Important note up top for Spotify listeners,
I am going to be removing this show from Spotify
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And if it doesn't, maybe adjust your behavior
accordingly. Thanks. Welcome to Folio, an actual
play podcast about solo and epistolary TTRPGs.
I'm your host, Seda, and I'm showcasing multiple
possible experiences of self -paced games by
inviting guests to play them alongside me so
I can compile our stories together. You can support
the show financially at patreon .com slash foliopod
or with a one -off donation at ko -fi .com slash
foliopod. This is episode one of our games of
Friendly Neighborhood Superhero, a solo RPG about
protecting, befriending, and improving a community
by Catscratcher Studio. The other two amiable
community champions joining me today are Gwen
Frankenstein and Jeff Stormer. I'll tell you
a little bit more about them at the break. In
Friendly Neighborhood Superhero, you are just
that. Every day you face two big challenges.
One of your neighbors needs a hand with something,
and of course, a villain is committing a major
crime. To overcome these big challenges you build
up a dice pool by succeeding on a series of smaller
challenges. The big picture of the problems you're
solving are built from the game's absolutely
awesome rollable tables, but each small challenge
you face is entirely up to you. This definitely
requires more of what I call a self -GMing mindset,
where you are fully in charge of setting up complications
for your character and reacting to them. Along
those lines, I also want to note that this is
a game where it really pays to be mindful during
character creation. Not because there are a bunch
of crunchy stats that can make or break your
build, but because when you're playing it, you
are going to have to figure out a hundred different
ways that your particular superpowers can help
you do things. It feels obvious to say build
a character you want to play, but in cases like
this, I really, really think that that is worth
emphasizing. This system benefits massively from
its flexibility and how open it is, but it also
very much leaves you with enough room to get
in your own way if you aren't pretty intentional
with what you plan to do with it. It is great.
It's a great system. And it's tough. To be perfectly
candid, I'm a little bit nervous about this series.
I don't believe that any games are strictly better
or worse for actual play, and I generally think
that anyone who does believe that is being too
strict with what actual play can be. Regardless,
it is obviously true that many factors influence
how a game feels to play, and one of them that
tends to be a factor in actual play is time limits.
My ideal series of folio is three episodes that
are all an hour long. There is flexibility there.
Episodes range from 45 to 75 minutes, and I'll
allow a series to be anywhere from one to five
episodes. But the three hour -long episodes is
in the middle of the dartboard. Naturally, this
means something about the desired lengths of
each individual person's playthrough. In Friendly
Neighborhood Superhero, failing the more consequential
roles slams a purposeful brick ball in the momentum
of the game. face -planting into that wall while
under a time limit is pretty brutal. I want to
emphasize that I genuinely, deeply enjoyed my
time with this game, and I would absolutely play
it again under different conditions, but I just
felt the need to say you are going to hear more
moments of frustration than I would consider
standard for this show, not only from me, but
from both of my guests. Despite being pretty
narrative forward, this is one of the most mechanically
intensive games that has been on the show so
far. There are a lot of moving pieces and the
playthroughs diverge fairly dramatically based
on which of those pieces each of us managed to
keep track of. I'm of several minds of this when
it comes to whether that is good for the show.
But frankly, I've talked too long here. And when
it comes down to it, ultimately my goal is to
showcase different experiences of the same game.
And I think that this does that fully and honestly.
So here we are. Because ultimately, we do still
have a good time. We tell cool, big, silly, dramatic,
hyper -color superhero stories. I'm excited for
you to meet our heroes, see a few days in their
lives. I'm just so neurotic. I'm so neurotic
and I love TTRPGs so much. And sometimes making
this show makes me crazy because I'm infested.
That's about it. Let's get into some origin stories.
All right. Okay. Hello. All right, so we are
playing Friendly Neighborhood Superhero. I'm
here to play Friendly Neighborhood Superhero.
Friendly Neighborhood Superhero is a solo tabletop
RPG about heroes who love their communities,
doing their part to make things better, to make
people happier. Players will portray a small
-time, well -meaning superhero who tries their
best to protect their neighborhood, caring for
its people and their problems. I'm going to start
with character creation. Your hero. There's something
special about you. Maybe it's in your bloodline.
Maybe you found an ancient relic that gave you
power. Maybe you just trained very hard until
you were strong enough to strike fear into the
hearts of those superstitious, cowardly lot called
criminals. Maybe you just have a very kind heart
and would do anything to help those you love.
Now, the way the game suggests you go about this
character creation is to come up with a character
name and then figure out your superpowers. And
that feels sort of... backwards to me. I'm going
to do my secret ability first or my signature
ability first rather just because I find that
more helpful for like defining what my name and
vibe will be rather than doing it the other way
around. I am going to roll some dice to determine
my character's signature ability origin and what
that ability is. Hell yeah there are tables.
First you determine your origin. I got mutation.
And then you determine the ability. And I got
performance. Martial arts, handling weapons,
parkour, being very good at things a human could
actually do. That's funny. And that was a four,
which means my ability is a mutation. And this
is a mutation that grants me also a four. Some
special effects. such as shape -shifting, talking
to animals, invisibility, teleportation, or healing.
We've got a four and a two. So that is a mutation
that gives energy abilities. Okay, interesting.
Let me sit and think on this for a second. The
first thing I thought of for mutation and then
the suggestion of parkour is just that I'm stretchy.
But I know that that's already, that's a guy
that, that one already exists. I mean, look,
I'm not like... a huge superhero person but i'm
not naive enough to pretend that i could come
up with a superhero power that hasn't existed
yet i might come back to that i'm gonna roll
both again just to see if something is a little
bit more like immediately uh appealing to me
i got magic as an origin and the ability is performance
again okay the dice really want me to be just
specifically very skilled at A thing. I'm going
to roll another ability and it will either be
from a mutation or magic, which are the origins
that I've rolled. Oh my god, I got performance
again. The dice are bullying me. Let me reset
and think about this. I rolled the devil's roll.
Three sixes in a row. The dice want me to do
performance. I love to do what the dice want
me to do. How do I make that interesting to myself?
Parkour is fun. I like... Yeah, let's go with
talking to animals. Talking to animals is a classic.
I find when I play games, if I give myself the
equivalent of the animal handling skill, then
I never need it. And if I don't give it to myself,
then I always think that would have been useful.
So let's see if it's useful today. Ooh, if my
origin is magic and my ability is the performance,
the parkour. What if it's um, I have, I have
magical powers that are about very localized
gravity changes. So I can like, I can do parkour
good with my gravity changes because I can like
make the gravity underneath me a little bit less
strong and then make the gravity around my hands
a little stronger. Energy blasts, control of
light or elements, light and shadow, energy constructs
that is tied to a mutation. Okay, so I'm thinking
that this character, I'm going to call him Thermal,
and this is a person with like temperature control
abilities. Make things hot, make things cold,
set things on fire, freeze things in ice. That's,
I think, the overall vibe of the character. One
of the things that's interesting to me about
this as we sort of look into the idea that like
that doesn't necessarily mean I'm very physically
strong, though I'll think about that when I get
into attributes. Like I have a strong grip, not
because I have hand muscles or arm muscles, but
because I'm using gravity powers. There's something
delightful to me about still being a little bit,
a little bit scrawny. I'll, I'm going to, I'm
going to think about it, but yeah. So the main
thing that an ability does is that if it applies
to what you're doing, you can add an extra die,
which just like the description, sort of the
intro to the section is saying, like, I can be
good at other stuff. I'm not just not necessarily
good enough at it to add that extra die. Like
if I, if I wanted to pull something off of a
shelf across a room, I could try to do that for
sure. but I'm not good enough at it to notably
make my possibility of success higher. The thing
that I'm specifically good at, at least for now
until I maybe train a little bit, is gravity
fields around my body or the gravity of my body.
If I were in a hot air balloon... It was out
of control and flying away. I think I could make
my body have stronger gravity to, oh God, I'm
going to, I'm setting myself up to say a bunch
of things that are not correct about physics,
but guess what? It's a superhero story. I think
that's okay. I could, I could, I could, I could
give myself stronger gravity to pull the hot
air balloon back down to earth. But mostly what
I use it for. is like making it hard to move
me making it um being able to climb stuff like
it is very localized to my body and so that rarely
puts me in a position where i can really affect
the environment but i can affect how i interact
with it if this were science heavy quotation
marks science -based tech -based i'd probably
Like it would be like within static shock distance,
you know, that's sort of how, how far the gravity
field manipulation, the stuff that I'm really
good at goes. The signature ability that I'm
going with is temperature control. So like making
things hot, making things cold, setting things
on fire, freezing things. Obviously I'm going
to roll one extra dice when I do that. What was
my actual origin? Where, where did these powers
come from? Thinking about magic. Could be a curse,
could be a spell that I did on myself, could
have been an artifact. An artifact is interesting.
The idea of it being a curse because I was really
clumsy. When I was a teenager, when I, Seda,
was a teenager, I would write poems and stuff
even and joke about gravity hating me because
I was incredibly clumsy. 15 years later -ish,
I'd learn about autistic prior perception and
go, oh. That's one of the things that was up
with me. Anyway, so gravity hating me. I'm thinking
of teen me. Like if I were joking about gravity
hating me around a witch and a witch was like,
I will curse you for that to be true. Gravity
doesn't hate me. Gravity responds to me. So it
could be a curse. It could be a curse that you
learn to work with. Magical artifact. Thinking
about finding something floating just a little
bit off the ground in the woods. I'm picking
it up or tripping over it. That's kind of fun.
One of the origins is accident. So I wonder if
I should let that guide me into it being more
on purpose. Could be moon magic. What if, you
know, you got your Superman who is an alien that
was adopted by humans. What if my parents are
like moon witches? can they be can aliens do
magic yeah sure why not right genres genres it's
like usually if an alien is gonna do magic it's
it's doing sufficiently advanced science is indistinguishable
from magic type magic right but maybe one of
them's an alien and one of them's just a space
witch they fell in love with each other it's
very beautiful they have a whole story i'll explore
that at a later date probably not but maybe um
and so i have i got my moms who are an alien
and a moon witch uh who adopted me and they taught
me or something i think i don't know that i need
more details on it immediately actually i'm realizing
i think that feels good just to know that like
my powers in some way are related to my cool
weird moms mutation is interesting mutation is
an interesting topic because like it's not it
means that it's naturally occurring like all
of the other prompts accident magic technology
training lineage like there's a a uniqueness
to those mutation implies that this just happened
and so like immediately my brain starts going
to the question of like who else has this happened
to Whereas a mutation is just sort of like this
occurred and now somebody's got wacky powers.
So like in my head, I immediately start thinking
about, you know, X -Men. I immediately start
thinking about. I watched Freaky Tales last night,
which was fun. It's a good movie. And like that
references scanners in a very specific way. So
I'm thinking about scanners. I'm thinking about
X -Men. I'm thinking a little bit about like
that very specific two episode arc of Stranger
Things where they just do scanners for two episodes.
I'm thinking about all of these things. So like
I really like the idea that like there is like
a cosmic or unexplained energy running through
a city that is. giving people like inexplicable
superpowers it is very much an urban legend it's
a little bit bang babies from milestone it's
a little bit century babies i also really like
that scanners limits it to 237 so like i like
that there's like a set number of just people
popping up with these abilities and whatever
corporation is either monitoring this or behind
this is very interesting uh i gotta pull in a
horned rim glasses man from heroes like there's
a lot of things that i'm pulling on i do think
that Right now, my moms are in space for some
reason. Maybe I just graduated from university
or dropped out. And like, I was like, hey, I
don't know what to do. And my moms were like,
just come house sit. We're not even going to
be there. So we won't get in your way of trying
to decide what you want to do next. Just come
and take care of the house. You know, you can
get a job and save up and figure out your direction
in life. And so I'm back in my hometown. Did
I graduate or did I drop out? I'm going to roll
dice about this. Evens, I graduated. Odds, I
dropped out. Three odds. I dropped out. Again,
I think that I don't need to know why yet, but
I dropped out. I'm house sitting, my childhood
home, while my moms are in space for their important
stuff. This is all exactly the type of details
that I need. What is next? What's the next piece?
We're calling him Thermal. He, his pronouns.
I'll think of like a normal name later. Actually,
I lied. I looked it up immediately. His name
is Kelvin Torch. I'm going to look at a name
generator. Save me, FantasyNameGenerator .com.
Dawson has a first name. Oh, yeah, like the creek.
That makes sense. Oh, detective names. Yeah,
let's go with detective names. Cat. Gamble. Katerina.
Katerina Gamble. Ooh, actually, space moms, I
need a moon name. Of course they would give their
kid a moon -related name. I forgot for a second
that people keep the names that they're born
with sometimes. My character's name is Merle
Brady, yes. Galadriel is taken. Can't use that
one. pronouns she they i do think the last name
is going to be alen which means of the moon but
i think i'll keep the first name is katarina
it very heavily resists cat comparisons of like
you know messing with gravity can they technically
do like the the the cat like recovery when they
fall yes but they're not a cat woman has spent
her whole life trying to get people not to call
her cat and to call her, like, Trina or something
like that. Trina, Aelin. Pronouns. I'm gonna
go with she, they. Actually, pronouns. I'm gonna
go with she, her. I was trying, I don't want
to do, like, a divine moon mystic femininity
thing, but there are women in the world. That's,
that's true about it, so. Secret identity. Does
she have one? Yes. She's not just out there as
her exact self. She has a little costume. She
has a hero name. What is it? A name for a character
who can speak to animals. Well, with the name
of Merle, which to me I associate with the color
of some dogs. So maybe I can specifically talk
to dogs. So, some kind of canine -themed name.
I'm looking at words related to gravity. Dog
words. Collar, leash, bone. Orbit? Oh my god,
the idea that she can, like, make things orbit
around herself, like, very close, is really fun.
Yeah. Oh, if we're going with a blue merle sheepdog
type. theme then perhaps perhaps it's just the
blue shepherd is it is it just is it just orbit
or is it like captain orbit or orbit girl it's
not orbit girl i think it's just orbit and again
similar to uh just like her her real name she
spends a lot of time asking people not to call
her orb to call her orbit or at least bit not
orb i'm not an orb And for the his abilities,
we're breaking it down into power. Which is physical
prowess, endurance, or meeting a problem head
on. Skill. Is mastery over abilities and control
of your body and the execution of your plans.
Mind. Is the ability to assess a situation and
plan your way out. And heart. Is your ability
to empathize with other people, to read a room
and figure out motivation. There's a lot of room
to massage them, which I really appreciate. I
think it's really fun. So that's four attributes.
I've got three points to distribute. They all
start at one. Now, I think I'm going for more
of a detective type superhero. So I think I want
to keep my power relatively low, my mind relatively
high. So I was joking around about the idea that
this character is still a little physically incapable,
and I think it's not totally true. I mean, they
can basically just do resistance training at
all times, right? Like putting the weights on,
but it's their own body. Let's go with a one
in power, a two in skill. A three in mind and
a one in heart. I feel like it's kind of classic
for the, like, noir detective type to be bad
at feelings. I have at least a two in power,
at least a two in skill. The idea that one of
my parents is a weird moon witch makes me very
tempted to put a skill point, an attribute point
in heart. Because I bet I am relatively feelings.
Yeah, I think I'll do that. We're going to go
skill three, mind two, power and heart one. So
my attributes to start are power two, skill two,
mind one, and heart two. And once I start thinking
about this Cronenberg scanners vibe, I'm going
to throw in the detail that like... Thermal is
specifically a man on the run. His powers are
not new. He has known about these powers for
a while. He has crossed paths with whatever corporation
is monitoring this, or whatever these big bad
evil guys are. He has crossed paths with these
people before, and he has set up a new life history
of Violet's style in a new place, in a new town,
which is going to bring us to our neighborhood.
There are many special places in the world, but
none like the one you call home. Maybe it has
special characteristics one can only find there.
Maybe what makes it special is how ordinary it
is. It is cartoony. Weird over -the -top adventures
happen in it all the time. Keep in mind this
game is about building a community and caring
for each other, so try to create structures and
characters who are nurturing, loving, and united.
So we're going to start by deciding a few central
questions. We're going to decide the name. We're
going to decide like it's geography, it's politics,
it's custom, what makes the place special. I
think I'm not in a big city. I tried to go to
school in a big city and now I'm moving back
to a smaller town, not like tiny, big enough
that there is like a downtown core, you know,
that is a few streets or, you know, two or three
or one main street and then a few blocks of the
perpendicular streets. Most things are in walking
distance. Caveat that I have a much higher tolerance
for walking than a lot of people. I'm going to
steal here a phrase, a name from my dear friend
Jadzia Axelrod when she was on Party of One many
years ago. She casually dropped the name Bell
City as a stand in for Philadelphia. And like
that's been hooked in my brain for years. So
this is. We're in Bell City, whether it's the
same Bell City as that part of one episode or
not, who knows? But it's like a large metropolitan
city on the East Coast. A lot of history to Bell
City, obviously a lot of neighborhoods, very
bustling. I think that it's a city that sprung
up partially around, I want to tie it to my weird
mood moms. I think that there's a huge like research
telescope. nearby and a lot of development was
done here to support like people who were working
there. I don't think either of my moms worked
there. I think the alien mom originally came
to Earth in like the 50s or 60s to investigate
this telescope because they like found out that
people on Earth were looking. at their satellite,
the satellite they were hovering around. I don't
know. She came down to investigate and then ended
up falling in love, I guess. Okay, town name.
The Blue Shepherd, who comes from the neighborhood
of Golden Pastures. I'm going to look up parts
of a microscope. Tube. Iris. The city is just
called Iris. And has, like, nicknames that are,
like, the lens or whatever, you know? My neighborhood,
this, like, subset of Bell City, which we will
call Franklin's Cove. Franklin's Cove is specifically
on the water. It's very much like the waterfront.
There is a boardwalk that runs along the edge
of it with kind of an arcade and midway. A little
bit like Atlantic City energy within sort of
a larger Philadelphia -like city. That's Franklin's
Cove. It's very much like a touristy neighborhood,
which I really like the aesthetic that it's sort
of empty a lot of the time. There's sort of an
off -season emptiness that runs through it. So
it's in this very large... city but like chunks
of the year like it can feel very empty and very
small very kind of cut off from the larger city
around it i'm gonna say i live pretty close to
to downtown and so i'm not just helping my like
neighbors in my neighborhood but but i tend to
like i want to i'm going to be sort of flitting
around the whole city not just my blocks Now,
this is not actually farmland. It has not been
farmland for, oh, 80 years or so. It was a suburban
subdivision, but as urban sprawls continued,
it's now pretty urbanized. I think that when
Merle's family first came to this area, it was
a newly built suburb. But that was several generations
ago. And at this point, it's maybe the outskirts
of a city. Like, maybe it's not downtown, but
it's on the main traffic, sorry, transit routes.
It's easy to get to downtown. It's like you would
not consider it. out in the boonies today, even
if it may have seemed that way when Merle's grandparents
first bought their brand new prefab 50s house
there. I'm going to assume that the giant microscope
is built up on a big mountain. And the city is
sort of like in the valley. The next question
is around customs and cultural activities. Obviously,
I'm taking the cue from like actual real Philadelphia
here and saying like sports and sports watching
is like a very important piece of this culture.
Like it is a thing that brings the people together.
I also really like, another thing from Philadelphia
that I really like, graffiti street art murals
are a very important thing to the city or to
the neighborhood. I think to the city at large,
but like within the neighborhood. And this feels
like a place that would have a big garage band
culture. I don't know why this feels like a place
where you would have a lot of bands like touring
the local bars in the neighborhood. And so like
you would have a culture of kind of locally famous
garage bands. And so that's kind of the third
thing that I'm going to throw in. There is magic.
There's like a long history of moon rituals happening
here. So I think there's probably a lot of like.
Big festivals, moon phases are really celebrated.
Politics, what sort of government runs your neighborhood?
How do people feel about it? I really think it's
like a very, very run by kind of it's like a
neighborhood chamber of commerce a little bit.
Like the neighborhood association probably has
a lot of sway here because like. There are, you
know, it's a small number of businesses and like
drawing people in like that tourism component
mixed with, you know, making sure that the locals
like are happy. Like I imagine like a number
of small business owners have a remarkable amount
of power in this particular neighborhood of the
city. I also do think it's a markedly working
class neighborhood because like it is. bars it
is uh boardwalk games it is very like beach town
and so like it is very it's not necessarily where
tourists stay because they're gonna stay up in
you know midtown they're gonna stay up where
the where the lights are bright and they're gonna
come by franklin's cove during the day so like
it's very owned and lived in by the people that
work here very almost like a almost like a bobsburgers
bog harbor kind of an energy I imagine that back
when the city was first being founded, it was
sort of like a bunch of weird witches and a coven
and some other people lived here. And then like
the scientists started moving in. There was tension,
but I like the idea that it was, it was just
settled relatively quickly and they all love
each other or whatever. This is an unrealistically
peaceful and good city. That's fine. Microscope,
not microscope, telescope. There we go. And then
finally, we kind of bring us to something special,
something weird happening here. Does it harbor
a government facility which conducts secret science
experiments? Yeah. Is it the home of some alien
refugees? Also, yeah. Was it the setting of an
ancient magic war? Or is it just a small town
where people love and respect each other? That's
really cute. Immediately, my brain goes to a
gill man or a Montauk monster just like washed
up on the shore, which ties into like a broader
history of weird rumors and sort of like almost
supernatural happenings occurring around and
in Franklin's Cove. Like that's the energy. I
think that like recently a gill man showed up.
a black lagoon creature like popped up and that's
the vibe and like i think the overarching vibe
is just like this is a city this is the part
of the city where a lot of like supernatural
urban legends tend to like circulate on it's
where like a lot of the like local horror stories
sort of happen because it is this part of the
city that is often quiet and dark and secluded
so like it is where you get rumors of like maybe
there was a wolf man i don't know we're gonna
find out I like to think there is something mysterious
lurking, but I think as we go about playing,
we might figure out what that is. But I am kind
of thinking perhaps a little bit of Strangerville
in The Sims vibe. Final piece of the puzzle is
we're really thinking about what our relationship
with the neighborhood is. What's my relationship
to the city, to the neighborhood? Legacy. Your
family has lived in the community for a while.
They taught you the reasons it's worth your love
and your protection. Belonging. You come from
outside, but as soon as you stepped in, you were
taken aback by how received you were. Activism.
It was brought to your attention that there was
a particular place where people were downtrodden
and needed a light. I really like belonging.
I feel like if Kelvin is, you know, on the run
and is like laying low here, I want this to be
a place that he feels like it's at home so that
he has to defend it once men in black start showing
up and like asking questions. And so like he
belongs here. And the thing about that place
that makes him feel welcome, like nowhere else
ever did. It's a place where. There's a quiet
kindness and people mind their business is the
best way to put it. You know, like he rolled
up here. He got he got an apartment. It's above
a pinball arcade. And, you know, nobody asked
any questions. He started going to the local
corner store. He started being seen around the
neighborhood. He started doing odd jobs for people.
And, you know, nobody was like rolling out a
welcome mat for him. But at the same time, like.
He was welcome there. Like at the same time,
like people appreciated having somebody there
to like be friends with and help out and do odd
jobs. And he was part of the neighborhood and
like nobody asked any questions about like where
he was from or what his past was like. It was
really just kind of a matter of, hey, I need
somebody to help me take out the trash. I just,
you know, had a big barbecue and I need somebody
to help clean up. Kelvin would roll up. He would
help them clean up. And that was that. Like that's
that's that's friendship in Franklin's Cove.
Legacy, I think, definitely makes the most sense
here. Families lived in the community for a long
time. They taught you the reasons it is worth
your love and your protection. What are those
reasons? You fight to keep safe that which your
community stands for. Um, what are the reasons?
Trying to think if there's anything beyond just,
you know, people. People are important. Definitely,
like, there is magic here. There's a certain,
like, stewardship, I think, that is happening
of this old coven. i think that this is a place
that is really exemplifies the in -universe uh
marriage between magic and science in a way that
i think is slightly unusual for a lot of places
outside of here yeah i think that's something
that's unique about it is like in the rest in
a lot of the rest of the world it's still very
strictly like magic and science should be our
separate things um and there's some conflict
about it and this is a community that over decades
has really fostered like hey, you can invent
a battery and I'm going to put a rune on it that
makes it last longer. I can use a laser cutter
to perfectly cut your crystals into a shape that
enables them to channel magic more strongly.
That kind of thing. This is a place where the
unity between those concepts is really strong
and that is... important to the people here and
i mean that's that's yeah one of the things that's
going on with like my my parents specifically
like the two of them are like i mean look at
us alien is science we're we're a sci -fi we're
a sci -fi fantasy blended family and um some
places that would be weird but not here here
it's regular and fine and good yeah I bet that
was a bit of culture shock for me actually when
I went out into the world I joined like a heroes
club at university and they you know saw my powers
and they were like oh cool you do gravity fields
uh so it's all like what's what's your tech and
I'm like oh no it's actually it's actually like
magic I And their just demeanors changed and
they were like, oh, okay. Tricks, huh? But then
I like, you know, tried to join Magic Heroes
Club and they were like, you're not doing spells.
It's just something that is like in your body
that you can do. Oh, I mean, okay, I guess. It's
silly. I don't think that's why I dropped out,
but it was sad. So Merle is chilling. In the
former borough of Golden Pastures. Can you tell
I'm from Toronto? These are jokes for only people
in Toronto, I think. But whatever. Okay. Okay.
Okay, so now we can begin our day. That's Kelvin.
That's Thermal. That's Franklin Cove. I think
that's it. I think we're ready to play. We are
ready to start our first day in our superhero's
life. Welcome to The Break. I'm Seda, and you're
currently listening to my show. Thank you! I
edit and occasionally design TTRPGs, I do podcast
stuff, and I make music. You can find me on BlueSky
at posetachips .gaygothvibes .online. Check out
my work generally at gaygothvibes .online. Gwen
was, I think, one of my first indie TTRPG enthusiast
friends. I can't remember whether I've slept
on her floor or her couch. and the only photo
I can find is an impossible -to -understand angle
of the, like, crocheted mermaid tail blanket
I was wrapped in for warmth at the time. I specifically
asked her to join us on this episode because
of her, to me, legendary love for superheroes,
which you will almost certainly find on display
if you follow her on Blue Sky at Gwen Frankenstein.
Last summer, I visited Philadelphia, and I went
on a walk with Jeff Stormer. I had been idly
thinking about making Folio for a while, and
I knew from the start that his show, Party of
One, would be its beloved older cousin of the
type who you always sit beside at holidays to
give you strength to kind of deal with the rest
of the family. On this walk, I told him about
the basic concept of folio and his excitement
was one of the final pushes I needed to just
start making it. He was the first person to ever
hear an episode of the show. He is my friend.
He is my respected colleague. And I am really,
really, really happy to finally get him on the
show that might not exist without him. Who knows?
Did you know? Party of One has featured the highest
number of unique TTRPGs of any actual play podcast
and the race is, like, not even close? That's
the shit I'm all about. I think actual play should
love TTRPGs. And I appreciate deeply how much
Jeff loves both of those things. And superheroes.
And it's his birthday next week. Go do something
cool about that. I don't know. Now it's time
to see the first day of our hero's journeys.
A day in the life. Day in the life of Merle Brady.
Day one, here we go. Basically, every day, there
are problems. You know what I mean? We're going
to generate some problems. We're going to use
our attributes to create scenes. We're going
to build up progress towards a solution. We are
going to then spend that progress to solve problems.
Specifically in this game, every day you're going
to have to help a neighbor and solve a crime.
We're going to start off by starting our day.
You create a scene. You were something when suddenly.
It's a D6. That is a 6. You were caring for your
pet when suddenly. Now that makes sense. Can
talk to dogs. Perhaps I have a bloodhound that
can sniff out suspicious activity. Got a three.
You were on your day job when suddenly... Okay,
what is my day job? While Kelvin is on patrol...
What does on patrol mean to Kelvin? That is a
really good question. I truly... Kind of think
it means just sort of like drifting through the
neighborhood. Like I picture most of his patrol,
quote unquote, as being very as Kelvin, not as
thermal hands in his pockets, wearing like a
small leather jacket, kind of just like. going
from kind of shop to shop and sort of just like
drifting seeing if anybody needs anything you
know playing some games on the boardwalk getting
a hot dog and just kind of like idly passing
through like i think that he spends a lot of
time kind of drifting i picture that he does
a lot of odd jobs and so like a lot of his day
-to -day is sort of just like popping in from
place to place you know hassling some of the
local shop keeps just kind of hanging around
He's just sort of a guy around grabbing a beer
at a couple different bars and just kind of like
hanging out. You know what I mean? I'm going
to see what the first. Yeah. Okay. I'm going
to see what the first problem is and see if that
gives me guidance of sort of like where I am,
what's happening. Each day has two phases, solving
a crime and helping a neighbor in need. We're
going to roll to see what happens first. So I
was on my day job when suddenly I rolled a one.
So it was a crime. The first thing that we've
rolled on is a neighbor in need. Something happened.
I have rolled a four, which means a neighbor
needs my help. So a neighbor in need. When dealing
with a neighbor in need, we only need to succeed
in one test, solving that neighbor's problem.
However, that neighbor is going to have a very
specific way that they want that problem solved,
which is going to be tied to their personality.
To create a neighbor. Roll for their personality.
I'm going to roll 3D20. I have 3D20 right here.
And we are going to roll 3D20 for a personality,
an occupation, and a trouble. We have a local
overworker. They are rebellious. Politician.
They are a politician. Who needs our help finding
their way home. And they are finding their way
home. Hmm. Okay. Interesting. That's interesting.
Interesting. An overworked politician finding
their way home. Interesting. I don't like that.
I'm going to roll again. Because I'm in charge
and I can do that. We have a daring DIY enthusiast
who needs some help. Paying their bills. Aww.
Oh, I like this person. I'm gonna define the
crime. There's a leader trying to blank through
blank. So the leader, the goal, and the method.
The leader is a quirky genius. The quirky genius
is trying to plant bombs at the town square.
Don't do that. And their method is booby trapping
hostages oh my god girl no so what does all of
that mean that also resisted to mind okay luckily
or unluckily i don't know it's not a stat that
i'm particularly good at this is a local city
council person whose car has broken down uh they
were you know they are kind of just like Very
flustered. Young. upstart politician in the city
council drives a notably beat up car which I
think is very like small neighborhood city council
appropriate and just like their car is fully
just broken down and they just happen to cross
paths with Kelvin as he's kind of you know got
hot dog in hand hopping from one store to the
next he's just finished like maybe cleaning some
gutters He's chatting with a bodega owner and
he sees this politician. Her name is. joella
crawford joella crawford uh city council woman
joella crawford she is coming up and just like
is like flustered and tired and like i think
like starts in on the kind of glad handing and
then sees that like kelvin's just like sort of
dead facing her and then drops the bid entirely
and is like yeah my car's broken down can you
like uh give it a look and see if you can give
it a jump start or something like i don't know
cars i don't know what i'm supposed to do here
So she is thoroughly out of her element is what
I will say here. So this immediately places us
somewhere. It doesn't have to, like I could always
travel to there, but I needed a little help to
figure out what my day job might be. And somebody
trying to do something in the town square sort
of places me potentially there. I think this
place is shockingly untourist trappy. You'd really
expect it to be more. I think sometimes people
come here expecting like a little bit of spectacle,
but it really is just a place that people live.
There's probably other cities near this telescope
that do lean into the like alien kitsch souvenir
thing. That's not what we've got going on. So
I don't think I work at like a tourist office
or anything. What's a job where my gravity powers
could be fun? Being a server and using it to
balance trays is really delightful to me. I think
it's probably that. Yeah. So we have a crafter
of some kind. Now I like the idea that a daring
DIY enthusiast who's looking to pay the bills
might be an avant -garde designer of some kind
who has a little boutique. but is having trouble
actually making enough sales to hold onto this
little boutique. Let's say they are a jewelry
designer because I don't understand how sewing
works. So yes, we have this local jeweler whose
name is some kind of interesting rock. Um, Beryl
Emerald. Yes. We're a superhero story. We can
name people things like that. I'm serving at
this like cafe near the town square. And a quirky
genius is trying to plant bombs in the town square
by booby trapping hostages. So that's very quirky.
Is this a rival scientist or somebody who worked
at the telescope and got fired for? something
nefarious no this is this is this is a rival
this is a rival scientist of some kind um a a
corporate scientist and the thing that they've
done is that they have um they've been handing
something out in disguise um and it's like it's
a thing where as soon as enough people with these
objects all gather in one spot There will be
a buildup of energy and an explosion. So they're
not hostages yet. At least they don't know they're
hostages, but they are. And so I think it's the
afternoon and people are getting set up for a
festival. It's a full moon tonight. And every
month there's a little celebration ritual in
the town square about this. And this quirky genius
has been giving out like... bracelets or pendants
that have moon, that have the moon on them. And
if enough people, when enough people wearing
them get into the town square, it'll be this
big connect, this big buildup of energy. And
that's been happening. And I think the thing
that I'm, there's going to be a moment. So I'm
serving, I'm just, I'm collecting empty mugs
from a table. I'm kind of, there's a lull. It's
going to be really busy. later and it was busy
before all of the volunteers came and like got
caffeinated before going to do setup but now
no one's here because they're all doing setup
and then it might be busy later but for now there's
a lull i'm entertaining myself by seeing how
high i can stack cups using my powers and um
someone tries to leave the town square to get
something and finds that they can't that they're
like they are rebuffed there is an invisible
barrier And that more people go to investigate
and they find that this barrier goes all the
way around the town square. And then they're
all really surprised when somebody walks through
it to come in. And they try to go out that same
way and they can't. So people can come in, but
they can't go out. And people's hair starts to
raise up a little bit, you know, like there is
this like this crackling in the air of this static
electricity. I think I noticed that there's unrest
and I sort of like go out on the cafe. patio
to clean out there but also eavesdrop and people
are like okay something big is happening let's
we got to figure out who did this or what's what's
happening is this naturally occurring what's
going on and the quirky genius in disguise is
part of this like anxious chatter and then at
a certain point just breaks you know very mockingly
he's like what are we going to do nothing it's
too late and they pull off their hat and their
hair falls and everyone gasps and recognizes
them as evil corporate scientist who's always
trying to get in the way of progress here and
um they villain they like monologue you know
i don't think they they don't we don't know yet
what is causing this energy build -up we haven't
tied it to the pendants but i think someone at
a certain point gasps like, wait, you were selling
these and rips it off. And the quirky genius
is like, yes, I was but or not selling them but
giving away. It's like, yes. But it's too late.
They've already absorbed some of your body's
potential energy and taking them off won't do
anything. In fact, the harder you throw them,
like, and a couple people, like, taking them
off and throwing them on the ground, and there's
a very ominous, like, big crackling noise. And
the villain is like, that's right. There's nothing
you can do. The more that they move around, the
bigger the boom will be. And you're not the only
people who I gave them to. Soon everyone will
come flowing in here for the festival. There's
no way for you to stop them from coming in. I've
put a field around. No one can come in. You can't
get out. And as soon as a certain number of people
get here, they just do like an explosion motion
with their hands. And that's where we're at.
I'm like, okay. And I go back quietly inside
the cafe and I put on my disguise. I'm not sure,
what is it? What is my disguise? Put a mask over
my eyes for sure. I have like a full body suit.
I think it's black with just some like subtle
nebula colors across it. Like just kind of vaguely
spacey. And maybe a single, not a circle, but
like an ovular. There's a symbol that is like.
The moon, the, what is the path that the moon
takes around the earth? Because it's not perfectly
circular, right? Orbits are rarely perfectly
circular, I think, right? There's that, that
little insignia. Okay, so how this works is now
we're going to make up a series of scenes and
try to solve a problem here. The loop of this
is that you have your big problem. You have to
solve smaller problems and you do tests to do
smaller problems. When you succeed at solving
one of the smaller problems, you get a progress
point. And then... To solve one of the big problems,
you roll as many dice as you have progress points.
Basically, that's going to mean like creating
a number of scenes, describing a number of actions,
using those actions to build up progress points.
And then we're going to spend those points to
solve the problem. For the fighting crime, you
need to beat the leader and the method. The thing
I'm not clear on is whether you have to clear
your progress. between defeating the leader and
defeating the method. The reason I'm unclear
on that is partially because the end of the day
says reset your progress, which makes me think
that it's expected to linger. I did find that
When I played a round of this yesterday, it went
considerably longer than I expected because it
says you need about a half an hour for a session
and a full day. I was figuring out the mechanics,
but a full day was an hour or more. And so I
wonder if that's part of it is that progress
is supposed to be held over the course of a day
rather than cleared in between every problem.
And so later problems you're solving much more
quickly. Yeah, I'm going to play as though progress
builds over the course of a... day and i i hope
that that's fine because this is helping a neighbor
anything that isn't power because she is uh rebellious
is going to be resisted as the dog whisperer
as the blue shepherd this is not necessarily
in my wheelhouse as a detective but perhaps i
can suggest that maybe Oh my gosh, yes. Maybe
what Ms. Emerald needs to do is to get into those
like matching bracelet sets where you get a dog
collar and a bracelet that are the same so you
and your dog can match. And I'm going to boost
her business by custom ordering a reversible
set. so that as Merle and Renfield, we can have
one design and then we can flip it when we need
to go undercover as Vampire and the Blue Shepherd.
So I put on my outfit. I'm in hero mode. Orbit
is here. The first thing to solve, I think, is
getting all the pendants safely off of the people
who are wearing them in the square right now.
Everybody who's wearing them has like stopped
moving because they're scared to like jiggle
them around too much because they seem to be
reacting to like the energy, right? The kinetic
energy that's exerted on them. And I think I
can do that by, if I go to each of those people
and like collect it using lower gravity hands,
they won't like rocket around as much and hit
things and we can like put them into a box. to
um put safely aside trying to decide if the quirky
genius is trapped in here with us or if they've
sort of you know off to dramatically monologue
and like witness the explosion they've probably
they've disappeared themselves i will have to
deal with them at some point but they're not
here right now they're very confident in the
idea that everybody's trapped so um They've disappeared.
And Orbit, you know, goes out of the back door
of the cafe so that she can appear on the top
of the building beside it. Like, I wasn't just
in the cafe. I was elsewhere. Hi, I'm here. And
everyone's like, Orbit, yay! And I'm like, OK,
I'm going to go around and collect like everybody
stay still. I'm going to come around and collect
all of these pendants from you so that we can
put them somewhere where they will be still and
not building up more energy. What attribute is
this? I'm looking at powers description now,
your physical strength, but also the magnitude
of your special powers and like. Uh, you're meeting
them head on and overwhelming them with your
abilities. And whereas scale is really like you
are creating openings and acting on them. I like
that I have skill and not power, at least for
right now. I think that sets up Kelvin's use
of his power in an interesting way where like
he's doing a lot of small abilities right now
and he's going to build towards those big stunts
later. I think that I'm probably going to try
and collect XP and use that towards increasing
my power because I think that's going to be a
fun way to see this. character grow and evolve
all of that separate is to say like i know it
is resisted but i think i have to use mind here
because the first step of this process has to
be just straight up popping the hood and looking
at the car so like uh i think that's exactly
what he does i think he kind of steps up and
says like yeah i can take a look at your car
i can fix this for you let me take a look let
me take a look so i think i'm trying to make
people think positively of this of this person's
work by seeing me wearing it so that is which
attribute do we think this is playing on it's
probably heart which is one of my dump stats
our DIY enthusiast daring so they are most impressed
by power so which means on my one die i need
to roll a six to succeed so uh wish me luck friends
i think this is skill because i it's it is precise
right like i'm having to be very careful as i
pull these necklaces off of people to not jostle
them too much and to put the right amount of
low gravity on them to not make them like you
know float up so they have to be caught or whatever
so think This is skill. My signature ability
is definitely relevant. Hyper localized gravity
manipulation in my hands. Yep. So I'm going to
roll 3d6 and one of them needs to be a five or
a six. And I'm going to roll 2d6. And that is
a pair of threes. So that is a failure. On a
failure, what happens? Mark a point of drawback
for the attribute that you failed with. Oh my
God, I did it. I rolled a six. Incredible. These
reversible Blue Shepherd branded collars slash
bracelets are wildly popular in the neighborhood.
Now everybody wants one that has their own unique
design on one side and, of course, solid blue
on the back. And that also will help me. in my
future undercover experiences, because if everyone
has a bracelet that has blue on the inside, then
you can't use it to prove that I, Merle Brady,
could possibly be our local mystery -solving
detective. Oh, I like this. Four, five, yay,
and a two. Okay, so we're good. I'm gonna mark
progress. And skill now has streak checked, which
means that any roles made with skill are resisted
until I make progress with another attribute.
Describe how your action got you closer to the
resolution. Well, having a sale on this special
new product helps them at least keep the boutique
afloat for another couple weeks. That's very
exciting. Earn one progress point, but I do not
gain an XP because... Oh no, I do gain an XP.
It was resisted. Hooray. Okay, so I am marking
a point of miscalculation. When you fail at solving
a problem through the use of mind, you commit
a miscalculation. Your plan goes wrong. It moves
you further away from a solution. Your neighbors
know your heart's in the right place, but you're
not the best person to ask regarding complex
solutions. It's hard to get people to trust what
you have to say, but... At least you learned
something. I'm going to take an experience point
from the experience, marking a point of miscalculation
and describing a complication that emerges. So
I mean immediately like my brain goes to Kelvin
is very eager to help but does not actually know
cars and kind of blustered his way into this
and now he's looking under the hood and like
does not actually know what he's looking at very
much. And the other thing that I think is very
good here is that we're looking at like a public
figure in public dealing with like a minor crisis.
I think that a photojournalist has showed up
like a paparazzi has showed up to like snap some
photos. And obviously Kelvin immediately is on
the defensive because he is does not like his
identity to be publicized. And here he is next
to a politician like at this point, someone else
walks into the square proving that, you know,
there's somebody like in the square at the street
waving at them being like, don't come in here.
They walk in and they're like, oh, shit. Hi.
There's people here. And we're all like, damn
it. Okay, people really can't see. And if more
people come in, that could be a problem if they
bring in more of these pendants and all of that
stuff. And so I think our next step is I want
to try and get out of the field. And I think
I'm gonna... It's something that you could probably
drive a car through it, but there's no cars in
the town square because, uh... This is a city
that prioritizes walkability over vehicles because
it's my dreams. It's my city that's cool that
I can make up. And yeah, basically I just need
to, it's something that I can push through, hopefully
using my powers that I'm strong. Or... Is that
what it is? Or is it just that it doesn't go
all the way up? Yeah, the genius, the quirky
genius disappeared by going up. And so we're
like, oh, the field isn't a full dome. There
is something that, like, there's a hole at the
top. How do we get there? And I'm like, I can
get there. I do unfortunately think that's skill
again, which is currently resisted, but that's
okay. I'm going to try and use lowering gravity
to float my way up. to the top of the field and
get out this does have my signature ability it
is a skill so i'm gonna roll 3d6 and one of them
has to be a six one four four nope okay i'm gonna
mark a point of discredit which is the drawback
of skill and if you fail a roll you can earn
an xp or receive an extra dice i'm gonna take
an experience and that causes destruction so
i Oh, it's just like I make myself really heavy
and like crack the ground underneath me. Right.
I think Kelvin is going to I'm going to grab
four dice here because I'm using my signature
ability. I am triggering skill. I am like opening
up an advantage to I'm not going to mince words.
I think I'm trying to set this guy's camera just
a little bit on fire so that it malfunctions.
Now, this is still. contest it because it is
skill but that's two fives and two sixes so that
is a success which gives me a point of progress
i think i'm just gonna try the same thing again
try and keep pushing through roll 3d6 i got a
six yay six three four so i got a six so i successfully
push through the field and i i crack the ground
The whole way that I'm moving, like I had to,
I had to make myself so heavy that every step
like just shatters the concrete. Luckily, it's
only like three steps, but we're still a pretty
hefty chunk of road that is now going to need
to be repaired. But I am outside of it and it
fixes itself behind me. You know, people still
can't get out, but I am on the outside of it.
uh this guy starts snapping photos and asking
questions and then his camera sparks and then
sparks again and again and again and like he's
got to throw it on the ground it's cracking it's
popping it's bubbling and i think using a another
my signature ability of temperature control with
a little bit of power like i'm grabbing my leather
jacket i'm throwing it on top of the like sparking
camera and i am trying to like quote unquote
put out the fire while like subtly using a little
bit more of my my superpowers here to help things
out since ms emerald is most impressed by shows
of power i think that i am going to next attempt
to use my power now i remember that the book
encourages Creative problem solving and thinking
outside the box. Perhaps the way to make sure
she is able to pay her rent is to use my powers
to sick a dog on the landlord? So the landlord
has been sending Ms. Emerald threatening letters
saying, threatening a rent increase. on this
boutique in on the main street so i am going
to roll two dice because my power is one and
i am using my superpowers to guide not my good
friend vampire but a small dog to go in through
the landlord's cat door and find some kind of
documents that prove that what they are doing
to Ms. Emerald is illegal and sketch, and find
where this was supposed to be rent -controlled
or something. Man, I don't know how this stuff
works. Wow. I'm very good at rolling the dice
so that they fall on the floor. That is a five
and a six. Wow, the dice love me today. And boy,
howdy, is that two twos, which means that is
also a failure, which means that I have caused
destruction. This has been Folio, an actual play
podcast about solo and otherwise self -paced
TTRPGs. To find where you can find the show,
check out foliopod .card .co. You can find Gwen
at GwenFrankenstein on Blue Sky. You can find
Jeff at PartyOfOnePodcast .com and JeffStormer
.com. You can find Seda, that's me, at GayGothVibes
.online and follow me on Blue Sky at PosadaChips
.GayGothVibes .online. Next week, Gwen and Jeff
and I will continue our games of Friendly Neighborhood
Superhero by Cat Scratcher Studio, found at Catscratcher
.itch .io. Everything I mentioned here is linked
in the show notes. Thanks so much for listening,
and take care out there. Oh my god, Google Sheets.
I'm one of the only people in the world who loves
you, and yet you treat me so badly.