Steve Arnott
Appearances
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
and classes have two different domains so i think that's why they're going for the card so you can kind of piece it together and you know like a jigsaw puzzle to make your character thing yeah yeah yeah it looks interesting i'm interested in the system i'm definitely going to play it and check it out but yeah because i really i really liked candle obscure and i know this is completely different um it's a different game but yeah i enjoyed the the care and the design that went into that game so i imagine the same sort of care care and attention has gone into this as well
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
I know they've been lots of playtesting and they've been listening to feedback because there's been lots of changes.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
He's also a tabletop RPG writer and designer, so we'll be talking about differences in designing for tabletop, whether it's board games or tabletop RPGs.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
I imagine it's a prettier cover as well. A different cover, yeah. But there's quite a big difference because the Corsair is just under $60 and the Deluxe is $150. Yeah.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
No. There you go. Yeah. And that's all the news I have on that, really.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
Yes, absolutely. Well, I was kindly sent a press copy of Candela Obscura, so maybe I'll get a copy of that. I don't know. I won't see. Anyway. Hmm. Some other news that is not D&D. Go on. Kobold Press. So Kobold Press.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
Well, all right, I've said it now, so I'm just not saying anything. Well, it's not really huge news, but Kobold Press, so people will be familiar then, they used to make a whole load of 5e stuff. They did Project Backflag in 2025, which is the Tales of the Valiant RPG, which is their take on Dungeons & Dragons 5e ruleset. So I think this is in reaction to last week there was news about...
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
Chris Cox and his quote about AI with D&D. So Kimball Press have reiterated their statement that they have a pledge to not use AI.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
Yes. I think they just wanted to stress it because I think with that statement... I think they thought, oh, everyone's talking about this right now.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
Well, why not? But anyway, they pretty much just said we're not using AI. So it's the same thing. We don't use generative AI art. We don't use AI to generate text for game design. We don't believe... A nice thing they said, which I do agree with, is we don't believe that AI is a magical pixie dust that makes your tabletop games better.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
Because there are differences and similarities.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
we should be skeptical skeptical even sorry about ai snake oil it's not useless but it's also not miraculous and in some places it doesn't belong and i i feel very much that way about it i'm sure it's a tool there are places where it can be good and it can be used and it can be a good thing and there are places where we don't have the legislation and it's not you know good thing and that's and that's what they feel but the full statement is on the website if you want to have a look and it's it's like you say the same as last year
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
Apparently so. As we'll discuss later, won't we? Yes, as we'll discuss later. But first, what's happened this week, Russ?
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
I think they're just reiterating it in light of other leaders in the industry saying the opposite. Would you like to reiterate Ian's publishing statement on AI as well?
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
Yeah.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
Well, hashtag not everyone.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
Anyway, sorry that I count as news. What news do you have for me that counts as news then? Sorry. I try and bring news to the show and it doesn't count, Jess.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
Okay. Thank you for your apology.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
Oh, I haven't heard about this. Please tell me, actually. I'm interested in that.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
Yes, Sigily.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
Yeah, did we talk about this last week a bit?
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
Yes, what happened?
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
I'm interested in playing it. I'm going to give it a play.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
I'm interested in that. I'll give it a play. Yeah, I don't really have much more news about that. The only thing about Baldur's Gate is they did the big Patch 7 update, which we previously talked about. But unfortunately, it wasn't available on Mac. So my livestream I do every Wednesday of Baldur's Gate 3, in the group of four women that play, some of us use Mac.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
And so we weren't able to play this week. Which was very sad. And we're going to have to wait until an unknown date in October. So in the meantime, we're just playing other games in between. It's a shame that they don't do the patch updates all together because it means you don't have the cross compatibility like you normally do. Yeah, that's not bad. It is.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
And I get it, you do need to do different testing, but I don't see why they just didn't wait to release it on PC.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
Yeah, because then you could do more testing. But anyway, that's a good point. Do you want some other news...
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
It's impossible. So Onyx Path Publishing. Have you edited the Story Path Ultra?
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
i don't know the ultra version of it specifically but i know well it's coming to have a system it's crowdfunding on backer kit so story path ultra is you know it's refined clarified points and it's like a new kind of edition version of it um so it's a d10 dice pool same you roll against target number and compare the difficulty so same sort of thing but this has been used in a few different rpg systems i've seen the
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
in the background of that's powered it and this is just the core manual so no settings so this is just like a toolkit rpg um so i'm interested in getting this actually because i do like just a toolkit like it's something like what's all disney or something like that something that lets you just run your own system and setting and things and i do like a dice ball system so well yeah you say you've got six days left about the right one
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
Yeah, it's ending in six days. But yeah, Storypath Ultra, I thought that looked very cool and crowdfunding. So I'm just going to check my little bank account and my budget and check I haven't already spent it on stuff because I've had a few Kickstarter funds go out in the last few weeks.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
that fast purple one kill kill is that dnd tv show for that streaming platform they were doing comedy show yeah yes which i couldn't find anywhere in the uk so i guess it's just no i still haven't found any way to access it yeah i don't know i think maybe it's just not available in our region so it's not for us yeah well the basic concept of the uh show i believe is that it always ends in a tpk each episode i think
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
Cool.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
And so that's just the adventures using D&D that you can run. Yeah, yeah.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
Okay, so that's very short. Yeah.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
Nice. Speaking of other announcements, we made an announcement this week. So after Split the Horde, yeah. Monstrous Marjorie 2. Oh, yeah.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
So, well, it's not that new an announcement. So Monstrous Menagerie 2 is going to be coming out after we've finished crowding, finally split the hordes. That'll be sort of November time it will launch. And yeah, a lot of people wait for it. The pre-launch page is up so you can click on Kickstarter to be notified when it launches.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
All the stuff that it does.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
Right. And so did you not specify on your delivery where you wanted the groceries delivered? No.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
Yeah. Tell me the stuff.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
What's new?
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
This looks cool.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
you know massively outnumbering the adventurers and the heroes can just cleave through them yes but they still present a challenge I really like this because this makes it feel like that epic moment it's like in this is like Helm's Deep in Lord of the Rings where there's just like so many yeah
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
Speaking about the necromancer.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
Heroic monsters.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
I thought that was that was cool with that but yeah so that's for the rules for I haven't read these in full detail yet because I've got the manuscript but it's reoccurring villains so you can kind of level up and improve their capability so if you want to have
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
Well, I think you have to admit some fault there then, Ross.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
yeah and companions yeah I know but I was thinking about the monsters because I was thinking if you have a villain that comes in early on and kind of slinks off the party can level up and it levels up with the party and so I thought that was just very cool for storytelling so I really liked that
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
Yes.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
Yes, absolutely.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
Mm-hmm.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
Mm-hmm.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
I love the artwork on some of these because there's the wings. There's one with wings and it's got like insect type wings and looks very cool.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
Also, the Kalkoi have appeared back, which is one of my favourite monsters. You have the Apex Kalkoi. Yep. I just hate... I hate wasps. So... Yeah.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
They don't.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
And listen to the podcast.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
Anyway... I think that might be a false rumour that you just made there, Russ.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
so you can get incorrect information depending on what that information is that could really mess you up i think if you yeah that's really nice for role play i like that i've done that a few times like just like kind of made it up when people have done a bad role so it's nice to kind of have that there just yeah as a resource that's really nice i really enjoy that i think in that sort of you could have to you have to switch to the gm making the roles there in that case though
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
Yeah, the player will know, but the character won't. You just have to trust the player to play their character and not metagame that information.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
I mean, you can't stop them doing that, but I would... Whenever I've done that in my campaigns, I've kind of done that without using the book, just like made something up. The players usually lean into that because that's more fun. If the character's like, no, they're definitely allergic to garlic, we should all wear garlic.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
And they go into this battle wearing all these garlic things and chucking that at it and it does nothing. That's funny. It's fun. Let's do that. Why would you not want to have fun?
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
That's why I don't invite you to my tables. It's all vibes and fun here. But anyway, so yeah, so that's The Monster Sanctuary 2. I'm really excited for it. I think it's a really good book. It's obviously, it's got 301 monsters, but I really like all the new mechanics and things it's bringing in. So it is...
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
it's not just more of the monstrous menagerie it's bringing you you know mechanics and details in to to kind of make it more interesting so yeah and of course it's got all the stuff that the previous one had as well it's got the origins of the law and the sample encounters and treasure and the monster signs and the monster behavior and the sample names and all that stuff all that's in there as well for each monster yeah so it's gonna be awesome anyway so yeah i'm a big fan of this
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
Anyway, I think that is most of the news I have for this week.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
Should you be saying this on the podcast just in case it becomes a thing?
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
Okay.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
There's one called the Mark Kenobi.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
Well, we couldn't have that because of licensing issues with Disney, so that's the only reason we had to exclude that.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
Always the rogue.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
If people listening are interested, it is available on Tabletopia online for you to play. So then the rule book's all there. So if you want to play it for yourself, it's free to play on there. So you can check it out there. And of course, the Kickstarter is launching on Tuesday. So if you want to get an actual pretty physical copy of it or a print-to-play version, you can get that as well.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
Because I always find Tabletopia is really great, but it always feels a bit more fiddly than playing in real life. Maybe it's just I'm not very good at using tabletop simulator type things. But anyway, but that's just me. Yeah, but I wanted, well, I suggested Mark to come on today because I found, because I'm not a board game designer or a tabletop RPG designer, writer either.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
Cool. And that's like a structural piece of the house.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
So I was wondering, because you both of you are doing both those things. I was wondering what the differences are, what the similarities are, what sort of cross learnings you take on that. So I was hoping we could kind of discuss that today. So I guess, I guess, so I was going to interview both of you, actually, if that's okay. Okay.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
why not jess why not so i guess the first thing i'd say is like so when you're approaching tabletop rpg design what are the big kind of considerations and things or how do you start that process like and russ i don't know what what do you do for that i don't know you don't know it just happens
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
Excellent. It's right in front of your office, isn't it, where you're sitting right now?
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
I didn't say what's the best way to design a tabletop RPG. I asked what you do.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
Yeah, well, Mark, same question over to you then, I guess.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
Oh, okay.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
So the building won't fall on you right now when we're recording? No. Well, I hope not. Okay, cool. Well, if the podcast suddenly comes to an end with a big crash and a bang, you'll know what's happened.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
Anyway, but that is exciting news. Well, my week has been not as eventful, luckily. I'm doing a lot of stuff to get the Kickstarter page and the videos finished for Split the Horde because it's our first board game we've done. So I feel a little bit, I mean, there's always nervous, excited energy before you launch a crowdfunding campaign.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
Yeah, I really like in tabletop RPGs playing a weak and rubbish character because I just think that's fun and you can play... Because you can find a lot of story in that and being the person that's not the most powerful in the room but still being part of an adventure is... You know, there's people out there that would be very, very angry with you for that.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
well you're not putting your weight in the party you must have a fully optimised character no but I usually contribute in different ways if you think about like the hobbits in the lord of the rings they are not the strongest fighters they are not magic users but actually they they end up they pull their weight they do things So I like being the merry or the pippin in the party.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
But anyway, but in a board game, if I had a character that had an unbalanced disadvantage, I would just find that frustrating and not enjoyable because I'd be like, well, I can't win. So yeah, I get that's the major difference with mechanical balance.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
But because this is our first board game, I've got that a little bit more because I'm like, it feels a bit different. But it's been also quite fun because we sent out some press preview copies. to different media people and content creators of all sorts of different sizes. We didn't specify you have to be really big or anything.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
And I guess in Split the Horde, there is an element of luck because there's a horde cards and you flip them over and you get three cards and you get what you get. So there's an element of luck in there. So how do you try and balance against luck in a board game when there is an element of that?
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
But how, Russ, you're saying you're led really by mechanics. How do you like balance and test mechanics in RPGs? Because like Mark said, you can, because like Split the Hall, for example, takes like 20, 30 minutes to play. So you could sit for a few hours and play a few games. That's easy to do.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
But to get people to commit to playing an RPG for a few hours, and there's obviously way more variables because they're not, parties rarely do the thing you want them to do. How do you do that?
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
We just picked a range of different people that we thought were interesting. And I've had some of the videos in this week to have a look at. And it's really cool to see people playing the game and showcasing it and talking about it. So that's really exciting. And I'm going to put a lot of them on the Kickstarter page so it's easy for people to see.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
What about you, Mark? Which do you find easier, or is that an impossible question because it's so variable?
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
Yeah, it's real. It exists. People in the world are playing it. And yeah. Anyway.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
Yeah.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
When I'm running a tabletop RPG, I run my games very much on vibes. And so the rules are kind of there if I need them and I'll lean on them. But, you know, I sometimes, you know, I've run a session where nobody's rolled a dice once because we got really into the narrative side of it.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
What's been happening wider in the news of tabletop RPG, beyond our little part of the world.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
Board games, you can't really do that. The rules are the box you're in, and you can't ignore them and do whatever you want, because otherwise you're just not playing that game anymore.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
It's much more fun. Yeah, like, you know, we're just not playing that game anymore. So I guess, yeah, it needs a lot more stress testing from that perspective. So there are lots of differences, and we've touched on a few. But what would you say is similar? What are the overlaps you've both experienced when designing board games and designing tabletop RPGs? What's the same?
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
Okay, but you'd say it's going to be as a board game opposed to be as an RPG system.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
Oh, yes.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
Yeah, so it's fair to say that all your RPG experience has really heavily influenced your board game design because it's very much in that framework.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
I have not read the Ravenloft novel, so I'm a little bit in the dark.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
Yeah, but Mark, what's similar for you? So we're wandering into a different question, which is what's the difference between board game and RPG? But let's stay on topic. So what's similar for you, Mark, when you're designing board games versus RPGs?
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
No, I see what you mean. I mean, for me, I'm not as fussy about RPG system. Like you say, it's more about the people I'm sharing a table with. But for me, I feel there's more pressure on a tabletop experience because there's more commitment from me, even as a player. I know I'm going to sit down, even to do a one-shot, this is going to be about four hours.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
And of course, there are board games that last four hours. There's some that last like eight to 12 hours. But... A lot of board games now are like, you get ones that are between like 30 minutes and two hours, and that's generally what a lot of board games I play are.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
And so that kind of takes the pressure off the experience for me, especially if it's something like Split the Horde that's like 20, 30 minutes. I'm like, okay, well, even if I don't like this, it's not a lot of my time. But for an RPG, if I'm worried that I'm not going to like something, I'm like, I've got to commit and sit there for four hours. It feels... I don't know. That's another difference.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
Fair enough, fair enough. I'm going to rope us back though to that problematic question, just so we can start a flame war on the internet, about what defines the difference between an RPG and a board game. Because I've heard, it seems people have some interesting discussions about that. And some of those very obvious ones, like Dungeons and Dragons is an RPG, chess is more of like a board game.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
But I've seen some people talking about different games, like There are some board games that are very narratively led, like Above and Below or Gloomhaven, HeroQuest. And I've had some people discuss that they believe that Gloomhaven or HeroQuest are RPGs, whereas I tend to think of them as board games.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
What's one of those? It's going to start arguments.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
There can be a social element.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
Well, I was just thinking things like Sheriff of Nottingham or Cash and Guns, there's a big social element in that. Also, the werewolves, playing werewolves at Miller's Hollow, that's a hugely social, like social deduction games have a huge social element with it, where you're playing a character, but I wouldn't define that as a
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
Should have been a random penguin.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
But anyway, that's fine. They made their choice. I'm sure they have their reasons.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
We had to play and learn them so we could teach them because the games library was like 700, 800 unique titles or something. And between the team, we needed to be able to have the majority of them able to teach. So there was a lot of game playing so you can roughly teach someone a game in that time.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
Well, I mean, I play a lot of RPGs, play a lot of board games, but I don't have a clear definition. That's why I was putting the question on you two. That's why.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
Yeah, that's what I was saying. Is this the big teaser?
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
Yeah, like a really small thing, for example, like we took a prototype to Aircon to play with people there. And there's a set collection element to one of the titles, The Way to Get Victory Points. And we realised that actually if we just made the backgrounds of those sets all the same colours, it's easier at a glance to see what you're doing.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
So that changed the artwork style, which is, you know, a change to the game, but it's not like groundbreakingly different. It's just we're changing the coloured backgrounds. And actually the placement of where some of the icons were, actually, it makes more sense and things like that.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
So this last year, I feel it's been loads of little tweaks because there's been lots of playtests, public playtesting.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
That's what I'm asking. Okay, well, we'll find out.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
I was wondering if it would be out for Halloween next month or something, but April 2025, we've got to wait for that.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
Yeah, we're doing it Order of the Stick style. Okay. But, you know, that worked.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
Well, no, no.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
Yeah, absolutely.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
Yeah. One thing that's been a process for me learning is writing a rulebook as well because that process has been really iterative and the rulebook has changed so many times. And we got a consultation from Paul Grogan who does that because writing for an RPG versus writing a rulebook for a board game is...
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
Yeah, absolutely.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
No, no, because we were still trying stuff out and doing different things as well, so... Yeah, that's always the thing that happens. But no, I've said to Mark, so what happens in the manufacturing process is they will do a digital sample, which is basically like a checking that they've got the right artwork files, the right number of things.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
So it could be Ravenloft, could be your local grocery store.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
And it's like a lower quality print on demand version of the whole thing. So we'll get that from a manufacturer. And I've said once we've had a look at it, myself and Russ to like, you know, check things like spelling, grammar and everything's there. We'll send that copy over to Mark so you can have the first one. So that'll be like a nice, exciting thing.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
Because that'll be the first proper version, like with a bot.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
Rulebook, player boards, things like that. Because so far it has just been the deck of cards. And of course, it's like I said, it's going to have player boards and little privacy screens and other stuff that hasn't physically existed in that way. So that'll be really good fun.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
Yeah, could be.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
Could be many places.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
Yeah. And you, the listener, can also be involved because we're going to Kickstarter. It's launching next week on Tuesday. So the links are in the show notes. So I'd love it if you go take a look. It's also free to play on Tabletopia, so you can just go in and check it out and have a look on there. Yeah.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
Depends what time you go, because I don't know if you've been to a 24-hour supermarket and gone at like 2 in the morning. I have not. It feels... A bit esoteric, but yeah. All right, cool. Well, that's coming out in April, so if you're a fan of that setting, I guess that's good. Could be some nice inspiration for your RPG campaigns, I guess, if you like that setting.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
But yeah, hope everyone enjoys playing it as much as we've enjoyed developing it and making it.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
But before that, I do need to give the information you asked earlier. How many hours of Baldur's Gate 3 at the time of recording have I played? And it's 476 hours. 6.6 hours. Wow. That is how much time I have spent playing Baldur's Gate 3.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
Of course, there's loads of adventures in that setting already, so you're not starved for material.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
Not in their narrative. Okay, fair enough. You know what is a correct narrative, though?
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
It's not a very good set point. I'm just going to scrap that and just go. So another big bit of news this week for a lot of people is that the Dungeons & Dragons 2024 Players Handbook is officially on sale to the great unwashed public.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
So the likes of you and me could purchase the book. But yeah.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
Zero.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
Only zero. Oh. Yeah, I'm not planning on picking up a copy, to be honest, because I have the 2014 Player's Handbook that was gifted to me once that I have. And as I've mentioned before, as a point, I haven't actually purchased any D&D items ever. And I kind of want to keep that up now because it's a thing.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
Yeah, and to be honest, when I'm running that style of fantasy adventure, I'm playing Level Up Advanced Edition. How many have you bought?
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
Is it zero?
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
good so you can have strong opinions on that i mean i've read through the materials that we had available online i have got a dnd beyond account not paid for one because i'm on the waiting list to beta test their new virtual tabletop platform project sigil or sigily or yeah sigily sigily like sounds like wiggly but anyway uh so i'm on the wait list for that so i can access and have a look at the rules and we've discussed them quite a bit on here
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
All the Tabletop are outplaying us We aim to amuse and we aim to enthuse And Morris is unofficial Tabletop RPG
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
And I do have a group that we're playing using the D&D rule set that we play. I don't think we've got plans to change it to 2024.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
rules because we've got our characters we're quite happy with how it all works we've got all the books and a lot of the adventure yeah the adventures quite a few people will be like we're going to wait till our next campaign before we switch sort of thing because yeah it does mean completely retooling the characters yeah exactly so i think we're just keeping this and also in honesty it's that campaign is we're playing dnd fifth edition 2014 characters
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
But the GM is using the Monstrous Menagerie from a level up A5E for most of the monsters. And the Adventure is actually from 3.5. So... But that's the thing.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
But that's the thing with D&D. You can absolutely just cobble together the bits you like. And because the core mechanic, Royalty 20, add your modifiers, you know, it's kind of there. You can do whatever.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
But I know a lot of people are very excited to get their paws on the new copy of the book. So... Yeah.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
But anyway, do you want to talk about a tabletop RPG that is not Dungeons & Dragons?
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
It is not. That fits the brief. Please carry on. Tell me about Elfquest.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
Nice.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
Have you played it?
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
I was about to say I haven't heard about it, but I like the art. There's an artwork they've got. You can see the link on EMworld. But it looks very 80s, and I assume they're keeping that, which is really nice because it does feel like a... It's a reprint of a nostalgia product, isn't it, really? Yeah, basically.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
So it's one of those, if you're like, oh, I used to play that in the 80s, and I really loved it. You can just get it again now if you... Because, yeah.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
I had my suspicions.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
I am Russ aka Morris or Morris aka Russ and with me this week is... It's me, Jessica from EN Publishing and later in the second half of this podcast we have a special guest with us as well. We will have Mark Kenobi, the designer of Split the Horde, our board game that we're launching next week on Kickstarter, which I'm very excited about, our first ever board game.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
I mean, I think this is going to be a real nostalgia purchase because obviously I think RPGs have come on, changed and grown quite a bit in mechanics and things like that over the last 40 years. So it might be one of those things that if you pick it up new, you might be like, I'm not sure if this stands up, but or maybe it will.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
I don't know because I've not played the system because I always feel like HeroQuest like that for me. Like I love playing the HeroQuest board game because it's so nostalgic for me. but I had a friend play it with me once that didn't have that nostalgia, and they're like, this isn't that great. And I was like, and they talked about why, and I was like, I see what you mean.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
I think for me it's just got that huge nostalgia factor. And I imagine Elfquest might be like that for people.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
That feels just very 80s though, doesn't it? That feels like metal punk.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
So it's not Star Trek because you're being elves and stuff.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
I think it looks very cool. It looks very 80s, looks very nostalgic. I think if you played that, it's definitely one to get. And even have just as a collector's thing. I think it would be nice. Yeah, why not? Anyway, that looks cool. I like that.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
Well, dagger heart.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
Well, Russ, you'll be able to find out in spring 2025 when it is released. So pre-orders are now available, so you can pre-order the book, but spring 2025 is when they're going to be out and available. And Daggerheart, and people listening are probably going to be aware, but just in case, so it is Darrington Press, which is the publishing arm of Critical Role.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
So they have made their own tabletop RPG. And we've heard about this and this and this. So they've already had Candela Obscura, which is like so different. And a lot of people really love it. I've played it. I really like the system. Some of my friends are running campaigns of it now because they're really enjoying it. And Daggerheart was meant to be more crunchy rule set.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
And a lot of people had the expectation that it would be...
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
a replacement for dnd uh it'd be like their their take on dnd but it's not that it's very much its own system it's got a 2d12 system and i've heard a lot of mixed views about it online so some people are really liking it and other people are saying oh it's just like this rpg but not good blah blah blah so there's a lot of information and opinions flowing around out there but i've not played a game yet so i'm holding off till i've played a game
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
316 | Split the Hoard with Marc Kenobi | Revised PHB Released | Ravenloft Novel | ElfQuest RPG
So it's got your ancestry cards, which they're calling ancestry instead of race, and they've got community cards. So that's the culture you come from. So if you like an A5E, how you have your ancestry and your culture separate things, that's very much like that. You also have your classes, subclasses.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
315 | Romance in RPGs with Sam Parks | Hasbro CEO talks AI and D&D, PHB pre-orders cancelled by PayPal
So I think that's where the line is, and I think he's talking about straddling that line in a really interesting way, because it sounds like what they're doing internally is kind of on the acceptable side of that line, in my opinion. I've drawn this line for myself. But then the way he's talking about himself and other people he knows using it is kind of towing the other side of that line.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
315 | Romance in RPGs with Sam Parks | Hasbro CEO talks AI and D&D, PHB pre-orders cancelled by PayPal
Hello, hello. I love that very much. No one has ever described me that way, but I think it's going to be my new tagline.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
315 | Romance in RPGs with Sam Parks | Hasbro CEO talks AI and D&D, PHB pre-orders cancelled by PayPal
Yeah, I think the New York Times one is the one that I'm, I think a lot of people are most interested to see how it pans out because it's basically them saying, hey,
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
315 | Romance in RPGs with Sam Parks | Hasbro CEO talks AI and D&D, PHB pre-orders cancelled by PayPal
Yeah. Yeah. And it's a global issue as well, because if one court says this is what we think about it, it's up to other countries to follow suit on that. Otherwise, it means nothing. You know, you can just go online and find it somewhere else, use a VPN and connect to it another way. There's lots of ways around it. So it needs to be a more concerted effort.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
315 | Romance in RPGs with Sam Parks | Hasbro CEO talks AI and D&D, PHB pre-orders cancelled by PayPal
But yeah, it's interesting to see a quote that's so transparently outlining both the way that they are using it and the way that their leader is thinking about using it.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
315 | Romance in RPGs with Sam Parks | Hasbro CEO talks AI and D&D, PHB pre-orders cancelled by PayPal
Yeah, you're seeing that in all kinds of industries. Like, oh, no, we're not going to hire a copywriter for this ad campaign because we'll just feed it into AI and tweak what comes out of that. So it's inevitable that it will happen in some form, unfortunately, in the gaming industry.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
315 | Romance in RPGs with Sam Parks | Hasbro CEO talks AI and D&D, PHB pre-orders cancelled by PayPal
But the other positive that could come out of it is if there is backlash against their use of AI, especially if they are disclosing it in the way that he's saying they will. Hmm.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
315 | Romance in RPGs with Sam Parks | Hasbro CEO talks AI and D&D, PHB pre-orders cancelled by PayPal
maybe that will open the doors for other systems, other games, especially indies, that can hold their hands up and say, hey, we're creating this together with artists, together with writers, and that'll be a competitive advantage that they have when someone's looking for what they want to play.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
315 | Romance in RPGs with Sam Parks | Hasbro CEO talks AI and D&D, PHB pre-orders cancelled by PayPal
Correct, yeah.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
315 | Romance in RPGs with Sam Parks | Hasbro CEO talks AI and D&D, PHB pre-orders cancelled by PayPal
I think each person needs to decide for themselves where their line is as they watch all of this unfold because different people are going to feel differently about it. But if you wait until Wizards of the Coast comes out with this whole AI-produced piece of content or a new book or something... that's not the time to be making the decision about how you feel about it.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
315 | Romance in RPGs with Sam Parks | Hasbro CEO talks AI and D&D, PHB pre-orders cancelled by PayPal
There's enough conversations to be happening, and then that can impact the way that you behave in the games that you're playing, whether you're dipping your toe into generativity.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
315 | Romance in RPGs with Sam Parks | Hasbro CEO talks AI and D&D, PHB pre-orders cancelled by PayPal
Yes, it is definitely something I have a lot of fun with, both in my books and in my games. So yeah, looking forward to get stuck in.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
315 | Romance in RPGs with Sam Parks | Hasbro CEO talks AI and D&D, PHB pre-orders cancelled by PayPal
Romance in RPGs.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
315 | Romance in RPGs with Sam Parks | Hasbro CEO talks AI and D&D, PHB pre-orders cancelled by PayPal
I do love that the starian cameo is for the daylight spell and he's one of the victims of the spell. Yes. Because he's a, yeah.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
315 | Romance in RPGs with Sam Parks | Hasbro CEO talks AI and D&D, PHB pre-orders cancelled by PayPal
This is the one they're crowdfunding.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
315 | Romance in RPGs with Sam Parks | Hasbro CEO talks AI and D&D, PHB pre-orders cancelled by PayPal
I love that.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
315 | Romance in RPGs with Sam Parks | Hasbro CEO talks AI and D&D, PHB pre-orders cancelled by PayPal
That's nice. I didn't realise that part of it.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
315 | Romance in RPGs with Sam Parks | Hasbro CEO talks AI and D&D, PHB pre-orders cancelled by PayPal
My only complaint was that I was only allowed to vote for one because I could easily come up with a top three out of those. They're genuinely really interesting sounding ideas. What were your top three? should I say, and it influenced people? Because obviously everyone's hanging on my every word. Yeah, be an influencer.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
315 | Romance in RPGs with Sam Parks | Hasbro CEO talks AI and D&D, PHB pre-orders cancelled by PayPal
Well, the one I voted for in the end was Season of Magic, which sounds quite cozy. So that's the one where you're playing as a witch. Equipped with knowledge, magic, and the kind heart necessary to heal even the deepest wounds and bitterest hearts.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
315 | Romance in RPGs with Sam Parks | Hasbro CEO talks AI and D&D, PHB pre-orders cancelled by PayPal
I mean, come on. I also thought Starlust Secrets sounded really interesting. Not to typecast myself with the word lust in the title, because it doesn't mention anything about romance in the blurb, so I don't know if that's a coincidence. And then the last one, Nuna, I hope I'm pronouncing that correctly, which sounds like it is based on Inuit history. Yeah. Which sounds interesting.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
315 | Romance in RPGs with Sam Parks | Hasbro CEO talks AI and D&D, PHB pre-orders cancelled by PayPal
So those were my top three, but I voted on Season of Magic in the end.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
315 | Romance in RPGs with Sam Parks | Hasbro CEO talks AI and D&D, PHB pre-orders cancelled by PayPal
Oh yeah, the WizKids models. That Displacer beast kitten is a need. I need it. Really? I need it. It's so cute.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
315 | Romance in RPGs with Sam Parks | Hasbro CEO talks AI and D&D, PHB pre-orders cancelled by PayPal
yeah it's life size life's like what does life size mean like uh just under 13 inches tall for that one it looks like there we go and the displacer beast kitten is 10 and a half inches long i love the marketing material describes it this little loaf is yeah and there's a dragon egg there as well yeah look at that and tell me that's not a loaf
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
315 | Romance in RPGs with Sam Parks | Hasbro CEO talks AI and D&D, PHB pre-orders cancelled by PayPal
Same.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
315 | Romance in RPGs with Sam Parks | Hasbro CEO talks AI and D&D, PHB pre-orders cancelled by PayPal
Don't have patience for that.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
315 | Romance in RPGs with Sam Parks | Hasbro CEO talks AI and D&D, PHB pre-orders cancelled by PayPal
Yeah, I don't mind unpainted ones.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
315 | Romance in RPGs with Sam Parks | Hasbro CEO talks AI and D&D, PHB pre-orders cancelled by PayPal
Yeah, made of metal.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
315 | Romance in RPGs with Sam Parks | Hasbro CEO talks AI and D&D, PHB pre-orders cancelled by PayPal
Also, I feel like it's better for them to be unpainted than for them to be painted and then not work for as many applications.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
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I just don't understand it I just do not understand it the only time I've ever painted minis was at sort of a mini painting party with a group of people and we all chipped in a few quid to our friend who owns the paints and just all sat around and made fun of each other for four hours while we painted minis it was great
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You've got to match your expectations to your skill level. But if you do that... Like, I have a low skill level, so I set low expectations for myself, and I had a good time as a result.
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Oh, nice. Yeah.
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I was going to say, I'm really, really interested to see what his character is.
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Because it would be equally weird to see him playing essentially a hobbit, but also to see him playing anything but a hobbit. Yeah.
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They're related by marriage.
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He's a cousin-in-law.
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You've still got the normal number of degrees of separation from him. You just would be more likely to be able to act on it if you needed to.
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So with your claim to fame and your insider knowledge of Dominic Monaghan, what do you know about Billy Boyd's upcoming character for the Crickle Roll show?
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Jess, seriously, what's the point of having a co-host who's distantly related to Dominic Monaghan if you're not going to have this information?
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Oh, like a behind-the-scenes sort of thing. Yeah, like a TV version of a director's cut or something.
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It is incredibly different, yeah.
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Yeah, Candela's not got very many points of comparison. Yeah.
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Sadly. I went via the memes. It's fine.
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I played a video game that has an ability like that. It was in Divinity. In Divinity, there's a spell that you can use that lets you stand in blood and soak it up and use it to revive and make your damage all stronger. It's very nice. It's a really good one.
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I think it's more that you're absorbing the life force of the blood rather than the blood being... The blood itself? Yeah, the end itself.
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Yes, exactly. As a Venn diagram of TTRPGs, cosplay, and romance, my book kind of sits in the middle.
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The center of all three of those that I know of, yes, there are other romance books that sit in the middle of the Venn diagram between TTRPGs and romance. And I can talk about some of those if we want. But my book is called You've Got Chain Mail. It came out last month, so August 2024.
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And yeah, it's about a group of friends that are playing D&D together and two of them fall in love because it's a romance novel, so that's not a spoiler. Mm-hmm. And yeah, it's definitely born of my own love for TTRPGs. And it's through the lens of someone who's a slightly newer player. So gives a touch point to the romance reader audience that may not be as familiar with it.
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But another fun thing is that the campaign that they're playing out, I've actually included in sort of fantasy interlude scenes throughout the book so that you're able to see that
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And I think like a lot of people that are new to TTRPGs, our characters are discovering that they're able to explore and do a lot of things sort of personality-wise and identity-wise within the game that they maybe aren't able to embrace as easily or in as uncomplicated a way in their real lives.
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And so I really enjoyed exploring the dynamic there, you know, the friend group of people that are playing D&D together in the book. It's a really important part of the story and definitely comes from my love for my friends that I play with. So, yeah, it was definitely a marriage of all of my passions.
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I wouldn't say it's a common theme, but it does happen. And I think it happens where it's happened. It's happened quite organically. I don't do it intentionally. I'm not one of those people that plays specifically for romance purposes. Yeah. But it definitely does happen. I'm playing, as Jess mentioned, I've got a Candela campaign that I'm a part of where my character is involved in.
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romance with another PC. And there are two other PCs that are romantically involved together, and there are NPCs that people have been romantically involved with. I've been in games where none of that has happened. I've run games where there has been romance. I've run games where there's been no romance. But I think that
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Unlike a romance novel, which that's kind of the whole premise, you come to it for that. I think unless you're playing a TTRPG that is specifically designed for romance or you're playing a romance-specific campaign or one-shot, then it needs to be done a little bit more intentionally than just the way it would happen in a romance novel. That's obviously the...
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The fantasy version, fantasy obviously means something else when we're talking about TTRPGs, but romances are still fantasies to an extent, right? So, unfortunately, it doesn't play out exactly that way in real life. But I still think it's a lot of fun and I still think it's a worthwhile part of RPGs for myself.
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I really enjoy it when those things do happen and they're done in a way that sort of honors everyone involved. Yeah.
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But there's also different levels to it, right? Because you might be, when you're thinking of romance in TTRPGs, you might be thinking of two player characters who are in a relationship and are RPing the dates that they're going on. Like I did that last week. My character was RPing a date that my character went on. So that's like the super end of the spectrum.
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The other end is just, you know, you've got an NPC that says something flirty to a PC.
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And that's it. Maybe they're a sex worker and they see you and they're like, hello, sailor. That's flirting and that is romance in RPGs. And I think understanding where different types of interactions fall on that spectrum and understanding... people's comfort levels on that spectrum is a really important part of it.
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And you have to be able to kind of vibe check as well, because someone might not be able to articulate where they fall on that spectrum.
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Exactly. So you've got to, whether you're the GM or you're the person that's involved in that, you need to... be able to kind of keep an eye on the situation and see how it's evolving, see how comfortable the other person is. And the beautiful thing about romance in TTRPGs versus romance in real life is that it's not weird to then afterward just be like, so how did you feel about that?
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You can have a really transparent conversation. Is that weird to do in real life? It shouldn't be, Jess. It shouldn't be. But sometimes people feel a little bit weird doing that.
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It is, but also you want to, again, you want to make sure that you're not using it as a gateway in an exploitative way. That, you know, if you're easing your way up that spectrum, that everyone that's involved, not just... the DM, not just the PCs involved, but also every other character that's there, their players are all comfortable with what's happening. Like Jess said, it's like horror.
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One person might be really, really uncomfortable with cannibalism. in horror, that's now a no-no for the whole table. And similarly, there might be people at your table that are uncomfortable with certain types of romance interactions, regardless of who they're happening with. There might be some people who are only uncomfortable with that happening with their characters.
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In the campaign that I'm running at the moment, the Lines and Veils spreadsheet that I created, and I've got a survey that goes along with it that I actually make my players retake every six months, it incorporates that. So it really, really details all of the possible types of romance interactions. I mean, I'm never going to personally run anything explicit in my games.
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You might have DMs that are open to that, but I think that's going to be the exception.
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over the line for me i wouldn't do that it'll be over the line for me and that's you know what i do for a living is write romance novels but yeah it's different when you're kind of acting it out with a person i would say like the level of detail that i go to tends to be you know um first of all you separate it into pc on pc or pc on npc because those are two very different
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dynamics at the table um and then within that you've got to break it down to what are the actual things that you're comfortable with the flirtation are you comfortable with that the stating of we did x we
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slept together last night or we kissed or whatever is happening there or are you comfortable with people having to roll performance checks to see how well that particular activity went or acrobatics checks you know that kind of thing it's you've got to be really specific and I think that for a lot of people it feels over the top to be that specific especially if there's no intention for the campaign to go in that direction
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But because a lot of these things evolve organically, it's really easy if you don't have those things defined to let it get away from you. And for a couple of people in the spirit of a joke to be like, oh, well, you know, we went to bed together last night. Roll a performance check to see how well you did. I'm going to roll a deception check to see if you realize something.
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It gets to be a bit much. And if there's someone at the table who's uncomfortable with that, then you're putting them in a really bad position. And so being really explicit from the beginning and then also making sure that people are revisiting those things over time as the story goes on.
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And especially if you see those stories starting to develop at your table, making people reiterate their positions on things and reevaluate them, that's a way to keep everybody safe and make sure everyone's having a good time.
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And I would also say don't be afraid for people that are running games where maybe PCs do want to interact in that way. Don't be afraid to take certain things off of the overall table if that feels right. So, for example, if two characters really want to RP going on a date and the rest of your table is like, we want nothing to do with this. Yeah. Let those two people RP going on a date.
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Like, just do it with just the two of them. And, you know, be willing to be flexible to make sure that everyone at your table is having fun. But the priority is that everyone is having fun and that no one is uncomfortable because of someone else's idea of fun.
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I mean, I've used the mobile app pretty recently, but I'm playing what's now a legacy character, I guess, so I haven't seen any of the changes reflected. I've not done any exploring. Yeah, neither have I, so... Well, I don't know about that, so... I do like how in the statement that they made, they said, yes, there are these tech issues.
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I'd love to say yes. I don't think you can avoid falling into that trap if that's just the vibe that your group has. I'm going to be honest, me and my friends act like 12-year-old boys sometimes. We'll be in the middle of a very heartfelt RP scene, and one of us will just say something really... snide to the side and it's hilarious, but then we're right back into it.
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So I think sometimes that happens. I think the important thing is, is that vibe feeling right for everyone? And again, it's your responsibility as either the GM or as one of the people involved in that to make sure that everybody else at the table is comfortable with that.
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So like I said in my Candela game where I'm heavily involved in a romance arc, I will regularly check in with other people who are playing in that game and say, how did you feel about that? I'm making sure that we're not taking up too much time at the table with romance RP when there's actual missions that we need to go on, that kind of thing.
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And it might feel stilted as a conversation topic for people that don't often talk about those kinds of things, but... It's a worthwhile thing to do and people will get more comfortable talking about it over time.
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And the expectation that you're setting is the GM, right? So I would personally never run anything that was contingent on romance, whether that is a romance RPG or whether that's even just I need someone to be willing to romance this NPC in order to move this piece of the story forward.
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I would never do that as a GM unless I had had a conversation with my players to know that they were comfortable with that. And I think as the GM, it's your responsibility to set the expectation of what possibly is coming down the pike as far as you're able to. Obviously, some of these things, especially the PC on PC romance, often develops organically. But...
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Also, for some of you, you just had insufficient funds, so please replace your credit card. Some of you are poor, so. Some of you, you're right, it was our fault. And some of you just fixed your payment information.
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gm to pc stuff should or npc to pc stuff should always be done more intentionally because that is the responsibility of the person shaping the game yeah absolutely but but that that said that we're talking a lot about romance being like a side part of a game where that's not the main thing but there are games where romance and things is the main draw of it like there's games like
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Which is fair enough.
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I think that's why a lot of people, even in RPGs that aren't intentionally about anything romantic, I think that's why a lot of times these things do happen and a lot of people do enjoy that. It's a...
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It's an interesting way to explore humanity and all the facets of humanity and people that are really into their characters and they're really into RP with their characters, even in games like D&D, where that's definitely not the focus of most D&D campaigns or sessions. Yeah. Those are the kind of people that are going to gravitate towards games like that.
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They're also the kind of people for whom a romantic subplot is likely to develop organically within those games. And so it's just important to know that about the people that you're playing with.
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I mean... It's almost like that classic thing of, like, if you're trying to solve a puzzle in a TTRPG, and it's like, my character's probably smart enough to solve this, but I'm not smart enough to solve this, so I'm getting stuck.
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It can feel kind of like that in romance of, like, oh, my character would probably be handling this really naturally and in a suave way, but I'm feeling really awkward about this, and therefore... It's getting a bit stilted. So you can run into that sometimes. And I think that metagaming is such a bad word, so to speak, in TTRPGs. But I think that's the beauty of them, right?
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Is that you can pull out and say, hey, actually, this is what happens. And, you know, ask questions, ask advice, explain an intention, that kind of thing. Use metagaming to your advantage when you're in a situation like that, because it's not cheating, right? It's not cheating to do that. It's just...
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creating the encounter that people want to create and not feeling like you have to attach your performance in that encounter to your own ability to flirt effectively or whatever if your character is lifting a boulder the player doesn't have to physically lift a boulder you know it's yeah you say my player my character has a strength of 17 he can lift the boulder yeah you know
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And it's the same thing with romance. You've got to be able to separate yourself from that. And I think people do tend to... I don't think you're alone in that. I think a lot of people tend to attach those actions to their own perception of or ability to perform those actions and to flirt well and stuff like that. And that's just not... That's not the reality of it. And that's not the fun of it.
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If I wanted to just...
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flirt with people as myself i'd just go flirt with people as myself the point the point of it is to explore that character and what that character is experiencing and so sometimes quote unquote metagaming can help with that because it's clarifying intentions and it's creating opportunity for things to happen that might not otherwise be organically possible in rp with me as a player
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Yes.
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I've been caught out by that with other kinds of books because, I mean, that's how pre-ordering books anywhere goes is it charges you when it ships. And I've had sort of payment methods that have expired since I made the pre-order and then not been updated.
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You need the ability to do that in the moment. Not just between sessions, but in the moment. So my campaign that I'm running, I actually have one player that I have a code word with because they have a few things that they're uncomfortable with in the romance area and in other areas. And we developed code word. And I said, if at any point you say this code word,
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I – or it's actually – no, I'm not going to be specific about it just in case people are listening. But if at any point you say this code word, I, as the DM, know that I need to redirect the situation. I need to interrupt. I need to redirect. And then you and I can catch up afterward and I can figure out exactly what it was that – scratched, that hit things wrong.
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And if that sounds like a lot of work, if you're a GM that's like, God, I just don't want to have to create code words with everyone. That's the job. You have to be ruthlessly committed to the comfort of every single one of your players. And if that's not you, that's fine. Just don't include any of this. Don't include any of it.
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Err on the side, like Jess said, of not doing any of it because that's the safer choice. Yeah.
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And so then all of a sudden I don't have my pre-order because by the time it ships, it can't charge it to the payment method I had when I ordered it.
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With my horror games. And that can be a lot to manage. It absolutely can. And I only have a code word with that one player. We have a phrase as a group that we can use and that's included in the Lines of Vale spreadsheet and in the form that they fill out, so they all know that.
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I developed it with this one player because I knew that there were some things that they were uncomfortable with and I got the sense that they weren't going to be comfortable standing up for those boundaries. Yeah.
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in situ yeah so yeah so that's why i created that mechanism with them but yes if if another person i got that sense from or if another person something romantic started to develop organically or i knew that we were going to go into a situation that even got remotely close to one of their lines and veils i would i would come up with code word for that person too and i just have that code word in bold at the top of my screen the entire time i'm running just thought i don't
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forget that if they say this word yeah yeah that's what that means yeah and again if that sounds like too much work just don't do it don't do any of it
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Yeah. But that's okay. I would say... Yeah. I would say the lightheartedness is an important factor. I think there's very, very few people that are playing TTRPGs for dark romance. Like, that's not... That's not... Apart from Jess. Yeah.
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I don't know about that. If we're talking about dark romance as far as, like, dark romance books and, like, what...
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what that means i don't think anyone's going i there aren't very many people going there with it so i think keeping the lightheartedness keeping the jokey quality is an important part of it because it also just serves as like a um you know just kind of pumping the brakes in the situation like a well-timed joke can just keep things from getting a little bit too intense for someone yeah i
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I think also as a player, there's things that you can do if you're in that situation to help make sure that things stay okay. I think obviously outside of that situation, having conversations with the other players and with the GM, make sure the GM is comfortable with, you know, running romance at their table. But also in the moment, keeping an eye on pronouns.
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So rather than I do this to you, it's... you know, my character does this to your character or my character says this to your character. You know, the game I'm playing, the Candela game I'm playing, my character's called Sally. The character they're romancing is called Benny. Be like, Sally holds Benny's hand, not... I hold Benny's hand or I hold your hand.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
315 | Romance in RPGs with Sam Parks | Hasbro CEO talks AI and D&D, PHB pre-orders cancelled by PayPal
That's a very important distinction, especially if you're playing with people that like you're not sure about. And I'm not always wonderful at that because if you're really immersed in the RP, like sometimes it, you know.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
315 | Romance in RPGs with Sam Parks | Hasbro CEO talks AI and D&D, PHB pre-orders cancelled by PayPal
You're like, I hit this person, but it's really important when you're in those kinds of scenes to just really create that separation between yourself and your character. And yeah, the other PC and their player, that separation is going to help keep that sense of psychological safety, which is such an important part of it.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
315 | Romance in RPGs with Sam Parks | Hasbro CEO talks AI and D&D, PHB pre-orders cancelled by PayPal
Like, in my Candela game, everybody else is asking, like, when are Benny and Sally gonna go on their date? Like, oh, Benny and Sally are doing... Like, they're egging it on the entire time. They're participating in it, even if they're not... the actual ones in the situation. And so it means that when time comes to spend time on table in that situation, they're not frustrated with that.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
315 | Romance in RPGs with Sam Parks | Hasbro CEO talks AI and D&D, PHB pre-orders cancelled by PayPal
We know they're not going to be frustrated with that because they've been pushing for it the entire time. So I've never seen it play out. Any other way. It's always there are other people on the table who are egging it on. And that is how those things often develop organically. Is because other people are making jokes about it. Other people are pointing it out.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
315 | Romance in RPGs with Sam Parks | Hasbro CEO talks AI and D&D, PHB pre-orders cancelled by PayPal
And I'm sure it could happen otherwise. But most of the time people are going to be pretty clear from their participation. Like whether or not they're okay with that. And obviously that doesn't replace... Mm-hmm.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
315 | Romance in RPGs with Sam Parks | Hasbro CEO talks AI and D&D, PHB pre-orders cancelled by PayPal
you know cause issues with table balance yeah no one's the main character at that table it's a it's a party thing and yeah i i think it's again it's the gm's job to make sure that if things are naturally pulling to one or two people whether or not like just said it is because of romance reasons to make sure that the other characters are being given things
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
315 | Romance in RPGs with Sam Parks | Hasbro CEO talks AI and D&D, PHB pre-orders cancelled by PayPal
And I do think that there is always an element of sometimes there are things that are just happening with one or two characters and the rest of us are just kind of there. Like, that's fine. You know, your character's dad is the BBEG and everyone else is just sitting there while you're having it out with your evil dad. And that's fine. Like, that's part of it. Romance is kind of the same.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
315 | Romance in RPGs with Sam Parks | Hasbro CEO talks AI and D&D, PHB pre-orders cancelled by PayPal
It's just that the content of that spotlight can be a little bit more loaded. Exactly. Yeah.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
315 | Romance in RPGs with Sam Parks | Hasbro CEO talks AI and D&D, PHB pre-orders cancelled by PayPal
It definitely is, and it's people's preferences. So in that exact same game where my character is going on a date, we've got another two PCs that are now married, and they went from meeting to... you know, being together for the first time to getting married and going on their honeymoon, all without RPing any of that.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
315 | Romance in RPGs with Sam Parks | Hasbro CEO talks AI and D&D, PHB pre-orders cancelled by PayPal
Like, there was a little bit of banter back and forth, but then otherwise they were just like, oh, our characters are off doing you know what, and then, oh, our characters got married in between missions, and... this person's child was there to be the witness and stuff like that. And that's what they're comfortable with. That's what's fun for them for the romance that they have.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
315 | Romance in RPGs with Sam Parks | Hasbro CEO talks AI and D&D, PHB pre-orders cancelled by PayPal
And then me and this other player, what's fun for us for the romance that our characters have is to RP those moments and nothing has happened in those two characters relationship that hasn't happened on table. And so, yeah, there, there are different ways to go about it, but the,
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
315 | Romance in RPGs with Sam Parks | Hasbro CEO talks AI and D&D, PHB pre-orders cancelled by PayPal
the player's preferences will often kind of steer it one way or the other and it may be that the rest of the table is more comfortable with one of those than with the other and you want to kind of push you know push the people that are more into the rp side of it into a more summary based approach to their romance
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
315 | Romance in RPGs with Sam Parks | Hasbro CEO talks AI and D&D, PHB pre-orders cancelled by PayPal
romance it's just not romantic does that make sense sort of i would say it's not romantic content and so like i wouldn't necessarily feel the need to cover that on a lines of veil spreadsheet or to check in about that because that's the same as like characters who come in and are playing siblings you know i'm playing a character at the moment whose uncle is also a character in the game like no one's being like oh is everyone okay with this character having an uncle like that's not
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
315 | Romance in RPGs with Sam Parks | Hasbro CEO talks AI and D&D, PHB pre-orders cancelled by PayPal
That's not the thing. It's the content of that that becomes a matter of concern that you need to make sure everyone is on board with.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
315 | Romance in RPGs with Sam Parks | Hasbro CEO talks AI and D&D, PHB pre-orders cancelled by PayPal
Yeah, but it is a good way if you are interested in exploring sort of a romance arc or subplot with your character to introduce yourself to that is to, yeah, come in with that pre-established romantic relationship into a game and In order to give yourself an easy dynamic to pull from. But again, you've got to be on the same page.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
315 | Romance in RPGs with Sam Parks | Hasbro CEO talks AI and D&D, PHB pre-orders cancelled by PayPal
In that instance, you and Jess would both need to be on board with, you know, what is the nature of the relationship? What are we talking about at the table? Are we talking about... you know, any romantic content of our relationship? Or is this just the relationship and we just bicker like an old married couple?
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
315 | Romance in RPGs with Sam Parks | Hasbro CEO talks AI and D&D, PHB pre-orders cancelled by PayPal
And you'd both need to be comfortable with that and then you'd play it out accordingly. And if you agree together on any romantic content, that's where you then loop in the GM and then the other players to make sure things are above board.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
315 | Romance in RPGs with Sam Parks | Hasbro CEO talks AI and D&D, PHB pre-orders cancelled by PayPal
Bickering is fun. More fun than flirting, some might say.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
315 | Romance in RPGs with Sam Parks | Hasbro CEO talks AI and D&D, PHB pre-orders cancelled by PayPal
I think it's probably a little bit of both. I think that definitely I really, as a writer, and maybe this is why I'm a writer rather than because I'm a writer, but I struggle with my brain not jumping ahead in the narrative, right? So, for example, I've got a playlist for this character that's in a romantic relationship.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
315 | Romance in RPGs with Sam Parks | Hasbro CEO talks AI and D&D, PHB pre-orders cancelled by PayPal
And there are songs on there that are only relevant to things that we are probably months away from happening because I just know my brain has skipped ahead and I know where this is going to go. One of us is going to die and it's going to be bad. And I've got the playlist on there about that. So I think there's my brain does skip ahead in that way. And I think it it.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
315 | Romance in RPGs with Sam Parks | Hasbro CEO talks AI and D&D, PHB pre-orders cancelled by PayPal
It both makes it kind of harder to RP in the moment and also sometimes more fun because there's like an end to it. There's a narrative purpose to it. It ties maybe more easily into narrative. But then in terms of the way it impacts my writing, I would say the dynamism between characters is something that I've learned a lot from TTRPGs. So just the...
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
315 | Romance in RPGs with Sam Parks | Hasbro CEO talks AI and D&D, PHB pre-orders cancelled by PayPal
The unexpectedness of how people respond to one another, I think it's really easy, especially in a genre like romance, to just go a really expected route with interactions, but I think more and more these days you're seeing romance with really good banter, really good clashing personalities, and...
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
315 | Romance in RPGs with Sam Parks | Hasbro CEO talks AI and D&D, PHB pre-orders cancelled by PayPal
you explore that a lot in TTRPGs and you're not in control of what the other person is going to say. And so the way that that plays out feels a lot more organic and authentic to multiple characters in a way that I do try to consider when I'm writing.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
315 | Romance in RPGs with Sam Parks | Hasbro CEO talks AI and D&D, PHB pre-orders cancelled by PayPal
So my recommendation would always be to shop with your local indie bookseller. You can buy it on Amazon, you can buy it online other places, but local indies are the absolute best. I think, Jess, you'll have links in the show notes below. Also, if you are in the U.S. and you like the Ren Faire scene, part of this book is set at the Carolina Renaissance Festival.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
315 | Romance in RPGs with Sam Parks | Hasbro CEO talks AI and D&D, PHB pre-orders cancelled by PayPal
And so I'm going to be doing a signing on the last weekend of the Renaissance Festival in November. So I'm going to be doing a signing and meet and greet while I'm there. And that's in November. And again, information about that given to you guys that I assume will go in the show notes. In the show notes, yeah. I'll pop that in there. Fantastic. Okay. All right.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
315 | Romance in RPGs with Sam Parks | Hasbro CEO talks AI and D&D, PHB pre-orders cancelled by PayPal
Excellent. Thank you, guys. I really appreciate it.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
315 | Romance in RPGs with Sam Parks | Hasbro CEO talks AI and D&D, PHB pre-orders cancelled by PayPal
I hope my rant about AI wasn't too cumbersome. Feel free to cut as much as you want.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
315 | Romance in RPGs with Sam Parks | Hasbro CEO talks AI and D&D, PHB pre-orders cancelled by PayPal
Perfect. In your company, then.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
315 | Romance in RPGs with Sam Parks | Hasbro CEO talks AI and D&D, PHB pre-orders cancelled by PayPal
Well, anyway. It's a slippery slope, though, from one to the other. Because if you're using it for those things, we're crossing into the territory of generative AI. Because if you look at... quote of what he said, the first things he talks about, mostly machine learning based AI or proprietary AI as opposed to chat GPT approach, he's talking about, like he says, machine learning based AI.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
315 | Romance in RPGs with Sam Parks | Hasbro CEO talks AI and D&D, PHB pre-orders cancelled by PayPal
That's basically really sophisticated autocomplete. It's not true AI. Generative AI is a different story altogether, and this is where the AI is taking things it can find and cobbling it together into something That is the thing that threatens intellectual property. It's the thing that threatens the publishing industry as a whole.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
315 | Romance in RPGs with Sam Parks | Hasbro CEO talks AI and D&D, PHB pre-orders cancelled by PayPal
But it's also the thing that people are using to create those images of their characters. And so it's participating in that thing that they are saying they don't necessarily agree with, but in a way that I guess they personally don't feel like is necessarily creating any harm. Yeah.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
315 | Romance in RPGs with Sam Parks | Hasbro CEO talks AI and D&D, PHB pre-orders cancelled by PayPal
Well, it's probably not, and we are already seeing a lot of AI-generated books being put on the market, especially places like Kindle Unlimited, for example.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
315 | Romance in RPGs with Sam Parks | Hasbro CEO talks AI and D&D, PHB pre-orders cancelled by PayPal
They're not great. They can be more convincing than you might think. And I think that the problem is where the source is, because for something to be a really sophisticated autocomplete, it's got to be pulling the intelligence of what to use in that autocomplete from somewhere. Yeah.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
315 | Romance in RPGs with Sam Parks | Hasbro CEO talks AI and D&D, PHB pre-orders cancelled by PayPal
And access to that source material that it is learning from is the crux of a lot of the ethical problems around AI. Because when he's talking about proprietary AI, that will be content that Hasbro and Wizards are loading into it that they have created so that it can take what they already have and suggest new things, new combinations of things off the back of that.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
315 | Romance in RPGs with Sam Parks | Hasbro CEO talks AI and D&D, PHB pre-orders cancelled by PayPal
But if you're pulling from art that you don't have permission to pull from, if you're pulling from art that all of these other people have created and have not explicitly said, I am okay for that to be used in an AI context, then that is Essentially theft. And that is what a lot of people have problems with.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
315 | Romance in RPGs with Sam Parks | Hasbro CEO talks AI and D&D, PHB pre-orders cancelled by PayPal
And there are a lot of people that are really angry at these AI companies for having been able to access their works of art because the ways that they were set up were not necessarily safeguarded against theft. Yeah.
Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
315 | Romance in RPGs with Sam Parks | Hasbro CEO talks AI and D&D, PHB pre-orders cancelled by PayPal
make a quick buck, whatever they're trying to do with it. Or even, honestly, to tell a story in their D&D campaign, right? I wouldn't want something that I'd created to be used in that way. If I wanted it to be used in that way, I would make it available online to be used in that way.