Hello and welcome to the Weekly Scroll podcast.
My Name Is Ryan. And my true name is Astario.
And today we're doing a couple of things, but the game we are
going to be reviewing is called Ruiner from Mark Conway.
It's nice little a six I got here, oh.
God, it's so cool. I love an A six.
That's the it's a superior. It's a superior Zine size, you
know. I I do like it.
I don't know if it's superior than A5, but at at at worst it's
adjacent to. You know.
But also, but also happy, happy zinequest buddy.
Oh yeah. Happy Happy Black History Month.
Yes, both of those things and. Zinequest.
And Zing Quest. Yes, so Zing Quest kicks off
today, since I can't even walk out of the room without another
project emailing me that I need to sign up for.
So for the entire month, we're well, we've already been doing
Zing Quest stuff, you know? We kind of preemptively started
it with some friends, you know? Yeah, and we'll continue
through. At least.
I think most of our stuff tapers off by the third week of the
Zing Quest, cuz by then a lot of projects are ending or wrapping
another last month or last last little bit.
But we have a lot of stuff planned in these next three
weeks. We got just about every day.
We have either an AP or an interview or something for some
great projects, but we're gonna keep doing our every Thursday
episodes and we're gonna do review.
We're gonna do Zenes all month for Zenquest, which makes sense.
Uh huh. Yeah, Yeah, reasonable.
Yeah. And then each another reason
it's good to do Zenes is they're shorter, take less time and that
gives us more time to do Zenquest, Roundup or just.
Take little naps, you know. Yeah.
Just little little nap you we'll.
Take little naps. So I think the plan is each week
we're going to talk about a bunch of new projects, remind
you about the old ones, and then do our review.
So we're going to talk about a bunch of projects now and a
bunch of people, if you happen to respond on Twitter or
anything to like Kate talks about your project thing.
I've, I've looked all of them. I've saved all of those.
I've looked at the dates when they're ending and we'll make
sure that we get to those throughout the month as we go.
If, you know, we we, we did, we we've had a thing saying, hey,
if you want to come on the show since like December posted.
So if you waited till now to ask to come on, guess what, it's too
late. But we are going to be talking
about projects in a way, even for those that aren't weren't
able to come on the show or that we're not going to do AP4 or
anything like that. So why don't I stop rambling?
And why don't we start talking about some Zenquist projects,
buddy? And and just so everyone knows,
we're really giving honing in on all those really niche 5 E
projects that are on Zenquest this year, so.
That's us, you know? That's us.
You know us? Yeah.
Anyway, so there's one project, there's some projects that
aren't technically Zenquest but are still happening that I want
to talk about real quick, and I'm going to do that.
So let's start with one of those.
So this is one that you missed on the show that I keep saying
you should read and you will love, but this is dead.
Halt. I've.
Not read this I think I have read this.
I think I did like it. I don't know if you read it or
not, but I I loved, I loved this game.
It's fantastic. And this is one of those games
that after I complained about not having hyperlinks, they
hyperlinked it. And not only that, the I bought
a physical after and they they drew a picture inside and signed
it like now with hyperlinks or something like and.
It said it's me. Very nice of them to do that.
Regardless though, what's going on now is a dead halt project
that has adventures on floppy disk.
Which means yes, I will have to buy a floppy disk player.
The only way you'll be able to access it because there is no
PDF is if you access it on the floppy disk and AT SHIRT, and
they're reprinting the original physicals for it.
Huh. Yeah, I love.
I love all of the niche throwback technology that art
hipsters love, like cassettes. You know, you get a lot of
cassettes in like the punk scene and in the tabletop scene.
And now floppies gonna have to. I don't even know, know what to
do about that. I'm gonna have to get a floppy
disc reader. Yeah, we love floppies here on
the show, you know? But yeah, so I grabbed a couple
extra these. So great.
Project Dead Halt is a fantastic game from zomwarezomware.net.
Just go to Kickstarter search Dead Halt RPG.
I'm really excited for its T-shirt, super excited for the
floppy, and you can get the past released floppies as well.
So of course I got those. And I've already researched, A
floppy disk driver with USB plug is only like 26 bucks.
So, a ton on Amazon. So yeah.
A ton. So I'll be snagging one of those
faux Show Dead Halt. Fantastic game.
Really loved it. Really cool.
Snag that real quick. Another project that's already
been out for a little bit Only has eight days to go.
But I did want to talk about is Jukebox the karaoke musical,
tabletop role-playing game? Be dramatic.
Yeah, be belt out your karaoke favorite.
You're the star. The TGRBG homage to musicals of
the stage and the screen. This is a cool project.
Lila Macbeth Fujiwara is putting this out.
First of all, the project looks great, but I'm going to be
honest, I would never, ever do karaoke in my life.
Ever if I had to. There's only one song I'd ever
do it. I'm not going to tell anyone
what that one song is, because then they'll try to get me to do
it. But one of the stretch goals for
the project? Song.
Let's hear it. Yeah, is that no.
Is is a little adventure called Swamp Goblins and that is from
Aaron motherfucking King over at the Read the Fucking Manual
podcast. So yeah, definitely wanted to
support to make sure we got to that level so we could see
Aaron's work in here. And I do believe they did.
Yeah. So it's $7500 to get to that
level. They're like $11,000.
Regardless, it's a cool looking project.
The art looks fantastic. The cover of it, it looks like a
like a Playbill, you know, it's really neat looking.
It's. Nice to cover, the art looks
really good. Yeah, project seems great.
It looks, it's really interesting.
Like I said, it's I would never do karaoke, but I would love to
experience it in tabletop form and you know, push, push the
boundaries. That's why we do these things.
So a lot of great people on the project looks fantastic.
Definitely go back to that. That is Jukebox, the karaoke
music tip, top role-playing game.
The next one is the Avat Trilogy.
This is an interview from an interview I did with Stuart.
This is the Avat Trilogy. It is a three system agnostic,
old school style adventure. Definitely let me go check out
the interview for that. It's three scenes that are and
the adventure, they're all self-contained or the whole
adventure across all three. Super interesting.
The art on them is fantastic and we had a long discussion in the
interview about, you know, kind of spoilers for the three
adventures. Basically the paths that go
along with them, they sound fantastic.
Stewart Watkinson does great stuff with the luxurier press.
We I have a bunch of the things that they've done, just a great
writer, a great person and this adventure set sounds really
fantastic and as I said the the art is great and they're a
fantastic writer as well. So you definitely want to go
support this project and go listen to the interview that I
did with Stuart, just, I don't even know, like 1. 28.
Episode 128. Thanks bud.
It's my whole job, and this is like, I just tell Ryan what
episode it was. Yeah 'cause you weren't able to
make that one, but it was cool. Stewart's a great guy, really
appreciated him coming on. Hopefully we'll see them on
again in the future, but this project has 20 days left to go.
It's like 2/3 the way funded. Like I said, definitely sounds
great. Definitely snag that.
It's a cool project. We'll remind you to do that
again, Field team, isn't it? But I think, I think that was
maybe our last episode also. You do not make that one.
That is an interview I did with the creators, Michael Elliott
and Galen Peugeot. Michael Elliott.
We have reviewed merger before in the past.
Their fortune dark like Eldridge.
Corporate horror game Fealty sounds really neat.
First of all, the art is fantastic.
Galen did amazing art. They've done a lot of really
cool stuff. They did a lot of the art for a
lot of Spencer Campbell stuff like Dusk, but this project is
really neat. It's about the what does it says
the the courtly drama, incompetent monarchs, and the
commoners who steer them. Basically it is the commoners
that are raised up because of their abilities to actually run
a Kingdom when the monarch is an incompetent piece of shit who's
just fucks around and it's it sounds really interesting.
There's cards involved, there's chess pieces involved, there's a
whole token system involved. It sounds incredibly
interesting. I'm really excited for this one.
Michael Elliott does amazing stuff.
Galen has put out a lot of great games as well, a lot of
illustrations for some other games.
So it's just a really neat sounding system to go with an
interesting concept of the game, originally kind of inspired by
Thomas Cromwell. Yeah, it looks great.
Yeah, the art looks really neat. Wait, there's the the the horse
head guy. Where's that one?
Oh, I love the horse head guy Art.
I don't know if they did. Did they do the horse head one
on the well? Hey listen, if you want to see
it, you can look at the thumbnail for our episode 134
when they were on. Yeah, it's cool because there is
a fantasy element to it, which we do discuss on The Interview
on why they do this kind of like courtly drama, but then bring
like of course added people into it and the answer is really
great and you should listen to the interview to hear about
that. But Fealty is the name of the
project again. Michael Elliot and Galen Peugeot
the. Answer is just like we just
thought it was really sick, you know?
Yeah, yeah, it's just dope. I just wanted to put.
I just wanted to put a head on the dude and you know, no, it's
really cool. It's really great.
Again, Michael Elliott does fantastic projects.
I'm really excited to get rigged soon, but definitely worth
backing. We're supporting as soon as I
saw the e-mail back that right away.
So really cool. It's already most of the way
funded on day one. It's only a two week project so
go snag that right now. OK, some other interesting
things coming out. This is Terror of the Stratos
Fiend, Snake Wolf 3. Now if you follow all the terror
of the Stratos Fiends, Congrats. It's it's a lot.
This is from Orbital Intelligence.
This is Shawn Richer. They also do Crapland, which is
really fantastic and got just the weirdest shit I think.
I have a couple actually somewhere.
I'm sure, I'm sure you do, but everything they do is is just
fantastic and and weird. A lot of Troika, a lot of DCC, a
lot of stuff that comes out of Spear Witch and the Tear of the
Stratosphere is a long running DCC adventure.
And what's interesting about this project is that they
actually completed Dungeon 23. They actually did it and this is
that it is a mega dungeon. It's like I think it's like 400
something pages and it's only and it's only 50 bucks.
Good. Yeah, but it's also a can.
Yeah, right. But it's also so it's a mega
dungeon. So the the tagline is an endless
dive into a mega dungeon chase is a man who dared to touch a
God, a paranoid conspiracy laden level one through 6 adventure
for DCC. And again, if you follow the
Terror of the Stratosphere storyline, I think there's like
maybe three more that are going to come out for that and then
it'll kind of wrap up. But the Snake Will stuff plays
in with some of the later stuff. It's it's again, it's weird,
it's crazy, it's cool. This is this is the indie RPG
shit we really love here when it gets fucking weird, but it's
still really interesting. Everything that Orbital
Intelligence and John Richard do is great.
So definitely want to back this. And again A450I think it's 450
pages. I could be wrong, but I'm pretty
positive that's what it is. 450 pages for like 50 bucks?
Yeah, the early bird hardcover is 50 bucks and then the
standard is 75. So it's a lot.
And I know from experience because I have like a million of
their things that Shawn Richard puts out like just nothing but
fire. So it's a great deal for what
sounds like a really great project and people just love
mega dungeons lately. I.
Don't know dude. I'm I'm so about it.
It's great. Also, shout finishing Dungeon
23, I think that we all abandoned very quickly.
Not all of us. Some of us.
Yeah, no, I abandoned it. Still works on my dungeon 23 so.
I'm I I'm not because I knew immediately that I would get
through one day and be like, Nope.
So I just chose not to. Anyway, we got three more and
then we'll hop into the review death game from Lori O'Connell.
This looks fantastic. Really excited for this.
Love Lori O'Connell that he did one of your favorite games from
last year. That's true.
Yeah, Hieronymus, Yeah. Yeah.
And I just. Wasn't blanked out there, so
that was all just you steering. But yeah, they did.
Hironymus and I looked Hiramus. They also did.
A that Blanchard. Government forever ago that I
thought was really cool as well. Yeah, I mean they've done a
bunch of fantastic stuff, but the most recent that we talked
about was Hieronymus, which won a bunch, not one, which which we
put in the top five of a bunch of our categories for last year.
So yeah, they they they put out fantastic work and Death Game is
a Fight for Your Life, for the entertainment of the rich and
powerful and a narrative driven RPG.
And anyone looking at this page will instantly recognize the
Hodag art that is covering it. So looks great, sounds great.
It is a high stakes battle for survival in the likes of Battle
Royale, Squid Games, Alice in Borderland, Hunger Games, et
cetera, et cetera. Looks neat, Really excited for
it. Kind of popped up out of nowhere
in the last like week or two on the socials and was really
excited to to see it drop and come out.
And again, art looks great. You should go back it a lot of
the stuff dropped today and they are already at it's a $3000 goal
and they're already at almost 2K in the first gosh like less than
an hour. So probably going to to fun
pretty quickly but don't want to miss this.
Definitely go snag that we'll remind you again in the future
about it. But death game Laura O'Connell?
Boom. Hell yeah.
Next, one friend of the show, Alex T Black Oath Entertainment,
has dropped Over War. The Night Comes Down Monarch
Edition, a gothic fantasy strategy RPG inspired by the
classic JRPG, console games and the OSR.
So it's surprise, surprise, solo or Co-op strategy tabletop RPG
for Black Oath Entertainment, Yeah?
I'm sorry, Black Oath today, Solo or Co-op game?
Yeah, crazy. Yeah, that's really weird.
I can't think about that. They're all on my shelf right
now. No, I I can't.
I have a whole shelf that are oh wait, no yet.
They're all so low. We're caught, but all great.
Really excited. Really excited to get this one.
Everything. I mean Alex has been on a bunch
of times. They do really fantastic work.
Sacrifice is great. Really excited to get Kerneth
Ellis as well. But this one over wore the night
comes down. The cover definitely slaps you
with a little bit of that JRPG. There's like this, I don't know,
giant reptilian guy and the there's a Viking character in
the front holding his shield up, but the reptile is so big, it's
like pushing the shield down. It's like strike at the guy, the
light coming through the back, it looks fantastic.
But that logo is such like a a PlayStation JRPG logo, right?
I like it a lot. It's also like.
I don't know, It feels very like bright, like a brighter color
palette than what I'm used to from like a which is not a not a
disc. I think it's really cool.
But yeah, it is very PlayStation Two JRPG, maybe PlayStation 3.
Yeah, I mean, you're right. I think on the the one of the
covers for or one of the pieces of art from Kerneth Olas is
literally like a person standing on a a pile of a pile of
corpses. So.
This one's very, that's very own brand.
So there you go. Exactly.
But yeah, this one is really neat.
It is the definitive. So this is the other thing, if I
remember correctly, because I'm only glancing through this, I
think that this is not a project that Alex wrote but is putting
out. They've they saw a project from
somebody and I was like, hey, we should make this a thing.
And not only that, we should make it the definitive version
of this thing. So everything you've ever wanted
to do, let's do that. So yeah, right, So so yeah, it's
the the definitive remaster of a gothic fantasy role-playing game
inspired by Fire Emblem Yigdara, Union Langreser, and Yasumi
Matuno. Mm hmm.
Yep, those are people and things.
You're doing really great, buddy.
Keep going. Hey, listen, so I'm just trying
to find yeah, it is the remaster of Over War, which has been out
since 2022. The Monarch edition adds new
tables, resources, Lord GM tools and solo play support and
includes all the content from a number of other things that have
been put out for it. So again, it is a little bit
different than Alex's normal stuff.
This is a remaster of a project that's already out right now.
It's Richard Kelly is the designer of Over War.
That's what I want to say. And Leo F Blank Down in a Second
is doing a lot of the illustrations for it, as well as
the number of other people. Anyway, project looks really
fantastic. It is a little bit different
than what Action On Me does, but clearly in their wheelhouse.
Yeah, it looks great. I'm really excited for it.
Yeah. And then the last one we're
gonna do for today. And then again, we'll do this
every week. Touch on some projects before we
get started. This is The Curse of Misling
Grove, a fantasy role-playing adventure module.
This is from Idol Cartelary. You might know them from their
Playful Void blog, The Bathtub Reviews.
Love reading those. They're really good, really
interesting. I really like.
I don't always agree with everything, but I really love
the way that they look at games. Yeah, I.
I agree. I don't always line up with
their opinions, but I always appreciate them.
You know, I'm always like, this is a good point of view, you
know? Also, it makes me wish that I
had a bathtub so that I can do bathtub reviews even if I didn't
post them. That just sounds like a good
time. So.
It does, you know, Nice bath. I have a bathtub.
I only have a bath though, so yeah, you could technically just
lay I. Couldn't that's a really good
idea, Ryan. Anything is a backup if you try
fucking. Drain and I'll just lay there on
the floor like a like a dying rat.
Do it and then and then write a review while you're doing that.
Yeah. Oh, that's great.
We'll get to that. So The Curse of Mizzling Grove
is a fantasy role-playing adventure module written for OSC
or other similar fantasy role-playing games.
In it your heroes are rogues or rogues, will breach the
unbreachable door in the cursed Renwald Tower in a Grove cloaked
in perpetual storm and learn what happened in that cursed
place centuries ago. Honestly, anything that the
noble puts out, I will snag up. They put a couple of things out
recently. Hiss is really great.
Hell on Rev X Fantastic, and I love the Ludacris Compendium
there. It's a really interesting B
series, but each entry starts with like haikus or like poems.
So it's a really interesting take on the bestiary is that is
different than the standard here is like a giant stat block.
So really, really neat, really love those.
They do have a podcast as well, the Dungeon Regular podcast
where they go through like old adventures from like Dungeon
magazine, like old Dungeon magazine so.
Very cool. I have not listened to that.
That's awesome. Yeah, it's really neat.
So and then in collaboration with Neosis Queer Australian
Filipino artist and game develop and game developer.
So the project looks great, the art looks great, Excited for
this. There's no such thing as having
too many OSE adventures. If you're going to write a
project for five E, don't write it for LSE.
And I think that's that's it for today.
We got about a million more, but we got three more weeks of Zing
Quest and and that's where we're at.
So Ruiner. Ruin Ruiner It's funny because
it's exactly it's the size of the scene that I would have that
I actually don't have this one. Yeah.
What were your let's do, let's do your quick first takes and
then we'll hop into the review. What did you think first of all?
Obviously this is something that I would really like because it
is very much within that like family of minimalist tabletop
games that I love that has a very, like, you know, D20 role
under into the Odd Descendant Bastards descendant hack.
It's fucking weird, right? It's super weird.
There's some weird shit going on and I'm super into the weird
shit. I would be interested to.
I'd be interested to play this the the travelling down the
rungs is like the very like interesting, like esoteric, all
like nebulously described thing that I would love to see
interpreted before I try to interpret it myself.
How about you? Why were you thinking?
I think it's weird as shit and I thought that you would love it,
especially the magic system. I thought you would find that
interesting. Yeah, I do love the magic
system. I do love this.
I read it and I was like, oh, I do really love this.
This is the type of weird that I really get down on SO.
Yeah, this is when I thought of this.
I thought this is really fucking cool, but I also think that
hotter all things is really fucking cool.
This, to me, definitely leans towards like acid mages.
Yeah, I did. And that's exactly what I was
thinking going through like especially moving down the rungs
and like everything fades and like what an interesting concept
we'll get to it. But if.
I If I just say one word, If I just say one word, it's a word
that you said already. It'd be esoteric.
It just feels esoteric. So let's get into it.
Yeah, let's do it. You know what?
Let's do it. Let's go ahead and review a game
today. Oh, is that what we're going to
do? Is that a thing?
Yeah, Runner Mark Conway. I actually love this cover and I
think this like fucking hit you in the face red with like the
yellow going through it. It works.
Incredibly well, yeah. Yeah.
I think it works to a point. And then I've read this thing so
many times. I'm like fuck, like it's a lot.
It's a lot to get you. But I do love the cover.
So there is a a logo repeated three times on the cover.
It's it's Ruiner written in two different fonts tagged together
and then there's this like red orange background and then it's
got it's very loud in if you're. Listening it's It's so loud you
can almost hear it on the podcast.
Yeah, over our yelling, which means it's loud as fuck.
Let me put up my thing. It reminds me, you know, if I if
I was one of those people, I had the mic, like right at my lips.
I feel like I wouldn't yell so much.
But I'm not, so I don't. Do it, Coward.
Can't. I won't.
The mic, I'll just go. So anyway, so there's it's and
then the logo's in yellow. It's in like this weird kind of
foresty green color that is I'm. I'm positive that's not the
color it really is when I look at it, but the other colors
around it are so bright, I feel like it warps it into a
different color. But it's green.
What's? That.
Wait, hold on. Look, let me see the physical
real quick. You have the physical in front
of you, right? Also, by the way, this is
definitely one of those where I'm getting the physical
tomorrow when I get paid. It's darker and the physical it
feels like. Yeah, well, I mean that's
probably just the into the ink on the paper.
Yeah. But like I said, I also think
it's one of those things where like the colors around it are so
bright that it makes your eyes see the color a little
differently and that's what it feels like to me.
And then white on the bottom anyway.
So it says, it says runner like 6 times on the front.
It's great. I love how it fits on the the
cover of the A six. It's really great.
I love it. This is from Mark Conway.
You can find a lot of stuff. Mark Conway might see them on
the show tomorrow. Who knows?
Who knows, really? Who knows?
We'll see.
So it it it hops right into it. I mean The thing is it's like 9
for the adventure, it's I think it's maybe 9A6 pages and that's
all it is. So.
Yeah, I'm gonna be real with you actually did not read the
adventure. Well, we're not going to read on
the show anyway. I am because we don't read
adventures. But it's interesting.
So characters, it's a five step process for a character creation
and that's it. Do you want to rip one up real
quick? I mean, might as well.
Oh, do I want to create a character?
Absolutely. Where am I?
Oh, yeah, that's right. Do you know that I installed the
little drawer on my desk because there wasn't one?
And I've been putting stuff in here to use on the show and I've
forgotten it's all in here. And you gotta use it.
You know what? I have that I never remember,
but I should keep with me all the time.
You remember that little, like that dice roller that's like its
own little machine. I was gonna ask you today, I
can't remember the name of that site cuz I really want to get
one of those, so. Yeah no, they're dope as fuck.
I need to remember where it is so that I can find it, cuz I
would be so much easier to just be like to do it.
Oh there's my dice. I honestly don't even know where
it is. I need to find it.
It wasn't cheap, so I should find it anyway.
So step one. We're doing great.
We're. We're getting there.
Roll 3/6 for each ability, 3D6 for Precision, Prowess, and
Presence. I love that it's three PS.
Got to love the alliteration. I like the name too.
I like I'm. I'm a firm believer in the what
you call your stats or abilities dictates how your character,
your player characters interact with the the game you know.
Absolutely. I mean, look at him both, you
know what I mean? Like, that's an amazing example.
Yeah. So precision is agility and
cunning, doing things adroitly, scale, wit, etcetera.
So it's not, it's not just physical, less mental as well.
Prowess is strength and intimidation.
Again, physical and mental things, doing things mightily
and then presence as will and magnetism.
Doing things majestically with great sagacity or Charisma.
SO3D6 What are your stats? Well, wow, this is not the best
I've ever rolled, I'll tell you that.
I have a six for Precision, I have a 15 for Prowess and I have
an 8 for Presence. Wow.
So you're just muscle. I'm just a strong dumbass.
There you go, Just a strong, clumsy dumbass that's good for
you. So Step 2 and character creation
of the five step process. You roll 2 D 6 + 6 and that's
your vigor. Vigor is basically your health
in this game. So what is your two D 6 + 6 for
your vigor? 12. 12 That's a good that's a
solid vigor. Yeah yeah, for all the spells
that you can't cast, cuz you're dumb as fuck.
Step three, row one D 6 + 3 for the number of letters in your
true name. 5 So you got 5 letters in your true name.
And what is your true name are? You gonna fucking come up with a
5 letter word on the fly? OK, well, you keep going.
I'll go to step four. Step 4, choose your weapons and
armor, as well as two. Curious.
You know what? You know what my true name is?
James. So.
Fantastic. There you go.
Good old Jimbo Jimbo. Also, 5 letters, 2 curios, so
choose your weapons and armor, as well as two Curios to carry
with you in your inventory. Your inventory slots are equal
to your Prowess score +2. So you have high Prowess.
So do you have 17 inventory slots?
Yeah. And carry big things, you know?
There you go. And then Step 5, Roll your
Annoyment. So hit Hit, roll 1D6 and we'll
we'll tell You how your Anointment is. 3.
So you got stone that sinks. The body is your anointment.
You have an armor of -1, and you are ponderous in being.
Just like real life. Yeah, so the game is so light I
wouldn't mind if it told me what the fucking anointment was.
You know what I mean? Like, I get it.
I do get totally, I don't know. I love when things are explained
well, but sometimes these smaller projects, and especially
this one, that kind of leans into this like, esoteric.
Not everything's explained. It's just like, this is what it
is and you're like, what the fuck does that mean, man?
But like leaving that kind of open space for interpretation or
maybe just never really understanding.
I personally kind of enjoy that. Yeah, but I wouldn't mind if it
was like, roll for your anointment from the gods or
something, you know, I mean, or your anointment from the holy
la, la, la, you know what I mean?
Like, it can still be like a weird, esoteric thing and still
give me just a tiny bit more, you know?
Like, I don't need it to be like, Rolf, you're not me.
Your anointment is XY and Z. You know what I mean?
Like, even even just a slight bit more of more.
Like I said, even if it's just like anointment from something
you know, from the heavenly light or something you know,
then I'd be like OK, but some of the other ones are are neat.
These are really interesting weird things that add like
number, like #6 is an opened skull.
You are forgetful yeah, and may change your sources after
resting worrying rage plus three damage, but you lose 1 vigor
each round of combat. So you you are stone that sinks
the body prop like one. That doesn't help you at all.
You're just Your armor is -1. I am.
Ponderous in being, though. Yeah, you are bonderous.
Yeah, with all of your, all of your all.
Of my great ability to position, yeah.
So that's it? That's your character?
That's you. What's your name?
Jimbo James. James.
James moving with Yeah, 5 letters.
Yep, rules. Rules.
Pretty easy to accomplish something dubious, you roll the
D20 with the results. So what I like about the system,
let me say the words and then I'll say it.
So roll the D20 with the result under your relevant ability
score, but above the obstacles difficulty value.
Any result not within this margin is a failure.
So it's not just A roll under system, it's a roll under roll
over like margins. Yeah, yeah, I do.
I I did like that upon reading, I was like, oh cool.
I think creating a more narrow band based on what you're doing.
I yeah, I'm the rule is appealing to me as AD 20 role
under guy. Yeah, well what's interesting is
is the next part on why I think that really works in this is
that difficulty value ranges from 1 onwards.
From easy to hard obstacles, everything has a difficulty
value and if you fail the role, something vicious happens.
A foe hits back, drops it off, etc etc.
And this is what sucks for you. If the DV the difficulty value
is ever higher than your ability score, you must roll the exact
DV score to succeed. So what did you get?
Like A5 and an 8 on two of your scores.
I got a six and an 8, which, yeah.
It's not high. Those are those are low numbers.
Yeah. I will say it makes your margin
really fucking big though, yeah. But I don't think there's a lot
of things that are like 12 DV. So yeah.
The 15 is great. You know the 15, I'll probably,
I'll probably, you know I'll probably hit a couple of things.
Yeah, just swing. Hard swing offenses.
A single character may test an obstacle to advance entire
party. In combat, everyone acts
independently. If the situation falls in their
favor, roll the die twice. Pretty simple advantage system
there. There's not really.
It only talks about the favor, it doesn't talk about disfavor.
So there's really no disadvantage it seems like.
Which is fine. I like how simple that is.
It's like fucking 12 words and that's it.
I really do like the next part though.
Whenever you encounter harm, you may invoke your true name to
avoid it completely. After avoiding row 1D6, the
result is equal to the number of letters revealed in your true
name. And if your entire true name is
revealed, foes will smell you throughout the rungs.
They'll just. Smell you, you know.
Smell you. They can smell your exposed.
True. Name 5 letters in my true name,
which means that I could invoke it one time and possibly just
reveal the entire thing. Theoretically, yeah.
You have a two out of You have a.
You have a one in three chance. Yeah, yeah.
And then if I use my true name twice, I'm pretty much almost
guaranteed to reveal my entire dream.
But it's only by wrong. I do like that things reset
after each wrong, which is really cool.
Yeah, Speaking of that, going into exploring.
I I love this part. Yeah, yeah, definitely.
You will never return where you've left.
These places will fade because of you.
Rungs are where you search for hoarded valuables, where curses
are grown and soaked into your stone face.
You have a stone face from where you enter.
Pardon me? From where you entered cannot be
returned. So further, you must sink.
Yeah. So.
OK, I'll. I'll just do the whole thing.
There's not much, so there's always nothing in the rungs.
There's no time, but there are brief moments of respite.
You may take a brief rest that replenishes 2D6 figure when not
in peril. While resting, foes will seek
you out. There is a two in six chance of
1D6 random foes besetting you. When a rung is fully exposed,
you may absorb its light before leaving to bolster yourself.
However, some obstacles Big O might prevent you from doing so
until they are dealt with. When absorbing the light, choose
an ability rule 3D6. If the result is higher than the
current ability score, increase the total by one.
Upon leaving rung, it begins to wither.
Light will dry Into Darkness. The inhabitants will either seek
refuge in another rung or remain until a slow whimpering in.
Be sure to collect all that you need, but pardon me before
proceeding as you cannot return. Entering a new rung conceals all
letters of your true name, masking yourself from its
inhabitants. These might be some of my
favorite exploration rules I've ever fucking read.
Very vibey. So vibey.
But also just so clean and like, what's what I really like about
this game is it is like, interestingly, like weirdly,
esoterically, like punishing, but also not punishing.
You know what I mean? Like, so basically you're on a
rung looking for valuables and everything like that, and you're
going to find weird shit. But after every encounter you
can rest to get vigor back after you encounter stuff.
But every time you rest, there's a chance that more stuff finds
you. But when you leave the rung, the
IT disappears. Yeah, it no longer exists.
Yeah. I like the the idea of like an
NPC or like an enemy that is constantly like jumping down the
rungs after you, you know? Yeah, I mean, because it says it
could, they could either chase you or stay and disappear.
Because every time you leave a rung to go to descend to the
next rung, you absorb the light of that whole rung and basically
like cause it to cease to exist. And that's what gives you your
advancement. Like you advance by descending
by taking the light from this whole, like, mini realm that you
have just hoarded and battled through.
It's so that's so cool. I really love that.
It is very cool. Yeah, as an advancement system,
I really love that you're just like, well, I've, I've looted
this whole weird esoteric realm. Like, yeah, let me just slurp
that light in them out, you know so it's neat.
I dig it. Encounters when meeting
unfamiliar beings some might not be quick to anger.
I really love that. Immediately it says you don't
have to fucking fight. Everything you can test to to
precision to slink past it, privates to chase it away
presents to engross it and it. And only when you fail do
hostilities arise. I love that characters and foes
roll the D6 every round, Highest act first.
How? Let's go to characters.
Environmental effects act last. So characters have three actions
in combat. Foes have two actions generally
in combat. Pretty much everything takes an
action for characters to do, like dashing using objects,
swinging a weapon, everything like that.
And you can do them in the order you want.
I also love that kind of stuff for like.
It's all just like do it however, because what difference
does it make? You know what I mean?
Yeah, it's just everything is an action.
So go ahead and just do whatever you're going to do with three
actions. Three actions over 2 for enemies
is interesting and I was wondering if it was because of
how difficult it could be to hit an enemy based on their
difficulty value and you rolling under.
Sorry, I would be curious if it's mechanical or if it's, and
I mean the answer is probably both, but I'm I'm curious if
it's mechanical or if it's more flavor, right for the game.
So like all of the foes that exist on the rung would
theoretically just cease to exist when you leave that rung.
So I feel like you're more corporeal to an extent, you know
what I mean? You're more.
Real, you know. Yeah, so you get.
So that's how I saw it is like, you're more real, so you get to
do more stuff, you know? You keep it real.
That's how I feel about myself every day.
Yeah, that's why I get 2 actions.
Foe's. Yeah, so Foe's come, we have two
actions Foe's. Vigor is doubled as difficulty
value, which is again a neat, nice round system.
When it reaches 0, it's gone. A Foe's sorceries never drain
its figures. So that's the other thing, Foe's
get sorceries all day. But you're well, we'll get to in
a second. Your sorcery's drain, your
vigor, a foam might choose to attack it as an action, causing
you to roll. OK, so the other thing too is
when you attack, you can try to hit it, but can it can hit you
back if you fail. And when it tries to hit you,
you can hit it. So if you roll above it's
difficulty value but under your relevant ability, you avoid it.
If not, it damages you. If it succeeds, you damage it.
So this way you may exact retribution.
I love that line. I love that line so much, but it
reminds me of Durf a little bit. Durf has a similar system where
like any time you attack something or something attacks
you, there's an opportunity for either of you to walk away
damaged. And I really like that.
I think it's really like it keeps contact super interesting,
yeah. I like the exchange hits thing
is really cool. They're what is that game by
Feral Indy Studios that I played a few times.
You're talking about verm hack. Yes, Verm Hack also has like an
exchange, like a potential for exchanging blows.
And I always enjoy it. Makes combat feel very active,
you know, even if there aren't many rules to the game, it feels
a lot deeper just by the nature of, like when somebody walks up
to the plate to hit like they might get hit.
Yeah, just like really. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
We should do verm hack though. Original, there we go.
Not extra crispy. Yeah, yeah.
When when being best at foes, test morale successfully.
I like this too. Another thing that you kind of
talked about earlier, when you defeat a foe or when you are
beating one, they can test morale and some might flee or
become sycophants. And I like that.
We'll get to sick fans in a little bit.
Sourcers, words, curios, and other effects last for a single
encounter or scene, unless noted.
Also like that your effects just last as long as the thing, the
reason you caused, you caused them.
Equipment is interesting, so it gives you basically weapons and
armor right off the bat. And there's no, there's nothing.
There's nothing. There's no reason why you
couldn't do A2 handed or ranged or a Large or a small or like.
I mean there's armor that is literally up to like -4 if you
want right off the bat, you know.
But it's self balances, which is really interesting.
So on your character, what would you pick, 'cause you get a
weapon and an armor, but you start with -1.
Oh. Gosh.
So weapon options are Small, Standard, Large, Ranged, and
Unarmed. I'm imagining James is
incredibly stupid and strong, so I'm thinking unarmed.
I'm thinking he is like a a wild man.
I'm playing Tarzan, you know. Gotcha.
OK, I thought you were gonna go large.
You went the completely opposite the way I was thinking.
No, he's too stupid to wield the weapon efficiently, so.
Yeah, I mean that's true. We.
Can talk about large weapons? He's going with a large weapon,
right? Is that what you wanted me to
say? No.
No, no, no, no. I just I that's what I assumed
you would. Be whatever.
I love the unarmed one. That's really, I mean that's
that's The thing is you can, you can do an interesting take.
So let's talk about the differences between the two,
because again, there's no looking to get from.
These other precision or prowess instead.
Or prowess? Yeah.
Oh yeah, I did. Use prowess.
Yeah, so unarmed, Unarmed Precision of Prowess.
It's one D3, but with each successful unarmed attacked, you
may make another attack at no action cost.
So if you if you just keep hitting, you just keep hitting.
You just keep hitting. Yeah, you swing until you miss.
It's a, it's a it's a cool unarmored rule because usually
you're like, unarmored. You do less damage and you're
like, well why would I ever like, be unarmed Then?
This one's like, yeah, you do less damage, but hey, just keep
fucking swinging guy. Yeah, just keep punching but
compare that to to large right? Prowess IS1D6.
So theoretically double the damage, but on a result of one
to three you re roll the die and add the previous results on to
the new one so that you could theoretically do a big hit like
because you could just roll again and again as a single
action. Large weapons may be broken to
the story of Foe's armor, but it takes up two inventory slots.
So I mean, the thing with the large one is there's not a huge
drawback to not taking it, but it if you have a low prowess,
obviously you're not gonna go with it.
It's gonna take up a bunch of inventory slots.
But yeah, so there's there's differences.
But I do like the flavor of like if you hit, just keep hitting.
So there's armor. So there's armor, and then
there's Shields. Right?
Right, Right, right. But so armor negates damage
received by -1 to -4. So you already start with -1
armor. Do you Do you think that means
that that's all you get? Or that that's just that that's
in addition, like, that's just you on your own, 'cause you.
It was like skin of stone, right?
I would say that's just you. Yeah, I did say that.
I would say this, yeah, this is just a stone guy who's just so
enhanced and has no armor on because he is -1 already.
But yeah, it. Lowers your precision score and
reduces sorceress words by the by.
It's by the amount equals of damage.
Negation, right? Yeah, so my precision already
sucks, so I wouldn't go above a -, 1.
Right. And I do.
I do like it. Go ahead and it takes up
inventory slots equal to this. So if you take -4, you reduce
your precision by 4 and take a four slots in your inventory.
That's a lot of. Shit.
God, that would fucking suck. I would do that.
Actually, I would. I would make this like, the
least precise person ever. But I do like the whole like, it
affects your sorceress words as well, because that's a very
classic spell. Weaver can't wear big armor
because it's going to fuck up how you talk about your spells.
You. Know I do dig it.
And the Shields too. You could dig it.
Shield. Those Shields fully negate
damage from a single attack. Shields have a one to six chance
of breaking after the attack. This chance cumulatively
increases by 1 to a Max of five and six chance after each
attack. I love that mechanic.
I really, really love it. I don't remember what else we
saw recently. Oh, I think you and I were
individually talking about kind of like a variant of like
Mothership. It soaks until it exceeds and
then breaks, but then it's gone. But I like the idea that it
like, it breaks but then like just reduces kind of as it goes
down. This reminds me a little bit of
that where like, so Shields fully negate damage from a
single attack but have a one to six chance of breaking.
But every time it does it, it gets higher and higher and
higher and so you have a five and six.
So eventually it's going to just break, which makes sense.
And it's kind of like what I just said, but like like
backwards. It'll keep.
It'll keep stopping a single attack until it breaks, but it
like breaks down every time. I love it.
I think it's really elegant way to have Shields be something
that you can have for a little while, not just single use, but
aren't like a permanent part of your armor.
It's really interesting. Curious.
Yeah. Curious and sorcery.
Yeah, So you get that. So you get to pick two curios.
Which two? Which?
Which two would you pick? So the first one I really like
is Rose Salt. I just love the idea of the salt
boundary. Like, so Rose Salt pour out
entirely to halt foes from crossing its boundary.
Like I always love that. And like Supernatural or other
ghost shit where they're like, yeah, we saw.
We draw a line in the saw of salt and spooky things can't get
through it. And then I think maybe jaw.
Well, no, this character is not even the cast, so not jar from a
God's brain. Cool one though.
It's a cool one though. It is a very cool one who I
don't know what would you pick as my second one?
What would I pick as your second one?
I have no idea. Can I tell you my favorite one?
Tell me your favorite one. Ashes of yourself.
I was going to say that's a really good one.
Yeah, so ashes of yourself. This was once you rub on body to
avoid death, bro. I love that.
It's so good. It's so good.
And going back to the one you just said, the the jar for God's
brain sorcerer's word can be spat in here for later use.
Love that the names that just the the God, the name every the
forbidden face paint the the shriveled fist.
The the unbound rope can be limitlessly unspooled until cut.
Just this is the endless fucking rope.
Until you cut it and then it is what it is.
But yeah, like, but then there's like the child's mask from a
child who never grew. Damn.
Yeah. So what's your other one?
What's your other one? What you what you taking?
Oh, I would probably do that for this person, ashes of yourself,
because like, you know they're going to probably die punching
somebody in the face at some point.
Yeah, but you have like a million vigor, don't you?
You have like 12 vigor. I have 12, not a million, you
know. Close enough, but that's yeah,
they're so I love the curious. They're so good.
And you just get to start with two and then sorceries.
Talk to me about sorceries. I love this system.
It's similar to a system that I'm kind of toying with.
So it makes me go, hmm, you know.
So from whose brain did you pluck these words?
The envious would gurgle your Gray matter for the those
secrets you should be proud to speak your sorcery Roll
presence. Explain what you intend to do.
The difficulty value of a sorcery is equal to the number
of syllables uttered. After casting, the same number
is drained from your vigor, the price that is to be expected for
uttering such secrets. Sorceress words you know are
equal to your present score divided by two.
My present score sucks, sorry. Your present score divided by
two areas, rounded down. Choose from below or record your
own. When sorcery is intended to
harm, it deals 2 to 6 + 1 per syllable points of damage.
I love this. I love this.
Very clean, very lightweight. You know what reminds me of a
little bit? What game does this remind me
of? A little bit.
Just a tiny bit. Just a little bit.
It's an Adam Bass. Oh yeah, totally made.
Yeah. Yeah, the ones that I really.
Yeah. Yeah.
Thank you. It's.
Like the the whole. Word astronauts for some reason.
I don't know why but. The whole like words thing, but
also like like the memories thing and like how you have to
add word like you use words. The thing I like that it's
similar to this and it's not just like a word and you get a
word. I'd love that.
It's like syllables to the word. So light and weapon are very
different versus also like immolate.
Like you could have super long words if you really wanted to,
but also like the amount of vigor that you drain from
yourself, like based on the the equal to the number of syllables
you utter. So like a four syllable word you
could like almost kill yourself with.
That's crazy. Yeah.
Wow. Yeah.
I love that. I think that's the one of the
most interesting magic things ever, where it's just like, I
mean, clearly we've done things where there's like blood magic,
of course you hurt yourself to catch spells, whatever.
But I really love that. It's literally like these secret
words you're not supposed to utter, these words of power.
And like when you do like, the longer the word is more powerful
it is, but the more it hurts you, it's just such an
interesting. I also just love like the words
of power type of magic. I think it's really cool.
You have you seen Adventure Time?
Yeah. OK, all the all the every time
the the Lich pops up and he gives, it's like a one fall.
Yeah, you're like, oh fuck yeah. Yeah, it's so good.
It's not, it's, it's so good. Last page really is the
sycophants and the rungs. So I really dig the sycophants.
As you proceed those there will be those seeking power in your
presence. These sycophants are beings met
within the rungs or even former foes you spared for each
sorcerer's word taught to it. A sycophant will follow you
while the sycophant is in your company.
The sorcerer's word is unauditable to you.
Upon entering a new rung, the sycophant must be taught a new
word or will depart from company again.
I love the self limiting aspects of this game where yeah you
could have this thing following you around, helping you battle,
doing whatever, but like I should take it from wrong to
wrong to wrong. That's another word you can't
use in another word cuz I assume it's stacks.
I think it's the only way you can read.
This is I read. It as it stacks, I mean, I think
personally that's probably how I would run it.
Yeah. Regardless.
I'm like 99.9% sure, like that's the point.
Well, we'll never be able to ask Mark Comwent so.
Yeah, it's not like he's gonna be with us sometime soon, but
but that's the only thing that makes sense because like, you
have to teach another word or it goes away.
So it's like it's like a weight on your spell casting where like
eventually the sycophant is going to have like, all your
words and you can't cast them. You're going to get to a point
where you don't even have any words left to teach and then
they're just going to go away, you know?
And I love that. I think it's such a cool thing.
And I love just like the the lower concept of it too.
Where it's like you spared a creature, now it follows you,
but you have to, like, teach it now in order for it to stay with
you. It expects a thing from you, you
know. Yeah.
Yeah, wrongs. I know you love them.
Wrongs. You want to talk to me about
wrongs? Yeah, so wrong is a place and
time melted, a patch of quasi natural matter squeezed together
where forms of mock life experience sensations after the
dissolution of the last collective consciousness.
What the fuck? I'm going to be honest, I don't
know this word. Croissant.
OK, I've heard the word.
The most poissant Demerge demerge is Weave rungs at will,
while lesser deities seek to claim turf existing on existing
rungs to call their own. Every rung differs in tone and
purpose, yet each possess an array of light, which shifts
periodically, changing the demeanor and taste of its
inhabitants regardless of if they are native to the rung or
not. When designing Rung, consider
who made it, what was made for, and how it is connected.
Who is meant to dwell here and who is not.
Rungs are interesting. They're like, yeah, they're
they're created like deities and Denny are just like, they're
just Demi plains that you move from one to the other.
Yeah. What do you think happened to
the creators you know? Well, I think the creators still
exist. What I really liked what What I
think is really interesting is where it talks about like the
most powerful ones make the rungs and lesser ones like just
try to exist on the rungs that the more powerful ones are able
to make. There's so much flavor in like 1
fucking line there that's so, so interesting.
But I also love the chain absolute.
This rung is fettered links of God intestines tying together
chambers of light of course. So good, so good.
And I really love the map set up too.
Like I it reminds me a little not not in the same.
It doesn't remind me of the bassard's map in that it looks
similar, but it reminds me of it in the way that it's like a
abstract ish, but it totally makes senseish kind of way.
Absolutely. Yeah.
I think this game lists Bastards as a influence somewhere.
I don't. Think it lists anything as an
influence. Oh, that's right 'cause I was
looking at it on spear Witch. Ah, well then yeah, that would
make sense. And drive through RPG.
But I do love that it's very jaquist which is with the S
Which is the right way to say it that it's got a lot of like
loops and and backward movement so like from 1234 you can go in
all the different directions 679 there's another loop.
So I I really like the way that it was structured in a in a very
UN not linear fashion. But also I love this roll 1D6
for the color of light and you would re roll after each rest to
see what the light color is. Roll the D6 real quick. 6.
So you would start in a scintillating light.
Traveling to a new chamber restores 1D3 Vigor to you makes.
Sense. I really.
I really love all the these various different kind of like
add-ons and stuff to it. Like your your annoyment in the
beginning, like it's a it's a cool way to change up like
'cause you could get like, you could get warlike and then roll
Damage twice and choose your preferred result like for the
whole ring and like and you get a + 1 of Prowess.
You'd be sitting at 16, so it's cool.
So the The Chain Absolute is an adventure, which is neat.
So it's what 10 rooms like, really, really interesting.
I mean, let's just pick one room to talk about just so that we
can, like, give a kind of an understanding of what it goes.
So let's go with. Do you wanna roll A1D10 or you
just wanna pick a cool one? Is that one D10?
Yeah. Or a.
Connecting Link A spiral stone blocks the path forward.
Two hands outreach from the wall, their fingers signed to
the party that in order to open the pathway, they must leave
something behind. An item or a letter of their
true name for each hand Once relinquished 1D4 quarrellers
which are highlighted in yellow. So those are bad guys and a
Shame bracer rush forward to steal the offerings.
Shame bracer wears the armlet of the oaf which is +2 prowess -2
position. Carry one ally effortlessly.
Did you come? Did you start with that?
Is that how you? The great the great magic item
carry one ally effortlessly just.
Talk to. Me on your shoulder.
And then at the end are a bunch like, in my opinion is
surprising. Surprisingly Big B series for an
adventure this month. They're so good.
Like the quarrelers I love so much.
So two desiccated bodies tugging a single weapon.
Death cannot halt their grudge, so they're literally like
desiccated and dying but still fighting over the same weapon
and then fight you with it. So good DV2 Vigor, 4 damage 1V6,
they get two actions and then they're special is when reaching
0 vigor, the Quarrelers rally and act as though they possess 1
vigor for a single round, so they get one one bonus one.
So I really dig that. What's the highest DV thing here
though? There's a A DV4.
There's a 5, there's a six and an eight.
Pillar Heads 8. Pillar Heads 8.
So if you had to do some stuff against the pillar head without
your prowess, you would have to roll an 8.
Yeah. Or you would.
You would you would just fail. Crazy bummer.
And that's that's runer. So the back cover, it says where
you have arrived. You will not return lower unto
the ladder before your foes reach you.
There are many rungs yet to see the the flavors.
You can fucking taste them. Taste them.
Let's go to the scores. So obviously this is the Zine.
Itty bitty Zine. This is exactly what we want
from Zine. We do 3 scores.
Visual, rule, set and vibes. Visuals are all the visuals,
Rule set is the rule set and vibes are the vibes.
So thoughts on visuals? It's a cool, minimalist game,
you know? I mean, there's not a ton going
on here, but it's nice to look at.
I like that It's like this really like incredibly bright,
loud red. What do you think?
I mean, I like the font too, but yeah, it's very minimal.
Yeah, I mean, I I I like it. I think that the I think that
the color choice is it's readable.
I will say that. I do think though like when
actually reading it, the the headers on each page, the whole
there, there's only three colors in the whole thing it's well, I
guess 4. There's the background red,
orange color, there's a yellow, there's a green and there's a
white. And then the headers on each
page like exploring encounters are yellow with like a green
drop shadow. Yeah, in the physical.
I'm not a huge fan of that. I like it digital, so that's
interesting. But also it is when it's just
the red and yellow, it does get like, it's.
I think it's supposed to be weird on your eyes, obviously,
because shit's weird. But I don't know, sometimes it's
a little bit illegible, like, obviously we want to give me
like a piece or two of art, you know?
The other thing too is like like acid mages didn't really have
like quote UN quote art but sort of how like designy backgrounds.
And stuff. There's some stuff going on in
the background, right? Yeah, yeah, I mean, I would
write this below that, you know? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I mean, even even when we look at others, I think that's the
here's The thing is, I like it. I think it's, it's good.
But I think that if anything's lacking in this, it's the it's
visuals. It's.
I would super agree. I mean, I think for me this is
like a good six for visuals. Yeah, six is 6 is where my mind
was was going, yeah. Because I mean if this was
expanded a little bit, had just even just like a couple of
random pieces. I mean, the whole thing
literally is only 15 pages, even if they bumped it out to 20.
To put just like one or two pieces, a picture of the
Corollar, a picture of like page.
Gender page charter or header or something.
Just low, yeah. You know it needs a little bit
more visually, but for a super minimalist and like it's, it's
fine. Again, 5 is not bad, Five is
just nothing good or bad to say about it.
It's paying average. I think 66 does work.
I think the weird colors do pop it up a little bit.
Rule set. Cool rule set cool spin on one
of my favorite like rule set types.
The D20 roll under made popular by a lot of games.
I like the spells, I like the true name thing and none of it's
very like heavy but I feel like you'd use it.
I think that there is a lot to be said about the self
regulation of the rules like you were talking about.
Like there for every bonus there is a negative when it comes to
like equipment or I mean even using your true name.
I think it's a lot of really cool stuff added on to that,
like into the odd ask framework that doesn't detract from it.
It doesn't add like layers of complexity that are unnecessary.
So I think pretty highly of this rule set.
Yeah, I really dig it. I mean, for the same reasons you
just said. I like that.
It feels elegant. Absolutely.
It feels elegant. Yeah.
And there's nothing in the rules that I'm like, you don't really
need that. Like everything.
That is all the little systems in it feel once you've read
them, it feels necessary. You know what I mean?
Yeah and yeah, the magic's great.
And again, this, the self regulation is fantastic.
It's just like, yeah, take -4 armor, go for it, and then just
be fucked and have no precision, no spell words, which means no
sick fans, which means like most of your inventory has gone too.
So it's really interesting. Like you rolled up a character
that has like nothing but prowess, you know?
So you could really go into that or try to bump it up.
So yeah, I really like it a lot. What are your thoughts?
I'm thinking like a really good solid 7 on this one.
Oh really? I could do eight.
I'm seven between 7:00 and 8:00. I always had an 8.
OK, let's do eight.
I think 8. I said seven.
And I was like, man, maybe I would maybe.
I think it's an 8 actually. Yeah, so.
For a Rules Light game, I really did this.
I would play the hell out of this.
And again, there's nothing that I can think that I would be
like, man, I I there's nothing mechanically that I'm like, man,
I wish it had this, you know what I mean?
Yeah. Like at all.
At all and everything that is there, yeah.
He feels. Vibes.
I feel viby. I feel vibes are good on this.
And this is a great example of someone who's like writing voice
comes through their game and really well and works really
well with it and adds to the weird, esoteric, other planer
nature of this game without riding like, long like
paragraphs of prose. I I love this.
I think it's a It's hell of hell of big vibes.
You know, hella big vibes. The interesting thing about this
is that if if you cut like 5 sentences from this entire
thing, it feels like you're gonna play a different game.
You know what I mean? Yeah, totally.
Like things like, and even the way that it says things like
random foes besetting you, like, that's a whole different vibe
than like an enemy comes around the corner or an enemy attacks.
You know what I mean? Like, foes beset you.
But like, what's that one that I said that I really, really
loved? The one that was like, I don't
remember now. Oh, even just the fettered links
of God intestines. It's a great one.
It's such a good one, but there's just a couple of lines
in it through the entire thing where you're just like, fuck,
like even just that last little bit, That last oh, this way you
may exact retribution, like get rid of that line.
And the sense above it is, is just mechanics.
But that line at the end goes fuck like it's still weird, It's
still esoteric. So yeah, vibes are high
thoughts. Thinking I'm thinking another 8.
Yeah, that's where I was at too 8.
Easy 8, I think. I think realistically, like the
increased visuals would increase vibes, you know?
I mean, but that's just how I. Agree.
I think there's a lot good here. And I I I do wanna play this
weird little thing. You know, it's it's such a weird
little thing. That's such a weird little
thing. And I would play the hell out of
this. I would play the hell out of
this in a second. I would keep this in my back
pocket and be like, hey kids, you wanna play like a weird
little thing, but like, not kids, like my coworkers or
something, you know? But yeah, so this is a 22 four
ruiner. Love it.
This is from Mark Conway. We alluded to it a couple of
times on stream, but you can expect Mark on the show
tomorrow. Tomorrow we're gonna be playing
some meatheads, which is a weird meathead game.
You can go check it out right now on their itch page.
It's Half blark dot itch dot IO. Check them out on Twitter at
Half Blark as well. You'll see meatheads on
everything. We're going to be doing an
actual play tomorrow. It's myself, Hunter and Stella
Condrey who is on our show for some Illuminal horror
previously. They also do some great stuff.
We'll make sure we talk about their A Red Solstice 4, just
dropped from Stella, but really excited for that.
It's a very interesting game. We will be, I believe, doing
some type of dungeon crawl with our meatheads.
But meatheads is a bunch of like system tools for old school
gaming with a lot of fun, funny vibes.
Excited for that. Mark Conway's done a lot of
yeah, I'm really excited. Mark Conway's done a lot of
great stuff. Check out all of the things.
It's one of those things where when we started talking about
this, I was like, wait a minute, I had this from you.
Oh, and I had this from you. Oh, and I had this.
From. You and yeah, so be here
tomorrow for that. And every freaking day pretty
much for the rest of the month to talk about more Zing Quest
stuff. If you're listening, you have a
Zing Quest project. Just find us on Twitter, drop it
on one of our tweets, We'll do our best to get to it.
Otherwise we had a submission form open for like 3 months and
it's closed now because we got autonomous submissions and we're
talking to all of those people. So next year be prepared.
Odds and ends got your tweet? We will be talking about your
project as well. That is it.
That is US. That is our episode.
Nice and tight. This one is buddy, you have a
good day. I will see you all later.
Bye, bye.