Luz Lozano, a Wizard and a Mess - Finding Comfort in Community with Morgan Nuncio (Urban Shadows 2e)

Star : 0:00

How do you find the community that lets you feel comfortable bringing your identity to your characters? Is it more fun to fail? And what happens when a hand talker is a fire wielding wizard? Hello friends welcome to characters without stories at TTRPG podcast about the roads not yet traveled, I'm star. This episode I'm joined by Morgan Nuncio, a TTRPG, writer and content creator. They have written for kids on bikes, teens in space and junk she blood in the banquet hall. They are a professional GM and an active actual play streamer and podcaster, most notably with their podcast powered by the players. Morgan, I will give you a chance to plug your projects at the end. But right now, do you want to tell listeners a little bit about yourself?

Morgan: 0:51

Yeah, hi, first off, thank you for having me. And I guess a little about myself is that I've been in TTRPGs for at least a decade now. I've been playing for at least two decades. We're not gonna get into numbers. But yeah, I really am the type person who's really into narrative design games. And not only really pushing story games, narrative games, all that stuff. I'm also huge supportive of bipoc designers in the community, black indigenous people of color for the acronym, and I'm really just a cheerleader for them. So like I post and support Huetopia, which is a TTRPG space and community that's designed by bipoc people for bipoc people. So we're just a whole bunch of everybody there. That's awesome. Yeah. And, you know, I'm just I want to see other people shine. And I'm doing I'm trying to make more space at the table for them. So, but in the meantime, I'm just having fun doing what I do.

Star : 1:52

Well, I am having fun watching it on TikTok and I love hearing about all of your projects. Thank you. So Morgan, who are you bringing to the table today?

Morgan: 2:01

So I'm bringing to my table someone who I had a great time a session zero designing and talking to the other players about and then it just never jumped off that this is Lucia Guadalupe Luzono or she goes by Luz for short. She/her pronouns. It's for Urban Shadows second edition. It was supposed to be like a stream thing and all that but you just never happened. And that's that that's like, you know,

Star : 2:30

that is a common disappointment in the TTRPG space. Mm hmm. So tell me a little bit about urban shadows.

Morgan: 2:37

Yeah, sure. So urban shadows is by Magpie Games. It's actually we were gonna play the second edition, which is still being designed and I I don't know what the the PDF style yet. I think it may be but the Kickstarter still doing its thing. So urban shadows is an urban fantasy tabletop role playing game in which mortals and monsters vie for control of a modern day City is a political battleground layered, just under the reality. We think we know. Vampire, fairies, hunters and wizards fight to carve out a piece of the streets and skyscrapers ready to make deals with all those who have something to offer. So it's very like Buffy, lost girl, Harry Dresden sort of thing. So you have like all these people in like modern setting that are monsters that you're playing

Star : 3:23

kind of an underworld of supernatural creatures.

Morgan: 3:26

Yeah. And what I really liked about it, it's a powered by the apocalypse system. So it's a 2d6 system, powered by Apocalypse is my bread and butter. And I played the first edition before. So that's how I was like, oh, yeah, Second Edition shouldn't be that much of a difference. And one of the things I liked about urban shadows is that you get to make rumors about people that you may know. So let's say the GM introduces some like a new NPC, and you're like, Oh, I know this person. So you roll to see how you know the person. And then another thing is at the start of each session, you start you make a rumor of like, what people have heard what may be happening, and then the GM will eventually like, link those into this overarching plot and the story of what's going on.

Star : 4:10

That's wonderful. I love the way that it gives the players some input into the world building.

Morgan: 4:15

Oh, yeah, I am all for players in world building like it's actually funny because I'm currently running a arc of Monsterhearts right now Monsterhearts second edition. And everybody's just riffing off each other the building like you know, I'm like, Okay, what's the school like? Because Monsterhearts is a teenage monsters game? They're like I was like, okay, cool. What what do you think this is going to be or who who's in your class with you? And they're just they all started one thing and then started bouncing around and going off on tangents. I'm like, yes, yes. Good. Good. Yeah. Because I honestly I preferred I love these games. Where has player involvement from the world building from the get go because it allows them to be more invested in the story. Yeah. Yeah, definitely, they designed it. They're part of it. And that's why I also let the kids on system because they do the same thing with role building. So

Star : 5:08

yeah, it's always a lot of fun as a player to be able to insert something into the world and make it canon. Tell me about how characters are created in urban shadows. This is because it's a Powered by the Apocalypse game, it uses playbooks, right?

Morgan: 5:21

Yeah. So everybody has a playbook. And every type of playbook has like a different type of monster. So you have vampires, demons, werewolves, so on and so forth. I went with the wizard, because typically when we think of wizards we think of like Merlin or Harry Dresden, or some old white man, you know. Like, I was like, you know, I'm gonna make it like a young Latina, a woman who's barely holding on to her own and still struggling, but has these powers that are like within her, and she's just trying to survive.

Star : 5:55

I think a lot of my listeners are probably most familiar with d&d. So when they think of wizard they think of somebody who's studying spell books and would consider somebody who's born with innate powers is more of a sorcerer type. Yeah. Is that something that in this game are wizards varied, or

Morgan: 6:13

it like mages are among the deadliest and most powerful of all humans, their ability to reshape the world around them grants them tremendous powers, but nothing corrupts quite like power. It's basically like yourself, so it's kind of like Doctor Strange style of Wizardry. Because you'll have a Sanctum you can channel spirits or channels, sort of like energies and magics within you. So when you think wizard, typically d&d, it's like, very, like, I got to study I learn I gotta work at it. Right. And I think with here is it's kind of like there's a little bit within you, but you also do have to kind of work forward to you know, but some of your background questions, because typically, with a lot of PbtA stuff, they give you intro questions. And one of them is, is how did you learn to wield your magic? How long have you been in the city? What mistakes keep you up at night? What have you sacrificed for your power? And what conflict are you trying to mediate?

Star : 7:09

Hmm, interesting.

Morgan: 7:10

And so those are questions they ask you, as you're building your character, think about like, Okay, how did how did your character get this power? And how did you care to become a wizard? And so for mine, my lineal thing, so basically, she was born and raised in a family of casters. And so the magic has been with her since birth, and it's why it's why she is so young and so proficient, but she's definitely a kinetic learner. So she has to like basically, like actually do the moves in order to get down. Because as she reads in the book, she's like, What are these words? Why are these in front of me?

Star : 7:46

Yeah, I can, I can see that. It does. I'm curious. Now, since you said she's a kinetic learner. What does it look like when she casts magic?

Morgan: 7:54

So, you know, like I said, we never got off the ground, but I think when she cast magic is like, our movement movements, and maybe even some finger tutting. Like a lot of the magicians you know, it's like the almost like the Naruto like hand symbol sort of thing. But yeah, I always love that it wears like you you physically embody like movement into your magic and like, move your hands roll ons, roll them certain way mutter a few words of enchantment and it just does the thing.

Star : 8:23

Yeah.

Morgan: 8:24

Yeah.

Star : 8:25

So you said that you wanted to go against this kind of old white man trope? Yeah, of of the wizard is that something that you you tend to do is kind of take these, I guess you could say it's kind of a restrictive. It's an outdated trope. It doesn't let a lot of people in right? Yeah, you're not an old white man, then you're not part of that representation.

Morgan: 8:48

Yeah, and as some like as someone who's Latine I want to like I obviously haven't gonna play Latine characters, no matter what I do now, because I have too many times I went with the grain and played white characters haven't played someone who I really relate with. But now I'm like playing characters that are more close to home. And I've been feeling so much better about it be able to like dig in and just really relished the Latine, the Hispanic, sort of like sides of me, and it's been super awesome. So like, being able to, like, take this idea and this like concept of like a wizard, and morphing it into someone who's young, who's a little probably a little naive, a little hot headed, you know, a little disheveled. Probably causes too many accidents with fire, but, you know, she's learning she's growing. And even though she's powerful, it's about like growth of her her becoming who she's supposed to be. And that's what I was really trying to aim for. Yeah, I don't know the answer your question, but like,

Star : 9:44

no, absolutely. Something you said I thought was really interesting. You said that you have played a lot of white characters before. I'm curious why you made that choice.

Morgan: 9:55

Honestly, I think I said this in another podcast too, because we're talking about And I think the reason why I did that was because it was safety within the culture, I was still young, I was still very new to like everybody, anything that I kind of just tried to fall within the scope of comfort of the white tables I was at, you know, so I would always play like, you know, someone with like with like pale skin and red hair, what have you and just try to try to bring less attention to myself in regards to this sort of thing. But now being within the actual tabletop sphere of like designers and like, the bipoc community at large across Twitter and Tik Tok, and just in streaming, I've gotten to realize, like, oh, I need to start realizing that like, it's okay, we could do these things. Let's, let's bring it back. Because there's so much vibrant beauty and culture and food and language that I've been restricting myself from because of trying to build feel comfortable within the realm.

Star : 11:01

I mean, I'm glad that you were able to find your comfort and your confidence in order to feel like you could do that.

Morgan: 11:09

Yeah, it took a bit but you know, I grew, I learned and I'm still learning so I, you know,

Star : 11:18

well, I think not just you, but I think also the TTRPG community has has grown as well.

Morgan: 11:23

Oh my god, especially like with the rise of like, indie designers. And then we have like, all the indie designers down from like, South America, they're like really booming, or the Southeast Asian scene is just popping and like, it's beautiful and wonderful. And I'm here for all this beautiful, rich culture and like all these amazing stories to come to life. Yeah. And like being for example, Jiangshi, I call it Jungshi. But I have written a play set for that. And I leaned into being like, I was able to write something that was like, written around Cinco de Mayo. But it also had a mixed character, like someone who's like, had a white mom and a, like a Latino dad. I'm white and like Latino. So like, having that was a little cathartic for me because like I was able to, like design a character that lives in that liminal space like I do. Where it's like not quite Latino, not quite white, but like, both but not both at the same time and writing a little story and like, you know, the mood for that character really feel very close to home. But anyways, that whole all those like extra playbooks and stuff or scenarios for that game are from different cultures. We had Romani. We had like Japanese, we had like South Asian it was, it's just, it's, I like Jiangshi. So it's great.

Star : 12:44

Yeah, it sounds great. I'm gonna have to check that out.

Morgan: 12:46

Yeah, that's basically the original game. Sorry, I'm on a tangent here.

Star : 12:49

That's fine.

Morgan: 12:50

The original game is based around a 1920s immigrant family from China, who was set up in San Francisco, and they run a restaurant in the middle of the 1920s. Like I said, San Francisco, so they don't like the exoticism, the, the foreign concept of food, the small community that they're within, and then night, they're facing Jiangshi or hopping vampires. And so they're trying to like figure out how to defeat these vampires. And then like, you also have the generation lineages of like grandma, who is from China. And then you also have the parents who are trying to blend in and then you have a kid who's really trying to assimilate into the culture. And so it has this like scale of stuff and that's pretty fun. I really like it. It really dives into those so stories and it's it's really cool to do.

Star : 13:35

It sounds like you like a lot of games that exist in the modern world but have fantasy elements.

Morgan: 13:43

Oh my god I prefer modern fantasy versus like medieval fantasy any day of the week like I would I would play modern fantasies till the cows come home like it's I don't know like there's something about like the idea of like taking what we know and giving it a twist and giving a little more imagination into it you know I just growing up I guess it's just a type of books I've read and that what really triggered within me instead of like you know going off on the venture you're on like some grassy knoll like in fighting like large Eagles I don't know. I feel like a Lord of the Rings reference but like I'm very bad at it. Yeah, so like I love like, even like dark fantasy like show is like Heroes, Sense8. My favorite show ever. Just just as like modern fantasy, sort of, like designs I really enjoy because it's like, it's like, oh yeah, that's really cool. Like, well, what can we add to the story of like the real world like what can really be underneath it?

Star : 14:49

Yeah. And Urban shadows is very much in that vein. So your character is a wizard in a world that were maybe wizards aren't known to the general public. What does that like for her? Does she have to hide how much is she integrated into the kind of normal world?

Morgan: 15:11

One of the things she has is a Sanctum and so her Sanctum is actually an old antique shop so she runs it's a this antique shop like you know what hers is like her sanctums like that? The attic but like, downstairs is like this like really like, cluttered and like kitschy sort of like antique shop, of, you know, the type of ones that you feel like walk sideways and like some areas, it's like, it's crowded. Oh, yeah. And so she sells she sells antiques, she you know, she's, you know, does that, but her family has money so, and she doesn't have any physical like, indications that she's, you know, a vampire or like, a fairy or anything. So, she can like go in and out like the mortal world. Easy peasy. So,

Star : 15:55

I guess you know, she has a benefit over vampires and werewolves and fairies. Why does she run an antique shop?

Morgan: 16:05

It just, I I'm trying to remember like a design this character like he like two years ago. So I'm just like, I'm like, Why? Why did I do this? Like if readings ever stop and like as I was canceling things, I think it's just because it's like the fun kitschy stuff of old all everything has a memory to it one way or another. And so even if it's someone discard it, it's still had some history something that vibrated off at one point in time so maybe she she enjoys seeing like and thinking about like, oh, what's a book that has been like, who could own this like creepy Victorian doll before it came into my shop? It's surely not haunted, but it could be but like, man

Star : 16:49

I think an antique shop is also a really interesting opportunity to do some world building because every single item in there could have a story that could affect your world.

Morgan: 16:59

Yeah, like for example, like I was thinking about it I was like maybe one day like some will be your like antique quote unquote, got dropped off, RK winter procession and someone else is like a like a rare like man from like, some sort of other dimension or portal and she's like, Alright, gotta toss it in the corner with this stuff. Like, you know, just how this whole thing of like her like, oh, shoot, that's, that's an actual thing. Um, I should probably hide this.

Star : 17:32

When I think of being somebody who possesses magical abilities in my kind of contemporary world, I think of why there's so many things that magic could make easier. Is there a kind of maybe a code where she has to keep it a secret or, or does she use magic in her everyday non supernatural world life?

Morgan: 18:02

was, like maybe the time she burned down her primo's house while practicing magic or cousin's house, or the time she nearly set the house on fire by working on advanced fire magic or the time she nearly started at forest fire while camping. She's just really bad at fire. So I had established already that like any fire, like it's gonna, it's gonna go a bad way.

Star : 18:33

Does she only have the ability to work with fire? Or does she have other magical abilities

Morgan: 18:37

she has tons she has others. So I actually designed the character on a, like a Google spreadsheet sort of thing. So like I have everything laid out and organized, I just pull that up and reading it. The spells that she has is elementalism. So you can conjure the element to strike out your enemies spend one hold to turn on violence with your magic as a weapon. So basically, you can basically use this sort of power to like make the magic of weapon shielding basically means spend one hold to provide armor plus one to yourself or someone nearby. Or spend to hold provided armor plus one that everyone in this small area, possibly including yourself to summer last until the end of the same you can stack multiple uses of shielding at once. So that means you can like spend a lot of hold and hold means that like your ability to do something or have power within this range, if I remember correctly, and then I'd fail which is basically like you can be invisible for a few

Star : 19:32

I mean, why why not? Right? moments.

Morgan: 19:35

Yeah just stick it somewhere.

Star : 19:37

I mean, that's one that could be super useful in the real world. Yeah. Oh, for sure. There are there plenty of times that I've wanted to be invisible?

Morgan: 19:45

Yeah, you see an old friend that you don't get along with anymore like I just want to keep my head down. Oh, look, I'm gonna stay at this produce for like a good five minutes this orange and they will not spot me.

Star : 19:58

Yeah, So, you talked about these character abilities that you have, what are Luz' stats like?

Morgan: 20:06

So stats for Powered by the Apocalypse games are a little different with urban shadows you have that is so like status within the, the certain courts, quote unquote. So you have the Mortalis court that's basically like your hunters and whatnot. Your Night court is like vampires and werewolves, Power is like wizards. And then Wild is like fairies. So those are like the various scores that you have associated once that is in power, meaning this is a little known in the power realm. And then her other stats just uh, you know, the stats in general are blood, heart, mind and spirit. Blood is a measure of fight or flight instinct. It tells you how tough, dangerous, coiled and quick your character is to act in a dangerous situation. Heart is a sum of your passion, charm and charisma, it tells you how proficient your characters are getting what they want through negotiation, discussion, mind is a reflection of your critical thinking and observation skills. It tells us how perceptive your character is and how good they are deceiving others and spirit gauges how you're connected to the other and your force of will. It tells us how focused your character is under pressure and what kind of connection they have to the supernatural. So my character has a zero bloods urine heart, a plus one of mine and a plus one in spirit.

Star : 21:18

Okay, so you don't really get to add a lot of pluses.

Morgan: 21:21

Hmm, yeah. So each archetype comes with it set up predetermined stats usually rated at negative one, one, or a zero, two rated a plus one and then add plus one to any your stuff if you wanted to. So that's how you you really do it just because it is a 2d6 system. And you don't want to have like too much of a fluctuation of from getting away from that because I don't know if most of your listeners played Powered by the Apocalypse, but you use 2d6 plus your stat it depending on what role it is. And then six below for most PbtA Games is a failure. But typically you get experience with failure. I forgot how it is in Urban Shadows it's been a bit since I played it. But seven to nine is like a mixed success meaning that you do the thing but it comes at a price. And then 10 above means it's a full success. It's it's fun. I like it. I like the idea of growing through failure.

Star : 22:12

Yeah

Morgan: 22:13

It's one of my favorite sort of things.

Star : 22:15

It sounds like that's a pattern with Luz.

Morgan: 22:18

What? And because I'm terrible at rolling typically my die dice rolls are awful. Real bad garbage most times

Star : 22:32

You know sometimes I think it's more fun to fail than to succeed.

Morgan: 22:35

Oh yeah. It's good. At least like a really cool story for the most part to you like yeah, I could have won that thing but like since I didn't we had this awesome like subplot going on and you know maybe werewolves are chasing you now by accident, you know like

Star : 22:50

Yeah, yeah, definitely. So, what does Luz look like?

Morgan: 22:54

For start anything with PbtA you go through your playbook and you just circle like certain things. So, they have look pick as many as you imply. So they have things about like, how do they appear to be conforming or non conforming, androgynous shifting, etc. If they are sort of ethnicity? How do they appear that way? And what kind of clothing are they wearing this typically what that what it asks for look and then you just like fill in the blanks or fill fill in the details yourself. So for her she was conforming Latina Hispanic woman and she wears pretty casual clothing. I kind of went with an idea of like, the style Kim Possible cargo pants and like I like it black tank tops sort of thing that a messy bun chic and her demeanor is disheveled. So like she's really like dropping things and like, is late but has an iced coffee

Star : 23:54

I identify with that.

Morgan: 23:56

And for me, I to help me understand like how they look a lot more to I also like look up actresses or actors that I'm trying to get the feel for so I decided to like to use this actress named Lindsay Morgan. She's like in The 100 and she's in a bunch of other shows as well. I felt like oh yes, this is this is like who I picked her her sort of looking like it might just be like in a movie that I would like want her to be like the main actress. sort of thing. Yeah, I always do that for all my characters. And also helps me like find out more like Latino and Latina like actors in general. Yeah, like actually at one point I was making a Blades in the Dark character. And I was like, I was like I want someone who's like a gymnast almost. So I actually went to the Mexican gymnasts team. So they'd be like okay yeah let's let's do this. Let's see if I can find someone like the fit my brain space because having like a face to go with white I'm thinking like helps me like figure like, Oh, yes, this works.

Star : 24:52

Does she have a voice that's different from your own?

Morgan: 24:55

Oh, gosh. I definitely like to do voices in general the best I can do, I don't think I've been like I was thinking about a voice, but I don't think I ever came up with one. Maybe it could have been something like maybe a little flatter or maybe a little more staticky. Like, with a little bit of vocal fry probably. I'm trying to, I'm trying to think of it because like, yeah, it's, like I said, it was like a while ago since I designed or something like did I? That's a good question.

Star : 25:21

Well, you know, I don't expect you to remember that after two years.

Morgan: 25:25

Yeah. But I was very happy. I found the spreadsheet. And while my little note so I'm like, Oh, yeah. This is gonna work.

Star : 25:35

What was Luz' childhood like? What was her family like?

Morgan: 25:39

Oh, I love that question. Because one of the intro questions like, What have you sacrifice for your power? And the answer I put is having a normal childhood, like, what is summer camp? A birthday party? Musicals? So she grew up very sheltered, I guess, because, you know, you grow up with a bunch of magical casters. They're not going to fit in with normal society. So she sheltered for the most part. So now that she's living on her own, that's where, why she's in the city that she is by herself is because she's living on her own and her family trying to expand their reach and make a stronghold where she is. So she's like, experiencing like, the world for the first time. Like, maybe she's gone in and out, but like, not like had like, been to like a birthday party, or maybe even like, understood the concept of Halloween. You know?

Star : 26:30

That's unexpected, considering that she has feet in the supernatural world.

Morgan: 26:35

Yeah, I guess it gives us just more of like, oh, that's a normal human thing. We're not gonna go out this time of the year too many ghost staying our stronghold right here. There's probably like, one time where she was trying to, like, sneak out or like, go out with her family. And then they caught her and they're like, no, stop it.

Star : 26:53

So does she come from a big family?

Morgan: 26:56

Yeah, I'm gonna say it's probably a big family casters.

Star : 26:59

Tell me about this stronghold, and this quest to start a new stronghold.

Morgan: 27:04

Yeah, it's just more like she's fulfilling her family's obligations, like they're making her move out and get out of the nest pretty much because like I said, She's young. She's like an early 20s. And they want her to like, learn how to be an adult in the real world on top of like, trying to manage the Sanctum that she's building and eventually become like a sort of like an known name and the city. So that eventually her family can come in and like be like, Ah, yes, here we are. All of us.

Star : 27:31

And why does her family want to do that?

Morgan: 27:34

Power? Corruption? They're probably one of the biggest casting families in general. So they want to keep it that way. They're like, Oh, yes, new territory. We'll take that. Thank you.

Star : 27:46

Hmm. Is she fully on board with that?

Morgan: 27:49

I think she's uncertain for now. I think she is for the time being until she realizes there's more to life than just try to fulfill all your family's needs and once so I think that would have been great gameplay to really dive into and see her finally reach a struggle with that.

Star : 28:08

I can imagine it must be really lonely to not have much contact with the outside world like you're saying to not be in school and going to birthday parties and things like that. Do you think that she's lonely in this new place? Or is she finding friends?

Morgan: 28:22

She's finding friends from what I know within most of the Powered by the Apocalypse games you have like character connection sort of things that other players like for example, she was helping someone keep a dangerous secret from powerful members of their circle, and they owe you a debt. Oh, really. It's more like a friendship. It's more like a they owe you sort of situation they work together. Another one was Oh, someone's you go to when you get into trouble writing information or muscle to get things done. You owe them to debts. And then the last one is someone tempted your ward away from you and into danger. Ask them why is it cost your ward to walk that path and they owe you a debt? So it just it's that's like something like a hey, you owe me Come on. Let's do the thing sort of situation.

Star : 29:06

Mm hmm. Providing very tangible links between the characters.

Morgan: 29:11

Yeah, and since I mentioned the ward, I haven't brought this up yet but Luz has a ward that that they watch after and their name is Katherine they/them. Katherine is a fae child now in the teens is lined up to be the next line to the throne for the fairy realm. But isn't emotionally available slash mature enough to be so that's why they're hiding out with Luz and away from the fairy courts. And basically, the thing is a status member of your circle has charged you with caring for an important ward. They live and dine with you. Their safety is your sworn duty basically they chose they're heir to a powerful position and inheritance and they are the secret child of an influential and powerful enemy. And why she agreed to this is because her membership in the faction compels your agreement. Yeah. And he hoped to redeem yourself for it. past failure. So you remember the thing with fire? I think if I remember correctly, something happened. And she set someone's like, courtyard on fire. Or the gardens and yeah.

Star : 30:17

that's an interesting punishment.

Morgan: 30:20

It's like, alright, well, you know, you either get kicked out like the faction or you watched this fairy child and she was like, give me the kid

Star : 30:29

What is Luz' relationship with Katherine like?

Morgan: 30:33

You know how, like, whenever, you know, you're so young yourself, and you're almost the same age as that kid. You kind of act like a bigger kid, like you act more like a like a sibling, or like a fun aunt then like a parent, quote, unquote. I think it's that we're like, she's trying. But she has no idea what she's doing. And she's like, Hey, kid, you're hungry. And they're like, yeah, she's like, cool. We got I have, like a hoagie. Hold on. Oh, no, that's not good. Let's just go to the bodega. Let's just go out to eat. Or, like, try to cook for them. And you know, probably doesn't, is a terrible cook, or like, you know, tries to like have a talk with them about like, hey, don't get in fights at school, and then like, will probably get in a fight with someone. So like not, not the best example, honestly.

Star : 31:26

Not not modeling the behavior she wants to see.

Morgan: 31:30

And you know, she just because she doesn't know how to be like, she's still learning how to be an adult. So like, it's just another thing on top of everything else that she has to do. Going off out. It's like, one of the other intro questions like what a conflict are you trying to mediate? And currently there's a power struggle between the fae fighting for the throne that is causing a lot of issues, not just in the court, but also in the city itself. And Luz has a friend who's high up in the court, like a Duke or a lord or something, so we've never clarified what that was, but it's on the notes.

Star : 32:02

Who is the most important person in Luz' life?

Morgan: 32:06

Oh, man, um, because right now, the kid Kathrine, just because this is like one of her biggest responsibilities that she's ever had. And she's like, I can't I can't mess this up. I can't mess this up. I don't know I'm doing that. I can't mess it up. But yeah, I think the kid honestly, more than y'all she doesn't really have like I said she has people that she works with, or she owes debts to but and then that one friend in the fae court. But that's that's about it when it comes to anybody, really.

Star : 32:35

We talked about this antique store. We didn't really talk a whole lot about the sanctum, what's the Sanctum like?

Morgan: 32:41

Basically, whenever you're making your sanctum, at least on the character sheet itself, you have to choose for feature for Sanctum and then choose two downsides for Sanctum and when you go into your Sanctum to work on something, the GM will tell you Sure, no problem but and then one to four of the following problems may happen. So basically, the features have its magically booby trapped so like it's kind of protected and warded there's a scattering of ancient relics. So there's something that she needs. It's in there somewhere in the depths of the unknown of the antique shop. There's a portal to another dimension. And it's also an apothecary. Okay, okay. The downsides it may it contains many volatile substances and also contain secrets unfamiliar even to you.

Star : 33:32

That sounds like a story beat waiting to happen.

Morgan: 33:36

Exactly. Like oh, yeah, I got this thing and you're like, shake the water like, oh, no, that's the wrong bottle. Oh, no. And you just have to toss it before it explodes.

Star : 33:46

I love the way that this game and I think a lot of powered by the apocalypse games build failure right into your character sheet.

Morgan: 33:53

Of course, I mean, you can't have perfect beautiful things every single time you get to have people are messy and flawed and like a really reflects that. And super nice to see that you know,

Star : 34:05

That's actually a brilliant segue into my next question. What are her flaws?

Morgan: 34:11

Other than she's a mess. A little bit of a pyro prone if you want to say you know, very young but but wields so much power that like it's a little a little worrisome, you know? Disheveled so like I said, sometimes probably looks like a mess. acts like a mess. It's just a mess. has no idea how to raise a kid. Yeah, just what you pitch your any young 20 year old woman thrown into the world without really much direction. She's gonna make choices. She's gonna like live through her mistakes, and it's not gonna be great. It's not gonna be pretty. But you know, I just got to learn. Maybe, hopefully, for our own sake, you know.

Star : 34:55

That's a very early 20s situation.

Morgan: 34:58

Yeah.

Star : 34:59

Making a lot of mistakes.

Morgan: 35:02

Yeah, sure know how that is.

Star : 35:08

Does Luz have a like an ethical or moral code or a motto?

Morgan: 35:12

Um, that's a good question. I think it's just be a decent person. If you screw up, try to try them and then eventually face consequences if you can't, like, win them with a smile like, like, Sorry, officer, I was going so fast. I didn't mean to. But I think that's it. I don't know, I definitely don't have a written down. So yeah, it's just something that she tries to be helpful because actually looking through my character sheet, one of her triggers for corruption, meaning that eventually she can fall into the darkness of the power itself, is when you ignore a genuine plea for help from someone vulnerable mark corruption. That's like built into like, you can go to the dark side quickly if you if you do that.

Star : 35:58

You talked a little bit about her family being kind of corrupt. Do you think that her helpfulness and her, you know, kind of wanting to be decent is going to come into conflict with that?

Morgan: 36:11

Oh, for sure. Oh, I have no doubt whatsoever. That it would. Yeah, I think I think her being like, Yeah, let's do things and like, you know, she has made a connection. She's having friends and then her family is gonna sweep in, and they're gonna be like, What have you been doing here? This is not what we sent you to do. This is not what we expected from you. Don't embarrass me any more than you already have. That sort of thing.

Star : 36:35

Yeah, so you've built a lot of characters for powered by the apocalypse games, I imagine in your title. Yeah.

Morgan: 36:42

Yeah, just just just a few.

Star : 36:45

How do you start when you're building a pbta character? Yeah.

Morgan: 36:50

So first off, it depends on like, what you're playing for example, Urban Shadows is like dark fantasy modern fantasy. Masks is like a teenage superhero game. Yeah. Monsterhearts is like teenage monsters. You have Night Witches, that's World War Two Soviet women flying outdated biplanes. It just really depends. First off looking at the game that you're playing and then like within that genre, because a lot of them are genre emulators. What calls to you what speaks to you? What are you leaning towards at the time like choosing what you want to play because playbooks themselves when either to a trope or an idea, or a concept, or a type of like, superhero. So it's really depending like, when I ever I started my podcast, I would ask people, like, for example, like I was running masks, I was like, Alright, cool. Introduce yourselves. And then tell me like, who's your favorite superhero? So I had an idea if they needed help figuring out who they could play, like, you know, I was like, oh, so I know. You said you like Thor. Would you want to play someone who's like, has like these certain powers or like has a sort of like mindset. It's really depending on like, what they want to play or what they want to get out of the game. It just really depends on like, what's calling to them at the time, because there's so many playbooks, yeah, and playbooks can be overwhelming at points like Monsterhearts 2 has the original like, I think eight or so that you can choose from. And then so many people have made like additional playbooks. That's like, it's like over 20 now is like, Oh, God, there's so many why are there so many. It could be a lot. And so yeah, just you just play you just glanced over. Typically, each playbook has like a blurb that you can read, it can get you the, the essence of the character, like what I read earlier, about the mages are among the deadliest and most powerful of all humans. It's a quick like little two to three sentences that you can read about each play book, and be like okay? If something pulls at you, you can just like any keep going. And what I love about pbta is no one can overlap with character choices, because one playbook per person, okay? So allows you to like have a range of stuff, right?

Star : 38:55

You have a very specific role that you don't worry about other people, you know, kind of trying to fill that particular role as well. Yeah, when you personally are making a character are you just kind of looking through the playbooks to see what kind of grabs you or do you come in with an idea and then find a playbook that fits

Morgan: 39:14

for me honestly, it's kind of like what grabbed me I'm typically the also the last person to choose something. Because I'm like, I don't know like let me hear what you're thinking and then I'll try to fit something in like I'm that type of person. So I think we had like a vampire we had a some demon thing here. And then we had something else and I can't recall what it was. Oh, we have like a mortal like just someone who's a straight a mortal and like, like you don't know play like a powerful mortal sort of person just like you know, try to fill in the circle this out sort of because I like I like feeling in the hole or like, you know, coming in with a few ideas and just like being like, Okay, you if you want this playbook Sure. I have like two other options I can choose from, you know, as if it were like, oh, yeah, I wanna play this type of character play this type of thing. I'm like, yeah, they have that for you. Get at it! Proud of you for making a decision because I sure can't.

Star : 40:06

I can imagine with 20 playbooks, like you're talking about with Monsterhearts, it can be kind of paralyzing.

Morgan: 40:13

Yeah. And so like, like, I'm currently because I'm currently running monster hearts for one game. And I was like, if it's too much just pick from the original like eight. Because that's original eight were designed by the designer for a certain reason to fit certain niches so like, go with those I don't mind at all. So most of the players did go with the original eight stuff, and then one player would decide to try while the other play books I'm like, alright, that's fine. I don't mind do it.

Star : 40:38

If you do get a chance to play Luz, what what are you excited about?

Morgan: 40:43

Just the possibility of trying to see this world from her fresh perspective of like, life, and what she knows, having to deal with the choices that she has to make, and growing as a person who lives in this world, and also a part of this other world, and has magic oops. And just trying to figure out how she fits into this to all the societies and how she can like, do what she can and not become like our parents. That's I think that's the main thing is like not become, you know, break that generational trauma.

Star : 41:23

Yeah, that's, I feel like a lot of people are bringing kind of family dynamics into TTRPGs you know, whether their family's dead is, weirdly often is the case or

Morgan: 41:35

Yeah, and I actually enjoy having family that's, I mean, my characters and stuff because it gives you more NPCs to play off of, honestly, it gives like more stakes to your character because if they have a family that they care about like back home when they're getting threatened, that gives your character motive to like, do what they're doing. Like currently, I'm playing a d&d character who is an orphan but like, her parents aren't dead. She was just dropped off at a temple and I kind of put in my backstory like it was rumored that one of her parents was like a high well known official, but like it's all hush hush and rumors silent even though the GM tends to do whatever he wants with that.

Star : 42:18

Luz, do you admit to mistakes when you make them?

Morgan: 42:23

I am. I mean, I. I mean, I'll own up to them. Be like, Oops, my no bad. Sorry. Do I like doing that? Not really. But like, I kind of have to because it's obvious that I did it. You know, things don't really catch on fire.

Star : 42:41

Well, yeah, it's a little hard to hide when you're setting things on fire.

Morgan: 42:46

Yeah, especially when your hands are like waving a certain way. And like I I talk with my hands and sometimes I forget, they just they do things I love it. Cuz I also talk with my hands. So like, you know, sometimes actually hit things. So I

Star : 43:08

I, yeah, I'm a hand talker as well. I've gotten shit for it

Morgan: 43:13

You understand.

Star : 43:15

I understand. Yeah. I'm also a klutz. So it's like I get both sides of that, too.

Morgan: 43:19

Same. Same. So like, I'll swing my hands and like, get my elbow into something and like, ah,

Star : 43:27

Yeah. Well, Mo, thank you so much for coming on the podcast and for sharing Luz with us.

Morgan: 43:36

Thanks for having me. This was a bunch of fun.

Star : 43:38

Yeah, I really enjoyed talking to you. And I hope you get a chance to play her someday.

Morgan: 43:43

One day, if there's anybody who runs Urban Shadows, hit me up. Yeah, talk to me. Let me play

Star : 43:55

You hear that listeners? That's your call to run Urban Shadows. So Morgan can play.

Morgan: 44:00

I don't know why I'm pointing at the camera and the camera's off and it's gonna be a podcast. I'm just like you listen.

Star : 44:11

I'll put links in the description to your channels. But is there anything you want to share with the listeners?

Morgan: 44:16

Yeah, if you want to follow me, I am sirenabesos all over the internet. So Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, like I have it. I rarely use it, but I have it. I'm most active on Tik Tok and Twitter. If you want to find me somewhere. Huetopia is a great show to promote or follow on Twitter. And we sometimes have shows on the Twitch channels. I play in a couple of actual plays currently. I think the only one that's like steady is the Sunday night at 10pm Central. I play Masks. It's our second season. I love it. I love being like a messy teenager. It's always fun. It's very cathartic. But after that I just I write and I do things and so you'll sometimes see my writing in the world. So if you want to figure out what I'm doing, it's just best to follow me because what is the endless void?

Star : 45:12

You can find me on Tik Tok at Star mama C. You can also listen on YouTube, just search for Characters Without Stories or follow the link in the description. Please like subscribe, rate, review and share with your friends. I'm just starting out and I can't adequately express how much it means to me that you've given me some of your valuable and limited time. Thank you. If you'd like me to send you a free button, email me at characterswithoutstories@gmail.com with your address and something you like about the podcast. I'm currently accepting submissions, particularly for non d&d characters. So if you'd like to share your character, you can go to the submission form at characters without stories.com Thanks for listening, and may all your characters find their stories