Part 1: Into the Flame | Starter Kit: Phoenix Dawn Command

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Keith will be our game master or marshal in Phoenix Dawn Command language and he'll teach us his unique card based rule system as we are reborn as mythical Phoenix's. Warriors returned from death to save the Empire. Hey Keith, you around? Yeah. Good to see you. Yeah, welcome. Let's have a seat. So tell us a little bit about the world of Phoenix Dawn Command. Phoenix is set in what we call the Dillion Empire or the Dalit world and it's a fantasy world at roughly the sort of same level of development as the height of the Roman Empire. And it's a world that has been enjoying a sort of golden age until now. For the last three years there's just been a wave of supernatural terrors which we collectively call the Dread. The Dead Rising, Ghosts Haunting Things, Mortal Heroes just can't really fight these things. There's no way to bring them down. That's where Phoenix is coming. A small select group of people when they die go through what's called the Crucible and come back and viewed with supernatural power. If the mechanics of this game you chose card based instead of dice based. It was something that sort of struck me as very interesting and is particularly relevant for Phoenix which is a game where sacrifice plays an important role. Because you have the cards in your hand it means you know what resources you have available before you attempt to do something. So what you don't have is I try and do a dramatic thing and then I just get a bad role and it all fails. Instead it's about what is it going to take for you to do the thing you want to do. And that's important because in Phoenix your character is going to die sooner or later and that's generally more about you making a choice. You sort of what is it going to take to succeed as opposed to oh you just made a bad role and now you're petrified. Right. And the good thing about dying in this game is you come back more powerful than before. We basically wanted to take what is usually the worst part of a role playing game and combine it with the best part of a role playing game. Well I'm excited to be a player in this game and I can't wait to meet the rest of the party and really dig in. So the table is yours. Thank you. I'm Keith Baker, creator of Phoenix Dawn Command and this is your starter kit. With the dread spreading across the land the people of the Empire are in great need of heroes. Fortunately the Phoenixes have returned and viewed with strength and power to battle the dread. The Phoenixes have all died once before and been reborn as supernatural warriors. To create a Phoenix a player must decide who their character was in life, how they died and choose a school that fits that first death. So let's meet our players and build our Phoenixes. Hi. Nice to meet you. Yeah. I'm Keith. Nice to meet you. It's nice to meet you as well. Ready to play some Phoenix? I am excited. Yes, please take me on this journey. Tell me about your history with role playing games. I've played a lot of dungeons and dragons mostly in high school and then a little bit more in college but within the last five to six years it started to become much more of a presence in my life. Thankfully, my favorite part about role playing is probably just the story. That's what I like too. So speaking of that with Phoenix knowing the story of your character is really as important as knowing numbers or statistics or things like that. One of the things that most defines your Phoenix is how you died. So you've chosen to be a shrouded Phoenix. Shrouded. Yes. Shrouded's die because of secrets, either in pursuit of knowledge or because a secret was hidden or revealed. They excel at hiding themselves, sneaking around, but also at uncovering hidden things. So first off, when you're reborn, you take on a unique name. What we call a cog. What's your character's name? Chapter. Now tell me about chapter. I think that chapter is a very quiet and thoughtful woman. I want her to probably have come from a library, having worked in a library in a semi-populated town maybe. She enjoyed learning and reading books and discovering things beyond what she was given and what the town was given. I would think that she also probably had some sort of otherworldly experience during her studies. Absolutely. Magic is out in the world. It's often kept hidden by the Phoenix's, but it's out there. Yes. I think that she was probably given and started to hear voices. I think by connecting to these spirits, she became kind of somebody who was known for better or worse in town. Right. Right. How did that lead to her death? I think that she provided the town's folk who were trying to do like an uprising of some sort with some sort of military defense information. She probably knew what the expense of her own life. So, when they invaded, she and the library were probably taken down. All right. So, one of the things about being a Phoenix is that the time you spend in the crucible before you're reborn, it doesn't match up to time in the real world. So the first thing we want to do is figure out sort of how long ago did these things happen. One of the things is because you're about sort of helping the people and secret knowledge that got you in trouble, figuring out where you're from in the world. So, Alona is the heart of sort of imperial culture and that's where you'd have the most like classic library. Back before the Phoenix's, that was sort of ruled by these tyrannical families, the Talu, who had these house gods that they would dominate people with. So that would be sort of your most classic sage scholar sort of character. You would have helped an uprising that ultimately failed, but then eventually the Phoenix's came along and took those people down. Now the question is, that was quite a while ago. So what has caused you to come back now? The dread is happening. It's this mysterious thing where you're drawn to that. Did you know, did you feel that sort of powers were at work or is it because you're just trying to help the common people? You know, people are in trouble. I would probably say that she knows that she could become a source of great information about something that is hard to understand. Fair enough. What frightens her? What is the thing that she's most afraid of? I actually think it's fire because she doesn't like the power of fire against books and against knowledge. You're going to yell along great with some of her other plans. Oh, no, I'm just saying. So the last thing, how do you see your appearance? When you come back as a Phoenix, it's really about how you see yourself. I think she is probably about 35. Very mousey looking. All right. Blond hair with a big white streak through it and a little bun on the top of her hair, big glasses. And a very simple rope, a distinguishable rope, probably white with like, very nice, very distinct purple mantle. Now every Phoenix has a unique, taller weapon called a talent. What's yours? Maybe it's a pen. Maybe it's a quill that can carve things or find information. It's just like a stealth quill that can sneak over and edit things and move things and maybe even create some sort of spell and some skin. I like with the pen being muddier than the sword. You just sort of write, die now. Yeah. I love it. I write the story with the cool. Now we should give you your starter kit. Yay. So go ahead and open that up. This is everything you need to get your character started. And I saw it's glowing yellow right in my face. First off, as you can see, we have your name. Oh wow. So there's chapter. I love it. And then we don't really have character sheets. Instead, what you have is a deck of cards. So go ahead and take your cards out. Interesting. OK. The top card is just sort of what we use to mark your position. OK. And then beyond that, you have three cards that tell you sort of your core character abilities. If you look at the first one there, this is about your sort of unique abilities as a shrouded in. You have more cards than other people. You always have intellect at your disposal. Moving along what you have are your skills, the things that you're good at. You're good at sneaking around, at deceiving people, but also finding things out and knowing things. And finally, we have your combat style. And in your case, you're very strong at defense. And if you avoid an attack, you can just disappear and hide the shadows. All the rest of the cards are your action deck that you use to sort of accomplish your actions. Now, we need to make two choices about chapter before we go further. The first is that you pick a unique lesson. All of those every shrouded character starts with. But what we want to know are you a shadow dancer, which means you are exceptional at just fading into the background or hiding behind things. Or are you a shrouded bond, which means that you can sort of appear mysteriously around your friends, but also if one of them dies, you gain their skills. You pick up their knowledge. Oh, definitely the shrouded bond. All right. So you take that. Awesome. I hope all my friends die. Then in addition to that, you are going to have a trait, which is a descriptive ability about you. We have a hidden motion, which means you're very good at stains hidden while you're sneaking around or psychometry, which lets you touch a thing and know its secrets. Her name is chapter. She's all about learning secrets. I had a feeling. I had a feeling. I had a feeling that would be your thing. All right. So that's all the decisions you need to make right now. And so in a few minutes, we'll meet the rest of your wing and we'll finish your character together. And so excited. Let's get this book started. Hi. Come on in. Hey, how's it going? Good. I'm Keith. Keith, have a nice day. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. You ready to make Phoenix? I'm so ready. So tell me a little bit about games you've played and what you like in role playing. Well, I've been playing Dungeons and Dragons since I was a sophomore in high school. And I started in 3.5 edition. It was kind of a weird setting because I was a sophomore in high school and I was playing with a bunch of like 40-something year old men and like a badic comic book shop and then like one other boy my age. But they were so knowledgeable and I was just kind of like picking and grabbing all of it and really thriving off that and but still having a really fun time and probably being really annoying. So in Phoenix, knowing the story of your character is almost as important as knowing sort of what abilities you possess. You decided that you were going to play a Durant Phoenix and the Durant is someone who died because they weren't tough enough. And so what they've learned is to become stronger. There are the hardest Phoenixes to kill and they excel at defending others. So with that in mind, what is the name you've taken for your character? I've chosen the name of my character, Kronus. So who was Kronus in their first life and how did they die? Kronus was the daughter of this man who was really overwhelmingly obsessed with defeating the dread. Planning for it and training and it kind of pulled his daughter into that lifestyle as well. And you just weren't tough enough? No, definitely not. And so they were during a particularly brutal training session, Kronus was actually struck down by her father and even when she's reborn is not super certain like if that was an intentional life. Weeding out the week or if it was just an accident, you know, because he was so overwhelmed with wanting to make her stronger and wanting her to be prepared to help him take down the dread. The thing about the dread is the dread has only been around for three years. It's a very recent thing. So the question is, is this something that again your father just jumped right on it was an early adopter? Or was it he was a conspiracy nut who was worried about the dread bomb before it happened? Which it does. I definitely think unobsessive. So kind of I guess to put it in modern-day terms like someone who's like building the bomb shelter and you know like stalking it with all the things and self-defense and things like that. Is he still alive? You don't know? All right. The next question then is when you died, it's not like you just died and boom, you got these powers, you actually had to go through something called the crucible which is the spiritual gauntlet. What gave you the strength to go through? Basically, what are you fighting for? I think Cronus is really driven by the question of whether her death was purposeful or not, but just as much is driven by the want to be strong enough that she's not put in that position again. And is she excited about fighting the dread or is that sort of like a- I think it's more of a very like blind determination. All right. Tell me what she looks like. She's very strong, very muscular, she wears light armor and she has a special necklace that her father actually gave her. It's made of finger bones. Creepy. She's taken from dread, he's defeated supposedly, who knows if they're all specifically dread or something. Old was she, when she died, because when you become a phoenix, you're reborn sort of as you see yourself. So was she very young? She was like 18. Okay. And the last thing I'd ask is every phoenix has a unique sort of weapon or tool called a cannon. What is your talent? My talent is actually a chakram. Chakram? How do you say that? Chakram I think. Ritown is a chakram, which is made famous by Zena Warrior Princess. But yeah, she kind of uses that tool. She likes using a range weapon like that because as much as she is stronger, there's still a deep part of herself that likes to keep her distance from her enemies and even people she cares about. All right. Well, this is your starter kit, has everything you need to start making your character. So open that up. First of all, we have your name. Oh my God. That's so cute. And so you've got to have a banner if you're going into banner. And then if you pick up the cards, these are what we use in place for character sheet to define your character. The first card, this is your sort of coriability as a dorant, which is that you can resist injuries and shake off wounds. If you keep going, these are your skills and the things you're good at. You're very athletic, you're tough, you understand war. And then finally, we have your combat style, which with Durant's is that you're very good in defense and you get to draw a card every time you defend. Everything else in there, these are your action cards. These are what you'll use to determine the success or failure of your actions. Now, we're going to make two choices really quick. First, you get to pick one of two lessons. The dorant bond needs you have a connection to your allies and you can sort of give them a little bit of strength by burning some of your energy. And if they die, you take one of their powers. Alternately, Paragon is an ability that just as long as you are unhurt, you get more cards and you're stronger. Which sounds more like Rona's to you. I'm thinking Paragon. All right, go ahead and grab that. Because trust issues. That makes sense. And then finally, you get a trait that's a unique ability. You either have valiant, which is a strong attack as long as you are unhurt or if you're more about having a skin of steel and being more defensive. I would say valiant. All right, there you go. So set all those together and then we're going to finish things up when we meet the other members of your wing. Yay, awesome. Thank you so much. Oh, please, not that music. That music gives me nightmares from my childhood. Could we get something a little bit lighter, some lighter music here? Are you a fan of True Crime TV shows? And what about Unsold Mysteries, the show that jump started all of our love of True Crime? I'm Ellen Marsh. And I'm Joey Taranto. And we host I Think Not, a True Crime comedy podcast covering some of the wildest stories from your favorite True Crime campaign TV shows all the way to Unsold Mysteries. Baby, you will laugh, you will cry, you'll think about True Crime in a whole new way, and you'll also ask yourself, who gave these people mics? New episodes of I Think Not Are Released every Wednesday with bonus episodes out every Thursday on Patreon. And every Monday you can listen to our True Crime rundown where we go over the top True Crime headlines of the week. So come and join us wherever you listen to your podcast. Hi, this is Rob Benedict. And I am Richard Spate. We were both on a little show you might know called Supernatural. We had a pretty good run, 15 seasons, 327 episodes. And though we have seen, of course, every episode many times, we figured, hey, now that we're wrapped, let's watch it all again. And we can't do that alone. So we're inviting the cast and crew that made the show along for the ride. We've got writers, producers, composers, directors, and we'll of course have some actors on as well, including some certain guys that played some certain pretty iconic brothers. It was kind of a little bit of a left field choice in the best way possible. The note from Krypki was, he's great. We love him, but we're looking for like a really intelligent, decovney type. With 15 seasons to explore, it's going to be the road trip of several lifetimes. So please join us and subscribe to Supernatural, then and now. Thanks. Yes, I'm so excited. So first of all, tell me about you in role-playing games. I actually haven't played since high school. Absolutely. So most of my role-playing knowledge is either through video games or mostly just watching people playing D&D and things like that. Alright, so in creating a Phoenix, the important thing is we want to know sort of who you were, how you died, and sort of the lessons you're taking away from that. Which Phoenix takes on a new name when they're reborn. So what's your character's name? Pele. Okay, and tell me about Pele and how she ended up dying. I picked the name because of the fact that it's from Hoang God and so I feel like the story that I picked for her works out really well. She was a daughter of a powerful ruler and this powerful ruler pretty much was taking advantage of this village and they found her mom and wanted to have kids. Because the fact that I looked like him, my mother couldn't stand it. So at one point she kind of just lost her sanity and decided to like light the house on fire and I was in it. So in the world of Phoenix, that's probably going to put you up north in the land called Scavia because that's more where there's sort of little communities like that. Now you've decided to be an elemental Phoenix. Elementals traditionally die for duty. They burn their very sort of life essence to power their magic. They wield powers of sort of fire and storm and cold. Which that's the make very powerful attacks but again they can burn away their own strength to power it. Now traditionally the elemental is about duty. They are dying for a cause. What do you see sort of as being the thing that drives Pelle? I think that it would probably be the fact of someone who's taking advantage of the people who are lower than him and I feel like that's enough of a drive that I don't want someone to go through what I went through with my mother. So what we would be sort of dealing with here is the world is facing the dread. Obviously you were wanting to protect innocent people from danger but at the same time you're also wanting to make sure they're not abused by the powerful. That makes sense to me. What is something that you're particularly afraid of? I feel like failure would probably be a big deal because even though she was probably very little the fact that she couldn't even help out. Now that's a really interesting point. So as a Phoenix when you're dying your reborn first off any amount of time could have passed but also your reborn is how you see yourself. So how old do you think she was when she died? I'm going to say maybe five or six. And what does she look like now? I would say probably she's closer to my age. Okay. And the younger like older 20s or maybe even 30s. And what does she look like? You know your wheeled powers of fire and storm. Is that manifest or? Yeah I feel like she used to be maybe like a brunette and maybe now her hair is kind of like how my hair gets towards like a very red and I feel like that's like enough for her to stand out and be prominent. Finally each Phoenix has a unique tool or weapon called a callon. What's pales? So I picked a Naginata or a staff of the sword or blade at the end of it as a martial artist I've used that a lot and I really thought that would be really cool because it's long enough and wide enough for her to be able to make either shields or something that she can protect other people and also use in close combat and in long range as well. And certainly as an elemental you also sort of wheeled powers of fire and it's up to you to decide how that looks so it could be that you use that as a focus for flaming energies. All right well let's go on and get you your starter kit. This is everything you need to start creating your character so go ahead and open it up. First of all you get a banner because everybody needs a banner. I just want to keep this forever. But then you also have a deck of cards and these are what we use sort of instead of a character sheet these define your abilities. So if we go through starting from the top if you switch the next one these are your sort of skills the things that you're especially good at as an elemental you understand fire and destroying things that's your specialty but you also know both about sort of magic in general you understand the arcane you also know about the empire it's just you've learned about its history and such. The next card is your combat style as an elemental you can wheeled fire and your thing is that you can burn energy normally you can only play a couple of cards you can burn your energy to keep adding cards to your spreads you can make very dramatically large attacks but at the cost of your own energy. And finally you have an ability that lets you burn your health to get more sparks to get the energy that you use to power your attacks. So as I said before you can sort of burn through your life force to get the power to defeat your enemies. These are cards that all elementals possess but we need to make a couple choices about you in particular. An elemental bond gives you a connection to the rest of the wing and when you gain energy they gain energy as well. The other option is fire starter which basically lets you set people on fire. Which of those sounds more like what you want to do. Oh no you're going to make me choose. I'm going to do an elemental bond. Excellent. Thinking of others I like it. Then finally we're going to choose a special attack that you have and the question is if you would like to be able to call lightning or if you want to be even better at sending things on fire. Oh no I like both of them. Okay let's change it up. I'll do lightning this time. Alright that's all for now. We're going to pick a few more cards with the rest of the group which will meet in just a few minutes. Thank you so much. Yeah. Looking forward to it. Hey. Hey come on in. Let's make a Phoenix. So I know you played a few games before. Yeah a little bit. You know grew up playing D&D, Gamma World, Star Frontiers. Original Gamma World? Yeah original Gamma World. Still have the box. So in Phoenix you're playing someone who lived some sort of normal life, died a dramatic death and then had the opportunity to be reborn as a Phoenix. So you've looked at the options, you decided you want to play a bitter Phoenix. Yeah. Bitters are Phoenix's who have died as failures. Yeah. They're angry, they take that anger and they turn it against their enemies. They get stronger the more they're hurt and the closer to death the more powerful you are. Well my idea when I was learning a little bit about the world of Phoenix Dawn Command was he would be a character that fought in the Civil War and it's actually on the humanist side and what made him be reborn as a bitter Phoenix was he was this amazing warrior. He's marching in, he's at the head of the charge and he gets taken out by a projectile weapon just boom done no chance for glory. Boom blown up before he can throw a single strike. Which is a better way to go for sure. So the Civil War you're talking about is part of the history of the world where basically the first Phoenix's originally established the Empire brought order to the land but ultimately people thought it was a little creepy being ruled by this small group of supernatural people. The Phoenix's ultimately stepped down and basically stopped coming back until now. Now you fought on the humanist side, the side of the people trying to overthrow the Phoenix's. And ironically came back as a Phoenix. Well yes, so again though as a Phoenix you had to fight to come back. You had to go through all these trials learning your new powers. Why is it that you've come back now? I feel like there's unfinished business and going through the trials of becoming a Phoenix what side I fight on doesn't matter. What matters is that I need to make up for the fact that the things that I wanted to do in the last life I couldn't do and that I'm extremely bitter about that. What does your character look like? I felt like since he was killed by a fire elemental it might look like he's always on fire. Phoenix's again are inherently supernatural so sure it's kind of kind of dramatic but absolutely. A few things about creating your character to begin with here's your starter kit. Cool. Now as a Phoenix when you're reborn you take on a new name that we call your cog. What's your character's name? Here, excellent. So let's see what you've got here. Awesome. So as a Phoenix you don't really have a character sheet as such instead what you have is your deck of cards. So your combat style tells you how you fight and what's particular about your style. Skill specialties are the things that you're particularly good at when you're not fighting. Great. And then every school has some sort of unique talent for you. It's about getting stronger the closer you are to death. These are cards that all bitter Phoenix's possess but now we're going to pick a couple that are specific to you. Okay. So first off you're going to get a lesson. You could choose either the bitter bond where you feel the pain that your comrades feel and as their hurt you get stronger or endless rage which is about entering sort of a berserk fury that makes you attack more effectively but makes you worse at defending yourself. Which of those sounds like Pire? I think Pire is learned some lessons from his last life and I think he would choose bitter bond. Alright. So you get that? Great. So then the final thing we want to do is to add a trait to your deck, something that describes who Pire is. Do you think that he is reckless or ruthless? I think he used to be reckless and now he's ruthless. Alright. This is a powerful attack and you can choose to take an injury on yourself to make it even stronger. Well that's all we need to do to get started making your character. In a few minutes we'll meet the rest of your wing and we can figure out who you all are as a group. Great. Can't wait to play. Alright. Hi everyone. Welcome to your wing. Everyone ready to play some Phoenix? Yes. Yes. So the world you're in is called Delia or the Dalit world. This is a world that's roughly at the state of the sort of Roman Empire. It's a world where magic exists but it's generally sort of dangerous and mysterious. The last couple hundred years have been pretty good because there was a group of Phoenix's who fixed everything until some people fought a war against them and they sort of stepped down and disappeared and became legends. But that was okay because everything was good up until a couple years ago where the dread started happening. In horrible, terrible things happening just all over, getting worse, we don't know why we don't know how they're related. But the one thing we have going for is that Phoenix's have started to return to fight the dread and to protect the innocent people of the Empire. There's about a hundred Phoenix's in the world today and you're all part of an organization called Don Command. This is all something that's happened very recently. Don Command isn't recognized by the Empire at this point. People have heard stories of Phoenix's but you're still very much legends. You are drawn together in what's called a wing. It's not like they chose to put you together. It's that your flames, the magical energy that empowers you, is connected. This is represented by the fact that a lot of you have bonds. So you can sense, you sense when the others are hurt. You sense when they expend energy and you also give them energy. You just have, even though you hadn't met each other before a week or two ago, you feel this deep sort of connection to one another. You've all been reborn, you're new as Phoenix's but you have a tremendous amount of skill and power. You spend years in the crucible sort of learning your skills. So while you're new and this is your first mission together, you're good at what you do. And then the final thing, of course, to bear in mind is that as Phoenix's, when you die, you come back stronger than before. You can do this up to seven times, the seventh time you're gone. You want to be careful as you go. But the whole point on Phoenix is that death is not failure. It's not the end as long as you accomplish something. You don't want to be afraid of putting yourself in harm's way. You just want to make sure that this is a valuable resource you possess and that you're using it in a valuable way. Does that make sense? All right. Everyone go around and just tell us a little bit about who you are. Introduce yourself to the group. You all theoretically know each other by now. So what would they know if they've been working with you for a week or two? My name's Pire and I used to fight on the side of humans. And I'm a bitter Phoenix because I was charging into battle and I was immediately taken out by an elemental Phoenix before fire, actually, before I could do any damage or do anything. So I came back bitter. I look like I'm on fire. Flames seem to be leaping off of me and I'm just like this big hulking warrior with a big flaming axe. All right. Hey, you of course you had to make me go next. My name is Tayla. I'm an elemental. I'm sorry. She actually, when she was reborn, she was killed by her mother because a person in power took advantage of her and I am the result of what happened from that. And she went insane because she couldn't look at me anymore. She lit the house on fire and I was in it. Me being reborn, I am now a person for the people so that other people don't get taken advantage of anymore. I want to be a warrior for them. This is the fire side of the table. On the other side. My name is chapter and I am in my former life. I was a librarian. Very quiet, very demure. She was somebody who had knowledge of many different things of different origins but also those of spiritual origins and it scared some people. Yeah. And it also made her a bit of a target and she was taken out because she had assisted her town in a military uprising. And last but certainly not least, I am Kronus. I was raised mostly by my father. After my mother had died, he went a little crazy and started pretty much militarizing my siblings and I in a particularly difficult training session. He actually struck me down. And now I've come back as a phoenix and I'm just trying to prove that I am strong enough and I am beefy. I'm a beefy lady. Get a girl. Now, we have one more step to finishing your characters. You all made a couple of choices that were directly related to your schools but now you're all going to pick four more traits that describe your characters, adjectives that are about you. You know with your boxes, your color coded, this relates to whether you deal with intellect, with the blue or strength, the red. Each of you are going to pick two cards of the color associated with your school and each of you will pick two of the green cards which are grace. Don't worry about the small print right now. Basically what you're just looking for is the adjectives that you feel that sounds like what I'm about. Oh, it's the smartest person in the room. There you go. So you get one more intellect and two will be grace. Let's see. I think I'm going to do this untouchable grace. Unintouchable? Can I get vengeful over you? Vengeful death ray. I already got the grace. I get two of grace and two of strength. I know I think I want terrifying. Oh, you are terrifying. You're on fire. Exactly. Oh my god. Can I have the warlock in the left side there? Yes. Okay, okay, killer instinct is my second grace. Thank you for picking that because I was trying to slide between that and misspent you. There you go. Thank you so much. Your misspent use was misspent in a very different way than most people but it was a mentally misspent. I think I'm going to take a stonishing look. I think there's something luck. I'm going to have to call it a hand. That is fine. I think the irony of me failing, I'd have to take two people. Oh right. Two people failed. It was survivor. That's okay. You want to see me? That's okay. I'm okay. All right. So pissed, I'm furious. That's what I'm trying to say. No, I get it. Crude but effective. Real raunchy. I'm going to switch the other side. Yeah, come on over. Yeah, do walk. I think I'll take a leave. Commander. All right. And inspiring. Okay. Let's go along with it. So you really are turning around. Yeah, just trying to be your, you were, you know, well if your Phoenix reborn, right? Absolutely. Another chance. Got a hard time. Pick a second one. There's some good ones over here. I know. I am between supernatural senses or brilliant deduction. Oh, those are both really good. I know. I think I'm going to go with supernatural senses. That seems pretty true to my character. All right. Okay. Let's go to resource fall. Okay. The world of Sonic the Hedgehog has been thrust into a not so dark, not so stormy, hard-boiled detective story that probably nobody saw coming. Follow Sonic and the intrepid chaotics detective agency as they take on their biggest case yet. This high flying action-packed venture will take them across the world, fighting for every clue they can find. It's one heck of a tale, which is good because this story might be the only thing that can save their lives. Well, if that's all I can just dispose of you. Wait, what? All will be revealed in. Sonic the Hedgehog presents the chaotics case files. Listen now. Wherever you get your podcasts. The chaotics are on the case. Hi, I'm Pianist Maniacs. On my new podcast Classical Music Happy Hour, my guests and I talk about life and music, and we also like to play games. Is it a composer? Or is it cheese? Oh, I know this game. Knowing Mozart is probably all I'm the above. It's all of the above. Is this a fake? Or was this a flop? Flop! That's more mistakes than I made in my last recital. Listen wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you very much. I'm going to do absolute conviction. Excellent. Everyone have four. I'm almost there. I need one more great card. To be the smartest person in the room, I'm not doing a very good job. I'll tell you that's the only one I need. I'll put the other three back. Small and quick. Okay, let's push these away. Now, I'm going to ask one more question. As you have developed your characters a little, when you look at the cards in front of you, it should have skill specialties that are four things that your character is good at. You have the option as we make characters to swap one of those out. So, particularly looking at Pire, you know, you've got Commander, you've got Inspiring, it just strikes me, maybe you want to drop one of these to be good at leadership or war, or something like that. What do you feel like these are all things you like being good at? Yeah, I would probably drop shadows. So, just make a note of that. Just under here, just say, swapped shadows for war. Do your sounders, I think, seem all sound with your character? They are on point. Do you see anything on your list? Do you don't really like Fokronus? I think I like all of them. I've got athletics, endurance, leadership, and war. With mine, which is fire destruction, the arcane and the empire, I'm not quite sure about the empire, but I think that makes sense. We could drop that out. So, just tell me very briefly, again, what do you think she's good at? What are her sort of special things? Might she be sort of familiar with the natural world? Might she be a healer? I would like to do that since that's usually where I go to, is for the healing. And again, that's mundane, but it's still you can try and do stuff. So, just again, just make a note, just say, replace the empire with healer. Now, the last thing I want to say here, before we actually dive into the story, this is a role-playing game. It's a story that we're building together. The important thing is there's no wrong answers. There's no wrong actions. You can try anything you can come up with. It's not like you need to look up five different rules. Describe what it is that you want your character to do, and then we'll work together to figure out how to do it. Does that make sense? Yeah. All right. So, you ready for your first mission? Yes, please. I do have a quick question. Please. Do we put these out and look at these? Or, where do we do with these? That is an excellent question. So, the traits you have just picked up, you shuffle them into the little deck of cards. So, basically, what you have there, these are your action cards. They have values from one to four, and what you did is pick to the ones, because since they're your lowest cards, they get something to balance that out and to make them cooler. So, just shuffle those together and set those to the side. Once we get into action, we'll get into what you do with them. So, let us get into the story. You haven't been Phoenixes for very long, because there haven't been Phoenixes back in the world for very long. So, most of you have probably only been back for a week or two. This is your first big mission out in the world. I mentioned before that this is a sort of level of development, roughly similar to Roman Empire. One of the big challenges is communication and travel are not fast. You know, by the time something terrible is going on, you know, by the time anyone can get there, it's too late. As Phoenixes, you have an advantage over that. The old Phoenixes established what are called aries. They are these sort of shrines and garrisons at certain points in the Empire. Each one has what's called the Imperial Flame, a special heart. They can send simple messages and Phoenixes can be sent from the Grand Area where you all started out to any other area by passing through the flames. That's the good news. The bad news is it basically feels like being burned alive. You just make it through on the other side of the plane. So coming out of your first mission, you step through the flame, going to a distant area, it's extremely painful. There's sort of a moment of blinding, losing consciousness. But you come through, you're gathering your thoughts. There is a woman waiting for you at the distant area when you emerge. She's wearing the robes of a flame keeper. This is someone who maintains an area who has a certain mystical talent for keeping the flame going. And I would like some of you to tell me something about her. I'm going to start with you, chapter. How old does this woman appear to be? I would say she's probably about 60 years old. 60, alright? And Kronas, she's wearing a mask that covers the lower half of her face. This is a scoffy tradition of the Northern regions. What is the design of the mask? It's kind of like a very stylistic looking, smirking mouth. Okay. Does it feel mocking or just sort of stylizing? I would say more enticing. Okay. Alright. Finally, Paley, just something catches your attention about her. Some unusual detail that could either be something physical. It could be a piece of jewelry she has or something about her robe. Just something catches your eye. What is it? It might be something shiny hidden underneath her sleeve, but I can't really make out what it is. And one more, just interesting thing you notice about her. Most of the flame-peer robes have red flames, and this actually has a yellow flame around the red. Okay. She bows to you formally and says, I am flame keeper Eshmira, and I wealth them you to cloud-spire airy. I know that we are out of the way, the distant reaches of Skaivia, but there is a situation here that concerns me, and I would feel better if you would investigate it. What is it? What do you know about the cloud-spire? I know nothing of the cloud-spire. Few do. It is an ancient monolith older than human civilization. A mile into the sky, made of some material we don't know. It doesn't seem to do anything. Then a week ago, a group of imperial researchers came here doing something I don't know. They have explosives. They blew a passage, discovered something underneath it, and now just pause. Listen. For a moment, just listen. And as you do, you notice a few things. There is this sort of humming just all around, that just sort of a vibration that is sort of running through your nerves. You feel a chill in the air. You aren't quite as affected by temperature as phoenixes, but this is sort of sharper. It's not quite natural. Chapter, you in particular do hear just voices, just whispering. At the very back of your thoughts, you didn't really notice it till now. You can't quite hear what they're saying, but it's definitely a sort of presence that now you've noticed it. You can't stop. I don't know why that's happening. I don't know what it is or what these people have found. But I'd like you to find out what they're doing down there. They may not be bad people, but I just want to know. And that's when you hear the explosion. The ground sort of shakes just a little bit on the airy. Then you start hearing screaming. Most of you have enough experience to know what battle sounds like. What do you want to do? We've got to take care of this. That's fun. We've got to get in there. All right. This is a very small building. You can see the gate to you. Run to the gate. Throw open the doors. And almost stumble off the edge of a cliff. It's dark. It's at night. You are standing on a high cliff. Out before you, you see the cloud spire. This massive monolith just rising into the sky. Down at the base, you see flames. Some sort of campfire people moving around, screaming and crying. It's hard to make out details this far away because it is the middle of the night right now. You have a choice. You can just leap down the side of the cliff and just trying to get there as quickly as possible. Or you can try and take the winding path that will take you along the cliff's edge in the dark. But it will take time. And in that time, people are dying. What are you going to do? I will leap. Leap. Got a leap. Leap. Do I have a rope? Oh, yeah. Well, then I guess I'm not that. You just came running at that. I leap and I aim for pyres back. All right. So you leap off the cliff's edge, tumbling down into the darkness towards the signs of battle. And that's where we're going to stop. Wow. And if you want to find out what happens, join us on the next starter kit. Next time on starter kit. I want to land grisly, but I don't think I have enough grace to do so. Not today. I'm just doing a full belly flop. There's a big hole in the ground. Oh. It's too late to help him. A little levity with the situation, everybody. Oh, the Regency Era. You might know it as the time when Bridget and Takes Place are the time when Jane Austen wrote her books. But the Regency Era was also an explosive time of social change, sex scandals, and maybe the worst king in British history. And on the vaults of the world, the world's most famous book, The World of War, the world's most famous book, The World of War. And the world's most famous book, The World of War. And the world's most famous book, The World of War. And the world's most famous book, The World of War. And the world's most famous book, The World of War. And on the Vulgar History Podcast, we're going to be looking at the balls, the gowns, and all the scandal of the Regency Era. Vulgar History is a women's history The Regency Era series will be focusing on the most rebellious women of this time. That includes Jane Austen herself, who is maybe more radical than you might have thought. We'll also be talking about queer icons like Ann Lister, scientists like Mary Annning and Ada Lovelace, as well as other scandalous actresses, royal mistresses, rebellious princesses, and other lesser known figures who made history happen in England in the Regency Era. Listen to Vulgar History wherever you get podcasts. The war is over and both sides lost. Kingdoms were reduced to cinders and armies scattered like bones in the dust. Now the survivors claw to what's left of a broken world, praying. The darkness chooses someone else tonight, but in the shadow dark, the darkness always wins. This is old school adventuring and it's most cruel. Your torch ticks down in real time, and when that flame dies, something else rises to finish the job. This is a brutal rules light nightmare, with a story that emerges organically based on the decisions that the characters make. This is what it felt like to play RPGs in the 80s and men. It is so good to be back! Join the Glass Cannon Podcast as we plunge into the shadow dark. Every Thursday night at 8 p.m. Eastern, on youtube.com slash the glass cannon, with the podcast version dropping the next day. See what everybody's talking about and join us in the dark.