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Lonely TTRPG EP 46 - Wreck This Deck by Becky Annison
Episode 46 • 7th June 2023 • Lonely TTRPG • Black Dragon Dungeon Company
00:00:00 00:16:35

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Wreck This Deck is a dark urban fantasy game of solo journaling, demon summoning and deck crafting. Summon and bind demons into your Demon Deck, defacing the cards as you go. Demon summoning is dangerous and you're bound to get into some sticky situations as you play but it's nothing you can't handle - right?

Thoughts: This is a fascinating looking game that has some very interesting mechanics to it.

You can support Wreck This Deck at https://www.backerkit.com/c/black-armada-games/wreck-this-deck-a-game-of-demon-summoning-and-deck-crafting and find the rest of Black Armada's games at https://blackarmada.itch.io/

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, weary Wanderer and welcome back to Lonely, T T R P G,

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the Solo Actual Play and Review podcast.

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This week we are talking about Wreck This Deck by Becky Annison.

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And I say, talking about because little bit about me.

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I'm a big old pansy when it comes to the supernatural.

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I have legit seen some weird things that I can't explain, experienced some

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weird things that I can't explain.

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And I know this is a game.

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I know, I know.

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Trust me, I know this is a game.

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This almost feels a little too real for me, but we're gonna talk about it anyway

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because I do think that it is fascinating.

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So Wreck This deck is a solo journaling game where you play as a deck runner.

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So a deck runner is somebody who uses their deck of cards in

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order to trap and bind demons in order to perform acts of service.

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Powerful magics, hexes, and assist in fortune telling.

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And that's the basic loop of this gameplay.

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All right?

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You're gonna do some fortune telling.

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You're going to attempt to divine the nature of the problem.

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You will attempt to capture some demons and bind them to the cards in your

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deck, trapping them in your deck through some means whatever means possible.

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And then you will then use those demons in order to perform

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rituals to aid your community.

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So to start out, you're gonna choose a name, and you're gonna choose a true name.

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You're gonna choose a community that might have certain problems.

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All right?

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You're gonna create this community and then you're gonna get ready to play.

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Now, to play, you're gonna need a standard deck of cards with

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jokers, and then things like

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markers, paint, scissors, needle thread.

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Whatever you want.

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All right.

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The game is called Wreck Your Deck because you are going to be wrecking this deck

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as you play and progress.

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You are gonna be doing various things to modify the cards, like right off the rip.

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To start out, you're gonna take your jokers.

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On both jokers you're gonna draw a protection symbol.

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And on one of the jokers, you are gonna write your true name.

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Now, the reason this is gonna come into play is while you are going through

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the game, if you pull a joker and you pull the one with just a symbol

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of protection, that is an indication that someone is trying to hex you.

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But if you pull the one with your true name,

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Then that is an indication that another deck runner is trying to reach out to you.

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So, like I said, the game loop on this is going to be fortune telling.

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Ritual and demonn trapping.

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Now for fortune telling, you're gonna use a variety of different

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fortune telling spreads.

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You can use the ones provided for you in the book, or you can also

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use any spreads that you can find online or determine for yourself.

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This game book, on many occasions, references that the more you do this,

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the more powerful your deck is gonna be, the more personalized it's gonna be.

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And the more likely you are to develop your own rituals and

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interpretations based on that.

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But with the provided examples, there are several paths that you can do to

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try and help divine some bit of fortune.

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So, for example, you might take the path of demons in order to determine

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which demon would best be able to aid you, how to bind them, how to

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attract them, what it's gonna cost.

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You can take the path of action to determine what actions you need

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to take or the path of lies to determine what you believe is true.

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And with that, you're going to be interpreting that through the table.

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Provided for you,

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for rituals for designing and carrying out rituals.

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You're gonna use your deck and they should . Be able to do two things

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using magic to affect the world around you and extending your senses

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in the world or the demonic realm.

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Now, a ritual should have a goal, one or two cards that correspond to the

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goal, one or two demon cards, and a focus such as gestures, herb, sigils,

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words of power, something like that.

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You know, something to help juice up the magic.

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Now if you have a pretty full deck and you've trapped a lot of demons in it,

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then you can mark an X on some cards with like tape or something else that's kind of

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removable in order just to make it like a blank card and let that demonn know that

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you're not really trying to summon them.

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But , you're going to set up your ritual and then you're gonna finish

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it by drawing cards at random from the remainder of the deck.

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So you're gonna draw one card for the ritual and one for the demon you used.

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Now in order for your ritual to succeed, you only need to draw a single red card.

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If you draw only black cards, then something has gone wrong somehow.

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And if any of those black cards is a face card, then there's a backlash

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that's gonna injure your deck.

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And those deck injuries can also cause things like the demons to

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get out, weaken their confinement, run amuck, that sort of thing.

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Finally, you do need to trap demons into this deck

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and trapping demons works exactly like a ritual with a few exceptions.

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One, you don't need to use any demon cards in the ritual in order to trap them.

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Two, you must choose a card to trap the demon that corresponds most closely with

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the traits of the demon you want to catch.

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If you're not sure what card to use, you can use the fortune telling table

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to help out, and you don't need to draw cards to finish the ritual.

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It's automatically successful.

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It's almost like the demon wants to be in the deck, and that is not worrying at all.

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Nothing to worry about.

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Now for some of these demons, they are known and the rituals for

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trapping them are well documented.

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And this does provide a list of what those demons are,

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and it provides a lovely list of multiple, multiple demons that you

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can use as well as how to trap them.

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Plus any type of needs or complications that

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will occur if something were to go wrong or to try and help with

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improving the odds of your ritual.

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So that is the basic gist of Wreck this deck.

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All right.

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Now here's the thing.

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Like I said, this is a fascinating game.

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This is a fascinating game.

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It is designed as a solo game, but there are multiple

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references to other deck runners.

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So the thing about it is, yes, you were going to be performing

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the rituals by yourself.

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You are gonna be keeping your journal.

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By yourself.

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All of this is going to be done by yourself as a solo game,

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but there appears to be quite a vibrant community surrounding it.

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So hop in on social media and using the hashtag wreck this deck with what

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happened during your ritual, pictures of your cards, your trappings, any

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of that are great ways to engage with others while also playing this game.

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Now, like I said, I am not going to do a real demonstration on

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this because I'm a big old pansy.

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I am a big old pansy.

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I do not want to attempt to invoke anything because I do not have anything

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in my office to really set up any type of protection or any type of settings to.

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Keep myself actually safe in the physical world.

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All right.

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As it was just reading this, reading through this book to get a handle

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on everything, to talk about it, you know, I'm hearing weird sounds

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and everything in the house.

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Now I got it.

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It's late for me.

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It's 11 o'clock at night.

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It's dark outside.

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I'm hearing animals outside.

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I'm hearing my dogs in their kennels.

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I'm hearing my house settling.

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I know all of this for an objective fact.

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That does not change the fact that my lizard brain is going, why am I

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hearing all these weird sounds while I'm reading a game about trapping demons?

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All right.

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I am a big pansy, but, but for those of you who are not giant pansies about

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this, again, a fascinating thing.

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A fascinating thing to look into.

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I really like the mechanics.

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I really like the mechanics of this.

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The act of physically altering your deck.

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Another reason why we're not playing, cuz I don't know how to do that on video.

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I mean, as you can see with my current setup, you can't even

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see the card that I've drawn.

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If I hold it way back here, you can, but with my current setup, I would not

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even be able to show you what I'm doing.

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But just the act of like physically transforming the deck and

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making it something to help out.

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Like just marking those cards and doing those intentional acts of, Hey,

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this card is now for this, you know, I have trapped this thing in here.

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It belongs in here now.

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That is a really interesting mechanic that I like.

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Of course, that very intentional ritualistic act is also another

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reason why I'm not doing it.

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Cause again, giant pansy.

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Things that I am not ashamed of.

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All right.

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But there are some thi, like there are some things that make this potentially

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interesting which kind of stepping outside the bounds of traditional solo play.

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But as I said in the talking about solo episode, here's the thing, all

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right, we can also use solo games to enhance our other play, our other

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games, and our other play styles.

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So, for example, I am in a Call of Cthulhu game.

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I play a gambler in that game.

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If I had run across, wrecked this deck earlier, because I strongly believe that

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we are approaching the end game of this.

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If I had run into this game earlier in my Call of Cthulhu campaign, I really think

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that I would've had my character do this.

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This absolutely seems like something that my character would've ended up doing,

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and that would've added a whole different interesting aspect to that

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game and to my gameplay of that.

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Now, would I have done this as part of the group, like actually in session?

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I don't know, maybe.

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I might have just done it with the gm.

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I might have just done it like on my own and then told the GM about it.

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But like, this absolutely feels like something that I could have

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done that would've made my gambler character that much more unique.

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And really that's where I see the strength in this happening.

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In both the community aspect creating some type of.

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Creating some type of community where you and a group of deck runners

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are responsible for the community.

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So you each through your tasks individually, you each have your

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individual responsibilities.

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It is very solo in that regard, but then you have your other deck

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runners that you're playing with.

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That you can bounce ideas off of, that you can develop scenarios off of.

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You know, for those of you who for those of you who like horror podcasts,

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think of it like the different hollers in old Gods of Appalachia.

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A lot of very solo activity among the people, but it is all

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working towards one common goal.

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So you could create a situation like that where you each have your own

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holler, you each have your own town, what have you along this region, and.

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You're in communication, you're talking back and forth with each other

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and actually playing up that deck runner, that deck runner community.

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And then of course, you can always have the fun little bit of

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having your crossover events where you all kind of get together for a bigger threat.

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Your season ending threat.

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And that's the other thing, like this game feels like it would be the most strong.

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Not sitting down and doing any type of like dedicated play throughs, but instead

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doing one session every once in a while.

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All right.

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This feels very much like a play occasionally type game.

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Whereas most of the games that we featured on this podcast have been

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very, you can sit down and you can play them for the duration.

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They're all designed to be played through for the duration.

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This one definitely feels more like, Hey, today I'm going

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to do some fortune telling.

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And then you think about that for a little bit and you make some notes down

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in your journal and you carry on with your regular, normal, non-game life.

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And then it's like, you know what?

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You know what?

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There's some weirdness or there's some issue going around at work.

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I'm gonna pretend that my community is.

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Having a problem related to that and we're gonna do a ritual, or,

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you know, what might be interesting if I, you know, I did a ritual for

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this type of thing, but you know, in order to do that, then I need to

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figure out what type of demon to find, and I need to trap and bind the demon

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and then we'll perform the ritual and then let that play out and do that.

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And so that, that feels definitely like the best use of this, which of

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course makes it very difficult to kind of feature on this pod as our

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format is very much sit down and play.

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But regardless of how you try to do it, this game definitely looks like it

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has a lot of potential for a good time.

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And if you think so as well the.

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Best way for a public release is going to be backing them on Backer Kit.

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This game is currently in Backer Kit.

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They are trying to get a print run of this game nearest.

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I can tell the only copy available digitally is currently through their

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Patreon, but their backer kit is up.

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It's actually already fully funded, but.

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Hop on that and you will definitely guarantee yourself a copy.

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They got digital copies going for

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10 pounds,

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which should be what, 11 or 12 American.

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So head over there, give them a pledge or wait to see if they do just a

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general release when it comes out.

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I am sure that they will they do look like they have a ton of other great games over

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on their itch page, which you can find at.

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Black armada.itch.io and I'll go ahead and drop that down in the show notes as well.

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But that's it for this week.

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I've been steel stash and remember I mustache y'all to stay Awesome.