NovArchaic - Modern Fantasy System 11 Years In Development!

This week on The RPG Goblin we are exploring NovArchaic with it's creator Kyle! Nov is a system that Kyle started to develop 11 years ago and we talk all about the history of it's development, why it started (along with Kyles gripes with Modern D20), his design philosophy, and the world of Nov Archaic!

Check out Nov Archaic and it's development here: 
https://twicry.com/novarchaic

Check out Kyle and follow him here:
https://twitter.com/YFTechno
https://www.threads.net/@technomancerkyle
https://linktr.ee/yftechno

Transcript

0:00

Welcome everyone to the RPG Goblin, a TTRPG exploration podcast where we have on guests, we talk about games, and we have a great time. I am your host, Willow, and I am the resident goblin and the one who asks all the questions. I like to talk, and I love games, and so here we are. On today's episode, we are actually going to be talking about a game called nove archaic, which I'm very, very excited about because this is a game that I have been seen being worked on and in development. And Kyle's actually in my Discord, and we've been able to talk about all kinds of stuff with it, and that's been really fun. And so we're gonna talk about it in today's episode, and we're gonna be talking about, like, Kyle's journey through game design and what novarchaic is and all of that fun stuff. But, yeah, like I said, our guest today is Kyle, who is the developer of Nov archaic. And, Kyle, if you would like to give yourself A introduction to everyone. Tell them where they can find you and find Novarkaik and all of that cool stuff. Go ahead. Hey, everyone. Techno Renzo Kyle here, or just Kyle or y of techno or a whole bunch of other things I go with online. You can normally find me on, Wells, a lot of social medias either as y f techno or TechnomancerKyle. I'm on Discords, which I do have my own Discord, which has, all of the news and development stuff that I normally put in there, kind of updates as well as just casual talking and where I will be organizing a lot of, or where I do organize a lot of play tests and whatnot of both my personal systems and other games. Yeah. No. And that's awesome. And all of those links, of course, will be in the description of this episode for ease of finding and all of that fun stuff. Though I do have a question. Y y f specifically? Okay. That has nothing to do with my role playing things. That is, You know, okay. That is my cringe gamer tag from back in the day, back when I was, like, 11 or so. Mhmm. And online gaming was becoming more of a thing, And especially for me. Mhmm. But it actually stands for, your favorite Technomancer. You are friendly, Technomancer. I love it. Because well, it's from based upon, like, some old YouTube Personalities as well as I really liked, I grew up with Spider Man and just the the friendly neighborhood Spider Man. Just always That that long title always mesh well with my heart. It was like, yeah. I want something like that, and then I just shortened it y f techno. Love it. Oh, that's really fun. I've been curious about that for a while, and so I'm like, Perfect opportunity on the spot. Yeah. A lot of people just shorthand call me techno or Mhmm. Now because I just started coming out and just being like, just call me Kyle, Techromancer Oh, that no matter how. Yeah, absolutely. And so I'm curious if if the Technomancer come from Starfinder at all or was that from something else? It was before then. Mhmm. So I've always been into computers, and whatnot. And when I was really young, I started to get so into that, but I also liked the concept of magic. And I was just like Mhmm. You know, it'd be really cool Is it like magic but with technology? And that just kind of became my thing. You went to where, as I started to study, when when in college, I started studying, information technology and computer science and all that. And I just kind of, like, started telling people, Like, yeah. No. If you just, think about it in certain ways, like, the fact that we have programmed like, we have forced Rocks through the power of electricity to think. Yeah. We're kind of performing magic when we make machines. Not wrong though. Like, I mean, they, they feel like magic. Like I've more recently been learning a lot more about computers. I had to, like, build my own PC and all of that stuff. And so I've been learning a lot more and it does feel like magic, especially When people who know so much more than me start to talk about it and I'm like, I don't know anything of what you're saying. This is like. I used to joke that there's like a bell curve, of like, one end of the spectrum. Again, yes, both end of spectrum. You have people that believe that technology is Magic. And then there's the middle ground where people are just like, no, it's science. There's no magic. It's like, yeah. But, like, once you start knowing more, you're like, well, Hold up. It's kinda magic. No. I love that. No. That's so cool. And actually, I'm I'm curious, you know, has that, like, influenced any of your experience within, like, TTRPGs at all? You know, wanting to combine magic and technology together since that's something you've been fascinated by. Yes. As a problem. So, like, there has been times where, like, I've been wanting to do, say, a Proper Technomancer combining magic with technology. But then sometimes I hit that that barrier of design where it's like, it's Doable, but it's not really doable, you know? Yeah. Like, one of my experiences I think it was Shatteran 5th edition or maybe 4th. I don't remember exactly which one. 1 of them. Technomancer as an option. That's all I remember. And I wanted to do Technomancy. Mhmm. And, like, it was kinda cool, but it just felt like a hacker that can wirelessly connect To a device. And I'm like, that's that's neat in and of itself. Mhmm. But when I think of Technomancer, I'm not necessarily thinking of that. Mhmm. And, ironically, that's kind of my problem with the the, Starfinder version of Technomancer as well. Not that specific problem, But it wasn't what I imagined when I thought of Technomancy. Mhmm. Because the the Starfinder don't get me wrong. I love Starfinder. It's a great system. But when I went in and started reading it, I'm just like, this is just a wizard with a tablet. Yeah. Of course. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No. I would imagine something different as well. I I you know, I've read a little bit of star finder, and I've gone through classes, which is why I'm kicking myself that I didn't remember Technomancer was from or not from Starfinder, but it is in Starfinder. So I was literally reading through it, and that was one of the ones that did interest me the most. But, yeah, it feels like it should be something more than wizard with technology. Right. And, like, I kinda get where they was coming from from a design point. They wanted to have a space wizard and Technomancer just kinda fit that bill. But it definitely wasn't what I had imagined when I had heard the title. Mhmm. And again, it's not a bad class. It's not bad thoughts. It's just what I expected. Yeah. No. That's fair. And I mean, like, I I even said this to, some of my friends when I was looking through Starfinder, that Technomancer just sounds like one of the coolest things in general. Like, that's just such a badass name, like, a Technomancer? Why when you wanna be a techno dancer, like, that sounds hella cool. No. I love it. I love it. That's so cool. But, yeah, no, this is this is great. Nerd time. Love it. Yeah. I, I love nerd time. It's, it's always the best. I mean, that's why it's always great doing these episodes. I, I get to nerd out and not like have my family just be like, uh-huh. I'm like, okay. But yeah, no, I, I really would love to though actually get into some of The reasons why you actually got into game design and maybe even a bit of your history in TTR RPGs just to kind of, like, establish The stage here before we get into Novarkaic. So, yeah, I'm going to just go ahead and give the the the Introduction to Kyle 101, tabletop history, skip it, thing. So I started into 2 tabletop RPGs back in D and D 3.5 time. Mhmm. And that was because I was a young kid. I was over at a friend's. His uncle Had the 3.5 or 3.0 book. Mhmm. And I just seen it well, my friend was playing Wow for the Warcraft. Like, he was playing Wow. I just seen the book, and Nerd Brain was like, what the flip is this? So I grab it, start reading it, and I'm like, this sounds so cool. Never got to play it until, closer to middle school because I was, actually in elementary school when I had read it. And then when I got into middle school, met a couple of friends. They got it. They was pretty into it. Of course, 3.5 era. So, but there was starting to get into, like, home brewing, and that got me interested because I was like, Oh, wait. I could take things that are in this book and be able to make my own options that kind of hits the narrative that I wanna hit. Mhmm. That sounds really badass. And I I did some really horrible homebrew at that time. But, yeah, kept going, continuing slowly, joining random groups, having random experiences. Until about college, I had moved in with a friend. Mhmm. And at that time, I was started to getting to really a lot of indie games. I became known as kind of the indie dude of tabletop in that year, 2012. You never wanna reflect on years. No. Oh, gosh. I was really big on, like, you know, if you wanna do a certain game, Do it. Like, if you look for a good system that can do it, if you can't find 1, just hack 1 together. Yeah. I was really big into using GURPS As a, as a Rosetta Stone, I've said this multiple times in multiple things, to kind of, like, do weird design jumpings between multiple different systems. Mhmm. And that was just kind of, like, my thing. And I was complaining to one of my friends at that time in that year of, like, hey. I really want to be able to run a modern day tabletop game that feels good. Mhmm. Because d twenty modern doesn't feel good to me. I had a lot of gripes. I'm not gonna get into those gripes. Mhmm. But, of course, we all You always design based off things you have issues with. Of course. And my friend just looked at me. I was always complaining. And he was he's the type type of dude who just takes no crap from anyone. Mhmm. And he just looked at me straight in the face and was just, like, why don't you just make one then? Just make us a I'm like, Right. And so I started my journey. I started working with Novartic, actually back then. So, yeah, it's been a while, But I had to take some time off in multiple different instances of my life. I've been to college multiple times, getting multiple degrees and Progressing my life, so I don't have to not have food. Fair. Fair. And, unfortunately, game design can't take the priority there. Right. There was times where I was, like, staying at McDonald's, on a laptop, Like, for 24, 48 hours, just staying there use abusing the the free drinks once you buy one Mhmm. To, just work on the game at times when I was a college kid. Yeah. Yeah. I know once you're once you're past that stage. When you have more responsibilities and life starts to catch up. And it's like, oh, no. Yeah. Then then it becomes a problem and you have to, like, Suffer, I guess. Yeah. I know. But that's insane. It's been in development for, I guess, like, how many years then? It's since 11 years. 11 years. That's insane. Yeah. Oh my goodness. No. That's really awesome though, especially that you've, like, kept with it for that long too because I'm definitely someone I've I've switched from a lot of different projects. So, like, the dedication, I can appreciate. I mean, I can't lie to your fate lie lie to your face and say that I've never jumped and did another project of something completely random. Mhmm. I had I've had friends come up to me and be like, hey. I have this game that I want you to finish when you have time here. I'm like, okay. Cool. I I I got that on the back Now as well, I made a random stupid, anime inspired, Like, 1 shot system, if you will. Mhmm. Just to have something for when I wanna do something anime inspired. Yeah. Like, I've done multiple different things since then. Just Novarquet would probably if If anything, it is the my, there's a term for it. I just it's escaping me right now. Magnum Opus? The magnum opus. It is my current magnum opus because it's a setting Mhmm. That I've always wanted to not only just run, but experience myself. Mhmm. And I have had so much joy making it and thinking about it. Yeah. And so, like, I want to get Completed with it so that it's just out there in the open, and then I can see the people have fun with outside of myself. Mhmm. And we'll go for that. The next thing. Right? Yeah. Always gotta keep moving forward. Always the next new thing. Uh-huh. Always the next thing that makes your brain Happy. Yeah. No. Absolutely. That's so I love that, though. And so I guess, like, I I I would love if you would, like, kinda give everyone a brief introduction of, like, what Exactly. No of archaic is because I I definitely have some questions that I'd like to ask, to get get a bit more into it. But Before we get to that, what is nove archaic for everyone who's listening, who don't know what it is, and, you know, all of that. So, it's some it's really easy to kind of like get a grasp of it. And when you start thinking about it in terms of other things that exist. So I could do that. But it normally what I try not to or what what I try to do is just explain it more of just the setting, which is modern day world. Mhmm. That is while it is very much a system for mechanics, The mechanics are story focused. Mhmm. Where each character and I'm specifying character, not, Like main characters or NPCs or anything like that. Every character Mhmm. Is unique. Love it. Right? And, and handcrafted for the story, within the context of the mechanics. Mhmm. The system is classless, but the kind of, like, thing that I would normally like to, To tell people the taglines, if you will, is it's a game that where you can cast spells, shoot guns, and kill gods. Fun. It's a fun tagline. Absolutely. I love that. And so it is a modern setting. Is it like modern fantasy or is it Very much so modern fantasy. There is some side so there is some science fiction to it. Mhmm. I will say that I've tried to go because of my personal interest, I love science Fantasy. Mhmm. Right? The the combination of science fiction and science and and fantasy. I would've never But I wanted to leave heavier on fantasy See, in a modern world, then just it's kind of both and really awkward with how it handles it or more science fiction because We have great systems to do science fiction. Mhmm. And, I mean, as of recent years, we've gotten some better systems to do Fantasies. Mhmm. But, like, being able to do both is hard and complicated. Yeah. And, I mean, that's that's spreading yourself Dinner. You're having to accommodate for different genres and and all of these different elements when you could focus in more purely on, you know, the modern fantasy, which I think is very, very fun. It's like, you know, Shadowrun is is more of that kind of Modern, but, like, futuristic sci fi. But, like yeah. And and it's got that fantasy elements in it. It's it's insane. Shadowrun's insane. Shadowrun is definitely insane. It yeah. It truly is. But I haven't really seen too many, like, modern Fantasy games, specifically, now that I'm, like, thinking about it, especially more classic, I guess, fantasy. You know? Right. Like, it it gets into well, at what point do you classify things as modern fantasy or just whatever? Because I mean, I know, obviously, because you've talked about it, most of the week exists Mhmm. Yes. Which is modern, Does have fantasy, at least, creatures. And I know that you can do some things weird, but not every character Has to get into that weirdness. And not every world has to be that either too. Right. And, I mean, there's a couple others I could get into. Obviously, I talked about d 20 modern, which is older, like, In and of itself. So it has some older design things, and that's not necessarily a bad thing, but there's a reason I didn't choose it And myself. And there but, I mean, yeah. There's not too many That don't also start throwing in things that maybe you don't wanna have to deal with every time you run. Because it's like, I'm also thinking of, oh, what's that system where you all are, like, Associated with some sort of iconography or deity or something. I can't even think of it right now. No. Like, that's 1? City of Mist. City of Mist. Oh, City of Mist. Yes. Yes. Oh, yeah. Oh, yes. I mean, City of Mist is fantasy. That would be fan like a modern fantasy type thing with more of noir themes and and and such. Mhmm. Yeah. But it doesn't hit the sort of niches that I was going for in the sense, like, every character in that one is very important. One of the things that, with my characters, or the the my progress is that I wanted the level one characters to feel like average Joe. Yeah. Level 1. Right. Right. Where in some of these other systems, when you start like, as soon as you start, you are Pretty decently useful and what that's not the right terminology. You are Still in your sort of, like, this is who you are, and you're gonna be solidly within that same PowerScope? Mhmm. Oh, so Having a little bit more wiggle room in like, kind of deciding where your power will even be. Like over time and not like putting yourself in a box too early of, like, hey. I wanna be a magic caster, and then I have to, like, you know, lock that in initially when I play. So then when you play later, you'll have to either, you No, adjust your class if you're playing a system with classes or playbooks or whatever, or Mhmm. You know, multi class things like that since I've I've seen that a lot in D and D where people are like, oh, I actually wanna do magic as well. So your time to multi class. Right. Time to multi class. And, then you kind of start sweating because Technically, the system isn't designed for multiple multi classings because multi classing is actually just a side system that wasn't supposed to be included in every experience And then suddenly, like, everyone starts multiclassing. Yes. And it is a whole different like, oh my goodness. No. And, I mean, even with Usain, like, you know, wanting to do modern fantasy, that makes me think of a lot of people even, you know, using systems like D and D and Pathfinder to do modern fantasy games too, but having something that actually supports it is so much better. And so I and I love that too, especially since it came from a system and setting that you wanted to play, you know, something that you were really siring within your, you know, gaming life. And I'm I'm curious because now you've mentioned it several times. What you know, you said that you you messed around with d 20 modern. Why didn't it work for you, and what, Like, why didn't it work for you and what made you like, what ideas even did you take from that that you wanted to put into Novarkaic? So, yeah, there's a couple of things I could say there. I'm gonna try because actually, it's it's actually been a couple Years since I last thought about d twenty modern. Mhmm. But the things that I remember that I still have a passionate, dislike for, it would actually go that I don't like how they handled character creation because the characters was classes. Like, obviously, d twenty modern based off of D and D. Right? It was made by Wizards. It's D and D, but in the modern setting. Mhmm. But instead of kind of coming up with actual archetypes to fit in for classes, like, I don't know, gambler Could be one that would be really interesting for a modern day. So, they just had, at least in the core books, I don't know anything about the expanded books because I never actually owned them. Mhmm. So no one get mad. Yeah. So people please, I'm stupid. It's fine. But a lot of the base courses the base classes was, like Strength hero or wizard or or wisdom, like wise hero and smart hero or whatever. Like, it was all based around Kind of the the primary attribute Yeah. Or the ability score, but, like, that was all, and it wasn't really telling any sort of narrative of, like, okay, but why? Mhmm. Yeah. But why? Yeah. Because a little bit also, you don't wanna always be a hero too. Like, that's the thing, especially in a more modern setting, you can Tell very interesting stories without being, like, the hero that has to save the day or anything like that too. Right. And I will also say, like, at the time that I made the decision, I was also fall just falling out of love with class based systems. Mhmm. Like, they have their own positives and negatives, and I can actually do a hour long spiel about class design. But it just was not something that I personally thought was very good at the time. It needed a lot of changes to be good. Mhmm. And, I mean, There are still systems that do classes and they've gotten better. Yeah. So. And they, and they, and there's new ways of interpreting it too, you know, with going Mhmm. Into playbooks. Like, those even though those are, you know, the same idea of a class or, you know, main kind of ability or main theme, their style differently than what other classes have been in, like, you know, D and D and stuff like that. But, yeah, I I do like the idea of, you know, classless systems, so I don't think I've really, I don't think I've, other than maybe like Fishblade, which is. Oh, fish blade. We love it. But, you know, I I I think I've played some that that have been classless, but they're not usually like, you know, a a bigger t t r p g. They aren't usually something that, you know, is something that we've played for longer. So it hasn't been something I've experienced too much. So I I am curious on how exactly, like, The character creation does work in NoVE Archaic and, like, what the process of that is Because, like I said, I'm not very familiar with classless systems, and I'm I'm curious on how it works within your game. So I'm going to 1st preliminary discuss one of the core design philosophies Mhmm. For Novartic. I'll probably do this every time we bring up something. Oh, yeah. Because to me, knowing knowing designer, like, wise is very important To kind of like, oh, I see what's going on there. Mhmm. So the main thing when it comes to character creation Is that I want you when you're done with character creation, with however long it takes you to be able to go, I have a full grasp on that character's backstory. Mhmm. I know what motivates that character. I know where they are in their skills, and I kind of have a good idea of where they want to go. Yeah. Yeah. Right? And then to take that a step further, I want you then to be able to take that character, hand it to some rando on the street. They'd be able to read it and be able to go, yeah. No. That I understand what's going on here. Like, I I can tell that this character has these sort of issues Or maybe these sort of focuses. Mhmm. And, like, obviously, all wrapped up in a mechanical little bow to be able to be like, yeah, this This fits for what I want to happen. Mhmm. That being said, there is a couple of different things that I kind of have to bring up Because when you're building a system, you actually have a good idea about the setting. Yes. For me to have a good I do about the setting. There was a couple of issues I had to solve, and so I kind of built them to solve. So before getting into talking about the Character. I'm going to kind of sideline and talk about the setting a little bit. Is that alright? Yeah. Yeah. I am completely down for that. Okay. So one of the core things about Novartheic, setting is that Our world is known as kind of the core core core world. Right? It it is how it is. There is no magical magic at the Start of the timeline of that I sent in 2012 because of ironic of the whole world is ending as well as that's when I started the the Yeah. I love you the book. But then come to find out within the lore, There was or there has always been magic. It's just that because of something that happened in the past, that I don't go into detail because I believe that as GMs and story masters and all that, we we kind of want to be able to put our own sort of spin on why things happen. Love it. The, world had to separate magic from itself. Mhmm. But the people who did it didn't know exactly what they was doing. Because, I mean, magic was studied, but it wasn't like advanced studies. It's like Yeah. And that was also a pretty intense thing to do. Right. Yeah. So when they had done it, they actually split things into different Realities called Fractures. Oh, yeah. So our world was the core world because it's where all of the fractures Indid from. Mhmm. Right? Like, or or came from. Yeah. But then there's, like, other factions that exist, like Elfheim, which is Elves and, other such things. I have one called the scrapyard that, is actually where You will find things like gremlins, which are actually goblins and gnomes that have been modified by the magical energies that exist within that realm. And then later on, like, I plan on adding in things like Atlantis is its own fracture. Oh, that was Because and it was actually a place that separated itself before the world existed. And just a whole bunch of different things, like and that would allow me to be able to, say, release a book in the future and be like, here's another fracture. All the stuff you need to live live and play with a character that's from this location. And that gives a lot of flexibility for even people running the game to make their own fractures too. Exactly. What they think would be really fun. Which is another actual pillar of my design is homebrew focused. Mhmm. And I can get into that later. But everything that I have, like I I said before we got started, I have a little, like, notebook of how to design things in different ways that I'm thinking and Stuff like that. Mhmm. I'm putting that at the end of the book, essentially, of, like, how if you wanna make a new species, This is the sort of stuff you need to do. This is how I balance them so that people can go, oh, now I can make my own species. If you wanna make, your own, like, traits, that's how you would do it, but we'll get into there. I mean, just very quickly, I love I love the aspect of adding in a whole section of Here's how to home brew elements. And here's how basically here are the rules that I follow. That's I, I just love that in general. So I I mean, I, I started as a home brewer. Why wouldn't I have Like, it it makes sense to me. And it makes it makes everyone else's lives easier too, because then they have the actual kind of rules that even the Creator is following when they're going through the process of it. I, I do think that it's because of my teenage anger Of when I started home brewing, because of way back in 3.5 era. And I think it's true for even 5th edition era home brew now. Their only advice ever to balance anything was just eyeball it, and it just pissed me off so much. Just eyeball it. Does it feel like a 3rd level spell? Like, I don't know, that's why I'm asking the question. You're the professional, you're supposed to be able to give me some sort of guidance, please? Right. Right. Like, does that feel like a good racial option? I don't know. Please enlighten me. I think that it might be really cool, but at the same time, you're not telling me if At the same time, I'm not professional. I'm not a professional game designer. You're the one doing this for a reason. Yeah. I can home brew and do my own things, but I'm looking at you for guidance. Please help me. Right. I mean, yeah. So besides that yeah. No. I A homebrew focus is a very big thing. I want people to be able to homebrew and make their own stuff because, honestly, that's why we do tabletops. Like, a lot of people, we pick systems. They may spend hours have and have wonderful, like, comic books and actual story books for their settings, and it's wonderful and it's delicious. And then the GMs will take in and go, that's cool. Toss it away. I'm going to run my own game. So I I would rather have a thread of a good idea and then being able to allow them to change what they want Or being able to completely toss everything away and just do what they want. Yeah. Right? I love it. And then, going to the original question, now that we've talked about the setting just a Tiny bit because that that kind of goes into the whole thing of it. When you start on character creation, you obviously need to find like, you need to consider Where this character is coming from. Mhmm. Are they gonna be part of the core world? Are they part of, Alpine or whatever. There's multiple different things, but you kinda need to figure that out. Mhmm. So and, honestly, just figuring out that origin will give you a list of, well, what is the common species there Mhmm. Race options, or what is the rare options, or what is the, you know, uncommon like that things like that. Right? Every area has things. Like, obviously, in the core chart, common humans. Mhmm. But, like, the rare species That may exist there would be goblins, gnomes, or hidden folk. Mhmm. Elfheim, you would see more elves and well, I don't actually have elves directly yet. But, you would see more actual Fae type things. Mhmm. And the scrapyard is mostly, gnomes and goblins. Mhmm. There's a couple other species that exist, but for the most part, that's it. You pick 1, choose those species from that, and then you go to the next step. Love it. And are those the fragments so far? You know, Elfheim Mhmm. Scrapyard is in the core. Yep. Those are the 3 that I wanted to develop 1st, and honestly, I'm mostly mostly focusing on the core. Mhmm. I will probably do proper books For the alphheim and then a proper book for the scrap yard and kind of move things forward in that direction. Mhmm. Because I think that's true. Like setting books even too. Right. No. I mean, setting slash some mechanical options. Kind of like, just going to throw it out that the Pathfinder 2 Splatbooks that they release. Mhmm. Because a lot of the Pathfinder 2 Splat books are a lot of lore, a lot of whatnot. But they will have character options within them. Mhmm. Just kind of, like, quote unquote, buried, not really hugely buried. You could get some monsters there. Right. Too. So if you wanna play a character that's based around that area, you have a good idea of how to do that. And that will be Yeah. The kind of same way that I handle that. Love that. That's actually really fun. Once you do picking out your species, you then go into picking out your character's culture. Mhmm. So I don't get into, like, a huge Definition of what cultures are. For the culture and the core world, if you're a human and you're in the core world, Your culture is most likely what is called the world society, which is just the you are part of the core world Human culture. Mhmm. One of the other ones that actually didn't make it into current playtest book, for the core world is The Hidden, Which are the more obscure species, and kind of, like, how that modifies their culture because they have to do things. And then these culture decisions actually start doing your 1st bit of mechanical changes. Yeah. So things like what sort of languages you start up proficiency with, what skills you get, options to choose from. Mhmm. As well as most every option in the background will give you sort of increases towards, Things like relationships, affiliations, and stuff like that. Yeah. I'm always down for a game with relationship mechanics. Oh, you will definitely like some of the other stuff that I have written for it then. And that just goes starts giving a little bit more splat into Mhmm. Well, the mechanical bits of that character. Yeah. It starts defining some things. Absolutely. Mhmm. Then you actually go in to put in your your human things. If you're a human, like, I have information in there about, like, diet because that is a thing. I remember seeing that with 1 of the, with the gnomes, with being able, Either they were able to eat metal or they could eat metal, something like that. I just remember that, like, sticking out. Gremlins. It would be because they have been changed by the scrapyard, they can eat metal and actually need some light metal, in their diet. I thought that was so that was just really fun. Like, even just flavor wise, even if it doesn't like, you know, amount to anything mechanical wise throughout playing the game. Just the fact that it's there is just fun and makes me happy. Yeah. The diet is definitely one of those parts of the system that it's not really hugely mechanically interesting, But, like, it's enough there to where if you want to delve into diets and cooking, you can do that. And especially if you wanted to do something more survivally too, you know, having those, knowing those types of things. And then yeah, people can use it or throw it away. Or I guess not throw it away, but ignore it if they want to. It it's all dependent on the game that they wanna play. So, I don't wanna get too much Into mechanics here. But I think another thing that I could talk about is that there's 2 different healths that you start off with. There's physical health and spiritual health. Just because there are different tracks that matter for it. Obviously, physical health is the one that's probably gonna go up Down the most, though, spiritual health can, especially when you're dealing with ghosts or something. Mhmm. You know, common common ghosts encounters. Ghost issues. Mhmm. But once you've made those decisions, then you get into doing the fun bit. So I like to I I used to like to joke that you start up building a character in Novartis as a level 0 character Mhmm. Because I always give them enough Experience IP or improvement points is actually what I call it. Mhmm. To spin up to get to level 1. Mhmm. Because arguably, you could start them with less and, you know, have them start as a level 0 nobody. But, like, They will definitely feel like a nobody if you do that. Some people like really slow burn games. Maybe they wanna start at level 0 and and work their way up to getting actual like these actual mechanical stuff. Mhmm. So without getting too deep into some of the weeds of things, I'm just going to kind of casually say, you get 20 IP to spend on your, upgrades. There are 4 main things you can spend it on. Mhmm. You can increase your, attributes or other game systems called mobility scores. You can, Increase your skills. Mhmm. You can purchase what is called traits, which, gives you some sort of edges. Mhmm. In terms of this time period, when you're spending that first initial amount of IP, you can get a special Type of trait called background traits, which guess what they do? Just Background? Yeah. Flash that out of the box. Yeah. No. They they flash out the background. You can say things like You you succeeded in primary education. You got your high school diploma. Here's some benefits from doing it. Hey. Hey. Maybe it's important. You don't know. Right. Like, maybe you have multiple master degrees you can spend for those. Exactly. And, normally, those sort of things education will give you a lot of skills and some relationships. Then there's, like, occupation traits But you can input them. That's another type of background trait, which just says what sort of jobs that you've had. Right? And are these more focused on, like, more of kind of the real world type things? Yeah. A lot of the stuff that I've designed have been core world focused stuff. So, yeah, that's real good stuff. I love that. You can get a occupation, say, like, one of them is criminal. Of course. Right. But you could it could also be, like, fast food worker. Yeah. Oh, okay. Work at work at a restaurant. I mean, it's nice. And, and it's just those kind of normal type things. And so I, I am a bit curious with it being, you know, so rooted in like, kind of, you know, a normal modern world. What kind of stories is nove archaic, like, meant to tell? I love 0 to hero. Mhmm. When I say that, I don't mean the because a lot of people when they say that, especially in tabletops, they normally mean from lowest character level to max character level. That's not necessarily what I'm talking About I'm talking about anytime you start off as a nobody Mhmm. And you save the world or something or even a location. Mhmm. And that's kind of where a lot of the stories that I wanted to tell are are are at. Mhmm. That being said, I have Done stories where, like, they're the characters are group members in a band traveling along the side and just Help living life. Absolutely. I've done actually, I recently wrote some special magical basketball rules, baseball. I remember you. Yeah. Yeah. Because the Clash of Crits podcast, which great people, Did a little thing in their their podcasts where they have this thing called, and now my brain just said spell spell bounce, Which is just basketball, but what if magic? Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. And I'm like, that sounds so fun, and I know Novarkade Do it. I'm building the rules to be able to run it in Novargain now, and no one can stop me. Yeah. No. No. They can't. You you could do you you make the rules. You're the boss. That's I mean, they could force me to change the name and that's fine, but, like But but Yeah. There's nothing. The idea's still there. That's the that's the real thing. No, I love that. That's so fun. But, yeah. So you can run a lot of different stories As long as you can find ways of doing them. Mhmm. So and I I have a weird look on my face because I haven't talked about Some other things. So I'm gonna quickly jump back into that just so that I can make sure to say this bit. Mhmm. Because Ira, is there one other thing that you can talk about, actually get with IP besides the the background stuff? Mhmm. You can also get what's called specializations, Which is, what I also call Novarkage's biggest lie. Because I said at the beginning of this, Novarkage is classless. Uh-huh. But we do have specializations, which are arguably classes. Mhmm. But they aren't things you take at level 1. Heck, you don't really get the capability of doing it till, like, late level 2 or at the beginning of level 3, really, because you have to meet certain criteria Before they're even effective. Yeah. Or even, like, before you hit the requirements. But they Change and there are design purposes to change the base mechanics to be interesting for your character and actually give you a specialization, Like, make you more specialized. Mhmm. Which people like. Right. And, like, we'll get to a point where you can take multiples and start Becoming so specialized that you that's your build. Right? Mhmm. That being said, that that was the one thing with IP. But now jumping back to what I actually to talk about. It's like, it's like that early day moment in Always Sunny where it's like the, the Bolton floor. Like, all right. Yeah. So real side thing, just to finish out the conversation about making a character. Mhmm. The next step would be equipment, which you do through method of wealth points. Mhmm. Which is just at the start, you get a number of well points. You can take those well points to purchase big items, like Having a house or renting a home or all that sort of fun stuff. Or you can take those points and using one of your occupations, Converting them into cash. Mhmm. Oh, yeah. That's fun. Because I like Hash in my table tops, not necessarily the does the I'm I'm wealthy by the 5 star system. Mhmm. I I understand that it's supposed to simplify things and, like, that's cool and everything. It's just I like to have numbers. Yeah. I'm that type of dude. After that, the finishing touch for the character is actually defining character goals. Mhmm. And that's actually where the Definitions of kind of the game that that character is part of will also be part of it. Mhmm. Every character gets Three goals, but one of those will be taken up by the main story. Right? Yeah. Because that kinda ties all the other characters together. Yeah. So For BS reasons, we're just going to say that, I'm just going to say, like, If he was doing, like, the the spell bounce or the magical basketball Mhmm. Sort of game game, everyone's next goal Would it be something like, defeating, or getting to the championship or and stuff like that. Right? Defeating the rival team. Right. Where they are primary, like, their own character goals would be something as simple as get enough money to Save a family member who's in debt or needs medical bills, or could be something even more vain and just being like, I just wanna make my truck look cool. Whatever motivates your character. Actually, no. I like that because that gives me a little bit of, iron sworn a little bit where you have those, like, you know, kind of set goals and motivations that you set up, you know, at the beginning of the game, but also throughout. And that can help you lead the way of, like, you know, what you're following through the story with and, you know, what you're trying to accomplish. I like that. That's fun. Yeah. So the main benefit, actually, just because I wanna talk about it. The the main reason I have the goals Is actually because that's how you get your IP in the progression. Mhmm. Is once any one of the party completes a goal, everyone gets 4 IP. Oh, that's also a fun way to do it. It's a group it's a group thing instead of it just being, like, individual. That's fun. Mhmm. And so you wanna help everyone too get their goals. And I I will say, you don't have to succeed at either goal either because a lot of the ways I encourage people is to design them in an open sort of statement. Yeah. Questions are kind of better. But if you just wanna make a statement of, like, this is definite what I'm shooting for, that's fine. But, like, once you have accomplished the thing or gotten to the point where you can say that you've accomplished or Where maybe it's just narratively the, goal has to change because you've spent enough time trying to do it. That is when you would get the 4 IV, and all that sort of fun stuff. Yeah. So then you don't have to feel stuck of, like, you have to accomplish this. You know, it has to go well or anything like that. It it it's got the flexibility so that you're not like, you know, this is the only way. This is the right. Right. And yeah. It's definitely done that way because sometimes it's not, because it may be you're searching for your long lost father or something. And, you know, there's a really good narrative moment where you go and You get lot of information. Like, you've been pointed to this one specific city, doing this, like, Mime fighter champion sort of thing. And so you and the team go there To, like, confront and find. Mhmm. But maybe you don't find them or you get another big hint of where they're at. Maybe the announcement meant of sort of, like, the person who actually knows what's going on in some way, and, like, that would be enough To satisfy that goal Mhmm. For the player to then everyone gets the pro I v, and then the player can choose how they want to evolve that goal. Yeah. No. I like that. And even the concept of evolving the goal is really fun too, of like the it can build from there. So maybe, Oh. No. I like that. Because it can it could be something of, like, hey. I'm trying to find my my father, and maybe you have the direction, and then maybe it can evolve I wanna mend the relationship with my father. Exactly. Maybe you find him and maybe the father doesn't have actually any of his memories. So now you have to set Send them a call to help them get his memories back or right. Like, there's so many so many interesting narrative ways to do it, and that's Kind of the thing is, like, you always want to have the character needs to have 2 personal goals. And like I said, everyone needs to have 1 team goal. And I love the concept of the team goal too because I I have and I think this has personally come from some of the people I've played with. Sometimes they feel lost in the way of, like, to actually work as a team and, like, almost what their whole goal is. If you put it in the narrative of, like, hey. You are all gonna set this up, you know, session 0 or whatever. We're gonna set a team goal. And even if it doesn't end up being, you know, the one that you follow throughout the entire campaign, it at least establishes, you know, this is all something you want to accomplish together, no matter if you have your separate, you know, goals personally. But this is one you're accomplishing together, and I love that. Yeah. It it I will say goals have was always been one of my favorite things that I came up with mechanically that was just like, this is such a good way of doing things. Mhmm. Obviously, things have actually changed slightly since I started them, but I mean, that's just what's gonna happen. That's the way it goes. I love it. Yeah. No. This is very, very cool. Now I'm I'm actually curious, you know, was saying that you know how it's changed. Has there been a moment in Novarkic so far where you've had to, like, kill a darling, something that you were really, really excited for that yes. Multiple times. I've killed so many darlings. Do not look under the bridge. Please, please, oh god. No. Don't open the closet. There's no skeletons. I swear. I swear. That's that's not a heart. Do you hear a heart? No. Faux joke. Anyways, And so I will say the number 1 darling I had to kill was actually one of the old, resolution systems that I had. So I've always used a d twenty for a lot of this. Mhmm. But I I don't wanna get in too much of the path, but let's just say and so I had a way of finding a task resolution Where things was you roll a d 20 and you compare to a chart to find out how many successes you get. Of course, the issue with that is that it caused a lot of Flag. Even though it was fun for the players at every convention I went to, I went to a lot of college conventions to to share the game and to get the random ideas on it. People had fun with it, but it was slow. I could tell that that was what was causing a lot of slow. And even though a lot of players was I was just like, I gotta kill it. Yeah. I hate this, but I have to get rid of it. There is also a couple other things that's happened. Technically, how traits Function is entirely different to how they started. Mhmm. In what way? So originally, background traits We're so it was actually part of the background trades. There was also a concept of background trades As much as you still had a background, but you had a list of, background slots, and you just wrote a sentence about each thing, and that's how you got your beginning IP. And, I mean, that was fun, and it was kind of a nice way of doing it. The issue became that It just there wasn't much mechanical interestingness bits from it. Mhmm. Because, like, there was no way for, I guess, for me to police what, players were grabbing based on what they set up, Their background was, and I didn't think that the backgrounds really made any mechanical or really store narrative bite, at that time. So I wanted to include them more. So I converted them into background trades Mhmm. Which you then can spend for and get and All that fun stuff. Yeah. Which I think with the direction and of that, you know, the direction that you're going for Novakic, I think that makes a lot more sense versus, you know, writing writing it out, especially since you want that mechanical weight with, you know, everything that you're doing. You want those mechanics to be able to back it up even if it has a narrative focus there. You still want the mechanics to back them up. And, like, I I do that in that sort of way because, like, one of the biggest issues again, I ran this game a lot of times in a lot of different versions, in College conventions. Mhmm. And while the, backgrounds and how they normally was handled Or how they used to be handled was fun and fast for players to kind of, like, get really interesting characters. Mhmm. The issue is that it wasn't very, newbie friendly. Mhmm. Because, like, Just saying, hey. Yeah. You have to write a sentence. They kinda, like, give a story of why character exists To for this character to be fleshed out enough to have points doesn't really like, that doesn't really mesh well with that sort of whole thing. Yeah. I mean, I can agree with that even from when I started to play TTRPGs. I started with D and D. If you were to tell me, hey, write, you know, your background and, you know, who you were before we even started to play versus, hey. Just pick from backgrounds that we already have established. I don't love how the background system works in D and D 5 E, but. Same. You know, I can at least appreciate that that was a lot easier to, you know, understand from someone who's just getting started, who never made a character before. Yeah. Okay. You know, I can understand if I pick soldier, that means something. And, you know, there there there is some weight there. So, yeah, I I totally get that. Yeah. And, I mean, that's even difference of people too. Some people do have a better I Do have a better time being able to just write it down, be like, oh, you know, this, this person was, was once a, a noble Princess, I don't know, like Mhmm. But other people and and people, especially with it being their 1st game, that that can be a bigger struggle. So I I appreciate trying to make it more friendly for people who are who are just getting started. That is definitely something that I've tried to do is, obviously building a system that's probably more mechanics focused. One of the biggest concerns is obviously complexity. Mhmm. One of my design philosophies for designing complexity is the game should be as complex as the players want it to be. Mhmm. If you can understand the core, then everything else should fall into place with that mechanically. Yeah. Right. And that was just kind of a thing. Like, that's just the kind of way that I've been designing things. It's like Mhmm. If I Can't explain it based off of the core mechanics, then I'm not going to have it that way. Mhmm. Right? Like I appreciate that. Yeah. Because it's not fun for, like, teaching this system, trying to be like, okay. So this is how this works, but it doesn't work in this way because this is how that works. And, Mhmm. You know, there's 5 different types of rolling a dice. Mhmm. Well, now I'm curious of, like, what is the Core then. I mean, we've talked about, you know, the kind of character creation and even elements of the lore, which I still kinda want to get back into that a little bit since I found that very interesting. But, you know, what is the core of nove archaic? Yeah. So the core mechanic or Resolution system. It's a very basic d twenty plus skill. Mhmm. Not ability score, not anything else. It's a d 20 plus skill. There you okay. You can get other modifications. Like, there are bonuses. I call the bonuses Advantages and disadvantages. So it's not like the D and D advantages disadvantage system. It is just how I what I call bonuses. Yeah. Right? That being said, when you roll a d twenty, you have a difficulty after hit. You so you roll that d twenty, You add your skill, and you compare that to the difficulty. Mhmm. If you hit that number or or higher, great. You succeeded. Yeah. Right. Very simple. Now we're successful. Familiar with that. So here's the thing, is that my system is actually a success counting system. So to find out the successes is actually you count the number of 5 over that you are are. So if you're 10 over, you would get 2 additional successes. Mhmm. Okay? Yeah. And for every time you get a next success over, you get this point called a metal that, There it's actually temporary metal, but that's an entirely different part of the system. Like, what does that actually mean? Not gonna get into that, unless you ask. But, you spend metal to have critical effects. Okay. Right? So say that you I actually, we're just gonna use a very simple, you shoot a gun towards a training dummy. Mhmm. Okay. You roll a d twenty. You get, let's say, 15. We'll say that difficulty was, 12. Just for for the sake. So that means no successes. Mhmm. You roll your damage. Huzzah. You did the thing. Mhmm. Cool. Now let's say that you actually got 17, so you'd be 5 over. Mhmm. So you got one success. You got a temporary medal. With shooting a gun, basic, the basic thing with any sort of damaging capability, you can spend a metal to increase the damage by 1, Which isn't much, but it it's an a number. Right? It's something. So cool. Now I've done a little bit more damage to that. Mhmm. Let's transition that. Say that instead of shooting the gun, we're gonna throw that gun away and you're running past a spell. Mhmm. K? We're gonna say that it's, We're actually not gonna shoot a spell towards the target. We're going to have to spell on yourself. Mhmm. Same sort of thing. Difficulty is 11, But you roll a 16. The spell you're casting, is detect magic. Mhmm. Okay? Which will allow you to modify one of your senses To pick up Magic. You choose what sense it is. Yeah. So, yes, that means you would be able to taste Magic if you wanted to. Hey. I love it. So with metal for casting that Particular spell, it actually if I recall correctly, you can spend metal to increase the length, the duration of that A fact. Mhmm. So you don't need to cast it again on the next round. Fun. Yeah. And so just kind of like things like that. Each Action will normally say what you can do with it if there is nothing, but it does have what is known as an effect to die. Normally, in your damages or your spells, you may be able to add your ability scores or your your attributes. Right? Your primary one. Mhmm. If you can add your primary attributes to that number, that means that you can spend metal to increase that. That metal is used to increase your your your attributes for those roles. That's fine. So shooting a gun, you would Be able to add your dexterity attribute too if you have the traits to do so. Like, you're trained with gun. Yeah. Cool. Mhmm. You'd be able to increase your damage to it In that sort of method. Mhmm. Doing the duration, that might be something that it specifically calls out, but maybe it does something else with an attribute. There you go. Mhmm. Jumping or actually moving is actually derived from your attributes of, it is your, species base plus half of your lowest of strength or decks Mhmm. To kind of, like, Have a bounding system, if you will. But you can still spend a medal to go, I want to move faster if you had to roll for that movement. Yeah. There is ways to roll for movement, but, normally, you can just spend an action to just do a movement. Mhmm. And do you have to spend those medals on the things that you roll or, you know, you succeed highly on? So let's say you you succeed by, like, 10 on the detect magic thing on yourself. Do you have to spend all of those medals on just that, or can you spend those medals on other things? Without getting too much into the weeds, the temporary medal lasts. The ones that you get on those will last Until the end until that action is satisfied. Mhmm. So now getting a little bit too into the weeds Is how the action system actually works. The way that the the action system works is You spend or you get on the start of your turn, whenever that may be, you get 3 action points called figure. Mhmm. That's just dictating how many actions you get. Mhmm. But here's the thing. Unlike other tabletops, you don't need to spend those actions on your turn. On your turn, you have what is known as priority. So you gotta decide what happens on your turn when in that sort of sense. If soon as someone does something, if it's on your turn, you have first priority to react. Mhmm. Oh, yeah. Okay. That's fun. Yeah. That means that you kind of want to hold on to your action points For not on your turn Mhmm. To react to other things. Reason why that matters is, say, I shoot somebody. Mhmm. Cool. They have an action point, and they decide that instead of just using their base defenses, They're going to spend an action point to make that a rolled like, a roll off sort of dealio. Mhmm. So my attack versus their defense roll, because maybe they have some bonuses to to rolling it, or they feel like that's the only possible way they could dodge, out of my attack because I'm just that much of a marksman or something. I don't know. And they get lucky, they succeed, They get a medal. Cool. They have actions. They now have a temporary medal that lasts until my action happens. So they just spend it on making that medal different, but maybe they have another action point, and they wanna do an attack Right off of that. Mhmm. So you have an action that now goes on top of You you stacking. Yeah. Yep. And then you can use those temporary metals to upgrade that effect even before knowing that that itself is going to go off. Interesting. Yeah. Okay. I think I understand. Yeah. It's one of those things I feel is better explained, when actually going through. Yeah. When when you actually play, you can can experience it. If you've played, like, tabletop card games, it's very similar in that sort of instance of just kind of that sort Action stacking. Yeah. You know? Yeah. Priority, you would do the thing. If not, you can hold on to your resources and do things later. Mhmm. I thought that was a better way of handling it because I have that dichotomy between, what is known as an active skill check and a Passive skill check. Mhmm. Because all of your defenses are actually based off what is called a passive skill check. Mhmm. And it's very much like the d twenty Plus skill, except that it's just 10 plus the skill. Mhmm. And that will set up the armors and or the AC, if you will, for different attacks and stuff like that. So Yeah. No. Love it. Very cool. And I like the fact that that you can also do things on other people's turns. Well, like, while that's still something you can do within, like, you know, D and D, there are very specific rules on, like, how those reactions can work and all of that and how they get triggered, but being able to actually, you know, affect something that's happening on someone else's turn is something I've always wanted in D and D and that I get in other games in in in ways, obviously. There's not always, you know, very, very structured rules around it, but at least they kinda give that more of that flexibility versus D and D is like, Hey. You have to get hit, and then you could actually do something when it's like, but I have a shield and can save this person, please. Right. And I I think the main reason I actually going back into, like, why did I design it now Was it because, I liked the idea of more tactical situations than just, You know, I take start my turn. I hit people 3 times. I end my turn. Mhmm. Because that's boring. Yeah. Yes. I I know that there's people out there who love it and, like, I I love you for loving it. If that's what you love, that's fine. I'm not going to make I'm not here to make fun of you. Yeah. Everyone's not playing sides of their own thing. I like to have to think hard about what's going on, and then I fail miserably because because I'm thinking too hard about it. That's what I wanna do. I want to fail miserably. That's how I have fun. Right. No. That's, like, the perfect way to say it though. Like, the way that you like to play TTRPGs is the way that you like to have fun. Sometimes people like to think, like overthink every little thing and when it goes wrong, it is painful, but that's fun for them. That's not fun for everyone, but that's fun for them and that's great. And I love that. So, yeah. I got into the weeds on that. Sorry. No. It it is all good. And and that's the thing too is that, you know, I I knew that this was gonna be a more Mechanically heavy system, which sometimes can be hard to. Describe and talk about since a lot of it can rely on actually playing it and and getting a feel from it from playing Mhmm. The game. But I appreciate you doing it because It it's it's great to hear it. I am curious, though, and this is something I I thought about earlier of actually, what, like, How many play tests you've actually done of no of archaic so far? Of this current version or of the whole? We'll do current version. And then if you have an answer for the whole, I'd love to hear that. So the current version as of, version point, 0.9.2 Mhmm. Or or or x. We'll just say x. I have done just 1 session thus far with these current rules. Mhmm. That being said, the skeleton of just how Novark functions right now. So we'll say between this version and we'll say 4 years ago, because I haven't changed much of the core system in 4 years. Nice. I did a huge rewrite, but it wasn't of changing any mechanics. But instead going, wow, I am bad at writing. Let me attempt to fix that. The struggle. Yeah. Which I'm still bad at writing, but, I mean, I feel like the the PBS a little, like, better to understand. Anyways, That version, I have ran 2 primary games. Mhmm. One of them was a Digimon hack. Oh, fun. I love Digimon. And then just Splashings. I don't know. A numerous amount of splashings. And like I said, the big difference between these 2 iterations Would probably be just content and maybe some minor changes between numbers or Yeah. Or just balances of that sort of stuff. Because If you aren't adjusting numbers, then you're not really playtesting. Understandable. So yeah. And then as a whole, I can't tell you. There's 2 winning. I've like, I've been working on the project since 2012. I I could tell you, I probably did a lot more back when I was doing con games Mhmm. Games at conventions, Because I would run at minimum 3 or 4 games a day. That's crazy. Yeah. That was, like, each con could be 2 to 3 to 4 days depending on where it is. I've never did anything at a big convention. There's always college conventions around me, but maybe one day you were able to do that. I didn't even know that there were, like, college conventions like that where you could just, you know, run a game and people would actually play it. I guess. It really helps. Yeah. Because because I was, go ahead. I'll I'll shut up. Yeah. No. I I was gonna say that, my my younger sibling has actually, like, done cubing events. And I just realized, like, that Mhmm. Maybe kind of the same sort of idea. It was usually hosted at colleges and things like that, and a bunch of people who when there would actually, you know, participate in them. So, actually, that's really fun. I never, like, thought about that of being, like, TTRP focus or or game focus in that way. That's fun. I like that. I, I blame the fact that I when I had gone College first time, I stumbled into, the tabletop role playing guild at school Mhmm. Which was just a bunch of nerds, Like, pretty strong. And they did everything they could to be able to do a convention at that school Yeah. Every year, Which was about 2, 3 days. I think it was two and a half days, technically, starting on Friday, ending on Sunday afternoon. So specific. It was just timing because of needing to have enough time to Clean up. Mhmm. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It may have been more like Sunday 4 PM or something, but it was still much brighter in that day than we was dealing with the other days. And finding them, finding out that they did it and just kind of falling in with them with them on doing that and just, eventually to the point where I actually became president of that organization for a little while. Oh. So, that's fun. I love that. No. That sounds so cool. I I've, like, I've gone to, like, public games. Like, I had a game shop up in Ohio that I used to I mean, that's actually the whole reason I got into playing D and D is that I played there for the first time. But, like, I've never been a part of, like, a little, like, I guess, community like that of, like, oh, we're we're just here to nerd out and play games. Other than, I mean, like, kind of online now kinda getting back into it and and into more of the TTR movie space. But that's so fun. That's really cool. And so do you have any, like, really, like, Fond memories of any of the play test games that you've done. Because I I'm I'm super curious. Yes. I've had insane fun running games, for a playtest or What have you at conventions or not? That just kinda warms my heart when I think about it. Like, just the sort of experiences that the players did, The sort of stories that we've told, the the stupid fun we had being a bunch of, like, College students at a college convention for some of them. Or, but I think the things that actually warms My heart the most is not necessarily what happened at the table, but what after after. Mhmm. The sort of stories I can like, the sort of things that kind of had like, that Kept me going was little different things, that people said when they played the game That actually was genuine, and you could tell it was genuine. Because, like Yeah. When you're when you're doing playtest, you can kinda tell the difference between someone's genuinely saying something and, like, being, like, this was so fun Mhmm. Just to be polite Yeah. Or being actual, like, man, this was amazing. Good. Yeah. And, like, though those moments spoke out more. Right? Like, And one of the fond memories of that feedback was and what actually has led me to go deeper into it. The reason why I have a focus on background building for the characters because one of the players, Random person at this convention, which sometimes a lot of the people that might have came by was just somebody who already knew about the system that, you know, had heard from me or, You know, had known me or whatever. It was just a random person who decided to come to the convention for that day just to, you know, see what was at this college convention Mhmm. Which is cool. They just walked by my table. I was about ready to start a game. And it was like, oh, I wanna play. Cool. Okay. Let's introduce. Let's do a Fun little tidbit. We did a I don't even remember the story very much, that I was doing. I think there was a cursed mirror that Did something I think, it actually if I remember right, did something with the if you looked into the mirror, it would change one of your, goals temporarily to, like, do something weird. Oh, that's actually really cool. I like that. But at the end of the game, what got me was, they said it was so Cool to be able to look at this character, look at the character sheet and just know about this character, like, to be able to tell the type of person this Character was without needing to, like, have to write down my own little thing and kind of figure it out as soon as the One shot started. Right? Like, just being able to go, yeah, cool. This character has these sort of things. They've been through these sort of things. Yep. Awesome. Yeah. I mean, that's exactly the example, though, that you gave at the beginning with, you know, something that that you wanted Your goal with the character creation, that's exactly it. So, oh, that's so cool that, like, someone said that and that that it's been a driving force for you. Mhmm. That's amazing. I love that. But yeah. When it comes down to it, I do have great stories and great system or great systems. Mhmm. Great, like, moments. Mhmm. Like I talked about the the Digimon thing that I did, it was a Digimon hack. So, technically, it was Novartic, but I did have to hack in stats for the Digimon creatures. Of course. But that was such a fun game because I was able to Run a game that I wanted to run for a while Mhmm. Using nova archaic, and the players got to be these DigiDestined And live through the story and, like, it's just so fun. Mhmm. No. That sounds like a blast. I love I love the idea of playing a Digimon game, and now I really wanna play a Digimon game. It's a lot of fun. I love it. Yeah. No. That's that's so cool. And I'm I'm I'm curious, though, you know, kind of going off of this with, like, the playtesting. Has anyone outside of yourself actually, run Nova Archaic, or have you been the only, like, kinda GM for the system? So I've had so, actually, we're going all through memory lanes. Mhmm. So I'm going to talk about a time when Novoracaic was Not mechanically where it is now. I'm gonna talk about back when it was actually closer to a d twenty modern hack. Because we all started when we start making something, we normally start with the things we hate and make them better. Yep. So when I was closer to the d twenty modern hack, one of my friends got really excited. He was they got really into it and They decided that they wanted to run a Scion game where everybody was a child of a god without using the Scion system, but using Nova Arcade. And Mhmm. So they did that And had a lot of fun, from what I've heard. I wasn't part of the story at all. I love it though. Nothing of how they was running. Yeah. But the only reason that I even really like, I knew that he was doing it because they they kept talking to me about it. Like, that was cool. Mhmm. Right? Like, awesome. It sounds so cool that you're doing that. I let me make more stuff to support what you're doing because that's awesome. But what, another thing that's, like, I've been living off of for a very long time is when me and my friends had I did to go to a Denny's diner at 2 AM in the morning because that's just what you do when you hang out with your bunch of role playing. Yep. But, we was, I was stopped by somebody there, and they asked, hey. Are you Kyle you're you're the guy who made Novark. Right? And I'm like, Yeah. And it's like, I love, so and so who's running this game. Like, that's just been so much fun. Like, oh my God. That stopped. Yes. No, absolute. That's so good. That's amazing. And, I mean, like, isn't that, like, every game designer's dream is for someone to, you know, play the game without them and then, you know, Tell them about the experience and, like, please stop oh, that's amazing. That's beautiful. I'm still chasing that high. I have never felt that good, well, besides the the the backstory thing. But, like, that is another but, like, if I could have that experience just one more time, just one more time, let me bottle up that experience and sell that. I'll make so much money. No. I love that. That's so sweet. And, like, I and, like, also, what what an amazing thing to happen as well when you were earlier in the production of the game too. You know, when when you were still working on it, when it was still a a a fresher idea, even now, I mean, that would be amazing. No doubt. But, like, with it being so early, like, that's so special. I I adore that. That's so cool. Oh, yeah. And there's been other people who's ran some games. Some of them I've Not necessarily Forrest. I have a role playing buddy, and it was kind of a running gag of us that he would we would make bets on random things. And I would normally win. And when I won, it was like, okay. Now you owe me a game. Yeah. And so he got to a point where he owed me, like, 10 games. And I was just like, just run an over a game. And he was going to, and then we had a lot of well, COVID happened. Mhmm. So Yeah. I mean, just that. And we haven't hung out since then. Oh, man. COVID. Yeah. The killer of all. Good thing now. But he just got started. He ran 1 session and then Yeah. Yeah. No. I Oh, no. It's okay. I haven't played a actual in person game since COVID, and I I'm just, like, dying over it. I'm like, oh, man, it would be so fun. Oh, I would love to do and run a game in person again. My wife, bless her heart. Made a GM screen for me, like personalized GM screen. Mhmm. I've yet to use it. One day, I will be able to use it. And hopefully, that day will come sooner than later. Yes. Right. I mean, I I even, like, even for the The, online games that I do, I even still set up the GM screens and just, like, trying to replicate the experience. Like, oh, it would be so nice. Might consider that if I wasn't using my screen to, like, have notes and stuff, and I don't really have the I guess I do have the table space, but not For me to properly use it? Yeah. I've I've, like, laid it out flat, like, on this part of the table before and I'll, like, move my microphone phone over there or I'll lay it flat in front of me, whatever works because like I want the information on the screen. But then it's like, I need to actually see still see the actual screen that I need to use to actually see either the people or or whatever else we're doing. So Yeah. The the screen that she made is actually not a like, doesn't have information inside of it as much as just allows you to hang pages up. I would prefer that so much more. Cause I have like 3 GM, I have 3 DM screens. They're specifically for D and D. And yet, I have taped over all of the information with monster of the week, glitter hearts, and I think kids on brooms is all in there right now because it's like, I I'm not running D and D right now, so I'm just gonna tape it on there and use the actual thing that I have. Yeah. Which I I guess is a little fun side thing, to say the dungeon master or game master for an over arcade is actually called The Story Master because I focus on the the story. Yeah. And wanted to kind of denote that While this is a game, your decisions that you make in this position focus on the story. Let me focus on the game design and whole. You wanna make your own home brew for your own game parts, that's fine. But that's because you're doing that for the story Yeah. Not because you're doing that because it's needed. That's one of the I have with, like, some other games, cough cough, d n d, is that they they kind of, like, go, okay. But if you wanna have Mechanics that, like, do this thing. You have to design it because we're not going to. Yeah. And what we do design is a 1,000,000 subclass. Yeah. Oh, goodness. Or a 1000000 races that, like, all kind of blend together and have power creep out the wazoo. That's how I feel with the The subclasses sometimes too, because it's like, oh wait, it just feels like you could play like the same kind of class or the same type of build with totally different subclasses and main classes, because there are so many that are so similar and it's like, what's even the point if you're playing a fighter Like, yeah, it's cool to cast magic, but you're playing a fighter because you wanna play a Marshall clip. It's fine. But, We're we're we're not gonna get into that, but Yeah. This isn't a D and D batch script stream or right. Yeah. It's not a stream. So use, when in the streams that I used to do, I would actually, we would always just call it the dragon game, and we normally ended up Bashing on it a lot. But he always kind of, like, stepped away, like, we can't we shouldn't be doing this all the time. But Yeah. I mean, like, I I am very much of the belief, like, I don't want to bash on D and D, but I am allowed to share my feelings. Right. Because, well, and as I said, the game then like, yeah, more power to you. I like, I have my own grasp with it and I don't wanna play it for kind of the foreseeable future right now. Cause I have a bunch of other things I'd like to try, but I have no problem if you enjoy it. Yeah. No. Like like I said earlier, I love If you love it, then that's fine. I love you for loving it, that you go and do your own thing. Younger me, more Butthole of me would say something along the lines of, you're allowed to have your opinions even if they're wrong. But, I used to say that all the time when I was just being a little snot nose brat. You can reflect on your on your cringey Yeah. Gender boost. All the time. Yeah. I I still have my my gamer tag as as as never forget. No. I love it. Oh, goodness. But I I honestly do think, though, we might Be getting close to wrapping up here. I mean, I don't think it's Sure. It's physically possible to cover every single thing about the game, unfortunately. I mean, that's that's even with every other game. It's terrible. But, this has really been great and something that I would like to touch on before we wrap up, especially, you know, having the playtest out and and wanting other people to play the game and catching that high again. Do you have any advice for people who would like to run no no almost said nora archaic. That's not how any of this is said. Brain is fried, Novarkaic. I feel that. Yeah, but do you have any advice for people who would like to run Novartic for themselves and play in a game without you? Because that would be awesome to have again. Like, I mean, it's just like obviously, the big thing I would say for trying to play it Or any game for that matter Mhmm. Is obviously find friends or randoms that, you know, are safe to play with, I guess, That you wanna play with. Yeah. Like, for specifically Novarkaic, come to my Discord. Be like, hey, yo. I heard you. And, like, let's to dig into that. I I have the rules posted on there. I have a not so smart character, Google Sheets Mhmm. Parrot Hashid on there. I have a couple of other things. I do want to make more, items to help players grasp things. I just haven't had time to Graphic arts them to be pretty. That's fair. Sometimes you have to make them ugly first and then you can make them pretty late. Well, sometimes you have to decide to what extent do you do you make the print small? No. How small do you allow print to be? I mean, I am someone who's notorious for writing really, really small in my notebooks to try and fit in all the information. I wouldn't recommend it. It's it always seems like a good idea, and it's not. It always seems like a good idea, And it never is. And then you're like, I can't read that. I'm in the middle of running the game. They're running into this MPC and I wrote it this tiny. Oops. But yeah. No. If you have questions, talk to me. I'm available more often than I should be because I'm never, like, Truly far away from Discord. And, like yeah. I mean, the the only way to begin your journey is to begin. Yeah. That that that's all I can say. Honestly, I think that's that's great. The only way to begin your journey is vegan. If you let All of the things of, like, how to do it right, you know? That that that will hold you back from doing it, then you'll never get to actually play fun games and and have all these fun experiences. So, like, absolutely. I love that. And, obviously, like I said earlier, the links for, you know, all of Kyle's social media will be in the description. I will also make sure to put the discord in the description as well. And, hey, Kyle's in the RPG goblin discord as well, and you can totally talk to them there too. You can talk to them anywhere. It's great. Yeah. You can totally See some offhanded design things that I was like, I don't know if I like this. Here, people. Tell me what you think. I think it's great. Honestly, those like, I have not gone into game design much, but I think those are fun moments to at least think about it a bit more is through like, hey, I need help figuring this out. Okay. We can talk about it. Yeah. And I'm a very much a type of designer where I like to, for lack of better term, Percolate about different topics. I I do let like, okay, this is what I wanna do. I need to think about this for some time. Yeah. So I'm going to Do other things while thinking about it and see if something glorious happens. I love it. Fantastic. And, I mean, like, one more thing, though, before we fully wrap up is, you know, through all of the development of Novarkaics so far, What makes you the most excited about this game? The thing that makes me the most exciting the most excited Mhmm. Is the idea to share it with others, to find some other people that would love to play it. I don't even care if, like I I'm eventually going to try and sell it as a product. Sure. Fine. But, honestly, I don't even of course, I'm going to say this, and I don't want you to think that this is true for every designer out there because it's not true for every designer. I'm just A weird dude who already gets his money from a normal paycheck. If people pirate my game and still play it and have fun, that's fine with me. Mhmm. Go on. Have fun. I don't give I don't care as long as you have fun, and then just tell me about it. I don't care that you pirate it. Just tell me, hey, Played your game. It was cool. Like, awesome. I'm not gonna be like, okay, but like, how did you get it? No. I'm just Have fun. Yeah. Getting a little Passionate. Yeah. Like, That's all I care about is, like, to find people that also enjoy it. Because, I mean, honestly, when it comes down to it, like, that means, like, a, I'm gonna find people that also enjoy these types of stories, and that means that I'll hear more about these types of stories and these worlds and Stuff. And, like, that's honestly something because, to me, the market is oversaturated with normal fantasy Stories. Like, I don't care like, don't get me wrong. Those are fun in their own right, but, like, I wanna hear, Right. Like, I wanna hear some modern day shenanigans. I wanna find out, like, the time when you and your friends, like, Used cell phones and and casting invisibility to, like, sneak into the mafia vampire kingpins Domain to then have a tactical SWAT team swarm down and and stop these bad guys, like, that's cool. Tell me that sort of stuff. Right? I love that. Yeah. And totally normal everyday occurrence. You know? Yeah. I mean, who hasn't fought a vampire Mafia man. Yeah. And and not a tactical slot team, you know. That may have only happened once in a game, but, like, it it just happens once, and that's all that matters. Yeah. You just have to tell me about the one time. Maybe you accidentally or on purpose send a giant magical turtle to space by giving it magical cocaine. Personal experience? Con games. But that explains it. Yep. People are people are just a little bit more unhinged during Oh, for sure. I mean, every like, everyone's running on, like, a high during I mean Yeah. Exactly. Like, every everyone's everyone's unhinged during cons. I mean, like, I've never gone to the actual tabletop convention, but, like, Even just the anime conventions I've gone to. It's it's insane every single time. So, like, just expect it, which I I can appreciate that. I love it. It's so good. Send a turtle to space, and you're magical cocaine. I mean Yeah. Yeah. The turtle was going to destroy a city. It's Fine. It's normal. We have to have a Leviathan creature that's floating in the the the world that's going to destroy Joy a magical tower that's made of pure crystal and magic. Like, I don't know. That's fine. Like yeah. It's a possibility. You know, they're endless. I love it. Have actually happened in games, and I'm just kind of rattling them on. I could throw it on the It's great. It's great, though. I love it. Have a full segment of just rattling on different really weird, vague stories that have happened. Absolutely amazing. But I think we are probably going to wrap up here though. Now this has been Okay, fine. Yeah. I know. It it sucks every single Time, I hate it, but I don't think everyone would listen to a 3 hour podcast if I released it. You're right. Yeah. I mean, like, it would be awesome, but You just gotta cut it in chunks. Exactly. Yeah. It's all good. Yeah. We'll figure it out. No. But this This has been seriously awesome. Thank you so much, Kyle, for coming on and talking about no nove archaic with me. This was absolutely fantastic. I am very excited. Yeah. And I'm I'm excited to look further into the playtest as well because I know I've seen it around, and I I've looked at Some of the stuff that you've shared within the Discord, and I've looked at the play test a little bit. But, you know, getting more experience, hearing more about the game just makes me more excited to do it, so I I can't wait for that. Yeah. Famous. If I if only you out of this entire discussion look at the game, like, that that's good enough for me. Like, that's that's all that matters. Just someone to look. Person to look. Just I'm trying to I'm chasing that high here. Exactly. Oh my goodness. Yeah. I know. I I definitely will be. But no. Seriously, thank you so much. And for one last time before we we wrap up here. Can you tell everyone where they can find you? And I will emphasize, I will have the link for the playtest or to get the playtest in the description of this episode as well. Because again, ease of finding everything, every, all the links, all the important links will be in the description of the episode. So Yeah. Go go ahead. Oops. Sorry. Oh, okay. Yeah. So, Words. I you can find me behind. Shoot. No. I'm on a lot of social medias like Zitter, Slash. It's like that's just the first time I've heard it called that. Well, I'm not gonna call it x, and I don't wanna call it Twitter because that's that's its dead name. Yeah. I've I've heard people call it Twix before. Twix. I will accept that. But no. It's it's Sitter. Right? Like, it's x Twitter. I I don't know. Yeah. It's a name. What where where did I say? I guess you can also find me on Facebook, but it's fine. You can just find, like, twistedcrystalgames@twicry.com. I do have a website. I don't audit it very often, but, like, it doesn't have information there. It does have all my links or at least some of my links. I'll be honest. I I do keep some of my designing Things which a lot of my social media is more of as as a designer and not as a game company. Almost like a guy. I'm just everywhere. Yeah. I can appreciate That Yeah. No. But awesome. No. This is great, and, also, I just heard it start to thunder outside, So which may also be wrapping it up because Florida sucks, and very often when it storms, the power goes out. It happened in the middle of an episode before. It was terrible. Oh, no. That that that sounds horrible. I hate that. Yeah. It I mean, it we made It was it was a very interesting time. Hey. The the 2, not the 2 Fast Midnight. The Twilight 2000 episode was very interesting in many ways. Power gone out in the middle of it. Had to record it for a 2nd time, pretending like nothing happened. Everything's okay. Oh, no. Oh, goodness. Adam was a great sport, but yeah. Yeah. No. This was seriously awesome. Thank you so so very much for coming on. Thank you everyone for listening. Please go check out Novartkaic even if it's just, again, checking out the PDF scene. If it's something that you're interested in in a game for you, go do it. It it it doesn't cost anything to just go check it out. Go join the Discord, ask Kyle questions, See what this game is all about because that's what everything that we do here is really about is just checking out these awesome games. So thank you so much, Kyle and Bye.