0:03

Ollid is a pucked

0:05

and placid-seeming agricultural moon,

0:07

but as the saying

0:09

goes, be wary the

0:11

still lake. Yes, farmers

0:13

speak softly and tend

0:16

to their crops with

0:18

loving cultivation. Yes, life

0:20

is quiet and late

0:23

afternoons are restful. Yes,

0:25

harvest work brings reward.

0:27

Then there is underneath.

0:30

But those nerveless chances

0:32

that Krinzki family circus and

0:34

traveling curiosity, they know only

0:36

what is above. They know

0:38

they step on fertile soil

0:40

and soft grass, perfect for

0:42

staking their tents and stands.

0:45

They know they walk through fields

0:47

under the lights and shadows of

0:49

the Citadel Baines, a fortress

0:51

layered with history so visible

0:54

that it is seemingly built

0:56

from the accretion of time

0:58

itself. They know that they

1:00

stand above a castle village,

1:02

sonorous with the sounds of

1:04

marketplaces and buskers and craft

1:07

shops, a circus of a

1:09

different type, but not altogether

1:11

unfamiliar. They know they stand

1:13

on a geological shelf. the

1:15

shore of a vast shimmering

1:17

lake beyond, open like a

1:20

sea, polished as a mirror, reflecting

1:22

the sky above, reflecting

1:24

the thousand moons in

1:26

condemnation, reflecting reallus itself,

1:28

and in its light

1:30

the Tetrispirica, three more

1:32

marble-like moons, cousin orbs,

1:34

neighbor spheres dominating the

1:36

heavens above. So is

1:38

it any wonder they

1:40

do not consider what

1:42

might be below? What

1:44

might move in that

1:46

fertile soil or between

1:48

the blades of that

1:50

soft grass? What else might

1:52

have staked acclaim on placid oud?

1:55

Or who else might move in

1:57

the shadows of the citadel

1:59

bane? else might hover above the

2:01

echoes of that castle town, who

2:04

else might stare out onto the

2:06

lake's horizon, might witness the impossible

2:08

beauty of the dancing lunar quartet,

2:10

might bade in the blue light

2:12

of Rialis itself and radiating with

2:14

pure possibility, dream! It is no

2:17

wonder at all. Such is life

2:19

on the thousand moons, such is

2:21

life for those nervous chances. That

2:23

circus caught in gravity, at least

2:25

for now. Welcome to Friends of

2:28

the Table, an actual play podcast

2:30

focused on critical world building smart

2:32

characterization and fun interaction between good

2:34

friends. I'm your host Austin Walker

2:36

and joining me today, Ali Akampora.

2:39

My name is Ali. You can

2:41

find me since this is a

2:43

debut episode. Unfortunately, sometimes still over

2:45

on x.com and Ali on your

2:47

west. I also am on another's

2:50

podcast, a Star Wars podcast. We're

2:52

watching Star Wars Rebels right now.

2:54

It's a more civilized age.net. Go

2:56

there. And then, you're on Friends

2:58

of the Table. Catch. Thank you.

3:00

You are. You already are. Keith

3:03

Carberry. Hi, my name is Keith

3:05

Carber. You can find me on

3:07

X and co-host at Keith J.

3:09

Carberry. You can find the Let's

3:11

Place that I do at youtube.com/run

3:14

button where we're finishing middle year

3:16

solid three finally. There's probably going

3:18

to be a bunch of new

3:20

episodes of that out by the

3:22

time this is up. Unless this

3:25

is up this week. But check

3:27

out. Some of our, yeah, I

3:29

had, I don't know, I have

3:31

no idea how long, how far

3:33

along that is, but the metal

3:36

gear stuff, those are some of

3:38

our best lots plays, so go

3:40

watch. Run button playing metal gear.

3:42

And art merging this table. Hey,

3:44

you can find me on Twitter

3:46

slash X at a. Temple, anywhere

3:49

else I am at AM Temple.

3:51

And this is the Star Warsiest

3:53

group of First of the Table,

3:55

right? Yeah. Oh, I've seen just

3:57

terrible Star Wars takes this week.

4:00

I don't know what I've done

4:02

to get that on my feeds.

4:04

Can you give me one of

4:06

them? People like really upset that

4:08

the Jedi are competent in the

4:11

Acoly to show I have not

4:13

started watching. I have not started

4:15

watching. incompetent for a very long

4:17

time. Yeah. A friend of mine

4:19

messaged me to say that they

4:22

were really psyched to see the

4:24

Jedi before they got too high.

4:26

A friend of mine messaged me

4:28

to say that they were really

4:30

psyched to see the Jedi before

4:32

they got too high on their

4:35

own shit and fucked everything up,

4:37

but I guess they're just shitty

4:39

cops. And it's like, I like

4:41

this friend. I'm not dissing this

4:43

person. They've always been shitty cops.

4:46

When you got someone with a

4:48

sword and authority and they come

4:50

to your town to go like,

4:52

well, wait a second, you're doing

4:54

it wrong over here. That's a

4:57

cop. It's gonna be a cop.

4:59

In the like, in the examination,

5:01

this is this, that is too

5:03

thorough for me to ever go

5:05

into, there's like two phases of

5:08

thinking about Jedi, the like pre-prequil

5:10

extended universe where the Jedi are

5:12

inherently flawless. Uh-huh. where they are

5:14

what they are in those movies

5:16

yeah fundamentally compromised and and like

5:18

I don't say this like in

5:21

an ivory tower sort of function

5:23

and but that that has been

5:25

you know Knights of the Old

5:27

Republic has a Jedi Council that's

5:29

Disconnected from reality and yeah, uh-huh.

5:32

Yeah, it's old. Yeah, yeah. The

5:34

the older public comics we just

5:36

read on AMCA last over the

5:38

last year or so have a

5:40

back-at-home Jedi Council that is disconnected

5:43

from the realities of what's happening

5:45

on the ground and they're like

5:47

on the right side of history

5:49

generally speaking in those stories. They're

5:51

just like slow as shit to

5:54

to get active. Yeah. Anyway, I'm

5:56

sorry. I rolled out for it.

5:58

It's filled with bad Star Wars

6:00

takes. Yeah. I'm sure one day

6:02

I'll watch the Acculate. But yeah.

6:04

I have one more plug. Listen

6:07

to Media Club Plus. It's great.

6:09

It is really good. If you

6:11

want to hear people on Friends

6:13

at the table talk about media

6:15

that they like and I mean

6:18

generally like because over there it's

6:20

it's Hunter Hunter, which is good.

6:22

Yeah, and so it's so easy

6:24

to be positive generally about hunter-hunter.

6:26

I want to see Dave Fallote's

6:29

hunter-hunter. Shut up. Why are you

6:31

saying that? Don't put that in

6:33

the air. I wouldn't see Tagafi

6:35

Star Wars. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Let

6:37

me sick. Today, we are playing

6:40

Realis. We're kicking off our campaign.

6:42

Realis prizes, passivity, except after wisdom

6:44

gained. It recognizes friendship strength, but

6:46

rewards solitary achievement. It shifts in

6:48

scope and scale according to the

6:50

needs of the story or the

6:53

whims of its tellers, and it

6:55

demands honesty and consequence, but care

6:57

at the table. We have some

6:59

foundation sentences, which are the sort

7:01

of like classic... Lines and Vails

7:04

type rules for us to play

7:06

by. Our foundation sentences are... Our

7:08

story never depicts sexual assault or

7:10

sexual violence. Our story never describes

7:12

injury and our story always depicts

7:15

violence in stylish and romantic ways

7:17

romantic in the broad literary sense

7:19

not in the interpersonal relationship sense

7:21

We're talking about swashbuckling. We're talking

7:23

about Star Warsie adventure, right? I

7:26

think of this this I think

7:28

about reality or this game of

7:30

reality this campaign and reality as

7:32

being a little bit Star Warsie

7:34

in that way a little bit

7:36

of a pulp action story, a

7:39

pulp adventure story. And with that

7:41

said, we should maybe get into

7:43

it a little bit and we'll

7:45

talk about characters in a second,

7:47

but I'd love for y'all to

7:50

picture those moons in your head

7:52

again. All those thousand moons and

7:54

then zoom in on four of

7:56

them and then zoom in on

7:58

this big marble that I'm sending

8:01

you. I'm not joking when I

8:03

say I have a marble for

8:05

each of these planets or each

8:07

of these moons, their moons not

8:09

planets. I'd say this is probably

8:12

the most mundane or most. I

8:14

don't want to say ugliest, but

8:16

it's a, you know, it's pockmarked

8:18

a little bit. Yeah, this is

8:20

real geode coded. It is geode

8:22

coded. It is. There's beautiful blues

8:25

and like the yellow browns are

8:27

an okay color, but they're not,

8:29

this is not a shining gem

8:31

of a planet. This is valid.

8:33

Ollid is a, I said planet

8:36

again, give me some time to

8:38

get into my moon, I gotta

8:40

get moon-pilled, I gotta go moon,

8:42

I gotta start moon-maxing, give my

8:44

head right on this. Ollid is

8:47

an agricultural moon, it's one of

8:49

the four moons, this kind of

8:51

quartet of moons, that again what

8:53

they do is they like move

8:55

close enough that you can take

8:58

a little shuttle bus basically from

9:00

one moon to another, instead of

9:02

needing a real spaceship to do

9:04

it. which is what most of

9:06

the moons need. You can't get

9:08

from this moon to one of

9:11

the moons you see out in

9:13

the sky, the other thousand moons

9:15

of Rinalis, that you see out

9:17

in the sky without, you know,

9:19

what's called an orphan vessel. This

9:22

is a... kind of special living

9:24

spaceship. You need something like that

9:26

to really do that long distance

9:28

travel. But here on these four

9:30

moons is, you know, you go

9:33

to the space station, you get

9:35

a little space shuttle, you get

9:37

on board it, and then it

9:39

takes you to the to the

9:41

arena moon. And I think that

9:44

you all, the members of those

9:46

nerveless chancers, the Krensky family circus

9:48

and traveling curiosity, have such a

9:50

little shuttle not big enough to

9:52

go out beyond the the tetrad

9:54

these four moons but but effective

9:57

enough to get you between the

9:59

four moons which you do on

10:01

your or circus tour of this

10:03

world. So again, zoom in on

10:05

this marble and then, and then

10:08

picture somewhere on this marble, maybe,

10:10

maybe in this, the big, one

10:12

of the big yellow patches kind

10:14

of, maybe near the cool circle

10:16

lake. I'm calling that a big

10:19

lake on the right, you know,

10:21

I dropped this in roll 20.

10:23

I know I said we probably

10:25

won't need roll 20 and then

10:27

I invited you all under roll

10:30

20 anyway. And why not, I

10:32

got this big... Marble that could

10:34

be a map Take notes people

10:36

at home. You can just use

10:38

a picture of a marble and

10:40

say that's a map I'll drop

10:43

that in That's a map. That's

10:45

a map. Um while we're on

10:47

the topic you mentioned in the

10:49

the intro so when the intro

10:51

stays the same as it was

10:54

when you read it just now

10:56

that the the moons are lit

10:58

by the reflection of the planet

11:00

and you know me I fucking

11:02

love science. Yeah, I know what

11:05

you're thinking that's a star Austin

11:07

No, no, is it is it

11:09

true? Is is our moon lit

11:11

by the reflection of the sun

11:13

off of our planet? Okay, cool.

11:16

Sorry, sorry, sorry. No, no, in

11:18

this in Realis There are two

11:20

light sources. One is the corpse

11:22

sun, which produces a faint dark

11:24

red color, and really only the

11:26

moons up near it get that

11:29

dark red color, or like they'll

11:31

get like a faint yellow if

11:33

they're a little bit further away.

11:35

You think about it as like

11:37

a vertical, right? You think about

11:40

it as like, go to the

11:42

north pole of reallus and keep

11:44

going, and there are some moons

11:46

up there, right? And above that

11:48

is the corpse sun, which is

11:51

smaller than reallus. It's dying, tiny,

11:53

tiny, tiny, tiny little sun. It

11:55

used to be a star, or

11:57

it's made up of countless bodies,

11:59

it's made up of corpses. I

12:02

don't know, I haven't been there.

12:04

And that produces this like sickly

12:06

red light. Realis itself is iridescent.

12:08

It produces its own. Iridescent's the

12:10

wrong word, isn't it? Iridescent just

12:12

means it's like colorful. Um, or

12:15

luminescent, yeah, or luminescent, yeah, or

12:17

luminescent, yes, it is, it produces

12:19

its own light. So most of

12:21

the moons are lit by this

12:23

bright blue colorful light from reallus

12:26

itself, which... If you've seen the

12:28

postcards from Sam Beck, one of

12:30

those has a very clear picture

12:32

of the like bright blue reallus

12:34

surrounded by the kind of thousand

12:37

moons. Sorry, I was scrolling to

12:39

see if I posted it recently,

12:41

but instead what I posted is

12:43

lots, is a really big sword

12:45

and then that time that we

12:48

got really into... Tough ghosts! And

12:50

then it just does closing tough

12:52

ghosts images for ever. 25 minutes?

12:54

Just for 25 minutes. That was

12:56

a good episode, I above. Some

12:58

birds. Anyway, so that's, that's, that's

13:01

the, does that answer your question

13:03

art? About the, okay, great. Okay,

13:05

here we go. I'm gonna, I'm

13:07

gonna relink this copy. message link,

13:09

boom, I've linked my own message

13:12

from before and you can see

13:14

the fifth image here is kind

13:16

of like the red is the

13:18

great void and then the blue

13:20

of reallus in the distance that's

13:23

that is luminescent as Ali said.

13:25

Where was I? We're zooming in,

13:27

zoom in, right. And so I

13:29

think, yeah, over on this, I

13:31

think, I think, like, here, this

13:34

place I've just marked on this

13:36

map. is where y'all are. I

13:38

think that on the western side

13:40

of this area I've circled are

13:42

a bunch of little mountains. On

13:44

the eastern side is a lake,

13:47

so it's a really like defensible

13:49

position in that way. And this

13:51

is like this whole area is

13:53

is is kind of under the

13:55

auspices, the protection of a citadel,

13:58

the citadel bane, B-E-I-N. which runs

14:00

right up against one of the

14:02

mountain cliffs on the west. And

14:04

if you see that citadel, you

14:06

know, you see a bunch of

14:09

other, maybe there are some orphan

14:11

vessels, these big expensive living spaceships

14:13

that are parked out front basically,

14:15

visitors to negotiate over, I don't

14:17

know, whatever negotiators negotiate over, that's

14:20

maybe above your pay grade or

14:22

you're just not interested, or maybe

14:24

you are, we can talk more

14:26

about that later. Importantly, out in

14:28

front of the citadel, maybe between...

14:30

the kind of residential and the

14:33

kind of like feudal holdings of

14:35

that Citadel and the Citadel's main

14:37

gates is the circus. That is

14:39

the big tents and the parked,

14:41

you know, locomotive style, you know,

14:44

space shuttle of the Nevertheless Chancers,

14:46

the Krensky family circus and the

14:48

traveling curiosity. y'all are parked out

14:50

front you have been invited here

14:52

today or for like maybe this

14:55

week this whole week to be

14:57

entertainment for whatever these big negotiations

14:59

that are happening inside of the

15:01

Citadel you normally just go on

15:03

your normal route you know you

15:06

kind of bounce around a moon

15:08

one of these four moons for

15:10

some amount of time some some

15:12

amount of months and then you

15:14

go okay we like now let's

15:16

go over to another moon and

15:19

you do that in the other

15:21

moon and you just you know

15:23

there's the circuit you have the

15:25

circuit but every now and then

15:27

someone pays you extra And by

15:30

you, I mean, pays your bosses,

15:32

the Krinski's extra, to take a

15:34

side, you know, a sort of

15:36

side job to run the circus

15:38

for some sort of important political

15:41

envoy or a king or some

15:43

other sort of famous person or

15:45

a demon or a demigod, you

15:47

know, normal stuff. And you just

15:49

set up shop and do that.

15:52

And we're here now doing that.

15:54

And I'd love to... zoom in

15:56

on your characters here. I'd love

15:58

for you to introduce for me

16:00

your characters, read me basically, maybe

16:02

at your whole sheet, but you.

16:05

know named pronouns look dream give

16:07

me your bonds tell me what

16:09

class you are and then and

16:11

your sphere and impulse which if

16:13

you don't have I will quickly

16:16

add to your various things as

16:18

I realize that we might not

16:20

be in there who wants to

16:22

go first I can go I'm

16:24

the first tab here okay Did

16:27

I misinterpret which is the ocean

16:29

and which is the land on

16:31

this is which one is which

16:33

on the warm white is the

16:35

land? Okay, I did misinterpret it.

16:38

Yeah, the blue is the ocean

16:40

or the water we used them

16:42

because the blue is the it

16:44

looked black to me So I

16:46

was like this to go either

16:48

way. Yeah, that's fair. It's not

16:51

that Keith never seen a map

16:53

before Yeah It's not that by

16:55

the way We all believe that

16:57

you've seen a map before no

16:59

one's questioning. Thank you Um, okay,

17:02

so I'm playing high malice. Um,

17:04

my class is... Please spell it

17:06

from a listener at home. Sure,

17:08

that is... Thank you. H-Y-E, and

17:10

then capital M-A-L-I-S. High malice. High

17:13

malice. High malice. High malice. High

17:15

malice. My class is the, uh,

17:17

uh, scissors. Boom! There you go.

17:19

Yeah, got it. Yeah, got it.

17:21

My look, my pronouns are she

17:24

they, my look is, I've written

17:26

here, a big feathered cloak in

17:28

the style of a man of

17:30

war, the bird, not the jellyfish,

17:32

or the... The human concept? Sure.

17:34

Right, the boat, right. Or the

17:37

guy, right. Or like a man

17:39

at war. A guy at a

17:41

war? No, sure. Yeah, no. Like

17:43

a bird. Like a big brown

17:45

bird. With a big red. With

17:48

the red near the chest and

17:50

stuff. That's cool. I've written here

17:52

ritual hairstyles, Queen Amadalaesque. And I

17:54

feel like... I've explained that third

17:56

one by explaining the big bird

17:59

jacket, I think. It's all coming

18:01

together for everybody, I think, now.

18:03

My dream is that I will

18:05

witness the alignment of the moons

18:07

and bring fame to my sponsors.

18:10

The reason I have sponsors is

18:12

because I'm from the Crux moon,

18:14

which is the the Colosseum one,

18:16

and I do predictions there. Important

18:18

to the society there, I think.

18:20

Do you want to read the

18:23

bonds too? Yeah, read the bonds

18:25

too. Or do you want to

18:27

go around first and then read

18:29

bonds? What do you want to

18:31

do? I don't want to introduce

18:34

these characters. Yeah, everybody else. Let's

18:36

go around first and then we'll

18:38

come back around for bonds. Wait,

18:40

and what are we doing in

18:42

this? Didn't we want to start

18:45

with an image of you in

18:47

the circus? Oh of me? Yeah,

18:49

what are you what are you

18:51

doing? What's your what's the average

18:53

day or maybe not the average

18:56

day? What's happening here? Here out

18:58

front of the sit at El

19:00

Bain. What's what's your what's your

19:02

day today? I mean, I've got

19:04

to have a table set up

19:06

doing readings for people, right? Yeah,

19:09

is it like, are you out

19:11

in the air? Are you inside

19:13

of a tent? Are you, do

19:15

you have a little structure? I

19:17

mean, I guess if this, okay,

19:20

are we, are we, are you,

19:22

yeah, are we, are we, are

19:24

we like a circus tent circus

19:26

or are we like a, um,

19:28

traveling carnival, I think you're a

19:31

traveling carnival. So I think there

19:33

is a big tent where the

19:35

show happens, but there's probably also,

19:37

I don't know, there are, maybe

19:39

there's not rides per se, but

19:42

you tell me, has anybody been

19:44

to a renaissance fair? The one

19:46

that is near me, the King

19:48

Richards Fair, you go there and

19:50

there's like a bunch of like

19:52

hand-powered rides. Like it's like classical,

19:55

I don't know if this is

19:57

a common thing. There's a classic

19:59

carnival rides, but it's like a

20:01

really strong. guy who like spins

20:03

a gear that like makes the

20:06

ride go and it's pretty second

20:08

we should have that. Cool. Okay

20:10

I think my day-to-day is that

20:12

I probably have like a stand

20:14

set up somewhere near the food

20:17

stands. Okay. Because it feels like

20:19

I would want people to engage

20:21

with me in a casual way.

20:23

when they're like already looking for...

20:25

eating fried dough. I'm looking for

20:28

an opportunity to like sit down

20:30

or kill time for instance, right?

20:32

I guess you have to be

20:34

outside because you are a star

20:36

reader. This isn't just looks up

20:38

at, looks up at the moons

20:41

and kind of says, hmm, how

20:43

are things aligning right now? So

20:45

you can't really be in a

20:47

closed top tent to do your

20:49

job, I guess. Yeah, and I

20:52

think that my like customer off.

20:54

day-to-day situation here is that I

20:56

probably have to help people set

20:58

up I probably have to help

21:00

the food people set up there

21:03

like little traveling kitchens or whatever

21:05

yeah and then once it it's

21:07

opened I go to my relatively

21:09

simple little stand that's just a

21:11

sign and you know yeah the

21:14

stars or whatever do you have

21:16

any like I mean like I'm

21:18

gonna guess the answer is yes

21:20

you have friends among the kind

21:22

of food staff is there anybody

21:24

who you like is your bud

21:27

I know we are going to

21:29

go over our personal bonds now,

21:31

but... This is anybody you're like...

21:33

Yeah. A special connection amongst the...

21:35

Sure. What's the most interesting sort

21:38

of food that you could have

21:40

in a... Wow. Damn. This was

21:42

interesting sort of food, table-side guac?

21:44

tableside guac yeah that's not okay

21:46

I'm just a weird one to

21:49

have it's a very interesting choice

21:51

for a carnival I don't know

21:53

this place here but tableside guac

21:55

sounds like a thing Westside gun

21:57

would brag about in a song

22:01

with the table side guac. This

22:03

is a simpler answer than is

22:05

fun for storytelling I guess. But

22:07

I think that I have an

22:10

end with the meets on a

22:12

stick guy. Oh sure. You don't

22:14

have to get complicated. I could

22:17

think of a high concept. Yeah

22:19

no. I get you. Do they

22:21

call it meat on a stick

22:23

or do they have like one

22:26

of the real names for that

22:28

kind of food? I'm sure it's

22:30

a real name. I'm sure it's

22:32

different sorts of things, but it's

22:35

a thing that you find in

22:37

that people want. Yeah. Having it

22:39

in with the meat on a

22:41

stick guy is like the least

22:44

cool you could sit. Wow. You

22:46

say that now, but when you're

22:48

hungry later and a little drunk.

22:50

High is gonna be like, I

22:53

know a guy is getting some

22:55

meat on a meat on a

22:57

stick right now. You can keep

22:59

holding your beer at your other

23:02

hand. Because the big, you know,

23:04

you think it's like the sensational

23:06

carnival snacks and they're a little

23:08

fussy, you know? Yeah, yeah. You

23:11

think that's part of why you're,

23:13

you vibe with this guy is

23:15

like you're both kind of low

23:18

key, all said. Because like you're

23:20

a, you're a fortune teller, but

23:22

you're describing yourself as not being

23:24

like pomp and circumstance and like.

23:27

I'm sure maybe you, you don't

23:29

think you don't do a good

23:31

job of it, but you're not

23:33

like, I know you dressed fancy.

23:36

Right, I think the pomp and

23:38

circumstance comes from my style. I

23:40

see, right. And from the, the,

23:42

the seriousness with which I take

23:45

my predictions. But I think I

23:47

can just kick it. You know

23:49

what I mean? Kick it like

23:51

hang out? Yeah. Allie, what is

23:54

your sphere and your impulse? Oh,

23:56

sorry guys. I said my planet

23:58

Crox. My sphere is sorcery and

24:00

my impulse is to respond to

24:03

a mundane problem with magical means.

24:05

Yes, and uh... Let's go to

24:07

another character. All right, I'll go

24:09

next. I think I'm the next

24:12

tab. Let's tab over. My character

24:14

is the sense of dread observed

24:16

near the back staircase in the

24:19

east wing or Donnie for short.

24:21

Oh yeah, Donnie. Donnie. Uh, Donnie

24:23

uses they then pronouns. We're just

24:25

going straight down. The look, hazy,

24:28

hard to see at the best

24:30

of times, translucent, looks like they

24:32

might be wearing a formal jacket

24:34

and a colored shirt, but it

24:37

doesn't go below the pockets. Your

24:39

dream? I will reunite with that

24:41

which I was separated from. Interesting,

24:43

interesting. Art, you should also say

24:46

your class, your class, and then

24:48

also your spirit impulse. Oh yes,

24:50

my class is the quintescent. The

24:52

sphere of spirit and the impulses

24:55

respond to a practical problem with

24:57

ritualistic means and I think Donnie

24:59

is helping them cheat at the

25:01

carnival games That like is that

25:04

what you always do is that

25:06

like your role is to be

25:08

I think I think Donnie's court

25:10

sort of a floater if you'll

25:13

well excuse the the term Not

25:15

like that Yeah, uh-huh,

25:17

uh-huh. The pun here being that

25:19

you're a ghost who floats around.

25:21

Yeah, we got it. Yeah. It's

25:23

not poop. Oh, I see. And

25:25

yeah, but I think today is

25:28

like, sort of like deflecting kids

25:30

basketball shots or whatever, making the

25:32

milk bottle stand up. Can you

25:34

make yourself less? I mean, I

25:36

guess, I guess, I guess, I'm

25:38

looking at your class sentences and

25:40

sure, why not? You could make

25:42

yourself less visible to do that.

25:44

Yeah, yeah, okay, great. I'm not

25:46

totally on the board. I will

25:49

always force others to confront. The

25:51

truth is not like the most

25:53

in tune with cheating and carnival

25:55

games. I was looking more at,

25:57

I will, I always be able

25:59

to. or elemental power. Oh yeah

26:01

sure. Which in retrospect I actually think

26:03

that we need to define what

26:05

that is. There is a in the

26:08

the character creation section of the

26:10

book there is a thing that's like

26:12

hey sometimes while you're creating character Many

26:14

classes of a sentence describing some specific

26:17

piece of equipment like a unique weapon,

26:19

distinct armor or vehicle, if playing such

26:21

a class takes some time during

26:23

character creation to describe how that equipment

26:26

looks and works. And I think that

26:28

that's actually probably this too. Like, quintessence

26:30

broad enough to include like, as

26:32

the class is written with the description

26:35

and both end with the class sentences,

26:37

you know, a lake spirit or something,

26:39

right? And so that's why this

26:41

is so broad. I wheeled a spectral

26:44

or elemental power could include I do

26:46

water magic. I do water magic. Right?

26:48

But presumably, you do ghost stuff,

26:50

right? Ghost stuff? Ghost stuff? Ghost stuff.

26:53

Can we put that in brackets here

26:55

next to it? Just ghost stuff? Yeah.

26:57

So that we know what that

26:59

spectral power is? We'll play it

27:02

by ear. You know, it's meant

27:04

to be broad. It is meant

27:06

to be broad. But I think

27:08

in other words, you're not

27:10

summoning firestorms, right? Yes. Yes.

27:13

Yeah, feel free to come

27:15

up with a way of

27:17

describing that if you'd like

27:19

in a couple of words.

27:21

Ghost stuff works though. All

27:23

right, finally, Keith. Hello. Hi.

27:26

My character's name is

27:28

Wellaway Piaster. As Pranzer,

27:30

he him. He is

27:32

a Zanny. His look. I've

27:34

got a couple pictures

27:36

here that I can

27:38

send. He's ring bright

27:40

red pants with a

27:42

button up, long-sleeved shirt.

27:45

subtly off-white cotton shirt

27:47

with big red buttons.

27:49

He's wearing a mushroom

27:51

hat, like uh, like with

27:53

like scaffolding, like it's big.

27:56

It's like not like a

27:58

knit cap. Adorned. with gold

28:00

cuff links and sort of

28:02

like a gold bolo tie

28:04

but the the pendant part

28:06

of bolo tie is just

28:09

like a plain button but

28:11

the the the tie part

28:13

is gold and I spend

28:15

my time doing like tricks

28:17

and gags in a sort

28:19

of me like a high

28:21

traffic area outside of the

28:23

So you're not part of

28:25

the big show inside the

28:27

tent or are you also

28:29

part of that? Where are

28:31

you at in the hierarchy

28:33

of the circus? I sort

28:35

of consider this a kind

28:37

of barker position. This is

28:39

like in a traction. This

28:41

is like a go inside

28:43

type of thing, but this

28:45

is also like a hat

28:47

on the ground getting tipped

28:49

extra money. kind of thing.

28:51

Maybe he'll run a shell

28:53

game, maybe he'll do some

28:55

card tricks. I picture a

28:57

lot of juggling comedy. Like

28:59

there's a, one of my

29:01

first favorite bits of comedy

29:03

from when I was a

29:05

little kid was Steve Martin

29:07

doing a bunch of juggling

29:09

gags where he like pretends

29:11

to not know how to

29:13

juggle and is like, let

29:15

me do this trick and

29:18

it's the same trick six

29:20

times. It basically becomes the

29:22

movie Zoolander, but with juggling

29:24

tricks. Oh, okay. And, uh,

29:26

let's see. Yeah, I think

29:28

that that's, I think that

29:30

that's it, the like sort

29:32

of gathering a crowd and

29:34

then like kind of try

29:36

and get that crowd to

29:38

go into the tent. Right,

29:40

right. I got you. Um,

29:42

uh, I have, oh, sorry.

29:44

Let's get your dream and

29:46

your sphere. Oh, my dream.

29:48

Yes. I will hear it

29:50

whispers and shouts at entire

29:52

world speak my name together.

29:54

Great. Love the dream big

29:56

and you're a sphere of

29:58

impulse. A sphere of stagecraft

30:00

impulse respond to a person.

30:02

personal or private problem through

30:04

performative or public means great

30:06

love this also I need

30:08

people that both well away

30:10

you and Donnie know here

30:12

who who you what type

30:14

of people are you dealing

30:16

with here on the day

30:18

to day you friends among

30:20

the I do this yeah

30:22

so I think that there's

30:24

a sort of like tag

30:27

in tag out duos thing

30:29

here I think that I

30:31

have another you know sort

30:33

of clown character and I

30:35

think, I imagine us running

30:37

like, you know, like light

30:39

curry scams together, you know,

30:41

needing someone to be really

30:43

impressed in the audience, a

30:45

first person to go in

30:47

with like a $20 tip

30:49

to be like, this is

30:51

the appropriate, like tipping high

30:53

to make it look like

30:55

you've got a tip high,

30:57

maybe some light pick pocketing,

30:59

misdirection. and stuff like that.

31:01

Yeah, the name of this

31:03

clown is Pliny Plantain, the

31:05

banana clown. Okay. Their real

31:07

name, he day, he day

31:09

pronouns on plenty. Real name

31:11

Grent. Real name Grent. Real

31:13

name Grent. Real name Grent.

31:15

Grent. Dani, who do you

31:17

know? Probably fewer people. Sure.

31:19

I have a thought here,

31:21

but I don't know, how

31:23

do you do with kids?

31:25

Oh, real well. Yeah, okay.

31:27

There's a stow away, you

31:29

know. Sure, like became, I

31:31

think there's a sort of

31:33

similar overlap here. One, you've

31:35

both only been conscious for

31:38

some amount for a few,

31:40

I guess, wait, sorry, you've

31:42

been actually conscious for quite

31:44

some time we realized, right?

31:46

You're, you've been a ghost

31:48

for, for a while. But

31:50

like a really vague ghost

31:52

for a while, yeah. So

31:54

both of you are, I

31:56

guess, outsiders in some way.

31:58

You know this kind of

32:00

like, I'll say 12 year

32:02

old, something like that, named

32:04

Candide Marotta, who was a

32:06

stowaway. Claims to be an

32:08

orphan, but who knows? Could

32:10

be a runaway, right? I

32:12

have a mechanical question about

32:14

this? Yeah. Can the kids

32:16

not sense the dread? Do

32:18

they not mind the dread?

32:20

Great question. You have to

32:22

be older to pick up

32:24

on. I think that once

32:26

Donnie got a little more

32:28

together, the sense of dread

32:30

is a little more controllable.

32:32

Okay. So you've used the

32:34

dread to manifest and so

32:36

there's less, there's less ambient

32:38

dread. Right. Yeah, there's less

32:40

ambient dread. It's more of,

32:42

uh, that's just a name.

32:44

Oh, I see. Right. Well,

32:47

that was a name that

32:49

was given to you based

32:51

on. the way other people

32:53

were feeling. It's not necessarily

32:55

where you're at, you know,

32:57

you're not always exuding dread,

32:59

right? Right, yeah, sure. I

33:01

like it. So yeah, uh,

33:03

Candide, Candide Marotta, you know,

33:05

1213, she, they pronounce on

33:07

Candide, real like, um, real

33:09

like, gets into trouble, but

33:11

gets out of trouble, type,

33:13

type, type kid, real, um,

33:15

always... always looks for for

33:17

trouble when when a day

33:19

is boring, you know, but

33:21

also someone who like will

33:23

sometimes show up with a

33:25

pocket full of like minor

33:27

treasure right before you leave

33:29

the the moon to go

33:31

to the next moon and

33:33

it's like, well, where did

33:35

you get this? And she's

33:37

like, don't worry about it.

33:39

Don't worry about where I

33:41

got it. I'm sharing it

33:43

with you. Okay, a little

33:45

precocious A little precocious A

33:47

little in search of a

33:49

found family, but doesn't quite

33:51

know that you know, this

33:53

is it But like maybe

33:56

one day, but one maybe

33:58

one day She'll feel like

34:00

comfortable here you know what

34:02

this is answered can people

34:04

see Donnie like all the

34:06

time or sometimes or what's

34:08

the sometimes sometimes sometimes yeah

34:10

well speaking of seeing each

34:12

other I'm sorry Ali we're

34:14

gonna say something how frequent

34:16

our ghosts ghost every day

34:18

ghosts are not a thing

34:20

that like they're not a

34:22

species of being in the

34:24

way of like Oh yeah,

34:26

I know three goats. You

34:28

know what I mean? They're

34:30

not like elves and D

34:32

and D or something. But

34:34

they are like ghosts in

34:36

fantasy worlds that have ghosts,

34:38

right? You hear stories about

34:40

ghosts. You probably run into

34:42

another ghost or two. Many

34:44

ghosts are not as stable

34:46

as Donnie is in not,

34:48

I don't mean that in

34:50

like a mental sense. I

34:52

mean that in a last

34:54

sense, like, like, exists. Like,

34:56

like, exists. Like, like, exists.

34:58

Like, like, exists. beyond a

35:00

haunting, you know? Most ghosts

35:02

don't keep jobs, is what

35:05

I would say. Most ghosts

35:07

don't like travel from moon

35:09

to moon. Does that help?

35:11

Answer that, a little bit.

35:13

Okay. And there are other

35:15

types of beings that are...

35:17

A ghost is a broad

35:19

word, right? Because explicitly, Donnie

35:21

is a quintescent, which again

35:23

is a sort of spirit

35:25

that is... that is a

35:27

playable character type being, right?

35:29

Which means has a great

35:31

deal of autonomy, is not

35:33

beholden to being in a

35:35

single place forever, is the

35:37

fully embodied spirit of something

35:39

or someone or some force,

35:41

but is not like, you

35:43

know, there are things that

35:45

are more like demons that

35:47

exist in this world. Right?

35:49

And those might haunt you

35:51

in the way that we

35:53

think of a ghost haunting

35:55

you. But they're not the

35:57

same thing as the type

35:59

of spirit that Dottie is,

36:01

right? So yeah, many other...

36:03

things like Donnie are people

36:05

like Donnie are fairly rare.

36:07

is the short answer. So,

36:09

those are our three little

36:11

images of y'all. Let's go

36:14

over relationships, now that everyone's

36:16

been debuted. Alice, come back

36:18

to you. What are your

36:20

bonds with Donnie and Wellaway?

36:22

Um, yeah, so my bonds,

36:24

my bond with Donnie is,

36:26

Donnie's fate has been shattered

36:28

and diffused. I will guide

36:30

them towards, towards favor in

36:32

their second living. And then

36:34

my bond with, uh, wellaway

36:36

pastir, pastir. Piaster. Piaster? Willoughley's

36:38

faded glory will not come

36:40

without hardship. I will walk

36:42

him, I will walk with

36:44

him to assure his safety.

36:46

Amazing. Art. My bonds, and

36:48

that is alley's page, my

36:50

bound with high malice, is

36:52

highest terrified of the truth.

36:54

I embody, I will make

36:56

them face it. Oh, the

36:58

wellaway. It is, I am

37:00

with well, when I am

37:02

with well away, I remember

37:04

what I once was and

37:06

feel at peace. And well

37:08

away. My bond with High

37:10

is, High showed me a

37:12

straight path to my destiny,

37:14

but I will show them

37:16

how to bend any path.

37:18

And my bond with Donnie

37:20

is, what's wrong Donnie? Can't

37:23

they take a joke? Oh,

37:25

sorry, what's wrong with Donnie?

37:27

Can't they take a joke

37:29

is also very good? Yeah.

37:31

So maybe a little more

37:33

hostile. It's a little more

37:35

hostile, but kind of fun.

37:37

I'll think on that. Uh,

37:39

yeah. I... will I also

37:41

put my hat picture in

37:43

my pants picture in the

37:45

in the chat oh in

37:47

the which chat oh the

37:49

oh I see yeah you're

37:51

kind of a classical clown

37:53

these big yeah that's what

37:55

I think of classical clown

37:57

well you know what I

37:59

mean there's like what are

38:01

these what's this from Um,

38:03

these guys were described as

38:05

Tudor servants. Oh, sure. And

38:07

then this guy, I was

38:09

just looking for mushroomats, and

38:11

I was like, this is

38:13

the mushroom mat. Like, what

38:15

if, uh, what if like,

38:17

Quaigon Jin had to wear

38:19

a big mushroom hat? That

38:21

is what it looks like

38:23

to me. This is like

38:25

if a clown was an

38:27

Eldon Ring innovator. Damn. So

38:29

true. I think I might

38:32

have a big white feather

38:34

in this mushroom. I don't

38:36

know. Like a huge. like

38:38

fluffy feather. Great, I love

38:40

this. While you're all doing

38:42

these things, I'm going to

38:44

say that it's like the

38:46

equivalent here of a early

38:48

evening, you know, we're at

38:50

like 5 p.m. or the

38:52

equivalent on this moon, you

38:54

know, the, it's starting to,

38:56

to dim. And you're probably

38:58

halfway through this week long

39:00

visit, right? Circus has been

39:02

up for a few days

39:04

based on the way that

39:06

y'all have been describing it,

39:08

what your days are, you

39:10

know, you're past the initial

39:12

boom. of a bunch of

39:14

villagers coming to town. And

39:16

I should say also, I

39:18

started to say this before,

39:20

but the Citadel Bain is,

39:22

you can sense the layers

39:24

of history on it, you

39:26

know, we see it maybe

39:28

in the background here, but

39:30

behind the circus. It is

39:32

an ancient Citadel, like it

39:34

is pre- you take like

39:36

an old building on this

39:38

planet that looks sturdy and

39:41

like, you know, oh yeah,

39:43

this has been a castle

39:45

for a thousand years or

39:47

whatever. This looks like... pre

39:49

that. This looks like ancient

39:51

and not just old, right?

39:53

Except that it has been

39:55

layered atop by every generation

39:57

of history that's come forward

39:59

from it, right? So you

40:01

see the move from, you

40:03

know, in our world, this

40:05

is a move from a

40:07

structure that looks, you know,

40:09

ancient Greek or ancient Chinese

40:11

or something forward, ancient Egyptian,

40:13

forward into a, you know,

40:15

thousands of years later where

40:17

the stoneworked stairwells. And then

40:19

on top of those are,

40:21

you know, complex police and

40:23

levy systems from whatever the

40:25

kind of Middle Ages period

40:27

of this place was, or

40:29

those have been have been

40:31

replaced, or some of those

40:33

are kept as simply historical

40:35

artifacts. Oh, look, this is

40:37

where we did blank. And

40:39

then, you know, parts of

40:41

this is like, this is

40:43

a castle that has automatic

40:45

sliding doors installed on it.

40:47

You know, this is a

40:50

castle where like the doors

40:52

go whoosh. as they open

40:54

up because the motion detector

40:56

sees you approaching. This is

40:58

a castle with like wires

41:00

and metal power boxes, you

41:02

know, effectively stapled onto the

41:04

side of it. I mean,

41:06

quite literally this is a

41:08

castle that has a courtyard

41:10

that has some spaceships parked

41:12

inside of it. But it's

41:14

never stopped being an ancient

41:16

castle, this ancient citadel that

41:18

protected this this little region

41:20

from, you know, presumably at

41:22

some point other four... here

41:24

on the planet or on

41:26

the moon, on Ullid. At

41:28

some point this was not

41:30

a unified group of four

41:32

moons, at some point this

41:34

wasn't a unified planet, and

41:36

this citadel dates back to

41:38

those times. And you get

41:40

the impression now, about halfway

41:42

through this week here, that

41:44

some of the people who

41:46

have been doing whatever this

41:48

big negotiation is inside of

41:50

the citadel are getting bored.

41:52

And you specifically get that

41:54

idea, and I think, you're

41:56

the one to pick up

41:59

on this. first because you

42:01

see the type of people

42:03

who you haven't seen yet

42:05

beginning to move through the

42:07

circus. Maybe you each get

42:09

eyes on people from different

42:11

groups or delegations. I'll come

42:13

actually I wrap up around

42:15

you last time because yours

42:17

are the people who are

42:19

most intricate and weird. Let's

42:21

see, well away, you see

42:23

two members of a group,

42:25

a faction called the Kiliad

42:27

Consortium. They have like, this

42:29

is a very stupid touchstone.

42:31

I, have you seen the

42:33

Straight Fighter movie? The Street

42:35

Fighter movie, no. With Ralph

42:37

Julia and Jean-Claude Van Dam?

42:39

I mean, yes, but a

42:41

very long time ago. Okay.

42:43

Very worth seeing once especially

42:45

if you're 10 or whatever

42:47

I believe that I saw

42:49

the old Giant bomb this

42:51

ain't no game video. Oh,

42:53

there you go. That's kind

42:55

of all you need right?

42:57

Jean-Claude Van Dam is in

42:59

that movie as guile Which

43:01

sorry I have just I

43:03

found this image of him

43:05

and his crew And that's

43:07

uh the this image is

43:10

from I don't know the

43:12

image is actually from I

43:14

guess it's probably a promotional

43:16

image But I got it

43:18

from an old vice story

43:20

the Head to headline Jean-Claude

43:22

Van Dam was quote coked

43:24

out of his mind or

43:26

street fighter director says Great.

43:28

Yeah, wow The thing if

43:30

you do watch that movie

43:32

the the really sad part

43:34

of it is that Ralph

43:36

Julia is about to die

43:38

while filming that movie and

43:40

you can sort of tell

43:42

and he's just gonna the

43:44

shit peed out of him.

43:46

But he's the for me

43:48

it was Tuesday speech is

43:50

no other actor could have

43:52

brought that home like oh

43:54

yeah a banger for sure.

43:56

But I think these guys

43:58

have that have this specific

44:00

sort of. kind of uniform

44:02

vibe. I don't know that

44:04

it's literally blue green and

44:06

red. camouflage, but it is

44:08

big blue bays with a

44:10

big logo on the front.

44:12

It is, you know, kind

44:14

of like blue, blue shirt

44:16

with like dark pants. There

44:19

from the Kilead Consortium, which

44:21

is, I think I've described

44:23

to you all before in

44:25

the character creation episode, as

44:27

being like... big space bureaucracy,

44:29

big like, hey, if we

44:31

are, if we're all part

44:33

of the same, we're all

44:35

part of the same extremely

44:37

centralized government. If you all

44:39

agree to our trade deals,

44:41

then war will stop in

44:43

the moons. Oh, I remember.

44:45

Yeah, these guys. A little

44:47

UN, a little NATO. Very.

44:49

Yeah, we're talking about these

44:51

are the two nations with

44:53

McDonald's, can't go to war.

44:55

And they are here because

44:57

they would love to put

44:59

a McDonald's on Ulid. They

45:01

would love to put a

45:03

McDonald's on all four of

45:05

the moons of the Tetrad.

45:07

And they think Ulid might

45:09

be the. They're trying everywhere,

45:11

but today they're trying, they're

45:13

trying, Ulid. And so you

45:15

see two of them, and

45:17

they look just like, there's

45:19

a real, I can't, can

45:21

you believe this place is

45:23

so dirty? Snear on one

45:25

of their faces. The other

45:28

one, you know, one of

45:30

them is kind of like,

45:32

One of them is built

45:34

the way people who go

45:36

to the gym are built,

45:38

and one of them is

45:40

built in the way that

45:42

someone who kills people for

45:44

a living is built, and

45:46

that's different. They're built in

45:48

different ways. One of them...

45:50

This blue camera looks sick.

45:52

I love that this is

45:54

a great color. This is

45:56

like a violet boar guard

45:58

when it started her own

46:00

country. Yeah, uh-huh. And in

46:02

many ways, that is how

46:04

the Killian consortium is. You

46:06

know? So those are the

46:08

two people you see coming

46:10

around here. Oh, I haven't

46:12

seen people like this at

46:14

the carnival circus quite yet.

46:16

Donnie, you pick up on

46:18

some locals who you... There's

46:20

something about this place. You

46:22

feel a sort of... of

46:24

a deep resonance with Ollid.

46:26

I don't know that you

46:28

like it necessarily, but there

46:30

is a vibe here that

46:32

feels, you think something about

46:34

your past connects you to

46:37

this moon, right? There's something

46:39

about this place that is,

46:41

it feels different than it

46:43

feels, and it's not, you've

46:45

never been able to tune

46:47

it quite right? historically. You

46:49

never been able to like

46:51

turn it into like a

46:53

dowsing rod where you go,

46:55

this is the one place

46:57

on this moon that I'm

46:59

from or something like that.

47:01

It's not where you woke

47:03

up. You didn't wake up

47:05

on this moon, right? So

47:07

what's going on here? Who

47:09

knows? But you see people

47:11

who you recognize as being

47:13

kind of like high powered

47:15

lords from I mean I

47:17

don't think that you see

47:19

Lord the Lord Bain the

47:21

guy who like is the

47:23

Lord of this Citadel but

47:25

you see people who are

47:27

closer to him walking around

47:29

here and they've been hold

47:31

up in the negotiations probably

47:33

all all week also and

47:35

then finally high you see

47:37

two people who are made

47:39

of carefully constructed carefully, hewn,

47:41

intricately detailed wood. Two, like,

47:43

what I'm really picturing is,

47:46

you know those guys in

47:48

Eldon Ring who are like

47:50

the crystal body people, where

47:52

you gotta use like, like,

47:54

maces and stuff to break

47:56

them? Mm-hmm. They're like that,

47:58

but made of wood. Tall,

48:00

elegant, thin. weird, wide heads

48:02

in a similar way, but

48:04

their whole bodies feel like

48:06

they have been carefully carved

48:08

out of wood. They are

48:10

called crystallians in Eldon Ring,

48:12

and this wood is like

48:14

sanded and polished to a

48:16

very smooth, beautiful. you know,

48:18

sheen. You can see gradations

48:20

in there, in there bark

48:22

skin or their wood skin.

48:24

You can see lots of

48:26

If they each have, there's

48:28

two of them, and one

48:30

of them has like more

48:32

knots and stuff, but even

48:34

the knots have been polished

48:36

and you know, there's something

48:38

really beautiful about the knots

48:40

in the wood of their

48:42

body. The other one has

48:44

like, it feels like they're

48:46

almost made of different types

48:48

of wood and you'll get

48:50

like this kind of light

48:52

tan color and then like

48:55

a darker brown in stripes

48:57

throughout their body. I don't

48:59

know that you've ever seen

49:01

people like this before. You

49:03

tell me. But you suspect

49:05

that they are here from

49:07

the other political entity, the

49:09

Free Moons Assembly, which is

49:11

this kind of like hodgepodge.

49:13

vaguely libertarian vaguely anarchist kind

49:15

of unfortunately big tense you

49:17

end up with both of

49:19

those people inside of a

49:21

same group political group and

49:23

You you they are here

49:25

representing them in whatever this

49:27

this ongoing negotiation is But

49:29

yeah, and one of them

49:31

I think begins to approach

49:33

you And says speaking without

49:35

lips moving like looking down

49:37

at you She has a

49:39

face, but her lips do

49:41

not move, and she says,

49:43

are you a star-seer? Yes.

49:45

Yes, I am. Are you

49:47

working? Glancing around. Yes, yes,

49:49

I'm open for readings. You

49:51

simply do your readings here

49:53

at this table. There's no

49:55

device. You don't need to

49:57

see the stars with a

49:59

telescope or an observatory. There's

50:01

no orary for you to

50:04

consult. No, no. The connections

50:06

made are very organic. A

50:08

device would separate the truth.

50:10

of what's up with money

50:12

in this, I wonder, can

50:14

you tell the future better

50:16

than me? And she sits

50:18

across from you to have

50:20

a reading and the person

50:22

with her places, what's money

50:24

like here? What's up with

50:26

money in this setting? Chit

50:29

system. Chit system. Some sort of like,

50:31

it always is, isn't it? Like an

50:33

inch by half inch. Different denomination and

50:36

different types of metal. And they have

50:38

holes in the middle. So you like

50:40

put them on a string or something?

50:42

You know, or okay. But it's bike

50:45

locks or whatever. What? Like a wire

50:47

key ring? I'm thinking of like, yeah,

50:49

like a wire key ring, like exactly,

50:51

I'm thinking of, why is this sad

50:54

person? What do you put in here?

50:56

Keith, this sad statue. Oh, this is

50:58

your wooden people. Yeah, sure. Yeah, yeah,

51:00

yeah, yeah, yeah. These, these coins, they

51:03

have like big holes in them. Yeah.

51:05

Oh, what are these? These are great.

51:07

No, I was just thinking like you

51:09

could link them onto the, like one

51:12

of those, like one of like one

51:14

of those, like, like, like, like, like,

51:16

like, like, like, like, like, like, like,

51:18

like, like, like, like, like, like, like,

51:21

like, like, like, like, like, like, like,

51:23

like, like, like, like, like, Yes. Now

51:25

I don't know what you mean. Like

51:27

a carpenter or like a bike lock

51:30

or like a... Yeah. Right. This is

51:32

what I was thinking of these key

51:34

rings. Yeah, that too. Yeah, that totally

51:36

works. Yeah, 100% sure. Or a necklace

51:39

or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. And so I

51:41

think maybe a loop of them. You

51:43

know, you talk about like a loop

51:45

being like... A certain amount, you know,

51:48

here's, here's, you get paid a loop

51:50

of, of ten, ten dollar coins, basically.

51:52

It's like a hundred bucks. Ten coins

51:54

is a loop. Ten, ten coins is

51:57

a loop. Yeah, you know stacking them

51:59

loops. And you know the

52:01

back and loops to the ceiling the

52:03

loop gets put on your on your

52:06

table by the other person who's there

52:08

These are there's two people here. This

52:10

is this is Aspen contrapasto and birch

52:12

contrapasto And they are I don't need

52:15

to get into their whole deal right

52:17

now, but but I do need to

52:19

know as we do our very first

52:21

conflict if You can actually let me

52:24

walk through this whole thing. This is

52:26

the first time we're doing realist conflict,

52:28

right? And you're defending. So I want

52:30

to make sure I do it as

52:33

clearly as possible. I have run this

52:35

game before, but y'all have not played

52:37

it. So I need to remember that

52:39

and moves nice and slow so that

52:42

we're all on the same page. We

52:44

also are not holding it in our

52:46

heads because we designed it. That's exactly

52:49

right. Yeah. So. Regardless of how your

52:51

story starts, this is now I'm reading

52:53

from what is currently page 10 in

52:55

this book. What follows should be understood

52:58

as a loosely structured conversation focusing on

53:00

exploration, drama, and conflict. Play is driven

53:02

by the natural flow of descriptions, answers,

53:04

and clarification. We've been doing that. That's

53:07

what we've been doing so far. This

53:09

is the part of the book where

53:11

I had to write what a role-playing

53:13

game is, which is always very fun.

53:16

You know, I had to talk about

53:18

how the conversation bounces back and forth

53:20

and forth, etc. Oh,

53:22

I just always annoys me when

53:24

I have to read that. Yeah.

53:27

You've got to write it though,

53:29

right? Yeah. Yeah. Eventually, this loose

53:31

conversation will reach a moment where

53:33

there isn't obvious agreement on what

53:35

should happen next. Whenever an actor

53:38

is opposed, or if the stakes

53:40

are interesting and an outcome is

53:42

uncertain, the story has reached a

53:44

point of conflict requiring the actor

53:46

to choose a means, usually a

53:49

class sentence, in order to achieve

53:51

their intent. So, this is a

53:53

moment where an actor, and in

53:55

this case the actor is Aspen,

53:57

Aspen, counterpasto. is is declaring an

54:00

intent. Her intent is to embarrass

54:02

you by seeing the future better

54:04

than you can. Real dick moon.

54:06

Yeah, this is a this person's

54:08

a dick 100% I thought they

54:11

were a tree. I am shocked

54:13

by the call. You're really leaning

54:15

into Zani today already. I appreciate

54:17

it. Committing with a character. Whenever

54:19

something is uncertain or imposed, an

54:22

actor declares a bold and exciting

54:24

intent and then explains how one

54:26

of their means will help them.

54:28

If there's a counter-actor, also called

54:30

a counter, they declare their own

54:33

means, describing how they want to

54:35

interfere with the actor. The ranks

54:37

of these means are then revealed

54:39

and compared. If the actors means

54:41

are ranked higher, then their intent

54:44

comes to pass. Describe what happens.

54:46

If the counters means is equal

54:48

or higher ranked. The counter wins,

54:50

and the actor does not get

54:52

their intent, and the actor's chosen

54:55

means cannot be used for the

54:57

remainder of the scene. It is

54:59

countered. There's a bunch of other

55:01

text in here about... what a

55:03

dramatic intent is. If you've listened

55:06

to us play friends at the

55:08

table, you've heard me probably have

55:10

an uptick of demanding that people

55:12

declare dramatic intents generally, but it

55:14

really depends on the system. Obviously

55:17

some systems are a little more

55:19

nuanced or a little more like

55:21

zeroed in on simulating a single

55:23

string of the hand or something,

55:25

but in reality, we're really big

55:28

on big dramatic intentions. Notably, I

55:30

quote, as an example here, is

55:32

I want to humiliate my rival

55:34

in front of his peers as

55:36

a stronger, more dramatic intent than

55:38

I want to punch my rival,

55:41

which we think of a big,

55:43

broad, exciting narrative outcomes from scenes

55:45

because of the way that action

55:47

is sort of compressed in real-less.

55:49

So, in this moment, Aspen is

55:52

declaring her intent. Her intent is

55:54

I want to embarrass you, I

55:56

want to embarrass high by showing

55:58

that I can predict the future

56:00

better. And she's doing this with

56:03

a sentence, and that sentence, a

56:05

class sentence, is, I always hear

56:07

the future coming, Aspen, sits down

56:09

across from you, and sits perfectly

56:11

still. You know, there's, again, faces

56:14

don't animate here. So, you know,

56:16

we don't see her close her

56:18

eyes and listen, but she does

56:20

sit perfectly still in a way

56:22

that still kind of reads is

56:25

listening to the environment. Aspen is

56:27

a type of a type of

56:29

prophecyer similar to you except instead

56:31

of working on moon alignments she

56:33

works on sound she is an

56:36

Oracle spelled a you are because

56:38

that's the type of game reality

56:40

is she's an Oracle who listens

56:42

and so she is using the

56:44

the sentence I always hear the

56:47

future coming now I'm gonna say

56:49

I think this is looking pretty

56:51

good for you Ali now it

56:53

is it is up to you

56:55

to the side if you want

56:58

to try to counter this Maybe

57:00

you just want to be humiliated

57:02

by this wooden Oracle. That could

57:04

be a thing you want. I

57:06

don't know. You think it's interesting.

57:09

I'm not going to say you

57:11

have to defend from that. The

57:13

consequences here aren't life or death,

57:15

you know. Maybe you just want

57:17

to make this person feel good.

57:20

I don't know. You tell me.

57:22

But if you'd like to, you

57:24

could try to counter this. Would

57:26

you like to try to counter

57:28

this? Sure. All right. What are

57:31

you. What is your means. I

57:33

always know how to ritually summon

57:35

the power of the moons. Oh,

57:37

interesting. This is not where I

57:39

thought I was going. What's that

57:42

mean? What's that look like? Well,

57:44

I think it looks like like

57:46

doing the thing, right? I have

57:48

another sentence here that's like, I

57:50

always read the future in the

57:53

stars. But I think that like,

57:55

if there's a question of... skill

57:57

here. Like there's the like a

57:59

thing of being like oh I

58:01

the connection that I have is

58:04

real the faith that I have

58:06

is real the like the teaching

58:08

that I have is real the

58:10

authority on this that I have

58:12

is real right so I would

58:15

like to impress this person instead

58:17

of yeah so yeah you declare

58:19

that sentence now we reveal both

58:21

side both both the kind of

58:23

rank there the current reality of

58:26

each of these sentences I believe

58:28

yours is a plus zero It's

58:30

a new sentence. Hers is also

58:32

a plus zero, and so it

58:34

gets countered. And now I'm going

58:37

to do the very fun thing

58:39

of copying this character and her

58:41

sentence and stuff into your NPC

58:43

sheets. I'm actually going to put

58:45

it not on this first one

58:48

because I think probably long-term more

58:50

important more important NPCs are going

58:52

to end up on the band

58:54

factions NPC page but here over

58:56

on the second NPC the kind

58:59

of second to last one I've

59:01

added aspirin counterpasto I always hear

59:03

the future coming is the sentence

59:05

that you now know that she

59:07

has and I'm gonna mark it

59:10

once because it has been countered

59:12

and the way that this game

59:14

works is whenever you lose a

59:16

conflict you mark the means that

59:18

you used. There are some special

59:21

means that get marked even if

59:23

they don't lose things like ephemera

59:25

which are like super special items

59:27

or or it's not always even

59:29

items. You know I think an

59:32

ephemera in this game could be

59:34

a magical sword that you've repaired

59:36

but it could also be go-koo

59:38

learning how to go super-saying. It

59:40

could also be like a political

59:43

alliance. It's anything that's like hey

59:45

this is a big narrative thing

59:47

that's going to be important for

59:49

the next like three sessions of

59:51

play, basically. And maybe you'll still

59:54

keep it afterwards, but it's just

59:56

not as... like cool anymore it

59:58

doesn't move the needle in the

1:00:00

same way you know like sometimes

1:00:02

your meck gets an upgrade and

1:00:05

it's really important for like the

1:00:07

next three episodes and then no

1:00:09

one talks about it in the

1:00:11

whole back half of the season

1:00:13

because it's just like normal now

1:00:16

that's how ephemera works this is

1:00:18

not ephemera this is a regular

1:00:20

thing all you don't have to

1:00:22

mark anything you succeed so what's

1:00:24

but you do get to tell me what

1:00:26

it looks like as you succeed We

1:00:29

predict the same thing. So

1:00:31

it's sort of like, oh, I can't,

1:00:33

you can't be embarrassed

1:00:35

by somebody who is your peer?

1:00:38

You know, I guess you can,

1:00:40

but like, not if it's a

1:00:42

tie game. Right, right, right. But

1:00:44

yeah, I think I do the thing

1:00:46

of like, I bet I have a

1:00:49

little staff that I hit to

1:00:51

the ground. Yeah, what's it

1:00:53

look like? What do you do

1:00:56

as you, like, what's the...

1:00:58

process for you. I bet I

1:01:00

have to look up at the

1:01:02

sky a little bit. Yeah, sure.

1:01:05

Yeah. I think that it's like

1:01:07

a thing of like, you

1:01:09

know, it's situational and

1:01:11

it's sort of bound by

1:01:14

location. So it's probably a

1:01:16

thing where like I look

1:01:19

up at the sky, I'm

1:01:21

like reading out all of

1:01:23

these like, uh... spots that

1:01:26

the current moons are in

1:01:28

right now and then sort

1:01:30

of synthesize that into like

1:01:32

a you know tomorrow the

1:01:35

fates don't feel good about

1:01:37

you doing this thing or

1:01:39

whatever or what is the prediction

1:01:42

of the rest of this

1:01:44

this week what's the what

1:01:46

are the what are the

1:01:48

vibes For this for this This is

1:01:50

someone who again represents one of these big political

1:01:52

factions. We don't need to get deep into it

1:01:54

This is my plan is not for this to

1:01:57

be a game about like the deep political

1:01:59

facts of debating on this planet,

1:02:02

but it is a fun

1:02:04

backdrop to kick things off

1:02:06

in. So I'm excited because

1:02:08

Ali told me actually off

1:02:10

might that all of her

1:02:12

predictions are going to rhyme.

1:02:15

Interesting. I actually have it

1:02:17

in writing. Yeah I got

1:02:19

a note I have a

1:02:21

notarized letter from Ali saying

1:02:23

all of my all of

1:02:25

my predictions will rhyme. And

1:02:28

then no slants. Oh, no

1:02:30

slant rhymes. Oh, yeah, yeah.

1:02:32

No slants is definitely in

1:02:34

here. That's the sound of

1:02:36

a profession. Slant rhymes, like,

1:02:38

slant rhymes, I don't even

1:02:41

know what those are. Oh,

1:02:43

right. Oh, right. Yeah, that

1:02:45

was, sorry, yes. That wasn't

1:02:47

me telling Ali, obviously, he

1:02:49

already knew it was a

1:02:52

brat. Right, right. Yeah. Anyway,

1:02:54

I think that, I think

1:02:56

that, I think the, I

1:02:58

think part of the prediction

1:03:00

that I'm giving is like,

1:03:02

like, sort of like, you

1:03:05

know, being aggressive and stubborn

1:03:07

will lead to your folly

1:03:09

or whatever. I think that

1:03:11

I'm sort of like pushing

1:03:13

on some of the anxiety

1:03:15

of the negotiations by being

1:03:18

like, the more that you

1:03:20

try to force things your

1:03:22

way, the less success that

1:03:24

you'll have in this thing.

1:03:26

And like not to characterize

1:03:28

this weird bully, but I

1:03:31

feel like that could be

1:03:33

an anxiety inside of her

1:03:35

heart. Sure, sure. Yeah. Are

1:03:37

there any images that come

1:03:39

to you or you are

1:03:42

you are you a fortune

1:03:44

teller who can kind of

1:03:46

like who Gets is there

1:03:48

a vision component to this

1:03:50

or is it all is

1:03:52

it more emotional and vibes

1:03:55

based? It's tough because I

1:03:57

feel like I I've created

1:03:59

like clear visions with the

1:04:01

bonds that I have right

1:04:03

right I also think that

1:04:05

that's hard to That's a

1:04:08

difficult type of thing to

1:04:10

do in a circus situation?

1:04:12

Yeah, yeah. So I think

1:04:14

that it's more the sort

1:04:16

of like the horoscopy like...

1:04:18

Gotcha. Yeah. I think that

1:04:21

that the there is a

1:04:23

slow kind of quiet laugh

1:04:25

from the other wooden person

1:04:27

behind her from Birch who's

1:04:29

like... You know, a little

1:04:32

happy to see his his

1:04:34

counterpart put into place maybe.

1:04:36

It seems like he is

1:04:38

here in a, maybe not

1:04:40

a bodyguard duty, but a

1:04:42

less, not the person who

1:04:45

comes up and sits down

1:04:47

and talks to you, right?

1:04:49

Maybe not the lead negotiator.

1:04:51

And maybe a bodyguard, maybe

1:04:53

that is the vibe actually,

1:04:55

you know, you got a

1:04:58

success there, and maybe there

1:05:00

is a sort of like,

1:05:02

I'm here to watch after

1:05:04

this other person a little

1:05:06

bit. Before she stands up,

1:05:08

she says, um, impressive. I

1:05:11

am sorry to have doubted

1:05:13

you. I'm surprised you would

1:05:15

waste your talents in a

1:05:17

carnival if you ever desire

1:05:19

richer employment. Please

1:05:22

seek us out. Oh,

1:05:24

even common men need

1:05:26

connection to their duty,

1:05:29

but I appreciate it.

1:05:31

Enjoy the festivities. Let's

1:05:33

go, Aspen, says Birch.

1:05:36

An Aspen flustered gets

1:05:38

up and walks away

1:05:40

in a huff. Meanwhile,

1:05:43

across the circus, let's

1:05:45

go to well away.

1:05:47

well away these two

1:05:49

these two Killian Killiad

1:05:52

consortium guys walk over

1:05:54

to you and just

1:05:56

like stop and watch

1:06:00

They don't make any statements. They're

1:06:02

just waiting and watching for like

1:06:04

your show, you know. Okay. Yeah,

1:06:06

I can do a show. They

1:06:08

don't request anything. They're not going

1:06:10

to ask you for anything. They

1:06:12

just, one of them crosses his

1:06:14

arms and he like squints and

1:06:16

looks at you. Like the way

1:06:18

people like squint and look at

1:06:20

paintings in a museum. Like, you

1:06:22

know, what's it supposed to mean?

1:06:24

I put a hat on the

1:06:26

ground. and I start doing a

1:06:28

juggling routine. This is, I start

1:06:31

off with a, like a soccer

1:06:33

ball and I'm sort of, you

1:06:35

know, rolling it from like shoulder

1:06:37

to shoulder like down the arm

1:06:39

and then I throw it up

1:06:41

and then I turn around and

1:06:43

when I turn back around, you

1:06:45

know, very smooth motion, it's two

1:06:47

balls. and then I'm doing the

1:06:49

same thing juggling two and I

1:06:51

turn around it again and then

1:06:53

I turn back around and then

1:06:55

it's three balls and then as

1:06:57

I'm juggling I'll throw a ball

1:07:00

up and it will it will

1:07:02

be more balls it will just

1:07:04

like very smoothly be like oh

1:07:06

now there's four now there's five

1:07:08

and it's very difficult the trick

1:07:10

is where the balls coming from

1:07:12

and they're getting smaller and smaller

1:07:14

also each time that they appear

1:07:16

to separate. They are not impressed.

1:07:18

Well I start recombining the balls.

1:07:20

and the balls will like collide

1:07:22

into each other. Sort of like

1:07:24

a reverse rain trick where you

1:07:26

take the two rings and you

1:07:29

pull them apart. This the balls

1:07:31

hit each other and they go

1:07:33

together. And sort of they look

1:07:35

like they're just kind of swallowing

1:07:37

each other up getting bigger and

1:07:39

fewer. Interesting. Are you are you

1:07:41

trying to impress them? You want

1:07:43

to get money from them presumably?

1:07:45

You want to get paid? I

1:07:47

do. Yeah. I think that's uncertain.

1:07:49

I think you're going to need

1:07:51

to use a means in order

1:07:53

to achieve that. These are not

1:07:55

people who are loose with their

1:07:58

money. Okay. Or their, or their,

1:08:00

you know, sense of being impressed

1:08:02

apparently. Sure, I think that I

1:08:04

won't try and get money from

1:08:06

the trick, but we'll take what

1:08:08

I feel like I am owed

1:08:10

if they decide to walk away

1:08:12

and grab a little bit of

1:08:14

something out of one of their

1:08:16

pockets. Oh, I love this. Or

1:08:18

from a bag or something. This

1:08:20

is good. You're going to try

1:08:22

to pick pocket them as they

1:08:24

walk away. Uh-huh. What is your

1:08:26

intent? What is your means? I

1:08:29

have this class sentence, I am

1:08:32

quick in wit and bone. Yeah,

1:08:34

that sounds right to me. You're

1:08:36

being quick, you're quickly reaching out

1:08:38

with the bone in your hand

1:08:41

to pick their pockets. Again, sentences

1:08:43

in reality start very broad because

1:08:45

you want to allow people to

1:08:48

do exactly this. Unfortunately. The you

1:08:50

reach for the which one's hand

1:08:52

or which who are you trying

1:08:54

to rob here which one of

1:08:57

them the the lead one who

1:08:59

is clear the negotiator or again

1:09:01

the one who looks like He

1:09:04

kills people Which one? You know

1:09:06

This does feel a little bit

1:09:08

like you know the Indiana Jones

1:09:10

thing where you want to take

1:09:13

the cup that looks the nicest

1:09:15

because that's definitely the good cup.

1:09:17

Sometimes you want to take the

1:09:20

cup that it looks like you're

1:09:22

not supposed to take. I'm going

1:09:24

to take the killer cup. Okay.

1:09:27

As you pull... so I'm countering

1:09:29

this. I'm going to counter this

1:09:31

with... Now this is the trick.

1:09:33

This is the trick. As long

1:09:36

as you can counter it, at

1:09:38

level zero, it's an automatic loss.

1:09:40

That is, that is correct. Though,

1:09:43

again, at this point, I guess

1:09:45

I should say, because we kind

1:09:47

of move past. this too quickly

1:09:49

last time because I you know

1:09:52

I kind of stacked the deck

1:09:54

in that first one so we

1:09:56

get an example of what reality

1:09:59

conflict looks like. You do have

1:10:01

a resource here. I see myself

1:10:03

as an example of losing. That's

1:10:05

how I appreciate this. But there

1:10:08

is a resource here that you

1:10:10

could, there are a couple of

1:10:12

resources here that you have at

1:10:15

your disposal to maybe cope this,

1:10:17

right? So obviously you're using a

1:10:19

plus zero sentence. It's a good

1:10:22

chance I have a plus zero

1:10:24

sentence that can counter between these

1:10:26

two characters, right? Yeah. But it's

1:10:28

not as simple as that, right? You

1:10:31

have a token. that you could spend. In fact,

1:10:33

I'm going to click on the tokens for make

1:10:35

sure everybody has their tokens. If that token thing,

1:10:37

it's under your name, is checked. That means you

1:10:39

have your token. That is the way you're going

1:10:41

to play it. I know it's kind of weird

1:10:44

to be like, does that mean I've spent my

1:10:46

token or I have my token? If it's checked,

1:10:48

you have your token. So you could spend your

1:10:50

token to boost your sentence to a plus one.

1:10:52

Right? You then spend that token. There's

1:10:55

a way to get your tokens back.

1:10:57

But it would give you a plus

1:10:59

one. Now maybe that's enough to get

1:11:02

a win here. Some NPCs start at

1:11:04

a higher sentence with some higher sentences

1:11:06

already. That's true about the setting. Or

1:11:09

maybe it ends up being that these

1:11:11

ones don't have those or the ones

1:11:13

that they have that are plus one

1:11:15

aren't useful, you know? I'm just going

1:11:18

to scroll down and click on a

1:11:20

random NPC in the book really quick.

1:11:22

The kingpin has... After I've displayed my

1:11:25

willingness to be cruel inside my territory,

1:11:27

I always have absolute power. They haven't

1:11:29

done that, right? So if this one

1:11:31

of these people was a kingpin, they're

1:11:33

not. But if one of them was,

1:11:35

they couldn't use that sentence here because

1:11:38

they have not yet displayed their willingness

1:11:40

to be cruel, nor are they inside

1:11:42

of their territory, right? Right. As a

1:11:44

plus two sentence, that couldn't trigger here,

1:11:46

for instance. Mm-hmm. Go ahead, were you

1:11:48

going to ask? So you could spend

1:11:51

your token. You all also have

1:11:53

a ban sentence, which is when

1:11:55

we work together, we always hide

1:11:58

our true intentions with spectacle. you're

1:12:00

all not. Which is what I'm doing.

1:12:02

Which is what you're doing, but you're

1:12:04

not all working together and you can

1:12:06

only use that once per sentence. You

1:12:09

are not all working together so you

1:12:11

couldn't use it because that that, you

1:12:13

know, that qualifier that that is part

1:12:15

of the sort of trigger of the

1:12:17

sentence isn't happening right now, right? So

1:12:20

without that you can't use the sentence.

1:12:22

This is a real to do it

1:12:24

game. You have to do the thing

1:12:26

your sentence says in order to get

1:12:28

to get the effect. that there is

1:12:31

a plus one sentence or there isn't.

1:12:33

I can either turn this into a

1:12:35

tie which would be a loss for

1:12:37

me or turn it into a win

1:12:39

based on how much I think the

1:12:42

killer could counter quick and witten bone.

1:12:44

It's not just a killer. Anyone in

1:12:46

a scene can counter. Right. Explicit. I

1:12:48

just matter who I've picked. It matters

1:12:50

narratively who you've picked, but it doesn't

1:12:53

matter in terms of who could step

1:12:55

in encounter. And that's important for you

1:12:57

all also, right? Like if a. big

1:12:59

monster was trying to kill, uh, Candide

1:13:01

Marada, the little girl, uh, it's not

1:13:04

just the little girl who gets to

1:13:06

respond to that, right? You could also

1:13:08

be like, oh, I'm gonna counter on

1:13:10

behalf of this 12-year-old, right? Well, I'm

1:13:12

gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna met a

1:13:15

game this a little bit and say,

1:13:17

Austin's not gonna, uh, he's gonna, not

1:13:19

gonna make me burn my token on

1:13:21

the first guy that I meet to

1:13:23

then lose to then lose right away.

1:13:26

I'm going. Wait

1:13:28

so you are going to spend

1:13:30

your token. I am going to

1:13:32

spend my token. Yeah All right.

1:13:35

Yeah, you you slip out a

1:13:37

they try to They do try

1:13:39

to counter you which means you

1:13:42

do get a a a a

1:13:44

a sentence, you do learn about

1:13:46

one of these people, but they

1:13:49

don't stop it from happening, right?

1:13:51

The set that they are trying

1:13:53

to counter with, this comes from

1:13:55

the one who is the. of

1:13:58

lead negotiator here and you know

1:14:00

their names now. You know this

1:14:02

one's name now because along with

1:14:05

the money that you pull out,

1:14:07

you also get their card. This

1:14:09

is, and I will again put

1:14:11

this on the second page, the

1:14:14

MPC page, this is Uh, this

1:14:16

is so big. Jason Jetsonia Jr.

1:14:18

Six ends in that name. You

1:14:21

figure out where they are. Uh,

1:14:23

who is a Kilead senior integration

1:14:25

analysis officer, and they tried to

1:14:28

use the sentence, I always turn

1:14:30

someone else's resource into my profit.

1:14:32

on you. It's only a plus

1:14:34

of zero sentence. And their hope

1:14:37

was if someone is smart enough

1:14:39

to, and sorry, you've pulled this

1:14:41

from the killers. pocket, not from

1:14:44

Jason Jetsonia Junior's pocket. And the

1:14:46

hope was that, you know, this

1:14:48

is the motherfucker who has built

1:14:51

this scene out in his head

1:14:53

and has figured this all out.

1:14:55

And it's like, ooh, if someone

1:14:57

tries to pick pocket one of

1:15:00

us, they'll get my card and

1:15:02

then my bodyguard will grab their

1:15:04

hand and they'll realize, oh, they

1:15:07

only got my card, they didn't

1:15:09

get any money at all. And

1:15:11

then I'll say, hey. I'm Jason

1:15:14

Jetsonia Jr. Killead's senior interrogation analysis

1:15:16

officer and I can offer you

1:15:18

a job because of your intense

1:15:20

skill as being a pick pocket,

1:15:23

right? But that doesn't happen. What

1:15:25

happens is you pick pocket this

1:15:27

guy and you take his money

1:15:30

and you also get his card.

1:15:32

I did it. So it was

1:15:34

it was last crusade. It was

1:15:37

last crusade. I last crusade. Well,

1:15:39

I mean, you know, you used

1:15:41

a plus. I did not reveal

1:15:43

a plus one sentence that could

1:15:46

beat you here is what happened

1:15:48

right but it does mean that

1:15:50

I get to advance I get

1:15:53

to mark the sentence I always

1:15:55

turn someone else's resource into my

1:15:57

profit so so far so good

1:15:59

y'all are killing it on these

1:16:02

outsiders coming in here to you

1:16:04

know have fun at your behest

1:16:06

I guess. How much money did

1:16:09

you get? What's your, what's the,

1:16:11

what's the, what's the, what's the

1:16:13

score here? Two loops? Yeah, two

1:16:16

loops. You got 200 bucks. Yeah.

1:16:18

And you know what, you get

1:16:20

some Kiliad money too. You get

1:16:22

like a Kiliad credit chip or

1:16:25

like a credit card. But that

1:16:27

doesn't sound fun. A credit card,

1:16:29

we have credit cards. I want

1:16:32

the thing, but it's like a

1:16:34

money drive, yeah. Exactly. That's just

1:16:36

Bitcoin. I think it is. Yeah,

1:16:39

I guess it is. I guess

1:16:41

but this is different. The data

1:16:43

is valuable. The data is money.

1:16:45

The hmm. How does this work?

1:16:48

Let's invent new currency real quick.

1:16:50

What's a way to have digital

1:16:52

money that's not isn't Bitcoin. But

1:16:55

is it's all the thumb drive

1:16:57

itself is valuable. I

1:17:00

got it. It's, you can plug

1:17:02

it into certain types of computers

1:17:05

and you can spend it on

1:17:07

the computer to make the computer

1:17:09

go faster. And that's fine. Oh.

1:17:11

So it's like an expendable graphics

1:17:13

card. It's like an expendable graphics

1:17:16

card. It gives you a little

1:17:18

boost. But people use it as

1:17:20

currency because it's easy to try

1:17:22

to like move around. You know?

1:17:24

Use a little thumb drive. It's

1:17:27

like, oh yeah, that's worth 500.

1:17:29

500 bucks. You know? People put

1:17:31

it into like a spaceship to

1:17:33

like make the spaceship do navigation

1:17:35

more quickly. You know what? This

1:17:38

is an ephemera. What's this? What

1:17:40

is this? Credit union. It's not

1:17:42

a credit union. It's a it's

1:17:44

a it's a It's a they've

1:17:46

changed what credit unions are have

1:17:49

changed. They got smaller and smaller

1:17:51

and other just like we need

1:17:53

the word like we need the

1:17:55

word. What's the equivalent of night

1:17:57

like like in fast in the

1:18:00

furious and they hit the nitrous

1:18:02

button but for your computer. Silicon

1:18:04

Boost. I think it's silicon. I

1:18:06

think it's like a sand. Sand.

1:18:08

Sand boost. Cyber boost. We need

1:18:11

another word for cyber. Pitch me,

1:18:13

pitch me fun. Like a data

1:18:15

boost. Data boost. A data, a

1:18:17

boost drive. A boost pen. A

1:18:19

data booster. And the sentence with

1:18:22

it is. Let me look at

1:18:24

some ephemera so I can get

1:18:26

my own mind around how this

1:18:28

system works again and how to

1:18:30

write ephemera. Here we go. Ephemera

1:18:33

don't need additional... So I think

1:18:35

this is a plus one ephemera.

1:18:37

And importantly, ephemera don't need to

1:18:39

have extra limitations to be more

1:18:41

real. So for instance, you have

1:18:44

a plus three sentence that says

1:18:46

the index key always opens any

1:18:48

lock. That can be plus three.

1:18:50

It doesn't need a bunch of

1:18:52

other qualifiers, right? Or you can

1:18:55

have one that's lower plus. You

1:18:57

have a plus one sentence that

1:18:59

has, that is like, or ephemera

1:19:01

that is like, when held by

1:19:03

loving hands, the living razor is

1:19:06

always lethal against the ancient undead,

1:19:08

which normally that's like a plus

1:19:10

three sentence, right? There's all sorts

1:19:12

of qualifiers in there, but ephemera

1:19:14

don't need that. Importantly, every time

1:19:17

you use an ephemeric successfully, you

1:19:19

market. And once you've marked all

1:19:21

three times, it stops being able

1:19:23

to be a thing you can

1:19:25

use as a means. So it's

1:19:28

limited. It's a consumable, right? But

1:19:30

in this case, it's a plus

1:19:32

one consumable, and I think it's

1:19:34

like, the data booster, always, gets

1:19:36

a little extra from... Computerized systems.

1:19:39

And remind me, you can normally

1:19:41

only have like one means going

1:19:43

on plus your token if you

1:19:45

have token. That's correct. Can you

1:19:47

use ephemera in conjunction with the

1:19:50

consonants or is it either or?

1:19:52

It's another type of sentence. Right,

1:19:54

exactly. The same way a bond.

1:19:56

as a means or a class

1:19:58

sentence as a means or your

1:20:01

dream as a means an ephemera

1:20:03

as a type of means to

1:20:05

get your ends right to get

1:20:07

your to win a conflict and

1:20:09

get your intention or to counter

1:20:12

someone else's does it still get

1:20:14

marked even if it's used to

1:20:16

counter it does if you're successful

1:20:18

Yes. Yes. Yes. So you get

1:20:20

three successful uses of it, basically.

1:20:23

And you can keep it after

1:20:25

that. I mean, in this case,

1:20:27

I think you can't, right? You

1:20:29

have three uses of a data

1:20:31

boost on it. You know? It

1:20:34

just would be trash. It would

1:20:36

be trash. But again, if this

1:20:38

was like a jet pack, you

1:20:40

might keep the jet pack and

1:20:42

can still narrate with the jet

1:20:45

pack, but it doesn't matter anymore

1:20:47

narrative. is a real spiritual thing

1:20:49

that is maybe working here in

1:20:51

this world, kind of. I'm being

1:20:53

vague because really what it is

1:20:56

is that the in-fiction people who

1:20:58

made the game Realis believe that

1:21:00

to be true and so have

1:21:02

made a game in which that

1:21:04

is true about the world of

1:21:07

Realis. There are other people in

1:21:09

the world who believe different things.

1:21:11

So, anyway. What's up? Other people

1:21:13

believe different things. I know it's

1:21:15

weird. One day we'll talk about

1:21:18

the mechanical logic, but until then,

1:21:20

just think about the way, the

1:21:22

story, I think they call it

1:21:24

the the Nerisolic, something like that,

1:21:26

which is like, they believe that

1:21:29

the world has a narrative soul

1:21:31

that kind of aligns things towards...

1:21:33

you know, five act structures and

1:21:35

story beats and character arcs. That's

1:21:37

how they see the world and

1:21:40

they made a game that supports

1:21:42

that vision of the world. All

1:21:44

right, so we got two two

1:21:46

example conflicts here. How are things

1:21:48

going over at the ghost, the

1:21:51

ghost cheating world? Great. I mean

1:21:53

a few people are winning you

1:21:55

got a few people who do

1:21:57

you how do you know who

1:21:59

to let win? What's your it's

1:22:02

just like every few people like

1:22:04

you know don't get invested if

1:22:06

if you if people lose in

1:22:08

a row people start getting real

1:22:10

upset I think this is in

1:22:13

character actually I think I think

1:22:15

Candide is like I know one's

1:22:17

come up for a little bit

1:22:19

and Candide is like hiding what

1:22:21

you said this was like a

1:22:24

basketball game what is this? It's

1:22:26

like, you know, you know what

1:22:28

I'm talking about when you're at

1:22:30

like a carnival and you have

1:22:32

to shoot like a shot and

1:22:35

the angles always weird. Yeah, you

1:22:37

know how they cheat on those?

1:22:39

They make the whole ovular so

1:22:41

it's like it looks like it's

1:22:43

a normal hoop, but unless you

1:22:46

get like a swish it'll just

1:22:48

bounce weird and come right out.

1:22:50

Yeah, it's a lot like that.

1:22:52

You have to get it exactly

1:22:54

perfect. So yeah, how do you

1:22:57

know, you let that last guy

1:22:59

win? Was it because he had

1:23:01

a kid? I mean, you have

1:23:03

to let a certain, if no

1:23:05

one wins, they run you out

1:23:08

of town. Right, but, but, do

1:23:10

you make a judgment? But that

1:23:12

one, yes, because you had a

1:23:14

kid, yeah. Well, what if the

1:23:16

kid like a jerk? Well, then

1:23:19

they don't win. Okay, so you

1:23:21

don't let jerks win. What if

1:23:23

it's a whole town of jerks?

1:23:28

I mean, there's never a

1:23:30

whole town of jerks. There's

1:23:33

never a whole town of

1:23:35

jerks? It's never a whole

1:23:37

town of no. Takes out

1:23:39

a pencil and writes this

1:23:41

down in a little hand-held

1:23:43

flip notebook. It can't be

1:23:46

all jerks. Period. Big. All

1:23:48

right. And then this group

1:23:50

of people from the citadel

1:23:52

show up to... you know,

1:23:54

the basketball game and they

1:23:56

are where You know, I

1:23:58

think we the second sci-fi

1:24:01

setting in a row. I

1:24:03

just put basketball. Listen It's

1:24:05

the it's the NBA finals

1:24:07

right now tonight basketball is

1:24:09

on the brain. Who's in

1:24:11

it? It is the Dallas

1:24:14

Mavericks and the Boston Celtics.

1:24:16

Some real unlike some real

1:24:18

likable teams have made it.

1:24:20

I don't know how but

1:24:22

I'm rooting for a Dallas

1:24:24

team I think. it's a

1:24:27

nightmare scenario it's hard because

1:24:29

it's like it's it's anti

1:24:31

semitism versus regular races regular

1:24:33

old american grown the most

1:24:35

racist audience a crowd in

1:24:37

america yeah yeah yeah it's

1:24:39

bad out there terrible yeah

1:24:42

but you know what's great

1:24:44

basketball basketball yeah we should

1:24:46

get rid of all the

1:24:48

business around basketball let people

1:24:50

just hoop And then

1:24:52

also find a way to pay

1:24:54

them for their whooping If we

1:24:56

just sounds like you don't get

1:24:58

rid of the business and then

1:25:00

put the business back fuck damn

1:25:03

it Yeah, you have to understand

1:25:05

you some of these me some

1:25:07

of these people hoop real good.

1:25:09

I Believe it. I believe that

1:25:11

there's no one better on earth

1:25:13

at whooping That's what I'm saying

1:25:15

Yeah, so yeah a a a

1:25:17

group. Let's say it's like four

1:25:19

people five people arrived to the

1:25:22

basketball game here and you can

1:25:24

tell that they are they

1:25:26

are representatives of the the the

1:25:29

Lord of this castle this this

1:25:31

kind of it's tough because like

1:25:33

this person isn't the Lord

1:25:35

of Oled right but but he's

1:25:38

a really powerful member of the

1:25:40

Oled kind of the Oled hierarchy

1:25:43

or the overall Oled hierarchy or

1:25:45

the overall Oled political sphere.

1:25:47

This is, this is, you know,

1:25:49

I think it's part, it's one

1:25:52

of those things that's, that was,

1:25:54

you know, it was once

1:25:56

said, if you, if you controlled

1:25:59

the Citadel Bain, you control Ollid

1:26:01

or something. And that was like

1:26:03

many, many, many, many. many, many

1:26:06

ages ago, but there's still

1:26:08

something true about that politically. And

1:26:10

so this is a group of

1:26:13

people who represent that part of

1:26:15

the, this nearby Citadel. But

1:26:17

you don't necessarily know if they

1:26:19

are like, is this a, are

1:26:22

these like knights? Are these? high-ranking

1:26:24

aides? Is this the member of

1:26:27

the Crusader Kings Council, you

1:26:29

know? Is this a functionary? Or

1:26:31

is this, is this the, are

1:26:33

these the dudes? You know, are

1:26:36

these the people who run

1:26:38

this place, you know? And they're

1:26:40

gonna step up one of the

1:26:43

time here to, actually know, I

1:26:45

think they're gonna pick a, they

1:26:47

kind of like, seem to

1:26:49

talk amongst themselves, right? Who should

1:26:52

do the basketball game? at this

1:26:54

point no interference presumably there's another

1:26:57

person running the game right

1:26:59

you're not running yeah someone's like

1:27:01

taking the ticket right right right

1:27:03

so yeah they they they take

1:27:06

the ticket and then someone steps

1:27:08

up maybe there's even like

1:27:10

a signal involved you don't you

1:27:13

don't make the call yourself I

1:27:15

think I think I think Donnie

1:27:17

does make the call but

1:27:19

then like there's an overrule I

1:27:22

see Yeah, yeah, yeah, like the

1:27:24

person who's running this game for

1:27:27

you, she is like shook by

1:27:29

the... the arrival of people

1:27:31

from the nearby castle. And she

1:27:33

does not, she does not give

1:27:36

you what should be the normal

1:27:38

signal. You should get a

1:27:40

signal more where it's like, these

1:27:43

are important people. You know they're

1:27:45

important people. But she like forgets

1:27:47

to do the signal. And this

1:27:50

this person steps up. You

1:27:52

think that maybe they are like

1:27:54

a magistrate or something, you know,

1:27:57

high ranking magistrate of the of

1:27:59

the citadel. It's the vibes

1:28:01

you get from the colors that

1:28:04

they're wearing or like the fluffy

1:28:06

arm sleeves or whatever. I don't

1:28:08

know what the vibe is here.

1:28:11

I think that they are

1:28:13

wearing like, I started the same

1:28:15

as before and I got distracted,

1:28:18

they are like... Extremely, do you

1:28:20

remember Dayus X, Human Revolution,

1:28:22

the one from like 2010, where

1:28:24

they're like, what if Renaissance garb

1:28:27

came back, but also it was

1:28:29

like tech wear? It's like that,

1:28:32

except you split those two

1:28:34

things out and then layer them

1:28:36

on top of one another. Instead

1:28:38

of them combining, it is straight

1:28:41

up Renaissance outfits and then

1:28:43

also, you know, real... Peter Chung

1:28:45

aesthetics here real high maximalism bullshit

1:28:48

And this this guy's gonna step

1:28:50

up feel the ball like bounces

1:28:52

the ball twice. Okay. I'm

1:28:54

getting a feel for this thing

1:28:57

Requests a free shot like a

1:28:59

like a test shot to which

1:29:02

the operator says no, that's not

1:29:04

allowed And he goes all right

1:29:06

I'll just have to do it

1:29:09

naturally then bounce bounce bounce bounce

1:29:11

bounce and then takes the shot

1:29:14

do you interfere with this

1:29:16

I think this is uncertain I

1:29:18

I don't think that this is

1:29:20

um I don't think a sentence

1:29:23

is being used here you

1:29:25

know I think it's uncertain if

1:29:27

it goes in or if it

1:29:30

goes out yeah um which means

1:29:32

that you would be the actor

1:29:34

in this scenario You know,

1:29:36

you're not being counteracting, you know,

1:29:39

he is not using a sentence

1:29:41

to try to shoot this ball

1:29:44

in the hoop. I have

1:29:46

a question. Yeah. Let's say Art

1:29:48

chooses not to act. Yeah. Because

1:29:50

it's uncertain. Yeah. How does an

1:29:53

unacted... upon uncertainty results? I resolve

1:29:55

it. GM resolves it. Classic,

1:29:57

tabletop game stuff. Is it going

1:30:00

in? It's hard to tell. It's

1:30:02

on the right arc. If it

1:30:04

was a, if it was

1:30:06

a, I didn't say, they're not,

1:30:09

they're not a fixed hoops, right?

1:30:11

They're not actually trick hoops. They

1:30:14

are regular hoops because they have

1:30:16

the ghosts, is that correct?

1:30:18

Or are they also tricked hoops?

1:30:20

I think that they're, you know,

1:30:23

some days, some days Donnie's working

1:30:25

here, right. When dot there

1:30:27

there are gimmick hoops for the

1:30:30

days that Donnie's doing something else

1:30:32

But I think these are legit

1:30:34

hoops Then yeah, I think it's

1:30:37

gonna go in if it

1:30:39

was a gimmick hoop it would

1:30:41

bounce, but it's not Hotzal hoops

1:30:44

All right, I mean I was

1:30:46

gonna let it go. I was

1:30:48

gonna I was gonna put it

1:30:51

in. Oh interesting. Okay, because there's

1:30:53

you know Some people think that

1:30:56

they're some people think they're good

1:30:58

And if you let it

1:31:00

go in, they think it's not...

1:31:02

it's on the level. Right, right.

1:31:05

So you let it go in,

1:31:07

you don't interfere. I guess

1:31:09

this is a thing, it is

1:31:12

uncertain, maybe it doesn't go in.

1:31:14

I shouldn't have, I should have

1:31:16

resolved the uncertainty for you is

1:31:19

what I shouldn't have done.

1:31:21

If it's gonna miss, I'm gonna

1:31:23

put it in. What is your

1:31:26

means for that? I think again,

1:31:28

it is uncertain if it's

1:31:30

gonna go in or out. That

1:31:33

is what we have to stick

1:31:35

by. because you're going to decide

1:31:37

the uncertainty or then I will

1:31:40

decide it after the case.

1:31:42

Well I always be able to

1:31:44

spectral elemental power, parentheses, ghost stuff,

1:31:47

and if it like, if it

1:31:49

hits the rim it's going

1:31:51

to roll in. Yeah, okay. And

1:31:53

that's what happens. This is uncontested.

1:31:56

So you 100% get that to

1:31:58

go in. And then the magistrate

1:32:01

says, you're cheating. I missed

1:32:03

that shot. I feel it. I

1:32:05

missed that shot. I missed that

1:32:07

shot. guards and you know some

1:32:10

guards come over this way and

1:32:12