into AD 20, 479 00:23:52,520 --> 00:23:55,280 which is like a huge deal, etcetera, etcetera. 480 00:23:55,280 --> 00:23:57,400 And here we wanted to sort of have more of the narrative 481 00:23:57,400 --> 00:23:58,840 powers, which there are a lot of, and still fate too. 482 00:23:58,840 --> 00:24:00,120 Like, OK, you just flee the scene. 483 00:24:00,120 --> 00:24:03,200 You just kill the monster or whatever if you if you're 484 00:24:03,200 --> 00:24:04,520 successful, if you burn enough grit. 485 00:24:04,720 --> 00:24:08,120 But here that we want to have more sort of very intuitive 486 00:24:08,120 --> 00:24:10,160 powers like with the animal talents, for example, Tony had 487 00:24:10,160 --> 00:24:11,520 all these great ideas for animals. 488 00:24:11,520 --> 00:24:14,920 And OK, let's make a power that you know in in just two powers, 489 00:24:14,920 --> 00:24:16,040 right. It gives you the sense of being 490 00:24:16,040 --> 00:24:18,800 a crow or two powers. It gives you the sense of being, 491 00:24:20,960 --> 00:24:24,400 you know, a chinchilla. And then we have players, Yeah, 492 00:24:24,400 --> 00:24:27,120 yeah, the frog. We've had players come to us and 493 00:24:27,120 --> 00:24:28,720 be like, okay, but I want to be a platypus. 494 00:24:28,720 --> 00:24:31,280 And it's like, all right, well, we've made like 130 powers or 495 00:24:31,280 --> 00:24:33,280 something, but it's like, go figure out what those are. 496 00:24:33,280 --> 00:24:36,440 So okay, platypus have venom. It turns out they have, like, 497 00:24:36,440 --> 00:24:37,560 spiked. Heels. 498 00:24:37,640 --> 00:24:40,160 Spiked heels. Yeah, the only mammals with 499 00:24:40,160 --> 00:24:41,800 venom. Yeah, yeah, great. 500 00:24:41,800 --> 00:24:43,200 They're they're just, they're just amazing. 501 00:24:43,200 --> 00:24:44,840 So like, that was fun. And then the other one was 502 00:24:44,840 --> 00:24:47,040 because they lay eggs, we we have the chicken power where you 503 00:24:47,040 --> 00:24:49,760 can be a chicken who shoots eggs, like just, you know, gives 504 00:24:49,760 --> 00:24:52,440 birth and shoots with such force that you stun an enemy for one 505 00:24:52,440 --> 00:24:54,080 round. So you burn grit and you just 506 00:24:54,080 --> 00:24:55,480 auto stun. You don't have a role to hit. 507 00:24:55,680 --> 00:24:57,120 It doesn't do damage. It just stuns them. 508 00:24:57,440 --> 00:25:00,280 And that was something the platypode character, you know, 509 00:25:00,280 --> 00:25:04,160 took on as well. And that just felt very cartoony 510 00:25:04,160 --> 00:25:06,680 and fun and it took, you know, all of 10 seconds. 511 00:25:07,120 --> 00:25:09,640 So it's been fun to both adapt the grid system, come up with 512 00:25:09,640 --> 00:25:13,160 new stuff with Tony and then see our players, even in early play 513 00:25:13,160 --> 00:25:16,000 testing, just look at the menu and be like, oh, I got this like 514 00:25:16,000 --> 00:25:18,360 I've, I know what I want to do. I want to be a one foot tall 515 00:25:18,360 --> 00:25:19,840 giraffe. So I'm going to pick this and 516 00:25:19,840 --> 00:25:21,960 this, you know. And as AGM you're like, yeah, 517 00:25:21,960 --> 00:25:23,280 cool, You're a one foot tall giraffe. 518 00:25:23,280 --> 00:25:25,640 As long as you're you're not a big giraffe, that's fine with 519 00:25:25,640 --> 00:25:27,040 me, because you have to be small. 520 00:25:28,520 --> 00:25:30,200 Well, that that's another thing that I really enjoy the 521 00:25:30,200 --> 00:25:32,720 characterization in general, but especially with the animals and 522 00:25:32,720 --> 00:25:34,240 even with the rules and mechanics too. 523 00:25:34,240 --> 00:25:37,560 Like, one thing I really like about this is like, it's it's 524 00:25:39,120 --> 00:25:42,480 like rules for anything, like, you know, people there, there's 525 00:25:42,480 --> 00:25:46,720 this common theme kind of in in post Pandemic indie games of 526 00:25:46,720 --> 00:25:49,080 like, rules don't matter, do whatever rules you want. 527 00:25:49,080 --> 00:25:53,240 But like, I'm like, I agree to a point, but like, try how they're 528 00:25:53,240 --> 00:25:55,200 written first, 'cause there's a reason someone just thought that 529 00:25:55,200 --> 00:25:57,120 those all worked well together, right? 530 00:25:58,400 --> 00:26:04,320 And I really like the way it works in what you have here. 531 00:26:04,880 --> 00:26:08,240 And also it's just there's not a lot like, as far as rules to 532 00:26:08,240 --> 00:26:10,400 know. It all feels very clean. 533 00:26:10,840 --> 00:26:14,080 But character creation is a part I really enjoyed for a bunch of 534 00:26:14,080 --> 00:26:16,000 reasons. One I was like, damn, this is a 535 00:26:16,000 --> 00:26:17,800 lot of animals. And then you see that like 536 00:26:17,800 --> 00:26:20,520 sticky note that's like, this is only 24. 537 00:26:20,520 --> 00:26:23,320 You really get 66 of them. And I'm like, I couldn't think 538 00:26:23,320 --> 00:26:28,080 of 66 animals right now anyway. But I also like the I really 539 00:26:28,080 --> 00:26:31,280 enjoyed the asymmetry of all of the different animals and not 540 00:26:31,280 --> 00:26:32,960 only that, the different styles of animals too. 541 00:26:32,960 --> 00:26:36,160 So like in the game right now there's, you know four of each 542 00:26:36,160 --> 00:26:40,280 but there's like Fuzzy, Feathery, Warded, Scaly, Sheldon 543 00:26:40,280 --> 00:26:42,960 Crawley. And a lot of games when you have 544 00:26:42,960 --> 00:26:46,440 different styles will be like, you know if it's going to be 545 00:26:46,440 --> 00:26:49,760 health, grit and and Dr. or whatever we're going to have 546 00:26:49,760 --> 00:26:52,680 like 10 total points. We'll just like mix them. 547 00:26:52,680 --> 00:26:55,200 So everyone kind of equals 10, you know and I was, I was 548 00:26:55,200 --> 00:26:58,400 reading through this, I was like that's not none of that is in 549 00:26:58,400 --> 00:26:59,800 here at all. Like, there's whole sections 550 00:26:59,800 --> 00:27:04,720 where like like Scaly has Dr. but like Warded doesn't, you get 551 00:27:04,720 --> 00:27:09,400 more like more grit or whatever. And like Scaly doesn't have a 552 00:27:09,400 --> 00:27:11,920 bonus to health, but you get some other things too. 553 00:27:11,920 --> 00:27:15,920 So there's a real asymmetry to it, which I think really lends 554 00:27:15,920 --> 00:27:19,440 into that like, well, it's because of a one foot tall 555 00:27:19,440 --> 00:27:20,560 giraffe is different than a frog. 556 00:27:20,560 --> 00:27:22,840 Like, you don't need those same things, you're not supposed to 557 00:27:22,840 --> 00:27:25,760 do those same things. So leaning into like what a frog 558 00:27:25,760 --> 00:27:28,800 does really well or what a giraffe does really well is what 559 00:27:28,800 --> 00:27:31,880 the character creation kind of and the abilities you get with 560 00:27:31,880 --> 00:27:35,120 it feels like to me. I assume kind of based on what 561 00:27:35,120 --> 00:27:36,400 you're talking about, like that was the intent. 562 00:27:36,400 --> 00:27:38,840 But maybe, maybe, maybe I'm wrong? 563 00:27:39,720 --> 00:27:43,240 No, exactly. When I was putting together the 564 00:27:43,240 --> 00:27:46,160 different categories so you know fuzzy feathering down the line 565 00:27:46,480 --> 00:27:51,160 and then mechanicalizing them to where like well what what would 566 00:27:51,160 --> 00:27:53,880 a shell, what would a turtle have that like a frog wouldn't 567 00:27:53,880 --> 00:27:56,440 or that a little mouse wouldn't. Well, you know, obviously 568 00:27:56,440 --> 00:28:03,000 there's a big shell on their back but Shelled also receive I 569 00:28:03,000 --> 00:28:05,920 believe a certain extra amount of like SP so you can carry more 570 00:28:05,920 --> 00:28:09,200 stuff and thinking there is you just put stuff into your shelf. 571 00:28:09,680 --> 00:28:11,320 That's probably not how that works. 572 00:28:11,320 --> 00:28:14,040 But if you're playing, and that's how some of the 573 00:28:14,080 --> 00:28:18,440 conversations that me and White have had sometimes is like, 574 00:28:19,040 --> 00:28:21,680 could you realistically, if you were turtle stuff stuff into 575 00:28:21,680 --> 00:28:22,960 your shell? Not really. 576 00:28:22,960 --> 00:28:26,440 It's not how that works. But if I was playing a cartoon, 577 00:28:26,560 --> 00:28:28,680 that's what I would intuitively want to do. 578 00:28:28,880 --> 00:28:33,240 So that's that's the the guiding, I think focus when and 579 00:28:33,240 --> 00:28:35,080 where I think it makes sense. There's been times where we've 580 00:28:35,400 --> 00:28:37,120 reeled, reigned it in a little bit. 581 00:28:37,720 --> 00:28:39,840 But for the most part, I like advocate. 582 00:28:39,840 --> 00:28:42,600 Like, yeah, if I was playing as a frog, I would want to be able 583 00:28:42,600 --> 00:28:46,480 to jump farther then this thing, even if realistically doesn't 584 00:28:46,520 --> 00:28:48,720 like make sense. We're playing a cartoon and 585 00:28:48,720 --> 00:28:50,880 people are playing a frog. They're going to want to be able 586 00:28:50,880 --> 00:28:53,600 to use their tongue to do this thing or to have any of these 587 00:28:53,600 --> 00:28:56,800 other, like, cartoony tropes kind of be the guiding focus. 588 00:28:56,800 --> 00:28:59,080 So I guess back to what you were initially asking. 589 00:28:59,680 --> 00:29:02,560 Yeah, the goal was to have each of the categories feel distinct, 590 00:29:04,440 --> 00:29:08,440 like narratively, but also mechanically, so that you do get 591 00:29:08,440 --> 00:29:11,520 the benefit of being a turtle. And it's a way different play, 592 00:29:11,840 --> 00:29:16,320 way different play experience than playing like a Roach, which 593 00:29:16,320 --> 00:29:19,280 is why enjoys playing roaches. I play it rich. 594 00:29:19,600 --> 00:29:21,560 I mean, and I will say because there's a difference with like 595 00:29:21,560 --> 00:29:23,760 balance is this thing in game design that I find really 596 00:29:23,760 --> 00:29:26,800 annoying because it's often tied to mechanics in terms of numbers 597 00:29:26,800 --> 00:29:29,040 like quantitative balance. Like you're saying, like, OK, I 598 00:29:29,040 --> 00:29:31,640 have 10 points to distribute in four different categories, so 599 00:29:31,640 --> 00:29:33,600 we'll just create a bunch of categories where there's 600 00:29:33,600 --> 00:29:35,720 different arrays of those same 10 points. 601 00:29:36,240 --> 00:29:40,240 But we've found in practice running for 10 years versions of 602 00:29:40,240 --> 00:29:43,640 Still fleet and now intensively a lot of blister critters in the 603 00:29:43,640 --> 00:29:47,600 last few months, that that isn't as satisfying as having balance 604 00:29:47,600 --> 00:29:48,920 that is sort of more narrative driven. 605 00:29:48,920 --> 00:29:51,880 Like in Still Fate, there's a class that has the power to end 606 00:29:51,880 --> 00:29:55,120 combat arbitrarily, to smooth things over the diplomat social 607 00:29:55,120 --> 00:29:58,960 scientist class, and that's completely asymmetrical to all 608 00:29:58,960 --> 00:30:01,240 the other combat powers because it ends combat. 609 00:30:01,680 --> 00:30:03,880 So that's been really nice because you can have a, you can 610 00:30:03,880 --> 00:30:06,160 have a party with a witness or with no witness and that will 611 00:30:06,160 --> 00:30:08,720 change how you do combat because if you're getting pwned by 612 00:30:08,720 --> 00:30:12,600 Cthulhu, you the witness could be like, guys, let's just talk 613 00:30:12,600 --> 00:30:14,000 it out and then run away, you know. 614 00:30:15,080 --> 00:30:16,840 And if you don't have that person, it's going to feel 615 00:30:16,840 --> 00:30:18,280 different. So it's not a matter of whether 616 00:30:18,280 --> 00:30:20,600 their stats are good or not. It's like does that person 617 00:30:20,600 --> 00:30:22,640 exist? And I think here we, I think 618 00:30:22,880 --> 00:30:24,800 Tony and I netted on something really nicely that fulfills 619 00:30:24,800 --> 00:30:28,320 Tony's vision of a zany cartoon universe where like the SP for 620 00:30:28,320 --> 00:30:31,160 being typically bigger, you know, like an alligator or a 621 00:30:31,160 --> 00:30:34,160 turtle also you just have like flat areas you could strap stuff 622 00:30:34,160 --> 00:30:35,240 to. I mean we just sort of justified 623 00:30:35,240 --> 00:30:38,040 it however you want or it's cartoony and you open the the 624 00:30:38,040 --> 00:30:40,480 secret compartment on your shell and drop stuff in, which is like 625 00:30:40,480 --> 00:30:42,160 not how turtles work. Don't do that to a turtle. 626 00:30:43,440 --> 00:30:45,280 It works either way. And it feels nice because it's 627 00:30:45,280 --> 00:30:46,120 like cool. That's their thing. 628 00:30:46,120 --> 00:30:48,120 They get more grit, they get more SP because their body plan, 629 00:30:48,120 --> 00:30:51,680 but the fuzzy animals get more health because of our 630 00:30:51,680 --> 00:30:53,800 metabolisms. So essentially as long as we're 631 00:30:53,800 --> 00:30:56,960 eating we are kind of we've taken over the world because of 632 00:30:57,000 --> 00:30:59,960 of being warm blooded. So it was just very simple like 633 00:30:59,960 --> 00:31:02,280 trying to marry some of the what ifs about biology with these 634 00:31:02,280 --> 00:31:04,920 kind of asymmetrical decisions to provide a kind of balance. 635 00:31:04,920 --> 00:31:08,360 So everything, everything gets something fun, but it doesn't 636 00:31:08,360 --> 00:31:11,480 have to feel A like a biology textbook or B to me like a more 637 00:31:11,480 --> 00:31:14,800 boring game like a 5 E style. Like every category is strictly 638 00:31:14,800 --> 00:31:17,320 quantitatively balanced. And to me that makes them a 639 00:31:17,320 --> 00:31:18,800 little too similar to one another. 640 00:31:18,800 --> 00:31:22,240 And they don't have that radical difference of like, cool, I'm a 641 00:31:22,240 --> 00:31:23,760 Roach. I'm like, you know, yeah, I 642 00:31:23,760 --> 00:31:25,200 could be a foot tall Roach, but I'm not going to be. 643 00:31:25,200 --> 00:31:28,080 I'm going to be like a pretty big Roach, Like a gross large 644 00:31:28,080 --> 00:31:30,520 size, like 4. Apocalyptic cartoon land like 645 00:31:30,600 --> 00:31:31,600 it's Yeah, you're. Right. 646 00:31:31,920 --> 00:31:34,040 But I'm not going to be a foot tall and I am squishy, right? 647 00:31:34,040 --> 00:31:36,480 I'm just a Roach like and so, you know, I, I whatever. 648 00:31:36,480 --> 00:31:38,240 So it's just, it's a different vibe. 649 00:31:38,240 --> 00:31:40,280 Crunchy. Crunchy. 650 00:31:40,280 --> 00:31:42,640 Exactly. Something that's well. 651 00:31:43,520 --> 00:31:46,160 I think, oh, I'm sorry. So something that's also been 652 00:31:46,160 --> 00:31:49,840 fun that we found in play testing, but also kind of trying 653 00:31:49,840 --> 00:31:53,160 to future proof or think forward in terms of a character creation 654 00:31:53,160 --> 00:31:55,480 and like pack. So party creation, a pack of 655 00:31:55,480 --> 00:31:58,760 animals is like, well, what if people want to play a group of 656 00:31:58,760 --> 00:32:01,080 frogs? Like what does that do if 657 00:32:01,080 --> 00:32:02,760 everybody is the same kind of animal? 658 00:32:02,760 --> 00:32:05,200 Or if everybody we haven't touched on this yet, What if 659 00:32:05,200 --> 00:32:07,840 everybody picks the same role? What if they all want to be the 660 00:32:07,840 --> 00:32:09,080 boss? Or what if they all want to be a 661 00:32:09,080 --> 00:32:12,520 wallflower? What does that do for party 662 00:32:12,520 --> 00:32:14,360 creation? And that's true for most any 663 00:32:14,360 --> 00:32:17,600 like tabletop game that'll have those kind of archetypes in 664 00:32:17,600 --> 00:32:21,160 there. But for, but specifically for 665 00:32:21,160 --> 00:32:23,600 booster critters, it's fun. And that like the roles and then 666 00:32:23,600 --> 00:32:26,040 the kind of animals that you're going to pair with them. 667 00:32:26,040 --> 00:32:30,520 There's there's already a number of other other choices on the 668 00:32:30,520 --> 00:32:33,360 menu where you can be a group of frogs, but one of those group of 669 00:32:33,360 --> 00:32:35,960 frogs can be the brawler, and one of those frogs can be like 670 00:32:35,960 --> 00:32:38,440 the brain of the group. So you can play a pack of Frog 671 00:32:38,440 --> 00:32:41,080 and go through a whole season playing Battletoads if you 672 00:32:41,080 --> 00:32:46,120 really want to. But yeah, I think there's so 673 00:32:46,120 --> 00:32:49,280 much freedom and so much unexplored territory that that 674 00:32:49,280 --> 00:32:52,800 I'm excited to see other people try out and Min Max to their 675 00:32:52,800 --> 00:32:54,480 heart's delight. Right, Yeah. 676 00:32:54,880 --> 00:32:55,800 Yeah. Like TMNT? 677 00:32:55,840 --> 00:32:57,240 We talked a lot. A group of turtles. 678 00:32:57,400 --> 00:33:01,720 You know, just four turtles. They're all wearing like, I 679 00:33:01,720 --> 00:33:04,440 like, get a little mass and they all got like little plastic 680 00:33:04,440 --> 00:33:06,720 weapons they found. So stuff, you know that's where 681 00:33:07,400 --> 00:33:09,720 we're going. The one rat's the leader. 682 00:33:09,720 --> 00:33:11,560 Yeah, it all makes perfect sense. 683 00:33:11,560 --> 00:33:15,160 We're good here, you know, there's so many like we could 684 00:33:15,160 --> 00:33:18,160 talk for like 2 hours on. Just like the the fun parts of 685 00:33:18,160 --> 00:33:20,400 the system, like the surge die and things like that. 686 00:33:20,400 --> 00:33:23,960 One of the things, one thing, and then I'll say the thing I 687 00:33:23,960 --> 00:33:26,240 was really talking about what we were just talking about. 688 00:33:26,240 --> 00:33:28,720 There's a lot of one thing I really enjoy and the way that 689 00:33:28,720 --> 00:33:31,920 the game is written to is how much direction there is for 690 00:33:31,920 --> 00:33:33,840 exactly. We all just talked about like 691 00:33:33,840 --> 00:33:36,120 over and over again. It's like do fun shit because 692 00:33:36,120 --> 00:33:38,600 it's fun. Like I don't care that things 693 00:33:38,600 --> 00:33:40,920 don't fit in your shell. It's a cartoon like there's a 694 00:33:40,920 --> 00:33:45,640 real sense of like strong mechanics mixed with this desire 695 00:33:45,640 --> 00:33:47,800 to. I think this was something I was 696 00:33:47,800 --> 00:33:49,640 trying to say before and and my brain went a different 697 00:33:49,640 --> 00:33:52,800 direction. It's the rules feel so clean and 698 00:33:52,800 --> 00:33:55,960 and and easy. Not easy but like just 699 00:33:55,960 --> 00:33:58,880 straightforward. So you kind of really early get 700 00:33:58,880 --> 00:34:02,560 this sense of like I can internalize them well enough to 701 00:34:02,560 --> 00:34:06,080 know when I can break and tweak them, even as a player, even as 702 00:34:06,080 --> 00:34:08,320 someone's like reading it, not just writing it. 703 00:34:08,520 --> 00:34:12,239 And I think that cartoon aspect really kind of lends to that in 704 00:34:12,239 --> 00:34:15,199 the system too, especially in like the nonsense powers and 705 00:34:15,199 --> 00:34:20,400 things like that, where it's just the system allows for that 706 00:34:20,440 --> 00:34:24,639 extra without the whole thing like falling apart. 707 00:34:24,639 --> 00:34:29,440 And it that just feels really cool to see and to approach in a 708 00:34:29,440 --> 00:34:31,960 game where you're like I couldn't just, I could be the 709 00:34:31,960 --> 00:34:33,520 rage guy and go absolutely ape shit. 710 00:34:33,679 --> 00:34:36,440 And I'm not gonna break this for the GM or for the other players. 711 00:34:36,440 --> 00:34:38,520 Like there's plenty of room to kind of go off. 712 00:34:39,239 --> 00:34:43,480 And one of the things that really allows that too early in 713 00:34:43,480 --> 00:34:48,320 the quick start you talk about zany versus gnarly, which I mean 714 00:34:48,960 --> 00:34:51,960 as far as I'm the gnarly, I would definitely go gnarly games 715 00:34:51,960 --> 00:34:53,880 and I feel like kind of definitely go zany games. 716 00:34:54,239 --> 00:34:57,280 So I guess just talk about that a little bit like what was the 717 00:34:57,280 --> 00:35:03,160 reason to not only kind of have that as an option, but to 718 00:35:03,240 --> 00:35:05,640 reinforce that kind of throughout too with different 719 00:35:05,640 --> 00:35:10,720 ways to approach things? Yeah, this is, I mean Tony and I 720 00:35:10,720 --> 00:35:12,080 talked a lot about this. Tony, do you want to, do you 721 00:35:12,080 --> 00:35:14,760 want to sort of start off or? Yeah, I think we can bounce back 722 00:35:14,760 --> 00:35:18,240 and forth on it because it's really, it's really like it came 723 00:35:18,240 --> 00:35:21,760 from me and why they're working together and talking through and 724 00:35:21,760 --> 00:35:25,880 how we wanted the game to feel. So I definitely approach 725 00:35:26,160 --> 00:35:30,360 producing GM ING episodes very zany. 726 00:35:30,640 --> 00:35:33,560 I lean full on into it being a cartoon. 727 00:35:34,360 --> 00:35:38,080 It just paused to the wall. Go nuts with it being a cartoon 728 00:35:38,680 --> 00:35:41,640 zaniness. And that was in the initial, 729 00:35:41,840 --> 00:35:45,440 like, writings and ideas. It's kind of what I pitched to 730 00:35:45,440 --> 00:35:50,040 live was this world that's like strictly cartoony and and zany 731 00:35:50,040 --> 00:35:53,720 and stuff and live kind of bounced off of that a little bit 732 00:35:53,840 --> 00:35:55,800 in a good way and was like, well, what if we incorporate 733 00:35:55,800 --> 00:36:00,840 things that are, you know, more serious or the the gnarly bits 734 00:36:00,840 --> 00:36:02,720 of it where it's like, well, this really was a world that 735 00:36:02,720 --> 00:36:05,920 humans did once live in and they they did have these impacts. 736 00:36:05,920 --> 00:36:10,600 And what would society look like for animals that are rebuilding 737 00:36:10,600 --> 00:36:13,680 a civilization, you know, with or without the knowledge that 738 00:36:13,680 --> 00:36:20,040 the humans had? And I like blister Critters more 739 00:36:20,040 --> 00:36:23,520 now that I think it accommodates both ends where you can play a 740 00:36:23,640 --> 00:36:27,720 episode of SpongeBob, but you can play an episode of I guess 741 00:36:27,720 --> 00:36:31,520 whatever would be the other end where it's it's more focused 742 00:36:31,520 --> 00:36:33,640 and. The Last of Us. 743 00:36:34,040 --> 00:36:35,760 Like you could play walking. Dead, yeah, yeah. 744 00:36:36,040 --> 00:36:38,360 Exactly. I run it as Walking Dead, but 745 00:36:38,360 --> 00:36:39,080 you are. You look. 746 00:36:39,080 --> 00:36:40,920 It looks like green and Stimpy, but you're in The Walking Dead, 747 00:36:40,920 --> 00:36:41,720 you. Know what I mean? 748 00:36:41,720 --> 00:36:43,280 Like. Yeah, and just instead of 749 00:36:43,280 --> 00:36:46,080 zombies, they're just black bears with mutant, you know, 750 00:36:46,080 --> 00:36:48,680 with like, tentacles and an elk with the skull. 751 00:36:48,680 --> 00:36:51,800 The head is just a skull and there's like some sort of slime 752 00:36:51,800 --> 00:36:54,480 dripping out of their neck. But it's it's The Walking Dead, 753 00:36:54,480 --> 00:36:55,520 right. It's you're a bunch of critters 754 00:36:55,520 --> 00:36:57,760 who are smart. There's the physics is the same. 755 00:36:57,760 --> 00:36:58,840 It's just the world's gone to shit. 756 00:36:58,840 --> 00:37:00,960 Humans fucked it up. You got to live here now and 757 00:37:00,960 --> 00:37:03,240 you're like well well well I guess we got to make the most of 758 00:37:03,240 --> 00:37:05,880 it and you have to like you know help each other and survive. 759 00:37:06,600 --> 00:37:09,520 Tony runs it where the physics are cartoon physics and I think 760 00:37:09,520 --> 00:37:12,280 what's that was such a fun challenge and I'm I'm really 761 00:37:12,280 --> 00:37:15,280 appreciate that Tony worked with me because I was like this is so 762 00:37:15,280 --> 00:37:17,400 fun and I know it would work and it would be fun and it would 763 00:37:17,400 --> 00:37:20,800 probably like sell even if it was just the purely cartoony. 764 00:37:21,040 --> 00:37:23,640 But I was like come on man, I'm a Marxist scholar. 765 00:37:23,640 --> 00:37:26,280 Like can we make this about like climate change kinds and like 766 00:37:26,280 --> 00:37:28,640 environmental disruption. Like can we make it like also 767 00:37:28,640 --> 00:37:31,480 about those things and not take away from what you want to do. 768 00:37:31,480 --> 00:37:34,720 And Tony was a real sport and we just sort of thought through in 769 00:37:34,720 --> 00:37:39,360 each rules section you know. OK is there a way to modulator 770 00:37:39,360 --> 00:37:42,400 offer opinions. And what I'd suggested was based 771 00:37:42,400 --> 00:37:46,320 on a game called Rotted Capes which is a game I've read, I I 772 00:37:46,480 --> 00:37:50,720 I've never actually played. But it's interesting because 773 00:37:50,720 --> 00:37:52,880 it's about it's a superhero game, but it's it's in a zombie 774 00:37:52,880 --> 00:37:54,840 apocalypse, so it's intentionally a mash up and it 775 00:37:54,840 --> 00:37:58,040 has throughout these boxes on like almost every spread where 776 00:37:58,040 --> 00:38:00,800 it's like if you're playing I forget the terms he uses, but 777 00:38:01,200 --> 00:38:05,120 like pulp action comic, like it's pretty much just 778 00:38:05,120 --> 00:38:06,560 superheroes and they're happening to be zombies. 779 00:38:06,560 --> 00:38:08,880 Then do this. If you're playing the zombie 780 00:38:08,880 --> 00:38:11,920 apocalypse version where it's very, very much about survival 781 00:38:12,280 --> 00:38:14,800 and most of the A listers, the Superman's of the world, have 782 00:38:14,800 --> 00:38:16,960 been turned to zombies. So they're still alive and they 783 00:38:16,960 --> 00:38:18,800 have laser eyes and they can fly, but they're zombies. 784 00:38:18,800 --> 00:38:19,760 They just want to eat your brains. 785 00:38:20,120 --> 00:38:22,200 Then like, you're kind of screwed and like do this. 786 00:38:22,560 --> 00:38:25,600 And there's also sort of middle. The implied thing is that the 787 00:38:25,600 --> 00:38:28,680 main text is the middle option or you don't have to make that 788 00:38:28,680 --> 00:38:30,120 choice. Like it's kind of a spectrum and 789 00:38:30,120 --> 00:38:32,160 you can ignore it or you can lean One Direction or other. 790 00:38:32,160 --> 00:38:34,400 So I sort of suggested to Tony, we could do something similar. 791 00:38:34,400 --> 00:38:37,080 And we found the words gnarly and zany to describe these play 792 00:38:37,080 --> 00:38:40,360 styles where it's very silly and you are cartoon animals, but 793 00:38:40,640 --> 00:38:43,960 physics are basically physics. Or it's very zany in your 794 00:38:43,960 --> 00:38:47,080 cartoon animals, but you're literally just purely in a 795 00:38:47,080 --> 00:38:48,520 cartoon. There's no, like, outside of the 796 00:38:48,520 --> 00:38:50,160 cartoon. It's not a comment on something, 797 00:38:50,160 --> 00:38:53,480 it's a cartoon or song. And so that was fun to just sort 798 00:38:53,480 --> 00:38:57,520 of check ourselves, like is a given rule set, you know, so 799 00:38:57,520 --> 00:39:00,160 gnarly or so zany that it's going to like, upset the balance 800 00:39:00,160 --> 00:39:02,760 of the universe. And honestly, I don't think 801 00:39:02,760 --> 00:39:05,680 players even really care or like they get it So intuitively it 802 00:39:05,680 --> 00:39:07,560 hasn't mattered in a in a good way. 803 00:39:07,560 --> 00:39:10,760 Like, it hasn't come up as like, hey, this feels too zany. 804 00:39:11,320 --> 00:39:13,840 Or you know what I mean, like why? 805 00:39:13,840 --> 00:39:15,600 If you're not letting me be cartoon, like if someone 806 00:39:15,600 --> 00:39:17,240 suggests something cartoony, I'm like, awesome. 807 00:39:17,240 --> 00:39:19,880 That happens. It just was more for me, like as 808 00:39:19,880 --> 00:39:23,920 AGM, the kind like I basically constantly reinvent these 809 00:39:23,920 --> 00:39:25,920 stories about politics. So it instantly was about 810 00:39:25,920 --> 00:39:27,280 squirrels. Take over Atlanta. 811 00:39:27,440 --> 00:39:30,480 They set up a feudal society. They demand, you know, taxes. 812 00:39:30,920 --> 00:39:33,720 And you, as these other critters have to like, figure out how to, 813 00:39:34,120 --> 00:39:36,680 you know, push back on that or overthrow the queen or whatever. 814 00:39:37,520 --> 00:39:39,640 But yes, you're all sort of cartoons and mutants and all 815 00:39:39,640 --> 00:39:41,840 this other fun stuff. So it's somewhat like, just what 816 00:39:41,840 --> 00:39:43,360 kind of games do you like to run? 817 00:39:43,360 --> 00:39:46,080 I think, yeah. Go ahead, Tony. 818 00:39:46,400 --> 00:39:49,120 I also like that it's not necessarily a binary either. 819 00:39:49,120 --> 00:39:52,200 You can run a super zany game and then if you want to have 820 00:39:52,200 --> 00:39:55,520 super hardcore rules about like this is the kind of food you can 821 00:39:55,520 --> 00:39:59,640 eat and you as a producer want to lean into, you can only eat 822 00:39:59,640 --> 00:40:01,400 food that you could actually consume. 823 00:40:01,600 --> 00:40:03,400 You could do that. It may be it might feel weird if 824 00:40:03,400 --> 00:40:05,760 you're you know. You know, blowing your arm up 825 00:40:05,760 --> 00:40:07,600 like a balloon and bonking people on the head. 826 00:40:07,800 --> 00:40:10,040 But, like, if that's what the table likes, there's rules in 827 00:40:10,040 --> 00:40:12,400 there for you to pick and choose what parts of the game you want 828 00:40:12,400 --> 00:40:15,200 to be zany, what games, what parts you want to be gnarly. 829 00:40:15,840 --> 00:40:18,160 And it should be a conversation. It should be like evolving and 830 00:40:18,160 --> 00:40:20,680 changing, where we're playing an episode, where we're just going 831 00:40:20,680 --> 00:40:23,880 to go to the mall and have a good time, but then there's an 832 00:40:23,880 --> 00:40:26,320 episode where, like, we're we're fighting like the bad guy and 833 00:40:26,320 --> 00:40:28,600 we're going to play a little bit more serious, a little bit more 834 00:40:28,600 --> 00:40:30,720 gnarly. I like that you can do both. 835 00:40:31,200 --> 00:40:33,440 And it's pushed back on me like I have two examples, sorry if we 836 00:40:34,320 --> 00:40:36,360 if we have time that I'll keep short. 837 00:40:36,360 --> 00:40:39,520 But in recent play tests with a play tester, he plays a lot 838 00:40:39,520 --> 00:40:40,600 named Ryan. He's really great. 839 00:40:41,480 --> 00:40:43,240 He played a turtle who was a dasher. 840 00:40:43,240 --> 00:40:48,280 So his mutant power is that he's superhumanly or super, really 841 00:40:48,320 --> 00:40:51,040 fast. Yeah, super turtly fast. 842 00:40:51,280 --> 00:40:53,840 But he's a turtle. And also like he, you know, he 843 00:40:53,840 --> 00:40:55,640 was like, wait a second, turtles can't hold things. 844 00:40:55,640 --> 00:40:58,680 So how do I grab that? And so we joked that you never 845 00:40:58,680 --> 00:41:00,640 see him do it. So in this kind of because he, I 846 00:41:00,640 --> 00:41:03,080 think he's used to my gnarly style of gaming ever into the 847 00:41:03,080 --> 00:41:04,640 tables, we're kind of playing a gnarly game. 848 00:41:04,920 --> 00:41:07,160 So it's not that it didn't happen, It's just you never see 849 00:41:07,160 --> 00:41:08,560 it. So every scene he's at the back 850 00:41:08,560 --> 00:41:11,440 of the group and he's like well I don't know guys and then cut 851 00:41:11,440 --> 00:41:12,760 to he's at the front of the line. 852 00:41:12,760 --> 00:41:16,400 He's the 1st to act and you just never like it's it's it's a joke 853 00:41:16,400 --> 00:41:19,560 of camera cuts right. And it's so it's we leaned into 854 00:41:19,560 --> 00:41:22,320 the cartoon aspect in a meta sense without changing the 855 00:41:22,320 --> 00:41:25,760 gnarliness, the gnarly level of the feel of their their 856 00:41:25,760 --> 00:41:28,200 campaign. And then another thing in just 857 00:41:28,200 --> 00:41:31,880 trying to write this to plug the the quick Kickstarter. 858 00:41:31,880 --> 00:41:35,360 You know, if you if you reserve a copy before the Kickstarter, 859 00:41:35,360 --> 00:41:37,840 you get a short scene about the squirrel queendom of Atlanta 860 00:41:37,840 --> 00:41:39,800 that's basically just coming out of a campaign I've been running. 861 00:41:40,160 --> 00:41:42,520 And I was just trying to write out all the stuff. 862 00:41:42,520 --> 00:41:44,440 And it's in the voice of the squirrels and they're explaining 863 00:41:44,440 --> 00:41:47,160 to you their, their faction. And you know, you get all these 864 00:41:47,560 --> 00:41:51,520 little venture hooks basically. But one of the things is they 865 00:41:51,560 --> 00:41:54,000 just rediscovered, like they're paying soldiers and food and 866 00:41:54,000 --> 00:41:57,040 also goof juice, which is clearly, like bottles of tequila 867 00:41:57,040 --> 00:41:58,960 and vodka they found in the club in downtown Atlanta. 868 00:41:59,480 --> 00:42:01,080 And so I was trying to write that out. 869 00:42:01,080 --> 00:42:02,840 And even then, it's like, hard not to be cartoony. 870 00:42:02,840 --> 00:42:05,280 So I was like, yeah, yeah, there's a special kind of more 871 00:42:05,280 --> 00:42:08,040 fun water that our smartest, as scientists have dubbed Goofy 872 00:42:08,040 --> 00:42:12,560 Juice or simply goof in honor of our wacky buddy Ronald T Juice. 873 00:42:12,600 --> 00:42:15,160 We love that guy. And it's just that kind of, 874 00:42:15,560 --> 00:42:18,120 like, energy that I'm like, you know, I'm just going to keep 875 00:42:18,120 --> 00:42:19,600 that in even though it makes it it. 876 00:42:19,600 --> 00:42:22,560 It's definitely not gnarly, but it's like, yeah, this is a 877 00:42:22,760 --> 00:42:26,200 cartoon and I want people to have the the feeling that they 878 00:42:26,200 --> 00:42:29,680 could run it in that completely just batshit cartoony style. 879 00:42:29,680 --> 00:42:32,400 So yeah. It's interesting how good of 880 00:42:32,400 --> 00:42:35,560 like a groove you guys have carved out in like this 881 00:42:35,560 --> 00:42:37,840 narrative space that you're like operating in. 882 00:42:37,840 --> 00:42:41,680 Like it does really seem like it works incredibly well. 883 00:42:41,680 --> 00:42:45,040 I mean, even like if we, if we go to maybe not just Saturday 884 00:42:45,040 --> 00:42:47,880 morning cartoons, the kind of cartoons that go on like 885 00:42:48,000 --> 00:42:51,680 episodically that have like this deeper narrative, sometimes they 886 00:42:51,840 --> 00:42:54,480 do have these moments that are really zany and sometimes they 887 00:42:54,480 --> 00:42:56,200 do have these moments that are like, oh, it's fucking 888 00:42:56,200 --> 00:42:58,760 emotionally heavy. Or like sometimes physics do 889 00:42:58,760 --> 00:43:00,800 matter, sometimes they don't, doesn't really matter because 890 00:43:00,800 --> 00:43:03,400 it's about like the episode that you're in. 891 00:43:04,960 --> 00:43:08,760 So earlier, before we started talking, you guys kind of 892 00:43:08,760 --> 00:43:12,320 mentioned like player agency within the rules and how they're 893 00:43:12,320 --> 00:43:14,480 ridden. I would really like to hear you 894 00:43:14,480 --> 00:43:16,240 expand upon that, if you wouldn't mind. 895 00:43:17,480 --> 00:43:21,240 Yeah, that's like my favorite. I think one of, if not the 896 00:43:21,720 --> 00:43:24,760 favorite bit of blister critters for me especially producing it 897 00:43:25,120 --> 00:43:28,680 is I think. I think it's born out of how I 898 00:43:28,680 --> 00:43:32,560 just run games generally where I'm very like player forward. 899 00:43:32,560 --> 00:43:35,560 I do very little prep, very improv heavy and so blister 900 00:43:35,560 --> 00:43:37,840 critters allows me to lean into that a lot. 901 00:43:39,200 --> 00:43:44,560 But in that a lot of blister critters is set up so that it's 902 00:43:44,560 --> 00:43:47,960 very familiar and easy to pick up and just really dive into 903 00:43:47,960 --> 00:43:51,320 from a player perspective. So there's not this prerequisite 904 00:43:51,320 --> 00:43:54,520 of knowledge for like what's the name of this weird medieval 905 00:43:54,520 --> 00:43:57,960 weapon or I need to have some kind of you know knowledge about 906 00:43:57,960 --> 00:44:00,720 how the Old West was set up or what's the name for this like 907 00:44:00,720 --> 00:44:03,720 sci-fi thing. All of those are have a million 908 00:44:03,720 --> 00:44:05,400 great games a still fleet included. 909 00:44:06,600 --> 00:44:08,920 But for blister critters specifically it's it's your 910 00:44:08,920 --> 00:44:11,840 house it's your world. It's the, you know, it's the 911 00:44:11,840 --> 00:44:13,240 711. It's Walmart. 912 00:44:13,240 --> 00:44:19,720 It's you know it's the arcade. And so in that there's like an 913 00:44:19,720 --> 00:44:22,520 immediate click for players that I've seen. 914 00:44:22,520 --> 00:44:26,440 And I think why this scene as well where players that are 915 00:44:26,440 --> 00:44:31,560 getting into it, there's not like the world is strange, but 916 00:44:31,560 --> 00:44:35,800 it's very familiar. And so then in that when you're 917 00:44:35,800 --> 00:44:39,920 like, we're running through a house and they're like, I want 918 00:44:39,920 --> 00:44:41,680 to find like a cool weapon, what's around. 919 00:44:41,680 --> 00:44:42,880 I'm like, well, you're in a kids room. 920 00:44:43,040 --> 00:44:48,040 What would be in a kids room? And so as part of setting up a 921 00:44:48,040 --> 00:44:51,480 scene or setting up a location in the rules, it's suggested and 922 00:44:51,480 --> 00:44:55,000 courage that producers ask players, Ask the people at the 923 00:44:55,000 --> 00:44:57,720 table, you know, what's the theme of this room? 924 00:44:57,880 --> 00:44:59,760 It's dinosaur themed. Sweet, Cool. 925 00:45:00,200 --> 00:45:02,800 Can you give me like 3 big pieces of furniture that would 926 00:45:02,800 --> 00:45:04,560 be in this room and then I'd look to a different player. 927 00:45:04,760 --> 00:45:07,160 Yeah, there's a big dinosaur lamp and there's something 928 00:45:07,160 --> 00:45:09,200 hanging from the ceiling. And the bed itself is shaped 929 00:45:09,200 --> 00:45:10,840 like a, like, a Triceratops head. 930 00:45:11,080 --> 00:45:13,000 Sweet. You know, what's his favorite? 931 00:45:13,000 --> 00:45:14,160 What was this kid's favorite color? 932 00:45:14,160 --> 00:45:16,440 Green. And then this whole room is made 933 00:45:16,520 --> 00:45:19,600 for me as a producer. But now the players are super 934 00:45:19,600 --> 00:45:24,280 invested in this dinosaur green room where they already know 935 00:45:24,280 --> 00:45:28,840 there's like a Mecca Triceratops figure that's on one of the 936 00:45:28,840 --> 00:45:32,080 shovels that they can definitely use as like a blaster, has a 937 00:45:32,080 --> 00:45:34,760 little like plastic pellet that'll shoot out of it or has 938 00:45:34,760 --> 00:45:38,920 like laser eyes. And that's been a lot of fun to 939 00:45:38,920 --> 00:45:42,560 like, encourage and running it. People get that like 940 00:45:42,560 --> 00:45:45,480 immediately. So all of this stuff and all of 941 00:45:45,720 --> 00:45:48,800 at least the way that I run it, everything is super player 942 00:45:48,800 --> 00:45:53,720 generated where when we did, we did an actual play recently and 943 00:45:53,720 --> 00:45:56,200 I knew that it was going to be an arcade and I knew that there 944 00:45:56,200 --> 00:45:58,600 was going to be like an alligator, like mob boss. 945 00:45:59,680 --> 00:46:04,360 But prior to the episode IA core part of list recruiters is prior 946 00:46:04,360 --> 00:46:07,280 to each episode we're offering like a book of ad libs. 947 00:46:07,840 --> 00:46:10,880 So like a fill in the blank sheet where as people are 948 00:46:10,880 --> 00:46:14,120 settling in at the table, you would pass it around as the GM, 949 00:46:14,120 --> 00:46:15,880 as the producer and they can fill it in. 950 00:46:16,120 --> 00:46:19,200 And then the idea is that just as the episode is starting, just 951 00:46:19,200 --> 00:46:23,400 as you guys get ready to play, you read off this a crappy 952 00:46:23,400 --> 00:46:26,600 infomercial filled in with all of the weird adjectives and 953 00:46:26,600 --> 00:46:29,720 stuff. So as part of that, the the 954 00:46:29,720 --> 00:46:33,360 players of our actual play called it the Roly Poly Arcade. 955 00:46:33,600 --> 00:46:36,520 There was a big skee ball machine that was shaped like a 956 00:46:36,520 --> 00:46:40,960 dog's head and like a number of other things that like I had not 957 00:46:40,960 --> 00:46:45,000 set up in that that location prior but became like integral 958 00:46:45,000 --> 00:46:50,120 parts of of that episode. As we walked into the arcade, I 959 00:46:50,120 --> 00:46:52,760 I went around the table again and asked for like there's a 960 00:46:52,760 --> 00:46:55,080 restaurant in here and what's the name of the restaurant? 961 00:46:55,080 --> 00:46:58,160 What do they serve and why? They have like a Tex Mex place 962 00:46:58,680 --> 00:47:00,640 that's in the corner of this, like Chuck E Cheese. 963 00:47:01,280 --> 00:47:04,080 My other player introduced like this big ball pit, but because 964 00:47:04,080 --> 00:47:07,320 the place was called Roly Poly instead of like plastic colorful 965 00:47:07,320 --> 00:47:10,880 balls, they were all shaped like gross bugs all wrapped up. 966 00:47:12,720 --> 00:47:14,720 And all of those elements play in. 967 00:47:14,720 --> 00:47:17,280 Somebody slipped on one of the gross like burritos. 968 00:47:17,280 --> 00:47:20,440 Later in the episode they swapped out one of the balls 969 00:47:20,440 --> 00:47:24,120 with the gross bug balls while they were doing their final 970 00:47:24,120 --> 00:47:27,640 batch off against the alligator mob boss playing Skee ball for 971 00:47:28,240 --> 00:47:30,760 to win the to to save the day essentially. 972 00:47:32,240 --> 00:47:36,000 And all of that is is a lot of fun. 973 00:47:36,240 --> 00:47:39,240 I think it puts a certain amount of responsibility on players 974 00:47:39,240 --> 00:47:43,080 that maybe other systems don't. But I think because it's so 975 00:47:43,080 --> 00:47:46,600 familiar and because the rules are as like freeing and quick to 976 00:47:46,600 --> 00:47:50,360 grab as they are, it makes all of that, like on the spot 977 00:47:50,360 --> 00:47:55,040 content creation, super, super easy and super fun for them. 978 00:47:55,040 --> 00:47:58,760 Because now they're like I I made-up that there's a dog 979 00:47:58,760 --> 00:48:03,040 shaped skee ball machine and now we're playing on the dog shaped 980 00:48:03,040 --> 00:48:06,520 skee ball machine. Yeah, yeah. 981 00:48:07,400 --> 00:48:10,680 And there's there's also a rule of like coming up with canonical 982 00:48:10,680 --> 00:48:13,240 products in the game universe. And that worked, works really 983 00:48:13,240 --> 00:48:15,880 well with campaign play where each time I like check in with 984 00:48:15,880 --> 00:48:17,600 players and if they don't have an idea, it's totally fine and 985 00:48:17,600 --> 00:48:20,200 we kind of just quickly move on. But sometimes people will have 986 00:48:20,200 --> 00:48:22,800 an idea. And so with, you know, this 987 00:48:22,800 --> 00:48:25,000 convention, I ran a few in a row and and some people were 988 00:48:25,000 --> 00:48:29,040 playing, you know, multiple times, like one person said, one 989 00:48:29,040 --> 00:48:31,280 of one of the members of the studio said Chrome mouth 990 00:48:31,360 --> 00:48:35,000 ointment, which was like a goop style, like toothpaste that 991 00:48:35,000 --> 00:48:37,240 comes in like a bamboo box for some reason. 992 00:48:37,240 --> 00:48:39,280 And we were all just like grossed out by that. 993 00:48:40,000 --> 00:48:42,160 But what came up more is somebody said Marge Bar and 994 00:48:42,160 --> 00:48:45,960 we're like Marge Bar, OK, go on. And he's like just the hair. 995 00:48:46,360 --> 00:48:49,160 And we were like, what is it? He's like, it's an oversized, 996 00:48:49,320 --> 00:48:52,480 it's like an XL size candy bar that's all blue chocolate all 997 00:48:52,480 --> 00:48:53,960 the way down. It's just solid blue chocolate 998 00:48:53,960 --> 00:48:55,840 in the shape. And the commercials are like all 999 00:48:55,840 --> 00:48:57,440 really sad. It's like the it's like her 1000 00:48:57,440 --> 00:49:00,280 anxiety is like the thing foregrounded by this brand where 1001 00:49:00,280 --> 00:49:04,360 it's like oh and so we kept finding you know Marge Bar 1002 00:49:04,360 --> 00:49:07,320 became the go to food that that was one of the main things that 1003 00:49:07,320 --> 00:49:10,080 the Squirrel legionaries like you know that that's kind of 1004 00:49:10,080 --> 00:49:12,640 what they relied upon is they had found troves of this off 1005 00:49:12,640 --> 00:49:15,120 brand or like was like a knock off of The Simpsons or something 1006 00:49:15,240 --> 00:49:18,360 brand candy bar. And so I love that that the sort 1007 00:49:18,360 --> 00:49:20,920 of player agency it's it's just saying the quiet part out loud. 1008 00:49:20,920 --> 00:49:23,040 It's like whatever GM wants is for players to be like yeah, 1009 00:49:23,080 --> 00:49:25,720 yeah, yeah. The Tavern also has my buddy 1010 00:49:25,720 --> 00:49:30,360 from whatever medieval high school you know is behind the 1011 00:49:30,360 --> 00:49:32,320 bar now and I'm an adventurer and like there's some weird 1012 00:49:32,320 --> 00:49:34,960 thing going on but players often don't do that. 1013 00:49:34,960 --> 00:49:36,040 They don't necessarily feel empowered. 1014 00:49:36,040 --> 00:49:38,560 So I really appreciate that Tony made that a core piece of 1015 00:49:38,560 --> 00:49:41,320 blister critters to try to think of rules where it's like at the 1016 00:49:41,320 --> 00:49:43,440 beginning of the game, ask people to do a little of that 1017 00:49:43,440 --> 00:49:45,320 work. And even if they don't do it, 1018 00:49:45,320 --> 00:49:48,320 frankly, it at least like puts that thought in their head. 1019 00:49:48,640 --> 00:49:50,960 And then maybe over time they're going to feel more comfortable 1020 00:49:50,960 --> 00:49:54,400 saying, you know what, I I do have an idea for what's in this 1021 00:49:54,400 --> 00:49:57,320 room. I do have an idea for, you know, 1022 00:49:57,960 --> 00:50:01,040 sort of the world and not just my my perspective. 1023 00:50:01,640 --> 00:50:04,640 So I think that's not something unique to this game, but it's 1024 00:50:04,640 --> 00:50:07,320 something we definitely wanted to sort of underline and carry 1025 00:50:07,320 --> 00:50:09,760 throughout the book. Well, one thing. 1026 00:50:09,840 --> 00:50:13,560 I love that. And I think one of the reasons 1027 00:50:13,560 --> 00:50:18,960 it works so well is because of the, like you said, the instant 1028 00:50:18,960 --> 00:50:21,640 familiarity you get because you're playing in this, like, 1029 00:50:21,680 --> 00:50:24,600 human world. So it's we all know the things. 1030 00:50:24,600 --> 00:50:26,840 You're like you're in a room and you're like, I'm in a room. 1031 00:50:27,080 --> 00:50:29,520 It could be any of these things. So they're like, it's really 1032 00:50:29,520 --> 00:50:33,960 easy. There's it reminds me, like part 1033 00:50:33,960 --> 00:50:37,040 of this, reminds me a lot about a Mouse Ritter, in that in mouse 1034 00:50:37,040 --> 00:50:40,560 Ritter you you exist in a human world and all the things you 1035 00:50:40,800 --> 00:50:43,880 find are human. So it's really easy to be like, 1036 00:50:43,880 --> 00:50:45,760 Oh well, my sword's just a needle or whatever. 1037 00:50:45,760 --> 00:50:48,560 You don't have to make up fantasy stuff or whatever. 1038 00:50:48,560 --> 00:50:52,200 You can just see things that are really familiar to you. 1039 00:50:52,640 --> 00:50:58,480 And I think having that player agency in a system in a world 1040 00:50:58,800 --> 00:51:03,240 that makes it easy because it is the world we already live in, 1041 00:51:03,480 --> 00:51:07,440 just really feeds into that a lot more than it might. 1042 00:51:07,800 --> 00:51:11,120 It would still be fun in, like I said, like a fantasy medieval 1043 00:51:11,120 --> 00:51:13,080 world or whatever. But I feel like it might be a 1044 00:51:13,080 --> 00:51:14,840 little bit more difficult because you have to think about 1045 00:51:14,840 --> 00:51:18,200 what's in like a fantasy medieval room versus knowing 1046 00:51:18,200 --> 00:51:21,880 what you're in there already. So it's just a really good, like 1047 00:51:21,880 --> 00:51:24,360 the two mesh really wheel together to make it, you know, 1048 00:51:24,400 --> 00:51:27,640 even even bigger and even better in that an aspect that's that's 1049 00:51:27,640 --> 00:51:29,280 really, really cool and really fun to see. 1050 00:51:30,480 --> 00:51:34,200 Yeah, it ties in really well with one of the massive pillars 1051 00:51:34,200 --> 00:51:38,480 of list recruiters being stuff. So like down all the equipment, 1052 00:51:38,480 --> 00:51:40,840 all of the things that people want to pick up and swing around 1053 00:51:40,840 --> 00:51:44,320 like a weapon. They're really only limited by 1054 00:51:44,320 --> 00:51:46,560 what you're willing to ask for as a player. 1055 00:51:47,360 --> 00:51:51,320 So like as part of the rules in the core book we have like 1056 00:51:51,320 --> 00:51:55,800 something like 200 like listed stuff currently for people to to 1057 00:51:55,840 --> 00:51:59,800 use as whatever they would want. But like one of my favorites 1058 00:51:59,800 --> 00:52:02,320 that's actually in the quick start is an action figure arm 1059 00:52:02,320 --> 00:52:04,760 and just like this big buff arm with like spikes on it. 1060 00:52:06,200 --> 00:52:08,280 And I found that people like using it. 1061 00:52:08,280 --> 00:52:13,000 I've had a player where their legs were blown off. 1062 00:52:13,000 --> 00:52:16,080 They were a praying mantis and both of their two, I guess 1063 00:52:16,080 --> 00:52:18,880 that's of their lips. One set of two legs were blown 1064 00:52:18,880 --> 00:52:22,360 off and they just so happened to have two action figure limbs on 1065 00:52:22,360 --> 00:52:24,800 them at the time. And they were, they asked me and 1066 00:52:24,800 --> 00:52:27,480 like you know before the next episode starts here at the end 1067 00:52:27,480 --> 00:52:31,800 of the episode, could I talk to like the borough medic or 1068 00:52:31,800 --> 00:52:35,880 whoever and have them attach both of the action figure limbs 1069 00:52:35,880 --> 00:52:40,000 to my praying mantis body? And because I run a super zany 1070 00:52:40,000 --> 00:52:42,920 game and I wanted, I wanted them to be able to do that. 1071 00:52:42,920 --> 00:52:45,840 I was like absolutely. So at the start of the next 1072 00:52:45,840 --> 00:52:48,280 episode the they they're also a brawler. 1073 00:52:48,280 --> 00:52:50,120 So it kind of made sense. They're like the buff fighting 1074 00:52:50,520 --> 00:52:53,080 person of the group. They started the next episode 1075 00:52:53,080 --> 00:52:56,440 the next session with two of their legs with these big 1076 00:52:56,560 --> 00:52:59,600 hulking plastic arms that don't bend right. 1077 00:53:00,200 --> 00:53:03,840 But now they get to do these really sweet punch kicks in. 1078 00:53:04,000 --> 00:53:08,480 Combat and stuff like that is just a lot of fun. 1079 00:53:09,480 --> 00:53:12,320 Punch Kicker A number of times I've thought of Community 1080 00:53:12,320 --> 00:53:14,840 through this too, which is not a cartoon, but it's probably the 1081 00:53:14,840 --> 00:53:18,720 most cartoon live action show ever, even in, like the Let's 1082 00:53:18,720 --> 00:53:21,360 have a zany one. But like let's make it like 1083 00:53:21,360 --> 00:53:24,640 extremely depressingly existential when you realize why 1084 00:53:24,640 --> 00:53:28,400 everyone is a clay figure, you know one of the things that's 1085 00:53:28,400 --> 00:53:30,800 coming up a bunch, the and the thing that I really, really 1086 00:53:30,800 --> 00:53:34,880 enjoy is episodes, the scenes, the pre show, all of that stuff 1087 00:53:34,880 --> 00:53:38,080 we talked about it being a feeling like a Saturday morning 1088 00:53:38,080 --> 00:53:41,840 cartoon in like the vibes and a lot of stuff you do, but 1089 00:53:41,840 --> 00:53:45,400 actually the the the way you play the game as far as your 1090 00:53:45,400 --> 00:53:48,160 sessions and things really feed into that as well. 1091 00:53:48,160 --> 00:53:52,720 So do you want to talk about that a little bit about why and 1092 00:53:52,720 --> 00:53:55,080 and how that works? Because I really, really enjoy 1093 00:53:55,080 --> 00:54:00,760 that mechanic as well. Yeah, that's just another step 1094 00:54:00,760 --> 00:54:05,640 towards mechanicalizing vibes of having it set up so that, like 1095 00:54:06,120 --> 00:54:09,480 when you play blister critters you are playing in an episode 1096 00:54:09,480 --> 00:54:12,960 there things are delineated by scenes, much like a cartoon or, 1097 00:54:13,160 --> 00:54:16,080 you know, a more serious animated show would be. 1098 00:54:17,120 --> 00:54:21,560 And in that way, it lets you segment play and approach, 1099 00:54:21,560 --> 00:54:24,800 approach play in a way where you're using terms that are 1100 00:54:24,800 --> 00:54:29,320 like, you know, associated with with TV shows and movies and 1101 00:54:29,320 --> 00:54:36,200 stuff, but also puts you in a position where play can be 1102 00:54:36,200 --> 00:54:39,240 segmented up like little beats, like little narrative story 1103 00:54:39,240 --> 00:54:42,480 beats, much like a cartoon would be, where maybe the narrative 1104 00:54:42,480 --> 00:54:43,960 doesn't take through the whole episode. 1105 00:54:43,960 --> 00:54:48,000 You get through this kind of weird interaction in one or two 1106 00:54:48,000 --> 00:54:49,960 scenes, and then something totally different happens. 1107 00:54:51,320 --> 00:54:54,960 And that's you're able to do that through blister critters, 1108 00:54:54,960 --> 00:54:59,160 through through setting things up and then through settings up 1109 00:54:59,200 --> 00:55:05,880 in that way. But I also enjoy like the 1110 00:55:05,880 --> 00:55:10,000 aesthetic of it, I guess of like making sure that every aspect of 1111 00:55:10,000 --> 00:55:14,560 blister critters that I can like really double down on be like, 1112 00:55:14,560 --> 00:55:18,400 no, this is a cartoon. Even if you're playing gnarly, I 1113 00:55:18,400 --> 00:55:21,880 want to be super undeniable and every weird facet that I can 1114 00:55:21,880 --> 00:55:23,160 make it. You're playing through a 1115 00:55:23,160 --> 00:55:26,880 cartoon, the GM is the producer. You are characters on ATV show. 1116 00:55:28,680 --> 00:55:30,160 Yeah, I don't know if why. Do you have something more 1117 00:55:30,160 --> 00:55:33,600 specific to bring up? Yeah, I mean, you know, I was 1118 00:55:34,360 --> 00:55:37,640 went to school to be a screenwriter and I love that 1119 00:55:37,640 --> 00:55:38,920 format. And I think there's something 1120 00:55:38,920 --> 00:55:41,840 really fulfilling still about the kind of Aristotelian arc and 1121 00:55:41,840 --> 00:55:44,680 you know, having a climax. I love ending on a cliffhanger 1122 00:55:44,680 --> 00:55:49,000 and I play a lot of campaigns of now still Fleet in what before 1123 00:55:49,000 --> 00:55:51,280 that became still fleet sort of an OSR game that evolved into 1124 00:55:51,280 --> 00:55:54,680 this rule set and Cyproach blister critters the same. 1125 00:55:54,680 --> 00:55:57,040 So even if we don't don't call them episodes in another game, 1126 00:55:57,040 --> 00:56:00,680 it's like that format works really well for a variety of 1127 00:56:00,680 --> 00:56:01,520 reasons. I think there's like an 1128 00:56:01,520 --> 00:56:03,040 inherent, like, narrative reason it works. 1129 00:56:03,040 --> 00:56:04,280 And also it's a familiarity thing. 1130 00:56:04,280 --> 00:56:07,360 People know what TV is. We all watch a lot of episodic 1131 00:56:07,360 --> 00:56:10,360 content. So people know, like, OK, we 1132 00:56:10,360 --> 00:56:12,800 have 15 minutes left IRL. We're going towards some kind of 1133 00:56:12,800 --> 00:56:15,240 ending. And you can as a player, you let 1134 00:56:15,240 --> 00:56:17,040 your unconscious, like, formulate, all right, I'm going 1135 00:56:17,040 --> 00:56:18,720 to do one more crazy thing. You know, I'm going to get in 1136 00:56:18,720 --> 00:56:20,960 the limelight one more time as AGM. 1137 00:56:20,960 --> 00:56:23,000 You're like, OK, crap, I have to like, get somewhere. 1138 00:56:23,360 --> 00:56:26,160 So I think it's effective even again if you don't call it out, 1139 00:56:26,160 --> 00:56:29,720 but making that quiet part louder and very apparent 1140 00:56:29,720 --> 00:56:33,760 throughout was really nice with blister critters because you 1141 00:56:33,760 --> 00:56:35,840 know there's a number of other games doing that also now, which 1142 00:56:35,840 --> 00:56:37,680 I I think makes total sense. I don't know why we weren't 1143 00:56:37,680 --> 00:56:40,640 doing that years ago in game design, but it works really well 1144 00:56:40,640 --> 00:56:43,000 because you with imagination based games you are kind of 1145 00:56:43,000 --> 00:56:45,600 telling these stories and you do have to be attentive to like 1146 00:56:46,120 --> 00:56:48,680 well so and so's got to leave at you know 3 whatever. 1147 00:56:48,680 --> 00:56:51,760 So there's just there, there are these pressures to kind of 1148 00:56:51,760 --> 00:56:54,080 tighten time and in organized time, but you don't want it to 1149 00:56:54,080 --> 00:56:56,320 be on fun. You don't want to be like time 1150 00:56:56,320 --> 00:56:58,160 referee. So I think having the idea of an 1151 00:56:58,160 --> 00:57:00,320 episode, episodes have a certain arc, they have a certain length 1152 00:57:00,680 --> 00:57:03,760 is sort of a natural way to like in a way make that less anxiety 1153 00:57:03,760 --> 00:57:05,880 producing that like, you know, we're only going to play so much 1154 00:57:05,880 --> 00:57:09,520 content today and that can be one episode in a show and the 1155 00:57:09,520 --> 00:57:12,520 show is ongoing. Cartoons that we grew up with 1156 00:57:12,520 --> 00:57:16,080 generally go on forever and sometimes to their detriment. 1157 00:57:16,080 --> 00:57:18,560 I mean you think of Dragon Ball Z, which I have fond memories of 1158 00:57:18,560 --> 00:57:20,200 watching. I mean, half of the time it was 1159 00:57:20,200 --> 00:57:24,160 a guy just doing this with, you know, animated fire around him. 1160 00:57:25,240 --> 00:57:29,920 Listen that shows perfect in every way sure something cuz one 1161 00:57:29,920 --> 00:57:33,240 of my one of my ideas for a character was a was a turtle 1162 00:57:33,240 --> 00:57:38,880 that watched DBZ and and for bulk up did koken you know. 1163 00:57:39,240 --> 00:57:40,600 Awesome. That's great. 1164 00:57:40,880 --> 00:57:42,360 Yeah. I mean, I love and I guess, you 1165 00:57:42,360 --> 00:57:45,800 know, you could play a campaign like that where you're like, OK, 1166 00:57:45,800 --> 00:57:48,200 roll to see how cool you look as you stare at the camera. 1167 00:57:48,200 --> 00:57:50,920 But I just mentioned that I think Tony had also had this 1168 00:57:50,920 --> 00:57:53,040 idea of like, well, because I play stuff like campaigns, I 1169 00:57:53,040 --> 00:57:56,000 have several that currently that have been gone on for like 4 1170 00:57:56,000 --> 00:57:57,640 years, you know, that are still active. 1171 00:57:58,320 --> 00:58:00,640 But I think one of the ideas here was, like, what if you had 1172 00:58:00,640 --> 00:58:03,840 roughly a season of like 10 episodes and then kind of 1173 00:58:03,840 --> 00:58:07,200 everyone's dead or a mutant or you've, you know, you probably 1174 00:58:07,200 --> 00:58:09,480 want to try something else, even if you just want to try maybe 1175 00:58:09,480 --> 00:58:11,120 another game of blister critters with a new animal. 1176 00:58:11,560 --> 00:58:13,560 So we tried to keep that in mind that, like, critters don't live 1177 00:58:13,560 --> 00:58:16,000 that long. And the kinds of epic even, 1178 00:58:16,000 --> 00:58:18,800 like, political shenanigans they get up to with their boroughs 1179 00:58:18,840 --> 00:58:22,520 are not going to be as big an epic as a human scale kind of 1180 00:58:22,520 --> 00:58:24,880 game. So yeah, we tried to think 1181 00:58:24,880 --> 00:58:29,240 about, OK, you're playing roughly 10/2 to 4 hour episodes 1182 00:58:29,240 --> 00:58:31,120 and what what could you do in that time? 1183 00:58:31,960 --> 00:58:34,200 And so the book kind of assumes that you could easily do other 1184 00:58:34,200 --> 00:58:35,680 things. But I think that was a, again, 1185 00:58:35,680 --> 00:58:38,480 again, good call on Tony's choice in terms of helping us 1186 00:58:38,480 --> 00:58:39,560 design a book. Right. 1187 00:58:40,400 --> 00:58:42,800 Yeah, I think. You can only do three seasons 1188 00:58:42,800 --> 00:58:45,680 anyway because then you know they cut your funding and re 1189 00:58:45,680 --> 00:58:46,920 review. Your contract. 1190 00:58:48,320 --> 00:58:51,120 Yeah, exactly, exactly. You have to go pitch Amazon or 1191 00:58:51,120 --> 00:58:51,720 something. Yeah, Yeah. 1192 00:58:52,520 --> 00:58:54,760 Well, one thing I really love about the episodes too, and this 1193 00:58:54,760 --> 00:58:57,240 is just another way that the game continues to reinforce 1194 00:58:57,240 --> 00:59:00,640 itself, is again, the familiarity. 1195 00:59:00,640 --> 00:59:03,960 The same thing with the setting with the episodes too because I 1196 00:59:03,960 --> 00:59:06,600 mean almost all of us are millennial, post millennial or 1197 00:59:06,760 --> 00:59:09,320 elder millennials. We did grow up with those Sunday 1198 00:59:09,320 --> 00:59:12,680 morning cartoons and we know exactly what the pre show is. 1199 00:59:12,680 --> 00:59:16,440 We know exactly what the recap is when half of DBZ was just 1200 00:59:16,440 --> 00:59:20,720 recapping how they stood there, you know for the entire episode 1201 00:59:20,720 --> 00:59:23,160 and then the scenes and then the ending credits and everything 1202 00:59:23,160 --> 00:59:25,160 too. So there is still that really 1203 00:59:25,160 --> 00:59:28,520 good sense of familiarity that you already understand the 1204 00:59:28,520 --> 00:59:30,320 concept from from other parts of the game. 1205 00:59:30,320 --> 00:59:32,600 So when it happens episodically too, you're like, oh, this is 1206 00:59:32,600 --> 00:59:35,440 just like that other thing, like it's AI feel like there's it's a 1207 00:59:35,440 --> 00:59:38,000 lot of game of like references to things that you know which 1208 00:59:38,080 --> 00:59:39,680 which makes it so much more approachable, which is really 1209 00:59:39,680 --> 00:59:44,000 great. Yeah, and it's even part of like 1210 00:59:44,080 --> 00:59:48,520 the powers that producers have to do like cutaways like I was 1211 00:59:48,520 --> 00:59:51,640 describing earlier, like it's, I'm sure it didn't originate in 1212 00:59:51,640 --> 00:59:53,720 SpongeBob, but that's my touchstone for it is like the 1213 00:59:53,720 --> 00:59:55,680 harsh cutaway. It's like an overly painted, 1214 00:59:55,880 --> 00:59:58,760 like Ren and Stimpy does them as well, the overly painted in 1215 00:59:58,760 --> 01:00:02,280 super detailed shot. I like doing those in my games. 1216 01:00:02,920 --> 01:00:06,520 But when I produce, I also like to lean into describing things 1217 01:00:06,520 --> 01:00:10,600 like the camera pans down or the camera follows this here. 1218 01:00:11,360 --> 01:00:14,160 And while I'm producing, while I'm going through it, I try to 1219 01:00:14,160 --> 01:00:16,480 keep in mind, like, what does this look like? 1220 01:00:16,480 --> 01:00:20,040 How can I impart that? And I think players really get a 1221 01:00:20,040 --> 01:00:22,800 lot out of that and they know how to lean into it because they 1222 01:00:22,800 --> 01:00:26,920 do know, like at the end of an episode, like I'm going to use 1223 01:00:26,920 --> 01:00:30,120 all of my grit. I'm going to go for it, but I 1224 01:00:30,120 --> 01:00:32,040 think the backtrack only slightly. 1225 01:00:32,720 --> 01:00:36,360 Having them be episodic and having them be smaller in scope 1226 01:00:36,880 --> 01:00:40,320 encourages people to go all out with their critter. 1227 01:00:40,320 --> 01:00:42,720 If you only get 10 episodes, you're not going to waste an 1228 01:00:42,720 --> 01:00:44,920 episode sitting around. You're going to make sure you go 1229 01:00:44,920 --> 01:00:52,240 for it every time, Yeah, yeah. So yeah, love the game. 1230 01:00:52,240 --> 01:00:53,960 It's fantastic. Can't wait to get it, can't wait 1231 01:00:53,960 --> 01:00:55,960 to play it, can't wait to review it here on the show. 1232 01:00:56,200 --> 01:00:57,800 I could talk. We again, we could talk about 1233 01:00:57,800 --> 01:01:00,560 this for hours and hours. But also, this is going to be a 1234 01:01:00,560 --> 01:01:02,960 Kickstarter. This is happening for Zine 1235 01:01:02,960 --> 01:01:05,080 Quest. So as far as the Kickstarter 1236 01:01:05,080 --> 01:01:09,560 goes, I guess first we'll post the dates, obviously. 1237 01:01:09,560 --> 01:01:11,040 But what are the dates for the Kickstarter? 1238 01:01:11,200 --> 01:01:13,360 What can people expect from the Kickstarter? 1239 01:01:13,360 --> 01:01:16,200 And if you guys know, like, I mean whatever you want to say, 1240 01:01:16,200 --> 01:01:19,480 if you want to do price ranges, tears, talk about this box that 1241 01:01:19,480 --> 01:01:21,280 I keep hearing about. I got a whole bookshelf that's 1242 01:01:21,280 --> 01:01:23,640 literally just box sets. So I'll make room. 1243 01:01:24,200 --> 01:01:25,600 Talk to me about the Kickstarter. 1244 01:01:25,600 --> 01:01:27,760 What, what can, what do people need to know? 1245 01:01:27,760 --> 01:01:30,640 What can people expect and how much do they need to put aside 1246 01:01:31,480 --> 01:01:33,720 before February for this project? 1247 01:01:34,880 --> 01:01:38,200 Yeah, well, it is going to be a Kickstarter for Zine Quest and I 1248 01:01:38,200 --> 01:01:40,360 think that makes sense given, you know, it's that time of the 1249 01:01:40,360 --> 01:01:44,240 year and it feels it's it's an indie game, I mean at the end of 1250 01:01:44,240 --> 01:01:45,440 the day. So it's a little more ambitious 1251 01:01:45,440 --> 01:01:48,320 than some of the work Tony and I've done before, but it's still 1252 01:01:48,320 --> 01:01:51,120 just just us, right? It's not a big company. 1253 01:01:51,120 --> 01:01:54,880 So it's in questy. So February 6th is when we're 1254 01:01:54,880 --> 01:01:58,720 targeting the launch and you can pick up the just the PDF if you 1255 01:01:58,720 --> 01:02:02,480 just want the rules, all the rules, but you can also pick up 1256 01:02:02,480 --> 01:02:04,680 the book. But what we really want to sell 1257 01:02:04,680 --> 01:02:07,680 is the box set because we think that's kind of the full 1258 01:02:07,680 --> 01:02:11,080 experience. It's obviously the book also has 1259 01:02:11,320 --> 01:02:14,400 a bunch of other pieces that Tony has created, so he's making 1260 01:02:14,400 --> 01:02:17,240 this giant oversized double sided poster of stuff. 1261 01:02:17,480 --> 01:02:21,440 So tons and tons of artwork And on the back the rules for I I 1262 01:02:21,440 --> 01:02:24,400 don't know how much we could probably fit 200 like rules for 1263 01:02:24,400 --> 01:02:25,960 stuff. So that would be actually any 1264 01:02:25,960 --> 01:02:30,360 reference, right? And it'll look cool if you 1265 01:02:30,360 --> 01:02:31,880 again, if you like Tony's art, it's really rad. 1266 01:02:31,880 --> 01:02:34,800 Check it out. You can also get cards, which is 1267 01:02:34,800 --> 01:02:38,440 a big focus and we'd like to hit stretch goals to do more cards. 1268 01:02:38,440 --> 01:02:40,680 So we're we're definitely putting the box 48 cards. 1269 01:02:40,680 --> 01:02:42,600 We may be able to do more if we had some stretch goals. 1270 01:02:42,880 --> 01:02:46,200 The cards will have beasts and bliffs and so those will be fun 1271 01:02:46,480 --> 01:02:48,000 as a GM. I mean, I play a lot over 1272 01:02:48,000 --> 01:02:50,000 Discord and I do this with cards for Still fleet, where we can 1273 01:02:50,000 --> 01:02:52,120 still hold them up the camera and show you the art. 1274 01:02:52,360 --> 01:02:54,400 And it's just a fast way. It has the rules in one side, 1275 01:02:54,400 --> 01:02:56,640 art on the other. So it's useful for jamming. 1276 01:02:56,640 --> 01:02:58,360 It's just a fun interactive experience. 1277 01:02:58,360 --> 01:03:01,520 And who doesn't like, you know, a booster pack of awesome art 1278 01:03:02,040 --> 01:03:04,080 and fun ideas, right? So you can use them in your 1279 01:03:04,080 --> 01:03:05,440 games. They might inspire something a 1280 01:03:05,920 --> 01:03:08,160 little bit different format. Some people are a little more 1281 01:03:08,160 --> 01:03:10,040 sort of visual tactile as opposed to flipping through the 1282 01:03:10,040 --> 01:03:12,400 book. There's also stickers. 1283 01:03:12,400 --> 01:03:14,400 Who doesn't like a a sheet of like high quality vinyl 1284 01:03:14,400 --> 01:03:17,920 stickers? Again, Tony's awesome art and 1285 01:03:17,920 --> 01:03:19,960 there's dice. So that is sort of what's in the 1286 01:03:19,960 --> 01:03:21,800 box. If we don't hit any stretch 1287 01:03:21,800 --> 01:03:25,320 goals but we are able to produce this game, you can get sort of 1288 01:03:25,320 --> 01:03:27,400 the full experience and then as we have stretch goals, those 1289 01:03:27,400 --> 01:03:31,320 will also go in the the Deluxe Kickstarter exclusive box, 1290 01:03:31,320 --> 01:03:34,480 right. So that is our focus is trying 1291 01:03:34,480 --> 01:03:37,560 to make this box as awesome as possible, produce a lot of them 1292 01:03:37,560 --> 01:03:40,040 so that we have the ability to kind of bring blister critters 1293 01:03:40,040 --> 01:03:43,600 to the world post Kickstarter. And really so we can make more 1294 01:03:43,600 --> 01:03:46,720 of it because we have a lot of ideas for other fun things we 1295 01:03:46,720 --> 01:03:49,160 could do. But we would need to, you know, 1296 01:03:49,160 --> 01:03:51,880 sell enough of these boxes to sort of sustain that and and do 1297 01:03:51,880 --> 01:03:55,600 future rules and playing his plants and and fungi and all 1298 01:03:55,600 --> 01:03:57,640 kinds of other fun things that we've dreamed up. 1299 01:03:57,640 --> 01:04:02,320 So now, Tony, do you want to add any, any sort of details there? 1300 01:04:02,320 --> 01:04:07,920 I mean, there's a lot to say. No I please quick starter starts 1301 01:04:07,920 --> 01:04:10,880 launches February 6th. You know go to 1302 01:04:10,880 --> 01:04:14,160 blistercritters.com and hit the little notify button so you get 1303 01:04:14,160 --> 01:04:17,720 a nice e-mail from when we actually go live earlier. 1304 01:04:17,720 --> 01:04:21,640 Why It's just talking about a like a squirrel queendom set in 1305 01:04:21,640 --> 01:04:24,640 Atlanta that he is putting together. 1306 01:04:25,360 --> 01:04:28,320 You can reserve your copy of Blister Critters early for a 1307 01:04:28,320 --> 01:04:32,040 dollar at play.blistercritters.com and 1308 01:04:32,040 --> 01:04:35,440 that'll get you exclusive access to that Zine when it goes up. 1309 01:04:35,440 --> 01:04:37,600 The squirrel Zine? We're not going to be selling it 1310 01:04:37,600 --> 01:04:39,680 outside of that website and that link. 1311 01:04:40,320 --> 01:04:43,360 So play.blistercritters.com to grab up the squirrel 1312 01:04:43,360 --> 01:04:48,080 zineblistercritters.com to get notified on February 6th when we 1313 01:04:48,080 --> 01:04:51,560 launch. Yeah, I'm really excited about 1314 01:04:51,560 --> 01:04:54,520 the box set. I think it looks badass. 1315 01:04:54,520 --> 01:04:56,480 We're filling you with all kinds of cool stuff. 1316 01:04:56,480 --> 01:04:58,520 I'm. I think I'm most stoked about 1317 01:04:59,000 --> 01:05:02,720 the cards and just being able to have this really rad set of 1318 01:05:02,720 --> 01:05:06,040 beasts and bliffs and all kinds of other wacky things that are 1319 01:05:06,040 --> 01:05:09,600 going to go on the cards. Yeah. 1320 01:05:10,200 --> 01:05:12,480 And if we can hit. If we can hit the stretch goals, 1321 01:05:12,480 --> 01:05:15,720 we have some plans I think further down the stretch goal 1322 01:05:15,720 --> 01:05:19,080 line for adding in rules like Wythe said, for playing as 1323 01:05:19,080 --> 01:05:23,840 mushrooms and for expanding upon stuff and having like food 1324 01:05:23,840 --> 01:05:28,600 bliffs and all kinds of, you know, our our ideas aren't 1325 01:05:29,160 --> 01:05:31,080 aren't satiated. We have so much more to write 1326 01:05:31,080 --> 01:05:33,280 and put into it. We're kind of just limited by 1327 01:05:33,280 --> 01:05:38,800 the scope of how how well we fund and seeing what is going to 1328 01:05:38,800 --> 01:05:41,720 push us forward next for blister critters in the Still Fleet 1329 01:05:41,720 --> 01:05:44,240 Studio as a whole. Yeah, and Tony's time because 1330 01:05:44,240 --> 01:05:46,960 the art is amazing and Tony's already done so much, but we've 1331 01:05:46,960 --> 01:05:49,960 scoped out like wow, this is like hundreds of cool cartoon 1332 01:05:49,960 --> 01:05:52,880 animal scenes you have to draw. So to some degree, you know 1333 01:05:52,880 --> 01:05:56,320 that's that's why we've chosen the products that we have for 1334 01:05:56,320 --> 01:05:58,480 the box. We think it's it's a really good 1335 01:05:58,480 --> 01:06:01,400 deal and just to talk numbers since since you had brought that 1336 01:06:01,400 --> 01:06:04,640 up as well, you know it's going to retail for more than this 1337 01:06:04,640 --> 01:06:06,040 after. But on the Kickstarter the box 1338 01:06:06,040 --> 01:06:09,200 is 45 that the 1st 200 people can get it for 39. 1339 01:06:09,200 --> 01:06:10,600 So that's a pretty significant discount. 1340 01:06:10,960 --> 01:06:14,080 And as Tony said if you go to play.blistercritters.com for one 1341 01:06:14,080 --> 01:06:17,840 extra dollar you can also get as as in that you can only get that 1342 01:06:17,840 --> 01:06:21,320 way about you know essentially this this setting in faction 1343 01:06:21,320 --> 01:06:23,760 sort of with with some other little mechanical things. 1344 01:06:24,200 --> 01:06:28,480 So yeah we think it's it's a really fun set of objects and 1345 01:06:28,480 --> 01:06:30,840 there's a lot there's like a tons of stuff to do there and 1346 01:06:30,840 --> 01:06:32,560 you can easily make your own. One of the people on our server 1347 01:06:32,560 --> 01:06:35,240 that we play with a lot who lives in Australia is already 1348 01:06:35,240 --> 01:06:38,080 making like, OK, but I have to do the Australian version 1349 01:06:38,080 --> 01:06:40,960 because the animals and plants are very different there. 1350 01:06:41,640 --> 01:06:44,280 Tony and I grew up, you know, in the Sunbelt I live in, in New 1351 01:06:44,280 --> 01:06:45,800 York. And so, you know, it's a very, 1352 01:06:45,800 --> 01:06:48,040 it sort of reflects like East Coast urban suburban life. 1353 01:06:48,040 --> 01:06:50,760 But we have all these ideas for like how we have to do, you 1354 01:06:50,760 --> 01:06:54,040 know, a very rural setting. Like I want to do one set in 1355 01:06:54,040 --> 01:06:56,880 like the swamps of Louisiana, like where my family is from. 1356 01:06:57,280 --> 01:07:00,400 And you know, that's not going to be in the book right now, but 1357 01:07:00,400 --> 01:07:02,600 you know, if we'd hit a bunch of stretch goals, maybe we'll have 1358 01:07:02,600 --> 01:07:03,360 to add some stuff. So. 1359 01:07:03,960 --> 01:07:06,760 No, dude, I was immediately, especially after you talking 1360 01:07:06,760 --> 01:07:09,440 about like the the squirrel adventure in Atlanta that is 1361 01:07:09,440 --> 01:07:10,720 based off of your own experience. 1362 01:07:10,720 --> 01:07:14,200 I was thinking of, like, me, if I ran a game here because I'm in 1363 01:07:14,200 --> 01:07:16,320 Eugene, OR, I'm like, what would I do? 1364 01:07:16,320 --> 01:07:19,440 And there's like hundreds of geese and ducks here. 1365 01:07:19,880 --> 01:07:22,680 And so I was like, oh, the concordance of geese. 1366 01:07:22,720 --> 01:07:24,600 You know, they've taken over Eugene. 1367 01:07:25,200 --> 01:07:28,160 Yeah. But yeah, I think this this is 1368 01:07:28,160 --> 01:07:31,080 so rife with like, I think at one point in time we were 1369 01:07:31,080 --> 01:07:36,080 talking to you go from the Lost Bay about how you take these 1370 01:07:36,080 --> 01:07:38,840 games and you know when Lost Bay tries to put stuff out, they try 1371 01:07:38,840 --> 01:07:41,600 to strip away as much as they can and let you project your own 1372 01:07:41,600 --> 01:07:44,160 experience onto what comes out, like Sky Realms. 1373 01:07:44,800 --> 01:07:46,360 And this is another great one for you. 1374 01:07:46,360 --> 01:07:49,800 Like you can get this in hand and project your own experience 1375 01:07:49,800 --> 01:07:54,000 of like suburbia or like my weird rural art town that I live 1376 01:07:54,000 --> 01:07:58,320 in and the animals that live there or the wildlife there and 1377 01:07:58,320 --> 01:07:59,840 how you can create your own adventure. 1378 01:07:59,920 --> 01:08:03,080 I it's so cool. I'm really genuinely so excited 1379 01:08:03,080 --> 01:08:05,280 to play this and I definitely have a screen pulled up right 1380 01:08:05,280 --> 01:08:09,160 now that's the Lane County wildlife and. 1381 01:08:11,520 --> 01:08:13,760 It's it's awesome. I love hearing people like, oh, 1382 01:08:13,760 --> 01:08:15,160 what if I got to do it in my town? 1383 01:08:15,160 --> 01:08:16,319 Like, that's perfect. That's all. 1384 01:08:16,319 --> 01:08:18,680 That's all I really want out of sharing the game is that people 1385 01:08:18,680 --> 01:08:23,319 can be a little rat, be a little lizard and go go blow up their 1386 01:08:23,319 --> 01:08:27,040 local Walmart. Yeah, and we love, I love Eco's 1387 01:08:27,040 --> 01:08:27,840 work. I love Lost Bay. 1388 01:08:27,840 --> 01:08:30,479 And I think there is something about defining the balance. 1389 01:08:30,479 --> 01:08:31,840 That's something we try to do really hard. 1390 01:08:31,840 --> 01:08:34,319 That's like one of the precepts of the Sulfate studio is like 1391 01:08:34,640 --> 01:08:37,560 making games that have that feeling of depth, but they're 1392 01:08:37,560 --> 01:08:39,439 not restrictive. And there's kind of constant 1393 01:08:39,439 --> 01:08:42,040 reminders like hack this, make make stuff up, add stuff here. 1394 01:08:42,040 --> 01:08:43,520 This is a sketch. This is Mcguffin. 1395 01:08:43,720 --> 01:08:45,640 So with the flagship sci-fi game, we have tons of, like, 1396 01:08:45,640 --> 01:08:47,080 lore. But if you actually read it, 1397 01:08:47,080 --> 01:08:49,640 it's mostly like 2 paragraphs of like, yeah, the company went 1398 01:08:49,640 --> 01:08:51,399 here, some guys got blasted by lasers. 1399 01:08:51,399 --> 01:08:53,319 We ended up working out a deal. That was 20 years ago. 1400 01:08:53,319 --> 01:08:54,560 I don't know, maybe you should go back. 1401 01:08:55,000 --> 01:08:57,960 So it's sort of these evocative like possibilities that they're 1402 01:08:57,960 --> 01:09:03,080 sort of nods and genres or tropes or references, and the 1403 01:09:03,080 --> 01:09:06,680 we've seen GM's use those and tell amazing stories and really 1404 01:09:06,680 --> 01:09:09,359 make different worlds their own. So I think here, even more so to 1405 01:09:09,359 --> 01:09:12,600 Tony's point, that it's actual industrial modernity, just poof, 1406 01:09:12,600 --> 01:09:14,640 no humans. So it's very easy. 1407 01:09:14,640 --> 01:09:16,920 It should be easy for literally anyone to be like, cool. 1408 01:09:16,920 --> 01:09:19,359 I'm going to set it in the elementary school I attended. 1409 01:09:19,920 --> 01:09:22,200 You know that's where the critters are or I'm going to set 1410 01:09:22,200 --> 01:09:25,120 it at the shopping mall near me or you know I went on vacation 1411 01:09:25,120 --> 01:09:27,160 once and I'm going to you know. So it's like it there should be 1412 01:09:27,160 --> 01:09:30,240 a lot of ideas percolating and certainly it's not restrictive 1413 01:09:30,240 --> 01:09:33,279 in the slightest and there is no setting with blister critters be 1414 01:09:33,960 --> 01:09:37,160 that's detailed in in in full just because it's like yeah the 1415 01:09:37,160 --> 01:09:40,840 setting is your place you live you know and there's lots of 1416 01:09:40,840 --> 01:09:44,600 rules about how you know from more optional to like the core 1417 01:09:44,600 --> 01:09:48,640 just rolling noggin to find stuff you want you know there's 1418 01:09:48,640 --> 01:09:51,399 ways to mechanicalize it but it's it's it's done in a kind of 1419 01:09:51,399 --> 01:09:54,040 light way that it that's meant to find that balance so it feels 1420 01:09:54,040 --> 01:09:56,560 deep. It implies that stuff went on 1421 01:09:56,560 --> 01:09:59,800 the poof was bad but from the perspective of the critters you 1422 01:09:59,800 --> 01:10:02,120 know you are wherever you are and you're just trying to 1423 01:10:02,120 --> 01:10:04,480 survive. So that's been fun. 1424 01:10:04,480 --> 01:10:07,240 That's definitely been fun to to see how how, how different 1425 01:10:07,240 --> 01:10:11,640 people you know play out. And I mean, let's talk about the 1426 01:10:11,640 --> 01:10:15,520 art too real quick. How nice is it to have an in 1427 01:10:15,520 --> 01:10:21,800 house artist and any time that you can have someone who is this 1428 01:10:21,840 --> 01:10:27,200 like this dual threat that's designer that can also like 1429 01:10:27,200 --> 01:10:31,640 actually do the art for what they see is is fantastic. 1430 01:10:31,640 --> 01:10:36,360 So I mean love your art, Tony, all super jealous that you can 1431 01:10:36,360 --> 01:10:39,280 do that and also design a good game too. 1432 01:10:39,280 --> 01:10:41,720 So that's it's good for you guys, it's. 1433 01:10:42,880 --> 01:10:45,720 It's something. So when it's something, when 1434 01:10:45,720 --> 01:10:49,440 we're talking about, yeah, let's just do like in our our high, 1435 01:10:49,440 --> 01:10:52,200 high pie in the sky dreams. Like let's just do 100 cards. 1436 01:10:52,480 --> 01:10:54,160 That's probably not going to be happening. 1437 01:10:54,160 --> 01:10:56,920 But then when I sat down, I was like, logistically, it's 100 1438 01:10:57,200 --> 01:11:00,160 illustrations that I have to do and it'd be really, really rad. 1439 01:11:00,160 --> 01:11:02,440 But I don't know this if we can do that. 1440 01:11:03,680 --> 01:11:09,680 So I also suffer from being like, OK, it's not enough for me 1441 01:11:09,680 --> 01:11:11,640 just to write this. I'm going to illustrate this as 1442 01:11:11,640 --> 01:11:15,240 well. So every page that I can fill 1443 01:11:15,240 --> 01:11:19,440 with artwork, I am definitely going to, because I like art 1444 01:11:19,440 --> 01:11:22,120 heavy, like tabletop games, and I like, I like people to be. 1445 01:11:22,120 --> 01:11:24,680 I like the idea and I like when I'm able to do is flipping the 1446 01:11:24,680 --> 01:11:29,080 page and having this wholly unique spread full of work. 1447 01:11:29,720 --> 01:11:34,920 So getting to do that is fun, but it is, it is wildly time 1448 01:11:34,920 --> 01:11:37,880 consuming, you know, wildly time consuming to do. 1449 01:11:37,880 --> 01:11:39,280 But it's a it's a good problem to have. 1450 01:11:40,240 --> 01:11:42,680 Yeah, and it's fun. It's fun to work on something 1451 01:11:42,680 --> 01:11:45,160 that's a little more art driven, because while still we had a 1452 01:11:45,160 --> 01:11:48,600 very distinct visual style and Ethan, the lead artist, was 1453 01:11:48,600 --> 01:11:50,640 involved from the very beginning of making that a product. 1454 01:11:50,800 --> 01:11:53,160 And it's contributed a lot both to the ideas in the game as well 1455 01:11:53,160 --> 01:11:55,280 as obviously the art. It was driven by. 1456 01:11:55,280 --> 01:11:57,720 Like, I'm a professional writer and I've already written a book. 1457 01:11:57,960 --> 01:12:00,520 So this is a little different in that Tony had written some 1458 01:12:00,520 --> 01:12:03,000 things, but it was more like, all right, let's talk about what 1459 01:12:03,000 --> 01:12:04,360 you want to do and look at the art. 1460 01:12:04,400 --> 01:12:06,840 And then in a way you're going to write a thing and I'm going 1461 01:12:06,840 --> 01:12:09,680 to help write bits and we're going to edit it and figure out 1462 01:12:09,680 --> 01:12:11,760 the mechanics together based on the art. 1463 01:12:11,840 --> 01:12:14,040 Like you said, like that was that incipient, like we have to 1464 01:12:14,040 --> 01:12:16,320 make a game about this art because the art is so cool, 1465 01:12:16,440 --> 01:12:18,720 which is very different from how I would work just because I 1466 01:12:18,720 --> 01:12:20,880 can't draw right. So I'm not that's that's just 1467 01:12:20,880 --> 01:12:23,640 not how I make games. So that's been fun and and 1468 01:12:23,640 --> 01:12:25,920 really easy and I think we'll probably end up doing you know 1469 01:12:26,320 --> 01:12:27,880 mix of these things in the future, so. 1470 01:12:30,000 --> 01:12:33,040 Yeah I the Sunday morning cartoon thing. 1471 01:12:33,040 --> 01:12:36,360 The kid like toy thing and everything. 1472 01:12:36,680 --> 01:12:39,840 If at some point in the future you could just go on the website 1473 01:12:39,840 --> 01:12:42,880 and buy booster packs of cards that'd be so cool to be able to 1474 01:12:42,880 --> 01:12:45,680 just like peel it open like a Pokémon pack and you get like a 1475 01:12:45,680 --> 01:12:49,640 new character option or like new stuff options new bliff, that 1476 01:12:49,640 --> 01:12:52,720 would be fantastic. I mean we'll we'll see how the 1477 01:12:52,800 --> 01:12:57,560 how it funds but honestly if I if you read this Kickstarter or 1478 01:12:57,560 --> 01:13:01,360 the the the quick start I can't imagine someone's gonna be like 1479 01:13:01,840 --> 01:13:05,560 no this is like super cool so I'm just gonna not like it it 1480 01:13:05,560 --> 01:13:08,640 this project looks great it sounds great the art's fantastic 1481 01:13:08,920 --> 01:13:11,760 the mechanics are great. Again, super, super excited for 1482 01:13:11,760 --> 01:13:14,840 this. We're talking still clean a 1483 01:13:14,840 --> 01:13:16,280 bunch. What's up if? 1484 01:13:16,280 --> 01:13:17,800 You weren't convinced by the quick Start? 1485 01:13:18,240 --> 01:13:20,120 Check out the video that we just dropped. 1486 01:13:20,560 --> 01:13:24,000 Oh yeah. On my Twitter, there is a bit of 1487 01:13:24,040 --> 01:13:28,800 animation that I've done, so there is actually a Blister 1488 01:13:28,800 --> 01:13:31,640 Critter's 30 Seconds of a Blister Critter's cartoon that 1489 01:13:31,640 --> 01:13:37,360 is canonized, as well as a bit of a shoddy infomercial that I 1490 01:13:37,360 --> 01:13:39,920 shot in my bedroom. I'm very proud of it. 1491 01:13:39,920 --> 01:13:41,800 That's going to be the Kickstarter video with some 1492 01:13:41,800 --> 01:13:43,520 updates as we get closer to the launch. 1493 01:13:44,240 --> 01:13:45,600 So the quick start isn't convincing. 1494 01:13:45,600 --> 01:13:48,400 Have me shout at you for a minute and 1/2 in a really goofy 1495 01:13:48,400 --> 01:13:50,200 voice and that should do the trick. 1496 01:13:51,160 --> 01:13:52,720 Yeah, so I'm saying he's a triple threat. 1497 01:13:52,720 --> 01:13:54,960 He's he's also doing animation. I mean it's it's wild. 1498 01:13:54,960 --> 01:13:56,800 So it's been a while to work with someone who can just bring 1499 01:13:56,800 --> 01:13:59,720 that energy and and talent to every aspect of this. 1500 01:13:59,720 --> 01:14:03,200 And all we have to do is you know, edit it, make a product 1501 01:14:03,200 --> 01:14:05,400 mark, you know like the, the sort of the, the other stuff 1502 01:14:05,400 --> 01:14:07,800 that I would have no idea how to to animate this so. 1503 01:14:08,160 --> 01:14:11,200 Make capitalism happen? Yeah, we're doing. 1504 01:14:11,240 --> 01:14:12,480 Capitalism. Yeah, hit the button. 1505 01:14:12,640 --> 01:14:15,160 There's a huge red. Button that says make the thing 1506 01:14:15,160 --> 01:14:19,920 and pipes that you know connects us to Shenzhen or whatever. 1507 01:14:21,400 --> 01:14:24,040 Critter in the future can find a box set and wonder what this 1508 01:14:24,040 --> 01:14:25,640 thing is that's inside. And it's. 1509 01:14:25,800 --> 01:14:29,160 Exactly. There is canonically the game 1510 01:14:29,160 --> 01:14:31,320 Still Fleet in the universe of still fleet and it's kind of 1511 01:14:31,320 --> 01:14:33,200 stuck in there. So I think this is similar where 1512 01:14:33,320 --> 01:14:35,160 I think Tony, you've already drawn some of the critters 1513 01:14:35,160 --> 01:14:36,840 playing with polyhedral dice and stuff, so. 1514 01:14:36,840 --> 01:14:39,320 I think that's. That's on our brains, but yeah. 1515 01:14:39,720 --> 01:14:42,240 Well, I think they're one of ones, One of the, I can't 1516 01:14:42,240 --> 01:14:44,640 remember which one it is that has an ability that I can 1517 01:14:44,640 --> 01:14:47,280 squeeze through any space that would fit AD 20. 1518 01:14:47,360 --> 01:14:49,320 And I was like, yeah, that's great. 1519 01:14:51,480 --> 01:14:52,960 So we've talked about Stillfleet a bunch. 1520 01:14:53,640 --> 01:14:59,520 Where can people find Stillfleet so that they can check out kind 1521 01:14:59,520 --> 01:15:03,160 of where the this grid system, the core system that was adapted 1522 01:15:03,160 --> 01:15:04,640 into blister critters, came from? 1523 01:15:05,560 --> 01:15:08,840 Yeah, so stillfleet.com is where all our stuff lives, and we're 1524 01:15:08,840 --> 01:15:11,840 redoing it right now. So in part mostly because of 1525 01:15:11,840 --> 01:15:14,560 blister critters, but also with the SRD coming out, I mean, 1526 01:15:14,560 --> 01:15:15,920 we're going to have the grid system, SRD. 1527 01:15:15,920 --> 01:15:18,160 We have a license, so we really want people to use the grid 1528 01:15:18,160 --> 01:15:21,840 system and have fun with it. And Blister Critters is going to 1529 01:15:21,840 --> 01:15:24,880 be sort of our first shining example of that of of, you know, 1530 01:15:24,880 --> 01:15:27,160 working with someone else to make it official. 1531 01:15:27,160 --> 01:15:29,760 But in a way it was, you know, Tony could have easily just made 1532 01:15:29,760 --> 01:15:31,840 a thing using our rules and again, there's a license. 1533 01:15:31,840 --> 01:15:34,560 So we want people to use our rules and we want to make that 1534 01:15:34,560 --> 01:15:36,000 easier. So we're we're we're working on 1535 01:15:36,000 --> 01:15:37,000 it. It's just a small team. 1536 01:15:37,000 --> 01:15:41,720 So read on the site right now and we will have later in the 1537 01:15:41,720 --> 01:15:44,600 year, we're going to reprint the sci-fi stuff so you'll be able 1538 01:15:44,600 --> 01:15:47,120 to get those books physically. In the meantime, you get the 1539 01:15:47,120 --> 01:15:50,360 PDFs, so you know we're on it, we're on drive through, drive 1540 01:15:50,360 --> 01:15:54,200 through RPG, all that stuff and we will have basically these, 1541 01:15:54,200 --> 01:15:56,480 these two products right, Still feed all the sci-fi stuff and 1542 01:15:56,480 --> 01:15:57,920 blister critters, which is amazing. 1543 01:15:58,760 --> 01:16:00,800 And hopefully by the end of the year you know you will be able 1544 01:16:00,800 --> 01:16:03,360 to get both physically, you know, in stores. 1545 01:16:03,560 --> 01:16:06,440 But of course with a Kickstarter you can get some exclusives only 1546 01:16:06,440 --> 01:16:08,680 through the Kickstarter. So that is the best place to 1547 01:16:08,680 --> 01:16:12,880 back blister critters. Kind of like exclusive stuff 1548 01:16:12,880 --> 01:16:14,680 from Kickstarter. It's it's kind of a whole thing 1549 01:16:14,680 --> 01:16:16,240 that I have. It's part of my personality at 1550 01:16:16,240 --> 01:16:19,440 this point and part of the show, so I will be getting all of the 1551 01:16:19,440 --> 01:16:22,360 stuff if I can. And same thing with you, Tony. 1552 01:16:22,360 --> 01:16:26,280 Odd Odd Games you put out. AMU. 1553 01:16:26,280 --> 01:16:27,720 We've already talked about this numerous time. 1554 01:16:27,800 --> 01:16:34,120 Gorgeous, beautiful, Super excited for that, to actually 1555 01:16:34,120 --> 01:16:35,600 get to go through that. Definitely going to do that with 1556 01:16:35,600 --> 01:16:37,200 Hunter, but where can people find that? 1557 01:16:37,200 --> 01:16:40,120 Where can people find the other stuff you've already done as 1558 01:16:40,120 --> 01:16:43,680 well? Yeah, I'm at Odd Gob Games on 1559 01:16:43,680 --> 01:16:46,400 both Instagram and X slash Twitter. 1560 01:16:46,960 --> 01:16:49,600 I post there as frequently as I can. 1561 01:16:50,280 --> 01:16:53,040 I post, like updates, and when I have to do the Capitalism 1562 01:16:53,040 --> 01:16:55,600 button, I post ads and promotional stuff there. 1563 01:16:57,040 --> 01:17:01,440 Odd Gob games dot H dot IOI have a handful of smaller games I've 1564 01:17:01,440 --> 01:17:04,720 dabbled in, like print and play. Board game stuff, like Frogs 1565 01:17:04,720 --> 01:17:08,760 with Shotguns is like a weird precursor to Blister Critters. 1566 01:17:08,760 --> 01:17:13,520 In a way, it's all illustrated, written, and done by me. 1567 01:17:13,520 --> 01:17:16,600 So if you're looking for some other fun games that look like 1568 01:17:16,600 --> 01:17:19,320 what I do, but have a distinctly different vibe, you can find 1569 01:17:19,320 --> 01:17:22,880 them there. Yeah, that's where I'm at. 1570 01:17:25,080 --> 01:17:27,160 Seriously, thank you guys so much for coming on the show. 1571 01:17:27,240 --> 01:17:30,280 Like I said, we both are so excited for this project. 1572 01:17:30,360 --> 01:17:33,720 And hey, listen, we're still weeks away from Zing Quest, but 1573 01:17:33,720 --> 01:17:37,040 at some point in the future, as Blister Critter gets funded and 1574 01:17:37,040 --> 01:17:38,720 we start making more Blister Critters, if you guys want to 1575 01:17:38,720 --> 01:17:42,880 come back and and and and play an episode, we'd be super down 1576 01:17:42,880 --> 01:17:44,440 for it. So just keep it in mind and 1577 01:17:44,640 --> 01:17:46,920 yeah, yeah, we'd love to have you guys back. 1578 01:17:47,520 --> 01:17:49,880 On the Still Fleet YouTube, which everywhere, just 1579 01:17:49,880 --> 01:17:52,160 everywhere at Still Fleets, if you go look this up, you can see 1580 01:17:52,160 --> 01:17:55,640 the first published actual play we did with Gende la Vega of Fun 1581 01:17:55,640 --> 01:18:01,080 City and Die RPG and on Replay and that was super fun and we 1582 01:18:01,080 --> 01:18:03,120 kept it really tight, Tony GM and it was really fun. 1583 01:18:03,120 --> 01:18:06,160 It was like honestly cutting out the beginning and it was like an 1584 01:18:06,160 --> 01:18:09,720 hour and a half game and it felt very narratively satisfying and 1585 01:18:09,720 --> 01:18:12,440 without spoilers like it's not combatty, but there were a lot 1586 01:18:12,440 --> 01:18:14,840 of roles. So it it gives you a good sense 1587 01:18:14,840 --> 01:18:16,240 of the grit system. It gives you a good sense of the 1588 01:18:16,240 --> 01:18:19,200 world of a game and Tony's amazing art actually, because 1589 01:18:19,200 --> 01:18:22,560 Tony also live like Drew stuff as we were describing it. 1590 01:18:23,040 --> 01:18:25,920 So you know, I, you know, I definitely recommend that, but 1591 01:18:25,920 --> 01:18:28,560 maybe we could even put together Tony not to put you in the spot 1592 01:18:28,560 --> 01:18:31,400 something like that for for, you know these guys. 1593 01:18:31,720 --> 01:18:34,360 Yeah, I'd love no spots. On everything. 1594 01:18:34,480 --> 01:18:37,160 All for the spots, yeah. Yeah, I'd like to come back and 1595 01:18:37,360 --> 01:18:41,520 produce, and if we can work it out, I'd love to because 1596 01:18:41,520 --> 01:18:43,160 sometimes different apps are weird about it. 1597 01:18:43,160 --> 01:18:44,640 But I'd love to share my screen. I like to. 1598 01:18:45,000 --> 01:18:47,560 I like to GM with a live drawing thing. 1599 01:18:47,560 --> 01:18:49,920 It just feels really natural. I think people get a lot out of 1600 01:18:49,920 --> 01:18:51,800 it, so. You can make it happen. 1601 01:18:51,800 --> 01:18:54,440 Technology does exist. We will do that, absolutely. 1602 01:18:54,720 --> 01:18:58,960 You just let us know the time after February because we are 1603 01:18:58,960 --> 01:19:03,160 just Zine quest is is really, really blowing us up and we will 1604 01:19:03,160 --> 01:19:05,880 100% make the time for that. So if you're watching or 1605 01:19:05,880 --> 01:19:09,520 listening now, definitely definitely plan to see that in 1606 01:19:09,520 --> 01:19:11,160 the future. But again, seriously, thank you 1607 01:19:11,160 --> 01:19:13,160 guys so much for coming on. It's been fantastic talking to 1608 01:19:13,160 --> 01:19:14,880 you. We could talk all day but both 1609 01:19:14,880 --> 01:19:17,640 of us have to go to bed. So again, really appreciate it. 1610 01:19:17,640 --> 01:19:21,440 Make sure you check out all this stuff and back blister critters 1611 01:19:22,080 --> 01:19:24,400 February 6th. We'll see you guys all later. 1612 01:19:24,800 --> 01:19:25,320 Bye, bye.