GMBC ep35 - New World Dragons at Rising Phoenix Game Con: To Shape a Dragon's Breath with Monoquill Blackgoose
Monoquill Blackgoose
To Shape a Dragon’s Breath
Speaker A
00:00:00.240 - 00:00:00.560
Foreign.
Speaker B
00:00:05.840 - 00:01:09.240
Welcome to the Game Masters Book Club where great fiction becomes your next great tabletop role playing experience for the next four weeks. We're coming to you from Rising Phoenix Game Con in Milford, Massachusetts.
This is the con's fifth year providing fantastic tabletop role playing experiences along with board games, amazing panels, great vendors and an immersive con experience.
Game Masters Book Club was invited to interview both of the guests of honor, Hugo nominated authors Elizabeth Behr and Scott lynch, as well as two other amazing local authors attending the convention, Tricia Wooldridge and Monocwil Black Goose. In this episode, we talk with Monaquil Blackgoose about her young adult fantasy novel To Shape a Dragon's Breath.
Our other panelists include Alex Shackle, Romy Stott, and Beau Powell, all game masters who have or will soon be.
On the Game Masters Book Club podcast we talk about the influence of the Pern books, dragon genetics, how social bonds between PCs and NPCs can enhance gameplay, teenager intensity, and how great the sense of place is in this book. Let's get into the conversation.
Speaker A
00:01:13.560 - 00:02:27.350
And welcome to the Game Masters Book Club where you take fiction and turn into your next great tabletop role playing experience. That's our goal here.
We have a bunch of Game Masters here to talk about to Shape a Dragon's Breath by Monaco Blackness, who also happens to be a Game Master and also happens to be here, which is going to make this so awesome. This is fantastic. I'm going to go down the row here again. My name is Eric Jackson, I'm the host and that's really all you need to know about me.
And then everything else, we're gonna go all the way down to the other end there we're gonna have all our game Game Masters introduce ourselves and then we're gonna have Monica talk about the book, give us a quick summary, and then we're all gonna make some quick comments about how much we think the book is awesome. So just be prepared or whatever. Or whatever. Or whatever.
And then from there we will talk about if we wanted to run this particular book in a tabletop world, what mechanics we would use. Then we'll talk about what we would obviously like to transplant from this book directly into our own games.
We'll then talk about other cool media that relates to it. And then we'll do promos because there are lots of really awesome people here who are doing awesome things and you should know about them.
So that being the layout for today, all the way down at the end. Bo, would you care to lead us off?
Speaker C
00:02:27.590 - 00:02:27.990
Sure.
Speaker D
00:02:28.230 - 00:02:42.650
Hi Everyone, I am Bo Powell and I am a. I've been playing TTRPGs for about 25 years, but I'm a rather new GM. Only about two years, actually. GMing. Was there anything else I needed to answer?
Speaker A
00:02:42.650 - 00:02:53.010
Oh, right. I completely forgot. Since we're talking about to shape a dragon's breath, and dragons play a huge part in this.
What's your favorite dragon moment in Tabletop roleplaying? Ah.
Speaker D
00:02:53.010 - 00:03:23.330
We had a. We ran into a tiny little dragon in a world that our friend was running, and she insisted she couldn't do any voices.
And it had the wildest voice that I cannot do as a voice actor. I cannot do it. She's amazing for this one voice and this tiny little dragon.
Absolutely hated the dragon, like, animal handler that we had in our party and was constantly giving him so much backtalk that we were just laughing hysterically the whole time in this tiny little voice this dragon had.
Speaker A
00:03:23.810 - 00:03:24.450
There we go.
Speaker C
00:03:25.170 - 00:04:32.720
Hi, I'm Romy Stott. I'm probably best known as one of the editors of Strange Horizons.
I've been running both TTRPGs and LARPs since I was a pretty little kid when I basically invented them from first principles, where I kind of tended to be the person in the group of us that were pretending that would wind up jumping in to play all of the other characters and all the villains so we could move the story forward and would come up with sort of like, well, how are we going to randomize this? Well, I have all these board games, so let's use some of the mechanics.
Eventually, I wound up game mastering systems that were actually written for it. My favorites are, I love 7th Sea and I love Shadowrun.
As far as favorite dragon moments, I'm excited anytime you run into the very classic dragon that just wants to sleep on a pile of gold. I relate to that very much.
And so frequently I've enjoyed sort of when rather than battling the dragon, you sort of try to persuade it to enter into better investment opportunities.
Speaker A
00:04:34.080 - 00:04:36.000
Nice. Alex.
Speaker E
00:04:36.720 - 00:05:51.390
My name is Alex drakal. I've been GMing for. I just calculated, and it's very sad. 43 Years. And that sounds like a successful 43 years.
Well, just the length of time, like, oh, my God, I'm so old. I've been very dedicated to the art and science of game mastering.
And so to spend a lot of time on panels, spend a lot of time thinking about educational material and building master classes around game mastering. And I GM a lot. And one of the.
One of the things that I'm really committed to is that people have access to whatever they need to be great GMs and to really make a difference in games. And I am a. I'm a director of this con, the Rising Phoenix Gaming Con.
And I've really enjoyed the caliber of people that we've had here and it's been really amazing. My favorite dragon moment was in a campaign I was running where I created a dragon and the players treated the dragon so badly.
So she started to relate to herself as a. As an oppressed minority. And that has become, for 20 years now, has become a running theme in the game. And she's now this advocate for dragon rights.
Speaker F
00:05:51.470 - 00:05:51.950
Nice.
Speaker E
00:05:52.190 - 00:06:19.510
Right? And it's entertainment and really, it's been really entertaining and I've had a great time running it. And the players now are like.
And she has the players be the bad guys. They're the oppressive colonialists who have like sort of taken over and made dragons bad reputation and made everyone hate dragons and that.
And she has advocated that and she. But she's not. She's anti violence.
Speaker F
00:06:19.990 - 00:06:20.310
Right.
Speaker E
00:06:20.310 - 00:06:24.149
And so, you know, so that's, I think, my favorite dragon moment.
Speaker A
00:06:24.149 - 00:06:25.670
There we go. And Marvel.
Speaker F
00:06:25.830 - 00:06:43.780
I am Monicle Blackhus. I am the author of Shape A Dragon's Breath and also its sequel to Ride of Rising Storm. I am predominantly a writer, but I have also run games.
And if we're talking, I was a Pern girl during the MUD and Moo era. There were so many rules about that. What you were allowed to be in those universes that got really detailed.
Speaker A
00:06:43.780 - 00:06:47.820
It did absolutely did toot my own horn. But did you listen to the episode that we did?
Speaker F
00:06:48.220 - 00:06:49.180
I did not. I'm sorry.
Speaker A
00:06:49.180 - 00:07:09.260
Okay. No, it's totally fine. I'm going to recommend it because we did spend a lot of time talking about the muds and Moots and all the things.
Because all three of the two of the three people who were on the show were like direct participants. One of them was like very close with someone who worked with Ann McCaffrey. And so like we had a. There's a lot of really interesting bits on that. So.
Sorry, go ahead.
Speaker F
00:07:09.260 - 00:07:16.000
I was so. The Internet was a brand new thing. That's how my experience of it was.
Speaker A
00:07:16.000 - 00:07:23.320
I was gonna say their experience was play by mail. Like literally. Like this is pre Internet stuff. So it's a real historical trip.
Speaker F
00:07:23.400 - 00:07:47.940
Nice.
But if we're talking about favorite dragons in game moments, a game that I was running, it was a waterdeep game and I was playing a wyrmling dragon named Laundry who was just A quest font. Like, the players would come to me and I would have a new thing for them to do.
The dragon's name was Laundry because I had taken over a laundry as my lair and everyone was just referring to it as Laundry. And I guess, okay, that's my name now.
Speaker A
00:07:48.260 - 00:07:51.700
Here we go. Did you lie on a bed of, like, lost socks?
Speaker F
00:07:52.900 - 00:08:01.140
I lied on a bed of beautifully laundered silks and all of the fanciest laundry clothes that ever came. They entered my hoard.
Speaker A
00:08:01.300 - 00:08:03.300
All right, that does seem fair.
Speaker F
00:08:03.300 - 00:08:05.780
There's piles of wedding dresses and scarves, and.
Speaker A
00:08:08.220 - 00:08:52.540
I am suitably impressed.
All right, so I will briefly say that my favorite dragon story is literally the story that my parents did for me, which was that the first year that I was playing Dungeons and Dragons, I had been playing for a full year. And on easter, I was 10. Yes. I was 10 years old. My parents, instead of putting an Easter bunny in my basket, put a dragon.
A little tiny stuffed dragon. I didn't bring him with me today, and I meant to. His name is Dungeon the Dragon. Nice.
And I think he is the one piece of my youth that travels with me wherever I go. So he is always my number one dragon story. But we have a much better dragon story than even that because you wrote a whole book about it.
Speaker F
00:08:53.020 - 00:08:53.580
Two of them.
Speaker A
00:08:53.820 - 00:08:56.980
Two of them, yes. And maybe soon to be more. We're excited about that.
Speaker F
00:08:56.980 - 00:08:57.580
Working on it.
Speaker A
00:08:58.220 - 00:08:59.340
Sorry. No pressure.
Speaker C
00:09:00.060 - 00:09:01.020
All the pressure.
Speaker A
00:09:01.020 - 00:09:07.480
So much pressure. No pressure. No pressure. Authors. It's okay. No pressures. But we would like more, please. Which is always.
Speaker F
00:09:07.480 - 00:09:08.760
I am familiar with this. Don't worry.
Speaker A
00:09:08.760 - 00:09:14.480
Okay. But would you mind telling the folks about the book to shape a Dragon's Breath, which is the one we're going to be talking about today?
Speaker F
00:09:14.480 - 00:09:51.210
The core premise is that Anakus, a young girl from a literal, insular community, becomes associated.
Like the word in her culture is very different than the word in the colonizer culture for what the relationship between her and the dragon is, and that's one of the core plot drivers of the book, is that her cultural understanding of dragons and their cultural understanding of dragons is very, very different. But she has to go to this boarding school, dragon college and follow all their rules in order for her dragon not to be euthanized.
So that's the high stake for her.
Speaker A
00:09:52.330 - 00:09:52.970
Absolutely not.
Speaker F
00:09:52.970 - 00:09:58.490
And the book is about her dealing with the colonizer's culture and headbutting against it. And.
Speaker A
00:10:00.490 - 00:10:03.610
While remaining true to her own culture while she did a very great job of that.
Speaker F
00:10:03.610 - 00:10:19.130
Yeah. And raising her new baby dragon. And Learning about how dragons function in both societies. Yeah.
What her role is now as nempeshawayasit, which is the name of a dragon partner in her culture.
Speaker E
00:10:19.850 - 00:10:22.610
Wait, could you pronounce it again? Because I've read it, but I've never.
Speaker F
00:10:22.610 - 00:10:27.550
Heard it said nampeshawayasit Nepeshoeiset.
Speaker E
00:10:28.670 - 00:10:29.310
Okay, good.
Speaker A
00:10:29.390 - 00:10:32.870
I'm a big audio person, so I heard it, but good for that. Fantastic.
Speaker C
00:10:32.870 - 00:10:35.470
Then there's a pronunciation guide at the beginning of the book.
Speaker A
00:10:36.750 - 00:10:42.270
Alex, any other themes that you, when you read through the book that, like, leapt out at you that you want to, you know, want to point out?
Speaker E
00:10:42.270 - 00:11:16.050
Well, I think. I think she hit on, obviously, the major themes. Right, right.
One of the things that I found fascinating about the book is her growth when she finally makes the ferry schedule and makes it.
And the other theme that I thought was interesting is that the book is set in an alternate history in, like, Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard and like, you know, in the New England area. And it's. And it really emphasizes the colonial nature of the British imperial sort of like, presence. And I thought that theme.
Speaker F
00:11:16.050 - 00:11:17.770
But the British are Vikings in this universe.
Speaker A
00:11:17.770 - 00:11:22.360
That's right, exactly. Which makes them a little cooler. A little.
Speaker F
00:11:22.590 - 00:11:25.550
I've done the history on it has to do with the day in law. There was no Wessex.
Speaker E
00:11:26.110 - 00:11:49.950
But what's interesting, I thought, was that the conflict between her idea of relationship to her community and her wanting to be part of the grandmother circle and stuff like that versus her comparative. The women she's at the boarding school with who want to become socialites or become the next. That I thought was very interesting.
Speaker F
00:11:49.950 - 00:11:51.390
Going to be a man or wife, of course.
Speaker E
00:11:51.950 - 00:11:55.050
And so I thought that was a cool theme, the book.
Speaker D
00:11:56.250 - 00:12:11.130
Yeah.
I think it also shows the oppression of culture, where culture can be positive and where it can be negative from all aspects, from all different cultures and how those aspects can clash with each other when those cultures come together.
Speaker F
00:12:11.610 - 00:12:11.970
Right.
Speaker D
00:12:11.970 - 00:12:37.320
It's all about your viewpoint.
And when you have one woman who lives in a culture that tells her that she's supposed to grow up and be a wife and be a socialite and make all the connections, how does she then erase all of that life that she's grown up in? Right. To suddenly become. Oh, I do understand what you're saying and maybe you are right, but how do I suddenly change everything about me.
Speaker F
00:12:37.320 - 00:12:38.320
And what I've learned?
Speaker D
00:12:39.360 - 00:12:46.000
So I loved the clash of seeing the good and the negative of both the cultures coming together.
Speaker C
00:12:46.240 - 00:13:22.940
Although I'd say kind of to that end, something that I appreciate about the book is the characters who are having these conflicts are quite unique. These are 15, 16 year old characters and I have children.
And something that has been a sort of constant observation that I've made with them and their friends is that they are very sure a lot of things are life or death and are going to be extremely serious. That as somebody in my 40s, I can say, no, that's fine.
It's not actually going to affect you at all that you got to be in this class or that your friends are sitting at a different table on this day. It's not really going to be a thing.
Speaker F
00:13:22.940 - 00:13:27.960
The cafeteria lineup is amazingly powerful. Powerful? Who is sitting at what table?
Speaker C
00:13:28.200 - 00:13:49.640
I appreciate the kind of intensity of caring about that that a lot of the characters seem to have, but that also I'm not convinced as a reader that they're always correct about it.
Not that they're necessarily trying to lie, but for instance, the girl who's like, oh, but if I don't do the right social things, it's going to be a disaster for my life. Is it? We don't know.
Speaker F
00:13:50.600 - 00:13:51.790
She's convinced that it is.
Speaker G
00:13:52.020 - 00:13:52.300
Yeah.
Speaker F
00:13:52.300 - 00:13:53.540
And she's been told it is.
Speaker D
00:13:53.860 - 00:13:54.500
Absolutely.
Speaker A
00:13:54.500 - 00:14:03.180
And there have been some really serious consequences, social consequences for very small infractions for her social group, for her, for the people who she lives with. So that is. Yeah.
Speaker F
00:14:03.180 - 00:14:05.060
She's been cut by Dagny Sorensen.
Speaker A
00:14:07.859 - 00:14:37.080
Yeah. I think that the best thing I'm trying to think of, like, what is the best way for me to put this. I really appreciated.
I'm a former school teacher and I really appreciated the school aspect. Anytime we're in a school book, I'm always very excited about it. I really like how it was handled.
I really like how there are good teachers and bad teachers and people. And people are good teachers to some people and not good teachers to others. And I felt that that representation was really good.
So I wanted to make sure I threw that in there.
Speaker F
00:14:37.080 - 00:14:38.000
I have been to school.
Speaker A
00:14:38.160 - 00:14:48.240
I know it is one of the few universal things. It's one of the reasons why teachers make such great villains and make great heroes is because everyone has a teacher that they can relate with. Who.
That's right.
Speaker F
00:14:48.480 - 00:14:50.720
Like, this is my villain teacher. This is my hero teacher.
Speaker E
00:14:50.720 - 00:15:07.310
But I felt one of the other interests thing was I thought you slightly went against trope in some of the cases because there was a setup where easily you could have had the evil dean like the evil headmaster, and instead there were some unfortunate.
Speaker F
00:15:07.310 - 00:15:08.870
She's a much more complex character.
Speaker A
00:15:09.190 - 00:15:10.430
Unfortunate choices.
Speaker E
00:15:10.430 - 00:15:22.950
Right. And there's some unfortunate decisions. But overall, like, you could see a character trying to do their job right, rather than like, I am here to.
Speaker F
00:15:22.950 - 00:15:26.750
Destroy the lives of my students. I want to make everything terrible for everyone.
Speaker A
00:15:27.070 - 00:15:29.150
Exactly. No Disney spinny eyes.
Speaker F
00:15:29.150 - 00:15:29.950
Yeah. No, no.
Speaker A
00:15:31.470 - 00:15:51.030
So now the question becomes if we've talked about the themes.
So now the question becomes, if we wanted to do this, if we wanted to evoke this game, if we wanted to bring it to life in a tabletop role playing space, how would we want to do that? Like, what would be the system that we would choose that could best illustrate the things that are happening in this book? Romy, do you want to start?
Speaker C
00:15:51.110 - 00:17:24.730
Well, in terms of systems that I'd look at first, I would say that for me, a lot of the appeal of this book is the extreme sense of place.
Like, if you're thinking about whether you're interested in it, I don't read a lot of ya and I can get really burned out on magical school narratives. There's been a lot of them. But just looking at the first chapter of this book, it was like, okay, this is going to be worth my time.
Because the sense of place is so strong. I mean, we're speaking right now from Massachusetts.
The landscapes that are being described are landscapes I know very well and that I'm able to recognize how well they're, how accurately and beautifully they're being evoked.
And then you have the presentation of a dragon in this really familiar setting that is already a bit wondrous, and it makes you reengage with how wondrous the things around you are. Because this is a dragon that feels very set in the woods and in the shorelines that I already know and the animals that I've already seen.
And then saying, oh, but there's this magical thing. There's this dragon.
And in fact, the call to adventure in the book, the fact that the dragon has laid its egg right in the middle of this familiar table that the character has visited so many times and then brings it into their society.
A lot of times we're telling stories and RPGs that are a call to adventure, that take you out of the space where you already live, and this is bringing magic into a space that already exists.
Speaker E
00:17:25.050 - 00:17:25.770
That's nice.
Speaker C
00:17:26.330 - 00:18:32.320
So when I look at RPGs, I do feel like I could kind of build this out onto Shadowrun, which I like already. I feel like I could build this out pretty easily mechanically. Adding the mechanics of having dragon riders to Seventh Sea.
You already have these kind of land. It's already set in kind of the right time period. You already have this alternate history thing going on.
You already have swordsman schools, you already have magic. I feel like I could build dragon schools basically onto the swordsman schools that already exist in Seventh Sea.
But what I kind of got interested in looking at sort of less standard RPGs. There's a very, very simple, very low rules RPG called Magical Pets. Like it's literally a two page RPG system.
It's by plotbunny games where what you're controlling and what you're playing is the magical pets of the wizards.
And I'm sort of interested in kind of telling a campaign of to shape a Dragon's Breath that is maybe from the perspective more of the dragons than the students. And I feel like that would be a very fun, very simple system to jump into for it.
Speaker A
00:18:33.520 - 00:18:35.760
Fantastic. BO yeah.
Speaker D
00:18:36.080 - 00:20:06.690
So I actually was drawn in by if we're talking about systems, then we're talking about mechanics.
So in the mechanics of this book, it's really about these dragonriders have to go to school because they have to learn to the title of the book to shape a Dragon's Breath. Because the dragon's breath can do magical things, but it has to be controlled some way.
And how they do that, it's different in both cultures of the Mascopag and the Anglish. But the Anglican take it from a sort of art drawing perspective, you know, a visual art.
And then the Maskpahs take it from a dance perspective, but both sort of artistic perspectives. And they have to build from these elements from this.
They're pulling this movement if they're doing the dance and adding it to this movement, to this movement and to that movement to shape the breath to create one spell, say. Or they're drawing these shapes to bring it all together to make a spell. So that brought me to mage the Ascension.
Oh, that's interesting because that has all of the spheres of magic and you use those to build your spells.
So I really think that you could go into the skill to craft even more and pull out the various aspects of the skill to craft, apply those to the spheres and then use those to build your spells and shape your Dragon's Breath. So you could learn literally in the game how to work with your dragon and shape your dragon's Breath.
Speaker A
00:20:07.490 - 00:20:09.090
That's really awesome, Alex.
Speaker E
00:20:09.570 - 00:20:10.290
I like that.
Speaker A
00:20:10.370 - 00:20:12.690
Okay. I like that. You're good.
Speaker E
00:20:12.690 - 00:20:13.130
You're good.
Speaker A
00:20:13.130 - 00:20:14.290
You're fantastic. You're good with that.
Speaker E
00:20:14.530 - 00:21:19.480
Actually, when I was thinking about this, I. I was Thinking about it less from the mechanics of the skill to craft and stuff, because I figured you could always. You can always mechanicize that somehow. Right. And I was thinking something more like fate, right. Because it is so much of the.
This is about the social constructs and the conversations and the relationships and the.
I thought the dynamics, the mechanics of managing that and, you know, and possibly trading attributes or using some kind of variation on fate points or something. Right.
Just to like, just to move things around would be a way to handle this and also allow a loose enough framework that you could handle all of the various configurations, including the social ones, like her work with the. The servant and having servants and having the aristocrats and having the islanders and like, all of that working together.
I thought fate would be a nice loose way to hold the mechanics. Then you could build in mechanics to handle the specifics of the skill to craft and stuff.
Speaker G
00:21:19.480 - 00:21:19.760
And.
Speaker E
00:21:19.760 - 00:21:30.720
And you don't go into that much specifics anyways. When you talk about the magic, it just sort of is described as what they're doing. Right. And then there's the effect. Right. And so, at least.
Speaker F
00:21:30.880 - 00:21:32.880
At least so far, it's organic chemistry.
Speaker E
00:21:34.240 - 00:21:35.480
And so, you know, it's.
Speaker A
00:21:35.480 - 00:21:41.900
Yeah. Thanks for those flashbacks, though, the way. Oh, my God, I'm back here around the table.
Speaker F
00:21:41.900 - 00:21:42.380
Do it now.
Speaker A
00:21:42.380 - 00:21:44.380
I'm back in orbcam again. Oh, my God.
Speaker C
00:21:45.740 - 00:22:45.580
Although I would also suggest one other system called Kids on Brooms, which is by Renegade Game Studios. You know, kind of, if you look at it, it's really sort of created to let you make a Harry Potter type of wizarding school.
But part of what I think is great about that system that would fit in a very interesting way with.
To shape a dragon's breath, is that the players and the game master at the beginning, you're not just working together to create your character, you're working together to envision what is the school and what is the town the school is near.
So that not only lets you have a lot of flexibility in saying, okay, actually, we're going to go in more the direction of the school that's in this book. But it lets you.
If you're kind of leaning into what I'm saying about the sense of place and the sense of the familiar, having the unfamiliar layered on top of it, you can say, okay, based on where we are as a gaming group, based on where we live right now, what would the wizarding school, or in this case, Dragon school, what would its characteristics be like? How would it.
Speaker F
00:22:45.580 - 00:23:08.630
That's the kind of thing I would be so interested to see. I want to see other people's take on what their culture would be like in this universe. What would your relationship to the dragon be?
What would your magical system be? How would you relate to. To the dragon's breath?
Because there's like certain brute facts about the universe and dragons breathe nuclear energy and they can rip molecules apart and.
Speaker A
00:23:09.350 - 00:23:10.790
That's something we have to contend with.
Speaker F
00:23:13.030 - 00:23:23.710
And how does your culture manage that? There are these creatures in the world that can breathe on something and reduce it to base components, but apparently can.
Speaker A
00:23:23.710 - 00:23:27.160
Also make all kinds of. Of really cool things, which is just a fantastic.
Speaker F
00:23:27.160 - 00:23:43.880
With human intervention. Because dragons don't do that on their own.
Dragons on their own just make Ashen wind, which is congratulations, you are now all of the elements in your body. Anybody know that quote from Full Alchemist where it's got all the elements in the human body? Yeah, the dragon will just turn you into that.
Speaker A
00:23:43.880 - 00:24:42.460
And there you go. For my mechanic, I was. Whenever I deal with like very. These are very passionate characters.
Whenever I want to deal with really passionate characters, my thoughts turn to the Pendragon RPG because they have the different passions. So it's like loyalty, disloyalty, all that sort of thing. And there are a lot. Whenever you're dealing with ya, you get those really strong pulls.
And if you want to represent that mechanically, I think Pendragon's a great way to do that. And also Pendragon is really good at. It has a lot of rules for playing younger characters because that is something that happens in.
In the Pendragon world you have like young princes and princesses and that's something that happens. So it would be pretty easy to adapt that into, I think this.
Social situations that are occurring here, which I think are the real heart of what's happening. And I do think that a lot of the knightly orders would also translate pretty well to the dragon schools and things like that. So that's my.
I'm just going to throw in my mechanics there and make sure. But most importantly though, how would you run it? Authors.
Speaker F
00:24:42.700 - 00:25:01.800
I'm not a good game designer is the problem. Okay, that's fair. My gaming. I've played a lot of World of Darkness.
I've played a lot of D and D and D and D third D and D fifth and I played some Pathfinder. I have not played a lot of the esoteric. You know, I haven't played a lot of the older games.
A lot of the fun homebrew stuff that I see lots of people do.
Speaker A
00:25:01.800 - 00:25:03.160
Which is perfectly fine. Yeah.
Speaker F
00:25:03.240 - 00:25:12.000
But if we go back to when I was like five and up, playing pretend had a ton of rules. As a small autistic child, the rules.
Speaker A
00:25:12.000 - 00:25:12.920
Are the most important part.
Speaker F
00:25:12.920 - 00:25:26.320
So when you say, like designing games from first principles. Yeah, we did that kind of thing. Just me and my cousins, my friends. And that's kind of how I relate to gaming.
It is all just playing pretend with a scaffolding. Yeah, it's the.
Speaker A
00:25:26.320 - 00:25:33.640
It's the. I have a. I have a laser beam. I shoot, you know, I have a. I have a. I have a force field. But it's your force field. Strong enough. Now we need rules.
Speaker F
00:25:33.640 - 00:25:34.840
Now we need dice. Yes.
Speaker A
00:25:36.440 - 00:25:52.040
So fantastic. So I guess the next thing that we usually talk about is.
We usually talk about what we would borrow, steal, make portable from this, but it's sort of the opposite for you. Did you take anything from your role playing experience and drop it into this book?
Speaker F
00:25:54.360 - 00:26:02.440
Being able to social with humans correctly, I learned to do a lot of that.
Speaker A
00:26:02.440 - 00:26:04.280
Look at me being socially competent.
Speaker F
00:26:04.280 - 00:26:07.010
Exactly. Look, I can talk to humans like a person person.
Speaker A
00:26:07.570 - 00:26:12.770
Or as they say in Gravity Falls, only a game by nerds would have charisma as a superpower.
Speaker F
00:26:12.770 - 00:26:45.230
Exactly, exactly. But yeah, I have taken from a lot of. Like I was a Pern girl. I've read Temeraire.
A lot of the How Skill to Craft Works is inspired by Full Metal Alchemist, but mostly the things that it draws on, like actual old medieval alchemy, how the relation of the elements. Because I'm a very science based fantasy person, I like things to make sense with real physics most of the time. So my dragons do chemistry.
Speaker A
00:26:45.950 - 00:26:58.430
They do. Which is pretty awesome.
I mean, it was pretty neat when I was reading through that and I did actually realize, oh my goodness, this is organic chemistry. And how far can we go with this? I'm very excited.
Speaker F
00:26:58.430 - 00:26:59.710
All the way up the chain.
Speaker A
00:26:59.790 - 00:27:00.430
Oh, man.
Speaker F
00:27:00.730 - 00:27:02.810
Dragons will be able to make nuclear bombs.
Speaker A
00:27:03.450 - 00:27:03.930
Nice.
Speaker F
00:27:04.010 - 00:27:12.010
No one has figured out how to do that yet. Thankfully. Thankfully. It would be a very different world if they had. We'd be dealing with a fallout situation.
Speaker A
00:27:13.610 - 00:27:25.450
That's book six. Very excited to see the post apocalyptic Dragon's wrath that's happening coming up. But we're going to jump all the way down the bow.
Bo, you want to talk about portables, things you want to take from this?
Speaker D
00:27:25.450 - 00:28:01.990
Absolutely. One of the things I loved about this book was the little capitalized stories. I love oral storytelling anytime I can get it.
Especially if you can get a real master and you can sit and just listen to a beautiful story being told. And that's what these felt like.
These really felt like beautiful cultural folk tales being told by people who really knew them and really felt them meanings of them. And I love how a folk tale like that can. Can just really just bring you culture in a little box.
Speaker F
00:28:01.990 - 00:28:04.990
Yeah. It's a little window into what your cultural values are.
Speaker D
00:28:04.990 - 00:28:46.440
Exactly. And deliver it. It's an easy way to deliver that information to a set of players at a table.
And it's also a fun way to do it in such a way that you could also make it a little bit mysterious or a little bit like, can we solve the puzzle of what. What's happening here? What. What am I trying to learn from this? So I loved those moments. I love the term heirloore.
I wish that that was the word we use in everyday life. And then the. Just the magic system of the dance and the visual art forms. I love that as well. Just, just thinking.
I've never thought of using magic in a game with dance. Right. And instead of all this, so many.
Speaker F
00:28:46.440 - 00:28:55.960
Magic systems are based around individual input. Whereas the indigenous system, you need the entire community to participate. You can't do it alone.
Speaker D
00:28:56.040 - 00:28:56.760
Exactly.
Speaker F
00:28:56.760 - 00:28:59.720
And I think you're gonna need at least a dozen people for this spell.
Speaker D
00:28:59.800 - 00:29:10.770
Right. And that would be such a fun thing to do in a game. Maybe your whole party.
You can't cast spells without all of them together, without all of them working on creating a spell. It just seems like Captain Planet style.
Speaker A
00:29:14.210 - 00:29:14.930
Romy.
Speaker C
00:29:14.930 - 00:29:37.710
I do really like this idea of kind of multi person spell mechanics. But the main portables that I took out of this are essentially just reminders of how powerful certain narrative techniques are.
There's an extremely racist awful kid that they go to school with who is just harassing them all the time, but who is not like the direct villain. Like it's a conflict in life, but it's somebody who you have to continue.
Speaker F
00:29:37.870 - 00:29:39.470
He's just a jackass to work with.
Speaker C
00:29:39.470 - 00:29:39.870
Right.
Speaker F
00:29:39.950 - 00:29:41.230
Sometimes those are just there.
Speaker C
00:29:41.390 - 00:30:14.610
And if you put one of those characters into your rpg, oh, players get so crazy. Like they get so obsessed with like, what is this going to turn into?
And so that can lead to really wonderful narrative things where you do have to depend on and rely on somebody who is on your side but also terrible.
So I think that's always a good thing to remember is that you can have characters who are inherently fairly evil, but who are also on the same side as your characters. And that is always useful and interesting narratively.
Speaker A
00:30:15.010 - 00:30:24.130
Wait, wait, wait, wait.
You're saying that we should be able to speak to humans who have similar goals to us, even if we don't agree on everything and try and make that work for us.
Speaker C
00:30:24.130 - 00:30:25.570
I think sometimes what.
Speaker A
00:30:25.570 - 00:30:29.250
Would you please run for senate?
Speaker C
00:30:31.490 - 00:30:40.380
It might also be appropriate. Appropriate for the party to decide as the, as the headmaster threatens where it's like jerk character.
If you can't get it together, we're kicking you out. We're gonna like say we don't.
Speaker F
00:30:40.380 - 00:30:41.740
We'll expel you from school.
Speaker C
00:30:42.940 - 00:31:03.090
So that can be an interesting like, oh, do we, you know, it's like we always think about this sort of do I want to use this cursed object dilemma that shows up in RPGs all the time. Do I want to use this cursed object? Sometimes it's a person where it's like, it'd be really powerful to have them on our side, but there's this cost.
Do we want to bring them along? So that's a good portable for me.
Speaker F
00:31:03.170 - 00:31:07.490
We're going to have the Victorian social rules problem if we invite this person to the party.
Speaker C
00:31:09.410 - 00:31:51.500
Another portable for me that I think is really useful is obviously the book is dealing a lot with stereotype threat, with characters being told you have to be the best because you have to be. Because if you are just average, that's not going to be good enough because of who you are.
And that's an interesting sort of inversion of the chosen one narrative where it's often like, oh, you have this huge power so we expect more from you. This is a. You are quite oppressed, you are an outsider, so you absolutely have to be incredible.
You have to be able to beat these higher difficulty things every time. And having that as a motivator for a character I think is pretty compelling. I mean we all like an underdog narrative.
Speaker F
00:31:51.660 - 00:31:53.300
You have to represent your entire race.
Speaker C
00:31:53.690 - 00:31:54.010
Yeah.
Speaker F
00:31:54.010 - 00:31:55.930
Deal with that 15 year old.
Speaker A
00:31:56.090 - 00:32:00.130
Go. Go. Speaking of go, Alex, I had a.
Speaker E
00:32:00.130 - 00:32:04.090
Different thing but I think I want to expand on the setting idea.
Speaker A
00:32:04.090 - 00:32:04.370
Right.
Speaker E
00:32:04.370 - 00:32:34.980
I really. Because I really that it struck me that a portable, a good portable, so to speak, is the lack of portability is the setting. Right.
The fact that you're, you're locked into a particular thing. There's a social construct around that thing and you've got the families of the students and the.
And I think that's a, that's one of the things I think will be an excellent takeaway for at least for a while. Even if it's a long term campaign. If people are in a situation where they're in a school or whatever it is a monastery or there.
Speaker F
00:32:35.060 - 00:32:37.700
How many Red Wall books are there that stay in one location?
Speaker E
00:32:37.700 - 00:34:01.700
They're living in this place. And then this place has a whole world around it of social expectations and different strata and casts of people.
And I think that's an exciting thing to bring into the game because that allows you to explore a whole bunch of things. Right.
The other thing I think is really interesting is the idea of the dragon's breath being more than just a weapon, of the dragon's breath being an act of creation, an act of magic, and that then you shape it somehow, right? Or you make it something and then bringing that into the storyline, right? And how that.
Whether that's through artistic expression or through math or through devices or whatever, however you would manipulate that. But that these things, these people who are dragons are capable of this. And then the relationship between the.
There's a lot of stories about dragon riders, like people that have some kind of. Either a pet relationship or a co. Equal relationship or sometimes a slave relationship where the dragon's the dominant one, right? With.
With dragons, but have to really have both of them going to school, right? It's really both of them going to school, not like one or the other. And, you know, it's.
They're training them, each almost training each other, right? That's sort of an interesting idea.
Speaker A
00:34:02.570 - 00:34:25.530
As I've already said, I'm a big. You've already touched on it.
I'm a big fan of the school and the idea that you can lock players into a certain social situation where one, they can't leave and two, they must participate within this set of rules. No matter how powerful you are in all of these other things that you are doing, it doesn't matter. You can't just kill that person, right?
Like, you can't. You cannot just ace that guy. You've really got it. That is not on the planet.
Speaker F
00:34:25.530 - 00:34:26.650
You will just go to jail.
Speaker A
00:34:26.650 - 00:34:28.010
Yeah, you will. You'll go to jail.
Speaker F
00:34:28.010 - 00:34:30.490
And then the campaign will be very boring after that.
Speaker A
00:34:30.490 - 00:34:49.730
Consequences, man. And that's what it's really. That's what it's really all about, about setting up those kinds of consequences.
And I think the book does a really great job of setting up all of these different things that take a. Hi. I ride around on a. Not initially, but like I'm carrying something that can generate a nuclear explosion. And yet I am.
Speaker F
00:34:49.730 - 00:34:50.690
She behaves like a kitten.
Speaker A
00:34:50.690 - 00:35:31.690
And yet. And yet I am powerless.
Like in many situations, she's completely, completely powerless to stop what is happening or only through the barest of margins, do they manage to escape even while sitting on top of this giant literal power source?
And I think that's a real trick to pull off in a game, because in certain situations, yes, boom, you can solve the problem, but in almost every other situation, it's a detriment. It's a problem. How do I deal with this? How do I make this happen? How do I make the kitten behave? Which is an impossibility, as we all know.
Absolutely. Anybody else have any other last pieces?
Speaker E
00:35:31.690 - 00:35:47.410
I had one thing that you brought that up about the powerhouse. Right.
I also liked, and this is a small thing, but I like the fact that as the dragons grew, there's a whole new set of complications associated with that. People often just have, oh, I have a dragon. Well, where are you putting it?
Speaker F
00:35:47.410 - 00:35:48.410
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker E
00:35:49.540 - 00:36:05.540
Where is it staying and how are you feeding it? And the story, again, it's not a primary thing, but it deals with that and even the social changes of that. Like, oh, I can keep my dragon with me.
No, now, it has to be in the stable.
Speaker F
00:36:05.940 - 00:36:07.500
Dragon's too big to go inside now.
Speaker E
00:36:07.500 - 00:36:29.050
Right. And then when you're in a social and if you're going to visit someone, then where does the dragon go? Right. Because it has to go with you.
But where does from it come? Does it stay outside? Is there a dragon stable? Is it a rich person? Right. You know, are you in the middle of the city? You're visiting your brother.
Right. You know what I mean? That's all. All of that I thought was very interesting and I think would be interesting.
Speaker F
00:36:29.050 - 00:36:32.050
To sit on this doorstep and pouch, because I can't fit inside the building.
Speaker E
00:36:34.770 - 00:36:51.540
Set of complications to give players. Right. To deal with is sort of without.
You don't have to make it a stupid Monday bookkeeping thing, but just to have that be part of the flavor text of the. What is it to have a relationship with a thing that's the size of a tank? Right.
Speaker C
00:36:52.420 - 00:38:09.800
Yeah. The other portable that I would think of is a lot of RPG systems already have a mechanic for having connections. Like kind of talking about the.
You need other people. That's part of D and D character building that people don't tend to use very much. It's part of shadow and character building in a big way.
And I feel like a lot of GMs kind of avoid it because there's this sense that it's like taking control away from the characters and putting it onto an npc and you want the characters to be doing it, but characters having connections can Be incredibly powerful.
It can be like having an inventory item, like having access to a dragon, like having access to a spell, you know, and we see that here, where the protagonist has this very important connection who is her brother, who not only is very knowledgeable about aspects of the town that nobody else is, but also is a mechanic.
Like being able to be like, I can call on my mechanic for this, has access to being able to talk to the headmaster, who, aside from being the headmaster in the context of the school, is this incredibly famous legendary female dragon warrior who integrated the military. Like being able to be like, oh, no, actually, I can call on that connection. And just remembering, as a game master, only sort of.
But only sort of, because that connection.
Speaker F
00:38:09.800 - 00:38:13.840
How much can you call on that connection? She likes you, but how much does she like you?
Speaker C
00:38:13.840 - 00:38:49.940
Yeah, like in Shadowrun specifically, there's mechanics where you are. Your connections have ratings both for how powerful they are, like how much can they do? And a second rating that is how loyal are they to you.
So you might have a connection that was an expensive connection because they're very powerful, but they're also not super likely to help you out. They'll have you to their office, but they're not necessarily going to agree with you. So that's still powerful.
And then you might have a connection who would be like the brother who is incredibly devoted to you, but whose power is limited. He's a good mechanic, but he doesn't necessarily have access to the gear he needs. He can't just come to the school.
Speaker A
00:38:50.580 - 00:39:48.690
That's very much.
In the previous talk, we were just talking about Savage Worlds or anything that has, like, a bond mechanic and that you could build that bond over time, because that definitely happens with the headmaster, as she continues to hit the mark for her and continue to do things, this disposes her to be able to do more. So. And that works out really well. That's a great mechanic to put in there as well.
All right, so we've come to the part where we get to talk about things. And Monocle, you've sort of already hinted at a bunch of things that have been inspirational to you as far as this, but everybody else.
And we'll hit you last so you can hit those things there. We'll start with Bo. Bo, if you've read this book, you've read the second book, you're going to read the third book whenever it comes out. No pressure.
So all that, I mean, but. But given that, what other books do you think? What other books? Other media.
I don't Want to limit it to just that, you know, media, video games, tv video. What is it that you think pairs really well with the shape of dragon's breath?
Speaker D
00:39:48.770 - 00:40:31.270
Well, one of the things I loved about this book was that I didn't have any immediate, like, parallels. It really stands on its own. But of course, pulling some aspects from it, of course, the dragons and the dragon school.
There's Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros, the Dragonriders of Pern, which you've said is an inspiration for you. Absolutely.
And then also I thought of the Name of the Wind by Patrick Patrick Rothfuss, because the magic in that world, you have to also go to school to control. Right.
It's all about making sure that you, as a powerful magic user or a dragon rider, know how to control the magic so that you're safe for everybody else around too. So that has that aspect of it.
Speaker E
00:40:32.790 - 00:40:33.350
Roman.
Speaker C
00:40:33.430 - 00:42:40.210
Well, on my list here already are the Naomi no Victimary novels, Pern, Fullmetal Alchemist.
As far as another anime that I love that I do think there's some overlap with is I'm very into Jujutsu Kaisen, which similarly, you have kind of this sorcery school.
You have the protagonist sort of the protagonist who's kind of wound up there kind of by accident and is having to learn all of the social dynamics of what the sorceress families think and what the different schools have in conflict with each other. Another two books that I thought of as potentially interesting are my friend Joyce Chang Chng has a book called Dragon Physician.
So this is a writer out of Singapore writing, kind of a queer trans kid who wants to be involved in dragon writing. But it's very gender striated and there's not a place for them.
And so they wind up becoming a dragon physician, basically a vet to the dragons as part of a route to kind of wind up eventually trying to get into being a dragon racer.
It's very different, but it has some of that same enjoyable like, oh, here's a very specific sense of place and here's a very specific outsider struggle trying to find a different way and with kind of slightly different goals than the people in charge expect. I'd also say jumping really kind of outside of the fantasy genre entirely.
I'm a huge fan of Louise Erdrich, and my favorite book of hers is the Roundhouse, which is not fantasy at all. It's very much a legal conflict about whether tribal sovereignty extends to being able to prosecute a murderer or not.
But she's also written young adult books, starting with The Birchbark house. That, again, they're not dealing with that magic, but. But there is a kind of a magic to it.
And I think, you know, I love the early chapters of the book where we are with the main character's family before she goes to the school. And Birch Barkhouse has some of that similar feel to it, although it's based on kind of Ojibwe traditions.
Speaker E
00:42:40.530 - 00:43:05.940
Alex, the dragline is a Fernwood. Clearly. I mean, it was just so clearly a reference. Right. But the one that actually came to mind the most was Earthseed's Earthseed. Right.
And GED and going to the school and naming. Right. Because in a way, the magic of naming in Earthseat has some similarities and the relationship with that.
Everything needs to be shaped and named.
Speaker F
00:43:06.500 - 00:43:09.540
If you know the shape and the name of a chemical, you can use it.
Speaker A
00:43:09.700 - 00:43:10.580
Exactly right.
Speaker E
00:43:10.660 - 00:43:36.620
So sort of that.
And also, in some ways, the GED is a different culture, different, you know, different structure, but also a outsider trying to come into that, a formal, structured culture of magic and tradition and then making some interesting mistakes and have him struggle then with, you know, all that. So I thought that was a comparable.
Speaker F
00:43:36.780 - 00:43:38.940
Teenagers don't do everything perfectly the first time.
Speaker A
00:43:40.310 - 00:43:40.550
Never.
Speaker E
00:43:42.710 - 00:43:44.950
And so that was what I was. That's what I thought.
Speaker A
00:43:45.990 - 00:44:00.070
So, obviously, I'm gonna plug episode 21, which is our Dragon Riders of Pern episode, which is really fantastic. Everybody should listen to it. I will also plug an upcoming one that we're gonna be doing.
We're gonna be doing Black sun by Rebecca Roanhorse, which also deals a lot with.
Speaker F
00:44:00.390 - 00:44:01.430
I went through last weekend.
Speaker A
00:44:01.430 - 00:44:02.030
Were you in there?
Speaker F
00:44:02.030 - 00:44:02.710
I was, yes.
Speaker A
00:44:03.830 - 00:44:06.930
Well, then, great, I'm sure. Then I'm glad. We seem good to the theme.
Speaker E
00:44:06.930 - 00:44:07.610
That's fantastic.
Speaker A
00:44:08.090 - 00:44:16.650
The types of magic that are completely different. But also that reminded me a lot of the two different types of dragons. There are these dragons, but there is this.
Speaker F
00:44:17.450 - 00:44:29.930
There's more than two types. We know. The European colonizer dragons that have been brought from overseas versus the ninpechoeset, which is one of the American breeds.
We get to find out more in third book.
Speaker A
00:44:31.370 - 00:44:32.410
Spoilers, everybody.
Speaker F
00:44:32.410 - 00:44:36.180
Yes. There's more than one. One breed on the continent of North America.
Speaker A
00:44:36.340 - 00:44:37.220
That's amazing.
Speaker F
00:44:38.420 - 00:45:31.290
But, yes, dragon breeds. And how they came to be is a whole other topic, because people have shaped dragons to the culture needs that they.
You know, we find out slowly, and the colonizers don't realize this, that ninpechoeisic are a lot less domesticated in terms of, like, they have Larger brain size. All the things that happen to domesticated animals.
The European dragons are more domesticated, which means they're more docile, they're more malleable. Yeah. I'm trying to think of the word for socialized. It's the word for when you retain baby traits. Neotenous. Okay. And they are much more like babies.
Big eyes, small mouth, big eyes, small mouth, curly tail, etc. All that stuff that happens to animals as you domesticate them, that has happened less.
It's kind of like she's brought a wild coyote to the dog training school.
Speaker A
00:45:31.770 - 00:45:37.250
And. Yes, yes, yes. All the tricks don't necessarily work. Yeah, but you might also be.
Speaker F
00:45:37.250 - 00:45:39.530
Yeah, but you've got other different skills.
Speaker A
00:45:40.250 - 00:45:42.529
Absolutely. Wow. Okay, so now I'm just.
Speaker F
00:45:42.529 - 00:45:44.490
She's been able to open doors this whole time.
Speaker A
00:45:46.810 - 00:45:48.090
I love, I love.
Speaker E
00:45:48.090 - 00:45:48.730
I'm sorry.
Speaker A
00:45:48.810 - 00:46:07.480
I have a biology degree, so I'm super excited. Like, oh my God, this is amazing. We're totally gonna be doing dragon genetics. What could be better than that?
As far as other elements that are in here besides black Sun, I would go Sabriel Garthik's. That's a really fantastic, like, what is it called, Sabriel?
Speaker F
00:46:09.000 - 00:46:10.200
The Aborissan Universe.
Speaker A
00:46:10.280 - 00:46:23.080
Read it. Oh my goodness, I am so envious. There's a girl who is sort of the capturer of. Capture of evil spirits. I don't know how else to put it.
There's a magic world and a non magic world and the border is held.
Speaker F
00:46:23.560 - 00:46:26.960
It's a post apocalyptic setting, but they don't really get into that right away.
Speaker A
00:46:26.960 - 00:46:27.280
Yeah.
Speaker F
00:46:27.280 - 00:46:31.040
It's because all these demons exist because of a previous apocalypse.
Speaker A
00:46:31.040 - 00:46:37.720
Yeah. And so there's a. And there's a. There's a family that like controls them. They control them by the use of magical bells.
Speaker E
00:46:38.279 - 00:46:39.880
Oh, wait, wait.
Speaker A
00:46:40.680 - 00:46:41.400
Okay, okay, good.
Speaker E
00:46:41.640 - 00:46:43.560
The school on both sides and the border.
Speaker A
00:46:43.560 - 00:47:56.130
And then. Okay, good. Okay, good, good, good. This is what happens when you read a lot. Yeah, you forget. So yeah, that one from the school standpoint.
And also since we brought it up, we talked about the fabulous. Like let's have an. Let's have someone tell a story while we're in the middle of our story. We recently did actually it's coming out.
It came out literally Friday, episode 32. We did Monstrous by Marjorie Liu. And there is Professor Tam Tam who is a. A four tailed cat.
And in between each, either at the end or the beginning of each of the comics in the graphic novel, Professor Tam Tam comes on and gives you a little background and does his little Thing. And I was like, yeah, this is very. Professor Tam Tam. It's like very, very much like, let me set the story.
And the best thing about it is that, of course, the cats are their own sort of their own faction. They're not just like random pets. They're their own little. They're their own faction.
So very much like the little bits, give the people who are the natives who live there their side of the story that's happening. Professor Tam Tam is giving the very biased cat version of history as we go forward. So in that regard, I think that's another great episode.
Speaker F
00:47:56.769 - 00:47:58.370
And then there were humans, and they had thumbs.
Speaker A
00:47:58.370 - 00:47:59.010
And they had thumbs up.
Speaker F
00:47:59.010 - 00:47:59.730
That's very useful.
Speaker A
00:48:01.090 - 00:48:10.790
All right, so we have reached a point where you get to tell us things. So are there any other media that you like? Like, if someone read this and they said, I want more, but you can't give me more, what should I do now?
Speaker F
00:48:10.950 - 00:48:15.750
I have no idea. We've just got, like, all of the things we've just covered are the ones that I would have said, Excellent.
Speaker A
00:48:17.350 - 00:48:43.360
All right, then that brings us to the fun part, which is where we get to these nice people who came here and talked about this book. Thank you so much. It's very awesome. But you all are doing.
These are all amazing people, and so they all deserve to tell you all the amazing things that they are doing. So I'll start with Alex, because I know what his spiel is going to be, and then we'll go down the road this way.
Then we'll finish with you, and then we'll be all set. So, Alex, is there anything you want to promote to the nice people here and out on the podcast?
Speaker E
00:48:43.440 - 00:49:06.110
I might surprise you, but I'm not going to. So I just want to. You know, one of the things Rising Phoenix Gaming Convention. Right.
Is we're committed to having a clearing, a space where people can have amazing conversations about gaming, have amazing games in an equitable, fun, safe environment.
Speaker A
00:49:06.270 - 00:49:06.590
Right.
Speaker E
00:49:06.590 - 00:49:32.150
And so I encourage anyone who's listening to join us next April. Right. Of 2027. And we hope to see you there and provide events during the year which we'll let people know about.
And as we grow our partnership with other people, we're also looking for other conventions who want to take on our commitment to equity and our commitment to serving the entire community. And so be in touch with us, and we hope to see you there.
Speaker A
00:49:33.190 - 00:49:34.230
Great, Romy.
Speaker C
00:49:34.390 - 00:51:01.940
Okay, well, obviously, this whole panel has been promoting To Shape a Dragon's Breath by Monoclo Black Goose. But I am going to explicitly say you should buy a copy of this if you haven't. It's an excellent book. I'm really glad it's in my life.
I've been like, bugging all my friends about it and by extension, my sort of friends in the room and on the radio. I'm not bugging you about it. Buy this book. It's excellent. Then, as I mentioned, I am one of the editors of Strange Horizons.
We do our annual Kickstarter in June, so please keep an eye out for that. It is what lets us publish new work every Monday, so please keep an eye out. We do. Even small donations do matter.
A whole lot of our donors are small donors. If you want to be a big donor, we'd love that too.
And then my most recent book, Nothing in the Basement, is available at the bookstore at Rising Phoenix right now and also just sort of wherever books were sold. It is a fairly short novel, fairly quick read. You can get through it in four or five hours.
It is a horror novel, but horror covers a lot of ground, so I'll tell you, it's horror very much in the tradition of, like, Shirley Jackson and Rebecca du Maurier. It also has some overlap with, for instance, Curb youb Enthusiasm if you view that as horrifying. Seinfeld is famously a show about nothing.
This is Nothing in the Basement. It is very much about when nothing becomes a huge problem for you.
Speaker D
00:51:04.340 - 00:51:15.960
I just want to first say that I started reading romance book on Friday night here, waiting for my husband at the very end of the con. And I had to force myself to put it down because I was like, I am going to my dark old.
Speaker F
00:51:16.040 - 00:51:18.200
Home right after this.
Speaker D
00:51:19.160 - 00:52:02.260
I can't. But it's fantastic. It's a very quick read. And then I'm beau again. I am on an actual play podcast called Twisted Tropes.
We explore in the same way that this podcast does. Media will take a genre and we'll twist it on its head.
So our first season is called Scandals and a Post Apocalyptic Regency Romance because we melded Regency romance with Mad Max. So excellent. And then I'm also an audiobook narrator, so you can find me out.
And I listen to the audiobook of To Shape a Dragon's Breath and it's beautiful. So I recommend that highly.
Speaker A
00:52:02.980 - 00:52:43.790
I'm gonna do my quick promos, which is basically just to say that all of these lovely people and now including Monoclo, have all been on the podcast at least, or going to be very shortly. Nothing in the Basement is going to be episode 37, which is coming out relatively shortly.
That is where we talking about how that works into your tabletop rpg. The most recent one that Alex has worked on is Scales of Justice by Maggie Omarsch of strict English murder mystery.
So how to, how to put that in there? And immediately following that one, Bo and her entire team is gonna be reading the YA post apocalyptic book the Giver by Lois Lowry.
So all of these are great things that are gonna be coming up on.
Speaker F
00:52:43.790 - 00:52:45.430
The podcast that was big for me in fourth grade.
Speaker A
00:52:45.670 - 00:52:47.270
Yes, huge book.
Speaker F
00:52:47.270 - 00:52:48.390
Baby's first dystopia.
Speaker A
00:52:52.330 - 00:52:57.610
So those are all things you can enjoy. And thank you and thank you for listening to that. But most importantly, to shape a Dragon's.
Speaker F
00:52:57.610 - 00:52:58.970
Breath to ride a rising storm.
Speaker A
00:53:00.250 - 00:53:05.530
Buy those books. Anything else? Are you good?
Speaker F
00:53:06.090 - 00:53:08.009
Beyond the Glittering World from Tory House Press.
Speaker C
00:53:08.009 - 00:53:10.490
I have a short story in there. Fantastic.
Speaker F
00:53:10.650 - 00:53:12.810
Do support them because they are a wonderful small press.
Speaker A
00:53:12.970 - 00:53:15.530
All right, we're fantastic. Are we good?
Speaker F
00:53:15.930 - 00:53:19.640
Okay.
Speaker B
00:53:21.230 - 00:53:38.150
And that was To Shape a Dragon's Breath by Monaquil Blackgoose, who was also an amazing guest. Thank you so much for being on the podcast. Thanks again to my other fellow Game Masters who brought their draconic vest to this episode.
Romy Stott, Beau Powell and Alex Jackel.
Speaker A
00:53:38.150 - 00:53:39.230
You folks rock.
Speaker B
00:53:39.550 - 00:53:48.380
Monocwil's second book in the Napawea set series, To Ride a Rising Storm, is out now and I am personally looking forward to all the dragon genetics in.
Speaker A
00:53:48.530 - 00:53:51.570
The third book, which is coming soon, but not now.
Speaker B
00:53:51.570 - 00:54:05.330
Thanks again to Rising Phoenix Game Con for making this series of interviews possible.
Be sure to check out their website Atrising Phoenix gamecon.com and make sure to leave room in your gaming calendar in late April to attend the Con in Milford, Massachusetts.
Speaker G
00:54:05.490 - 00:54:53.180
You can find a complete transcript of today's discussion as well as links to all of our podcasts at k square productions.com you can learn about upcoming episodes on our social media on bluesky@gmbookclub, bluesky social on Facebook, gamemastersbook club, on Mastodon amemastersbook club, and on Instagram @gamemastersbookclub.
If you've enjoyed the show, please like subscribe and comment on our episodes in your chosen podcasting space and be sure to share those episodes with your gaming community. You've been listening to the Game Masters Book Club brought to you by me, Eric Jackson and K Square Productions.
Continued praise and thanks to John Corbett for the podcast artwork and Otis Galloway for our music. Later, gamers, and to paraphrase the great.
Speaker A
00:54:53.180 - 00:54:55.020
Terry Pratchett, always try to be the.
Speaker G
00:54:55.020 - 00:54:57.780
Place where the falling angel meets the rising angel.