New Game Showcase: Hunt(er/ed) (w/Lexi aka blackgirlmage)

Kenzie Tartaglione:

Hello everybody, welcome back to queeRPG. And we're doing another New Game Showcase here. The last one we did was for Valentine's Day. We did Elliot Davis's Rom Com Drama Bomb. But this time we're doing “Hunt(er/ed)”, which is a new game by Superdillin and Meghan Cross. This is going up on Kickstarter on July 15th, which is the day this comes out. So we're partnering with them to show off their new game and hopefully you guys will like it and head over to the Kickstarter and check it out.

But to play with me today, because this is a two player game, I have a wonderful guest who I'm super excited to have on the podcast for the first time, Lexi!

Lexi:

Oh my goodness! Hello! Hi!

Kenzie:

Hello, hello. Where can people find you on the interwebs? What do you do?

Lexi:

Yeah, so my name's Lexi. I go as blackgirlmage on all of the internet everywhere.

Kenzie:

Valid, so do I. I think that's probably why I started a podcast.

Lexi:




Yeah, maybe. Maybe.

Kenzie:

Maybe there's a reason for that. But yeah, I'm super excited to have you here to play through this game with me. I think it's going to be super fun.

So Hunt(er/ed) is a two player collaborative storytelling game. You start out choosing who is going to be the hunter and who is going to be the monster. There is a dice mechanic in this as well as a playing card mechanic so you have 2d6 and you do a roll-off between the two players and whomever gets to doubles first wins that part of the round which is considered the chase. And after the chase is over, then you settle into doing a role playing scene. And you do this as many times as it takes to complete the game. We have a tracker. Every time you win, you get one step closer to your quarry. And yeah, those are kind of the basics of it.

But this game is super collaborative and wants you to do character creation and setting creation together jointly. So we are gonna do that for you here today.

Lexi, do you have a thought about whether or not you want to be the hunter or the monster?

Lexi:

I would love to be the hunter, I think.

Kenzie:

Cool.

Lexi:




I don't know why.

Kenzie:

You know what? Sometimes the words just call to you.

Lexi:

It does, it does. I was like, this side of the playbook looks interesting. What kind of genre are we playing this in?

Kenzie:

That is completely up to us to create and once we get into like setting the stage that's another question so we can answer that now. This game came off to me a little bit horror-esque -

Lexi:

What if it's like a world, like sort of Western based and instead of, you know, worrying about thieves and robbers and whatever else, people have to worry about monsters in the sense of like gigantic oil monsters.

Kenzie:

Do you mean literal oil tycoons or do you mean…

Lexi:




Yes.

Kenzie:




Okay, so the evil capitalist...




Lexi:

The evil capitalists. But maybe it's actually like - don't know, I don't know if we how much world-building we have to do here, but -

Kenzie:

Yeah, if you would actually prefer to start out in the collaborative stage setting, we can absolutely do that if that would help you more before we jump into character.

Lexi:




Yeah, let's do that.

Kenzie:




Yeah, so the first question on that is where does the hunt take place? And the second question is what time period real or imagined?

Lexi:

I kind of like the vibe of a, you know, frontier kind of setting. Imagined in that there is probably a little bit more technology than like - a little bit more technology than what actually existed back then. But and also like these oil things, these oil monsters are not exactly real.

Kenzie:

I think that's cool. It sounds to me a little bit kind of like a post-apocalyptic setting simply because there's more technology but like everything is deserted sort of vibe.

Lexi:

Yes. Yeah.

Kenzie:

Yeah, into that.

Lexi:

Yeah, like we've reverted to saloons because it's like the only way to get a drink to get like - you have to be with other people. Maybe you have to make noise or something. I don't know. One of those kinds of constrictions where it's like, it makes sense that in order to survive, we kind of go back to not using electricity and people kind of flock together, but it's a generally very gravely silent setting. Like nobody's having fun.

Kenzie:

No fun allowed in these towns.

Lexi:

No fun allowed.

Kenzie:




I'm totally into that. Also, weirdly enough, it kind of fits in with the next season of our show we're doing, which is a horror western.

Lexi:

Yeah. yes, yes.

Kenzie:

Cool, it says you will open the game at the beginning of the hunt or you will pick up amidst an ongoing hunt. What do you think about that? I'm thinking like maybe the beginning.

Lexi:

Yeah.

Kenzie:

So we can maybe set the stage a bit.

Lexi:

Exactly. If it - if it - that's mostly, I think, is good for me, but it's also good for you to know where you are. If you are the monster, you know?

Kenzie:

Uh-huh. Uh-huh.

Lexi:

How far away from me are you?

Kenzie:

And there's two more questions here, but I actually think I want to save those until after we figure out a little bit more about our characters. You are the mighty monster hunter. I am the oil monster. Are we going for literal with this? Like the oil monster is a literal monster made of oil? Are we going with it's a person who has come to some place and kind of destroyed it by building like an oil rig? Are we doing metaphor completely? What do you think?

Lexi:

It could be a complete metaphor. And I also don't think you have to be an oil monster super - like that could also just be like the incentive for me to chase you is that you are unlike the monsters that I've had to go after.

Kenzie:

Mmm, okay.

Lexi:




But you're different enough that I do have to hunt you. But maybe you aren't full like Kaiju oil monster level, you know?

Kenzie:

Uh-huh, uh-huh, alrighty. I kind of like that.

Lexi:

Unless you wanna be an oil monster.

Kenzie:

No, no, no, no, no, I don't really actually want to be an oil monster.

Lexi:

Right. Right. You don't want to be covered in goop all day, unable to sleep or anything.

Kenzie:

I think there's a cool thing here of the oil monsters and humanity mixing in a sense and I'm like the in between. So I'm close enough to human that it's even scarier that I'm not human.

Lexi:

Yeah, like I literally have to haunt you because there's no - like I can't explain it. And part of it is probably other people being afraid because they're like, what does this mean for humanity? But then me just like deep curiosity of like, what is this thing? What is going on?

Kenzie:

Yeah, yeah.

Lexi:

I love it.

Kenzie:

I kind of like a humanoid-esque creature with like grayish skin and just like black veins that are like quote-unquote the oil kind of running through the visage -

Lexi:




Yeah.

Kenzie:




-and like the face is not really clear. You get like an outline, but it's not fully there.

Lexi:

Ugh, if it was like bubbling or like rippling oil waves over your face.

Kenzie:

Yeah.

Lexi:

It’s like you everything else is like skin and bones, but like in just veins and then the face is just like The loss of the humanity there. Oh, this is so sick. Okay, great

Kenzie:

I feel like we already answered your question which is what is driving you to pursue your quarry which is I am not -

Lexi:

The strangeness.

Kenzie:

- yeah the strangeness the weird and it says were you hired or charged by someone else or is this all you?

Lexi:

I think it's half and half. I think I was hired probably by whatever town. I assume it's a pretty like small location, like small town where there's a bunch of people and then it's just wilds everywhere else where you can encounter anything that's left over in this post-apocalyptic landscape, which is cool because we can be creative with what we actually encounter out there. But I think people from the town probably figured out what was going on and I don't know, maybe you're from the town. I don't know, we can decide that stuff for you too, but I think the people in town hired me. And then the other half of it is just curiosity. Like, what does this mean for everyone if this is becoming a norm? And who are you? Who were you?

Kenzie:

Yeah, I kind of like the idea of like meshing this with like a changeling tale -

Lexi:

Mm-hmm.

Kenzie:

-where some woman gave birth in town and I was what came out and they were like, absolutely the fuck not.

Lexi:

(Laughs)

Kenzie:

And like deserted me in the wilds wherever. And so I grew up with this malice towards that town because they disowned me.

Lexi:

Yeah.

Kenzie:




But not quite enough like brotherhood kinship with the actual oil monsters to fully integrate into that society either.

Lexi:

You having both worlds and not being able to be a part of fully either one of them, partially because humanity has the best and worst among them, and sadly the worst is probably what maybe prevailed. And these oil monsters, the lack of humanity is probably the problem there. Yeah, that's so cool. That is so cool.

Kenzie:

And so why did you choose to stay is one of the questions I have. And I don't think I did. I think I'm almost like rooted to this earth and this land. So I couldn't escape even if I wanted to or tried to.

Lexi:

Dang. It's devastating. Love it.

Kenzie:

Question for you, you carry with you signature weapon. What is it and what about it is more than it seems?

Lexi:

I've gotta go - I've gotta go like blunderbuss. I've gotta go like a long barreled, Wynonna Earp. But like, you know what I'm saying?

Kenzie:

Yes! Yes!

Lexi:

Like, I got a couple of shots and they're very good. but -

Kenzie:

We just actually set this in purgatory from that show.

Lexi:

Okay, yeah, sure. Real or imagined. Let's, just put it in the best town on earth. That's also kind of what I'm imagining. Like tons of people that are just afraid. They’re afraid, they don't really know what's going on. And what has prevailed is this like neo-Western vibe. But yeah, I think I do have just like this very long barreled gun that I use. What is, what is its name? That's a real question. I feel like it's gotta be something like heaven or like. It's gotta be -I feel like it's gotta be tied

Kenzie:

I feel like there's something with angel in there -

Lexi:




-to paradise or something.

Kenzie:




- that could work like angel something or yeah.

Lexi:




Right? Seraphim, I just call it biblically accurate.

Kenzie:




Biblically accurate. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm sure there's a gun name generator.

Lexi:

Yeah, wait, here we go, here we go. Fantasy name generators, do not fail me now. This is rifle names, here we go.

Kenzie:




Salvation.

Lexi:

Whoa, salvation is great.

Kenzie:




Willbreaker.

Lexi:




Dominion.

Kenzie:




Oooooh.

Lexi:




Corpse maker.

Kenzie:




Oooooh.

Lexi:




I feel like I gotta go corpse maker, right? Or dominion, dominion is so good. Let's see, Serenity, There it is. Serenity.

Kenzie:

Okay, Serenity, Love it.

Lexi:

That’s so great. Ties back to our angel theme. That would also be dope if the kind of hunter that I am, if like, if I'm outside of the law in some way, shape or form and people hired me, if the people that do this kind of thing that actually hunt oil monsters are called angels -

Kenzie:

Mmmm, okay, yeah.

Lexi:

-or whatever, that would fit perfect into like that genre, the style of it too.

Kenzie:

Okay, that's cool, that's cool. And what about your gun is more than it seems? Like does it, like what's the, I suppose, supernatural, what does it do?

Lexi:

I think there's something here with like, force, like bullets being expelled by force and barreling through its target using like momentum, speed, velocity, and maybe my bullets just expel light instead?

Kenzie:

You’re never gonna be able to shoot something and it bounces off. It kind of like rips through -

Lexi:

Absolutely tears through.

Kenzie:




- whatever material it hits, yeah.

Lexi:




Which can be a little bit dangerous if I like miss it, especially I assume with like all of the old, you know, mining shafts and whatever, it's like old structures, withered wood. If I miss, like a lot of bad things can happen because it'll just tear straight through for a very long time. But I think that it's not - I think I do have a regular gun, that has regular bullets, but this gun specifically - or maybe I just have like a knife or whatever - but this gun specifically shoots these like bullets of light rather than bullets of like metal steel.

Kenzie:

My question is, you have heard the stories told about you. What do people say about you and how much of these stories are true? I love when the horror story is real, that thing is horrific, but the actual like purpose or like heart of the thing that is the horror isn't bad.

Lexi:

Yeah. Yeah.

Kenzie:

So I was kind of considering like the game starting out with you finding me in the town, like watching people -

Lexi:

Yeah.

Kenzie:

- and then starting the chase and then my end goal would be to get back to like the oil mine, because that is kind of my home in my quote unquote safe space.

Lexi:

Yeah.

Kenzie:

And so I kind of like that people probably, it's like one of those things where again, I’m - It almost hurts more that the people in the town also, I think, don't put me in with the oil monsters.

Lexi:

Yeah.

Kenzie:




They're like, actually we're shunning you because you're a bad human.

Lexi:

Yeah, yep.

Kenzie:

And I'm like, but I'm not like -

Lexi:




I could be worse.

Kenzie:

I could be worse or maybe I'm just not bad. And maybe you shouldn't have kicked me out and isolated me and all that so I feel like it's the misunderstood monster that doesn't necessarily you know it doesn't make the things that they have done okay -

Lexi:

Yeah.

Kenzie:

But I think creates some sort of heart and pause at the end where it's like does this creature deserve to be dead or rehabilitated

Lexi:

I think a very powerful opening maybe, I don't know if we start the game, like if we just start, you know, with a scene or whatever, but like the moment that I even passed like hunting you or like first catching you watching people, just like me looking down the barrel of my gun, I have the opportunity to kill you and I just let you go.

Kenzie:

Yeah, we can definitely start it out like that. That's good.

Lexi:




And me having to deal with that, that would be so sick.

Kenzie:

Because that actually like puts an active thing into the hunt where it's like you had the moment you didn't shoot, I noticed you and start running.

Lexi:

Yes, yes. And then you know what I look like too.

Kenzie:

You have heard stories of the monster you hunt. What do you know about the quarry and do you believe everything you have heard about it?

Lexi:

I think all of the stories I've heard are the monstrous side of you. Like I was - bI think I was fully expecting a monster. I was expecting a tycoon, you know, like I don't know what we're calling them. But yeah, I think, I think that's a great word for them. And especially, I don't know, what kind of crimes would you have gotten up to? Being that I imagine that these like tycoon oil monsters are gigantic, but not Kaiju level. I used the word Kaiju earlier. I don't think it's Kaiju level, but I think they're huge. Like I feel like they're big as a house or something, which is the danger of fighting them is that they don't go down with one shot and it takes a while to whittle it down and like actually kill it. Maybe we could come up with like a what their weakness might be together. But I think that like I was hearing mostly monstrous things, but they weren't big enough to condone me going and like doing a full hunt. Like you weren't ripping barns apart or like doing anything of the like. So I don't know what kind of crimes do you think you would have gotten up to?

Kenzie:

I think that it’s - god, this sounds so small, but I think it was like trespassing where simply people are horrified of me. I didn't have to do anything. I had to be seen. So my crime was being seen. And that was terrifying enough for you to be called in to take care of the problem.

Lexi:

I can imagine someone calling me in and like, when I actually go to investigate, like I asked to see the place myself and see what you had done. And it's like, everything's in the same place. Maybe there's like a kitchen, like a cabinet open or something. But like just these like black steps on the ground, like from where you definitely snuck in. It's just, this is - yeah, this is a problem, but it's like, it could just be a petty crime, but it's happening a lot. Yeah. Right.

Kenzie:

Yeah, yeah, and it's unnatural, the thing that is doing it. Do you believe me to be one of the oil tycoon monsters or do you believe I'm something different?

Lexi:

I think that I think you're something new and scarier up until the moment that I see you. So maybe up until the moment that we start this adventure, this story together, I think you're something worse. I do think you're an oil tycoon. I'm just like, I'm not really sure what or how one could be this small and unnoticeable. That's unheard of.

So I think I believe everything that people are saying about you. I believe that you're stealing things. I believe that you, you know, and my cat went missing. And it's like, you have nothing to do with the cat, but people are just blaming things on you now. So I absolutely believe like, you know, the Johnson’s said that they're, all of their bullets were stolen and their food was gone and you've been stealing food for months and their kid ran away or whatever and it's like no they were just - they were assholes but they're blaming it on you. That kind of thing.

Kenzie:

So the last question for me is, you've been hunted before, how did you survive and why are you hunted? We've been over why are you hunted enough, I think. Have you been hunted before? I think in the sense of like being run out of town multiple times and then just pushed under the outskirts. And survival was like scrounging bare minimum. Like I had no idea how to take care of myself because there weren't anything else like me around. So surviving was luck to begin with. And surviving anybody hunting me has also been luck because I think I'm super quick.

Lexi:

If you're rooted to the ground, I imagine you're like literally - this is so weird. What's that one video game where you are spraying paint everywhere? I think they have a character in Super Smash Bros. It's like squid ink or whatever. It's like they spray ink everywhere and then they move through the, like they can literally disappear, like drop down into the ink and then appear at the trail of wherever they... So if you literally are rooted in that, you can't leave the earth, I could see oil being... You being able to disappear into puddles of oil and being able to move around, it makes absolute sense that that would be a truth.

Kenzie:

Yeah, then I think it's super hard to be hunted when I'm in my quote unquote domain, which is the oil mine.

Lexi:

Yeah.

Kenzie:




Because I've got a lot more places to go and hide.

Lexi:

Yes, yeah. And you can like make -if you can make oil happen, it's bad. It's bad for me. It's bad.

Kenzie:

Yeah, yes, not good, not good.

Lexi:




Yeah.

Kenzie:

Well those are kind of the end of the character questions and to go back up to setting the scene. What are the emotional states at the start of the hunt? I think for me it's curiosity that upon seeing you becomes absolute fear.

Lexi:

Wow, am I going to do the absolute inverse? Because I feel like maybe I'm not afraid and that's like the thing that makes me a good angel. Like that's a thing that makes me good at what I do is that I lack fear and my fight or flight is permanently set to fight. And so I think you're like the first thing I've been afraid of in a long time. But then upon seeing you and seeing the mixture of humanity and monstrosity, I think I just, it turns into complete curiosity, but it's not a healthy curiosity for sure.

Kenzie:

And then the last question here is what about you both is not what it seems? I think probably we've kind of talked about this, but my intention is misunderstood by you.

Lexi:

I wear leather gloves at all times. I'm always wearing gloves. There is no moment that I'm not. Wouldn't it be so messed up? Wouldn't it just be so messed up if my, like, non-shooting hand was turning to, like, oil? Like, it was getting veiny and oily or something?

Kenzie:

That would be so messed up.

Lexi:

It would be very, very cool, because that either means I'm getting more like you or angels are what turn into tycoons and we're hunting our cell, like, our predecessors -

Kenzie:

Oooooh!

Lexi:




Which is so scary.

Kenzie:

Yeah, yeah damn also like a juicy juicy reveal in the middle of the hunt is I'm like you actually you know.

Lexi:

Yes! I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it. I love it.

Kenzie:

Yeah, that's good, that's really good.

Lexi:

Let's do it, let's do it.

Kenzie:

Okay. Great, so we're gonna begin by setting the scene as we've talked about and then we'll jump into the first chase, but also just so everyone is aware, while we play the game we do have, as I mentioned at the beginning, a playing card aspect of this. So what happens is whomever wins the hunt, we move a token and then also they draw from their deck of cards. So we have a virtual tabletop here with a deck of cards. Whoever's the hunter will choose from the hunter side of the screen. Whoever's the monster will choose from the monster side of the screen. And then there's a question that we will read out in the rule book that corresponds with the card that was chosen. Kind of using that prompt to describe the circumstances of that chase in its entirety and where we ended up for this small scene that will come out to either you know like present moments or call memories from past hunts and lives just kind of creating a story within a chase.

And also you can use the card and completely do your own thing or choose to involve the other party in it. So if you read a card and you're like, I'm gonna just like monologue that is fully okay and appropriate to do in this game.

Lexi:

Nice. Love that.

[ad break]

Kenzie:

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[ad break ended]

Kenzie:

Just past evening, the sun is not fully down, but it's down enough that there are shadows now between the corners of buildings, in the alleys, hanging from the eaves of houses. And I think I am in an alleyway by the saloon, kind of hiding between barrels - that at one point probably held some sort of drink - kind of peering up by these long, spindly, bony fingers at the window. Just enough of the top of my head seeing in, but because my head is made of oil and swirling in black, from the interior of the saloon, it only looks like a shadow if you would look out the window.

But I am there creeping, seemingly not in tune with my other surroundings as I watch the lively group of post-work workers for the like one time of the day that they're allowed, or feel that they can, let the stress of this world go.

Lexi:

I am at the head of this alley. I'm standing there. And in fact, yeah, that dusky sun is peering over my shoulders and where you are a shadow due to your nature, do do your position in the window and people's inability to examine what might scare them. I'm a shadow in that the light is completely behind me as I've finally caught you, I believe.

I am wearing a long duster. I'm wearing a pauldron, which is just for show for sure. Big hat, dark brown skin, long gun, this pistol in my hand, dropped to my side, the barrel almost touching the ground, just how long it is. And I think I just take a step forward. I think I'll just yell out and just say,

Lexi (Hunter):




Don’t run!

Kenzie:

Every muscle freezes as fight or flight kicks in except there's a third option here which is just to freeze and that's what happens. And then the gray skin, tight skin mottled with like black and purple spots of this creature kind of slowly turns and looks. And I think there's a moment where there's peace. Everything fades, the sounds fade, and there's definitely a recognition from me to you of I've seen you, something about you is so familiar, I know you almost. And I see the gun at your side and I see that it's not fully pointed at me, there's not full aggression from you, And flight kicks in. Muscles unfreeze and I turn on my heel and run the opposite way down the alley from you.

Lexi (Hunter):

Ugh, they always run.

Lexi:

And I think I'm just gonna immediately kick and take off and I will lift my gun. And this is maybe the first time you've ever seen this. For a lot of monsters, it's their last. I shoot one bullet and it very pointedly isn't directly at you. It is next to you. And I think you watch it barrel through a huge we’ll say like a trash can, maybe like a couple of trash cans that are out back as I start walking down this alley. I'm not, I actually won't run. Yeah, I'm just gonna start walking. I don't think it's closed off, so you can absolutely, you know, get out if you wanted to, but I think I'm just making myself known and letting you know that if you run, there is a bullet waiting for you.

Kenzie:

I think you also noticed that I could get away so quickly. I am moving at like what would be normal for a human running away to be moving at. Whatever supernatural innate speed that I am used to moving in, I am not doing so.

But that does lead us into our first chase. So we each have 2d6. And we literally just keep rolling 2db6 until the first person shouts that they got doubles.

Lexi:

Cool.

Kenzie:

And that's how it ends.

Lexi:

All right.

Lexi:

I got doubles. I got two threes.

Kenzie:

I'm going to move the token that we have one step closer to monsters since you won that part of the race. And you will draw from your hunter deck.

Lexi:

Alright, eight of spades. The monster attacks when you have your guard down. How do you counter their attack and send them running?

Kenzie:

If you don't mind me describing how I attack -

Lexi:




Please.

Kenzie:




-and then you describing -

Lexi:

Yeah.

Kenzie:

- okay, so I think I make it to the end of the alleyway and I turn the corner and I kind of press myself up against the wood of the building behind me, chest heaving, breathing in such a human way, such a way that somebody has to catch their breath after they exert themselves. And that gun was so… interesting. That gun was not like the other guns that have shot at me before. There was something different about that light almost like a moth to a flame. I want to know what that light is, what that light is from. And so I listen as you're following me down at your pace and I just turn the corner and my long fingers almost like claws and just a swipe across the opening of the alleyway at you.

Lexi:

I think I don't dodge because fight or flight is, you know, we've got the pedal pressed all the way down. So I think I fully take the brunt of whatever this attack is. So you said it's just like these oily claws. I think I do turn my shoulder a little bit, just throwing it in front of it. And I just take that. Yeah, I will immediately just like hiss. I'll grab, I'll try to grab your arm where you clawed at me. Like I know I have to have - I have to deal with a little pain in order to get as close as I possibly can. I will grab your hand and then I think I'll try to throw you off balance. I think I'm literally just trying to like flip you forward into the wall maybe.

Kenzie:

I think hits with a sickening thud because there's some liquid as well in that sound, like a splat as my side of my face hits the wood. But with that toss. you have given my speed momentum again. I fumble first grabbing onto like the side of the wall before picking up speed and like pushing myself and continuing away from you down the alleyway.

Lexi:

Noting your speed, I'm going to start running full force. Walking was probably not the best idea. ‘Cause I feel like these alleyways like we're slowly getting to the outskirts of the city and I think I'll know that. But I will run after you. I think the biggest thing for me is trying to just get you vulnerable again. So I don't want to waste another bullet, but I do think I'm gonna take my dagger out and throw it at you as we get closer to the outskirts of the city.

Kenzie:

I think we should do another chase roll -

Lexi:

Yeah. Let's do it!

Kenzie:




- to see if the dagger hits in the middle of our running.

Kenzie:

Oh, I got doubles! I got doubles!

Lexi:




Dang it!

Kenzie:

I’ll draw my card. Six of diamonds. Let's see here. Six of diamonds in a moment of desperation you discover an ability you didn't know you had what is it?

I hear the whoosh of wind as this knife comes flying and it's gonna hit - like it's gonna be on target, it's gonna be a bullseye. As it's going, I feel like the oil move through the veins in my skin and come to the point of my body in which it can almost like feel where the dagger is going to come in and it (squelching sounds) splits open that part of my body and the dagger flies all the way through it and keeps going out the other side.

I think I fault though and look down at the hole that is now in me because that has never happened before. And I think I turn my head over my shoulder looking at you with eyes that aren't really there and I just say...

Kenzie (Monster):

I wanna get home. I'm gonna go home.

Lexi:

I don't think she hears you. I don't think she hears you. I think she continues chasing after you. I didn't technically catch you yet. This is when I have to use my gun. My dagger's gone.You saw my gun before. I think that as I bring it up, you see this beautiful scorched black. The butt of the gun and like the actual tail end of the gun almost looks like molten that has just been settled and functionally formed to my hand. It reaches out almost like a long, pointing, judgmental, executioning finger at you as inside you can start seeing the light helix in the barrel as I'm going to start pulling the trigger at you. I do think I’m going to shoot.

Kenzie:

Yeah, I think we should do another roll off here to see -

Lexi:

Yeah, let's do it.

Kenzie:

Ooh, I got doubles again.

Lexi:




Dang it!

Kenzie:

Five of diamond. You find a hiding spot where you can watch the hunter undetected. What do you learn from observing them? So I think you shoot your gun and I get rid of this impetus I had to be more like you. I get rid of the idea that I have to run on these two feet and I like almost morph into a kind of slickness and very quickly almost like - it’s not teleporting, but it's just moving so fast through the air that I disappear from the alleyway. And I find myself on the upper floor of the interior of the building right to the side. And I couldn't go farther because of that light. Again, there was something about that light from that gun that I wanted and needed to see. I'm peering out the window in the same exact position that I was peering into the saloon, looking down at you, watching you. And it's almost like I'm taking in your mannerisms, how you move, how you stand. Anger or disappointment that another bullet has been wasted that's still kind of flying down this alleyway, the light disappearing into the distance.

Lexi:

I think you see... solemnity. Like, I think you see someone who is stepping forward with so much sureness and yet they are so desperately like desperately vulnerable. You see the shredded coat now on the right, blood dripping down my hand. Dropped to the side, but there's no flexing, there's no like will or act to like soothe any pain. So you're also seeing someone who is just understanding that that is maybe the life I deserve. That is the life that I chose. So I think you see very square shoulders, eyes searching, almost as if I was cosplaying a predator but I am truly the prey and I know that. So I'm like darting around the way you would see like a small animal just in the wild looking, but my eyes betray me. My body is showing that I'm like stern and strong and grounded and focused. My gun is up and I'm searching around and looking, but I just can't find anyone.

Kenzie:

I think in the same movement after a couple minutes of watching you down there, slickly fly out again and appear in like a streak of black that becomes me behind you. And you can hear in the quietness of this alleyway.

Kenzie (Monster):

You don't want… to kill me.

Lexi:

I turn and in one sure motion, I have my gun barreled to your face or the lack thereof.

Kenzie:

Let's roll off again.

I got doubles!

Lexi:

Dang it!

Kenzie:

Alrighty, I moved the token. I'm so close.

Lexi:

Oh, this is devastating.

Kenzie:

8 of diamonds. You are not always alone here. What about the hunter reminds you of someone you once shared this place with?

Lexi:

Oh, that is so - that’s - Dillin! I'm gonna beat you up Dillon! That's so great!

Kenzie:




Here is a relative term because here is an alleyway in a town that I do not belong to, but that I was born of. And before I was what I am now, I was a child. And before that, I was a baby. When a baby is sent away to be taken care of by the wilds, it becomes something that is easy for children to find out. As in on that afternoon adventure sometime many years ago, a young kid playing pretend in the backyard could be seen by me from my hiding place behind a tree.

And as if called, as if there was some sort of innate childlike telepathy, that kids’ eyes moved towards where I was. And when I peeked out, it was the first time somebody didn't run away in terror because I wasn't scary. I was part of the game. For all intents and purposes maybe I was a figment of their imagination.

And I'm standing here looking at you in this alleyway. And there's something behind your eyes, something in the lines of your face, something in the way your lips quirk, and I suddenly know you and you suddenly know me and we're both two kids years ago whose lives took them in ways they could never have predicted.

Lexi:

Ow. Ouch. Oh, us playing cops and robbers and I like I gave you my toy gun growing up. Gosh, that's devastating.

I'm flip-flopping with you in that I fully freeze. I start to hear that other people have noticed this altercation. Other people are taking note and not even the people that have hired me - they haven't even hired me yet. I just happened to stumble across you. On your way out of the city, me on my way to get a drink. But the patrons of the bar we were next two before have started to stumble out. And so I think I hear the murmurs of people and that humanity, that source of humanity that reminds me what I'm here to do. I think you see my eyes flick to the right as I think about who's behind me and it goes straight back to you. And I'm looking down the barrel bof my gun. I think you do just like, it is a full body just shiver almost as I do I think I do remember or at least there's that tinge of familiarity.

Lexi (Hunter):




What are you?

Kenzie (Monster):

I don't know. I want to find out.

Lexi (Hunter):

Where did you come from?

Kenzie (Monster):

Beginnings are messy. But I came once from a mother. Once I came from the woods, and this time I came from my home.

Lexi (Hunter):

And where's your home?

Kenzie:

I lift up an oil-slicked finger and point it down the alley to the outskirts of town to the oil mine.

Lexi (Hunter):

How do I - How do I know you're not like them?

Kenzie (Monster):

I'm different. They also think I'm different.

Lexi (Hunter):

You can... You can talk to ‘em?

Kenzie (Monster):

Not like we are. But they hurt me. I wasn't welcome.

Lexi (Hunter):

What - what do you want? What can I give you that'll get you out of this city forever?

Kenzie (Monster):

I don't wanna leave. This is all I've known. And I wanna learn to be something else.

Lexi (Hunter):

You... you wanna learn.

Kenzie (Monster):

I wanna learn how to be wanted.

Lexi:

I think I hear more people behind me, calling after me, starting to chant,

Lexi (Townspeople):

Shoot it, Angel, shoot it. Shoot it!

Lexi:

And just yelling at me and I think even in the fact that I feel like you know me, and these folks don't even know my name, but they're demanding something of me… I think I see an ounce more humanity in you than them.

I keep my gun raised, but I say...

Lexi (Hunter):

Go home. I don't know anything about what you want. I can't help you with that. But if you come back here, I will have to kill you.

Kenzie:

I wanna do another chase.

Lexi:




Yes! Yes, yes, let’s do it!

Kenzie:

I got doubles.

Lexi:




I keep rolling twos and fours.

Kenzie:

I've moved the token fully which means that you know the hunt must end at some point. The monster has quote-unquote caught their adversary and now has the power to end the hunt and possibly their adversary's life.

To determine how the story ends, the player who ends the game with the upper hand, which would be me, gains narrative control, effectively the GM of the final scene. The other player is encouraged to role play, ask questions to further the narrative, and offer input on the last scene.

So the point is will you kill your opponent, find common ground, and flee?

You just offered me the chance to run, to go home, what I was trying to do to escape you in the beginning. You've given me my way out. And I see that in your questions of, you can talk to them when we were talking about the oil tycoons and all of that, that… they live in that mine too. And I'm stuck in one room on the outskirts between the entrance and their domain. It's not really my home. It's just where I stay. And I don't have a home. And you told me to go home.

And so I think I reach out and my hand lands on your shoulder and I say, peering down the alley, seeing that these people have started to come,

Kenzie (Hunter):

What will be done to you if they see you let me go?

Lexi (Hunter)

They won't let me rest until I… until I find you again.

Kenzie (Hunter):

So we are always to be running to and from each other.

Lexi (Hunter)

As long as you breathe and I breathe and people live in fear.

Kenzie:

I wanted to become more like the people of this town to fit in. And I have watched them help each other, and I've seen people make sacrifices for other people. And so that is what I grasp onto when I say,

Kenzie (Monster):

That’s a lot of wasted breaths, I would say, since I'm right here right now.

Thank you for treating me with kindness back then. I think I have to return the favor. You don't want them to see you let me go. So don't.

Lexi:

Oof. Where do you move?

Kenzie:

I don't think I move, I think I stand with my hand on your shoulder, standing right in front of you, with your gun pointed at me.

Lexi:

Oh, no. Do I have to take the shot? Oh, no.

I'm going to do something I've never done before, which is close my eyes while shooting my gun but that's okay because I don't need them to be open. As I turn the gun the slightest bit, just pivot it the slightest bit, but I want it to point kind of upwards actually and this tank or I don't know what they're like it's not like a water tower but it kind of is.

Kenzie:

It's an oil tower.

Lexi:

It's an oil tower you know where I'm going! Bullet of light just careens forward and I think it does graze your shoulder but what I really want it to do is go past you and up, angled towards this tower, pinging, and then spurts of oil start coming out. And the people start complaining behind me. They start screaming and shrieking, but they're starting to run because of the purpose of, we have to get the right people to solve this problem. This is a completely different problem now. And oil in this capacity, like this much oil could turn into a baron. Or not a baron, a tycoon. I think as the oil is spouting everywhere, I don't know if, I don't actually know if this is a way out for you, but I think like my face getting covered in this, the alleyway getting covered in this oil, I just stare. I’m not saying anything, my gun is still out, but I'm just hoping.

Kenzie:

This is the second way out you've offered me and it would be stupid to not take it, to once again brush it aside. And so as it is easier for me to move through oil, you watch with the turn of my head at you that almost seems nostalgic, that seems like an acceptance of not being able to be wanted here but not being able to live anywhere else. I kind of slick down, the oil grasping onto all parts of me. Me moving to live within it and become it.

I, in a form you recognize me in, disappears.

Lexi:

I will stand alone in this alleyway, my gun still out. Eyes shimmering with tears as I wait for what comes next.

Kenzie:

Well, there it is (laughs)

Lexi:

Whoa! Wow! What a game! What a game! I felt like that could have gone on for hours, oh my gosh.

Kenzie:

Yeah, I mean, it truly is, I think just like, however you roll is how the game goes. Like, yeah.

Lexi:

Yeah, because I feel like we could have done like weeks and months long of like me hunting you across the wilds and like...

Kenzie:

Yeah, I think that if you had won that last one, I was going to ask if we would do like, it was almost a time jump chase where you said, don't come back here. And then I leave for a long time before coming back. And like, I was gonna like ask for a time jump if you were into that. And so yeah, I think it could have like, yeah.

Lexi:

That absolutely, that's absolutely where my brain went to. I liked that we did it when it came to conflict in the moment of like in media res, just like very quick where it should have been and the chase was happening. But I liked that it also could span over miles and months and any like time, space, all of it. That was so fun.

Kenzie:

Thank you Dylan. Thank you Megan.

Lexi:

Thank you Dylan, thank you Megan! I will be hunting both of you. I've declared myself the hunter, you are my quarry. Okay.

Kenzie:

Well again thank you Lexi for joining me this is so much fun I'm glad I finally got you on the podcast.

Lexi:

Yes!

Kenzie:

For everybody listening I'm gonna say if you liked that game but honestly I don't know how you wouldn’t because it's super fun and I advise you to get your hands on it which means go to the description box and click on the Kickstarter for the game, head over there and support it because I am going to play this game 100 more times. It's so fun. And you know, if you're looking for a short game or a long game, this can kind of go both ways. If you end up ending this game before you're ready for it, part of the rules is then you can keep playing.

So as I said, you can go into the description box, click the link for the Kickstarter and go give them all of your support. Thank you so much Lexi for being on the show.

Lexi:

Heck, yeah.

Kenzie:

You know and if you support us by either leaving us a tip on our Ko-Fi or signing up for our Patreon or waiting this episode or reviewing this episode, you know, then you’re supporting an indie creator who is trying to help support other indie creators by having you go support those indie creators after you listen to this indie created show… is that clear enough for you?

Until next time.

Lexi:

Bye.