A Fool’s Errand⁠, Episode 1

[MUSIC] What's up heroes it's me, your incorporeal host of One Shot Dylan back with another episode and a new series with a new cast. And I am super excited to say that I got to be a player again this time around because I was able to invite my friend Jay Stroutman on to come and GM of Fools errand for me as well as the other designer B who was also a player at the table along with some really, really excellent players and collaborators. It is a very fun tarot base game and I mean the first episode you're going to hear is a lot of like the collaborative world building that is built into the game. We did do a little bit off recording just for like getting to know our character creation process a little bit. But the world building part which is like a dedicated part of this game which I always love is what this first episode will largely be and then we'll get into the actual play of it all. I'm really excited for you to hear. I hope you really like it and of course you will find a link in the show notes to a place where you can buy the game. And I highly recommend that you do. Hey, welcome to the studio. Thanks so much for coming. I miss you all so much. How's everybody been? How's your day going? Thank you again for being here. I'm just so excited to see you. That's good. I haven't seen you in so long. Did something happen? Um, yeah, a couple of things happened. I, you know, I got really, really curious about some spooky stuff that was happening in the studio. And I really, I really just should have not been so curious. Shouldn't have looked around. Should have really stayed in my office. But that's fine. That's why I can't hug you right now. And I'm sorry for that. Well, I could like do the trying. Yeah, I could like do the motions. But like you will, as you see, you will go right through me, which is unfortunate. Just to be transparent. I've been dying to get here. You know what? Speaking of transparent, there's something going on with you, Dylan. Yeah. And, and Rara, I really do appreciate that. I feel like, you know, in the beginning, it was really hard for me to joke about it, but it does feel like it's time to have that in my life. So thank you for that. Yeah. No, sort of sort of in corporeal at the moment. But I'm working on it. I've, I've messaged James like 37 times. And I'm sure that like any minute now, he's going to call someone and they're going to come and figure this out. Well, I mean, who's he going to call fixed in no time? Yeah, when there's something strange in the studio. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And it don't look good. I'll tell you it, it do not look good. I look great. I've always said there's something strange in this neighborhood. I have luckily though, I have figured out a whole system for using text to speech kind of options, get all the recording equipment working. So we actually are still on for today. Oh, we are. Okay. We are. So I know it seems like this should really be a kind of call out sick scenario. But the podcast is kind of all I have left right now. So we're, we're really is the whole we're going to keep it going. You know, I don't want to be disrespectful is ghost or apparition? What do you prefer to be referred to as spirit and spectral? Oh, I think, I think ghost feels best because it, it comes with the heavy implication that I am still a person or that I was recently a person. Apparition does make me feel like I sort of came out of nowhere, but I am definitely still Dylan. So just just sort of a dad or version. Okay, that's great. I did want to ask if this is like, is this like a studio specific thing? Because since the last time I was here, the ghost or shaggy has been haunting me and I do just kind of want to touch base with that. I want to see what's up. Okay. Okay. That's interesting because funny enough, she and I can't really talk right now. Oh, I can't see. I mean, like the podcast is still getting made. So I assume she's still receiving all of the episodes and everything. A lot of the haunting is just her yelling. People have been at stage properly, you know, so it is wild. Yeah. Well, that's, I mean, okay. So you're hearing that too. Okay. So I do think, I do think that it is a studio thing. Also, Apollo, before you leave today, the, the saplings, I don't know if you remember them. Yeah. How were they doing? From the last time you were here? Yeah. No, not good. They've decided to kind of build a forest in the, in the Colosseum outside. And I support them. Yeah. Jay, actually, the last time you were here, the Colosseum is now sort of like a thick, deep, dense forest. So a lot of, a lot of changes going on. Okay. I'll give you the tour after we play and maybe I don't know. Good memories there, though. Good memories there. Yeah. It's, it's just a little bit denser. I don't know. Well, we'll figure it out. But in the meantime, I do, I do really want to play a game because I need something to take my mind off of all this. So I appreciate you being here. So that, you know, I, I hope they're still an audience, but so that they know who you are. I would love for everybody to introduce themselves and get themselves acquainted. And after you introduce yourself, if you could answer a kind of ice breakery question for me. And I think the question that I want everybody to answer is, can you tell me about a time that you were very foolish? I would really like some foolish moments from you all. And I would like to start with returning guest Apollo. Oh, no, I feared that. Hello, my name is Apollo. You can find me on the internet. I told me Apollo, I do GD RPGs. I do voiceover. I do cosplay occasionally. I'm a little guy on the internet from the beautiful and proud mission of Ireland. How are we? Thank you so much for having me back. I have no idea what I'm doing. And I'm furiously sorting a tarot deck. Why? You'll find out a time I was foolish. Oh, Tom foolery is kind of my default setting. I don't know what to tell you. Oh, my God. And I do believe you. Oh, Lord, okay, of foolishness. A crum of time, foolishness, if you believe me. Just a little away. Just a crum, sir. Please. Oh, there was not one time that I kind of, okay. So, you know, Ireland has a lot of graveyards. It's kind of just a thing. People would be dying. It's great, Greg. It's great fun. That one time that I fully did convince my friend that he was being haunted while in a graveyard. Oh, because I had, I knew my way around a lot. And I would just sort of, he was walking in front of me and I would just like alternate routes. And I would just make things move for like chimes and things. It was deep in October. It's also dark. I was really, I didn't, I haven't told him yet. I'm so sorry, man. I really hope you're not too scared. I hope, I hope you got into TTR producer. I hope you don't say. Oh, I love that. So dearly, thank you so much. Roa, would you go next? Hey, I'm Roa. I go by the, he pronouns and I'm the creator of the Heart as a Dungeon podcast. Tom Foulery, you know, one person's full is another person's hero. So in my late 20s, I used a hitchhike quite a bit. Like from the bottom of California up to Seattle, from the west coast to the east coast, and got into some beautiful and amazing situations. And also got into some places I shouldn't have been as a 17-year-old. So, you know, a lot of wonderful stories and I'm glad we can remember with Roa's colored glasses. I really like that. That's a really good one because it does sound like a very fun life, but like on paper. Yeah, don't do that. I wanted to be a bee-nicked. Didn't know what else to do. Yeah. Bee, would you go next, please? Oh, yeah. Hi, I'm Bea Marsolier. I am one half of the creative team behind Planet Arcana. I'm an illustrator and game designer, et cetera. And my foolishness, I'm going to put Jay on full blast here. Oh, no. This is, this is a story from our childhood. When we were in my bedroom, smoking. I went to open. When you started with that story, I was like, this could be one of eight stories and I didn't know which one it was. This is the probably the most foolish one. But my mom wasn't supposed to be home for a while and my brother came running downstairs and he was like, mom's home. And I was like, Jay, go. And so for some reason, I was like, Jay being here is a thing that's going to get me in trouble, not the pot. And so Jay, like, faulted out the window without their shoes. And then my mom came in and was like, why are j's shoes in bag? Oh, my god. They ran all the way home without shoes. Yeah. Yeah. That's so good. Oh, wow. You've left a trail. You can't leave a trail. You left the breadcrumbs behind. Wait, how were you foolish in this story? I was the one who said go. And then my mom came in and and she was like, Where's Jay and I was like, they had to go. - No, no, no, no. - Full admitting that Jay was there. - You answered your prompt. Tell a story when B was very funny. (laughing) - It doesn't exist. (laughing) Speaking of Jay, please introduce yourself. - Hi, I'm Jay Stropman. I use they/them pronouns. I'm one of the members of many-sided media, and I'm half of the creative team, the other half of the creative team for Planet Arcana. I'm a game designer. I work on podcasts, like Planet Arcana, my first engine soul operator, et cetera. And I'm a touring musician. And my foolishness, I had a story which was kind of nice, but I am gonna put "Buy and Be On Blast" now. - Yeah, just try it. Just try it to put me on blast. - When we were young, we used to play this very foolish game in which like one of us would kind of prepare this concoction of horrible foods (laughing) and then make the other eat it, which doesn't sound that foolish until you know that "B" has an anaphylactic peanut allergy, and she came over. (laughing) And I found these butter scotch cookies that my parents had bought. So I put some of that with like mustard or something yucky in it, and I made her eat it. And she was like, oh, she started making a face, and I was like, yeah, it's horrible, right? And then she was like, I think we need to go to the hospital and we did. (laughing) - Oh my God. (laughing) - So the stories went from I failed to cover up my friends' tracks and they ran home too. I almost killed them. (laughing) And you know, like, I really should have not eaten it when I smelled it 'cause I knew. - Yeah. - Oh, that's fun. - That's fun. - That's fun. - Yeah. - And I think it was, I think you took a slice to pickle and put it in between the layers of salmon. - That sounds like something I would do. - Oh my God. - Yeah. - Yeah, so you had a miserable experience and then you almost died. You had a really bad time twice. - No, twice. - I think about it was worth it. - This is deeply unethical. (laughing) - Yeah, well, and we're all still here, so, you know? - Yeah, you're both still here and you are both in equally dire situations and you're both still here and I'm very happy for that. (laughing) My name is Dylan and I live here. So you don't need an intro for me, but my foolishness that I wanna talk about is that I don't think I've ever talked about it on this show in particular, but I used to go out with some friends in early college and we would tell people, oh, we're going to the bar. We were not 21 and this was not a bar like that you drank at. Instead, it was in the middle of the Bronx, there was a steel bar that was attached to two chains in the middle of an alley that we found one day and we would go to the bar and we would occasionally bring new people there by saying, let's go to the bar. We would take them there and what we did there was we would get very high and then we would take turns lying underneath the bar and having our friends swing it around like a jump rope over here. (laughing) - Yeah. - Yeah, and that was like a Friday. That was like a Friday night like two a.m. hanging out kind of thing and then we discovered drinking which I think really, really even does out. I think it was like, I think it was a show. A lot of my life choices did ironically get better after that. But yeah, that was some serious foolishness that I just thought of for the first time in a while. - Did anyone get barred ever? - No one ever got barred. I think realistically, we did know that the chains did not go long enough to hit the ground or like get close enough to hit anyone's face but it always just seemed risky enough that we kept the fear alive. Yeah, it was a trust, trust exercise, I guess. But thank you all for answering so honestly. I really appreciate that. I think we feel ready to play a fool's errand. And so I'm gonna pass the mic over to Jay to lead us through this game. - Okay, I am really excited. I have run this game a lot in many different capacities, running it with B on the podcast, play testing it, and running it at conventions. This is the first time I've run like my convention setup on a podcast. So this is like a first for me. So thank you for joining me in that. I'm very stoked about that. And I'll get into what that means in a second. But to start, we're playing a fool's errand together. And I'm so excited about that. A fool's errand, if you don't know, is a storytelling role playing game about grappling with Godhood and keeping the gods in check. In it, we draw tarot cards as the main mechanic to add complications and resolve obstacles and sometimes add obstacles. As we explore both the fifth collide, which is the world that we'll play in and the dream and the digital networks. A fool's errand is a game that I wrote with B, who is on the call, be also illustrated the fuck out of it. So when you see it, it is so beautiful. It's a gorgeous looking game. Yes, truly. Yeah, so flowers for that. It is a game designed to tell this big, expansive science fantasy story, usually in a campaign setting, so like around six to eight sessions. And as that campaign rolls on, the players contend with calamities and they decide whether to indulge or deny this world's gods, the major arcana. But as I've just found out, we don't have six to eight sessions and I'm not moving in to the studio. So we only hide wouldn't. It's not a good time. Right, yeah. I might have to be dying to get there as well. We only have today. So what that means in kind of going back to what I was saying earlier is that the way that I run this at conventions is kind of like this speedrunning version of this where we'll do a session zero together as like the first half of the session. And in that session zero, we make the world together. So there is like this pre-established world that is very much a part of the mechanics, very much a part of the book in the setting. But I'm gonna kind of lay it out for everybody. And then together, we're gonna keep any part of it that we want and tear down all the rest of it, totally up to you. And we basically make a world together that you are excited to play in. And once we do that, then we'll make the characters, we'll make your characters and your characters will frolic about foolishly in a world of your own devising. So great. - Great. - Yay. - Yay. - So we start with the collaborative and structured session zero. We build the world, but specifically we are building the world centered around the biggest calamity in the world's history, aka the bigoops. So I'm gonna ask some questions to kind of like guide us along how this apocalypse came to be. What are the consequences of it? What does the world look like now? And yeah, the bigoops, an event whose complications and consequences are long lasting and immutable. But before we get there, I kind of just wanna lay out a little bit of this world to establish something so that you know what you can pull on and what you can tear down. How do you all feel about reading some stuff that I send you so that it doesn't just sound like you're talking for a really long time? - Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right on. - I'm into reading. I'll talk a little bit about the gods of this world. The major arcana gods. Actually, sorry, back up, record scratch, back up. How familiar is everyone with tarot? - Like, you know, I like pretty colloquially, like I'm not into tarot, but I kind of know the vibe and the auras around things. - Yep, yep. - I had an early COVID lockdown tarot phase. - I feel like that. - Nice, good. - I remember enough, beautiful. - I'm an elder millennial, so we're drowning in tarot decks. - Okay, fantastic, yeah. - And be me. - And be I assume you've never touched it. - I wish. - Yeah, okay. - You're actually really against the stuff. - I'll figure it out as we go. - Well, for the audience, if you're not familiar, just so you know, the tarot is separated into sort of two discreet parts. The minor arcana, which are the suits, so cups, pentacles, swords and wands, each comprised of 14 cards within, one to 10, and then Page Knight, Queen King. These feel a little plain card, E, I would say. And then the fifth suit, I don't know if it's really a suit, is the major arcana. These are cards with big titles like Strength, Justice, the Devil, the Tower, Judgment, et cetera. And these are kind of like big concept cards that when you use tarot for readings, you know, these are like kind of very focused, very clear answers or whatever you're trying to find. We're not really using them like that today, but just so you know, that's sort of the makeup of a tarot deck. And that's important because in this world, the gods are the major arcana of a tarot deck. So those big concepts like Strength, the Devil, the Tower, et cetera. So, the gods of the fifth collide are close by. Always, they watch the fools, that's you, from the ether, and intervene often. They're up close and personal, they're unfathomably big. Throughout the game, the gods will interfere with your plans for better or for worse. And eventually, this meddling will reach a boiling point. And you must decide whether to indulge or deny the major arcana. Both have major implications and will alter the course of your story. So choose wisely. The fifth collide is our setting today. It is vibrant, active, diverse, and retrofuturistic. Flying cars and submersibles carry passengers to floating cities. settlements at the bottom of the ocean, the Fifth Collide is a continent composed of five main land masses that drifted close together over millennia. And those masses are called the Phantom Isles, the Thurlush, the Cold Breaks, the Crownlands, and the Good On Wilds. The Fifth Collide is populated mostly by a mix of Androids humans and those in between. Note, there is no hierarchy between the builds. Androids and humans walk as one. Both have existed for so long that it is unclear whether humans created Androids or the other way around. Composite beings, humans with Androids parts or Androids with human parts are less common. The process of becoming composite is newly developed and a few surgeons have been legally trained to perform these procedures. Those who wish to be composite must sometimes seek this technology through underground avenues, which often lead to someone half-way proficient with a hexa and with a source for spare parts up to you if you want to ask where or who they came from. All people of the Fifth Collide give themselves fluid names. These names can reflect one's occupation, passion, affinity with a major arcana or any other aspect of their identity. A person can cycle through many fluid names in their lifetime. In addition to fluid names, each person has a true name, a name that fundamentally describes a core aspect of their potential whether they lean into it or push it away. A word often large in concept that you keep safe once you receive it upon coming of age. When someone knows your true name, they hold immense power over you. This knowledge provides opportunities to identify, use, and harm you. The networks exist as a sort of transcendental space. A mysterious duality visited only through sleep or meditation. Mind over matter, as they say. Or perhaps in this case, mind made material. The digital network is home to information, calculation, and discovery. Typically only accessed by androids. The dream network is home to memory, emotion, and manifestation. Typically only accessed by humans. Everyone has a really nice voice here. I was thinking, yeah. Everyone's grasping it. That's completely by accident. Huge line up. And that's it. That's a lot of information about our setting. Certainly, I'm not laying this at your feet for you to remember everything. But what I want here is to sort of let this percolate in your mind. If there is something that you were like, oh, that sounds interesting, then we'll pull on that as we go through making the big oops. And if you use none of it, that's fine too. We'll make it work. Although it would be tough to play without androids and humans. That's maybe the thing where I'm like, let's keep that part. This is a Warrior Cats podcast. Yeah. Yeah. And we use D20s, actually. This is the second time in two days that Warrior Cats has come up just by the way. That's really funny. Thank you. It's from the side, guys. You got to be thinking about the Warrior Cats. Everyone's talking about it. Okay. Are we ready to start making our big oops? Yes. Okay. I have very large question for you as we go through these questions, answer big, answer wide-reaching reach for the stars. And also at this point, I'm just going to throw out here that like as I run this like, I'm basically looking to you all to figure out to understand the world that you want to play in and understand what the story threads are. So what that means is that like as we're talking here, I'm grasping story threads. You're all incredible and experienced players. So I don't need to tell you this, but feel free to also like reach for things that are very like gamified, you know, what I mean? Like find within these answers like, you know, potential big items or big locations or like ideas that you want to explore and you know, feel empowered to chase those and make big swings. So all that being said, my first question to you is, did the big oops results in the birth or the death of a god? I think it has to be death. I like death. Yeah. Love death. Love death. Big fan. Big fan. It is the season. Definitely in support of death. It is the season. What does that mean? What's the season? Halloween is coming up in a month. And you're so right. Yeah. So right with that. And it doesn't matter that we're recording this at the end of August. It is the season. It is. It's the season. What is happening between that and now? And nothing. We're killing us. Okay. Yeah. Huge. So my next question then is which god died? There's two ways we can go about this. The first way is that we can from our stack of major arcana. We can pluck a card at random and maybe take a couple different options and like talk about which feels the best to have died. Or we can invent a god that no longer exists. And either way the implications are sort of the same. The point is is that whatever this god represented does not exist anymore. That's gone from the world. And this can be very like abstract. Like for example, the sun card represents like joy and success and like there could have been like a happiness sucked out of the world. Or it can be very literal in that like the sun in the sky disappeared. So we can go either way with it. I like the idea of drawing at random. And like from the deck that feels really exciting. Yeah. Let's do it. Why don't all of you draw a major arcana? And let's see which one feels the best vibes based. And then we can go from there. I drew the tower. Huge. I drew the devil. I do strength. What's number nine? What's your name, brother? Number nine. Old man with lantern. Oh, hermit. I drew the hermit. Okay, let's go through those one at a time. The tower represents chaos, revelation and upheaval. The devil represents bondage, hedonism, temptation, strength represents compassion, influence and patience. And the hermit represents solitude, inner guidance and introspection to any of those feel exciting to erase from the world. I am going to I'm actually going to say that I don't like erasing the tower. I feel like that's too much fun, interesting stuff to play with that I don't want it to be gone. Yeah, agreed. I could see the devil being the things erased after a massive calamity because they need some sort of action to blame the calamity on. So people being too hedonistic led to this happening. So now there's like this pressure to behave or else it'll happen again. That's amazing. And like any kind of fun would have been driven underground. Mole style. Yeah, I'm dolphins. Completely selfishly for the like characters that we made together when we made characters that I had in mind. I'm like, oh yeah, kill the devil. That's the most fun for me because I'm like the devil is everything that I was about. Oh yeah, that gives me some good juice. Don't clip that. Don't clip that. I did. I had that thought because we did do some light character creation beforehand together. And there was sort of a thread that all of you were finding together that like I feel like having the devil erased from the world. Well, you're going to put me out of business. Yeah, literally. Yes. Okay, I love this. Let's get a little granular. What has been removed from the world with the death of the devil? Can you give me again the attributes that the devil is more closely associated with please? Certainly. Keywords that we have are bondage, hedonism and temptation. Nobody is. He hedonism, I think, is the one that sticks out to me, I think, as being the thing that is just gone. That's fun. It would be to get rid of temptation. I think we need to keep temptation from a story perspective because if you're not ever tempted for better or for where temptation doesn't have to be purely like central, there's the temptation to adventure. So if we don't have that, we can't play it. Certainly. Yeah, that's a good point. Yeah. And then you also, you also can't miss the hedonism. That was gone. If you don't have the temptation. All the temptation, but no hedonism. Everyone different. It's a teenager mentally. It's like a shadow desire. Like you feel the itch that's impossible to scratch. Exactly. Yeah. Love that. Just global, just edging on a global cycle. Yeah. Finally. Finally. Thank God. Thank God we're finally there. See if my agenda's finally being pushed. I've probably tested this game a lot. I think this is the first death of the devil I've ever seen. Cool. Okay. My next question is where in the fifth collide did the big oops begin? So this would be a good time if you have the PDF open on the first or second page, there is a map. But that being said, the answer to this question could be like as specific as like one of the cities that you see on the map, or it can be like broad like the ocean, or it can be very esoteric like the periphery of people's vision. And the question is when where did the big oops? Where did it begin? Yeah. Did it begin? Okay. Yeah. And we can take that question as in like if we want to answer it as Where did the devil die. We could go there. Well, the devil went down to Georgia. I kind of feel like the big oops happen and it led to the devil dying. Does that feel right to anyone like in in not that it was like the devil died and that triggered the big oops? Mm-hmm. Do that feel good? Yes. Okay. There is directly and I like in a lot, I don't know how old it is. There's an Irish song about like, oh God, the devil is dead and buried in Colarni is the is the lyric. What's the most Ireland coded part of this map? Yeah. Jay. I'm going to say way away. Oh, yeah. I was literally going to think way away too in the stubble steps. Way away. It feels very, feels very Ireland to me. It does, doesn't it? Awesome. That's what the devil is buried. He's dead right there. I feel like as we're answering these questions, I'm starting to get a sense that the devil, though they were a God seems to have like embodied like a person or like had had some kind of form that people knew on. You know what I mean? Does that sound right? Yeah. Because B did mention the the devil and down to Georgia song, which I think also if we're just bringing in musical influences, we have to bring that song in. Yeah. I wish I knew it. The devil went down to way away. We there's okay. So there's this idea that I have that like the devil is is a God yes, but then there is like this the like maybe colloquial maybe maybe like a in a kind of mythological way. I don't know if it's like real, but like anytime anyone like gives you kind of like the permission to indulge in something like that's the devil manifest. So like anytime you were like humming and hawing about like about like indulging in a temptation like acting in accordance with your hedonism and like and doing those things and you're on the fence anytime anyone ever egged you on or told you it was okay or like gave you the the sort of push you needed to you know lay on your back underneath the bar. And it swung three inches above your face like that was the that was the devil. Oh, I love that that's really juicy. Okay, my follow up to this question is how far did it spread? So the implications of this question are did is the whole world affected by this or is it centralized to the did the death of the devil only reach at you know a specific area. I have a thought we were kind of tossing about the idea that we maybe all worked in the same place and it might be interesting if the devil has disappeared from all establishments that serve that purpose. So if we worked at a board delo, a place that like tends to serve you know bondage slash hedonistic desires and like that's where everybody goes for it. We would all be so deeply impacted and having no fun. Yes. And then like how I guess like how stretchy is that definition? Yeah. Like like our our restaurants like hedonistic like our places like our our all bars kind of you know like you can only order like a fully balanced meal with all of your macros. Yeah, exactly. And like can I go? I can get out of here. During the buffet riots we lost a lot of good restaurants. Like just like I could I could even see it like like you can't go to like a comedy club because yeah. It's so indulgent to to just go somewhere just to laugh and and drink and lose your inhibition and like feel that way. Like I don't know it just feels like we could really we could start with the the obvious ones that would get terribly impacted but then it like trickles up into like everything that you might think is safe just kind of isn't. I like the idea of it forming new philosophies where there's all these people on street corners like well is that the devil or was that my soul? And this new type of awakening happening at the same time it also kind of gives us out to like a little bit of extremism people are people are like you're going to have a whole room in your house where you just want to watch TV that's hedonism. It's like no it's not but I mean hey if it's purpose bill for something that brings you pleasure is that not hedonism at a little bit and we should get rid of that. Yeah quite literally the fun police. Oh my god. Okay that I was I had a follow up question about that to ask what the vibe was was because like if the devil died is this impulse is it the impulse that has died or is it like that the devil in like gave people strength to do this kind of thing. So like kind of where I'm getting at is like is someone enforcing this or is it just that people don't care for hedonistic things anymore. I kind of like the enforcement idea. I so I think there's all right there's there's two like kind of initial sides to this that I was thinking of and that it's like if we were indulging hedonism like kind of a normal amount before it's because the that devil would like show up and like tell you that it's fine and give you that like permission like give you that push that you needed to to indulge in the thing. I think that like push is gone that like that permission feels gone so that people now sort of like okay I know we're I know we're getting pretty Christian already. Who's a Christian? Everybody go get your rosary. I do apologize that we've gotten so Christian but it is sort of like it is sort of like them eating the fruit and then all of a sudden feeling ashamed of things they didn't feel ashamed of before. So like their permission that they were being granted by the devil on occasion has now left and so now no one feels like they have the the permission the right to indulge in the things that they're feeling tempted by. So everybody is sort of self-imposing these restrictions on themselves and then each other like as like a sort of ripple effect. Yeah that would also imply like a great amount of shame if you do or like intense guilt or like self self-flagellation if you do kind of yes yeah which could be so fun. Think about it guys. I got self-flagellation on a Sunday. Yeah oh my god. And a big up people of the dare program. Yeah. Yes absolutely. That for-profit program. Yes. Someone going oh hi to a really nice steak and then just saying I have to go run. Devils are really you. What would it stand for? Hey kids. So I'm getting kind of a pleasantville vibe from this though. Oh my god. Oh god. I re-watched that like three weeks ago. Yeah. What a strange film. I loved it but also yeah. What's the matter? You never had an orgasm that made color happen? Yeah yeah yeah. I mean it happens in the movie of all those face. It's had a whole tree on fire. I never I never heard of this movie I've never seen this movie. That was the wildest introduction. Yeah it's like black and white TV era sitcom has to like modern day people sent there and they introduced the world to like reading and sex and that makes everybody turn into technical color. Yeah. Yeah. I need to pause this recording. I need to go watch it and come back. I know. Yeah. You need one hour and 80 minutes. Yeah. There is a pretty poorly done racism allegory. It was 1998. I didn't expect anything better. Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah. It's pretty it's rough but it's cool. Lord. They were trying. Am I remembering right that the racism allegory is just all white people? Yes. It's everybody in this town is white. They're just now in color. Yeah yeah. That's the whole that's the whole. Yeah really tasteful. I know. I know. I did see the tagline that is nothing better than black and white. Oh my god. What is it? Nothing as simple as black and white and I was like this is already. Yeah. It gets dicey. It gets dicey. But it is there is some fun stuff with the sex makes you turn colors is is pretty fun. And that's beautiful. Thanks for walking down this path everybody. Yeah. I'm so glad I get we can introduce this to you. Anyway. Yes, Jay. Very simple. Yes. So. Okay. So let's chase this thread though that like it doesn't sound like it's enforced by a specific people. It's literally self-imposed. This the shame, this the lack of permission, the push, the guilt. That is. Yeah. Within us. Which feels like an early step before it is imposed by people is people doing it to themselves and then the more zealous in a community kind of becoming the nannies. And then later will we have to clear carry flashlights and then later it's handcuffs and it just keeps growing from there. Yeah. I like that. Fun cuffs. And then it accidentally to get sexy again. - Yeah, yeah, we come all the way back around. (laughing) - Okay, so I guess the question that we started this whole conversation trying to answer was how far did it spread? And I think the answer is like worldwide within like kind of wherever you might find hedonism. Does that sound correct? - Yes. - Okay, I think so. - I have heard rumor that there's fun to the West. - Oh. - Okay, I like that. I like keeping like maybe the possibility that somewhere it hasn't touched. - Yeah. - Yeah. - Maybe where the devil got buried. - Oh. - Like the idea that a lot of fantasy worlds have the idea of like wherever a god dies, that physical area becomes infected by something of that god's domain. So maybe there's like a radius around where the devil died where you can have fun. - Oh, so maybe way away is a den of sin. - Yeah. - Oh. - Yeah. (laughing) - Way away is a den of sin. - We're stuck in boring Chase Newbiddle cities. (laughing) - If we've got postcards. - Previously just like such a small like pastoral town is now just absolutely moist and ravenous. - Wow. - Yeah. - Okay. - This is literally a journey to the West. We have to get there. (laughing) - We'll have filthy travel pamphlets hidden under our mattresses. (laughing) - Ooh. (upbeat music) - Welcome to the Mid-Roll Heroes. As I said before, if you are liking the sound of this game so far, there's a link in the show notes to where you can get a copy of a fool's errand. And I hope you really like this kind of collaborative world building part. It's always a big treat for me. I really like when everybody at the table has a little bit of a personal stake in what's going on in the universe. I think that's really fun. And I like when a game has scaffolding built in to make that process happen. So yeah, let's just hear some quick ads and get right back into it. (upbeat music) - Okay, my next question for you all is who did the big oops effect most? So this could be our right up in the book as this could be as broad as Android's or as specific as people who were purple on the great wine tasting tour of Veridesia and 13 before oops. So we can blend anywhere within that spectrum entertainers. - Yeah, I think, I actually think what we could say is the service industry. I think we could say the service industry is hit the hardest, probably dead. Yeah, yeah, please let me serve you. - Are we comfortable with any sort of tensions between humans and androids that's naturally within the world? - I'm fine with that. - Because I could almost see humans feeling like they have more of a claim on the loss of hedonism because they feel it for real. - Ooh. - And that, and maybe who's to blame for the death of the devil at the same time? But these are kind of complicated for one shot too. - I'd be more comfortable with it if we added like the two sidedness of like humans have that perspective, but androids being like, well, we're literally purpose built for things and a large wealth of our entire civilization just became obsolete because of the loss of this. So it's like maybe we were not able to properly process that emotion, but we've lost our entire purpose in life. - Right, yeah. - Maybe accusing humans of becoming jaded to the feeling where it's still new for the androids. - Yeah, yeah. - It's like, there's the animosity from the point of less from like animosity of like one group looking down on another, but more so. We both are experiencing this loss in different ways and we're not meeting in the middle. - Yeah. - Yes. - That makes sense to me. - Yeah, I like that a lot. - And way away is where everyone comes together if you get my meaning. - Yeah. - Yeah. - Wait, no, what's your meaning? - They get it wrong. (laughing) - He told me about that in more detail. (laughing) - There's just a lot of coffee shops I've heard great things about this. - Oh, right. - Yeah. - Of course, yeah. - That's where I was. - They're all in technicolors. (laughing) - Yeah, exactly. - Coffee shops in our town are just warm water. - And my penultimate question for our Big Oops builds is how long after the Big Oops does our story take place? This could be seconds, minutes, millennia. How long have we been without hedonism? - I would love for it to be recent enough that like, 'cause I really am into playing a sex worker. So like, recent enough that I would have had business at some point in my life. - Yes. - Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. - Quite like that. - I like the steel adapting too, because I also was like the five of someone who was like a singer that had a speak easy type thing, which is so hedonistic. I think we need to, that pocket of time where it's recent enough that people are still feeling the like pretty immediate repercussions of it. Of like, they're still feeling that lots of business all of that. But far enough that the safe haven of way away is established enough to be known. - Yeah. Oh, interesting, a couple of years. I, there's something I like, what do we feel about like 10-ish years? - Yeah. - And the reason I'm pitching 10 is 'cause I feel like that's, it's close enough where people who have been affected by it, like remember the time before very vividly, it's like still pretty fresh. But maybe that like, there are some people who have really become okay with it. And like are really like kind of adjusted to the new normal and that there's like both of that around society? - I was thinking 10 years too. I think that's long enough to feel it. And also like you said, like, there's, oh, sorry. I'm going on my own tangent here, but there's something kind of interesting about way away being known as this haven because kind of who cares if you don't have any temptation? Like if you don't have, like that, like we talked about keeping temptation, but like if you don't crave or you feel like it's wrong to pursue hedonism, - Right. - It's like you can know that all you want. And, you know, - Right. - Yeah. - Why would you ever go there anyway? So anyway, 10 years feels very cool to me. - It's not like way away is considered a haven. It's more like way away is like notorious. - Yeah. - For both. - Yeah, it's not like people are not pilgrimageing to way away because they want, they're just sort of like, yeah, that dark place. - Yeah, like that simple place. - Yeah. - Way away and we're like stay away. - Yeah, get 'em. - 'Cause what they say in dare. - That's the slander campaign. - That's the dare slogan. - Those signs are all over every city, yeah. - Okay, amazing. Our final question for the Big Oops builds is around that, like we've answered all the questions around the pinnacle, what happened in the moment that we lost this. Now I want to talk a little bit about the lead up. - What I need from each of you is to grab your pile of major arcana and each of you are going to draw one at random and at this point make sure that the devil is out of your deck. - Can I choose purposefully? - You may. - Okay. - I mean, anyone may, but I feel like you've got a vibe going. So certainly. - I just feel like there's one major arcana that would definitely be tangled up in this shit. - Ooh. - Okay. - I pulled the Hierophant. - Good. - I pulled the star. - Nice. - I pulled the sun. - Okay. - Ooh. - Ooh, interesting. - Night and day. - Night and day. - Very cool. What we need to do here is pair these major arcana up and we're going to ask, there'll be two sets. We're going to ask for each set of paired up major arcana. Were they allied in the lead up to the Big Oops or were they feuding? And then from there I have a subquestion to ask you. So kind of, there's no rhyme or reason to this. We can totally pair them up like completely vibe-spaced or we can put some purpose behind it. And to that end, I'll read out the tenets of each of them. So the Hierophant is a religion, conformity, institution. Temperance is balance, combination, moderation. The star is hope, inspiration, and serenity. And the sun is vitality, joy, and success. So which major arcana do we want to pair up with, who? - Dylan. - Instinct is B, Hierophant and Temperance. We're sure, yeah, they were for sure on the same side. And then I really love the idea that like hope and then what was the other one? It was like hope and vitality joy and success. - Yeah, oh my God, I love the idea that those are allied with the devil. Like I love that. - I love that. - And to clarify. - So much. - We're trying to figure out if they're allied with each other or feuding with each other. - Oh, right, right, but like yes. - But allied with the devil is also a very interesting thread to pull on. - That's all fun, yeah. - Yes, yes, yes, I love that. - Okay. - Let's start there, let's start with the sun and the star. We want to go allied. Everyone on board with that. - Oh yeah. - Cool. - Sky's the limit. - What? - Oh, that's nice. - So in their allied partnership, leading up to the big oops, what did they create? So this can be as abstract as an ideal, a value or a concept or it can be as concrete as an object of building or a person. - What if? they are the ones who made way away what it is. Oh, interesting. Similar pitch. What if they made something like a way finder, something that people could turn to that would point them in the direction of like their hearts desire because that feels adjacent enough to like hedonism, but also like vitality, hope, all these things sort of being like, this is what you should follow. Yeah. This is what you should chase down. I love the term hearts desire to describe the combination of sudden star actually. Yeah, really, really. I really love that. That's beautiful actually. I had the slight idea they could have made night a little longer, trusting in the hearts of creatures that if they're hidden for longer, they'll become hedonistic on their own. So maybe way away the night is just a little longer in way away than in the rest of the world also because like, yeah, pulling on like what Dylan was saying earlier about how like if they're allied with the devil and they want this, like, there's something so interesting to me about like the son and the star, which feel like these like, I hate to put good and evil on the major arcana, but it's hard to look at the devil and be like that guy is good. But the son and the star feels so like it's so easy to ascribe good to them because of joy and success and inspiration and everything. And it's so interesting. And also so obvious to me that they would care about hedonism as like a way to fuel joy and inspiration and like that would be really important to them to maintain. So this is so cool to me. Yeah. I think it's beautiful. What a well-designed game. Wow, cool. I want to go back to the way Finder because I'm really excited about us having an object that's important in this one shot. My girlfriend. Yes. So it sounds like there's one of these or how many? I'm not married to one. I just had that thought. Well, there's more. There's more than one. Well, technically there's more than one son because all the stars are sons. I feel like there's probably a handful of times. Maybe there was like, upon the death of the devil, there was like a meteor shower. And that was all the way Finder's being delivered to the world and scattered, scattered across. Oh, oh. Oh, holy shit. Oh, I love that so much. Wow. Perfect sense for the son and the star to work together to send those down. Like it's just so tidy. Wow. Oh, my God. I love that. So that is stunning. I right now. My mind is like the gift of the guy writing on paper. It's in flames. And it's yes. Yes. Yeah, literally. Holy mackerel. Okay. That's so sick. I'm full joking. We can, we can not use any of my ideas. I'm fully joking. We can't not use that idea. Unfortunately, we're locked in. Yeah. Unfortunately. No, I want heart's desire to rain from this guy. Oh, God. It's so beautiful. Okay. Let's come back to flesh that out if we need to. But on the other hand, we have temperance and the Hierophant. Yeah. Who as a reminder, let's go through those tenets again. Hierophant is religion, conformity and institution. And temperance is balance, combination and moderation. I could really see this going either way between allied or feuding. No, we're feuding. We're 100% feuding. You are not, you are not extreme enough for me. You are. Yes. Temperance balance is is such a joke. We need to put a end to it. I'm like, surely there's room for a little bit of heat in this. Absolutely not. Oh, surely. No, the single spoiled apple ruins the entire world. You cannot have a single tainted object on this planet. And the fact that you don't see that makes me question if you even believe that's so funny. And because I feel like temperance would have like a fraught relationship with the devil where it's like, I like what you do, but you want too much of it. And now I'm in a position where I have to like defend the devil where I'm like, no, I mean, come on. We'll have to be a little bit tempted. We'll have to be a little bit bonded. No, they can be tempted all of they want as long as they never, ever, ever, ever indulgent it. Even once. And how and anyone who does is of it has failed. Yeah, that's another dare slogan. Don't do a thing even once. Or you failed or you failed. Or you failed. That's why I learned. Yeah. Okay. On the other hand of this, the son and the star created something in their allied partnership. What did temperance and the Hierophant destroy in their feud and same thing this can be abstract or concrete? Did we? Did we destroy new ones? Yeah. I love that. We killed new ones. Any other thoughts though be I that was my. No, I love that. It's very pleasantville. Yeah, it is. And we're we're bringing it back. Yeah. Pleasantville. Thank God. Walk me down this walk me down this path. I tell me about how new ones got asked. I think in our fighting in our feuding and our arguing over what to do. I think you. I think temperance kept trying to bring reason and moderation and like and like these these arguments for. Four new ones to the Hierophant and I think that the Hierophant each time that happened became more and more dug into their heels like became more and less and less able to consider this option. And I think got so fed up with it that like it became almost sort of like a God's decree that like that this type of arguing this type of of thinking like just was unacceptable to to this God and like could not abide it anymore and stopped. I think I think stopped hearing temperance like temperance when temperance now tries to speak to the Hierophant. No words come out. Oh my God. Like there is like it like Hierophant cannot hear new ones. Well, and that makes sense too because I think like while still around temperance is not nearly as powerful without its foil, which is the devil. Yeah. Right. Like temperance kind of relies on hedonism existing for temperance to exist because it's not like temperance is a little bit of everything. Right? Like a little bit of self denial and a little bit of hedonism and if hedonism is gone, then like what am I tempering? Yeah. I took some potent notes listening to both of you talk. This feels like I'm back in my philosophy today. I'm like God, you're so right. Yeah. That was an excellent little thing. Okay. I feel great about that. Does anybody feel like there's any gaps that need to get filled immediately? Well, we can't the devil's like anything that we have. To take us back to Pleasantville. Also like the next step that we need to do is to finally flesh out our characters. So like I said, like normally in the session zero, we would make characters together. We had the opportunity to sit down together off mic and do most of like the granular stuff. So we've picked our skills. We've picked our archetypes. We've picked our builds. The only thing that we haven't picked is our motivations, which is the thing that ties your characters to the major arcana and sort of gives your character some drives. So within that, we might also be able to like piece together anything that hasn't quite jelled yet. But before we do that, is there anything that anybody's like, this still doesn't feel complete or right to me seeing shaking heads? I'm good. We love that. Yeah. I feel good about it. It's a cozy world. Yeah. Yeah. It's really cozy, I think. Really cozy. As long as the blanket's not too soft. Yeah, exactly. The blanket is weighted a little bit and it's starting to get stifling, but a little guilt in each corner. Yeah, kind of the final piece of this entire setup to the one shot that we're going to play is that we need to determine your characters motivations. And so to do that, I'll have everyone take the major arcana that you drew for the last phase. So we had temperance, the higher event, the sun, the star. And everyone should draw two more major arcana at random. And then I'll tell you what to do with those. Oh, so we should all have those in our, like, pulled out. No, the star, the star. No, no, no, sorry. I explained that poorly. You should have the only one that you drew. Okay. And then you will add two more major arcana at random, each of you will. Oh, so you should have three unique major arcana. And one of them should be the one that you pulled in the last phase. Okay. Would you like us to say out loud what we drew or these secrets? Here's what I'd like you to do in your digital character sheet, which I believe everyone is using. On the right hand side, there is a space for you to select which three major arcana you are running with. And those will define and your motivation. So like I said, I said motivations are your sort of characters drives. And it also is a thing that tethers you to the gods of this world. So once you select your three major arcana, there's a dropdown list on the right-hand side to put in whichever major arcana you selected. Once you do that, there's another dropdown underneath it that will repopulate with your options for the motivations for that major arcana. So each major arcana has three unique motivations, which also means that if any of you end up picking the same major arcana, not a big deal, 'cause there's multiple motivations, also having shared motivations can be kind of fun. So don't worry about like, you know, especially with everyone having three unique ones, it's gonna be lots of variation. So all that being said, you should have three major arcana. Each of those major arcana should have a motivation. And basically once you've picked those, let me know when you're done, because then I'll start to ask each of you to introduce me to your character. - Does this one have a different name? - Oh, yeah, your deck might have a, which one did you draw? I might be able to reason it out. - 21, I remember this being called The World, but I don't see it here. - Yes. - It's maybe Wheel of Fortune. - No, so the world and the fool should be removed from your major arcana, and I know, collected to mention that. - Cool. - Because normally when I run this at cons, I do that for people's decks anyway, and there's no issue. - Cool, cool. - But you should remove the world and the fool, and the reason for that is because you are the fools, and this entire journey is the world, and you are in search of seeking the world, so it won't be one of your motivations. - Cool, okay, got one. - Cool, same. - Yeah, me too. - I also have them. - Beautiful. And I think the only thing that we haven't done that's crucial to this is names. - Yay. (laughs) - There's a few ways that you can do this. If you kind of have a vibe of your character, and you might, if you want to introduce your character first, and kind of like find their name along the way, that's totally fine, if you have a vibe right now, run with it. On page 44 of the PDF or 86 of the book, it starts to define and give some examples of how to name your characters in this world. So like we said in the intro, everyone has a fluid name, which is the name that they present to the world. This name can often change a lot over your life as you, as you change and grow, and it represents you, maybe represents your line of work, your desires, your goals, maybe an affinity with one of the gods, the major arcana, or just anything that kind of defines your personality in the snapshot of you that we get. And also, everyone has a true name, which is the name that you keep hidden, because of course, if someone knows your true name, they can do terrible things with it. Often in a one shot especially, we don't get too far into true names unless it becomes very important in the world, building it, it didn't seem like we grasped onto it. So don't worry about having a true name unless you want one, feel free to have that and hold it and tell us if you really trust us and also feel free not to. But at this point, it's a good idea to, if you have a vibe on your character, start to come up with some ideas for names. So if you're naming by occupation, if like your character's an entertainer, you might go with a name like can, can, or lyric, or telltale, they're a politician, you might go ledgeslav, fiduciia. If you have a particular affinity with like, with temperance, you might pick a name like teaspoon or chaperone, does anyone feel like they have a vibe on their name immediately? And more importantly, does anyone feel like they want to wait to introduce their character to kind of find it along the way? - I do feel like I have a name. - Well then Dylan, I would love to just throw to you immediately and I would love you to introduce me to your character. What I want to know is anything you want to tell me, but crucially their name, their archetypes, their build, which is whether you're Android human or somewhere in between, and then your motivations, and we'll get into that. - Their name's boss. And they are an out, (laughs) their name's boss, and they're an outlaw virtuoso. They are also a modded human, which so they're like a human with Android parts, which is very exciting. Motivations for boss are the Hierophant, which was you've come into possession of a strange object of power and you want to learn how to wield it. Very exciting. The chariot, you received a message in a dream. - Oh. - And the Empress, you can't bear to be apart from at least one of your co-adventures. And I don't know who yet, but I'm very excited about that one in particular. - Ooh. Do you have a vibe on what your object of power might be? - I would like it to be a Apollo. What was it called, one of the things that we reigned down? - The Wayfinder. - The Wayfinder. Yes, I want to be one of the Wayfinder. - It must be. - It must be. - It must be. - Oh, okay. 'Cause I'm immediately like, okay, we're taking the rings to Mordor or whatever. - Yeah. (laughs) - Yeah, they're taking the love it's ties and go for sure. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Do you know what the message in a dream is yet? And if you don't, that's fine. We can find it on the way. - I would kind of like the message in the dream to be like some kind of, like, you know, if you were to be told like the answer to a puzzle without having seen the puzzle yet. And it's sort of like how do you, it's like a clue as to how to use this Wayfinder but it doesn't make sense or mean anything to me yet. But I am, I know that I have to. I just, I have to figure it out. - Oh, enormous. Okay, that's so exciting. And my final question for you is, what part of you is Android in a human body? - I have TV stomach. - Yeah. - I have, yes. (laughs) - Yeah. - Yeah, I have, I have got some steel and a TV stomach. - Oh my God, and who watches TV anymore? - And who watches TV anymore? And that's, you know, it's just like, it's really sad. I spent a lot of money on this modification. - They brought past terror. We can watch terror. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. We can watch terror, I guess. - Oh, delicious. Okay. - We can watch seventh heaven together. (laughs) - Oh my God. Okay, I love boss so much. This is so good. Okay, great. Let's move to B, you said you were also ready with a name. - I'm ready. I also wanna ask, I don't know if I missed this, but what are bosses archetypes? - Boss is an outlaw virtuoso. - Dope, that's awesome. I might have a hefty pitch here if you don't have a vibe for like what your art is for virtuoso. And it's entirely based on the name that you just gave. But my character's name is Yam's Grumbo. - Sure. - She is a influencer virtuoso. And I think before the big oops was like only fans vibes, like broadcasted a lot of her work and like probably, you know, worked in a club or something like that that she broadcasted out of. I feel free to just throw this in the trash, but like, do you wanna be my manager/pimp boss? - Yes. - Okay. - Yeah. And I don't know. I can't bear to be a part for you. - Yeah. - I'm brave. - Yeah. And like, I'm picturing like besties. And I'm just like, I just want someone to represent me that loves me and understands me. - Well, and I love film and TV. That's kind of my whole thing. And so I did a lot of your camera work for you back in the day. And I really miss that. - I just run in carbon-dairy while you film. - Yeah. I did. It was sort of like pop up video. - Oh my God. - Yeah. - That's so funny. Just like a thing on the bottom. Like, this is Yum's 4,000 client. (laughing) Did you know? - Yeah. - Oh, beautiful. - That's so good. Okay. So Yum is an Aquian. Yeah. So comes from underwater somewhere. My motivations are temperance. You lost something that shifted your equilibrium and are seeking something to fill the void. And I think it's quite obvious what the thing I lost was and it's like all of my clients. - Totally. - And my work, which I'm very passionate about and enjoy very much. I have drawn the lovers, which as you're trying to put as many notches on your belt as possible. - Yeah. - You know? And then Wheel of Fortune, which is really interesting 'cause it lines up with your dream kind of, I believe the major icon has spoke to me and they said your adventure was foretold by prophecy. And I think what they told me is that like, Boss has the key to like deliver you from the lack of hedonism, deliver you from the lack of nuance, get you back in business. - Yes. - Oh, okay. - Cool. - Sick. - Oh, delicious. - Yeah, young scrumbo, in fact. - Yeah, that's the young scrumbo, in fact. - Apollo, it looked, I thought I saw you raise your hand, you look ready. - Yes, I am. - Hit me. - So my character is called Nightingale, but they go by NightEG. - Oh. - They are an inquire protector. Their build is Gears Android. - Ooh. - The vibe here is the person at the speak easy that isn't necessarily a performer, but it's almost like the vibe manager. Like, I would go around, I would make sure that people were having a good time. I would, yeah, very much a vibe manager, kind of going around. It was my job to know things. If you walked in through the doors, it was my job to know that you were having a, a tough time at work, or that there was some family drama. And it was my job to go in there. And I think the way that the protector aspect a manifest that it would be like, hey, this is a space where you don't have to worry about that. would sort of take care of people emotionally. Yeah. And that was my job. And I was like, okay, now that you're in a good space mentally, enjoy yourself. Go engage with all of this. Do you know what that character is? Is so funny? Is what you are the person that gave people permission? You were embodying the devil's cool thing. You were giving people the permission to relax and not feel bad about their indulgences. Wow. That's cool. Yeah. And I think like 10 years on, I'm almost a hermit. Like, I think I'm just working like a dead end office job. And I really, really hate it. And it's slowly eating away at me. And I just need to get out of here. Wow. For my arcana, I have the sun, my motivation, someone or something has inspired intense fear in the people close to you. And you're determined to replace it with joy. So I think that I'm like all the vibe of the hire font is just sort of came crashing down on my office building. And everyone has become very paranoid of each other. Being like, are you doing the thing? Are you having too much fun? Should I report you to someone? And everyone's sort of nobody can connect anymore because everyone's at each other's backs. And I'm just here like, I gotta fix this. I can't just sit by. Justice. You're trying to clear your name after an unjust accusation. I think that the speakeasy that I worked at got rated and shut down. And people are saying that it was me. That you're not who gave up the location. Oh my god. People are saying that I not devastated. Oh my god. And the lovers you're driven by the pursuit of beauty. I think for this one, we're going straight up to Hans Christian Anderson, the nightingale. I think when I worked in that speakeasy 10 before the death of the devil, I was just like, beautiful automaton. That was adorned with like peacock feathers and everything. Like I was a visual display of you can relax here now. I was like like a bed of feathers for people to rest on before they went and had fun. Yeah. And I think I've lost all of that. I've lost all the color. I've lost all the joy in my design and unjust gears. And I'm trying to find those little things that'll make me feel more like myself again. Oh, I love that. That's so sick. That's so beautiful. I was like, we're going to be sad today. Wow. What's nightingale's pronoun vibes? They any. Cool. I don't know why. I'm warning that the loss of Miss Dolly Parton. So I am just kind of featuring like Dolly's vibe of just kind of being like a soft hug of a person. Oh, yeah. I love that. Really good. Really strong. Everyone is swinging. And I am here for it. No, we're not allowed to do that anymore. Yeah, yeah. But the temptation still there. The temptation still there. Vara, let's come to you and round us out. Well, a rival has been around for a very long time. They're an operator outlaw, though they don't really find a place to operate as much as they used to. They used to help change mechanisms or settings on different pleasure bots in the first areas to help line them up with humans in the right way. And we're part of understanding how some of the older machines would work. They've always been helpful in organizing when the big wigs would come for special weekends and kind of an event planner back in the day. They're always very good at helping people come. But now that that's not necessary anymore, a rival doesn't do that. So a rival, as I said, is an operator outlaw and there is steeman droid. So all of them is metal and worn and rusted, except for human heart in a clear cavity in their chest. That's just there aesthetically. And it is it is withered, it is dried, but they can't remove it at this point. So for their day job currently, a rival delivers love letters, which in this new era is horrible and depressing. You'll open up a letter and it'll just say, "Hello, I'll be home after work." So a rival has one squeaky wheel and no legs and they go to and fro delivering these apathetic poems across the town whenever they can. And their motivations, I have the chariot. They told you the odds were stacked against you. They said you'd never succeed. You're going to prove them wrong. I have the magician. You are hoping to manifest a new power or ability. And the star, something has inspired hoping you for the first time in a long time. One thing I want to touch on with steeman droids is that they're the oldest looking build of the androids. And I seem to recall when we were talking about your character in the off mic pre-session, there was a little bit of chat about you being interested in the fact that especially that this has been 10 years since everything has happened. What is a rival's age? And androids at the top bend live 60 years at best. You know, I'm somewhere in between tired and done. If I had to pick a number four, it would be yours. I'd call and say, "Hello, I'm tired and done." But no, somewhere around 50 to 55, probably, approaching that yellow ribbon with such joy. Ready to arrive. And for the magician hoping to manifest a new power or ability, did you have any vibes on that? To break this pattern I've been in for about nine and a half years. When you only have wheels, it can be hard to go outside of the path in front of you. And I've worn a pretty good one into the ground here. So anywhere different would be a new power I would like to break out because I'd have to believe in myself for that. Okay. God, beautiful. The threads are clear between each of you. I have a question, where do you want to start your story? Because it seems like, like, do you want to be in way away this place of this haven? Or do you want to make your way there? I want to make our way there. I feel like there's like- I think we have to make our way there. Yeah, right? Yeah. I feel like that feels one like very adventure and also, I don't know, just exciting. Yeah, I think I think we should make our way. Do you know where you'd like to start? Wherever boss and young scrumbo are, I think is where we should start. Ooh, okay. Yeah. I just want to see these dynamics real bad. Any does be on where we- Well, in the interest of making it make sense for arrival in 90G. Yeah. I agree that one just called me. I saw that and I was like, yeah. There's kind of like a bureaucratic vibe and bent to like Crown City. And I feel like there would be a lot of like office buildings and bureaucracy and stuff like that there. So Crown City possibly. Yeah. Cool. Cool. I'm good with that. Oh, so we've got to- we've got to cross a channel to get to way away if we want to. That's pretty fun. We are on the other side of the fifth collide. I tell you what, it's going to be- it might feel nearly impossible and in fact, it might feel like the odds are stacked against you. Yeah. In fact, they say it's impossible. Great. Cool. Cool. Well, I feel like that gives me some good juice to toss us into a campaign. Toss me. Are we ready to jump in? Does anybody need anything before we start? Oh, you- of course you do. You need your playdecks. The thing that in which you engage with the game and the mechanics. I was just ready to start telling a story and just see where it takes us. But we do, in fact, need to engage with the mechanics of the game at some point. So the final part of making your character is putting together your playdecks. So earlier, I had all of you separate your decks into the different suits. In our off mic session, we selected the two suits that make up your character. These provide you some extra abilities. I don't feel like we need to talk about them. Now, let's find them when it feels right to use them. But you should gather the two suits that you selected. And from those, remove all of the twos, remove a single ace, and then add the three major arcana that you drafted for your motivations. And so that shuffled together these two suits minus the two's, minus one ace plus three major arcana. That is your deck. And all of the cards that you're not using, you don't need them at all so you can put them aside. I'm glad that this is audio only because the audience doesn't get to see how truly atrocious I am at cutting a deck. And you shouldn't need to really, because as we go through the game, basically, I'm going to ask you to make checks. When you make a check, you draw the top card typically from your deck and compare it with the skill that you are using. If you draw equal to or under that skills limit score, you succeed. If you draw above it, you fail. There's a couple extra rules that we'll get into like if you're using a suitability, you're going to draw a bunch of cards and I'll guide you through that. And the other crucial thing to note about drawing from your deck is that mostly we're looking for the values on the cards. So when you're drawing a suit card, you're going to be, you know, if you're trying to hit a six, it's obvious when you hit a six or lower. However, in everyone's deck, you have three gods that show up. When this happens, the events around you shift in line with that God's tenets. So if you're trying to sneak around somewhere and you draw it, perhaps a hide check and you draw the tower, the building might start to shake and things might follow all around you. So that kind of thing. Basically, like, it's neither, it can be good or bad. It's mostly up to you in that situation. We'll reframe our situation. And you will mark an obligation track to that major economy. And to that end, I would also have each of you mark one obligation track to all your major arcana off the bat since this is a one shot. And we don't have time for six to eight sessions to hit a calamity. But boy, wouldn't it be fun if we did. And I think I think that's it. I think we're good to jump in. This episode of One Shot uses the following music, Joystick by Ian Kiloski, Cash Car by Transpooter. Sound effects used were from SoundStripe or Made in House. This episode of One Shot was edited and sound designed by Shopic Mane. You can find more of our work by visiting Shopic.com. That's S-H-A-G-H-I-K-D-D-Comb. Thank you so much for listening here. I learned today during this recording that apparently Shopic has been sending messages also to Apollo. And what's that about? Because the show is still being edited. And that's very curious to me. So if anybody has any ideas on how I could figure out what's going on with her, that would be super cool. Join us in the Discord if you've got any thoughts about that because I am deeply curious. I haven't seen her ghost around the studio, so my fingers are crossed that she's still alive and not in the same exact scenario as me, but we'll figure that out together. We'll see you next week with part two of a fool's errand and stay well. As always, thank you to the wonderfully generous people who support One Shot on Patreon. But if you want to support the show in a non-monetary way, it is as simple as just talking about the show. Tell your friends about the show, rate, or leave a review, or tag us on socials and tell us your thoughts. For updates and One Shot news, please follow me on Twitter, Instagram, or TikTok at Superdylan, that's S-U-P-E-R-D-I-L-L-L-I-N, or check for updates on our website at OneShotPodcast.com. For information about ad rates, live appearances, commissioning episodes, or a general comment, please message me at [email protected]. Again, that's D-I-L-L-L-I-N. Finally, the music creeping up behind me is Adventure by Be Your Own Pet, courtesy of Infinity Cap Records. I can't wait to have you back for our next Adventure Heroes. [Music] [Music]