#session zero

Interesting... very interesting Ashley Johnson 🤔🧐👀

Write that down, write that down! 📝

SESSION ZERO!!!

I also really loved watching you play Candela Obscura.

Forgive me if you've mentioned this elsewhere and I've forgotten, but how long have you been playing TTRPGs?

And are there any TTRPGs you've seen/heard about that you want to try out?

And what are some other pitches that you had for your Downfall character? Which Betrayer did you pitch to Brennan?

Thanks for your time!

I played D&D with some friends on and off for about a year when I was a sophomore in high school... literally decades ago. Haha! Other than that... I was invited to do a VERY early test of what would eventually become Candela Obscura (along with another CO alum - the amazing Zehra Fazal!), and more than a year later, was brought in for the Mortal Kombat 1-shot, followed by CO S3: The Circle of Tide & Bone, and now Downfall! So all in all, I haven't done a lot of tabletop gaming at all! But I've always been fascinated with world-building... I remember when I was in junior high school my friend introduced me to the Monsters Compendium, and I studied every single page... I was in love with the artist renderings, but even more so with the lore that introduced each creature, and their place in the world. I also was fascinated with how the artist's concept art tied directly in with the creature's attacks / defenses, their mannerisms, etc. Today, my work in motion capture often involves the game devs showing me an art rendering for a character / creature, and then I have to come up with the movement and behavior based on that art. So I've become really good at creating backstory for a character based on their art - I love looking for the lore that hooks me in and makes the character interesting to me.

As far as TTRPGs, I would be down to play ANYTHING. All I care about is that the world is rich, and that I get to play a compelling character. I will say this, though... Nick's mastery of D&D allowed him to make brilliant in-game choices that informed us even more about Ayden and the Dawnchild... and I found that incredible and inspiring. So I'm eager to study D&D more seriously now, so that the next time I get to play, I can do my best to follow in Nick's divine footsteps.

My original pitch for Downfall was Asmodeus. I focused on Corruption and Domination for the sake of the Session 0. When I think about corruption at it's most tragic, I think of 1) Corruption of the Divine, and 2) Corruption of the Self.

I think Asmodeus would LOVE to tag along, if only to witness and facilitate the Prime deities slaughtering their mortal children. Because to kill something you have helped create and nurture, you have to kill a part of yourself. And I think the dark pleasure he would get from the experience... watching a Prime soil their white linens in the blood of their own flock... would be irresistible. Then there is the chance to watch these mortals... who abhor the Betrayer Gods and love their Prime benefactors... to study their faces as they realize their saviors are not here to rescue them... to watch their faith crumble in the path of utter despair... to see them fall, realizing that there will be no reward, no rest for them on the other side... The final understanding that they never stood a chance. That all they ever attempted to do in their lives had no meaning. That in the face of the Gods, they are at best a nuisance, and at worst, an afterthought... what could be better?

Who does The Fix know?

Not Conrad, because though he’s seen him around he has no recognition of the kid in the file beyond, “this is a child”. Not Hunch, who calls him out when he’s looming in the doorway of Sugah’s as the “Strange Muscled Man”. Not Imelda, who he could conceivably know from foiling some of her more reckless behavior but acts as confused as Hunch is. Not even Anastasia, as the two treat each other with the same level of unfamiliarity that he extends to the previous three.

There is only one person the Fix actually knows prior to the start of this adventure.

And that’s Dan Fucks.

And this fact is driving me insane.

So much about The Fix’s characterization so far is that he’s a man on a mission. Sure he always spares some time for the kids, but his own living quarters have been described as him going into a closet and hanging off a bar for twelve hours, surrounded by white noise. He has a great deal of facts and affection for all of Elias’ childhood interests, but seemingly nothing for himself.

So the fact that the only person he willingly associated with before this, even as just a patron of Sugah’s, was the character that heads up pleasure and feeling good in Elias’ brain?