2019.05.27 Fall of Magic Home Game

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:03.080 Hey everybody, and welcome to just played. This is the podcast where I 2 00:00:03.120 --> 00:00:07.280 recap the tabletop ARPGE's I've recently participated in as a player or game master. 3 00:00:07.440 --> 00:00:11.199 I'm Jim Crocker and today I will be talking about fall of magic. This 4 00:00:11.279 --> 00:00:13.839 was a game that I played on Memorial Day. I went to visit some 5 00:00:13.919 --> 00:00:17.120 friends in New York City, so I got to play facetoface, which is 6 00:00:17.160 --> 00:00:20.359 not something I normally get to do outside of a convention. So, because 7 00:00:20.399 --> 00:00:23.719 we had all day to play, we played for about nine hours, which 8 00:00:23.800 --> 00:00:26.399 was a full session. That got us all the way through the full run 9 00:00:26.440 --> 00:00:29.000 of fallen magic, which, for folks that are not familiar with it, 10 00:00:29.120 --> 00:00:35.200 is a kind of road trip story game that is played using this beautiful handstitched 11 00:00:35.560 --> 00:00:40.000 screenprinted scroll that you roll out on the table and that's where your locations are 12 00:00:40.039 --> 00:00:43.439 that you have your adventures. So as you move from location to location across 13 00:00:43.479 --> 00:00:46.759 the scroll, you're framing scenes and eventually the object of the game is to 14 00:00:46.759 --> 00:00:50.799 get to Umbra, the land where magic was born, because magic is dying 15 00:00:50.799 --> 00:00:54.200 and the megas is dying with it, and so we're all traveling to Umbra, 16 00:00:54.320 --> 00:00:56.960 the land where magic was born, to try and figure out what to 17 00:00:56.960 --> 00:00:59.359 do. We're traveling with the MEGAS, so it's kind of a fantasy road 18 00:00:59.359 --> 00:01:02.320 trip game and we got to play all the way through, which is not 19 00:01:02.359 --> 00:01:04.000 something that I normally get to do. Usually I run it as one shots, 20 00:01:04.000 --> 00:01:07.760 like for games on demand or just to kind of demn went to people 21 00:01:07.000 --> 00:01:10.599 or just because we don't have anything else going on that evening, and so 22 00:01:10.879 --> 00:01:14.000 usually we get like somewhere around a third, two halfway across the map. 23 00:01:14.079 --> 00:01:15.560 It's very rare that I get to play all the way through to the end. 24 00:01:15.599 --> 00:01:18.879 The only other time before that that I've played all the way through to 25 00:01:18.879 --> 00:01:23.319 the end of the game was we played a three session run on the gauntlet 26 00:01:23.359 --> 00:01:26.920 and that was Yoshi Kriman that facilitated it. It's kind of a gmless game 27 00:01:26.000 --> 00:01:30.040 because everybody frame scenes in turn, but that was just really cool to go 28 00:01:30.079 --> 00:01:34.480 all the way across the map. Even then, though, we kind of 29 00:01:34.480 --> 00:01:38.000 compressed it because playing online it's a little more challenging because we had to use 30 00:01:38.079 --> 00:01:41.799 role twenty for the map rather than having that artifact of play right in front 31 00:01:41.799 --> 00:01:44.799 of us, which, boy just makes it really easy and great for everyone 32 00:01:44.840 --> 00:01:49.120 to visualize. So I was vago, the scholar of a Stallia, Alexei 33 00:01:49.439 --> 00:01:53.280 was Piccolo, the Golumn of Raven Hall, and Claire Was Ella Mura, 34 00:01:53.719 --> 00:01:56.719 the air of storm guard. Now again, for folks that are not familiar 35 00:01:56.760 --> 00:01:59.599 with fall of magic, one of the things that's neat about it is there's 36 00:01:59.640 --> 00:02:02.120 a very prescribed set of choices that you make at the beginning of the game 37 00:02:02.159 --> 00:02:06.439 to determine what your character is. There's a list of names, there's a 38 00:02:06.480 --> 00:02:12.360 list of occupations that go with particular locations and there's only like a dozen or 39 00:02:12.400 --> 00:02:15.639 so of those, and so you kind of choose from what is available and 40 00:02:15.680 --> 00:02:20.560 then the game just sort of explodes from there. It's very kind of a 41 00:02:20.599 --> 00:02:23.080 fractal kind of thing where you start with a very constraint set of choices, 42 00:02:23.080 --> 00:02:29.000 but then the details that everybody adds makes each game completely different. In especially 43 00:02:29.039 --> 00:02:32.280 as the game expands and you move to different locations, it really just explodes 44 00:02:32.319 --> 00:02:35.800 in the possibilities of what you can do. So, as far as the 45 00:02:35.840 --> 00:02:39.560 session starting state goes, every game starts at Raven Hall. So there are 46 00:02:39.560 --> 00:02:44.680 some locations and Raven Hall that give you scenes where, if you're the first 47 00:02:44.680 --> 00:02:47.599 one there, you get to decide what is going on in that location and 48 00:02:47.639 --> 00:02:51.800 how it looks, what's happening there. And of course we all started with 49 00:02:51.840 --> 00:02:57.199 a physical description of our characters in those locations. So Piccolo, the column, 50 00:02:57.479 --> 00:03:00.960 he was first seen feeding the remnants of the menagerie. But because of 51 00:03:01.039 --> 00:03:06.080 course magic is dying, all of the magic of these beasts was dubious at 52 00:03:06.120 --> 00:03:09.439 best. So it was a bunch of stuff like Komodo dragons, platypus Haes, 53 00:03:09.719 --> 00:03:14.639 like odd animals that don't make sense according to other animals, but may 54 00:03:14.680 --> 00:03:19.240 not actually be magical, depending on your definition. One very big snake was 55 00:03:19.479 --> 00:03:22.159 one of the things that was there. So Piccolo, who is this kind 56 00:03:22.199 --> 00:03:27.560 of beautiful clockwork humanoid Gollum, was reduced to just feeding the animals. That 57 00:03:27.639 --> 00:03:30.800 was what he was doing there in Ravenhall. My character of the scholar wandered 58 00:03:30.919 --> 00:03:37.240 into where pickles feeding the animals in the menagerie and marveled aloud at seeing the 59 00:03:37.280 --> 00:03:42.000 working golumn in this day and age. Talked about how I had included Stories 60 00:03:42.039 --> 00:03:45.479 About Him in my dissertation that I wrote because I was a student, and 61 00:03:45.560 --> 00:03:51.400 how hard it was to get this post to accompany the megus on his journey 62 00:03:51.439 --> 00:03:58.159 as his official scholar scribe repository of information to help him as he went to 63 00:03:58.240 --> 00:04:00.639 Umbra to see what was wrong with magic and put forth the idea that I 64 00:04:00.719 --> 00:04:05.800 had participated in some kind of an academic competition to be here. And ALLURIA, 65 00:04:05.879 --> 00:04:10.680 who was this kind of well traveled, slightly cynical, sort of like 66 00:04:10.800 --> 00:04:15.920 ranger type. She had a conversation with the megas by the no longer functional 67 00:04:16.040 --> 00:04:19.199 scrying pool, which was now just a kind of body of water that was 68 00:04:19.199 --> 00:04:23.720 once used for scrying but didn't work anymore, and she asked some questions of 69 00:04:23.720 --> 00:04:26.199 the Magus about what the trip was going to be like and why she had 70 00:04:26.240 --> 00:04:30.480 been invited along, and then we just proceeded from there. So, as 71 00:04:30.480 --> 00:04:34.560 far as a plot synopsis goes, we played the full session which ran, 72 00:04:34.600 --> 00:04:38.759 like I said, about nine hours all told, and that got us all 73 00:04:38.759 --> 00:04:41.439 the way across the map. We stopped at every location in between. We 74 00:04:41.439 --> 00:04:45.560 had the prescribed number of scenes at each location, but full recap of that 75 00:04:45.600 --> 00:04:48.480 would take quite a while, much longer than a typical episode that I do 76 00:04:48.560 --> 00:04:51.600 for just played. So I'll just note the high points. As you traveled 77 00:04:51.680 --> 00:04:56.480 down the road with the MEGAS, there are a couple of places where every 78 00:04:56.519 --> 00:04:59.759 game you hit those places, but then the road forks and places and there's 79 00:04:59.800 --> 00:05:01.720 different places that you can go. So for folks that are familiar with the 80 00:05:01.720 --> 00:05:05.519 game, the first fork is whether you go into the missed woods and meet 81 00:05:05.560 --> 00:05:11.000 the mistwood rangers or you go to Storm Guard and meet the Knights of Storm 82 00:05:11.000 --> 00:05:15.800 Guard. Now ELAMIRO was from storm guard, so claire that was playing her, 83 00:05:15.800 --> 00:05:19.079 said that she thought would be more interesting if she just didn't go to 84 00:05:19.120 --> 00:05:23.839 storm guard because she was supposed to be on this mission and the point was 85 00:05:23.879 --> 00:05:27.279 not to return to storm guard until she had accomplished it and was done. 86 00:05:27.279 --> 00:05:30.480 Plus, from other the Queen was taking care of everything. So we went 87 00:05:30.519 --> 00:05:33.879 into the mistwood and met the Rangers. The mistwood rangers turned out to be 88 00:05:34.120 --> 00:05:39.639 these gray elves that were not necessarily mortal in the same sense that we understood 89 00:05:39.680 --> 00:05:42.120 it. They could live and walk around in the bottom of the lake and 90 00:05:42.120 --> 00:05:45.519 stuff like this, apparently unconcerned, and they brought the Magus down there with 91 00:05:45.560 --> 00:05:49.120 them and through some kind of ritual that they did, they purged some sort 92 00:05:49.160 --> 00:05:53.720 of darkness that was inside him that was drawn out into the water and then 93 00:05:53.800 --> 00:05:58.040 flushed out of the lake, a ritual that Piccolo oversaw that we're pretty sure 94 00:05:58.079 --> 00:06:01.600 he wasn't supposed to see. In every session of fall of magic that I 95 00:06:01.639 --> 00:06:05.240 have played, the MEGAS has been very different. Had Very different motivations than 96 00:06:05.319 --> 00:06:10.639 nature of the Magus has been very different. Our megus was more like a 97 00:06:10.680 --> 00:06:15.519 magical force, because everyone that saw the megas saw them differently, in the 98 00:06:15.560 --> 00:06:20.759 guise of someone who they would inherently trust and believe and want to follow, 99 00:06:20.759 --> 00:06:24.680 which was like, on the one hand a little sinister but on the other 100 00:06:24.720 --> 00:06:28.639 pretty cool. And so when we each describe the MEGAS, we describe the 101 00:06:28.639 --> 00:06:31.360 MEGAS is looking different. The other thing about the megas that emerged was as 102 00:06:31.399 --> 00:06:35.560 we went to these locations, there were things that the megas needed to do 103 00:06:35.959 --> 00:06:40.360 that they had to go and do themselves and didn't want US along with. 104 00:06:40.639 --> 00:06:44.560 So there were these kind of neat opportunities to if we wanted to frame a 105 00:06:44.560 --> 00:06:48.000 scene where we sort of snuck around and saw the megas doing something and caught 106 00:06:48.040 --> 00:06:50.839 little glimpses of it, so that we could sort of get little pieces of 107 00:06:50.879 --> 00:06:55.319 the puzzle to start to put together but never be really fully sure what was 108 00:06:55.360 --> 00:06:58.240 going on. It was really neat and so this was a scene where Piccolo 109 00:06:58.360 --> 00:07:03.160 oversaw the megas having that whatever darkness purged from themselves with the help of the 110 00:07:03.199 --> 00:07:05.920 elves. So after we get out of the mist woods, we navigated the 111 00:07:05.920 --> 00:07:10.399 spirit river, which is the next location after the missed woods, and there's 112 00:07:10.399 --> 00:07:14.800 another major branch that happens after that, which is you can go and then 113 00:07:14.839 --> 00:07:18.240 you can navigate across the sea, where you encounter three islands that are on 114 00:07:18.319 --> 00:07:23.759 cards that you randomly flip over and there you know fantastical, wondrous places that 115 00:07:23.800 --> 00:07:27.279 you meet, very kind of a downtretter sort of feel to it, or 116 00:07:27.319 --> 00:07:30.319 you can go down underground and get under the ocean and towards umber that way. 117 00:07:30.360 --> 00:07:34.360 So we chose to go underground and kind of the neat thing about that 118 00:07:34.439 --> 00:07:38.959 is you flip the scroll over and the underground part of the scrolls on the 119 00:07:38.959 --> 00:07:41.560 back side of the scroll. So we did that, which is a first 120 00:07:41.560 --> 00:07:44.199 time for me. I've never actually played any game where we've gone underground. 121 00:07:44.199 --> 00:07:46.519 So that was really neat the when I played all the way across the map 122 00:07:46.560 --> 00:07:49.720 before we chose to tackle some of the islands and I think in that case 123 00:07:49.759 --> 00:07:53.199 we only did one of the three islands because we were a little pressed for 124 00:07:53.279 --> 00:07:56.839 time, but it was really neat to go underground, so we went down 125 00:07:56.879 --> 00:08:03.000 there and during the journey underground we discovered that Ella Mure's sister had sent soldiers 126 00:08:03.079 --> 00:08:05.800 to track us down, but we weren't sure what for. El Mure suspected 127 00:08:05.839 --> 00:08:11.720 that maybe her sister was up to no good and maybe wanted to do her 128 00:08:11.759 --> 00:08:16.079 in so that she could become queen instead of Ella Mura, but didn't want 129 00:08:16.079 --> 00:08:20.079 to believe that that was what was happening because she didn't want to have to 130 00:08:20.079 --> 00:08:22.040 be enemies with her sister. But it was kind of neat to see that 131 00:08:22.120 --> 00:08:26.240 injected in there. So we kind of saw evidence of that without running into 132 00:08:26.240 --> 00:08:31.000 the soldiers. Then, traveling further, we discovered the fortress of carst which 133 00:08:31.000 --> 00:08:33.879 is one of the locations, and we learned that the fortress, the prompt 134 00:08:33.919 --> 00:08:39.559 for which is the hospitality of the machine, was actually a massive golumn, 135 00:08:41.080 --> 00:08:46.039 buried and deactivated for many centuries before the Magus arrived and wound him back up 136 00:08:46.039 --> 00:08:50.799 and talk to him like an old friend, told him we needed his help 137 00:08:50.840 --> 00:08:54.440 and we went inside him and stayed there and lived while he dug through the 138 00:08:54.440 --> 00:08:58.320 earth to get us to our next location. That was pretty cool. Eventually, 139 00:08:58.639 --> 00:09:03.240 the soldiers that got hint to death before they eventually caught up with us 140 00:09:03.279 --> 00:09:07.639 in a location called the salt sea, which is a kind of underground desert 141 00:09:07.720 --> 00:09:09.120 with dunes of salt, and it was there that we learned that they weren't 142 00:09:09.120 --> 00:09:13.279 actually there to like assassinate elmire, but to report to her that her mother 143 00:09:13.360 --> 00:09:16.720 had gotten sick and that they needed her to return home now. El Mura 144 00:09:16.840 --> 00:09:22.120 decided that she was not going to go home immediately because supposedly, when we 145 00:09:22.159 --> 00:09:24.279 got to the ancient city that was just before the glow that was kind of 146 00:09:24.279 --> 00:09:28.279 the source of magic, we could perhaps find something that might cure her. 147 00:09:28.360 --> 00:09:31.360 Rather than have her rush home just to see her die, she was going 148 00:09:31.399 --> 00:09:35.440 to try and bring the cure back to her. Reluctantly, the soldiers agreed 149 00:09:35.480 --> 00:09:39.360 to follow her because she's the actual air and does technically outrank her sister. 150 00:09:39.519 --> 00:09:45.039 So then we have this like Reluctant Group of Storm Guardian Knights who are far 151 00:09:45.039 --> 00:09:48.559 from home, suspicious of everything that's going on, not super keen on being 152 00:09:48.639 --> 00:09:52.080 there, and that was kind of an interesting change to the dynamic of the 153 00:09:52.120 --> 00:09:56.600 group and everything that was going on. And so of course, after a 154 00:09:56.600 --> 00:10:00.039 couple of more locations that we explored and we kind of got to the surfacece 155 00:10:00.120 --> 00:10:05.639 again, things came to head to even the forgotten city when Piccolo realized that 156 00:10:05.679 --> 00:10:11.480 the storm Guardians had pretty callously destroyed another column and that the rest of us 157 00:10:11.639 --> 00:10:15.200 knew about that but had hidden it from him. So that was a interesting 158 00:10:15.200 --> 00:10:20.240 moment of a reveal of some deception, and he kind of proved the point 159 00:10:20.240 --> 00:10:22.399 of why we wanted to keep it from him when he kicked the storm Guardian 160 00:10:22.480 --> 00:10:26.200 captain off of a roof and killed her. And Ela Mura had to step 161 00:10:26.240 --> 00:10:31.279 into order the other soldiers to return to storm guard with the medicine that she 162 00:10:31.320 --> 00:10:35.639 had found for her mother while she traveled on, and they were really reluctant 163 00:10:35.679 --> 00:10:37.919 to do that, but she ordered them to do it, and so off 164 00:10:37.960 --> 00:10:41.559 they went and prevented more bloodshed that way, because they were ready to kill 165 00:10:41.559 --> 00:10:45.840 Piccolo and Piccolo might not have been done with just the captain if Elmira had 166 00:10:45.879 --> 00:10:48.879 not intervened. So some NEAT interparty tension in a way that we don't necessarily 167 00:10:48.879 --> 00:10:52.240 always see in this game. It was it was cool to see there so 168 00:10:52.480 --> 00:10:56.240 finally made it to the glow, which is the original source of magic, 169 00:10:56.279 --> 00:11:01.840 and the megas walked into the glow and, in keeping with all of his 170 00:11:01.879 --> 00:11:05.320 mysterious stuff that he had done before and not really told us what happened, 171 00:11:05.720 --> 00:11:09.279 somehow sacrificed himself and there was this burst of light up into the sky that 172 00:11:09.519 --> 00:11:15.000 was a reflection or a call back to that burst of darkness that came up 173 00:11:15.000 --> 00:11:18.440 from the lake when he sort of purged himself, and that restored magic to 174 00:11:18.480 --> 00:11:22.120 the world, but the Magus was gone, and so that was how the 175 00:11:22.159 --> 00:11:26.679 game wrapped up. As far as the ending fictional state goes, fall the 176 00:11:26.679 --> 00:11:28.720 magic asks you to do an Epilog for each of your characters, so that's 177 00:11:28.759 --> 00:11:33.559 kind of where we ended up with everything. Once we had finished the game, 178 00:11:33.960 --> 00:11:35.759 had that final scene in the glow and rolled the map up, we 179 00:11:35.799 --> 00:11:41.519 went around and did an epilog for everybody. So those epilogs saw vago, 180 00:11:41.679 --> 00:11:45.440 my character, back at Raven Hall, kind of having taken over for the 181 00:11:45.440 --> 00:11:50.480 Megas and he was overseeing the rebuilding of the Menagerie and generally the restoration of 182 00:11:50.480 --> 00:11:54.159 the whole place, and one of the scene prompts is your face in the 183 00:11:54.159 --> 00:11:56.879 water when you're standing on the bridge, and so we had a neat thing 184 00:11:56.879 --> 00:12:01.600 where Fogo, now much older and kind of starting to turn gray and stuff 185 00:12:01.639 --> 00:12:07.159 like this after years of helping restore Ravenhall, kind of look down into the 186 00:12:07.200 --> 00:12:11.879 water and saw his young face as it looked when he had first set foot 187 00:12:11.960 --> 00:12:13.600 on the bridge heading into Raven Hall, and that was kind of a neat 188 00:12:13.639 --> 00:12:16.840 moment to sort of call back to that and a very nice closure for that 189 00:12:16.919 --> 00:12:22.000 character. We saw Ella Mura as a wise and just storm Queen, taking 190 00:12:22.000 --> 00:12:26.159 over for her mother, who had delegated the intrigues of court and diplomacy and 191 00:12:26.240 --> 00:12:30.440 balls and stuff like that to her sister, who, that was all she 192 00:12:30.480 --> 00:12:35.679 really wanted was to be kind of important and in charge of the court and 193 00:12:35.799 --> 00:12:39.679 not necessarily have to worry about going out into the countryside to meet the people 194 00:12:39.840 --> 00:12:43.399 and see what they were interested in, and so they kind of almost had 195 00:12:43.440 --> 00:12:48.080 a thing where they sort of set up as like co monarchs, with Ella 196 00:12:48.159 --> 00:12:52.600 Mura being the one that went out to see what was going on and her 197 00:12:52.600 --> 00:12:56.279 sister as sort of the diplomatic, courtly half of things, and that was 198 00:12:56.320 --> 00:13:00.240 a really neat picture to see at the very end, and our final scene 199 00:13:00.240 --> 00:13:05.720 in the game. Our final picture was Piccolo flying the storm wing all across 200 00:13:05.759 --> 00:13:09.960 the world for many years, documenting the slow return of magic everywhere. Griffin 201 00:13:11.000 --> 00:13:13.120 eggs and, you know, dragon uncoiling for the first time on the top 202 00:13:13.159 --> 00:13:18.519 of a mountain and stuff like this is really kind of wonderful scene. Before 203 00:13:18.559 --> 00:13:22.080 realizing that this one last time that he wound himself up, when he wound 204 00:13:22.120 --> 00:13:24.639 back down, he was not going to be able to one himself again, 205 00:13:24.720 --> 00:13:28.919 that this was his last time. So he sent a message back to vago 206 00:13:28.159 --> 00:13:33.279 telling Vaga know what was happening and pointed his airship, the storm wing, 207 00:13:33.279 --> 00:13:39.240 out towards the ocean for one last time and just sailed off into the sunset 208 00:13:39.320 --> 00:13:43.000 and it was bittersweet and lovely and just really a wonderful end to two a 209 00:13:43.159 --> 00:13:48.159 really engaging and, you know, an emotional game that we had. My 210 00:13:48.200 --> 00:13:54.679 favorite other player moment was when Claire brought in Ellamura's jealous sister, who may 211 00:13:54.759 --> 00:13:58.600 or may not have had designs on her crown. It brought in this unexpected 212 00:13:58.639 --> 00:14:03.960 and really intriguing Shakespeare Element. That's not a thing that I've seen show up 213 00:14:03.960 --> 00:14:07.519 in a fall of magic game that I've played before. It was really cool 214 00:14:07.559 --> 00:14:11.440 to have this idea that there was an outside force that may be acting against 215 00:14:11.519 --> 00:14:16.639 us and didn't particularly care what our mission was, as important as it may 216 00:14:16.679 --> 00:14:20.960 have been. Given fall of Magic's focus on location based scene framing, it 217 00:14:20.000 --> 00:14:24.799 gets very easy to just roll forward and sort of allied what might be going 218 00:14:24.840 --> 00:14:28.120 on in the outside world as we travel, and that simple element, introducing 219 00:14:28.159 --> 00:14:33.480 that little bit of kind of Shakespeare history play into it was really great for 220 00:14:33.519 --> 00:14:35.879 reminding us that the world was still going on outside of our little quest, 221 00:14:35.919 --> 00:14:41.519 as important as our little quest was, and giving us the opportunity to bring 222 00:14:41.519 --> 00:14:45.720 in a threat from outside the direct line of our quest. That was not 223 00:14:45.799 --> 00:14:48.840 just things that were introduced, seen to seen and another thing to worry about. 224 00:14:48.840 --> 00:14:52.440 That that was really cool. It's not a thing that I've really seen 225 00:14:52.480 --> 00:14:54.320 in a session of fall of magic that I've played before as far as a 226 00:14:54.360 --> 00:14:58.600 favorite gming moment. Fall of magic has rotating scene framing, so there's no 227 00:14:58.679 --> 00:15:03.320 g as such. I own the game, so I facilitated it. My 228 00:15:03.360 --> 00:15:07.639 favorite thing that I did was to frame the fortress of carst which is the 229 00:15:07.639 --> 00:15:11.360 second location we traveled to in the underground part of the map, as a 230 00:15:11.360 --> 00:15:15.440 massive mining golumn that we had to reactivate and travel with while it dug through 231 00:15:15.480 --> 00:15:18.919 the rock to our next location. But it was neat because Piccolo actually got 232 00:15:18.960 --> 00:15:24.200 to have a conversation with carst and it was very clear that carst had been 233 00:15:24.200 --> 00:15:30.799 deactivated for many centuries because magic had fallen and he was living again because the 234 00:15:30.840 --> 00:15:35.120 MEGAS was with him, was in proximity to him, and that when the 235 00:15:35.159 --> 00:15:39.159 megas left to continue with their quest, carst would fall asleep again and not 236 00:15:39.200 --> 00:15:43.600 wake up again. As far as missed opportunities go, the perpetual challenge with 237 00:15:43.600 --> 00:15:48.919 fall of magic is to avoid the very strong temptation to just frame all of 238 00:15:48.960 --> 00:15:54.600 your scenes as narration and even to do dialog between characters where you're playing more 239 00:15:54.639 --> 00:15:58.879 than one character. I just wish we had more scenes with the three of 240 00:15:58.960 --> 00:16:03.440 us talking with each other as characters or playing supporting characters. But I do 241 00:16:03.519 --> 00:16:07.039 think something about the way fall of magic frame scenes and the way that it's 242 00:16:07.080 --> 00:16:11.519 set up sort of pushes against that sometimes. But then again, like this 243 00:16:11.559 --> 00:16:15.039 is a wish I have every time I play it, so that maybe just 244 00:16:15.120 --> 00:16:19.360 me pushing against either something the game isn't explicitly designed to do every time, 245 00:16:21.200 --> 00:16:26.639 or just the nature of highly free form tabletop play, where it can be 246 00:16:26.720 --> 00:16:30.440 tough to bring other players in if there's a secular outcome to a scene that 247 00:16:30.440 --> 00:16:33.840 you're looking for. You want to go in a certain direction, inviting other 248 00:16:33.960 --> 00:16:38.519 players in who can do whatever they want might not be the best thing to 249 00:16:38.519 --> 00:16:41.600 do. At one point late in the game Claire said, Hey, I 250 00:16:41.639 --> 00:16:45.120 want to bring you guys in, but I do want a particular outcome. 251 00:16:45.200 --> 00:16:47.279 Is it okay if I tell you how I want the scene to go and 252 00:16:47.279 --> 00:16:49.840 then you play the characters? And we said yeah, I don't see why 253 00:16:49.879 --> 00:16:52.200 not, and that seemed to work out pretty well. So that may be 254 00:16:52.279 --> 00:16:56.919 my out for that, but I just wish we had done a little less 255 00:16:56.000 --> 00:17:00.080 narration scenes and a little more bring other people in and kind of maybe see 256 00:17:00.120 --> 00:17:03.079 a little more where they went kind of scenes. But the feature of the 257 00:17:03.079 --> 00:17:07.079 game may just mitigate against that, and certainly I was as guilty of it 258 00:17:07.119 --> 00:17:10.640 as anyone else. That wish is mostly in hindsight. So I thing I 259 00:17:10.680 --> 00:17:14.680 noticed while I was playing was, and this is apropos of a conversation that's 260 00:17:14.720 --> 00:17:18.440 happening on the Gauntlet Forums, which is for folks that are not familiar with 261 00:17:18.480 --> 00:17:25.200 that. That's the gauntlet RPG communities, game design and play discussion forum, 262 00:17:25.240 --> 00:17:29.599 which is really Nice. It's got a great signal to noise ratio. The 263 00:17:29.640 --> 00:17:36.200 culture of communication and inclusion that operates in the gauntlets game space operates in their 264 00:17:36.200 --> 00:17:41.079 form and discussion space as well. It is gently but firmly moderated in a 265 00:17:41.079 --> 00:17:45.319 way that I really like a lot and there's some really interesting game discussion going 266 00:17:45.400 --> 00:17:51.960 on there. That invites in folks who are interested in design and dabbling in 267 00:17:52.000 --> 00:17:55.960 it like myself and have some kind of passing familiarity with it but maybe aren't 268 00:17:56.079 --> 00:17:59.480 full bore game designers, invites them into that discussion in a way that has 269 00:17:59.519 --> 00:18:02.640 been really inspiring that I've really enjoyed. So definitely should check that out. 270 00:18:02.680 --> 00:18:04.759 I'll refer to that in the notes for this show. But so there's this 271 00:18:04.799 --> 00:18:11.079 conversation going on in those farms right now about how to do advancement without having 272 00:18:11.119 --> 00:18:15.279 to track experience points or like ticking off new moves like in a lot of 273 00:18:15.279 --> 00:18:21.160 PBTA Games. Leveling up like an F twenty games. So after playing all 274 00:18:21.200 --> 00:18:22.720 the way across the map in this last ball, the magic game that we 275 00:18:22.759 --> 00:18:29.319 played it's pretty clear that one way you can do this pretty well is to 276 00:18:29.440 --> 00:18:36.000 just create a narrative arc that simply increases the narrative possibility and inherent wonder of 277 00:18:36.039 --> 00:18:38.839 your setting, of whatever genre setting it is, whether that's a fantasy setting 278 00:18:38.839 --> 00:18:44.079 that ramps up from we're just a bunch of people getting together in an in 279 00:18:44.160 --> 00:18:47.640 to some kind of crazy outer planes thing over the course of the game, 280 00:18:48.200 --> 00:18:52.240 or a science fiction setting that starts with you're a kid on a farm to 281 00:18:52.359 --> 00:18:56.400 you're in a giant planet size space station, to a superhero thing where you 282 00:18:56.400 --> 00:19:00.359 start off battling just another industrialist that wants to take over your company. That 283 00:19:00.440 --> 00:19:04.400 then ramps up all the way to your fight is against a space God that 284 00:19:04.440 --> 00:19:07.400 wants to kill half the life in the universe. That's a way to use 285 00:19:07.440 --> 00:19:11.519 the narrative to kind of stand in for leveling up. So we joked at 286 00:19:11.559 --> 00:19:15.880 the end of the game that somehow we had started in a story game but 287 00:19:17.000 --> 00:19:19.920 ended up playing Os are, but it wasn't actually a joke. The locations 288 00:19:19.960 --> 00:19:25.039 on the scroll of fall of magic start out mundane. There's the whole where 289 00:19:25.039 --> 00:19:29.160 you get together, then you're in the woods, then you're in a farming 290 00:19:29.160 --> 00:19:33.279 community, but they get progressively more baroque and fantastic as you proceed. So 291 00:19:33.400 --> 00:19:38.160 this isn't just a wonderful way to unlock permission for players to be more free 292 00:19:38.160 --> 00:19:44.599 wheeling and fantastical in their narration, especially new players who march start out hesitant 293 00:19:44.640 --> 00:19:48.680 and not really one bring big fantasy ideas into the game. The neat thing 294 00:19:48.759 --> 00:19:52.839 is that, like I said, it stands in for leveling up in a 295 00:19:52.880 --> 00:19:56.160 more traditional fantasy RPG, in something that you do in d into your pathfinder. 296 00:19:56.480 --> 00:20:00.480 It's pretty masterfully done, but before now it was kind of hard for 297 00:20:00.519 --> 00:20:06.400 me to recognize that aspect of it in those terms before engaging simultaneously in that 298 00:20:06.400 --> 00:20:11.039 discussion about advancement, just before I played all the way through the map. 299 00:20:11.079 --> 00:20:14.279 So I've said a lot about fall of magic. Other people said a lot 300 00:20:14.279 --> 00:20:17.880 about fall the magic and what a wonderful game it is and I sell a 301 00:20:17.920 --> 00:20:22.880 lot of it at my conventions. Based on the enthusiasm of my own actual 302 00:20:22.960 --> 00:20:26.839 lived play experience, I can talk about a very enthusiastically because I genuinely love 303 00:20:26.880 --> 00:20:30.240 it and have played quite a lot of it. But this particular session really 304 00:20:30.240 --> 00:20:33.920 brought home just how thoroughly well designed. It is as a complete play experience 305 00:20:33.960 --> 00:20:37.920 from start to finish, and that was pretty neat to see. So that's 306 00:20:37.960 --> 00:20:41.200 all for this episode. Thanks for listening. If you're enjoying the show, 307 00:20:41.279 --> 00:20:44.359 please do rate it and review it wherever you found it. Check out the 308 00:20:44.359 --> 00:20:48.559 show notes for some details on this session. There's no video available for this 309 00:20:48.559 --> 00:20:51.799 because we played it as a home game and not online, so I don't 310 00:20:51.880 --> 00:20:55.200 have a youtube video available for it, but you can find out more about 311 00:20:55.240 --> 00:20:56.720 the game, as well as a link to you by it from me, 312 00:20:56.759 --> 00:21:00.240 if that's something you're interested in as all as you can follow me on twitter 313 00:21:00.279 --> 00:21:03.880 at Jimlikes Games. You can buy games from me at my website, Jimlikes 314 00:21:03.880 --> 00:21:07.720 Gamescom, and that's the best way to support the show. I don't have 315 00:21:07.759 --> 00:21:11.039 the Patreon or a Kofi or anything like that, but if you are looking 316 00:21:11.079 --> 00:21:14.319 for a game, especially if you want to pick up fall the magic, 317 00:21:14.359 --> 00:21:15.920 just click through the website by it there. That's the best way that you 318 00:21:15.920 --> 00:21:19.559 can support the show. Coming up in a couple weeks I'll be at origins 319 00:21:19.559 --> 00:21:23.440 working the indie press revolution booth, so do please be sure and stop by 320 00:21:23.440 --> 00:21:27.200 to say hello. If you're at the origin show and I'll be participating in 321 00:21:27.200 --> 00:21:32.119 indie games on demand, running games there in the evening slots. So if 322 00:21:32.119 --> 00:21:34.519 you want to play with me, stop by Columbus and see if you can 323 00:21:34.519 --> 00:21:37.799 get into one of those indie games on demand slots. Then I'm going to 324 00:21:37.799 --> 00:21:41.319 be running. Following origins, I will be at the too many games convention 325 00:21:41.400 --> 00:21:45.400 in Philadelphia. The we can ride after and then coming up in July we've 326 00:21:45.440 --> 00:21:48.200 got dexcon in Morristown, New Jersey, and then following that, the second 327 00:21:48.240 --> 00:21:52.799 weekend in July I'll be at connecticon and Hartford, Connecticut, which is an 328 00:21:52.839 --> 00:21:56.319 anime gaming video game fandom con that I've been attending for many years and I 329 00:21:56.480 --> 00:21:59.400 have a lot of fun at. So that if you're at any of those 330 00:21:59.440 --> 00:22:02.160 shows, stop by and say hello. But now, if you'll excuse me, 331 00:22:02.279 --> 00:22:03.400 I'm gonna go play another game.