Fandible Actual Play Podcast

Fandible Actual Play Podcast

An RPG actual play podcast, with geek and pop culture commentary

About David

David is a human, standing at average human size with human features. He is not an android, that would be ridiculous. He is fond of horror movies, so-bad-it’s-good movies, stand-up comedy and humor sometimes inappropriate for a given setting but within the accepted parameters of average human interaction. David reads H.P. Lovecraft with human eyes, speaks about Cyberpunk with his human mouth (using vocal chords, not embedded speakers) listens to podcasts with his human ears and typed this from an undisclosed location with his human hands. He was created in New England.

August’s Patreon Notebook: We Build Down

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When it comes to fictional settings, little else bothers me than the promise of something interesting falling far short of what could be, being relegated to a list of “does not” as opposed to “does.” To me, one group in particular has fallen victim to being shuffled into a neat column of negative qualities while the role of what they do and, more importantly, who they are in a setting is lost. Let’s see if you can guess who I mean from these simple clues: Fighting. Drinking. Scottish accents. Are they known for diplomacy? No. Are they known for their greed? Yup. Do they have funny beards, short legs, and even shorter tempers? Boy howdy do they! 

Yup, I’m talking about dwarves. Long a staple of many fantasy stories, be it video games, books or sprawling epic movies based on a successful group of novels involving cursed jewelry (I won’t get into it, you probably haven’t heard of them) dwarves are portrayed as greedy, violent people with a massive sense of pride and, oh yeah, sometimes they build things. It shows the potential for something so much more than a bunch of drunk hooligans creating buildings that will only be set pieces for fight scenes and it pisses me off.

So that’s why I made the game We Build Down. Heavily emphasizing a narrative approach to playing an RPG, the game is a study on the things hinted at in other settings but not really explored. A people passionate about craft and discipline, bravery, and struggle, mixed with a horror influence that interprets a lifetime of living underground as something both frightening and costly. 

In We Build Down, the dwarves are left alone with their passion to create, driven to construct amazing underground cities and works of art while digging ever downward. Separated from all other dwarven communities, each city finds itself at the mercy of some terrible event, and the player characters are the only people who can stop it. In the game, to be these heroes is to sacrifice much in the hope of doing good, all while showing a side of the dwarves that is often only hinted at: A society of artists and creators, unable to resist the drive to strike out into the dark. Instead of reveling in violence, the heroes of the game meet danger with the grim determination of knowing what must be done, even if it costs them everything. 

We Build Down is available to our Patreon members who are the $5 tier and up, and I genuinely hope that it shows the most of what dwarves do, not what they do not.

‘Whatchya’ Having: Guide to Tavern and Bars in RPGs’ is the May Fandible Notebook!

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We live in strange times where each of us has had to find a way to augment our normal day-to-day rituals. Adapting to the current climate has been tricky to say the least, with work and social lives changing in big and small ways. If you’re reading this sometime in the future and don’t know what I mean, that’s great! I hope your gang of road warriors is the terror of the cities that once were. Shiny and chrome!

For me, though, the biggest impact has been on my street at night. Where once were neon signs of different typography illuminating bare brick walls for a dive bar or the wooden facade with a name engraved above the door to let potential customers know that civilized people play pool and yell here, the neighborhood’s watering holes have gone silent. While much of New York is quieter, the absence of someone laughing too loud or yelling “Wooo!” for an instance that, under normal circumstances, would not necessitate a “wooo” is like a deafening wave of silence crashing on the street. I can feel the absence of the stupid jokes, the drama whisper-yelled to a friend one foot away and countless other indicators that mistakes are being made and good times are being had. I can feel it in my soul.

So I did what anyone in my situation would do (that situation being people in quarantine who occasionally still game online and are also part of a podcast where we make supplements for games, okay yeah pretty specific) and thought “if I can’t find a place to have a drink in reality, maybe I can find one in the realm of imagination” and made a supplement called Whatchya’ Having? for bars and drinks to be used in games.

What my therapist would call a “red flag” is an opportunity for you to alleviate yourself of some of the guesswork of what the deal is with every saloon, tavern and bar your players expect you to come up with. A simple system for quantifying what a place’s crowd is like and the general vibe is summed up, as well as some example establishments and drinks to round out the experience, or at least act as a stepping off point to help bring the “life” into your game’s nightlife.

Available for free to our Patreon members for $5 and up, I hope it gives you one less thing to worry about when you sit down, notes in hand, ready to guide your players on a fantastical adventure only to have them ignore your crafted plot and say “We go to the tavern.”

Then all you have to say is “Whatchya’ having?”

T(app)ed Out

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We here at Fandible have played a lot of games. Like, a lot. So many that I’m sure my brain is full. “Dave,” you say with your not-full brain, “your brain can’t get full, bro.” First, I appreciate your relaxed candor. Second, yeah it can, and mine totally is. The amount of info for the completely fictional that occupies my skull meat (let me know if I’m getting too technical) has reached maximum capacity, and yet I still have to know things. Worse still: When I run a game, I have to know all the things.

But this is the twenty-first century! We have AI assistants that are only good for the weather and news but we still like them. We carry computers around in our pocket that we still call “phones.” Hell, I can stream my PlayStation games right to my laptop no matter where I am, WHICH HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH WHY THIS POST IS LATE. So I’m going to list a few of my favorite apps that have helped me and my saturated cranial squish (again let me know if that’s too technical) deal with the requirements of running or playing a game, some of which are free and some of which cost some money.

1: Archivist Elements.

This app is one of the top entries on my list of Things That Should Not Be Free (wave hello, Straight to VHS!) due to how damn fun and useful it is. Put simply, this app does a huge amount of the world building that can often be a roadblock for running a campaign, randomly generating aspects of a setting to help you along. Of its many tools, it can randomly create royal banners, deities (and their often contradictory demands for being worshipped because gods are weird, yo) names, plot hooks, room descriptions, and taverns. The app doesn’t slouch on details, either. For instance, every tavern generated comes with statistics for a number of patrons, the chance of a brawl, the name of noteworthy people present and things they can be overheard saying. Oh, and also how much gold they have, because rogues. I love this thing.

2: Fight Club 5

Fight Club 5 answers the question “can I create a Fifth Edition D&D character from scratch and have every aspect of it described with accompanying rules on my phone?” With this app, you can make a character and learn what stats, skills or spells do what with only a tap of your finger. Don’t know the range of Color Spray? The app will let you know with a full description. Want to roll a Dexterity save? Click on the stat and it’s done. User-generated files will let you load rules, races, and spells into the program for you to use, calculating every race and class stat for you. The free version lets you make and save one character whereas the pay version (a few dollars) lets you create more. There’s a Game Master app as well, which I haven’t found very useful, however.

3: SW Dice

Not all of us can be weirdos like the folks over at The Soloshot, mostly because we don’t want to buy totally new dice and then learn hieroglyphics to understand what those dice say. Like me, you’re just there to laser-sword ™ some fools and settle scores with a little pew-pew. So skip the purchase of superfluous polyhedrals and download this to simplify matters. Yes, it costs about five bucks, but it comes with everything you need to roll dice with an easy interface and some fun sound effects, which will lessen the blow when the storyteller explains you crashed the ship into an asteroid where there aren’t supposed to even be asteroids.

4: Prime Dice

There’s nothing worse than realizing you didn’t bring the right dice for a game. With Prime Dice, however, you’ve got everything you need on your phone. This includes fudge dice and coins for whatever system you’re using and customizable colors let you keep the dice separated in case you’re playing End of the World and want to watch your demise play out in seconds. There is supposed to be a “Pro” version, but it isn’t working at the time of this article. A compass die is included as well, for those of us that don’t want to decide which way the wind is blowing or which way the grenade bounces.

So there you have it, a few supplemental apps to help out in your journey to tell a great story or crush the player characters into the ground. Do you have an app that helps you out when sitting down to the gaming table? Let us know in the comments below!

Horrorscopes October 2018

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Somewhere in the distant void, among the swirling dust in an endless vortex, are the Things Beyond the Stars. (You may call us The Stars, as your frail mortal minds can endure so little, even titles.) While the wail of madness-inducing pipes fight against the yawning darkness of Infinity, We have looked upon your futures and will offer you what We see. Today you will learn all too late that your desire for knowledge is the path to despair.

 

Aries (Mar 21-Apr 19)

Your one-person production at the community theater will be the talk of the town after your one, and only, performance. It is appropriate that your sign is the Ram, since that is the model of truck that will fly through the wall and crush you as you take a bow. The fact that your performance is on the third floor to the building will only prove that you probably deserved it.

Lucky numbers K4RM4, New York license plates.

 

Taurus (Apr 20-May 20)

You done screwed up now, Taurus. You’ll pray to an earless God for forgiveness but will find none. You will retrace your steps to cover the mistakes, but the evidence is overwhelming. Your only choice is to offer a blood sacrifice to the shadow that has followed your family for generations. It may take time to clean up after it’s rampage through your living room, but better to have killed everyone at the potluck than explain that the stuffing isn’t vegan.

Lucky numbers 3, the amount of times you must knock on the wall to let the demon in.

 

Gemini (May 21-June 20)

Do you know the song “Rockin’ Robin” by Bobby Day? Great song. Did you know its copyright lapsed into public domain? True story. This means you can’t be sued if you sing it with your band at tonight’s gig. It also means it will be confusing when a murder of red-eyed crows swarm you and carry you away screaming into the sky. The audience will be like “crows? Not robbins? I don’t get it.” Ugh. Your band sucks.

Lucky Numbers Tweet Tweet Tweedilly tweet.

 

Cancer (Jun 21-Jul 22)

This is it. The big game. Coach has put a lot of faith in you that you can win the championship. The team is all looking to you for leadership. This run-down town just needs something to feel good about to make it through another long winter, and a trophy would do the trick. Unfortunately it’s also the night the founders of the town have risen from their graves to exact terrible vengeance for the sins of your ancestors. Can you win the big game while surviving the rotting grasp of the hungry dead? Coach better give one hell of a speech.

Lucky Numbers Green 32! Green 32! Set! Hut!

 

Leo (Jul 23-Aug 22)

That cough you have is not going away. Tea with honey and bracing shots of cough syrup have done nothing to stop your rasping hack throughout the day. What’s worse is that it’s starting to affect your voice, making it raise and lower at odd moments. Even more strange, trees and plants have started bending towards you like loyal subjects as you pass. When trick-or-treaters ring your doorbell this Halloween, sing them a song in your new voice that they will teach their friends and so on until all the world bows to your voice. Only then can your true work begin as you sing to something that has slumbered for so long that only your beautiful new timbre can wake it up.

Lucky numbers do-re-mi-fhtagn

 

Virgo (Aug 23-Sept 22)

Virgo, you handsome bastard. Despite the irrefutable fact that you’re a squishy computer walking around in a meat suit on a speck of rock that spins in an empty vacuum, The Stars think you’re pretty great. You may end up as nothing more than a snack for That Which Has Been And Shall Be Again, but you’re a one of a kind screaming flavor in the Great One’s palette of pain. Your blog post is going to be late again, but good things are worth waiting for, amirite? Get out there and be the faceless, shapeless horror you want to see in the world, you miraculous sonofabitch.

Lucky numbers 9/9

 

Libra (Sept 23- Oct 22)

Well, this is embarrassing. The Stars were assured by some lurking horrors that absolutely no Libras would survive into 2018. Furthermore, we were promised by certain mad prophets who scrawled their visions onto parchment made of human flesh that no one would be born a Libra ever again. Yet, here we are. So, uh… You will get news of a newsworthy sort. And a person will, uh, do or say something you thought they might. Or not. Really it’s anybody’s guess. And that special someone you have your eye on will… s….steal that eye. Yeah. They’re gonna steal your eye. And add it to their collection. So if anyone ever says “you have lovely eyes” the rest of that sentence is “to go with my collection.” Yup. The world is full of eye thieves. Don’t question it.

So, uh, happy birthday, Libra. Somehow.

Lucky numbers uhhhhh six? Yeah, six sounds good. And, like, elevensies.

 

Scorpio (Oct 23-Nov 21)

Everyone knows they should recycle. Bottles, cans, paper products, placed into seperate bags and left in orderly rows on the curb. Neat. Organized. Saving the planet by reusing things we don’t need. You will realize that there are many people in your life that you don’t need. But why waste a perfectly good resource for the planet by simply pushing them away so they can walk around and waste their potential by living? You’ve organized bottle drives before, you can definitely put together a body drive. Separate blood, bones and organs into their own separate bags, labeled and tied together. Bones should be arranged by type and size, don’t just throw them together! You’re better than that. Your people bags will be the envy of all who see them. Saving the planet and tidying up your cluttered social life? That’s killing two birds with one fun stone! (Or killing a bunch of screaming birds with a ritual dagger, but The Stars digress.) If you get five cents from every bottle you return, just imagine what you’ll get for this many skulls!

Lucky Numbers Save the planet, collect some skulls.

 

Sagittarius (Nov 22-Dec 21)

No one likes the beginning of the work week, but you will have a particular thing to gripe about when you are summoned against your will into a parallel dimension of your darkest nightmares. You will awake in a summoning circle surrounded by a strange machine that will hum with an unearthly glow. All around you there will be a gloom that is barely penetrated by the light on your phone. The walls will be slick with ichor and barbed chains will hang from a ceiling too high to see. Slowly the things that brought you to this place will approach, crawling and slithering toward you, wearing faces that are mockeries of a human’s. Their very presence will threaten to tear your mind apart. And then, all at once, they will scream in an abject terror. They will scream at you, the horrible thing they summoned to their world. You, with your horrifying one face, your arms instead of tendrils, walking on two legs like a nightmare come to life. They will scream and run, and in the confusion you will damage the machine, causing a chain reaction that will implode their entire universe while sending you back into yours and making you late for work. Your boss will not accept the excuse that you are death incarnate, the Summoned Horror.

Lucky Numbers 360

 

Capricorn (Dec 22-Jan 19)

While scrolling through Tinder you’ll accidently draw the Sigil of N’Zath, Second Lieutenant in the Filth Pit of the Fourth Circle of Hell, praise be Her name and may all that stand before Her find joy in drowning beneath the Sea of Unquenched Sorrow, embracing the small role they have played in revealing Her majesty. May darkness and bile sweep over all the land and consume Her foes. She is sickness and wretched decay, She is the rot on the throne of God that will bring the heavens tumbling down, She is Not Into Musicals And Doesn’t Like Dogs- Okay fuck that swipe left.

Lucky numbers I mean what kind of monster doesn’t like dogs?

 

Aquarius (Jan 20-Feb 18)

There are some things humans were not meant to achieve, things that defy the natural order and that can’t be undone. When you try to think of new ideas for your ice cream truck that will set you apart from the competition, a revelation both amazing and horrible will strike you: There is something other than soft or hard serve ice cream. A frosty treat that cannot be described by human concepts. A frozen, sprinkle-covered slap to the face of God and science. You won’t bother giving it flavor since the very molecular impossibility of it will bring people in droves. One day, as you notice the unsettling look in your customer’s eyes, you’ll realize all too late that these people weren’t eating the ice cream, it was eating them. As you hide in your truck away from the customers, the sweet jingle that plays from the speakers will be the last thing you hear….and now that you think about it, yeah, it IS a creepy sound. You get it.

Lucky numbers I scream, you scream, also there’s ice cream.

 

Pisces (Feb 19-Mar 20)

The Stars foresee one hell of a week for you, Pisces, so buckle in. The two shows your coworkers are putting on will be pretty lame, due to either a freak third floor hit-and-run or a crow convergence. Someone in I.T. is going to be late to work again, babbling about being Death Incarnate but that won’t get your email working so it looks like you won’t be able to send that earnings report on time. You’re friend N’Zath will get a date on Tinder (but you haven’t gone on a date in months) so you’ll only be kind of happy for her and think (maybe) you’re a bad friend. It’s going to be a good idea to skip your neighbor’s potluck dinner, since nothing there will be vegan even except the vodka you brought. There will be a memo in the break room for a “Body Drive” but you’re sure they meant bottle drive. When Friday rolls around you’ll realize that you’re the only one at the office. As you snack on the Halloween candy you keep at your desk you’ll hear the distant sound of an ice cream truck. (Sadly they probably don’t have any vegan options.) So you will go home, sigh at the end of another boring week and listen to a podcast while organizing your eye collection.

Lucky numbers 10.31.08

 

The Stars bid you a happy “Wear A Mask Over The Mask I Normally Wear” Eve, may you become the creature you were always meant to be.

 

Happy Birthday to Me

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It’s that special time of year again where we say goodbye to the scorching heat of the summer and gently glide (or should I say… fall?) into the Autumn months, awash in pumpkin spice and the growing options for outfits that the slightly cooler temperatures offer us. This season is also home to one major event on the calendar: My Birthday. It’s with this in mind that I offer you lovely people a wish list, in no particular order, of the things I would most like from Fandible this coming year.

1: Dungeons and Dragons.

Okay, look, the overwhelming majority of tabletop gamers out there cut their teeth on this property, and if you’re interested in podcasts that depict D&D you won’t have far to search before you find one. We chose to go another way for our games, and while we’ve amassed a sizeable catalogue of systems and settings under our belts, we’ve only really dabbled in the Granddaddy of RPGs. I want dungeons, traps, banshees guarding treasures and shameless min-maxing for levelling up. I want absurd names and holy weapons and loot and killing monsters with zero moral conflicts. I wanna say “I’m tired of these motherfuckin’ Snake Men on this motherfuckin’ Air Ship.”

I want Magic and Murder Hobos. I’m not saying it’s right, but it’s what I want. Birthday parties for kids are a source of awesome creative ideas.

2: More Brisket… I Mean More Smaller Games.

The Soloshot brilliantly utilizes passion for a setting and combines it with the chemistry and storytelling possibilities that two people at the table can offer. The occasional side story for The Longshot only requires two or three people at the table and Rebel Radio is open to anyone willing to walk through the door at the beginning and stumble out at the end. These smaller sessions allow for Fandible to record more and get a story out there and only has to organize a few schedules as opposed to the whole five. We’d still record every week like we do, only sometimes on a Sunday we’d throw together a game for whoever was around. Maybe actually try online recording. Why not? You don’t always need Voltron. Sometimes a few lions wanna roll some dice in the downtime. (I’m the green lion, btw. Obvs.)

3: Pew Pew Pew! More Sound Effects.

I’m really digging myself a hole here, but I want more sound effects in our games. (Yes, this includes the games I run and edit.) Adding this to our edit time may require we change up the workflow, like someone becomes the “sound effects person,” but it will add that extra spice to our games to bring them to the next level. (And considering that I’ve been admitted to the hospital for hot sauce related injuries three times now, I think I know something about spice.)

Also there’s a whole “sound effects” thing on our mixer we never use and damnit it’s a red button and I wanna push it.

4: Fandible Creation Lab.

Fandible’s love for playing games is only surpassed by our insane ability to come up with our own ideas for games. Honestly, we could bill ourselves as a think tank if we weren’t so busy making puns and rolling dice. Our recording area is a treasure trove of discarded notes for our own settings and it’s a crime that we haven’t released them to the wild. Look, if people can release page self-published ebooks on Amazon then we can publish something about soda cans having a brand war in the dead of night in a supermarket like The Warriors. It’s called “Can You Dig It?” See? I made that up all by myself. Imagine what the whole team has come up with.

5: Savage Worlds.

So help me Cthulhu I will get the whole team on board with how great that system is if it kills me. Fox in a Box Escape Rooms is an unforgettable experience and a good birthday party idea.

So there you have it. I know I left out the usual “Go To More Cons” and “Guest Storytellers” because that’s well trodden ground by now. Obviously I’d love to walk into New York Comicon with a Press Badge like we’re a Big Deal but I think that’s true for anyone in the podcast game. So what would you like to see on this list? Let us know in the comments below!

And no, you don’t get to know how old I am.

Secrets of the Hidden World

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Notes on the Hidden World
Alim Polat, Archeologist, Aeon Council of the Second Eclipse
Saturai, the 5th of Sable

 

Brothers and Sisters,

The research you considered a fool’s errand for the last five years has begun to bear fruit. Despite your insistence that there is no validity to my theory (and your subsequent dismissal of my requests for funding) I have began to amass enough evidence to string together a functional, however basic, understanding of how this society is composed. I may have toiled alone for half a decade, but it was not in vain. Contained in these pages are but some of my notes on the subject, and my full report will be forthcoming within the following weeks.

I was right, and the Council will recognize me for my research.

 

1: The Hidden World

It is understood that within any society there are multiple moving pieces that compose the greater whole: Social circles, legal systems, government and commerce all exist as contained social strata that support the society itself, allowing for venues of power and the methods they use to resist its destruction. Ours, of course, being older and superior in its application, knows the glory of fortitude and wisdom. There is, however, one that is older.

Just below the surface of our society is another, one that is simultaneously more and less complicated than our own, that hides in plain sight from prying eyes. This society that I have named “The Hidden World” is a complex (and, again, at times unbelievably simplistic) composite not of mundane business people, but of blood-soaked assassins and their heretical practices.

And believe me, brothers and sisters, The Hidden are everywhere.


2: Hiding in Plain Sight

The Hidden World and its denizens use a web of deceptively mundane terms for their insidious practices, allowing their exchange of lives-for-money to go unnoticed in the daily economics of the good people of the Ninth World. These terms are meant to pass into the papers and logs of any legitimate business without raising a hint of suspicion but read as clear a newspaper headline to you or I.

Sale: This is the disgusting term the Hidden use for any practice or activity done in the employ of someone else. While killing is the primary objective, other tasks can vary from spying, stalking, sabotage, and even simple courier services. These sins are all considered Sales.

Salespeople: This refers to the assassins themselves. Salespeople are any who engage in the dark practices outlined above.

Suppliers: The nefarious persons who place a price on another’s head (or require anything else done by The Hidden) and pay for the pleasure. Most have their identity concealed from the Salespersons involved, and this anonymity ensures that if the assassin is caught they cannot name the wicked individual who hired them.

Asset: One of a few terms taken from old spycraft, an Asset is anyone who is associated with an assassin without being one themselves, whether they know it or not. Sometimes groomed to become a killer themselves, Assets often have tragically short lifespans, being eliminated in some manner once their usefulness is up.

Handler: Another term from spycraft, a Handler is the go-between for Salesperson and Supplier. Always the head of an intricate network of spies and contacts, these purveyors of death seek out Sales contracts in line with their Salepeople’s skill set, as well as negotiating a price and gathering any and all information pertinent to the objective.

Market: Simply put, this is the target of the contract. A murder, property to be destroyed, and anything else that an evil heart may pay to get done is known simply as The Market.


3: Less Common Terms

While the above words are often used as code, there are other, more obscure titles that only Salespeople know of, and they allude to a much deeper functioning society of death than a simple band of murderers thinning the herd.

Oubliettes: Secret establishments frequented exclusively by Salespeople and their Assets, Oubliettes offer a range of services related to the exchange of Sales and also the mundane comforts of a tavern. My research has shown that every Oubliette is different in some sense, but they all provide a place to go – an elite and secret club. I have never seen the inside of one, however, as they are protected and obscured by strange nanite Magiks, and their location can change seemingly on a whim. The Hidden, however, can search them out with the ease the way you or I would find a grocer, but I cannot determine how.

Sommelier: A purveyor of poisons and weapons custom made to the needs of an assassin who can pay their high prices. While not present in every Oubliette, they offer cyphers and artefacts that we absolutely must capture and study, and the method with which these Sommeliers acquire and augment these objects is shrouded in secrecy. This should disturb all of us, as it hints at a shadow market within other illicit contraband exchanges that our spies have not even hinted at until now. Perhaps even within the black market of the Ninth World there are secrets that elude the greatest criminal empires.

The Gentle Way: This aspect of my research perplexes me the most. Within a culture based on violence and death, it would lead to reason that the same trade would consume this secret society from the inside and lead to its destruction. Yet my findings indicate that this has not happened, and in fact hints that The Hidden World may be far older than I can determine.

The Gentle Way is the code of conduct adhered to by all assassins, demanding that all interaction within the Oubliettes and any conversation in plain sight be handled with courtesy and almost saccharine kindness. The method of punishment if this code is violated is unknown, but I would venture that some sort of Sale would be made on the offending party. Most confusing, though, is an absence of any discernible governance within The Hidden World, so I simply do not know who makes these rules or enforces them.

My research has indicated that there are yet more qualities to this world that I have not uncovered. Strange pieces of glass found on the bodies of Salespeople seem to have no properties other than their fanciful colors. Brandings and scars equidistant from each other on the torsos of some assassins, while others have none, offer no clues to their purpose. In one instance, something called an Oubliette Bizarre arrived in a town at the same time a traveling circus did. When I awoke in my hotel room, I found a town of several hundred people entirely devoid of human life, not a soul on the streets or the shops, as if they all simply vanished. I observed strange burn marks on trees on the outskirts of the village as well a nearby lake losing several feet of water.

I will continue my research into the next year, when I will publish my findings that I have not included within these pages. I suppose I will begin acclimating myself to the new title of Observer Brother Polat, and I promise not to let me new status affect my dedication to my studies.

Go in Light,

Alim.


Tan, tell the supplier that the sale is done and please inform them of the hazards of withholding information crucial to the sale and request a bonus of a number you find acceptable. This is the only copy of this letter, but I suggest you pass it to the Inquest to be stored in the Atheneum. It would be such a waste to let this scholar’s works go unrecognized.

Also, tell The Wicked Dreamer that they have a leak, unless it was another game of theirs to see how far this would go. If he uncovered things such as The Bizarre and the body markings then we have to be careful.

-The Smiling Jackal

Your Character’s Feelings Don’t Matter

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Roleplaying is a wonderful combination of improvisational acting, socializing, and cooperative storytelling to tell a tale of adventure. Story arcs, both from the players and the Game Master, can build a narrative that is exciting in its execution and offers a good time had by all. At the center of the story is the player characters themselves, who they are and who they become. Motivations and histories, often painstakingly crafted by the players, are taken into consideration on the part of the player’s actions. As the story goes into full-swing, the player-characters (the protagonists) are fully living, breathing personas who have wants and desires.

And none of that matters one damn bit.

Dictionary.com defines an adventure as “an unusual and exciting, typically hazardous, experience or activity.” Since every game is an adventure for the characters, there are always any number of hazards in their way. These instances of danger exist to stop a character from succeeding in their quest, from perilous pitfalls to gun-toting grunts, and they wish your character harm. Fall victim to any of these obstacles and that beautiful mélange of character history and dramatic turns will end well before it can run its course.

Role-playing games are predicated on a system of rules, often numeric in representation and ruthless inefficiency. The book from which these rules are laid out is often available to everyone, letting player and Game Master alike learn what the game gives mechanical emphasis to, from high-speed car chases to madness inducing riddles from beyond. It’s often dense at first, but all the manners in which a person’s avatar (their character) can and will interact with the game are laid out to be learned. The rules may reward your personal narrative, but in the end, they only exist to show you how things are going to be. No beautiful story of loss and growth, hardships, and determination, will mean much if you ignore the rules.

Want to make a fragile opera singer in a world of tough-as-nails soldiers? Fine. Feel like pouring your energies into the sad background of sickly saloon owner in the savage Wild West? Go for it. Just know that the rules are there, waiting for you, and if the game doles out deadliness like a poker dealer in Vegas, your narrative won’t matter because you’ll be filling out a new character sheet before the ink is dry on the old one. The cold truth is, stats and mechanics mean more than story.

Your character is the only avatar you have in the game and is the only way you can interact with it, so it needs to be built to survive. If your character can’t endure the dangers of the story because you simply had to play a person with most of their points in World War 2 Trivia and Cajun Cooking, then that character is not long for this world. My advice: Work backwards from the stats and see how your concept fits. Survivability should take precedence over concept, because like it or not, the two-dimensional powerhouse who only speaks in one-syllable sentences and doesn’t even have a last name for most of the game is going to be the only one standing when the smoke and dust clears. In the end, the dice don’t care about your story, and you can’t avoid the dice.

Have examples of what I’m talking about? Disagree and wanna fight? Leave your comments below.

A Light in the Darkness

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Before I joined Fandible, my exposure to indie role-playing games was pretty limited. Sure, you had your Fiascos and such, but most of my time was focused on the tried-and-true games that I cut my teeth on: Shadowrun, Dungeons and Dragons and Vampire: The Masquerade. My friends and I rotated these primary narrative worlds every couple of months, only venturing out into new horizons every now and again but never really seeking to add to our permanent repertoire. It’s because of this that I never gave games beyond my purview the time of day, and even with being part of Fandible I often wait for another member of the team to enthusiastically vouch for a new system.

Now, however, it’s me extolling the virtues of new gem. It’s called Blades in the Dark, and it whispers sweet and terrible nothings into my ears.

Blades in the Dark (by Evil Hat Productions) is a game set in a world (it notably does not call the planet “Earth”) that has endured a truly spectacular apocalypse. The sun has been shattered, the world is wreathed in perpetual night and every ocean is now inky blackness. The lands have become blasted, petrified shadows of what they once were and there is only a rumor of the glory of the world that came before the Armageddon. The only thing that is known is that humanity was united and now thrives in cities protected and powered by empirical science, or the arcane, depending on who you ask.  

While reminiscent of Unhallowed Metropolis it departs the setting in some crucial ways. The Player Characters (PCs) are always scoundrels and ne’re-do-wells, looking to improve their lot by any means possible. Players create a Crew that focuses on a particular crime (smuggling, intimidation etc) and execute “scores” to improve their wealth, influence and resources. It also uses a “Clock” mechanic, which is used for dividing up objectives large and small. As a lifelong fan of heist films, I can say wholeheartedly that this game’s system is the best representation of everything that makes a good crime drama.

The narrative setting is also infused with supernatural elements, but not your typical “dragons and fireballs” fantasy tropes. Instead players are introduced to a world where ghosts, demons and creatures of forgotten gods exist just beyond the periphery of everyday life. Outside the safety of the cities lurk horrifying monstrosities that are simultaneously the greatest threat and crucial resource that humanity has, harvesting their blood to power the machines that keep the cities safe while trying not to really piss the creatures off.

It’s with this backdrop that you and your crew begin your quest for domination of the criminal underworld. It’s H.P. Lovecraft meets Peaky Blinders. It’s not steampunk, it’s Eldritchpunk, and it’s rad as hell.

So while we’re preparing to tear into this game and see if it lives up to the hype (the hype that I am absolutely responsible for, to be clear) we would like to know if any of you have come across a genre of game that is so crazy or ambitious that you had to give it a try. Leave your comments (or questions about our experiences with Blades in the Dark) below!