A Divine Calling - Save the Gods from Extinction... In HIGHSCHOOL?!?

Do you wish you could play a Percy Jackson story? One where you are high school kids that instead of being born of Gods are CHOSEN by them to defeat a force that wants to wipe the Gods out for good? Well A Diving Calling is for YOU and the game we are exploring today on The RPG Goblin! 

Krystal, The creator of A Divine Calling joins us today as we explore what this game is, how it works, the inspiration behind it, and how it is perfect for chosen one stories where you have to balance the life of your world saving duties and needing to get your math homework done! 

A Divine Calling is coming to Kickstarter on OCTOBER 1st!
If you are like me and know this game will be perfect for your table then please check it out and get it for yourself! I can't wait for this game to come to life and play it myself! 

Get A Divine Calling here: 
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1398456656/a-divine-calling-ttrpg

Find Krystal and all of her social here: 
https://linktr.ee/Gingergeekgal56

Find GingGal Games here:
https://linktr.ee/GingGal_Games

JOIN The RPG Goblin DISCORD!
https://linktr.ee/therpggoblin

Transcript

0:00

Do you love chosen one fantasies? These types of stories where this person who's usually normal and average ends up being chosen for something that's grander than themselves. They go on these amazing adventures where they figure out how to wield these powers and abilities that they have as this chosen one and fulfill prophecies and things like that. It is truly an amazing kind of story. And the game that we are talking about today on the RPG goblin, a divine calling, is exactly inspired by these types of stories. More specifically, Percy Jackson meets glitter hearts, which is really, really amazing, and I'm really excited about it. A divine calling is all about playing these kids who are in high school, and you are chosen by gods to fight against the void who is trying to take the gods down. And it is such a cool idea. This game is actually coming to Kickstarter on October 1st, which by the time this episode releases is in 2 days, and I am so so very excited. So if you wanna hear all about it and exactly what this game entails, please listen to this episode where I bring on the creator, Krystal, to talk all about it with me. So I think that's enough of me talking. Let's get into the episode. Welcome everyone to the RPG Goblin, a TTRPG podcast that makes learning these games fun and easy for you, and I am the host Willow. I am the resident goblin and the one who asks all the questions because I'm obsessed with these games. And in today's episode, we are going to be talking about a new game coming to Kickstarter, which should be releasing either around the time or after this episode. I need to look at the schedule, so fingers crossed. I'm right on that. But it will be releasing around that time, and it is called a divine calling. And this is totally the 1st time that we're talking about it, and I can't wait to hear all the things and talk about it again. I'll be honest. And so for our guest in this episode, we have the actual creator of a divine calling, Crystal, Crystal, would you like to introduce yourself and what you do and where people can find you? Hi, everyone. My name's Crystal. I am also known as GingerGeekGal on social media. You can find me over on Blue Sky. You can find me on Twitter there using Ginger geek gal 56. I also am the creator and owner of a small new indie publishing company called Jinjgao Games, Which is going to be the people who will be releasing a divine calling. We are all about, diversity and Inclusion, we believe that everyone deserves a seat at the table, and we're about bringing our games to the masses. Oh, that is amazing. I love that so much. And so, the game that we are gonna be talking about, Divine Calling, is that the 1st game that you are, you know, creating but also publishing? Yes. Divine calling is our 1st game. In a divine calling, he plays a high schooler, and you have to survive high school while also helping save the world, and doing this with the help of a god who has chosen you to save this world, from an ancient cult known as the Void, who threatens plunge the world into total chaos by killing and destroying all the gods. Yes. I still love the concept so much. It makes me so happy, especially since this is I remember, totally not saying this before, that this is like the perfect game for my table, and so I'm so obsessed with it. And, when is a divine calling coming out for everyone that is listening and would like to get it for themselves? It will launch on Kickstarter on October 1st and run until October 31st. If you back on the 1st day, we are going to have some discounts, and we will also be continuing to upload community copies for those who might need To, save a little bit of money, we'll be doing, 5 community copies for every physical copy bought. That's It's amazing. Again, I love the accessibility with, like, wanting wanting people to play the game and so making it available for all these people. Absolutely fantastic. And so before we get into talking about divine calling, since that's, you know, the big thing, I wanna talk a little bit about your TTRPG history and experience. What games have you played? How long have you been playing? I'm just curious. So I really got into tabletop through the LARP world. So in college, my friend was like, hey, you like vampires? And I was like, Yes. I like vampires. So I ended up joining a LARP for vampire the masquerade. I played a toreador who was a, newscaster. Think Nancy from King of the Hill without adultery. But very much Nancy from King of the Hill. She was Southern. She was blonde. She used her looks and all this stuff. It was a great time. At the same time, that game, anytime it rained, we moved to the tabletop version. So we would all sit around and roll dice. That's really how I got started. I then moved on to D and D the next year. My friend was like, hey, you play that vampire game. Come play D and D. The first thing that ever happened to me, I rolled my die, and I backflipped into a fire and almost died. Not one. It was horrible. And from there, I just started Playing the Indian vampire, I've played almost all the World of Darkness products at this point. So I've played werewolf, I've played mage, Played vampire. I very much love the 20th, anniversary editions of all these games, but there are some roles from 5 e we do include most of the time. And then I've obviously played D and D. Once I joined the tabletop space, though, and was like, hey. I'm really into tabletop. Tell me what's out there. Oh, the plethora of games I have played since. The kids on series, we've played Monster of the Week, we've done Glitter Hearts, You know, I've read Thirsty Sword Lesbians a 1000000000 times, but never played it. I've done a 1000000000 solo journaling games from Itch. And overall, now that I'm a game designer, I buy games at, like, the 100. It's I just buy games. I back every Kickstarter, and I buy games, because I'm always interested to see how these games work and how they Run and how I can implement rules similar into my own games and how their games can inspire me to write and be a better designer. Absolutely. I love that so much, and I very much feel the feeling of back every Kickstarter by all the games. Any bundle on itch, that is mine now. Very much so. That's how I ended up with Lancer. My friend plays Lancer. I am a huge mech person. That's Like, my anime genre. Like, my little guilty pleasure anime genre. And so that's how, I got Lancer, and I love Lancer. I don't wanna play a mech game so bad. I was like, we could play mech glitter hearts, and everyone told me no. And I was like, okay. I'll just be sailor mercury then. What What do you mean no mech glitter hearts? It's perfect. There's rules for it too. I was like, guys, the rules are right there. Literally, the rules for mech mech glitter hearts and also, So, like, the, gem like, Steven Universe glitter verse as well. Like, those are perfect. Why wouldn't you wanna play those? We ended up almost playing gems. I was like, I will be okay with this because I also love Steven Universe. But next, guys, come on. It would be so cool. I've heard That'd be perfect. Fantastic things about Lancer. Though I'm curious. So you started out with LARPing. And so how was the experience going from, you know, LARPing to an actual tabletop role playing game? I think I got very lucky because, again, vampire went I went from LARP vampire to just tabletop vampire. When we built our characters for LARP, we built them as if we were building the tabletop characters. Mhmm. So I already have the sheet and everything, which, from my understanding, that's not how you do LARP usually. I could be wrong. Don't quote me on that. I've never played a LARP, for vampire other than this one that I did in college. However, I'm very interested in starting my own LARP here in the DFW Metroplex. We'll see. I'm a very busy person, but I like to keep adding things to my plate. My wife complains about all the time. But I got very lucky. So, going over to tabletop was very easy. And then I felt like going from vampire to D and D was pretty easy at the time we were playing 3.5. So again, it was a little crunchy, but There were way less dice to roll, so that was helpful. And then moving to 5 e and D and D, everything got much easier. I love 5 e, honestly. I think it's so accessible. It's so much easier to understand. Not that 3.54 were bad or anything. There are some things from 4 we still keep, like, group skill checks and things like that. Mhmm. No. Baby, go away. Sorry. My cat is determined to sit on my laptop. Mhmm. But it was very easy. And then moving from, D and D to different systems, like powered by the apocalypse and Cypher were easy as well. I like powered by the apocalypse because it's a 2 d six system. Everyone has 2 d six lying around somewhere, even if it's in their monopoly box. So that was always helpful. That's actually why a divine calling is a 2 d six system so that everyone has easy accessibility to it. You know? But I feel like once I hit tabletop, I was, much like you, a goblin. It's just so easy to become a goblin when there's so many things and so many games that you can play, and you can just collect them all like Pokemon. Exactly. Look, itch bundles And Kickstarters are the bane of my existence. That is where all my free money goes. Like, even if I can only back the Kickstarter at a dollar, I gave them the dollar. Yeah. I mean, at least you're supporting them. Like like Exactly. It's it's the thought that matters, and at least then you're a part of the project. And it's just a great time. I Kickstarters are definitely fantastic. And so, that's also amazing that you're going for a Kickstarter with a divine calling. And I'm curious, why you decided to go the Kickstarter approach versus just writing the game and releasing it? So, Fun fact. The game will be 95% done by the time I do my Kickstarter. Mhmm. I have basically funded most of the game. The Kickstarter will be used to finish funding my artist. Mhmm. I really just before I even started writing a divine Calling. I said, I wanna run a Kickstarter. I will write a game worthy of a Kickstarter. And that is how I ended up with A Divine I had 5 or 6 different projects I was working on at the time, different things, that have fallen to the wayside, or that just Have been completely demolished because I said, no. This sucks. And so we ended up with A Divine Calling. And My philosophy on Kickstarters is my game should be done. Really, what the kick start Kickstarter should be doing is finishing paying off my artist, And it should be, you know, kinda recouping losses and then adding extra things. So each of our stretch goals allow us to translate the game into a different language. All of my translators are wind up. So in the event that the Kickstarter doesn't reach those goals or the Kickstarter doesn't make, a, my artist will get paid. They have that in their contract of a Mhmm. Payment schedule. And then, b, I will eventually be able to go ahead and submit my, game to my translator so that they can get it translated. That's the languages oh, the The languages that we're gonna be translating into are Spanish. I live in Texas. Spanish comes first. Mhmm. Portuguese, Italian, and French? That's wrong. That's wrong. That's wrong. It's wrong. It's not French. It is. Forgive me. For some reason, this one just completely gone in my brain. I mean, you've got so much going on, so I completely understand. And No. It is French. Spanish, Portuguese, French, and Italian. I don't know why. I thought it was Mandarin for some reason. And so I think that's, again, that's fantastic where it is making these games even more accessible and even more people play them especially in their native languages. That's absolutely amazing. And paying your artist. Everyone should pay. Yes. Pay your artist what they wanna be paid. Do not go in and say, hey, can you draw me this very expensive, beautiful art for$12? Like, don't do that. I I have some very nice artists on my game. Tate, who worked on Coyote and Crow, is working on my game. One thing I really did was I took a bunch of artists, and I said, draw yourself. I really wanted to show that this game was for anyone and everyone. And so I asked them to draw themselves so that I had a lot of diverse art and I could represent as many communities as possible. That's amazing, which I still think that is insanely cool. And, correct me if I'm wrong, you ended up using some of these characters that they drew in the book even as, like, references? Correct. So each character so I had 20 some odd artists. I have, there are 10 clicks, and there are 20 deity types. So there's a total of 200 different character combos. You take your click and your deity type to make your character. So I had ten Click's drawn and had 20 deity types drawn. Some of my artists did both, so you will have that character who has their click and also has a deity type. Mhmm. My friend Ezra, he was in charge of drawing the goth and the moon, and so though that character is on both pages. So, essentially, you have the character art on the left hand side with a character blurb that talks about the character and how they relate to their clicker, their deity type. And on the right hand side, you have the information for that clicker, that d and d type. I love that. And that kinda gives me, thirsty sword lesbian vibes. Yes. They have those, like, characters in the book, and and they're, like, used as, like, mascots, but even just to represent those playbooks. So I think that is super, super cool. Very, very interesting. And, actually, I'd like to start to get, more into, what a divine calling is and talking about the game itself since it's super, super neat. And, I think what's the best place to start? Because you did kinda give an overview of what a divine calling is. But for maybe someone who doesn't know what TTRPGs are or maybe new to the hobby. How would you explain what the what a divine calling is to them? So I would tell them the first thing that A Divine Calling is is it's Percy Jackson, but you roll dice for it. I love it. That's kinda that's kinda why everyone's like, they're like, it's Percy Jackson. I'm like, yes. I say very proudly as I've never read the books or seen the movies. My friends are all talking about Percy Jackson and I had FOMO, so I wrote this game, and that's exactly how this game came into being. But that is exactly where I would start. I would say, hey. It's Percy Jackson, or you sit around with your friends and you roll dice for certain outcomes. So good. And so was Percy Jackson well, Percy Jackson was obviously an inspiration, but were there any other inspirations? Yeah. So Percy Jackson is kinda like the main overarching kinda one because, you know, with Percy Jackson, you deal with gods and stuff like that. After I read Anti Goddess by Kendare Blake, that also kinda went into the god aspect of it. Because, in that book, she has all the gods be people. And I thought that was a really great way to kinda, like, solidify how avatars might work. Yeah. And so then, my other normal, like, kinda high school references would be Buffy the Vampire Slayer and then Teen Wolf, because there's this big balance between Doing what your god wants and going to school. A really great example is in Teen Wolf in season 2. Scott has to, like, choose between, like, all of his Wolfly duties in school, and he's, like, failing all his classes, and they're like, you can't play lacrosse. And so we really wanna balance those, Issues that you'll come across where if you don't make good grades, you don't do your class you don't do your extracurriculars kind of thing. Yeah. And so it's that very interesting balance of, like, being this powerful person who has powers from the gods, but also you're in school. Yeah. You you're in school. Some people can't even drive. Like, freshmen can't even drive. Yeah. But you're supposed to go to the mall to stop The void, if you can't even drive there. You have to get your mom to drive you. You have to get your mom. And I just can imagine the scenarios that come up with that and how it's like, It's just the juxtaposition of it all, and it's so those kinds of stories are just so fun and especially to play and especially in heavy role play groups, I feel like. You know, creating that world and those stories with, like, hears people you know or are related to. Here's like friends and teachers and things like that that you just encounter in the wild when maybe you are fighting the void and you need to like be a normal person so that so that they don't think you're weird. No. I love that so much. And so, does I I know that you you explained, like, the whole void thing, and, you know, how you're fighting against the void who wants to take down all the gods. Is that, like, kind of the base setting of this game? Yes. So that's, the main written villain. Obviously I'm sure someone's gonna Was something way better than what I wrote, but essentially the void is a group that was, they said the gods don't actually care about us. Mhmm. They just, you know, care about themselves. And so why should we be yeah. So, like, why should we be doing Anything for them. Why should we be worshiping them? Or anything like that. Mhmm. They bring they want to bring down the deities because they seek to build a better world for everyone. They're kind of this, like, shadowy organization, and they want to just, you know, kill the deities. They don't Plan in any sense to ever kill a character. I thought that was very important to put in there. Mhmm. They're trying to kill the deities, not the character. And there's mechanics that essentially have them sever the deity from the player so that they can kill the deity without killing the player because I I just thought that was rude Like, it's so horrible to like have to be murdered. And I was like, no, this game's lighter than that. So Yeah. Not telling it up. I like that a lot. And so anyone who wants something a bit more lighthearted, not I mean, high stakes because, yeah, the, you know, the gods are going to get destroyed, but not high stakes when it comes to your own personal character that you end up having, like, More of a personal connection. Well, I don't think that character death is a bad thing. I I like embracing it when the story calls for it. Not everyone likes it. And so having that option, I I enjoy a lot. Yeah. And, like, there are obviously options for character death. There's, Like, you could go to 0 hit points. Like, you can run a combative game. I've written the rules so you can do both, combative and purely story driven. But if you, like, go to 0, there is a thing called the blessing of the gods, where your deity essentially brings you back at full health, But now you have to go do a task for your deity. Yes. And I like that as well, which gives, you know, the same vibe as I mean, Percy Jackson is Greek gods, but, like, even just like the Greek mythos in general and, like, mythology where you have to do things for these gods. Like, it's not just like, oh, here's free power. Exactly. There is a price to using these things and them doing these favors for you, which I think is really, really interesting and and when we didn't talk about this before, I remember really enjoying, when you shared some of the mechanics that tie into that. But I would like to talk about that. But first, I think that, I'd like to start to cover character creation Yeah. And how that works and the different steps that people have to go through for that? Yeah. So kind of the first thing you're gonna do in character creation is, obviously, you're gonna name your character, you're gonna Pronouns and stuff like that. Mhmm. You're gonna pick the 2 main things that are gonna define your character. Your click, Which defines who you are in your normal everyday life. And your deity type, which defines who you are, as your, kind of, chosen one character. I love it. There are as I said 10 different clicks you can choose from each of these clicks give you a bane and a bonus so for example Our popular kids get a plus 2 to social, but they have a band called paparazzi, because essentially popular kids, everyone's got their eyes on them. If they fail a sneak roll, they get a negative to their to to their next sneak roll. And with this being a 2 d six system, that is a huge bane. Yeah. For sure. Oh my gosh. Yeah. So and then, like I said, there's 10 of them. So you've got things like you've got your nerd, your fine arts kid, your jock. One of the ones That everyone is super excited to see that I put in was weebs. I was a weeb in high school, so I wanted to be represented in my own game. Yes. They get a plus 1 to 2 stats of their choice. So they get to choose a plus one to any of the 4 stats, which is Physical, mental, social, and divine. So they get a plus 1 to 2 of those. And then their bane is called a waifu meltdown. And they if they critically fail to sway someone, their next way to say someone gets that negative two moment, Bane. That's so fun. Then, of course, we have our deity types. I have 20. I think I reached everything. I could be wrong. Someone could come up and be like, where's x, y, z deity type? And I'd be like, I don't know. I mean, twice a lot. Like like, in in the grand scheme of things, even if you don't have every single one in there, and someone finds something where it's like, you don't have the deity of the sea monsters or whatever. It's like, well, then you can make 1 too. Yeah. Yeah. It's pretty obvious how each of them work. Like, you get a plus 1, then you get a plus 2, and then you get something that helps your allies, and then you get Kind of something cool that's helpful and then something that's really cool that's helpful. Like, that's the structure of how each of the DE types works. So, like Yeah. Super easy. Love it. Yeah, so hopefully everyone could, if they needed to, homebrew something. We didn't put in homebrew rules yet, but I could still. I still have 1 more editing passage. I mean, I think even if it's just something simple as, like, breaking down, here's how you can Here's how you can create your own deity. Here's, like, the basic steps. Even though it still may be obvious, like, looking at, the bonuses that you get, just kind of breaking it down a little bit. Like, it doesn't have to be a whole passage. It can just be yeah. This is how it works. And it's super easy to implement and homebrew your own things into game and make it your own. I love it. So, kinda as I said, you get 5 abilities, so there are 5 levels to this game. Mhmm. I wanted something that had replayability, and something that could be kinda what I would call a mid range tabletop, essentially. So you have, like, your short games, which are things that would be 1 to 3 sessions, and then you have midrange, which should be anywhere from 3 to, I feel, like, 20 sessions, and then you have things like D and D and Pathfinder and Vampire that are infinite sessions long. As long as you want to play. Exactly, until you're done. But with a divine calling, I kinda wanted it to be something that you could sit down with your group and do over, like, Summer, maybe, things like that. Yeah, I love that. Something small and fun, very, like, in my brain, glitter heartsy. Yes. It does of the weakie. Things like that. It definitely does give me some of the glitter heart vibes, especially with going for the, like, but I guess not archetypes, but how you have, like, you know, your click and your deity. Yes. How glitter heart has its own archetypes that aren't followed like, they they aren't following a playbook style like most powered by the apocalypse games do. Mhmm. Yeah. Thing which I find really interesting, and I'm curious why you went that route versus is making playbooks? Yeah. So before I started working on A Divine Calling, I hadn't played Glitter Hearts. I hadn't actually played a game that was powered by the apocalypse. Mhmm. So I didn't really know that I could hack it. So I made my own system with 2 d six. And I said one of the things I love about D and D and that I love, just kinda, like, in general, about games like D and D and Pathfinder is you have your lineage, and then you have your class. And so I really love the duality, and I love watching you mix and mash things together to make a character. And so that's kinda why I went this way, and very similar. Go to Hearts is obviously one of my big influences, because that was what I was reading at the time. I liked that you took different things and mashed them together, and that's how I got here. Yeah. I love that, and I love that approach as well because it is so fun. It really is because there's I'm trying to remember some of the because I recently played, glitter hearts as well. I'm trying to remember some of the weird character combinations, but, like, the fact that you can mix, like, emotional powers and elemental powers with these different roles and then, like, who you are as a person, like a I had a goth idol, maybe. No. Not an idol. But it it was one of the It wasn't, like, one that I would normally expect when it was a goth with, like, the metal abilities Mhmm. Which was, like, such a cool combination. And so when it came to that character, like, actually designing, when it came to that player designing that character, it was so cool because it's like, yeah, goth metal that works really well. But then it's just like super interesting as well just how you can combine those things because you could have a goth with light abilities and that's really fun too, or life abilities. I love it. We, in a recent game I played, we had 2 different, witches, and one of them was like a darker themed witch and the other one had like light abilities, I think. Alright. And literally they were like rival goths. It was really funny. Yes. Yes. Yes. That's also another thing I love about glitter hearts is the relationships, how you can have the cooperative and competitive. So good. Oh, man. I love it so much. But yeah. No. I I love that that's the inspiration because I think it fits so well with the type of game that you are making. Yeah. And ideally, we'll use this kind of similar system moving forward so that it's like The ging gao system or something like that. I don't know. The Internet will name it for me. Exactly. I love that. And And that's the thing as well is that you can have a your own system that's inspired by things. Everything's inspired off of something. Yeah. There's only, like, 3 plots. So Exactly. There's only 3 things we can do. There's only so many things, so many possibilities in the world. Like, you just have to accept that, yeah, maybe it might be similar to someone else's and just do your own thing. Have fun with it. But I love that so so so very much. And so when it comes to when it comes to creating your character and picking your click and then picking your deity, what are some of the examples of the deities and the powers that they give you? Yeah. So, I went and used The Greek deities, obviously, you can use any deity you like, with respect, of course. But I thought that the best way to explain it to someone would be to use the Greek deities. Everyone's kinda, you know, versed in them. Mhmm. Like, we had to do a mythology lesson in In school, and so that's where I learned about the Greek deities, and then I was obsessed with them. So, an example I have, just the one I pulled up in the PDF, because that's where I scrolled to, is the hearth. So the hearth is your connection to your home. It helps you heal and bolster your Allies, and my example obviously is Hestia. It gives you 5 abilities. So your first one is called chef. You get a plus 1, when cooking. Location knowledge, as long as you're in a location you know, you have a plus 2 to evade, because you could run away very easy. It's like when you turn the lights off in your house and you walk back to your room, very similar. You go as fast as you can. You don't look back. Exactly. You do not run into anything. Oh, exactly. We have, the 3rd ability, which is home field advantage. As long as you are in a location, you know, you and your allies have a plus 2 to 2 Defend and a plus one to flee. Mhmm. Food for the Soul gives you, upon a successful divine role, divine is one of the categories. To activate some of your abilities, you have to make a divine roll. Mhmm. So upon a successful divine roll, you can infuse healing into your food. And then anyone who eats it can roll a d 6 to heal. Mhmm. And then we have sanctuary, which is their big ability. Upon a successful divine role, they can designate a single room no bigger than a living room as sanctuary. Only people you allowed to enter may enter this room, and skirmishes, Which are combat, cannot happen in this room. And healing is always at the maximum in this location. I love that so much. That's so good. Yep. So we have, like, hearth, we have, like, art and creativity, and then, obviously, we have, like, Death and war. Obviously, war is going to be very skirmish focused. So I do caution anyone who wants to play a war Deity type to talk with their lore weaver, which is our DM or GM or whatever, And be like, hey, is my character going to be useful? Because if you're running just a purely social game, that character will not be very useful. Yeah. And I love that there are so many abilities that focus on narrative or noncombat situations. Where it's like, you know, the healing and and being able and just, like, fun things like cooking. Like, it's just it's those small things that enhance, like, you know what this character is and you know kind of the idea around what the god is. And you don't need it all to just go into combat and have every single ability be combat focused because that's not the focus of the game. I love it. What what what are some of the examples for the war where it is more combat focused abilities. Yeah. So War, obviously, I said Ares. I love Aries so much. I I I don't know why. That was, like, my focus for a minute. Was it Aries? I mean, Ares from Hades, the game? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, any of the gods from heydays, to be honest. So war has a new thing that was not in part. For some reason, when I did my last editing pass, I only did I only edited half the deity types. Mhmm. I stopped after a point. I was like, oh, I did them. No, that's not what happened. So for war, obviously, war deities often seek out hosts who tend to approach situations head on and are able to keep themselves safe while also Keeping situations under control. An example would be Ares from Greek mythology. So their level one is called 2nd strike. They can attack twice On their turn, and they get a plus one to both attacks. Mhmm. Very obviously, taken directly from Magic, The Gathering. It's called double strike. You hit twice. It's great for red cards. Level 2 is shield. They know how to protect each other. They know how to protect themselves and other people. They get a plus 2 to defense. Level 3 is called level headed. We have a calm down mechanic, and they get to add a plus 2 to, calm down people who in skirmish situations, specifically. At level 4, this is where we change things. And then I just didn't do it for the rest of the document. It's called dodge. They're quick on their feet. They get a plus one to evade roles. But if they're not in a skirmish and they critically fail, they get a negative 2 to availables. Ouchies. And then tactical, when in skirmish situations, they of act, activate the ability, upon making a successful divine role, and they can reroll their d 6 and take the higher of the 2. Oh, I love that. And so this again, some of these things can still possibly be subject to changes. You are still doing the editing for this book. Right? Yes. We are very close. By the time this airs, though, we should be completely finalized. Woo. So exciting. Yep. And so I I, again, I love even the combat abilities aren't just, like, bonuses to attack. It's fun things like defending and running away and things like that that just work a bit more in specific situations, which I just think is really, really cool. And I am curious. So there are 5 levels for these deities. How do you level up in this game? This is all milestones. So whenever the story says you level up is when you level up. It's completely up to the lore weaver. Essentially, kinda the way I've always done it in running my games, and kinda the way I've explained it to other people who might want to run the game, is each time they defeat a member of the void, they level up. Okay. But kinda at the same time, the void should level up. They should get a win. The void also has abilities Mhmm. That only the Loreweaver is in charge of. And so, essentially, you want the void to be on the same level as your players. Because if a level 5 deity is fighting a level 1 void, they're just gonna crush them. Yeah. For sure, that that I mean, that makes sense. You you keep things up so that everything also stays interesting. You know, you don't wanna just have easy fights all the time and having there actually be stakes and progress is really, really important, especially with, like, you know, Your gods are at risk, the ones giving you these powers. Mhmm. It's absolutely wild. And so how do you How do you kind of balance both, like, the void making progress and also having the characters make progress without it seeming like it just neutralizes self out? Yeah. Usually, kinda, like, when I was running it and what, other people who've run it have done is, like, essentially, you have 5 stages That you have to stop the void at. In the first stage, you stop them, but x, y, z still happens. So, like, Essentially, you managed to stop the people in the woods, but the people in the gym still did what they needed to do. Mhmm. You, you know, you had to, like, divide and conquer, and only 1 could compete. So One area still got away with it. And then just stuff like that, like, you can't be everywhere at once Kind of situations allowing them to level up the void in the background, helps And then it's also kind of this fun kind of thing that's like It is still happening. You are making progress, and you think you are helping, but things are still happening around you, which is definitely something that kinda happens in those chosen one books, you know? Yeah. For sure. Katniss can win the Hunger Games all she wants, but president Snow is still going to be a horrible person. He's still gonna do all these horrible things that she cannot stop because she's too busy dealing with x, y, and z. Exactly. And, Oh, man. I love that a lot. And so then you have to, like, balance. And that's where, again, it it becomes even more interesting where it's like balancing your relationship with your deity, balancing the fight against the void and then balancing your own personal life. And so there's so much to manage that, I think naturally even the players aren't going to always be right on top of whatever the void's gonna be doing because there are other moving tarts. I love that. Yeah. Because if you have to go to detention, you have to go to detention. And, yeah, maybe you could breakfast Club it and, like, sneak out and have an epic adventure, but, like, you could still get caught. And when you get caught, you have to go back to detention, and the void could succeed in that moment. Exactly. And it just makes these really interesting stories, and that's where it's, like, super fun to find out what happens when you play it. And I'm I'm, I'm also curious because I remember we talked about this before. The relationships between the deities and the players or not the players. The deities and the characters, how does that work, and how do they even get introduced to the deity? So we have what is known as the dream. So, essentially, for session 0, After you've made your character, you will sit down with your loreweaver, and you'll have what is known as the dream. The dream essentially is you're sleeping, and you have this dream. Mhmm. In the dream, you will be introduced to your deity. Your deity is going to tell you who they are, what they want from you, why you should listen to them. And it essentially kinda gives the characters their introduction. It also allows the lore weaver at that time to establish the, like, Personality of the deity. Mhmm. And then when they wake up, they will have what is known as, like, the gift. The gift essentially is Something that allows you to communicate with your deity without being asleep. A very popular choice is, for my stoners. They can hit their vape, and they can talk to their deity if they have a successful divine rule. I love that so much. I gotta go talk to my god, hit the vape. Yeah. No. The amount of times I've seen that be a thing, I'm like, I guess that's just standard now. If you're if you're a s owner, you gotta hit your babe. I adore that so much. It's so fun. And so, and you say, like, that's how you communicate with your deity out of a dream. So you can communicate with it with them in the dreams as well still? Yes. So when you sleep, you can choose to talk to your deity and have a dream with them, or you can choose to just have a normal night's sleep if your deity is gonna let you do that. Sometimes your deity might be like, no. I wanna talk to you right now. And so they can. They can choose to do it at that time. When you're not asleep, deities can't actively choose to talk to you. You have to choose to talk to them. But when you're asleep, they can choose to do it as well. I love that so much. And so, you mentioned, like, having to make those divine roles. What what what do you need to be able to what do you need to roll to make that and and talk with them? So, I have, obviously, a a way that the roles work. Mhmm. So you have, your chart. So you have your critical failures, which are 1 to 3, your failures, which are 4 to 7, Success is 8 to 11, and critical, success, which are 12 plus. That is on normal roles. Divine roles and healing roles do not have criticals. Divine roles 1 through 7 is a failure. 8 plus is a success. Love it. Very simple. If you fail, action does not happen. If you succeed, the action happens. I didn't want to impose Criticals on divine roles or on healing roles. I felt that was unfair in general, because it really just sucks if you roll, Like a one, and then you have to come up with a consequence. Yeah. A way that, something I put into my games What the critical success and critical failure mechanic is a group discussion on what happens. As I said, kind of early on, My first experience at D and D, I backflipped into a fire, and my character almost died because I rolled a nat one. Yeah. I hate that. I refuse to let that happen to other people. Like, I just it is horrible. That is the type of thing that drives people away from tables. Mhmm Being able to discuss what happens not only allows you to fail forward It allows you to have fun Mhmm Like In an actual play that I did, with Tabletop Journeys, you can go check them out on Spotify and on Twitter. They're super amazing guys. One of our characters, was trying to sneak across the floor, but instead he like got a nat one. And so he tripped over a chair. Well, when he tripped, he distracted everyone because he made this loud noise and he spilt things, and it allowed our other character who was trying to steal something to have a plus one. I said, you know what? That was really good. That was really smart. I'm gonna give you a plus 1. Yeah. That's so true. Steal that thing. Collaboration. Truly. I want everything to be very collaborative. So, essentially, if you want a divine action to go off, you roll your 2 d six. If you have any bonuses for divine, you'll add those. And if it's A 7 or below, it's a failure. If it's an 8 or up, it's a success. Love that so much. And so, actually, this does, make me want to go assess and fail system, more. Hey, everyone. It is time for the midpoint break here. This is where I'm gonna be talking about the promo that we're gonna be having on for this break and also the next episode of the RPG Goblin, which is very, very exciting. First of all, though, if you are listening to this episode and you are enjoying it so far, please make sure to give it a review wherever you listen to your podcast. Any little bit of support helps keep this podcast going and just means the absolute world to me. Also, if you have friends who are into D and D, TTRPGs, or, like, just straight up nerdy things and you think would like this podcast, please tell them about it. Sharing this podcast around to your friends and other people helps grow it even more. And with having the official RPG goblin discord server up, I want to grow that even more in a community for you guys to talk about these games. And, also, in the future, I wanna be able to make it so that you guys can play these games easier. So by building up this community and getting more people into it, it helps everything grow and for these games to be even more accessible to you guys, hopefully. Woo. But that's at least my plans for the goblin discord. The link for it will be in the description below, which is on my link tree, or you can go on to Twitter and find it there. Enough of me talking about all the cool things that I'm really excited about. The next episode of the RPG goblin is going to be let me grab My calendar. The next episode of the RPG goblin is gonna be coming out October 6th, and it's going to be about a game called castle of memories. This is a solo RPG, that is a little spooky, which I thought was a great choice for the 1st episode of October, and I bring on Emily again to talk all about it. And if you've listened to Electric Bastionland, Monster of the Week, it is the same Emily, and so I'm really excited for you guys to hear this conversation. And, yeah, again, that will be on October 6th, So keep an eye out for when that comes out. I do wanna say one more time before we get to the promo. A divine calling is a game that makes me really, really excited. I am so happy that Crystal came on to talk all about it with me. I can't wait for it to come on to Kickstarter, which again, is going to be October 1st and it is gonna be coming on to Kickstarter, which is when you can back it and get the book for yourself, which is really exciting. So, again, October 1st is when the Kickstarter is gonna be coming out, and there is a link to it in the description of this episode for you to go check it out. Okay. Time to talk about the promo. This promo is gonna be for a new actual play show coming out called Bella's Comet. I am really, really excited because this show is going to be done by Grant aka game master Monday, along with some amazing other creators, and they are going to be playing the arc doom system. I I'll I'll give you a little bit of a spoiler. The end of October The 27th is going to be an episode of the RPG Goblin coming out talking all about Arc Doom with Grant. And what I heard about this system and the show, I cannot wait for. So let's get to actually hearing the promo and what it's gonna be all about. Some stories are epic tales for the ages. Hours of content, sprawling narratives that pull you in and consume years of your life. This isn't one of those stories. Join the creators of Game Master Monday and Slay the Stars with a special guest from Lost Guide Games as they take you on a journey of hope and desperation. Using the Arc Doom TTRPG system, Bella's comet is nothing like you've experienced so far. Because there's a twist. And the clock is ticking. Episode 1 of Bella's Comet releases on October 4th. Listen in on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Love that so much. And so, actually, this does, make me want to go a bit into the success and fail system, more. And so, you know, when you fail, there is discussing consequences. You know? What happens as a table collaborating, which, again, I love so much. I love doing that at my own games. And so, like, with it just being baked into the book just makes me happy. And so what happens on, successes, like like, super successes when when you, like, knocked it out of the park? Yeah. So again, critical success is a collaborative effort. You discuss with the table how this is going to, affect the story. The example I have in my, book is that our character, Elise, has rolled a 12 on physical. She is in combat, so she's in a skirmish, and she is able to knock out her attacker's leg, and because her attacker is on the ground, she can run away without having to roll an evade roll. Oh, perfect. I love that. Creative solutions too. Yep. Like like, you do something like, even if it's just, you know, knocking out a leg, that's something different than, like, I hit with my sword. Exactly. But then when it does come to getting an an advantage there, you can make it actually something that has worth in that story, you know, that does help you, which I also find really good. And, obviously, if you're, like, Rolling to know some knowledge. You can just know the knowledge kinda situation. Obviously, if you get a critical success, you don't have to get these extra bonuses if If you don't want them if you're like, I just want the action to happen as intended, that's fine. Yeah. It is important to note that In the event of a critical failure, and you cannot come to a solution, treat it as a normal failure. Same for our critical success. If you cannot come to a solution, treat it as a normal success. Don't don't do anything special. Just treat it normally. Don't make up any extra cool, thing, or don't make up any horrible consequences if not everyone agrees. Yeah. And I I do like that actually as well because some people are just okay with taking the success as is. Mhmm. And so if that does end up just being the discussion, like, there's not really anything we can do right now. Just deciding, like, yeah. It's just a success then. Yep, makes it so much simpler. I like that a lot. And so have you had any, situations where you've had that come up in your own games or any memorable, call failures or successes in your own games of, a divine calling? Yeah. So, kind of the situation where we just treated it as a success. I had my players roll knowledge for a math test. Mhmm. I'd love that. And my character, who is Was a jock, so they're kinda playing the dumb character. Mhmm. Was like, I just wanna pass the test, like a c. That's what I want. And I was like, well, you passed your test, but okay. Cool. I do know that if my, My nerd had passed. They they wanted a 105. That's what they told me. They're like, I want a 105. I wanna have gotten everything plus the bonus question right. And I was like, That's fair. I added actually my own question onto the test, and then, like, solved it. And then solved it. And the teacher was so impressed. They gave me 5 extra That's so good. I love that. Yeah. My favorite critical failure, Again, I already discussed it. It was the chair situation. I thought that was probably one of the most creative ways to handle that critical failure. Use use the fumbling to your image. Especially because the person who was fumbling was, like, a magician as, like, their, like, Little thing they also did. So, like, they, like, stumbled and they were, like, really dramatic about it. I was like, yeah. That is so perfect. That is so good. That's absolutely golden. I love it so much. And, actually, this does make me want to ask a bit of, like, how has playtesting gone for this game so far. How have you enjoyed it? What have you learned from it? Any changes that have come from it? Yeah. So Playtesting has been a lot of fun. The biggest thing that came from playtesting in the very beginning was we added way more deity types. I think we started out with 12 and ended up at 20. So that was the big thing that changed in the beginning. Another thing that came out of playtesting recently was we added pyramid, bans and bonuses. Oh. So one thing you do when your character creating Do you pick your deity type and stuff like that, is you, as a group, create what is known as the social pyramid. It has 4 levels, and you're gonna put all the clicks On a different place. So like you could put the popular kids at the top or put them at the bottom or whatever, you know, things like that. And then there are banes and bonuses that go along with that. So, for example, people at the top of the pyramid Have a bonus to swaying people at the bottom of the pyramid and things like that. Oh, okay. And then their bane is that people in the middle of the pyramid don't care, and they have a negative to sway them in a situation like that. Yeah. I like that. That's a really fun way to use the clicks. Interesting, but it had no, like, mechanical value. Uh-huh. So we gave it a mechanical value. So now it has a reason for you. Yeah. I like it. Oh, that sounds very fun. And then you can kinda just decide, like, what is this school like? Mhmm. You know? And and and kind of who rules the school too. That's really, really fun. Yeah. It really kinda helps with world building and things like that. And then now that has a mechanical value, it's not just world building. It's also intricate to the players and stuff like that. So I thought it was a very interesting thing that God said in commentary. And so I was like, well, you know, let's let's discuss it some more and, like, let's work shop it. And so we workshopped it, and that's what we came up with. I love that so much. I bet that process is also really fun. Like, you know, introducing a mechanic and then workshopping it with people. Like, how can we make this better? How can we make this relevant? How can we give this mechanical value if it needs? That just sounds like an absolute blast. It was. Yeah. I did a lot of workshopping on this game. Many a day, I would, like, get off work and go into the living room and look at my roommates and go, okay. While I was at work, I wrote these things. Do they make Any sense to you? And then I would, like, read them to people. And there was a lot of people going, that makes no sense, Crystal. And I was like, okay. You're right. It is a Crystalism. That is what people in my circle call my writing. Sometimes if I write something, they're like, that could only make sense to you, obviously. And I'm like, yeah, you're right. I recently took, like, a class, like, a new college class Mhmm. To get the last class I need for my bachelor's. Interesting. My friend was editing my Person, was like, you didn't get an a in this class. We got an a in this class, Crystal. I had to edit so much stuff. And I was like, you're right. You did. See that? But that's that's your job. As as the designer, you just word vomit everything down, and then you worry about actually polishing it up later. Because as long as you get the ideas out that, like, that that's that's the hard part. Well, Editing's the hard part too, but but if you That's the hard part for me Yeah. Is getting the ideas out. The editor has their own hard part, and it has nothing to do with me. I love it. And so, when it does come to, some of the world building stuff like that, click pyramid. Mhmm. Are there other things like that in this game where everyone kinda gets to, build this world together? Yes. So after you build your pyramid, there's a thing called, the strings of fate and the web. Oh. So I got the idea specifically from Kids on Bikes. Mhmm. And then tweaked it. So, essentially, what it is is you're going to make a, Not a flowchart. The chart with the bubbles. A bubble chart maybe? Oh, gosh. What are those called? They have bubbles and lines and more bubbles. What are they called? Oh, I know what you're talking about. Before just gonna say bubble chart and Yeah. Assume people can get the context of bubbles with lines of bubbles. Exactly. Everything connects. Everything connects. So you each person you'll make a a circle one. Mhmm. And you'll put your Characters in order of how you are sitting. So if I'm sitting next to Bob and Angie, Bob will be on my left, and Angie will be on my right. Okay. So the first step is I will create a relationship with Bob. I will say, Bob, your character Is my character's archrival. We are both nerds. I wanna be the valedictorian. You wanna be the valedictorian. We're fighting over it. That's our relationship. Angie on my right will create 2 NPCs. These are 2 people that she creates that help flesh out her world. So Angie's character has a sister. I make a relationship with Angie's NPC sister that says your sister is my girlfriend. Oh, fun. Yeah. So I have a relationship that involves Bob's character, and I have a relationship that involves Angie's character, but it's not directly with Angie's character it's with Angie's NPC I like that and so everything just starts to intertwine with each other and Essentially, you just need to make the 2 connections. You need to make 1 with your left person's character and your right person's in PC. So essentially at the end of it, you should have 4 connections. So you should have 2 NPCs you created and you created the connections for, an NPC from another player character and then a player character connection So at the end, you should only have 4 new connections My players, when we were doing it, got really insane and made this very intricate web. And, like, everyone was like, well, I want a relationship with everyone. And so it was massive. And I had a lot of lines, It was not very fun to make. I've done, I I can definitely see the inspiration from kids on brooms slash bikes, because I've I've run a at least 1 I've run 1 game and played in another. And we have unfortunately made the mistake of having relationships people having relationships with every one of the characters. Yeah. And, oh my, like, it's it's so fun, but it takes so long to do. And there's all the little bits and, like, my notebook looks insane as I have, like, a bullet point. Like, This person is this and this Yeah. Right? But it it's fun. And, like, I encourage you to make it into a big chart and stuff like that and draw it out. But, like, it's also very monster hearts y with, you know, like, the strings. Oh, yeah. I've yet to play monster hearts. I really want to. I read, so I watched credit card role play it, and then I read through it. So that's kinda where I got that. In the beginning, I was marketing this as, Percy Jackson meets monster heart, and then I was like, that's wrong. No. It's glitter hearts thrown through. It's glitter hearts. Yeah. It's very good at hearts y. I love that. And so none of that just makes me wanna get monster hearts, and I'm just gonna make a note for myself. Monster hearts. It is good. So I've heard such good things about it. I just have not even looked into it, and yet I hear amazing I hear people say amazing things, and it's like, Yeah. Nope. That's right. Then I forget. And then I I remember one of it. It's it's it's it's You have so many things to read. I mean, as a goblin, You only have so much time in the day. Exactly. And sometimes the games that I am going to play take priority, unfortunately, but also not at the same time because they're awesome too. Look, I went to the Gods of Ragnarok live show, at Jenkon. Mhmm. And then I bought that book so fast. I was like, oh, this is so cool. And it's, like, literally the only thing I can focus on when I should be reading the 5 e book for werewolf, because I'm supposed to be trying to help my wife, fix the werewolves in our game, because we're playing a splat game where it's we have werewolves, vampires, and mages, and so I'm trying to help my wife Fix our werewolves because it it didn't pour over well. And I'm supposed to be doing that, but now I'm reading gods of Ragnarok. That's what I'm reading. Yeah. We like, we know what's going to happen, and I I feel that because I I recently got Bunkers and Badasses. And, yeah, I'm supposed to be reading Dragonbane, which isn't a bad thing because I'm I love free league, and so I'm always down to read any of their games. But then I'm like, but I wanna look at the really fun and funny stuff in bunkers and badasses right now. Right? But yeah. No. It's it's always it's always a decision every time that I look at the shelf. I'm like, okay. Do I read? Okay. I'll read monster of the week, I guess, because I need to do some prep. But, again, that's not a bad thing because monster of the week's great. So it's I love monster of the week. It's so good. Again, one of my favorite rule books probably. It's just it it opened my TTRPG mind to be able to actually appreciate them and not just be a D and D person. Yeah. Monster of the week was not my 1st non D and D, Non World of Darkness game. I think it was my 2nd or 3rd. Mhmm. But it absolutely opened my mind to a lot of things. And then, definitely, it's going to be A lot of the inspiration for my next game because of the game we were playing. That's amazing. Yeah. I I love that. And now I'm So curious of what this next game's gonna be. But I guess we do have to stay on topic at the moment. But, so I am curious on the end of resource and reference tools Mhmm. Or the game for making learning the rules easier, having quick references for, like, like, here's a sheet of paper that has the basics of the rules on it or here's 2 sheets of paper that have this or that for the, lorekeeper. Are you planning on having stuff like that for a divine calling? Yes. They are currently in the works. Oh. I have been working on them and working on them, and I can't I can't I I just can't get them to make me happy. Like, I've got I'm maybe on draft 7 or 8 at this point, and I'm like, why Does it not make me happy? Oh, no. I mean, if you ever need someone to look at them, I would be more than happy. I've had, like, 6 or 7 people look at them, and they're like, they're fine. And I'm it doesn't it doesn't scratch. Mhmm. Brain not happy. What what are you wanting to, I guess, a comp like, what are you wanting to add to the reference tools? And like they're too vague. Like, I I look at them and, like, I did very similarly to glitter hearts where they're like, you can write it down and then put the page number. Mhmm. And that's what I did. It's like, I kinda gave small blurbs for everything. You get page numbers, but I was like, I still feel like that's not enough. Mhmm. And I think the that's fair, though. I think that some of the beauty of reference tools is even though I think they can be vague. Mhmm. And as long as they get the point across and tell you what information and you do need to know, usually, the GM is gonna know, more about it and is gonna know for sure. So you can always ask them to confirm. And it just helps remember the rules and remember certain things, which is one of my favorite things with powered by the apocalypse games when they have reference, sheets, and I can use them to just remember what moves there are. Yeah. So it's like, alright. Even as a I haven't had a chance to be a player and empowered by the apocalypse game yet. But as a player, it's also really helpful to know what you can do. And so when my, younger siblings, in here for when we play monster of the week, and they're looking at the thing and they're like, oh, man. This person's really injured. They can look at the rules and see there are healing. There there are rules for healing and exactly how that is interpreted or the exact rules is not usually on that piece of paper. But knowing that they have that ability, that's great. And then that's up to the GM to either interpret them in their own way in that moment or to actually look it up and see, like, oh, what are the rules of healing? Yeah. And so I think that's fair to almost feel like, man, I want them to be clear. And so now I'm really curious what they look like. They're they're very it's, it's a little piece of paper that's got 4 squares on it. Mhmm. And then each square kinda talks about a different thing. Mhmm. So because I have, kinda like a small little bit of an explanation for, all the different types of physical, social, mental, and divine in each of the little squares, and they're like, here's what you can do with each of them. I love that. Do you have a do you have a thing on the combat and stuff? I do not. I need to Kind of finished working on that one. Mhmm. Because you can use all of those moves in combat. I ended up recently writing out how each of those could be used in combat. So I found that very helpful so it's it's a process I was like When I was, I think I was talking to you the last time we spoke and I was like, oh, reference sheets. Oh no, I need that. So it's been a process. That's so fair. And so I think that's great, though, like, you know, being like, yeah. That is something that I do want and need and taking the steps towards it even though it's it's frustrating. I think that's fantastic though, and I'm very, very excited to see them. And, Also, the best thing too is I feel like the reference sheets are one of the things that you can wait the longest on of, like, actually finishing because you can still have the camp like, the Kickstarter go through, and you could still be working on the references. Exactly. Yeah. Like, The goal is to be 95% done by the time the Kickstarter starts because, like, I wanna have a quick backing. I wanna get it out to my player, to my backers as quickly as possible. But, like, I told everyone February is when everything will be delivered. That's the, like, end all be all hopeful Delivery date, you know? I mean, that's true. You know, that's not true. That's not true. That's not true. And like with Thanksgiving and Christmas and all that stuff. So. That's not a bad it's not a bad timeline, honestly. I've seen and that's always the tricky part. I mean, this this this is Not a Kickstarter conversation, but also I love hearing about it because it's so easy to look at Kickstarters. They're like, alright. We're gonna fulfill now. Then they don't realize that they made the project so much bigger and they didn't do everything beforehand. It's like, oh, wait. We can't actually reach that goal. We have to push back a month or 2. And And even though there's no shame in that and as long as they're being transparent Yeah. Hell, yeah. Do it. You know, a good game is what everyone wants, so take your time on a good game. But Knowing that you have plans and you have the plans to, like, have everything about 95% complete by the time the Kickstarter goes up and most of it being just paying the artist and just getting it started. And you're also doing, like, physical books too. Right? Mhmm. Yeah. So, I already have my designer working on everything. I've been paying them in installments as well. They'll be fully paid. So not the Kickstarter doesn't affect them. Mhmm. But physical copies and stuff like that, we're planning to use. The evil Amazon for distribution, because I have a book on Amazon already, so I will already have the, like, stuff that I need. I already know how to work it. The people who do color my quest were the people who advised me to use that one because I already know how to use it. So Yeah. I mean, that makes sense if that's and that's where it's, like, you know, knowing where you're comfortable and where you can promise a a certain quality of product too, like being comfortable and and having references from other people. I love that a lot. Because that at least in my perspective, if I was listening to this, since Kickstarters can always be risky, if I was listening to this, I would feel more confident about this kick starter because I know there's this work and care being put into it and that you know? I I feel comfortable using this because I have experience. I love it. Yep. Yeah. And we are planning to upload PDFs, obviously, to drive through, each, Different platforms so that it can be given. I'm planning to have a full Colorful everything PDF, a text only PDF, and a large print text only PDF. Oh, perfect. I've been working with my people who have ereaders to make sure that my text only version works on ereaders. That's very important to me. I have a lot of friends who use ereaders, So that's very important to me. And then I have a couple friends who are a 100% blind who use them, so wanna make sure that they have access to my name. That is amazing. Hell, yeah. I love that. This is I cannot champion that enough. I cannot scream about it loud enough. Please make E reader friendly text versions of your games. Just do it. It's so easy. You have 1 already. You had 1. Just copy paste, make it a PDF. Mhmm. Upload it. Test it. Mhmm. Adobe has the software. If you have Adobe, they Have accessibility software that helps you. Just do it. It's so easy. It's the easiest way to make games accessible. Just do it. Oh, yeah. I love that. Just just do it. Let everyone your dreams are reality. Yes. Let your dreams be true. Amazing. This is fantastic. And I I cannot say enough how excited I am to see this book too because I've I've seen the, I've seen the, work in progress ones that you've sent me, and they already look great, and I'm so excited, like, just reading the rules. But, like, to see everything laid out and, like, the art and just all of that, I cannot wait. So just this is just my little blurb of how it's working. Completely done. Like, I'm so excited. I have got all my artists are done, except for one. One of my artists who is doing my icons, is like designing icons for each of the clicks and each of the deity types. That's so cute. So that I have those along with the pictures and stuff. My layout designer is doing everything as if it's, so, like, the way I want the book to look is it's gonna look like, a composition notebook. So everything inside will look like pages and there's little doodles and different things, and, like, things are highlighted and circled and stuff like that. So I that's where we're going. That's so cute. Oh my gosh. I cannot wait. I love I love there's nothing better than, like, a filled out composition notebook and just the vibe that gives you. And so that that being the book oh my god. I'm so excited. And, actually, that's Funny because the thing I love about Bunkers and Badasses and the way that they designed that book Mhmm. Is because it has doodles and parts where it's been, like, tape like, a section has been taped over or there's, like, someone writing in the book. Yeah. We have, there is a section that has, like, sticky notes in it and stuff. And multiple people who've worked on my project have done the cutest little thing. So my Kickstarter designer, who's start designing all of my images and graphics for that, it's all chalkboard based. It's so cool. There's a little heart with an a and a k in it because my name is Crystal and my wife's name is Alana. And then there's a couple of them inside the book as well. And I was like, y'all know how much I love my wife. This is true. My favorite little nod that people have done. And I'm like, this is this is great. This is ideal. Everyone put that in every game I ever design. This is amazing. I'm so excited. I can't wait for this kick starter to come out. Oh my god. Man, I'm I'm just really, really excited. And it's been amazing. I mean, we're we're probably getting a bit close to wrapping up soon. But I just wanna say it's been amazing to talk to you about this game again because it's still so it just, like, there's just something about it that gets me, like, gets me personally because it's just it's a perfect game, I feel like, for my table, and I feel like it would be such a to run it. Mhmm. And it would be so fun to see those combinations and to have those role play scenes where someone's mom has to go pick them up, but they need to go to the library because there's gonna be a void situation going on there. But the mom's like, no. You have to go home and get your schoolwork done. Like, that's just so cute. I I love it. I I, as, like, a player and as someone just in general who plays, like, games, board games, and stuff like that, I love resource management. I don't know why. That's the thing I love. Like, I like playing spell casters because it's resource management. I like playing risk because it's resource management. So I built my game to be about resource management even if it's disguised. That's that's the thing. That's what being a game designer, I feel like, is about. Putting what you love into a game and disguising it to be something everyone will love. Exactly. I love that so much. It's so cute. And so, actually, I'd love to get into a bit more of the lore weaver side since we've talked a lot of, a lot about the character creation and stuff and more of character and overall things. And I guess the first question I'd like to ask is what is the role of the lore weaver within A Divine Calling? So the lore weaver is our Game Master. Their job is to weave the story. I took a lot of inspiration on, like, the way the game is Run from Brendlewood Bay in phases. Their job is to run the phases. They are to put clues In front of the host, so that the host can then go and figure out who is the void, how can they combat them, and things like that. Mhmm. But at the same time, they're also in charge of looking at the players and saying, you did x, y, and z. Are there consequences to this action? Mhmm. We want them to help the players remember that they are in An urban fantasy, so they are still having to deal with those normal everyday issues and stuff like that. But at the same time, they also have to make sure that The players are giving their gods the attention they deserve. So there are mechanics in there for if you aren't being good to your god. So, like, You're ignoring your god, you're doing the opposite of what they want. You could lose your abilities, you could get nega you could get banes and stuff like that. Yeah, which is frightening. Yeah, and of course there are obviously consequences to skipping class, you know, detention, things like that, So they also have a lot of resource management to do on their side. But one of the things they are also in charge of doing is weaving the epic. So we refer to the entire game as the epic, similar to The Iliad and The Odyssey. They are in charge of setting up The 5 chapters, making sure that everything kinda runs smoothly. And they're also just in charge of making sure everyone is having fun, is the the most important part of the job. Yes. And, obviously, they're in charge of making sure everyone is safe. There is When you are doing character creation, you obviously are in charge of setting your lines or veils. You can use lines or veils. You can use the RPG consent checklist, or I have red light green light in there, which is my system. Mhmm. It's very similar to, like, lines and veils and the RPG thing. So you have your red lights. Don't use them. Yellow. Discuss and figure out where the line is, and then green is good to go. Absolutely. And I love as well. Safety tools does make playing games with, like, complete strangers also more accessible to be like Mhmm. You know, make sure everyone's on the same page. I love that for safety tools a lot. Yeah. And I know that, obviously, having safety tools in my games is gonna turn off some people, so they don't wanna play it. But that's fine. You know? If you don't like safety tools, you are welcome to not play my game. Yeah. You don't and you don't even have to use them too. Exactly. If you're all because that's the thing as well with, like if you're playing in a group of if you're playing in a group that you've been playing with for 10 years, Mhmm. You might not need to use safety tools because you might have your own systems in place. And so, like, if that if that's not, like, a thing that if that's not a selling point you, and that's something where you're like, that's weird. I mean for you, but for everyone else and for people who do want and need those tools, it works for them. And so let them let them live their life. Yeah. So, like, when I sit down with my group I mean, every time I start a new game with my friends, I asked them to refill out the checklist because I wanna see if anything new has come up. Mhmm. But if there's nothing new, we just move on. We already know. And just and also just keeping open communications too. Like, if an like, if there is something that happens, just speak up. Just say. Just come come to me as the GM or even if you want to talk to one of the players to bring it up to, that's Good. Just keep open communication with that with your group because that is very, very important because everyone's playing TTRPGs to have fun and not to be in a crisis. Exactly. So I I love I love that you do have that in there. And so when it does come to actually And oh, wait. There's another thing that I remembered that came to mind when you were talking. How you describe, like, planning out the 5 acts of the game? This feels so incredibly approachable as a GM when it comes to, like, setting up a story because it can be really frightening to run something like a big long narrative game in D and D. Oh, yes. And and, like, have to plan out each of the things. And then if you don't plan everything out, thing like, it might go kinda wild or might go off track quote, unquote, like, it can be a lot. And so where it's just like, yep. There are 5 x that you have to plan out, and even you don't have to plan them all out at the beginning too. I love that. Super, super approachable. And, like, when when you were describing that, I was like, oh, man. I love that. Thank you for all the games. I definitely was like, it needs to be very approachable because, again, I play world of darkness games. And comparatively, personally, at least, I feel like setting up a World of Darkness game is harder than setting up a D and D game. Mhmm. There, to me, feels like way more stuff about setting up D and D. World of darkness obviously has their prebuilt cities and stuff like that, but I don't like them. World of darkness can sometimes be very problematic. So I just like to do my own thing. So, like, I sometimes I feel like setting up World of Darkness is very hard. And so because all that lore too. Yeah. Like, My wife was starting our Splat game, which, again, is the, like, one where it's everything combined. Mhmm. She was like, it's so hard. And I was like, It is. I remember when I first started Austin, it was very hard. Mhmm. And so I was like, you know what? I don't want that to be my game. I want it to be easy. I want it to obviously be, like, here's how you do it. So that's why I really wanted a very approachable, thing. And also this game, I want it to be beginner friendly. I want people to play my game. I want everyone to feel and love Tabletop. So I want them to be able to come and say, this is a beginner friendly, easy to pick up, accessible game. Yes. I love that, and I can definitely feel that in the way that you're describing things and in the way and in the directions that you're going for it too. I I adore it so much. It makes me happy as well, especially because I love I love, right now, I've been doing a lot of 1 shots Mhmm. Or, my normal players, but even just some new people that haven't played many games in the past or it's their 1st time playing a new playing a TTRPG, and it's so nice to just be able to have games that are simple and straight to the point. Like, you know kinda what you're getting into already. Yeah. You know name has short form rules. I wrote that in there. So there's long form rules and there's short form rules. So there's 1 shot rules already written in. I adore that. And, actually, That's gonna be what I was gonna ask next when I when I said that. I'm like, oh, wait. Is this good for long form or short form? Yep. And so I'm I'm guessing it's preferred, like, to play it to its to play it the way that it's intended and to its full capabilities. I feel like longer term that, like, you know, 3 to 20 sessions is probably ideal, but having the short form options, perfect, especially for me in a world where I can't spend all my time playing TTRPGs, unfortunately. And I sometimes I need to just run some 1 shots to try new games. Yep. Definitely. There are plenty of rules, and we are currently working on a 1 shot that will be Available for everyone to run. It's kinda gonna be our ashcan. It'll be available for free on my Itch so that everyone is able to play it in October decide if they wanna back the Kickstarter or not. Oh, that sounds fantastic, and I'll definitely have to see if I can fit a game in of that. It's It's definitely very fun. The premise is you are in, obviously, high school. Mhmm. You are gonna be playing a level five character. I've written out what happened at the other levels and exactly how you've gotten to this point. And, essentially, you guys, The school has this big Halloween bash every year, and 2 people are crowned as the scariest people there. So they essentially are, like, best dressed, best costumes kind of situation. Love it. And it's so big. The people who win these awards get things like cars. Like, it's a big deal. Oh, wow. And the void has stolen the crowns, And it is your job to get it back. There are rules for how to do it as a skirmish based game, and there are rules for how to do it as a purely, social game. So I should give everyone kinda what they want. That sounds like a great time. I definitely, Again, we'll hopefully bully my my friends into playing this with me because that sounds like a blast. And it does make me, how you mentioned, like, there's rules for a skirmish based versus a show social based. Is is there really a big difference with running the game in those different directions from a lure key from a lure weaver's perspective? There really isn't. Kinda the only difference is making sure that, like, your players know that, like, they have the option to talk their way out of everything. You know? Because, like, sometimes in D and D, you play a bard and you never talk to anyone. Yeah. Sometimes in D and D, you Play a barbarian, and you never fight anyone. So, like, letting your players know, hey. You have the option to never fight anyone. Hey. You have the option to fight everyone. You know? Gives them a chance to kind of really sit down as a group and be like, what do we wanna do? And you can obviously run a game where you fight and you don't fight at the same time. Yep. But there are options to just play story. There are options to just do skirmish. I love that, and I love having those options because it just keeps it open and also keeps that conversation as, like, a big thing that you should talk about. You know? And I've I've definitely had some with, I think, my D and D game that I actually recently killed. That was something that we didn't really talk about at beginning, and I think that was a big downfall is that even though we were all pretty much on the same like, we all pretty much had the same idea of the kind of game we wanted to play. Our expectations still weren't completely aligned because we just didn't have that talk of like, alright. What do you want out of this game? Do you want to tell a big narrative story that lasts for, like, a year or more where you are going on this grand adventure? Do you want a more social game where you're in a smaller area and you're meeting the same NPCs and building those relationships. You just wanna have random combats and fight things all the time. Having those conversations is so important, so I love that, that is something to consider for this game. I wanted my game to be as accessible and playable by everyone, So I gave you every option you could ever ask for. I love it. And it's giving it's giving all the options that someone could ask for while still being very, like, focused in what kinda game it is. Like, this is very clearly a chosen one type game where you are the avatars or at least you are powered by gods. Yes. And, like, that is very clear. I understand what that story is in my mind. I think pretty much anyone's read some sort of media or or have seen some sort of media that is along those lines too. So it's it's a relatable story. Yes. That was the goal. I love it. I love chosen one just in general. It's my favorite type of genre, so I was very excited to bring it to a game. Yeah. It's so fun. It really is. When you when you get to play especially when it's, like, gods, because I thought actually it's so strange on the timing. For the game I just killed, that was a big thing in that game Mhmm. Is that they were they all had these connections and, relationships with these deities. And so that was something I loved diving into, and so that's, again, why I think this game would be super fun for me to run is because I enjoy that chosen one trope. As long as it's not just one person's the chosen one Yeah. And everyone else is their lackeys. I think it's super fun. Yeah. And so when it does come to, The lore weaver section in the book, is there any specific, like, advice that you give for them? Any, like, references and resources that you set up for, like, here's what to expect in a game? Yeah. So, I do Give them a list of different, like, references. So Mhmm. Hunger Games, Harry Potter is listed, stuff like that. Teen Wolf, Buffy. You know? And I say these this is where you should look. This is where you should sit down and go, okay. What happened in these stories that I can literally pick up and put in my steal from media. Steal from all the media. And then I have a very, very long section about how Chapters are run and how you add clues and different things like that Mhmm. With examples. Perfect. The more examples, the better I always feel. Yeah. If you can literally say, like and the whole book is obviously an example, but it is a story for the cover character. Mhmm. So the introduction is an introduction with Apollo and the character Elise, who is the character on the cover of the book. And, essentially, the book as you read through it and you learn about different things, you'll learn about Elise and where she falls and how, like, Her life goes and how it would work in the story. So, essentially, it kinda gives you it a narrative to follow if you were like, okay, I could literally rip the 1 out of the book and drop it here. That's how you could do it. I love that, though, because, again, that's that reminds me of I mean, there's a lot of books that do that, where they put in references of like a a play situation. Mhmm. But again, with, thirsty sword lesbians, I feel like they do, again, a very similar thing where they have these cast of characters. And so, like, you do get to kinda almost build this relationship and, build that story with these characters. Mhmm. And also I think that's just a really cute way to go through the book. And does that mean like how you mentioned, would it be in, like, a composition notebook that there were gonna be, like, doodles and things like that. Is that Elise? Yeah. Well, Elise, is the one who wrote the book essentially. I love that. That's so cute. It's so cute. I love it. I'm so excited for this book. I I can't even. I I'm very excited to see it all together. I I'm just so happy right now. Like, we're getting so close. Like, Where the drop dead date is coming so fast, and everything is, like, coming together and being put together, and I'm obsessed with everything I've been seeing. Like, It is better than what I had envisioned in my brain. You know? It's just amazing to see what other people do and how they come together on a project and, you know, It's very different experience than working on a project in high school where you do all the work and so and so does nothing when you come together To do, like, a big project in the real world, and you come together and you watch everyone collaborate. It's just it's inspiring, honestly. It makes me so happy. I bet. That sounds amazing. I think that it's about time to wrap up. And what you just said, I think is a good lead way into the final question here, which is what about a divine calling makes you the most excited? This is the hardest question. I remember being stumped the last time too. I think the thing about especially now as we get close to the end and we've got, like, the fully solid concept and we've got everything coming together. I think the thing that makes me the most excited is what stories people will tell. Mhmm. Hearing about the game from other people. You know, I can sit here and talk about the game all day, but it doesn't matter if people don't sit down and play the game. Mhmm. You know? I I could have fun and put all this work into it, and it doesn't matter if people don't play the game. You know? Going into my Kickstarter, I always said, I don't care. As if if I make $1, I'm happy. Mhmm. I will be infinitely more happy to see what people say about my game, to see the fun that they have and things like that. And if people don't have fun, that's also okay. The game won't be for everyone. No game ever is. But knowing that people are gonna sit down and have fun and tell stories is definitely what makes me the most excited about my game. I love that. That makes me excited. That makes me really, really excited because the thought of being able to play your game and and telling you about it and all of that, it's just really sweet and knowing that that means something to you as well. And I think that's the best part of supporting indie developers too is that you can actually, like, tell them. Like, man, this game is amazing. You did an amazing job, and that is going to make their absolute, like, weak. Yeah. Because, like, if you tell the people who write for Dungeons and Dragons, granted some of the people who worked on, Radiant Citadel Would take everything to heart. But if you were to tell, like, Gary Gygak, hey, you made an amazing game. I don't think you would be as excited as I am. It's just it's just so special. I I love it so much, and it makes me so excited that you're making this game because I can very much tell that you are excited and this is something that fuels you. Like, this is something that makes you excited. And I am very much a person who gets excited easily, and so it's just like it feeds it feeds me. And I just feel like a I feel like a puppy is like a like, they're when, like, a dog's, like, family comes home and, like, they can't stop wagging their tail and all of that. Look. That's how I feel about this game. I just I'm so excited for it to come out and to get a chance to actually play it myself. Amazing. And so I think though that is the best place to wrap up this episode. This has been fantastic. Thank you were coming on again and fixing the wrong that I did. I was accidentally deleting an episode. It's okay. I'm Super glad it was me and not someone else because at least I understand as I accidentally deleted an episode from my previous podcast as well, so I get it. I understand the pain, and I appreciate it so much. But, yes, thank you so so very much for coming on and talking about a divine calling. Again, Everyone, this Kickstarter is gonna be going active on October 1st. This episode will be coming out either before or after it, but it will be in that time frame, so you will be able to back it. And you will be able to check out the game and play the 1 shot for yourself and all of these good things, and the link for that will be in the description of this episode and all of Krystal's socials as well be in the link will be linked in the description of this episode. But for one final time, Crystal, would you like to say where everyone can find you and any last things that you would like to say about a divine calling before we close out. Of course. So, again, my name is Crystal. You can find me on Twitter, blue sky, Tumblr, even though I don't use it as ginger geek gal 56. I'm very active on all of them except Tumblr. I'm active on Blue Sky and Twitter for sure. You can also find information about my game company, Ginge Gal Games, on Twitter. Just on Twitter for that one. I haven't moved it anywhere else yet, and, I hope that you come and enjoy and play a divine calling. You get to play out the actual happy parts of high school. You don't have to play the parts where you were awkward and You hated everything about it. You get to play it as an adult and say, this is what high school should have been. You get to play an idealized version of high school where you have magical god powers. Yes. The correct version. The way it should have gone. Exactly. I love that. And so no. That is Amazing. And, again, all of this information will be in the description of this episode. And one final thank you to You, Crystal, for coming on, and thank you everyone for listening. That is the end.