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Lonely TTRPG EP 44 - BBEG by Maps n Quests
Episode 44 • 24th April 2023 • Lonely TTRPG • Black Dragon Dungeon Company
00:00:00 00:26:47

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In this rules light game, take on the role of the villains - seeking to thwart the heroes from achieving their goals - and maybe even recruit them to your side. You can use special abilities, throughout the game, and earn more uses of those abilities with successes.

Thoughts: This is a fun little one shot where you can explore the villain of a story.

You can find BBEG at https://maps-n-quests.itch.io/bbeg?ac=pEV55vHqdvG

Find our merch at https://my-store-d24802.creator-spring.com/

Find our games here at https://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse/pub/20990/Black-Dragon-Dungeon-Company.php?affiliate_id=3362048

BDDC logo by https://www.instagram.com/craftyteapotfox/

You can find us on Twitter @bddc_pod or Tumblr @bddc-pod

You can support us on Patreon https://patreon.com/blackdragondungeoncompany for early releases and exclusive content.



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Transcripts

steelstash:

Greetings, we wander and welcome back to Lonely, T T R P G, the

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Solo Actual Play and Review podcast.

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This week we are playing B B E G by Maps and Quest.

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So you are the bad guy, or in this case you might be a group.

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You are the villain of the story.

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You're not that different from the heroes you fight against.

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Really.

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If only they thought about it, they'd probably see they

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have a lot in common with you.

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Why won't those heroes ever just consider those things, right?

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Regardless of their reasoning or yours.

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You have a vision of what you think things should be like, and you're gonna make it.

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You'll fight against those heroes in whatever way you need to so that you can

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make things the way you want them to be.

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See, there's a similarity already.

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Maybe just, maybe if you can't beat the heroes, you can convince them to join you.

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All right, so this is a caltrop core based game, which means we are using D 4s.

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It does use dice pools, so multiple is preferable.

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However, you can roll one multiple times

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. For safety.

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Remember, this is a game and should be fun, so use whatever appropriate

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safety measures you need in order to make sure that you are having fun.

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So for the first explanation on the rules, all right, this is a dice pool game,

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meaning you're gonna roll pools of dice.

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So whenever you're rolling multiple dice, you always take the highest number in

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unless you roll multiples of the same.

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Then you take whatever that multiple is.

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So for example, you roll two twos, a one and a three.

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In that case, you take the twos.

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Now if you roll multiple multiples, then you take the higher of the multiples.

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So if you roll three twos and two threes, you would take the

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threes because it's higher.

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Even though you rolled more twos, you're gonna go with the threes.

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Again, this is caltrop core..

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We've done a couple of those.

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So one is gonna be an absolute failure.

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Two gonna be a partial failure, three partial success,

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and four absolute success.

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And in the event of combat, A one means you take one, damage a two.

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You do not hit three.

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You hit and deal one damage.

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Four, you hit and deal two damage.

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So for your character stats, you have several key stats.

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First up is silver tongue, where others rely on wit, brute force.

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You found that words are just as powerful.

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So this is how good you are at interacting with NPCs and

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how you can convince them am.

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Next up, we got resilience.

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Sure, heroes hit hard, or at least what they call hard, but you can.

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So this is gonna be your health and hit points.

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Putting a D four here will give your character four additional hip points.

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Next up is healing.

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Being a villain doesn't make you immortal.

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This is how well you can heal yourself.

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A three will heal one point and a four will heal two points.

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Athleticism is how strong you are.

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Physical stats, evil devices.

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You make heroes pay with your dastardly devices, so this is gonna

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be your crafting, your fixing, that sort of thing, scheming, because

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of course you're the smart villain.

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This is your raw knowledge of the world and your ability to figure things out.

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And finally, and stay down, dishing out the pain is just so much fun.

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This is actual combat and will determine how effective you are in combat.

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Now as far as all your skills go, you start off with a D four in each skill.

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Your archetype is going to give you additional dice to add to that, but.

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On top of all of that, you're gonna get an extra two dice to add to the stats

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of your choice for your villainous archetype, you have anti villain

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mastermind, mad scientist, bruiser, professional, brute, and bad guy.

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Now, each of these will come with their own special ability.

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With that, when you roll an absolute success, you roll a

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single D four afterwards as well.

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If you roll a four on that roll, then you can add one usage of your special ability.

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When you use that, you deduct one usage.

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Now, full disclosure, this is not intended to be a solo game per se, but

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it is a game easy enough to play solo.

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So that is what we're gonna do.

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And to do that we are going to go ahead and transition over to our game board.

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So up first we need to decide what our archetype is gonna be.

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So there are seven archetypes in the book, so we are just going.

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Roll our random number generator

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and we got a four,

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which is the bruiser.

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You can take a beating and keep on, dishing it out.

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You gain two dice and resilience and one in and stay down.

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And for our special ability, if a combat roll would drop you to zero

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hit points, you may roll a D four and add those hit points instead.

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So a slight clarification on these special ability rules.

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So anytime you roll a D four in the game, you get to roll an additional D four.

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If that comes up as a four, you get to add one to your usage

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column on your character sheet,

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which will allow you to use your special ability whenever you would like.

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Again, as long as you have something in.

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So we got the Bruiser archetype, so all we need now is the name.

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So let's call ourselves Billy the Bruiser.

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So for our stat array, we're gonna give ourselves one D four in silver tongue.

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4 D four in resilience.

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That is our extra two for being a bruiser plus I added one of my additional dice,

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one D four for healing one D four for evil devices, two D four for athleticism

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because I added my other additional dice.

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One D four for scheming and two D four four and stay down.

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And of course we have zero uses for our.

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Special ability just yet.

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So with our 4 D four, that gives us a whopping 16 hit points.

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As Billy is a beefy boy.

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So we're gonna say that Billy,

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Billy never set out to be the B B E G.

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He was a big boy.

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People tried to pick on him for being the big boy.

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I mean, after all, everybody likes to pick on the big guy because.

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I mean, if you can take down the big guy that's just great for you,

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lot of unfairness and take and picking on the big guy.

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Cause if I fight back, well, you know, of course I'm gonna win.

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I'm the biggest and the strongest.

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But if they win, then oh good for them.

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They beat up the big guy.

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So ended up in a lot of scrapes that way and.

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When you end up in a lot of fights, you become known for fighting.

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And of course that caught, that caught the attention of some people who took

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me under their wing, showed me how, how that part of the world worked.

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And I learned what I could and developed what I could and eventually

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found myself in a position of.

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Running my own little piece of paradise.

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In fact, that's what I ended up calling the neighborhood, the piece

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of paradise, cuz it was mine and I got to run it the way that I wanted.

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But of course not everybody was too keen on the biggest and

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the strongest being in charge.

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So, They started contracting out, trying to find someone who could take me on

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and let's see who our enemies are.

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So there is a table in the back.

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That has enemies and allies, what they are trying to do and to what of yours.

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So I got four for my enemies, which is heroes of the realm.

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So the whole crux of this curve, fluffle, is the heroes of the realm

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are trying to take my ancient secret.

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Of course, my ancient secret is the fighting technique that I've been using.

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I was very fortunate to find a tutor in one of the lost arts of.

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Bare knuckle brawling but a very particular style of bare knuckle brawling.

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This isn't, this isn't just a street brawl, okay?

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I am a professional at this.

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This is how I have come to own peace of paradise, and apparently I have made

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too good of a name for myself because the heroes of the realm are trying

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to, are trying to get that secret.

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Luckily, this is not a secret that can be easily taken.

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It must be earned.

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So really it comes down to if these guys, if these guys can earn it.

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Now I do have a bit of an advantage.

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I do know that they are coming, so I think I'm going to spend the

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first part of my day just kind of rearranging piece of paradise.

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To help kind of funnel them in.

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So I'm gonna try to set up some blocking positions, some obstacles and whatnot.

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Not really traps per se.

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I'm just moving stuff into place to keep them from easily going wherever they

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want and funneling them to where I want.

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So that's gonna be my athleticism.

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And I got a one and a two, so that's gonna be a two for my

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result, which is a failure,

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unfortunately.

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Unfortunately, despite.

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Despite what I've been trying to do with a piece of paradise, the

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stuff that I needed to move around was just a little too heavy for me.

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We're talking large wagons, heavy crates, that sort of thing, and.

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It's not like, it's not like the residents are too keen on helping me out.

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So like I got, I got one or two pieces in place, but it was not

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creating the funnel I hoped for.

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And so I just kind of, I kind of gave up on it that this is a, this is a waste

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of effort, especially when I know I got a fight coming, I gotta focus on.

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So I guess the question is,

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are the heroes coming today?

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And we're gonna go ahead and use one D four for our Oracle, with one being no.

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An extreme no.

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And four being an extreme.

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Yes.

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So are these guys coming?

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That is an extreme.

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Yes, in fact, in fact, I would say that

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not only are they coming today,

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they caught me as I was trying to rearrange some of the stuff because.

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I thought I had more time.

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Obviously I did not.

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And of course, of course they come up behind me and they know who I

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am because I kind of stand out.

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But.

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They launch into some speech or another, and it's, it's the same

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speech, it's the same type of speech that I've heard a dozen times before.

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Oh, we're here to free the people and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,

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blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

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You, you would think that they all got this speech from the same person.

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Like, seriously, what are the bards in this town doing?

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They're not.

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What's the point of having Bards if they're not gonna write a

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good speech for your party?

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Instead, it's all just the same regurgitated stuff.

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I'm only mildly paying attention, you know, I'm trying to cash my breath.

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I was just trying to pick up a wagon.

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And finally I'm gonna just turn around and look at 'em and go, look, I.

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Y'all are trying to prove you're worth.

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How many are there?

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There are four of them.

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I'm rolling fours all night.

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This is great.

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Except I'm rolling fours for the good guys, so maybe not so great.

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But look, I get it.

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They're, y'all are trying to prove that you're worthy of this technique.

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The fact of the matter is I can't just hand it over.

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You do have to prove yourself.

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And four on one hardly seems like a fair fight, like a type of fight

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that really proves one's worth.

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So what do y'all say?

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That we settle this one-on-one and I'm going to use silver tongue rolling

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one D four for that and two failure.

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Yep.

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Only the good guys get to roll.

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Well, it seems even the dice are bias.

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So they ignore my request as they all seem to fan out around me.

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Now, are there any magic users in the party?

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One absolutely not.

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Good.

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Good.

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All all Ma Or correction?

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All Marshall types make sense.

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They wanna learn my fighting technique.

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Are there any ranged combatants?

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Two, no

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good deal.

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So I don't have to worry about anybody sitting in the back and

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trying to harass me that way.

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So it seems that.

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All four of them are going to circle around and attempt

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to engage me all at once.

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Now this is just fine by me.

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It's not the first time I fought a group of people.

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I'm gonna go ahead and give them all.

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I'm gonna give 'em all four hit points, so they will have a total of 16.

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That way things stay somewhat fair and I'm gonna go ahead and I'm

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going to charge at the first one

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rolling my two D four.

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And.

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A four.

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So I'm gonna go, I am just going to smash them in the face opening with

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a expert usage of this technique.

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They wanted to learn it, and I'm just showing them firsthand.

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Now, not only does that deal too damage to them, but I also get

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to roll to see if I get special.

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No, I do not get any charges to my special ability, but that is all right as that

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first guy is definitely feeling it.

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So as we said that there were no magic users or range types, we'll give

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everybody 2D four for their stay down.

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So the first one is going to attack me and they're also going to get a four.

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So I'm gonna take two damage.

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Next one, attacks.

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They miss third attack is a miss fourth attack, another two damage.

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After all, I am fighting four people and I'm just taking body blows to the back.

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You know, they seem to be focusing on my kidney.

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But two can play at that game as I am going to square up on the

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one that I smash in the face.

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And I'm going to continue to demonstrate the ancient technique that they

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so desperately wanted to learn.

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And that is another four.

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So he is going to drop to the ground

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and they only have three remain.

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But that also gives me a chance to charge up, and I do, I do get one use

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of my special ability, which is gonna come in real handy here in a minute.

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I have a feeling as I turn to face my new opponent and the three remaining.

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Get ready to attack.

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So for the first one, that is another two damage.

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Second one misses

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and third one misses.

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Great for me as I smile through,

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as I smile at them, my face twisting cuz after all, I've been

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hit in the face several times.

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My nose has been broken several times.

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This is not a pleasant smile and it twists by face into a not pleasant expression

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as I bring an elbow down on him.

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Luckily he seems to be a little quicker than his compatriot, so

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he only takes one point of damage

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as they go to respond.

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The first one misses.

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The second one does two damage, and the third one does two damage.

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So as things are standing right now, our heroes are sitting at 11 hp, three

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heroes, one of 'em on the ground.

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I am currently at six hp, things are not looking good.

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I'm starting to feel a little winded from these body blows,

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and I'm gonna let out a growl of anger and as.

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I bring my arms back before thrusting them forward towards

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my opponent's solar plexus.

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It's gonna be another four, so they're gonna go ahead and take

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another two points of damage,

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and I'm going to try and get an additional use outta my special ability, which I do.

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Very beneficial.

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This is the actual key to my special technique.

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It's going to be how well I can stay up because after all, I'm

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about to take another three attacks.

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First one deals, one second, one misses third, one deals two, so I

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lose another three in the exchange.

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Bringing me down to six.

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I'm feeling a little wobbly, a little woozy.

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I'm going to attempt to circle my opponents using some foot.

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Before throwing a haymaker, the intent is to knock out the one and

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send them crashing into the other

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double fours.

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So I'm gonna call that a success.

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With that regard, I successfully knock out the one that I had been dealing with and

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send them crashing into their compatriot.

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Chipping off a point of their health as well.

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I do not add another charge to my special ability.

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However, there are only two remaining heroes

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as they get ready to attack.

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I take two and one, so I take three points of damage.

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That's gonna take me down to zero.

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Luckily for my special ability, I get to roll one D four and

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regain that many hip points.

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Of course, it's only one,

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and I do not have the action economy for whack-a-mole to

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work in the way that I want.

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I am definitely gonna take that blow to the chin and sink to a

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knee, and as I hear them chuckle thinking that they may have done it,

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I'm going to yell out as I unleash an upper.

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A savage uppercut dealing another two points of damage

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and another use of my special ability, which is gonna come in really handy

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as any hit, is going to knock me.

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So for the first attack against me, that is two points of damage.

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So that'll knock me out maybe.

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All right, so I dropped zero.

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I regained one

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for the second attack.

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That is another two points, so I dropped back down to zero.

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Finally, I got a four.

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So I am back up to four Health.

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There are currently two opponents with five HP between them and I have

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no more uses of my special ability.

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So time to once again unleash what is hopefully a savage punch.

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This time to the jaw.

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I'm looking for that good night button on their chin,

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and that is a miss.

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Apparently I am a little winded.

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I'm a little too tired.

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I've taken three near knockout blows already.

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The first one is going to get one point against.

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And the second one's gonna get two.

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So I'm back down to one hp

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I will counter another miss.

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It seems that my time has finally run out.

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Yep.

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And they deal another.

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Two points of damage,

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but I did successfully take out two of them, almost took out three.

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And as I fall to my knee, my hands, and.

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I hold up a hand in a steadying motion as I chuckle softly.

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All right?

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All right.

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You two have proven yourselves worthy.

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I'll teach you two these two on the ground.

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You are gonna have to find something to do with them.

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I'll show you guys and I will find them quarters in a piece of paradise and

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begin their training in the ancient techniques of bare knuckle brawling.

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And that is B B E G.

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A very rules light game by maps inquest.

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Now I like this.

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This was, this was fun.

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This is, this was designed to be a very small concept.

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It was always intended to only be a short game.

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Something to do to kind of get a feeling for your villain.

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Kind of feel it out, see what it's like, see what you want to do with it, and.

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I think that,

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I think that there is a lot of potential in there.

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The entire booklet's only eight pages long, so definitely a

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lot of potential in there for

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filling in whatever you want to fill in.

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Fun game.

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Not, not bad at all to do, not bad at all to do solo.

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You do kind of have to, you do kind of have to be comfortable

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running solo campaigns with it.

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After all, this isn't, this isn't designed to give anybody really anything.

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Let alone a solo player without a gm.

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But you know, as you guys heard, as you guys saw, not that, not that hard to come

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up with something, you know, just come up with your, come up with your basic

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crazy villain, plot, whatever, whatever crazy villain thing you wanted to do, and.

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Just have fun with it.

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Just go ahead and roll through it.

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Roll through some of those crazy experiments or some of

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that rise to power type stuff.

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Cal Trip Core makes it very quick and easy to do.

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Cause after all, it's just, it's basically yes no, which, I mean, at the end of

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the day, most games are just yes, no, you know, just extra steps involved.

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A very, a very simplified mechanic system so that you can just roll through

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and have fun being evil and developing evil plans and seeing if those plants

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come to fruition, or if you're going to be a Saturday morning cartoon villain.

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You know, both are perfectly fine.

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But yeah, no, this was a, this was a great game.

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Mappy did a good job with it.

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Definitely.

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Definitely captures a vibe and I totally had fun with it.

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Totally endorse it.

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So if you would like to check out B B E G for yourself,

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you can.

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On itch for $5 at Maps dash inquest itch.

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DO IO slash B B E G.

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Again, low low price of $5.

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He does offer community copies for

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certain amounts of Certain amounts of regular copies sold, and he

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does routinely post this game to

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various bundles, or at least he did last year when he released it.

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So keep an eye out.

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Keep an eye out.

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Check out.

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Check it out.

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If you do decide to pick it up, make sure that you tell

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'em that steel stash sent you.

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And remember, I mustache y'all to stay.