Welcome to Blake City. Nowhere, the actual Playnthology podcast about many games,
many places in one weird world and for the past season one cool Vampire.
The game is over. Now season two is done, and we told our
vampire story and now we're going to talk about how we told it. Welcome
to the season two post mortem theme plays here. Ryan made that. I
did Yeah in garage band, just me with a garage band and a dream.
I listened to the whole thing every time. That's pretty cool. Thank
you, thank you. I did it during office hours. I was getting
paid anyway. Joining me today are esteemed cast members William Kwant Oh Hi,
it's later. First Wow, at the top of my order, Rebecca Schrom,
Oh wow. In second Okay, Hi Hi, that's me, Freddie
Powers, third Fields correct, Hi, Cory Drannan is me. I got
so scared. You have to keep counting like the count right, of course,
Yeah, I assure you, he does. I'm your host, Ryan
Stevens. And last, but not at least, the person who gave us
the idea for this season, the architect for the whole project, Brook Aeron
Smith. That's me. I played this by myself and that was like,
what if one person did it all. We were in some car, some
like long cross country drive and you brought this up and I don't remember where
way because this was a long time ago. In case you didn't notice from
our release schedule that this has been a slightly inconsistent endeavor. But yeah,
So Ashley Graham, Kelsey Woods, and Kallie hung are all out on assignment,
so they were unable to attend today off the podcast, Off the pocket.
Well, Kelsey is food poisoning is her assignment, which is very,
very sad, So please send your energy to her. If you can't your
vampire energy. Hopefully it's resolved by the time you hear this, but you
know, still it's nice. So yeah, so we are just gonna have
a nice little chat about what it was like to play this solo tabletop game
as a group, how we thought the season went, what we enjoyed,
what prized us, and then we'll hear a little bit from you the listener.
So my first question for everybody is how did it go? Do we
have a fun time. It's been a lot since we even recorded these episodes,
so what do we even remember? What does this look like in the
rear view mirror for everybody. I binge listened to uh Ashley on this week,
and I think I didn't fully understand how the game worked until Kat's episode.
Yeah, I think. I think similarly it took me until Brooks to
realize how I should have been. I like, well, listening to two
Broke, I was like, Oh, that's how I should have been playing
it, you know you kind of. I was like, I played very
because I also re listened from mine onwards because I was like, I should
remember what I did, and Brooke just played very thoughtfully and very well,
and I was like, damn jealous. I think it's important to mention that,
like, the order we went in was luck of the draw, because
Ryan is still like random. I rolled some dice, yeah so, and
then I went sort of last, but then Ryan was surprised last the prestige.
I think it's also important to remember that this is a game that is
even more than most games. You can't play it the right or wrong way
because it's designed that no one else is around. That's true, it meant
to it's meant to be played by yourself, so there's no there's no like
in theory, there's no precedent for like tripping someone else up because there is
there is only you, right, You are not meant to have another player
to compare yourself to. Right. Weird. Yeah, do you guys know
where I found this game? Where did you find this game? Tumblr dot
com? The Old Way is the Old Magic? It's on itch dot io
what I I don't know what io means a website hosting. I know we
talked about I means Iceland, but yeah, that's where I found it on
tumblrys. Imagine like a little like independent thing for io. I don't know,
because it's like a strange in an operation like little games like worm dot
io or what British Indian Ocean territory. Wow, it's interesting. I saw
this game once on a shelf at a game store. Nice game store,
it was. But they haven't paid me in advertising anything, so I'm gonna
believe it. Yes, no free rides, And I almost bought it.
It was it was like the heart. It's like the hardcover copy. It
was like sixty dollars and I was like, this is great, but I
don't want to spend it right now. It's a beautiful book. It's a
very very well put together tome from it's not worth sixty dollars. I'm just
saying I didn't want to spend sixty dollars on in that moment. Understandable.
Yeah, I do love any book that looks like some sort of scrap book.
Ever since I was a child and had the Junie B. Jones Diary,
I just really like that style. Yep. Yeah, great, very
foundational thing, thank you. So on the topic of like how it's meant
to be played, this is, as we've said, meant to be a
solo tabletop sort of journaling game where you are rolling the dice, you are
reading the prompts, you are making up your own journey for your character by
yourself, for your own personal edification. I've never really had any experience with
like solo tabletop games before. I'm curious if anyone on this call has or
had or has since we played this game. Yes I have, Okay,
well when I played this game. But there's another game that I really really
love. I want to make sure I get the name right. Oh it's
called Trapped in a Cabin with Lord Oh, yes, which is a one
page RPG that is meant to be played solo. And it's also it takes
like five minutes to play, but you can play it a million times and
it's by Oliver Darkshire and you can find it on the internet. I'm sure
there's a way to pay them for their work as well, but I think
it's so fun. So I really like one player RPG. What's the appeal?
Do you think it can go at my own pace? And it's more
like just like writing a little story, right, Oh, it's certainly using
your to schedule. Yes, And it's like like at night when you fall
asleep and you think of your like fantasy worlds where everything goes the way you
want as you drift off to dreamland. Absolutely. Okay, Yeah that wasn't
an original experience, Ryan, though you looked at me like it was,
I said, I said, and looked, No, such way. Yeah,
anybody else have experience with these solo games games? No, but I
do have experience drifting off into my own dream world, and if something like
starts to go to realistically, I'm like, no, this is my time.
I think the closest thing that I've ever done is I've played a solo
board game before, but I haven't done a solos easier or RPG type deal.
Yeah. I think what's interesting is that it is kind of more when
we think about like why you play like tabletop games. I guess I think
of it it's like a collaborative storytelling thing, Like we're all getting together to
go on a grand adventure and you know, we are entertained by each other,
and we're using the mechanics to tell a big story. When it's just
you, the mechanics are more like I guess, more direct in that way,
like you're just telling the story that you want to tell for yourself,
in a way that I think is interesting to have rules for that, because
no one could stop you if you wanted to pudge the rules for a thousand
year old vampire. But I think that more often than not, players probably
still like play it out because it's fun to see where those limitations take you.
Yeah, it's a really good way to look at it. But like
it like forces you to like it forces you down paths that you might not,
like organically just come up with on your own. Yeah, it does
make me think of like so as a teacher, as a professor. Sorry
this photies onto type, but you know, when or like when I've done
like exercises in writing or like assigned them. The limitations can be really really
useful and helpful. It's nice to like make yourself write with particular parameters in
mind, like be creative with particular goals in mind, and that can make
you more creative than just a blank page might be. So I think this
is something similar. That's probably why it's more popular to play D and D
than to just like invite your four friends over and say, okay, let's
write off fantasy novel together. Yeah, it's kind of like in Quiplash,
you know, it's easier with a prompt than it is last one where they're
like come up with the truth and come up with a lie, right,
Like, I can't think of anything. It's much better than the game just
saying say something funny. Speaking of on those prompts, I think that the
ways that Hutchings writes prompts in the book is really really something special. You
know. It's not like you're just going like, oh, you are faced
by it with a bear or you're faced with an angry mob. It's always
a little more complicated than that. What do we think of the way that
like Thus and year Old Vampires written and how that guides the play experience.
I think it's been a while and I may need you remind me. I
just wanted to let someone else go first because I didn't want to talk about
much. But this also doesn't exactly answer your question. But I really liked
how some of the prompts lined up incredibly well with who was playing them.
Like when one of Becca's first prompts was you fall asleep for you just take
a hot girl nap for I was so excited that I got that. One
one of the ones that I think about is with William when he got the
prompt of like, uh, incredible, like a presence or power appears to
you in a vision and offers you a deal. And I was like,
yeah, of course, yeah this is for William. Yeah, this is
for the most versed in like uh like role playing video games to approach.
Yeah, go for it, will you. I do think the questions add
like a specific tone. I mean what like we were just saying, like
the prompt like limits you as a player to think in a certain direction,
And I mean I'm just basically repeating what Corey said, but like each each
each prompt does send you down like a different genre of vampire almost because it's
like it's sometimes you're it, you know, with the mark, since you
become like a more animalistic, less human vampire. And some of them are
like are like Brooke got the be in the highest class or whatever, and
that just allowed you, like allowed her to come up with you being a
model. Yeah. So yeah, I appreciated that the tone kind of like
spanned like a lot of different kinds of vampires and not just like, you
know, one particular archetype. Yeah. I really agree, especially with like
how it doesn't hem you into a specific kind of vampire. It's not just
the bram Stoker, the Legosi drip here. You can do all sorts of
different things, you know, because vampire isren't real, which means they can
be anything as long as they're kind of recognizable. As long as drinking blood
is probably involved, then you're probably good. But the book itself lets you
have a lot of leeway to reinterpret what a vampire is and let it be
as sort of free wheeling or you know, right down the middle as you
want it to be in that way that I think is pretty cool. I
agree William will your mind walking as through a little bit your thought with the
spirit of Quark, just because I think it's such a singular thing that nothing
else before or after. I tried to bring some of that paranormal when I
like landed the plane at the end. But I think that was a really
high water mark for the genre space for the whole series season. It was
great. It was ahead of the curve. I mean, yeah, I
do blame Fallout for that. I I was time of recording the Fallout TV
show has happened, but I replayed Fallout four I think like several months ago,
and like that was while I was while I was recording my episode.
That was in my brain for a lot of that. And also I know
Ryan had talked about possibly a dragon showing up and whatever I did as a
joke, and I took that personally. I was like, no, no
dragon, I'm not a mystical what's opposite sci fi? We're gonna go,
oh, Cadillac Bear of course. Yeah. Also Cadillac was there at that
incredible yeah. Which also that I just plays into eventually any game with WI
want to into me trying to Pokemon no matter what. So that's that's just
a piece of that. But I adored Cadillac My favorite Ryan line was talking
about bears. When Ryan, you were teaching us, if it's black,
fight back, if it's brown, lie down, if it's white, say
good night. And then you said, if it's a polar bear, you're
fucked. Like you said, you said, time has just not caught up
to you yet. There is a present moment and it is without you.
Yeah, that was right after Brook and I saw the polar bears at the
Chicago Zoo and them some bitches put the fear of God in me. Cadillac
is still roaming. Yesiac's free. There's a thousand year old bear somewhere he
got let free. Yeah, the Chicago, Yes, he is. Another
thing that happened in your game, William, that actually happened in the game
before, but we didn't realize it until your episode was our vampire forgetting that
she was a vampire, which is such a great systemic thing to realize in
the middle of play, like, wait, the vampire memory is gone.
Wait where'd it go? We threw out her status as a vampire. What
happened, which was just very very like gratifying to see happen, And the
thing that I know definitely excited the both of us in the moment. But
that's the power of this game and it's mechanics of serving the fiction. Yeah,
and I almost so curious if that's something you would get as like an
individual player. Honestly, you could get it, but you might not notice
it. Like we had to go back and check the tape and be like,
oh shit, hold on, something interesting has happened, you know,
like how it shows up differently as opposed to like, it's my turn to
pilot the vampire. What do you mean She's not a vampire. Yeah,
it's just a person, just a weirdo. Now I'm trying to I'm searching.
What was the name of the witch that Malachii n yielding? I was
like, I remember in Freddy's episode was the second episode there was like an
evil wizard that cost us a century, And I remember I think in the
episode being like, well, do we want to keep naming them goofy things
like Baron Gatorade, like Baron count Vong garyt. Yeah, but it was
like, is he gonna be Gordida Supreme the Wizard or something like? Yeah?
And that is kind of interesting that there are some characters we just don't
know much. Yeah, I mean that's the beautiful yeah, I mean,
that's the power of world building. But also that's the beauty of the game
of Like, there was a thing in Kelsey's round where like the vampire met
just a witch who like, uh, hext her hand, and that was
the end of that, and then they moved on that they did not travel
in the same circles after that. Well, that's part of the mechanics of
the game too, Like, you know, you're constantly having to lose things
to gain things as far as you're what they call it sources memories or like
the experiences and the memories go in your diary, right, yeah, yeah,
yeah. What do we make of like the memory mechanic? I mean,
I know that for most of us, you know, you all listened
to the episodes before you so you knew what was going on, But there
were things that were like blacked out on the memory sheet and stuff. Did
that affect play at all? For you players? It made me sad for
her that she had that she lost so much. I hate it. I
mean you could tell I hated getting rid of memories because I was like,
no, this is what other people made, and I'm you know, sad
for this character that she's like forgotten most of her life, you know.
And I know that's the mechanic of the game, but you know, and
I thought, especially like having to lose like your relatives, because we had
to start dropping those, you know, not not right of the gang,
but pretty quickly. Yeah, every single time something that was established in Corey's
round got forgotten, it felt like significant, Like everyone else's stuff being forgotten
was like meaningful too. But whenever it was like, Okay, forget the
girl and the church, forget your like Bimbo mom who died of mercury poisoning,
or something like forget the real formative ship. Like, yeah, those
are the deepest cuts. I think. I was surprised to see how long
the carriage made it. Oh yeah, the carriage and the fine thoroughbred horses
that must have also been vampires because they stuck around. Yeah, did I
bring the carriage to Chicago? I think that's where it finally met its end.
I think you finally left it across the sea. I think, yeah,
I can't remember, I remember it's talking about it, but it was
definitely. It was definitely in my episode. Okay, they never mind,
I think no, I think the carriage came. It was like the mansion
finally. Yeah, it was a mansion which had somehow like stayed in your
name across many different countries, but couldn't make it to America. Yeah,
it's always really interesting to see what other people chose to forget m HM,
because I also am sad when people have to forget things. But I like
the mechanic because it ties some logic to being lives forever. Yeah, it
felt in a weird way. Well, obviously it felt more connected to the
people who are playing it, But it felt like, and this is a
very specific memory, back when they still had video game demos in stores and
you could just standing in the target craning your neck. You're fucking breaking your
neck at a fortyree angle. But back when they had when Pokemon was still
like new, when you had like Pokemon demos, you would just walk up
and play Pokemon Yellow. You just walk up and do it. But every
time you do it, you probably walk up and just like we start the
game because someone else had done the same thing, and you didn't want to
play someone else's You want to play somebody else's, say files, so you
just you just made your own thing. And I'm like, this felt in
a weird way similar to that, because it was almost like not on purpose.
It's almost like every single person who played got to play like a new
person, almost like this got to wipe almost every single time. How it
worked. That has unlocked a memory for me, William of like when I
was younger renting a video game, I rented Legend of Iselda Ocrina of Time
from the Blockbuster and coming home and popping that bad Boy in the in sixty
four and loading it up and being in the final Castle and being like,
what the fuck? What is going on? How do I do any of
this? What am I doing? Oh? My god? Like loading into
the Vampire in the middle of a very crucial moment, very very disoriented,
of like, oh Jesus Christ, I don't know what I'm doing. This
will wear welf. Here. There's a bit in Memento, you guys know,
the film Memento, the Nolan flick, where you know, the character
has short term memory loss, so like every scene so it's played in like
reverse chronolage order, and he like every now and then his memory like resets,
so he's no idea where he is or what he's doing, and there's
a bit where he's like in a parking lot and he's like, Okay,
what am I doing? Why am I here? And he sees the guy
who's running. He's like, oh, I must be chasing this guy.
So he chases the guy and he runs up to the guy and the guy
pulls a gun on him, and the man guy goes, oh, no,
he's chasing me. And that sort of like I'm chasing him, He's
chasing me happened, like I think at least once every episode of so of
people being like what am I doing? Oh now I understand? Okay,
And I think the props helped up with that a lot. And it's very
very cool to see. But yeah, I haven't seen. Oh well that
part's in it. Well, that happens. There's other cool stuff, But
there's also that I think we watched that. We watched that like our freshman
or sophomore year, Rebecca. We didn't know Corey or Brook yet. Yeah.
Wait, no, I'm pretty sure I watched it with Freddy. Well,
then maybe Freddie was also there. I probably I've seen it more than
once, so there you go. Yeah, maybe it was only Freddy there,
but I remember watching it in Chicago listeners learning about our war. It
doesn't matter anyway, that's Memento. Yeah, I brang it that movie as
pretentious person. I heard about it and I was like, well, avoid
it. I'm not going to say you're wrong. I'm just gonna say that
was also like, right when Nolan got huge and people are like, yeah,
I knew him before he became big. I'm like, well, that
is a fucking me ship, buddy, you don't actually know him. Yeah.
Have you heard of this this small indie film that no one put out
called The Prestige? Yeah, it was like, great, does have David
Bolli in there? Hell of a film, Hell of a picture anyway.
So I'm going to now turn to listener questions. Who would like to hear
some questions from listeners? I want to know how many were submitted. We
got so questions total. We have nine. Four of them are from the
same listener. Nice, they don't have to know that. No, the
other five or from five separate listeners. So accounts Sharp didn't send anything.
Mollie Sharp chose not to reach out Vampire after No Respect. I did.
I did really listen to the episode, and I did name her name.
It named the vampire because of her I couldn't remember if it was on accident,
and it wasn't. We know if you're listening. No hard feelings for
me, there are, which is why she didn't ask any yes. She
an acy questions. This was her adventures living. She needed to say,
yeah, we all we all played the target demo of Molly Sharp's life.
She's alive. She didn't die. I don't know if we talked about this
before we do the listener, but Ryan and I knew this because we were
sort of working on the production en or whatnot. I thought I told everyone,
but maybe not. You might have that. But you know what,
the regular listeners may not know. Had the vampire died the like, the
next person would not have been able to listen to the other episodes before them,
and it would have just been a blame. Was the true Memento experience,
right, because it is possible, Yeah, play the old theme,
but it is possible for your vampire to die. That's actually how the game
is supposed to end. We just ran out of people, but you know
that's that's the actual She wasn't one thousand years old yet you're so right.
She still had the clock. She had to live in that same thing,
but you want to try again. I am shocked that we made it like
perfectly to present day with our cast. Yeah that was cool because I was
like trying to figure out where to set her, and then I was like,
I said her too late in time. I should have chosen like Charlemagne
or something. But it landed us right in twenty twenty three thanks to a
couple hundred year one of the odds roles anything else about what would have happened
if someone had done But I think that would have been interesting. Yeah,
well, but we wanted to play it, Honestly, we didn't want to
manufacture it. I thought it would have been really funny if the vampire had
died while I was playing, and then it was like, oh Ryan,
I would have just had to willfully ignore everything I knew and be like,
okay, let me just pretend some real cafe with it. But yeah,
okay, So listener questions. These questions come from a listener named Andrew.
And Andrew hold for applause. Now I'll go back and forth. I'll split
them up. That'll be a fun thing to do. Okay, So,
first question from Andrew last season there was a real focus on ensemble storytelling.
How do you feel this season's one on one style challenge and benefited you as
players players? I mean we already touched on it. I think the biggest
thing I noticed about playing solo is how fast it went by. For me,
I was like, oh, we're already done, because I'm used to
like longer sessions. I think I do miss having other people there. And
also I just like other people's like creative energy, and people were all so
different and how we approach games and the characters we create. I uh,
every time I come up with a character, I'm like, this is domin
boring and unoriginal, and everybody comes in with like stuff I never would have
thought of. And I you know, it was on what about what's her
name from the Detective game? Exactly? Close? Yeah close cigarettes, yeah
roots, yeah close cigarettes. Is my gundom O about your Jane Austen character
Becca, she was so yeah, well everyone was on fire in the Jane
Austin accident. Oh my god, I was in love. I'm not sorry.
I'm not trying to like be so I'm not. I wasn't. I
appreciate the compliments, but I say I appreciate everybody else's energy and creativity,
and it was fun playing alone. I think this is definitely like an interesting
change up in format, but I am looking forward to to playing with a
group. Yeah, I agree, though, I do think this was like
a very interesting novelty like who else is doing this? You know? And
better than blank City? You know. A lot of it was motivated by
like scheduling difficulties. Yeah, it was up there. What is art if
not reflections of reality? There you go. Yeah, I do think that
like for every player being just like okay, now it's my turn to be
the vampire. Obviously, there's a little bit of like a raw shock test
litmus test of like what each person like took their responses to the prompts win,
and there was like prism like in that way. But I think that
the well everyone gained was a lot of room for like focus and a lot
of rooms like Okay, I'm not like building off anybody else. There's no
like room for relationships except for the characters that are like played by everyone and
no one, So let me just like hit my meat and potatoes like character
building and really just dive in. I thought that was really neat to see
from a facilitator standpoint. Yeah, I guess you put it like that.
I guess. One of the things that's kind of weird, I guess is
I guess contrasting to how we did season one is like we were all learning
as we went together a lot of those games. I feel like as you
were going versus this, which like not only just like in the cannon,
but also like as people, it was like a hard reset every single time.
It was almost like like a piston. Yeah, it's like a piston
like resetting itself. Like every single episode it took. It was like,
oh yeah, like the momentum, I guess is something that I not sure
existed. We had a new character creation ten times in season. Yeah.
I think it's a beautiful way to tell the story because it's like we still
got to play together, but not at the same time. Yeah, and
also incredibly creative because we could not find time, if you know, games
finds a way. I think it was interesting to think about, like,
and I don't feel like I was always successful, Like how can I bring
in stuff that Ashley did, stuff that Corey did that happens so long ago?
Freddy Becca, Well, you know everybody like can I bring things that
they've already set up back or can I like base my motivations on what they've
done? Which was hard, But it's like, like Corey is saying,
like a different way of us playing together, just not at the same time.
Yea, you know the avatar state. You feel the presence of Ashley
and Kelsey behind you as you roll the dice. It's like when it's like
when you're playing Mario Kart with like the ghost of another player, you see
them beside you. Yeah, this is what it feels like to write like
an actual like DC or Marble O, like ip S forro or something,
because like it gets past the spirit of the character is whatever it is,
and like you can pass them in person the person, and it's like it's
a collect like these heroes are collective experiences of the people who write them,
even if they're just oh, my one entity. But it's like, but
you know who added this part of it, and everyone who writes it's like,
how can I you know, I love when this writer did this,
How can I bring that back into minds? Like I'm curious if that's a
PiZZ of what that could be. Yeah, I think about it. That's
interesting. Yeah, we just we just have to run these for sixty years
and see what happens over sixty years, and every romantic relationship they ever have
they have to fucking undo it. Yeah. That would have been funny to
have, like antagonistic of someone being like, so I have these kids.
I'm like, no, you don't get them out of here. Someone to
be like, no, bring those kids back, which would be against the
rules of the game. But oh well, you know that is interesting.
Molly slash Valerie Slash our vampire never had really any romantic relationships at all.
That's true. Yeah, I mean not that we knew of. You know,
who knows what was going romantic? Yeah, that's true. She began
with the romantic. That's a good point. I mean, yeah, her
one of her foreign of experiences was God telling her to cut it out,
so that might have cast a shadow for a while. True. See Long
Term Storytelling that show. And then Freddie rolling one hundred years of past all
Mortal conventions. Yeah. Yeah, it's so tough to make new friends when
you're plus years old, and it is. Yeah, all right. Next
question, this is from David, who was the coolest vampire in fiction of
all other vampires. Yeah you remember, you remember the Government Ventures of Billion
Mandy. Yes, great answer. Yes, it's a scrap mm hmm something
something Vampire Diary's characters t minus until Vampire Diaries. You know, we won't
go down that road because I don't you know, I don't want to annoy
everybody. You do it. This is the question, I'm sorry. The
question was who is the best vampire? And also this the sub in question
is show your work, give us a name. So do it. If
it's Nina Doe Bred or whoever lives in the Nightmare Dimension, whatever the hell,
it's put respect on her. Toppler Ginger. Yeah, you can hear
her coming from a mileage. I did read. I read a book.
I can't remember. Sorry, I just listened to my episode. I can't
remember if I talked about this in my episode. I read a book series
recently called The Ninth House. Was the first book? Oh yeah, I
get you in the ninth pair of the ninth Yeah wait no, no,
yes, yeah, I'm getting my night's confused. Never mind the second one
anyway, And they introduced the vampire mechanic, and that was very interesting that
vampires are basically like a demon in habits like a demon from how it comes
and like stalks you until it like takes over your body and your vamp what
is the vampires basically like the shell of your body that's left after the vampire
like consumes your soul or whatever. So I thought that was a very like
interesting take on it, that all the characters were, you know, being
stalked by demons to address, to address something that was just cast aside,
someone said, doppelganger. I want to give a shout out to Becca's mom
who sent her selfie of herself smiling in front of the last place Princess Diana
left alive and called herself Princess Diana is doppler Ganger. Becca responded with hot
space, how I didn't want to say? She said, oh, I'm
her doppler ganger, And I said, I know Princess Diana is. Goodbye,
Princess Diana, welcome back, Princess anyway, Sorry, that's okay,
Jesus, Rice doesn't listen to this. Ever, who's to say the royal
family are vampires? Have y'all seen that portrait of King Charles? This topical
reference is very topicable, everyone thinks Nicholas Cage's real life vampire. I trust
him with one. One fact of honorable mention for this is Alex card Castle.
Oh yeah, the most stylish of vampires. No, the coolest vampire
is that child vampire from let the Right One in. It's a good one
movie, play and book, and it makes me think of that song if
We Were Vampires by as Well. Yeah, Jason Isbell in the four hundred
Units, so that goes with it. There you go, that's the coolest.
I guess in a similar vein, I don't remember her name, but
there's the one in Skyrim. You're so right, William, Oh my god,
the child vampire and she's like stuck like an eight year old vampire.
And then she's like deliberate, like like like pre dates on like child predators,
like lead like child preaders into an alley and is like, no,
I was thinking of the hot vampire. There's I mean there's oh also her
voice by Laura Bailey Vampires and voiced by Laura Bailey, and you cannot marry
her. Oh and that's people's biggest complaint about the Yeah, but I forgot
I love her. I was I was also gonna off off handedly mentioned not
that I think he was actually, but like I think Child Su from Tracking
is designed off of Chinese vampires. Not that he did anything vampiiod unless you
played some of the video games that get to play with that's fun. But
I'll say that we had old vampire. Yeah, we did. Your sister.
She ages a couple of times because people forgot I think we made her
as young as six episode. Well, she is aging slower. We sign
our differences over time. No, she was mad at the end. Still,
she took her eyeball she was Did she stay alive or did she die?
She stayed alive because she was a vampire. Okays was enough for her?
You know maybe, I mean that's ambiguity of the game. Also,
Kennedy Marshall's oh yeah, see all these other vampires run around the coolest vampire
Kennedy Marshall. No, he's a vampire cop. He was not cool,
all right, next Andrew question. In the first Andrew question. In the
first season, there was a good mix of out of character conversations mixed with
RP scenes. This season had no RP scenes. What was that like from
the GM and player perspective. Okay, so I'll just give the GM perspective
and that I think and we talked about this in the season one talk back
postparted thing of like how I think actual plays like at its most fun personally
when it's very like open handed and like brecked Deanna, like Okay, what's
the most important story for us to tell? Like what are we going for?
Let's let's put as much of the sausage making process on the track as
we can. So this season was really fun because it was just like us
two at a time being like, okay, what are the mechanics? Okay,
what are we trying to say? Okay, like how do we set
this up? So I thought it was really really like exciting. I you
know, I admit I do miss like the RP of like the previous seasons
of like having people talk in character quote unquote, but I think that it
is still like I think having shorter episodes helped with that of like we get
in, we totally want to do, and then we get out and then
we'll be back in a week. So yeah, I don't know what other
people think about this, maybe because it's the concept of like of like a
journal game. Maybe I mean us talking about it is the role playing like
this is like how you know, in a way we are like the synapses
or something of like a brain, Like what are we remembering? What are
we forgetting? What do we have? It's just kind of like, I
don't know. I feel like instead of like role playing as a character per
se, we were like I mean the karaly playing, we were playing as
the phenomenon of age, I guess in a strange way. So like,
what does that sound like? Well, it sounds like my friends, sounds
like all my friends. I don't know. I do appreciate how you go
ahead, go ahead, Becca, go I've talked a lot. Please go
Rebecca. It's a podcast where we're talking anything until continued. Okay, all
right, but we'll remember your next feah. Yeah. I was just gonna
say I appreciate how everybody did like role play. It a little like a
little differently. Listening back to Mine, it very much felt like each prompt
was like the vignette, like they were all kind of like disconnected, just
kind of like flushes of of of her life. But like when uh,
in your two episodes Brooke and Ryan, they felt more like you found a
way to connect each of the scenes. And I feel like they flowed together
and in a way that that like my episode didn't And I'm not saying like
one is better than the other, but it's like just kind of plays into
how everybody played it a little differently. Well. I wondered about the like
differences in like proximity because Ryan and I, you know, played in the
same room. So that's interesting too, because every other person Ryan you played
with over the internet comp Yeah. I also think that for Brooke and I,
we were the last two of the season, so I think both of
us had were very acutely aware of like the song is ending, like the
party's about to be over, we better wrap this up. For everyone else,
I think everyone was like looking much more forward and like trying to like
give as much like four momentum as possible, and like for both of us
there was more priority to like look back and try and put a boat on
things. M H. Freddy, I think I just want to piggyback off
of what William was saying about how the discussion about it kind of is the
RP just because again again you know, typically this is a game that's played
like by yourself journaling, so the quote unquote not RP is just the player
and Ryan discussing what's going on. If you're writing this down, you would
be like, my sister is gone, the witch showed up, or like
whatever, and it's like it would be sorry, my Google home is saying
a really long notification about how it's done to feed the cats. Okay,
it's done, but you know, I like it would be fully in like
roleplay mode as being written down in the first person. M I mean that's
a good point, just because like the game tells you not to write things
long hand, like you're not meant to write a full Victorian novel. It's
supposed to be like I was born in Iceland, I killed a dog with
my hands, I found a dragon and became a dragon vampire, like it's
supposed to be as direct as we did in the show. My favorite player
line was when Ashley was talking about finding little Charles Charlie. I think and
how it was Charlie who said that like the vampire Adele reminded him of his
mom, right, and then Ashley said, and his mama must have been
ugly. That's in character, Andrew, that's RP. That's role play good
stuff, all right, Ready for the next question, for the next non
Andrew question. Yeah, all right, this is from Donna. What do
you guys think about being a vampire? Would it really be that bad?
Would you want to be one? Yes? It depends on what the lore
is. It really doesn't know. I would. I would not want to
be this vampire, I don't think. Sure, not this one. No,
not this were fish vampire. No, but another one. Yeah,
if I could cross running water, yeah, street probably. Yeah. There's
almost no downsides to being a Vampire Diaries vampire. Like you can eat you
know, human food, Yeah, stay outs. What about having a soul
bond in the Nightmare dimension or whatever the hell happened in the later books?
Yeah, oh of the Vampire Diaries. Yeah, we're talking show Okay.
I didn't know how much they departed anyways. I think they just let those
books go for the best. You know, there's always so much seven ghost
writers can do. Anyway, what a great question, Donna, and I
agree with Becca. It depends on the universe. I would not want to
be a Twilight vampire. But they can't. They can't sleep in their sparkly
Yeah. I love the sun, but vampire diers vampire absolutely? Would y'all
be what we do in the shadows vampires depends which one. Na. Yes,
well, it's gonna be your personality, Rebecca, I'm not. I'm
not trapping you in their bodies, Nana. I would be any vampire because
let finish well, I would say, my biggest fear is dying. But
if you're a vampire, no matter what, you're a living, well,
there are several specific categories I can avoid that, I think I can.
I think I would be like Stealth is a vampire. You know, I
don't need to tell people like, but I think I would really, I
would be any version of a vampire. Sorry, I do think about that
semi lot as well. That reminds me of the side tangent where Ryan was
talking about how Brooke would live in the apocalypse just for their novelty. Yes,
yeah, yeah, I know some people would just piece right out.
Yeah, like your partner. Yeah, I just can't do it. I
can't, or William. It's the same reason I can't. Like, like
even if, like I'm thinking of this is a specific beast story, so
I won't drone on. But like, there was this island in the lake
that I grew up near called Cliff Island, and everyone would jump off of
it, and I always went to the top and then would not jump down.
Always had to calm down and that like because life is precious. Yeah.
Yeah, so in the even if I was like trying to force myself.
So I don't think I could like force myself to off myself in the
apocalypse, like the human condition goes on. I must live. Hey,
happy for you, Ryan, and I quote I know when to get off
the ride? Yeah, Ashley and I on that episode were like, listen
when when the time comes, where finding the fastest exit off the thing?
Yeah? Just like that. You said that at work? Oh yeah I
did, because people at work were talking about what they do in a like
a zombie a PoCA Sydney in the office, and I was like, goodbye,
I take my bow. I will I will say this. I'll answer
this as far as what would it be like if I were a vampire?
And I forgot to mention this under maybe under a favorite vampires and not even
Empire Hole, but just this one moment, Uh, there's one moment in
I think it's Blade Trinity when Dracula fucking wakes up, Dracte just wakes up.
He's finally awake and he wakes up and he goes into like I don't
know, some some goth shop and just sees like vampire paraphernalia. He sees
like a box of Count Chocula, and like that's the thing that breaks him.
He's like, I'm killing everyone in here because of this box, because
I'm like and I'm like, I, in this moment, I would be
that vampire. Like, in this moment, I would be that. But
I don't know if I would be that forever. Just the capitalism in for
me my image m I think. And I I'm citing this joke to Joanna
Madrona who wrote it, but I feel like I think that would throw me
off. About it is about being a vampire, is that I'd like to
go to the gym and if you if I did that, there would just
be like a floating barbell and like the free mirrors, And I feel like
that would be weird. And I feel like there's enough stuff that like would
be disrupted by me being a vampire and vampire home gym? Are you saying
that it would be too inconvenient? Yeah, to live forever, but yeah,
what's the point of living forever if you can't get those gains exactly profit
a man if he gains the whole world, but he lose his almighty bitch
ress record. Like I gotta like I gotta wait outside consistently for someone to
invite me into every building. That sounds like annoying. Most stores, though,
you know, are like welcome in, right. I think there is
some loophole of like like public places and like stores in places of business,
you or you're allowed in a restaurant, They're like, hey, I'll make
it easy on you. Yeah, that's how it is. In the Vampire
Diaries, it's only private residences that they can't enter. They do kind of
have a fun mechanic where like there was a vampire that was was dead essentially
and was brought into a home that he wasn't invited into. Then when he
like woke back up and was alive again, his body was like being like
jerked around and because he was like being pulled outside the house because he hadn't
been admitt in. Mm hmm. There's a bit in the the What's the
Right One movie where a vampire tries to enter a residence without being given permission,
and it's like it's deeply gross, it's it's great flick. Yeah,
I think I do remember that. Yeah, that's awesome. I mean it's
messed up and interesting. Yeah, no, Taxi backsies on most vampires.
Yeah you can turn into a bat. Yeah yeah set Okay, I just
said capitalism, I would come out. I would turn into a bat and
commodic by myself on TikTok. Sure, there you go. What about the
littlest vampire? Of course? See look at all these proud vampire citizens we
have all right, Next Andrew question doze in year old Vampire is a solo
role playing game. How did you navigate having two people playing it at a
time? Do you have any advice for people running other solo games as a
group. I mean, I try my best to not like play the game
for y'all. Like I tried to be like just just like reading the prompts
and like explaining the mechanics and letting y'all be the ones to like make any
and all decisions. Like I'd offer possibilities, but I never wanted to feel
like y'all was being like, Okay, you know what will be really cool
right now is if you did this, this or this. Hopefully I succeeded.
I guess that's up to y'all to say, but that's how I approached
it. I don't know if it made how y'all thought about, like playing
a solo game with another person. Yeah, I mean I think it was
really good to have you there to like bounce things off, or you know,
just to have someone else there. It would have been a very different
experience if we had just been like, Okay, Corey, your turn is
this week, record yourself and send it in. Yeah. But we're doing
Blank City Limits again with you know, just some of our little role playing
games, and I am coordinating something something fun. Yes, I can't say.
I am coordinating Trapped in a cap with Lord Byron, which will be
more like that as too, So look forward to that. That's your first
official ties. This is like our press conference where announce all the new Marvel
movies except People Be Good and then and then in the Fall of Good Society
too new orner gooder society? Yeah, better society anyway. Yeah. Other
other thoughts on playing a solo game with another person. Yeah, if I'd
put this with myself and just recording it, I would not. I would
I'd been like, hey, guys. I started doing this for like five
minutes, and I just I just couldn't, especially for podcast purposes. It's
definitely I think better to have someone else to speak to. Yeah, hopefully
that's the idea. Anyway, if not, I would have written, I
would have written it down, even though the rules say don't write it down.
I would have probably written it down if there was another person. Sure,
and who can stop that? Wow? What does Tim think of all
this? Well, here's the thing, Like a few months into it,
Tim, I'm subscribed to his newsletter. He is making a multiplayer version called
one hundred year Old Vampires Plural, which I think is one hundred year old
vab. Yeah, he's cutting the time limit for them apparently, so I
don't know if that's out yet, but yeah, we may have to revisit
that in the future. So that's cool. But yeah, okay, non
Andrew question. These two questions are kind of similar, so I'm gonna combine
them. These are from Brenna and Hunter in the sort of general justice.
A lot of actual play shows have improviser slash actors involved, and I know
I sometimes feel like I'm not performing enough when I play D and D with
friends, how do you all balance you or perform and the fact that you're
just playing a game. And then Hunter asked, Haws, has doing an
actual play show changed how you play tabletalk games in your own life? So
I think we can combine these to like, how is this sort of altered
how we approach non entertainment games for ourselves. They're they're very different things in
that like when you're when when you're doing an actual play podcast, we're all
very like aware that it's being made for an audience, and I feel like,
other than just like getting the reps of playing games and like getting familiar
with mechanics and role play and just like general skills that for me personally,
it hasn't affected how I play like recreational games that much because they're like they're
just separate things to me for the most part, because when you're when you're
playing like just the game for fun, there's a lot more not dumb shit,
but like stuff that's like just riffing on on a important like side stuff,
you know, whereas it's like, what was the nevermind I was trying
to remember? I think that we would not stand talking about elast D and
D But it's gone with my brain right now. But like I feel like
with the knowledge that you're making it for an audience, I feel like there's
more intense behind it being like less inside baseball. Yeah yeah, And I
think one thing is like like intent and focus, Like we try to keep
things This may sound surprising, but we do try to keep things a little
more like tightly focused when we're playing, like on the air, so to
speak. Then just like with regular people at least Idea, it was like
a GM and facilitator any like what you're saying for it with like less room
for like goof goofy diatribes and you know, getting distracted or whatever. And
I think they like for people playing with just their friends, don't fight that
stuff, don't try to be professional or don't try to be like you know,
giving the Brendan Lee Mullian monologue, like just you know, focus on
the fund focus on just playing the game with your buddies and not trying to
like be a quote unquote performer because that's what the rules are for, to
like lean back on and just like let the story happen with the dice.
I do think that like playing as a part of Blank City has made me
better at playing in general, mostly because it's like different kinds of games for
me. I do think that like tt RPG games like took practice to get
into to feel like I could make bigger choices or like motivate the plot or
you know whatever. So I feel like it has pushed me. It sounds
silly to be like it has pushed me as a tt RPG player, because
it's not something I do as a career or never made a dime on this.
It's just boundaries. That's better speak. Yeah, I do say yeah,
with the experienced of, you know, piggybacking on that, like with
the experience of playing a lot of different kinds of games, because I can
me, I can me, I can get kind on rules a little bit
and wanting to do it right like me, not like I like I am
scared that I'm doing it wrong in general, and and like seeing a lot
of different kinds of games definitely helps me kind of like like understand the bigger
picture of games. Yeah, I don't know, it's it's also I get
when when friends ask about games they can play, I know about more of
them now and I can tell them about it. Which of the games that
we've played, you recommend it to people? Yeah, what's getting bombed up
out there? Like monster hearts and good society. And I've recommended like wishing
Well a couple of times. Oh yeah, I remember wishing Well oh in
the yeah, New Orleans. Yeah. I would say for me, I
don't really play tabletop repugs. I come from the video game game world mostly.
And I'll say this for the way the question is framed, because this
is my instant reaction. They're asking that question of like performing or how does
it feel doing you know, to listen to that and like ask someone who
just like loves love me my single player games I am playing for me,
it's like this feel is very like this feels very I feel very like wonky
to say, but it's like, man, you play the way you want
to play for your enjoyment. Like and I know in a multiplayer setting that
can be like there are pressures to do other things, but I'm just like
I don't for me, Like maybe I'm just stubborn. I'm just that fucking
stubborn in the way I'm playing a game. I'm just like, no,
I will do what I wanted for fun, Like yes, I will obviously
consult the group or have like a vibe or but I'm like, no,
I want to play this game this way and you can make fun of me
if you want, but I'm just gonna I'm doing it like this, but
you will be the pirate with two eye patches, like goddamn, Like,
I like, this is what I want, is what I wanted to see
happen. I wanted to not be. I wanted to play the vampire game
and not a vampire. I'm gonna, Bryan, can this work? Oh
it was already working? Hell yeah yeah so like and yeah so like on
the personal level, like, no, no, the game is for you
to have fun. You have fun the way you will have like the way
you want to like, don't feel a pressure to just like perform or act
or however you want to do it. Obviously, stay within certain boundaries and
parameters of whatever section you're playing it or session or whatever or game. But
like it is whether you are enjoying it and how you are enjoying it is
like the main focus a game. That's the whole point games exist for.
Yeah, and the GM should be facilitating that too and making sure that everyone
feels like their ideas are valid and worth uh worth pursuing not being like,
no, that's not right, Corey. Do you have any thoughts on this
question? I mean, thanks for no problem, yep, happy to great.
Okay, we have one more Andrew question. Did anyone have any anxiety
or reservations with making big changes to the Vampire since those choices were often made
by someone else who couldn't provide an input input anymore? Or did the message
in the bottle nature of the game offer freedom. I mean, I think
we've ess that wish like we were not you know, it was dramatic when
people changed stuff, but also we were all pretty willing to treat the stolen
car like a stolen car and do what we had to do to make something
entertaining. I do feel though sometimes like like oh I don't want to and
I don't think that anyone would feel this way, but like I don't want
to hurt someone's feelings if I don't acknowledge enough of what they did, you
know, like especially for the like two or three people who are right before
me. It's like if I'm losing Cory's stuff, it's been hundreds of years,
but no, it's fine. Thoroughbred horses but in the end, it
wasn't up to me. It was up to the prompts I got. That's
true, Corey. As a flip side of this question, what was it
like for you as the first vampire hearing you know, all your empires crumbled
to dust, you know, hearing your Ozymandias statue fall into the loan and
level stands that stretched beyond beyond just choosing the time period. I wish I
had thought to consider future players a bit more, and I probably wouldn't have
chose to be carriage because I thought back on that, I was like,
that's not what what I you know, I was like, maybe I would
have considered that a bit more. In the present. Yeah, I think
I was more focused on just creating a solid character. But yeah, beyond
time period, I wasn't really thinking about other people. I mean, I
was really curious to see the transformation from the very beginning. But yeah,
I am glad I got the Vampire fairly late, because I remember as soon
as we as soon as we stayed doing this, I was like, I'm
really sorry. I remember the hell gets the Vampire after me? Straight up,
I was already like, well something might happen and I won't say it,
like obviously you want to. I do want to respect he was ideas
you always want to do that, but it's just like I don't know this
one. This one came in a little more disjointed. I felt like,
like, so it was harder for me personally to like think about it.
Also, like it's like, I don't know. Once you get the vampire,
it's like, okay, this is everyone's vampire. For me, it
was less like this memory belonged to this person, like, no, this
is mine and well, it's my turn to play kind of thing. Everyone
was just like choosing a different soda at the soda dispenser and passing the cup
down the line. When you got it was time for you to drink,
you just had to take whatever you had. Yeah, I was never upset
when someone like changed something or erased something that I made. But it was
also really cool to see people hang on too little choices I made, like
the vs initials or even just keeping the last name. That was cool.
Yeah, that was cool. I was very interested to see that, like
the only person who really deviated from the name Astley briefly named you Adele Knight.
And then after that we went right back to sharp, which I thought
was very funny. That it's like, you know, something's just you can't
shake them. Yeah, I will say it's similar echoing that it was exciting
when people like used a skill or whatever, like because someone used social drinking
as a skill at one and that was really fun. So yeah, echoing
that it's like, yeah, last upset if somebody got rid of something I
made it, but more like exciting if they used or acknowledged that. Yeah.
So to answer your question, Andrew, no, we were pumped about
it. Everyone loved it. No, No, be nice to our listeners,
Andrew, thank you for submitting somebody. And Andrew's maybe in the room
right now. He's behind you. He heard you were talking shit. All
right. Well that's all our listener questions. So thank you so much to
everyone who wrote in, and thank you to all my fellow players for joining
me here this evening. We will eventually be back with season three. We're
working on it after some more city limits. Just one and done. Good
time games. If you want to send us other questions or recommend games,
you know, always excited to find me once, you can email us at
Blank Citypod at gmail dot com or d m us on Twitter or Instagram at
Blank Citypod there as well, thank you again. I'm Ryan Stevens again.
You can find me on Twitter at Ryan With She's on Instagram ri Boo Guy
on Blue Sky at Ryan Stevens Brook. Where can people find you? You
can find me on Twitter, which is losing the domain Twitter and going just
to x dot com. I believe at Bworth Smith on Instagram at who is
brock Smith or on my website b' Karensmith dot com. Corey, where can
you be found? Wow? I'm just passing power? Okay. You can
find me on Instagram at Corey Eliza c O r E y E l I
z A A. And you can find Ashley Graham on Twitter at sad and
pretty. You can Rebecca Strom Where can people find you? You can find
me on all the things at yep, Freddy Powers Help Me where you just
help me? You're her only hope? Gosh? Where else can you find
Rebecca? Trust? You all text her at this number. Yeah. You
can find me at at Freddy spelled f r E D d i E on
pretty much every social media Frederick Powers dot com online. There's no k in
that. It's like named fred and Eric put together. Uh yeah, that's
that's all places, William, Where can we find you? Help Rebecca drop
Rebecca's Venmo? Yeah? My cash app is Where can I find? Where
can people find me? You can find me on the Twitter machine don't but
you can find me there at w O quant. I don't respond. I
don't do much on it anymore. I'm trying to get away from trying to
get it away from Twitter. But you can d M me It's fine.
But you can find me on blue Sky at w o quant over there as
well. If you want to see anything I've done, if you can google
me And that sounds like pretentious, like like there's not many people with my
name. You can google me, not because I'm important, but because I
don't know. There's like two guys with my name and one of was my
dad. Yeah, I don't know where. Uh where can you find Kelsey?
I don't know. You can find Kelsey on Twitter at Kelsey what's k
E L S E A w O O D s. You can find cat
is kat even on Twitter. But they always dropped their website and say,
and I promise, who knows what their website is currently doing? But you
can do a sit rap a situation report on that. I just spelled their
last name Hong with an N not an M. And you can find Rebecca
at at Rebecca dash Trump on up dot com. I that's my website.
Cast out website is Katie Instam great nice, and yeah, Cat's website is
indeed Katley Holme dot com. K A T Y H O n G.
Their dog has really grown up over the course of this project. When we
started the season, they had just gotten the puppy, and now that that
bad boy is full grown. So let's let you know the gestation period for
the roughly one one entire sheep, one dog, one cubic she be anyway,
so we'll be back eventually. Thank you so much for listening, and
until next time, for the last time, drink it in.