<+IlyaBossov> Hello, my name is Ilya and I wrote Dashing Scoundrels tabletop roleplaying game out of sheer laziness.
<+IlyaBossov> Dashing Scoundrels is a game about swashbucklers in the Age of Sails in a world full of magical fairytale creatures, airships and dazzling, powerful magic. And gunpowder, because everything is better on fire.
<+IlyaBossov> It is a spiritual successor to Gatekeepers RPG, whose name sadly did not age well.
<+IlyaBossov> (done)
<~Dan> Thanks, IlyaBossov! The floor is open to questions!
<~Dan> Is the setting an alternate Earth, or something else?
<+IlyaBossov> It is a moon called Feyhaven. It orbits a gas giant named Spite, which orbits a red dwarf star in a binary star system.
<+IlyaBossov> The stars are named Truth and Justice.
<+PuppycatProductions> Cool. I’d wondered about doing that in a world I was building.
<+IlyaBossov> But this game is not about space exploration, it’s about swashbuckling shenanigans a little bit closer to the ground, but not too close, because magical airships are becoming a mainstream form of transportation.
<~Dan> Why the sci-fi details for a fantasy game?
<~Dan> (Howdy, Trug!)
<~Dan> (Trug: (Link: https://feyhaven.com/dashing-scoundrels/)https://feyhaven.com/dashing-scoundrels/ )
<+IlyaBossov> I get distracted easily and it helps ground me… in science as a comfort blanket?
<+IlyaBossov> In my mind’s eye a world is more real if I know how it works.
<~Dan> Is the entire universe magical, or just this one moon? (Just curious.)
<+PuppycatProductions> Or the gas giant and everything orbiting it?
<~Dan> (Welcome to #randomworlds, Chris-Ganza! 🙂 )
<+Chris-Ganza> Heeeey!
<+Chris-Ganza> What did I miss?
<~Dan> I’ll PM you via FB with what we’ve said so far!
<+IlyaBossov> This one moon. Long time ago, an ancient civilization collapsed, and helpful nanites tried to preserve life at all costs and … well, the barbarians that survived don’t understand it all that well, but now they call it ‘fey dust’ and they use it in bizarre ways creators never intended. So now there’s magic, okay? 🙂
<+IlyaBossov> So let’s talk mechanics.
<~Dan> Sure!
<+IlyaBossov> If you folks go here and look at some pictures of characters at the bottom of this page it’ll help provide some context: (Link: https://www.thegamecrafter.com/games/dashing-scoundrels)https://www.thegamecrafter.com/games/dashing-scoundrels
<~Dan> Hmm. Are you sure that’s the right page?
<+IlyaBossov> Each scoundrel (player character) starts with 4 memory cards and 1 species card. As you earn more candy points you can trade them in to make more memories, gaining more cards later.
<~Dan> I’m not seeing any characters down there.
<+IlyaBossov> Under “See it in Action” you’ll see some cards.
<+IlyaBossov> (Link: https://s3.amazonaws.com/files.thegamecrafter.com/ef82f00d15e8670dd5fa6a02cd9e3309562d1295)https://s3.amazonaws.com/files.thegamecrafter.com/ef82f00d15e8670dd5fa6a02cd9e3309562d1295
<~Dan> Just a broken link that says “image slot”. 😦
<+IlyaBossov> That’s unfortunate. Does this link help?
<+danhunsaker> Looks fine on my end. That link is the second image.
<~Dan> It does, thanks!
<+IlyaBossov> Alright, we’re on the same page now. Coincidentally, this is how you save your progress at the end of the session: take a picture with your phone of your cards.
<+PuppycatProductions> Uploaded file: (Link: https://uploads.kiwiirc.com/files/1cfc0ef865542b39fc628bb420d2da02/image.png)https://uploads.kiwiirc.com/files/1cfc0ef865542b39fc628bb420d2da02/image.png
<~Dan> Ah, now it came up.
<~Dan> Clever, IlyaBossov. 🙂
<+IlyaBossov> Thank you PuppycatProductions!
<+PuppycatProductions> You’re welcome.
<+IlyaBossov> You’ll see on each memory card there are two icons (each of these is like a +1 to Strength or +1 Wis or what have you).
* ~Dan nods
<+IlyaBossov> When you do something narratively important that could go sideways, you describe your approach to the problem (I want to bash the door down), and the game master tells you which two icon types you should use.
<+Chris-Ganza> If you play every week, how long can a DS campaign go on?
<+IlyaBossov> For bashing the door down, Bravery (Swords) and Imagination (Explosions) might be appropriate. You’re also told the difficulty number.
<+IlyaBossov> So you roll three dice or draw three cards, choosing two of them, and adding all those icons together trying to beat the number.
<+IlyaBossov> If you match it exactly you succeed with a complication.
<~Dan> What sort of dice?
<+IlyaBossov> D6’s. The dice or card you didn’t use is your “Passive” which is used for everything like defense and perception, until your next turn.
<+Chris-Ganza> Passive is the stuff you keep on hand (or in your hand) for defense?
<+IlyaBossov> Correct.
<+Chris-Ganza> If you play every week, how long can a DS campaign go on?
<~Dan> When you say draw cards, are you drawing the custom cards or standard playing cards?
<+IlyaBossov> There are two decks in the game: chances and memories. Chances have dice on them and they double as cheatsheets and species cards so every inch of space on them is useful.
<+IlyaBossov> There are 50 Chances cards and 49 Memory cards.
<+IlyaBossov> Chris-Ganza: hypothetically indefinitely, but depending on the size of your group you may wish to purchase additional decks. This isn’t a problem that came up in playtesting. Let’s break the math down, shall we?
<~Dan> So is there any advantage to using the Chances over dice?
<+PuppycatProductions> Can we see some sample card images?
<+IlyaBossov> 4 cards per player, 6 players = 24 cards out of the deck, leaving 49 – 24 = 25 cards to spare between villains and player upgrades.
<+IlyaBossov> Assuming each player earns 1 card per 2 sessions, that’s 12 cards per month. You’d be out of the main deck in two months with that size group. However, if each player has their own game set, this problem doesn’t happen for over a year.
<+Chris-Ganza> And a tip of the hat to you IlyaBossov, I wanted to make a carrd-based RPG that was also easy take traveling. I never got very far.
<+IlyaBossov> PuppycatProductions: You just linked to some?
<+PuppycatProductions> Okay. Do they all look like that?
<+IlyaBossov> Actually, the final print will be a bit brighter and easier to read, but yes.
<+Chris-Ganza> Curious why, as a designer, you went with the 16-bit look?
<~Dan> What about this system do you think is particularly apt for swashbuckling?
<+IlyaBossov> Dan: the Chances deck is slightly skewed towards the middle, meaning 3’s and 4’s are more likely to happen than 1’s and 6’s. If you take out red cards, it won’t have that hump, at which point the probability curve is the same as rolling a non-loaded d6.
<~Dan> Gotcha, re: cards/dice.
<+IlyaBossov> Sorry lots of questions, I’m still catching up hang on.
<~Dan> Yes, let’s have a question pause to let IlyaBossov catch up.
<+IlyaBossov> 16-bit, pixel art, whatever you want to call it, I love that art style. I can’t explain it, other than it looks cute and naive and I’m still heartbroken that Doom came out and ruined everything.
<+PuppycatProductions> So, you want me to give the answers and Ilya has to reply with the question, Jeopardy! style.
* ~Dan chuckles
<+IlyaBossov> Dan: the combat system is inherited from Gatekeepers RPG, but has fewer moving parts. This means that fights are dangerous and fast, but players get to be heroic figures wading through mooks and minions and pulling off crazy maneuvers while changing battlefield with magic, illusions and improvised traps.
<+IlyaBossov> There’s a puzzle aspect to it as well, because there is no game master screen, players can see the cards of the enemies and can plan accordingly.
<+Chris-Ganza> Ah.
<&Silverlion> Interesting.
<+IlyaBossov> Too often in RPGs combat goes on exactly past the point of everyone being bored with it. Hasn’t happened in this game… at least during our playtests.
<+IlyaBossov> Each of your cards is a hit point. You start with 4. It’s not a lot.
<+IlyaBossov> (done) (did I miss any questions?)
<~Dan> I don’t think so…
<+danhunsaker> Not by my count either.
<~Dan> Questions may resume!
<~Dan> What races are available to play?
<+PuppycatProductions> So, it sounds like, if you get hit, you discard cards. So, getting stabbed in the face is a bad thing you want to avoid?
<+PuppycatProductions> As opposed to D&D where it’s a minor inconvenience.
<+Chris-Ganza> Like a endurance mechanic
<+PuppycatProductions> Please list each race and describe it in detail, as I’m sure you don’t have that many.
<+IlyaBossov> You don’t discard them, you flip them. If you get healed or otherwise motivated to go on, you can flip some back.
<+IlyaBossov> There are 50 playable species.
<&Silverlion> Is there a collection aspect to the cards or are they fixed decks?
<+IlyaBossov> Because 14 playable species in Gatekeepers were clearly rookie numbers.
<+Chris-Ganza> I think PuppycatProductions was being silly.
<+PuppycatProductions> Living card game.
<&Silverlion> That seems a bit of overkill.
<~Dan> 50? Wow…
<+IlyaBossov> Silverlion: fixed decks. No rares. You buy one box, you get everything.
<+IlyaBossov> I’m clearly not interested in making money 🙂
<+PuppycatProductions> I think I was, too.
<&Silverlion> That answers my next question 😀
<&Silverlion> Wise though, fixed decks are a problem.
<+Chris-Ganza> Tunnels and Trolls and Talislanta had oodles of races.
<&Silverlion> Oops I mean colllectable decks.
<&Silverlion> Well, officially T&T gives you six? With rules to use every monster
<+Chris-Ganza> IlyaBossov You went with Game Crafter. No Drivethru?
<&Silverlion> Talislanta is special 😀
<+IlyaBossov> If this game does well, I may be tempted to expand it with more species and memories, but any such expansions would also be ‘fixed decks’.
<&Silverlion> What are the species?
<&Silverlion> Makes sense.
<+IlyaBossov> Chris-Ganza: Drivethru doesn’t allow you to print booklets (even simple stapled ones) and ship them in the same box as the cards. It’s unfortunate but that’s how their printing operations are set up, two different locations.
<+Chris-Ganza> I remember a copy of T&T with oddles of races like pixies and such.
<&Silverlion> (and to be fair a lot of Tal’s races are green human, greener human, other green human, beastmen type 1, 2, bird man tyype 1, 2)
<&Silverlion> T&T has Humans, Elves, Dwarves (2 kinds), Pixies, Leprechauns, Hobbs.
<+IlyaBossov> “Screenshot” of some of the species cards that you can be in Dashing Scoundrels: (Link: https://s3.amazonaws.com/files.thegamecrafter.com/2ef2922100d2f39068ef809d938a845715a143ea)https://s3.amazonaws.com/files.thegamecrafter.com/2ef2922100d2f39068ef809d938a845715a143ea
<&Silverlion> Officially 😀
<&Silverlion> Why Yeeti? I don’t think Yeti can be copyrighted or anything 😀
<+IlyaBossov> Others include hivemind otters, space polar bears, arboroctopus, crustashanata, and somewhere in there, regular humans is a card.
<~Dan> At least, not Yeti.
<&Silverlion> And it seems like every fantasy thing is PC type.
<+IlyaBossov> Because it THROWS things. 🙂
<+IlyaBossov> Get it?
<&Silverlion> No. I do not get “Yeet” (I’m old 😀 and resistant to silly memes)
<&Silverlion> (I’m kidding)
<+IlyaBossov> As you were. 🙂
<+Chris-Ganza> IlyaBossov I think almost every rpg company used to do assembly in their own warehouse. That hasn’t changed much, but smart move to use Game Crafter.
<&Silverlion> Yeah it is.
<+danhunsaker> I’ve always liked the sheer flexibility of GC.
<&Silverlion> I’ve looked at cards there myself, so it IS a weighted deck. Which is good. Are there any other mechanics that can make play a bit tactical?
<+IlyaBossov> I admit to being spoiled by their store’s UI.
<&Silverlion> At least by choice?
<+PuppycatProductions> arboroctopus? Is that a tree-climbing octopus?
<+Chris-Ganza> Oh, yeah, GC does help you quite a bit in a situation where other companies would leave you drowning
<+Chris-Ganza> Burninate!!!!
<~Dan> Howdy, MikeMyler!
<+IlyaBossov> Silverlion: there’s quantum stealth, and illusion/trap/shove/blast radius interplay, where you can build your scoundrel to have synergy with the rest of the crew.
<+PuppycatProductions> (Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Northwest_tree_octopus)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Northwest_tree_octopus
<+IlyaBossov> PuppycatProductions: exactly like that.
<~Dan> MikeMyler: (Link: https://feyhaven.com/dashing-scoundrels/)https://feyhaven.com/dashing-scoundrels/
<+IlyaBossov> By way of example, the Jotunn character I linked earlier has a lot of swords. She’s very mobile and when she hits someone she can send them flying half-way across the table.
<+IlyaBossov> So if your trapmonkey Dragon pooped out a minefield with their magical dragon breath, the Jotunn can “yeet” someone through a line of pain.
<~Dan> Is combat map-based, then?
<+IlyaBossov> You can play it on a grid or with theater of the mind rules in which case it’s more abstracted into 10×10 “zones”, and inside each zone everything is more or less adjacent to each other.
<+PuppycatProductions> Is yeeting a yeeti specialty?
<+IlyaBossov> Yes and no, species have flavor text on them, but this text can be used to justify an advantage in a certain situation, which can give you an extra die to roll for a thing.
<~Dan> wb, MikeMyler!
<+IlyaBossov> Overall, species aren’t as important as memories – who you are, rather than what you are.
<+IlyaBossov> Swashbucklers: what’s inside your heart matters more than what you look like.
<~Dan> How do the perks and flaws work?
<~Dan> (Howdy, GenoFoxx!)
<+IlyaBossov> Ah, you’ve been paying attention! They can give advantage or disadvantage in certain situations, making you roll more or less dice.
<+danhunsaker> There’s a reason we ask for character sheets. 😀
<+IlyaBossov> Did I miss any questions? (done)
<+IlyaBossov> As a point of note, you could, hypothetically, make your own species and create your own flaws and perks, to play this game. The species cards are meant to be inspirational, not be-all.
<+PuppycatProductions> You missed my question on whether yeetis specialize in yeeting, but I don’t think it was worthy of a response.
<+danhunsaker> I thought that was answered, actually.
<+IlyaBossov> Yes, I thought I answered. A yeeti would have advantage (roll extra 1d6, choose highest) to yeet something or someone.
<~Dan> Is yeeting some kind of slang for throwing?
<+IlyaBossov> Dan: yes.
<~Dan> What’s the source of that?
<+IlyaBossov> Memes. Memes for days.
<~Dan> Nobody’s told me yeet.
<+IlyaBossov> Oh, you.
* +IlyaBossov golfclaps.
* ~Dan bows
<+Chris-Ganza> ;(
<+IlyaBossov> Also, as a point of note, the PDFs of the rule booklets for the game are free to download from the gamecrafter website. They’re not a long read by design.
<+PuppycatProductions> (Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtrxVWf91Jo)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtrxVWf91Jo
<+IlyaBossov> Should I try to explain quantum stealth real quick?
<+PuppycatProductions> Sure.
<+IlyaBossov> So when you go “hide”, regardless of your means (magic, invisibility, camouflage, smoke bomb), you remove yourself from the board, and leave a token in your place.
<+Chris-Ganza> Super sneaky
<+IlyaBossov> That token means that you’re somewhere in that area. Nobody knows where you are.
<+IlyaBossov> However, if you’re clever, on the same turn you use Smiles (Empathy) to mess with people and leave more tokens before you leave the final one. Now you could be in one of those places.
<~Dan> Sort of like crossing your arms over your chest in a Vampire LARP?
<+IlyaBossov> Yeah.
<+IlyaBossov> If someone goes looking for you, they have to step on each token, and try to beat your “passive” defense with their observation. If they do, you’re there.
<+IlyaBossov> If not, go fish.
<+PuppycatProductions> And you can retroactively choose which place you actually are after the fact.
<+IlyaBossov> They will find you when there are no tokens on the board.
<+IlyaBossov> Yes.
<~Dan> That’s amusing. 🙂
<+IlyaBossov> However, some tokens are illusions(harmless) and others are traps (-1 card per).
<+IlyaBossov> Finally, anyone can leave more tokens on the board. Or remove them with attacks.
<+IlyaBossov> You can come out of someone else’s token.
<~Dan> That sounds somehow obscene.
<+IlyaBossov> Obscene, but fair.
* ~Dan nods sagely
<+IlyaBossov> This means that the gamemaster doesn’t have to metagame and can actually play the game almost like a player, that is – fairly.
<+Chris-Ganza> So fairly obscene or Obscenely fair?
<+IlyaBossov> Yes.
<~Dan> How powerful is magic in this setting, and what can it accomplish on the high end of the scale (besides making ships fly, obviously)?
<+IlyaBossov> It doesn’t resurrect but it can create cursed undead. It is not stable when it comes to teleportation over long distances or time periods. It’s straight up dangerous on the world-ending scale when it comes to ancient artifacts and gates.
<+IlyaBossov> But in day-to-day activities, magic is how players turn every battlefield into fire, smoke, illusions and pain. It plays a little bit like Divinity: Original Sin series. That is, there is a lot of fire.
<&Silverlion> So t has a board? More hybrid then?
<&Silverlion> Thant full RPG?
<+IlyaBossov> There is no board.
<+IlyaBossov> It’s an RPG. It can be played on a grid with miniatures or in your mind with tokens and zones.
<+IlyaBossov> One other thing I wanted to mention is how 8 years of laziness, give or take, brought me to this point. I made a game so I wouldn’t have to do math homework as a gamemaster. To enable my laziness if you will.
<~Dan> How does spellcasting work?
<+IlyaBossov> Dan: it works like any other attack or action. You choose two icons to do things, and depending on what you chose, your attack or action (or spell – narratively the game doesn’t differentiate) will have secondary effects.
<~Dan> Hmm. So is magic freeform, then?
<+IlyaBossov> For example, if you want to heal someone instead of hurting them, you need to use Tomes (Patience). If you want to heal a lot of people in a blast radius, you use Tomes and Explosions (Imagination) so multiple folks are affected.
<+IlyaBossov> Very.
<+IlyaBossov> If you want to heal someone far away, you use Tomes and Eyes (Attention) so your spell has range. By default you can only affect someone near you.
<+Chris-Ganza> Cool
<~Dan> A healsplosion!
<+IlyaBossov> Here, this is on the back of every Species card, maybe it’ll help figure out what your options are, tactically: (Link: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1-TT0aNqz_YhNTiVx2kpGr81K2lTnVj-F)https://drive.google.com/open?id=1-TT0aNqz_YhNTiVx2kpGr81K2lTnVj-F
<+Chris-Ganza> I have a 12 hour shift tomorrow guys, I go to go beddy bye.
<~Dan> Sleep well, Chris-Ganza! Nice meeting you!
<~Dan> Come by any time!
<~Dan> Is equipment just abstracted?
<+IlyaBossov> Yeah. It’s not as important as memories and friends you make along the way.
<+IlyaBossov> So a little bit about encounter drafting to wrap this up.
<+IlyaBossov> That’s my favorite part because zero prep is best prep.
<+IlyaBossov> As a game master you know how many cards your group has (that’s your budget) and how many cards the highest level player has. These two numbers are all you need to spawn a balanced encounter by drawing cards at random.
<+IlyaBossov> If you want to be overprepared and have a specific big bad guy over here with specific cards, you can do that too. But you don’t have to.
<+IlyaBossov> So, in closing, sheer laziness. 🙂
* ~Dan chuckles
<~Dan> So is there a bestiary of any sort? Or do you just use the playable species?
<+IlyaBossov> You got it. Species and random Memories is all you need… besides your imagination and the barest premise of a story hook.
<~Dan> Still there, danhunsaker?
<&Silverlion> Neat ideas.
<~Dan> Well, since danhunsaker isn’t responding at the moment, I’ll ask his favorite question…
<~Dan> What’s your least favorite aspect of this game?
<+IlyaBossov> Marketing budget. Actually, anything that has to do with marketing. I’m allergic.
<+danhunsaker> Sorry, got pulled away for a second. Thanks for asking, Dan!
<+IlyaBossov> A serious answer though… hmm. Let me think.
<~Dan> Certainly, danhunsaker. 🙂
<+IlyaBossov> Candy points. I should have called them something else. They promote an unhealthy lifestyle.
<~Dan> Heh. 🙂
<+IlyaBossov> Oh well. But it’s fun to measure your experience gains with candy.
<~Dan> Do you use literal candy?
<+IlyaBossov> Yes.
<~Dan> Cool. Reminds me of some other game system… QAGS, I think it is.
<+IlyaBossov> One person couldn’t resist and ate it all so when it was time to trade in candy for cards and take pictures she had to use the wrappers.
<~Dan> That’s funny. 🙂
<+danhunsaker> I always get the most interesting answers out of that question. 🙂
<+IlyaBossov> It’s a good question!
<~Dan> Is this the beginning of a game line, or a one-off?
<+IlyaBossov> Alright I need to go to bed, thank you for sticking around and asking insightful questions…
<+danhunsaker> Hey, now, we still have two minutes reserved. 😛
<~Dan> Thanks for joining us, IlyaBossov!
<+IlyaBossov> Dan: that depends on the sales. Oh who am I kidding, of course I’m going to release something eventually. But the sales help.
<~Dan> As usual, tips are welcome at (Link: https://www.ko-fi.com/gmshoe)https://www.ko-fi.com/gmshoe . Anything’s appreciated! 🙂
<~Dan> Can you hang out for just a minute while I get the log posted?
<+IlyaBossov> Dan: thank you for running the show!
The Hardboiled GMshoe's Office 
