Pay no attention to the men behind the curtain as we get our first glimpse behind the scenes of story creation.
Audio is available HERE.
Or if you'd prefer the (uncut) video, that's available HERE.
Confirmed that there will be a Dark Watch source book for the RPG.
Book will cover the Dark Watch team, Night Hunter, other street-level heroes plus villains. It'll deal with martial arts, magic, guns, and that sort of thing.
Be still, my heart!
I know I've made this offer before, C & A, but if you're looking for freelancers...
I haven’t finished the episode so I don’t k ow I’d its suggested but What if the future hero is an Oni who has to control his rage so he doesn’t kill himself. It would need to be explained how they get control of themselves though. I foresee a lot of meditating and training with mr fixer to help with this.
At the end of the episode they talk about The Harpy casting a spell on a mask to keep the souls separate but they also say that the person would need to control their anger so your right about Me Fixed teaching meditation
Sweet, now I must finish the episode!!! It’s been really cool to listen to.
This was really cool, and I love how they started out with something in mind and ended up taking a completely unexpected path to it.
Looking forward to more of these later on, but watch the spoilers in the filename, guys! ;D
I really liked listening to the sausage get made.
And now I kinda want to play an Oni.
So, regarding the name checking, at about 1:28:00
Fun fact, Barron Blade is a WWE wrestler. (The comic Baron Blade, which I was sure I had seen, I can’t find anywhere. So maybe it was a dream? Idk)
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I'm hoping one day in the future they will release that Zhu Long villain deck they discussed! Maybe even to coincide with the release of the source book..
I'm amused how they say they went through so much trouble to make sure they never use names that other properties for similar heroes, but Tempest is their aquatic hero, and both Marvel and DC have aquatic heroes named Tempest! To be fair, they did also suggest in passing that names that are so common as to have entered the public domain are also OK.
I'm also amused how they initially wanted to create something that came out of the early 00's, then got sidetracked and wanted to create a Dark Watch Zhu Long-based alchemist (blood mage, really, the way they were describing it), and then ended up with a monster and a bruiser instead. I kept trying to second-guess where they'd end up and got it wrong every time.
That said, since they never quite finished, here's where I'd go with it:
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In Zhu Long's earliest days, even he made mistakes. His first attempts at the Oni masks involved simply killing people and performing the ritual on them. Usually this worked--violent deaths at the hands of Zhu Long's assassins are usually sufficient cause for a spirit to become vengeful--but some of the masks simply failed to work when used. Unfortunately, Zhu Long didn't keep close track of which of his masks were early efforts and which are later ones after he worked the kinks out, so every once in a while, one of his assassins tries to turn themselves into an Oni and the mask just doesn't do anything.
Until....
The comic opens from the perspective of an elderly Asian man wearing the outfit of a Zhu Long ninja. He reminisces about his heyday as one of Zhu Long's most favored agents, first a simple foot soldier, then a poisoner and alchemist, later a competent blood mage. But he's not immortal, and he lost his edge as he aged, eventually being demoted back down to assassin. He was never really evil, but he had his own reasons for being loyal to Zhu Long and would stick to those reasons on principle. This mission would be his last hurrah, and he's at peace with that. He'll attack the heroes, put on the mask, and be at peace at last.
Or so he thinks.
The mask actually contains the spirit of an ancient Tibetan lama, who also died at peace with his beliefs and his death, violent as it was. As this trapped spirit is compatible with the spirit and mindset of the elderly assassin, they merge in the same way as an Oni would, but the result, though monstrous (it still has an Oni's face, after all), is calm, wise, and learned. He still has the assassin's willingness to let the ends justify the means, but he also has the lama's sense of goodness and justice. A powerful magician and a skilled martial artist, he named himself Hakutaku, after a legendary beast that feeds on nightmares and bad memories, known for teaching heroes about the nature of monsters.
I like it. Sounds neat!
That was a lot of fun, I could listen to a lot more of these kinds of episodes.
Pretty sure I caught a Avengers: Infinity War reference in there.
Yes, that was definitely there. :D
And I feel like there's enough framework laid out for that Zhu Long deck that the fandom could probably throw one together. Getting art for it would of course be a challenge...
Its simple we wait for their schedule to free up so it doesn't impact other important things and kidnap Adam.
I like how you are concerned enough with their schedules to take that into account (can't stop OblivAeon!), but then are not concerned enough with themselves that you want to kidnap him 
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Clearly the solution is just to borrow existing card art. But, the key will be to use old card art, and then mark sure that Adam somehow sees the deck. His dislike of his old art will combine with his love of the game, and he'll feel compelled to make all-new art for the deck!
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Hey the art for OblivAeon is all finished…
I thought this episode was really fun. There are a lot of cool directions the Oni could go. And, of course, now we know why a stone Oni is something the Dreamer would fear!
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Man, I realize that I was biased, but at the beginning, when they were saying, "Hmm, we need some kind of monster that's captured by Zhu Long, and maybe he's harvesting it..." I was just basically shouting YETI HERO YETI HERO YETI HERO at my podcast app as loudly as possible.
What we got was pretty cool, though.
But I think I have my Sentinels RPG first hero, and it will be my namesake.
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