Character Creation Part 2
Demeanor, Training, and Fortune
In this episode we continue our character creation process with the demeanor, training, and fortune cards. Demeanor helps our players think about how their characters present themselves to the world and the kind of person they aspire to be. Training lets them think about the intentional work that has gone into getting them where they are. Fortune on the other hand tells us a bit about how life has treated our heroes up to now. Have they been relatively lucky or has life shit on them a little bit on their way to becoming a time traveling hero?
The Game
This Game was played using the Mavericks system. An RPG using a deck of cards to tell the story and put fate in the hands of the players. It’s a story-forward roleplaying experience that encourages the players and dealer to work together to create the story. Check out the System Reference Document on Itch.io
https://the-indecisionist.itch.io/mavericks
The Cast
Stella Cheeks is @stellacheeks on Instagram and Bluesky. Check out her other podcasts, Not Your Demographic, X-Treks, and Spooky Thirties.
Sara Moore is @pixiesandpins on all social media channels and at Pixies and Pins.com. You can also check out her Sarah’s Table livestreams on twitch @pixiesandpins.
Omar Burgos is @Taleweaver Check out his work on the Tale of D20s TTRPG channel. More information at https://ataleofd20s.com/
Ben Banks is @Dj_blindian on Instagram and Soundcloud
I’m Ansel Burch and you can find me @TheIndecisionist on all of the meta properties and on Bluesky.
———
Special thanks to Cameron Evesque Davis for the song you’re hearing now and at the beginning of the podcast. Find her work on Soundcloud https://soundcloud.com/cameronevesquedavis
This show is an Indecisionist Production. Go to Indecisionist.com to find more of my work including my monthly gaming event, TTRPG Pickup Con, and my other time travel podcast, Time 2 Party.
As you travel at one second per second, take some time out for these intrepid adventurers. They may be in trouble, but only for the time being.
Episode Transcript
Ansel Burch 0:06
I welcome adventurers from across time and space. Five creators have been brought together from across the internet for one purpose and one purpose alone, to travel through time and have a good time doing it. When big changes happen to the timeline, the change attracts other time travelers like gravity, they won't be able to move past it until they fix whatever was messed up. So our heroes are stuck together, but only for the time being. You
Unknown Speaker 1:00
Ansel,
Ansel Burch 1:03
welcome back to for the time being, I am Ansel, your game master, and I am so excited to have you back for Episode Two as we continue our character creation process. We have some incredible characters already coming together, and this process does, as I mentioned in episode one, require
a little bit of like open interpretation. It's very taro esque in that regard. And so as we draw the cards and reveal their faces, the players are asked to interpret based upon the suits that they're receiving and the numbers that are revealed are the based upon the suits that they're seeing and the numbers that they're revealing. And each one of those is going to give them different ideas. And there are no wrong answers, but there are some things that we help to guide with. And as you've heard already, and as you'll continue to hear those four suits I'll break down today are clubs, spades, hearts and diamonds. Generally speaking, we think of clubs as being our laborers, those who work with their hands and work with raw materials and turn those raw materials into goods that can be used by other people
hearts. On the other hand, we look at as people who people who look to a higher power for their abilities, whether that be praying in a church, or if you think in a more fantastical way, people who get magical powers through either relationships or contracts with beings from another dimension or from a higher plane.
Those are, those are our hearts. Diamonds represent those who trade and those who are artisans. So they're taking the materials that are created by folks like our clubs and turning them into refined goods. So we're thinking about jewelers, tailors, artists, folks like that, and then finally, our our spades, those are our war like people, generally speaking, they're going to be those who look to conflict as their first line of reasoning. And as you listen and continue to enjoy our character creation, I hope that you can see how those four aspects fold their way into these back stories and help our players to interpret the cards that they're getting. Last we checked in with Omar. He was working on whiskers, the cat Pharaoh, who has a nemesis. So our next card, we're gonna continue around clockwise from at this point, so remove from to the top right card for your demeanor.
This gets the same mark as the previous one, and this should tell you about how you present yourself to the world. So what is the layer of artifice that is placed on top of that,
that true nature, that shiny selfishness? I was hoping for another diamond, but four of spades. Ooh, okay. Spades are usually war like people, people who fight or make a business of getting into quarrels. So professional soldiers, lawyers, you know, people who argue or quarrel or fight as a means to an end consistently. I think it's really interesting to have that as a demeanor card if you decide to go that direction. Oh, totally, because he was a wouldn't say he was a tight okay, maybe he was a tyrant, ish, like king he was maybe the other feline Nemesis was actually a good person, and I was more of a tyrannical Pharaoh. You were the evil one. I was the evil one. It was more like I was emote.
We're getting some pretty strong emote fives.
Omar Burgos 4:56
I was I was that Pharaoh parent.
Ansel Burch 5:00
Lee, that, do you think you had, like, a strong man thing going on where it was like, I'm war, like, I will go to war all the time. War, war, no, yeah, never backed it up or whatever. Like, Xerxes from, like, like ancient when I was from Greek and Roman, the whole 300
Omar Burgos 5:21
with King Xerxes, how he was just, oh, very war, like from the Persians. And just went out and just tried to conquer, because it was Persia is right to rule the world as so he feels as well. It was in this version of Egypt, it was his right to rule the world. So he went out there and said, just said, take him over. It's like either you'll you'll come peacefully or or, and much to his smile, he would prefer you go kicking and screaming, and he'll play with you like a little cat toy in that sense, there it is. Oh, I like that. That's good. In our first two cards with Ben, we learned about his hard bitten 70s New York cop. Let's continue on to the next card, which will be your demeanor. Top right, going clockwise around the circle.
Unknown Speaker 6:11
So that is a
Ansel Burch 6:15
king of clover. Ooh, wow. Look at you with all the faces all of a sudden,
alright, so King of Clubs. Clubs
are like laborers.
So we think of like farmers, potters, millers, blacksmith you know, if you're in 1970s New York, maybe your your your fish mongers and your street sweepers,
but these are people who labor with their hands or make
base goods,
as to be compared with our diamonds. Who are going to be people who refine base goods, so like, if, if the weavers are clubs, the tailors are diamonds again, as much as you want to work with that. So that is, that is the general, like, breakdown of that. But I like the idea of a king of laborers.
Ben Banks 7:12
Yeah, I think he is kind of a man of the people. Or at least, it wants to be like a champion of the people. He's not doing it for, like, fame. But he just, you know, wants to help. And he's seen how the system has oppressed others. And, yeah, and like he said, laborers. I think he probably comes from a line of, maybe his dad, Grandfather was also in, like, the, you know, police work. And so he's just like, get down, gotta do it. It's kind of become like a symbol, even though he may, probably doesn't want to be or seen as that. But you know, people around the way in his neighborhood know that, hey, this guy's, this is the guy you can trust. He's gonna get down, he's gonna do the work, he's gonna help out.
Ansel Burch 7:57
Yeah, I like it. I like it. And that's, I also like that it's in your demeanor spot. So like, this is the face you show to the world too. Like you're, you're presenting as a folk hero. Yeah, that's cool. That's cool. Folk hero. Nice.
Falling through time should be very interesting for you. Our first session with Sarah established her golden age starlet who explores the Hollow Earth. Sarah, let's continue onward. Since that was an easy one, next will be it's a nine of nine of spades. Man, make sure that. Okay, next one is not
Sarah Moore 8:34
a I want. I wanted to make sure, because it was hard to shuffle these babies.
Ansel Burch 8:39
Hey, luckily, it doesn't matter. So, sure, sure, sure. So this is your demeanor card. This is about who you present to the world,
how you wish to be deceived, how good you are at protect presenting that illusion. Oh, okay,
Sarah Moore 8:57
is this? This is another backstory situation. Same mark, yep,
Ansel Burch 9:02
and same effect.
Oh, great. Got some good, good spades in there. So
what do you think this tells you about your demeanor and how you present to the to the world? I
mean, obviously you're a time traveler, so there's
Sarah Moore 9:21
you got that going on? I mean, I think this is probably the one that she leans into her importance to get her way in situations. I think this is, this is the, don't you know who I am, though, like I'm in all of the films, I'm important. Have you seen Edge of
Ansel Burch 9:42
Tomorrow? Tom Cruise? Yes,
I get like that vibe from what you're talking about, where he's like, yeah, he has this military rank, quote, unquote.
But is, in fact, just a media personality. Do you think you have like a fake.
Sarah Moore 10:00
A captaincy or something, yeah? I think so. I think, I think I have a military rank in the same way that, like, Donald Duck has a naval
Ansel Burch 10:14
Yeah, yeah.
Sarah Moore 10:16
Like,
yeah, yeah, it's I didn't have the uniform and, like, I've got all the trappings, yeah, I think it's just, it's just like,
I never, like, did any of the tests,
but you are a badass, so you can back it up. You just never had to. I never had to, yeah, but, and I think backing it up is different than, like, knowing procedure. Oh yeah, that's a good decision. I absolutely could back up. Like, if you drop me in the middle of a jungle, I could find my way back out. But, like, I don't really have any idea who to, like, report to.
I can shoot a gun and I can build a snare with rope, but, like, I don't, I don't.
I don't know how to, like, make the bed the way you want me to make it, because it's not someone else is gonna have to do those requisition forms. Yeah, I don't know what this such. I've never seen a form in my life. I don't fill any of those camp. Don't know her.
Don't know her.
I think. No, I went to my dad's boot camp, which is probably way fucking worse. Yeah,
Ansel Burch 11:36
nobody, nobody, put you out in the woods and left you to survive. No,
Sarah Moore 11:41
my dad dropped me out of every vehicle that there is,
and then told me to find my way home. So your dad said, tuck and roll when he meant, I love you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, there was boats, there was planes,
land vehicles
push me off a bicycle once. This is it's all about. What do you mean? Not everybody wears a parachute whenever they get on any airplane. I thought that was Stan, yeah, definitely out of Zeppelin one time. Yeah.
Ansel Burch 12:16
I want that to be one of your bragging rights. I've fallen out. I've been pushed out of every mode of transportation, everything, yeah, for sure,
Sarah Moore 12:26
which means at some point I had to have fallen out of the time machine as well. Oh, fallen into the time stream. That's a cool idea. Yeah, whoops. That's all right. It's just like normal dad would just have me find my way back, because it's not a big deal. You got this, right?
Oh, like you to, like, find pieces of me throughout history, like, find like that at notes I left. I'm like, Nah, shit, I'm here now. Figured out a way out, rebuilt the time machine. It's fine. We're good. I
Ansel Burch 13:00
Dear Dad.
Sarah Moore 13:03
Elizabeth in London is super cool. I'm still mad. I'm here still, still pretty pissed. Very much. Miss indoor plumbing
Ansel Burch 13:14
and the right to vote.
Sarah Moore 13:17
I did never use it, but that's different, different problem. Different problem. Good to know that you can
Ansel Burch 13:25
right. When we left Stella, we were diving into her alien Explorer from another galaxy.
So your next card, the top right, will conversely represent your demeanor. So this is how you present yourself to the world the face you put on, all right? It is a 10 of clubs.
10 of clubs, okay?
Clubs generally represent laborers, people who create base material. So if you going back to that diamond metaphor, instead of a tailor who is making finished garments. You might be a weaver who is making fabric.
So we think about blacksmiths, farmers,
you know, people, people who make things with their hands and the raw material of the world around them
that could also extend to like low magics and that sort of thing as well. Yeah.
Stella Cheeks 14:26
What, what? Um, Mark is that? Sorry?
Ansel Burch 14:30
Oh, it's gonna be the same mark as the one before then all four of these outside ones are gonna have. Oh, okay, so these are all backstory, yeah. Okay, thank you for asking. So the first one,
Stella Cheeks 14:43
okay, I need to, I have a bad memory, so I have to make detailed notes for my brain. The first one was, please, please. Up left, and that signifies your
nature. And then this is upright.
And that signifies how you present to the world your demeanor. Yes, ah,
I could have wrote demeanor instead of this whole sentence.
Ansel Burch 15:12
That sounds less fun. Yeah,
Sarah Moore 15:15
okay,
Stella Cheeks 15:17
well, that's sort of interesting, right, to have like my background is the like, tailor, but my how I present and like that that does go hand in hand to the like, I just want to take this stuff. Marcus is like, No, this is
Ansel Burch 15:32
what I'm doing. I am just a humble space alien, and what I'm going to do is take this apart. Yeah, did I come from royalty? Maybe we don't have to talk about it. I'm covered in Greece.
There's no way that's coming up. Yeah,
throw mud on your face.
Stella Cheeks 15:52
So that makes sense too. Also, if I'm like an alien, and other people are maybe of Earth, it could be seen maybe as, like, a little
hyper focused, in a way that maybe comes off as, like, rude, but isn't meant to be rude, because I'm just like, very like, this is what I do.
Ansel Burch 16:12
Oh yeah, I could see that
Stella Cheeks 16:16
unknowable, yeah, and not like, in a Spock way, but more in, like, a annoying curiosity way,
Ansel Burch 16:26
but not annoying. I don't want to play an annoying character, but do you know what I mean? No, no, I'm trying to think of, like, uh, there's somebody, there's a character on the tip of my brain who did exactly that sort of thing. Yeah, it's like, in a
Stella Cheeks 16:39
It depends, truly, on what era you're reading her in, but like, a Starfire, like she's from an alien planet, yeah, and she has this like, kind of childlike nature, but she's actually like
a princess who, like, grew up in like, a prison camp and has, like, all these steps, but she is just, she presents to the world as, Like, no, I'm positive, and I want to help people and like,
she like fights the past a little bit in the way that she presents herself, which I like, but she can come off as being like, really naive and stupid,
yeah? But she's actually brilliant
classic. I like that. I like that metaphor. I like that equivalency. Apparently I'll be Starfire zone, yeah, relating everything to DC Comics tonight,
Ansel Burch 17:28
you're entitled.
Stella Cheeks 17:31
Okay,
Ansel Burch 17:33
okay, fantastic, fantastic. Anything else you want to explore about that demeanor? I don't think so right now.
All right. All right. So the next card we're going to draw is your fortune card. This one, you don't need to worry so much about the suit. We're looking mostly at the number just to see, like, how good has life been to you? Pretty freaking nice.
Okay, yeah, that King tells us a lot of good stuff, all right, so we've
had it pretty good, aside from getting kicked out of vehicles and stuff,
Sarah Moore 18:09
yeah, but it made me real tough, yeah,
Ansel Burch 18:12
he always got you ice cream afterward. He did is there, does this have a same same mark? Yep,
Sarah Moore 18:21
Jesus, all right. Well,
Ansel Burch 18:29
14 is good. Hi, very lucky. Now, if you want to interpret the suit at all that was a diamond, right?
Diamonds, we generally think of merchants, traders and artisans, so people who refine goods made by other hands into a higher
form, right? So, like, if we think of weavers as being crafters, then tailors would be artisans. Got it
so if you, if you want to think about like transferring goods or heightening goods, or, you know, I think that also feeds into what you've been talking about, but you could, you could maybe add an additional layer or wrinkle to it, if you wanted to something about, like how you produce your films or newsreels or whatever. Can she be
married to the director? Ooh, does he travel with you?
This is not a conditional on yes or no. The answer is yes. I'm just asking questions. I think,
Sarah Moore 19:42
I think it depends. I think he's very soft.
I think he's a, he's a soft, pampered boy.
And so I think maybe he's not the director, maybe he is the producer, maybe he's maybe he's the money. And.
I think that they have a decent relationship. I don't think that it's terribly passionate, um, but I think it's one of those, like it is mutually beneficial for both of them. He gets to tell everyone he's married to me,
and
produce these things, and I get to be in them, and have my face everywhere as a starlet,
plus with him being very soft and moneyed, probably no one is pushing me out of vehicles anymore, unless I'm getting highly paid for it, which is a big improvement All Things Considered. It's a huge, it's huge step up for me, I think.
But I took it literally as, like, got, got a big diamonds, yeah,
yeah, that's cool. Maybe his, maybe his family money comes from, like, diamonds. Oh, you think he's a De Beer,
something that like that? Absolutely, that's, yeah, that's cool.
Yeah,
he's probably gay.
Ansel Burch 21:11
Lots of people are
Sarah Moore 21:14
kept we're not, I think we're not sure that she's, I was gonna say. I have a feeling she's gonna be. So he's probably very open to many opportunities, I think.
Ansel Burch 21:28
So I think once the you're both gay, it circles back around to working
absolutely so if we continue to the next card down, this is going to be your fortune. All right. That is, Wow, another face card that is the queen of clubs. Wow. I don't know how much you want to read into the suit on a fortune card. I mean being clubs, this is, again, you know that would put you back in labor or thinking about laborers,
but yeah, the Queen definitely suggests that maybe fortune has been kinder to you than other laborers. Maybe you're, you're thinking about your your forebears.
Maybe you've, you've done better than them, or fortune has treated you more nicely. Anyway, I think I've gotten out of scrapes I probably shouldn't have in the past. Oh, I like that. Yeah, you've collected fewer injuries than maybe you should have.
The next is your fortune. So this is going to be the bottom right again. We're continuing clockwise. This card is defining just how lucky you've been up till now. Are you doing well? Are you just scraping by? Have you found your people, or are you still seeking
that? One is the 10 of spades. Okay, okay. Again. Spades represents fighters, warriors, gladiators.
A 10, that's a pretty decent value. Seems like the war Life has been good to you.
Oh, yes. Or, or you just keep getting lucky.
Omar Burgos 23:08
I was that was very lucky doing your way through through combat all the time. Yeah, I think so. It doesn't with cat like Grace, because I don't see him as a very strong fighter himself, more of a tactician, and he just kind of sees everything, puts everything, just everything, slows down and listen, he knocks over one bottle, which causes a cascading effect of all different things that he was like And exactly as I planned
and kind of way. And it's all like to win in the battle,
because in ancient Egypt, Egyptians were very powerful warriors, and they were they were war like so he kind of has that, like war is inevitable and I will win. It kind of sense, using his mind other people can have their brawn. He controls them.
Ansel Burch 24:02
Okay, to carry on. Then bottom right, this will be your fortune. Ace of Hearts, same mark as before. Ace of Hearts,
we're gonna do all of the suits it seems. Yeah, one of each, yep, one of each.
The hearts generally represent those who pray or those who worship.
So this could mean religion in the like traditional sense. This could be like a warlock patron situation.
This could also just be like, maybe you're beholden to a like a king or a mayor or something, and you get your
you derive your identity or something from
from their service. But being that this is your fortune card, you don't really need to worry too much about what the suit tells you.
The big thing is, how lucky Have you been? And in this case, an ace tells me you've been pretty freaking lucky so far,
Stella Cheeks 25:11
fate and karma have been kind to you. Mr. Alien friend. Okay, cool. I sort of, like, instinctually like what you were saying about, like, the, like, kind of, you know, the comparison to the warlock patron thing. Because, like, theoretically, we don't know where this will come up with a different name for it, theta beam is coming from, or why it's happening, and I can't control it. I don't know anything. So that could be, you know, an like, you said it's a the fortune. So I don't have to totally there's a higher being or a power that is just like, I don't know, imposing the sun, yeah, yeah. But so far, it's been good. How do you think you've benefited from it, aside from just like, warm fuzzies? Do you think like, you bring back stuff or power or ability?
Well, I think definitely knowledge, right.
Again, I am not trying to just, like, totally rip off whatever, but like, for instance, in Saga of Swamp Thing, Adam strange uses his like knowledge to help Swamp Thing, like re like regrade the earth or whatever.
So maybe it's like a that could be interesting. Also going with the like, Starfire thing. Maybe there's like some and the sickness thing, right? What was the card of mancy of the eight of clubs? Thing? Sickness thing. Like, maybe there's like, something awful on my planet, and I was trying to help to fix it, or whatever, and now I am in this push and pull
Ansel Burch 26:52
and or tell me, if this is too much, maybe you have some crazy space cancer, and when you're zooped away from your home planet, you're not affected if it's like a dead pool or like a Jane Foster Thor, uh, Jane Foster Thor, yeah, that was the one I was trying to get to. Yeah, I think, I think it should be either or, either is fine,
Stella Cheeks 27:16
but I mean, it might probably be more simplistic if it was just me right, like, when I'm whisked away,
Ansel Burch 27:24
type deal. Or maybe everyone on your home planet has this terrible affliction, and you're like, taking steps towards fixing it every time you journey away. Yeah, we could do something like that, or not. Maybe not everybody has it, but it's like,
Stella Cheeks 27:40
let's make a pandemic story.
Ansel Burch 27:43
Well, it could also be like a dying star or something like that, you know. So it's not like a sickness, but like there's, there is a present existential threat that you are taking steps towards repairing. It's a Romulus situation. Got it? We're just making all of the references. There's that, yeah, this is my pitch to prove to everyone that I'm really nerdy. I get all the references I know,
Stella Cheeks 28:09
but I mean, that's a terrible like, like, yeah, there's like, a Romulus situation where it's like, I maybe
prayed to some deity we can work that out, who has become this, like theta B giver or whatever.
And maybe like, obviously there's like whatever the the party quest is, right? But maybe the ongoing quest for like me as an individual is like, every time she it, whatever sends me someplace, there is a key to help or whatever.
Ansel Burch 28:47
No, I like that.
Yeah, I think there's a lot of potential there, especially as you think more about like, what you want the threat to because you
Stella Cheeks 29:00
could also play with, like, do you always go back to the same time and have to redo, like, the same double it's a double time travel. What is, what if it's like Inception? Well, not inception, but what if it's like a double time travel? Like, yeah, like, I time travel to Earth a dimension, or, like, whatever, I time travel to Earth, to whatever scenario you as the Overlord put us in. And then every time I go back to X planet,
it's like, at the beginning of, like, the the cycle, or whatever the destruction event, or whatever you're gonna do, it different this time. Man, that would be really horrible.
That's really That's horrible. That needs to be a movie by
Ansel Burch 29:43
itself, side quest off camera. Oh yeah. Well, I gotta, gotta relive the same week again. Maybe the sun won't blow up this time bye. Guys. See you next time.
That's pretty horrible, though. Um, if you don't see me around, it's because I saved everyone.
Stella Cheeks 30:00
Died, who knows, yeah, but theoretically, I die every time, and then I just get lifts away. Maybe this is Hell,
Ansel Burch 30:08
yeah,
Edge of Tomorrow. That was the movie Tom Cruise.
Stella Cheeks 30:13
I don't think I saw that one, but yeah, sure that
Ansel Burch 30:16
it's it's good. It's good. We covered it for time to party a couple months ago.
Stella Cheeks 30:20
Yeah, so it's something, I think that we can think about it more, because maybe it can be, like, super catastrophic, but it could also be something small, too, right? Like, again, we're doing all of the references, um, like a Leonard McCoy thing where, like, he tried to save his dad, oh, yeah, right. But then he killed his dad, and then, like, two days later, there was, like, a cure or whatever.
So, like, maybe it's like, I have a really personal stake in saving something or someone and the time is running out.
Ansel Burch 30:53
That's cool, too.
Yeah, something like that. Yeah. I like the idea of a crisis
at home, whatever that crisis turns out to be, I think that's a cool Yeah, and that's a cool internal battle too. Of like,
Stella Cheeks 31:09
Okay, I want to help solve this problem and be a team and whatever. But also like, Oh, fuck. How does the clock may or may not be checking? Oh no,
not that I'm
trying to build a character that's like, all about herself. That's not what I'm trying to
Ansel Burch 31:26
do. I don't everybody in this party is going to be heavily motivated.
Speaker 2 31:32
It's a it's a bunch of, like, content creators and DMS. So you don't worry, you have plenty of other people button their ideas in Okay, yeah, so I want to think about them more, but there is some like unnamed deity who's helping me to solve a problem at home through the lens of Earth shenanigans. For some reason,
Ansel Burch 31:57
something these hurtlings can teach you, theoretically.
Ben Banks 32:02
Okay.
Ansel Burch 32:05
All right, so the last card in this spread is your training card, okay?
And this is the bottom left. This is going to indicate what you were trained in, who you received it from, perhaps, maybe the impact that it has on you.
You know, feel free to sort of play around with what it means to you. But yeah, so this is, this is represents your
how much you've been affected by the
experts and grown ups that brought you up. So that is a jack of clubs. Jack of clubs, all right, so back to back to our laborers.
In fact, do you have all three face cards from the clubs?
Ben Banks 32:53
Yeah,
Ansel Burch 32:54
amazing.
I
yeah,
that's your suit. That is your suit. Yeah, that obviously, it is
Ben Banks 33:09
definitely of the people,
Ansel Burch 33:12
yeah,
what class? Working class? Yeah,
great. Well, then, yeah, I mean, I What do you think that says about your training? Do you want to tie it to a person or a maybe an institution or a quality,
maybe all three? Um,
Ben Banks 33:35
I'm thinking, since it's a jack kind of relaying that back to the the fortune being the queen. So I've kind of gotten by on, like, street smarts, and so maybe, maybe that's another reason why I'm not, like, I'm kind of over it is because, like, as time goes on, things are getting a little bit more procedural in, like the precinct or in the police work. You know, we got to make sure that every this, that all the dots are crossed, and T's are crossed and everything like that. And I'm kind of like, you know, back in the old days, you You saw him, you got him. Job well done. Nobody got hurt, you know, and so and so. Like, I think, yeah, the jack or, like, the nave, I've kind of like, figured out how to do things on my own that maybe not be by the book that they're writing and building as we're going but,
Speaker 3 34:27
you know, with luck and fortune, I have, kind of have kind of skated through and I get the job done, but
Ansel Burch 34:34
I I like that concept, yeah? So you've learned well, but you've also learned maybe a little askew, yes, yeah,
that's a that, yeah, yeah. I like it. I like it. That's a really good interpretation. I like it.
Anything else you want to tease out about that right now? I.
Uh, all right. And then our last card of the spread, the only one that's still face down, so no suspense there. The bottom left, this is your training card.
This, once again, going to get that backstory Mark
updated to the core card name, for those of you listening, with the updated rules,
the core card or so this one is going to define the quality of training you received, maybe who you got it from, or the impact it had on you. So what did we get for this card? The king of hearts. King of Hearts, excellent. We haven't had a heart yet in this one, that's exciting. And I think being a pharaoh, you'll like this one. The Heart generally we we divine as being
related to those who worship, those who pray, those who get their their power from a higher being. So whether it is, you know, a peasant who gets their power from their king or a priest who gets their power from a god or a warlock who gets it from a patron. This is someone who beseeches a higher power for the capabilities that they have. I
potentially again, up to you. Hmm, so house, so just a higher power. How supernatural are we going? Here you can go as supernatural as you want. The beauty of this setting is that each of you brings your own little judge to it, and we're just gonna put it in a cement mixer. So if you want to, if you want to do magic, you can totally do magic.
Omar Burgos 36:50
I would say, like, more, like minor presentations. I wouldn't say he's a full on a wizard or something like that, but he does as the ancient pharaohs. And ancient as the pharaohs in ancient Egypt have this kind of connection. They were either a descendant and or reincarnation of RA or a reincarnation of any of the Egyptian gods,
Horus, I would say,
maybe, I mean, I want to be too on the nose, I won't say bass set,
which is like a cat God,
Ansel Burch 37:27
like maybe he's descended or somehow connected to that, and gets maybe, and this is your training card. So I wonder if an aspect of Bastet has trained you to be who you are, or if you were trained to become an aspect of best at that's how you got your your capacity.
What do you think is the training element of this? This is something you learned.
Omar Burgos 37:59
I learned to use his mind
to ingenuity to twist any situation to his advantage he can, like sure, I would say, because he's not very, I mean, I because the pharaohs do need to learn and be very skilled with the many different weapons. So I would say he would train in the weapons, but his main primary focus was trying to outwit and use his opponent's weaknesses against them, so much on, like, a high level that, like, he's a genius in sense, like, like a prodigy of sense, like an otherworldly he can see things basically, almost before it happens by using All right, the wind's blowing that way, that person's walking over there. So probabilities of this happening is 93% go and something that a normal person could not calculate. His brain works like a computer, and he can figure out things very easily. So if he was in a if he was in a party, he would be the one to be the detective, but he's very snarky about it. And I would say he knows he has the ability over everyone else, but he is more like a matter of fact, such as, like, of course it was the butler who did it. Obviously it didn't list a whole bunch of things that no one would get.
Ansel Burch 39:17
It's child's play. Please keep up. You couldn't even have been in the room for that.
Being in the room is so Gauci
Exactly. Got a secret parts of hearts, okay? So hearts, we generally associate with those who look to higher powers. So that can be religion, that can be, you know, authorities that can be, like war locks and clerics, if you want to get into that kind of nonsense,
interesting. So, yeah, so those who look outside of themselves for their ability and power, or if you want.
To take the medieval approach those who pray.
Sarah Moore 40:03
So what about
the studio? Oh,
what if she's in like the studio system, and that is what
Ansel Burch 40:19
makes really good sense, and like the studio system would have been what trained you up into who you are. You know, aside from a badass who can be kicked out of any moving vehicle, from my dad who keeps shoving me out of vehicles,
Sarah Moore 40:36
they probably thanked him. They were probably like, thanks, yeah,
Ansel Burch 40:40
this one's made our job. This one will let us do whatever we want. It's amazing. That's great. She has no standards. That's what we like.
Yep, too much Hollywood commentary, or just enough
Sarah Moore 40:55
the correct amount.
She does keep asking for more money, but we keep that's fine. We keep giving it to her.
Ansel Burch 41:04
Money's money.
We have so much of it, just like scourge McDuck piles that we just roll around. Our studio is a town that we bought. We bought a town and turned it into a studio. I think we're doing okay. 100% this is like,
this is like the Disney town of studios, definitely. I'm picturing the Paramount lot in my head from Yes. What movie was that? Hail Caesar Yes?
Unknown Speaker 41:35
Or it's a little
Sarah Moore 41:37
Three Amigos where they just have Yes, the amigos are out of the mansion like they just,
Ansel Burch 41:47
is this that same, same mark, yes. Are finally going to change it up after this one, though.
Sarah Moore 41:54
All right, so little trees. Yep, no more trees. For you trees, you've done your trees. I gotta I've got about a mountain and four trees.
Ansel Burch 42:06
Jack of Spades. Spades goes back to the war like argumentative characters. So this, this will echo a little bit of your, was it your nature? Yeah, standing up for something. I mean it also, I feel like, goes hand in hand with what we just talked about, too.
Stella Cheeks 42:25
I feel like, yeah, having a focus right training for to solve a problem. We don't know what the problem is yet, because I have to think about
Ansel Burch 42:34
it, but, but yeah, if you've been constantly like, learning more and more about how to solve this issue, I think that, yeah, that it that's your fight, that's your struggle.
And maybe it is, maybe it's political. Who knows? There's a lot of options. Yeah,
lot of options. Yeah, I gotta think about it. But I like that. I feel like that weaves all of them together. Stella cheeks is at Stella cheeks on Instagram and blue sky. Sarah Moore is at pixies and pins on all of the social media channels, and at pixies and pins.com
you can also check out her Sarah's table live streams on Twitch at pixies and pins. Omar Burgos is at tail Weaver. Check out his work on the tale of D 20s. TTRPG channel. More information at a tale of D twenties.com Ben banks is at DJ underscore, blendian on Instagram and SoundCloud. I'm Ansel Burch, and you can find me at the indecisionist on all of the meta properties and on blue sky special. Thanks to Cameron evesque Davis for the song you're hearing now and at the beginning of the podcast, this has been an indecisionist production. Go to indecisionist.com to find more of our work, including my monthly gaming event, TTRPG pickup con, and my other time travel podcast, time to party as you travel at one second per second. Take some time out for these intrepid adventurers. They may be in trouble, but only for the time being. You
