Wizard Wednesday Recap, 2022-07-13

Derek Kolstad has "leveled-up" Magic Machine's discussions with Hollywood execs.

Hollywood Happenings

Elf, Bearsnake and Nalgene attended Wizard Wednesday from the Bear Cave in Los Angeles, and Dotta spent time there this week before getting back home earlier today. Many productive show-related meetings happened. The theme was “speed-running a franchise.”

Bearsnake mentioned that they had meetings with media distributors, merchandisers, and financiers. Magic Machine (MM) aims to partner with the best orgs to make their plans happen. These include “best in class” organizations in Hollywood.

Derek Kolstad also participated, and shared his Episode 1 script and planned story arc. Bearsnake mentioned that typically a very small percentage of meetings result in something real, but the rate has been much much higher with Forgotten Runes.

Dotta added that adding Derek to the “pitch team” was very beneficial, since he knows how to communicate effectively with these types of people, and has bought into the Runiverse world lore, meaning he can talk about effectively.

Elf mentioned that a 70-page pitch deck has been created, that recaps everything that has been done + future plans. Past achievements include community cult content, not just MM efforts. Elf mentioned many such examples & said that the ppl they meet are very interested in it.

Thoughts on recent House of Wizards DAO events

Elf thanked the House of Wizards (HoW) DAO, and said that it’s so important to what MM is doing. While MM focuses on some of the big media initiatives, the HoW DAO helps on the community side.

Elf encouraged people to vote seriously. Don’t just blanket vote YES or NO. You can choose an “Abstain” vote if you don’t have a strong inclination. Vote your conscience, not how you think any member of MM would vote on it. Projects getting funding shapes the wider project.

Elf also reminded the community that the kindness & good vibes in Discord & Twitter are vital to the community. Dotta mentioned that although there have been tensions in HoW chat over the past few weeks, that he appreciates those who were open w/ discussing their viewpoints.

Dotta mentioned that this is a learning process for all of us, and the Forgotten Council will work on providing more support to people putting up proposals, such as fostering more conversation before the vote.

The Eternal Rose currently has one of the most in-depth Wizzypedia entries among the Wizard props.

A Discord thread will be created for each specific proposal to foster discussion prior to a vote. During the vote, the thread will be locked, and further discussion should happen in the forums.

Comments on early Wizzypedia entries

Wizzypedia update: Elf said that he loved what he’s seen so far - he wishes he could write in it all day. Although it’s in an early, experimental phase so far, it looks promising.

Site: wizzypedia.forgottenrunes.com

MM is trying to figure out how much to write out vs. letting the community write. Elf has done some early entries on some of the wizard props, but he is keeping it high level, because he wants holders to maintain the freedom to interpret it how they want.

Elf mentioned TheKeeper, who wrote an entry on the Eternal Rose, which was very high quality, but contained lore related to one wizard. This provides a constraint to some extent, because holders of other wizards with roses may feel constrained by this story.

Elf will continue to write generalized descriptions of the items. Holders are welcome to write specific info below that, but please clarify that it is an individual experience with a particular item. Elf will edit the Rose entry to provide guidance.

Dotta added that he wants people to be encouraged to write in Wizzypedia; it’s like a gardening process. Pruning can always happen later. I have personally written or added to several entries for notable members of the FRWC community - it's fun!

Chatting with the Bisonic Lead Creative of the Runiverse game

Red Wizard Capital concept art released by Bisonic

About half-way through the hour, a special guest joined the Wizard Wednesday - it was Danilo A (unfortunately Elf butchered the pronunciation of his name so I couldn't capture it fully...)

He is the lead creative on the Runiverse game in development by Bisonic, working on the art and story. He collaborates extensively with Elf on world lore-related matters.

Elf said that he provides loose guidance to the Bisonic team, but he is open to letting Danilo and his team extrapolate from it and create new lore. In fact, the term “duck” for Warriors came from this team, the lightbulb frog was another Bisonic creation.

Elf mentioned that he’s loved some of the concept art coming from the team, shouting out the Red Wizard capital in particular. Tanilo said they started with the Red, Green, Blue, and Yellow wizard cities. They also focused with incorporating Runes into the concept art.

Each city will have its own culture, city dynamics, and ecosystem. The storytelling is intended to be emergent rather than linear - you don’t need to visit places in a certain order to make progress.

Preview of the crafting screen in the Runiverse MMORPG. Source: https://runiverse.world/an-introduction-to-the-forgotten-runiverse/

Eventually, once the core systems are finished, Bisonic is very interesting in sourcing quests from the community. Community-created quests can easily fit into the emergent storytelling system.

And Elf mentioned the possibility that significant communities that grow within the Runiverse game, could eventually make their way onto the official map…

In response to a question about how Web2 users will respond to the game, Danilo said that the crypto/NFT aspects don’t appear in the initial gameplay - it is more the endgame. One of the big game loops is around crafting your own items, which can be minted as NFTs & sold.

However, you need to level up your crafting skills and gather various craftable ingredients from around the Runiverse to get to that point - and the team aims to make that experience enjoyable on its own merits.

The team is working on making sure you can experience all the craftable equipment and weapons within the game as well. The team is balancing value to FRWC token-holders while not making this a “pay-to-win” game (eg. buy a Forgotten Runes NFT or you have no chance).

In the next demo, Danilo wants players to experience the systems in the game, such as crafting items and fighting enemies (albeit an alpha version of them). The world will have more dynamic, moving elements that players can interact with.

Community News

Moron Global put out a call for models for their new fashion line.

Magic Machine divvied up some Forgotten Runes Warriors from the team wallet among themselves. There was some contention about a goblin holding Excalibur.

The team decided to have an arm wrestling contest - it was bearsnake vs. Elf (dotta decided to concede pre-emptively). Elf was confident he would win, but bearsnake came out on top and got the gobbo.

Dotta suggested a holiday card contest (the idea of FRWC greeting cards was revived by Smolprotecc) - there are plenty of fun options for something like that.

Nosferatu mentioned that their next fashion line is called “Wizards and Waifus” and put out a call for more holders who want their wizards to be featured. If interested, join the Moron Global discord and share your candidate! As usual, there was a lot of Cult Content output this past week. This time, I’m trying something a bit different - the pieces that were shared during Wizard Wednesday have been put up on tree.io

Lore Reading

The lore reading this week was from O, on Adept Hadrien of the Rock (1144), entitled the “Psychic Leap.”