episode 044 | friendly neighbourhood super hero 02

this transcript was generously provided by ilias with minor formatting changes from me

INTRO

SATAH: Welcome to Folio, an actual play podcast about solo and epistolary TTRPGs. I’m your host, Satah, and I’m showcasing multiple possible experiences of self-paced games by inviting guests to play them alongside me so I can compile our stories together. You can support the show financially at patreon.com/foliopod or with a one-off donation at ko-fi.com/foliopod.

Reminder that this show is going to be taken off of Spotify distribution around the end of August. I explained why in the last episode. If you missed it because you’re listening to the series out of order, don’t do that. [Laughs] Don’t do that.

This is episode two of our games of Friendly Neighbourhood Superhero, a solo rpg about protecting, befriending, and improving a community by Catscratcher Studio. The other two chummy local protectors joining me today are Gwen Frankenstein and Jeff Stormer. It was Jeff’s birthday yesterday; go do something cool about it.

GAME: DAY ONE

SATAH: The thing I need to do next is go to the local radio station and convince them to put out an emergency bulletin telling people not to go to the town square. Because obviously the festival is just about to start, right? That has to be the stakes here. And I’m gonna go to the radio station because it- ever- people still listen to the radio here you know? It’s cool town.

And I probably also posted on social media, whatever. But I know that people will trust them- but I have to go and talk to the radio DJ, and I’m going to roll on the- the personality table from the helping neighbors section to see what the personality of this particular radio DJ is. Ambitious, perfect. Good, okay because what that means is I can be like “hey this could be like the story of your career” right? Or like “this could be like- this could- this could put you on the map in part. Like you could be the person to tell everybody that this is happening.” That’s gonna be a heart roll for feelings I think. Ambitious personalities are impressed by power. Do I want to be mean to myself here and say that that means that this is resisted? I do.

Okay so what happens is I show up at the radio station, and I’m going to try to convince this person like “hey people are in danger.” I’m- I’m gonna do a heart rule. Because I rolled on the personality table to see what this person’s deal is- you don’t have to do this but I’m purposefully giving myself homework, making myself more difficult by saying that this reporter is resistant to anything except power rolls. So I’m gonna roll two d6 to try and feelings them into doing this report, say “people are in danger you have to save them” and one of them has to be a six. Three, no. Five, nope. So marking a failure and I’m adding an experience. I also have the experience from the other failed power roll, and what this looks like is, hmm.

JEFF: I know what this looks like. This is- I mean this is destruction. Destruction here is described as “unchecked or unrestricted force causes problems which might scare your neighbors and break property.” This paparazzo sees me like throw a camera and kind of jump on his camera and he kinda gets mad, tackles me, and now we are like locked in a fist fight. And now people are coming out, neighbors are coming to look; this is turning into a catastrophe. I am taking a second point of experience here.

GWEN: Muffin the chihuahua goes in and snoops around in the landlord’s office and finds out that they- the reason they want to evict Ms. Emerald is because they want to rezone this into a space they can put in condos. Terrible, I don’t want that. Knowing that that’s their plan, I’m going to return to the office as the Blue Shepherd and I’m going to- I don’t think I can threaten them with legal action while I’m, you know, a vigilante. But perhaps I can blackmail them into letting my friend stay in her place.

JEFF: Look I don’t really- I think that power’s the best thing here. I think I’m knocking this guy’s lights out. Do I have an ability? Can I use my temperature control here? I think without like seriously hurting the guy, no. And I think this is just gonna be a a straight d6. If I can get a five or a six- is it worth cashing that second experience point for an extra dice here just to like gather up progress to try to resolve this scene? I think so. I’m gonna stick with one experience, grab a second dice here. We’re going for fives or sixes. That’s a five and a two. Alright, we’ll take it. Ah but that’s a- that’s progress, and that’s- that’s what we want. We want progress.

SATAH: I don’t want to make them evil, so it’s not like I’m like “hey people are in danger” and they’re like “kid, everyone’s in danger.” And they’re not like “good, sounds like that’s the story I should chase. if everybody dies then I’ll win a Pulitzer” or whatever. But I do fail to really impress on them the severity of the situation. And they’re like “You’re a mess; I should go- I should go verify this myself. I can’t just- I can’t just listen to every- everyone in a mask having an anxiety attack in my station. You know we’d- we’d- we’d never be able to- I would never meet our quotas. [Satah laughs] We’d never actually deliver a bunch the news if we did that, you know. We have to play music too. So I’m going to go- I’ll send somebody- I’ll send somebody to take a look.” And I’m like “there’s no time.”

And so I am going to- I want to try and just take the mic? [Laughs] This will be a power roll. I- Streak is marked on power, so it is resisted so I’ll have to roll a six. I’m invoking my signature ability here because I’m gonna try and grab the mic and they’re going to try and take it back from me while I am talking and they’re not going to be able to because my hands are very strong from- because of the gravity. So I’m gonna roll 3d6. If one of them as a six that I have succeeded and I will get an experience point and a progress point. One. Six! Yay! [Rolls more.] Okay.

GWEN: Now for blackmail I’m guessing that a mind roll which is- which is three! That’s my good skill! Just a sec. Let me find my dice that ended up on the floor. That is a two and three so not working so far and a five. Yay, we did it! Wait no, it’s resisted isn’t it? Damn.

JEFF: So Kelvin straight knocks this guy out, right? Like just one cold cock and this guy’s on the ground. Kelvin kinda like stands up, realizes I think the immediacy of the situation. I’m gonna try for mind- I’m going to try for mind one more time. I mean I don’t love that it’s resisted and I can’t really think of a way to like use my power here, but also because I succeeded with power, power is resisted until I mark progress with another attribute so I may as well just roll with mind and see if like… Because this is my third point of progress, maybe see if I can like think of a way to help this person get home. I’ve got two d6, I just need a six. That’s a six! Oh that’s a three and a six! Great! Okay! Success! Perfect! Wonderful! That’s a third point of progress and because this was a contested roll I get a second experience point. That’s great; that’s good; that’s what we wanted; all things good here. I’m feeling great. The energy is good.

GWEN: “Whenever you fail at solving a problem, create a scene describing how your plan was foiled.” Well that’s easy my plan was half-baked so I now have a moot point of miscalculation. Wah wah. So it turns out that was the wrong house. The person who is trying to put in a condo is the landlord across the street. It’s already zoned for mixed use so they’re not even fussing around. Oops.

SATAH: So I have successfully gotten this bulletin out. Or I’ve- I’ve successfully gotten on the radio and been like “hey don’t go the town square, it’s dangerous.” And I guess the next thing to do would be to try and gatherer- I want to be able to get the pendants off of the other people- like to ga- to gather all of the other ones from around town.

Um, at this point they’ve definite cut my mic. [Laughs] Understandably. And so I’m gonna try and- I’m going to try and convince this DJ one more time to help by saying like “hey look you need to tell everybody to if they have these pendants to stop- to like stop moving?” Or- or “I’m gonna go- I’m going to head out and start collecting them, but like I need you to keep warning people cause there’s gonna be people who didn’t hear that. I know a lot of them did but there’s going to be people who didn’t so I need you to keep warning people.” And I am gonna roll heart for that, and if I fail then I’m gonna use the extra die to try and solve a problem.

So, heart. I roll two d6. Got a four and a one, so nope. I fail. They just still don’t believe me. [Laughs] And they’re mad. They’re furious that I took the mic from them. Which is fair; they could probably get fined for that. I didn’t swear or anything. It’s all good.

GWEN: Okay so that did not work. What else can we do? [Sings] What else could I do?

SATAH: Rather than take an experience point from the failure, I’m going to take an extra die. And I am going to start going around collecting all the other pendants from people and I’m going to try to roll to solve the the pendant problem.

JEFF: Oh, in fact realizing that I get an experience point for a contested roll means that I actually get a third experience point for that skill roll earlier, so now I am sitting comfortably at three experience points. Uh, great. We’re making our way towards that ten experience goal of upping my power. I’m feeling great about this. That’s a third point of progress; I think that’s enough for me to try and like actually solve the problem? I think? I think that’s where we’re at?

SATAH: I have three progress points and an extra die from just failing, so I’m gonna roll four d6. And the thing that I’m using is skill again, right? This is like precision. I’m going around luckily a lot of people were already on their way to the festival, so it’s not super hard to find a lot of them. Or at least some of them. And I’m just trying to collect the pendants from them. And so four d6, a five or six. [Rolls]

JEFF: I’m gonna call this heart because like- I think that like I’ve got a handle on like how- like the- I think it really just is like basic communication is the best way to describe it. Like how to like explain to someone the subway and trolley routes to get them back to their apartment is like I think exactly what this- It’s actually somebody who is used to driving like explaining public transit to someone, so this is a three dice roll. It is, I don’t think contested. It’s a little unclear… I’m gonna say that it’s not contested, because that makes the most sense as this is sort of like a big finale, but that is a big time failure. Great. Which means I lose all of my progress points and have to start building them up again.

SATAH: Six, yay. [Rolls]

JEFF: This is the longest day of Kelvin’s life, this is…

SATAH: Six, five, two, one. Okay so! I succeed! “Acquire an achievement for the attribute you solve the problem with.” Yay, skill, everybody thinks I’m good at things! [Laughs]

JEFF: Not when I wanted that to happen if I’m going to be completely honest but that’s playing the game, baby!

SATAH: And I’ve successfully solved the booby traps hostages problem. Nobody is booby trapped anymore.

GWEN: You know what, we did solve it for the day by increasing that person’s sales, so like, let’s- let’s leave that one for now. Let’s say it solved for now and go on to the crime part.

SATAH: I still have to defeat the- defeat the quirky genius.

GWEN: [Singsong] Let’s go find a crime.

JEFF: Now it does say typical rules for failure apply here, so I am going to take that extra experience point as I start to build up progress again, because I at least want something out of this, and also a misreading. Ah, I think Kelvin thought that this was like a friendly interaction, and Joelle is having none of it, is like extremely aggressive about the idea of taking public transit. Which, by the way, ah that’s a shitty opinion to have! Public transit’s a great service! It gets people across the city! You should look into your local public transit programs. Advocate for them on your local government level. This is- this is a note from Jeff Stormer playing this game right now, god damn it.

GWEN: We are being attacked by [Reading] “a human weapon planning to poison the water supply with the mafia.” Now I think it makes more sense that the mafia is threatening to poison the water supply with a human weapon. So there is a person who is toxic and if this person goes swimming in the river to the west of Golden Pastures, that will infect our local water source and cause outbreaks of disease. Now why does the mob want to do this? They want to make people leave the area so they can buy up the real estate. This is perhaps connected to the real estate stuff that we dealt with earlier.

SATAH: I move my streak to skill so that is now resisted, and… what’s the challenge here? Do I want it to be finding them? Or no, they’re still like floating in their weird little pod that they went up into. They’ve just been flying around like a weirdo watching all this happen. [Laughs] And I’m gonna- I’m gonna try and just drag their ship down. I’m- I’m getting up on top of the building; I am leaping on to their little ship and trying to just pull it down to the ground. And so this is gonna be a power roll and I am using my hyper-localized gravity manipulation to be better at jumping and also then pulling them down, so I’m gonna roll three d6. And what is the genius resistant to? Mind. Okay, so. One three… Oh no. Five, yay! Okay good. [Laughs with relief]

JEFF: So now I wanna roll mind again to see if like Kelvin knows anybody that like he can be- who owes him a favor that he could maybe borrow a car from? To see if he can like give this politician a ride home? That’s a six and a four, so that is a success on a contested roll. That is a fifth experience point. We’re cruising. We’re trucking.

SATAH: I succeed at pulling them down to the ground and I have four progress points. Do I immediately wanna try and deal with the genius? Or do I want one more progress point just in case?

GWEN: What we’re going to do is go to the public library in this town and try to research the antidote to this particular poison. We can probably saturate the water with whatever will counteract this poison, so… That is mind; my mind score is a three and I rolled three fives and a four, so that is a success on that one.

JEFF: He does have a friend that he can like tap for a car. It is- I mean it’s the bodega-owner, alright? It’s Mr. Olvechkin, the owner of the corner store. Mr Olvechkin, he you know borrows the car from time to time to like go pick up groceries from some of the like the further farmers markets and further like shops. So like, Olvechkin owes him a favor so he’s able to secure a car but then he has the like drive it through the city which is colossal pain in the butt.

I’m gonna call this a skill roll; I don’t think his signature ability applies here. [Sighs] That’s a failure. Oh well then there’s absolutely- like something happens I think to disrupt this. I’m gonna take an extra dice to my next roll, and I actually think I’m gonna roll. The game does like recommend or suggest sometimes like rolling on the fighting crime tables to like have the two things inform each other. And I think while I’m in a traffic jam driving a very like annoying it and slightly snobby politician, I think that like another thing is going to occur. And so like that is what I’m gonna roll. I’m going to roll my three d20 and see where we land.

GWEN: In the library we are able to learn that a specific local plant, the oyster flower- the oyster flower when applied to the water can counteract this toxin at least briefly so that was my step one. My step two will be to use my super power and and the power of heart combined, so together that will give me a two. I’m going to plead with the local dog community. First I’m gonna get my my buddy Vampire to set up a howl, like in Disney Hundred

and One Dalmatians, to contact all the local dogs, especially you know your your labs, your Newfoundlands, your poodles, dogs that are very good at swimming. “Please dogs, you love your humans. You know you do. You don’t want your humans to fall drastically ill and have to leave this area! You like your home; you like the local parks; you like the local children; you like sniffing around outside businesses and maybe getting into somebody is interesting garbage. You, dogs of Golden Pastures, you love this place. You especially love swimming in the river. You would hate it if you had to leave and moved to somewhere without river access.” I’m gonna roll and see if I have successfully inspired the local dogs. No. Oh well. I think I was plenty inspiring but I think I’m going to give myself the misreadings, but I think that they’re like “yeah great sounds cool; where we gonna get this oyster weed, or whatever- oyster flower?” “Yeah I missed a step. You’re right sorry dogs. Shit.

SATAH: I’m gonna try and pull the door off of their ship so that I can talk to them face to face. This is gonna be a power roll using my ability, but it is resisted. So I’m gonna roll three d6 and one of them has to be a six. One. Two. One. Nope. Gonna mark a drawback for power, that’s destruction, so. Yeah I think it’s- I’m- I’m still on top of the ship. I’d- I’d shoved- I’d pulled it down to the ground or pushed it down to the ground and I’m trying to yank the door off and I just misapply the gravity and accidentally shove the ship further into the road. [Laughing] I have destroyed a lot of roads today. Heroes should probably pay higher property taxes. It is what it is. Probably is a hero tax; that’s funny. Okay, that’s for another world. That’s- that’s to think of elsewhere. And again instead of an experience I’m going to take the extra die because I’m gonna try and solve the quirky genius problem by talking to them. [Laughs]

I’m gonna be like “hey. What’s up.” Am I- is it- is there a way I could solve this with skill? Because I would prefer to mark an achievement in skill if I succeed, but is that worth it? No I don’t- I don’t think that- I don’t think that’s what this is, like I really think I am trying to just talk to this person. So I’ve got an extra die from the failure. Got four progress points so I’m going to roll five d6 and one of them has to be a five or six. Four, four, three, two, two.

GWEN: Well we are as they say back to square one.

SATAH: It’s the fire truck coming to drown my die, which is how I’m feeling. Oh god, that’s such a bummer okay. Oh that’s such a bummer, okay. I got to erase all my progress.

GWEN: Hmm, hmm, hmm. How can we find- oh well my companion is a bloodhound so does oyster flower perhaps smells like oysters? Yeah that sounds reasonable. If it looks like oysters than we’re into Georgia O’Keeffe painting territory. So I think- yeah I think it smells like oysters.

SATAH: I tried to talk to this person and I’m- I’m being like- I think I’m just- I’m just kind of- I’m trying to just like be like hey don’t hurt people, right? And it’s just not landing because this person does not care about hurting people. And they’re just they’re just talking about how the skies should belong to their corporation, you know. They’re- they’re saying- that’s- that’s their whole thing here is is they’re trying to wipe out any one else who has space interests that isn’t directly tied to their company, and they cannot be reasoned with. So I guess they have to be taken down. [Laughs]

GWEN: Renfield, Renfield please! You know what- do you know what oysters smell like?Or right so we’re going to go to the local fishmonger, and we’re going to get some oysters for my buddy to smell. I have no idea which attribute this would be.

JEFF: an extra dimensional invader wants to kidnap all pets by way of an army of robots. This is a very big wrench that I don’t think I have anything for. But if I swap out that eighteen and eleven, if I swapped the goal and the method I end up with “conjuring a mystic force through booby-trapping hostages” and the idea that like somebody just starts glowing with a like mag- like a magnetic force or like an electric force or like a- like a cosmic energy and just starts like glowing electrically? And is like getting pulled into some kind of a vortex- probably the source of the powers that have caused Thermal to go off in the direction that he’s gone off in. Like that is very compelling. There’s something very cool and that- and that energy is very exciting to me immediately. I think that like Kelvin in this car stuck in a situation where he can’t immediately help, has to kind of think about a way to like study the situation. So we’re going to start with mind.

GWEN: Let’s- let’s call this a- yeah let’s call this a mind action as well I suppose, sort of research adjacent… Yay! This time I succeeded! Hooray! “Alright, alright, Renfield! Go on, boy, oh boy let’s find a flower that smells just like this, right? Yeah you can do it! You’re a good boy! And so that is probably skill because it’s requiring my mastery over my abilities. Wah wah.

Well I’m gonna go super on this which gives me an extra die which is a two. Wah wah.

SATAH: So at this point as they’re talking they get control of the ship again. They are trying to rise up into the air and they’re doing it. And I’m gonna roll I think skill for trying to- to hang on as they’re moving. I think it’s skill because I’m- I’m seeing it as like- I’m not just trying to hold on really tight? I’m like trying to find the best place to be? Does that make sense? It feels precise to me rather than like brute force because you’d have to find where to hang out? [Laughs] As it were? So I’m gonna roll three d6. My ability- I am using it so one just as be a five or a six. Two, four, two. [Whimpers] Oh my god, so…

JEFF: Now because this is a crime one of their approaches is going to be particularly resistant, which means that this threat, this person, this extra dimensional force, this extraterrestrial raider is resistant to power and also mind. So those two things are are blocked, but skill crucially is not and also heart is not. So those are the things that I can roll fives or sixes. If I roll mind or power I have to roll sixes.

I think in this moment- I’m trying to think if there’s a way to use skill here. I don’t think there is. I think I have to roll mind immediately because like if I am going to succeed at this like I’ve got to like recognize what the booby trap is so that I can disarm it. Or actually like if I were facilitating this for a player, like it’s not as interesting to me to spot the device as it is to disarm it’s, so like I’m going to begin with a four dice roll to like overheat whatever like wrist gauntlet or- or- or techno vest this person is wearing as they are like floating in the sky. I think it is a like “I’m gonna focus on this thing and try to like blow it up.” That’s four dice; that is a six; that is a success; I’m taking a progress to solve this crime. That’s great and it was a contested roll, so that’s an extra experience point.

SATAH: Go and mark experience and a discredit, and I just fall off the ship, right? Like they successfully- they take off and I’m on the ground. And I think that their plan is to- they’re like “fine you successfully took all the pendants off. Well whatever, I will just cause an earthquake to force them to have a bunch of kinetic energy and explode everything. Whatever I’m just going to do it.” And the first thing I’m going to try and do is get back on their ship by leaping again [Laughs] and so I’m gonna roll power plus my signature ability. Three d6; streak is marked so one of these three to six has to be a sixth in order for me to successful successfully get up on their ship again. One, five, doesn’t do it, one, nope. I’m gonna change d6es. [Laughs]

“Causes more destruction” I just misjudge, right? I try and leap onto a building and I do heavy gravity when I should do low gravity and I just like crack a wall and then fall down. So I’m breaking stuff and they successfully get away.

JEFF: So like the thing pops, this person falls to the ground. Kelvin like rushes over, grabs them. I might actually- I don’t think so. I think they fall to the ground and then Kelvin rushes to them I think that like the thing that is compelling to me is this extra-dimensional presence, this like energy being from a cosmic hell dimension like pulling through. And I think like Kelvin having these- these powers? Already sorta getting pulled towards a vortex so. I am going to like- hand you know energy hand around his throat, start to pull him towards the the vortex and he’s going to have to like get his way out of here how will he do this? Can he use his powers? Oh I could do I mean I could do skill again. Let me think about this.

GWEN: Oh you know what I misread my skills stat! I have one more die! Wouldn’t it be amazing if this is a success. It isn’t though. Yeah my buddy does his sniffing around, but he just cannot find any oyster flowers in the neighbourhood. Hmm.

JEFF: It could go either way. I’m looking at skill it’s “solving problems by acting with precision, creating an opening and acting on it or making things go according to your plan.” I’m going to roll three dice; I’m gonna call this mind. This is gonna be an uncontested roll with three dice. Signature ability? I think I’m gonna try and- You know I looked at a car earlier. I think I’m going to try and cause a car to explode- or get car engine to catch fire to like cause a- like distract this entity. With two fives and a the six that is a success baby! That is two progress.

GWEN: Maybe we gotta- we- we- we gotta stop. We gotta redirect We gotta rethink. We gotta stop the guy from getting in the water in the first place. Now normally I would just say well obviously we’ll sick some dogs on him before he gets in, but I don’t want the dogs to bite the toxic guy. That’s his name “the toxic guy.” His name is Guy [pronounced Ghee], Toxic Guy. I don’t want my my dog friends to bite him and get themselves sick especially if we’re having trouble locating the antidote. I think we need to set a trap?

SATAH: So I think the next move is gonna be to try and go to like the box of pendants and put a low gravity bubble around them so that they can’t be shaken up. And hopefully the- the quirky genius isn’t actually triggering the whole earthquake because that would be- [Laughs] that’s a whole other set of problems. But oh I was thinking “first I have to get back in the town square” but no I can just run back into the town square. You can get in, you just can’t get out. And I run over to the box of pendants that I collected earlier and I’m gonna roll skill with my signature ability to try and put them in low gravity. That’s three d6. I need a five or six. I rolled a two and a six and a four, okay I’m good! Yay! I’m gonna mark progress.

JEFF: Fire, explo- minor explosions, the energy kinda like lashes about and I think like I’m gonna like try and wait for this thing to emerge, you know what I mean? And like this- and I think the visual reference point I have here is the electricity gremlin from Gremlins 2? That’s in the movie.

And I think it’s going to be a fireball to the face. I think that this is a- this is a skill maneuver. It is like Pyro from X-Men style catchings some fire from that from that explosion, whipping it in the direction of the tunnel just to like force this entity backwards.

That is a six, a six, a three, and a two baby. Now we’re crushing it.

SATAH: I’ve got the pendants in a low gravity bubble so the quirky genius can’t just like shake everything up and explode it. Man losing all that progress is nasty. Okay so I’m like- okay I need to find somewhere to put these pendants so that I don’t have to hold them so that I can deal with this villain, this quirky genius. And it occurs to me that maybe I could put them in water? float them in water so that like they’ll be suspended in there? [Laughs] At least for a little while. And I can go deal with the- with the with the quirky genius and…

What do I want to use to solve that? I wonder if this should be heart because I’m asking a business owner if I can like throw a bunch of stuff in there sink. Yeah, why not? [Laughs] I can roll- I can roll two d6. I don’t think my signature ability as wel- is relevant here but I’m just trying to convince somebody to let me fill up their dishwashing sink and put these pendants in here so that they’re less likely to get shaken up. I’m gonna roll two d6. I rolled a two and a four. [Laughs] I’s going- this is a bad day. This is not a good day.

So the thing is I think I do it. I do fill up the sink and put the pendants in there but this person is really mad at me and they’re gonna pull the plug to drain the sank but I still have a little bit of time where they’re- the pendants are still suspended in the water to try and go deal with the quirky genius. [Laughs] And what are they trying to do right now? They still really want to blow up this town square I think. They are in fact gonna try- they’re they’re working on trying to genuinely trigger an earthquake. They have a big weird laser and they’re pointing it at the ground trying to make something shift so that a big earthquake happens. Just gotta look up real quick… [Typing] Are lasers affected by gravity?

JEFF: So I really like this energy that like Kelvin- Thermal, and I think crucially Thermal, has like a- gotta be just like a ski- like a ski mask, like a balaclava like over his head. Like I don’t like we’re in costume territory yet, but is clearly like whipping fireballs and is like clearly in control at this moment. So a streak activates on skill.

SATAH: All the results I’m getting our about whether lasers have gravity, not whether I could bend a laser with gravity. Okay. Pivot. What do we do?

JEFF: I could try and solve this with power but I’m going to- I’m gonna roll three more dice one more time because I think like Kelvin is trying to strategically cause a little bit more destruction to like- setting up a plan to set up power to really be successful. Which is going to be claiming that four dice, but I think is like engaging things to make things go according to plan and that feels very tied to mind, which is contested. And it’s a failure; that is a point of miscalculation!

SATAH: It hasn’t gone well for me so far but I think I am gonna try another heart roll. I was trying to think through in part how I can involve my ability in my heart rolls? And I think what I’m doing is I’ve been listening to this person talk about space and they are talking mostly about how space should belong to their corporation, but I’m takin’ a bet that that comes from them carrying a lot about space and thinking it’s cool. At it’s heart, like it’s been corrupted obviously but like that I think is the core of it. And I wanna use my powers to like be like “but look at what we can do when we can all touch the universe. Look what it can do for us.” And I think what it is I’m gonna have a bunch of debris from their earthquake laser? A bunch of the debris from their earthquake laser- I’m going to start orbiting around me to like try and really connect with them on like “hey we all love space, look at me!” [Laughs]

So I gotta roll a three d6 and if one of them is a five or a six, I’ll do it. I got a five! Yay! I got a three and a one, or a one and a three, but I did it. So this makes them hesitate you know they are like- they’ve been ranting about like this place has to go and this at least like has gotten to them. I don’t think they turn the laser off or anything yet, but like it has fundamentally shaken their like passion. And I think I wanna throw all of the rocks that I have orbiting me at their ship. [Laughs] To take it down. Or at least throw them at the laser to take it out. Yeah I think that’s probably the thing to do. Is that skill or power? Power would take the whole ship out and it would probably be skill, like, precision to take just the laser out. I think I’m gonna go for power. I am using my signature ability to to toss these rocks, so three d6. I’ve got to get a five or a six. Four, one, two. [Sighs hugely] Okay. Mark experience and [Laughing quietly] I cause a bunch of destruction. The rocks just bounce off of a shield- there’s a shield around the ship and it just- they all bounce off. And they go through some windows.

And I think I’m going to immediately redirect into trying to just destroy the laser. Because I’m like, the lasers coming out, it’s probably unshielded. So I’m just gonna try and roll- I gonna like have- pick up more of these- like more the rocks that are orbiting me and try and just take out the laser. So three d6 and you need a five or a six. One, two, six! Thank goodness!

GWEN: In a real world mystery story they’d probably be like “we’ll call the police for backup” but ah that’s- that’s not how we roll here in Friendly Neighbourhood. I dunno, maybe the Golden Pastures cops are corrupt. They probably are. So we got dogs, we got me, my little person. Maybe some kind of like trip wire type trap we can set up outside? I’m- I’m envisioning like in- in like superhero toy play sets there’s often like a spring loaded trap that drops a net down and catches people? I’m a superhero. I got access to that sorta thing, right? I’m going to assume that’s either power or skill. And my skill is a better number than my power so let’s roll skill on that! Yay! Thank you bright green mad science dice!

SATAH: So I take out the laser. The villain cannot cause this earthquake at least, They are less willing to listen to me then they were before because of how I used their hesitation to throw a bunch of rocks at them. Fair. But I think I’m gonna do one more thing and then either have an extra progress point or use the extra die from a failure. [Laughs]

When I take the laser out I see the the shield on their ship flicker and so I’m hoping to try and no, no, no it’s not that. I was gonna try and make this power because skill- skill is currently resisted, but I think this is a skill roll. I successfully took out the laser and I know there’s that little gap in the shield there and so I want to try and take the ship down again, sending more rocks through that tiny hole in the shield. So that is like more precise than it is overwhelming. It’s kind of in between the two but I think the precision is more important because it was just bounce off the shield if I don’t get it through that specific gap in the shield. So. Gonna roll three d6 and it is resisted so I do have to get a six.

I got a four. I got a six! And another six. So that means I get an extra xp because I succeeded on a resisted roll and I am up to four progress which means! I’m gonna try and be decisive here and I’m gonna try- the ship- the- the- the- quirky genius’s ship is lowering to the ground and I am gonna try and get them to give up. And I’m gonna do it with a heart roll.

JEFF: I think like in causing- you know in like trying to like cause more fires- I think that- oh buddy. I think that the I think that the cops are here like I think that people are pulling up and here is a guy in a ski mask lighting fires. Even with the thing like there are guns pointed at him. Ah I am going to take the point of experience, take a miscalculation. He is now seen as a bit of a menace.

SATAH: I’m- I’m just like “hey what I was saying before about how the universe is beautiful and it’s more beautiful if we all get to touch it instead of just one privately owned corporation getting to touch it? It’s true and there’s still time for you to come to our side.” I’m gonna roll four d6 because I have four progress points, and if one of those is a five or six, we’re good.

JEFF: I’m gonna roll these three dice. This is power so this is technically I guess contested. Actually I can call this skill. So it’s three dice that is uncontested. But it doesn’t matter because that’s a four. A four and a six so that is a successful solving of the problem.

SATAH: Five, and another five, and a three, and a six! Yay! It doesn’t mean anything but I just like to know how hard I succeeded. [Laughs] So.

JEFF: That is a successful solving of the problem. We’re locked in. We’re good. We have resolved the crisis. “You have solved a problem. Take one achievement-”

SATAH: I’m gonna mark an achievement in heart.

JEFF: “Effectiveness represents when you see that solving a problem through the use of skill. People believe you’re capable, know what you’re doing. I think that this is just a very kind of like targeted like “that fireball worked before. That fireball hit before.” What this looks like is just more of that. Like there’s fire on the ground, Thermal is able to like take that fire, blast this thing through a portal, through like the tear in reality causing it to seal up.

SATAH: And the quirky genius just starts crying in their ship, right? And they’re like “they told me it was the only way. Over and over again they’ve been saying ‘it’s the only way. We have to control the skies; we have to make sure that no one else can touch them because that’s the the only way that we get to explore them as fully as we want to.’ They said that no one else is gonna succeed and they’ll only get in our way and we just- we have to- we have to take everyone else out so that they won’t ruin it. they said it was the only way.” And I am like you know I gesture, I put my arms out, all of the rocks that I was orbiting around me drop and I’m like “here in Iris we always think there’s more ways than one. We think that there’s a lot of solutions to any problem. And we think that everybody deserves a chance to fix things their way.” The shield- they- they- I go over to open the ship door and it’s unlocked now and I’m- they- they did threaten to blow up a bunch of people so they are gonna have to go and you know… They’re going to go to science jail for a little while [Laughs] and rehabilitate a bit. But then I think they’re going to live here and there could be really great. They’re going to do a great job and they’re gonna enjoy it. [Laughs]

But I leave that- I leave that for the- I leave that for the local authorities, who are not cops. There are no cops here. And science jail isn’t actually jail, it’s just you know- This is a villain they gotta go somewhere to like chill out and be taught how to the have better interpersonal skills and whatever. That’s not my jurisdiction. I’m a hero. [Laughs] I dirt away and the thing that I dart away to I think is probably the second part of my day which is helping a neighbor.

JEFF: Now see this is interesting because now we’re back to the neighbor problem and what we can do here that’s very compelling is like Kelvin’s got the ability to light some shit on fire and actually like exploit the fact that there are cops here pointing guns at him. They already think he’s a little bit of a menace, so I’m gonna roll three dice here. This will be contested but this will be a mind roll.

That’s a six, a three, and a five, so that’s a success! that’s a point of progress!

GWEN: I’m standing outside the warehouse and I’m listening and I hear the mafia boss, Don… Caglioni. I dunno. That sounds Italian. Does that mean anything? I dunno. Don Caglioni is talking to Guy and Guy says [In a French Accent] “ah, monsieur, I am going to poison the river! And zen ze people will move away from zis town and you can buy up all ze empty land!”

[Deep voice] “Ye,s yes, that sounds that sounds lovely.” I don’t know why the mob boss talks like this but I can’t do a Jersey Italian or Chicago Italian voice so he sounds like this now. Don Caglioni says “yes…. and then by the time everyone moves away my oyster flower crops will be ready to harvest. Now they are just seedlings; they have not begun to produce the smell of oysters. Thank goodness, I hate the smell of oysters. But we have them in a special greenhouse and they will grow and then we can clean the river once we have purchased all this cheap land. Bwa ha ha ha ha.”

[Regular voice] Oh no.

JEFF: Kelvin is like directing the police to this- to this councilwoman as a way to say “you need to rescue her” and I think like is like playing it up a little bit as like a little bit of a batman a little bit of “I’m a menace!” And I think what I’m gonna do here is actually a little bit of- I think this is power because this is about magnitude, not ah- not skill necessarily like this is about like things being big and not necessarily things being like targeted. so. I’m gonna roll two dice here and use my special ability and try to put on a light show to make it like a little bit scary?

[Sighs] and that’s a pair of fives! There we go! Okay that’s an ex- that’s a second point of progress!

SATAH: Let’s see what the neighbor problem is. Personality is practical, so they are impressed by skill. Everything else that you try to do is resistant. Their occupation is performer. A practical performer, that’s fun. Age: adult. Now what is their trouble? What do they need help with? Thirteen. Finding a missing person?

GWEN: Now I’m going to spring my trap and it’s gonna catch both of them! I don’t think I have enough evidence on Don Caglioni but Toxic Guy? Man he has- he’s already on the run! He’s escaped from prison a couple times already by poisoning the prison guards. You’d think they’d, you know, be prepared for that but. [Sighs] Superhero comics, am I right?

SATAH: So I think this is- this performer is probably here for the festival. Take the shields- the shields- the shields go down, or like the little the around the town- town square. The field goes down and I am like making my way away from the ship trying to get somewhere where I can change out of my costume. And somebody grabs me and is like “hey” it’s like a musician. They’re in a band and they’re like- they say that one of their bandmates has gone missing and they ask like “did you see them like when you were collecting the pendants from everybody? Did you see them because I think that they had one.” I think what this is going to be is that like- you know how I destroyed a bunch of streets and stuff? [Laughs] They fell in.

Not fully like they’re not bodily- their whole body trapped in a street. Or are they? Yeah they were- they were riding their bike with a cart that had a bunch of their gear in it and they fell into a crack in the street that- like a big, open up into the sewers or something type crack in the street that I did! Oops! And how do I find them?

JEFF: I think like the thing now is like they they- you know they’re probably rushing towards the council member, and like now I kind of need like get out of here and that to me feels like skill. This feels opposed or resisted?

But that’s a four, a six, and a six, so that is a third point of progress. I think I am like using the explosions and the fire to like duck behind a corner. I am now going to roll mind to see if everything goes according to plan. Oh, and that’s a three, a two, and a six. Okay there we go. This is what needed to happen.

SATAH: I think like the the musician that I meet is like “they live here, our rehearsal space is here, can you please help- like I’m gonna go to the rehearsal space if you can go to their house?” And I’m like “ yeah, sure,” and I have this sinking feeling because I know the road [Laughs] is one that I destroyed by throwing a spaceship into it, or like a little hover ship into it. And I’m gonna go and go down this road and I see this person. Are they in the crack? Or is it- is it that their gear fell down? I’m just trying to think whether like finding them right away would be sort of like solving the trouble, or if like rescuing them is the trouble.

GWEN: As they shake- they shake their hands in agreement of their contract. Money changes hands and Toxic Guy gets up to leave and Caglioni follows him. And they trip the trip wire and bang! A net falls on them and they are scrambling to get away. “Ha ha, I’ve got you now! The Blue Shepherd can not allow this to continue!” And I guess at this point I call my trusted police? That seems to be how this sort of thing works. I don’t like that, but [Shrug noise].

SATAH: I think- you know I’ve got my four progress points. I might just try and solve this right away and I think- so I- I come along and I see this big hole in the ground and this person is down there. I don’t think it’s that they fell into a sewer, it is really just- it- there’s a crater and they and their gear fell in. And they like- they could maybe get out, but they couldn’t get out without their gear and they’re not gonna leave a bunch of their expensive gear at the bottom of this crater.

And so I’m going to try and immediately solve this with skill! I’m going to you know try and help them float the gear out of the crater. And so I’ve got four progress points and I’m using my signature ability, which I think I can add too? So I’m a ruling five d6. And the musician is practical and a impressed by skill, so this is not a resisted roll. This is just a just five or a six on five d6. One, a six, a four, a three, a two, and a four. Welp. Got my six; doesn’t even matter.

JEFF: This is all what needed to happen to get done with his very very long very very bad day.

Ducks off, very like grabs the councilwoman. They load her into a car. She gets home safe. Ah the papers report like a strange masked menace, the Thermal- the Thermal Nightmare as he is referred to in the papers, and Kelvin’s okay with that. They didn’t get his actual face which is the thing that matters. I do get to mark a point in control. “Control represents you succeed in problem solving through the use of mind. People believe you are able to come up with a solution for every problem no matter how hard. Keeping the community safe through a feeling that everything is under your control.

SATAH: Gonna mark affectiveness, that’s the skill achievement.

GWEN: Who else do I call? I got a cop- Oh my god I’m gonna call poison control. “Yes, hello, poison control? Yes this is the Blue Shepherd speaking. I have apprehended Toxic Guy. Please send your operatives as soon as possible to Port Royal Blvd. Yes, thank you, Mount Royal whatever I said it was.” Click. And- and me and my canine pal slip away unseen before the poison control officers arrive and also Don Caglioni’s expensive lawyers. You don’t know who I am so you can’t pursue legal action! Neener neener neener!

SATAH: And I think that’s it! I sort of just- I help them get their gear out of the crater and they look at be significantly and they’re like “so any idea what- what caused this big crater” and I sort of like, eyes-widened slightly “you know, there was a situation” or “have you heard on the radio?” And they’re like “uh huh, well, thanks. Guess we should install a bridge temporarily” and I’m like “yeah that’s not a bad idea. Thanks.” And they’re gonna go on their way and reunite with their band mates. And so I think I’m good to call it a day!

JEFF: Which brings us to the end of our day.

GWEN: And now to conclude our day.

SATAH: “Calling it for the day- calling it in for the day” [Laughs]

JEFF: Naturally we reset everything. We recover from streaks; we reset our progress.

SATAH: “Create a scene to end your day. Go better place and rest up or check on your neighbors.” I mean I’m going to go to the festival, right? I’m going to change back- ah no first I’m going to change back into my work clothes, go back to the cafe and I think in this particular instance for going to pretend that no one really noticed. There were probably a couple people who come in to- oh right and nobody would have been coming into order because the town square was locked down anyway so. We’re all good; I got away with this one. I’m gonna go finish up my shift, [Laughs] and then go to the festival.

JEFF: And I “get to either choose a crime goal or a neighbor trouble to solve permanently. Describe that solution; mark your choice of problem down. Whenever it comes into play again every roll receives one extra dice to solve it.”

SATAH: So the goal was planting bombs at the town square. [Laughs] I think the thing that makes sense here is that I solved- permanently solved the finding a missing person trouble. Obviously this will have to be abstracted somewhat if that comes out, but with this looks like here is like fixing the damage to the road so that people don’t fall into it. [Laughs] And yeah that will have to be abstracted a little to see why I get an extra die, but. You know, uh,people are kept- people are like “I should be careful.” [Laughs] Yeah.

JEFF: The logical option here really feels like Kelvin has been studying the sort of wrist gauntlet that made a connection to this other world and like is trying to understand the thing that is like the energy source I think that is giving him his powers. He’s trying to understand this because clearly there is something, like a cosmic presence, that is much larger than Kelvin that is the source of his powers and is the source of the powers of everybody else in the city.

GWEN: Me ad my buddy go home job well done eventually but first we’re gonna check in on our friend from before, the jewelry designer Ms. Emerald. Now even with our help Ms. Emerald does still live under capitalism. And I feel like that’s a little too much to just say okay we’re gonna solve the problem by ending capitalism. But perhaps we can solve the problem by purchasing her building ourselves?

We can make it been known to the corrupt mobbed up landlords that she’s under our protection and if you’re gonna keep raising her rent there will be more consequences from- dun dun duh dun- the Blue Shepherd. Yes so I’m going to go on my secret superhero social media and post about how Ms. Emerald is under our protection because of her wonderful service to me and Vampire making us these special collars that we now use on all our adventures and if anyone messes with her they are messing with us. And remember we’re the ones who just busted Don Caglioni; we are not to be messed with. Good night, people of Golden Pastures. Sleep easy.

JEFF: The final piece of the days that I have eight points of experience to spend. I know I’ve been talking about potentially upping- waiting until I have ten experience the up my power, but I think I’m gonna do- for now especially after that was a particularly stressful day- I’m gonna up my signature abilities power by one so that I’m rolling two dice whenever I’m using my powers. And also I am going to wipe one of these points of miscalculation. I think that is going to like allow me to stay in the game and push towards like a positive outcome which I think is where I’m trying to head towards.

GWEN: I’ve built up four experience. Four experience. I can get better at talking to dogs? Yes I like that. Yes I’m going to level up my special ability. Now when I need to talk to dogs I roll two extra dice. Heck yeah.

SATAH: I think I have nine experience, so. I think I’m gonna bank this because at ten xp I can increase an attribute or earn an achievement or get a new signature ability and that’s big. So I think I’m just gonna just gonna bank it, just gonna hold on to it and head to bed!

JEFF: And with that, you know in his one bedroom apartment, like he’s sitting over a soldering iron with the windows open like trying to like dissect this gauntlet. That is where we end day one of Kelvin’s story.

GWEN: And that’s the conclusion of day one of our adventure!

SATAH: So that didn’t end up a lot faster, um… I think- I guess in part because I had to arrest all my progress the middle there. Which I think if I was just playing regular game wouldn’t feel so bad you know. But because I’m recording a podcast and have certain time limits, it’s a little tougher. So I just want to prioritize having enough progress points that it’s very likely I will succeed on challenges so I don’t have to erase progress. I’m looking at days probability calculators once you get four d6es, the chance that you will rule at least one five or six is 80%. Five you’re looking at nearly 90%, and six is- you’re at a little bit over 90%. So I definitely want at least four, maybe five, we’ll see.

OUTRO

SATAH: This has been Folio, an actual play podcast about solo and otherwise self-paced TTRPGs. To find where you can find the show, check out foliopod.carrd.co.

You can find Gwen @gwenfrankenstien on Bluesky.

You can find Jeff at partyofonepodcast.com and jeffstormer.com.

You can find Satah-that’s me-at gaygothvibes.online and follow me on Bluesky at posatahchips.gaygothvibes.online.

Next week, Gwen and Jeff and I will continue our games of Friendly Neighbourhood Superhero by Catscratcher Studio, found at catscratcher.itch.io. Everything I mentioned here is linked in the show notes. Thanks so much for listening and take care out there!