Latest / Story Games / Episode 3: A Land Once Magic Game Session
Transcript
- Maggie Studio: you Hello friends and welcome back to Story Games. My name is Memo and today I am bringing you another game session. Today some friends and I are playing A Land Once Magic by designer Veditya Voledi. A Land Once Magic is a fantasy world building game with a focus on the concept of post fantasy. It was a lot of fun to create a crazy world that I cannot wait to show you all. So without any further ado, here is A Land Once Magic. Hi everyone, welcome to another game session. Today we are playing A Land Once Magic and we're gonna create a cute little fantasy world together and it's gonna be fun and cute. Absolutely. Yes. It has to be. It has to be, because it's us. Awesome, so let's just get started. I will read the intro, the rules, and then we're just gonna get right into gameplay. Okay, cool. All right. Boop, boop, boop, boop, boop. ⁓ So first there's kind of like a note on post fantasy like how cute this is there's little pieces on the gems and the claps Like Adventure Time is very time. Yes, which is fitting because it's post fantasy, right? So, ⁓ the creator of this game Veditya Voletti ⁓ but they've made this game and I believe they they've done the illustrations as well. No illustrations are by John Gagney and ⁓ yeah. So what is post-fantasy? I love fantasy, magic, and world-spanning adventures, but they're steeped in specific tradition, iconography, and allegories that either bore or infuriate me. In an attempt to give a name to a vague vibe, I label this game as post-fantasy, proposing a post-modernist lens to the genre itself. Specifically, post-fantasy is me asking how do we move fantasy in a new direction? Can we interrogate the tropes in canon, mix it with some new vigor, and move forward? Every game of A Land Once Magic I have played looks nothing like the worlds of Tolkien, but I still think damn that's good fantasy. Heck yeah. Perfect. Hell yeah. ⁓ How to use this book, A Land Once Magic is a conversational world building game for two plus players that through prompts and discussions creates a fantasy world like no other. This game is a conversation, an excuse to dig deep into things you love, swing hard with big ideas and get excited when someone creates something you've never thought of. Playing the game is simple. Move through the book sequentially, starting with pallet and touchstones, then into your first table, Magic. Work your way through tables sequentially, mixing in exploratory tables as you go, and finally bring this game to a close with a point of view. This game teaches you as you go, so feel free to jump right in. I have read the rules, I have not read the tables, so I'm also kind of going into this semi-blind. Perfect. Exploratory tables are unique. You choose one of six to accompany certain tables throughout the game. You will only draw on them when a prompt has already been answered. Because of this, may focus. You may only ever answer three to six questions between two exploratory tables, but you are encouraged to dig further into exploratory tables during or after the game or play the game again with new pairings. This book is also a tool to inspire new ideas or flesh out an existing world, jump around the tables as needed, return to them throughout play if you wish to create or craft a new legend or build a new city, jump in and out of exp- jump in and out of various exploratory tables to see how deep your world building can go. Drop this game in your bag, keep it handy, pull this out at cafes with friends and hotel lobbies at conventions as a session zero before a new campaign, or to inspire your new story. ⁓ Materials, the only item required to play is a deck of standard playing cards. Not everyone needs their own deck. One person can pull and tell what card was drawn, or everyone can pull from a central deck around the table, which is what we're gonna do. How you choose to record your world or not is up to the table. At minimum, keeping some index cards or leaf sleeve papers around to record your palette and touchstones is helpful for everyone to reference. Which I'm gonna go grab right now. So it's very imaginative, it's very like the book says conversational. People can feel free to jump in and out with, know, additions and addendums and all sorts of things. So it's really just any adjective. You're reading ahead. Oh, no, wait. I haven't read this yet. OK. Oh, busted. No, I thought I was reading behind to catch up. So what are we doing right now? It's your goblin. OK. Use the drawing. I thought I missed something. No, I can't have a pencil and paper and not do something. You scared me. There's a doodle side on there. Oh my god. OK. All right, I'm going cut up. OK. Feel free to use your doodle side for doodle things. palette. Before you begin crafting your world as a group, you will create a palette. Your palette consists of a few paints, heavily descriptive words that everyone gets on the same page when crafting together. You will create a palette of about three to four paints. Each player should create or pick two paints and write them down, but don't show the other players. Once everyone has two paints, reveal them at the same time. Discuss amongst each other which paints you want in the game and each player gets the final say on at least one paint. Look for complementary and contradicting paints. Your world will contain multitudes and the more evocative and diverse your paints are, the easier that will be to create. Below is a list of suggested paints to help create that palette. And I can read them now. ⁓ So they basically are just adjectives. Acrid, ageless, airy, bitter, bright, brittle, cluttered, coarse, crisp, deep, dreamy, drifting, dynamic, eerie, et cetera. There's a bunch. can ⁓ absolutely add new ones. Whatever you want. Cute would be good. Yeah. Well, don't tell us yet. Okay. ⁓ well. Now we can't use that one. Okay, so let's do that first before we move on. So everyone write down two words that you want our world to kind of embody. No, it can be, but it doesn't have to be. Okay, let's share. Bloom. I went with Aerie, lots of open space, and Reclaimed. Reclaimed is a good one. I went with Whimsical and Ethereal. Ooh. That fits well with Aerie. I chose Serendipitous and Acrid. Hell yeah. Ooh, okay. Two very different vibes. I was thinking Explosive Poison Bubbles or something. I Serendipitous. You just never know when you're gonna bubble. It's certain difference these bubbles haven't popped. I mean, maybe sometimes it's not even poison. Maybe it's something else. ⁓ you just never know. that okay? Street bubbles? From below the accurate deep. I don't know. We'll workshop it together. We'll workshop it. So what I was thinking is, for my words, put cosmic and beautiful. And so I actually, I had an idea just last night about people like recolonizing Venus. And that was kind of what I was thinking of. And it's cool that like all of this acrid and serendipity, I don't know, it kind of fits for the second planet. don't know. Hell yeah. But yeah. Venus does give acrid. Right. Yeah. It's all this acid. Is it possible to one of our words? And now that we've gone. Well, we haven't even picked them yet. This is like the Is it possible to change one of the options? have the opportunity to add later. Gotcha. Yeah. Because I noticed all of ours are very cute and bubbly. You want to add some drama? I wanted to add a little bit of drama. It's just acrid. No, but it's just acrid. It's not enough. I wanted to add something to acrid. Okay, we can... wasn't that, but I like it. Scary scary. It's scary. It's mine was no less word of unusual size. What's oh us? But yes, we can have unusual size I don't think they exist We can all pick at least one to keep so if we want to keep all of them we can. If we want to keep just one or two we can. But I definitely want to keep ethereal. Because I feel like that can also be dramatic. It doesn't have to be, it's just like, it can be ethereal and also scary. Right. Or it can be ethereal and beautiful. Right. We definitely have to keep accurate. Do we keep one of our own or one of any of them? It's just as each player keeps at least one. ⁓ but you can choose. You can choose more. Yeah. I definitely want to keep. OK, I want accurate. I chose accurate. I want to keep reclaimed. Reclaimed is cool. It's giving the pigeon hot tavern. Yes. Let's bring back. Bring back my pigeon I actually want to keep Aerie if you could mark that. I think that kind of gets at what I was trying to get at with these two. That's just an easier I also want to keep cosmic Yeah Cosmic is cool Cosmic also could be horror. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, that's right. Cosmic can be chaotic actually most often is horror. Yeah, it's rarely soothing They're all good words, this is the problem We can keep all of them. Can we? we have to win? Yeah, it's just at least one. We can change serendipitous to stochastic. I guess we're concerned that it implies good. Stochastic could be anything. I guess we could just do chaos. Oh my god. Entropic. Entropic. Actually, I kind of like that. Is that like, who would I have to ask permission for? You would change yours. Oh, I'd have to change mine, okay. Well, we can, I think we keep these and then we keep the other words in the back of our head for when we want to add stuff. are just like, and these are even like, these are just vibes that we can kind of pull from if we get stuck. Colors. Colors, paints, yes. Cool. Okay, touchstones. Everyone picks one piece of media not traditionally considered fantasy and draws an aspect of inspiration from it as a touchstone. These are themes, setting elements, specific moments, or just vibes. It can draw on a small element or a big idea. For example, your touchstones could be Cowboy Bebop's Jazz and Bluegrass soundtrack, iconic. Legally Blonde's Fierce Determination in the Face of Prejudice, also iconic. Hellboy's Stark Shadows and Deep Colors. Borderlands Funky Guns. This helps create a fantasy that pulls from outside itself. Don't be afraid to get weird and out there. If you're struggling to think of a touchstone, pick an aspect of something you're currently invested in or a favorite piece of media you can always go back to. Be excited about your touchstone and get excited about others. The easier it is to draw from them, the better your worlds will become. Once everyone has declared their touchstones, make sure to keep the palette and touchstone where everyone can reference them throughout the game. If you're ever stuck when playing, always go back to these to help guide your answers. Okay, so... It would help if it's a touchstone that everyone else is familiar with, right? Yeah, true. It's hard because most of my favorite media is fantasy already. Right. So to kind of like go outside that scope is... I need to think for a second. It's my favorite media that's not fantasy. Well, it seems like we can get kind of close to fantasy, like Borderlands, well, no, Borderlands is pretty sci-fi. mean, sci-fi is just fantasy, but the prevailing powers technology. Right. Magic. Yeah. I think I have. For reason, that Disney movie where they're, they go into the giant cave and it turns out it's like a giant animal, I guess this spoiling it. Does anyone know what I'm talking about? It was like kind of recent. Oh, I was thinking Pinocchio. No. Okay. cave. Was it Disney movie? I don't know if it was Disney or Pixar. It was one of those like animated, it came out kind of recently. It wasn't even that good. I was just thinking like the kind of vibe their technology had a very organic kind of like just homespun. Like they had like a hovering truck to carry vegetables from like the farm to the farmer's market, but it was like very solar punk kind of. I love solar You just me an idea. Thank you, Sean. Something like that. Maybe there's a better movie. For some reason, the other thing I'm thinking of is ⁓ Blade Runner, but I don't really want a Blade Runner vibe. It's something about the way that things are kind of like... Okay, I have one. Okay, do want to share? Yes. The siege by supernatural creatures like from sinners. Ooh. Alright. So serendipitous. That is it? I don't think that word means what you think it means. could be changelings. It could be vampires. Werewolves. Harpies. like it. We're besieged by awful supernatural beings, but we kind of like them. Well, we're not letting them in because they are slowly killing all of us. ⁓ my god, babe. Well, that's what... Okay, maybe I shouldn't spoil centers. I haven't seen so good. You would love that movie, actually. for my favorite movie. We're having a movie night. Yeah. You haven't seen Finish so good. I haven't. But Avery has seen Princess Ananoke, so I feel like... You have a what? Right? I thought we watched it together. On camera in front of my peers? Sorry. Yeah, this is going off the internet. Well, I felt shamed. Public shame. Oh my god. just... Internet, you don't watch movies. It's okay. Okay, I'll have it watched by next time. Moving on. ⁓ I have one. It is from a book series called Leviathan. Leviathan is the first book. It's by Scott Westerfeld. It's some of my favorite books. But they have these giant hybrid animals that are very utilitarian. like the majority of the book takes place on a giant airship that is also a whale. And the whale is a living, breathing creature that is also an airship. So the weaponry is also creatures. They have fletchet bats that eat spikes and then they get scared and they poop out the spikes and it tears apart the machines of the opposing. It's really, really bad. The bats are fine. They just poop and fly away. And then they go back to their little, as a standard. But yeah, giant hybrid animals that are also useful. Could I say okay how was moving castle definitely fantasy based on a fantasy book, but specifically the airships are very mechanical Yeah, I kind of think that could fit with the airy theme and also like I don't know so more kind of like they must give me steampunk vibes Yeah, yeah something like that could that that's other side of Leviathan Okay, well that's fine because she didn't specify. Okay. Yeah, I just heard said the animals also pick Leviathan, but just pick well no I'm doing house moving castle I have two. Okay. ⁓ So the first one is a series of unfortunate events. Ooh. And the theme is an unknown era because you can't really pinpoint what time period that takes place in. There's a mix match of styles and technology. And then the second one is I really love like noir style mysteries. Okay. They focus on the psychology of the bad guy rather than the cleverness of the good guy. I just like how black and white and cool the guy always is. Also, yes. It was seven o'clock, and I was smoking a seventh cigarette. don't know. I've never been a noir person. I love noir films. So the psychological aspect of noir films and the timelessness of a series of unfortunate events. Yes. Possibly also the grittiness of... I always like when noir is somewhere where it shouldn't be. Like it's color, but then there's like one noir character. Like Spider-Verse? Spider-Verse is specifically don't think. Could we even pull, because a series of unfortunate events, I like that contrast of gritty but also kind of lighthearted. It's whimsical. Yeah, it the whimsy. It's whimsical. It's whimsical. You're so right, Bestie. Whimsical noir. Make it happen. Only if there's a murder mystery. That's what the entire world is based on. whimsical noir. I feel like you could do it. Okay. You have five minutes. Because you've drawn noir and you've drawn whimsy. I don't know. We're playing a game. These pallets and touch stones aren't laws upon your world, but they are guiding principles Everyone at the table agrees to so if you break away from them check in with the others if you have a paint Bright and you introduce some very dark content ask the table or respect a fellow player if they call out that that fights an established paint So I think we're all very loose here. I in my opinion Wow, speak for yourself lady Don't start with me. No, I'm loose. It's just you should let me say that for myself. Okay, we're all very, ⁓ what's this synonym for loose? It's not loose. We're relaxed. Lucy goosey. Lucy goosey. Easy going, but you don't have to be that way. You can be stern if you need to. If we have something that contradicts one of these, I think it's cool. I think it's fine. Okay. Cool. I feel like the vibe has to be right though. Yeah, we're not gonna introduce like, I don't know. War. heavy artillery war or something or unless maybe we do I don't know what what about the goes the ⁓ I meant like very like Saving Private Ryan style. Right, yeah, yeah. Okay, the world shifts. If a joker is ever drawn, that player may immediately add a new pallet, touchstone, or both. This can reflect how your world has organically taken a new shape to encourage that continued direction in play, or this can introduce a new direction for your world. After shifting the world, shuffle all the cards, including the drawn joker, that player then continues their turn by drawing a new card. So if we draw a joker, we get to add a palette, a touchstone, one of each, and then that person shuffles again and continues playing. Okay. Nice. Cool. And then we have another pretty illustration. Wow. Illustrations in this are amazing. They're so good. They are. Is that watercolor? I can't tell what it is. It could be. It could be like water-based ink too. That's crazy. It's an alcohol-based ink. I think the pen is either some kind of monoliner. or a fountain pen. I just see CMYK. Humans are so beautiful and varied and different. All right, so now we're gonna actually begin playing. I'm the one that sees the picture. What? Well, you said you saw the line work and then. Oh, well yeah. It's also a pretty castle. That goes without saying. Do we have to show the camera or is that like? I already showed. Oh, you already did. Oh, never, I wasn't even paying attention. You silly, silly, silly man. Okay, a magic. Start your world with a titular magic, a story about its origins, what it's capable of, and how it is changing in a way people aren't ready for. This creates a shape of your world's magic without getting too specific that will become clearer and deeper as you play. It also plants the seed of the conflict your world is going through as everything reacts to its magic. take turns drawing one card for each subtable in sequence and finish the sentences. Each player who draws a card can name or elaborate on the result, but make sure to discuss the entire table as a group. If you need jumping off points, use these suggestions and there's examples, but I don't think we need those. Okay, so we can start with Bloom and then go this way. So, here's how it goes. So we have the question. And then depending on the suit, you have an answer, and then you can elaborate on that answer. OK. OK. So it is said that magic was dot, dot, dot. Yes. We can put all these more towards the middle so everyone can see them. Are we all working together, or is it one by one? We're all working together to create the same world, but we're answering a question one by one. one, that makes sense, okay, yeah. But we can also discuss the, Bloom can give us jumping off points and we can chime in. I think that the magic in this world was founded by us in, through necessity. Similar how people began to study more and more. physics in our world. Instead they leaned more heavily into magic until it more normalized and useful. it treated like a science almost? Like people like study it and like get magic degrees? Yes. Cool. It is... I like to think that it has something to do with the movement of air. And wind. ⁓ Maybe there's some sort of belief system that ⁓ part of the ethereal part of spirits reside in the wind ⁓ and in the sky with cosmic. And yeah, that's how magic is harnessed, but it was founded by our necessity to have magic, to understand the world. Hell yeah. Yeah, I like that. Makes sense to me. Okay, with it we could... That was quick. Does it jack? Does it jack, not joker. I don't know how to read cards. What does a joker look like? A joker doesn't have a suit, right? No. A joker will say Okay, that's a jack. They shouldn't both be. That should be like a page or One j. One j, that's all we need. Did say page? Yeah. Like a page knight. The page isn't in the, this kind of deck. It should be a page though. Right. Okay, that is a We're a prince, because we got the prince queen king. I mean, I always felt like the jacks Thank you. ⁓ you're right. With it, we could commune and connect with the world around us. So that builds into what you were saying, that magic is kind of in the air. So I feel like people who study magic kind of tap into the connection of the energy that surrounds this magic. And they can kind of like that's how they kind of use the magic as they tap into that energy that's in the air and then kind of bend it to their will. Yeah, and like there's something sort of mystical about air anyway, there's sort of like the butterfly effect, right? So like if you have some kind of control over the chaos of wind, I think that that could be powerful. There's some, there's magic in that. Yeah, I love that. I also like the idea of tapping into magic. It's based a lot on... the freedom of air and movement of air. So like with the Howl's Moving Castle idea, and like airships and things that move, maybe civilizations just need to stay on the move. Right. One with all those monsters, mean, maybe that's the safest place. Yeah, I like that. Yeah, like a world built on movement is really cool to think about. Maybe you can only get oxygen at certain places on the planet. at certain times, you have to be there. When oxygen comes out, you won't make it to the next oxygen. That's scary. It is. Or water, I don't know, it's worse. I like the idea of oxygen or at least clean air, because that would go really well with the Akrit idea. Right. And sort of the grittiness that I was trying to get at with the touchstone. And it could make sense if they're like kind of nomadic because it could be that ⁓ they use up the air in an area and they have to move but like it kind of refills over time like maybe there's different like Avatar the Last Airbender that air nomads are always it's the reverse of the acid bubbles everything outside the bubble. my gosh. Yes. So bubbles are serendipitous lessons because they're the bubble of not like the air bubbles in Sonic. Yeah. ⁓ It is your turn. But as the world changes, magic has begun to... disappear suddenly. no, but we just set it up and so important. Yeah. Yeah. Well, can also backtrack. We can also adjust things a little bit. So maybe it's less dire, like movement is still important. Maybe there are like oases. thought of something. The magic used to be strong all the time, but now it's only strong during certain parts of the orbit. It like surges and like wanes. Right, it might be dying but that might also just be how it is now. Or maybe there's a material that's running out or some kind of like a... Maybe magic was radioactivity the whole time and it's just been its half-life. It shouldn't come from material because it came from... that was an earlier one came from us. Yeah, out of necessity. ⁓ that means maybe we need to go to the other planet to save this planet. figure out why our magic source that we built isn't going right anymore. Right. Maybe, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What if the magic comes from the planet itself and the magic fading is like a symbol of a deeper problem? so like, we've been spending all this time avoiding these monsters, but like there's like a, have to get to the source. Also an idea, again, going back to the idea of it being movement and freedom and air and, sort of a cosmic idea. If the place pushes the idea of studying it past a certain point where it's now trying to control the magic rather than live in the magic, then maybe it starts to wane faster. Trying to hold onto it too much and because of that movement it's more fluid. that we're doing it that is causing it. Yeah, I like that. I like that a lot. I do like the idea of it being the planet that... We are messing up. Yeah, that's the old source right like it comes from the planet comes from the air. That's like the ⁓ Sphere that covers this planet, but I like that too like we're trying too hard to control it and because of that it's like Maybe even like malfunctioning sometimes itself is accurate. ⁓ And the more we try and grab it the more dissolves our grip on it What does acrid mean? I acrid meant... Okay, yeah. Acidic, but like in a corrosive, like sticky way. Okay, okay. Like think napalm, but like poison. What? Okay, cool. Think magma, llama, but acid. Acid magma. Magma, made out of sulfuric acid. Yes. I don't know to me accurate is like the smell of sulfur or like lemon juice but like Not quite I feel like rotting. Well, no is rotting in the way that it's producing methane Yes, okay. Okay. Look, it's all very I I know like anything no air it is That's beautiful we're gonna move on to Hey! I did! I'm just stupid. Maybe avoid school then, Jordan. Avoid school. Don't avoid school. Go to school. No, listen to us, Internet. Don't do this. Should I draw the next? Yes, we're getting to it. So, a legend. Your world contains many myths and legends, and this one is foundational. An ancient story is told that forms the basis of how people interact and see their world. But like many tales, it can be warped to fit anyone's motives. As you play, this legend's influence echoes through every corner of your world. How do different cultures relate to it, and how does its warping bring about the changing magic? This game is right for the jugular, isn't it? Yeah. A legend is told of... No, it was a diamond. I was hoping it would be a heart. ⁓ sorry. ⁓ I read it. I'm sorry. All right. A contemplative scholar, the beaten soul, crest spirit, the unbowed. Okay. So that's like the... main character of our legend. Got it. And then we can answer more questions with the following. That matches with the idea that it became something we studied. Yeah. Right. Yeah, that actually fits really That fits perfectly. Almost like a Da Vinci-esque figure. Right. Yeah. Take away, legend, go. Or do we go to the next one I think we need to go to the next one to Their tales tell of, and then that's you actually. ⁓ Another club. Foundational. Morality. Foundational morality. ⁓ so maybe there's like a scholar, of like a Lao Tzu or something, like a philosopher that kind of up with the correct way to use the magic, and that's where the magic was built on. Sort of like an Isaac Newton or Einstein or something, like comes up with the core idea, but then it gets kind of mutated into other uses or something. Yeah, I like it almost like a. philosopher slash religious figure almost is kind of where I'm going with it and like this is the correct we need to use magic this way in order to prosper maybe it was wild before but this philosopher was able to make a deal with it and there was restrictions put in place And then with those restrictions came tenants of if you follow this, you can use it. But people are like, well, we can make those tenants mean anything. Right. Yeah. But now the legend has been warped, giving rise to faith. ⁓ no. So we've got religious trauma now. Yay. So I mean, that's perfect. So like, but now the legend has been warped, giving rise to faith. Maybe the faith is actually a problem with it because it could be that people, like you're saying, the literal text too far. that's what I was trying to get at is that people have taken this story of morality and here's how you responsibly use magic and taken it and make a religion out of it and twisted it to form their own kind of like power and control over it. ⁓ it turns out this wasn't about the wind at all. It was about supporting the dominant power structure. Isn't that weird? Isn't that weird? How does this always happen? Isn't that weird, internet? This happens every time! Can't keep getting away with this. Not again! A world. This table is where- In a world. In a world. This table is where most of your world building will take place. Here, you're zooming out, creating foundations, and riffing off each other by answering questions within three categories. The culture, questions that flesh out the people of this world, how they connect and their societies. The land, questions that flesh out the physical world, what makes it weird, how it exists, and the people's relationship to it. And the changing magic, questions that flesh out the state of magic in the world, how it was used, and how it's now changing. Take turns drawing one card and comparing it to the table, answering the question under the corresponding section. Each player should answer at least two questions or until a total of six questions from the table have been answered. You can continue to draw, but the point of this section is not to answer all of the questions, but to create conversations. Leave gaps for others to fill in later. Before drawing cards as a group, choose one exploratory table, which further defines specific aspects of the world to pair with this table. If a card is drawn and that question has already been answered, answer the corresponding question on the chosen exploratory table or draw a new card. You can pair any exploratory table, but for this table, I suggest either magic or wildlife or vocations. Okay, so if I understand that. So we can answer these, and if the same thing comes up, we can pop to one of the exploratory tables and answer one of those to dig deeper. Got it. OK. Beautiful. And there's tons of fun tables. OK, cool. So let's start with you, Ben. Avery. OK, prompt me. So you can pick the cultures, the land. ⁓ no, sorry. I see. OK, pick a card. and a cardigan did again. Okay, it's hearts. So it's hearts and it's a nine which is an odd number. So nine of hearts. That's your question. What relics remain of the common ancestry amongst all people? Maybe it's like wind talismans or something. Yeah. But they're just like telephones or something. Like it used to be a super modern society. used to just call the wind magic for people. But now people think that they're relics and magical. But it was always just a communication device. What if they're wind talismans but they're actually all connected to each other somehow? Like sending stones kind of? Yeah. Yeah. I like that. Yeah. So there was technology, but it wasn't our technology. was just sending stones type thing. Yeah. I like I see where you're going with that. Yeah. But I do like Sean's idea of that. Maybe they're like ancient talismans that are all connected and like maybe like the rulers of each culture that has like developed since because they're all originating from one common entry. Right. OK, so seven talismans, seven talismans to rule them. Yes. Yes. was thinking like maybe the rulers would put it on their luggage so if it gets lost they can find it. ⁓ air tag. Okay. Can I add a small twist to that? Yes, please. Just to incorporate Leviathan. Yes. Are the talismans and relics just really big creatures? Yes. That were just created by... Maybe, yeah, maybe we bred giant... that were producing oxygen to. All the talismans are made from like the dust of a gigantic moth because the dust is actually little scales but if the moth was really really big the scales could be like maybe that could be a cool like origin storage because I the magic was founded by us but what if it came from like we discovered it but we discovered that it came from a giant moth beating its wings which brings in cosmic yes and serendipitous yeah I love that Yeah, like scales of the moth were imbued into these relics, these talismans. These communication devices. Communication devices. Do I draw the next Please. Oh yeah. We also have a lot of ADHD here. An odd spade. Odd spade. So I answered that question. Okay. What recent invention are people adapting to? What's the drawback? I think the airships, actually. Maybe those are new, and that's part of what's been messing everything up. It's like, they're like, why do we need to be friendly to these giant air whales when we can just pull out their hearts and make the airship fly? Or something horrible? I don't know. Maybe we're harvesting oxygen too much now because we're fast and we can get there more often. ⁓ that could also be, yeah. Our hubris. I like that mixing in with the religious aspect from earlier. Maybe these are like giant moth shaped ships. Ooh. It's like a bastardization. Like it's a flying cathedral. Yeah. But that's not what Moth Jesus would have wanted. That's not what Moth Jesus would have wanted. Not at all. I like that, these floating, almost like, paragons of man's screed and hubris. Because we're just taking this beautiful origin story of the scholar and the moth and just creating these horribly bad-for-the-environment, maybe, machine cathedrals. Oh, yeah. And the magic doesn't like it. Moth doesn't like it. I like the idea of it also having a lot of runoff and like, acrid side effects to the world. Well, he used to be able to walk, but now you can't because of all the discharge from the ships. Nice. Which means more ships because people got to get places. ⁓ this used to be a beautiful fantasy land and now it's acrid and wasted. We got to bring in whimsicals. I know, you guys are bringing it down. The designs for all the Moth ships are very whimsical. Very whimsical. Lots of gems and trinkets. Gems, very round shapes. Okay, so how do I make it happy though? We should backtrack a little bit to make it happier. Because it's gonna be kind of hard to go from here and make it happy unless we're telling a story. think we can... Well, we've introduced some conflict. Right, the even I think are the good things or something. It's just the culture. some reason, whenever we default to explaining culture, we're defaulting to it being bad. We just gotta bring some positive stories in here too. Some positive culture. Yeah. I have an idea, but it would require us rethinking how we see acrid. Okay. So, acrid, we think acidic and bad smelling and dry. And dry. Very dry liquid. And ⁓ corrosive. And it's the corrosive part, the breaking down thing part that I think if we do that, mixed with reclaimed. Almost like digestive. Yeah, maybe the world is reabsorbing things. ⁓ we can even bring in the creatures. Like maybe creatures have evolved to kind of absorb some of the acridity. Whatever, once in a while the planet's actually alive. It's a giant creature. Ooh, we're on the back of a giant moth. Yeah, and then... It's a chrysalis. And sometimes it just eats what's on its skin, so we give it ritual sacrifices when the floor becomes swamp. Whimsical. Whimsical. No, no, what if the- Well, it's alive. We need to feed it stuff that we grow, like cucumbers. Okay, not when you sacrifice. You said ritual sacrifice. I went straight to people. Yeah. I was thinking more of like livestock. People- I like the cucumber stuff. I was thinking whatever these moths are doing is kind of like a fertilizer for the creatures on the surface. So it's sort of like a- Like there's more attacks because they're kind of being bolstered or something. I say we pick another card. Yeah, let's pick another card. I think that's a good idea. He has a pan. Eight of diamonds. What is the common transportation method that caravans utilize? What innovation is shaking things up? You already talked about the airships. think that it was originally some sort of, I like the idea of wagon trains, but instead of being pulled by oxen or other beasts of burden, ⁓ like just giant moths. Hell yeah. That just flap very slowly, I'm not sure. I like the vibe. Yeah. And then as far as new things that are shaking it up. I keep coming back to bubbles. Bubbles aren't on here. But I like the idea of like mechanical engines that are just a bubble that pull things forward. Does that make sense? Yeah, so okay, so one of the things I was thinking about was like what if this planet has consistent air currents? not like sort of like the jet stream on Earth but like way easier to access and so the insects just have like the migration patterns where they just float and so traditional caravans are just hot air balloons basically that with the migrations and so in tradition they would just go with the wind. it's less like they're being guided and more just we're following what's already moving. but then these new like mechanical moths can fight the wind and go wherever they want which kind of throws off The balance of major patterns. But I do like them, the idea of them being like really big Vardo wagons. Romani traveling wagons. Very cool. Very bright colored. They have lots of flags because they're in the air. Maybe some toms where they're all strapped together. Several families might connect their wagons. Like floating. ⁓ I like that a lot. That's whimsical You can crank the wagon up so it gets taller. Hell yeah. I love that. That's very cool. Kids run around with parachutes. Excellent. It's like a rite of passage. You become a man when you jump out of the parachute. Right, sure. I was thinking it was just for safety, because if you're running between ⁓ I thought it was for daredevil stuff. ⁓ yeah, mean It's like a feat of bravery. There's a lot of gymnastics going on in the wagons. Three of clubs. How are ideas recorded? How are these ideas shared long distances? Ooh. Hmm. with flute songs, woodwinds. I kind want to bring in some of the timelessness and maybe some of your idea too. What if they did us communicate through cell phones? I like it. I'm hearing you. Yeah. Yeah. What version of cell phones? My brain is still that like 90s flip phones. Yeah. Flip phones, like fantasy esque flip phones, but like. If someone were to look at this as a piece of media and go, why are those there? It's like, it follows when they have those weird pod phones. And they're like, that doesn't make sense, but it does make sense at the same time. And then they also, they're magically powered because of course they are, but because cell phones use airwaves, kind of, it kind of ties into the magic. So that's how it can communicate long distances. They just use the magic that's already there. But it's like a blend of like technology and magic. What about the recording? You just saved an MP3. Voice memos? It's all voicemail. It's just VHS. No, they're the flip phones, but everything's at like 420p, like, recorded. They don't have a selfie camera. They have to just like turn it around. Love it. I took recorded as communicate for some reason. My brain is so not working today. They're recorded because there's a cloud. There's a cloud. Maybe once you think it through the cell phone, it's permanently recorded in your memory. You can't forget it. Oh. This sounds really cool and also horrifying. horrifying. I think I've seen a Black Mirror episode about that. It was a cost. Could it be an opt-in thing? No, doesn't have to be at all. ⁓ okay. I know, I kinda like it. ⁓ you do? Yeah. Anything that you send over long distances, you remember. Or maybe a copy of it, like it. flies through the air and a copy of it also kind of flies through somehow and maybe people can like find these copies of snippets of information and collect them but they're all disjointed. It's literally just SMS. Like ⁓ really sporadic oral traditions. Yeah, yeah without any context. But these little snippets are important to different cultures for whatever reason that they might think of. Could the cell phones grow from a weird creep with a really leathery fruit that smells terrible but when the pit is the cell phone? That's how we keep getting new ones even though they break? The souls. Okay. No one really knows where the tree came from, but we're happy it's there. Serendipitous. Serendipitous and aggric. The trees grow cell phones, obviously. Like, why are you focused on that? I mean, they grow... Think about all the things that trees give us. Like, all the vitamins we need or else our teeth fall out and we die. Like, I mean, trees are pretty great. Do you have trees communicate to each other? In a tree language? They make cell phones. The tree is itself like a ⁓ telephone tower. It's like prior to the orange tree though, minus the cell phone part. And the fruit is delicious. That really plays it to whimsical too. The idea of picking a fruit because I need to do cell phone is... The new apple just dropped! I kinda like the idea of it being like a pear. from Miranda... ⁓ from like iCarly? iCarly, yes. I said Miranda Sings. Miranda Cosgrove is what you were thinking of. ⁓ Brandi Cosgrove? Yeah. think she's doing alright. Good. I hope so. She's not looking hot. You find out later. Pick a card. Internet, don't, don't at us. A leaf. A leaf. leaf. A A A leaf. A A leaf. A A A A A leaf. leaf. A leaf. A leaf. What is an important natural landmark? How do we navigate around them? I I like the idea of the bubbles being huge. Nice. Okay. And they just, there's like a few of them, maybe like cities form around these giant bubbles. Okay, on the moth that we're on, there are mucus membranes along its back. Nice. And sometimes whales and other living creatures come out of that and when they breach, it creates these bubbles. Are the bubbles permanent? Because they're landmarks. No, they pop. And then they form again. It's all like, it's like a dune situation. Nice. Can you go inside the bubbles? Like, you know how, like, if you have a balloon and you stab it right with a, with a needle, it doesn't pop? That could be like a whole commerce thing. Yeah. Like there's a pirate, there's daredevils, like, adventurers or explorers that go inside the bubbles. Okay. There's an animator somewhere. an animator. There's like five animators in here somewhere. Oxygen farmers go into the bubbles and they come back, they fill their balloons with oxygen or something. But it's very dangerous, I don't know. Pure oxygen is a great the acridity. Right. The acridity. Acridity. Acridity. The acridity. It could also be because if there's like all these wind currents, right? ⁓ If you just hold a hoop up into the wind, you know, the bubble can just come from that. I don't know if that would... I don't know how that could be connected to anything. Let him cook. Yeah, I don't know. just remember we were making bubbles at your house and I was showing you how you can wave the wand. I actually was blowing bubbles. Yeah. Like today? No, it was like a few days ago. Yeah. At any time. We were working, okay? This was business meeting. My bad. bubbles. They were business bubbles. I think you were doing clown makeup. Yes, that's right. You get my clown makeup out of this. I'm scared to think that I had the most normal of the past four takes. You ever do bubbles in clown makeup? No. Missing out. No. Missing out. You must have been doing something weird. I'm trying to think of something. Anything. Not a single thing? I really got nothing. Should I draw the next panda? Yes, please. Eight of hearts. Eight, so even of hearts. Oh, we just had that. Oh. Should we do a wait. I had 10 ten of spades. Ten of spades. Even hearts. What is an important natural landmark? ⁓ we read the wrong one. ⁓ no, sorry. An important unnatural landmark. So you had the natural one, which is the bubbles that come from the membranes of the moss. That's so lucky. Yeah. So you need to think of an unnatural landmark. What if we mess it up? Reading comprehension is hard. I still have not learned to Jared 19 never learned how to fucking read. Oh Sorry There's a scandal I am tower that keeps spraying These dumb robots into the airstream and it's really annoying. Yeah, I don't know robots maybe the things from Whatever this is called sinners. Oh, there's the things that are chasing after us because we haven't gotten to that yet Oh we're being sieged by unnatural creatures. Oh yeah, where do the unnatural creatures come from? So... Oh, the creatures are unnatural? I was assuming they were just like... scary. Supernatural creatures. Supernatural. I like the idea of them being robots. Oh, that those are like the... it's viewing the robots that are... guess that would be kind of supernatural in a way for this universe because it's all like... There's no magic Biological stuff, yeah. Yeah. Ooh, they're bio robots. Right. It's super natural because it's synthetic, it's still natural. And they're coming from the world. Coming from this tower. I was thinking more of that, like. ⁓ for this like moth network that they might, you know, instead of using the cell phones from the trees, that, you know, the wholesome natural way to communicate, they're doing like more of a Starlink thing and it's making everything crappy. But I don't, we don't need to bring more badness in. It's just, unnatural, so I was thinking like bad, but unnatural I'm not sure it could also be just like manmade. Manmade, right. I is super natural though. Super good man-made maybe there's just a cathedral to the moth There's a giant moth cathedral and there's a lot of stained glass that took a lot of work And some people have mixed feelings about it because you know religion, but it's pretty in the right light. Oh, Yeah, old so how old are they it's pretty old Cathedral then? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So yeah, very old kind of no crudom There's a ritual rights for the faith and if you're dissolved in Mothra your soul stays as a ghost. But if you had unhappy endings or if the ritual wasn't exacted for you, you could only partially pass on and create a type of ghoul. I don't love that you have to subscribe to this religion otherwise you turn into a ghoul. Fair. But I do like a ghoul. So maybe we can incorporate a ghoul another way. Maybe it's if you're specifically in this religion that's what happens. ⁓ yeah, if you like... Give your soul to the moth because the moth is real and there but the like the Spokesperson of the moth the person who has said I am the herald of the moth ⁓ I Love religious iconography and religious iconography mixed with moths. He's giving me some very very fun things to draw later ⁓ But yeah, maybe if like, you like give your dedicate yourself to this religion and then it's like an opt-in situation. Who's that? Olympia Ardent who draws the moths with the halos? She should play this game. Do you know who I'm talking? Amy, it's Amy something. can't remember her last name. Shryer? But yeah, she's cool. She does the art studio with the copper wolf. Oh, cool. I'll check her out. She does cool moths. That sounds awesome. Yeah. I like moths. I like moths a lot. What were we talking about? was I? Cathedral. Cathedral, oh yeah, there's a moth cathedral. think that's good enough. cathedral. There's a parasite called a shrike-to-grandma that specifically attacks moths. Oh. And, sorry, I was thinking about the ghoul thing, and I was thinking that they're a type of parasite. Anyway. Hell yeah. King, the king of diamonds. Face card. The changing magic. I love this panda. What is the byproduct of magic? In what unique way has the byproduct changed? ⁓ We talked about what the byproduct is for people trying to control magic, which is like the accurate. Maybe when you use magic, you. Maybe the byproduct is just more movement of air. More wind, right. Yeah, yeah. Because like, what was it? Kiki's delivery service. Yeah. It just kind of creates like wind when she does magic. Yeah. Yeah. Very much Magic is just windy. Yeah. You do magic and just everything blows around. Everything just starts moving. Yeah. What unique way has the byproduct changed? That smells bad. Maybe we're getting less of it now, right? Less of it. ⁓ I was thinking more of like it'd get more chaotic. But yeah, less of it probably makes sense because the magic is waning. I really want to play into more bubbles just because there's something in the air that's combining with the air whenever magic is used that's causing it to solidify around it in globes. So whenever it's in big winds, never use magic, you are suddenly just surrounded by streams of bubbles. OK. does the bubble smell like? Acrid? Sulfuric? You just like fart all over you. Yeah. No, I'm thinking if you take like really old cinnamon. Yeah, like an earthy type smell, right? Yeah. Like a groundy, ground dirt. I'm imagining. Because it's always going to taste like dirt to me. Or smells like dirt. I'm imagining you always describe it Cthulhu. The dirt. the dirt. There's a lot of dirt. The earth smell. So that, but like also like you're walking into a grocery store in November, so they have the pine cones outside and they're trying to kill you with cinnamon smells. ⁓ yeah. You don't like cinnamon smells? I hate cinnamon smells. I thought you were trying to say it smelled kind of nice. It does to most people, I imagine. ⁓ King of Club. When magic changed, how did wildlife also change? More moths. Evil moths. Evil moth. But it was evil babby. For moths become evil. How did what also change? When magic changed, how did wildlife also change? Wildlife can include plants too. ⁓ I'm imagining with... So the movement is waning. So I imagine like things may be evolved to be very bendable, right? To kind of like go with the flow of the movement. But now maybe things are becoming more rigid because there's less movement. and what used to be very bendable and ⁓ flexible is now more brittle. Right. Yeah. Well, and also the movement is kind of the way that oxygen, because there's like an oxygen shortage, right? And so movement kind of helped the animals get to oxygen. Yeah. When oxygen goes down on earth, at least animals get smaller. Yeah, I was thinking that too, because we do have these like big flying ships and stuff, but because there's less movement, less oxygen, less magic, they're becoming more normal sized. And maybe part of the reason why they've been moving towards these mechanical ships is because the whales have been like going extinct or something like the bigger like fauna have been kind of just. Yeah. They're just like less helpful. Yeah, that too. They're kind of like, these guys suck. These guys rule. Do the whales have mock wings? To who? The whales have mock wings. They don't have to. That just sounds fun. I think they should have bunches of tiny wings all over. Like the Howl's Moving Castle once again. We're just going back in that. But just, yeah, just lots of little wings. Some of them should have rows of wings, yeah. In the books, they had ballast. And they were like a giant hunter balloon. I really need to finish the book. Such a good book. It a pretty short book for children. It's like middle grade. I would consider middle grade children though. And there's a distinction. There's children's books and there's middle grade books. And there's younger adults. It leads to middle grade readers. That's so sweet. We are now moving on to a city. Create a city in this world. This table defines broad strokes of the city's purpose, how magic is viewed or uniquely shaped, and of a folk legend born here. Use what you've built from the previous tables and hone in on themes, factions, and environments. I have an idea already, but I don't know if it will fit. sorry. All right. Take turns drawing one card for each sub-table in sequence to finish sentences. After you've finished going down this table, decide as a group whether the city is a city crumbling or a city flourishing and proceed to the respective table. Whose turn is it? It's mine. I keep getting to go first. Okay, two of diamond. So its influence was? Its influence was innovation, a nexus of learning and invention. So I'm imagining a very technology. ⁓ libraries. Right. I like that better. Especially if they're collecting the little scales that pop off from places to collect knowledge. I like that. They can be like a microfiche, but for the little snippets. We. ⁓ we. What? ⁓ we. ⁓ we. We. That was Sleigh. Do we go right to the next one? Yeah. All right. Nine of diamonds. Nine. So its variant of the magic is? And the diamonds. I'm not sure which one it is. Spiritual, tied to tradition and has deep roots in day to day life. Well that makes sense. makes sense. Maybe the cathedral can be in this city. ⁓ yeah. Yeah. All right. Okay, so it's like a center of learning, but also like kind of their religion. Yeah, because the scholar. That makes sense. Like if you put the Notre Dame in Oxford. Nice. I like it. the seven of spades. A local legend is told of... Yes! A local legend is told of a... A time when, especially when the religious powers were coming more into effect, ⁓ people who were not following the Moth Jesus religion fled the city and there was one person who was helping to ferry them out of the city, Scarlet Pimpernel. He would often disguise himself ⁓ with a lot of black ⁓ and a lot of... ⁓ like red accents. ⁓ yeah, so the legend of Mothman was born. As soon as you said legend I was like aha Mothman and saved people from a city gentle gentle man They just didn't vibe with the religion so they left yeah, they had to leave because they were being turned into ghouls as established right dang So is this a city crumbling or flourishing I think it's flourishing because we have got the cathedral It's kind of like the head of the religion. feel like it's kind of a citizenship. Yeah. It's It looks like it's doing great, but on the inside, it is actually horrible. Ooh. Which is wild to think about. Yeah. You could imagine what that's like. That's not a table. Oh, am We gotta pick one into the other. I would say flourishing. Fine. OK. Is that OK? Yeah. OK. OK. This table flushes out the city you have started, a city with a bright future, but for how long? Determine the history and resonance of your city by answering questions within these three categories. The future questions that look forward to the city's future and what that reveals about its current state. The ambitions of the people questions that establish an important residents in your city. The legends influence questions that focus on the legend and how the people view them. Mothman. I was about to say people who continued the tradition like there's still people dressing as the Mothman. Yes. Yeah, I say we each do one of these. Yeah. Speed round. Is it my turn? is. because I my fan last. ⁓ Beautiful. Odd Diamond. Who is arriving or ascending in the city to claim power? Ooh, okay, what if they're, I know we like ferried a lot of like the people who weren't down with the religion out, but what if the people who couldn't be ferried out stayed and there's a faction and they're kind of like, we want to challenge the religious authority in this city and we want it to be more egalitarian. So maybe they're getting more support because maybe the church has like really rich, there's like a ton of money. being funneled into the church and maybe some of the people who aren't receiving that money are like, hey, this isn't fair. We need to disperse the wealth. need to... An underground library. Yes. The librarians are rising up. And like, I imagine that another thing with the mechanical versus organic, that the religion has become more about... the artifice, right? Where maybe the people who are more keeping the old ways are more about the wind and the moths, the actual living parts of the thing. And so to them, they're like, things are very not good right now. But if you're sitting inside a gilded cathedral with pumped oxygen and everything seems fine, it seems like it's just better every day. Right, right. I like that. Excellent. Go librarians. Go librarians, fight the man. 10 of leaf, 10 of spades. Who is destined for greatness and how are they being used? I like to think there's this really daring adventure that's on the rise like I'm thinking like Desert desert planet treasure treasure planet. I'm thinking like that kind of pirate. Okay, Jack Sparrow. It's just an adventuring. That's a pirate adventure Yeah, but like a specific... Okay, that's fine. If you don't want a swashbuckler, that's fine. No, we can have him. I'm just trying to narrow down. A swashbuckler is just an adventure that carries a little buckler shield. Okay, nice. And he's got swash. They're supposed to be... swash. They give swash. They're supposed to be like suave and cool. Okay, literally, think of the main character from Treasure Planet. Okay. That's the main character. How is he being used? The animated Treasure Planet. What'd say? How is he being used? Well, he thinks he's with the cool guy, but it's really a pirate. ⁓ my god. Excellent. But he's being taught the tools of his trade. Okay. So he's being used for piracy now, but soon he will lead the Navy to keep the commerce clear. The Dreadpire Roberts. Yeah. Got Wesley as the Dreadpire Roberts. What if he's like a skydiver? he's famous for jumping into places you're not supposed to be. Because if people are all like flying around, you can kind of like, I don't know. I think that's cool. Yeah. It's kind of like a sort of a cat burglar sort of just kind of like maybe steal stuff from the cathedral or something. Robin Hood, Wesley. Yeah, Robin Hood. And a little bit of Jim in there too. Okay, we have him. We have him. Whatever amalgamation this is. Okay, I like it. All right. He's a pirate right now. Perfect. You gotta have a fun background. All right, it's a King of Pandas, King of Spades. King of Pandas, you're gonna make fun of me for saying Ten of Leaves? No, I did. Uh-huh, uh-huh. Why was a commemoration of the legend replaced, erased, or refurbished? Ooh. Well, the church didn't like Mothman. Or maybe the church put up the commemoration and it was ⁓ graffiti to be more accurate. ⁓ Or something. Kinda like a... Because replaced, erased, or refurbished could be in a kind of punk anti-propaganda way. Like they put up like a disparaging statue of him. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then the people were like, Mothman was cool. Yeah, or maybe Mothman lives. Mothman lives. Mothman flies. My he rise again. Yeah. My E flap again. My he. Yeah, there was like this big commemoration for Mothman, but it was done in like a really kind of like sterilized, like whitewash. Like Mothman, I actually love the church, that's why I dress like a moth. Sure, yeah, And then, but yeah, people were like, Mothman lives. I like that. Yeah, okay. Nice. The queen of spades. Where is the legend now and why are some people happy about this? ⁓ I think the legend's still in the city. Mothman is still in the city. ⁓ He's just old. He's like Anthony Hopkins in Zorro. And he's teaching the next Mothman. Yes. And people are happy about this because he's fighting the good fight. He's still trying to... make sure the church doesn't come to absolute power and ruin everything and force everybody else to join the church. We stan Mothman. Yeah. I want him to have, cause he's like kind of old, grizzled, right? Yeah. You know? Maybe he has this like sort of tense, ⁓ former mentor relationship with the dread pirate Robin Hood, you know, where he's like, because he supports what he's doing, but not his methods. He's like, you're too radical. don't know. I was going to say the dread pirate Jimmin Hood. Jimmin Hood. ⁓ Yeah. I'm taking a card. Mothman Human Hood. ⁓ This game gets further from anything that makes sense. get deeper into whatever this is. ⁓ we already did that. So I'm going to first time we've done this, ⁓ an exploratory table. Wow, right at the end, that's so lucky. The last one. Yay. I'm doing Pantheon because I really like religious iconography. Yeah, it's pretty big in the, so far, mean faith is the main thing. Can religion and religious leaders be separated from the ideals and structure of this culture's society? Wow, that's heavy. This game's really coming for us. That's crazy. Whimsical. Damn. Make up this little world now answer serious. I think I wanna the geopolitical situations in world? I wanna say no, because the religion stemmed from the origin story of the scholar and the moth. Right. So even though maybe it has been bastardized at this point, I think that it's still such an integral part of the culture that they can't- You cannot separate them. They are intertwined. And even the people who are fighting against this organized religion are still, yeah, they still subscribe to the true ways of the moth. The old ways of the moth. They're orthodox mothers. Yeah. So that's my answer. The only way they could is if there's a really big system overhaul. Exactly. And I don't think they're ready for that. I was supporting the moth back when I was a catapult. Yeah. Wow, I got it during the Chrysalis era. The Chrysalis era. Okay. A journey in the land with a clear shape of your world, zoom in further to look at a group traveling. table brings you down to the ground of your world. Take a moment to see what you've created from the perspective of the people. Who are they, what are they doing, and what stories do they tell? Nine of spades. or clubs? When traveling with a... Pilgrimage. To keep getting the religious ones. Wow. During? Six of spades, which is ⁓ a morning period. ⁓ damn. Pilgrimage during a morning period, a story is being told about? Six of hearts. Protection to comfort, subdue, or bolster. The legend of the Mothman follows the care. Well, maybe they could be getting oxygen. if it's a pilgrimage or maybe some sort of traditional... Well, if it's a mourning period, maybe they're going to a funeral. Right. Yeah. And they're trying to tell a story of protection, maybe about the protection of the soul of those who, the one who was passed on. And they're telling, maybe they're telling like an afterlife story to like young kids. And they're like, is what happens when you die. You become one with the mother moth. Or a ghoul, so listen to your parents. I like the idea, because we established that there is a mucus membrane on the moth. I like the idea that the pilgrimage that happens after someone dies is that person's family brings them down to the surface. So it's a slow descent from the cities to the moth itself. it's stories of like finding your way back to the cities, a find your way to oxygen into the good bubbles. Yeah. I like that. A lot of stories of hope. Yeah. Good job, team. Yay. A point of view. To bring this game to a close, each of you makes a character on this journey, listening or telling the story. Consider being a member of the main group, a guest or a stowaway, a child or an elder, someone who has hitched a ride to or from the city. Think about every aspect of your world. Draw on the elements that most excited you, something that was deeply fleshed out or something that was only briefly touched on. Look at the various factions, professions, and cultures that exist in your world. Grab that thing that someone else created that inspired you, that you could rant about for hours, or that you'd love to embody as a person. Once you've found it, create the point of view in which you'd want to see it explored. Anyone can begin describing their character to the group. Jump around until everyone has introduced their character. Treat this moment as if it was the prologue to a story you will tell elsewhere. your character in as much detail as you'd like and reveling in their secrets, relationships, and character arcs you'd want them to experience. I want to explore that closer to the moth. I think maybe like a moth sherpa, know, for when people are trying to go down to the... Yeah, so yeah, like when someone dies, they need like a guide to guide them down to the moth. Right. You can be the moth sherpa. Right, yeah. What's your name, moth sherpa? ⁓ Frank. I don't know. I imagine that, you know, another part of that is that there's things down there that aren't up above, you so that you want to bring back, you know, like good plants or maybe just make sure maybe trail maintenance. I don't know. There's probably a lot of just moth forestry, you know, it's an emerging science. Totally. You want to be a wildlife ranger? Yeah. That's beautiful. Someone's got to do it. Hell yeah. ⁓ I think I wanna be like a femme fatale journalist investigating wrongdoing in the city. But you're on a pilgrimage. Right. ⁓ okay. I think that this goes deeper than just the city. I think it's a worldwide arc. And I'm undercover on the pilgrimage. ⁓ okay. As a journalist. Okay. Cool. Trying to find the dark underbelly to see if they're using it to smuggle contraband. The pil- the- the funeral procession? Not the funeral possession, think they're being unwittingly used. They've been infiltrated. I see. And now they're being used as a smuggling rink. I see. Have you asked the Mothman on a date as a pretense to get information out of him? That is very noir. Femme fatale. To show up in his office, there's a flash of lightning. And he tries to chase it. That's fantastic. No, he does want me, but I like to hard to get. ⁓ my god. You can't tell if he wants you or the reflection in your jewelry. I'll just cover the lantern. It'll be very codependent. ⁓ my god. I want to be a child who's going to the surface for the first time. ⁓ and I want to be told the story, because I'm really interested, I love afterlife stories so much. So I said something about like, this is a funeral position and we're telling stories about what happens after you die. And that is something that I would love to be, through the eyes of a child, taught about. Like what does that look, no genuinely, yes, yes. Like what does death look like in this society and what does the afterlife look like? And how can that be perceived to the eyes of a child who doesn't know what death is? Because now adults, it's hard, because we have this idea of what death and afterlife is, but a child doesn't. So to be taught that, I think is a very pivotal moment in someone's life. Right, yeah, that's true, yeah. And it would be a really interesting way to learn going to this, because if you grew up flying or floating or high up above, to go down and then see these mucus membranes and these monsters and this is the world we came from. And that's where we return. It's funny because like, it's pretty heavy. How we, as us at this table see the after, or at least we were kind of told about the afterlife. You go up to the big place in the sky, right? But in our story, we're coming down from the sky to reunite with death that way. I think that's kind of cool. That is cool. Anyway. I'm actually gonna go almost the direct opposite of My character is an older man, and the person that's being buried was his spouse. I decided his name is Homily, which is a short prayer, or passage or prayer. And to do a random bit of world building off of this, I like the idea of there being sects of religions, there's one of them that's based on sound and music. Ooh, I love that. So something that he does is as part of guiding or going with the caravan down to the surface. He plays ⁓ the clarinet. He plays jazz as part of like a religious... him but he's very very devout to the moth and very devout to the the idea of freedom with air but is also a part of the main religion and so there's two parts of him that are really kind of intense damn that's beautiful yeah i like them I like to think that the religious ⁓ music ⁓ transcends, you know, there's like lot of wind, you know, lot, maybe some chimes, but maybe also like chip tunes on the cell phones. There's like... Yes. Yes. Because if the cell phones have been with them for a thousand years, they'd have religious ways of, know, beep, ⁓ my God, that's so, that's had just forgotten about the cell phones. I had too. They're like, it's like, yeah. You gotta keep the whimsy though. Gotta keep the whimsy. for most music is just a dial tone. yeah, I think that woodwinds are a big thing in this society. Totally. Awesome. Let's see, there is a little... Next steps. game of a land once magic ends when you're ready to move on from what the game offers you. If you are attached to your world and wish to continue to see it grow and change, consider taking it to a different world building or role playing game. A journey in the land and a point of view ends in a perfect place to introduce characters for a character driven game. Start play as the story is being told, decide who is telling it where and who is listening. Use a land once magic to inspire your own art, create an original game or story or comic based on the world you made, keep the story going and the world alive, or put this world away. Let it rest, it live on in your memories, cherish the world you made together and let that be all. Come back here to make another one to cherish it all the same. Yay. Yay. And then there's the exploratory tables and there's some acknowledgments and that's the game. That was fun. That's awesome. That was really fun. I that's not where I thought that this would go. I wasn't expecting religious moffs. I wasn't thinking religion would play in at all, like I was thinking let's avoid that. Yeah, no totally. The game did not let us. The game was like, hmmm? I think these people might have religious trauma. Religious trauma as a tweet? You're talking about history? Here. But I mean if you add enough mods, anything's palatable. was really fun. I like this a lot. Alright, well thank you guys so much for playing this game with me. Yeah. And thank you guys for watching this. for watching. You can get a copy of A Land Once Magic on our website. I will have the link down below. It is a wonderful game. You can definitely tailor it to how much time you have. We had a while, so we kind of really got in the weeds with it, but this would be fun to kind of like bust out like at a coffee shop or like at like a camping trip I think would be really fun to play this. So yeah, thank you. ⁓ what a fun game. I had so much fun playing this with my friends and I feel like the world we came up with was actually pretty cool. Thank you all so much for spending some time with us today. If you would like a copy of a land once magic for yourself, you can get it through our website. That's heartofthedirinacorn.com. And I highly recommend you do, especially if you like world building games, because this game is just a chef's kiss. Anyway, thanks for hanging out with us and we'll see you next time.