Wizard Wednesday Recap, 2022-07-27

One of the members of the Forgotten Runes street team poses with San Diego Comic-Con attendees who received free FRWC comic books. (Image courtesy of Magic Machine)

Forgotten Runes at San Diego Comic-con

Bearsnake talked about his experience at the FRWC booth at the San Diego Comic-con (SDCC). The street team was there handing out free Issue 0 comic books to attendees. Bearsnake estimated that around 20K comics were given out at the event. Although 20K is not quite as high as originally forecasted, this will allow the comics to be given out at even more events. Bearsnake enjoyed seeing people’s reactions as he handed them the comic - people seemed legitimately interested. People resonated with the idea of The Book of Lore and decentralized world building. Tania del Rio attended, and Bliss on Tap (with comic cover artist Reilly Brown) were at the booth. Dotta mentioned that the comic is more effective than other promotional materials, because it has intrinsic value in addition to its promotional value, and people appreciate that.

Cult member Tania del Rio and comic book cover illustrator Reilly Brown at the Forgotten Runes booth at SDCC 2022.

Comic Book Series Updates

Issue 1 of the comic is in production, the story is written, and the cover art is done. The actual drawing of the panels is in progress - Bearsnake estimates 6-8 weeks until that is done, and then there is some post-production that will happen. The first set of 7 comic issues will each feature a continuation of one of the story threads in Issue 0, and then after that, the individual stories will start to blend with each other. Expect more community-owned characters to make appearances during these. LachnessMonsta said that for people who are still waiting for an opportunity to get a physical copy of Issue 0, anyone who has ordered merch will automatically get shipped an issue. Additionally, anyone can order up to 10 comics from the merch website, starting this Friday. Orders of >10 need coordination with the fulfillment team (facilitated by Lachness). There will also be a contest: 20 copies signed by Reilly Brown will be given away via Twitter contest. Dotta mentioned that he hopes comic issues are given out as goodies during Halloween.

Forgotten Runes Scribe Twitter post documenting the appearance of new ultra-rare Soul, Masque of the Red Death.

Ask Me Anything (AMA) with Magic Machine

Q&A Time! Magic Machine answered assorted questions from the Cult, submitted via Discord. 1st question was about the team’s favorite among their ongoing projects. Elf mentioned that the TV show is his pet project, but he is also excited about some merchandising initiatives. Dotta mentioned that there are about 20 projects in progress, most of them unrevealed to the Cult at this time. Elf asked the Cult to trust that many open questions around Locks, Ponies, Sacred Flames, Beasts etc. will be answered, and there are plans for all of them.

Sacred Flame News

Dotta mentioned that, “once all the Flames are used, the Souls will be here; there are not more Souls than Flames.” The team brought up that a new ultrarare soul, the Masque of the Red Death, was minted last night by Juan Snow, who performed around 20 burns in a row to get this result. Many Cult members were fixated on the red heeled shoes of the Soul - Elf says that this detail, among others, was heavily researched and is reflective of the location and time period that Masque came from.

Incidentally, burn number 666 was greatly anticipated, but that turned out to be a common result. Dotta said this was planned, because the number was too obvious and likely to be MEV’d. Elf said that MM will be more obscure with future numerology to keep people guessing.

Pony Burning and Breeding

The team said, “never say never,” and left it at that.

The House of Wizards DAO talent board was released on its website in July 2022. The board featured FRWC holders who wished to offer to their services to anyone looking to put together a 3rd-party Runes project.

Beasts Season 2

Elf said that Beast Season 1 is not done yet. There is utility and tokenomics planned for the Season 1 beasts; additional Beasts will not be issued until those are released 1st.

Can the House of Wizards DAO vote on lore matters?

This refers to DAO voting for lore canon (for example, official new locations on the map). Elf found this idea interesting - for example, voting on whether the nubbins on Kobold's heads are horns or ears. Dotta prefers that people push their views through effective storytelling vs. a vote (eg. make your version more compelling so it’s adopted by others). On the other hand, voting on matters such as whether to include affinity data in Opensea might be more feasible.

Merch for Kids?

Elf said that yes, there should be some. Elf originally visualized FRWC as a show for adults, with mature themes. But lately, he’s been open to more kid-friendly content and merch, because it’s fun for Cult members to share things with their children. Dotta wants to foster a community of mutual encouragement, like what he experienced living near Cal Arts (where he first met Elf). Dotta wants FRWC to be a “big-tent” brand, not a hipster, below-the-radar and somewhat exclusionary concept. MeepleDad recommended backpacks and lunchboxes; they are always in demand and a great promotional tool among the classroom set.

Royalties Update

Dotta started with a disclaimer that FRWC tokens are not a security, and are not planned as one. FRWC is working with forward-looking partners that have worked in this area before, and see Web3 as a way to construct a new rights-management architecture. They’re trying to make a legal framework to monetize the rights to the characters developed by the community, but aren’t at the point of announcing the details. But Magic Machine wants to have an “airbnb for IP rights”, by which they mean having a system that facilitates the collection and distribution of royalties to individual holders, even if they aren’t a full-scale business entity. This will be a years-long project, both for the framework & to get to the stage where a token would generate any significant royalties. Dotta added that he wants there to be a way for all holders to benefit, not only those whose characters get picked for MM media creations.

Weekly Cult Content

Next, Elf shouted out some Cult Content - the full collection can be seen at tree.io.

Various depictions of Sage Celah of the Steppe, the subject of the lore reading this week.

Runiverse Game Update

Madotsuki talked about his new role as a community manager with Bisonic, helping with the Runiverse game. He is excited about what they are planning, and asked everyone to watch the official Runiverse Twitter and Discord in the coming weeks. Mado is open to ideas and suggestions for the game, and welcomes anyone to contact him on these items. There will gradually be more community games and activities in the Runiverse discord as well, leading up the release.

Dotta confirmed that the Runiverse game will have 70K land plots. Some were sold in a private round, and the 1st public sale was originally scheduled for the same time as the beginning of the bear market, but was delayed indefinitely due to these market conditions. But on the bright side, development on the game continued with no delays, since no focus was needed on the sale. Pricing for the plots hasn’t been announced, but Bisonic and Magic Machine made sure that the VCs in the private round didn’t get preferential price treatment. The smallest plots will be around 500 USD (unofficially), and prices go up from there for larger plots. The use of the land will allow for the building of structures, living, social and economic spaces that feed into the core game loops (questing/combat, crafting, social). The next round of the land sale is sized at around 10 million USD, so the timing depends on when the team feels that this amount of land can sell out, given market conditions. So probably not very soon, but you never know; the team will continue monitoring the situation.

Dynamic NFTs?

Elf mentioned a discussion the team had about the possibility of dynamic NFTs, where you could actually change the metadata of your existing tokens. Mainly a teaser to expand upon for next week…

Lore Reading

Last but not least, the lore reading this week was by Ozzz, reading about Sage Celah of the Steppe (8521), which will be in the feature 3D short film that was approved by the House of Wizards.