Tag: TTRPG

Craig You’re listening to Edge Radio 99.3 FM. This is media mothership here broadcasting out of Edge Radio Studios in Nepal. Luna Hobart TAS. Taylor Hey, that sounds familiar. Craig We explore how media can shape our understanding of the world. Around us, we’re streaming on edgeradio.org dot AU as well as on YouTube and Twitch. Yep, Yep. Just find us by searching media mothership. We’re also on the DAB. Tab, The DAB system digital audio broadcasting system message in during today’s show. Because it’s an exciting, fantastic deep dive that we’re doing so. So have this number ready 0488811707 to ask US questions with our special guest as we’re doing the next. Taylor Oh yeah. Craig Now you can also send a message on the chat. On YouTube or? Twitch as always, I’m your host Craig Norris, and we’ll come back right after this tune. All right, welcome back. Special guest Edward Williams. Edward. Hello. Fantas, thank you for coming on and co-host Taylor. So Edward, you’ve been really generous in terms of giving us the exclusive media release on this new project you’ve set up. We’ve had you on in the past with Big Love studios. Yes, this is Ulta like this. Well, you’re a busy guy. Edward Yeah, no, this is completely different project separate from Daniel. It’s mine. Craig The only thing. Yeah. So this is the launch. Well, you’ve launched already, this is the part of the media tool you’re doing promoting. Edward Yeah, yes, yeah. Craig Media tour media. Of your new tabletop role playing game, yes called Kingdoms of Amnesia. Edward Yes, yes. Well, yes. Craig Yep, Yep, Yep. So for those that don’t know, what is table? Top role playing. Edward Games. Oh. You know. Many people have many different definitions of a tabletop role play, Gabe Craig, but my definition is it’s basically. Collaborative role playing with the medium of a set of rules so. Without those rules, the, the, the the game element of it sort of isn’t really there, and it’s basically a marriage of the two role playing and gaming at the same time. Craig Yes. Speaker Yeah. Craig And people would know of Dungeons and Dragons, dungeons Dragons like. I mean, I guess you’re talking about. Edward It’s it’s dungeons and Dragons. Craig. Yeah. No, no, it’s it’s, it’s. For for people who aren’t aware of it, dungeons and Dragons is probably the best way and easiest way to. Sort of explain it to people. Craig But and you’ll have, like a storyteller, a games master there. And then people will choose characters like someone will be an elf. Another person will be a dwarf, and then you’ll have and the barbarian guy. Yeah. Yeah. And yeah, then you just kind of become murder hobos. Well, see. Edward See if they want. The rules are designed specifically to avoid the instances of murder hobos, murder hobos for those who don’t know, are basically when you play a role playing game. In my opinion, often there’s no stakes, so you just go around killing everyone you see in the game. In the game, in the. Speaker Hey. Edward Game in the game. Craig That’s right. You go into a village and the games master might have set up a store for you to buy things off and suddenly the place is saying I just killed the storekeeper. And take all. Edward The things. Yeah, I mean that’s an easy way of doing it. Craig So your game is is, is is very dense and we’ve got our hands on the kind of players dungeon master Compedium. We’ll show it up to. Edward The camera. Ohh yes, the the camera for those who are watching the stream and just listening. Craig There we go. Speaker Yeah. Craig This beautifully produced kingdoms of amnesia. Table top role playing game by Edward Williams. Now what sparked the initial idea for kingdoms of and was there something I said? You know, I need to create this. Edward World. Well, I’ve always been a creative person, as you know, Craig. But. I started to try and make tabletop role playing games when I couldn’t afford Dungeons and Dragons. Speaker So I couldn’t. Edward Afford dungeons and Dragons or Pathfinder, so I decided to make a game. However the. I I didn’t know what I was doing and say there was no systematic way about it and the mechanics came first and then the law sort of sprinkled its way in and filtered in. As I as I started to make it, as it started to become more solid as a game. Craig Right. So this has been in your mind. For a while. Edward Yes. Craig How long has it taken you to develop the game from that initial concept to this completion? Edward Let me just do the maths in my head. Play some music last year. Speaker No. Edward While you’re waiting for this. Taylor It just I I just wanna say here I’m glad that they found like decimal currency in the world cause 1 gold coin is worth 10 silver coins. Brilliant. Craig That’s pretty. Edward Yeah. Yes. OK. So yeah, it is. It is decimalized and it does. Is the metric system because because it’s not a traditional fantasy setting? Yeah, which I’ll get into at a moment if you want. So let’s see. How long has it been? It has been 14 years. Wow. Yeah, yeah. Speaker Excellent. Craig 14 years. Great. Yeah. So this has really been percolating for for quite. Edward A while. Yeah. And look for those who’ve you who have seen the book. It’s only 50 pages, but those are 50 pages, which has been distilled down to the very, very best and refined and refined and refined and. I’ve I’ve started again about four or five times. I think it’s four times. At one stage there was a version of the game that was 115 pages, but it was just so messy and. I think the length or the volume within the book isn’t a reflection of the quality inside. Craig Right. OK. Well, we might. Edward As in, there’s no correlation between the thickness and quality. Is what I meant to say. Craig Ah. It’s still quite a hefty tone. OK, so let’s go into the concept of this world that you’re setting up. Histories being fractured and restarted, yes, which is really fascinating premise to start the world with what? Drew you to. Explore this theme of kind of lost memory and cyclical struggle well it. Edward It all started out as a thought experiment to see if I could create the perfect world, and then as I was creating this perfect world, I realised that hang on a second, I’m starting to become a. Very. I’m becoming a despot in this perfect. So it sort of made me really realise that. Wow. Even like, no matter how good your intentions are, you go, you always end up sort of going if only people just did what I said, then everything would be good. And then you realise, oh, hang on. I’m being a bit of a. Bit of a dictator here so. It it it basically boils down to that thought experiment and then. Sort of stories kind of spin off from there. Hmm. And so they’re, quote unquote, perfect world is actually an imperfect world because it’s enforced by thought policing. And we’re not thought policing more like Huxley’s brave new world rather than a 1984. Craig Well, let’s go into those 3. Central mythical characters that are in this, so you’ve got the whale, the Leviathan and the minnow. Edward The minnow is a very minor. Character, sorry to. Craig Favourite. Edward OK, OK. So the the minnow, OK, so. Craig What’s their relationship to? Speaker Yeah. Edward Each other, so the minnow is actually a very important character, just not very. The role of the minnow is sort of a a bit more of a secretive thing. At the moment I sort of want to kind of drip feed out the story and and so have the mystery kind of. Unwrap as people play the game as people get interested in it, even if people are just interested in the story and not necessarily the game. That’s fine with me, but I will talk about the whale and what was the other one that. Craig So we’ve got the whale, the violin. Taylor You know this? Yeah, well, no, no. Edward No, no. OK. So my interpretation of what the important characters are versus your interpretation of what the important. Craig All right, right. Right. Speaker OK, well. Because I guess because what we’ve. Craig Got here is the settings. This is a post cataclysmic yes, well and and so history has been fractured and restarted. And then you’ve got this deep lore involving powerful mythical entities. You’ve got the whale, the Leviathan, the Mino and this complex social and political dynamics which is centred on the. Edward Yeah. Yes. Craig Enigmatic emperor yes, and ancient machines like the Colossus. Yes, right. So this, this detail. And then in the rule book you’ve got the core rules and the advanced rules. Yes. Right. And so there’s. Speaker Really. Craig Mechanics that cover everything from character creation, combat, magic, environment, social interaction. So I want to dig. Into some, yeah, yeah. Start with is this world building right? So these three central characters, what is the relationship between? Edward Yes. The these mythic entities. OK, so I’ll start with the Leviathan. The Leviathan is the easiest 1. The Leviathan is basically ripped straight out of Thomas Hobbs. This philosopher economist. Craig Yep. Edward Political analysts from the 1700s, basically, his thick tone can boil down to basically government entities. Spiral out of control, no matter who’s in charge, no matter how good the intentions are, they start to eat away at society, and society collapses in on itself because of the government. Sort of, yeah. Craig Sounds like like Bioshock, or it’s the video game. It’s a great premise, this one where, you know, utopic vision then. Edward And and that’s the Leviathan. The Leviathan is an actual entity that starts off as, oh, I love this. So. So the the Leviathan starts off as a small serpent, much like the serpent in the Garden of Eden. Speaker Right. Edward You know Adam and Eve and then. So it it sort of digs its fangs. I guess you could call them into someone or a group of people. I’m not going to say who, because that gives away too much of the mystery of of this story. And then it sort of grows into this Leviathan that basically swallows everything. In its path, yes, but it sort of collapses in under its own weight before that happens, and then it starts off as a small serpent again and sort of slowly builds up. And so it’s a repeating cycle. So that’s the Leviathan. That’s the Leviathan and the whale. The whale is sort of more like. An innocent bystander in all of this, and that the source of all life comes from this whale. Craig And the whales kind of sacrifices itself. Edward It’s sort of not necessarily sacrifice, it’s sort of. Becomes catatonic and. Is in a state of shock after this apocalypse that happened hundreds of years ago. Craig Yeah, and that seems really central. To the theme of role playing games this kind of. You know the whale sacrifice is kind of a central aspect to. Edward Yeah. Well, it’s it’s it’s not a a, a voluntary sacrifice. It’s a sacrifice that. Just comes about because of the amount of destruction it can’t handle it. And it also represents wisdom being passed down through the ages, and because it’s in a catatonic state. Yes, everyone forgets. Hence the name kingdoms of amnesia. So everyone forgets what actually. Happened in the past. Craig So like a fall of the Roman Empire, dark ages. Exactly. Yeah. Loss of that wisdom. And then you have the Renaissance. Yeah. Yeah, 800 years after. Edward Yeah. And the Mino the Mino is is. Representative of more. So yes, the whale does sacrifice itself, but it’s an unwitting or involuntary sacrifice, whereas the minnow is a voluntary sacrifice and it’s basically saying that it doesn’t matter how small you think you are in this world. If you sacrifice yourself, then that is one of the biggest things you could do anyway so. Craig Like the final episode of school games, no spoilers, though. Taylor Hey I haven’t watched it. I haven’t. Craig Sacrifices pretty much wrapped. Into it I’ve. Edward Only seen the first series to be honest. OK. Craig But you know, fortunately, here to promote good games. Edward Yes. Yeah, forget about this, minnow and this whale and Leviathan and the squid games. Speaker Why? Craig You want to talk about the Colossus, right? So without spoilers, if you could hint at what. The role of the ancient machine parties, right? The the Colossus in this world. Edward It’s less of a philosophical and conceptual entity. It’s more of a. Craig Leftover soldier, right? So it’s been like it reminds me a bit of the some of Miyazaki’s anime, the Laputa film, where you have those Colossus robots that are all kind of natures. Reclaim them in a way, but they they could get. Taylor That colossus thing, right? Hmm. Edward Reactivated and exactly. Yeah, it’s more of a blank slate than the other 3. Craig So. Dense, fascinating world building within this the other thing that really struck me as I was reading through it was your philosophy towards being a game master. Yes. And at certain points you’ll you’ll address the reader about how you kind of feel games. Master could best approach. Unpacking all this and delivering content. Edward Yeah, and. That that’s a section in the book that I had to think long and hard before actually putting it in because I I was thinking, what right do I have to tell people how to play the game? Because I do repeat somewhere in the book that it’s their game, they can play it however they want. So really, who am I to say no? This is how it should be played then I thought. Margaret Gary, Guy, Gary Gary, Gary Gygax did it. And you know I’m gonna do it, but mines more suggestions rather than prescriptions. I’m not telling people what they have to do, just more sort of hey. Speaker I. It’s great. Yeah, yeah. Look. Edward It might be a good idea to approach it this way, so some of the things that I say in there like you’re not there to write a story, you’re there to role play and for a lot of people that might come across as being a bit sort of well hang on, isn’t the act of role playing collaboratively? Going to end up in a story. Yes it is, but if you’re. If your intention is to create a story, then you then you go and create contrivances for your characters and sort of go Oh well. Well, it would make a better story if my character didn’t do this, so I know that my character would do that, but I’m going to make them do this, so we’ve got a cool story to go along with it. Craig Because I like that distinction and emphasis you placed on game masters and the game master, of course, is the person who’s directed the action. They’re the ones who will set up, you know, so you’re in a wilderness, you’re coming to a Tavern. Edward The the the game master is in my opinion and again everyone. This is my opinion. You can have differing opinions and but this is. This is mine. This is mine. Damn it. Sorry, sorry. Getting a bit angry there. So my in my opinion, the game master is there to create the environment with which the other players interact with the world. And it’s difficult to sort of. Speaker OK, you’ve done that. Edward Because on one hand you go well, the game master generally puts a heck of a lot more effort in than the players they’re putting on putting in a lot of effort into the scenarios, into the locations and the NPCS non player characters. But. That should be done willingly and it should be a a not a burden, but something that they do out of joy and passion and love for their players. You know, and I’m very big on on this sort of. Showing love to people and and yes, you know. Love might be a bit of a strong word, but it’s the word. I like to use. Craig Because you do make that point that the game masters should see themselves as facilitators rather than storytellers controlling the narrative. And it’s a very strong stance to take and. I was kind of curious if there was a. A kind of personal experience that led. You to that. Was there a game experience that you’ve had where that it did go well? Is there an experience? That led you to that philosophy. Edward Yes, Craig, there is. Craig OK. Is it child friendly? Do we need to? Make a language warning. Edward No, no, no, no, this is this is. Child friendly basically. I I’ve gone into games blind where GM’s. Sort of. They have this mentality of no, no, this is what we’re doing. You will. You will do this. And this is the role you play within that. And if you deviate from that role, then you know you’re not playing it properly. And I’m just sort of thinking. What this is this is insane. I’m here to enjoy myself. And. And you’re here to enjoy yourself. And if in order for you to enjoy yourself, you have to sort of. Shackle. Your fellow playmates. That’s kind of it just rubs me the wrong way. Craig Yeah. So rather than facilitating a direction that might not be the initial plan. Edward Yeah. Craig That you’re asked to have. Edward And This is why I say role play, not storytelling. Because if you’re telling a story, then the GM in their mind goes no, no, no. You’re supposed to be doing this. You know, you need to follow the story because if you’re not doing this, you’re not following the story. You’re not playing my game. And yeah. And I’ve also had gems where it’s like, OK, we’re going to break for lunch. Now back in 15 minutes, I’m thinking. Is this is this a? Is this a? Am I at work? Is this a? Is this a? Is this a 15 minute? You know, break from my my job, you know, so a lot of the experiences I have had. Have been very much. That and and then the GMs also hold it over the other players that they’ve put in all this effort, they’ve paid all this money for all these books and all this stuff and I’m thinking. Yes, you have, but that doesn’t give you the right to dictate to me. The the terms of of of this session you. Craig Know. Yeah. Yeah, there there should be and. And because I guess if you if the gym isn’t going to listen, yeah, what is your recourse to just leave or to? Edward Yeah, yeah, yeah. Look, I’ve I I think it’s best to just leave, give them a chance or two. In the past, I haven’t done that, but that’s something in circumstances where the gym has been a real. Like you know, this is this is. You you are. You are here to roll dice. You’re not here to make decisions. And. And that’s where I go. Yeah, I’ve been lied to. I’m not going to play. And I just leave. Craig Because I guess, yeah, I mean it’s it’s, it’s tricky, isn’t it? It’s a new if you’re a new GM in particular to shift that mode of thinking from feeling, you need to control the story. To being able to embrace player agents. Edward Yeah. And honestly, there is no right answer. That’s just my opinion. The the reality is, is that that there’s hours upon our hundreds, thousands, probably millions of hours of YouTube videos and millions of articles of people discussing this very topic and. There’s no consensus and so. Craig I guess it’s very context specific. Edward Exactly. And you know you. There might be a situation where one of your players has a bit of anxiety around making decisions. Craig Yeah. Edward And they may need a little bit of. Additional support in that and that inevitably results in you taking away some of their agency, which if that’s how you want to deal with it, if that’s what makes you both comfortable, then that makes you both comfortable. And so I’m not here to tell people what to do. I’m just saying my thoughts on it. So it even says my thoughts on being a GM, it doesn’t say. Yes, it doesn’t say. This is how you have to play the game. Oh, yeah. My thoughts on TTR RPG. So tabletop role playing game there we. Craig Go. It is mapped out. I mean in there. You do write. Specifically of these consequences being real and unavoidable, and the other examples. That you’ve encountered. Edward Yeah, but they’re they’re a bit too. Close. Craig Because it’s very emotional. I mean, I guess, yeah, there’s in these spaces, it can be you’re you’re having to be vulnerable. Edward Ohh you can. Yeah, you can easily destroy friendships if you don’t handle. It properly, yeah. Speaker Like. Edward It’s it’s not. You know. But yeah, I guess, yeah, it it’s it’s difficult because it’s just a game. But but, but you could really screw up friendships if you don’t approach it. Craig Yes. Edward You know, in a A a way that is. Wholesome for everyone. Craig And I found that this on page two of the manual to be really important. You know that you mapped it out again. I appreciate the. The difficulty of starting that conversation and but I. But you know, as we’re mapping out here, I think it’s so important. A lot of people forget that step of laying some ground rules or some expectations or just. During what each other expects, their roles will be in the space and before you know it, it’s gone too far down and and you’ve potentially broken something either the game. Or a friendship. Edward Yeah. Craig So, because equally you know there’s more positive stories that come out of these environments of role playing games than negatives. Fortunately, it can be. A great space. To develop and enrich friendships. Edward Ohh. Ohh yeah 100. Sent. You know you can help grow your friendships, you can help your problem solving and your communication skills and your maths. You can. You can expand all sorts of things through role playing. But. Some, sometimes. You can. Have a negative experience and when you have negative experience after negative experience after negative experience you’re so gotta ask yourself what’s the common denominator? Yes, you know why. Craig Is it me? Edward Yeah. Is it me you know? And, you know, reality is, it could be me. I could be the. Craig Problem. Yeah. Or it could be a particularly toxic environment, yeah. Edward Yeah, I mean I I I I had the arrogance to create my own tabletop role playing game because because nobody was playing the way I. Wanted to play. Speaker 1 That’s it. Craig I mean, I think that’s fantastic. Moving it from, you know, thought to practise now. You mentioned maths, so I want to talk a bit about the mechanics and some of the design decisions design decision made. So you’ve chosen the D100 and to the classic D20. Why the D100? Speaker Hmm. Edward Good question, Craig. I’ve wrestled long and hard for 14 years to come up with the answer. Well, 13 years at the time of this, this show, this radio show, so it it initially was. Speaker Yeah. Edward Oh gosh, this is going back like 14 years. So the initial thing was there would be, I think 6 stats, fairly generic stats. And for every point in that stat, you’ve got 1D6, so I’m going to use terms that may may not make sense to some people, so I’m just going to explain that one D6 is a six sided dice. Or die. So. That was cool because you got to roll a lot of dice because a lot, you know, a lot of the fun is rolling a lot of dice. Craig As long as the numbers are good. Edward Yeah, but the game was so unbalanced, which for for a tabletop role playing game balance isn’t necessarily the most important thing. Yeah, but it was so, so unbalanced that I thought, oh, because, you know, you’d have someone with two and a stat. Craig Yeah. Edward And someone with five in a stat and you’d be rolling 2 dice and they’d be rolling 5 and you go well. Well, this isn’t fun, you know. Speaker Yes. Edward So it went from that to 2D6 because I thought, oh, Bell curve, everyone likes the bell curve. You know anything to avoid a day 20? Because I because I don’t like the lottery aspect of it. The sort of what numbers gonna come up, you know, and. And I know, I know for a lot of people that is actually part of the appeal that is the draw. But for me that’s not really compelling game. Craig Particularly yes, if you if you constantly. The crap out on those roles? Yeah, it it can seem punishing in terms of it’s not anything I’m doing in terms of my decision making. It’s just bad luck with these damn dice roles, and that can quickly get old fast. Yeah. Edward Yeah. Craig So you’ve gone for D1. Edward 100 since AD 100 system and the reason I’ve gone for a D100 system is because the stats the stats make me go for a day 100 system. So in kingdoms of amnesia, unlike a lot of, well, a lot of more like. Craig Say it. Edward Unlike Dungeons and Dragons. Taylor Sure. Craig Should be a bingo card. That we’re going to. Edward Use. Unlike dungeons or Dragons, or and Dragons, unlike Dungeons and Dungeons and Dragons and Dragons. What am I saying? Craig We’re giving a lot of promotion for the. Edward Messages coming. Kingdoms of amnesia. No. So unlike. Games of that ilk. What is the point I’m. Trying to make Ohh hold on well. Craig Let’s go to the messages, yeah. We have Nathan, can you read that? From where you are. Not really. OK. We have Nathan Sylvester Taylor. We miss you. And what’s the topic today? OK. Well, just to remind people tuning in Edge Radio 99.3 FM, we’re talking with game designer. Taylor Just just reminding my stalker, yeah. Craig Edward Williams about his latest new game, Kingdoms of Amnesia, which you can see on the live stream now. And this is a tabletop role playing game. It’s a local game created here, and where can people find this if they’re wanting to dig into it while we’re talking about it? Edward Ah. That is a good question. So so I’ve been. I’m good at the creating side. I’m not very good at the distributing side. Taylor Distributed. Edward So there is a place called SB Games, SB games, not EB games. SB Games on Elizabeth St they’re they’re being sold there. I’m sort of testing the waters with Area 52, and I will eventually get around to talking to. Craig OK. All right. Edward Ohh Mona. Good games. Ohh good games, good games. No. Is that it? Yeah. Good games. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, my goodness. Sorry. Sorry. Good games. Craig Ohh great. That’s great, friend of the. Show, yeah. Edward So good games is on Brisbane St there I I saved it so OK, so the reason. That have gone with AD 100 system and the reason that the stats are the way that they are. So there’s 20. Oh gosh, 21 stats or 22 stats, I forget. And is because it’s a. It’s more stats based than abilities based, so in the game the other game you you choose abilities and you get more abilities and that allows you to do more things in a different way, whereas mine is just more sort of well, everyone can swim. It just depends on how competently that can. Right. Yeah. So that I mean, having said that, there are abilities in, in the game, otherwise it would be pretty there’d be no real flavour to the mechanics. And and that’s why day 100 to give people that room to put, Yep, more and more points into those stats. Craig So I mean, you also have core rules and advanced rules. How how would you suggest players approach? Edward That. OK, well, Craig. So there’s actually call rules, advanced rules and additional. Craig Rules, OK. Yeah. Edward Yeah. So additional rules are rules. OK now. There is a reason, so the core rules are you you really need to know these rules in order to play effectively. Otherwise you’re going to have to constantly ask someone sitting next to you. How do I? How do I do this? Craig And to get my health going. Edward Yeah. And so that’s only 1 1/2 pages. Or something I don’t know I. Can’t remember it is. Craig 22 pages 2 and a. Edward Half Pages, 2 1/2 pages I I know the game backwards and frontwards like the the front of my hand kingdoms of amnesia. That’s what we’re talking about. OK. Yeah, so. Speaker That’s right. Craig The additional rules is 1 and. Edward 1/2 yes, that’s it. So. The core rules are sort of. I hate using the word mandatory in order to play the game. You need to know the core rules in order to play the game. The additional rules are also rules that. You need to know, but if you’re not. Going to use them. Then you don’t need to know them. So like if you don’t plan on sneak attack grappling someone, for example, that’s an additional rules you don’t need to know it, you just need to know that that is a possibility. Advanced rules are sort of. When you want to add like. Customizations. To the guys. Craig Right. Edward Yeah, of course I do endorse home brewing. Home brewing is always. Craig Good. And that’s where you kind of. Set up house rules. Or you want to put some cyberpunk stuff in there or. Edward Yeah, yeah, exactly. Because I understand that I’m not. I’m not going to be able to cover everything. For every, I’m not going to be able to be everything to everyone. So I’m just making the game that I enjoy. That’s fantastic. Does that answer? Your question, yes, yes. Craig Next. Kind of system I’m going to talk about is the magic system. Yes. OK. So in the magic system, you’ve got magic and manner stats, yes. So why did you split the magic system into having manner and magic? Edward So your manner is your capacity. To perform magic. And your magic is your ability to perform magic. Craig So it’s a manner like the. Edward Like you’ll. You’ll exhaust it. No. Renew it? No. So there’s no real resource management when it comes to magic in this game, which I know for a lot of people, resource management is a part of the. Craig And you want. Appeal because resource management is where you’ll need to collect. Of gems or have enough of something, and then you’ll expand it and then you need to find some more to renew it, or you’ll need to rest for a day or something like that. That kind of renews. Edward Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And that does add limitations to the game. I appreciate that and. But you know, if you want to have things that deplete, if you want your manner to deplete. Then. You could make it deplete. It doesn’t bother me. It’s it’s, it’s your game. Craig So remind me again so. What? What are the two systems so? That the magic manner are. Edward Yes, so. Yeah, so manner is your your capacity. So the more powerful spells require more manner. Yeah. And your magic is your ability to actually cast it. So you might have say 100 manner and 40 magic and you try to cast this, this fireball, this massive fireball. And you can, theoretically you can. But. Your chances of actually pulling it off successfully are greatly diminished. Craig Rightly. Yeah, because you’re only sitting on a 40 magic score. Yeah, but your manners up at 100, which is a large. Edward Number Yep. And you’re trying to cast a spell that requires 100 manner. Craig Yeah, right. Yeah. Because it is. Yeah. It’s one of those things we are trying to solve a problem as you’re getting the. Mechanics setup. Yeah, that’s addressing a very real world thing. If you if you you need to scale up, you need to cultivate and develop. Yeah. Alright. So the next system I want to talk about. If there’s nothing further the magic system. Any questions about magic? Harry Potter universe play. Taylor What? Craig Can you do? Experiences. Edward You can, with disarming someone physically, yes. That’s still the Expelliarmus doesn’t. Yeah, yeah. Craig All that Harry Potter does throughout the series, that’s his one spell, yeah. Edward Cruise. No, no, that’s that’s the bad guys. He does Patronus at one stage, yeah, yeah. Craig All right. OK, skipping on. Speaker Well. Edward No, I think I’ll, I’ll just, sorry to sorry to, but with with the magic, it’s more conceptual than so there’s no like Fireball. It’s just sort of this spell does damage. Speaker Yes, please, please. Edward It’s up to you if you if it’s up to you if. Speaker Really, right. Edward You think? Taylor It has an element or something. Edward It’s a fireball. Yeah, like, it’s up to you. If it’s a fireball or a or, you know, just a magical entity or whatever. Like. So it means that I could strip down the magic and make it like 5 or 6 pages. And you just sort of play around with the rules within the magic system. Speaker Right. Yes. Craig So you can role play into the magic. Yeah, yeah. Experience. But in terms of crude numbers, there’s damage. And that’s what matters. Yeah. It’s it’s there’s damage point that you’re rolling. Yeah. Yeah. And. Edward You know, admittedly it might. You could be considered lazy because, well, because you know, like, I could go, oh, well, there’s a magic missile. And that’s just raw damage. And then there is a fireball and that does fire damage, which does this additional thing area damage all that sort of stuff. Speaker Yes. An area. Taylor Hmm. Edward But that’s that’s the way it I’ve done it because I want people to focus more on, you know. Speaker Hmm. Edward Trying to play around with their with the spell. Yeah, you know, manipulate it in a way that works for their character or solves the problem in front of them. Sorry to. Craig Yes. No, I think that’s really revealing. I like. That because the other system I wanted. To talk about was the opinion system. For. Social interactions. So at the moment, you’ve or in the in the game, you’ve got a range from a door to height, yes. And I think that’s really interesting. So how do you reckon that’s going to affect or have you seen it affect the role playing at the? Speaker Well. Well. Edward So this is one of the things. So there are several mechanics that I’ve made to try and prevent murder hobos. This is this is the main thing. Yes, because it’s sort of well, if you could be a murder hobo. But then everyone in town hates you. So they’re not really going to be able to, they’re not really going to answer your questions as readily. They’re not going to be as easily persuaded by you or or whatever, you know. So if you need information out of someone. You they’re not just going to say, oh, yeah, sure. I’ll give it to you because they’ve they’ve seen. Craig It because you’ve got that social interaction score. Edward Of hate. Yeah. And it’s that sort of. That scales to whatever the GM sort of decides like if they decide that’s an entire country that hates you, or just that town, or just that one person or that Guild. Yeah. Or, you know, whatever. Craig All right. Hmm. Message through from strategic. Well, thank you very much for welcoming back. It’s good to be back and it’s great to have a great show with Edward Williams talking about his new tabletop role playing game that he’s just developed kingdoms of amnesia available locally in Hobart. Will it be available overseason into state? You got an Amazon deal. Edward No, no, so OK. So unfortunately I decided to make this in a four. Right. Which limits it to. Craig Because you can print on demand, right if. Edward You. Yes. So if I want to distribute it globally, I can do it in its current form, but it would cost a lot more and I’d have to deal with import export nonsense. Or I could reformat it onto size that can be size. Speaker OK. Craig Whatever your. Edward Whatever is globally distributable, yeah, yes, there is a plan eventually to get to that stage, but I want to focus on Tasmania and. Craig Yeah. Edward Yeah, I want to focus on Tasmania and then maybe. There there are parts of Europe which, because I’ve got friends in Europe and England, I can sort of give them a few copies to sort of spread the good word. Craig At the moment it’s only available in print, not electronic form yet. Edward Correct, because I haven’t. I haven’t. I I don’t know what I’m doing, Craig. Speaker Like. Edward I’m solving one problem at a time and I’m trying to do it correctly and I I don’t know the best way to go about. Craig It to be honest, I I think it’s coming along really. Really. Well, so I just. Got to turn my. Edward My real focus is. To support the people who already have a copy and really sort of help them understand the game, and if they’ve got questions, they can ask me. Speaking of which, yes, there is an email for kingdoms of amnesia. No, not in the book. I’m sorry guys. Taylor Oh. Edward Look, I can’t think of everything, despite what you may think. So. The email is [email protected] right [email protected] it’s that if you’ve got any questions about the game or if you’re Interstate and you’ll want a copy and we can talk about, we can discuss how to get a copy to you. So. Craig There we go. Yes, because I think that just got. Speaker Awesome. Craig Based on our chats from. Edward What about the rest of the nation? Well, the rest of the nation. Craig Big boy. Edward Look. Sydney is a big place. I I don’t know where to start. I don’t know where to start in Melbourne. I don’t know where to start in Brisbane, Adelaide because the The thing is, is that I’ve already got these relationships with these game store owners and like I know their name, they know my name. And we can build off that. Trying to approach stores in the rest of the nation is pretty overwhelming to me at the moment, and until I’ve got a product that I can say, hey, look, it’s really popular in Tasmania. They’re not really going to be interested in it, but to individuals that want to reach out to me, then there is that email [email protected]. Craig Well, we’ll put those contact details up in the. Show notes so. Taylor Can I just ask a bit of a few questions about how you sort of like set it out? Like what sort of software did you use to create? Edward This just word just a word processor warehouse. Craig Really just Microsoft Word. Yeah or equivalent. Edward Ohh well well. A free equivalent, yeah. Speaker Yeah. Craig Leave our office. Edward Or WPS office. Yeah, so. Taylor Oh, OK, OK. Edward The Yeah, the the only thing that I regret is that because I. Well, these just make it special copies, so this copy, as you can see the border isn’t. Equidistant from the top and the sides, it was designed to be shrunk down slightly to actually fit on the page. Yeah, which I had done, but then I added an extra 2 pages and so I had to redo the cover. Yeah, and I forgot to resize the front. Taylor Yeah. Craig Right. Speaker Yeah. Taylor Because I was noticing that cause, there’s quite a big border around these ones, yeah. Edward Yeah. Yes. Craig Yeah. Who is on the cover? Who is that? Edward A picture of that is the emperor. Craig Really. Yes. Right. Who’s? Taylor So when it when it says like inside cover concept by Edward Williams cover concept, does that mean produce who they are? Edward No, no. Speaker This is. Craig An important. Taylor Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Craig Moral question, Mark, he says. Isn’t it? I. Edward Mean I I believe in supporting artists and I believe in paying them what they ask plus more if you can afford it. So this without getting into too many details because you know I don’t want to. You know. So. I went to fiver. OK, yeah, and got the artwork commissioned. And so I basically told this person this is what I want. And here’s a here’s a picture of something that kind of isn’t inspiration for it. Beyond that, do what you want. So. Speaker 1 Yeah. Edward I I I. Came up with the concept, but I didn’t actually draw it. An artist on five it did. Now I asked explicitly if they wanted to be credited. They they basically said no, which I think OK, fair enough. If they don’t want to be credited, then you know. 25% tip, you know. Yeah. You know, just like like, because I I also wanna I wanna remain friends with this artist because I wanna get them to do things in the. Speaker Yeah. Taylor More, yeah. Edward Future. So well, it’s. Great artwork. Ohh, it’s fantastic. It’s really I I I think it’s. Speaker Yeah. Edward I think it’s really wonderful. Speaker Hmm. Craig Yeah, yeah, no, look, it has that kind of haunted. Sunken face and he’s he’s a well, actually I was going to start going into characters and we’ve got about 5 minutes left. No, we have to get you back. But do you have any favourite or unusual characters that have been created within this system? Because it’s quite a detailed character creation system you’ve set up. In the game well. Edward Not really. I just sort of. What happens happens like I I don’t. I’m not really. No, no. Craig No. You play test it, you play. Tested it with friends and family. Edward Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, not family. They wouldn’t be interesting. Craig What are what are the? Types of characters that and merge in this game, like we’re talking dwarfs and elves, yeah. Edward Just people like like like cause the other game. Which for those, for those of you who have listed you, probably you probably know what game I’m talking about. That’s sort of it’s centred around heroes. You know, you become heroes and you’re you’re whereas mine sort of. Craig We do not. Speaker Baltimore. Edward More. Explorers and people trying to. Explore and discover the secrets of the world, or. Whatever their motivations are, and so the character design or the character creation is designed to create basically your average person and then over the course of your adventures you you increase in skill. Craig Because we’re running a little bit of time left. I do know you’ve got ambitious plans to explore further aspects. Of this world. Yes, right, Haven temples of the ancient world, the Necromancer. Which one are you the most excited to jump into and start fleshing out? Edward Well, that’s that’s a bit of a loaded question because what I’m most excited for and what I can actually achieve is different. So the Necromancer is the one that I’m doing at the moment. Basically getting someone to write the story for that one because. I’m more of a large concept in the broader law of the of the world, but I think that if I’m writing everything. And I’m not good with names. So, so, you know, it’s not going to come up with. It’s not going to create compelling names. So if I commissioned someone else to do it and say, here’s the kind of story I want you to. Write. Then, then there’s more compelling names and a more. Diverse spectrum of opinions and views and inputs into the world. So the Necromancer is the one that’s being done at the moment. That’s the easiest one. Not to say that it’s bad, it’s just easier to get it done. Haven is probably the most difficult because that is that’s going to explore a place that has many, many more answers. To the. Ancient past than any other story, but. It requires a lot more time and a lot more thought to put into it to actually get done. Speaker Hmm. Craig All right, well. Sadly, we’ll we’ll need to start wrapping up. So we’ve already said a little bit about where people can find the game and connect with the community. This, of course, is kingdoms of amnesia. The table top role playing game by Edward Williams. Are you setting up any community for this game? It’s going to be like a discord or a Facebook. Edward I’m not sorry. Craig Well, the fans, you know the. Fans. Edward Do it. I’m. I’m not so good at these things, Craig. Look, maybe a discord. Speaker I. Edward I I I want I want it to be I I don’t know what I want it to be. I don’t know how to manage it. I don’t know how to build it. All I know is that I just want to show people and if they get excited about doing it and they. You know, get involved. Then they can do that. And I’m more than happy for people to sort of. Take on board or take it on board and and fly away with it. That’s fine. I mean, it’s my game that I made, but. But you know, it’s also their game that they can play kind of thing. Craig Wonderful. Well, we will put any details you’d like to share with us on the show notes. We have one. Yeah. Thank you very. Much for big boy. Natalie, I need to move my glasses. Great stream, as always. See you next week. Yes, so we will be back next week with a new topic, but we will post show notes up about kingdoms of amnesia, the tabletop role playing game by Edward Williams Up on podcast. As well as on the YouTube. And Instagram. If people do want to reach out to you, they. Can grab you on. Edward The email that email [email protected] I’m I’m pretty accessible in other ways like sorry. Taylor OK, what’s your address? OK, what’s? Edward Your address. No, no, no. No. No, no, no, no. No, no, no, no, like. Like I’m sure I’m sure. People, especially in Hobart, would be able to track me down, yeah. Like it’s easier for me to compile like all the information on email. I’m a simple man, you know. Emails, emails, the way to go for me. If people want to make a discord, OK? Yeah. Craig Well, you know. That’s always my hope with our fans. Taylor What happened? Speaker But. Craig In the future? Well, William, thanks very much for calling Ed Wood. I think that. Was one of the. Edward Williams was just Mr. Williams. Taylor How many times have you had him? Craig On the show, Edward Williams. Edward Norris. Benston, Norris, Norris, Winston. Craig Well, you know, it’s the way they know when they are. Look at the streams. I mean, there’s no AI happening on that stream. Who knows what a IMS is happening on the street? Anyway, thanks for listening to Edge Radio and Media mothership for another week. We’ll be back next week with some new exciting stuff on kingdoms of amnesia and any other. Taylor What is happening there actually, yeah. Edward Very fitting, very. Kingdoms of major. Speaker Yeah. Edward Ohh. We paused to get alright. Craig Anyway, keep listening now to Edge radio for some really cool music and thanks again Taylor and Edward coming along. Edward See. Thank you, everybody. Bye. Bye, Norris. Taylor Bye.