You are a scholar working in the University of Arcadia. For your latest research project, you have been tasked with proposing a new theory for the disappearance of Hieronymus the Hearty. With full access to the University’s libraries, you must probe through the various aspects of Hieronymus’ life, gathering clues and building a theory. Will your theory shake the very foundations of history as we know it? Or will you craft a theory so embarassingly wrong that you could never show your face in Arcadia again?
Thoughts: This is a fun take on the mystery with a great resolution mechanic.
You can find Secrets and Scholars at https://crackerjackalope64.itch.io/secrets-and-scholars?ac=pEV55vHqdvG
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Greetings, weary wanderer, and welcome back to another episode
SteelStash:of Lonely T T R P G, the Solo Actual Play and Review podcast.
SteelStash:This week we are playing Secrets and Scholars, the Disappearance of Hieronymus
SteelStash:the Hardy by Cracker Jackalope.
SteelStash:Three centuries ago, the Great War broke out and the Wizard Hieronymus
SteelStash:the Hardy vanished without a trace.
SteelStash:Many historians have theorized their circumstances regarding the
SteelStash:disappearance, but none have been universally accepted as the truth.
SteelStash:That's where you come in.
SteelStash:You are a scholar working in the University of Arcadia for
SteelStash:your latest research project.
SteelStash:You have been tasked with proposing a new theory for the disappearance
SteelStash:of Hieronymus the Hardy . With full access to the university libraries,
SteelStash:you must probe through the various aspects of Hieronymus life gathering
SteelStash:clues and building a theory,
SteelStash:the disappearance of Hieronymus the Hardy is a solo journaling game
SteelStash:about research and student life.
SteelStash:The game is supposed to be lighthearted and fun.
SteelStash:If you find yourself in too dark a place and are no longer able to enjoy where
SteelStash:the story is taking you, it's okay to.
SteelStash:Rewind and try something else or walk away completely.
SteelStash:Additionally, you are not beholden to your dice roll or the cards you draw.
SteelStash:If you determine that something on the theme or clue tables that seems
SteelStash:outlandish or unfitting for the fiction you have written so far,
SteelStash:feel free to roll or draw again.
SteelStash:So your character is gonna have two stats.
SteelStash:You're gonna have analyze and theorize, analyze, understanding
SteelStash:in a text, discovering information, and following chains of citations.
SteelStash:Theorize is coming to your own conclusions, disputing biases, and
SteelStash:discussing your theory with others.
SteelStash:So for these two stats, you're gonna have one of two dice that
SteelStash:you're gonna use a D 10 or a D 12.
SteelStash:Assign one to one and one to the other when you're playing the game.
SteelStash:You are going to choose which skill you want to use to find your clues.
SteelStash:On a 10 plus, you find two clues.
SteelStash:On a five plus you find one clue on a three or four that is hijinks, no clue.
SteelStash:And on a one or two, that is a failure with no clue.
SteelStash:Now an important note.
SteelStash:If you do not find a clue, you also reduce that die by one level, so your
SteelStash:D 12 becomes a D 10, a D eight a D six, a D four to a D, two, For failures.
SteelStash:That is something seriously bad happening that prevents you from finding the clue.
SteelStash:High jinx is just something harmless but distracting.
SteelStash:Now, if you find that your dice levels are getting way too low, then
SteelStash:you can always take a study break.
SteelStash:Basically, you take a little bit of a break, you reset your dice
SteelStash:back to their maximum level.
SteelStash:Perhaps take a break yourself.
SteelStash:That might be a good idea, and then you can continue on the game.
SteelStash:Now, two notes.
SteelStash:You can only take one study break per game two.
SteelStash:That is gonna count as your action for that turn.
SteelStash:Now you have nine turns that you can do.
SteelStash:So when you take your study break, then you can only do eight more turns.
SteelStash:So that's eight opportunities to find clues.
SteelStash:If you take a study break
SteelStash:for the investigation, during the investigation, you're gonna
SteelStash:complete rounds of play until you've covered all nine topics.
SteelStash:Now these nine topics are.
SteelStash:Hieronymus childhood.
SteelStash:His family associates love life, magic, retirement, the war
SteelStash:detractors, and any other theories.
SteelStash:So for your round, what you're gonna do is you're gonna pick a topic to study.
SteelStash:You're gonna roll on the D 66 table, write an overview of the topic
SteelStash:and how it relates to the theme.
SteelStash:Then make an investigation role using either your analyze or theorized.
SteelStash:If you're successful, you draw one or more clues from the clue table and then
SteelStash:write about the clues and how they're linked to what you've written so far.
SteelStash:If you fail or run into hijinks, write about how you're
SteelStash:hindered from your research.
SteelStash:After that, you're going to continue on to your next clue.
SteelStash:Now when you run out of topics to study, or at any point that you feel
SteelStash:like you've made a good theory, you can move on to the deduction phase,
SteelStash:but you can only perform this once per game.
SteelStash:This is your final opportunity to lay out your case, so write down your
SteelStash:deduction and prepare to defend it.
SteelStash:Now in order to do that, you're going to roll for your deduction.
SteelStash:You're gonna start at a D two, but for every clue that you've
SteelStash:gathered, that dice moves up a level.
SteelStash:So no clues is a D two one clue is a D four.
SteelStash:Two clues is A D six three clues, D eight four clues, D ten five clues D 12.
SteelStash:Now, D 12 is the maximum, but any clue you find over five adds plus one to your role,
SteelStash:Now, of course, for your role on a one to two your theory is absurd.
SteelStash:No one is gonna believe that.
SteelStash:Three to four, it could use some more thoughts, should have
SteelStash:done some more research, but not strong, not bad, but not great.
SteelStash:On a five your theory is great.
SteelStash:It is certainly more believable than the previous theories, and on
SteelStash:a 10 plus your theory is incredible.
SteelStash:It is shaken scholars to the core and caused them to reevaluate everything they
SteelStash:knew about Hieronymus the Hardy, and then of course, make sure you close out by
SteelStash:writing down how your theory went, how it was presented, and how it was received.
SteelStash:The remainder of the book are your D 66 tables.
SteelStash:Okay, that's just rolling two D six and matching the dye
SteelStash:and then your clue tables.
SteelStash:So without any further ado, we're gonna dive on in.
SteelStash:I've already set up my game board with my nine topics.
SteelStash:I have chosen to assign my D 12 into analyzing my D 10 into theorize
SteelStash:now because I am using digital Dice.
SteelStash:That does allow me to roll things like a D nine, which you may or may not be
SteelStash:able to do at home, but we're gonna randomly choose what topics we get,
SteelStash:and for our first one, we get six, which is going to be retirement.
SteelStash:So we seem to be starting from the end.
SteelStash:With retirement.
SteelStash:Hieronymus was far removed from his work in magical studies.
SteelStash:By the time the Great War came and he disappeared, perhaps
SteelStash:what led to his downfall happen far after he stopped working.
SteelStash:When sudden Hieronymus retirement, consider what his last great act
SteelStash:of magic was before retiring.
SteelStash:How long did his retirement last before the war and who after all
SteelStash:this time was still in his life.
SteelStash:So we're gonna be thinking about that as we roll our two D six
SteelStash:and we got four, five.
SteelStash:And that is the greed theme.
SteelStash:So greed is a factor with Hieronymus retirement.
SteelStash:Now,
SteelStash:now that could have some interesting implications.
SteelStash:Let's go ahead and let's go ahead and roll our D 12.
SteelStash:We're gonna analyze our, we're gonna analyze our primary sources here, being
SteelStash:the good little scholar that we are.
SteelStash:We're gonna look at our contemporary accounts and see if we come up
SteelStash:with anything that might provide more insight into this greed.
SteelStash:And right off the bat, I roll a one.
SteelStash:So not only do I not get any clue, my analyze goes down to a D 10,
SteelStash:and that is a failure.
SteelStash:So it seems to me,
SteelStash:it seems to me that Hieronymus to Hardy obviously has a great reputation in.
SteelStash:Acadia.
SteelStash:So my, my suggesting that he came out of retirement for the war because
SteelStash:of greed, that retirement seemed to.
SteelStash:Cause a hole that he couldn't fill a hole in his soul that he
SteelStash:couldn't fill, and that it was his greed that brought him back out.
SteelStash:That did not go over well with the library staff.
SteelStash:And I was
SteelStash:as Hank Hill said, I was asked politely, yet, firmly to leave.
SteelStash:And yeah, that that's gonna make things awkward for a while, as now I have to,
SteelStash:now I lose a whole day in the library.
SteelStash:And then on top of all of that, I kinda have to sneak around for a little bit
SteelStash:because they don't like me right now.
SteelStash:All right, so with one topic already out, let us go ahead and see what is up next.
SteelStash:And that's gonna be magic.
SteelStash:So let's see what our magic theme is rolling our two D six
SteelStash:and we got 12.
SteelStash:So 12 is hiding.
SteelStash:Which is super interesting.
SteelStash:We're gonna analyze again because I feel like magic is, Hieronymus magical talent
SteelStash:is something that was highly documented.
SteelStash:But I am also very curious about this hiding.
SteelStash:So no whammies eight.
SteelStash:Eight is a success.
SteelStash:That is one clue.
SteelStash:So we get to draw one card and we got ourselves the nine of clubs.
SteelStash:So that clue is a house.
SteelStash:So hiding in a house with magic.
SteelStash:So some of the some of the prompts for magic are
SteelStash:when did his interest in magic begin?
SteelStash:What was his greatest magical act?
SteelStash:What happened when his magic failed?
SteelStash:I feel like,
SteelStash:I feel like Hieronymus was, I feel like Hieronymus went into
SteelStash:hiding at a particular house.
SteelStash:When his magic first started to manifest.
SteelStash:Yeah.
SteelStash:He had always been surrounded by magic and it's something that exists
SteelStash:in this world, but I think his particular talent kind of scared him
SteelStash:and he hid himself away for a little.
SteelStash:He wasn't quite sure what to do with it.
SteelStash:He wasn't quite sure how to respond to any of it, so yeah, he, and we
SteelStash:don't know where this house is.
SteelStash:He just, he hid himself away there until he got a handle on a handle on the magic.
SteelStash:So obviously the next question is,
SteelStash:the next question is, is that where he disappeared to?
SteelStash:Because while I didn't turn up much during retirement, like he was still around.
SteelStash:So did he run away to this house after everything was said and done?
SteelStash:But that is a topic of conjecture.
SteelStash:We don't have much to go on right now.
SteelStash:Instead, what we have to do is figure out what our next topic's gonna be
SteelStash:and.
SteelStash:I rolled retirement again, so I gotta re-roll.
SteelStash:All right, we got other theories.
SteelStash:So let's see what our theme for other theories is gonna be 34,
SteelStash:which is curiosity.
SteelStash:That is super non-helpful for other theories.
SteelStash:Of course, other theories are gonna have curiosity.
SteelStash:So for other theories we're looking at, many historians have
SteelStash:theorized as to the circumstances surrounding Hieronymus disappearance.
SteelStash:You figured it would be worthwhile to investigate these theories and
SteelStash:see if they're useful when you.
SteelStash:Investigating this topic, draw three times on the clue table.
SteelStash:Each clue will inform another theory you encountered in your research.
SteelStash:Hmm.
SteelStash:So I'm gonna draw three times, but because I'm doing this in a random
SteelStash:order, I think you're actually supposed to do this in order, but
SteelStash:because I'm doing this in a random.
SteelStash:I am gonna draw three times, but I'm gonna keep two of those cards face down
SteelStash:until I get more clues to work with.
SteelStash:Now also, as far as I know, these don't actually count as.
SteelStash:Clues.
SteelStash:So these will not count towards our deduction role, but as a
SteelStash:augmentation to our magic clue, we got ourselves the King of Clubs.
SteelStash:So I'm gonna slide that right under my nine.
SteelStash:And the King of Clubs is, Broken glass.
SteelStash:So broken glass doesn't really help or hurt my house hiding.
SteelStash:Really the only thing that we're going to adjust is instead of just
SteelStash:being an unknown house, we will say it is an unknown abandoned house.
SteelStash:As we will assume that the broken glass is, as we will assume, the
SteelStash:broken glass is shattered windows.
SteelStash:So moving on to our next topic, we got seven, which is detractors.
SteelStash:And for detractors, we know Hieronymus wasn't a perfect man.
SteelStash:He made plenty of mistakes throughout his career.
SteelStash:And his flaws could directly relate to his disappearance when
SteelStash:studying Hieronymus as detractors.
SteelStash:Consider what he did that was so controversial.
SteelStash:Who were the detractors?
SteelStash:And did the detractors live at the same time as Hieronymus
SteelStash:or are they scholars like us?
SteelStash:So we got 62 for our theme,
SteelStash:which is friendship.
SteelStash:And that is a
SteelStash:that's a really interesting theme to pull for detractors.
SteelStash:Hopefully we can get something with it.
SteelStash:I think at this point, I think at this point I'm theorizing.
SteelStash:I'm not researching anything.
SteelStash:I am, I am theorizing, attempting to figure something out making
SteelStash:some conjectures as to who his de tractors might have been.
SteelStash:And why they might be related to friendship, and that's a seven.
SteelStash:That's gonna be a success.
SteelStash:So that's gonna be another card.
SteelStash:And we got the Queen of Diamonds,
SteelStash:which is a flying carpet.
SteelStash:And to augment that, we got the eight of diamonds.
SteelStash:That's actually kind of freaky that I have matched suits on all my augmentations.
SteelStash:And the eight of diamonds is gonna be a diamond.
SteelStash:All right, so we have a flying carpet and a diamond, and we were talking about
SteelStash:friendship in relation to detractors.
SteelStash:So the nearest that I can configure is Hieronymus and.
SteelStash:One of his close friends, they were working on a project together,
SteelStash:and maybe this was during the war.
SteelStash:After all,
SteelStash:the ability to, the ability to observe the enemy is always a
SteelStash:key thing needed during war and.
SteelStash:So they were working on some way of
SteelStash:providing better observation on the battlefield.
SteelStash:And
SteelStash:the prize was, the prize was a diamond
SteelStash:and.
SteelStash:Hieronymus developed this flying carpet that would allow observers to rise
SteelStash:above the battlefield and be able to observe while also providing limited
SteelStash:capabilities for some type of strike where his friend was merely working
SteelStash:on some type of some type of scrying.
SteelStash:And so Hieronymus won the diamond.
SteelStash:But lost his friendship.
SteelStash:So this would just be an instance of, this would be an instance of Hieronymus
SteelStash:losing people along the way, and not even, like, not even losing them to
SteelStash:just a normal passage of time, but,
SteelStash:But over competition and contracts.
SteelStash:All right.
SteelStash:Next up we have childhood.
SteelStash:And 62 is our theme for childhood.
SteelStash:Just like last time, more friendship.
SteelStash:So I think this is gonna be the same friend that we lost
SteelStash:during the military competition.
SteelStash:But so we are going to continue to theorize and we are going to see if
SteelStash:we get any more clues, but we do not.
SteelStash:That was a failure.
SteelStash:So our theorize goes down to D eight.
SteelStash:So as our, as our line of questioning turns toward this friend,
SteelStash:I would say that, I mean obviously any friend of Hieronymus is going to be a
SteelStash:notable person as well, or will be or will develop into a notable person,
SteelStash:especially if they were both engaged in some sort of military competition.
SteelStash:And being a notable person, they are going to still have
SteelStash:followers even after all this time.
SteelStash:So I'm going to say that as we started,
SteelStash:as we started bouncing off the ideas of this friend and what this friend
SteelStash:might have meant to Hieronymus and to Hieronymus disappearance.
SteelStash:The people we talk with come up to us and pull us aside, and they
SteelStash:let us know that, hey, this might be a dangerous line of questioning
SteelStash:that we should probably abandon.
SteelStash:So we will, we will drop that.
SteelStash:As we move on to our next topic,
SteelStash:which is going to be associates, so what shall we learn about
SteelStash:Hieronymus Associates 36 redemption.
SteelStash:So things we need to ask ourselves many people worked with Hieronymus
SteelStash:from childhood friends to magical co scholars Hieronymus had a wide network.
SteelStash:When studying associates consider where did he meet the associate, how long did he
SteelStash:know them, and what did they think of him?
SteelStash:So I wanna see if we get a clue on this before I start making any conjectures.
SteelStash:We're gonna go back to analyze.
SteelStash:We're gonna research other associates.
SteelStash:Because I think we were onto something with a friend, and now I need to
SteelStash:know who to ask questions about.
SteelStash:So that is going to be an eight.
SteelStash:That is going to be a success.
SteelStash:And we got the six of hearts for our main one.
SteelStash:And the 10 of clubs for our supplementary.
SteelStash:So that is our last supplementary from our other theories.
SteelStash:So the six of hearts is a party and the 10 of clubs is a town.
SteelStash:So I feel like Hieronymus was
SteelStash:invited to this party in this small town just outside of Acadia and.
SteelStash:This was more of a who's who type party.
SteelStash:Only the most notable people would be there
SteelStash:and.
SteelStash:I think this is a, I'm gonna say this is an annual type thing,
SteelStash:or at least a regular thing.
SteelStash:So the first time it happens, Hieronymus like the first time it happens,
SteelStash:the accounts talk about the various people that Hieronymus and there are
SteelStash:letters and correspondence following the party, talking about research
SteelStash:projects and proposals that Hieronymus and these other people can work on.
SteelStash:And as time goes on, especially, especially after the war.
SteelStash:Those type of proposals stop coming.
SteelStash:Like there is a marked drop in letters after the party, especially
SteelStash:from people Hieronymus knows and would've known for a while.
SteelStash:Like, yeah, the new people who get invited will.
SteelStash:Will always shoot their shot, but where there was regular correspondence
SteelStash:prior to the war post-war, Hieronymus seems to be drawing in on himself.
SteelStash:So for our next topic, I am not even gonna roll.
SteelStash:We keep, we keep dodging around the war.
SteelStash:So let's go ahead and let's go ahead and dive on into that.
SteelStash:Let's explore the war and we got 35 for our theme, which is failure,
SteelStash:and that seems pretty on brand.
SteelStash:We're going to continue with our analysis
SteelStash:and we rolled a four, so our analysis goes down to a D eight.
SteelStash:Our analysis goes down to a D eight, so no clue for that, but it is high jinx
SteelStash:or distraction, and I feel like the distraction is getting sucked into, sucked
SteelStash:into all the different accounts of the.
SteelStash:It becomes harder to isolate particular, particular clauses and instances when
SteelStash:this whole thing was a, this whole thing was a bloody mess of information.
SteelStash:But regardless of, regardless of all of that, like we do know that
SteelStash:we do know that Hieronymus left the war with a sense of failure.
SteelStash:Which again, we saw manifesting itself with
SteelStash:losing his best friend, with withdrawing in on himself at the at the party.
SteelStash:So
SteelStash:it feels like, it feels like Hieronymus felt some type of responsibility for the
SteelStash:war and the outcome and what happened and.
SteelStash:It seems that his guilt eventually caught up with him.
SteelStash:It seems that his guilty conscience eventually caught up with him,
SteelStash:not saying that he was necessarily guilty of anything, but war does
SteelStash:terrible things to the mind.
SteelStash:So we're gonna go ahead and we're gonna go ahead and roll our deduction.
SteelStash:All right.
SteelStash:We know that Hieronymus when he started out, hit himself in an abandoned house.
SteelStash:We don't know where that house was.
SteelStash:We know that he lost his best friend.
SteelStash:Due to a competition during the war, he left the war feeling like a failure, and
SteelStash:that caused him to withdraw in on himself.
SteelStash:So our conjecture is going to be that because of all of this Hieronymus retired
SteelStash:again, back to that, that unknown.
SteelStash:Now we have three clues, so that moves us up to a D eight,
SteelStash:which means we have just under a coin flipped chance of our
SteelStash:theory being good enough.
SteelStash:That's a two.
SteelStash:As we present our theory, as we present our theory, we are
SteelStash:politely dismissed, but we know that we know that nobody believes us that.
SteelStash:We apparently misinterpreted all of our data.
SteelStash:After all the great Hieronymus the hardy withdrawing in on
SteelStash:himself and running away.
SteelStash:That is not, that is not the wizard that this world know.
SteelStash:But with that, that is, that is Secrets and Scholars by Cracker Jackalope.
SteelStash:So I really enjoyed this game.
SteelStash:I do like, I do like mystery games.
SteelStash:I like the way that this one is set up,
SteelStash:the investigation.
SteelStash:The investigation is fun.
SteelStash:The combination of theme and clue is definitely a, is definitely
SteelStash:a novel concept that we haven't run across yet on this channel.
SteelStash:And I really enjoyed that.
SteelStash:I really enjoyed the way that that worked together.
SteelStash:I partly, That there was a little more connective tissue between the theme
SteelStash:and the clues because you know, it's one of those, you roll a juicy theme,
SteelStash:but then you fail your clue roll so you don't have much to do with it.
SteelStash:So that could, that could potentially be disappointing, but,
SteelStash:When it works, it works nicely and it works really well together.
SteelStash:So yeah, it's definitely, it's definitely worth doing all your roles for the
SteelStash:round before looking anything up.
SteelStash:Like there's no point in figuring out what the theme is gonna be
SteelStash:unless you're going to get a clue.
SteelStash:But realistically, my biggest complaint in the book and the setup
SteelStash:is when you look at the theme table, they use the face of the dice.
SteelStash:And while that is, while that is aesthetically pleasing, it is a, it is a.
SteelStash:Good artistic choice.
SteelStash:It makes readability kind of difficult and annoying.
SteelStash:I would've almost much rather preferred that they just use the
SteelStash:numbers instead of the dice face.
SteelStash:It would've made it a little, or it would've made it a lot easier to
SteelStash:look up what my roles actually were.
SteelStash:But all in all, this is definitely a fun game.
SteelStash:This is a, this is a fun little game.
SteelStash:If you enjoy mysteries, then this is a good one.
SteelStash:I really enjoy how a lot of the mystery games I've played
SteelStash:have found ways to.
SteelStash:Maintain the mystery
SteelStash:and the use of building a theory and then rolling on your deduction table
SteelStash:to confirm that theory is great.
SteelStash:I really enjoyed that.
SteelStash:Very, very nice.
SteelStash:Some of the other mysteries that we've played, Have had resolution mechanics
SteelStash:that were kind of disappointing like weekend in the countryside.
SteelStash:Great.
SteelStash:I love the, I love the clue gathering aspect of it, but you know, trying to win
SteelStash:a game of five cards stud is, is annoying.
SteelStash:Like it's way too easy.
SteelStash:Not get anything.
SteelStash:And now you're like, now you're running out of options and suspects
SteelStash:fantasy land, confidential, that, you know, that was another
SteelStash:mystery that we played also.
SteelStash:Great game.
SteelStash:But
SteelStash:again, you had a, you had.
SteelStash:Problem of running out of suspects with the way that the
SteelStash:resolution mechanics worked.
SteelStash:And so the resolution mechanics in this, in seekers and scholars is really nice.
SteelStash:I definitely enjoyed the fact that the more clues you gathered, the more likely
SteelStash:it was that your theory would be correct, or at least that your theory would.
SteelStash:Seen as academically worthy.
SteelStash:For us, it was just a case of it's late and we've pretty much shown what
SteelStash:you guys need to see in order to.
SteelStash:In order to dive on into this game and have a good time,
SteelStash:but a good time you can have with this game and if you enjoyed it.
SteelStash:You can find secrets and scholars on itch at Crackerjack Elope 60
SteelStash:four.itch.io/secrets-and-scholars, and it is currently pay what you want,
SteelStash:but again, remember.
SteelStash:At least tos, at least toss some money towards the creator.
SteelStash:Cuz after all, we want these people to continue to enjoy what they do and
SteelStash:make a little bit for the time that they put in in our entertainment.
SteelStash:But if you do pick it up, make sure you tell 'em that Steel stash sent ya.
SteelStash:And remember, I mustache y'all to stay Awesome.