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Good GMs Podcast - 5 - Raiders of the Best Parts
39 Plays2 days ago
Welcome back to the Good GMs Podcast! Today, James Currie and Chuckie Tee are talking about the art of "Frankenstein-ing" your tabletop games. We’re looking at those specific rules or mechanics from one system that are just too good not to steal and port over to another. After all, it's your homebrew—might as well make it the game you actually want to play.
What We’ve Been Playing Lately:
Chuckie highlights a recent Vampire session run by our mysterious and crime-positive producer, Rainey Robertson, who handled her first time in the Storyteller's seat with a story she wrote herself.
Discworld (Modiphius): James shares his experience with this wacky, pun-filled system where stats are descriptions and character traits like "always knows where 'lost' is" lead to some very creative loophole-finding.
Honey Heist: A look at Grant Howitt’s notorious one-sheet RPG where you play bears in hats trying to pull off a heist while balancing "Bear" and "Criminal" stats.
Vegas and Vampires: Chuckie catches us up on his modern-day Call of Cthulhu run in Lost in the Lights.
The Art of the Steal: We dive into the specific mechanics we love to "cannibalize":
Luck as a Benny: How to adapt the Call of Cthulhu Luck mechanic into other systems to decide things outside of character skills—like whether a cab will actually show up at 3:00 AM in a bad part of town.
The Pushed Roll: Borrowing from Cthulhu to give players a second chance after a failure—with the caveat that the GM tells you exactly how bad things will get if you fail the second time.
Failing Forward: Using "adversity tokens" from Kids on Bikes or experience systems from Powered by the Apocalypse to ensure that failing a roll still drives the story forward.
Support Mechanics: Making sure every player has a way to "shine" even if they aren't the primary character in a scene—whether it's holding a candle for the lockpicker or providing a social distraction.
Clocks and Progress Bars: Taking a cue from Blades in the Dark and The Quiet Year to give players a visual countdown for everything from reading a massive tome to the growing power of a Big Bad in the East.
Gritty Horror Tweaks: James shares a survival horror hack for Savage Worlds where the entire table shares one finite bowl of "Bennies," creating desperate tension as the resources disappear.
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Transcript
00:00:03
Speaker
Good. Good. So good. Good. So very good. Good.
Introduction and Episode Overview
00:00:26
Speaker
Welcome to the Good GM's Podcast. I'm E.E. Morris, and today's episode is Raiders of the Best Parts. And now, here's Chuck and James.
Game Mechanics Discussion
00:00:40
Speaker
Hello, listeners. My name is Chuck E.T. And I'm James Curry. And today we're going to be talking about games. That's kind of what we do every day, but today's going to be a little fun. Yeah, specific, like little nuggets that we really like, we like to latch on to and ah it it even bring over to other systems, if applicable, and talk about oh just the way they work.
00:01:08
Speaker
the the way they work Yeah, like cannibalization and Frankensteinism, that kind of unusual fun stuff to
Recent Gaming Experiences
00:01:16
Speaker
talk about. ah But first, I don't know about you, but I've played a few games since the last time we discussed this. yeah. Just couple. Just a couple. Just a couple. Well, I mean, of course, I've got my ongoing campaign that you're in with the Masks of Nair Lithotep on the Void Ledger podcast. Yes. And I know you've still got Savage savage Worlds going. I think the last time we talked, you were doing i Call of Cthulhu game that Craig was running. and i Yeah, yes. Lost in the Lights. Yeah, we're having good time with that one. naw If you have not picked that up, I highly recommend it. It's a good modern day.
00:01:47
Speaker
just romp through Vegas and just horrible shenanigans. Of course. That's the way to go. Anything else or just, ah just that mostly. Oh, just that mostly. i think you did a vampire game too. Not, not that long ago. Yeah. Not too long ago. Yes. Yes. Yes. The lovely and talented Miss Rainey ran us through a good session. A good, good story. Nice story. A couple of sessions. She wrote that one actually. Yeah. Cause if that was off her head,
00:02:13
Speaker
wow yeah wow she she she needs to rearrange her shit and start doing some other stuff because she's talented that was good stuff absolutely and we'll have her on i think to talk because that was her first time running a game so we'll bring her back sometime to talk about the first time oh the first time gming um i've done a couple of games since then i played disc world it's a modifius game my friend and had the kickstarter i think And basically, if you don't know Discworld, it's it's a wacky, goofy, pun-filled book series by Terry Pratchett. And the the the role-playing game is interesting because the the stats, the character sheets are just like descriptions and the whole point of them. is to make them like as punny and loophole-y as possible. So like, for example, my character was really good at telling lies, which I could use to not only tell lies, but to tell if lies were happening. Nice. Right? And and then also another one he had was always knows where lost is.
00:03:08
Speaker
So he's always ever aware of where lost is so he can avoid it. Right. um And if something's lost, he might be good at finding it because he knows. where Okay. Okay. Interesting. Just tell me, did someone get to play death No, oh no, no, no. I think i think we had ah a person who was ah a troll or something who joined the City Watch, but was mistaken because they were really obsessed with like clocks and stuff. And when they joined the City Watch, they thought it was like um a way to tell time better.
00:03:41
Speaker
Damn it. I know it was a fun game. It was really good. My friend Courtney ran that. And then I also ran a game of Honey Heist by Grant Howitt, which is ah Grant Howitt is a notorious one sheet RPG maker. Like he made a whole lot of like, if you look up the name Grant H-O-W-I-T-T games, you will find way more content that you'd be comfortable reading. But basically the game Honey Heist, you play bears who are trying to steal some honey, maybe possibly an award winning queen bee who'd been deposed and is now returning to claim her crown. um And the difference between you as a bear is that you also have a hat.
00:04:21
Speaker
So it really changes the dynamic of, you know, the the two stats in the game are bear and criminal. hu If you go too far bear, you end up like rampaging and eating, you know, people and stuff. And if you go too far criminal, you have to at some point betray your your group.
00:04:37
Speaker
oh so it's a silly silly game very very silly make it up as you go along game with uh that involves i think one die everybody just rolls wow d6 that's how all right yeah but hey but you know sometimes that's That's what you need. That's just what you need. You need to Google that. way You can run it.
00:04:57
Speaker
Yeah. Like that's the whole thing. Just boom. Here you go. It's out there. It's free. You can donate to nice to help them out. But like, if you just like sitting around and people are like, Hey, you guys want to play a role-playing game? Yeah. What do you know how to play? Well, I know this. I know this. I know this. I know this. Well, none of them are the same. Why don't I run us through a stupid game like lasers and feelings or, you know, fuck it's Dracula or you know, any of these one sheet games that you can everybody can learn in um in a minute,
Borrowing and Customizing Game Mechanics
00:05:21
Speaker
right? Nice.
00:05:22
Speaker
Nice. Yeah. um But, you know, ah from from that game in particular, I would i would say there's not there's not a whole lot I would take um and cannibalize for other games that I'm running because it's very simple.
00:05:33
Speaker
But the idea of what we're doing here is is that, yeah, there's certain there's certain rules and certain mechanics that I think are really cool and would help me. Like if I have an idea for a game and I'm running it in Call of Cthulhu or Savage Worlds or or Dungeons and Dragons or whatever. If there's a mechanic that I like from another game, why can't I take it? Why can't I steal that? Right? like Exactly. Exactly. And I, I, I've heard lots of other GMs talk about this, you know, and they talk about, Hey, oh I was running this and,
00:06:07
Speaker
This situation came up, so I didn't like the current system, how the current system handled it, but I remembered how this other system handled it, and so I just ported that in. Right. and sometimes it works. Right.
00:06:23
Speaker
And sometimes it don't. So your value will carry. It's your homebrew. Might as well make it the game that you want it to be. Right. So one of the reasons this came up, I think, is that is that for me, actually, a good example. And if you don't mind, I'm happy to start. but yeah go ahead. So I really like the luck a mechanic in in Call of Cthulhu. And not so much for the spending. i do like it for the spending it. But the the the way I wanted to adapt it is certain things are outside of the realms of...
00:06:52
Speaker
skills so you play a game like say savage world like you have bennies you can spend bennies to change things like mechanically or to heal or like protect yourself from damage et etc and we'll get into bennies because i feel like that's another one we can use but oh yeah for example i was playing savage worlds and i like the idea of a luck roll Like, I'm going to like escape from the club where the where the bad guys are trying to kill me, and I want to get in a cab, but it's three o'clock in the morning, and it's out in the middle of, like, a bad part of town.
00:07:24
Speaker
What are the odds of a cab driving by? Like, what do you roll for that? Like, what's the roll for is a cab going drive by? All right. And yeah, you can, you can arguably say, well, I spend a Benny a cab drives by, but what I, what I suggested was that for every Benny, you get to roll a D six. If it's something that's really rare, like a cab being in that part of town, every six, you roll, tell me how many sixes you roll.
00:07:48
Speaker
Right. If it's, if it's something that's like a 50, 50 shot, I'll say any, you know, give me a four, five or or six. And that way, if they roll one six yeah cab comes by, you know, the guy, the you know, maybe it's not the the fastest cab or whatever, but, you know, they roll a couple of sixes. It's like, yeah, cab show. It just happens to let somebody out just as you get out and you can hop in that cab and say, drive, i'll take me to the airport, whatever. And I like that idea of just being able to like, how does fate decide this, you know?
00:08:15
Speaker
Okay. All right. and That's okay. All right. for For me, for Savage Worlds, it goes with their three core things, fast, furious, and fun. And your method, the idea of it sounds fast because it's just, okay, how many bennies you got? Okay, that's me. D6 is boom. I'm looking for this numbers. What have you got?
00:08:36
Speaker
Yeah. Okay. Boom, boom, boom. Yes, no. Here we go. And the more bennies you have, the luckier you are, which actually does play into the time. Okay. yeah All right. All right. Yeah. Yeah. When it comes to luck, I, you know, flipping over to like Call of Cthulhu, there are those moments like, cause in Call Cthulhu, you could just like spend luck.
00:08:55
Speaker
look Here you go. You know, boom. As long as you have it. As long as you have it. Right. Okay. But I, I, And I don't know how you would do it, but would there be a way in Call of Cthulhu to add in a Benny system? Right. because Because like how you said, like you're changing the narrative. And again, you could, as the keeper, you could always just say, you know, you come out and say, hey oh, oh, I got out of the club. And, oh, oh, oh, is there a cab?
00:09:24
Speaker
And you go, I don't know. Is there a cab? And one of the things I enjoy doing is when they ask me these questions, Or even if they don't, if it's like, there's this other kind of scrambling. It's like, well, hey, you know, you could give me five luck. Right. Or you can roll against your luck, but I'm going to need a hard
Risk and Reward Systems in Games
00:09:45
Speaker
success. Right. Yeah. Yeah. You know, so it's like, hey, you know, it's it's like that little drug dealer thing. Hey, what are you feeling like, buddy? You good for it? Well, I also like, I also like the idea of doing that with with almost any game where it's like, yeah I can give you this thing, but something bad's going to happen. Do you want that?
00:10:01
Speaker
like might ah There was a, oh my God, I think it might have been for Savage Worlds, the original Deadlands. Okay. Right. So they had the different poker chips, right? So if you spent a fake like one yeah spent a red one, it's like, okay, you can you can roll it and you can add it to it, but I get that chip. I get that chip. yeah Yeah. Now I get to use it. you know and So that that was always fun. Giving power to the GM. Yes. The only flaw with that in general, and we can talk about this in another you know topic, is is the us is the us versus them thing it's GMs. It's a hard one to do, right And I think that's partly why Savage Worlds kind of took that out of their system overall is the idea that like – there is a fun part of that, right? As a, as a communal storyteller, right? Like i'm right part of what James was saying is that when you roll the fours in his, in his game system, yes it's going to be, you get fracture points, which gives him stuff to do, but either way, no, that's a very cool. yeah I like, I like that. So you're talking about using, like, you're talking about being able to spend luck as Benny's like, okay, I'll give you the thing you want, but it's going to cost you this. There's no choice. Make a choice. Yeah. Do you think you could do that hard roll? Hmm. Or you can just give me five more points. Yeah. And I'll give it to you.
00:11:18
Speaker
I'll give it to you. like yeah You got it. Yeah. No, I like that. i like that. Well, if you're down to 40 or, you know, that sounds like a lot, but it's not. No. It's not. And then you're like, oh, oh, man, dude. Well, it also means that when you do call for a luck roll.
00:11:35
Speaker
They just kicked open the door. You got three guys just scrambled out. What are you doing? You're hooping it? or you can want, do you think there's a cab there? ah Here's the five points. Thank you so much. I appreciate that. Yeah. Well, and another thing I like about Call of Cthulhu, again, we talk about the same systems because we're still sort of learning them, but there's more more to come after this. But oh god yeah I do like the push roll thing. And I've used that. i've had've I've kind of made up a game before where it's the 2D6 sort of system where... sevens the average role and based on like how hard the thing is you change the number but i never really liked it one thing again i think it's probably how it was run by the person who ran it but i've played games where you fail to die you fail the role and it's literally you never have another it's like i failed this role in it and you feel like this is important for my character to succeed here yes and yet i failed yes and then it's like next player next player and you're like
00:12:24
Speaker
like I have no recourse. I have no pennies to spend. I have no. Yes. There's no, there's no in game currency. Yeah. And I, I like that where you can say, okay, you failed, but right now it means you didn't succeed. It doesn't mean you got hurt. Right.
00:12:39
Speaker
But if you chose to, you could try to push that role. You could try to push that role. However, one of the, one of the things I like to try to remember, it's not always used this way is you tell me how you're gonna push the role. I tell you what could happen if you do it.
00:12:53
Speaker
And then you make the choice. So it's like, I'd like to, the example they give is I'd like to pick this lock and you roll your lock, your locksmithing and you fail. You say, I'd like to push this rule. how are you doing that?
00:13:05
Speaker
um I'm going to, I'm going to really refund the door. I'm going to try to break it open, um you know, and, or or like, I'm going to, I'm going to take longer. And it's like, okay, well, sure. You can take longer, but if you fail this, that guard, and you know, those the garden is dog are going to come around the corner. Now you could take that and put it in any system.
Engagement and Support Mechanics
00:13:23
Speaker
Yes. Yes. Right. ah Hard choices, hard, hard decisions. And then I think that's a really, i think that's a really cool mechanic to be able to like. Yeah. the The, the, you know, it, it, it but man, I've seen so many people, a either never use it or B they want to use it for everything.
00:13:44
Speaker
Yeah. And. Well, then then they're not making that. You're not making the choice hard enough. You're not making. Exactly. Exactly. I agree with you. Put the onus back on the player. Right. If they want to use it, that's fine. But you need to tell me what you're doing. And then their brain just locks down.
00:14:00
Speaker
And they're just staring at me like, oh. Yeah. And and I think at that point, we you know, you can give a choice. You can say, well, do you want to take longer? Do you want to write push your lock picks harder? Like, how do you want to do it? Right. like Right.
00:14:14
Speaker
Yeah. But I agree. I mean, it's a lot of games that don't have the in-game currency. Or just any re-roll mechanic general. Something. Yeah, something. to give us give Give them. It's okay. It's a game. it's Seriously, it's okay, guys. Or, yeah, something you can spend that that gives you and a success after you failed.
00:14:34
Speaker
I'll tell you right now, like like, when I do, like, in in in-person games, man, players love to touchy-touchy. Not me. The game. The game. Calm down, Jamie. But they love that stuff. And to have something they can hold in their hands and, you know, just even just, you fiddle with and they're waiting. They're like, oh man, these are burning a hole and I want to use these.
00:14:57
Speaker
No, that's always fun. It makes it more energetic. and and And the trick to that, and again, if, you know, if we ever get into talking about Savage Worlds or any of these games in particular, I like the idea of if if you want them to spend it,
00:15:10
Speaker
give them Give it to them. Like, for example, in my Call of Cthulhu game, my players haven't spent luck in several sessions. And like other games I've i've been to, it's like, oh, I failed by like only 10. Yeah, I'll spend it. It's worth worth succeeding. But ah i I will gladly give luck refresh if you're using it.
00:15:27
Speaker
Right. Luck refresh or... Because that's the other thing that I've noticed is that, yes, especially if I'm doing con games, stuff like that, where I want them to spend those points. It's okay. And I want them to know it's okay because see in a lot of games, they sincerely do not think it's okay.
00:15:43
Speaker
They're like, look at that. I don't know when that next refresh is going to be. ah ah ah So what I do is during the game, if someone pops off a nice roll, they do some nice role playing.
00:15:55
Speaker
They include other players. They do all in everyone. I don't care who you are. You have that list. You have that list in your head that makes you say, this is an A-plus player and I want them to stick around. So what I do is I'd be like, dude, damn, that was that was awesome. Take two points of luck. Take five. Yeah, take take a couple. not ah ah I did five. That was way too much. I learned. I learned. learned. Well, and take thing too is if you're given, if you're given big chunks, you're more inclined to get them to spend those big chunks. Cause it's way more fun when they lose by like, there's like, Oh man, I need like, I got a 15 in this skill and I really want to succeed, but I rolled a 32.
00:16:31
Speaker
thirty two I've got to spend 17 points of luck. I'm not going to do it. But if you're throwing five points here and there, who cares? Right. But again, it's it But that's, but that becomes pulpy.
00:16:43
Speaker
Right. And you got to weigh, you got to weigh the mechanic of the thing you're including. Cause it could, it could break your game. Like, this is the thing we're talking. We're telling you guys some like habits of like, here's some cool ideas that we've found. Yeah.
00:16:57
Speaker
But know the tone. here's what happens Here's what happens when you mix this chemical with this chemical and you drink it. We don't want to we don't want to poison anybody's games. so oh No, no, no, no. Because it is. You've got to know the tone.
00:17:10
Speaker
Right. Know the tone of the game. Yeah. You know, one of the other things that a lot of games have ah that we can talk about here, too, is ah a failing forward mechanic of some kind. So, for example, with Kids on Bikes has adversity tokens. Other game systems have stuff like this where some of the Powered by the Apocalypse, but some of the games, if you fail the thing, that's how you gain experience. You don't gain experience from doing a thing you already know how to do. You gain experience from trying something and failing at it. yeah And that's that's really clever. like so with with and And same with Firefly. Firefly, um the system for Firefly uses that too, where the way the stories are supposed to be delivered is, and if you think of the show, they fail a lot at the beginning. Yep.
00:17:53
Speaker
Yep. And through that failure, they become better. Well, and and so by the end, they have huge, big successes. So it's like, imagine you're playing Savage Worlds where you have Benny system, but you get your bennies like, and and I know I've done this kind of thing where you're like, you can roll this, but if you fail it and just choose that you failed it. Yeah.
00:18:15
Speaker
yeah I'll give you a Benny yeah that you can use later because, because it's like for the story right now in the story, you succeeding at this doesn't change anything.
00:18:27
Speaker
You failing at it makes the story happen. Right. Like yeah the guards don't know you're in the city. So why not let them know you're in the city and then we can, then we can have some fun. What what about support mechanics? Right.
00:18:45
Speaker
Cause for, for me, if you have two or more players on the same scene, but it's just like one guy talking to the guard, it could be kind of boring or worse yet. If,
00:18:59
Speaker
that guard latches on to the wrong player. Like the wrong, like the wrong, like, you know, the, the muscle is talking to the debutante to get into the party.
00:19:12
Speaker
Cause they're trying to sneak in through a side door and the muscle is not your face. It's not your social character. no And then the other social characters are like, just chop and like, ah, you know, yeah, there's a little bit of tension there, but I like support because it gives the muscle, the opportunity to have some shine But then you also have the faces there to give some support, do something. And some games don't have that. No, they don't. And then certain times, obviously, as a GM, you've got to say, no, you can't help him pick that lock. You'd just be getting in his way at this point. Exactly. and then But you can you can have if you have a clever player, it's like, well, what if I'm what if i'm holding a candle?
00:19:55
Speaker
Yes, I'm showing a light. I'm doing something. I can i can you know i can give him a shoulder rub, keep him calm, you know whatever it is. right ah um so so And then what do you do? You give him ah you know in Call Cthulhu, you can give him a bonus die and you can give somebody inspiration in D&D. Adversity tokens that you get, like i think everybody starts with three in in a game of kids on bikes, for example. And you get them when you fail a thing.
00:20:21
Speaker
But you can spend them to give a plus one. And I think you can spend a couple at a time on a player. So obviously, if you're in the room with them, like you can't spend your adversity token to to help somebody if the party split up.
00:20:34
Speaker
But if you happen to be there and something happens and they they need to roll their dice to to see if they succeed, even after they failed, you can be like, well, I'm going to give them two of my adversity tokens. That's cool. And what and then as a GM, you say, how are you helping? What did you do to give him those? Like giving giving him the diversity tokens is is mechanical. You say, well, I held the candle. You know, like, yeah, right. Right.
00:20:58
Speaker
Right. I hate to keep bouncing back to Savage Worlds, but that's one of the games I know the best. Yeah, so absolutely. um But like when you make your characters, they they have built in edges that can automatically change give to other players.
00:21:15
Speaker
Some of them, yeah. yeah Right. And so that that's I was thinking about that because because there are some games that they they do handle
Narrative and Progression Techniques
00:21:23
Speaker
that. But I have noticed, though, that that has slowly becoming a trend in the last couple of years is getting those support characters more of a role. Like everyone wants to play a bard now.
00:21:37
Speaker
Everyone wants to play a bard now. I mean, don't remember it very well, but I remember the Buffy the Vampire Slayer game. Yes, Eden Studios. Yes, yes, yes, Right, yes. So they had it set up. I think it was, I think, what were they called? Plot points? Plot points, yes. And basically, they could be used. I don't remember right now. Again, I haven't looked it up. We're professionals. But the gist was that someone who was like, if you know your Buffy, Xander, who was just the normal guy, a lot of those.
00:22:08
Speaker
Those were the things that made him like, gave him plot armor that gave him the ability to help other characters succeed in a, in a world where you've got a vampire hunter, a slayer who, who dates a vampire, whose best friend is a witch yeah and who's dating a werewolf. And you're just the norm. You're just norm. Yes. Right.
00:22:28
Speaker
Yes. um So that was kind of neat how they, they, they balanced that. Right. um ah but but but Zombie game. All flesh must be eaten was made by the same studio. Oh, OK. And so they did the same thing. You have the norms and you have the survivors. Oh, yeah. See, yeah. and survivors were like, you're Buffy. They were the you heroes.
00:22:49
Speaker
And then you had the norms. Right. Just that. They're just the poor schmucks that are caught in the middle. yeah Yeah. Yeah. There was an episode about that where where Xander was off on his own in the in the episode and it was called the it' like the Harpo or the or the um oh, the Zeppo.
00:23:05
Speaker
Anyway, um I guess we got time. One one quick, one more quick one um each. And then i could throw it like one off the top my head is remember playing Blades in the Dark.
00:23:16
Speaker
and it yes And I've seen this in other games, too, where you or use clocks. Right. So you draw a circle somewhere on on the on the board and you you divide it into four, six, eight, whatever. And then you can do it. You can do it use a couple ways. Like you can say okay, so this is the clock of when the the alarm is going to get pulled and the and the guards are going to be coming after you. Or you can say it this is the clock that represents how much of your your home base have you managed to repair after the last you know assault on it. Or you know this is like um Call of Cthulhu. It could be like, I'm reading this book.
00:23:54
Speaker
ah How many weeks does it take to read this book? You can do it by saying, okay, well, we're keeping track of weeks. Or we can say, like, this is much time has passed. Give me a language role. If you succeed, I'll color in one. If you get a hard success, I'll color in two. And you reach eight, we'll say you've complete completed reading it or something like that. yes that's ah That's a really neat visual way to give your characters a countdown count Absolutely.
00:24:17
Speaker
Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Because I've been toying with that idea because and when when I'm running it, the convention game, there is a time factor to it. Yeah. And so, yeah. So I've i've been thinking going to try to use a clock thing because there's a time factor. So, yeah, I like that. Well, yeah, you got your your big bad's power is slowly growing in the east. Yes. You don't know, but you've got something that says, hey, guys, if you're not actively recruiting people for the army to take on the big bad guy, able that. He is going to be ready to attack your yes your your strongholds. Whether you're
Customization and Community Involvement
00:24:50
Speaker
ready or not. I love that.
00:24:51
Speaker
I love that. Yes. Nice. Nice. that That's a good one. like let's yeah let's Let's close it out on that. thanks Sure. Well, if you want. Yeah. like And the other place I remember seeing the clock kind of system was in a world building game called The Quiet Year. And it takes place. you use a deck of cards to decide what happens with like prompts. And like every season is represented by a suit. Okay.
00:25:13
Speaker
king you you automatically go into the next season whatever not the point each card was a prompt but when you decided if you want to do a project like we're go to start an agriculture in our in our small like post-apocalyptic survivor camp i think you know one of the things we're goingnna do is is start a farm Great. How many weeks do you think it's going to take you to do that? And then at the beginning of each round, you color in one and you can say, you know what? I'm going to use my round to actually assist in that. So we'll color in a second one. So you'll get it done faster. So you have food before winter comes or you have built a wall before the Mongol hordes have come. Nice. Okay. Yeah. So keeping track of progress. You're rusting.
00:25:52
Speaker
yeah Nice. All right. All right. Yeah. Yeah. So there you go. I love that. I love that. No, no, because for me, in-game currency is king. You know, because whether you're playing the high pulpy or whether you're playing just the to the gravel whore, you know, it can make it just as bad because, man, what ah what are you going to spend that on? Because you don't have much.
00:26:17
Speaker
Make that choice. there's a way There's a way to game that system too. Just to be fair, is I created ah a survival horror game like setting for Savage Worlds. For example, in Savage Worlds, everybody gets bennies and you can spend them and you get more back.
00:26:30
Speaker
the The version that I made, everybody switches between characters. There's like 12 characters and they're all in a camp and the the serial killer is coming after each of them. and You can switch characters from time to time. So what I had thought of is what if the bowl of bennies is in the middle of the table?
00:26:44
Speaker
o And there isn't any more going in there, but you can use them. But as we get closer to the end of the game, all you're not going to be able to soak. You're not going to be able to, you know, like, you know, give, give personal bennies for good storytelling, but of but the whole table has one finite amount of rules. That's interesting. Cause that creates that tension that creates that, like that, like real gritty horror that you get in a horror game where like in a horror movie, where at the beginning, you're not as afraid.
00:27:12
Speaker
But at the end, like it's do or die time. love it. Yeah. So awesome. we'll we'll We'll say, I guess, ah moral of the story is do whatever you want. It's your table. Like, who cares? If your players are liking it and you're liking it, try something. See if it works for you. If you like something that's not in the game you're playing, who cares? Who cares? You paid for it. You can do whatever you want. Yeah. yeah but and you know And also don't forget if if they're not happy with it, that's okay. Crying is a free action. That's right.
00:27:45
Speaker
Right on. um And don't forget you guys join our Patreon, patreon.com forward slash good GM's podcast. If you have any questions, if you have any topics you'd like us to discuss, if you just want to say hi, tell us, ah tell us what you're thinking. Great. Join us there. That's our community.
00:28:00
Speaker
There's lots of awesome, cool things you can do. Until next time, don't forget, practice makes gooder. See you next time, everybody. See you, Steve. Thank you for listening.
00:28:12
Speaker
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00:28:28
Speaker
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00:28:39
Speaker
For now, I'm E.E. Morris, and you're all good GMs.
00:28:55
Speaker
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00:29:09
Speaker
Yes, E.E. Morris. I put my own money to back our projects because we're all good GMs.