Its beginning to feel a lot like Symbaroum
Hello, and welcome to episode 247, the Christmas 2024 episode of Effect. It's beginning to feel a lot like simaroon everywhere you go. I am not Frank Sinatra. I am Dave.
Matthew:Definitely not Frank Sinatra. I'm Matthew, and we have got, actually a surprisingly packed episode.
Dave:Surprisingly packed.
Matthew:We've got a great interview with Matthias, which is all about Syndrome, which, of course, is the meat of this subject. And then Which
Dave:is which is why it's beginning to feel a lot like cimberoon.
Matthew:Yeah. Yeah. I I know the title date. I know
Dave:you go. Sorry. I can feel something that's gonna happen regularly in the show today now.
Matthew:And I can see you did say you were gonna try not to sing it, but obviously
Dave:I know.
Matthew:I'm your attempt to not sing it failed twice now.
Dave:Immediately. Yeah. I think it always was gonna fail immediately, frankly. Just seeing it there. I can't read that without singing it.
Matthew:That's good.
Dave:To feel a lot like.
Matthew:Do you wanna
Dave:put those show notes
Matthew:up on tag so it's just off the top of your screen?
Dave:Should I
Matthew:Because
Dave:Shall I see we
Matthew:were gonna keep we were gonna keep our chat, this chat that we're having now, Dave, quite short because we've got a good 40 minutes, if not more, of, your man, Matthias. So, you know, if we're gonna keep within the hour, we need to keep this bit short. And that means not not frequently singing, it's beginning to feel a lot like cimbering.
Dave:It's beginning to feel a lot like cimbering. Everywhere. I think I think you've got the message now. Every time you say cimbering, I'm gonna sing with the friends.
Dave:So this is the test. Can you can you go through the episode without episode about Simbirum without saying Simbirum?
Matthew:Well, I can because the other things on the world of gaming or the other things we want to talk about in the next 15 minutes or so are the world of gaming, which is surprisingly packed. Actually, I thought it was gonna be a a quiet world of gaming slot, this week, but it's, there's a lot of news to talk about. So we'll talk about that news. And then, of course, we've got, old west news for those of you who haven't already received our email from Kickstarter or subscribe to our mailing list on, www.effectpublishing.com. And, you've got our email there.
Matthew:Those two emails are subtly different, I want to point out. It's not the same text just copied and painted pasted. We we, you know, we we serve our different audiences differently.
Dave:We like to test you with a with a, you know, with a with a typo or two to make sure you can, you know, especially when Matthew is writing it. Yeah.
Matthew:Yeah. So we got some old best news, and then we've got the interview. So but we moved straight away here at 3:16. So
Dave:what what's the interview about later on?
Matthew:I'm not gonna tell you what the interview is about. It's about the work that Matthias has been doing and is planning to do at Freely Publishing.
Dave:On what game line in particular?
Matthew:Oh, well, the what we like to call the team Yarn Ringing game line.
Dave:I'm gonna catch you out at some point in the next 4 minutes.
Matthew:I'm sure you are.
Dave:Anyway, yes. Sorry about that.
Matthew:Now, so, we have the most important thing now in the world of gaming, which, Dave, we started talking about about 45 seconds ago. But you were thinking about trying to get me to say the word that I'm not gonna mention.
Dave:It's a bit it's a bit harsh on Matthias, isn't it, to to now have a whole episode actually promoting what he's doing on SimbaRoom and not say the word SimbaRoom. Anyway That's
Matthew:that's absolutely fine. You've said the word and said the word more often than strictly necessary. Now, the the big news, the important news is Tales of the Old West is on end world's poll for the most anticipated game of 2025.
Dave:Yeah. So how did it get on that list? Did you just ask them? Or
Matthew:No. Somebody
Dave:Wow.
Matthew:Who isn't me. Somebody who isn't me. So, a couple of weeks ago, I I noticed that, actually, we talked about this while I was at Dragon Meat. A bit before Dragon Meat, your man, Morris of M World put out a blog post or whatever you might call it on his forum. Forum.
Matthew:Forum post. That's what it's called. Those little things, saying, nominate your games for, most anticipated
Dave:game. Anticipated. Yep.
Matthew:There's a bunch of rules. It can't just be a reprint, but it can be a new addition, I think, of a game. It can't be a supplement. There's there's some stuff like that. Yeah.
Matthew:You've got to include a link to to the, to the thing, you know, to the website. Yep. Yep. So Moeller still doesn't have to go off looking for it.
Dave:Find himself. Yeah.
Matthew:And then he puts up a list, which he did a few days ago now, Tuesday last week or something like that. Wednesday, Tuesday. And you if you can go to the Nworld website, which we will put a link to in the show notes directly, in fact, to the link. You have to be a member of Nworld, so you've got to sign up for Nworld. No big deal.
Matthew:It doesn't cost you any money or anything. And it's quite a good site for keeping on top of the news. Mhmm. And some nice articles and blogs and stuff. Your mate, Andrew Peregrine, writes there quite frequently.
Dave:Yes.
Matthew:Yeah. So, yeah, a good thing. I mean, you know, n world let's remember, n world is the birthplace of the n e's. They've become a separate organization now, but n world is, you know, one of the most important sites for for gaming as a whole. Anyway, sign up for Nworld, and then you can vote for 3 games on that list.
Matthew:Just tick the boxes by them and press vote, and you're done. Yep. So you don't have to just vote for us. But if you're listening, if you're listening, please, please go and vote for us because particularly if you've already backed, Tales of the Old West because you want lots of people to play with. And
Dave:Yes. The
Matthew:more recognition the game gets, and more people hear about it even even through end world, you know, it end world is slightly D and D skewed, it's gonna be said, because that's that's where its origin was in. So there's a lot of, people who read it who may not have heard about Tales of the Old West. Although we did they wrote something nice about us when we had the Kickstarter going in their sort of Kickstarter roundup. So, yeah, please vote. See see if we can get up in the ranks.
Matthew:I'm not expecting to be the most anticipated game of 2025 because I think there are some big licenses. There's Discworld. There's Monty Python all coming up next year.
Dave:New new alien.
Matthew:New alien. I don't know whether new alien is on the list, actually. I think it is. Yeah. Interesting thing.
Dave:It is.
Matthew:Okay. Personally, I wouldn't have nominated it because I'm not convinced it's actually gonna be out next year. You may know differently, but, if they're kick starting it next year, then, you know, seeing how long That's
Dave:true. That's true. I'm pretty sure. So I I looked at the list. I'm sure it's there, Alien Evolved.
Dave:Yeah.
Matthew:It might be. It might be. You know, you're, you know, you're you're allowed to assume it's coming. I I if I'd been nominating, I wouldn't have put it down. Korea list, The Great Dark, should be coming out in the coming year.
Matthew:So Yeah. That is in there. But I didn't put it down. Anyway, so we're on the list. Please vote for us at the link we'll put down in the show notes.
Dave:Yes. Please do. That'd be cool.
Matthew:If you're already Nworld members, do that. Oh, the one ring.
Dave:The one ring.
Matthew:There's a new book out for the one ring.
Dave:The elf book.
Matthew:Yes.
Dave:So is that The
Matthew:2 elf books.
Matthew:one to one ring.
Dave:Or was that out for pre order?
Matthew:It's up for pre order, but I think when you pre order, you immediately get the PDF.
Dave:Right. Okay. Cool.
Matthew:Which kind of tempted me. Kind of tempted me, I have to admit. But I've stayed strong because and also I've stayed brassic because having been to Iceland and, a few months ago bought bought a new guitar, I don't have any money anymore. So so, yeah, I'm strong on that one. I'm kinda really curious though because I play an elf in the campaign, so I wanna see what new elf powers one gets.
Dave:Yeah. So what what's what's the book gonna cover then? Do you do we know?
Matthew:So, of course, it comes in 2 flavors. For the 1 ring, it's Realms of the 3 Rings.
Dave:Yeah. And
Matthew:for Lord of the Rings, it's Keepers of the Elven Rings. Yeah. Cool. And, there are rules. There's background law.
Matthew:There's artwork and more, it says.
Dave:Okay. Cool. I mean, I'm I'm not getting this stuff because I don't think I'm ever gonna run the one ring.
Matthew:That's fine. That's fine.
Dave:And I and I don't know anyone who's got it who I expect might run it in a game that I would be involved. And I I'm not I'm not feeling the urge to play it either. I don't know why. I I really enjoyed running the, the starter set adventures with all the all the hobbits for, for UK Games Expo that time. That was great fun.
Dave:But, yeah. I don't know why it should, because I love Lord of the Rings.
Matthew:I'm I'm loving the system. And I've gotta say, I play an elf, and, elves, one realizes, are bloody shits, basically. And they're arrogant fuckers.
Dave:But perfect for you. You're not really roleplaying then, are you, mate?
Matthew:No. I'm not really. I'm just being myself. And there's the wonderful ability that you can pretty much do anything by spending a hope point. Right.
Matthew:Well, I
Matthew:have to slightly caveat that. In the first printing, it said you can pretty much do anything by spending a hope point. Now you've gotta have at least one point in the skill that is related to it and spend the hope point.
Dave:Right.
Matthew:But still, it means that, you know, you you you can you can have some you can do that thing where, in from the films where your man, Aragorn is
Dave:Okay.
Matthew:Feeling the earth. No. Aragorn is feeling the earth, and he's, you know, he's hearing about and he he he senses that there's maybe, horsemen or something chasing them. And, Legolas just looks up and says, oh, yeah. There's 27 of them, and they're blonde or whatever it is.
Dave:And they're over there. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah.
Matthew:So you you do that. You do that quite a lot. I quite like in doing that with my fellow players just to piss them off. So, yeah. There's that.
Matthew:There's, there's details on Lorien, Rivendell, and Lindon, details of Sauron's schemes against the immortal folk, including new events, enemies, and characters, 12 landmarks, which are kind of mini adventure sites,
Dave:Yeah.
Matthew:And the rules of lordship, a robust appendix containing guidelines for creating and playing as high elves of Rivendell or the elves of Lorien and the elf lords, which, you know, might might be good, especially suited for solo play, apparently. Okay.
Dave:Well, that's that's that's that I mean, you should get it and and see what that sort of acts. You got some solo rules to write, haven't you, mate?
Matthew:Oh, yeah. We have. We can talk about that a bit later on. Anyway, that that's out. And if Cool.
Matthew:If you're not Dave and you are kind of thinking what? I like elves, but I haven't got tales of the one ring yet. There's also a tales of the one ring.
Dave:Tail tales of the one ring?
Matthew:Tales of the one ring. What do I mean? The one ring.
Dave:McFly? McFly? Are you in there? Tales of the one ring? What are you doing?
Matthew:Well, it's it's it's great. It is
Dave:it is quite early on.
Matthew:We're announcing it now. It's our new year 0, engine ad adaptation.
Dave:It's a crossover between Lord of the Rings and and and Wild West, Tales of the One Ring.
Matthew:Anyway, Yeah. If you haven't if you haven't got Lord of the Ring sorry. If you haven't got now you got me confused.
Dave:The 1 ring.
Matthew:There is a bundle of holding currently on bundle of holding, to get the whole caboodle. Not obviously the new Elf book, but, everything else that's out in in PDF form for cheap money.
Dave:Cheap money.
Matthew:So anyway, that that that's that's all I wanted to say about that. What other news have we got? Oh, god. I've got all the news actually, because you know nothing about, the Pentagon GM Sky.
Dave:I've been far too busy trying to get what work I needed to do done by Christmas, which I didn't quite manage, but it's okay, to actually have any to actually have any time to sit back and indulge in in the hobby that I I love and read anything.
Matthew:Well, they do say this about people who create games. What work have you been doing? Could you give us any subtle hints?
Dave:Finishing off
Matthew:Can I have the same thing specifically?
Dave:Finishing off the campaign for the mythic battles Ragnarok project that Monolith is producing. So that's the game which is, that they have a they have a board game called mythic battles, and they are, converting it into role playing game. And so you've got the Ragnarok, the Norse mythology, setting, which is what I'm working on. You also have the pantheon, so you've got the Greek, gods, the Greek mythology one as well. And if those go well, they are gonna look at doing an Egyptian, mythology one too.
Dave:But I've been working on the Ragnarok one, which has been great fun, actually. It's been really good. It's, but I'm working on the the the campaign that comes with the gem screen. There's 3 scenarios, and I hope hope to get it all done before Christmas. But, one thing and another got in the way.
Dave:So I haven't quite finished it, but that's okay because,
Dave:I've been chatting with Shep about it. So Shep Shep Shepson is the the project manager for Monolith on this,
Matthew:which is great
Dave:because it's fabulous working with Shep again. He's he's a he's a real real pleasure to work with.
Matthew:Yeah. Lovely guy.
Dave:He's really great. Yeah. And so that's been a lot of fun. It's quite funny because I I having a Swedish wife and and enjoying kind of some of the the It's really folklore.
Dave:The differences about Swedish or Scandinavian culture. I really got into using, letters from, you know, all the Swedish languages, you know, Finnish and Icelandic in particular.
Matthew:When you say letters, you mean the actual glyphs as opposed to Yeah.
Dave:The the
Matthew:a letter what I wrote to father Christmas.
Dave:Yeah. So the letters from from their alphabets, which Yeah. Say for example, in Swedish, you've got, 3 or 3 extra letters, or, a, and you have Mhmm. Symbols for those. So I've used I've I've I've I've scattered those amongst my work.
Matthew:Excellent.
Dave:Because, well, it's not it's not quite so. But because because some of the particularly some of the Icelandic ones become quite difficult to pronounce.
Matthew:Oh, yes. I've just been to Iceland.
Dave:We had a message come down saying, okay, take them all out except for the ones that we need for the word Ragnarok, which has got the symbol. So all the lovely all the lovely culturally thing you know, culturally, you know, indicative stuff that I've done has to be changed. But that's not a problem. It's quite easy. And I can understand why because even I was struggling to pronounce some of the words that I've made up.
Dave:So if if if I, as the writer, couldn't do it, then it's it's not fair to expect the the players to
Matthew:Me and players to do it.
Dave:But yeah. So that I was hoping to finish that by close of play yesterday. We didn't quite get down, not yesterday, Friday, 2 days ago, at the time of recording. Didn't quite get there, so we've got a bit more to do between Christmas and New Year. And I've got to finish off a little bit of work for Free League as well on Alien Evolved, which is mostly done, but the work is mostly about taking the words out of that one rather than do anything else.
Dave:Is it off is ever the way with Free League? But, but that's fine. They're quite they're quite strict on their word counts, at least with me. Yeah. Maybe maybe the the experience of having having Drew provide them with 3 times more words than they actually want.
Matthew:Yeah. They they don't seem to be that strict with Drew, did they?
Dave:Well, I think they are. And actually, I've got away with more words than than they've asked a few times as well, but they've just gone off. Fuck it. Go on then. But, yeah, they're quite strict on that.
Dave:So I'm trying I'm trying to be a good freelancer and and stick to those word limits if I can.
Matthew:Yeah. I remember when we were writing the little supplement bits for seasons of mystery for Versen. They gave us a a word count of, like, a 150 words or something. And I, you know, you know, I was very disciplined, and we wrote a 150 words. And I said, oh, you could have done more.
Dave:I think Yeah. That's that's that's that's unusual. But they turned around and say, you could have done more.
Matthew:Yeah. And it wasn't even, oh, could you add some more to this? Because we it doesn't quite make sense. It's just, oh, you didn't need to stick it to 150 words. And which is why didn't you say 300 words or whatever the number was?
Dave:Yeah.
Matthew:I guess they were kind of expecting us to go over the word count anyway.
Dave:But Yeah. I think so. I think they give the word count and then expect it to be doubled probably. Yeah. And I'm pleasantly surprised when it isn't or maybe, you know, just like, hang on.
Dave:You you hit the word count. What the hell are you doing? This isn't right. Anyway anyway, so that's why I haven't had much time to sit back and and indulge in reading about stuff like the Pendragon's Games Master Guide.
Matthew:Right. So I haven't actually I I don't know much about the Pendragon's Games Master. I mean, they haven't actually said that much, apart from it being advice for GMs running campaigns and things like that. The interesting thing that so it's just been announced. It's not even available.
Matthew:Well, you may be able to preorder it, but you you don't get a big year for it or anything like that. It it'll be coming in in the next year. I I I was just taken by the fact that Greg Stafford is boldly on the cover as the only author, which, given he's been dead for quite a few years now, I it just makes me wonder, is this stuff that he wrote in the past as his own notes for guidelines, and and they've just given it an edit and, turned it into a book. Or is it Greg Stafford and Friends like it often is, the Chaosium stuff. And Yeah.
Matthew:They just haven't finished writing it on the on the cover image they've given us because they don't know quite who's gonna be involved in it yet. Anyway, I just
Dave:Probably a bit of both, I suspect. I mean, it's probably based on the core that Greg Stafford had done. And then then some people are, you know, just just making it fit the product for today in one way or another. So, you know, maybe totally, you know, entirely appropriate for Greg to have the posthumous lead writer credit. Yeah.
Dave:Such as it is, sadly.
Matthew:And the other thing, the last bit of news, which sort of segues nicely into Tales of the Old West. The western RPG from Ask Forgall that we bat years ago, kind of more out of interest because we were just starting to write what became Tales of the Old West at the time. That has delivered. It's not delivered in paper form yet, but, we've got if you check through your mail, you will find a link for this, Dave.
Dave:When you meant when you mentioned it half an hour ago, I did just check and the the the the link is there, but I haven't looked at it. I haven't looked at it yet. So
Matthew:And that's a link that gives you to a package of, PDFs on drive through, which include the 2 core books. Some people may have backed bigger bigger packages, and I don't know whether those bigger packages with all the supplements and stuff, they're in PDF too. But the core books, you know, and some extraneous things like couch sheets and stuff like that are all in this package. I started looking at it, and, obviously, my first thought is to compare it with the with the word Compare it with
Dave:comparison with our approach. Yeah.
Matthew:And then I stopped looking at it because I thought, actually, this deserves a bit more time, and it could well be a feature for the podcast. Mhmm. So Okay. I'm suggesting in a few week few weeks time, in an episode when we haven't got anything else to talk about, I might, analyse analyse it and do a little essay on on the different approaches. Because in many ways, I think it's gonna be very similar, but, in no.
Matthew:Shall we say, in many ways, I think the aims will be similar, but we will have taken very different approaches from what I've just glimpsed at in the player's guide PDF that I opened. So, I think that may be worth a more, considered response.
Dave:Yes. Yes.
Dave:In a future. Yeah. Cool. Good idea. Yeah.
Dave:I should I should look forward to opening it up over Christmas and having a quick look. And, yeah. It's in 2017. I think May 2017 was when the Kickstarter happened. So it's been
Matthew:a So 7 years ago.
Dave:Seven and a half years to get get here. But, as I said before, I I got to the point where I'd written it off and never expected to see it at all. So actually, having it turn up is is a is a bonus.
Matthew:It's a pleasant surprise.
Dave:Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. Cool. So segueing from one western to another.
Matthew:Mhmm.
Dave:Old west news. So we have well, we've been cracking on with, well actually I think more you than me actually because since we got the the the final edit finished on the text, we've been very much well and got the artwork in and got the map sorted out. We're very much into the realms of layout. So I'm I'm leaving the the, you know, the lion's share of of dealing with with, with Stefan, our our fabulous layout guy, to you because, you know, you know what you're talking about. Well, you don't.
Dave:I don't, I think. But, you know, you you pretend better than I do.
Matthew:I I pretend to know what.
Dave:And that seems to be coming along pretty well. It seems to be a bigger task than we'd originally anticipated.
Matthew:Yes. So I need you to cut out not a few hundred words, but about 80 pages, Dave.
Dave:It's fine. I'll just find stuff any stuff that you wrote and cut those out, that will be fine.
Matthew:I think, yeah. I I think it's more pages than we thought. Also, I think that doing the tables is proving a bit of a challenge. Not not anything that, just, Jesper, I was gonna call, isn't it?
Dave:Time time consuming, isn't it?
Matthew:I think. Yeah. Time consuming. Not anything you can't do. Yeah.
Matthew:There's a lot of tables there. Really? And so I think that, you know and and, of course, you wanna try and have a table on one page rather than across 2 pages except when it's gonna be a table that is a purposeful double page spread. So, yeah, fiddly. Fiddly is the bit.
Matthew:And I expect we'll get a first version, a first complete version early in the new year. Then there will still be a bunch more work to do on it because, obviously, you know, we need to kind of edit it and, proofread it and stuff like that. Yeah. Yeah. You know, and fix a bunch of the issues that I'm sure we will spot in that editing.
Matthew:So but I think we may well have it by the end of January.
Dave:Yeah. Exactly.
Matthew:Okay. It's it's a month later than we originally thought. But it is a big job, and it's a bigger job than we realized, I think.
Dave:Yeah. And it's in it's interesting that I mean, the the the the page count we came up with was a very, very, sort of finger in the air, but industry standard ish of 500 words equals 1 page. Now that's that's very generic because, obviously, you'll get a lot of books that will put more words on the page than that, and you'll get many that will put fewer. But as a as a rough guide now I think what we're learning is that rough guide for tales of the old west, where we do have quite a few tables. We do have quite a lot of that kind of stuff in there.
Dave:That rough guide isn't a good guide, because, obviously, we came out at 200 or so pages, and we're gonna, you
Dave:know, land with a book that's gonna be a third bigger than that. So that's a good thing for us. A good a good, good learning point for us for future. And in some ways, I'm I'm I'm much happier that we've turned up with a book that's gonna be 280 pages than a book that's gonna be a 150.
Matthew:Yeah.
Dave:I think I think, you know, providing a a a nice chunky, heavy feel book with with lots and lots of good stuff in it. Yeah. That make that gives me a nice warm feeling. Even if it's gonna cost us a bit more across the board, because it will cost a bit more to ship, it'll cost a bit more to print, but that's, you know, that's that's fine. I think, you know, because the kick started doing so well, we have the money to to deal with that, which is great.
Matthew:I hope. Don't say that quite yet.
Dave:Yeah. I mean We haven't
Matthew:done the final accounting yet.
Dave:If our if our money is disappearing, mate, I'm gonna want a very close look at those accounts.
Matthew:No. No. No. No.
Dave:And and and how you paid for your Icelandic holiday.
Matthew:We've still got all the money that we well, we haven't got all the all the money that we haven't spent
Dave:on art
Matthew:and stuff. But Yeah. No. And, yeah, I I think we've got, because because of the generosity of our backers, we should have enough money to print a bigger book and stuff like that without dipping into our own pockets again. But we might have to dip into our own pockets again, our savings.
Matthew:We'll see. We'll see.
Dave:Yeah. I I I I sincerely hope you don't have to because the, the cost the cost will go up a bit, but they won't go up exponentially.
Matthew:No. No. No. No. Yeah.
Matthew:I've I've written to, standard to find out how much the extra printer is gonna cost and stuff like that. Yeah. And the other thing, the other we've we've seen dice. I think I've put a link in all our socials so you can find those dice. They're on the wing, you know.
Matthew:These prototypes, I should say, not the full stocks. The prototypes are winging their way from China, even as we speak. So we'll as soon as I hold them in my hands, I'll know whether we're gonna press the go on them. But Yeah. They look good.
Dave:Yep. They look very nice.
Matthew:I'm, talking with our, dice tray producer about dice trays. We've got quite nice design we quite like, which, came from one of the last bits of art that we got in that you and I date. We both agreed as soon as we saw it. Well, not quite as soon as we saw it. When I asked a question, so why don't we get a bit on the dice tray?
Matthew:We both had exactly the same idea.
Dave:Yeah. This
Matthew:that would be
Dave:cool for the dice tray. Yeah. It's fabulous. Bit of artwork there. Yeah.
Dave:Very evocative, very western themed. You look really good.
Matthew:Yeah. And what I like about it, it's a bit like the 4, the 4 cowboys in the snow, which is one of our first pieces we commissioned.
Dave:That's a great one as well. Yeah.
Matthew:I like and I almost wondering whether there's this could be a movement in in RPG art that you don't detail necessarily. I mean, the beauty of this one is these are 4 faceless individuals. Yeah. They've got cowboy hats on. They're worn horses, So you know they're cowboys, but you don't know who they are.
Matthew:And the beauty of that is they could be you. They could be your character.
Dave:They could be you.
Matthew:Unless your character absolutely refuses to wear a cowboy hat. But, you know, and
Dave:I like that. Yeah. And I also excuse me. I also like it. It's, it's very evocative of the opening credits of Young Guns, where they have a very similar similar kind of color palette and silhouettes for the main characters, where where they all just shoot lots of guns at the screen as the music's playing.
Dave:And I like that's a really nice little thing. That's, I like that as well very much. That's very cool.
Matthew:Yeah. Anyway, so it's all underway, and, you'll hear more from us in the new year. And maybe you'll have a PDF in your hands.
Dave:Well, you will definitely have a PDF in your hands in the not too distant future. Yeah. So, yeah, apologies are a little bit behind schedule, but I think this I think this is always gonna happen. I think we were I said before, we we sort of fell into the the rookie mistake of being a little bit over enthusiastic and and about how quickly we could get all this done. And I think our Christmas deadline was probably never going to be really realistic, but we're only gonna be a few weeks after that.
Dave:So apologies, but please bear with us. We are learning as we go. I'm sure we'll make the same mistakes again in future. But, cool. Yeah.
Dave:It's it's it's good. And then the other thing we've got so we've then as soon as this is done, so in the new year, we'll then start working on the other parts of
Matthew:Oh, yes. Which is what I promised we'd come back to later on. So some of our stretch goals, what are you gonna work on stretch goal wise?
Dave:So we've got 3, as we call them, actual play shorts.
Matthew:Now I think we called them campfire tales, Dave.
Dave:We did call them campfire tales in the end. Yes. So we've got 3 of those to to write. They'll be short, short scenarios, which, we, which I wrote as as actual play, games to to run-in advance of the kickstarter and during the kickstarter. So you've got 3 of those.
Dave:You've got the gift horse, where you play a house homesteading family. You've got, biting the dust in albuquerque, where you you play characters who are going to retrieve someone's stolen property. And you have, what's the last one called? The Las Vegas legacy, where there is money to be had if you can find and and capture the right person or kill possibly.
Matthew:Yeah. And that one is a little bit of a pvp one I've discovered in running it through an actual place.
Dave:It's designed with the option of it breaking down into a bit of a pvp event at the end. Yeah. Yeah. So, Yeah. So so yeah.
Dave:So those will be written, and they'll come to you in PDF form. And then we have the solo rules that that Matthew, you
Matthew:volunteered The lone rider.
Dave:The lone rider that you've had you volunteered to have the first stab at.
Matthew:So, yeah. This is gonna be an experiment for us, because as we said, we we haven't done solo rules before. But, there was a demand from our backers. There seems to be a demand for solo generally. Free league seems now to be including solo rules with every new release.
Matthew:So That's
Dave:a standard. Yeah. Absolutely.
Matthew:Yeah. So this this isn't coming in the core book because we really don't know how to write it for the core book. But I I hope to be spending quite a bit of my summer break actually playing some of the solo rules that I've got, and, analyzing them, and thinking about what makes them good. I I think we've got a lot of stuff in our campaign, randomization thing already in the book that we could, you know, we're we're not I don't wanna say we're halfway there, but we've got a lot of detail that happened in the core rules that could make cellular rules really good fun. Yeah.
Matthew:And the question the biggest question of my mind is sort of how you frame it. So, so yeah. Good. We're we're gonna do that as a bit of experiment. That may take more time because I'm gonna write something, and I'm gonna hand it over to Dave, and Dave's gonna tell me it's shit.
Matthew:And then and then we're gonna have a big, sulk, and then I'm gonna prove him wrong. It's as simple as that. That's the way it normally works with all these things.
Dave:Anyway, yes.
Matthew:Moving on, shall we?
Dave:It'll be an interesting little, little experiment. As I've never put my mind towards solo rules before because it's not something that I've ever thought I would ever play. So Yeah. It's gonna be it's gonna be interesting. I look forward to seeing what you come up with.
Matthew:Yeah. Yeah.
Dave:And then saying, it's shit.
Matthew:Yes. We shall, so that that's my plan for the Christmas holidays. Shall we move on though to Yes. Matias' plans for Simburoon?
Dave:It's beginning to feel a lot like Simburoon. So hello. Here we are in Hamam. And today, I'm absolutely delighted to welcome back yet again, the wonderful and lovely Matthias Jonsson Harker. Welcome back, Matthias.
Dave:Fabulous to see you.
Mattias:Likewise. It's it's been, too long, guys.
Matthew:Yeah. And, Dave, I think, really, rather than yes again, we should have been saying friend of the show, not just a
Dave:That wasn't yes again. I said, oh, god. We've got Matthias again because he couldn't get anybody else. That was, yes again. It's wonderful.
Dave:We've got Matthias on yet again. It's
Mattias:You know, you don't you don't really have to to sweet talk me or anything because I I I still feel like I'm very much responsible for your product existing.
Dave:How are you?
Matthew:How so, Matthias?
Mattias:With the I mean, with the creation of Coriolis, the Oh, yeah. Oh,
Matthew:yeah. Exactly.
Dave:Yeah. Yeah.
Matthew:That is true. That is true.
Dave:That is that is very true. I'm surprised you
Mattias:forgot that. Like one of your first episodes as well when you came to Stockholm and
Matthew:Yeah. It was very early on, our 1st Christmas episode or first December episode. So what's that?
Dave:No. 7 years ago. November 2017, it was when we came with man.
Mattias:17. Oh, shit.
Dave:I know. I I know. Where is the time zone? It's ridiculous, isn't it?
Mattias:Yeah.
Dave:Yeah. And we all still look as young and handsome as we did then.
Mattias:Yeah. You do. Yes.
Dave:So I looked old and ugly back then.
Matthew:Thank you, pal. Yeah. That is so
Dave:who invited Matthias back on again?
Matthew:Anyway invite Matthias back on at the special request of our listeners.
Mattias:Yeah.
Matthew:Our listeners have demanded Matthias, And who are we to argue with our listeners? So we've had requests. We to drag you onto the show kicking and screaming, Matthias, and, and ask you about future plans for SimbaRoom. SimbaRoom.
Mattias:Ah, that alright. This okay. You wanna talk about that?
Matthew:Has been rumors, and we wanna separate the rumors from the truth of this one.
Dave:Mhmm. Which from the.
Matthew:So I guess I guess, first of all, let let's just let's just review, Symbroomb as we know it at the moment. It's you have or or the company, including you, have just finished the enormous campaign,
Dave:Throne of thorns.
Matthew:Throne of thorns. Well, not just finished. But in terms of there are there are now listeners who I know are getting to the end of actually playing through that campaign. So so in a way, this is the end of an era for SimbaRoom. How do you feel in review?
Matthew:Mhmm. Did it do everything that you wanted it to do?
Mattias:Well and then some, I would say. Mhmm. But it was also very much more work, than anticipated. I I mean, we I I think I didn't even reflect way back when, say, in 2014 or something like that when we started sketching out, you know, we're going to establish a new role playing games brand. How do we do that?
Mattias:Yeah. We will do it with a massive chronicle or campaign. So let's go really crazy. And we we were, like, already known in Sweden for for these big, high, concept campaigns for other games that we published only in Swedish. And, also, we had started sketching out the the mercy of the icons for for Coriolis.
Mattias:So, I mean, looking at it now, I I am I am absolutely astonished that we managed to row that or sail that that ship into a harbor. Mhmm. I'm also astonished that people are actually playing it the whole way through. And not only astonished, I am super thankful because why the age did I do it if if people wouldn't be able to play it? So, no, I'm I'm, I'm super happy.
Mattias:But and that this is what we will talk about today. I mean, at the end of the very final header, head, yeah, header in the book, Davocar Awakens, which is the final part of the chronicle, that final header reads farewell Davocar. So I am not the least surprised that there are speculations going on. And I also more or less started those speculations when I write in that paragraph. So Okay.
Matthew:But you're forced to be done
Dave:with that also. But that also, a a a farewell to avocar from you
Matthew:as as
Dave:the creator.
Mattias:Not necessarily for the gaming group. No. Right. But it's,
Dave:It's your side.
Mattias:It's something that we set up for your life. Handing it over to the the the gaming group, the GM, and the players to because I have always been of the the opinion that when you write a really big epic chronicle, it the whole thing kind of falls flat, deflates if the end isn't not maybe world altering, but at least have serious consequences for a lot of people in a lot of places Yeah. In that fantasy setting. So it it was the plan already from the start that when we get to the end of the chronicle, we will not be able to control what happens after because that's totally up to you guys at the table at the table. Mhmm.
Mattias:Nice. And and that means that the the idea, the plan was all along that once the throne of thorns was, so to so to speak, finished from our side, then we would move on to some place else. Mhmm. And, yeah, as you probably know, we have right now on preorder, 106 76 page hardback that covers Agriela, which is the the high seat of in in Umbria in the same region to be played, like, with a totally new adventuring party or to be played in in an interim between parts of the chronicle for those who haven't finished it yet. So it's the Davuka region isn't totally dead.
Mattias:I'm I'm expecting to see stuff on Free League workshop that covers, like, different possible outcomes of the throne of thorns or that that focuses in on on aspects of the Davica region where we haven't been very detailed, or haven't had time to to cover in the the the published books. But but we want to look to new vistas.
Matthew:Yeah. Yeah. So in a in a way, you've got the situation now where which is a thing, I think, that that RPG IPs really grapple with in that you want players want to have an effect on the world and to change the world, but they also don't want the world to change because they're more than enough to They love
Dave:it so much. Yeah.
Matthew:Yeah. So, you know, and we've we've had that, in in we've seen that, no spoilers, in Coriolis a bit where people have gone, oh, I I felt a little bit forced into a particular change that happened onto that world. Here, you've said this is very much led by the table, but that does mean that as many tables as there are playing Simba Room, you've got that many versions of Davikar now.
Mattias:Roughly.
Matthew:So let's get one thing so I just wanna reiterate one thing you said. You're looking for for people who do carry on playing in Davakar to share what they're playing. They are adventures of the I
Mattias:absolutely love that. Oh, man.
Matthew:Friedrich Wertscha. And so you can see different visions of Davakar after the whatever happened in this world. I love I love the idea that people can do that. It reminds me of how they talk about Glorantha in,
Mattias:Oh, yeah.
Matthew:In in in Runequest where I think even I mean, everybody says it now, but I but I think it came from the source, from Greg himself, was your glorantha may vary, white b m y. So so that's good to hear. But but the other thing you said, which I just I'll sort of unpick a bit more. You said, well, we're saying goodbye at the end of the, Phone of Thorns. Oh, but you could also preorder this book about a little bit of the Yeah.
Matthew:Quite a a little bit of double car
Dave:of double car.
Matthew:Of double car. Of the ambulance. So I haven't quite said goodbye.
Mattias:No. And it's it's kind of a a a super difficult divorce because no matter how much tie time I've spent in Dubikat, I it it hasn't been a chore. I mean, the tricks, the the surprise encounters and whatnot that you come across when traveling in Davoskar, are a bit of a hassle, but I can't help but feel that I will I will belong in that forest for the rest of my life. And but but, I mean, it yeah. The the that story needed to come to an end, and I and and I also think that for me and the team, we need we need to explore something new just to build up energy and whatnot again, feel that I don't know.
Mattias:It's it's part of life, I guess. At least for me, the first few steps of something new are always the most exciting.
Dave:Yeah.
Mattias:No matter if it's a new job or or a new writing project or what whatnot, or indeed the the making of new PC for a role playing game. The first part where you where you get to know that character and when they they progress fairly quickly, stats wise, that's that's that's it it has its charm. And now we haven't felt that charm in connection to Zimmern for some time because we have we have been working with this ginormous project for, yeah, 8, 9 8, 9 years.
Matthew:Right. And before we move on to what's beyond Devakar and the Enterprise, I just one more bit of reflection on the last 8 9 years. Yeah. What would you have done differently if you had to do the whole thing all over again?
Mattias:Oh, It it it I I fully understand. I fully appreciate that it sounds super arrogant to to
Dave:say nothing. Nothing. But
Mattias:I think we stayed through true to the plan, and stayed the course. And it was a fairly good plan. I mean, similar fan wise and and recognition wise and and whatnot today compared to 8 years ago is, of course yeah. It's pretty much different. So something we did something right.
Mattias:Mhmm. Yeah. Apparently. And and I am super proud of what we have done. The the the thing is that sometimes I'm not to take anything away from those heroic adventuring parties that actually make it through all the way from Thistle to to the heart of Davukar.
Mattias:But sometimes I'm thinking that if I've written a slightly shorter chronicle, it would have more people would have dared venture down that road, so to speak.
Matthew:You know, you may be right there because
Mattias:Yeah.
Matthew:When when we worked the free league stand, we've never sold much in the way of Simba Room, so much so that, actually, it doesn't feature very often on the stand unless it's huge stock. And what we saw, I think, is people looking at I I remember particularly one UK Games Expo where we had the whole line of books there. Either people had already got it and didn't eat it, or people that were coming new to Cymbaloo were kinda, woah. Where do I even start? I can't take all the can't fit them in my suitcase even
Mattias:No. To take it. I I know. And, the the thing is you need you need a special sales tactics to to work, Symblum or or indeed Mutant as well, or one of those games that we have so many much stuff for. You have to point us out the fact that we are in fact talking about the, one in all core rule book.
Matthew:You
Mattias:only need one book to start playing. Then the other thing is that I know it's sold out, in many places, so we don't always have it. But we actually, one of the main reasons why we did the SIM room starter set is precisely for this reason. It is a to give people an easy entry point into the setting. Because I then would argue that the idea behind the whole design of Sympro as a game is the hope that the art of matengrip and the setting, and indeed the mechanic, the the play facing mechanic are enough or even, you know, are incentives for people to actually read a lot.
Mattias:Not because they have to, because they want to. And we to. Yeah. Yeah. And we see that.
Mattias:We see that, quite a lot. People who who long because there there are maybe I'm I'm I'm misinformed here, but I have a feeling that these massive campaigns or in-depth projects of of world building are becoming few and far between. Mhmm. Mhmm. More so than during the, eighties nineties and part part of the after the turn of the millennium.
Mattias:So so there there is some people who actually enjoy reading a lot of stuff and then playing for a very very long time the same story.
Matthew:Yeah.
Mattias:And I'm so super happy that that's the case.
Matthew:You got fans like that.
Mattias:I mean, I'm one of those people. So but it's good that there's more than one.
Matthew:Okay. Right. Enough. Enough about the past. Yeah.
Matthew:Tell us about the future.
Mattias:Yeah. I should and this may maybe wrap things up. Maybe it will be a very short talk because I do not have any announcements, to make today. Okay. Simply because there is nothing yet to announce.
Matthew:That that's that's cool. That's cool.
Mattias:But But we what I can say that we are have started slowly but surely. We are warming up the engine, so to speak, and have started looking, started started working on the next step. And what I can announce today is that something that I think I've spoken about this previously in in some context, we are looking west or southwest even to the what's what's called the city states. Mhmm. And, we have started we had actually our first really intense and longer meeting, me, Matthias, Lilia, and Martin Griep, the other week when I was down in Stockholm.
Dave:Cool.
Mattias:And then after that, we have gone our separate ways, both of them living down in Stockholm, as you well know, and me up in Umio, and started is percolating a word in English.
Matthew:Yeah. Do you know where I'm being?
Mattias:It's it's it's it's
Dave:bubbling away slowly.
Mattias:It's bubbling
Matthew:away. Yeah. It's
Mattias:Yeah. Sort of yeah. And, we have very high hopes that we will be able to make proper announcements, fairly early next year.
Dave:Okay.
Mattias:And, exactly what I I have to come back to. But but I'm fully prepared to try and answer, some questions. I know that your your your patrons have have questions and whatnot. Yeah. But in terms of specific releases or something, that's it's too early.
Mattias:If I start saying stuff now and we have to change things around, it would be not good. So I can say one thing, though, that is probably of interest to people. We talked about Coriolis a while ago. A while a few minutes ago. And whatever happens with Syndrome will not be that radical kind of, you know,
Dave:not great talk. I was I was gonna ask because you you're talking about sort of heading southwest and going to sort of city states, which I'm assuming presuming is taking you away from the forest kind of environment. Is that likely to change the kind of the philosophy behind the game a little bit, or is it going to, just kind of give another angle on on kind of the similar philosophy of of the exploration and the unknown and that kind of stuff?
Mattias:Yeah. I'm I'm I'm thinking that we we're we're looking for, philosophically I mean, the thematics of the game, will be recognizable. It will Mhmm. Whatever happens, this will be a new, campaign setting or point of departure, in the existing Syndrome universe. And
Dave:Right.
Mattias:I think most certainly, we we will have some kind of, at least from a design perspective and also have some guidelines and whatnot in in in this new product, that will state that this happens after the events of the throne of thorns. So it will be on the same timeline as well. And it's far enough from the Davuka region that the game master and the gaming group don't have to be afraid that, you know, whatever happened in their world, they will be able to have that reflected in
Dave:Yeah.
Mattias:This new. So the the rumors they hear about what is happening up in in Umbria, if there even is such thing as an Umbria in their game world after the throne of thorns, they will hear the rumors that the game master feel reasonable. So to
Dave:speak. And there's nothing in the new game that is going to cause any problems for any of
Mattias:that No. Exactly.
Dave:For whatever they've done with their previous campaigns. Cool.
Mattias:So that is definitely done. I meant but but but then, also, of course, now we have we have we have had, like, we have had this ginormous hunt, coupled with the the power struggles of the factions, coupled with the the wilderness of the the mountains and particularly the for forest, and we will try to find find I I almost forgotten. Another huge aspect of the throne of thorns is, of course, the the thematic around corruption, and and and the humans humankind's sort of part in in, in awakening the the the breath of of creation. And we will need to find another way to to present that team, theme that that makes it, play a bit differently. Because, otherwise, what's the point?
Mattias:Both from a design perspective and from a a player perspective, you you have you have made it through the thorn of thorns. And if you haven't, it will still always be there. Mhmm. I I mean, for you to play if that that is what you want. In this case, we will we will aim for something a little bit more, a little bit different.
Mattias:And if I'm yeah. I was very close to going into specifics there. And, again,
Dave:that's Yeah. It's nearly. It's
Matthew:at this stage. Got you. Well, now what? I mean, it's it's
Mattias:it's literally dangerous for Symbram if I say too much right now. So please forgive me.
Dave:Yeah. We we understand. Yeah.
Matthew:I I I'm gonna I'm gonna ask you a bunch of questions that
Mattias:our our
Matthew:patrons have asked us. Rumors. So think of think of this as rumor control, if anything. I'm gonna propose a bunch of things, and you can say
Dave:Yeah. The answer, no comment is okay if you must say yes.
Mattias:Thank you. Thank you.
Matthew:So, so now you you you're indicating there, and I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna put on that thread. You're you're indicating there that there may be a new rule system around corruption in the way you're reflecting that theme. Does this mean Cymbalum Core Rules 2.0 or Cymbalum Core Rules 1.5 Evolved. Or Cymbalum Evolved.
Mattias:No comment. No. Yes. We are looking at the rule set and the packaging of the rule set as well. But exactly what form it will take, you will have to to wait for that.
Mattias:We're gonna have to wait to see. It will not be a 2.0 in the sense that Coriolis is a 2.0. That that much I can say. But more specific than that, it's it's difficult to be. I mean, we can talk about if people have questions regarding what things you are pondering of changing and whatnot.
Mattias:I can I can try to reason, describe how we are reasoning, but I will not be able today to say that this rule or that aspect of the rule system or whatnot will definitely come to look like this?
Matthew:Okay. Okay.
Dave:That's the that's fine because it's a it's the perfect excuse for us to invite you back in a couple of months.
Matthew:Yeah. Yeah. Exactly.
Dave:And, you know, get the get the full information.
Matthew:Right. So a couple of months is a timescale? Can't can't help this. You must tell us first. As soon as, you know, this is bumping into an actual concrete plan, you gotta come back on the show and tell us tell us about it.
Matthew:I don't want that league lounge getting the scoop. No. Exactly.
Mattias:Now maybe I can invite you as the guest host to the to the lounge, and we can have sort
Matthew:of We could we could live with that. We could live with that. Okay. I've got some other questions, I say. So yeah.
Matthew:No comment on, well, we don't
Mattias:comment nonetheless. I'm I mean, I think that was a comment. Yes. It was. It was for people to know that whatever happens, they will not have to discard all their existing material because we are coming up with something totally new.
Mattias:That that we will not allow that.
Matthew:No. But at the same time, you'll probably do something I don't have to say what but an opportunity to relaunch the Symbloon brand as a whole to a wider audience, do you think? I
Mattias:I we haven't gone that far in the discussion. Okay. But I I mean, that would be that would be a good thing, I guess, if that's where we stand there. Well, I was going to say something. It slipped my mind.
Mattias:It probably will pop up again. So Okay.
Matthew:Well, our, our biggest Cymbal Room fan among our patrons, I think, and also the editor of our new role playing game, Tales of the Old West.
Dave:Someone you know very well, Neil Kingham.
Matthew:Yeah. Neil is asking, does this mean well, I'll I'll spread these questions out. Does it mean new religions, first of all?
Mattias:Yes and no.
Matthew:And Well,
Mattias:it's not my comment. In the the new setting, you will probably probably see new factions. And I I am pretty sure that the dominant position that we see in Umbria of the the the Curia and the Church of Prius, it will not be represented at all in the city states, but there will be, I mean, there would be religions, obviously. But maybe not in that dominant position because that is something that I love for Ambria, but I'm not sure that we need exactly that in in this new
Dave:Right.
Matthew:Setups. So his second second part
Dave:of that
Matthew:question, but, actually, I'm gonna present it as a second question. New mystical abilities?
Mattias:Yes.
Matthew:Oh.
Mattias:I mean, this is this isn't a spoiler because it if you have downloaded and read, report 2208 11, I think it's called. It's a it's a free download PDF that you can, from the Royal Secretorium, that you can find on on our Cymbrem site page, or you can find it, I think, on drive through as well.
Matthew:We'll put a link in the show notes. Just tell me what it's called again. The report.
Mattias:Report 220811, I think it's called. I need to check it up for you later. Okay. But it's but it's like an in in game
Matthew:An in game date.
Mattias:Document that which is sort of a a summary spy report from the the Royal Secretorium to the Queen's Council. And there, you will find a report on the city states where where they talk about 2 things that has to do with with mystical abilities to do. And one one of them is that in in the city state of Rufeld, they have have there are rumors about establishing of a a new and very successful what do you call it, school, maybe, for for Al Alchemi. So that's one thing. And and there there is since way back when, also, all these references to, you know, the the the city states being the birthplace of the the alchemical weapons and the the huge fire tubes and and whatnot.
Mattias:So so there is one at least magically related topic. The other thing that is mentioned in that report is something called the astromancers or astromancers.
Matthew:Astromancers. Yes.
Mattias:And exactly what that is is I'm I'm I'm
Dave:It's it's no comment.
Mattias:Yeah. It's kind of no comment. And I would I would I was going to say that it's under construction, but that is so wrong. It's more like we are currently in the process of discovering what that is.
Dave:Right.
Mattias:And and and that discovery ties into sort of the discovery of everything else about that setting. So that's why I cannot really comment on it yet.
Matthew:Spoilers. That
Dave:that sounds interesting. That sounds cool.
Matthew:Right. Another question we have, and this is this is not so much about the setting or giving secrets. This is a very present quote, in fact. Are we gonna see reprints of the current stuff, particularly the Davakar Awakens maps?
Mattias:Oh, I I'm super excited that people enjoy and use the the the map packs because I love them. They are, however, a hassle for retailers. Yeah. So, I'm I'm I'm for the the the 5 e Kickstarter, when we did the the ruins of Zimbron 5 ebooks, we had one stretch goal was a folder. I don't know if I have it here, but it's a folder that basically reprints and contains all relevant maps
Matthew:for
Mattias:for the Davuka region and the throne of thorns books and whatnot. And and maybe that is something we will do going forth in in in one way or another. Then it would be, I guess, a good idea to look over what because people can print maps themselves if they can get hold of enough, you know, files with decent, yeah, resolution. Yeah. So so we will definitely try to to make it possible for those who really enjoy these big maps to not I I now never mind because this isn't on video.
Mattias:I was going to show you the the biggest, Simba map we have to date, and it's like a table cloth that is it's the, Davuka region map, the world map, if you will, for the the the old Davuka region. And it's like 6 times 4 meters or something.
Matthew:Oh, wow. Wow. It's lucky.
Mattias:Yeah. It's like a bedspread. Okay. No. I need that.
Mattias:Sorry. That was a long and winding answer to a
Matthew:No. But but it's an interesting one. And you've answered it fully, I think, for
Mattias:for our,
Matthew:our particular patron who asked that. It's Roland. Yeah. And that I'm out of questions from the patrons, Dave. You got any more?
Dave:I I don't have any more on on, but before you go, once we finish on, I do have a a question I'll be remiss to ask not ask you with it whilst we've got you on.
Mattias:Yeah.
Dave:But, yeah, is there anything else on on we need to we need to check?
Matthew:So we're going to the city space.
Mattias:Moving on.
Matthew:Before moving on. Yeah. Are you so actually, let's just cut back to, your your preorder. You've got the, what's it called? Aggrella, the city of eternal euphoria.
Matthew:Are you seeing in the future any more like that that do return to Tabakar and detail another bit of it? Or is that Maguire is an example to writers on, on the feeding workshop?
Mattias:Yeah. There isn't many more super exciting, locations that isn't covered in either the adventure packs or stand alone books like this one. I mean, there there are people have been talking about a source book about the the clans or lots of things like that. But from my perspective, not right now, anyway. I mean, you should never say never because one day when I'm even older and even grayer, Chances are that I won't have any hair when I'm that old, so I shouldn't say gray, but bold.
Mattias:Yeah. You'll never know. But, I do think that a gorilla the Agri Labook is a stand alone as a model for a stand alone setting and adventure module. We will see that going forward. But we because if we're not talking about the city states on the Davakai region, there are lots of other cool places that I would like us to visit and for you to be able to like, like Freetown, for instance, or the the the realm of the order.
Mattias:I mean, there are you also had the eastern lands with with the old ruins of Asparas that we are hinting that life is starting anew in the in the in the place that the humans first completely devastated when they arrived in the on this continent. So, yeah, I I I think it's a really nice model model for for a source book because it's like you have the 20 or so pages for for players to get acquainted, to find their favorite, part of town, their favorite place to eat and drink, and their favorite characters that they have contacts with and whatnot. And then you have this whole section, 30, 40 pages of adventure hooks and and secrets for the game master to to to develop into adventures of their own. And, finally, a a 3 part almost a campaign, but it's more like a a a 3 act adventure. So it's it's it's very much like Thistlehold or Carvoste or indeed Indaros, but not tied to the thromothrons.
Dave:Yeah. Nice.
Matthew:Pretty nice. And actually, just something you said earlier I wanted to clarify. Did you say then that this new setting that we're we're going to, the city states, you're envisaging that running, Did you actually say that at the same time as what's going on in Devakar? You said it's at
Mattias:the same time. Suggestion is that it's it's, placed after the event After
Dave:the throne of thorns is finished.
Mattias:Yeah. Theoretically, that part of the the world can go down the drain, in in more ways than one. And and your player characters can flee west Yeah. And end up Yeah.
Matthew:If they have caught an apocalypse and burned the entire forest down, then here's a place they can come to.
Mattias:But I I I I still think that I mean, they can go to the city states to retire to to help with whatever needs to be done there, but keep keep playing those high level not level, but you know what I mean. Highly experienced characters Yeah. Would probably
Matthew:OP characters. That's what we call them.
Mattias:Yeah. Would probably be not, be ideal. So and and, yeah.
Matthew:Yeah. Cool. All sounds great. So I think I think that's our stand on, SimbaRoom. So, Dave, the floor
Dave:is Yeah. Yeah. So it, it would it would be remiss of me if I didn't just ask, about another of GMs that I absolutely love, and The Walking Dead.
Mattias:Oh, yeah.
Dave:Is there is there anything how's, how how's that gone? Have you been pleased with how Walking Dead has has landed and what are there any plans or anything you can tell us about for the future?
Mattias:I am
Dave:No comment.
Matthew:No. No. No. No.
Mattias:I am I am super happy with how it turned out and super happy with how it has been received. I think that we always knew that it maybe wouldn't be our biggest seller in terms of units sold, But it has gone, I mean, probably a bit better than I thought. There is and and I hope there are people out there playing and loving it that aren't necessarily fans of the TV series or, I mean, haven't even watched it. But it's such a it's such a super focused game that I think I think we yeah. Maybe we could have provided a little bit more material in in some areas.
Mattias:But in the end, it plays exactly how we envisioned it to play, and that is a nice feeling.
Dave:Yeah.
Matthew:No. That's
Mattias:And I think I think we one of the keys behind that is that it is, very much a team effort. Because Nilsson said did the big major groundwork, and he was part of the I mean, when when me and Thomas together started working on that script, we had him on the loop the whole time. And and whenever we wanted to had an idea of a bigger change or we wanted to taste something out and or whatever, as as is always is done in the editing process when finalizing a game or a book or whatever. We had a super creative discussion and a very focused goal on what we wanted to achieve. And I think we did that.
Mattias:Going looking to the future, I mean, it's it is a little bit difficult because it feels like a a game that it should really be played in campaign mode, without much more support than the coreboot. But, again, sadly, I have no specific announcement today, but we are working on we are working on something.
Matthew:Yeah. You're working on something. That would that that will be enough. I've seen some people, in social media. None of our fans, I have to say.
Matthew:But some people in social media have gone, oh, they appear to have forgotten about The Walking Dead. Mhmm. But the fact that you're working on something should be
Mattias:Enough. Useful. No. Yeah. Good.
Mattias:Good. Good. No. I never yeah.
Dave:I'm hoping you find out what you got.
Mattias:No. We have we have this problem as as as Free League now, that we have so many
Dave:So many things.
Mattias:That we love so much. Yeah. So and we we are spread, you know,
Matthew:thin
Mattias:as as butter scraped over too much bread.
Dave:Too much bread.
Mattias:As as Bilbo would would have it.
Dave:Yeah. You need to go for a long holiday, which you don't come back from.
Mattias:Yeah. Yeah. But we
Dave:also reassure you on the, on on on the interest. So the campaign that I run, I'm the only one who's a fan of The Walking Dead. Nobody else is a fan or has even watched it, most of them. And we're playing it because we I I I played The Wolves Den with them
Matthew:Yeah.
Dave:In preparation for running it at UK Games Expo year before last. And at the end of the session, they all went, oh, can we carry on with this? Because they loved it so much. So that was really cool, and we've been playing that for a while. We're just coming up to the big finale where they're all gonna get killed, probably.
Dave:Well But,
Matthew:That depends on whether Matthias can tell us whether there's a sequel campaign.
Dave:Yeah. Yeah. But it yeah. It's gone down really well. It's it's, yeah, it's been really good fun to play.
Matthew:Yeah. And I'm also thanking Douglas, one of our patrons, who runs an after school group, it's one of the most popular games that that after school group like to play as well. So I think that's really interesting.
Mattias:My heart. It warms my heart.
Dave:Mhmm. Cool. Mhmm. Well,
Matthew:I think then well, just one more question. Are there any other secrets you can tell us about anything else in the In the world. Portfolio of No. Free league.
Dave:Free league.
Mattias:No. Of course not.
Dave:Fair enough.
Matthew:So professional.
Mattias:Yeah. Well, no. I'm I'm, this is recorded when? It's, like,
Matthew:Monday or Thursday, but it will be coming out in about 2 weeks' time.
Mattias:Yeah. So I can spoil that, by saying that by then, you will, see some other cool stuff announced. Yeah.
Matthew:Oh. Okay. All the freaking stuff at the moment is like, oh, this this is coming.
Mattias:There is no reason for me to to to announce or support something here that will already have been revealed when you air the
Dave:By the time we put this in, sure. Fair enough. Right. Well, thank you so much, Matthias. It's been fabulous having you on again as always.
Mattias:Super fun.
Dave:And definitely drag you back on again yet again Yeah. In the in the next few months so you can talk about, Simba Room when you have more to say.
Mattias:Yeah. Maybe maybe Walking Dead as well. You never know. Yeah.
Dave:Cool. Excellent.
Matthew:We're always happy to hear from you, Matthias.
Dave:Indeed. It's a it's a real pleasure.
Mattias:Yeah. It's been a blast.
Dave:Great pleasure to talk to Matthias. Every time you see him, it's a real, real blast. He's such a lovely guy. He's, you know, even even before we first met him, he was he was a lovely guy in helping us, you know, meet up with Matthias and and Martin in into Stockholm when he was up in Urmeo. And fabulous to hear what he's got lined up and some other sort of things he's not prepared to tell us.
Dave:Hopefully, he'll tell us in the new year.
Matthew:Yeah. We hopefully should get an exclusive from him. So, let's let's see if we can beat the league lounge to whatever news. He has to say I'd like to,
Dave:I suspect.
Matthew:When it's official.
Dave:Yeah. Indeed. But, yeah, always a pure pleasure to speak to Matthias. So, yeah. Look forward to that.
Dave:Cool.
Matthew:Right. We have overrun. This is gonna be a longer episode than I planned. So we should move quickly to talk about what we're doing in the next episode, which will come to you in the far flung future of 2025.
Dave:It will. And there's the clue, isn't it? So we are going to do a review of the year, and we're gonna invite along some of our fabulous patrons, whoever wants to come along and talk to us. And we'll have a presumably a rambling, but insightful chat about everyone's favorite stuff for 2024. So that's Yeah.
Matthew:Not you, Andy. I want to keep this quite tight.
Dave:I know. I know. But you you know what it's like. It might take a bit of bit of magical editing. But yeah.
Dave:So that'll be great. And, that's it's also, you know, really easy content for us.
Matthew:Yeah. Please. Yeah. That and the the Christmas holiday episode.
Dave:Yeah. Which means we get a Christmas holiday.
Matthew:Yeah. Okay. So let's look forward to that. But in the meantime, I think to everybody celebrating Christmas or any other winter festival that takes your fancy, or enjoying midsummer if you're in the southern hemisphere, then then have fun. And Yep.
Dave:Merry Christmas, everyone, and happy new year. And, yeah. Enjoy the day.
Matthew:It's goodbye from me.
Dave:And it's goodbye from him.
Mattias:May the icons bless your adventures.
Dave:You have been listening to the effect podcast presented by fiction suit and the RPG gods. Music stars on a black sea used with permission of freely publishing.